Dallas Cowboys Thread

DvB

If our O Line can protect Dak as they have done all season & Zeke runs over 100yds we'll beat them, purely down to our offence being on the pitch longer than they will... Rodgers is on some rich vein of form but I genuinely feel our defence is stronger than theirs & if we turn up at all we'll win.

Though I said something similar a few years back when we were No.1 seeds & the Giants came & picked our pockets, but we owe these from 2 years ago & I'm (probably for the first time this season) reasonably confident we can get the win. I genuinely think its all about us, if we play well, we win, end of, if they play well but we play well also I still thuink we win, thats the difference. IF we dont play well, we lose.

Will be absolutely gutted if we lose, having predicted a losing season before the season started our turnaround has been phenomenal, but a defeat in our first post season game would be such a let down now... C'mon the boyz!!!!

DvB

I still feel physically sick after that.... gutted is an understatement. To come back the way we did & to lose at the death like that.... I'm convinced now I'll not see us win another SB in my lifetime...

brinty

DvB wrote: »

I still feel physically sick after that.... gutted is an understatement. To come back the way we did & to lose at the death like that.... I'm convinced now I'll not see us win another SB in my lifetime...

I hear you on that but we will be back next season better and more determined. I don't see us going 4-12 like 2015 after playoff disappointment in 2014.

I think 2017 will be a great year for us.

I am still sickened by this but we've ourselves to blame. Some folks on Twitter tried apportioning some blame to officials but they were equally rubbish both ways i felt. We got away with as much as we got penalised with.

Sorry i haven't been active for a while, I'll do a proper season review int he next few days.

As we said all week #FinishthisFight and 2017 season starts right now and the road to Superbowl 52.

The roster moves and cuts, salary cap adjustments and draft all need to be looked at. We're $5M over the cap as it stands so a lot of things have to be reworked, reviewed and corrected.

Leslie91

I think you'll be grand and back at it in 2017.. just need some defensive pieces that is all...

DvB

Look, at the end of the day despite being gutted if someone had offered me a divisional title at the start I'd have ripped their arm off, I just genuinely felt we really had a chance this year the way the team developed, but hey the NFL is littered with teams who felt the same over the last 50 odd years.

At least it looks likely we'll have a more rounded team that should maintain a competitiveness that simply wasnt there last year, that's a positive to look forward to & as already pointed out, sort out the cap, see what the draft brings in terms of defensive reinforcement & we start looking at 2017 using the lessons learned from this season to hopefully improve us further again to have another proper go.

On paper this is a young team with a lot of talent, do it right & we should be there or thereabouts for a while, which is a huge improvement on the rollercoaster seasons that have dogged us since the mid 90's.

As for the rest of this season, anyone but the Pats now please...

Vanolder

DvB wrote: »

Look, at the end of the day despite being gutted if someone had offered me a divisional title at the start I'd have ripped their arm off, I just genuinely felt we really had a chance this year the way the team developed, but hey the NFL is littered with teams who felt the same over the last 50 odd years.

At least it looks likely we'll have a more rounded team that should maintain a competitiveness that simply wasnt there last year, that's a positive to look forward to & as already pointed out, sort out the cap, see what the draft brings in terms of defensive reinforcement & we start looking at 2017 using the lessons learned from this season to hopefully improve us further again to have another proper go.

On paper this is a young team with a lot of talent, do it right & we should be there or thereabouts for a while, which is a huge improvement on the rollercoaster seasons that have dogged us since the mid 90's.

As for the rest of this season, anyone but the Pats now please...

Beaten at home by a very average Greenbay team. But i suppose given Dallas' record over the last 20 years losing at home in the playoffs is something to celebrate.

DvB

Vanolder wrote: »

Beaten at home by a very average Greenbay team. But i suppose given Dallas' record over the last 20 years losing at home in the playoffs is something to celebrate.

Celebrated?

What thread you reading?

& GB may be 'average' but their QB is anything but & is on a pretty spectacular run of form... if average is Conference final level, that's better than 28 of the 32 teams... some average that.

Vanolder

DvB wrote: »

Celebrated?

What thread you reading?

& GB may be 'average' but their QB is anything but & is on a pretty spectacular run of form... if average is Conference final level, that's better than 28 of the 32 teams... some average that.

They beat a NY team that is muck and a Dallas team that were just happy to be there. No denying Rodgers, but they are poor on nearly every other aspect of the game. Enjoy the celebrations, mate.

brinty

Vanolder wrote: »

Beaten at home by a very average Greenbay team. But i suppose given Dallas' record over the last 20 years losing at home in the playoffs is something to celebrate.

Sorry but are you taking the p155 or something.

Losing at home in the playoffs is nothing to celebrate. We lost pure and simple. It doesn't matter about the last 20 years or anything else. What mattered was last night and we came up short.

Calling the Packers an average side is beyond silly. They're on a what 8-9 match win streak. Thats championship form. We won 11 in a row but none when its mattered the most. Rodgers is playing at a level rarely seen and making the best of a pretty "average" set of receivers and without his primary weapon (Nelson) and no run game. Have a lok at what he did again and maybe rethink that average team idea.

As for Dallas, we dust ourselves off and get ready for 2017 this morning. The front office has a lot of things to do and they will get them done.

Our future is bright and we will #FinishthisFight

DvB

Vanolder wrote: »

They beat a NY team that is muck and a Dallas team that were just happy to be there. No denying Rodgers, but they are poor on nearly every other aspect of the game. Enjoy the celebrations, mate.

No one celebrating where I am 'buddy'...

looking for positives for the future after a play off defeat is hardly celebrating. So troll elsewhere if that's all you have to bring to the table.

adrian522

MOD NOTE: Please keep it civil. Use the report post function rather than accusing posters of trolling on the thread

Rainman16

Stephen A goes in on The Cowboys

Vanolder

DvB wrote: »

As for the rest of this season, anyone but the Pats now please...

brinty

Cowboys have restructured deals with Tyron Smyth and Travis Fredrick freeing up $21 million in cap space for 2017

Deal done to start negotiating long term deal for Zack Martin (around time and fbtrainng camp) and to clear their current over the cap situation

If similar deals can be done with Dez,Sean Lee and Tyrone Crawford (the league their big cap hits) and Romo is traded/released as a June 1 designation saving a further 10m the Cowboys could be in a very healthy cap state for 2017

Obviously this is all a kicking the can down the road but good to see us being so pro active

DvB

brinty wrote: »

Cowboys have restructured deals with Tyron Smyth and Travis Fredrick freeing up $21 million in cap space for 2017

Deal done to start negotiating long term deal for Zack Martin (around time and fbtrainng camp) and to clear their current over the cap situation

If similar deals can be done with Dez,Sean Lee and Tyrone Crawford (the league their big cap hits) and Romo is traded/released as a June 1 designation saving a further 10m the Cowboys could be in a very healthy cap state for 2017

Obviously this is all a kicking the can down the road but good to see us being so pro active

Hadn't seen that until now, that's a good start anyway. As you say, the issues havent gone away but at least there appears to be a strategy there to deal with it & hopefully keep the team competitive going forward. Last thing we need is to lose big players when we finally have a half decent team that may be capable of challenging over the medium term at least.

brinty

Another $5m in cap space as Sean Lee has restructured his deal
Still lowest free cap space but getting there

brinty

And so it look's like today will be the day we say goodbye to #9 Tony Romo.

Whilst for most of the Romo years I was not as connected to the cowboys as I am now,I respect the hell out of the guy for what he has done for our team. I wish him the very best in whatever choice he makes and will welcome him back in the big D at any time in the future.

So along with this sad day it frees up another $5.1 m in cap space for free agency. I believe if we use a June 1 designation we get another $5.1m of money but not until that date and we can split the guaranteed money over two years.

As things stand that'll give us a $13m pot to work with in free agency and the money we get on June 1 can be used to sign our draft class.

On another note Barry Church leaving for the jags is a more sad news and looks like we'll get a fourth round comp for him in 2018 draft class.

Also looks like we'll lose t will, McClain,Ron Leary Wilcox early in FA.

Maybe we'll see a bit of activity in free agency but I'd expect nothing in the first couple of weeks bar resigning some of our own. Brice Butler 1 year deal at $1.1m and only 300k guarantee is good use of our cap space. David Irving on an exclusive tender resigning is great. Believe we're trying to trade Morris and resign McFadden again a bit more team friendly. Also hosted Josh mccowan yesterday so let's see how that plays out.

An exciting few days ahead perhaps..

Happy free agency #cowboysnation

DvB

In a way sad to see Romo go, in his time he never played behind a great O-Line & unfortunate timing with injuries denied him the chance to really go long into a post season & challenge for a Conference or SB. His stats are impressive for what was in his time a far from great Cowboys team & he'll always be remembered fondly, after Aikman easily my second favourite QB (not that theres been much of an alternative in that time) but theres no sentiment in Professional sports & his time is sadly up, Dak is the future & everything has to be done to help him progress to the best of his ability.

So long Tony, thanks for the memories.

With respect to the squad, its crucial what made us the #1 NFC seed last year isnt thrown away through squad management, fingers crossed theres a clear strategy there & JG & JJ know what they're at.

SnakeHetfield

Jesus this thread was a ghost town when I first checked it out 2 years ago... my how things have changed

brinty

SnakeHetfield wrote: »

Jesus this thread was a ghost town when I first checked it out 2 years ago... my how things have changed

Welcome aboard sir, great to have another contributor as its most me and DVB8

DvB

brinty wrote: »

Welcome aboard sir, great to have another contributor as its most me and DVB8

Always amazes me how few people seem to support the boys over here...

Welcome aboard good sir!!

On the subject of the boys, what are we thinking in terms of the defensive moves so far? Serious overhaul at CB, thats for sure.

brinty

DvB wrote: »

Always amazes me how few people seem to support the boys over here...

Welcome aboard good sir!!

On the subject of the boys, what are we thinking in terms of the defensive moves so far? Serious overhaul at CB, thats for sure.

For me in terms of defensive moves during free agency we've to look at D-line and secondary seperately and consider the depth in the draft in both categories. We've seen a lot of rotation guys go on the D-line with only T McClain being the one i'd be disappointed we missed out not returning. He and Jack got better money offered so its hard to say they should've stayed in Dallas for less and i think the redskins and falcons have overpaid for both.

Losing Church was a blow but we couldn't compete with what the Ravens offered. JJ had a year but was mediocre prior to that and the questions is can he repeat that. Carr was disappointing but he was considering retirement. The fact he took and got a 4 year deal was a shock. Mo leaving was a bit oh well. Considering he was never fit for a full season its hard for us to invest heavily like the jets have on the one year deal. We're light now with only Jones, Heath (The GOAT) and Showers (former QB) to play at safety. Brown/ Carroll and Scandrick are solid starters with Frazier, L McFadden to add depth.

on the additions Nolan Carroll is an upgrade on Carr for most of the beat writers and lets hope he stays injury free and plays every game like Carr. Paea worked with Marinelli before so he'll know the system, its not a huge money deal so a nice peace to add. Moore is intriguing as he was highly touted coming into the draft but hasn't performed to the level required in the pro's. This is his last shot so hopefully he's keyed up to perform and get a contract.


The draft will be where we should see improvements to our d line. Theres a lot of depth at Edge (we need some) Corner and Safety. Ideally you'll address those three positions in the first 3/4 rounds of the draft using the best player available approach.

Thankfully on our Offense bar losing Leary (collins will replace him) and potentialy free retiring ( Cooper signed too) we've retained everyone on this side of the ball with Tony Romo being the elephant in the room

DvB

Jason Witten signed up for 4 more years... excellent news!!!

brinty

DvB wrote: »

Jason Witten signed up for 4 more years... excellent news!!!

that may be a deal to reduce cap number and he retires next year and we can spread cost of the deal over a couple of years. WE're also light at TE with Hanna (coming off a season long injury) Swaim (unlikely fit before OTC) and Gathers (still not played fooball since 8th grade) as your support cast. Don't be surprised if we take a TE in the draft

Bad news coming out today the #9 has distanced himself from his teammates and coaches after they took up for #TeamDak.. if true and i'm not believing it after all the TR drama thus far, then its a sad day

also happy birthday to coach garrett

SnakeHetfield

Obviously offensively we're in business: Unbelievable rookie QB RB combination, one of the best O-Lines in the league and a great combination of Bryant at WR and Witten at TE. One of the best offenses in the league with the potential to be the most dominant

Think most improvements could be made in the backfield, maybe an inside linebacker or two too

brinty

SnakeHetfield wrote: »

Obviously offensively we're in business: Unbelievable rookie QB RB combination, one of the best O-Lines in the league and a great combination of Bryant at WR and Witten at TE. One of the best offenses in the league with the potential to be the most dominant

Think most improvements could be made in the backfield, maybe an inside linebacker or two too

So long as they don't suffer a sophmore slump Zeke and Dak could be the bedrock of this team, but as with everything cowboys, lets give it some time and not get too far ahead of ourselves. I'd settle for consistency, and NFC East title and making the NFC championship game in 17.

You're right on the improvements required, it'll primarily be backfield we neeed. I think we're ok at LB unless an exceptional one falls to us. We could potentially take a hybrid OLB/DE type but i want War Daddies and not tweeners. Don't forget we've Jaylon Smith coming into the team and hopefully he can be the top 5 prospect he was coming out of college.

Most of the mock drafts i've done on fanspeak simulator have been DE in one and CB in 2 with WR in 3 and S in 4, using a BPA approach. So we should be able to really add quality.

brinty

Linehan and Marinelli have signed contract extensions

Front office doing some really good business

Witten deal includes no extra guaranteed money over the four years, well done everyone

DvB

brinty wrote: »

Linehan and Marinelli have signed contract extensions

Front office doing some really good business

Witten deal includes no extra guaranteed money over the four years, well done everyone

Getting there, slowly but surely.... how great it would be to go into a season feeling optimistic, haven't had that in a while...

The draft will be very interesting.

brinty

DvB wrote: »

Getting there, slowly but surely.... how great it would be to go into a season feeling optimistic, haven't had that in a while...

The draft will be very interesting.

So true, I'd reasonably confident heading into the season. We've a very good offense and if we could score more heavily and avoid a Zeke and Dak Sophmore slump we should make playoffs
We'll have a defense heavy draft even Stephen Jones has come out and said that and also stated there'll be no redshirts this year (i.e. no punts on injured players) so i'm liking how its all sounding. If will mcclay can work another draft like last years class I'll be beyond happy with it.

DvB

brinty wrote: »

So true, I'd reasonably confident heading into the season. We've a very good offense and if we could score more heavily and avoid a Zeke and Dak Sophmore slump we should make playoffs
We'll have a defense heavy draft even Stephen Jones has come out and said that and also stated there'll be no redshirts this year (i.e. no punts on injured players) so i'm liking how its all sounding. If will mcclay can work another draft like last years class I'll be beyond happy with it.

I'm going out on a limb & saying I expect us to make the playoffs, anything less than that would be incredibly disappointing, though I'll fear it just a little bit as well (What Cowboys fan doesn't) purely because, as you point out, Zeke & Dak could have second season syndrome & struggle, though I have a hunch they wont, I can see their numbers being lower but overall can see the offence perform better overall, if thta makes sense. Expecting a big season from Dez as well.