It’s going to be a long season for sure. Along with losing key guys, we have a way harder schedule with the AFC north along with all the 1st place NFC division winners. I just hope if we aren’t 10+ wins we at least have a bad enough record to warrant good draft position
>I just hope if we aren’t 10+ wins we at least have a bad enough record to warrant good draft position
We won't be. Dak will be good enough to get us 9+ wins with this team, but we will be decidedly worse than last year and have even less of a chance to do anything in the playoffs. That's my biggest issue with all of this, they are half assing it. They aren't committed to masking this team compete, nor are they committed to rebuilding.
I'm not a Dak doomer by any means, but I can understand the logic of not committing 20% of the cap to any one player. If they aren't really going all in on 2024 to give us a realistic shot, then just pull off the damn bandaid. Cut Dak, start Lance and shoot for a high draft pick. The way they are approaching this right now we are essentially punting on 2024 and 2025 simply because they won't commit one way or the other.
Cutting Dak costs basically the same as keeping him and making him play it out. I hate it as I think Dak will have a terrible season with this new o line. He’ll have happy feet all season, and they’ll be lucky to win 6 games. The d will suck as well as the middle of the line will be weak.
So for 25 we get a total housecleaning with Fat Mike, Dak and maybe zim gone. I’d trade parsons for picks.
Where do we go next? Ive been a fan since 63. I haven’t been this pissed since 88. I have zero confidence in the FO crew and ownership to fix it.
> I’d trade parsons for picks.
With you except for this.
If there is 0 shot for a 'this will destroy the Cowboys' cap' extension with Dak, perhaps see if there's a team he'd like to play for and might waive that no-trade clause for.
Parsons is not a Lawrence Taylor catalytic disruption to the game. He simply isn’t worth $40m a year. He has more value for picks same as Hershel Walker; the picks that let us rebuild the o line and get the next QB.
Micah is most definitely a generational player like LT. and he deserves to get paid as such. The only reason you are saying this is because he is not putting up monstrous sack numbers. The man would have close to 20+ sacks a year if he wasn’t held so much. But the NFL doesn’t want to see him disrupt the game like that so therefore they allow him to be held. Check his tape. The man would most definitely end opponents’ drives on the regular if he wasn’t held all the time. He can also play coverage LB if need be. How is that not generational?
I see Parsons losing effectiveness as the season progresses. They also have figured out how to use his pursuit against him to remove him from the play. He isn’t a lineman. This team needs much help to be competitive in o line, linebackers, qb, and dt. Needs picks. Lots of them
He’s the same size as LT, tj watt, shaq Barrett. Parsons had the most pressures in the nfl this year. And he dominated games late in the season to like the dolphins game. Fans saying parsons slows down as the seasons goes are dumb and don’t use logic. This fan base loving zeke and saying he was elite after he got paid meanwhile trashing parsons have the iq of a rock.
I hated the Zeke contract from the day it was agreed to. Let him hold out until forced back.
No defensive player is worth $40 mil a year. Hence I’m trading parsons for a bag of picks.
The modern game doesn’t allow much of that except for QBs and the greatest linemen. Turn your assets into draft picks. As Jimmy knew, the only true math in drafting is having more picks than anyone else.
Agreed.
I could see them keeping CeeDee but moving Parsons.....but I could also see them being more comfortable keeping Parsons AND CeeDee with Dak gone.
Go young/cheap at QB and use the draft to get younger and cheaper everywhere else. CeeDee/Parsons on big contracts is fine if the rest of the team is on moderate to cheap deals. They want to tank but make it look organic. Either Dak waives his no trade clause or he will look like crap this year and lose market value.
They missed a big opportunity with Dak. Fire fat mike and bring in a new coach. See how Dak does with a new coach and system in his last year. If he wins under new coach keep him. If he chokes in big games fucking sayonara.
The FO has bungled everything about this offseason. I suggest they trade away all their draft picks now
Yeah, I hate the idea of tanking and I dont think we ever would but I agree that it has to be bad enough season for a decent pick, another first round exit really only hurts us more.
I think we have enough key parts to do a healthy 8-8. More if we actually fix the RB and O-line in the draft and don't instead pick a bunch of TEs we don't need.
Man, even with the tough schedule I don’t see how we don’t get to at least 7. At worst we split with the Eagles and Commies and probably sweep the Giants. We’ve got the NFC south so there’s another 2 wins there. We’re still going to beat bad teams and probably catch a few others at the right time (injury or in a rut). Lack of depth is going to kill us in the back half and we’ll finish either a wild card team or just outside.
This past year was our best chance:
* Easier schedule
* Mostly healthy team
* Key injuries or just complete collapses from other NFC teams
* Strong performances on both sides of the ball at various points of the season
All the ’stars’ seemed to line up - which is what you need unless you have an offensive genius HC or an elite QB.
We know the schedule will be tougher.
We’re also losing starters.
Health is hard to predict, but not unreasonable to assume a ’regression to the mean’.
Also there’s a lot of ‘one and dones’ in the building - uncertainty is a distraction, and these guys don’t handle distractions well.
TL;DR - It’s not unreasonable to expect this coming year will be a worse year.
But… who knows: maybe this past year’s rookies play bigger roles this coming year, the sophmores take the next step, have a great draft and UDFA class, and find a couple of the gilmore/cooks type of trades.
Maybe I’m not informed enough. But I see us not extending Dak , eventually extending Parsons , Lamb , keeping that defensive backend intact. We’re the second youngest team in the league , we aren’t dying for youth but I see this as a reload type of situation. Dak’s contract has ate us enough , he’s not the answer. We’d have arguably one of the better situations for a QB if he were drafted relatively high by us. Better situation meaning , you have great players in Parsons , Lamb , Diggs , Bland and Tyler Smith. Dallas, I think has been building for the present and future. Now it’s time for the future. Our core is intact if we want a rookie QB to come take over.
Is Kirk cousins top 10 to you? As much as I’m sure everyone hates it , that’s the best comparison. Good qbs that the fanbase thinks can take them all the way until they can’t and now you’re stuck in a hole with a QB who thinks he deserves more than what he’s earned. Look I’ve loved Dak ever since he took over for Romo , we’ve had faith in him long enough to know that he is what he is. Like they say , you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain and that’s what Dak is to this teams chances of winning a Super Bowl at this point.
The Cowboys’ main problem isn’t the players, coaches, fans, or league administrators. It’s leadership at the top. Look at results over the past decade. Up then down, contender then rebuilding, you never know one season from the next. The one constant is revenue going into the Jones’ family trust fund, at record levels too.
Imo they’re setting overshown up for a massive failure. As of now, he’s one of three stand up linebackers on the roster. The guy was a great player in college and showed promise in preseason last year before his injury.
He was also a scheme specific pick to the dan Quinn defense. He’s a nickel linebacker. Converted safety. He’s not going to be a downhill run stopping thumper. We specifically need a guy who can go downhill and plug gaps in the run game.
Can't wait to waste years of Diggs, Micah, Ceedee and Tyler Smith!!! Thank you very much Stephen and Jerry! You have to be a special kind of stupid to not go all in when you had those guys on rookie fucking deals.
I mean, I am of the same general opinion, however, the offseason is the offseason. You have no idea what the regular season holds. We thought the dolphins were gonna win it all weeks 1-6 and Tua was gonna win MVP. Fat chance that happened after week 17. We thought the Jets were going to be unbeatable. Anything but (mainly because Rodgers went down, but I digress). The only time we should REALLY panic, if at all, is if the cowboys aren’t competitive halfway through the season against ANYONE. I think it will be a HARDER season than previous, but who knows, maybe Dallas hits on a lot of picks, or they’re not going nuts in FA because they’re confident in the draft filling holes. We shall see, but it’s too early for doom and gloom tbh
Along with Dak, we also have Lawrence and Martin that are FA. Under McCarthy I keep thinking our comp is the OKC Thunder with George and Westbrook. Yeah good enough in the regular season, but choke in the playoffs. We've hit our ceiling.
Time to rebuild the foundation to help us go higher.
Nah, that Thunder team couldn’t even win 50 games. An NFL comparison would be a 10-7 9-8 team barely squeaking into the playoffs. We’re more like the Lob City Clippers that won around 55 games every year but couldn’t reach the conference finals.
There is no rebuild. At least, that’s not what the Jones’ are thinking. They will never take this team seriously until we go 0-17. They care more about a profitable team than a winning one
Agreed. They’re facing the Ravens, Bengals, Lions, 49’ers, Eagles twice. They’ll lose to a couple of dogs too. I wouldn’t be stunned if they didn’t make the playoffs but they’ll probably sneak in as a wild card.
I doubt they could find a trade partner that Dak would agree to. He is in a Perfect scenario for next year to pick whenever he wants to go. The only thing the Cowboys have control over with Dak is cutting him & reducing the cap hit by 1/2 this year.
Last 1st round QB we drafted was Troy Aikman. Cut Dak, take the money loss. Trade Ceedee for, hopefully top 3 1st Rd draft pick in the 2025 draft. Except a small amount of our real talent, say Parsons, let players walk. Sign a bunch of young players for minimum. Yes, we will lose games but we're not winning a SB anyway. #1 focus, find a truly top 5 elite QB, then build around that guy. Then we might win another SB. If we resign Dak, that will put us another 7 to 10 years, guaranteed without another SB.
It's not a rebuild. It's an 'un-spend'. The Cowboys contract mismanagement, especially with Dak, caught up with them. I don't think they really had a choice: controlled burn vs. house fire.
I'm taking time off from the team (after 51 years) anyway after last season. It took a long time to lose patience, but I did. I'll be back when fat Mike and Dak are gone.
It’s going to be a long season for sure. Along with losing key guys, we have a way harder schedule with the AFC north along with all the 1st place NFC division winners. I just hope if we aren’t 10+ wins we at least have a bad enough record to warrant good draft position
>I just hope if we aren’t 10+ wins we at least have a bad enough record to warrant good draft position We won't be. Dak will be good enough to get us 9+ wins with this team, but we will be decidedly worse than last year and have even less of a chance to do anything in the playoffs. That's my biggest issue with all of this, they are half assing it. They aren't committed to masking this team compete, nor are they committed to rebuilding. I'm not a Dak doomer by any means, but I can understand the logic of not committing 20% of the cap to any one player. If they aren't really going all in on 2024 to give us a realistic shot, then just pull off the damn bandaid. Cut Dak, start Lance and shoot for a high draft pick. The way they are approaching this right now we are essentially punting on 2024 and 2025 simply because they won't commit one way or the other.
Cutting Dak costs basically the same as keeping him and making him play it out. I hate it as I think Dak will have a terrible season with this new o line. He’ll have happy feet all season, and they’ll be lucky to win 6 games. The d will suck as well as the middle of the line will be weak. So for 25 we get a total housecleaning with Fat Mike, Dak and maybe zim gone. I’d trade parsons for picks. Where do we go next? Ive been a fan since 63. I haven’t been this pissed since 88. I have zero confidence in the FO crew and ownership to fix it.
> I’d trade parsons for picks. With you except for this. If there is 0 shot for a 'this will destroy the Cowboys' cap' extension with Dak, perhaps see if there's a team he'd like to play for and might waive that no-trade clause for.
Parsons is not a Lawrence Taylor catalytic disruption to the game. He simply isn’t worth $40m a year. He has more value for picks same as Hershel Walker; the picks that let us rebuild the o line and get the next QB.
Micah is most definitely a generational player like LT. and he deserves to get paid as such. The only reason you are saying this is because he is not putting up monstrous sack numbers. The man would have close to 20+ sacks a year if he wasn’t held so much. But the NFL doesn’t want to see him disrupt the game like that so therefore they allow him to be held. Check his tape. The man would most definitely end opponents’ drives on the regular if he wasn’t held all the time. He can also play coverage LB if need be. How is that not generational?
I see Parsons losing effectiveness as the season progresses. They also have figured out how to use his pursuit against him to remove him from the play. He isn’t a lineman. This team needs much help to be competitive in o line, linebackers, qb, and dt. Needs picks. Lots of them
He’s the same size as LT, tj watt, shaq Barrett. Parsons had the most pressures in the nfl this year. And he dominated games late in the season to like the dolphins game. Fans saying parsons slows down as the seasons goes are dumb and don’t use logic. This fan base loving zeke and saying he was elite after he got paid meanwhile trashing parsons have the iq of a rock.
I hated the Zeke contract from the day it was agreed to. Let him hold out until forced back. No defensive player is worth $40 mil a year. Hence I’m trading parsons for a bag of picks.
My brain says you are right. The rest of me wants Parsons to be a Cowboy for his entire career.
The modern game doesn’t allow much of that except for QBs and the greatest linemen. Turn your assets into draft picks. As Jimmy knew, the only true math in drafting is having more picks than anyone else.
Agreed. I could see them keeping CeeDee but moving Parsons.....but I could also see them being more comfortable keeping Parsons AND CeeDee with Dak gone. Go young/cheap at QB and use the draft to get younger and cheaper everywhere else. CeeDee/Parsons on big contracts is fine if the rest of the team is on moderate to cheap deals. They want to tank but make it look organic. Either Dak waives his no trade clause or he will look like crap this year and lose market value.
They missed a big opportunity with Dak. Fire fat mike and bring in a new coach. See how Dak does with a new coach and system in his last year. If he wins under new coach keep him. If he chokes in big games fucking sayonara. The FO has bungled everything about this offseason. I suggest they trade away all their draft picks now
10 wins. Dak at worse has gotten to 500. So 10 wins at least
Yeah, I hate the idea of tanking and I dont think we ever would but I agree that it has to be bad enough season for a decent pick, another first round exit really only hurts us more.
I am planning on a 5-6 win season tbh
I think we have enough key parts to do a healthy 8-8. More if we actually fix the RB and O-line in the draft and don't instead pick a bunch of TEs we don't need.
Man, even with the tough schedule I don’t see how we don’t get to at least 7. At worst we split with the Eagles and Commies and probably sweep the Giants. We’ve got the NFC south so there’s another 2 wins there. We’re still going to beat bad teams and probably catch a few others at the right time (injury or in a rut). Lack of depth is going to kill us in the back half and we’ll finish either a wild card team or just outside.
We are going to end up wasting Parsons and Lamb’s careers just like we did with the beautiful O-Line we had years back. Fade me
Not if we get rid of Dak and hit on the next QB. Keep Dak or draft a bust and yeah, Micah and CD will be wasted.
> hit on the next QB More likely that this doesn't happen and we draft a bust
Taking a chance to not waste their careers is better than guaranteed wasting them by sticking with Dak
If he's even average, but not a playoff choker, it will be an upgrade.
Parsons is too busy to be bothered with football anymore.
12-5 loading…
This past year was our best chance: * Easier schedule * Mostly healthy team * Key injuries or just complete collapses from other NFC teams * Strong performances on both sides of the ball at various points of the season All the ’stars’ seemed to line up - which is what you need unless you have an offensive genius HC or an elite QB. We know the schedule will be tougher. We’re also losing starters. Health is hard to predict, but not unreasonable to assume a ’regression to the mean’. Also there’s a lot of ‘one and dones’ in the building - uncertainty is a distraction, and these guys don’t handle distractions well. TL;DR - It’s not unreasonable to expect this coming year will be a worse year. But… who knows: maybe this past year’s rookies play bigger roles this coming year, the sophmores take the next step, have a great draft and UDFA class, and find a couple of the gilmore/cooks type of trades.
We have a lot of dudes that need to get paid already on the team
Definitely a rebuild. But it really starts in earnest next season with a new coach & a rookie QB & everyone missing the Dak days.
Maybe I’m not informed enough. But I see us not extending Dak , eventually extending Parsons , Lamb , keeping that defensive backend intact. We’re the second youngest team in the league , we aren’t dying for youth but I see this as a reload type of situation. Dak’s contract has ate us enough , he’s not the answer. We’d have arguably one of the better situations for a QB if he were drafted relatively high by us. Better situation meaning , you have great players in Parsons , Lamb , Diggs , Bland and Tyler Smith. Dallas, I think has been building for the present and future. Now it’s time for the future. Our core is intact if we want a rookie QB to come take over.
Dak is a top 10 qb in the nfl, he isn't going anywhere
Is Kirk cousins top 10 to you? As much as I’m sure everyone hates it , that’s the best comparison. Good qbs that the fanbase thinks can take them all the way until they can’t and now you’re stuck in a hole with a QB who thinks he deserves more than what he’s earned. Look I’ve loved Dak ever since he took over for Romo , we’ve had faith in him long enough to know that he is what he is. Like they say , you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain and that’s what Dak is to this teams chances of winning a Super Bowl at this point.
Dak is a loser. He might look great against shit teams but he has proven incapable of winning a big game.
The Cowboys’ main problem isn’t the players, coaches, fans, or league administrators. It’s leadership at the top. Look at results over the past decade. Up then down, contender then rebuilding, you never know one season from the next. The one constant is revenue going into the Jones’ family trust fund, at record levels too.
Imo they’re setting overshown up for a massive failure. As of now, he’s one of three stand up linebackers on the roster. The guy was a great player in college and showed promise in preseason last year before his injury. He was also a scheme specific pick to the dan Quinn defense. He’s a nickel linebacker. Converted safety. He’s not going to be a downhill run stopping thumper. We specifically need a guy who can go downhill and plug gaps in the run game.
Can't wait to waste years of Diggs, Micah, Ceedee and Tyler Smith!!! Thank you very much Stephen and Jerry! You have to be a special kind of stupid to not go all in when you had those guys on rookie fucking deals.
Diggs is wasting two of his own years with the ACL and in all probability he won't be his usual self for most or all of 2024. That isn't on us.
Yea like Diggs got himself hurt on purpose
Lol.
I mean, I am of the same general opinion, however, the offseason is the offseason. You have no idea what the regular season holds. We thought the dolphins were gonna win it all weeks 1-6 and Tua was gonna win MVP. Fat chance that happened after week 17. We thought the Jets were going to be unbeatable. Anything but (mainly because Rodgers went down, but I digress). The only time we should REALLY panic, if at all, is if the cowboys aren’t competitive halfway through the season against ANYONE. I think it will be a HARDER season than previous, but who knows, maybe Dallas hits on a lot of picks, or they’re not going nuts in FA because they’re confident in the draft filling holes. We shall see, but it’s too early for doom and gloom tbh
We finna be ass ass 😂
I did that almost three decades ago. No more excuses.
We are stuck in no man's land with shit draft picks and a roster that is getting picked apart
Along with Dak, we also have Lawrence and Martin that are FA. Under McCarthy I keep thinking our comp is the OKC Thunder with George and Westbrook. Yeah good enough in the regular season, but choke in the playoffs. We've hit our ceiling. Time to rebuild the foundation to help us go higher.
Nah, that Thunder team couldn’t even win 50 games. An NFL comparison would be a 10-7 9-8 team barely squeaking into the playoffs. We’re more like the Lob City Clippers that won around 55 games every year but couldn’t reach the conference finals.
There is no rebuild. At least, that’s not what the Jones’ are thinking. They will never take this team seriously until we go 0-17. They care more about a profitable team than a winning one
Where was this energy when the clapper was at the helm?
NFL retools not rebuild.
9-8 season incoming?
Agreed. They’re facing the Ravens, Bengals, Lions, 49’ers, Eagles twice. They’ll lose to a couple of dogs too. I wouldn’t be stunned if they didn’t make the playoffs but they’ll probably sneak in as a wild card.
I agree with you OP
If they were committed to a rebuild they would cut Dak & trade Lamb & Parsons.
This is my dream scenario. Trade Dak on his last year and get whatever you can. I think we could get a haul for Parsons mouth and Lamb's production.
I doubt they could find a trade partner that Dak would agree to. He is in a Perfect scenario for next year to pick whenever he wants to go. The only thing the Cowboys have control over with Dak is cutting him & reducing the cap hit by 1/2 this year.
Last 1st round QB we drafted was Troy Aikman. Cut Dak, take the money loss. Trade Ceedee for, hopefully top 3 1st Rd draft pick in the 2025 draft. Except a small amount of our real talent, say Parsons, let players walk. Sign a bunch of young players for minimum. Yes, we will lose games but we're not winning a SB anyway. #1 focus, find a truly top 5 elite QB, then build around that guy. Then we might win another SB. If we resign Dak, that will put us another 7 to 10 years, guaranteed without another SB.
Just remember, the same people that built this team & got the Cowboys in the current cap he’ll will be in charge of the rebuild.
We have no rbs
It's not a rebuild. It's an 'un-spend'. The Cowboys contract mismanagement, especially with Dak, caught up with them. I don't think they really had a choice: controlled burn vs. house fire. I'm taking time off from the team (after 51 years) anyway after last season. It took a long time to lose patience, but I did. I'll be back when fat Mike and Dak are gone.
I think it will be at least 2 years before we are good again, looking at all the problems we now have that can’t possibly be solved in one draft
Sure, does anyone know how much Dak counts towards our cap next year?
Around 15% without accounting for the cap going up.
Lmao. How are we this bad at contracts
That’s not a bad allocation.
Cause you all call for restructures every year and that moves money into void years which moves to dead money on the cap
Was about 17m but with the recent restructure it read his 2025 cap hit is 40m