********** Dallas Cowboys 2021 Season Thread **********

202,848 Views | 2808 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by PooDoo
DannyDuberstein
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Many of their designed screens involved Zeke, who is probably the least dangerous skill player in the open field they have
jtstanley4621
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DannyDuberstein said:

Many of their designed screens involved Zeke, who is probably the least dangerous skill player in the open field they have

Zeke is a good case study in Jerry's dysfunctional influence on the team. He, the GM, decides to pay Zeke. He, the owner, shells out money to Zeke on a huge deal. He, the GM, sits in on coaching meetings. He might ask about Zeke getting more carries, or more looks so as to justify the contract that he, the owner/GM, gave to Zeke.

So then the coaching staff is essentially forced to give Zeke more looks because, hey, the owner/GM asked about it and he's the guy that hired me and is paying my salary. If I do something to make him mad it's over for me. Meanwhile Tony Pollard comes in and is clearly more elusive and explosive than Zeke, but we play him less because Jerry has to save face.

There is no separation of church and state, and it will continue to be that way until Jerry dies and IMO is more likely than not to continue when Stephen takes over.
Ag12thman
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Good post and I totally agree.
DannyDuberstein
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Jerry the owner needs to fire Jerry the GM, and hire a football man. A man that knows football.
ramblin_ag02
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Quote:

Zeke is a good case study in Jerry's dysfunctional influence on the team. He, the GM, decides to pay Zeke. He, the owner, shells out money to Zeke on a huge deal. He, the GM, sits in on coaching meetings. He might ask about Zeke getting more carries, or more looks so as to justify the contract that he, the owner/GM, gave to Zeke.

So then the coaching staff is essentially forced to give Zeke more looks because, hey, the owner/GM asked about it and he's the guy that hired me and is paying my salary. If I do something to make him mad it's over for me. Meanwhile Tony Pollard comes in and is clearly more elusive and explosive than Zeke, but we play him less because Jerry has to save face.

There is no separation of church and state, and it will continue to be that way until Jerry dies and IMO is more likely than not to continue when Stephen takes over.
I 100% agree but it goes a little farther than that too. Jerry likes to form emotional attachments and make friends with his starts. Just look at Demarcus Ware, Romo, Miles Austin, Jason Witten, or any number of those guys. So no only do we have the owner/GM conflict of interest, we also have the fact that Jerry wants to do well by his friends on top of that
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DannyDuberstein
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Part of the Zeke issue is the lockerroom. He's got a ton of respect as a leader in it, and I think the coaches are very hesitant to possibly upset that by limiting his PT as much as they should. He and Dak are basically the two dudes of that whole room
Kellso
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The Cowboys have a chance to go from being a team where a 12-5 season is an anomaly to a team where 11-13 wins is expected each year.

It starts with the defense. As great as this years defense could be...at the end of the year it was still a middle of the road defense.

The defense was opportunistic with turnovers and ruckus against bad teams, but thoroughly average against the top teams on their schedule.

They have some good young pieces, but they have to improve against the run.

They need a defensive lineman, a linebacker and probably an additional defensive end in this years draft.
You hit on all three of those picks (I know the odds) and suddenly you have a championship caliber defense that could be top 7 in all major defensive categories.
PooDoo
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Vince Blake
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Amari and Tank possible cap casualties?
double aught
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Stupid contract with Zeke casualties might be more accurate.
Ag12thman
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double aught said:

Stupid contract with Zeke casualties might be more accurate.
98Ag99Grad
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So cut productive players but keep an unproductive one. Makes sense. Great job managing that cap guys.
EastSideAg2002
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98Ag99Grad said:

So cut productive players but keep an unproductive one. Makes sense. Great job managing that cap guys.
Problem with Zekes contract is my understanding is that it becomes guaranteed the next season during the current season. They would have had to cut him last year to avoid paying him this year. Bad contract all around.
98Ag99Grad
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Exactly. Great cap management by the geniuses in charge.
Macarthur
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EastSideAg2002 said:

98Ag99Grad said:

So cut productive players but keep an unproductive one. Makes sense. Great job managing that cap guys.
Problem with Zekes contract is my understanding is that it becomes guaranteed the next season during the current season. They would have had to cut him last year to avoid paying him this year. Bad contract all around.
I could be wrong but I think it became guaranteed at some point last season so it 100% guarantees he will be back.

Gotta hand it to Zeke and his agent. They pulled off one of the best negotiations ever on that deal.
TMACsDaMan
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They played to Jerry's loyalty.

They were right to let Murray go after 2014…Zeke is no different
PooDoo
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Micah is playing Madden with Ocho & Beastmode as commentator .

double aught
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Macarthur said:

EastSideAg2002 said:

98Ag99Grad said:

So cut productive players but keep an unproductive one. Makes sense. Great job managing that cap guys.
Problem with Zekes contract is my understanding is that it becomes guaranteed the next season during the current season. They would have had to cut him last year to avoid paying him this year. Bad contract all around.
I could be wrong but I think it became guaranteed at some point last season so it 100% guarantees he will be back.

Gotta hand it to Zeke and his agent. They pulled off one of the best negotiations ever on that deal.
Absolutely they did. The obvious move (even at the time, when he was producing) was to hold him to the TWO YEARS left on the deal, then franchise for a year or two if he kept the stats up.
jtstanley4621
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It's a complete disaster in the best way. Micah is talking so much trash
PooDoo
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He is literally out-alphaing a room full of alphas.
DannyDuberstein
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Zeke's 2022 salary became guaranteed in March 2021. A disaster of a contract becomes an even bigger disaster if it costs them either Cooper or DLaw. Tyron needs to go if they need to find $$$. He's all used up.
MookieBlaylock
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I am ok with loosing cooper dlawrence and tyrone and zeke

None are winners and overpaid

ApachePilot
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Why on earth did Jerry ever give all that money to zeke? If I remember he also way over paid for romo. At least romo was a damn good QB. In today's NFL it's crazy to put all your money on a back when few last more than a few years. The cowboys are really close to being a contender but jerry can't get out of his own way. Still amazes me Jimmy had so much success while dealing with jerry
DannyDuberstein
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Jerry stupidly misread 2019 as a "all in" year and Zeke used it as leverage to hold out. Jerry caved. Huge mistake. They had him under contract for 2 more years. Unbelievable that they let him bend them over like that
Agristotle
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And Dak knew from the Zeke negotiation capitulation that he could break them too, as Dak had a much stronger case than Zeke.
Kellso
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DannyDuberstein said:

Zeke's 2022 salary became guaranteed in March 2021. A disaster of a contract becomes an even bigger disaster if it costs them either Cooper or DLaw. Tyron needs to go if they need to find $$$. He's all used up.
Yeah....lets get rid of one of the best left tackles in the NFL...for what and who?

An above average defensive end and receiver are not that hard to replace.
Replacing an all world left tackle that is tasked with protecting the quarterbacks blindside is much harder than finding another receiver.

Cooper might be the 3rd best receiver on this roster. Name me all the left tackles in the NFL better than Tryon Smith. The list is very short.

Cowboys did go 12-5 this season.....so doom and gloom (and this roster is soooo horrible...etc) is not as bad as some of you make it out to be.

That same San Francisco team that beat the Cowboys walked into Green Bay and did the same thing to the Super Bowl favorites.

The Cowboys need to improve their defense and the interior of their offensive line if they want to contend for the Super Bowl.
Putting the problems of this roster on Dak and Zeke's contract is short sighted and only meant to try and make scapegoats of players that particular people don't like.

Txhuntr
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Kellso said:

DannyDuberstein said:

Zeke's 2022 salary became guaranteed in March 2021. A disaster of a contract becomes an even bigger disaster if it costs them either Cooper or DLaw. Tyron needs to go if they need to find $$$. He's all used up.
Yeah....lets get rid of one of the best left tackles in the NFL...for what and who?

An above average defensive end and receiver are not that hard to replace.
Replacing a left tackle that is tasked with protecting the quarterbacks blindside is much harder than finding another receiver.

Cooper might be the 3rd best receiver on this roster.




Haha Cooper is still the one drawing the double coverages. And while smith has been a godsend at LT, he's taken a step back the last couple of years. Not to mention missing several games due to injury. I think his days are numbered and we'll have to do something about replacing him in the next year or two. If we're going to let someone go, might as well be a guy in his way out
Kellso
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ApachePilot said:

Why on earth did Jerry ever give all that money to zeke? If I remember he also way over paid for romo. At least romo was a damn good QB. In today's NFL it's crazy to put all your money on a back when few last more than a few years. The cowboys are really close to being a contender but jerry can't get out of his own way. Still amazes me Jimmy had so much success while dealing with jerry
All of this is super easy to say in hindsight when its not your money.....but if you get into a habit of not paying your players you will have a very hard time getting free agents, or having agents steer their players towards you.

The only way this really works(screwing over your players when it comes to $$$$) is if you have a couple of factors that go your way.

Maybe you play in a really weak division where the other three teams suck for the better part of 15-20 years. It also helps to have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time that is willing to play at 50% of what he's actually worth because he has a rich wife, and didn't grow up needing money.

You have all these factors go your way and the Patriot way looks brilliant.
Its easy to be cutthroat and ruthless with good players when you have 6 games every year against Miami, Buffalo and the New York Jets.
Kellso
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Txhuntr said:

Kellso said:

DannyDuberstein said:

Zeke's 2022 salary became guaranteed in March 2021. A disaster of a contract becomes an even bigger disaster if it costs them either Cooper or DLaw. Tyron needs to go if they need to find $$$. He's all used up.
Yeah....lets get rid of one of the best left tackles in the NFL...for what and who?

An above average defensive end and receiver are not that hard to replace.
Replacing a left tackle that is tasked with protecting the quarterbacks blindside is much harder than finding another receiver.

Cooper might be the 3rd best receiver on this roster.




Haha Cooper is still the one drawing the double coverages. And while smith has been a godsend at LT, he's taken a step back the last couple of years. Not to mention missing several games due to injury. I think his days are numbered and we'll have to do something about replacing him in the next year or two. If we're going to let someone go, might as well be a guy in his way out
You are going to hear me state this repeatedly. Tyron Smith at 75% is still better than almost any other tackle (especially left) in the NFL.
We all know that Tyron Smith is only going to play 11-14 games all season, but PFF would disagree with your bolded.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-final-2021-offensive-line-rankings

Quote:

LT Tyron Smith | 91.9
LG Connor Williams | 76.4
C Tyler Biadasz | 64.8
RG Zack Martin | 94.2
RT La'el Collins | 84.0


Tyron Smith earned a 91.9 PFF grade this season, a career high and the first time he has been above 90.0 since 2015. He allowed 11 pressures across 460 pass-blocking snaps. Zack Martin was again one of the best linemen in the game, and the unit's weakest link center Tyler Biadasz critically improved his performances and was solid overall. Only Tampa Bay's line posted a better pass-blocking efficiency score than Dallas this season, and they were blocking for far less time on average.




https://www.pff.com/nfl/grades/position/t

PFF rated Tyron Smith as the 2nd best tackle in the NFL during the 2021 season only behind Trent Williams.
Tyron Smith aint the problem with the Dallas Cowboys.

If you look at their player grades...it clearly shows that the problem with the OL is with Connor Williams and Biadasz.
Macarthur
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I think you try to get another year out of Tyron but know you've got to have a solid backup plan there. Cooper is an interesting one because while his numbers did go down, I still think Cooper is very important to this thing when it's running well. As others have said, he's the one the defense still has to pay lots of attention to. His effectiveness isn't always judged by his numbers. I also would be okay with a restructure on Cooper because he's still young

Tank is the one that I think is the cap casualty. LIke him as a player but I think his spot is easier to fill than the two mentioned above.

Dak will be restructured to free up money and I think Martin can be restructured, as well. They will be able to get under the cap and have enough to make a few moves.

Gregory is an interesting one. YOu hate to have to replace Tank and Gregory in one offseason. I think they will try to get Gregory signed, but will Gregory give Dallas a bit of a discount due to them standing by him during his tough times.

I could actually see us going DE in the draft early is someone falls. I think that' s going to be a bigger need than many folks think.
DannyDuberstein
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My issue with Tyron is that a good player that is consistently used up by November is a really bad investment of your limited cap resources. He's played in 14 of their last 34 games. Before that, he was having issues finishing seasons. They have to invest in finding a replacement on the draft. Guys with bad backs are ticking bombs. They are a never-ending cycle of temporarily serviceable then hurt again.
Orlando Ayala Cant Read
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Gregory seems like the kinda guy who would say "FU I'm gettin paid elsewhere adios mofos!" rather than one that would give a home town discount.

I'm hoping a Dak restructure isn't another fat new deal for him that ties him down for the rest of his career in Dallas. The Jones family never knows when to stay loyal and when to move on.
Kellso
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DannyDuberstein said:

My issue with Tyron is that a good player that is consistently used up by November is a really bad investment of your limited cap resources. He's played in 14 of their last 34 games. Before that, he was having issues finishing seasons. They have to invest in finding a replacement on the draft. Guys with bad backs are ticking bombs. They are a never-ending cycle of temporarily serviceable then hurt again.
Protecting your $140 million quarterbacks blindside with a future Hall of Fame, All pro Left Tackle is not a bad investment.

There are not that many lineman that get graded out in the 90's. A lineman graded in the 80-85 range is typically a Pro Bowl or All Pro Lineman. Lineman that are consistently graded higher than 85 are HOF caliber players.

Tyron Smith is only 31 years old. Andrew Whitworth is still playing tackle at a relatively high level and he is a full 10 years older than Tyron.

There is no reason that Tyron Smith couldn't play for another 4 or 5 years....and that is with me conceding that he will probably only play 11-14 games each season.

Tyron Smith is not the problem with the Dallas Cowboys.

The real problem with the Dallas Cowboys is that they have not had an elite championship caliber defense since the 90's.
As exciting as the 2021 Cowboys defense could be....they were still only ranked 19th when it came to total yards given up.
Macarthur
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I will say that the one lingering issue with Tyron was the neck, but by all accounts, they think they have that issue resolved. This year his main issue was the ankle.

I tend to agree that you pretty much have to roll with Tyron for at least one more year.
Southlake
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Yes, when Tyron is playing, he's awesome, but I've personally lost faith in his durability.

Tank is a live wire. His stupid assed holding call in the SF game made no sense at all.

 
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