the Cowboys took the running back cheese.

it seems so nice to have a really good one, but they do not age well (with a few exceptions)

will be interesting to see how much (guaranteed) money the Giants give Saquon

W said:

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the Cowboys took the running back cheese.

it seems so nice to have a really good one, but they do not age well (with a few exceptions)

will be interesting to see how much (guaranteed) money the Giants give Saquon

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Good question, as a Giants fan, I am having a hard time justifying Saquon getting big bucks...always looking at Zeke's contract vs. output. Spend the money for Dan Jones, Saquon?....I am on the fence still.

The Jones family isn't cut throat enough. Too loyal to mediocre coaches and players I'm not a huge Dak fan but I can kinda understand his deal and the potential to go years without a QB. But the Zeke deal was just bad and irresponsible

With Dak - remember also that the Cowboys (and Jerry) were kind of being shamed into not wanting to pay their black QB "what he was worth". Combine that with Jerry's unhealthy and harmful loyalty to his players, and you have a massively overpaid QB, a team that can win in the regular season, and then chokes in the playoffs. Rinse and repeat next year. Then hopefully waive Dak and start all over.

shiftyandquick said:

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They should have let him walk. Invested that money in other players. But the Jones family, they're not very smart. And they always like to overpay their stars. They think "what will the fan say if we don't pay this guy."

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Saying JJ isn't smart was the worst take in the history of texags….

Haven't seen the extent of Pollards injury last night, but assiming it isn't career ending you have your #1 back in him. Let zeke go and draft another back in the late rounds.

But yes, Zekes contract they gave him did not help them team wise. But I don't think it "cost them" last night. The 49ers are a better team.

High ankle sprain + a broken leg for Pollard

Pollard is a FA I think

Cowboys got a lot of work to do this offseason. Cuttin Zeke still has dead money on the cap and a few players need to get resigned (pollard and Dono) and even more need to be restructured (Dlaw, zak martin, and even potentially Dak after next season).

Good thing is a lot of teams are about to have to pay their young QBs that will make Dak's deal look cheap. Burrow, Dan Jones, Herbert, Hurts, Tua?

Kellen Moore needs to go so we can see what another OC can get out of him. He's hit a wall and actually regressed this year I think.

Need lots of talent upgrades. San Francisco's roster was markedly better in just about every single position group. RB, Wr, TE, OL wash maybe, LB, Cb, PK, safety, DL wash…

Idk what you do with pollard. He's so dynamic but signing a rb long term never seems like a good idea

Just don't sign him to a 4/60mm deal when you've already put almost 1000 carries on him.

Pollard has low mileage but also showed durability issues this year (not a good sign). They need to use Malik Davis a lot more now and then go draft a late round RB or take one off the scrap heap.

rsf0626 said:

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Idk what you do with pollard. He's so dynamic but signing a rb long term never seems like a good idea

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We should let him walk, cut Zeke, and draft a RB. This is a pretty stacked draft class for RBs.

I honestly don't think they cut Zeke. He's basically a team captain.

I think they'll restructure his deal down to a very low amount to keep him on the roster. He does have value still in short yardage situations.

Excluding the injury, the case for extending Pollard was that he's extremely low mileage. He was a backup in college and has been a backup for 4 seasons. His usage is crazy light. That said, the severity of that ankle injury definitely has to be evaluated closely before extending

Caving on Zeke was so bad. They had high hopes for that season, and he used it as leverage against them by holding out. Should have held tight. I know his teammates like him, but pulling that move when he did with 2 years left on a #4 pick deal (wasn't getting chickenfeed), I've always smirked at the "good teammate" label

Yep - you can thank Jerruh for that.

In today's football, you cannot give a RB a max deal. There are simply too many good RB's coming out of college to invest big money at that position.

It was clear last night after Pollard went down that we have zero explosiveness minus Ceedee. At that point SF walked 8 sometimes 9 in the box to bring pressure and went high/low on Ceedee daring Dak to look at Gallop, Hilton, etc. who CANNOT get separation. Game over. Makes Miami's move on Tyreek awesome. We need a second player to put fear in a defense. Maybe we go all in on Metcalf. Who knows.

What Dallas needs to do...but won't do...is to move on from Dak and Zeke. I've been a huge fan of both but this is a business decision. Zeke is barely a top 25 back (and regressing fast) with the second highest salary. He either restructures his deal in line with performance or he's cut. Period.

Dak I'm on the fence. It's clear he needs playmakers around him vs. him making the plays. I'd be more than okay with moving on if it can make financial sense. Too many QB's out there this offseason that I would trust more to win a game vs. manage a game.

JCA1 said:

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This is the downside to drafting a RB high in the draft. No one wants to let the No. 4 pick in the draft walk after 5 years. But if they pan out, re-signing them is very expensive and usually not worth it.

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Sunk cost fallacy. It was an even worse decision if Jerry used this as justification.

DannyDuberstein said:

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Caving on Zeke was so bad. They had high hopes for that season, and he used it as leverage against them by holding out. Should have held tight. I know his teammates like him, but pulling that move when he did with 2 years left on a #4 pick deal (wasn't getting chickenfeed), I've always smirked at the "good teammate" label

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Absolutely. I've always thought this. It was a crappy thing for him to do, and the team should've held firm. Was easy to see at the time.

But Zeke knew who he was dealing with, and it worked. So, good for him I guess.

Lake08 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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They should have let him walk. Invested that money in other players. But the Jones family, they're not very smart. And they always like to overpay their stars. They think "what will the fan say if we don't pay this guy."

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Saying JJ isn't smart was the worst take in the history of texags….

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I'm sure he is smart but it seems like he gets emotionally attached to some players and then makes stupid decisions involving those players.

Everyone knows that outside of very few exceptions, stud RBs aren't worth a huge second contract. Zeke had already shown some signs of not being one of those few guys but they threw money at him anyway.

Dak is a good NFL QB and has been his whole career, but he's never been great and he wasn't going to suddenly become great after several years in the NFL. Signing him wasn't as much of a mistake because you can do much worse, but he's not a Super Bowl winning QB unless you have an amazing team around him and that won't happen with his and Zeke's contracts.

Lumping the Dak contract with the Zeke contract is silly.

The Dak contract is fine.

The Zeke contract I assume is Jerry Jones longing for the days of the marquee "lifetime Cowboys". He wants to relive those Aikman/Smith/Irvin years and the problem is the NFL simply isn't like that anymore.

It was an awful decision, and frankly a bit out of character for how the Cowboys have done business since Stephen has been handling these things more than Jerry.

They have generally been really frugal in free agency and do not pay big money. They tried to play hard ball with Dak and it cost them in the long run. But when Zeke and his agent spooked them, they folded like a cheap lawn chair. Terrible contract.

I mentioned in the other thread that what I would do is cut Zeke. Assuming the injury isn't too bad, try to extend Pollard or you could use the franchise tag this next year to see if he keeps his explosiveness. Then draft a guy. I also like what I have seen from Malik Davis.

I think the Cowboys should franchise tag Pollard. It's pretty much an even swap with the tag price on Schultz this year. We get another year of Pollard in his prime w/out getting into another long term deal with a RB.

2022 Zeke is easily replaced in the draft... the guys legs are completely shot in terms of burst/speed.

That contract isn't over and Zeke is already a shell of his former self. He's effective in short yardage, but in the open field he looks like he's running in mud. Awful move by the front office.

Did Zeke perform at all after signing his new contract or did he digress right away?

RBs are tricky, most are not worth a big contract.

If I remember right, he put up a lot of junk yards. Not a lot of production in the red zone, or during the four minute drill, or big third down conversions. You know, those times you need the RB most.

Now, he doesn't even do that.

shiftyandquick said:

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They should have let him walk. Invested that money in other players. But the Jones family, they're not very smart. And they always like to overpay their stars. They think "what will the fan say if we don't pay this guy."

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The Jones are very smart. The dumbasses are the people who buy tickets, jerseys, caps and invest emotionally in the team. I went to my first Cowboys game 59 years ago. I lived and died with them. The last 25 years or more have taught me that the Jones know nothing about running a winning team. Until Jerry sells or hires a legitimate football man and walks completely away they'll never win.

I'm not sure I ever missed a game on TV from 1960 until about 2005 but since then I'll watch if I'm not doing something else but don't prioritize it. I have a brother in law who owns about 50 Cowboys caps and polos and talks about nothing else from September until they're eliminated. Then come July he's sucked back in and lives and dies with them. As long as morons like that exist they'll keep cashing in but they won't be winning.

What a disaster Tolbert has been. An 8 yard catch. A 4 yard catch. And a critical offsides penalty when I'm honestly pretty sure I've NEVER seen offsides called on an offensive player at any level. Those are the only 3 plays he had make it onto a stat sheet all year.

It's a tough position, but holy cow, that was such a disaster that I can't see him ever being an impact guy

1988PA-Aggie said:

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W said:

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the Cowboys took the running back cheese.

it seems so nice to have a really good one, but they do not age well (with a few exceptions)

will be interesting to see how much (guaranteed) money the Giants give Saquon

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Good question, as a Giants fan, I am having a hard time justifying Saquon getting big bucks...always looking at Zeke's contract vs. output. Spend the money for Dan Jones, Saquon?....I am on the fence still.

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The problem is that Barkley is so valuable to the offense: he's just on another level

I like Jones and want to keep them both, and you know if you let Barkley walk he'll light it up somewhere else

jja79 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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They should have let him walk. Invested that money in other players. But the Jones family, they're not very smart. And they always like to overpay their stars. They think "what will the fan say if we don't pay this guy."

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The Jones are very smart. The dumbasses are the people who buy tickets, jerseys, caps and invest emotionally in the team. I went to my first Cowboys game 59 years ago. I lived and died with them. The last 25 years or more have taught me that the Jones know nothing about running a winning team. Until Jerry sells or hires a legitimate football man and walks completely away they'll never win.

I'm not sure I ever missed a game on TV from 1960 until about 2005 but since then I'll watch if I'm not doing something else but don't prioritize it. I have a brother in law who owns about 50 Cowboys caps and polos and talks about nothing else from September until they're eliminated. Then come July he's sucked back in and lives and dies with them. As long as morons like that exist they'll keep cashing in but they won't be winning.

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You seem to be saying that Jerry is just content making money and doesn't try to win. I think he spends on the team and tries mightily. Just isn't very good at it.