Macarthur said:

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reports are that they are close but hung up on term. Dak wants 4 years but Cowboys want less. I suspect they will settle on 3.

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Oh the irony. Supposedly the hang up last time was the Cowboys wanted 5 or 6 and Dak wanted 4.

Ag Natural said:

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So who is to say the Cowboys are f@cking this up? It's a different approach for sure and the worst that can happen is they still won't win a SB.

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They aren't necessarily... but if they don't get it done and Dak simply walks then it's a franchise changing failure because Dallas gets nothing!

Forget the no trade clause... if Dallas knew they weren't going to pony up they could have gotten Dak to agree to a trade back in the spring. They would have waived the clause if all parties agreed to negotiate the deal with another team (draft picks for Dallas and Dak signs a huge extension with new team).

Jerry is a salesman first and Daks a tough sell. To give him 4 years $240M $200 guaranteed, cowboy fans would say, "So no playoff success for four more years call me when they win something"

jr15aggie said:

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Ag Natural said:

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So who is to say the Cowboys are f@cking this up? It's a different approach for sure and the worst that can happen is they still won't win a SB.

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They aren't necessarily... but if they don't get it done and Dak simply walks then it's a franchise changing failure because Dallas gets nothing!

Forget the no trade clause... if Dallas knew they weren't going to pony up they could have gotten Dak to agree to a trade back in the spring. They would have waived the clause if all parties agreed to negotiate the deal with another team (draft picks for Dallas and Dak signs a huge extension with new team).

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Maybe. I think Dallas wants to keep Dak, they just don't want to make him the highest paid QB in history. He makes a $100 million per year off the field and they know this. Lawrence, Murray, and Watson aren't making that. I guess in the minority but I think letting him play it out and having both parties decide at the end of this season isn't as disastrous as many are making it sound. Dak would be an idiot to sign elsewhere.

Forbes had Dak at $13million in endorsements last year

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2023/09/10/the-nfls-highest-paid-players-2023/

Zeke listed as the starter in the first "unofficial" depth chart. For the love, I guess get your popcorn ready. This season could get wild!

He won't get a majority of the snaps. It will be Dowdle.

Everything I have heard and read is very confident that Dowdle will get a large portion of the RB touches, barring injury of course. I'll stick with that until proven otherwise.

shack009 said:

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Tksymm7 said:

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He won't get a majority of the snaps. It will be Dowdle.

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Are you sure about that? Because I'm not at all sure about that.

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LOL. I tend to agree with him... he won't get a majority of the snaps.

But there is also this voice in the back of my head... I mostly ignore that voice and he's really hard to hear because he's way in the back... but he's been going nuts all training camp yelling the same thing: "Hey jackass, you know he's getting most of the carries, stop trying to deny it!".

I think he is going to get the majority of the RB touches, sadly. This is a passing football team and Zeke will be the short yardage and red zone hammer. If Deuce plays at all, he isn't taking snaps from Zeke, he's taking them from Dowdle between the 20s.

People who aren't expecting a lot of Zeke better be prepared to be disappointed. I'm comfortable with my position of "I'll be pleasantly surprised if Zeke doesn't get the majority of touches."

"Zeke can do it all, coach! Make sure he plays a lot. The fans love him and he has done a lot for this organization"

Zeke won't get the majority of the snaps if he continues to avg. less that 4 ypg.

And:


"They aren't necessarily... but if they don't get it done and Dak simply walks then it's a franchise changing failure because Dallas gets nothing!"

But saves 60 million a year and gets rid of a QB who chokes in the playoffs.

But. The deal will be made before Sunday.

Zeke IS a great blitz pick up and he lives in Daks garage so they ride together.

I'm good with Zeke getting most the snaps if we're passing out of the shotgun all of those plays. His only skill right now is pass protection

I just don't want the team to feed zeke likes it's 2016.

When does the team travel, on Friday? Sure feels like if the Dak deal isn't done before they head to Cleveland it's not getting done.

I'm going to be shocked if they don't get it done. Daks dead cap next year is huge (like 40-60 mil) next year if they don't.

Part of me thinks that, at this point, Dak prefers to play out the season and hit the open market. The bidding war will be insane!

jr15aggie said:

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I'm going to be shocked if they don't get it done. Daks dead cap next year is huge (like 40-60 mil) next year if they don't.

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How can the cap hit be $40-$60 million in 2025 for a QB whose contract expired in 2024?

Is CeeDee 100% good to go no limitations?

Enviroag02 said:

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Is CeeDee 100% good to go no limitations?

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There will be several key hiccups when he and Dak are not on the same page. I think this offense is going to look rough in week 1 which in reality is not a big deal. The Patriots used to treat the first 4 weeks of the regular season as an extension of the preseason, using it to iron out kinks and better adjust to personnel.

23-13 Browns.

Lack of training camp is overrated. These guys are pros and have been playing together in this system for a few years now. Ceedee has been back for a week. CeeDee is the least of my worries Sunday. Guyton vs Myles Garett is #1 on my list. I think the rookie does just enough and the cowboys win 21-17.

Pignorant said:

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jr15aggie said:

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I'm going to be shocked if they don't get it done. Daks dead cap next year is huge (like 40-60 mil) next year if they don't.

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How can the cap hit be $40-$60 million in 2025 for a QB whose contract expired in 2024?

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Lol... because all those "we reworked Daks contract to free up cap space" was really just dumping money into voidable contract years. In other words, we dumped cap money into '25 and '26 when the real contract expires in '24.

We did the same thing with Martin and Tank. Our cap is going to be royally screwed very soon.

I'm expecting an utterly ugly affair in Cleveland against league's stingiest D. The Cowboys actively got worse on offense this summer, so I see no way they repeat as the league's #1 scoring offense this year.

I'll go Browns 16-7.

I just looked it up... Dak's cap hit this season is just over $55 mil. His dead cap in '25 (if he's not on the team) is just over $40 mil... $12 mil in '26 and $1 mil in '27 & '28.

Tanks dead cap money next year (his contract expires this year) is around $8 mil.

Zack Martins deal expires in '25 and his dead cap hit for '26 will be $17 mil... $4.4 mil in '27 & $3.25 mil in '28.

Outside of that, I'm pretty sure we have Michael Gallup dead money on our cap this year (he's now retired) and we have dead Zeke money in addition to whatever we are paying him this year.


But I'd be lying if I said this was only a Cowboys issue. All of the teams are doing this and I couldn't tell you if Dallas is better or worse off than others.

jr15aggie said:

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Pignorant said:

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jr15aggie said:

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I'm going to be shocked if they don't get it done. Daks dead cap next year is huge (like 40-60 mil) next year if they don't.

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How can the cap hit be $40-$60 million in 2025 for a QB whose contract expired in 2024?

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Lol... because all those "we reworked Daks contract to free up cap space" was really just dumping money into voidable contract years. In other words, we dumped cap money into '25 and '26 when the real contract expires in '24.

We did the same thing with Martin and Tank. Our cap is going to be royally screwed very soon.

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I always imagine Jerry thinking he'll be dead by the end of these contracts and not caring about thing that happens after year 3

ramblin_ag02 said:

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jr15aggie said:

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Pignorant said:

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jr15aggie said:

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I'm going to be shocked if they don't get it done. Daks dead cap next year is huge (like 40-60 mil) next year if they don't.

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How can the cap hit be $40-$60 million in 2025 for a QB whose contract expired in 2024?

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Lol... because all those "we reworked Daks contract to free up cap space" was really just dumping money into voidable contract years. In other words, we dumped cap money into '25 and '26 when the real contract expires in '24.

We did the same thing with Martin and Tank. Our cap is going to be royally screwed very soon.

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I always imagine Jerry thinking he'll be dead by the end of these contracts and not caring about thing that happens after year 3

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Are you saying he won't care how much he spunt?

Current Dead money by year:

2024 - 21.5M
2025 - 9.3M

This is not even close to being the worst in the league. For reference everyone's favorite GM (Howie Roseman) has 56.7M and 26.8M in dead money over the next 2 seasons.

BassCowboy33 said:

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I'm expecting an utterly ugly affair in Cleveland against league's stingiest D. The Cowboys actively got worse on offense this summer, so I see no way they repeat as the league's #1 scoring offense this year.

I'll go Browns 16-7.

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Dallas didn't get appreciably worse on offense. Tony Pollard was an average NFL back by every possible metric last year and clearly wasn't back from his injury. Tyron Smith was still a very good pass blocker but had become an average run blocker. And Beebe already looks better than Biadisz ever did. The 8 other starting spots are all the same, and of those 8 only Martin is at the point in his career where it wouldn't be surprising if they regressed.

The only position you make a reasonable argument where we significantly downgraded was LT, but Guyton looks to be about as good as you can hope for for a rookie at that spot.

And the Browns haven't been an elite defense since November of last year. Their defensive average was helped by 4 games allowing 3 or less points over the first 9 weeks against bad offenses, but since week 10 last year including the playoff game their defensive ranks would put them 17th in points and 10th in yards last year respectively.

23-13 Cowboys

Infection_Ag11 said:

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BassCowboy33 said:

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I'm expecting an utterly ugly affair in Cleveland against league's stingiest D. The Cowboys actively got worse on offense this summer, so I see no way they repeat as the league's #1 scoring offense this year.

I'll go Browns 16-7.

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Dallas didn't get appreciably worse on offense. Tony Pollard was an average NFL back by every possible metric last year and clearly wasn't back from his injury. Tyron Smith was still a very good pass blocker but had become an average run blocker. And Beebe already looks better than Biadisz ever did. The 8 other starting spots are all the same, and of those 8 only Martin is at the point in his career where it wouldn't be surprising if they regressed.

The only position you make a reasonable argument where we significantly downgraded was LT, but Guyton looks to be about as good as you can hope for for a rookie at that spot.

And the Browns haven't been an elite defense since November of last year. Their defensive average was helped by 4 games allowing 3 or less points over the first 9 weeks against bad offenses, but since week 10 last year including the playoff game their defensive ranks would put them 17th in points and 10th in yards last year respectively.

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There is only one way to find out.

LOL

The Athletic polled fans to see how optimistic they are going into the season. I charted that against each team's odds to win the Super Bowl.

Cowboys fans are really going through it, huh? pic.twitter.com/E0HIC01kZU

— Sam Hoppen (@SamHoppen) September 5, 2024

Shows just how fundamentally irrational this fanbase is

Also, so much for the Eagles revamped secondary. WOOF.