i'm actually happy Romo did it this way. Honestly the more likely outcome of the other way was he gets hurt and winds up a gimp in retirement (he still might).

This is a great choice for him and his family, and I think he's going to be awesome in the booth. Can't wait.

Thanks for all the memories Tony!

Btw, any shot at HOF with his numbers? No rangz, but the numbers are great:

Tied with Peyton for #5 all time completion %
#4 all time QB rating
1000 less passing yards than Jim Kelly
#21 all time in TD's (11 more than Jim Kelly)

If he had 1 rang he's in. May be the difference.

No real difference. Basically they eat about $11m in dead money this year, and $9m next year, and that's it. With Dak working for peanuts in 2017-2018 (and Kellen Moore costing only slightly more peanuts) they're getting away cheap. Assuming Dak holds up you can expect a massive extension prior to the 2019 season, but not earlier, and very possibly a year or two later. If he's shaky who knows.

But for now the total 2017 cost for both Cowboys QBs combined is something like 1.2 million, which wouldn't even cover the punter's base salary. So it's about as painless as could be, other than him playing backup for another season.

The stories about him being really pissed they stuck with Dak are interesting. I'd have understood of Dak and the team weren't playing well. But man Tony, that call was fairly tough for them to make given Dak's play.

So the mocks have us taking either Gareon Conley CB OSU or Taco Charlton DE Michigan... thoughts?

I think we draft too low to worry about guessing there, not to mention there at least 2-3 CB's that can fall to us.

It's also not entirely impossible for them to trade down if there's a CB they like. A lot of people don't see a huge gap between Adoree Jackson and some of the guys projected to go round 2. May benefit the D to trade down and get more bodies at that point.

Btw if they draft Teez Tabor, the dude dropping with "character concerns", and he manages to be another thug or druggy, I may have to cash in my chips. How many times can that happen to us?

Dunno if they'll be able to resist top 15 talent at #28

Hoping for a trade back ldo. Or else best defensive lineman or CB/S on their board.

Adoree Jackson/Kevin King?

Rams, Niners, Chargers all at home? Yes please!

Ya that's a pretty decent schedule. Getting the Packers, Seahawks and Chiefs in our own building is lucky over getting them on the road. @Falcons is the hardest game we've got. My one concern is we don't play a lot of elite D's, but we do play a lot of elite O's. That's gonna be tough for this team.

week 6 bye is super meh, but whatever

Also if you're only gonna get 4 days between games, you want game 2 to be dem Chargers I guess.

Lots of shootout type games.

Still no "war daddy" pass rusher

Remember, as far as trading back: 1st round picks come with a 5th year option. That's a decent plus when you get a good player there.

Also with the way this team is put together I'd be more inclined to stay put if there is a potential impact player at nearly any position still OTB. Not that another JAG DE can't be useful but you can get them in FA. Trading off the 28 pick doesn't net anything like trading off the #6 pick. Hopefully it works out that there's a DB they like, but especially one that can play immediately, but can't really hate any #28 if he's good.

Dropping 3-4 spots might be okay but you only get like a 4th for that. To get a 3rd you're looking at dropping down to the mid-40s. Unless you wanted to trade out completely for a better pick next year, which isn't a bad option sometimes if the board doesn't match. A 28 might fetch a 3rd this year and the other teams' 2018 1st rounder (at most).

Bottom line is we're drafting at 28 and anything is possible

The Jaylon Smith news is just okay news. There's definitely hope for a monster career, but for 2017 I'm just hoping for a respectable contribution as a starting LB and no further injuries. Still hard to process taking a non-QB in his condition at #34 overall though, regardless of his upside. Pretty awesome upside but a year later we're still taking about him being able to move his toes.

"Smith can now pick his toes up, and he can lift his foot. More good news. What no one knows is when the nerve will return completely or if it will. And internally, the Cowboys continue to minimize expectations and know he has a ways to go. Nevermind that he missed football last year and must catch up on the field."

Damn I didn't realize it was that bad to begin with!

Yeah I definitely wouldn't have taken so much issue with it if we were talking about a broken leg. With this, not only did they take him knowing his rookie season was almost certainly lost, but also with serious questions about if he'll ever completely recover and what that will look like.

I get that a stud MLB is such a key thing for them and he's almost unique on paper. Even then I think you try to wait at least another another round. If the Pats wanted him (27 spots later) or somebody else did, so be it.

And it could be that I'm overvaluing the pick a small bit...a quick glance at PFR shows you the typical returns for the players drafted 32-36 range over the last 20+ years for some perspective there I guess. Smith certainly doesn't need a Chad Johnson-type career in Dallas for the Cowboys to come out ahead but it will definitely need to be a lot better than say Bruce Carter. Even if he's just pretty good and starts a few years that's a decent result. He wasn't the only player with that level of potential that at his draft position though.

Hopefully it works out. I think Jaylon was very likely their #4 pick last draft pre-injury, and who knows what happens the rest of the way if that's how it went down. Could be that our draft luckbox last year keeps giving. Results aside though still say 34 too high.

#34 overall was definitely too high for a defensive guy that won't be back for a year plus and a question if he'll fully recover. Injured dudes usually don't get healthier as they get older. Just have more and more nagging injuries. And if they do "hit" you still have to pay them top shelf money usually even if they rarely make it through 16 games+.

Stephen or Jerry said they said they fell in love with Jaylon Smiths character. He was a good guy I guess.

How about we just draft healthy dudes that won't be suspended by year 2? Novel concept I know.

Woo Witten

Not ready to see him go anyway. Pleased.

Some guys be fallin here....

Who do you like here? Taco, Foster, and Kevin King might all be in play.

Taco it is... I don't hate it.

I like tacos

A fairly straightforward pick. There should have the bodies for fairly decent competition across this new, young d-line.

I don't really see a beast weakside DE in the group just yet but both Tapper and now Taco have a shot there (though they both look like strong side guys to me). Irving and DLaw add depth for 2017, and Mayowa contributed late in the season & his contract keeps him here unless there's just no room at all. And that Damontre Moore reclamation project too.

At DT, seems like Collins locked down the 3-tech spot (with Irving getting some snaps here too), with Paea, Thorton to battle it out over the 1-tech. Which leaves Crawford and his huge contract that we're stuck with for a while.

All told they're pretty free now to snatch whatever secondary they can find on the board.

So tell me about these 2 corners...

Awuzie - consensus had him somewhat higher than pick 60, quite a few put him into the 1st round. He reads like a better version of Scandrick and a Day 1 slot corner for now, but could easily end up elsewhere, possibly safety. 35 on the Wonderlic, RKG type. Seems to have a knack for the corner blitz. High SPARQ.

..one of them is Jourdan Lewis, who you probably already know. Strong player who dropped a lot because of pending domestic violence case, and sounds like a penalty magnet. It's the classic Dallas character risk pick.

I didn't understand the Scandrick trade rumor by the way, contract is modest and he's badly needed. I mean what's the idea there - you're going to try and cover this division's receivers with Anthony Brown, two rookies, and Nolan Carroll? That's a conversation for next year MAYBE, if things go really well.

Gotta say I'm pretty happy to see them go DE-CB-CB, with no current injuries among the picks, and no stupid trade-ups costing a decent pick. Jaylon Smith and Charles Tapper are basically rookies too, same with Frazier...a lot of young new faces to check out on defense this season. You've already got Brown and Collins who started the majority of games as rookies so they're pretty new to me still.

Of course many won't pan out, but as far as dbs, is there anyone here that's going to miss Carr, Claiborne and Church eating up $18m worth of cap space per year? Two were getting up there anyway, and Mo was rarely healthy, so I welcome the chance even if it is pretty scary. If they get torched at least they'll do so a lot cheaper.

I'd like to see them do something like CB/WR or WR/CB next year and we're getting there. I'm guessing we'll see them take some more secondary guys in the late rounds here to hope to bink another Brown.

Do we have any Romo cap money in 2018 or 2019? Is that the year they could throw money at someone on D?