Don't really understand the 4th round pick Ryan Switzer... We already got that guy lol

Wouldn't safeties Desmond King or Xavier Woods made more sense?

They save a tremendous amount of 2018 money. Next year there's basically a $9m cap charge for the remainder of his dead money and that's it. Were he still on the roster next season the total cap cost was to have been $25.2m.

How you spend that is a little tricky - I'd first point out that you can't extend Dak, Zeke or any of the 2016 class until after the 2018 season is over under current rules. And even the Cowboys do plan ahead somewhat - there will be monster money for Dak waiting for him.

But before we can really talk about any headline free agents next year you'd need to know what's happening with higher-salary guys like Witten, Crawford, Dez, Sean Lee at that point, plus Zach Martin's upcoming monster deal, plus any extensions for free agents and 2015 class guys like Byron Jones. The outgoing 2018 free agent list doesn't include any real core guys right now but a number who could emerge as players.

A simpler way to answer would be to say yes, they can definitely sign a premiere FA if they wanted to, or more than one, and make it work financially. That just hasn't been their thing lately, and IMO for good reason.

Example: Jason Pierre Paul was a guy I thought they might target for a high but manageable price, and he ended up with a deal that averages about $15m a season ($30m was guaranteed on a 4 years). That's real money not headline fluff. Great player but this is a guy who's missed 12 games in the last two seasons.

Bottom line is that free agency for impact players is pretty awful with this new CBA, it's just far easier for teams to retain top talent. Players can't really hold out effectively anymore, there's now the 5th-year option for Rd 1 guys, things like that...I think the Cowboys' recent FA strategy is the right adjustment, they just have to hit on a couple more defensive picks instead of whiffing on the DLaws, Gregorys, Claibornes or screwing around with FA clowns like Greg Hardy and Rolando McClain.

I'd much rather have another Beasley than Lucky Whitehead, which is what this pick is about. I know these choices are always a little bit of a head scratcher but in the late 4th finding a guy who can make your squad and contribute something right away is a win. I will say after an hour of checking the guy out he appears to be really, really good at what he does. Whereas a lot of your other options are likely to be developmental guys...so far I'd say they're pretty focused on immediate returns with these picks.

Beasley's also 28 and a FA after next season and drawing $4m+, so it's not a terrible problem if this guy winds up comparable. Bease could easily be traded with his deal too so whatever. These shifty type small WR guys are proving pretty effective against defenses these days when they pan out and definitely have some draft value they didn't used to have. We'll see about him.

Had to do some reading about this Noah Brown. Not sure what to think, I guess boom/bust type of guy.

TACO & CHIDOBE AWUZIE are both fun names.

Liked the picks outside of Switzer. Why?

I think I get the Switzer pick after thinking it through a while longer. Right off though: if the scouts walked in and said they had scientific evidence proving he's an actual clone of Cole Beasley, I'd have drafted him even higher and so should anyone else here. This guy is super quick, hard to believe to look at him but he led the Combine in the 20-yard shuttle and 2nd in the 60-yard, and he's supposed to be a very good returner and teams player (Cole Beasley is not - more on that in a sec).

I do get he doesn't have the same allure like a sideline WR that some draftnik can write up as a "possible future starter who compares to Brandon Marshall" etc etc etc. And I definitely get that you can't fill your entire WR corps with Beasleys.

But this type isn't a gimmick anymore. Beasley actually led the team in receptions and yards last year and we're seeing these white shifty slot guys with deceptive speed real burst causing and general havoc. And are hellish on 3rd downs.

I think this pick makes pretty clear that the Cowboys fully intend to torment linebackers and safeties as a matter of policy, and want this sklll set out of more one dude. This isn't about this one player so much as it is committing to an offensive style of attack, which coincidentally suits Prescott perfectly.

Your X and Z receivers are Dez and TWill who are now both signed for years and with stronger commitments than Beasley has. Brice Butler is back for some depth, and they drafted Noah Brown late who he looks like another vertical possession type to me. So I see X and Z as reasonably well-addressed.

I see Switzer as a potential replacement for two guys: Lucky Whitehead is the obvious first one, but Lance Dunbar is gone also - I'm not sure I see them carrying a gadget/receiver back now. After 2 seasons of 4 halfbacks I think they come back down to three if Switzer makes the team, so that's a definite plus.

And special teams - you can only dress 46 on game day and your roster choices for who can be used are limited. Beasley barely takes any ST snaps now and pretty much sucked at it when he did. That's typically part of the job description for a slot guy.

So odd as it looks, I can definitely see decent value here if he is as advertised. You can justify a decent PR in the late 4th, why not one who fits your scheme and helps open a roster spot, while bringing some upside as an offensive contributor?

Yeah with Dak's sweet spot being 0-12ish yard passes, I don't mind the little burner at all

WR coach was interviewed today talking about Switzer, he mentioned both Whitehead and Dunbar's roles specifically. Pretty much agrees he's another Cole Beasley that might be used 5-15 situational snaps per game. DBs coach also interviewed and some other comments dropping a few nuggets about the rest.

Taco wasn't rated as high as CB King when they came up, it was more like a Travis Frederick situation where it was your last shot for a key player at that position, where they saw lots of depth at CB this year.

Awuzie: See him as a corner "first and foremost", specifically an outside corner, but versatile for slot and safety. Lewis: Speed, immediately talked about working slot CB, but think maybe can do outside as well.

Xavier Woods I guess is noteworthy as they traded off a 5th from next season to get him, and I know he's a lot of folks' pet cat. I guess I like his game experience and potential as a STer and someone to spell Byron Jones, but nothing jumps out to me tbh.

Everybody else I'm not looking too closely at, you're talking about 6ths and 7ths, with the exception of Noah Brown, He's definitely the most interesting of that bunch for me since he seems to fit the scheme and general mold of Dallas outside guys - plus, they really need a replacement for Brice Butler who (astoundingly) hasn't taken a single special teams play in two years. That doesn't work for a depth WR who was active all 16 games.

Love Beasley and hate Whitehead so if this is insurance for Beas + Whitehead is out I can get behind it.

Probably insurance for when Beasley wants big $. He'll go someplace like San Fran who will give him a ton of cash, and his career will die there.

Cole grew up in Dallas and his family is here so bet we can keep him on a reasonable deal if we want.

Bottom line with Beasley is that he's one of the most effective receivers in the league right now. Yeah he's small role player type and isn't going to make Dez-like highlight reel moves on CBs 30 yards downfield, but his catch rate is off the charts (I believe he leads the league over the past few years) and his routes are super-solid. PFF, DYAR, pretty much every metric evaluator has the guy sky-high. I know he was top 5 DYAR toward the end of the season which is nuts when you stack him next to Julio Jones and AJ Green types. Throwing to him on 3rd down equalled a conversion 85% of the time. The biggest difference between him and prime Wes Welker is a ****load of targets, and a QB is not going to throw 600+ passes in this system to get him to those numbers.

It's honestly hard for me to wrap my head around it to look at him, he pretty much defies my image of great WRs that have burned into my mind over time.

But halfway through a 4 year/$13.6m deal we clearly got a steal. We'll see how this and next year go but if anything like this past year he'll get a lot more (maybe even from the Cowboys).

Now the interesting question might be, what could you do with packages that have he and Switzer out there together (if Switzer pans out)? Are you going to defend it with a dime (and get mauled by Zeke), or nickel (and still get mauled by Zeke). Can your LBs and safeties keep up? I'm not trying to oversell it but this pick was pretty interesting for me.

Already excited for the season. Hopefully is a fun decade with DAK ATTACK.

Honestly does any team in the league get more guys suspended than us? So frustrating. And always on that side of the godamn ball.

Zeke needs to chill the **** out. Dude thinks he's in the NBA. Luckily he has steroid head so I'm sure he'll be fine. But can you just party lowkey like everyone else it'll my God.

Meant to say itl, I get it wasn't a party but he needs to learn to keep a low profile. Just have some strippers over to the crib and watch them do blow. No need to go out, you're rich.

Zeke pick has unhappy ending written all over it. I think we're just waiting on when. o.u 2.5 seasons before he's done or gets his first major suspension.

RBs taken top 5 overall are always insanely questionable decisions, but there's no way I have any regrets about it right now. 2k yards from scrimmage and 16 total TDs his rookie year, and he's a decent blocker out of the gate? On a rookie deal?

He's going to have to fall off a cliff pretty much starting right now to wind up a bad pick. hoping for the best but will take a little dumbassery as part of the deal if I need to, at least in his case. Doesn't seem like an extreme case so maybe he'll work it out

Jaylon Smith seems to have some potential.

He's pretty much the personification of potential. I mean pre-injury it would have been hard to draw up a better LB prospect in this system/era. There's not even an honest comparison I can make to another Dallas 4-3 linebacker in the Jones era. If we're fortunate enough to see Smith overcome this injury and live up to his full potential--both huge ifs--you're talking about an entirely new standard to measure against.

For now I'm just being patient and keeping expectations sensible. He has a way to go and is just one of many young pieces of in a rebuilding defense. The majority of 2017 starting jobs are up for grabs (Collins, Lee, Scandrick and Jones are the only four I'm willing to pencil in for sure at this point).

So reports now coming out that Elliot might get suspended


I guess I'm just confused how the cops basically immediately dropped the case yet the NFL has been investigating for over a year and apparently haven't found much yet are still going to suspend him?

Wtf is going on

These vague headlines where nothing even happened drive me crazy. "Involved in bar incident" no arrests, no other details in the article. Just that he was involved in an incident. My God. Bring back the 90s.

Media outlets just wanting that ad money.

Now there's a report he was doing 100 mph on a highway. Funny how the "Potential suspension" headline lasted for like a day and now they're on to "Night club incident" where he wasn't arrested or on a police report, and now this. FAKE NEWS!

He is getting the Manziel treatment now. He isn't actually doing anything that bad but he looks stupid for not being able to keep his name out of the headlines. This only seems like it will get worse and that's really unfortunate. As we know the media headlines are the real problem and what Goodell actually cares about. The severity of what he's done or doing doesn't matter at this point. Just can't lay low and the media is going to destroy him.

But he is a way better player than jff and way more valuable to the league so maybe it will all blow over.