I can say this for sure though - a year later I'm not missing Carr, Church, Wilcox, Claiborne, or Doug Free enough to feel bad about any of them.

Certainly not missing Sanchez, Dunbar, Whitehead, Escobar, Clearly, Ryan Davis, R. McClain, Gackhar, Josh Thomas.

Someone would point out Ron Leary, but then I'd point out that he got long-term deal averaging $9 million a season (mostly guaranteed) - so I feel very good about that move also. He appears to have played well for Denver as a RG but missed the final 5 games and ended up on IR. His exit also equates to our highest compensatory pick this draft, which could actually be a 3rd.

Terrell McClain and Jack Crawford were decent guys to have. But for the multi-million deals they got in FA, they were both PT players who totaled a combined 2 starts for their new teams, when healthy.

That leaves poor Tony Romo and I know there's some gnawing over that still with some, and there will be any time Dak isn't playing great for the next couple years. IMO it was still the right decision to make in the offseason, regardless of whether Dak holds up as a franchise guy. And I think Romo hung it up at the right time.

So with all those moves and dead money there's about $25m in 2018 cap space right this second, though expect some retooling and some serious decisions to be made with players like Dez, what to do with DLaw, Hitchens. Martin's contract. There's a lot they can do and even Witten isn't completely safe at this point. Draft picks to sign too. Sean Lee, Scandrick, T. Crawford are probably getting looked at but you won't save much with any unless you June 1 them (they all look more like trades or stay on another season). Tough to know what they're going to do with any of these guys since they can't keep all of them. And franchising DLaw will be a huge amount even that's not at all assured.

Pick five spots later with the win today.

If this was like the old days where you could draft guys, keep them forever and underpay them I would feel like we're in good shape.

Really don't want to give D. Law top 5 pass rusher money even though he had a great year.

Re: Witten - what are people's thoughts on him and the TE position situation? He has a straight $6.5m/year deal for the next four years, zero guaranteed, no dead money, so straight savings at any time he retires or they release him. For reference the top-paid TEs out there are in the $9m/year range.

He's still an every-down player and respectable blocker, and averaging a noteworthy 630 yards/4 TDs over the past 4 seasons as a receiver. He's worth the money, but turns 36 before camp starts and I wonder if that sort of money would be better spent retaining someone like Hitchens or some other asset that isn't facing imminent decline. I'm not sure either way, like I said the money seems right.

I know that James Hanna hasn't done enough to replace him and hasn't shown enough in games to be worth $3m next year. I mean 1 career TD in six seasons? Made his career high this year with 88 receiving yards? Blocking is an important thing here and he's decent at it but he's a pricey TE2.

Rico Gathers is a preseason legend with no reg game stats, Geoff Swaim looks like a usable depth guy, and they see enough in Blake Jarwin to protect him from the Eagles.

At the same time, Witten doesn't miss games and eats TE snaps, and for some reason this team goes really deep with tight ends. We've seen guys like Martellus Bennett and Anthony Fasano do next to nothing behind Witten and then go elsewhere and have some success.

I guess I don't see the sense in going 4 deep at TE when your TE1 is getting 900+ snaps and the rest are chopping up 400 snaps. They dress 3 which is fine and I get they like Jarwin and Gathers.

It's hard to read the Cowboys on this since obviously we're talking about Jason Witten. But why protect an UDFA like Jarwin, an unproven like Gathers and have the other guys around if you can't use them? The only clear conclusion I can take away is that paying both Witten and Hanna seems kind of goofy going forward. If Hanna isn't threatening Witten then he needs to go, a part time blocking TE isn't worth $3m.

Not that it's happening, but is there a consensus on who his replacement ought to be? I don't follow the coaching carousel too closely and am not really familiar with who the up-and-coming people are.

Eh 5 spots, 19's a decent enough place to draft. Save more than 1.5 million and stick another L on Philadelphia for the history books. It's 66-52 all time in the matchups, and when aliens find the records of our dead civilization in a million years, hopefully this franchise dominance is recorded in their galactic archives.

Anyway that whole midrange outside of the top 10 picks is kind of blurry anyway. I'd feel it if they dropped from 1 to 4 over it just because of trade value, but this is NBD. If anybody kicks themselves over it, see this thing below.

That curve drops a virutally meaningless hair between those two draft positions, and that also overstates when used for draft value, since many of the higher-scoring players amass value with teams other than those that originally drafted them.



They'll have players with Rd1 grades there to pick from, and maybe even trade up from their 2nd for another one. Happier being an okay team than tank-masters like Cleveland, where it doesn't appear to be helping them.

Just let Witten keep being Witten as long as he stays healthy. We have nobody good to replace him with at the moment.

The offensive line took a step back this season. Hopefully can address this somehow even if its just good depth.

Replacement? All I want to know is how long the extension is gonna be! 8-8 is a thing of the past! See you later!

Good fortune/luck has certainly not done Garrett any favors in the post-season. Interesting how complete narratives change over a few games, some nobody making a play or even one star player making a play so the other star players or coach can be declared heroes. Jon Gruden- great football mind!

Maybe in an alternate universe Jared Cook drops the ball or Byron Jones makes a play and we beat the Packers at home in the playoffs and great things happen after that. Maybe not and Garrett is mediocre in the NFL in every simulation of life.

I would say providence has smiled upon Garrett greatly in his career...under any other owner he would not still be coach.

Maybe in an alternate universe Matt Cassel or Brandon Weeden could have done the impossible and managed to win a single game with a bad team...

Nah jk we cant expect the cowboys to overcome any kind of hindrance that GarrettBot can't foresee in the preseason....

Not many great football minds out there are going to let the owner retool his coaching staff and have a hand in personnel decisions. Think we're much more likely to end up with a Dave Campo type over a guy that is clearly better than Garrett.

Know 13-3 and 9-7 are pretty terrible with a brand new QB + can't make the great Matt Cassell into a stud but just not being Marvin Lewis brings me some joy.

DLaw getting tagged. Not hoping to see a LTD this season without a killer year. At this point Ware had started every game and had 50+ sacks. DLaw didn’t even start half the games due to injuries and suspension, and had half the production. Still thinking he’s a good player who had a great year and not necessarily a great player but I don’t know.

2018 looks like a great year to be patient and evaluate what’s here and run the clock out on the old contracts. Lots of guys playing for a big deal in 2019 and DLaw ought to be one of them, no need to rush just see who holds up and what younger guys come up

I think something like 75% of mocks I've seen have us going WR round 1. Thinking that doesn't happen myself.

I think there’s a decent chance when looking at the WR production this past season. It’s not like the Cowboys to go too long without a beast WR1, and it’s always been a premiere position to them. If they scout someone that fits that description and can get the needed pick I can definitely see that.

They need someone to push both starters really, and depth, so it’s as good a time as any

Well there is going to be 3 long rangy guys in their 1st round range for sure. Plus size guys who run good routes. Jerry's gonna need restraining I guess. I only project one of these big WRs to be gone by our pick.

I see WR as must likely but sitting where they are pick wise, with so many personnel decisions, some money, lots of picks and lots of needs...it’s anybodys guess. I don’t see inking a name free agent WR unless they let Dez go, which I think we’re a season away from, but a pick is no problem. Wouldn’t be much different then when they took Dez

I think they like DLine enough to not go high there now that Lawrence franchised, LB doesn’t seem impossible but I predict value FA and middle pick. Safety maybe but no way they pass on an A grade Wr for one now

Four compensatory picks?

Lower than expected, I figured 4 4 5 5 with a chance for maybe a 3rd but 4456 will have to do. And they’re tradeable

They’re short their natural 5 also

So this doesn't make me feel any better....

https://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/14...ule-may-change

That makes me feel worse!

Looks like Scandrick won’t be returning. Won’t save much money but he’s getting up there and has been missing a lot of games, and I imagine they have a plan there. Rumors that all over that Byron Jones may move to to corner which makes sense.

They’re going to need some depth still, and someone to play teams. Have to assume they do some combo of low-prices FA and a draft pick, and Anthony Brown. I suspect they ink a solid veteran safety though.

Look at it this way: They would have still needed to punch it in, and then convert a 2PC just to go up 3. It's a virtual guarantee that Godgers would have proceeded to beat them in the most painful way possible (probably taking one free shot at the end zone with the FG in his pocket at the end of regulation, and dinking it).

The 6-point swing at the end of the first half, and Murray getting stripped with 40 yards of open field in front of him, are way more painful parts of that game for me (and bigger reasons they lost).

I’m over the dez catch, but the NFL needs to figure out what a catch is. If they can’t explain it in 3 sentences it’s too complicated. A catch needs to be a simple concept or its broken

Either way gearing up for the offseason moves, the talk so far seems to hint that they might be more apt to let some veteran players go. Would be a big shift for them to not just double down on mediocre, maybe they actually learned something from the Romo era.

Not sure but I do enjoy watching a fresh team of players develop so much more, even in down or just-ok seasons. It feels more like the players are earning their playing time

Even though people made fun of the language of it, I was fine with the idea of a "football move" meaning you're a runner. Dez reaching out a little towards the goal line made him a runner. Jesse James intentionally rolling over the goal line in the Steelers/Pats game made him a runner. Any guy looking upfield and turning his shoulders that way a little bit after making the catch makes him a runner.

Will you have more iffy fumbles get called this way, when a guy gets blown up right after the catch? Sure, but I think this'll be way less objectionable than some of the silly calls we've seen the last couple of years.

smiled at this story

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/20...-franchise-tag

Any of you feel like the window is closing fast for us? Looking around the NFC at the teams getting better, I feel a bit sick.

Facts: We're at a point now where our O has to run through Zeke, in a passing league. Witten's almost done, Dez is done.

Facts: Our D is below average when the most fragile skilled linebacker is out, which is often

They basically need a PERFECT draft to be competitive I'd say. At least with so many areas of need they can really go BPA. Thing I was a bit homerish on the future before. Someone convince me it's gonna be good.

I'm even more pessimistic than you. I feel like even our best unit (oline) is on a slight decline and everything else needs a significant upgrade that can't be fixed in one draft. Still not sold on Dak at all long-term.

I feel like we could be in that hell where we bounce around between 6 and 10 wins (with the very occasional playoff appearance where we're undoubtedly one and done) for like a decade. Never good enough to be relevant, never quite bad enough for the coaching staff to get overhauled.

I think the concept of “windows” hasn’t held up too well. There are so many things that change from year to year that are bigger than what you get (or don’t get) out of a couple name players. Even then I think it was better applied talking about people like Demarcus Ware or Romo than 2018’s Dez or Witten, neither of whom are top 5 players on the roster.

If anything I’d say Dallas has a more favorable outlook then they’ve had in a while. They can reasonably walk away from almost any substantial contract after this season as they please, excepting Travis Frederick, Tyron Smith, probably Martin here soon, and have a good chance to evaluate Dak, Zeke, DLaw and MANY others before making a decision with them. There’s lots of cap space to keep good players and plenty frees up when Lee, Dez Witten Crawford etc get released, or if say DLaw doesn’t hold up