The mass exodus of Cowboys defensive backs through free agency is now complete, and while the current defensive back depth chart looks thinner, it is no-less capable of playing winning football.
So while the internet burned on Thursday afternoon as Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne both signed with new, AFC teams, I can almost guarantee you that no one involved in the running of the Cowboys broke a sweat.
Don’t get me wrong. Brandon Carr, Barry Church, JJ Wilcox, and Morris Claiborne have each been solid contributors to the Cowboys for a while now. Carr and Church the steady leaders, Wilcox and Claiborne the late bloomers, all four made key plays in 2016 en route to the 13-3 record.
And yet, it was still not enough.
As Aaron Rodgers shredded the Cowboys for 34 points and an early playoff exit, every one knew what time it was in Dallas. It was, and now is, time to make drastic changes on the defensive side of the ball.
And now, months later, the re-construction of the defensive roster is in progress. Like the old adage, the Cowboys are out with the old, and in with new. Out with the JAGs, and in with star-caliber defensive backs (we hope). Out with the overpaid or the injury plagued, and in with the youth and rookie contracts.
So, you can miss me with the “sky is falling” takes after the events of these past two weeks.
https://twitter.com/kevinbrady88/status/842490677053325312
Of course, the Cowboys must now replace the departed players, primarily through the draft. This should not scare you, however, it should excite you.
Last year, the Cowboys found their number one cornerback in round six. Anthony Brown, the sixth round pick out of Purdue, has turned into a solid outside corner, and someone who should continue to develop through the years.
Brown started nine games last season, most of which came when the newly-signed New York Jet Morris Claiborne missed time due to injury.
This year, it won’t take until the sixth round for a starting cornerback to be found. The 2017 NFL Draft is filled with quality corners, including guys like UCLA’s Fabian Moreau and Florida’s Teez Tabor, both of which would make the perfect outside cornerback in Dallas.
Since Will McClay took over the draft in 2014, the Cowboys have found two quality starting defensive backs in Anthony Brown and Byron Jones.
In 2017, they will find the third.
Sure, it sucks to see players who have been solid contributors for a few years leave your football team. Church, Carr, Claiborne, and even Wilcox will all be missed. But this is how the NFL works. The veterans play themselves out of their team’s price range, and both sides move on.
Usually, the team who brings in the younger, fresher talent continues to win, while the older free agents tend to bust in their new situations. Of course, I don’t wish that upon any of the departing Cowboys, but I certainly hope us fans can realize that the Cowboys are playing this the right way.
Remain patient, financially responsible, and draft well. That is the winning formula.
It’s worked for the offense, now it’s time to reload on defense.
Why did it take for this playoff game to revamp the D ??? This defense has been bad for a LONG….. time, I personally as a fan wasn’t Hart broken from any losses from this defense in FA, we only have one All Pro caliber defender(Lee obvious) I like Byron and Brown but we need some help to make this run next season. I want them to get Obi from Uconn, It might take a 1 to get him but I trust Will. He pulled four starters out of last year’s draft class
Obi from UConn. would be great. Byron has been working out with him. I’m not heart broken from any of the FA we lost either. Time to change the DB field. Add de,linebacker,RB and OT.
We should duplicate last year’s draft, same selections different order. Qb, Rb, Lb, De, Dt, Cb, S, but I like that OL pick too like u said. I would look at a Wr too
Okay, I count just about every position on the team outside of TE, Kicker and Punter. Are we in rebuild mode and no one told me?
Would you use your 1st round pick on him? Because he won’t fall to you at 60. If you do get him at 28, you will be passing on an awful lot of talent.
Sometimes the players you need aren’t available when you draft. This is a draft with a lot of what Dallas needs on D, so it aligns up well. You don’t draft a DE in a weak DE draft and claim you got your savior. You have to have patience and let the players and game come to you, don’t force it.
Thanks Mr. Brady for doing your Homework and working Hard on the problem about Dallas Defends. I could only wish Dallas would had done this fews years ago. By releasing or started replacing players on defends side of the balls. That way we have better players in place. Instead replacing them all at once when Dallas don’t have that many drafts picks. They also need to pick up a great TE to replace soon to be Hall of Fame Witten. Dallas also need to stop handing out Mega Contracts and over paying players like they are the best that ever play the game. ( ROMO, Lee, Brant, OL, Witten, others) .
Okay, I’m confused here. Romo was worth his contract. Witten is worth his, Bryant is arguably worth his contract and Lee is worth his. If any of them had hit the FA market when they got their last contract, other teams would have easily paid that much or more, so how are they overpaid? I’m still not sure how you think our OL is overpaid. Free would be the only one and he took a pay cut to bring him more in line with his skill, which I suggest he actually out-played the last two years. If you had mentioned Tyrone Crawford, I could have agreed with you there as injuries have taken his potential away. Although Lee has been injured, his contact accounts for that and he wanted that language in the contract. So, the only ‘overpaid’ player I know of is Brandon Carr and people are up in arms that he was allowed to sign for $6m a year in Baltimore. Carroll is almost a Carr clone, but with slightly better athleticism and for half the cost.
As for getting players ahead of time to replace leaving players, Dallas actually does do that. Chaz Green for Doug Free… Anthony Brown for Morris Claiborne… Kavon Frazier for Barry Church… It’s actually something we track when projecting possible draft picks as Dallas has been pretty good at this. You could complain about Green, but only due to injury. His ability is not in question after his ability to play for Tyron for the first couple of games of 2016.
Just remember, every team has holes. It’s all about trying to keep those holes to a minimum and mask the ones you do have. Teams across the NFL are now trying to copy the OL model of the Cowboys, but the ability of Dallas to identify and draft those players will be hard for other teams to match, especially this year when the tackle class is very weak. Teams will be reaching for players to try and duplicate the Great Wall and will get leaky copies at best.
As for TE, we might actually already have his replacement if the voices at The Star can be believed. Rico Gathers was actually getting snaps with the first team at the end of last year. You have to earn that and the departing safeties both said that Romo and Gathers were wearing them out in practice.
One last thing: Don’t reach for players. Let them come to you. You can’t get O.J. Howard, Fabian Moraeu and Jordan Willis in the first round. You only get one pick. Will McClay has proven the last few years that he knows what he’s doing. Thank the gods above that he keeps turning down GM interview offers. If we lose McClay, our drafting will start to suffer.
Now you want to reply to my statements. If you don’t get it. You need to stop posting your articles on football and go back to college. You don’t see teams like Denver , New England , Baltimore, Atlanta, Seattle, Pittsburgh and the likes. Every year in salary cap problems. Why they don’t over pay there players.. Now let get real. How many teams pay there QB lie he is the king of the world. None of teams above over pay there players not even Tom Brady or Dree Breeze don’t even make half what Rome is making. Of all those team above only Denver and Pittsburgh pays there WR like Dallas does Bryant. All the rest of the teams in the league that does pay there WR a lot don’t see playoff. None of those teams above pay there TE as much as Dallas paying Witten either. Now for Lee. Look at his history of injury. Has he play more 5 back to back 16 games season in his NFL career. I don’t thinks he has. That mean he is well overpay. Most of those team would let every one of those players test the open market just to see what is the market is at for those players. Right now our OL is not over paid. I guarantee once they get in there 5th year of there rookie contract they will be. You can not look at how much a player is worth on a one to one bases, Look at how much it will cost you to replace them and how soon they can get there. Every player can be replace at one point or another and how much you want to pay them.
Now on replacements players. Steven Jones came out this past week and said Chaz Green is not there yet to be able to replace Free. Same way for Kavon Frazier to be able to replace Church. Not just those 2 players was I talking about. I was talking about the placements players across the board on the roster. Were is Lee replacement. Then you talk about Wittens replacement. Was not even on the roster if you go by what I heard from Garrett when he was talking to NFL.com people. But I wish Gathers can replace him in due time. I also loo at this might be Wittens last years his body can take the blows.
I have no problem with this. I now every team does this. But some are better at it then other. Just remember, every team has holes. It’s all about trying to keep those holes to a minimum and mask the ones you do have. Teams across the NFL are now trying to copy the OL model of the Cowboys, but the ability of Dallas to identify and draft those players will be hard for other teams to match, especially this year when the tackle class is very weak. Teams will be reaching for players to try and duplicate the Great Wall and will get leaky copies at best.
One last thing: Don’t reach for players. Let them come to you. You can’t get O.J. Howard, Fabian Moraeu and Jordan Willis in the first round. You only get one pick. Will McClay has proven the last few years that he knows what he’s doing. Thank the gods above that he keeps turning down GM interview offers. If we lose McClay, our drafting will start to suffer. Will McClay should had been shown the door many many years ago. He is not no GURO when it come to the NFL. At best this guy is very weak when it come down on judging players.