NGt- Cowboys LB Leighton Vander Esch retiring due to a neck injury

[MightyGiants]

https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1769771707072397610?s=20


https://x.com/RalphVacchiano/status/1769776896059859032?s=20

[spiderblue43]

Tough loss. Good player on a Pokes team that suffered without him on D. Wonder what the Ranch thinks? 

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Cowboys having a bad off season as players jump ship...looks like the Commanders are the new Cowboys

- DE Dorrance Armstrong signed with Washington
- C Tyler Biadasz signed with Washington
- DE Dante Fowler signed with Washington
- CB Noah Igbinoghene signed with Washington
- RB Tony Pollard signed with Tennessee
- DT Neville Gallimore signed with Miami
- OT Tyler Smith signed with NY Jets

Lost 3 DLs and 2 OLs

The only ones they've resigned are:
- CB C.J. Goodwin
- CB Jourdan Lewis
- LS Trent Sieg

[MightyGiants]

Cowboys having a bad off season as players jump ship...looks like the Commanders are the new Cowboys

- DE Dorrance Armstrong signed with Washington
- C Tyler Biadasz signed with Washington
- DE Dante Fowler signed with Washington
- CB Noah Igbinoghene signed with Washington
- RB Tony Pollard signed with Tennessee
- DT Neville Gallimore signed with Miami
- OT Tyler Smith signed with NY Jets

Lost 3 DLs and 2 OLs

The only ones they've resigned are:
- CB C.J. Goodwin
- CB Jourdan Lewis
- LS Trent Sieg

I know Cowboy fans are a bit upset.  Jerrah said they were all in this season and the team has been extremely quiet in free agency

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I know Cowboy fans are a bit upset.  Jerrah said they were all in this season and the team has been extremely quiet in free agency

I saw that, and the response was that "we're all in" doesn't mean anything. They are restructuring contracts in order to pay Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb...which will further destroy their cap. But they can't let them go...and as far as I'm concerned, they need a better QB who is getting paid big time. They've got a lot of work to do to keep from heading for the cellar

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Compare to:

NY Giants:

- Edge Brian Burns (via trade with Carolina)
- RB Devin Singletary
- G Jon Runyan Jr.
- G Jermaine Eluemunor
- QB Drew Lock
- TE Jack Stoll
- DB Jalen Mills
- WR Isaiah McKenzie
- TE Chris Manhertz
- OG Aaron Stinnie
- OL Austin Schlottmann

And a new OC, STC, and OLC

Schoen is busy trying to right the ship

[uconnjack8]

One note and it was probably auto-correct, Tyler Smith is still with the cowboys.  Tyron Smith signed with the Jets

[DaveBrown74]

The issue the Cowboys have is they're paying franchise QB money to a solid but not great QB. Similar situation to what the Vikes were in with Cousins. Plus the Cowboys had that Zeke contract too, which didn't help.

You just simply can't pay anything other than the true top 5 or 6 QBs in this league big time money. It puts such a cap on the ceiling of what you can do as a team. The Cowboys are a team that, unlike us, draft very well, and they still can't get over the hump. Dak and his contract are the single biggest reason for that, in my opinion. They were in a similar boat with Romo.

[uconnjack8]

The issue the Cowboys have is they're paying franchise QB money to a solid but not great QB. Similar situation to what the Vikes were in with Cousins. Plus the Cowboys had that Zeke contract too, which didn't help.

You just simply can't pay anything other than the true top 5 or 6 QBs in this league big time money. It puts such a cap on the ceiling of what you can do as a team. The Cowboys are a team that, unlike us, draft very well, and they still can't get over the hump. Dak and his contract are the single biggest reason for that, in my opinion. They were in a similar boat with Romo.

I feel like it goes a little deeper than that for the Cowboys.  There is no great QBs in the NFC, so they should at least be able to make some noise in the playoffs.

They have enough talent on paper to get to a championship game but haven't been able to. 

Heard a story where Dalton Schultz described the atmosphere in Dallas as a "circus".  He cited some things like fan stadium tours during workouts.  Apparently the weight room has a glass wall and he talked about doing bench presses and fans  tapping on the glass.  Sounds minor but when you add a lot of little distractions up I think it matters.   The description made me think of Rocky III when some girls came to get autographs and Mickey yells at them.  Except in this case he would have been encouraging it.

I do get your point about the QBs and don't disagree, but it's tough to move on from a Cousins without knowing how good the replacement is.  If the Vikings flop this year that regime will undoubtedly be put the door. 

Who would you replace Dak with if you are the Cowboys?  If they don't give him the contract,  someone else will.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

One note and it was probably auto-correct, Tyler Smith is still with the cowboys.  Tyron Smith signed with the Jets

Good point...thanks for the correction

[uconnjack8]

Good point...thanks for the correction

When I wrote Tyron it auto-corrected to Tyrone.

[DaveBrown74]

I feel like it goes a little deeper than that for the Cowboys.  There is no great QBs in the NFC, so they should at least be able to make some noise in the playoffs.

They have enough talent on paper to get to a championship game but haven't been able to. 

Heard a story where Dalton Schultz described the atmosphere in Dallas as a "circus".  He cited some things like fan stadium tours during workouts.  Apparently the weight room has a glass wall and he talked about doing bench presses and fans  tapping on the glass.  Sounds minor but when you add a lot of little distractions up I think it matters.   The description made me think of Rocky III when some girls came to get autographs and Mickey yells at them.  Except in this case he would have been encouraging it.

I do get your point about the QBs and don't disagree, but it's tough to move on from a Cousins without knowing how good the replacement is.  If the Vikings flop this year that regime will undoubtedly be put the door. 

Who would you replace Dak with if you are the Cowboys?  If they don't give him the contract,  someone else will.

It's not really about who I would replace him with today. As a broad rule I would keep my QBs affordable until I found one I viewed as elite, and then I would pay that one whatever the market was for the next elite QB contract. Obviously, I understand that with that mindset I might be looking for a while, and I accept that.

The one thing I simply would not be willing to do is give franchise QB type money (even if it's just 75-80% of the AAV of the highest paid QB) to a decent but not great QB. To me, that is literally the worst personnel-related mistake an NFL team can make in the modern NFL. I'd keep a combo of QBs on rookie contracts and inexpensive vets like Minshew, and I'd keep drafting them until I found one who was the real deal. I think when you high-end money to someone like Dak, Andy Dalton, Tanneyhill, Daniel Jones, Cousins etc you hamstring your franchise for years. I would never sign up for that.

Interesting points about some of the cultural stuff with the Cowboys. I have no idea how much of a role that has played in their inability to win playoff games, but it hasn't seem to adversely impact their ability to be one of the better regular season teams most years.

[Hadron]

I feel like it goes a little deeper than that for the Cowboys.  There is no great QBs in the NFC, so they should at least be able to make some noise in the playoffs.

They have enough talent on paper to get to a championship game but haven't been able to. 

Heard a story where Dalton Schultz described the atmosphere in Dallas as a "circus".  He cited some things like fan stadium tours during workouts.  Apparently the weight room has a glass wall and he talked about doing bench presses and fans  tapping on the glass.  Sounds minor but when you add a lot of little distractions up I think it matters.   The description made me think of Rocky III when some girls came to get autographs and Mickey yells at them.  Except in this case he would have been encouraging it.

I do get your point about the QBs and don't disagree, but it's tough to move on from a Cousins without knowing how good the replacement is.  If the Vikings flop this year that regime will undoubtedly be put the door. 

Who would you replace Dak with if you are the Cowboys?  If they don't give him the contract,  someone else will.

My wife and I have a membership with the Cowboys Club which overlooks the practice field. We've never taken the tour but we've definitely watched the Cowboys practice (as do some of the local offices like the HQ for Dr. Pepper Keurig).

I don't know if what Schultz described was at The Star or down at Jerry World. Either way, that could be rather distracting!