bbgun

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SportsDay columnist Rick Gosselin has held live chats discussing the Dallas Cowboys with readers all year long. Here are some of the best of his responses through the 2016 season and postseason, as well as some of his columns:

What kind of bump (if any) did Tony Romo give his potential trade value with his lone TD drive against the Philadelphia Eagles?

Gosselin: Minimal. He just showed the rest of the league he's no worse for wear. He can still take the snaps, make the reads and then make the throws. If you trade for Romo, you are trading for the contract, which is huge. You'd be doing the Cowboys a favor by taking that contract off their hands. So why would you pay a steep price for the privilege of doing the Cowboys a favor?

Do you think Dak Prescott is able to spread the ball better than Romo because of his short-term relationships with everyone on the field? Whereas Romo, as we know, is much closer to some players than others.

Gosselin: I think Dak is doing what he's told to do -- read your progressions and find the open man. Romo always had the faith in himself that he could make the big play and too often looked for it. He'd make some high-risk passes that could lead to big rewards. Dak isn't making any high-risk throws. He's making the safe pass and keeping it away from the enemy. When a quarterback doesn't turn the ball over, good things happen to a team. He's not forcing it to Dez Bryant or Jason Witten or Terrance Williams -- he's always putting it in the hands of the open man. He's running the offense the way it's supposed to be run.

What positions/areas of need should the Cowboys focus on in the first three rounds of the draft?

Gosselin: Pass rush, pass rush, pass rush. And in the fourth round, I'd also consider another pass rusher. Until the pass rush grows some teeth, this team will not compete for Super Bowls. When you play a four-man front, you're supposed to get your pass rush from the four down linemen. All three sacks the Cowboys got yesterday were from defensive backs. When you're top pass rusher has six sacks, you're not taking your pass rush seriously. The Cowboys are in dire need of a blue-chip edge rusher.

How does Dak avoid being the next Colin Kaepernick or Robert Griffin?


Gosselin: Continue to feature his arm and not his legs. A big part of the early success of Griffin and Kaepernick was what they could do with their legs. Prescott has running ability but he spent his rookie season winning games with his arm. I wouldn't mind seeing him run a bit more -- but he'll go farther in this league with his arm than his legs. I think he understands that. At least he played in 2016 like he understood that.

What's more likely for Romo: Next year's backup, traded to another team in offseason, released and signed to another team this offseason?

Gosselin: Traded. I don't see him wanting to come back as a backup -- and I don't see how the Cowboys can justify paying him $20-plus million to hold a clipboard. The Cowboys would be smart to try to salvage something, anything, for the contract that they gave Romo. A contender in need of a quarterback would have to explore the idea of a trade for Romo. Denver and Houston would have to be at the head of the parade.

Are the Broncos indeed Romo's best fit next year?


Gosselin: Yes, because the Broncos have already worked off of this script with Peyton Manning. They took an older player on a short-term basis and had the pieces in place to win him a championship. And they did. If Romo moves on, it's not to play -- it's to win a championship. So I'd scratch Chicago, Jacksonville and the Jets off the list right now. That leaves Denver and potentially Houston. Both have the defense and the weapons at receiver to allow a veteran quarterback with Romo's career accomplishments to thrive.

Should the Cowboys try to trade Tony Romo? Or will they just grant him his release?

Gosselin: I'd try to trade him if you can get someone to pick up the sizable contract of an aging quarterback who hasn't played at an elite level since 2014. If it's a trade, I'm sure Romo would be involved in the discussions just as Joe Montana was when he was dealt to Kansas City back in the early 1990s. You want to do the player right after all he's given to the organization. If he's playing elsewhere next season, it will be with a contender in the AFC. And the Cowboys would rather it not be an AFC West team (Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos or Chargers). That's the division with whom the Cowboys play interconference games in 2017.

What uniform, if any, will Mark Sanchez be wearing next season?

Gosselin: I would expect him back. I think he proved to be a good sounding board for Dak. He has already walked in Dak's shoes -- starting as a rookie and taking a team to the playoffs. He's been to conference title games. There's value to what he can see and say to Dak beyond what he can do in his own huddle.

Cowboys made it out like this season is a disappointment to them. Do you think that's how the team should look at it or are they overlooking the progress the team made?

Gosselin: When you are the top seed with homefield throughout the playoffs, you expect to reach the Super Bowl. The Cowboys became the first top seed to fail to reach the Super Bowl since 2012. So there's disappointment there. The expectations of January were not met. But go back to the expectations of August -- specifically, when Tony Romo went down. Did anyone expect this team to win 13 games? Did anyone expect them to win 10 games? Did anyone expect this team to make the playoffs? Did anyone expect this team to finish .500 with a rookie fourth-round draft pick at quarterback? If you judge a team on Super Bowls, this season was a failure. But by any other measure, this was a wildly successful season with a promise of better seasons to come.

When you look back at this Cowboys season, what will be the things that stand out the most to you?

Gosselin: The development of the young quarterback and running back. Now, if the Cowboys can do the same thing in 2017 on defense -- find two impact players, preferably in the front seven -- the future will look very bright. Not many teams in the history of the draft have found both a franchise quarterback and running back in the same year.
 

yimyammer

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If you trade for Romo, you are trading for the contract, which is huge. You'd be doing the Cowboys a favor by taking that contract off their hands. So why would you pay a steep price for the privilege of doing the Cowboys a favor?

Wrong!

IDIOT!
 
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Wait Yim? Why is that wrong?

Gosselin: I think Dak is doing what he's told to do -- read your progressions and find the open man. Romo always had the faith in himself that he could make the big play and too often looked for it. He'd make some high-risk passes that could lead to big rewards. Dak isn't making any high-risk throws. He's making the safe pass and keeping it away from the enemy. When a quarterback doesn't turn the ball over, good things happen to a team. He's not forcing it to Dez Bryant or Jason Witten or Terrance Williams -- he's always putting it in the hands of the open man. He's running the offense the way it's supposed to be run.

This was what went right about the season and when the team tried to resurrect the Romo offense with Dak it was what went wrong. I'm still fascinated that statistically the down-and-distance that resulted in the most sacks was 1st and 10. Think about when that happened! Not when Zeke was in the backfield, it was when he was cleared out for an obvious passing play and the defenses just ate that up.
 

yimyammer

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Wait Yim? Why is that wrong?

Because any team that trades for Romo is only "helping" Dallas by whatever draft compensation they pay.

The team that acquires Romo is not "taking that contract off their hands" because there is no more guaranteed money left to pay Romo. There is however 19.6 million in dead money that Dallas has to absorb whether he is kept, traded or released.

Any team willing to trade for Romo for substantial enough draft compensation which would compel Dallas to accept the trade would actually be hurting the Cowboys from a cap management standpoint because all of that 19.6 million would accelerate & hit the cap in 2017 (however its 6 one way, half a dozen the other in that however the cap is absorbed, its merely a timing effect of whether its split between 2017-18 or all in 2017. I think it can be managed and wouldn't prevent a trade).

Romos contract is not a problem for any team willing to trade for him because Romo's salary is 14mill in 2017 and 19.5 million in 2018, both of which would be under market were he to stay healthy and perform at or above expectation. If Romo gets hurt or sucks, they can simply cut him. Taking on Romos contract is also advantageous to that team because they wouldn't have to pay any bonus or up-front money making it that much easier to get rid of him should things not go as planned.

In summary, Romo's contract is not huge, acquiring it is not doing the Cowboys any favors and because there is no longer any more guaranteed money, Dallas isn't being let off the hook for anything, so his statement is wrong every respect.

Its pretty pathetic when my dumbass can correct a reporter who should know better.
 

cmd34

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yimyammer is exactly right. The team trading for Romo has options with that contract.

If they are worried about his injury concerns or as doomsday puts it, 1000% certainty that Romo will die if the center snaps the ball too hard, they can just pay him the $14M base salary in 2017 and at any point, cut him and not owe him a dime of his remaining contract. $14M for a starting QB is not that high. It's about $10M less, in cap room, than the Ravens will spend on Joe Flacco next year.

If they want to lessen the cap hit, the new team can simply rip up his deal, with no ramification to their salary cap, and give him some signing bonus money. An example would be a 3-year deal, with a $12M signing bonus. They give him a first year base salary of $2M. This way Romo still gets the $14M he was going to get, only now he gets $12M before the season. The team now has a $6M 2017 cap hit ($12M signing bonus divided by 3 years equals $4M prorated cap hit plus his $2M base salary). Then, if he gets hurt the team has to worry about $9M in dead money, which can be absorbed all at once, or spread out over 2 years.

The Cowboys gain nothing at all for trading him except the compensation they receive in the trade. Trading him or releasing him triggers a $19M cap hit BUT gets him completely off the books before 2018. Keeping him is a $24M cap hit.

Gosselin should be embarrassed.
 

Doomsday

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as doomsday puts it, 1000% certainty that Romo will die if the center snaps the ball too hard
Nobody's ever said that. Why do you feel the need to just, lie?

Although now that you mention it, really wouldn't be a big surprise to me.
 

dbair1967

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The Cowboys gain nothing at all for trading him except the compensation they receive in the trade. Trading him or releasing him triggers a $19M cap hit BUT gets him completely off the books before 2018. Keeping him is a $24M cap hit.

.

That's kinda a big deal though. I think there's going to be some decent interest in him an that potentially could return us at least a day two pick, or maybe a combination of day two/three picks. That's a huge incentive to trade him IMO.
 

cmd34

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That's kinda a big deal though. I think there's going to be some decent interest in him an that potentially could return us at least a day two pick, or maybe a combination of day two/three picks. That's a huge incentive to trade him IMO.

No, I agree. I was talking about Gosselin's take that a team would be doing us a huge favor by taking Romo's contract off our hands. That's how it works in MLB and the NBA, not in the NFL. He should know that.
 

dbair1967

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No, I agree. I was talking about Gosselin's take that a team would be doing us a huge favor by taking Romo's contract off our hands. That's how it works in MLB and the NBA, not in the NFL. He should know that.

Got it. Agree
 

ThoughtExperiment

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No, I agree. I was talking about Gosselin's take that a team would be doing us a huge favor by taking Romo's contract off our hands. That's how it works in MLB and the NBA, not in the NFL. He should know that.

He's such a tool. He's wrong about a lot of things, but he covers it up with that snarky, I'm-such-an-expert attitude.

He's exactly like the Fake Rick Gosselin.
 

jeremysmith214

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I say keep it him and wait until a team faces a serious QB injury and then trade him to that team. We would probably get a lot more value picks
 
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We'd be lucky to get a 3rd for Romo.

Which I'd take.

If someone offered a 2nd we should pass because we'd piss it away anyways.
 

MrB

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I say keep it him and wait until a team faces a serious QB injury and then trade him to that team. We would probably get a lot more value picks

Would Minnesota be dumb enough to trade their 2018 first round pick?
 

jeremysmith214

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We'd be lucky to get a 3rd for Romo.

Which I'd take.

If someone offered a 2nd we should pass because we'd piss it away anyways.

But you know our reluctance on getting burned again on 2nd round picks may have costs us a chance to grab Noah Spence. Not saying Jaylon want become a good pick for us but Noah Spence could have stepped in immediately for us.

Noah getting kicked off the team as well as trouble from "Randy Gregory Hardy" has made us apprehensive about drafting guys with prior drug issue(s)
 

dbair1967

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We'd be lucky to get a 3rd for Romo.

Which I'd take.

If someone offered a 2nd we should pass because we'd piss it away anyways.

I think we'll get something pretty good. I do believe there will multiple bidders for us, and if that happens we'll make out pretty good.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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Heh... Gosselin said again just now that "when you trade for the player you trade for the contract" and reiterated the 24 million hit for the new team. Norm very gently corrected him that the Cowboys would take the signing bonus hit and the new team would only pay 14. Gosselin of course got a little irritated -- you don't correct THE Rick Gosselin -- and blew it off as well, whatever, 14 mil is still a ton for someone of his age and the Cowboys would only get a conditional pick.
 

yimyammer

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Heh... Gosselin said again just now that "when you trade for the player you trade for the contract" and reiterated the 24 million hit for the new team. Norm very gently corrected him that the Cowboys would take the signing bonus hit and the new team would only pay 14. Gosselin of course got a little irritated -- you don't correct THE Rick Gosselin -- and blew it off as well, whatever, 14 mil is still a ton for someone of his age and the Cowboys would only get a conditional pick.

He comes across as a huge, pompous ass

The Fake Rick Gosselin does a good job of making fun of him
 
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