By Rob Phillips on March 15, 2014 • ( 1 )
Life on a 1,000-foot cruise ship ain’t bad if you can stomach spotty Web connections and Fox News as your only functioning TV channel in the middle of the Caribbean. Needless to say, I gladly kicked my Twitter habit for a week while the Cowboys took on water back home.
DeMarcus Ware went overboard. Jason Hatcher jumped ship. Miles Austin’s walking the plank till June 1st.
Looks like a roster rebuild, according to most observers. I’ve been saying this for months and months: the Dallas Cowboys have executed the quietest rebuilding job in the NFL for the last 3-and-a-half seasons. Jerry Jones just may not want to admit it.
Since Jason Garrett replaced Wade Phillips in the middle of that catastrophic 2010 season, the Cowboys have replaced 19 of 22 starters. The only 3 left: Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Doug Free. Anthony Spencer makes 4 if he re-signs, but projecting his impact coming off an Achilles tear is tough.
This is a franchise that, with Garrett’s and Stephen Jones’ influence, looked in the mirror after the 6-10 season and said, “We’re old, we’re overpaid, we’re overrated.” They’ve been trying to fix things ever since, yet, just like their annual rollercoaster record, they only dip one foot in the water. It’s really more of a “mega-retool.”
If you’re rebuilding, you don’t re-sign 33-year-old Romo to a $108 million contract last year. You let him play out his deal, you get mammoth salary cap relief and you start over in the draft.
If you’re rebuilding, you don’t give Jay Ratliff a $40 million extension in 2011 that doesn’t kick in till 2013 when he’s 32 years old.
If you’re rebuilding, you don’t give Brandon Carr, Mackenzy Bernadeau and Nate Livings a combined $80 million in a single weekend.
The Dallas Cowboys under Jerry Jones don’t fully “rebuild” anything. At least, not since Jerry’s first couple years in charge, when he and Jimmy Johnson pulled off the greatest ground-floor title construction in league history: drafting Troy Aikman and trading Herschel Walker for a pick basket that became Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Alvin Harper, Russell Maryland, and more.
Today, teams clutch draft choices like swaddled newborns. Today, Jerry’s more obsessed with winning than ever before.
There’s a marvelous stadium to fill. There are millions of fans who expect more than those 3 Super Bowls 20 years ago.
Releasing Ware wasn’t about rebuilding. It was about paying too much for, in their eyes, a player in steep decline. Letting Hatcher walk was simply smart business. You can’t pay a 32-year-old $30 million for one great season out of 8.
The front office will replace both with cheaper, though perhaps less productive, options and save cash for younger cornerstones Dez Bryant and Tyron Smith. That’s life in the salary cap era – natural constraints made tighter by having a franchise quarterback on payroll and mistakenly overpaying others. The draft will have to produce instant contributors yet again.
Rebuilding? Sort of. Call it “Mega-Retooling.”
In the end, the owner still expects a playoff berth and beyond, Jason Garrett’s still coaching for his job, and the Cowboys will again hop on Romo’s surgically-repaired back.
Life on a 1,000-foot cruise ship ain’t bad if you can stomach spotty Web connections and Fox News as your only functioning TV channel in the middle of the Caribbean. Needless to say, I gladly kicked my Twitter habit for a week while the Cowboys took on water back home.
DeMarcus Ware went overboard. Jason Hatcher jumped ship. Miles Austin’s walking the plank till June 1st.
Looks like a roster rebuild, according to most observers. I’ve been saying this for months and months: the Dallas Cowboys have executed the quietest rebuilding job in the NFL for the last 3-and-a-half seasons. Jerry Jones just may not want to admit it.
Since Jason Garrett replaced Wade Phillips in the middle of that catastrophic 2010 season, the Cowboys have replaced 19 of 22 starters. The only 3 left: Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Doug Free. Anthony Spencer makes 4 if he re-signs, but projecting his impact coming off an Achilles tear is tough.
This is a franchise that, with Garrett’s and Stephen Jones’ influence, looked in the mirror after the 6-10 season and said, “We’re old, we’re overpaid, we’re overrated.” They’ve been trying to fix things ever since, yet, just like their annual rollercoaster record, they only dip one foot in the water. It’s really more of a “mega-retool.”
If you’re rebuilding, you don’t re-sign 33-year-old Romo to a $108 million contract last year. You let him play out his deal, you get mammoth salary cap relief and you start over in the draft.
If you’re rebuilding, you don’t give Jay Ratliff a $40 million extension in 2011 that doesn’t kick in till 2013 when he’s 32 years old.
If you’re rebuilding, you don’t give Brandon Carr, Mackenzy Bernadeau and Nate Livings a combined $80 million in a single weekend.
The Dallas Cowboys under Jerry Jones don’t fully “rebuild” anything. At least, not since Jerry’s first couple years in charge, when he and Jimmy Johnson pulled off the greatest ground-floor title construction in league history: drafting Troy Aikman and trading Herschel Walker for a pick basket that became Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Alvin Harper, Russell Maryland, and more.
Today, teams clutch draft choices like swaddled newborns. Today, Jerry’s more obsessed with winning than ever before.
There’s a marvelous stadium to fill. There are millions of fans who expect more than those 3 Super Bowls 20 years ago.
Releasing Ware wasn’t about rebuilding. It was about paying too much for, in their eyes, a player in steep decline. Letting Hatcher walk was simply smart business. You can’t pay a 32-year-old $30 million for one great season out of 8.
The front office will replace both with cheaper, though perhaps less productive, options and save cash for younger cornerstones Dez Bryant and Tyron Smith. That’s life in the salary cap era – natural constraints made tighter by having a franchise quarterback on payroll and mistakenly overpaying others. The draft will have to produce instant contributors yet again.
Rebuilding? Sort of. Call it “Mega-Retooling.”
In the end, the owner still expects a playoff berth and beyond, Jason Garrett’s still coaching for his job, and the Cowboys will again hop on Romo’s surgically-repaired back.
