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For fans of any NFL team, it's easy to live in something of a bubble, especially during the offseason. Sure, the big-name signings and major moves among the league's rosters make an impression when it's what everyone is talking about, but what your team has done (or not done) often tends to live in a bit of a vacuum when compared to the other 31 squads.
Until you take a step back and evaluate everyone, that is.
ESPN analyst Ben Solak has done just that with this year's free agency class, offering up his top-to-bottom rankings of whose offseason process improved their roster. And it wasn't just free-agent acquisitions and losses; Solak factored in trades, extensions, restructures, who overspent, who was too conservative, who addressed the right positions, and who didn't make a move they probably should have.
"Think of these as NFL Power Rankings," Solak says by way of preface, "but only grading the five weeks and ignoring everything that came before."
The Cowboys, as it seems has become custom, sit squarely in the middle of the pack, and actually just a little below the centerline. Solak ranks them 18th leaguewide, well below the top spot occupied by the Buffalo Bills.
Solak starts by saying he loved that the Cowboys participated at all this year, a not-so-subtle shot at the team's bewildering strategy last year, which involved mostly sitting on their hands.
"The Cowboys didn't make any big additions in the free agency period," Solak writes," but they never do. At least they made some small ones this year.
"The Cowboys did what teams should do when they have franchise cornerstones already in hand: They added on the margins with low-risk, high-reward moves. The RB tandem of [Miles] Sanders and [Javonte] Williams shouldn't preclude them from drafting a back early next month, but it does give them enough of a floor that they don't need to chase the position in the first round. The signing of [Dante] Fowler clears the bar for a functional rusher who can take advantage of the havoc created by Micah Parsons from the edge and [Osa] Odighizuwa from the interior."
Those are the positives. But for all of Jerry and Stephen Jones's thrift-store shopping for past early-round draft picks, they haven't done the one big thing this offseason that would most clearly signal a commitment to the future and an acknowledgement of the team's most talented and perhaps highest-potential player.
Solak did not love "the silence on a Parsons extension," he says. "It's tough to complain about anything when you have zero expectations for a team, and then they actually sign a contract or two. The biggest move the Cowboys made -- extending Odighizuwa -- ended up being a team-friendly deal relative to the free agent defensive tackle market. So what is there to complain about?
"Well, it sure would be nice if the Cowboys would just do the obvious thing and hand Parsons a massive extension. He already deserves it, he's going to deserve it even more after this upcoming season, and -- as is always the case in the NFL -- he isn't going to get any cheaper next offseason. Let's just get this done already."
Cowboys fans couldn't agree more. The new coaching staff and a more active approach in free agency is indeed cause for optimism among the faithful. But the baffling lack of progress on signing one of the sport's top talents- who came right out and said he'd prefer to get a deal done early and would even take less to do so- shows that there's still a lot of the same-old, same-old thinking at the very top of the food chain at The Star, the kind of foot-dragging that frustrates playmakers and fans alike... and, predictably in recent years, leaves the team mired in the ranks of the mediocre.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: ESPN: Cowboys' free agency rank doomed by delay in Micah Parsons deal
Continue reading...
Until you take a step back and evaluate everyone, that is.
ESPN analyst Ben Solak has done just that with this year's free agency class, offering up his top-to-bottom rankings of whose offseason process improved their roster. And it wasn't just free-agent acquisitions and losses; Solak factored in trades, extensions, restructures, who overspent, who was too conservative, who addressed the right positions, and who didn't make a move they probably should have.
"Think of these as NFL Power Rankings," Solak says by way of preface, "but only grading the five weeks and ignoring everything that came before."
The Cowboys, as it seems has become custom, sit squarely in the middle of the pack, and actually just a little below the centerline. Solak ranks them 18th leaguewide, well below the top spot occupied by the Buffalo Bills.
Solak starts by saying he loved that the Cowboys participated at all this year, a not-so-subtle shot at the team's bewildering strategy last year, which involved mostly sitting on their hands.
"The Cowboys didn't make any big additions in the free agency period," Solak writes," but they never do. At least they made some small ones this year.
"The Cowboys did what teams should do when they have franchise cornerstones already in hand: They added on the margins with low-risk, high-reward moves. The RB tandem of [Miles] Sanders and [Javonte] Williams shouldn't preclude them from drafting a back early next month, but it does give them enough of a floor that they don't need to chase the position in the first round. The signing of [Dante] Fowler clears the bar for a functional rusher who can take advantage of the havoc created by Micah Parsons from the edge and [Osa] Odighizuwa from the interior."
Those are the positives. But for all of Jerry and Stephen Jones's thrift-store shopping for past early-round draft picks, they haven't done the one big thing this offseason that would most clearly signal a commitment to the future and an acknowledgement of the team's most talented and perhaps highest-potential player.
Solak did not love "the silence on a Parsons extension," he says. "It's tough to complain about anything when you have zero expectations for a team, and then they actually sign a contract or two. The biggest move the Cowboys made -- extending Odighizuwa -- ended up being a team-friendly deal relative to the free agent defensive tackle market. So what is there to complain about?
"Well, it sure would be nice if the Cowboys would just do the obvious thing and hand Parsons a massive extension. He already deserves it, he's going to deserve it even more after this upcoming season, and -- as is always the case in the NFL -- he isn't going to get any cheaper next offseason. Let's just get this done already."
Cowboys fans couldn't agree more. The new coaching staff and a more active approach in free agency is indeed cause for optimism among the faithful. But the baffling lack of progress on signing one of the sport's top talents- who came right out and said he'd prefer to get a deal done early and would even take less to do so- shows that there's still a lot of the same-old, same-old thinking at the very top of the food chain at The Star, the kind of foot-dragging that frustrates playmakers and fans alike... and, predictably in recent years, leaves the team mired in the ranks of the mediocre.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: ESPN: Cowboys' free agency rank doomed by delay in Micah Parsons deal
Continue reading...
