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Not Exactly Worry-Free
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
NUEVO VALLARTA, Mexico - Hola amigos, buenos dias, from nearly 1,000 miles removed from the NFL lockout and feels more like a million miles away. You know, out of sight ...
But certainly not that far removed from the Dallas Cowboys, who are alive and well in this coastal region lined to the west by Bahia de Banderas and the rest by the Pacific Ocean thanks to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders back for like the fifth time using Riviera Nayarit and Puerto Vallarta as the backdrop for the annual swimsuit calendar and one-hour TV show.
Save the jokes. The sarcasm, too. I've heard it all by now, unless of course you just have to amuse yourselves. Knock yourselves out. The hours really are long, and hey, look, the bugs were biting Wednesday morning at Chico's Paradise, where our driver, Pancho, came back with the best fish tacos for breakfast you've ever tasted from his secret location. We didn't ask. We just ate.
Anyway, I see where little to no headway over the past week has been made cleaning up the labor unrest in the NFL, where the courts seem to be taking center stage and the locked out players continue to make me chuckle with these cries of all they want to do is practice in the offseason while they had been negotiating to shorten the offseason workouts. Wonder if they are also excused from these self-organized team workouts for "personal reasons" as they are for OTAs and minicamps?
Please.
What they really want is for those roster bonuses and deferred signing bonus due the beginning of the league year to be paid. Otherwise, the day the lockout is lifted, they had better have used up every one of those "personal" excuses for missing offseason workouts.
But enough of that, the sun shines too brightly here and the waves crash along the northern beaches too loudly to worry your mind over such random silliness. Although I must admit while waiting to conduct interviews the other day this did occur to me:
Is anyone still worried over the Cowboys defensive line?
Like, I continue to read how the Cowboys must worry over what's going to happen at safety since the position wasn't addressed in the draft, and they do. And the same concerns continue to be raised about the cornerback position that I'm not convinced has deteriorated as badly as most perceive.
And there also seems to be a lot of consternation following last weekend's draft over the running back position, about who is going to stay and who is going to go now that the Cowboys spent a third-round draft choice on DeMarco Murray, and also just who should start and get all the carries. However this turns out will be sufficient enough as long as the Cowboys can protect and keep Tony Romo upright and from overly ad-libbing while trying to operate in the pocket.
Agree?
So I pick up where I left off the Friday before the three-day draft that yielded the Cowboys eight players with nary a trade made, totaling six offensive additions (three linemen) and two defensive players:
What about defensive end, now classified as TBA: To Be Addressed?
Well, later certainly has become relative since we are not sure - yet - just when the league year will begin, which means just when free agency and the trading period begins. Because those will be the Cowboys' only two avenues for restocking a position that already should be classified as sorely lacking off last year's performances.
Primarily we're talking about:
Marcus Spears, who finished the season on IR. He's an unrestricted free agent by whatever system is put back in place, meaning the previous one of needing four years to reach free-agent status or last year's uncapped one needing six years of service to become a free agent. Spears has his six in.
Stephen Bowen, who ended up starting last season with Spears out. He just finished his fifth year. So Bowen is either an unrestricted free agent under the previous CBA capped rules or a restricted free agent already with a qualifying offer if uncapped rules are in place this season.
Jason Hatcher, involved in the defensive end rotation this past season once again. He's the same as Bowen, unrestricted under capped rules and restricted under uncapped rules.
Igor Olshansky, who has started on the right side for two years with the Cowboys. He's got two years left on a four-year deal but certainly did not play to the same level last season as he did in 2009.
Sean Lissemore, and really, who knows about last year's seventh-round pick. He was injured in training camp and has played only enough to make two career tackles.
That's all there is to speak of, unless of course you like the idea of moving two-time Pro Bowl nose tackle Jay Ratliff to end, and sure doesn't seem like new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan thinks that's a good idea.
So as you can see, if the Cowboys were simply content on keeping their own, operating in 2011 under last year's uncapped rules would be beneficial. Bowen and Hatcher would still be restricted free agents. But if the CBA gets knocked out, and the unrestricted free agency requirements revert back to the previous CBA rules, Spears, Bowen and Hatcher would be unrestricted. Hoo boy! And it's almost as if the Cowboys need a new CBA agreed to as late as possible, limiting the amount of time to implement new rules and forcing the league to simply say, "OK, 2011 is uncapped, too."
Otherwise you'd need a starting quality 3-4 defensive end, and depending on Olshansky's evaluation, maybe two if you can sign any of your unrestricted defensive ends. Maybe they can. Maybe they have a little brother-in-law deal in the works with Bowen and/or Hatcher. Who really knows.
If not, there really isn't much in free agency that would get you all excited, meaning moving Ratliff to defensive end might become a necessity more than a luxury if you can't re-sign two of those three guys.
But as I've said previously, if you just need to worry, worry most about defensive end. Because if the Cowboys don't do a better job of stopping the run, if they don't do an appreciably better job of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks, it will matter not who is playing safety or who is playing cornerback. Or who the defensive coordinator is. We'll be talking bride's toast more times than not, even if it's no more than David Garrard in the pocket.
And that's why I advocated selecting a defensive end in the first round, though not knowing the Cowboys had Tyron Smith on their board ranked much higher than the best 3-4 defensive ends (J.J. Watt and Cameron Jordan). After the first round, there really wasn't a quality 3-4 DE worth taking, other than to fill space, which as COO Stephen Jones said would have precluded signing a defensive end in free agency ... if possible.
So there, go ahead and worry, and I'll join you in a couple of days.
My worry-free week is nearly up.
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
NUEVO VALLARTA, Mexico - Hola amigos, buenos dias, from nearly 1,000 miles removed from the NFL lockout and feels more like a million miles away. You know, out of sight ...
But certainly not that far removed from the Dallas Cowboys, who are alive and well in this coastal region lined to the west by Bahia de Banderas and the rest by the Pacific Ocean thanks to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders back for like the fifth time using Riviera Nayarit and Puerto Vallarta as the backdrop for the annual swimsuit calendar and one-hour TV show.
Save the jokes. The sarcasm, too. I've heard it all by now, unless of course you just have to amuse yourselves. Knock yourselves out. The hours really are long, and hey, look, the bugs were biting Wednesday morning at Chico's Paradise, where our driver, Pancho, came back with the best fish tacos for breakfast you've ever tasted from his secret location. We didn't ask. We just ate.
Anyway, I see where little to no headway over the past week has been made cleaning up the labor unrest in the NFL, where the courts seem to be taking center stage and the locked out players continue to make me chuckle with these cries of all they want to do is practice in the offseason while they had been negotiating to shorten the offseason workouts. Wonder if they are also excused from these self-organized team workouts for "personal reasons" as they are for OTAs and minicamps?
Please.
What they really want is for those roster bonuses and deferred signing bonus due the beginning of the league year to be paid. Otherwise, the day the lockout is lifted, they had better have used up every one of those "personal" excuses for missing offseason workouts.
But enough of that, the sun shines too brightly here and the waves crash along the northern beaches too loudly to worry your mind over such random silliness. Although I must admit while waiting to conduct interviews the other day this did occur to me:
Is anyone still worried over the Cowboys defensive line?
Like, I continue to read how the Cowboys must worry over what's going to happen at safety since the position wasn't addressed in the draft, and they do. And the same concerns continue to be raised about the cornerback position that I'm not convinced has deteriorated as badly as most perceive.
And there also seems to be a lot of consternation following last weekend's draft over the running back position, about who is going to stay and who is going to go now that the Cowboys spent a third-round draft choice on DeMarco Murray, and also just who should start and get all the carries. However this turns out will be sufficient enough as long as the Cowboys can protect and keep Tony Romo upright and from overly ad-libbing while trying to operate in the pocket.
Agree?
So I pick up where I left off the Friday before the three-day draft that yielded the Cowboys eight players with nary a trade made, totaling six offensive additions (three linemen) and two defensive players:
What about defensive end, now classified as TBA: To Be Addressed?
Well, later certainly has become relative since we are not sure - yet - just when the league year will begin, which means just when free agency and the trading period begins. Because those will be the Cowboys' only two avenues for restocking a position that already should be classified as sorely lacking off last year's performances.
Primarily we're talking about:
Marcus Spears, who finished the season on IR. He's an unrestricted free agent by whatever system is put back in place, meaning the previous one of needing four years to reach free-agent status or last year's uncapped one needing six years of service to become a free agent. Spears has his six in.
Stephen Bowen, who ended up starting last season with Spears out. He just finished his fifth year. So Bowen is either an unrestricted free agent under the previous CBA capped rules or a restricted free agent already with a qualifying offer if uncapped rules are in place this season.
Jason Hatcher, involved in the defensive end rotation this past season once again. He's the same as Bowen, unrestricted under capped rules and restricted under uncapped rules.
Igor Olshansky, who has started on the right side for two years with the Cowboys. He's got two years left on a four-year deal but certainly did not play to the same level last season as he did in 2009.
Sean Lissemore, and really, who knows about last year's seventh-round pick. He was injured in training camp and has played only enough to make two career tackles.
That's all there is to speak of, unless of course you like the idea of moving two-time Pro Bowl nose tackle Jay Ratliff to end, and sure doesn't seem like new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan thinks that's a good idea.
So as you can see, if the Cowboys were simply content on keeping their own, operating in 2011 under last year's uncapped rules would be beneficial. Bowen and Hatcher would still be restricted free agents. But if the CBA gets knocked out, and the unrestricted free agency requirements revert back to the previous CBA rules, Spears, Bowen and Hatcher would be unrestricted. Hoo boy! And it's almost as if the Cowboys need a new CBA agreed to as late as possible, limiting the amount of time to implement new rules and forcing the league to simply say, "OK, 2011 is uncapped, too."
Otherwise you'd need a starting quality 3-4 defensive end, and depending on Olshansky's evaluation, maybe two if you can sign any of your unrestricted defensive ends. Maybe they can. Maybe they have a little brother-in-law deal in the works with Bowen and/or Hatcher. Who really knows.
If not, there really isn't much in free agency that would get you all excited, meaning moving Ratliff to defensive end might become a necessity more than a luxury if you can't re-sign two of those three guys.
But as I've said previously, if you just need to worry, worry most about defensive end. Because if the Cowboys don't do a better job of stopping the run, if they don't do an appreciably better job of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks, it will matter not who is playing safety or who is playing cornerback. Or who the defensive coordinator is. We'll be talking bride's toast more times than not, even if it's no more than David Garrard in the pocket.
And that's why I advocated selecting a defensive end in the first round, though not knowing the Cowboys had Tyron Smith on their board ranked much higher than the best 3-4 defensive ends (J.J. Watt and Cameron Jordan). After the first round, there really wasn't a quality 3-4 DE worth taking, other than to fill space, which as COO Stephen Jones said would have precluded signing a defensive end in free agency ... if possible.
So there, go ahead and worry, and I'll join you in a couple of days.
My worry-free week is nearly up.
