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Spagnola: Better Today Than Yesterday?
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
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IRVING, Texas - And by the 11th day of free agency, a 32-team NFL scavenger hunt for the unemployed that began on March 13, the Dallas Cowboys are resting.
For now.
They have already signed seven unrestricted free agents, re-signed one of their own restricted free agents they chose not to tender, franchised one player and tendered two other exclusive rights free agents. The seven already represents the most unrestricted free agents the Cowboys have ever signed since the start of free agency as we know it today in 1994, one more than they did in 2003 and 2006.
So this record haul that might not be complete yet begs the question as the Cowboys brass are making their way to Palm Beach, Fla., for next week's NFL meetings:
Are the Cowboys better today than they were at the conclusion of that most disappointing 8-8 season of last year?
Ummm ... I ... think ... so.
Right?
Don't let quantity pass for quality. This is exactly how, when asked this very same question at the beginning of the week, I answered, with hesitation and reservation.
Look, my guess is cornerback Brandon Carr, just 25 years old but already having started 64 of the 64 games he's played in the league, is an upgrade over the way veteran Terence Newman was playing the final month of the 2011 season. For $26.5 million guaranteed, you darn well better hope so.
My guess is quarterback Kyle Orton will be an upgrade over 39-year-old Jon Kitna, whose balky back landed him on injured reserve by season's end and likely convinced him to retire. Orton is but 30, and has way more experience and skins on the wall than Stephen McGee heading into his fourth season.
And the Cowboys certainly believe Lawrence Vickers (28), a cap casualty in Houston, is a knock-your-socks-off blocking fullback, more so than even Tony Fiammetta was last year. He comes to Dallas on a two-year contract, and with none of the inner ear or concussion issues the Cowboys had to deal with last season.
But after that, if you look at the contracts of the other signed free agents and how they were structured, well, meh.
The Cowboys merely plugged holes with insurance policies, albeit younger insurance policies than if they had kept their own. None of the other four guys signed – guards Nate Livings and Mackenzy Barnadeau, safety Brodney Pool and linebacker Dan Connor – would be considered long-term blocks of granite as would Carr.
The guards, while they very well may both start, aren't necessarily locked in. Is either better than a healthy Kyle Kosier, recently released, having been let go more for deteriorating health issues than talent? Well, they are younger than the 33-year-old Kosier, Bernadeau, 26, and Livings, 30. Better than what you had by season's end, Montrae Holland or Derrick Dockery? Younger again, but significantly better? We'll be the judge of that.
Neither, remember, was a priority to be re-signed by their former teams; it's not as if the Cowboys had to engage in a bidding war with either Carolina or Cincinnati to win their services.
To me, they are insurance policies against the likes of Bill Nagy, David Arkin or Kevin Kowalski not being ready to start and flourish this season instead of being instant long-term solutions. Maybe a couple of guys who can bide the Cowboys' time until those young guys come of age. And certainly signing the two doesn't preclude the Cowboys selecting a guard/center in the draft if a can't-resist guy is there at the right spot.
See, while Livings' contract is advertised as five years, $18.5 million, his signing bonus is $3.5 million, with base salaries of $1 million and $1.7 million the first two years – essentially adding up to his $6.2 million guarantee. So to me, he was signed to a two-year deal, with like $12.75 million stuffed into the final three years of the deal. If the Cowboys were to cut Livings after two seasons, the cap cost would be a doable $2.1 million.
Bernadeau is basically in the same boat on a four-year, $11 million deal. To go along with his $3.25 million signing bonus, he has base salaries of $1 million and $1.75 million. He's younger. Just 26. So the Cowboys can bet on the come line here. But if he craps out, then really, he's not an expensive erasure.
Now then Pool. Definitely a hole-plugger. Just a one-year deal and just a $100,000 signing bonus. Why, if the Cowboys want to draft a safety, go right ahead, this contract certainly isn't stopping them from doing so. While Pool (27) is advertised as a better cover guy, one with more range as a free safety than Abe Elam, he's going to have to prove he's a keeper. Again, no progress-stopper.
And that brings us to Conner, maybe best described – so far – as a poor man's Keith Brooking, and definitely younger, Conner just 26 while Brooking is on his way toward 37. Connor, a quality inside linebacker whose four-year career has been marred by two seasons of serious injuries, is insurance against last year's second-round pick Bruce Carter not being ready to step in as the other inside starter alongside Sean Lee.
His contract, two years, $6.5 million with a $2.7 million signing bonus, buys Carter time after basically missing all of last offseason and training camp rehabbing the torn ACL he suffered his senior year at North Carolina, along with missing the first eight weeks of the season while on the non-football injury list. So say Connor fills the gap for just one year. Paying $3.5 million for a starting-quality linebacker isn't exactly outrageous. And if he's all that, the Cowboys would have him for 2013 for a mere $3 million base. Sort of like term insurance.
As you can see, with the exception of the $26.5 million guaranteed Carr and the $5 million signing bonus given Orton, these other guys fill gaps going into the draft. Now the Cowboys do not have to reach to simply fill a significant void at a particular position. When you start reaching in the draft, normally you end up getting your hand slapped by the draft gods.
So have the Cowboys significantly improved?
Plus remember, even if the Carr-Orton-Vickers triumvirate is the upgrade everyone envisions, the loss of third receiver Laurent Robinson and backup tight end Martellus Bennett has left significant holes at those two positions, ones that must be plugged now in the ensuing days of free agency or in the draft. Just don't believe the Cowboys have a slam dunk on hand to assume either role.
John Phillips is a nice piece to the team puzzle, but ask yourself: What would happen if Jason Witten goes down? Yeah, I know Bennett never really lived up to his second-round draft status, but at least he showed some flashes in the passing game. Phillips is what he is, a nice third tight end with limited on-the-line blocking capability.
That's why the Cowboys were chasing Kellen Davis, who ended up re-signing with the Bears.
And now on to – stop me when you last heard this need – third wide receiver. Yep, again. Same time, next year. Sure the Cowboys have some younger guys who might emerge – Dwayne Harris, Andre Holmes, Raymond Radway, Teddy Williams – but none is a sure thing. I mean those four guys have yet to make their first NFL reception. Third receiver, OK, maybe. But what happens if Miles Austin or Dez Bryant go down? You trusting any of those guys to start?
Yep, the Cowboys indeed re-signed Kevin Ogletree. But he's just an inexpensive insurance policy. The Cowboys didn't even bother tendering him as a minimum exclusive rights free agent ($1.26 million), instead figuring they could save cap space by letting him go free and then signing him to a one-year, fourth-year minimum of $650,000.
Who knows, maybe another Robinson godsend will descend upon them again at the beginning of this season, too. But if it were me, sure wouldn't count on such serendipitous occurrences two straight years.
If the Cowboys don't get a strike on either of these two lines still in the water, these positions certainly could become at least mid-round draft priorities. And so far they have done nothing to fill their greatest need:
Someone new to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks, which just has to be at this point the first-round bull's eye of the draft.
Now then, when looking at what's taken place less than two weeks into free agency, weigh the additions and weigh the subtractions. What you get?
Better?
Well ... somewhat.
Spagnola: Better Today Than Yesterday?
Mickey Spagnola
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
IRVING, Texas - And by the 11th day of free agency, a 32-team NFL scavenger hunt for the unemployed that began on March 13, the Dallas Cowboys are resting.
For now.
They have already signed seven unrestricted free agents, re-signed one of their own restricted free agents they chose not to tender, franchised one player and tendered two other exclusive rights free agents. The seven already represents the most unrestricted free agents the Cowboys have ever signed since the start of free agency as we know it today in 1994, one more than they did in 2003 and 2006.
So this record haul that might not be complete yet begs the question as the Cowboys brass are making their way to Palm Beach, Fla., for next week's NFL meetings:
Are the Cowboys better today than they were at the conclusion of that most disappointing 8-8 season of last year?
Ummm ... I ... think ... so.
Right?
Don't let quantity pass for quality. This is exactly how, when asked this very same question at the beginning of the week, I answered, with hesitation and reservation.
Look, my guess is cornerback Brandon Carr, just 25 years old but already having started 64 of the 64 games he's played in the league, is an upgrade over the way veteran Terence Newman was playing the final month of the 2011 season. For $26.5 million guaranteed, you darn well better hope so.
My guess is quarterback Kyle Orton will be an upgrade over 39-year-old Jon Kitna, whose balky back landed him on injured reserve by season's end and likely convinced him to retire. Orton is but 30, and has way more experience and skins on the wall than Stephen McGee heading into his fourth season.
And the Cowboys certainly believe Lawrence Vickers (28), a cap casualty in Houston, is a knock-your-socks-off blocking fullback, more so than even Tony Fiammetta was last year. He comes to Dallas on a two-year contract, and with none of the inner ear or concussion issues the Cowboys had to deal with last season.
But after that, if you look at the contracts of the other signed free agents and how they were structured, well, meh.
The Cowboys merely plugged holes with insurance policies, albeit younger insurance policies than if they had kept their own. None of the other four guys signed – guards Nate Livings and Mackenzy Barnadeau, safety Brodney Pool and linebacker Dan Connor – would be considered long-term blocks of granite as would Carr.
The guards, while they very well may both start, aren't necessarily locked in. Is either better than a healthy Kyle Kosier, recently released, having been let go more for deteriorating health issues than talent? Well, they are younger than the 33-year-old Kosier, Bernadeau, 26, and Livings, 30. Better than what you had by season's end, Montrae Holland or Derrick Dockery? Younger again, but significantly better? We'll be the judge of that.
Neither, remember, was a priority to be re-signed by their former teams; it's not as if the Cowboys had to engage in a bidding war with either Carolina or Cincinnati to win their services.
To me, they are insurance policies against the likes of Bill Nagy, David Arkin or Kevin Kowalski not being ready to start and flourish this season instead of being instant long-term solutions. Maybe a couple of guys who can bide the Cowboys' time until those young guys come of age. And certainly signing the two doesn't preclude the Cowboys selecting a guard/center in the draft if a can't-resist guy is there at the right spot.
See, while Livings' contract is advertised as five years, $18.5 million, his signing bonus is $3.5 million, with base salaries of $1 million and $1.7 million the first two years – essentially adding up to his $6.2 million guarantee. So to me, he was signed to a two-year deal, with like $12.75 million stuffed into the final three years of the deal. If the Cowboys were to cut Livings after two seasons, the cap cost would be a doable $2.1 million.
Bernadeau is basically in the same boat on a four-year, $11 million deal. To go along with his $3.25 million signing bonus, he has base salaries of $1 million and $1.75 million. He's younger. Just 26. So the Cowboys can bet on the come line here. But if he craps out, then really, he's not an expensive erasure.
Now then Pool. Definitely a hole-plugger. Just a one-year deal and just a $100,000 signing bonus. Why, if the Cowboys want to draft a safety, go right ahead, this contract certainly isn't stopping them from doing so. While Pool (27) is advertised as a better cover guy, one with more range as a free safety than Abe Elam, he's going to have to prove he's a keeper. Again, no progress-stopper.
And that brings us to Conner, maybe best described – so far – as a poor man's Keith Brooking, and definitely younger, Conner just 26 while Brooking is on his way toward 37. Connor, a quality inside linebacker whose four-year career has been marred by two seasons of serious injuries, is insurance against last year's second-round pick Bruce Carter not being ready to step in as the other inside starter alongside Sean Lee.
His contract, two years, $6.5 million with a $2.7 million signing bonus, buys Carter time after basically missing all of last offseason and training camp rehabbing the torn ACL he suffered his senior year at North Carolina, along with missing the first eight weeks of the season while on the non-football injury list. So say Connor fills the gap for just one year. Paying $3.5 million for a starting-quality linebacker isn't exactly outrageous. And if he's all that, the Cowboys would have him for 2013 for a mere $3 million base. Sort of like term insurance.
As you can see, with the exception of the $26.5 million guaranteed Carr and the $5 million signing bonus given Orton, these other guys fill gaps going into the draft. Now the Cowboys do not have to reach to simply fill a significant void at a particular position. When you start reaching in the draft, normally you end up getting your hand slapped by the draft gods.
So have the Cowboys significantly improved?
Plus remember, even if the Carr-Orton-Vickers triumvirate is the upgrade everyone envisions, the loss of third receiver Laurent Robinson and backup tight end Martellus Bennett has left significant holes at those two positions, ones that must be plugged now in the ensuing days of free agency or in the draft. Just don't believe the Cowboys have a slam dunk on hand to assume either role.
John Phillips is a nice piece to the team puzzle, but ask yourself: What would happen if Jason Witten goes down? Yeah, I know Bennett never really lived up to his second-round draft status, but at least he showed some flashes in the passing game. Phillips is what he is, a nice third tight end with limited on-the-line blocking capability.
That's why the Cowboys were chasing Kellen Davis, who ended up re-signing with the Bears.
And now on to – stop me when you last heard this need – third wide receiver. Yep, again. Same time, next year. Sure the Cowboys have some younger guys who might emerge – Dwayne Harris, Andre Holmes, Raymond Radway, Teddy Williams – but none is a sure thing. I mean those four guys have yet to make their first NFL reception. Third receiver, OK, maybe. But what happens if Miles Austin or Dez Bryant go down? You trusting any of those guys to start?
Yep, the Cowboys indeed re-signed Kevin Ogletree. But he's just an inexpensive insurance policy. The Cowboys didn't even bother tendering him as a minimum exclusive rights free agent ($1.26 million), instead figuring they could save cap space by letting him go free and then signing him to a one-year, fourth-year minimum of $650,000.
Who knows, maybe another Robinson godsend will descend upon them again at the beginning of this season, too. But if it were me, sure wouldn't count on such serendipitous occurrences two straight years.
If the Cowboys don't get a strike on either of these two lines still in the water, these positions certainly could become at least mid-round draft priorities. And so far they have done nothing to fill their greatest need:
Someone new to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks, which just has to be at this point the first-round bull's eye of the draft.
Now then, when looking at what's taken place less than two weeks into free agency, weigh the additions and weigh the subtractions. What you get?
Better?
Well ... somewhat.
