I’m excited for the 1st time in many off-seasons. Are they doing everything I would have wanted? No !
I would have preferred Bobby Wagner over LVE, I would have much more preferred Hopkins over Cooks too.
But they improved by keeping LVE vs having to shop for another LB (other than Wagner). LVE knows the game, knows what Dan Quinn wants out of the middle LB position, and although he doesn’t bring Wagner type violence to his tackles he played well in 2022 especially toward the end of the season. (hope this wasn’t a contract year "fluke")
Hopkins is just a bigger, better talent than Cooks although Cooks is no slouch.
But other moves by the FO have been very positive. Restructuring several positions pretty much locks known talents to the Cowboys for several seasons (Tank Lawrence, Prescott, Zack Martin). These moves retain important talent. They had money to resign Donovan Wilson who I consider a stud (6th rounder BTW). They went out and got Stephon Gilmore and solidified the CB position which is a big upgrade (I think).
Schultz obviously didn’t want to come back to Dallas looking at what was offered to him and what he took. We’ll be OK at TE though.
Big thing is the FO is attempting to improve the talent and mold the character of the team and not committing franchise suicide in the process.
On Dak. He has consistently been considered a top 10 QB by many. And even a top 5. He did regress this year (turnovers) but I wonder if that wasn’t poor coaching to some extent because he has not historically thrown a lot of int’s. He has even led the League in fewest int’s. At the end of the season I was hugely disappointed in his play and for a good reason but I think good coaching he can correct this int. issue. He has had a fumbling problem several seasons back and corrected that. I’m hopeful for improvement in his int problem. And I think he can QB the team far into the playoffs but do agree that he has held us back with selective poor games. I’m still hopeful for him as a Cowboy (note: I didn’t feel this way during or after the SF game but I do now after getting my emotions in check). Over-emotion is a killah.
As far as the FO and Dak are concerned. The $40M/year contract bites but as several have said many times that is the NFL QB market. Hell, the NYGiants just signed Daniel Jones to a $40M contract. I doubt many folks think DJ is on the same level or as good as Dak. Dak has led Dallas to the playoffs 4 of his 7 years. He is not terrible but he just isn’t the QB to put the team on his shoulders and carry them but IMO there is only one of those and he is in KC. All these "great" Qb’s in the NFL have proven they also have feet of clay (A. Rogers, J. Allen, Russell Wilson, Matt Stafford, and Justin Herbert). All are good to very good and half of them I would take over Prescott but what have they really done? Stafford was terrible this year, A. Rog who some argue is the best QB ever has only 1 SB appearance (won it) and never been back and choked in the crunch time to get to a second. Josh Allen showed he needed an excellent surrounding cast to excel. Russell Wilson fell off a Rocky Mountain cliff.
We can win with Dak if the pieces are in place. Coach him to correct some things, get this OL up to snuff, maintain a strong D, Keep the skill positions strong. Now, all this is an every teams formula but it doesn’t prevent us from using the same formula. Just do it better.
I’m enthusiastic y’all !
Go Cowboys.
