2014 NFL Off-Season: Draft, Free Agents, etc.

[alby]

I think Clowney just won himself the #1 pick.

4.47??? are you kidding? Goodness.

[mcsluggo]

can you imagine JJ Watt and Clowney on the same line? that would be awe inspiring

[alby]

Originally Posted by mcsluggo

can you imagine JJ Watt and Clowney on the same line? that would be awe inspiring

Yeah. Ridiculous.

I think J.J. would keep him accountable too (on and off the field)... Good thing Houston will probably succumb to fan pressure and draft either Manziel or Bridgewater.

[Jack.Kerr]

Originally Posted by alby

Yeah. Ridiculous.

I think J.J. would keep him accountable too (on and off the field)... Good thing Houston will probably succumb to fan pressure and draft either Manziel or Bridgewater.

You may be right, but they passed on hometown hero VY for DL Mario Williams, didn't they? Different GM now, I suppose.

And though VY turned out to have doubters (myself among them), he looked like a better bet than Manziel does.

[alby]

Originally Posted by Jack.Kerr

You may be right, but they passed on hometown hero VY for DL Mario Williams, didn't they? Different GM now, I suppose.

And though VY turned out to have doubters (myself among them), he looked like a better bet than Manziel does.

True, but I think that situation had a lot to do with money. With the way rookie contracts are currently constructed, teams don't have to worry about giving an unproven kid 80 million (Bradford) anymore.

VY > Manziel, no doubt.

[DirkFTW]

What the what...

Goodbye Ware.
Good riddance Austin.

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by DirkFTW

What the what...

Goodbye Ware.
Good riddance Austin.

I get why they dumped Ware, but I still don't like it - he was easily my favorite Cowboy since Charles Haley... One of the least-classy teams in the NFL just lost one of their classiest players.

[Underdog]

Miles Austin, on the other hand, has been stealing money ever since he inked his contract.

[DirkFTW]

Originally Posted by Underdog

I get why they dumped Ware, but I still don't like it - he was easily my favorite Cowboy since Charles Haley... One of the least-classy teams in the NFL just lost one of their classiest players.

No kidding... maybe we can bring him back down the road so he can officially retire a Cowboy.

[Underdog]

Beware of DMW

For all of their endless salary-cap restructuring, it was inevitable that the Dallas Cowboys would end up losing a number of key contributors to the insipid largesse of Jerry Jones. While the Cowboys furiously tried to fight that off for another year with a series of moves this past month, their broken cap plan finally came back to bite them on Tuesday. The Cowboys let valuable defensive tackle Jason Hatcher hit the market and will reportedly release Miles Austin, but they just couldn’t clear out enough space to retain star pass-rusher DeMarcus Ware, whom the Cowboys waived Tuesday. Rumors later suggested the Broncos were the favorites to land Ware, who would play defensive end and rush the passer across from Von Miller in a terrifying one-two punch for Denver.

In a way, Dallas’s inability to keep Ware reminds me how destructive a lot of the contracts we saw on Tuesday can be in terms of a team’s planning. You never want to cut a player as talented and productive as Ware; it’s a blessing when you draft and develop a player of his caliber, and while there’s always eventually going to be a time when you move on from a player, it shouldn’t be when he is 31. The problem, of course, is that Jones can’t help himself from locking up mid-tier player after mid-tier player, creating deals that ruined Dallas’s salary cap and forced it to sacrifice Ware in order to field a 53-man team next year. The Cowboys didn’t cut Ware because they thought they could spend their money better elsewhere. They cut Ware because they already misjudged Roy Williams, Gerald Sensabaugh, Jay Ratliff, and Ken Hamlin, and the dead money from those deals created cap emergencies that forced the Cowboys to pay for their mistakes at some point in the future. This is the beginning of the future. And while we don’t know who will fail in their new digs yet, a number of teams in this league will have to move on from true superstars in the future because of the mistakes they made in overpaying players today.

Denver is a logical landing point for Ware, especially when you consider the reports of Jared Allen threatening to retire if Denver doesn’t improve its offer to him. If they’re truly all in, it would behoove the Broncos to sign both Allen and Ware, not just one of them. There are a dozen other teams for which it would make some level of sense to sign Ware and that could financially pull off the move, but there are four that stand out. The Colts, Eagles, Jets, and Packers all play in the 3-4, Ware’s preferred alignment, have the cap space and the roster spot open for Ware to step in as a starter, and are competitive enough for Ware to justify signing with them. Ware is unlikely to get the four years and $52 million he had left on his Dallas deal before the Cowboys released him, but the 31-year-old is still young enough to justify one more serious payday.

Dallas, meanwhile, can rest easy knowing it has kicker Dan Bailey locked up through 2020. The more things change …

http://grantland.com/features/free-agent-frenzy/


Ware to Broncos: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10...0-million-deal

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Cowboys did dump their classiest player. He never bitched and complained about the lolerdz that is the FO. And he had every right to...

Eh well, Cowboys were 16th in local tv ratings this past season. Getting rid of Ware should keep those ratings going in the wrong direction.

[alby]

It was a move that had to be done. Hurts to see him go, but we have to look towards the future as well as do what's best for the team in the present.

Remember, we let guys like Emmitt, Troy, etc. go as well.

[DirkFTW]

Manziel @ 16. I can smell it.

[DirkFTW]

Here we go..............

[DirkFTW]

Nooooooo

[Underdog]

Looks like keeping Romo healthy is more of a priority.

[sike]

welp. not going to blame Jerry when he doesn't take the sexy pick.

[DirkFTW]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Looks like keeping Romo healthy is more of a priority.

That's no fun. Think of all the drama we missed out on!

And how awesome would it have been to have TWO scrambling quarterbacks??? We could have done a 2QB-3TE set that would have confused all 22 players on the field! Throw in some laterals and a flea flicker, and the cameramen would be so lost.

[DirkFTW]

So close... Manziel was the highest rated player on the Cowboys draft board when they were picking.

Jerry ignored the board.

[Jack.Kerr]

Zero Longhorns taken in the draft.

Edit: Also, three Aggies taken in the 1st round.

Says a lot, as does the fact that no one here has even mentioned it.

[DirkFTW]

Yea, not great. Surprised about Jeffcoat though since he seems like someone worth taking a late-round flyer on at least.

[jay3189]

I really hope my Steelers can make the playoffs this year ,or Mike Tomlin will be on the hot seat. The fact that the Steelers miss the playoffs back to back seasons in 2012 and 2013 was very rare for this franchise. If they miss it again in 2014, that would be HORRIBLE. We got very young with our defense, our linebackers are looking nice with Ryan Shazier, Lawrence Timmons, Jason Worilds, Jarvis Jones, Chris Carter, Vince Williams, and Arthur Moats, we got younger with our safety spot by replacing Ryan Clark with Mike Mitchell. Our problems on defense for the past 2 seasons was not enough big plays, we were not as good up front as in years pass, even tho interceptions is not everything, we need more turnovers to give our offense more possessions, our offense we need to take advantage of our big plays down field, there were times we had a clear advantage on deep routes for TD's, but the ball was either over thrown or dropped, and Will Johnson has to catch the ball better, he had alot of drops on wide open plays last season