The Sky is not Falling Thread

It's nauseating how much Dallas gets coverage on sports talk shows among other things.
Al Michaels talking about how great Pickens and Lamb were getting along, and it's all sunshine and rainbows, then this happens...


I hope the Cowboys give him the bag, the whole bag, and he goes full TO on them.
 
This is so very vital--something we struggled for decades to establish under the previous regime.

When I think especially of the emergence of the Lions over the year -- O line, added a QB. then they build it from there.

I have been critical of some of Peters off season work, but I'll give him he did a nice job on the O line and that's a big deal. It's that foundation which makes me very very optimistic about 2026.
 
When I think especially of the emergence of the Lions over the year -- O line, added a QB. then they build it from there.

I have been critical of some of Peters off season work, but I'll give him he did a nice job on the O line and that's a big deal. It's that foundation which makes me very very optimistic about 2026.
They're the best kind of misses, though: low cost, easily disposed. Only Lattimore was a big swing--and even then, it wasn't that big. He hit big on Tunsil, I would be fine bringing Deebo back, but he's been worth it for a fifth rounder. 2024 was a pretty good draft and offseason: Daniels, Sanristil, McCaffery, Magee have all be at least solid picks. TBD on Sinnott and Newton. Luvu, Armstrong, and Biadasz were good signings. I am not ready to put him in Roseman/Snead territory yet, but he's done well. This will be a big offseason for him and the team--he needs to nail it.
 
Al Michaels talking about how great Pickens and Lamb were getting along, and it's all sunshine and rainbows, then this happens...


I hope the Cowboys give him the bag, the whole bag, and he goes full TO on them.

I noticed this as well. There was also a comeback pattern later in the game that he gave zero effort on. Just like any of these me first diva wide receivers, it’s all sunshine and lollipops when things are going good. But the minute things go bad that’s when they turn into big distractions.
 
They're the best kind of misses, though: low cost, easily disposed. Only Lattimore was a big swing--and even then, it wasn't that big. He hit big on Tunsil, I would be fine bringing Deebo back, but he's been worth it for a fifth rounder. 2024 was a pretty good draft and offseason: Daniels, Sanristil, McCaffery, Magee have all be at least solid picks. TBD on Sinnott and Newton. Luvu, Armstrong, and Biadasz were good signings. I am not ready to put him in Roseman/Snead territory yet, but he's done well. This will be a big offseason for him and the team--he needs to nail it.

I don't mind the Lattimore trade, I get it. I didn't love though doubiling down on bringing him back. But it wouldn't shock me if Whitt is half the problem with him.

My 2 issues with Peters: WR depth. He left that spot vulnerable and big time so. Not being more aggressive in FA -- especially at edge.

From Standig, agent survey before the season.

What did you make of how the Commanders handled their offseason coming after an NFC Championship game appearance?

  • “Give them credit for staying focused on rebuilding the roster, but why not be more aggressive with the QB on a rookie deal when you might already be the second-best NFC team? At the very least, they should have filled in some gaps or replaced a few older players. Instead, they have tons of 2026 free agents, meaning in your third year, you're still filling too many holes.”
 
WR depth. He left that spot vulnerable and big time so. Not being more aggressive in FA -- especially at edge.
Looking back though, the 2025 free agency class has been less than impressive. The big FAs: Sweat and Williams have played well, so maybe swing for them. But I recall Dayo Odeyingbo was a highly sought after FA, and he has been underwhelming with the Bears. IIRC, Osa Odighizuwa was a target, but he resigned with Dallas before FA started? Malcom Koonce has been less than stellar with the Raiders. I wouldn't have minded Slayton from the Giants.

Overall, I think there were a lot of mistakes this past free agency. Who did you have your eye on?
 
Looking back though, the 2025 free agency class has been less than impressive. The big FAs: Sweat and Williams have played well, so maybe swing for them. But I recall Dayo Odeyingbo was a highly sought after FA, and he has been underwhelming with the Bears. IIRC, Osa Odighizuwa was a target, but he resigned with Dallas before FA started? Malcom Koonce has been less than stellar with the Raiders. I wouldn't have minded Slayton from the Giants.

Overall, I think there were a lot of mistakes this past free agency. Who did you have your eye on?

Slayton, Sweat, Milton Williams, Moherig, B. Murphy, Clowney.

It's not so much them not signing players I wanted but its about them not taking edge or WR that seriously. WR in particular. The depth at outside WR was worse from 2024 let alone improved. There wasn't a sense of urgency about outside WR. Trusting Noah Brown to be the Z with no net behind him felt absurd at the time and looks even worse now.

I'll forgive it as long as he learned his lesson and I'd be shocked if he didn't.
 
FTR, I've wanted Clowney since he was in college. (And played for Spurrier....native Gator here, born the year he won the trophy.)
 
Maybe it was unrealistic, but I figure the hope was that at least one of McCaffrey and Lane would emerge as the backup. I don't think that's necessarily a bad roll of the dice. The point of drafting pups is so that they can eventually step up.

Deebo, McLaurin, and Brown is a pretty solid top three. McCaffrey and Lane should have been good enough to be a four or five and you'd hope one of them would step up to be able to assume the three.
 
Maybe it was unrealistic, but I figure the hope was that at least one of McCaffrey and Lane would emerge as the backup. I don't think that's necessarily a bad roll of the dice. The point of drafting pups is so that they can eventually step up.

Deebo, McLaurin, and Brown is a pretty solid top three. McCaffrey and Lane should have been good enough to be a four or five and you'd hope one of them would step up to be able to assume the three.
Yeah that wasn't unrealistic at all. Solid thought but it felt like the assumption of AP or DQ or both was that they would easily slide into the 4th and 5th slots and they were not worried about WR6 which was a big mistake. They needed another competent WR3 that could extend the field
 
Maybe it was unrealistic, but I figure the hope was that at least one of McCaffrey and Lane would emerge as the backup. I don't think that's necessarily a bad roll of the dice. The point of drafting pups is so that they can eventually step up.

Deebo, McLaurin, and Brown is a pretty solid top three. McCaffrey and Lane should have been good enough to be a four or five and you'd hope one of them would step up to be able to assume the three.

McCaffrey played slot in college and mostly ditto so far in the pros. Lane ditto. There were no natural outside WR backups who were decent. Keim in a podcast said they were hoping it would be Gallup or Moore or Osborn. But they were wrong on it, simple as that and it was a big swing and miss. I give Peters an out for his lack of ambition at edge this off season because the method to the madness had some logic to it. But having Noah Brown, oft-injured as your Z, with no net behind him, ditto no legit backup for Terry, felt ill conceived to me at the time -- and it looks much worse now.

Forgot which reporter said to defend why Chris Moore continued to play X with Terry out is they heard from a source with the team he was the only backup on the team they trusted to run the correct routes at that spot. Yuck. And poor planning from Peters.
 
Somehow, we have to find a way to beat Dallas. **** the rest of the games. Just beat Dallas. It's a Christmas Day game. Thursday. 1 PM. At home. Figure it out. That's all I ask. Just win. Thank you.
 
No way do I want to see these geezers come back in 2026.

In fact I want to see Payne and Lattimore gone, although the ACL for Lattimore may have already made that decision for itself.

If anything this 3-10 team heading to a top 10 pick is a golden opportunity to START building this thing the right way.

Yes, you can go out and get the Tunsil type player when they are available to fill a critical spot, but a rebuilding team needs to otherwise concentrate on the draft, UDFAs and staying away from 30/31 year old players (or older) who are holding on for one more NFL paycheck.

What this season has shown is today's game with the 17 game schedule and more limited offseason contact work is leading to guys going down more and more, and as we have seen in 2025 the number of 30 year old guys who have gone down here is remarkable.

It's a young man's game. This isn't 1972 any longer when George Allen can put together a roster of 30 year old players and go to the Super Bowl and be a winner for 5-6 years.

Not with the cap, not with the expanded schedule and size of the players in today's game which make the collisions more violent and bigger players putting more stress on knees, ankles, etc. leading to more ACLs and other serious injuries.
 
Last edited:
Tom Schad had an interesting point on Keim's podcast--despite the injuries, we're essentially three plays away from being .500: fumble vs. the Bears, missed FGs vs. the Dolphins, and the 2 pt. conversion vs. the Broncos. Yes, the losses were ugly, but still, I don't think we're are a 3-win team--just insanely injured and unlucky, plus Joe Whitt.

Can we stop with this sort of denial and excuse making now?

We were relatively healthy this week. We weren’t playing a difficult opponent. We just suck.
 
I'm going to double down on it now.

I really wasn’t singling you out, it was just a recent example of this sort of false hope, plenty more like it in this thread.

I’m just so tired of losing and pretending like it’s fine. I got my hopes up last season, as I have many times before, but I think I’m finally done doing that.
 
In 2024, Peters made a bet out of necessity that he could wring out one more productive year out of a bunch of gray beards. Pretty much all his gambles hit. All the players Peters signed that were generally mocked as hasbeens and washed-up worked out. Wagner, Ertz, and Ekeler proved themselves a significant part of the Championship run. So in 2025, Peters decided to roll the dice again. This time, a bunch of his one year gambles failed either because they just couldn't produce well enough or because they wound up injured.

I think even a bigger factor than that though was that in 2024, everyone was hungry and wanted to prove themselves. 2024 was a team far better than the sum of its parts. Players like OZ and so many others outperformed their career averages and expectations. In 2025, teams were signing here to be a part of something great. I won't say they weren't hungry, but this team never had the edge that last year's team did. For example, Von Miller came here because he thought it gave him a good chance to play in a Super Bowl. He came to be part of something great not to become something great.
 
Can we stop with this sort of denial and excuse making now?

We were relatively healthy this week. We weren’t playing a difficult opponent. We just suck.
Let me push back a little.

We were relatively healthy on offense. On defense, we're still a mess. What's worse is that we began this year as a mess.

Regardless, your point that this offense was what the coaches and GM envisioned is fair. And today, they SUCKED. They had a decent opening drive and that was more or less it.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.

    You haven't joined any rooms.
    Top