A very good and thoughtful response regarding the departure of your colleagues and friends. Living with a reality where many things can be true at the same time is not easy, but there’s real freedom there once you see it that way.
Kidd never should have been here. He's never been a good HC. Plus, it was a terrible idea to hire him when they did in the wake of the Mavs culture (at the time), especially since he's a bad coach. I'll never understand why he keeps getting chances.
Contrary to narrative Jerry has always given his coaches great input on personnel. The argument can certainly be made that it's too much but also can be made that a chef gets a say in his ingredients.
he thing I find so interesting about the Micah discussion is that the only reason anyone thinks he could also be Fred Warner is because he’s so singularly great as a pass rusher that they can’t help but assume he’d be just as good in a different archetype.
But would you assume that Fred Warner could just pivot and do what Micah and TJ Watt do? I don’t think it would even be close.
We may have fallen victim to the narrative of 'LB's aren't worth high resources so their skills are replaceable' when in reality it's probably the hardest position on the D to play, and it is also highly injury prone, hence why you shouldn't 'waste' the resources on them.
Playing the run vs coverage at LB is probably the singular biggest difference of any position on D.
Maybe I'm getting sucked into the Dan Campbell narrative but I could see them upsetting the 49ers. As much of an absolute GENIUS Shanahan is designing an offense, the dude clams up big time in big spots.
Bob, it’s okay for adults to wear the Jersey of their favorite team. It gets sketchy, though, when the Jersey has their favorite player on it. I’m sorry, but no one thinks you’re Dak or CeeDee when you wear their jersey.
Excellent point about Dallas letting defensive coordinators have too much influence on draft day. We are still behind the curve with DTs from Marinelli’s time. Opponents have known since then that Dallas’s emphasis on small speedy DTs (and now linebackers) means they can be overpowered in the run game. While input from coaching is important, a coach cannot be objective expressing preferences. Marinelli supposedly didn’t value NTs or 1 techniques as much as his sacred 3 techniques and it showed in our drafts as we bypassed quality big men over and over. Do you think any DC would could objectively grade a player that doesn’t fit his pet scheme against a player who did?
Scouts don’t have any of that baggage. They go through their process and rank prospects against a scale. They might not be right all the time but they are objective. All they are thinking about is how the attributes and history of the player place them on that scale. They don’t give a damn that Rod Marinella doesn’t like big DTs.
The best coaches adapt their scheme to their player’s strengths anyway, not the other way around.
Letting Will McClay’s people rack and stack draft prospects using a proven, repeatable process and selecting BPA is the high road to success here. Factoring in stuff like position value is fine, as long as it is done consistently according to process. That same process should allow for objective and unemotional management of the trade process as well. Give McCarthy the best players you can through the draft. It’s his job to create the coaching environment and scheme to make it work.
I believe Parsons prime at DE will be relatively short due to his lack of size. We have already seen that he wears down as the season goes deeper. Probably the hybrid LB/DE position would be best for him and the team all around but as said by many he wants the money from the DE position. Therefore I would let someone else sign him to the mega contract. Additionally, if the team goes south early next season I would trade him for draft picks. For me it's all part of a "this team needs to perform (much) better in the playoffs in 2024 or tear it down and start over" mentality which means no big new contracts. Half measures that pay Prescott/Lamb/Parsons $110 million per season ($50/$30/$30) without demonstrated playoff success are just depressing.
Was LaFluer already on Jerry’s radar or was Aikman the first to suggest it? My recollection was Aikman vouched for him based on a tryout. Hopefully that wasn’t the sole basis for drafting him
A very good and thoughtful response regarding the departure of your colleagues and friends. Living with a reality where many things can be true at the same time is not easy, but there’s real freedom there once you see it that way.
Kidd never should have been here. He's never been a good HC. Plus, it was a terrible idea to hire him when they did in the wake of the Mavs culture (at the time), especially since he's a bad coach. I'll never understand why he keeps getting chances.
Contrary to narrative Jerry has always given his coaches great input on personnel. The argument can certainly be made that it's too much but also can be made that a chef gets a say in his ingredients.
he thing I find so interesting about the Micah discussion is that the only reason anyone thinks he could also be Fred Warner is because he’s so singularly great as a pass rusher that they can’t help but assume he’d be just as good in a different archetype.
But would you assume that Fred Warner could just pivot and do what Micah and TJ Watt do? I don’t think it would even be close.
Agreed, Ross. Both positions require an instinctive feel that you only get with playing time. There’s no substitute for it.
We may have fallen victim to the narrative of 'LB's aren't worth high resources so their skills are replaceable' when in reality it's probably the hardest position on the D to play, and it is also highly injury prone, hence why you shouldn't 'waste' the resources on them.
Playing the run vs coverage at LB is probably the singular biggest difference of any position on D.
I always call it the RB of the defense. A collision position that we can not over-invest in, but also cannot ignore.
Maybe I'm getting sucked into the Dan Campbell narrative but I could see them upsetting the 49ers. As much of an absolute GENIUS Shanahan is designing an offense, the dude clams up big time in big spots.
Bob, it’s okay for adults to wear the Jersey of their favorite team. It gets sketchy, though, when the Jersey has their favorite player on it. I’m sorry, but no one thinks you’re Dak or CeeDee when you wear their jersey.
Excellent point about Dallas letting defensive coordinators have too much influence on draft day. We are still behind the curve with DTs from Marinelli’s time. Opponents have known since then that Dallas’s emphasis on small speedy DTs (and now linebackers) means they can be overpowered in the run game. While input from coaching is important, a coach cannot be objective expressing preferences. Marinelli supposedly didn’t value NTs or 1 techniques as much as his sacred 3 techniques and it showed in our drafts as we bypassed quality big men over and over. Do you think any DC would could objectively grade a player that doesn’t fit his pet scheme against a player who did?
Scouts don’t have any of that baggage. They go through their process and rank prospects against a scale. They might not be right all the time but they are objective. All they are thinking about is how the attributes and history of the player place them on that scale. They don’t give a damn that Rod Marinella doesn’t like big DTs.
The best coaches adapt their scheme to their player’s strengths anyway, not the other way around.
Letting Will McClay’s people rack and stack draft prospects using a proven, repeatable process and selecting BPA is the high road to success here. Factoring in stuff like position value is fine, as long as it is done consistently according to process. That same process should allow for objective and unemotional management of the trade process as well. Give McCarthy the best players you can through the draft. It’s his job to create the coaching environment and scheme to make it work.
I believe Parsons prime at DE will be relatively short due to his lack of size. We have already seen that he wears down as the season goes deeper. Probably the hybrid LB/DE position would be best for him and the team all around but as said by many he wants the money from the DE position. Therefore I would let someone else sign him to the mega contract. Additionally, if the team goes south early next season I would trade him for draft picks. For me it's all part of a "this team needs to perform (much) better in the playoffs in 2024 or tear it down and start over" mentality which means no big new contracts. Half measures that pay Prescott/Lamb/Parsons $110 million per season ($50/$30/$30) without demonstrated playoff success are just depressing.
Kidd has never been a great coach, I don’t know why we thought he could work here. Not to mention the off the court baggage.
I’m curious - who was the bust that Romo wanted us to draft? I know the Aikman one was David LaFleur
Gavin Escobar.
...May God rest his soul.
Ah. I don’t think I ever read about that. Good to know!
https://www.espn.com/blog/dallas/cowboys/post/_/id/4708190/5-wonders-tyler-eifert-sharrif-floyd-and-qbs
Was LaFluer already on Jerry’s radar or was Aikman the first to suggest it? My recollection was Aikman vouched for him based on a tryout. Hopefully that wasn’t the sole basis for drafting him