Sunday, September 19, 2010

Why Jerry Jones Will Never Win a Super Bowl With Jerry Jones as GM

Moments after the Minnesota Vikings caused the Dallas Cowboys 2009 season to come to a crashing halt over eight months ago, I made the following proclamation:
So I'm just going to make the following prediction:

This team will miss the playoffs next season and Wade will get fired.
It was predicated on the loss of draft picks from the ill-advised Roy Williams deal back in 2008. I knew back then that the offensive line wasn't up to snuff on that day. And this was with Marc Colombo and Kyle Kosier in the lineup.

And because of the free agent signing rules from last offseason, the Cowboys were hamstrung from being able to find a quality O-linemen.

So a unit that was collectively on the wrong side of 30 got no help. The 2nd most penalized player in the last five years, Flozell Adams, was let go. And the Cowboys acquired the most penalized player in the last five years, Alex Barron, but only to serve as a backup. Of course, Colombo and Kosier got hurt during training camp, forcing Barron into the lineup for the opener last Sunday night.

And when the Cowboys left him to basically fend for himself against Brian Orakpo...

You all know what happened.

And while I'm not going to bemoan the decision to draft Dez Bryant with the 24th pick last April, I will bemoan the lack of picks that have contributed to the Cowboys severe lack of depth. Not to mention, Dallas is starting to reap what it sowed in previous drafts by not being able to find offensive linemen.

To be sure, the Cowboys probably would have found themselves in this situation moreso for the latter reason than the former. It still takes time to develop offensive linemen in this league.

But that trade exhibited to me why Jerry Jones has no business being this team's general manager.

And after today's game, I expressed the following on Twitter:
Said it before, but it bears repeating. The #cowboys will not sniff another Super Bowl in Jerry Jones' lifetime.
Certainly not a lukewarm opinion. Anyway, I got taken to task for it by Adam McClosky, who fired back:
Is Nolan Ryan running off Daniels and Washington by meddling? Also, I wouldn't want a coach who thinks he doesn't answer to GM
I fired off something about Jerry doing Entourage this year and not having played at the pro level, like Nolan has. In retrospect, the Entourage thing was probably a bit of a cheap shot.

That having been said as it applies to my issues with the Roy Williams trade, Nolan Ryan certainly has input on personnel and drafting decisions. But he's been totally supportive of Jon Daniels and his draft philosophy ever since he stepped into his current role as President of the club. A philosophy that includes drafting as many quality arms as possible to use to either develop within the Rangers farm system, or to use as pieces in a trade.

Without that philosophy and the commitment to it, the Rangers wouldn't have Cliff Lee.

Now, this is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison when you consider the financial restraints that were put on JD by the mess known as HSG. And even under new ownership, it's not like Greenburg/Ryan is instantly going to shoot the payroll up over $100 million and eschew Daniels' philosophy.

Still, even if Nolan Ryan was given permission to push the Rangers payroll up to Yankee-like levels, do you think he'd eschew the current philosophy in favor of signing "flashy" players, like Jerry Jones is prone to do?

I think not.

And whether Jerry wants to admit it, most of the guys on the Cowboys roster were "Parcells" guys. At least in terms of the draft where Demarcus Ware, Tony Romo, Marion Barber, and Jason Witten were taken while Big Bill was here.

That is why I don't think the Cowboys will sniff another Super Bowl in Jerry Jones' lifetime. Or at least until he's physically incapable of performing the duties of the position any longer.

Because it's never too early to talk OU-Texas

Afterall, it's only 13 days away.

And after having watched both teams mosey out to 3-0 starts, I think I can say this much about what to expect October 2nd at the Cotton Bowl.

Expect a close, but unmemorable game. That's because unlike most of the games in this decade, this game probably won't have national title implications on it.

Oklahoma's struggled against Utah State, destroyed Florida State and the attempt by the WWL to hype up the Heisman candidacy of Christian Ponder, and followed that up with a disjointed 27-24 win over Air Force in which they had to depend on a few first downs from their offense late to secure the win.

Texas also has three wins under their belt. But like Oklahoma, you can't point to any one of the wins and necessarily say it was a solid effort. I'm sure any orange blood would be the first to point out to me that any win in the Big 12 South on the road is a good win.

I'd be inclined to point out that aside from the game clinching nine minute drive in the fourth quarter last night, the Horns offense was sloppy. Garrett Gilbert alone had three interceptions in the first quarter alone. One of which was returned 88 yards to get the Techsans back in the game.

About the only consistent thing either team has going for them is Texas' defense. When Mack Brown decides to hang up the headset (and for those who get tired head from all his pointless whining about stupid crap, it'll be a great day), rest assured that Texas won't miss a beat when Will Muschamp takes over.

His defenses are as feared as Mike Stoops' defenses were when he was Oklahoma's defensive coordinator in the early 00's. And it was a third quarter interception by his group that helped turn the tide last night against Tommy Tuberville's Red Raiders squad.

As much as I hate Texas, that might be the difference between these two teams come October 2nd.

Monday, September 13, 2010

It's Been Awhile Since I've Blogged

Primarily because my wife and I welcomed our second child into our world on March 17th, one Mr. Joseph Kenneth.

I'm not a big drinker myself due to family history. But I can scarcely think of what a child of partial Irish heritage would love more than to have their birthday on St. Patrick's Day.

He's so going to thank us in about 20 years, six months, and two weeks. Give or take a few days.

Anyway, he's settled in, and now that I've got another, ahem, machine that gets around my company's firewall, you'll probably see more blogging from moi.