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speedmetal

joined Sep 23, 2009 last login May 30, 2012 posts 7 comments 803

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Ciskowski hints that OL was likely for 2nd round

He implies here that OL would have been the intersection of BPA and need for the second round pick, but that obviously we gave that one up to get Claiborne.

Starts at about 9:30 into the interview.

29 days ago speedmetal 4 comments

I'll take that...

Is it just me or is there something truly comical about this photo? As if he appears out of nowhere, flying into view and plucking the ball out of the air.

29 days ago speedmetal 0 comments

From the Day 3 press conference, 19:41 in.

Garrett isn't taking BPA with no consideration to need. I think he explains his philosophy very lucidly here and we need to absorb this knowledge into our collective consciousness.

"Somebody asked earlier about needs versus taking the best player on your board. I think if we look at this draft, we consistently took the best player or close to the best player on our board. And that - as evaluators - makes you feel good. And the fact that they kind of crossed over with some of our perceived needs is really good for our football team because we’re getting the most quality player in terms of our evaluation. You bring him into the mix and you create competition. We think that’s a real positive for everybody."

(emphasis mine)

Garrett's Philosophy of BPA Versus Need

about 1 month ago speedmetal 1 comment

The full story of the Dallas Cowboys 2010 season. I think everyone will recognize the first part of the season in this scene, but you'll have to watch to the end to understand how this season will turn out.

over 1 year ago speedmetal 2 comments

Depth Charts of the Phillips Era

by speedmetal on Sep 5, 2010 4:21 AM EDT on Blogging The Boys

With the release of the final roster cuts heading into the 2010 season, I thought it would be a good time to look back at what, if any, improvement the Cowboys have achieved in the last four years. So I've made a table of the last four years of depth charts, including this one, and then assigned a simple 1-5 rating to each player for each year's performance.

EDIT: Notes about the ratings:

In all cases where a player went to the Pro Bowl, I chose not to argue with the fans, coaches, and players of the NFL, and assigned the highest rating for that player's season.
For non-starters, the ratings are biased toward skill over performance. For instance, Jon Kitna had zero snaps in 2009, but was still an average QB.
For starters, the ratings are biased toward performance over skill. For instance, Ken Hamlin had a huge dropoff in performance from '07 to '08.
There are a lot of average players in the league. A lot of them aren't starters. If a player outshines a number of other teams' starters at his position, then he is at the very least an above average player.

EDIT: Below are all the changes I've made so far based on your feedback. I'll keep updating this list as you keep convincing me I'm wrong. :)

Michael Hamlin, 2008, 2 (accidentally omitted due to position confusion - I'm going with SS)
Barry Church, 2010, 2 -> 1
Danny McCray, 2010, 2 -> 1
Terrell Owens, 2008, 5 -> 4
Roy E. Williams, 2008, 2 (another accidental omission, mid-season trade)
Roy E. Williams, 2009-2010, 4 -> 3
Dez Bryant, 2010, 4 -> 3
Doug Free, 2009-2010, 3 -> 4
Stephen Hodge, 2009-2010, 2 -> 1
Sean Lee, 2010, 3 -> 2

EDIT: Leave it to OCC to point out some interesting statistics that make the storyline more compelling :) He summed up the stars for each year in a comment below. I'm going to take a slightly different approach in that I'll just sum up the stars for the top 53 guys for each year, including those on IR. This should help make it an apples-to-apples comparison as the number of players that were on our roster at some point varies year to year.