Tag: Tanking

Jerry Jones backs playing younger Cowboys: ‘Overall in the best interest of the team’

The Dallas owner weighed the pros and cons of putting inexperienced players on the field during what has become a lost cause of a season.

“This is a time to sharpen your pencil.”

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones spoke to 105.3 The Fan on Friday about using the team’s Week 10 bye as an opportunity for the organization to do some self-examination, some hardcore evaluation. Of everything.

Just past the halfway mark in what has become a train wreck of a season, though, it’s the other end of that pencil that’s been getting a heavy-duty workout.

While Dallas is still mathematically alive for a postseason berth, cold hard reality says it’s time to erase those playoff dreams and start scribbling out a plan for how to keep the high draft pick the team is currently in line for… and what to do with it come April.

Cowboys Wire has broached the topic of backdoor tanking. They’re not trying to lose games, per se. But, as managing editor K.D. Drummond put it in this week’s podcast, “Maybe the Cowboys aren’t doing everything that they can in order to win these games out there.”

For the back half of the season, that could mean increased playing time for lesser-known commodities up and down the Dallas roster. In addition to protecting the team’s bona fide superstars from needless injury when the season’s fate is more or less sealed, it gives the younger players valuable in-game experience.

Jones confirmed that this has already been happening out of sheer necessity throughout the first nine games of 2020. And it’s a good thing.

“What you’re seeing is real, legitimate, positive confidence and enthusiasm. It happens with young players. And you’re seeing that,” Jones said on-air. “These young offensive linemen, those reps… I just can’t tell you how precious and how important they are for our future. And these reps that players like [Terence] Steele are getting or [Tyler] Biadasz… these guys, especially in these fronts, are getting reps that will pay off for us next time we go to the field.”

Jones isn’t ready to go too crazy and shelve key players outright. For example, he stressed that he doesn’t believe Ezekiel Elliott’s sizable (and expensive) workload should be diminished simply as a way to give more touches to backup Tony Pollard.

But the bye does provide a natural break during which the coaching staff may look at other players who could benefit from being pressed into service. In our look at at ten changes the Cowboys should make during the off week, Cowboys Wire spotlights guys like defensive end Bradlee Anae, linebacker Francis Bernard, newly-reacquired defensive end Ron’Dell Carter, linebacker Luke Gifford, and rookie cornerback Reggie Robinson.

Robinson’s name came up during Jones’s radio interview, as the sudden loss of Trevon Diggs would sure seem to provide an obvious chance to get the highly-touted Robinson his first NFL action… and give the coaches a chance to see exactly what they have in the fourth-round pick.

“Sure, that’s what the loss of Diggs- the spot, the number coming available- that’s what it does to you. And you play those guys, and those guys all of a sudden are just better for having played the game,” Jones explained.

Jones intimated that coaches are often- rightfully- so locked in on winning the game in front of them that younger players can be overlooked. But from his vantage point in a season that’s ultimately going nowhere, the savvy businessman seems open to using the remaining games on the schedule as live-fire tests for a few of his other lower-dollar investments.

“Why it doesn’t happen is because usually you think that a situation is just not worthy of the mistakes that a young guy makes. So you go to the experience side. It’s overall in the best interest of the team to play the inexperience, overall. But you want the inexperience to not screw it up.”

Upping the playing time for the inexperienced members of the Cowboys roster is, at this point, a win-win scenario… even though it means the team and its fans will likely be staring down the barrel of additional losses. The sad truth is, they probably are anyway, no matter what.

Maybe it’s the bye week and the short break it provides from the neverending win-right-now grind of the season. Maybe the pause has allowed Jones and the front office to step back and see the 2020 campaign for the lost cause it has become. Whatever the impetus, there may suddenly be an underground youth movement afoot in Dallas. And the 78-year-old team owner may be the one leading the charge.

“We’re really being encouraged how many of these younger players- let’s say players that weren’t necessarily getting the reps early for whatever reason; injury or just where they were in the pecking order- they’re getting more play time. And it’s all over our roster, whether it be the offensive or defensive line, secondary, all over,” Jones said. “This time does call for us to really emphasize our direction, our attention, our focus on getting those guys on the field and getting them prepared. Our coaches will take this time to get that done.”

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CowboysWire Podcast: Is the franchise embracing the backdoor tank in 2020?

Does everything smell right to you? The Dallas Cowboys players are trying their best. Guys like Jaylon Smith and Xavier Woods may not be putting their best foot forward on the film (or one foot in front of the other for that matter) but we know they …

Does everything smell right to you?

The Dallas Cowboys players are trying their best. Guys like Jaylon Smith and Xavier Woods may not be putting their best foot forward on the film (or one foot in front of the other for that matter) but we know they aren’t tanking. What about the coaching staff and front office? In the latest episode, we look into the words of the front office and the action of the coaching staff and wonder if their intentions are still to put the best product on the field for the remainder of the 2020 season.

Pull up a chair and listen as K.D. Drummond and Ryan O’Leary talk the Week 9 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Garrett Gilbert’s Cowboys debut and where the club goes from here.

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However, after seven straight losing …

However, after seven straight losing seasons, owner James Dolan wants victories. That’s why David Fizdale was fired so quickly after a 4-18 start. Tanking was not an option and Rose wants to prove his mettle and show free agents the Garden’s winning culture has been restored. That’s why Thibodeau is here and Kenny Atkinson became an also-ran.

Tank for Trevor Lawrence in 2020? Bears fans and experts debate

The Bears are in win-now mode. But would they be better off trying to tank for next year’s NFL Draft prize in Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence?

Chicago Bears fans know the pain and agony of not having a true franchise quarterback all too well. In the team’s 100 year history, not a single player has thrown for 4,000 yards or scored 30 touchdowns, milestones that become more pedestrian by the year.

The Bears took another stab at solving its continued conundrum this offseason, trading for the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback and Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles in hopes of pushing, and possibly supplanting, starter Mitchell Trubisky following a disappointing 2019 season.

The trade, along with other free agent acquisitions such as tight end Jimmy Graham and edge rusher Robert Quinn, prove the team is in win-now mode. But would they be better off trying to tank for next year’s prize in the 2021 NFL Draft, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence?

Lawrence, the sensational sophomore quarterback, led the Tigers to a National Championship over the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2018-19 and became the talk of college football. The 6′ 6″ 220-pound passer was tabbed as the likely first overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft two years out and will be the focus of many teams when college football returns this fall.

But when it comes to the Bears, are they in position to land Lawrence? The question became a hot topic this past weekend and many experts and fans had an opinion on the matter.

To start, Ben Brown of Pro Football Focus (PFF) recently published an article detailing which teams should consider tanking for the college phenom this season. The Bears were fourth on their list, and PFF made the case for why they are in good position to potentially land Lawrence:

Nick Foles immediately emerges as the odds-on favorite to win the starting quarterback position for the Bears after being traded from Jacksonville. Foles had the perfect contract to take on, as it contained a guaranteed salary in 2020 with only a $5 million roster bonus thereafter, according to OverTheCap.com.

This gives the Bears the opportunity to evaluate Nick Foles, and if he plays well, the Bears could keep him for two more seasons. If he doesn’t play anywhere near the 2018 Super Bowl MVP level he has flashed, the Bears can move on from him and hopefully be in a position to draft (Justin) Fields or Lawrence in 2021.

Brown argues the Bears could easily move on from Foles if this season doesn’t work out for a small penalty and hopefully be in a position to land Lawrence or another highly-touted college quarterback such as Ohio State’s Justin Fields. Trubisky, meanwhile, could also come off the books depending on how the team decides to handle his fifth-year option.

PFF made their case for the tank while one Bears writer gave fans two options on the matter. NBC Sports Chicago’s Bryan Perez created a “would you rather” scenario regarding Lawrence, asking if fans would rather see an 11-5 season culminate in a loss in the NFC Championship game with Nick Foles, or see them go 3-13 and land Lawrence in 2021.

The results, as expected were mixed.

While having a player such as Lawrence don the navy and orange in 2021 would be a pleasant sight to see, I would still opt for the first scenario. The Bears have made the playoffs five times in 20 years, winning only three playoff games. To have the team finish in the NFL’s final four would be worth celebrating, even if it means not winning a Super Bowl. The Bears would still be set up for success and the core of the team would remain the same.

Stumbling to a 3-13 record, while it would land Lawrence, would create another set of problems. A new coaching staff, possibly jettisoning key players and bringing in a whole new regime for the third time in a decade for a player who appears to be the real deal, but isn’t guaranteed to have success in the NFL. One player, even a quarterback, cannot save a franchise if the other pillars are constantly being rebuilt. Teams who don’t have stability usually don’t have success.

The argument on whether or not to tank for a highly-touted quarterback is always an interesting one and is here to stay. But given the Bears current pieces, they’re in win-now mode and should do what it takes to rise to the top. Even if that means trying to catch lightning in a bottle at the quarterback position for yet another year.

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Acting Knicks president Scott Perry is …

Acting Knicks president Scott Perry is “in agreement’’ with Miller’s policies against a full-out tank. Miller declined to say if he’s spoken to incoming president Leon Rose, who has not been named officially. “I talk to Scott every day,’’ Miller said. “We talk about personnel, we talk about player development, we talk about everything. Multiple times, sometimes. We are in agreement, as we go through this, that we are high level trying to develop players. And as we do that, the approach that we’re taking is that their minutes are quality minutes. They’re bringing value to the team when they’re out there. We think that’s helping them develop and moving them forward.”

Barring an end-of-season collapse, OKC …

Barring an end-of-season collapse, OKC should make the playoffs. But that doesn’t mean it’s looking for an addition to carry it deeper into the postseason. Nor is the Thunder entering tanking season. “What we want to do is be playing meaningful basketball at the end of the year,” Thunder general manager Sam Presti said back in September. “We want to try to do everything we can to put ourselves in position to optimize the group that we have, and there’s just no shortcuts to that.”