Davis contract terms; Gramatica could sign by Monday

$50 mil better be a 5 year for $30 mil and $10 mil each for the last 2 years (which will never happen).

There was not much to choose from out there and Davis at least wants to be here. Now announce Colombo signing so Davis can at least play guard.

This is $100,000 more than Eric Steinbach received. One-upmanship anyone?

That the skins are trying to sign Luke Petitgout not as a LT but as a replacement for LG Dockery. Pretty funny if he costs them more than Davis.

They also make the comment that Davis now makes four O-line players (and none a LT) (Davis, Steinbach, Dielman and Dockery) signing for huge money and none have ever been to the Pro Bowl. We better hope Davis makes it for the next 5 years.

has resurfaced and signed with Denver Broncos! Hope their cap includes a good injury settlement reserve.

So in Jerry's first offseason without Parcells around, he does this?  Here I am trying to convince myself that Jerry has learned and evolved as an owner during the Parcells Era and in one fell swoop I am back to being ridiculously afraid of the offseason because of fears of Jerry putting us into Salary Cap Hell.

I know some have pointed out that the salary cap is going up, but that doesn't mean you can spend indiscriminately (as Grizz explains).  I thought that the whole advantage to signing Davis was that he would be a BARGAIN compared to the other guard options.  The ONLY way this makes sense is if Davis grades out as a better guard than the guys that were being mentioned as the best guards in free agency.  This seems doubtful to me because switching positions (yes, he's had some experience at guard, but not a lot) almost certainly requires a strong work ethic, one of Davis' noteable weak points.

I was not completely against the idea of Davis mainly because I thought he would be a cheap alternative that filled in one of the Cowboys' last holes so that they could take the best player available in the draft (assuming you sign Colombo).  But this contract is just TERRIBLE.  A seven year deal to a 29 year old?  I realize we're talking NFL contract here, but since when is it a good idea to sign guys to contracts where you hope they're productive for half of it!?  Does anyone really expect Mr. Underacheiver to be a quality guard in 4 years at age 33?  And then 7 million a year?  Again, this 7 million/year isn't the same as Flozell's 6 million/year because of the difference in cap when the two contracts were signed (2007 vs 2003), but it's still gets back to this idea of how much you are willing to pay for average players.  

Finally, I would like to point out that this is an effect of the Cowboys inability to consistently think ahead and develop their own O-linemen.  I understand that much of Parcells time here was spent trying to quickly fill as many holes as possible and that in that time Pettiti, Gurode and Johnson were added to Flo as O-linemen we developed.  You could add Colombo to the list as well I suppose, even though that's more scouting than developing.   That still means that about half of the O-line has to be brought in through free agency.  Also, it should be pointed out how differently the Cowboys build an O-line compared to how the elite teams like the Chargers, Colts, or Patriots build an O-line.  Do you realize that San Diego had a rookie LT in addition to a rookie QB (with a couple years of bench time) on their way to the league's best record?  And that they drafted him with the 50th overall pick?  I understand that this is the ideal and that picks don't always work out, but shouldn't this be the model?  And are we not in a place that we can try to implement this model?  All we had to do is resign Colombo and then draft an OG with one of the first two picks.

The Texas Rangers have said that their goal is to develop one new pitcher a year so that they're not held hostage in free agency (it hasn't worked, so they've had to overspend in free agency).  Unless you get a singular talent at a position, shouldn't that be the goal for the O-Line as well?  That way you always have some form of continuity AND depth.  This means you can use your growing cap space to re-sign your own guys who you know a lot about and occasionally playmakers (for example: Adalius Thomas with the Pats, Keyshawn Johnson with the Panthers last year, maybe Drew Brees with NO, even someone like TO).