Paying the price

by Dave Halprin on Mar 6, 2007 9:47 AM CST in News Comment 35 comments

Today's lesson is all about the penalties you pay for poor drafting. Both JJT and Mickey Spags addressed the subject in their latest articles. In fact, it's almost like they collaborated on the central theme. Here's JJT:

Three years ago, the Cowboys made two of their worst draft choices in the past decade, when they took tackle Jacob Rogers in the second round and guard Stephen Peterman in the third.

Each was the definition of a bust. Jerry Jones is still paying for those wretched selections Bill Parcells encouraged him to make.

Literally.

Nice swipe at Parcells, JJT. Let it go. Anyway, here's Spags:

You know who he's talking about. The Cowboys took a swing and a miss on 2004 second-round pick Jacob Rogers. They took a swing and a miss on 2004 third-round pick Stephen Peterman. And this is the result of making first-day misses in the draft:

You pay for your mistakes in free agency. Generally, you overpay, a sort of double jeopardy for missing badly on the first day of the draft. That's the penalty.

As JJT and Spags noted, when you whiff in the draft, you end up overpaying for it. But when you whiff in free agency, you end overpaying on your overpayment, unless you rebuild and decide to wait for your draft classes to come of age. And to the benefit or detriment of the Cowboys, depending on your point of view, Jerry Jones is not one to rebuild.

In a way, free agency is like a draft that closes out the year. There are fewer players available, usually it's not the cream of the crop, and they cost a lot more. But you do get the added benefit of having watched them actually play in the NFL, you can't say you're taking them on potential. When you pay that kind of money, you better be sure. Lately, the Cowboys haven't been sure, and they have whiffed on quite a few, like Marco Rivera and Jason Fabini.

It's not just the money you pay these guys, because with the new salary cap, the Cowboys aren't paying the price this year of their contracts - we have plenty of room under the cap to make moves. But we do pay the price in developing other talent or making other moves because we believe these guys will do the job. Part of the reason we needed to sign Leonard Davis is because of Rivera's play. The Cowboys organization is being kind by saying its Rivera's back that's the issue, but it's really his play. So we had two positions on the line in flux with Marc Colombo in limbo, and Davis was picked to cover one of those two spots. If Rivera had worked out or had we made a better move in free agency that year we might've been able to just concentrate on Colombo once free agency began.

Really, it all comes back to one thing, evaluating talent. Seeing the talent or understanding the talent is there and just needs to be coached up, that is the true genius. Let's hope Jerry Jones slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

0 recs | Comment 35 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

As Hemingway would tell Jerry:

"I had been getting some fun for nothing. That only delayed the presentation of the bill. The bill always came. That was one of the swell things you could count on." (The Sun Also Rises)

by jsdoty on Mar 6, 2007 9:55 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Hemingway

Hmmm... He sounds familiar. Didn't he get cut from the Cardinals too?

by dunkman on Mar 6, 2007 10:05 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Nah, football was too weak for Hemingway

Something was only a "sport" if the participant risked death (bullfighting) or killed something else (fishing & hunting). Otherwise it was merely a "game."

by jsdoty on Mar 6, 2007 10:17 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

i thought his quote was:

"there are only 4 sports: bullfighting, boxing, mountain climbing and auto racing, the rest are just games"

might be wrong though

by 325424 on Mar 6, 2007 10:20 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

oops

lifted from a website:

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."

This is one in a long list of quotations mysteriously attributed to Ernest Hemingway. While the general public seem to agree that this is in fact a Hemingway quotation, scholars have some reservations and for good reason. The early Hemingway did not believe that bullfighting was a sport. For him it was a tragedy. See his October 20, 1923 article titled "Bullfighting A Tragedy" reprinted in By-Line: Ernest Hemingway Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades edited by William White. Hemingway reiterates his beliefs regarding the tragedy of bullfighting in his 1932 book, Death in the Afternoon.

In July of 2006, Gerald Roush, a visitor to Timeless Hemingway, provided a possible source for the "three sports" quotation. He cited a story titled "Blood Sport" by Ken Purdy, which originally appeared in the July 27, 1957 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. The story is reprinted in Ken Purdy's Book of Automobiles (1972). Gerald was kind enough to send a scan of where the quotation appeared and I was able to read it for myself: " 'There are three sports,' she remembered Helmut Ovden saying. 'Bullfighting, motor racing, mountain climbing. All the rest are recreations.' " Gerald informed me that the character of Helmut Ovden is modelled after Ernest Hemingway. This could explain why the quote has been so widely attributed to Hemingway over the years. I still believe, however, that Hemingway never made the remark

by 325424 on Mar 6, 2007 10:24 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

interesting

I was just misremembering from Death in the Afternoon, which I read about nine years ago.

I'm guessing that the problem for Hemingway scholars regarding all of his quotes is that for the last quarter of his life he was a raging alcoholic with serious paranoia issues. He thought the FBI was after him...and I think they were, but I also think they have dossiers on basically every public person in the 50s.

To wit: my favorite Hemingway paranoia story is that when he and his son drove through Mississippi (in the 50s I think) and stayed in a motel, Hemingway stayed up all night with a shotgun poise, just in case Faulkner sent "his goons" to rub him out. I guess being a famous writer was a dangerous sport too!

by jsdoty on Mar 6, 2007 10:40 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

hilarious

i am a huge faulkner fan and the image is laughable
he was about 4 foot 2.
and not sober as much as hemingway

by 325424 on Mar 6, 2007 10:47 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah I know, really absurd

Have you seen the Coen bros. movie Barton Fink? The dad from Fraiser plays a spot-on Faulkner. Really funny.

by jsdoty on Mar 6, 2007 10:54 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

no

I will have to watch it

by 325424 on Mar 6, 2007 11:15 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I love it

Does it say something about BTB that we can actually host a Hemmingway/Faulkner discussion in the middle of free agency?

For the purposes of free agency, let's go with pop novelist extra extraordinaire Stephen King, as interpreted in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Ellis "Red" Redding, portrayed by Morgan Freeeman, said "I'm known to locate certain things from time to time." OK, Red, how about locating us a right tackle and a free safety. While you're at it, throw in a backup NT. You can charge your usual 20% markup.

If you're reading this, you could be commenting, too. Sign up for a free account on Blogging The Boys.

by Dave Halprin on Mar 6, 2007 11:26 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The Shawshank Redemption

My all time favorite movie, a classic!!

by Deke on Mar 6, 2007 11:48 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Does anyone else find it ironic that

Deke's all-time favorite movie is about HOPE and OPTIMISM?

by jsdoty on Mar 6, 2007 12:10 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

LMAO

Now that's funny!

by APerfectStar on Mar 6, 2007 2:01 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Mine is "Tommy Boy"

Anyone remember, "fat guy in a little coat..."

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" - Ric Flair

by kcbrett5 on Mar 6, 2007 2:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Unfortunately, our FA haul

fits Forrest Gump more than Shawshank. If L. Davis is not like a box of chocolates, I don't know what is.

by jsdoty on Mar 6, 2007 12:10 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think

it speaks to three things:
(1) Huge diversity of posters
(2) The positively glacial pace of Cowboys' signings
(3) Another snow day in jsdoty's adopted Iowa prairie home

by dunkman on Mar 6, 2007 12:17 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I f***ing hate Iowa.

by jsdoty on Mar 6, 2007 12:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

This

is not exactly shocking. But there's a certain karma to geography. If Iowa and North Dakota didn't suck so bad, you couldn't have exquisitely awesome places like Hawaii. Some place had to take a bullet for the rest of us, much like Keith Davis does for the Dallas general population.

Thanks Iowa!

by dunkman on Mar 6, 2007 12:30 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Iowa

Leading the nation in meth production since 2003.
I think it's on the back of the new state quarters.

by APerfectStar on Mar 6, 2007 2:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

money quote from JJT article

"So why would Arizona let a player like that go?

The simple answer: They're the Cardinals. After all, they've gotten rid of quality players like Simeon Rice, Aeneas Williams and Thomas Jones - not to mention Jay Novacek - in the past."

Yeah, if Davis turns out to be as good as those players, I'll be happy.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Mar 6, 2007 9:59 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

They ask

as if no one has said. If you read the quotes (and between the lines) from Arizona's coaching staff, they essentially said he was too expensive for the level of his play. And the level of his play is related to being the guy protecting the QB's blind side. He would have been fine on the other side.

by dunkman on Mar 6, 2007 10:06 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Simeon Rice quote after escaping Arizona

"The Arizona Cardinals are the armpit of the NFL."

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" - Ric Flair

by kcbrett5 on Mar 6, 2007 10:31 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL

Great one.

by APerfectStar on Mar 6, 2007 2:05 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Interesting take Grizz

You essentially took the analysis a level deeper than the "professional" media. Can't wait to see what your DMN FA Contract offer is going to look like...

The points they missed that you hit on are:
(1) FA cost more because the probability of performing at the desired level is much higher than through the draft. You pay more for a known (or semi-known) quantity.

(2) Talent evaluation is the issue, and it's not a science composed of stats and records. The players are human and the factors influencing performance are qualitative and complex.

I think Parcells deserves great credit for turning around the scouting process, and Ireland has given the organization a better ability to assess talent.

by dunkman on Mar 6, 2007 10:00 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Spags Q&A on signing a FS

Here's a Q&A from the Spage column:

>Will the Cowboys look at Ken Hamlin, Deon Grant, or Mike Doss? The free safety position has been one of if not their biggest defensive problem each of the past four years. Why not go out and get a pretty good one when they are available? Would they prefer a safety in the draft?

Mickey: That's still a possibility. But when asked Monday about going after one of the top free-agent safeties, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the Cowboys won't be paying a $10 million signing bonus for a free safety. He said the club still is high on the two young guys they have, Patrick Watkins and Abram Elam. He said if they picked up a veteran safety, it might be later in free agency when the prices come down. And as for Hamlin and Doss, aren't those guys a poor man's Roy Williams? They are guys who must play in the box more than centerfield. And I'll say it one more time, the problem at safety might not be the free safety, it just might be the strong safety has to improve his reads when playing in zone coverage.

by Cowboys81 on Mar 6, 2007 10:27 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Exactly

I am clueless why everyone, people I know and people on other cowboys boards, are so down on Pat Watkins. He didn't give up any big plays and had 3 ints in the last half of the season.

Could someone explain to me why people think we need a FS? I'm being serious I need enlightenment cuz I don't see why Pat Watkins isn't our guy.

Burt-D

by Burt D on Mar 6, 2007 2:09 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Rogers and Peterman were killed by injuries

Now, you might have predicted an injury with Rogers as he was beat up in college but still he played through them.

Peterman, tore up his knee and never got healthy after that.

If a player never makes it because of an injury is it a bust or is it bad luck.

Do you consider Yatil Green a bust? and fault the Dolphins for drafting him?

and yes, I just made a Yatil Green reference.

by bob maplethorpe on Mar 6, 2007 11:59 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

It's still a bust

We didn't get jack squat out of those guys and wasted a 2nd and a 3rd. It's too bad they were injured, but it doesn't change the outcome.

by APerfectStar on Mar 6, 2007 2:14 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I dunno

I'm sorta with Maple on this one. "Bust" has a negative connotation. Wait. Strike that. "Bust" CAN have a negative connotation when referring to draft picks. Better.

The implication is "bad choice" not "bad luck". Rogers and Peterman were either bad luck or disappointments but not necessarily bad choices.

by dunkman on Mar 6, 2007 2:26 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

no Tom is right

a player can be considered a bust whether it be never living up to expectations or being a china doll. Ki Jana Carter from Penn State comes to mind. Since day one he suffered horrendous injuries and never was the same. I still consider him to be a bust.

In Romo we Trust

by Terry on Mar 6, 2007 2:33 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

This is hilarious

Deke accidentally signed as Terry.

I guess it's just another ill-defined term we hear in the sports media...

by dunkman on Mar 6, 2007 2:36 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

ROTFL. Stop it, you're killin me...

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" - Ric Flair

by kcbrett5 on Mar 6, 2007 2:51 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

we should create different levels of bust

Ryan Leaf...played and played terrible...very big bust.

Akili Smith---big bust

so take Bryant Westbrook... a pretty good player until he blew out his achilles...was that a busted pick then?

Robert Edwards?

both of our guys got hurt before they had a chance to take the field during the regular season.

If you were the owner do you go to your head scout and yell at him for the picks or fire him?

by bob maplethorpe on Mar 6, 2007 3:01 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

It's a bust from the teams standpoint

Anytime you spend a high pick on a draft choice that never plays a game for you. Some busts are due to injury, some are due to player attitude and off field problems, some guys just can't beat out the guy in front of them on the roster.

I'm saying it doesn't matter the reason, if they don't play then its a bust for the team.

Rogers was BP's pick, other people said forget him, too injury prone, but BP overrode them and he turned out to be wrong. In that case fire nobody.
Peterman wasn't anything great, we probably took him to high in the draft and then he suffers a knee injury (or whatever the injury was) in that case the scouting dept. gets yelled at due to frustration, but no one gets fired.

Someone out west takes Maurice Clarrett in the late 3rd round, the player never makes it to starting day with the team, he is cut , and eventually arrested for armed robbery, now somewhere in jail on multiple weapons charges.
Now THAT guy should be fired.

by APerfectStar on Mar 6, 2007 3:17 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs