After an extremely disappointing season that saw the Cowboys finish 6-10, it's obvious the Cowboys need to make many changes. Wade's already gone, though I don't believe he was the biggest of the problems. The players quit on him and the thought around the league is the Cowboys roster is going to look drastically different next season. I'm going to play as Jason Garrett and Jerry Jones and give my input on each position group, each player, and determine who needs to be demoted, let go, or anything in between by giving them one of 4 classifications.
"Lock" means there's no chance I'm letting them go.
"Safe" means I'm not counting on something better coming along and chances are, I'm keeping them.
"Up in the Air" means either I'm not sold on their talent or their contract outweighs their production.
"Gone" means they simply need replaced or their contract is up and I expect them to sign elsewhere.
Again, this is what I think, not necessarily what I think will happen. I'll be starting with the Quarterbacks.
Quarterback
Players - Tony Romo, Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee
Tony Romo
Contract Status - 2011 Base Salary: $9 Million, Signed through 2013
Date of Birth - 4/21/1980
2010 Stats - Played in 7 Games, 1605 Passing Yards, 69.5 Completion %, 7.5 Average Yards per Completion, 11 Touchdowns, 7 Interceptions, and a 94.9 QB Rating
Individual Analysis - Tony Romo is the starter. Duh, I know. He's the franchise and everything offensively revolves around him. I expect him to reestablish himself as a top 10 Quarterback next year.
Roster Spot - Lock
Jon Kitna
Contract Status - 2011 Base Salary: $2.6 Million, Signed through 2013
Date of Birth - 9/21/1972
2010 Stats - Played in 10 games, 2365 Passing Yards, 65.7 completion %, 7.4 Average Yards per Completion, 16 Touchdowns, 12 Interceptions, and a 88.9 QB Rating
Individual Analysis - He was thrown into a tough situation, but he responded better than I thought he would. He's definitely on the older side at 38, but he's reliable. He knows the offense and has plenty of work put in with these players, which gives him the edge on anybody else behind Romo. I don't like him as an every week starter, but as Romo's backup, you could do a lot worse.
Roster Spot - Safe
Stephen McGee
Contract Status - 2011 Base Salary: $480,000, Signed through 2012
Date of Birth - 9/27/1985
2010 Stats - Played in 2 games, 238 Passing Yards, 50.0 Completion %, 5.4 Average Yards per Completion, 2 Touchdowns, 0 Interceptions, 81.4 QB Rating
Individual Analysis - Stephen McGee has all of the tools physically and I was impresses in his ability to take care of the football, but he seems like he doesn't read things very quickly and is indecisive. He's still young and his problems are consistent with being a young Quarterback. If I was Garrett, I'd give him another year. I believe in Parcells' rule of giving a player 3 years to prove himself.
Roster Spot - Up in the air
Group Analysis - This unit is set up pretty good. Romo is a franchise Quarterback and then you've got the seasoned veteran behind him in Jon Kitna. The Cowboys will bring in another Quarterback(probably an undrafted free agent) to compete with McGee, be a training camp arm, and possibly earn a spot on the practice squad. Maybe the rookie impresses and replaces McGee on the 53 man roster. It'd suck to give up on a 4th round pick so soon, but if you keep the best players.
Position Grade - A-
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