Cowboys In Position For Top Draft Pick As The Offense Continues To Struggle
The 2015-16 football season will be one to forget for the Dallas Cowboys. The team has struggled to produce in the absence of Tony Romo. For the fourth time this season, the Cowboys failed to score an offensive touchdown in their 16-6 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
It did not matter whether it was Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel or Kellen Moore starting in place of Tony Romo this season, the offense simply could not get anything going.
To make matters worse, Cowboys fans had to watch Weeden complete 15 of 24 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns for the Houston Texans in a 24-8 win against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. The Cowboys cut Weeden on November 17th.
This season was the first time the Cowboys have had four games without an offensive touchdown since the 2001. The 2001 season was also the last time the Cowboys started four different quarterbacks in one season: Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Ryan Leaf and Clint Stoerner.
“It’s certainly been one of the bigger disappointments this year. … Points on the board have to be made through touchdowns first,” said Coordinator Scott Linehan. “Field goals aren’t going to cut it. So it’s been an Achilles heel of ours this year and there’s going to be a time for that evaluation and talking about what we do and what the reasons are and all of that stuff. Last year, we made a really big gain in that area and this year has obviously been the flip side of it. Not going to win enough games if you don’t put enough points on the board on offense, that’s for sure.”
Interestingly, the Cowboys have scored on eight opening possessions this season, including yesterday against the Bills. But the Cowboys were forced to settle for a field goal, a common story this season.
“For whatever the reason, we can’t make a play when we need to make it,” stated Stephen Jones, the Cowboys chief operating officer. “We come out, we drive the ball well, but then we can’t get it in the end zone so it’s settle for a field goal. Then for whatever reason, it deteriorates from there. I feel like we’ve played that game every year this year. It feels like the same game.”
The only good news that you can take away from this season is that the Cowboys will now be in a great position for a top pick in the 2016 draft.
If the draft were to happen today, the Cowboys would have the 5th selection. A top 5 pick would help the Cowboys get a impact player that could truly help their team. According to Stephen Jones, their top need is for a quarterback.
“We probably should have done what we’ve historically done, which is go with the Kitnas, go with the Ortons, go with that type of proven backup in case something does happen to Tony,” Jones explained on DallasCowboys.com.
Unfortunately the did not have a proven backup in place this season, and once Romo went down they were forced to pay for their mistake. “That’s going to be No. 1 on our list, how do we do that better in the future,” continued Jones.
There will be a number of back-up quarterbacks available in the free-agent market this offseason. There are also two highly coveted college quarterbacks on the Cowboys radar, including Jared Goff from California and Paxton Lynch from Memphis. This will give Dallas a lot of flexibility to address their quarterback concerns, in addition to their concerns at running back, defensive tackle and linebacker.
“The rules call for you if you’ve had the season we’ve had to get an advantage in talent coming up for the next year,” stated Cowboys owner Jerry Jones after last Saturday’s 19-16 loss to the New York Jets, “and so we do have an advantage in talent to couple with a roster of really outstanding relatively young players as well as players as the right time in their careers and the right place for us on the cap, so there is a lot to do.”
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