I think the Cowboys will be at least as good as last year and maybe better, they really only lost 2 1/2 starters, Tyrone Smith is only a part time starter, Pollard was nothing special ( like a lot of us predicted ) and the center was just a good player. The others were back ups, they can get more depth in free agents and the draft, they also have players that should sep up this year, plus they are getting two really good players back from injury.

I like your optimism but I can't prognosticate how good they'll be without seeing the talent. We may find out DQ's defense was more sucky than we realized though. GB says it was.

We lost 10.5 sacks and 65 tackles off the defensive line alone with Hankins and Armstrong. Armstrong alone nearly doubled DLaw's sack total. We have no pass rush outside of Parsons unless DLaw gets back to 2017-2018 form. Parsons is likely to see non-stop double teams on passing downs this season. Which is a problem because:

We lost a top cornerback and starting safety and now have nobody for nickel and dime coverage. So you aren't going to be able to rush the QB and aren't going to be able to cover on the back end, and heaven knows the LB corps in the middle aren't going to bridge the gap.

We lost 2 of our 5 OL, which means you have no running game to keep the defense off the field, and your aging QB is now going to be running for his life.

Pollard isn't a huge loss because McCarthy doesn't know how to use RBs. Neither is Gallup because he never should have been paid to start with. But the 5 guys above (not counting Kearse) are 5 of our top 15 players.

So I guess they are just going to leave those positions unfilled ? On average a team has a 30 % player turnover every year, nothing new here, they have the draft, trades, and the rest of free agents to fill those holes. How the hell does Vegas have them at 10.5 wins when last year they were 9.5 ? They probably do't know near as much about it as you. They still have two pro bowlers and a veteran on the O line, not too many teams can boast that.

They have the talent. Their problem is the coaching,discipline ad the general manager.

Vegas doesn't have a crystal ball. They had them at 9.5 last year because they thought they were a 9.5 win team. Part of that is NYG was supposed to be good, and Eagles were supposed to be good, and neither were, and that's 4 games. Dak had one of his best regular seasons (perhaps his best) before choking against a 7 seed. Vegas couldn't have really foreseen Dak playing that well, or NYG/PHI being that bad. Or Bland setting an NFL record for pick-sixes in a season. Odds are none of that repeats, except NYG struggling and Dak choking if we make the playoffs.

Vegas has them at 10.5 this year because they think they're 10.5 win team, even though they won 12 last year. I suspect losing DQ and losing that many quality FAs is worth about 1.5 wins in their estimation. Do you know more than Vegas does? You're the one saying they're gonna be better in 2024 than last season. I'm agreeing with Vegas...they're probably 1-2 wins worse than last year if I was making a guess before FA is over or the draft has happened.

Geez you like to argue, go ahead and tell me how many teams are predicted to win 10.5 games a year, this year there are only three ahead of the Cowboys, with the highest being 11.5, sometimes you just don't get it, if you think they are so bad then you should bet the farm on the under at 10.5, Dak sux, coach sux, GM sux, line sux, cheerleaders sux blah blah blah.

Wasn't trying to argue, just clarify, because you're twisting some of what I said. You're the one who said I disagreed with Vegas saying they'd be worse than last year. But as you pointed out, Vegas says 10.5 wins in 2024 and they had 12 wins in 2023, so Vegas agrees with me that they're more likely do worse than last year.

I didn't say they'd win less than 10.5, so I've got no interest in betting on it (I actually said that was a good 50/50 number for today). I said I didn't think they'd win more than 12. You said they'd win more. If you want to put even money on 12.5, which is what you said you believe, I'm glad to discuss that bet. Wouldn't really make any sense for you though, because you can get a better bet with Vegas.

The cheerleaders are great. You're right that the GM sucks, and Dak is fine until playoffs start.

I said I thought they would be at least as good as last year, maybe better, that does not mean their season wins have to be more, they could win 9 or 10 games in the regular season and win 1 playoff game, that would make them better imo. Vegas had them at 9.5 last year, this year it is 10.5, to me that looks like vegas thinks they will be better, if a team wins 12 games the year before do you really think vegas is going to set the over / under bet at 12 ? They have won 12 games three years in a row, the line has never been more than 10.5.

I'm obviously just not typing clearly, and I don't want to type it again to just create more arguments - that's not my intent believe it or not. I assumed by "better than last season", you meant you thought they'd win more regular season games. I'd love to see them do more than one and done in the playoffs, and like you I'd consider that a win especially if they did it while starting to build young talent that can be the core of the team the next 5 years.

I hope you're right that they're better, but they've lost more than they've picked up in the offseason so far, by a longshot. That's I think the concern me and many cowboys fans have - hankins and armstrong are really underrated losses that I fear we are going to really feel, and the OL has no recovery plan at this point. Parsons is the only fear on defense at this point and he may even be triple teamed on some pass plays if DLaw doesn't start looking like more of a threat in the pass rush. Maybe he'll recover to 2017-2018 form - I don't think he has the same lack of motivation that drove zeke and others to stop performing once they got paid.

I think we both agree that the topic of the thread, cowboys drafting ability, is appropriately rated very high.