Dallas Cowboys Have 2nd Most Overturned Roster in NFL

The Dallas Cowboys have become somewhat of a mystery going into 2017. Yes, they went 13-3 last year but are they even a contender this year?

Believe or not it’s a fair question. Sure they still have much of a their young core in place. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliot, Dez Bryant and that offensive line remain relatively intact. Beyond that though things have changed. A lot. Much of the roster looks significantly different from just a few months ago. Almost to the point that it’s unrecognizable. It’s not every day this sort of thing happens following such a great year.

Overthecap.com noticed the overhaul as well. They tagged Dallas as the second-most overturned roster in the NFL going into this season. Much of it due in large part to their own misguided financial spending over the past few years.

"“Just based on turnover alone this is the one playoff team that stands to have a major shift. Gone are Ronald Leary, Doug Free, Morris Claiborne, Brandon Carr, Barry Church, Terrell McClain, JJ Wilcox, and Jack Crawford with the incoming veterans being Byron Bell, Stephen Paea, and Nolan Carroll. Dallas simply is not in a position, especially with more extensions coming for their linemen, to keep anybody which is a tough pill to swallow for a team that was so good last year.  It isn’t that these players are not replaceable, its just that having to replace so many in one year is not an easy thing to accomplish. This is an example of why I mentioned about the Ravens decisions on older guys. Imagine if Dallas doesn’t blow nearly $9 million of cap room on a Greg Hardy, which there was no justification for doing.  All this stuff adds up and that money basically would have kept a Leary or two of the guys in the secondary for another year to lessen the blow.”"

Dallas Cowboys are in limbo

This on top of the fact that the team continues to bring in players with significant question marks? They’re banking heavily on linebacker Jaylon Smith being the same guy he was prior to his catastrophic knee injury at Notre Dame. Demarcus Lawrence is coming off a lengthy suspension from a year ago. Jourdan Lewis, their 3rd round pick has domestic violence history in his background. Last but not least, Jason Witten is 35-years old.

It’s hard to trust that this team is capable of duplicating what they accomplished a year ago, let alone go after a Super Bowl. The defense does not look improved and the offense lost two reliable blockers up front. They need a lot of their young investments to work out this year. Otherwise the momentum they built up from 2016 will be lost.