Ronald Leary wanted to leave the Cowboys before the start of the 2016 season as his run in the starting lineup came to an end with the arrival of La’El Collins in 2015, but the Cowboys held onto him as insurance against an injury. That proved wise as Collins suffered a toe injury early in the season and Leary stepped in at left guard for an offensive line that didn’t miss a beat with the change in personnel. Leary is set to be a free agent this offseason, and the combination of Collins’ return and the heavy investment the Cowboys have already made on the offensive line leave him pretty sure about how things will play out. “I thought about it a lot after the game,” Leary said, via ESPN.com. “I kind of stayed on the field a little bit because I’ve been here the last five years of my life. That’s just as long as you’re in college, so I’ve grown close to a lot of players here, a lot of staff. It’s tough to think about, because you don’t know the future when you hit the market like that. It’s tough, but it’s part of the game.” The Jets signed guard Brian Winters to a four-year deal with $15 million in guaranteed money earlier this week and Leary has started six more games over the last four years. That may be a sign of what Leary can expect on the market and an offer in that neighborhood will likely result in him moving on from Dallas. ME - How much should we be paying for an OL to upgrade if we go free agent route?
A target indeed. The price of a solid line? Look at those three home games we had. If Miami wants more of that, pay money Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This free agency is all about OG and LBs. We need those positions ready to go. No OJT Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It's not always about money. The best OLs are the ones that work as a unit. I haven't watched him much in Dallas, but my recollection of him was as a guy better suited towards man with only so-so mobility to get to the second level. I'm not saying I'd be against him since, like I said, I haven't watched him much lately, but it seems that our target should be an OL with good mobility who would excel in our zone blocking system.
He should be in his prime, as he'll turn 28 before the start of next season. He's missed 15 of the last 32 games due to injury though, so they'll need to make sure he's healthy.
I'd be interested to hear yours or a few other's opinion of him after watching him. If he does have the ability to play well in our system, then I'm throwing $$ at him if I'm Mr T. I'd much rather use our top draft picks on LBers and or DE's
I agree. Especially since where we're drafting, we're likely to have a great shot at one of the best LBs in the draft in round 1.
I'd rather have the rookies play at linebacker than the oline, Ive never watched the guy play so I have no opinion but if we sign him I will then look lol
Its possible. But we have our top 4 CBs coming back from last year, and three of them are young guys who showed talent while learning on the job. At LB, we have absolutely nothing aside from Alonso.
I agree LB would be the pick IF it is the best pick there. I would not reach for a possible LB though if a stud CB is there.
This year, I prefer to get OL who are veterans as opposed to drafting them where we probably would (rounds 5,6,7). We are too desperate at LB to draft one with our first two picks.
At first glance, I thought the title of this thread read "Landry set to hit open market." I like Leary a lot; he's versatile enough to play both guard positions and he might have just enough agility for Gase's zone-run. His exact schematic fit will likely be the main focus when the front office deliberates, since the league already knows the kid can ball. In my opinion, addressing the offensive line should be the primary focus in free agency. The top of this years draft is strong at a lot of positions, but the offensive line isn't one of them. Gems at guard, center and tackle can be had in the middle rounds. Linebacker looks to be a relatively weak class as well, save for a few exceptionals that are looking at late 1st-early 2nd round projections (Jarrad Davis, Zach Cunningham, Rueben Foster, T.J. Watt). Landing a guy like Lawrence Timmons in free agency would ease a lot of the stress on draft day, but I'm not so sure Pittsburgh lets a talent like that walk out the door without a fair offer. They do, however, already have Bud Dupree, Ryan Shazier, and Tyler Matakevich in place, so there's some chance we get to make a run at him. All that being said, I want to target defensive end with our first selection. This class is extraordinarily top-heavy at the position, with 1st-round projections in Myles Garrett, Derek Barnett, Charles Harris, Dawuane Smoot, Taco Charlton, Demarcus Walker, Tanoh Kpassagnon, Malik McDowell, and, my favorite, Stanford's Solomon Thomas. Now is the year to find a true compliment - and eventual successor - to Cameron Wake.
I think LB edges out DE as a need. We could get by for another year with Wake and whoever at DE, but we have almost NOTHING at LB after Kiko. The OL is best fixed with a vet Guard and we should be okay there. Depth will be an issue for the OL, but we need good starters at LB before we can devote more resources to depth players. This is the effect of bad drafts and Philbin cutting good players who voiced an opinion (and made him queasy I guess). We have to live with a solid team with shallow depth at most spots and hope the injuries are minimal for 2017.
DE is a critical need. You shut down Wake you pretty much shut down the defense. Plus Jones/Williams are gone. Branch might not return and even if he does he should be a rotation guy not a starter. Really depends on how the draft boils down, but I am all for taking either a DE or MLB in round 1 and then trading up as much as the team can from their 2nd rounder and grabbing the other position. I think it's critical we come out of this draft with promising players in both those spots. Even with that you still got 2 DE spots to fill (depending on Branch). SLB can be filled with a veteran. Same with corner. Bring in low cost vets to compete with our young guys at CB.
I was listening to a Move the Sticks podcast and they were saying that due to a weak draft offensive linemen were going to get paid. Too many teams with glaring holes on their lines are going to pony up. I hope we will still be able to get a couple of decent OG though.
It seems that the O line on many teams are in need of quality guys. Guess were going to have to pay up.
It would be nice not to be locked into having to take a certain position (LB/DE) with the first pick, then you can take the BPA from one of several spots. Or if there was another Tunsil situation to take advantage of. Even with the comp picks, we don't have extra ammo to move up in the draft, unless we get into trading future picks (again). Given the need this year, you have to consider trading future picks with doing to get a stud DE or LB that slips into the late first (which would cost us our second this year and first next year). We would still have some regrets when the 2018 draft rolled around even if both guys worked out well for us. LB is the most critical need. At DE we could resign Branch and at least we have competent starters. Rotation would be weak sure, but at least we have a couple starting caliber players. What do we have at LB? No starting caliber LB in two of three spots. We'll know better how things stand after free agency though.
I would love Solomon Thomas at 22. I just hope his game against North Carolina and predraft workouts/combine performance doesn't make him too rich for our draft position.
I have em pegged for the draft because if your going to get a good MLB or DE in Free Agency it's going to cost you huge $$$. A solid veteran SLB maybe not so much $$ (plus if you can get Misi to take a paycut he could stick as depth). Branch is no better than Shelby was. If we can get him back for the type of contract Shelby signed...then sure........AS the 3rd DE. DE is screaming for a youth restock. Plus I don't think we would have to trade into the first to get that MLB. MLB's seem to fall into the late 30's/early 40's all the time. Could happen again.
Free agent linebacker snippets; Jamie Collins close to a new deal with Cleveland, Zachary Orr mulling retirement/retiring at 24.
I had a dream last night that the Dolphins just went ham and signed Collins and Chandler Jones just to stick it to the Pats. Knew it wasn't going to be reality though only big time free agent I want from this cycle is Zeitler.
O-Line is definitely a position where we need guys ready to come in and excel. We can't afford any 'redshirt years' out of a high-round pick in that position. It's ironic that Tannenbaum has been so ***-backwards with drafting vs FA, because if we had been smart and drafted a lot of talented, developing players going back to 2014 then we'd maybe be able to afford to trade draft picks now to shore up holes on the roster so that we can really contend in 2017. Even though we (fluky) made the 2016 playoffs, we still have a very untalented roster save about 11 guys. We have 11 good players out of the 22 guys that start on offense and defense. We have Tannehill, Landry, Ajayi, Parker, Stills (until the league year ends) Suh,Wake, Jones, Alonso, Tunsil, X (you tell me who our 11th great player is). The other good players we have are always missing significant time with injury, or they're more unproven than proven NFL players. Dion Sims, I think, can be a good TE, but far from exceptional. I think Kenyan Drake is very talented and, if groomed, can be another Marcus Allen-style RB. Byron Maxwell: meh. Xavien Howard: maybe, hopefully. Quddus: not great, not bad. Albert may play another 10 games left in his whole career. He has horrible luck, but he just doesn't make it through seasons. Mike Pouncey might have even fewer NFL games left before a forced retirement. The dropoff after these guys is like a Wiley Coyote cliff-plunge. Falling whistle sound ............................................pft. We're no closer to relevancy now than we were in January 2016, with a much tougher schedule laying ahead of us. Every year we're going to be just drafting or signing guys to tread water, as we're going to lose or be in cap hell with just maintaining being a 500 team. That is unless we just get incredibly lucky and bring in more talented players than the guys we lose, AND those guys stay healthy. I've lost a ton of faith in Jordan Phillips, and Alonso is the only LB that should even be on an NFL roster. I thought Hewitt had NFL talent and was showing signs at the end of 2015, but he was either horribly coached (in an awful system that we're going to recycle) or he's dumb as a stump, or likely both. Jenkins' only asset was good athletic ability because he was never a smart, instinctive player and when that athleticism declined his box of rocks head (from a football standpoint) made him useless out there. I just don't see any way for Miami to acquire enough talent this offseason to avoid losing 9 games this year or worse. What do we need to be a good NFL team, with a legit chance to win a playoff game? 3 more NFL quality linebackers, 2 quality starting offensive linemen, if not 3. Juwan James is not even average. Close, but not quite. We need at least 2 defensive ends so that Wake can go back to being more situational cuz he's easy pickin's against the run. We really don't have jack-squat for a true nickel corner. We have Howard to be a boundary guy, and Lippet and Maxwell should just compete for the other boundary. Who's covering slot receivers on this team? The video says NO ONE. So, how many guys here did I just say we badly need? 10 guys, right? We need 10 players to come in here to be better than what's on the roster and then maybe we can be taken seriously for championship contention.
You mean we can't draft a guard at #22 giving us 5 first round offensive lineman starting ...That alone will scare the bejesus out of other teams
its why I think we should allocate a good portion of our free agent resources on a real solid guard..a nicely talented free agent guard..maybe 7]8 mill a year. then go 90 percent defense in draft, that unit can afford some youth playing on it with the vets that are there..
