The 2015 regular season of the National Football League has come to an end and some teams are headed for the playoffs in pursuit of the ultimate...a Super Bowl Championship.
Others are already hard at work preparing for the April college draft in hopes of improving their team for 2016. Such is where we find the Dallas Cowboys ! A season that saw Dallas win only four
of the sixteen games on the schedule rewards them with the fourth overall pick in the college draft...
And that brings us to the crux of today's post.. What will Dallas do with that lofty selection? The multiple injuries to the Cowboys will explain some of the pain of the 2015 season, but team owner, general manager, and Grand Poobah Jerry Jones is already on record saying he expects quarterback Tony Romo to play another four or five years. Romo, who will turn 36 years old this year, has a history of injuries that reads like the Magna Carta in length. Twice he went down this season with a broken collarbone on his non-throwing shoulder, and this was in addition to past injury prone seasons.
So..... I say now is the time to take advantage of that high draft pick and select a quarterback to guide the team in the future. Romo might have a season or two left in his career and could be a valuable teacher for the new quarterback.
The Tennessee Titans have the first pick in the college draft, but they have Marcus Mariota, who they drafted last year. The Cleveland Browns have the second pick and they could be quarterback hunting after Johnny Manziel's road show has gone south for them. San Diego's Chargers have the third pick and need defensive help, besides Philip Rivers has years ahead of him. Dallas is fourth and San Francisco has the fifth pick. Colin Kaepernick is out in the Bay Area and the 49'ers definitely will be shopping for a new quarterback.
There are two quarterbacks currently standing head and shoulders above the crowd in April's draft,..both juniors who have forfeited their senior seasons in order to become available for a professional career.
PAXTON LYNCH of the University of Memphis stands six foot seven inches tall and weighs in at 245 pounds. In three years at Memphis he threw for almost nine thousand yards, fifty-nine touchdowns, and had passes intercepted on 23 occasions.
Despite his height, Lynch has good agility and mobility for a big man, and shows an ability to run with the ball when forced from the pocket. His passing velocity has been called excellent and sometimes looks like he is throwing a dart rather than a football, a trait sometimes applied to former Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw, and just remember how many Super Bowls they attended.
Lynch will turn 22 years of age on Febuary 12, 2016 and despite growing up in Florida he has another factor that might make him more attractive to the Cowboys... He was born in San Antonio!
The other quarterback under consideration for succeeding Romo is current University of California quarterback JARED GOFF.
Goff also is a junior coming out a year early. He is six foot four inches tall and tips the scales at two hundred and ten pounds. He re-wrote the California high school record book while playing for Marin Catholic High School. He turned down offers from Boise State, Fresno State, and Stanford to play for the Golden Bears of Cal as did his Dad. Goff became the first true freshman to start at California and in three years at the helm he passed for over twelve thousand yards, 96 touchdowns and had 30 passes intercepted. He was a first team selection to the All Pac-12 Conference Team.
In the 2015 Armed Forces Bowl game last month Goff was named the Most Valuable Player after he threw six (6) touchdown passes and accounted for 467 yards in a 55-36 win over the Air Force Academy. Goff has faced a higher caliber of competition than Lynch and that might be the deciding factor. That and the comparison to another quarterback the Cowboys took out of California back in 1989 might tip the scale in Goff's favor...
Troy Aikman was the top pick in that draft out of U.C.L.A. and led Dallas to three Super Bowl Championships. Maybe Goff or Lynch can duplicate that kind of leadership and ability.
It is a decision that has to be made and when April rolls around I want the Dallas ownership and coaching staffs to remember one image as they contemplate that fourth pick.
No one plays the game forever and Tony Romo has given Dallas fans plenty of great memories over the years,...BUT it is time to plan for the post-Romo years. Dallas fans have suffered through inept back-ups this past season as each tried to fill the shoes of Romo without success.... Hello.. Why do you think other teams let them go?
It's time to plan for the future. The competition will be looking for a weak spot on the Cowboys roster and unfortunately it will be the shoulders of Romo. Draft a quality quarterback while we can and use the remainder of the draft to find help on the defensive side of the ball. Time is not on our side but a decision has to be made. Dallas,.. You're on the clock.
Another quarterback has popped up on the radar screen of the Cowboys.... and he might be the sleeper of the entire NFL College Draft.
CARSON WENTZ has played four years at North Dakota State and as a starter, Wentz has led the Bisons to their 4th and 5th consecutive FCS National Championship. In last month's title game, North Dakota State defeated #1 seeded Jacksonville State for the championship.
Wentz is six foot five and weighs in at 220 pounds. In the 2015 season he connected on 130 of 208 passing attempts for 17 touchdowns, and had only 4 passes intercepted. He broke his wrist back in October, but now doctors say he is fully healed. Another point in his favor is he will be playing in the Senior Bowl Game,...and his North squad will be coached by the staff of the Dallas Cowboys....so they will have a good preview of him. Dallas' coaching staff also had the same preview of DeMarcus Ware, DeMarco Murray, Zack Martin, and James Harris in the Senior Bowl and then drafted them in the April college draft.
Wentz is said to have excellent delivery on the ball and the ability to pick out secondary and third choices on passing plays. Some experts are calling him the most 'ready to play' quarterback in the draft and say he will be the first qb picked in April.
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