With the Dallas Cowboys heading into the 2018 season, the key word for many is hope. Will hope be enough?
On paper, the Dallas Cowboys have a lot of questions heading into the 2018 season. Trying to look objectively and without fandom isn’t easy, but should be done by all reasonably minded fans.
What will the passing game look like with the way it is currently constructed? Can everyone stay healthy on the offensive line? Will the defense take the next step in 2018? Will Jason Garrett and Scott Linehan change the offense enough for it all to work?
There are a lot of questions, and right now there are not a lot of answers.
The Passing Game
Some believe the passing game will be fine, others do not. What we do know is Allen Hurns has had trouble staying healthy, Terrance Williams is Terrance Williams (not a good thing), Cole Beasley is a solid slot option coming off a down year, and the rest are fairly unproven commodities.
At tight end, Jason Witten has retired, and there is not much on the roster with experience. While the staff likes Blake Jarwin and fans like Rico Gathers, neither has done much to prove they are starting tight ends in the NFL yet. Only Geoff Swaim has catches in an actual NFL game. Again, not a lot of faith.
Many viewed 2017 as a down year from Dak Prescott – for a myriad of reasons and not all on him: the inability for our offensive line to stay healthy, and poor coaching, there is just a lot of questions right now. The only thing we know for sure, is Ezekiel Elliott is an all-world running back.
That is all a lot of “hope” on the offensive side of the ball.
This isn’t to say that all is doomed, but right now we are not sure what all of it will actually look like. None of it will really matter if the coaching and offensive scheme doesn’t get adjusted. Simply put, we have to put faith in Jason Garrett and his staff.
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The Defense
On the defensive side of the ball, the Dallas Cowboys decided they didn’t need to draft a safety, and didn’t need a lot of help at defensive tackle. To be fair, the defense performed better in 2017 than in recent years preceding it. If the defense can take another step, than the 2018 Dallas Cowboys will be a team that will rely on the defense and running game to carry most of the games.
Again, there are just a lot of questions and right now a lot of hope everything comes together. Talking with fans, there are a lot of people who are sure the Cowboys will be great and a few who think they will be terrible. But, the key word on all of them is “hope”. Hope that certain things come together.
Where the separation comes is if they think everything actually will come together.
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For now, we all hope the Dallas Cowboys improve from a down 2017. We hope that Jason Garrett and his staff learned a lot from last year. We hope that everything comes together for a deep playoff run. And of course we all hope a Super Bowl is around the corner.