This team was one of the great disappointments this season as having achieved a playoff season ticket a year ago, this time the injuries and Free Agency movements made them prey to finish as one of the worst in the league.
The good thing about the 2015 season for the Cowboys:
You have to dig deep to find something positive, however it is possible. First it should be noted the work of Darren McFadden, who came to the team via free agency looking to stoke a career that had been plagued by injuries. Running behind a dominant offensive line he managed to get 1,089 yards (fourth best in the league) and remained healthy.
On the other hand, we can point to a couple of rookies who did a pretty decent job; the first-round pick Byron Jones and free agent La’el Collins. Jones began as part of the rotation in the secondary and later became the first choice in the slot, sometimes he started out of numbers and also served as Safety having the task of covering rival TEs in the latter role, he had duels against players like Rob Gronkowski and Greg Olsen, left unscathed.
Meanwhile Collins began as the backup Ron Leary and before the season midpoint he was the starter at left guard. Although sometimes we saw rookie mistakes, constantly he showed tremendous power dominating the rival defensive, sending them to the floor in the first and second level of defense.
Finally we saw that DeMarcus Lawrence had a big improvement over last season and showed that he can become the team’s leading pass rusher justifying the move made in the draft to select him early in the second round.
The downside of the 2015 season for the Cowboys:
The injuries ended one the best players in the team, in fact it can be argued that they lost three of their top five players at some point in the season; Tony Romo, Dez Bryant and Orlando Scandrick. We could even add a fourth name to the list if we include the intermittently healthy Sean Lee.
Such injuries combined with a defense that kept the team in the game but did not generate turnovers, was enough to not accumulate enough victories throughout.
One last point in the negative side of the Cowboys season was the fact of having seen the offensive ineffectiveness with the team after the departure of Romo, when neither Brandon Weeden or Matt Cassel could generate enough points, exhibiting larger problems reaching the coaching post and front office.
Cowboys season ended when …
It would be easy to point to the injured Tony Romo as the final straw, however we will be much more specific and point out a play especially noted as the beginning of the end:
Week 4 of the season, October 4 on the second play of Extra Time on a Sunday Night Football game against the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome. Drew Brees threw a short pass to CJ Spiller who made a ‘wheel’ route and ran for 80 yards to the end zone to give the victory to the Saints and the 400th TD pass from Brees. At that time it was clear that this would be a season in which nothing would work out for the Cowboys, every ball that the defense could have stolen would fall short and reversed by referee decision, every close game was defined against them at the very the last series, each player that had a great game would suffer an injury or simply disappear for the next week.
2016 Cowboys?
It seems that everything depends on if the team can stay healthy they can be contenders in the 2016 season. Admittedly it takes to make adjustments in terms of staff and this is a task that belongs to the front office, such as acquiring an efficient backup at the QB position, either in free agency or Draft, improve the depth in the WRs body and ensure a playmaker on defense generating turnovers. It will be interesting to see if there are movements in the coaching staff at the coordinator level, since that would imply a different style in the form of team play.
Future Free Agents:
Morris Claiborne, CB (25)
Greg Hardy, DE (27)
Rolando McClain, LB (26)
Jeremy Mincey, DE (32)
Lance Dunbar, RB (25)
Matt Cassel, QB (33)
