The Cowboys said goodbye to three players on cut down day, with one being a big surprise.
The Dallas Cowboys have gone through roster cuts and have landed on their initial 53-man roster.
Given that head coach Brian Schottenheimer preached compete every day, the Cowboys followed through on that as several players were sent packing.
But we are focusing on three here.
Nate Thomas, Sam Williams and Jaydon Blue.
1 - Let's start with Blue, shall we?
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the Cowboys said goodbye to the former Texas Longhorn after it seemed like he was a lock to be the third running back.
With Javonte Williams, Malik Davis, and Hunter Luepke, the three on the roster before Dallas signed Emari Demercado, it is clear Dallas just didn't see enough from Jaydon.
He got every chance in the offseason to be the "Lightning" to Williams' "Thunder" but it just hasn't worked out. Maybe Blue just wasn't good enough?
So, do the Cowboys get credit or criticism for moving on from Blue?
I think it's credit because in previous years, Dallas would have kept Blue in the hope that he would develop into something. Instead, under Schottenheimer, not even two years after drafting him in the fifth-round, the Cowboys pulled the trigger and moved on.
For our own Mike Fisher, Dallas could have been stubborn with Blue, or they could have got the fix, which they did in Davis.
"We get so caught up in the flop of Blue that we're ignoring the fix of Malik, Jaydon Blue, it didn't work out, but Malik Davis is working out," Fish said on The Fish Report. "You could have said, we're [the Cowboys] stubbornly keeping Jaydon Blue. We told Fish, thunder and lightning.
"You can be stubborn, or you can get better. You can worry about the flop, or you can go get the fix."
2 - Next up is Nate Thomas.
It never really was a competition with Tyler Guyton, and I think we all knew that. It was simply to light a fire under Tyler, and it worked.
Thomas has been so-so this offseason, and he didn't do anything to ease the concerns at tackle, and as such, Dallas traded him to the Houston Texans, and then went and got Broderick Jones from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Again, Dallas could have been stubborn and stuck with Thomas, but instead, they pulled the trigger on his trade and then went and got a player who might be slightly better right now.
So, it is another example of the Cowboys seeing the problem and, instead of digging their heels in, moving to fix the problem.
"Had they stuck with Nate Thomas and told themselves around the room and said "Gosh, we announced that he was going to compete for the starting left tackle job, and boy, were we wrong. Let's keep him so we don't look embarrassed.
"No, they go out and fix it. So Nate Thomas, seventh-round pick, a flop? No. Broderick Jones, first-round pick, a fix," Fish said.
3 - Lastly is Sam Williams.
We have seen flashes of his talent, but they were fleeting, plus he had a knack for having costly penalties at the worst time imaginable on defense and special teams.
He had a one-year deal this offseason, and we were still trying to find out exactly what Williams could be in Christian Parker's system, but by Year 4, you should know what you have in that player.
And again, credit to the Cowboys, because they moved on from Williams and got better at the position when they added Von Miller.
"Do you blame them because Sam Williams didn't work out, or do you credit them because they found something better? I give them credit," Fish said. "Sam Williams is an NFL player, and they didn't give him a second big contract. They replaced him with somebody better.
"Von Miller is better than Sam Williams. So, I don't put that down as some horrible flop. It's a lesson learned about what to do in the second round, but they got better."
So, the common theme among these three moves is that the Cowboys, in a sense, are admitting they were wrong about each player, but with a vastly different mindset than in previous years; the franchise didn't double down and try to make the football world believe they were right. They fixed the problems.
They had three flops, if you will, and moved on from all of them in one swift offseason move. ... with what we'd argue are "fixes.''
