The Dallas Cowboys are one of many teams who saw their season come to a close on Sunday. This was not the year the Cowboys were expecting to have after the success of 2014, but injuries to Dez Bryant and Tony Romo ended any chance the Cowboys had at being competitive which showed as they took a final loss to the Washington Redskins. Now, the Cowboys enter the offseason in need of a lot of change as several question marks remain on the roster.
Greg Hardy is one of those question marks and he knows it. After domestic violence charges and a suspension from the league, the Cowboys took a chance on Hardy to beef up their defense. Despite the amount of criticism pouring in, owner Jerry Jones defended the presence of Hardy and even began discussing a contract. However, more outside criticism ended those discussions, but Hardy is hopeful he gets to return in 2016.
"If the Cowboys offer me an opportunity to stay," Hardy said, via ESPN.com, "I would love to stay here. My man [Jerry Jones] took a nice chance on me, and I would love to repay that debt with a million sacks and a ton of wins. We couldn't, so I would say it was very mal -- for my Spanish friends -- mucho mal."
Hardy ended the year with six sacks while being a solid defender against the run. Did he do enough to really impress the Cowboys and cloud the media criticism on him? That remains to be seen. Jones has certainly shown he is not afraid of second chances. The Cowboys defense looked better with Hardy, but that might not mean much in terms of contracts.
Jones is thinking more about the offense right now than the defense. It is clear that Romo's longevity in the league might not be as long as Jones had hoped and a backup plan must start being put into place. According to ESPN.com's Todd Archer, Jones is starting to look at young quarterback talent to bring on and develop behind Romo. The Cowboys are not expected to be in play for guys like Colin Kaepernick or Robert Griffin III, but drafting someone young might be a favored option. Paxton Lynch and Jared Goff both declared for the NFL Draft while Connor Cook could be an option as well.
"My goal was to have Romo be irreplaceable -- that meant he was doing things that very few other people could even think about doing," Jones said, via ESPN.com. "Well, we got our wish, and he is irreplaceable when he's not in there for what we're doing and for our offense. So, he'll get well and we'll plan as though he's going to play healthy, but at the same time ... when you're up this high in the draft, or you're up this high with ammunition, and you do have a future need at that strategic position, that alone would cause you to start looking at the position."