Since Roy Williams seems to be getting a lot of negative publicity over the last week or so, I decided to post something positive for the man Cowboys fans love to hate. Roy’s charity foundation goes all out for select groups of mothers on Mother’s Day.

This year Williams is planning something bigger with a spa day, where a group of women will be pampered with manicures and massages while their kids will be have fun at a go-kart racing track.

"Sometimes I can go a little crazy, but it just makes me so happy to see their faces," says Williams. "You have to respect the moms for Mother's Day."

The article also talks with Roy’s mom.

Meanwhile, over at the DMN blog Calvin Watkins has a post talking all about Roy. 

Ok, I think everybody knows Roy Williams isn't going to another team. The Cowboys are not going to cut him. So let's stop this Roy Williams needs to go blog posts. They are really stupid.

Hey, Watkins said that, not me. Another nugget about whether Roy can revive his game this year.

Can he? Yes. Two opposing coaches told me they would take Williams in a minute if he were on the open market. Williams, however, needs to play much better in this 3-4 scheme. He has to study his playbook more, come in much better shape, and attack defenders. The scheme is not the problem. DeMarcus Ware, Ken Hamlin, Anthony Henry and Ellis had no problems with it.

And the defensive coaches need to stop babying him. I thought they did a lot of that last year. Dave Campo is no babysitter and that will probably help Williams more than anything else. Williams needs to be challenged.

My city paper has a nice article about Tashard Choice. It’s worth a read and talks about the budding relationship between Choice and El Gato.

"We have a good relationship," Felix Jones said. "We met at the [NFL scouting] combine and clicked. He's somebody I can talk to and relate to. We're going through the same thing. We're going to compete out there on the field but in the locker room, we're friends and we'll communicate. We talk about things."

This is a weird article. It’s about people who want their ashes spread at sports sites after they’re dead. It includes a Cowboys reference.

[Al] Everest's namesake uncle Al, was a big Cowboy fan and knew his football-oriented family — his brother Andy was a coach and his nephews played and coached football — would always think of him when they saw Texas Stadium if his ashes were scattered there.

"I'd had his ashes for a couple of years and my sister Kathy and brother Tom finally decided to do something about it," Al Everest said. "There might have been some liquid refreshment involved, but they took Uncle Al's ashes to the stadium and scattered them on the flowers outside the gate. It worked: I never see the Cowboys but what I think of Uncle Al."

What do the Cowboys think of such practices?

"It probably happens and we sort of turn a blind eye if people are discreet," said Rich Dalrymple, spokesman for the Dallas Cowboys. "But we don't really feel it's appropriate. And besides, these things have a way of turning into elaborate ceremonies and we don't want a stream of hearses pulling up to the stadium."

 

Greg Ellis just needs to employ a self-imposed gag order during the offseason. The last couple of years it was all the stuff about his contract and not fitting into the Cowboys 3-4 system. Now, he’s talking about another player not being comfortable in Wade Phillips’ 3-4 system. Here’s what Greg had to say about Roy Williams in an interview today. 

"Roy told me in training camp, he said, 'Greg this defense does not fit me. I don’t fit in well with this defense at all,' " Ellis said. "Obviously, it came to be true just like he said. He doesn’t fit what’s going on here in Dallas right now. Maybe this year, if they decide to keep him for this season Wade and them would kind of adjust some things to fit him better."

In truth, the part about Roy not being comfortable in Wade’s system is no big deal. I don’t know why that’s causing such a stir since Roy said the exact same thing in an interview last week. 

"I'm going to have to get comfortable in the system," [Roy Williams] said. "It's not easy with the coaching change. You're used to one thing and then you have to adjust to another playing style."

So he was just repeating what Roy already said and Greg was doing it in a defense of Roy. But dropping the "if they decide to keep him for this season" is not really something you want to say about a teammate. But we know that Roy isn’t going anywhere for this season, Dallas just doesn’t have the personnel at safety to do that. Then Ellis went further by saying:

"The bothersome thing for me as Roy’s friend and his teammate, I hate the criticism he is getting," Ellis said. "I hate the fact how he is kind of isolating himself from the team."

Now he’s making it sound like Roy is bailing out on his team and not interacting with the rest of the guys. That’s not really something you want to say about a teammate in public. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, that stuff that should stay in the clubhouse.

When Ellis was called about it later, he did offer this defense of his comments:

"Everybody is saying they need to get rid of him, they need to trade him. I think he gets a bad rap," Ellis said by phone. "One thing you can’t say I said about Roy is that he should be traded or let go. I think he should stay my teammate. When someone asks me a question, it’s my job to be on Roy’s side and that’s what I was doing. I don’t think he should go anywhere. He should stay here."

Greg, do yourself a favor. If you want to discuss your own problems with the Cowboys organization like you did the last few years, that’s one thing. But dragging your teammate into it is probably something better left alone.

Hat tip to quincyyyyy for posting this in a FanPost. 

Daniel Polk is trying to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Crayton and Isaiah Stanback. 

Bobby Carpenter, is it his last chance? 

Todd Archer talks WR’s. 

 

Since there isn’t a whole lot going on in terms of Cowboys news, I decided to give a little update on the new SB Nation 2.0 platform.

Up at the top left-hand corner, there are a few items you might be interested in. There’s a Welcome Guide that lays out in general terms some of the features available on the new platform. There’s also an Edit Settings link which takes to your own personal settings for the blog. You can set the number of FanPosts and FanShots to be displayed as well as a few other functions. Just below that are icons for a narrow and wide display of the blog. If you have enough monitor room I recommend the wide view, it’s easier to read the blog that way in my opinion.

Also, take a moment to fill out your profile and add a graphic avatar to represent yourself on the blog.

Recently I added a Featured Poll in the middle of the right-hand column. Be sure to vote and I’ll try to change it out on a regular basis.

Down at the bottom are FanShots. We got some good stuff being posted down there and I want encourage you guys to check them out regularly just like you do with the FanPosts. Add a comment to those, too. You can always catch up on Tony and Jessica news down there. ;-)

FanPosts are for hot Cowboys news or thoughts on the Cowboys that have a little substance. There is a 75-word minimum on FanPosts so that it requires a little more thought or some quotes from the articles referenced. If you find yourself just wanting to post a YouTube video, a funny or interesting quote, or some off-topic non-Cowboys news, FanShots is the prefect place to do it. By the way, great job by the whole community for keeping the FanPosts and FanShots fresh with news and other stuff. I really appreciate you guys posting in both places because this blog works best when all of the community is involved. Also, if you find a FanPost or FanShot that you really like, you can give it a recommend and if it gets over five, it will move up to the recommended list.

Anybody wondering what happened to the SportsSpyder feed that displayed headlines and links for Cowboys articles that used to be on the left-hand column, I had to take it down for now. It was causing load problems for the blog and would occasionally hang up the site until the user refreshed the browser. I’m trying to get it working again so be patient.

One request from me, post a comment whenever you can. The more comments we get the better the conversation gets and sometimes whole new discussions grow out of a single comment in a thread. So if you see a post that is lonely with only a couple of comments, drop one of your own on it.

While I’m talking meta-blog, this is a good time to remind everybody of the community guidelines. No excessive profanity, especially the particularly strong words. No politics or religion and keep the sex stuff to a minimum. Absolutely no attacking other poster with things like “you’re stupid,” “you’re a moron,” “that is the dumbest thing ever,” and other things like that. If you want to argue and debate, that’s fine, in fact, that’s part of the reason we’re here. But don’t get personal and just use common sense. I now have the ability to warn people if they cross the line on any of these issues. So if you log-in one day and see a warning, that is why and I will include a note explaining it. Other times I’ll just delete the comment if it breaks the rules or adds nothing to the conversation except to flame another reader. After that, if the rules are not followed, you get banned.

This thread is now open for any comments, suggestions or questions you may have. I’ll do my best to answer them in the comments below.

 

Direct link to a Martellus Bennett interview courtesy of Matt Mosley over at Hashmarks.  Bennett is one crazy dude. In the interview, he reveals he thinks he can fly, that he has X-ray vision and the ability to teleport but he likes to keep his superhero powers on the downlow. The Dallas media won’t be able to get enough of this guy. HBO will probably give him some face time on Hard Knocks. The kid better be able to play or all the fun-loving quotes won’t mean a thing.

DC.com has some video of the rookie camp with commentary by Brad Sham. 

 

T.O. is going to be on Late Night with Conan O’Brien tonight. 

 

Tell me you didn’t see this coming from a mile away in regards to Bengals WR Chris Henry. 

"There are two teams that I would always love to play for: that's New Orleans and Dallas," Henry said. "New Orleans is home for me. That's always been a big dream of mine. Hopefully I can get in there and sit down with the coaches and maybe have an opportunity to get down there. And Dallas is another team that I've always looked up to as a kid and wanted to play for them."

I say go for it Jerry. If you’re gonna do something, don’t do it halfway! I’m sure you could get some cash under the table from HBO’s "Hard Knocks" to help offset the bill. Pacman and Chris Henry at the same training camp, I smell Emmy. Heck, HBO could just wipe out their regular schedule for the couple of weeks of training camp and turn it into a live show 24/7. Who wouldn’t watch that? Throw in a little Jessica Simpson for sex appeal, mic up Drew Rosenhaus as he negotiates contracts for Marion Barber and T.O. and you’ve got broadcast gold. They could even do a little stunt-casting and dig up Quincy Carter from somewhere and sign him to a contract. Heck, maybe O.J. could be talked into making a comeback.

Eh, maybe not.

Anyway, back in the world of reality, here’s a good article on how "Hard Knocks" is going to work at Oxnard. 

Seven robotic cameras with zoom capabilities will be stuck here and there, around the facilities at Oxnard, Calif. At least four film crews will shoot each day.

A total of 30 producers and editors are assigned to the project. But not even a billionaire owner like Jerry Jones will have any input in what gets shown -- or not shown.

The Cowboys have no input, except maybe if something goes really bad. 

Say Pacman Jones enters an Oxnard strip club. Say an HBO cameraman is there on the street. Say said cameraman flips the switch and records the whole thing. Does that make it to air? Do the Cowboys have a say?

And since I'm not specifically trying to pick on Pacman, what if HBO gets footage of a player getting into a barfight or something like that? Do the producers check with the Cowboys first? Or do they just go ahead and break the news?

"That's hard to say, it depends on what it is," [HBO Sports president Ross] Greenburg said. "My instincts are if we're in the position of actually recording and breaking a news story, we'll have an interesting situation within the offices of NFL Films, HBO and the Dallas Cowboys. I don't know. I can't even answer it. It'd be a case-by-case situation and we'd just have to look at it at that time."

Am I going to have to stakeout all the strip clubs in Oxnard this training camp? For you guys, I would do it.

Hat tip to downsetgo for posting the Henry story in a FanPost.

Back to normal football stuff. Tony Romo failed to qualify for the US Open. Did I say normal football stuff?

 OK, this is sort of normal; we hired another Garrett.

Judd Garrett, the younger brother of Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and tight ends coach John Garrett, will be named the team's assistant director of pro scouting, owner Jerry Jones confirmed Wednesday.

Garrett replaces Brian Gaine, who was hired as assistant director of player personnel with the Miami Dolphins in December.

 

After the draft when the lists of UDFA’s were coming out, there was a name on there, Andrew Brecher, an offensive lineman from Harvard. Not that he stood out or anything, he was just another guy on a list of guys that I expected to be a body. He wasn’t on the level of UDFA’s like Danny Amendola, Darrell Robertson or even Marcus Dixon who has an unreal backstory. But when rookie mini-camp opened I kept hearing we have only one offensive lineman in camp, Brandon Hale from Sam Houston State. I kept wondering what happened to the kid from Harvard. Well, I finally found out. Dallas got in touch with him 10 minutes after the draft and he agreed to become a Cowboy and flew in for the camp and even had a nice conversation with Felix Jones while there. But all these guys had to take a physical and the Cowboys saw something in his X-rays related to a previous back injury he had and decided against signing him at that time. He since has been contacted by the Jets, and the Cowboys have not ruled him out totally if his back situation improves. Anyway, not a big deal, but I just wanted to clear that up in case anybody else was as obsessive compulsive as I am. One disappointing note, he could have been a contender for our all-quote team with Deon Anderson and Martellus Bennett.

"The Cowboys seemed like a good fit," said Brecher, who mentioned the presence of 26-year offensive line coaching veteran Hudson Houck as something that made America’s Team that much more appealing.

"And who wouldn’t want to hang with Pacman Jones?" he joked, referring to the troubled cornerback who was just traded to Dallas from the Tennessee Titans.

Ha! May the Pacman jokes never cease. At least he didn’t talk about Jessica.

Mickey Spags gives his review of the rookie mini-camp. 

The love for Danny Amendola at Valley Ranch. 

"I just can't wait to see him go against the veteran guys and just watch him work," Cowboys wide receivers coach Ray Sherman said after just the first day of practice.

In case you missed it, Matt Mosley has a long article on Felix Jones.

With the recent revelation that the Cowboys will be featured on HBO’s "Hard Knocks," a FOX Sports article from a few days ago came to mind. It talks about the pressing needs for teams after the draft. Here’s the Dallas blurb:

Pressing need: Preparing for the onslaught of media that will swarm Cowboys training camp if recently acquired cornerback Pacman Jones is reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Players and coaches will be asked ad nauseum about Jones in the upcoming months. But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones believes that distraction is a small price to pay for a player of Jones' talent.

Possible solution: Jones doesn't say or do anything stupid if reinstated and fades into the background a la Tank Johnson. Of course, history indicates that probably won't be the case.

With HBO on board, the media swarm for camp just became much bigger and the spotlight will shine much brighter. Should make for good TV viewing but may not be the best thing for the Cowboys as a football team.

A short article on rookie camp darling Orlando Scandrick. 

"I made some plays," he said. "I tried to have fun and get better every day and I think I did that."

"What will dictate how much I play is how I adapt to the speed of the game," Scandrick said. "The quarterbacks are a lot better. All these receivers are good. It's going to take an extreme amount of film study and discipline."

Draft guru Rick Gosselin has a fascinating article on the DMN discussing his critically acclaimed draft formula. He explains the average draft grade this year is the best he’s ever had, meaning teams reached a lot less and got value for the picks they had.

Gosselin also throws out a few good nuggets about the Cowboys. Of the top players at each position that went undrafted this year, the ‘Boys signed two them: defensive end Darrell Robertson of Georgia Tech and punter Jay Ottovegio of Stanford. The NFL is now requiring all of its teams to send their rookies to Canton for a day to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This requirement was based on a suggestion by the one and only Michael Irvin.

The purpose is to educate the newcomers on the NFL's glorious past and impress upon them the opportunity they have to contribute in a positive way to the game's legacy. A few of the teams plan to send one of its Hall of Famers along as an escort and tour guide for the rookies.

Although the name "Michael Irvin" and "escort" brings up some very bad memories, I will say this was an awesome suggestion by the Playmaker. I hope he’s the tour guide and injects some of his passion into our rookie class.

Gosselin doesn’t stop there though. His early Super Bowl prediction is … drumroll please … the Jaguars and the Cowboys!

The Cowboys improved in the draft on special teams, selecting elite college returnmen Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins, and the Jaguars improved their pass rush. I thought there were four elite edge rushers in this draft, and Jacksonville landed two of them in Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves.

Heck yeah. I still haven’t forgot the first loss of the T.O. era, Duval County.

Martellus Bennett is 6-6 and 260. This means he’s almost as tall and bigger than Brandon Bass and as a basketball player may had dreams to replace him one day. But turns out he’s already committed.

"Football is my wife, and basketball will always be my mistress."

This leads me to my next point: this guy gives great copy. It’s a term some people use to describe a player who’s filled with interesting quotes that make stories better. Patrick Crayton was that guy last year. Tom Orsborn at the Express News seems to think Bennett can be that guy this year

Second-round pick Martellus Bennett has all the makings of a go-to guy as a pro — in the locker room for reporters and in the red zone for the Dallas Cowboys.

The loquacious tight end from Texas A&M filled up notebooks and tape recorders at rookie camp last weekend with such gems as:

•"The Cowboys star is kind of like the North Star in that it gives people direction."

•"Nah, man, I got hit in the kids."

Bennett issued that last quote after being asked why he limped after making a catch on a seam route.

There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Bill Parcells completely rebuilt the Dallas Cowboys during his four year stay as head coach. Only four players remain on the Cowboys from the 2002 roster: Greg Ellis, Andre Gurode, Flozell Adams and Roy Williams. Parcells was able to revamp the team and while there were certainly a few mistakes made, a lot of the work was done through successful drafts. When he was unable to get the team over its final hurdle, a postseason victory, he decided that it was time to move on and resigned as head coach. The Cowboys had made a remarkable turn around from the 5-11 teams from just a few years before but it was obvious that someone new was needed to come in and breathe life into Valley Ranch.

Jerry Jones was faced with a tough decision to make. When you have a team that needs complete reconstruction, Bill Parcells is the guy you turn to. But Jerry needed to figure out who would be the best coach that is able to come in and take over a talented roster on the brink of success, as well as working in the most pressure filled environment in sports. While it seemed that Norv Turner was the frontrunner for the job, I was pulling for Wade Phillips from the start because he was the best fit for this team. The Cowboys had already hired an offensive coordinator as well as most of the assistant coaches from the Bill Parcells era. Wade Phillips is the type of guy who could come in and take charge of a team and coaching staff without letting his ego get in the way.

The best thing about Wade Phillips as a coach is that he is a manager of people. His philosophy is that you put your personnel in a position to excel and let them do the work. He allowed his assistants to coach the players without being overbearing while at the same time instilling his own brand on the Cowboys 3-4 defense. He let rookie coordinator Jason Garrett grow into his own as an offensive coach. He also came in and treated his players like grown men, a complete 180 from the stifling ways of the former coach. The locker room was a place of laughter and playful fun. Phillips preached his belief in the power of becoming a family and rearranged the locker room to promote fraternization among teammates. The Cowboys learned how to have fun again and it paid off in a big way.

Wade Phillips took essentially the same team from the 2006 season and went from 9-7 to 13-3, as well as winning the division title for the first time in a decade. With the help of Jason Garrett’s explosive offense the Cowboys enjoyed one of the greatest regular seasons in franchise history. Unfortunately, the fantastic season was abruptly cut short with yet another post-season disaster. A defense that had steadily improved as the season progressed allowed a back-breaking touchdown drive at the end of the first half. An offense that was unstoppable just a month before suddenly became painfully mediocre. And a great season once again ended in bitter disappointment. Immediately the questions started to fly. What went wrong? Are the injuries to blame? No answers were given. Wade Phillips endlessly proclaimed that the Cowboys were the better team and just lost the game. When asked about the season’s disappointment he refused to back down from pointing out the team’s 13-3 record and how the season should be considered a success. This attitude leads us to one last question: Is it the coach’s fault?

Undoubtedly the answer is yes. The Cowboys took it easy the last month with Wade Phillips stubbornly holding on to the hope that his team could regain its swagger from earlier in the season once the playoffs began. He refused to realize that winning was not just a switch that can be turned on when it matters most. Most importantly the Cowboys just looked like a different team in the playoffs and not in a good way. Gone was the high flying Cowboys passing attack from earlier in the season, replaced with a ball control offense that was able to sustain amazingly long drives in the first half against the Giants. Unfortunately, the defense was unable to do its part and allowed New York right back in the game in less than a minute. The whole season the Cowboys thrived on punching you in the mouth, quickly before you had a chance to recover and covered up the shortcomings of the defense. It was the exact opposite come playoff time. This approach lies squarely on the head coach’s shoulders.

The warning signs of this happening were there even before Wade was named the new coach of the Cowboys. He had never won a playoff game in his previous stints as head coach. As the defensive coordinator in San Diego, Phillips helped put together one of the hardest hitting and stifling defenses in the league. But when it mattered most in the playoffs against New England in January 2007, his team once again fell short. That time, it wasn’t lack of execution but a lack of discipline. The San Diego defense was called for two game changing unsportsmanlike penalties in the fourth quarter, which allowed New England to stay alive and win the game. Now look at the Cowboys in 2007 and their game changing penalties throughout the season; taunting on Kevin Burnett at the end of the first half in New York and the holding call on fourth and one against New England, and most importantly the penalties in the fourth quarter of the playoff game against the Giants. The season was littered with penalties that came at the most inopportune times, and it all comes down to lack of discipline.

The hope is that Wade Phillips can take the lessons he learned in his first year as coach of the Cowboys and take them to the next level. He has yet to have the chance to really build and improve the teams he’s coached in his career, never staying more than a few years in each spot. It’s the unfortunate reality of the league these days that if you don’t win immediately the franchise moves on the next guy who can. While he did take over a team that was littered with talent, the Cowboys were not without their glaring holes, especially on defense. The Cowboys were an improved team in 2007 but it is obvious that more needed to be done to take that next step. Through the draft and free agency the Cowboys have drastically improved in several areas of weakness, a good sign for Wade Phillips. But if he doesn’t get it done this year, then most likely he will be on his way out.

The Cowboys are much too talented of a team to come up short again this year, and the pressure is completely on Wade Phillips. Jerry Jones already has his next head coach on staff in Jason Garrett and will not hesitate to promote him if things go wrong again. Wade Phillips has already proven he is a good coach. What the Cowboys need is for him to be a great coach.

Note: While I was doing my Leo Tolstoy impression writing up this epic examination of Wade Phillips' future, Valainferno beat me to the punch with his Cliff's Notes version, here.

 

 

ProFootballTalk.com took a look at the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft and it wasn’t pretty. Antrel Rolle. Carlos Rogers. Mike Williams. Travis Johnson. Whew. That’s a traveling circus of busts. Until they got to this name: DeMarcus Ware.

A 2006 Pro Bowl + a 2007 Pro Bowl = not a bust.

Damn skippy.

Apparently there’s a rumor floating around that Roy Williams, who Tuna famously said once was a biscuit away from being a linebacker, has lost 30 pounds. Again, this is a rumor and has not been substantiated by any major news organizations, but the link discussion of it is here.

If it’s true, I’m a little concerned. Would I even recognize a skinny Roy Williams? Will this effect his ability to deliver punishing blows to receivers? Is this a sign that he’s accepted criticism for his coverage deficiencies? Thirty pounds just seems like a lot of weight.

But on the other hand something had to be done and if this is true maybe Roy is finally starting to get it. The fans aren’t happy with his play and neither are the coaches or they wouldn’t be taking him out on passing downs.

Stay tuned.

Some seem to think a team that participates in HBO Hard Knocks is doomed based on the seasons Dallas, Kansas City and Baltimore had the following season. Is it cursed?

I don’t know about that. The Curse of the Billy Goat. That’s a real curse. The Curse of the Bambino. That’s a real curse. The 27 Club. The Presidential Curse. All certifiable curses. Even the Madden Curse.

The curse of Hard Knocks though? Just not enough evidence. We’re not even in the puberty stage of a curse. This thing has to go on for at least a few more years before it becomes a fully grown curse.

That being said, Tuna was very superstitious. He never wanted to tempt fate or anger the gods of chance. He wouldn’t get caught dead on that show.

Maybe we should’ve followed suit.

In fairness, I admit that I’m not a big Jason Whitlock fan. I feel like reading one of his columns is like smoking pot. Brain cells evaporate by the minute and everyone starts acting goofy and paranoid.

That being said, he has a pretty good column on Foxsports.com about sports blogs and their relationship with the traditional media. His point is this: sports blogs aren’t going anywhere so you might as well get used to them. This is a good point because too many journalists view blogs as a threat and not as a viable source of information. I can tell you my life changed for the better when I found this site. It filled in so many gaps that DMN, the Star-Telegram, ESPN and the NFL.com couldn’t provide.

Darn Whitlock. Now I got the munchies.

 

It’s not often that you have an offense that roars through a regular season setting club records and yet is still questioned in terms of personnel. That is the Dallas Cowboys fate this offseason. One part of the equation was obvious and the Cowboys obviously fixed it. Dallas dispatched their third string running back, Tyson Thompson, early in the offseason while simultaneously displaying no intent at all to bring back one part of its dual running back combo, Julius Jones. This left them with only Marion Barber who was tendered at the highest level as a restricted free agent all but assuring his place on the 2008 roster. Once the RFA deadline passed the Cowboys had the Barbarian for this year and then added Felix Jones and Tashard Choice in the draft giving them a full stable of backs for the 2008 season. Problem solved.

The other part of the equation, the wide receivers, is a little more nebulous than running back and hasn’t been addressed in any meaningful way so far. The question is: Does it need to be addressed? Here is where the paradox comes into place. The Cowboys offense was a high-powered machine for most of the season and the wide receiver position was part of that explosion. So why did almost all the experts list WR as a need in the draft and why did the Cowboys seemingly acknowledge this need by pursuing a veteran through a trade that never came to fruition?

Even today, guys like Pat Kirwan are still referring to this problem.

Lots of people predicted the Cowboys would select a receiver early in the draft, but they never took one even though they had many opportunities to do so. The pressure point(s) in this decision fall in three places: 1. Can Terry Glenn stay healthy? 2. Can Patrick Crayton continue to grow? 3. Will Jerry Jones continue to look for a trade for a marquee player? Wideouts Early Doucet, Earl Bennett and Mario Manningham were still on the board when the Cowboys took tight end Martellus Bennett at the No. 61 spot. One of those players might have been able to help but maybe not enough to skip a player like Bennett, who will play in the Cowboys' two tight end sets. The best thing Dallas can do to relieve the pressure on the receivers is to find a way to make a trade before the season.

 

Yesterday, I linked to a Peter King article that pushed the same theme. I also linked to Wade Phillips’ press conference response saying that Dallas is just fine for the moment with its wide receiver corps. What gives?

There are a few things in play. One is the idea that the Cowboys main WR’s are aged and hobbled. Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn are both in their mid-30’s. Glenn is coming off a knee injury that effectively wiped-out his 2007 season and no one, including the Cowboys organization, is quite sure what his status for this year will be. Glenn is a good route-runner with good hands, but his bread-and-butter has always been his speed and his ability to separate from defenders. A severe knee injury to an older receiver brings up the very real issue that he may never be the same receiver again even if he does make it back on the field. Meanwhile, Terrell Owens, who it should be noted may be in his mid-30’s on a pure chronological basis, has the body of a much younger receiver and shows no signs of slowing down. But, and this is a big issue, when he went down with an ankle injury late in the season, the Cowboys offense began to sputter and his return in the playoff game against the Giants didn’t exactly fix the problem. It can be debated whether he was 100% but most observers would say he wasn’t and the rest of the receiving corps couldn’t make up for it.

When talking about the Cowboys passing game, the experts rarely point out one thing that plays a major role. The Cowboys #2 receiver is really TE Jason Witten. Even when Glenn was healthy they were probably 2a and 2b after T.O. Witten doesn't have to carry the load like some TE’s who were/are the #1 option on their teams like Tony Gonzalez or Antonio Gates, but he should be thought of in that class when evaluating the Cowboys passing offense.

Still, the Cowboys receiving corps is perceived as aging at the top with little backup potential and one injury away from real trouble. The truth is probably not that dire but there is some legitimate reason for concern.

The Breakdown:

Terrell Owens – His time in Dallas has been an unmitigated success and he’s proven that he’s among the elite receivers in this league. But he is creeping up their in age even though his mid-30’s appears to be like other receiver’s late-20’s. The Cowboys have a lot of contracts to settle with a lot of top players and T.O. is one of them, he finishes his original 3-year contract this year. Dallas will have to determine how long they want to re-sign him for and also work within the demands of money that T.O. and his agent drew Rosenhaus will surely ask for. Strictly in terms of football, Dallas most assuredly wants him back after this year, but the salary cap and the player’s age will shape the negotiations. He’s no lock for the future.

Terry Glenn – Just one huge question mark. Can he play again? Can he remain healthy if he gets back on the field? Will he be close to the same player he was if he does get back into the lineup? Dallas will be monitoring this situation very closely in the OTA’s and training camp. Glenn’s future in Dallas ranges from a return to the #2 WR spot to not even making on the 53-man roster because of lingering injury issues. Another WR where the future is uncertain, and unlike T.O., it’s uncertain for this season.

Patrick Crayton – An OK #2 option but a better #3 option. With Glenn’s injury he was pressed into service as the #2 (in pure WR terms, Witten actually fills that role) and during the biggest game of his life he failed not once, but twice, in a major way. Can he be counted on to handle the responsibility again this year?

Sam Hurd – A steady backup guy but doesn’t appear to have the potential to go much further.

Miles Austin – Has all the speed you’d want to break into the upper echelon of the receiving corps, yet seems better at drawing pass interference penalties instead of actually catching the ball.

Isaiah Stanback – We really don’t know what he can do since he was hampered by a foot injury last year and is trying to make the transition from QB to WR. A project with all the physical attributes but no one is really sure if he’ll be able to produce at the position in real games.

After that, you have some young veterans and some fresh-faced UDFA’s who will take their shot at muscling in on some playing time in training camp. So far, it looks like Danny Amendola has the early lead in making that happen.

So there’s the paradox. Essentially the same group of receivers returns that led the Cowboys offense to one of the best seasons in the history of the club. But they also proved the fragility of the situation through injury and inexperience rearing its head in the big playoff game last year. Unless Dallas makes a move for a veteran that can contribute in a meaningful way they will be rolling the dice and hoping to hit the big payoff. But with a little bad luck they could just as easily crap-out.