Morning Report -- Wednesday, August 17th

have you got any autographs yet?

Nope. I may shoot some video the last day, but that’s more valuable to me than autographs.

I spoke with one of Parcells’ daughters today and she asked me how things were going for the Cowboys. I asked why, and she said that he was unusually chipper last night on the phone, cracking jokes with her, which was out of character for him. She mentioned that he must be in a good mood.

Your reports that he also seems in good spirits seems to substantiate this. Maybe things are going better than he expected at this point.

One can only hope.

Wonder how he will be tonight? THe O was not as good today. I think that BP is confident that the D will be at the least good (miles better then last year) and now wants the O to start getting it together. Despite all the hype about TT, I really do not think that BP will be using him a lot, unless barber and A train dissapoint. Really looks like they are going to push Pettiti hard and see if they can get away with him starting- thats a big IF for BP- but being as he is at RT its not like he is protecting DB’s blindside- no way BP ever starts a rookie for that. ROgers- I really think he is going to be riding the bench a lot this year- BP has no confidence the guy can play and stay healthy; or play through the pain.

Good? … Therrrrre great!!

Look at what is assembling on defense. There are five 1st round draft choices, then you have Burnett (a 2nd, but could have easily been a 1st), Glover (a Pro Bowler), Canty (a projected 1st rounder), and Aaron Glenn (another Pro Bowler). Dat, Henry, and Ferguson are proven solid NFL players. … This can be some defense here!!

Not such a happy birthday for Jacob Rogers.

petitte is gonna get alot of reps monday night. glad to hear about tglenn. ware will be fine i bet by reg season if hes the man they claim he is. i want spears back, this d-line is gonna be amazing if hes healthy.

i read where lawrence taylor is coming next week to help out ware, i guess he called parcells and let him now that.

Man i just found about this blog from footballguys.com forums. What a great read. Man keep up the good work. I feel like after reading this i am right there watching all the plays. This blog is superior to anything that i have read about Dallas training camps from the internet.

jason:

Thanks. Spread the word… :wink:

Thanks for the update on Glenn and Henry. I would have preferred it to have been Henry was shutting down Terry too. Still if Terry stays healthy he was a definite spark in our offense til the injury. I think Bledsoe will definitely like hitting him again, and Witten……..and old reliable Keyshawn too.

So Zuriel Smith gets cut…………Tom Crowder is higher on the depth chart. Are any of the other FA Wideouts looking very good?

Jon,

Good point about Crowder. It seems like Parcells wants to give guys more reps, because the cuts came early.

Maybe he has found a returner also in either Thompson, Barber, Newman or A Glenn. I thought Smith did some return stuff in the past. You know Newman has some good speed, I might take a chance on him as a KR or PR if nobody else steps up. Maybe one or the other probably not both. You know with Henry, Glenn, Frazier and the rest of the sophomore corners looking to improve CB might be one of our better positions. I sure hope so, lord knows I am tired of seeing all that passing on our D. Add in a Ware, Canty, Spears, Burnett and just maybe we are onto something. I like the comments I keep reading on Ware. Sounds like folks are seeing something special in the rookie even though he is learning a new position.

You know, although I hated having a losing season. Having Bill Parcells as our TALENT SCOUT at the Senior Bowl and all that cuz we weren’t in the playoffs. Might just might come back to be a very very good blessing. For a long time to come.

It also might be an indication of how well Crayton and Copper are doing as well no need to keep a guy around if the 3, 4, 5 are pretty sure thing.

Oh well just guessing. I think Crowder is getting penciled in on Special Teams also. Would be a bonus if the guy can develop into a WR, or a KR or PR as well.

Jon,

I agree with you, that Crowder will be around on Special Teams, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see his speed on offense once in a while. I’d love to see him and Terry Glenn stretch the defense! The possibilities!

I think Petitti will be our RT……… BP is sure giving him the opportunity, and I think he will respond well.

Rafeal, how is crayton looking? Im not at all suprised at glenn. In my humble opinion, he was on his way to a pro bowl last year when he got injured. Thats the problem. He gets injured EVERY year it seems like. Rafael, is bledsowe still looking better than the other two guys? It seems like things are getting real shaky with him. I dont know how quick parcells would be to replace bledsowe with one of the other ones even if one outplayed him. Parcells and Bledsowe made it clear that he would start. But it seems that hes not looking too good. If someones gonna suck, id rather it be a young guy who can get better. Bledsowe should be stepping in and producing immediatly and it seems like hes really struggling.

We may catch a lucky break against the Chargers. I just read on Foxsports that if Antonio Gates doesn’t sign tender to end his holdout by Saturday they’re going to hold him out against Dallas on Sept. 11. That would be a HUGE break for the Boys.

ericp:

I can only say one thing in Bledsoe’s favor, and that is that what he might be trying right now, isn’t impressing people, maybe what he’s trying is getting comfortable with his weapons and adjusting his timing with the receivers, I at least know that the bunch of short passes are aimed to that goal… So I would say that there’s no need to start jumping out of the boat, because it might not sink, but can also sink.

Man that would be nice! A win against the chargers could really set the tone. Especially with san fran, wash, and oak coming up. We should win two of those three. Three and one would be a great way to start the season!

Yeah im with you chandus. I know its way early to see what hes got. My biggest concern there is what will happen if he doesnt pull it together you know? Will parcells be reluctant to replace him? I hope not. But your right. No matter how he does, we havent seen him in action yet.

And you know, ericp, there’s talk that Antonio Gates won’t be there on opening day, he’s still absent from their training camp, he wants to redo his contract, so SD staff made their stance clear when announcing that if he doesn’t finish his dispute he will be punished for what might become the first three games… I’ll take my chances on SD without AG, it’s a solid team, but one that might not have his star on Offense.

I know this is a long shot. But if we meet philly at 3 and 1, we could have a good shot to beat them. If we did nothing else this year, beating philly once would make it all ok. If we beat sd, we will have a better than average chance to mett philly at 3 and 1. Man that would be sweet!Chandus, You think TO will be an eagle this year? I heard a guy on the nfl channel say hed be suprised to see them keep him this season.

The O line:

It’s vital that someone shows up at right tackle. Here’s why…

If our O line is Adams, Allen, Johnson, Rivera, and player X,
then we have Gerode as a backup center/guard, and Vollers at LT/RT.

That means we only have to take 7 O lineman to the game, and we can dress 8 D lineman!

Petiti doesn’t do it for me this year, Rogers is unreliable. We need to sign somebody.

Chandus,

If we beat SD, why wouldn’t we meet Philly at 4-0? Of course we could be 1-3 but we own the Redskins (plus it’s ring of honor night on nat’l TV), SF is going to be terrible with a rookie QB, and we’re not traveling (staying in Cali) for the Raiders – who won’t be quite able to score enough against our D.

You heard it from Big Jim first, we’re going to sweep the Eagles this year (don’t forget the second time we play them is on Mon night after our bye week- plenty of time to prepare)!

Big Jim, I agree. Im not saying we cant be 4 and 0 if we beat sd. In fact, it looks like we could easily do it. Im just saying we could EASILY be 3 and 1. 4 and 0 would be great thuogh. You know, in the nfl, anyone can win any week. Any one of those teams could step up and suprise us, just like we could do to sd or philly. Especially with all the new guys were starting this year. Wouldnt 5 and 0 be a freakin dream? Especially if the beagles were one of the 5. What do you think? will TO be a beagle this year? If not, they lose their three top wr’s they had last year.

I think TO will play and will play well. Barring injury, our best 11 will have to beat their best 11 on both sides of the ball.

Would you really want to win any other way?

No, but id be liing if i said i wouldnt be happy to see him leave. Hes not an eagle anyway, hes his own guy. They all are, but especially him. Your rihgt though, it wouldnt be as sweet if we beat em without their best players.

I have a feeling that we will get at least one win off them this year, with or without TO. Im just tired of watching him dance on that star. What a turd. but anyway, back to the boys. I think all this pettiti stuff is just more bad news at rt. He aint getting this attention cause hes so good. Hes getting it cause everyonr else is sooo bad. I hope we get something going there. Im still confident though. Fs is looking good. If we only have one position that is that bad, thats better shape than weve been in in a long time. I heard someone say (i cant remember who) that the suprise wasnt that we went 6 and 10 last year, It was that we went 10 and 6 in ’03 with the players we had.

EricR,

I think you are right about the cuts. I suspect the coaches got together to decide who would play how much in the next game. When it came around to the guys who were cut, they decided they would rather give the reps to other people. Rather than risk an injury during practice that would put someone they don’t want on IR, they cut them immediately.

I kindof hate to see z smith go though. I think he had promise. I guess you gotta cut someone though.

ericp,

I concur about Smith. I’m wondering who will be our return men. It certainly didn’t seem as though that had been established by what was shown in the Arizona game. Thompson may be fast, be he doesn’t yet have the instincts for being a kick returner. I hope someone has been showing something in practice. It didn’t happen in the game.

Of course, Newman is always a possibility for punt returns, and they will probably not use him at all there in preseason.

For some reason, I still think Rogers will win the RT spot.

I know, he doesn’t seem to have the toughness, but he does have the talent. In the end, talent wins out. He’s just getting the tough love from BP.

If not, then Gragg will be our RT. No way Verba gets signed…too much of a t.o. type.

talent doesn’t mean diddly if you are not there to play. He is real close to BP writing him off since he is never healthy and is not reliable. Pettiti can do it- he is already better then Rogers was last year when he was trying to make the shift. Now whether he is good enough is another story- but he is certainly better then Tucker and at least as good as Vollers.

About KReturns, I think that Parcells has a card under his sleeve, no one is mentioning JuiceJ as the possible KR, in Notre Dame he excelled at it, don’t you think that Parcells with the depth he now has would be in favor to play there his best returner? One thing about Smith, he wasn’t flashy, just average.

Big Jim,

If Petetti or Rogers can’t handle the position, I think plan B is moving Allen to RT and Johnson to LG, esecially if Gurode can play a couple of games without any mental breakdowns. At this point I don’t think you will find a better player out there.

Sweeping Philly? .. I do think Dallas (and the Giants) are much closer than anyone thinks. Our defense has five 1st rounders, two Pro Bowlers, Burnett and Canty (were projected 1st rounders), and then Henry, Ferguson, and Dat … that is 12 really good players, plus Beriault, Davis, James, Singleton, and Shanle give you a nice group of roll players. .. The defense should keep us in every game.

i dont think you move allen anywhere. u havent heard enough about petterman to warrent the move, why be better at rt to go down at lg where the rush up the middle will completely kill bledsoe. at least if it is off the corner he can step up and get rid of it quicker. if the rush is in the middle bledsoe goes down as almost any other qb in the league. petitte will be fine bp is giving this kid to much of an opportunity not to be decent.

A fantastic blog.

I am the English guy (not sure I have ever been referred to as a gentleman before!!!) Rafael refers to in this blog – and I can confirm that you will seldom read ANYTHING approaching this depth and with this ACCURACY.

Thank you very much for the brilliant blogs, and also for the kind mention.

Best wishes,

Chris.

PS. Where would we be without the internet? I remember those Sunday evenings (UK time) as a kid struggling to pick up those radio broadcasts – trying to piece together the game. Thoroughly enjoyable. Just realised part of my dream by being at TC in Oxnard!