Cowboys wide receivers still the subject of debate

For a wide receiver corps that was very productive last season – ok, you need to throw Jason Witten into that mix for it to really ring true - the Dallas Cowboys WR’s sure get a lot of scrutiny. The storyline going into the draft was they needed to pick up a young receiver with speed to plan for a future without Terry Glenn and possibly Terrell Owens, who was in the last year of his contract. I wrote about this paradox of production vs. perception earlier in the offseason and it’s a topic still being debated. Terry Glenn and the Cowboys are trying to work out a contract compromise, but as of yet they’ve failed to reach that goal. The debate over T.O.’s future is now moot after he signed a new deal that will have him end his career as a Cowboy.

Recently, the rumor that Dallas was having an internal debate about going after Atlanta WR Joe Horn has hit the media airwaves. As some have cleverly noted, maybe the Joe Horn rumor was a negotiating ploy by Jerry and Co. Perhaps they were saying to Glenn: "If you don’t want to be our aging, injury-prone receiver, then Joe Horn can be our aging, injury-prone receiver." Who knows what the real truth is behind that rumor but coincidentally or not, Glenn is making noise about working out a deal and has hired back his former agent and talks are happening.

The Star-T has an article on the Glenn situation that doesn’t cover anything new than what was reported yesterday, but contains this curious paragraph at the end.

The Cowboys are encouraged by the progress Glenn has made but are concerned about his durability — and possibly his effect on the team.

According to a source, there are those in the organization who think Glenn’s return for the playoffs might have had a negative impact on his replacement, Patrick Crayton. Despite a solid regular season in which he posted career highs with 50 catches for 697 yards and seven touchdowns, Crayton played poorly in the NFC divisional playoff loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

That’s just nutty. That statement suggests that Patrick Crayton is so weak-minded that the presence of Glenn caused him to have one of his worst games when it mattered the most. I find it hard to believe that such an occurrence is the truth. Crayton has always – warranted or not – appeared to be supremely confident in his own abilities and isn’t afraid of running his mouth to prove it. Of course, there is the old maxim that the most vocally confident are really just masking massive insecurities. Let’s stay away from the pop-psychology for the time being and figure that this source is feeding us a big helping of bunk. It’s not like Crayton hasn’t played before with Glenn on the field for several prior seasons. More likely, Crayton just had one of those days and unfortunately had it when the Cowboys needed him the most.

Thanks to DCFanatic I was able to post below video of Terence Newman’s recent foray into TV broadcasting. Newman was pretty good but if you watch the video, I think Tank Johnson would have been the better choice. That guy has an infectious personality. But the experience was enough for Newman to consider a career after football.

"TV might be the way to go," he said. "It's definitely a good experience; a good way to see whether I like it or not. Getting a chance to be hands-on and take on questions and ask questions, it's a good experience for sure."

One of the more interesting things Newman said in his stint on NFL Live was that he considers anything less than a Super Bowl to be a failed season for Dallas this year. Sure most players believe that but usually don’t express it in such black-and-white terms. He expressed a similar sentiment in the DMN article linked above.

"The expectations will always be high," Newman said. "I don't care who you have on your team, everybody expects to win the Super Bowl or a playoff game when you get to a certain level. Last year, we expected to go to the Super Bowl and win it. I think we will have the same expectations this year."

Most of us believe that the Cowboys roster is as strong as it’s been since the ‘90s dynasty and should compete for Super Bowl. Personally, my own goal for this team is to at least win a playoff game, and then I’ll worry about the Super Bowl. I just can’t handle another season of losing the first playoff game.

What’s your level of expectations for this team; what is considered success and what is considered failure?