Depth Charts of the Phillips Era

Great effort, dude! And you know that I just had to sum up the stars, right?

07: 156, 08: 154, 09: 160, 10:168 – I excluded the players on IR and all players in brackets.

The high number for this year’s roster makes me wonder whether you’ve overvalued the rookies and UDFAs relative to the previous years.

I agree with the most of your ratings but since that’s no fun I’ll be pedantic and list everything I disagree with;

Until Marion Barber he proves on the field he’s got some spring back he’s a 3 Star back at present (over the last 2 years he’s averaged 935 yards at 4.0 a carry = average).

For what WR Roy Williams has done here so far I don’t think you can give him more than 3 Stars either year.

Dez Bryant getting 4 Stars this year is based on only hope at this point. Dez has not even caught a pass in the NFL (not even in preseason!) so calling him a 4 Star player is a stretch.

2007 Miles Austin should only be a 2 Star player (he caught 5 passes and 0 Td’s that season) as he was still very raw then.

In 2007 and 2008 I wouldn’t rate Flozell Adams a 5 Star player. He probably led the NFL in penalties during that time and also got Romo smacked around in more than a few games. He gets a 4 Star for 07 and probably a 3 Star for 08 from me.

I would give Doug Free 4 Stars for his 10 games at RT in 09 and think he’s shown nothing to make me change my mind that he’s on pace for anything but a 4 Star performance at LT in 2010.

Alex Barron – I would only give him 2 Stars. He was a disappointment in St Louis and he’s proven nothing here so far.

Leonard Davis doesn’t deserve 5 Stars for his 07/08/09 campaigns. I’d give him 4 Stars for 07 and maybe just barely for 08 too. 3 Stars for 09 and he should start this year as a 3 Star player.

Andre Gurode doesn’t get 5 Stars for 09 from me. 4 Stars is plenty for that year and he should start at 4 Stars this year.

I would be tempted to give Spears 3 Stars instead of 4 for his 07 and 08. He did have a career year in 09 so maybe 4 Stars is fair enough for that. And Jason Hatcher getting 3 Stars for four straight years is a stretch. I can’t think of a single memorable play that guy has made in his entire time here. He’s a 2 Star player until he does something noticeable.

Greg Ellis 4 Stars in 07.

With Sean Lee apparently getting dropped from the Nickle because he’s not ready I don’t see how he can be a 3 Star player. He’s a 2 Star for now. And Stephen Hodge has had a serious knee op and for all we know at present he might not play again so I think he should be 1 Star until he proves otherwise.

I’d go 4 Stars for Terrence Newman in 08 (injuries etc) and possibly 09 too. He’s a great cover man but a poor tackler and struggles to find the ball in the air.

Alan Ball has done nothing to prove that he’s a 3 Star player yet. He’s a 2 star until he shows he can make plays on the ball and make the last line of defense tackles necessary at Safety.

Safety Roy Williams and Safety Ken Hamlin both 5 Stars in 07 is overkill. I’d go a 3 Star year Williams and a 4 Star for Hamlin.

Barry Church = 1 Star. Probably Danny McCray too.

I couldn’t give David Buehler a 5 Star performance for 09. When Folk went mad the team went and hired someone else (who also sucked) rather than give Buehler a go. He was half a kicker in 09 and although he was a great KO guy and that’s not enough to be a 5 Star player, overall he’s a 3 Star in 09. I agree with your 4 Star projection for Buehler in 2010 though as he’s looked great in kickoffs and good at FG’s this preseason.

Well, that late night rant was fun. Thanks for the article I’m off to bed.

Goodnight all.

Also agree with most ratings, and double down on OCCs caution for rating players before the season starts. I do understand you are projecting and I wish for many 5 stars in 2010 of course!

I disagree with your OLine ratings.
Gurode and Davis were our weak links for all of last year.

Also remember all the over the head shotgun snaps we had to live through in ‘07? The one great scramble where Romo had to chase the ball for about 20 yards back wards and made the great play getting about a 2 yard game? The game where he sent 2 over Romo’s reach?

The good writers here broke down the inside stunts during both the Minnesota playoff game and the Houston Pre Season game last year and this.
Both are excellent examples of how bad these two handle rushes and stunts that are anything more than one guy lined up on their nose coming straight forward. If this keeps up Romo will never have time to pass without running wide like he has to do so much of the time.

Also keep in mind Kosier calls the line blocks, not Gurode.
I have never heard of a Guard making the line calls before, this is the C job, but ours is not smart enough.

Speaking of Kosier I give him 4 stars across the board for not only calling the line play, but grading out as our best linemen game in and game out for the past 2 years. In ’08 when he had a foot injury we found out had bad Procter and Gurode were together and how much we missed Kosier.

I do agree with you on FLO however, despite the penalties he has been one of the NFL’s best LTs over the years. The two exceptions being in ’08 when he had injuries to his neck and hand on oppostie sides of his body leaving him with zero good wings. He should not have even been out there but we had nobody (MCQ?) to replace him.

Also runs to his side are our best producers (again thanks to past data delving posts from our beat writers here on BTB).

Colombo is our enforcer (think hockey goon) and is a powerful run blocker, but he is league average for a RT.

In all I would give your stars to the OL like this:
Flo 5 for ’07 / 4 for ’08 / 3 for ’09
Kosier 4 for ’07 / a + for ’08 as he only played 2 full games / 4 for ’09 / 4 for 10

Gurode 3 for ’07 / 4 for ’08 / 3 for ’09 / 3 (on a prayer) for 10
Davis 5 for ’07 / 4 for ’08 / 3 for ’09 / 3 (based on Pre Season) for 10
(by the way everybody say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Bigg today, he is 32)

Colombo 4 for ’07 / 4 for ’08 / 4 for half of ’09 – + for half / 3 for 10 until we see how the leg and psyche has healed.

I think you overrate Roy Williams (WR) a bit much, but overall your ratings are accurate and well adjusted year-to-year. A good read.

and yess i can def see where it would have taken a bit of time to compile, thanks for the read . ok…wheres your next article? ya know ya gotta roll em out now that you have started …(grins )

i would go with them on al OCC posts even if BTB goes down on roughness

I think Kosier is better than Bigg right now. Great work!

It’s obvious that the 8 hours you put in were worth it to all of us. Thanks for the effort and the many extra hours editing to match general consensus with so many of us.

Spencer with 5 stars? I would argue that he needs to show more and more consistency before he gets the same grade as Ware.

Doug Free already gets 4 stars? Why?

I can’t support your rating of Felix…yet. 3 for him until he gets through a full season without getting nicked.

I’d give Spears and Igor both 3 stars. Anything more is indefensible.

Sensei gets 4? Hmmmmm

I’d give Scandrick another star. He’s started and while he had a rough patch early last year, he got untracked. He’s a great #3 CB, IMO.

I really like what Wade is doing this year in the youth movement

L.Davis is a Pro Bowler at guard, Barron is decent as a Backup, and Newman rarely gets beat. I think those ratings are appropriate.

but i think people under estimate how good Flo really was/is. it wasn’t that Free out played Flo & won the job it was Jerrys decision based on saving money. Free is in a contract year so they used that as the excuse to release Flo but in reality we could’ve kept Free w/ a 2nd rd tender next season bc no one really kne who he was.
 i still think this OL would’ve been in better shape w/ Flo starting at LT & keeping Free as the swing tackle 1 more year bc theirs a lot of unknown about Free. also J.Allen & guys like that will be a handful for Free to handle but Flo did a great job even late in his career. i’m excited to see how Free does but i’m also worried about his ability in the pass rush.
 Ball was a below average CB & never broke the 4th spot so moving him to FS is more of a unknown. right now its a mystery as to how good/bad Ball will be but if not then i think Hamlin will be an option or Akwasi.
 also what has Akwasi done to be anything but a 1 star? he was 4th round draft pick thats an unknown right now.
 Lee is better then J.Williams & you can even put Leon above JWill. the same goes for Church, right now he’s a 1 star player that wasn’t even drafted.

At least that is what I understood

I thought he was going to Replace Starks and then Starks would Move to RT