FanPost

Lots and lots of questions going into 2014

In past years, I've had a pretty good feel for the Cowboys. By training camp, I've been able to do a fair guess at a 53-man roster. I've had a reasonable sense of the possibilities for their season. In 2014? I have nothing but questions. I'm not even sure how many questions I have, so I'm just going to start.

OFFENSE

1. How is Tony Romo's health? Should we be worried about his back? I think the answer is yes, because behind Romo all we have is Brandon Weeden.

2. Is Brandon Weeden a capable backup? Based on the stats for his first two years in the NFL, the answer is likely NO. He was the worst rated QB as a rookie, and last year, he was bad enough that Cleveland was happy to let him go. He has a strong arm, but I don't think he'll ever make decisions at the speed an NFL QB needs to make them. So the season likely rides on #1.

3. Can Demarco Murray stay healthy enough to be a top-5 RB? Murray "only" lost 2 games in 2013, compared to 6 in 2012 and 3 in 2011. He also cracked 1,100 yards and had the best average YPC in the league. It wouldn't take much to launch himself into the top-5. Health, more carries, and a better O-line should do the trick. We'll see. He should be motivated, as it's a contract year.

4. Can Lance Dunbar stay healthy? LD was almost criminally underutilized in 2013. He's tremendous as a change-of-pace back, who can do real damage with a little space. Hopefully Scott Linehan will use him, and LD will be able to stay on the field.

5. Who is going to be the third RB? Joseph Randle, Ryan Williams, or Ben Malena? Randle is the incumbent, but seemed slow last year. I'd say the team might be stronger with Williams or Malena.

6. Will the team carry a fullback? Clutts or Copeland? I think the former answer is going to be yes. I hope the second answer is Copeland.

7. What will Scott Linehan's impact be? These questions are not in order of importance, or this would be on the top of the list of offensive questions. Linehan's offenses leave something to be desired -- lots of yards, not so many points, and often too much passing. But so do Jason Garrett's. Like most here on BTB, I'm ready for something different. Given the talent level on offense, this should be a top-5 scoring team again, with the yards to match. We'll see.

8. Will Gavin Escobar become a weapon? With the Senator still on the roster, Escobar isn't going to get the chance to put up huge numbers. But he could offer a lot more than he did last year, especially in the red zone. I feel the answer will be YES.

9. Will James Hanna's speed ever be used? I believe I read that James Hanna's 40 time was faster than any other receiver on Dallas, including all the wide receivers. If true, it's hard to believe he's seemingly never been asked to run a seam route! I don't know if Hanna will be better utilized now that Linehan is in charge; if it doesn't, he may not even make the final roster.

10. Can Terrence Williams take the next step? Williams was the second most productive rookie WR last year, behind someone for San Diego. For this question I feel confident the answer is YES.

11. How good is our offensive line? If I'm ranking these questions, I put this #2 behind the Linehan question on offense. As I've mentioned many times, the Cowboys' Super Bowl teams have ALWAYS had offensive lines filled with Pro-Bowl caliber linemen. With a great O-line, you can do pretty much what you want to do on offense, which also means you can often control the game. If Dallas makes the playoffs this season, the O-line is going to deserve the lion's share of the credit.

12. Who is going to win the LG spot? Swing tackle? The competition for starting spots is set except at LG, where Bernardeau, Leary, and Nwaneri should have a spirited battle. It's likely all 3 will be retained regardless. At swing tackle, lot of people project Jermey Parnell to be cut as a cost-saving move. I think he'll be kept and win the job.

13. Will the team keep a 4th, or blocking TE? Not a big issue, except when trying to lock down the last few slots on the 53-man roster. We have Jordan Navjar and Dallas Walker in camp.

DEFENSE

14. How much of a difference will Rod Marinelli make as Defensive Coordinator? Not many think Dallas has the roster for a good D, much less a great one. Can this switch at least help Dallas get to the middle of the pack?

15. Can Dallas repeat its turnover numbers from last year? Dallas ended +10 in the turnover department last year, which helped explain why it was last in yards, but only 26th in points given up, and 5th in offensive points, but only 16th in yards gained. Kiffinelli preached this on D, and Romo kept his INTs down. Is it possible to show further improvement? It could be the most important stat for reaching the playoffs.

16. Which 9-10 rushmen will make the 53-man roster? We have at least 16 guys on the roster now. Alphabetically listed as DE: Bass, Crawford, Gardner, Lawrence, Mincey, Rayford, Selvie, Spencer, Wilson. DT: Bishop, Bush, Coleman, Hayden, McLain, Melton, Okoyi. This is the biggest jumble on the team.

17. What positions will the rushmen play? Is George Selvie better from the strong side or weak side? He played on the strong side because of D Ware. But in a pre-season game against Miami -- his coming out party -- he destroyed the Dolphins from the weak side. I wonder if that isn't his best position. He's far from the only question mark. Where is Tyrone Crawford going to play? Where is Ben Bass going to play? Only a few guys seems locked in to certain spots -- Melton as a 3 tech, Hayden as a 1 tech, Lawrence as a weak side DE. Most of the rest seem movable to me.

18. Will Anthony Spencer make it back? Will he play anything like he did before he got hurt? A healthy Spencer was the best player on Dallas's D in 2012. Getting that kind of production back would be HUGE.

19. Will Henry Melton be ready to pick up where he was when healthy in Chicago? With Melton ready today for training camp, there is great hope he can be as productive as he was before. But this may require Dallas to have threats from the other linemen so Melton can't be neutralized by double teams.

20. Will Rolando McClain be ready for some football? Not to put too much pressure on a guy who's retired twice recently, and had many run-ins with the criminal justice system, but this could be one of the most impactful questions on the D this season. I don't see anyone else on the roster able to handle the Mike job with excellence. So I certainly hope McClain emerges to take over this job by the start of the season. The rest of the options seem rather bad to me. I like the playmaking skills of DeVonte Holloman, but he had only 26 tackles last year and played in only 9 games. Justin Durant had only 24 tackles last year, and played in only 10 games. He had 103 tackles the year before in Detroit, but I can't see him holding down the starting Mike job well. Anthony Hitchens is a rookie, but might be the best choice if McClain can't go. Let's just hope like heck that McClain can go.

21. Will the talented Bruce Carter please step up? Carter's emergence as a quality weak-side linebacker would have as much impact for the D as a rejuvenated Rolando McClain would. And since the strong-side LB isn't on the field that much -- giving way to a extra DB -- having Carter and McClain as a quality LB duo could make all the difference. But none of us have any idea if that's going to happen.

22. Can Mo Claiborne win a starting CB job? Here's another area where the D could show improvement -- if Mo Claiborne emerges to beat out Scandrick for the RCB job. It might increase the CB INTs, as Scandrick has never had more than 2 in a season.

23. Will Brandon Carr play to the value of his contract? Carr was another CB disappointment last season. Pierre Garcon just whipped him in the second Washington game. Fortunately, Scandrick got shifted to Garcon at the end of the game and knocked down a critical pass. Megatron also destroyed Carr. If Mo beats Scandrick out, there will be some improvement, but improvement from Carr could make a much bigger difference, because he was bad.

24. Can Dallas get good, solid safety play? Having excellent safety play can be hugely important to a D. Dallas has tried to cut corners here for years. It this the year we finally begin to see some turnaround? There are a bunch of sub-questions here: can Barry Church take his game to a higher level?, can JJ Wilcox grow into being a quality safety?, will Matt Johnson stay healthy and make the team? can someone beat out Jeff Heath so he's relegated to special teams play? (I thought he was awful on defense).

25. Who will be the new faces on D? Will Terrence Mitchell stick at CB? Will Matt Johnson stay healthy and earn a roster spot? What about Jakar Hamilton? We have lots of new linemen -- see above -- who's going to make the roster? Possibly new linebackers in McClain and Hitchens. Should be significant turnover.

26. Can the team somehow get to 40 sacks? Sacks are not a great correlation with the top defenses. Seattle had clearly the best D, but only got 44 sacks, well below Carolina's 60. Buffalo was #2 in sacks with 57, but had a horrible D. Yet, I think all would agree a good pass rush helps the secondary, and helps the team. This is going to be a challenge.

27. Will Josh Brent return this year? With him having served his time, the door appears to be open for a Brent return. If he came back close to the way he left, he'd likely push Nick Hayden off the roster, and give us a potential force inside. I'm not advocating either way, just asking the question.

SPECIAL TEAMS

28. Will we have a new punter? Cody Mandell might give Chris Jones a real competition. I have no idea who will win.

29. Will the team add any special teams aces to the roster? Last year at the end of training camp, the team added Kyle Bosworth and Edgar Jones because of their special teams skills. Will the team need to do that again?

HEAD COACH

30. Will Jason Garrett improve his game-management skills? Now that Garrett is a walk-around head coach not responsible for calling (or relaying) plays, will he finally make correct game-management decisions that help win games. I just read Bob Sturm's opening of training camp blog, and he pointed to two winnable games that turned on game management -- at Detroit and at home against Green Bay. In Detroit, had we just kneeled on 3rd down instead of running and taking a penalty that stopped the clock, we wouldn't have given Detroit the opening to beat us with a late TD. Against GB, a little more second half ball control should have done the trick. That's only two examples. There have been others. Will Garrett finally step it up?

I really have no idea the answers to most of these questions. And how they turn out could swing the team from as bad as 6-10 (if Romo goes down), to possibly 10-6 ( hard to project higher given the schedule).

Now that training camp has begun, we ought to begin to know the answers to at least some of them soon.

GO COWBOYS!!

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.