I’d be happy with a playoff win this year but my team doesn’t just play for playoff wins. We play for Super Bowls.

Foxsports.com’s John Czarnecki lists five teams he believes could compete for a championship and guess who made the cut? That’s right! The Dallas Cowboys. Key graphs.

Dallas simply ran out of gas and defensive backs last season when the Giants upset them in the playoffs. That shouldn't happen this year because the Cowboys are loaded at cornerback if Pacman Jones is reinstated (and continues to behave himself), plus if rookies Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick continue to improve. Scandrick, a fifth-round pick from Boise State, out-played Jenkins in a recent mini-camp. Starters Anthony Henry and Terence Newman return. Granted, the Cowboys have to figure out how to handle safety Roy Williams, who remains a major liability in pass coverage. If Wade Phillips can figure out how to use Williams properly, the defense should be prepared for all those three and four receiver sets that worked so successfully against it last season.

The Cowboys remain solid on offense as long as Tony Romo keeps improving. Jason Garrett knows how to keep Terrell Owens motivated and tight end Jason Witten is a rising star. And don't worry about the loss of Julius Jones in free agency because rookies Felix Jones and Tashard Choice, who rushed for over 2,800 yards at Georgia Tech, give Garrett two options next to bruiser Marion Barber. Granted, the NFC East could be football's toughest division this season, but the Cowboys caught a schedule break by catching the NFC West and the AFC North this season.

Of course I agree with Czarnecki about the Cowboys but the list is kind of dubious. He also cites the Vikings, the Panthers and the Browns as teams that could end up in the Super Bowl this year. Yikes. Don’t know about the Vikings or the Browns. The Vikings have QB problems and the Browns are in a tough division. The Panthers always seems to be on lists like these but it never seems to materialize. I think the ‘Boys are really the only team ready to challenge for a ring on this list. Just my unbiased opinion.

Tony Romo and Patrick Crayton look back at the playoff loss to the Giants. They come to two conclusions: that sucked and we can learn from it.

Drew Pearson and Tony Casillas are being inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. Congrats guys.

What’s that old school classic by The Stylistics? "Break Up to Make Up" is the song I'm thinking about. Is this the nature of Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson’s relationship? As the song says, "break to make up/ that’s all we do/ that’s all we do/ first you love me/then you hate me/ that’s a game for fools."

Romo was heard saying "Me and Jessica are done" in Chicago. Then Team Jessica responded quickly to stamp out that rumor. Romo has reiterated that he doesn’t want to talk about it. So that’s where we are: the adamant denial of a rumor but Team Jess while Romo stays quiet.

Wow. Too much tabloid junk for me to handle. I need a shower.

ESPN has a pretty good Q&A with T.O.

Sam Alipour had an interesting 10-minute phone conversation with Owens. The highlights of the conversation are: his thoughts on Simpson writing a song about Romo on her new album, Flavor Flav being a huge Cowboy and T.O. fan and what his gift would be if and when Romo and Simpson decide to get married.

Pretty hilarious.

Hat tip to jsams for his FanShot here.

Last season I had some fun by calling T.O. a pod-person. It was kind of in jest but it was kind of serious. When I heard we were signing T.O. a couple of years ago I was very skeptical. I knew he had the talent, I saw what he did in San Francisco and what he did in Philadelphia, but that was on the field. He was already starting to tear apart the team in San Francisco off the field before they jettisoned him. I watched the sideline tantrums, the belittling of Jeff Garcia, and of course, the despicable desecration of the star. At that time I wanted no part of him. Then he ended up in Philly and when he helped them get to the Super Bowl and made a super-human effort to play in that game coming off of the leg injury, it made me ill. Basically, any time Philly succeeds in football it makes me ill. But when the next season rolled around and the old T.O. was back and was ripping apart another team, I giggled in glee. Good, I thought, glad to see the Eagles going down in flames.

Then Jerry Jones decided he was going to bring T.O. to Big D and I thought he’d lost his mind. Sure I salivated at his talent, but dreaded the inevitable blow-up that would crush our team. The first year was a rocky one as T.O. and Tuna never could get together. But last year, once Wade Phillips was brought on board it was like we had a re-born T.O. And that’s when I started the pod-person jokes because it was like an alien presence had invaded his body and created a whole new persona. I was still a little weary; I thought the old T.O. could come back at anytime.

But now, I’m almost convinced that T.O. is a changed person for good. I know I might be jinxing things by saying it, but he really does appear to be a new man. If there was one thing I thought might trigger a repeat of his past was the fact that he’s entering the final year of the three-year contract he originally signed. The words renegotiation, T.O. and Drew Rosenhaus together scare me more than Romo’s singing at a Cubs game. Seriously, if there was to be a meltdown I thought this would be the trigger.

But go to this article or this article and read the comments from the new T.O. Unless his recent stint on Flavor Flav’s new show has turned him into Al Pacino, I don’t think he’s acting. He sounds sincere.

The highlights are he wants to end his career in Dallas and go into the Hall of Fame as a Cowboy. He claims he’ll let the negotiations play out and it won’t be a distraction. He wants to play another 3-5 years if he’s still playing at a high level. He wants everyone to remember that Terry Glenn could be back and that even if Jerry did bring a Roy Williams or Chad Johnson or whoever, he would be just fine with it. He only cares about winning and not individual stats. He wants to get back to the playoffs badly and finish it this time with a Super Bowl victory. He says he helped Tank Johnson fit in when he came on board and will do the same with Pacman. T.O. praises Jerry Jones, Calvin Hill and crew for making the Cowboys a team where everybody can fit in.

Yeah, it does sound too good to be true. But that’s the new T.O., as long as he's not just acting.

The Dallas Cowboys are going Hollywood. By now everybody knows we’ll be on HBO’s Hard Knocks this summer. But wait, there’s more. T.O. will make his own Hollywood mark this week.

T.O. will make his sitcom acting debut on the MyNetworkTV show "Under One Roof" as the long-lost brother of the show's star, Flavor Flav. Owens tries convincing Flav and sitcom sibling Kelly Perine that they're all brothers in hopes of getting them to invest in his Web site.

T.O.’s debut will be this Wednesday, but it’s only the beginning for the receiver-turned-entertainer.  

"If I'm going to really consider doing acting after football, this a great start to let me get my feet wet," Owens said. "For an actor trying to become an A-lister, I think I'm on the bottom of the pile. I'm a D-lister."

T.O. talks a lot more about his potential acting career in the article.

[UPDATE] - The promotions people at MyNetworkTV wanted me to let you guys know that the show is on Wednesday, May 14th at 8 PM EST. They also sent me some links to a couple of clips from T.O.'s performance. Enjoy!

T.O. clip 1

T.O. clip 2

[END UPDATE]

Not to be outdone, Tony Romo sang Take Me Out To The Ballgame at a Cubs game yesterday and threw out the first pitch. The reviews for his first pitch? 

Cubs fans showered Dallas Cowboys quarterback and former Eastern Illinois star Tony Romo with loud boos as he threw out the first pitch.

But what about his singing? Well, you can be the judge by watching the clip, here.

I'd say his voice ranks somewhere between his girlfriend's and a constipated basset hound.

Hat tip Deke for posting the link to the video.

ESPN has it’s early Power Rankings out and the Cowboys come in at #4. 

Felix Jones should help the running game immediately. But who will emerge as the No. 2 receiver? Patrick Crayton wasn't up to the task in late '07.

Crayton’s playoff game performance still haunts this team. He better use it as motivation.

And finally, when I want opinion on the reinstatement of Pacman Jones, there’s only one place I turn to – The BBC. 

The Dead Zone. We don’t have another OTA until May 20^th. Pacman and his team have gone underground and haven’t uttered a peep. Greg Ellis spiced things up briefly but even that has been played-out. The only thing people are really talking about is the Cowboys star-turn in HBO’s Hard Knocks series. Naturally Steve Sabol and crew are very excited about getting the Cowboys to agree to expose their deepest, darkest secrets to a cable audience. Of note is that after the Cowboys did Hard Knocks in 2002, the series was dormant until the Kansas City Chiefs revived it last year. The reason? Besides the Summer Olympics one year, NFL Films couldn’t find a team to agree to do the series. I wonder why? They certainly weren’t going to get access to the Cowboys while the Tuna was here. Now that Jerry Jones is running the team his own way again, and with the affable Wade Phillips as the coach, the Cowboys are back in the business of Hollywood. Not everyone agrees it’s a good idea.

BTB-regular Nelson posted a FanPost wondering if the Cowboys should pursue recently cut Packers receiver Koren Robinson. Pat Kirwan agrees that Dallas should take a look and has Robinson ranked as the #4 talent in the NFL still looking for a team. 

4. Koren Robinson, WR: Just released by the Packers and young enough to still have a good career. He has return skills as well as being a big target. A team like Dallas should take a look at him.

Adam Schefter is also talking free-agents, but he’s discussing the guys for the 2009 season . A couple of Cowboys makes his list of the top-10 potential free agents in 2009.

4. Marion Barber, Cowboys running back –- Last season, one NFC coach said Barber is an elite back in the same class as LaDainian Tomlinson or Adrian Peterson. Now he wants to be paid that way.

8. Terrell Owens, Cowboys wide receiver -– At the age of 34, T.O. is performing like he were 24.

Don Banks does excellent work in breaking down what the 80-man roster limit means now that there are no exemptions for NFL Europe and the limit will be strictly enforced.  

The potential ripple effect that will be spawned by the simmering controversy threatens to impact everything from the amount of throwing starting quarterbacks may be forced to do in camp, to the elevated playing time and risk of injury for veterans this preseason, to the decreased opportunity that rookies will receive in their bids to make an NFL regular-season roster.

One prime example of the difficult internal roster decisions that are now unfolding revolves around the issue of how many specialists teams can afford to bring to camp. Before this year, standard operating procedure was to bring two kickers, two punters and two long-snappers to camp. That's a luxury not likely to continue at the 80-man limit.

There’s a lot more in the article. Check it out.

Spygate lumbers on as we find out the Patriots were not only stealing defensive signals, but went after the Dolphins offensive signals on one occasion. The article also describes how the Patriots organization went from amateur film-makers in the beginning to quite accomplished film-makers by the end of their escapades.

This is a really sad story.  Former Cowboys safety and current Jets player Abram Elam lost his older brother to a shooting death. All the more sad because it’s the third sibling he’s lost to gunfire.

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.

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.

I’ve made it know for a while that I want the Dallas Cowboys to move Jay Ratliff back to DE as a starter and draft a rookie to help man the NT spot with Tank Johnson. If they don’t do that I would like to see them give Jason Hatcher a shot at the starter’s role. Either way, I’m not a fan of Marcus Spears’ play and want some more production from that end of the defensive line. Could I get my wish?

The Cowboys are contemplating moving Jason Hatcher into the starting lineup as well as moving nose tackle Jay Ratliff back to end, according to a source.

 Ah, the ever-elusive, anonymous source. OK, I shouldn’t get my hopes up. But Spears has heard the chatter about the Cowboys putting his name on the trade block and had this to say.

"I have been going through everything this off-season," Spears said. "The trade talk and all the other stuff. I’m just doing my part, handling what I can handle. If I get caught up in the business part of football and have to make a change, I won’t be happy because I love it here. But at the same time I love playing the game. I am ready for whatever. Hopefully, I’m around. We will see what happens."

T.O. isn’t happy  that he was pictured in a porn shoot the other day. Turns out that he was just passing by and was photographed on the street where it was taking place. 

The loud-mouthed T.O. had his lawyer fire off a cease-and-desist letter to the Web site TheDirty.com, which ran the picture and snarkily suggested the All-Pro receiver was considering a career in the porn business.

"All this was designed to bring embarrassment to him in his professional and personal capacity, and subject him to ridicule," reads the angry two-page missive from lawyer Allen Lerner.

"The clear meaning and innuendo is that Mr. Owens was actively and consensually participating in a porn site - a lie."

Leave it to T.O. to stumble onto a porn shoot. How come I never get that lucky?

McFadden’s Mama wants the Cowboys to draft him.