It’s always nice to have a Dallas Cowboys rumor floating around. The rumor du jour is the Cowboys are having an internal debate about acquiring the services of Atlanta WR Joe Horn. Sometimes I dismiss these sources inside Valley Ranch that say the Cowboys are having an internal debate about so-and-so, but then I remember that we had the same rumor a little bit before we traded for Pacman Jones, so maybe there is some merit to this story.

Joe Horn was once a top-quality WR in this league when he played for the Saints, but his time in Atlanta hasn’t exactly been scintillating. Maybe its age catching up with him or the total dysfunction that’s been going on in Atlanta over the past few years. Whatever the case, he wouldn’t be more than a quality vet that could become a part-time safety net but he’s not going to be that front-line #2 WR to complement T.O. at this stage of his career. If the Cowboys want to bring him in I wouldn’t have a huge problem with it but it might stunt the growth of guys like Sam Hurd, Isaiah Stanback or Miles Austin. It’s a tough decision, one made more complicated by the cloudy issue of Terry Glenn’s return.

The funny thing is the conflicting points made by Ed Werder in his article and Adam Schefter in his article.

Werder on Horn.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has initiated some internal discussion about whether acquiring wide receiver Joe Horn from the Atlanta Falcons is an option they should pursue to have a veteran starter opposite Terrell Owens, a team source confirmed.

Those within the organization opposed worry that Horn's volatile personality makes him incompatible with Owens and could cause other conflict in a locker room that already includes Adam "Pacman" Jones and Tank Johnson.

So according to Werder, it’s not Horn’s skills that are the worry but his personality and how he might interact with his team.

Now here’s Schefter on Horn.

Horn could help the Cowboys on and off the field. On the field, Horn is not the receiver he once was, but he still could contribute to Dallas’ high-powered attack. Off it, he could provide an example for the way professionals are supposed to act. Horn is one of the league’s more respected players and the Cowboys locker room would be better with him in it.

Ha! So which is it? Horn is a volatile personality waiting to explode and the Cowboys locker room might be the place for him to ignite? Or is he one the most respected professionals in the league who could set an example for others?

 Any takers on this issue?

I also like this piece from Werder’s article.

Those who oppose trading for Horn prefer to continue seeking Detroit's Roy Williams or Arizona's Anquan Boldin and urge Jones to remember he has Patrick Crayton and can trust former undrafted free agents Sam Hurd and Miles Austin with additional playing time as they develop.

Uh yeah, I think the ship has sailed on acquiring Williams or Boldin for this year. Their value was never higher than around the draft, I can’t see either of those teams dealing them now. Crazier things have happened but I wouldn’t count on it in this case. If you’re saying don’t trade for Horn because you want to get one of those other two; you’re essentially just saying don’t trade for Joe Horn.

Hat tip to my co-blogger Tuna Helper for bringing up the rumor in this article and to Starred4Life for creating a FanPost on the rumor.

JJT gives you the Story of Pacman . Instead of trying to excerpt parts of it and comment, I say just go over and read it, then tell us what you think.

A breakdown of the NFC East with this blurb on the ‘Boys. 

Questions: Will coach Wade Phillips control this team and get it to play to its potential? His job may depend on it. Will QB Tony Romo play as well in the postseason as he does in the regular season? Unable to trade for a top-flight veteran to pair with Terrell Owens, are the Cowboys good enough at wide receiver? Will Pacman stay out of trouble if reinstated?

The GM over in Chicago was getting grilled about players, including Cedric Benson. Then a fan asked about the release of a current Cowboy . 

A fan asked about the release three years ago of left tackle Marc Colombo, the oft-injured first-round draft pick who since has flourished with the Dallas Cowboys.

"In reality, I feel a whole lot better looking at [rookie] Chris Williams and John Tait as our two tackles than if Marc Colombo were still here," Phillips said.

If you say so.

Euro 2008 is the big soccer tournament going on right now in Europe and is being co-hosted by Austria. What’s this got to do with the Cowboys? 

How many Austrians have scored the winning goals against England at Wembley and won an NFL Superbowl title? One more than you might have imagined. Toni Fritsch - or 'Wembley Toni' as he was affectionately know thanks to his two goals in a 3-2 win there in 1965 - had won several league titles with Rapid Vienna before the Dallas Cowboys came calling in 1971.

Roy Williams, the Detroit one, is constantly being asked about his future, including possibly with Dallas. 

"I get that all day, especially when I'm back at home," Williams told the Detroit Free Press last week. "Dallas, Dallas, Dallas. Trade Roy Williams for Roy Williams. When are you going to be a Cowboy? I'm going to have to deal with that until I sign something here or become a free agent somewhere else."

Zach Thomas has a sideline business. 

I’ve been checking out some of Kevin Burnett’s posts over at his DMN blog. Some of his stuff is pretty interesting but they really need to get an editor involved. Burnett writes well enough but the formatting isn’t making it an easy read. Still, an admirable job by Burnett for posting a little more than just the regular drivel contained on many athlete’s blogs. Keep it up Kevin and welcome to the blogging world.

Here’s a post from Burnett about the Cover-2 and is also a defense of Roy Williams. Hey, every other blogger is talking about Roy, so why not Burnett?

You got to give it to Mike Florio over at PFT.com, he’s perisistant about the Cowboys trading for a WR after June 1^st. The following is contained in a post about Roy Williams, the Lions one, missing their OTA's.

The most notable name on the list is [Roy] Williams, who is entering the final year of his contract and who has been linked to trade rumors for much of the offseason.  With the Cowboys possibly inclined to trade their own Roy Williams after June 1, could a Roy Williams for Roy Williams swap be in the offing?

Hey, I wouldn’t mind that but I just find it hard to believe.

Pat Kirwan says the NFC East is so tough they’ll beat each other up. 

The NFC East is brutal and there are questions surrounding DB Roy Williams, as well as the second wide receiver and possibly the nose tackle positions. My fear for the Cowboys is the same worry I have for the Giants, Eagles and Redskins. They may cannibalize themselves during the season leaving very little for the deep playoff run.

I usually don’t go for a lot of the new stats being built up around the game of football. Some of them are OK, but football is not baseball, not everything can be reduced to stats because of the team aspect vs. the individual aspect. But I thought this was interesting from a KC Joyner article. He charts each NFL team's defense and their ability to force the offense to make a bad decision. He has his own formula for doing this. The Cowboys ended up a lowly #26. Joyner offers this explanation.

Another team I was rather surprised to see rank low was the Cowboys. Part of their problem is the numbers say they don't disguise their coverages very well. Only two of Dallas' 15 forced bad decisions came as a result of the opposing quarterback not seeing a defender in the passing lane, a total that left the Boys tied for 23rd in the league. This may be a direct result of Wade Phillips' credo of always rushing four or five players and not leaving many defenders in areas to bait passers into making mistakes.

Hashmarks is noting the notable injuries in each division. Here’s the NFC East. Our notable injury is Terry Glenn and here is what they think the next step should be.

Next step: Right now, Glenn is basically locked out of Valley Ranch. The logical next step is for he and the Cowboys to find some common ground. He might be willing to sign an agreement for somewhere in the $1 million range. If the sides reach an understanding, Glenn would be penciled in as the No. 2 wide receiver.

Speaking of #2 receivers, the Breerman has some stats that back up what a lot of us have been saying for a while. Patrick Crayton isn’t our #2 receiver, Jason Witten holds that distinction.

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.

It looks like the entire NFC East - except for the Giants - is looking to grab a veteran WR. According to sources the Redskins made an offer to the Bengals for their talented, but disgruntled receiver Chad Johnson.

The Redskins offered this year's first round pick, No. 21 overall, and a conditional third rounder in 2009 that could escalate to a first rounder if Johnson and the Redskins hit certain performance levels, the sources said.

The Bengals have not only rejected the Redskins, but two other NFC East suitors -- the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles -- have been informed that there has been no change in the team's position that Johnson will not be traded.

That’s seems to at least set the minimum bar for what the Bengals would consider for Johnson. And given his attitude and big contract, I can’t see any teams going above and beyond that offer. It looks like Ocho Cinco will stay where he is unless the Bengals are just driving up the price. My gut tells me that they are serious about not trading him.

 That won’t stop the NFC East though, there’s another wide receiver out there drawing interest. Roy Williams is a guy on the last year of his contract and the Lions have made no effort to sign him to a long-term contract, leading to much speculation about his future. 

In the latest episode, Eagles radio analyst Mike Quick says there will be news on Williams before the week is out. GCobb.com -- a Web site run by former Lions, Eagles and Cowboys linebacker Garry Cobb, now a Philadelphia media personality -- reports "that means the Cowboys, Redskins or the Eagles will probably wind up with the receiver."

 At the Lions’ press conference yesterday, they shook off questions about trading Roy but didn’t give the emphatic "no" that they had previously stated. Maybe something is cooking there and I hope the Cowboys are right in the middle of it. I’ve always said this one was the most likely to happen for the Cowboys.

Jerry Jones will be holding a pre-draft press conference today. That should be interesting. Among other topics I’m sure the Pacman trade will be discussed.

Nick Eatman talks up the talented defensive line prospects in this draft.

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