Sorry for the slow posting lately, but other projects and life intervened. Brandon should be back in action early this week and Tuna Helper may jump back in the fray soon.

Anyway, here’s some stuff for today.

Randy Galloway ponders on the Roy Williams situation. We’ll see what happens there, but Bigrigga31’s poll about Roy Williams is a classic. Out of 534 votes on the question of - Have you ever said aloud, "Roy Williams is my favorite player"? – 266 said yes and 268 said no. That’s as close as it gets. Good poll.

DC.com has an article on Tashard Choice, although it’s pretty much the same article that we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. Like this one.

Want to relive some history? Check this Sports Illustrated article from January 23^rd, 1978. Right after the Cowboys whooped the Broncos in Super Bowl XII. It’s a long, detailed article and may help you pass away the offseason blues.

As Super Bowls go, the one played indoors last Sunday in New Orleans was way up there for mosts—it had the most fumbles, the most hitting, the most noise, the most penalties, the most tricky plays, and no doubt the most Xs and Os stamped on a coach's forehead, as Dallas' Tom Landry nailed Denver's Red Miller to a blackboard and left him there. And when last seen, the Cowboys' two biggest heroes, Randy White and Harvey Martin, were still lecturing the State of Colorado on the mysteries of the flex defense. As a final gesture of victory, another Cowboy star, Linebacker Tom Henderson, went prancing down the field as the last seconds flashed off and jumped up and stuffed a football over the crossbar. Maybe he thought it was Craig Morton's right arm.

Someone needs to help me out with this article. It’s from a West Virginia paper and tries to differentiate Chris Henry from Pacman Jones. The thesis seems to be that Pacman is cocky and arrogant so if his career is over, good riddance. But Henry is just a confused kid who should be forgiven or it would be sad. Yet the article fails miserably to make the differentiation. Or maybe I’m just not seeing the author’s point.

From earlier this week, another article on Felix Jones vs. Rashard Mendenhall.  My own effort, here.

Bill Parcells and Ricky Williams, best buds?

Is it too early to be thinking about our first opponent? If not, then note that Ryan Tucker, a Browns lineman, fractured his hip and will miss two months but is expected to be ready for the opener against Dallas.  

JJT is back with a new column in the DMN today. After dispatching the question of Hard Knocks being a distraction with a resounding "no", he does some Q&A. One question was about Bobby Carpenter. Can you actually grade Carpenter as a player even though he’s been shuttled between various positions and has seen very little playing time on defense? It’s a tricky question because you can look at it two ways. One is that Carpenter hasn’t been allowed to show his true talents because he’s never been left at a position long enough to get comfortable and learn the nuances. The constant shuffling and lack of playing time might also have gotten into his head and manifested in a lack of confidence. The other side of the debate says that if Carpenter had the skills needed he would have grabbed hold of a position and forced his way into playing time. The Cowboys coaches would be playing him if they thought he had done enough to earn it. You have to remember that they see him everyday in practice where we don’t, so they have a lot more information to go on. My gripe with Carpenter going all the way back to his rookie season is his inability to shed blockers and make the play. That was based on a couple of training camps witnessed in person and watching him in games, including some preseason games. When he is in the open field he can get something done but when tied up in traffic he doesn’t do a good job of freeing himself. Something I also think is a problem with Marcus Spears. Moving him to the "Mo" linebacker is a nod to that line of thinking because in theory he will be able to run to the ball with less traffic or having the guards release to the second-level to pick him up. We’ll see what happens but I’m of the belief that if he had shown the skills to be effective in TC, preseason and in practices, the Cowboys coaches would have no problem getting him on the field.

A couple of other Q&A’s of note involving the WR position:

Q: Are the Cowboys interested in Chris Henry?

TAYLOR: I haven't heard anything from the Cowboys that suggests they have any interest in Henry. He's a good player, but he's not special. The Cowboys have enough volatile personalities in their locker room. They don't need to add another.

I can’t imagine anybody truly being interested in the kid until Roger Goodell settles his playing status. Pacman is one thing because he could easily be reinstated soon, but Henry has just added more trouble to his long list and that doesn’t bode well for his future. Also, I agree with JJT that Henry is a good player but hasn’t shown enough for anyone to go out on a limb to acquire him. In contrast, I fully believe that Pacman is one of the better CB’s in this league and his special teams prowess makes him even more valuable. I’m not sure if he’ll be on the top of his game early in the season, assuming reinstatement, but by the end of the year he could very well be battling Terence Newman for preeminent CB on the team.

Q: I've been reading how much Danny Amendola looks like Wes Walker. If he makes the team, which wide receivers could get cut?

TAYLOR: First, I think Amendola's chances to make the team are slim, in part, because he doesn't play special teams. He seems like a much better bet to make the practice squad. If Amendola did make it, I think Isaiah Stanback may be the one who doesn't make it because he has yet to prove he can do anything in the NFL, while Sam Hurd and Miles Austin have proven they can contribute.

Uh, I have to go the other way on this question. Unless Stanback is a total bust in training camp, which I don't expect to happen, there isn’t a chance the Cowboys would cut him. They drafted him knowing he was a project, they knew that the foot injury would slow him down enough to make last year a wash. The idea was to use last year to teach him the WR position at the pro-level and that this year would be his first chance to show what kind of future he has at the position. It would take him being a monumental disappointment to be let go this year. Everybody knows that it usually takes even the most talented and polished receivers coming out of college a few years to get everything going in the NFL. On the other hand, Hurd and Austin have been here for a couple of years and this year will be a big marker for them. Hurd has already shown he has the consistency to be a good backup WR in this league but Austin is still on the bubble for me. He has the physical tools without a doubt, but he needs to show he can be productive on the field. I think if anyone is in danger from Amendola’s presence it would be Austin. But, I have no idea if Amendola is good enough to take a spot away from a vet; we need to see him in pads at training camp before we can even begin to assess his future prospects.

Mike Florio of PFT.com also writes for the Sporting News. He has a list of the 10-worst offseason moves and we make it. 

The Cowboys sent linebacker Akin Ayodele and tight end Anthony Fasano to the Dolphins for a fourth-round draft pick. Total. Seriously.

Ayodele signed with the Cowboys as a free agent in 2006, and Fasano was a second-round pick that same year. Although Ayodele would have been bumped to the bench by free-agent pickup Zach Thomas, it's highly risky, at best, for Dallas to count on the veteran linebacker with the history of head trauma to stay on the field. Meanwhile, after dealing away Fasano, the Cowboys had to burn a second-round pick on a new tight end (Texas A&M's Martellus Bennett) to work behind Jason Witten.

I don’t think it was one of the 10-worst moves of the offseason although I freely admit I’ve never really thought about making a list like that. But I do admit to thinking that we didn’t get enough out of that trade. Sure we were going to have to do something with Ayodele and at least we got some value instead of just cutting him. As for Fasano, I thought his play here was a little disappointing so I wasn’t exactly mad that we let him go. But only getting a fourth for both of them just seemed a little low. And as you guys know, I haven’t bought into the Martellus Bennett hype yet. I view Dallas’ offense as a vertical passing game offense and he doesn’t excite me in terms of that. While we do use a 2-TE set on occasion, we don’t do it often enough to be a staple of the offense and I don’t think Bennett will change that. I also know that Witten is going to get the bulk of the passes thrown to the TE so I can’t see him making a large impact in that area. I do concede with his height and athletic ability that Bennett could be a factor in the redzone, but just having the physical gifts isn’t enough. He has to prove that he can get open in those situations and show the steady hands needed to be trusted in those critical situations. I’m not saying he can’t, but he still has to prove it to me.

This story might be of interest because of DeMarcus Ware’s contract situation. The Baltimore Ravens, Terrell Suggs and the league have come up with a new "franchise tag" position for hybrid OLB/DE’s in 3-4 defenses.

The settlement, which is being finalized by lawyers for the NFLPA and the Management Council, creates a new position in franchise designations -- a defensive end-linebacker. Once the paperwork is completed later this week, Suggs, designated as a franchise linebacker, will be re-designated as a defensive end-linebacker, and his one-year franchise tender will increase from $8.065 million to around $8.5 million.

If the Cowboys ever end up franchise tagging Ware, he would fit into this new category.

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.