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.

Greg Ellis just needs to employ a self-imposed gag order during the offseason. The last couple of years it was all the stuff about his contract and not fitting into the Cowboys 3-4 system. Now, he’s talking about another player not being comfortable in Wade Phillips’ 3-4 system. Here’s what Greg had to say about Roy Williams in an interview today. 

"Roy told me in training camp, he said, 'Greg this defense does not fit me. I don’t fit in well with this defense at all,' " Ellis said. "Obviously, it came to be true just like he said. He doesn’t fit what’s going on here in Dallas right now. Maybe this year, if they decide to keep him for this season Wade and them would kind of adjust some things to fit him better."

In truth, the part about Roy not being comfortable in Wade’s system is no big deal. I don’t know why that’s causing such a stir since Roy said the exact same thing in an interview last week. 

"I'm going to have to get comfortable in the system," [Roy Williams] said. "It's not easy with the coaching change. You're used to one thing and then you have to adjust to another playing style."

So he was just repeating what Roy already said and Greg was doing it in a defense of Roy. But dropping the "if they decide to keep him for this season" is not really something you want to say about a teammate. But we know that Roy isn’t going anywhere for this season, Dallas just doesn’t have the personnel at safety to do that. Then Ellis went further by saying:

"The bothersome thing for me as Roy’s friend and his teammate, I hate the criticism he is getting," Ellis said. "I hate the fact how he is kind of isolating himself from the team."

Now he’s making it sound like Roy is bailing out on his team and not interacting with the rest of the guys. That’s not really something you want to say about a teammate in public. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, that stuff that should stay in the clubhouse.

When Ellis was called about it later, he did offer this defense of his comments:

"Everybody is saying they need to get rid of him, they need to trade him. I think he gets a bad rap," Ellis said by phone. "One thing you can’t say I said about Roy is that he should be traded or let go. I think he should stay my teammate. When someone asks me a question, it’s my job to be on Roy’s side and that’s what I was doing. I don’t think he should go anywhere. He should stay here."

Greg, do yourself a favor. If you want to discuss your own problems with the Cowboys organization like you did the last few years, that’s one thing. But dragging your teammate into it is probably something better left alone.

Hat tip to quincyyyyy for posting this in a FanPost. 

Daniel Polk is trying to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Crayton and Isaiah Stanback. 

Bobby Carpenter, is it his last chance? 

Todd Archer talks WR’s. 

Even though we didn’t get to see it happen, I can assure you that actual Dallas Cowboys players were participating in organized practices at Valley Ranch over the past couple of days. I know this because the Dallas media told me so. It’s one step closer to where we want to be, the 2008 season, and the opportunity to get over the first-round playoff loss – yes Wade Phillips, the first-round loss. It’s not quite training camp, but at least it’s something more than just signing free agents and drafting the college kiddies.

Here are some things I learned, or had re-confirmed, from the past two days of rookie mini-camp, as told to me by the Dallas media with my own free thinking thrown into the mix.

Felix Jones is smooth. That word came up over and over about our new running back and I think it’s a good description. Watching him play for Arkansas and the highlights collected later on YouTube showed a kid who has a natural feel for the game. Wade Phillips chalks it up to athletic ability and vision. Ah, vision, that nebulous definer for running backs. We’re not talking about 20/20 vision; we’re talking about the ability to see the hole, to see defensive players making their attack, the angles they are taking and the wherewithal to get out of the way. Vision was something I thought Julius Jones lacked, for all his quickness and agility, he never seemed to use it correctly on the field. We haven’t seen Felix in pads yet, taking slobber-knocker hits from pro level defenders, but I can’t wait for that time to come.

Mike Jenkins has to learn a new style of coverage. A bump-and-run guy in college, he was at a disadvantage in this camp because he had to play a new style of coverage and the lack of pads limited his ability to get physical with a receiver. It might take time for him to round into form so the preseason games and training camp practices will be huge for him.

Martellus Bennett could join Tony Romo and T.O. in the starting lineup of a Dallas Cowboys basketball team. He also earned praise for his ability to catch the ball and use his body to shield defenders at rookie camp. He’s another player who will face a big test when the pads go on so we can see what kind of blocker he is and how he handles the rough-and-tumble world of getting knocked around by linebackers.

Orlando Scandrick is fast. He’s also adept at playing off receivers which gives him a nice head-start fitting in with the Cowboys coverage schemes. Can he do it when the pads come on and the physical nature of the game increases 100-fold? That’s what training camp is all about but from what we heard he has the technique and speed to be an effective cornerback. He might just be a steal in the 5^th-round.

Danny Amendola will be compared to Wes Welker forever, or so it appears. That’s not a bad thing as long as he can hold up his end of the bargain. Slot receivers need to be quick and they need to be good route runners who can get open quickly, they need to be able to put the defense in a bind on who to cover. It’s easy to get excited about an UDFA who comes in to rookie camp and shines – and by all accounts Amendola shined – but I go back to a constant theme, can they do it when the pads come on?

Tearrius George is a guy no one was talking about. The OLB was signed from the CFL at the beginning of the offseason and the only mention I’ve made of him prior to rookie camp was this short blurb in my post-playoff loss roster reviews done in February of this year.

The Cowboys recently signed George from the CFL. He played his college ball at Kansas State and was with the Jets briefly before heading north to the CFL. Here’s a mini-scouting report on him before the draft last year and here’s his bio with the Calgary Stampeders.

We haven’t talked about it much but OLB is actually a position that could use an upgrade at the back-end of the roster. We never really discuss it because DeMarcus Ware, Greg Ellis and Anthony Spencer represent a real strength on the roster. But behind them we have Justin Rogers who looks to be nothing more than a special teams guy. Tearrius George will be battling it out with Rogers, 6^th-round pick Erik Walden (unless they move him inside) and UDFA Darrell Robertson for that spot. (Yes, Robertson is a pet cat of mine since he’s from Georgia Tech).  The reason I bring all this up is because George got some rave reviews from the media and Wade Phillips specifically mentioned him in the press conference. Keep an eye on the kid.

Wade Phillips likes the current WR crew even though they admit they wanted a veteran upgrade. The odds of a trade for a frontline caliber WR seem slim now so it looks like we’ll go to battle with the guys we got. Terry Glenn is a question mark, even Wade Phillips admitted as much, although WR’s coach Ray Sherman says he expects Glenn to fully participate in the first camp with veterans in June. Isaiah Stanback is another mystery man at the position that could influence the makeup of the roster and Danny Amendola is making his play to shake up the receiving corps. The spots behind Terrell Owens and Patrick Crayton (and Glenn if healthy) should be one of the best camp battles we have.

Bobby Carpenter is going to be given another opportunity to claim a role that actually gets him on the field on defense, this time backing up “Mo” linebacker Zach Thomas. The former first-round pick has moved around among all the linebacker positions on the roster and this could be his final chance to make his mark as a Cowboys. The hope is that he can utilize his ability to run and chase down the ball to better effect playing the "Mo".

Dave Campo might not have been a favorite as a Cowboys head coach but he is receiving solid reviews for his work with the secondary so far. His upbeat, hands-on teaching style is going over well and might just be part of the remedy for a secondary that has picked on frequently over the last couple of years. Of course, adding talent like Pacman Jones, Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick doesn’t hurt, but let’s hope that Campo can “coach ‘em up” as the saying goes.

Richard Bartel could be the guy who turns into the long-term backup for Tony Romo. There was plenty of chatter about drafting a QB in the late rounds or signing a vet that has been cut from another team but the Cowboys staff seems to be satisfied with the progress Bartel has made. My lasting impression of Bartel comes from training camp last year where the strong-armed QB was determined to show off that arm by chucking up deep balls on regular basis. Maybe a year in meetings and watching Romo and Brad Johnson have showed the kid there’s more to being a QB than hitting the deep bomb. He’s also dropped a lot of weight and gotten himself in NFL-shape, perhaps the Cowboys already have their future backup QB on the roster.

Sure it was only a few practices with rookies and first-year players who haven’t played a lot, and there were no pads or hitting which can change everything in terms of performance, but we finally got a look at some of the potential 2008 Cowboys roster in real practices. It feels good, just one more step towards the 2008 season and a hoped-for run at the Super Bowl.

Your impressions from the last couple of days?

A news roundup of the first day of rookie mini-camp.

The Breerman gives you five more quick impressions. Short version: Mark Bradford made the play of the day on a long bomb, Orlando Scandrick looked like the best CB on the field, Mike Jenkins recovered nicely in his second practice of the day, Danny Amendola actually dropped some passes in the second session and Richard Bartel looked like a real QB.

Mike Jenkins has a little Prime Time in his past as his uncle, Tracy Sanders, was a CB with Prime at FSU. Deion has been mentoring the kid who is now our second CB from the University of South Florida, the alma mater of Anthony Henry.

Danny Amendola is attracting a lot of attention in camp, especially from Jerry.

"He's certainly showed he's refined," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after the first rookie practice Friday. "He will be able to separate. He's going to be able to get away from people. I'm glad we got him."

He may be refined on the field but certainly needs some work on his interviews. Not exactly smooth in the post-practice gab-fest.

But speaking of who is smooth, that seems to be the operative word for Felix "El Gato" Jones. 

"He's smooth," Jerry Jones said. "You can see that he can run when he gets that ball. The most important thing that I saw out here today was just how smooth he looks when he's running and cutting."

Don’t forget about Isaiah Stanback either.

"He's doing a great job, and I'm really pleased with the way he's running routes and catching the ball," [Ray] Sherman said. "He's in shape, and I'm very impressed with the way he runs his routes. He's a contender at that position.... I like our group."

Meanwhile, in veteran news, it apperas that the Tuna did want his former first round pick Bobby Carpenter but the Cowboys said no dice.

According to an NFL source, the Dolphins wanted Bobby Carpenter, but the Cowboys weren't willing to part with the 2006 first-round draft pick. So Dallas included Ayodele in the deal.

As noted by many, including Brandon in his post, Captain Caveman is on the move again.

He's currently backing up veteran Zach Thomas. Carpenter said he's been studying game film with Thomas and already has picked up quite a bit in the short time the veteran free-agent acquisition has been with the Cowboys.

Hat tip to Deke for posting the Bobby Carpenter non-trade article.