Blogging The Boys - All Posts

BTB Community Friday: Get To Know Your Cowboys Bretheren!

2013-05-24T19:00:05Z

Hello everybody. My name is KD, and I'm a Cowboys-a-holic. I figured there isn't a better time to get to know each other than the slow period that is... well... now. It was suggested by Scott Maui that we do an exercise for everyone to exchange twitter handles and the like, and I thought it was a great idea. As you know, you can follow me on the BTB main handle @BloggingTheBoys but also my personal handle @KDP10For10. You should follow me on both!

I'm also at your disposal on the BTB Facebook page, Blogging The Boys, on the YouTube channel, SBN Blogging The Boys, and my podcast on iTunes (or any podcatcher): Cowboys Crunchtime With KD.

Please share with us ways to keep in touch with you off the blog- there's no reason we can't keep the conversation going outside of the site! And no offense meant to our Sisters in Cowboys Worship, don't let the title fool you!

I got intrigued by the NFL, being a maniacal baseball fan, during the NFL Strike of 1987. I became an interested observer of the Dallas Cowboys because of stupid Redskins fans during that strike season, and then became fanatical during the single victory on the 1989 season.

During this era, my link to the Cowboys (living in Maryland) was Sports Illustrated. No cable, no internet, no local newspaper coverage. I learned about Tom Landry from the likes of Rick Reilly, here.

Yes, Rick Reilly used to serve a purpose. When 1-15 happened, I spent that "1" day at my Uncle's house, surrounded by Skins fans save for me and my Aunt Peggy. I declared that the lowly, winless Cowboys would win the game, and they did, 13-3. I've been hooked ever since. Go search the Sports Illustrated vault to see how folks like me followed the team during the Jimmy Johnson era. It's a whole different ball game.

Now, a quarter century later, I'm basically defined by my fandom. Dallas is my obsession and I'm blessed with the opportunity to share my thoughts on them with the fine readers and followers of BTB. Although it may not seem like it sometimes (wink, wink) I am extremely humbled by the fact that people actually want to know what I think about this team. I was recognized in a CVS a couple months ago as the Cowboys Youtube guy. Did I mention I live in Maryland? Surreal.

Thank you, one million times, Dave Halprin. I'd crash through walls for you in appreciation of the platform. Reference, 2013 Draft Weekend.

Us BTB'ers aren't the only ones on Social Media. The Goog has collected a listing of all 59 current Cowboys that are using the service, and we present them for you. Feel free to follow the list that I've created: Cowboys Players.

So as I said before, share with us your twitter handles. Follow each other. Be sociable! Salute!

Dallas Cowboys Young Guns: Top 10 Players Under The Age Of 25

2013-05-24T17:00:06Z

Over the last couple of weeks, we've looked at the playing time of the Cowboys' recent rookie classes, wondered who the 2013 breakout player could be and how much playing time the 2013 draft class could see this year.

Along the way, we touched on a couple of names that will likely be Cowboys franchise players in a couple of years: the Cowboys' young guns. In five years or so some of the young guns on the current roster will be the faces of the Dallas Cowboys. So today, we'll look at who the top ten guys under the age of 25 are.

The reason we're going for 25 is that Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com last year looked at the league's top ten players under the age of 25, and 25 felt like a good cut-off age. When I then set out to compile the list for the Cowboys, I thought it'd be an easy exercise. Before I even started compiling names, I thought that I'd have to add an addendum with the players not making the list. Turns out, that wasn't the case, as some of the players that I was thinking of for this list are already 25 years or older: DeMarco Murray, Bruce Carter, Dan Bailey are all 25, Phil Costa, Sean Lissemore and Orlando Scandrick will all be 26 by the time the season starts and Sean Lee will even turn 27 on July 22nd this year - those guys are not spring chicken anymore.

So without further ado, here are the top ten young guns on the Cowboys' roster, all of whom will still be under 25 at the start of the 2013 regular season on September 5, 2013.

Rank	Name	POS	Experience	Age on Opening Day 2013
1	Dez Bryant	WR	3	24 years, 10 months, 0 days
Dez Bryant squeezes into this list with just two months to spare, and I'm not sure that calling him a "young gun" is doing him justice any longer. Bryant came into his own in the second half of last season and now looks to be everything the Cowboys expected when they moved up in the first round to get him. There is no denying his athletic ability, and he is electrifying to watch. There are other very good wide receivers in the league, but very few bring such a level of raw energy and intensity to the game, and it will be Bryant's "intangibles" more than his play that will make him a superstar in the league. As Garrett would say, "Passion. Emotion. Enthusiasm." Nobody has more of it than Dez Bryant. Bryant has the stuff to be the emotional leader of this team; he already provides the emotional spark when the Cowboys need it. There's still a long way to go, but Bryant is beginning to fill out that no. 88 jersey.
2	Tyron Smith	LT	2	22 years, 8 months, 24 days
Incredibly, Smith already has two years of NFL starting experience and is still the second youngest player on this list. Smith won't even be 23 years old by the time the season starts. In his second year at left tackle and his second year under Bill Callahan, Smith is poised to take a big step in his performance. A step he has prepared for diligently, taking karate classes in the offseason to improve his hand-eye coordination and adding 10 pounds of weight to "be a better run-blocker and be stronger and more physical."
3	Morris Claiborne	CB	1	23 years, 6 months, 28 days
Secondary coach Jerome Henderson said that Claiborne’s offseason wrist surgery impacted his rookie year significantly: he wasn’t able to participate in OTAs and wasn’t able to spend enough time in the weight room to gain NFL-level strength, and Claiborne had a rocky rookie season as a result. The Cowboys famously had ranked as the "the highest-rated DB since Deion Sanders", and towards the end of the season, with his confidence increasing, we began to see glimpses of what he could be capable of. When you combine a full offseason in which he's already added eight pounds of muscle, a year of NFL experience and his talent level, then you could have the makings for a huge sophomore season, especially in the new defensive scheme.
4	Tyrone Crawford	DE	1	23 years, 9 months, 13 days
People tend to forget that Crawford had a college production ratio of 1.62, the highest number of any defensive lineman in the 2012 draft. With 303 snaps in 2012, Crawford saw a moderate amount of playing time in the Cowboys' defensive line rotation as a defensive end. He acquitted himself well and saw his snap count increase in the second half of the season. Like the other rushmen on the defensive line, Crawford should benefit immensely from the new scheme. And while it's highly unlikely that he'll win a starting job at DE over either Spencer or Ware, he should see of lot of action in rotation duty, with maybe some starts towards the end of the season.
5	Matt Johnson	S	1	24 years, 1 months, 15 days
Critics deride him as the best safety to have never played a snap in the NFL, but those same critics have never seen him in practice either. What we know is that the Cowboys are extremely bullish on Johnson - to a degree they put him on "IR designated for return" last year as they were looking to play him in case they made the playoffs. Johnson is already taking first-team snaps in OTAs and has caught the eye of at least one teammate: “His ball skills are incredible,” Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne said. “When the ball is in the air, he knows how to go up and play it.” For Cowboys fans who've been underwhelmed by a succession of one-and-done starters at safety - Ken Hamlin (2009), Alan Ball (2010), Abe Elam (2011) and Danny McCray (2012) combined for only three interceptions in four years - any player with even a modicum of ball skills will appear like a Godsend.
6	James Hanna	TE	1	24 years, 1 months, 23 days
Gavin Escobar may have the draft pedigree, but Hanna has a full year of NFL experience under his belt. And where Escobar ran a lowly 4.84 at the combine (he improved that to 4.70 at his pro day), Hanna ran the fastest 40 of any TE with a blistering 4.43 a year earlier. There's every indication that the ’12 Personnel’ or 2-TE set is going to be Dallas’ base offense. In the base set, Jason Witten looks like he'll be joined Hanna (who apparently still has a lead over Escobar) as the "second" tight end, while Escobar will come in for the "Big 12" package, which sounds like a short yardage or goal line package to take advantage of Escobar's size. Escobar may end up getting the TDs (and with them, the glory) but Hanna will likely get the yards to set up the TD attempt.
7	Travis Frederick	OC	Rookie	22 years, 8 months, 4 days
Including a rookie who hasn't done squat in this list may be a bit of a stretch, but you can't ignore the positive impact he may have on the entire offensive line. Frederick projects as a starter and as such is the only rookie we'll include in this list.
8	Ronald Leary	OG	1	24 years, 4 months, 7 days
Competition for a starting spot along the interior offensive line will likely be fierce this year. In the recent OTAs, David Arkin and Ronald Leary split time at right guard in place of starter Mackenzy Bernadeau, who is still recovering from off-season right shoulder surgery. Last year, the Cowboys promoted Leary to the active roster after the Oakland raiders tried to claim him off the practice squad in December, and the Cowboys like how he's developed over the last year.
9	Cole Beasley	WR	1	24 years, 4 months, 10 days
Cole Beasley is up against tall competition for a roster spot. 12 wide receivers are competing for five, perhaps six, roster spots. But in a league that values quick, shifty slot receivers very highly, Beasley may have found his niche. And his 15 receptions for 128 yards last year also work in his favor.
10	Sterling Moore	CB	2	23 years, 7 months, 1 days
Moore was plucked off the Patriots practice squad last year, and while still young, already has two years of NFL experience. In New England, Moore was being developed as a "Hybrid DB", and was used as a nickel/dime corner, playing what the Pats term a "heavy safety". That is a player who is positioned like a middle linebacker when the Pats were in a Tampa 2 type, 4-3 alignment on defense, but who is seen more as a coverage player. In his two years in the league, he's already played 699 snaps on defense, including 102 in five games for the Cowboys, and that could become more this season.

In the NFL, there are a couple of premier positions that you absolutely have to have locked down because they are almost impossible to acquire in free agency. How often do quality left tackles or edge rushers make it to free agency in the NFL? Almost never.

The premium that teams pay to have a quality player at those positions on their roster is reflected in the 2012 franchise tag numbers by position:

Position	2013 Tag Value	Position	2013 Tag Value
Quarterback	$14.896 million	Defensive tackle	$8.450 million
Defensive end	$11.175 million	Running back	$8.219 million
Cornerback	$10.854 million	Safety	$6.916 million
Wide receiver	$10.537 million	Tight end	$6.066 million
Offensive line	$9.828 million	Kicker/Punter	$2.977 million
Linebacker	$9.619 million

Excluding the QB position, the top four Cowboys players under 25 cover the top four most expensive positions in the NFL. That bodes well for the future of the franchise. The Cowboys have one of the best young left tackles in the league. They have one of the most promising corners league-wide, a premier receiver with height and a defensive end who may be able to rush the passer. And if you were to argue that Crawford is a DT and the Cowboys need a DE, that's what the 2014 draft is for.

Who's missing on this young guns list, and which player would you slot differently?

More Cowboys Coverage

Rebuilding In The Offseason Is Not Just About Team Structure For Dallas Cowboys

2013-05-24T15:00:09Z

For pro football fans, the offseason is like a barren desert, desolate and parched, with only the hope of the coming season to draw us onward.

OK. Maybe that metaphor is just a tad overwrought, but you know what I mean. As fans, we miss football, and are counting the days until things get back into full swing, even with the knowledge that most teams will not be successful. After all, we are all convinced that the other teams will have a bad year, but not out own.

But for the players, football is really a year round job. Even though the CBA has put some serious limits on contact between the coaching staff and the players in the offseason, the players, or at least the smart and motivated ones, are still out there working hard to be better in the coming year, some by overcoming injuries, and others just seeking how to be better, stronger, and faster than they were.

One player the Cowboys really need to see come back improved is Matt Johnson, who missed his entire rookie season. He is the presumptive starter at free safety right now and the team hopes he can nail the job down, rather than go with free agent signee Will Allen. Johnson started behind the power curve with the Cowboys due to league rules that kept him out of OTAs in 2012 because of the schedule at his college, where he was still in classes. Then he hurt his hamstring (part of the 4,368 hamstring injures suffered by the Cowboys last season, or so it felt like) not once but twice. Now, he has made some changes to his conditioning program and is coming in a little lighter as well.

"We've done more hamstring work instead of putting on 400 pounds and squatting," Johnson said Tuesday after the Cowboys' first organized team activity practice. "When I was in college, I did that some. When you get to the pros, and playing at safety, I don't need to squat 500 pounds. We did more position specific and more dynamic work. You don't need to be a bodybuilder to play football. I was big enough."

Johnson said he's lost three or four pounds and weighs about 212 now.

"I feel better at that weight. This league is all about running," Johnson said. "Obviously you have to be big, too, but on the back end, you have to run a lot."

We still have to see if all this pays off, but there is a lot of hope, and things are off to a good start. Johnson is already getting some nice reviews, including from cornerback Morris Claiborne, who is quoted at the end of that article. And Claiborne is another Cowboy who has done some personal adjusting and tuning.

Claiborne worked all offseason on getting stronger, going from 187 pounds last season to 193 pounds at the start of this year's Organized Team Activities. Now he's learning how to move around and keep his speed with the added weight.

Claiborne was another 2012 rookie who was limited in his preseason work, in his case by wrist surgery after college and an MCL problem in camp. Jerome Henderson flatly stated that there were certain techniques that Claiborne could not execute due to a lack of strength. The model the Cowboys are using for their defensive backs are the Seattle Seahawks, who have a lot of physicality in the secondary (and the defensive line is studying what Rod Marinelli was doing with the Chicago Bears). Now Claiborne has put on some muscle and is ready to build on what was generally a successful first year.

The second year players aren't the only ones coming in with a different approach to things. Dez Bryant had by far the best year of his young career in 2012, but as further evidence of his growth and maturity, he is not going to rely on the status quo.

"Just being able to run all day," Bryant said. "I hear coach talk about it all the time, and that's one of my goals."

That coach he refers to? That would be Jason Garrett, and what he was talking about was how Michael Irvin would stay after everyone else had left practice to keep working. This ability to outlast all the rest strongly impressed Garrett, who was often there with Irvin so he had someone to throw him passes.

Bryant has obviously absorbed that lesson, and is molding himself to be more like one of the all time greats. That will not only pay dividends on the field, but it is certainly going to catch that coach's eye.

In a larger sense, this is one of the key elements of the RKG concept. Garrett is looking for the players that go a step further, that seek to be better players on their own, and that put in the work to make it happen. He operates on the principle that if he puts a team composed of those kinds of people together, they will be winners. And while there is the zombie-like meme of no leadership on the Cowboys, seeing players like Bryant take this kind of approach should be more than enough evidence that there is very strong and influential leadership present at Valley Ranch. It may not be exhibited in histrionics on the field, but it is likely more effective. These three players are examples of how it works.

More Cowboys Coverage

Brian Urlacher Wanted To Be A Dallas Cowboy

2013-05-24T13:00:09Z

Recently one of the best linebackers in NFL history decided to call it a career and hang up his cleats. Brian Urlacher had an amazing career that took him from an All-American safety at New Mexico and made the successful transition to inside linebacker in the Tampa 2 scheme in Chicago.

After the 2012 season, the writing was on the wall for Urlacher and there was some noise circulating that the Bears weren't too motivated in bringing back a player who was the centerpiece of their defense since he was drafted ninth overall back in 2000.

Reports and rumors surfaced that the Dallas Cowboys were interested in Urlacher's services, but Stephen Jones shot the idea down back in March.

"Any time you’re talking about a Hall of Fame player in Urlacher, you don’t ever dismiss Hall of Famers, in my book," Jones said Monday at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix. "It would be difficult – he obviously plays what Sean Lee plays – to move everything around for a year. Doesn’t really make a lot of sense."

"But at the same time, you don’t ever rule anything out."

With Sean Lee in the middle, it really didn't make a lot of sense for Dallas to financially pursue the services of the aging linebacker.

One theory that was considered included Urlacher coming in to mentor Lee in the new 4-3 scheme that Monte Kiffin was bringing to Big D. The only problem is, Sean doesn't need much help learning a defense or teaching his teammates. For such a young player, he's already a valuable piece to the defense and his leadership qualities have always been there.

Since being drafted back in 2010, Lee has battled a variety of injuries and unfortunately there isn't a middle linebacker behind him on the Cowboys' roster that can fill in and take his place. We may never know if Urlacher was willing to take a reduced salary to become the backup to Lee, but he did make it clear that Dallas was a place he wanted to be.

"If I could have picked a spot, it would have been Dallas," said Urlacher, who grew up a Cowboys fans. "They run our defense. They took our d-coordinator (Rod Marinelli). That would have been ideal. But they have two really good young linebackers."

As of right now, there really aren't a lot of options on the roster behind Lee at Mike linebacker. Rookie DeVonte Holloman will probably get some looks at all three positions, undrafted free agent Brandon Magee is my personal favorite to back Lee up but he lacks NFL experience and then there is veteran Ernie Sims who filled in last year and played solid football for us.

If you look over that list and don't exactly feel comfortable, then you're not alone. Adding another Mike linebacker was on my pre-draft priority list, but the position was never really addressed.

We shouldn't close the door on Urlacher yet, but when asked about a possible Michael Jordan return to the game he loves, it sure sounded like he is going to stay retired.

"First of all, Michael was like 30 when he (first) did it, and it was basketball, not football," Urlacher said. "It’s a little different for us. ... I’m done."

An reunion of Urlacher and Marinelli would be a great for all parties involved. The question is, can the linebacker still play at a high level? At worst he gives the Cowboys experience and depth, but there is some concern that Urlacher has lost a step. He's retiring for a reason, he knows that physically he probably can't hold up and he wants to go out on his own terms.

In an era where there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for the Dallas Cowboys, at least one future Hall of Fame linebacker wanted to take his talents to America's Team. Let's tip our hat to Brian Urlacher, a great player and person who changed his position.

Dallas Cowboys News and Notes: Brent In Court, Matt Johnson Healthy, More

2013-05-24T09:00:02Z

Matt Johnson sees training regimen as culprit for hamstring injuries - DMN
Johnson thinks his recurring hamstring injuries from last year could be a result of his weight-room routine, specifically the weight he was squatting.

"We’ve done more hamstring work instead of putting on 400 pounds and squatting," Johnson said Tuesday after the Cowboys’ first organized team activity practice. "When I was in college, I did that some. When you get to the pros, and playing at safety, I don’t need to squat 500 pounds. We did more position specific and more dynamic work. You don’t need to be a bodybuilder to play football. I was big enough."

So how much has Miles Austin been squatting?

Broaddus: Backup RBs Making Most Of Reps; Rookie DT Impressive - DC.com
Bryan Broaddus with another summary of OTA activities, this time focusing on tight ends, linebackers and Anthony Armstrong in addition to the RBs and the DT mentioned in the title.

Cowboys' Brent accused of tampering with alcohol-monitoring device - wfaa.com
This is serious. The Dallas County district attorney's office says that Brent missed two bond-supervision appointments and may have tampered with an electronic alcohol-monitoring device. The DA is asking that Brent's bond be revoked. Hearing is set for today at 8:45 CDT.

Time table for possible Anthony Spencer deal - DMN
Rainer Sabin explains that the Cowboys have until mid-July to work out a deal with Spencer. If they don't get a deal done by then, Spencer plays out the year under the franchise tag.

In his OTA review, Mike Fisher wrote that Kyle Orton struggled a little with his accuracy in the first OTAs, and that it would be helpful if the veteran would ramp it up. It could be a lot worse:

Early thought on #Jets QB comp: Ugh. Sanchez 6-for-11, 3 INTs, 1 sack. (1 INT may have been a sack.) Geno Smith 3-for-10, 1 INT, 1 sack
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) May 22, 2013

Here's our tentative schedule for today:

9:00 AM EDT: Archie Barberio has a write-up Brian Urlacher wanting to play for the Cowboys.
11:00 AM EDT: Tom Ryle looks at how Mo, Dez and Matt all worked to change/improve themselves physically in the offseason.
1:00 PM EDT: OCC reviews the Cowboys' young guns and proposes a list of the top 10 players under the age of 25
More stuff to follow after that.

So check back later, we'll have new posts up throughout the day.

Continuing Cowboys Coverage

Cowboys 4-3 Defense: Which Players Are The Worst Fits?

2013-05-23T19:00:10Z

In a couple of recent reports from the Cowboys' OTAs, the mothership's superscout, Bryan Broaddus, claims that the new 4-3 defensive scheme will be awesome sauce for a couple of Dallas' holdover defensive players. Yesterday, in a recap post, he wrote that former inside linebacker Bruce Carter is a perfect fit for the OLB position Derrick Brooks handled in Kiffin's defense in Tampa Bay:

I believe this 4-3 defense will make Bruce Carter a star in this league. It's a perfect fit for his ability to make plays from the backside...you see a player that once he sees what is happening to him scheme wise, he is gone to the ball. Where Carter is going to surprise people will be his ability to rush off the edge and cause problems...There have been times where Carter has been a terrible matchup for a back to have to deal with because of his size and power...

This was, of course, music to Cowboys fans' ears. Doubly so, given Broaddus' "Scout's Notebook" from Tuesday's practice, in which he gushed over OLB-DE convert Anthony Spencer:

I thought he was the best defensive player on the field when they went against the first offense...There is explosiveness there that these coaches are going to take advantage of. He has a real understand of how to use pass rush moves as he is going up the field. No defensive linemen showed the quickness that he showed today. He is the type of rusher that leaves blockers reaching for him. He gives them no hitting surface and when a tackle can’t get his hands on the rusher, he is going to allow pressure and that happened several times today.

Again, good news for those of us who have been waiting to see whether actual events would correlate to the whirrings of our imaginations that began the moment we first heard of the intended schematic switch.

Indeed, I believe there are several players who will benefit tremendously from this scheme. Not only Carter and Spencer, but their running mates Sean Lee and DeMarcus Ware are built to ~~succeed~~ dominate in this system. But there are several other players who I think will benefit. Both of the Cowboys' starting corners boast the physicality, coverage skills, and playmaking ability (read: turnovers) that Kiffin's defense requires. In addition, the team has several quick, undersized defensive linemen in Jay Ratliff, Jason Hatcher, Tyrone Crawford and Ben Bass who, when asked to jet upfield at the snap, might find that to their liking. In short, I think the great majority of the team's former 3-4 defenders have the kind of game that will flourish in the new system.

This begs the question: which former stalwarts aren't built to succeed? Looking at the roster here in late May, I see two:

Sean Lissemore: Lissy has the right size (6'3", 303) to play defensive tackle in this scheme, and has been a versatile guy in the past, playing both the five technique and nose tackle in the previous scheme. Moreover, he's a high-motor guy who plays with a great deal of tenacity, working to the ball until the whistle. That said, I wonder whether he has the requisite skillset to succeed in this system. When he subbed in for an injured Jay Ratliff last year, Lissemore fialed to demonstrate the requisite strength to take on double teams, as the one technique must do. On the other hand, I don't believe he has the necessary quickness to play the three (or the one, for that matter).

Alex Albright: When Monte Kiffin somewhat cryptically proclaimed, in his first presser with local Dallas scribes, that there were a couple of players who stood up who would now be playing with their hands on the ground, my mind immediately went to two former college-defensive-ends-cum-NFL-linebackers: Albright and Kyle Wilber. My thinking was that neither can get into pass drops and close on the ball as quickly as this scheme requires. As a consequence, I assumed both would return to their collegiate positions. Indeed, Wilber has done just that; he'll serve as Ware's backup at RDE end this season.

Albright is a different story: the team is leaving him at linebacker, where it appears he'll compete for a backup position amidst a suddenly crowded LB depth chart. If you look at the profile of the players with whom he'll joust, you'll see that all of them are undersized (between 6'0" and 6'2" and 230-240 lbs) cat-quick types. The 6'5", 260 pound Albright seems lumbering by comparison. Will he be able to drop smoothly into coverage and swarm to the ball in the way his competition's college tape has shown it can? I'm very skeptical.

Don't get me wrong; I love both players and think both are exactly the kinds of guys ("RKGs"?) a good team needs to round out the roster. But even roster-rounders have to be able to execute the basic requirements of the defensive scheme, and I'm not convinced either of these guys can do that.

The shiny side of this penny? Both have enough versatility to impress a coaching staff that puts a high premium on multiple roles. Albright is a core special teamer (i.e., he may never have to play linebacker except in garbage time) who can also play tight end; Lissemore also plays teams, and may be able to play three positions on the line (all except the open-side RDE). Both are playing under "good" contracts. And, if they do get cut, 3-4 teams are likely to come a-callin': this time last year, former NFL executive Pat Kirwin penned an article in which he listed players at positions of depth that other teams would be delighted to snap up:

Keep an eye on the defensive line, where Dallas added Tyrone Crawford in the third round. A number of teams would love a shot at 2010 seventh-rounder Sean Lissemore if he were available.

One of the storylines I'll be eyeing from now through training camp...

More Cowboys Coverage

On The Chalkboard: Cover 3

2013-05-23T17:00:09Z

Editor's Note: if You Are Experiencing Trouble Watching The Video, You Can Go To YouTube Here

Things to note:

This is a 3 deep 4 under zone coverage.
Allows 8 men in the box for run support.
In base Cover 3 the Corners align at Off-Man depth (7 yds from LOS).
Single safety high. He has to play with range.
Only 4 underneath zones means each player covers more area than in Cover 2.
SS and opposite OLB have curl-flat responsibility. They will protect the seam until they are threatened to the flat.
Pressure with the front 4 is essential to success.

Over the next few weeks we will look at routes designed to attack Cover 3, and move to some other types of coverages in preparation for Training Camp.

More Cowboys Coverage

America's Team: An Interactive Map Of The 2013 Roster

2013-05-23T15:00:11Z

The Cowboys have filled every single available roster spot and currently have 90 players on their roster, and 88 of those players were born in one of the 50 States of The Union. Overall, the 90 players on the Dallas Cowboys roster hail from 29 different states in the U.S.A., and two players were born in Canada.

If your browser supports flash animation, the interactive map above shows how many players were born in which state. The darker a state, the more players were born in that state. Move over a state with your mouse and you'll see how many and which players were born there. If you can't see the map, it’s probably because the map is a flash animation and your browser either does not have a flash plugin (like the Shockwave Flash plugin for Firefox) or flash animations are blocked by programs like Flashblock or some ad filters. And if you're on an Apple device, direct your complaint to one of the geniuses in your local Apple store.

For those of you that can see the map, if you click on a state you will zoom into the state. You can magnify any part of the map by clicking and holding the left mouse button and then dragging the pointer to mark the area you want enlarged.

Here are some random facts about the Cowboys roster:

13 of the 90 players were born in Texas, making Texas the biggest contributor to the team. California (8), Florida (8), and Georgia (6) also contributed more than a handful of players. In 2011, a study of all 1,695 players on the 2011 opening day rosters showed that those four states are also the states that produce the most players for the entire NFL, but not in the same order as we see on the Cowboys roster:

Percentage of players by home state
	Texas	California	Florida	Georgia
Cowboys	14.4%	8.8%	8.8%	6.6%
All NFL Teams	10.8%	13.3%	10.8%	5.3%

Unsurprisingly, Texas is overrepresented on the Cowboys roster. And that is a compliment to the level of talent in the state, coach Jason Garrett said recently.

"Think about where we live," he said, asked Friday as the camp began about how the Cowboys consider bringing in local players either as free-agent signees or tryout players. "I’d argue that football is played in the state of Texas at all levels better than any state in the country. So there’s a lot of really, really good football players that come out of Texas. There are some amazingly good football players who come from the Dallas area."

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/cowboys/2013/05/cowboys-like-stocking-rookie-minicamp-with-local-talent-which-is-off-the-charts-garrett-says.html#storylink=cpy

The two other traditional football powerhouse states, California and Florida, are slightly underrepresented on the current Cowboys roster, but with the small sample size, we shouldn't attach too much meaning to these percentages.

Of the 29 states represented on the roster, eleven states have only one player on the Cowboys roster. The two players born in Canada are long-snapper L.P. Ladouceur and DE Tyrone Crawford.

Nine players were born in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area: Terrance Williams and Phillip Tanner (both Dallas), Devin Smith and Dalton Williams (both Coppell), James Hanna and Nick Stephens (both Flower Mound), Ben Bass (Grapevine), Cole Beasley (Little Elm) and Kendial Lawrence (Rockwall).

Outside of DFW, only Atlanta (Dwayne Harris, Edawn Coughman), Beaumont, TX (Lawrence Vickers, Tank Reed), Cincinnati (Alex Albright, Brandon Underwood), Los Angeles (Malik James, Monte Taylor), Pittsburgh (Barry Church, Sean Lee) and Wichita (Joseph Randle, David Arkin) have multiple Cowboys representing their city.

Interestingly, there are now four Wisconsin-born players on the roster, but if you're looking for the most famous Wisconsonian on the roster, look for that player in California - he was born in San Diego while his father was with the Navy.

So what stands out to you? How many players come from your state and who do you pick to be your state representative?