Mark me down as a guy who spoke too soon. Yesterday I posted that the "Greg Ellis comments on Roy Williams" story was played-out. Au contraire. Seems that partly based on those comments Roy Williams was summoned to the principal’s office. OK, so it wasn’t totally the Ellis comments that got Roy a meeting with coaches Brian Stewart and Brett Maxie. He also missed two teaching sessions last week while working on plans for his Mother’s Day charity program. Combine those two items together and some at Valley Ranch were starting to question his commitment to the Cowboys. When you throw in some points made by those inside and outside the organization that Roy’s problems on the field stem less from talent deficiencies and more from preparation deficiencies, you got a situation where the air needed to be cleared. As usual in situations like this, everything is hunky-dory, at least on the surface. 

"The communication was not there last year," Williams said. "We recognized the problem, and we talked about it. And we're going to move forward now. We have a better understanding."

Did you expect to hear anything else? I didn’t.

Now, as I speculated earlier, Roy wasn’t keen on Ellis dragging his name into the conversation. He realizes that Greg was trying to defend him, but he believes, like I did, that it didn’t really help the situation and that if Roy wants to complain about things he can handle that on his own behalf.

"I appreciate what Greg did, but at the same time, I'm a grown man, too, and I can speak for myself," said Williams, who still considers Ellis a friend. "If I want to be heard, I will be heard."

That was my major issue with Greg’s comments. Let Roy speak for himself. Then again, maybe Roy shouldn’t speak at all if he’s going to say stuff like the following.

"I'm tired about worrying about the fans," Williams said. "The fans are only around when things are good. I want supporters. At the end of the day, we're human beings, too. Everything can't be perfect, and you can't let your emotions rule over you being a human being. It gets to a point where you are abusing who you really are as a fan."

Yikes. First, Roy has taken on the media and blamed them for writing poisonous things about his play, now he’s taking on the fans. That’s a sure-fire losing combination and Roy should be smarter than that.

Here’s the bottom-line though; just play like you did in the first couple of years in the league and all will be forgiven. We know that Roy is not a good cover-safety, but playing intimidating defense with big hits, turnovers and plays behind the line of scrimmage was a good trade-off. Last year, we didn’t see that. Only Roy’s run-support was decent from last year and while that’s important, we expect more from Roy Williams.

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.

Since Roy Williams seems to be getting a lot of negative publicity over the last week or so, I decided to post something positive for the man Cowboys fans love to hate. Roy’s charity foundation goes all out for select groups of mothers on Mother’s Day.

This year Williams is planning something bigger with a spa day, where a group of women will be pampered with manicures and massages while their kids will be have fun at a go-kart racing track.

"Sometimes I can go a little crazy, but it just makes me so happy to see their faces," says Williams. "You have to respect the moms for Mother's Day."

The article also talks with Roy’s mom.

Meanwhile, over at the DMN blog Calvin Watkins has a post talking all about Roy. 

Ok, I think everybody knows Roy Williams isn't going to another team. The Cowboys are not going to cut him. So let's stop this Roy Williams needs to go blog posts. They are really stupid.

Hey, Watkins said that, not me. Another nugget about whether Roy can revive his game this year.

Can he? Yes. Two opposing coaches told me they would take Williams in a minute if he were on the open market. Williams, however, needs to play much better in this 3-4 scheme. He has to study his playbook more, come in much better shape, and attack defenders. The scheme is not the problem. DeMarcus Ware, Ken Hamlin, Anthony Henry and Ellis had no problems with it.

And the defensive coaches need to stop babying him. I thought they did a lot of that last year. Dave Campo is no babysitter and that will probably help Williams more than anything else. Williams needs to be challenged.

My city paper has a nice article about Tashard Choice. It’s worth a read and talks about the budding relationship between Choice and El Gato.

"We have a good relationship," Felix Jones said. "We met at the [NFL scouting] combine and clicked. He's somebody I can talk to and relate to. We're going through the same thing. We're going to compete out there on the field but in the locker room, we're friends and we'll communicate. We talk about things."

This is a weird article. It’s about people who want their ashes spread at sports sites after they’re dead. It includes a Cowboys reference.

[Al] Everest's namesake uncle Al, was a big Cowboy fan and knew his football-oriented family — his brother Andy was a coach and his nephews played and coached football — would always think of him when they saw Texas Stadium if his ashes were scattered there.

"I'd had his ashes for a couple of years and my sister Kathy and brother Tom finally decided to do something about it," Al Everest said. "There might have been some liquid refreshment involved, but they took Uncle Al's ashes to the stadium and scattered them on the flowers outside the gate. It worked: I never see the Cowboys but what I think of Uncle Al."

What do the Cowboys think of such practices?

"It probably happens and we sort of turn a blind eye if people are discreet," said Rich Dalrymple, spokesman for the Dallas Cowboys. "But we don't really feel it's appropriate. And besides, these things have a way of turning into elaborate ceremonies and we don't want a stream of hearses pulling up to the stadium."

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. 

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.

After the draft when the lists of UDFA’s were coming out, there was a name on there, Andrew Brecher, an offensive lineman from Harvard. Not that he stood out or anything, he was just another guy on a list of guys that I expected to be a body. He wasn’t on the level of UDFA’s like Danny Amendola, Darrell Robertson or even Marcus Dixon who has an unreal backstory. But when rookie mini-camp opened I kept hearing we have only one offensive lineman in camp, Brandon Hale from Sam Houston State. I kept wondering what happened to the kid from Harvard. Well, I finally found out. Dallas got in touch with him 10 minutes after the draft and he agreed to become a Cowboy and flew in for the camp and even had a nice conversation with Felix Jones while there. But all these guys had to take a physical and the Cowboys saw something in his X-rays related to a previous back injury he had and decided against signing him at that time. He since has been contacted by the Jets, and the Cowboys have not ruled him out totally if his back situation improves. Anyway, not a big deal, but I just wanted to clear that up in case anybody else was as obsessive compulsive as I am. One disappointing note, he could have been a contender for our all-quote team with Deon Anderson and Martellus Bennett.

"The Cowboys seemed like a good fit," said Brecher, who mentioned the presence of 26-year offensive line coaching veteran Hudson Houck as something that made America’s Team that much more appealing.

"And who wouldn’t want to hang with Pacman Jones?" he joked, referring to the troubled cornerback who was just traded to Dallas from the Tennessee Titans.

Ha! May the Pacman jokes never cease. At least he didn’t talk about Jessica.

Mickey Spags gives his review of the rookie mini-camp. 

The love for Danny Amendola at Valley Ranch. 

"I just can't wait to see him go against the veteran guys and just watch him work," Cowboys wide receivers coach Ray Sherman said after just the first day of practice.

In case you missed it, Matt Mosley has a long article on Felix Jones.

With the recent revelation that the Cowboys will be featured on HBO’s "Hard Knocks," a FOX Sports article from a few days ago came to mind. It talks about the pressing needs for teams after the draft. Here’s the Dallas blurb:

Pressing need: Preparing for the onslaught of media that will swarm Cowboys training camp if recently acquired cornerback Pacman Jones is reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Players and coaches will be asked ad nauseum about Jones in the upcoming months. But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones believes that distraction is a small price to pay for a player of Jones' talent.

Possible solution: Jones doesn't say or do anything stupid if reinstated and fades into the background a la Tank Johnson. Of course, history indicates that probably won't be the case.

With HBO on board, the media swarm for camp just became much bigger and the spotlight will shine much brighter. Should make for good TV viewing but may not be the best thing for the Cowboys as a football team.

A short article on rookie camp darling Orlando Scandrick. 

"I made some plays," he said. "I tried to have fun and get better every day and I think I did that."

"What will dictate how much I play is how I adapt to the speed of the game," Scandrick said. "The quarterbacks are a lot better. All these receivers are good. It's going to take an extreme amount of film study and discipline."

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.

Ugh! I hate this idea, nothing but a distraction and brings back memories of Dave Campo in a wetsuit with Shamu.

According to this article, we're back in as the featured team on HBO's "Hard Knocks" this year.

CBS 11 Sports has learned that the Dallas Cowboys training camp will once again be featured as part of the NFL films series "Hard Knocks."

Backup QB Richard Bartel gets some digital ink. Turns out the KC Chiefs wanted to put him on their active roster at the end of last season but Bartel decided to stay put.

"It was nice to know you're wanted," said Bartel, a Grapevine High School graduate. "You want to compete, and they were offering that, but what made the decision easy was the organization kind of affirming me and telling me I'm doing a good job here, and if I do the things I'd been doing, I may have a shot to stay."

You guys have heard my complaint about Bartel always throwing long in camp last year. The Cowboys have been working with him on that

What first caught the Cowboys' attention last year was Bartel's arm strength, but [Wade] Wilson has worked on Bartel's touch on shorter throws. The next part of his growth will be decision making.

More on the Cowboys suddenly full running back position. 

Peter King ranks us as the #4 team in the NFL right now. 

4. Dallas. The Cowboys still need a receiver; the thought of Patrick Crayton playing crunch-time minutes in a playoff game has to be a nightmare to any Cowboy fan. But there's not much else they need to win the NFC.

I'm assuming Pacman Jones will be reinstated, though I have no inside information; and if he does play, he'll be a huge threat on the other side of Terence Newman. If he doesn't, rookie Mike Jenkins' development will have to progress faster than Wade Phillips would like. Otherwise, the Cowboys haven't changed much. Explosive offense with a power running game, pressure defense with what could be a much better secondary. That's how you win in the NFL.

Still need a receiver? Wade Phillips says we don’t need no stinkin’ new receiver.

Martellus Bennett trades basketball dreams for football glory. 

Also, we need some FanPosts from you here on BTB. We've only had one in the past few days and that was about the Dallas Stars! I know you guys got some things to say, let's get the FanPosts rolling again.