[Ed Note]: At yesterday's practice, I met up with our old friend here at BTB, Brandon Worley, to observe practice. Brandon put together this excellent article outlining his observations from practice. High-quality stuff as usual from him. It was good to see him and enjoy practice together, now enjoy his take on a Jason Garrett practice. - Dave [End Note]

I had the chance to visit training camp on Saturday in San Antonio, and for my first time being able to observe a Dallas Cowboys practice it was certainly an interesting experience. I never had the opportunity to attend a Bill Parcells or Wade Phillips camp, so I was not able to honestly compare what a Jason Garrett camp looked like compared to his predecessors'. From what I've read over the past eight years or so and from conversations with Dave -- as well as what we witnessed from Hard Knocks -- I can definitely pass along that Garrett is running a camp that is much, much different than what the Cowboys have traditionally done.

Not once did I ever observe anything resembling a "circus" atmosphere. I know there was some recent hubbub over a visit by Pee Wee Herman (I thought his appearance in San Antonio was fitting, but I have a feeling not many people get the reference) yet on this day the camp practice run by Garrett & Company was purely professional and entirely business-like. No Rowdy on the sidelines, no cheerleaders, no celebrities -- unless you count Charles Haley and Leon Lett -- and certainly no distractions on the field other than what was actually happening during practice.

More detailed conversations on camp after the jump...

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The Dallas Cowboys have announced their initial 53-man roster heading into the 2010 regular season, and as expected the roster cuts included some surprises. There was just too much potential and talent at the bottom part of the roster for the Cowboys to make any easy decisions and injuries at certain positions created a numbers crunch at others.

I don't believe for a second that this is the final 53-man roster and I know that the Cowboys were heavily interested in the rest of the cuts being announced around the NFL. What's going to be interesting is seeing which players might still be in jeopardy even after "making" the team if the Cowboys do indeed end up bringing in a released player to provide better depth at certain positions. It's also important to note that players that were cut (like Cletis Gordon) might be brought back at some point.

For a team headed into what is supposed to be a contending season, the key for the Cowboys was to put together the best roster they could from top to bottom. This philosophy created an interesting numbers game from position to position and necessitated some of the different decisions that were made yesterday. Across a two-part analysis, I'll do my best to determine just what the thinking was behind each one.

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With the cuts announced today, the Cowboys have trimmed their roster to 53 players.

Probably the most surprising move was the release of Cletis Gordon, who'd been widely viewed as a lock for the 4th corner spot. Instead, the Cowboys chose to go with six safeties, and will likely use Owusu-Ansah a lot in the nickel spot - as a backup to Orlando Scandrick.

Four undrafted free agents made the 53-man roster: C/G Phil Costa, Safeties Barry Church and Danny McCray and FB Chris Gronkowski. CB Jamar Wall is the only draft pick not to make the team.

The Cowboys still have to fill up their practice squad, but will have to wait 24 hours for their players to clear the waiver wire before they can sign eight players to the practice squad.

After the break, a glimpse of the 53-man roster as it stands tonight.

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Here's the full list of of all 22 players released and traded in the last two days, courtesy of Nick Eatman at the mothership.

• OT Will Barker
  
• OG Travis Bright
• OL Mike Tepper 
  
• OT Pat McQuistan - traded to Miami
• WR Patrick Crayton - traded to San Diego
• WR Jesse Holley
  
• WR Manny Johnson
• RB Lonyae Miller
• RB Herb Donaldson
• TE DajLeon Farr
• TE Jason Pociask
  
• TE Martin Rucker
• DE Junior Siavii
• DE Marcus Dixon
  
• DT Jimmy Saddler-McQueen
• OLB Curtis Johnson
  
• LB Steve Octavien
  
• LB Brandon Sharpe
  
• CB Cletis Gordon
• CB Jamar Wall
  
• CB Teddy Williams

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Not a bad way to end the preseason, I think. I know that it was just a meaningless game and I know that a large percentage of the players on the field won't make the team, but I feel that some important steps were made last night for some very important players this season.

After a couple of weeks of hand wringing and worry, it's good to head into the season on a positive note. While none of the starters even put the pads on you could really sense the "team" aspect the Cowboys have this year. That's going to be an important part of this team as the season starts.

For this film review, I focused on a number of key players and wrote down a couple of other random observations. Since it was the final preseason game I didn't hit the "jump back" button as much as I normally would for a film review, but I did make sure to take note of some specifics from what was a surprisingly entertaining game.

After the jump, my brief impressions from a feel-good win.

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Coach Wade Phillips and Jerry Jones both talked to the press after yesterday's Dolphins game. Both touched on many players and themes that we have been discussing here over the last few weeks.

Coach Phillips was his usual self in dispensing praise for his players and holding back on any public criticism, but also addressed the difficulty the Cowboys face in making the roster cuts by Saturday afternoon.

Jerry Jones also talked about some of the players that stood out to him last night, believes the Cowboys have got themselves a kicker and looks forward to the start of the season against the Redskins with a pretty good bill of health.

Both Coach Phillips' press conference and the interview with Jerry Jones can be found at DallasCowboys.com, but I thought it would be worth transcribing parts of what each of them said and open it up for discussion on this board.

(Disclaimer: This recap is a very close verbatim transcript of what Coach Phillips and Jerry Jones said, but isn't vetted for total accuracy. Importantly, I have rearranged parts of what each of them said to better fit the format of this post. Occasionally, what I've typed may lose the context of something Coach Phillips or Jerry Jones said and may appear counter-intuitive. If you have questions about something from the press conference, feel free to ask in the comments or watch the presser yourself.)

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Tonight the Dallas Cowboys will play their fifth and final preseason game of the 2010 season as they welcome the Miami Dolphins to Cowboys Stadium.

As is the tradition under Wade Phillips, most of the starters will not see the field tonight. We'll get a healthy dose of the backup players, however, for what I am sure is going to be just one heck of an entertaining game tonight. The Dolphins will be playing their starters for about a quarter, so this will be a great test for a number of the younger players that will receive significant playing time tonight.

With the Cowboys needing to get down to 53 players on the roster by Saturday, the reality is that many of the players in tonight's game have already had their fate decided. It's very rare for a player to have his roster spot decided by his performance in the final preseason game as by this point the team already knows what he has. Regardless, there's still some questions we need to have answered tonight against Miami...

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I've decided to forgo the "traditional" 53-man roster prediction this week, instead opting to take a look at the younger players that have likely earned a spot on the team already, those that are on the bubble and those that are facing the Turk come next week.

With just one preseason game left and less than two weeks before the official start of the season, the Cowboys will have to go from 75 players down to 53 by Saturday; not much time to make 22 cuts after the game against Miami.

Continuing our discussion from yesterday on the remaining position battles for the Dallas Cowboys, we now turn to the defense where things start to get a bit more tricky.

After the jump, I take a look at the players fighting for a roster spot and what I believe to be their standing heading into Thursday night's game. I've left out the obvious choices to make the team; no sense in discussing Anthony Spencer here. I've also listed who I believe the Cowboys should target for the practice squad.

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