2nd OT Alex Boone



3rd ILB Scott McKillop



4th (a) NT Ron Brace



4th (b) QB Graham Harrell




4th (c) (projected compensatory pick)
Darryl Richad DE/DT



4th (d) (projected compensatory pick)
OG Cedric Dockery



5th (a) SS Corey Boudreaux


5th (b)

6th

7th (a)

7th (b)

I think this draft we should focus on our O and D lines.

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 55 words long. If you just have a quote, link, video or photo you'd like to share with the community,.

What is it about the Cowboys that seems to capture so many people's fancy? Capture so many fancy people? Fancy capturing so many people! I mean, is it the arrival of rodeo season or what? Personally I find it kind of a rich boys' team with an apathetic fan base.

 

I mean, I've gone through the stands there, as a sociological project, to find out how many working people attend their games. Doing the research wasn't easy. I'd stop and ask a person, "Do you work?" wouldn't get a reply and would move on to someone else. Actually, I got one response. I asked this gentleman, "Do you work?" and without looking at me he said, "I'll call Security." This puzzled me because I am not familiar with the gentleman he named. At any rate, sociology is not a meaningful study in Texas Stadium.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/dr_z/11/07/mail/index.html

And what exactly do you do for a living Dr. Ztupid?  And how much do you get paid for doing it?  Pot meet kettle.

Another poster got me thinking, I think this little 3-4 experiment should be over.  It's not that I don't think it's a good scheme; it can be an excellent scheme given the right players, but I don't think we have the right players, however.  It's time for a change, and I think Garrett when he becomes head coach would agree as well.  He has spent so much time around 4-3 D's that I would hope that he might have a preference for them. 

Here is how I see our new front seven panning out:

 Spencer  Tank  Ratliff  Ware

   Carp  Thomas  Burnett

Any co-signers?

With Roy Williams (safety) on IR we picked up Darren Stone.  The guy seems pretty big and athletic.  Just wondering why you cut him, and what is your overall impression of him.

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 32 words long.

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 32 words long.

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 32 words long.

It was the OL's fault per Tim McMahon of the Dallas Morning News Cowboys Blog:

At least seven times Marion Barber had to make a move before he got to the line of scrimmage to avoid a defender. He had little chance.

http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/breaking-it-down-offense-4.html

MB3 is a great runner, but he can't run and block for himself at the same time.  He is only one man.  Marion Barber is not the problem.

Lets give credit to where credit is due.  Jen Jen saw this coming from the very beginning.

http://www.dallascowboyfansunited.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-1038.html

Cowboys' cream must rise to the top after Camp Cupcake
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO -- Camp Cupcake putters along here with typical laissez faire.

Players practice. Or they don't.

Franchise players pose for photos with fans and answer calls. During practice.

Sideline passes seem to be granted for soreness, hangnails or just general fatigue. Undivided attention also isn't required from said non-practicing players, as evidenced by T.O. spending his downtime Wednesday tossing Frisbees and reveling in his initials being chanted.

Did I forget to mention the chanting church group?

Nine days into Cowboys training camp and what I know for sure is: This is definitely not a Big Bill production. He'd probably go into shock if he stumbled across this frou-frou approach to preparing for an NFL season.

Not that this 180-degree flip-flop is necessarily a sign of impending disaster.

Big Bill operated practices like a prison work camp, and his Cowboy teams won exactly nothing. So all we know for sure is coach Wade Phillips is different, 180 degrees different.

Take Thursday when, as Cowboy players stretched, Phillips walked up to the almost 250 members of the Inspiring Body of Christ Church, raised his arms Richard Nixon-style and screamed:

"I saw the light."

It was not clear whether he was declaring his conversion or requesting a hymn. What is clear is Big Bill would not have done likewise. He acknowledged no power higher than himself, certainly not with regard to training camp.

Is it any wonder why Santonio looks like Camp Cupcake?

Other names under consideration, by the way, were Camp Country Club, Camp Cushy and Camp Campo.

And while this practice-if-you-like, pads-optional approach likely is not going to get the Vince Lombardi seal of approval, what I am about to say is equally true: Wade's way is not doomed to failure.

What has to happen for his laid-back style to work is that Cowboys players need to become leaders and police themselves.

"I don't like the word laid-back," Cowboys QB Tony Romo said. "I just think Wade is a guy who doesn't deal with a lot of junk, so to speak. If you are going to mess up, go ahead, do it and you are going to suffer the consequences. He's not going to sit there and make you feel like a 6-year-old kid."

Making a player feel like a toddler was a Big Bill art form.

He was the ultimate micromanager. He had his hand on the pulse of everything and his thumb firmly planted on any slackers. He was the face. He was the voice. He was the conscience of the franchise.

"Look, I'm not into knocking Bill," tight end Jason Witten said. "But I think the biggest difference between Bill and Wade is Bill, when something went wrong, he dealt with it. It was almost to a point where a player wouldn't go 'Pick it up' because Bill had already told him over and over and over again."

The phrase is "piling on," and players like Witten, who were trying to be leaders, did not feel comfortable jumping, say Julius Jones, for a missed block. They figured once Big Bill had finished with him, he needed a group hug, not another kick in the butt.

"So as far as being a leader, that was sometimes, I don't want to say overrated, but it was almost like it was discontinued under Bill," Witten added. "There wasn't a need for players to be leaders."

No longer. Wade slapped the responsibility on them almost immediately, telling them "I can not want this more than you." He is trusting them to push themselves, to stay out of trouble by themselves, to learn the playbook, to be responsible, to be professional, to be men.

What this type of trust-based coaching requires is leaders, because we all know not every player is capable of such self-policing. This is where guys like Witten and Romo come in.

Buoyed by the Terence Newmans, Jason Fergusons and Andre Gurodes, they must bear responsibility for keeping everybody on point.

You can see this during practices. The decibel level is a dead giveaway. Big Bill firmly believed in trickle-down theatrics. He screamed at his assistant coaches who in turn screamed at players.

What we saw Thursday were huddles of players going over what went wrong on given plays with coaches occasionally stepping in with nits, advice or praise.

Wade is content to trust his players, even if a few of us, including most notably me, wonder why.

He learned this style from Bills coach Marv Levy in Buffalo and concedes "that pretty much was a country club." Practice wrapped up so quickly lunch wasn't even ready.

What Camp Cupcake has taught us is that this Cowboys season is definitely in the hands of the players.

Somebody better ask the IBOC people to say a prayer.

I used to be the biggest Wade supporter.  No more.  This unit has no cohesion, no heart, and no discipline.  It's time for us to have a head coach that can light a fire under some arses, as oppose to standing on the sideline looking dazed and confused.

Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks Wade sucks

The A-11 offense might give some football purists a heart attack.  Although I actually like it; it sounds really exciting.

PIEDMONT, Calif. — After the 2006 season at Piedmont High, Coach Kurt Bryan and an assistant sat around with a dry erase board, trying to coax a Ouija board’s connection with football’s innovative spirits. Their aim was to keep this Bay Area school, with a small enrollment (785 students) and generally small but athletic players, competitive against bigger schools with bigger players.

Steve Humphries, the assistant, had an idea: What if the offense featured not one quarterback but two? Not bad, Bryan said, but things would really get interesting if all 11 players were potentially eligible to receive a pass.

Hence, the A-11 offense was born...

By placing one of the quarterbacks at least seven yards behind the line of scrimmage, and no one under center to receive the snap, the A-11 qualifies as a scrimmage kick formation — the alignments used for punts and extra points. Thus interior linemen are granted an exception from having to wear jersey numbers 50 through 79. (The exception was intended to allow a team’s deep snapper not to have to switch to a lineman’s jersey if he was a back or an end.) Any player wearing jersey numbers 1 through 49 and 80 through 99 is potentially eligible to receive a pass.

Piedmont’s basic A-11 formation calls for a center flanked by two guards, who are essentially tight ends. Two quarterbacks, or a quarterback and a running back, line up behind the center, with three receivers split to each side.

Under football rules, seven players must begin each play on the line of scrimmage and only five are permitted to run downfield to receive a pass — the two players at the end of the line and three situated behind the line. The difficult task for a team defending against the A-11 is to quickly and accurately figure out who those five eligible receivers are.

Prior to each Piedmont play, only the center initially goes to the line of scrimmage. The two “guards” and the split receivers each stand one and a half yards off the line. Then, just before the ball is snapped, Piedmont shifts into formation for the signaled play. With this simple movement, the possibilities for eligible receivers become dizzying.

According to Scientific American magazine, a standard football formation permits 36 possible scenarios for taking the snap and advancing the ball; with the A-11, the possibilities multiply to 16,632, providing a controlled randomness to the offense and potentially devastating chaos to the defense. Even the center becomes eligible to catch a pass if he is at the end of the line of scrimmage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/sports/football/17offense.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Roy Williams

By James Alder, About.com

Position: Wide Receiver

School: Texas Longhorns

Status: Senior

Height: 6-3

Weight: 215

40-Yard Dash: 4.42

Positives: Roy Williams is one of the best receivers in the 2004 NFL Draft pool and may be the first wide receiver taken overall. He has the size, speed, and athletic ability to be dominant in the NFL. He also possesses big, soft hands, rarely drops a pass, has great body control, and really good ball skills. Williams is the type of receiver that can burn a defense deep or turn a short pass into a big gain. He gets off the line of scrimmage well, and his speed and strength make him tough to bring down in the open field. He also has the agility to adjust to poorly thrown balls, so he tends to help make his quarterback look a little better than he really is. He should give defensive backs nightmares in the NFL.

Negatives: There's not a whole lot to not like about Williams' game other than the fact that he is a bit of a finesse player and always seems to have some small nagging injury, although none have been serious. If he stays healthy and aggressive at the next level, there is nothing to stop him from being a perennial All-Pro.

Projection: Roy Williams should be a top-10 pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. http://football.about.com/cs/playerprofiles/p/roywilliams.htm

He would trade for Roy Williams before the deadline this week.  T.O. is not the same WR he used to be; he can't handle the double teams.  We need another WR to take the pressure off.  Crayton is very good working the middle of the field, but he is not a true number 2.  Our offense needs a good number 2 WR to be complete, and Roy Williams can be that man if Jerry is willing to pull the trigger.