The Cowboys signed a rookie free agent.
The 6-foot-4, 318-pound Batiste was a four-year letterman at Louisiana-Lafayette, finishing his collegiate career in 2003. Batiste spent the 2004 season playing for the Bossier City BattleWings in the Arena Football 2 League. He signed with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League in May, 2006, but was released during training camp.
Couple of good emails in Mickey Spags' column this week.
Mickey: There is some truth to what you've said, but understand, Allen still was the most powerful offensive lineman the Cowboys had, and especially when going straight ahead. He still could stun a defensive lineman. His problems were pulling in either direction. Really couldn't get off the line very well anymore and if and when he did, he wasn't very functional blocking in space. But he wasn't bad pass blocking. We'll see how this works out, but I'm guessing with Kosier you will get what you are paying for. With Allen, the Cowboys no longer would be getting what they would have paid for.
Pretty good analogy for Larry Allen, although I'm not sure that LA is as spent as Ali was when he fought Holmes. But still, it conveys the correct comparison.
Mickey: Just not fulltime, and not as a starter. Ellis doesn't have the lateral speed needed to play this position, and he's not agile enough. From a size standpoint, no problem. But what happens if the offense gets him into a situation where he must cover a Tony Gonzalez downfield 15 yards? How you like that matchup? But what Parcells is saying, if I can pick my spots, then I can kind of invent a position for Ellis where the defense won't know what his responsibilities are.
Good answer from Mick. Cowboys' fans like Ellis personally and what he's given over the years to this team; the fans want him to succeed. But you can't just ask a 9-year pro to suddenly change the way he does things and also learn a new position. About the only time you see someone truly change position late in their career is from CB to safety, or sometimes shuffled along the offensive line. But a 4-3 defensive end to a 3-4 LB this late in someone's career is tough. Parcells is betting he can get Ellis to do it on the occasional basis and not get cooked with an unfavorable match-up. We'll see; I'm still extremely hesitant about lining up Ellis at OLB.
Mickey writes a whole article about everyone who's saying good things about the Cowboys. Go check it out.