DC.com reports the news that’s sure to cause a ruckus. Roy Williams was playing some inside linebacker in the nickel package.
When the Cowboys went to their nickel defense in Sunday's practice, safety Roy Williams teamed with Burnett as the inside linebackers in the 4-2-5 package.
The idea is to get Williams closer to the line of scrimmage, where he is more effective, and out of coverage. Williams had trouble at times last season covering tight ends and receivers down the middle as a safety.
Ken Hamlin and second-year safety Pat Watkins manned the two safety spots in the package, while the corners remained unchanged from last season, with Glenn and Anthony Henry covering the outside receivers and Terence Newman jumping into the slot.
Up front it was DeMarcus Ware at right end and Anthony Spencer at left end, with Chris Canty and Jay Ratliff inside at the tackle positions. Ellis, though, said new head coach Wade Phillips has talked to him about rushing from an inside spot once he's healthy.
This might be the type of player Phillips wants at one of the nickel linebacker spots since Keith Davis was manning the same spot on the second-team defense.
Nice, this is an idea that has been floating around the fan base for a while, but one Parcells would never consider. It makes a lot of sense.
Meanwhile, one player who isn’t making sense and should probably think about keeping his mouth closed is Kevin Burnett.
"I don't know where I'm gonna be," said Burnett, who did play inside in college at Tennessee. "Hopefully I'm playing and hopefully I'm a Dallas Cowboy. I want to play. I don't want to be somebody who stands and plays 30 special-teams plays a game. That's not why they drafted me. I damn sure take offense to playing 30 special teams snaps a game.
"That's saying you're not good enough to play defense for us but you're good enough to play special teams."
"Somebody's on the chopping block. You've got a lot of money in a lot of linebackers around here - somebody's got to go. As I see it, they don't have faith in somebody, confidence in somebody, that's why they picked up another linebacker."
"Maybe it is time for me to go somewhere else if they look in another direction, but first and foremost I want to be here, I want to play here. This is where my kids call home. This is all they know."
Eh, when you’re battling for playing time with a new coach and a new regime in place, you should probably refrain from shooting off the mouth while that process is still taking place. I’m just saying.
