On Roy Williams, Terry Glenn and Pacman Jones

 

Darren Woodson has some commentary on Roy Williams that’s pretty interesting. He suggests that in Roy’s early years, he and the coaches would not put Roy in positions where he had to cover.

Said Woodson: "When I played, there was no way I was going to let Roy go out there and cover. No way Zimmer was going to allow it, either."

I’d guess that Woodson is over-simplifying here, there’s no way a safety can play almost every defensive down and not be forced into some tough coverage situations. But the point is probably that Roy was protected whenever possible, letting him concentrate on what he does best. We know what that was.

"Roy does his best coming downhill. I've never seen a better big-time game-changer in my entire career," Woodson said.

The Roy Williams that was effective in Dallas was the guy who caused havoc and struck fear into the offensive skill players. His game-changing hits, the momentum-swingers, the turnover-makers, were a welcome site on the Cowboys defense. Those plays have been much less visible over the past few years. Since he’ll never be a good cover guy - his hips are stiff and he doesn’t read the ball in the air well - the Cowboys tried again last year to protect him in coverage by sliding him to linebacker in obvious passing situations. I don’t think he gets beat in coverage as badly as has been suggested, but he’s never going to make his money there, either. Even though Woodson thinks he can still improve.

"If he concentrates and focuses, and accepts the challenge, he can cover."

But even Woodson admitted, "I think his focus is still on wanting to be the big hitter."

Well, if that is where his focus is then it’s a problem. Not because it distracts from his already meager coverage skills, but because it says he’s concentrating on the thing that actually does make him valuable, and still not succeeding. He’s making tackles in run support and after pass catches, but for him to be a special player, he has to do more. He has to make the big plays. The plays he used to make which seem to have disappeared from his contributions.

Roy’s complained about the defensive scheme but Woodson still thinks he can succeed.

"I don't think [this defense] is a career-killer," Woodson added. "I do think you'll see a better Roy Williams."

Roy needs to play angry this season. Maybe with all this talk about him, he’ll play with a chip on his shoulder. As long as it’s not a wide receiver on his shoulder. We know that won’t end up pretty.

Terry Glenn wants everybody to know that he wanted to practice in this week’s OTA’s but the Cowboys shot down that idea. In text message form, Glenn offered this:

"Let's just say I showed up Tuesday for meetings and ... ," Glenn said. "Ur gonna have to do the math. I'm not going against management in the media. But I want people to know I'm not practicing, not by my choice."

The Cowboys are just being prudent; Jerry wants Glenn during the season, not just for OTA’s and training camp.

Here is Pacman’s agent on the recent problems with the Las Vegas casino.

"We've informed the league and it is my sincere hope that it has no impact on the reinstatement process,'' Arora said.

Sincere hope? Yuck, this should have been knocked out earlier. The NFL says:

… NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said "We are aware of it, and we are looking into it."

And what happened that it got this far?

"We've been in constant communication with the district attorney's office about giving us some time to pay back the debt," Arora told Werder. "The only delay was we tried to liquidate assets on behalf of Adam to raise the money since he wasn't receiving a salary and it took longer than expected. The debt will be paid within the next few days.''

Amazing how those assets can be liquidated and be ready for payment just a couple of days after the bad news hits the news.