Dallas Cowboys release Evan Oglesby

With Keith Davis signing tomorrow, the Cowboys had to dump a player. Evan Oglesby was the unfortunate Cowboy.

[Keith] Davis will officially sign his contract with Dallas before Wednesday's practice, making this his third stint with the club in a five-year span. The club made room on its 53-man roster by releasing cornerback Evan Oglesby, who had one of the best training camps of any player.

OK, I’ve been saying it for a while now, if they keep Alan Ball over Evan Oglesby, they must believe that Ball has a ton of special teams potential yet unrealized. Because no observer of training camp or the preseason could plausibly state that Ball outplayed Oglesby. Quite the contrary, Ball was a disaster as a CB with more penalties and mistakes than plays made. Oglesby at least was an occasional playmaker. But with the 6^th CB, special teams often wins. And of course, there’s the real issue:

There's also the matter of money. Oglesby, a restricted free agent after this season, would have cost the Cowboys more than a million bucks to keep him next season. That's more than Ball will cost the next two seasons combined ($370,000 this season, $460,000 in '09).

I guess I should have followed the old maxim: Follow the money.

Hat tip to Barrett14 for posting the news in this FanPost.

[UPDATE] To be clear, I don't think they kept Ball over Ogelsby just because of money. I think they looked at two guys who were at the bottom of the roster and weighed the pros and cons. Oglesby is the better corner now but may not get any reps if the rest of the corners stayed healthy. Ball is not ready to play corner, but they think he can contribute on special teams. Then they looked at the contracts and decided that Ball being signed for the next couple of years at bottom rates vs. Oglesby being up for renewal next year as another reason to stick with Ball. Still, I would have rather kept Erik Walden than either of them.

This story still makes no sense to me.