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With the NFL Annual Meeting taking place this week in Orlando, the team owners and the competition committee are finalizing plans for this upcoming season. Perhaps the hottest topic of the meetings concerns the newly proposed overtime rules, of which the Cowboys voted in favor.
Wade Phillips on the new rule proposal:
"The premise overall I think is good," Phillips said. "The percentages are going up. Before it was closer to 50-50 after the coin toss. Now it’s going up because offenses are better and moving the ball better and long field goals are better. It’s the appropriate time to start talking about something like that."
So far, the owners voted 28-4 in favor of changing the overtime rules for the postseason. Whether or not these new rules will extend to the regular season could be decided during the May meetings in Dallas. Here are the new rules:
The coin toss still determines the first possession. If the receiving team scores a touchdown, the game ends. If the receiving team kicks a field goal, then the opposition gets a chance to match with a field goal or score a touchdown top win the game.
If both teams kick field goals, then the game will be decided by sudden death.
More VRR after the jump.
Competition committee member, Stephen Jones, played a role in coming up with the overtime rule proposal.
"We really put a lot of thought into it," Jones said. "I think we've got something, as a committee, that ought to be looked at very carefully by membership.... That's our only point. It just seems like you've got to do some correction, and we think we've come up with one that we definitely think will give membership a thought process and hopefully put something in that would improve our game."
PFT reports that the NFL has delayed announcement of the Week One prime-time and Thanksgiving games.
So what's going on? In our estimation, the games can't be announced until the rest of the schedule is set. And, apparently, the rest of the schedule isn't set -- possibly due to last week's decision that the Giants and the Jets will each host a game in Week One. More specifically, it's possible that the compromise was hastily arranged in the wake of the coin-flip flap, and that the league has thereafter encountered difficulties in working out the balance of the schedule in an acceptable way.
The Cowboys could visit Houston in the third preseason game.
No compensatory picks for the Cowboys this year.
The Cowboys lost Joe Berger (Miami), Kevin Burnett (San Diego), Chris Canty (NY Giants), Keith Davis (Oakland), Tank Johnson (Cincinnati) and Zach Thomas (Kansas City) last year. They signed Keith Brooking, Igor Olshansky and Gerald Sensabaugh.
Here's the complete list of compensatory draft picks the league awarded to 19 teams.
Miles Austin's agent, David Dunn, is trying to get a new deal in place before the season begins. It doesn't sound as if much progress is being made though.
Asked again if he was hopeful to have a new contract in place by the start of the 2010 season, Dunn said, "sure." Dunn and the Cowboys have held very preliminary discussions regarding a new contract.
"Nothing new. Nothing happening," said Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones regarding any new contracts.
Matt Mosely says that the transition from Flozell Adams to Doug Free could happen much "sooner than most folks think".
I think the Cowboys can get one more season out of Adams, but it's time to start thinking about his long-term replacement.
High-ranking members of the organization have indicated to me recently that re-stocking the offensive line is the highest priority in next month's draft. But there are some within the organization who believe that Doug Free is capable of taking over for Adams soon. If Adams struggles early in the 2010 season, don't be surprised if Free becomes his permanent replacement.
First Dez Bryant...now, Pat Kirwin has Earl Thomas slipping down to the Cowboys.
27. Dallas Cowboys Earl Thomas, DB, Texas
This is a big slide for Thomas, whom I had going at No. 10 to Jacksonville last week. He may go higher than this spot, but if he's here, he solves a problem in the Dallas secondary. Thomas is a fine player (but not without his critics here at the owners meetings). (Previous pick: Nate Allen)
Reminder: NFL.com is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Draft with a poll for you to vote for the NFL's 75 Most Valuable Draft Picks.
Once again, the Cowboys nominated by the NFL.com editors are: Troy Aikman; Larry Allen; Tony Dorsett; Bob Hayes; Michael Irvin; Bob Lilly; Emmitt Smith; Roger Staubach; Randy White; Darren Woodson
Cowboys Stadium gets another gig as Oregon State will open up its season there against TCU.
OSU will face Texas Christian 4:45 p.m. on Sept. 4 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. ESPN will broadcast the game.
Tony Romo will be featured on tonight's episode of "Being John Daly" on the Golf Channel.
Romo's got game!