Have you ever heard of Ross Weaver, Jason Pociask, Jeff Moturi or Alex Daniels? Chances are you haven't, yet these four guys have two things in common. One, they're all signed to the Cowboys Reserve/Future Squad. And two, their player bio pages on the mothership all contain the same three words.
"Bio not available".
That of course is not a tenable situation, and we are here to remedy that. After all, for all we know, one of them might continue the Cowboys' tradition of bringing along project players from relative obscurity to NFL stardom.
FB/DE Alex Daniels, 6-4, 259, 4.73 forty, 24 years old
Daniels went undrafted out of Cincinnati in 2010 and initially signed with the Oakland Raiders on April 30. The Raiders switched him from defensive end to fullback during training camp but ultimately waived Daniels on Sept. 13 with a groin injury (not further specified) after reaching an injury settlement
Gil Brandt from NFL.com reported this about Daniels’ Pro day where he displayed quite an impressive combination of strength and agility.
Among the 14 players that worked out for the 26 team representatives in attendance (including coaches from Carolina and Cincinnati), the following were the most noteworthy: DE Alex Daniels (6-2 1/4, 265) ran 4.73 in the 40, had a 36 1/2-inch vertical jump, a 10-9 broad jump, a 4.51 short shuttle, a 7.09 three-cone drill and did 31 bench press repetitions at 225 pounds.
Daniels, initially enrolled in Minnesota, ran into some trouble there, was dismissed and moved to Cincinnati. Read the full story here. In his senior year at Cincinnati, Daniels had a breakout year, posting 46 tackles and eight sacks as a DE. He played running back in his sophomore year in Minnesota and finishing second on the team in rushing that year (2006: 309 yards on 69 carries, 4.6 YPA, 5 TDs in 11 games)
If you've got a guy that can play running back or defensive end, you’ve got yourself an athletic specimen. If the Cowboys can teach him how to play fullback with the proper blocking technique, he could be a monster as a lead blocker.
He already made the newswires with reports of his enthusiastic blocking out of the Raiders training camp:
08/08/10 – DE Alex Daniels, a free agent from Cincinnati, has played some fullback and his enthusiastic blocking has caused him to have words with Trevor Scott and get into a fight with Quentin Groves.
Likeable quote of the day:
"I just play football," Daniels said earlier this month. "Whatever Coach (Jason) Garrett needs. I'll get him water or wash his car."
Cornerback Ross Weaver, 6-1, 205, 4.41 forty, 24 years old
Originally out of Michigan State, he was signed by the Dolphins as a UFA right after the 2010 draft but did not survive the cut to the 53-man roster. The Seahawks picked him up immediately but released him a week later. Weaver was signed by the Jacksonville Sharks of the Arena Football League on October 29, 2010 and was signed by the Cowboys a week later.
Weaver graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. His size and speed make him an intriguing prospect who'll likely need a lot of work before he's NFL ready. He was a team captain in college, and has a lot of playing experience, having played in 41 college games. But he did lose his starting job at Michigan State during his senior season to Jeremy Ware, who ended being picked up by the Raiders in the 7th round of the 2010 draft.
Jeff Moturi, 5-11, 186, 4.38 forty, 24 years old
Moturi signed as a free agent with the Packers after going undrafted in the 2010 NFL Draft, but was released with an injury settlement in mid August. He signed with the Bears in early December 2010 but was released two weeks later and was picked up by the Cowboys on December 29th.
Jeff Moturi had nearly a thousand yards receiving in his final year with UTEP. He wasn't invited to the combine, but he had an outstanding pro day.
At his pro day Moturi was 5’11", 183 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds. He measured a 30.5" vertical jump, a 9’10" broad jump and did 18 reps of 225. "When I was at the Texas vs. the Nation Game and I was talking to scouts, they didn’t understand why I wasn’t going to the combine and I didn’t either," said Moturi. "I know I am an under the radar guy, and I have used that as motivation."
We've had strange sources about player info before, but this one may just be the coolest source we've had so far on BTB. It turns out, Moturi's brother is a proud U.S. Marshall and this report comes courtesy of the U.S. Marshals Service Report:
On April 30, Jeff Moturi, brother of Deputy U.S. Marshal Johnny Sanford, signed a free agent contract with the Green Bay Packers. Moturi [is] one of eight players in school history to amass 2000 receiving yards and [is] ranked third in UTEP's yearly historical records in TD catches.
Wide receiver Troy Bergeron, 6-2, 195, 27 years old
I'm including Bergeron here because I had already written him up before finding out that his bio page at the mothership did have some info on it, but I didn't want to delete what I had so painstakingly put together:
In mid December, after a spate of injuries at wide receiver, the Cowboys were briefly left with only two healthy receivers in Miles Austin and Manny Johnson. Teddy Williams was called up to the active roster from the practice squad and Troy Bergeron joined the practice squad on Dec. 15.
'The Berg' was an Arena Football League monster. He never played a down of football in college and joined the AFL development league in 2004, and the AFL proper in 2005, where he immediately won Rookie Of The Year honors. He bounced around between NFL practice squads for the Bills and Falcons and the AFL for a while. When the AFL went the way of the do-do he spent 2009 and 2010 on the Falcons practice squad where he bounced around the active roster and practice squad multiple times last season.
Tight End Jason Pociask, 6-3, 259, 27 years old
Pociask was originally drafted by the Jets in the fifth round in 2006, and has since bounced around the rosters of the Patriots, Buccaneers, Colts, Panthers, Seahawks and Florida Tuskers.
He joined the Cowboys during training camp this year to add depth to a position group that had been hit by injuries when Martellus Bennett, John Phillips and Scott Sicko were all sidelined. He was released in the final roster cuts in Dallas but re-signed in mid December. Hard to think of Pociask as anything more than a practice body.