SB Nation User Blog: Impatient

Is Miles Austin an elite receiver?

Impatient — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:31:01 -0000

The stats so far this year say he is. While Ranking 10th in the league in yards with 999 and a lowly 27th in catches (59), he ranks right up there in every other meaningful receiving statistic. Let's review.

Touchdowns

Tied for 2nd

1 Vernon Davis SF 11

2 Miles Austin DAL 10

2 Larry Fitzgerald ARI 10

4 Marques Colston NO 9

4 Brandon Marshall DEN 9

4 Randy Moss NE 9

4 Visanthe Shiancoe MIN 9

4 Reggie Wayne IND 9

9 Dallas Clark IND 8

9 Andre Johnson HOU 8

Per catch average (Players with at least 30 catches)

4th overall

1 DeSean Jackson PHI 18.9

2 Robert Meachem NO 18.2

3 Hakeem Nicks NYG 18

4 Miles Austin DAL 17.2

5 Vincent Jackson SD 17.1

6 Devery Henderson NO 17

7 Kenny Britt TEN 16.9

8 Pierre Garcon IND 16.6

9 Mike Wallace PIT 16.6

10 Jerricho Cotchery NYJ 16.4

20+ yard receptions

Tied for 1st

1 Miles Austin DAL 17

1 Marques Colston NO 17

1 Reggie Wayne IND 17

2 Randy Moss NE 16

2 Santonio Holmes PIT 16

2 Andre Johnson HOU 16

2 Antonio Gates SD 16

3 DeSean Jackson PHI 15

3 Sidney Rice MIN 15

3 Donald Driver GB 14

40+ yard receptions

Tied for 3rd

1 DeSean Jackson PHI 9

2 Andre Johnson HOU 7

3 Miles Austin DAL 6

3 Randy Moss NE 6

3 Sidney Rice MIN 6

4 Steve Smith CAR 5

5 Marques Colston NO 4

5 Donald Driver GB 4

5 Vincent Jackson SD 4

5 Jerricho Cotchery NYJ 4

Now do these stats prove he is an elite receiver? Maybe. They do show that he is a big play receiver. Considering that he has done this in 9 starts so far this season is even more impressive. Add to this 74.1% of his catches go for 1st downs and you have a budding star. So much is said about the lead time to develop receivers in this league and you really don't know what you have until the 3rd or 4th year. Well this is Austin's 4th year. I think we know what he is now.

Now for the real question. What is Austin worth? He is signed to a 1 year restricted free agent deal worth $1.545 million. We already have a big ticket receiver in Roy Williams. Can the Cowboys afford to pay Austin #1 receiver money? Ones usually bank between 10 & 12 mil a year. I don't see the Cowboys being able to pay that kind of money. Would Austin take a good ole boy discount? Would the Cowboys consider franchising him and trading him for picks? Does Roy Williams have any trade value? Would the Cowboys even consider taking the cap hit that would come with Roy not being on the team next year?

These are all tough questions, but the bottom line is this is a good problem to have. With all the doom and gloom lately I thought it might be nice to focus on our own little gem at receiver.

Roster Rundown with the picks added in.

Impatient — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:05:35 -0000

Let’s take a look at the possible position battles based on the rookies added and see where we stand. There may be some errors here as dallascowboys.com still had some players listed on the roster who are long gone like Tank Johnson, Zach Thomas and Killa Davis. Just let me know if I missed some and I will get them fixed.

I offered a few of my thoughts on the batlles, but the real reason for the post is to start up some conversation. So fire away.

C - Andre Gurode, Cory Procter, Matt Spanos

G - Leonard Davis, Ryan Gibbons, Montrae Holland, Kyle Kosier

OT - Flozell Adams, Marc Colombo, Doug Free, Pat McQuistan, Robert Brewster

DC.com has Brewster listed as a tackle but he will most likely move inside to guard. This makes the position battle between Gibbons, Holland, Spanos & Procter. I have to admit that I don’t know enough about Brewster to say for sure, but I believe he beats out Spanos, Gibbons and maybe Procter.

QB - Tony Romo, Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee

No battle here, just a wise move and 3 – 4 years of grooming for McGee. Hopefully he moves into the back-up spot ahead of Kitna by next year.

FB - Deon Anderson, Julius Crosslin

RB - Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice, Alonzo Coleman

TE - Jason Witten , Martellus Bennett, Rodney Hannah, John Phillips

The battle here is between Hannah and Phillips. Hannah has a ton of potential and 3 years in the system on his side. Phillips has his college production and affiliation with John Garrett on his. This one is a toss up to me. I think it all comes down to blocking and special teams play.

WR - Roy Williams, Miles Austin, Patrick Crayton, Isaiah Stanback, Sam Hurd, Travis Wilson, Manuel Johnson

I saw good things from Manny Johnson at Oklahoma. I felt he had more talent than Iglasias (sp?). I really think he may end up beating out Hurd. Travis Wilson is camp fodder. The real questions in this group don’t center around draft picks, but unproven commodities.

Defense

CB - Terence Newman, Orlando Scandrick , Mike Jenkins, Alan Ball, Michael Hawkins, Mike Mickens

Mickens is said to be top 5 talent. If that is the case then Ball and Hawkins may be looking over their shoulder for playing time. Right now it doesn’t look like this group is too overloaded.

S - Ken Hamlin, Gerald Sensabaugh, Pat Watkins, Tra Battle, Courtney Brown, Jerome Carter, Michael Hamlin, Stephen Hodge, DeAngelo Smith

This is an interesting group. I think Pat Watkins and Courtney Brown are goners after camp. They simply have not shown enough to stay and bump a guy who was just drafted. The Cowboys simply think that if the guys they drafted show the potential they saw. They will keep them over the underachievers.

DE - Igor Olshansky, Marcus Spears, Jason Hatcher, Stephen Bowen, Marcus Dixon

DT - Jay Ratliff, Junior Siavii, Tim Anderson,

LB - DeMarcus Ware, Bradie James, Anthony Spencer, Keith Brooking, Greg Ellis, Bobby Carpenter, Steve Octavien, Justin Rogers, Matt Stewart, Brandon Williams, Jason Williams, Victor Butler

I’ve heard rumblings that Ellis may be gone. Justin Rogers will have to really wow the staff to stick around. His ST ability is just not going to be enough to keep him around anymore. We have too many interesting ST players that have potential to compete for playing time to keep him around. The guys at the bottom of this depth chart shouldn’t unpack their bags in San Antonio.

K - Nick Folk

KO - David Buehler

This guy is going to be really fun to play with. He just has too much potential all over the place to dismiss as just someone to push Folk. Keep in mind that he outran and out lifted all three of the USC linebackers that were drafted in the first 40 picks. He could be a real steal. He is raw, but sometimes that is what you want.

KR - TBD

LS - L.P. Ladouceur

P - Mat McBriar

Felix the Barney?

Impatient — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:59:57 -0000

Felix the Barney?

Felix and Darren dressed up like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble

Tashard Choice

Impatient — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:17:20 -0000

Tashard Choice

role playing at the rookie symposium. Apparently Grizz's boy is quite the actor.

Why rookies need a salary cap

Impatient — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:13:56 -0000

When your legacy is on the line at the beginning of your NFL career, the last thing you need to be worried about is starting. Or for that matter, making a significant contribution. Lets go back the presalary cap days when it was the exception rather then the rule that a rookie quarterback would be expected to start. Now it seems to be the rule.

Rookies need to understand that accepting a cap similar to the NBA actually works in their favor. If they are not as pressured to come in before they are ready, they can take the time to learn the system and develop physically in order to compete on this level. It is when guys like Brady and Romo have the chance sit back and learn is when you start to see talent developed properly.

Perhaps some of those first round busts would not have been by taking the pressure off and easing them into the system. In todays would of fantastic rookie salaries, no team can afford to live by the Landry 3-year rule. Ask some 1st round bust if they would rather have the salary they got when drafted or take less and have the ability to sign an even richer contract sooner.

Lets take a success like Demarcus Ware as the other side of the coin. Under a rookie cap scenario he would still be a millionaire for being drafted 11th overall, but he would have had the opportunity to sign a new deal last year that would have dwarfed the deal he signed as a rookie. He would have resigned last year for Dwight Freeney money.

Bottom line is it’s a win win situation for everyone by limiting rookie salaries.

Juiced Cliffhanger?

Impatient — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:35:45 -0000

I dont know if anyone else saw that the league is trying to suspend former Cowboy Ryan Fowler. This is disturbing news that has come directly from the testamony from a former Plano drug dealer who committed suicide thiis past weekend

Fowler is the second former Cowboy to be implicated after Matt Lehr's name was brought up. I have heard that he dropped six or seven current NFL players names during his testamony both to law enforcement and directly to the NFL.

Thankfully this has been isolated to former 2nd and 3rd string Cowboys. My fear is that is a big name current Cowboy implicated. We have enough of a circus going on here without this type of cheating issue casting doubt on our current squad.

Chief Executive of Fantasy Land

Impatient — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:44:13 -0000

It has been suggested in the past that if I did not want to read negative doom and gloom speculation, then perhaps I should read fairy tales instead of blogs. Well I gave it a shot and if I read another story about Tony Romo dating Cinderella, I think i am going to puke.

Lets take a look at some of the ideas I developed in Never Never Land...

TO will come to the Cowboys and be a model Citizen....

Tank Johnson will come to the Cowboys and be a model citizen...

Wade Phillips will come to the Cowboys and improve the team...

Parcells will restock this team and leave a winner when he leaves...

Jerry will not totally blow this draft...

Marion Barber will be a stud running back in this league...

The sky is not and will not be falling.

My take on being a fan of a sports team is not looking for the rain cloud in every move made or not made by my team. It is not in throwing the players on my team under the bus whenever the opportunity arises. It is not searching through the haystack made of positive straws for "yet another blunder".

Maybe my brand of fanaticism doesnt belong in todays sportsblog. I do not think that is the case, but it has been suggested that it is. I have been a proud Cowboys fan since I can remember. I was born in Dallas. I am a fan of all Dallas sports teams and have suffered through year after year of failure from the Rangers, the pre-Cuban Mavericks, and to some extent the years since '95 with the Stars. This past season of the Cowboys and the following offseason has been one of the most positive joy filled times being a Cowboys fan since the early 90s. I find it repulsive then the neverending stone throwing at the likes of Adam Jones, Jerry not drafting reaching for a receiver in the draft, trading for that nonexistent veteran wide receiver, signing that nonexistent game changing free agent receiver among other random doomsday rants.

I prefer to look at the frugal thoughtful moves made. This is going back to signing of Tony Romo, the improbable signing of Flozell Adams, the high risk vs reward signing of Zach Thomas and trade for Adam Jones. How about the genius draft getting a 1st round quality runner in Felix Jones and then coming right back and picking up a top 15 corner in Mike Jenkins. The salary cap defying trickery in extending TO, paying Terance Newman and signing Marion Barber. Who would have thought we could make all of this happen 2 months ago when all we were hearing was that the Cowboys were only about 2.5 million under the cap?

So go on. Throw your stones. Take shots at your beloved team. Tell me I am looking at the world through rose colored glasses. Continue to look for that rookie bust in the first rookie minicamp. Write off those seasoned veterans and throw our coach under the bus. I will continue to hope for and advocate all of those situations working out to Cowboys benefit. Maybe that means I dont belong on a sports blog or maybe it does. Perhaps it just means I am a different kind of fan.

On the field

Impatient — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:09:42 -0000

On the field

Where did you go Roy Dub?

Impatient — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:19:35 -0000

Where did you go Roy Dub?

Character Scouting

Impatient — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:22:30 -0000

So after the first weekend of rookie minicamps, what do we know?

So far it seems that the Cowboys scouts have pulled gems out of the rubble. First we get news that Mendenhall is robbed at gunpoint after pulling a hammie in his rookie camp and Fred Davis is not smart enough to set his own alarm clock or order a wake up call.

These type of setbacks are not usually an indication of a picks worth on the grand scheme of things, BUT...

How many rookies coming in to the leauge can you name that have had early adversity have gone on to star in this league? Not to sound Terryesque and claim the sky is falling for these youngsters after the first NFL weekend for them, but I have to say that I am pleased that from the player positions we drafted, the other guy we didnt draft has had issues. Its not like we would have moved up for Fred Davis, but Mendenhall was within our grasp. The more time passes and the more spin I hear has me glad we went with Felix.

I think Mendenhall is this years Blair Thomas. I just cant see him turning out to be all that considering all the mitigating factors in his career. One good game against USC does not a hall of fame career make.