It was pointed out to me in my 2012 Offseason Fanpost that a CB I had Dallas acquiring in Free Agency (William Middleton) was actually a restricted free agent and almost definitely not available. I lamented; Woe unto my offseason plans. Where was I when Middleton was restricted?

So I have to move on. Scouring through the FA CB's I'm either not that inspired or very concerned about price. This is problematic because we seriously could use a veteran upgrade at CB. There's one guy though who we've discussed here who just may be a good fit. Stanford Routt. I initially wasn't fond of the Routt idea as his overall Pro Football Focus rankings were fairly underwhelming and his penalties were off the charts. With hope in hand I decided to take more detailed look anyway.

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Part One: 2012 Free Agents

Note: I'm not an expert Capologist but I have tried to keep this realistic. Forgive me if some figures aren't 100% accurate but I think, and hope, they are at least reasonable estimations.

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The theorizing about power struggles at Valley Ranch caught my interest. I thought I'd give my take.

My expert analysis is that Jerry only hires coaches that he has incriminating photos of to ensure cooperation. Unfortunately for Jerry this time he was outsmarted.

Jason, being a long time Cowboys employee, and having an inside man deep in the organization for many years (Jason's father Jim) was well aware of Jerry's insurance scheme. Jason knew that Jerry had revealing photos of Jason from the glorious 'White House' years (Jason didn't visit the white house much but when he did he sure made the most of it). But the smiling assassin Jason Garrett had his own plan.

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The Wonderlic is topical at the moment again so I'm going to update a Fanpost I did in March 2009. It looked at Wonderlic scores of NFL QB's and found there's a high correlation that very successful Quaterbacks will have above average (or better) Wonderlic scores. To get a better idea about the stats I'm putting up now have a read through that Fanpost for further explanations;http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2009/3/23/807364/wonderlic-scores

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Adrian "Poverty" Peterson earlier today singing for his supper.

First, the obvious ridiculousness of the comparison. A slave; 1) a person having no freedom of action or right to property, 2) a person who is forced to work for someone else against their will, and is also sometimes described as 3) a person who works in harsh conditions for low pay (slave labour).

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Jason Garrett is a Dallas Cowboy through and through. How many young OC's would turn down Head Coaching jobs at quality NFL teams like Baltimore and Atlanta to stay OC for their current team. Very, very few.

Why would Garrett do something like that? Because Jason Garrett is a Dallas Cowboy and to him being the OC here was better than being the HC somewhere else.

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There's been so much Jason Garrett (he's in the main columns, the fan-posts, the comment section) talk lately that I just needed to get involved. I've heard all the Garrett theories but I really think they fall short. It's such a shame this huge pile of the NFL's best "talent" on offense has to suffer through Garrett missing blocks, dropping passes, false starting, holding, throwing interceptions and fumbling.

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When referencing Emmitt Smith and his Hall of Fame career commentators often refer to the “he wasn't the biggest or the fastest” etc type comments. The implication is sometimes that Emmitt wasn't as physically gifted as other great backs like Sanders and Payton and that he was a product of great determination and a great team.

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I really dislike the Cowboys mold at RT.  They seem to just zero in on one type of prospect and their success has been poor.

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I think it might be a rough day early for us in regards to the Oline. I think there's a real chance that all the Olineman we'd consider at 27 will be gone; Okung, Bulaga, Williams, Davis, Iupati and Pouncey.

Bruce Campbell may make it to 27 but is he worth it? He's only started 17 games and has questions about inconsistency, durability, technique and intelligence. All players at this late first round spot will have some serious questions but he's got to many for me. There's Olineman to be had later on.

With Pittsburgh (18), New England (22) and Baltimore (25) all needing DE's for their 3-4 I think Jared Odrick, who looks to be the consensus premier 3-4 DE in the draft, could be gone too.

On the DB front Berry is a top 10 lock and Earl Thomas and Joe Haden look very likely inside the top 20. Kyle Wilson appears to have climbed inside the top 25 as the chances of the second best CB getting past the Texans (20), Green Bay (23), Philly (24) and Baltimore (25) seem slim.

So of the 25 first round rated guys, and with Dallas picking at #27, I think we're going to miss out on most of them. But there's one player, at a position of dire need, who we know Dallas has judged as a first round prospect, who I think might still be on the board at 27... 

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Let's look at the amount of snaps that were played by our Dline last year.  We'll start with the DE's;

Igor Olshansky – 593.

Marcus Spears – 482.

Stephen Bowen – 418.

Jason Hatcher – 336.

A healthy mix here. All four got decent playing time and no-one was overworked.

Now for the NT's;

Jay Ratliff – 775.

Junior Siavii – 157.

Those 775 snaps were a career high. Ratliff has 182 more than Dallas' second place Dlineman Olshansky. Siavii has 179 less snaps than Dallas' second last place Dlineman Hatcher. 

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...and the replacement is Miles Austin.

In week 5, on October 10th 1999, Michael Irvin's career is ended with a serious neck injury.

In week 5, on October 11th 2009, Miles Austin's career is born with a break-out performance.

Almost ten years to the day, Michael Irvin was finally replaced.

Miles Austin might never reach quite as high as the legendary Hall of Famer did.  But since Michael's retirement no WR has ever come close to filling his shoes as a player, teammate and leader. Miles Austin however has that chance.

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Tony Romo December 2009, three games so far;

41 of 55 (74.5%) for 392 yards at a 7.1 average, 3 Td's, 0 Int's. QB Rating; 112.1

19 of 30 (63.3%) for 249 yards at a 8.3 average, 2 Td's, 0 Int's. QB Rating; 111.7

22 of 34 (64.7%) for 312 yards at a 9.2 average, 1 Td, 0 Int's. QB Rating; 104.0

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The perfect opportunity to put a stake in the “December swoons” arrives today in the form of the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers who haven't lost a December game since 2005 and had a different starting QB and Head Coach at the time. The Philip Rivers and Norv Turner combination has never lost a December game; 15 and 0.

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Do teams really need a big time #1 receiver outside the hash marks to be successful on offense? Can teams with other receiving options, say for example a great TE and some very good pass catching RB's, still be successful on offense if the WR doesn't put up big numbers or draw constant double teams? A look at some recent NFL history;

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There's been a lot of apprehension in the press and right here on bloggingtheboys about the Cowboys WR's and whether or not Roy Williams can be a #1 WR for Dallas. I think many people can't see the forest for the trees. Dallas has a #1 receiver; Jason Witten.

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Is Matt worth it? I don't know but he's certainly an intriguing option.

Since being Drafted in the First Round in 2005 expectations were high for Matt Jones'. His freakish athletic skills (Combine measured 6'6” 242 pounds, 4.37 Forty, 391/2” Vertical) and the potential they brought got him Drafted much higher than his play at Quarterback in college would have. Big things were expected and Jones', so far, has failed to deliver and subsequently he's often labeled a bust. But just how bad has Jones actually been when you look at his stats and consider that, regardless of his Draft position, this is a college QB transitioning to NFL WR.

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Rafael's article about the Pass to Run Ratio got me thinking. The way NFL.com carries its Stats on Total rushing plays and Total passing attempts is actually misleading when it comes to determining what ratio of run to pass was called.

They state 547 total passing attempts and 401 total rushing plays for 948 plays total. That gives a ratio of 57.7% pass and 42.3% run.

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I just listened to the QB Stephen McGee interview on DC.com and that guy sounds pissed! In a good way though. Sounds like he's got a pretty big chip on his shoulder and he believes he will be the future starter. He really sounded like a serious, no-nonsense hard worker type who has set his sights on winning the QB spot one day.

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We are sitting in the pole position for Day 2. We have 12 picks total. There'll be some good players selected in the 3rd, 4th and 5th Rounds and we're loaded.

Two early picks Round 3 (5 and 11), three good picks in Round 4 (1, 10 and 17), three picks in Round 5 (20, 30 and 36). Then there's two in Round 6 (24, 35) and Round 7 (1, 18) for good measure.

The last 6 years of Rounds 3-7 has brought in; Tashard Choice, Orlando Scandrick, Nick Folk, Deon Anderson, Marion Barber, Chris Canty, Jay Ratliff, Patrick Crayton, Bradie James, Jason Witten etc. So these picks are nothing to scoff at.

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The Combine; players put through multiple tests involving their athletic skills (40 yard sprint, bench press, position drills etc), social skills (interviews and meetings) and mental skills (interviews and Wonderlic).

Every year the football community waits on those athletic results to be released (of which they are live on television) and then debates the merits of them endlessly and adjusts the stock of the prospect on how they performed. Team sources tell journalists how they feel certain prospects did in interviews. But the Wonderlic is not released to the public, it's held as a secret. We hear every detail imaginable about these future players; their measured accurate weight and height, their measured accurate speed, agility and strength, details of their past, their personal life story and upbringing, and then finally exactly how much money they're getting paid.

All these things are openly talked about and available. But the Wonderlic attempts to remain secret. We are encouraged to judge every aspect of their physical traits but must not know their mental ones. Of course in the Internet age secrets are harder to keep than ever before and most scores leak out. Contrary to almost every other bit of player information the Wonderlic is then often dismissed; “the Wonderlic is irrelevent, their's no evidence to support it predicts future performance”. Or something of the like. But is that really true? If so, why does the Combine continue to prescribe the test?

The Wonderlic seems to be most interesting and controversial around the Quarterback position. It's considered probably the hardest position to play in all professional sports. It requires many skills, both athletic and mental, to be successful. So I'm going to ask and attempt to answer the question that nobody wants to ask or attempt to answer; Are there trends from the QB Wonderlic scores?

What I've found tells me that yes, there is a correlation between Wonderlic scores and NFL Quarterback success in the recent history that I looked at.

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This originally started as a simple reply to Grizz's post - “Decisions loom for Cowboys in free agency” - that discussed Chris Canty and Kevin Burnett. But once I started ranting the size kept growing and I thought posting here would be more appropriate.

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With the Safety position in such a bad state (Keith Davis, Pat Watkins and Courtney Brown are all below average players at Safety and with Roy Williams having gone from very good to very average over the years), I would expect the Cowboys to look very hard at this position in free agency and the draft.

After shedding two significant contributing players on the Dline (Right DE starter Canty and NT backup Tank Johnson) I would definitely be expecting the Cowboys to look hard at the free agents and draftees in this position too.

But I also don't think the Cowboys will go for top tier guys at the positions. Guys like Albert Haynesworth and Jermaine Phillips are probably off the list but there's some very interesting players who'll sign much cheaper contracts that could help this team.

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