Right after Rob Ryan was announced as the new defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys last year, we took a first look at Ryan's defense in Cleveland and found that Ryan likes to rush the passer with what BTB-member Chandus calls "unannounced blitzers": Chandus's film study (The Schematic Advantage of Having a Ryan) showed that Ryan likes to hide where his rushers will focus their points of attack by using delayed rushes from the ILBs or the defensive backs to "blitz the brains out of the OLineman and QB".
That's not something the Cowboys had done under Wade Phillips in previous years. In 2010, the Cowboys rushed one of their DBs 48 times on 590 dropbacks by opposing quarterbacks for a "rush rate" of 8.1%. That rush rate was 4.0% in 2009 and 6.4% in 2008.
In 2011, the Cowboys rushed a defensive back 124 times for a rush rate of 20%, more than the 110 combined rushes of the previous three years. After the break we look at that number in a little more detail and wonder whether we'll see another increase in 2012.
Here are some random thoughts about the Cowboys and stuff that I've been meaning to write about but didn't. Until now, that is.
Who says Romo doesn't go deep? Per PFF, Romo had 32 pass completions last year on throws targeted 20+ yards downfield. That's the 4th most in the NFL behind Eli Manning (43), Drew Brees (37) and Cam Newton (33).
All eyes on Witten: One guy I'll be watching closely in the season opener against the Giants is Jason Witten. Witten needs 91 more receiving yards to reach 8,000 career receiving yards. If he reaches that mark against the Giants, he'll have done it in his 144th game, faster than Tony Gonzales (149) or Shannon Sharpe (164).
I think we need to be careful not to put too much weight on this RKG stuff. Not that I dislike it or anything. But in early 2009, new Chiefs GM Scott Pioli announced his philosophy of "The Right 53" and in the same year in St. Louis, Steve Spagnuolo built his team on the "Four Pillars" of faith, character, core values and team first. Both concepts don't sound too dissimilar from Garrett's mantra. After three years of their stuff, the Rams and Chiefs both had losing records last year and fired their coaches.
When thinking of the term Space Cowboy, most people will think of the Steve Miller Band. Some of our younger readers may think of Jamiroquai's more recent cover of the same song. And if you're a child of the 80s, you may even remember Sigue Sigue Sputnik's 21st Century Boy in which they claimed that they too were a Space Cowboy. The cineastically inclined might think of a film by the same name, in which a couple of old geezers are predictably launched into space.
In an article on Grantland.com from last year, Chris Brown talked about what a "space player" is:
In recent years, the NFL has seen a dramatic rise in the number and quality of skill players who do their damage not just by moving the pile or outrunning defenders, but also by working the flats and soft spots on the football field. These naturally gifted players need just a little bit of open territory to operate, and when they get it they incinerate defenses. They operate in the area between the short dive up the middle and the long bomb down the sideline. They are "space players."
Brown then goes on to talk about space players in the running game and space players in the passing game., specifically referencing Wes Welker and the prototype of a space player, Darren Sproles. As I reviewed the receiving stats of both these players, one thing in particular stood out for me: In 2011, Welker and Sproles ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in Yards after Catch (YAC) respectively.
After the break, we go looking for the Space Cowboy as we take a closer look at who the Cowboys' space players could be.
Just like last year, the Cowboys will be entering training camp with 90 players, ten more guys than in previous years. Add seven free agent signings, also more than in previous years, and the Cowboys could have one of the most competitive training camps in recent memory, as players work hard for their roster spots.
Along the way, some players that few of us will have expected will likely end up getting cut. Last year, the Cowboys had two waves of cuts where they got rid of some of their big-name veteran players. At the start of the (delayed) league year on July 28th, 2011, the Cowboys cut Marion Barber, Marc Colombo, Leonard Davis and Roy Williams. The Cowboys later followed that up in a second wave of cuts by releasing three more veterans after training camp in Andre Gurode, Igor Olshansky and Montrae Holland.
This year's first wave remained slightly smaller compared to last year when the Cowboys cut Kyle Kosier, Terence Newman and David Buehler at the beginning of the league year in mid March. Which could mean that the second wave of cuts, during or after training camp, could see more players released.
Early candidates to not make the 53-man roster team probably include Kenyon Coleman and perhaps even Marcus Spears, who will likely face some serious pressure from the young guys like Lissemore, Geathers and Crawford along the defensive line. Additionally, Coleman is on the wrong side of 30.
Also, outside of Morris Claiborne and Tyrone Crawford, none of the five other 2012 draft picks are guaranteed a roster spot either. Last year, the Cowboys released CB Josh Thomas (5th rd) and FB Shaun Chapas (7th rd) during final cuts and released WR Dwayne Harris (6th rd) later in the season. The latter two both made it back to the practice squad.
I hope all the draft picks and all the free agent acquisitions make the team, but that's going to be tough this year. Who do you think could be the surprise cut from the team this year?
The Dallas Cowboys have traditionally been a good place for college free agents who went undrafted. Everybody has, of course, heard the story of Tony Romo and Miles Austin, to name just two of the more recent examples of undrafted free agents who eventually ended up as stars for the Cowboys.
Over the last two years, eight UDFA players made the Cowboys' opening-day roster, and it probably would have been nine had Raymond Radway not been injured in the final 2011 preseason game. Here are the Cowboys' UDFAs who survived training camp to make it onto the initial 53-man roster, and who combined for 1,436 offensive or defensive snaps in 2011.
2010: OC Phil Costa, S Barry Church, S Danny McCray, FB Chris Gronkowski.
2011: RB Phillip Tanner, OC Kevin Kowalski, OLB Alex Albright, K Dan Bailey
After the break, we take a look at how those numbers compare to the Cowboys' NFC East competitors.
Cantor Gaming, which operates seven sportsbooks in Las Vegas casinos, became the first Nevada bookmaker to release NFL season win totals for all 32 teams last week. Granted, the release of the win totals felt like little more than a formality after Cantor released the point spreads for the first 16 weeks of the 2012 NFL season a couple of weeks ago, but so be it.
Your Dallas Cowboys are not getting a lot of love from the oddsmakers, coming in at a rather unspectacular 8.5 wins for the season. That ranks the Cowboys third in the division behind the Eagles (10 wins) and Giants (9.5 wins) but ahead of the Redskins (6.5). By moving the Eagles ahead of the Giants, the NFC East joins the AFC West as the only division where Cantor projects the final 2012 standings to differ from the 2011 standings. And if we know one thing about the NFL, it's that nothing remains as it did in the year before.
The Cowboys have just completed their first OTAs, and the 2012 season is still a long way off, but does having Morris Claiborne and Brandon Carr patrolling the secondary as well as all the other free agent acquisitions and draft picks make you feel more optimistic about the Cowboys' win total in 2012? Or are you picking the under?
You can read up on all the win totals at the National Football Post, but if you just can't be bothered to follow the link, read on to see how those odds would play out in divisional standings for all 32 teams.
If you're a Dallas Cowboys fan, you're about to be hit by a blinding flash of the obvious: According to an ESPN Sports Poll, 8.8% of those polled listed the Cowboys as the team they root for each week, good for No. 1 among the 32 NFL teams. The ESPN Poll conducts 1,500 monthly telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of Americans age 12 and older to arrive at the rankings.
2012 Fan Favorites: Teams
Rank
Team
Pct.
1
Cowboys
8.8
3
Giants
7.1
9
Eagles
3.9
13
Redskins
2.4
Dallas is ranked ahead of a bunch of recent Super Bowl winners, including the Packers at No. 2 (7.2), the Giants and Steelers tied at No. 3 (7.1) and the Patriots at No. 5 (6.8).
The poll results are a powerful reminder of the allure of the Dallas Cowboys' Star: The Cowboys are the most popular team despite not having won a Super Bowl since 1995, the longest such drought among the top ten most popular teams outside of the Bears (1985) and the Super-Bowl-Disabled Eagles.
Just two weeks ago I wrote a post titled NFC East: Why My Division Is Better Than Your Puny Divisions, which showcased some of the reasons why the NFC East remains the best division in the NFL. Dan Graziano, ESPN's man for the NFC East, observes that the poll results show that three out of the top nine most popular teams hail from the NFC East, making it easily the most popular division in professional football with a cumulative 22.2 percent of the total vote.
The Dallas Cowboys caused quite a stir in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft when they traded up from the 14th pick all the way to the sixth pick to claim Morris Claiborne.
The move left many Cowboys fans giddy with excitement. After all, that move allowed the Cowboys to pick the consensus best defensive player in the draft; the reigning Jim Thorpe Award winner, awarded annually to the best defensive back in the country; a corner the Cowboys, in their own words, had rated higher than any CB since Deion Sanders. Add $50 million free agent acquisition CB Brandon Carr to the mix, and expectations for Claiborne - and with him the whole secondary - are beginning to cross over into irrational exuberance.
Claiborne will be an immediate starter for the Cowboys, Claiborne will shut down the elite NFC East receivers, the ball-hawking Claiborne will collect at least 5 interceptions, heck, there's even talk that Claiborne will miraculously increase Anthony Spencer's sack total.
At times, it's good to keep in mind that Claiborne will be a rookie corner in the NFL. Every week in the NFL, he'll play against receivers the likes of which he may have played only once or twice per season in college. He'll face faster, more physical offenses and will have to learn a more complex defensive scheme. He'll play more games during the season, he'll have to study harder and he'll play under a much brighter spotlight as a Cowboy than he ever did as a Tiger. And it doesn't help one little bit that his wrist surgery is keeping him out of all OTAs.
For a corner, a high draft spot is not a guarantee for a breakout performance in his rookie season as well see after the break, when we review how the rookie season went for the eight corners selected in the first round in 2010 & 2011.
If you had to take a guess, how many NFL teams do you think had three receivers with more than 850 receiving yards last season? Would you be surprised to find that only three teams did, and that those three teams were the Patriots, Falcons and Cowboys?
Of course you're not surprised. After all, the simple fact that you're on this site in the doldrums of the offseason qualifies you as a hardcore football fan, and is proof that you are able to recite football stats like other people are able to recite lyrics from 80's hair metal bands, quote scripture or describe in detail every play from all Eagles Super Bowl victories.
So it also won't come as a surprise for you to find that the Cowboys are also one of only five teams with three receivers who notched at least seven TD catches each last year (ATL, GB, NE, NO are the others). You'll probably reply with a bored "So what ese is new," when I tell you that the Cowboys' 850+ yard receivers (Witten, Bryant, Robinson) are not the same as the 7+ TD receivers (Robinson, Bryant, Austin).
But what may surprise you is to find that despite all the receiving prowess of the Cowboys' top three receivers, those top three guys have been targeted successively less in Jason Garrett's offense over the last five years.
Percentage of total passes targeted at Cowboys' top three receivers
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
69%
60%
61%
55%
53%
That is quite a big drop from 69% to 53% over five years, and after the break we'll try to figure out what, if anything, this means.
We were contacted on behalf of Jay Ratliff and asked if Blogging The Boys was willing help promote Ratliff's charitable effort to a broader audience. Of course we are.
Ratliff is partnering with TangoTab in the Fight Against Hunger and is giving away two tickets to a Cowboys home preseason game (Sec. C114 Row 17 Seats 15-16) to one lucky fan. TangoTab is an organization that donates meals to people in need when diners redeem offers to their favorite restaurants.
Jay Ratliff is especially sensitive to the fight against hunger, as his own family sometimes had to rely on food banks when he was growing up. Many people aren't aware that hunger isn't a thing of the past in the US, and Jay Ratliff is asking for your support to help him fight hunger.
Earlier this week, I wrote a post in which I proposed a list of the top ten Cowboys players under the age of 25. The post generated quite a lively debate for a post published early on a Sunday morning.
For the most part, the list of ten young Cowboys players was either seen as a positive sign of good things to come or as a negative reminder of bad things in the recent past, as well as anything in between. In some rare instances it was seen as the sign of the impending apocalypse.
One person who read the post with a particularly keen eye is our good friend and favorite closet Cowboys fan JimmyK, who reapplied the idea to the entire NFC east, and asked the following question on his own blog: "NFC East youth: Which bEast team has the best under 25 talent?"
Today it's my turn to reapply Jimmy's post, so after the break, we'll take a look at the top ten guys under 25 that Jimmy identified for each NFC East team.
Evaluating the success of a given rookie class is never easy, as there is no established definition of what success actually means. You could count the number of starts, the number of games played, the number of postseason accolades received or anything else that you can assign a number to.
Yesterday, we went in a slightly different direction and looked at the number of snaps played for each of the last four Dallas Cowboys rookie classes in their first year. We found that the 2011 rookie class played in 8.6% of the total offensive and defensive snaps last year, the highest value of the last four years (2010: 6.9%, 2008: 6.7%, 2009: 1.6%). But is that high enough, or too low? How much is good enough?
I've often heard it mentioned that getting two solid starters out of a rookie class can be considered a good draft. Perhaps not a great draft, but a solid draft at least. Two starters out of 22 total starters equals nine percent, so if your rookie class comes close to that percentage in its share of snaps played, you could argue that the rookie class was equivalent to about two starters.
The other thing I've frequently heard about evaluating rookie classes is that it usually takes three years, sometimes even more, to judge a rookie class, so that's what we'll do today. After the break we'll review the snap percentages for some recent Cowboys rookie classes for their first few years in the league in order to figure out just how much is good enough.
The first proper Cowboys OTA's will kick off tomorrow and last through Thursday. After the recent rookie minicamp, these OTA's and the others that will follow will help us form a mental picture of where the 2012 rookie class stands, and it won't be long before we start thinking about what this year's rookie class could contribute to the Cowboys' 2012 season.
Typically we'd think of these contributions in terms of traditional performance stats. How many interceptions will Morris Claiborne get? Will Tyrone Crawford get a couple of sacks, can Danny Coale get a couple of receptions, how many special teams tackles will Matt Johnson record, etc.? There'll be a time and place where we'll ponder all these questions, but I'd like to approach the rookie contributions from a different angle.
Today I'd like to start with the most basic question of all: How much playing time will the 2012 rookie class get during the season? For argument's sake, let's assume that ten rookies make the 53-man squad this year. That would make 19% of the players on the roster rookies. How many snaps should those ten hypothetical players from the 2012 rookie class get? 19% is probably too high, they are rookies after all. Is 10% a realistic target, or is that also too much, given that the Cowboys didn't have a second round pick this year? What about five percent, would that feel too low or still too high?
Before you read on, make a mental note of what you think would be an appropriate percentage. After the break, we'll look at the past four draft classes to get a feel for what such a percentage could look like. So make like Evel Knievel, but make sure to land safely after the jump.
Earlier this week we looked at the roster churn the Cowboys have had over the last two years and found that only 24 players who were on the 53-man roster on opening day of the 2010 season are still on the roster today.
And that list of 24 players didn't just feature the current franchise players like Tony Romo, Miles Austin, Jason Witten or DeMarcus Ware, it also featured some of the names that will likely be the Cowboys franchise players in a couple of years: the recent rookie classes.
In five years or so some of the young guns on the current roster will be the faces of the Dallas Cowboys. So today, I'll look at who the top ten guys under the age of 25 are. In a remarkable synchronicity of events, Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com had a very similar idea a few days ago and ranked the league's top ten players under the age of 25. Predictably, not a single Cowboy made the top ten list compiled by the former Eagles scout, with only Dez Bryant getting an honorary mention in a group of players who just missed the cut.
I don't know whether Jeremiah's list is good or bad. What I do know is that on my list, Dez Bryant is not the top-ranked Cowboy under 25.
Ryan's got to show something really impressive this year, because if the Cowboys' defense is costing them games again in December, his record and his pedigree aren't going to be enough to spare him the blame.
NFC East offseason report cards - USA Today USA Today grades each NFL team's offseason based on roster maneuvers, coaching changes and current events, and hands out an A- to the Cowboys. It looks like the only things missing in their opinion a decision on whether to extend Anthony Spencer and finding out whether Kevin Ogletree can replace Laurent Robinson.
Cowboys Keeping Tabs On McBriar’s Rehab - DallasCowboys.com Nick Eatman writes that the Cowboys are monitoring Mat McBriar through his rehab, and will bring him in for a workout once he's 100% healthy. And according to a text message by McBriar from earlier this week, things are looking good for the two-time Pro Bowler:
"I’m doing really well. Surgery went beautifully. Nerves are firing again. Set for a full recovery."
The rookie pool established in the new CBA has taken all the suspense out of the the NFL rookie contracts. The contract numbers are now determined based on the number, round and position of a team's selection choices in the draft. This means that there is virtually no room for negotiation between a player's agent and the teams, as there is only a fixed amount of money available even for top tier picks. As a result, teams are signing their rookies at a record pace, as NFL spokesman Greg Aiello tweeted earlier today:
Drafted players signed thru last night: 147. Thru May of 2010? 13. May of 2009? 11. 2008? 7. 2007? 25. 2006? 2. 2005? 4.
One of the few remaining teams not to have signed any of their draft picks are the Dallas Cowboys, and that's not something that's likely to change before June.
Why June? Because that's when the Terence Newman salary cap hit comes off the books. The league assigned the Cowboys a $5.71 million rookie pool with which to sign their new rookie class, but the Cowboys currently only have a little over $2 million left in salary cap space. But is that really a problem? Far from it. Make like the Pointer Sisters and jump to find out exactly why.
Morris Claiborne tore some ligaments in his left wrist during LSU's 9-6 win over Alabama in November, but still played the final five games of the season. At the Combine, teams advised him to get surgery to repair the torn ligaments, and Claiborne subsequently underwent surgery on March 23rd. He had the pins removed on Wednesday last week and is now wearing a soft cast around the surgically repaired wrist.
Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/cowboys/2012/05/morris-claiborne-to-have-the-pins-out-of-his-wrist-next-week.html#storylink=cpy
The early prognosis was that he'd be ready for action around the start of training camp at the end of July, but according Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com Claiborne himself is targeting the June 12-14 mandatory minicamp for his debut.
"I hope to be fully recovered and ready for that," Claiborne said. "I'm so eager and ready. It's hard just sitting there, watching, knowing you can do it but you've just got one small thing wrong with you holding you back. But I'm looking forward to it and trying to push that up."
Archer correctly points out that the ultimate decision on whether Claiborne will join practices as early as mid-June rests with the Cowboys' medical staff.
When the Cowboys drafted Claiborne in April, they were aware of his situation. If it now turns out that Claiborne could be ready sooner than anticipated, that'll be a bonus for the Cowboys, who'll get an extra couple of weeks to get their number one pick ready improve their pass defense.
At this time of year, much of the attention of an NFL team's fanbase is focused on the new rookie class, the free agency acquisitions and the college free agents signed to the 90-man rosters.
It is that peculiar time of year when many a fan catches a little underdog fever. That time of year where rooting for the player least likely to make the team instead of rooting for an established starter makes all the sense in the world. Where it seems perfectly rational to want college free agent Adrian Hamilton ($4,000 signing bonus) to start ahead of Anthony Spencer ($8.8 million franchise tag). Where nobody so much as bats an eyelid when you mention a player who has never started a football game in his life as a strong candidate for the number three wide receiver spot (but he's really, really fast). And where an injury to a back-up guard brought in for a little over the veteran minimum makes some of us want to call in a congressional oversight committee to investigate what's going on at Valley Ranch.
As Cowboys fans, we are perhaps especially susceptible to underdog fever. After all, the Cowboys have a rich tradition of taking little-known players and turning them into superstars, most recently with the likes of Tony Romo, Miles Austin and Jay Ratliff.
But even if some of the underdogs in this year's class do make the roster and eventually turn out to be stars themselves, when we look ahead at the 2012 season, it'll be on the Cowboys' veterans to get the team to the postseason. After the break, we review the 2011 performance of some of the Cowboys' key starters and personnel groups and split it into two parts, the parts we want to see in 2012 and the parts we don't want to see. So make like Scooter and jump all over the break.
Less than two weeks ago, the Cowboys O-line coach Bill Callahan talked about the tentative starting line-up for his O-line. At the time, that line-up included Mackenzy Bernadeau at right guard, who was rehabbing his injured hip during the team's offseason workouts under the supervision of Cowboys trainers.
Today, it looks like Callahan may have to rethink his options along the offensive line. Bernadeau underwent surgery over the weekend to repair the tear in his right hip, according to Todd Archer of ESPN Dallas.
Archer further writes that Bernadeau could be out of action for 10-to-12 weeks, a time frame which would make him miss all OTAs and the minicamp, and possibly part of training camp as well.
The 6-4, 325 pound former Panther could have provided some much needed muscle and beef for the interior O-line, but his spot will now likely be hotly contested between 2011 rookies David Arkin, Bill Nagy and Kevin Kowalski as well as 2012 college free agent Ronald Leary.
Bryan McIntyre, in his first week writing for NFL.com, reports that while Bernadeau is due a $1 million base salary in 2012, his contract contains a $250,000 de-escalator clause tied to his completion of the offseason workouts. If Bernadeau recovers, he could wind up playing for $750,000 this season. The downside obviously is that he may not play at all if he doesn't recover sufficiently.
Two weeks ago, rabblerouser looked at how the Cowboys have been retooling their roster this year, which holes are being filled by free agents, which holes are plugged with rookies and which holes could remain soft spots.
Inspired by his post , I wanted to understand just how much of a roster churn the Cowboys have undergone in the last two years. Remember, the last two seasons were the first consecutive non-winning seasons since the 5-11 years in 2001 and 2002, so a good degree of churn is to be expected.
To determine the level of churn over the last two years, I looked at the 53-man roster on opening day of the 2010 season, and compared it to the current roster. So make like House Of Pain and jump around the break to see what the churn looks like.
Some of the more lively debates among Dallas Cowboys fans take place when the talk turns to the roles the offensive or defensive units play in winning or losing games.
The arguments exchanged in those debates typically sound something like this:
In 2011, the offense scored less than 17 points in five games. The Cowboys lost all five games. Therefore the offense sucks.
In 2011, the Cowboys were 6-1 in games in which the defense held opponents to less than 20 points. Had the defense held more opponents below 20 points, the Cowboys would have made the playoffs. Therefore the defense sucks.
If, like me, you're still living in a world where every offseason you think that the current year's team will be a reincarnation of the 13-3 2007 team, you may be surprised to find that over the last four seasons, the Cowboys have compiled a paltry 34-30 record. So who's at fault here?
One way to understand the contributions of each unit is to look at 'wins over average' for each unit, and that's what we'll do after we make like David Lee Roth and jump.
One of the hot-button topics among many Cowboys fans these days is the center position. Today, we're bringing that discussion to the BTB front-page, but not in the form of a standard article. Instead, we've assigned two writers, CotySaxman and yours truly, the task of arguing the case for and against Phil Costa.
Both of us get three turns each to present arguments that support our positions. You, the BTB community can weigh in on the debate in the comments section and also vote for the winning position.
After the break, the two of us present our opposing views: Will Phil Costa be the Cowboys starting center in 2012?
As the dust settles on the 2012 draft, it won't be long before the first articles appear extolling the early 2012 playoff favorites. Along the way, some talking head will try to sell you on why this or that division may is the best division in the NFL because this or that player or coach is a sure-fire thing or because this or that free agent acquisition or draft pick will elevate some ho-hum team to championship status.
Don't be fooled by any of that. The NFC East is still the best division in football. Everybody knows it, not everybody likes to admit it. 20 Super Bowl appearances between the four NFC East teams and 12 Lombardi trophies between three of them speak a pretty clear language. The NFC East is the only division to have won a Super Bowl in each of the last five decades. Regardless of which teams win the remaining Super Bowls this decade, no other division will be able to match that feat.
What, you're getting a little tired of the Super Bowl arguments, and want some more recent data to support the East's primacy? Piece of cake.
Here's some more recent data to chew on: Since 2005, the NFC East has won more games than any other division in the NFL. The East has had more playoff teams, has scored more points, has had more yards on offense, more sacks and more 1,000+ yard receivers than any other division. And the East has had only six teams with a losing record in the last seven years. No other division can match any of that. Really, it's not even debatable.
Toughest? Most talented? Most successful? Find out after the break just how good the NFC East really is.
One of the constants that we keep hearing from Jason Garrett is how he wants competition on the roster. He's been very vocal about the need to bring in competition both after this year's draft and after last year's draft - and really, anywhere in between.
Including Kevin Ogletree, the Cowboys signed eight free agents at the beginning of free agency. Since then, they also brought in CB Taplin-Ross, S Owusu-Ansah, P Rogers, QB Carpenter and FB Greenhouse, upping their free agent total to 13. Add seven draft picks and a small army of college free agents and the Cowboys should have lots of competition at every position.
But do they really?
Obviously, not every college free agent or rookie brought in will compete for a starting job right away. And just as obviously, not every returning starter will compete for his starting job. But Garrett's emphasis on competition got me thinking: Are there positions or position groups where the Cowboys don't currently have serious competition?
It's no secret that the Cowboys were hit by injuries at some key spots last year. The most publicized injuries were probably Tony Romo's injuries, a cracked rib coupled with a punctured lung as well as a severely bruised hand. Surprisingly though, Romo didn't miss any starts because of those injuries.
Others again missed game time, but weren't put on IR. Miles Austin missed six games with two separate hamstring injuries, Felix Jones missed four games, Tony Fiammetta missed six games with different ailments and Jay Ratliff saw limited snaps with a cracked rib. But as a unit, no other unit was hit as hard as the Cowboys cornerbacks.
The combination of Newman, Jenkins and Scandrick played together in only seven games last season: For a two-game stretch in weeks seven and eight and then again from week 13 onwards, when both Jenkins and Newman were noticeably banged up. No wonder the corners received a lot of the blame for the 2011 defense - they simply weren't healthy.
Since January, we've focused almost exclusively on the new talent the Cowboys acquired, first via free agency in March, then via the draft in April and most recently via the college free agent signings.
And while it's great fun to contemplate what all these shiny new toys will bring to the Cowboys, it's also easy to lose sight of another great source of talent for the Cowboys in 2012: the guys already on the team.
Two weeks ago, we asked you to name your pet cats on the 2012 roster. Today, we're going to ask you to nominate your favorite for Breakout Player for 2012. But before you start typing a response (e.g. "Morris Claiborne, Sukkkaahhs!") there are some rules you need to follow. To qualify as a Breakout Player, the following criteria must be met:
• Drafted in the third round or later, or signed as a college free agent • On the Cowboys roster in 2011 • Entered the NFL between 2009 and 2011 • Fewer than five career games started • Still on their initial contract
The clue to my pick is cleverly hidden in the photo attached to this post. After the break you'll find the list of qualifying players from which you can pick your 2012 Breakout Player for the Dallas Cowboys.
On Friday morning, we looked at the signing bonuses paid to the undrafted free agents the Cowboys recently signed. We saw that the Cowboys, like every other NFL team, had $76,585 to spend on UDFA bonuses this year.
The NFL introduced this free agent cap to lower the overall amount of money spent on college free agents, and to prevent the wealthy teams from spending more money than some of the cheaper teams were willing to spend on talent acquisition.
The Cowboys ended up spending all but $85 of their allotted bonus money, which they spread across 19 players. The highest signing bonus went to receiver Saalim Hakim with $10,000 and next up were OT Levy Adcock and OG Ronald Leary, each with a $9,000 signing bonus.
I was initially surprised that the Cowboys didn't pay Leary more, particularly given the fuss Jerry Jones made about him at the post-draft press conference. In Jerry's words, the Cowboys debated all through the draft whether to take him, but "gambled" that he'd still be there as a UDFA. Unofficially, Leary is considered something like the Cowboys' "eighth pick".
And it looks like the Cowboys found a way to pay him as such.
Ruling on cap case not expected anytime soon - NFL.com The Cowboys and Redskins had previously filed briefs detailing their arguments against the cap penalty. However, yesterday's meeting before system administrator Stephen Burbank did not address those briefs; the 90-minute meeting instead dealt with a motion-to-dismiss filed by the NFL. If that motion is denied, the grievance filed by the Cowboys and Redskins will proceed in what looks to become a lengthy legal process.
Before the Dallas Cowboys training camp officially starts at the end of July in Oxnard, we get the benefit of 10 OTA practices and a three-day minicamp for rookies and veterans. The theme of these offseason activities, and ultimately the theme of training camp itself will be "competition", a point that Jason Garrett reiterated during rookie minicamp last weekend:
"We try to make every role on the team as competitive as possible."
So while training camp is still almost twelve weeks away, it's not too early to look at some of the training camp battles that are shaping up. And those battles may be more than just player versus player battles. After the break, we take a slightly tongue-in-cheek look at some of the training camp battles to look forward to.
Cowboys bring back Akwasi Owusu-Ansah | The Dallas Morning News Owusu-Ansah, the Cowboys' fourth round pick in 2010, was claimed off waivers after he was released by the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Cowboys were not the only team to put in a waiver claim, as the Eagles tried to get their grubby little fingers on AOA as well. AOA is expected to play either safety or cornerback for the Cowboys, but will likely be used mostly on special teams.
"I'm back 100 percent. (Strength and conditioning coach) Mike Woicik has been great to work with," Murray said. "In college, usually everyone did the same type of program. But here it's more position-specific. I definitely feel better prepared."
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