Who’s All In?

AlanTdot brings us the latest on the fantasy league.

Yes, the rumors are true, there will be a ‘BoysBlog Fantasy Football League this year!

It’s undeniable at this point. Fantasy football is here to stay and fans everywhere love to play. I think we all appreciate a competitive game that will let us talk and scheme around the game of football. Heck, none other than Jerry Jones himself has said that all NFL studies have shown that fantasy football only adds to a fan’s experience in a positive way. And that is what we’re trying to do, add to the experience of the site, enjoy another football season and throw in a little competition and smack talk.

I’ve been working with Raf to develop a custom site where you can have 96 players in a total play down to a single champion. We will detail that a little later, but suffice it to say you won’t need to have Demitrius Summers and Brock Forsey as your starting tailbacks.

The $20 entry fee will pay for the development of the customized league and some great ‘Boys themed prizes. So sign up early, start planning your draft and let’s get this season underway already!!!

Thanks, Alan.

The league will work as follows:

– There will be eight separate leagues with twelve fantasy players each. Each league will have a discrete draft. That way, we maintain the quality of play in each league but get the maximum number of players involved.

– The regular season will run fifteen weeks. Week 16 will be for playoffs. The eight league winners will advance to the playoffs. The remaining 88 players will compete against each other. (We don’t want to have the title game the last week of the season because every year several playoff bound teams rest their key starters that week, driving fantasy owners nuts.)

– The scoring system will be a yardage league, with six points for TDs, four points for TD passes, and bonus points for 100 yard runs, 300 yard passing days, 50+ yard field goals, shutouts, etc.

• The winner of the playoff round gets an official Cowboys helmet autographed by Troy Aikman.
• Second place is an autographed Bob Lilly jersey
• Third place is an official NFL football autographed by a Cowboys star (still haven’t acquired it yet so I can’t say whom).
• The remaining five division winners will receive a copy of Scientific Football 2006.
• The top scorer in the field will win the first annual Leon Lett, You-Almost-Scored trophy. It’s in prototype form right now, and will use the image of Leon just before Don Beebe strips him of the football on the one yard line in Super Bowl 27. I’m sure it will become a cherished award in the winner’s trophy case.

To enter, click on the Amazon box located in the upper left hand corner of the page, just above the “Best NFL Blog” box.  You’ll go to an Amazon page that lets you pay your entry fee (look in the upper right hand corner on that page.)  Some people have complained that the Amazon box does not always show.  I don’t know why that occurs.  Try refreshing the main page a time to two.  That works on my browser.

Late Night Crumbs

– OT Adam Meadows has been snapped up by the Denver Broncos.

– The oft injured Jacksonville RB Fred Taylor is nicked again. He strained a hamstring during a conditioning run.

– Blog regular AlanTdot has been working hard behind the scenes to create a custom fantasy league for The’Boys Blog. He’ll announce it in the next day or so. We’re looking for 96 ego-infused fantasy football fanatics. Our World Cup league was a big success and we know this will be much better. The entry fee will be $20 and we promise great Cowboys-related prizes. Stay tuned.

Spears Tears Cartilage, Surgery Tomorrow

MRI results show DE Marcus Spears tore cartilage in one of his knees this morning and will have surgery to clean the damaged cartilage tomorrow. Â  More information on his rehab timetable as I get it.

Practice Review, Saturday Morning, July 29th

Reader Trey offers this review of morning practice:

I had the opportunity to go watch practice this morning. The crowd was bigger then any time last year. They added bleachers by the end zone; but I recommend showing up at least 15 minutes early to any practice.

Flozell Adams was indeed spending much of the practice sprinting, walking then sprinting. One of the trainers never left his side. That said, unlike Larry Allen last year, he could actually run.

I did not have a great angle to watch the offensive linemen do their blocking drills, but once scrimmage started it was Marc Colombo (75) manning most of the snaps at left tackle.

They ran an eleven on eleven running drill and the first team defense dominated the line of scrimmage. They did not break any runs.

In the one on one passing drill the wide outs won more then they lost. The exception being Terence Newman, I did not see him get beat once.

It’s only one practice, but Aaron Glenn looked slower then last year. He got beat by multiple people including a couple rooks. He was clearly frustrated even hitting the ground after giving up a 15 yard out.

Late in the practice they did a scrimmage and for a change they held it on the near field. The defense again won more then it lost. The running game did a little better, but not much. The crowd got excited every time Newman lined up on Terrell Owens, but they never threw one to Owens on those plays. Owens did beat Glenn deep for the only TD of the scrimmage. He had fun with it and waved for fans to cheer.

I could not see the line play in the scrimmage because I was looking from defense’s end zone.

Other observations:

• Bobby Carpenter did very well in the blocking drill, he was shredding Brett Pierce and Sean Ryan very quickly.
• Jim Burt was working with the defensive linemen.
• Jason Hatcher looks big and held his own when drilling with the other defensive linemen.
• Skyler Green beat his man three times for no completions. Two throws were difficult, the third he should have caught.
• Ryan Hannam (backup TE) practiced with the linebackers. He played a nickel linebacker role in the drills and scrimmages.
• Greg Ellis lined up and practiced as a defensive lineman exclusively. He did not work with the linebacker coaches at all. His snaps in scrimmage were with the nickel defense.

The weather was great. After a week of record highs and muggy humidity, the teams first practice was in in perfect football weather. Overcast with a cool breeze. Who says God is not a Cowboy fan!!

Is Dallas Still Nervous About Its Tackles?

Practice Update: The first practice has concluded and the biggest news involves second-year DE Marcus Spears, who left practice early for an MRI after injuring a knee. The original assumption is a possible torn meniscus, or cartilage. We’ll wait for the MRI results before saying more. This would be the second injury blow for Spears, who was fortunate to escape serious injury when he was rolled in drills last year. He suffered a severe sprain and missed much of camp.

Camp update II: It seems the Cowboys are hardly alone in early camp, hold-your-breath events. The Browns had their heartbreak with LeCharles Bentley. Today the Panthers had a Steve Smith scare.

The Cowboys have expressed interest in former Colts and Panthers OT Adam Meadows. Meadows is attempting a comeback after retiring in preseason two years ago. I asked a source if Dallas was curious or serious. He says the team is eager to work Meadows out, give him a physical and assess his condition. Dallas is not alone. New Orleans and Green Bay have also expressed interest and other teams may join the queue.

The same source told me that former Raiders OT Lincoln Kennedy’s agent called the Cowboys asking for a tryout. Kennedy retired after the ‘04 season, spent last year at the NFL Network and is, like Meadows, looking to come back.

No word on Dallas’ response, but here’s my chicken/egg question. Are the agents calling because they know Dallas had trouble with OT last year, or does the activity show nervousness on Dallas’ part?

Or both?

Ellis Kremlinology

Let’s see if we can read the tea leaves on Greg Ellis. As you’re probably seen, he’s drooped his lower lip even lower, openly stating that he didn’t want to be at Oxnard and wants to play for a 4-3 team.

It’s not in Dallas’ way to keep a pouting player on the roster, but can Dallas afford to let him go right now? It’s far too early to say with any certainty, but the answer today is no. Dallas finished ‘05 with two dependable edge rushers — Ellis and Demarcus Ware. There’s hope for Chris Canty and the draftees Bobby Carpenter and Jason Hatcher flashed rush skills in college. But as any military guy will tell you, hope is not a plan. At least two of the youngsters will have to show bonafide rush skills before Dallas seriously contemplates moving Ellis.

For argument’s sake, let’s say the kids produce. What could Dallas get for Ellis and where might he land? The answer to the first question is far too hazy on July 28th. No team knows what it has at this point. Injuries also dictate team needs. Cleveland thought it had its center spot locked down tight after signing LeCharles Bentley so it traded ‘05 starter Jeff Faine. Bentley tore a knee ligament in Cleveland’s first practice yesterday and is out for the year. Today the Browns are scrambling for a replacement.

Ellis has many attractive features should he be shopped. He’s consistent and productive. His modest cap number won’t scuttle any deals. On the other hand, he’s 32 and has a reputation for wearing down late in seasons, according to a source I spoke to today.

That source suggested New Orleans, Jacksonville and Denver as possible destinations. The Saints have Sean Payton running the team and Gary Gibbs coordinating the defense. The Saints lost DE Darren Howard in free agency and traded DT Jonathan Sullivan to New England. They could use depth and leadership. Former Cowboys head man Dave Campo runs Jacksonville’s secondary and might welcome a reunion with Ellis.

Denver also has a Dallas connection. Broncos d-line coach Andre Patterson oversaw the Cowboys’ line for Campo and has shown an affinity for his old boys. He brought Mike Myers and Ebenezer Ekuban to Denver last year and knows Ellis has played better than either of them over the course of his career. The Broncos fell one win short of the Super Bowl last year and their anemic rush (28 sacks) was a prime reason they failed. Their circumstances could push them to pay more than other teams, should Ellis hit the market.

The operative word today is if. While it’s fun to speculate, there are simply too many question marks, at Oxnard and around the league, to prompt an early deal, much less one at all. It doesn’t appear, however, that Ellis’ pout will go anywhere. Don’t dismiss a trade either.

One to Go — Draftees and Days Until Practice

Update: And then there were none. Bobby Carpenter signed today, meaning all new Cowboys will be on the field for the first practice tomorrow.

Update II: He better be good — for San Francisco’s sake. The 49ers awarded top pick Vernon Davis a contract that makes him the highest paid TE in the game. His deal surpasses that signed by Jason Witten last week.

– Camp has yet to begin and we’ve already had a Greg Ellis gripefest, with the veteran telling Morning News scribe J.J. Taylor, “I don’t want to be here.” (scroll down)

Mr. Ellis, if you really want to be traded to a 4-3 team, SHUT UP! Nothing like open whining to drive down your trade value and embarrass the front office, which will make them that much more willing and able to give you what you want. (Insert sarcasm here.)

It’s hard to watch a smart player be so dumb.

– Bobby Carpenter is now the only unsigned draftee, though that should change tomorrow. Carpenter flew to Oxnard on the team’s charter plane.

All Hands on Deck — Shortly

Just heard from a source that the Cowboys and agent Jimmy Sexton are making progress on OLB Bobby Carpenter’s contract and could finalize it today.

Things seem a bit stickier with Skyler Green’s negotiation, but the team is confident he will also be done soon.

Summer’s Over — Time for Camp

The wait is over.

Camp starts tomorrow. Finally, real news, real video, real… everything. The Cowboys are taking their usual time signing draftees, though I expect Stephen Jones to reach into his magic hat and have everyone done in the next couple of days. That’s just par for the course with him.

Dallas did sign FS prospect Pat Watkins last night, and may have gotten a boost when CB Antonio Cromartie, the player drafted immediately after Bobby Carpenter, signed with the Chargers. Cromartie reportedly got a five year, $12.75 million contract.

Update: Back to front. Dallas signed two more draftees, adding DE Jason Hatcher and NT Montavious Stanley to the ranks of salaried Cowboys.

Only three picks remain unsigned — Bobby Carpenter, Anthony Fasano and Skyler Green.

Update II: Add Anthony Fasano to the signed list. Stephen Jones signs them late, but he does sign them. I’d be surprised if any draftees were unsigned by the time camp opens Saturday.

An Interview With K.C. Joyner, Part IV

K.C. Joyner concludes his interview with a discussion of Dallas’ tight ends and an analysis of Julius Jones’ game:

13. Blue and Silver Report — Jason Witten gets a lot of attention. The poor OT play forced him to block a lot last year and this hurt his receiving numbers, though they were still very good. Did he improve, regress or stay the same compared to 2004?

K.C. Joyner — I did an article for [ESPN] Insider recently that showed Witten had the best receiving numbers of any tight end in the NFL last year. He did this despite being used as a lead blocking fullback more often than any other tight end in the NFL. If the Cowboys can get better blocking out of Lousaka Polite (whose success rates were low) and Ryan Hannam (whose success metrics were also low, but who I think is a better blocker than the metrics indicate) this could get Witten out of the backfield and back as the de-facto #3 receiver. He would probably put up league-leading numbers again if this happens.

14. BSR — This question could be answered with number 13. One thing I noticed watching Cowboys’ tapes was poor tight end blocking, especially on the backside of runs. OLBs and safeties were frequently running down Cowboys runners from behind, it seemed. I argued a few months ago that ‘05 TEs coach Paul Pasqualoni seemed a step down from ‘04 coach Tony Sparano and that new hire Freddie Kitchens could upgrade this unit.

I know you rate TE receiving and run blocking. Does your data match up to my observations and how did the Dallas TEs rate as run blockers?

K.C. — Dan Campbell and Witten were #1 and #2 in lead blocks by a tight end (i.e. when the tight end lines up as a lead blocker in place of the fullback) so their metrics versus other pure tight ends might be a bit deceiving. Good fullbacks tend to have 85-90% success rates whereas good tight ends will have 80-85% success rates.

Campbell had an 82% success rate and Witten an 81% rate, both of which are low considering their use as a fullback. Hannam had a 79% success rate but was almost never used as a fullback.

BSR — K.C. does not address this the point in his answer, but the free preview on his SF 2006 site allows us to tumble his numbers further. (Click the free sample link at the top of the page and go to late pages on tight ends.) Witten ranks a respectable 15th overall in blocking success percentage, with 81%. However, Witten’s yards per attempt, the average yards a Cowboys back got running behind him, was a less than stellar 3.8 yards per attempt, ranking him 36th overall. Campbell was worse, finishing 45th out of the 47 tight ends Joyner rated with a 2.2 yards per attempt average. It’s not clear if these numbers were downgraded by the high number of lead blocks both TEs attempted.

However, Campbell’s poor numbers show why Dallas let him leave this spring. Dallas clearly expects Anthony Fasano to shoulder more of the lead-blocking F-back responsibilities and let Witten get downfield more often.

15. BSR — Finally, you have run blocking and run stopping stats now. Are you assessing how backs figure in a successful running game? I ask because nothing, and I mean nothing gets the juices flowing on this site more than the question, Julius or Marion?

For some reason the meme that Julius Jones was tentative got started early in ‘05 and never went away. I didn’t see it but there are people who swear by it.

K.C. – I didn’t do a Julius vs. Marion comparison for the book but I can tell you this: Jones was extremely effective on certain types of runs and simply pitiful on others. Let me give you a chart from S.F. 2006 on Jones’ effectiveness in each of the seven major run types.

If I were the Cowboys, I would run Jones on sweeps and off-tackle plays as often as possible. I would stay away from the counter and dive plays and see if [Marion] Barber can do a better job on those.

Tuesday Roundup — Ellis to Report

Greg Ellis will report to training camp on time, according to the Dallas Morning News. Ellis had expressed misgivings about his new hybrid DE/OLB role this year and asked for more guarantees in his contract. The team has refused, but Ellis will not challenge them with a holdout.

In other news:

– Dallas signed its first draftee yesterday, agreeing to terms with 7th rounder Pat McQuistan.

– Agent Drew Rosenhaus told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune his client, safety Dwight Smith, would finish his two day visit with the Vikings before making a decision on his future. Smith is looking for a multi-year deal and Rosenhaus claims he’ll sign with Tampa Bay if he doesn’t find one. Smith already has offers from the Bucs and Ravens.

– CB Ronde Barber tells the Tampa Tribune he’s close to a new deal with the Bucs. This scotches a rumor that surfaced a week ago that had Barber being traded to Dallas.  How do those ideas get started?

An Interview With K.C. Joyner, Part III

K.C. Joyner has completed Scientific Football 2006. Today he provides an extended excerpt from his SF 2006 Cowboys introduction, plus answers to questions on Terence Newman, Drew Bledsoe and the free safety position.

The Dallas Cowboys were the toughest team to play in the NFL last year. I don’t mean they were the toughtest team physically (although they may have been). I mean that the ‘Boys were mentally taxing to play.

Arizona found this out in week 8. The Cardinals had already played the Giants, Seahawks and Panthers, so they had been physically tested, but they came through those games with their mental toughness intact. After playing Dallas, however, the Cardinals admitted they were dominated and manhandled by a tougher team. It was so bad that Arizona benched their quarterback and a number of their offensive linemen and blockers after the game.

Detroit also found out how tough playing Dallas can be. The Lioins had earlier battles with tough teams, including a hard-hitting Baltimore squad that tried to intimidate the Lions but came up short. Dallas overpowered the Lions so badly that the Silver and Blue gave up on their head coach during the game.

It wasn’t just the cellar-dwellers who said this. Trent Green of the Chiefs said that he held onto the loss to the Cowboys a bit longer than he would usually hang onto a loss. In addition, the Chiefs defense was so worn out after the game they could barely muster the effort to tackle Tiki Barber the next week. That game wasn’t a physical domination by Dallas, but it was additional evidence that no team was going to come out of a game versus the Cowboys without having their psyche tested.

– Dallas Cowboys team summary, Scientific Football 2006

9. Blue and Silver Report – Terence Newman played better in ‘05 than in ‘04. There are some fans who think he’s ready for stardom and others who think he’s money already. Can he — is he — playing at a top level already? We ask in part because he’s getting a split decision from the national media. Sports Illustrated’s Paul Zimmerman named Newman as one of his All Pros last year but other scribes remember his whiff against Chris Cooley in the second Redskins game and beat his ratings up over that.

K.C. Joyner — I have to agree with Dr. Z on this one. A part of my take on Newman from SF 2006: “Newman placed in the top 12 in all of the major cornerback metric categories in the medium and deep pass levels and his short pass metrics were also good. He was possibly the most consistent cornerback in the NFL last year.”

10. BSR — How much would a good free safety help the Dallas secondary and did they bring anybody on board who can fill the need?

K.C. — I would like to be able to tell you that the acquisition of Marcus Coleman is going to help, but I don’t think it will. Coleman has had coverage issues the past two years. He ranked near dead last in coverage metrics for free safeties last year. He was so bad that the Texans ended up moving a strong safety over to free safety to take Coleman’s place.

If Coleman isn’t the answer and last year proved that [Keith] Davis isn’t the answer, then the Cowboys may end up having to go with Pat Watkins. I don’t do college metrics but I happen to follow FSU football very closely. Watkins is a hitter and a ballhawk. He may not be the best in coverage but if he can assimilate himself into [Mike] Zimmer’s defensive schemes quickly, he may be the best option they have.

11. BSR — Drew Bledsoe had an up-and-down season, peaking with a 98 QB rating at mid-season then dropping as the season progressed. How much of this was due to his o-line’s problems and how much was due to his own foibles?

K.C. — The metrics say that the o-line affected Bledsoe as much on his accuracy as it did anything else. Bledsoe had very good bad-decision numbers (he was 4th in bad decision percentage and 11th in weighted bad-decision percentage) but he was 31st overall in pass accuracy.

12. BSR — You mentioned in the ‘05 book that Bledsoe could still perform at a high level if he was used properly and given more of the throws he made well. Did Dallas game plan better for him than Buffalo had his last two seasons there?

K.C. – It’s just my opinion but yes, I do think that Dallas used Bledsoe better than Buffalo did. Bledsoe ranked 12th among all QBs in yards per attempt, which is better than his ‘05 numbers. His bad decision percentages were much lower, nearly 1/2 what they were in 2004. That he did this behind a line that was falling apart by year’s end says a lot for what Dallas was able to do for and with him.

To order a copy of Scientific Football 2006, visit www.thefootballscientist.com. You can read a 37-page excerpt from this year’s book there.

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