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Working Overtime and Not Getting Paid

Turn that frown corners down.

Mike Vanderjagt missed two field goals in overtime as Dallas settled for a 10-10 tie with Minnesota in the preseason finale. The 33 and 32 yard misses both sailed wide right, a theme of Vanderjagt’s Oxnard troubles. The misses were a fitting end to a sloppy game. A short week, the normal preseason preparations and a better opponent combined for a rapid game with erratic execution. Had Dallas not committed two turnover in the Minnesota red zone during regulation, overtime would not have been necessary.

The Cowboys had a draw when the first teams were on the field, though Minnesota carried a 7-3 lead into halftime. The Vikings showed their ballyhooed line deserves its reputation. Minnesota stacked the line and came after Drew Bledsoe and the Cowboys runners. Dallas faced eight and sometimes nine man fronts on every play, with heavy blitzing mixed in.

Minnesota obviously expected Dallas to run a lot and wanted to stop runs on early downs. Dallas crossed them up on the first two possessions, gaining yardage on short passes to the tight ends. The backs and TE Anthony Fasano showed good blitz pickup, but sputtered when trying to convert third and shorts against the stingy Minnesota run defense.

Both offenses looked drowsy but the Vikings woke up first on a 98 yard drive early in the second quarter. The Cowboys defense was stout and first and second downs but was foiled repeatedly by Brad Johnson, who beat blitzes with dumpoffs to backs, shallow crosses and draws. After the Vikings had moved near midfield, Johnson stung the defense with two long passes outside. The first, a deep fade to second year speedster Troy Williamson beat Anthony Henry for 40 yards. On the next play Marcus Robinson got inside Terence Newman on a post and Johnson floated an easy TD to him. Both corners got an earful from Bill Parcells on the sideline, particularly Newman, who looked foggy on the play.

Dallas responed with its longest sustained drive to date. Two personal foul penalties helped the drive along but the drive was short circuited near midfield when Drew Bledsoe bobbled a snap from Andre Gurode on a third and one play. Bledsoe dove for the first down but took a shot to the head on the play. The blast knocked Bledsoe woozy because on first and goal from the six a few plays later, he went the wrong way on a handoff. Bledsoe stood in the pocket and tried to throw the ball away. Instead of firing the ball between the uprights he tried floating the ball into a dead space beyond the line of scrimmage. The low pass was tipped and picked off.

Bledsoe was removed after the series for precautionary reasons and spent the second half watching from the sideline while dressed in civilian clothes. Trainers say the injury was not serious but saw no need to keeping him in uniform.

Tony Romo played the rest of the way and racked up more than 300 yards passing. He drove the team for a 22 yard Vanderjagt hit just before the half. He had Dallas primed to take the lead with a deep third quarter drive but rushed a slant to Patrick Crayton inside the Vikings 16. The ball bounced off Crayton’s hands and was picked off in the end zone.

Romo made one more drive late in the game and finally got Dallas even. He converted a key 4th and 3 with a pass to Terence Copper to the Vikings three. On 4th and goal he scrambled right and found Tyson Thompson in the back of the end zone with 17 seconds left. Parcells ignored pleas to go for two and ordered a game tying kick. Romo moved Dallas deep into Vikings territory on Dallas’ opening drive of overtime. He was aided by some strong Tyson Thompson running. Vanderjagt’s first miss kept the restless crowd around to see his second miss with three seconds left in the overtime.

Notes:

• Pat McQuistan got some tight end help some of the time, but he held his own against Vikings DE Erasmus James.
• Rob Petitti pass blocked very well in the second half, as did RT Jason Fabini. Petitti did let a Vikings linemen get under him and blow up a first and goal play, but for the most part was solid. Fabini kept his feet much better than he has the past two games. If you were keeping five OTs, you keep them both. If you keep four tackles, age dictates you keep Petitti. But here’s a thought: if you cut Fabini or shop him, you wouldn’t get much. His contract is much bigger, he’s on the wrong side of 30 and had a serious injury wipe out half of his ‘05. On the other hand, with McQuistan coming on strong, Dallas now has three left tackles. What would a young LT, even one as inexperienced as Petitti, bring you on the market? You know there’s a demand for OTs, especially ones who can play on the left side.
• Dallas had rookie Bobby Carpenter and second year man Kevin Burnett starting in the 4-2-5 third down package.
• Bledsoe opening 9 of 10 before his scrambled-brain INT. His yards per attempt was low because Minnesota’s blitzing dictated quicker, shorter throws.
• Terrell Owens entered the game on Dallas’ third series to strong applause. He caught a quick out for six yards. The Cowboys called a post corner for him on his opening series, but heavy pressure prevented Bledsoe from finding him. As you might expect, his timing is off. Dallas called a stop fade for him from the Minnesota three at the end of the first half. Tony Romo threw to the proper spot, but Owens hesitated after running five yards upfield and did not come back to the ball. With more reps this is an easy touchdown.
• Jamaica Rector and Sam Hurd again had strong games, though Hurd let a long Romo TD bomb bounce off his outstretched hands late in overtime. Romo and Rector repeatedly hit go routes between the Vikings corners and rotating safeties.
• Patrick Crayton showed no ill effects from his ankle sprain.
• Skyler Green had another rough day at the office, fumbling away his one good punt return.
• Shaun Suisham was called on to kickoff after Vanderjagt’s PAT tied the game at ten and to start the overtime. His kicks went one and seven yards into the end zone. Vanderjagt’s lone kickoff landed just short of the ten. I’m guessing Suisham makes the team.
• Tyson Thompson had a strong opening return called back by penalty but returned the second Vikings kickoff to the Dallas 47.
• Tony Romo showed some gunslinger tonight in both good and bad ways. He spun away from two potential end zone sacks and completed a first down pass to Hurd in the overtime. On other plays, however, he rushed throws and sailed them high over open receivers. He’s an excitable boy and plays better when he’s settled down. He’s probably still jacked over his new contract extension. A $2 million signing bonus would crank me up.
• Rotations — at inside linebacker, Oliver Hoyte got all the reps with the second team defense. Ryan Fowler did not enter the game until the overtime. At nose tackle, Thomas Johnson played the third quarter and Montavious Stanley played the fourth.
• Four in five — the game crammed five quarters of action into three hours and five minutes of time.

Cowboys-Vikings Open Thread

Let’s get it started.

Cowboys Roll Another Seven

Dallas has traded backup TE Sean Ryan to the New York Jets for a seventh round pick. This is the second such trade in the last week, as Dallas also traded backup LB Scott Shanle to New Orleans for a 7th rounder.

I’m not at liberty to say whom, but Ryan is just one of several players the Cowboys have been shopping lately. I will say that Ryan seemed the least valuable to me. Great move for Dallas.

And they roll another still: the Cowboys have also signed QB Tony Romo to a two-year deal worth $3.9 million. (Same link as above.) No QB controversy and no risk of losing him in the offseason.

Time is Limited! Supplies are Not

A reminder that we will sign up fantasy players until Monday midnight. Don’t delay. We’re close to having four full leagues of players and can carry many many more. Use the paypal link on the left side. If you do sign up, please send Raul your e-mail address so we can get you login information and place you in a league ASAP.

In other news, merchandise is close. You’ll soon be able to order ‘BoysBlog t-shirt, shorts, cards, etc. If you just can’t get Cowboys football out of your mind, you can even order your girlfriend a ‘BoysBlog thong! Think I’m joking don’t you?

The Troll managed to order a ‘BoysBlog clock off the web site and showed it to me yesterday. Very cool. Stay tuned.

Turn Your Frown Upside Down

It’s been awfully quiet since T.O. started practicing again, no? Feels like weeks ago that the circus was in town, documenting every turn of the exercise bike wheel, every hangnail, every grimace in Bill Parcells general direction.

And now, good news on Mike Vanderjagt, who can at least kick field goals again. He’ll even audition his kickoff leg tonight, if recent word from Valley Ranch is true.

Meanwhile, in Indy, they’re concerned about Adam Vinatieri’s ankle. Opinions on his injury differ, from a bad sprain to a broken ankle bone. Regardless, it appears he might miss a couple of the Colts early games.

Turn the frown upside down. The regular season is almost here. And cross your fingers while you’re at it. There is one more fake game to play. We need the good health trend to continue.

Site Problems update

Yes, everybody, by now you have noticed that you have to refresh the page after you post. This is a problem that arose after our hosting company upgraded software (PHP, for you techies). It is causing one of our caching plug-ins to, well, burp.

They are looking into the problem and I am trying to search Knowledgebases to see if it has been reported. We are going to move the site this weekend to a high-CPU server which should help performance.

I have two options - leave it as is and force you guys to refresh (yes, annoying) or disable the plug-in and occasionally receive the dreaded CPU Threshold Exceeded message. I’ll let you know what I find out when I get any news…

Again, sorry for the degradation of your Cowboys blogging experience…

Making the Cut

Lots of players are sweating out the final cuts next week but The ‘Boys Blog has passed another audition. The current issue of Texas Monthly, their football special with Troy, Emmitt and Michael on its cover, lists us as one of the “ten [football blogs] we like.”

Thanks to all of you who have helped us grow in the past eighteen months.

Minnesota Will Provide a Real Test

Update: Bill Parcells stated today that he will NOT pull his starters after one to two series tomorrow. He believes his starters need to maintain their sharpness. He probably wants to give his starting defense more work. They were so effective the last two weeks they’ve barely been on the field.

The Cowboys have played well this preseason but all enthusiam has been tempered by the latest opponents. The Saints and 49ers both picked in the top six last April and both look like strong bets to draft in the top ten next year.

Dallas will get a much better test of its progress tomorrow when the Vikings come to town. Minnesota was one of the NFC’s biggest flops last year. Picked to win the division by many, they cratered after a team scandal and QB Duante Culpepper’s serious knee injury. They rallied to respectability under Brad Johnson but cleaned house in the offseason. they canned long-time HC Mike Tice and replaced him with long-time Eagles OC Brad Childress.

Minnesota has weak spots, primarily at WR, but has lots of young talent on its lines. The biggest matchup tomorrow will be the Vikings defensive line versus the Cowboys offensive line. We’ve long acknowledged that this year’s team will go as far as the o-line takes them. The protection has been steady so far and the run blocking, while shaky at times, has gotten better every week.

Thursday the big grunts face speed and talent. The Vikings have invested heavily in their d-line, using 1st round picks in ‘03, ‘04 and ‘05 to obtain DT Kevin Williams, a player Dallas seriously considered before drafting Terence Newman, and DEs Kenechi Udeze and Erasmus James. (Jerry Jones claimed the Cowboys would have drafted James last year had Marcus Spears been taken.) The Vikings added monster NT/DT Pat Williams in the ‘05 offseason to anchor and let the kids run free.

Williams has turned into one of the league’s best rushing tackles. He will give guards Kyle Kosier and Marco Rivera a handful. Watch how well they contain him, especially on passing downs. Inside, the mammoth Williams will give Andre Gurode a challenge.

Outside, James speed will give a clearer indication of rookie Pat McQuistan’s progress. Parcells singled out this matchup in yesterday’s presser, so you know he’s eager to see how far McQuistan has come, or still has to go.

When the Vikings have the ball, watch their left side versus the Cowboys’ right side. Minnesota spent a mint stealing Pro Bowl OG Steve Hutchinson away from Seattle. He’ll team with LT Bryant McKinnie and Pro Bowl C Matt Birk to give Minnesota a solid push on that side of the line. Watch NT Jason Ferguson vs. Birk and see if ILBs Bradie James and Akin Ayodele can hold their ground against the road grader Hutchinson.

The starters probably won’t play very much on a short week, so sharpen those eyeballs and watch those matchups. This will be the clearest signal of how Dallas will likely play against Jacksonville when the real games begin.

Fantasy Update

The site is operational now. You can check it out at: ffl.theboysblog.com

All players who have already signed up will get a password from me later today or tomorrow.

If you missed out earlier announcements, we’ve planned a fantasy league for the site.  We have a custom-built fantasy program and will run the leagues ourselves, not through Yahoo, ESPN or any of the other bigger sites.  We plan a multi-league game;  we’ll break the leagues into multiples of 10 or 12, depending on how many players we get.  Each league will have it’s own draft, so you won’t have, say 50 players in one game.  At the end of the regular season, the league champs will proceed to a one week playoff, with the winner getting the main prize.  We have some ambitious Cowboys-based prizes, which are tied to number of entries.

The scoring system can be accessed by touching “leagues” in the top toolbar, going down the dropdown menu to “setup” and then choosing “scoring” from that menu. Or, you can follow this link. We’re going to change to the default scoring sytem. Right now, it gives a quarterback .034 points per passing yard. We’re going to adjust that to .04, so he gets 1 point per 25 yards passing. The runners and receivers currently get .067 points per yard. We’re adjusting that to .1 or 1 point per ten yards rushing or receiving. This way a 100 yard receiving day, a 100 yard rushing day and a 250 yard passing day all merit the same points.

We have enough participants for three leagues. We had originally planned on an eight team league and will take additional players until midnight Monday. Admission is $20 and you can enter by clicking the paypal link in the left hand margin just below the page masthead. We have lots of space.

One further question. We have a live draft scheduled but I have received questions from some players about time. We will try to slot players by time zone to make it easier to coordinate your drafts. We will also time them to the majority’s convenience.

I posted last week that the draft would be this Friday, September 1st. This weekend will also be a holiday, so Friday might not work for everybody. We can have the first group draft Friday and the late signees go next Tuesday, September 5th, or we can have everybody draft on the 5th. Players, list your suggestions in the thread. The season begins Thursday night, the 7th, so Tuesday is as late as I want to go.

Tuesday Morning Tidbits

Some news from inside the division:

The Eagles conditional pick for WR Dante Stallworth could rise from a 4th to a 3rd rounder if Stallworth signs a long-term deal with the club. At present, New Orleans possesses Phladelphia’s 2007 4th rounder and LB Mark Simoneau.

WR Deion Branch may have to accept the Patriots contract; Philadelphia’s trade for Stallworth removed the one serious bidder for his services. Chicago has expressed some interest in pairing Branch with Muhsin Muhammad but has balked at giving New England a 1st or 2nd round pick for him. New England has offered a wealthy three year extension but has insisted that Branch play ‘06 under the terms of his current contract, which will pay him roughly $1 million.

The Redskins are looking at former Cowboys P Toby Gowin to settle his position.

What Will Become of the Unlucky 17?

The Cowboys are ahead of the roster game. The NFL requires all teams to pare their rosters to 75 men this afternoon but the five cuts Dallas made Monday already has them at 70. Bill Parcells mentioned last week that he wanted to get serious about preparing his regular season roster and the early cuts show he meant business.

Using my projected final roster, I’m going to examine the last 17 to see which players might have some trade value, a la Scott Shanle, and which might wind up on Dallas practice squad.

Selecting the unlucky 17 will require some quesses, since I had four roster spots up for grabs, the 5th WR spot, the 4th TE slot, the backup nose tackle and a fight between kick returner Skyler Green and 5th tackle Jason Fabini. I’m going to guess Terence Copper loses out to Sam Hurd and Jamaica Rector (who had some encouraging words said on his behalf by Parcells today); that Sean Ryan loses out to Tony Curtis; that Ryan Fowler is beaten out by Oliver Hoyte; that Thomas Johnson gets passed over for rookie Montavious Stanley and that Green gets cut in favor of Fabini.

That leaves an unlucky seventeen of, in alphabetical order:

1. WR Miles Austin
2. QB Matt Baker
3. OG D’Anthony Baptiste
4. LB C.J. Bjork
5. DE Matt Bowen
6. DE Kenyon Coleman
7. DB Marcus Coleman
8. WR Terence Copper
9. LB Ryan Fowler
10. OLB Junior Glymph
11. KR Skyler Green
12. NT Thomas Johnson
13. RB Keylon Kincade
14. S Willie Pile
15. OT Dennis Roland
16. TE Sean Ryan
17. OG Matt Tarullo

Practice Squad Hopefuls

If they clear waivers, I’d list Austin, Baker, Baptiste, Bowen and Green as the five practice squad probables, with Keylon Kincade getting serious attention as well.

Austin made some plays in the New Orleans game but is caught in a numbers game at wide receiver. Baptiste is an enormous man from Louisiana-Lafayette who continues to get extensive work with the second team. He’s come a long way this camp, but not far enough to make the final roster. Baker is the team’s third QB. Pencil him in here. Bowen, like Baptiste is a green player from a small school playing at a deep position. Green flashes return skills but has yet to make a lasting impression during the real games.< /p>

We shouldn’t discount Dallas claiming players from other teams. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the scouts will meet soon, if they haven’t already, to rate players they think will be cut from other teams. The Cowboys will have a board of marginal players with ratings ranging from claim to practice squad. Some player might be claimed and put on the final 53. Nobody knows at this point.

Trade Bait?

I’d put three veterans on this list. Kenyon Coleman got passed by the younger DEs the past year, but he started several games for Dallas last year and plays at a position of need league wide. He’s still just 27 and has little mileage on his odometer. A 3-4 team might give Dallas something in return for him. ILB Ryan Fowler might also interest a 3-4 team. He got some playing time in the Dallas nickel last year and didn’t embarrass himself. He can also play special teams.

Thomas Johnson might draw the most interest, if he doesn’t make the Dallas roster. To me seems miscast as a nose tackle. He has pass rush ability and might work better in a 4-3. Teams are always looking for that type of player.

Judging from Parcells accelerated cutdown schedule, we’re likely to get firm answers to these roster questions much sooner that normal.

Lithograph Winners!

Congratulations to our two winners of the lithographs: y and Swidge! I will be contacting you to get mailing information so that you can enjoy your new prize!

Rafael and I would once again like to thank everyone who parted with their hard-earned money to help us provide you with top-notch, ”real” reporting from training camp. With that and other ventures we have going on to enhance our blogging experience, any help we get is duely appreciated.

Monday Lunch — Cold Cuts

Dallas released five players today, most notably S Justin Beriualt. Dallas also cut CB Lenny Williams, K Tyler Frederickson, camp free agent signing LaShaun Ward and fellow receiver J.R. Tolver.

How Big a Distraction?

Update: Here’s something for all the let’s-trade-for-Deion Branch folks to consider. The Eagles, who can always use a receiver upgrade, reportedly like Branch but “don’t consider him one of the top WRs in the game,” and therefore would not pay him the money New England is already offering — three years, $18.75 million. That’s more than T.O. would make this year. There’s zero chance of that one.

I’ve just read the most craptacular assessment of the Terrell Owens situation yet, courtesy of MSBNC’s Mike Ventre. (Thanks to Amos for the link.) Ventre writes,

“[signing Owens] was the end of the Cowboys’ organization as we know it. I believe everyone also knew that Owens would eventually bring about a premature retirement by Parcells, which is right around the corner.”

Let’s take the hypertrophied hyperbole in reverse order. A fair contingent of the football press has been predicting the demise of Bill and Jerry almost from the minute Parcells signed his first contract. This was going to be Jerry vs. Jimmy round two. We’re well into year four and the union appears to be holding. T.O., to me, is just the latest version of the original meme: Jerry and Bill might have been able to coexist, but T.O., T.O. will be the ultimate cause of their split, I swear it!

Last I checked, Parcells still has a contract for 2007 and has made no mention of retirement. And Ventre is well advised to look at Owens’ contract, which allows Dallas to opt out in the Spring of 2007 if the team deems him unbearable. Parcells has the option of saying, “him or me” once the season is over.

Let’s now address the “he’ll destroy the Cowboys as we know them” part. If you’ll notice, much of the T.O.-as-destroyer discourse works on the belief that Owens and Owens alone dropped the Eagles from 13-3 in ‘04 to 6-10 in ‘05. Sorry folks, but no wide receiver is worth seven wins. T.O. contributed to the meltdown, no doubt, but did he cause Donovan McNabb’s hernia? Did he force Andy Reid to throw more than ever after he left the Philly lineup? Did he trade away Corey Simon in the offseason? Did he cause the Eagles’ all-star secondary to play like confused rookies? He didn’t, but if you’re associated with the Eagles, it’s comforting to believe that he did.

If you want to consider burning down an organization, take your mind back to 1996. At this point that summer, Michael Irvin was waiting on a five game suspension for conduct detrimental to the league. His Spring arrest and trial on drug possesion charges provided a media circus that makes T.O.’s camp tantrums look tame. Leon Lett would later piss away — literally — a chance at NFL Defensive Player of the Year with a drug suspension thirteen games into the season. And Irvin and Erik Williams would provide the mother of all distractions when they were falsely accused of raping a stripper at gunpoint the week of the Carolina playoff game.

That team, with Kevin William and Kelvin Martin starting much of the year at WR and with Eric Bjornson at TE went 10-6 and shredded Minnesota in the divisional round. Had Bjornson not dropped a short Troy Aikman pass in the end zone at Carolina, Dallas would have taken the field down 23-21 with two minutes to go, needing only a field goal from the then-automatic Chris Boniol to earn a fifth straight NFC Championship Game appearance.

The comeback was not to be. The bigger point is that Irvin’s suspension, Lett’s suspension and Williams’ rape charge did not derail that team. T.O.’s offenses are small potatoes next to theirs. Owens may crank up the petulance, but I doubt he alone can stop a team that compares favorably talent-wise to the ‘96 model.

You may never love him, but let’s keep things in perspective. T.O’s injured. He’s irritated. He’s acting out. He’s missed a meeting. He’s been late. That’s not good, but Dallas has survived much worse, from much better Cowboys before.

Written by Rafael Vela · Filed Under News | 68 Comments 

Kicking In the Dark — My Final 53

August 27, 2006

Kicker Mike Vandergagt’s sore groin is messing with my final roster and it’s probably messing with Bill Parcells’ as well. Vanderjagt will get all the Cowboys field goals this year, unless a meteor strikes him or he really hurts the groin trying to rush his rehab. He has not been able to kick off once this summer so nobody knows if he can handle the job. If he can’t it would force Dallas to cut a vet who plays at a key position or a rookie who needs more time. Follow with me:

Offense (25 players)

QB (2)
1. Drew Bledsoe
2. Tony Romo

RB (3)
3. Julius Jones
4. Marion Barber
5. Tyson Thompson

FB (1)
6. Lousaka Polite

TE (4)
7. Jason Witten
8. Anthony Fasano
9. Ryan Hannam
10. Tony Curtis/Sean Ryan

WR (5)
11. Terry Glenn
12. Terrell Owens
13. Patrick Crayton
14. Jamaica Rector
15. Sam Hurd/Terrence Copper
Note — you can probably lump spots 14 and 15 together and say Rector, Hurd and Copper are playing for two spots. I put the kids ahead as of today.

C (2)
16. Andre Gurode
17. Al Johnson

G (3)
18. Marco Rivera
19. Kyle Kosier
20. Corey Proctor

T (5)
21. Flozell Adams
22. Marc Colombo
23. Rob Petitti
24. Pat McQuistan
25. Jason Fabini
Note: I think the team would like to keep five tackles, but this may be a luxury they can’t afford, if Vanderjagt keeps them in the dark. Fabini looks rusty at times but could be much better my midseason if he were kept on the roster. I doubt Dallas wants to cut him and eat his signing bonus but I’d take Colombo over him because of play, age and Fabini’s recent injury history.

Defense (24)

DE (4)
26. Marcus Spears
27. Jay Ratliff
28. Chris Canty
29. Jason Hatcher
Note: Wow, that was fast. None of these guys were on the ‘04 roster. Now this is one of the deepest positions on the team.

NT (2)
30. Jason Ferguson
31. Thomas Johnson/Montavious Stanley
Note: backup NT still up in the air. Stanley got most if not all the second half reps last night.

OLB (5)
32. Greg Ellis
33. Demarcus Ware
34. Kevin Burnett
35. Al Singleton
36. Rocky Boiman

ILB (4)
37. Bradie James
38. Akin Ayodele
39. Bobby Carpenter
40. Ryan Fowler/Oliver Hoyte
Note: Hoyte is pressing Fowler for this last spot. If Fowler loses out, maybe the Cowboys could swap him to the 49ers. They run the 3-4 and are short of LBs right now.

CB (5)
41. Terence Newman
42. Anthony Henry
43. Aaron Glenn
44. Jacques Reeves
45. Nate Jones

SS (2)
46. Roy Williams
47. Abram Elam

FS (2)
48. Pat Watkins
49. Keith Davis

Snapper
50. J.P. Ladoceur

P
51. Matt McBriar

K
52. Mike Vanderjagt
53. Shaun Suisham

This gets us to 53. If there was only one kicker, a kid like Skyler Green probably sticks around. He might anyway, despite his poor game last night. However, keeping two kickers means you cut somewhere else. Will it be Fabini? Will it be a 5th CB like Nate Jones or will Dallas cut Green and hope they can get him back on the practice squad?

Might Dallas keep Green and cut two of the Hurd/Copper/Rector bunch and only keep 4 WRs? It’s unlikely in my opinion for two reasons. First, T.O.’s hamstring means Dallas needs depth at WR. In addition, Rector, Hurd and Copper not only play receiver but play on special teams as returners, gunners and cover men. Green trails all three of them at receiver and has one function right now — punt returner.

Even if Vanderjagt can kick off, Dallas might keep Suisham over Green because he has consistently put kickoffs into the end zone the last two weeks. In short, Skyler Green needs to improve and fast.

Finally, notice how few roster fights remain. The 4th TE spot remains open, though Curtis may have pulled ahead last night. 5th receiver, backup NT and fourth ILB appear to be the only other spots up in the air. Hey, if we didn’t have T.O. to stir the pot, we might all fall asleep.

Written by Rafael Vela · Filed Under News | 73 Comments 

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