I’ve noticed that there are plenty of lists going out lately. Most of which shed no respect to Cowboys players who have rightfully earned it. So to fulfill the appetite of you fans I’ve created a list of the Best Cowboys of the last 15 Years. .. So get ready!

1 Emmitt Smith-The leagues leading rusher. Smith proved to be a “Go to guy” by coupling hard nose, downhill running with incredible durability. With 3 Super Bowl rings, Smith may be the most noticeable player in Dallas Cowboys History.

2 DeMarcus Ware- Perhaps the most naturally talented player to emerge on this defense in years, Ware consistently strikes fears into opposing offensive coordinators. Ware has increased his sack total in each of his 3 seasons ending with 20 last year. There is no signs of slowing down which is good news for this defense!

3 Troy Aikman- Concussion Troy can’t be forgotten for all the marvelous things he did in Dallas. He was a model field general, orchestrating 3 Super Bowl victories and becoming the Cowboys all time leading passer with 32,942 yards.

4 Darren Woodson- The one player that ANY of us would give ANYTHING to have back. Darren Woodson played the secondary perfectly forcing 23 interceptions. He was the backbone in many great defenses and earned a reputation as one of the fiercest safeties in the league.

5 Michael Irvin-A distraction? Sure. However, Michael’s production was unmatched. He averaged over 15 yards per gain and had over 60 touchdowns in his career. He was a consistent target who was reliable and a HOF athlete.

6 Larry Allen- A big strong offensive lineman who was versatile in his play. At 325 lbs he was an immovable force and a good reason for Emmitt’s success.

7 Jason Witten- Witten is a Blue Collar, Smash mouth player who has, in my opinion, defined the future play of tight ends. He blocks well, He’s intelligent, and He’s a bigger threat in the passing game then most receivers, He can shed tackles, and he’s not afraid to throw his body around.

8 Tony Romo- Though under constant scrutiny, he has produced more 300 yard passing games then any quarterback in Dallas history in 3 years. With a 64 percent completion rate, and a ratio or 2 td’s to 1 interception, his regular season play is comparable to some of the greatest quarterbacks of all time (Coming soon: a comparison against Peyton, Aikman, and Young in there first 4 years) I believe that given the opportunity, Romo will thrive in future playoff appearances.

9 Deion Sanders- Prime time, Sanders electrified the field with his wonderful coverage, ability to force interceptions for touchdowns, and punt returning skills. Sanders had abilities that we will forever miss and may not see for years to come.

10 Terrence Newman- Not Deion Sanders, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily worse. Terrence doesn’t produce stats like some of the other elite DB’s but that’s because he’s never really tested. He is a shut down corner with speed and game breaking ability. He will be the staple in this defense for years to come.

11 Greg Ellis- A bitter end to this story. Greg has given his all to this team and that has to be respected. He was a feared defensive end, but an even more devastating OLB with the ability to get to the passer; he’s registered 77 career sacks with the Cowboys.

12 Daryl Johnston- The moose led the way for Emmitt throughout his career… Enough said.

13 Dat Nguyen- Nguyen solidified the middle linebacker slot in his second year after leading the team in special teams tackles the first. His run stopping ability and hard hitting made him well known throughout the league. If it weren’t for a disc injury, Dat would be along Bradie James, supporting the same number 1 defense he helped solidify in 2003.

14 Marion Barber- A hardnosed runner this team hasn’t seen since Smith. After going through Troy Hambricks stages and a little flash of Cason, Barber was a breath of fresh air. He has become a “Closer” and has the talent to become a franchise back and league leader.

15 Flozell Adams- Though penalty prone, Flozell has provided stability to the offensive line in Larry Allen’s Absence. He is big, strong, and mobile. He also uses his hands well and is also a talented blocker. An excellent round out to this list.

**Notable Mention** George Teague- For his incredibly memorable hit on Terrell Owens, when Owens was boastfully disrespecting the star.

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You know, since the season ended, you’ve been offered dozens upon dozens of articles and columns from journalists and bloggers alike with the top five or ten, or whatever number, things that the Cowboys must do to bounce back from the woes that buried them in 2008. A season that ended with the unsightly demise of the team’s final shreds of hope in Philly.

So here’s the top ……. You know what? I don’t know how many things we’re going to come up with here for the Cowboys to do this off-season, I mean in addition to what they’ve already done of course. So we’re going to take a stab at it from a more site-wide perspective and let the number fall where it may. Here’s what the Cowboys need to do before August:

1. It’s obvious, but playing as a team is potentially the best thing they can do. No more appeasing wide receivers who want the ball more, no more trying to prove who can do what and journalists wrong in their doom and gloom opinions. It’s time to step up and give everything you have every game, to play for your teammate as though your life depends on it.
2. Because their life sort of does depend on it, or their livelihood rather. Now that Jerry Jones has cut Terrell Owens, it should be crystal clear to all the players that who you are, what you can do, and what you bring to the game on the field doesn’t matter. If Jerry can cut T.O. then he can cut anyone on that team, and that message needs to be replayed through the P.A. system at Valley Ranch for the next five months.
3. Finding the proper motivation to go and out win some ballgames can be a challenging task nowadays, but it should be simple. These players all want a Super Bowl, and we’ve just gotten a real good demonstration of how a 9-7 team can reach the Super Bowl and lose it by so little … use that to motivate these players.
4. Now that Owens is gone and that message from #2 is still resonating in everyone’s mind, stop overpaying the players! It’s time to go by market value and if a player doesn’t like it, he can go elsewhere. Cutting Owens just proves to him that it’s not a matter of if he’ll be cut for being selfish or greedy, but when. Fear is a great motivator.
5. Be mean. It’s time for Colombo and Ratliff and Davis and Newman and … everyone … to get mean on the field. Start dominating the field and even the players that can’t dominate, act like it cause you’ll play harder that way. Get mad, show some emotion and go after the hit like that guy just beat your sister! It’s time to make the rest of the league fear the amount of talent on this team.
6. Someone has got to step up and lead this team. Even if Wade didn’t resemble a puppet and Garrett wasn’t too afraid of stepping on anyone’s toes, they can’t lead this team. It needs to be a player that does it and there is none better for the job than the quarterback. Troy Aikman never hung his head in shame after a bad play, he yelled across the field so that whoever just screwed up could hear him over the crowd noise! It’s time for Romo to find his outdoor voice and tell everyone very loudly when they screw up, including himself.
7. Fans need to bring their outdoor voices to games too! What is the point of home field advantage if the fans don’t do their part? Fans at games should leave a game calling in sick to work for the next day because they can’t talk anymore. When the team organizes a special deal like a white out, the fans need to go overboard trying to do it. I’m talking about white jerseys, shoes, pants, hell … white faces and hair even.
8. Fans should also stop buying into everything that is reported by ESPN (Everlasting Sorry Pieces of …. Nevermind). ESPN has a reputation for stirring up controversy where there is none, and in the case of Owens prematurely, for a reason, it’s because they do it! Reporters rarely have as many answers as they proclaim and very often a good journalist is one that will fudge a couple of details for a really juicy story. That’s not the hype you should be buying into … it only feeds their narcissistic need to do it again and again and that kind of attention is bad for any team.
9. And finally … when is Darren Woodson going to go all Dat Nguyen on us and become a coach for our struggling secondary? I can only imagine …

Well there you have it … 9 things this team must do to be successful next year. And just so nobody confuses me with any one of these journalists who pretend to have all the answers in five easy steps, these nine things are but nine of the many that need to be done, but these are a good start and in logical order after cutting Owens.

GO COWBOYS!!!

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With everything that has been going on the past week, since free agency started, the picture in Dallas not only has changed, but has a whole new color scheme. The releases of Terrell Owens and SS Roy Williams drastically change both the offense and defense, and while one of those positions has been taken care of, for the most part, the safety position still needs help.

Since we last saw Darren Woodson and Roy Williams both back at safety, this team has struggled for consistency at the position, one that requires a fair bit of solid play, great athleticism, and quick thinking.

The release of Owens, merely a year after paying him almost a $13 million signing bonus on a new four year deal, without having seen any solid production from his replacement is a gamble. Albeit one that has been taken already, many fans are concerned about WR Roy Williams and the fact that despite joining the team in week 6 of the 2008 season, he failed to live up to even the number 2 position on the team after Dallas traded multiple picks for him, one of which being a first rounder, and resigned him to a lucrative deal.

But many people seem to forget one thing … you can find transactions in the NFL where a player warrants a first round pick in a trade without deserving a value that high, but it’s hard to say that when a first, third, and seventh round pick were all traded for one guy. Some may point to the near-infamous trade for Joey Galloway a while back, but that situation was different from the one Dallas and Williams are in.

Williams is younger, been stuck on a team that has now posted the worst season record ever, and he still managed to have 1,000+ yard seasons there. To make that deal even sweeter, we now have the quarterback on staff that helped Williams to stand out from the pack a couple of years ago. Sure, Kitna won’t play a down, unless Romo is either injured or plays so badly that he’s benched, but there’s a lot that goes into the relationship on the field for a quarterback and his receiver.

Take it from Kurt Warner who said that he had to re-learn what open meant when he arrived in Arizona and saw Fitzgerald play. Imagine that, a veteran quarterback that led the Greatest Show on Turf to a Super Bowl not so long ago saying that he had to learn what it meant for his number 1 receiver to be open. It comes down to trust, also to experience and to practice, but most of all it means trusting your receiver to take care of business if you get it to him.

Last year, Williams and Romo didn’t get a chance to build that trust. Either Romo was hurt and out or playing with that split on his hand, or Owens was making a stink about getting the ball more and his perceived notion that Romo and Witten were hooking up intentionally whenever possible. Whether that was true or not, the distraction it caused leaked onto the field during games, and it hampered the progress of Williams.

Now you might say that with Owens gone you won’t have those problems anymore and that that should help, but it goes much deeper than that. You lose some major distractions with Owens gone, but you also make Williams the top guy, a guy who ran the 40 in 4.38 seconds at the 2004 combine. A big, physical receiver that knows how to win the jump ball and has always been a smart route runner. Any of this sound familiar?

He had the number 2 spot in Detroit, but not because he wasn’t good enough to be number 1, but because that spot was already filled. He came to Dallas and found the same situation, until now. Now he’s the guy that will be on the field every single offensive down, he’ll get the practice reps, he’ll be the guy Garrett designs the passing game around; he’ll be the guy Romo will throw to aside from Witten, he’s the new deep guy.

He won’t draw double coverage, not at first, but if he can prove that he deserves it just for a couple of games, then he’ll get it and free up everything else like Owens did. Then it’ll be Jason Garrett’s job to make the most of that situation, the defense sacrificing balance to put an extra guy on him. But they’ll be doing that anyway because Witten still deserves the double-cover now. If Felix Jones is on the field, linebackers will be keeping a close eye on him just for being there.

It’s just going to take time for Williams and Romo to get in sync with each other, and time is what we have right now with the off-season conditioning program scheduled to start in about three weeks.

Things have changed in Dallas; Marion Barber giving two interviews in one day should show that much. On paper it may look like we’ve taken away talent, but really we’ve just allowed the talent that’s there to step up. We’ve taken away that constant nagging of the media, the constant speculation that the Dallas locker room is in shambles. That’s a remarkable feat in itself, but we do have the talent, and barring any further injuries we’ve got a roster full of it and with a year of experience for most of these guys.

Things have changed in Dallas, and it’s going to be some time for the direction of that change to be fully realized. It’s a process that I can’t wait to see.

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