Here we are again in the second installment of the series. Last time we added the New York Giants as an obvious threat. Next, in week three the Cowboys will be home against the Carolina Panthers. Though the buzz hasn’t been surrounding Carolina, they are still a dangerous team.

Key Offseason Additions:

None.

Key Offseason Subtractions:

FB Nick Goings

WR DJ Hackett

CB Ken Lucas

Key Draft Picks:

DE Everette Brown, Florida State: Brown is a speedy guy with great size, he should compliment Peppers nicely.

S/CB Sherrod Martin, Troy: Martin is a speedy guy with great range and versatility. Won’t start but should be in on nickel packages.

Projected Top Performers

(courtesy ESPN 2009 Projections)

DeAngelo Williams 267 car 1325 yards 11 Td

Steve Smith 90 rec 1390 yards 9 TD

Jonathan Stewart 196 car 936 yards 9 TD

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A quick look around the blogosphere and already this morning I’m feeling a bit left out. Dozens of articles and nary a one about the Dallas Cowboys, unless of course you check out the Dallas Morning News blog or the Fort Worth Star-Telegram … but they almost have to write about the Cowboys.

In a sense, it’s almost relieving to be without so much of the attention that Dallas has garnered for themselves in recent months. With the variety of gab ranging from Owens to Romo and Witten, and even talk of gag orders, puppets, and the draft; it’s nice to see a lull before the storm.

I say storm, yeah. Pre-draft free agency is basically over in Dallas, unless a gift falls into their laps with having only about $5 million left in cap space this year, so the next thing we really have to look forward to is the NFL owners meetings next week, and then the start of the Cowboys off-season conditioning program. That’ll be it until the draft, or will it?

I mean the conditioning program might not be as uneventful as it tends to be, not this year. Not after seeing so many injuries last year to players that, quite frankly, are expected to be huge factors this year for the Cowboys. Will Felix Jones continue to show signs that he’ll be ready? Sure it’s early, he’ll likely not do anything more than he has been doing with rehab so far, but you know it’ll make a headline somewhere.

What about Roy Williams, is the new top receiver in shape enough to take over for Owens? He probably will be, but I guess we just won’t know until the headlines tell us so, right?

It’ll be fruitful gossip to last us until the next real football action takes place in the draft. Just look around the web and you’ll find big headlines about Plax skipping voluntary workouts in New York; Cutler throwing tantrums because his new team entertains trade offers, and make no mistake about it, it’s a new team under first-time Head Coach Josh McDaniels.

You’ll find articles claiming trade talks have really heated up between Julius Peppers’ agent and the New England Patriots, where the compensation is expected to be the #34 overall pick, the very pick that the Pats obtained when they traded Matt Cassel to Kansas City.

And lest we forget the multitude of mock drafts that are floating around out there, some claiming the Cowboys will take a risk on Pat White even though his biggest stock increase has come from the pure speculatory observations of his proposed value in the draft. Imagine that, determining his draft value is increasing his draft value … in a fashion so fitting with the perceptions of the Jerry World Order, why not say the Cowboys are interested. And while the Cowboys have been known to love QB/WR combo guys, I think we’ve got our hands full enough in that area between Crayton and Stanback.

So it’s a lull before the storm … and for the first time in a while, the Cowboys aren’t topping the charts. Nary an article in sight outside of the local media market. Even the latest news of T-New and his comments regarding Romo and his fling, which some say has ended by the way, was old news being recycled back into the spotlight.

Sure it won’t last, but that’s not the point. It’s inevitable that Terrell Owens will get bored in Buffalo soon and start “setting things straight” with the situation he made sure to set ablaze in Dallas last December.

No, the point is that for now, at least, the Cowboys have fallen out of the spotlight. A sure sign that perhaps the drama has finally ended in Big D … that just maybe Elvis has indeed left the building. It’s going to be interesting to see how and when the next big story breaks about Dallas … any takers for it being an ESPN report? I thought so.

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The frenzy has officially begun. Today marks the first day that teams are allowed to release players, and while the Cowboys made their intentions clear a month ago regarding Adam Jones, today is when he officially got the boot.

There are more players than just Pacman that the Cowboys have to consider cutting ties with, and all indications are that they could save enough money by doing so to afford the free agent moves necessary to replace the cut players.

Greg Ellis is one of the ones to consider, and while he has predicted his own demise in Dallas for the fourth consecutive off-season now, this year just may be the time to prove him right. The talent at linebacker in free agency begins and ends with basically one man, Julius Peppers.

My standing opinion is that Peppers is not needed on this team, but that’s not to say that he couldn’t be useful without Greg Ellis around. The Cowboys have a chance to bring in a strong and proven player, instead of waiting to see if Spencer really can be a starter on this team. We got a small peek at what can happen with Peppers and Ware on the outside, and Ratliff in the middle during the Pro Bowl, and it has got to be enough to warrant a look from Jerry and Wade.

Another selling point may just be the more than $5 million that would be spared under the cap by cutting Ellis. Given that this team likely needs a lot of help at linebacker, depending on what free agents Kevin Burnett and Zach Thomas do, it may even be enough to make everyone happy by bringing in Peppers and Lewis. Okay, maybe they’d want too much cash, but it’s worth a look, right?

Brad Johnson is very doubtful to be in a Cowboys uniform next year after his sub-par play in 2008. Add to it that the Cowboys get an extra $2 million by releasing him, and it’s expected that he will be officially released as early as today.

SS Roy Williams gave an interview last night to Newy Scruggs of NBC’s Out of Bounds, and in that interview he stated that he felt out of place in the 3-4 defensive scheme. It’s something many fans would agree with that he has been less than stellar since the switch was made a few years ago.

It would save the Cowboys over $4 million this year to cut Williams, but given his history in Dallas, it’s possible they’ll go another route with him. He’s offered to restructure his contract, and even to accept a move to linebacker, all so he can stay in Dallas. Many feel he is just too small to be a linebacker in a 3-4 defense, but that’s what everyone said about Dat Nguyen too. So ruling that out wouldn’t be smart.

It’s about time to see what the Cowboys are going to do to initiate the change they talked so adamantly about a month ago. Changing two coaches isn’t enough, especially when they haven’t even announced who the new DC will be. Though I suspect Todd Grantham will be the coordinator in Dallas for 2009, you still need a good line coach to take over for him.

More to come …

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Well it’s now officially the end of the 2008 season. The Pro Bowl was played yesterday and to the surprise of few, Larry Fitzgerald was named the MVP. What also wasn’t a surprise was the tiny effect that Cowboys players had in the game. That is with the exception of DeMarcus Ware, who managed to get an arm around Jay Cutlers’ leg and disrupt his pitch. The force of Ware tugging on the quarterbacks legs gave the ball just enough motion for Julius Peppers to tip the ball up and come down with it for a nice interception.

I couldn’t help but ponder the obvious there as I saw a tandem that could possibly be on the Cowboys roster next year. I’m not saying it’s likely, but Peppers and Ware managed to work nicely together on a play, and it kind of reminded me of a time when Ellis stopped complaining long enough to make a play opposite Ware.

Would be nice to get two dominant pass rushers on the outside every down.

During the game, former Giants running back Tiki Barber was playing reporter on both sidelines as he caught up with players like Jason Witten, who again said no changes are needed in Dallas, but that better execution by the players is what is missing. He found Kurt Warner and tried to ask about his future in the NFL, but the answer remains the same; he doesn’t know yet.

Another reporter there tried to get an interview with Baltimore’s Ray Lewis, but when Lewis told her he wouldn’t talk about his status as a free agent, that interview lost it’s appeal. Barber wasn’t able to get to him either, but he did manage to get to Anquan “Q” Boldin to ask him about his well publicized dispute with the front office of the Arizona Cardinals.

He wanted to make it clear that his beef with the team was only toward the front office, not the fans and not the players. He even added that he could see himself playing for the Cards next year too, though we all know what it’ll take for him to do that.

Enough of us know that that we were treated to a special display of what a good teammate is when Fitzgerald was interviewed near the end of the game by Barber. Apparently, Larry is willing to have his deal restructured, if that’s what it takes, so that Q can get the contract he not only does deserve, and feels he deserves, but according to him was promised he would get … last year.

And it just wouldn’t be a game with Cowboys playing if good old Flozell Adams didn’t get at least one penalty for off sides. Then again, I’m not sure who that was since I couldn’t tell who moved and there were two jerseys sporting the number 76 on the NFC’s offensive line.

What I did see was a series of plays where players trusted each other and played together. It’s an admirable part of the Pro Bowl for Cowboys fans to see so many egos, so many stars; work together in sync the way the AFC and NFC Pro Bowl teams did all day. Maybe the five Cowboys on the field today learned enough about team work to come home and spread it around. Wouldn’t that be nice.

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If there is anything I’ve learned over the years being a Cowboys fan it’s this, you don’t win championships with another team’s talent.

We’ve seen it many times in Dallas in this 12 year post-season drought, with the remarkable likely being either Terrell Owens or Zach Thomas; both current players. We have seen good come from these worn out vets, like Romo stepping in for Bledsoe and not only shocking this fan nation back to life, but doing so after learning from an intelligent and once very solid quarterback.

Even when Romo took over for him, it wasn’t because Drew had forgotten how to play like it appears Brad Johnson has, and it wasn’t because he never did anything great. He was a recycled quarterback from Parcels glory days. And he wasn’t the only one that “The Tuna” brought in.

I guess Big Bill thought quarterbacking was like coaching, even past the expiration date, cheese can still be good. I don’t think Bledsoe or Testaverde were ever comparable to even something like cottage cheese while in Dallas, but they weren’t so bad that they single handedly caused seasons to go down the drain.

I mean look at Kurt Warner, how many times has he been written off since that famed season with the Rams in which he led them to a Super Bowl victory, unlike last night as the Cardinals top guy. Yet there he was last night, and nobody was saying, “if Warner can limit his mistakes, they’ll have a shot.” In fact, the worst I heard said about him was from John Madden seconds after the 45 yard completion to Boldin, and it was simply a comment about his ability to throw it deep when he has enough time in the pocket.

Again, it’s less about not taking players well beyond any ability, but taking players that have made a career, a long career, in another city is just not working out too well across the league.

So the talk of picking up players like Ray Lewis and Julius Peppers just sounds like more of the same, and we all know how that’s been so far. I was for the Peppers trade at first, but only when I figured there was a chance he’d stick with a defensive end spot. As time goes by it becomes clearer that he wants be a DeMarcus Ware and switch to a 3-4 and the OLB spot.

The problem for the Cowboys there is simple though; Ware isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Jerry Jones is going to compromise his ability to fill other holes on the team to make sure of that. So that leaves the left side where Ellis and Spencer are currently. Spencer is up and coming still, as long as he stays healthy, and has much more upside than Peppers does at this point, and Ellis would likely contemplate suicide before quitting the team if Peppers were signed. That is a distraction that none of us need, let alone these Dallas Cowboys.

And let’s say we do sign Peppers and figure out a way to make the whole Peppers-Ellis-Spencer thing work out, you’re going to get maybe 4 or 5 years out of Peppers. The same thing goes for Ray Lewis really.

You’d get a few years out of him and there’s no telling how he’d play. A backup has never been the leader of a team with any positive outcome, not even Keith Davis. The one thing that the Lewis rumor has going for it is our need for a good inside linebacker, whether Thomas and Kevin Burnett leave or not.

But perhaps the biggest gamble when signing another teams long standing talent is their ability to adjust. Most of the top players that the media is rumoring and drooling over are on teams that have had consistent coaching, meaning one coach for most of their career and in a system that changed little, if at all.

Suddenly you want to take a guy like Lewis, who is practically a house-hold name as power LB, and throw him into a new defensive scheme. Sure, there may be some similarities and overall you’d expect a team to make some accommodations for a guy like that, but then you’re also changing what you’ve been teaching your guys, some of them too young and inexperienced to handle changes like that right away.

Look at Owens, who has been very vocal about his desires to use more of a west coach offense, his bread and butter before joining the Eagles. And even they used him in a similar way, unlike Garrett and Parcels have since he joined Dallas. He was great before coming to Dallas and that’s why he was signed, but he hasn’t adjusted to this offense well enough to be great again. By great, I mean that a 1,000 yard season shouldn’t be a surprise or even worth mentioning.

All in all, while there is something to be gained from seasoned veteran free agents, it’s just another project in the long run. Hasn’t the Cowboys’ “long run” been long enough?

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Being the off-season after a 9-7 year that followed 13-3 year for the Dallas Cowboys, it’s no great mystery why all these rumors are starting to fly up around Dallas and the league in regards to what Dallas should do to get things turned around.

Perhaps the most widely speculated acquisition at this point seems to be a report out of Baltimore that the Cowboys are interested in signing Ray Lewis, the future Hall of Fame linebacker and undoubted leader of that team for a decade now.

He is very loud, willing to get in anyone’s face, and doesn’t shy away from telling a player when they’ve screwed up. He also makes sure to tell players when they’ve done right, and when they should be fired up for a play or drive.

It’s only logical to think that, with the chemistry problems we’ve had in Dallas, he would be a good fit because of his obvious leadership abilities. It doesn’t hurt that we are likely going to be short a linebacker or two soon.

But I think it would be a bad move to bring in Lewis. Yeah, he’s a great linebacker, but that’s in Baltimore.

And who’s to say that the respect he is given in Baltimore will automatically carry over to Dallas? He’s spent a long time with that team, and been there longer than most everybody else; that’s something that naturally gains respect from any newcomer into the organization.

I still think Lewis is going to be making plays, but it’ll be in Baltimore, and in front of Ed Reed. Few can argue that Lewis would be able to do what he does without Reed at safety, and we certainly don’t have an Ed Reed caliber player at safety in Dallas.

Another rumor, compliments of Adam Jones’ signing last year it seems, is Julius Peppers saying he’d like to play in Dallas. I’m not even sure where he said it, or if he did say it.

I don’t think it would be a bad idea to sign Peppers, but only if Canty doesn’t return. Otherwise we’d be a little well stacked on the line, which doesn’t mean anything more than we’d be too short on cash to take care of bigger needs on the team.

Peppers isn’t exactly a rookie either, which calls into question whether or not he has any good years left in him. Overall, I’d say it’s a good idea to want more experience and power on defense, but it’s a bad fit for Peppers in Dallas.

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