Seems like just yesterday that the Cowboys pitched their first and historic consecutive shutout streak, completed more total offensive yards than any Cowboys team in history, and that Tony Romo became the first Cowboys QB ever to take every snap during the season. And all that while beating the Eagles and securing the NFC East title for the second time in three seasons.

Oh wait, that was just yesterday. Okay so maybe the Cowboys are the hottest team in the NFC, and possibly the NFL, heading into the playoffs next Saturday night, but the real hot seats are elsewhere in the league.

As though anyone might have doubted it, the Redskins announced the firing of head coach Jim Zorn on Monday after having gone 12-20 in his tenure with the Skins. We’ve been hearing about it for weeks so far and nothing has changed yet – Washington is going after retired coach Mike Shanahan to replace Zorn. Most see this as a good thing considering that Shanahan won with the Bronco’s and that quarterback in the late 90′s, what’s his name? I forget – I never liked that guy. Would rather have seen Favre get his Super Bowl win in 97.

We’re still waiting to see who will be replacing coach Mangini in Cleveland now that Mike Holmgren has taken over the front office.

And the Bills, according to a report citing an anonymous source in the organization, have fired the entire coaching staff after beating the Patriots Sunday 30-7 to finish the season 6-10. Imagine that – firing the entire coaching staff at one time. Looks like there is going to be a lot of work to be done this offseason in Buffalo, and then there’s handling Terrell Owens. Some reports out there are speculating that retired coach Bill Cowher may be going into Buffalo as the cleanup guy. We’ll see.

Elsewhere, Chad Ochocinco has hurt his knee though his status for next week’s playoff game against the Jets is unknown at this point, Wes Welker has all but obliterated his knee and is done for the season, and did I mention that the Eagles got what was coming to them?

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Jerry Jones is usually heavily scrutinized by fans, media, and even other coaches and owners.  In my short fanhood of only 10 years, I have been that scrutinizing individual that blames all the failures and woes on Jerry Jones and his inability to share the authority of the team.

As we moved into 2009 I expected the Jerry Complex to become ever present and probably to see him coaching the team himself in 2010.  However, Gasp, to my amazement, while I was writing my daily dose today, stumbling over articles from Philadelphia to San Diego, I noticed quite a bit about Mr. Jones.

I’ve been preaching sometime now about loyalty and continuity.  All these things I believe to be essential in building a dynasty style of frachise.  This past week Jerry Jones has been quoted as saying that firing Wade Phillips would hurt the team.  Ding, Ding, Ding!!!! We have a winner, Jones has never been more accurate in his life.  You see, a coach’s longevity increases win percentages because it allows teams to build to the philosophy of the coach.  Wade Phillips is a defensive coach, so for him to flourish he should have a good defense and a well balanced offense.  Second Gasp!  Do we have that?  Since Wade came in we’ve seen faces like Igor Olshansky, Keith Brooking, and Gerald Sensabaugh come bursting onto the scene.  We have seen players like Anthony Spencer and Marcus Spears develop into great players, and we have seen our defense become GREAT, which only compliments our balanced offense.

You see winning isn’t about great coaching, it’s about trust, it’s about knowing your guy will eventually win you the big one, and sticking with him while he can’t.  That philosophy holds true with Jerry today, as he supports Roy Williams, in September as he supported Tony Romo (who has become on of the leagues best) and last year when he cut All Pro Terrell Owens for little known Miles Austin.

You know what Jerry, my respect finally goes to you.  You have learned what it means to be an Owner and a good Gm.  May the players and coaches (including Wade Phillips) bring you back a Lombardi Trophy… In time of course.

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Where do we go from here? As much as I want to sit here and say “people do not go into hysterics, this team will be there in the end” I simply cannot!

This team is in trouble! The type of trouble no one wants to be in, the type of trouble that could send this team spiraling out of control, like a speeding car on an icy road.

Our quarterback is trying to play in a way that is uncomfortable and unknown to him. Our coaching staff is so enamored with creating exotic plays that they think can cause other teams to play a style that they are uncomfortable with, that they have stopped trying to do the small things. The things that win championships!

The 2009 Dallas Cowboys are now officially in desperation mode, and it’s only the second week in October!

My associates here with this blog are doing there very best to try to keep everyone’s spirits up, and I am very appreciative of that!

The problem with trying to keep everyone from freaking out is that when we preach allegiance and “staying true to your fandom” we tend to block out what the truth is!

I do and always will Love the Dallas Cowboys, but I cannot sit quietly and not call this team out for failing to do the most elementary of football things. My disgust has nothing to do with winning and losing, but all to do with people simply not putting forth enough effort.

Effort is what will win and lose you football games! This effort thing that I am speaking of is something that this team is missing. To hell with T.O.! To hell with how many times Romo plays golf! To hell with “Roy Williams is not a #1”, To hell with Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett! To hell with “we just gotta keep working and getting better”!

None of those things mean anything! This team has gone thru hundreds “meetings” and “practices” with only a handful of players that actually “get it”! They are soft mentally and physically, and to be honest with you judging by the way they have played so far, I don’t think that bothers them!

Keep in mind now I am not calling one individual out, and I am not just referencing the players. I am talking about the entire staff! The saddest thing about all of this is that I really do like the people on this team.

The coaching staff here is a very intelligent staff, and very good people. The players on this team are some of the most gifted in the league. They simply have no guts!

I have tried my best to keep up with the “rah, rah, go team” stuff, but enough is enough! It is time to call it like I see it!

Jason Garrett continues to refuse to work the middle of the field while having not one, but two very big, athletic tight ends (oh by the way one of them is the best this team has ever had), no instead he decides to use one of them as nothing more than a decoy! He has as sure handed a receiver as you can find in the NFL in Roy Williams, yet cannot seem to understand the concept of the slant route (come on Jason how many times did you sit on the sidelines and watch Troy and Mike hook up on this route?). Hey Jason here is a novel idea, how about you get some receivers in motion to maybe help them create some space? How about you try and help Romo a little bit and play to his strength’s? You know maybe an occasional roll out! No your too f*@# hard headed to do that!

Wade Phillips while I commend you for trying to become what this football team needs in its leader, you just simply cannot do it! Maybe it’s time to meet with Jerry and make it known that you would be willing to step down and become solely the Def. Coordinator?

Notice to all players if your name does not appear on the list I am about to give, then I am talking to you!

Demarcus Ware, Jay Ratliff, Keith Brooking, Marion Barber, Tashard Choice, Jason Witten, Felix Jones. Tony Romo you will have your own section!

Are you guys tired of hearing the media and fans rip you guys to shreds every week? I am sure you are! Well I have a sure fire way for you to rid yourselves of all of that negative press, if you are interested in hearing it.

This is a very simple and elementary idea. Play the game like it is your last! For many of you this game of football is all you know, and you are smart enough to know that you cannot play forever. So why not go out there each and everyday and play the game like you will never get to suit up again?

The fault does not lay with your ability, it really doesn’t! The problem is with your will! You guys have lost that thing that got you to the “league”. All of you guys in college had a desire to become a professional, and now that you are one you have stopped playing with that killer instinct that got you there! Why? Is it the money? Have you all made so much money now that you are content to just ride it out? Or have you just lost the “want to”?

I and many of your fans have become so accustomed to you playing half heartedly that you no longer have to make excuses for your poor play, we make them for you! I am sick of it! YOU and only YOU are responsible for the effort that you put forth each Sunday, and the one you have been giving SUX!

Tony, Tony, Tony, I can understand the predicament you are in, I really can. We the fans have beat you over the head with wanting you to be more like Troy, that now you do not even know how to be you. Tie that in with Jason Garrett calling the plays and you are in a losing situation.

However you are in control of your destiny, not the coaches and certainly not the fans! My father told me many, many years ago, “Son be yourself and to hell with anyone who does not like who you are”! That stands true with the way you play football too. You were a very confident football player, so confident in your ability that you were willing to take a chance! Now you do not have enough confidence in yourself to find your way to the lunch room? It is gut check time Tony, time for you to step and take control of the situation or fall back to obscurity, the decision is yours.

My allegiance to this team has not wavered, but my patience is wearing thin with the group that is here.

While I still have high hopes for this team, those hopes and dreams are becoming cloudier by the second. Now if only someone would hear me and start the recovery process!

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Four days before the season opening game, the greatest running back to don a Cowboys uniform, has decided that he needed to give his old team a good old fashioned tongue lashing.

Emmitt Smith was the perfect back for the Cowboys, outside of what he did on the field however was less than to be desired.

Known for being egotistical, arrogant, SOB. Maybe you have heard the story about the presents he used to give his O-Line? If you followed the Cowboys in the 90’s then I am sure you heard about them.

There is one story that some of you may have not heard about! As the story goes Emmitt had another spectacular year (won the rushing title) and the present he chose to get his linemen was???? None other than an autographed copy of his autobiography! How freaking nice of him!

Somewhere along the line of his career he has become the greatest (self proclaimed) prognosticator of talent in the NFL! Always having something to say (whether or not you can understand what he is saying is a different story).

Now apparently he has become so well schooled on what it takes to be a Head Coach, Wide Receiver, and Quarterback he has decided to drop some knowledge and let us know why the Cowboys can (via The DMN Blog)

“Realistically, I think that the Cowboys can win seven games,”

Seven Games! Seven games, is Doctor Dipshits win total for the Cowboys in 2009!

At first sight of this I thought “well maybe he has some inside information that none of us have!” but then he drops this as his reasoning behind his prognosis,

“I mean, when I start hearing things are going to change, I keep asking myself as a player, how much are they going to change?” he said. “Are you going to be a hard-nosed coach now since things are going to change? Are you going to be more focused than you were last year? Those kind of things, I’m like, c’mon. This is not a game where you can just turn it on and turn it off.”

Emmitt Smith obviously pays next to zero attention to the goings on of the Dallas Cowboys! Bradie James back in August had this to say about the HC Wade Phillips,

“He’s almost like a new coach,” James said. “He knows what’s at stake, and he knows we need to have a winning season. He’s been different. He said he was going to be different, and I didn’t know how he would pull it off, but I think he has.”

That was not the first time or the last time statements like that were said. We even got to see Ol Wade unleash on Courtney Brown on the sidelines after a stupid pass interference call, all these things were not seen last year! So evidently it is possible for a human being to change the way they do things!

Then as if he had not dropped enough knowledge on the fans of the Dallas Cowboys, he decided to give us an insight on Roy Williams.

“The question is, can Roy step up and be what they need him to be? I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s possible.”

“I do not see him as a No. 1. I never have saw him as a No. 1. Never have. When I say No. 1, I mean your No. 1 go-to guy. He’s not your No. 1 go-to guy.”

Let me say something to those of you who believe this line of thinking, THE COWBOYS DO NOT NEED ROY WILLIAMS TO IMITATE TERRELL OWENS! With the backs and Tight Ends they have this team does not need a pure #1 (ala Fitzgerald, Owens). This team needs Roy Williams to do what he does best, MOVE THE FREAKING CHAINS! SO STOP THE NONSENSE!!!!!!

Then he decides to get a few shots in on every ones punching bag Tony Romo,

“So when you have your off-season and you say things are going to change and you’ve never been that dominant personality or in that leadership position then, as a player, you lose me,” Emmitt said during an appearance on Sirius NFL Radio (via Pro Football Talk). “You lost me. I’m sitting there saying, ‘OK, now you’re going to become a leader?’ What happened when we had all this great talent over here and we had a chance to go, not only in the playoffs, but in the first round of the playoffs when we got knocked out both times?”

Once again in the land of Emmitt people are not allowed the opportunity to grow and possibly change the way they do things!

The Cowboys however have created this monster themselves, and the only way to make this retarded way of thinking go away, along with dipshits like Emmitt is by just shutting up and proving the naysayers wrong!

Emmitt I think maybe you should go back and listen to some of the crap you and your illustrious teammates told the fans of the Dallas Cowboys. It seems to me that I heard you and Michael, Troy, and Deion saying things like “we are just biding our time; we can turn it on whenever we get ready!” Do you remember those days? I sure do, and yet that grand switch you guys talked about in 1996 never got “turned on”, I think you might need to remember that old saying “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones!”

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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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Does every one really have to be spoon fed something to understand what’s going on? Yes, Jerry Jones said that … and see that, it doesn’t even matter to go on. Just because Jerry says it does not mean that it’s either true or deserving.

What keeps surprising me is that we have yet to hear from “What’s His Name” in the kind of way that McNabb and Garcia both heard from him after he left Philly and San Fran, respectively. It was actually a topic covered quite well after his release, wondering when it would happen and what he would say, exactly.

So now it’s been a few months and he has said some things, but by no means has he gone medieval over the situation either. And then you have ESPN – like a special needs kid with a candy bar I tell you – they are even covering the most dramatic sports news available by telling us that TO hasn’t found a place to live yet. Yeah, I said it, THEY did it!

And without any sense of subtlety at all, we now have yet again witnessed another TO -vs – Romo moment in the media. “Romo Friendly” is not “TO friendly“, and whether or not a player can figure out that it doesn’t matter, the media should at least be able to stick to their genre. The tabloids cover gossip, sports media covers sports. Why, oh why ESPN is that so hard to grasp.

No body even knows what “Romo Friendly” means. People keep expecting an expert or obscure to step up and say that it means several things that all fit very specifically on some magic expert list of quarterback qualities, and in truth it simply means that players who fit well with his style are “Romo Friendly“.

Owens has rarely ever been anything but “TO Friendly” and as someone said recently, There are only stats for two guys on a team, the quarterback and the head coach. No one ever says a wide receiver lost a Super Bowl or playoff game – unless that receiver is Patrick Crayton of course.

So the next time anyone says anything about Owens and the whole “Romo Friendly” phenomena, be sure to slap ‘em once real good with your right hand, and then follow through with another slap from your left. How’s that for “Romo Friendly“?

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Today marks the beginning of the rest of Miles Austin’s career as he awaits an imminent offer from the Jets, and as we wait along with him to see just how determined the Jets are to acquire him, there are some things to consider in Dallas.
First and foremost on the agenda for the Cowboys should Austin depart for New Jersey is wide receiver depth and lineup since Austin is projected as the second starter opposite Williams if he stays. The release of Owens was a clear sign that the team is moving in a younger direction that is hopefully more team oriented than Owens’ has ever been.
But if Austin leaves, and that is definitely possible, it would remain Sam Hurd and Isaiah Stanback as the only youth amongst our wide outs. The problem is that both Hurd and Stanback have had issues being productive on the field, when either can stay healthy enough to get on the field.

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Miles Austin has finished up his visit with the New York Jets, and while it isn’t clear yet if he’s left the area where his family is during this Easter weekend, he did leave the Jets facilities without an offer being made.

It’s anything but a sign of the Jets intentions that they did let him leave without making an offer since the type of offer they could make would take a few days to develop. According to Dave Hutchinson at The Star-Ledger in New Jersey, the Jets informed Austin that they plan to put together an offer for him over the coming days.

The NFL has some say in how long they wait, as the signing period ends next Friday, April 17th, and that would leave the Cowboys exactly one week to match any offer made by the Jets before draft weekend, or receive the Jets second round draft pick in return for Austin. The Jets could make an offer to Austin at any time before then as well, which would still give the Cowboys seven days to match it.

Since Terrell Owens was released in early March Miles Austin’s stock has been on the rise. Known in Dallas as a speedy receiver with the ability to stretch the field and make big plays, Miles Austin poses a threat to any team that he plays for in 2009 with his inability to stay healthy for a full season yet. He does have the talent and upside to be well worth a second round pick in this year’s draft however.

The real issue at this point for the receiver slated to replace T.O. this year in Dallas rests in how creative the Jets get with their offer to the fourth year receiver. The Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum could decide to include a poison pill in the offer similar the one they made to Curtis Martin a decade ago to snag him away from New England.

An example of this poison pill could be a clause stating that Austin’s entire contract would become guaranteed should he play five games in the state of Texas. This type of language would virtually prevent the Cowboys from matching the offer and would thus send Austin to the Jets in return for the 52nd overall pick in this years draft.

Dallas released Owens saying that it was a move in favor of letting the younger guys on the team step up, specifically Miles Austin. They’ve been grooming since signing the undrafted free agent as a rookie.

But if the Jets do decide to put a poison pill in the offer, the Cowboys would have no choice but to let him go and try to replace him through the draft and free agency. Matt Jones, Marvin Harrison, Torry Holt, and Plaxico Burress are some of the most notable free agent receivers on the market right now, and there are some good receivers in the draft that could come in and play behind Williams and Crayton this year.

Picking midway through the second round at 51 and 52, should the Jets get Austin, the Cowboys wouldn’t be likely to find a receiver to step in as the number 2 receiver this season unless they package some picks together to move up in the second round, or into the first round. For Dallas, the upcoming offer to Austin from the Jets could change the outlook of the season drastically. Stay tuned for more.

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All this talk about Terrell Owens feeling betrayed by Jerry Jones is just a waste of everyone’s time. Now I’ve said for a long time that Owens has issues, but that his production usually outweighed his issues by enough to keep him around. I’ve said that this team could move into the 09 season with Owens and be just fine. But obviously it didn’t and they won’t.
The problems Owens caused were usually rather trivial and didn’t amount to very much until the media got a hold of it, then suddenly every fan had an opinion of it as I’m sure each player and coach did as well. Never mind whether or not these coaches and players knew the whole story or witnessed it and knew things about it each time that the media did not, the media was able to color every story to their own needs. Often, the media was given an extra push by the words of some of the players.

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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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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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Well it happened, someone paid up in a big way.  Terrell Owens is a cancer, he’s a locker room disturbance, and he’s certainly not a team player.  Yet, as always some organization see’s his explosiveness and a chance to win the big one.  Winning the lottery this time was the Buffalo Bills who gave Owens a 1 year contract worth 6.5 million according to ESPN.

This move will help assure that Bills a chance to flourish in a tight division that features already explosive receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker from the New England Patriots.  T.O. will always find work it seems, and he’s in position again to set a teams perceived playoff hopes into a new atmosphere, where he will again undoubtedly fail again.  To you T.O. good luck, and thank you for adding some closure to the finally concluded chapter in your life spent in dallas!

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So T.O. is gone, now what?

Jerry Jones has finally stepped up and rid the Dallas Cowboys of their number one troublemaker.

At least, that is what the pundits and critics are saying. For them, the release of Terrell Owens makes the Cowboys a better team – a sort of addition by subtraction.

Overall, the move to release Owens has been met by praise from most members of the media and fans alike.

But, I’m not one who favors the move.

No, Terrell Owens is no saint. Still, he was a very productive member of the Dallas Cowboys. Some point to his numbers and say he is on the decline and no longer an elite receiver. Still, he managed to post yet another 1,000 yard/10 touchdown season, and that was considered a down year. Personally, I believe the lack of creativity in the offense, more specifically, failure on the part of offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, had more to do with his statistical drop-off than diminishing skills.

Had Owens lost a step? He actually seemed like he was faster this season.

Off the field, Owens has been labeled a distraction or cancer. However, everything seemed to be going okay until the big fiasco involving Owens, Garrett, Romo, and Witten. And, in all honesty, none of us truly know what transpired. The only information leaked to the public came from ESPN’s Ed Werder and his “sources”. The “sources” were never identified. It did seem though that whoever the “sources” were, they definitely had an agenda. Much like the talking heads at ESPN who seemed like they were on a mission to get Owens released from the Cowboys.

I found it particularly funny listening to ESPN analysts Keyshawn Johnson and Chris Carter lambast T.O. at every opportunity for demanding the ball more. These are two individuals who pretty much did the same thing during their careers. Keyshawn even took it one step further and wrote a book. I guess he has forgotten about that.

All we really have to go on is what Owens said publically. Yes, he did criticize Garrett and even Romo. But was he wrong in doing so? I don’t think so. We, as fans, all saw it. And if we’re completely honest, we all thought it too. Owens simply voiced it – and, was vilified by some of the fans and media for doing so.

When the Cowboys were 13-3, and Owens was getting the ball, he was model teammate. Last season, the team went 9-7, and he wasn’t getting the ball, and he was upset. So, he doesn’t like losing. Or, better yet, he like several other superstars, felt like he could help the team win if he had the ball in his hands.

Isn’t that what we want from our top players?

I wonder what the reactions would have been if Jason Witten had made the same statements?

Would he have been vilified? Or, heralded a leader?

I guess we’ll never know.

In listening to Jerry Jones, he insisted that this move had nothing to do with locker room chemistry, but everything to do with change. He also stated that his belief in wide receiver Roy Williams was a major reason for his decision. But, clearly that is not the case. Jerry, uncharacteristically, bowed to the pressure by the media, fans, and some of the people on his staff. Jerry didn’t want to release T.O. You have to believe that after witnessing the success of Arizona and the success of their “81/11 tandem”, Jerry had visions of the Cowboys being able to duplicate or surpass them with their own tandem.

But, Jerry decided to cave in. And he sided with those who wanted T.O. gone. None more so than Jason Garrett, who by all of accounts, told Jones he didn’t feel he and Owens could co-exist.

So now what?

If I’m offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, I’m feeling the immense pressure.

Even without Owens on the team, the Cowboys have a tremendous amount of talent on offense. They still have the offensive line, Romo, Witten, Bennett, Williams, and their trio of running backs. In my opinion the X-factor is going to be Miles Austin. No disrespect to Patrick Crayton, he proved that he can be a decent 2^nd receiver. But, he is much more effective in the slot but lacks the outside speed the Cowboys need. Austin has the size and speed. He has shown flashes that he is capable of being a 2. He just hasn’t been consistent, mostly due to injury. But, if he is able to step up and be a force, this offense has the ability to be very potent.

That is where Garrett comes in. It will be up him to create mismatches, and free up his playmakers to make plays. He won’t have the luxury of teams doubling Owens on nearly every play, so he is going to have to be creative – something, he definitely wasn’t last season.

Of course, Romo will have to prove that he is the franchise quarterback Jones believes he is as well.

But, that is a topic for another discussion.

As for Garret though, I’m not sure he is up to the tasks, but he had better be. It is not a good sign when opposing defenders comment that your offense is one of the simplest to figure out. And, if the offense is still stagnant much like it was towards the end of last season, he no longer has the Original 81 to point the finger at.

The bright lights will shine squarely on him. And, if he fails, he will no longer be the coach in waiting.

He’ll be amongst the unemployed. Or, at least should be.

The Wizard has spoken.

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According to Michael Smith at ESPN, the Dallas Cowboys released Terrell Owens Wednesday night. The Cowboys have yet to confirm the move, though staff writers at DC.com are sharing this same report. This seems to indicate that they haven’t heard anything to the contrary.

This is a shocking move, although not a totally unexpected one. Speculation has been running rampant since December when reports surfaced about dissension in the locker room, and it all seems to swirl around Owens.

Should the report be true, the Cowboys will still suffer a hit to the cap very similar to what would have been spent with Owens still on the roster. It has been presumed that cutting him would make less sense given his production level and that $9 million would count against this seasons cap with or without him.

We’ll have to wait until morning most likely for official word out of Valley Ranch, but it looks as though the poll on CN.net was dead on target. The question? Who will be the number 1 receiver next year for Dallas, 78% voted that T.O. would be the number 1 over Roy Williams. Not now.

DMN is reporting that T.O. has been notified officially of his release by team officials.

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Despite big media outlet’s such as ESPN constantly talking down about Terrell Owens, calling him things like Team Obliviator, a cancer, and even some have went as far to call him the worst team-mate in the NFL history.

Yet like Owens tends to do quite often about his doubters he proved them wrong. I can’t help but wonder to myself why the world seems to be against this guy? Obviously he had some chemistry issues with Donovan Mcnabb and Jeff Garcia which is an entire article in it’s own. Nevertheless Owens has a heart of gold as evidenced by writing a children’s book, holding a youth football camp, creating an Alzheimer’s foundation, and now helping a women nearly hit by a car.

On a walk to a nearby drugstore, she stepped off a curb and was almost run down by a driver who changed lanes abruptly.

Hopping back onto the curb, she nearly collided with an athletic-looking fellow who checked to see that she was OK and made sure she made it back to the hotel.

That same fellow came through the company’s booth the next day.

“That’s Terrell Owens!” Ed Lawrence pointed out to his sister-in-law, who didn’t know the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver.

“He was so nice when I saw him at the booth and thanked him again for helping me,” she said. “He talked to us for a while and was very nice, posing for a picture with me. The class loved it.”

Say what you will about Terrell Owens but the proof is in the pudding the guy is one of the greatest receivers in the NFL’s history and has a big heart and despite on the field controversies has never had an off the field issue and is always helping out the community. Owens is 2nd all time in receiving touchdowns with 139.

Owens had 69 Receptions 1,052 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.

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It’s Wednesday, just about 28 hours until free agency begins tomorrow night, and the rumors are soaring across the news vine as though they were powered by a jetpack. Ray Lewis seems to be at the top of the list as far as Dallas is concerned, and no I don’t mean that Dallas is considering it, though they certainly may be.

The latest is from FanNation.com and it seems to add fuel to the fire. Apparently Ravens’ owner Steve Bisciotti is irritated with Lewis for not showing loyalty to the team in Hawaii. That is where Lewis made it known that he’d like to play for either the Jets or Cowboys.

I’m still of the mind that Lewis won’t be a huge factor in Dallas and the reasons are clear, this teams’ biggest problem is on offense, and he’ll be brought in as another player, not the commander of the vessel. A point worth debating is whether or not he could control Terrell Owens and inspire Tony Romo to take charge, but the point remains that it wouldn’t be his job to do either.

After the stories came out about DeMarcus Ware and Ray Lewis sharing some not-so-subtle remarks about Lewis wanting to be a Cowboy, it seems this idea is now going wholesale to the public.

The Dallas Cowboys have roughly $12 million in available cap space, and have options to add more by cutting players like Brad Johnson and Roy Williams, but the bulk of it is expected to go to Ware in the form of a new contract, a contract that is expected to be near the top in the history books for a defensive player.

Still, makes you wonder what could be. Bart Scott looks to be real close to signing a new deal in Baltimore, and he had already taken over some duties from Lewis last year. Are the Ravens getting ready to move on without Lewis?

It seems logical to assume they’d only do that if Ray was asking too much to stay, and if so that same asking price wouldn’t translate well to the Cowboys. But would he take a lower figure to fulfill his dream of being a Dallas Cowboy?

Then again, maybe the speculation that Bisciotti is irritated with Lewis is just more fanfare instigated by Lewis and/or his agent to drive his price up, Seems kind of an odd way to do it though.

Given that the rumors and talks of him wanting to come to Dallas have helped Lewis’ worth so far, how much can you take away from that if he does start negotiations with the Cowboys?

We might very well know the answers come Friday afternoon.

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With all the talk about Terrell Owens and whether he’ll be in a Cowboys uniform next year, the subject of whether or not we can sustain a potent passing game without him has been raised. It’s something that nobody has the answers on, but it makes me wonder, why don’t we?

What is it about Roy Williams that says he can’t handle the load without T.O. across the field? Perhaps the best argument against him is that he played for the Lions until last year, and I know this because I’ve seen it written in so many places, and by so many people. The popular opinion is that he sucks because he was with the Lions.

People like to throw out there that he’s only had one season over 1,000 yards, but what I don’t understand is why the same amount of logic isn’t placed on both sides of the discussion.

He played for the Lions … when is the last time the Lions did anything notable in their passing game? Even I had Mike Furrey on my fantasy team a couple of years ago, but that was also the same year in which Williams got his 1,000 yards, so something was obviously working better that year.

So he comes to Dallas, narrowly escaping a full claim to the worst season in NFL history, and he catches 19 passes for a couple hundred yards. The truth is that Williams, while he caught fewer passes than he could have, was only about 3 yards per catch behind Owens. That means that had our offense not collapsed from mid-season on, he could have ended up with more yards than Owens. Sure, it’s not likely since Owens is the number one wide out, but it’s possible that he could have without him doing anything different.

That has to make you wonder something, how can we be facing such trouble without Owens when Williams was producing at a similar level per catch? Now watch that, I said per catch. A lot went into why Williams had fewer catches, some of it was his fault, some of it wasn’t, so we can’t really make claim to the cause in either direction.

What we do know is, even after Jerry Jones so cryptically told the attending reporters at his press conference yesterday that they weren’t going to get the answer they wanted, that even if he does cut Owens loose, he wasn’t the only guy producing.

T.O. was the only player at a skill position playing in every game of the season.

T.O. did have a blow out game against his former team, nearly breaking his own career record for yards in a game.

None of that says that this team won’t produce over the top should he be gone in 7 months. And to say that we need to pick up another receiver either through the draft or free agency is just idiotic. Why would the Cowboys risk bringing in another player as a project from the draft when we still have Stanback, Austin, and Hurd who have yet to progress past that same status?

Why would we bring in another free agent receiver when we’ve got Williams not playing up to his ability last season; Owens the center of a bigger fuss than Bill Clinton, and the other free agent wide outs we’ve brought in during this decade that have quite literally flopped?

A lot of what’s being said centers around the attention that Owens gets, some off the field, and some on the field. Can this team be any good without Owens occupying double coverage? Well, tell me this, how did Michael Irvin do it all those years? He was never the fastest receiver; he was just a go-up-and-grab-it type of guy. For all accounts, Williams is that type of guy also, he’s just never had a QB worth $60 million throwing it to him.

Give it an off-season, a full training camp and preseason, and you’ll see that Owens is going to get more competition from his right than from the defensive backs facing him.

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“You and I both know that the one you are asking about all the time, if I have an answer for . . . if I gave you the answer you want to hear, then you would already have had it, so the fact you don’t have it ought to tell you something. Or it should.“

I’m sure you’ve all seen it by now … it’s been on every Cowboys related headline since the words were first spoken. Jerry Jones found a way to once again let himself be open for interpretation.

A lot of you have expressed confusion over what he said, but let’s look at it and see just how clearly he answered the T.O. question.

“If I gave you the answer you want to hear …” We all know that most of the beat writers that were at that press conference have been spouting off about the T.O. situation. Most of them, most of the time, have expressed their desire to see Owens released. So my take on this answer is that Jones is saying if we were going to hear Owens will be released, we would have heard it by now.

Your guess is really as good as mine, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet strongly in favor of keeping Owens after hearing a statement like that. Only time will tell if Jones backs it up.

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According to Calvin Watkins over at DMN, quite possibly.

I’ve got to admit that it does make more sense that Owens has some word that he will be around Dallas next year, though it’s still possible there’s another explanation for Owens’ agent not mentioning Owens in his contacts with all 32 teams that several of his other clients are available for a trade.

Those clients include, an likely feature, the usual suspects of Chad Johnson, Anquan Boldin, and Plaxico Burress. It’s no secret that any of those guys would be shopping themselves around, but Rosenhaus didn’t include T.O.

It’s either a ploy to show how confident he is that owens will be a Cowboy next year, which is rather dumb considering how he’ll look if he’s wrong, or he’s got some information that we don’t have and knows that Owens will be here. That certainly would make sense.

Check the article here.

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It seems to be the fad of late to blame someone for the Cowboys woes in 2008, and this fine Pro Bowl weekend is no exception. A report by Jason Cole at YahooSports.com reveals that while the hustle and bustle of the Pro Bowl is under way, the Cowboys Owner/President/GM is meeting with several of his offensive players to discuss none other than … Terrell Owens.

According to his report, Jones is discussing issues that some players are having with Owens. These players are claiming that Owens is refusing to communicate with his offensive teammates in the locker room, in the huddle, or otherwise.

From this, and recent TMZ photos, we can see that the fad is still going strong. Owens was caught at a Las Vegas nightclub with fellow offensive teammates Patrick Crayton and Marion Barber recently, so apparently his newfound refusal to talk to his offensive teammates is selective.

The idea of Terrell Owens being at the center of a team’s controversy is nothing new, and some believe that because of his role in similar situations before he arrived in Dallas, that he is automatically to blame for what is happening here. Still others think that his baggage is being used to make him the easy target. It’s a fine line to walk between being hated and being loved, but Owens seems to be getting help from a select few that want to brand him as the fall of the Cowboys in 2008.

I’m not buying into the hype though. Jerry Jones may very well be meeting with players as Jason Cole suggests, but it proves more that Owens isn’t the problem in the Big D. Citing yet another “source”, Cole writes, “‘I really believe that Jerry is going to get the message from people that Owens just can’t work there,’ one of the sources said. ‘It’s just a bad, bad situation.’“

Seems to me that it’s already pretty easy to pass the blame to another in sports, what with the hounds in the media ready for the next juicy scoop, but it’s even easier to do it when you won’t introduce yourself as the source.

But I, for one, am hoping that these sources who anonymously try to destroy this team are found out soon, because they’re the real cancer of this team. Some would have you believe that it’s Tony Romo or Jason Witten, or even Jason Garrett, but whoever it is … they are indeed the cancer that is eating away at this team’s chance for glory.

The media though, they aren’t much better. And what really surprises me is that while they hunt for that next big scoop on the Cowboys controversy, none of them are willing to give up a source and land the biggest controversy for the Cowboys in this decade. Too bad … a classy reporter would end this charade. A classy reporter wouldn’t have gotten involved in it to begin with.

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Now that I’ve taken more than five minutes to form an opinion of this whole “Dan Reeves won’t join the Cowboys staff” ordeal, I’m going to try to lay this out as best I can.

There are a couple of possibilities, obviously, for what happened or not with this deal, while none of them leave us with the outcome that we mostly wanted, a good outcome is still possible in some cases.

The most shared opinion among fans, myself included, so far is that Jerry Jones wouldn’t give Reeves the kind of authority and control that he either was seeking, or felt he needed to do other parts of the proposed job effectively. Either way boils down to more of the same … and the beat goes on.

Dan Reeves could have merely been a consultant for a brief time while certain things were discussed. He already shared his own opinion of the team with the media, so it makes sense that he would be brought in to consult for a limited time during the regrouping sessions this off-season. Furthermore, it’s possible that the initial report out of San Francisco was either false, mistaken, or the result of the 49ers management turning down a delayed hire for Reeves while he consulted with the Cowboys first. Far fetched, I know.

If this is the case, then the Cowboys, in some way, should have let on to the fact that he wasn’t going to around long, especially after a report to the contrary surfaced in California.

Still another possible reason is that the Cowboys and Dan Reeves didn’t see eye to eye on things. It basically boils back down to Jones not being willing to give in and give Reeves what he thought was necessary. It kind of seems pointless for that to be the case since you bring in a revered former coach to be a consultant so you can change your current direction with his new strategies and ideas. But alas, Jerry will be Jerry.

Regardless of why it didn’t work out with Reeves, though, this team must move on. It’s a free for all to figure out what comes next, but I suspect there are still some major concerns to deal with before free agency and the draft come around.

The Cowboys have yet to name a replacement for Brian Stewart. As I blogged earlier, it’s been reported that Todd Grantham has moved into the defensive coordinators office, and that could have just been done to allow Reeves an office while he was here. What doesn’t make sense with that is going through the trouble to move Grantham to another office when Reeves could have simply taken the open office. It makes more sense that Grantham was moved into that office because they have plans for him to use it long-term.

Terrell Owens may or may not be an issue that the Cowboys are considering possible solutions for, but the media and many fans certainly are. We’re about down to the fundamental responsibility of the team officials to make an announcement on him one way or another for the sake of the millions that pay their salaries. Yeah, I know. But what else can I say about it? Either they are thinking about releasing him, or they’re not. Either way, make a statement to shut everyone up. It’s not like Jerry Jones is apposed to telling us all that someone isn’t leaving while still considering the opposite. See “Brian Stewart Won’t Be Back Next Season” on the True Blue Fan Club blog.

Several free agents have yet to be decided upon with regard to the Cowboys possible efforts to resign them, like Chris Canty, Keith Davis, Kevin Burnett, Zach Thomas, and a couple of others.

A decision still needs to be made on SS Roy Williams this off-season. His performance has been miserable despite missing most of the 2008 season with two breaks in his forearm. The Cowboys actually stand to gain a little over $2 million towards the 2009 cap by cutting him, and could possibly work out even more benefits by trading him to another team soon. It stands to reason that some teams running a 4-3 defense would be happy to have him since he’s never a distraction and has great stats while playing in a 4-3.

If Owens or Williams are released, in one way or another then comes to work of finding a suitable replacement for both, though an argument exists to find certain types of players both positions even if they both stay. The safety position has been weak since Williams’ production dropped off while Parcels was here, and we need a speed receiver to spread the field more than Owens, Roy E. Williams, and Crayton can do. Miles Austin has some great speed and other nice abilities that make him a solid option for that burst of much needed speed, but his inability to stay healthy has hampered his success.

That doesn’t even get into all the smaller things that need to be worked out like how training camp will be handled this year after direct mention of changes from Wade Phillips in his final press conference of the season.

So we’ll stay tuned for that.

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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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Well that didn’t take long. Greg Ellis has already started his campaign for biggest pain in the ass, and it’s not even February yet.

Now maybe we can’t really disagree with him too much since he is saying that he wasn’t used right on the field, but yeah, we can disagree. Ellis is old and he fades fast when he’s used as a 3 down player. He is a good pass rusher, but his coverage skills are below average for a linebacker.

He does have a point when it comes to the coaches not utilizing the players correctly in games, but he was hardly one to focus on. Yes, Wade and Stewart should have kept him out of coverage more than they did, but he wasn’t a liability in coverage, so it’s not that big of a deal.

But we all know about the lack of proper management when it came to players like Felix Jones, Terrell Owens, and others. So I say it’s a good thing that Ellis said some of what he did, but it’s about time that he accepts his position as a linebacker.

This is the fourth year in a row that he has complained about something, and it all started when he was switched from defensive end, his natural position throughout his career, to outside linebacker by Bill Parcels. Maybe he thinks if he becomes a big enough whiner that they’ll move him back to DE.

In reality, he’ll just be released or traded once the team feels they can rely on Spencer to fill his shoes full time. Something tells me that we might be seeing that situation this off-season.

Check out his comments on the DMN Cowboys Blog

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