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Josh Ellis - Email
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
August 6, 2007 7:23 PM
Bobby Carpenter and Kevin Burnett (right) are currently working with the second-team at inside lineb
SAN ANTONIO - Evidently, all it takes is a starry-eye inducing blow to the head to really show you your place, the kind of hit Cowboys linebacker Kevin Burnett took on July 29.
During inside running drills that day at the Alamodome, the former Tennessee Volunteer was basically knocked unconscious, as team trainers had to hold his head up when checking him out after the hit, and later two of them were needed to help him to the locker room.
It didn't take long before the headaches and neck pain subsided, but the week off that the bump provided seem to have given Burnett a new appreciation for the game, and the people, he loves.
"It was real tough, especially with everything I've been through injury-wise, and just trying not to take the game for granted. - it's scary," Burnett said. "I've got two kids and a wife. My mom, grandma, I've got family that loves me. My phone was blowing up, just to know that you could not know who those people are, you could be brain-dead or anything could happen."
That's quite a change from the Burnett who complained of a lack of playing time back on May 13, at the Cowboys' first summer mini-camp. Maybe now he's decided playing football, even as a backup, is better than not being able to play at all
"I don't know where I'm going to be," Burnett said that day in the Valley Ranch locker room. "I don't want to be somebody who stands and plays 30 special-teams plays a game. That's not why they drafted me. I damn sure take offense to playing 30 special teams snaps a game. That's saying you're not good enough to play defense for us but you're good enough to play special teams."
Burnett's comments that day weren't fueled by a selfish desire for more snaps, though, but rather what amounts to righteous paranoia. Burnett was concerned his job would be on the line this training camp, as evidenced by the Cowboys picking their third first-round linebacker in as many years, Anthony Spencer.
"Somebody's on the chopping block. You've got a lot of money in a lot of linebackers around here - somebody's got to go," Burnett said. "As I see it, they don't have faith in somebody, confidence in somebody, that's why they picked up another linebacker."
Maybe Burnett was right. His second-round status from the 2005 draft meant he would get a fair shot to win a starting job, but he's been unable to move to the next level. There isn't much reason to believe he'll become a starter anytime soon, either, and the same can be said for the team's first pick from 2006, linebacker Bobby Carpenter.
Burnett and Carpenter appear to be progressing just fine, and coaches have shuffled the two from inside linebacker to outside and back again trying to find the best way to use them, but the Cowboys are essentially set with their starting linebackers in the 3-4, having doled out big contracts to Bradie James, Akin Ayodele, DeMarcus Ware and Greg Ellis in recent years.
Carpenter and Burnett are making good money too, a sign of the Cowboys initial commitment to them. So is the pair's inability to break into the starting lineup a fault of their own, or a sign of failure within the organization to draft useful players? After all, first and second-round picks are supposed to be starters, not the immediate backup inside linebackers, right?
Team owner and general manager Jerry Jones disagrees, suggesting depth chart positioning doesn't matter, that high picks are paid to make plays, and Burnett and Carpenter have been doing just that.
"I submit to you that if we get Carpenter playing like he did in the Seattle game, which we have every reason to expect, if we get a Kevin Burnett that can make plays like the interception that he had against Indianapolis, those are worth ones and twos," Jones said.
Cowboys defensive coaches don't seem to mind having high picks as backups at the linebacker position, which is probably the deepest on the team.
"I don't think we have too many," head coach Wade Phillips said. "I think we kept 10 linebackers at San Diego. The great thing about a 3-4 is you keep more linebackers, and they're the core special teams people, which a 4-3 team doesn't have as many linebackers and those defensive linemen can't play special teams. So it's good to have a lot of linebackers. I don't think you can have too many."
Now that Burnett's back to practicing at training camp, he's saying all the right things, but he wouldn't exactly take back his statements from May.
"Football is a game where you can never be satisfied," he said Saturday. "My great-grandfather always told me to be greedy, so I'm greedy. I want it all."
Burnett does seem to be buying into Jones' playmakers theory, though.
"I'm going to go out there and make plays," Burnett said. "That's what the coaches tell me all the time: 'Don't be a robot, go make plays.' So I'm going to do that."
Burnett's teammates, the guys above him on the depth chart, are preaching patience.
"That's the way the league is. I had to wait a few years before I got my shot," James said. "You've just got to continue to be consistent and work on everything you can to be a good player. They'll get an opportunity at some point, but right now we've got enough guys to make enough plays."
Paul Pasqualoni, the team's linebackers coach, says the young guys at the position aren't having their growth stunted by the lack of playing time. In fact, he says, it's actually good for them.
"They're working every day on the techniques, fundamentals, what it takes to play the position," Pasqualoni said. "I think young guys like Kevin Burnett and Bobby Carpenter are in a great situation. They're learning, they're contributing and growing as players, and they're young players with very bright futures. I think it's great for them."
Spencer could find himself in the same boat as Burnett and Carpenter soon though, especially if Ellis returns from the heel bursitis that's kept him off the field since Day One of training camp. The Cowboys keep saying Ellis is the starter at the strong outside linebacker position, so where does that leave Spencer? Like Burnett and Carpenter, the Cowboys will find situations where he can be of use.
"We have a lot of different packages," defensive coordinator Brian Stewart said. "In some of our sub-packages those guys are starters, so that's the main way we're going to get them in the game, and then we're going to spell some of the other 'backers at different times and in different situations so that's where they'll get a chance to play."
While Spencer has worked with the first-team defense throughout camp with Ellis rehabbing, Burnett and Carpenter have carved out roles on the nickel defense. Carpenter has even lined up as a down lineman in certain pass-rushing situations.
"We've got a nickel package that deploys different players in different spots, and a dime package that deploys different people in different spots." Stewart said. "One's more of a 3-3-5 if you will."
So the team's young linebackers will get their snaps. They may miss out on the recognition that comes with a key position in the base defense, but each of them will play their part on the defense, and are important pieces to the Cowboys special teams units, and the Cowboys coaches seem to like it that way, at least for now.
"I think you're as good as your worst guy," Stewart said. "So if you have guys that have good ability and they're itching to get on the field, but aren't quite as good as the guys ahead of them, but they're pushing the guys ahead of them - then you're in a good situation as a football team."
With some guys, it only takes a near-concussion to figure things out.
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
August 6, 2007 7:23 PM
Bobby Carpenter and Kevin Burnett (right) are currently working with the second-team at inside lineb
SAN ANTONIO - Evidently, all it takes is a starry-eye inducing blow to the head to really show you your place, the kind of hit Cowboys linebacker Kevin Burnett took on July 29.
During inside running drills that day at the Alamodome, the former Tennessee Volunteer was basically knocked unconscious, as team trainers had to hold his head up when checking him out after the hit, and later two of them were needed to help him to the locker room.
It didn't take long before the headaches and neck pain subsided, but the week off that the bump provided seem to have given Burnett a new appreciation for the game, and the people, he loves.
"It was real tough, especially with everything I've been through injury-wise, and just trying not to take the game for granted. - it's scary," Burnett said. "I've got two kids and a wife. My mom, grandma, I've got family that loves me. My phone was blowing up, just to know that you could not know who those people are, you could be brain-dead or anything could happen."
That's quite a change from the Burnett who complained of a lack of playing time back on May 13, at the Cowboys' first summer mini-camp. Maybe now he's decided playing football, even as a backup, is better than not being able to play at all
"I don't know where I'm going to be," Burnett said that day in the Valley Ranch locker room. "I don't want to be somebody who stands and plays 30 special-teams plays a game. That's not why they drafted me. I damn sure take offense to playing 30 special teams snaps a game. That's saying you're not good enough to play defense for us but you're good enough to play special teams."
Burnett's comments that day weren't fueled by a selfish desire for more snaps, though, but rather what amounts to righteous paranoia. Burnett was concerned his job would be on the line this training camp, as evidenced by the Cowboys picking their third first-round linebacker in as many years, Anthony Spencer.
"Somebody's on the chopping block. You've got a lot of money in a lot of linebackers around here - somebody's got to go," Burnett said. "As I see it, they don't have faith in somebody, confidence in somebody, that's why they picked up another linebacker."
Maybe Burnett was right. His second-round status from the 2005 draft meant he would get a fair shot to win a starting job, but he's been unable to move to the next level. There isn't much reason to believe he'll become a starter anytime soon, either, and the same can be said for the team's first pick from 2006, linebacker Bobby Carpenter.
Burnett and Carpenter appear to be progressing just fine, and coaches have shuffled the two from inside linebacker to outside and back again trying to find the best way to use them, but the Cowboys are essentially set with their starting linebackers in the 3-4, having doled out big contracts to Bradie James, Akin Ayodele, DeMarcus Ware and Greg Ellis in recent years.
Carpenter and Burnett are making good money too, a sign of the Cowboys initial commitment to them. So is the pair's inability to break into the starting lineup a fault of their own, or a sign of failure within the organization to draft useful players? After all, first and second-round picks are supposed to be starters, not the immediate backup inside linebackers, right?
Team owner and general manager Jerry Jones disagrees, suggesting depth chart positioning doesn't matter, that high picks are paid to make plays, and Burnett and Carpenter have been doing just that.
"I submit to you that if we get Carpenter playing like he did in the Seattle game, which we have every reason to expect, if we get a Kevin Burnett that can make plays like the interception that he had against Indianapolis, those are worth ones and twos," Jones said.
Cowboys defensive coaches don't seem to mind having high picks as backups at the linebacker position, which is probably the deepest on the team.
"I don't think we have too many," head coach Wade Phillips said. "I think we kept 10 linebackers at San Diego. The great thing about a 3-4 is you keep more linebackers, and they're the core special teams people, which a 4-3 team doesn't have as many linebackers and those defensive linemen can't play special teams. So it's good to have a lot of linebackers. I don't think you can have too many."
Now that Burnett's back to practicing at training camp, he's saying all the right things, but he wouldn't exactly take back his statements from May.
"Football is a game where you can never be satisfied," he said Saturday. "My great-grandfather always told me to be greedy, so I'm greedy. I want it all."
Burnett does seem to be buying into Jones' playmakers theory, though.
"I'm going to go out there and make plays," Burnett said. "That's what the coaches tell me all the time: 'Don't be a robot, go make plays.' So I'm going to do that."
Burnett's teammates, the guys above him on the depth chart, are preaching patience.
"That's the way the league is. I had to wait a few years before I got my shot," James said. "You've just got to continue to be consistent and work on everything you can to be a good player. They'll get an opportunity at some point, but right now we've got enough guys to make enough plays."
Paul Pasqualoni, the team's linebackers coach, says the young guys at the position aren't having their growth stunted by the lack of playing time. In fact, he says, it's actually good for them.
"They're working every day on the techniques, fundamentals, what it takes to play the position," Pasqualoni said. "I think young guys like Kevin Burnett and Bobby Carpenter are in a great situation. They're learning, they're contributing and growing as players, and they're young players with very bright futures. I think it's great for them."
Spencer could find himself in the same boat as Burnett and Carpenter soon though, especially if Ellis returns from the heel bursitis that's kept him off the field since Day One of training camp. The Cowboys keep saying Ellis is the starter at the strong outside linebacker position, so where does that leave Spencer? Like Burnett and Carpenter, the Cowboys will find situations where he can be of use.
"We have a lot of different packages," defensive coordinator Brian Stewart said. "In some of our sub-packages those guys are starters, so that's the main way we're going to get them in the game, and then we're going to spell some of the other 'backers at different times and in different situations so that's where they'll get a chance to play."
While Spencer has worked with the first-team defense throughout camp with Ellis rehabbing, Burnett and Carpenter have carved out roles on the nickel defense. Carpenter has even lined up as a down lineman in certain pass-rushing situations.
"We've got a nickel package that deploys different players in different spots, and a dime package that deploys different people in different spots." Stewart said. "One's more of a 3-3-5 if you will."
So the team's young linebackers will get their snaps. They may miss out on the recognition that comes with a key position in the base defense, but each of them will play their part on the defense, and are important pieces to the Cowboys special teams units, and the Cowboys coaches seem to like it that way, at least for now.
"I think you're as good as your worst guy," Stewart said. "So if you have guys that have good ability and they're itching to get on the field, but aren't quite as good as the guys ahead of them, but they're pushing the guys ahead of them - then you're in a good situation as a football team."
With some guys, it only takes a near-concussion to figure things out.