News: BTB: 2015 Dallas Cowboys Roster: The Great Pet Cat Reckoning

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Pet cats have been a part of BTB ever since Bill Parcells originally introduced the term to Dallas. So how good were the pet cat picks this year?

Shortly after the draft, in what has become an annual tradition here on Blogging The Boys, we ask the front page writers and BTB members to commit to their pet cats for the season.

The "Pet Cat" is a Parcells-ism, a term Bill Parcells popularized in Dallas when he was the head coach for the Cowboys. The term initially referred to a prospect whom a coach, scout or owner had taken a particular liking to, often based on little more than a whim, and whom they would then try to draft, regardless of what the scouting consensus was.

Among Cowboys fans, the term usually refers to a bubble player commonly found at the bottom of the roster. Some people pick pet cats that are late-round draft picks; that is usually frowned upon as even mid- to late-round draft picks face good odds of making the roster. Others pick down-roster pet cats, usually undrafted free agents or even street free agents, and for those pet cats to simply make the practice squad is often considered a great success.

The pet cat is often - and preferably - chosen without the slightest factual or quantifiable basis, and that choice then stands in such monolithic grandeur that any criticism of the player bounces off the pat cat owner into inconsequential nothingness like little pebbles flung at Ayer's Rock.

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But there comes a time when all the pet cat-ism in the world can't help a player, and that's during final roster cuts. Over the last two days the Cowboys finalized (sort of) their 53-man roster and have signed the following seven players to their practice squad:

LB DaKorey Johnson, S Tim Scott, QB Jameill Showers, OT John Wetzel, QB Kellen Moore, RB Gus Johnson, WR Vince Mayle.

Your pet cat made it or didn't make it and it is now time for The Great Pet Cat Reckoinng.

We'll start off with a look at which pet cats the BTB writers picked this year, and how that worked out for the pet cats involved:

Writer 2015
Player Status​

Rabblerousr CB Jason Wilson

cut​

OCC LB Mark Nzeocha

NFI List​

Dawn Macelli WR Antwan Goodley

cut​

Michael Sisemore LB Damien Wilson

53-man roster​

Tom Ryle

Permanently disqualified from picking pet cats​

​

When we published our pet cats in mid May, many BTB readers submitted their pet cats in the comments thread. A quick scan of the comments shows the following players as pet cat favorites among the BTB commenters at that time (excluding a few stray votes for veteran players or high draft picks):

Votes Players​

29 Synjyn Days
17 Chris Whaley
14 George Farmer, Efe Obada
12 Ben Gardner
11 Ryan Russell
10 Antwan Goodley
7 Geoff Swaim
6 Dustin Vaughan, Lucky Whitehead
5 Ryan Williams, Tyler Patmon, Tim Scott, Ken Bishop, Jason Wilson
4 Mark Nzeocha, Devin Street
3 Laurence Gibson, La'el Collins, Damien Wilson, Deontay Greenberry, Reggie Dunn
2 Jack Crawford, Jameill Showers
1 Reshod Fortenberry, Matt Johnson, Kevin Smith, Ray Vinopal, Chris Boyd, Lavar Edwards​

I tallied a total of 121 votes for 30 different players. Some of them left the Cowboys early, some didn't make the roster over the weekend, some wouldn't strictly qualify as pets cats anyway, and some ended up making the team. The biggest leap of all the players on this roster was made by unheralded wide receiver Lucky Whitehead, who made the 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent.

Notably, of the seven players already signed to the practice squad, only Tim Scott and John Wetzel were already on the team in May, and Scott is the only player of the two to receive any pet cat votes.

Not a good year for 7th-round/UDFA types this year.

Tell us about your pet cat. Who did you pick at the time?

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