Cowboys didn't grab DB off waiver wire to pick his brain about Bucs

[cowboyjoe]

several fans asked this question, so here u go with wade's response to that question

Cowboys didn't grab DB off waiver wire to pick his brain about Bucs
11:13 AM Wed, Sep 02, 2009 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
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S/CB DeAngelo Willingham spent training camp and the first three preseason games with Tampa Bay. The Cowboys open the season on the road against the Buccaneers. They claimed Willingham off waivers a couple of days ago.

Those facts are not related, according to Wade Phillips.

Phillips downplayed the benefit of picking a young player's brain for inside info in situations such as this one.

"We see enough on film," Phillips said. "A lot of its personnel matchups. Players don't know those things. They know somewhat about schemes, but most of them don't know why they're running this or that or how much they're running it preseason and if they're going to run it in the regular season or vice versa. I'd be surprised if they could help a whole lot.

"I'd say if you got a quarterback late, he would probably know a lot. Or a veteran that's been there the whole training camp and been there a while and knows what they're doing, how they change, what their audibles are on everything and those kind of things. Young players are usually just trying to make the team and learn their position, and that's it."

With injuries to Alan Ball and Mike Hamlin, the Cowboys couldn't even play their defensive substitution packages during the 49ers' game-winning drive Saturday night, since they weren't going to put their regulars at risk at that point. The Cowboys addressed that issue by picking up Willingham and CB Jeremy Haynes.

 

[superpunk]

Stock answer from Wade.

There's all sorts of things Willingham will know from having been in camp. Yeah he's not going to know the entire playbook or what situations they're calling what in, but he surely knows some of their defensive calls and reads.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

We should beat the Bucs simply by talent vs talent. Dont need anything else.

 

[Alexander]

Stock answer from Wade.

There's all sorts of things Willingham will know from having been in camp. Yeah he's not going to know the entire playbook or what situations they're calling what in, but he surely knows some of their defensive calls and reads.

And his point is he won't know it backwards and forwards, not enough to have any real value, if he did they wouldn't have cut him loose on the first go around. So in terms of what Phillips said, he's right. He's not exactly trying to be coy here. That is one thing you can say about him.

We likely picked him up because we liked him after scouting him and above all else, need a warm body to get the Viking game over with.

 

[BAT]

Stock answer from Wade.

There's all sorts of things Willingham will know from having been in camp. Yeah he's not going to know the entire playbook or what situations they're calling what in, but he surely knows some of their defensive calls and reads.

I thought that was a very insightful answer from Wade, he practically adimts that teams can get an edge by signing a player from the opposing team, but it has to be the RIGHT player, not just anyone, especially some kid struggling just to keep from going under.

 

[Future]

We should beat the Bucs simply by talent vs talent. Dont need anything else.

If that was the case, we should have only lost 2 or 3 games over the last 2 or 3 years...

 

[28 Joker]

DeAngelo Willingham is better than Courtney Brown.

Keep him.

 

[BAT]

DeAngelo Willingham is better than Courtney Brown.

Keep him.

Courtney Brown is very likely not retained anyway, who else do you propose cutting to keep Willingham.