FEATURED Impressions from Silver and Blue

[BlindFaith]

Ok, I know this wasn't full pads and it may have been little more than a "show the team to the public" type practice, but here's what I walked away with:

Team stretching drillls: Not everyone on the same page. No real leader leading the drills. Not everyone doing the same drill at the same time. I know this may sound nit picky, but for me to see the disorganization from a basic warm up drill tells me something.

The rest of my update will be focused mostly on the oline.

There was a period of about 30 minutes, before the team stuff, where the offensive lineman worked in two groups in the back of the endzone. Each group went through some basic one on one stuff, and then finished off with some combo blocking stuff. One group consisted of Smith, Berny, Fredrick and Parnell. Callahan ran that group. Free was in the other group. Free worked only at guard.

I also watched Arkin specifically. Not only in drills, but just how he went about his business. I see why the team is not ready to commit to him. So here is my take on him:

Not flexible. Not engaged with other players. Slight in terms of size. Quick, but not athletic. And the biggest thing that I think concerns the team is that he seems to be one of those "book smart" kind of guys. You know, the kid in school that always got good grades but it took him 10 times as long to study. Arkin seems to not have any situational awareness. No football sense. Kinda getting in the way at times. He tries hard and does have some ability, but he just may not be a football player.

Speaking of which, we have no maulers on offense. No one to be afraid of. On the offensive line that is. Smith is the closest we have, but he is more of a gentle giant. We have no one that goes past whistle. Again, that may have been the nature of the practice, but it is consistent with what we've seen over the last couple of years. I personally believe that is a direct reflection of Garrett and the type of player he wants on offense. Remember, Felix was Garretts pick. Soft, but supposedly very athletic.

Free PLAYED ONLY GUARD in all of practice. There is definitely something to this. I think Livings is done, either IR or cut. It doesn't really make any sense to put him on IR as his contract is guaranteed either way. Leary may be a little further away than what we have been made to believe. Garrett wants continuity on the line. I think thats why Free has been moved there. And I'd bet a pretty penny that he lines up there on Saturday, and probably against the Giants. As far as how he looked...capable. He's high in his stance for my liking. I'm afraid DE lineman may get under him, but he moves well and would be our BEST interior pass blocker.

I didn't focus much on Parnell. But the little I did watch of him he seems quick and didn't show any signs of the past injury bothering him.

Bell did not practice. Weems and Coughman were the back up tackles.

Kowalski is a football player. I'm just afraid he doesn't have the frame to play in the NFL.

All in all I walked away fairly unimpressed. At least with the offense. No sense of urgency. No killer instinct. It's hard to explain, just a gut feel.

I think we will be fine on defense. The little I did watch of them they always seemed to be flying around. Matt Johnson did not practice and didn't really seemed to be involved in any way with what was going on. I'd definitely put him on the bubble at this point with Jeff Heath possibly having the advantage.

So, just to reiterate. This was only one practice and it may have been very limited. Please don't rush to any conclusions. But I think we will be picking up a guard at some point after teams have made their final cut downs. I may have been wrong on Arkin as I thought he looked good so far. I think with him its one of those things where you need to be around the guy on a daily basis to really know what he's all about.

 

[elcowboi]

Was there anything you liked? That almost sounded like an obituary. Lol.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

Team stretching drills always set the tone. When they look disorganized and no one steps up to take the reins, you know it's going to be a bad practice.

 

[perrykemp]

I appreciate you post your personal observations on the OL.

Is this the second whole day Free practiced at guard? I'm having trouble piecing together the various reports I've read the last couple of days re: Free playing guard.

Practicing st guard 1 day is a contingency plan.

Two days exclusively at guard would be a sign of a more serious look by the Cowboys at shuffling the OL.

 

[blindzebra]

If you think Frederick is not a mauler you might want to ask Docket and Campbell.

 

[Corso]

Ok, I know this wasn't full pads and it may have been little more than a "show the team to the public" type practice, but here's what I walked away with:

Team stretching drillls: Not everyone on the same page. No real leader leading the drills. Not everyone doing the same drill at the same time. I know this may sound nit picky, but for me to see the disorganization from a basic warm up drill tells me something.

The rest of my update will be focused mostly on the oline.

There was a period of about 30 minutes, before the team stuff, where the offensive lineman worked in two groups in the back of the endzone. Each group went through some basic one on one stuff, and then finished off with some combo blocking stuff. One group consisted of Smith, Berny, Fredrick and Parnell. Callahan ran that group. Free was in the other group. Free worked only at guard.

I also watched Arkin specifically. Not only in drills, but just how he went about his business. I see why the team is not ready to commit to him. So here is my take on him:

Not flexible. Not engaged with other players. Slight in terms of size. Quick, but not athletic. And the biggest thing that I think concerns the team is that he seems to be one of those "book smart" kind of guys. You know, the kid in school that always got good grades but it took him 10 times as long to study. Arkin seems to not have any situational awareness. No football sense. Kinda getting in the way at times. He tries hard and does have some ability, but he just may not be a football player.

Speaking of which, we have no maulers on offense. No one to be afraid of. On the offensive line that is. Smith is the closest we have, but he is more of a gentle giant. We have no one that goes past whistle. Again, that may have been the nature of the practice, but it is consistent with what we've seen over the last couple of years. I personally believe that is a direct reflection of Garrett and the type of player he wants on offense. Remember, Felix was Garretts pick. Soft, but supposedly very athletic.

Free PLAYED ONLY GUARD in all of practice. There is definitely something to this. I think Livings is done, either IR or cut. It doesn't really make any sense to put him on IR as his contract is guaranteed either way. Leary may be a little further away than what we have been made to believe. Garrett wants continuity on the line. I think thats why Free has been moved there. And I'd bet a pretty penny that he lines up there on Saturday, and probably against the Giants. As far as how he looked...capable. He's high in his stance for my liking. I'm afraid DE lineman may get under him, but he moves well and would be our BEST interior pass blocker.

I didn't focus much on Parnell. But the little I did watch of him he seems quick and didn't show any signs of the past injury bothering him.

Bell did not practice. Weems and Coughman were the back up tackles.

Kowalski is a football player. I'm just afraid he doesn't have the frame to play in the NFL.

All in all I walked away fairly unimpressed. At least with the offense. No sense of urgency. No killer instinct. It's hard to explain, just a gut feel.

I think we will be fine on defense. The little I did watch of them they always seemed to be flying around. Matt Johnson did not practice and didn't really seemed to be involved in any way with what was going on. I'd definitely put him on the bubble at this point with Jeff Heath possibly having the advantage.

So, just to reiterate. This was only one practice and it may have been very limited. Please don't rush to any conclusions. But I think we will be picking up a guard at some point after teams have made their final cut downs. I may have been wrong on Arkin as I thought he looked good so far. I think with him its one of those things where you need to be around the guy on a daily basis to really know what he's all about.

I'm wondering on the stretching drills- were you referring to the entire team, or the OL?
Was Garrett doing anything about the nonchalant attitude? Callahan? Or was it deja vu of Camp Cuppycake?

 

[AmericasTeam81]

I'm wondering on the stretching drills- were you referring to the entire team, or the OL?
Was Garrett doing anything about the nonchalant attitude? Callahan? Or was it deja vu of Camp Cuppycake?

Camp no stretch

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

If you think Frederick is not a mauler you might want to ask Docket and Campbell.

+1 Frederick is definitely a mauler

 

[Hoofbite]

Doesn't make sense to put a guy on IR if his contract is guaranteed either way?

I actually think the opposite. If you have to eat that money, maybe he can get healthy. Then again, it's not like he was a stud so whatever.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

im probably in the minority that thinks cutting livings would send a good message. If your lazy and out of shape and injury prone your gone.

 

[Idgit]

Actually, I had a very similar impression of the stretching period at TC in Oxnard. That session--and that session only--was like one of my high school practices. There were guys with tight hamstrings and bent legs barely going through the motions. Guys were slow to switch legs sometimes, and not a lot of consistency and effort to it overall. I commented to my buddy how sloppy it looked, and how surprising it was from such elite athletes given how important good pre and post stretching is for avoiding soft tissue injuries.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Speaking of which, we have no maulers on offense. No one to be afraid of. On the offensive line that is. Smith is the closest we have, but he is more of a gentle giant. We have no one that goes past whistle. Again, that may have been the nature of the practice, but it is consistent with what we've seen over the last couple of years. I personally believe that is a direct reflection of Garrett and the type of player he wants on offense. Remember, Felix was Garretts pick. Soft, but supposedly very athletic.

Not seeing the connection between our OL and picking on Felix of all the players JG's brought in.

 

[DFWJC]

Thanks for observations.

Can I assume you are not a fan of Garrett's and just end it there?
Lol

BTW...Freddy most certainly is a mauler.
Furthermore, if you go to 90% of NFL practices in the year 2003, you will see non synchronized stretching. To say that says something about the leadership tells me you were looking for something in the first place.

That is fine, as long as you admit it.

 

[gimmesix]

Team stretching drillls: Not everyone on the same page. No real leader leading the drills. Not everyone doing the same drill at the same time. I know this may sound nit picky, but for me to see the disorganization from a basic warm up drill tells me something.

I would not read too much into the team stretching drills without knowing exactly what the players were told to do. Now, if you saw someone leading the drills and the players weren't following, then ... maybe there's a reason for that, too.

We rush to judgment on things we have no insider knowledge about.

 

[CooterBrown]

I was there also. Near the endzone where most of the action was. This is my take:
All day the first string oline was: Smith, Berdeneau, Frederick, Free, Parnell During the line drills, they had two olinemen against two others replicating dlinemen, or a delineman and a linebacker. Smith and Berny always worked together. When Frederick was in there it was he and Berny on his left. Free and Parnell working together. Also, during team drills, when Free had to pull and seal, he was quick and effective. I think he will do well at RG. This will be the OLilne against Cincy on Saturday. Question in my mind is: what happens when Leary comes back? Do Berny and Free both move with Parnell to the bench, or does Leary just plug in place of Berny? Would love to get Garrett's thinking on this issue.

qbs: Accuracy ranking, just from what I saw: Romo, Tanney, Stephens, Orton. In that order. That is just from watching the receivers catching the ball and determining if they caught it in stride, or if they had to adjust to the ball. Orton also threw what would have been a pick six to Durant (playing MLB with the 2s). Orton didn't even see him. Orton seems to be the dump pass king. Reminds me of Brad Johnson.

Mcray dropped a pick six that hit him in a bad spot, the hands. Stephens threw that one as he and the receiver were clerly not on the same page.

They did some scout team work against the first defense in preparation for Cincy. Tanney was the QB for neary all of that. Lawrence was the RB.

Romo hit Williams in stride for a long TD. Looked exactly like the pass he missed last week except on the other side of the field.

During the first drive for the first team against the first team defense. It was almost exclusively Romo to Austin. Even for the TD.

Dez dropped a sure TD on a deep pattern. He jumped a bit and turned his hands wrong. If he had just kept running it would have been easy. Then he fell awkwardly and came up shaking and flexing his hand. Romo came right back to him on a slant and then a deep crossing pattern that might have been a TD.

The forgotten receiver, Harris looked good.
Beasley sure looks small. Especially when he is talking to Dez. He didn't participate, but he was out there. Bailey is just money in the bank. He did miss one, but all the others were dead center. I think he was four out of five during team drills, but I really didn't count them.

Tanner was running with the twos, Randle with the threes.

I looked at the punt team. This is who I remember: Allen, Wilbur, Durant, Tanner, and LP and Jones. At one time Williams was one of the gunners. Didn't see who the gunners were. Wish I had paid more attention to that.

Webb bobbled another punt with Williams as a gunner in his face. Might have been fair catch interference, but it was a pretty nifty move on Williams' part to snatch and catch the ball as it bounced in Webb's hands.

It was nice to see some of the old time cowboys out there.

The cheerleaders looked great, the air conditioning felt good, and the beer was nice and cold.

 

[honyock]

I think he will do well at RG. This will be the OLilne against Cincy on Saturday. Question in my mind is: what happens when Leary comes back? Do Berny and Free both move with Parnell to the bench, or does Leary just plug in place of Berny? Would love to get Garrett's thinking on this issue.

Thanks to both of you for the wrap-ups. I second your questions. One thing for sure...a whole lot of eyes are going to be on our new right guard at guard on Saturday.

 

[Big D]

What I gather from these reports and the tweets WG posted is that we will place no importance on the run game yet again. I truly hope not.

 

[CooterBrown]

What I gather from these reports and the tweets WG posted is that we will place no importance on the run game yet again. I truly hope not.

Hard to gauge running plays with no pads. And realisticly speaking, it is hard to practice running plays with no pads. You can go through the motions, but you'll have no idea whether the timing is right when the defenders can't really be moved.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

What I gather from these reports and the tweets WG posted is that we will place no importance on the run game yet again. I truly hope not.

It's been said countless times on this board: The team that passes the ball most efficiently is usually the team that wins. Consequently, the run game is only important insomuch as it helps you pass efficiently.

The importance of the run game is going to vary from team to team. Teams with good quarterbacks and receivers can run less and still be successful. Based on what I've seen in preseason thus far, I would rather have T-Will on the field than Escobar. T-Will seems further along and more ready to contribute.

Over the past few years, the biggest issues with the Cowboys passing game have been porous pass protection and no reliable third receiver outside of Laurent Robinson, who was always filling in for injured players.

 

[Big D]

It's been said countless times on this board: The team that passes the ball most efficiently is usually the team that wins. Consequently, the run game is only important insomuch as it helps you pass efficiently.

The importance of the run game is going to vary from team to team. Teams with good quarterbacks and receivers can run less and still be successful. Based on what I've seen in preseason thus, I would rather have T-Will on the field than Escobar. T-Will seems further along and more ready to contribute.

Over the past few years, the biggest issues with the Cowboys passing game have been porous pass protection and no reliable third receiver outside of Laurent Robinson, who was always filling for injured players.

The Defense is the strength of this team. Running the ball helps them more than anything. Help the defense. Run the ball.