MacMahon's new 53 roster ... your thoughts ???

[igtmfo]

(Apologies to CZ admins here but since it's a blog not an "article" let's bask in the glow of "fair use":

QB (3)
Tony Romo
Jon Kitna
Stephen McGee

Missing the last two preseason games won't help McGee's development.

RB (3)
Marion Barber
Felix Jones
Tashard Choice

Choice went down during Saturday's game with what a PR staffer described as a "man injury," which explains why his teammates were laughing on the sideline.

FB (1)
Deon Anderson

Anderson is the leading returning special teams tackler.

TE (3)
Jason Witten
Martellus Bennett
John Phillips

Phillips has a firm enough grasp on the No. 3 role that Rodney Hannah asked to be released.

WR (5)
Roy Williams
Miles Austin
Patrick Crayton
Sam Hurd
Kevin Ogletree

Ogletree and Isaiah Stanback have made the decision about the fifth receiver easy. Ogletree has five catches for 73 yards and a TD during the preseason. Stanback fumbled after his only preseason catch.

OL (9)
Flozell Adams
Kyle Kosier
Andre Gurode
Leonard Davis
Marc Colombo
Montrae Holland
Duke Preston
Pat McQuistan
Doug Free

Duke Preston would make $620,000. Cory Procter would make $1.54 million. You do the math.

NT (2)
Jay Ratliff
Junior Siavii

Ratliff is primed to be even better than he was during last season's Pro Bowl campaign.

DE (4)
Igor Olshansky
Marcus Spears
Stephen Bowen
Jason Hatcher
This is the deepest position on defense, which is pretty faint praise.

OLB (4)
DeMarcus Ware
Anthony Spencer
Steve Octavien
Victor Butler

The Cowboys will keep a close eye on the waiver wire for this position.

ILB (4)
Bradie James
Keith Brooking
Bobby Carpenter
Jason Williams

My hunch is that rookie Stephen Hodge, whose knee keeps swelling up to prevent him from practicing or playing, will end up on the injured reserve.

CB (6)
Terence Newman
Orlando Scandrick
Mike Jenkins
Alan Ball
Mike Mickens
Veteran TBD

Depending on the severity of Alan Ball's strained neck, the Cowboys could be forced to sign a veteran cornerback, which wouldn't be a bad idea anyway.

S (5)
Ken Hamlin
Gerald Sensabaugh
Michael Hamlin
DeAngelo Smith
Pat Watkins

M. Hamlin will miss at least the first month of the season with a broken wrist.

SPEC. (4)
P Mat McBriar
K Nick Folk
K David Buehler
LS L.P. Ladouceur

Folks can relax now that Folk made a couple of field goals.

 

[MONT17]

why is everyone so down on Jerrys love child... the 1.5 million is to keep his mouth shut!

 

[Woods]

There's no way we keep 11 DBs and only 8 LBs.

I think it will look like 10 DBs and 9 LBs when it's all said and done - or even 10 LBs and 9 DBs.

The problem at ILB is that if anything happens to B James or Brooking, I wouldn't trust Carp or J Williams to fill in right away.

Similarly, if anything happens to Ware (God forbid) or Spencer, I don't think Octavien or V Butler are ready to play a significant number of games.

 

[dbair1967]

I still have a hard time believing Deangelo Smith and Mike Mickens will make the active roster. Also not sure Watkins is a lock, although the Hamlin injury might have saved him.

Smith and Mickens might make the opening day roster, then get cut and replaced by veterans for week two. Then they go to the PS.

I do think a veteran LB will be added.

 

[burmafrd]

Lets face it people we lose Ware its over. Just like if we lose Romo its all over.

 

[Alexander]

why is everyone so down on Jerrys love child... the 1.5 million is to keep his mouth shut!

Let him go to Miami.

Colombo and Davis make enough money, they can fly him in for gigs.

 

[Smith22]

The lack of depth we have on defense is scary. Churn baby churn.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Lets face it people we lose Ware its over. Just like if we lose Romo its all over.

Kitna is a much backup than Brad so we might be a little better.

 

[cobra]

It's absolutely amazing that the lemming mindset has permitted the "depth issue" to become conventional wisdom.

It gets stated several times by mediots and then a bunch of zombies start echoing it.

We have a young defense. This is a good thing. Part of having that is that you don't have proven veterans at every single backup spot. THAT IS OK. You don't have to have veterans at every backup spot. Our roster is built fine.

I know on this message board a lot of your panties get a bunch unless we don't have Hall of Famers starting and Pro Bowlers at backups at every single position. But in reality, it is perfectly ok to rely on young quality players.

The problem at ILB is that if anything happens to B James or Brooking, I wouldn't trust Carp or J Williams to fill in right away.

Carpenter is perfectly able to fill in at ILB.

Seriously: do you really think you are going to get a more qualified individual as a freaking backup? If someone is better than Carpenter, then they are starting somewhere else. Jesus.

As far as Jason Williams, he is still raw, but last game looked like he was starting to get it. He still has time to develop. Hopefully by mid-season he will be a lot better off. And if we are going to need him, it's going to be because we lose both James and Brooking, because Bobby will replace whichever of them goes down.

And yeah, there might be somewhat of a fall-off, but I don't think it will be dramatic.

But... ANYTIME a starter goes down, their backup is probably not going to be as good as they are... THAT'S WHY THEY ARE BACKUPS.

we lose Ware its over

Typically one cannot reproduce the production of a Hall of Fame-caliber player who has sets franchise records the previous season.

That being said, losing Ware would be devastating but it would not make us a 0-16 team.



One last thing: Pat Watkins does not make this team, imo. I think we keep another front 7 guy on defense. Maybe someone off the waiver wire.

 

[cobra]

The lack of depth we have on defense is scary

Lemming, lemming, lemming. Hear anything else from the mediots recently?

 

[Alexander]

The lack of depth we have on defense is scary. Churn baby churn.

I think we'll see players like Jonas Seawright, Derreck Robinson and Courtney Brown hang around through week one and then we might look into some veteran depth on the DL and CB respectively.

These injuries are going to make decisions difficult and it will require some juggling.

It might get a few fans upset thinking we are keeping bad players around, but the economics of signing a vested veteran have to factor into things. Those from the final cuts probably aren't going to be significantly better than some that have been around with us the entire camp.

 

[Smith22]

Lemming, lemming, lemming. Hear anything else from the mediots recently?

Are you serious? Ware is the only proven OLB we have. Spencer hasn't started a full season yet and still has to prove himself. Carpenter is scared to death of actually making a tackle on running plays. Yes, he can cover, too bad we aren't playing touch football or he would be MVP.

Watkins is still on the team at safety, despite the fact that he comes from the Bobby Carpenter school of not being able to tackle.

For this to be a successful season, we HAVE to stay healthy on defense and along the OL.

We are stacked at RB and TE, and Kitna over BJ is a HUGE upgrade, assuming they can get the QB/C exchange problem fixed.

 

[Smith22]

And if Ratliff goes down, oh lord.......... We have nothing behind him.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Are you serious? Ware is the only proven OLB we have. Spencer hasn't started a full season yet and still has to prove himself. Carpenter is scared to death of actually making a tackle on running plays. Yes, he can cover, too bad we aren't playing touch football or he would be MVP.

Watkins is still on the team at safety, despite the fact that he comes from the Bobby Carpenter school of not being able to tackle.

For this to be a successful season, we HAVE to stay healthy on defense and along the OL.

We are stacked at RB and TE, and Kitna over BJ is a HUGE upgrade, assuming they can get the QB/C exchange problem fixed.

Getting rid of Proctor will hopefully fix that.

 

[Smith22]

Getting rid of Proctor will hopefully fix that.

It has been mentioned all preseason/training camp that Kitna/Proctor have had issues with the snap. Maybe Proctor is the issue, I'm not sure. QB/C exchange is something that should rather simple at this point in their football careers......

 

[cobra]

Are you serious? Ware is the only proven OLB we have. Spencer hasn't started a full season yet and still has to prove himself. Carpenter is scared to death of actually making a tackle on running plays. Yes, he can cover, too bad we aren't playing touch football or he would be MVP.

Hogwash. Spencer is proven. He proved it last year. Now... he may now be a proven Pro Bowler, which is what too many of you demand. But he is a perfectly proven starting-caliber OLB with a lot of upside. He is unquestionably a solid starter.

And the Carpenter hate is just that. Hate. He's a perfectly capable backup.

 

[Yeagermeister]

It has been mentioned all preseason/training camp that Kitna/Proctor have had issues with the snap. Maybe Proctor is the issue, I'm not sure. QB/C exchange is something that should rather simple at this point in their football careers......

Proctor just needs to go

 

[big dog cowboy]

Proctor just needs to go

At this point there can't be many people left in the "keep Proctor" camp can there?

 

[TwoCentPlain]

No way Watkins makes this team. McQuistan is on the bubble. Wade has praised Bright. I wouldn't be surprised top see Bright over McQuistan.

 

[Alexander]

No way Watkins makes this team. McQuistan is on the bubble. Wade has praised Bright. I wouldn't be surprised top see Bright over McQuistan.

Bright is more of a practice squad consideration. It was a bit strange to mention a player by name like that, especially if we are trying to keep them secret.

Per Stephen Jones, McQuistin and Free have made them feel better, so it might be a case where he isn't viewed by the organization nearly as negatively as we believe.