And with that, you can instantly prop this Cowboys offense up into the top 3 or 4 in the league. Easy.
Yesterday put a masterful touch on an offseason that, by and large, has been nothing short of brilliant. Holes remain, as they do in 32 NFL cities today, but the light shining through the cracks is significantly more faint than that battered carcas of a wayward roster that left Fedex in the finale last season.
Jerry and Jason gave it one more coat of wax with a new old guard.
The critics of Brian Waters ring empty. Yes, he's 36. No, he didn't play last season. True, for typical NFL players, that is not the preferred recipe for a fix on the offensive line.
Waters, however, is not typical.
This is no idiotic Neanderthal like Terrell Owens, who couldn't make a third-grade calculation of a property tax and impregnated have the women he looked at. This is not a desperate former athlete who partied away his Benjamins on a fleet of depreciating sports cars or a needy cast of loser friends and family.
Waters took care of his money. He's never been seriously hurt. He doesn't NEED to play football. But he very much wants to play by all local accounts, under certain conditions. And you needn't question the integrity of his past 18 months. This former NFL Man of the Year, an award Jason Witten received last year, won't come in here and slop around. He's already pretty fit, just needs to learn the playbook and settle in.
His demands were simple, but just a touch too steep for Dallas. Finally, the stared-down ended.
The six-time pro bowler wanted (1) to be paid like a six-time pro-bowler, (2) a two-year deal, and (3) to avoid training camp like the plague. That would have been doable for a whole host of teams looking for his considerable ability, except for a fourth requirement, that ultimately took a bit of his leverage away from him. He only wanted to play for the Cowboys, which is why he refused to go back to New England even though Belichick wouldn't grant him his release.
So Waters gave in on the term, and the Cowboys paid him his worth. Training camp ended. Done deal. A 30-minute commute from Denton to Valley Ranch was all that remained.
Make no mistake, Waters knows the potential of this team. He's heard all about Travis Frederick and Ron Leary. He lives here. He went to high school here. He's been a Cowboys fan his whole life, and he's wanted to player here since the Cowboys cut him as a free agent tight end his rookie year.
Simply put, this is the best guard we've had here since Larry Allen. In fact, Waters is very much like Allen in his nasty, crusty, and physical style. He beats up the players he faces. They do not like to play against him, said Marc Columbo yesterday, beaming over the signing. This is no finesse guy like Kyle Kosier or Mackenzy Bernadeau. This is one tough sumbich.
In 2011, he ranked 4th in offensive guards, as well as #1 overall in pass protection, en route to another pro bowl and his first Super Bowl. More importantly - VASTLY more importantly - imagine the impact he can have on Leary and Frederick along the newly built interior of this offensive line.
Which brings me full circle back to this offseason.
I'm hard on Jerry. Simply don't like a lot of what the man is about, but that's not at issue here. There was pretty clearly a collective meeting of the minds, and a tactically coherent plan was put together that has obviously allowed for contingencies of all sorts. Patience has been exercised, and every rock looks to be flipped on its backside.
The healthy returns of Spencer and Ratliff would crown this overhaul, but already, this ain't just a lipsticked pig anymore. This roster, this new structure of coaching, this season as a whole...they have a direction sorely lacked around here in such a long time.
And if that line stays healthy, this offense is going to hum like the Ferrari that Waters never bought.
