Whatta Nucleus!

[Bizwah]

I can't believe we have 10 rookies on the team this season! One fifth of our team is made up of first and second year players. I think this bodes well for the future.

I am also excited about the nucleus we are building for our team. I think we have some nice building blocks, and can be a contender within the next two or three years......if we continue to draft well.

On the OL:
Pettiti-- R
A Johnson-- 3yrs
Peterman-- 2 yrs

At TE:
Witten-- 3yrs (He's only 23 yrs old)

At RB:
Jones--2yrs
Barber-- R
Thompson-- R

At WR:
Well we still need some work here.
Crayton-- 2yrs I like his potential....but he has to prove it.

At DL (Look at this):
Spears-- R
Canty-- R
Ratliff-- R
Pepper-- R

LB:
Ware-- R
James-- 3yrs
Burnett-- R
Fujita-- 4yrs

Secondary:
Newman-- 3yrs
Williams-- 4yrs
Henry-- 5yrs
Beriault-- R

We are really building a nice, young team here. Of course, I'm assuming all of our rookies will pan out and be solid contributors. We still need something to come through at QB. Hopefully, that will come soon.

I really don't follow the other teams in our division very well. But I'm wondering how they're stacked up......as far as the future goes.

 

[parchy]

Pepper Johnson shouldn't be here at all... not at the expense of Carson.

 

[Cbz40]

If the QB position is sound.....I hope, I hope ..still a big ? to be answered

OL proves to be sound........add more depth next offseason

Good Young #1 WR

We are set to make a run for all the marbles.

Congrats to the top brass for getting off to a great start......This season will be exciting.

 

[Dallas4ever]

Pepper Johnson shouldn't be here at all... not at the expense of Carson.

Carson just didn't do enough to distinguish himself from the rest. He had ample opportunities imho.

 

[parchy]

Carson just didn't do enough to distinguish himself from the rest. He had ample opportunities imho.

As a first option at DT off the bench, Carson is about as good as it was going to get for the Cowboys. He had a pretty good year last year, but it was the experience that I was looking for.

 

[Cowboy from New York]

Agree with 4ever. Carson may have played better in the first half of the season but I think the second half of the season would be a wash between the two. Not to mention the future after that seems to be a nobrainer in favor of Johnson.
We have other gus that are going to be the primary defenders and we still don't have enough spots for all of them to be on the field at the same time. Johnson was the better long term choice as a reserve d-lineman.
Probably saved a little moola too.

 

[parchy]

I think the second half of the season would be a wash between the two.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but is Johnson not an undrafted rookie this year? I'm almost positive he wasn't a Cowboy last year.

*edit - do you mean WOULD be as in you're predicting the future? That's a pretty dangerous game to be playing with a rookie like Johnson.

 

[zagnut]

Agree 100% Biz. We've had a lot of rookies make it in the recent past, but these are legit players. Those prior years were from having pathetic starters.

We appear to have picked up 2/3 of our future starting DL and 1/2 of our future starting LBs in one draft! Add in Kenyon Coleman, Thomas "I will not call him Pepper" Johnson and Ratliff on the line and Ryan Fowler and Shanle inside, we're really set up nicely for depth.

Maybe even Van Hoy down the line at NT.

 

[Sitting Bull]

Pepper Johnson shouldn't be here at all... not at the expense of Carson.

I kinda feel the same way, although I'll defer to Parcells' judgement. Carson looked aggressive and mean in the games I saw. You can't argue with Johnson's productivity, but I wonder how much of that came against third string. He looks fat to me and not the "PH" kind...

 

[Cowboy from New York]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but is Johnson not an undrafted rookie this year? I'm almost positive he wasn't a Cowboy last year.

*edit - do you mean WOULD be as in you're predicting the future? That's a pretty dangerous game to be playing with a rookie like Johnson.

Yeah, I meant the future. As I said, when you consider the starting unit of Ellis, Coleman/Spears, Glover/Ferguson and add Canty and Ware, just how much playing was Carson going to do in the interior of that line? He has been with us and played solid at times and as most of the D did last year, disappeared at times but whatever he had to give Dallas got out of him, Johnson is indeed more of a risk than Carson but with that risk comes the potential for more upside. Carson didnt have that.

 

[parchy]

Yeah, I meant the future. As I said, when you consider the starting unit of Ellis, Coleman/Spears, Glover/Ferguson and add Canty and Ware, just how much playing was Carson going to do in the interior of that line? He has been with us and played solid at times and as most of the D did last year, disappeared at times but whatever he had to give Dallas got out of him, Johnson is indeed more of a risk than Carson but with that risk comes the potential for more upside. Carson didnt have that.

I disagree. I thought Carson looked really solid last year... not too much I could see to complain about.

 

[ddh33]

I didn't realize that Fujita was so young. I was already pretty optimistic about that acquisition, and I like it even more now.

 

[Boy's fan in Giant land]

Pepper Johnson shouldn't be here at all... not at the expense of Carson.

I think it safe to say we all trust Parcells judgement over yours.

 

[parchy]

I think it safe to say we all trust Parcells judgement over yours.

Uh, duh?

This is a message board... the only point of this place is to state your own opinion. If you want to argue with me, fine, but don't try to end the conversation by insulting my judgment.

BTW - Parcells is not infallible... believe it or not, he makes mistakes too.

 

[Future]

I think with all these guys being brought in, fujita especially, it seems parcells is ready to win now (not that he isnt always.) but i would think that he expects this team to be super bowl caliber next year, less rookies with an impact, more talent at WR. It just seems to me like rebuilding usually takes a lot more than 1 year. Granted it started when he got here, but this year, man.

 

[silver]

considering were playing mainly the 3-4 neither carson nor johnson were going to play ahead of ellis, glover, coleman, canty, ferguson and spears. keeping johnson and ratliff is just building depht for the future. carson is too old to be a 3rd stringer in the nfl. he was a good stop gap measure the last two years but obviusly he wasn't the long term answer or else all these newcomers wouldn't be here.

 

[InDakWeTrust]

There is a guy in Pittsburgh who caught my eye last year. Hint he plays NT. Another hint his name isnt Casey Hampton. Cant think of his name? Chris Hoke. The run defense got progressively more stable after Hampton went down for the year. Hoke held his ground for the rest of the D and wasnt driven off the ball much. He's at 6-3 296 and if he becomes availible I would definitely trade for him or sign him. Here is to hoping Pepper turns into someone like Hoke.

 

[Cowboy from New York]

There is a guy in Pittsburgh who caught my eye last year. Hint he plays NT. Another hint his name isnt Casey Hampton. Cant think of his name? Chris Hoke. The run defense got progressively more stable after Hampton went down for the year. Hoke held his ground for the rest of the D and wasnt driven off the ball much. He's at 6-3 296 and if he becomes availible I would definitely trade for him or sign him. Here is to hoping Pepper turns into someone like Hoke.

I think that demonstrates the point, Johnson MAY have that in him, ofcourse maybe not. But we all saw and know what Carson was, just some guy. That's not to bad mouth him but he was/is a journeyman type of guy. All teams have these guys....and all teams are constantly looking to upgrade from those guys. That's what I think BP was doing when he kept Ratliff and Johnson over Carson. The potential of those two over the known quantity of Carson.