Yakua Rich: My Meaningless Thoughts Going into Preseason

[Yakuza Rich]

I thought I would give my meaningless thoughts on the team so far.

- I was thinking the other day about the Cowboys and why so many non-Cowboys fans (aka gambling addicts) have them picked to go to the Super Bowl. I think right now the Cowboys have 4 certified elite/special/great players at their respective positions in Romo, Witten, Ware and Ratliff. That’s pretty rare on any team. Then we have at least 4 guys that I think could be there with a little more playing time to prove themselves in Felix, Miles, Spencer and Jenkins. So that’s a potential 8 guys THIS YEAR that I think you could consider an elite/special/great player and it’s throughout both the defense and offense. I don’t think any other team has that or is even close for that matter.

- Unfortunately, none of those special/elite/great players exist on the O-Line. I think we have far more depth on the O-Line than given credit for. I felt that way last season and Colombo went down and Free stepped right up and did a great job. In my judgement of football players, usually I do well with O-Linemen and probably I’m at my worse with wide receivers and quarterbacks. For me, I thought Free did a whale of a job at right tackle last year and his weakness is supposed to be his power and yet he played at RT, which is a position much more reliant on power. So moving to LT shouldn’t be an issue since that is the position he was slated for since he was drafted. Thus, it’s tough for me to go on these media reports saying that he’s getting beat all of the time…but, I’ve been wrong before and will be wrong again. I think if we can stay reasonably healthy on the O-Line and Free is the player I think he is, we’ll see an O-Line that’s better as a unit because Free is more versatile and that allows the O-Line and Garrett to do things we quite couldn’t do with Flozell. I am scared about the center position. I’m not too high on Gurode, but if he gets hurt I think it spells big trouble.

- I was thinking about the future WR corp with Miles, Dez and Ogletree. What’s amazing is that Miles and Ogletree went undrafted. I’d imagine that Miles and Ogletree will switch off in the slot, Dez will remain out wide and you have 3 WR’s who are strong, fast, have good hands, run good routes and are great with the YAC. Absolutely scary and I can’t tell you how giddy I am just thinking about it.

- But then you have to remember about Felix, which just makes me giddy. I think if he’s healthy, he’s an awesome player. He reminds me of Dorsett in how hard he can cut going full speed and just making defensive backs look silly. Personally, I would use the RB’s much like we did in ’07 with Julius starting, Barber coming in the second quarter and short yardage. However, I’d give Choice more carries and lessen the carries for Barber to keep him healthy, particularly for December.

- I think we need to be very careful with the players we release after training camp, particularly on defense. I think Lissemore and Brent-Price have some big time potential. I’d really hate to lose somebody like that as we try to put them on the Practice Squad.

- I am concerned about special teams a bit. With Ball moving to FS, that probably takes him away from special teams coverage and we’ll need somebody to replace him. The placeholding has concerned me since Brad Johnson was released. And with Beuhler doing place kicking, I’m afraid that his leg will get tired and he won’t be as effective doing kickoffs.

- I hope that the team gives Stephen Bowen some serious consideration at starting at LDE. But I get the feeling that they’ll just stick with where he is, backing up.

- While Dez has dazzled out there, something tells me that he won’t see nearly as much playing time as people think. Just look at our rookies under Wade each year. Free didn’t get playing time until his 3rd year and needed an injury for it to happen. They were afraid to play Ogletree and Bennett as rookies. Felix had the case of getting 6 carries and had the highest ypc ever and they still wouldn’t play him enough (then he got injured). Jenkins was backing up Anthony Henry. Scrandrick was a better rookie and playing better than Henry and they still needed convincing to play him over Henry and Pacman. Spencer barely got any time. I think the system works, but I just would be surprised to see Dez get a lot of playing time. The only rooks that have gotten a lot of playing time where Scandrick and Jenkins (both got to play because of injuries and Pacman’s debacle) and then John Phillips of all people.

- I keep looking back to last season and the more I think about it, I think that Garrett did a good job last season. I think he was severely hamstrung by Flozell (which he basically referenced when talking about Alex Barron recently). He also fully implemented the freeze draw play along with the slant patterns and sluggo routes. All of this made things tough for heavy blitzing teams and with Philly and NYG in the division, it was a smart plan. Now with the Skins going to a 3-4 under Haslett, who has traditionally blitzed quite a bit, it was a very smart design to the offense. Then he had to adjust to Roy Williams not progressing like the team thought he would, Jason Witten was probably banged up and a very banged up Marion Barber.

I think this year he needs to get the Green Bay games out of his system where he forgets to run the ball. I think that game actually helped Garrett as recently pointed out in an article about him by JFE, Garrett seeks out what other coaches and D-Coordinators around the league think of him as an O-Coordinator in order to improve himself. I’m sure that Dom Capers is somebody that Garrett thinks highly of and when he said that it was easy to defend the Cowboys offense because they knew we were not going to run the ball, that made a big impression on Garrett.

Other than that, I think he needs to work on adjusting better when things don’t quite exactly go as planned as evidenced by the Minny game where Ray Edwards ate Colombo’s lunch.

- Overall, I’m positive about this team. Of course, they need to stay away from injuries. They need to be focused on football. They need to come in with the focus that opponents are not going to roll over for them just because they are the Cowboys. They need to realize that most teams around the league think that they can beat them out in a slugfest. So a lot of hurdles to overcome here, but that’s the same with any team. I’m not quite sure there is another team with as many positives and potential though.





YR

 

[casmith07]

Thanks for the post.

I think this team reminds me of the Patriots of yesteryear, but the core is significantly younger than those Super Bowl New England teams.

 

[utrunner07]

- I keep looking back to last season and the more I think about it, I think that Garrett did a good job last season. I think he was severely hamstrung by Flozell (which he basically referenced when talking about Alex Barron recently).

I think this year he needs to get the Green Bay games out of his system where he forgets to run the ball.

Other than that, I think he needs to work on adjusting better when things don’t quite exactly go as planned as evidenced by the Minny game where Ray Edwards ate Colombo’s lunch.

1) If Garrett was hamstrung by Flozell I hate to see what is going to happen with Free there.

2) How the hell does a professional offensive coordinator forget to run the ball? How? And you are right, he did, on more than one occasion.

3)Garrett has never been good at in game adjustments, well maybe one or two games, but even they were nothing to get excited about.

Garrett is the weak link, hopefully he has learned, but in the past he has shown he has a really really hard time learning from his mistakes as he repeats them over and over. Garrett's job is on the line this year, would not be surprised if he loses more and more control of this offense to Wade as the season progresses. I like Garrett as a person and as former Cowboy (as do many on here and this is the main reason he is so well supported on here by those who can not separate the man from the OC) but if he fails to produce AGAIN this season, its time to demote he back to QB coach or run him out of town.

Rest of the stuff is good stuff, IMO. Always enjoy reading these post game.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

You need to watch the games on DVR and chart them on Flozell. Flo was barely able to get into his stance last year and was painfully slow getting into run blocking last year and usually got beat when we ran to the right and couldn't cut off the weakside defensive end. He was still the same Flozell in that once he got his hands on the defender, it was over. But it made for a very one dimensional LT and it dictated the way the Cowboys would run their offense. We'll see on Free, although I thought he did a fine job at RT last year and like I said, he's made for the LT spot and if he could do well at RT, then he should do well at LT. Now we can run both left and right effectively, out on the perimeter, run some screens, pitch plays, etc.

I would probably agree that on offense, if we are reasonably healthy, that Garrett is still the biggest question mark. I think he did far more good than bad last season. As far as forgetting to run the ball, pro O-Coordinators forget that quite often. The really good ones don't, but usually early in their careers they do forget it from time to time. Last year I only remember him forgetting to run the ball in the Green Bay game. After that he ran the ball to death against Washington and didn't forget again IIRC. I guess you could say that he stopped running the ball against the G-Men in week 2, but Romo just lost his mind in that game and it cost us and we did log quite a few carries and ran effectively. I think Garrett went for the kill shot and Romo screwed it up in that game.

Call me cautiously optimistic on Garrett. I think he *had to* improve last year to some degree and he did and looking back he improved more than I originally thought and did some very smart things and had a lot to overcome. But, he could always revert to the evil Garrett that is one dimensional, forgets to run the ball and make head scratching play calls and is not very creative using all of the talent.








YR

 

[RS12]

This team goes as far as the O Line takes them The good news is, they only have to be average with Romo as QB. He makes em look better than they are.

 

[sonnyboy]

I thought I would give my meaningless thoughts on the team so far.

- I was thinking the other day about the Cowboys and why so many non-Cowboys fans (aka gambling addicts) have them picked to go to the Super Bowl. I think right now the Cowboys have 4 certified elite/special/great players at their respective positions in Romo, Witten, Ware and Ratliff. That’s pretty rare on any team. Then we have at least 4 guys that I think could be there with a little more playing time to prove themselves in Felix, Miles, Spencer and Jenkins. So that’s a potential 8 guys THIS YEAR that I think you could consider an elite/special/great player and it’s throughout both the defense and offense. I don’t think any other team has that or is even close for that matter.

- Unfortunately, none of those special/elite/great players exist on the O-Line. I think we have far more depth on the O-Line than given credit for. I felt that way last season and Colombo went down and Free stepped right up and did a great job. In my judgement of football players, usually I do well with O-Linemen and probably I’m at my worse with wide receivers and quarterbacks. For me, I thought Free did a whale of a job at right tackle last year and his weakness is supposed to be his power and yet he played at RT, which is a position much more reliant on power. So moving to LT shouldn’t be an issue since that is the position he was slated for since he was drafted. Thus, it’s tough for me to go on these media reports saying that he’s getting beat all of the time…but, I’ve been wrong before and will be wrong again. I think if we can stay reasonably healthy on the O-Line and Free is the player I think he is, we’ll see an O-Line that’s better as a unit because Free is more versatile and that allows the O-Line and Garrett to do things we quite couldn’t do with Flozell. I am scared about the center position. I’m not too high on Gurode, but if he gets hurt I think it spells big trouble.

- I was thinking about the future WR corp with Miles, Dez and Ogletree. What’s amazing is that Miles and Ogletree went undrafted. I’d imagine that Miles and Ogletree will switch off in the slot, Dez will remain out wide and you have 3 WR’s who are strong, fast, have good hands, run good routes and are great with the YAC. Absolutely scary and I can’t tell you how giddy I am just thinking about it.

- But then you have to remember about Felix, which just makes me giddy. I think if he’s healthy, he’s an awesome player. He reminds me of Dorsett in how hard he can cut going full speed and just making defensive backs look silly. Personally, I would use the RB’s much like we did in ’07 with Julius starting, Barber coming in the second quarter and short yardage. However, I’d give Choice more carries and lessen the carries for Barber to keep him healthy, particularly for December.

- I think we need to be very careful with the players we release after training camp, particularly on defense. I think Lissemore and Brent-Price have some big time potential. I’d really hate to lose somebody like that as we try to put them on the Practice Squad.

- I am concerned about special teams a bit. With Ball moving to FS, that probably takes him away from special teams coverage and we’ll need somebody to replace him. The placeholding has concerned me since Brad Johnson was released. And with Beuhler doing place kicking, I’m afraid that his leg will get tired and he won’t be as effective doing kickoffs.

- I hope that the team gives Stephen Bowen some serious consideration at starting at LDE. But I get the feeling that they’ll just stick with where he is, backing up.

- While Dez has dazzled out there, something tells me that he won’t see nearly as much playing time as people think. Just look at our rookies under Wade each year. Free didn’t get playing time until his 3rd year and needed an injury for it to happen. They were afraid to play Ogletree and Bennett as rookies. Felix had the case of getting 6 carries and had the highest ypc ever and they still wouldn’t play him enough (then he got injured). Jenkins was backing up Anthony Henry. Scrandrick was a better rookie and playing better than Henry and they still needed convincing to play him over Henry and Pacman. Spencer barely got any time. I think the system works, but I just would be surprised to see Dez get a lot of playing time. The only rooks that have gotten a lot of playing time where Scandrick and Jenkins (both got to play because of injuries and Pacman’s debacle) and then John Phillips of all people.

- I keep looking back to last season and the more I think about it, I think that Garrett did a good job last season. I think he was severely hamstrung by Flozell (which he basically referenced when talking about Alex Barron recently). He also fully implemented the freeze draw play along with the slant patterns and sluggo routes. All of this made things tough for heavy blitzing teams and with Philly and NYG in the division, it was a smart plan. Now with the Skins going to a 3-4 under Haslett, who has traditionally blitzed quite a bit, it was a very smart design to the offense. Then he had to adjust to Roy Williams not progressing like the team thought he would, Jason Witten was probably banged up and a very banged up Marion Barber.

I think this year he needs to get the Green Bay games out of his system where he forgets to run the ball. I think that game actually helped Garrett as recently pointed out in an article about him by JFE, Garrett seeks out what other coaches and D-Coordinators around the league think of him as an O-Coordinator in order to improve himself. I’m sure that Dom Capers is somebody that Garrett thinks highly of and when he said that it was easy to defend the Cowboys offense because they knew we were not going to run the ball, that made a big impression on Garrett.

Other than that, I think he needs to work on adjusting better when things don’t quite exactly go as planned as evidenced by the Minny game where Ray Edwards ate Colombo’s lunch.

- Overall, I’m positive about this team. Of course, they need to stay away from injuries. They need to be focused on football. They need to come in with the focus that opponents are not going to roll over for them just because they are the Cowboys. They need to realize that most teams around the league think that they can beat them out in a slugfest. So a lot of hurdles to overcome here, but that’s the same with any team. I’m not quite sure there is another team with as many positives and potential though.





YR

Great Post. Stars matter. You have to have impact players to beat the best teams in this league. To make it through to the SB. That's always been the case.

We have more star/impact type players than anyone. I'm not concerned that none of those stars are on the OL. Always felt All-Pro offensive lineman were a bit of a waste.
Perfect example is Larry Allen from say 2000-2002. Best OL hands down, truely dominate. But he did little to help our whole OL or offense.
Always felt at the time that a DT with the same talent level would have done so much more for our entire team.
Offensive line as a group is only as strong as its weakest link. Much more so than any other position group. A star among your LBs, DBs or WR's can help the whole group more than a star OL.

Give me 8 average to good offensive lineman. No stars, no weak spots.

Back to our curent roster. I love how our stars and potential stars are allocated through out the dept chart.

It all starts at QB and we have a star. Then we have plenty of star power within the offensive skill players.

On defense its mostly about stopping the opponents passing game. Good players who hustle can almost always limit the oponents run game. But you need elite pass rushers and coverage players to stop the pass.

In my estimation, Ware, Ratliff, Spencer, Jenkins and Newman are all elite or close to it. How good each and everyone of them are can be debated. What isn't much of a debate is that they are our 5 best defensive players and happen to play the 5 most impactful positions in a 3-4 defense.

 

[Fletch]

Really good read Yakuza. About Dez and playing time. He's not going to start, I wouldn't think, but if Wade likes his job, Dez is going to play a significant amount of plays. You just can't take a guy with that much talent, in the first round, and sit him.

No worries, Wade has to play Dez for the Cowboys sake... for his own sake.

 

[sonnyboy]

Really good read Yakuza. About Dez and playing time. He's not going to start, I wouldn't think, but if Wade likes his job, Dez is going to play a significant amount of plays. You just can't take a guy with that much talent, in the first round, and sit him.

No worries, Wade has to play Dez for the Cowboys sake... for his own sake.

I agree. Dez will play alot.

Management of most NFL teams is conservative by nature. Cowboys are really no exception here.
Plenty of examples of young players getting their chance a year or so later than they perhaps should've with the Cowboys, but no more so than most other teams.

Coach's hate mistakes. They feel mistakes will get you beat faster than a lack of talent and maybe they're right.
They also view mistakes as something they have some control of. The better they do their job the fewer mistakes the team should have to suffer.

But they can't coach talent, strength and speed. The battle between having the best athletes on the field vs having the best prepared players on the field has been going on forever.

From what I'm hearing Dez is looking too good to not play a ton.

 

[AsthmaField]

Great post, as usual YR... and your thoughts are never meaningless.

No doubt, Dez will play a ton.

 

[proline]

And with Beuhler doing place kicking, I’m afraid that his leg will get tired and he won’t be as effective doing kickoffs.

I've never understood this line of thinking. Soccer players kick the ball dozens of times a game and in practice, while running around the field constantly, and no one worries about their legs getting tired. A couple more kicks per game will not affect his kickoff performance negatively.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I've never understood this line of thinking. Soccer players kick the ball dozens of times a game and in practice, while running around the field constantly, and no one worries about their legs getting tired. A couple more kicks per game will not affect his kickoff performance negatively.

It happens in the NFL. Probably because the kickers are kicking it full bore more often. There's a reason why every team always has at least 2 kickers to camp.




YR

 

[adbutcher]

It happens in the NFL. Probably because the kickers are kicking it full bore more often. There's a reason why every team always has at least 2 kickers to camp.




YR

Just more sorriness of the position in general. Poor kickers.

 

[dbair1967]

1) If Garrett was hamstrung by Flozell I hate to see what is going to happen with Free there.

2) How the hell does a professional offensive coordinator forget to run the ball? How? And you are right, he did, on more than one occasion.

3)Garrett has never been good at in game adjustments, well maybe one or two games, but even they were nothing to get excited about.

Garrett is the weak link, hopefully he has learned, but in the past he has shown he has a really really hard time learning from his mistakes as he repeats them over and over. Garrett's job is on the line this year, would not be surprised if he loses more and more control of this offense to Wade as the season progresses. I like Garrett as a person and as former Cowboy (as do many on here and this is the main reason he is so well supported on here by those who can not separate the man from the OC) but if he fails to produce AGAIN this season, its time to demote he back to QB coach or run him out of town.

Rest of the stuff is good stuff, IMO. Always enjoy reading these post game.

blah blah blah