Too early on those WR guys. We have enough minor prospects battling for #4 and #5 to feel okay, it's that #3 that still concerns me.

Good showing by Harris. Someone completely blew coverage on that 75-yard TD but a good job just the same. He's billed as a slot guy though and might beat out Ogletree for that job. Small, kind of on the slow side, hands suspect and fumbles a lot - but he put up decent numbers at a small school and can return kicks. Ogletree makes the team but is still kind of an enigma, still not sure he's their #3 this year. Radway was a sloppy mess and a project but seems to have some serious upside. I don't think he'd clear waivers to the practice squad so they could wind up with a decision on him and I can see how they'd justify going 6-deep at wideout unless they see four clear high-upside guys in the bunch. Every year though there's some WR we all talk about that doesn't even make the squad let alone become the next Miles Austin. What's Todd Lowber up to these days?

Victor Butler has been talked up all through camp and he looked great, I'd be nervous if I were Spencer.

Lonyae didn't deliver at all, but most of the time it didn't look like he had any room to run. But then Tanner came on and did a good job.

The young line players were mostly bad. Smith seemed okay but looks like he missed a blitz pickup. Didn't really catch a lot of Arkin over on the left. Pass protection was just bad. Sam Young is on pace to get cut.

McGee was under attack all day and did great, all things considered. Unquestioned #3 here and making a good case to replace Kitna as backup next year.

The D-Line had issues, though Hatcher and Lissemore did okay. I'm not sure Igor makes the team.

Game has a minor lesson: when you have a deep-snapper that has been literally perfect on every deep snap since 2005, you stick with him. Not the place to save a couple hundred thousand.

I wouldn't say he's on the slow side. Agreed, he may not have stellar 40 time or open-field speed, but he's definitely not slow. He's one of the players that's "quick, not fast". I watched him a fair bit in college (my fam are Pirate alums), and he's got really good cutting and redirect ability. Didn't really get to show it last night, but he will if given the opportunity. Granted, he's one of those guys who has a decent shot cuz of what he offers on ST more so than pure WR ability.

No kidding.

i've never gotten the whole "that guy's not fast, b/c he runs a 4.5 forty and not a 4.3 forty". they run those times at the combine in track shoes, shorts, & an under armour tee. in a game you have what 20-30lbs of pads you're carrying plus a helmet. and when are you ever running in a straight line in an actual game? i think a supposed 4.5 forty guy can be every bit as fast as a 4.3 forty guy heralded as a burner for those reasons.

i was impressed with harris in last night's game. however, i heard david moore say he had a very up & down training camp and basically he showed a dwayne harris the coaching staff had yet to see prior to last night. so that's pretty alarming. it'll be interesting to see how he performs in the 3 remaining preseason games.

Definitely. I'm extremely hesitant to get happy about a guy catching a few passes against guys who won't be on a team in a few weeks.

Absolutely, and I'm pumped. Not because I don't like Spencer, but because I think RR is going to bring the ****ing heat and giving him one more pass rusher could potentially be ****ing awesome.

Super tough to really look at those carries without reviewing tape. RB's are so worthless, ugh.

I was overall pretty happy with the young guys. Arkin looked hella mobile on the screen pass, and it could have gone a lot worse. If Young gets cut, it's because we found someone else. So I guess that's a good thing? How worthless must Holland be that he can't even win a position battle against a 4th round rookie.

I have no issue with McGee being backup next year.

I talked myself into the theory that Igor's job in the Phillips 3-4 wasn't to make tons of plays, but man he's been so bad for several years. Kinda surprised he wasn't cut for salary cap reasons. I really like Lissemore and Josh Brent.

Did we get rid of him? I didn't see that. ****.

No, LP is still with the team, and after that crazy snap by the rookie I don't see LP getting replaced.

The big talk lately is about Phil Costa possibly starting. He's kind of flown under my radar a bit, but I had him figured to make the roster since as a backup center & guard they seem to like him enough. I didn't realize he was having such an awesome camp and that they liked him that much.

If he's playing as well as advertised that would be a huge plus for the o-line situation. If Free holds up and Arkin, Smith pan out you're looking a a quick and easy refresh of the entire line. Gurode is extremely likely to be a camp casualty next year with the team's cap situation and his age. With another draft pick or a Nagy or Kowalski coming through we could field a very young o-line in 2012.

Check this out, just a quick list of guys they seem to be happy with on the team right now:

Doug Free - 27
Signed a four-year, $32 million contract. The deal contains $17 million guaranteed, including a $10.3 million signing bonus. 2011-2014: Under Contract,

Phil Costa - 24
2011: $405,000, 2012: $490,000, 2013: Restricted Free Agent

Kevin Kowalski - 22
UFA. Would be league minimum through 2013 and a RFA in 2014.

David Arkin - 23
Signed through 2014 for cheap 4th-rounder money.

Tyron Smith - 20 (lol, b-day in late December too)
Signed a four-year, $12.49 million contract. The deal is fully guaranteed, including a $7.58 million signing bonus. 2011-2014: Under Contract.

Bill Nagy - 23. Signed a four-year contract. 2011-2014.

Jermey Parnell - 25. 2011: $405,000, 2012: Exclusive Rights Free Agent

Of course there's Gurode and Kosier on the roster for this year and (for now) Holland too. But if Smith's ready and Arkin and Costa can start somewhere as soon as next year or even this one like they're saying, huge turn of events.

Yeah I agree... but honestly, I've been excited about Dwayne Harris ever since we drafted him. He may not have the ideal size and speed, but dude was a one-man wrecking crew at ECU and was C-USA MVP. I really wanna see him given a shot.

There's definitely something to be said for a guy who has faults but was still highly productive, but it was a pretty small program. He's probably getting a shot as things are today, he's done well enough so far and is a good special teams player which goes far. Bigger question is where to slot him on the depth chart and how ready he is to contribute to the offense in a couple subpackages.

But even then, assuming Ogletree sticks around (likely) and we go 5 deep, you can't forget about all of those other guys vying for jobs. Radway, Holley & Manny Johsnson still have time to make good cases for themselves and Tysson Poots is kind of a wild card at this point too. Being a 6th-round pick doesn't assure a roster spot even with a good preseason game. Harris has to keep showing up these next couple of weeks and not let off the gas.

I've never got this argument. People said the same thing in regards to CJ when he came out of ECU. (minus the faults part obv)

Yeah pretty much, I'm kinda the most warry about Radway. Didn't he take a lot of time off from the game recently, or something to that effect?

Scandrick given 5-year extension. $26m, $10.7 guaranteed. Don't see it.

I like Scandrick and the advanced measurables usually do too. (in comparison to his overpaid counterparts anyway).

I guess this is literally writing on the wall for Newman next year.

I like Scandrick ok enough too but his value is nowhere near what they paid. He's a reasonable nickel guy but that's about it. Would liked to have seen better work on the outside before making a commitment like that, ffs even Scandrick didn't think he'd get that kind of money. Yeah Newman's contract was dumb but that's water under the bridge and not really a good means of comparison.

This extension is a total gamble. I could even understand if he were a FA this year and they did it out of desperation, but they could have gone half the season and worked something out or even re-signed him after the season for that kind of cash. I really don't see him as a guy likely to explode in value to the point where that kind of money wouldn't be enough to keep him around.

Small school players typically play against weaker competition and have a bigger jump to NFL play. Yes occasionally you'll get a CJ or Demarcus Ware out of them, but for every one of those guys there are tons of washouts who don't belong in the NFL. And WRs in particular are about as hard to evaluate as any position in the draft, in general they just don't play against guys that can actually cover or relevant schemes in college. Even big school WRs are easy to misjudge.

Harris was productive at ECU and that's a plus, sure. But you have to temper that with the level of competition he faced, and serious questions about his skill set and especially his hands. Usually those 3rd-day picks are limited-upside specialty guys who can contribute, or very raw athletes with a ton of upside, Harris seems to fall in the first category. His upside seems like a slot receiver who'll make some plays and drop just enough to piss you off. Where you look at a guy like Miles, who's hands aren't perfect either, but he has a lot more size and isn't any slower.

The thing with those young WRs in preseason is that literally any one of them might put up some numbers in an exhibition game (esp against a completely blown coverage assignment), and Harris vanished last week. I don't think you have to worry about him getting a shot, his special teams play is supposedly pretty good and there are 3 slots that have to be filled, but I doubt this is a guy that you'd want to rely on for a lot of offensive snaps this year. I really don't care about slot WR this year, Witten-Dez-Miles are the top 3 and that's fine. My big concern is who starts if Dez or Miles miss time. All of those guys need to show some kind of consistency, Ogletree included.

I agree with you that we could have waited till midseason, but I disagree with other parts. Seems like a lot of teams are going to have to spend a ton of money over the next two offseasons to get to the salary minimum, and a young CB who has occasionally put up good numbers seems like a prime candidate to be overpaid to be a #2 somewhere.

I think this just reeks of fear personally. We're scared Jenkins is going to suck, we have to cut Newman next year and if we lost Scandrick we'd just be totally screwed.

I'd also point out that Scandrick has been bitching about his salary since the day we signed him, I think it's reasonable to think he would have 100% taken the highest offer in FA and we might have gotten a small discount for redoing his deal early in accordance with what he thought he deserved.

Either you're overpaying a guy or you're not. If he played so well this season that the Cowboys would have been priced out of resigning him, I could live with that. The budget's tight and we got our money's worth. If someone else with money to burn wants to lock him up for $8m next year, ok.

But you know Witten's looking for a raise too, and you can bet Felix will want more money if he does half as well as his camp has looked. What's the plan on that? We're likely looking at $30m in dead cap money next year and we just restructured the biggest contracts. Cutting Newman/Gurode/Igor and letting a few expireds walk won't do it by a long shot. Much as I'd like to keep a guy like Scandrick, the price has to be right, and they have bigger priorities. This deal is very likely to cost us a much better player before long.

Scandrick signing was meh to me too. Everything I read about him indicates he cant play on the outside, so unless that changes this year I dont like paying a 3rd CB that money.

Jenkins absolutely needs to get his head straight and have a bounce back season, I thought he looked very impressive his rookie year.


They just need help in so many places, IDK how they even compete. O-line is a question, Dline is iff outside of Ratliff, LBs outside of Ware and Spencer and I guess Lee to some extent, and the entire secondary.

Luckily they have Romo who seems capable of being efficient behind any line at all, Felix who is looking beastly, a great 2nd RB in Choice, 2 good WRs in Austin and Dez, and a top 3 all around TE in Witten.


I just can't stand the defense, Im hoping under Ryan they are at least agressive. Id rather be agressive and such than sit back and suck.

If I were a betting man, I'd bet on Choice not making the team.

I don't mind the scandrick deal. A lot of teams are using 3 receiver formations and the slot has a big role. You need 3 guys that can cover if you will be blitzing a lot as you do in Ryans defense

Yeah but they're giving him starting outside corner money, not slot corner money. You just don't pay nickel corners $5m a year. And yes, slot corner is important in today's game, but you have to put that in a realistic perspective. It isn't any more important than any other position on defense. Scandrick is only on the field for 50-some percent of the defensive snaps.

For this deal to make sense he needs to move to the outside and be successful at it. Clearly they intend to do that at some point soon, and that Josh Thomas they drafted looks the part of a slot guy. I'd like to have seen something with him playing the outside well in a real game to have any confidence, which he really hasn't done yet. In fact he was atrocious at it when he was battling Jenkins for the starting spot as I recall.

Roto mentioned that but I think they'll keep him. In todays game you need a proven backup, and while Murray has looked good I think theyll keep choice.


Today Roto said Choice isnt traveling for their last preseason game as a precaution for his knee, but that if he was truly in danger of being cut that he would have played through it.




Also mentioned they are in talks with Ratliff about an extension.

I think you meant one the UFA because Murray isn't getting cut. The problem with Choice is that he's got a lot of problems. He's got one year left on this deal, doesn't play on ST, and then there's the injury thing. If Tanner or Miller look like they're worth a roster spot and have a future in the NFL Choice is the odd man out.

yeah i realize i worded that weirdly but i wasnt trying to insinuate Murray would get cut- was trying to say i think theyll keep choice (and murray) even though murray has looked good [enough to be a backup].


I think they wait and see how durable Felix is before they would wanna cut a proven guy like choice whos had multiple 100 yd games when he gets to start.

Just depends on what the young guys are showing. A good prospect you can hang on to for 4 years and plays teams has value too. And Choice is in the doghouse it seems like, not sure why

Well that's a wrap on preseason. I'd hate to be making the trimming decisions at WR and RB. A lot of the outside guys looked better than I would have thought. I really thought Tanner, Harris, and Holley, had pretty solid preseasons. Also liked what I saw from Church and McCray (for the most part).

LOLdirtaments that FG kick to end the game.

Welp, Gonso you might be right. Too bad if Choice is cut, Ive always liked him.

Shame about Radway, broke his leg with 3 seconds left. My sense is that he and Harris were going to be #4 & #5. Jesse Holley should be breathing a little easier.