Cole Beasley came back

We just went through that with Scott Sicko in 2010 if anyone remembers him. He quits, comes back, is cut. I guess Beasley's a little different since we really need WRs and seems like he can play, but if you can't make it through a week of camp...

yeah, certainly not a good thing. he seemed to be doing well though- who knows maybe he just got pissed one day and said **** it. not a great show of character but oh well, **** happens in camp.

Coale is coming back too so hopefully we can find at least a combo of guys to play in the 3 hole. pretty boned at WR if Austin and Dez can't stay healthy though.

lol, well I guess that settles that question.

Not much to talk about as far as defense at this point, we essentially know who all of the starters are, barring injury. Now on offense, tons of questions.

So...a guy who couldn't really get on the field last year based on his play has already impressed so much he's won the job? Consider me kinda scared.

Cowboys released S Brodney Pool.
An old Rob Ryan favorite, Pool was signed to a one-year, $1.2 million deal in March. It was really just a "flier" deal though, as it included a mere $100,000 in guarantees. Pool failed his initial conditioning test at camp and was badly beaten out by Barry Church for the starting strong safety job.

I hear you but all reports seem to indicate Church is playing very well. In fact it might reassure you a small bit to know that PFF gave him the best rating of all Cowboys defensive backs last season. A lot less snaps, small sample, yada yada yada, but still.

They've stocked the secondary around him as well as we could have possibly hoped for so he's being put into a very good situation, plus he has 2 years experience here, plus he's got a 4th round pick to push him. He's got the right size and can tackle too. I don't know how it will turn out but Church has earned his shot the hard way. I'm perfectly fine giving him 1st-team reps and taking a shot. It's not like we have much choice, the FA we signed didn't exactly pan out.

The guy also plays for the minimum and will be a 25-year-old RFA next year, so that's something to weigh in when you compare him to the washed-up vets in free agency that cost more. Even if he turns out league-average that would be a tremendous win.

Did you really just hype up Barry Church

Nope. Like I said, I don't know how it's going to turn out.

What I do know is that you have to be successful in finding and developing some guys like this to contribute, if not start, or your franchise goes nowhere. This league doesn't give you enough good draft picks or the cap space to fill every roster spot in the way you'd need to.

When I see a guy like Church, I also see all of the alternatives to Church. Start with PFF's top 5 free agents:

Raiders re-signed Tyvon Branch for 4 years/$26m with $17m guaranteed. A solid player with three years' starting experience, but he's not an All-Pro type, to this point at least. Besides the probably prohibitive cost, he was also franchise-tagged, so he's out. Thomas DeCoud was re-signed by Atlanta for a reasonable salary, but he hasn't been anything special. Very good against the run but meh in coverage. He inked his deal as soon as free agency opened so he wasn't an option either. Reggie Nelson signed a 4-year, $18m deal. I don't know how good he is or isn't personally, but PFF has him as below league average 4 years straight, and other measures have him with one decent year 2011, and 4 mediocre ones. It would be another Nate Livings type signing to pay him that. Michael Griffin rated #4, and he's been everything from hot to colf in his 5-year career. Titans gave him a 5 year/$35m deal.

#5 was Brodney Pool, who apparently was so bad he doesn't justify a roster spot at $1.2m. Not even as a camp insurance policy.

Dashon Goldson, franchised again by SF and made a Pro Bowl but has some criticisms and depending on source (bad according to PFF). LaRon Landry who's had a mediocre career and can't stay healthy lately is still getting $4m this year.

There's a few other no-name types but you get where this is going. Almost everybody needs safety help and aren't letting the good ones hit the market. The Chargers gave Eric Weddle more than any other safety ever last year to keep him, and look at the 2011 deals Dawan Landry, D. Manning & 30-year-olds Atogwe and Mikell, then us with Sensabaugh which was a relatively good price. [A much deeper group than 2012 for sure though.]

So that's the free agent options, then there's the draft. Overall the past 4 drafts we've spent now two 4ths and a 6th, and parted ways with Ken Hamlin & Watkins when they didn't pan out. Getting Barron this year means you're still trading up and sacrificing Claiborne. Trading down for Harrison means you're going to have to ignore DeCastro at #24. Didn't see much interest in safeties until the run before our 4th round guy.

All told, I'm not sure I see where all of our options have been without making some big sacrifice elsewhere. So if some UDFA on our team wants to step up and take the job after a couple years' work for basically no money, I'll take it. Because otherwise I don't know what the hell we're going to do. Someone's got to start there.

Besides, if he sucks, give Matt Johnson a shot.

It sounds like Scandrick is having one rough camp. From what I've been reading he's getting beat every practice, by everybody. And I mean everybody. Dez I understand but every time his name comes up on the Twitter feed he's getting chomped on by Dwayne Harris, James Hanna, Radway, the equipment manager, Rob Ryan. Whole offseason.

Guess it's easy to suck when you just got a ridiculous deal last year, which was just restructured to give him even more job security. Pick it up Orlando, damn.

Negotiating with Plaxico Burress better be a joke.

S. Jones squashed that rumor pretty quickly.

Garrett and those guys were saying they've been actively looking at what's available at center and WR, but apparently don't like what they see, but are keeping their eyes open if someone they like does become available. Ogletree is the current favorite for the #3 slot, so yeah.

Plaxico isn't unthinkable but like I was saying before, those are the types of players you want to sign after Week 1. If you sign him now and he makes the cut you're on the hook for $925,000 (minimum) regardless of what happens to him. Plus it's harder to get a look at the young guys in camp and preseason.

If we can't fill out our WR lineup then later, if he's still available, sure Plax is worth a look. Hard to overlook his stats last year even being old, especially with Sanchez back there.

Cole Beasley sounds like the #3 wr from everything ive read and we should see more from Danny Coale in a few weeks so im not too concerned about ogletree. Beasley is a slot though and i think they want miles to play that role more often so i could see them going after a guy like Burress. I dont think it happens because hes not a rkg plus it would be terrible to let him anywhere near Dez.

I would much rather them find a guard/center though it seems like slim pickings. Costa went down today (doesnt seem to be serious), but good news is bernadeau is back. Overall this oline scares me much more than wrs or dbs and i really hope they figure it out. I would b pretty happy to see Romo sit out for the first and second preseason games.

Also, my friend (giants fan) just txted me thanking the cowboys for releasing bennet because he caught a td in the preseason game. LOL.

Yeah the line... it's a gamble enough to go with young guys and meh vets, but you have to have them healthy to learn what they're doing. They don't even have anyone that can snap the ball. The Sensabaughs and Ratliffs are vets that can miss some camp time but all of these rookie and 1st-year types need the reps badly. It's going to be ugly I think, especially early on.

A center will probably be signed if a decent one becomes an option, right now they apparently see just washed up stopgaps or Kowalski types. It seems hard to believe but Costa might wind up being the best option available to us, bad snaps and all. We're not the only team needing center help by a long shot yet there are still guys like Gurode and Jackson out on the street.

But who? Even guys like Todd McClure are being kept by their teams. We're guaranteed to find a TE and some receiver if needed but I don't know what good centers are out there.

new center incoming

Who? Why?

Add a new WR too.

Jamaal Jackson will be here tomorrow. Have to see if he's in shape, his level of commitment may be an issue.

This was in May 2012.

He was not in shape and wasn't signed. Time to see what Andre and Casey are doing.

any idea how many series Romo is gonna play tonight?

Guys on the radio saying he won't play much, maybe 2 series.

Edit: Now they're saying expect just 1 series for the starters.

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF OUR HISTORIC RUN TO 9 WINS. LET US NFL.

With all of these injured young guys missing badly-needed offseason work that's probably a fair guess, but let's see what happens. It's not like other teams don't have their own problems. We're stressing over who will be the 3rd WR where other teams are trying to figure out their #2.

Right now our biggest problem is the o-line and that's definitely a huge concern. But if you're going to look at what's wrong, consider what's right. We're 2 deep with decent players at QB, RB, WR, with an All Pro TE, and what looks like a solid FB signing. At tackle I think we're in pretty good shape with the starters and both McQuistan and Parnell have reportedly had a good camp. The interior line is scary but we haven't lost anybody for the year but Nagy, so maybe we can scrape enough together. We had less last year and Romo played well as did the backs.

On defense I don't see any downgrades. Newman and Ball are out, Claiborne and Carr are in. There's Carter and Connor battling for the starting job and are replacing James and Brooking. There's still Ware, Spencer & Butler all back and Wilber is doing well. We talked about Church, but I mean Elam wasn't exactly a huge loss. Watching that closely.

And then there should be a special mention here for Tyrone Crawford, who by about every account has been a standout since he's been able to practice. I'm reading something about him almost every day, definitely looking forward to seeing him in the preseason games. That starting DE position opposite Hatcher is pretty wide open. Hoping he can at least be a significant contributor and get Coleman and/or Spears off the roster.

well, at least they fixed their give up a 1st down via penalty issue on 3rd downs


...oh wait


defense looks pretty good though, church made a good play and they got a turnover so thats a plus.