The Cowboys bottomed out last season. Once a popular pick to become the first team to play in a Super Bowl the same season that they hosted the Super Bowl, the Cowboys started the season 1-7 and finished 6-10. However, it wasn’t all bad. Wade Phillips is finally gone. The Cowboys were never going to win a Super Bowl with him as a head coach so last season was really taking one step back to take two steps forward.
In for Wade Phillips is former offensive coordinator and former coach in waiting Jason Garrett. Garrett led this team to a 5-3 record down the stretch with Jon Kitna as his starting quarterback. Kitna somehow put up amazing offensive numbers with Garrett’s help. Imagine what Garrett can do now that Tony Romo is back.
He also has a full season of Dez Bryant in the starting lineup. Roy Williams is gone so Bryant will replace him full time in the starting lineup. Bryant is also in his 2nd year and should be better than he was as a rookie. They still have Miles Austin. They still have Jason Witten. This has a chance to be a very explosive offense should Romo stay healthy.
As for Romo staying healthy, I don’t worry too much about that. Romo had only missed 3 games in 4 years before suffering a freak broken collarbone injury last season. He’s not an injury prone quarterback or anything. Besides, they’ve fixed up his protection. Marc Colombo allowed 7 sacks and 40 quarterback pressures last season at right tackle and Alex Barron was even worse in limited action committing 3 penalties on 80 snaps and costing the Cowboys a week 1 win when he unnecessarily committed a holding penalty, nullifying the game winning score.
Colombo and Barron are both game and Tyron Smith is in. Smith is extremely talented and was the 9th overall pick in April’s draft. He is a rookie so he will be hurt by the lockout, but he’ll be a noticeable upgrade on the right side. On the left side, the Cowboys did a great job of resigning Doug Free long term. He is one of the better left tackles in the league.
On the interior of their line, they started Kyle Kosier, Andre Gurode, and Leonard Davis last season, 3 older players. Davis was cut. Kosier was resigned, but he’s still 33 in November and injury prone. He’ll start at left guard. Meanwhile, center Andre Gurode is 32 and coming off of knee surgery. He should be ready for the start of the season. If not, the inexperienced Phil Costa would start, which I think would be a bad thing.
At right guard, Leonard Davis’ old spot, veteran journeyman backup Montrae Holland is expected to start. It’s to be expected that rookie 4th rounder David Arkin could see a lot of time at both guard positions and even center this season. However, overall I like their offensive line a lot more than I did last season, especially with Tyron Smith starting on the right side.
They could struggle to run the ball this year. That’s a worry, but it’s not like you necessarily need a good running game to do well in this league. Felix Jones will be given the first shot at the lead back job. He’s never been a lead back without getting hurt. He wasn’t even a lead back in college, where he backed up Darren McFadden. Meanwhile, 3rd round rookie DeMarco Murray and career backup Tashard Choice should also see carries. More importantly, Marion Barber is gone, which means no more of Marion Barber averaging 3.3 yards per carry on 113 carries.
Offensively, they should once again be an explosive offense. They will struggle a bit to run the ball, but Tony Romo is back and Head Coach Jason Garrett is an offensive genius who turned Jon Kitna into a legitimate signal caller down the stretch. However, defense is a different story. They surrendered the 2nd most points last season and their defense actually got worse after Wade Phillips was fired.
They didn’t focus on defense in the draft and they didn’t have the cap space to add to their defense in any meaningful way in free agency, but they did bring in Rex Ryan’s brother Rob from Cleveland to be their defensive coordinator. He’ll have his work cut out for him, however, turning this bunch into a legitimate defense.
Their problems start in the secondary. Mike Jenkins had the worst quarterback rating against of any cornerback in the league last season, allowing 67.4% of targets to go for completions and 6 touchdowns to 1 interception. He also had 8 penalties and allowed 16.6 yards per completion, 2nd highest in the league. Terrence Newman wasn’t much better. He allowed 65.3% of targets to get completed and 5 touchdowns, though he did pick off 5 passes.
Jenkins could bounce back. He’s a 26 year old former 1st round pick and a Pro Bowler in 2009. Newman, on the other hand, is 33 in September and should continue declining. Nickel cornerback Orlando Scandrick also has issues in coverage allowing 7 touchdowns to 1 interception and a 68.8% completion percentage. Why the Cowboys didn’t address this position in the draft until the 5th round, I don’t know.
At free safety, Abram Elam is an upgrade over last year’s starter Alan Ball, but only by default. Ball allowed 63.0% completions and 7 touchdowns to 2 interceptions, all while struggling mightily against the run. He might have been the worst starting safety in the league last year. Elam, meanwhile, is a mediocre talent, but he’s an upgrade over Ball and familiar with Rob Ryan’s system coming over from Cleveland. At the other safety slot, Gerald Sensabaugh is their best defensive back. He’s a solid starting safety in this league.
Fortunately, this secondary does have some pass rush to help them out. They had 35 sacks last year, pretty middle of the road, thanks, in large part, to DeMarcus Ware’s 15.5 sacks. However, they really need to find a #2 pass rusher after him. 2nd on the team was former first round pick Anthony Spencer with 5. He’s in the final year of his rookie deal and needs to break out this year at rush linebacker opposite Ware if he doesn’t want to be seen as nothing more than a reclamation project heading into free agency.
At nose tackle, Jay Ratliff had 13.5 sacks in 2008 and 2009 combined, but only 3.5 in 2010. They’ll need him to step up the pass rushing unless they want to be middle of the pack once again. Ratliff is a solid pass rusher, but struggles against the run, which makes sense since he’s an undersized nose tackle. The other two starters on the defensive line are Marcus Spears and Igor Olshansky.
Olshansky is decent against the run, but offers no pass rush, while Spears is a former first round pick who never lived up to his billing. Why the Cowboys gave him a 5 year deal in the offseason, I don’t know. The Cowboys will really miss Stephen Bowen on the defensive line. He wasn’t a great pass rusher, but he was a stud against the run. The Cowboys are hoping Jason Hatcher can step up in a similar fashion this season, but I have my doubts.
At middle linebacker, the Cowboys have 3 players for 2 spots and plan to use all 3 evenly. Keith Brooking is the veteran of the group at age 36 in October. He’s a declining player, but can still contribute and he provides great defensive leadership in the middle. Bradie James is a solid player coming off a strong season. He had the best season of the three in 2010.
Sean Lee, meanwhile, was their 2nd round pick in 2010. He is reportedly playing very well in camp. 2011 2nd round pick Bruce Carter could see some action after he returns midseason from an ACL tear, but it seems like the plan is for Carter to be purely a special teamer as a rookie and then start next to Lee in the middle in 2012 with Brooking and James being in the final years of their contracts.
Defense is still an issue for this team and while I still think they’ll be a little better on that side of the ball this season, their defense should still keep them from being legitimate Super Bowl contenders. However, I love this team’s offense. I love their leadership under new coach Jason Garrett. I love how they ended last season. I think this team has a very good chance to find themselves back in the playoffs this year, especially playing a last place schedule and, who knows, maybe with Wade Phillips gone they’ll even win a game or two.
Quarterback: A-
Running backs: C+
Receiving corps: A-
Offensive line: C+
Run defense: C+
Pass rush: B-
Pass coverage: C-
Coaching: B
Projection: 10-6 2nd in NFC East
Football Fan Spot 