An early look as some roster spots

It's extremely early yet, but let's look at some parts of the roster:

WIDE RECEIVER

Let's go under the guise of "provided these players stay as healthy as they were last year." Owens and Crayton will definitely be kept around for 2008. I'm guessing that Stanback will as well since he's only in his 2nd year. He was just a 4th round pick, but since he was a QB in college, that tells me that they think quite highly of him to take him in the 4th round and it will take a bit for them to let him go and getting rid of him in year two because he hasn't developed isn't going to happen.

Most NFL teams keep 5 or 6 wide receivers. Dallas likes to throw a lot and has to find receivers to eventually replace Owens and Glenn, meaning that they are more likely to have 6 receivers on the roster this year. I think this is Terry Glenn had better be able to play early on or he'll be released/retire. If they do get Glenn, then the need for a #2 WR with good speed is eradicated for at least this year. That leaves two which will probably come down to Sam Hurd, Miles Austin, and rookie undrafted free agent Danny Amendola. I think most people feel that Hurd has the inside track, but I feel the exact opposite as Austin has speed and is a quality kickoff guy. Even though Felix Jones is around to do kickoffs as well, if you have a two wide receivers with one being slightly better than the other, but the latter having significantly more speed, they'll take the guy with more speed about 8 out 10 times, usually feeling that you can teach the WR the other aspects of the game. But you can't teach speed and generally QB's just don't throw to guys that much who can't get seperation.

Having watched a lot of Wes Welker (I got interested in him when he came into to placekick, left footed, for an injured Orlindo Mare), Danny Amendola will remind you a bit of Welker. He pretty much catches everything and is a terror in the slot. Like Welker, I wouldn't expect great things from him playing outside, but in the slot there's more room and he can use his quickness and instincts to get open and kill teams. This may catapult him over Hurd and Austin. Plus, he can also do punt returns. We don't know if Pacman Jones will be reinstated. And if he is, we don't know if he'll be able to knock off the rust either. And I believe that the Cowboys would like to get Crayton out of the punt return duties if they can.


FULLBACK

Usually most teams carry 2 fullbacks even if they are being used less and less these days. Dallas only has one fullback and I can't imagine them being happy with Deon Anderson ballooning up to 260 pounds, even if he says he'll get his weight down to 240 pounds by training camp. I think there's some sentiment that they'll have Martellus Bennett motion to the fullback spot, but he's a 6'7" former basketball player, not exactly lead blocker material. And it's been proven that Jason Witten couldn't lead block if his life depended on it. So watch out for them getting a possible undrafted free agent here. If not, then you probably won't see a ton of formations with a fullback or they'll be getting Anderson off of special teams coverage. Well, at least let's hope so.


NOSE TACKLE

A lot of fans were disappointed that the Cowboys didn't go after a nose tackle in the draft, but it was hardly a necessity. Jay Ratliff played great at nose tackle last season and Tank Johnson looked very good in the backup role as well. Not to mention that Marcus Spears played well in the one game he had nose tackle duty (Washington, week 17) and backup Stephen Bowen is really meant for the Nose Tackle position as well.

Ideally I'd like to see them move Ratliff to starting defensive end where he'd be freed up a little more to reek havoc on the backfield. The Cowboys have said that they would like to do this or move Jason Hatcher to the starting spot. This may mean Tank Johnson moves to starting nose tackle and gets substituted by Bowen and Spears. The good news is if it's not working, they can always move Ratliff back to the nose tackle position.


CORNERBACK

Most teams keep 6 cornerbacks. Right now I have it as:

Newman
Henry
P. Jones
Jenkins
Scandrick
Ball

Thankfully Dallas can move Newman to the slot which makes it easier for the other corners to find time in the nickel packages. I don't expect Pacman to start because of the rust. Jenkins or Scandrick may see a lot of time in Dallas' dime packages that Wade likes to use and they may just bench Roy Williams on those plays if the down and distance is right.




YAKUZA