The Scores Report - The National Sports Blog » Cowboys rumors

Roy Williams ready to fight to retain his job

Anthony Stalter — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:00:11 +0000

Cowboys’ receiver Roy Williams is well aware that rookie Dez Bryant wants to get on the field this year. And in order to do so, he’ll have to unseat Williams, who is the incumbent starter at the position opposite Miles Austin in the offense.

“This ain’t my first rodeo,” Williams said. “I got recruited [to Texas] with B.J. [Johnson] and Sloan Thomas, so those are two top-notch guys. I came in and did my thing. I was the third one on the totem pole in that deal, and I came out No. 1. I don’t really see it as a competition thing. I see it as us getting better.

“But I know in the back of my mind and the back of his mind, he wants to play, the only way he’s going to play is to get No. 11 off the field, and that’s going to be tough to do. But it’s going to make us better as a football team.”

In preparation, Williams has been catching 200 balls a week off the JUGS machine according to the Dallas Star-Telegram. He’s also catching 40 or 50 balls from Tony Romo during the week while trying to ensure that he won’t drop as many passes as he did last season.

“It won’t even be half,” said Williams, who had the 12th-most drops in the league last year, according to STATS Inc. “Do you want to take that bet? I won’t even come close. Promise you.”

Williams has the right attitude, but he’ll have his work cut out for him competing against Bryant. While it’s always best to keep expectations somewhat tempered when it comes to rookies, Bryant is just flat out better than Williams. He’s faster, has softer hands and projects to be more of a playmaker. There’s a reason why the Cowboys drafted him and it wasn’t so he could watch Williams (whose contract may have saved him from being released by now) play.

That said, Williams is right in that Bryant makes the Cowboys a better football team. Competition breads success and the addition of Bryant should make Williams more focused and determined to produce.

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Felix Jones now the starter in Dallas

Anthony Stalter — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:52:24 +0000

It appears that Marion Barber’s days as a starter are over in Dallas, as Chris Mortensen reports that Felix Jones will officially move to the top of the Cowboys’ depth chart at running back.

Barber finished with 214 rushing attempts last season, while Jones received 116. Those numbers will likely be reversed this season, with Jones getting the bulk of the carries. Tashard Choice is still expected to get some touches as well, seeing as how both Jones and Barber have issues staying healthy.

While this is certainly big news, the biggest question surrounding the Cowboys’ running game isn’t which back will start, but whether or not Doug Free can man the left tackle position now that Flozell Adams has been released. Dallas did not select an offensive tackle in last week’s draft, which was a huge vote of confidence for Free, who has very limited experience. Unless they re-sign Adams at some point, it looks like the 26-year-old Northern Illinois grad will start Week 1, because there is no depth behind him.

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Cowboys seeking long-term deal with Austin

Anthony Stalter — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:54:26 +0000

The Cowboys are trying to lock up restricted free agent receiver Miles Austin to a long-term deal.

From ESPN.com:

On the day DeMarcus Ware signed his six-year deal, executive vice president Stephen Jones expressed hesitation about entering negotiations with Austin. Of course, at the time, Austin had just finished setting an NFL record with 421 receiving yards in his first two starts.

“Some of the biggest mistakes that are ever made are when you pay a guy off one year,” Stephen Jones said then.

One could argue that it’d be a much bigger mistake for the Cowboys to risk losing a humble young star who led the NFC in receiving yardage despite being a reserve for the first five games.

That’s apparently Jerry’s line of thinking at this point.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Austin’s representatives could use Roy E. Williams’ five-year, $45 million deal as the starting point for their negotiations.

Austin proved that he wasn’t an early season fluke when he tore up the second half of the year. The 25-year-old has the size, speed and playmaking ability teams covet in a receiver and there’s no way Dallas can allow another team to outbid them now that he’s a restricted free agent.

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Extending Phillips’ contract right decision

Anthony Stalter — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:45:12 +0000

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the Cowboys have signed head coach Wade Phillips to a contract extension that will run through the 2011 season. What this essentially means is that owner Jerry Jones picked up Phillips’ 2010 option and added another year onto the head coach’s contract.

Some fans may disagree, but this was a smart decision by Jones. He didn’t want to go into the offseason trying to convince free agents to come to Dallas when he can’t even make a decision about who his head coach will be. But now that Phillips is under contract through 2011, the Cowboys have stability at their head coach position, at least for the time being.

Another reason this makes sense is because a potential lockout is threatening to wipe out the 2011 season. Chances are a new CBA deal will be struck by then, but it doesn’t make sense for an owner like Jones to pay a new head coach millions of dollars for doing nothing in 2011. (Especially if that new head coach was a big name like Bill Cohwer.)

Don’t forget that the Cowboys improved this season under Phillips. They still came up short of Jones’ expectations, but there are 30 teams that fail to reach the Super Bowl every year and half of those teams aren’t close to reaching the title game. The Cowboys at least won a playoff game and are seemingly moving in the right direction.

Is Phillips the right man to lead the Cowboys to the Super Bowl? Who knows, but at least Jones didn’t make a rash decision based on Dallas’ loss to Minnesota last Sunday. If the Cowboys implode next season, then Jones can re-visit the situation again but at least right now he has a head coach that has already proven he can lead a team to the playoffs.

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Williams says he and Romo not on same page

Anthony Stalter — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:06:58 +0000

Cowboys receiver Roy Williams is a little irritable these days. According to him, he and quarterback Tony Romo aren’t on the same page and he doesn’t want to hear that Miles Austin is now Dallas’ No. 1 receiver.

From ESPN.com:

After putting in a lot of extra offseason work with quarterback Tony Romo, Williams is stunned they haven’t made more progress.
“It’s just not even close,” Williams said. “It’s not even funny. Not even close.”

Williams does not believe his poor production accurately portrays his performance.

“I’m the No. 1 receiver,” Williams said. “But things are just going No. 2′s way.”

“He gets the ball thrown correctly his way,” Williams said of Austin. “I’m stretching and falling and doing everything. Everybody [else] who’s been here’s balls are there. Our footballs [from Romo to Williams] are everywhere right now.”

Williams has been dealing with a rib injury he suffered earlier in the year in a loss to the Broncos, so that could be causing some issues. That said, you watch Williams and Romo play on Sundays and the connection just isn’t there. These two have zero chemistry and it doesn’t look like it’ll improve anytime soon.

It’s interesting that yet another receiver is having issues with Romo. But one would think that if Austin can develop good chemistry with Romo, so could Williams.

Jones says Phillips’ job safe for now

Anthony Stalter — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:15:47 +0000

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says that head coach Wade Phillips’ job is safe for the remainder of the season, according to a report by ESPN.com.

This isn’t surprising news. The Cowboys aren’t lighting the world on fire, but they do have a winning record and there’s no reason to make a dramatic coaching change when it isn’t necessary.

That said, Phillips would be naïve to think that his job is safe past 2009. If he doesn’t get the Cowboys to the playoffs, there’s no way Jones is going to keep him around with Bill Cowher, Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden waiting on the sidelines ready for another opportunity to be head coaches. In fact, just getting to the playoffs might not be enough for Phillips to hold onto his job.

Despite their winning record, the Cowboys are a mess. Jason Garrett’s offense looks like a shell of its former self and Tony Romo has seemingly regressed as a passer. Making matters worse, receiver Roy Williams hasn’t stepped up to fill the void that the team created when it released Terrell Owens this offseason and Marion Barber and Felix Jones can’t stay healthy.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom for Phillips and the Cowboys. The team is on a much-needed bye week and Austin Miles exploded against Kansas City last Sunday. If he can build off that success, he’ll take the pressure off Williams, who doesn’t seem capable of being a No. 1 receiver in this league. Miles has all the physical talent in the world, but had yet to breakout before last week.

This bye week is crucial for Phillips and the Cowboys. If they don’t come out like gangbusters and build some momentum, then chances are they’ll continue to fall further behind the Giants and Eagles in the NFC East. Phillips knows that the next 11 weeks are pivotal to keeping his job.

Should G-Men fear Cowboys in 2009?

Anthony Stalter — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:51:44 +0000

Our very own Mike Farley covers the Giants for the blog GMENDEN and in one of his recent pieces he ponders whether or not the boys in blue should be fearful of the Cowboys.

Well I don’t know about you, but I’m equally afraid of Dallas as I am of Philly. It’s not like the Cowboys purged their entire roster. They did get rid of two questionable characters in Terrell Owens and Pacman Jones. But Tony Romo is minus Jessica Simpson and is healthy…you might remember he missed a few games last season, and having Brad Johnson run that offense was like putting a toddler in charge of a nuclear power plant. TE Jason Witten was also hurt for much of the season, though he played through pain. Rookie Felix Jones made everyone forget about Julius Jones, and DeMarcus Ware was just terrorizing QBs with an NFL-best 20 sacks.

You’ll also remember that while our G-men beat up on the Romo-less Cowboys in November, 35-14, they let a less-than-100% Romo beat them in December during the skid that led to our downfall by a 20-8 score. You rememer that game, right? It was a Sunday nighter, and the Giants managed just two field goals and a safety, as Eli Manning could not get on track.

So while the Cowboys finished 9-7 in 2008, you have to wonder if they would have won at least two of those games Johnson started in Romo’s place. As much as everyone likes to poke fun at Romo and his tendency to choke under pressure, he’s been mostly very tough against us–tough to take down, and always hitting clutch third-down throws while under pressure.

The NFC East will once again be one of the toughest divisions in football and as Farley points out, nobody should be sleeping on the Cowboys.

Personally, I think cutting T.O. will be addition by subtraction, although the spotlight is now on Romo. If he can’t step up and be a leader for this team, then there’s a great chance that their talent won’t be enough again. As much as his fun-loving demeanor is one of the endearing parts of his game, it’s time for Romo to take that next step as a quarterback and put the Cowboys’ success squarely on his shoulders.

Now, that’s not to say that Romo has to do it on his own. Dallas has one of the more talented rosters in the NFL and Romo is just one key piece. But guys like Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady know what it takes to get the most out of the talent around them. Romo has failed to do that so far in Dallas.