“You don’t bring a Roy Williams in here to sit the bench.”

That’s what Bears wide receiver coach Darryl Drake said in this Chicago Tribune article about Johnny Knox and his frustration over being listed behind Williams on the team’s first depth chart of the preseason.

I’d be frustrated too if nonsense like that was spilling out of my coach’s mouth.

You don’t bring a Roy Williams in to sit the bench? Since when did Williams turn into Andre Johnson, Greg Jennings or even Jabar Gaffney? I get what Drake is implying: that Williams is a veteran, has experience playing in Mike Martz’s offense and deserves the respect to see his name atop the depth chart. But are the Bears serious here?

If Cowboy fans ever wondered if Williams could get any slower than he was last year, follow him this year on that patch of dirt the Bears call their home field. This was a guy that struggled mightily trying to gain separation from defenders last season in Dallas, which oh-by-the-way plays half its games on turf. There were also times when he displayed alligator arms and lost focus as his role diminished in the offense.

Granted, the Bears have been vocal about Knox needing to get more aggressive at the line of scrimmage and fighting for the ball when it’s in the air. Plus, he’s going to get opportunities to play because Martz usually roles out three or four receivers in most sets. But the part that is confusing to me is the Bears’ overall thought process. Do they honestly believe that Williams should receive more playing time than Knox? Or that Williams gives them the best chance to win? Knox played in 88.2 percent of the Bears’ offensive plays last year and was easily their best receiver. If the coaching staff believes that Williams is an upgrade, then what in Tom Waddle’s name is going on in the Windy City?

Of course, none of this will probably matter in a couple of months. Once Williams proves that he’s not a reliable full-time starter, Martz and the rest of the Bears coaching staff will wise up and put Knox back in. Because if there’s one thing this Chicago coaching staff knows, its how to manage a receiver corps…

Grumbling about the number of targets he’s received this season, Cowboys receiver Roy Williams had this to say:

“I just try to play the game,” Williams said. “I just think if Michael Jordan is hot you keep feeding him the ball.”

Roy, I knew Michael Jordan…and you are no Michael Jordan.

In fact, you don’t just feed MJ the ball when he’s hot, you feed him the ball all the time. He was that good.

Considering Williams’ career (and draft position — #7 in 2004), maybe Williams should have said, “I just think if J.R. Smith is hot, you keep feeding him the ball.”

Yeah, that sounds better.

Roy Williams isn’t the type of player to toot his own horn. But when he has the opportunity to tell everyone how good he’s been this season, you best believe he’s going to do it.

While appearing on The Ben and Skin Show on KESN-FM radio in Dallas on Tuesday, Williams had this to say about where he stands with the Cowboys’ organization (from the Dallas Morning News):

“I’m nowhere near trying to toot my own horn because I’m not that type of player, but I’ve been the most consistent wide receiver that we have on this roster. That can go back all the way to OTAs, training camp and during the season. I’m not getting very many opportunities but I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to do. I’m run blocking, lining up, doing things I’m supposed to do, a lot of things that don’t make Sports Center but a lot of things that my coaches see and my teammates see as well.

Williams apparently isn’t the type of player to toot his own horn but he’s going to go ahead and toot it anyway. This comes five days after he cost the Cowboys a win by fumbling late in the fourth quarter against the Saints and setting them up for their game-winning touchdown drive. (Granted, the soft Dallas defense had something to do with the loss too, but nevertheless…)

Even if Williams has been the team’s most consistent receiver this year, you just don’t say things like that when you’ve only caught 32 passes for 469 yards. He does have five touchdowns on the year, but it’s not like defensive coordinators are losing sleep at night worried about how to cover Roy Williams.

He showed some humility after the New Orleans game by owning up to the fumble, then he turns around and tells everyone how good he is. How unfortunate.

It’s hard to fault Roy Williams for trying to put a positive spin on a bleak situation. His team fell to 1-5 with their embarrassing loss to the Giants on Monday night and he watched as starting quarterback Tony Romo went down with a serious shoulder injury.

The latest on Romo is that he’ll miss 6-8 weeks, although he won’t need surgery. That means backup Jon Kitna will start for Dallas and according to Williams, the 38-year-old journeyman is just as good as Romo.

From the Detroit Free Press:

“Tony is our starter, but Jon is just as good,” Williams told the Dallas Morning News. “We are going to work this week in practice so we can get the timing down with the receivers. But I have complete faith in him. I have played with him for three years and I know how good he is.”

Although he hasn’t played in over a year, Kitna can be a serviceable starter. He’s a true leader and he demands the best from those around him. He’s not a quiet leader; he wears his emotions on his sleeve and he won’t go down without a fight.

That said, he’s very limited and while Williams was just trying to be positive, Kitna isn’t Romo. He has zero mobility, he folds under pressure and his decision-making during close games comes into question more times than not. This isn’t a guy you want at the helm when you need a big throw late in games and considering how bad the Cowboys’ defense has played the past couple of weeks, this will probably be a team that is trailing more times than not from here on out.

If Wade Phillips’ defense was playing at the top of its game, then the Cowboys might be able to get by with Kitna. But they’ve already put themselves in a 1-5 hole so a rebound at this point appears to be out of the question.

The Cowboys have a huge mess on their hands.

Merry preseason, everyone. It’s been a long offseason, but football is finally gearing up again and to celebrate I’m rolling out a new series on TSR entitled “2010 NFL Question Marks,” where I discuss one or two of the biggest concerns that teams have heading into the new season. Granted, some teams have more issues than others, but I’ll primarily be focusing on the biggest problem areas. Today I’ll be breaking down the Bengals’ safeties and why they could become a liability for the team this season.

Special teams is arguably the Bengals’ biggest weakness heading into the 2010 season, but I’ve avoided talking about kickers to this point and I’m not going to start now.

Pass protection, pass rush and quite frankly, even Carson Palmer are question marks for Cincinnati heading into the season. But the safety position may be the biggest concern the Bengals have in 2010.

Granted, this isn’t a huge issue because starters Roy Williams and Chris Crocker have loads of experience and Crocker has played very well in Cincinnati despite lackluster tenures in Cleveland and Atlanta earlier in his career. But both of these players have glaring weaknesses that can be exposed by opponents.

We’ll start with Williams, because his weakness is more widely known. The man is a force against the run but couldn’t cover his bed in new sheets. He has also played in just seven games the past two seasons because of nagging injuries. His backup, 25-year-old Chinedum Ndukwe, has failed to impress in his first couple of years despite having the opportunity to see live action when Williams was out.

As previously noted, Crocker has been a good Bengal over the years but he was assisted off the field in the first quarter of the Hall of Fame game earlier this month with a right ankle injury. He dealt with ankle issues late in the year in 2009 and had arthroscopic surgery on one of them in February so obviously that’s a concern.

But even when he is healthy, he can be a liability in deep coverage. That’s not to say he can’t cover because he can, but teams have been able to beat him deep throughout his career, especially when he winds up in one-on-one situations. He either can get into position to make a play and doesn’t, or is trailing the receiver because he gets caught anticipating when the quarterback will release the ball.

The good news is that Williams is now healthy and is reportedly in great shape. He took up boxing and sand workout regimes this offseason and was also fitted with a custom-made carbon fiber pad for the forearm he injured last season. Even if he can’t cover, as long as he can stay healthy he’s going to be a valuable commodity against the run.

That said, the team is thin at the position behind Williams and Crocker. The Bengals signed free agent Gibril Wilson to a one-year deal this offseason, but then had to place him on injured reserve with a torn left ACL and MCL suffered in preseason. The hope is that Ndukwe shows improvement, because as of right now he’s the team’s third best option.

I wouldn’t deem safety a glaring weakness for the Bengals because truth be told, they don’t have a glaring weakness. But this is a position that could become an issue if Williams and Crocker can’t stay healthy, or if the front seven can’t generate a decent pass rush so the pair isn’t left in coverage too long. It’s hard not to like the Bengals’ chances of making the playoffs again this season, but this is one area to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

After being scrutinized for refusing to carry teammate Roy Williams’ shoulder pads following a recent training camp practice, Cowboys’ rookie Dez Bryant says he didn’t know that the gesture was a tradition in the NFL.

“I didn’t know nothing about no tradition,” Bryant said. “The only thing about me … when I try to do something right, ya’ll try and turn it negative and I don’t feel like that’s right. I’m trying my best to do the right thing but it seems like I can’t do the right thing because every little thing that I do ya’ll watching it and try to make a big deal out of it.”

Some are trying to make a bigger deal out of this situation than it really is, but Bryant says that everything between him and Williams is fine now, so the issue should be dead. Bryant wasn’t aware of the tradition and now he is. Griping.

Like I wrote yesterday, I think Williams should carry his own pads seeing as how he’s stealing from the Cowboys with that ridiculous salary of his. In fact, I think both Williams should have to carry Drew Pearson’s shoulder pads.

According to Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington, Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones isn’t ready to admit that he made a mistake by trading for Roy Williams two years ago.

Will the Cowboys really release Patrick Crayton, a decent #3 receiver and punt returner with experience and keep Roy Williams just because of his contract? When you put it that way, no, it doesn’t seem fair. Crayton is more versatile than Williams. But Jerry’s not ready to admit he made such a big mistake on Roy. If he could ever play to his potential, Roy’s a weapon. Jerry would like to think he’s finally going to get that now. Nothing motivates like a contract year or competition for your position.

I don’t think there’s any question that trading for Williams was a mistake given what Jones parted with (a first, a third and a sixth round pick) in order to acquire him. He also signed Williams to a six-year, $54 million contract with $26 million in guaranteed money and the receiver hasn’t come anywhere close to honoring that deal with his production on the field.

Unlike some Cowboy fans, I don’t think Williams is useless but it’s hard to argue that Jones didn’t make a mistake in acquiring him from Detroit and paying him that much money. The other problem is that Williams is probably the fourth best receiver on Dallas’ depth chart behind Miles Austin, Dez Bryant and Crayton. Fifty-four million is a lot of money to be paying a fourth receiver.

At some point, I think Jones will have to cut his losses and move on. I don’t think it’ll be this year, but chances are Williams won’t see the end of his contract.

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