2009 Cowboys Preview: Big Problems In Big D

NFC EAST
4. Dallas Cowboys
Projected record: 7-9

Offense: A-
Defense: C
Coaching: D

What’s new: The Cowboys shuffled pieces in and out. Terrell Owens is gone, which would have brought some sense of normalcy to Dallas except Roy Williams is currently filling the crazy wide receiver quota. Igor Olshansky was a good addition on defense, but Keith Brooking is well over-the-hill. Also new is the Cowboys stadium. After botching the original Texas Stadium by screwing up the roof, Dallas has botched their second attempt by building a multi-billion dollar stadium with basic engineering flaws. Like having a scoreboard that interferes with play. Brilliant! There is no off-position on Jerry Jones’ surgically-altered genius switch.

What’s good: Losing Owens’ talents and insanity is a push, but the offense is still very good. It remains to be seen if either Marion Barber or Felix Jones can make it through a whole season. If they can this team should do better than 7-9. The offensive line is still good. Jason Witten is an invaluable target. There are weapons outside of Owens.

What’s bad: The overall chemistry in the locker room. The state of that clubhouse has to among the worst in the league. Also bad is that Wade Phillips is still somehow the head coach. I’m shocked that Jones kept him in Dallas, but his continued presence on the sideline helps the rest of the division. On the field, the Cowboys linebackers and secondary are easily among the worst in the NFC.


Wade Phillips is smiling...and so is the rest of the NFC East.

What to expect: Anything really. There’s too much talent on the team to lose 10 games or more, but there are too many distractions as well. Phillips has no control over the many personalities on this team. This is also the wrong division to have major problems in the secondary and linebacking corps. Also, the one name not mentioned so far, is oh-for-January Tony Romo. Who knows what his mental or physical state is. Neither one is good enough for this team to amount much of a threat in a loaded division.