Lots of Cowboy haters and professional draft graders are going to give the Cowboys are hard time for drafting white safety Matt Johnson so high in the draft.

I like Matt Johnson, I love football players like this.  I hope he makes the team.  

Jason Garrett Quote:

I think if you look at our list of the seven players we drafted, we really feel good about the kind of people they are.

Matt Johnson is a safety from Eastern Washington. He’s a guy that we feel can play on the back end and also be a safety who drops down. He’s a good run defender as well, made a number of plays on the ball, I think fifteen career interceptions [17].

The safety position is a little bit tricky. Sometimes you have guys who are good pass defenders, sometimes you have guys who are good run defenders. We feel like he’s demonstrated that he can do both.

We had him in here for one of our 30 visits, really liked the kind of person he is. He can be a special teams contributor, but is also going to be a position player for us.

See some good Matt Johnson analysis at Blogging the Boys. Very good article.

I don’t hate the pick, but I am worried about tradingaway a second round pick when we need more than one starter from the draft.

I am glad to have a top five pick at corner even though we milliliter 7million on  two corners in the last year. That doesn’t even account for the youngstarter that went to the pro bowl year before last.  So according topour actions, we now have four starting cornerbacks.

Claiborne responded by saying, “where are we, is this the circus?” he then clapped his hands together and said, “can I have some popcorn?”

Update: Morris Claiborne

2012 – Better get Better or else

After looking at the opponents for the 2012 season, I realized what an easy schedule we had last year.  We do not yet know the order, but we know the home and away teams. We know the NFL will be stacking the schedule for the Giants, so we will be playing in the cold late in the season while the Giants get two or three home games to end the year.

If we are not better than we were the last couple of games in 2011, we are looking at a 6 – 10 season.  Just looking at the opponents and how good they were at the end of the 2011 season, this is how I see it.

Note: We have the redskins twice, so that is automatically two wins.  After that, it doesn’t look great. I wish we could play the redskins all sixteen games.

Home Opponents: 

1.  New Orleans Saints – Loss
2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Win
3. Cleveland Browns – Win
4. Pittsburgh Steelers - Loss
5. Chicago Bears - Loss
6. New York Giants - Loss
7. Philadelphia Eagles - Loss
8. Washington Redskins - Win

Away Opponents:

1. Atlanta Falcons - Loss
2. Carolina Panthers - Win
3. Baltimore Ravens - Loss
4. Cincinnati Bengals - Loss
5. Seattle Seahawks - Win
6. New York Giants - Loss
7. Philadelphia Eagles - Loss
8. Washington Redskins - Win

My thoughts – We better be active in Free Agency – We already used up our rebuilding year.

I fully expect a 19-0 season because I expect the boys to be better and we all know that God loves the Cowboys.  

Its a good time to look at the progress of each team compared to my power rankings from the beginning of the season.   Some of these comments are the opposite of what everyone else was saying, and they were correct.

I’ll update with a new power ranking after this week.  Hint: Cowboys will probably still be number one and the Redskins will probably be last.

Here are the power rankings and comments that I posted before the season.  Highlighted in green are the ones I hit correct. Red are the ones I missed on.  Blue is TBD.

• Dallas Cowboys  - Kitna finally gets his ring.
• Green Bay Packers – Should be another good year, but I don’t see them winning in Dallas in the conference championship this year.
• Pittsburgh Steelers  - Big Ben can will them to 10+ wins. 
• Philadelphia Eagles – Better hope Michael Vick stays healthy and doesn’t get figured out, for the fourth time in his career. 
• New England Patriots  - They get 10 points just by showing up.
• Indianapolis Colts – Kerry Collins is better than most QBs in the league. Not sure he can get wins out of the other chumps on his team, lord knows he has tried for 15 years.
• New York Jets  - The 2nd most popular team that plays in their own home stadium. They have had a good run, but the more pub they get, the more money they get and then they go MIA.  They all do it. 
• Baltimore Ravens -  Good team.  Flacco is good, but they only play for one team all year and then get exhausted. 
• San Diego Chargers – The Chargers are the Charges.  They will win a bunch in a weak division, but they just aren’t champions.
• Houston Texans  - The Texans could benefit from Manning missing some time this season, but Kerry Collins is still better than they are.  
• Atlanta Falcons  - Matt Ryan, two stud receivers, and a good tight end allow them to outscore their division. .
• New York Giants  - Better than average, not a top tier team anymore.
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers  - They play hard. Could make the playoffs if the Giants or Eagles stumble. 
• Denver Broncos - Lots of teams would love to have people thinking their third string QB should start.  
• Chicago Bears – Middle of the pack – no reason one way or the other. 
• New Orleans Saints  - Luck has run out.  It is their turn to lose four of the first five games. 
• St Louis Rams  - Young enough to win a few, not good enough to win a bunch.
• San Francisco 49-ers  - Better than the lions, but worse than the Rams. 
• Detroit Lions  - They are the lions. If they win eight, it was a successful year. 
•  Kansas City Chiefs – Tough schedule –  should win 6 games and feel good about it.
• Miami Dolphins  - Had enough time for the Parcell stink to take effect. It takes a few years to get discovered. 
• Arizona Cardinals  - Another team that was happy to get another team’s backup QB.  They should be happy with five wins.
• Cleveland Browns – Who cares?
• Oakland Raiders – The only QB worse than Jamarcus Russell is their current starter.  
• Cincinnati Bengals  - Rookie QB is better than Cam Newton
• Buffalo Bills – Tough division, star running backs often forget their helmets for the first play of the Superbowl. 
• Jacksonville Jaguars – No Opinion at all. Do they still have a franchise?
• Seattle Seahawks – Starting QB lost his job as a backup.  
• Tennessee Titans  - Chris Johnson gets a new contract, then goes MIA. They all do it.  
• Carolina Panthers  - Cam Newton is more JeMarcus Russell than Troy Aikman. 
• Minnesota Vikings – McNabb is one of the most overrated QBs in NFL history. After they lose a few, he will fake an injury. 
• Washington Redskins  - Redskins are just horrible.  I wonder how their fans feel every year knowing they are the worst franchise in professional sports?

Here we go. It is the eve of the first game of the season. The most promising day of the year we have had in a while.  I couldn’t be more excited. I’ll wake up early and watch all the pre-game coverage even though the Cowboys don’t kick off until Sunday night.  I don’t know what to think, I hope I am this excited next Saturday night.

Are we rebuilding or building on 2009? As a fan, I am not really sure.  I hope that the new young offensive line fits perfectly with a big part of Jason Garrett’s philosophy to win now. I hope the injuries from the that last week turn out to be incidental.  I hope that Rob Ryan is the real deal and has our team disguising our defensive calls for the first time in a decade.  I hope our kicks are straight and long.  I hope the new culture will eliminate the useless and careless drive-killing penalties.  I Hope. 

I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.