John Machota at Dallas Morning News did a nice summary from Pro Football Focus which grades all NFL players... click HERE for Machota's article.
Here's the notable highlights from Cowboys Players doing well so far through Week 3.
I think Doug Free listed as the number one right tackle in the entire league is probably the most notable and unexpected. Nice to see Barry Church getting good grades after his battle with the achilles injury last year. Looks like he has come back strong.
OFFENSE
– Of DeMarco Murray’s 175 rushing yards on Sunday, 148 of them came on runs to the left of center Travis Frederick.
– Murray is ranked the No. 2 running back in the league through three
games. However, there’s a considerable gap between his 5.7 grade and
Eagles running back LeSean McCoy’s 11.1 total. New Orleans’ Darren
Sproles is third at 5.2.
– Murray’s grade in just the running game is 23rd best in the NFL,
but his blocking grade and passing game grade are both among the league
leaders.
– Murray is third in the league in yards after contact at 167,
trailing only Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson (213) and Tampa Bay’s Doug
Martin (170).
– Doug Free was the top-ranked offensive tackle for Week 3 and is the
No. 1 tackle in the league through three weeks. PFF has Free graded as
the No.1 run-blocking tackle in the NFL.
– Tony Romo had the highest QB rating for Week 3 at 137.2. He has the fifth-highest rating on the season at 103.9.
– Dez Bryant is ranked 18th among all receivers.
– Frederick had the second-highest grade of any center in Week 3.
– Against the Rams, Mackenzy Bernadeau graded out 13th among all guards, the highest of any Cowboy.
DEFENSE
– DeMarcus Ware is the third-highest graded defensive end. St. Louis’
Robert Quinn and Cincinnati’s Michael Johnson are the only two ahead of
Ware.
– George Selvie is tied for fourth in the NFL with 11 QB hurries. Ware has 10.
– Sean Lee ranks 19th among middle linebackers and Bruce Carter is 21st among outside backers.
– Detroit’s Ndamukong Suh and Tennessee’s Jurrell Casey are the only defensive tackles with higher grades than Jason Hatcher.
– Barry Church is the highest graded safety in the league. His
pass-coverage grade is the highest among NFL safeties. Church’s
run-coverage grade is second only to Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu.
– Brandon Carr is the sixth-highest rated cornerback and Orlando Scandrick is seventh. Morris Claiborne is 88th.
– The longest pass play allowed into Scandrick’s coverage is 11 yards
in 184 snaps, third-lowest in the league for a player taking at least
25 percent of his team’s snaps. There have been eight receptions made in
Scandrick’s coverage area.
– J.J. Wilcox had the seventh-highest grade among safeties in Week 3, the rookie’s first game as a starter.
I started this post before reading the story linked below to Dallas Morning News Cowboys Blog. I had only read the headline of the story "More moves on the way at guard for Cowboys after Arizona Game". By the title, I thought there was going to be some "real" information about the offensive line. However, after reading the story, I realize there was actually no information at all. It was Callahan saying that they are continuing to evaluate the offensive line....... uh yeah, kinda already knew that. So as we all know, headlines can be deceiving. Nothing to see here folks, keep on walking......
dallasnews.com/2013/08/more-moves-on-the-way-at-guard-for-cowboys-after-arizona-game.html/
For those of you not from the Dallas/Fortworth Area, this will be of no interest. But for those sports fans who live in DFW or have ever lived in DFW, hands down, Randy Galloway is the best sports broadcaster and best sports writer in the state of TX. Galloway announced he is retiring from his ESPN 103.3 DFW Sports Broadcast gig, "Galloway and Company" the end of this year. He doesn't mention his writing gig at Fort Worth Star-Telegram where he writes sports opinion columns (all of which are always extremely insightful, but in true Galloway fashion, always very entertaining).
I no longer live in Dallas, but routinely listen to Galloway and Company on 103.3 via internet streaming. I will definitely miss his entertaining and insightful slant on all things sports.
Here's a couple of links to Dallas Morning News and Forth Worth Star Telegram reporting the news.
As mentioned in the DMN article, ESPN 103.3 announced yesterday that they had been bought out by Cumulus, who coincidentally owns/operates 1310AM The Ticket. The number one sports station in DFW. This probably had a little to do with Galloway's announcement.
DMN Galloway Retiring
Star Telegram Galloway Retiring
Well, it's that time of year again that I like to refer to as the "Dark Side of the Moon"..... As in no communication for 4 - 5 long summer non-football weeks. OTA's and Mini Camps are over and everyone is going their separate ways in the NFL world until training camps start back up in late July.
So everyone enjoy your family vacations, 4th of July celebrations and long, low scoring baseball games. And Dez Bryant, please have a fun but non-eventful summary vacay.
But before we go, see a few good tidbits below.... some links to good stories.
- Dez continues to beat everyone.... DEZ is the Best - DMN
- Clairborne, while beaten constantly by Dez still looks good (Claiborne having to practice against Dez all of the time will be like swinging two bats on the on-deck circle. By the time regular Joe Blow Wide Receivers come around like the Giants and Eagles, Mo will be all over them)....Claiborne - DMN
- Mini Camp Wrap up.....Wrap Up DMN
- As always, my favorite, Randy Galloway puts like no other can....Galloway - Star Telegram
So Jerry Jones, once again could not keep his mouth shut and divulged that Bill Callahan will handle the play calling duties this season for the Dallas Cowboys. Jonathan Bales with Dallas Morning News put together a great analysis of Bill Callahan's play calling tendencies.......
Boys: Bill Callahan’s Play-Calling History and Tendencies by Jonathan Bales
Going back to my question - Is Jerry Jones an Idiot or just plain STUPID? (BTW - doing my best to keep this a family friendly blog and not drop the F bomb repeatedly during that question).
If a media person can put together such a good analysis of Callahan's play calling tendencies within 24 hrs of the "announcement" by Jones. Imagine what the opposing teams', particularly the NFC East Division Foes, coaches and analysts will do now that they have all of June, July and August to plan for Callahan's play calling tendencies. Wouldn't it have been better to at least make them wait until August during the first pre-season game to figure this out?
There are a lot of reasons that the Cowboys have not performed well in the last 20 years since Jimmy Johnson left, and 99% of those involve Jerry Jones. To answer my own question, Jerry obviously is an Idiot and Stupid when it comes to running a pro football team.
