About one month ago we saw veterans Marion Barber, Marc Colombo, Leonard Davis, and Roy Williams leave the team mostly due to their salaries. As this 2011 Preseason nears its end, it’s becoming clear that other veterans are due to suffer the same fate next offseason. Here’s a look at some Cowboys players who are almost certainly on their last ride with the team: Terence Newman

After the second preseason game against San Diego, here are the updated roster predictions.      QB: Tony Romo, Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee (3) Previous: Romo, Kitna, Mcgee I’m a little surprised by how little work Kitna is getting in the preseason games, but they must feel comfortable with it.   RB: Felix Jones, DeMarco Murray, Lonyae Miller, Phillip Tanner (4) Prev: Jones,

The Cowboys are now 1-1 in preseason play; however, tonight’s game raises some concerns over the defensive side of the ball. The defense looked weak: Missed tackles, missed assignments, no rush, nothing good to pull from this game. The defense wasn’t alone in sloppy play, the Offense looked out of sync most of the night. It’s back the the drawing board and time

[ UPDATE:  During the writing of this article news broke that Barber, Williams, Davis, and Colombo have all been cut.  Some of the analysis may not reflect these changes. ] Ding, dong… the lockout’s dead.  As NFL business begins this week, our Cowboys are in a dire financial situation thanks to the lowered salary cap.  All but dashed are dreams of signing the likes of Nnamdi Asomugha

KEY PLAYERS Terence Newman – For my money, Newman is the most underappreciated player on the team.  You can knock him for his lack of interceptions but he usually handles his business and has proven he can take a star receiver out of a game.  Last year he posted his career-best numbers in both tackles and interceptions.  Maybe this will be his last year in Dallas as the financial

KEY PLAYERS DeMarcus Ware – He’s a two-time league-leader in sacks and nearly broke Michael Strahan’s record in 2008.  However many talking heads seem perfectly willing to rank guys like James Harrison and even an aging Julius Peppers over Ware.  I know this isn’t the most unbiased forum, but I haven’t seen anyone in the NFL right now who brings the consistency and

KEY PLAYERS Jay Ratliff – It was a down year for the defense as a whole, but top players like DeMarcus Ware and Terence Newman still had a high level of statistical production.  The same cannot be said for Ratliff, who disappeared both from the box scores and the highlight tapes.  I theorized about Ratliff’s struggles and possible solutions in a previous blog (link), but

In 2005, Jay Ratliff was drafted in seventh round as a defensive end prospect.  An injury to then-starter Jason Ferguson in 2007 forced Ratliff to play as an undersized nose tackle, but the result was something no one saw coming.  Three Pro Bowls and a First Team All-Pro selection later, Ratliff goes into 2011 as one of the staples of our defense and a veteran leader. That said,

Its always been said that you’ll know what you have in a player by their third year of play, and if we look at the 2008 class it looks like that draft class has peaked. After the 2010 season we’re able to see where these guys may be heading going into year four in the 2011 season. Do we have any keepers? In 2008 we drafted: 1a Felix Jones, RB 1b Mike Jenkins, CB 2 Martellus

Many critics of the Cowboys 2011 draft class are quick to point out that the Cowboys defensive needs were not addressed, in particular the defensive backfield, especially in the early rounds of the draft. To me, the Cowboys developed their board based on their assessments of the prospects this year, and the defensive back class were not that strong. So, the Cowboys went more the

We found out Friday that the 8th Circuit of Appeals overturned Judge Nelson’s lifting of the lockout, so for now the lockout is back on which means everything is on hold, including the signing of undrafted free agents. The Cowboys have found some nice gems in recent years from the undrafted rookie classes. Depending on what happens on Monday in the courts, we can’t sign

We all know the draft grades will start to trickle in from the major pundits, and there’s usually not that much substance to them, and some have traces of bias in them obviously. So when you’re looking at some draft grades stick to the guys that blog the Cowboys, like our site here, and your other favorite Cowboys blogs, you get more realistic opinions and we tend to