Dallas Cowboys 09 Addition By Subtraction?

America's team is in a transition year for sure. Three of the last four years the Cowboys have finished with a 9-7 record but no playoff wins have resulted. So in the offseason Dallas decided to try and become more of a team and less of individuals. That meant cutting Terrell Owens, Tank Johnson, and Pacman Jones. Most observers say that the preseason workouts were much better and now they are all committed to one goal. Adding team players and cutting talented players could be a risky venture for the Cowboys.

Today sports handicapper Craig Trapp previews Dallas chance in 2009. If you missed Criag's other previews: Cincinnati-Bengals-09-Preview-and-Prediction.cfm" target="_blank" title="Bengals 09 is it finally there year??">Cincinnati Bengals,Packers-09-time-to-shine.cfm" target="_blank" title="Packers 09 superbowl bound?">Green Bay Packers, Cleveland-Browns-how-bad-will-they-be-in-09.cfm" target="_blank" title="Browns 09 how bad will they be?">Cleveland Browns, and Washington-Redskins-09-Preview-and-Predictions-.cfm" target="_blank" title="Redskins can Snyder stay out of the way?">Washington Redskins!

Coach Wade Phillips has let Garrett have his way with the Cowboys offense. Garrett in the past has forgot about his running game but with the lack of playmakers at receiver he should ride the running game if he wants to win this year. Tony Romo has shown flashes of greatness but has not been able to consistently put up those type of games. This year he will be asked to make the easy throws and a short passing game should make Romo a much better QB. Hopefully the Cowboys unity will result in more consistent reliable performances. The bad news is this division have very good defenses and all three of the division opponents can stop the run.

Defensively the Cowboys must get better from last year 08 team. Zach Thomas is out at MLB but they replaced him with another question mark Keith Brooking. Brooking will have to stay healthy and make a ton of tackles if this defense is going to improve. Also the secondary has a ton of question marks and many think Jerry Jones might even be considering bringing back Pacman. Roy Williams could not make this defense better but he was a leader and not sure who will replace him. This defense could be a little better from last year but too many question marks to think this team will be great.

Not sure anyone can find a ton of positives leading into this years preseason for the Dallas Cowboys. More likely this team will struggle and be less than 500 at midseason and fire Coach Philips. If this team gets to 8-8 this year should be seen as a building block for the future.

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