A Look Back Into What Was The Dallas Cowboys' Off-Season

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Offensive Edition

As the pre-season draws to a close and the regular season looks set to begin the Dallas Cowboys’ look ready to begin on another deep playoff run.

Every offseason ends with a sentence just like the one above, and every season for the past 12 years, the Dallas Cowboys have failed to win a playoff game.

This season is another chance for the Cowboys to reclaim their glory as the league's best, and bring home the Lombardi Trophy...or to drop off as a playoff contender and be remembered yet again as an underachiever.

The Cowboys cleaned house at the end of last season after finishing with a very pedestrian 9-7 record and an early vacation. Terrell Owens was sent packing, along went Adam “Pacman” Jones, Tank Johnson, and Greg Ellis. The common theme with these players is that they were either a disruptive force in the locker room or had a clean cut history of creating problems, legal or otherwise.

The Cowboys then took a conservative approach in the draft, trading out of the first day and drafting 12 players on the second day in an attempt to improve depth and special teams.

From the 12 draftees, only two were offensive players: Robert Brewster and Manuel Johnson. Brewster tore a pectoral muscle while bench-pressing prior to training camp, and was placed on the PUP list (physically unable to perform) and therefore will not be able to play until at least week 10 of the regular season.

Manuel Johnson was cut as the final roster was trimmed to 53 players. This is now being taken into account the Cowboys gained almost nothing offensively from the draft.

As training camp got underway, five players were either put under the microscope or pulled it on top of them.

Kyle Kosier

Kyle Kosier is the starting left guard, and last season he went down with a foot injury and missed 13 games. Kosier stepped back into his starting roll as left guard and trained with the first team, and from general observation and reports, Kosier hasn’t missed a beat and is playing great football.

This is great for not just Romo and the running back trio, but Flozell Adams as well. Last season, Adams had a lot of trouble with speed rushers and without Kosier there, they usually came speeding around the edge and took Romo down from his blind side, resulting in more fumbles, turnovers, and losses.

Jon Kitna

Kitna is 36 and obviously in the twilight years of his career. There is still no doubt, however, that he is a considerable upgrade over Brad Johnson, who’s lack of arm strength and aging body caused the Cowboys’ to go 1-2 when Romo went down with a broken pinky finger on his throwing hand.

Kitna is the type of player that can come in and win a few games; he is not the player that you would want to be starting at quarterback for consecutive weeks. If Romo manages to stay healthy, we will never have to find out what would happen if Kitna had to take the reins of an elongated period of time.

Kitna has created some chemistry with the Cowboys’ receivers and has looked sharp all through training camp and the preseason.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?