Dallas Cowboys: 2011 Draft Shows Commitment to Toughness

Throughout the Cowboys post-draft press conferences, we kept hearing comments like team captain, block finisher and superior athlete. We heard about work ethic, playing angry and knowing the value of a dollar.

For the Cowboys, this is not coach or owner-speak. Not this time. Not with the official kickoff of the Jason Garrett era.

This is the commentary on what the 2010 Cowboys were missing. Garrett must have been sitting back ready to vomit while watching this sorry excuse of a Cowboys team underachieve the first half of last year.

The 2010 Cowboys were slow, passive, lazy and unaccountable. Most of them felt as if they deserved to play and wear the star, but now, thanks to their own underachievement, they have earned nothing but the chance to be replaced.

In the 2011 draft, the Cowboys could have drafted a DE knowing there is sure to be a hole or two at that position. They could have made a play for one of the top safeties signifying the thought that they are only a player or two away from success.

This strategy would also signify that they think their problem is one of personnel. As Atlanta is soon to find out, adding players to fill team holes is not always the fix.

Soft teams and teams who consistently lose the battle of physicality, toughness and determination spend year after year just a player or two away from competing for the prize. Dallas has spent about 11 years in that spot starting with the ridiculous trade for Joey Galloway.

The Cowboys drafted four straight players in the first four rounds in positions where they already have starters in place and under contract. No one could blame them if they tried to get another year out of Colombo, Barber, Brooking or Davis. They may still.

What Jerry and co. recognizes is that the weak inside backer needs to be more athletic; right tackle needs to be athletic; and being 6-8 and 350 pounds won’t make you finish blocks.

Dallas brass also seems to have learned that it does not take a committee to get power, explosiveness, third-down production and blocking ability out of the running back position.

With other picks, Ogletree and Gronkowski both have had the sheet pulled back on their mistakes and under-achievements and they will soon find themselves in a training camp battle to stay employed.

Garrett will continue to press on the theme of position competition throughout camps and preseason. Toughness and loving the game will continue to be the mantra of the new Dallas Cowboys under Big Red.

Ryan and the positional coaches will be handed a slightly more athletic bunch but more importantly, the players they will inherit will be in the process of being re-programmed.  The offense will have much more accountability and the Cowboys as a whole will get the much-needed blood transfusion to propel them to reach their potential. 

Nnamdi could be a Cowboy.

Michael Huff may don the star as well and that will be exciting.

Their success and the team’s success however, hinges on the ability of Garrett to complete the transformation and quickly. If he does, Jones and the scouting department will look like geniuses which will sit just fine by Big Red.

He will be too busy forging the 2011 Cowboys into a Super unit primed for February football.