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2010-2011 Preseason: Crate 'Em Up And
Hurd 'Em Out?
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- August 30,
2010
At 12:30 AM CST
By Eric M. Scharf
The Competition
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- When the Cowboys selected Dez Bryant
with their first pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, most people – fans,
foes, and prognosticators – were convinced that veteran receivers
Patrick Crayton and Sam Hurd were in immediate danger of being
traded or cut.
Miles Austin is firmly established as the Cowboys’ number one
starting wide receiver, and he can only get better.
Roy Williams’ salary has firmly established him as the Cowboys’
number two starting wide receiver – in this case also known as LP2
(Large Pay Low Production). I will be referring to Roy as LP2 from
now on . . . until he begins to earn his keep week in and week out.
After all, Jerry Jones was asked not too long ago what it would take
to get fans off of LP2’s back, and he effectively said “start
producing.”
LP2’s recent pre-season performance against the Houston Texans was a
pleasant surprise, but it was pre-season. Results do not count until
they are delivered consistently, repeatedly, and in greater numbers
in the regular season and playoffs – as always for every single
player on the Dallas Cowboys roster. ‘Nuff said.
Dez Bryant began training camp with a confident-yet-humble attitude,
an eagerness to learn the playbook as soon as possible, and all the
desire in the world to put his amazing skills on display.
He gave fans and everyone in the organization good reason to be
excited – making circus catch after circus catch until Orlando “The
Practice Assassin” Scandrick made Dez his annual pre-season victim.
Even LP2 was encouraged and impressed – showing the professionalism
and team-first mentality we have at most come to expect from him.
While Dez is currently the number three wide receiver – by draft
default and college pedigree – he is in complete control of his
destiny. If he delivers anything close to what everyone saw in
training camp – surpassing LP2 as the number two receiver is the
bare minimum he will achieve.
Kevin Ogletree – the undrafted free agent who latched on with the
Cowboys last year – pushed Crayton and Hurd for valuable playing
time in 2009. Opportunities in receiving and kick returns should
continue in 2010 unless a nagging hamstring injury prevents Ogletree
from, once again, making the roster. While he scored a touchdown
against the Texans, it was in garbage time of a game in which the
Cowboys were clearly not interested.
- Scraping The Bottom
The presumed losers in the battle for playing time and roster spots
– Crayton and Hurd – are no different than any other professional
athlete.
Both players have a high opinion of themselves.
Both players believe they have paid their dues.
Both players believe they should be starting.
Both players had bruised egos at hearing trade rumors.
Both players believe plenty of other things, as well.
While Crayton has given the Cowboys six years of his career – with
competition for playing time, pass accuracy, and situational
formations always in flux – those years were promising but not
otherworldly.
While Crayton also spent his senior year in college at quarterback,
he has at best only been the emergency quarterback on the Cowboys,
and Southpaw Pat has only been asked to pass the ball on gimmick
plays a couple times in his career – if memory serves.
While Crayton has one of the best sets of catching hands on the
team, they are not the most consistent. Fans may recall how Bill
Parcells always wondered aloud when Crayton was going to excel
beyond great practices and deliver consistency on game day, as well.
While Crayton has been a good and deceptively fast slot receiver,
the Cowboys do not regularly rely on the slot – more often playing
slot swap with wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs.
Wes Welker of the New England Patriots – fair comparison or not –
has great hands and great speed for a slot receiver . . . or any
receiver . . . thus allowing the Patriots to utilize the slot on a
full-time basis.
Steve Smith of the New York Giants – fair comparison or not – has
great hands and slow speed for a slot receiver . . . but he has a
knack for getting open against even some of the best coverage . . .
thus allowing the Giants to utilize the slot on a full-time basis.
The extremely vocal Patrick Crayton, embarking on his 7th year of
professional football, has been in the NFL longer than both players
and – with competition for playing time, pass accuracy, and
situational formations always in flux – the results speak for
themselves.
While Crayton has been a good punt returner – with two punts
returned for touchdowns in 2009 – it appears he would clearly prefer
to play more wide receiver and return fewer punts for touchdowns.
Fans have to wonder if his opinion could be swayed if – completely
in jest – those slacker defensive teammates of his could simply get
their opponents to punt more frequently.
While Crayton helped the 2007 Cowboys achieve their 13-3 regular
season record and number one conference seeding, he also helped them
lose their opening round playoff home game against the New York
Giants – with two unforgiveable drops.
Those drops are still fresh in the minds of all Cowboys fans. Punt
returns for touchdowns cannot erase those drops. “What is in the
past is in the past” unless the person responsible for those
blunders has yet to truly redeem himself in a similar, current, high
pressure scenario.
Crayton gained valuable and productive playing time in 2007 –
stepping in for an injured Terry Glen and becoming the number two
wide receiver on the Cowboys depth chart behind Terrell Owens. 2008
brought LP2 in as the new yet unproductive number two, but Crayton
managed to take the diminished playing time in stride – building
more trust with Tony Romo and quietly becoming more reliable.
Opportunity Lost-
- 2009 saw T.O. removed from the
scene, LP2 elevated to number one receiver, and Crayton seemed ready
to assume his rightful place as full-time number two. His fortunes
changed as his legendary sure-handedness seemed to evaporate from
the word go.
You could just hear Parcells from Miami – once again challenging
Crayton to become more consistent in exchange for more playing time.
The Cowboys had no choice but to put Patrick back in the crate and
turn to Miles Austin or Sam Hurd – both raw receiving talents but
proven special teams sharks. Miles and miles later – the Cowboys
have never looked back.
Crayton went into the tank at the sight of Austin being given his
starting role but – as upsetting and humiliating as it may have been
– Crayton knew he had given away his starting spot as much as the
Cowboys felt the need to take it away . . . and as much as Austin
eventually took it away through his own consistently stellar play.
Crayton eventually made his way back into the good graces of Garrett
and Romo – as well as with solid punt returns – but it still leaves
fans questioning his game in and game out consistency.
Sam Hurd, on the other hand, has accomplished very little in
comparison – with competition for playing time, pass accuracy, and
situational formations always in flux – delivering maybe four
quarters of receiver play worthy of memory.
Austin and Hurd spent their first few years with the Cowboys with
equal potential – needing only an opportunity to turn potential into
reality. Hurd is another training camp tiger desperately waiting for
a legitimate opportunity to show more clutch catching and less
special teams tackling.
Recent events have Hurd, once again, staring up from near the bottom
of a talent-filled depth chart – with Irvin discovery Jesse Holley
being right beneath him. Hurd’s training camp has internally been
described as solid and even great. Hurd, however, will either be
running down the grid iron as a gunner or watching games from the
stands – unless the lead horses stall or get injured before final
roster cuts.
Nothing is guaranteed in life. Ogletree may actually turn out to be
the one ogling games from the stands. His playing time and
production has been limited this off-season, as well.
The time, of course, for spectacular eye-catching head-turning
results has come and gone with the ugly fashion statement that was
the “dress rehearsal” against the Texans – unless Wade Phillips
does, indeed, decide to play his starters in the final pre-season
game against the Miami Dolphins. Fans may scream bloody murder at
that thought – injuries be damned – but the smart money would be on
proof (the starters can get the job done) rather than punishment
(for stinking it up in Houston).
A Good Problem To Have
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- Ask any member of the
Cowboys’ brass, and they will say it is a good problem to have
Crayton and Hurd demanding more playing time – even in the unsavory
form of trade requests. It is when competitive juices are not
flowing through you that trade requests are suddenly granted with
haste.
While Crayton and Hurd want very much to be a bigger part of what
might occur for the Cowboys in 2010, neither of them are so
ego-driven that they would want a trade to, say, the St. Louis Rams
who just lost their star receiver to injured reserve – all for the
sake of playing time – or would
they?
While Crayton and Hurd want nothing to do with even more sacrificed
playing time, they would not want to end up with a rebuilding team (who
might be willing to part with a significant player) – all for the
sake of playing time – or would they?
Will something cataclysmic happen to allow Jesse Holley to make the
roster? While he has great potential – according to Irvin and
everyone else within the Cowboys’ brain trust – his age and level of
experience work against him compared to everyone else on the depth
chart. I am unfamiliar with all the rules by which practice squads
are governed, but fans must wonder if Holley can and would accept
another tour of duty on the Cowboys’ practice squad. Cataclysmic, indeed.
Nothing in life is guaranteed. Crayton and Hurd are but the tip of a
very large iceberg of talent the Cowboys must chisel down into a
well-sculpted 53 man roster . . . and soon. Crayton and Hurd should
not, however, hold their collective breath that a mutually
beneficial trade or a one-sided release is impending.
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- The competition will serve up little
to nothing in trade offerings – as has become the popular method of
late off-season talent acquisition. They will wait out and bait out
the Cowboys until Dallas has no choice but to meet the regular season
roster requirements. "Everyone is doing it," and the Cowboys are no
different.
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- While the injuries
absorbed by the team – at every possible position – have not helped
the decision-making process one bit, injuries do create a convenient
excuse for cutting bubble players. If a team believes that a
talented but injured player simply will not recover soon enough to
help in the regular season and beyond, a cut is almost certain . . .
from the roster with an injury settlement or possibly from injured
reserve on a surgeon's operating table.
Hind sight is 20-20, and a player you cut today could a player who
is beating your team tomorrow. Not every player you decide against
drafting or you decide to cut is going to come back to cut you like
Randy Moss, so there is no sense in spending any time beating
yourself up over a game of chance.
Regardless of how the roster rounds into regular season shape, fans
should expect the Cowboys to avoid “crating up and hurding out" any
player who can legitimately help them achieve their ultimate goal –
or would they?
We shall see. We always do.
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