Dallas Cowboy intel

Here's what I gathered from the depth chart, injury report and Dallas Morning News articles:

Overview- The Cowboys have the best road record in the NFL since 2014 at 15-5. It’s even more impressive when you consider that they are 14-0 on the road (regular season) in games started with either Tony Romo or Dak Prescott. In other words, their game travels well and the normal trappings of a road challenge don’t bother a team with this dominant offensive line. By far the biggest strength of the team is the offensive line. Built through the draft 3 of the current starters were 1st round picks, and a fourth member was projected to be taken in the 1st but dropped due to non-football related circumstances. The only weakness on the line is Doug Free at Right Tackle, but they are rated as the #1 NFL OL by every magazine. The Cowboys Offense is similar to what was run in the 90s when Jason Garrett was the back-up QB. The offense likes to stretch the field with deep receiving routes to open up the underneath routes while also having a pound it running game to take advantage of a Defense keying on guys going deep and remaining soft on the front line.
The Cowboys are the only team that hasn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher or receiver this season.
The Steelers are tied for last with INTs with only 4.
How injured is Morris Claiborne and Dez Bryant? Important question.

Dallas Cowboys Injuries
Pittsburgh Steelers Injuries

Player
Position
Injury
Practice Status
Game Status
Barry Church S Forearm Did Not Participate In Practice Out
Morris Claiborne CB Groin Did Not Participate In Practice Out
Charles Green T Foot Did Not Participate In Practice Questionable
Dez Bryant WR Knee Full Participation in Practice Questionable
Ryan Davis DE Hamstring Full Participation in Practice Questionable
Ronald Leary G Concussion Full Participation in Practice Questionable
Tony Romo QB Back Full Participation in Practice Questionable
Demarcus Lawrence DE Back Limited Participation in Practice Questionable
Tyron Smith T Back Limited Participation in Practice Questionable

Player
Position
Injury
Practice Status
Game Status
Sammie Coates WR -- Full Participation in Practice --
Pouncey C -- Full Participation in Practice --
Ben Roethlisberger QB -- Full Participation in Practice --
Jordan Dangerfield S Groin Did Not Participate In Practice Out
Darrius Heyward-Bey WR Foot Did Not Participate In Practice Out
Markus Wheaton WR Shoulder Did Not Participate In Practice Out
DeAngelo Williams RB Knee Did Not Participate In Practice Out

WR Dez Bryant- had 1 rec for 19 yards last week against Cleveland

WR Terrance Williams-had only 4 receptions in his last two games for 44 yards and no TDs.

TE Jason Whitten-had 8 rec for 134 yards and 1 TD last week against CLE.

WR Cole Beasley-had 6 rec for 56 yards and a TD against CLE. Has 4 TDs on the year.

While Dallas doesn't have the best Wide Receiving corp in the league I do think it has one of the most well balanced. Between Dez, T-Will, Beasley, and Witten they seem to hit all the bases. Dez serves as the big play reciever who can make the absurd catches and bust the big play. Terrance Williams has some of that same potential for big plays, but he works best when he isn't the main focus of the offense as we saw last season. Beasley is the underneath guy who acts with Witten as a kind of safety valve. I think the 4 of them have unique skill sets that makes them very suited to playing together.

LT Tyron Smith-Tyron being drafted began what I think you can call the beginning of the New Cowboys. Starting with him the draft and free agency mentality the Cowboys had had under Jerry seemed to begin to change from being focused on drafting flashy and controversial guys to picking players who would form a foundation that you could build a team on. Since entering the League Tyron has been a force and now serves as the lynch pin for the best offensive line in football.

LG La'el Collins-The steal of the 2015 Draft, La'el started last year as a back-up Guard behind Ronald Leary. When Leary went down in Week 2 Collins stepped in and by Week 6 he had cemented himself as our starting Left Guard. With a full offseason as the starter we can expect to see Collins improve even more and become a bigger force on an already great offensive line unit. Collins played Tackle in College but seems to fit quite well at Guard given his slightly slower footwork.

C Travis Frederick-Frederick was the second piece of the Offensive Line brought in through the draft, coming out of Wisconsin he was seen as a Second or Third round pick and was ultimately taken by Dallas with the 31st overall pick and some saw it as a massive reach at the time. Since joining the team Frederick has proven time and again to have the ability and the intelligence to be a successful Center in the NFL. Last year saw him play with four different Starting QBs, something that can be difficult to do given the closer relationship a Center and QB develop as they work together, and he still made the Pro-Bowl.

RG Zack Martin-Martin, who was once seen as a bit of a odd pick by several media members has become a valuable part of the Offensive Line. Like his fellow Offensive Line players Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick, Martin has earned a Pro Bowl nomination in both of the last two seasons as well as First and Second Team all Pro Honors. Although from a passing perspective last season was less than stellar, Martin was still part of an Offensive line that led the 9th best rushing attack in the league which is pretty good all things considered. 2016 should be an improvement on last year as well with some new faces in the backfield and a further year of development for Martin.

RT Doug Free-Free is a bit of a black sheep on the Offensive Line given how long he has been with the team since being taken in the 4th round of the 2007 Draft. Free was almost waived by the team in 2013, his play had regressed and he wasn't playing up to his contract. However since then Free has become a very serviceable player, he still led the team in penalties last season with 9 but he gives the team some needed experience on the right side of the line. Free currently has 2 seasons left on his contract and it remains to be seen weather he will return again when the contract is up.

QB Zak Prescott- 12 TDs vs. 2 INT this year. fumbled twice but lost neither. 104 QBR.

RB E. Elliot-wow. what can you say? there are videos on nfl.com of him breaking tackles and leaping over Packer defenders for gains. He doesn't seem to be bothered by July 2016 allegations of domestic abuse, he has since been cleared of by the NFL. As Chuck Noll used to say, "see what happens when you have a good draft?" Elliot at #1 and Prescott at #4. Nice. Jerry Jones took some heat for taking Elliot initially.



DT - Tyrone Crawford(l)/Terrell McClain(r)-After signing a 5 year $45 Million deal last off-season Crawford was injured in Week 2 last year, tearing his rotator cuff in his right shoulder and requiring surgery. Despite this Crawford still finished the year with 44 tackles, 5 sacks, and 27 QB pressures. Going into the 2016 season he looks to be the bright spot on the Defensive Line given the suspension of Crawford.

DE - Benson Mayowa(R)/Jack Crawford(L-I don't know much about these guys.

LB - Andrew Goschar(s)/Sean Lee(W)/Anthony Hitchens(m)- Sean Lee seems to have trouble staying healthy, though when he is on the field he has shown he can be a Pro Bowl level player. Hitchens is a very versatile player, as a Rookie in 2014 he learned all three LB positions to be able to cover for an injured Sean Lee, as a third year player we should expect to see him really contribute this season.

CB - Brandon Carr(L)/Morris Claiborne(R)-Arguably the worst or second worst part of the defense is the Cornerbacks. Both Carr and Claiborne have underperformed since joining Dallas, and while they both looked a little better in 2015 this continues to be an area of concern for the Cowboys.

FS/SS - Byron Jones(FS/Barry Church(SS)-Byron Jones looked good in his Rookie Season, finishing the year with 66 Total Tackles and 9 Pass Defenses, he appears to be at least a partial answer to the Cowboys secondary issues and is on pace to have a stand-out second season. Barry Church on the other hand is a serviceable player who will likely be helped by having someone like Jones on the field with him, since he won't be asked to do too much.

P - Chris Jones-Jones was tops in the League in most statistical categories for Punters last season, he averaged 42.5 net yards per punt and he Recovered a Fumble, making him the only Punter in Franchise history to recover a Fumble on one of their own punts.



K - Dan Bailey

• Dan Bailey is accurate, making 144/159 Field Goals in his career for a 90.4% accuracy rating and he is a perfect 204/204 on Extra Points.

KR/PR - Lucky Whitehead

• Whitehead was signed primarily to take over Kick and Punt return duties last season after Dwayne Harris left in Free Agency, he had 562 total return yards and he also saw a few snaps at WR.

 

A nice report and the attack place is in the middle ...A few weeks back Zach Miller had a very good game like 90 yards and 2 TD'S.. I think we need to use our guys in the slot similar to what the Bears did ...We need to run a lot of double slot formations put TE'S or RB'S Coates or Hamilton on the outside....Let Eli and Brown play the inside guys and keep attacking the middle of the field..

A lot would think well your best CB is out then attack him this is checkers to me ...The DC knows they need to help so that will be how they prepared....So let them help against other guys or force them to do something they probably didn't practice as much ...They will probably play a lot of Zone so use our zone buster types meaning return type guys,guys who are great in space...Our best 2 are Brown and Eli this should be our approach..

 

That may be the longest post I've ever seen.

Thanks for the intel.