Phillips Turn to Fix Secondary

The Parcells era came and went, but the one area he failed to fix was the secondary. One year removed and one year under Wade Phillips and the secondary has not been fixed; however, last year’s addition of Ken Hamlin was one step in the right direction. Hamlin performed so well he earned himself a trip to Hawaii.

You can say what you want about stats, INTs, ratios and and all that, but visual proof every sunday was enough for me to determine the secondary would be our achilles heel. Phillips is slowly getting his players in the secondary, he wants physical playmaking defensive backs, and last year’s Ken Hamlin was a start. The rest of the year we played with low round talent and it showed. Jacques Reeves and Nate Jones had significant playing time due to Newman’s foot injury, and our weakness was obvious the first week Newman was out. Reeves and Jones got burnt year round. Then you have Anthony Henry, part of that dismal 2005 free agent class. Henry has been plagued by injury and the constant target when lined up opposite Newman. Henry is adequate, but very upgradeable.

Fast forward to this past weekend and the Cowboys addressed the secondary with three quality draft picks when you consider we traded a 4ht rounder for Jones. Phillips is upgrading the secondary with his type of defensive back, and the lineup has already been upgraded on a 13-3 team. Let’s look at the secondary from 2007 to the current state:

Starting Secondary, 2007:

Terence Newman
Anthony Henry
Roy Williams
Ken Hamlin
Jacques Reeves
Nate Jones

Projected Starting Secondary, 2008:

Terence Newman
Anthony Henry
Roy Williams
Ken Hamlin
Mike Jenkins
Adam Jones
Orlando Scandrick 

The Quality of players has been upgraded significantly with Jenkins, Jones, and Scandrick. At the minimum Jenkins will be a starting nickel/dime corner, and same for Jones and Scandrick. That’s a solid upgrade to a bad unit the year before. If any of the starting corners go down, I feel very confident in Jenkins or Jones stepping in. Last year, I was dreading the times Reeves was in there.

Despite these upgrades, the job is not done. Hamlin needs to be re-upped to a long term deal, and SS needs to be upgraded either by shifting some current players into the safety position or via the draft. Basically, Roy Williams will NOT be here in 2009. As we approach mini camp, and training camp it will be interesting to see where Anthony Henry lines up. Could we see Henry move to FS, and Hamling to SS? Roy could be completely downgraded if we see these scenarios. Its already been proven that Roy was a liability on 3rd downs, and thus benched. To me it doesn’t matter what down it is, Roy gets burnt on any down. He’s a nice guy, but his playing quality never rebounded after Darren Woodson retired, and that was several years ago now.

2009 will continue with upgrades in the secondary with a safety. Keep it going Wade.