The Cowboys first preseason game is in the bag and it is full of headlines — good and bad. I’d have to admit I was in mid-season form with some yelling and cheering. There simply is not a better pro sport to watch than NFL football, I love it.
As for the game, let’s look over who shined and who flopped.
Here are my players that shined:
Dustin Vaughan
I wanted to see him show up and upstage Brandon Weeden and he did. Weeden is barely average and this is not a knee-jerk reaction. Weeden was very mediocre last season, and tonight he was 4/5 for 42 yards. The fumbling and patting of the ball were flashbacks of his bonehead plays in Cleveland, it’s not going to turn on for him. Conversely, Vaughan showed pocket presence and made plays with his arms and even showed some decent mobility at times. Vaughan to Devin Street was money, give me more of that and we’re in business for the #2 QB.
Byron Jones
Jones seems to be flying under the radar even after being selected in the 1st round. Jones is going to be an impact player for the Cowboys and tonight was a step in that direction. Jones led the team with 5 solo tackles, and I liked how he would lock up his WRs.
La’el Collins
There’s reason he was considered a top 10 pick in the draft and his play tonight backed up a lot of that talk. His night wasn’t perfect, but he looked good and looked well conditioned with all the snaps he got in today. If things get hairy with the tackle depth during the season, I could see Collins take on that role as well. This keeps looking like a homerun addition by the Cowboys.
Damien Wilson
It’s early, but Wilson looks like a starting linebacker. I liked what I saw with him with his physical play and his quickness. I loved seeing him knife into the backfield and smash the Chargers RB behind the line of scrimmage tonight.
Devin Street
Street has the #4 WR locked up as it stands now, and I’m not even sure there is a closer #5 WR. I’m not impressed at all with anyone else after Street, so I wonder if the Cowboys ponder looking at some other free agent receivers. Street looked like the player I remember at Pitt, with great hands and ability to snatch the ball out of the air. He looked good to me.
Other’s that looked good were Randy Gregory and Corey White.
The players that didn’t look so good:
Darrion Weems
Weems is battling for the swing tackle, and we had better hope Chaz Green can get into action and beat him out, because he looked pretty lost at left tackle tonight. Losing Jeremey Parnell could hurt this team if we don’t have an adequate replacement. RJ was playing at RT most of the night and he’s a bigger liability — terrible play from the tackle reserves.
Brandon Weeden
I honestly wonder if Weeden makes this team. He gets rattled way too easy for my liking, even Jamiel Showers looks better than whatever Weeden has put on the field. It’ll be interesting to see how the Cowboys distribute playing time for the upcoming preseason games. I’d like to see Vaughan get more than a few series with the starting offensive line.
Deontay Greenberry
In my earlier thread I talked about players that play well in training camp, but disappear when the big lights turn on — Greenberry was that player tonight. Two drops on very catchable passes were not want you want to see. Now, I’m not abandoning the player, but the Cowboys will need to see more from him in the next game or someone else needs to step up. Crazy thing is, I’m not sure there’s a #5 WR on this team right now. Maybe Lucky Whitehead makes it as the returner, but he better not fumble anymore.
Special Teams
I put this unit on here, because they look very bad, they looked like a carbon copy of last year and that is not a compliment. Too many times did we see opposing teams start with very good field position and too many times did we fail to have any good returns. Yes it’s early, but this needs to get fixed or we could see Biasaca somewhere else in 2016. We cannot give teams free real estate. We have different players in the mix, but same results. Get it fixed.
Who stood out good or bad for you?
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