Today will be the first opportunity for the media to attend an OTA practice for the Cowboys and I will be interested to see how the new players added this spring would fit in the mix but appears injuries and the finishing of college classes has robbed me of that chance.
I knew that Mo Claiborne (wrist surgery) would be out as would Kyle Wilber with the injured finger. Matt Johnson is still in school at Eastern Washington but to lose Danny Coale on the first day was something I did not expect. Coale has a broken left foot and will be out until training camp.
This is a setback for Coale but not one that he can't overcome. Coale is a hard-working kid that is smart and tough. You always have a chance to bounce back when you have these types of traits. As soon as Coale can begin to do activity, you know that he will be wearing associate athletic trainer Britt Brown out trying to work his way back on the field.
I am looking forward to seeing Brandon Carr line up at left corner for the squad. We have spoken in great detail of the physical style in which Carr plays. Want to see Nate Livings at left guard working with Tyron Smith at tackle during the blitz pick up period. Is there a good mesh there? With Mackenzy Bernadeau out with the hip injury, how does David Arkin or Ronald Leary handle running with the first team? Is there someone at wide receiver that we are not talking about that can compete with Holmes, Radway, Ogletree and Coale? Maybe Tim Benford, the undrafted rookie from Tennessee Tech who I was told got off to a nice start on Tuesday.
As a personnel man, you watch and you wonder if you have done enough to really help your team talent-wise. It will be a difficult task to really get a feel for fits of some of the players because of injuries or college classes that could keep them out till training camp starts. But with that said, there are plenty of things to watch and study over these next three weeks of OTA's for the Cowboys before the team heads to Oxnard to kick this off for real.
