can change between now and, oh, the July 25th start to training camp in San Antonio.
T.O., er, "Terrell," will not be an invalid after dual surgery to reattach the tendon at the tip of his right ring finger. He ran fine. He ran his routes just fine. And he seemed to catch everything thrown his way. OK?
While the Cowboys didn't waste any time getting a look at first-round draft choice Anthony Spencer, sending the Purdue defensive end right out there with the first-team defense at left outside linebacker, Phillips called Greg Ellis, last year's starter who still is rehabbing from surgery to repair his torn Achilles, "our starting outside linebacker."
Let's see, veteran safety Ken Hamlin, signed to a one-year deal this off-season, opened at free safety with the first-team defense.
Everyone's been wondering about the backup center? Well, best I could tell, behind Andre Gurode was Cory Procter, and yes, Pat McQuistan was working at left guard behind Kyle Kosier, with Joe Berger at right guard. The two backup tackles were rookie Doug Free left and veteran Jim Molinaro right.
And backup nose tackle? That would have been Montavious Stanley and then rookie free agent Ola Dagunduro from Nebraska, with Jason Hatcher working at second left end and Jay Ratliff at second right end.
As for Bobby Carpenter, he mostly worked back inside, although Phillips said he had been working outside most of the off-season, "but we're going to move him around." And working inside with him was Kevin Burnett.
No, Isaiah Stanback did not participate in the workouts, continuing his rehab with the trainers. But the guy seemed to be running pretty well while still recovering from surgery to repair his Lisfranc injury. And, off to the side, he began working on catching punts, something he's not done in a while. Well, he's raw, but you could tell he has good instincts and good hands. Plus, I noticed with the former quarterback catching punts, all you need is one ball for the drill. Because he simply throws the ball all the way back to the punter on a fly.
Let's see, what else? No change in the running back rotation, Julius Jones working with the ones and Marion Barber the twos, and just know Tyson Thompson was out there taking his turn, too, so evidently he's recovered from the fractured left ankle suffered halfway through the season.
Now there wasn't any official field-goal kicking going on, but Phillips did refer to Romo as the "former holder," and when Romo was asked about who will inherit the holding job, he said he wasn't sure, but just knew "it's not me." The little kicking that did go on off to the side, punter Mat McBriar did the honors, but I'm told Brad Johnson is pretty proficient at the task.
As for the young quarterbacks, hard to tell yet with Matt Baker and Matt Moore, although I'm told Baker recently won the long-drive contest among the golfing players. And will be interesting to see what they think of Tarelton State quarterback Richard Bartel, here for the weekend on a tryout status. The former SMU quarterback who briefly left college to play minor league baseball in the Cincinnati Reds organization is 6-3, 230 - pretty stout guy.
OK, that about got it for one day?
Oh, one last thing. If you're wondering what Terrell had to say, well, sorry about that, but he kept, if you can imagine this, a low profile Saturday. He didn't hold court in the locker room, and wouldn't even bite the bait walking from the indoor structure to the locker room following the second practice when asked if he expected to workout today. Mum was the word, flashing the look as if to say, of course I was going to work out.
Hmmm, imagine all that.
So starts another new year again.
