IRVING, Texas - Three years in, and the Cowboys still don't know if Bobby Carpenter can play or not.
They know all about the players chosen after him who can play; their names having been hammered home time and again as a means to criticize the pick. Antonio Cromartie, Santonio Holmes and DeAngelo Williams are just three of the first-round selections the Cowboys passed on when they took Carpenter out of Ohio State in 2006.
Carpenter was the 18th overall selection, coming off the board 15 slots ahead of Houston's DeMeco Ryans, arguably the best linebacker of the class. But while Ryans has a Defensive Rookie of the Year award and an All-Pro selection under his belt, he and other promising young linebackers have had a clear advantage on Carpenter since entering the league: They've actually been on the field.
Relative to his draft stock there's no debating Carpenter hasn't lived up to expectations. A position change and a stacked depth chart have combined to slow his progress and keep him relegated to special teams duty. He wasn't bad filling in at outside linebacker for the injured Greg Ellis toward the end of 2006, but the next summer he was moved inside and rarely got the chance to play. He was in on just a handful of defensive snaps in 2008, usually in passing situations, and was credited with five tackles on plays from scrimmage.
As the season went on, Carpenter saw coaches phase him out of the defensive rotation.
"We did a couple of different things throughout the year," Carpenter said last week at the team headquarters. "I was involved more early in the season and then as thing kinds of got - I don't know how you would phrase it - I guess things kind of got more complicated . . . well not more complicated, but as the season went along we kind of eliminated some of the packages and tried to simplify our stuff. I don't know for better or for worse if that worked or not."
Reports from the NFL owners' meeting in Dana Point, Calif., last week said the Cowboys had attempted to trade Carpenter earlier in the off-season, though nickel linebacker Kevin Burnett leaving for San Diego makes such a move unlikely at this point. For whatever reason, Carpenter has never been a favorite of Cowboys coach Wade Phillips. The final first-round pick of Bill Parcells' tenure in Dallas, Carpenter simply hasn't earned the confidence of Phillips and his staff in the same way as Anthony Spencer, the team's first-round pick in 2007, who will take over as a starter for Ellis next season.
With Burnett gone, the deck suddenly doesn't look so stacked against Carpenter, and it appears he may have his best chance to get on the field next season, possibly stepping right into the third-down role vacated by Burnett. Still, Carpenter said it would be difficult to overcome Phillips' history with linebacker Keith Brooking, who signed with the Cowboys on Feb. 28. An 11-year veteran, Brooking made the Pro Bowl both of the seasons Phillips served as Atlanta's defensive coordinator, 2002 and 2003.
"It's going to be tough, obviously," Carpenter said. "He's Coach Phillips' guy, he coached him in Atlanta before, they have a prior relationship, and he's a quality player. So I'll give it my best shot and let the chips fall where they may."
While Burnett left the Cowboys in hopes of winning a starting job, Carpenter would be making undeniable progress just to become a situational player. The nickel role is arguably more important than that of a starting linebacker who only plays in the base defense, and finding a capable replacement will be huge for the Cowboys in 2009.
As it stands, the competition will likely come down to Carpenter, Brooking and/or a rookie to be named later. While Brooking does make sense in the base defense as a replacement for weak inside linebacker Zach Thomas, it's questionable whether his coverage skills are good enough to stop tight ends and running backs.
Apparently Phillips isn't buying into the common perception. He said at the owners' meeting he believed Brooking could still be a three-down player, basically reiterating owner Jerry Jones' contention on local radio from early March.
One of the problems the Cowboys defense has had over the last several years has been getting off the field on third downs, so nickel 'backer is clearly an important job on this team, and one Carpenter has his eye on. But the 25-year-old now knows better than to expect the Cowboys to simply give him the position because he seems like a natural fit and they need to find out about him once and for all.
"I haven't been given anything since the day I stepped in here, so I don't know why I would think that about this," Carpenter said. "I'd like to maybe have that happen, but I guess things mean more when you have to try to push through them a little bit.
"As many three wide receiver packages as you see now in the NFL, the nickel guys will probably get 35 or 40 percent of the reps, so it's definitely a role I would be excited to have."
Carpenter says he just wants to contribute, something all first-round picks are expected to do on either offense or defense. Unfortunately for Carpenter, most of his contributions have come on special teams, where he was second on the team with 21 tackles in 2007, and had nine stops this past season, tied for the Cowboys' sixth most.
First-round picks aren't usually made with special teams in mind, and if Carpenter is ever going to shed the label of first-round bust, he will have to start making plays on defense. Despite the coaching staff's reluctance to give him steady playing time so far, Carpenter is confident he can be successful if given a regular place defensively.
"Hopefully it'll be a good opportunity for me, and hopefully a good opportunity for our team as well," Carpenter said. "I'm just looking to maybe get on the field a little more, make some plays and hopefully contribute to a successful '09 campaign."
Three years after they picked him in the first round, the Cowboys should also be hoping for Carpenter. For the first time, they might really need him to be a player this season.
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