Quincy Butler.
Nice.
"I certainly didn't think we'd have the numbers at corner we do," Jerry Jones said. "You look out there today? There's three teams of corners out there. That's unbelievable."
Let's see, they have replaced Akin Ayodele with Zach Thomas, and so far there are no indications the 12-year veteran has deteriorated beyond productivity. And if he has, that only opens up opportunities for Kevin Burnett and Bobby Carpenter.
Not bad.
Now then, running back. They replaced Julius Jones with Felix Jones. They replaced Tyson Thompson with Tashard Choice. And if you look at where they were at this time last year, they replaced Oliver Hoyte, the converted linebacker, with Deon Anderson, a real fullback.
Sweet.
Also, worried about their receiving capabilities behind Pro Bowler Jason Witten, the Cowboys not only pulled the trigger on trading Anthony Fasano to make room for Tony Curtis' growth, but they then covered themselves by selecting Martellus Bennett in the second round.
Good.
If you are not too concrete - work with me on this one - they actually have replaced Jason Ferguson with Tank Johnson. Yeah, yeah, I know, Ferguson missed all of last season and Tank played eight games last year as Ratliff's backup. But that wasn't the real Tank, not the guy who had been a defensive line stalwart for the Bears until running afoul with the law. This coaching staff says the real deal has returned this off-season. Just wait.
Too good.
And I'm telling you, if Isaiah Stanback can learn the nuances of playing wide receiver and youngsters such as Sam Hurd and Miles Austin can take the next step, we're talking additions at wide receiver, too, regardless of what Glenn decides to do. Plus, you saw Anthony Spencer last year. How much better you think he'll be this year? Oh, and what about Felix Jones returning kickoffs, too?
Plus, do not discount - and this by no means is meant to disparage anyone - head coach Wade Phillips adding five assistants beholding to him to replace four guys he had inherited from Bill Parcells' staff who didn't think twice about heading south when Bill called. Oh, and let's not forget Jerry Jones did whatever it took to make sure Jason Garrett did not take one of those two head coaching jobs, and that should not be minimized since if he had, your second-full-year-starting quarterback would have been working with his fourth offensive coordinator in four years.
Oh, did I mention the second-year starting quarterback has one full-season of starting under his chinstrap?
Molto bene!
Come on, you'd have run me off the reservation had I predicted even half this stuff taking place following the Cowboys' 21-17 loss to the New York Giants in that divisional-round playoff game, and rightfully so. This is outrageous.
Off-season of off-seasons?
About the only wish you still could have is not having lost Keith Davis, having acquired some safety depth and Jerry having pulled off that trade for the likes of Chad Johnson or Roy Williams. But then nothing is ever perfect and those occurrences might have cost you something else.
"Some of that had to fall (right) but some of that had to be though through," Jerry Jones said of all this off-season maneuvering. "I think (things have) gone better than I could have anticipated.
"We've really had a good off-season."
Still, I'm telling you - go ahead, grab some wood again - when adding up all the little things that have gone right so far this off-season - come on, knock . . . knock! - the atmospheric pressure around here seems to be building.
Almost perfectly.
