The first "big" name has fallen victim to Cowboys cuts.
On Monday, the Cowboys trimmed their roster to the league mandated 75 players, and headlining the Cowboys chopping block was safety Pat Watkins.
Watkins has never been a superstar, but has been a serviceable 5th-round draft pick from 2006.
He's suffered a laundry list of injuries in his short time in Dallas, missing double-digit games over the past two seasons as a backup safety and standout special teams player. But being a standout special teams player doesn't usually get you on an NFL team that is supposed to be a Super Bowl contender.
The move leaves the Cowboys with two undrafted rookie safeties in Barry Church and Danny McCray to play on special teams, though Church has made enough of an impact to garner some playing time in nickel packages and, God forbid, as a starter. Oh, and don't forget, starter Gerald Sensabaugh has been banged up this preseason.
The other front-runners to make the final 53-man roster are fourth-year player Alan Ball (31 tackles, three pass deflections in 2009), 2010 4th-round pick Akwasi Owusu-Ansah from Indiana (Pa.), and second-year guy Mike Hamlin (1 tackle in 2009).
So there you have it, your Dallas Cowboys safeties are Sensabaugh, a reliable, proven veteran, Ball, a promising, unproven guy, and then essentially four newcomers if you count Hamlin, and that group includes two undrafted free agents.
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Not necessarily saying those guys can't get the job done. It's happened before. But it sure does raise some red flags about the back end of the Cowboys secondary to have such inexperience back there.
Other axed players were undrafted rookies Terrell Hudgins (WR) and Scott Sicko (TE). Tight end John Phillips, who was making all kinds of noise in camp before tearing his ACL on Aug. 8, was placed on injured reserve and linebacker Stephen Hodge was placed on the physically-unable-to-perform list.
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