As is customary around this time of year, assuming that your team is not one of the two set to battle it out for the Lombardi Trophy in the Super Bowl, most Cowboys fans have begun taking inventory of the roster as it stands now. They do this for any number of reasons: Football withdrawals, a lull in network television programming, an inherent need to be well equipped for arguments with friends and acquaintances, etc.
In doing so, one name that will almost inevitably jump out at these football fans is that of Kevin Ogletree. Ogletree went undrafted last year out of Virginia, and spent most of camp and the preseason dazzling coaches with crisp route running and proving the already assumed axiom that drafting remains an inexact science.
Despite limited numbers in limited opportunities, it seems that many are convinced that an Ogletree-Austin starting duo is an enviable one for the Cowboys; paired with the general feeling that Roy Williams starts because of his contract and not any practical skill, many are clamoring for Ogletree to, in the very least, see a more prominent role in 2010.
In honesty, he almost certainly will; he'll just have to earn it, first.
Receivers coach Ray Sherman was recently quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as saying that Ogletree wasn't ready for an expanded role as of yet, and warned against fans putting the cart in front of the horse, so to speak.
"Not yet," said Sherman. "He’s getting there, but the next step, if there’s going to be one, has to be earned. He hasn’t earned it yet. Don’t rush him."
Of course, as Star-Telegram scribe Randy Galloway points out in this very article, this could be a nothing more than a motivational tool put into place very purposefully by Sherman. Not that it would make much of a difference. Ogletree will have to work hard to win an expanded role, but there's little doubt, only a year after going undrafted, that he will. After all, it's not as though Jerry just hands out $45 million contracts for nothing. Right?
