The Dallas Cowboys have cut two roster longshots today, in cornerback Michael Hawkins and running back Alonzo Coleman, bringing the roster to 77. The team will have to trim two more players, to bring the roster to 75, by September 1.
Neither of the two had a great shot to make the club, and their hopes were dealt a blow by respective knee injuries suffered in camp.
Hawkins, a product of R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton is the definition of a journeyman. After a one-year stint as a true freshman at Oklahoma, Hawkins was out of football for a year before signing with the Dallas Desperadoes of the now-defunct Arena Football League after impressing scouts at an open tryout.
After a year in the AFL, Hawkins was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 2005, where he spent a year. His journey to Dallas included a stop Cleveland before moving on to Minnesota, where he was cut at the end of training camp in 2007. Dallas signed Hawkins in January, after a year out of football.
The former Sooner, Packer, Brown and Viking suffered an injury to his patella shortly after the beginning of camp that has kept him on the sidelines since.
Coleman spent two years on the practice squad after being drafted in 2007 out of Hampton, his only action coming late last season when Marion Barber suffered a toe injury. He, like Hawkins, suffered a knee injury in camp that greatly affected his already slim chances of making the team as a part of an already crowded backfield.
