Interview with Dallas Cowboys Insider Calvin Watkins from the Dallas Morning News

  Transcribed 7/19 from Audible Podcast by Sigmund Bloom and Cecil Lammey

Cecil Lammey: Super Bowl aspirations there in Dallas with Wade Phillips taking over for the Notorious B.I.G. Tuna, what do you expect from the Cowboys this year?

Calvin Watkins: You know on first glance I said they could probably win 11 games, and maybe win the division. They've got a tough stretch in December where they have I think three or four games on the road. Still don't know about your boy Tony Romo. You don't know about your other boy Terrell Owens, but I think the defense will get better because every time Wade Phillips goes somewhere, the defense gets better. There's no more Tony Sparano running around, it's a relaxed atmosphere now and the Cowboys should be a lot better.

Sigmund Bloom: Now Calvin, you said we still don't know about Tony Romo. Certainly he had about as auspicious a start to a career as a quarterback can have. His performance trailed off a little bit into December and then that playoff loss. You've been at OTAs and minicamp, you've seen him. Does he look like somebody ready to grab the bull by the horns and take it to the next level, or was it possibly a flash in the pan? I know the Cowboys have been looking at an extension. So, do you see him being the long term franchise quarterback of the Cowboys?

CW: Well, I'll say this. The Cowboys had the chance to draft Brady Quinn in the first round, and they said "nope" and they traded the pick away to the Cleveland Browns. That tells me right then and there that Tony Romo is the franchise (QB) of this team. Jerry Jones said the same thing, and you guys know who he is. So I think Tony, I'm not sure which Tony we're going to see. You know, I'll never forget, we were in Carolina, and he had beaten the Panthers in that Sunday night game, and everybody was kissing Tony's feet. Then he played terrible in the last three or four weeks of the season. He didn't play that bad against Seattle. I think the game plan stifled what he could do a little bit. I'm not sure what Tony Romo we're going to see come September (laughs), but he does want more money, and the Cowboys are probably going to give it to him since he's the only thing they've got, unless they want to go with Brad Johnson, and he's throwing the football like fifty miles an hour right now, so it's all about Tony.

CL: (laughs) and Tony's asking for more money because he's going out with all those high maintenance women, so you've got to have the dollars there.

CW: Your girl Carrie Underwood may have more money than Tony, you know she was on the scene first.

CL: Definitely on the scene, let's move to the running back position. Really, when you look at Marion Barber, here's a guy - Bloom and I loved this kid coming out of the University of Minnesota - really in my opinion a better back than Julius Jones. How does it break down this year? Is it going to be 50/50? Does Barber take on an increased role? Because I really think given more carries, Barber could be really really effective.

CW: You know when I first got on to the Cowboys beat last year, maybe three weeks into the season, I said to some of the quote-unquote veteran beat guys, I said, Marion Barber is better than Julius Jones, and they cussed me out. Now, over the course of the season it seems - and you talk to the linemen - they love the way Marion Barber's running the football. He runs hard. He's a punishing runner. He's not afraid of or avoids contact. Julius said he ran like a robot last year, but a lot of times he missed the holes, and it was his fault. But I like Julius Jones, but I'm with you. Barber, to me, should be the lead back. However, I think it's Julius Jones's job to lose. I think he's going to get boatload of carries. He got a lot of carries in the minicamps and OTAs that we were allowed to see. I think it's up to Marion Barber. If Marion Barber wants to be the man - and the Cowboys are going to give him every opportunity to be the man because Julius Jones is in the last year of his contract, he's going to be unrestricted. So, they're going to let him go. Barber's also in the last year of his deal, but he is restricted. So if Barber can show the Cowboys that he can be the #1 guy, they'll give him the money and let Julius Jones go. But as you know, there's a kid from Arkansas that might come out in the draft next year that Jerry Jones loves, and they could also grab him with that high pick they got from the Browns.

SB: Calvin, another guy that you indicated that there's going to be some uncertainty about is Terrell Owens. You would have to think that he has a better outlook going into the season. Bill Parcells is gone. Todd Haley is gone - two of the people that he really had problems with. Are you noticing a difference in his approach? Does he seem a little more lighthearted? Do you think that this will be the first year in a long time that Terrell Owens won't make the headlines for any off the field issues, or as you said, do you think we really don't know what we're going to get from him?

CW: You know, I talked to TO a couple of days ago, and he seemed to be in pretty good spirits. I think he just wants to be respected, and I don't think he felt like he was respected last year from Parcells. I think now, I think Ray Sherman has reached out to TO, I think Jason Garrett has reached out to TO, Wade Phillips - they're all kissing the ring of the Terrell Owens, and they're throwing him the ball. I mean he's the first guy - when they break the huddles in the practices, he is the first option. So, if he can't be happy with this situation, he'll never be happy.

CL: Definitely, you've got to keep TO happy if you want that offensive to be productive, now let's talk about a rookie wide receiver. We talked to Isaiah Stanback a few weeks ago. Just an amazing kid, very smart, very well-spoken, and willing to do whatever it takes. Now, he's got the foot injury. He's making the switch from quarterback to wide receiver. Is Stanback maybe going to be a practice squad guy this year, or do you see him maybe making the active roster, and then really in a couple of years, becoming and Antwaan Randle El type of player?

CW: The Cowboys talked about, they wanted to draft a wide receiver in the draft. So they bypassed a few guys in the first round, and then here comes Isaiah Stanback running around, and he's a quarterback that really will play wide receiver. I think he can make the active roster, because the Cowboys want him to punt return, and the guy who he has to beat out is Jamaica Rector, who was the fifth/sixth receiver who was inactive a lot last year. He's the guy he (Stanback) has to beat out. If Stanback can do that - and the Cowboys coaches I've talked to love him, they love his speed which you guys talked about. He's a very smart guy, because he's picked up the offense really well, which is what they need. I think if he can beat out - I don't know, I'm not impressed so much because this is a quarterback trying to play wideout. There's only so many Randle Els out there. I'm not sure. They want him to catch punts. He's never done it before. He didn't really do it in minicamp because he was trying to recover from the foot injury, that was a really severe foot injury. They said he's fast, he looks in great shape, and I like talking to him. He's got a chance to be on the practice squad, but I think the Cowboys have higher aspirations for him. I think they want him to be on the active roster, and beat out Jamaica Rector.

SB: Calvin, let's switch to the other side of the ball. You mentioned the great improvement Wade Phillips usually brings to a defense when he comes to a team. Let's talk about specifically the effect he's going to have on the two most fearsome Cowboys on defense - Demarcus Ware and Roy Williams. What kind of effect is Phillips going to have on Williams and Ware? Are they going to be freed up to wreak more havoc on defense?

CW: I think with your boy Roy Williams, they want Roy to move close to the line of scrimmage. Under Bill Parcells, Parcells wanted Roy to play more in coverage, and he can't cover. Let's be honest, he can not cover. I can get a truck driver that can beat Roy Williams on a post route, but that's why they want Roy closer to the line of scrimmage, to create havoc against the run, and against those tight ends. So I think he'll have a much better year. Demarcus Ware, everyone says they compare Demarcus Ware to Shawne Merriman, well Merriman played a different position than Demarcus Ware. You know Merriman is powerful, and Demarcus is more of a finesse guy. I think Demarcus will have a very good year in this system, because he's going to blitz more. He can line up on either side of the line of scrimmage. He can stunt. He can blitz inside. He can blitz outside. He can do a million different things. So I think he will benefit the most, moreso than Roy, because Roy still has to cover some guys every once and a while. But I think Demarcus is really going to have a good year.

CL: Calvin, my final question for you has to do again with the defensive side of the ball. Bloom went absolutely crazy out at Radio City Music Hall when they drafted Anthony Spencer, linebacker from Purdue. What do you think this kid's future prospects are, because he could really turn out to be a player.

CW: Yeah, you know when I saw him at the minicamp, he looked really good. He looked really fast, looked real strong. Then when I talked to Greg Ellis, who might lose his job to Anthony Spencer, Ellis really likes him. Spencer's picked up the defense really well. He's developing a stutter step, which is what you need in the NFL. He's got the potential. Eventually he's going to be the starting outside backer. He could also put three fingers down and play defensive end if he needs to. They might put him inside a little bit, let him rush up the middle, and have Greg Ellis blitz from the outside. So they can do a lot of things with Spencer. I like him, and I thought he was a little bit bigger. I expected him to be a little bit bigger when I met him face to face, you know it's like you meet Al Pacino and he's four foot tall, and in the movies, he's six foot tall. I like Spencer. I think he'll be good. He's a rookie, and Wade Phillips does not like starting rookies, and that's the thing. He's not trying to play rookies right away. He's trying to give rookies a year or two to develop. I think next year you'll really see a good season out of Anthony Spencer.

SB: Calvin, for my final question I want to ask you about somebody who was forgotten, at least for the first part of the season last year when Drew Bledsoe was in. Tony Romo found him more. Now we have the new offensive coordinator, Jason Garrett, talking about getting him back involved in the offense at the level he was before. Jason Witten, the tight end, very talented pass catcher over the middle. Talk about how his role is going to change in the Garrett offense and what you expect from him this year.

CW: I think the key for Witten is that his best friend is the quarterback. He's definitely going to get a lot of balls. Whereas when Drew Bledsoe was the quarterback, his best friend, Terry Glenn, got all the balls. Witten is going to be open over the middle a lot more, because I think Garrett is going to try to be more vertical. He's going to send TO and Terry Glenn on deeper routes, and he's going to have Patrick Crayton running some deeper routes. He's going to stretch the defense and open the door for Witten to get a lot more passes over the middle of the field. I was just shocked at how many times they didn't throw to Witten early in the year, and his numbers were down. His numbers kind of picked up as the season went on. He really didn't have hardly any touchdowns, which really surprised me, because they weren't throwing him the ball. When Romo finally got into a rhythm with things, he found Witten. I think Garrett is going to use him like Jay Novacek was used back in the day before we were born, and I expect good things out of Witten this year.

CL: You want to keep up with America's team, you read the Dallas Morning News, and you read everything that Calvin Watkins writes. Calvin, thanks for joining the show, man.

CW: Hey, man, thanks for thinking of me.