Tuesday tidbits.

Snipped

Nine players, six of them rookies, were released on Monday as the staff gets the roster closer to the 53-man mark.

RB Jackie Battle, WRs Jerard Rabb, Jamaica Rector, and Jamel Richardson, OT Jason Hilliard, DTs Ola Dagunduro and Montavious Stanley, and LBs Dedrick Harrington and Alex Obomese were all let go yesterday.

The team reached an injury settlement with Battle, and Rector was the other player whose status was affected by injury. The Cowboys are in the process of trimming the depth chart at receiver, and Rabb, Rector, and Richardson were the unfortunate trio to not make the next round. And with the backup DT situation seemingly being resolved, with Jay Ratliff now looking like the favorite to be Jason Ferguson’s backup, the two DLs had to go, and with linebacker depth not really an issue, that meant Obomese and Harrington were the odd men out.

They had to cut one more player today to reach 75, and that guy was offensive tackle Pete Lougheed.

Worse Than We Thought?

Terence Newman wants to play. The Cowboys need him to play. But will he play against the Giants in the season opener?

That’s the $64,000 question right now, as Newman remains on the sidelines due to plantar fascitis in his foot. Wade Phillips has said that he expects Newman to be ready for the opener, and Newman has said he doesn’t plan on missing out, but he’s also said that he can’t plant on his foot, and that isn’t good news.
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So, what to do? Considering what went on Saturday night against the Texans, it might be that a 75% Newman is better than no Newman at all, and if the foot is still bothering him more than he’d like when the 9th gets closer, pain-killing injections could be a possibility.

Take that as a note, guys who are battling for roster spots at corner. If he’s got no qualms about playing through the pain for the sake of the team, you better put it in high gear this week in practice and against Minnesota, because you should make sure that you’ve got his and the team’s back if he can’t go, or is limited.

And, speaking of the secondary, I will have the secondary storylines/preview up sometime later on today. And, I’ll round it out tomorrow with a look at the kicking competition and the rest of the special teams. After the preseason is over, I’ll have a condensed preview/analysis/prediction, which will go along with the NFC East and NFL previews I will be doing in the week leading up to the season opener.