Cowboys are finding out the best pick was Free
By RANDY GALLOWAY
Star-Telegram staff writer
I find NFL exhibition games useful for one reason:
Scouts from around the league flock to the press box. There is plenty of football expertise floating around, as opposed to the regular season, when it's mainly just the distinguished "working media" serving as press box inhabitants.
But with the influx of scouts, August is a good month to ask questions and attempt to learn something.
For example, Thursday night at Texas Stadium, the Cowboys and Colts knocked off the rust and, for the most part, some tackle football was being played for the first time since last season.
In training camp practices these days, very few teams allow tackle football anymore, including the two clubs on the field for this exhibition opener.
But it was conversations with the scouts that I found maybe more interesting than the game. Plus, it was also an honor to be seated in the vicinity of the legendary Mean Joe Greene, a Flower Mound resident who scouts for, guess who? The Steelers, of course.
Anyway, for the exhibition opener, I was intent on watching a rookie left tackle for the Cowboys named Doug Free, simply because I'm amused by one football tidbit that involves TCU.
Free is from Northern Illinois, and the last game he played in college was in that San Diego bowl contest in December against the Frogs. His assignment for most of that night was to block Frogs defensive end Tommy Blake.
To put it nicely, Free didn't have much success. Or as one Cowboys scout said Thursday night, "The Blake kid lit him up." But another scout noted, "First, Blake is a great player, and while [Free] lost that battle, he really wasn't all that bad." That it "wasn't that bad" is an opinion in the minority.
Whatever, the Cowboys still thought enough of Doug Free to make him a fourth-round draft pick in April. And since then, through the spring and summer, Free has emerged as a real "find."
Some think he has thus far been the best rookie on the team, better than Anthony Spencer, the first-round pick at linebacker. Which is why there was heavy concern Thursday night when Free went out in the third quarter with a knee injury, but by Friday an MRI showed only a sprain, meaning he'd miss only a couple of weeks.
Free started the game at left tackle (Flozell Adams was injured) and on the first series went up against the mighty Dwight Freeney, the Colts defensive end, for a 15-play drive.
Free more than held his own, although Freeney's interest level in this game probably wasn't that high.
But back to my amusement. What are scouts looking "for" in the draft when a player gets his butt beat in a bowl game?
The obvious answer from most scouts:
Blake is an outstanding talent and will be one of the best college defensive players in the country this season. A repeat of his junior year performance will make him a first-round draft pick in April, maybe even a high first-round pick. Therefore, it's no disgrace when Blake gets the best of you.
(Pay attention here, Gary Patterson.)
Said one scout, and it was repeated by several others: "That coach at TCU does a great job in finding talent and developing talent. He can take high school players maybe the Big 12 overlooks and turn them into something.
"TCU puts good players on the field. That's the first thing you notice when you bring in a TCU player. He has been well-schooled, and he knows what it means to be worked hard during the week, and he knows how to prepare for a game. Those kids have plenty of football savvy."
So, in the Cowboys' scouting department, they watched Free struggle badly against Blake in that bowl game, but still liked him. Why?
"Technique," answered a scout, which is a polite way of saying they thought Free could use some coaching, particularly by Tony Sparano, quickly gaining a reputation as a highly respected offensive line coach.
Even after the San Diego bowl game, the Cowboys were interested enough in Free that Sparano, scouting director Jeff Ireland and Tom Ciskowski, the assistant scouting director, all made a trip to the Northern Illinois campus to work him out.
Based on the early returns, it was a good call.
And the NFL exhibition season is a good place to get answers that might be of interest only to me.
Star-Telegram staff writer
I find NFL exhibition games useful for one reason:
Scouts from around the league flock to the press box. There is plenty of football expertise floating around, as opposed to the regular season, when it's mainly just the distinguished "working media" serving as press box inhabitants.
But with the influx of scouts, August is a good month to ask questions and attempt to learn something.
For example, Thursday night at Texas Stadium, the Cowboys and Colts knocked off the rust and, for the most part, some tackle football was being played for the first time since last season.
In training camp practices these days, very few teams allow tackle football anymore, including the two clubs on the field for this exhibition opener.
But it was conversations with the scouts that I found maybe more interesting than the game. Plus, it was also an honor to be seated in the vicinity of the legendary Mean Joe Greene, a Flower Mound resident who scouts for, guess who? The Steelers, of course.
Anyway, for the exhibition opener, I was intent on watching a rookie left tackle for the Cowboys named Doug Free, simply because I'm amused by one football tidbit that involves TCU.
Free is from Northern Illinois, and the last game he played in college was in that San Diego bowl contest in December against the Frogs. His assignment for most of that night was to block Frogs defensive end Tommy Blake.
To put it nicely, Free didn't have much success. Or as one Cowboys scout said Thursday night, "The Blake kid lit him up." But another scout noted, "First, Blake is a great player, and while [Free] lost that battle, he really wasn't all that bad." That it "wasn't that bad" is an opinion in the minority.
Whatever, the Cowboys still thought enough of Doug Free to make him a fourth-round draft pick in April. And since then, through the spring and summer, Free has emerged as a real "find."
Some think he has thus far been the best rookie on the team, better than Anthony Spencer, the first-round pick at linebacker. Which is why there was heavy concern Thursday night when Free went out in the third quarter with a knee injury, but by Friday an MRI showed only a sprain, meaning he'd miss only a couple of weeks.
Free started the game at left tackle (Flozell Adams was injured) and on the first series went up against the mighty Dwight Freeney, the Colts defensive end, for a 15-play drive.
Free more than held his own, although Freeney's interest level in this game probably wasn't that high.
But back to my amusement. What are scouts looking "for" in the draft when a player gets his butt beat in a bowl game?
The obvious answer from most scouts:
Blake is an outstanding talent and will be one of the best college defensive players in the country this season. A repeat of his junior year performance will make him a first-round draft pick in April, maybe even a high first-round pick. Therefore, it's no disgrace when Blake gets the best of you.
(Pay attention here, Gary Patterson.)
Said one scout, and it was repeated by several others: "That coach at TCU does a great job in finding talent and developing talent. He can take high school players maybe the Big 12 overlooks and turn them into something.
"TCU puts good players on the field. That's the first thing you notice when you bring in a TCU player. He has been well-schooled, and he knows what it means to be worked hard during the week, and he knows how to prepare for a game. Those kids have plenty of football savvy."
So, in the Cowboys' scouting department, they watched Free struggle badly against Blake in that bowl game, but still liked him. Why?
"Technique," answered a scout, which is a polite way of saying they thought Free could use some coaching, particularly by Tony Sparano, quickly gaining a reputation as a highly respected offensive line coach.
Even after the San Diego bowl game, the Cowboys were interested enough in Free that Sparano, scouting director Jeff Ireland and Tom Ciskowski, the assistant scouting director, all made a trip to the Northern Illinois campus to work him out.
Based on the early returns, it was a good call.
And the NFL exhibition season is a good place to get answers that might be of interest only to me.
posted by The Gryphon at 3:48 PM
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