Sunday, February 24, 2008

Jerry on the State of the Offense

Jerry on the offense
by Albert Breer

And so begins a series of Jerry Jones' thoughts we'll be posting here, so you guys can see how the whole thing went. We'll start with his thoughts on the offense.

He was asked, to begin with, if running back and receiver are primary needs heading into free agency and the draft.

"Without Julius signed, it's obvious we need to look at running back. How we get there, might surprise you," Jones said. "So that's No. 1 - how we get there might surprise you. It can be, but it's not necessarily drafting one. We're pretty pleased with our young receivers.

"We have a couple young ones that really didn't do a thing as receivers in ballgames that have a chance to make us better. We're not without some real potential with some young receivers we've got on the team. And that will have a big bearing on my decisions. We have potential on the team to do what we could do in some degree in the draft, from the standpoint of young receivers.

"So it could easily be addressed that way. We see that one way or the other, along with (Jason) Witten and Terrell (Owens), that it would be good to have, whether it's from within or not, whether it's a veteran or a rookie, we see the need to get another dimension - and I emphasize development - from another consideration for defenses to have deal with, other than Terrell Owens and Witten.

"Plus, we need it for insurance, because as we saw, Terrell can get nicked. So there's two really big-time reasons why we will be doing some things at the receiver positions, but not necessarily dismissed what we've got from within in (Sam) Hurd and I'll put (Patrick) Crayton with Hurd, and (Miles) Austin and (Mike) Jefferson and (Isaiah) Stanback."

Jones was then asked about Terry Glenn's future.

"My gut and my feel is he's going to come back and play without surgery," said Jones, a feeling he said he's gotten from Glenn. "I haven't had the opportunity to visit with him. But I've had it through third party and got a sense for how he's feeling right now, which is good news.

"I don't know (if he can be the same guy). All I know is he got real impressive a couple weeks before our playoff game. That still is not the complete picture of what he can and will do relative to our receivers. But he's going be a factor."

Jones was then asked about protecting against injury at the position, something to which he said, "We should. And we saw Terrell, it was certainly a part of it, Terrell wasn't full speed. That's not an excuse, but he was not full speed. And we saw what could happen to you at times when you get him limited, and certainly we had to deal with Terry just coming back from his.

"I don't think that was a primary impact on that last ballgame. Still, you see what can happen. And what we were getting from Terrell before that last ballgame, you could see it fell of a little bit."

With the skill position addressed, Jones moved on to the question at left tackle. He said it's not a certainty that Flozell Adams will hit the market Thursday night -- a long-term pact could be worked out. At the same time, he says he'd feel comfortable moving Leonard Davis to left tackle if need be.

"The reason I can say that is a lot of the exercise that I went through, and that we in turn went through with the staff, was that was a good reason to sign Leonard Davis - That he's a very viable option at left tackle," Jones said. "The obvious is the obvious. You lose a Pro Bowl right guard, if he goes to that tackle, which is a major consideration."

We asked Jones then if that messes with two spots. He said it doesn't, but wouldn't call Davis a "Pro Bowl left tackle" quite yet.

"I don't know about that," Jones said. "But he made Pro Bowl at guard, whereas he hadn't made Pro Bowl at guard before. So maybe the same thing happens at left tackle."