Listen closely: Roy Williams does not have to fill Terrell Owens’ shoes for the trade to be deemed a success. Jerry Jones didn’t release Owens because he felt Roy Williams could put up the same numbers in place of Owens. If that were the case, why release Owens in the first place when you have him putting up those touchdowns year after year? As quoted from Jerry Jones himself, the release of Terrell Owens was fueled by an attempt to make the offense “Romo friendly.”

What exactly does “Romo friendly” mean? Let’s start at the root of the issue that made the Cowboys “Romo unfriendly.” There is a strong correlation between the amount of balls thrown in the direction of Terrell Owens and the amount of touchdowns and interceptions. Sure, Owens caught many touchdowns during his stay with the Cowboys, but they came at the expense of forced interceptions. Romo threw way too many balls to one “go-to guy,” many of which were intercepted. Everyone knows Owens is a great receiver, but a lot of his catches came from the excessive amount of balls thrown his way. Quite frankly, with the amount of passes thrown his way, his statistics should have been through the roof. So how do you fix this “Romo unfriendliness?” Jerry Jones decided it was time to part ways with Owens and spread the love.

In this offseason transition, Jerry wants Romo to spread the ball around to the open receiver without feeling the need to feed 15 passes per game to one triple covered receiver. So why is everyone dwelling on the fact that newly acquired Roy Williams has to match the production of Terrell Owens? If he does end up catching 70 balls for 1300 yards and 10 touchdowns, that is great. But that isn’t the only indicator of success. The Cowboys didn’t draft Martellus Bennett and Felix Jones to sit the sidelines while Jason Witten and Roy Williams have balls forced to them through double coverage. If Roy Williams finishes the year with 800 yards and 6 touchdowns, but Romo still throws 30 touchdowns with only 10 interceptions, Roy has done his job. Jerry doesn’t want one player to dictate the success of the offense, and when 15 balls were thrown to Terrell Owens every game, the success of the Cowboy resided on the success of Owens.

So what does Roy Williams have to do? He needs to be a constant contributor by either taking advantage of single coverage or drawing double coverage to open up plays for other passing and running threats. The Cowboys have so many players that they want to get the ball to that you cannot expect a single receiver (Roy Williams) to produce #1 receiver type numbers. You will be able to tell if Roy did his job by looking at Romo’s statistics and how the offense put up points. I’m not saying Roy is merely a decoy to open up the offense, but a “Romo friendly” offense does not include feeding footballs to Roy Williams like the amount fed to Terrell Owens.

Gabe Pinchev

Not only did Lions receiver Calvin Johnson persuade me last year that he was the best receiver in the game with his 1300 yard, 12 touchdown year, but Johnson accounted for 66% of the passing touchdowns while catching passes from 5 different quarterbacks throughout the year. At 6’5, 240 lbs with great hands, speed, body control, work ethic, and any other important wide receiver attribute I might have missed, Johnson received most of the defensive attention from opponents. That did not stop Johnson from catching 78 passes under double and triple teams, while his team struggled to win a single game. Although Johnson had an amazing second year in the NFL with a failing team, the start of his career is yet to begin.

In 2009, Johnson will be lining up with the future of the Lions’ offense, which will only get better as time progresses. Number one overall pick, Matthew Stafford, will start at quarterback during the 2009 season and has already shown a tendency to challenge the defense downfield. Coincidentally, Calvin Johnson’s skills matchup quite nicely with an aggressive, downfield passing game. Although Stafford didn’t quite have the most impressive preseason stats, Stafford’s play did not accurately reflect those stats. Outside of Calvin Johnson, the receivers dropped several great passes, which would even make Peyton Manning look bad. Putting the numbers aside, Stafford made many great throws downfield including a 37 yard pass to Calvin Johnson down the sideline against the Bills. If it were not for a toe touching the out of bounds line, Johnson would have ran another 55 yards for a 92-yard touchdown catch. I only see Johnson making more plays like this in the future.

You may think the Lions don’t have many other weapons, figuring Johnson accounted for 66% of last year’s receiving touchdowns, but they didn’t draft tight end Brandon Pettigrew in the first round to just block. If teams think that shutting down the Lions offense means shutting down Calvin Johnson, they will also have to account for the “first round picks” passing connection: Stafford to Pettigrew. Regardless, if a receiver’s third year in the league is supposedly the breakout year for the position, I’m scared to see what Johnson will do this year after a 1300 yard, 12 touchdown second year in the league.

Gabe Pinchev

They weren’t that bad, really. Although the Lions went 0-16, they weren’t an 0-16 team. Sure, they gave up the second most amount of points in the history of the NFL, but did you see the detailed picture behind the “0-16” poster boards? I’m guessing you didn’t watch many Lions game in 2008, let alone all of them. Understandable, you probably didn’t even know which of 5 quarterbacks was playing that week, and since they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs in week 11 and practically eliminated from the playoffs after week 5, you most likely didn’t care too much about how they did (except of course to see if they’d lose every game of the season). Or you may have seen the “low light” film capturing Orlovsky taking a snap and running through the back of his own end zone on a boot leg, only to find himself out of bounds for a safety after the officials blew the whistle. But really, they weren’t that bad.

The Lions had a decent shot to win every game they played deep into the game except for three blowouts including the Thanksgiving Day Titan game and New Orleans Saints punishment. Yes, I believe the Lions lost 13 games in which they had a decent chance to win well into the game. 6 of the 14 games ended within reach of one possession. I realize that they gave up an amazing amount of points with an awful secondary, but the team played with several different quarterbacks and had a mid-season coach change. What does it say to the team if the owner decides to fire the coach 4 games into the season? It seems like the owner gave up on the year and was building for next year.

Sure enough, the Lions are gearing up for the future with their arsenal of high picks including first rounders Stafford and Pettigrew. By putting a face on the franchise and stability to the position along with a better roll of the dice this year, the Lions should have a much better year. I see how it would be hard to not have a better year, but I’m not talking winning 0 games to 3 games. I see the rising Lions and the wildcat fluke riding Dolphins having matching records. After all, I believe half of football is chance. I don’t like to call it luck, because that seems to indicate strong tendencies to have good or bad chance. Simply put, the Lions suffered bad chance in 2008, much like how the Cowboys suffered bad chance the same year due to a ridiculous amount of important injuries. Who would have thought that the Cowboys would suffer major injuries to so many important players? After all, footballs are a funny prolate spheroid shape with pointy ends and they don’t always take a “home-field” bounce.

Gabe Pinchev

Training camp is now underway, and as players get back into steady action, here are a few players to keep an eye on for the upcoming season:

Tom Brady missed almost all of last year with a torn ACL suffered in the first game of the season. As backup Matt Cassel eventually righted the ship that most people thought was left to sink, the Patriots scrounged out an impressive, but disappointing, 11-5 record while missing the playoffs. After trading Cassel away, the Patriots organization must believe one of two things: Either Tom Brady is fully healthy and ready to return to 2007 form, or Matt Cassel, like Brady or any quarterback, is a dispensable product of their system. Either way, only time will tell how Brady bounces back after injury. If this is any indication of my opinion of Brady’s recovery, I fantasy drafted Brady with my late first round pick. As a complimentary player, Randy Moss should have a bounce back year. I can’t see Moss putting up 22 touchdowns this year, but if Brady has to toss the ball around even near as much this year as his 2007-2008 season where he played most games with a comfortable lead, Moss could easily put up double digit touchdowns.

Larry Fitzgerald put on a show in the 2009 playoffs, but will the production carry over to the regular season? Although Fitzgerald was quite spotlighted by defenses to begin with, Fitzgerald will most likely receive even more defensive attention after the recent media and fan worshiping. As a result, I’m predicting that Anquon Boldin and Steve Breaston will greatly benefit from the defensive attention Fitzgerald takes away similar to last year. In 2008, Boldin’s 11 touchdowns in 12 games was greatly attributed to the force opposite of him. After Fitzgerald’s playoff production, I only see the attention increasing. Boldin should reconsider his desire to leave Arizona. On another note, the Cardinals will try a more balanced attack, most likely featuring rookie runningback Beanie Wells.

Roy Williams came under the spotlight this off-season after the departure of Terrell Owens. Although Williams has been the “go-to guy” every year since high school, many still doubt his ability to catch footballs and pick up where Owens left off. Although I don’t see Williams matching the touchdown totals of Terrell Owens from 2007 (15), the Cowboys aren’t planning on targeting Williams as often as Owens was targeted. With the new “Romo-Friendly” offense Jerry Jones has tailored, Romo plans to spread the ball around more without forcing the ball to a specific receiver regardless of the receiver’s separation from the defender (as you may have noticed the past three years). However, if I were to force a ball to one of the two receivers, I believe Roy Williams would have the upper hand in catching the football in traffic or without separation from the defender. But the new plan does not force the ball to one receiver nor limit the catches to just wide receivers. Garrett plans to incorporate two rising stars, Felix Jones and Martellus Bennett, into the passing game. The fleet-footed runningback has been described as Dallas’ most indispensable player by team ownership, so why wouldn’t they try everything to put the ball in his hands?

Gabe Pinchev

Sure, Michael Vick’s dog fighting wasn’t quite moral, humane, or even the least bit charming. But Vick’s case was handled unjustly due to the media backlash and public backing. Vick received two years in jail for orchestrating a dog fighting league. Donte Stallworth served 24 days in jail for a DUI manslaughter. In case you didn’t catch the wording, a “manslaughter” incorporates the murder of a human being. Judging by the amount of media and public outcry towards each case, Americans seem to value the lives of vicious pit bulls over the lives of innocent men walking home from work early in the morning.

Regardless, the public and media’s response to the allegations helped fuel the ultimate sentencing in each case. As a result, Vick served a 24 times larger sentence than Stallworth in addition to the opportunity cost foregone while spending time in jail. Vick’s reputation, money, and sharp football skills have all been thrown out the window, while he is currently left trying to salvage what’s left of his career and life.

Vick’s misfortune does not end here. The NFL decided to further punish Vick with a conditional suspension that would likely not let Vick resume playing football as of week 1. This is all said keeping in mind the fact that Vick will have trouble landing a spot on any team, altogether. There are rumors floating around that Vick is close to signing with different teams, but Vick may have to wait until training camp or early season injuries to have his number called.

Gabe Pinchev