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
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.
There is a new disciplined culture in San Francisco stemming from the transition to ‘Samari’ Mike Singletary as head football coach. The 49ers tradition of excellence has been everything but that since Steve Young retired back in 1999. Sure the team had a successful filler in Jeff Garcia for a number or years, but he never proved the ability to take the team to the next level. After Garcia, enter incumbent journeyman Tim Rattay, whose inconstancies continued to contribute to the demise of this once proud organization. After finishing with the league’s worst record in 2004 and being ‘rewarded’ the consolation of the first overall selection in the NFL draft, the 49ers had their franchise quarterback in sight. 
Martellus Bennett, 2nd round pick from Texas A&M, catches balls from Tony Romo behind All-Pro tight end Jason Witten. Although Bennett’s role was somewhat limited last year as a rookie playing behind arguably the best tight end in the league, he was still able to account for four touchdowns, tying with Jason Witten. One of these touchdowns, an athletic grab over the head of Redskin’s defender Horton, sealed the deal in a clutch situation against a division rival. But this was only as a rookie and has many years to grow even further into the NFL. Putting Bennett’s rookie season into perspective, Witten caught 35 balls for one touchdown in his rookie season.
Let the soap opera start again. The Brett Favre saga is slowly gaining momentum as his name and the potential of a comeback are once more making headlines. Favre, who retired from the NFL for what seems like the 83rd time after this past season, may very well be playing on Sundays once more. Everyone figured he was serious this time when he said he was truly walking away. However, skepticism grew when the New York Jets released Favre, giving up his rights. If you recall from last year, the Minnesota Vikings and Brett Favre had a mutual crush on each other—but being bitter division rivals there was zero chance Green Bay would have dealt him there. Now that Favre has no ties to any team, the idea of Favre finally ending up in Minnesota went from fantasy to reality. It seems like every offseason people claim Minnesota is just one quarterback away from becoming a championship caliber team. It seems too perfect to be true for Favre who will most likely have the opportunity to get his revenge on Green Bay.
