The Cowboys are hoping that Tony Romo proves to be for real.  The fact that they’ve not given him a long term contract and have brought in veteran Brad Johnson seems to indicate that they’re not so sure.  Romo came out of nowhere last season to replace Drew Bledsoe and lead the Cowboys to the playoffs.  He has great scrambling ability to make things happen on the run and his arm is strong enough to make all of the throws needed to succeed in the NFL.  Romo played in all 16 games (10 starts) last season and he completed 220 of 337 passes (65.3%) for 2,903 yards with 19 TD and 13 INTs (95.1 QB Rating).  He also carried the football 34 times for 102 yards (3.0 ypc).  Romo will be replaced as the team’s holder on extra points and field goals as he had a key blunder that cost them their playoff game against the Seahawks last season.  Over his career, Romo has played in 38 games (10 starts) and he’s completed 220 of 337 passes (65.3%) for 2,903 yards with 19 TDs and 13 INTs (95.1 QB Rating).  He also has carried the ball 36 times for 100 yards (2.8 ypc).

Brad Johnson was a starter most of the season for the Vikings last year and it didn’t go too well for him.  He played in 15 games (14 starts) and he completed 270 of 439 passes (61.5%) for 2,750 yards with 9 TD passes and 15 INTs (72.0 QB Rating).  He also carried the football 29 times for 82 yards (2.8 ypc) with 1 TD run.  Johnson doesn’t appear to have much left in the tank as it seems like his arm is shot.  The Cowboys better hope Romo is for real.  Johnson has played in 145 games (122 starts) over his NFL career and he’s completed 2,620 of 4,237 passes (61.8%) for 28,548 yards with 164 TD passes and 117 INTs (83.1 QB Rating).  He also has carried the football 269 times for 663 yards (2.5 ypc) with 8 TD runs.

Alan Ball stands at 6′1″, 175 pounds so he’s a wiry guy.  He has problems in defended the pass as his only strength on defense is the fast that he supports the run well.  He played against top level competition at Illinois but he still wasn’t projected to get drafted by draft experts.  Expect him to make the Cowboys on special teams but he doesn’t have much of an upside.

The Cowboys like to take workout warriors late in the draft and hope they can coach them up and Brown falls into this category.  Brown is 6′1″, 205 pounds and he runs a 4.32 40 and that’s the good news.  The bad news is that he played his college ball at Cal Poly so the competition will be quite a jump for him.  In 41 games (31 starts) at Cal Poly, Brown made 111 tackles, broke up 22 passes and intercepted 10 passes (63 return yards).  If nothing else Brown should help the Cowboys on special teams.

Deon Anderson is quite an impressive physical specimen.  He’s 5′10″, 236 pounds and he runs a 4.7 40.  Anderson is a strong runner and a good blocker.  He also is a special teams assassin so he should be a busy boy for the Cowboys this season.  In 47 games (23 starts) at U Conn, he carried the football 114 times for 420 yards (3.7 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He also caught 48 passes for 394 yards (8.2 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  Anderson was a good pick by the Cowboys.

This was an interesting pick by the Dallas Cowboys.  The Cowboys will let Folk take on Martin Gramatica in an open competition for the placekicking job.  In 44 games at Arizona, Folk was 30 for 47 (63.8%) on field goals with a long kick of 53 yards.  He also made 86 of 89 extra points.  It’s also possible that the Cowboys might want Gramatica to focus on field goals and let Folk be the kickoff man for a season.  Folk also can punt the ball as he averaged 44.0 yards per punt as a senior for Arizona.  This seems like an odd pick for the Cowboys.