Dallas Cowboys Update: Injuries Piling Up on the Cowboys

The online betting world has been impressed with the way that the Dallas Cowboys have improved its record to 6-4. But the week 11 win over the Washington Redskins was a costly one as the Cowboys have some injuries to overcome prior to its week 12 meeting with the Dolphins. No less that five price per head Dallas players were either seen in some sort of cast at practices early this week, or they were not seen at all.

Most notable among the injuries is the foot injury to safety Gerald Sensabaugh, who hurt his foot just prior to halftime in the Washington game. Sensabaugh was seen wearing a walking cast and hopes to play against the Dolphins. But the Cowboys only have until Thursday to get its team ready as the pay per head week 12 game is a special Thanksgiving Day meeting. Sensabaugh has said that he will see how his foot feels, but the short week is not going to help.

Another notable Cowboy that will not be playing in the Miami game is back-up quarterback Jon Kitna. He suffered a back injury and is still having difficulty moving around. He is not expected to play this week, and it is unknown when he will be able to return.

Other Cowboys hobbled by injuries include wide receiver Miles Austin who is still nursing a hamstring injury, fullback Tony Fiammetta who was ill and back-up cornerback Mike Jenkins who is also out with a hamstring injury. Dallas head coach Jason Garrett has not given any indication on when the injured Cowboys will return or if any of them are expected to play Thursday.

Garrett and the other Dallas coaches spent all Sunday night doing a 5 dimes review of the game tape from the Washington game and preparing for the Dolphins. One of the advantages that Garrett has is that he played for the Cowboys and he is intimately familiar with the challenges of the short week leading up to the Thanksgiving game. His time as a player and assistant coach with the Cowboys makes him uniquely qualified to handle the strain and pressure of the short Thanksgiving week.

The NFL fans in Dallas are completely behind their quarterback Tony Romo, but Romo’s lack of concentration in week 11 almost cost the Cowboys the game. With time ticking down on the clock as the Cowboys were preparing for the winning field goal in overtime, Romo reached up to call a timeout. The problem is that the Cowboys had already used both of its overtime timeouts and had none left. If the referees would have awarded the timeout to Romo, then it would have been a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. But, luckily for Romo, Washington head coach Mike Shanahan was calling a timeout at the same time to ice the Dallas kicker. The referees awarded Washington its timeout and Dallas won the game.

Romo indicated that he was trying to stop the clock to give the kicker time to make the kick. He did not realize that he had no timeouts left. Head coach Jason Garrett has not commented in any depth on the incident.

Do Cowboys, Jerry Jones Want Mike Shanahan over Wade Phillips as Head Coach?

So maybe the Dallas Cowboys‘ coaching staff is not, in fact, already in place.

Many Cowboys fans, and NFL fans in general, were surprised to hear Jerry Jones profess unyielding support for Wade Phillips in the wake of another December collapse by the Dallas Cowboys.

Immediately after the Cowboys laid a monstrous and putrid rotten egg at Philadelphia in Week 17, which was made all the more egregious by stories of the Cowboys treating the plane ride home like “the last day of school”, Jerry Jones made the following comments:

“The coaches are in place. I’ve said that. How can I be any clearer?” Jones said. “Look, I’ve said that our coaching staff, as far as I’m concerned, is in place. I just want to make the statement rather than answer questions, because your questions imply certain things that I don’t want to imply.

“I’m saying that when I look at where we are coaching staff-wise and when I look at where we are personnel-wise, I see a team that is in place to compete for several years.”

A little over a week later, reports are beginning to circulate that Jerry Jones may be slowly changing his mind.

According to a report posted today by Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk, Chris Mortensen of ESPN is reporting that Jerry Jones is getting “angrier by the minute” as he reflects on the disappointing 2008 Cowboys season. And making matters worse for Wade Phillips and the current Cowboys coaching staff is that a potential Hall of Fame coach has surprisingly become available for Jerry Jones to salivate over.

Last week, the Denver Broncos fired head coach Mike Shanahan. While Shanahan presided over his own precipitous collapse this season in Denver, and has only one playoff win in the last decade, he certainly has a more impressive head coaching resume than any other available head coaching candidate.

Shanahan is 146-98 in his head coaching career, good for a .598 winning percentage. He also has two Super Bowl rings, when Denver went back-to-back behind John Elway and Terrell Davis in 1997 and 1998. By comparison, Wade Phillips is 70-49 as a head coach, and has 22 out of 32 games in Dallas. Phillips, however, has not experienced any postseason success, going 0-4 in the playoffs.

Is it any wonder why Jerry Jones may be having second thoughts about keeping Wade Phillips in place as head coach?

Part of the reason why many people speculated that Jones would keep Wade Phillips and the current coaching staff in place is the assumption, as Florio explains at PFT, that Jerry Jones is “getting stretched pretty thin as he prepares to enter a $1.1 billion stadium in a bad economy.” Hiring a coach like Bill Cowher, at probably $10 million a year, probably was not all that attractive to Jones.

However, despite his lofty credentials and experience, Mike Shanahan likely would not require a huge contract considering he is guaranteed $21 million from the Broncos over the next three years.

Florio speculates that with Jason Garrett potentially moving onto a head job somewhere else, it could be an opportune time to bring in Mike Shanahan to revamp the offense, tutor struggling QB Tony Romo, and perhaps allow Wade Phillips to move to defensive coordinator.

I don’t know how realistic it is to think that Wade Phillips would accept a demotion, but a similar situation has also been rumored in Cleveland with former head coach Romeo Crennel. Both Crennel and Phillips are renowned as “nice guys” who lack the killer instinct and toughness and be head coaches; and both are purported to not be so driven by ego and pride that a step back to defensive coordinator is out of the question.

I know this: I was surprised to hear Jerry Jones be so vehement in his support for Wade Phillips. I realize that Jerry Jones has proven to be pretty loyal over the years, and likes to give head coaches at least three years; but after the Cowboys’ collapse with such high expectations, I figured Jones would blow a gasket and want fresh leadership heading into his new stadium.

Signing a coach with the credentials and reputation of Mike Shanahan would certainly create a big splash heading into the 2009 season. Jones may be confident that he has the pieces in place to have a successful team, but he has to be questioning the coaching leadership after another late season collapse.

Right now, it appears as if Mike-Shanahan-to-the-Cowboys is merely rumor and speculation. But stay tuned; and don’t be surprised if rumor and speculation quickly turns into legitimate, potentially franchise-altering story. Jerry Jones wants to win, and he wants to win now. Is there anyone who can posit an argument that the Cowboys would not be in better hands with a proven Super Bowl champion as head coach, as opposed to a glorified defensive coordinator who calls his own training camp “Camp Cupcake?”

Stay tuned Cowboys fans. So far, the Cowboys have not been included in the myriad coaching carousel stories floating around the NFL since the end of the regular season. If Jerry Jones’ reported anger continues to grow by the minute, the Cowboys could once again be right in the middle of the action.

And Mike Shanahan could be the new target of Jerry Jones insatiable yearly urge to create a big offseason splash.

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Sunday night update: The latest is the Cowboys are very interested in Mike Shanahan, but that the most likely timetable would be 2010.