Column by TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News | tarcher@dallasnews.com
IRVING – The Cowboys are 25 games into the Roy Williams experiment, and they are still waiting for a return on the investment.
Wade Phillips said from the NFL Scouting Combine that the "best players will play." Jerry Jones said he does not see a scenario in which Williams would not be a starter in 2010.
Both guys can be right. I didn't see this as Jones undercutting Phillips. I saw this more as Jones believing Williams will be one of the two best receivers on the roster this year. That's what Phillips believes too.
And here comes the "but." But if that doesn't happen, then the Cowboys cannot stick with the status quo. Williams simply hasn't shown he's worth it. He has 57 catches for 694 yards and eight touchdowns in 25 regular-season games. Those are No. 3 numbers ... for a season.
It's up to Williams to deliver. Not Wade Phillips, which seems to be part of the Cowboys' plan. Phillips isn't involved in the offense, so I don't see how he can have an influence here, like he has with Bobby Carpenter say. And it's not the system or the scheme or any of that.
The Cowboys were more "Williams friendly," to kind of steal a term made famous last off-season, in what types of routes he ran in 2009. He ran slants. He ran digs. He wasn't on go routes all the time, which is what he complained about after 2008.
Last year, Williams and Tony Romo started some throwing sessions before the off-season program began and are expected to do it again this year. That's good news, but there's something else I'd like to see: in the pre-game warmups those two need to be on the field together, much like Peyton Manning was with Marvin Harrison for all of those years and Reggie Wayne now. I don't see Williams on the field a couple of hours early working on routes with Romo.
Is that the cure? No, but it's at least something different because nothing has worked for Williams yet.
