A year ago the Cowboys gave Mike Vanderjagt a $2.5 million signing bonus only to see him flop. On Monday, the Cowboys gave Martin Gramatica far less as part of a two-year deal, but they feel like they have shored up a spot that has been inconsistent for a long time.
After replacing Vanderjagt, who missed five field goals in 11 games, Gramatica made six of eight field goal attempts. In his Cowboys debut, he made a 46-yarder with six seconds to play to beat the New York Giants.
A serious groin injury in 2004 led to his release by Tampa Bay and forced him to miss the 2005 season. He spent time in New England's training camp last summer and was with Indianapolis for a spell before coming to Dallas.
Doing his homework: Romo has been a constant visitor to Valley Ranch in the off-season as Garrett and assistant head coach Tony Sparano put together a new offense.
"A lot of the stuff is going to be coming from last year, but the terminology is going to be different," Romo said. "We'll probably have a little more flexibility to change plays quickly during the game a little easier than we were before. But it's going to be a lot of the same stuff. Just Jason will bring some different wrinkles and add hopefully some dynamic stuff."
Briefly: The Cowboys suffered their first defection of the free agency period Monday when center Al Johnson signed a four-year deal with Arizona. Johnson, who started 31 of 32 games in 2004-05 before Andre Gurode claimed the job in last summer's training camp, also visited Tampa Bay. Defensive end Kenyon Coleman could be the second to leave. He is close to a deal with the New York Jets. ... Linebacker Greg Ellis is beginning to jog in his rehabalitation from a torn Achilles' tendon.
