One of course was the secondary, where coaches Dave Campo and Brett Maxie were replaced by new defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson, and secondary assistant Joe Baker.  Of course cornerback Terence Newman was released, and free agent strong safety Abram Elam wasn’t resigned. They will be replaced by free agent cornerback Brandon Carr, first round draft pick ( 6th overall ) cornerback Morris Claiborne, free agent safety Brodney Pool, and 4th round pick safety Matt Johnson.

Carr and Claiborne will be the starting cornerbacks, Gerald Sensabaugh will be returning to strong safety ( where he started all 16 games at free safety in 2011 ), and Pool and Johnson will battle it out for the open free safety spot.

Talk about a facelift. The Cowboys will definitely have a new look in the secondary, but what about the offensive line ?

Let’s start with how the Offensive line looked in 2011 first of all :

2011 First round pick ( 9th overall ) Tyron Smith started 16 games at Right Tackle
5th year veteran Doug Free started all 16 games at Left Tackle
10th year veteran Kyle Kosier ( now released ) started all 16 games at Right Guard
2nd year veteran Phil Costa started all 16 games at Center

And then there was a changing of the guard at Left Guard :

2011 6th round pick Bill Nagy started 4 games before breaking his ankle at New England, and placed on injured reserve
2011 free agent pickup Derrick Dockery ( not resigned ) started 2 games
Released and resigned Montrae Holland ( not resigned ) started 10 games
2011 rookie free agent center/guard Kevin Kowalski played 114 snaps with 0 starts

As soon as the 2012 offseason began, Offensive Line coach Hudson Houck retired. And in comes former N.Y. Jets Offensive line and assistant head coach Bill Callahan, who will take over as Offensive Line coach and Offensive Coordinator.

Callahan was handed the duties to place 5 players on the field that can protect the quarterback in passing situations, and open up the holes to form running lanes for the running backs. A simple chore ? Not exactly.

There will be plenty of work and competition once training camp begins. Smith and Free will be switching sides at the tackles. This will be Smith’s first campain at left tackle, while Free showed promise when he started 7 games in 2009 at right tackle when he replaced Marc Columbo after Columbo had suffered a broken leg.

When free agency started in March, Dallas was quick to sign free agent guards Nate Livings ( Bengals ) and Mackenzy Bernadeau ( Panthers ). And even though the Cowboys failed to address any players in the draft in April, Jerry Jones was beside himself, and couldn’t hold back in his press conference following the draft that they had reached an agreement with rookie free agent guard, Ron Leary, whom the scouting and coaching department had rated as high as a 3rd round pick on their draft board. Leary, who was a starter for 4 years at Memphis, fell off of many team’s draft boards due to a degenerative knee problem. But after being checked out by the team’s doctor, the Boys couldn’t help themselves by taking a chance on him.

As it stands, Livings will most likely be starting beside Smith at Left Guard, Bernadeau has been held out of OTA’s and mini camp due to hip surgery he had in early May that will sideline him for 10 to 12 weeks. Leary has been practicing with the first team at right guard, and has been impressing the coaching staff during the drills. Even though the contacts were light, The pads haven’t came on yet.

Center will be a 3-4 way battle as Costa will be battling Kowalski, Nagy, and possibly Bernadeau when training camp begins.

Other notable players that will be fighting for a roster spot next month will be 2011′s swing tackle Jermey Parnell, 2011 draft pick guard David Arkin, former Cowboys 2006 7th round draft pick OT Pat McQuistan ( recently resigned ), and rookie free agents OT’s Jeff Adams ( Columbia ), Levy Adcock ( Oklahoma State ), Tyrone Novikoff ( Idaho ), and Guard Harland Gunn ( Miami ).

In my honest opinion, when the dust finally settles and the season begins, the Cowboys will most likely carry 9-10 offensive lineman on the 53 man roster, the starting lineup will be : ( LT ) Smith ( LG ) Livings ( C ) Costa ( RG ) Leary ( RT ) Free … and your depth ( Swing Tackle ) Parnell ( Swing Guard ) Bernadeau ( 2nd string Center ) Kowalski ( Swing Guard/Center ) Nagy.

Regardless how the cards fall, just like the secondary, you are going to see some new faces as the coaching staff finally seals this offensive line once and for all. Well at least we hope anyway.

Jon Kitna – 14 years experience

Keith Brooking - 13 years experience (Sean Lee, rookie, Jason Williams, 2nd year)

Leonard Davis - 10 years experience (Holland, 8th year, Robert Brewster, 2nd year, Phil Costa, rookie, Travis Bright, 2nd year)

Marc Colombo – 9 years experience (Alex Barron, 6th year, Robert Brewster, 2nd year, Pat McQuistan, 5th year, Sam Young, rookie)

Andrew Gurode – 9 years experience (Kyle Kosier, 9th year)

Kyle Kosier – 9 years experience (Holland, 8th year, Robert Brewster, 2nd year, Phil Costa, rookie, Travis Bright, 2nd year)

Montrae Holland – 8 years experience

Bradie James – 8 years experience (Sean Lee, rookie, Jason Williams, 2nd year)

Terrence Newman – 8 years experience (Orlando Scandrick, 3rd year)

Tony Romo – 8 years experience (Jon Kitna, Stephen McGee)

Jason Witten – 8 years experience (Martellus Bennett, 3rd year)

On a roster of nearly 80 players, there are 11 players with 8 years of experience or greater, of which 9 are starters.  11 more players have 6 or 7 years experience.  In essence, going into 2010, 20 out of the entire 53 man roster will have more than 5 years experience.  This is undeniably a young team.

Injury is a part of the NFL.  Weathering injury will often determine success.  In 2008, the Cowboys suffered a spate of injuries at key positions.  At quarterback, Romo was replaced by an ineffective Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger.  Unfortunately the Cowboys had their answer at backup quarterback on their pre-season roster in 2007.  Matt Moore was waived in the final cut before the regular season.  He was claimed by the Carolina Panthers.  Moore is not a dynamic player, but he has proven to be an effective quarterback and is the expected starter for the Panthers for the 2010 season.  He has won six of his eight starts, including 4 of 5 in 2009.

Additionally in 2008, the Cowboys suffered injuries at Running  Back, Left Guard, Punter, and Safety.  The Cowboys answered these problems by giving Marion Barber more carries (not the best decision and it only caused him to later suffer an injury), inserting Pat McQuistan (who simply wasn’t good enough), signing Sam Palescu at punter (and there was a severe drop off between him and McBriar), and playing a variety of young safeties who ironically weren’t that much worse than Roy Williams, but they weren’t better.

In 2009, Marc Colombo suffered a broken leg and was replaced by Doug Free.  The was no noticeable drop off in the quality of play at the position.  The moral of the two stories is that having aged veterans on your team isn’t automatically a liability if you have talented backups who can play at an acceptable level.  If there is a foreseeable problem, it would be at guard or center.  The backup offensive linemen presently on the rosters are young, unproven, and have not been overly impressive in practice or pre-season exhibitions.

Injuries can derail a season as it did in 2008.  Effectively managing injuries can lead to a Super Bowl.  I’d love to see a veteran offensive lineman who can play both guard and center become available.  Several teams can claim to be one player away from being a contender.  The Cowboys are one backup player away from Super Bowl aspirations.

Carpenter, in the mind of Cowboys management, is expendable with the drafting of two athletic interior linebacker prospects (Jason Williams in 2009 and Sean Lee in 2010).  Carpenter has been a contributor on special teams throughout his career and in nickel packages in 2009.  Certainly this is not the productivity expected from a first round draft pick.  It has been suggested that Carpenter is simply wrong for the 3-4 defense and would otherwise thrive in a 4-3 defense.  The head coach of the St. Louis Rams, Steve Spagnola, has some familiarity with Carpenter as he coached with both the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Barron, has been plagued with committing false starts and holding penalties during his career.  He certainly isn’t as infamous as Flozell Adams for the same offenses; however, according to DallasCowboys.com:

Barron had trouble with false start penalties early, committing 22 of the fouls, with five holding calls his first two years when he was credited with 14.5 sacks allowed. His early motion flags have been on the decline since then, down from nine in 2007, to seven in 2008, then five last season. He has been caught holding eight times during that span, including five holdings in 2009, tied for the most in the league. He has allowed 7.5 sacks in each of the last two seasons.

As a tackle prospect, Barron has played in the league at tackle for five years and he will certainly come to the Cowboys as a backup at both right and left tackle.  He will provide depth at the position, though consistency may be less than desired.  Barron has more on the field experience than all of the backup offensive lineman currently on the Cowboys roster (Pat McQuistan, Robert Brewster, Sam Young, etc.)

It should be noted that the Cowboys signed as a free agent a former “flame-out” tackle in 2007, who they quickly converted to a right guard.  Leonard Davis (the aforementioned tackle) has subsequently been named to the pro-bowl three straight years.

It was expected that Carpenter would simply be cut (barring catastrophic injuries at the linebacker position) before the season.  With this trade, the Cowboys are adding much needed depth and experience at a critical position along the offensive line at a price that is tantamount to a test drive ($2.62 million).