Cowboys Vs. Chargers: Five Dallas Players Who Sucked

The Dallas Cowboys took a quick train ride from Oxnard, California after their final day at training camp on Friday and traveled to sunny San Diego to prepare for their second preseason game. This time they’d match up against former Cowboy’s coach Norv Turner’s Chargers. After last week’s 3-0 win over the Oakland Raiders, Dallas was hoping to get more offensive punch in this game even without a number of their starters suiting up. And as with any game, there were those players who rose up the depth chart and those who might have just sank right off it. Here are my five players whose play sucked in the Cowboy’s second preseason game:

Sucked – Felix Jones, running back – Maybe it’s the James Harden-esque beard. Maybe it’s that I can not get over him failing his conditioning test in the final year of his contract. Maybe it’s just me. But Felix Jones looks lazy. Not tired, lazy. I’m tired of dropped passes and little effort to break tackles. Maybe he’s mentally already done in Dallas. Maybe the injuries have taken their toll and sapped his quickness, hence his abilities. Whatever it is, something is definitely amiss about Felix Jones. And after the play of rookie Jamize Olawale on Saturday, maybe a trade is in order.

Sucked – Doug Free, offensive tackle – Here we go again. What is the deal with Doug Free? He looked like a rookie out there and he’s supposed to be our main veteran lineman. Combine that with the fact he’s switched to a less intense role on the line at right tackle this season, and it really is a head scratcher. Hopefully, he and new offensive line coach Bill Callahan are still “working out the kinks” during his readjustment period. There is still one positive thing to gleam out of this: At least Tony Romo will see the pressure coming right at him instead of behind him.

Sucked –  Raymond Radway, wide receiver –  I understand this may be too critical of a guy who can not control whether he gets the ball or not, but Raymond Radway just disappeared. After a stellar training camp last year and nothing but raves this year, I expected more from Radway. The media seems to tout this guys as Superman, but all we’ve seen is a timid Clark Kent. Everyone agrees Ray has the physical tools, but he just got outplayed by an undrafted 5’8 rookie who quit the team a couple weeks ago. Radway did not record a single reception Saturday but did have one kick return for 26 yards. We needed to see a lot more from Radway, and for that…he sucked.

Sucked –  Stephen McGee, quarterback –  It was yet another in a long line of unspectacular performances by the former Aggie quarterback. And most experts agree, the “McGee project” is almost over. If Dallas decides to keep three quarterbacks, it will most likely be Rudy Carpenter over McGee for the simply fact that Carpenter can be placed on the practice squad and McGee can not. I don’t like kicking a guy when he’s already down, but the Cowboys poured four years of time, training, and money into McGee. Let the kick-fest begin.

Sucked – Shaun Chapas, fullback – A practice squad veteran, Chapas made a pretty big splash last year. Not one big enough to win the starting job, but at least large enough to justify keeping him around. Chapas even made it to the active roster last December when fullback Tony Fiammetta got injured. On Saturday, he made a big splash in the opposite direction. Chapas couldn’t even block a snail last night. It was really kind of hard to watch a kid flush his career down the drain like that. I realize it’s just one game, but when you only play four in a season, it’s really hard to recover from a suckfest like that. Especially after your team signs arguably the best fullback in the NFL during the offseason.

Dishonorable Mention – Morris Claiborne, cornerback – First round pick Claiborne needed a strong  showing last night to turn the tide of doubters starting to rise up against him. He did little towards swaying those opinions Saturday. Claiborne had two tackles but was virtually invisible for the most part. Not exactly what  you want to see in your first round pick. And compared to the play of Brandon Carr, Claiborne looked even worse. But the kid deserves a break with injuries slowing his progress in OTAs and training camp. Still, Cowboy fans want to see that number six pick live up to it’s potential. And they have never been know for their patience. Then again, we kept McGee around for four years, so who knows…