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Ellis: No More Hedging TE Bet; Stakes Are Up For Marty B
Josh Ellis
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
Email | Follow DCStarJEllis on Twitter
IRVING, Texas - I think Martellus Bennett needs a challenge.
With a torn ACL ending the season of his presumed backup John Phillips, at the very least a safety net to Bennett's stalled development, now comes Marty B's test. There will be times this season when the second tight end must be more than an excellent blocker, and this is Bennett's chance to show he really is the factor the Cowboys were hoping he would become, the one Bennett has always believed himself to be.
Good as Phillips looked in training camp and in the first half of the preseason opener, he was probably not going to overtake Bennett for the majority of second tight end reps anyway. Bennett truly is the best on-the-line blocker the Cowboys have at the position, with the potential to be dominant. However, Phillips was beginning to convince a lot of people he was a real receiving threat behind Jason Witten.
A year ago at this time it was Bennett stretching the field in the Alamodome, Bennett making the one-handed catches and Bennett looking like very much the secret weapon for a team trying to figure out how it would replace the explosiveness it lost by dropping Terrell Owens. Mismatches of the 6-6, 267-pounder against linebackers were thought to be automatic, but for whatever reason it just didn't happen once the season began. In the first three weeks of 2009, he was targeted nine times by Tony Romo, but only made three catches for 27 yards, the incompletion that stands out most a poorly-coordinated jump ball attempt against New York in the Cowboys Stadium grand opening.
Maybe something changed after those first three weeks because even though Bennett started converting his opportunities at a higher rate, they became few and far between. Over the final three months of the season, including two games he missed with a concussion, he had 12 catches on 19 passes thrown his way, good for 132 yards. Did Romo lose trust in the young guy, then just 22 years old? Did Jason Garrett scale back Bennett's role? Did the emergence of Miles Austin mean there just weren't as many opportunities for the second tight end anymore?
Probably all of the above. Bennett has himself deemed the second-year regression a "sophomore slump," so there's no dancing around the subject. The important thing is to put that behind him, to have no carryover. In the upcoming season we're going to find out a lot about Marty B, something much more interesting and important to his future than which cereal he likes best. We'll have the answer to the biggest question mark surrounding a guy who everybody knew had almost limitless potential coming out of Texas A&M. Is he ever going to get it?
Bennett's personality is enough to earn him attention. He's a likable guy, smart, funny. But there's probably a ceiling on how many Twitter followers a blocking tight end like Dan Campbell could rack up. A lot more people would be interested in Bennett's feed if he plays like he's capable, a case Jerry Jones has made to him before.
There have been times when I've thought it was the prospect of being a backup that has kept Bennett from doing the things that would allow him to reach his potential. A lot of guys who have been stars their whole lives and gotten by on elite physical skills have a hard time dealing with playing sidekick. For what it's worth, Bennett has never questioned his place here. He knows Witten is the man, and will be for years to come. If he's going to truly be a star at this level too, it might need to be elsewhere.
But if Bennett is ever going to get the chance at a big free agency pay day, he's going to have to show other teams he can be a starting-caliber tight end for them. Starting caliber tight ends are not one-dimensional. We saw a glimpse of what he can provide downfield when he was a rookie, catching 20 balls for 283 yards, but more importantly four touchdowns, including one to win a game, the must-have victory at Washington in 2008, Romo's first game back from the fractured pinky. He had caught eight passes in the three games prior, perhaps a measure of how much more confident the backup quarterbacks were in throwing the ball to a guy they had worked with. He has to show that wasn't a mirage.
For Bennett's own sake, he's got to prove himself to Romo over these next four games and five weeks before the regular season. Romo has to trust him. Garrett has to trust him. When coaches showed snippets of their film to the media this offseason, Bennett made assignment mistakes on two of the three plays. Those have to be eliminated. They just have to, or else we'll be saying the same things about Bennett a year from now and he'll still be getting upset by the way the media picks on him. It happens because the talent is so obvious, and too many times he's given something to point to as reason to believe he's not doing everything he can to be as successful as he should. Cutting ties with the YouTube channel was a start, but what's more important is making the most of the time he has at work. That goes for the book and film work as well as the stress, or the fear of failure, or whatever it is that eats at someone striving to be great.
We know you're cool Martellus, but that doesn't really do anything for us.
There would be no better time than now for Marty B to prove he gets it. He won't be doing his job and Phillips,' but it would sure help if he alone could have the passing game production the Cowboys were expecting to get from the two of them together. There's no reason he can't easily have 35 catches, 400 yards and five touchdowns while still dominating the line of scrimmage as a blocker.
As challenges go, that's not asking a lot from a guy who should be able to do twice as much.
Ellis: No More Hedging TE Bet; Stakes Are Up For Marty B
Josh Ellis
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
Email | Follow DCStarJEllis on Twitter
IRVING, Texas - I think Martellus Bennett needs a challenge.
With a torn ACL ending the season of his presumed backup John Phillips, at the very least a safety net to Bennett's stalled development, now comes Marty B's test. There will be times this season when the second tight end must be more than an excellent blocker, and this is Bennett's chance to show he really is the factor the Cowboys were hoping he would become, the one Bennett has always believed himself to be.
Good as Phillips looked in training camp and in the first half of the preseason opener, he was probably not going to overtake Bennett for the majority of second tight end reps anyway. Bennett truly is the best on-the-line blocker the Cowboys have at the position, with the potential to be dominant. However, Phillips was beginning to convince a lot of people he was a real receiving threat behind Jason Witten.
A year ago at this time it was Bennett stretching the field in the Alamodome, Bennett making the one-handed catches and Bennett looking like very much the secret weapon for a team trying to figure out how it would replace the explosiveness it lost by dropping Terrell Owens. Mismatches of the 6-6, 267-pounder against linebackers were thought to be automatic, but for whatever reason it just didn't happen once the season began. In the first three weeks of 2009, he was targeted nine times by Tony Romo, but only made three catches for 27 yards, the incompletion that stands out most a poorly-coordinated jump ball attempt against New York in the Cowboys Stadium grand opening.
Maybe something changed after those first three weeks because even though Bennett started converting his opportunities at a higher rate, they became few and far between. Over the final three months of the season, including two games he missed with a concussion, he had 12 catches on 19 passes thrown his way, good for 132 yards. Did Romo lose trust in the young guy, then just 22 years old? Did Jason Garrett scale back Bennett's role? Did the emergence of Miles Austin mean there just weren't as many opportunities for the second tight end anymore?
Probably all of the above. Bennett has himself deemed the second-year regression a "sophomore slump," so there's no dancing around the subject. The important thing is to put that behind him, to have no carryover. In the upcoming season we're going to find out a lot about Marty B, something much more interesting and important to his future than which cereal he likes best. We'll have the answer to the biggest question mark surrounding a guy who everybody knew had almost limitless potential coming out of Texas A&M. Is he ever going to get it?
Bennett's personality is enough to earn him attention. He's a likable guy, smart, funny. But there's probably a ceiling on how many Twitter followers a blocking tight end like Dan Campbell could rack up. A lot more people would be interested in Bennett's feed if he plays like he's capable, a case Jerry Jones has made to him before.
There have been times when I've thought it was the prospect of being a backup that has kept Bennett from doing the things that would allow him to reach his potential. A lot of guys who have been stars their whole lives and gotten by on elite physical skills have a hard time dealing with playing sidekick. For what it's worth, Bennett has never questioned his place here. He knows Witten is the man, and will be for years to come. If he's going to truly be a star at this level too, it might need to be elsewhere.
But if Bennett is ever going to get the chance at a big free agency pay day, he's going to have to show other teams he can be a starting-caliber tight end for them. Starting caliber tight ends are not one-dimensional. We saw a glimpse of what he can provide downfield when he was a rookie, catching 20 balls for 283 yards, but more importantly four touchdowns, including one to win a game, the must-have victory at Washington in 2008, Romo's first game back from the fractured pinky. He had caught eight passes in the three games prior, perhaps a measure of how much more confident the backup quarterbacks were in throwing the ball to a guy they had worked with. He has to show that wasn't a mirage.
For Bennett's own sake, he's got to prove himself to Romo over these next four games and five weeks before the regular season. Romo has to trust him. Garrett has to trust him. When coaches showed snippets of their film to the media this offseason, Bennett made assignment mistakes on two of the three plays. Those have to be eliminated. They just have to, or else we'll be saying the same things about Bennett a year from now and he'll still be getting upset by the way the media picks on him. It happens because the talent is so obvious, and too many times he's given something to point to as reason to believe he's not doing everything he can to be as successful as he should. Cutting ties with the YouTube channel was a start, but what's more important is making the most of the time he has at work. That goes for the book and film work as well as the stress, or the fear of failure, or whatever it is that eats at someone striving to be great.
We know you're cool Martellus, but that doesn't really do anything for us.
There would be no better time than now for Marty B to prove he gets it. He won't be doing his job and Phillips,' but it would sure help if he alone could have the passing game production the Cowboys were expecting to get from the two of them together. There's no reason he can't easily have 35 catches, 400 yards and five touchdowns while still dominating the line of scrimmage as a blocker.
As challenges go, that's not asking a lot from a guy who should be able to do twice as much.