Cowboys Smart To Lock Up Young Players

Jerry Jones made wise moves by locking up two emerging young players over the past couple weeks with contract extensions for Patrick Crayton and Jay Ratliff.

At wide receiver, Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn are both approaching their mid 30s with a lot of mileage.  Neither is a long-term fixture at this stage while Glenn missed the first 15 games this season. 

Crayton has capitalized on Glenn’s absence this season.  He’s shown flashes of developing into a contributor under Bill Parcells the past couple seasons and emerged as a solid complement to Terrell Owens in 2007.  Crayton’s future grades as more of a number two than a true number one receiver, but certainly should be a productive starter for the next few seasons.  He lacks the speed of elite receivers, but plays with excellent quickness and separates very well in the intermediate passing game.  He has natural hands and displays good toughness in traffic.  Although he lacks ideal speed, he can generate some yardage after the catch. 

Along the defensive line, Jay Ratliff took his game to another level this season.  He was graded as a solid backup with the ability the play end and fill in at nose tackle.  He’s not a true two gap player, but did a tremendous job at nose tackle following Jason Ferguson’s season ending injury.  He fits Wade Phillips’ 3-4 style perfectly because he displays good quickness and plays with a lot of effort.  He’ll likely see most of his time at his natural end position next season.  He displays enough quickness to provide solid pressure off the edge and plays with enough effort to make plays against the run.  Ratliff likely has a better future in Dallas than Marcus Spears.  Chris Canty also emerged with a very strong season against the run and displayed improved pass rush ability this season.  The Cowboys certainly have a commodity with such young depth along their defensive front for the next few years. 

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