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Dallas Cowboys’ Roster Deeper Than Initially Thought

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It has been a long time since the Dallas Cowboys have had 22 players that were talented enough to even be considered starters in the NFL. It seems like for years they were putting players who were well past their primes or, at best, borderline prospects on the field in a desperate attempt to remain competitive in their division. Well now, it appears the Cowboys finally have some depth on their roster and they no longer have to treat every injury like it’s a DEFCON 1 situation. “Would you like to play a game? How about Thermonuclear Global War?”

Now, there are still a few players who can’t be replaced and would cause the team to go into panic mode if an injury occurred to them; those players being Tony Romo, Demarco Murray and perhaps even Brandon Carr at this point. But for the most part, whenever a player gets injured, it just becomes a plug-and-play situation at that position.

You can just look at the numerous injuries they have had at the linebacker spot. Whenever Justin Durant, Rolando McClain or Bruce Carter have been out due to injury, another player like Anthony Hitchens or Kyle Wilber has stepped in and picked up the slack. Or when they had to start the season with Demarcus Lawrence, Anthony Spencer and Amobi Okoye on the injured list, players like Terrell McClain or Tyrone Crawford have stepped up to the plate and provided solid play.

It hasn’t always been this way at Valley Ranch; in the past, whenever a player would get injured, the Cowboys honestly would be one phone call away from putting Hollywood Henderson or Jerry Jones himself on the field that Sunday. I cannot tell you how many times I yelled out “Who?” whenever they would announce the starting lineups last year.

Well, you can expect to see further proof of the team’s depth this year when Jeremy Parnell steps into the right tackle spot for the injured Doug Free this Sunday against the New York Giants. The Cowboys have been high on Parnell for quite some time due to his size and his raw talent; and despite the fact that he only played one year of football at the University of Mississippi, he seems to have a natural feel for the game and how to play it at a high level. He came into the fourth quarter of a game cold off the bench and on his very first play, he pancaked the guy that was lined up against him on a big Murray run.

Now, he may not be as accomplished of a pass protector as Free is, but he has certainly shown the ability to bulldoze his way through whoever is in his way when it comes to the running game. I don’t expect to see that big of a drop off in play from the offensive line this week for the Cowboys, but since they are facing a tough defensive front in the Giants, you may see them rely even more on Murray and Joseph Randle to help take some of the pressure off Parnell.

Kelly Anderson is a blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @bgipp01 or add him to your network on Google.

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