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IRVING, Texas – Akwasi Owusu-Ansah is getting another chance with the Cowboys after the club claimed him off waivers from Jacksonville on Tuesday.

A fourth-round pick in 2010, Owusu-Ansah was cut by the Cowboys on Nov. 30, 2011, after playing in three games on special teams. He joined the Jaguars’ practice squad and was called up to the active roster for the final four games, starting twice. He finished with 14 tackles.

Owusu-Ansah was converted to safety after the Cowboys drafted him but his development was hurt by shoulder surgery coming out of Indiana (Pa.). He played in seven games as a rookie, working mostly as a returner, before an ankle injury ended his season. Last year, the Cowboys eventually moved him to wide receiver before his release last season.

He is expected to play either safety or cornerback in his return.

The team also claimed kicker Jake Rogers off waivers from Tampa Bay and released undrafted rookie safety Troy Woolfolk, leaving the roster at 88. With the release of David Buehler and Kai Forbath earlier in the offseason, the Cowboys had only one kicker, Dan Bailey, on the roster. Rogers, who left as the University of Cincinnati’s all-time leading scorer, can also punt. He also has spent time with New Orleans.

IRVING, Texas -- Over the years the Cowboys have been wildly successful finding undrafted free agents and turning them into starters. Tony Romo and Miles Austin are at the top of the list, but don’t forget about a guy like Stephen Bowen, too.

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones anticipates the Cowboys adding 13-17 undrafted players.

The Cowboys have been willing to pay solid signing bonuses to undrafted players over the years, totaling more than $100,000 on occasion.

Those days are over.

According to the new collective bargaining agreement, teams can spend only $75,000 total in signing bonuses to undrafted players.

Will that discourage the Cowboys and other teams from signing players? Not really. What teams did last year to get by that rule was to guarantee a small portion of the player’s base salary so it would not count toward the $75,000 limit.

Last year the largest signing bonus the Cowboys gave was to offensive lineman Jose Acuna ($6,500). Wide receiver Lyle Leong received $6,000 to sign.

The four undrafted free agents who made the 53-man roster -- Kevin Kowalski, Dan Bailey, Alex Albright and Phillip Tanner -- combined to make $10,500 in signing bonus money. Bailey had a signing bonus of $2,500.

The Kai Forbath era at Valley Ranch ended without the former UCLA kicker ever appearing in a game for the Cowboys.

The Cowboys announced Forbath's release Monday, leaving Dan Bailey as the only kicker on the roster.

Forbath had a quadriceps injury when the Cowboys signed him on Aug. 2. He spent the season on the non-football injury list.

Forbath's release is an indication that the Cowboys, who released kickoff specialist David Buehler last month, are committed to letting Bailey handle kickoffs as well as placekicking duties. Bailey, who was 32 of 37 on field goals after winning a multi-kicker competition in the preseason, kicked off in 12 of 16 games last season. Bailey had touchbacks on 24 of his 67 kickoffs, a percentage of 35.8 percent that was below the league average (43.5).

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- What we learned (or didn't) after the Cowboys have departed the NFL owner's meetings:

PODCAST
Deion Sanders says that Jason Garrett is not the reason the Cowboys didn't make the playoffs. Deion says that the biggest need for the Cowboys is a solid pass rush. Listen

1. With the postseason overtime rules moving to the regular season, the Cowboys had two games -- at San Francisco and at Washington -- where field goals wouldn't have won the game. The Cowboys got a game-winning field goal of 19 yards from Dan Bailey to beat the 49ers, and Bailey made a 39-yarder at Washington. Who knows how Jason Garrett would have managed the game if these new OT rules were in place ...

2. It seems the Cowboys want to draft defense with the 14th pick of the first round. Jerry Jones hinted that drafting a cornerback isn't out of the question, and that's a good thing. The Cowboys have weapons on offense -- Miles Austin, Jason Witten, Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, DeMarco Murray, Felix Jones and a stud tackle in Tyron Smith. Fixing the defense is very important to this team, especially in the secondary.

3. Jerry Jones isn't sure what Bill Parcells is going to do, but he has a feeling the old coach will return. Parcells retired from coaching after the 2006 season. He was tired. He felt the Cowboys were good enough to beat Seattle -- which they didn't -- but that they also could have went to Chicago and won the divisional round game. The way the Cowboys lost, with Tony Romo fumbling a potential game-winning field goal vs. the Seahawks, took a lot out of him. If Parcells had lasted one more season -- Wade Phillips took over in 2007 -- maybe the Cowboys would've won a playoff game.

IRVING, Texas -- The NFL’s decision to dock the Cowboys $10 million in salary-cap space, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter has reported, wounds the team’s ability to improve in free agency but does not kill it.

PODCAST
ESPNDallas.com's Todd Archer explains how the Cowboys violated a rule that did not exist during an uncapped year. Listen

The Cowboys can spread that hit over the next two years if they choose but they were already planning on re-working a number of contracts to create enough salary-cap space anyway.

The Cowboys have triggers in the contracts of cornerback Orlando Scandrick and tackle Doug Free that would save them roughly $8.6 million in cap space. Re-working the contracts of DeMarcus Ware and Dez Bryant could net about another $4 million in space.

The Cowboys can create as much as $7.26 million in room on Tuesday by cutting cornerback Terence Newman (designated as a post-June 1 cut) and kicker David Buehler, who is scheduled to count more than $1.6 million against the 2012 cap and lost his job to Dan Bailey last year.

On Sunday the league announced the 2012 cap would be $120.6 million.

The Cowboys were carrying a credit of around $17.1 million over from 2011, which would have in effect made their cap $138.2 million in 2012. If the Cowboys chose to take a $5 million hit in each of the next two years because of the sanctions, then they would have a cap of roughly $133.2 million this year.

With the $8.856 million franchise tag on linebacker Anthony Spencer, the Cowboys would be just below that threshold and that would not including the tenders offers they would put on restricted free agent fullback Tony Fiammetta and exclusive rights free agents Jesse Holley, Clifton Geathers and Jermey Parnell.

Make the aforementioned contract and roster moves, and the Cowboys would have about $15 million to $17 million in cap room, which is plenty to sign a starting cornerback, guard, backup quarterback and Laurent Robinson depending on the structures of the deals.

INDIANAPOLIS -- With Miles Austin and Dez Bryant under contract through 2016 and 2014, respectively, the Cowboys have to figure out a way to pay free-agent-to-be wide receiver Laurent Robinson this offseason.

Austin and Bryant will cost $6.3 million against the salary cap in 2012, but Austin’s cap number shoots up to $8.3 million in 2013. Bryant’s cap numbers in 2013-14 are about $3.2 and $3.4 million.

Can the Cowboys afford to “pay” Robinson, too?

“You’ve got to put, ‘Pay them what?’ before you can really answer,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “We don’t have that today where we are.”

The Cowboys cannot sign Robinson, who led the team with 11 touchdowns in 2011, until free agency begins because he signed a “minimum salary benefit” contract last year.

“It’s a handicap, no question about it,” Robinson’s agent Harold Lewis said. “He loves being a Cowboy and would like to stay, but I really think there is going to be a good market for him.”

Jones and coach Jason Garrett view Robinson as a starting type of player because of how many snaps the No. 3 receiver plays in a game. Austin and Bryant have had health issues that have limited them the last two years, which makes the spot even more important.

“So he’s valuable,” Jones said of Robinson.

If Robinson signs elsewhere, the Cowboys would have to add a wide receiver either through the draft or in free agency. Jones heaped praise on Andre Holmes, who spent most of last season on the practice squad.

“We have a very good young receiver that we’re really proud of and he’s a factor in what we do here with Robinson, not to diminish what Robinson did for us this past year,” Jones said. “He has a real knack of keeping a play alive and that works real well with [Tony] Romo.”

To think the Cowboys could turn the No. 3 job to Holmes, who was undrafted out of Hillsdale, or any of their other receivers left, such as Jesse Holley, Dwayne Harris or Raymond Radway, who missed last year with a broken ankle, would seem to be too much of a gamble.

“Same kind of gamble we had with [Dan] Bailey,” Jones said. “Just any coach or anybody will say, ‘The guy has never played, how can you pencil him in?’ It is but you’ve got to take them … There’s no way you can put a team on the field and not play with players that haven’t played before in the NFL.”

This is the final installment of our 12-part series breaking down the Cowboys roster. Today we look a special teams.

Players: Mat McBriar (free agent), David Buehler (signed through 2012), Dan Bailey (signed through 2013), Chris Jones (signed through 2013), LP Ladouceur (signed through 2012)

Top free agents: Kickers: Nick Folk, New York Jets; Joe Nedney, San Francisco 49ers; Matt Prater, Denver Broncos; Punters: Donnie Jones, St. Louis Rams; Steve Weatherford, New York Giants

Top draft prospects: Kickers: Greg Zuerlein, Missouri Western; Phillip Welch, Wisconsin; Blair Walsh, Georgia; Punters: Drew Butler, Georgia; Bryan Anger, California

2011 review: This was not McBriar's (36.7 net average) best season, mainly due to a nerve problem that prevented him from planting his non-kicking foot. McBriar had his best game in holding down Arizona's Patrick Peterson. Bailey, a rookie, tied a franchise record with 26 consecutive made field goal tries. He emerged as probably the third best rookie on the team. Buehler lost the field goal job to Bailey, and had his conditioning questioned by Jerry Jones toward the end of the season. Buehler's season ended with surgery on his groin.

Offseason preview: McBriar underwent surgery to repair a cyst that caused his nerve damage. Doctors said that McBriar should make a full recovery, and as an unrestricted free agent, the Cowboys need to decide whether to sign him to a two-to-three year deal. They should. Buehler might not return and Bailey has emerged as someone the team can rely on. The return game was a mess as a host of players returned punts and kicks. Dwayne Harris should take over both spots going forward, but Dez Bryant is also a threat even though he was inconsistent on punt returns. When the Cowboys evaluate the skill position players in the draft, they need to find a player who can also return punts and kicks.

Need meter (0-5): 1

ESPN's Mel Kiper ranked the top 20 rookies from the 2011 season, and Cowboys right tackle Tyron Smith (12) and running back DeMarco Murray (21) made the list.

Kiper also ranks former Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller second behind Cam Newton. Former TCU quarterback Andy Dalton checks in at No. 5.

The Cowboys got significant playing time from young players in 2011. We rank the top rookies of 2011.

5. Bill Nagy. He earned a starting job coming out of training camp as the left guard before suffering a fractured right ankle at New England on Oct. 16. Nagy, however, might have to fight for a starting spot with the Cowboys trying to improve the interior of the offensive line next season.

4. Alex Albright. The outside linebacker was one of four undrafted rookies to make the squad. He played mainly special teams but saw some defensive snaps late in the season. He will get a chance to play more in 2012 with the possible departure of outside linebacker Anthony Spencer to free agency. He can also play a little inside, so that gives him flexibility.

3. Dan Bailey. The kicker made 26 consecutive field goals, tied for second-best mark in franchise history. Bailey also won some big games and most importantly beat out David Buehler for the field goal job. Bailey converted 86.5 percent of his field goals and tied for fifth in the league with 135 points made in 2011.

2. DeMarco Murray. He burst onto the scene with that franchise-record 252-yard rushing effort against St. Louis. Murray led rookie running backs with 897 yards and the closest anyone came to him was Washington's Roy Helu and his 640. Murray enters training camp as the starting running back.

1. Tyron Smith. The ninth pick of the draft was a solid performer at right tackle and most likely will move to the premier position of the line, left tackle, in 2011. Smith's ability to adjust during the course of the season was one of his biggest assets, and he can only get better.

Rivers McCown of Football Outsiders ranked the NFL teams with the best players who are 25-and-under on their rosters.

The Cowboys didn't rank in the top three. Prior to the start of the season, Football Outsiders wasn't complimentary of young talent that the Cowboys had -- ranking the Cowboys at No. 31.

These comments from Football Outsiders are based on what happened in 2010:

The loss of Tony Romo most impacted the Cowboys' fortunes last season, but their dearth of 25-and-under talent will have a much bigger impact in the long run. With a relatively healthy season outside of Romo's injury, Dallas still had a total of only 30 games started by young talent, 40 percent of which were courtesy of tight end Martellus Bennett. Felix Jones, Dez Bryant and first-round pick Tyron Smith are poised to become full-time starters in 2011, so that total should increase. However, if Smith, who played right tackle at Southern California, doesn't develop into the left tackle that the Cowboys envision, and Bryant's targets are limited by the presence of Miles Austin and Jason Witten, Dallas will be as unlikely as any NFL team to find Pro Bowl-caliber contributions from its young players.

In 2011, the Cowboys had 30 players 25-or-younger on their roster. Five of the seven practice squad players were in the same age demo.

The Cowboys' roster is getting younger by the day, as it should when older players are not as productive.

Here are my top five players 25-and-under who could have the most impact on the roster in 2012. (This doesn't take into account potential draft picks. We also eliminated Sean Lee from the list. He turns 26 in July):

5. Dan Bailey. The baby-faced 24-year-old was clutch for the Cowboys in 2011. He tied a franchise record with 26 consecutive field goals. The ending of his season wasn't as pretty, missing kicks and having field goals blocked in late-game situations. Overall, however, the kicking situation is solved.

4. Bruce Carter. He turns 24 in February. While his defensive snap count was limited due to his recovery from knee surgery, the Cowboys expect Carter to replace Keith Brooking at inside linebacker. Lee become the new anchor to the defense and Carter, with his speed and athletic ability, is a good compliment to the linebacker position.

3. DeMarco Murray. The starting running back didn't finish the season because of a fractured ankle, but he did rush for 897 yards on 164 carries and had five games with at least 20-plus carries -- a first with Jason Garrett as the play-caller. Murray, 23, gives the Cowboys something they haven't had a in while, a reliable running back who can take the pounding over 60 minutes.

2. Tyron Smith. The starting right tackle is expected to move to the left side in 2012. Smith had a solid season at tackle and made the necessary adjustments during the season to handle all sorts of pass rushers. His adjustments within the division was steady because he learned the pass rush moves of the people he was facing. By the way, he turns 22 in December.

1. Dez Bryant. Mr. Bryant will be 23 when he begins his third NFL season, and he finished his second season strong. He's become a better route runner and is recognizing defensive schemes faster. A physical threat in all areas most likely will have a bigger impact in 2012. If he gets his off-the-field issues solved, Cowboys will have an elite receiver.

IRVING, Texas -- DeMarcus Ware can add another honor to his list by being named to the Pro Football Weekly All-NFL team for the third time in his career.

Ware had 19.5 sacks, which was second in the NFL to Minnesota’s Jared Allen.

The Cowboys landed three players on the PFW All-Rookie team with running back DeMarco Murray, right tackle Tyron Smith and kicker Dan Bailey.

Murray’s season was cut short on Dec. 11 against the New York Giants because of a fractured ankle but the third-round pick finished with 897 yards on 164 carries with two touchdowns. He also caught 26 passes for 183 yards.

Smith, the No. 9 overall pick from Southern Cal, was a starter from the first day of training camp. He played so well he could be moved to left tackle in 2012.

Bailey, an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma State, made 32 of 37 field goal attempts on the season. Only three rookies in league history had more: Ali Haji-Shiekh of the New York Giants in 1983 (35), Dallas’ Richie Cunningham (34) in 1997 and Green Bay’s Chester Marcol (33) in 1972. Bailey made 26 straight at one point.

IRVING, Texas -- Today we wrapped up the What Went Right in 2011 for the Cowboys’ series and you can click on the links below to get a recap.

But more than five things went right, even in an 8-8 season that finished with the Cowboys losing four of their final five.

** Laurent Robinson. Little was expected of him when the Cowboys signed him and even less was expected when he hurt his hamstring in his first practice, which led to his release. Once he was re-signed, he was too good to be true. He had 11 touchdown catches and had 54 receptions for 858 yards. He has to be one of the Cowboys’ top priorities in free agency but if a team wants to blow him away with an offer the Cowboys will have to let him go.

** Mike Jenkins. The former first-round pick displayed a toughness some wondered he had after an abysmal 2010 season in which he had too many penalties. He played through a stinger and shoulder injuries but a hamstring strain kept him on the shelf for four games. When he played he was the Cowboys top cornerback and that is not meant to as faint praise. He is in the final year of his contract and the Cowboys should want to keep him.

** Pro personnel department. They found Robinson, Tony Fiammetta, Frank Walker, Montrae Holland and Sammy Morris and all five players helped the team win games. Walker slumped badly down the stretch, but it’s not easy picking guys up off the street and the Cowboys had more hits here.

** Dez Bryant. He developed as a receiver in his second year and was on the field for 15 games. He continues to need work but improved at his craft as the year went on. As Jean-Jacques Taylor wrote, this is a huge offseason for Bryant in terms of his maturity.

** DeMarcus Ware. Complain all you want about how “quiet” his sacks were, but there is not a team in the league that wouldn’t want Ware. He had 19.5 sacks and played hurt down the stretch. Ware was named an All-Pro again, so he had to be doing something right.

Here's the top five:

DeMarco Murray emerges as No. 1 back

Emergence of kicker Dan Bailey

Sean Lee takes over at inside linebacker

Tyron Smith takes over at right tackle

Tony Romo returned to form

This is the fourth installment in ESPN Dallas' five-part series on things that went right for the Dallas Cowboys in 2011.

2. Emergence of kicker Dan Bailey

The Cowboys had a kicking competition at training camp involving Dan Bailey, David Buehler, Shayne Graham, Kai Forbath and Dave Rayner.

Bailey and Buehler emerged as the two kickers to make the 53-man roster. As it was originally designed, Buehler would handle kickoffs and long field goals while Bailey took care of everything else.

But something happened along the way: Bailey couldn't miss. He eventually became Jason Garrett's primary field goal kicker. Buehler suffered leg injuries that sent him to injured reserve and had owner Jerry Jones questioning his conditioning.

Bailey, meanwhile, made game-winning kicks at San Francisco, at Washington and vs. Miami. He converted 26 consecutive field goals, tied for the second-longest stretch in club history and finished tied for third in the NFL with 32 made field goals. Overall, Bailey was ninth in the NFL with an 86.5 conversion percentage.

That is far better than Buehler, who made just 75 percent of his field goals.

One other item of note: Bailey made 10-12 field goals from 40-49 yards, and Buehler made just 8-11 from the same range in 2010.

Bailey did struggle down the stretch when he missed a game-winner at Arizona and had a potential game-winner against the New York Giants blocked.

Besides these late season issues, the Cowboys aren't concerned about their rookie kicker going forward. The team believes it has finally found the field goal kicker necessary to make clutch field goals down the stretch.

With more than 200,000 votes in our take 'em or trash 'em feature, our readers consider two young players the most valuable members of the franchise.

Rookie running back DeMarco Murray and second-year linebacker Sean Lee are the only players to have a 99 percent approval rating from you.

The top keepers:
1. Murray 99%
1. Lee 99%
2. Jason Witten 98%
2. Laurent Robinson 98%
2. Tyron Smith 98 %
2. DeMarcus Ware 98%
2. Dan Bailey 98%

Other notable keepers: Tony Romo 91%, Dez Bryant 97%.

Top of the trash heap:
1. Terence Newman 97%
1. Chauncey Washington 97%
2. Frank Walker 94%
3. David Buehler 93%
4. Keith Brooking 92%
5. Jon Kitna 91%

You can still vote who to keep and trash here.

This is the fourth installment in ESPN Dallas' five-part series on things that went wrong for the Dallas Cowboys in 2011.

No. 2: Jason Garrett’s clock management at Arizona

The Cowboys had a number of difficult losses in 2011 but the hardest to explain will be the 19-13 overtime defeat at Arizona on Dec. 4.

It was like every game the Cowboys play at University of Phoenix Stadium in some respects because of the strangeness, but this one might have been stranger than the 2008 overtime loss in which the Cowboys lost on a blocked punt for a touchdown and the 2010 loss that was triggered by a missed point after attempt.

This one fell on the shoulders of Jason Garrett.

The Cowboys were driving for a game-winning field goal attempt, like they had done a few times earlier in the season against San Francisco, Washington (twice) and Miami.

A 15-yard completion on third down to Dez Bryant put the Cowboys at the Arizona 31 with 24 seconds to play, however, Garrett chose not to use one of his two timeouts to give the offense the chance to move deeper into Cardinals’ territory for a shorter field goal try.

Tony Romo spiked the ball with seven seconds to play to set up a game-winning try by Dan Bailey from 49 yards. Bailey’s first attempt was good, but Garrett called a timeout because he and special teams coach Joe DeCamillis and assistant Chris Boniol felt the play clock was running low.

Bailey’s second attempt was short and to the left, forcing the game into overtime.

The Cowboys would not get the ball again with LaRod Stephens-Howling scoring on a 52-yard screen pass.

Garrett stood by the decision publicly but in private apologized to the team for the error.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Punter Chris Jones, who will be playing in his second career NFL game, wil serve as holder with the Cowboys' season on the line.

Jones was promoted from the practice squad Saturday when the Cowboys placed Mat McBriar on injured reserve due to a nerve condition in his foot.

McBriar had been kicker Dan Bailey's holder for most of the season. Tony Romo filled that role when McBriar has been unable.

The Cowboys apparently did not want Romo in that role while he is dealing with a bruised right hand.

Jones worked as Bailey's holder throughout training camp. The other option was quarterback Chris Greisen, but he is inactive against the Giants.