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If the Cowboys can open with a win over the New York Giants again, September should be sweet.

The softest stretch of the Cowboys’ schedule is the three weeks after the opener. The Kansas City Chiefs, St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers combined to go 16-31-1 last season.

It’s the only stretch of the season that features three foes that had losing records last year. Granted, the Cowboys have to travel to Kansas City and San Diego, but the Chiefs and Chargers were a combined 4-12 at their home stadiums last season.

The Chiefs (Andy Reid) and Chargers (Mike McCoy) have new coaches, so it could also be to the Cowboys’ benefit to face those teams so early in the season.

INDIANAPOLIS – As Jason Garrett continues to weigh who will call plays for the Cowboys in 2013, two head coaches offered different views as to how they will get the job done.

Andy Reid will call plays in Kansas City after allowing Marty Mornhinweg to run the offense in Philadelphia the last six-plus seasons. The Eagles won their final six games in 2006 with Mornhinweg calling plays.

“It was hard (to give up),” Reid said. “I enjoyed doing that, but I was lucky enough to have Marty, who’s a phenomenal playcaller, but I wanted to get back in and do that … I’m getting older and it gives me an opportunity to do it before time passes.”

Mike McCoy, San Diego’s rookie head coach, will have Ken Whisenhunt call plays. Whisenhunt called plays at different times in his head coaching career in Arizona. McCoy was Denver’s playcaller in 2011-12 with Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning taking the Broncos to the playoffs.

“I’ll still be heavily involved in what we’re doing," McCoy said, "but in my position as head coach I wanted to overlook the entire team on gameday.”

Last week Garrett danced around the play-calling subject but intimated that the team was working toward having Bill Callahan call plays. Garrett said the final decision will be his, but that there is no rush to get it done.

The Cowboys have added Frank Pollack as their assistant offensive line coach, which is seen as a way to allow Callahan, who carried the offensive coordinator title in 2012, to coach the whole offense.

INDIANAPOLIS – If the Cowboys want to continue to practice against another team in training camp while in California, they might need to find a different opponent.

Last year the Cowboys practiced against San Diego after playing against the Chargers in the preseason, but Norv Turner was fired at season’s end and replaced by Mike McCoy. Jason Garrett’s relationship with Turner played a big part in the teams working together.

McCoy and Garrett have not talked about possibly practicing against each other.

“We’ll see,” McCoy said. “Right now we don’t have plans to do that. We’ve got our training camp schedule set up, but if something comes up down the road we’ll look at it and see if it might be best for our football team. We’re not going to close any doors right now.”

The Cowboys will hold training camp in Oxnard, Calif., for the second straight summer. In the past they have tailored their preseason schedule to open with two road games in order to maximize their time in good weather.

The preseason schedule normally gets set during the owners’ meetings in March.

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Glenn "Stretch" Smith joins Ben and Skin to discuss Monte Kiffin's defense and how it will work for the Cowboys. Listen

The Dallas Cowboys signed guard Charlie Bryant and defensive tackle Nick Hayden to their reserve/future list on Monday.

Bryant (6-8, 320 pounds) was waived by the San Diego Chargers before the start of the 2012 season.

Hayden is a 2008 sixth-round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers. Last year, Hayden (6-4, 292) was on the Cincinnati Bengals roster and reached an injury settlement with the team on Aug. 31.

The Cowboys finalized the hiring of Rod Marinelli as defensive line coach Friday, beginning a trickle-down effect for the rest of the defensive coaching staff.

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With Marinelli on board to coach the defensive line, Brian Baker's time with the Cowboys appears to be over.

The defensive coaching staff will have some familiar faces in 2013, with Jerome Henderson (secondary) and Matt Eberflus (linebackers) returning to the coaching staff. If Rob Ryan becomes the defensive coordinator in St. Louis, it will be interesting to see if he tries to hire Eberflus. But the Cowboys might block any potential move by Eberflus.

The offensive coaching staff still needs some work. Skip Peete, the Cowboys' former running backs coach, has been hired in Chicago, and the Cowboys have yet to hire a replacement.

Former Arkansas and Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt interviewed with the Cowboys this week for an offensive position, maybe the running backs job or possibly the tight ends gig. Tim Spencer, who was released of his duties in Chicago this week, is a possibility. Anthony Lynn, a former Cowboys coach now with the New York Jets, has one year remaining on his contract. The Cowboys have tried to hire Lynn in the past, but the Jets have not allowed them to interview him.

John Garrett is still employed at Valley Ranch as the tight ends coach, but he applied for a head coaching job at Delaware and didn't get an interview. Dave Brock, an assistant coach at Rutgers, took the job Friday.

There are rumors Garrett might not return in 2013. If Garrett leaves, there's a chance Mike Tice, the former offensive coordinator in Chicago, could take the position.

The Cowboys also need to hire a special teams coach to replace Joe DeCamillis, who took that position in Chicago and was also named assistant head coach.

Steve Hoffman, a former Cowboys kicking coach, is free after his time in Kansas City ended in 2012. Rich Bisaccia, the San Diego Chargers' special teams coach the last two seasons, who also worked in Tampa Bay when Monte Kiffin was there, could be considered.

IRVING, Texas -- Toward the end of a discussion with the team's beat writers, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was asked about Monday's coaching firings around the NFL.

Norv Turner, whom Garrett played for with the Cowboys back in the 1990s, was fired as the coach of the San Diego Chargers. Turner was a finalist for the Cowboys' job in 2007 before Jerry Jones decided on Wade Phillips. Garrett interviewed with Jones to become an offensive coach before Phillips was hired.

Turner and Garrett spoke daily before the interview.

With Turner out of the coaching profession for the moment, could he be someone Garrett might want to hire?

"Norv Turner is someone I respect a great deal," Garrett said. "He’s a great football coach, he’s a great friend of mine. But we’re just trying to focus on today here in Dallas."

The NFL is a tough business for a coach. Lovie Smith was fired by the Chicago Bears after a 10-win season. Andy Reid, the longest tenured coach in the NFL, was let go after his Philadelphia Eagles finished last in the NFC East. In total, seven NFL head coaches were fired on the day after the 2012 regular season ended.

"It’s a part of our job unfortunately and it’s a part of this profession," Garrett said. "A lot of those guys are really good football coaches and have done a good job with their programs over the years. It’s part of it. Nobody likes to see it. It affects human beings' lives and their families' lives and their staff’s families’ lives and all of that. We are very empathetic to all of those situations."

Ed Werder discusses Norv Turner's future as San Diego's coach and where he might end up (Cowboys?) if he is fired.

This is why the Cowboys upgraded the secondary in the offseason: For players such as Vincent Jackson.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' receiver visits Cowboys Stadium for the home opener with just nine catches for 175 yards and one touchdown through two games. But in his only appearance against the Cowboys, Dec. 13, 2009, Jackson put on a show as a member of the San Diego Chargers.

He had seven catches for 120 yards. He didn't have any touchdowns, but five of his seven catches were for first downs, and he had two catches of at least 25 yards.

To say Jackson is a big-play threat is an understatement.

Who covers the 6-5, 230 pound receiver? That brings us to why the Cowboys signed Brandon Carr in free agency. Carr is expected to take on the opponent's best receivers, such as Jackson. Carr will press Jackson at the line of scrimmage and try to redirect him from running his routes. Carr has been excellent in man coverage this season but he should expect some safety help, and this is where things could get tricky.

Safety Gerald Sensabaugh is nursing a calf injury and is doubtful for Sunday's game. Danny McCray and Barry Church have three starts combined between them in their careers and most likely will be the starters at safety.

The inexperience at the safety spot could hurt the Cowboys on Sunday when it comes to covering Jackson.

In the first two weeks, defensive coordinator Rob Ryan based his blitzes on how the offenses were running their game plans. If the Bucs try to go deep by targeting Jackson -- he was targeted 11 times with the Chargers back in 2009 -- maybe Ryan dials it up with the blitzes again.

The big problem with covering Jackson is it could open the door for another receiver to go off against Morris Claiborne, Orlando Scandrick and Mike Jenkins. So even if the Cowboys take Jackson out, someone else might hurt them.

Stat you probably need to know: Since 2008, Jackson has averaged 18.1 yards per catch, third best in the NFL.

SAN DIEGO – Tony Romo's frustration level spiked some, literally, during Tuesday’s practice against San Diego when he was sacked on a fourth-down play in the two-minute drill.

Romo slammed the ball to the turf in disgust, upset with a route run by Dwayne Harris.

After practice, Romo and coach Jason Garrett shared a quick word.

“Some of the hiccups that happened today, we had a number of different guys playing, young players in roles they’ve not been in because of the injuries,” Garrett said, “but you’ve just got to fight through. You can’t get bogged down by it. You’ve got to deal with it, address it and move forward. As the leader of this football team, he (Romo) does that very well and he has to continue to do that.”

According to unofficial stats, Romo ended training camp by completing 245 of 371 passes in team and seven-on-seven drills. He was just 17 of 31 on Tuesday but closed out the final two-minute drill with a touchdown pass to Danny Coale in the back of the end zone after the rookie wide receiver snuck by Antoine Cason.

In a game, the play would have been reviewed, but the Chargers' defense was upset at the official with the call. Coale thought he got his foot down as he was being pushed by Cason.

Romo went the final 151 passes of training camp without an interception in team or seven-on-seven drills.

Romo’s backup, Kyle Orton, concluded camp by completing 148 of 221 passes in team and seven-on-seven drills.

SAN DIEGO -- The Cowboys head home Wednesday after spending almost a month in training camp.

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For quarterback Tony Romo, things went well. Check that: really, really good.

"I think in a lot of ways camp is over, (but) we’re going back and we’re going to work," Romo said after Tuesday's practice. "We still got some stuff to get better at but it was a great start to the season with the effort and commitment the guys made. I know we got some guys banged up so we got to get a lot of guys healthy, but we laid the foundation. It was a really, really good camp for the Dallas Cowboys."

The Cowboys (1-1) make their 2012 home debut Saturday against St. Louis at Cowboys Stadium.

Romo will not have his starting wide receivers, center and tight end for that game. Yet, Romo said he was pleased with the intensity level of training camp, especially the last two days as the Cowboys practiced with the San Diego Chargers.

Sometimes with the end of training camp in sight, players tend to relax.

Romo said that wasn't the case.

"Our team doesn't take that approach. We don’t look past the day," he said. "That's one of the best things about this team, they've done a great job of handling adversity and handling just the ability to focus in on the task at hand. If you can do that, it's mental toughness. We say it all the time. I think mental toughness is being your best regardless of the circumstance, and that’s what our approach is out here."

SAN DIEGO – The practice between the Cowboys' offense and San Diego defense got feisty Tuesday with a mini-fight, lots of words and an unnecessary hit that nearly prompted a bigger fight.

It started when undrafted tight end Andrew Szczerba and Chargers first-round pick Melvin Ingram went a round or so following a running play. San Diego safety Atari Bigby shoved DeMarco Murray in the back after Murray and fullback Lawrence Vickers came in to help Szczerba, who went to the ground and might have been kicked by a Charger.

Szczerba was apologetic afterward because coach Jason Garrett told the players to stay away from the extracurricular activities.

“Just the heat of the moment,” Szczerba said. “Things happen but I’ve got to be smarter and react better to help my team. I hurt my team with that.”

Vickers was one of the first Cowboys in the middle of the scrum.

“No, it ain’t tough to jump in there,” he said. “I’m supposed to do that. I’m going to be there because I’m going to ride with my teammates through whatever. There’s a brotherhood here, togetherness. That the first thing we’re going to have is camaraderie, regardless of who it is I’m jumping out there. But then again, you’ve got to listen to coach and the coach wants us to get good work in without that.”

A few plays later, San Diego cornerback Quentin Jammer unloaded on wide receiver Dwayne Harris underneath, sending him flying with a full-contact hit.

No punches were thrown, but players got together for a bit before they went back to their respective huddles.

After that, there were no more skirmishes.

“Back in the day we used to go against the Raiders and we used to do two practices, full padded, for three days, and about the fourth practice in the middle of the second afternoon there were a lot of fights,” Garrett said, “and there continued to be a lot of fights. It’s a real challenge for a player to stay focused because you want to stand up for your guy. That’s a good thing in football, that’s a good thing in life. But at the same time, you have to get your emotions under control and go do your job the next play. It’s a little bit of a mental test as well for the individual and our team, and I thought for the most part we handled it well.”

SAN DIEGO – Early Wednesday afternoon, the Cowboys will board a plane and return to Dallas for the first time since July 28, but coach Jason Garrett acknowledged some eyes might have already been on the trip home than on Tuesday's practice against the San Diego Chargers.

“We as coaches when we look at practice, you can tell the guys were close to the end,” Garrett said. “That’s the nature of these last training camp practices, but I was proud of how we fought through some things. It was an ugly practice. We’re not going to send the tape to Canton and I told our team that. But you like the mental toughness to fight through it and then hopefully there’s a little feeling of a lot of the real physical work is done and you get a chance to get refreshed a little bit.”

While injuries knocked out many regulars, including Miles Austin, Jay Ratliff, Jason Witten and Jason Hatcher, and hurt the development of some young players, such as Morris Claiborne, Garrett felt the work in California was good.

“I thought we had an outstanding camp, I just told our players that,” Garrett said. “Training camp is where you lay the foundation of your football team. I thought we did a great job of getting ourselves ready in the offseason for training camp and since we were out here the team really worked very, very, very hard. Oxnard is a great environment to practice, a couple of good, competitive preseason games in all three phases and then to come down here and work against the Chargers was good for our football team. We’ll break and get back to Dallas and get into regular-season mode.”

SAN DIEGO – Usually when players talk about practicing against other teams, they mention the enjoyment in seeing another color jersey.

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Outside linebacker Anthony Spencer didn’t much care what jersey he saw Monday in his full-time return to practice as the Cowboys lined up across from the San Diego Chargers.

“It’s just good to see whoever’s in front of me,” said Spencer, who missed two weeks of practice with a hamstring strain. “It was a good day for me. A little rusty in the beginning but I loosened up and I got going.”

Spencer missed the first two preseason games against Oakland and San Diego but he was not sure he would play Saturday against St. Louis. The plan is to hold the regulars out of the preseason finale against Miami on Aug. 29, leading into the Sept. 5 season opener at the New York Giants.

“I just need the practice,” Spencer said. “I need the reps. I missed about two weeks so just getting the reps and getting my footwork down and my drops right means a lot. I’ve just got to get things sharpened up.”

SAN DIEGO -- Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant left Monday's practice with the San Diego Chargers with a right knee injury and is scheduled to have an MRI.

Bryant was one of three receivers injured in practice, along with Andre Holmes (back) and Donavon Kemp (knee).

For more on this developing story, click here.

SAN DIEGO -- Before you go gaga over Cole Beasley and his seven-catch, 104-yard performance against the San Diego Chargers, give some attention to Kevin Ogletree.

While the Dallas Cowboys' No. 3 receiver spot isn't locked up, Ogletree made a powerful argument for the role Saturday night.

Ogletree caught four passes for 60 yards against the Chargers' first- and second-team units. He made a tough, leaping 35-yard reception against starter Quentin Jammer while taking a hit, leading to the first touchdown of the preseason for the Cowboys.

The catch certainly left an impression on owner/general manager Jerry Jones.

"What I liked about Ogletree was, in tight, when it was a collision to get the ball, he made the big catch," Jones said. "One of the criticisms of him is physically he needs to get better when he has the physically contested ball. I think he's shown that with that big catch. We know he's got speed. We know he's got quickness. I thought he made a statement for himself."

Nothing against Beasley, who had six of his catches in the fourth quarter against the third-team Chargers defense and could be the fourth or fifth receiver for the Cowboys, but with two preseason games remaining, Ogletree is the leader to become Dallas' No. 3 receiver.

Read the full column here.