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So John Clayton has this piece on the 10 best position battles brewing this summer between rookies and veterans in the NFL. I scrolled through it, thinking it would provide me with some material for a late-Friday afternoon post, and to my shock and dismay there wasn't one NFC East mention in the whole thing. Come on, John! Help a guy out, will ya?

Anyway, it got me thinking: There must be some interesting position battles to keep an eye on throughout the offseason and training camps in our division, right? I mean, some situations where things aren't yet set in stone? There are, and here's one for each team.

Dallas Cowboys' inside linebackers: Sean Lee is set at one of these spots, but the other will be interesting to watch. The team drafted Bruce Carter in the second round in 2011, and they believe he's part of their future on defense. But he was coming off an injury when they drafted him and played in just 10 games as a rookie, and they can't be sure he'll be ready to hold down a starter's spot full-time in 2012. So they went out on the free-agent market and signed Dan Connor, formerly of the Carolina Panthers, to start next to Lee while Carter continues to acclimate himself to the pro game. The interesting aspect of this will be how good Carter looks in training camp and whether he can play well enough to demand to take reps and snaps away from Connor. The veteran, Connor, will start with the job, but Carter is the future there, and it's just a question of when he's ready.

New York Giants running backs: Ahmad Bradshaw is the unquestioned veteran starter, but he doesn't come without questions. Foot injuries have limited him over the past several seasons, and his good friend and veteran safety net, Brandon Jacobs, is off to San Francisco to play for the 49ers. Assuming Bradshaw won't be able to make it through the season fully healthy on a starter's workload, there are going to be plenty of snaps to go around. The question is how many of those snaps first-round pick David Wilson can steal from holdover youngsters like D.J. Ware, Da'Rel Scott and Andre Brown (who's suspended for the first four games for drugs).

Philadelphia Eagles safeties: The team wants Nate Allen and Jaiquawn Jarrett, its second-round picks from the 2010 and 2011 drafts, respectively, to be the starters. Of the two, they're more confident about Allen, who's had some injury issues but played well when healthy last season. They have him penciled in as a starter. Whether Jarrett can fight off Kurt Coleman for the other starting spot is one of the training-camp questions the Eagles will face. It's also possible they'll add a free-agent veteran to the mix, but they'd rather get the production they need from their young guys if they can.

Washington Redskins secondary: There are currently 15 defensive backs listed on the Redskins' roster, and it's safe to assume they can't all make the team. The question is which of them will play. Josh Wilson and DeAngelo Hall would appear to be set as the starting cornerbacks, but the team did sign free agent Cedric Griffin, and intriguing undrafted free-agent cornerback Chase Minnifield will be a name to watch in the summer. The more interesting questions are at safety, where the Redskins lost starters LaRon Landry and O.J. Atowge and things are wide open. The guy they like the best for the future is 2011 draft pick DeJon Gomes, but while they view him as a starter at some point, they don't know yet whether that point is this year. Their free-agent safety signing list is a fascinating one, including Brandon Meriweather, Madieu Williams and Tanard Jackson, any of whom c0uld emerge as a starter. Griffin also might have been brought in with an eye toward playing him at safety, and Reed Doughty was a valuable injury fill-in last season and could get a shot at more playing time in this crowded field. The Redskins appear to be installing an all-out competition for safety roles, and from here it's impossible to know who will play well enough to nail them down.

Earlier this offseason Dallas Cowboys defensive end Jason Hatcher raised some eyebrows when he was asked during a radio interview who the leaders in the team's locker room were and he said he didn't know. The obvious question, after the Cowboys collapsed down the stretch last year and finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs, was whether there were enough capable leaders on the roster.

Well, inside linebacker Sean Lee, who was one of the Cowboys' best players in 2011, would like the job. Per Tom Orsborn in San Antonio:

"If there is something that needs to be addressed, I have no problem addressing it," Lee said last week while working out at team headquarters in Irving.

"All my teammates realize I have their back, and I want to see them do their best, and I want to see our team win the Super Bowl and be successful. So I have no problem stepping up and saying something if I see or find something I feel is wrong."

Good for him. At the time of the Hatcher thing, my reaction was that if a guy doesn't think there are enough leaders in the locker room, the right thing to do is become one. Looks as though Lee would like to do just that. He's got the chops for it, having played at a high level early last year before dislocating his wrist and proving his toughness and dedication to the team by coming back and playing in a cast before that wrist was fully healed. If there are players on the Cowboys looking for someone who can step up and be a vocal leader, Lee is the kind of guy to whom they might pay attention.

We'll see. I tend to think this is a lot of hooey. And I have a hunch that, if the Cowboys win 11 games next year, we'll hear a lot about how great their leadership is and, if they win eight again, we'll hear a lot about how they don't have enough. And nobody cares which one's the chicken and which one's the egg if you're in the playoffs.

Former Indianapolis Colts GM Bill Polian writes for ESPN now, which is especially handy this time of year because he's actually made NFL draft picks and can offer insight that schlubs like me can't offer. Today, Bill ranks the draft performance of each NFL team over the past three years . (Except the Colts, since he made those picks and doesn't feel he can be objective. Fair enough. If I were ranking the best ESPN.com NFL blog entries of the past calendar year, I'd have a hard time figuring out how to handle the NFC East ones.)

Anyway, Bill's got the New York Giants ranked among "The Best" in his rankings, behind only the Ravens, Lions and Packers. He picks a "best value pick" and a "cornerstone pick" for each team, and for the Giants he lists wide receiver Hakeem Nicks (29th pick, 2009) as the best value pick and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (15th pick, 2010) as the cornerstone. Based on the results alone, these are both very good picks for the Giants, and they offer different types of examples of the Giants' broad-thinking approach to the first round.

Nicks was the fifth of a whopping six wide receivers taken in that year's first round. The Giants, who take a best-player-available approach to the draft and almost never pick based on need, identified that this was a year in which those two concepts overlapped. They needed a receiver, and this was a first round that offered great value at that position. After Darrius Heyward-Bey went seventh to Oakland and Michael Crabtree went 10th to the 49ers, the Giants were locked in on Jeremy Maclin and reportedly had a deal in place to trade up to No. 20 to take him if he fell that far. Instead, the Eagles moved up and picked Maclin at 19. The Vikings took Percy Harvin at 22 and the Giants, with well-regarded Rutgers product Kenny Britt still on the board at 29, went with Nicks.

The Giants believed Maclin and Nicks were both top-15 value picks that had slipped into the second half of the round. They had them rated very closely together and believed each offered something special. With Maclin it was his raw speed and special-teams ability. With Nicks, it was his studious nature and everything they'd been told by his college coaches about his attention to detail and the level of responsibility he'd assumed as a leader of the wide receiver corps at North Carolina. They were ecstatic to get him at 29. If not for the saturation of first-round wide receiver talent in that particular year, they might not have been able to sniff either guy. They took advantage of a rare and exciting confluence of value and need to make that year's first-round pick, and it's paid off.

As for Pierre-Paul, we've been over this story a million times. The Giants were picking in the middle of the first round that year, and the value at that spot was going to be pass-rushers, which is their wheelhouse. Five defensive ends went in that year's first round, and the names of Brandon Graham and Derrick Morgan were being kicked around for teams in the middle of the first round. Pierre-Paul was a mystery man -- raw and inexperienced but unquestionably gifted as a pure athlete. Everybody saw the tape of him doing the backflips. No one -- not even the Giants -- knew for sure how that would translate into NFL football.

But the Giants fell in love. Tom Coughlin went to watch Pierre-Paul work out. They decided that his talent was worth taking a chance on, given the strength of their belief in the ability of their coaches and their veteran players to groom great defensive linemen. Their need was at linebacker, but there was no linebacker in that year's first round that offered value at No. 15. And they didn't need a defensive end who could help right away, since they were already loaded at that position. So why not take the guy whose potential cornerstone talent you believed you could mold into a cornerstone player?

The Eagles traded up to get Graham at 13 -- a move that has subjected them to derision in light of Pierre-Paul's rapid ascent and Graham's health struggles (and the fact that safety Earl Thomas went one pick later). And with the seemingly more NFL-ready Morgan still on the board, the Giants picked Pierre-Paul. They didn't know he'd be one of the best defensive players in the league two years later. They thought maybe he could eventually be that, and that his potential combined with their program made him worth the pick. This was a pick that made more sense for the Giants than it might have made for any other team picking in that spot. They identified that, and again, it has paid off.

Anyway, the other teams in the NFC East are much further down the list, all in the bottom-17 portion of Bill's list labeled "The Rest of the Rest." He picks Sean Lee as the Cowboys' value pick and Tyron Smith as the cornerstone. The Eagles' value pick is Jason Kelce (sixth round!) and the cornerstone pick is LeSean McCoy. The Redskins' value pick is Roy Helu (fourth round!) and their cornerstones are Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan, though the Redskins are hoping the real cornerstone is the guy they're picking No. 2 overall next week.

Good morning in the East, where spring has sprung early and the roster tinkering is in full swing. What will Wednesday bring? More signings? Another surprise trade? All we know for sure is it starts with links.

Dallas Cowboys

New Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr said one of the things that convinced him to sign with Dallas was an in-person sales pitch from DeMarcus Ware, Jason Witten, Sean Lee and Miles Austin, all of whom attended the dinner at which the team's brass treated Carr at Cowboys Stadium on his free-agent recruiting visit. The $26.5 million guaranteed surely didn't hurt, either.

Troy Aikman says he thinks Tony Romo is already a better quarterback than he ever was, which surely comes as a surprise to those who wanted the Cowboys to sign Peyton Manning or wish they would trade Romo for Tim Tebow.

New York Giants

Ahmad Bradshaw says his fractured foot has healed completely and that he believes he can handle a workload similar to the one he had in 2010. That would be especially nice if his friend Brandon Jacobs finds work elsewhere, as it appears he will. But I'd still expect the Giants to bring in some veteran running back to help spell Bradshaw just in case.

I'm sick of banging my head against my desk every morning looking for a second Giants link. Nobody who covers or blogs about the Giants is writing anything right now unless the Giants sign someone or one of their guys signs somewhere else. Since that didn't happen Tuesday, there's nothing out there. Go ahead, check for yourselves. I'm open to suggestions. You guys tell me what the second Giants link should be. I can't find it.

Philadelphia Eagles

Jonathan Tamari likes the deal for linebacker DeMeco Ryans. And while Jonathan does bring up a couple of the reasons to wonder how they got him so cheap, the fact is it's an impossible deal to dislike. Ryans was a great player for Houston before his Achilles injury and will be nearly two full years removed from it (and still just 28 years old) when the 2012 season starts. Houston wasn't using him enough to justify what they were paying him, because they were taking him off the field in nickel situations in the sub packages in their new 3-4 defensive scheme. The Eagles saw a guy who was being undervalued by his team but would fill the biggest need on theirs, and they snagged him. Good for them. If it doesn't work out, they lost a fourth-round draft pick. But there's no doubt Ryan is better than anything they had at linebacker in 2011.

Players on the Eagles are excited about the move and players on the Texans are bummed out about it, as Les Bowen writes. That tells you a great deal.

Washington Redskins

Free-agent quarterback Josh Johnson, late of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will visit the Redskins on Wednesday. When this news broke Tuesday night, people were asking why, and I don't see what the great mystery is. You need to be at least three-deep at quarterback, and Johnson as the No. 3 (or the No. 2, if he can pass Rex Grossman on the depth chart) seems like a heck of a lot better option than paying John Beck $1 million. Why not take a look? Quarterback is a position at which it's important to be as good and as deep as you can possibly be. And remember, as excited as everyone is about Robert Griffin III, he is going to be a rookie. He'll need good backups.

The Redskins also re-signed Kory Lichtensteiger, who was playing very well for them at left guard last year before blowing out his knee in that completely disastrous Week 6 loss to the Eagles in which everyone got hurt and Grossman got benched for Beck. They still need to upgrade at right tackle, and if Lichtensteiger isn't fully healthy they still need to be looking for help on the interior. But they were happy with what Lichtensteiger was giving them before his injury, so he's back.

If the Dallas Cowboys have a hole, they're going to plug it. ESPNDallas.com reports the Cowboys have come to terms on an agreement with linebacker Dan Connor, a former Carolina Panther and the sixth unrestricted free agent with whom the Cowboys have agreed to terms in the past two days.

Connor is an inside linebacker -- a Penn State alum like Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee -- who adds depth at a position where the Cowboys had none. Lee and Bruce Carter are the only two inside linebackers on the Cowboys' roster at this point, and Carter -- a second-round pick in 2011 -- is an unknown quantity. The team had talked about him as a possible 2012 starter, and he might yet be. But bringing in Connor gives the Cowboys some insurance in case Carter isn't ready and a reliable veteran who can play if Carter needs rest or more time to get up to speed. Connor is a strong player against the run in particular and should complement Lee's outstanding coverage ability.

More to come, too, in Dallas. The Cowboys have free-agent guard Nate Livings in for a visit Thursday, and it seems as though they're not letting many guys leave Valley Ranch without new deals.

Go back a year -- heck, go back three or four months and check out some of the stuff that was being written and asked about New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. Not fiery enough, it was said. Bad body language. Doesn't look like the kind of guy who gets people energized and focused in the huddle. Needs to be more of a leader.

Well, something about throwing a football into a football-sized hole 38 yards down the sideline in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl changes the narrative, doesn't it? Giants fans aren't bothered by Eli's dopey-kid-brother demeanor anymore. Now it's all about Even-keeled Eli, who's so great in the clutch because he never gets rattled -- whose teammates would follow him through the gates of hell, so calm and convincing a leader is he.

Guess what? Nothing about Eli Manning changed over the past year except that he won his second Super Bowl. He's the same guy whose leadership style nobody liked when they missed the playoffs in 2009 and 2010. The difference is, this year, it all worked.

Which brings me to the Dallas Cowboys, Jason Hatcher and the question of locker-room leadership. Hatcher is a relatively non-controversial Cowboys defensive end who made some waves last week when he was asked on a radio show who the Cowboys' leaders were and he said he didn't know. Said he wished they had a Ray Lewis-type of leader in their locker room -- somebody to make fiery speeches and get the team pumped up.

Hatcher was surely speaking from the heart and not trying to stir up controversy, but the thing grew instant legs because what he said jives with the popular external opinion of what's wrong with the Cowboys -- that they're missing some key ethereal ingredient that makes winners, that they don't have the same kind of stuff beating in the center of their chest that Manning and his Giants do. The Cowboys underachieve, and should be better than they normally are, so we assume it's about heart or guts or leadership or whatever.

It's entirely possible that Hatcher and the public perception are correct. However, I believe that this is (a) a heavy charge to level against individuals who willingly put their bodies through the physical torture of NFL football on a week-to-week basis and (b) overblown, if not irrelevant. This is stuff that has only come up because the Cowboys lost four of their last five games. If they'd won one or two of those games -- if they'd held on against Arizona or beaten the Giants once in two tries -- the Cowboys would have been NFC East champions and talk radio hosts wouldn't be asking people like Hatcher who the leaders in the locker room were. The talk would be about how Tony Romo played through broken ribs and Sean Lee played with a cast on his hand, and how those guys inspired their teammates to do great things because of all of the heart and toughness they were showing.

In the NFL, it takes only a dropped pass here or a blocked kick there to change the entire narrative. What the Giants accomplished in January and February was stunning and tremendous, and there's certainly no guarantee the Cowboys would have made the same run if they'd been the NFC East champ instead of the Giants. But it goes to show that these storylines are all driven by who wins the games. If you win, you have effective leaders. If you don't, well, there must be something wrong.

"There's so many different styles of leadership," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett told reporters Thursday in Indianapolis at the NFL scouting combine. "There are guys who are more vocal guys, guys that lead by example, guys that pat a guy on the back, guys that ring guys by the neck. That's the way it is and the way it's always been. The best teams I've been on had a variety of styles of leadership from the players."

But one thing I'm sure they all have in common is that, regardless of style, they're genuine. You can't pretend to be a fiery-speech guy if you're not. People will see through it, and people don't respond to phonies. Lewis, for all of his bluster, is no phony. He believes the stuff he's screaming at his teammates before and after games, and they respond to it.

But Manning's teammates respond to his much calmer style, and that apparently works, too. Just because no one's in the Giants' locker room yelling and screaming all the time doesn't mean they lack leadership. And you know what? Just because no one's in the Cowboys' locker room yelling and screaming all the time doesn't mean they lack leadership. If Ray Lewis had been in the Cowboys' locker room on the evening of Jan. 1 and given some fiery speech, would only one Giants fullback have been able to hurdle Terence Newman that night instead of two?

The Cowboys' problem in 2011 was a defense that didn't have enough good players to hold up all season. They're embarking on the process now of trying to fix that. If some of the guys they bring in turn out to be Ray Lewis speechmaking types and they win some playoff games next year, you'll hear a lot about those new, fiery leaders. If the guys they bring in are all quiet types and they win some playoff games next year, you'll hear a lot about those new, cool, quiet leaders.

That's the way things work in this league -- results dictate the narrative, and the narrative must be molded to fit the results. The Cowboys don't need "leadership." They need defensive backs. And a pass rush. And some help on the offensive line. And if they get all of that stuff and it works in 2012, we're going to be told by people inside their locker room that they had plenty of leaders all along.

Yes, I'm leaning hard on ESPNDallas.com's position-by-position series. It's there every day. It's good. It's got Bryan Broaddus. What's not to like? Today's installment is on inside linebackers, which for the Dallas Cowboys in 2012 looks like it could be Sean Lee, Bruce Carter and... just about anybody who wants to try out. Per Bryan, in Calvin Watkins' story:

The problem for the Cowboys will not be Carter and Lee, but who is behind them? Orie Lemon is a college free agent who spent the year on the practice squad but other than him, that is it. This front office can not afford to miss on picks like it did with players like Jason Williams. Look for them to be aggressive not only in the draft but in college free agency, which is an area where they usually find a player or two because depth here is beyond thin.

The Cowboys have to believe Lee is a long-term answer in the middle. He was a terror in 2011 before he got hurt, and he played very well even after he returned from the hand injury. Carter is a guy from whom we didn't see enough in 2011 to make any real conclusions, but it looks as though the starting job along with Lee is his for the taking. No one expects the Cowboys to bring back Bradie James or Keith Brooking, and inside linebacker isn't a high-priority area for the draft or free agency with all of the needs they have in the secondary, the pass rush and on the offensive line. Carter's going to have to play well, or they're going to have trouble patching this unit together.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ah, links by the bay, on the morning after the New York Giants managed to put themselves back in the Super Bowl. Some have been complaining, for the past couple of weeks, that this blog has been Giants-heavy. To those people, I say: sorry. It's not about to get any better.

But you know, when you're after democracy and fairness, you can always count on the links.

New York Giants

Hey! Guess who showed up at Candlestick Park to watch his brother win the NFC Championship Game. Yeah, that's right: Peyton Manning. Peyton is very proud of Eli Manning, as he should be. Eli Manning is a stone-cold killer.

In fact, the biggest difference between this year's Super Bowl-bound Giants and the team that won it all four years ago may be the extent to which this is Manning's team -- and the extent to which the Giants rely on him. Ashley Fox muses eloquently on this idea.

Philadelphia Eagles

Les Bowen has a look at quarterbacks the Eagles could target in the draft, if they want to take a shot on finding a developmental guy in the middle rounds.

Jeff McLane ponders the question: "What if the Eagles' defensive issues weren't the coordinator's fault?" Specifically, Jeff is musing on whether the Eagles' defense has enough size on it.

Dallas Cowboys

New Cowboys secondary coach Jerome Henderson is looking forward to working with Rob Ryan again (the two were together in Cleveland) and has some very definite ideas about the kind of players he wants and the way he expects them to play, as Calvin Watkins writes.

The death of Joe Paterno has had a great effect on the Penn State community, which is a large and far-flung one that includes players and coaches in every NFL city. Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee released a statement through the team about his thoughts on losing his college coach.

Washington Redskins

Wow, it's tough to find Redskins links right now. All of the Washington papers were covering the Ravens this weekend, and the blogs seem a little slow, too. Fortunately, we have Redskins.com, which excerpts a recent Adam Carriker interview in which he discusses how much he enjoyed being around rookie Jarvis Jenkins this year ...

...and has photos of the practice bubble being inflated at Redskins Park. No longer will Washington be the only team in the NFL that has to cancel practice when it rains!

Man, the NFL really sets this whole thing up nicely, doesn't it? Of course the NFC East is still alive for at least one more week. Every division is. Eight playoff teams remain, and there's one from each division. Almost as if they planned it that way.

Anyway, the NFC East champs looked as good as any team that played this weekend, and they of course lead off the Monday links.

New York Giants

The Giants rushed for a season-high 172 yards in their playoff victory over Atlanta, but Ian O'Connor writes that the run that got it all started was a 14-yard scamper by a very unlikely candidate -- quarterback Eli Manning. "Unlikely" is putting it mildly, since Manning only had 15 rush yards, total, during the regular season. But Ian's point is a good one -- that Manning has a knack for making the play the Giants need him to make when they need him to make it.

The Giants' players have done a lot of talking the past few weeks, and they clearly feel more confident in themselves than they have at any point this year. That all starts early this week. Before he even left the postgame locker room, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul guaranteed a victory over the Packers next week at Lambeau Field. Pineapples for everyone!

Philadelphia Eagles

Les Bowen has been pretty consistent about pointing out a key, oft-ignored element of the Steve Spagnuolo situation: That even if the Eagles do want to make him their defensive coordinator, they're likely to have competition for his services.

We gave you the link to the Cowboys' "Stay or Go" post from ESPNDallas.com a few days ago. Philly.com is doing the same thing for the Eagles, allowing you to go on there and vote on which players you think should be back next year and which won't. Eagles management is not offering fans the same opportunity -- just the Philly.com web site. But it's a pretty complete list. Andy Reid's on there, even though we know he's coming back. Jeffrey Lurie's on there, even though there's no indication he's stopped wanting to own the team. And Swoop, the mascot, is on there, in case you think it's all Swoop's fault.

Dallas Cowboys

Jason Garrett has begun the process of meeting with his assistant coaches, many of whom he inherited when he took over as head coach from the fired Wade Phillips. Garrett flexed some muscle last offseason in making tough decisions about players he'd inherited and didn't want, and you wonder if he might want to put his own stamp on the coaching staff now that he's got a full season under his belt.

Cowboys linebacker and Penn State alum Sean Lee issued a statement over the weekend about new Penn State coach Bill O'Brien. I mean, I guess he's saying he supports the new coach, but it's not exactly a ringing endorsement from a former player who would have liked to see one of his former coaches get a shot at the top job. Feels like a lot of Penn State people taking this perspective are missing the point.

Washington Redskins

Mike Shanahan and the Redskins' coaching staff will coach the South team in the Senior Bowl later this month in Mobile, Ala. Not every draft prospect will be there, of course, as many are juniors. But coaches generally enjoy the Senior Bowl as an opportunity to get an up-close look at some guys who might be able to help them. The Redskins have several needs on both sides of the ball, and working closely with some of the top seniors could help them turn up a mid-round gem or two.

Lots of people have asked me about Adam Carriker, who is well liked by fans and teammates and coaches and says he wants to come back to the Redskins next year. But Carriker is going to be an unrestricted free agent, and his return is therefore uncertain. I'm not sure I agree with the idea that Jarvis Jenkins is the issue, since I think they planned to use both guys in a rotation last year and could fit both into their scheme. I think the issue has more to do with London Fletcher being a top priority and the decisions that need to be made at offensive line, safety, wide receiver and several other places. They could conceivably run out of room in the budget for Carriker, is all.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- If you're wondering whether your favorite injured New York Giants or Dallas Cowboys player will be active for Sunday night's NFC East title game, the answer is yes.

Giants wide receivers Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham and defensive end Osi Umenyiora all will dress for and play in tonight's game. Umenyiora missed the past four games with an ankle injury. Manningham missed last week's game and several others during the second half with a knee injury. And Nicks missed some practices last week with a hamstring injury. But as they said they would be, all are healthy enough to play in a game that decides the division champion.

Likewise, Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, who bruised his throwing hand last weekend in a loss to Philadelphia, will start the game. Nose tackle Jay Ratliff and linebackers DeMarcus Ware and Sean Lee also are active in spite of injuries that limited them during the week.

The Giants will still be without tight end Jake Ballard, who has a knee injury. And wide receiver Ramses Barden is a surprise inactive. He is not injured, so it appears Barden is being held out because he hasn't been playing well lately. Bear Pascoe will start at tight end in place of Ballard, with Henry Hynoski starting at fullback in place of Pascoe. The Giants also announced that Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul will be the starting defensive ends, which means Umenyiora technically will come off the bench.

For the Cowboys, the only surprise inactive is cornerback Frank Walker, who's healthy but also hasn't played well lately. With Walker and injured safety/special teamer Danny McCray inactive, the Cowboys are very thin in the secondary against a Giants passing offense that had its way with them three weeks ago in Dallas. Dallas is also without punter Mat McBriar, who was placed on injured reserve Saturday with a foot injury.

Let's take a look at the Wednesday injury news that pertains to Sunday night's NFC East title game, shall we?

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who left Saturday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth quarter with a bruised hand, practiced without a wrap or anything on the hand, according to ESPNDallas.com. Only portions of practices are open to the media, so there's no way to know how much work he did or how effectively he was able to throw the ball with his banged-up hand. But the fact that he was at practice and doing any throwing at all can fairly be taken, at least, as a good sign that Romo will play Sunday against the New York Giants.

Speaking of the Giants, wide receiver Hakeem Nicks showed up on the Wednesday morning injury report with a hamstring problem that Giants coach Tom Coughlin said cropped up during Saturday's victory over the New York Jets. Coughlin said in his morning briefing that Nicks would not practice, and it didn't look as though fellow wide receiver Mario Manningham or tight end Jake Ballard would either. Coughlin did say he was "optimistic" about having Nicks and Manningham for the game, but that he'd like to see them both practice.

The good Giants injury news is that defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who's been out for weeks with an ankle injury, did practice and could be ready to go Sunday night. That would give the Giants their full complement of edge pass rushers -- something they've only had for five of their first 15 games this year due to injuries to Umenyiora and Justin Tuck.

The Cowboys were without defensive stars DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratliff and Sean Lee for Wednesday's practice. Ware and Ratliff were limited in practice last week but played in the game. Lee's injury, suffered in the loss to the Eagles, is the one on which to keep an eye.

Plenty more on all of these situations, I promise, as the week rolls along.

Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com has a column up, and it's about the Dallas Cowboys' defense. Specifically, it's about first-year defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, who Tim says is struggling to coach something out of the same cast of characters that helped get the previous coach and defensive coordinator, Wade Phillips, fired a little more than a year ago.

Tim's hypothesis is that maybe it's not the fault of the coach or the scheme in Dallas, but that maybe we've all been overrating the players the Cowboys have on the defensive side of the ball:

The truth is that this defense has three cornerstone players -- outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware, nose tackle Jay Ratliff and inside linebacker Sean Lee -- and a whole bunch of question marks. Throw a dart at the defensive depth chart and you're pretty much guaranteed to hit a draft need.

Cornerback Mike Jenkins has first-round talent and deserves credit for fighting through injuries all season, but he's on-again, off-again. Outside linebacker Anthony Spencer, another former first-round pick, has flashes of brilliance that are lost in long stretches of mediocrity.

Cornerback Terence Newman is way past his prime and looks like he's on his last legs after a few weeks of actually playing well enough to earn his massive contract earlier this season. Inside linebackers Bradie James and Keith Brooking are tough, old warriors whose glory days are long gone.

The rest of the defense is filled with JAGs, to borrow a term from Bill Parcells. The just-a-guy list includes safety Gerald Sensabaugh and [Orlando] Scandrick, even though they've been given five-year, $20-plus-million contract extensions this season.

It's an interesting point, for sure. Two years ago, when the Cowboys turned it on this time of year and won a division title, Spencer and Jenkins played like stars. They have not done so since, and as a result there are very few players on the Cowboys' defense who are. It's one thing when you have five or six guys playing like stars. It's quite another when you have only two or three.

The theory behind hiring Ryan was that the Cowboys underachieved on defense last season and needed a fresh voice to coax the talent out of all the talented players they already had in place. And while he's been able to get something out of Spencer and Jenkins (and, earlier in the season, Newman) that wasn't there a year ago, Tim's right that none of those guys is playing at a star-caliber level. Can they the rest of the way? Sure. We've seen it before for brief stretches with some of these same guys. But once this is all over, it seems the Cowboys are going to have to make some more serious and sober assessments of just what exactly they do have on defense.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Some thoughts on the wild, back-and-forth tussle between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys for control of the NFC East race:

What it means: A three-game season in the NFC East with two teams controlling their own destinies. The two teams are tied for first place at 7-6. The Giants currently hold the tiebreaker due to Sunday night's head-to-head victory, but they meet again Jan. 1 in New Jersey. If either the Cowboys or the Giants win their final three games, they will be division champs. Of course, it could also be decided before then, but the Giants' victory Sunday makes that less likely. New York's win also is good news, for what it's worth, for the Eagles, who are 5-8 and just two games out of the first-place tie.

The hero: Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, the team's first-round pick in the 2010 draft, was the Giants' defense in this game. He was the only one who could get pressure on Tony Romo, and he was there in the end to block Dan Bailey's attempt at a game-tying 47-yard field goal. Pierre-Paul has emerged as a superstar player for the Giants this season, and as great as Eli Manning has been and was again in the fourth quarter, it was Pierre-Paul's playmaking that made the difference.

Giants don't quit: The Giants were down by 12 points with less than six minutes left in the game but mounted touchdown drives of 80 and 58 yards to take back the lead with 46 seconds left. It was Manning's fifth fourth-quarter comeback drive of the season and undoubtedly his most important since it ended a four-game losing streak and put them back on top in the division with three games to go.

The one-armed man did it: Before Pierre-Paul, it looked as though Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee had made the momentum-swinger. The Giants had already converted a fourth down to keep their drive alive, but on third-and-nine from the Dallas 21, trailing by five points with seven minutes left in the game, Lee came up with a funky interception. Manning's pass whacked into the arm of Victor Butler, then hit Lee on the arm as he was tangled up with David Diehl. Somehow, Lee was able to turn around and catch the ball (in spite of the heavy wrap he wears on his left arm, where the wrist was dislocated earlier this season) and ran for 30 yards before Hakeem Nicks tackled him. Two plays later, Tony Romo hit a wide-open Dez Bryant for a 50-yard touchdown pass that put the Cowboys up 34-22.

No D for G-men: With safety Kenny Phillips out, an already challenged Giants defense just couldn't get a stop. With the exception of the brilliant Pierre-Paul, they were unable to generate a pass rush from their front four. Once again, they refused to blitz because they don't trust their coverage. And once again, the coverage showed why it can't be trusted. Tony Romo and the Cowboys picked on rookie cornerback Prince Amukamara, and Romo beat him for a 74-yard gainer to Laurent Robinson early in the fourth quarter to set up a Miles Austin touchdown that put Dallas on top 27-22. Later in the quarter, Bryant got behind the defense for the easiest touchdown of his life.

Down to one back: The Cowboys lost their great rookie running back, DeMarco Murray, to an ankle injury in the first quarter. And while Felix Jones filled in admirably, rushing for more than 100 yards, Jones is now the only healthy tailback the Cowboys have. And they were unable to run the ball and put the game away in the fourth quarter, allowing Manning and the Giants time to mount a final attempt at a game-winning drive.

Mr. 4,000: This was Manning's third game in a row and seventh this season with at least 300 passing yards, and as a result this is his third straight season with at least 4,000 yards passing.

What's next: The Cowboys play Saturday night in Tampa Bay against the Buccaneers, who are 4-9 and have lost seven games in a row. The Giants have a home game Sunday against the 4-9 Redskins, who started their season by beating them 28-14 in Washington.

Our Hot Button topic this week is about Offensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL. Ashley Fox picks Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton. John Clayton argues for Carolina quarterback Cam Newton. But if you've been watching the Dallas Cowboys for the past month, you have to wonder if there's a chance running back DeMarco Murray can make a push to get himself into this race.

Well, this is a good start. The Cowboys announced Wednesday that Murray has been named the NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Month for the month of November, in which he grabbed hold of their starting running back job and literally ran with it. Murray gained 434 yards and one touchdown on 89 carries and caught 20 passes for 156 more yards. His best game came in late October, when he ran for 253 yards against the Rams. But he rushed for 139 on Nov. 6 against the Seahawks and 135 more on Nov. 13 against the Bills. The Cowboys' 4-0 record in November was due in large part to the way the offense functioned following the emergence of Murray as a legitimate threat in the run game. And even with one-time starter Felix Jones now back from the injury that gave Murray his opportunity, Murray remains the Cowboys' starting running back.

The last Cowboys player to be named Offensive Rookie of the Month was running back Julius Jones in November of 2004. DeMarcus Ware was named Defensive Rookie of the Month in October of 2005. This is the second monthly award for the Cowboys this season, as linebacker Sean Lee was named the league's Defensive Player of the Month in September.

The Dallas Cowboys will host the Miami Dolphins in their annual Thanksgiving Day game on Thursday afternoon. Each team comes in having won three games in a row. The Cowboys edged the division-rival Redskins in overtime on Sunday to claim a share of first place in the NFC East. And the Dolphins have really turned it on after their 0-7 start, outscoring their last three opponents by a combined score of 86-20. Here's a look at some of the things to watch for as the Cowboys try to make it four in a row against one of the hottest teams in the league:

Air it out: The Dolphins' defense is allowing 251.1 passing yards per game this year, which is the eighth-highest average in the league. Now, during their current three-game winning streak, they're only allowing 206 passing yards per game. Their defense is playing better, especially up front. But they can still be exploited in the secondary, and none of the teams they've beaten -- Kansas City, Washington or Buffalo -- came equipped with the kind of downfield weapons the Cowboys and Tony Romo have at their disposal. While the Cowboys have shown, since rookie DeMarco Murray took over as the starting running back, a commitment to the run, I'd look for them to take some deep shots against a weak part of this Miami defense and see if they can build an early lead.

Make Matt Moore uncomfortable: The Dolphins' quarterback has played very well in recent weeks, throwing six touchdown passes and one interception during the win streak. Miami has managed to get big production out of running back Reggie Bush to take some pressure off of Moore, and he's worked tight end Anthony Fasano into the receiving mix to complement the big, physical downfield presence of wide receiver Brandon Marshall. But Moore isn't likely to find the going so smooth if the Cowboys can get into the backfield and disrupt his timing. DeMarcus Ware should be moved around some in this game so he gets to attack the Marc Colombo side of the Dolphins' offensive line as well as the Jake Long side. It's on the Colombo side, Cowboys fans will not be surprised to learn, that they're most vulnerable.

The Fiammetta factor: With fullback Tony Fiammetta sidelined due to illness last week, Murray and the run game weren't as effective as they had been in the previous four games. That's not to say Murray wasn't good. His prior four games were a lot to live up to. But with Fiammetta out, there was a clear difference in Murray's effectiveness when running between the tackles. It looks as though Fiammetta will sit out again, so watch the Dolphins stack up eight-man fronts to try and take away Murray or at least dare him to try and run inside.

Is Sean Lee all the way back?: The Cowboys were the best defense in the league against the run in the early part of this season. Then, starting with the injury to middle linebacker Lee in the loss to the Eagles, they struggled against the run for a few weeks. Was their improvement in this department Sunday because the Redskins' run game is so poor, or because Lee is getting more comfortable playing in spite of his injured wrist? The Dolphins, with Bush and rookie Daniel Thomas leading their run game, will offer a more reliable test.

Home for the holiday: Romo is 4-0 in his career on Thanksgiving Day. He missed last year's game due to injury, but he and the Cowboys are thought to have an advantage here because they play a Thanksgiving game every year and are experienced in how to handle the short week. They're also at home, and playing with extreme confidence. While they can't take the suddenly red-hot Dolphins lightly, they have what they need to establish themselves as the better team early and control the game.