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Yes, the start of training camps is two months away, but it’s never too early to consider the coming season. A look at the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the Cowboys in 2012.

Dream scenario (12-4): The issue in Dallas is the extent to which the defense improves. If the improvement remains incremental, they'll lose some games they should win and have to scrap to stay in the division race. But if the defense takes a dramatic step forward in its second year under defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and with Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne having been brought in to upgrade the secondary, the Cowboys become a Super Bowl contender quite quickly. In the Cowboys' dream scenario, Tony Romo has another big year at quarterback, Miles Austin and DeMarco Murray stay healthy and Dez Bryant takes a big developmental step forward of his own, using his considerable physical ability to dominate matchups in other teams' secondaries and the end zone. The new guys on the offensive line tighten things up in the interior, the move back to right tackle makes Doug Free more comfortable and Tyron Smith transitions seamlessly to left tackle. And in the dream scenario, the improvements in the secondary help the defensive front seven get more pressure on the quarterback, with outside linebacker Anthony Spencer playing the way he did in December 2009 and DeMarcus Ware playing like ... well, like he always does.

Nightmare scenario (6-10): The Cowboys' nightmare scenario, as is the case with anyone's, includes injuries. In this scenario, Austin and Bryant struggle to stay healthy, and the team actually does find itself missing the surprisingly effective replacement Laurent Robinson provided in 2011. Murray also gets banged-up, forcing them to rely again on Felix Jones and little else at running back. Claiborne struggles, as young corners often do, to adjust to the speed and intensity of the NFL game, and Spencer muddles along again, content to be a pretty good but not great player opposite Ware. In the nightmare scenario, Romo has a bad year riddled with turnovers and the kind of inconsistency that gives his critics actual evidence for their criticism, and he raises legitimate questions about how much longer the Cowboys will remain committed to him. The nightmare scenario includes a slow start against a very tough-looking early portion of the schedule and sees the Cowboys succumb to the tension and negativity that's always so quick to cling to them in times of trouble. And no, because you're asking, I don't think that even the nightmare scenario puts Jason Garrett on the hot seat. Jerry Jones loves that guy.

The 2012 draft is so last month, and the 2013 draft is too far away to comprehend, so our draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. is thinking back to the 2011 draft and has come up with some players he thinks could break out in their second NFL seasons. It's an Insider piece, so only those of you with Insider access can read it. But that's OK, because I like you guys better anyway. Just please don't tell the others. I don't want anyone to get upset.

Anyway, Mel has three players on his list from the NFC East, and they are...

Leonard Hankerson, WR, Washington Redskins
I thought Hankerson was just about to really get it going last year when a hip injury derailed his season. While the Redskins went out and made several moves at wide receiver, I think Hankerson could put up big numbers as a down-the-field threat in Mike Shanahan's offense. He's a bigger target, something this offense lacks otherwise, outside of tight end Fred Davis.

My take: Shanahan thinks the same thing, and if Hankerson's healthy, then Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan aren't going to keep him from being a factor.

Tyron Smith, OT, Dallas Cowboys
How could I have Smith here after he started 16 games for the Cowboys in 2011? It's not that he started, it's where he starts. Smith won't be 22 until December, and the Cowboys worked the youngster in on the right side last year. But if he takes over at left tackle, in a division with the kind of pass-rushers the NFC East has, it'll be a true test of his value. I think he'll do well.

My take: Smith was a monster at right tackle last year, one of the best in the league at that position. There's nothing to indicate he can't handle a transition to the more important spot, and if he does he has the talent to excel there for a very long time.

Marvin Austin, DT, New York Giants
This is more of a long shot because Austin isn't even slated to start, but while he got hurt last year and never really got his season on track, I think he can be a big part of the rotation in 2012 if his health is there. This is an immensely talented kid who just needs to keep his motor running; Tom Coughlin will get him going.

My take: Austin is one of the real wild cards for the Giants this year, and if he can stay on the field he could have a huge impact on the Giants' already excellent defensive line. Kind of like Jason Pierre-Paul last year, he has the ability to make himself a starter if the opportunity for playing time should arise.

Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com, a closet baseball fan who covers the Dallas Cowboys, was looking over his 2012 Cowboys' schedule the other day. Calvin was probably planning travel, and deciding which restaurants to patronize in the various road cities to which the Cowboys will be traveling, but while he was doing this he had an idea to list five opposing players who stand out as potential problems for the Cowboys in 2012. These are individual players Calvin thinks will cause matchup problems for the Cowboys, mind you, not necessarily games he's predicting them to lose.

Anyway, the guys over at ESPNDallas.com are real good about plugging my stuff, so in the spirit of symbiosis, I like to give you a look at theirs when it seems appropriate. And on a slow, rainy offseason day such as this, it did. Calvin's list includes Carolina quarterback Cam Newton, Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton, Baltimore rookie linebacker Courtney Upshaw and two players from the NFC East -- Washington Redskins tight end Fred Davis and New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul. Here's Calvin's take on Davis:

The Redskins tight end had seven catches in two games against the Cowboys last season. He's a threat to the linebackers and safeties who might cover him. Does Brodney Pool cover Davis? Gerald Sensabaugh? Anthony Spencer? Davis is athletic enough to provide matchup problems and with Robert Griffin III moving around the pocket, Davis becomes a target to find on the run.

And here's his take on Pierre-Paul:

The New York Giants defensive end is the new Cowboys killer. In two games last year, Pierre-Paul had 13 tackles, three sacks and a blocked field goal. The Cowboys couldn't contain this man. Last year, Doug Free had trouble with Pierre-Paul. Now, Tyron Smith gets his turn at one of the better young defensive players in the game.

I think Smith is fantastic, will have no trouble transitioning to left tackle and can be one of the best in the league at the position in short order. But I agree with the sentiment that Pierre-Paul seems like the kind of player who raises his game when the lights are brightest, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him terrorize the Cowboys again this year, even if they are better at left tackle. His talent is such that he always finds himself in the middle of the big play, and he's the kind of player around whom the Cowboys and the rest of the division are going to have to game-plan for years to come.

And yeah, on Davis -- his size and athleticism at the tight end position are an under-discussed advantage for Griffin in his rookie season. Davis was the Redskins' best receiving threat in 2011, and it's no slight against the upgrades they've made at wide receiver to predict that he could be again in 2012. People may have forgotten about Davis after his four-game drug suspension at the end of last season. But assuming he can stay clean, there's little reason to think he won't be a difficult force with which to contend for opposing defenses.

Dallas Cowboys

Tyron Smith knows the Cowboys' expectations for him are high as he moves from right tackle to left tackle in his second NFL season. There's nothing to indicate that he's going to have any kind of serious problem with this transition. Kid's a stud.

Calvin Watkins believes the Cowboys have made themselves better this offseason, but he also believes the rest of the teams in the division have done the same, and that it's not going to be any easier for the Cowboys just because of the improvements they made.

New York Giants

Last year was, if you remember, a strange year to be an NFL rookie. There were no rookie minicamps -- no offseason program at all, due to the lockout. This year it's all back to normal, and as the Giants open their rookie minicamp today, they're expecting that normality to help this year's rookies make an immediate contribution.

Speaking of rookies, while "sign" and "rhyme" don't exactly rhyme, "Hosley" and "Mosley" do, and the Giants have signed third-round pick Jayron Hosley and fourth-round pick Brandon Mosley to their rookie contracts in advance of this weekend's camp. And even though their first-round and second-round picks haven't signed, a) they surely will soon and b) they are allowed to participate this weekend anyway.

Philadelphia Eagles

No veterans allowed at rookie minicamps this year, so as the Eagles open theirs today as well, every face will be a new face. The coaching staff is excited about it, and if you click on Les Bowen's preview story you can also find out what uniform numbers the draft picks will be wearing. If you're into that sort of thing.

Sheil Kapadia looked at the very, very early betting lines and saw that the Eagles are actually favored to win 13 of their first 15 games this season. Obviously, you don't need me to tell you that a 13-2 start would set the Eagles up rather nicely for the playoff run they hope to make in 2012-13. You also don't need me to remind you that betting lines are designed based not on which team the oddsmakers think will win but rather on which way they expect people to bet. You don't, right?

Washington Redskins

It's the Redskins' 80th anniversary season, and they're going to have a couple of games this year in which they wear throwback uniforms. They had a big shindig Thursday to unveil the uniforms and their plans for their celebration. Here's a photo of Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo in the throwbacks. The helmets are supposed to look like old leather helmets. They don't, of course, but the league probably won't let them use real leather.

The Redskins and Cowboys had their day in front of the arbitrator Thursday, arguing that the league shouldn't have imposed salary cap-penalties against them for their spending during the 2010 uncapped year. No timetable for a decision or further hearings, but this won't be resolved any time soon.

Chris Burke was one of my editors at AOL FanHouse, which was an excellent chapter in both of our lives before it went the way of subprime mortgages, the XFL and "Linsanity." Chris is now doing very well running the "Audibles" blog at SI.com, and today he's got a post on the most promising undrafted free agents for each of the 32 NFL teams. I imagine it took a great deal of time to go through all of the undrafted free agents, and I respect that. But for our purposes, we're only looking at the names he picked out for NFC East teams. And here they are. The comments are mine, not Chris'. For his, you can click the link:

Dallas Cowboys: Jeff Adams, T, Columbia. The Cowboys like their current starting tackle tandem of Tyron Smith and Doug Free, but Free was shakier in 2011 than he was in 2010, and the roster isn't teeming with backup tackles. This guy could get a chance for some preseason playing time. And he's an Ivy Leaguer, so he's probably smart.

New York Giants: Joe Martinek, FB/RB, Rutgers. Rutgers kids are smart, too, and it's not as though there aren't opportunities this offseason in the Giants' backfield.

Philadelphia Eagles: Chris Polk, RB, Washington. Yeah, we've written about him, and others have, too. Surprising that he went undrafted, but apparently there were some health concerns. He's one of the more promising sleeper guys on this list anywhere in the league.

Washington Redskins: Lance Lewis, WR, East Carolina. Chase Minnifield would have been the easier call here, given that the Redskins have about a billion wide receivers and could stand some upgrades at cornerback. But Chris went with Lewis because of his size, which is something that's not abundant in that Washington WR corps.

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.

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Last year, Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett attended one pre-draft pro day -- the one at USC -- and the Cowboys ended up drafting USC tackle Tyron Smith in the first round. Well, we do love clues, and so enjoy this one: Garrett is going to one pre-draft pro day this year, and it's Alabama's on Thursday. Per Calvin Watkins:

"As of now, it’s the only one of scheduled to go to," Garrett said. "Alabama had a pro day earlier in the month and a number of their players were not able to work out cause of injury. We felt it was worthwhile. Logistically it made sense. I am here. I'm going back to Texas. We are going to fly right over Tuscaloosa. It made sense for me to stop there and go to this workout tomorrow. So that is one of the reasons. We have had reps from the Cowboys at a lot of different pro days."

Side note: Maybe I'm punchy at the end of a couple of long days, but "We are going to fly right over Tuscaloosa" really made me laugh. Is he going to parachute out of the plane?

Anyway, there are three draft-eligible members of Alabama's national championship defense who could make good sense for the Cowboys at No. 14 in the first round. They are linebacker Courtney Upshaw, safety Mark Barron and cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick. All of them could be there for the Cowboys to choose from when their turn comes around. Upshaw would help the pass rush, Barron and Kirkpatrick the secondary, and the Cowboys need help and depth in both of those areas.

So, while Garrett's attendance in Tuscaloosa on Thursday doesn't guarantee that the Cowboys take a Crimson Tide defensive player in the first round, it could be offering us some indication of the direction in which they're leaning.

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett is aware that his team didn't sign the biggest-name, highest-pedigreed offensive linemen available on this year's free-agent market. That wasn't the goal.

"None of these guys were brought in and told, 'You are the anointed starter,'" Garrett said Wednesday morning at the NFL owners meetings. "They're here to create competition on our team, and we feel like they're the right kinds of guys, individually as people but also with their talent. They can come in and compete for those spots and make us a better football team."

The newcomers are guards. The Cowboys like both of their starting tackles, though they are switching their roles, with Tyron Smith slated to move to left tackle and Doug Free back to right tackle in 2012. But where they really struggled last year was on the interior of the line. So they signed Mackenzy Bernadeau from Carolina and Nate Livings from Cincinnati, and they're throwing them into the mix with the two guards -- David Arkin and Bill Nagy -- they drafted last year along with centers Phil Costa and Kevin Kowalski, and they're going to see what happens.

On Bernadeau, Garrett had this to say:

"He's a guy that we liked coming out. He's a young guy from a small school who we feel has the physical traits to be a really good player in this league. He has not been a consistent starter for [Carolina]. He has been a starter, but he's had some injuries and some different things that he's dealt with. We're just excited about the kind of kid he is and the upside that he has. So we feel like putting him into the mix will help our team."

And on Livings, this:

"Nate had been a starter the last couple of years in Cincinnati. He's a big guy. He played at LSU. And he's one of those guys who was a college free agent and who had to really earn his way in the NFL. When we put the tape on, we just liked how he played. And we feel like, if you bring a guy like that in as well, he can get infused into our roster and hopefully create some competition up there."

Neither of the new guys is looked at as a potential solution at center, so that position is likely to come down to Costa and Kowalski and possibly Nagy if they don't add anyone else. But Garrett's point is that the Cowboys have enough bodies at those interior positions that it's fair to expect a strong offensive line to emerge. The players are young enough that, assuming they do find the right five-man mix, the line can grow together over the coming season and seasons and become a strength of the team. There are no guarantees, of course, but that's the hope and the plan, and the Cowboy have hand-picked some guys they believe can help produce those kinds of results.

Garrett also echoed the sentiment that owner Jerry Jones articulated the day before in a session with Dallas-area reporters here -- namely, that the work they've done on the offensive line through last year's draft and this year's free agency makes it more likely that they'd take a defensive player in next month's first round than an offensive lineman such as Stanford guard David DeCastro.

"We'd have to take into consideration that we've done pretty well in free agency relative to our offensive line," Garrett said. "We'd have to take that into consideration if we had the alternative of taking defense. So you're not off-base if you ask whether it's likely that we would take a defensive player."

Here's a little fodder for all of you Dallas Cowboys draft prognosticators: According to our man Calvin Watkins, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett did not attend Thursday's pro day workouts at Stanford University. As Calvin points out, the only pro day Garrett attended last year was that of USC tackle Tyron Smith, who became the Cowboys' first-round draft pick. With Stanford guard David DeCastro projected by many to be the guy for the Cowboys in this year's first round, it's worth noting that Garrett didn't go to see DeCastro work out with presumptive No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck on Thursday.

Now, of course, this in no way indicates that the Cowboys are not interested in DeCastro or that they might not take him in the first round. There are any number of reasons Garrett might not have gone to Stanford today. Maybe he was busy with something else. Maybe he saw that it was going to be broadcast on a number of ESPN platforms and decided to help out our ratings. Maybe he's already seen enough of DeCastro to make a decision. Maybe he didn't want to bother with the crowds showing up to get a look at Luck. Maybe he doesn't like DeCastro and doesn't want to draft him. We're only speculating, which is a large part of what we do with regard to the draft this time of year. And as we've discussed several times, it's slow right now on the NFC East blog.

Anyway, I saw that DeCastro did some work at center and told reporters that he'd be willing to play center in the NFL if that's what his next team wanted. Now, if he can play center, I may be willing to change my mind on this and say the Cowboys should take him at No. 14. That, as they say, is a horse of a different color. Center was the biggest problem the Cowboys had on the line last year.

Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com (who's been an absolute animal this week, by the way) is reporting that the Dallas Cowboys plan to cut ties with veteran guard Kyle Kosier:

The move has not been made officially yet. Kosier had started 80 straight games in which he was active since joining the Cowboys as a free agent in 2006. He signed a three-year deal last summer after the lockout ended and started every game.

The move would save the Cowboys $1.55 million in salary cap space and continue the overhaul of the offensive line. Right tackle Doug Free is now the longest-tenured offensive linemen having joined the team in 2007. The second-longest tenured is center Phil Costa, who joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 2010.

Kosier earned a $1 million escalator that would have jumped his base salary in 2012 to $2.25 million.

I'm surprised. I know he's 33 years old and had some injury issues in 2011. And I know they drafted two guards last year and signed two guards this week. And yeah, I know the NFL is a tough, cold business. But whenever I was around the Cowboys the past couple of years, I heard someone tell me how important Kosier was as a leader among the offensive linemen. He got a lot of credit for Free's big year at left tackle when he played next to him at left guard in 2010, and he got a lot of credit for Tyron Smith's very quick transition to the pros at right tackle when he played right guard next to him in 2011.

So while they have a new offensive line coach in Dallas, and they have every right to believe they can find two starting interior linemen from the group that now includes Costa, Bill Nagy, David Arkin, Nate Livings, Mackenzy Bernadeau and Kevin Kowalski, this can't have been an easy decision for the Cowboys. Whoever else was on the line as they slid guys in and out over the past two seasons benefited from the fact that Kosier was there. And while the move seems to make sense from a business and numbers standpoint, Kosier brought something to the table that they can't be sure anyone in the remaining group does. It's something they could, theoretically, end up missing at some point this season.

Gotta love it when the head coach breaks news in his combine news conference. Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett told reporters on hand in Indianapolis today that the team plans to move Doug Free from left tackle back to right tackle and move Tyron Smith from right tackle to left tackle. This move has been expected, given the brilliant way Smith played as a rookie in 2011 and the fact that Free struggled in his second season on the left side. But Garrett is confirming it, per our man on the scene, Todd Archer:

"The starting point for us next year is Tyron will start at left tackle and Doug will start at right tackle," Garrett said. "The versatility that Tyron had coming out is something we were really attracted to. He was a right tackle in college, as you know, but we felt like he had the physical traits to play left tackle. Same with Doug Free. We felt he could play either side."

When the Cowboys drafted Smith last year, they weren't sure whether they were going to lose Free to free agency, and one of the reasons they liked Smith was that they believed he had the ability to play left tackle if they needed one. Once they signed Free, they decided to leave him where he'd played well in 2010 and break in Smith at the position he'd played in college.

But Smith was the Cowboys' best offensive lineman in 2011, and Free struggled, so the Cowboys have decided to use their best tackle on Tony Romo's blindside, which makes sense. A couple of questions linger, though:

1. Where's Kyle Kosier going? He played left guard next to Free during Free's big year in 2010, then moved over to right guard to play next to Smith and help break in the rookie. Was Free's drop-off in play due in any part to Kosier moving to the other side? Will Kosier move back to the left to play next to Smith and help continue his development, or will he stay on the right to help Free? Kosier's a key figure on the Dallas offensive line, as a player and as a leader, and his status is worth monitoring in light of this move.

2. Is Free a good player who had a down year in 2011, or an average player who had a great year in 2010? The sense I get from talking to people around the league is that it's the former -- that Free still shows the skills to be a top-level tackle but just didn't get the job done this past year. The Cowboys expect him to bounce back, and perhaps a move back to the right side will allow him to do that without undue pressure.

3. Will Smith need time to adjust? He didn't play left tackle in college, and there are differences to which he'll have to become accustomed. Smith is thought of as a great enough athlete to make the adjustment. He may well have been the left tackle at USC had he not been on the same team as Matt Kalil. My guess is he won't skip a beat, and that the Cowboys will benefit from this move. Their bigger line problems are at guard and center.

The latest in ESPNDallas.com's position-by-position look at the Cowboys is the one for which I've been waiting -- the one about the interior offensive line. Calvin Watkins breaks down who they've got, what they need and what things could look like at guard and center for the Cowboys in 2012. Coupled with Tim MacMahon's installment on the offensive tackles from last week, this addresses one of the most important aspects of the roster:

Jerry Jones said the evaluation process of these two positions needs to get better. The Cowboys overestimated the talent level of the guards after training camp, going with younger players who proved to be inconsistent. The health of three veteran guards raised more questions.

This is the key, as it is with every team this time of year: self-evaluation. The Cowboys need to make an honest assessment of what they have at guard and center, and whether it's what they need going forward. We seem to have just witnessed a season's worth of evidence that Phil Costa isn't the answer at center, so the question then becomes whether Kevin Kowalski or Bill Nagy or David Arkin can be, and if so, how soon? It seems likely they'll bring back Kyle Kosier, since he's a leader on the line and has, in recent years, been a big part of the development of Tyron Smith and Doug Free, but what of the other guard spot? Can someone from last year's group of rookies slide in and play right away in 2012? Or do they need to find answers on the free-agent market or in the draft.

Personally, if I were the Cowboys, I wouldn't take an interior lineman in the first round. I just feel like there's value to be had at those spots in later rounds (the Eagles, for example, found their starting center in last year's sixth) and Dallas' needs at cornerback and pass-rusher are pressing enough to warrant first-round action.

Once they're done restructuring contracts, the Cowboys could have about $20 million in cap space, and if I were them I'd try and bring in a veteran guard like Carl Nicks or Ben Grubbs -- or a center if they feel that's a more pressing need -- and then mix and match with that Arkin/Nagy/Kowalski/Costa group in the offseason to figure out exactly what they have there. It's not unrealistic to believe they have a starting center and potential Kosier replacement in that group, and adding someone like Nicks or Grubbs would reduce the pressure on all of the youngsters to perform right away.

I agree with Tim that they're fine at starting tackle. Smith is a stud, and I think Free is a good player who had a bad season. Whether they keep Free at left tackle and Smith at right or whether they switch them up, they should be okay at those spots. But they need to lock some things down in the middle of that line, where they struggled in 2011. And I think free agency might be the best place to start.

Hey, so, bad news for all of you Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins fans. If you thought last week on the blog was Giants-heavy... you ain't seen nothing yet. Links.

New York Giants

Ian O'Connor points out that Eli Manning has now beaten Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in playoff games in Green Bay, and that the only reason he didn't take out Bart Starr too is that he's too young to have had the chance. "Manning plays better than better quarterbacks," Ian writes, and while that's a nice way to put it, it seems pretty clear by now that Manning is a fairly great quarterback in his own right.

The play of Sunday's game may have been Hakeem Nicks' catch of Eli Manning's Hail Mary pass as time ran out in the second quarter. Brandon Jacobs said he saw Packers players walking to the locker room with their heads down and "pretty much knew they were done." Not sure about that, but the play had a strong whiff of significance. Kevin Seifert had just told me that the Packers specialized in scoring right before the end of the first half and then getting the ball to start the second half and scoring again. The opposite happened in this game. The Giants scored right before the end of the first half and the Packers turned the ball over on the first drive of the second. Game-changing stuff, that.

Philadelphia Eagles

The 700 Level looks at the likelihood of Steve Spagnuolo returning to the Eagles as defensive coordinator. With rumors now abounding that Gregg Williams will leave the Saints to join Jeff Fisher in St. Louis, you can add New Orleans to the list of interested Spagnuolo suitors. It won't be easy for the Eagles to get him, and there's also the troubling little fact that their defensive coordinator job is not, currently, open.

Sheil Kapadia wonders if Eagles defensive line coach Jim Washburn could go to St. Louis with Fisher, since the two had success together in Tennessee. Another reminder that the issues on the Eagles' defensive coaching staff are complicated and intertwined and don't seem to present any simple solutions.

Dallas Cowboys

Hudson Houck isn't saying the Cowboys will or should move Tyron Smith from right tackle to left tackle. But Smith's first NFL position coach, now retired, says that Smith could be "very, very good" at left tackle if such a move were made. With a new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach coming in, I imagine that decision has yet to be made. But it would seem to make a pile of sense, given Doug Free's struggles on the left side this past year.

Two weeks may be enough time to have softened some fans who were bitterly disappointed by the way the Cowboys' season ended. Blogging the Boys has a post expressing "rampant and disproportionate optimism" about the Cowboys' future and direction. Kind of refreshing, really.

Washington Redskins

Rich Tandler watched Saturday's Saints-49ers playoff game with an eye on some potential offseason targets for the Redskins, including Saints receivers Marques Colston and Robert Meachem. Mike Shanahan will definitely be looking for a No. 1 receiver this offseason, but as Rich suggests, the Saints' guys come with questions about whether they'd perform the same way in a different system.

Rick Snider ponders the idea of the Redskins bringing in Peyton Manning to play quarterback for them next year. Some say it's farfetched. I'm not sure it is. But I know they'd have to be sure he's healthy before they decided to do it, and I'm not sure how anybody's going to be able to be sure of that.

All right. You want a break from Giants' stuff -- here you go. Let's talk about the Dallas Cowboys' plans for their offensive line. Let's use this well-detailed post from Blogging the Boys as our jumping-off point. I agree completely with their premise that the biggest problem area for the Cowboys on the line this year was center. I think they'll fix the Doug Free problem by moving him back to right tackle and Tyron Smith to the left side, and they were able to fix guard once they brought back Montrae Holland after Kyle Kosier got a bit more healthy.

But Phil Costa was a consistent problem at center, and it cost the Cowboys dearly. They need to fix it. BTB looks at the list of potential free-agent centers and concludes, correctly, that there isn't a long-term solution among that aged group. My feeling is that the Cowboys, if you go back four or five months, were hoping they had that long-term solution on their roster already. And I wonder if they still do hold out that hope.

The Cowboys drafted David Arkin and Bill Nagy last year. Nagy got hurt, and Arkin obviously didn't develop in time to be a help this year. They both play guard, but I remember a training camp conversation I had with then-offensive line coach Hudson Houck, who told me both were getting practice snaps at center and that both would have to be able to play it in a pinch if they were to stick around. Houck believed both players -- Nagy in particular -- had what it took to be an NFL center, and I wonder if the Cowboys will continue to think along those lines and try to find their solution internally from the Arkin/Nagy/Costa group. Costa is also still young, remember, and he does have a year's worth of experience, even if it was a disappointing one.

The Cowboys also have brought in a new offensive line coach, replacing Houck with Bill Callahan. Does Callahan have a guy, or a type of guy, in mind for center? Will he have some say in who the team brings in for the position? Will he be able to coach something out of Costa or Arkin or Nagy that we haven't yet seen? Will the Cowboys pursue someone from BTB's list to hold down the position for a year or two until one of the younger solutions develops? Will they really draft an interior offensive lineman in the middle of the first round?

I think they're likely to find better offensive line value at that No. 15 pick than they are to find value at one of their other need positions -- say, defensive back or pass-rusher. So unless they move up or down to position themselves to take someone at one of those positions, I do think it's reasonable to speculate about a guy like David DeCastro, the Stanford guard who's got a first-round grade. If you believe a talented guard can turn into a solid NFL center, that would add a guy to the mix they already have and produce a great deal of young depth at these interior line positions that clearly need upgrading.

My guess is that the Cowboys continue to think young at these spots, especially with the well respected Callahan in to help develop them now. Does that mean they won't pursue someone from that deep list of veteran free-agent centers? Not necessarily. But I believe their free-agent priorities will lie elsewhere, and that they're more likely to use the draft to address the line.

We have come to the end. I thought the idea of a weekly running All-NFC East Team would be a fun exercise for this blog, and I believe I was correct. I have had fun with it, at least. And I'd like to offer my personal thanks to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning for helping make it even more fun. Nothing gets the blood boiling around here like a good Romo-Eli debate, and the fact that they both had fantastic seasons and spent the year switching in and out of the All-Division quarterback spot added some juice to this weekly feature.

But this is the final edition of the All-NFC East Team for this year, and there's only one spot for quarterback. The weekly disclaimer that no one ever reads is that this is a team based on overall performance for the whole year, not just the most recent week. So both Romo and Manning remain strong candidates. Romo has the better completion percentage, passer rating and Total QBR, all by pretty wide margins. He threw 31 touchdown passes to Manning's 29, 10 interceptions to Manning's 16. And while he was directly responsible for a couple of early losses that put the Cowboys in a hole, Romo played through broken ribs for a stretch and was brilliant through the second half of the season and in no way responsible for the 1-4 finish that did them in.

Manning had more yards -- 4,933 to Romo's 4,184 -- and took fewer sacks but can't claim this spot based on numbers. Manning's case rests on his five fourth-quarter comebacks, his 2-0 record in games against Romo's team and the fact of the Giants' division title by virtue of winning nine games while Romo won eight. Wins are an important stat for a quarterback. Some argue that they're the most important stat. Some argue that they're the only important stat. And the thing Manning did better than Romo in 2011 was win games.

And so, in an extremely close vote intended in no way to reflect even a little bit poorly on the loser, I have decided to give the 2011 All-Division quarterback spot to the guy who's still playing this week.

Quarterback: Eli Manning, Giants. I think if you asked both men, they'd agree Eli's year was better than Romo's.

Running back: LeSean McCoy. A wire-to-wire winner who never was challenged. Brilliant season lost in the Eagles' team flop.

Wide receiver: Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks. The only two receivers in the division to crack 1,000 yards. Cruz finished third in the league with 1,536.

Tight end: Jason Witten, Cowboys. Seemed to get forgotten at times, but still caught 79 passes for 942 yards and five touchdowns.

Fullback: Darrel Young, Redskins. Dallas' Tony Fiammetta got the press, but Young was a consistent mauler all season.

Left tackle: Jason Peters, Eagles. Best left tackle in the league this year. Brilliant season lost in the Eagles' team flop.

Left guard: Evan Mathis, Eagles. Unheralded free-agent signing was key to the Philadelphia run game.

Center: Will Montgomery, Redskins. Kept playing well as the rest of the line crumbled around him.

Right guard: Kyle Kosier, Cowboys. Injuries hampered him, but he deserves some credit for this next line.

Right tackle: Tyron Smith, Cowboys. One of the best rookie performances in the NFL. Expect him to be left tackle next year.

Defensive end: Trent Cole, Eagles; Jason Pierre-Paul, Giants. I know how many sacks Jason Babin had, and no, I have nothing against him. Cole just played better. And Pierre-Paul carried the New York defense in stretches.

Defensive tackle: Cullen Jenkins, Eagles; Jay Ratliff, Cowboys. Jenkins was one of the few real leaders in that locker room. Ratliff is Mr. Consistent.

Outside linebacker: DeMarcus Ware, Cowboys; Brian Orakpo, Redskins. Ware among the sack leaders again. Orakpo and rookie Ryan Kerrigan should be a force in Washington for years to come.

Inside linebacker: London Fletcher, Redskins; Sean Lee, Cowboys. An old war horse who's still the best at what he does, and a youngster who's burst onto the scene.

Cornerback: Asante Samuel, Eagles; Corey Webster, Giants. For all of the grief he takes, Samuel had a very good year in coverage. Webster handled some of the league's toughest wide receivers one-on-one.

Safety: Kenny Phillips, Giants; O.J. Atogwe, Redskins. Injuries limited Atogwe, but he played well enough when in there to earn the spot over the Cowboys' disappointing guys. Phillips has emerged as one of the best in the game.

Kicker: Dan Bailey, Cowboys. He had a tough finish, as did the team, but he was one of the best in the league for most of the year.

Punter: Sav Rocca, Redskins. Real tough call here between him and the Giants' Steve Weatherford. Rocca had just one touchback all year. That's precision.

Kick returner: Brandon Banks, Redskins. Not one guy in this division ran a kick back for a touchdown all year.

Punt returner: Brandon Banks, Redskins. Not one guy in this division ran a punt back for a touchdown all year.

So that's it. Thanks for following the All-Division Team this year. One final time: What did I get wrong?