SPORTSDAY

I won't see this week's episode until midnight, but don't let that stop you from discussing it.

Todd Archer confirmed that ex-Cowboys special teams captain Keith Davis has been cut by the Dolphins. Couldn't find any further info on the South Florida papers' sites.

More to come if the Cowboys show interest in bringing Davis back.

UPDATE: The Miami Herald's Dolphins blog has a post up confirming that Davis has been cut. No details on why other than "this smells funny."

Richard Bartel is expected to play the entire preseason finale for two reasons: 1) No sense in risking an injury to Tony Romo or Brad Johnson; 2) the Cowboys want a long look at Bartel before determining whether his time at Valley Ranch is done.

Even if Bartel has a spectacular performance, it'd be tough to see a scenario where the Cowboys keep him on the 53-man roster. He has a strong arm, but he simply hasn't shown enough progress to merit a roster spot, especially with the Cowboys needing to carry several injured players on the 53 to start the season.

The Grapevine product, who was out of the Cowboys' plans after final cuts last season until Carolina picked up Matt Moore off waivers, is probably playing to stick on the practice squad for the second consecutive season. He's the only in-house candidate to be scout-team QB, but he's competing against every other QB around the league who will be cut this week.

Not my prediction. That comes off the keyboard of ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas. Eleven of the ESPN's 13 football scribes polled picked the Cowboys to win the division, but I wanted to get you folks all fired up, so here is what Yasinskas had to say about America's Team.

Yeah, Dallas has a ton of talent and, on paper, should be the division champion. But there are too many egos for one roster and this whole thing could blow up in a hurry if the Cowboys don't start off well.

ESPN.com's Cowboys preview is definitely worth checking out. In my opinion, the most interesting feature is Scouts, Inc.'s ranking of the team's five best (not most valuable) players. The franchise QB didn't crack that list.

Those who live in Las Vegas or have a close, personal relationship with their neighborhood bookie can follow the jump to check out a bunch of Cowboys-centric odds from BodogLife.com.

Looks like the free-for-all tailgating in the lots immediately surrounding Texas Stadium are over.

Rick "Goose" Gosselin reports that Bob Hayes has been nominated by the Hall of Fame seniors committee for the second time.

Hayes becomes only the fourth man nominated by the seniors committee twice. Two of the previous three were enshrined the second time.

It's hard to understand why Hayes, whose speed led to the invention of zone defenses, doesn't already have a bust in Canton. Better late than never.

Deon "Cricket" Anderson, who morphs into his Pit Bull persona during games, and Daryl "Moose" Johnston talked about much more than nicknames when they met this spring.

Moose gave the 2007 sixth-round pick a five-minute crash course on being an NFL fullback. They discussed blocking technique and off-season workout regimens, but Cricket said the most valuable tip was about where to sit in the classroom.

Moose mentioned that it made a huge difference when he started sitting next to Emmitt Smith during meetings. Cricket sat in front of Marion "The Barbarian" Barber last season, but he's been right next to Barber since the conversation with Moose.

Cricket said he's already seen the difference, because he has a better idea of how Barber makes his reads on each running play and adjusted his thinking to match the tailback's. The changes are subtle -- for example, not chipping a DT en route to a LB on one specific play -- but Cricket believes moving next to Barber in meetings is a big step in his career.

Rookie TE Martellus Bennett recalls a rather harsh response after asking Jason Witten for help early in training camp: "I'm not going to be [beep] doing this all the [beep] time. You've got to know what the [beep] to do."

The message: Bennett better handle his business before he expects to get much help from the Pro Bowler at his position.

It's not like Witten, the game's best all-around tight end, is worried about the second-round pick cutting into his playing time or eventually replacing him in the starting lineup. Far from it. Witten wants Bennett to fulfill his potential, and he doesn't think babying the Aggie will help him.

It's the same way Dan Campbell, another Aggie tight end, treated Witten when he was a rookie. It's a tough love form of leadership.

NBC 5 full-time sports anchor/part-time society reporter Newy Scruggs traveled to Burlington, Wisc., to see what Ramiro Romo thought of his son's celebrity girlfriend.

"Jessica Simpson is a wonderful person," Mr. Romo said. He elaborated, but you can check out the video if you really care that much.

Tony Romo talked vaguely about being in a "good situation" when asked about his dad's Jessica approval. He eluded a question about marriage being a possibility.

The interviews will be shown as part of NBC 5's Cowboys preview that will air at 7 p.m. Friday. I believe that program, which has been sensationally titled "Tampa Bay or Bust," will include some football talk.

FoxSports.com's Jay Glazer reports that Michael Strahan plans to stay retired.

"This has been one of the toughest nights of my life," Strahan said from Greece. "But after long deliberation and throwing around a million scenarios in my head for the past day, I think it's just best if I stay retired.

"I have gone back and forth on this because as a player you'll always want to play, you'll never lose that urge to be out there. But I could only do this if I could commit 100 percent, physically, mentally, emotionally and I can't do that. I've tried to convince myself and my body to give it one more year, but in the end I just don't think I could turn it on like I need to again."

Strahan and the team held discussions and he says the money was enough to do the deal. But in the end, it became a matter of whether or not he wanted to put his body through the rigors of another NFL season.

One of the primary reasons the Giants beat the Cowboys in the playoffs was because Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck dominated the second half. The Cowboys will only have to worry about Tuck this season.

I hope you didn't buy a ticket to the preseason finale planning to watch Adrian Peterson play. He'll be a spectator Thursday at Texas Stadium, and so will the rest of the Vikings starters, Minnesota coach Brad Childress told reporters today.

Wade Phillips is still playing it close to the vest, saying the Cowboys coaches haven't finalized plans regarding who would play and who would sit. But you can count on seeing a whole bunch of Richard Bartel and no Tony Romo.

Sports Illustrated is out with its NFL preview, and Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo graces one of six regional covers. In the magazine, Peter King says that DeMarcus Ware, Romo, Jason Witten and Terrell Owens are among the NFL's 50 best players.

Here's the kicker: King has the Cowboys losing to the Patriots in the Super Bowl, 30-16.

Look at it this way. At least he has the Cowboys playing in the Super Bowl.

Wade Phillips won't say it, but it's highly unlikely many of the regulars will play in Thursday's preseason finale vs. Minnesota.

He doesn't want to risk players to injuries and wants to look at the younger players before Saturday's final cuts.

So with that in mind, I went back and looked at the play-by-play to see which starters played and did not play against the Vikings in the last preseason game of 2007:

DNP: Tony Romo, Julius Jones, Marion Barber, Ken Hamlin, Roy Williams, Anthony Henry, Bradie James, Kyle Kosier, Andre Gurode, Terrell Owens, Jason Witten, Patrick Crayton, DeMarcus Ware, Jason Ferguson and Chris Canty. Also, Terence Newman, Kevin Burnett, Terry Glenn and Greg Ellis sat because of injuries.

Three starters on offense played - Flozell Adams, Leonard Davis, Marc Colombo. Four (sort of) played on defense - Marcus Spears, Jay Ratliff, Akin Ayodele, Anthony Spencer. (Spencer is the sort of but he was the opening day starter last year)

Commissioner Roger Goodell hasn't made an official decision on whether to fully reinstate Adam "Pacman" Jones, but the Cowboys assume he'll be cleared to play the season opener in Cleveland.

"All along, again maybe it's just hoping, I thought we'd have him," Wade Phillips said. "That's the way we've been approaching it. If the commissioner changes ... I mean, if it doesn't go through, then we'll have to make adjustments."

The Pacman plan is to put him at right cornerback in the nickel and dime and as the punt returner. Kick returns are a possibility, too.

The Cowboys won't need Pacman to start at left cornerback, as he did against the Texans. Terence Newman won't play in the preseason finale, but he did everything during today's practice with no problems.

Tony Romo took a break from the media last week. He only spoke to reporters after the game, and he had to have his arm twisted a little before doing that.

So today was the first time this season that Romo talked to the media in the Valley Ranch locker room. I spent most of that portion of the access session chatting with tight ends, but a couple colleagues were kind enough to give me a Romo transcript.

What was the primary topic of conversation? Romo was grilled on why he didn't talk last week. Is he changing? Is he mad at the media?

The Browns will be without wide receiver Joe Jurevicius for the opener against the Cowboys -- and then some. Jurevicius will miss the first six weeks of the regular season while he recovers from knee surgery.

Based on the little bit of practice the local media can watch, Pat McQuistan should be considered the favorite to replace Kyle Kosier at left guard.

McQuistan worked with the starters at the beginning of today's practice, as was the case yesterday. Wade Phillips said Joe Berger and Cory Procter will also get a shot, but it appears that McQuistan is the favorite.

Tony Romo's new house, a 5,500-square foot pad near Valley Ranch, doesn't interest me too much. But in the interest of Belo bloggin' synergy, here's a link to Alan Peppard's post about it on guidelive.com. He links to some pictures, confirming the house is indeed big.

Nobody has made it official, but it'd be a shocker if T.O. played a down in the preseason finale. Same goes for several of the Cowboys' Pro Bowlers.

So is this week kinda boring?

"It's not boring for me, because I'm doing stuff to obviously prepare myself for the season opener,"T.O. said. "I'm like a lot of the rookies, not actually getting a lot of reps, but really trying to be mentally prepared and taking mental reps. During the course of these last couple days here, the offense is going to get our work in against the Browns and then we're going to exit and let them handle the Minnesota game."

For proven veterans, this week is about two things: Getting refreshed and starting on the Sept. 7 game plan.

T.O. didn't come out and say it, but it must be pretty exciting to picture what he can do against a horrible Cleveland secondary.

Matter of fact, SI.com's Don Banks considers Johnson an above-average backup QB. He ranks Johnson 11th among the NFL's 32 backups.

11. Dallas: Brad Johnson -- Johnson is the only quarterback on the list who won a Super Bowl as a starter. The Cowboys offense wouldn't be as potent vertically if he were to take over for Tony Romo, but few passers have been more accurate or adept at knowing where to go with the football.

The biggest knock on Johnson is that he lacks arm strength. But he threw catchable deep balls in the last two games, completing a 37-yarder to Miles Austin and throwing a pretty pass that Mike Jefferson couldn't find on a corner route.

Johnson's career stats compare favorably with Troy Aikman -- not saying Johnson is a Hall of Famer, just he's had a pretty darn good career. He certainly can't be expected to perform like a Pro Bowler as a 40-year-old, but the Cowboys are confident that he wouldn't lose games if pressed into duty with all this talent around him.

Of course, the Cowboys could use a young QB to develop as Tony Romo's long-term backup and/or future trade fodder. Matt Moore, No. 15 on Banks' list, would have been a perfect fit.

This is to help Timmy Mac for his 17th prediction on the 53-man roster before the season starts:

With the injuries to Kevin Burnett, Anthony Spencer, Miles Austin, Isaiah Stanback and Kyle Kosier, you would think putting together the 53-man roster would be a little harder.

I asked Wade Phillips about the potential difficulties and he didn't seem too concerned. It's one of the big differences between him and his predecessor, Bill Parcells. The old coach would gnash his teeth about the 53rd guy for weeks. Phillips does not ignore the issue, but he doesn't let it affect every waking moment as it seemed to do for Parcells.

But I just have a hard time figuring how they don't have to keep an extra linebacker and receiver at least for the opening day roster. Burnett might be back for the Cleveland game but it's still a might. Spencer, Austin and Stanback are doubtful to play vs. the Browns.

If you keep eight linebackers normally and one is iffy and another is likely out, don't you have to keep a ninth? If you keep five wide receivers in a perfect world and two are out, don't you at least need to keep a sixth now? With Kosier out, might you have to keep 10 linemen instead of nine linemen now? (I think 10 was the number anyway but they at least had the option of keeping nine before Kosier got hurt).

To me, that means they have to go lighter at a spot. Can they keep a third quarterback now? I don't think so. Can they keep all the corners they want to keep? I don't think so. I can't see a fifth safety or fourth tailback making the club now either, even if it was a long-shot anyway like Dowayne Davis and Alonzo Coleman.

There was a silver lining to Terence Newman's groin injury. The Pro Bowler's absence gave fifth-round CB Orlando Scandrick the chance to prove he's ready to contribute on defense right away.

Scandrick played the slot with the first-team substitution packages against the Texans and performed well. He said the experience of going through a game plan -- the Cowboys treated the Governor's Cup game as a dress rehearsal -- was extremely valuable.

"Obviously, it's Newman's job," Scandrick said of the slot position in the nickel and dime. "It looks like I'm going to be his backup there. It was a chance for me to show that I could go out there and keep my composure and play."