Dat Nguyen a top ten MLB IMO
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 10:35 am
OXNARD, Calif. - How others in football see the Cowboys doesn't necessarily jibe with the prevailing optimism of this training camp.
In some cases, the two views do not even live under the same ozone layer.
Take for instance, this opinion from the outside:
Scouts, Inc., a group of former NFL personnel people, grade and rate talent for organizations and news outlets.
In a survey for ESPN.com, Scouts, Inc. broke down all 32 NFL teams position-by-position, plus special teams, and ranked each against the rest of the league.
The Cowboys' talent finished a dismal 25th overall.
That equates to about four wins, maybe five, for the coming season.
I repeat an opinion from last January, after the Cowboys were plastered in the first round of the playoffs by the Carolina Panthers.
That game alone proved the miracle of Big Bill's magic touch in winning 10 regular-season games.
There was no way. Not 10 wins. Not on paper.
What the latest Scouts, Inc. survey indicates is it won't happen again.
The Cowboys for 2004 only had two positions ranked in the league's top 10. Five positions didn't make it out of the 20s. Quarterback was rated 31st. (And friends tell me I have overdone it with Cow QB panic).
Anyway, the highlight from Scouts, Inc. is that the Cowboys' linebackers were ranked No. 7 in the league. Defensive backfield was next highest at No. 10.
But about those linebackers.
Dat Dude.
There is only one reason the Cowboys' LBs received that kind of respect.
Dat Nguyen. The Aggie.
A legend grows. Which, of course, is what Dat never did. He never grew taller than 5-foot-11.
A year ago in training camp, Bill Parcells was playfully chiding the Cowboys' scouting department for his inheritance of exactly the kind of linebackers he didn't want.
"If this were the circus, we could fit them all into one of those Volkswagens that 10 clowns climb out of," joked Parcells.
Then Parcells watched Dat perform in 17 games at middle linebacker.
"A football-playing dude," became the Parcells description of Nguyen that receives ample media use.
Last week, Parcells said Nguyen, all 5-11 of him, would have been a stud in any defensive unit he ever coached, meaning a fine collection of big and fast linebackers.
This week, Larry Lacewell was sitting in on the team scouts' evaluation period in which Parcells and Jerry Jones seek opinions.
"The scouting staff is divided into positions," said Lacewell, the Cowboys' director of college and pro scouting. "My area is linebackers. I told Bill and Jerry that Dat Nguyen was the best middle linebacker I've ever been around, and I had Lee Roy Jordan at Alabama, plus a bunch of other real good ones over the years.
"I'm not saying Dat is the best in the league. But he's the best I've ever dealt with."
In scouting, players are graded on "position specifics."
That means size, height, speed, etc.
"Dat still doesn't fit one @#%$ position specific," Lacewell said. "But he's a football-playing dude."
For those, however, who don't think Nguyen has speed, then they haven't heard him verbally backpedal when all these compliments are passed along. Bob Hayes never moved so fast.
The beauty of Dat Nguyen is he talks and plays like a guy who runs scared of being cut immediately by Parcells.
"With [Parcells], you'd better bring your 'A' game to practice and to the games, or you won't be around here very long," Dat said Wednesday. "I certainly knew his history, about how much he liked big linebackers and also the 3-4 defense. But on the other hand, he had the reputation of being willing to give anybody a chance.
"I found out he's flexible, no matter what his history is. He's the kind of coach you don't want to ever let down."
The 1999 Cowboys' draft is not one of the proudest moments in scouting. Exactly one player remains with the team. Exactly one starter from that group has emerged anywhere in the NFL.
Taken in the third round ... Dat Nguyen.
"And that was the proverbial reach," Lacewell said. "But at least I was right on something. When we took Dat I said if he wasn't a good football player for us, I'd quit looking for football players."
When Texas A&M had its pro scouts day in the spring of '99, Lacewell refused to drive to College Station. "I already knew Dat wasn't going to be big enough, fast enough or tall enough, not based on the positional specs. But I already knew we were going to draft him, and draft him high.
"I wasn't going to College Station and talk myself out of that. A couple of years before, I'd gone through the same thing on Zach Thomas at Texas Tech. Our scouts came back from Tech telling me he's too small and too slow. When Jimmy [Johnson] took him at Miami, and I watched Thomas play, I kicked myself for weeks and months."
At the position of linebacker, Parcells does appear to now be looking for the bigger and the faster. He's also tampering with a 3-4 scheme. But the looking and tampering stops when it comes to the middle.
Dat Dude has become a coveted Bill Guy.
An opinion this week on the Cowboys from the outside (Scouts, Inc.) pointed out vast areas of inferiority. Except one. Those "positional specs" don't apply to Mr. Nguyen.
TAKE NOTE ITS NOT ALL ABOUT THE PHYSICAL. SOMETIMES, JUST SOMETIMES BRAINS, HEART, DETERMINATION AND DRIVE GO ALONG WAY.
In some cases, the two views do not even live under the same ozone layer.
Take for instance, this opinion from the outside:
Scouts, Inc., a group of former NFL personnel people, grade and rate talent for organizations and news outlets.
In a survey for ESPN.com, Scouts, Inc. broke down all 32 NFL teams position-by-position, plus special teams, and ranked each against the rest of the league.
The Cowboys' talent finished a dismal 25th overall.
That equates to about four wins, maybe five, for the coming season.
I repeat an opinion from last January, after the Cowboys were plastered in the first round of the playoffs by the Carolina Panthers.
That game alone proved the miracle of Big Bill's magic touch in winning 10 regular-season games.
There was no way. Not 10 wins. Not on paper.
What the latest Scouts, Inc. survey indicates is it won't happen again.
The Cowboys for 2004 only had two positions ranked in the league's top 10. Five positions didn't make it out of the 20s. Quarterback was rated 31st. (And friends tell me I have overdone it with Cow QB panic).
Anyway, the highlight from Scouts, Inc. is that the Cowboys' linebackers were ranked No. 7 in the league. Defensive backfield was next highest at No. 10.
But about those linebackers.
Dat Dude.
There is only one reason the Cowboys' LBs received that kind of respect.
Dat Nguyen. The Aggie.
A legend grows. Which, of course, is what Dat never did. He never grew taller than 5-foot-11.
A year ago in training camp, Bill Parcells was playfully chiding the Cowboys' scouting department for his inheritance of exactly the kind of linebackers he didn't want.
"If this were the circus, we could fit them all into one of those Volkswagens that 10 clowns climb out of," joked Parcells.
Then Parcells watched Dat perform in 17 games at middle linebacker.
"A football-playing dude," became the Parcells description of Nguyen that receives ample media use.
Last week, Parcells said Nguyen, all 5-11 of him, would have been a stud in any defensive unit he ever coached, meaning a fine collection of big and fast linebackers.
This week, Larry Lacewell was sitting in on the team scouts' evaluation period in which Parcells and Jerry Jones seek opinions.
"The scouting staff is divided into positions," said Lacewell, the Cowboys' director of college and pro scouting. "My area is linebackers. I told Bill and Jerry that Dat Nguyen was the best middle linebacker I've ever been around, and I had Lee Roy Jordan at Alabama, plus a bunch of other real good ones over the years.
"I'm not saying Dat is the best in the league. But he's the best I've ever dealt with."
In scouting, players are graded on "position specifics."
That means size, height, speed, etc.
"Dat still doesn't fit one @#%$ position specific," Lacewell said. "But he's a football-playing dude."
For those, however, who don't think Nguyen has speed, then they haven't heard him verbally backpedal when all these compliments are passed along. Bob Hayes never moved so fast.
The beauty of Dat Nguyen is he talks and plays like a guy who runs scared of being cut immediately by Parcells.
"With [Parcells], you'd better bring your 'A' game to practice and to the games, or you won't be around here very long," Dat said Wednesday. "I certainly knew his history, about how much he liked big linebackers and also the 3-4 defense. But on the other hand, he had the reputation of being willing to give anybody a chance.
"I found out he's flexible, no matter what his history is. He's the kind of coach you don't want to ever let down."
The 1999 Cowboys' draft is not one of the proudest moments in scouting. Exactly one player remains with the team. Exactly one starter from that group has emerged anywhere in the NFL.
Taken in the third round ... Dat Nguyen.
"And that was the proverbial reach," Lacewell said. "But at least I was right on something. When we took Dat I said if he wasn't a good football player for us, I'd quit looking for football players."
When Texas A&M had its pro scouts day in the spring of '99, Lacewell refused to drive to College Station. "I already knew Dat wasn't going to be big enough, fast enough or tall enough, not based on the positional specs. But I already knew we were going to draft him, and draft him high.
"I wasn't going to College Station and talk myself out of that. A couple of years before, I'd gone through the same thing on Zach Thomas at Texas Tech. Our scouts came back from Tech telling me he's too small and too slow. When Jimmy [Johnson] took him at Miami, and I watched Thomas play, I kicked myself for weeks and months."
At the position of linebacker, Parcells does appear to now be looking for the bigger and the faster. He's also tampering with a 3-4 scheme. But the looking and tampering stops when it comes to the middle.
Dat Dude has become a coveted Bill Guy.
An opinion this week on the Cowboys from the outside (Scouts, Inc.) pointed out vast areas of inferiority. Except one. Those "positional specs" don't apply to Mr. Nguyen.
TAKE NOTE ITS NOT ALL ABOUT THE PHYSICAL. SOMETIMES, JUST SOMETIMES BRAINS, HEART, DETERMINATION AND DRIVE GO ALONG WAY.
That is by far the most disgusting thing I have heard in a long time!
there i said it. going to wash my mouth out with soap for speaking so vulgar.
