Training Camp is under way sort of...

Dallas Cowboys officially opened training camp today in San Antonio at the Alamodome with a "walk-through." Although the lockout is over, free agency has only just begun and teams aren't close to finalizing their roster.

The Cowboys like most NFL teams had to shuffle their roster to get under the agreed upon salary cap of approximately $120 million.  Dallas had plenty of fat to trim off the roster to get under the cap in time but then need additional room to lock up its own free agents, sign draft picks and bring in new veterans.

Add onto that, Dallas is trying to improve itself from a dreadful 5-11 season in 2010 that cost Wade Phillips his job. Then a new coaching staff with first time head coach Jason Garrett and newly brought in defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. Finally, no offseason conditioning program, no medical treatment or mini-camps.

This sounds to me like NFL football from the 1970s when players showed up to camp out of shape, rosters not finalized and coaches hurrying to implement their systems during camp.

The 2011 training camp will be an interesting one for the Cowboys as Coach Garrett tries to establish a youthful, energized and physical frame of mind to a football team that had grown complacement, over-paid, underachieving and cocky.

Here's just a few things to watch out for:

Is there a quarterback competition? A year ago the only quarterback competition was whether or not Stephen McGee has earned the job as the 3rd quarterback or if they should look elsewhere.  Fast forward a year later and now perhaps Tony Romo will have to compete for the starting quarterback job with Jon Kitna. After Romo suffered a broken collarbone mid-way through the season, insert a rusty Kitna but later settled into a rthym with rookie receiver Dez Bryant and Dallas offense didn't slow down as much as feared. However according to Sports Geeks, the field shrunk under Kitna and downfield passing efficiency especially to Miles Austin & Jason Witten.

Can Dallas rebuild their lines?
The primary objective of the offseason was to add talent and youth to both offensive & defensive lines. You can argue Dallas both accomplished and failed to do so as training camp opens today. Dallas used their top draft pick to select Tyron Smith out of USC to hold down the right tackle position for a couple of years until he is ready to man left tackle and eliminate the best pass rushers in the world.  Later in the draft, Dallas selected sleeper offensive guard David Arkin from Missouri State to provide depth and eventually compete for a starting job at guard. Finally in the last round of the draft, cowboys selected Bill Nagy from Wisconsin who had limited starting experience in college but is capable of playing all lineman positions in a pinch.

Despite selecting 3 offensive lineman in the draft, Dallas failed to draft any lineman on the defensive front. The goal was to find a nose tackle capable of starting in the middle of Rob Ryan's 3-4 defense and swing Jay Ratliff out to end so he can wreck havoc and not take as much punishment. The draft class featured several prospects capable of filling the void but each time Dallas went other directions. As of the time I write this Dallas has not yet signed any free agents for their defensive front and instead open camp with only Igor Olshansky with a bunch of undrafted free agent lineman.