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          Dallas Cowboys

          Dallas Cowboys' Twitter mailbag, Part 1

          • Todd Archer, ESPN Staff WriterOct 24, 2014, 10:00 AM ET
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              Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @toddarcher.
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          IRVING, Texas -- Part 1 of the Dallas Cowboys' Twitter mailbag is ready.

          In it we discuss:

          Away we go:

          @toddarcher: The longest I can say right now is Monday against the Washington Redskins. I'm not going all Jason Garrett on you or anything, it's just that I want to look at the Arizona Cardinals more before I make the bold prediction of eight or nine in a row. The Cardinals have an aggressive, attacking defense. Former Cowboys defensive backs coach Todd Bowles is doing great things there and should be a head coach at some point. If they can get by Arizona, then I say they'll stretch it to nine games with a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. Following the bye they play at the New York Giants and they'll be rested. I'd go as far as 10. Then it gets tricky because that Giants' game is at night and the Cowboys have a short week to get ready for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's almost unfair what the NFL has done to the Cowboys here with a night game on a Sunday, early morning return on Monday and a game on Thursday. But if they can get past the Cardinals, I'd be willing to say 10 in a row. Good night, who would've thought that back in August?

          @toddarcher: Clearly, the Cowboys didn't think Michael Sam was good enough. This is a defense with seven sacks. They're not going to be so cavalier about not giving anybody and everybody a chance to rush the passer when they haven't been able to rush the passer. Now, did the Cowboys do the right thing by releasing Sam and not giving him a chance? Time will tell. If the Cowboys were going to call up a defensive end from their practice squad it was going to be Ken Boatright. Rookie DeMarcus Lawrence will be back next week, so the Cowboys' hope is that he can provide a spark. Not counting Lawrence and Amobi Okoye, the Cowboys have 10 defensive linemen on the active roster. With Boatright and Ken Bishop, who was re-signed Tuesday, they had two on the practice roster. Garrett is right to say you can't have too many of one position on the practice squad because you can't function in practice. Sam got caught in a numbers game. Simple as that.

          @toddarcher: I'd go with their first-round pick, Travis Frederick. He has the makings of a decade-long starter and a top-level one, too. He is smart. He is more athletic than people think. He is a good leader. He is a good communicator. The others are doing well as well. Gavin Escobar has found a role but I don't know if he's a 60-play, hand-on-the-ground tight end whenever the Jason Witten era ends. Terrance Williams is a solid player as well. He has a knack for big plays. J.J. Wilcox has grown but still has to grow. Joseph Randle is doing some good things on the field if not off the field. Before his neck injury it looked like DeVonte Holloman would be a player, too. This is a good start for the draft class. The Cowboys haven't had enough classes go this deep in recent years.

          @toddarcher: I'd be very surprised if the Cowboys did anything like that before the trade deadline next week. They don't want to give up draft picks to land one worth landing. This is still a team that needs to build. I'm sure there is a temptation to go get a guy considering this start and the seemingly wide open nature of the NFC, but there needs to be a big picture view as well. The Cowboys have enough cap space to fit a player in, but I just don't know if it's easy to plug in a guy and say, 'Be DeMarcus Ware.' I've said this before, but I think you need to look at Lawrence as a trade pick up in a way. He hasn't played all year. He's fresh coming off the injury. The Cowboys know more about him than they would a player they traded for in terms of makeup and how he would fit the defense. With Jerry Jones you can never rule anything out but it would surprise me to see a trade, especially a significant one.

          @toddarcher: Hopefully you don't want to kill all of the carries for DeMarco Murray, but this has been a common question the last few weeks. I think you've seen the Cowboys come up with an answer with how they have worked in Randle and Lance Dunbar in the first halves of the last two games. They are backing off Murray in the first half in hopes of keeping him fresher in the second half. It seems to have worked. He had his killer runs late against Seattle and had a big run late against the Giants, too. Maybe we're all getting too caught up in the carries. Scott Linehan said it's more important to monitor snaps. So I think you'll see them continue to give Murray some rest in the first half and then pick it up as the game wears on.