| | By John Clayton
ESPN.com
WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- The Texas Motor Speedway is one of the landmarks on the spacious drive from Dallas to the Cowboys' training camp site. It's idle during this summer weekday, giving way to activities 90 minutes north.
New Cowboys offensive coordinator Jack Reilly is conducting
daily time trials. A 40-second clock keeps starting and stopping. Tempo.
Tempo. Reilly keeps moving offensive linemen in and out of huddles quickly,
trying to let quarterback Troy Aikman take snaps with 10 seconds left on the
clock.
|  | | Joey Galloway represents Dallas' shift to a faster receiving corps. |
Then the race begins. Joey Galloway turns on his
afterburners on a deep route. Rocket Ismail streaks toward the end zone on
another. Halfback Chris Warren, still with 4.4 quickness in his early
thirties, pushes the speed on linebackers trying to cover him on deep routes. The only differences between Cowboys camp and the Texas Motor
Speedway is that vehicles in Wichita Falls are more expensive and run on Gatorade, not gas.
"It's going to be fun," a re-energized Aikman said of his
new offense. "It's fun because of the people we have. In practice, we are
creating problems for our defense, and it's been a while since our defensive coaches have talked like that. It's exciting."
For Cowboy fans, it's exciting to hear the energy back in
Aikman's voice. During the Chan Gailey years, Aikman allowed himself to
become too robotic in his approach to the offense. The fun wasn't there.
Neither were the points.
"You have to be able to score points, and to do that, you
have to make big plays," Aikman said. "If you can get six or seven 20-yard
running plays in a game, then you don't need a passing game. Unfortunately
in this league, you can't do that. So you have to throw the football."
From the sounds of Aikman's voice, you hear the frustration
from his difference with Gailey over the direction of the offense.
"You have to be good at throwing the football, and we've not
been very good at it," Aikman said. "Chan wanted to run the ball. Jack
recognizes how important it is to put pressure on defenses with the pass."
Aikman looks like a race-car driver given the keys to the
Batmobile. The accessories are his weapons. Galloway, Ismail and James
McKnight are his rockets that he can fire downfield. Warren is a stealth weapon that will catch defenses by surprise from the backfield. Emmitt Smith is the anchor at running game.
But the one that excites Aikman the most is tight end Jackie Harris, who had almost been given up for retirement in backup roles in Tampa Bay and Tennessee over the past four seasons. Harris is the closest possession tight end Aikman has had since the retirement of Jay Novacek.
"Jackie might be the biggest acquisition of them all," Aikman said. "If teams roll up coverage on Joey and Rocket, which they
will, we're going to get a lot of 'cover-two' zones and should be able to run the football. That also opens up a lot of inside stuff with Jackie. His
strength is that he's almost like a basketball player who knows where the holes are in a defense and is great getting open when he has his back to a
defender."
If Harris is a basketball player, coach Dave Campo is going to treat him like Patrick Ewing. He's not going to use him up early. Harris
is 32. Campo isn't using him too much in practices and won't abuse him in exhibition games. To fit into the fast-paced offense, Harris was asked to go
from 257 pounds to 242 pounds to regain his quickness.
|
“ |
The
interesting thing about Troy is that you can talk to
him, and he'll listen. I don't want to say any names, but other quarterbacks I've been
around didn't listen. ” |
|
|
— Joey Galloway, Cowboys wide receiver |
"Actually, I'm down to 240 and feel too light," Harris said. "Being lighter helps me with my breaks and my separation. We're
probably going to use a lot of two-tight end sets because they didn't just
bring me in here to be a third-down player."
In fact, the best case scenerio is for Harris to catch
between 50 and 70 passes, but much of that will depend on how defenses cover
the Cowboys new speed receivers.
"The defense is going to pay a lot of attention to Galloway and Rocket and that gives me a matchup against safeties and linebackers,"
Harris said. "I feel I can win most of those battles."
What's fun in practice is watching Galloway go against Ryan
McNeil, the Cowboys' best remaining cornerback. During the morning practice
Thursday, McNeil knocked Galloway to the ground with a quick jam of his
hands. "I haven't been jammed like that in a few years," Galloway said.
Competitive by nature, Galloway came back to the line and
gave Aikman a motion to get him the ball. Galloway flew by McNeil, who was
expecting a short route, and went for a touchdown.
"The interesting thing about Troy is that you can talk to
him, and he'll listen," Galloway said. "I don't want to say any names, but
other quarterbacks I've been around didn't listen. This makes for an easier
transition."
Galloway forecasts an offense that should score 25 to 30
points a game, but Galloway is the home-run threat. He has taken unfair
criticism in Seattle for not going across the middle, but he wasn't really
asked by Seahawks coaches for those routes.
"Do you think a quarterback calls a play, and I'm saying I'm
not going to run it?" Galloway said. "In Seattle, there was always a
stretch guy in the offense, and that was me."
Aikman said that Galloway runs routes better than he
expected. His biggest problem is adjusting to Galloway's speed. The deep
balls aren't as much of a problem because Aikman needs to only drop back quicker
and heave a long throw that Galloway will run down.
"With Michael Irvin and others, I knew how long it took them
to get to a spot," Aikman said. "Joey gets to a spot so fast and his
location is different because he can get downfield so much faster. That
makes the angles of throws completely different. We struggled at minicamps
on the comebacks and other passes. But in camp, everything's clicked."
Galloway jokes that Aikman can't overthrow him. "Trust me,
I can out-throw him," Aikman said.
John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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