Now Is the Time for McGee

Wade Phillips came to a decision on playing his starters in the final preseason game Thursday night against Miami. Despite the poor performances by his team in the last two preseason games the Cowboys will be resting the vast majority of their starters. No Tony Romo, no Jason Witten, no Miles Austin, no Demarcus Ware, and on and on.

So why would anyone want to watch the game tomorrow night? If you are a hardcore fan of the Cowboys like I am then you can find reasons for games without the starters to be compelling. Many of the players who take the field tomorrow night are not household names and might never be. But several of them are the future stars for the Dallas Cowboys.

The guy who is getting the biggest shot to prove himself this week is Stephen McGee. He has been unimpressive throughout his time with the Cowboys. But he is young and still has time to develop. And now he gets probably the entire Miami game to show what he can do.

Tony Romo developed himself early in his career in games just like the game Thursday night. McGee needs to show us that he can at least develop into the primary backup or the Cowboys will probably start looking for another young guy to groom after this season.

I'm not expecting McGee to light it up but I am expecting to see him show the ability to read the defense and make all the throws required at the NFL level. Every chance he has had so far since he joined the team last season McGee has seemed a little gun shy when it comes to throwing the ball down the field. He always seems to check down to the back or tight end very early in the play and he has rarely thrown the ball more than 10 yards down the field.

I would love to see some flashes of future greatness like we saw from Tony Romo early in his career. No one really knew for sure that Romo would develop into a top tier quarterback but you could sense that he definitely was a natural playmaker when he got on the field early in his career. I hope for the Cowboys' sake and for McGee's sake he can at least go out there and show the coaches that he deserves more time with the team to develop.