So Monday morning when driving into The Ranch, who should be arriving about the same time but Terry Johnson, the Cowboys’ newly-signed defensive tackle who is serving out his eight-game suspension. I’m told he’s been a daily visitor to The Ranch working out in the weight room like six days a week. That’s a good start. He’ll petition the commissioner to shorten his eight-game suspension to as few as six, but would make sense if Roger Goodell was in the shortening mood to reduce to seven, which because of the Cowboys’ bye the next week would mean he’d still serve an eight-week suspension. As it stands, if the suspension remains eight games, he’ll actually miss nine weeks.
Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson has one more week to serve on his five-game suspension, and is chomping at the bit to get back to work. And he hasn’t been just wasting away the time the past four weeks, saying he’s been volunteering his time to help coach the junior high team his son plays on in Dallas.
If the Cowboys do have a concern after finishing the first four games with a clean slate, that would be holding down the middle of the defensive line against a team which decides to load up and run. While Jay Ratliff has been doing a nice job in the middle, and Johnson’s return is impending, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on his weekly radio show they are a little concerned about beefing up that spot. That’s probably why they worked out 330-pound defensive tackle Junior Siavii, who participated in 26 games with Kansas City from 2004-05.