Cowboys like ability of Beasley

--Cowboys coach Jason Garrett admits that SMU undrafted free agent receiver Cole Beasley falls into the Wes Welker, Danny Amendola stereotype because he is an undersized white receiver.

"He falls into that family of receivers," Garrett said of Beasley.

But like the others, Garrett said Beasley shouldn't be overlooked or bypassed despite his 5-8, 175-pound frame.

He caught 173 passes for 2,100 yards his last two seasons in college and showed the Cowboys in minicamp that he has a knack for making plays as a slot receiver. Garrett said Beasley has "a feel for it."

"You're never going to keep them because he's big, he's strong, fast, jumps through the roof, all that kind of stuff," Garrett said. "The way he stays in this league is every day he catches five balls. Every day he beats a guy you don't think he can beat. And he does it today, tomorrow and the next day, the next day, the next day. There are a lot of guys who made their way in this league that way, and he's going to be one of those guys."

--Linebacker DeMarcus Ware said the Cowboys had a great offseason learning Rob Ryan's defense and the difference between last year and this year for the defense is like night and day.

"When I think about the defense, from last year to this year, it's sort of like night and day," he said Thursday at Cowboys Stadium after the final minicamp practice and the last work of the offseason until training camp. "There weren't a lot of mistakes we were making. Guys were really aggressive, really comfortable. In the defense, whatever Rob called, we were ready for the situation.

"I feel really good about the defense, how things are progressing. Especially the young guys."

Pro Bowl nose tackle Jay Ratliff agrees with Ware.

"The defense is way more confident this year," the eighth-year veteran said. "You have players really stepping up. One player that comes to mind is Jason Hatcher. We're looking for him to have a breakout season. He's more confident in the defense. He's doing great things, creating a lot of disruption. The defensive backs are all over the place. Those guys are communicating. Everyone's challenging the pass. No one's sitting there waiting for the ball to come to make a tackle. They're going for the ball. It's a really aggressive defense. Everybody seems to have a great understanding of it. Everyone's on the same page. We're expecting great things from ourselves."

Ware is not only impressed with how the Cowboys have adapted to the scheme but the upgrades in personnel where there will be at least four new starters including safety Brodney Pool, and cornerbacks Morris Claiborne and Brandon Carr.

"I think it was just a great offseason," Ware said. "There's a lot of room for improvement, always. But we've gotten a lot better."

--Quarterback Stephen McGee has gone from a candidate to be the No. 2 quarterback to almost being pushed off the roster with Kyle Orton signed to be No. 2 and Rudy Carpenter signed to compete with him for the No. 3 job.

To that end, McGee didn't have a strong minicamp, but the Cowboys have not given up on him. Coach Jason Garrett said he liked that McGee continues to handle the challenges he faces.

"One of the challenges that a backup quarterback has when he goes in is that there are a lot of young players playing," Garrett said. "We're putting a lot of things on their plate as an offense. The defense has challenged us a lot of ways. And a lot of times, mistakes are made around you. And you have to process what happened and still make great decisions. You can't let their mistakes become your mistakes. I think Stephen did a good job handling some of the different things that didn't go quite so well for him, and he made the right decision with the ball and handled the situation well," Garrett said. "So those were big strides for him."

QUOTE TO NOTE
"We're not going to sit here and talk about what we're going to do this year or all the expectations everyone else has for us. I think the attitude for us this year needs to be we're going to be quiet. To put it bluntly, we're going to shut up, not say a thing and do our jobs. Honestly, we don't have room to talk. The Giants are the Super Bowl champions. They've won two Super Bowls in the last five years. We just need to be quiet and do our jobs. Nothing else." -- Cowboys nose tackle Jay Ratliff.

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