Home > News > Cowboys release Crayton, make room for Pierce

Oct. 4th, 2004

Bill Parcells continues to fine tune his roster, cutting players to make room for others.

After three games and resting at the bye week, the Cowboys made another move, releasing rookie wide receiver Patrick Crayton, a seventh-round pick from Northwestern Oklahoma State.

Cutting Crayton makes room for tight end Brett Pierce, whom the Cowboys signed off Baltimore's practice squad. The 6-5, 250-pound rookie from Stanford joins the 53-man roster as the Cowboys' third tight end, behind Jason Witten and six-year veteran Mikhael Ricks, who signed last week. The Cowboys are looking for replacements for Dan Campbell, a veteran tight end who was placed on injured reserve last week after suffering torn ligaments in his foot. Campbell will undergo surgery on Tuesday.

While Ricks could give the Cowboys more explosiveness in the passing game, Pierce will be more of a blocker, using his size and height to his advantage. In college, Pierce never caught more than 19 passes (2001) in a season, and had just 11 catches for 84 yards last year as a senior.

Pierce went undrafted, but signed with Baltimore as a rookie free agent and spent the off-season and training camp with the Ravens before joining the practice squad at the start of the season.

As for Crayton, the Cowboys are still high on the rookie receiver, who was listed as the backup punt returner to Dedric Ward. The Cowboys are hoping to sign Crayton to the practice squad and will do so at 3 p.m. (CDT) Monday (10/4) if he clears waivers with the rest of the league.

Crayton, who played receiver, quarterback and returned both kickoffs and punts in college at the Division III level, showed some promise in the preseason with the Cowboys, retuning five punts for 54 yards (10.8 avg.) and he caught one pass for 26 yards. He was one of the team's three seventh-round picks but was inactive for the first three games of the season.