McCarthy: Ryan Flournoy ‘gets better with every opportunity’ as Cowboys WRs battle for roster spots

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys HC talked about several of the 13 wide receivers who have two more practices in Oxnard and a preseason game to land a locker.

For the 13 men vying for a spot in the Cowboys’ wide receivers room this season, the chances to make a good final impression are dwindling fast.

The team will have two more padded practices and then a walkthrough before leaving Oxnard. Then it’s back to The Star to prepare for the preseason finale on Saturday. And by the end of business next Tuesday, roster cuts will have been made and several of the hopefuls will be looking for new jobs.

Only three receivers would seem to be bona fide locks to make the squad, but head coach Mike McCarthy may have dropped some hints about the remaining frontrunners in his latest press conference.

Nothing has changed with CeeDee Lamb, of course. He is still absent from training camp as he awaits a lucrative contract extension. And while he has yet to officially work with the team this offseason, he is a regular topic of conversation as the Dallas coaches redistribute his lost reps.

“You have to have a plan,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning. “It’s something that we reconvene [about] every single night- for us as a staff, and more so myself and the coordinators- and we have a plan to work each and every day, and we make those adjustments accordingly. And when CeeDee does come back, we’ll adjust and make sure that we’re ready to go, but right now we’re preparing the other guys.”

Brandin Cooks is not one of them, though, at least not for the next two days. McCarthy explained that the veteran will miss work Tuesday and Wednesday for personal reasons, but the coach was quick to point out, “Everything’s good; it’s a good thing.” Cooks had some knee soreness last week, but this absence is apparently unrelated.

Return specialist KaVontae Turpin is the only other Cowboys wide receiver not to see any action this preseason. His roster slot is secured, however, as the club is no doubt eager to deploy the speedster under the new dynamic kickoff rules.

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That leaves 10 “other guys.” One of the most promising would appear to be rookie Ryan Flournoy. The sixth-round draft pick out of Southeast Missouri State was dealing with a knee issue early in camp, but he has been perhaps the most consistent of the team’s wideouts since. Flournoy currently leads the Cowboys receiving corps in both targets and catches over two preseason contests, including a touchdown grab last week versus the Raiders.

“He’s a young man that gets better with every opportunity,” McCarthy said of Flournoy, who earned the nickname “Super” while in college. “Obviously, he had the injury and missed some time; I just love the way he bounced back. You can see the confidence from Week 1 to Week 2; he took a huge step. I love his physicality: run blocking and finish was exceptional, but obviously he had the big play there. He has shown the ability to do some nice things on special teams. I thought he had a good night out there in Vegas.”

McCarthy also had positive reviews for 2022 third-round pick Jalen Tolbert and 2023 seventh-rounder Jalen Brooks.

“They’re doing exactly what you’re looking for,” said the coach. “Both those guys have grown immensely throughout the offseason program, put in the extra time with Dak. I don’t know of too many external throwing sessions where those two weren’t involved, and that’s what it takes in today’s climate of the NFL. … Those two guys have performed at a pretty consistent basis. I’m very confident in both J.T. and J.B.”

While we don’t have the full breadth of training camp reps to include in our evaluation as the Cowboys coaches do, here’s a look at how the Dallas receivers (who aren’t presumptive roster locks) have fared over the two preseason games thus far.

Player Wk 1 (Rec/Tgt/Yds) Wk 2 (Rec-Tgt/Yds) Total (Rec/Tgt/Yds)
Kelvin Harmon 2-2, 38 2-2, 18 4-4, 56
Racey McMath 0-3, 0 3-3, 54 3-6, 54
Jalen Brooks 2-2, 49 0-1, 0 2-3, 49
Ryan Flournoy 2-3, 18 4-6, 23 6-9, 31
Jalen Cropper 4-6, 26 0-1, 0 4-7, 26
Deontay Burnett 2-5, 23 0-0, 0 2-5, 23
David Durden 1-2, 16 0-0, 0 1-2, 16
Cam Johnson 2-3, 10 0-0, 0 2-3, 10
Jalen Tolbert 0-0, 0 1-1, 6 1-1, 6
Tyron Billy-Johnson 0-0, 0 0-1, 0 0-1, 0

It’s worth noting that Jalen Cropper got additional work as a punt returner in the Raiders game, as did Tyron Billy-Johnson. (Cropper, unfortunately, fumbled away one of his two return attempts.) Billy-Johnson also made the stat sheet as a kick returner in both preseason outings.

In Cowboys Wire’s latest 53-man projections, the team keeps six wide receivers on the roster and reserves two more for the practice squad. Assuming three of those spots are already spoken for, it leaves five more lockers up for grabs, with these 10 receivers going at it and seven days to decide things.

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