Tag: cowboys training camp

Peyton Hendershot facing battle of his career in Cowboys camp

With so many intriguing TEs coming to Cowboys camp, Peyton Hendershot may be on the outside looking in. | From @ReidDHanson

A case can be made no incumbent Dallas player faces a more difficult situation than third-year tight end Peyton Hendershot. The undrafted free agent out of Indiana wowed onlookers as a rookie, not only winning a roster spot but contributing 103 yards and two touchdowns over the course of 298 snaps in 2022.

Hendershot’s second season looked like a step back in his young career. After the Cowboys added TE Luke Schoonmaker in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft, Hendershot’s pathway to a more prominent role appeared blocked. Hendershot was only able to post four receptions for 38 yards in Year 2. Now in Year 3, if Hendershot wants to hold off the competition at TE, he’s going to need a fast start to camp where he shows consistency as a pass catcher and improvement as a blocker.

With so many intriguing talents in the TE room in 2024, the status quo just won’t cut it.

His ability to create yards after the catch made him a valuable weapon in screen and red zone situations for the Cowboys. Not much of a blocker, Hendershot thrived flexed out in more of a “big slot” role as a rookie. It paired perfectly with fellow rookie Jake Ferguson, who was well-versed in inline play and the various blocking assignments that accompany such a role.

Hia 2023 was a campaign highlighted by two drops on just seven targets and some rather ineffective contributions in the blocking game.

Hendershot’s objective in his third season is not only to reclaim the magic from his rookie season, but to show his game has matured enough to hold off some high potential competition who are challenging for roster spots.

Had it not been for a preseason ACL tear, John Stephens, an undrafted free agent in 2023, would have likely beaten Hendershot out last year. Stephens routinely flashed in training camp, showing elite balls skills and a natural understanding of routes and how they play off certain coverages. He wasn’t any more polished than Hendershot in the blocking game but his sky-high potential as a pass catcher almost made it irrelevant. Since Hendershot likely can’t outdo Stephens as a pass catcher, his best course of action is to show he’s more versatile as a blocker.

Speaking of blocking, the Cowboys signed arguably the best blocking TE in the 2024 draft class when they added Brevyn Spann-Ford to the mix following the draft. The 24-year-old’s enormous 6-foot-7, 270-pound frame makes him a natural fit for inline roles, giving him the inside track on jumbo packages and other short yardage situations common for reserve tight ends.

Hendershot’s inconsistent play and one dimensionality makes him a hard sell for this Cowboys roster. Dallas is already tied to Schoonmaker as a second-round pick and can’t afford to invest another valuable roster spot on another inconsistent TE prospect.

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‘Landry Mile’ once kicked off Cowboys training camps with grueling conditioning test

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Hall of Fame coach used to put his players through a timed 1-mile run on the first day of camp. It is not remembered fondly by most.

One month from today, the Cowboys will be in Oxnard, Calif. and 2024 training camp will have begun, with the first practice slated for July 25.

It will almost certainly not kick off the way camp once did under head coach Tom Landry.

The Hall of Fame icon was a well-known disciplinarian. He took a hard-lined, businesslike approach to the game of football, and he expected his players to do the same. But Landry had come along in a very different era, when even the top players in the league typically held down regular 9-to-5 jobs during the offseason and arrived at camp having performed no real physical exertion (outside of, maybe, mowing their own lawns) since their last game six or seven months prior.

Beginning in 1960, during the Cowboys’ very first training camp, the coach kickstarted the summer session with a nasty conditioning warmup that became infamously known as the “Landry Mile.”

A mile-long run. In cleats. Timed. Backs and ends had to finish in under six minutes; linemen got an extra thirty seconds.

“The Landry Mile wasn’t anything real significant,” legendary defensive tackle Bob Lilly once said. “It was a test of conditioning.”

But even for some of the premier athletes of the day, it proved to be a grueling challenge.

“I had never run a mile in my entire life. I failed miserably,” Ring of Honor running back Don Perkins would recall decades later. “It’s been 50 years now, but I still remember walking and crawling most of the final two laps.”

And there were consequences for not meeting the timed benchmarks.

“If they didn’t hit the target,” former Cowboys exec Gil Brandt once explained, “they’d have to run a number of penalty laps the next morning at 6 a.m.”

The Landry Mile became an opening-day staple of Cowboys training camp, with names of the top finishers often printed in the local papers. Some details of the run would vary from year to year. One summer, it might take place on a track. The next, Landry might utilize the sloping hills of wherever the team was practicing.

But the players knew the tradition would be waiting for them when they reported. And they almost universally dreaded it.

“I hated the Landry Mile,” said defensive end John Gonzaga. “I told Tom Landry, ‘If they ever make the field longer than 100 yards, I’m going to quit.’ But he said I had to run the mile anyway. He said, ‘I don’t have any time for comedians.’ So I ran it.”

“We knew we could knock out a mile, but it still was intimidating,” Hall of Fame receiver Drew Pearson said. “What we heard of as a rookie coming in was, ‘You’ve got to make the Landry Mile.’ It added to what we heard the reputation of camp was about. It was going to be hard. It was going to be brutal.”

Players struggled. Players vomited. Players passed out. Some players contemplated quitting on the spot. At least one did.

“We had this one guy, I can’t even remember his name, who was having a rough time,” remembered longtime Cowboys staffer Joe Bailey. “He came to this turn on the run and just kept going, ran a straight line right back to the locker room … changed his clothes, and was gone. We never saw him again.”

“This isn’t for me,” Brandt remembered him saying. “I didn’t come here to run track; I came here to play football.”

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But even the track stars that made up some of those early Cowboys squads had difficulty with the long distance.

“Bob used to walk it,” Pearson once remembered of Bob Hayes, an Olympic gold medal sprinter who was recruited to play football. “Poor Bob. He could go 100, maybe run that 220, but he couldn’t run that damn mile for nothing.”

“I never came close to running that mile in six minutes,” admitted Perkins. “Bob Hayes and Bob Lilly never did either, so at least I was in good company.”

And there was extra pressure, beside the clock. Coach Landry ran the Mile, too.

“You had to finish between [tight end Mike] Ditka and Coach Landry,” Pearson explained. “Mike was really in shape back then. He had his own hips and could really run. He would set the pace. Coach Landry would really push the end of it. You had to finish in between those two guys.”

Not everyone did.

“Coach Landry ran it with us and beat me by about 100 yards,” recalled nine-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Randy White. “OK, 200 yards. I thought, ‘I can’t even beat the coach running a mile. Maybe I can’t play.'”

While a poor finish in the Landry Mile was used to weed out the occasional prospect who was obviously in over his head, the coach generally found a way to let his stars slide with a sub-optimal time. White, Hayes, Perkins: everyone knew they’d never have to repeat the long-distance feat on gameday.

But it sure got the tough work of training camp started on a fitting note.

“It was not because he wasn’t in shape,” Brandt once said of Perkins. “He just couldn’t run a mile.”

The same could be said of many of the Cowboys’ all-time heroes.

The Landry Mile eventually took a backseat during the team’s notoriously demanding training camps as the coach sought new and innovative methods for working his players.

In 1969, for example, a newfangled conditioning technique called aerobics was waiting at Cowboys camp. That introduced stationary bikes to football, the idea of emphasizing oxygen intake during exercise having first been developed by an Air Force physiologist who was a friend of Landry and had written a wildly popular book about the topic the year before.

But the Landry Mile still lives on in the fabled history of the Cowboys, just one of the tactics famously used by one of the sport’s greatest coaching minds to help turn a ragtag group of upstarts into America’s Team.

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1976: The year one swing at Cowboys training camp decided Roger Staubach’s backup QB

From @ToddBrock24f7: Clint Longley had one shining moment as a Cowboys QB in 1974. One careless moment at 1976’s camp ended his promising football future.

Training camp is where football dreams come true, where a wide-eyed youngster from a small school can prove his worth alongside the biggest, strongest, fastest, and most skilled athletes on the planet and maybe even beat the odds to earn a coveted roster spot in the NFL.

But training camp is also where many a football dream goes to die, where the grueling workouts, intense physical punishment, and exhausting mental stress that comes with cutthroat job competition prove too much for some.

When the Cowboys gather in Oxnard, Calif. next month, players will hope for a moment- one catch, one juke, one block- which will launch a career. But with that opportunity comes the knowledge that there could also be just one moment- a drop, a stumble, a miss- that brings it all crashing down.

It happens every year. But the way it happened for Clint Longley was truly one of a kind.

Longley was one of the most colorful characters in Cowboys history. Born in north Texas, Longley was known for hunting rattlesnakes in his downtime. He was nicknamed “The Mad Bomber” for his obsession with throwing the deep ball, even famously bouncing a pass or two off of Tom Landry’s coaching tower.

He’s now remembered in Dallas for two things: the gutsy relief performance in 1974 that lives on in Cowboys lore as one of the greatest Thanksgiving Day games ever played… and the cowardly move he pulled in the summer of 1976 that got him booted off the team just days before the season, left a locker room bloodied, and sent the organization’s greatest icon to the hospital.

It’s the ultimate cautionary training camp story, and it wasn’t even Longley’s first training camp.

Upon leaving Abilene Christian three credit hours shy of graduation, Longley had been picked up in the 1974 supplemental draft by Cincinnati and then subsequently dealt to Dallas for a fifth-round selection. His rocket-launcher arm quickly won him the backup job behind Staubach after veteran Craig Morton was traded away, but his maverick attitude and lightning-rod personality didn’t endear himself to Coach Landry, who prized unquestioning discipline and exacting conformity above all else.

Longley was thrust into the spotlight as a rookie, on one of the biggest stages imaginable. In the second half of the team’s Thanksgiving contest that year, Longley took over for an injured Staubach with the Cowboys trailing Washington by 13 points and facing an early elimination from playoff contention. In his very first NFL action, he engineered one of the unlikeliest comebacks in franchise history. Posting a stunning 123.5 passer rating, he led the team on three touchdown drives, including a 50-yard prayer to Drew Pearson in the final minute to pull out a dramatic 24-23 win.

Longley’s incredible off-the-cuff effort was credited to, according to offensive lineman Blaine Nye that afternoon, “the triumph of the uncluttered mind.”

Off the field, the starter-backup relationship between Staubach  and Longley was a good one.

“Clint and I sat together every trip in 1974,” Staubach said. “We would talk, he would ask me questions. I kind of thought he looked up to me in a way.”

Longley would make six more game appearances over the 1974 and 1975 seasons, including valuable mop-up duty in a playoff win over the Rams.

But in the summer of 1976, everything changed. Danny White had been picked up after the WFL folded, and there was suddenly competition for the QB2 role.

“Roger was one of the first guys to welcome me,” White explained, “and we started working out together every day. And Clint would never come when we were there. He was upset because all of a sudden, I was a threat to his job.”

“He really didn’t speak to us by the time we were in training camp,” Staubach said. “It wasn’t hunky-dory.”

“Clint didn’t like [Roger]. Clint didn’t like Danny. Clint didn’t like Coach Landry. He didn’t like those guys. That’s just the way it was,” Pearson offered. “So Clint was always doing things the opposite of what should have been done.”

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Things were awkward and icy as the team was put through the paces in Thousand Oaks, Calif. White progressed noticeably behind Staubach. Longley didn’t see any action at all in the Cowboys’ preseason finale. And with less than a week of camp to go, tensions reached a boiling point.

What started it differs slightly depending on who is telling the story. Some accounts have Longley simply overthrowing Pearson on a route. Some have Pearson falling and Longley beaning him with the ball on purpose. Words were exchanged- maybe by Pearson, maybe by Longley, maybe by Staubach in defense of his receiver, maybe all of the above.

Most versions of the story, however, have Staubach escalating the situation by making a derogatory bunny-rabbit joke about Longley’s prominent front teeth. And a challenge to fisticuffs was thrown down.

Staubach and Longley reportedly moved to a nearby baseball field on California Lutheran College’s campus. White was told to act as a lookout.

“The next thing you know, I saw Clint’s feet up in the air, and Roger slamming him to the ground,” Pearson offered. “I don’t know what Roger did. He put one of them Vietnam holds on him, that kung fu fighting.”

“I turn around and look,” White would add, “and Roger is over there, down on his knees, just pounding away at Clint.”

Assistant coach Dan Reeves finally caught wind and rushed in to break up the fight.

“If I hadn’t gotten there, Roger probably would have killed him,” Reeves would say. “And I didn’t want my starting quarterback in prison.”

But things were far from over.

A few days later, as the team dressed for practice on the final day of camp, Longley tried to exact his revenge by taking a blindside swing at Staubach’s head as the Super Bowl MVP adjusted his shoulder pads in the locker room. The two men crashed into some equipment and ended up on the ground. There was blood, a lot of it, pouring from above Staubach’s left eye.

After Randy White peeled the two apart, Longley took off running to the dorms. Pearson was actually concerned that the country boy Longley was going to retrieve a gun, of which he had several at camp (for bagging rabbits at night).

Mel Renfro would later tell Staubach that Longley had told him he was looking to get kicked off the team, and the locker-room punch had been part of a premeditated plan.

“He’s been trying to provoke me the whole training camp. He thinks he’s a coach,” Longley reportedly said of Staubach. “I’m going to disappear now. I need a vacation. I’m going to New Mexico.”

Staubach went to the hospital and received nine stitches.

By the time he got back to the facility, Longley was long gone.

“His sucker punch was as dirty as dirty could be,” Staubach would say. “That was the last I saw of him.”

White would serve as Staubach’s backup for four seasons (and the Cowboys’ punter for nine). He took over as the starting QB in 1980 and played another nine years. He would appear in 18 playoff games wearing the star.

Longley would be traded to the Chargers. (The Cowboys would use the two picks they got in return to maneuver into position to draft Tony Dorsett No. 2 overall in 1977.) Longley would complete just 12 more passes in the NFL. Two different comeback attempts in the CFL were short-lived.

Staubach would later say he was always bothered by the 1976 incident with Longley and was open to a reconciliation meeting. It never happened.

D.D. Lewis was one of the few Cowboys to see Longley after the infamous fight. The two went fishing in Corpus Christi in 2003; Longley declined Lewis’s invitation to reach out to Staubach. An NFL Films special a few years later stated that Longley was said to be selling carpet samples out of the back of a van in west Texas.

A colorful character and once a promising talent, Longley’s heroic Thanksgiving Day performance in 1974 remains one of the most legendary tales in franchise history.

But his Cowboys career ended ignominiously with one lapse in judgment less than two years later… that also remains one of the most legendary tales in training camp history.

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2009: The year a Cowboys rookie kicker was the baddest man at training camp

From @ToddBrock24f7: A 5th-round CB never fully recovered after rookie kicker David Buehler “smoked” him in a 50-yard foot race after one training camp practice.

For the 90 men who will attend Cowboys training camp in Oxnard in five weeks with an eye toward making the final 2024 roster, they know the grind is coming. They know the days will be long. They know the work will be grueling. They know that competition- and maybe the key to securing a spot on the team- can come from any of the athletes around them.

It’s a lesson one young rookie learned the hard way in 2009, when the baddest man at Cowboys camp was a first-year kicker.

David Buehler had a serious leg. Actually, the Southern Cal product had two of them. Trojans head coach Pete Carroll had offered him a scholarship to USC based, at least in part, on his 40 time, the fastest of any player at any position at the 2006 junior college scouting combine.

But the California kicker was also a gifted athlete. Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing over 225 pounds, Buehler was ripped, built like a true gym rat. In his first year at USC, he was actually listed as a fullback and safety, and he regularly played coverage on special teams while also serving as the team’s third-string boot.

Buehler eventually became the starter, but he was stronger at kickoffs than he was accurate on field goals. He went to the NFL combine, electing to participate in the speed and strength tests alongside linebackers and linemen, and beating many of them.

His efforts got him drafted by the Cowboys in the fifth round. He showed up to training camp, held that summer at the San Antonio Alamodome, with the rest of the prospective Cowboys… and a rookie cornerback named DeAngelo Smith.

Smith had played his college ball at Cincinnati. He, too, was a fifth-round draft pick, taken 19 spots before Buehler. Smith was hoping to join a secondary in Dallas that already included Terence Newman, Orlando Scandrick, Gerald Sensabaugh, and Ken Hamlin, and he was looking to stand out however he could.

After practice one day, some on-the-field jawing between the locker-room neighbors about who had to work harder in drills and who was really faster finally led to the challenge of a foot race: Smith versus Buehler, the cornerback versus the kicker.

“He was talking a bunch of trash,” Buehler would say later, “so I just shut him up. I knew I had the speed. It made me a little bit of capital, as well. So, there was a little bit on the line.”

By all accounts, Buehler “smoked” Smith in a 50-yard race that wasn’t all that close.

Buehler even slowed up and made a show of stretching out his arms as he crossed the finish line, to the enthusiastic delight of the rest of the Cowboys. Buehler tore off his jersey and chest-bumped every teammate he could find.

“The kicker just got you!” taunted wide receiver Kevin Ogletree. “He got you!”

“He’s on steroids!” yelled wide receiver Roy Williams.

Smith could do nothing but take the L.

“He just beat me fair and square,” the DB conceded.

Head coach Wade Phillips had seen the race, along with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and several other assistants. Foot-race challenges were summarily banned shortly thereafter, with Phillips telling reporters of his kicker, “He’s not going to do that again. It’s not very smart to do those types of things. He knows it, and he’s not going to do it again.”

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He didn’t, but Buehler boasted that he could have eventually dusted others on the squad, too, including linebackers Keith Brooking and Bradie James, running back Tashard Choice, and even wide receiver Patrick Crayton.

Pitting himself against his teammates was something of a habit for Buehler; he claims he once outlifted defensive end Igor Olshansky in a bench press contest.

As for Smith, he no doubt heard about his second-place finish for the rest of that summer. He never got the opportunity for redemption, though; he was cut at the end of camp. He went on to see action in seven total NFL games, all with the Lions that same autumn.

Buehler did make the 2009 Cowboys team as a kickoff specialist, the first time the team had dedicated a roster spot to that role. Nick Folk handled field goals and extra points. For the 2020 season, Folk was gone. Buehler handled all kicking duties, making 42 of 44 PATs but connecting on just 24 field goals in 32 tries. By 2011, he was back to kickoffs only and missed most of the season with a groin injury. He was waived prior to the 2012 season.

Today, he’s remembered mostly as a big-legged specialist who could also deliver a hit (he logged 14 special-teams tackles in 2010, a single-season record for a Cowboys kicker).

And, of course, as the kicker who, 15 years ago, may have cost a young rookie cornerback a roster spot by toasting him in a foot race.

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Cowboys’ offensive identity part dependent on Schoonmaker and Tolbert

The Cowboys have an abnormal competition going between two different positions groups, and it should pay dividends. | From @ReidDHanson

The Cowboys played out of 11 personnel (three receiver sets) 62.09% of the time in 2023. They played out of 12 personnel (standard two tight end sets) 13.90%. They were extremely proficient in both, posting an EPA/play that ranked No. 3 and No. 6 respectively, but 11 personnel was clearly their bread and butter.

Where they go in 2024 is a matter of debate. It’s pretty clear 11 personnel will once again rule the offense, but will it dominate to the degree it did last season?

For the first time since 2018 the Cowboys will be without Michael Gallup. Gallup, essentially Dallas’ WR3, played a key role in their 11 personnel sets. He was a player defenses respected and someone who could handle the physical rigors of the X role on the outside.

Jalen Tolbert is the front runner to replace Gallup in Dallas’ top three. He’s as ascending player with all the tangible skills to be a starter and teammates have spoken glowingly of his progress. But with just 22 receptions and 268 yards to his name, Tolbert is far from a sure thing so the Cowboys’ ability to execute in 11 personnel efficiently in 2024 has to be somewhat in question.

12 personnel, Dallas’ second most frequent personnel package, stands to gain if Tolbert struggles. Luke Schoonmaker, the expected TE2, plays a key role in shifting the balance. If he can live up to his billing as a second-round draft pick, he could carve out a bigger role for those two TE packages.

In many ways it’s a battle between two players who play completely different positions. It’s Tolbert at WR and Schoonmaker at TE who may ultimately dictate the frequency of their usage.

In today’s NFL, 11 personnel is king and that’s not about to change in Dallas regardless of how Tolbert performs. That doesn’t mean 11 personnel is automatically going to get over 60 percent of the snaps. Plenty of high-powered passing attacks operate out of 12 packages because TEs have the ability to present significant mismatches.

Schoonmaker was drafted as a ready-made run blocker with downfield potential. He didn’t show much as a rookie but his scouting report stays the same. He’s more than capable of being a plus-blocker in the NFL and he has the athletic traits to be a weapon in the passing game as well. He could help fill the hole left by Gallup almost as much as Tolbert. To do so he’s going to have to get over his injury issues. A recent hamstring injury threatens to keep him out until training camp. He’ll have to hit the ground running in order to convince Mike McCarthy the offense needs more 12 personnel in 2024.

Tolbert has a somewhat similar challenge but also likely the inside track. Even if his numbers don’t reflect it, he was vastly improved in 2023. If he can show he’s capable of sliding into Gallup’s role, 11 personnel will probably be just as prevalent in 2024. That’s especially true if he can take snaps at the X spot.

This isn’t a traditional training camp battle since it’s an indirect competition, but it will be fascinating to watch nonetheless and could dictate the Cowboys’ offensive identity in 2024.

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Highlights from Day 1 of Chargers-Cowboys joint practices

Check out all the best moments from the Los Angeles Chargers first joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday.

The Chargers and Cowboys took the field together for the first of two days of practice at Jack Hammett Sports Complex ahead of their preseason matchup on Saturday, Aug. 20.

Check out all the best highlights from Wednesday’s practice in Costa Mesa, CA.

2 positions where Cowboys camp battles will be hotly contested

As training camp approaches, the Dallas Cowboys have big time defensive questions that will fuel fierce camp competitions.

The Dallas Cowboys are less than a month away from making the familiar trek to Oxnard, California for training camp. The team can officially start camp on July 21, a week before most teams, as they prepare for the Hall of Fame game against Pittsburgh on August 5.

Since re-signing Dak Prescott in March, the Cowboys have had a relatively uneventful offseason, something that is unusual for Jerry Jones’ club. However, things are set to heat up for the Cowboys once they reach the west coast, as the club has intriguing positional competitions on the horizon.

The offense is pretty much set in Dallas, other than depth positions like the third tight end, third quarterback, or fifth wide receiver. The defense is a much different story, as very few defenders are locked into starting roles, which should make for an intriguing training camp and early season.

With uncertainty being a theme for the Dallas defense, let’s take a look at two of the positions that face a ton of questions, and have potential for fierce competition as we head towards training camp.

Cowboys to hold joint training camp practices with Los Angeles Rams

The Dallas Cowboys have found a training camp practice partner in the Los Aneles Rams.

Though only May, it is already evident how drastically different the NFL offseason program will be this year compared to a season ago. Last year the pandemic caused clubs to go without practicing on the field until just weeks before the season began. This year teams will not only be allowed to fully work amongst themselves, they will also once again be allowed to take place in joint training camp practices with other squads.

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean Mcvay confirmed this week that his club will work with Mike McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys at some point this summer, according to The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue.

Jerry Jones had made it known his club intends to return to Oxnard, CA, the site of Cowboys training camp every year from 2011 through 2019. This news of a joint-practice with the Rams all but confirms Dallas’ return to California.

Jones was surely happy to hear that fans are expected to be in attendance for most training camps, as fan participation this summer will depend on the state and local COVID-19 guidelines. Many states are beginning to ease restrictions, as all but two NFL franchises are set to have full capacity stadiums for regular season games.

The majority of franchises will begin training camp on July 27. The Cowboys, however, are able to start camp a week earlier on July 21, as they take on the Steelers in the earliest preseason game of the year, the Hall of Fame game.

Full-speed NFL training camp with fans in the stands will be a sight for sore eyes after the chaos that surrounded last offseason.

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Cowboys Fan Plan: Training camp at Oxnard, full attendance at AT&T Stadium

The Dallas Cowboys are set to once again have a full stadium for home games, and travel to Oxnard for training camp.

The Dallas Cowboys held their first in-person press conference since the club announced Mike McCarthy as the head coach in January 2020. While wacing poetic over the extension of franchise quarterback, Dak Prescott, Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones revealed two major developments.

Jones told reporters the Cowboys plan to once again travel to Oxnard, California for training camp, which they were unable to do last season due to the coronavirus pandemic. The team also expects the full allotment of fans in AT&T Stadium this fall after leading the league in truncated attendance last season.

“Now we are going to Oxnard, we are going to have training camp, we are going to do it safe. We’re going to have that stadium full, and we are going to do it safe. We had the most [fans] out there last year.” Jones would end his statement by once again reassuring the crowd, “And we’re going to do it safe.”

From 2011 until 2019, Cowboys fans flocked to Southern California to watch their favorite team in action in training camp. Due to Covid-19 restrictions 2020 marked the first training camp in a decade the Cowboys didn’t travel to the familiar locale. The Cowboys owner made it clear that his club intends to return to the tradition of traveling to Oxnard for a training camp in front of fans.

The Cowboys averaged 28,000 fans at home games in 2020, over 12,000 more people than the second-most, and 13 franchises didn’t see a single fan at home games. Despite leading the league, 28,000 is still a far cry from the roughly 90,000 home fans that Dallas averaged in 2019. Jones has a plan however, and claims the club will fill the stadium to capacity in 2021, while doing so as safely as possible.

 

Hosting these fans-filled events in the safest possible manner will surely be a difficult task, and it’ll be intriguing to see the measures Jones and the Cowboys take to achieve their goals. They continuously spoke of their efforts to do so and to continue being able to make their claim that no one in attendance contracted COVID-19 from their events.

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Mike McCarthy addresses injuries, new Cowboys after first practice

Hear what Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy had to say about his new team after Day 1 of 2020 training camp.

Despite the numerous personnel changes and the nonexistent off season programs, the most important factor of the Cowboys season will be new head coach Mike McCarthy.

As the on-field portion of training camp began Friday, it was easy to see just how excited McCarthy was to be back involved with the game he knows and loves, especially in his new home in Dallas.

McCarthy held a virtual press conference with the media on Saturday, and touched on a number of topics regarding his first days with a Star on his shirt.

New Additions

The first question, to no surprise, was about the Cowboys latest free agent splash, Everson Griffen. McCarthy had this to say about his former division foe:

“I can’t say enough about Everson Griffen, the fact that I was able to compete against him twice a year, he was always the primary focus for us offensively… he’s a relentless player. He brings it every down, has great passion for the game. [I] had an opportunity to visit with him, he’s extremely excited, a big personality, so I think he’s going to be a great fit for our football team.”

McCarthy would add that Griffen can join the team after going through the proper Covid-19 protocols, which is a four-to-five day process.

Another former All-Pro added to the Dallas defense in the off season, Aldon Smith, has potential to be a huge X-factor for the Dallas defense.

“He looks great. He’s probably about 20 pounds bigger than when he last played on the 49ers,” McCarthy said about Smith. McCarthy would go on to add, “He’s very powerful, his length is extraordinary. He made in the team period, on a screen, that you don’t see everyday, that’s for sure. He’s hit the target in every phase that we’ve gone through, particularly the strength and conditioning.”

Rookie wide-receiver CeeDee Lamb has made headlines all off season, and the Cowboys 2020 first-round selection is already showing why the hype is real in just his first few days of training camp.

“He’s picked it up seamlessly. he’s done a great job in the classroom environment… he’s definitely shown the ability to play all three spots… we’ll see what goes on with punt return…” via K.D. Drummond.

Another high-profile rookie, cornerback Trevon Diggs, received plenty of first-team reps.

“Very smooth, he looks like he’s transitioning very well,” McCarthy said about the Alabama product. “We’ve only had one practice but the thing that jumps out to you on the practice field is particularly his ball skills. He’s a natural, and I think he’ll adjust very well to the NFL game.”

McCarthy would reiterate his willingness to play rookies often and early during his tenure in Green Bay. With the Cowboys need for turnover-creating defenders, Diggs should have a significant role from day one in Dallas.

 

Training Camp Details

McCarthy is bringing his coaching methods that he worked to establish in Green Bay to Dallas, but you can’t do everything quite the same. For example the team is beginning practice at 8:30 A.M. in order to try to beat the scorching Texas heat. He added that the current schedule involves meetings and walk-throughs in the evening, and that this camp schedule has the opportunity for flexibility.

The shortened camp is a new component that no coach has ever dealt with. McCarthy had this to say about how much each practice meant,

“This has been a different training camp… frankly the biggest thing that we talked about.. was the importance. How important each practice is, I’m not really worried about the physical talent of this team, I think we all agree its high in nature.” via K.D. Drummond.

The Cowboys quarterbacks were in red jerseys for the first time ever, and McCarthy uses this common tactic as a way to identify and to better protect the quarterbacks during practice.

The Cowboys special teams units have been poor in recent years, but the new staff in Dallas is making the third phase of the game a priority, under new leader John Fassel.

“We just, we’ve dedicated more time to special teams than I have in the past, and frankly I always felt we were pretty high as far as time spent on special teams as far as compared to other NFL teams,” McCarthy said. He would add, “We’re just investing a little bit more time with the specialists particularly just getting them as much work as possible.” via RJ Ochoa.

Injury Concerns

A handful of Cowboys missed the first day of training camp, most notable being La’el Collins and Dontari Poe.

McCarthy isn’t concerned about Collins health though, as he stated “I’m not going to get into the specifics of that, but it’s not something of high concern.”

Collins emerged as a star a right tackle last season for the Cowboys and will be crucial to the offenses continued success.

When asked how close Poe was to returning to the field from a quad injury McCarthy said,

“He’s doing well, looks good. Just watching him work out there it’s unbelievable. I’m always amazed by his footwork and his ability to get in and out of situations, so he’s making progress.”

Offensive lineman Cam Erving was also absent on day one, but he is another player who McCarthy said should be back sooner rather than later.

McCarthy and his staff have their work cut out for them, as every team does, with only 19 practices until the games begin. The full press conference can be found at this link.

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