Tag: John Fassel

Cowboys’ John Fassel: New kickoffs will ‘feel like a real football play’; KaVontae Turpin could explode

From @ToddBrock24f7: Fassel called kickoffs “a dying play.” New rules should give a speedy return man- like the Cowboys’ KaVontae Turpin- a huge advantage.

The Cowboys felt like they found a secret weapon when they signed KaVontae Turpin away from the USFL after his MVP season of 2022. While he went on to make the Pro Bowl his first year in Dallas, it has felt like Turpin has still been kept largely under wraps, thanks to a set of rules that somewhat limited the blazing speed that had made him so dangerous.

With revised kickoff rules in place for 2024, Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel believes the league is about to see what the 27-year-old is truly capable of.

Fans got a breathtaking preview in a 2022 preseason game against the Chargers, when Turpin returned both a punt and a kickoff for scores.

Since then, Turpin hasn’t taken a kick back to the house. In fact, he’s barely gotten to try. Last season, he logged just 10 kickoff returns the whole year.

But… his per-return average was a jaw-dropping 29.2 yards, the highest of any player with double-digit returns.

That could become the norm rather than the exception, now that kick returns are set to make a return of their own.

“It was a dying play,” Fassel said Thursday on Good Morning Football. “And it feels like it’s back, and it’s back in a big way. I must say, I’m proud of the NFL for being bold, because this is a big change.”

Touchbacks last season were up a whopping 373% over what they had been just 14 years prior, and in the name of payer safety, kickoffs themselves had become a ceremonial formality.

Fassel was instrumental in developing the new rules, which were approved by owners last week at the annual league meeting.

“We were losing the play,” he lamented, “and there’s a lot of history behind the kickoff and kickoff return.”

Just not much recent history.

There were just four kickoff-return touchdowns leaguewide in all of 2023. The last one for Dallas came on Thanksgiving Day 2021, when Tony Pollard brought one back 100 yards versus the Raiders. Prior to that, if you take out CeeDee Lamb’s half-field scoring dash after scooping up an onside kick attempt against the 49ers in 2020, the Cowboys’ last kick return for a TD had come from Felix Jones.

In 2008.

Now, kickers will essentially be incentivized to keep the ball in play rather than blast it through the end zone. Tacklers and blockers will start closer to one another but be forced to remain stationary until the returner has the ball.

Gone are the high-speed collisions and injuries that often result from ten cover men sprinting full-steam and face-first into a wall of charging blockers. And with no one getting a head start on the play, a speedster like Turpin should suddenly have the advantage. (The Steelers, not coincidentally, signed veteran return ace Cordarrelle Patterson just hours after the new rule was approved.)

The NFL’s new-look kickoffs will be on trial in 2024 but could remain permanent past that. And the rule could trickle down to all levels of the sport.

“If this thing gets adopted by college football, high school football, the lower levels, I think we’ve done a great thing for the game of football,” Fassel said. “We’ve made it better, we’ve made it safer, and I just can’t wait to see where it goes. I think everybody’s really going to love it. It’s a unique look at the start, but once that ball gets caught, man, it’s game on and it’s going to feel like a real football play.”

And if all the stars align, the secret weapon the Cowboys have kept stashed for two years could be that real play’s next real poster child.

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Cowboys’ John Fassel spearheading new kickoff rule that could pass for 2024

From @ToddBrock24f7: The special teams coordinator has been working to make kickoffs more exciting while keeping players safe. His proposal is up for a vote.

A big change is likely coming to the NFL, radically altering a play that has become in recent years little more than a formality. And one of the Cowboys’ own is leading the way.

League owners are expected to be presented as early as Monday with a proposal to make the kickoff a real football play once again, with a re-imagined set of rules designed to encourage kickoff returns while maintaining player safety to the highest extent possible.

It’s a project Dallas special teams coordinator John Fassel has been spearheading for some time.

“John’s been working on this for a couple years,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said Sunday at the league meetings in Orlando, where Fassel and Saints special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi have been putting the finishing touches on their proposal.

Under the revamped rules, the idea will be for kickers to place the ball inside a designated “landing zone” that extends from the goal line to the 20. Any kick that hits here must be returned. A ball that hits short of the landing zone comes out to the 40. A kick that hits in the end zone or goes out the back goes to the 30. A ball that hits in the landing zone and is then downed in the end zone by the returning team goes to the 20.

As for the kicking team, no running head start. Everyone but the kicker will line up at the receiving team’s 40, with nine of the receiving team’s blockers lined up between the 35 and 30. None of them can move until the kicked ball hits the ground or a player in the landing zone. Two returners can be stationed anywhere in the landing zone.

The opportunity for an exciting return should be back, but without the high-speed collisions and injuries that often result from ten cover men sprinting full-steam and face-first into a wall of charging blockers.

The new rules borrow heavily from what the XFL did with kickoffs in 2020 and again during its 2023 return.

“In the NFL right now, you kick it off, and everybody runs. But if you say, right when the ball is caught, ‘Boom, pause it,’ where is everybody on kickoff and kickoff return? What we’re saying is, that’s where we are starting the play. We’re just not running to get to that spot,” Fassel explained.

“Now with our idea, the ball gets kicked, and as soon as it gets kicked, now everybody goes. It’s really the same play once the ball gets caught. You’re just taking out all the speed and all the big collisions from all the speed in space.”

A new kickoff rule will impact other situations, too. Onside kicks, for example, will be reserved for the fourth quarter and must be announced prior to the kick. If a ball blows off the tee twice prior to a kickoff, the kicker will use a kicking stick instead of having a holder, since that holder will have to be lined up on the 40 with the rest of his team.

According to the competition committee, there were 416 touchbacks in the NFL in 2010. Last year saw 1,970. Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey led the league in touchbacks, with over 89% of his boots either downed by opponents or sailing beyond the end zone. Return specialist KaVontae Turpin got just 10 chances at a return the entire 2023 season.

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Both of those figures should change dramatically under the new kickoff- and not just for the Cowboys, but for every team.

“It was just a non-factor,” Fassel said of what kickoffs have become. “One of every five got returned. It’s like 20 percent. And that’s just not good enough.”

But whether the league’s owners will vote to adopt such a major rewrite to the rules remains to be seen. A vote is said to be set for Monday, with last-minute tweaks to the rule still possible. Or owners could elect to table the vote until May.

“It’s going to pass at some point,” Fassel said. “Hopefully the sooner the better.”

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Cowboys’ punt-block prowess could force Packers to pick 4th-down poison

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys had one-third of the league’s punt blocks this season. That will give Green Bay just a little more to think about this Sunday.

There were just six blocked punts in the NFL during the 2023 regular season. The Cowboys were responsible for two of them, and they nearly had a third.

Special teams coordinator John Fassel hopes that will give the Packers just one more thing to think about when punter Daniel Whelan comes on to try to flip the field for Green Bay this Sunday at AT&T Stadium.

“There is a yin and yang on the rush and return, kind of working together,” Fassel told reporters at The Star this week.

Tight end Peyton Hendershot was the beneficiary this past Sunday, busting through the line of scrimmage on a Washington third-quarter fourth-down to block Tress Way’s punt and give the offense possession at the Commanders’ 9-yard-line. Dallas would add their fifth touchdown of the afternoon moments later.

It’s about creating mismatches, obviously. And if the Cowboys’ opponent is too focused on keeping their punter upright by adding a blocker at the line, it could mean giving speedy punt return man KaVontae Turpin extra room to maneuver forty-some yards downfield.

The Packers are already susceptible to a strong return game. Whelan is averaging a lackluster 46.2 yards per punt, a mark that places him 24th in the league. But factor in punt returns, and his per-punt net average drops to 39.4 yards, or 31st place.

So Green Bay will face a real decision on every fourth down.

“Some of those things do open up, potentially, the return game because there’s more of a focus on protection,” Fassel explained. “Having Turp back there, there’s a clearer emphasis on other teams trying to cover, so sometimes that opens up an opportunity to rush.”

Fassel is more than happy to make opponents pick their poison, especially with players on both ends of the equation able to turn any given punt into a huge momentum swing.

“There are some typical known rushers,” Fassel noted of his 2023 crew. “Dorance Armstrong is probably pretty well-known as a rusher. Even Sam [Williams] is well-known. For Peyton to get an opportunity to make a move and get a punt block was fantastic.”

As Fassel points out, Cowboys opponents have more than one capable rusher to contend with. It was Hendershot this past weekend; back in Week 8, it was defensive end Sam Williams, tacking two points onto the scoreboard with his block.

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Williams has developed a knack for the technique this season while playing on over two-thirds of Dallas’s special teams plays. He very nearly recorded a second blocked punt in the Week 15 loss to Buffalo. While he misjudged his leap (he arguably shouldn’t have left his feet at all) and was subsequently called for roughing, he came within inches of a game-changing play.

That miscue came to mind for Fassel on Sunday as he watched Hendershot’s block versus Washington, remembering a similar learning moment the tight end had in 2022.

“Hendershot, last year, we played the Bears,” Fassel recalled. “And it was probably the third quarter. He got cut loose on a punt rush and whiffed, almost like Sam did against Buffalo a couple weeks ago. And that has stuck with myself and Hendershot for, now, over a year. And we worked on how to finish, kind of like we’ve been working on with Sam. It was the exact same thing, you know; Peyton missed his just like Sam missed his. So we work on these things, on how to finish when you get through. So for him to just boom, all of a sudden- it was really a return call with a one-man rush, kind of deja vu. For him to get through and finish, man, that’s sometimes the hardest part.”

The hardest part for Green Bay this coming weekend in the wild-card round may be deciding whether to roll the dice against the electrifying Turpin… or defend against one of the best punt-blocking squads in football.

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Cooking in silence among 3 things learned about Cowboys in Week 17 win

The Cowboys learned about their punt return unit, Brandin Cooks and the trustworthiness of their defense in their Week 17 win over the Lions. | From @ReidDHanson

Every game is a learning opportunity and the Cowboys’ Week 17 performance against Detroit is no exception. Their 20-19 win narrowly avoided an upset at home and officially put Dallas’ two-game losing streak in the rearview mirror.

Over the last month some trends have begun to immerge. The Cowboys of today have taken on a new identity in many ways, and more than a few things have been learned of this playoff-bound franchise. With just one game remaining until the postseason the Cowboys either have to accept where they are as a team or change their approach on the more problematic issues plaguing them.

Studs and Duds: All 3 phases set to stun in Cowboys’ 20-point win over Eagles

All 3 phases had standout studs for the Cowboys in their win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 14. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys have been waiting five weeks to get another shot at the Philadelphia Eagles, and they didn’t come up short this time around. In their 15th straight win at home, and seventh in a row to start this year, the Cowboys evened the score with the Eagles with the 33-13 win in Week 14.

It was another dominating performance at AT&T Stadium and the fifth win in a row for the Cowboys. In their seven wins at home this season, six of them have been by at least 20 points. Dallas dominated in all three phases to beat the Eagles and take over first place in the NFC East.

The Cowboys embarrassed a rival on the big stage and beat the team with the best record in the league heading into the week. Regular season wins don’t get much better. Here are the studs and duds for the Cowboys in the Week 14 blowout win.

‘It’s just the swing’: Cowboys’ John Fassel took secret trip to see kicker Brandon Aubrey before signing

From @ToddBrock24f7: John Fassel sneaked onto a USFL sideline this summer to see the soccer star kick footballs. He’s now the NFL leader in several categories.

John Fassel is known as a guy who always has a plan. The Cowboys special teams coordinator has a knack for pulling out a fake punt or sending the house on a field goal attempt or dialing up a gadget return at just the right moment on game day. Off the field, he keeps a mental file full of names: of kickers, of punters, of long snappers, of gunners, of the fast kamikaze types who maybe he saw play once and just might excel on his unit and could be called when there’s a need for their very particular set of skills.

But when it came to getting USFL kicker Brandon Aubrey and making him the Cowboys starter in 2023, it all came together very quickly. And it even involved a secret reconnaissance mission just weeks before training camp.

“I didn’t study him as much in 2022,” Fassel told reporters this week about Aubrey’s first season kicking for the Birmingham Stallions. No surprise there. After all, Aubrey was an ex-college soccer star who had just started booting oblong balls for the first time after an MLS career never panned out.

Besides, Brett Maher had the job on lock in Dallas in 2022, connecting on his field goals at a 90.6% clip and banging 50 of 53 extra points through the uprights… in the regular season.

The postseason, however, became another (infamous) story.

“Then once this spring and the summer was happening,” Fassel continued, “we went and looked at ’22.”

What he saw was that Aubrey led the spring league in both field-goal and PAT percentage and had been named to the All-USFL team in a championship season. And he was leading the league in both categories again with the 2023 season winding down.

At the time, the only kicker the Cowboys had on the roster was Tristan Vizcaino. Outside observers were clamoring for the club to sign a veteran free agent; Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby, and Ryan Succop were all on the open market. Brandon McManus had just been released by Denver and then signed by Jacksonville after the Cowboys didn’t bite. The Jaguars had even tried to send Riley Patterson to Dallas in a trade, to no avail.

The Cowboys, oddly, didn’t seem to have a plan. What Fassel did have, though, was a ticket to watch the Stallions play in the middle of June.

“It was a little bit of a stealth operation that [Cowboys vice president of player personnel] Will McClay and everybody kind of set up,” Fassel confessed. “I got out there in pre-game warm-ups, and I might have snuck down onto the field and just got a closer feel for the sound of it and the look of it. Nobody knew we were coming.”

Fassel liked what he saw enough for the Cowboys to sign Aubrey on July 6, just five days after the Stallions won their second consecutive USFL title.

“The goal for our whole organization was to find, hopefully, a longer-term answer,” Fassel said.

A month and a day later, Vizcaino was released after struggling in camp. By Sept. 7, just days before the season opener, it was clear the Cowboys would roll into the regular season with the 28-year-old rookie. Head coach Mike McCarthy even said that Aubrey reminded him of “a young Mason Crosby.”

All Aubrey has done since then is start his NFL career perfect on his first seven field goal tries, something no Cowboys kicker in history had done before.

“It’s two games,” Fassel warned. “If he was 4-for-7 instead of 7-for-7, I still say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a young kicker that’s got some talent, some ability, and we’ve got to keep tightening some things up.'”

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Aubrey hasn’t been perfect; he missed his first extra point try in Week 1. Badly. And though the moment caused painful flashbacks for Cowboys fans, the special teams guru was quick to put the blame on a timing issue, not kicking mechanics.

Because Fassel loves the way Aubrey strikes the ball. So much so, in fact, that the longtime football coach largely leaves the onetime futbol prodigy alone when it’s time to do his job.

“I think it’s just the swing. Remember when I had [current Jet/former Rams and Cowboys kicker Greg] Zuerlein?” Fassel asked. “Zuerlein was a heck of a high school soccer player, like probably most kickers are. But Brandon’s soccer background is way more significant than anybody I’ve been a part of. [Raiders great Sebastian] Janikowski, I always go back to him; he was a big-time soccer player before he went to college. There’s something about those guys that have powerful soccer legs that can translate to the NFL as long as- and I say this carefully- but as long as you don’t overcoach them. I know my job is to coach them, but I also know my job is not to overcoach them.”

This past week, Aubrey hit all five field goal attempts versus the Jets, including one from 55 yards. That’s among the five longest field goals leaguewide so far this young season. And Aubrey currently leads the NFL in total points scored, field goals made, and touchbacks.

It’s all a very promising sign that Fassel’s latest plan is going to work.

“The more reps he gets at it, I think the better he’s going to get.”

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Cowboys’ John Fassel willing to consider ‘anybody else on earth’ for kicker… even Brett Maher

From @ToddBrock24f7: The special teams coordinator knows there are veteran kickers out there, but he’s keeping all options open for a training camp battle.

Several positions for the Cowboys stand to see some interesting battles at this summer’s training camp. In key areas like cornerback, offensive line, tight end, linebacker, and wide receiver, there are more players than available starting spots, meaning every practice rep will be a competition.

Except at perhaps the diciest position of them all for Dallas. But John Fassel promises that will change.

The Cowboys special teams coordinator spoke with reporters over the weekend about the situation at kicker, a spot that’s needed addressing since Brett Maher had a legendarily bad performance in last season’s playoffs.

Tristan Vizcaino was brought in as an insurance policy after Maher missed a league-record four PATs in the Cowboys’ wild-card win over Tampa Bay. Maher kept the gig the following week at San Francisco, but had another shaky-looking extra-point attempt blocked.

Now as voluntary workouts for the 2023 season begin, Vizcaino- who has kicked a total of 11 field goals (out of 12 attempts) and 15 PATs (out of 20 tries) over four pro seasons- is the only kicker in the building.

For now.

“We have Tristan on the roster. Anybody else on earth who is not on the team right now is under consideration,” Fassel said at the conclusion of rookie minicamp on Saturday. “That’s everyone, really. I think we have a lot of different guys that we’re still looking at: XFL, USFL, veterans on the street, younger guys who still haven’t found their way.”

Dallas chose not to spend a draft pick on a highly-touted kicking prospect like Michigan’s Jake Moody or Maryland’s Chad Ryland. They also have not called in anybody from Fassel’s personal list of specialists who he’s been tracking. To some, that means the Cowboys seem likely to call on someone with experience.

“It’s probably the easier way [to go] because you know what you’re going to get,” Fassel admitted. “There’s veterans on the street right now. Let’s face it, there’s Mason [Crosby], there’s Robbie [Gould], there’s [Ryan] Succop. There’s a lot of guys that have performed in the NFL, and you weigh that against everything else. There’s really no secrets of who’s available. The good thing for us at the kicker spot is just being patient and deciding who that second guy is we’re going to bring in, whether it’s now or training camp.”

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But in turning over every possible stone, Fassel also explains he’s open to welcoming back the man the fanbase called “Money” not so long ago.

Despite his apparent epic case of the yips in the postseason, Maher is still the league’s all-time leader in successful field goals from 60 yards or more, and he does hold a career field goal percentage of 81.0% (just better than Jason Elam, David Akers, and Sebastian Janikowski) and a PAT make rate of 95.5%.

“I think everything is on the table,” Fassel said of a possible reunion with Maher. “Let’s face it, if you look at Brett, he had a great year. He had a bad game. He played 22 games, but he had a bad game and a half. I think everyone’s on the table. I’m proud of what Brett did here. If he gets a shot here or somewhere else, I’m sure he’ll perform well.”

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Cowboys ST coach sent funny text to Titans GM after Luke Gifford signing

Cowboys ST coordinator John Fassel jokingly called Titans GM Ran Carthon a “dirty dog” because he “stole my guy” Luke Gifford in free agency.

One of the Tennessee Titans’ six free-agent signings so far this offseason was former Dallas Cowboys linebacker, Luke Gifford, who is expected to play primarily on special teams while also possibly helping out on defense.

After the signing, it was revealed that Cowboys coaches were high on Gifford and even believed he was suited for a bigger role.

One of the Cowboys coaches who is apparently in that camp is special teams coordinator John Fassel, who texted general manager Ran Carthon after the team inked Gifford to a two-year, $4 million deal.

“The special teams coordinator in Dallas, as soon as it became public knowledge that we’d agreed to terms, I get a text and it was like: ‘You dirty dog, you stole my guy,'” Carthon revealed, per Jim Wyatt of Titans Online. “And he had nothing but great things to say about Gifford.”

As we already mentioned, Gifford is set to take on the key special teams role he had in Dallas, but Carthon believes he can be an asset on defense, also.

“I think he can help us on defense as well,” he said. “Obviously, he has to go out on the field and prove it. But at minimum we have a really, really good special teams player.”

It remains to be seen if Gifford will indeed secure some semblance of a role on defense, but with the team having a pair of uncertainties at the top of the depth chart in Azeez Al-Shaair and Monty Rice, it’s certainly possible.

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Cowboys’ Fassel on Week 10’s unsung special teams hero: ‘Like nothing I’ve seen before’

Luke Gifford tied his career-high in tackles and got his first fumble recovery on just 26 snaps Sunday, impressing the special teams guru. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Within the highly-focused world of special teams, John Fassel has certainly seen some stuff.

In 2012 with the Raiders, his entire three-man kicking battery (kicker, punter, long snapper) made the Pro Bowl. With the Rams, his specialists combined for seven Pro Bowls. Over his time with that franchise, his players won NFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors 15 times.

To be sure, in almost a quarter-century of coaching, Fassel’s been around plenty of exemplary special teams play.

But what Cowboys linebacker Luke Gifford did on Sunday in Green Bay left even the 48-year-old coordinator grasping for adjectives.

“Like nothing I’ve seen before,” Fassel told reporters on Monday. “Five legitimate tackles in one game, on special teams. I haven’t ever been a part of a game where one guy had that many tackles. And he had a fumble recovery, too. He was very productive; he actually missed one [tackle] on a punt at the end of the game. It could have been six.”

And Gifford, the undrafted Nebraska product who’s been with the club since 2019, did it while playing just 26 snaps, all on special teams. It’s the same stat line that safety Jayron Kearse delivered… only it took Kearse 57 snaps.

“Really proud of him,” Fassel said of Gifford. “He said this morning, ‘When it rains, it pours.'”

Gifford’s latest pop-up shower represents an absolute downpour of points on an in-house scoring system that Fassel uses to grade his special teams players.

“We’re doing the math on it right now, and it shot him up the chart,” he said. “It might be a 100-point game. For the season, the benchmark is 500 points, so you see 100 points in one game, that’s a lot.”

Fassel employs the scoring system as just one way to motivate his guys, who are often younger or less experienced players- like Gifford- just trying to do enough to earn a chance on offense or defense.

“Bonus points for tackles, fumble recoveries, forced fumbles,” Fassel explained. “Proud of him, because he’s been under the radar, playing really good football. Maybe the stat sheet doesn’t show it. Also his leadership. I think the best is yet to come for him.”

Gifford has gotten in on defense over his three-plus seasons, but very sparingly. He’s played with the regular defensive unit in just seven games; he logged double-digit snaps exactly once.

But on special teams, the third-string linebacker has been a mainstay. He’s participated in over half of the special teams snaps in 33 of the 38 games he’s dressed for as a Cowboy.

So Fassel’s leaderboard may be his best shot at getting noticed within a position group that includes phenom Micah Parsons, fan favorite Leighton Vander Esch, veteran Anthony Barr, and high-potential newcomers Jabril Cox and Damone Clark.

Fassel says he adopted the special teams point system from one of his early coaching stops.

“I got it back when I was an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens in 2006,” he recalled. “I worked for Frank Gansz Jr., who was a coordinator. And his dad, Frank Gansz Sr.- arguably the most legendary special teams coach in the National Football League- I kind of got it from him. We’ve obviously changed it over the course of all the years with how do you score points, how much this production is worth, a tackle’s worth this many points, a forced fumble’s worth this many points, a blocked punt’s worth this many points, just doing your job is worth this many points. So it has to do with two things: participation and production. And 500 points is the goal for the end of the season. Usually we have about six players, on average, that will hit 500 points per year.”

Being the year-end winner would earn Gifford plenty of recognition- plus an added bonus- from one of the top special teams minds in today’s game.

“A lot of love, and a lot of cool other something,” Fassel laughed. “Maybe a big old dinner at the house or something.”

But what would be even better for Gifford is if his ultra-rare special teams performance simply leads to more regular chances in the defensive huddle.

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Punts could provide big opportunities when Cowboys face vulnerable Packers in Week 10

Green Bay gives up punt return yardage and are susceptible to blocked kicks. Both bode well for KaVontae Turpin and Dallas special teams. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The numbers seem to suggest that Cowboys return specialist KaVontae Turpin is due to house-call a punt return sometime soon.

The schedule suggests it might even happen the next time Dallas takes the field, with an upcoming opponent who is particularly vulnerable to problems on both ends of their punts.

Cowboys players and coaches are enjoying their bye week and using the time to recuperate before beginning Week 10 game prep in earnest. But the Nov. 13 trip to Green Bay has been circled on the calendar since the day schedules were released.

And while much of the focus that day will be on Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy’s return to Lambeau Field, the undrafted rookie Turpin is no doubt hoping he’ll be able to make a leap of his own by finally returning a punt to the end zone.

He did it in the preseason, and he’s come close this regular season. Turpin is averaging 14.7 yards per punt return, placing him third leaguewide. He’s one of just four players with three returns of 20 yards or more, and he has the NFL’s second-longest punt return (52 yards) through eight weeks of play.

“I keep getting caught by the last person,” Turpin said after the 24-6 Dallas win over Detroit, “so I just feel like I’ve got to break one.”

An extra week of rest may help him get over the hump. Goodness knows down time is not something Turpin is used to.

Having been signed by Dallas in July shortly after his USFL MVP season ended- and coming to that league directly from rapid-fire stints in the Fan Controlled Football league, The Spring League, and the European League of Football- Turpin hasn’t gotten a breather from football in quite some time.

“He’s been playing year-round football for a couple years,” Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel said this week. “Not that I feel like he needs one, but any mental or physical break he can get, I think, is good for him because he’s been going for a while.”

But Fassel says he’s given no thought to giving Turpin a punt off here or there, even with him getting increased chances on offense.

“He needs to be back there. Limited opportunities, anyway, whether it’s a touchback or a fair catch or punts out of bounds. Anytime a ball’s in bounds, he needs to be back there,” Fassel reassured. “He’s in it for the long haul.”

But truth be told, Fassel may also be hoping that his 4th-down crew can cause some chaos of their own before the punts in Green Bay even make it to Turpin’s hands.

The Packers are currently atop the wrong kind of list, allowing record pressure on their punter in 2022.

Two teams have given up an official blocked punt this season; Green Bay is one of them.

The Jets got to Packers punter Pat O’Donnell in Week 6 and turned the double-thud into six points after safety Will Parks alerted his coaches to a pressure opportunity.

“That was a specific thing that we saw today, during the game. That was an adjustment,” said Parks, who recorded the scoop-and-score in the Jets’ win. “I came up to [New York special teams coordinator Brant Boyer] and I said something, and he dialed up that play.”

Packers special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia, who used to hold the same role in Dallas, took the blame afterward and said he sent in “a bad protection call” that allowed Jets rookie Micheal Clemons to penetrate for the block.

Whoever was at fault, now it’s on tape for other teams to try to exploit when they play Green Bay.

The other team to have allowed a punt block this year? The Rams, who have given up two, one apiece to Atlanta and… the Cowboys.

It’s not hard to imagine Fassel already looking ahead, burning the midnight oil over the bye week, and devising ways to similarly release the hounds on O’Donnell.

So the Packers may have to pick their poison when it comes to punt plays against Dallas.

Because even if the Packers punter manages to get all of his kicks away cleanly, Green Bay’s coverage team is allowing an average of 10.85 yards per punt return, seventh-worst in the NFL.

That smells like it could be Turpin Time.

Either way, fourth down may not be the best time for Cowboys fans to take a snack break when they hit the field again in Week 10.

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