2022 OTAs, Camps and Training Camp Thread...
- Thread starter Cotton
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 123,754
I like this.
The one thing about Ferguson is that he is definitely has leadership qualities.
Schultz is just kind of like there and does a few first down signals.
The post-Witten TE landscape is an on-going challenge.
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 53,400
I definitely think his blocking and his hands are what drew us to him. We aren't ever really drawn to the big WR type TEs. Although I guess Jarwin sort of was. Or he was just a shitty blocker is another way to put it.
Emmitt Staubach
Not So New Member
- Joined
- May 10, 2022
- Messages
- 5
Sam Williams has reportedly been balling out so far! Him and Parsons on opposite edges could be INSANE!
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 38,175
That's nice.
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 38,175
I really think Williams has that Eye of the Tiger.
Hopefully it works out but talent + desire is a really good combination.
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 53,400
Yeah I don't think special is probably a reasonable expectation. But I do think he can be really good but his athletic ability won't scare anyone.
Chocolate Lab
Mere Commoner
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2014
- Messages
- 20,560
Means nothing, but... I feel really good about Sam Williams.
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 53,400
ravidubey
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 20,274
They said the same thing about Shante Carver in 1994.
Info to be consumed with a grain of salt
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 53,400
Shante Carver nugget, I can't in all honesty tell you what the reports on him said. I will say I don't remember these glowing reports of Taco Charleton. A much more recent and relevant comp.
Trysten Hill also feels like he was shit from the start.
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 120,690
Cowboys rookie minicamp: Why Tyler Smith was surprised, early impact candidates
By Jon Machota
5h ago
FRISCO, Texas — The Cowboys’ rookie minicamp practices were open to reporters on Friday and Saturday at The Star. This provided opportunities not only to see Dallas’ nine draft picks for the first time but also all of their undrafted rookie free agents and several tryout players.
Coaches and players were on the field for about an hour and a half on Friday and a little over an hour on Saturday.
“We probably went too hard (Friday),” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “The workload capacity, you have to always watch that. They’re excited, the coaches are excited, I thought we probably overdid it with the individual drills. That was part of it.
“We were (about) 17 minutes less (Saturday) than we were (Friday) and we had the 92-degree weather. But I thought the way we broke it up it worked out good. I think they were struggling there at the end. There was some sloppiness. It was expected, not uncommon, but I thought they fought through it very well.”
McCarthy said earlier in his coaching career, there was more on-field work done during rookie minicamp, however, that increased the chances of injury for the rookies when they started working with the veteran players in organized team activities. The Cowboys rookies will begin working with the veterans this week.
“We really split the day between football and the personal transition here to be a Dallas Cowboy,” McCarthy said. “The little things, where they’re going to eat, residence, transportation, all of those things, open up a bank account. Just the basics, take a little time to get right on the front end, so starting Monday when they are acclimating with the veterans they can get into a flow.
“It has served me very well for the last 10 years doing it that way. Their transition has been smoother. And I definitely feel we haven’t had as many injuries, particularly fatigue injuries, in our first week of activity.”
Here are observations and other notable topics gathered during the two days of availability.
First-round pick. Tyler Smith, the 24th overall pick, lined up at left guard both days. It was his first time working at the position since high school. The Cowboys plan to get him snaps at left tackle at some point. Although the players weren’t in full pads, Smith and fifth-round pick DT John Ridgeway had a few good battles during the team period at the end of Friday’s practice.
“I wouldn’t get too caught up on where exactly Tyler is playing,” McCarthy said Friday, “because we’re trying to have as constructive a practice environment as we can as far as how many linemen, so that’s part of the equation and formula. But like I said when he was drafted, he will work both left guard and left tackle. You can see the twitch is something that jumps out at you. I thought he had a really nice day.”
Cowboys offensive line coach Joe Philbin said he thought Smith looked “quick” and “decisive” in his first practice.
“I surprised myself,” Smith said. “You never know how something is going to go on the first day. But going through the steps, going through team (drills), I felt like I had a pretty good period. There’s much more to improve upon and I look forward to doing that in the future.”
More on Tyler Smith’s position. Making the move from left tackle at Tulsa to left guard at rookie minicamp, Smith said he feels like he needs to play lower.
“It’s a more low to the ground position,” he said. “I’m a tall dude, I’m used to playing from the two-point stance. Just working on the small things, like leverage out of the stance. That’s stuff that Coach Philbin and (assistant offensive line coach Jeff) Blasko are stressing, and that’s stuff I really want to improve upon and make sure I solidify in my game.”
Philbin said the offseason work will be about getting a feel for how quickly Smith can adjust to what they are asking of him. The goal is for Smith to be the starting left guard this season, but they’re not going to put him in a starting role unless he’s ready.
“We certainly don’t have a rock solid plan for training camp yet,” Philbin said. “I think we’re going to go one day at a time. I told him when we drafted him that there are 99 steps that you have to take to be ready to play in an NFL game. I thought (Friday) was a good first step and we’ll try to build from there.”
Second-round pick. Sam Williams didn’t start playing football until his senior year of high school. He was a basketball player who turned to football because his coaches wanted him to become more physical on the court. He performed so well on the field that he only received college scholarship offers to play football. Williams said he doesn’t know yet exactly what his role will be, but his speed is likely to at least get him on the field on third downs and other passing situations.
“I think we’d all agree that Sam Williams looks like a guy that was born to play professional football,” McCarthy said. “He has the gifts. He has the physical traits. He had two pass rushes (Friday), I know we’re just in helmets, but he was clean in the backfield. He has that kind of ability. He’s in a great place. He’s obviously in an excellent system that he’ll definitely benefit from. I think he’ll do extremely well early for us.”
“He played a lot of different techniques at Ole Miss,” Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn responded when asked about Williams as a run defender. “Some he was playing inside, what we call a 4-i, a B-gap player, some on the outside. So I would say most of the time I evaluated him on the things that we would ask him to do. And on those things, run, pass, drops, stunts, I go through a checklist of the things that I would ask him to do, and really thought he would fit in well with the defense that we play and the style that we play.”
Third-round pick. Jalen Tolbert has a chance to make the biggest immediate impact of all the Cowboys rookies. Michael Gallup’s knee injury might keep him out multiple games to start the season, Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson are now catching passes for new teams. That means CeeDee Lamb, veteran free-agent signing James Washington and Tolbert should expect to see a lot of opportunities.
Before last season, Tolbert was mostly an outside receiver at South Alabama. But he got significant work in the slot last year so he’s confident in his ability to play all of the receiver spots in the Cowboys offense.
“I’m excited about being able to move around,” he said, “and get matchups with people that probably shouldn’t be guarding me.”
Like Williams, Tolbert didn’t start playing football until high school. He had previously been focused on baseball.
“One of the things he made a big point of in our initial conversation was he’s pretty young at the game of football,” McCarthy said. “He hasn’t played a lot of football. To me, that’s exciting. Using his words, he said, ‘I don’t know how high (my) ceiling is going to be, but I think it’s going to be pretty damn high.’
“I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ You can see it. He’s natural inside. Obviously, he has the ability. Just watching him, (vice president of player personnel) Will McClay and I were talking, he reminds you, just on the first impression as far as his movement traits, he’s somewhere kind of between CeeDee and Cedrick Wilson, his body type. I think it’s a great comparable, and I think it illustrates what we are looking for when you have that type of skill set where you can come in here and have the ability to play inside and outside. I think it’s a real value.”
Punt returner. Lamb and Wilson handled most of the Cowboys’ punt returns the past two seasons. With Wilson gone and Lamb moving into the No. 1 wide receiver spot, there should be opportunities available for Tolbert and others. McCarthy put several players through punt and kick return tracking drills over the weekend.
“It’s something I’ve done in my time in Green Bay, and frankly, I just wanted to see a guy track a ball,” McCarthy said. “We didn’t instruct them on anything. I didn’t want any coaching. I don’t care if the guy has never caught a punt, I just want to see him track a football.
“That’s part of the evaluation. We’ll look at the guys who have done it, and like (executive vice president Stephen Jones) says all the time, and it’s so true, player acquisition never stops. But that’s definitely something we gotta get answered.”
Jalen Tolbert (18) (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
Damone Clark. The fifth-round pick wasn’t allowed to participate in the on-field drills as he continues recovering from the spinal fusion surgery he had in March. Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch had a similar procedure at the end of the 2019 season.
“That’s what made me even more comfortable,” Clark said, “is because I know Leighton had the same injury and Leighton is back on the field playing, and still playing at a really high level. My confidence level is just so high because you have someone like Leighton who had the same, exact injury and he’s back on the field, so why wouldn’t I be back on the field, too?’’
Doctors discovered that Clark needed the procedure to fix a disk issue after he was examined at this year’s scouting combine in Indianapolis. Clark said he never felt any discomfort while playing last season and has never missed a game because of injury. The Cowboys will not rush Clark back too soon, meaning he could miss the entire 2022 season. But the entire NFL knew that was a possibility, which is why Clark was still available with one of the final picks in the fifth round.
“I mean, everything happens for a reason in life,” Clark said. “I’m not mad about it. I’m just happy they found it and Dallas still picked me. I’m happy to be here.”
Latest on kicker. Undrafted rookie free agent Jonathan Garibay is the front-runner to be the team’s kicker this season. The Texas Tech standout will have competition, but he’s in a great spot. Last year’s kicker, Greg Zuerlein, is now with the New York Jets. The Cowboys released Chris Naggar, the only kicker with NFL experience on their roster, on Friday. Garibay said Dallas consistently stayed in contact with him throughout the pre-draft and draft process.
“The Cowboys did a very good job of keeping in touch with me and recruiting me,” Garibay said. “I’m just really happy to be here and give it my best shot. I know the coaches and players expect a lot from me and I expect a lot from myself. I just hope I can help this team accomplish some of its goals.
“My plan is not to be another kicker in the NFL, I really want to be great.”
Blocking tight end. That’s the area that will likely determine how much rookie Jake Ferguson plays on offense this season.
“We need it,” McCarthy said. “The play style that we’ve established here, he definitely fits into that.”
Ferguson, a fourth-round pick, is expected to compete for playing time as the team’s No. 2 tight end, behind Dalton Schultz, with Sean McKeon and Jeremy Sprinkle.
“Going to Wisconsin, that’s first, second, pretty much third down, we’re blocking,” Ferguson said. “If it’s six yards, we think we can get it on the ground. Coming into college, I didn’t really pride myself on blocking. I didn’t want to be a guy who was in the trenches a lot. But finally getting through those five years at Wisconsin, that’s something that I love doing. That’s all it is, it’s a mindset in the trenches.”
Jake Ferguson (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
Matt Waletzko. McCarthy says their first of four fifth-round picks reminds him of John Alt, a two-time Pro Bowler with the Kansas City Chiefs in the early 1990s. Alt, a first-round pick in 1984, was 6-8, 300 pounds. Waletzko, who is listed on the roster at 6-8, 312, was working at left tackle during rookie minicamp. The Cowboys are hopeful that between Waletzko and Josh Ball, they have solid depth at offensive tackle behind Tyron Smith and Terence Steele for the upcoming season.
“Obviously the University of North Dakota, that’s not the SEC, it’s not the Big Ten,” Philbin said while talking about Waletzko. “He’s a competitive guy. He’s 6-7. He’s got long arms. He looks like a big guy. You have some of those athletic traits to work with. He tested well athletically. We’re just happy to have him. He’s got some good traits for a tackle in the National Football League, and now it’s all about developing those qualities as quickly as we can.”
Rookie contracts. The Cowboys have signed six of their nine draft picks, which includes Tyler Smith, Waletzko, CB DaRon Bland, Clark, Ridgeway and LB Devin Harper. The three still left to be signed are Williams, Tolbert and Ferguson.
“It kind of surprised me,” Smith said of his rookie contract getting done, “because I thought I would be signing a little later. But we got that done and we’re onto business now. No restrictions. It’s that time.”
2022 schedule. Despite opening with the Buccaneers and Bengals, teams that have played in the last two Super Bowls, McCarthy was pleased to see that Dallas’ first two games are at home. He also liked that the Cowboys aren’t playing the following Thursday after their Thanksgiving Day game. But he was hoping his return to Green Bay would be a little earlier in the year with maybe some warmer weather.
“I like the structure of it,” he said. “We know that we’re always going to have the national games and our travel is going to be a challenge. I have no idea where we’re ranked but I’m sure we’re in the top 10 as far as the travel and the night games. The travel part of it is always a challenge, but this is Year 3, so I feel like I have a handle on that. Going back to Green Bay, that’ll be fun. I was hoping for October or September but November will be fine.”
Ezekiel Elliott update. The team’s starting running back watched the beginning of rookie minicamp on the practice fields Friday. McCarthy was asked after practice if Elliott is 100 percent recovered from the partially-torn PCL injury in his right knee that he played through last season.
“I would hope so,” McCarthy said. “I was looking at the GPS (statistics) yesterday of the workouts on Tuesday. I mean, 22 miles an hour in May is pretty damn good. So yeah, he looks great.”
Kelvin Joseph update. McCarthy was also asked for an update on cornerback Kelvin Joseph, who was at The Star on Friday. Joseph was a passenger in a vehicle from which gunshots were fired that killed a man in March, but he was not the shooter, according to his attorney. Two men have been arrested.
“I do not have an update on that situation, and I understand the concern,” McCarthy said. “I just want you to know that when the situation occurred, we had a lot of internal conversation that was really in-depth. And based off the information that we’ve been given, we felt it was important to support him, and he’s been here every day. He’s been having a pretty productive offseason so far.”
By Jon Machota
5h ago
FRISCO, Texas — The Cowboys’ rookie minicamp practices were open to reporters on Friday and Saturday at The Star. This provided opportunities not only to see Dallas’ nine draft picks for the first time but also all of their undrafted rookie free agents and several tryout players.
Coaches and players were on the field for about an hour and a half on Friday and a little over an hour on Saturday.
“We probably went too hard (Friday),” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “The workload capacity, you have to always watch that. They’re excited, the coaches are excited, I thought we probably overdid it with the individual drills. That was part of it.
“We were (about) 17 minutes less (Saturday) than we were (Friday) and we had the 92-degree weather. But I thought the way we broke it up it worked out good. I think they were struggling there at the end. There was some sloppiness. It was expected, not uncommon, but I thought they fought through it very well.”
McCarthy said earlier in his coaching career, there was more on-field work done during rookie minicamp, however, that increased the chances of injury for the rookies when they started working with the veteran players in organized team activities. The Cowboys rookies will begin working with the veterans this week.
“We really split the day between football and the personal transition here to be a Dallas Cowboy,” McCarthy said. “The little things, where they’re going to eat, residence, transportation, all of those things, open up a bank account. Just the basics, take a little time to get right on the front end, so starting Monday when they are acclimating with the veterans they can get into a flow.
“It has served me very well for the last 10 years doing it that way. Their transition has been smoother. And I definitely feel we haven’t had as many injuries, particularly fatigue injuries, in our first week of activity.”
Here are observations and other notable topics gathered during the two days of availability.
First-round pick. Tyler Smith, the 24th overall pick, lined up at left guard both days. It was his first time working at the position since high school. The Cowboys plan to get him snaps at left tackle at some point. Although the players weren’t in full pads, Smith and fifth-round pick DT John Ridgeway had a few good battles during the team period at the end of Friday’s practice.
“I wouldn’t get too caught up on where exactly Tyler is playing,” McCarthy said Friday, “because we’re trying to have as constructive a practice environment as we can as far as how many linemen, so that’s part of the equation and formula. But like I said when he was drafted, he will work both left guard and left tackle. You can see the twitch is something that jumps out at you. I thought he had a really nice day.”
Cowboys offensive line coach Joe Philbin said he thought Smith looked “quick” and “decisive” in his first practice.
“I surprised myself,” Smith said. “You never know how something is going to go on the first day. But going through the steps, going through team (drills), I felt like I had a pretty good period. There’s much more to improve upon and I look forward to doing that in the future.”
More on Tyler Smith’s position. Making the move from left tackle at Tulsa to left guard at rookie minicamp, Smith said he feels like he needs to play lower.
“It’s a more low to the ground position,” he said. “I’m a tall dude, I’m used to playing from the two-point stance. Just working on the small things, like leverage out of the stance. That’s stuff that Coach Philbin and (assistant offensive line coach Jeff) Blasko are stressing, and that’s stuff I really want to improve upon and make sure I solidify in my game.”
Philbin said the offseason work will be about getting a feel for how quickly Smith can adjust to what they are asking of him. The goal is for Smith to be the starting left guard this season, but they’re not going to put him in a starting role unless he’s ready.
“We certainly don’t have a rock solid plan for training camp yet,” Philbin said. “I think we’re going to go one day at a time. I told him when we drafted him that there are 99 steps that you have to take to be ready to play in an NFL game. I thought (Friday) was a good first step and we’ll try to build from there.”
Second-round pick. Sam Williams didn’t start playing football until his senior year of high school. He was a basketball player who turned to football because his coaches wanted him to become more physical on the court. He performed so well on the field that he only received college scholarship offers to play football. Williams said he doesn’t know yet exactly what his role will be, but his speed is likely to at least get him on the field on third downs and other passing situations.
“I think we’d all agree that Sam Williams looks like a guy that was born to play professional football,” McCarthy said. “He has the gifts. He has the physical traits. He had two pass rushes (Friday), I know we’re just in helmets, but he was clean in the backfield. He has that kind of ability. He’s in a great place. He’s obviously in an excellent system that he’ll definitely benefit from. I think he’ll do extremely well early for us.”
“He played a lot of different techniques at Ole Miss,” Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn responded when asked about Williams as a run defender. “Some he was playing inside, what we call a 4-i, a B-gap player, some on the outside. So I would say most of the time I evaluated him on the things that we would ask him to do. And on those things, run, pass, drops, stunts, I go through a checklist of the things that I would ask him to do, and really thought he would fit in well with the defense that we play and the style that we play.”
Third-round pick. Jalen Tolbert has a chance to make the biggest immediate impact of all the Cowboys rookies. Michael Gallup’s knee injury might keep him out multiple games to start the season, Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson are now catching passes for new teams. That means CeeDee Lamb, veteran free-agent signing James Washington and Tolbert should expect to see a lot of opportunities.
Before last season, Tolbert was mostly an outside receiver at South Alabama. But he got significant work in the slot last year so he’s confident in his ability to play all of the receiver spots in the Cowboys offense.
“I’m excited about being able to move around,” he said, “and get matchups with people that probably shouldn’t be guarding me.”
Like Williams, Tolbert didn’t start playing football until high school. He had previously been focused on baseball.
“One of the things he made a big point of in our initial conversation was he’s pretty young at the game of football,” McCarthy said. “He hasn’t played a lot of football. To me, that’s exciting. Using his words, he said, ‘I don’t know how high (my) ceiling is going to be, but I think it’s going to be pretty damn high.’
“I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ You can see it. He’s natural inside. Obviously, he has the ability. Just watching him, (vice president of player personnel) Will McClay and I were talking, he reminds you, just on the first impression as far as his movement traits, he’s somewhere kind of between CeeDee and Cedrick Wilson, his body type. I think it’s a great comparable, and I think it illustrates what we are looking for when you have that type of skill set where you can come in here and have the ability to play inside and outside. I think it’s a real value.”
Punt returner. Lamb and Wilson handled most of the Cowboys’ punt returns the past two seasons. With Wilson gone and Lamb moving into the No. 1 wide receiver spot, there should be opportunities available for Tolbert and others. McCarthy put several players through punt and kick return tracking drills over the weekend.
“It’s something I’ve done in my time in Green Bay, and frankly, I just wanted to see a guy track a ball,” McCarthy said. “We didn’t instruct them on anything. I didn’t want any coaching. I don’t care if the guy has never caught a punt, I just want to see him track a football.
“That’s part of the evaluation. We’ll look at the guys who have done it, and like (executive vice president Stephen Jones) says all the time, and it’s so true, player acquisition never stops. But that’s definitely something we gotta get answered.”
Jalen Tolbert (18) (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
Damone Clark. The fifth-round pick wasn’t allowed to participate in the on-field drills as he continues recovering from the spinal fusion surgery he had in March. Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch had a similar procedure at the end of the 2019 season.
“That’s what made me even more comfortable,” Clark said, “is because I know Leighton had the same injury and Leighton is back on the field playing, and still playing at a really high level. My confidence level is just so high because you have someone like Leighton who had the same, exact injury and he’s back on the field, so why wouldn’t I be back on the field, too?’’
Doctors discovered that Clark needed the procedure to fix a disk issue after he was examined at this year’s scouting combine in Indianapolis. Clark said he never felt any discomfort while playing last season and has never missed a game because of injury. The Cowboys will not rush Clark back too soon, meaning he could miss the entire 2022 season. But the entire NFL knew that was a possibility, which is why Clark was still available with one of the final picks in the fifth round.
“I mean, everything happens for a reason in life,” Clark said. “I’m not mad about it. I’m just happy they found it and Dallas still picked me. I’m happy to be here.”
Latest on kicker. Undrafted rookie free agent Jonathan Garibay is the front-runner to be the team’s kicker this season. The Texas Tech standout will have competition, but he’s in a great spot. Last year’s kicker, Greg Zuerlein, is now with the New York Jets. The Cowboys released Chris Naggar, the only kicker with NFL experience on their roster, on Friday. Garibay said Dallas consistently stayed in contact with him throughout the pre-draft and draft process.
“The Cowboys did a very good job of keeping in touch with me and recruiting me,” Garibay said. “I’m just really happy to be here and give it my best shot. I know the coaches and players expect a lot from me and I expect a lot from myself. I just hope I can help this team accomplish some of its goals.
“My plan is not to be another kicker in the NFL, I really want to be great.”
Blocking tight end. That’s the area that will likely determine how much rookie Jake Ferguson plays on offense this season.
“We need it,” McCarthy said. “The play style that we’ve established here, he definitely fits into that.”
Ferguson, a fourth-round pick, is expected to compete for playing time as the team’s No. 2 tight end, behind Dalton Schultz, with Sean McKeon and Jeremy Sprinkle.
“Going to Wisconsin, that’s first, second, pretty much third down, we’re blocking,” Ferguson said. “If it’s six yards, we think we can get it on the ground. Coming into college, I didn’t really pride myself on blocking. I didn’t want to be a guy who was in the trenches a lot. But finally getting through those five years at Wisconsin, that’s something that I love doing. That’s all it is, it’s a mindset in the trenches.”
Jake Ferguson (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
Matt Waletzko. McCarthy says their first of four fifth-round picks reminds him of John Alt, a two-time Pro Bowler with the Kansas City Chiefs in the early 1990s. Alt, a first-round pick in 1984, was 6-8, 300 pounds. Waletzko, who is listed on the roster at 6-8, 312, was working at left tackle during rookie minicamp. The Cowboys are hopeful that between Waletzko and Josh Ball, they have solid depth at offensive tackle behind Tyron Smith and Terence Steele for the upcoming season.
“Obviously the University of North Dakota, that’s not the SEC, it’s not the Big Ten,” Philbin said while talking about Waletzko. “He’s a competitive guy. He’s 6-7. He’s got long arms. He looks like a big guy. You have some of those athletic traits to work with. He tested well athletically. We’re just happy to have him. He’s got some good traits for a tackle in the National Football League, and now it’s all about developing those qualities as quickly as we can.”
Rookie contracts. The Cowboys have signed six of their nine draft picks, which includes Tyler Smith, Waletzko, CB DaRon Bland, Clark, Ridgeway and LB Devin Harper. The three still left to be signed are Williams, Tolbert and Ferguson.
“It kind of surprised me,” Smith said of his rookie contract getting done, “because I thought I would be signing a little later. But we got that done and we’re onto business now. No restrictions. It’s that time.”
2022 schedule. Despite opening with the Buccaneers and Bengals, teams that have played in the last two Super Bowls, McCarthy was pleased to see that Dallas’ first two games are at home. He also liked that the Cowboys aren’t playing the following Thursday after their Thanksgiving Day game. But he was hoping his return to Green Bay would be a little earlier in the year with maybe some warmer weather.
“I like the structure of it,” he said. “We know that we’re always going to have the national games and our travel is going to be a challenge. I have no idea where we’re ranked but I’m sure we’re in the top 10 as far as the travel and the night games. The travel part of it is always a challenge, but this is Year 3, so I feel like I have a handle on that. Going back to Green Bay, that’ll be fun. I was hoping for October or September but November will be fine.”
Ezekiel Elliott update. The team’s starting running back watched the beginning of rookie minicamp on the practice fields Friday. McCarthy was asked after practice if Elliott is 100 percent recovered from the partially-torn PCL injury in his right knee that he played through last season.
“I would hope so,” McCarthy said. “I was looking at the GPS (statistics) yesterday of the workouts on Tuesday. I mean, 22 miles an hour in May is pretty damn good. So yeah, he looks great.”
Kelvin Joseph update. McCarthy was also asked for an update on cornerback Kelvin Joseph, who was at The Star on Friday. Joseph was a passenger in a vehicle from which gunshots were fired that killed a man in March, but he was not the shooter, according to his attorney. Two men have been arrested.
“I do not have an update on that situation, and I understand the concern,” McCarthy said. “I just want you to know that when the situation occurred, we had a lot of internal conversation that was really in-depth. And based off the information that we’ve been given, we felt it was important to support him, and he’s been here every day. He’s been having a pretty productive offseason so far.”
NoDak
Hotlinking' sonofabitch
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 23,363
Jason Witten in his prime wouldn't really wow anyone athletically either.
Chocolate Lab
Mere Commoner
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2014
- Messages
- 20,560
That's pretty interesting to want to see them do this specifically without coaching.
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 53,400
That's fair, and Witten is an all time great. I think the old school TE like that gets overlooked in today's NFL but they can be special too.
Simpleton
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 17,595
It's not even a real minicamp, let's at least pump the brakes until we see him flash in preseason, which I'm sure he will.
All the nonsense that's coming out right now is basically just fluff and conjecture.
Simpleton
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 17,595
He was a very good athlete in his prime, not elite like a Gates or Gonzalez so he kind of got overlooked, but he ran a 4.65 at 264 20 years ago. If you adjust for all the training, technique and focus that goes into it now you could probably bump that down to at least 4.6 or 4.55.
He wasn't the most graceful after the catch but he could pull away from defenders here and there and certainly wasn't running a 4.8 at the Combine (Ferguson was 15 lbs lighter too).