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Cowboys camp: Where Micah Parsons will line up, the kicker situation and more
By Jon Machota
5h ago
FRISCO, Texas — The most notable story coming out of the Cowboys’ rookie minicamp had nothing to do with any of the team’s eight draft picks or the 13 rookie free agents they signed after the draft. No, it was the absence of Mike McCarthy. The Cowboys head coach did not attend the three-day event as he was recovering from a recent back procedure.
He has been taking part in meetings virtually and is expected to return to The Star in time for organized team activities and minicamp. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and special teams coordinator John Fassel each spoke to the entire group of rookies during Saturday’s practice that was open to reporters.
“It’s easy,” Quinn said, “because Mike is always so clear and, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do,’ so we had a real vision for what we wanted to get accomplished over this weekend with these guys. It’s mainly just taking those first steps, and I think Mike would fully agree that let’s not miss one step of their development and see what we have and how we communicate and testing them and seeing where they’re at. And then we’ll begin with Mike and everybody else here this week of merging everybody together. So, if there was a time to miss for him, there’s never a time he would feel comfortable, but we all know we got his back and we’ll get him back soon.”
Quinn also cleared up some confusion about where Micah Parsons will be playing during his third season. The two-time All-Pro is not making a full-time move to defensive end. Parsons recently said he was adding some weight this offseason to hold up better while playing against bigger players on the offensive line.
https://theathletic.com/4511843/2023/05/11/dallas-cowboys-schedule-2023/
Parsons played 374 snaps on the defensive line and 498 at linebacker during his rookie season. Last year, he played 738 snaps on the defensive line and 171 at linebacker. He’ll likely spend the majority of time rushing the passer, but he will still get some work at linebacker.
“He’s a pass-rushing linebacker,” Quinn said. “If you ever need position changes, come to me. What I think he was probably trying to say is, ‘I’m really emphasizing some pass rush into my offseason.’”
New OC
All three coordinators spoke with reporters Saturday. It was the first time Brian Schottenheimer was interviewed at The Star since being hired as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
“Look, the system is not broken,” Schottenheimer said. “They’ve won a lot of games here. Mike (McCarthy) has been around for that. They’ve scored a ton of points. I have a ton of respect for (Kellen Moore, Doug Nussmeier, Skip Peete, Joe Philbin) and those guys. I’ve coached with most of those guys before.”
In terms of his goals for the offense, Schottenheimer specifically mentioned being physical, putting players in position to play fast and making opposing defenses cover the entire field.
“The next thing I want to see, which is where we’re kind of focused now, which is fundamentally sound,” he added. “We’re in the process where we can’t get in pads. We can’t hit. We can’t use helmets. We can throw and catch, but really the magic of what you’re trying to do right now in these next couple weeks leading up through the break is to develop those fundamentals.
“I was taught a long time ago that the biggest difference (between) NFL and college is there is so much parity and there’s not a huge difference in talent. So, the players that end up winning the overall one-on-one battles in a 70-play game is a guy that’s got the better foundation of fundamentals to pull from. If I’m Tyler Smith and I’m going up against a great edge rusher and I’ve got really good, sound fundamentals and there’s 70 opportunities, we expect with those fundamentals he should win his fair share, 40-45 of those, whatever it is, because he’s got that base of fundamentals to pull from.”
Schottenheimer said he’s never been in this situation before where he is the offensive coordinator but the head coach will be calling the plays.
“I’m excited about it,” he said. “There’s no ego on my part. I just want to win. … My job is to help prepare our guys, prepare the staff and be in a position to where we feel we can go out there every week and compete and stack a lot of wins together.”
https://theathletic.com/4514772/2023/05/13/nfl-schedule-release-video-rankings/
Latest on kicker
Tristan Vizcaino is the only kicker on the Cowboys’ roster. He’s going to get some competition, but Fassel and company are still trying to figure out who will be added.
Since going undrafted in 2018, Vizcaino has been on the roster of eight NFL teams. He has made 11 of 12 field goals and 15 of 20 extra points in his career. He most recently kicked for the Arizona Cardinals, making both of his field goal attempts and all three extra points last season.
“Well, we got Tristan on the roster,” Fassel said when asked about kicker. “I think anybody else on Earth who is not on the team right now is under consideration. We don’t want to just bring in a camp leg to just kind of get through camp and save somebody. Anybody we bring in here has got to compete with Tristan and we feel has to be a legitimate possibility of being a starting kicker in the NFL.”
Fassel said they are evaluating kickers from free-agent NFL veterans to the XFL and USFL. He mentioned NFL veterans Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby and Ryan Succop. He also didn’t close the door on a potential return of Brett Maher.
“The good thing for us at the kicker spot is just being patient,” Fassel said, “deciding who that second guy is we’re going to bring in whether it’s now or training camp to compete against Tristan. And that might not be the end of it, either. Like we saw last year, the two guys (Jonathan Garibay and Lirim Hajrullahu) we had at OTAs and training camp weren’t the guy, so I think it’s an ongoing process that we got to make a decision before Week 1.”
By Jon Machota
5h ago
FRISCO, Texas — The most notable story coming out of the Cowboys’ rookie minicamp had nothing to do with any of the team’s eight draft picks or the 13 rookie free agents they signed after the draft. No, it was the absence of Mike McCarthy. The Cowboys head coach did not attend the three-day event as he was recovering from a recent back procedure.
He has been taking part in meetings virtually and is expected to return to The Star in time for organized team activities and minicamp. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and special teams coordinator John Fassel each spoke to the entire group of rookies during Saturday’s practice that was open to reporters.
“It’s easy,” Quinn said, “because Mike is always so clear and, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do,’ so we had a real vision for what we wanted to get accomplished over this weekend with these guys. It’s mainly just taking those first steps, and I think Mike would fully agree that let’s not miss one step of their development and see what we have and how we communicate and testing them and seeing where they’re at. And then we’ll begin with Mike and everybody else here this week of merging everybody together. So, if there was a time to miss for him, there’s never a time he would feel comfortable, but we all know we got his back and we’ll get him back soon.”
Quinn also cleared up some confusion about where Micah Parsons will be playing during his third season. The two-time All-Pro is not making a full-time move to defensive end. Parsons recently said he was adding some weight this offseason to hold up better while playing against bigger players on the offensive line.
https://theathletic.com/4511843/2023/05/11/dallas-cowboys-schedule-2023/
Parsons played 374 snaps on the defensive line and 498 at linebacker during his rookie season. Last year, he played 738 snaps on the defensive line and 171 at linebacker. He’ll likely spend the majority of time rushing the passer, but he will still get some work at linebacker.
“He’s a pass-rushing linebacker,” Quinn said. “If you ever need position changes, come to me. What I think he was probably trying to say is, ‘I’m really emphasizing some pass rush into my offseason.’”
New OC
All three coordinators spoke with reporters Saturday. It was the first time Brian Schottenheimer was interviewed at The Star since being hired as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
“Look, the system is not broken,” Schottenheimer said. “They’ve won a lot of games here. Mike (McCarthy) has been around for that. They’ve scored a ton of points. I have a ton of respect for (Kellen Moore, Doug Nussmeier, Skip Peete, Joe Philbin) and those guys. I’ve coached with most of those guys before.”
In terms of his goals for the offense, Schottenheimer specifically mentioned being physical, putting players in position to play fast and making opposing defenses cover the entire field.
“The next thing I want to see, which is where we’re kind of focused now, which is fundamentally sound,” he added. “We’re in the process where we can’t get in pads. We can’t hit. We can’t use helmets. We can throw and catch, but really the magic of what you’re trying to do right now in these next couple weeks leading up through the break is to develop those fundamentals.
“I was taught a long time ago that the biggest difference (between) NFL and college is there is so much parity and there’s not a huge difference in talent. So, the players that end up winning the overall one-on-one battles in a 70-play game is a guy that’s got the better foundation of fundamentals to pull from. If I’m Tyler Smith and I’m going up against a great edge rusher and I’ve got really good, sound fundamentals and there’s 70 opportunities, we expect with those fundamentals he should win his fair share, 40-45 of those, whatever it is, because he’s got that base of fundamentals to pull from.”
Schottenheimer said he’s never been in this situation before where he is the offensive coordinator but the head coach will be calling the plays.
“I’m excited about it,” he said. “There’s no ego on my part. I just want to win. … My job is to help prepare our guys, prepare the staff and be in a position to where we feel we can go out there every week and compete and stack a lot of wins together.”
https://theathletic.com/4514772/2023/05/13/nfl-schedule-release-video-rankings/
Latest on kicker
Tristan Vizcaino is the only kicker on the Cowboys’ roster. He’s going to get some competition, but Fassel and company are still trying to figure out who will be added.
Since going undrafted in 2018, Vizcaino has been on the roster of eight NFL teams. He has made 11 of 12 field goals and 15 of 20 extra points in his career. He most recently kicked for the Arizona Cardinals, making both of his field goal attempts and all three extra points last season.
“Well, we got Tristan on the roster,” Fassel said when asked about kicker. “I think anybody else on Earth who is not on the team right now is under consideration. We don’t want to just bring in a camp leg to just kind of get through camp and save somebody. Anybody we bring in here has got to compete with Tristan and we feel has to be a legitimate possibility of being a starting kicker in the NFL.”
Fassel said they are evaluating kickers from free-agent NFL veterans to the XFL and USFL. He mentioned NFL veterans Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby and Ryan Succop. He also didn’t close the door on a potential return of Brett Maher.
“The good thing for us at the kicker spot is just being patient,” Fassel said, “deciding who that second guy is we’re going to bring in whether it’s now or training camp to compete against Tristan. And that might not be the end of it, either. Like we saw last year, the two guys (Jonathan Garibay and Lirim Hajrullahu) we had at OTAs and training camp weren’t the guy, so I think it’s an ongoing process that we got to make a decision before Week 1.”
