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By Jon Machota
53m ago
Several NFL teams have already started rookie minicamps. The Cowboys will host theirs this upcoming Friday through Sunday at The Star. Dallas’ nine draft picks and 20 undrafted rookie free agents are all expected to be in attendance.
“When they come in, you want to start evaluating them in our building and in our atmosphere, so that you get a feel for who they are now,” Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay said. “(We’re) seeing how they react to (a professional environment) and then getting out on the field, getting to see them move around and getting a better feel for what they have and what they’re going to add to us.”
To preview rookie minicamp, we’re taking a look at what we have learned about the Cowboys since the draft ended a little over a week ago.
1. Expectations for the offensive line. First-round pick Tyler Smith is going to be given every opportunity to win the starting left guard job. His toughest competition is expected to come from Connor McGovern. The Cowboys are hoping Smith has a future at left tackle, so they believe his transition will be easier if he begins his NFL career playing on the left side of the line.
“I just think his upside is tremendous,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said last week on the PFT PM podcast. “He played at a smaller school there at Tulsa. He only played in 18 games at Tulsa. But we just feel like his skill set really lends to him having an opportunity to be a top, top left tackle at some point. Obviously, we got one of the best in the business for him to learn from in Tyron Smith. … Unfortunately, Tyron has missed some time over the past four or five years, so we obviously have to take a look at that with his age and just the track record of him missing some games year in and year out. But we do feel like one of the reasons that we really wanted (Tyler) was his versatility and the upside to go out and play left tackle versus maybe taking a couple guys who were more center-only type guys.”
In the past, Dallas has looked to veterans to fill its swing tackle role. Some of the recent players include Ty Nsekhe, Cameron Erving and Cameron Fleming. This season is expected to be different with Josh Ball, a fourth-round pick last year, and Matt Waletzko, a fifth-round pick this year, competing for that role. Tyler Biadasz is projected to remain the starting center. His backup will likely come from a competition between Matt Farniok, a seventh-round pick last year, and undrafted rookie free agents Alec Lindstrom (Boston College) and James Empey (BYU).
2. Speaking of center. It doesn’t sound like the Cowboys were as high on Tyler Linderbaum, the consensus top center in this year’s draft class, as other teams and draft experts. Linderbaum was the next pick in the first round after Dallas drafted Smith 24th overall. Had Linderbaum been the Cowboys’ pick, he would’ve been expected to start immediately at center. The problem is that Linderbaum and Biadasz are both unlikely to play guard, so the lack of position flex was a concern.
“Linderbaum is a really, really good player,” McClay said last week on 105.3 The Fan. “I don’t want to discount his ability for anything. But when you look at what you’re trying to build, certain players fit into certain schemes better. That’s why people’s draft boards look different. That’s why people will have, the New England Patriots drafted the guy from UT-Chattanooga (guard Cole Strange) because you see something in that player that fits you better than what outside forces think.
“What is important for us is to be able to move people in the run game and be able to anchor in the pass game. You look at the size, speed and athleticism of the defensive linemen that are coming into this league now, the Philadelphia Eagles drafted a big giant (DT Jordan Davis) that runs a faster (10-yard split) than some receivers. You look at the physical measurements and those things and kind of devise your plan based on that and how you want to play.”
3. The front-runner at kicker? The odds-on favorite has to be Texas Tech’s Jonathan Garibay, who Dallas signed as an undrafted rookie free agent. He was 15 of 16 on field-goal attempts during his senior season and 49 of 50 on extra-point attempts. He was 14 of 14 on attempts within 50 yards. His biggest kick was a 62-yard game-winner against Iowa State that became the longest by an FBS kicker to win a game with less than a minute remaining.
The Cowboys also have Chris Naggar on the roster and they could bring in another free agent for added competition. Naggar went undrafted out of SMU last year. He spent time with the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. He made a 37-yard field goal for the Browns last December and went 1 of 2 on extra points. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Cowboys in February. Cade York (LSU) was the only kicker drafted this year. He went in the fourth round (Pick 124) to the Browns.
4. Who is going to be the fourth safety? The top three are Jayron Kearse, Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson. Damontae Kazee was one of the four last year but he signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. The Cowboys are unlikely to keep more than four safeties on their final roster. Currently, the favorite has to be Israel Mukuamu, a sixth-round pick last year who played in four games (20 defensive snaps, 58 special teams snaps) in 2021. But there should be some interesting competition coming from a trio of undrafted players Dallas added at the position last week: Markquese Bell (Florida A&M), Juanyeh Thomas (Georgia Tech), La’Kendrick Van Zandt (TCU). To read more about Bell and Thomas, both were listed on Dane Brugler’s top undrafted list.
5. Bigger defensive tackles. Mike McCarthy has wanted to get bigger in the middle of the defensive line since becoming Dallas’ head coach two years ago. Last year the Cowboys drafted Quinton Bohanna (6-4, 360) in the sixth round. This year, they drafted John Ridgeway (6-6, 320) in the fifth round.
Neither is expected to do much in pass-rushing situations, but they both will likely rotate in on first and second downs to help stop the run. The Cowboys were middle of the pack last year against the run, allowing 113 yards per game, a significant improvement over the year before when they allowed an NFC-worst 159 yards per game. But the playoff loss to the 49ers was particularly a factor in getting bigger in the middle. Dallas allowed San Francisco to rush for 169 yards. The last time the Cowboys made the playoffs before the 2021 season was in 2018, when they ultimately lost to a Los Angeles Rams team that rushed for 273 yards.
6. Tight end No. 2. Just one year ago Dallas saw an immediate and long-term future with Dalton Schultz and Blake Jarwin as its top two tight ends. Jarwin has since been released for injury reasons. Schultz is currently under the one-year franchise tag. The Cowboys drafted Wisconsin tight end Jake Ferguson in the fourth round. They also added undrafted free agent Peyton Hendershot (Indiana). Others on the roster include Sean McKeon, Jeremy Sprinkle and Ian Bunting. Schultz is the clear No. 1, but the Cowboys need at least one more they can count on. Is Year 1 too early for Ferguson to make a significant impact? The position is a difficult one to make a quick transition from college to pro. That would mean McKeon or Sprinkle as No. 2 on the depth chart. If Dallas isn’t sure it has the right player for that role, this could be an area where it adds a veteran via free agency. Some of the top available names include Eric Ebron, Kyle Rudolph, Jared Cook and Jesse James.
Or maybe the Cowboys will be forced to go with fewer two-tight ends sets. Maybe that means more work with a fullback or two-back sets with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard.
7. Micah Parsons’ future. It’s one thing for the Cowboys to say they want to keep Parsons at linebacker, it’s another to show it with their actions. After losing DE Randy Gregory in free agency, the Cowboys could have drafted Utah LB Devin Lloyd at Pick 24. He went 27th to Jacksonville. That move would have signified that Parsons would be seeing much more edge rushing in his future. The NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year recorded 13 sacks in 16 games. He could certainly be a problem as a full-time right defensive end. But the Cowboys believe his best ball will be played in a similar role as last year, rushing the passer from all over in a much more unpredictable way while also being a tackling and playmaking machine that rarely leaves the field.
Not only did Dallas pass on Lloyd at 24, it then drafted someone to rush off the right side, second-round pick Sam Williams. McClay sees a combination of players when he watches Williams.
“I think you have the speed off the edge that you’ve seen some great pass rushers have and that’s unique,” McClay said. “And then really the newness still to the position and the game is almost like some DeMarcus Ware when you switch positions, and then you have success. Then you talk about the ceiling because of the lack of reps that they’ve taken at the position, you think about the upside. There’s some (DeMarcus Lawrence) in him because he was able to produce pressure from a 4i-alignment (inside shoulder of the offensive tackle) at different times in different ways that he was used. So you see bits and pieces of a couple different guys and then he’s unique from the standpoint of when you turn on the tape, there’s a blur of speed that’s different.”
Sam Williams (Dale Zanine / USA Today)
8. Damone Clark isn’t being ruled out for this season. Entering the draft, most viewed the LSU linebacker as someone who would be redshirting during his first NFL season. Clark had spinal fusion surgery in March. But Stephen Jones said after the draft that there’s a chance that Clark could return late in the 2022 season. If not for the injury, many believe Clark would have been drafted in the second or third round, instead of late in the fifth, where Dallas selected him.
“He was a guy on our board that you graded as a football player, without the injury,” McClay said. “Our job is to grade him as a player, the doctors’ deal is to assign medical risk to him. Grading him as a football player, he stood out as a guy who had all the traits we were looking for and then you got to meet the person and there’s more positives in that.
“As you go through the draft, you see the value you placed on him and then figure out: What is the right time to take that risk and go and get that player based on the information? Everybody had the same information. You’re playing the guessing game and estimating. You know you like the player and then you just want to get the right value for him and the value we got him at, it came at the right time where he was, that line we always use, a ‘blinking light’ to say, ‘Hey, let’s talk about it, let’s discuss it. What are the issues? What’s the long-term deal? And are we comfortable with that as an organization?’
“At the time we picked him, he was there as a really good football player. The prognosis was good, kind of moving forward, and so we felt it was the right time at the time we picked him.”
9. Dak Prescott’s draft help. Cowboys third-round pick WR Jalen Tolbert revealed after he was picked that he had a good feeling about Dallas’ interest when Prescott called him a couple days before the draft. They discussed Tolbert’s strengths and what he could potentially bring to the Cowboys. Prescott made some other pre-draft calls, but Tolbert is the only one that was actually selected by Dallas.
“That’s just something we did this year,” McClay said. “It was just really looking at the importance and the impact that Dak has on the team and on different people from different walks of life. It was just something that I talked to him about, ‘Hey, why don’t you give these guys a call? Talk to Mike (McCarthy), Stephen (Jones) and Jerry (Jones) about it.’ The idea of finding out who these guys are from a different perspective because we are going in, we’re talking to coaches, we’re talking to trainers and all that other stuff about people, and that’s at a level that is different than a player talking to a player. And players know players.
“It’s one of the things I learned way back when. My dad used to say it all the time, players know players. If you trust the player, you trust his commitment and who he is, it’s just a great barometer. You get some information on guys that maybe we wouldn’t have because maybe we weren’t asking the questions or understanding the lingo or whatever in the way that somebody in their peer group does.”
10. Why didn’t the Cowboys draft a running back? Pollard is in the final year of his rookie contract. Based on how Dallas parted ways with Amari Cooper and La’el Collins this offseason, Elliott could be entering his final year with the Cowboys if he doesn’t have a good season. Elliott still has five years left on his six-year, $90 million extension, but there’s a potential out after the 2022 season where the Cowboys would be left with a dead cap hit a little under $12 million. That number would be $30 million if they cut ties with Elliott this offseason. Dallas would prefer that Elliott plays like one of the league’s top backs, the team has postseason success and it continues to have him on the roster. But what if that doesn’t happen? Why not add to the position group in the later rounds this year? Because Dallas could always handle that in next year’s draft. Unlike tight end, running back is a position where rookies have been effective immediately. And this isn’t to say the Cowboys would simply use next year’s first-round pick on a running back. That shouldn’t be the expectation at all. But the second or third round could be a possibility.
“We looked at a couple running backs (in this year’s draft) because Pollard is going to be free next year, (Rico Dowdle) is going to be restricted, Zeke’s making a lot of money,” Stephen Jones said. “All those things come into play. This thing’s fluid, especially as you start to look at two years from now and three years from now.”
53m ago
Several NFL teams have already started rookie minicamps. The Cowboys will host theirs this upcoming Friday through Sunday at The Star. Dallas’ nine draft picks and 20 undrafted rookie free agents are all expected to be in attendance.
“When they come in, you want to start evaluating them in our building and in our atmosphere, so that you get a feel for who they are now,” Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay said. “(We’re) seeing how they react to (a professional environment) and then getting out on the field, getting to see them move around and getting a better feel for what they have and what they’re going to add to us.”
To preview rookie minicamp, we’re taking a look at what we have learned about the Cowboys since the draft ended a little over a week ago.
1. Expectations for the offensive line. First-round pick Tyler Smith is going to be given every opportunity to win the starting left guard job. His toughest competition is expected to come from Connor McGovern. The Cowboys are hoping Smith has a future at left tackle, so they believe his transition will be easier if he begins his NFL career playing on the left side of the line.
“I just think his upside is tremendous,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said last week on the PFT PM podcast. “He played at a smaller school there at Tulsa. He only played in 18 games at Tulsa. But we just feel like his skill set really lends to him having an opportunity to be a top, top left tackle at some point. Obviously, we got one of the best in the business for him to learn from in Tyron Smith. … Unfortunately, Tyron has missed some time over the past four or five years, so we obviously have to take a look at that with his age and just the track record of him missing some games year in and year out. But we do feel like one of the reasons that we really wanted (Tyler) was his versatility and the upside to go out and play left tackle versus maybe taking a couple guys who were more center-only type guys.”
In the past, Dallas has looked to veterans to fill its swing tackle role. Some of the recent players include Ty Nsekhe, Cameron Erving and Cameron Fleming. This season is expected to be different with Josh Ball, a fourth-round pick last year, and Matt Waletzko, a fifth-round pick this year, competing for that role. Tyler Biadasz is projected to remain the starting center. His backup will likely come from a competition between Matt Farniok, a seventh-round pick last year, and undrafted rookie free agents Alec Lindstrom (Boston College) and James Empey (BYU).
2. Speaking of center. It doesn’t sound like the Cowboys were as high on Tyler Linderbaum, the consensus top center in this year’s draft class, as other teams and draft experts. Linderbaum was the next pick in the first round after Dallas drafted Smith 24th overall. Had Linderbaum been the Cowboys’ pick, he would’ve been expected to start immediately at center. The problem is that Linderbaum and Biadasz are both unlikely to play guard, so the lack of position flex was a concern.
“Linderbaum is a really, really good player,” McClay said last week on 105.3 The Fan. “I don’t want to discount his ability for anything. But when you look at what you’re trying to build, certain players fit into certain schemes better. That’s why people’s draft boards look different. That’s why people will have, the New England Patriots drafted the guy from UT-Chattanooga (guard Cole Strange) because you see something in that player that fits you better than what outside forces think.
“What is important for us is to be able to move people in the run game and be able to anchor in the pass game. You look at the size, speed and athleticism of the defensive linemen that are coming into this league now, the Philadelphia Eagles drafted a big giant (DT Jordan Davis) that runs a faster (10-yard split) than some receivers. You look at the physical measurements and those things and kind of devise your plan based on that and how you want to play.”
3. The front-runner at kicker? The odds-on favorite has to be Texas Tech’s Jonathan Garibay, who Dallas signed as an undrafted rookie free agent. He was 15 of 16 on field-goal attempts during his senior season and 49 of 50 on extra-point attempts. He was 14 of 14 on attempts within 50 yards. His biggest kick was a 62-yard game-winner against Iowa State that became the longest by an FBS kicker to win a game with less than a minute remaining.
The Cowboys also have Chris Naggar on the roster and they could bring in another free agent for added competition. Naggar went undrafted out of SMU last year. He spent time with the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. He made a 37-yard field goal for the Browns last December and went 1 of 2 on extra points. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Cowboys in February. Cade York (LSU) was the only kicker drafted this year. He went in the fourth round (Pick 124) to the Browns.
4. Who is going to be the fourth safety? The top three are Jayron Kearse, Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson. Damontae Kazee was one of the four last year but he signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. The Cowboys are unlikely to keep more than four safeties on their final roster. Currently, the favorite has to be Israel Mukuamu, a sixth-round pick last year who played in four games (20 defensive snaps, 58 special teams snaps) in 2021. But there should be some interesting competition coming from a trio of undrafted players Dallas added at the position last week: Markquese Bell (Florida A&M), Juanyeh Thomas (Georgia Tech), La’Kendrick Van Zandt (TCU). To read more about Bell and Thomas, both were listed on Dane Brugler’s top undrafted list.
5. Bigger defensive tackles. Mike McCarthy has wanted to get bigger in the middle of the defensive line since becoming Dallas’ head coach two years ago. Last year the Cowboys drafted Quinton Bohanna (6-4, 360) in the sixth round. This year, they drafted John Ridgeway (6-6, 320) in the fifth round.
Neither is expected to do much in pass-rushing situations, but they both will likely rotate in on first and second downs to help stop the run. The Cowboys were middle of the pack last year against the run, allowing 113 yards per game, a significant improvement over the year before when they allowed an NFC-worst 159 yards per game. But the playoff loss to the 49ers was particularly a factor in getting bigger in the middle. Dallas allowed San Francisco to rush for 169 yards. The last time the Cowboys made the playoffs before the 2021 season was in 2018, when they ultimately lost to a Los Angeles Rams team that rushed for 273 yards.
6. Tight end No. 2. Just one year ago Dallas saw an immediate and long-term future with Dalton Schultz and Blake Jarwin as its top two tight ends. Jarwin has since been released for injury reasons. Schultz is currently under the one-year franchise tag. The Cowboys drafted Wisconsin tight end Jake Ferguson in the fourth round. They also added undrafted free agent Peyton Hendershot (Indiana). Others on the roster include Sean McKeon, Jeremy Sprinkle and Ian Bunting. Schultz is the clear No. 1, but the Cowboys need at least one more they can count on. Is Year 1 too early for Ferguson to make a significant impact? The position is a difficult one to make a quick transition from college to pro. That would mean McKeon or Sprinkle as No. 2 on the depth chart. If Dallas isn’t sure it has the right player for that role, this could be an area where it adds a veteran via free agency. Some of the top available names include Eric Ebron, Kyle Rudolph, Jared Cook and Jesse James.
Or maybe the Cowboys will be forced to go with fewer two-tight ends sets. Maybe that means more work with a fullback or two-back sets with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard.
7. Micah Parsons’ future. It’s one thing for the Cowboys to say they want to keep Parsons at linebacker, it’s another to show it with their actions. After losing DE Randy Gregory in free agency, the Cowboys could have drafted Utah LB Devin Lloyd at Pick 24. He went 27th to Jacksonville. That move would have signified that Parsons would be seeing much more edge rushing in his future. The NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year recorded 13 sacks in 16 games. He could certainly be a problem as a full-time right defensive end. But the Cowboys believe his best ball will be played in a similar role as last year, rushing the passer from all over in a much more unpredictable way while also being a tackling and playmaking machine that rarely leaves the field.
Not only did Dallas pass on Lloyd at 24, it then drafted someone to rush off the right side, second-round pick Sam Williams. McClay sees a combination of players when he watches Williams.
“I think you have the speed off the edge that you’ve seen some great pass rushers have and that’s unique,” McClay said. “And then really the newness still to the position and the game is almost like some DeMarcus Ware when you switch positions, and then you have success. Then you talk about the ceiling because of the lack of reps that they’ve taken at the position, you think about the upside. There’s some (DeMarcus Lawrence) in him because he was able to produce pressure from a 4i-alignment (inside shoulder of the offensive tackle) at different times in different ways that he was used. So you see bits and pieces of a couple different guys and then he’s unique from the standpoint of when you turn on the tape, there’s a blur of speed that’s different.”
Sam Williams (Dale Zanine / USA Today)
8. Damone Clark isn’t being ruled out for this season. Entering the draft, most viewed the LSU linebacker as someone who would be redshirting during his first NFL season. Clark had spinal fusion surgery in March. But Stephen Jones said after the draft that there’s a chance that Clark could return late in the 2022 season. If not for the injury, many believe Clark would have been drafted in the second or third round, instead of late in the fifth, where Dallas selected him.
“He was a guy on our board that you graded as a football player, without the injury,” McClay said. “Our job is to grade him as a player, the doctors’ deal is to assign medical risk to him. Grading him as a football player, he stood out as a guy who had all the traits we were looking for and then you got to meet the person and there’s more positives in that.
“As you go through the draft, you see the value you placed on him and then figure out: What is the right time to take that risk and go and get that player based on the information? Everybody had the same information. You’re playing the guessing game and estimating. You know you like the player and then you just want to get the right value for him and the value we got him at, it came at the right time where he was, that line we always use, a ‘blinking light’ to say, ‘Hey, let’s talk about it, let’s discuss it. What are the issues? What’s the long-term deal? And are we comfortable with that as an organization?’
“At the time we picked him, he was there as a really good football player. The prognosis was good, kind of moving forward, and so we felt it was the right time at the time we picked him.”
9. Dak Prescott’s draft help. Cowboys third-round pick WR Jalen Tolbert revealed after he was picked that he had a good feeling about Dallas’ interest when Prescott called him a couple days before the draft. They discussed Tolbert’s strengths and what he could potentially bring to the Cowboys. Prescott made some other pre-draft calls, but Tolbert is the only one that was actually selected by Dallas.
“That’s just something we did this year,” McClay said. “It was just really looking at the importance and the impact that Dak has on the team and on different people from different walks of life. It was just something that I talked to him about, ‘Hey, why don’t you give these guys a call? Talk to Mike (McCarthy), Stephen (Jones) and Jerry (Jones) about it.’ The idea of finding out who these guys are from a different perspective because we are going in, we’re talking to coaches, we’re talking to trainers and all that other stuff about people, and that’s at a level that is different than a player talking to a player. And players know players.
“It’s one of the things I learned way back when. My dad used to say it all the time, players know players. If you trust the player, you trust his commitment and who he is, it’s just a great barometer. You get some information on guys that maybe we wouldn’t have because maybe we weren’t asking the questions or understanding the lingo or whatever in the way that somebody in their peer group does.”
10. Why didn’t the Cowboys draft a running back? Pollard is in the final year of his rookie contract. Based on how Dallas parted ways with Amari Cooper and La’el Collins this offseason, Elliott could be entering his final year with the Cowboys if he doesn’t have a good season. Elliott still has five years left on his six-year, $90 million extension, but there’s a potential out after the 2022 season where the Cowboys would be left with a dead cap hit a little under $12 million. That number would be $30 million if they cut ties with Elliott this offseason. Dallas would prefer that Elliott plays like one of the league’s top backs, the team has postseason success and it continues to have him on the roster. But what if that doesn’t happen? Why not add to the position group in the later rounds this year? Because Dallas could always handle that in next year’s draft. Unlike tight end, running back is a position where rookies have been effective immediately. And this isn’t to say the Cowboys would simply use next year’s first-round pick on a running back. That shouldn’t be the expectation at all. But the second or third round could be a possibility.
“We looked at a couple running backs (in this year’s draft) because Pollard is going to be free next year, (Rico Dowdle) is going to be restricted, Zeke’s making a lot of money,” Stephen Jones said. “All those things come into play. This thing’s fluid, especially as you start to look at two years from now and three years from now.”
