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By Jon Machota and Bob Sturm
2h ago
The Dallas Cowboys are about to be back on the field, so Cowboys writers Jon Machota and Bob Sturm are back with another installment of their Cowboys conversations.
The team is scheduled to arrive in Oxnard, Calif., on Monday afternoon for the start of training camp. They will hold their first practice on Wednesday. To get you ready for the start of camp, Machota and Sturm discuss some of the most important topics, like biggest questions and players they’re most eager to watch.
Here’s a transcript of that 15-minute discussion.
Machota: I wanted to start this off by looking at the current state of the team entering camp, and particularly what excites you most at this moment. For me, I’m most intrigued by the team’s defense. I’ve covered the team since 2011 and this is the first time I’m going to camp when the defense might actually be better than the offense. Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs, a second year with Dan Quinn as defensive coordinator, there’s a lot of upside on that side of the ball. Where are you on that?
Sturm: I agree. What gets me fired up is the thought that we’re maybe finally to a point where the key players can be empowered a little bit to take control of the steering wheel more. I guess that’s more of a discussion regarding Dak Prescott. It can certainly revolve around others like DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons and the gang in general. But when I look at Prescott, we never have quite asked of him the Tony Romo questions of let’s say 2011 through 2016. And I realize the fans and the national media like to make everything about the quarterback, but I almost feel like, inside the Cowboys bubble, including us who follow the Cowboys from a media perspective from very close distance, I kind of feel like the last five years have been more of, “Hey, we have a young quarterback, so let’s put a lot of the onus on the coaches to sort of steer these young talents in a certain direction.” And honestly, at a certain point, big-time NFL players have to sort of control their own legacy and their own narrative. I just think to act like Dak needs coaches to help him along, it’s true to a point, but also ridiculous to a point.
Therefore, my general theme entering camp and the season in general, is I need Dak to kind of be my thermostat, not my thermometer. I know I’ve used that tired cliché before, but the thermostat sets the temperature, the thermometer just kind of tells you what the temperature is, and there’s a big difference. I thought last year with the way the season ended, starting maybe with the Denver game, but definitely through Kansas City and Thanksgiving and that mediocre December where they won a lot of games but did not look right. And then of course the Arizona game and the playoff disaster, I thought in all of those Prescott kind of played it safe and played it conservatively. I need him to attack. I need him to set the narrative that this team is going to have an offensive offense, if you will, and not be worried about what can go wrong. That may not be the perfect answer for you, but that’s what I want. I want player empowerment. It’s pretty clear that the coaching staff is on thin ice this year, but let’s not make this about that, let’s make this about the type of players that we think have a chance to be elite here sort of pulling this train in the direction it needs to go.
Machota: That’s an interesting point, which fits into another topic I wanted to discuss. But on the topic of Dak, I agree that this is certainly his time to put the team on his back. He turns 29 this week. He’s clearly in the prime of his career. He’s one of the top 10 quarterbacks in this league. However, the two things that have to factor in are that he’s going to need a lot from some unproven wide receivers in this offense, meaning rookie Jalen Tolbert and former Pittsburgh Steeler James Washington. Those two are who they’re immediately going to be looking to fill some of the roles that Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson had.
The other part is the offensive line is by far the biggest question entering this camp. And if those wide receivers and that offensive line aren’t playing at least decent, that’s going to make things very difficult on Dak. I just don’t see this team consistently beating good teams by mostly throwing to CeeDee Lamb and Dalton Schultz and getting very little from the others until Michael Gallup gets back. Someone — and probably more than one other receiving target — is going to have to emerge. And four of the five starting offensive line spots have their fair share of questions. There are just going to be some other key areas that factor into how good of a season Dak ultimately has.
Sturm: There’s no doubt about it. I would say, though, that last year he made the correct decisions, in terms of X’s and O’s, but not always the right decisions. What I mean by that, and I think you see it really well in that Kurt Warner video cut-up after the playoff game. San Francisco basically baited Prescott into taking hitches all day. And when you take hitches all day, then you’re asking your offense to put together a 14-play drive for a touchdown. I guess what I’m saying from Dak is whether you need to use your legs more, whether you need to make your young wide receivers better by kind of elevating your ask of them and your demands of them almost behind the scenes, at camp, at practice. I’m probably opening up some dangerous vague territory because I’m not trying to make this whole season a target on him, but I do think you and I both since 2016 we’ve been more than willing to blame Scott Linehan, Jason Garrett, Kellen Moore and Mike McCarthy.
At a certain point, I kind of want to think the head of the Dallas Cowboys offense is Dak freaking Prescott. And that is kind of how the NFL works in other places. I think when the offense goes bad in Tampa Bay, we’re not jumping on anybody but Tom Brady. When it goes wrong in Green Bay, it’s certainly going to stop and start with Aaron Rodgers. Dak may not be that quality, but he needs to be the best version of himself because what happened in that San Francisco game, from really the start of the game to the end of the game, was just flat-out garbage across the board. I can sit here and blame Moore and McCarthy all day, and I kind of have, but doggone, if you know your two most explosive players are CeeDee Lamb and Tony Pollard, and you’re the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys with a $160 million deal, then get those two explosive players in the spots you want them and make it happen. Don’t allow Wilson and Schultz to be pretty much your entire game plan.
Cooper got moved because he wasn’t featured enough, and that is on Prescott. To me, if Dak wanted Cooper to stay, then he should have used him properly. But if you’re always going to take the hitch and allow San Francisco to take Cooper completely out of the game then what’s the point of having Amari Cooper? I think this is probably a series of pieces that we’ll explain things with X’s and O’s and film, but that’s my general theme. You’re absolutely right about the offensive line and being excited about the defense, but if Prescott is not going to take the next step at age 29, then it may never happen, and the Cowboys may have wasted a decade hoping and believing it ultimately would.
Machota: We definitely haven’t blamed him for their shortcomings to the level of some of those other quarterbacks, Brady, Rodgers, etc. He gets blame, but not to that level. And there’s no question a huge year for him. And now being over a full season removed from the ankle injury, there shouldn’t be any limitations to his game. We should see the best Dak Prescott we’ve ever seen this season.
I wanted to turn things to some of the biggest question marks entering camp. I had offensive line at No. 1, wide receiver at No. 2 and kicker at No. 3. With the offensive line, no one knows how many games they’ll have a healthy Tyron Smith. Tyler Smith hasn’t played left guard since high school and it might take him a while to get adjusted to the NFL game. Tyler Biadasz showed improvement at times last season, but there are plenty of questions remaining at center. You feel great about Zack Martin at right guard. You probably feel OK with Terence Steele at right tackle, but there isn’t any proven depth at the tackle position. Kicker won’t be an issue if rookie Jonathan Garibay performs well in camp and the preseason, but that’s no guarantee. And the position is just so important with how many of these games come down to a big kick late. Where are your biggest questions?
Jonathan Garibay (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
Sturm: The offensive line thing that makes me a little crazy is that it doesn’t appear Tyler Smith has to even compete for his starting job. How confusing must that be for Connor McGovern, but I suppose that ship has sailed. I would add to your list the defensive end spot opposite DeMarcus Lawrence. Is that Dante Fowler? Is it Sam Williams? Is it Dorance Armstrong? Is it a combination of all of the above? I’d like to see that play out. Certainly, Fowler has really shown at times that he can be special, and other times he has shown that he can not be special. Williams is a very interesting prospect with his own set of baggage. And then they just gave Armstrong money that a year ago I would’ve thought had no chance of happening.
So among those three elements, I think that’s a very interesting position for sure. Of course, the annual do the Cowboys have anything at defensive tackle is fair enough for conversation. The safety position continues to evolve. Now that it looks like the Cowboys are a big nickel by default team with three safeties on the field, how they do things like using Malik Hooker for a full year, seeing if they want to keep Donovan Wilson after this year, and then, of course, Jayron Kearse is basically a regular de facto linebacker. These are all really exciting developments in Year 2 of Dan Quinn. There’s plenty to look at, but if I had to pick one person in training camp, it would probably be Jalen Tolbert that I’m most interested in seeing.
Machota: For me, the three players who immediately came to mind for me were Tolbert, Garibay and Fowler. We saw Tolbert a little bit at the end of minicamp where he was working with the ones. You can see him being a factor on the inside and the outside. There are probably a lot of different things they can do with him, but as a rookie wide receiver, I just wonder how much impact he can make immediately because they need him immediately. Fowler is really interesting to me because I think there’s a lot of potential there. He’s obviously very familiar with Quinn. He had a double-digit sack season three years ago. With all of the attention teams are going to be paying to Parsons and Lawrence, could this be the perfect spot for Fowler to fly under the radar?
I just wanted to add that until Anthony Barr signs with another team, keep the former Minnesota Viking linebacker on your radar. There’s certainly interest from the Cowboys. Maybe they add him while we’re at camp. But, anyway, Fowler is probably No. 1 on my list of players I’m looking forward to watching.
Sturm: I think that’s a very good call — certainly one I can agree with. And another obvious one is Terence Steele. We kind of know what he is, but how is this actually going to work, especially if he’s facing DeMarcus Lawrence for six straight weeks in training camp? He’s no longer a great story for finding a depth tackle. This dude is now your right tackle. And if you just start to look down the list of all the left defensive ends he has to face on the schedule this year, it’s enough to keep you up at night.
Hopefully, his pass protection has taken another step, because I don’t share their super optimistic appraisal of the situation, frankly. It feels to me like their offensive line decisions this offseason are all based on the running game, with Tyler Smith at left guard and Steele at right tackle. Since you and I know this is a passing league, I’m very concerned that they might be digging in the wrong spot again, to use a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” reference that all the kids will love.
Machota: And the best part about training camp in regards to some of those players we just talked about on the offensive and defensive lines is that we finally get to see them go at each other in full pads. It’s just difficult to do a ton of evaluating during OTAs and minicamp when the guys in the trenches aren’t able to fully do the things they’ll be doing on Sundays. And that will be on display in team and individual drills. We’re going to learn a lot more about those guys over the next few weeks. Obviously, there’s a lot more we can talk about, but I think this is a good start.
Sturm: No doubt, and the thing I’m looking forward to most is a glorious part of our country where you can wear long sleeves, maybe even a hoodie, while wearing shorts and flip flops. I’ll see you out there. I can’t wait.
2h ago
The Dallas Cowboys are about to be back on the field, so Cowboys writers Jon Machota and Bob Sturm are back with another installment of their Cowboys conversations.
The team is scheduled to arrive in Oxnard, Calif., on Monday afternoon for the start of training camp. They will hold their first practice on Wednesday. To get you ready for the start of camp, Machota and Sturm discuss some of the most important topics, like biggest questions and players they’re most eager to watch.
Here’s a transcript of that 15-minute discussion.
Machota: I wanted to start this off by looking at the current state of the team entering camp, and particularly what excites you most at this moment. For me, I’m most intrigued by the team’s defense. I’ve covered the team since 2011 and this is the first time I’m going to camp when the defense might actually be better than the offense. Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs, a second year with Dan Quinn as defensive coordinator, there’s a lot of upside on that side of the ball. Where are you on that?
Sturm: I agree. What gets me fired up is the thought that we’re maybe finally to a point where the key players can be empowered a little bit to take control of the steering wheel more. I guess that’s more of a discussion regarding Dak Prescott. It can certainly revolve around others like DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons and the gang in general. But when I look at Prescott, we never have quite asked of him the Tony Romo questions of let’s say 2011 through 2016. And I realize the fans and the national media like to make everything about the quarterback, but I almost feel like, inside the Cowboys bubble, including us who follow the Cowboys from a media perspective from very close distance, I kind of feel like the last five years have been more of, “Hey, we have a young quarterback, so let’s put a lot of the onus on the coaches to sort of steer these young talents in a certain direction.” And honestly, at a certain point, big-time NFL players have to sort of control their own legacy and their own narrative. I just think to act like Dak needs coaches to help him along, it’s true to a point, but also ridiculous to a point.
Therefore, my general theme entering camp and the season in general, is I need Dak to kind of be my thermostat, not my thermometer. I know I’ve used that tired cliché before, but the thermostat sets the temperature, the thermometer just kind of tells you what the temperature is, and there’s a big difference. I thought last year with the way the season ended, starting maybe with the Denver game, but definitely through Kansas City and Thanksgiving and that mediocre December where they won a lot of games but did not look right. And then of course the Arizona game and the playoff disaster, I thought in all of those Prescott kind of played it safe and played it conservatively. I need him to attack. I need him to set the narrative that this team is going to have an offensive offense, if you will, and not be worried about what can go wrong. That may not be the perfect answer for you, but that’s what I want. I want player empowerment. It’s pretty clear that the coaching staff is on thin ice this year, but let’s not make this about that, let’s make this about the type of players that we think have a chance to be elite here sort of pulling this train in the direction it needs to go.
Machota: That’s an interesting point, which fits into another topic I wanted to discuss. But on the topic of Dak, I agree that this is certainly his time to put the team on his back. He turns 29 this week. He’s clearly in the prime of his career. He’s one of the top 10 quarterbacks in this league. However, the two things that have to factor in are that he’s going to need a lot from some unproven wide receivers in this offense, meaning rookie Jalen Tolbert and former Pittsburgh Steeler James Washington. Those two are who they’re immediately going to be looking to fill some of the roles that Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson had.
The other part is the offensive line is by far the biggest question entering this camp. And if those wide receivers and that offensive line aren’t playing at least decent, that’s going to make things very difficult on Dak. I just don’t see this team consistently beating good teams by mostly throwing to CeeDee Lamb and Dalton Schultz and getting very little from the others until Michael Gallup gets back. Someone — and probably more than one other receiving target — is going to have to emerge. And four of the five starting offensive line spots have their fair share of questions. There are just going to be some other key areas that factor into how good of a season Dak ultimately has.
Sturm: There’s no doubt about it. I would say, though, that last year he made the correct decisions, in terms of X’s and O’s, but not always the right decisions. What I mean by that, and I think you see it really well in that Kurt Warner video cut-up after the playoff game. San Francisco basically baited Prescott into taking hitches all day. And when you take hitches all day, then you’re asking your offense to put together a 14-play drive for a touchdown. I guess what I’m saying from Dak is whether you need to use your legs more, whether you need to make your young wide receivers better by kind of elevating your ask of them and your demands of them almost behind the scenes, at camp, at practice. I’m probably opening up some dangerous vague territory because I’m not trying to make this whole season a target on him, but I do think you and I both since 2016 we’ve been more than willing to blame Scott Linehan, Jason Garrett, Kellen Moore and Mike McCarthy.
At a certain point, I kind of want to think the head of the Dallas Cowboys offense is Dak freaking Prescott. And that is kind of how the NFL works in other places. I think when the offense goes bad in Tampa Bay, we’re not jumping on anybody but Tom Brady. When it goes wrong in Green Bay, it’s certainly going to stop and start with Aaron Rodgers. Dak may not be that quality, but he needs to be the best version of himself because what happened in that San Francisco game, from really the start of the game to the end of the game, was just flat-out garbage across the board. I can sit here and blame Moore and McCarthy all day, and I kind of have, but doggone, if you know your two most explosive players are CeeDee Lamb and Tony Pollard, and you’re the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys with a $160 million deal, then get those two explosive players in the spots you want them and make it happen. Don’t allow Wilson and Schultz to be pretty much your entire game plan.
Cooper got moved because he wasn’t featured enough, and that is on Prescott. To me, if Dak wanted Cooper to stay, then he should have used him properly. But if you’re always going to take the hitch and allow San Francisco to take Cooper completely out of the game then what’s the point of having Amari Cooper? I think this is probably a series of pieces that we’ll explain things with X’s and O’s and film, but that’s my general theme. You’re absolutely right about the offensive line and being excited about the defense, but if Prescott is not going to take the next step at age 29, then it may never happen, and the Cowboys may have wasted a decade hoping and believing it ultimately would.
Machota: We definitely haven’t blamed him for their shortcomings to the level of some of those other quarterbacks, Brady, Rodgers, etc. He gets blame, but not to that level. And there’s no question a huge year for him. And now being over a full season removed from the ankle injury, there shouldn’t be any limitations to his game. We should see the best Dak Prescott we’ve ever seen this season.
I wanted to turn things to some of the biggest question marks entering camp. I had offensive line at No. 1, wide receiver at No. 2 and kicker at No. 3. With the offensive line, no one knows how many games they’ll have a healthy Tyron Smith. Tyler Smith hasn’t played left guard since high school and it might take him a while to get adjusted to the NFL game. Tyler Biadasz showed improvement at times last season, but there are plenty of questions remaining at center. You feel great about Zack Martin at right guard. You probably feel OK with Terence Steele at right tackle, but there isn’t any proven depth at the tackle position. Kicker won’t be an issue if rookie Jonathan Garibay performs well in camp and the preseason, but that’s no guarantee. And the position is just so important with how many of these games come down to a big kick late. Where are your biggest questions?
Jonathan Garibay (Tim Heitman / USA Today)
Sturm: The offensive line thing that makes me a little crazy is that it doesn’t appear Tyler Smith has to even compete for his starting job. How confusing must that be for Connor McGovern, but I suppose that ship has sailed. I would add to your list the defensive end spot opposite DeMarcus Lawrence. Is that Dante Fowler? Is it Sam Williams? Is it Dorance Armstrong? Is it a combination of all of the above? I’d like to see that play out. Certainly, Fowler has really shown at times that he can be special, and other times he has shown that he can not be special. Williams is a very interesting prospect with his own set of baggage. And then they just gave Armstrong money that a year ago I would’ve thought had no chance of happening.
So among those three elements, I think that’s a very interesting position for sure. Of course, the annual do the Cowboys have anything at defensive tackle is fair enough for conversation. The safety position continues to evolve. Now that it looks like the Cowboys are a big nickel by default team with three safeties on the field, how they do things like using Malik Hooker for a full year, seeing if they want to keep Donovan Wilson after this year, and then, of course, Jayron Kearse is basically a regular de facto linebacker. These are all really exciting developments in Year 2 of Dan Quinn. There’s plenty to look at, but if I had to pick one person in training camp, it would probably be Jalen Tolbert that I’m most interested in seeing.
Machota: For me, the three players who immediately came to mind for me were Tolbert, Garibay and Fowler. We saw Tolbert a little bit at the end of minicamp where he was working with the ones. You can see him being a factor on the inside and the outside. There are probably a lot of different things they can do with him, but as a rookie wide receiver, I just wonder how much impact he can make immediately because they need him immediately. Fowler is really interesting to me because I think there’s a lot of potential there. He’s obviously very familiar with Quinn. He had a double-digit sack season three years ago. With all of the attention teams are going to be paying to Parsons and Lawrence, could this be the perfect spot for Fowler to fly under the radar?
I just wanted to add that until Anthony Barr signs with another team, keep the former Minnesota Viking linebacker on your radar. There’s certainly interest from the Cowboys. Maybe they add him while we’re at camp. But, anyway, Fowler is probably No. 1 on my list of players I’m looking forward to watching.
Sturm: I think that’s a very good call — certainly one I can agree with. And another obvious one is Terence Steele. We kind of know what he is, but how is this actually going to work, especially if he’s facing DeMarcus Lawrence for six straight weeks in training camp? He’s no longer a great story for finding a depth tackle. This dude is now your right tackle. And if you just start to look down the list of all the left defensive ends he has to face on the schedule this year, it’s enough to keep you up at night.
Hopefully, his pass protection has taken another step, because I don’t share their super optimistic appraisal of the situation, frankly. It feels to me like their offensive line decisions this offseason are all based on the running game, with Tyler Smith at left guard and Steele at right tackle. Since you and I know this is a passing league, I’m very concerned that they might be digging in the wrong spot again, to use a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” reference that all the kids will love.
Machota: And the best part about training camp in regards to some of those players we just talked about on the offensive and defensive lines is that we finally get to see them go at each other in full pads. It’s just difficult to do a ton of evaluating during OTAs and minicamp when the guys in the trenches aren’t able to fully do the things they’ll be doing on Sundays. And that will be on display in team and individual drills. We’re going to learn a lot more about those guys over the next few weeks. Obviously, there’s a lot more we can talk about, but I think this is a good start.
Sturm: No doubt, and the thing I’m looking forward to most is a glorious part of our country where you can wear long sleeves, maybe even a hoodie, while wearing shorts and flip flops. I’ll see you out there. I can’t wait.
