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[h=1]Homegrown rookie WR 'focused on mission' for Cowboys roster spot[/h] ByPATRIK WALKER 22 minutes ago
It's an unfortunate reality of the NFL, but not everyone is good enough.
Teams began sorting things out in that regard when voluntary OTAs and minicamp fired up in the spring, but nothing truly reveals the state of roster affairs like training camp and preseason football. When camp begins for the Dallas Cowboys in Oxnard, CA on July 26, it'll mark the first time this offseason players are allowed to make full contact in practice. There were a list of impressive plays made in May and mid-June, yes, but the level of intensity is about to ratchet up monumentally — especially at the wide receiver position for the Cowboys.
That puts undrafted rookie Jalen Guyton in the crosshairs of a roster bubble, even after the release of Allen Hurns, but he tells me he's laser-focused on doing all the little things right.
"I try not to think about the mountain I have before me," he said, speaking from SportsCon in Dallas. "I just think about taking the next step and on everything that I can control, which is working as hard as I can. Going into training camp, where my mindset is at is just putting one foot in front of the other — keep climbing higher, keep going harder every day and just knowing that I gave it max effort. That will allow me to shine.
"...You're not just battling the dudes in your room. You're battling everyone on the team for [a seat on the 53-man roster], you know what I mean? So it's not anybody specific. You're just trying to put your best self on in order to show what you can bring to the team."
Guyton has as good of a shot as anyone in the WR room not named Amari Cooper, Randall Cobb or Michael Gallup, and that bodes well for his chances. The safe bet is the Cowboys will look to carry six WRs to start the season, which means taking an ax to half of the current 12-man count, but they're desperately seeking young guys who can outright blow the lid off of opposing defenses. Guyton has that ability in spades, but to clear, he isn't the only one on the roster who can right now.
This is where training camp will be key for all involved.
There's another undrafted rookie in the ranks who can run toe-to-toe with the speedy Guyton, and that's Jon'vea Johnson, formerly of Toledo.
At their pro day, they ran a 4.35s and a 4.4s 40-yard dash, respectively.
This will be one of the more interesting camp battles, considering although 6-foot-1, 212 lb. Guyton bests 6-foot, 188 lb. Johnson in both height and weight, and is a top-six SPARQ athlete in the 2019 pool of WR prospects — Johnson edges him with foot speed in cone drills and beat out Guyton's broad jump by three inches. Both players were pre-draft visits for the Cowboys, with Guyton being brought in on Dallas Day along with other local talent while Johnson landed one of the coveted Official 30 spots.
Johnson flew out of the gates in OTAs and minicamp, but now's the time for Guyton to make up any perceived ground lost.
Both will also find themselves battling players like Devin Smith and Reggie Davis — who can both scorch the terrain just as readily as anyone — and the team still wants to see what it has in second-year talent Cedrick Wilson, Jr., as well. Wilson was a redshirt in his rookie 2018 season due to a shoulder injury suffered in late summer, but he's now cleared medically to participate fully and will not begin training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.
For Guyton, it's simply about playing being in the moment to the point where the "names fall off of the back of the jerseys".
Additionally, raised just minutes northeast of downtown Dallas before attending North Texas by way of Notre Dame, suiting up for the hometown Cowboys brings a ton of familiarity for the native of Allen, TX. Although it'd be easy to get bright-eyed in such a situation and lose sight of what's at stake, Guyton sounds keyed in on what he's here to do.
"Playing for 'America's Team', it's a really cool thing, and it comes with a lot of expectations," he said. "If you have a good understanding of your job and what you have to get done, I feel like you can filter out everything else and just focus on the mission."
And the mission — as he's chosen to accept it — is to turn heads over the next five weeks.
Given his talent, that's far from impossible.
It's an unfortunate reality of the NFL, but not everyone is good enough.
Teams began sorting things out in that regard when voluntary OTAs and minicamp fired up in the spring, but nothing truly reveals the state of roster affairs like training camp and preseason football. When camp begins for the Dallas Cowboys in Oxnard, CA on July 26, it'll mark the first time this offseason players are allowed to make full contact in practice. There were a list of impressive plays made in May and mid-June, yes, but the level of intensity is about to ratchet up monumentally — especially at the wide receiver position for the Cowboys.
That puts undrafted rookie Jalen Guyton in the crosshairs of a roster bubble, even after the release of Allen Hurns, but he tells me he's laser-focused on doing all the little things right.
"I try not to think about the mountain I have before me," he said, speaking from SportsCon in Dallas. "I just think about taking the next step and on everything that I can control, which is working as hard as I can. Going into training camp, where my mindset is at is just putting one foot in front of the other — keep climbing higher, keep going harder every day and just knowing that I gave it max effort. That will allow me to shine.
"...You're not just battling the dudes in your room. You're battling everyone on the team for [a seat on the 53-man roster], you know what I mean? So it's not anybody specific. You're just trying to put your best self on in order to show what you can bring to the team."
Guyton has as good of a shot as anyone in the WR room not named Amari Cooper, Randall Cobb or Michael Gallup, and that bodes well for his chances. The safe bet is the Cowboys will look to carry six WRs to start the season, which means taking an ax to half of the current 12-man count, but they're desperately seeking young guys who can outright blow the lid off of opposing defenses. Guyton has that ability in spades, but to clear, he isn't the only one on the roster who can right now.
This is where training camp will be key for all involved.
There's another undrafted rookie in the ranks who can run toe-to-toe with the speedy Guyton, and that's Jon'vea Johnson, formerly of Toledo.
At their pro day, they ran a 4.35s and a 4.4s 40-yard dash, respectively.
This will be one of the more interesting camp battles, considering although 6-foot-1, 212 lb. Guyton bests 6-foot, 188 lb. Johnson in both height and weight, and is a top-six SPARQ athlete in the 2019 pool of WR prospects — Johnson edges him with foot speed in cone drills and beat out Guyton's broad jump by three inches. Both players were pre-draft visits for the Cowboys, with Guyton being brought in on Dallas Day along with other local talent while Johnson landed one of the coveted Official 30 spots.
Johnson flew out of the gates in OTAs and minicamp, but now's the time for Guyton to make up any perceived ground lost.
Both will also find themselves battling players like Devin Smith and Reggie Davis — who can both scorch the terrain just as readily as anyone — and the team still wants to see what it has in second-year talent Cedrick Wilson, Jr., as well. Wilson was a redshirt in his rookie 2018 season due to a shoulder injury suffered in late summer, but he's now cleared medically to participate fully and will not begin training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.
For Guyton, it's simply about playing being in the moment to the point where the "names fall off of the back of the jerseys".
Additionally, raised just minutes northeast of downtown Dallas before attending North Texas by way of Notre Dame, suiting up for the hometown Cowboys brings a ton of familiarity for the native of Allen, TX. Although it'd be easy to get bright-eyed in such a situation and lose sight of what's at stake, Guyton sounds keyed in on what he's here to do.
"Playing for 'America's Team', it's a really cool thing, and it comes with a lot of expectations," he said. "If you have a good understanding of your job and what you have to get done, I feel like you can filter out everything else and just focus on the mission."
And the mission — as he's chosen to accept it — is to turn heads over the next five weeks.
Given his talent, that's far from impossible.
