Cowboys Notebook: 'Mock Game' Canceled, Roster Changes & 'Super Bowl Culture' Talk
A high-stakes free throw sparks early vacation in Frisco as the front office overhauls the roster with UFL standouts to fortify a new championship-minded locker room culture.
Video Transcript
How do you get inside Cowboys OTAs?
You come with me, and you come inside the star.
We'll do it now, Fish at Six, driven by Honda Cars of McKinney and Hendrick BMW of McKinney.
Let's go.
Fish Heads in Cowboy Nation, you asked your questions.
I'm giving you the answers.
Here's our top 10 takes on what we saw from practice today.
sh- talked to Shotty, of course, locker room opened later, and, a, a fun Cowboy practice under, partly cloudy skies in Frisco, which was just fine.
you can get much, much more, of course, on Dallas Cowboys at cowboysroundtable.com.
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Fish at Six, and away we go.
Item one, Cowboys edge, Donovan Easy and the cornerback, DaRon Bland, won't be doing much for a while.
they were on the cords over the course of today.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer saying they're gonna take it slow, they're gonna take it easy, they're gonna take it smart with their injury rehab, and indeed, they were with Britt Brown and other trainers over the course of this day.
Cowboy safety, Jaylon Thompson, by the way, did much the same on the resistant cords.
Cowboys do expect Easy, who's recovering from a minor hip thing, who by the way, looked beefed up to me.
I need to check in on his latest weight.
and then Bland with the foot, they do expect them to be fully ready for training camp.
and we're talking about two defensive starters as well.
Item two, Schottenheimer was asked about the Miles Garrett trade, not to mention the A.J.
Brown trade.
Miles Garrett comes from the AFC into the NFC, and is now with the Rams.
Cowboys play them.
A.J.
Brown exits the NFC East, and he goes to the Patriots in the AFC.
That lessens, you would think, the roster talent in Philadelphia, although it might help the locker room.
Quote from Shotty there, "Competitive business.
Everybody's trying to get their roster right.
Eh, each roster's different.
Each roster is unique But we feel like we've had an incredible off-season of additions."
Incredible might be a little bit of a stretch, but we appreciate the enthusiasm.
And you know what?
It's been credible.
we'll give the Cowboys that.
Item three, ding, regarding the Cowboys' own pass rush and what's going on there.
The coach opted to start with giving praise to Easy, and I'm gonna remind you of our exclusive exclusive from the end of last year.
Cowboys coaches did the exit interviews with all the players, and as I told you then, and by the way, you're only gonna know this information if you follow what we do here on the Cowboys Fish Report.
Nobody else knows this except me and you.
A number of Cowboy veterans, unsolicited, said, "Oh, by the way," to their position coach or to the coordinator or to Schottenheimer, whoever, "By the way, that Donovan Easy, we, we got something there."
They weren't asked, "Hey, name, name a rookie who you really liked."
It, it just popped up in conversation a lot.
So that's a good place for Shotty to have started, no doubt.
And then he turned to Rashan Gary, who of course they get in the trade with the Packers.
And Shotty on Gary, he's a grown-ass man, said, "I've been blown away by what he's doing on the field, the professionalism, the leadership."
Now, can he go and get you 10 sacks, a- and do all the other things that don't necessarily show up on the stat sheet that easy way?
Blown away and grown-ass man, that sounds pretty good so far for the newcomer, one of the newest Cowboys, and one of the most important ones, really, in Rashan Gary.
Item five, ding.
Don't let this slip under the radar, and maybe I've made the mistake of taking it for granted 'cause I keep saying, "Tyler Guyton, former first-round pick, young, athletic, it's-- he's just gotta get this done."
And Shotty says, "Well, we're gonna, we're gonna have a, competition starting right now at left tackle."
And he raves about Tyler Guyton's enthusiasm, but he adds that it's Guyton and Nate Thomas competing right now for the job to start at left tackle.
I've seen some people say, you know, "Guyton was good enough," or, "What, what did Nate Thomas do that was any better than Guyton?"
That's not really the point.
They're, they're clearly trying to-- first of all, they're trying to find the best guy at a position.
They're also trying to make sure they're lighting a fire here under, the butt of the first-round pick and anybody else, that wants to make this offensive line as good as it needs to be.
Item Oh, and, and he says, Schottenheimer says of Guyton, "We're gonna make him earn it."
That's a hint.
They, they, they want it to be Guyton.
They want their first-round guy to be the guy, and they're trying to push all the buttons to make that happen.
Item six, ding.
We told you that the Cowboys were gonna have a couple of joint practices over the course of the summer.
We heard that it was gonna be Cowboys at Seattle.
Instead, it looks like it's gonna be Rams and Saints.
That's what the coach said, and then I think it was Nick Harris that suggested we might see the Saints in Oxnard.
Kellen Moore, Alvin Kamara, he's-- still be with the Saints, won't he, in the summer, won't he?
And then, the workout with the Rams at their headquarters in Woodland Hills, down the highway a little bit.
So, that'll add a little juice to training camp with two joint workouts, one with the R- Saints, one with the Rams.
Item seven, ding.
Shotty on his offensive coordinator, Clayton Adams.
Again, Shoddy fired up today, throwing swear words all over the place.
So pardon me and earmuffs for the kids.
Clayton Adams, this guy is absolutely kicking bleep.
So much more comfortable this year.
And he was great last year.
He's reading my mind.
He reads my mind.
He's proven it.
Not only year one, he's proven it again in year two.
So high praise for all things Clayton Adams.
And then item nine.
I'm sorry, item eight.
Ding.
How about Parker?
And we already know Parker's a grinder.
And Schottenheimer prides himself on being that kind of guy.
First in the building, last out of the building.
And he has said a couple times, I get here and Christian Parker's already here.
And I'm trying to be first in the building.
I absolutely love it.
He's a grinder.
We already know about Christian Parker's FBIQ.
That much is, and just his intelligence in general.
And now he's establishing work ethic as well.
And of course, you're trying to install a new system with new guys, with new terminology.
So yeah, CP, get here early and stay late.
Good for you.
Item nine to the workout itself on Thursday.
To my eye, Dak Prescott, very crisp.
Red zone passing drill stuff.
And again, this isn't, defensive backs aren't, not only are they not hitting anybody, they're not necessarily always contesting for the ball and all.
Trying to let the offense do its thing to some degree.
But Dak Prescott, to my eye, looked good there.
P.J.
Locke, I think, grabbed an interception on the goal line.
I think that was number one that grabbed the interception way on the other side of the field.
And then let me say this about Kavante Turpin.
We've been critical of him.
It's an all-pro return man.
But last year, kind of jogging through his returns like he was looking for a space so he could go 100 yards.
The fair catch goof-ups.
He, this was today a bit of a change for him.
He was fielding the ball and he was sprinting.
Sprinting to a spot.
Not as much dancing, much more sprinting, much more decisiveness.
And I think that's a good thing.
We should mention, too, in terms of on-the-field work, coaches talking about C.D.
Lamb, Malachi Lawrence, and Kalen Carson as being three guys who have had a really good week of work.
So nothing shocking about C.D.
Lamb.
Malachi, that'd be nice.
Kalen Carson, good.
Let's have some competition back there as well.
And finally, the final word, item 10, ding.
In what amounts to maybe the highest praise a coach can give to a rookie for sure, and this is where we're talking about FBIQ, you don't want to have to, if you're a teacher, you don't want to have to keep going over the same lesson.
Listen, two plus two is four.
You got it?
Then the next day, how much is two plus two and nobody raises their hand?
You're eating up a lot of time and you're exposing yourself.
Either you're a dopey student or you're a crumb bum of a teacher.
In the case of Caleb Downs, who comes here as the Cowboys premium pick, first round pick, Ohio State, comes here with reputation.
He does all the things you need to do on the field as a tackler and a hitter and a ball hawk, somebody who can play and cover receivers on the boundary, somebody who can play traditional safety, somebody who can play slot corner.
And I keep pushing for the idea of also this is a rookie somebody who could be a team captain.
Whenever his compatriots are ready to go ahead and hand that baton to the kid, they'll hand that baton to the kid.
Not to mention green dot and all the rest.
Here's the final word and it comes from Shoddy on Caleb.
Caleb Downs doesn't ever make the same mistake twice.
That is a time-saving, high-praising, early coronation of the rookie Caleb Downs.
From Inside the Star, with your help, and I certainly do appreciate your support of what we do here and at cowboysroundtable.com.
Fish out.
