It’s the first full week of camp out in Oxnard for the Dallas Cowboys. Right now, the questions are already up 17-0 over the answers. Sounds awfully similar to the last football game the Cowboys played, doesn’t it?
The good news is, Dallas has a few weeks yet to sort everything out, and maybe close that gap a little before the season kicks off.
They came into camp with some pretty big questions. So far, they’ve only added to the list without taking any away.
To Re-sign, Or Not To Re-sign?
That remains the top question – or questions since it involves three top players – remaining to be answered.
The second week of camp begins with CeeDee Lamb well over a thousand miles, and a few million dollars away.
Then there’s the ongoing saga of Dak Prescott’s contract. With Micah Parson’s contract still to be renegotiated at some point.
At least the latter two are in Oxnard.
Reportedly, the Cowboys made offers to both Lamb and Prescott. The terms were not reported. Whether Dallas came close to Prescott’s $60 million neighborhood remains to be seen.
But so far, all three remain under their existing contracts.
Who Benefits Most?
Sam Williams’ season ended over the weekend. Tearing both the ACL and MCL sealed his fate.
The question arising from that injury is: Who’s the next man up?
Williams was likely to get significant playing time this year. Will the rookie second-round draft pick, Marshawn Kneeland, step up?
Or, does this force Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer to play Parsons more as a defensive end, opening snaps for DeMarvion Overshown or the rookie third-round pick, Marist Liufau?
Another possibility is bringing in a veteran toward the end of camp after teams start making cuts.
Hopefully, the contract situations above are resolved by then. That way, Dallas might have some money to spend on such a move.
Have The Injured Players Recovered?
In Overshown’s case, he is coming off his own knee injury from last year’s preseason.
Trevon Diggs also blew out a knee in practice before a week-four game in Arizona. Have both of them been able to return to playing form?
That’s another big question Zimmer is having to deal with early in the year. He may be wishing he’d stayed at home this season if these things keep popping up around him.
Who Was That Guy?
The Cowboys released defensive back Gareon Conley on Sunday. Conley was a first round pick of the Raiders back in 2017. He also played for the Houston Texans.
Conley was injured during training camp back in 2020 and has been out of the NFL since, until this season.
He played in the UFL this spring before signing with Dallas about a month ago. At the age of 28, Conley informed the Cowboys that he was intending to retire and they released him.
Dallas barely let the man pack his bags and get out of the parking lot before signing his replacement.
The Cowboys signed 27-year-old defensive back, Kemon Hall, shortly after releasing Conley. Hall played for the Chargers in 2021 and 2022. He was on the 49ers practice squad last year and was recently released by San Francisco.
It’s a harsh business, boys, especially when you haven’t been with the team long enough for the coaches to learn your name.
Dallas is likely not done signing defensive backs either, especially if Diggs’ return is delayed.
Bad Offense Or Great Defense?
Again, its training camp, and not even a full week of practice in the books yet, but the offense appears to be having issues.
A lot of video coming out of camp shows a significant number of interceptions thrown by both Prescott and Trey Lance.
Is it an offense plugging some new things in? Maybe even just off to a slow start?
Or, is Zimmer’s defense taking hold that quickly?
Let’s hope it’s the latter and this early display of ball-hawking is a sign of great things to come for the defense.
Maybe Just Take The Sack?
An amusing clip over the weekend, one which I now cannot seem to find (thanks, Uncle Elon), was of Dak Prescott.
During one play, he was “sacked” (time ran out, he wasn’t actually tackled) but he decided to heave the ball into the end zone anyway.
It got picked off for the ultra-rare sack/pick.
As my old high school coach once said to me after an errant pass: “Kid, sometimes ya just got to take a bite out of the football and live to play another down.”
The gridiron gunslingers (yes, I was one of those back in the before times) have a hard time coming to grips with that concept.