We came so close, fam. The first three days of this year’s training camp in Oxnard could have been a dream. But no. A bunch of Texas lawyers had to go and play nice on Tuesday. That allowed Jerry Jones to arrive on Thursday instead of Saturday.
Seriously, where do I go to begin disbarment proceedings against those mangy varmints?
Seriously — I mean it this time — as far as the players were concerned, it looked like the second day of training camp went well.
We’ll get into Jones’ comments a little later, after we check in on the players.
Will He Stay Or Will He Go?
Dak Prescott looked to be in fine form on Thursday. He hit on some nice passes during practice.
It looks like he and Jalen Tolbert are on the same page early, so that’s a big positive.
Monitoring social media throughout the day did provide one chuckle. Over on X, if you searched for topics involving the Cowboys you got this gem:
Prescott throws to several receivers.
Well, I should hope so. The whole point of practicing is to get some work in for everyone.
Prescott addressed the media and made a bit of a joke, poking some fun at the still absent CeeDee Lamb.
“I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” Prescott reportedly said, per a post by NFL Network’s Jane Slater.
Like Lamb, Prescott is looking for a contract extension. Lamb, however, is not at camp and faces fines for each missed day.
A post by Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, gave some insight on Prescott’s thinking about his future in Dallas.
“I want to be here (but) all the other great quarterbacks played for other teams,” Prescott said.
It seems likely he was talking about the likes of Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning, who all won Super Bowls after joining new teams.
He certainly wasn’t talking about the great Cowboys’ quarterbacks. Don Meredith, Roger Staubach, Danny White, Troy Aikman, and Tony Romo all played their entire careers in Dallas.
Only Craig Morton, who led Dallas to Super Bowl V, went elsewhere. He did get the Broncos to Super Bowl XII.
Morton lost both of those championship games.
Parsons Spotted At Linebacker
There was a clip of Micah Parsons playing outside linebacker.
This would be very good news if this wasn’t a one-off by new Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer.
If it’s a sign of things to come, Parsons might even be tougher for the opposing offense to account for.
At any rate, he was looking good and that’s a good sign for Dallas.
The Guardian Caps
The NFL now requires players at certain positions to wear padded helmets during practice.
They are officially called Guardian Caps.
They are designed to help reduce head injuries. There’s even talk of making them mandatory in actual games.
From a safety standpoint, it’s a great idea.
I have to admit, though, sometimes the helmet throws off the whole head-to-body dimensions of the players out there. I can’t decide if they look like the mushrooms running around in Disney’s 1940 animated film Fantasia, or escapees from a 1970s Holly Hobbie doll factory.
The Washington Commanders are putting covers over the helmets with the logo on them. This at least makes it look more like a football helmet.
Right now, it looks like someone superglued extra-large Legos on the outside of the helmet shell.
The large helmet apparently made a great target for Trey Lance on Thursday as he hit a receiver right on the over-sized headgear. The ball bounced off the shell and into a defender’s hands for an interception.
In Lance’s defense, he was throwing to Deuce Vaughn. A normal-sized receiver has that pass hit him between the numbers. Can we get Vaughn some two-or-three-inch lifts please?
The one other bit of player news involves Trevon Diggs. As expected, Diggs will begin camp on the PUP list. He is expected to get in some work before camp breaks, however.
Okay, now let’s get into Jones’ presser.
He’s Still All-In!
Yes. He actually said it again.
And this, despite a mostly quiet free agency period. He’s still nowhere near re-signing any of his top three players.
With all the questions and drama lingering over this franchise, you’d think Jerry Jones would be concerned. He’s not.
“Nobody’s feeling sorry for themselves,” Jones said. “As a matter of fact, I want to tell you how blessed we are to get (sic) to get up in the morning and have these problems. I wouldn’t take anything for it. I’m emboldened, it puts gas in my tank to basically have these problems.”
Could we put a little gas in the “getting these problems solved” tank?
Jones repeated his all-in refrain during the presser on Thursday, saying he’s still all-in for the upcoming season. That seems hard to swallow, but we’ll see.
When asked about the lack of action, aside from signing middle linebacker Eric Kendricks, Jones was nonchalant.
“I’m more about winning the award for the best way to end the season than I am winning the award for showing up at camp with my house in order,” he said.
One hoped someone in the assembled press corps would have asked him how that approach has been working out the last 28 seasons.
Jones dropped one last gem in regard to the state of the contract negotiations with Prescott. Fair warning: It’s a banger.
After stating he was hopeful to have Prescott around beyond this season, Jones added this:
“Believe it or not, in my life I’ve had a lot of things I wanted that I couldn’t get because I couldn’t afford it,” Jones said. “Now have I learned to live with that in 80-something years? You bet I have, and life does go on.”
That doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence if you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan who wants Dak Prescott to play his 10th NFL season in Dallas.
