The Dallas Cowboys have officially landed in Oxnard, California.
Players like Jayron Kearse already appreciate the calm, breezy 69-degree weather the west coast offers versus the summer swelter Dallas embodies.
The upcoming football season is approaching, and players are preparing to leave a lasting impression.
The competition will and should be at an all-time high with so much at stake.
With the amount of talent the Cowboys have on paper, it is Super Bowl or bust for many fans.
For Dallas, they took a familiar course of action after the NFL Draft to build their roster.
Will McClay and his team worked the phones and made free agent deals to undrafted players.
In some cases, the team doubled down and brought in players with similar skill sets who may have to battle it for the same role.
Such is the case for Princeton Fant and Hunter Luepke. Both players have H-back potential but only one (if that) will be needed.
Hunter Luepke wants to show his versatility in training camp
Let’s be honest.
There is a chance that both Hunter Luepke and Princeton Fant will be on the practice squad when the regular season starts.
However, both players intend on putting their best foot forward in their inaugural training camp.
Luepke is a much more accomplished collegiate player. He rushed for 1663 yards and 24 touchdowns as a runner with North Dakota State.
That is very impressive for a guy who is 6’1″ and 240 lbs. As it stands today, he is the biggest running back on the Cowboys roster.
He also adds value in the passing game, with 39 receptions in his four years as a Bison.
Luepke is sneaky athletic with more plug and play ability than Fant at this point.
With Hunter, I believe you know what you are getting. He has the potential to be a decent complimentary running back with some H-back potential.
There’s nothing wrong with that, and Dallas could use exactly that.
Princeton Fant out of Tennessee has some of the same traits and brings a little more athleticism
What Princeton Fant provides in athleticism, he lacks in running back experience.
That may give the edge to Luepke if there truly is competition between the two.
In his four years in Tennessee, he crossed the goal-line ten times, with five rushing touchdowns.
Fant ran a 4.66 in the 40-yard dash, which isn’t impressive as it stands alone, especially since Hunter ran a 4.56.
However, it’s the reported broad jump that supports the claim of him being a good athlete.
He jumped 10 feet 3 inches and a 35.5 vertical leap.
In some of his film, he is handed the ball in the up-back role a few times (against Alabama) throughout the season.
The added benefit was watching him gallop up the seam and run past linebackers in the SEC. He is a natural pass catcher. That’s his calling card.
Not to mention, he has a pretty decent arm for a non-quarterback.
His biggest knock is his tweener size. At 6’1″, he’s not tall enough to be considered a tight end but he’s also not a natural running back.
Over the next month or so, we will learn a lot about this offense and how coaches will use the resources at their disposal.
If this team does build in concepts that include the H-back role, Dallas already has two options that fit the bill.
