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Cowboys, Let's go. Are you ready for a break?
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Yeah, and so much for that.
It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Monday, August fifth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number thirteen. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break, live from ox Start, California, were presented by LGLG is the world's number one OLED TV brand for eleven years in counting See why at LG dot Com. Forward slash O Ledevo. Welcome back to the show. Everyone. We've got a brand new week here. Cowboys have an off day yesterday, so today they get back out here, they get rolling.
We got a full week of practicing. Quite frankly, the best part about.
It is this is the week.
This is the week I love because from now on till February that will be football. That will be football every single weekend.
So here we go.
Cowboys getting ready for their first preseason game this coming Sunday, they'll play the Rams in Los Angeles. Today, though, we're gonna get into some camp observations, some things you guys have seen from the last couple days of practices. We'll also get to a couple of storylines we want to hit talk about some injured guys. Let's start first with some injury updates. We've got a few names of guys
that have missed practice. I'm just interested just to hear a little bit from you guys on what you've heard about these guys and kind of where they are. Let's start first with Luke school Maker, who popped up with an injury last weekend.
Yeah, injured is growing and that's it's unfortunately, just another injury in the early career of Luke schoon Maker. If you remember when you first got in the building last year, was dealing with a planner fasciitis issue from his time with the University of Michigan. Missed a little bit of time at camp as he rehabbed that and then got back on the field, and then this offseason it's been a hamstring, it's been a shoulder, it's been now a groin. So for Luke Schoonmaker to really find a role in
that tight end room that really suits him. As a compliment to Jake Ferguson, He's just gonna have to be able to stay on the field. The best ability is availability, and unfortunately he's kind of fallen victims to that at times.
Yeah, that's it, And you mentioned the unfortunate part of it. This is a deep tight end room. We've talked about that a bunch, and so the fact that he's standing over there by us does him no good. They have got some really difficult decisions to make on this, this
tight end group. And you know, yeah, he's the second round pick, but there has to be in that personnel trailer when they had their meetings and they talk with Britt Brown and Jim Mauer about injuries, and it's Luke Schoonmaker's name on there, you know, Mike McCarthy's he's having some competitive practices out here to try and figure out
his team. In the fact that Luke Schoonmaker is not part of this, I think it not only hurts him, but I think it hurts the team because they're trying to figure out about these tight ends and can these guys be better point of attack blockers in this running game. Missing that time is bad for everybody involved.
Well, what's unfortunate is that the times that he is healthy and the times that he has been on the field, most often than not, he's doing something really good. Like I've seen him make plays at times where it's like, Okay, that was good. Obviously not perfect every single time, but he has those moments where you just wish he could have a long stretch where he is healthy so he can't reach his full potential. But he hasn't happened yet.
And at this rate, I mean, he might be one of those type of players that he's constantly dealing with something which we know that's never a good thing.
Was that a little bit and I'm thinking about was Dalton Schultz a little bit like that? I just remember when Dalton Schultz started his career, there always was kind of something that you know that we were kind of like, oh, well, Dalton Schultz could do this. If Dalton I mean, I hope he has the career of Dalton Schultz or that, but it took him maybe a year or two years, three years to kind of but they really they don't
have time to but you know, to have it. But if if it's something where he's tight ends or you know, they've come in they haven't had really good health and then all of a sudden, boom, something clicks. Then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, I see he's the availability part. Oh look and bar he's making more plays
out here. So yeah, you're right, and I'm the I'm like the guy that's driving the Luke's schoon Maker band club wagon thing because coming out of Michigan, I thought he was a hell of a football player, you know, and they were. Michigan was physical running the football and Luke schoon Maker was a big part of that. We just unfortunately haven't seen that here.
Yeah, talking about a rookie who was having a good camp that then found himself out of practice. Tyler geet and tell him what's going on with him?
Yeah, dealing with an illness. He missed the weekend practices, so that was Friday and Saturday. Would have to maybe expect to get him back on the field today. But nevertheless, just dealing with an illness. It's allowed Chu Maydoga and Awesome Richards to pick up some reps now. Cheu Maydoga has also also been battling with an injury that's kind of kept him off and then back in.
He looks like that seems to be a little bit of a problem.
Yeah, it looks like a limited type issue. And if you remember at camp last year he dealt with an ankle issue that kind of kept him in and out of camp as well. So it's been really valuable reps for Awesome Richards, the second year, fifth round pick out of North Carolina, And from what I can tell, he's he's done well with those opportunities.
Yeah, okay, Derek, you're gonna ask us all camp's observations. Awesome Richards had an awesome day. Let's go the other day, and you know, and he was thrown into the situation of playing the left tackle spot. It also helps play next to Tyler Smith. Tyler Smith can make you, you know, make you look pretty good over there too. But I'll say this, Awesome Richards, it was one of these guys where you're kind of going into amp thinking about, Okay, swing tackles, who are going to be the guys that
are the swing tackles, maybe playing some guard. Awesome Richards has done that, but at left tackle. In that in that practice, the blue white practice, I'll tell you what. There was some oppressive work with him, you know, and him and Kneelan going after each other, two guys. Kneelan's trying to not find his way. I think he's gone a good path and he was given Awesome Richards all he can handle. But Awesome Richards was giving it right back to him. So it was good work from those two guys.
That's great, all right, Ryan Illinois? Where are we with him?
Man? Practice squad? That's where we're out right now, you know. And and it's unfortunate.
He's at a position that's pretty deep right now.
He's at a position. And the thing about it is, you look at these cowboy wide receivers every day there's somebody that makes a play. It's not just one or two guys. It is they're finding, you know, with Durden and guys like that. You know that, you know, I was talking it was funny. I was talking with with Todd Archer this morning and he goes, what do you know about Burnett? I said, number six? Because yeah, guy's
making place. So that that's the issue that you run into when you're a young guy and you're you're a rookie and you're as good looking of a physical as a player as he looks. You're wanting to see him out there catching balls from you know, from Rush and Lance and even Dak if he gets the opportunity. But standing over there by us kind of looks like a practice squad guy right now because you're not being a part of what's going on on this field right behind us.
Yeah, Ryan Flinoy dealing with an e issue that's been keeping him out since before the pads even came on, so he hasn't had an opportunity to even put the pads on with the team yet. You'd have to hope that he's able to get back on the field this week in time for the preseason games because, yeah, Brian, you mentioned these receivers that are really starting to emerge
here at camp. You also want to mention Tyring, Billy Johnson, and Chilen Cropper, and there's gonna be probably only one or two spots that those four or five guys will be fighting for when it comes to a roster spot. I think the one advantage, obviously the Flinoy would have is the fact that he's a six round pick who, depending on who you talk to, as far as NFL scouts go, he had some hype coming out, would he be able to survive a practice squad a practice squad waving?
And so I think that's probably the one thing you would look at when it comes to Flinoy and maybe the advantage that he has. But I truly think there's not gonna be a sizeable gap between all of these receivers. Man, it's just getting louder as it gets closer.
Hunt, welcome to training camp.
I think the sizeable gap comes in the preseason. That's gonna be really when those reps really do count. The preseason work will be really important at that receiver position. One more name I have for you guys.
When do you, guys expect Trayvon Diggs to get fully integrated into practice where he's being able to do everything. Is that's something that you expect during camp? What do you expect that really? Week one is really what you're targeting.
For the wrestling match, Well, he didn't really find you just let Mike I do whatever. But after that, I mean you would hope anytime soon if you see him getting thrown on the floor, are impiked up by another man who.
I don't think.
Body slammed.
No, but I haven't heard any specific I don't know if you guys.
Have probably has a better perspective of this, I think from my perspective, Yeah, I'm with you, Derek as far as getting him a nice ramp up period, nothing too competitive, maybe until they get back to Frisco, uh, and then work him back on the field in time for week one.
Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. I talking to some people that would uh working in that situation. They they're like, listen, no, hurry here. They're getting really good work from their corners. By the way, that's one of the if you if you said, what are some of the things that you're really excited about training camp? It's what these defensive backs have been able to do and especially got like Carson and you know Scott. I mean, those guys are getting
really good work. But right now I think it's more about uh, they just want to make sure that he's completely ready with the workouts and stuff like that. It looked like some of the videos he sit before camp, Dad, Oh he's back. He's back. And I started talking to people and it was like, we see those videos, but we're still a little bit ways to go. So I think they're gonna be very cautiously optimistic to get him on the field. I think the time when we get back to Frisco would be pretty much.
Where you're at.
And quite frankly, he's not gonna play during the preseason, So just ramp him up as you need to get him ready for a week one is the way I look at it. All Right, we're gonna take our first break when we come back. We're gonna get some practice and notes from you guys.
Brian.
I actually saw an interesting tweet you had yesterday. I'm gonna throw at you. I want you to explain a little bit on what you mean by it. I'm sure in your mind is probably millions of them going through your head because you tweeted it a few times yesterday or over the weekend.
We'll get to when we come back back.
Because the Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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It is a.
Little bit I saw in the middle.
Of Welcome Back.
It is second second Break live from Oxnard, California. And today let's talk a little bit about some let's get some practice updates.
I want to start first.
O'Brien, you had something interesting you said on Twitter that thought about practices.
Here was what you tweeted.
You said, Mick McCarthy setting up practice the way he has is making them more mentally tough.
Uh.
This was a marathon on Saturday. Tell me what you meant by that. Explain that a little bit.
Yeah, you know, when there's been some times in past administrations. You know, I remember the Jason Garrett administration. There were practices where it seemed like it would go on and on and on and on, and you'd get the work and on and you could really get something out of the practice. You can see the mental the toughness the players having to fight through that practice he had on Saturday. It was about thirty minutes too long. Yeah it was long,
you know what. But he tested his team. He tested his young guys there at the end, and I think overall just not this practice with Mike, but we've seen when they go individual, then they turn around, they immediately go into whether maybe it's a mojo moment on the goal line, we're running two point plays. It's competitive. You know.
He's trying to do things nine on seven period where immediately get into the running game one on one, immediately get into that the period they had where they close out, walk out, you know, the goal line period, get the defense points first stop, give the offense of course touchdowns that they score. He's really trying to find ways to get his team more mentally tough and to fight through things.
You know, people will tell you though, with Mike McCarthy, maybe the first several years was Okay, we're gonna kind of go ease in the pract and we're gonna do this, so we're gonna, you know, we're gonna take our time. Every and the players will tell you that Mike McCarthy's a great guy, but for he really cares about us, our bodies and how we're practicing and stuff. But I get a little bit more sense, and maybe it's because
of the situation with everybody overall. It's like, Okay, I've tried it this way, maybe I need to think about it this way. And I'm not saying he's doing the Jimmy Johnson Austin, Oklahoma drills out here, but you are getting competitive practices where there's a lot more competition than what we've seen the last several years from him. I really really like what I'm what I'm seeing as far as the way he's setting up these practices.
But also it's kind of ramping up, like he has to be like, hey, let me just throw you to the deep end of the waters. It's been like a slowly growing progress.
Well, you're seeing like the reason why guys like Awesome Richardson, Thomas the Guard and others and or you could see these guys niel and you see them getting work and see them getting better. Is because in the receivers the time, whoever, guys are getting opportunities to compete. You know, Yes, we have the mock game, which if you want to take a nap is great. You know you could take an
It's it's an easy way to recover. But you're you're able to talk about these guys and write about these guys in a way because you are having more competition at positions. It's like, Okay, if we're going to if we're gonna cut this team, let's know about this team. And I think they're doing a really good job of making these players work through longer practices but also practices that tax them physically more than what we've seen.
In the past. Yeah, it's an emphasis on the youth too, whenever you factor all of that in, just because of the bodies that have been available, the bodies that are here at training camp in general, I think having those opportunities for the young guys on the team, especially going into the preseason, that's gonna be huge.
All Right, we're gonna go down the line.
We want to get some practice observations. Give me a player group moment, something that stood out to you in practice over the last couple practices. Let's start with Unick.
Yeah, I must up in front of the line here, Kayln Carson. As far as the rookie class goes, I would have to say he's been the most impressive so far. You talk about physicality and the entire Yeah, and that's our rookie class. He's been the most impressive as far as you know, factoring in draft value and how he's come in and approached the opportunity that's in front of him. I mean, we're looking up again. It's before the preseason, so there's still some time for some things to shake out.
But he's the c before in my book, behind the three starters. He's a guy that I think could play inside or outside. I think he's a guy that you probably want on the boundary a little bit more just because of his physicality, his ability to step up in the run game on the outside too. But man, I love his physicality. Sometimes a little bit too physical out here.
There was there was a play I think it was on Friday where Dak Prescott was kind of scrambling out and just trying to get out of bounds, and Kaylen had kind of grabbed his shoulder pad a little bit and kind of torked him back a little bit, and Dak looked back at him like, hey, hands off the merchandise, like you know, keep your keep your keep your hands for yourself. And it was kind of a funny moment here on the sideline. But at Kaylin Carson's been great.
Anytime that there's a ball in front of him, he's going to attack it. It doesn't matter who's in front of him. He's done a really good job so far. He's been the most impressive rookie in my eyes right now.
If you had to compare Na Sean Wright to Kaylin Carson, where would you put the two.
Yeah, I think Kaylen moves a lot better. Kaylen is always in the right spot a little bit better. I think with Nashan, it's just a sense of, you know, there's sometimes a little bit too much separation in those short to intermediate routes, and unfortunately that's what you get whenever you do have a corner that has that kind of length in that kind of frame. I mean, he's a six foot four corner, which really works in certain
instances and especially in zone coverage. If this was a zone coverage type defense, it was built to be this man type team, this physical type team, and I think sometimes it just doesn't work to Nashawn Wright's favor. But I have Carson above right. If I was stacking the depth chart right now on August.
Fifth, ye, well, Mine, it's two starters, so everybody knows these. Brandon Cooks is one of them. I think it's worth mentioning him. He's had such a good camp from the moment he got here, same as last year. My only concern is, Okay, are they really gonna utilize him this year more than they did last year. The second guy that I think it's worth mentioning as well, and I've
been wanting to talk about him is Micah Parsons. I mean, he started to ramp things up and just make his presence known on the field, and I wanted to mention this. I know some people are not buying it the whole act, but to me, I like when people. I like to give people the chance to show change and growth and off the field. I think he's starting to make that change where he's growing, He's being more vocal in a nice way. He's portraying and carrying himself as a better teammate,
just more friendly around people. I've seen several interactions just off the field when they you know, family members, starts getting getting on the field. I've seen him have interactions with Stephen Jones where he's just extremely nice and just relatable in a way. And the way he talks on the podium as well. So again, I know attitude has been a topic that we talked a lot about during the off season with Micah Parsons, and I think whether or not it is fake to me, I find some
of those interactions very genuine in my perspective. So right now, it's just a great sign for this moment of the year to head into the season with the Micah Parsons that is just portraying positive energy and also being a badass on the field.
You know, you always ask these questions and I'm never gonna give you the answer you exactly want to hear. Give me Mike Zimmer for the coach. Okay, all right, he's making it hell on these quarterbacks. Yeah, the way that these secondary the linebackers are disguising coverages, the way he's moving Parsons around the way that he's he's making it tough on these quarterbacks. The way the quarterbacks are having to respond. We haven't seen this nothing against dan Quinn.
More static, more stationary. But you don't see the disguise with Mike. You see the disguise you see you see Blitzer's home free on rush lea foul against the Ones. All of a sudden, Mike shows double a gap Leah foul's home bus maybe, but how did he get to the situation where he got lea foul free? By the way he showed, like he made the offensive line have to adjust to something else he was showing, and then he ran a guy home free. Now, my player, Hunter Lipkey has shown a lot in this camp to me
so far. Talk to him if you want to talk about guys and we and we love to talk about the word consistency. You love that word. If you talk about a guy that's had to practice a good practice really every single day. To me, it's Hunter Lipkey. I watched him the other day. There was a scramble drill with Trey lance Ball comes kind of fluttering out there on a you know, Hunter Lipkey's twenty five yards down the field, low adjusting scooping catch off the ground. Next play,
he's coming in motion blocking. Next day, next play they're throwing him the football. They've kind of figured some things out for Hunter Lipkey, and I think the way that they figured things out, if you want to start talking about the running back situation, you could you could kind of throw out that you could kind of just talk about I'm talking about Hunter Lipkey as far as the guy that's shown the most consistency out here and all the things they're asking him to do.
And do you think kind of in the running back situation, you look at the dynamics of that room, Hunter Lippi's kind of on an island by himself. Yes, he's a lead blocker. He does what no other running back in that room can do, I mean, a true fullback role. And I think he's got a safe roster.
Yeah, two minute running back in the game as a blocker and then there's a catcher. You know, those are the types of things that you absolutely they're going to find roles for him, much like it is like with Terpin. You know, let's put him in the backfield, let's throw him the ball, Let's hand him the ball. You know, those are the kinds of things that I really like.
I don't know. I don't know if the starting running back is in this field right now practicing, but I do know they've got a weapon in a full back, h back, whatever tight end, whatever position. They might keep one less tight end knowing what they have with with Hunter Lipky and his ability to play as a wing or maybe even play a little in line for in line next to the tackle there.
Which even gets more interesting when you start thinking about tight end being one of the deepest positions they've got on his team and now you got a guy that might alter that even and say, like that's where we start getting back to that original conversational schoolmaker, like, man,
you gotta get out there. You got to got a way to get out there, because not being out there is a hard thing when you're talking about cutting this team down and knowing that you got a bunch of tight ends that you really love, and you got now a fullback.
That you really love. Hunter.
He got a chance to talk to the media, and great, he did a great job. He everything he said. But I just wanted to say this because you're not welcome to the show. And last week got to make some fun.
Of you Nick.
Talking to the media saying everything. You know, he has a serious face, very professional, and I wish you guys could have seen. I mean, we stopped a few photos, but Nick is just standing there. His face is just like it's like.
You remember Proud Brian both playbourn You remember that, I remember Proud can't Yeah.
Nick did his Proud Brian face, just washing those they don't know happen.
But those don't know.
Nick has been like one of the biggest Hunter lip keeper up, like you've been all over the Hunter lip from the fan club since he got here. And so for you right now, you're just like, yeah, give me more.
On his face, like, oh yeah, let's go.
If you hadn't know what I was thinking when Clayborne walked past me and had that interception that sealed the game, Yeah, in my mind, I go, it's about and time. That's what I was thinking. So it wasn't really Proud, it was I was looking like, bro, it's about time.
All right, you remember gonna do we gonna take our final break when we come back. We're gonna talk about this receiver position you guys have alluded to it. I'm actually gonna ask you at some point in this next segment to rank all of these guys that are in that bunch of guys and go all the way from Tolbert all the way down to guys like Jalen Cropper and David Dartin. We'll talk about that when we come back to This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.
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All right, here's where we go. We got this.
In this final segment, I want to talk about the wide receiver position. I think it is a position that most would consider who have been out here practice to be probably the most the most competitive group from the standpoint of going deep into that roster of guys who were showing and as you said Brian earlier, making plays. Every single day you see different guys stepping up and
making plays. Let's start first with two guys. I think that coming into camp we all were keeping an eye on from the standpoint of who's going to be your third wide receiver. I call it the battle of the Jalens. You got Jalen Tolbert, you got Jalen Brooks. Tell me how you think that's been playing out so far here through the first week and a half of practice.
Yeah, it's kind of funny we were talking about, you know, coming into camp, who could probably be that wide receiver three. There's gonna be a lot more opportunities on the table with Ceedee Lamb holding out and the Jalen's are the first two guys you look at, and I think we look up a week and a half, almost two weeks in the camp, you could say three A and three B. When it comes to those guys, I give the edge to Tolbert just because I think he's been a lot
more consistent. You see the offseason work that he's put in with Dak Prescott translating onto the field. And not to say that Jalen Brooks hasn't been phenomenal too. He's got some of the strongest hands out here for any player. When you put the ball in his vicinity, nine times out of ten he's bringing it down. That's a pretty good clip. And he's been trusted by all three quarterbacks in different parts of two minute drills, mojo moments, goal
line situations. So both of these guys have really stood out, but the edge goes to Tolbert for me, Yeah.
I would say the same thing. I mean, they're very, very close, and I'm a huge fan of Brooks. I've always really liked him since last year. I think he showed moments as well during last year. But it is very close. Jail in Tolbert. I think he's also been getting a lot, like slightly more opportunities than Brooks, so
that gives him an advantage as well. You talk about that off season work that he's done, it's very evident that he's been working and has a really good relationship with Dak Prescott, so I think it's starting to show more on the field. Great job by him for putting in the work. I know we killed him that first year and he wasn't really doing much, Like, oh man, is this one of those buzz type of picks. And he's starting to show a lot of things now. But
here's my thing. When and I'm sure we're gonna go down the line of the other guys in the depth chart here, it's just like every year, I feel like training camp, it is a time where wide receivers do stand out. So how do you start kind of putting some different glasses on to try to filter out the things that you see now, but then you stop seeing later, So to me, I'm still trying to figure that part out.
Yeah, this receiving Corps as a whole has done a really good job of making the front office have to think about how many receivers are they gonna really carry and if it turns into we can't keep them all, then now you turn into surplus. And a lot of times in the league when you start to say, okay, we're short in this position, but we've got surplus at receiver maybe somebody's following us, maybe somebody's watching preseason games and they're saying, Okay, Dallas has got an extra receiver.
That's probably it might be six or seven on their chart, but they could be a four or five on our chart. So that's where, all of a sudden, when you have those competitive periods, that all of a sudden it's like, well, Dallas might have a surplus in this position. You get Lamb back, and the next thing you know, everybody goes down a notch and you got to kind of figure that out. I'll say this about Tolbert, I wasn't sure he had the mental toughness to do this. I really didn't.
I thought that Brooks. Brooks is a mentally tough guy. Tolbert, when you watch him practice, his uniform gets dirty out here. He's diving for balls, he's got dirt stains, grass stains. He's trying his best to be competitive. He's running a lot of routes, he's getting open, he's finishing plays. Those are all things that when we were looking at Tolbert and talking about what can he do, he's showing that
to you right now. I was worried that he wasn't going to be as tough as Brooks when it came to the stomach to have to do this and do the dirty work and able to solidify that spot. But he's done a nice shop so far.
When you look at these receivers. One of the things that I think pops out to me is, and I said, coming into camp, I really wanted the Cowboys to consider Cavante Turpin really filling in a lot more, maybe even being that wide receiver Thie three. I think one of the challenges there is he's really pretty much a slot guy. You're not gonna put him on the boundary very much.
And I wonder you guys tell me, do you think that that's really the reason why he won't necessarily be the guy that gets that many reps from the standpoint of being the third type wide receiver because they really can't move them around n CD Lamb plays very well out of the slot. You can do the same thing with Cooks. It just isn't enough opportunity for him as in the slot.
Yeah, it's crazy that maybe he might be their best running back. You know, when you start to talk about tossing him the ball, handing him the ball there is some explosiveness out of the backfield with him. What's surprising about Turpin is how well he gets open and tight red zee and you're thinking, little guy get lost kind of a thing, but no, he knows how to work the end zone when the quarterback's in trouble. He knows how to move to find space. He's got that awareness.
Do you play him on the outside in the field. Probably not, But you know there's times where he caught a slant the other day from Dak and I was like going, wow, okay on the outside. The shortest receiver you got running an inside slant route with tight coverage comes up with the play. So there's times where he does show that ability to play on the outside. But he'll surprise you with how well he plays in the red zone. I think that's impressive thing that he does as well.
Yeah, I understand the point as far as maybe there is a duplication in the receiving core, as far as what he could do versus maybe what Ceedee Lamb could do. But if you isolate Cavante Turpin speed with the ball in his hands, things are gonna happen. And I think if they can find a way to consistently do that in this offense, then he's gonna find some success. I mean, we saw it points last year in a couple of games.
The San Francisco game really stands out in the first half. Now, while that one drive did not mean a whole lot, that touchdown tribe that did happen in the first half, Cavante Turpin was huge on that drive. Then he ended up scoring on the wheel route. I believe it was on the right side, over the shoulder, tracked in the ball, and then you factor in what he could do out of the backfield. As long as you get the ball in Cavante Turpin's hands, I think things are gonna happen.
Second year, going into Mike McCarthy's offense, it's allowing Turpin to really digest and let this entire offensive system soak in. I think he's gonna have more success than he had last year.
And I love everything that he's been doing so far. And we know he's fast, We've known this, we know he has the speed.
But to me, the.
Difference this right now is that he has grown as far as like anticipation. He can anticipate things so much better. So mentally, what he's seen on the field, I've I've seen that be completely different than last year. Sometimes you would see him running and then he gets lost. It's like, okay, he does a little dance. Would remind me of what was his name, Whitehead Wicky Whitehead?
Wow, I just remember the red dreads at some point.
Anyways, a point I always remember him because he was he was fast, but he would always dance around and at the end of the day, you didn't gain much. He's just running on the same spoty kind of. Anyways, the point is with Cavante, he's he's what his vision has improved so much, and I think he can be a really, really good weapon that the Cowboys can truly start utilizing even more this season.
All Right, So when we look at the depth of the wide receiver position, I think we all probably agree that you got obviously your top two guys in CD and Cooks, You've got Cavante Turpin who will be on this team, and then we all seem to love what we're seeing from Jalen Tobert and Jalen Brooks. The question is, if they're gonna go six.
Who's that final spot.
So I'm gonna give you four names I want you guys to rank these four guys based on what you've seen so far in camp Tyron, Billy Johnson, Deontay Burnett, who just got here but has been very, very very impressive, Jalen Cropper, and David Durden.
I'll start there. I'll just based on what we've seen out here. I'll go Tyron, Billy Johnson, Jalen Cropper, Burnette, and then Durden for me, Billy Johnson, I mean that speed, the veteran experience. You're kind of seeing that translate now.
We were able to talk to him the media after practice on Friday, and he said that this is the first time in his career he's been able to have the same offense two years in a row, and so you see that confidence kind of coming out here, and he's been able to really show that he's been trusted by Dak Cooper, Rush Trey Lance. He didn't have the best Blue and White practice on Saturday, but he's really
been stacking days out here. But at the end of the day, like leg I've said, and like Ambar said earlier, there's always a receiver out here that comes out and shows out will it translates to the preseason field. That's gonna be the biggest thing. I think Jalen Cropper is coming for Tyron. Billy Johnson. I mean, he had two touchdowns and two minute drills on Saturday year in the Blue White practice. In my eyes, I think he had the best practice of any receiver at camp on Saturday.
So he's coming right there. And I love what I've seen from Burnett and Dirten as well.
I was gonna put Cropper ahead mainly because but here's the reason why. The reason to me is like, you're only as good as, in my eyes, as the last thing that you showed. So he's the most recent one that has been making place, and to me, that's that's what stays on your mind. You can easily forget what happened a week ago. So to me, that's why he's in the lead right now at the moment.
Cropper.
Then I would go Billy Johnson. He's shown a lot of good things that I like. I like his speed too, He's a quick guy on his feet. And then I would go with Burnett and then Dirt and those two guys, to me, though they're kind of right there, I don't it's whoever makes the last play, and that's who takes a spot for me. They're they're not that much different from what I've seen so far.
It's not a plug Vanilla Shu guy, but I'll give a plug to Anilla'shue guy. Racy McMath has shown some he's got size, and I know he's not part of the four that we're talking about. I do feel like that Cropper is closer to Billy Johnson to that point where you know if you said, Okay, now the competition, and I mentioned about being in the personnel trailer, and then you look at the tags on the board and you're like, Okay, can we keep six receivers? Can we
afford to do this? This thing might come down to special teams in the preseason, believe it or not. So that's where I kind of like focus sin. But I really do like what I've seen with Cropper and his ability to get open, secure the football and make some plays for you.
The one thing I will point out, and I've already mentioned it a little bit, but I want to I can't stress it enough. One of the things I love that I've seen over the last couple of days from Deontay Burnett is the fact that he's a guy, that he's not a big guy, but what you keep seeing from over and over again, it's it's interesting. You see a play and you'll see a ball get thrown and you'll see the receiver covered and you're like, surely that's gonna be broken up, right, But somehow he comes up
with the ball. It's like everything that gets to him sticks to him, and even in traffic. And again, he's not a big guy. He's a little guy guy, but he has the ability whenever the ball gets thrown his way, if it's within catching radius, he seems to catch it. He seems to come down with it.
And I really like that.
And I think if he would have been here and been doing all of that that he's done in the last couple of days since the beginning of camp, I do think we'd be talking about him a little bit more. And that's why I would say, keep an eye on this guy. If he keeps developing like that, and certainly if he gets into the preseason and does what he's been doing out here, I think that's going to be impressive.
There's only been one guy in this receiver dut Chart, and I'd love for you all to guests here that I have not seen drop a pass while we've been here at training camp. Probably durd d I have seen one. I have seen one from Durden.
It seems like every time they throw him the ball.
He does have some strong hands. Yeah, I have to give it to him because I think a lot of people wrote him off after that injury and it was like, Okay, once he heals up, he'll be out of here. But they've even him another training camp opportunity. He's run with it.
But no, that's that's not the game Cam Johnson.
It's Cam Johnson. It's he has some strong hands. And it's unfortunate because he's this undrafted free agent, came out of a Big ten program that didn't have a lot of offensive production last year, so there's not a lot of buzz around his name. But man, he's got some strong hands. He's got a little bit of a route tree. It's not really downfield, it's more short to intermediate. But he's been really trusted in some situations with the second
and thirteen. That's a guy to keep an eye on in the preseason.
Do you think the Cowboys This is really might be a weird question, but I think the Cowboys are getting more out of CD not being here because all these guys are getting more opportunities, or would you get more if CD was here and being able to create that connection or not create continue that connection he has with that.
I think as a group it with CD not here, Yeah, you're getting it. But I think if CD was here, we'd still see it be a strong group. We'd probably be talking about this group like we talk about the linebackers. No, it's like, boy, it's a good room, you know. Man, These young guys are making place every day. Somebody that we mentioned in this in this segment we just did,
somebody makes a play. It might be one play, it might be two plays, it might be but they they're showing up and the fall off has not been big. Sometimes there's fall off, but not with this group right now.
Yeah, I think uh, I mean, yeah, obviously you're gonna take advantage of those extra reps though you're gonna get without CD being here. But at the same time, I mean it glues the group. He he what do you say coming?
People keep passing it?
Do you guys? Oh my goodness, we keep We thought it was gonna happen this this past week and they still has not. But I think, if anything, him not being here hurts the group more, and I hope they can figure out very quickly because we and Derek, we were talking about it a little bit uh off off the show off, but we tend to see sometimes. To me what I've seen from situations like that, it tends to it's gonna take a few games. And you can
see that at the beginning of the season. Can you afford to have a few games where it kind of takes him a while to get back on track Because one thing is practicing on the field in Dack's backyard and hanging out together. Another thing is a real football game, when the lights come on, when real football is happening, and when you're dealing with so many other variants happening. So anyways, to answer your question, I think it hurts more him not being here.
I was talking about with my amazing roommate here at camp yesterday. It was like, so, if CD like shows up tomorrow, do you think he would be ready in time for the Rams practice on Thursday? And I was like, yeah, probably not. Like whenever he does get here, there's still gonna be a ramp up period, And so this staff is very intentional about whenever guys arrive and they've been away from the team for a little bit, get them back integrated, make it slow so that they're not rushing anything,
both with the process and with their body. So yeah, even if if cdee Lamb did show up today or tomorrow, we're probably not seeing him in full, full pads and full go until probably next week's that's a that's a scenario that's not gonna happen anyway.
Yeah, sorry about that kind of an observation out real quick though. We talk about these guys coming off injuries, are you seeing John Stevens the same way as you saw him last year?
It's it's fascinating because.
I know I haven't. Yeah, he's still there's still positive plays about it, but I don't see the splash or the big plays that and maybe that coming off that knee injury. I mean, that's something we always worry about, you know, how long before these guys. You know, he's fighting for he's fighting for a spot. But man, he was so good this time last year. But I kind of feel like that I've seen him just not as much as I've seen some others.
He's a different player this time because he has the eleven twelve pounds added. Yeah, he's learning how to marry that new size that he has with his ability. Also trying to understand like what where he fits as an inline guy in this offense. I think there's a lot of learning and understanding that he's soaked up in his brain over the course of last year, and now he's trying to apply it all at once on the field. I say, give him a couple of weeks just to kind of apply all that.
I was just worried about that knee injury thing that we always like, oh yeah they're back, Yeah, everything's great, and then it's week six that all, oh wow, he looks like he's ready to play football.
I will say he has suffered from the drops he's out here.
That's he's had that you mentioned catches and drops. That's kind of what I was noticing too.
All right, appreciate you guys. Jonas will be back on I'm sorry on Wednesday. We'll be back on Wednesday. On Wednesday after Nobu, we will be here.
Can you host him? I'm it's not that serious, Derek. You can jump on the show and just ask are.
You saying you're gonna host.
This is what you do?
You want to host. I think it's a good idea. I like to give opportunities.
If you got drunk, you don't even get that, I really do.
All right, But we'll be back Wednesday.
We may be a shell of ourselves, but we'll be back Wednesday. Until the in for Brian Rodus, Amber Garcia and Nick Harris. I'm Derek Eilton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.