OXNARD, CA – The Dallas Cowboys finished their second practice in pads on Tuesday afternoon. This practice definitely got a little more heated and competitive than yesterday’s practice.
Head Coach Mike McCarthy said after watching film from yesterday’s practice he asked the guys to be more physical and more competitive in today’s drills. The intensity was brought as the players went head to head in 2-minute drills.
“We have the competitiveness but we need to get more disciplined.” Mike McCarthy stated today in the press conference that the competitiveness is there, but they do need to be more disciplined. During the 2-minute drills there were penalties called and penalties were a big issue last year so McCarthy is trying to limit those this season.
The 2-minute drills did shed some light on the wide receiver position now that James Washington is no longer in the mix. Washington got hurt on a play on Monday’s practice that resulted in a fractured right foot. He is going to be out 6-10 weeks and had surgery on that foot on Tuesday morning in Dallas.
With Washington no longer available that stirred questions of the Cowboy’s grabbing another receiver that has seen NFL minutes.
Jerry Jones stated, “There is no urgency to get a veteran receiver on the roster, I’m going to give the young guys a shot.”
McCarthy agreed with him saying that he has always been a believer of developing his receivers. He said that they are not looking for any specific WR to make all the plays this season and he has instructed his QB (Dak Prescott) to throw to the open guy.
The Cowboys currently have two WR that have seen NFL minutes; Ceedee Lamb and Noah Brown. Dallas will be looking at rookie Jalen Tolbert to make an impact early in the season.
Lamb told staff after camp, “The young guys have to step up, they have no choice.”
With WR being not as stacked as everyone would like to see, that could mean Dallas runs the ball more than they have in other seasons. Zeke Elliott and Tony Pollard both have great days in the 2-minute drills. Pollard had two explosive runs where he got 15+ yards on the defense.
We haven’t been able to see much from Kavontae Turpin since he’s been with the Cowboys but today he got to do some special team drills and they had him at punt returner. Turpin is 5 ‘9 and weighs 156 lbs, his size makes it extremely easy for him to get by defenders and he is unbelievably fast.
His assignment is looking more and more like a punt returner as less of a wide receiver. Lamb will sit out on punt return duties this year to take some responsibility off his plate and Turpin will fill in that role. He should be a fun one to watch this upcoming season.
“He’s fast….. As hell.” Ceedee Lamb told us after camp that Turpin and him played against each other in college (Lamb playing at Oklahoma and Turpin at TCU) and that Turpin is extremely fast and he uses that to his advantage.
One thing that is still making everyone uneasy is the problems that we continue to see at kicker day in and day out. Jonathan Garibay and Lirim Hajrullahu are competing for the starting spot and Hajrullahu seems to be the one with the better percentage so far… even though both are still very low.
In MOJO moments today both kickers had the opportunity to kick three times. They combined 1-of-6 and Garibay missed all three of his attempts.
When asked if they were going to be looking for another kicker Jerry Jones said, “Not at this time.”
Camp will resume Wednesday and the Cowboys will be doing a mock game with press to follow.
