It’s still just June and things are already getting heated for the Dallas Cowboys. We’ve got the latest from a steamy OTA session, including two players who had to be separated at practice, and news of one veteran who’s now lost for the season. Coach Mike McCarthy says he’s being “smart” regarding the workload with three months to go before the season opener, but one outlet reminds that he’s already fighting for his job.
Elsewhere, the coach weighs in on his missing starting tight end, and he offers guidance to a group of high school assistants on their way up the ladder. The team is nearing a reckoning- for better or worse- for the way they’ve handled their offseason business, and the stats show what fans have said all along: that the Cowboys are singularly faithful (or stubborn) when it comes to the players they pick. All that, plus the latest in the Jerry Jones paternity lawsuit, a look at how Deion Sanders is shaking up the college football landscape, and Jason Garrett is coming to Sunday nights. That’s all ahead in this edition of News and Notes.
McCarthy: Schultz absence strictly “business” :: The Mothership
On Thursday, McCarthy echoed what Dak Prescott said earlier in the week: neither is worried about starting tight end Dalton Schultz skipping this round of voluntary OTAs. “Business is business and I’m in the business of winning football games. We all have contracts. We all have these types of situations that they come about,” McCarthy said. The coach said he and Schultz have not yet discussed whether Schultz plans to return for next week’s mandatory minicamp. “My conversation with him was he was going to miss this week and it was to focus on his business situation,” McCarthy said.
Report: Cowboys LB Devante Bond suffered knee injury in earlier OTA, to miss ’22 season :: Cowboys Wire
Though the six-year veteran had yet to play a snap for Dallas, he was expected to bring veteran experience and depth to a young Cowboys linebacking corps. Bond was helped off the field during practice on May 25; it’s been decided he’ll need season-ending surgery.
McCarthy playing smart as OTAs draw to a close :: The Mothership
Things got a little sloppy- chippy, even- in Thursday’s OTA session. Several notable players sat out the day’s work, the remainder sweltered in the Texas heat, and Josh Ball and rookie John Ridgeway even had to be separated after a tussle late in the day. It’s all part of the early summer routine, designed to make sure guys are still healthy for training camp and then, of course, the season. “We are watching reps. We have a number of guys dealing with minor things. Nothing major,” Mike McCarthy said.
State of the 2022 Dallas Cowboys: Mike McCarthy needs to produce a playoff run, or else :: NFL.com
Adam Rank says of Mike McCarthy: “it feels like he’s the safety date of the hottest girl in school who is actually waiting for somebody else to come along.” Between Dan Quinn and Sean Payton, the coach’s seat is already pretty toasty with three months still to go before the season opener. He says to watch out for a big year from Osa Odighizuwa, and he believes reports of Ezekiel Elliott’s demise are premature… but ultimately, it’s going to take more than just a wild-card win to satisfy the fans (and brass) in Dallas.
Offseason full of risks brings Cowboys to precipice of pivotal 2022 campaign :: Cowboys Wire
The Cowboys are attempting a dangerous high-wire act this offseason. Their decision to create holes in the roster by trading, cutting, and not re-signing players was a risk. But the even riskier decision has been to not use free agency to fill those holes, leaving the team to rely on their drafting and development of young talent to improve a team that got manhandled in the first round of the playoffs.
How Deion Sanders is fueling the rise of HBCU football :: SI.com
Sanders knows how a championship organization looks and operates. He played on two Super Bowl winners and in the 1992 World Series, still the only athlete to have played in both championships. Less than two years after taking over a Jackson State program on life support, he led the Tigers to a school-record 11 wins and a conference title. From revamping the players’ on-campus dining hall to flipping the nation’s top recruit, Sanders is creating a seismic shift in college football and suddenly putting the country’s HBCUs in a conversation normally exclusive to the likes of Alabama, Notre Dame, and Ohio State.
Dallas Cowboys reach out to assistant high school coaches to help them rise up the ranks :: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Assistant coaches from 20 North Texas high school football teams descended on The Star on Thursday for a diversity coaching summit, the inaugural edition of what will become an annual event meant to help attendees rise through the high school ranks and increase diversity among the sport’s coaching pool. “It was a great bunch of guys. I enjoyed my time with them. I asked them as many questions as they asked me,” McCarthy said after leading the agenda. “We are all in the position where we can continue to learn.”
We Like the Guys We Have: A look at Cowboys’ homegrown talent recipe :: Cowboys Wire
The Cowboys lead the NFL in one category, anyway. A total of 73.9% of last season’s team snaps were taken by players either drafted or first signed by the organization. That’s much higher than the league average of 61.1% and just goes to support what the fanbase says nearly every year as they mostly sit out free agency signings: nobody likes the guys they already have quite like the Dallas Cowboys.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones asks judge to toss paternity suit against him :: Dallas Morning News
Link (paywall)
The Cowboys owner asked that the case be “dismissed with prejudice,” meaning that the lawsuit cannot be refiled. In the court filing, Jones denies that he is the biological father of 25-year-old Alexandra Davis; if the judge does dismiss the case, Jones would not be subject to genetic paternity testing. Jones argues that Davis breached a previous settlement agreement that she would not publicly claim that Jones is her father.
Former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett to replace Drew Brees on NBC’s NFL pregame show, per report :: USA Today
As speculated previously, the ex-Cowboys coach will replace the Saints great on NBC’s Sunday Night Football pregame show. Brees exited after just one year as a studio and game analyst; Garrett is also in the running to take over Brees’s role in the booth during Notre Dame football broadcasts.
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