Dallas Cowboys News & Analysis | Cowboys Nation: Cowboys Camp Report, Day One: Jerry Goes Postmodern, Jason Goes to Work
Jerry Jones may be the most unusual figure to dabble in the postmodern. His Cowboys Stadium is a peculiar bricolage of the American man cave, the old L.A. Whiskey A Go-Go, complete with dancing cages, and the Roman Coliseum.
Monday afternoon Jerry created another original to his latest Oxnard training camp. The last 30 minutes of the pre-practice countdown were a combination of small-town hokum, where the Oxnard mayor and his staff heralded the Jones -- at the 50 yard line, no less -- as "family" and thanked them for bringing the circus to town. After three cheerleaders sang the national anthem, and Jerry reminded the present of his California roots, "ah was born in El Segun-duh!" Jones paid tribute to the local air base which hosts the team's charter and pointed to the sky, where four sky divers floated to the near field, trailing American and Cowboys flags. All in the name of opening training camp.
Think Hooterville meets Top Gun.
Fortunately for the football faithful, coach Jason Garrett was just as prepared to serve up a football show. He and his assistants led the team through a fast-paged three hour session which immediately showed the difference between an off-marred by a lockout and one helmed by Mike Woicik.
Garrett changed the system by staggering the practice. Last year, some of the key veterans like Tony Romo and Jason Witten, would emerge 15-20 into practice, after the special teams drills had opened the workout. Today, the entire first team took the field 30 minutes or so after the rest of the team had begun. This gave the second and third units plenty of time to scrimmage against one another and get some needed reps for the coaches to study.
Today the special teams work was deferred. The practice began with positional drills. Each group worked on agility drills then group drills with their assistants. The quicker overall pace was immediately evident. New o-line coach Bill Callahan had his guys working one on one, and then three on three at a brisk pace. He split his line into two parts the entire day. He worked with the first and second team center, left guard and left tackle, who drilled against their backups. The assistant line coaches worked with the right side of the line.
I focused much of my attention on this group today, since so many players are new, as is Callahan. His depth chart looked like this today: Callahan spent most of his time with LT Tyron Smith, LG Nate Livings and C Phil Costa. On the right side, backup C Bill Nagy worked with RG David Arkin and RT Doug Free.
In this position drill, the coaches worked the linemen on handling pass stunts, on recognition and on correct switching. This has been a major problem for the team, going back to the Tony Sparano days and Callahan brought all forms of twists and stunts at his guys. If they fail this season, it will not be for lack of preparation.
After 10 minutes, the 2nd and 3rd teams met to go 11-on-11. The packages and formations in this session were pretty basic. Rookie wideout Tim Bedford ended this 10-minutes session by beating his man on a deep post for a score. It would be the first of several impressive plays Bedford made today. He's a player worth watching. I caution against snap assessments, but the Cowboys need a 3rd wideout, and Bedford made a case for himself today.
While the veterans joined the practice, the understudies worked on two special teams drills. First, they broke up the parts of a punt. The interior linemen worked one-on-one on blocking rushers, and then getting up the field to cover the kick. The edge men worked on getting through traffic and chasing down the punter. Each drill ended with the player tackling a dummy at full speed. The coaches want to avoid man-on-man collisions at full speed today, but they do want to get their guys in the practice of hitting and tackling with proper technique.
The team went 11-on-11 again, this time working in starters. Prize rookie Morris Claiborne got the start at right cornerback and it was clear the coaches were going to throw Claiborne into the deep end. It was full immersion. Rob Ryan was aggressive in his defensive calls. He played a lot of single high safety sets, rotating one safety to help a corner. He gave assistance in this drill to new RCB Brandon Carr, however not to Claiborne.
The rookie had mixed results today. He looks like a player from a strong program. His footwork is good, and he can turn and run well. He did not play a very physical game however, and a lot of receivers got off the line fairly easily against him today. Dez Bryant worked him on inside routes, and Dwayne Harris beat Claiborne cleanly on a deep post. Had the throw been accurate, it would have been a long gain for Harris.
Brandon Carr was the opposite at right corner. He was physical when asked to press (he frequently dropped into off-man when called for it). Carr is very accurate with his jam and can re-route or delay his man off the line much better than Claiborne can right now.
The team went back to positional drills and this time Callahan worked his left side on zone blocks and on inside running plays. When the offense went 11 vs. air, shortly thereafter, this time emphasizing running plays, it became clear that this year's running attack won't be that much different from the rushing attack used in all of Garrett's years. It's primarily off-set I, with the F-back flexing into the backfield. The Cowboys use a lot of "dual" looks, which means two tight ends lining on one side of the formation, with one motioning into the backfield to lead block. Most of the time, this was new FB Lawrence Vickers.
The Cowboys ran mostly from their zone sets, inside and outside zone runs, though they ran inside counters and the lead draw. The key appears to get better bulk inside, better execution and more yards.
The team worked twice more full squad, moving to different parts of the field. The offense was good at better today working the perimeter on run plays. DeMarco Murray looked very fast getting to the sidelines on stretch plays and designed cutbacks. Don't worry about his ankle.
The offense made a lot of calls anticipating blitzes. All quarterbacks made throws from 3-step drops and the backs and tight ends got a lot of action. The swing screen was called for DeMarco Murray several times today and proved very effective, especially at beating pressure off the edge.
Notes:
-- Earlier today, I said I was looking for back-and-forth from the veterans. I saw that in the match-ups between Brandon Carr and Dez Bryant. Dez looks much better at running the full route tree this year. He looks much cleaner in his breaks. Carr hit everybody on the jam, and broke up one slant for Bryant, but Bryant also muscled past him a couple of times on inside routes for catches.
Something to watch -- while the offensive linemen were working on one-one-one pass blocking, defensive line coach Brian Baker was schooling his guys on beating a solid two-hand punchout. Baker worked repeatedly on a couple of moves, one a rip of the offensive lineman's outside hand. The other was a move where the d-linemen used both hands to throw his opponent in one direction while stepping across the blocker and hooking his inside foot behind the blockers outside ankle, gaining leverage in the process.
Full pads come on in two days. These moves will be worked out in anger then.
-- The Mike Woicik Effect, part one -- Players looked a lot slimmer today. Nate Livings, who carried a gut in Cincinnati, is a much slimmer Cowboy. The amount of overall body fast on the squad has dropped considerably.
-- Quote of the day: "find your landmark, cross the T, and work through your man with your inside hand." -- Bill Callahan on how he wanted his linemen to block a stretch play.
-- Dez Bryant opened his practice returning punts. It seems Joe DeCamillis wants him to handle this job and Jason Garrett has agreed.
-- Mario Butler was causing some chaos in coverage. He's a physical player and looks like he'll make a strong run for a top-4 cornerback slot.
-- Rookie Matt Johnson ran 2nd team at safety today.
-- Third team QB Rudy Carpenter seemed to have a package that fit his skills. Garrett called several rolling pocket plays for him and he completed several throws on these boot-action calls.
-- The Cowboys used some 4-3 looks in the final 11-on-11 drill, with Dan Connor at middle linebacker, Sean Lee as the strong-side backer and Bruce Carter on the weakside. Before the 4-3 partisans get too excited, this looks like a change-up package. Nearly all of the reps in regular plays were variants of the 3-4.
cant wait i hate the cowboys but im a dez fan
why did we pay that bum scandrick?
