Cowboys, Jerry crack down on discipline but still get it wrong

Even when the Dallas Cowboys try to do something right in terms of player discipline, they somehow get it wrong.

And a team which preaches to players about accountability refused to own up to its own mistakes when they decided to release receiver Lucky Whitehead, who turned out to falsely accused of theft.

The battle between the media and coach Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones was the highlight of Tuesday’s proceedings.

Here are the five biggest takeaways:

1. Coach Jason Garrett conducted the shortest press conference of his tenure after refusing to elaborate beyond a stock answer on repeated questions about the release of Lucky Whitehead. Whitehead was cleared by police in Prince William, Va., on Tuesday after a case of mistaken identity, as Whitehead had said Monday. Garrett wanted to move on. The media didn’t. Garrett asked for football-related questions. None came, and the press conference was ended after roughly three minutes.

2. Owner Jerry Jones followed up Garrett’s testiness with dressing down of the media after practice. Jones said he didn’t have to justify why a player was released. He said he has been criticized for giving players too much rope, now he was being criticized for not standing by a player. Jones grew emotional before walking away.

3. On the football field, quarterback Dak Prescott has looked sharp early with his passes, dropping dimes to receiver Dez Bryant. There doesn’t appear to be any chemistry issues between the two, and this connection could help the offense improve immensely from a year ago.

4. Rookie receiver Ryan Switzer is the main reason Lucky Whitehead is no longer on the Cowboys. The team drafted Switzer to replace Whitehead as the primary punt returner. But Switzer has also looked like a natural at receiver. Behind Bryant and Cole Beasley, no receiver is more exciting to watch catch passes than Switzer. He catches everything. He is quick but also does it effortlessly.

5. A nice moment happened after practice when Dez Bryant made the day for a youngster in the crowd, Joshua Williams of nearby Bellflower, Calif., who celebrated his ninth birthday. Williams got emotional when Bryant signed an autograph for him, which prompted Bryant to bring him on the field and play catch briefly. “It meant a lot to him,” said Joshua’s mother, Jessica.

Quote

“I’m not going to specifically go on about any player, but I am going to say this is business as usual and I really won’t go into my parameters about why a player is here or not. And it can be different than other people in our personnel department, what have you, so I’m not going into any of that. I’m not going to go into anything about Lucky, but I am going to say if you’re going to get wadded up over people coming and going around here, then get ready to stay in an angst, because we’re going to have people coming and going.” — Owner Jerry Jones defending the decision to cut Lucky Whitehead

Injury report

LB Justin Durant (Non-football injury): Day to day.

DT Richard Ash (Physically unable to perform): Day to day.

CB Jourdan Lewis (personal): Expected to join team Wednesday.

This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 9:36 PM with the headline "Cowboys, Jerry crack down on discipline but still get it wrong."