Dallas Cowboys get to 80-man limit, cut Kai Forbath; Dak Prescott enters the building
The Dallas Cowboys officially welcomed quarterback Dak Prescott and their veteran players inside the team headquarters on Saturday for the first time after passing the initial rounds of COVID-19 testing.
The team did it down one kicker for training camp after Kai Forbath was released on Saturday as the Cowboys made a number of moves to get to the 80-man roster limit.
Forbath was a long-shot to make the roster anyway, considering the team signed veteran Greg Zuerlein to a three-year, $7.5 million deal in March. Zeurlein has more experience and has a longer track record of success.
He is a favorite of special-teams coach John Fassel from their time together with the Los Angeles Rams.
Forbath — who converted on all 10 of both his field-goal and extra-point attempts in three games for the Cowboys last year after replacing Brett Maher — had hoped to compete for the job in training camp.
But it proved to be an unnecessary luxury the Cowboys couldn’t afford with the NFL narrowing the training camp roster limit from 90 to 80 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cowboys also released LS Joe Fortunato and waived/injured rookie LB Azur Kamara.
They placed DB Saivion Smith on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
It was Prescott’s first time inside the team facility since boycotting the offseason program in a contract dispute and the subsequent COVID-19 NFL shutdown.
The players had to pass three COVID-19 tests before being allowed in the building to join the rookies and first-year players who had done their testing a week earlier.
The first opportunity was Saturday.
The veterans took physicals on Saturday, were issued equipment and did some head shots and video clips for TV networks to use during game broadcasts.
They will do blood-work on Sunday as they continue with physicals and also have the first official team meeting with new coach Mike McCarthy.
The players expected to begin their strength and conditioning workouts on Monday. They won’t practice in pads until Aug. 17.
This story was originally published August 1, 2020 at 5:08 PM.
