No. 1 WR CeeDee Lamb takes rest day, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones plays to crowd
The Dallas Cowboys officially kicked off training camp Saturday with an opening ceremony before a packed house of 4,300 at the practice fields adjacent to the Residence Inn in Oxnard, Calif.
Fans started lining up before 8 a.m. and city officials refused allow more fans after running out of parking spaces, per the Cowboys.
Owner Jerry Jones presented a $10,000 check from the Cowboys to the city of Oxnard and gave Mayor John Zaragoza a No. 22 jersey to wear while he is watching the team this season.
Jones made no promises or Super Bowl guarantees.
But he lauded the cool conditions as the perfect environment to prepare the Cowboys for the season.
“I look around the rest of the NFL and see where they are practicing and the climate they’re practicing in. I know right there, we’re the team that’s got good sense. We’re here in Oxnard, and we’re getting this team ready in perfect conditions. We are doing it around the support of a generational fan base.”
Observations from Saturday’s Dallas Cowboys training camp practice:
1. No. 1 receiver CeeDee Lamb essentially took the day off in what the Cowboys termed load management. He participated in individual drills but was held out of team drills. Interesting that the third-year receiver, who is actually the second youngest player at his position, was given the day off for load management. It’s more likely that the Cowboys want to look at the other receivers on the roster who are bigger questions.
2. The Cowboys had to like what they saw from the receiver corps, sans Lamb, on Saturday. Quarterback Dak Prescott tossed touchdown passes to tight end Sean McKeon and receiver James Washington. Prescott also had a wide-open touchdown to rookie Jalen Tolbert, but it was ruled incomplete because Tolbert didn’t get both feet down in bounds. It was clearly a rookie mistake that Tolbert will learn from.
The pass to McKeon was a bullet on a slant in tight coverage from Anthony Brown. Washington’s wide-open touchdown came against a scheme bust between cornerback Trevon Diggs and safety Donovan Wilson.
3. The Cowboys finally featured the kickers on the fourth day of practice. It wasn’t a good look for Texas Tech rookie Jonathan Garibay, who made 4 of 8 kicks, including a bad miss. Veteran Lirim Hajrullahu went 7 of 8. The Cowboys are counting on Garibay to win the job.
4. One of the more exciting things about training camp is watching the progress of second-year linebacker Jabril Cox, who saw his rookie season cut short in Week 7 due to a torn ACL. Cox sniffed out a running play to the outside and ran down the ball carrier on the sideline on Saturday, showing the speed and athleticism that has him in prime contention to compete with Leighton Vander Esch as the starter next to Micah Parsons.
“I took it personal to get back healthy and ready for training camp,” Cox said. “The thought process is to make my reads and go. I don’t even think about the leg.”
5. Safety Malik Hooker is also healthy in training camp, compared to last season when he came into camp after his 2020 season was cut short by a torn Achilles’.
“It’s been a journey, man,” Hooker said. “As you said, last year at this time I think they was just bringing me in. I want to say I was nine, 10 months out of Achilles recovery. Just to be here today, fully healthy, being able to go out here and do everything full strength finally without a hiccup this off season, it’s a blessing to me.”
What’s the biggest difference?
“Confidence. Confidence,” Hooker said. “I was confident last year running on it — obviously, as you saw throughout the year, as time ran on. But now it’s a different confidence, because now I know I’m fully healthy, I ain’t got nothing to worry about, no setbacks or nothing like that. So I’m able to go out there and play free-minded and do my job with high expectations.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2022 at 5:32 PM.
