Cowboys’ Shavon Revel Jr. sees himself becoming ‘best cornerback in the league’
Last season, Dallas Cowboys cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. wasn’t ever himself.
After tearing his ACL in his senior season at East Carolina, Revel — once thought of as a surefire first-round pick — ended up slipping to the third round where the Cowboys selected him. Still, he had a long recovery ahead.
After rehabbing the knee throughout training camp and the early portions of the season, Revel debuted after the team’s early November bye week and played in the final seven games of the season. However, he said on Wednesday that he didn’t feel like the knee was truly back until OTAs of this offseason.
“I did not feel like myself,” Revel said. “I just had that heart and grit to go out there. If I can still run, I’m going to go play. It’s all about what you can put in for the team.”
Revel doesn’t keep a close eye on what’s said about him outside the facility. Instead, he’s continued to put his focus into how he can improve each day. Knowing that he hasn’t truly been at 100-percent since entering the NFL, that’s all he can control at the end of the day anyway.
“One thing about me, I’m going to ignore the noise,” Revel said. “One thing my dad taught me, if you go out there and play, go out there and play. That’s my opportunity to showcase something on the map.”
As Revel has gotten both legs back under him this offseason, he has kept his mindset calm heading into a pivotal second season in the league. With competition around him in the cornerback room through additions like Cobie Durant and Devin Moore along with a strong offseason from Caelen Carson, Revel knows he will have to fight for his spot.
“I don’t want to do too much overthinking, but my main goal is to obviously be the best player I can be and the best teammate I can be,” he said. “Cleaning up a few things that I had a few errors on last year. I’m taking it slow and just taking it day-by-day.”
“A lot of these things are new to me. I didn’t get a true training camp last year. All of the stuff this year has helped me see my flaws and things I did good and things I need to work on.”
The confidence is clearly high with Revel, but just how good does he think he can be?
“I am going to be, someday, the best cornerback in the league,” he said. “That’s just how I look at it, and I have the confidence to say it. At the end of the day, I got to work.”
