OXNARD, Calif. — Martellus Bennett walked into the Dallas Cowboys’ team meeting when he noticed everybody else was already there. They were waiting for him.

"Hey, rook, whenever you get a chance, we’re ready," fellow tight end Jason Witten told him, tongue firmly in cheek.

Two days ago, Bennett practiced in tights.

"Hey, rook, are you a ballerina or a tight end?" Witten asked him.

This is the life for the Texas A&M rookie tight end, who is going through a "Hard Knocks" of his own. Drafted in the second round after the Cowboys traded Anthony Fasano, Bennett has the inside track to back up Witten this season.

Bennett has nearly every advantage to become a premier tight end, including having one of the best in the league as a mentor. But backing up Witten and becoming a version of one of the NFL’s best tight ends are different things.

"I’ve been getting away with a lot of stuff because of my athletic ability. Now I’m getting the fundamental side down," Bennett said. "When I watch Witten and the things he does technique-wise, it makes me even better."

Nick Eatman jumps in and let's us know who our real No. 2 receiver is.

Can Adam Jones and Tank Johnson take us to the mountain top? There are many pundits who say no. I'm glad to see one finally say yes.

Adam Jones and Tank Johnson are doing the right things on the field, but that will only mean something to the Dallas Cowboys if they also continue doing the right things off of it.

Through the early part of training camp, the Cowboys have reason to feel good about providing a second chance to Jones and Johnson.

As long as that feeling doesn't change between now and the end of the season, it is reasonable to say the Cowboys could very well end up looking to the duo with troubled pasts to be key ingredients in a Super Bowl run.

"Anytime you get a second opportunity in this league, you have to really embrace it," Johnson said. "Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboy family took me in and they gave me an opportunity to recreate myself as a good player and reinvent my name in a positive way."

Michael Strahan came to visit training camp. He's a big homer so he picked the Giants as the team to beat in the division. But like Flavor Flav, he knows what time it is.

Dallas beat the Giants in both regular-season games last season, when the Cowboys tied a team record with 13 victories, won the division title and had the NFC's No. 1 seed. New York won three road games in the playoffs, the second came against the Cowboys, en route to the Super Bowl.

When Strahan saw Jerry Jones in Arizona before the Super Bowl, Strahan offered his unsolicited opinion about the Cowboys to the team owner.

"That was the toughest team and the best team in the league that we played," Strahan said, relaying what he told Jones. "After that game, we did feel like we could win it all. That was the real challenge for us, playing against the Cowboys. And I let Jerry know that."

DC.com's Josh Ellis examines our running game. He makes a keen observation about how important Tashard Choice's role will be considering Felix Jones will probably be used unconventionally.

Choice and Coleman may be competing for the chance to serve as Barber's primary backup. Jones seems to have a role all his own, though. Sometimes in training camp he motions out to the slot receiver spot, or shares the backfield with Barber, the former Minnesota back lining up in a three-point stance at fullback.

Like Jones, Choice said the mental adjustments have been the focus of his first three months as a Cowboy, though his college offense, run by former Cowboys coach Chan Gailey, had many of the same principles.

"It's not too much different," Choice said. "Our playbook in college was pretty extensive. It just prepared me better to understand how the game works - your keys to run the football and picking up linebackers."

Thanks Chan!

I tend to see things in shades of gray and my thoughts on Roy Williams certainly applies. He has a right to be upset that reporters and fans alike are critical of his deficiency in coverage. He does a lot of other things well and we should admit that. But reporters and fans happen to be right on this point. He's a liability in coverage. Both sides have good arguments.

So I don't have a problem when he says things like this.

Do you have thick skin? Why should I have thick skin? I am a human being. I’m not saying I’m a sensitive person, but when you attack somebody’s character and you don’t have anything positive to say about somebody, why should I be overjoyed to be having an interview with somebody who’s been tearing me up, and you have all these other fans buying into the stuff ... and it’s not even correct.

Then you want to put a microphone in my mouth and smile in front of my face? No. Don’t be like that. Shoot me straight. I’m a grown man. You don’t have to lie to me.

Especially when he follows it up with things like this.

What if you aren’t playing on third downs? I don’t have a problem with that. Our main goal is to win games, and that’s what I want to do. If me being on the sideline and letting Anthony [Henry] and Adam [Jones] go in there and play, that’s totally fine by me. I’m not bigger than the team.

Not so much when he says things like this though.

How do you feel about your cover skills? I feel great about them. I feel great about my cover skills. Great.

Moose gives some solid advice to Cricket: sit next to the guy you're going to be blocking for. Sounds simple. But it's true.

In 1990, Smith rushed for 937 yards with Johnston not getting any starts. But the next three seasons, Smith rushed for 4,762 yards with Johnston as his partner in the meeting room and on the field.

That part of the conversation sparked Anderson.

"It made them gain that chemistry," Anderson said of Smith and Johnston.

Before the talk, Anderson sat three rows behind lead running back Marion Barber. But after talking to Johnston, Anderson started sitting next to Barber during meetings. Anderson wants to know everything about Barber.

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