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Wednesday is the one day at each OTA session wherein the workout is available to the media. So, naturally, OTA news dominates today's headlines. Let's start with some general assessments...
The Broad One offers a second batch of twelve thoughts from Cowboys OTAs. Here's one that caught my eye:
8). Get ready to see plenty of Lucky Whitehead in the second half of preseason games this season in the slot receiver role. For the second practice in a row, Scott Linehan put Whitehead on the field and threw him a screen pass to take advantage of his explosive burst. Whitehead is doing his best Cole Beasley impression when it comes to running routes and finding space in the defense. What is also impressive about his work is that, even as a rookie, you can put a lot on his plate and he doesn’t appear to struggle with that. He plays assignment sound.
Babe Laufenberg: What concerns me, what doesn’t after Cowboys workouts - Babe Laufenberg, DMN
Laufenberg offered his take on the Cowboys Wednesday workout. In addition to the usual "best play" entries, he added some thoughts on Jason Garrett:
"It takes a while, whether it’s college or pro to get everyone doing things your way. Last year was the first year they really had this thing going in the right direction. Depending on the health of Romo, it’s headed in the right direction. Everything going on there right now, it seems like there is a lot of harmony and focus in the same direction."
The Cowboys once again took the field without their star receiver, who continues to miss the voluntary practices while he tries to work out his contract situation. His head coach, always a glass half full kinda guy, points out that a missing star can be a good thing:
"It’s really good for everybody when the lead dog isn’t there," Garrett said. "It’s good for us to evaluate the guys who are behind them in a different role and they step up, if they are a two, they become a one, if they are a three, they become a two, that kind of a thing. It’s good to see that from an evaluation standpoint and see how players respond."
S. Jones Hopeful For A Dez Deal By Deadline, But Not Feeling Pressure - David Helman, The Mothership
Jones the Younger, Tiny Jim reports, doesn’t sound like someone who’s feeling a lot of heat to sign Dez Bryant. After all, the club still has more than a month to work out a long-term contract with its All-Pro receiver. Here's Stephen:
"We’ve got him under the franchise tag," he said. "We know he’ll be a Cowboy this year, and if he ends up playing out this year under the tag, then we’ll go right back to work again next year."
Illness keeps Dallas Cowboys' Greg Hardy from OTA - Todd Archer, ESPN Dallas
New DE Greg Hardy missed his second organized team activity in as many weeks, but this had nothing to do with the appeal of his 10-game suspension; rather, he stayed away because he was sick with a "little stomach bug."
372 days removed from the torn left ACL that ended his 2014 season before it really began, the team’s defensive captain is just thankful to be back on the field with this teammates, old and new. Still, Lee feels he has something to prove:
"Obviously I have to go out there and play at a high level. Obviously I have to go out there and stay healthy," he said. "There’s definitely things that I have to come back and show. I think physically I’ll be able to come out and play and be able to make plays. But that’s one of those things obviously you have go out and show that."
Cowboys LB Sean Lee: ‘I feel like I could play again tomorrow if need be’ - David Moore, DMN
One of the driving forces in Lee's recovery was the simple fact that the Cowboys are awesome:
"But I have such an unbelievable opportunity ahead of me to play for the Cowboys, to play with this type of team that this was my focus. Any time that discouragement started to creep in I would just focus on that."
Joe Randle's "meat on the bone" quote prompted the staff to meet with him, although the third-year veteran said he didn’t directly discuss the comment with Garrett specifically. Apparently, he ingested the lesson.
Cowboys OL La'el Collins trying to get a hang of things on right side - Todd Archer, ESPN Dallas
As athletically gifted as Dallas Cowboys lineman La'el Collins is, the adjustment to the other side of the line will be difficult. What's different about it? Let the rookie speak:
"Everything," Collins said. "I had to switch over from playing left pretty much my whole career to right. So now I have to switch up my stance and really re-wire my whole mind toward where I want to go when I hear play calls and things like that."
The Morning News shares some of the best quotes from a recent radio interview with La'el Collins. In addition to his account of the grand dinner at Chez Jerry (steaks, big shrimp, potatoes), he had interesting stuff to say about how Tony Romo was at the dinner:
"He was sitting right across from me. He just shared a couple of stories with me how he felt. How the draft process was for him and how he felt he should have been drafted and things like that so we just kind of went in depth that away and he just told me I had to work for everything I got. He really went into detail — he loves to go into detail — he just really went into detail into how he got where he is and how he became the leader he is today. For me it’s just nothing but respect for him. You can’t become the player that he has become overnight or by just doing what the coach tells you to do. You’ve got to spend time and you’ve got to really put time into it to know exactly what you’re doing, especially at his position and be successful at it."
And a couple of closing tidbits...
Khalil Mack tops re-ranking of 2014 draft class - Mike Sando, ESPN.com
Sando re-ranks the top 25 players in the 2014 NFL draft class, and Zack Martin, drafted sixteenth overall, comes in at number nine, behind several people who weren't as good.
Here's the NFL's Top 25 selling jerseys for May with an impressive Top 5 showing for @OBJ_3 pic.twitter.com/Q89Vew23v3
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) June 3, 2015
What is even more impressive is that three of the 25 were Cowboys; the only other team with three was Seattle. They gotta do something with all that Microsoft money...