Jason Garrett: Dak Prescott is a good deep-ball thrower

Training camp is rolling along and our coverage rolls along as we check in with the head coach at his press conference today.

Jason Garrett took the podium on Tuesday. Here’s what he had to say (all answers are paraphrases of Garrett, not direct quotes).

The Cowboys practiced without pads on Tuesday because Jason Garrett wanted a lighter day at this point

There have been some intense practices going on for the Cowboys, and considering they play an actual game on Thursday it makes sense to takes things slow right now. Jason Garrett echoed this point noting that they wanted to sort of take things easy for now.

Jason Garrett is a big fan of Charvarius Ward

“He’s done a pretty good job throughout camp.”

That’s about as animated as Jason Garrett gets, as you know. He mentioned Ward is a good athlete and has certainly done well in some of the 1-on-1 drills at camp.

Jeff Heath has a nature of “coming to work and doing things the right way”

We’ve talked a lot about Jeff Heath as a potential captain on the Cowboys this season. Jason Garrett talked about Heath earning things through how hard he’s worked to this point, and that's definitely apparent from what we’ve seen from him over the years.

Heath’s leadership on the defense is certainly a welcome thing with Kris Richard coaching up the entire secondary. Garrett noted Heath had led by example but is becoming more vocal and a safety needs to communicate well.

Jason Garrett mentioned blocking again when talking tight ends

When asked about the tight end group Jason Garrett noted that Geoff Swaim is the most experienced of the group and that he’s had a great camp. He noted that the Cowboys are looking for great blockers and receivers at the position and that it’ll be interesting to see them play on Thursday.

Jason Garrett said that throwing deep doesn’t require a “powerful arm”

There’s been a lot of speculation about Dak Prescott and his abilities as a deep ball thrower. Garrett noted the average distance in the air of a 9-route was 42 yards, so you don’t need a huge arm. He said he believes Dak is a good deep ball thrower (he also said he’s a work in progress) but what was interesting was that he mentioned good deep ball throwers typically have good deep route receivers.

Garrett expanded on this issue quite a bit (he tends to go long on football-y questions) and it seems apparent he likes what the Cowboys have in terms of the deep ball game.

The Cowboys are taking the preseason game in San Francisco seriously

When asked what the mentality was heading into Thursday, Jason Garrett gave us a Jason Garrett answer. It’s apparently as important as any sort of game and is meant to be taken as seriously as any other game.

We’ll see about that.

Cooper Rush is still someone who the Cowboys like

Jason Garrett was asked what he wanted to see from Cooper Rush and he responded that “you just want to see him go play.” Dallas discovered Rush throughout the preseason last year, and he actually got in the game during the regular season in San Francisco last season. He said a QB needs to move the ball and get scoring opportunities in these games.

Cooper has defended his status as the primary back-up quarterback so far throughout training camp, and it seems like he’ll add to that during the preseason period.

While it’s a serious thing, the Cowboys won’t “gameplan” for the 49ers

Despite noting that the Cowboys would take their first preseason game seriously, Jason Garrett did discuss that this week was more about their team than the opposing one. He talked about how they’re going to work on what they can do, their own schemes and such, in preparation for Thursday night.

Jason Garrett kind of forgot that Kellen Moore was on the team last year

When asked about veteran quarterbacks on the Cowboys and what it’s like to not have one that’s necessarily long in the tooth, Jason Garrett brought up how the Cowboys have done that before but not really as of late (this we know).

He said that last year Dak Prescott was obviously the starter with Cooper Rush behind him, but the thing is that Kellen Moore was technically Dak’s back up (at least in terms of what we were sold and what the depth chart read over the first bit of the season) when things got going.

Maybe when you become a coach all else is forgotten. Oh well.