This year’s newest batch of Dallas Cowboys’ rookies is just about done with school. Graduating from the collegiate game to the professional one is a big move; there is no doubt a huge amount of information to learn and there are skills to develop to reach the next level.
The Cowboys finished up their minicamp last week and the veterans were turned loose until training camp. The rookies had to stay at The Star because the Cowboys have their rookie school going on, something Mike McCarthy has said closely mirrors what he used to do with his quarterback school in his previous seasons in the NFL.
McCarthy mentioned last week, at the superficial level, that rookie school is an opportunity for players to learn things like jargon or basic principles and to even ask questions that they might otherwise be too intimidated to ask in larger settings.
“Pretty much most of the things I do are a reflection of my experience of coaching quarterbacks,” McCarthy said. “When I look at rookie school, I think it’s kind of a wrapup of the old quarterback school that I was part of in the early ’90s where you had that extra time. The point I’m making is there’s always, for a young player, there’s always moments in meetings and even on the field where they really don’t want to ask the question because maybe the timing or they’re totally not sure.”
McCarthy is looking for a dialogue with the rookies.
“As I’m sitting here, I know there will be some really good questions and dialogue [this] week with those rookies,” McCarthy said, “because it will give them a chance to just kind of go back and ask questions that maybe they wanted to ask early in the offseason program.”
Specific rookies can use this time to catch up on things. For example, second-round pick Kelvin Joseph, who missed a lot of the early part of the offseason because of a quarantine. Coach Dan Quinn likes what he’s seen so far, and rookie school will be another opportunity for Joseph to get back up to speed.
“But I would say the good news is, for him during his short time at LSU also, getting a chance to guard really good players or go battle in practice and then over to Kentucky to get real starting experience in the SEC, that certainly helps,” defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said. “But as you know, the transition to the NFL is not one size fits all. But I can tell you I’ve been impressed by his work. I’ve seen the speed and the quickness. So we’re trying to get through those things fast. The nice part is when you play defense here you get a chance to guard some pretty good guys over on the other side.”
We discussed rookie school going on and the team’s official announcement that training camp will be taking place in Oxnard, California in the latest video on the Blogging The Boys YouTube Channel. Make sure to subscribe to our channel (which you can do so right here) so you don’t miss any of our videos.