Cowboys training camp: KaVontae Turpin shines, Will Grier takes QB2 snaps

The Dallas Cowboys officially wrapped up their third training camp practice on Saturday afternoon before an off day on Sunday. Don’t worry, they will reconvene on Monday and in case you will be there, so will I! Stay tuned to BTB for information on a meet-up in Oxnard next week.

Keeping the focus on Saturday’s practice there were two things that stood out that are certainly worthy of discussion and attention (not to mention Jerry Jones discussing Zack Martin which did not exactly inspire confidence).

Saturday was Dak Prescott’s birthday so that meant the usual sort of celebration and singing but it was a different quarterback who took one of our two headlines today. The other one belongs to a player who wears the number of Dak’s predecessor at the most important position in professional football. Let’s get into it.

Will Grier took snaps at QB2 on Saturday

Before practice on Saturday we listed out a few questions here at the site that we hoped to have answers to following the session’s conclusion and one of them just so happened to be about the backup quarterback position.

Many assume that the QB2 job belongs to Cooper Rush outright given his 4-1 record over five games last year, but while the Cowboys did bring him back this offseason on a new deal, Will Grier still exists. And on Saturday he took a turn with the second-team offense.

It is difficult to really read into anything like this given that we are only at the third practice of training camp, but the other side of that conversation coin is that it only took until the third practice of training camp for Will Grier to get an opportunity ahead of Cooper Rush.

Will that last throughout camp? Can Grier legitimately challenge in the preseason? Those are questions that still linger.

KaVontae Turpin shined on Saturday as an offensive weapon

In case you missed it early on in camp, KaVontae Turpin was out at the very beginning due to the birth of a child. That is certainly a noble and understandable reason to be absent.

After a small hiatus though, Turpin was back on Saturday.

Again there should be measured hype about these sorts of things given how early in the process we are in, but Turpin was not only present on Saturday, he was effective.

You will recall that Turpin spoke with Tony Catalina and Aidan Davis here at BTB in the lead-up to the Super Bowl and said he wanted to force the Cowboys to use him on offense. One training camp practice in, he shined enough to make the conversation a little bit louder.

This next video highlights a touchdown from Dak Prescott to Brandin Cooks which is awesome, but you can see Turpin have his way with Kelvin Joseph in the background as well.

This next Jalen Tolbert play has a similar thing happening in the background.

Turpin’s current spot on the team is a curious one given that his primary role is as a returner, and that the NFL at large continues to change the rules of the game which limit the impact that someone in that position can make; however, if Turpin is able to carve out a legitimate place on offense (which many have wanted to see for a long time) then the calculus around his place on the team is very different.

The Cowboys are back at work on Monday.