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Thoughts following the first practice of training camp, now in the books.
We’ve waited, some more patiently than others, but FOOTBALL IS HERE!!! Today’s Dallas Cowboys practice was a no pads affair and there won’t be a lot to take from it early. But it’s good to have something to talk about instead of a lot of nothing to speculate about.
Practice opened with a gesture of solidarity with the Dallas Police Department as the team walked out arm in arm with DPD officers and families of the officers killed in Dallas earlier this month. In a fairly obvious choice, the Senator, Jason Witten escorted police chief David Brown while Tony Romo escorted Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Valerie Zamarripa, mother of fallen Dallas policeman Patrick Zamarripa. Both he and Jason Witten knew Zamarripa personally. Chief Brown and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings both addressed the team, the Chief closing his remarks with a fist pump to "Dallas Strong".
From early reports the Cowboys were as ready for today as we were, with BTB representative Landon McCool tweeting about the violence with which Jack Crawford, Lawrence Okoye, and Terrell McClain hit the weighted dummies. McCool also complimented Ryan Russell’s development and noted that he continues to start at defensive end for Dallas. Video of Tyrone Crawford and DeMarcus Lawrence showed them both moving well and looking strong against the dummies with no hint of their respective injury dings. Devin Street caught a deep pass from Romo while Dez Bryant was reportedly rusty with the dropsies.
Meanwhile all three members of the Dallas Non Football Injury list (Jaylon Smith, Darren McFadden, and Damien Wilson) were present and working with trainers. Benson Mayowa and Maliek Collins were working on the infamous resistance bands, indicating they are about a week from being back (particularly good news for rookie Collins). There was no report on the other two members of the PUP list. Surprising some, Gavin Escobar is fully cleared and participating after tearing his Achilles tendon late last season. As previously reported, Randy Gregory and Rolando McClain are not here for training camp.
Overall the first practice probably doesn’t mean much. But one very important thing it means is that the long drought is over. We’re all undefeated, and football is back.
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