News: BTB: What We Learned At The Cowboys First OTA Practice (Besides The Sean Lee Injury)

[NewsBot]

Of course the focus was on Sean Lee's injury, but what else happened.

Obviously the big story out of the first day of OTA practice for the Dallas Cowboys was the injury to Sean Lee. We have an article and discussion going on about that situation, here. A quick recap - Lee hurt his left knee, had to be helped off the field, was visibly upset and will have an MRI this afternoon to get a true diagnosis.

Must Reads

Cowboys Sean Lee Hurt His Left Knee

Dave Halprin

Middle linebacker Sean Lee hurt his left knee in an OTA practice, the Cowboys are awaiting word on the severity of the injury.

Must Reads

Cowboys Sean Lee Hurt His Left Knee

But there was a full practice going on today, so let's for a moment get away from the Sean Lee injury and see what we learned from today's gathering.

-- Tony Romo did practice, but not fully. He did some individual drills and threw some passes, but he did not participate in the full-speed team drills. Brandon Weeden acted as the #1 QB in those situations with Kyle Orton still absent. The plan has been to bring Romo along slowly and Jason Garrett felt that he had a good day of practice following what they had laid out for him.

-- Zack Martin opened up as the starting right guard, it looks like a certainty that he's going to be the starter there in 2014. Mackenzy Bernadeau did some team action as the #1 at left guard, indicating there might be a competition there with incumbent Ron Leary.

-- Henry Melton, Morris Claiborne and George Selvie were among the regulars who did not participate in the team portion of practice. Claiborne and Melton were held out because they are still recovering from injuries/surgeries. The Cowboys plan to keep them out of portions of practice as a precaution until later in the offseason.

-- With Melton and Selvie out, and Anthony Spencer not even dressed, the defensive line starters were (LDE) Tyrone Crawford, (Under Tackle) Terrell McClain, (Nose Tackle) Nick Hayden, (RDE) DeMarcus Lawrence. Amobi Okoye was also not participating in the OTA because of undisclosed illness.

-- The starting linebackers (until Lee went down) were (Sam) Kyle Wilber, (Mike) Sean Lee, (Will) Bruce Carter. Rookie Anthony Hitchens came in and took the reps once Lee was injured.

-- J.J. Wilcox was the starting safety beside Barry Church. Matt Johnson did practice.

-- Other quick hits. Gavin Escobar spending a lot of time lining up off the line of scrimmage, in the slot. Chris Jones beating Cody Mandell in their punting drills.

Continue reading...