Believe it or not, the media will say a lot of things that aren’t actually founded in truth.
If you open your favorite search engine, you will find that a search of “Cowboys Eagles rare trade” has many hits because this year that was how it was described when the Cowboys made a rare trade here in the 2021 NFL Draft.
https://theathletic.com/2612556/2021/05/26/chauncey-golston-film-analysis-cowboys-3rd-round-pick-has-old-school-de-upside/
Since reporters were allowed to attend rookie minicamp practices last week and will be soon attending organized team activities, it seems like a good time to have a Cowboys conversation.
The Athletic’s Jon Machota and Bob Sturm chatted for about 20 minutes Thursday about several Cowboys-related topics from rookie standouts to most interesting position group battles to expectations for Dak Prescott as he works his way back from his significant ankle injury. Here is a transcript of their conversation.
https://theathletic.com/2603856/2021/05/21/cowboys-conversation-dak-prescott-expectations-impactful-rookies-and-position-groups-you-should-be-watching/
Another week brings us another film breakdown of a Cowboys draft pick. This one is a well-developed five-year college star who won first-team All-Pac-12 recognition in his final year for UCLA, Osa Odighizuwa. He, of course, is the younger brother of Owa, the Giants’ 2015 third-round pick out of UCLA who was in and out of the NFL very quickly. We have learned years ago to not judge a player by the career of his older brother, so while I liked Owa out of college quite a bit before he played poorly at the next level, we will recognize the family’s talent and judge Osa on his own tape.
https://theathletic.com/2601497/2021/05/20/osa-odighizuwa-film-analysis-cowboys-3rd-round-pick-adds-excellent-ability-to-keep-lbs-clean/
We are in project/vacation season and this will carry us right up until California welcomes back those Dallas Cowboys campers (we hope).
Until then, I have been tasked to run through an inventory of ideas, and while some of these pieces will provide answers, others will simply present questions that are still developing.
https://theathletic.com/2594203/2021/05/18/dan-quinn-and-the-cowboys-defense-trying-to-sort-through-the-general-plan-requires-guesswork/
A tradition in this space for years has been to deep dive on the draft picks in the months between the draft and the opening of training camp. In many cases, I had scouted the player pre-draft, but that was not generally going to include some substantial tape work for this space.
https://theathletic.com/2583126/2021/05/13/kelvin-joseph-film-analysis-checking-for-quality-of-the-pivotal-second-round-cornerback/
Recently, Cowboys Vice President of Player Personnel Will McClay did his tour of post-draft radio and internet visits with the local press. During that time, he revealed that he has a post-draft habit that he shares with a certain Cowboys writer (who probably stole the idea from McClay years ago).
https://theathletic.com/2580223/2021/05/11/the-four-year-evaluation-analyzing-the-cowboys-2018-nfl-draft-class-for-quality/
We had a number of conversations back in January about the renovations for the Cowboys defense. From the moment that Orlando Brown yelled “easy money” into the Fox television cameras in Baltimore after another demoralizing touchdown, we knew that the defense was an embarrassment and that Mike Nolan’s days were over.
They had achieved rock bottom.
https://theathletic.com/2569429/2021/05/06/jaylon-smith-and-leighton-vander-esch-plus-keanu-neal-and-two-draft-picks-how-will-the-cowboys-make-it-fit-at-lb/
Lest there be any question that the Cowboys have diverted their philosophical approach to player selection, look no further than the past few days and the 2021 NFL Draft. This is absolutely not the old regime of Jason Garrett and his mighty men.
https://theathletic.com/2558928/2021/05/01/the-morning-after-kelvin-joseph-pick-reveals-cowboys-different-approach-evident-to-pursue-different-results/
