Cowboys Country

Cowboys Camp in Pads: CeeDee Lamb, Tyler Smith Stand Out

Injury news and standouts from a Cowboys camp workout featuring the first day in pads.

Mike Fisher

The Dallas Cowboys’ first training camp day in pads coordinated with some unfortunate injury news in Oxnard. Our Monday notebook, item by item …

ITEM: Newcomer veteran wide receiver James Washington will miss two months after he undergoes Tuesday foot surgery following being carted out of practice on after going down in 7-on-7 drills.

ITEM: And yes, the Cowboys need to explore the free agent market, where TY Hilton and Will Fuller (and Cole Beasley?) await.

ITEM: Similarly, the shoulder injury to rookie swing tackle Matt Waletzko might signal a waving of the salary-cap red flag. Waletzko will miss the week and may need surgery; will Josh Ball suddenly step up and own it? Or does Dallas start digging into this list?

ITEM: Pads on can bring the out the nastiness - in a good way. It did so for first-round rookie Tyler Smith, who looked comfortable at left guard as he starts to push to steal the job from Connor McGovern.

While McGovern looked like he got pushed around a bit, Smith’s day was highlighted by a pancake block of Trysten Hill.

Smith needs to start at left guard; delaying the elevation is wasting time.

ITEM: Oh, one more injury thing, as standout defender Jayron Kearse limped off the field with what he later said was a “tweaked” knee. We will monitor …

ITEM: “Let’s hunt”? Big talk from Neville Gallimore speaking for the D-line. The Cowboys do think they’ve assembled talent there, even as they consider signing free agent and former first-rounder Takk McKinley.

Meanwhile, Osa is keeping daily track of his goals.

ITEM: We have predicted that CeeDee Lamb will be among the NFL leaders in targets in 2022 … and the former first-round pick’s work in Oxnard - and his series on Monday highlight connections with Dak Prescott - offer further evidence.

Route-running. Acrobatics. In-traffic. YAC.

Monday was a put-it-all-together day for Lamb. is possibly en route to a career-best season.

ITEM: It does appear, by the way, that Dallas is ending the foolishness of CeeDee Lamb as a punt returner. Rookie Jalen Tolbert and electric rookie KaVontae Turpin split that work.

ITEM: Cowboys fans seem to want the competition at kicker to be win by Texas Tech rookie Jonathan Garibay.

Lirim Hajrullahu has other ideas.

Hajrullahu is now 2-for-2 in winning competitive days days over Garibay.

Quiet as it's been kept to this point, Noah Brown has been consistently reliable over the first five practices of training camp. This potential loss of Washington. Brown re-signed with the team on another one-year deal, which means he again has to prove himself to the coaching staff, but he has an inside.

ITEM: There has been talk of some competition for the No. 2 QB job, but cornerback Nahshon Wright slowed that down a bit Monday with an interception off Will Grier … leaving Cooper Rush still standing as Dak’s backup.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.

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