Inside Cowboys ‘Rookie School’: Prized Pupil CB Kelvin Joseph?

So ‘Rookie School’ is here. A time to ask, to listen, to learn.

Mike Fisher | Jun 14, 2021

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys veterans have been excused from class.

The Dallas Cowboys rookies are staying after school.

“When I look at ‘Rookie School,’ think it’s kind of a wrapup of the old quarterback school that I was part of in the early ’90s,” Dallas coach Mike McCarthy says, “where you had that extra time.”

And amid all of the over-definitions of this week of work here inside The Star, that’s what “Rookie School” really is: More time with new players. More time to work.

Starting on Monday, the Cowboys will conduct a week-long rookie school at The Star. This will mark officially the last time for this coaching staff to go over the playbook and many of the rest of the demands of being in the NFL with this year’s crop of the rookies.

McCarthy offers up a crucial difference between the work alongside vets in recent OTA’s and minicamp.

“For a young player, there are always moments in meetings and even on the field where they really don’t want to ask the question because maybe the timing or they’re totally not sure,” he says.

In other words, the kid doesn’t want to look like a dope in front of the more experienced, more knowledgeable guys. So this is the week to ask that “stupid question” - though, of course, in the billion-dollar game of pro football, there are no stupid questions.

There is also no surplus of time. So from the UDFAs all the way up to first-round linebacker Micah Parsons, the learning curve can be smoothed here. A particular beneficiary?

Second-round pick Kelvin Joseph, the cornerback who missed nearly two weeks of workouts while in quarantine.

Joseph was thought by some to be a potential stater here. But with just 13 college games on his resume, he’s got catching up to do in order to compete with the likes of vet Anthony Brown.

So “Rookie School” is here. A time to ask, to listen, to learn.

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Published Jun 14, 2021

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.