Setting up Sunday’s Blue/White Scrimmage for Dallas Cowboys: 5 things to watch
Brandon George / Reporter Follow @DMN_George Email
bgeorge@dallasnews.com
Published: August 9, 2015 10:40 am
OXNARD, Calif. – The Dallas Cowboys will hold their annual Blue/White Scrimmage at training camp Sunday. The practice begins at 4:30 p.m. CT. TXA Ch. 21 will begin its live coverage of practice beginning at 5 p.m. CT.
Let’s get one myth out of the way: This scrimmage isn’t what you expect. You won’t see many veterans doing much, if anything. This is a chance for the young players on the 90-man roster to make more of an impression with the coaches in a controlled format.
The Cowboys will begin with a structured practice that includes veterans. They’ll have an inside run period, followed by a red zone 7-on-7 period that’s scripted. After some special teams work, they’ll get back into the red zone for some two-minute work in team drills.
“We have a lot of plays and a lot of sets planned right now,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said, “and then we’ll all look at each other and say, ‘We don’t have enough guys here. Let’s keep doing this. We’ll cut those last 10 off.’”
The last thing the Cowboys will do will be the scrimmage. They’ll put the young guys out there and they’ll have an eight- to 10-play scrimmage with set plays.
This is to help the Cowboys’ young players get ready for their first NFL preseason game Thursday at San Diego.
“For the veteran players, the guys who have been here, it’s going to be a big situational day [Sunday] when we do this Blue-White Scrimmage,” Garrett said. “And it’ll be a lot of red zone work, some two-minute work. It’ll look and feel like practice up to this point. Nobody’s getting tackled. That’s not really the intent for the more veteran players. But for the younger guys, we want to give them a set where they’re really playing football and back to going to the ground and it’s a more physical brand that we’ve been doing here in training camp. They’re going to be playing a game in four days and we want to get them acclimated to what it feels like to be an NFL football player as best we can in this environment.”
Here are 5 things to watch during the scrimmage portion of Sunday’s practice:
1) Can one of the young running backs make an impression?: Expect to see a lot of Gus Johnson – the former Stephen F. Austin standout – and ex-Baylor tailback Lache Seastrunk in the backfield for the Cowboys during the scrimmage. Each back will have a chance to shine in live action as the Cowboys piece together their backfield in an effort to replace DeMarco Murray. Johnson has been impressive in recent practices, showing a great burst on several runs.
2) Can Dustin Vaughan begin to prove again he deserves third QB job and spot on the final roster?: The Cowboys carried Vaughan on their roster as the third quarterback throughout the season in 2014. Will they do that again with Vaughan? He hasn’t had the strongest week of practices, struggling at times with his accuracy. He’ll need to show he has developed and is worth a roster spot again.
3) Who looks the best among the undrafted wide receivers?: The Cowboys have an ongoing battle for the fifth receiver spot. Right now, Lucky Whitehead is in the lead because of his ability to return punts and kickoffs and his consistency catching the football in practices. Former Houston wideout Deontay Greenberry has had some moments during practices as well. Nick Harwell and George Farmer will also get chances during the scrimmage to make up ground on Whitehead.
4) Will LB Damien Wilson continue to impress coaches?: The fourth-round pick has been getting first-team weak-side linebacker reps in practices with Sean Lee limited as the Cowboys ease him back into team drills. Wilson has impressed coaches early on and is on the rise, but he’ll need to continue to show he belongs during the scrimmage Sunday.
5) Can some of the young defensive linemen leave their mark?: The Cowboys might not use second-round pick defensive end Randy Gregory much – if at all – during the scrimmage. But if they do, he needs to dominate against reserve offensive linemen to show he needs to continue to get plenty of repetitions among the first-team. Also, defensive end Ryan Russell – the fifth-round pick out of Purdue and Carrollton Creekview – hasn’t had many shining moments through the first week of practices. He needs to begin showing coaches more to make a push for a final roster spot.