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Rainer Sabin / Reporter
Although there is no outside source to verify exactly what is taking place at the private, player-only workouts that began this month, several Cowboys have offered the slightest of details about what has transpired at the undisclosed location where they have been practicing.
Among those who have relayed information is quarterback Tony Romo, who has taken the initiative to organize the sessions.
As the leader of an offense not expected to undergo many fundamental changes before next season, he is in a comfortable position. The team's defensive players, on the other hand, are a bit unsettled. Before the lockout happened, they had minimal time to become acquainted with the system new coordinator Rob Ryan will implement. And now they are trying to learn it without his advice or supervision.
"It's kind of hard because we're looking at cards," cornerback Bryan McCann said Thursday while he was signing autographs before the "Balling with the Boys" celebrity basketball game at Trinity High School in Euless. "We don't know why we're doing it. We're doing what the card is telling us to do."
With Ryan unable to offer counsel, linebackers Bradie James and Keith Brooking have tried to serve as substitute teachers.
"But I wouldn't say anybody has more knowledge of the defense than anybody else," said McCann, who joined the team in 2010 as an undrafted rookie free agent.
McCann was among approximately 20 veterans who visited the Cowboys' headquarters at Valley Ranch on April 29, the day the NFL lifted temporarily its restrictions that prohibited players from working out at team facilities, receiving medical treatment and meeting with the coaching staffs.
"It was fun to see a lot of the guys who were in town and make contact with them," head coach Jason Garrett recalled last week. "And we made some contact with the other guys by phone who were out of town. We tried to do that for a number of guys who were around and who were receptive to coming by and seeing what was going on at the facility. But, you know, it was a one-day deal."
Yet during that small window of opportunity that shut within 24 hours of opening, McCann tried to glean as much information as he could.
"We were able to go up there and contact the coaches and get playbooks," he said. "If you went up and got your own playbook, now it's a matter of studying it and knowing what is going on when you come out the next day."
But without Ryan present, that's easier said than done.
Although there is no outside source to verify exactly what is taking place at the private, player-only workouts that began this month, several Cowboys have offered the slightest of details about what has transpired at the undisclosed location where they have been practicing.
Among those who have relayed information is quarterback Tony Romo, who has taken the initiative to organize the sessions.
As the leader of an offense not expected to undergo many fundamental changes before next season, he is in a comfortable position. The team's defensive players, on the other hand, are a bit unsettled. Before the lockout happened, they had minimal time to become acquainted with the system new coordinator Rob Ryan will implement. And now they are trying to learn it without his advice or supervision.
"It's kind of hard because we're looking at cards," cornerback Bryan McCann said Thursday while he was signing autographs before the "Balling with the Boys" celebrity basketball game at Trinity High School in Euless. "We don't know why we're doing it. We're doing what the card is telling us to do."
With Ryan unable to offer counsel, linebackers Bradie James and Keith Brooking have tried to serve as substitute teachers.
"But I wouldn't say anybody has more knowledge of the defense than anybody else," said McCann, who joined the team in 2010 as an undrafted rookie free agent.
McCann was among approximately 20 veterans who visited the Cowboys' headquarters at Valley Ranch on April 29, the day the NFL lifted temporarily its restrictions that prohibited players from working out at team facilities, receiving medical treatment and meeting with the coaching staffs.
"It was fun to see a lot of the guys who were in town and make contact with them," head coach Jason Garrett recalled last week. "And we made some contact with the other guys by phone who were out of town. We tried to do that for a number of guys who were around and who were receptive to coming by and seeing what was going on at the facility. But, you know, it was a one-day deal."
Yet during that small window of opportunity that shut within 24 hours of opening, McCann tried to glean as much information as he could.
"We were able to go up there and contact the coaches and get playbooks," he said. "If you went up and got your own playbook, now it's a matter of studying it and knowing what is going on when you come out the next day."
But without Ryan present, that's easier said than done.
