OXNARD, Calif. – The Cowboys are six practices in to their training camp, and going through this process ahead of his 11th NFL season, QB Dak Prescott sees the offense on track early during their time on the West coast together.
"Some good things are happening," Prescott said. "When you've been in year one and you're going into year two, you're trying to build things, you're trying to find new things and things that complement the old things that we've done and do well. I think we're on pace in doing that. Is it where we want it to be? Absolutely not. And if it was, I'd be pumping the brakes. Why is this so amazing now to have to carry it into this long journey? We're getting it right where we need to be."
Over the offseason, Prescott and head coach Brian Schottenheimer have been asked about how they plan to evolve the offense and take it to the next level. For the most part, the tweaks the Cowboys are making are based off of concepts that have worked for them.
"Most of them are complimentary of something else, so it's easy to teach them because we're doing it because of A worked this way, so this is the adjustment to get to B," Prescott said. "I don't think there's going to be a long journey, it's just about getting those different plays in versus a bunch of different looks. Our defense is only giving us so many looks, so you've got to walk through and get those looks against ourselves…"
"A full week in or so now, I feel good about where we're going and the direction. Run game has looked good, it's about just building, continue to build on that, and then just get sharper in the pass game."
The passing game has seen everyone involved, with WRs CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens getting their usual workload, but players like TE Jake Ferguson and WR KaVontae Turpin also standing out during practice as well.
Speaking of standing out, Prescott was asked who on the defense has caught his eye early as the offense faces Christian Parker's group for the first few times. He couldn't' narrow it down to player.
"I don't know if I could say just one player because of the intensity," Prescott said. "I think it might be the guy on the right, then the backers are just as crazy or excited backing him up, and then they're making plays for the DBs, and so the DBs are screaming because they feel like locked us down… It's just the collab effort of their intensity and their communication is felt, it's definitely felt when we're out there…"
"Post play, any time that they've made a play, they've celebrated, and deservingly so. I just think that raises the energy of the whole team, pisses us off a little bit on offense, but that's what camp's about. We've just got to lock in and be sharper as we did today a little bit."
It isn't just the players that are celebrating in front of the offense. New Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker has quickly gained a reputation as a trash talker on the sidelines, and isn't afraid to go back and forth with Prescott on the offense. That's something Dallas' offensive signal caller enjoys, and respects about Parker.
"The men that we have and the way that we approach and attack their job, I can't talk about CP enough and the pride that he carries with his job…" Prescott said. "He can't be out there making the plays, but there's not one ounce of him that doesn't think he's making plays. And he is."
On Wednesday, Parker said in his press conference that he tries to simulate being on the field in his defensive meeting rooms, meaning that things get loud and in his words, if you stepped in the room during a meeting “you might think something wrong is going on.”
Prescott and his offensive teammates got a front row seat to that.
"There was a day the other day, we're in the offensive meeting, they're in the defensive meeting. Not that we were struggling to hear what we were saying, but they were over there communicating and I don't know, I think it was a Jeopardy game within their own defensive calls," Prescott said. "It felt like playing on the road as we were just trying to install our meeting because of how loud and intense and fun that they were having just doing their job… Nothing but good things to say about that unit."
In five days, the Cowboys will make the nearly 40-mile drive east to Woodland Hills and hold a joint practice against the Los Angeles Rams, which Prescott says will serve as a litmus test for Dallas. He and his offense will have to face the Rams' defense that now features reigning DPOY Myles Garrett and All-Pro CB Trent McDuffie.
They're also a team the Cowboys face in Week 15 of the regular season, which Prescott hopes isn't the last time they face off this season.
"It's all you can ask for," Prescott said of the joint practice. "CeeDee [Lamb] was just talking about it today, looking forward to Tuesday. Looking forward to just us getting better, understanding this is a team that we're going to play in the season, and it's probably a team that if we want to get to where we want to get to, we're going to have to see them again. So call this probably the first of three meetings, I'd assume if everybody takes care of business. It's definitely going to be a test, it's going to be fun."
