OXNARD, Calif. – This should be music to your ears. Was to mine.
During Tuesday's coordinators press conferences here at Cowboys training camp, it was pointed out that in eight of the past 12 seasons defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has been involved in the NFL – either as the Cowboys' linebackers coach/passing game coordinator, Colts' defensive coordinator or the Chicago Bears' head coach – those defenses finished among the top 10 in run defense.
In fact, in his final two seasons with the Cowboys (2016-17), working under defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli as the passing game coordinator, the Cowboys finished No. 1 in run defense and then No. 8.
So about three minutes into the press conference, Flus, as he's been known to be called, was asked about the key to successful run defenses. And goodness knows, the Cowboys run defense needs to improve, ranked 29th last year, 31st in 2020 and no higher than 16th in the three other years in between years.
Coincidence or not, those defenses during the two losing seasons of 2020 and 2024 finished 31st and 29th.
"Teamwork … teamwork now," Eberflus began. "It's not just the inside guys, it's not just the outside guys, it's everybody. To have an elite run defense, it's going to take everybody.
"One of my mentors, and you guys know him well, he used to say, 'No house guests,' Coach Marinelli, and that's true. That starts with we'll be a good tackling team when our corners tackle, and that's important because all the schemes now make your corners tackle.
"Our guys will be a good tackling bunch, and we'll work on that daily."
How does that sound? Sounds good to me.
- Coulda Been Worse: Injuries are never good, but just maybe the Cowboys ducked under an injury punch that could have been devastating if losing starting left tackle Tyler Guton and veteran guard Rob Jones on back-to-back days. Start with Guyton, going down in a heap on Monday, teammates surrounding him on the field taking a knee of concern, a normal sign of a monumental injury. Was told after the starting left tackle was helped off the field – followed into the locker room by Cowboys orthopedic surgeon Dr. Dan Cooper, never a good sign – that it was bad. Bad usually means torn ACL. But after undergoing an MRI, doctors discovered Guyton suffered a knee bone fracture, likely out four to six weeks. Hey, we aren't even to August yet. There's four weeks right there. They are 36 days away from the Sept. 4 season opener against Philadelphia. Depending on progress, if Guyton needs more time to recover, he could be placed on injured reserve 24 hours after the cuts to 53 and then would be required to miss four games. As for Jones, he suffered a broken bone in his neck, but know what that means? The bone is your vertebrae. And this injury also could have been devastating since Jones finished practice before saying something. Man, don't ever want to mess around with anything close to the spinal cord. Jones then might be fortunate if only missing two to three months, if not placed on season-ending IR.
- Words To Coach By: This is how Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams, a offensive line coach by trade, answered the question about having to deal with the temporary loss of two of his top offensive linemen: "Nobody is ever excited about guys getting injured. It happens to be part of the game, but it's an unfortunate part of the game. But the other side of that … there is opportunity when you have adversity." Or as he said earlier, "There is danger in opportunity," meaning the danger felt in injury creates opportunity you might never have been afforded. Well said, and benefiting from the temporary loss of Guyton is last year's seventh-round draft choice Nate Thomas, now working with the first team after spending his entire rookie season on injured reserve with knee tendonitis.
- Rehabbers: The Cowboys have three cornerbacks rehabbing from surgeries during the start of training camp: projected starter Trevon Diggs (knee cartilage), third-round draft choice Shavon Revel (torn ACL) and Josh Butler (torn ACL). And now a fourth, Caelen Carson, dealing with a hyperextended knee. The Cowboys trainers have worked full time with Diggs for just one week, since he chose to rehab offsite. The projected starting corner still is working on the resistance cords and side steps as well as starts-and-stops running, but he is also working on his overall conditioning. As for Revel, having torn his ACL after the third game of his final college season, when talking with him, not only is he working on rehabbing the ACL but also his other knee where surgeons removed a portion of his patella tendon used to restructure the ACL. When asked when he thinks he'll be ready to jump back into practice, the third-round draft choice said, "When Britt tells me I'm ready," referring to Cowboys rehab coordinator Britt Brown, the resistance cords administrator. Says, though, he's gaining confidence in both knees.
- Kidding Me: Over the years covering the Cowboys, we have dealt with several weather-related occurrences. Top of mind, the microburst causing the Cowboys' covered practice facility in 2009 to collapse. Then one time here in Oxnard felt the tremors of an earthquake while doing a radio hit during practice. And while in San Francisco while at the team hotel the night before the game, another earthquake tremor. But last night, you kidding me, the national weather service issues a tsunami advisory that included Ventura County after the 8.7 magnitude earthquake striking Russia. Hey, even though nothing occurred, sure gave a whole lot of us pause, though knowing being on the hotel second floor we could move up to the fourth just in case, plus being a good five miles from the coastline.
- Really Brian: The Cowboys' Wednesday's practice was approaching a conclusion when another skirmish broke out, causing head coach Brian Schottenheimer to call the team up to admonish the players for another sort of fight during practice. Next thing we knew, Schottenheimer was going old school, lining the players up to presumably run punishment-sprints across the field, back and forth. Caused me to think those sprints already were planned since the practice was in shells, not pads. Seen head coaches pull this stunt before, yelling and screaming about another fight, but deep inside were loving the physicality they would never admit.
- Quicker Shots: Close to the end zone Wednesday, good to see Dak Prescott, a day after turning 32, throw consecutive TD lobs for touchdowns, first to CeeDee Lamb over DaRon Bland and then to George Pickens over Markquese Bell, his equal opportunity receivers … The pads came on this week, meaning the defense is to what they call "thump up" the ball carrier representing a tackle, but evidently some forgot to tell veteran safety Malik Hooker, who repeatedly decided to play "tackle" football, even while coming up in run support … Not exactly a novel idea, but think about this threat to the defense when the Cowboys line up three wide to one side, the three being Lamb, Pickens and KaVontae Turpin, creating a pick your poison for defenders, especially if they overload to that side and the Cowboys run to the other … Cowboys defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa knew quite a bit about rookie teammate Donovan Ezeiruaku when the Cowboys selected the Boston College defensive end in the second round this year, since "Ezie's" Boston College defensive line coach, Vince Oghobaase, was Osa's DL coach for two years at UCLA … With another padded practice scheduled for Thursday and a player day off on Friday, Schottenheimer decided to pull back Wednesday on the physicality, the team practicing in shells instead.
For this week's last word, let's go to the new offensive coordinator Adams, having made his mark in the coaching business as a respected offensive line coach. Thought his remarks quite interesting when asked to critique second-year left tackle Tyler Guyton, the Cowboys' 2024 first-round draft choice who had a so-so rookie season playing left tackle for the first time in his football career without much offensive line experience in college.
Guyton sure needed these training camp reps, though now he's going to miss the remainder of camp.
"I think what you see is a young guy getting an opportunity to play, and he's growing and maturing," Adams said. "One of the things I think that you see in this league relatively consistently with offensive linemen as they start to hit that 20-game start mark is you really do start to see a difference in those guys.
"I don't know exactly what those total starts are (11 starts in 15 games), obviously there weren't a ton of them in college from what I remember during the draft process, but the bottom line is you get better at football by playing football, and Tyler Guyton is no exception to that rule. He is growing and learning and improving, and we're really excited about the direction that he was heading and will be heading when he gets back."
A word to the impatient wise out there this day and age.
