OXNARD, Calif. – What's new? It's training camp, and a Cowboys player is unhappy with his contract situation. Imagine that.
This has been going on for more than 50 years, probably starting way back in the 1970s when quarterback Roger Staubach went to great lengths to get Cowboys president Tex Schramm's attention one day when Tex was avoiding his Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
So Roger, known as the "Dodger, dodged around the Cowboys' administrative assistant, went out the window onto a ledge of the team's high-rise office building to leap in front of Schramm's next door office window for one of those ta-dah moments.
Story goes, Tex, with feet propped up on his desk, nearly fell out of his chair in astonishment while trying to scramble to his feet and let Roger in.
Fifty years later, asking to be trade seems small potatoes.
Come on, what's the big fuss? Randy White held out of training camp in 1984. Tony Dorsett held out in 1985. Emmitt Smith famously held out in 1990 and 1993. Michael Irvin held out in 1992, signing only days before the season opener. Jay Novacek and Daryl Johnston missed parts of camp in 1992. Let's see, Ezekiel Elliott in 2019, CeeDee Lamb and Zack Martin just last year.
Now Micah Parsons, delivering demands to be traded by intending to publicly ramp up the negotiations through what little leverage he has. Through a statement released on social media, Micah says he doesn't want to be here anymore even though the defensive end has 24 million reasons to be here, guaranteed on the fifth-year option the Cowboys picked up.
We'll see. But remember, salary cap money is salary cap money.
OK, OK. Calling a 30-second timeout to shift gears.
How about something new, not the same ol', same ol'?
The Cowboys offense is displaying unaccustomed speed here in training camp. Talking breaking-human-sound-barrier-type speed.
We know all about KaVontae Turpin with his roadrunner beep-beep speed, the guy who burst onto the scene out here on the West Coast back on Aug. 18, 2022, in Costa Mesa during a practice against the Chargers. That's when this 5-7, 158-pound whippet of a return man took both a kickoff return and punt return back for touchdowns against the Chargers' special teams.
Vividly remember interviewing him after the practice, asking him why he thinks a guy my size while looking him eye to eye could make it in the NFL.
"Speed kills, man," he said. Two days later in a preseason game, the former USFL Offensive Player of the Year just killed it, proving he knew what he was talking about by recording kickoff returns of 98 yards and 86 yards for touchdowns. Then head coach Mike McCarthy promised the rookie free agent wasn't going anywhere, basically guaranteeing him a job.
Now, with the two-time Pro Bowl special teamer entering his fourth season, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer seems intentional about keeping his offseason word to use Turp's high-octane speed more in the passing game. We are seeing this develop daily. He is getting open. He is catching regular route passes. And cornerbacks better not overplay him in coverage, or they will know he is No. 9.
"I feel like, man, they are trying to get me the ball. Like I said, if they want to put me at tight end, I'll go play tight end," said Turpin after spending a good 10 minutes following a post-practice NFL Network interview signing autographs for those people located behind the fence, taking pictures with nearly everyone asking. "I'm just down with whatever Schotty wants me to do, man. Like I said, I'm a team player first."
Well, and we know about the ability of Lamb and newcomer George Pickens to stretch the field, but now Turpin has a teammate who could challenge him in a foot race. Name the distance, 20, 40, 60, 100 yards. Let's go.
His name is Jaydon Blue, and how fitting this being the color of his last name because the rookie running back from Texas can really scoot. Blue is so appropriate since the fastest known bird out there – and wait for it – is the blue falcon.
Something about this color blue – blue streak, out of the blue – all suggesting speed and suddenness.
Well, as for a running back, Jaydon, having worked with the first team this week with Miles Sanders missing practice the other day, exhibited his out-of-the-blue running ability. Remember, Blue ran that 4.28 time in the 40 at the Longhorns' Pro Day.
So no surprise seeing the rookie tear through the line of scrimmage on running plays, and we're not talking outside the tackles. We are talking inside, slithering through the smallest of creases, causing Schottenheimer to tell me the other day it's not just his all-out speed that is a problem for defenses, but it's his cat-like acceleration through the hole that makes him so dangerous.
Maybe it takes a speedster to know one.
"With Blue, I'm happy he's finding his groove, you know, and with me and him on the field together it's going to be lightning in a bottle, man," Turpin said. "Me with the bottle lightning, he coming with the thunder, all at the same time. He's finding his comfort zone right now.
"Here's learning the playbook, the comfort is coming on, and I'm going to help him," said Turpin, maybe the only guy on the team who can keep up with him to do so.
Now just picture, this, and guarantee you Schottenheimer, Klayton Adams and running backs coach Derrick Foster have, once Blue gets up to, uh, speed, with the NFL game and the playbook, getting Turpin and Blue on the field at the same time.
Envision Lamb to one side, Pickens to the other, Turp in the slot and Blue at running back. Can't double everyone. And even in a nickel defense with an extra defensive back on the field, with that much speed at least one safety has to remain in place. One of these guys, Blue coming out of the backfield or Turpin out of the slot, will draw single coverage from a linebacker. Good luck with that.
Or what if the Cowboys go empty, flanking Blue out wide? He has good hands, demonstrating the other day when making that down-the-field one-handed grab while stretched out on the sideline. Now what? Going zero coverage, meaning manning all these guys? Good luck with all that. Better have a 4x100 relay team in the secondary. Calling 911 won't help in time.
This all is a work in progress. But Turpin, now more familiar with the offense and earning the trust of the offensive coaches as more than just a gadget receiver, will definitely pose problems for defenses as a legit receiver, and his speed on those jet sweeps will always keep opponents on edge.
Then along comes Blue, and with Pickens and Lamb always deep threats, this could be something special, a handful for defenses and might leave you drooling.
And that right there just might be a welcomed something new.
