There aren’t that many Sundays remaining this calendar year without Dallas Cowboys football at the forefront of our collective minds, but this past Sunday was one of them as the team was off from training camp practice. The next time the Cowboys take the field in Oxnard will ratchet up the intensity with a new look as the pads will come on for the first time.
Through three unpadded practices, there has been a flurry of takeaways that back up the way this team was positioned to go full speed ahead
into nothing but football activities without any contract disputes or other drama lingering during the offseason. Rookies, veterans, and roster dark horses alike have all had standout moments.
Still early enough in camp, now is a good time to remind fans that one of the best ways to carry any camp insights into anything actually meaningful for the regular season is to not get caught up in individual reps that show a player trending upwards or down, but rather be patient and wait to see the players that string together multiple reps, and then multiple practices, in a row.
Let’s take a look at three players that have proven themselves in this regard, and what it means for not only them but the big picture of Brian Schottenheimer’s team in year two of his culture build.
WR George Pickens
If you were to ask yourself what single player anywhere on the Cowboys roster would benefit the most from having the type of reserved, locked-in on football offseason they have had, George Pickens would be a fantastic answer. Pickens was the source of the one contract related thing that played out, but it came and went without the Cowboys doing their usual thing of trying to drag down a players perception through the media.
This turned out to be the right idea, because Pickens has been balling out at training camp, doing exactly what a player being asked to prove it on a franchise tag should be doing. Pickens has been so good that even some of the encouraging practice reports from Cowboys defensive backs have come with the asterisk that Pickens is still mostly getting the best of everyone in coverage.
The Cowboys were forced to take a lot of shots down the field in the pass game last season from a trailing position thanks to their hapless defense. Even still in a lot of these moments, Pickens found a way to come down with highlight reel catches, and also had the juice in the short passing game to put up a career high in YAC.
The thought of the Cowboys offense being on the field in a whole lot more neutral positions where defenses have to respect all levels of the passing game as well as the run (where Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah would both be “honorable mentions” to make this consistency list) is a great one for Cowboys fans and scary one for defenses, especially with how dialed in Pickens has been from the first practice in Oxnard.
WR Ryan Flournoy
Adding yet another layer to how dynamic the Dallas pass attack can be, the first inkling of this is that CeeDee Lamb is not even on this list despite his own strong start to camp, but rather a third-year player with the arrow pointing up that Lamb himself gave a recent endorsement to – saying he can be a 1,000 yard receiver in this offense.
That would be none other than Ryan Flournoy, who impressed in the third WR role in a way the Cowboys have been lacking for some time. Having two top-dog type receivers that should leave plenty of room for a third to take advantage of coverage mismatches is an area the Cowboys have been good at roster building before, but actually getting that third target to establish himself in a way that keeps the whole offense humming is where they’ve fallen short.
Not only did the duo of Lamb and Pickens show signs of turning a corner in this way from that top-dog standpoint, but Flournoy in the WR3 role did as well in the new scheme installed by Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams last season. Flournoy’s crispness as a route runner has stood out from the training camp highlight clips, giving the Cowboys a trio of players that can win all over the field.
A lot of defenses around the league are preparing right now for how to play against heavy personnel and multiple tight ends on the field at the same time as a trend from last year expected to explode further in ‘26, but those on the Cowboys schedule better have answers for three legitimate threats at wide receiver first and foremost, before even considering any of their capable tight ends, too.
QB Dak Prescott
When all three of your top wide receivers are standing out in camp, and the defense can’t actually hit anyone, naturally the reports on the quarterback play should be glowing as well. This has certainly been the case for Dak Prescott.
What’s been particularly exciting about the glimpses we’ve seen from Prescott is the way the ball is coming out of his hands quickly, with confidence no matter where the ball is going. Be it the targets we’ve already discussed here like Lamb, Pickens, or Flournoy, or even a touchdown to UDFA TE Michael Trigg, the trust is there that if Dak puts the ball in the right spot his skill guys are going to come down with it. The extra touch of accuracy has been there from Prescott to make this point even stronger.
The pressure the Cowboys offense was under to score every single time they were on the field in 2025 because of the defense was unlike anything a lot of fans have witnessed before. To have a defense that made the type of statistical season Prescott had an afterthought was malpractice, but now the question shifts back to Prescott in one important way too.
Dak has not played a full season in consecutive years since his first four as a starter from 2016-2019. Based on just the little bit we’ve seen in Oxnard so far, Prescott is in full command of the offense at a level that will be nearly impossible for any QB2 to come in and replicate. The Cowboys will need their field general to stay healthy, and having as many answers as he’s found in the pass game at the start of camp is an exciting way to forecast a big season where he does stay healthy, the defense is at serviceable at worst, and the Cowboys improve on their 7-9-1 record as a result.
What it all means
Considering the fact the Cowboys pass offense has been a strength for years on end without any playoff success to show for it, but this time around has more depth popping up than usual, shows that even with an improved defense and the reliability of Javonte Williams at RB, this team will still flow through the passing game.
We find ourselves saying repeatedly during the regular season that games in the NFL must be won and lost with your highest paid players on the field, which still favors the Cowboys offense and particularly Prescott. If one of the side effects of having a high-octane offense yet again is allowing the Dallas defense to disguise and mix things up more than they ever have before, thanks to Parker’s coaching and the new talent on that side of the ball, then that would be a welcome adjustment to give this team balance and find ways to win in all phases.
