When the 2026 Cowboys take the field at MetLife Stadium and in primetime, the lights may seem just a little brighter for Camden Brown than for anyone else wearing the star Sunday night. The 22-year-old has had an unlikely journey just to make it to Week 1, but the truth is, he's still at the very beginning.
Take it from one of the game's top analysts, who knows exactly the challenge Brown is still facing.
"You have to have the mindset of basically capturing the coaching staff's attention every day," said Brian Baldinger, who went undrafted out of Duke in 1982 and went on to play 143 games over the next six seasons on the Cowboys' offensive line.
Brown is the only rookie to make the team's 53-man roster this year as an undrafted free agent. Others
are waiting in the wings. Jordan Hudson, Michael Trigg, and Tommy Dunn were re-signed to the Dallas practice squad, while DJ Rogers and Kelvin Gilliam were placed on injured reserve for future consideration.
But the time is now for Brown, the wide receiver who started at Auburn but then transferred to Georgia Southern before improbably earning an NFL roster spot after an electrifying preseason. He caught two touchdown passes in the Cowboys' preseason opener versus Seattle and finished the exhibition slate with an impressive 27.7-yards-per-reception average that practically jumped off the TV screen.
"You've got to attract the right kind of attention, and if you're doing that in a game, you're probably doing that in practice, too. So the mindset is to basically get their attention every day by effort, by mastering certain techniques and fundamentals, whatever position it might be. That's the mindset you’ve got to have," Baldinger told Cowboys Wire last week on behalf of Betway.
"Show up every day."
Back in his day, Baldinger got the attention of his Cowboys coaches, but also his Cowboys teammates.
In particular, an all-time Cowboys legend and future Hall of Famer.
"I remember when I was a free agent," Baldinger said, "I wanted to win every conditioning drill there was, finish first across the line. Take every rep possible. When I went up against Randy White, he was the predominant defensive tackle in football."
Baldinger's tenacity, treating every practice rep like the Super Bowl was on the line, came at a personal cost. A one-on-one battle with White led to what is now the analyst's most recognizable calling card, a right pinkie finger that, at the second knuckle, permanently juts out an awkward 90 degrees sideways from the rest of his digits.
"I had a grip on him, and my finger got caught in his jersey. It was just dangling," Baldinger told the Bussin' With the Boys podcast back in early 2025. "I was freaking screaming. ... It didn't hurt that bad, but it was just dangling. So they go over and they tape it up, put it back, so I [can] go back in. The morning practice ends, and the whole defensive line in Dallas used to sit in the front row of the cafeteria and just ruin everybody that came downstairs into the cafeteria. So when I came in that day after practice ... the whole defensive line, they just start crying. 'Waaah, waaah... Baldy, you got hurt...' Everybody's imitating me whining on the field. And then they all stood up and they all put their hands up, and they're like, 'Join the club.' And they all had [expletive]d-up fingers. And I was like, 'Oh, I'm, part of the club now.'"
For this year's batch of UDFAs, joining the club can come in a variety of ways, as Baldinger, who reviews players from around the NFL on his popular Baldy's Breakdowns, has seen first-hand.
"Like this guy Kevin Jobity from the Pittsburgh Steelers," Baldinger offered. "Just made it as the seventh defensive tackle. Nobody keeps seven defensive tackles. But when you watch him play, he wore No. 92, and at the end of every play that he was on the field, he was at the ball. Even if he had to run across the field 30 yards, he got there. He kept showing up."
It's a somewhat familiar story for Cowboys fans, who have seen a long list of unsung and undrafted rookies turn into superstars, dating back to long before Camden Brown was even alive.
"Going back to my days with the Cowboys, we used to bring in 110 free agents," recalled Baldinger, now 67. "Whether it was Drew Pearson, Mark Tuinei, Bill Bates – free agents who got a great opportunity in preseason. It was a lot different back then, but they found great players because they brought so many in and filtered it, and had open competitions where you couldn't not give those guys a spot."
This year's Cowboys roster has a sizable UDFA presence. KaVontae Turpin, Terence Steele, T.J. Bass, Hunter Luepke, Markquese Bell, Alijah Clark, Brevyn Spann-Ford, and Brandon Aubrey all went undrafted and had to work their way onto the team, often beating out guys who heard their name called on draft weekend.
Brown, for instance, will suit up Sunday night. Anthony Smith, the wideout who was the Cowboys' seventh-round pick in April, waits on the practice squad.
"Some places, they just want to keep their draft picks. 'We drafted these guys, we're going to keep them,'" Baldinger explained. "But sometimes you’ve got to forget about where somebody came from and just evaluate the performance, the production and the type of person that they are. I think that's why some of these teams can keep finding these types of players, because they're not so worried about keeping their fifth-round pick over a free agent. Sometimes you’ve just got to take your ego out of it and look at the player, the performance and the improvement that they've made over the last five weeks."
Brown has made quite a splash thus far and impressed his Cowboys coaches. Now it's time to see if he can really swim with the sharks.
And, as Baldinger stresses, keep showing up every day.
Todd is on X at @ToddBrock24f7. Also, follow Cowboys Wire on Facebook to join in on the conversation with fellow fans!
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Camden Brown's mission, says former Cowboys UDFA Brian Baldinger: 'Show up every day'
