Cowboys' six biggest storylines heading into training camp
Ready or not, it's time to strap in once again.
It's been a uniquely painful offseason for the Dallas Cowboys. Even a full six months later, last year's playoff meltdown looms large in the psyche of one of the NFL's most tortured fan bases.
That pain would take a while to heal on its own, but it's not as if the organization has helped much. Starting with Jerry Jones' ill-fated "all-in" comments, extending to an especially lackluster free agency period and moving right along into three high-profile contract negotiations, it's been one frustration after another at The Star. It's enough that you'd be forgiven for losing track of it all.
That's where we come in. As the Cowboys prepare to touch down in California for another training camp on the West Coast, here are the six biggest storylines awaiting them.
6. Who totes the rock?
It'll be a fun nostalgia trip to have Ezekiel Elliott back in a Cowboys uniform, and it'll be cool to see him rock the No. 15 from his Ohio State years.
Beyond that, it's hard to get excited about this Dallas running backs room. It doesn't feel like a stretch to say the Cowboys are the thinnest at the position in the entire league after losing Tony Pollard in free agency. Elliott was serviceable for a bad New England team in 2023, but he's not the bell cow he was from 2016 to 2021. Rico Dowdle had some fun flashes in 2023, but he has 117 career touches in four years. Similarly, veteran Royce Freeman is averaging just 52 carries per year in the same time frame.
The next month is going to be telling for this group. There's no need to find a bona fide starter, but the goal should be to find a rotation that works. Who gets the most touches? Who's the best third down back? Who has the most big-play ability? Is there a role for scat back Deuce Vaughn or fullback Hunter Luepke?
Keep an eye on how the touches are divvied up in the preseason. And depending on how it all goes, keep an eye on other team's camp battles. If the Cowboys don't like what they see during training camp, it shouldn't be shocking if they turn to the waiver wire or even a trade to bump their performance at the position.
5. What can Trey Lance be?
One of the most interesting guys on the Cowboys' roster isn't even expected to play this year. But, starter or not, the team's uncertain future at quarterback throws an awfully large spotlight onto Lance.
It's been nearly a year since Dallas sent a fourth-round pick to San Francisco in exchange for Lance, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and this will be the first real look the public has had of him. With so much time to learn the scheme and study under Dak Prescott and Mike McCarthy, the Cowboys must be hoping he looks the part of a major draft pick.
There's way more at stake than winning a trade. If Prescott winds up leaving in 2025, Lance just might be the most plausible option to be the Cowboys' starter. Yes, he would also need a new contract in that case — but that'd be a heck of a lot cheaper than the deal that's awaiting Prescott's signature, wherever that may be.
It's an interesting daydream, but it's not a conversation worth having unless Lance looks the part this summer. Finding out whether they have something in their young quarterback needs to be one of the Cowboys' top priorities.
4. Will the OL youth movement work?
Tyler Biadasz was an unsung warhorse of the Cowboys' past three seasons. The veteran center appeared in 53 of the team's 55 games en route to 37 total wins since 2021. His snap count for that stretch was a whopping 3,296 plays. That type of stability and consistency is underrated, even if Biadasz hasn't been an All-Pro caliber center to this point in his career.
Tyron Smith is very much the opposite. Thanks to unfortunate injuries, Smith's snap count for that same stretch is a much lower 1,856. But when healthy, as he was for most of 2023, the perennial All-Pro still looks like one of the very best left tackles in football.
How you feel about either player is irrelevant from the Cowboys' standpoint, as both players are gone — taking their 227 combined career starts with them.
Their replacements will be young, to put it mildly.
Tyler Guyton is the obvious vocal point. The Cowboys drafted the Oklahoma standout No. 29 overall in the spring, and they'll be hoping they were as correct about him as they were about 2022 first-round pick Tyler Smith. Guyton, a right tackle in college, is the early favorite to grab Tyron Smith's longtime spot on the left side.
The center situation is a bit murkier. The word out of Dallas is that the Cowboys are high on second-year center Brock Hoffman, who started one game as a rookie when Biadasz was injured. Rookie guard Cooper Beebe has the flexibility to play center, or perhaps another second-year player in T.J. Bass might have a say in the position battle.
In a perfect world, the young guys grab these jobs and don't let go, prompting everyone to declare once again that the Cowboys are masters of the NFL draft. And, to give credit to them, their track record suggests that's incredibly possible.
Things get dicey if that doesn't play out at training camp, though. If Guyton's not ready at left tackle, journeyman Chuma Edoga becomes a possible starter — or stranger yet, perhaps the Cowboys' coaching staff debates moving Tyler Smith back out to left tackle, where he played as a rookie.
Scary as that sounds, at least there are options. The Cowboys don't have a ton of choices at center if their youngsters don't pan out.
It's easy to fixate on the skill positions, but the Cowboys' offensive success just might depend on who fills those two vacancies on the offensive line — and how well they do it.
3. How far along is Trevon Diggs?
When he's healthy, there aren't many better ballhawks in the NFL than Trevon Diggs. His 11 interceptions in 2021 earned him first-team All-Pro honors, and his 17 picks in his first three seasons helped him earn a $97 million contract last summer.
Injury grabbed Diggs at a particularly cruel moment, as the Cowboys lost him for the season during a Week 3 practice last September.
One silver lining of such an early injury is that Diggs has had that much longer to work on his recovery. He enters his fifth NFL training camp 10 months removed from injury, which gives him much better odds of participating quickly. Time will tell how the Cowboys ease him back, as they will reportedly place him on the physically unable to perform list to open camp.
However it shakes out, they'll need him back playing at an All-Pro level for the regular season if their defense is going to maintain its high level of play under Mike Zimmer.
2. How far will the Dak Prescott negotiations go?
What's left to say about the most pressing contract negotiation in the NFL?
We know the score with Prescott and the Cowboys. The eight-year veteran turns 31 next week, just as he's beginning the final year of his contract. That contract includes a no-tag clause, which means the Cowboys have no way of keeping him from hitting the free agency market in March 2025.
If Prescott is going to be the Cowboys' starter beyond this season, he needs a new deal — and he probably needs it before the season starts, to eliminate the temptation of testing the open market.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, they're not going to learn anything new in the next month. We know what Prescott is — a Pro Bowl quarterback in the prime of his career with a 62% career win percentage. We also know what he's missing, which is a deep playoff run in any of his five trips to the postseason.
Nothing that happens in August is going to change that. Instead, training camp seems like it's going to function as a sort of standoff — a chance for Cowboys officials to feel out their options while watching Prescott prepare for his ninth NFL season.
It promises to be highly dramatic, but it also doesn't look likely to affect this team's record in 2024. All indications are that Prescott will be on hand in Oxnard, Calif. — which is why he's taking the No. 2 spot to the biggest storyline of this year's camp.
1. When will CeeDee Lamb show?
Will the Cowboys' All-Pro receiver even be seen in California any time soon?
Lamb was willing to eat a $101,000 fine to prove a point during the spring, as he skipped the team's mandatory minicamp in search of a contract extension.
Obviously, that extension still has not arrived, and the current collective bargaining agreement allows clubs to fine players $50,000 for each training camp practice missed during a holdout. If Lamb stays away from the team this month, he could be looking at losing roughly $850,000.
That still might be worth it. Justin Jefferson recently signed a $140 million extension, with roughly $89 million of it guaranteed when he signed it. Even a million dollars might be a price worth paying if it helps Lamb secure a similar guarantee.
Hopefully, he gets it. At the age of just 25, Lamb has established himself as one of the best receivers in football over multiple years at this point, and the payday would be well deserved.
This is less about whether Lamb is deserving, and more about how quickly the Cowboys can get him into camp. Lamb will once again be the focal point of this Dallas offense in 2024, and it wouldn't be good for anyone involved if the best weapon on the team isn't getting reps until the start of the regular season.
David Helman covers the Dallas Cowboys for FOX Sports and hosts the NFL on FOX podcast. He previously spent nine seasons covering the Cowboys for the team's official website. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in producing "Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion" about the quarterback's time at Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.
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