Cowboys news: Best battles to track at the upcoming OTAs
Ranking Cowboys’ 4 Most Intriguing Position Battles Entering OTAs – Randy Gurzi, SI.com
It’s just OTAs but these battles are already heating up.
The Dallas Cowboys will meet for OTAs beginning June 1, which means the long offseason is nearing a conclusion. Not long after their voluntary workouts, the Cowboys will have a short mandatory minicamp, then won’t meet again until late July for training camp in Oxnard. While the upcoming practices are voluntary, the Cowboys typically have a high attendance rate. It’s also a good idea for players fighting for a spot on the roster to attend and soak up as much coaching as possible. Recently, I wrote about the position battles which will be the most important for the team in the 2026 season. Now, let’s look at the ones that might not be incredibly vital, but will still be intriguing for fans.
Reserve Inside Linebacker: Shemar James, Jaishawn Barham
Shemar James was a surprise contributor for the Cowboys as a rookie. The fifth-round pick out of Florida played in 14 games with six starts and recorded 91 tackles and 1.5 sacks. While the numbers were impressive, James earned a low grade of 39.9 from PFF, including a 40.9 in coverage and 38.2 in run defense. To be fair, he didn’t get much help, which put him in bad positions often, so there’s hope that he can improve with a better supporting cast. He won’t be handed the main reserve spot behind Dee Winters and DeMarvion Overshown, however, with rookie Jaishawn Barham offering plenty of competition. Barham lined up at linebacker and EDGE for Michigan and offers an intriguing skill set. Heclaims he’s in Dallas to take jobs and OTAs will give him his first chance to make a name for himself.
Defensive Line: Jonathan Bullard, LT Overton
Much has been made about Christian Parker running a 3-4 scheme, but in today’s NFL, teams are more often playing in the nickel. Still, there will be times when Parker wants to use a three-man line with big defensive ends. Jonathan Bullard fits that mold at 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds. He’s not an elite pass rusher, but Bullard was ranked 29th in run defense among defensive lineman last season, according to PFF. He comes in with 10 years of experience and was an underrated signing.
He will also have an underrated rookie fighting for his spot. LT Overton out of Alabama was selected 137th overall and gives Dallas another massive defensive lineman who can stuff the run. The 6-foot-3, 274-pound Overton has extensive experience in a 3-4 and is already impressing teammates. Cowboys On SI writer Mike Moraitis recently detailed how veteran Otito Ogbonnia warned veterans not to sleep on Overton.
Tony Romo, Jason Witten could be next members of Ring of Honor – RJ Ochoa,Blogging the Boys
These all-time Cowboys greats could be the next to be immortalized for America’s Team.
The last one was a doozy, to be fair. When the Dallas Cowboys enshrined Jimmy Johnson into the Ring of Honor (something that was more than way overdue) in late 2023, it felt like a lot of fans found their bliss on the subject. Jimmy was finally in. With all due respect, who cares what happened from that point moving forward? Obviously that was not literally true, and more of an expression of joy for Johnson’s induction. It hasn’t even been a thousand days since then, but idle hands given the time of year we are in. Who should go in next?
Tony Romo and Jason Witten make the most sense
That answer is from a practical standpoint. You can make arguments for people who are long overdue like Johnson was, although obviously no one is quite in that same sort of situation, but there is some measure of reality involved in terms of what is most likely to happen. Early on Friday we launched a discussion in The Feed where we asked the BTB crowd this exact question. Answers ranged all over the place, but everyone certainly agrees that Tony Romo and Jason Witten will one day be a part of the group.
Johnson was the last person inducted as noted, but he was one of two people inducted across 2023 as a whole. DeMarcus Ware got his due earlier that year. Wikipedia does a great job with certain tables and this one showed the induction date for every member of the team’s Ring of Honor. There have only been two more inductions besides Johnson and Ware over the last decade, and only one of them was a player in Darren Woodson.
The colors highlighted are important context for this discussion. Yellow marks people in the Pro Football Hall of Fame while blue denotes people who have only reached the finalist level. It remains an atrocity that both Lee Roy Jordan and Darren Woodson remain without bronze busts. Both Johnson and Ware were already HOFers when they were tabbed for the ROH. Gil Brandt was not yet in, but he would be chosen as a member just a few months after ROH induction. This has long been an argument for things like the ROH, that it helps boost credentials.
Could Caleb Downs be All-Pro in his rookie season? – Mark Heaney, Inside the Star
Caleb Williams was a great draft pick, but could he instantly prove his greatness as a rookie?
When the Dallas Cowboys traded up one spot to snag Ohio State’s Caleb Downs back in April, the fanbase lit up in a way I have not seen in a long, long time. We’re not accustomed to making a move for “the guy” or being aggressive about doing it; the move up for Downs was both in one. Somehow, over a month has already passed since that moment, and soon the discourse around him will turn from Draft Day hype to his actual performance.
All eyes will be on the youngster this summer, especially considering the huge role he is expected to play on a defense that needs major help. Just how great can he be? Can he reach those sky-high expectations and be an All-Pro as a rookie? Let’s talk about it.
Caleb Downs: Is An All-Pro Rookie Season Possible?
First, what history has to say about this is important in answering whether it is possible. For Downs, he’s expected to do a bit of everything defensively, but he’s a defensive back at his core, of course. Since 2000, only a select few DBs have ever made All-Pro as a rookie, but it has happened. Sauce Gardner got the nod with the Jets in 2022, Derwin James did as a safety in 2018, and Marcus Peters, thanks to an eight-interception season, did in 2015.
James is the most comparable to Downs, even if the newest Cowboy will place a lot of nickel corner in his rookie year. In that 2018 campaign, James played and started in 16 games, recorded 105 total tackles (4 for loss), 3.5 sacks, 3 interceptions, and 13 passes defensed. If you compare that to Downs’s freshman year at Alabama, he had 107 total tackles (3.5 for loss), 2 interceptions, and 4 passes defensed. Pretty similar numbers for James’s rookie year, and Downs was a literal true freshman in the SEC at the time.
Commanders expert accidentally gave Cowboys fans the perfect rebuttal – Jerry Trotta, The Landry Hat
How Washington gave Cowboys fans the last laugh.
There’s a strong argument that the NFC East boasts the fiercest rivalries in football, and those feuds don’t take the offseason off. Dallas Cowboys fans care deeply about what happens in Philadelphia, Washington, and New York year-round. Of course, caring deeply comes with a healthy dose of schadenfreude. Whether it’s John Harbaugh raising Giants expectations to dangerous levels or the Commanders swinging and missing on multiple wide receivers in free agency, no perceived mistake escapes scrutiny.
That sentiment is shared around the division, but Commanders expert Dean Jones of Riggo’s Rag missed the mark with his reaction to Cowboys WR Parris Campbell’s sudden retirement this week, dubbing it a “surprising setback.”
“Just as the Cowboys had some semblance of stability, wide receiver Parris Campbell was placed on the reserve/retired list,” Jones wrote. “Instead of trying to force his way into Dallas’ plans, the 2019 second-round selection has called time on his career after seven years.”
We might be splitting hairs, but Campbell’s retirement is hardly a “setback.” If anything, it provides some much-needed clarity in a receiver room that has plenty of unanswered questions behind CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, and Ryan Flournoy.
Parris Campbell wouldn’t have made the Dallas Cowboys’ roster anyway
While Dallas may have been counting on Campbell to provide competition and mentorship in OTAs and training camp, he was not going to make the team. He spent most of last season on the practice squad, appearing in one game, and the WR room only got deeper this offseason. Jalen Tolbert’s departure leaves an open spot on the 53-man roster, but the Cowboys drafted East Carolina standout Anthony Smith in Round 4, signed SMU’s Jordan Hudson as an undrafted free agent, and added vets Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Tyler Johnson post-draft. Campbell may have entered OTAs as WR8. That’s not an exaggeration. All of the following players are hoping to make the team alongside Lamb, Pickens, and Flournoy:
Daily discussion question: Which notable player on the team do you trust the least?
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