OXNARD, Calif.—This is camp visit No. 14, and this one’s with the Cowboys traveling road show, the team still a week-and-a-half away from going back to Texas. Here’s what we got …
• The Micah Parsons story has swallowed this camp whole—Parsons came out for the Monday midday practice in a black hoodie, pulling his jersey over his head as his teammates went into stretch. We covered Parsons’s situation in the MMQB takeaways. I think this one plays out like CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott last year, or Zack Martin the year before, with a deal pushed over the goal line before the season (after a lot of silence). If it happens, the question then becomes whether Parsons is at risk for a soft-tissue injury after losing so many camp reps. The answer would be yes, but the Cowboys are doing all they can to mitigate that. Parsons, for his part, has done everything asked of him. He’s participating in walkthroughs. He’s engaged in the meeting room. He’s learning the new scheme from DC Matt Eberflus. He’s taking part in strength-and-conditioning work. He’s even mentoring young DE Donovan Ezeiruaku, who’s been impressive early on (veteran Dante Fowler’s been good too). So for someone who hasn’t always been the most popular guy in the locker room, amid the holdout, it does look like he’s doing all he can to be ready once the Cowboys hand him a pen to sign a new deal. I doubt he gets traded, but stranger things have happened.
• Behind Parsons and Ezeiruaku is probably the most improved group on the team. Eberflus has always valued big, long, fast linebackers, and he looks like he’s got that—even with budding star DeMarvion Overshown likely out until midseason. Fourth-year man Damone Clark is playing faster, and looks like he’s on the verge of breaking out. Rookie Shemar James’s speed and ability to trigger quickly has translated from what he did at Florida. Jack Sanborn’s coming over from Chicago with Eberflus. And Eberflus’s long-time linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi is back in Dallas to put it all together. So this went from a real question mark in the offseason to being one of the deepest spots on the roster. When Overshown gets back, the big question could be what to do with all of them.
• The biggest unknown for the defense is at corner, where Trevon Diggs is still working back from a balky knee and there’s uncertainty everywhere else. DaRon Bland’s the most valuable piece, back from an injury-marred 2024, because of his recent productivity, but also his versatility to play both inside and outside. And after that? The Cowboys have a couple of reclamation projects they may have to count on. One is ex-Bill Kaiir Elam, who has physical ability, but needed his confidence rebuilt a bit. The other is former Vikings cornerback Andrew Booth, who the Cowboys traded for last year and appeared in seven games with two starts in ‘24. So Dallas needs a lot of things to fall into place there.
• So far, so good on the dynamic between Lamb and big-play newcomer George Pickens. The two trained together in Florida this offseason, and new receivers coach Junior Adams has had the two working off each other constantly to try and build culture in his room—one example is how the two work on their own with one another and the position coach before practice every day. And a good sign of Pickens’s progress in Brian Schottenheimer’s offense is the coaches’ ability to move him around to different receiver spots, after he was almost exclusively an “X” receiver (split end) in Pittsburgh. After how things ended there for Pickens, it’s fair to say optimism that this will work should be guarded, but the early signs of the on- and off-field fits are pretty good.
• As for questions offensively, one will be the battle for snaps at tight end behind Jake Ferguson (Brevyn Spann-Ford and Luke Schoonmaker are battling), and another will be whether Tyler Guyton will be ready for the opener (that’ll be close, and if he can’t make it, Dallas will turn to Nate Thomas or Asim Richards). But the big one is at running back, where Javonte Williams is finally healthy, and showing why Denver was so high on him after drafting him in 2021. Right now, he’d probably be the lead dog, with Jaydon Blue (who’ll likely have a role on third down) and Phil Mafah fighting for snaps, and Miles Sanders bringing experience to the room.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cowboys Training Camp 2025: Micah Parsons's Holdout Looms Large.