David Helman
Dallas Cowboys Insider
The hand-wringing always happens at this time of year, when there are no results to argue about.
Spring in the NFL brings OTAs and mandatory minicamps, where teams are installing new schemes and players are getting their feet back underneath them. It’s several steps short of training camp practice, let alone the rigors of the regular season.
With that useful context, it makes sense that we dedicate so much time and energy to attendance. It’s one of the few tangible things we can glean from this small handful of offseason practices.
The story is obvious with CeeDee Lamb, and we’ve covered it. Lamb missed out on voluntary OTAs and will take a nearly $100,000 fine for missing the Cowboys’ mandatory minicamp, as he waits for a new contract that will make him among the NFL’s highest-paid receivers.
The conversation is a bit more nuanced for Micah Parsons, who reported for this week’s mandatory sessions after dipping in and out during voluntary work. This has caused some consternation among those that follow the Cowboys, who are trudging through a frustrating offseason.
As might be expected, the three-time All-Pro (correctly) pointed out that all he has done to this point is miss some optional, half-speed workouts — which hardly makes him unique among game-changing talents.
“There was a time where Aaron Donald didn’t even go to camp and he won Defensive Player of the Year and then went to the playoffs,” Parsons told reporters Tuesday. “Like, are we forgetting these times? Like, we wasn’t talking about the best defensive players wasn’t even in camp. And we’re in minicamps. Voluntary, at that.”
Nothing Parsons said is wrong in the strictest sense, but therein lies the crux of these conversations. The offseason program is looked upon as a foundation for players to put the extra work in, develop chemistry and do the little things that will make all the difference in…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/cowboys-micah-parsons-results-inform-offseason-process
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Publish date : 2024-06-06 16:19:40
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