FRISCO, Texas — Friday was the first day of rookie mini-camp at The Star in Frisco. Drafted and undrafted players were on the field for what felt like a small step towards the 2021 NFL season.
But the biggest step towards both next season and a slice of normalcy will be training camp in July. On Friday, Jerry Jones made a point of speaking to the media after practice to speak about a return to Oxnard, California for training camp.
Jones said there was nothing to officially announce yet but sounded confident that the franchise would be able to hold training camp in Oxnard. There are still necessary steps that the NFL requires before they approve where any team holds their training camp as well as additional communication with the city of Oxnard.
"We have a few details to work out, but I'd say systems are on go," Jones said.
The Cowboys had held at least a portion of every training camp in Oxnard from 2012 until last season's disruption due to COVID-19 in which the team held an altered version of training camp at The Star in Frisco.
Jones was unwilling to state definitively if fans would be in attendance at training camp, but he made clear that he would prefer to have as many fans as possible throughout the process. "We're working on that," Jones said. "I'd like that to not be an issue, but I think we're going to be satisfied with what we do there."
If the dates are similar to 2020, training camp would kick off around July 21.
If the Cowboys end up heading to Oxnard again this summer, it would mark the 20thanniversary of the first camp there back in 2001. Since then, the Cowboys have been there 14 other seasons.
