OXNARD, Calif. – The west coast portion of training camp is all but finished.
Sure, the Cowboys still have 24 days until the regular season starts, and there are still three preseason games to play. But the circus leaves Oxnard for good in roughly 24 hours.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett took the opportunity to address the media one last time before his team's final practice in California.
- Garrett confirmed that guard Ronald Leary is having his knee scoped and will likely miss about "two weeks." He said Leary's procedure won't be overly complicated and shouldn't cause him to miss too much time. Leary is en route back to Dallas and won't be in Arizona for the preseason game against the Cardinals.
- Travis Frederick will likely not flip to left guard because of Leary's injury. Garrett said Frederick has impressed the coaching staff with his flexibility between center and right guard. But the current plan doesn't involve Frederick at left guard.
- The Cowboys' practice schedule will flip when the team returns to Dallas. Whereas practices in Oxnard have been from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m., practices in Dallas will begin at 8:15 a.m. and won't be open to the public.
- There Cowboys will hold a scrimmage in AT&T Stadium next Thursday night, and it will be open to the public.
- Garrett said the Cowboys' starters will see "a little more than they did last week," in terms of playing time. Though, he said it's important to evaluate the need for playing time on a player-by-player basis.
- For instance, rookie wide receiver Terrance Williams is a guy who Garrett said might merit extra playing time, because he missed the first two games of the preseason.
- Williams said following Thursday's walkthrough that he's excited to get some playing time with the offensive starters, and he feels comfortable with the playbook to this point in the preseason. [embedded_ad]
- Quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson said the relationship between Garrett and offensive coordinator Bill Callahan has been healthy and smooth since Callahan took charge of playcalling. Wilson also diagrammed, loosely, Tony Romo's role in gameplanning with the coaching staff.
- "What we've done in the offseason is, we see concepts that we like, let's find as many plays that run like that for whoever's running them and then present a grab bag, or physical evidence on tape and say 'This is why we like this, and this is what the reads would be and does it fit our stuff,'" Wilson said. "Then we'll look at it as a staff with Tony in there. 'Does it fit? Yeah.' Or, 'Does it fit? No let's don't do it.' It's been very healthy."
