FRISCO, Texas – Training camp is winding to a close, but you wouldn't know it from the work at practice.
In their last padded practice before the preseason finale, the Cowboys got after it in a spirited session. With Saturday's practice serving as a lighter workload, this was the last opportunity for full look at the roster before Sunday's kickoff against Jacksonville.
Here's a notebook from the practice field:
- Dak Prescott let it rip on Friday morning, to put it simply. As he continues to ramp up his activity coming off the shoulder strain, Prescott keeps opening up his throwing more and more. This practice saw him making the longest and strongest throws since the injury. Most impressively, he connected with Malik Turner on a 45-yard go ball during the pat and go period of practice. Later, during team reps, he found Cedrick Wilson and Michael Gallup on 25-yard completions that saw him lace the ball over the middle of the field. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said Thursday that Prescott is not working with any limitations, and that looks to be the case.
- One main injury concern to monitor coming out of Friday. La'el Collins exited the field about midway through practice with the Cowboys' medical staff. After practice, word surfaced that he was dealing with a stinger. Collins left practice last week with neck discomfort, but it didn't ultimately cost him any practice time. It's not clear yet whether these two injuries are related.
- Malik Hooker was activated off the reserve/COVID list and returned to practice. Tyron Smith and Leighton Vander Esch were both held out with an illness, though it was not COVID-related. Trevon Diggs missed practice earlier this week with a non-COVID-related illness, and he returned to practice on Friday.
- This was Malik Turner's first practice back after suffering a turf toe injury in the preseason game against Arizona, and it was an eventful one. In addition to the long ball from Prescott, Turner also made one of the plays of the day when he caught a red zone touchdown from Prescott along the far sideline. Maurice Canady had excellent coverage and contested the catch all the way out of bounds, but Turner managed to hold the ball above his head while getting enough steps down. Canady made his case that Turner didn't have control of the catch before he went out of bounds, but the sideline referee ruled it a score.
- Greg Zuerlein looked much better in his second go-around kicking field goals. After a shaky, 5-of-8 day on Wednesday, Zuerlein connected on 8-of-9 kicks during Friday's session. He started from about 30 yards away and moved backward, with his longest kick connecting from 49 yards. His lone miss was from about 46 yards.
- One of the more active practices of Kelvin Joseph's training camp. The rookie seemed to be around the ball a lot and came away with two impressive pass breakups.
- Neville Gallimore watched practice with the team on the sideline, wearing a brace over his injured elbow. The second-year defensive tackle could miss six to eight weeks.
- Second-team quarterback Cooper Rush almost had a deep completion to rookie receiver Simi Fehoko down the left sideline, but rookie cornerback Nahshon Wright did a nice job closing on Fehoko and knocking the ball away at the last second.
- DeMarcus Lawrence is beginning to increase his practice work leading up to the season opener, taking a few team reps at defensive end. The Cowboys have been smart with Lawrence's workload coming off clean-up back surgery in the spring, so Dorance Armstrong has taken most of the first-team reps at left end in camp and had a would-be sack on Garrett Gilbert in team drills Friday.
