OXNARD, Calif. – We come to training camp every year looking for the Cowboys to solve problems.
Like this year.
What's the running back position going to look like?
Can Mazi Smith really play?
Will first-round pick Tyler Guyton be ready to start the season as the starting left tackle, replacing future Hall of Famer Tyron Smith?
When will the Cowboys get wide receiver CeeDee Lamb signed to a contract extension?
What about Dak, too?
Will Jalen Tolbert become the No. 3 wide receiver?
What about the linebacker position?
On and on and on.
We also come, as our esteemed radio voice of the Cowboys Brad Sham likes to point out, to discover who is going to get hurt.
And we already saw the first shoe to fall, Sam Williams. Torn ACL before even the pads came on, out for the season. And as Cowboys COO Stephen Jones points out when bringing in four free-agent defensive ends for workouts on Thursday and signing two, Shaka Toney and Al Quadin Muhammad, "I don't think there is one you can say takes care of Sam missing." Or as special teams coach John Fassel points out, another guy just sick to his stomach losing Sam, the third-year defensive end was going to be an integral part of the kickoff and kickoff coverage units under these new rules.
And in doing all this introspection, we sometimes ignore what's staring us right in the face.
Like Pro Bowl and All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland standing out there at left cornerback.
Like the return of two-time Pro Bowl and one-time All-Pro corner Trevon Diggs back out there at right cornerback.
And just asking, are there any other teams in the NFL lining up two All-Pro corners? Two Pro Bowl corners?
How sweet is that?
Well, hey, new-old defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, now in his 29th year coaching in the NFL, ever had such a luxury out at cornerback?
"Never," Zimm says.
What about you Al Harris, as a 15-year NFL player or now 13th year NFL coach?
"One time as a player," Harris remembers, himself and Charles Woodson with the Packers, playing together as Pro Bowlers from 2007 through 2009, but never as a coach until now.
As for the Cowboys, before the arrival of Diggs and Bland, they only had seven previous Pro Bowl cornerbacks, and only once did they have two career Pro Bowl cornerbacks actually playing at the same time: Mel Renfro for half the 1967 season and Cornell Green before he was switched to safety.
But here come the Cowboys in 2024, boasting two Pro Bowl and All-Pro cornerbacks. Diggs in 2021-22 before suffering a torn ACL two games into the 2023 season, and Bland in 2023, leading the NFL with nine interceptions, setting an NFL single-season record with five of those returned for touchdowns.
"You don't see that a lot," Harris said of this star-studded pair.
And not in the NFL this year. Best we could find for the 2024 season is a Pro Bowl cornerback teaming with a Pro Bowl safety.
But not two cornerbacks having won Pro Bowl honors during their careers. Only the Cowboys carry that distinction.
And neither this.
"And you got two All-Pro guys in the same room," Harris says, referencing in their careers. "I've never seen that."
Plus, how about this one: The Cowboys now have two players to have led the NFL in interceptions starting in the same secondary, Diggs with 11 in 2021 and now Bland with nine in 2023.
In franchise history, the Cowboys only had three other cornerbacks to lead the NFL in interceptions: Walls twice in 1981 with 11 and 1985 with nine; Hall of Famer Mel Renfro in 1969 with 10; and this one slipping by me for good reason, Don Bishop in 1961 with eight.
And let's remember, after Walls set the Cowboys' single-season interception record with those 11 in his rookie 1981 season, no other NFL player had more picks than 10 until Diggs 30 years later matched Walls' high. The NFL single-season record belongs to Dick "Night Train" Lane with 14 in 1952.
So this is a position the Cowboys can hang their hat on, providing Diggs returns to his 2022 form before suffering the torn ACL. And to give him every chance to reach that height, the Cowboys have not rushed him back into practice. Diggs spent the first full week of training camp on PUP to continue rehabbing that knee. He's now like nine months removed from his Oct. 25, 2023, surgery.
Physically, his knee is ready to go. Diggs, taken off PUP this week but still being slow-played into practice, showed early in the week he's ready to run full speed. After practice one day, impromptu after the players met for a post-practice huddle up, there went Diggs and Micah Parsons tearing toward the goal line in a race, and you know how Parsons hates to lose at anything.
Diggs beat him.
Diggs says he's ready to go. That he has no limitations once the Cowboys move him into a full practice, not yet having participated in one-on-one drills or 11-on-11. Sometimes the biggest hurdle coming back is mental. We'll see.
But seems there is some external motivation taking place. Now, not sure if returning from a torn ACL had any factor in this, but saw one ranking of the top secondaries in the NFL. The Cowboys, even with Diggs and Bland back playing together, were ranked fifth behind Cleveland, the New York Jets, Miami and Chicago.
And when it comes to individual cornerback ratings, after looking at four of them, none had Diggs ranked in the top 10. So he was asked the other day here at camp, starting with, "There is a list that came out …"
"What it said, what it said," Diggs interrupted, laughing, knowing darn well what it said, and before the question ever finished,
"What did it say?"
"It said you weren't one of the top-10 cornerbacks in the league. Does that motivate you? And how eager are you to prove that you are again?"
"Um, I feel like I'm in a league of my own,'' Diggs said. "There is nobody that can do what I do. There is nobody that can do what Bland does. I feel like we're in a league of our own. And that's that. We don't care about no list.
"Our work is going to show on the field. If you can pull up another DB on our list that did anything we did, show me."
Remember, Diggs and Bland have only played one season together, back in 2022 when Bland was a rookie, having started eight games, first in the slot on the nickel and then moving outside after Anthony Brown was lost for the season. Then just two games last year before Diggs suffered his knee injury, Bland ending up starting 15 games and one in the playoffs after moving from the slot outside to replace Diggs, who had to watch his understudy star.
Now we get to see both out there, one side and the other.
"He's the best defensive back there is out there, for sure," Diggs proclaims about his teammate Bland.
Whoa, wait a minute, better than you?
"Well, 1A and 1B," quick-witted Digg says smiling.
But maybe smiling most is Zimmer, the Cowboys one-time secondary coach before becoming the defensive coordinator from 2000-06, knowing he will start two All-Pro cornerbacks this season.
"It's great when you can have two corners that can play," says Zimmer, which opens up a lot of versatile options when calling a defense. "I was kidding both the other day because we have some coverages that will take guys away, things like that. And I said, 'Hey, if corners can cover, we don't need any of this stuff. We're just going to go and let you guys go out there on the island and take care of business."
Well, maybe not that simple. But can't wait to watch, this strength not to be taken for granted.
