WATCH McCarthy Message: Cowboys Face ‘Unique Opportunity’
DALLAS - Over the weekend, the Dallas Cowboys veterans, donning masks and safe-distance bracelet monitors, sat six or more feet from each other in the team's practice facility inside Ford Center at the Star. They took notes in first-year coach Mike McCarthy's first team meeting, which broke down the two phases of camp; the “pre-training camp phase” lasts until August 13th, when “training camp phase” (traditional training camp) begins.
McCarthy's message to his vets - via video courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys - was clear.
"Everything we do will be about winning," McCarthy said. "Personally, even more so, the investment from the organization to the education and the resources. this has been a moving target."
Coronavirus has already drastically changed the Cowboys training camp, with the club staying at home instead of traveling to Oxnard. It's an unusual setting; the opening moments are about virus-testing and strength-and-conditioning.
"A very unique opportunity,'' McCarthy said. "Stating the obvious - The uniqueness with this battle with COVID-19 that we have in front of us, professionally and personally.''
Unique may be an understatement.... NFL preseason games have been eliminated. Three Cowboys (so far) and many more players from around the league are opting-out of the 2020 season. Some are suggesting the NFL should consider a ‘bubble,' We've suggested the Cowboys should create their own, at least for the next month.
With such unusual circumstances and the late start, how quickly can McCarthy mesh with Dak Prescott and his talented roster?
[READ: The Top 10 Questions Dallas hopes to answer in this unique COVID-19-forced camp setting]
The former Green Bay coach is going to need to lean on his championship pedigree and mentality to lead Dallas back to the playoff promise land and beyond.
McCarthy and the Cowboys have six weeks to prepare for the likely volatile 2020 NFL season. Dallas opens theseason on Sunday, September 13th on the road against the Los Angeles Rams. ... a continuation of this "unique opportunity.''
