Dallas Cowboys 'Secret is Out!' Can 'Special' KaVontae Turpin Help Beat the Bucs?

“The secret’s out,'' Fassel says, "and I think he’s going to be really good.”

FRISCO - It's a matter of debate how "under-the-radar'' KaVontae Turpin ever was. Now, at 5-7, he's "under'' a lot of things. But did the NFL really not know who the USFL MVP was until he exploded onto the preseason scene with a pair of return TDs for the Dallas Cowboys?

“He broke it and I was like, ‘Yeah, great for him!'” special-teams coordinator Bones Fassel said this week here at The Star. “But then, immediately, I thought, ‘Ugh, teams are going to be on him now.'”

“The secret’s out,'' Fassel said, "and I think he’s going to be really good.”

There is no real element of surprise when it comes to what Turpin does on special teams; he's fast, elusive, intuitive, gifted. There was no way - not even without "Turpin Time''s pair of stunning returns at the Chargers (one on a punt, the other on a kickoff) that opposing coaches would be caught unaware. Los Angeles.

Argued Fassel: “You sign a guy in the middle of training camp, I don’t know. Maybe if I was just hoping that there was going to be a secret with him. Maybe there wouldn’t have been.''

Now we're talking. Turpin's work at TCU and in the USFL made him a known commodity not to fans and media, maybe. But his talent (recognized before his legal trouble in school) wasn't going to be a surprise when he was to make his NFL regular-season debut in Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Good on Dallas, however, for trying to utilize what he does, right down to having Cowboys special-teamers study tape of Chicago return-man legend Devin Hester.

“We’ve talked about the ‘Devin Hester Effect,''' Fassel said. "Their blockers knew they had somebody that could score every time they touched the ball. ... It’s quite a relationship between returner and blocker when they each feed off each other and have confidence in one another. There’s just that little bit extra when the blockers, they’ve got somebody back there like Turp.”

Kavonte Turpin doing exactly what the Cowboys brought him in for! pic.twitter.com/TcQMbSRm4I

— Joey Hayden (@_joeyhayden) August 21, 2022

Having said all of that, could there be another surprise in store involving the 26-year-old Turpin? That's where head coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore come in.

Said Moore: "That’s the coolest thing: We see him as a receiver, and I think he’s going to play a role that’s a receiver and not just a gadget guy.''

KaVaontae Turpin on a special-teams highlight-reel Sunday against the Bucs? Not shocking. KaVontae Turpin beating Tampa Bay as a member of the Dak Prescott-led offense? That is the "surprise'' the NFL has not seen.

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