The Dallas Cowboys held their invite-only workout for local college players Thursday at The Star, and a familiar name attended: E.J. Smith.
His father is Cowboys Hall of Famer and all-time NFL leading rusher, Emmitt Smith. E.J. Smith starred in high school at Jesuit in Dallas, then went to Stanford and ended his career at Texas A&M.
“Very cool,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “You know me, man, I’m family. I’m all family. And you watch his film and he was an incredible short-yardage runner, powerful. But, yeah, just watching him move, seeing him in person, the type of young man he is, it’s cool.”
The Cowboys have long viewed their “Dallas Day” workout as an advantage because of the quality of players from the area who play in the top colleges across the country. They are also able to pull in prospects from SMU, TCU and North Texas for workouts.
This year, the Cowboys had players such as LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier (Flower Mound, Marcus) and Miami center James Brockermeyer (All Saints, Fort Worth). Not all of the players work out. Some players with higher grades only visit with the scouts and coaches.
While each team is allowed 30 national visitors, the Cowboys are able to use the Dallas Day designation on some of the top prospects.
“We multiply our top 30,” Schottenheimer said. “We’re like top 45, top 48, whatever it is. And it’s because of the fact that we’ve got that location. And our scouting staff does a great job.”
Bringing a Super Bowl home
This isn’t about the Cowboys’ Super Bowl drought. It’s about the AT&T Stadium Super Bowl drought. When the stadium opened in 2009, the hope was it would become part of the unofficial rotation for the NFL’s big game.
Instead, it has hosted it only once, Super Bowl XLV in 2011, when Mike McCarthy’s Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team McCarthy joined this season, a year after his tenure as the Cowboys’ head coach ended.
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There were issues with the weather and a seating fiasco that led to a number of lawsuits, and the region has not made a bid for a Super Bowl since. SoFi Stadium opened in 2020 and will host its second Super Bowl in 2027. Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium will host its second Super Bowl in 2029. Then there are new stadiums coming in Nashville, Chicago and Washington D.C.
“I will say with all these new stadiums coming on board, that makes it hard,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “When you build a new stadium, a part of that is, in many cases, a Super Bowl is awarded. We’ll see how it goes.”
AT&T Stadium will host nine World Cup matches this summer. In February, the Dallas Stars will play a Stadium Series game there. The Final Four will return in 2030.
“It has to be right,” owner and general manager Jones said. “It has to be under the right conditions. There are a lot of nuances and responsibilities that teams and markets take on when you do a Super Bowl. We certainly feel that we can do one. We’ll step up there at the right times. The way the Super Bowl goes, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes trading going on. All of that is a consideration.”
No. 2 QB competition
Finding a backup quarterback did not seem to be among the Cowboys’ requirements heading into the offseason, but they signed Sam Howell to a one-year deal, and he will battle Joe Milton III to be Dak Prescott’s No. 2.
“Sam is a guy we watched film and it was like, ‘Man, if we could have Sam Howell and Joe Milton on this football team?’ Give those guys a chance to compete. They’re both uber-talented. They both have big-time arm strength,” Schottenheimer said. “Sam started like 20-something games in this league, which is great.
“It’s an open competition, we’re excited for both of those guys to go [compete], and you can never have enough quarterbacks to develop. I think we develop quarterbacks at a very high rate in our system. Sam was excited to come here and be developed by us and the way we do it. We should be good.”
The other side of the ball
Most of the offseason focus for the Cowboys has been on defense, and the expectation is they will continue to address it in the first round of the draft, where they currently have picks Nos. 12 and 20.
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But what about the offense?
“[Offensive coordinator] Klayton Adams knocks on my door every night before he leaves and he’s like, ‘Hey, Schotty, remember me? Over here? Yeah, I’m the guy in that office right there,'” Schottenheimer said. “What I love about the draft and the whole process of it is the unpredictability of it.
“I really do feel like we’ve set ourselves up to take the best player available. We’ve got ourselves in position where we can make some moves, move back, move up, do what we have to do. But if the best player on the board is clearly an offensive player, we’ll certainly discuss that and more than likely, knowing Jerry, pull the trigger.”
Quick hits
The Cowboys hope to have joint practices with two teams during training camp in Oxnard, California. Some of that is dependent on how the preseason schedule is finalized by the league. Look for the Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams to work together again while another NFC team could be in the mix too.
As the Cowboys prepare for their regular-season game in Rio de Janeiro, the expected plan is for them to practice for two days at The Star and get to Brazil later in the week. When the Cowboys played the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014 at Wembley Stadium, they spent the entire week of practice in London
Schottenheimer said edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku is on schedule to be 100% ready for training camp after undergoing hip surgery in the offseason. He said Ezeiruaku will be able to work during the offseason program but not take part in any team drills.
