What year a difference makes for the Dallas Cowboys, who vividly remember getting handled easily by the Los Angeles Rams in a joint training camp practice before the 2025 season. The Cowboys went on to finish 7-9-1 and out of the playoffs while the Rams went 12-5 and finished with a loss in the NFC championship game.
The Rams are expected to be good again in 2026. Some consider them the Super Bowl favorites out of the NFC, thanks to a trade for NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and the expected return out retirement of former All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald.
The Cowboys have openly talked about having Super Bowl hopes of their own so Tuesday’s scrimmage against the Rams served as a litmus test of sorts.
And things went much better for the Cowboys than they did a year ago.
That was especially true for a defense that finished last in NFL in 2025, considering the Rams had the only offense in the NFL that outgained the Cowboys offense last season.
“It showed what we have building on from the spring up until now,” linebacker DeMarvion Overshown said. “We got to see what we got. It puts stuff in perspective. It’s another block we are building on. It was completely different from when they came to Oxnard last year and damn near had a field day. It feels good to compete and get some wins.”
Defensive highlights from the practice include:
- The Cowboys run defense is significantly better than a year ago with defensive tackles Kenny Clark and Quinnen Williams manning the middle and Rashard Gary at edge rusher.
- Edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku flashed with a potential sack and a tackle for loss.
- Linebacker Dee Winters has a tackle for loss and Overshown had several good plays in the passing game.
- Rookie safety Caleb Downs had tackle for loss playing from the slot. He also saw significant time at safety with Malik Hooker not practicing for personal reasons.
- Cornerbacks Shavon Revel, Cobie Durant and DaRon Bland continued to build on their strong starts to training camp with solid efforts against a Rams receiver corps explosive as any in the league, featuring Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.
- The star of the day on defense was backup safety Justin Barron, who had three interceptions. He had one off Matt Stafford, the reigning NFL MVP, and two off Stetson Bennett.
Quarterback Dak Prescott and the Cowboys offense started a little slow. But there is no question they got in their groove in the red zone and Prescott tossed two touchdown passes to CeeDee Lamb and one to right end Brevin Spann-Ford.
Running back Jaydon Blue spoiled what has been a start to camp from the second-year player out of Texas with a fumble. His opportunities with the first team decreased after the turnover with Phil Mafah splitting more reps with the first team.
Prescott threw an interception on a forced throw to George Pickens. Backup quarterbacks Sam Howell and Joe Milton also tossed interceptions.
Howell aslo had two touchdown passes.
Pickens continued to shine on offense.
He impact started to show after brief skirmish with Rams cornerback Jaylen Watson.
He followed with a catch on a slant and then a back should down the right sideline against Rams star cornerback Trent McDuffie.
Left tackle Tyler Guyton had another good day, although he missed a few plays getting his right elbow looked at and benefitted from the absence of Garrett, who was held out of practice to rest.
“George is being George,” Prescott said. “That’s what I expect of him. It’s what he expects from himself. He just does great things and today was another showing up that.
Interestingly enough, the Cowboys ended practice running sprints, while the Rams players snickered as they walked off the field.
Pickens told the Rams to mind their own business and to keep walking. “We are getting this cardio in,” Pickens said.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer pointed at that the post practicing conditioning was prompted by the players, not the coaches. Schottenheimer has had the players run sprints after practice since the start of camp because he wants a well conditioned team.
The players got the message and believe in the philosophy.
“Conditioning is something that he put on his as the beginning,” Prescott said. “We want to be the best conditioned team, the most conditioned team. Guys are taking pride in it. It was simple, Demo (Overshown) came up to me and asked me, ‘do you want to run?,’. I was like ‘yeah, I know we (the offense) got it in us.’ It was just normal practice. Let’s go get our runs in and get better.
When you are conditioned, you play faster. You play better. You think faster, you react quicker. It just helps you. If you are most conditioned it’s going to help you and give you the upper hand. If we can steal that advantage, why not.”
