FRISCO — Cowboys rookie Caelen Carson felt lighter on Monday than he ever has in a Dallas uniform. Fittingly, he has a uniform change to thank.
“41 was kind of heavy on me,” Carson said, referencing the switch from No. 41 to 21.
One would think that the sudden expectations — and subsequent pressures — thrust upon Carson might also feel pretty heavy at the moment. But just like his new jersey, those are also feeling pretty light.
The Cowboys didn’t select Carson in the 5th round with the hope that he would be one of their two starting outside corners for the season opener against Cleveland. Shoot, Carson didn’t expect it either, but he prepared accordingly. Preparation met opportunity late in training camp when All-Pro corner DaRon Bland was sidelined with a stress fracture injury that ultimately required surgery last week.
Now the Cowboys will turn to a rookie making his NFL debut on the road against an expected playoff team. Carson acknowledged the chance to start so early is the opportunity of a lifetime — one he’s worked for his entire life. At the same time, he’s not trying to look at it that way. Visualizing himself on Sunday? He won’t let his mind go there yet.
“if you make it bigger than what it is, then it’s going to be a big moment for you,” Carson said, “but I don’t try and make it a big moment. It’s just going to be like any other game. I’ve been playing football all my life, so I just feel like nothing changes. It’s just more people and television, but at the end of the day, you’ve been doing this since you were five years old.”
He also has experience in this type of situation.
Carson wasn’t a blue chip prospect coming out of North Point High School in Maryland in 2020. He was a consensus three-star prospect. 247Sports had him ranked as the 149th-best corner in the country. He was ranked 1,706 among all prospects in the nation.
That’s not the type of recruit that usually secures a starting job as a true freshman in a power conference, but that’s what Carson did at Wake Forest. Carson went on to start in all four seasons for the Demon Deacons.
“I definitely didn’t think I was going to start as a freshman, but once I got going I realized, ‘OK, I can do it,'” Carson said. “Then it happened. It was like cake. It was good.”
Carson agreed that was an experience he could draw from in his NFL debut, as well.
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” he said.
Circumstances opened the door for Carson, but the rookie also put himself in position to take advantage. He entered training camp with the mindset to do whatever he could to help the team. He simply wanted to find a role. As practices went on, the fifth round pick found a role as a playmaker, as well.
“Since he’s arrived here, I haven’t seen him really take a step backwards,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said on Monday. “He jumps right in there. He competes, very instinctive, very aware. But it’s still gonna be his first game, so he has to get over that first game hump just like a couple other guys.”
Luckily for Carson, there’s also plenty of examples of young corners playing well early in the Cowboys’ defensive back room. Veteran Jourdan Lewis started seven games his rookie season in 2017. Since then, Lewis has also seen other corners come in and have to play right away. He sees a common factor between them.
“I’ve said it before: he reminds me of Trevon [Diggs] and [Bland] when they came in,” Lewis said after the last preseason game. “He’s just really composed and understood it’s just football at the end of the day. The lights were never too big for him and he just went out there and performed and did his job. From that aspect, I think he has a really good grasp of what the NFL is and hopefully we could accelerate that timeline for this first week.”
It’s a task that could, from an external standpoint, seem heavy. It’s a weight that Carson — as well as those around him — believes he can handle, however.
