We’re a week into training camp and just a day away from some type of football being played, when the 2021 Hall of Fame game kicks off between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. While there’s been some news here and there out of Philly since the start of the Nick Sirianni regime, things have been a lot rowdier around the NFC East.
Dallas Cowboys
On Tuesday we learned that Dak Prescott will be held out of Thursday’s HoF game in an attempt to let the quarterback’s shoulder continue to heal. On July 28, the beginning of training camp, Prescott suffered a latissimus strain in his right shoulder and has been sidelined ever since.
Initial tweet should have been phrased better. Cowboys are pulling back from Dak Prescott’s initial timetable. More a testament to time of year than rehab progress. Garrett Gilbert, Cooper Rush and Ben DiNucci will handle QB reps in Thursday’s preseason opener vs. Steelers.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) August 3, 2021
Mike McCarthy confirmed that Prescott didn’t have any kind of setback, they just decided to take things slower with a little more research and conversations with their medical team. The head coach isn’t sure when the QB will be back throwing at practice, but when he does return, he’ll likely be on a pitch count as they work toward Week 1.
Not only will the Cowboys be on display Thursday night, fans (and interested enemies) can catch an inside glimpse of the organization this season when the team is featured on this season of Hard Knocks on HBO, Tuesday August 10.
New York Giants
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni spoke to reporters on Tuesday ahead of the team’s first padded practice and acknowledged that things get a bit chippier when the pads come on, but ultimately they want to limit fights and use them as a learning experience.
WELL, BOY DID THE GIANTS HAVE SOME LEARNING TO DO ON TUESDAY. Training camp ended early for New York after a full on brawl ended in Joe Judge hurling enough cuss words for players to be thankful their kids weren’t in attendance.
Things started when former Eagles running back Corey Clement took a late, out-of-bounds hit by a defensive back, which resulted in TE Evan Engram coming in for backup and DB Logan Ryan joining in on defense. Before you know it, the whole team was involved in the scrum, with quarterback Daniel Jones ending up at the bottom of the pile at one point, and Judge being absolutely LIVID about the situation.
After managing to quell the storm, Judge had the entire team — including, still rehabbing, RB Saquon Barkley — line up for sprints and push-ups. And then more sprints. And then more push-ups. The head coach ended practice by gathering the team, yelling (a lot) and even keeping his assistant coaches away from very loud huddle.
This is not what any team wants to see during training camp, even if things do get chippy every now and then — but, as a rival team, it’s hard to hate.
To be fair, it seems like in interviews afterward, players like Logan Ryan and Daniel Jones didn’t expect any sort of bad blood to linger, and Judge made a very clear point in his efforts after the brawl to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Still, not exactly a great sign of team building heading into the preseason.
Joe Judge walking off the field after #Giants practice today (and a lot of yelling.)
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) August 3, 2021
( @AndyMills_NJ) pic.twitter.com/L6FN231bPr
Washington Football Team
Despite being in the news a bit this offseason with ownership fines and operational shuffling, things have been moderately quiet from the Washington Football Team. The biggest news from the first week of training camp was the team’s low COVID vaccination rates and the obvious problem that caused for head coach, and cancer survivor, Ron Rivera.
Rivera spoke several times at the beginning of camp about how he was disappointed in the low vaccination rate among the team — hovering around 60 percent — especially given that he spent the 2020 season battling cancer (including taking treatments during halftime of games) and was still immunocompromised. As such, he took the low vaccination rates personal, and was going to be forced to stay masked-up until more of the team stepped up.
It seems that his players (finally) heard his pleas, took him up on getting educated about the vaccine, and got their first dose, with the team now reporting 84 percent of players have at least begun the vaccination process. Aside from the whole being good for them personally, and for the people around them, having a higher vaccination percentage will certainly be a competitive advantage as other teams are starting to see the issues with positive tests and contact tracing — here’s looking at you Vikings.
For even more division coverage, check out the latest episode of the NFC East Mixtape, which airs on both the Bleeding Green Nation and Blogging The Boys podcast feeds.