Dallas City News

The top was never a concern.

CeeDee Lamb is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. We presume he will be paid at some point and around for the entirety of the regular season and (hopefully) beyond.

Brandin Cooks is a seasoned veteran who found his form over the second half of last season. He is a proper wingman/mentor at this stage in his career, the Peter Parker to CeeDee’s Miles Morales in the famous Spider-Man meme from Across The Spider-Verse.

After that, questions began to show themselves. Sure, Jalen Tolbert made sense as a would-be WR3, but with no real proven time on offense throughout his first two seasons that seemed more like hoping than anything. And even if that worked out, what about beyond him?

Thankfully the first week and change of training camp has begun to fill the void and things certainly feel more than stable.

The Cowboys appear to be getting exactly what they. need down the line at wide receiver

We’ll start with Tolbert and note that the hope is starting to become realized. He is having quite the camp.

Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer met with the media on Thursday and when he did he noted that Tolbert will take advantage of every single opportunity to run with quarterback Dak Prescott and develop chemistry. It sounds cliché, but those are the things that matter.

We have spoken here lately about how the lack of CeeDee Lamb has provided an opportunity for Tolbert to thrive and thankfully he has taken advantage of it. On Friday he was on the receiving end of the best throw that Trey Lance has made as a member of this team.

Full disclosure here: we have all seen many a player fly high throughout the course of camp only to return to earth when the regular season arrived. Showing up and showing out on the practice fields in Oxnard is hardly doing so on the road in San Francisco in January, but the foundation has to be laid somewhere. In many ways the offense is depending on Tolbert rising to the occasion as WR3 and it appears he is ready to do so.

But again, we had questions beyond that. Assuming anybody else would be necessary at any point in time, who would you have said the next man up would be when training camp began? It was a difficult question to answer.

We can quibble about where we want to slot them but what is obvious is that Jalen Brooks was drafted for a reason, KaVontae Turpin is having a nice camp, and Tyron Billy-Johnson is more than just a name filling out the roster and soon-to-be preseason stat sheets.

TBJ has been one of the biggest stars of camp so far and for more reasons other than big-time catches. He has athleticism that he is able to utilize even after the ball is in his hands. Playmakers are something you can never have enough of and it appears to be one.

Friday failed to produce a notable Brooks highlight, but not a lack of information altogether. Opportunities for non-CeeDee Lamb players are not a valid excuse for not having CeeDee signed to a long-term extension, but the front office has touted all along that a silver lining would be the opportunities it created for others.

Jalen Brooks is one of those others.

While he clearly has other responsibilities that he will be held to, KaVontae Turpin also had a nice moment on Friday, keeping his string practices going.

This is what we want (really need) to see. Lots of plays from lots of new names because the battle of the season is going to involve literally all of them. History has taught us this.

CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Jalen Tolbert, Tyron Billy-Johnson, Jalen Brooks and KaVontae Turpin.

How do you feel about that?