Brian Schottenheimer wants the Dallas Cowboys to compete every day.
“I see the players responding to it,” Jones said, “and commenting on the authenticity of our (coaching) staff and what they’re about.”
Following a disappointing 7-10 season, the biggest adjustment the Cowboys made was to their coaching staff. Led by new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, there have been noticeable changes around the team’s headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
Music has been blaring throughout practice, several locker assignments have changed and there’s now a ping-pong table in the middle of the locker room.
“We just moved it in there because I want our players to want to be here,” Schottenheimer said. “I love playing ping-pong. They love playing ping-pong. It’s fun to watch these guys compete. It’s fun to watch the interaction with the offense and the defense and watch the s— talking that goes on.”
Schottenheimer has also incorporated regular dinners with players. Some, like the one he recently had with wide receiver George Pickens, are at the Cowboys Club inside The Star. Others are with small groups at restaurants away from the team facility. Schottenheimer said he always takes care of the bill. It’s all part of his plan to “create one of the greatest cultures in professional sports.”
“We do change the menu up a little bit,” he said. “We try to get four or five or six guys together and just go talk about life. Football rarely comes up. We do football all day long. What I want to know is what Javonte (Williams) named his dog. And where does this story come from, and all those things.
“For them to share their stories with their teammates allows them when they’re out there on the field and they’re having a tough day and it’s hot and they’re pushing through a padded practice in Oxnard, they’re able to truly pull together and work together. I think that’s going to help us finish games, finish practices. When you have a tough moment, you have a tough stretch in the season, you work through those problems because they believe in one another and, more importantly, they love one another.”
The Cowboys’ second-leading receiver from 2024 is entering the final year of his rookie deal.
Coming off the best season of his career in 2024, Jalen Tolbert comes into his fourth NFL season looking to continue his upwards trend of year after year improvement. To keep that same trajectory, Tolbert’s focused on staying consistent in his offseason preparation.
“Truly sharpening everything,” Tolbert said. “You never want to be stagnant as a wide receiver so just continuing to work every aspect of the wide receiver position whether it’s route running, releases, top of the route, just continuing to grow, continuing to stack days.”
With injuries sprawled across the wide receiver room last season, Tolbert stepped into a larger role into the offense and led the Cowboys in receiving touchdowns with seven. This season, he’ll step into a different role after the Cowboys added George Pickens via trade.
It’s not the first time that Tolbert and Pickens have crossed paths, as the two faced one another in the 2016 Alabama 7A high school state championship game. Pickens’ Hoover high school defeated Tolbert’s McGill Toolen 17-7 to win their fourth state title in the last five years. Now, Tolbert can finally share the field with Pickens instead of watching him from across it.
“I actually was at the facility. I mean, I love it…” Tolbert said when asked how he found out about the trade. “I’ve known GP for a while, it adds more firepower to us, honestly that’s what we need. That’s going to be the fun part because you can’t guard all three of us or four or five, whoever is out there.”
“Having another piece to the puzzle is special, I’m ready to work, compete off of each other continue to keep growing.”
Dallas hopes Joe Milton can develop into their No. 2 behind Dak Prescott this year.
While starting talent was needed, so was depth, and arguably no depth addition has drawn more intrigue than backup quarterback Joe Milton III.
After being acquired in a trade with the New England Patriots in early April, Milton has quickly earned the respect of his teammates and coaches in Dallas, as he looks to build on a rookie season that saw him start in the regular season finale and impress with 241 passing yards and two total touchdowns in a 23-16 win over the Buffalo Bills.
Aside from his one on-field showing in the regular season and his time in the preseason with the Patriots, the Cowboys were excited about the player and person they were getting in Milton when they traded for him.
“I’m so excited about Joe,” Schottenheimer said after the team’s first OTA practice. “I was excited about Joe before we got him. When you go into these deals and you’re talking about making trades, we all reach out to people that you know, people that you trust, people that have been exposed to said player at college, different programs, friends that have been around him. And you just dig and you ask and you get different opinions and there’s always an outlier good and bad. With each of them, you try to peel those away.”
As Milton gets familiar with the system that Schottenheimer is trying to implement along with earning his spot as the backup to Dak Prescott in 2025, he’s done all of the little things right early on.
“From the time he’s been here, the work ethic is incredible,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s one of the first people in the building. He’s one of the last to leave. The way he’s attacked the playbook and picking it up has been incredible.”
The Jalen Ramsey to the Cowboys rumor seems to have zero momentum – Brandon Loree, Blogging the Boys
It sounds like Jalen Ramsey isn’t coming to the Cowboys, despite rumors on Friday.
Before Memorial Day weekend, NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler was on SportsCenter Friday night and gave an update on where things stand with Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The former All-Pro corner has been the center of potential trade conversations this offseason as Miami may look to hit the reset button on its roster.
The Los Angeles Rams have long been considered a potential landing spot for their former teammate, but Fowler mentioned the Cowboys as a “team to watch” if Ramsey was actually made available.
It is not unusual for the media or agents to tie the Cowboys to a high-profile player. This can give the player more momentum as they look to move to a new situation and try to widen their pool of options.
One of the biggest factors in Ramsey’s not being a viable option for Dallas right now is that the Cowboys have invested resources into the corner position this offseason, whether through trades, re-signings, or the NFL Draft. When the Ramsey rumor started to circulate on Twitter, a few respected media members who cover the team beat shut down the idea almost immediately.
Hearing late last night that the Jalen Ramsey news was not accurate according to a couple of folks I got to talk to. Don’t think I was getting steered the wrong way.
— BryanBroaddus (@BryanBroaddus) May 25, 2025
Bryan Broaddus doubled down on his report when he appeared with Jeff Cavanaugh on their Trust the Tape Podcast on Monday morning.
I think the Cowboys just got tagged on this one…this is just talking to folks during the week. I know that Ramsey was a name that people were throwing around and there’s a possibility of him being a June-1. The Dolphins were talking about potentially trading him and they walked that back, they say well no, we’re not gonna trade him. But I know on the Cowboys end I think the Cowboys got tagged in something because of the Cowboy name [and] how the Cowboys have gone through their offseason…but talking to people over there, it just doesn’t seem to have any legs on it right now…”