From established starters to players expected to take on a more significant role in 2024, there is no shortage of things to watch as training camp for the Dallas Cowboys gets underway in Oxnard, California.

While it’s fun to watch the starters reprise their roles from a season ago and settle in, it’s even more interesting to keep an eye on the ones who are expected to step up and make more of an impact than they have in the past with the organization, or that are rookies who are being counted on right away.

Today, we are going to take a look at a handful of players to watch on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball who need to step up their game in training camp.

DEFENSE

DT Mazi Smith

Just about anyway you look at it, Mazi Smith’s rookie season was a disappointment last year. The former first-round pick had minimal impact in the middle of Dallas’ defensive front a season ago, but despite that he is expected to take a significant step forward entering his sophomore season. Mike Zimmer’s defensive scheme relies pretty heavily on a space-eating, run-stopper and needs Smith to prove he’s that player in training camp.

DE Sam Williams

With both Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler following Dan Quinn to Washington in free agency, a lot more is expected of Sam Williams heading into his third season with the Cowboys. Up until this point of his career he’s really only showed flashes of his potential, but now has the opportunity to shine in what is expected to be a much bigger defensive role behind DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons. Consistency will be key for him.

CB Caelen Carson

In Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, and Jourdan Lewis the Cowboys have a really good trio at cornerback heading into the 2024 season. What they don’t have though is a reliable backup on the outside or in the slot. Caelen Carson has that inside/out versatility and is probably currently the favorite to emerge as the CB4 on the depth chart, but will need a strong training camp/preseason to lockdown that important job.

LB DeMarvion Overshown

Despite his rookie season being cut short abruptly due to a season-ending knee injury in the second preseason game last year, big things are expected from DeMarvion Overshown this year. He looks noticeably bigger and stronger entering training camp and is expected to push for a starting job in 2024. If he can hit the ground running he should help solidify the LB position.

OFFENSE

OC Cooper Beebe

Despite never playing a single snap at center during his time at Kansas State, Cooper Beebe is expected to replace Tyler Biadasz as the Cowboys new starting OC as a rookie in 2024. Being sandwiched between Zack Martin and Tyler Smith will certainly help transition to a new position, but from setting up the pre-snap adjustments to snapping the ball he still has a lot to learn in training camp.

LT Tyler Guyton

There may not be another player on the Cowboys entire roster who needs to step up in training camp more than Tyler Guyton. Dallas really needs to get the 29th overall pick in the first-round this year up to speed as quickly as possible as their new blindside protector. Replacing someone like Tyron Smith won’t be easy, but the Cowboys season probably depends on how well he performs in his rookie year.

WR Jalen Tolbert

Jalen Tolbert is the favorite to win the WR3 job behind CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks right now, but will really need to step up his game in training camp to hold off his competitors. The opportunity has never been better for him to be a key factor in Dallas’ aerial attack. He’ll need to build a rapport with QB Dak Prescott to prove he can be a consistent and reliable weapon in training camp to secure the WR3 job.

TE Luke Schoonmaker

The main thing Luke Schoonmaker needs to do in training camp is to get healthy and stay that way. Injuries hampered his development and production last season and if that carries over into Year 2, he could find himself losing his TE2 job. If he can put his health issues behind him that alone should elevate his game and potentially help him become a bigger factor in the Cowboys offensive game plan in 2024.

The resignation of Dallas County’s embattled juvenile department director may finally force the Juvenile Board to reckon with shocking complaints about the treatment of youths in lockup.

A majority of the board appeared asleep at the wheel despite mounting allegations about teens being kept in their cells or in solitary confinement longer than appropriate.

Darryl Beatty resigned as executive director of the juvenile department after state regulators opened a second investigation into the juvenile detention center at the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center. State officials told us they went in for a surprise inspection this month following “[r]ecent reports, from various sources, alleging new instances of supervisory neglect.” The final report from a separate neglect investigation the state launched last summer is pending.

The Juvenile Board shouldn’t just wait for the results. The board clearly needs to conduct a broader review into the operations of the Dallas County Juvenile Department.

By law, it is the county’s Juvenile Board and not the Commissioners Court that oversees the juvenile department and its detention facilities. The Commissioners Court provides funding from its budget.

Yet the Juvenile Board so far has betrayed an astounding lack of curiosity about what’s going on in the county’s juvenile justice system.

Last year, the board pushed back against attempts by the Commissioners Court to obtain anonymized “observation sheets” that would show how long youths have been kept in their cells day to day, after a controversial third-party report found the Dallas County juvenile justice system is more punitive than those in other counties. A judge ruled that county commissioners were not entitled to the observation sheets.

Then came a state inquiry into allegations of neglect, soon after a June 2023 investigation by this newspaper highlighted concerns by multiple parents and staff whistleblowers who said children were being kept in their cells for up to 23 hours a day. Some of them also complained about unsanitary conditions in the cells and lack of access to medical care.

At the time, this newspaper reported a revealing exchange among members of the Juvenile Board about the isolation allegations. County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins and Commissioner Andrew Sommerman — the two members of the Commissioners Court who sit in the Juvenile Board and who’ve requested access to observation sheets — were chastised by family court Judge Andrea Plumlee for using the term “isolation.” Another board member, Juvenile Judge Andrea Martin, said, “We don’t just put kids behind doors when they shouldn’t be.”

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department disagreed. While the agency has yet to issue a final report on its 2023 investigation, it said in September that some children in Dallas County detention were held in isolation for disciplinary reasons for as long as five days, which is more than double the state limit of 48 hours.

The state hasn’t yet said whether teens have routinely been kept in their cells most of the day for reasons other than safety or discipline.

TJJD told the Juvenile Board that there were record-keeping gaps at the Henry Wade facility, with staff at the detention center unable to produce some observation sheets. That alone should have set off alarm bells for board members.

The state approved the juvenile department’s improvement plan, but now the public has questions about what actual improvements took place. An investigation by WFAA-TV last month exposed complaints similar to those illuminated by The Dallas Morning News’ reporting a year ago. Dallas pastors rallied to demand better treatment for the youth in county lockups, though Beatty categorically denied allegations of mistreatment.

Then came the unannounced inspection last week and Beatty’s resignation. Beatty didn’t respond to a text message from us.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who sat on the Juvenile Board until early 2023 and who defended Beatty from the Commissioners Court dais, said the right thing had happened with the Juvenile Board reporting allegations to state regulators and allowing the state investigations to play out. He noted that Beatty had dealt with high staff vacancy rates but acknowledged concerns with his performance. Price said Beatty had seemed paralyzed in the past six months and unable to move the juvenile department forward.

Juvenile Judge Cheryl Shannon, chair of the Juvenile Board, also rejected our criticism of the body’s handling of concerns about Beatty’s department.

“The media has chosen to present the Board as taking no action regarding the concerns raised about the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center,” she wrote in an email. “This assertion is absolutely incorrect. Since the inception of concerns raised in early 2023, the majority of the Board agreed that the proper independent investigative authority is the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD).”

She said the board agreed that TJJD has the expertise required to investigate the detention center and that the process has worked “exactly as it is designed to work.”

That explanation rings hollow to us. The Juvenile Board is not powerless to investigate, and the abundance and severity of the complaints should have sparked an internal review. The state law that created the Juvenile Board plainly authorizes it to “make any special studies or investigations it considers necessary to improve the operations” of the juvenile department and county institutions under its jurisdiction.

Managing a juvenile department is a difficult and delicate task. Many minors in lockup are there because they have been accused of violence. Some of them also struggle with mental illness. Juvenile detention centers must balance safety with the need to offer schooling and recreational activities to youths in their custody.

No system run by human beings is perfect. But the difficulty of the job is no excuse to overlook so many red flags. The message from the Juvenile Board and the juvenile department all along has been, in essence, “nothing to see here.”

We await the report from the first state investigation into neglect allegations, which TJJD spokeswoman Barbara Kessler said is under legal review. An executive summary is expected in August.

Kessler said investigators spent months gathering evidence, conducting interviews and reviewing about 18,000 daily observation sheets. They put together a report that’s nearly 100 pages.

Nothing to see here, Juvenile Board?

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Tomorrow the Dallas Cowboys will hold their first training camp practice of the year at Oxnard. As usual, there is no shortage of intrigue and drama around the star as the team embarks on the 2024 NFL season.

At the moment the biggest headlines are regarding the contracts of the three most-important players on the team. The Cowboys’ top priority is apparently negotiating a new deal for superstar wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who is holding out of training camp. Then there’s franchise quarterback Dak Prescott, whose cap hit is over $55 million this year.

Finally there’s pass rusher MIcah Parsons, who still has two years left on his rookie deal but will eventually sign a contract making him the highest-paid defender in the league and the sooner they get on that, the better.

To some extent having to pay all three of them is a good problem for the Dallas front office to have. However, a top-heavy roster can only get you so far – as this team has discovered the hard way three years in a row with early playoff exits. To get to the next level, the Cowboys need more role players to step up and do their part.

For what it’s worth, Parsons thinks that’s exactly what’s going to happen. He’s predicting a lot of breakout years in 2024, per Todd Archer at ESPN.

“The mindset I have is we have seven All-Pros or however the count may be. It might be more, it might be less, we got at least three guys I know can be All-Pro. I think a lot of guys are going to have breakout years. I think that plays into it too. When you talk about all these guys, it just leads to saying, ‘Hey, when are the other guys going to step up and be better for the team?”

The greatest needs the Cowboys have right now are these: they could use somebody other than Lamb and Brandin Cooks to step up at wide receiver, they desperately need rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton to hit the ground running, someone has to step up and replace Johnathan Hankins and now would be a great time to find any hidden stars at running back.

That’s a lot of needs at this point in the NFL’s calendar year, but the team has been somewhat slow on the draw to address them. Expect team owner Jerry Jones to be put to the fire when he has his usual pre-training camp press conference on Saturday.

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