Today is April 22nd. You already knew that, though. You also knew that, despite the NBA and NHL playoffs being well underway, the NFL has dominated the news over the past couple of days.
Reason being, the draft is just 6 days away, Josh Norman is suddenly a free agent, and players are reporting back to their team’s facilities to being preparation for the 2016 campaign.
Of course, all of these things drew plenty of attention from Cowboys Nation faithful on Twitter. Here is the best of the best from the past week:
Will the Cowboys finally draft a QB this year? Well, Dallas has had 28 players in for pre-draft top 30 national visits, & 25% have been QBs.
— Brandon George (@DMN_George) April 19, 2016
We begin with a bit of Cowboys draft analysis, as speculations and rumors have circled more and more now leading up to the final days before draft night. While the Eagles trading up for the #2 pick essentially ends the Cowboys’ hopes of landing Jared Goff or Carson Wentz with the fourth pick, the team is still expected to address the quarterback position at some point in this draft.
Apparently the Eagles settled for the No. 2 overall pick in draft from Cleveland when they found out that Herschel Walker wasn't available.
— Brandon George (@DMN_George) April 20, 2016
Now that we have discussed some draft rumors, it is a good time to remind everyone of just how stressful the build up to the draft can be. While the main tension should fall on the teams themselves, preparing to shape the future of their organization, it appears that some of this stress (or a lot of it) is getting to fans.
Particularly, the beloved fans that send in questions and comments to our fan page @CowboysNation.
After seeing La'el called a suspect, Jason Garrett called a puppet, this was needed for us sane folks to use. pic.twitter.com/zcAmv1STfE
— Cowboys Nation (@CowboysNation) April 20, 2016
While there are plenty of trolls lurking in the world of Twitter, the platform is undoubtedly a place for great NFL news and analysis. As we get back into some draft speculation, we find a rumor that picked up steam around many credible Cowboys sources recently –
https://twitter.com/SkinWade/status/722526846319927296?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
For more on this very topic, read this analysis from my fellow Staff Writer RJ Ochoa.
With draft season comes the excitement of a new season inching closer! In our first installment of this series, we caught Byron Jones falling in love with some fried Oreo cookies just a few weeks before having to report OTAs.
Now OTAs are here, and we find Byron participating in a much less physical sporting activity…
https://twitter.com/ninjafast22/status/722823248765816834
Lucky Whitehead is an exciting player for the Cowboys offense, who hopes to find a much bigger role in 2016. Let’s hope he can also find his way onto a fishing trip with Byron Jones sometime soon.
The Cowboys are in a time period right now where they are focused on building the best roster possible for training camp, by readying themselves for the draft along with assessing what they currently have. Let’s close out this week’s edition of “Tweet Break” by looking at the best of both those worlds.
???????????? hmm I think its finally safe 2 cme out nw that the wave of emotions has passed by ????????????dnt think I'd survive another FA #toostressful ????????????
— Alfred Morris (@FredoSauce) April 21, 2016
— ₗₐₙᴰₒₙ (@McCoolBCB) April 21, 2016
Per @BenRogers on @1053thefan, from a source, the Cowboys are concerned about the conditioning and weight of Rolando McClain.
— Cowboys Nation (@CowboysNation) April 21, 2016
Mr Ramsey you are an absolute freak. https://t.co/LJkmVnfkod
— Cowboys Nation (@CowboysNation) April 21, 2016
This last series of tweets covers a player that is new to the Dallas Cowboys, a player that has been around for some time now, and a player that fans are hoping finds his way into the silver and blue come draft night.
While Alfred Morris should certainly warm up to Cowboys fans and the potential he has to resurrect his career in Dallas, a player that might not be in position to impress fans and coaches is Rolando McClain.
As you see there, it was reported before that photo was released that a “Cowboys player” had coaches concerned with his playing condition at the moment due to his weight. That player is McClain, who shows some added weight in the photo.
Lastly, check out that awesome sports science video with Jalen Ramsey, linked to in the last tweet from Cowboys Nation. Before you do that, I thank you for reading another edition of this series on Inside The Star.
You can find me on Twitter @ShoreSportsNJ! I welcome all comments and questions both over there and at sean.martin@insidethestar.com.