Cowboys training camp takeaways: Young weapon is making coaches' lives much harder

The Dallas Cowboys are ramping up toward this year's preseason, which will kick off on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. On a much more real sense, though, it'll kick off Thursday when the team holds a joint practice against said team.

The Cowboys had an important practice on Tuesday (Wednesday is a day off) in which we learned a bit more as the team continues padded work.

Let's dive in.

Jalen Cropper makes Cowboys coaching staff's life harder

First it was Tyron Billy-Johnson making noise at wide receiver during Cowboys training camp. Simultaneously, Jalen Tolbert and Jalen Brooks were delivering on high offseason expectations. But over the last couple of practices, the hottest stock on the Cowboys WR room belongs to Jalen Cropper.

On Tuesday, Cropper beat different defensive backs throughout practice including Jourdan Lewis, Nahshon Wright, and got llost in coverage at least once. His route running stands out from what we've seen in training camp and this is somebody who could find himself sneaking into the 53-man roster. It's a very deep unit and if the team carries only six wideouts, there will have to be at least one painful cut.

Cropper's recent emergence will make coaches' lives much harder from here until cutdown day.

DaRon Bland is playing some darn good football

Dak Prescott is likely seeing Bland in his sleep at this point. The first-team All-Pro cornerback is consistently knocking the ball out of receivers' hands and playing sticky coverage in practice. On Tuesday, Bland forced an impressive PBU that was close to being an interception while covering Jalen Brooks downfield.

Bland's specialty is off-ball coverage but he showed off his skills from press in the play above. Tuesday was simply just another dominant practice for the Cowboys' starting cornerback.

Dan Quinn's 5-0 defensive fronts aren't over

With Mike Zimmer taking over the Cowboys defense, there are some question marks about what the unit will look like in 2024. With Micah Parsons being used a lot as an off-ball linebacker and the entire unit being used to blitz, Tuesday featured a specific play that should get fans excited.

One of the things Quinn did best during his three-year stint in Dallas was freeing Parsons against the opponent's weakest link, including guards and centers. One of the ways he did that was by setting up five-man defensive fronts, forcing man-to-man blocking from the OL. By setting the tackles and ends wide, Zimmer left center Brock Hoffman on an island against Parsons, who aligned in a two-point stance right over him. This gave Parsons plenty of space to pick whether to attack Hoffman's left or right side, and the latter simply had no shot at stopping him.

KaVontae Turpin keeps wowing us with his speed

One of the biggest question marks entering the 2024 NFL season is if wide receiver and returner specialist KaVontae Turpin will earn a bigger role on offense.

His speed is unmatched on the roster and if the Cowboys find the right way to implement it, defenses will be forced to account for it.

Based on practice, Turpin is on track to have a role. The question remains how large will it be?

Related: 3 Cowboys' positions we already feel much better about before preseason even starts