With Josh Allen graduated and leaving Cowboys football in the past the remaining team members are putting their focus on bettering themselves and how to move on to next season without their star quarterback.
“I think we need to just come together and find out our strengths and weaknesses and try to eliminate those weaknesses,” Austin Conway, sophomore wide receiver, said. “Clearly missing a guy like that (Allen) is going to be impactful, but that doesn’t mean that the show doesn’t go on.”
According to ESPN stats, Conway led the Cowboys last season in receiving with 61 receptions and 549 receiving yards. With two more seasons left with the Cowboys, Conway is looking to be a key role in the Cowboys’ offense.
“I just want to become a better route runner,” Conway said. “I want to be able to put myself in the right positions at the right time.”
One reason the Cowboys are so hopeful as they are reconstructing their offense is the depth of their receivers and running backs.
“We were really young last year; especially at the receivers,” C.J. Johnson, sophomore wide receiver, said. “We’ve got a lot of guys coming back, so we’ll all be older and a lot more experienced and I think the offense will pay a lot more attention to detail.”
Johnson was second for the Cowboys in receiving last season. According to ESPN stats, he had 30 receptions and 531 total receiving yards. Johnson has been dealing with a knee injury during the offseason but is still looking to have a significant impact on the Cowboys’ offensive game next season.
“First off, I just want to get healthy,” Johnson said. “But I’ve been working on strengthening my upper body so I can be more explosive off the line, but most importantly I want to get healthy so I can be there for game one.”
Losing a team leader like Josh Allen can leave a team struggling for guidance and order as they try to reconstruct their team and find a new leader. But the Cowboys are not concerned that someone will not step up into a leadership role this upcoming season.
“[Last year] we would have little mistakes that could have messed up the whole play, but with Josh being Josh he was always able to pull it together. I think we’ll just need to pay more attention to detail and be more concise with our routes without him,” Johnson said. “The quarterback battle in spring-ball has been pretty intense because they’re all fighting for that number one spot, and we have some guys coming in this summer that will also join that battle. But I think the quarterback, whoever it ends up being, will be just fine at leading the team.”
The Cowboys are certainly very focused on the issue of not having a starting quarterback at the moment, but for some, they are more focused on bettering themselves before worrying about who will take over as quarterback.
One of these players is junior running back Nico Evans. Before his final season, Evans wants to be one of the best running backs on the team.
“Last year I had a limited role as a third down back,” Evans said. “So I’m trying to use this spring to prove to myself and these coaches that I can be an every down back.”
Last season Evans had ten receptions and seventy receiving yards, according to ESPN stats. But those numbers don’t satisfy Evans and he hopes to be much more of a significant contributor for the Cowboys in this upcoming season.
“Every guy is going to have to step up now that Josh is gone,” Evans said. “We weren’t very good in our run-game last season so we’ll definitely see an improvement there and I expect to see some of receivers step up as well.”
The Cowboys will have their first scrimmage Saturday, April 7 that will not be open to the public. However, the Cowboys will host their annual spring game Saturday, April 21 at 2 p.m. MST, which will be open to the public.
