Brian Schottenheimer doubles down on big adjustment to Cowboys training camp, and it should help his team late in the season
The Dallas Cowboys are making a significant change to how they approach training camp in Oxnard, California. And it should have a tangible impact on how the Cowboys do things later in the year.
Brian Schottenheimer set the theme of his Dallas Cowboys early on when he took over the team in 2025: Compete everyday.
Thus, competitiveness remains the top theme of everything Schottenheimer’s team does. But in 2026, there’s another thematic layer for Cowboys camp. And it happens to be one based on science and that can tangibly help out the team throughout the regular season.
Cowboys practices emphasize physicality
Schottenheimer is making an adjustment to how he goes about training camp this year: Increasing physicality.
Ironically, this is not an old-school move to make players tougher. Rather, it’s an effort to keep players healthy when the season kicks off. And it’s a decision based on what the Cowboys’ sports science team is telling the coaching staff.
“A few more padded practices, a few more two-hour practices,” Schottenheimer said about his plans to make Cowboys practice more physical. “I shared with you guys in the spring I’m not a big seven-on-seven guy but we’ll have a few days of two-hour practices. We’re going to do seven-on-seven and nine-on-seven.”
Schottenheimer explained the reason for increased padded work is to “build some callouses.” Though he didn’t elaborate on that final point on Wednesday, he did earlier in the offseason.
Cowboys’ padded work focused on player health
In June, Schottenheimer let the media know about his plans to run more padded practices. At the time, he cited the Cowboys’ short weeks as a reason why.
“It’s a little harder to carry the pads later into the season,” the Cowboys head coach explained. “I do think talking with our sports science people that there’s a different way to really build some callouses during training camp.”
In other words, padded practice now will help the Cowboys go to pads in practice later in the season without risking as much injury.
Additionally, Schottenheimer explained the approach in camp is part of a larger plan that will be complemented by their practice style during the regular season.
“And then when the season starts we’re going to have a hard type of week, a medium type of week, and a light type of week,” Schottenheimer added. “But I think it’s important that you go from hard to medium to light. But you got to comeback to medium as you’re getting ready for the playoffs.”
Beyond the sports science side of things, I don’t think it will hurt the Cowboys to be a more physical squad.
Offensive coordinator Klayton Adams did a fantastic job overhauling the run game last year and it emphasizes physicality. As for the defense, it lacked physicality among many other things. More padded practices can’t harm either unit.