Christian Parker drops telling comments about the most important Dallas Cowboys’ preseason battle
The Dallas Cowboys are seeing what they wanted to out of second-year cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. And defensive coordinator Christian Parker isn’t hiding it.
It remains to be seen what the Dallas Cowboys secondary looks like when the team takes on the New York Giants in Week 1. Specifically, the biggest unknown remains who starts at outside cornerback between veteran free agent Cobie Durant and second-year player Shavon Revel Jr.
Revel Jr. is looking good in training camp. He’s consistently battled with WR George Pickens and he’s often responsible for multiple pass breakups a day. Notably, he was the Cowboys defender to play the least amount of snaps in the preseason opener among those who suited up.
So, does that mean the Cowboys have seen enough to start him? Not exactly, but based on defensive coordinator Christian Parker’s revealing review of Revel Jr., it’s clear he’s close.
Cowboys like what they see from Shavon Revel Jr.
“We expect a standard of performance for everybody,” Parker told reporters on Wednesday. “(Revel Jr.) has reached that level. We expect better things from him, and he’s been reaching those expectations.”
Part of that is the result of the young cornerback running to coaching, as Parker puts it.
“He’s always looking for ways to improve,” Parker added. “It could be a good rep, it could be a bad rep, it could be a rep that he wasn’t even in on. He’s always looking for ways that, how can he catch up from the mental side of the game.”
Revel Jr. meeting the initial expectations of the coaching staff doesn’t mean he’s earned the starting job, however. For starters, Durant has had a strong training camp himself, to the point of not even being asked to play in last weekend’s game.
Additionally, there are two things Parker wants to see from the young defensive back: consistency and continued learning.
“I’ve mentioned that before, it’s just consistency,” Parker said. “When you have young players, they’re going to reach a height where you’re starting to see, ‘okay, yeah, it’s getting better,’ but then it’s a point that that’s not good enough.”
In other words, Revel Jr. is being evaluated as a veteran. As he puts it, it’s the same standard for everyone. So what’s next for the Cowboys’ former second-round pick with less than a month before the start of the regular season?
“Just trying to continue to learn from [specific situations] to kind of build his intellectual bank from pre-snap and during the play mindset so we can continue to perform,” Parker laid out. “Because he has all the traits you want, and he’s made great strides in terms of the mental part of the game and having that confidence in himself.”
The Cowboys coaching staff wants more from Revel Jr. The same is true for probably every guy on the 91-man roster.
But in my opinion, this is not how you talk about a player that’s going to ride the bench. Revel Jr. is meeting the expectations and if he continues to do that, you will see him on the field early on.
