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Super Bowl Run For Dallas Cowboys Begins With OTAs

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Jason Garrett Dallas Cowboys

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OTAs are simply supposed to be three days of voluntary workouts that take place in late May, but anyone who is even remotely associated with the league knows that these next three days are some of the most important of the offseason and they are far from voluntary anymore. This is the time of the year where players get put on their strength and conditioning programs for the upcoming season and where they also finally get to face opposing offenses or defenses for the first time since last year.

And as Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett likes to point out, with the limited amount of practices teams can have in shoulder pads under the new collective bargaining agreement, it’s the teams that learn how to practice well in shorts and helmets that will usually thrive when the regular and postseasons arrive. So now is the time for coaches to set the tone for the kind of speed and quality of practice they expect to see from their team each and every time they step on to the field.

Now is also the time to make sure you start working on technique with the players and make sure you put the right habits in place. It’s the teams that pay attention to the details that win Super Bowls, not just the ones with the most talent, and in the Cowboys’ case, they have quite a few new faces coming in this year that bring a world of talent with them.

They will be welcoming in All-Pro defensive end Greg Hardy as well as the talented but oft-injured Darren McFadden to the team; not to mention the rookies they are expecting big things from this season in Byron Jones, Randy Gregory and La’el Collins. So now is the time to get them used to the culture of the team and to let them know what exactly is expected from them both individually and as a whole; because if this team has any hope of getting to where they think they can this year, these next three days are unbelievably vital to that journey.

Kelly Anderson is a blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @bgipp01 or add him to your network on Google.

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