Among the players anticipating Sunday’s Blue-White scrimmage is former TCU running back Ed Wesley, who signed as a free-agent less than a week before the team reported to camp last Saturday.
Now that he’s been in California for a week, Wesley said he’s ready for his first scrimmage of camp, which carries extra weight with rookies. They begin camp with no star on the side of their helmets and must earn it as the camp progresses.
The stakes for the scrimmage went up with today's news that Phillip Tanner, the frontrunner to be the team's third running back, is headed back to Dallas to have surgery after breaking his hand in practice. Tanner struck a helmet with his hand, said coach Jason Garrett, and is expected to be out one to two weeks. That creates more opportunities for Wesley and Lance Dunbar, a UNT grad also pushing to make the team as the third running back.
“That’s all I’m working toward. I’m trying to get the blue star on my helmet, to compete to the max with the football in my hands. And on special teams, also,” said Wesley, who practiced as a special-teamer at TCU but did not play on special teams in games.
Asked about how he’s adjusting to life in training camp, Wesley said: “It’s going well. I can’t wait for the scrimmage, to get a real feel for how everything goes. Just try to move up on the depth chart and make the team.”
As a special-teamer, Wesley has worked primarily as a gunner and as an outside rusher on the punt block team. He said coaches also have talked to him about trying to return punts.
“I’ll work some as a returner, and we’ll see how that goes,” Wesley said.
_ Jimmy Burch
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