Jalen Tolbert’s preseason performances shouldn’t concern folks, yet
Football fans, in general, don’t pay much attention to training camp practices. Sure, they may check in from time to time, but it’s only the die-hard fanatics who eat, drink and sleep the most minute updates. Instead, fans normally wait for the regular season opener to check in on the things their team has changed since they last saw them. For the Cowboys, the last image engrained in the majority of fan’s heads is the playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
There’s a subset of fans in between these two extremes though, and those are the ones who check in around draft season, then resurface when they get a chance to watch their team play exhibition games. For that version of Dallas fans, there is likely some trepidation when it comes to third-round pick Jalen Tolbert. He’s the wide receiver who, through intent or not, is seen as the replacement in the three-headed monster for Amari Cooper.
Cooper was the team’s presumptive No. 1 receiver, even if CeeDee Lamb had surpassed him in targets and production in 2021. Cooper had the WR1 contract, and after being shipped off for a fifth-round pick because none of the other 30 teams in the NFL wanted to give more for his $20 million per year salary, Dallas didn’t run out to sign a big-name free agent. Instead they re-upped Michael Gallup and used a Day 2 pick on the small school (CFB hierarchally speaking) South Alabama product.
Tolbert’s preseason has not been impressive. In the exhibition opener against the Denver Broncos, Tolbert was targets seven times and only had two receptions for just 10 yards. Against the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night, he caught just 50% of his four targets for 25 yards. He had two drops, one in each game, including one where he alligator-armed the attempt in traffic. In addition, he failed to convert a chance at a big play when he was found open in the back of the end zone but failed to get his second foot in bounds, turning a touchdown into an incompletion.
The general consensus through these two performances is that Tolbert is not ready for the prime-time role Dallas is going to thrust upon him, especially as WR2 Michael Gallup remains on the PUP list as he recovers from January’s ACL injury that wasn’t operated on until the spring.
But fans may be better served to be patient in their evaluations.
While the big lights of the preseason are nothing compared to the regular season, and the size of the collegiate stage a prospect plays on is normally one of the draft commandments Will McClay lives by, there’s a huge reason to think that Tolbert will be just fine.
Dak Prescott.
The third-year receiver is being microwaved into having a big role, and the centerpiece of that is to get his timing down with the Dallas star quarterback. The majority of practice work that Tolbert gets is to have him in sync with the starter, not the backups. That’s where the chemistry building is focused on.
No one is going to confuse what Prescott can do for the performances Cooper Rush, Will Grier and Ben DiNucci can turn in. As such, things like route timing and expectation and subtle nuances should be much sharper when it’s the two-time Pro Bowler throwing the rock.
This isn’t to say Tolbert isn’t dealing with the weight of higher expectations, just that judgement shouldn’t be passed until these mistakes are happening with a competent, receiver-elevating presence is under center. He could very well require the type of buildup many receivers before him have required.
But until it’s Prescott throwing him the passes in live action, it feels like faulty logic to look at these first two outings as anything beyond getting his feet wet.
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