As much as Jerry and Stephen Jones love to throw a wet blanket on everything, the first week of Dallas Cowboys training camp has been a roaring success.
Rookies Donovan Ezeiruaku and Jaydon Blue have made their presence felt, while vets such as Damone Clark and Kaiir Elam have been among the biggest standouts over the first handful of practices. Another name who deserves mention in that group is none other than Andrew Booth.
According to reporters on the scene in Oxnard, Booth is stacking really strong practices. Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram caught an impressive highlight of Booth breaking up a deep ball intended for Jalen Tolbert in Sunday's padded practice.
Cowboys cornerback Andrew Booth is putting together a really nice training camp
Booth had a "handful" of PBUs on Sunday, per ESPN's Todd Archer. He has been applying sticky coverage on seemingly all of his reps, which is a far cry from what he provided last season after the Cowboys acquired him from the Vikings in August in a trade that sent Nahshon Wright to Minnesota.
Injuries forced Booth into the starting lineup early in the year and he was not up to the task. His 28.7 coverage grade ranked 219th out of 222 qualified cornerbacks, per Pro Football Focus. He was targeted 17 times in five games and allowed 13 receptions for 232 yards and two touchdowns. That equated to a 157.1 passer rating allowed that ranked 157th out of 160 cornerbacks.
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Booth played in Weeks 4 and 6 and did not reappear until Week 15. It took Trevon Diggs and Josh Butler suffering season-ending knee injuries for Booth to see the field again.
Wouldn't you know it, the Cowboys are once again dealing with injuries at cornerback. Diggs and Butler are both on the PUP list to start camp, while rookie third-round pick Shevon Revel Jr. is currently on the non-football injury list (NFI). It is worth noting that Revel has started doing on-field work, so he might be a few weeks away from being activated.
Booth has seen a ton of first-team reps as a result, and by all accounts, he’s made the most of them. Time will tell if this is sustainable or just a flash in the pan from the former second-round pick, but his current form adds yet another interesting wrinkle to a CB room full of question marks