Nothing compares to the excitement of Week 1 of the NFL season. But there’s something uniquely exhilarating about the start of training camp.
It offers a clean slate of optimism and gives fans their first look at rookies, new schemes, and position battles. There’s just something about that first highlight clip of players flying around and popping pads that makes you feel right at home.
Between Christian Parker installing a new defense, the usage of first-round pick Caleb Downs, and a plethora of position battles, the Dallas Cowboys have no shortage of urgent storylines to follow.
We'd never dissuade fans from leaning into their excitement, but it's important to remember that the return of football also marks the return of injury season.
The Carolina Panthers were reminded of that harsh reality on Thursday during their first training camp practice when edge rusher Nic Scourton went down with a knee injury during team drills. Per Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network, Scourton was in tears as he was carted off the field while teammates embraced him before he departed.
Wolfe and Ian Rapoport later followed up that Scourton tore his ACL and will miss the upcoming season.
Nic Scourton's training camp injury is a brutal reminder for Dallas Cowboys fans
Just a devastating development for a young player who looked primed to take another step after a promising rookie season in which he recorded 5.0 sacks, seven tackles for loss, 33 pressures, and 28 tackles against the run, per Pro Football Focus.
Unfortunately, the Panthers won't be the last team to suffer a crushing injury this summer. The Cowboys have given fans plenty of reasons to be excited about the 2026 season, but Scourton's injury is a sobering reminder that a team's outlook can change in an instant.
For Cowboys fans, the closest comparison would be Donovan Ezeiruaku. Scourton was drafted just seven picks after Dallas selected Ezeiruaku last year at No. 44 overall, and both are viewed as ascending young edge rushers with breakout potential.
But really, you could plug in any young player the Cowboys are counting on this season. An injury like that would instantly suck the excitement from training camp. It's the ugly side of football that every team hopes to avoid.
You probably remember Tyler Guyton going down with a knee injury early in camp last summer. The Cowboys held their breath, fearing they had lost their starting left tackle for the season before the diagnosis fortunately came back as a bone fracture.
That's not to say Cowboys fans should spend training camp fearing the worst. It's simply a reminder that every practice carries some degree of risk. The return of football means that injuries are part of the equation again.
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