During his visit to training camp on Tuesday, Grant Paulsen caught up with edge rusher Dante Fowler, who had 11.5 sacks with the Rams in 2019 and looked like a future elite star, but has struggled with inconsistency and injuries since.
This will be his third stint with Dan Quinn, who signed him in 2020 while head coach in Atlanta and had him on his defense in Dallas the last two years, so perhaps Quinn and fellow Cowboys coaching alum Joe Whitt Jr.
can bring out the best in Fowler – who, at 30, may be angling for his last big payday.
And, so far, so good.
“Camp's been going good. We’re just getting our team identity, setting down a foundation and our bar of what we're going to be going into the season and keep building and going further,” Fowler said. “It was a cool deal getting to come up here and work with Dan again, and being able to see him do his thing as a head coach for a whole year, I’m really excited to be honest with you – and with Joe, he’s always been the same guy since I met him when he was a DBs coach with the Falcons. He goes about his business the right way, and he’s like a father figure who will put his arm around you but also get on you. I love playing for them.”
Fowler has been that elite rusher in flashes, and with Quinn leaning towards players who know his system and veterans here to prove themselves and set the tone, Fowler thinks he can become a three-down player in this defense.
“I see myself playing a lot of snaps and working my way to playing run downs. I think people just kind of got a misconcept of what I am; oeople like to stereotype me, but that's getting nipped in the bud this year for sure,” Fowler said. “I'm a guy that can play run downs. I’m a game wrecker, and I feel like a game wrecker needs to be out there for every down. I’m a special pass rusher for sure, when I come out on third down I’m for sure gonna try to get to the quarterback and get off the field, that’s my job – but get the quarterback and put pressure, get TFLs and make explosive plays in the backfield, be a game changer for my team, that’s my mindset every day. Definitely I'm going out here to let people know that I'm not just a pass rusher, I’m a guy that goes out here to wreck games and get my defense off the field when needed.”
The first chance he’ll get is this week when he faces the Jets in a joint practice and then perhaps a preseason game Saturday, with the former perhaps more important than the latter?
“They’re super helpful just because you go against team so often, you get comfortable with whatever position that you're going against, so when you get to go against another team, you get another feel for things because you're not gonna be going against your offense linemen in the regular season,” Fowler said. “So to be able to go against other teams during camp and be able to practice and get some stuff like that, it definitely gives you a better feeling and it gets you more ready for the season.”
Even if, at times, things get testy – but that’s where he as a veteran has to step in.
“I think just being smart, and the other team has to be smart. There are certain things people don't understand; just having clean plays and reps and off the field,” he said. “You don't have to be out on the field for three hours, just do what you gotta do, do your individuals with your guys and whatever amount of team reps that we have with them, make sure they're clean reps, and then after that, we can go on about our business.”
And come Week 1, when it starts for real, well, that’s when he’ll show what he wants to show.
“I care about just solidifying myself as being one of the top dogs in the league again; I was a top dog in 2019, but when I was in Atlanta I was hurt, and then when I was in Dallas, I got to sit back and learn from a lot of great players how to go about myself as a pro and be in a room with great players and coaches,” Fowler said. “I think this year is going to be my best year yet.”