Former Auburn wide receiver Camden Brown wasted no time making a statement in his NFL preseason debut for the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday.
Brown turned three catches into 62 yards and two touchdowns in a 17-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks, doing all of it on three targets. It was the kind of clean, explosive outing that looks even better when you remember how little room he was given to shine at Auburn.
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said Brown has been showing that same level in practice.
“The game’s not too big for him. He does that every day in practice.
We see it all the time,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s been doing this the whole time.
What I love about him is he does the little things, too. You watch him on special teams, in one-on-one drills, he realizes that’s how you make this football team.”
Brown said his approach hasn’t changed from his college days.
“When the ball is in the air, it’s mine,” Brown said. “That’s always been a mindset, from Georgia Southern and Auburn, and just having that mentality, because I feel like just playing football in general is having the right mentality.”
That mindset was easier to see at Georgia Southern, where Brown posted 65 catches for 1,079 yards and a Sun Belt-leading 14 touchdowns in one season. At Auburn, the production never matched the flashes.
Brown arrived as a freshman under Bryan Harsin after being flipped from Pitt close to signing day, and he showed signs right away in 2022. Even with Auburn’s lack of a quarterback capable of consistently pushing the ball downfield, Brown finished with nine catches for 123 yards and tied for second on the team with two receiving touchdowns.
The next season brought even more frustration. Under Hugh Freeze in 2023, Brown got pushed down the priority list as Auburn’s offense tilted toward other options, including Caleb Burton III, Jay Fair, and Ja'Varrius Johnson. Freeze also brought in a new wave of receivers for the 2024 team, including KeAndre Lambert-Smith and the Freeze Four, making Brown’s path to touches even narrower.
Auburn can still claim Brown, at least in the sense that he spent most of his college career in Lee County, Alabama. But Georgia Southern was the place that finally let him play with the kind of freedom that matched his talent. Saturday in Dallas looked a lot like the player Auburn kept waiting to see.
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