The Cowboys may have stumbled onto something at wide receiver, and his name is Camden Brown.
The undrafted rookie out of Georgia Southern had already been turning heads in training camp with a steady stream of impressive grabs. On Saturday night against the Seattle Seahawks, he backed it up in game action and made a real case for himself in Dallas’ 17-7 preseason win.
Brown led all Cowboys pass-catchers with 62 receiving yards and two touchdowns, and the catches themselves were the kind that stick with coaches. His first score came in the second quarter on a contested throw from Sam Howell in the end zone. The ball was a little underthrown, but Brown worked back to it and snatched it away from the defender for a 39-yard touchdown.
Then he topped it in the third quarter with what might have been the catch of the night: a one-handed grab on a fade in the end zone before finishing the play for another touchdown.
Brown’s performance didn’t just show off his hands. It also fit the kind of player Brian Schottenheimer has been praising throughout camp.
“The games not too big for him, he does it everyday in practice," head coach Brian Schottenheimer said, according to Nicole Hutchison of DallasCowboys.com.
"(Brown) does the little things, too," he added. "Special teams.
He’s intentional. But he’s got to keep stacking them like he’s been doing.”
That special teams piece matters. If Brown is going to stick as a receiver near the bottom of the depth chart, he’ll need to help out in that phase too, and Schottenheimer’s comments suggest he’s doing exactly that.
The bigger picture is simple: there may only be one real opening left at wide receiver. CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Ryan Flournoy and KaVontae Turpin look locked in, which leaves the No. 5 job as the spot up for grabs.
Brown is now in the mix with Jonathan Mingo, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and seventh-round pick Anthony Smith. And after Saturday, he has the strongest argument of the group.
Mingo, who is viewed as the favorite for the job, caught two third-down passes for 20 yards in the first half and then disappeared. Valdes-Scantling didn’t record a catch. Smith finished with two receptions for 28 yards, but those came in the second half against Seattle’s threes.
There’s still the matter of experience, and the Cowboys’ investment in Mingo after a head-scratching trade in 2024 gives him an edge in the room. But if this battle is decided on camp and preseason production, Brown is the one setting the pace.
If he turns this into the final roster spot, it would count as a major upset on Dallas’ 53-man roster.
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