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ESPN Senior Writer- ESPN NFL Insider
- Joined ESPN in 2009
- Former president of the Pro Football Writers of America and the author of four books
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ESPN Staff Writer- Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @toddarcher.
A large number of Dallas Cowboys are forming their own training camp bubble before on-field practices start Friday, league sources told ESPN.
Players, coaches and staff will set up their summer home at the five-star Omni Hotel that is next to the Cowboys' practice facility to help their fight against COVID-19. One official said he believed the majority of the team would be staying there. With good reason: The set-up has everything the team will need.
The Omni is connected to Ford Center, the 12,000-seat stadium that is attached to the Cowboys' facility. During the regular season, the Cowboys stay at the hotel on nights before home games at AT&T Stadium. They conduct their meetings at The Star, and players receive treatment at their normal training rooms before sleeping at the hotel.
Rookies and free agents are already at the hotel, ESPN's Ed Werder reported.
The Cowboys are joining the New Orleans Saints as teams setting up their own bubbles in their cities to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Both teams will be staying, en masse, at hotels near their facilities or adjacent to them.
In a normal year, the Cowboys would be at the River Ridge Residence Inn in Oxnard, California, for more than a month for training camp.
With the ability to do something similar at the Omni, the Cowboys believe that setting up a bubble will help their preparations under new coach Mike McCarthy.
Because of league restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, McCarthy did not have a traditional offseason program with a rookie minicamp, organized team activities or full minicamp, leaning only on virtual meetings. Since being hired in January, he did not address the full roster until last week.
Since the start of the testing process, the Cowboys have had two players land on the reserve/COVID-19 list: wide receiver Jon'Vea Johnson and cornerback Saivion Smith. Both rejoined the 80-man active roster this week. The team has been pleasantly surprised by the low number of positive COVID-19 tests, sources said.
The Cowboys are not mandating that players stay at the hotel, but they have strongly suggested it, and it is catching on.