Orton A No-Show At Cowboys OTAs

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IRVING, Texas — The standoff between the Dallas Cowboys and backup quarterback Kyle Orton has been moved to training camp in Oxnard, California.

Orton, who has missed OTAs and says he wants to retire but doesn’t want to repay the Cowboys $3 million, has been fined roughly $70,000 for missing mini-camp.

And he will be fined $30,000 each day if he doesn’t report to training camp with the team July 23.

The first practice is set for July 24.

Coach Jason Garrett said he has not talked to Orton but has been in touch his agent, David Dunn, who was interestingly at the team’s Valley Ranch headquarters on Wednesday but had no comment on the AWOL quarterback.

“We anticipate him being at training camp,” coach Jason Garrett said. “Communication is a big part of that situation, trying to understand why he wasn’t here and taking the necessary work.

“What we have to do and need to do as an organization is penalize him the necessary

amounts of fines and those kinds of things. We also just want to understand and communicate and try to figure out (how) this situation is going to play out that’s best for the Dallas Cowboys and for Kyle Orton.”

–There is little chance for the Cowboys to be markedly better on defense to make a difference.

But the Cowboys don’t think they have to be Doomsday-esque to make a playoff run because they will be a lot better on offense.

“Obviously we believe Tony Romo is an elite quarterback and you put the supporting cast with him, that’s why we picked Zack Martin,” vice-president Stephen Jones said.

“I think we’re better in the offensive line and you’d hope so if you spent the 16th pick in the draft on one of the better offensive lineman in the draft. You’d like to hope you’re better.

“And we were pretty good last year and I think we’ll move that up to where you say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a chance to have an elite offense.'”

The Cowboys averaged 27.4 points per game last season, but they averaged only 341.1 yards per game, which was 16th, while converting only 35 percent of their third down chances.

The Cowboys believe former Detroit Lions coordinator Scott Linehan will make a difference as the new offensive play caller, taking over for Bill Callahan in directing coach Jason Garrett’s offense.

“I think he brings a different look,” Jones said. “After a while when it’s been Jason’s offense and Bill ran Jason’s offense and called the plays in Jason’s offense, but at the end of the day we’d been doing that for a while.

“I think now to add wrinkles and add things to it, I don’t think it’s going to be, when people get ready to play us, that they know exactly what to expect now.”

–Wide receiver Dez Bryant is in line for a new contract. He is in the final season of his rookie deal where he will make $1.78 million in 2014.

But Bryant is coming off his first Pro Bowl season and is considered one of the elite receivers in the league. He’s is eyeing a new deal before or during the season.

And while that remains a possibility, owner Jerry Jones remained a little timid about the subject of new deal coming quickly.

“I don’t know that we have any issues relative to timing there at all with any of our contracts,” the Cowboys owner and general manager said. “But Dez, from the standpoint of his direct team activities, his preparation, his conditioning, he’s in better shape than he’s been. He needed to be in better shape as compared to the last several years. He certainly advanced from the standpoint of his route running, his awareness. All of that is a good thing.

“He needs to continue to work on his conditioning, so all of that is very good. But I’m not at liberty or wouldn’t talk about anything off the field.