Recalling the good works of a previous Warwick High graduate, B.W. Webb vowed that if he were ever in a similar position, he would do the same.
Hence, the Dallas Cowboys rookie is the driving force behind his first football camp, this Saturday at Hampton Roads Academy.
“It’s something I always wanted to do, was give back,” Webb said Wednesday, sitting in his parents’ living room in Stoney Brook. “Coming up, I always saw Michael Vick have his camp and I helped out with his camps. Seeing how big it is for little kids to spend some of your time with them and show them some things is great. In our area, not enough people come back to give, so I thought that was a big thing.”
Webb enlisted a handful of NFL cohorts as guest counselors, among them: Dallas teammate and running back Joseph Randle, Vikings defensive back Xavier Rhodes, Jets cornerback and former Virginia standout Ras-I Dowling, Bengals linebacker Sean Porter and Jacksonville defensive back Johnathan Cyprien. Registration begins at 8 a.m., and the camp runs from 9 until approximately 2 p.m.
Webb gravitated toward basketball camps as a youngster, but eventually found his way to the football field. Though lightly recruited at Warwick, he became a Football Championship Subdivision All-American at William and Mary and a fourth-round draft pick by the Cowboys last spring.
He played in 15 of 16 games, often logging time as the “nickel” back in five-man alignments for a secondary beset by injuries and inconsistent play. The local media chronicled his and their struggles. Webb concurred.
“I don’t think it was the best,” he said of his season. “There were times when I don’t think I was playing to the best of my ability. I wasn’t using my God-given gifts. The first year was hard. I just have to bounce back this year.”
Webb said his difficulties were the result of inexperience, a new playbook and what he called a new position. Though he was technically still a cornerback, the nickel back in the Cowboys’ scheme has elements of safety and linebacker, he said. The position requires check-offs and calls and different types of coverages.
“I just wasn’t used to it,” he said. “I had to stay in my playbook. It’s a lot more thinking there than at corner. At corner, you can just go play. I think that’s something I’ve gotten better at and something that I’ve settled into this year.
“If you’re thinking too much on the field, you can’t really go out there and play. It was a new playbook and a new position. But I think I have that grasped this year. Now I’m trying to get back to my college ways and just play.”
Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last December that Webb at times “played young” last season.
“I think it’s hard for any rookie to come in and play, particularly at that position,” Garrett told the Fort Worth paper. “We feel good about some of the things he’s done, but he certainly has to continue to get better.”
Webb, who recently completed a session of Cowboys organized team activities (OTAs), is convinced that he’s improved greatly in multiple areas. He is more knowledgeable about the defense and more aware of the rigors of an NFL season.
“It’s a long season,” he said. “You get so mentally tired. It’s 17 weeks and if you make it to the playoffs, you’ve got more weeks after that. You really can tell the difference after about the 11th or 12th week. In college, your season’s over, but in the pros, you’ve still got five more weeks to go in the regular season. Just staying mentally strong, that’s the tough part.”
Though the NFL’s exposure increased dramatically and interest is year ’round, Webb said people still don’t understand the amount of time players and coaches devote to preparation.
“It’s a lot harder and a lot more time goes into it than people think,” he said. “There’s meetings after meetings. You have to put so much time in the playbook outside the facility. The days are long. That’s one thing people really don’t see. The guys that have played for a while, they have an idea how things run, but it’s a different monster when you’re in there every week, every day. People don’t see that. They just see the games on Sundays.”
The Cowboys presently have nine cornerbacks on the roster. A reporter for the team’s website wrote that he thinks that they’ll keep five or six. Webb believes that he’ll stick.
Webb takes it as a sign of confidence in him that the team spent no high-round draft picks on cornerbacks. The Cowboys chose Terrance Mitchell from Oregon with the last of five seventh-round choices and signed three undrafted free-agent corners.
“But to be honest,” he said, “regardless of if they did or didn’t, I’m still going to go out there and play, and I was going to handle what I could, and that’s looking after myself and working on my craft.”
Fairbank can be reached at 757-247-4637
