FRISCO, Texas — One of the standouts of Dallas' undrafted free agent class during training camp has been offensive guard T.J. Bass, as the Oregon product has stepped into more first-team reps as the month has gone on.
Whether it's learning from Zack Martin, offensive line coach Mike Solari or just taking in basic knowledge, learning has been the theme of camp for Bass as he looks to take the next step in his career in stride.
"Camp was good," Bass said. "A lot of learning. It was awesome to get Zack back there too. It's always good to watch him and look at what he's doing and how he does it. Just a lot of learning and building confidence in the offense with all the guys."
While Bass did get a little bit of time with Martin during OTAs and minicamp, getting him back at the end of training camp has already been huge for Bass' learning process going further into the preseason.
"Little ins and outs of the game and the position," he said about what Martin teaches him. "Little nuances and what he sees, he's always willing to coach me up if he sees me doing something wrong or saying how does this, things like that."
While Bass was slotted in mocks going into April's draft, he fell to the undrafted free agent market where Dallas quickly made a move. As a result, Bass has a little bit of fire in his fuel going into his NFL career.
"Yeah, I would say there's a little bit of a chip but not in a bad way," he said. "Just trying to prove myself."
That chip is not something that's foreign to Bass on the football field, as his journey from proving himself in junior college to playing Power Five college football helped for this similar chapter in his story.
"It's just a grind," Bass said about the similarities. "You have to grind through it and always be willing to learn too. I think it's helped that I've been at two different [colleges] and helped build my way into a group of men."
Bass continues to earn praise in his debut training camp and preseason from head coach Mike McCarthy and others involved with the day-to-day of the team, and while he says it's "awesome" to receive that recognition, he knows there is still more to prove and more to learn.
"[I want to] just learn, learn, learn and see what happens."
