Speaker 1: The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This he's Talking Cowboys
Speaker 1: training live from the Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisco. Says, Hey, guys, welcome back to Talking
Speaker 1: Cowboys to one on one edition. Rob Phillips here for
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys dot Com and today I'm joined by a
Speaker 1: man who talks Packers for a living, but he's got
Speaker 1: some great insight in the Cowboys new head coach Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy's coaching style. He's Robbed Hmobski of ESPN and if
Speaker 1: ESPN NFL Nation Reporter been covering the Packers for a
Speaker 1: long time and covering Mike McCarthy for a long time too.
Speaker 1: How you doing today, Rob? Thanks for having me, you know,
Speaker 1: in turn of covering the Cowboys right now, I can't
Speaker 1: think of anybody better to draw on experience in dealing
Speaker 1: with Mike McCarthy in the past. Can you just tell
Speaker 1: us how long you've been covering the Packers because it
Speaker 1: dates back beyond Aaron Rodgers, beyond Mike McCarthy. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: first season was nineteen ninety seven, which was the year
Speaker 1: after they won the Super Bowl, and then they went
Speaker 1: back to the Super Bowl my first year, lost to
Speaker 1: the to the Denver Broncos. Mike McCarthy came to Green
Speaker 1: Bay two years later as the quarterbacks coach under Ray
Speaker 1: Roads for just one year and then you know, probably
Speaker 1: never thought I'd cross passed with Mike McCarthy again. And
Speaker 1: five years later, six years later when they had a
Speaker 1: coaching search again and behold, Mike McCarthy was the guy.
Speaker 1: So you know, for us, we've because of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: we've met Mike twice, I believe in person January when
Speaker 1: he first got the job, and then at the out combine.
Speaker 1: So we really haven't been able to get to know
Speaker 1: him very much. Just can you tell us from your
Speaker 1: experience what kind of coach and what kind of guy
Speaker 1: the Cowboys have gotten here? Well, I can tell you
Speaker 1: that at Starbucks, which is about mile right between his
Speaker 1: house and my house, he likes the vente skinny vanilla latte.
Speaker 1: The Green Bay is is an interesting place. It's obviously
Speaker 1: a lot smaller than Dallas. So Mike was a guy
Speaker 1: who you saw around town all the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was you know, he was not just the coach
Speaker 1: of the Green Bay Packers. He was Mike McCarthy, who
Speaker 1: might be at a high school basketball game with one
Speaker 1: of his stepsons or at the y MCA with one
Speaker 1: of his daughters and they're you know, their dance classes
Speaker 1: or gymnastics or whatever. So Mike is a guy that
Speaker 1: is is very approachable. He's he is as I've covered
Speaker 1: I think it's five or six head coaches since I've
Speaker 1: covered the Packers, and he's as quote unquote normal of
Speaker 1: a guy as any of them. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: Mike Holmgren was this larger than life figure. Ray Rhoads
Speaker 1: was only here for for a year, so you didn't
Speaker 1: really know. Mike Sherman was this sort of history professor
Speaker 1: kind of guy. Matt Laflours this kind of young, uh
Speaker 1: you know, cool hip kid. And Mike McCarthy is just
Speaker 1: the most regular guy of all of them. I mean
Speaker 1: his his dad owned a bar in Pittsburgh for crying
Speaker 1: out loud, you know, I mean, he just is, He
Speaker 1: just is. He's you and me. He's the everyman. He
Speaker 1: just happens to also be really smart and really good
Speaker 1: with quarterbacks and offenses. But he is as as normal
Speaker 1: of a guy as you're going to get in the
Speaker 1: NFL head coaching business, which is not a normal business,
Speaker 1: as you know, absolutely not. Um. I know you did
Speaker 1: the first sit down interview with him after he was
Speaker 1: relieved of his duties with the Packers and twenty nine
Speaker 1: and he took the year off. What can you tell
Speaker 1: us just about his his mindset back then and maybe
Speaker 1: how things ended in Green Bay, maybe motivating him with
Speaker 1: his new job here in Dallas. Oh yeah, there's no question.
Speaker 1: I mean obviously he was hurt, um, you know, disappointed
Speaker 1: how it ended here. I think he knew going into
Speaker 1: that last season that you know, things might change, just
Speaker 1: because there had been so much change in the organization.
Speaker 1: So I think there was that stingingness to not being
Speaker 1: able to sort of see it through, you know, the
Speaker 1: end of that season. But once he got over that,
Speaker 1: you could sense the hunger and the motivation and the
Speaker 1: desire really to do this again. And and I remember
Speaker 1: sitting in his office in probably February of that you know,
Speaker 1: first off season where he was out of it, maybe March,
Speaker 1: you know, he would have normally gone to the combine,
Speaker 1: wasn't going, and he had about ten computer screens all
Speaker 1: a around him and was calling up everything from quarterbacks
Speaker 1: tools that he had run in Kansas City with Joe Montana,
Speaker 1: and he literally showing the video of Doe Montana doing
Speaker 1: five step drops and pivots too on the scret to
Speaker 1: the fire right screen. There was every play that every
Speaker 1: offense ran in the NFL that season, and he could
Speaker 1: have cut it. He was going through him, you know,
Speaker 1: concept by concept, So I mean this was this was
Speaker 1: a guy who wasn't just sitting around waiting for an opportunity.
Speaker 1: He was sitting around preparing for the next opportunity. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know that he in his in
Speaker 1: his heart of hearts, ever thought he could be so
Speaker 1: lucky to coach the Cowboys. I mean, because you're talking
Speaker 1: about going from the Green Bay Packers to the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: But I think he knew he was going to get
Speaker 1: another opportunity. Again, I just don't know that Dallas was
Speaker 1: ever like, you know, he ever thought, Oh, of the Dallas,
Speaker 1: that's the one I'm gonna get, right, He obviously the
Speaker 1: Packers from six through eighteen until the end. Near the
Speaker 1: end of the eighteen season, he did talk about how
Speaker 1: it's it's two different iconic franchises. He's going from one
Speaker 1: to the other, and now he's working with the Jones family,
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones. How do you think that
Speaker 1: will work in terms of decision making collaborating based on
Speaker 1: how it worked in Green Bay? Obviously it's a different dynamic.
Speaker 1: Right to be honest, I think it's everything that he
Speaker 1: wants because in Green Bay he had to be the
Speaker 1: face of everything. Ted Thompson was the general manager, very
Speaker 1: good personnel guy, but not a public facing figure. I
Speaker 1: mean Ted when they went going back all the way
Speaker 1: to the Brett fire saga where five wanted to come
Speaker 1: back and Ted Thompson had drafted Aaron Rodgers and wanted
Speaker 1: to move on. I mean Mike McCarthy maybe wasn't the
Speaker 1: main decision maker on that stuff, but he had to
Speaker 1: be the four. He had to answer all the questions.
Speaker 1: Same thing when when Ted would make free agent moves
Speaker 1: or not make free agent moves, which was something they
Speaker 1: very rarely did, and Mike always had to answer for
Speaker 1: everything in the organization. As you know, there's no owner here.
Speaker 1: It's a publicly owned team. The team president Mark Murphy
Speaker 1: essentially acts as the owner, but his philosophy, he was
Speaker 1: always to, you know, not be out in front. And
Speaker 1: I know in talking to Mike he said, the next opportunity,
Speaker 1: I get it's going to have to be more of
Speaker 1: a group effort in terms of how things are presented publicly.
Speaker 1: I think this it's a great opportunity for him because
Speaker 1: he can really focus on the coaching aspect and the
Speaker 1: managing of a team, which is what he's best at.
Speaker 1: And you know, Jerry and Stephen can be the forward
Speaker 1: facing people, but when it comes to the fans and
Speaker 1: the and the media media especially, Mike doesn't always have
Speaker 1: to answer questions for things that he didn't have say
Speaker 1: over interesting, very interesting. One ask you a couple of questions,
Speaker 1: maybe on the philosophy side, for as a coach on
Speaker 1: the field that you referenced you said he's really good
Speaker 1: with quarterbacks. We know that you mentioned Montana going all
Speaker 1: the way back to when he was a young assistant.
Speaker 1: Got the end of tail end of Brett Farn's career.
Speaker 1: And I know Aaron Rodgers deserves the bulk of the
Speaker 1: credit for what's going to be a Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: career at the end of it, But what kind of
Speaker 1: a teacher is he as a two quarterbacks for fans
Speaker 1: that quarter Yeah, his quarterback school is legendary really. I mean,
Speaker 1: like just watching him work with Montana, watching him work
Speaker 1: with Aaron Brooks in New Orleans. I mean he really
Speaker 1: helped mold Aaron Brooks, who was a mid round pick,
Speaker 1: a fourth round pick, I believe by the Packers traded
Speaker 1: him to New Orleans, and he took Aaron Brooks because
Speaker 1: remember he was Jim Haslett was the head coach there
Speaker 1: in New Orleans, and Jim Haslett was a defensive guy,
Speaker 1: so Mike was basically head coach of the offense, and
Speaker 1: you know, really turned Brooks into a good quarterback. I
Speaker 1: think people forget about five is the year before Mike
Speaker 1: got to Green Bay. Five was a disaster. I mean
Speaker 1: he had thrown twenty nine picks. They went four and twelve,
Speaker 1: and everyone thought five had just gone off the rails
Speaker 1: and there was no raining him back in. And two
Speaker 1: years later he had five. I think he had cut
Speaker 1: his interceptions from twenty nine to thirteen. They've gone. They
Speaker 1: went to the NFC Championship game, and he really rained
Speaker 1: him in. All the while he and his staff were
Speaker 1: working to prepare Rogers for you know, I mean, remember
Speaker 1: when Aaron Rodgers came out, he carried that ball like
Speaker 1: way up here by his ear and it was such
Speaker 1: a weird throwing formation, and McCarthy and his offensive staff
Speaker 1: really changed that. So he is very detail oriented. He
Speaker 1: if I've heard him say it once, I've heard him
Speaker 1: say it a thousand times. It's all about the quarterback.
Speaker 1: That's what he's told us too, that he's got to
Speaker 1: build the offense to fit the quarter back. And obviously
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott is in the news down here, was staying
Speaker 1: a franchise tag, and everything tied to the Cowboys right
Speaker 1: now is how to set everything up to have Dak
Speaker 1: has as much successive as possibly can. So obviously a
Speaker 1: big reason why Mike was hired. Um sticking with the
Speaker 1: offense a little bit. I know Kellen Moore. Kellen Moore
Speaker 1: is still the offensive coordinator. Mike, I'm sure have a
Speaker 1: have a hint in what's called. He's got a reputation
Speaker 1: in Green Bay in the past as as more of
Speaker 1: a pass oriented play caller. Makes sense with Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: as your quarterback, m how fair is that? And do
Speaker 1: you think you know was that more of a personnel
Speaker 1: matter for him while he was coaching in Green Bay.
Speaker 1: If you look at it, they never had a Zeke Elliot,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. I mean, who does. I guess there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of people do. But they never really
Speaker 1: had like a workhorse running back. I mean they had
Speaker 1: in the late two thousands. In the two thousand and
Speaker 1: ten with the Super Bowl team, they had Ryan Grant
Speaker 1: who had a couple of thousand yard seasons. They had
Speaker 1: Eddie Lacy in the two thirteen fourteen type range. He
Speaker 1: was a thousand yard back. But but Mike, Mike believe
Speaker 1: that if you don't have a guy that can carry
Speaker 1: it twenty five times a day a game, and you
Speaker 1: don't want to wear a guy out who may not
Speaker 1: be able to handle that physically, then you don't do
Speaker 1: it till the end of the season. But go look
Speaker 1: at his record from December on through the playoffs. They
Speaker 1: really did become a running team later in the year.
Speaker 1: I mean the run of the Super Bowl. I mean
Speaker 1: they were decimated by injuries and they ended up with
Speaker 1: James Starks, a rookie, and in one of those playoff
Speaker 1: games he had over one hundred yards. I can't remember
Speaker 1: if it was the wildcard game. I think it was
Speaker 1: a wildcard game against Philadelphia. I have Philadelphia. I mean
Speaker 1: they kind of turned into that a little bit so
Speaker 1: he can morph into it. But he believes in the
Speaker 1: West Coast system, quick passes, winning matchups. There's not a
Speaker 1: ton of scheming guys to get open, so you better
Speaker 1: have good receivers, and Dallas does. I mean, there's no
Speaker 1: question about that. So I do think it was a
Speaker 1: little bit the personnel he had to work with here,
Speaker 1: but I also think they gave him the personnel that
Speaker 1: fit his offense. It's a little bit of a two
Speaker 1: way three. But I'm really curious to see, you know,
Speaker 1: how they do become, how his offense does more. When
Speaker 1: you have a running back by Galliot who is so dominant,
Speaker 1: it will be interesting. And he said, you know, Zeke's
Speaker 1: gonna be a huge part of it. If you go back,
Speaker 1: I guess to the Saints days when he was the
Speaker 1: OC there. Ricky Williams was a guy that got three
Speaker 1: hundred carries a season, so you can trace it back
Speaker 1: beyond Green Bay. I guess one last one for you.
Speaker 1: A lot of uncertainty about the NFL right now with
Speaker 1: the training camp hoping to start on time. I was
Speaker 1: wondering what you thought about the way Mike handled the lockout,
Speaker 1: which I guess is the only comparable situation in the
Speaker 1: last ten years leading into I believe twenty eleven, and
Speaker 1: how we handled that, and how do you think that
Speaker 1: might be able to where he can prepare his guys
Speaker 1: as best as possible with no rule off season. I
Speaker 1: remember talking to Mike in late June early July that summer,
Speaker 1: so similar time to right now, and they still didn't
Speaker 1: know when they were going to come back. It was
Speaker 1: a It was at one of his charity golf outings,
Speaker 1: and he said, he goes, the team that figures out
Speaker 1: how to get ready quickest is going to have the
Speaker 1: best chance. And that season the Packers went fifteen and one.
Speaker 1: I mean, they came out of the gates and they
Speaker 1: were coming off the Super Bowl, so obviously had a
Speaker 1: really good team. And I remember all the criticism that
Speaker 1: Rogers and the offensive guy's face because they didn't do
Speaker 1: twity workouts on their own, like I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: they were I know, I remember they were. I think
Speaker 1: Tom Brady and a bunch of the top quarterbacks, Roethlisberger,
Speaker 1: they were holding these workouts and Packers never did anything.
Speaker 1: The players never did it, and they go out in
Speaker 1: Week one. They opened in that Thursday night, you know,
Speaker 1: NFL opener because they were the Super Bowl chance. I
Speaker 1: think they scored forty two points in the Saints, and
Speaker 1: I remember Rogers saying, well, a boy, maybe if we
Speaker 1: would have got had some offseason workouts, we might have
Speaker 1: been better on offense. Forty two points and they hit
Speaker 1: the ground running. The one thing you'll know about Mike
Speaker 1: and get to learn about him is he is ultra,
Speaker 1: ultra detailed when it comes to scheduling. He's always tweaking things.
Speaker 1: I mean, they know they had a lot of success
Speaker 1: here for I mean what they made the playoffs eight
Speaker 1: straight years, and I'd be willing to say that six
Speaker 1: of those eight years they used a different type of
Speaker 1: practice schedule, training camp schedule. Things never stayed the same.
Speaker 1: And I think that will benefit the Cowboys in this
Speaker 1: because he's been through every possible situation as far as
Speaker 1: preparing a team, and he'll he'll admit some years they
Speaker 1: didn't come out of the camp ready to go. There
Speaker 1: were plenty of years. I can remember the ri E
Speaker 1: Lax season, the relax where Rogers said, hey, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be fine. They were one and two and they ended
Speaker 1: up going to the NFC Championship game that was twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: So he'll figure it out one way or another. He
Speaker 1: will definitely do it. He spent the bulk of his
Speaker 1: time in Green Bay, about two miles from where I'm
Speaker 1: sitting right now, and I have the opportunity to see
Speaker 1: inside of his home office, and I can tell you
Speaker 1: it looks it looks like he could run practice right
Speaker 1: out in his front yard because he's got everything set up.
Speaker 1: You know, he had everything set up like he was
Speaker 1: in the Star working on everything that they needed to
Speaker 1: do well. You've actually been closer to him part of
Speaker 1: this offseason because he's still been back in Green Bay
Speaker 1: doing some virtual work with the offseason program. Rob really
Speaker 1: appreciate the time. Thanks for joining us today. All Right,
Speaker 1: have a great year, guys. It's Rob Demoski of ESPN
Speaker 1: covering the Packers. You can check out his work on
Speaker 1: ESPN dot com. Thanks for joining us, guys,