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: screaming live from the Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisco. Scott Now, your hosts, Mickey Spagnola, Rob Phillips,
Speaker 1: Everson Walls, and Bill Jones. Boy, they got half right.
Speaker 1: Fifty fifty fifty again, second straight week. That's okay. We'll
Speaker 1: get it right at some point. But it is a
Speaker 1: cloudy Tuesday, and that means more Talking Cowboys here on
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys dot Com and all the various social media s.
Speaker 1: WBC Mortgage Studio hosting us again, Mickey Spagnola, Heck Harrison
Speaker 1: back for a second straight must have something right. It's
Speaker 1: something right. So you're back in the chair, Everson Walls,
Speaker 1: And then I'm back in the chair too, So I
Speaker 1: guess I did. Okay. Kyle Yeoman's here filling in for
Speaker 1: Bill Jones and guys. Uh, it was a fun weekend.
Speaker 1: I know, Mickey, you were down in New Orleans? How
Speaker 1: was that? New Orleans was great? Anytime you go to
Speaker 1: New Orleans, it's great and it's not great. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: have some good food, down there. I had great food, yeah,
Speaker 1: a few drinks, just a few. Wow, some great entertainment
Speaker 1: in some of the little local places I know about.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was. It was quite a quite a
Speaker 1: three days yet hit up some of the famous Mickey
Speaker 1: Spagnolla watering holes. That's right. Yeah, absolutely the biggest spot,
Speaker 1: the biggest dive bars you've ever seen in you know,
Speaker 1: the best bars that are down there are the ones
Speaker 1: that you you don't even know the name locals. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just it's the sign said drinks come in building. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody got open. Yeah, Gumbo and red Bees. That's the
Speaker 1: best you've ever had, no matter where you eat them.
Speaker 1: And you guys were there at the right time with
Speaker 1: Marty Graw getting ready to start, so unfortunately it started
Speaker 1: the night we left that afternoon. Say, either that are
Speaker 1: real good that it's really good for a company retreat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta get you guys back before start. I've never
Speaker 1: actually been down to New Orleans during Marty Gral times,
Speaker 1: so it's quite an experience. Whatever you whatever you experienced
Speaker 1: during the regular times you went, you got turned it
Speaker 1: up about ten times. Really, Okay, I don't even don't
Speaker 1: even think about renting a car not walk everywhere, go
Speaker 1: everywhere on fever. Everything is just backed up. Everybody's cruising,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to be seen. You know, it's just ridiculous, man,
Speaker 1: But but it's fine. I mean, that's what you like about.
Speaker 1: Actually went to my first one, probably about five or
Speaker 1: seven years old, because my dad was thirty about thirty
Speaker 1: miles up the river, and so we could go there
Speaker 1: for vacation and it would just so happened to be
Speaker 1: during Mardi Gras, and learned to beg for beads off
Speaker 1: the floats. Yeah. Wow, they were begging you for beads.
Speaker 1: So come on, you gotta show them to me. You
Speaker 1: gotta show him to me. Seven years old? About that?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, already off socialized. Took us a total of
Speaker 1: four and a half minutes to get off the rails
Speaker 1: this week everything. What did you do this weekend? I
Speaker 1: watched the All Star Game. I was about to say,
Speaker 1: did anybody watch the NBA All Star Game? I did that.
Speaker 1: But now, on a side note, it was my anniversary,
Speaker 1: So okay, yeah you've been. I have to mention that
Speaker 1: my wife told me thirty six years. Thirty six years.
Speaker 1: But your wife let you know that, she let me
Speaker 1: know that. Yeah, yeah, before I even put my foot
Speaker 1: in my mouth, you know, happy thirty six, honey, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go. Remember if anyone asked, happy thirty six? Congratulations,
Speaker 1: thank you brother, that's appreciate that. And of course, kind
Speaker 1: of going back to the NBA All Star Game. Of
Speaker 1: course this is a football centered show, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bring the NBA All Star Game into the conversation just
Speaker 1: for a split second, fourth quarter. And the way that
Speaker 1: the things kind of played out in the structuring behind
Speaker 1: the NBA All Star Game where they basically reset said
Speaker 1: first one the twenty four go have fun with it,
Speaker 1: and it was. It was exactly that. It was fun.
Speaker 1: It was the biggest game of pickup basketball with the
Speaker 1: best players on the biggest stage in a great city
Speaker 1: of Chicago. It was unbelievable. But that brings me to
Speaker 1: the question of how does how does the NFL find
Speaker 1: a way to make can't bow like that? You can't
Speaker 1: do it ranking the same thing, you just can't do it.
Speaker 1: I think, well, first of all, you have to start
Speaker 1: all over if you're the NFL, just how you treat
Speaker 1: your players, you know, that's where it comes from. I mean,
Speaker 1: the NBA is just it's all include. You know, the
Speaker 1: players have a louder voice. They are not held down
Speaker 1: nearly as much as the young folks say they're They're
Speaker 1: definitely more awoke in the NBA in regards to inclusion,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, and being a global game. Yes,
Speaker 1: we've gone to London and we played some games in
Speaker 1: Mexico and things of that nature. But the basis of
Speaker 1: the NFL is totally different from the culture that you
Speaker 1: have in the NBA. And I think it's pretty obvious.
Speaker 1: You've got guys who refuse to be silenced on the
Speaker 1: political views, unlike uh, the NFL. Now, once again, the NBA,
Speaker 1: they do demand, right that you stand during the national anthem?
Speaker 1: Is that right? They demand that. I'm surprised that that
Speaker 1: that flute with that crew. But when you look at
Speaker 1: the NFL, you've just got so much more that they
Speaker 1: could be doing in regards to making this not just
Speaker 1: a global game, but just start right here in America
Speaker 1: and deal with your own players and your union needs
Speaker 1: to be stronger. So when you're talking to the the NFL
Speaker 1: versus NBA, no comparison whatso well, we're about to find
Speaker 1: out what we're finding out the new CBA coming up,
Speaker 1: ye say, the different collective one more year. Well, that's
Speaker 1: it's not going to be anything that revealing. No, that
Speaker 1: that that culture, you know, the culture is changing, but
Speaker 1: the NFL is still that's still gonna be behind the
Speaker 1: times no matter what that CBA uh involves. You just
Speaker 1: can't figure out a good way to play football the
Speaker 1: way they did basketball and the way they do hockey now, right,
Speaker 1: because they've made it competitive in a kind of a
Speaker 1: weird way. Uh, football is kind of harden to muck up. Right,
Speaker 1: The physicality of the game in general would change, uh,
Speaker 1: you know absolutely, But that fourth quarter was as competitive
Speaker 1: as I've seen in an NBA All Star Game. And
Speaker 1: I've been watching it for a while, I'm sure as
Speaker 1: you guys have. But I loved seeing it. And I
Speaker 1: also loved the what was at stake, you know, the
Speaker 1: charity for the kids and having them there and so
Speaker 1: just having it be a community event and also thinking
Speaker 1: about like how can this carry over into the NFL.
Speaker 1: I just didn't see anything that you could. You can't
Speaker 1: change the quarters, you can't you know, switching quarterbacks or
Speaker 1: something like that. And I think they've done some things
Speaker 1: like that where they've had a transitionary player with one
Speaker 1: guy can switch sides, you know. But I think it's
Speaker 1: really kind of hard, especially with how physical the game
Speaker 1: is versus in the NBA again, because it's just a
Speaker 1: pickup game and there's no way to play a pickup
Speaker 1: football game. You know. Initially, when you think pickup game
Speaker 1: with NBA All Stars, you think boring, you really do,
Speaker 1: because there's no defenses, lots of scoring. They started, Hey,
Speaker 1: we saw the first will two charges in the in
Speaker 1: an All Star game, and you saw at the block
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. Absolutely, that to me, Let you
Speaker 1: know what, how they really picked the whole game up.
Speaker 1: I wanted that to be a goalten. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: how much I was into the game. And I didn't
Speaker 1: even want to watch it initially because you know, we
Speaker 1: know how those games are. They just throwing it up
Speaker 1: and you know, guys are just halfway oh yeah, not
Speaker 1: no plays, you know, no, they're not even a picking roll.
Speaker 1: But when you give him a goal, what was it,
Speaker 1: one fifty seven? Yea, they wanted to make that goal. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: It's funny how just that made much of a difference
Speaker 1: in the fourth court and maybe Kobe's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: his whole legacy had a little bit to do with that.
Speaker 1: What they're playing for him. I don't know if they
Speaker 1: ever said that, but it seemed like it just meant more.
Speaker 1: Even with the new rules that were put in playing
Speaker 1: that Momba mentality was on display even in an All
Speaker 1: Star game, even slam dunk contest that was impressive as well.
Speaker 1: But uh, I kind of wanted to run through what
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about today here on talking Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I want to do a peak at the NFC East offseason,
Speaker 1: what's ahead for some of the other teams around the
Speaker 1: NFC East. I want to assess what the Cowboys have
Speaker 1: at tight end and talk about that tight end position
Speaker 1: a little bit. But one of the get into kind
Speaker 1: of I want to get away let's talk about that.
Speaker 1: Let's let's get away from Dak Prescott talk. It's been
Speaker 1: another week of kind of stagnant talk between the Cowboys
Speaker 1: and then the armchair GM saying what should the Cowboys
Speaker 1: do in terms of Dak Prescott, resign him, sign them
Speaker 1: to a long term deal, tag him, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: There's been so many different talks. Really, there hasn't been
Speaker 1: a ton of contract talk at all this week. I
Speaker 1: know Teddy Bridgewater is expected to receive about thirty million
Speaker 1: dollars a year market value, which is a little scary
Speaker 1: for those wanting to resign Dank Prescott. But I kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to talk about the coaching staff, and this
Speaker 1: is where I'm going to draw very heavily on Mickey
Speaker 1: and Everson and even you Heckman as well. Just because
Speaker 1: I'm a young how to brought my list? There you go,
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a younger guy. And so of course
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy named the ninth head coach and Cowboys history
Speaker 1: a whole new coaching staff ahead of us. There's been
Speaker 1: a lot of high expectations for McCarthy as a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl winning coach. He's a guy that now basically since
Speaker 1: Jason Garrett's gone, it seems like the grass is greener.
Speaker 1: On the other side, I want to ask about realistic expectations.
Speaker 1: The dust is settled, the excitement is dying down a
Speaker 1: little bit, it's time to get to work. For all
Speaker 1: of the coaching staff, including Mike McCarthy, what are the
Speaker 1: actual expectations compared to what we've seen in the past
Speaker 1: for first year Dallas head coaches. Oh, he's not a
Speaker 1: first year coach in Dallas, though, it's win the super
Speaker 1: Bowl automatically. Look at look at what happened over the
Speaker 1: last look at what happened over the last three years. Okay, right,
Speaker 1: can you replicate that? Yeah? Well you better yeah, because
Speaker 1: you got to go forward, right, So I thirteen and three,
Speaker 1: nine and seven, eight and eight. All right, let's let's
Speaker 1: let's go. Because the reason the coach is not here
Speaker 1: is because he didn't win the NFC's and he didn't
Speaker 1: win two playoff games. So to me, it's unfortunate, or
Speaker 1: maybe he welcomes it, but that's Mike McCarthy's bar. He's
Speaker 1: got to do that at least, right because if he
Speaker 1: doesn't do better, why did change coaches? So to me,
Speaker 1: that's where you start right now, Nicky, have you ever
Speaker 1: seen any situations that parallel this one in Dallas, say,
Speaker 1: for instance, and the one that I'm thinking about is
Speaker 1: Tony Dungee and Tampa Bay when Gruten came in and
Speaker 1: took over a team that was expected to go to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, and Gruten was that piece that took
Speaker 1: the team to the next level with having a complete
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame defense with you know, Sap and guys
Speaker 1: that he had over there, but it was the offensive struggles.
Speaker 1: But now if you flip this around on this side
Speaker 1: with the Dallas Cowboys, the offense is in place. You
Speaker 1: bring in an offensive minded coach. But I think with
Speaker 1: everybody is kind of looking at is the defense and
Speaker 1: shoring up some of those that we have on defense.
Speaker 1: And that's what I rode on Friday. Welcome to Dallas,
Speaker 1: Mike Nolan. Yeah, because if the defense doesn't improve, this
Speaker 1: team doesn't improve. If you look at some of the
Speaker 1: things that took place defensively, um, they didn't improve save
Speaker 1: from from twenty thirteen when they finished thirty second in
Speaker 1: total defense. Every year they improved, and this was the
Speaker 1: first year they went backwards. They went from seventh to ninth,
Speaker 1: not still top ten, right exactly. But it wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough because they never they never won a game that
Speaker 1: they didn't score thirty points in. Never. Sometimes you gotta
Speaker 1: win twenty four twenty one, you know, um, and you know, look,
Speaker 1: look the Super Bowl. If you take away the last
Speaker 1: garbage time touchdown with Kansas City score twenty four and
Speaker 1: they were gonna win. So sometimes you got to win
Speaker 1: those games and the Cowboys didn't win them. To is
Speaker 1: really is passing percentage quarterback? RADI wasn't that good, right,
Speaker 1: but you still come out and see an amazing game
Speaker 1: played by him. Now, what gave him the opportunity to
Speaker 1: be in the game. It was the fact that his
Speaker 1: defense finally stepped up, right. So when you start talking
Speaker 1: about Tampa, I mean, first of all, Tampa ended on
Speaker 1: the hot note, right right, went with Dungee, correct the
Speaker 1: hot note. It wasn't the weird season that the Cowboys had,
Speaker 1: not just not even just record wise, but there was
Speaker 1: not a bunch of speculation, a lot of controversy when
Speaker 1: when Dungee had us. So I think they won the NFC.
Speaker 1: I'm excuse me. They lost the NFC championship that year
Speaker 1: and you got fired because that was was that the
Speaker 1: game with the catch with the third down? Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the game? Right, So so to me, you know, Mike McCarthy,
Speaker 1: don't go to the Jets and give up a ninety
Speaker 1: two yard touchdown pass, don't go to New England and
Speaker 1: get a punt block for the only touchdown of the game.
Speaker 1: And if the head coach can eliminate those two things.
Speaker 1: Then you're ten and six, right, So weird things happened
Speaker 1: this year. Well, let's let's look at let's look at well,
Speaker 1: you know, culturally we need to change because you can
Speaker 1: talk about those two plays and you know we probably
Speaker 1: would have found another way to screw it up. Be real, guys,
Speaker 1: Let's be real, because there was still a lot of
Speaker 1: football to be played after that, so it could be
Speaker 1: a lot more things. It has to start. Our identity,
Speaker 1: to me, still needs to be on the defensive side.
Speaker 1: We offensively were together. McCarthy's coming in when he was
Speaker 1: sitting at home hoping that someone that Jerry Jones or
Speaker 1: someone called him to this organization. He's thinking what he
Speaker 1: can do with that offense. That's the first thing that
Speaker 1: he's thinking as he's sitting at home, you know, probably thinking,
Speaker 1: you know inside or Jason Garrett is blowing this. If
Speaker 1: I had this team offensively, I would have called this
Speaker 1: player that play. That's great. We can all do that
Speaker 1: because that's why the strength is show me what we're
Speaker 1: going to do on the defensive side. So you're you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily want the identity of the team to be defense.
Speaker 1: So if you just want an uptick defensively. I want
Speaker 1: an uptick defensively. We talked about going from seventh to ninth,
Speaker 1: of ninth to seven. That doesn't mean jack. You gotta
Speaker 1: count all stats. Okay, you can go with numbers all
Speaker 1: you want, but you gotta go with turnovers, you know.
Speaker 1: And when when we Shard first came, when Christoph Shard
Speaker 1: first came, we were known. I think we got got
Speaker 1: a number of very timely turnovers. They it's not just
Speaker 1: the numbers, but the timing of the turnovers helped us
Speaker 1: propel us into some of the bigger games and bigger
Speaker 1: wins that we had. We had none of that this year. Yes,
Speaker 1: we had stops on third downs. We were horrible. I
Speaker 1: think I'm sorry, I just can't. Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: still seventh. I don't know how they still got that
Speaker 1: that that seventh position. Well, let's you know that those
Speaker 1: numbers don't mean Jack ninth in total yards. So that's
Speaker 1: what it is. You gotta make plays, you gotta takeaways. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's and that's bottom of the barrel as far
Speaker 1: as getting takeaways. But I want to also say, Kyle,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to the Mike McCarthy era, it's
Speaker 1: very important that Stephen Jones, Will McClay and those guys
Speaker 1: have synergy immediately. As far as this draft is concerned
Speaker 1: with getting the personnel, I don't believe that the Cowboys
Speaker 1: can afford to have the square peg. We'rend circle mentality
Speaker 1: with players anymore. You have to have a guy that
Speaker 1: comes in and it can immediately make an impact. You
Speaker 1: said last week, Mickey, when it come down to when
Speaker 1: it was related to the wide receiver position, are we're
Speaker 1: gonna have guys that can play immediately? And if you
Speaker 1: look at McCarthy and his time in Green Bay, Man,
Speaker 1: he was able to draft guys that were able to
Speaker 1: play immediately. The James Jones is the DeVante Freeman, Julius Pepper.
Speaker 1: I mean, guys that got on the field. And so
Speaker 1: that's what's and even in free agency, getting guys that
Speaker 1: can play that fit the scheme right now. And that's
Speaker 1: what I guess what the speculation is with Mike Nolan's defense,
Speaker 1: What is his defensive philosophy going to be, because when
Speaker 1: you look over the years at the success that he's had,
Speaker 1: the only years, well, I went back to his Atlanta
Speaker 1: years when those guys were thirteen and three you look
Speaker 1: at a guy like John John Abraham, Sean Witherspoon, another
Speaker 1: guy Samuel Asante, Samuel, if you're relating the personnel that
Speaker 1: we have in making the comparison, I think we have
Speaker 1: a lot of that, and so that's what's gonna be.
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna dictate getting that identity, playing fast,
Speaker 1: coming after teams and getting those turnovers and kind of
Speaker 1: going off of that synergy and being on the same
Speaker 1: page as an entire coaching staff. It goes back to
Speaker 1: what has been said about really the Cowboys over the
Speaker 1: past three or four years, making you even talked about
Speaker 1: record wise. The talent is here, that's been said, but
Speaker 1: that's not enough anymore. You can't just say the talent
Speaker 1: is talent. Everybody has a talent. It's the NFL. There's
Speaker 1: thirty one other teams out there that have legitimate talent.
Speaker 1: You have talent here. Now you gotta put it together.
Speaker 1: You gotta be on the same page. And whether that's
Speaker 1: through the draft, building through free agency. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on this coaching staff and Mickey, you kind
Speaker 1: of said the expectation as Super Bowl for Mike mccarth
Speaker 1: that was kind of tugging. That was kind of tugging cheek.
Speaker 1: But you gotta at least win the division and get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs and win a game. So that's first
Speaker 1: year this year to me, and it was to make
Speaker 1: the championship, right Yeah, and so anything less. And let's
Speaker 1: let's point out they got five defensive starters that are
Speaker 1: free agents. Yeah, so that's either a good thing or
Speaker 1: a bad thing if you didn't think the defense was
Speaker 1: good enough. Right yeah, uh, eight backups on defense free agents,
Speaker 1: And I don't know where you want to put Tyrone
Speaker 1: Crawford in that group, but he's coming back from dual
Speaker 1: hip surgeries. He may not be here, who knows, he'll
Speaker 1: twenty nine, he'll turn this year. Then his cap hit
Speaker 1: as well, maybe yeah, And I don't but you got
Speaker 1: to have good players everybody. If you're a good player,
Speaker 1: your cap HiT's going to be significant. Right. So they've
Speaker 1: got a lot of rebuilding to do, either resigned these
Speaker 1: guys or that's a lot of work to do in
Speaker 1: free agency or the draft in one year. But I'll
Speaker 1: guarantee you the expectations out there are going to be
Speaker 1: at least what I said, at least get to the
Speaker 1: championship game, win a divisional game, potentially win the division
Speaker 1: would be a great start to win the division. If
Speaker 1: we don't win the division, we're going to be upset.
Speaker 1: One quick stat. Out of the eight previous Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: head coaches, fifty percent of them have had a winning
Speaker 1: record in their first season as a head coach. Fifty percent,
Speaker 1: So four of eight, yeah, or winning records. Switzer was handed,
Speaker 1: he was handed a magnificent team. There's different situations back
Speaker 1: and forth. So and Parcels did maybe the best coaching
Speaker 1: job of anybody to get that team to tenants six
Speaker 1: and into the playoffs with Quincy Carter as the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Pretty impressive, Pretty impressive. But I have to say on
Speaker 1: the defensive side, and I went back looked at Dick
Speaker 1: Nolan's record as well, and the type of personnel that
Speaker 1: he has. Linebackers seemed to be the that's the basis
Speaker 1: of his defense. That's where strength he seems top from
Speaker 1: his strength. Unless we changed the philosophy here defensively from
Speaker 1: the linebacker position, I don't know if that's gonna fit
Speaker 1: with him. I thought we had I was way too
Speaker 1: far back. They were very vulnerable at all times, we
Speaker 1: thought that maybe our speed that we had was going
Speaker 1: to negate. It was going to give us the ability
Speaker 1: to have good direction and good running start to the ball.
Speaker 1: That did not happen this year. Maybe the change of
Speaker 1: thought process of our linebackers will allow us to be
Speaker 1: as effective as the linebackers that Mike Nolan has had
Speaker 1: in the past. Except for the Saints, and I said
Speaker 1: this earlier in the offseason, except for the success that
Speaker 1: he had with the Saints from there as a linebacker coach,
Speaker 1: I didn't see much of him having much success defensively
Speaker 1: as a d C. And that bothers me. Now you know,
Speaker 1: he was dealing with just some certain players that maybe
Speaker 1: he inherited. I'm not sure how that went. But if
Speaker 1: he's gonna put the stamp on this, he better get
Speaker 1: his own players and don't come in here saying well,
Speaker 1: I had to play the cards that would dealp me. No,
Speaker 1: we need to get our own players, and I think
Speaker 1: I think he's going to have to bring some guys
Speaker 1: in that's going to really fit the culture of what
Speaker 1: he's trying to do. He's gonna have to. I don't
Speaker 1: think he has it here. And I'm sorry to say that,
Speaker 1: but I don't think they're here right now. Well, the
Speaker 1: positive thing and the encouraging thing about the Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: is that they're not the only team that has a
Speaker 1: ton of question marks going into the off season. There's
Speaker 1: three other teams, specifically in the division in the NFC
Speaker 1: seas that have a ton of off season question marks.
Speaker 1: We're gonna address those question marks after we take a
Speaker 1: quick break. You're listening to Talking Cowboys from that s
Speaker 1: WBC Mortgage studios. Here at the start, I'm Jay Novachik,
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Speaker 1: GWS one score. September one, nineteen. Back to Talking Cowboys
Speaker 1: roaring on here in the SWBC Mortgage studios. Talking Cowboys
Speaker 1: are on another cloudy semi chili Tuesday, after a beautiful
Speaker 1: weekend here in Dallas for it work. It was a
Speaker 1: nice week. He was awesome. Man was perfect, outstanding. I
Speaker 1: went to a baseball game. Oh you weren't here were
Speaker 1: a season? Yeah? I was back back. We came back
Speaker 1: on Friday, Friday afternoon. Oh you really came back too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there were a couple of people on Friday.
Speaker 1: That's what you get, Mickey does. There was There was
Speaker 1: at least a couple of people in a group of
Speaker 1: I don't know, we were about fifty that figured out, Oh,
Speaker 1: if they're gonna make those reservations, make mine coming back
Speaker 1: on Sunday and I'll pay for my hotel girl the
Speaker 1: other two days. There you go. It's like, yeah, what
Speaker 1: did nice think? Of that because you're too cheat. Yeah
Speaker 1: that makes sense, but uh yeah, fun week in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: But it was a great weekend here. Fort Worth absolutely
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of continue a little bit of our conversation.
Speaker 1: We just addressed the Cowboys and some of the expectations
Speaker 1: for coaching staff, for the new coaching staff rather in
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy and company. But there's a lot of question
Speaker 1: marks in this division. I mean, there's two teams and
Speaker 1: one either four or less games, the Giants and the
Speaker 1: Redskins four and twelve, three and thirteen for Washington, and
Speaker 1: then you had the Eagles at nine and seven. It
Speaker 1: was just by far one of the interesting divisions in
Speaker 1: terms of lack of wins is probably the best way,
Speaker 1: the nicest way to put it, lack of wins for
Speaker 1: a division winner this year, nine and seven and the Eagles,
Speaker 1: but lots of offseason questions for these teams as well.
Speaker 1: Kind of wanted to dissect these one by one, and
Speaker 1: we'll start with the defending champion Eagles as they looked
Speaker 1: to become the first repeat NFC East champion in how
Speaker 1: long twenty years? Was in two thousand and four? Four okay,
Speaker 1: so sixteen years it's been a while since they were
Speaker 1: the last ones to do it. They won it four
Speaker 1: years in a row. Okay, and now you look at
Speaker 1: coming back and with all the injuries that they had,
Speaker 1: what do you expect out of the Eagles and out
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia coming up this season? I have no idea.
Speaker 1: It's a good question. I mean at this point, I mean,
Speaker 1: who are they? We don't know who they are. We
Speaker 1: haven't even seen free agency or a draft yet. So
Speaker 1: I thought they were always highly beatable, like the Cowboys
Speaker 1: did the first time around. They didn't go out there
Speaker 1: and only score nine points, you know, that was that
Speaker 1: was another unforgivable happening during this season, to score nine
Speaker 1: points in the game that was gonna win the NFC
Speaker 1: East basically, So, yeah, are they great? They scored seventeen
Speaker 1: points against the Cowboys. What was it the first time?
Speaker 1: Ten ten to ten? So and they scored to that
Speaker 1: home Yeah, yeah, seventeen at home. It was a beatable team,
Speaker 1: you know, shame on the Cowboys. That's true. That's the
Speaker 1: way I looked at it. So I don't they're beatable.
Speaker 1: I don't think that. You know, I think people are
Speaker 1: gonna be hard pressed to pick a favor to win
Speaker 1: the NFC East. And that's that's not a good thing, right,
Speaker 1: that's that's just because of so much more calamity. And
Speaker 1: then you look at I have to give Peterson some
Speaker 1: credit because they could have folded this thing up. Sure
Speaker 1: so long. There were a couple of games when they
Speaker 1: were coming down the stretch that they won, you know,
Speaker 1: between he and Carson Wentz, that running game of doing
Speaker 1: so well man, it was I had to give him
Speaker 1: a lot of credit because what they were doing when
Speaker 1: they were grinding, we were losing, and what they were
Speaker 1: doing is what we should have been doing as Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: They figured out a way to win games that trail.
Speaker 1: They had to come from behind against the Redskins. They
Speaker 1: changed into a playoff team down that stretch. They their
Speaker 1: philosophy was, we're gonna play good defense, We're gonna brun
Speaker 1: the ball. That's playoff defense. Let's playoff basket of football.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, we couldn't do that. And you look
Speaker 1: at the NFC East, Well, three coaches fired this year,
Speaker 1: three out of four, yes, right, yep, three out of four.
Speaker 1: Doug Peterson is the only one that returns. Well, I
Speaker 1: can say this now's the Old States. Yeah, I can
Speaker 1: say this unequivocally. I hate the Eagles, And I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is politically correct to say, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I hate them and the fact that they beat us
Speaker 1: in a months win game just does not sit right
Speaker 1: with me, especially with all the injuries that they had
Speaker 1: at wide receiver and you know the guys talking about
Speaker 1: how Carson Wentz was playing with the Motley Cruve guys
Speaker 1: that you know off the street. This one guy was
Speaker 1: backing groceries but Greg Warred Houston products. Yeah, but but still,
Speaker 1: I mean with al Sean Jeffrey, Deshaun Jackson being out,
Speaker 1: you just looked in their running game, you know, they
Speaker 1: again winning ugly. They were winning games and it's not
Speaker 1: like they were doing a lot they were weren't putting
Speaker 1: up a lot of stats. They were relying on their
Speaker 1: defense with Fletcher clocks and random you know they did
Speaker 1: and that's and that was Malcolm Jenkins, that was the
Speaker 1: centerpiece of that team that again getting that identify that
Speaker 1: identity as a team. They ran everything through their defense
Speaker 1: and it man, it helped them in the end come
Speaker 1: down the stretch, win the division they wanted ugly, But
Speaker 1: for them. I think that they're going to be looking
Speaker 1: at getting a running back because of the guys that
Speaker 1: they have. I believe in the last four games of
Speaker 1: the season, they bought in Elijah hol of Film the
Speaker 1: Great Champion. Yeah his son is they running back in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. But yeah, I mean so also
Speaker 1: getting getting in a top tier receiver. I think on
Speaker 1: defense they're just getting healthy. Even though they were a
Speaker 1: little banged up, they played some really good defense. But
Speaker 1: running back wide receiver is the place that I believe
Speaker 1: that the Eagles would be looking at improving the the
Speaker 1: wide receiver core is Deshan coming back. He's a little
Speaker 1: old now, yeah, but he came. He was on injured reserve.
Speaker 1: Ye this year they got off and they were saying
Speaker 1: that it was this is gonna be the jeffres and
Speaker 1: you know, it's gonna be that show. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: that show all year long. Then he's the next game
Speaker 1: he's hurt. Yeah, so turned around and he was on IR.
Speaker 1: Yeah he's talking all that trash. Now, he wasn't the
Speaker 1: only one on IR. You look at really the injuries
Speaker 1: that they had to deal with, and I think this
Speaker 1: goes along with what Mickey was having to say of
Speaker 1: who we don't know what they're going I was heading too,
Speaker 1: because when those guys come back, you know what's what's
Speaker 1: it gonna be like. I mean, you can have Alston,
Speaker 1: Jeffrey darren Sproles, you got Deshaun Jackson like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: and then on the defensive side, Ronald Darby was on
Speaker 1: ir Uh Hassan Ridgeways, all these almost starter level of backups.
Speaker 1: I mean, we talked about the free agents for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: All these guys were on I R in the middle
Speaker 1: of the season, didn't do anything, and they still want
Speaker 1: down the stretch and he still did And that's that's
Speaker 1: why I don't know what to expect from them. And
Speaker 1: will Wentz stay healthy? That was the first season he
Speaker 1: stayed at health first, right, Yeah, And they had four
Speaker 1: six Pro Bowlers, not including Wins just because Wins, they
Speaker 1: had six Pro Bowls, six Pro Bowlers. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: Wins did get hurt at the end of the season
Speaker 1: as well. Josh McCown had the step end for a
Speaker 1: split second. So even in the season when Carson Wentz
Speaker 1: was healthy for the majority of it, there was still
Speaker 1: kind of those questions on whether or not he was
Speaker 1: going to be able to. Yet they still make it
Speaker 1: all the way down the stretch. And that's what you
Speaker 1: can throw stats out of the windows. Guys. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: just gotta come with how much heart do you have? Okay?
Speaker 1: How much of a team is this? You know, we
Speaker 1: can fuss all we want about. Okay, we to have
Speaker 1: blown third downs, they don't get into six, but just
Speaker 1: win the game and then well we'll worry about that later.
Speaker 1: They were able to put things off that they weren't
Speaker 1: good at and still concentrate on the task at hand,
Speaker 1: and that was winning the ball game, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think it goes back to and I mentioned it
Speaker 1: last week when we were talking about the Cowboys offense
Speaker 1: and what Kellen Moore's assessment was of what happened, And
Speaker 1: it's like, you gotta make plays at key times. You
Speaker 1: third down? Can I convert that third down? Or a
Speaker 1: red zone? Can I score this touchdown and set a
Speaker 1: kick a field goal? And boy did they? And right?
Speaker 1: And the Cowboys problem was with all those yards they gained,
Speaker 1: it didn't translate into points because you got to make
Speaker 1: plays at key times. And the Cowboys that didn't do it.
Speaker 1: And Mickey like, guys, like Dallas Goddard and Zach Ernst
Speaker 1: in the game versus the Cowboys, they just ripped us apart.
Speaker 1: I mean just just hiding out in those bubbles and
Speaker 1: sitting hobbling, will hobbling. And who were they gonna throw
Speaker 1: the ball to? Right? They gonna put a big neon
Speaker 1: sign up there, right, the two tight ends them, Yes,
Speaker 1: can you cover them? And the Cowboys couldn't, couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: couldn't even We didn't even have a defense drawn up
Speaker 1: to stop them. And even when they beat the Giants
Speaker 1: and they beat them twice, right and then Washington once.
Speaker 1: Is that the way it worked? And it came down
Speaker 1: to key plays at the end. Who did you think
Speaker 1: they were going to throw the ball to? You know
Speaker 1: every time? And they didn't cover them? Nope, didn't quite open.
Speaker 1: They should have had three people around each tight end't
Speaker 1: even I wouldn't even I put a linebacker on Greg
Speaker 1: Ward if I had to, because west half. But they
Speaker 1: two got and the the running back coming out of
Speaker 1: the backfield, I don't say what was his name again
Speaker 1: from Penn State, the running back that was just dicing
Speaker 1: them up for the Eagles this year. Oh, that's a
Speaker 1: good question Miles Sanders of Boston Scott. It was Boston Scott.
Speaker 1: See those guys, they came through. They came through in
Speaker 1: a difficult situation because I believe one of the starters
Speaker 1: got hurt down the stretch and they came in with
Speaker 1: the backup. But one of the things I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about, Mickey, as far as the Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: on offense, I think they were the worst in the
Speaker 1: NFL as far as UH was starting positions on offense,
Speaker 1: they were, you know, because the defense didn't help out right,
Speaker 1: defense didn't help. He's drive started, you know, the worst
Speaker 1: starting so having having to go the length of the
Speaker 1: field and have those quality plays, asking Kellen Moore to
Speaker 1: I mean literally script this thing out all the way
Speaker 1: from the fifteen yards away and then and when the
Speaker 1: offense sputter and they had their problems on their woes
Speaker 1: and let's just say, when they were relying on Brett
Speaker 1: Maher to kick a fifty five yard field goal, he
Speaker 1: misses a fifty five yard and then the defense on
Speaker 1: the flip side of that, they were starting in the
Speaker 1: worst field position as well, because most offenses are starting
Speaker 1: at the thirty five forty yard line. Can't remember the place,
Speaker 1: but there was at some point and it was the
Speaker 1: second half of the season that they had only started
Speaker 1: two possessions on the opponent's side of the fifty two.
Speaker 1: That's true, and so yeah, maybe that's why they had
Speaker 1: so many yards because they had to go eighty and ninety.
Speaker 1: You think about this. I always say, you use up
Speaker 1: your playbook on one drive, and you were saying you
Speaker 1: have to script out and it's not like we're making
Speaker 1: big plays doing those drives, and everything is just methodical.
Speaker 1: It's almost like we go three downs every time, we
Speaker 1: have to do the third down. Every time we have
Speaker 1: to make the third down in the process of going
Speaker 1: all the way down the field. No big plays that
Speaker 1: were able to offset you know, just how methodical we
Speaker 1: were and going down the field. And to me, you
Speaker 1: can't sustain that all year long because now you become predictable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are only so many plays in the playbook, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, you can only use so many. After you're
Speaker 1: gonna repeat, You're gonna repeat, You're gonna repeat, and if
Speaker 1: you go one drive, you might go seventy five yards. Okay,
Speaker 1: that defense says that was good drive. Okay, we saw
Speaker 1: some things. Then the pattern is there. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: now you you have to continue to do that for
Speaker 1: four quarters with no help defensively. So that's how you
Speaker 1: use up your playbook. Because I use that term, I'm
Speaker 1: want to clarify that's what that means. After a while,
Speaker 1: the defense is like, Okay, they've shown the pattern on
Speaker 1: everything seen before. They shown the same pattern on thirty four.
Speaker 1: You know, here we are thirty four again, thirty four again,
Speaker 1: thirty eight again. You know, we're always you know, grinding
Speaker 1: it out, and that's that's not successful when your defense
Speaker 1: is not making place. Did you think that the play
Speaker 1: calling got predictable at any point in the season. It
Speaker 1: had to be. It had to because you're using every play.
Speaker 1: You're not you're not killing them with big plays, right,
Speaker 1: you know, if you get a big play, then that
Speaker 1: that the gates the other forty yards that you wy
Speaker 1: have had to use use your playbook. Now we just
Speaker 1: use forty yards in one play. Now we can use
Speaker 1: we can save all of those plays we didn't use
Speaker 1: for a more critical time in the game. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what was super frustrating for Cowboys fans this
Speaker 1: season is the fact that you saw a team like
Speaker 1: the Eagles, with depleted personnel, with the injuries that they
Speaker 1: dealt with, go out and have success. And you said, hey,
Speaker 1: why can't we do that? Because they did plays at
Speaker 1: key time exactly and you you know you mentioned predictable.
Speaker 1: They scored, They totaled more yards than any team in
Speaker 1: Cowboy history in history. Crazy Dak Prescott camed up two
Speaker 1: yards short of throwing for more yards than any quarterback
Speaker 1: in Cowboy history. And two of them are in the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. So that they have problems moving the football,
Speaker 1: they had problems scoring, yeah, or making a play at
Speaker 1: a key time, or kicking a field goal at a
Speaker 1: key time. You couldn't go through the season where you're
Speaker 1: your kicker was what one of one of the between
Speaker 1: those are key three threes. That that's the layups that
Speaker 1: you need. That's free throws. That's the free throws that
Speaker 1: you gotta make right there now, Mickey, Mickey, you're the
Speaker 1: you're the football almanac here, So I gotta say this
Speaker 1: as well. Now, when you have a quarterback that throws
Speaker 1: for five thousand yards typically, I guess besides guys like
Speaker 1: Dan Marino that had you know, success throwing for those
Speaker 1: kind of yards. Those always those are all those numbers
Speaker 1: are always indicative of losing teams or eight teams if
Speaker 1: you look over the course of the history of the
Speaker 1: NFL with guy's having those kind of yards, because I
Speaker 1: don't even Pat Mahome didn't throw for forty nine hundred
Speaker 1: yards this year in his offense, so oh, maybe he's
Speaker 1: going to the stat sheet somewhere. I mean, even if
Speaker 1: you look at it once again, you've got to have
Speaker 1: supports on the other side. Yeah, and you can you
Speaker 1: can talk about we're talking about that. Let's not forget
Speaker 1: about Zeke. Zeke had over a thousand, so that you
Speaker 1: can add that to our offensive success if you want
Speaker 1: to call it. But when it came down to it,
Speaker 1: you've used up all of those plays. You're right back
Speaker 1: in the red zone again because you got to be
Speaker 1: damn that, because your defense didn't stop anybody, so offensively,
Speaker 1: you're still behind the eight ball. Now we need this
Speaker 1: red zone. Well, god, we're back. We've been down here
Speaker 1: five times. You know, we've been down in five times.
Speaker 1: We've been ridzone five times. He had a quarterback that
Speaker 1: had a career year. You had a running back that
Speaker 1: ran for a thousand once again, for whatever that's worth.
Speaker 1: You had the first time since two thousand and six
Speaker 1: two receivers with a thousand yards receiving. Wow. And you
Speaker 1: didn't score enough points in eight games too, and we
Speaker 1: had fifty five at least fifty five. Yeah and so yeah,
Speaker 1: So offensively, they just didn't make plays at the key
Speaker 1: times they moved the football. It just wasn't good enough
Speaker 1: consistently enough. Um. So yeah, that's why I just said,
Speaker 1: let's put a big circle around that defense and let's see.
Speaker 1: You know, it's gotten big. You just have to change
Speaker 1: the culture around here. We know what we have offensive league.
Speaker 1: You know, when when Christi Shad came in two years ago,
Speaker 1: that was fun to watch seeing that defense go around
Speaker 1: making plays they would they were guys making it ups
Speaker 1: and stripped sacks and Jayla Smith picking up fumbles and
Speaker 1: going for touchdown. You know, you don't have to be
Speaker 1: tops in the field in any of those defensive categories.
Speaker 1: You just gotta make the plays when the counts. And
Speaker 1: that's what they did two years ago when we show
Speaker 1: our first game. Well, and that's what Philadelphia was able
Speaker 1: to do with Zach Ertz and Dallas Goddard in that
Speaker 1: final game. What's the thing that the Cowboys did not
Speaker 1: necessarily have on offense that had a successful year. Confidence.
Speaker 1: I was saying, the tight end position, no confidence, no
Speaker 1: confidence in the time even that they drove down the field,
Speaker 1: it just seemed like they were it's just status quo,
Speaker 1: it is. It seemed like we were just just playing
Speaker 1: out the playbook. And we're gonna talk about those tight
Speaker 1: ends in that position and what the Cowboys could do
Speaker 1: better when we come back. Talking Cowboys will return in
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Speaker 1: Mickey reads a staple here on Talking Cowboys, and we
Speaker 1: kind of into the last segment alluding to this a
Speaker 1: little bit tight ends. Of course, this is a position
Speaker 1: of frustration for the Cowboys over the last two years,
Speaker 1: not even just this past year. With Jason Witton in
Speaker 1: his return. It was always nice to have Witten back
Speaker 1: with the Cowboys, and and of course having him in
Speaker 1: the in the locker room is huge. The fact of
Speaker 1: having the sixteen years or the fifteen years of experience
Speaker 1: in a gold jacket went running around. That's always going
Speaker 1: to help out. And he says the passion is still there.
Speaker 1: He wants to return and play the tight end position
Speaker 1: at a professional level yet again. But that brings me
Speaker 1: to the question of last year. When he did come back,
Speaker 1: it was rumored that he was going to see about
Speaker 1: twenty five percent of the sna apps, he was going
Speaker 1: to be limited action, wasn't guaranteed to be the starter,
Speaker 1: But instead he saw seventy of the snaps on offense.
Speaker 1: And even with a new coaching staff coming in Mike McCarthy,
Speaker 1: a guy who has been known to use twelve personnel
Speaker 1: quite a bit in the past, what do the Cowboys
Speaker 1: actually have at tight end. Is this something that could
Speaker 1: be an issue going into twenty twenty In further well,
Speaker 1: I thought heck I brought it up very well, almost
Speaker 1: alluded to it doing the break and you know, having that,
Speaker 1: not having that tight end that you really want in
Speaker 1: the red zone. I think that's one of the reasons
Speaker 1: that we did not do well when it came to
Speaker 1: scoring and finishing our drives. When it came to third downs.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure we probably did very well decent
Speaker 1: in third downs, but when it came down the stretch,
Speaker 1: our third down efficiency was down when we needed those plays,
Speaker 1: and you could see on the defense SIF side how
Speaker 1: we were being defeated by the running back and by
Speaker 1: the tight end position, especially late in the season. Second
Speaker 1: half of the season was when it came to either
Speaker 1: the Thanksgiving game or any of the teams that we
Speaker 1: played on the AFL. On the AFC side, those teams
Speaker 1: heavily regarded on their tight ends. It's really what you're
Speaker 1: going to now in the NFL. That's your save my
Speaker 1: ass position, okay, And that needed a lot of that
Speaker 1: last year in key positions, and he did not get it.
Speaker 1: For some reason. We just didn't target Blake Jawing as
Speaker 1: much as we should have. I mean, this guy's of
Speaker 1: an athletic marvel to me, you know, folks, someone who
Speaker 1: could have the yack of a better yact than probably
Speaker 1: any tight end in the league. And that's we're talking
Speaker 1: about some some studs at tight end all throughout the NFL.
Speaker 1: And for some reason we you know, let's just remember
Speaker 1: the joke that I believe that that's got said about
Speaker 1: Whitten years ago. This is years ago. Yeah, he's only
Speaker 1: tight end with a negative yak. Yeah, come on, gotta
Speaker 1: think about that, guys. Yeah, I mean, I love you know,
Speaker 1: we love Witten man and everything he's done for this team.
Speaker 1: This guy he supported me as a person and my foundation.
Speaker 1: But I think we need to start looking forward to
Speaker 1: the guys that can get the ball down the field
Speaker 1: from the tight end position. And that's a good question
Speaker 1: of what is Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz. So those
Speaker 1: are the two guys that are on your roster at
Speaker 1: the moment, both extremely athletic. Blake Jarwin had thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent of offensive snaps this year, thirty one receptions, three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five yards, almost twelve yards per catch,
Speaker 1: and he had three touchdowns compared to four for Jason
Speaker 1: Witten and his seventy five percent of offensive snaps. So
Speaker 1: what do we have in Blake Jarwin? Is this a
Speaker 1: guy who can step in and be a starter. My
Speaker 1: only reserve is if he's that ready to be a starter,
Speaker 1: why did he not see the field a quarter percent
Speaker 1: of the time last year? I would think they can
Speaker 1: trust them enough. Now they used them a lot of too,
Speaker 1: tight end and they used them a lot on third down.
Speaker 1: Look the tight ends again, I can give you quantity.
Speaker 1: Now we can discuss the quality. Right, the tight ends
Speaker 1: produced ninety five catches for nine hundred yards seven touchdowns.
Speaker 1: So from a quality quantity stamp point, ninety five catches
Speaker 1: from your tight ends pretty darn good. Nine hundred almost
Speaker 1: a thousand yards season, right, Yeah, got seven touchdowns though,
Speaker 1: so the catches per touchdown probably not what you want.
Speaker 1: And you didn't make enough impact plays down the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if they moved the chains then that's cool too. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: So now what you can condult and shows be your
Speaker 1: every down tight end and I haven't seen enough of it.
Speaker 1: You haven't. But that's the question, that's the bigger question
Speaker 1: with our tight ends, can they run block? I mean
Speaker 1: catching yards out to catch, that's awesome, But we have
Speaker 1: one of the world's best running backs here that we're
Speaker 1: paying to be the world's best best running back in
Speaker 1: the tight end position. If McCarthy's gonna play that twelve personnel,
Speaker 1: guys are gonna have to be able to block. And
Speaker 1: I think that is what the difference is. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you say, that's exactly, those are the things when you
Speaker 1: look at the other teams are like Kittle at San Francisco.
Speaker 1: This guy is an animal blocker. I mean he's blocking
Speaker 1: guys to the gatoray buckets, and that's what you want.
Speaker 1: But if you are a mediocre in our system, it
Speaker 1: doesn't work because we can't be susceptible on the edge
Speaker 1: because we don't have a tight end that can block.
Speaker 1: And so when you look around the NFL or just
Speaker 1: look at just going back to what the Cowboys mantra
Speaker 1: has been, we sign our own guys. So if we
Speaker 1: have him here in the house, we're gonna try and
Speaker 1: take care of him. He's showing those flashes and it
Speaker 1: sounds like to me everyone regards Jarwin as a guy
Speaker 1: that may have had his growth a little stunted last
Speaker 1: year by Witton coming back, but that's for a reason.
Speaker 1: If he could block, then obviously he would. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to worry about that. And so looking at free
Speaker 1: agency or just looking at the guys that are out there,
Speaker 1: does the Cowboy, will the Cowboys make a trade? Will
Speaker 1: we go into the draft looking at tight ends? Because
Speaker 1: again O. J. Howard is a guy that I think
Speaker 1: that everyone over the years we've been talking. But will
Speaker 1: we pay that kind of dollar for a tight end
Speaker 1: like an Eric Ebrun? Will we bring in a guy
Speaker 1: that has that those type of salary demands it in
Speaker 1: or will we look, you know, elsewhere to get a
Speaker 1: tight end that can make an impact, or we just stay,
Speaker 1: say the course with a guy that still has those
Speaker 1: question marks looming when we know what he has to
Speaker 1: do in the running game. Well, you got to have priorities,
Speaker 1: right of course. Okay, what's your free agent priority? Is
Speaker 1: a line Well, no, it's your quarterback? Well signing, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: the free agent? And then what's your next priority? Your
Speaker 1: wide receiver, what's your next priority? Maybe that third wide receiver?
Speaker 1: What's your next priority might like MALIEK. Collins back. Yeah, right, uh,
Speaker 1: and then after Quinn? And then where does Robert Quinn
Speaker 1: fit in? You want him back? Because all this stuff's
Speaker 1: gonna cost. So you've got to have a list of
Speaker 1: priorities and is the tight end? How high is the
Speaker 1: tight end in that priority list? And how much are
Speaker 1: you going to spend for something that the other team
Speaker 1: didn't want? So remember that there's a reason guys are
Speaker 1: in free agency. Somebody didn't want him. Austin Hooper from
Speaker 1: Atlanta free agent this year, market value around ten million.
Speaker 1: Then you've got Eric Ebron. We talked about him a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. Seven seven point four million is
Speaker 1: his right now? Looking forward to Bron? Yeah, yeah, what
Speaker 1: he's not a free now he's a free agent? Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: oh not yet. Yes, he's got a month. He's got
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, So teams can a month. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so teams can resign these guys just because they're out there. Now.
Speaker 1: That's like saying Dak Prescott's the number one quarter back
Speaker 1: in free agents, but also he's not going to be
Speaker 1: a free agent. Well, so you can't start looking at
Speaker 1: those things if the coach didn't bring back Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean he's they just got to work on a contract
Speaker 1: or he's gonna get transition tagged or something. So again
Speaker 1: it you know, you got a lot of wants. You
Speaker 1: need another linebacker because if Sean Lee is not here,
Speaker 1: you need another linebacker, right, And then what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do at cornerback? Yeah? And what are you gonna
Speaker 1: do at safety? Because you can't draft everybody and say, okay,
Speaker 1: these guys. I drafted this guy in the fourth round.
Speaker 1: He's my starter. No, absolutely not. But but also saying,
Speaker 1: you know, that guy's a free agent for a reason.
Speaker 1: I mean, contractually, guys end up being free agents and
Speaker 1: have an opportunity, like you said, some time, if they're
Speaker 1: good enough, I'll sign them. But like you said with
Speaker 1: Byron Jones, you said, give him an opportunity to look
Speaker 1: at what's going on in the free market. You said, hey,
Speaker 1: give him an opportunity. And so if another team coveraged
Speaker 1: that and they want to make him the highest paid
Speaker 1: cornerback and Patrick Peterson and let him have him, well
Speaker 1: that's but that's but saying he's a free agent, but
Speaker 1: do that. Well, he is a free agent for a
Speaker 1: reason because if you didn't resign him, then you thought
Speaker 1: his value wasn't worth what it was going to cost.
Speaker 1: The sign was worth to see if he's if it's
Speaker 1: the values there they like you said, the Cowboys just
Speaker 1: might want to see what other teams think. Yeah, let
Speaker 1: them find out what your market value is. Well, and
Speaker 1: just because you let a guy walk doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: don't like think about this. You've got other guys telling
Speaker 1: me team tell me a star player that the Cowboys
Speaker 1: had heading in the free agency that they didn't resign
Speaker 1: and lost him, and said, okay, Anthony Hitchins, I'll give
Speaker 1: you that one, but a star star player. Take Anthony
Speaker 1: hitch I was just about to say, Anthony really all
Speaker 1: right because in the priority. In the priority you had
Speaker 1: two starting lifebackers and Sean Lee. So yeah, but that
Speaker 1: name one name a probe bowler that the Cowboys lost
Speaker 1: because they didn't sign them in free to stay out
Speaker 1: of free agency. Not many. I have to go back
Speaker 1: to Ken Norton junior, and that was the first year
Speaker 1: of free agency and they didn't think that they should
Speaker 1: sign a guy with a big signing bonus. But other
Speaker 1: than that, they resigned. Yeah, they resigned their own guys.
Speaker 1: But Micky, let me ask you this when it comes
Speaker 1: down to those those teams in the nineties, right when
Speaker 1: you Michael Irvin, Emmett Smith and Troy Aikman, those guys
Speaker 1: had to work out contracts to be able to keep
Speaker 1: guys like Nate Newton on the roster and with oh oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. Troy Aikman didn't leave money
Speaker 1: on the table. Michael Irvin held out an entire training
Speaker 1: camp if you remember, and didn't sign to the Thursday
Speaker 1: before the season opener looking for more money. But if
Speaker 1: he had done, like a lot of these guys are
Speaker 1: chesting the chesting the market, being able to go out
Speaker 1: and get bigger contracts, they still had those things, and
Speaker 1: then their ability well Mike never had a chance to
Speaker 1: get into free agency. They seen them. The point that
Speaker 1: I'm saying is being able to get those contracts structure
Speaker 1: that fit your team, to be able to bring back
Speaker 1: a Byron Jones. Because again, if we the priority, if
Speaker 1: the priority is signing Dak, if Dak's taking up the
Speaker 1: lion chair, if we look at the contracts that we have,
Speaker 1: if a third of those are going to other guys,
Speaker 1: how are we going to sign any of these other guys?
Speaker 1: How are you going to go out in free agency
Speaker 1: and sign another guy for that type of money. Well,
Speaker 1: then again that's answering the question. We're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to and we're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to sign our own guys either, and so we're not
Speaker 1: going to have much success. We'll be right back at
Speaker 1: eight and eight again because we won't be able to
Speaker 1: get the quality for the dollars that we're paying. They
Speaker 1: didn't lose quality from twenty sixteen, did they. We had
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys that were three, thirteen and three,
Speaker 1: but we had a bunch of guys that were on
Speaker 1: rookie contracts as well. Well, I understand, but again, you're
Speaker 1: you're gonna you can't resign everybody, right, But when you
Speaker 1: can't resign everybody, that means you don't have enough money
Speaker 1: to go out there and sign somebody else's How are
Speaker 1: you going to size you have, really prioritize them, what's
Speaker 1: important to your right exactly, and then you look and
Speaker 1: see and fill in and then hope you draft, Well,
Speaker 1: two guys can step up and fill in holes. If
Speaker 1: you can't sign your how are you going to find
Speaker 1: to sign somebody else? So if we stay the course,
Speaker 1: if we stay the course with the guys saying you're
Speaker 1: gonna stay the course, but you got a salary cap, right,
Speaker 1: and every as well as every team has a salary cap.
Speaker 1: And either we're drafting well or we're getting free agency.
Speaker 1: Either way, we have to get someone in here that's
Speaker 1: gonna shore up that position. If Jason again, let's say
Speaker 1: the trains left the station on that one, right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have Dalton shows Jarwin. We're gonna have to bring
Speaker 1: another guy into that room. Either we get him through
Speaker 1: the draft, that we get him through free agency. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have to sign them. If it's not one of
Speaker 1: these top ten guys for bookoo dollars, who are we
Speaker 1: gonna go to? Who is going to fit into the
Speaker 1: system that we have, because someone's gonna have to help
Speaker 1: this team out at the time. In position, you absolutely
Speaker 1: a try and figure out probity wise, who's the free
Speaker 1: agent sign he's gonna be. And then also how do
Speaker 1: we draft. I wouldn't mind drafting a tight end, right,
Speaker 1: they have some amazing coming out and they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to I'm not as I'm not as high on the
Speaker 1: tight end as you Mightn't you know it was a
Speaker 1: good but I think you can get a round tight
Speaker 1: ends out there who can block very well, probably block
Speaker 1: better than tight ends we have right now. May not
Speaker 1: be as fluid as jaw And is at this point
Speaker 1: in this career, but I would take a chance on
Speaker 1: drafting a tight end out of college and without bringing back.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's easy to sit there and look at
Speaker 1: the top shelf, right, Yeah, Well, a lot of us
Speaker 1: can't go to the tequila barn order top shelf all
Speaker 1: the time. Right, Come on, when somebody else's parts right,
Speaker 1: sometimes that second or third shelfs got to work, can
Speaker 1: you gotta That's when you got to rely on your
Speaker 1: scouting department, right, and your pro scouting department say, Okay,
Speaker 1: this team didn't want to sign this, but you know what,
Speaker 1: I think he's pretty good. Maybe I can bring this
Speaker 1: guy on. Sometimes you can't just look at the top
Speaker 1: three guys and say, I gotta have that at corner.
Speaker 1: I gotta have that at tight end, I gotta have
Speaker 1: that at defensive tackle. I gotta have that at my
Speaker 1: third wide receiver spot. I gotta have that at the
Speaker 1: other defensive end spot. Just remember in twenty eighteen when
Speaker 1: Jason Witten was retired and in the booth we were
Speaker 1: we had guys like Noah Brown, you know, auditioning at
Speaker 1: the tight end position, and it didn't service it. I
Speaker 1: mean we got he wasn't going to be a tight end.
Speaker 1: Well he was, he was still a hybrid. We didn't
Speaker 1: have him a receiver, wasn't gonna block. Yeah, that whole
Speaker 1: thing with Noel Brown. You know what, if I've got
Speaker 1: a wide receiver and the best thing I can say
Speaker 1: about him he's blocks, Well, I got a problem that
Speaker 1: would always say about Norah Brown. That's what I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: he blocks. That's no, that's the right one. That's the
Speaker 1: right one. Because we gotta put emphasis now all guys
Speaker 1: that we know that when we get down like Norah
Speaker 1: Brown against I was thinking about the when we played
Speaker 1: in the Seattle nor Brown. We go down in the
Speaker 1: goal line and Nora Brown is out there with jar
Speaker 1: One and Schultz in the twelve personnel situation. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're not fooling anybody in that We're not gonna go
Speaker 1: to Nora Brown another Neon sign. Come yea. So we
Speaker 1: got if we're gonna get if we're gonna have any
Speaker 1: Swiss army to our tight ends. We gotta bring in
Speaker 1: a guy that can do both. And it looks like
Speaker 1: right now the guys that we have on the on
Speaker 1: the roster aren't able to do that well. And going
Speaker 1: back to Whateverson said, you might not mind taking a
Speaker 1: tight end in the draft. We took one two years
Speaker 1: ago in twenty eighteen and the fourth rounde His name
Speaker 1: was Dalton Shoals. And then going back to what Mickey said,
Speaker 1: just because you can't look at the top shell, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. You can't look at the top shelf
Speaker 1: of the tequila or whatever you're you're drinking, but those
Speaker 1: middle shelves, if you're not careful, it's going to give
Speaker 1: you a pretty bad headache the next month's right, Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I know who have some issues. You know, you know who.
Speaker 1: I just gave him a headache too. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, Rob just turned a show off. He wouldn't
Speaker 1: get so mad at me. I know Brown, I know
Speaker 1: we would like to sincerely apologize to Rob Philops point
Speaker 1: of nowhere Brown, but that's gonna do it for Top
Speaker 1: just told his wife I've taken care of the baby off.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us. For Everson Walls for
Speaker 1: heck My Harrison for Mickey's Bango. I'm Kyle Yeoman. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. We'll see you next week. Hey. This has
Speaker 1: been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys Football Club out