Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This is Nick Shot
Speaker 1: screaming live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the official
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys at now. Here are Bill Jones, Everson Walls,
Speaker 1: and Nicky Spagnola, and it is time for another edition
Speaker 1: of Mick Shots. I am Bill Jones with the great
Speaker 1: Everson Walls, future Hall of Famer Everson Balls, I might add,
Speaker 1: and Nicky Spagnola. We are one week down, just over
Speaker 1: three weeks to go now before the Cowboys kick off
Speaker 1: this twenty twenty regular season at the Los Angeles Rams.
Speaker 1: How are you guys doing this morning? I'm doing great,
Speaker 1: sitting here at the start watch practice at the Ford
Speaker 1: Center and ready to take some shots today. All right,
Speaker 1: how about you? Ever soon? I am feeling good. I
Speaker 1: have your optimism today, Bill, Everything is about Cowboys. Everything
Speaker 1: is about the season getting going, and we are looking
Speaker 1: forward to the super Bowl. Where's your hat? That's where's
Speaker 1: your super Bowl hat? I tried? I need to get.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Super Bowl is going to be carried
Speaker 1: on CBS once again this year, and so I hate
Speaker 1: to get my CBS super Bowl hat. Get ready, to
Speaker 1: make the trip to Tampa. We're ready, and in fact,
Speaker 1: Drew Pearson maybe making the trip to Tampa as some
Speaker 1: big news for him. We'll get into over the course
Speaker 1: of the next hour, and that moves to make you,
Speaker 1: That moves Everson one step closer to getting into kid today.
Speaker 1: Absolutely should right. You never know how those wheels turn
Speaker 1: up there in Canton, but I think Everson should be
Speaker 1: absolutely next. And I was gonna be hesitant to bring
Speaker 1: it up because I didn't know if Everson would be like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's getting in and I'm not. No, no, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you guys. I love me some Drew, I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody does. I mean, that's that's why he was the
Speaker 1: I think he was the only senior nominee this year,
Speaker 1: because to me, that's just making up a lost time.
Speaker 1: That's not a makeup call in basketball. They know they
Speaker 1: shouldn't have done it, and they're trying to go back
Speaker 1: and and reverse their mistakes. So good job by the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame committee. Yeah, it's almost like they cleared
Speaker 1: the table off. It's like, let's not confuse this right
Speaker 1: and have two or three nominees. We're gonna have one
Speaker 1: and get it right, and uh, and so by being
Speaker 1: the lone senior finalist, that's when you know somebody screw
Speaker 1: it up. Place a Saturday before the Super Bowl in
Speaker 1: February sixth in Tampa, and you have to get eighty
Speaker 1: percent of the vote, a virtual shoe in. And what's
Speaker 1: interesting about it is the fact that course is back
Speaker 1: in January, we all saw Drew was so emotional when
Speaker 1: he did not get the call, and he got the
Speaker 1: call from David Baker earlier this week. And now, oddly enough,
Speaker 1: with this pandemic, Jimmy's going in next year the actual
Speaker 1: induction ceremony Cliff Harris as well. So as it turns out,
Speaker 1: if Drew gets voted in on February sixth, he'll go
Speaker 1: in with everybody else, just like he got as if
Speaker 1: he would have been and voted in back in January
Speaker 1: a Cowboys jamboree in Capton, Ohio. Absolutely see that the
Speaker 1: pandemic is the great It's the great equalizer. That's what
Speaker 1: that pandemic was, all right, it was a great equalizer.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love it. Everything turned out well.
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about that over the course of the
Speaker 1: next hour and take your comments on it as well,
Speaker 1: but Mickey, we had a practice once again this morning.
Speaker 1: We had a Mike McCarthy press conference at seven to
Speaker 1: fifteen am, and you took it all in. Give us
Speaker 1: an update. What you know from Cowboys practice this morning. Well,
Speaker 1: they did a split location practice, I should say, did
Speaker 1: the individual drills outdoors on the grass field and then
Speaker 1: when they went into the team period, they moved inside
Speaker 1: to the Ford Center. So not sure why he split
Speaker 1: it like that. I don't know if he's getting paranoid
Speaker 1: of people watching the team practice outdoors with all the
Speaker 1: construction going on, or what the deal is. But you know,
Speaker 1: they had practice indoors the previous day and then they
Speaker 1: did half and half today, so individual drills and then
Speaker 1: really do working hard indoors on two minute drill hurry
Speaker 1: up offense. They've done that now for the past couple
Speaker 1: days and it's been pretty exciting to watch. They did
Speaker 1: have a couple I don't know if I should call
Speaker 1: a minor injuries. Jordan Lewis left as soon as they
Speaker 1: started to practice indoors. Looked like he got tangled up
Speaker 1: a little bit of an ankle. Maybe U Tyrant Smith
Speaker 1: left during individual drills, So I'm not sure what was
Speaker 1: going on there. And as for updates on Everson Griffin,
Speaker 1: he was in uniform but really didn't do much, especially
Speaker 1: when they went to team He and Don Terry Poe
Speaker 1: who's now aff off of Pope Pop. Basically during the
Speaker 1: team sessions they were just watching so pretty spirited practice,
Speaker 1: and I thought Cedric Wilson kind of put his hand
Speaker 1: up in the air and said, hey, don't forget about me.
Speaker 1: Everybody talks about the first three wide receivers, and he
Speaker 1: had himself quite a day to day during the day.
Speaker 1: You go there, you go, good stuff, good stuff. It
Speaker 1: seems weird. The cowboys go from from Forest Lane over
Speaker 1: but by Hamilton Park where I grew up, Bill, you
Speaker 1: know what that was. And they were always worried about
Speaker 1: being spied on from the hotel the day's in which
Speaker 1: you know, have the two stories and we had the
Speaker 1: little six foot fence, so they would always spy on
Speaker 1: our practices. The cowboys have gone all the way from
Speaker 1: Forest Lane h to Frisco and they still might have
Speaker 1: that same concern. So just think about how weird that is.
Speaker 1: That's one thing you got to think about. Hey, Everson,
Speaker 1: you know what the other night I saw a special
Speaker 1: on the news and it was about Hamilton Park and
Speaker 1: a guy that grew grew up there, went to school
Speaker 1: at the elementary school and now he's the assistant principal
Speaker 1: at the elementary school there in Hamilton Park. So they
Speaker 1: gave me a little history lesson of where you grew up.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and and that's you can you can kind
Speaker 1: of surmise from the from the special just how proud
Speaker 1: we were as a people. Uh. It was really when
Speaker 1: they talked about a project, they talked about the development
Speaker 1: of African Americans. Hamiltons Park is like no other h
Speaker 1: I was able to deal with gil Brant, Tech Shram, Hollywood, Henderson,
Speaker 1: Drew Pearsons. I was able to deal with all of
Speaker 1: those different personalities on the football field because when I
Speaker 1: grew up in Hamilton Park, we had every type of
Speaker 1: person that you ever wanted to come across, rich, poor, intelligent, crazy.
Speaker 1: So it was like a sociology project and that that
Speaker 1: got me ready for the craziness that was up there
Speaker 1: at the forest Land and Agents back in the day
Speaker 1: twin sixties hotel as well. Yeah, I didn't realize it
Speaker 1: was a planned neighborhood and that was where they allowed
Speaker 1: I guess the black folks to be able to live
Speaker 1: within the city limits. It seemed like returning World War
Speaker 1: Two veterans and also Korean War veterans as well. That
Speaker 1: was what it was for. I don't know how this
Speaker 1: black doctor pulled it off to buy this primo land
Speaker 1: on the north side of Dallas. They've been trying to
Speaker 1: boot us off that hill ever since. We're still hanging
Speaker 1: in there. We're still hanging in there. It was interesting.
Speaker 1: So well. Making one note about practice today, Everson Griffin
Speaker 1: has worked his way around to wearing his customary number
Speaker 1: ninety seven or the Cowboys. Originally he was believing gonna
Speaker 1: be ninety six. He's now ninety seven. Tristan Hill has
Speaker 1: switched to seven. What is the seventy two seventy two,
Speaker 1: seventy two, yes, and Neville Gallimore moved to ninety six. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, So for those of you keeping track at home,
Speaker 1: that that is your roster, update your Nu Miracle roster,
Speaker 1: so you can now update that on your respective computers.
Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about the news of the week to
Speaker 1: kick things off. And of course it was the first
Speaker 1: practice in Pads on Monday about forty five minutes into
Speaker 1: the practice, Gerald McCoy goes down with a ruptured right
Speaker 1: quadriceps tendon. Had surgery the next day. Cowboys release him
Speaker 1: the next day, and as it turns out, he had
Speaker 1: a quad injury in fact, not just a quad injury,
Speaker 1: but a right quad injury clause in his contract, and
Speaker 1: so he gets his signing bonus, but the Cowboys are
Speaker 1: off the hook for the re Yeah. As pretty savvy
Speaker 1: contract the Cowboys put together. So when he took his
Speaker 1: original uh physical uh it when it checked out, they
Speaker 1: saw a pre pre existing condition with the right quadricept.
Speaker 1: So in the contract, uh, they put a clause in
Speaker 1: there that said, if something happens with the right quadricep
Speaker 1: tendon or anything related to the right quadricept, that the
Speaker 1: contract basically becomes null and void. And the only money
Speaker 1: that we're guaranteeing him that he will receive was the
Speaker 1: three million dollars signing bonus, So any other guarantees the
Speaker 1: per roster game played guarantee uh salary cap that all
Speaker 1: went away. So the Cowboys ended up putting four point
Speaker 1: seven five million back into the cap for this year.
Speaker 1: Now his charge on the three million dollars signing bonus
Speaker 1: will be spread over two years. One million dollars this year,
Speaker 1: two million dollars in dead money next year. So obviously
Speaker 1: they saw something when he signed here in Bill and
Speaker 1: ever since, I was just wondering maybe that's the reason
Speaker 1: why the Cowboys were able to sign him when you
Speaker 1: know other teams maybe backed off, is that they were
Speaker 1: willing to gamble the three million dollars to bring him aboard,
Speaker 1: where maybe other teams weren't. You know, we had we
Speaker 1: had said originally, and there was probably something to this
Speaker 1: that he wanted to get closer to his son, who
Speaker 1: was going to be a freshman at Oklahoma on scholarship,
Speaker 1: and that may have had something to do with it.
Speaker 1: But it also maybe he didn't have a lot of
Speaker 1: people knocking on his door because of the pre existing
Speaker 1: condition with his quad. And I'm sure man, as as
Speaker 1: things went on, I'm sure he wasn't looking forward to
Speaker 1: this type of scenario just so happened to Cowboy has
Speaker 1: anticipated it, and I'm sure it was no big secret
Speaker 1: as well, Like you said, spacts, that's why no one
Speaker 1: was signing him at the time they put that clause in.
Speaker 1: They were willing to eat the three million plus if
Speaker 1: that was to happen. I think it's kind of sad though,
Speaker 1: you know it. I thought we saw some some good
Speaker 1: things that were going to happen. We could we could
Speaker 1: foresee some good things that we were hoping that would
Speaker 1: happen with McCoy. It would have been nice to see
Speaker 1: him in that uniform and play out the season and
Speaker 1: see just what he could do for us. I guess
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: consolation prize that he does. He is able to get
Speaker 1: the money and able to stay down here with his son.
Speaker 1: But this is kind of what I spoke about last show, guys.
Speaker 1: This pace that we're dealing with in regards to the season,
Speaker 1: in regard us to no preseason games, in regards to
Speaker 1: the accelerated pace on getting this team ready. These injuries
Speaker 1: are going to wreak havoc on the Cowboy roster and
Speaker 1: we may go into the season with some very odd
Speaker 1: combinations when it comes to the roster itself. And I'm
Speaker 1: very curious to see how the Cowboy coaching staff and
Speaker 1: the training staff is going to deal with all of
Speaker 1: these different injuries coming and with the accelerated pace that
Speaker 1: they're dealing with. It's going to be an odd combination
Speaker 1: for the team to deal with, more so, of course
Speaker 1: than a regular season. When you're dealing with this accelerated
Speaker 1: pace and the COVID thing going on, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: like juggling balls. Really, it's gonna be like a juggling
Speaker 1: act for the coaching staff and the training staff. You know,
Speaker 1: I understand, I agree with it. I agree with you
Speaker 1: on that, And they've done a pretty good job so
Speaker 1: far because if it's a two hour practice, the first
Speaker 1: hour is all special teams and individual drills, so there's
Speaker 1: really minimal contact. And the unfortunate thing of this one
Speaker 1: was it was during the individual drills where all they
Speaker 1: were doing was coming off the ball, uh and having
Speaker 1: another defensive lineman across from the other guy and just
Speaker 1: kind of acting like he's an offensive lineman. Uh. And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: when when Antoine Woods came off and it happened, Uh,
Speaker 1: we were watching from the Quarterback club in the Cowboys Club.
Speaker 1: It was right below and he stepped on his foot.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought happened. It looked like he stepped
Speaker 1: on his foot, exact foot and when he went back.
Speaker 1: You got three hundred pounds standing out on one of
Speaker 1: your your feet and it and it ruptured the tendon
Speaker 1: in his quad. So it was kind of a weird one.
Speaker 1: You know. It wasn't like sprinting down field or pushing
Speaker 1: off and trying to tackle somebody. And they haven't done
Speaker 1: that yet, by the way, either there's been no tackling.
Speaker 1: There's been bumping. As a matter of fact, I saw
Speaker 1: Jalen Smith today. It was a running play by the
Speaker 1: sideline and he nailed the running back out and knocked
Speaker 1: him out of bounds. And then when the guy got up,
Speaker 1: I said, oh, it's twenty not twenty one, so it's okay. Well,
Speaker 1: one thing, one thing that we talk about. These are
Speaker 1: pretty much non contact drills that we're talking about once
Speaker 1: the season starts. Yes, oh my goodness, I cannot wait
Speaker 1: to see the injury report after the first ball game,
Speaker 1: after a full contact after all the intensity. The guys
Speaker 1: are trying to hold everything for the first game, trying
Speaker 1: to hold it in. The injury list for after the
Speaker 1: first game is going to be so long and so confusing.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be it's gonna be a trip well, as
Speaker 1: is the case as is the case every year, you know,
Speaker 1: early in training camp there's always a lot of injuries.
Speaker 1: And the ACL count as of about twenty four hours
Speaker 1: ago across the league was I believe at eight. Normally,
Speaker 1: one doctor said that they in a typical NFL season,
Speaker 1: you have fifty ACL injuries across the league. And so
Speaker 1: we are one week into this and there as of
Speaker 1: yesterday there were eight ACL injuries across the league. And again,
Speaker 1: as you said, Everson, teams aren't going necessarily full speed
Speaker 1: all the time at all right now, and you know
Speaker 1: the hitting hasn't started or anything like that, and so uh,
Speaker 1: it's and it's going to be interesting this year, as
Speaker 1: you say, because they did not have the typical offseason
Speaker 1: to see how many more injuries if if indeed, we
Speaker 1: do have more injuries as we go along. What about
Speaker 1: and by the way, I'm monitoring, of course, we're streaming
Speaker 1: as usual on periscope. I'm monitoring par scope. So if
Speaker 1: you have any comments and he questions, I can pass
Speaker 1: them along to Mickey and Everson here. But what about
Speaker 1: what do the Cowboys do now? With McCoy out. I
Speaker 1: think one of the not only his ability on the field,
Speaker 1: but his presence in the locker room is something that
Speaker 1: they're going to really miss. You know, if you know
Speaker 1: anything about Gerald McCoy, you know that he has such
Speaker 1: a positive outlook on life. It was evident even as
Speaker 1: he posted videos from his hospital bed prior to surgery
Speaker 1: and after surgery, he says that he still wants to
Speaker 1: be a mentor to these young defensive linemen that he
Speaker 1: had established a relationship with. Even though now he can't
Speaker 1: go in the building because he's been released by the team,
Speaker 1: He's still gonna connect with them. But how do the
Speaker 1: Cowboys offset the loss because they were counting on Gerald
Speaker 1: McCoy to be a big part of this team. Yeah, Billy,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about that previously, about his influence
Speaker 1: in the locker room. They will miss that because I
Speaker 1: think those young guys were filing him, especially Tristan Hill,
Speaker 1: uh and Neville Gallimore. What a great example, what a
Speaker 1: great personality mentor for those guys. And you know, always
Speaker 1: felt like a guy like Tristan Hill really needed that
Speaker 1: after he kind of had a washout rookie season. But
Speaker 1: he seems to have turned things around a little bit.
Speaker 1: His body looks better, his enthusiasm looks better. Uh. And
Speaker 1: when they're going out there and uh, you know he's
Speaker 1: he's he's taken the place uh in a lot of
Speaker 1: the snaps of Gerald McCoy, and so has uh Tyrone Crawford. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so between those two guys and Gallimore, they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to fill that spot. And it made me takes
Speaker 1: three guys to do it. And I always thought that
Speaker 1: was going to be a rotation position there anyway that
Speaker 1: you know, McCoy wasn't gonna play five to fifty five
Speaker 1: snaps a game that they would try to get some
Speaker 1: young guys in there. Now if they earn it, they're
Speaker 1: getting every opportunity to do. So. Now we're gonna see
Speaker 1: what you got, Tristan Hill. We're gonna see what you
Speaker 1: got Neville Gallimore. And if those guys, you know, don't
Speaker 1: don't grab some snaps, then Tyrone Crawford's gonna be your
Speaker 1: three technique, especially on first and second downs. And if
Speaker 1: they go to Nickel, I wouldn't be surprised. Look, they've
Speaker 1: got some big defensive ends, right, Alden Smith is two eighty,
Speaker 1: Joe Jackson's two eighty five. Those guy and Jackson rush
Speaker 1: some from inside you know, those guys can easily move
Speaker 1: inside and create some problems. And then you got Antoine
Speaker 1: Woods at the nose tackle position. Don Terry. Poe hasn't
Speaker 1: practiced yet, so I'll be interested to see if if
Speaker 1: you know a little bit about Antoine. Right, he's not
Speaker 1: a give up guy, so I'm sure he's thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: you brought in Poe, but I'm gonna fight for my snaps.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the roster, the core of
Speaker 1: this team, they all seem to be around the same
Speaker 1: age and also the same temperament. You look at the
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, you don't really have an outspoken guy on
Speaker 1: the offensive linement. I think Looney might have been one
Speaker 1: of the more charismatic guys on the old line. You're
Speaker 1: looking at the quarterback position, running back position, D line,
Speaker 1: no one really stands out as that boisterous player. You're
Speaker 1: bringing a guy like Everson Griffin who's really not that boisterous.
Speaker 1: He's just a guy that does work as best he can.
Speaker 1: But I didn't I don't even call him being that
Speaker 1: vocal leader they're going to have to rely on. I
Speaker 1: don't know either one person who's going to have to
Speaker 1: step up and be that person that inspires you. Maybe
Speaker 1: Woods would be that guy. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: everyone on that team seems to have the same temperament.
Speaker 1: No one seems to step out as that person that's
Speaker 1: unusually boisterous or that vocal leader. It would be nice
Speaker 1: to keep McCoy around, but like you said, you can't
Speaker 1: come to the practice field anymore. But it would be
Speaker 1: nice to hit for him sometime in the future, to
Speaker 1: be that voice for the team in the locker room.
Speaker 1: Have a team full of players that are almost of
Speaker 1: the same temperament. I think that's why when things start
Speaker 1: to go wrong in the ballgame, you really don't see
Speaker 1: a sense of urgency coming from any particular player. You
Speaker 1: don't have that Michael Irvin or that Dare's Brian over there,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to you know, punch it at the
Speaker 1: air and getting people fired up. I think they're going
Speaker 1: to need that person. Yeah, you need someone. Maybe it
Speaker 1: would be coach McCarthy. He can go out there and
Speaker 1: fill a red flag at a referee and hit him
Speaker 1: in the face and then that might inspire some people.
Speaker 1: But you don't have that on the team right now.
Speaker 1: I hope they can. They can find someone that can
Speaker 1: inspire them verbally in that way. Wheneverson brought up the
Speaker 1: makeup call earlier in the show, I was thinking, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they sure didn't have a makeup call for two technical
Speaker 1: files on a basketball player. That's exactly right. And I'll
Speaker 1: just add this. I know we have to we have
Speaker 1: to go to break. But one of the guys that
Speaker 1: has become more vocal now that he's at middle life,
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, hold on, Mickey, hold on, Let's
Speaker 1: let's tease that. Let's tease that. I want to know.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you after this. Yes, let's take a break
Speaker 1: and we will let you know who Mickey thinks that
Speaker 1: vocal guy who will step up and Gerald McCoy's absence
Speaker 1: and we come back on Mick shots. Hey, they're cowboys.
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Speaker 1: The Cowboys have wrapped up another day of practice. They're
Speaker 1: in meetings and probably have a walk through this afternoon.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly what the schedule is the rest
Speaker 1: of the day, but that's typically the way it works.
Speaker 1: As yesterday, it wasn't a day off for the players.
Speaker 1: It was a day off as far as practice goes,
Speaker 1: but they did have meetings and walk throughs and then
Speaker 1: they'll pray practicing again tomorrow morning. And Mickey, as we
Speaker 1: went to break, Everson was talking about the loss of
Speaker 1: Gerald McCoy and who's going to replace Gerald as that
Speaker 1: vocal leader that we anticipated that Gerald might be a
Speaker 1: part of. Who do you have in mind as a
Speaker 1: guy who's going to step up in that capacity. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know about in the locker room, but I've
Speaker 1: seen it on the field already. And that guy that's
Speaker 1: kind of taken charge of that defense is Layton Vanderish.
Speaker 1: They moved him. They've moved him to the middle linebacker spot.
Speaker 1: So he's getting the call, the defensive call from Mike
Speaker 1: Nolan in his helmet, relaying it to the rest of
Speaker 1: the team. So that doesn't make you a leader. I
Speaker 1: could go out there and relay the call probably if
Speaker 1: I could remember it all right. I know you're not
Speaker 1: trying to compare yourself to Layton Listen. No, I'm just
Speaker 1: comparing myself to relay in the call. Anybody can do that, right,
Speaker 1: But I see him being more vocal of getting guys
Speaker 1: lined up, making checks at the line of scrimmage or
Speaker 1: whatever they need to do. And he's talked about how
Speaker 1: he feels like he's a little bit more in charge
Speaker 1: now that he's at the middle linebacker spot. So from
Speaker 1: an on field presence, look for him to kind of
Speaker 1: be that guy being more vocal. Uh. And then if
Speaker 1: you need the emotion, I guarantee it, you can get
Speaker 1: it from either one of those defensive ends, from either
Speaker 1: DeMarcus Lawrence. Uh. And from what I've heard of Everson
Speaker 1: Griffin probably him as a matter of fact, guys, he
Speaker 1: I just saw where he was doing his interview today
Speaker 1: while we were getting going uh. And Rob Rob Phillips
Speaker 1: pointed out that Griffin talked about the Cowboys being his
Speaker 1: favorite team growing up, and we talked about this last
Speaker 1: week we beat him to the punch uh and said
Speaker 1: he was named after the great Everson Walls. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: talks about it in his best conference today. Yes he did,
Speaker 1: all right, he talks like that, but then he doesn't
Speaker 1: even know what position I played, So I'm kind of disappointed.
Speaker 1: Safety a linebacker. He said safety linebacker or something like that.
Speaker 1: So he didn't name himself. It was his dad. That's okay.
Speaker 1: When I talk to him, I'm gonna be wagging my
Speaker 1: finger in his face like some old dude. We're gonna
Speaker 1: We're gonna have to get you two together, right, Yeah, well, Mickey,
Speaker 1: we need to get them together on this show. That's
Speaker 1: your assignment for you, I mean appreciate it is to
Speaker 1: get Everson Griffin on with Everson Walls so he can
Speaker 1: go down memory lank all right. On the topic of
Speaker 1: the vocal leader, Everson, who on your teams was? I mean,
Speaker 1: we know who the big personalities were, but who are
Speaker 1: the real locker room leaders on those teams that you
Speaker 1: played on. You know, when you start talking about locker
Speaker 1: room leaders, that's one thing. I happened to be one
Speaker 1: of those locker room lawyers. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: leader and lawyer going the same category as for us
Speaker 1: coaches are concerned, but we've all we had a team
Speaker 1: full of veterans and one guy that I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: listening to and he was my mentor. Was both of
Speaker 1: them have to be dbs. Actually, Dennis Thurman and Charlie Waters.
Speaker 1: Charlie Waters was just my own personal cheerleader because he
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure I made as many plays as
Speaker 1: possible because he's playing on one leg back there, so
Speaker 1: he need as much help as possible. But he was
Speaker 1: a guy that was always in the coach's ear, always
Speaker 1: doing those things behind the scenes to make the scheme,
Speaker 1: the defensive scheme morecompatible to the team that we were
Speaker 1: playing against. That's what I liked about Charlie. You know,
Speaker 1: coaches will go out there and they'll have an idea
Speaker 1: of what's best for the players. You need a player
Speaker 1: to say what's best for the players, and Charlie was
Speaker 1: that guy. Dennis Thurman also was a guy that that
Speaker 1: followed in that same suit. Wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: the players were in the best position to make plays
Speaker 1: in this difficult flex defense that we had to deal with.
Speaker 1: So those two guys were always those locker room leaders.
Speaker 1: But when it came down to it, unfortunately back then
Speaker 1: you had a lot of people that were afraid to
Speaker 1: speak up because you know, the cowboy locker room back
Speaker 1: then was a little bit rigid, a little bit more
Speaker 1: rigid as far as the owners were concerned, as far
Speaker 1: as the coach was concerned. So we had to we
Speaker 1: had to. We had to find our leaders in some
Speaker 1: obscure places. And those two guys were the ones that
Speaker 1: really inspired me. Now, if you want to talk about
Speaker 1: guys like Harvey Martin who was always fired up, he
Speaker 1: was just an engine within himself. Randy White was the
Speaker 1: same way, but just don't get in his way because
Speaker 1: he knocked the hell out of YouTube as a teammate.
Speaker 1: So you had all kinds of ways that people inspired
Speaker 1: each other and inspired their teammates. But this team was
Speaker 1: a little bit more rigid than the team that we're
Speaker 1: talking about right now. Yeah, they didn't have many present
Speaker 1: day terms. Sean Lee would be a guy today in
Speaker 1: the latter stages of his career for what Charlie Waters
Speaker 1: was to you in the latter stages of his career
Speaker 1: back when you came into the league in the early eighties. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so there needs to be like a Layton vander Esha,
Speaker 1: Jalen Smith, DeMarcus Lawrence. So that type of guy who's
Speaker 1: in the in the Pro Bowl portion of their career
Speaker 1: where they can be big time leaders they're playing every
Speaker 1: play and and uh, you know, on Everson's team, while
Speaker 1: you know, you have to kind of define leader. But
Speaker 1: they didn't have a lot of shy guys in that
Speaker 1: locker room, right. Uh. You know he mentioned Randy White.
Speaker 1: I could still hear the booming voice of John Dutton.
Speaker 1: Uh forgot he was not shy, right. Uh. Eugene Lockhart,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call him shy either. Uh. So, yeah, they
Speaker 1: had some characters in that locker room. For sure. I
Speaker 1: thought we were ray. But when it came to inspiration, Bill,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't inspire you as much as they would put
Speaker 1: the fear of God in you if you didn't make
Speaker 1: them play. So that was the difference. But don't you
Speaker 1: think that that teams that are successful you have to
Speaker 1: have a collection of guys like that that are big personalities. Yes,
Speaker 1: you do. And the fact that they were veterans, they
Speaker 1: were already there, they had already gone through so much.
Speaker 1: A couple of them had already been through more than
Speaker 1: one Super Bowl. So yes, you had a lot of
Speaker 1: people that you could look up to in regards to inspiration,
Speaker 1: but it was up to you to find that inspiration.
Speaker 1: They weren't going to throw it out there for you.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the inspiration they gave you came through
Speaker 1: threats to your physical body. Well, and just think about
Speaker 1: the wide receiving corps on that team, and it relates
Speaker 1: to today's wide receivers. You know, when you got Drew Pearson,
Speaker 1: Tony Hill and Butch Johnson and your wide receiving cord,
Speaker 1: they're not lacking for confidence, No, absolutely not. And and
Speaker 1: and these top three guys, um and we'll see where
Speaker 1: Cedee Lamb goes. I mean he's a rookie. But Gallop
Speaker 1: uh and Marie Cooper I said last year, they're the
Speaker 1: unwide receivers because they're very humble. Uh, they're not boisterous.
Speaker 1: Uh now they're they're confident in themselves, but they're not
Speaker 1: what we're used to seeing with cowboy wide receivers. Yes,
Speaker 1: I cannot compare those three guys to any of the
Speaker 1: receivers that we've had going back to even Michael Irving.
Speaker 1: But Drew Piers and Tony Hill and Buss Johnson you
Speaker 1: have more in fighting than you did have. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: Coop by y'all moments, so to speak. So uh so
Speaker 1: it was it was, it was, it was It was
Speaker 1: lively for the reporters back then. All you had to
Speaker 1: do was say one buzzword. You get him fired up,
Speaker 1: and you have you have a story. They throwing Jay
Speaker 1: Saldi at tight end. He was the best interviews on
Speaker 1: the team. He and Tony Dorset wasn't shy either. By
Speaker 1: the way, Let's let's just keep going and keep I
Speaker 1: keep bringing up I keep bringing up guys in that
Speaker 1: quadrant where Everson Walls lived. Once they they moved out
Speaker 1: to Valley Ranch. Hey, And one thing Ron Ron said
Speaker 1: he wouldn't make it to Valley Ranch. He wasn't loud.
Speaker 1: He said, I'll never make it to Valley rasum and
Speaker 1: talking about and I thought this was interesting. Mike Nolan
Speaker 1: did his interview yesterday and he was talking about Alden Smith. UH.
Speaker 1: And one of the things UH, he pointed out, he
Speaker 1: goes number one. I like Alden Smith's interaction with the
Speaker 1: other players, to be honest with you, He's a he's
Speaker 1: a team player. He's got a lot of personality. I
Speaker 1: like the way he interacts with Demarrow Becas Lawrence and
Speaker 1: Tyrone Crawford with a number of guys. I see that
Speaker 1: chemistry starting to build. UH and then Dak was asked
Speaker 1: about Alden today as they asked him, you know, does
Speaker 1: he look like a guy out there that hasn't played
Speaker 1: in five years? And uh? And Dak Prescott said, he's
Speaker 1: a man, he's a monster, and he damn sure doesn't
Speaker 1: look like he hasn't played in five years. And he
Speaker 1: had a really good day to day. He had pressure
Speaker 1: on the pocket no matter who the quarterback was. And
Speaker 1: once uh, you know there was no Tyrant Smith there. Oh.
Speaker 1: Those poor young guys, they're just there's how do I
Speaker 1: say it lightly? They're learning a lot, okay? And how
Speaker 1: about hey, hey, Mike McCarthy this morning, his first questions
Speaker 1: about Alden Smith and they I remember exactly how it
Speaker 1: was posed, But McCarthy's answer was, I think if anyone
Speaker 1: sees him on the ractice field, there are good reaction
Speaker 1: is going to be who's that number? Fifty eight? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so that that's what's kind of impression he's making
Speaker 1: out there on the field. But that's what the Cowboys
Speaker 1: need players like that, and especially in building that chemistry.
Speaker 1: You got it. I mean, think of the Cowboys Super
Speaker 1: Bowl teams of the nineties and the personalities you had
Speaker 1: on that team, and that's what this defense that I
Speaker 1: thought has always been lacking because everybody was kind of quiet,
Speaker 1: you know, nice guys, and it's like, yeah, you need
Speaker 1: some rabble rousers out there. Uh you know this that
Speaker 1: we're not in a choir here, so uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's good. And it sounds like some of
Speaker 1: that is starting to build, and it's building, and yet
Speaker 1: there's been minimal contact. So once the contact starts up,
Speaker 1: we'll see a little bit more feistiness from some of
Speaker 1: these guys. And I think you go ahead, Reverson. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, let's let's put a little onnus on
Speaker 1: the coaches as well. You know, Spage, you talk about
Speaker 1: my Nolan. I think he's a very aggressive defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: and I think the Cowboys need that. I think his
Speaker 1: defensive calls, I think the way he's going to use
Speaker 1: his linebackers deceptively when it comes to blitzes h the
Speaker 1: aggressiveness that he's gonna have with his upfront seven players,
Speaker 1: I think that's really gonna bowld a lot. I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna lend a lot to the attitude that this
Speaker 1: team has once they start really playing ball games and
Speaker 1: hopefully they show the success with the potential that they have.
Speaker 1: I think that is also going to be a good
Speaker 1: thing for the Cowboys defensive front. It's going to allow aggression,
Speaker 1: is going to allow, I think, for a lot of
Speaker 1: turnovers because Mike Nolan has always used his linebackers in
Speaker 1: a very effective blitz style, and I think that's going
Speaker 1: to really open things up. It's like if you have
Speaker 1: a good three point shooter, that three point shooter is
Speaker 1: to open it up for the postman, uh down low.
Speaker 1: I think these these blitzes coming from the linebackers, it's
Speaker 1: going to open it up more for DeMarcus Lawrence, for
Speaker 1: Aldus Smith and players to use their aggression even more
Speaker 1: than than they would so enormous circumstances, you know. And
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm giving away any secrets here, but
Speaker 1: you know, it's been talked about how Alden Smith has
Speaker 1: been used on the right defensive end spot standing up
Speaker 1: instead of being in a three point stance. And boy,
Speaker 1: when he stands up, you think, well, if it's a
Speaker 1: running play, he's he might be, you know, susceptible to
Speaker 1: getting blocked, but his arms are so long, you know,
Speaker 1: he can keep guys off them. Uh and uh, he's
Speaker 1: been pretty effective over there. And I'll say it again,
Speaker 1: especially when Tyrn Smith's not indicate well. And then how
Speaker 1: about DeMarcus Lawrence uh standing him up some too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh and he's he hasn't done it quite as much.
Speaker 1: And again, you know, the last time I saw this
Speaker 1: take place, uh, you know, when they kind of went
Speaker 1: to the three four with Bill and DeMarcus where was
Speaker 1: standing up? And then I saw DeMarcus Ware back pedaling
Speaker 1: in coverage And It's like, I don't want to see
Speaker 1: DeMarcus ware going backwards. I want them going forward, right. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so I'll be interested to see if they if
Speaker 1: they get into any of those schemes. You know, are
Speaker 1: you going to use those guys in coverage because they're
Speaker 1: basically you're outside linebacker. Uh. So that'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: see how they do that because I'll guarantee you DeMarcus
Speaker 1: Lawrence hasn't had to drop off the line of scrimmage
Speaker 1: much and cover anybody. Yeah. One of the things when
Speaker 1: you stand up a DeMarcus Lawrence or Alden Smith or
Speaker 1: Everson Griffin for that matter, h you can you can
Speaker 1: do some things to find mismatches on your pass rush
Speaker 1: where they can go inside as well. If you go
Speaker 1: back and look at the Saints last year, they did
Speaker 1: a lot of that on their in their front four
Speaker 1: where they moved guys around, and there were multiple in
Speaker 1: that respect. Of course, Nolan wasn't the DC there in
Speaker 1: New Orleans last year as the linebackers coach, but I
Speaker 1: think some of those concepts, I think you can see
Speaker 1: him employing that which we haven't seen as much of
Speaker 1: here in Dallas over the years. And you know why,
Speaker 1: from the predictability Bill. That's what we were for the
Speaker 1: last few years. I think that's been our weakness. We've
Speaker 1: been happy to come out and show the offense just
Speaker 1: exactly what we're doing. We lined up the same way
Speaker 1: all the time, I don't care if it was a
Speaker 1: two minute drill or if it was the beginning of
Speaker 1: the game. And I thought that that led us to
Speaker 1: a lot of disadvantages, and that's why we were always
Speaker 1: so predictable as far as not getting turnovers as well.
Speaker 1: The offense is always gonna know where you are. There
Speaker 1: were no surprises. We just started putting in the blitzes
Speaker 1: really last year when the new defensive coach came in
Speaker 1: and those are the things that you just can't waste
Speaker 1: a play in that regard to me, that's called that's
Speaker 1: just taking a play for granted, you can't. You should
Speaker 1: always be able to show a change up in what
Speaker 1: you do. You have to mentally keep your offense off
Speaker 1: guard when it comes to how good they are at
Speaker 1: this time in football, offenses are so explosive, so defensively,
Speaker 1: you have to take advantage of where you are strong,
Speaker 1: and if that has to be a little bit of
Speaker 1: misdirection coming from your defensive coordinator and from your staff,
Speaker 1: then that needs to be used. We have sorely missed
Speaker 1: that the last few years here with the Cowboys. All right,
Speaker 1: when we continue here on mix Shots, there's so much
Speaker 1: more to get into. I want to pick Mickey's brain
Speaker 1: on some other things that he's seen through the first
Speaker 1: week of training camp practices at Ford Center at the
Speaker 1: Star in Friscoe. Mix Shots continues in just a moment, Hey,
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Speaker 1: to join today. Mick Shots continues now. Bill Jones with
Speaker 1: Mickey Spagnola, who is experiencing some technical difficulties right now,
Speaker 1: I understand, and Everson Walls. We are streaming live on
Speaker 1: Periscope as well. Take you to the top of the
Speaker 1: hour and leading up to the start of the regular season.
Speaker 1: Will be here on a weekly basis on Thursdays at
Speaker 1: eleven am. And Cowboys practice again tomorrow, take Saturday off
Speaker 1: in three straight practices Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and we're
Speaker 1: now just over three weeks away from the start of
Speaker 1: the regular season. That regular season is going to be
Speaker 1: here before you know it. When the Cowboys play September thirteenth,
Speaker 1: a Sunday night game at the Los Angeles Rams, and
Speaker 1: the first home game the following Sunday on September twentieth
Speaker 1: against the Atlanta Falcons. Everson, are you there, I'm here,
Speaker 1: You are there. Okay, you're echoing in my ear, but
Speaker 1: you are there everywhere. Let me ask you about the
Speaker 1: cornerbacks and Trayvon Diggs has been worked in a little
Speaker 1: bit throughout the first week. We'll get more on that
Speaker 1: from Mickey when he gets re established here. But what
Speaker 1: are you hoping to see a merge out of this
Speaker 1: training camp at the cornerback position. Well, I hope they
Speaker 1: have a a guy that they can they can depend
Speaker 1: on them. I hope they have someone that they can
Speaker 1: I can make some plays for us. Uh, someone that
Speaker 1: we can keep up with the athleticism, because we always
Speaker 1: have athletic cornerbacks and that's what I like about. But
Speaker 1: I want someone that can make the plays that need
Speaker 1: to be made. When you start talking about our secondary
Speaker 1: we were reactionary. We didn't anticipate anything. And that's the
Speaker 1: problems that you have with a lot of just so
Speaker 1: so uh defensive backfields. You have to be as a unit.
Speaker 1: You have to have a culture there that can be
Speaker 1: smart and anticipate the plays that they're coming your way.
Speaker 1: I don't care how good an offense is. Each one
Speaker 1: of them falls into a pattern, and you have to
Speaker 1: as a defensive back be smart enough to find that pattern.
Speaker 1: That's what Charlie Waters and then this Terman did for me.
Speaker 1: They showed me how to study my opposition and so
Speaker 1: that way I wouldn't be reactionary. I can anticipate what
Speaker 1: was gonna come my way. Those interceptions, some of those
Speaker 1: interceptions weren't just about athletic ability that I made back
Speaker 1: in the day those interceptions was because I studied and
Speaker 1: because I had good study partners, people that showed me
Speaker 1: how to prepare for big time ball games and play
Speaker 1: against big time wide receivers. So not only are you
Speaker 1: studying the formations and the tendencies offensively, you're also studying
Speaker 1: your opponent, that single wide receiver that you're going against.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that we've been doing that in
Speaker 1: the past. Hopefully they can change that culture here back
Speaker 1: to the way it was, to where we understood exactly
Speaker 1: what the offense was trying to do to us and
Speaker 1: how this particular wide receivers trying to set us up.
Speaker 1: Trey Von Digg seems to be a guy that can
Speaker 1: figure that out. Hopefully he can do it on this
Speaker 1: next level as well, because he did it well in college.
Speaker 1: And you've got other defensive backs back there, such as
Speaker 1: how High Clinton Dix, who can be that anchor for
Speaker 1: you at a safety position and protect those corners and
Speaker 1: make sure that they have confidence in their safeties the
Speaker 1: way I had confidence in guys like Desta Cleiscale, Michael Downs,
Speaker 1: and Charlie Waters. I think you know, guys, can you
Speaker 1: hear me. Yeah, yes, it looks like you're back now,
Speaker 1: you know, Mickey, we got to give some credit to
Speaker 1: Everson here to pull back the curtain a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, we were discovering that if you open up
Speaker 1: another one of these little WebEx windows, it creates an
Speaker 1: echo effect in our ears that makes it sound like
Speaker 1: that you are speaking on a public address system at
Speaker 1: a stadium, where you're get hearing your own voice back
Speaker 1: and forth. And so Everson when he went through that
Speaker 1: whole little salute lakoi there, he was hearing himself for
Speaker 1: the first whole minute or so of that. But he
Speaker 1: fought through it, and he made it through it, and
Speaker 1: he delivered. He came through in the crunch. So kudos
Speaker 1: to you ever send for fight. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1: I thought I sounded like I sounded like God for
Speaker 1: a minute there sounded like Louis Garrett giving his rep Yes,
Speaker 1: the luckiest man in the world, world, world, He's the
Speaker 1: luckiest man on the face of the earth. And we
Speaker 1: are we are so lucky that we do not have
Speaker 1: that in our ears. Now, all right, Micky, what have
Speaker 1: you seen in our last few minutes? I want to
Speaker 1: give you. Yeah, we'll give Chris being being some props
Speaker 1: there for getting that out of our ears too. Mickey,
Speaker 1: I want to give you an opportunity to talk about
Speaker 1: some of the guys that you've seen through this first
Speaker 1: week of training camp practices that have caught your eye.
Speaker 1: Where would you start, Well, you know, you guys were
Speaker 1: talking about the cornerback position, and they've been rotating them
Speaker 1: guys through, even on the first team. You know, they
Speaker 1: normally if if Jordan Lewis was out there, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, between a Woozier Brown Lewis digs uh worli uh.
Speaker 1: Those guys have been rotating through quite a bit. Uh
Speaker 1: and and and even in the secondary you know, they're
Speaker 1: given the young guys chance back there. Uh So they
Speaker 1: they've they've been kind of changing it up quite a bit.
Speaker 1: So it's really hard to say, Okay, this guy's first team,
Speaker 1: this guy's second team. I don't think that's happened so far.
Speaker 1: Who's caught my eye overall? Um? You know, we know
Speaker 1: about Gallup, we know about Amari Cooper, Ceedee Lamb just
Speaker 1: plays this game so effortlessly. You know, we were watching
Speaker 1: them catch punts as we were leaving after the practice, finished,
Speaker 1: and the guys stay out there and do a little extra.
Speaker 1: And I wrote in Mick Shots yesterday, it's like if
Speaker 1: you know the expression in baseball catching a can of corn,
Speaker 1: you know, and that that started. That expression started with
Speaker 1: the old grocery stores when they used to have the
Speaker 1: cans up high and they would have a pole and
Speaker 1: they would pull the can down and you would catch
Speaker 1: it right and put it on the shelf. Well, it's
Speaker 1: he catches punts just like that, like it's soft tossed.
Speaker 1: And the other day they were doing a drill where
Speaker 1: it was a punt. They were catching punts. But what
Speaker 1: Fossil was having them do this new special team's coach
Speaker 1: is you you stand and it was off the judge machine.
Speaker 1: So you stand with your back towards the judge machine
Speaker 1: and they fire it off and when the ball hits
Speaker 1: its apex, he yells turn and you got to turn
Speaker 1: around find the ball. And this is indoors, so it's
Speaker 1: you're looking up in that roof. It's hard to find it,
Speaker 1: and then you got to catch it right. He was
Speaker 1: doing it like he'd been doing it in his whole career.
Speaker 1: It's just to me, no stutter steps, just standing there,
Speaker 1: boot catches him. So it'll be interesting to see, you know,
Speaker 1: if he plays so much offensively, will he be okay
Speaker 1: to also returned punts. Cedric Wilson's not bad at it either,
Speaker 1: but CD just does it so so efforts lead it amazing. Mickey,
Speaker 1: let me let me throw in something about CD that
Speaker 1: I saw in person. It was at the Cotton Bowl
Speaker 1: last October, and one of his three touchdown passes in
Speaker 1: that game. He had an incredible game. Texas wins that game.
Speaker 1: If CD Lamb's not on the field for ou, I mean,
Speaker 1: he just took over that game. But there's one play
Speaker 1: in particular, well, I believe it was a flea flicker
Speaker 1: and he's down the right sideline about twenty five thirty
Speaker 1: yards downfield, fairly deep pass, but it was a flee
Speaker 1: flicker and Jalen Hurts just sort of heaved it high
Speaker 1: in the air. CD sees the ball, the traject the
Speaker 1: trajectory of the ball, which is almost he threw it
Speaker 1: so high it was almost like a punt. And I'm
Speaker 1: watching Cede Lamb. I had a fifty yard line seat, Okay,
Speaker 1: so I'm watching Cede Lamb and he took his eye
Speaker 1: off the ball as it was in midflight and surveyed
Speaker 1: where the secondary was and then he reached and then
Speaker 1: he looks back up, makes the catch, and then made
Speaker 1: his way through five defenders for the final twenty five
Speaker 1: yards all the way to the end zone. It was
Speaker 1: one of the most remarkable things I've seen on a
Speaker 1: football field. But it illustrates exactly what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: just the natural instincts that he has and the confidence
Speaker 1: that he has, the field presence that he has. That
Speaker 1: was remarkable. I think that, well, yeah, I love the
Speaker 1: way that Bill likes to show off his Oklahoma affiliation.
Speaker 1: Nice to know that they give you fifty yard line seats.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going to play with you. I'm going to
Speaker 1: the game with you next time, Bill, because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: an old You fan myself. But it changes everything when
Speaker 1: you have the ability to do something that no one
Speaker 1: else knows how to do and you work on it
Speaker 1: so well, it does make you stand out. Bill. Uh.
Speaker 1: When my dad taught me how to catch a ball,
Speaker 1: when he when he taught me the mechanics of how
Speaker 1: to follow a ball in the air, I didn't know
Speaker 1: how unique that would make me as a player. Ceedee Lamb.
Speaker 1: He does things like we talk about Beckham does all
Speaker 1: the time. The one hand that catches that makes you
Speaker 1: an extremely special person. But as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 1: if you can do all of that, I would love
Speaker 1: it if you would just be consistent in what you do,
Speaker 1: uh no passes, no mistakes, not taking your basic fundamental
Speaker 1: talents for granted. And to me, that would really show
Speaker 1: me just what a good a player he is, because
Speaker 1: there are times when yes, those those amazing plays are
Speaker 1: gonna have to have to happen. But just show me
Speaker 1: some consistency day in and day out. To me, that's
Speaker 1: more impressive. When you talk about Amari Cooper, I'm sure
Speaker 1: he can do all those things that Ceedee Lamb can do,
Speaker 1: let's be real, but he chooses not to because he's
Speaker 1: always so consistently good at being the fundamental player that
Speaker 1: he is. You show me fundamentals day in and day out,
Speaker 1: and success at that. To me, that impresses me more.
Speaker 1: Even though I do love seeing those plays by Ceedee Lamb,
Speaker 1: especially being an OI fan. Well, in that play that
Speaker 1: CD made it that I was talking about it, I
Speaker 1: mean that he I don't he doesn't make he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the run after catch on that play if he
Speaker 1: didn't do what he did there. So I think it
Speaker 1: was fundamental to him making that play too. It wasn't
Speaker 1: he wasn't showing off doing it. He was just that
Speaker 1: was But he has that the natural instincts and so forth,
Speaker 1: that he's confident that, Okay, I can go ahead and
Speaker 1: catch that ball, I can take my offer and read
Speaker 1: the defense and didn't go back to it. It was
Speaker 1: it was something else. I think. I think the difference
Speaker 1: is the differences Now you're going to have players, You're
Speaker 1: going to have defensive players that are going to react
Speaker 1: a little bit better to that. So right, how he
Speaker 1: going to react to the level of play heightening for him?
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see how he adjusted that, and
Speaker 1: I think he'll do well. Bill Truck I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of his, I am, but it's not gonna be as
Speaker 1: you know, it's not gonna be as easy going against
Speaker 1: some some big twelve dbs versus going against some big
Speaker 1: time dbs in the NFL. And build a couple other
Speaker 1: quick observations. I see why Andy Dalton's been a nine
Speaker 1: year starter in the league. He's abay accurate throwing the football,
Speaker 1: and I think that has stood out, and that stood
Speaker 1: out yesterday with Dak. I thought he had one of
Speaker 1: his best days. The ball in individual drills or team
Speaker 1: drills was not hitting the ground. He had a really,
Speaker 1: really good day. And then this one kind of you know,
Speaker 1: we talked to John Fossil yesterday and I kind of
Speaker 1: asked him, you know, you you cut Kai for bath,
Speaker 1: you know what went into that decision not to have
Speaker 1: any kicking competition in training camp? And he basically kind
Speaker 1: of got away from where I was going and said, well,
Speaker 1: we had to get to eighty, so we cut the
Speaker 1: other deep snapper and we cut the other kicker. Well,
Speaker 1: finally somebody pinned him down and said, well, have you
Speaker 1: diagnosed what went wrong with Greg Zurline last year when
Speaker 1: his field goal percentage dropped to seventy two percent, which
Speaker 1: I think was the lowest of his career. And he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I diagnosed he had a bad groin stream and he said,
Speaker 1: all we were doing during the week the last six
Speaker 1: to eight weeks of the season, we weren't kicking him
Speaker 1: to try to get him through, and so it was
Speaker 1: affecting his swing. So he said he's got all the
Speaker 1: confidence in the world that they will get the Greg
Speaker 1: zur Line that he'd seen the last eight years while
Speaker 1: they were together with the Rams. Well, we've only seen
Speaker 1: him in practice kick twice, and the first time we
Speaker 1: saw him kick he went six for six, and today
Speaker 1: between thirty three and forty four yards he went six
Speaker 1: for six. So Fossil basically was saying, I guarantee you
Speaker 1: he's going to be one of the top, if not
Speaker 1: top kickers in the NFL this year for the next
Speaker 1: couple of years for the Cowboys now that he's over
Speaker 1: the groin strain that really hampered his swing last year.
Speaker 1: So that Park stepped out because I thought we were
Speaker 1: going to be charting field goals all training camp. Hey, hey, Fossil,
Speaker 1: Fossil knew what he had in Zerline's When zer Line
Speaker 1: came into the league in twenty twelve, John Fossil was
Speaker 1: his special team's coach with the Rams, and he's been
Speaker 1: there all the way, and you know, it was a
Speaker 1: priority for a Fossil when the free agency started, that
Speaker 1: we've got to sign to Greg Zerline, who's the only
Speaker 1: other kicker that John Fossil has had in this league
Speaker 1: as a special teams coordinator he was with the Rams,
Speaker 1: and prior to that, he was the Raiders special teams
Speaker 1: coach and his kicker those four years in Oakland with
Speaker 1: Sebastian Janikowski. He's had two kickers in his time as
Speaker 1: a special team's coach, Janikowski and Zerlin. And that will
Speaker 1: continue this year. Yeah, and uh and so that that
Speaker 1: that's uh stood out. And one thing, you know, we
Speaker 1: I think there was a lot of anticipation that Trayvon
Speaker 1: Diggs was going to be a step in starter well
Speaker 1: as as a rookie. He looked like a rookie for
Speaker 1: a few practices so far. He's got he's got a
Speaker 1: ways to go to beat out the veterans. Let's just
Speaker 1: put it. And it's not a bad thing. I think
Speaker 1: it's more of a recognition thing and understanding. As as
Speaker 1: Everson said about Cedee Lamb, you know he's not going
Speaker 1: to be going up against big twelve corners. Well, Trayvon's
Speaker 1: not going up against wide receivers that he saw in college.
Speaker 1: These guys are big time players, sou but they're working
Speaker 1: them in and they're giving them opportunities. I like that
Speaker 1: they're given. Uh. Reggie Robinson opportunities. Uh so that that
Speaker 1: that that was a good thing. And one other guy
Speaker 1: that I wanted to point out that is getting opportunities
Speaker 1: back there as they haven't forgotten about Donovan Wilson, the
Speaker 1: safety that had a really good training camp last year
Speaker 1: and then he kind of faded away once the season started.
Speaker 1: He's getting opportunities back there also at the safety position.
Speaker 1: He made a lot of turnovers last year for the
Speaker 1: short minute amount of time that he was exposed. All Right,
Speaker 1: I think we're out of time on this edition of
Speaker 1: Mix Shots. Next week, Everson, I want you to tell
Speaker 1: us a story of how you gave an indoctrination to
Speaker 1: Michael Irvin when Irvin came into the league. Irvin interviewed
Speaker 1: CD Lamb earlier this week on NFL Network and he
Speaker 1: was talking about the schooling that Everson Walls gave him
Speaker 1: in one of his first practices, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember that or not, but next week I
Speaker 1: want to hear that story. All right, it was several days,
Speaker 1: so I'll pick one out. Okay, that does it for
Speaker 1: Mixed Shots for this week, and we will see you
Speaker 1: again next Thursday at eleven am. Have a great week. Everybody.
Speaker 1: This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.