Speaker 1: The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This is the player's
Speaker 1: label broadcasting line from Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the Star.
Speaker 1: Now your hosts Barry Church, Danny McCray, and new He Scrugs.
Speaker 1: Here we are Friday in March twelfth with a whole
Speaker 1: ton of topics. Can get to right here on the
Speaker 1: play lines brought to you by Hotels dot Com w
Speaker 1: new He Scrugs, a long time Cowboys reported joined by
Speaker 1: former Dallas Cowboys safety our guy Barry Church or other safety.
Speaker 1: Danny mccray's got work duties to do over at the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. He works for the team. So it's Church
Speaker 1: and I right with you here on a Friday. All right,
Speaker 1: forty two? How are you doing? Man? I'm doing amazing
Speaker 1: NEWI it's a little cloudy in the Metroplex. But like
Speaker 1: I said, man row on players Lounge on a Friday,
Speaker 1: eleven thirty. Where else would you rather be? Where else
Speaker 1: would you rather be? Let's get to a big dog.
Speaker 1: All right, man, I've been I've been waiting, chomping at
Speaker 1: the bit since going to that Prescott press conference which
Speaker 1: was well over hour at the Star. I'm so glad
Speaker 1: I went because you needed to be there to see
Speaker 1: the reactions to the questions, just the way things were
Speaker 1: bouncing and going. So to see Stephen Jones, Jerry Jones,
Speaker 1: and Dak Prescott, they're all giving their takes on this deal.
Speaker 1: So initially I wanted to get your thoughts on the
Speaker 1: contract and the press conference. Well, originally the contract. I'm
Speaker 1: here to say I was dead wrong, along with a
Speaker 1: lot of America out there. I was dead wrong. I thought,
Speaker 1: for Shirton for certain that he would not get this
Speaker 1: deal done by by the deadline. I thought he would
Speaker 1: be franchise tag and I was even going out there
Speaker 1: saying that he wouldn't get a deal done by July fifteenth.
Speaker 1: But the Cowboys, they were able to work their magic.
Speaker 1: You know, Jerry has always said, and I'll never doubt
Speaker 1: Jerry again when it comes to this, because we heard
Speaker 1: it for two years. I'd never let anybody out want
Speaker 1: walk out of me. I'll walk off of this team.
Speaker 1: I keep who I want. And yeah, we heard the
Speaker 1: talk and we just all thought it was talk. But
Speaker 1: Jerry got the deal done with Dak. So to me,
Speaker 1: I gotta give hats off to Jerry and his representatives
Speaker 1: and Dak and his representatives as well, because even though
Speaker 1: they got this deal done, I thought for sure, I
Speaker 1: thought for sure that they would have no cap space
Speaker 1: and it was going to be Dak versus the world
Speaker 1: out there seeing how bad this defense was. But hats
Speaker 1: goes off to Jerry and Todd Franz because they were
Speaker 1: able to work something out to where Dak was able
Speaker 1: to get the money he wanted, the guaranteed money, the
Speaker 1: forty meal per year. He was able to get that.
Speaker 1: But also Jerry on the other sideay and year one
Speaker 1: let that that cap friendly, that team deal kind of
Speaker 1: work its magic. They ended up creating more cap space
Speaker 1: by paying this man this money. And I thought it
Speaker 1: was I thought it was blasphemous. I didn't think there's
Speaker 1: no way that they're going to be able to get
Speaker 1: this man this money and still have cat space. But
Speaker 1: they were able to work it around, and I believe
Speaker 1: they freed up maybe even fifteen to seventeen meal right now.
Speaker 1: And to me that that's a win win on both cases.
Speaker 1: You have your franchise quarterback who's going to be there
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future. The leader, the unquestioned leader of
Speaker 1: this team there for the foreseeable future end, and you
Speaker 1: have enough cap space to address a little bit of
Speaker 1: the needs on this defense, because we know there's a
Speaker 1: lot of needs on this defense. So for me, I
Speaker 1: gotta get my hats off to both sides. They played
Speaker 1: it remarkably and hopefully you know it pays off for
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys as in Super Bowls or something like that,
Speaker 1: because we need it here in the Metroplex. But hats
Speaker 1: goes off to both sides getting this deal done and
Speaker 1: creating enough cat space to address that horrendous defense that
Speaker 1: they had last year. Let's hope it all works out.
Speaker 1: So I like when you spoke about just the parameters
Speaker 1: of the deal, and one of the questions, and one
Speaker 1: of thinks Steve and Jones had brought up was every
Speaker 1: time there was something that Steve was looking for that
Speaker 1: could help the team, he said. Todd France said yes,
Speaker 1: because I believe I was number seven at the press
Speaker 1: conference today. They had us all lined up and I
Speaker 1: was number seven to ask the question. So I asked
Speaker 1: a question that Dak and the second question I asked
Speaker 1: was about the pie, Like, okay, you guys talked to
Speaker 1: all camp about you. There will be no pie for
Speaker 1: anybody else here. So is there pie left to fix
Speaker 1: this bad defense you had? And that's when Steven referenced
Speaker 1: that Todd France was working with him and they understood
Speaker 1: the importance that, Okay, yeah, we want our quarterback, we
Speaker 1: want our guy to get his cash, but there has
Speaker 1: to be something left for some other people. So that
Speaker 1: was something I thought that was unique there. Jerry said
Speaker 1: I overpaid. Everybody out there, says Jerry overpaid, because he's
Speaker 1: now Dak Prescott's the second highest paid quarterback in the game. Okay,
Speaker 1: second highest paid players Patrick Mahomes, then it is Dak Prescott,
Speaker 1: followed by Sean Watson. But we all knew how these
Speaker 1: deals go. The next guy tops the next guy. And
Speaker 1: when this, you know, when this TV deal is officially done,
Speaker 1: somebody's gonna top Dak Prescott. I mean this is how,
Speaker 1: this is how these things go. Four years, one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty million dollars, sixty six million dollars up front,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty six million dollars and guarantees overall.
Speaker 1: So this is this is where it's gone. Dak Prescott. Uh,
Speaker 1: and Todd France. They played this perfectly. They did not
Speaker 1: sign a deal. As Jerry spoke in the press conference.
Speaker 1: I think Jerry let it out a little bit that
Speaker 1: he thought that they could wear Dak out, that the
Speaker 1: Dak would just be like, nah, I gotta take this deal,
Speaker 1: you know, after taking so little for so long, that
Speaker 1: he would jump at the chance. And he didn't do it.
Speaker 1: They didn't do it, didn't which ads goes off the dead. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they played it right. I mean he stayed still and
Speaker 1: all of this. And I buddy of mine wrote a
Speaker 1: book called Stillness is the Key Ryan Holiday, and it's
Speaker 1: just that ability that while things around you are a
Speaker 1: little bit chaotic, how how still and calm can you be,
Speaker 1: which is a great for a quarterback, which is what
Speaker 1: he did, is while things were going around. But you
Speaker 1: should sign it. You should do that. You're not worth
Speaker 1: thirty million. The guy just stayed where he was, ended
Speaker 1: up getting hurt and just still stayed still, kept working
Speaker 1: out of the facility, and it worked out well for
Speaker 1: him that he won the deal. Okay, Jared can talk
Speaker 1: all day long about how this is good, but Dack
Speaker 1: on this deal he did he wanted by landslide in
Speaker 1: my opinion, But it's gotta be a hard and that's
Speaker 1: why I say it's hats off to that, because it's
Speaker 1: gotta be hard. I mean, you're getting bombarded by the media.
Speaker 1: You got guys like myself over here talking about, oh,
Speaker 1: he's got if he takes a deal, we're never gonna
Speaker 1: have a defense, and he can't carry this team without
Speaker 1: a defense, So why would we pay him that much?
Speaker 1: And then you got fans coming from all over the
Speaker 1: Metroplex all he's greedy. Why don't you take that? You know,
Speaker 1: there's guys that are, you know, getting paid way less
Speaker 1: than do more important jobs. So you're getting all this
Speaker 1: barking in your ears from every different direction, guys pulling
Speaker 1: on you. And like you said, man, he remained still.
Speaker 1: He remained confident in that he was able him in
Speaker 1: toide of France, We're gonna be able to work out
Speaker 1: a deal in his favor as well as the team.
Speaker 1: And hats goes off because I know myself now, I
Speaker 1: know if people were chirping and pulling at me from
Speaker 1: all I don't know how, I don't know. And then
Speaker 1: you got thirty five meal dangling in front of your
Speaker 1: face per year. That's a hard thing to stay still
Speaker 1: on and had those offs of those guys because because
Speaker 1: they were able to do it and ended up working
Speaker 1: out in the benefit both the Cowboys and Dak Prescott.
Speaker 1: So that was the question I asked to Dak. That
Speaker 1: was the first when I got because we got two
Speaker 1: questions to ask at the press conference, and that was
Speaker 1: a question I asked Dad. And for two years you
Speaker 1: had to deal with people questioning you about the contract,
Speaker 1: people questioning what you were worth, and people saying what
Speaker 1: you weren't worth, that you weren't worth thirty million dollars.
Speaker 1: How did you deal with it? The other people around you?
Speaker 1: And Dak he went back to one of his cliches,
Speaker 1: which is, hey, I just control what I can control.
Speaker 1: But Church, you've been a player and you've been in
Speaker 1: this situation too where your contract was up and people
Speaker 1: are asking you about your future. Here, I don't care
Speaker 1: how much you want to ignore it. You can't ignore it.
Speaker 1: This is your life. You can't ignore it at all.
Speaker 1: And he's been in the line last since his rookie year,
Speaker 1: so he's had people since his rookie year telling them
Speaker 1: how great he is. And then when the time comes
Speaker 1: to get paid what he wants, people turned quick as
Speaker 1: they oh, now you're not worth thirty million, you're gonna
Speaker 1: wreckguard team and rep guard cap and man, he remained
Speaker 1: still and I'm just like that to me, just shows
Speaker 1: just shows that the type of just poise and confidence
Speaker 1: that that man has in himself to where everybody in
Speaker 1: the Metroplex, not even a metro player, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the whole sports world ESPN. I mean all those talk
Speaker 1: shows in the beginning of the orders, all those talk
Speaker 1: shows in the morning, that's all they do is talk
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys football. We know that. And at the head
Speaker 1: of the Cowboys football is Dak Prescott. And you got
Speaker 1: na should wide news people coming at you, you got
Speaker 1: local media coming at you, fans coming at you. And man,
Speaker 1: that boy stood his ground. And it's a tough thing
Speaker 1: to do because as a player, you want to please
Speaker 1: your fans. You don't never want to be the hated
Speaker 1: guy out there. You know, this isn't wrestling where the
Speaker 1: villains are. You know, there's villains and there's heroes. You
Speaker 1: don't want to be hated by by your fan base
Speaker 1: out there. And he was able to, you know, keep
Speaker 1: that fan base happy as well as get his money
Speaker 1: and get the Cowboys organization as one. And you know, hey, now,
Speaker 1: like I said before, hats goes off those remarkable negotiation
Speaker 1: and contract. You are checking out the players, LOUDS, we NRSWBC,
Speaker 1: mortgage and virtual home studios. I knew, he scrugs. Joined
Speaker 1: by Barry Church Danny mccraie with the Day Off here
Speaker 1: recapping this Dak Prescott historic contract, largest contract in Cowboys history.
Speaker 1: So he gets it done, and here's the aftermath. Thump.
Speaker 1: People starting to say well, and one of those people
Speaker 1: is Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson, who won two
Speaker 1: Super Bowls as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: and left enough talent for a third. And Jimmy told
Speaker 1: Colin Cowherd the Fox Sports that he does not think
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott can carry a football team. I've heard this
Speaker 1: several times from different people. The Dak good quarterback, not
Speaker 1: the guy that can carry a team. Barry, you've played
Speaker 1: this league. You've seen guys who can carry teams. How
Speaker 1: do you feel about dat? Man? This one's tough, right here,
Speaker 1: This one's tough because, like you said, I've played on
Speaker 1: teams the Jacksonville Jaguars who had Blake boardles and arguably
Speaker 1: he was maybe thirty first out of thirty second quarterbacks
Speaker 1: when we were together there, and we were able to
Speaker 1: get to the AFC Championship despite him, just because we
Speaker 1: had an amazing defense. Now we don't have that type
Speaker 1: of defense here with the Dallas Cowboys. We don't have
Speaker 1: any type of resemblance of that defense. But what we
Speaker 1: do have is an explosive offense, and we have a
Speaker 1: great I would say we have a good quarterback with
Speaker 1: the possibility of being great as he develops, but we
Speaker 1: have that on offense. So to me, we now have
Speaker 1: the cap space. We have a little bit of room
Speaker 1: to go ahead. And maybe we might not get a
Speaker 1: Mark Key free agent in the defense. The defensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball, we might not get an the Dominican
Speaker 1: suit or Anthony Harris as far as the safeties are concerned,
Speaker 1: because those guys might demand a little bit more coin
Speaker 1: than we're willing to give up. But with the money
Speaker 1: that we do have in that cap space, I feel
Speaker 1: like we can address this defense. I feel like we
Speaker 1: can put a veteran's free safety back there well maybe
Speaker 1: make you know, three to four million dollars nothing to
Speaker 1: break the bank. But there's a lot of options out
Speaker 1: there at safety. Veteran safety with a great skill set,
Speaker 1: who can play that middle of the field defender, who
Speaker 1: could be that Earl Thomas type safety for this defense.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's Tayshaw Gibson out there who last year
Speaker 1: I think he played for the Bears for two point
Speaker 1: five or maybe three million. There's Trey Boston out there
Speaker 1: who won't even demand that much in the free agent market.
Speaker 1: So I think there's options out there. And you still
Speaker 1: can address that defensive line. Like I said, you might
Speaker 1: not get in the Dominican suit, but you can get
Speaker 1: that Call Lawson from Cincinnati. You can get some of
Speaker 1: these lower tier defensive tackles that are better than what
Speaker 1: you have right now, and you compare them with Neville
Speaker 1: Gallimore out there and see what can happen. But we
Speaker 1: have the cap space to address this defense, something that
Speaker 1: I thought we didn't have, or we wouldn't have once
Speaker 1: we paid Dak and I thought for sure, there's no
Speaker 1: way Dad can carry this team with the defense that's
Speaker 1: constructed right now. But if we can address this defense
Speaker 1: with that little bit of cap room that we have.
Speaker 1: I think he has the capabilities of taking his team
Speaker 1: far and to me that he's a good quarterback, he
Speaker 1: might be great overtime. But if we can't address this
Speaker 1: defense a little bit, I think we have the solution
Speaker 1: to maybe reaching those heights that we want to see.
Speaker 1: All right, Church, So in your opinion, when Jimmy says
Speaker 1: a guy a quarterback who can carry a team, doesn't
Speaker 1: believe Dak, is that guy? Give me three quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: your opinion in the NFL who do carry their teams,
Speaker 1: who do carry their team, I would have to say
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes. Put Patrick Mahomes on there. You know I
Speaker 1: would put I'm hesitant, but I think he can have
Speaker 1: the capabilities of carrying the team. And that's Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: He hasn't done much since the Legion of Boom left,
Speaker 1: but he's kind of always kept that team in playoff contention.
Speaker 1: So I say, if he has a little bit more
Speaker 1: help here and there, he's one of those guys that
Speaker 1: can carry a team. And he's young right now, so
Speaker 1: I have to put him. I gotta put him in
Speaker 1: there because he's young right now, and he had an
Speaker 1: amazing season last year. Even though they didn't the record
Speaker 1: didn't show, he still played well. And I think if
Speaker 1: you add maybe one or two pieces, he can carry
Speaker 1: a team with a terrible defense. And that's the Shaun Watson.
Speaker 1: Outside of those three quarterbacks, you know, Brady's up there
Speaker 1: in age and what he had around him in Tampa Bay,
Speaker 1: most quarterbacks would be able to win with. So I
Speaker 1: can't put Brady in there. Oh there's one more. I
Speaker 1: gotta put Aaron Rodgers in there. I gotta put Rodgers
Speaker 1: in there. His remarkable arm talent. I mean, he eat that,
Speaker 1: He's seen pretty much every defense out there. So I
Speaker 1: gotta put Rodgers in there. But outside of those four quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure there's anyone left in the NFL I
Speaker 1: can carry a team by themselves. But outside of those
Speaker 1: four quarterbacks, and see, to me, I'm gonna stop it
Speaker 1: at just Mahomes, Rogers and Brady. I mean, put those
Speaker 1: three right over here, and I'm looking at these guys.
Speaker 1: These are Super Bowl winners, These are are MVPs. Put
Speaker 1: them over there and everyone else. I mean, look, I
Speaker 1: love DeShawn Watson. And what are the fun things about
Speaker 1: playing fantasy football? And you have a quarterback as you
Speaker 1: follow him every week, you watch all them snaps and
Speaker 1: I had Watson last year. Watson is a fantastic player.
Speaker 1: But even you saw what was their record? Yeah? What hap?
Speaker 1: Yeah it was a four to twelve. I think you know,
Speaker 1: he kind of reminds me of the Watson kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of the Russell Westbrook, who you know, he
Speaker 1: could put up all these phenomenal he could average a
Speaker 1: triple double. Oh no, I'm sorry. You guys still got me? Hello? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got you hello, Okay if I thought I was off.
Speaker 1: But the sign he kind of reminds me of the
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook of the NFL, Like he can average a
Speaker 1: triple double, put up all these stats, win MVPs. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, is he gonna bring
Speaker 1: you that hardware? Is he gonna make this team a
Speaker 1: competitive team in the playoffs? I'm not quite sure. I
Speaker 1: lean to put him in there just because he's still
Speaker 1: so young, but overall, you gotta put a little bit
Speaker 1: of talent around him to see the fruits of his production.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would agree with you on that one.
Speaker 1: And so my thing with with Russell. When you put
Speaker 1: in Russell Wilson that category and Deshaun Watson. And to me,
Speaker 1: most quarterbacks are like that. They're they're only about you know,
Speaker 1: the three guys I named who consider up here, put
Speaker 1: a team on their shoulders and go Lamar Jackson's won
Speaker 1: an MVP in this league, and I have a lot
Speaker 1: of respect for his ability. Josh Allen's is shown us
Speaker 1: he's a really good football player. But they're still needing
Speaker 1: some help here. So we got three guys in this
Speaker 1: league right now that you can say, put that dude
Speaker 1: out there, that guy will go win you the game.
Speaker 1: And to me, everybody else is gonna have some warts
Speaker 1: and some flaws. And that's where Dak Prescott fits in.
Speaker 1: And so when Jimmy talks about, you know, him making
Speaker 1: this kind of money and paying him and he's gonna
Speaker 1: limit your cap every year, we keep seeing that happened.
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck got paid and unfortunately injuries hurt him. But
Speaker 1: you know what, even he was not that guy who
Speaker 1: you know, he did well with the Colts, but you know,
Speaker 1: once he needed help. So this is the nature of
Speaker 1: the game. Dad got his money in four years, somebody's
Speaker 1: gonna go go blow past the money. So dat knows
Speaker 1: now that the bull's eyes on him. And I want
Speaker 1: to bring up another point of former Dallas cowboy had
Speaker 1: to say, and that's Darryl moose Johnston. Actually know I'll
Speaker 1: bring up that. I'll bring that up later on, bring
Speaker 1: it up later on. Here. Want to touch in here
Speaker 1: on another DAK reaction, and that's Jerry Jones. Jerry Joe
Speaker 1: said he overpaid and he was glad to Oh, how
Speaker 1: you feel well? Actually, how did you feel? It was okay?
Speaker 1: This is why you had to be there, and being
Speaker 1: there and hearing it are two different things. Because when
Speaker 1: he at first he said anything that I ever bought
Speaker 1: a value I overpaid for. He said I overpaid for
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys. Everybody told me how dumb I was
Speaker 1: and it was a bad deal. Even Donald Trump back
Speaker 1: in the nineties said, hey, I could have bought the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: but it was so much money as a bad it
Speaker 1: was a bad investment. And then he said I overpaid
Speaker 1: for DAK. And then so it was a hey, yeah, overpaid,
Speaker 1: But you know what, you overpaid for good things. And
Speaker 1: if you underpaid for something, what are you gonna get?
Speaker 1: You're gonna get something that's not that valuable. So he
Speaker 1: put Dak in that category. So when you say, how
Speaker 1: did you feel the way he said it, it made
Speaker 1: Dak feel like, okay, yeah, you know what, you got
Speaker 1: the best of me. And he even said, if I
Speaker 1: had to pay a single human being, I don't mind
Speaker 1: paying the guy to my right. So he was very
Speaker 1: complimentary in what he did. But he did over He
Speaker 1: overpaid because you and I know they could have got
Speaker 1: it for thirty two. You know, oh yeah, two years
Speaker 1: ago they probably probably could have got him for thirty right,
Speaker 1: so they messed it up. Yeah, so there's no doubt
Speaker 1: he overpaid because hey, you did it. But this is
Speaker 1: been and we've talked about it right here on the
Speaker 1: players side. So this has been the Jerry Jones m
Speaker 1: He overpaid on Tank. Lawrence could have got Tank at
Speaker 1: a cheaper price. Overpaid on Himari Cooper should have got
Speaker 1: the Cooper deal done when they made the trade for him,
Speaker 1: didn't do it. Overpaid on Ezekiel Elliott made him the
Speaker 1: tops heay running back in the game. He overpaid there.
Speaker 1: This is what he's done consistently, and you knew you
Speaker 1: were gonna have to overpay for the quarterback. But but
Speaker 1: that's a great thing about what you brought up. Was like,
Speaker 1: that's what you took from it when he said he
Speaker 1: was overpaid, But being there and hearing him say and
Speaker 1: how he was trying to convey it, it's like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I overpaid, but you know what, everything overpaid for was
Speaker 1: worth it. This guy's worth it. So so I gotta
Speaker 1: ask you this, how was the enter when you were
Speaker 1: in there, Like was it like everybody was kind of
Speaker 1: sitting on pins and needles or was there like a
Speaker 1: lot of tension, Like how was the energy because on
Speaker 1: the TV it seemed like, you know, everybody was just
Speaker 1: like all giddy and just I can't believe this is
Speaker 1: what it is. So I just wanted to like being
Speaker 1: there in person, was there a lot of tension or
Speaker 1: was it just like everybody was just happy that it
Speaker 1: finally got done and we can move forward with this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So this was the first team press conference the NFL's
Speaker 1: had for a team. The last time the NFL had
Speaker 1: just a press conference all year long with the media
Speaker 1: and the people there the same thing, you know, in
Speaker 1: the same room, that was the Super Bowl. So no
Speaker 1: other NFL team has done what the Cowboys did, and
Speaker 1: bringing out Dak Presscott. Let's do it in person. Everything's
Speaker 1: been virtual since last March. So this was the first
Speaker 1: time Jerry was happy to be into the building seeing people.
Speaker 1: He really loved it. He missed being in the arena
Speaker 1: of dealing with the media in the back and forth.
Speaker 1: It's are is the energy in terms of Dak and
Speaker 1: these people. Of course they're happy. Four years, one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty million bucks. And Barry, you've been involved in
Speaker 1: contracts and you and you with the Cowboys and then
Speaker 1: being in the locker room with the Jaguars. You know,
Speaker 1: when guys are happy for a certain player because they know, hey, man,
Speaker 1: that guy, that guy deserves his money without doubt. Yeah
Speaker 1: that was without a doubt. You know, go ahead, but
Speaker 1: go ahead. Oh no, I was just gonna say about
Speaker 1: the two locker rooms and being happy because, like you said,
Speaker 1: when you see guys get deals done, like you know,
Speaker 1: when when Tyron Crawford got his deal done, everybody in
Speaker 1: the locker room was happy for him. You know when
Speaker 1: when Brandon Carr came in after getting paid from everybody
Speaker 1: was happy for him. Orlando, same thing. But when I
Speaker 1: went down to Jacksonville and then after we made that
Speaker 1: running the ANC championship, and they turned around and played
Speaker 1: and paid Blake Bortles what they paid them. I mean,
Speaker 1: you could you get cut the tension with a knife
Speaker 1: in the locker room. I mean, people, we was sitting
Speaker 1: there just grimacing, like you would think that man, you know,
Speaker 1: ain't quarterback. Got paid. Man, everybody's getting high fives. Man.
Speaker 1: He walked through that locker room and people were just
Speaker 1: giving them like yeah, yeah, it looks like we're here
Speaker 1: for another four years, man. So I'm glad the tension
Speaker 1: wasn't as thick or wasn't as bad when Dak signed
Speaker 1: his deal as it was when Blake Bortles did his
Speaker 1: at Jacksonville, because I'll tell you that locker room was
Speaker 1: stone cold silent. And here's once again, here's another difference.
Speaker 1: The respect about a guy in the room and the
Speaker 1: overall premise of you guys were like, dude, you getting
Speaker 1: to check. We should be getting to check because you
Speaker 1: just you got paid off what we did. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not getting any of this. You got it. You
Speaker 1: were basically jock riding off us. Nobody felt that way.
Speaker 1: Nobody felt that way about Dad and those leadership traits,
Speaker 1: those are the things in my mind being a reporter
Speaker 1: that fans and maybe even some people who do this
Speaker 1: for a living in the media don't understand of guys
Speaker 1: in the room know who's the dude. They know who's
Speaker 1: that guy. They know who who a team should be paying.
Speaker 1: That's Dad, And it's not reflective in numbers. It's it's
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a leadership thing, and sometimes you
Speaker 1: gotta be there or have been around real leaders to
Speaker 1: understand it. He's that guy and and that's why I
Speaker 1: believe you pay for that. I think that's a quality
Speaker 1: you pay for. You just mentioned Blake Portals. He didn't
Speaker 1: have that. He did not have the Jews, he didn't
Speaker 1: have the leadership ability, and he couldn't lead guys and
Speaker 1: make guys get up say the guy gotta check me, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, how much that should out? Dad gets his
Speaker 1: money and the dudes are like, good for you. And
Speaker 1: it's crazy because he's been like that since his rookie year.
Speaker 1: I remember him walking in to the training room or
Speaker 1: walking into the to the locker room for we were
Speaker 1: up in Oxnard, California, and it was his first start
Speaker 1: in the preseason game. Because I believe Tony Romo was
Speaker 1: sitting it out and it was against the Rams twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: and he went in there and you could just feel it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I can't really explain, I can't put
Speaker 1: words to it, but you could just feel it like
Speaker 1: he just he just came out the locker room with
Speaker 1: just as poison just as I don't call it out aura,
Speaker 1: but it kind of was. He just came out on
Speaker 1: the field and you knew the guys around him knew
Speaker 1: that they just already had this belief in him. And
Speaker 1: once we saw him perform like that in that game
Speaker 1: out in California, we were like, we might have something,
Speaker 1: We might have a solid backup. Little did we know,
Speaker 1: you know, Romo was gonna go down and he was
Speaker 1: gonna take over. But from game one, when Dac was
Speaker 1: under center, he just had this calmness as poisonous about
Speaker 1: him that everybody believed in him. I'm talking about even
Speaker 1: the veterans, even Jason Witten's and the Dead Bryant's and
Speaker 1: the Doug Freeze of the world who were best friends
Speaker 1: with Tony Romo, and that was their guy, that was
Speaker 1: their ride or die guy. They looked at Dac and said, look,
Speaker 1: this is the answer. This is how we're gonna get
Speaker 1: to where we need to go. And when you have
Speaker 1: a belief and a guy like that, it don't matter
Speaker 1: how much you're down. You could be down twenty points,
Speaker 1: you could be down fourteen points with two minutes left
Speaker 1: in the game. The team is still gonna fight hard
Speaker 1: and they're still gonna believe that he can go out
Speaker 1: there and he can get a win for us, no
Speaker 1: matter how bad we're down. And that's the stuff that
Speaker 1: you want to pay for as a team and as
Speaker 1: an organization. When you got the guy that everybody believes
Speaker 1: in and no matter what the circumstances are, we're gonna
Speaker 1: fight our butts off for this guy because he can
Speaker 1: bring us home a victory. That's what you can pay
Speaker 1: for it. And that's what I believe Jerry Jones paid
Speaker 1: for it when it came to Dak Prescott, because he
Speaker 1: might have overpaid him, but you can't you can't put
Speaker 1: a price on the intangibles of guys believing you and
Speaker 1: believing in you in the locker room. And that's what
Speaker 1: Dak provides for this team, all right, the Cowboys, and
Speaker 1: we got a whole bunch of other things to dive into,
Speaker 1: but I just want to make sure we got the
Speaker 1: DAK reaction there. They've restructured contracts. Who are some free
Speaker 1: agents the Cowboys need to let go. Who are some
Speaker 1: of the guys that they need to keep on this
Speaker 1: football team. Also, let's get into dan Quinn. There was
Speaker 1: a whole lot of conversation about dan Quinn at the
Speaker 1: DAK press conference because the first time the media had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to ask Jerry and Stephen about it, and
Speaker 1: DAK also weighed in on the new defensive coordinator will
Speaker 1: do that. Players Lounge we brought to you by Hotels
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Speaker 1: Players Lounge. We do it every Friday at eleven thirty
Speaker 1: Central Time right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. I'm
Speaker 1: new he's Scrugs, longtime Cowboys reporter, joined by Barry Church,
Speaker 1: longtime safety. Our other safety is Barry McCray. He just
Speaker 1: say Danny mccraig. He's out, Barry and I running this thing. Hey, Chris,
Speaker 1: I got some feedback in my ears, so take that
Speaker 1: out for me right there, please? All right, um, let's
Speaker 1: get into restructured contracts here because now Dak Prescott is signed.
Speaker 1: All right, Church, here's the thing. The Cowboys decided to
Speaker 1: go to Tyring Smith, Lell Collins, Zach Martin say hey, guys,
Speaker 1: we want to reduce your cap number this year, I mean,
Speaker 1: or reduce our cap number this year. We're gonna give
Speaker 1: you your money right now, which means, okay, instead of
Speaker 1: getting a check every seventeen weeks, they're gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and decide to give it to you all at one time.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I really would prefer
Speaker 1: that if I'm play there, I'm so I see, I've
Speaker 1: never really understood the any restructure, Like I didn't know
Speaker 1: how it worked when it but is that that's how
Speaker 1: it works. So when they were structuring your deal, instead
Speaker 1: of getting paid you know every week every game, you
Speaker 1: should get that lump sum right at the beginning, right
Speaker 1: because this is they're they're not tricking the books. So
Speaker 1: they're just tricking the books now and say, hey, look,
Speaker 1: you know a church, we owe you ten meal this year,
Speaker 1: but you know we're gonna do We're gonna give it
Speaker 1: all to you a sign of bonus right now. So
Speaker 1: you know what here it is, Um, we're not we're
Speaker 1: only paying you through the year. But that's fine, We're good.
Speaker 1: So this is a it's a magic trick. But ultimately
Speaker 1: they needed to create more room. Okay, so the Dack
Speaker 1: deals done, but they still need more room to sign
Speaker 1: draft picks and to play a free agency. So those
Speaker 1: are the three guys they decided to go to. Here's
Speaker 1: something that I noticed, it's who they didn't restructure. Amari Cooper.
Speaker 1: Amari Cooper, the wide receiver, has basically a two year
Speaker 1: It's spent two years of guaranteed money, all right, and
Speaker 1: so after these two seasons, and this is gonna be
Speaker 1: the second season, they're free. So when you start to
Speaker 1: look at, okay, who are veterans with contracts and you
Speaker 1: know that they're going to be ending here the Cowboys
Speaker 1: out on Amari Cooper is twenty twenty two because all
Speaker 1: the all the money would have been gotten in the
Speaker 1: first two years of the deal. So their cap hit
Speaker 1: after if you know, for twenty twenty two, would be
Speaker 1: six million dollars to let them go dead cap hit,
Speaker 1: which is this is this is just a thought. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just just pontificated. Let's say after this season, you
Speaker 1: want to say goodbye to Amari Cooper is making a
Speaker 1: twenty million a year. You want to say goodbye, You'll
Speaker 1: do a three million dollars cap hit in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two or a three million dollars cap hit in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. You spread over two years, you take that
Speaker 1: set of paying him twenty million bucks, you could give
Speaker 1: Michael Gallup ten and then you take another ten million
Speaker 1: dollars and try and fix your football team because Gallup
Speaker 1: is a after the season. I have no problem with that.
Speaker 1: If that's the route they want to go, and they say,
Speaker 1: you know what, Coop has been real two years, You've
Speaker 1: been productive, but you know we're gonna save a little
Speaker 1: bit of money and go elsewhere. I have no problem
Speaker 1: with that because if you look at that Prescott and
Speaker 1: you look at what he does when he passes the
Speaker 1: vall and he put goes through these you know, godly numbers,
Speaker 1: he spreads the fall around. It's not like he's featured
Speaker 1: on one guy like Michael Thomas when he had you know,
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty catches that one year. He's not
Speaker 1: focused on. He spreads the vall around. So in sending that,
Speaker 1: I feel like you can you can take Calamari Cooper,
Speaker 1: who is a productive receiver and it is a very
Speaker 1: good receiver, but you can take him out. You can
Speaker 1: plug in somebody who might not be the caliber of
Speaker 1: a Namari Cooper but can still be productive. Maybe an
Speaker 1: the Manuel saying there's I'm not saying that's where they
Speaker 1: would go, but a player like that who's productive but
Speaker 1: not to the caliber of a TheMark Cooper. You put
Speaker 1: a guy like that in there, I feel like you
Speaker 1: don't miss a beat because what we know about Dak
Speaker 1: Prescott is he spreads it around. You got Blake jarr
Speaker 1: Went at the tight end. Don't shoulta to the tight end.
Speaker 1: They've both proven the b wall at least don'ton Shoultezz
Speaker 1: proven to be a mismatch when it comes to linebackers covering.
Speaker 1: Then more safeties, so he gets spread the ball there.
Speaker 1: You still got Michael Gallant, who's a deep ball threat
Speaker 1: of fifty fifty jump ball guy that you can get
Speaker 1: the ball to. And you oh and we forgot we
Speaker 1: got an emerging CD Lamb who had an amazing rookie
Speaker 1: season out the slot. So I feel like he can
Speaker 1: spread the ball to multiple people and it's not like
Speaker 1: he's laser and focusing in on Amark Cooper. And if
Speaker 1: you take him out of the game, what am I
Speaker 1: gonna do with the rest of my You know, what
Speaker 1: am I gonna do with the rest of his talent?
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't do anything without a Mark Cooper.
Speaker 1: I feel like he spreads the ball enough to where
Speaker 1: if a Mark Cooper were to leave after this year,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be that big of a problem and they
Speaker 1: could plug in somebody else for it, So I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have a problem with that. And if that was the case,
Speaker 1: so this could be the final year for Amari Cooper
Speaker 1: then and it wouldn't be about his talent. This has
Speaker 1: really starting to look at all, right, the structure of
Speaker 1: your salary cap trying to find cheaper ways, and you
Speaker 1: drafted CD Lamb number one. That's five years of control
Speaker 1: you're going to have at some point in time push
Speaker 1: this guy, elevate him up. And so to elevate him up,
Speaker 1: you may have to go ahead and remove Cooper out
Speaker 1: of it. You'd like to possibly keep gallup and keep
Speaker 1: him at a lower price to Coop. So this is
Speaker 1: just the price of business, okay, And this is what
Speaker 1: it comes to all right, another contract that you were
Speaker 1: asking about, guys Jaylen Smith. All right, so the out
Speaker 1: for the Cowboys would be after this season. I know
Speaker 1: there's some folks out there Thurston to get Jalen Smith
Speaker 1: going this year. It ain't happening. Jaylen Smith is going
Speaker 1: to be with the Cowboys, okay, and Stephen Jones admitted
Speaker 1: that and said it again. So Jalen would be His
Speaker 1: out is twenty twenty two, so it'll be next year,
Speaker 1: and it would be six point eight million dollars a
Speaker 1: dead cap hit. Everybody, no one else is really good.
Speaker 1: I mean, Tyrant Smith, you could do it at twelve million,
Speaker 1: a dead cap hit, but I don't see them wanting
Speaker 1: to take something that huge tank. It's too much. It
Speaker 1: would be after the twenty after going into the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two season, to be nineteen million. You don't
Speaker 1: want to do that Deadcapit money much. And then Zeke's
Speaker 1: Zeke's is not until twenty twenty three, and that's when
Speaker 1: it would be six point seven million. So Ezekiel Ellis
Speaker 1: would be here for the next couple of years. So
Speaker 1: so when when you asked about that overstructuring contracts, there
Speaker 1: you go. Um. This last Sunday, the Dallas Morning News
Speaker 1: did a little synopsis on who's likely to depart. So
Speaker 1: these were the five guys. Calvin Watkins of the Dallas
Speaker 1: Morning News said, he thinks we'll go. I wanted to
Speaker 1: get your take on it. Number one Shawn Lee, Number two,
Speaker 1: Tyrone Crawford, Number three, Shadow be A Woozier, Number four,
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton, number five, Joe Thomas. This was this was
Speaker 1: my five, all right, Shawn Lee, Tyrone Crawford, Cheeto,