Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Clubs. Are you ready for
Speaker 1: a Break? Yes? Are you ready for a break? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Ready for a break? Yeah? And so much for that.
Speaker 1: It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: with Nick Eatman, David Hellman, and bar Garcia and Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 1: It was. It is Wednesday, June tenth, twenty twenty, Season sixteen,
Speaker 1: episode number thirteen. Welcome to another edition of The Break.
Speaker 1: We're alive from the virtual s WBC Mortgage studios in
Speaker 1: each of our homes around the Metroplex. And today we
Speaker 1: got a special guest joining us. Nick out here with us,
Speaker 1: but we got Isaiah stand Back currently of another podcast
Speaker 1: talking Cowboys that I'm sure you guys have hopefully been
Speaker 1: checking out. But Isaiah, great to have you on. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us. We also got my normal crew here,
Speaker 1: Amber Garcia, David Hellman. We got a lot to talk
Speaker 1: about today, and this is gonna be our final show
Speaker 1: of the off season this year. We're gonna take a
Speaker 1: little hiatus as we do every off season, in the
Speaker 1: month of June and heading into July, and then we'll
Speaker 1: kick things back up late July when we get into
Speaker 1: training camp. How's everybody doing today? Doing good, Bro, I'm
Speaker 1: goodat Derek, good to see you. You too, Man, you
Speaker 1: too so out the last first time I've seen you
Speaker 1: actually got to see you last week in person, which
Speaker 1: was different. Dave and I both are at a protest
Speaker 1: in downtown, so I got an opportunity to spend a
Speaker 1: little time with Dave. And of course we were, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to keep your distance as we should right now,
Speaker 1: but it was still a good, good opportunity to see you.
Speaker 1: I've gotten really good at like the elbow hello, you know, like, hey,
Speaker 1: how's it going? Yeah, yeah, I think we all have
Speaker 1: at this point. Let's let's jump right in. Um it's
Speaker 1: it's I'll start with with a topic that seems to
Speaker 1: be something that's kind of kind of fun. I guess
Speaker 1: at this point, as long as we've all been quarantined,
Speaker 1: it's it's great news when we start hearing that that
Speaker 1: football is showing signs of life. And what we heard
Speaker 1: as of last Friday is that coaches are now being
Speaker 1: allowed back at the building. So the coaches are now
Speaker 1: back at the Star Coach McCarthy is in this in
Speaker 1: the building, and the question I have for you guys
Speaker 1: is how much do you think that their inability to
Speaker 1: be in the building all this time has affected their
Speaker 1: ability to not only get off to a good start
Speaker 1: as far as understanding and knowing the environment, but also
Speaker 1: just growing chemistry between the coaching staff. It's it's very different,
Speaker 1: and you've got to glass between you and you're talking
Speaker 1: via WebEx, you're talking on phone, as opposed to being
Speaker 1: able to have contact with one another at least, even
Speaker 1: if it's at a distance, being able to see people's
Speaker 1: faces as you're talking to me to them. How much
Speaker 1: do you think that's affecting this coaching staff, which is
Speaker 1: a brand new coaching staff. Let's start with you guys. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's probably going to afect these guys a
Speaker 1: little bit over But these guys are professionals. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is probably one of the more experienced coaching staffs
Speaker 1: around the league, how I have to say, And you know,
Speaker 1: these guys would be perfectly fine, especially with what coach
Speaker 1: McCarthy has done over the last year. Right, He's been
Speaker 1: working with primarily a majority of these guys already, so
Speaker 1: they're very familiar with themselves, with each with each other,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty much just a surrounding sting at this point, right.
Speaker 1: I think more so than anything, it's going to be
Speaker 1: affect in terms of getting in front of these guys
Speaker 1: face to face, being able to coach them, you know,
Speaker 1: man to man, instead of just having to worry about
Speaker 1: this virtual walls. As you just mentioned Amber, Well, like
Speaker 1: he said, I mean, the good thing about this coaching
Speaker 1: staff is that they are experienced. You know that these
Speaker 1: are guys that have many, many years of experience and
Speaker 1: now your usual cowboys staff of new hires that are
Speaker 1: basically brand new in the job. So that's good now.
Speaker 1: As far as being in person, yes, obviously that's going
Speaker 1: to help anytime you're trying to communicate with somebody, but
Speaker 1: it's it's still interesting because I know there's a certain
Speaker 1: amount of people that are only allowed back in the building.
Speaker 1: You still have to keep your distance, so there's still
Speaker 1: a lot of things that a lot of protocol that
Speaker 1: are taking place, so you still not really getting that
Speaker 1: full long contact and having a bunch of people together
Speaker 1: in one same room. So still I think that they're
Speaker 1: still gonna be doing a lot of virtual things. I
Speaker 1: still don't know how all these protests and everything that's
Speaker 1: going on in the country is going to affect the
Speaker 1: whole virus and spreading it back up again, and how
Speaker 1: that's going to play a role into everything that we
Speaker 1: continue doing in the country and in the NFL. And
Speaker 1: just is that gonna mess up Phase one? I don't know. Well,
Speaker 1: only TWN will tell. But the good thing is experienced here, Dave.
Speaker 1: I'm actually I'm totally with Isaiah, like, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff to be worried about. You know, they don't
Speaker 1: have a lot of, you know, time with their players,
Speaker 1: they don't have any time on grass. They don't one
Speaker 1: hundred percent know what they're working with. I mean, at
Speaker 1: this point in a regular year, these coaches would have
Speaker 1: had you know, ten, eleven, twelve practices. They don't have that.
Speaker 1: But your question the coaching staff itself, I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about that at all. And that's that's a benefit of
Speaker 1: what Mike McCarthy did, right. I Mean, he he basically
Speaker 1: hired a bunch of guys, He's worked with a lot.
Speaker 1: He knows Joe Philbin really well, he knows Mike Nolan
Speaker 1: really well, Jim tom Sula, they go way back. Al
Speaker 1: Harris played for him, the defensive backs coach. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, familiarity on this coaching staff. And
Speaker 1: on top of that, we can all attest these guys
Speaker 1: were in the building constantly from the day they got
Speaker 1: hired until the day everything shut down. You know, before
Speaker 1: they even had places to live in Dallas, they were
Speaker 1: living in the hotel and spending eight, ten, twelve hours
Speaker 1: at the Star every day or at least two months.
Speaker 1: So I'm not remotely worried about that. I'm just worried about,
Speaker 1: you know, how that pertains to their work with the
Speaker 1: players who they obviously have not seen. Okay, so let's
Speaker 1: move into something that maybe will cause a little bit
Speaker 1: more trepidation. Training camp now has been or the NFL
Speaker 1: reportedly has told teams that they will be required to
Speaker 1: have their training camps at their home facilities, which means
Speaker 1: for the first time in a very very long time.
Speaker 1: I can't recall a time since I've been with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys in twenty years that we haven't had at least
Speaker 1: part of training camp in another location. So my question
Speaker 1: for you guys is how much does the idea of
Speaker 1: them being in Frisco and not picking up the team,
Speaker 1: moving them to California where they're isolated from their families,
Speaker 1: their friends, their normal new teams and can only think
Speaker 1: football and only do football twenty four seven. How much
Speaker 1: do you think that affects the team chemistry, especially coming
Speaker 1: off a situation where as you said, Dave, they have
Speaker 1: not been on grass, they've not been working out in
Speaker 1: the off season as they normally do. How much do
Speaker 1: you think that affects him in Dave, I'll start with you.
Speaker 1: I can think of I can go both ways, honestly,
Speaker 1: because I mean being at your facility. I don't buy
Speaker 1: it because going on the road for training camp is
Speaker 1: it's an old it's outdated. At this point, the Cowboys
Speaker 1: are one of ten teams in the NFL that travels
Speaker 1: for training camp. The vast majority of teams in the
Speaker 1: league stay at their facility, and you know if they
Speaker 1: if they sequester in a hotel, they do it for
Speaker 1: like half of camp if that. And it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to bother anybody. Having said that, cramming everything that you
Speaker 1: need to do for a training camp into the facility
Speaker 1: sounds difficult. Obviously, you know, you only have one outdoor
Speaker 1: field and it's only going to be tenable to practice
Speaker 1: on it early in the morning or late in the evening,
Speaker 1: Like you can't go out there at two o'clock in
Speaker 1: the afternoon in Dallas the way that you can in Oxnard, California.
Speaker 1: On top of that, the Star it's great, like it
Speaker 1: is phenomenal, it's well built, it's state of the art,
Speaker 1: but it's not really meant for ninety players. That locker
Speaker 1: room gets crowded during training camp, like they have overflow
Speaker 1: locker rooms for the rookies. They got guys doubling up
Speaker 1: on each other, and that's with no social distancing guidelines,
Speaker 1: like it is cramped during training camp at the Star
Speaker 1: when everything's normal. So now you're factoring in six feet
Speaker 1: in distance and you gotta go a certain way down
Speaker 1: the hallway to be safe, and that just it sounds
Speaker 1: like a logistical nightmare to me, Isaiah, as a guy
Speaker 1: that's a former player who's had some experience with this
Speaker 1: and knowing the benefits probably of both sides of staying
Speaker 1: at your facility because you've played with other teams and
Speaker 1: then also traveling, do you think there are advantages one
Speaker 1: way or the other, staying at home or going on
Speaker 1: the road for training camp. Yeah. I think the primary
Speaker 1: reason why most coaches who you know, who are at
Speaker 1: least the team coaches there are still deciding to go
Speaker 1: off site with your with your team teams you'd like
Speaker 1: to do so, it is because they like to make
Speaker 1: them uncomfortable. Training camp is supposed to be uncomfortable. Training
Speaker 1: camp is supposed to be the part, the part that
Speaker 1: you dislike most. Right, Most guys retire because they don't
Speaker 1: want to go back to training camp, right. So, I
Speaker 1: mean that's that's what the coaches like. They want to
Speaker 1: make you uncomfortable. They want to put you in that
Speaker 1: situation where you're having to worry about all those things. Right,
Speaker 1: I can't see my family, I can't go do what
Speaker 1: I want to do. I can't just hop in my
Speaker 1: car and head, you know, head to grab something to eat. Like.
Speaker 1: They want that environment because they want you to focus
Speaker 1: on ball, right for those four to six weeks whatever
Speaker 1: it is now, right, they want you focus on ball.
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't think it's as big as
Speaker 1: a deal as as most people are prayer probably presenting
Speaker 1: right now. I was when I was with the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I went to San Antonio, I went to Oxnard, Right,
Speaker 1: I went to both of those places, So I'm familiar
Speaker 1: with how that works. But it's not that big of
Speaker 1: a deal. Right at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: think it's more of a benefit to be on site
Speaker 1: at your facility, especially with this new regime. Right, you
Speaker 1: got to hold new coaching staff, right, you got to
Speaker 1: you had a handful of new players right there. They're
Speaker 1: coming in. You need as much familiarity as possible in
Speaker 1: terms of guys they're in their off time, right, my availability,
Speaker 1: my ability to be able to call my massage therapists,
Speaker 1: to be able to go to get some extra treatment,
Speaker 1: and you know, with my person to my choice, aside
Speaker 1: from the amazing training staff that the Cowboys have, you know,
Speaker 1: those things matter, right, and those things are gonna help,
Speaker 1: especially as I started talking about like soft tissue injuries
Speaker 1: that are going to present themselves in the first part
Speaker 1: of training camp. Those things are gonna happen. So having
Speaker 1: access to your people is important. In terms of families,
Speaker 1: families were always at training camp, right, you don't have
Speaker 1: much time to be spending with your time with your family.
Speaker 1: You know, there's FaceTime. There's all these other ways in
Speaker 1: which you can talk to your FAMI, but those are
Speaker 1: those are some long days now, I mean those are
Speaker 1: like five thirty am to like eleven pm days, so
Speaker 1: you're not missing much. You're not missing much. So it's
Speaker 1: awesome that they're on site. I was hoping that they
Speaker 1: that they were going to choose to do so. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that the league mandated it. But they have
Speaker 1: literally the best facility probably in the whole league, So
Speaker 1: I'm glad they're here. Amber. Well, Derek, I see that
Speaker 1: you did not listen to our show last week when
Speaker 1: you were out. You did not go back and play
Speaker 1: and listen to it because we talked about it. But
Speaker 1: you know what, now that that they made that we started,
Speaker 1: as I remember I told you before we started this,
Speaker 1: is that like this is ample great support to your
Speaker 1: own show. Derek. No, But now that I was thinking
Speaker 1: about it, you know what, like good thing is that
Speaker 1: Decays don't have Jason Garrett back because Mike McCarthy he's
Speaker 1: not used to hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Mike McCarthy is just not used to having
Speaker 1: the luxury of going to ox Star California. So it's
Speaker 1: not something that he's like now having to come back
Speaker 1: and say, Man, how am I gonna do this? This
Speaker 1: is bringing you to him anyways, So I don't think
Speaker 1: it should be too bad for them honesty, aside from
Speaker 1: the heat and all that. But when we're at training
Speaker 1: camp a body Knock Star, you know, they still have
Speaker 1: the team divided separately onto two fields. It's gonna suck
Speaker 1: for us because back then we can just easily just
Speaker 1: decide why we look at but now we'll get how
Speaker 1: to be moving around depending on who we're wanting to look,
Speaker 1: whether go outside or come back inside. So that's gonna
Speaker 1: be tricky for us as far as the media and
Speaker 1: wanting to cover everything that is happening on the field
Speaker 1: during training camp. But in general, I honestly don't think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be as as bad as I originally thought. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's as you actually mentioned a little something about soft
Speaker 1: tissue injuries and I want to real quick get some
Speaker 1: opinions on that. I mean, what makes you think that
Speaker 1: that's going to be something that people can expect maybe
Speaker 1: to see more and how concerned are you about that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I mean as a professional athlete, You're going to
Speaker 1: do everything possible to prepare to the best of your ability. Right,
Speaker 1: So guys are training like crazy. They have their trainers,
Speaker 1: they have their programs that they're going through. They're doing
Speaker 1: the offseason training program. That's awesome, However, it's not real ball, right.
Speaker 1: So the first time that these guys touched the field,
Speaker 1: they're going they're going to be literally up against another
Speaker 1: person pressing against them. Two hundred fifty pound man, three
Speaker 1: hundred pound man, they're gonna be pressing against these guys, right.
Speaker 1: So when you start doing that, when you start hitting
Speaker 1: different angles, your your body is not used to that.
Speaker 1: They hasn't done it in a while, So you're going
Speaker 1: to be subject to those injuries. You're gonna be subject
Speaker 1: to those those those initial flavor ups until your body
Speaker 1: is used to that tension, to your bodies used to
Speaker 1: that kind of resistance. Um, it's just it's just a
Speaker 1: part of the game. It's just unfortunately these guys don't
Speaker 1: have the time to really come back from those things
Speaker 1: right now, because if any soft tissue injury that there is,
Speaker 1: or any injuries in general that we have, is going
Speaker 1: to be detrimental to us. Because there's just not enough
Speaker 1: time to get back in terms for the season. Dave,
Speaker 1: I'll concerned to you that. I mean, yes, that's it's
Speaker 1: obviously very concerning. Again, absolutely agreed, Like you can't underestimate
Speaker 1: how how much these guys lose by not having a
Speaker 1: traditional offseason program. And it's funny because that was the
Speaker 1: way it was for you know, the first thirty forty
Speaker 1: years of NFL history. I mean, you know, back in
Speaker 1: the sixties, seventies, eighties, these guys didn't have these intens
Speaker 1: offseason programs. But that's how these guys have been conditioned
Speaker 1: all the way up from you know, junior high and
Speaker 1: high school ball. So I think it is something they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to watch out for. Although you know NFL
Speaker 1: teams already do this where they kind of ease guys
Speaker 1: in with non contact stuff. I would imagine we're going
Speaker 1: to see more of that. Not to go down a wormhole,
Speaker 1: but like what concerns me more is how you do
Speaker 1: this and maintain COVID protocols. You know, whether it's getting
Speaker 1: guys tested, making sure they're not exposing themselves to people
Speaker 1: that could have symptoms, you know, whether that's people in
Speaker 1: their own family or the people that they encounter on
Speaker 1: a regular basis. I mean, our fans going to be
Speaker 1: allowed to be part of this. You're gonna have players
Speaker 1: like signing autographs with people that they don't know where
Speaker 1: they've been. That's the stuff that gets back, you know,
Speaker 1: that makes me question how all of this is going
Speaker 1: to work. Is especially you know, we talked about Oxnard.
Speaker 1: It's kind of easy to self contain. But if these
Speaker 1: guys are going home to their you know, kids who
Speaker 1: have been at school, or you know, their wives and
Speaker 1: girlfriends have been out doing what running errands all day? Like,
Speaker 1: who knows that. I'm just very curious about how you
Speaker 1: mitigate the risks of spreading the virus. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I think most most people need to know that when
Speaker 1: you go to camp, right, So when you go off site,
Speaker 1: you're in a hotel, right, or you're in some kind
Speaker 1: of dorm, right. And even when you're on site, even
Speaker 1: when you're doing camp in your own city at your facilities,
Speaker 1: you're still in in a hotel, right, They're still locking
Speaker 1: you up. And I think even with this COVID stuff,
Speaker 1: usually you go like four weeks and then at the
Speaker 1: last two or three weeks of camp, you get to
Speaker 1: go home early. I don't see these guys going home early, right,
Speaker 1: I see these guys being locked up in a hotel
Speaker 1: all day or not all that they're gonna be at
Speaker 1: practice all day. Then they'll probably just transition straight into
Speaker 1: the omni or whatever else is close at the facility,
Speaker 1: and they will not be allowed to go home. Their
Speaker 1: families will be able to kind of practice every so often,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, but that's gonna be it, man, basically use
Speaker 1: this virtual virtual visiting. Yeah, I mean, it'll be very
Speaker 1: interesting to see how the Cowboys and really every team
Speaker 1: adapts to this new reality, which is, you know, they
Speaker 1: do have to be aware of their players, and you
Speaker 1: know they're they're probably all kinds of scenarios that are
Speaker 1: being you know, talked about as far as who's going
Speaker 1: to get access to players, and how do they keep
Speaker 1: the players isolated as much as possible, and how do
Speaker 1: they keep the players from from doing having too much
Speaker 1: contact with one another because obviously you're going to have
Speaker 1: the football contact, but um, you know it goes to
Speaker 1: also I assume you know, you get it's it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of like what I was saying about Friday when
Speaker 1: I saw you, Dave, Like, my first inclination was to
Speaker 1: come over and give you a big hug or adap
Speaker 1: you up or something. And it's just not the same,
Speaker 1: right And and so you get all these guys, ninety guys,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them know each other and know
Speaker 1: each other really, really well, and you put them in
Speaker 1: a room together and haven't seen each other in a
Speaker 1: while in person, there's gonna be a natural inclination that
Speaker 1: as time goes on, they're gonna feel more and more
Speaker 1: comfortable and they're going to forget about the fact they
Speaker 1: have to be socially distanced. And so that that's going
Speaker 1: to be one of the challenges this whole thing is
Speaker 1: making sure that someone is aware and making sure the
Speaker 1: players continuously aware that they have to be socially distanced
Speaker 1: and don't get so comfortable where you break down all
Speaker 1: those things that that are the things that you're supposed
Speaker 1: to do. We're gonna check out whatever. I was just
Speaker 1: gonna say that these locker rooms aren't dirty to begin with,
Speaker 1: So imagine I mean imagine now when there's a virus
Speaker 1: virus going around and then just using different things like
Speaker 1: in the restroom when they go shower. I guess there're
Speaker 1: gonna be someone that just comes wife's everything down after
Speaker 1: each years or what's gonna happen. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of bottles and things like that. I've
Speaker 1: just kind of get passed around a lot. So it's
Speaker 1: definitely gonna be interesting to see how they handle the
Speaker 1: whole situation. Yeah, I'm pretty sure bet that the NFL
Speaker 1: will have protocols that they stipulate across every team that
Speaker 1: teams will have to do certain things in order to
Speaker 1: be able to ensure that they're being as a creating
Speaker 1: an environment that's as safe for the employees including the
Speaker 1: players as possible. And so yeah, I think they're they're
Speaker 1: you know, there's gonna whatever you pay in your in
Speaker 1: your cleaning bill, it's about to go up because they're
Speaker 1: going to be more and more people that are going
Speaker 1: to have to be involved in making sure if things
Speaker 1: are sterilized as they're being used to ensure that that
Speaker 1: employees and players are are kept in a safe environment.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go take our first break when we come back.
Speaker 1: I have a little game for you guys. They're gonna
Speaker 1: do a little over and under. We're gonna have some
Speaker 1: players and some offensive skill players. I'm gonna throw out
Speaker 1: some numbers for you guys, and have you tell me
Speaker 1: whether you think they're gonna be over or under in
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty season. We'll do that when we come
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Speaker 1: back to the Break. We'll lie from the virtual SWB
Speaker 1: see mortgage studios in our homes. We're talking a little
Speaker 1: bit about Cowboys today. It's our final show before we
Speaker 1: head to our little hiatus that we do every offseason
Speaker 1: in the month of June. So hopefully, hopefully we've been
Speaker 1: we've done a good job of being able to keep
Speaker 1: you guys engaged during this this quarantine. But we'll be
Speaker 1: taking a little bit bit of a break here and
Speaker 1: we'll start back up when training camp begins. Make sure
Speaker 1: you stay tuned to Dallas Cowboys dot com for more
Speaker 1: information on dates when training camp will start and when
Speaker 1: we'll be starting restarting all of our podcasts. So here's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do. We got a little game here,
Speaker 1: it's called over or Under. I'm gonna throw out some
Speaker 1: names of different offensive skill positions. I'm gonna throw out
Speaker 1: some different statistics for each of them, and then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you a particular statistic or a couple of
Speaker 1: statistics on each player that and then I'll ask you guys,
Speaker 1: to tell me whether you think it will be over.
Speaker 1: They'll be over or under that number in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty season. Let's mostly get Dak Prescott. Last season, his
Speaker 1: numbers were up dramatically with yards to total yards. In
Speaker 1: seventeen he was at three thousand, three hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: four yards eighteen three eight hundred and eighty five yards,
Speaker 1: and last year jumped all the way to four thousand,
Speaker 1: nine hundred and two passing yards. First question I have
Speaker 1: for you, guys is what do you think was the
Speaker 1: biggest difference that you can pinpoint us to whist numbers
Speaker 1: jumped so much last year from the previous year. Let's
Speaker 1: start with you ember biggest difference. I think that having
Speaker 1: John Kinna honestly helped him a lot, just having a
Speaker 1: different coach and developing his skills. I think that once
Speaker 1: they were able to figure out the whole wide receiver group,
Speaker 1: you know, forget about the whole by community thing that
Speaker 1: then we're trying now just having a set of wide receivers,
Speaker 1: this is what we have, this is what we're doing.
Speaker 1: And then allowing Dad to build that connection with them
Speaker 1: and getting comfortable with them helped a lot. As far.
Speaker 1: I mean, if we're looking at twenty twenty, is it
Speaker 1: gonna be over under type of stuff. I want to
Speaker 1: ask you this first, does it have him a deal
Speaker 1: made or is it playing under the franchise? Well, I'll
Speaker 1: ask you that question back. Do you think that his
Speaker 1: deal has anything to do with how he will perform
Speaker 1: this year? Well, I think that depending on what the
Speaker 1: deal ends up being, whether he signs a multi year
Speaker 1: deal or he plays under the franchise, it's gonna reflect
Speaker 1: back on how he plays. Because every time we say
Speaker 1: it all the time, when these guys get a big deal,
Speaker 1: then that year it's like they don't end up performing
Speaker 1: at the level that we expect them to perform in
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like I think that I want
Speaker 1: to get my hopes up as far as him just
Speaker 1: being better, especially under this new coaching staff, and then
Speaker 1: having again the wide receivers hopefully developing even into something better,
Speaker 1: you know, Michael Gallop being a better player this year,
Speaker 1: having Citee Lamb on the team and helping out in
Speaker 1: that way as well, and Mary Cooper hopefully hopefully becoming
Speaker 1: a more constant player that can help Dak and as
Speaker 1: far as also the tight end position, Blake Jarwin. I
Speaker 1: do expect him to do a lot better this year
Speaker 1: because he's been evolving as well. So if all of
Speaker 1: that is in place, I do expect Dak to be
Speaker 1: able to play better, and hopefully they can this new
Speaker 1: coaching staff is able to help him with his skills,
Speaker 1: have him run more, get out of the pocket, be
Speaker 1: more more physical, more active. Obviously you don't always want
Speaker 1: that with a quarterback, but he does have the skill
Speaker 1: and he can make it happen. Now we need to
Speaker 1: see what happens on the pressure moment. I really don't
Speaker 1: know if it's all because of Dak or the fact
Speaker 1: that Jason Garrett was directing the team at the time,
Speaker 1: because a lot of players, lot of people, I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of fans. When they when you're discussing Nike Prescott,
Speaker 1: they want to bring back oh Is he's not clutch.
Speaker 1: He can't play at the last minute of those opposing
Speaker 1: teams that you need to win the game from, you know.
Speaker 1: So I just think that your voice, he's gonna be
Speaker 1: able to play well this year. I thought I could
Speaker 1: tell that you disagree with part of that Amblo was saying,
Speaker 1: So I'll go to you next and talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about that, specifically from the standpoint of whether the
Speaker 1: deal will make a difference with regards to how he
Speaker 1: plays this season. Absolutely, So I'm gonna no no, no disrespect,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna tell you to bring it. Let me
Speaker 1: hear it, Let me hear it. There's two reasons why
Speaker 1: he bawled out last year. Number one, it was time
Speaker 1: to get paid, all right. When it's time to get paid,
Speaker 1: your game steps up, right. You got a little bit
Speaker 1: more juice in you, right because you know that you're
Speaker 1: expecting that check and you have to perform because that
Speaker 1: is the season that they're gonna look at. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna look at the seasons before. They're looking at best
Speaker 1: season leading up to that pay day. So that's a
Speaker 1: all right. Our b is we were playing from behind
Speaker 1: a lot, right. We didn't have a great season. We
Speaker 1: did not have a great season. Right. The team did
Speaker 1: not do that well. So when you when you're having
Speaker 1: to force those points, right, what are you doing. You're
Speaker 1: unable to run the ball. Right. When you're unable to
Speaker 1: run the ball, you're unable to control the clock, which
Speaker 1: means that you're playing for behind, which means you need
Speaker 1: to throw the rock, right, So it allowed for those greater,
Speaker 1: those bigger plays that allowed for him to throw the
Speaker 1: ball substantially more than he did the prior did the
Speaker 1: years before pre existing. So those are the two reasons
Speaker 1: why I let I point to in terms of why
Speaker 1: he performed that way last year, now in terms of
Speaker 1: this year and what we can expect that of him
Speaker 1: this year. To think about somebody like Kirk Cousins, right when,
Speaker 1: who kept kept playing on dog on franchise tags. Right,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna ball out if he's on a franchise tag.
Speaker 1: He's gonna ball why because guess what, I can't afford
Speaker 1: to get hurt, right, And I know then again it's
Speaker 1: just like you're on a contract year again, right, So
Speaker 1: when it's time to talk money again, I have to
Speaker 1: ball out. Right, if he is underneath the contract, guess
Speaker 1: what he's going to show out just because what because
Speaker 1: I know everybody's looking at me now because they just
Speaker 1: gave me all this money. But I understood. But with
Speaker 1: that understood, I think that his numbers go down this year, right,
Speaker 1: I think his numbers go down. So as we talk
Speaker 1: about over Underdee, I think his numbers go down because
Speaker 1: he doesn't need to do as much. He doesn't need
Speaker 1: to do as much. He has more people around him, right,
Speaker 1: he has more weapons than he had last year, and
Speaker 1: the defense is substantially better than it was last year.
Speaker 1: So with that understood, these guys are gonna be in
Speaker 1: a position to be able to run the ball substantially more.
Speaker 1: I know we're getting the freaky Ezeki hearing a little bit,
Speaker 1: but Zeke's gonna his numbers will definitely go up because
Speaker 1: they were. They'll be trying to control the game and
Speaker 1: control the clock, and they won't be forced to have
Speaker 1: to throw the ball even though he does have more weapons.
Speaker 1: But ye see on real quick to me, forget about
Speaker 1: stats two minutes, can you hear me? Yeah? So sorry, sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: And just wanted to say this to me, forget forget
Speaker 1: about stacks Like me, I don't look at stats that much.
Speaker 1: I really don't care. I just look at the actual
Speaker 1: performance and the field of the game and how they
Speaker 1: we're doing in the game. To me, last year, in
Speaker 1: my own perspective, I don't think that played that well.
Speaker 1: He wasn't that great in my eyes. So that's why
Speaker 1: I expect him to be better this year, regardless of
Speaker 1: the situation. So that's I am saying this opinion based
Speaker 1: off my own views of every single game and not stats.
Speaker 1: Screw stats. I want them to win games. He needs
Speaker 1: to win freaking games. At the end of two minute warning,
Speaker 1: two minute warning, you need to make the pass and
Speaker 1: make it happen. Sober Amber is going to represent the
Speaker 1: eye test people for us on this show. That's good
Speaker 1: to know. Like, don't mind what all of these numbers
Speaker 1: say about how good the quarterback is. I will decide
Speaker 1: how good he actually is. I'm glad will we've established,
Speaker 1: but glad no. I completely agree. I completely agree with
Speaker 1: Isaiah for whatever it's worth. Um, if Daks with five
Speaker 1: thousand yards this year, they probably aren't that good of
Speaker 1: a team, and they weren't that good of a team
Speaker 1: last year. He's absolutely right. Go look at most of
Speaker 1: Dak's gaudiest games. They were behind, they fell down. They
Speaker 1: fell behind by three scores. Against Green Bay, you have
Speaker 1: to throw your way out of it. They were down
Speaker 1: whatever it was, twenty four to seven against Buffalo, Chicago
Speaker 1: built up a big lead. These are all games where
Speaker 1: he went over three hundred green Bay. I think he
Speaker 1: threw for four to forty and the other thing seven times.
Speaker 1: Last year as a team, the Cowboys failed to average
Speaker 1: four yards per carry seven times. And that is not
Speaker 1: an indictment on Zeke Elliott or the Cowboys offensive line.
Speaker 1: It's an indictment on their coaching staff for being very boring,
Speaker 1: very uncreative, rushing up the gut on first and ten
Speaker 1: and second and long all of the time. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll talk about it till I'm blew in the face.
Speaker 1: The Vikings could do nothing with Dak Prescott in that
Speaker 1: game last year. They could not stop him, and the
Speaker 1: Cowboys ran on first down seventy eight percent of the
Speaker 1: time anyway, because their coaches were either bored or scared,
Speaker 1: I don't know which, but it's unforgivable. Um. And they
Speaker 1: can't afford to do that. They've got to use their
Speaker 1: running game more creatively. They got to utilize play action better. Um.
Speaker 1: But you can do all of that. And like I said,
Speaker 1: I mean if that, if Dak is flirting with five
Speaker 1: thousand yards, then they're not balanced enough to be successful. Um.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I don't remember the original question. Hopefully
Speaker 1: it's under Hopefully Dak throws for like forty two hundred.
Speaker 1: Forty two hundred feels like a sweet spot to me.
Speaker 1: I like it. All right, So we got we got
Speaker 1: basically three unders. Is that right, Amber, Were you under
Speaker 1: as well? No? Said no, I said over because to me, well,
Speaker 1: it's a it's sorry, just keep going. This is the way.
Speaker 1: The point is, I don't look at stats. I just
Speaker 1: wanted I want to see him play. Well, don't give
Speaker 1: me stats. He to me can do better this year
Speaker 1: and be under those stats, you know. So that's the thing.
Speaker 1: To me, it's like, I think he will be better
Speaker 1: this year. He might not go over those kinds of stats,
Speaker 1: but he might be better this year overall better. You
Speaker 1: don't like my game? Yeah? Yeah? And Amy throws for
Speaker 1: five hundred yards and we go, we go, you know,
Speaker 1: thirteen and three. We're good. We're good. Yeah, that's so,
Speaker 1: that's so lazy. I'm sorry. Okay, that's okay, all right,
Speaker 1: Moving on a right, let's go. Let's go to Zeke Elliott.
Speaker 1: Last year, the stat that stuck out to me was
Speaker 1: his receptions number. And I remember when he first got here.
Speaker 1: One of the things that that we were so disappointed
Speaker 1: in his first year was that they really didn't use
Speaker 1: him in the passing game. He had thirty two catches
Speaker 1: his first year twenty six and his second year. By
Speaker 1: his third year he jumped to seventy seven, and last
Speaker 1: year he at fifty four. UM, So my question for
Speaker 1: you is off that level where he was last year
Speaker 1: fifty four receptions, do you think they were utilizing him
Speaker 1: enough in the passing game or do you think they
Speaker 1: should be doing more there? That's all with you, guys, YEA, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you the Yeah. I think I think he
Speaker 1: falls right and back into the same conversation we just
Speaker 1: had right in terms of some of the situations that
Speaker 1: they were forced into, Right, they were forced to throw
Speaker 1: the ball to get back into games. And I don't
Speaker 1: think that you want to be I don't think that
Speaker 1: you want to talk about Zeke and the mindset that
Speaker 1: that you want to throw him the ball, right, That's
Speaker 1: that's not the conversation that you want to have when
Speaker 1: we're when you're referencing Zeke. You want to be able
Speaker 1: to do what we did a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: and just hand the ball to Zeke and just know
Speaker 1: that hey, he's coming at you down here, and it
Speaker 1: really doesn't matter what you do on the other side
Speaker 1: of the ball. We're going four or five yards a pop. Right,
Speaker 1: that's the conversation you want with Zeke. You want to
Speaker 1: take the conversation as far as passing to polar Right,
Speaker 1: that's the person you want to be talking about. So
Speaker 1: Ken Zeke catch? Absolutely, should Zeke be catching? You know,
Speaker 1: seventy passes per year? Heck to the note, that's not
Speaker 1: what you want. You want him toting that rock. You
Speaker 1: want him consistently rushing for one hundred yards of a game.
Speaker 1: You want the office a linement feeling like their bullies
Speaker 1: out there and let those other three receivers and been
Speaker 1: drawing do what they do because we have enough weapons
Speaker 1: now for guys that can catch the rock. Harmon, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I mean, if you listen to this show for
Speaker 1: any length of time, you know that I've whined about
Speaker 1: Zeke's lack of a role in the passing game for years,
Speaker 1: and honestly, a lot of that is creativity. Again going
Speaker 1: back to the coaches, because Zeke caught seventy seven passes
Speaker 1: I think in twenty eighteen, like he caught a lot
Speaker 1: of balls, but it was all it was dump offs
Speaker 1: and boring stuff like not getting into the open field,
Speaker 1: not getting downfield, not a very creative way to utilize
Speaker 1: your running back. Having said all of this, I again
Speaker 1: agree with Isaiah because I don't want Zeke catching targets
Speaker 1: that should be going to Ceedee Lamb, Blank Jarwin or
Speaker 1: even Tony Follard, Like get get those guys involved. And
Speaker 1: if you have to put two backs on the field
Speaker 1: on occasion to make it work, that's fine. I really again,
Speaker 1: I'll use the term sweet spot. Like for Zeke, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking between twenty five and thirty five catches is plenty
Speaker 1: for him, Like, you don't need to take any more
Speaker 1: targets away from better receiving options. And it's it's not
Speaker 1: that he's bad, he's a fine receiver, but there are
Speaker 1: better receivers who could take those target options. Yeah, Camber,
Speaker 1: I don't have much to add to what you guys said.
Speaker 1: I'm right on with you guys. I just think that
Speaker 1: they do need to do it enough to where it
Speaker 1: does keep that element for defenses to kind of keep
Speaker 1: an eye on and be aware that they can do
Speaker 1: that with Zeke and that he can be utilized that
Speaker 1: way and just kind of keep defenses on their toes,
Speaker 1: but with all these other receiving guys, they just find
Speaker 1: the right balance for him. And Zeke is such a
Speaker 1: great runner, and I do want them to utilize him
Speaker 1: more in the running game together with Tony Poller. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the spot that Dave said, that sweet spot
Speaker 1: right there kind of works for me as well. Sounds
Speaker 1: like everybody's on the under on that under fifty four
Speaker 1: catches for Zeke Elliot. Let's move on to Amari Cooper.
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, it was his best statistical year of
Speaker 1: his career in almost every category. He had seventy nine receptions,
Speaker 1: eleven hundred and eighty nine yards, and he had eight touchdowns.
Speaker 1: So my question for you guys is can he maintain
Speaker 1: that type of production after they've added a guy like
Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb and by the way, a Michael Gallup who
Speaker 1: seems to be improving every year. Do you expect him
Speaker 1: to be able to maintain those numbers in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Let's start with Dave. So here's the thing. I actually,
Speaker 1: for our TV show The Blitz a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: I really looked at the math of like how you
Speaker 1: can divvy up all of these targets. And I mean
Speaker 1: over the course of his career, whether it was dead,
Speaker 1: whether it was a Mari, Dak has done a pretty
Speaker 1: good job at getting his number one receiver targets. Like
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to imagine Amar having less than
Speaker 1: let's say, seventy five eighty catches, and that's not a
Speaker 1: lot by number one receiver standards. I get that because
Speaker 1: you know number one receivers. You know what, Mike Thomas
Speaker 1: caught like two hundred passes last year. Mike Thomas doesn't
Speaker 1: have nearly as many options on his offense as as
Speaker 1: a Mark Cooper does. And that's you know, I'll go
Speaker 1: with ag for a set because I think people get
Speaker 1: so fixated on catches. I don't care as long as
Speaker 1: the offense is producing. And that's what That's what Dak
Speaker 1: has said the whole time he's been heres, like I
Speaker 1: want to throw to the open guy. Well between a
Speaker 1: Mari gallop now Ceedee Lamb again, Jarwin and then the
Speaker 1: running backs, somebody's gonna be open all the time. So
Speaker 1: I don't need a Mari to like catch one hundred balls,
Speaker 1: but I do think he'll probably you know, it'll be
Speaker 1: somewhere between seventy five and eighty five, and that's perfectly fine.
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with that at all, because
Speaker 1: if Dak's doing his job the right way, he'll be
Speaker 1: divvying everything else up among everyone else. Amber Well, I
Speaker 1: expect it to be pretty similar to last year. And
Speaker 1: just because going back to what I remember, all those
Speaker 1: away games, he was terrible. He just completely disappeared. So
Speaker 1: if you take that in and you balance it out
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, now he's playing better on the road,
Speaker 1: and then now he's not as great at home, you know,
Speaker 1: that creates some kind of balance there when it comes
Speaker 1: to his stats. So I expected to be kind of
Speaker 1: similar if he's able to play better on the road,
Speaker 1: all right. You know that actually brings up an interesting point, Isaiah,
Speaker 1: that I want to ask you, because you came to
Speaker 1: the NFL as a quarterback, you spend some time at receiver.
Speaker 1: I'd got to hear from you specifically on how much
Speaker 1: can being on the road affect or what are the
Speaker 1: things that on the road can affect a wide receiver
Speaker 1: or was this just a situation where just for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: whether it was just he played better teams that knew
Speaker 1: how to how to cover him on the road, and
Speaker 1: I was just half stance, like, what do you what
Speaker 1: do you attribute all that too as being a guy
Speaker 1: that's actually played receiver in the NFL? Yeah, And that
Speaker 1: was just one of those things. It was just one
Speaker 1: of those flings. Man. Unfortunately he didn't perform that well
Speaker 1: on the road. It happens. Some guys don't perform that
Speaker 1: well at home, right I think. I mean, I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: I remember the Cowboys not doing so well at home
Speaker 1: at some point in time. But they want away games, right,
Speaker 1: So it is what it is. Man. There's there's nothing
Speaker 1: that people can point to and say, oh, this is why.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's something that's in the back of his head.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, as as an athlete,
Speaker 1: as a player, you know, hey, I just didn't do
Speaker 1: that well. I just gotta figure it out, right, I
Speaker 1: can't have these ups and downs you need. I'd rather
Speaker 1: be consistent. Didn't have all these spikes, right, these different valleys.
Speaker 1: So um. But in terms of you know, do we
Speaker 1: want Coop you know, doing what he did last year?
Speaker 1: Heck to the no, you don't want him doing well
Speaker 1: he did last year, right, you don't. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: to anymore. Right, Yes, he has a one hundred million dollars, right,
Speaker 1: but you're paying him one hundred million dollars for those
Speaker 1: couple plays a game that he actually shows out. You
Speaker 1: don't need him showing out the whole game, right, you
Speaker 1: just you don't. He's not Julio. He's not Julio. Let's
Speaker 1: let's just be real, right, He's not Julio. He's not
Speaker 1: He's not you know, he's not. He's not Od, he's
Speaker 1: not any of those guys. Right, So you don't rely
Speaker 1: you don't want to rely on Coop to be this
Speaker 1: this magnificent. Just just you know, a guy who can
Speaker 1: route up anybody. Coop is a is a D threat,
Speaker 1: That's what he is. Coop's a D threat, right, and
Speaker 1: he has that gold ue. He could run an end route,
Speaker 1: he could run a post, he could run a goal, right,
Speaker 1: and you want him to be able to continue to
Speaker 1: do that. And you want to be able to run
Speaker 1: the ball enough right where those safeties start trying to
Speaker 1: creep down. You want to be able to throw the
Speaker 1: ball to Jar one and CD and gallop enough underneath coverage, right,
Speaker 1: so those guys start creeping up, and then what you want,
Speaker 1: you want Coop to have five receptions for like one
Speaker 1: twenty five in a tub. That's what you want Coop
Speaker 1: to do, right, And one of those places gonna be
Speaker 1: a sixty to seventy yard play, right, So four of
Speaker 1: those other catches you're gonna be you know, within you know,
Speaker 1: five to six, seven, eight yards. That's what you want
Speaker 1: Coop to do. You want him just get those Okay,
Speaker 1: third down play got you, Third down play got you,
Speaker 1: and then boom, big play. That's why you pay him
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars. You don't need him putting up
Speaker 1: those numbers like he did last time, because this should
Speaker 1: be a substantially more well balanced offense than it's ever been.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what I was let's going to just
Speaker 1: real quick. It's kind of what I was getting at
Speaker 1: is like I can just I can imagine. You know,
Speaker 1: six weeks into the season, people are like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys are paying Amari twenty million a year and
Speaker 1: he's only done this as long as as long as
Speaker 1: the offense is humming. I don't care. Like you're paying
Speaker 1: Amari Cooper, you're paying him to make plays. You're also
Speaker 1: paying him to open up the field for everybody else, Right, Like,
Speaker 1: if the opposing defense it's committed to slowing him down
Speaker 1: and he has a bad day, but Ceedee Lamb or
Speaker 1: Michael Gallup or both of them are just killing everybody.
Speaker 1: I don't care. And I feel like people get fixated
Speaker 1: on the money and feel like you got to have
Speaker 1: one hundred yard day every week if you're making that
Speaker 1: much money. I'm sorry about your fantasy football team, but
Speaker 1: I do not care. If the offense is balanced and humming,
Speaker 1: Amari can do whatever the hell he wants to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's a great point day because we've seen it
Speaker 1: so many times around here with the Cowboys, and it
Speaker 1: probably happens all around the league. One player player plays
Speaker 1: the exact same way, but as soon as that check
Speaker 1: comes in, fans have a different expectation of them, and
Speaker 1: I would suspect this year it's probably going to be
Speaker 1: that way for for him. If Dad gets a new deal,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be best believed, they're gonna be different expectations,
Speaker 1: at least from fans. And the good thing for the
Speaker 1: Cowboys is that Amari Cooper doesn't see them to be
Speaker 1: the kind of guy that's affected by what other people think. So,
Speaker 1: he's not the kind of guy that seems to be
Speaker 1: deterred there where some guys do get in their head
Speaker 1: and then they start pressing and they start pushing to
Speaker 1: get more opportunities because they feel like they gotta quiet
Speaker 1: the people that are the detractors. But let's go and
Speaker 1: take our final break. When we come back, I'll have
Speaker 1: a well, Dave, I'm sorry, I just Amari. Amari is
Speaker 1: not that guy. He never has been. A week two
Speaker 1: last year, they he caught five balls for forty yards.
Speaker 1: They won easily, and he was the happiest guy in
Speaker 1: the locker room. Um. And and that's that's exactly what
Speaker 1: you need. Um. There's only like two receivers in the
Speaker 1: league who catch ten balls for one hundred yards every week,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's Hopkins and Julio. And it's not
Speaker 1: a big deal if Amary can't match that, I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about it. And I just thought about the fact
Speaker 1: that Hopkins got traded for basically a bag of ms.
Speaker 1: But anyway, let's not get into that bottle break. We'll
Speaker 1: come back. We'll come back, and we got a few
Speaker 1: more guys we're gonna talk about cdlaw On, Michael Galla,
Speaker 1: Blake Jawin, and Tony Polla. We do have when we
Speaker 1: come back back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com video.
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Speaker 1: GWS one score. September twenty nineteen, Back to the Break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, final segment of the Break. We're live from
Speaker 1: the virtual SWBC Mortgage studios and we're going through our
Speaker 1: game of Over and Under. We're talking about the offensive
Speaker 1: skill position for the Cowboy positions for the Cowboys. We're
Speaker 1: gonna go to Cede Lamb next. And this last year
Speaker 1: I looked at Randall Cobb's numbers because obviously he was
Speaker 1: the third receiver. Last year, CD is projected to be
Speaker 1: one of three. Who knows where he'll fall in that line,
Speaker 1: but Randall Cobb at fifty five receptions, eight hundred twenty
Speaker 1: eight yards and three touchdowns. My question for you, guys,
Speaker 1: is this CD good enough right now to step in
Speaker 1: and be as productive as a veteran like Randall Cobb.
Speaker 1: Let's start with you guys. Are that's that's a heck
Speaker 1: of a question right there. Dum is he good enough
Speaker 1: right now? We don't know, We don't know. Um. College
Speaker 1: is one thing. NFL as a whole another beast, right
Speaker 1: and where we're everybody's projecting him to be right as
Speaker 1: we possibly taking over that slot position, and that slot
Speaker 1: position you gotta be. You gotta have enough tenacious um,
Speaker 1: you know, attitude, gotta have a little nasty to you
Speaker 1: to be able to go in there and dig out
Speaker 1: those safeties and hit some linebackers and you know those
Speaker 1: things or those that willingness is going to open up
Speaker 1: opportunities for you. So I am interested and I'm intrigued
Speaker 1: to see how he performs once he touches the field.
Speaker 1: Another thing is how well he picks up this offense. Right.
Speaker 1: There's you know, when you when you have a guy
Speaker 1: that comes in, if he could pick up the offense,
Speaker 1: and you have three guys out there that know exactly
Speaker 1: what every position does, and you can do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: As an office of coordinator, you're gonna have a field dame,
Speaker 1: and then you can force guys open. Right, you can
Speaker 1: just get guys open. So if he's if he doesn't
Speaker 1: have that ability to come in and pick that up,
Speaker 1: then he's going to be limited. So you know, in
Speaker 1: four or five rounds, right, and then we really don't
Speaker 1: know how productive he'll be. But um, in terms of
Speaker 1: talent wise, he has all the skill sets that you need,
Speaker 1: all the everything, every box that you want to check
Speaker 1: off for somebody that's going to come in and play
Speaker 1: that potential role. He has the skills. He's just really
Speaker 1: a matter of how fast he can really come in
Speaker 1: and take on and adapt to this system. One thing
Speaker 1: I'll say is I'm very interested to see once we
Speaker 1: get to training camp if the Cowboys use him as
Speaker 1: exclusively in that slot role as they give in Randall Randall,
Speaker 1: or if they decide that they're gonna between because by
Speaker 1: the way, you know, they got Amark Cooper, he knows
Speaker 1: how to work in the slot as well. I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see are they gonna have are they gonna try
Speaker 1: to create a situation with these receivers where all three
Speaker 1: can maybe play all three spots and then you're you're
Speaker 1: sliding guys around. That makes it very, very difficult for
Speaker 1: defense is to account for guys and to be able to,
Speaker 1: you know, try with guys and do some of the
Speaker 1: things that last year they were able to do in
Speaker 1: some games where they were able to shut Amari Cooper down.
Speaker 1: But let's go on, Amber, let's go to you next.
Speaker 1: Do you think he's going to be able to be
Speaker 1: as good as Randall Cobb in year one? Well, again,
Speaker 1: it's hard to tell for rookie in the first year.
Speaker 1: Obviously we haven't even seen a single practice or anything yet.
Speaker 1: But one thing that I do think will help him
Speaker 1: a lot. It's his high, especially at the slop position,
Speaker 1: compared to Randall cob I was just looking up his
Speaker 1: high Randall. It's five ten, Ceedee Lamb is six two,
Speaker 1: so I think what you well, okay moment, let me
Speaker 1: keep going with Sidney Lamb in his and being at
Speaker 1: six two, that's definitely I mean, just by default being taller,
Speaker 1: it's gonna help you in the game, just help you
Speaker 1: with catching balls hopefully, and just Dak having a better
Speaker 1: target hit wise, and Beam being able to find the guy.
Speaker 1: So that's the only thing I can think of that
Speaker 1: it's beneficial at the position comparing to Randall Cop last year.
Speaker 1: But you just never know how howard rookie is going
Speaker 1: to do him the first year, so I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going to happen for sure. But I didn't come
Speaker 1: this far to come this far, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like I didn't drive the draft a receiver at seventeen
Speaker 1: bandwagon for three months and then like hop off now
Speaker 1: that I'm not gonna hop off now that football is
Speaker 1: getting close. Yes, I think he can be better than
Speaker 1: Randall Cop. I think he's got NFC Offensive Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year. Do they do one for NFC and AFC
Speaker 1: or is it just the NFL? I don't remember. He's
Speaker 1: got Offensive Rookie of the Year potentials. It's it's gonna
Speaker 1: be hard for him to beat the quarterbacks, you know, Burrow,
Speaker 1: maybe too whatever, but he should be in the conversation.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I did. I did the math on
Speaker 1: this a couple of weeks ago, and I mean it's
Speaker 1: hard to it's hard to phase out all of the variables.
Speaker 1: But I think his absolute ceiling, I mean, excuse me floor,
Speaker 1: his absolute floor is like thirty five catches like that
Speaker 1: is the baseline, and I think he could get as
Speaker 1: high as like seventy throw in potential for punt returns,
Speaker 1: that's probably another twenty twenty five touches on the season.
Speaker 1: I think he's got serious potential to do a lot
Speaker 1: of damage. Yes, I mean, like I said, I know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of unknowns, but I think he can
Speaker 1: be better than Randall conn right away for sure. Indeed,
Speaker 1: to your point, just to pickyback off, what you said
Speaker 1: about the guys being able to come in and learn
Speaker 1: the offense, to be able to play different positions, it
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of what I was playing with
Speaker 1: New England. Right when I was playing with the Patriots.
Speaker 1: There's no player on the Patriots plays one position. You know,
Speaker 1: Previously Tom Brady, that's the only person that played one position.
Speaker 1: Other than that, you played multiple positions. So you know myself,
Speaker 1: Randy Moss, you know Wes Welker, Joey Galloway, you know,
Speaker 1: we had all these guys and you have you were
Speaker 1: one player, you're outside, one player, you're totally on the
Speaker 1: opposite end. One player you're in the slot, right, And
Speaker 1: that ability for to give the officer coordinator is that
Speaker 1: flexibility to create those mismatches, to be able to line
Speaker 1: you up inside and bring a motion down inside and
Speaker 1: you have to go out. They're all kind of different
Speaker 1: ways in which you can release. It messes with the
Speaker 1: defense and if he can pick it up, man, this
Speaker 1: whole of this whole receiving corp is going to be
Speaker 1: is gonna be nasty. Yeah. This one of the things
Speaker 1: that I actually loved about drafting a CD Lamb is
Speaker 1: that I do think when you look at it, Randall
Speaker 1: cop although he could play on the outside, I thought
Speaker 1: he was a much better receiver in the slot. If
Speaker 1: you can get receivers that really can do it equally
Speaker 1: well playing outside and playing in the slot, it just
Speaker 1: gives you so many more advantages. And so I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see when we get the training camp how quickly
Speaker 1: picks up the offense, because that will be a part
Speaker 1: of it. You know, picking up one position is one thing.
Speaker 1: Picking up a second position or a third position is
Speaker 1: a whole different thing. So it'll be a lot about
Speaker 1: how well he can pick it up, how fast he
Speaker 1: can pick it up, and how effective he can be
Speaker 1: at all those different positions. Getting ready for the season.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to Michael Gallup. Last season, he had
Speaker 1: sixty sixty six receptions, eleven hundred and seven yards, six touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Is he good enough to be the number two option
Speaker 1: on this team ahead of c. D Lamb? He's he
Speaker 1: going to continue to be the number two option on
Speaker 1: this team? Or do you think that CD is going
Speaker 1: to kind of push him out a little bit based
Speaker 1: upon what you know of CD and his ability level.
Speaker 1: Let's start with you, Dave. I don't I mean, maybe
Speaker 1: this is a cop out. I don't like to think
Speaker 1: of it as like number one, two and three, like
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Michael Gallup is going to keep
Speaker 1: his job on the outside. I think CD Lamb is
Speaker 1: going you know, when it's all said and done, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have like a thousand offensive snaps. I think CD
Speaker 1: will play most of those in the slot. You know,
Speaker 1: he'll do a little bit of everything, but like it'll
Speaker 1: be sixty seventy percent in the slot if I had
Speaker 1: to guess, So, I mean, Gallup technically is still your
Speaker 1: number two receiver. I think his numbers will go up.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think if he caught six
Speaker 1: six balls last year, I think he's got the potential
Speaker 1: for seventy or more. But you know, I don't think
Speaker 1: CD's gonna like take quote unquote take his job because
Speaker 1: I think it all intermingles. Like you said, hopefully, it's
Speaker 1: three guys that are all moving into three different positions
Speaker 1: on a somewhat regular basis. That's what I would love
Speaker 1: to see. So I don't really like looking at it
Speaker 1: in terms of a pecking order. Amber Well, you know what,
Speaker 1: We're not gonna get to it. But one of the
Speaker 1: questions that I have from fans was asking, how do
Speaker 1: you get these receivers to get better at catching the ball?
Speaker 1: We saw them struggle last year where you saw them
Speaker 1: dropping the ball many many times. And I think that again,
Speaker 1: maybe Isaiah, you can speak about that. I don't know
Speaker 1: how you get better at catching a simple a ball
Speaker 1: that it's coming towards you. But I think that because
Speaker 1: of the experience and just him coming back for is
Speaker 1: it fourth year now or three? This is his third
Speaker 1: year Gallup, right, third Gallup, third year. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: seen him just getting better and better every year, so
Speaker 1: I think that his numbers should be able to go up.
Speaker 1: But he just he just needs to clean up his
Speaker 1: game a little bit more and he can be so so,
Speaker 1: so so much better. A yeah to hit on both points,
Speaker 1: d I agree with you on the whole pecking order thing.
Speaker 1: We obviously know who number one is simply because his
Speaker 1: check defines number one. So but as far as the
Speaker 1: two A to B, I don't think it really matters.
Speaker 1: I think you know, I think you're gonna be surprised
Speaker 1: at how much you probably see Gallup in the slot.
Speaker 1: If I was off as a coordinator simply because of
Speaker 1: his speed, right, the ability if you put him at
Speaker 1: Cooper on the same side, and now all of a
Speaker 1: sudden that that single safety or whatever, whether they're too high,
Speaker 1: and that's say they're cheating to that one side safety.
Speaker 1: They're working out one safety either way, single high or
Speaker 1: too high they're going to cause problems and he can
Speaker 1: get on that safety quick fast and her. So they
Speaker 1: got to make a decision whether they want to stick
Speaker 1: him or whether they want to stick Coop if they
Speaker 1: put them on the same side, right, So I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna be surprising how often you see him on
Speaker 1: the inside. But again, him and CD, they should be
Speaker 1: very much interchangeable and it should be an attacked by committee, right,
Speaker 1: Hopefully that's what we're all asking for. That's all. That's
Speaker 1: a hooper, that's what we're all assuming. But in terms
Speaker 1: of the whole catching portion amer that she touched on,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, I hate to take shots, man,
Speaker 1: but you know, Dak wasn't the most accurate cat in
Speaker 1: the world in the first part of the season. You know,
Speaker 1: he had a lot of balls that were thrown behind receivers.
Speaker 1: He had a lot of balls that had too much
Speaker 1: velocity on them. So there's a lot of things that
Speaker 1: play a part in receivers ability to be able to
Speaker 1: catch the ball and do they need it. The general
Speaker 1: rule is if it touches your hand, you catch it. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's what that's old school, right, But the reality is
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other factors. You know, the ball
Speaker 1: being in front of me versus the ball being on
Speaker 1: my back shoulder. It creates a problem, right, it creates
Speaker 1: a huge problem. So even though I touched it, even
Speaker 1: though it touched my body, it's still a very difficult catch.
Speaker 1: And everybody's gonna say, well, you're getting paid enough money
Speaker 1: to catch it. It's still a difficult catch. Right. There's
Speaker 1: a grown man, there's a girl man pulling on me.
Speaker 1: There's a ball that's coming hot, is behind me. My
Speaker 1: body's going this way, so it's difficult. Guys are going
Speaker 1: to continue to work on their hands like they always do.
Speaker 1: They'll get on the on the jug machine or whatever
Speaker 1: they're utilizing, and they'll get their catches in um. But
Speaker 1: you know it's not just on them. Dad has to
Speaker 1: throw a more catchable ball as well. All right, let's
Speaker 1: move to the tight end position quickly. Blake Jarwin Jason
Speaker 1: Witten actually the last season had sixty three catches, five
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty nine yards, four touchdowns. Now Blake last
Speaker 1: season had thirty one catches, three hundred and sixty five
Speaker 1: yards and three touchdowns. The question is, is Blake good
Speaker 1: enough to be better than nineteen with that sixty three receptions,
Speaker 1: five hundred and twenty nine yards at four touchdowns, You
Speaker 1: should you should, probably should, you should just probably just
Speaker 1: say the stats. You shouldn't just say. You shouldn't say
Speaker 1: better than when it's no, probably no, no, actually actually yes,
Speaker 1: to be clear, just to be clear. And I stay
Speaker 1: at that question like that specifically because I'm talking in
Speaker 1: all fast it's not necessarily the leadership part. Let's leave
Speaker 1: that part out. But in all fastests blocking and being
Speaker 1: able to go down, feel, get open, make catches, score
Speaker 1: all those things? Is he a better Is he going
Speaker 1: to be able to be a better all around tight
Speaker 1: end than Jason Witton was in twenty nineteen? Let's start
Speaker 1: with you guys. Yeah, I know we're talking about the goat.
Speaker 1: I know, I know it's blasphemous. Goat. How old is
Speaker 1: with thirty eight thirty nine? Some run there? I think
Speaker 1: he turned thirty Yeah, one of one of those. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it could he has the potential, we like to
Speaker 1: use that word, he has the potential to be better
Speaker 1: than a wit. But it with stats last year, a
Speaker 1: thirty eight thirty eight year old wit? Um, why are
Speaker 1: you thanking so much? This is a sick. It's a
Speaker 1: trick question. Do you think he's slick on this one? Um,
Speaker 1: it's not a trick question answering. No, There's there's so
Speaker 1: much that comes with being a vent. You know, you
Speaker 1: talk about the top tight ends every right, what's in
Speaker 1: that conversation for top five? Right? So he's so savvy
Speaker 1: and his ability to find the niches in the defense,
Speaker 1: that's what creates opportunities. It wasn't It never was witch
Speaker 1: physical stature or his physical skill set that just got
Speaker 1: him open. It was his savvy nous. Right. So if Jarwin,
Speaker 1: if he could figure that out, didn't hick. Guess if
Speaker 1: he can't figure that out and figure out, you know,
Speaker 1: watching the film study to find those holes in the defenses,
Speaker 1: and watch old Witt and watch Gonzalez and some of
Speaker 1: these other old school casts, then I don't see it happening,
Speaker 1: especially with all these weapons. But he should have substantially
Speaker 1: more one on one matchups than any of the anybody
Speaker 1: in recent history has had. Yeah, that's an interesting point
Speaker 1: because if you think about Jason Witt, and there were
Speaker 1: certain moments in games, particularly third down, where teams would
Speaker 1: try to take him out. I don't think Blake Jarwin
Speaker 1: is going to be facing that this year. I don't
Speaker 1: think with all the other offensive weapons. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of times he's gonna be facing one guy and
Speaker 1: it's probably not gonna be if its own coverage is
Speaker 1: probably not gonna be bracket coverage. He's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: in a situation where he has opportunities to get open,
Speaker 1: and so we're gonna get to see You're right, We're
Speaker 1: gonna get to see how savvy he can be. Amber
Speaker 1: you answer the question, I think again, no one can
Speaker 1: take away everything that Witten has done for the Cowboys. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's a fact. Great now compared to what he last year,
Speaker 1: I have to say, I mean, he went and did
Speaker 1: not look like himself last year. He was going downhill
Speaker 1: a little bit, and he was getting slower. He was
Speaker 1: dropping balls things that you you are not used to seeing.
Speaker 1: We're in do he was doing now. Blake jar Went
Speaker 1: on the other hand, I feel like he does for
Speaker 1: sure have the potential to keep going upwards. We've seen
Speaker 1: it every time he was able to get more playing time.
Speaker 1: We saw it two years ago, the how his game
Speaker 1: just kept getting better the more he was on the field.
Speaker 1: He just needs to get more chances, more opportunities of
Speaker 1: being out there on the field, getting more comfortable, just
Speaker 1: having more time to kind of get loose throughout the
Speaker 1: game and making the plays that he needs to make.
Speaker 1: But I definitely think he can have a better year
Speaker 1: this year and possibly even match what those numbers that
Speaker 1: you're talking about the Witten guy last year. Hey, I'd
Speaker 1: say this with a tremendous amount of respect for Jason Witten,
Speaker 1: but like, I don't even think it's that tall of
Speaker 1: a task, to be perfectly honest with you, Jason Witten
Speaker 1: caught sixty three passes last year and finished with five
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty nine yards. That's bad. That's that's not good.
Speaker 1: That's that's eight yards per catch. Um. There, you know,
Speaker 1: the run after the catch wasn't there, The breaking tackles
Speaker 1: wasn't there. Amber alluded to it. There were drops at
Speaker 1: the end of the season, the particularly egregious one against Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: I don't nobody on the offense came to play that week.
Speaker 1: It's pretty obvious looking back at it. UM. I just
Speaker 1: think I think Jarwin represents such a more dynamic option.
Speaker 1: Like you go look at some of his best plays,
Speaker 1: His ability to shed tackles, his ability to get yards
Speaker 1: after the catch. His touchdown against the Giants, he caught
Speaker 1: the ball at like the twenty eight yard line and scored.
Speaker 1: When was the last time Jason Witten did that? And again,
Speaker 1: it's no disrespect to him, but the guy is nearly forty.
Speaker 1: He brings an incredible amount of savvy. He knows how
Speaker 1: to get open, he knows how to use angles and
Speaker 1: do all of that. But what do you do once
Speaker 1: the ball is in your hand and in a you know,
Speaker 1: in a day and age where space is everything in football?
Speaker 1: I just think that's so important. Um. And is Jarwin
Speaker 1: the best blocker in the world. Absolutely not. But Jason
Speaker 1: Witten hasn't been an above average blocker. Probably in the
Speaker 1: last four or five years of his Cowboy career, He's
Speaker 1: been fine. Um, but a lot of that, you know,
Speaker 1: that's reputation more than production, in my opinion. So I'll
Speaker 1: gladly take the loss in blocking ability for what I
Speaker 1: think will be a drastic improvement that I'm don't say
Speaker 1: that I'm calling it now. I am calling it now.
Speaker 1: Is going to have a fantastic year. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with that, and I'll say, this is
Speaker 1: what right? I mean, I say, don't don't don't minimize,
Speaker 1: don't minimize the ability for a tight end to get
Speaker 1: in a three point stands and tell the tackle what
Speaker 1: to do. Right. I can't. I can't imagine. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many times with or any other event
Speaker 1: that I played around with Ben wattson any guys like
Speaker 1: that getting the three point stands and they see something
Speaker 1: that the other officer alignement didn't see. Especially with this, uh,
Speaker 1: this um was a musical chairs we're about to have
Speaker 1: with the officer a ligne and have the ability to
Speaker 1: be able to put their hand in the ground and say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is the move, this is the call right here,
Speaker 1: we're changing this. Nope, we're not doing this block cheam,
Speaker 1: We're doing this one now. And that's where I'm talking about. Physically,
Speaker 1: Jarwin's way ahead of with listen, Like I said, what's
Speaker 1: never been the physical specimen, but but mentally he was
Speaker 1: leads and balances above almost everybody. That's totally the fact
Speaker 1: that we'll get to see us to whether he really
Speaker 1: is yeah, yeah, see if he's really up to that
Speaker 1: that test that that Jason Witten passed so much during
Speaker 1: his career. All Right, we appreciate you guys joining us.
Speaker 1: We will be back at training camp, will be back
Speaker 1: in July, and we appreciate you guys taking the time
Speaker 1: with us this offseason, particularly during this quarantine. I know
Speaker 1: it hasn't always been perfect. The audio is not always great,
Speaker 1: and sometimes our look isn't perfect, but we do appreciate
Speaker 1: the fact that you guys take time with us and
Speaker 1: spend some time with us to talk some Cowboys football.
Speaker 1: I want to say special thanks to our producer Chris
Speaker 1: Beam and until training camp for Ambergar Sea Isaiah stand back,
Speaker 1: Dave Helm and I'm Derek Eagelson. This has been The
Speaker 1: Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has
Speaker 1: been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys Football Club.