Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This He's Talking Cowboys,
Speaker 1: screening live from the Dallas Cowboys World Hours at the
Speaker 1: Star in Price Last and now your hosts Isaiah stand back,
Speaker 1: heck My Harrison, Rob Phillips, and Kyle Yeoman's It's a
Speaker 1: offseason edition of Talking Cowboys here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com,
Speaker 1: as always presented by Geico and well Isaiah and uh
Speaker 1: heck my head the chopper going, you're not gonna join
Speaker 1: a little bit, I forgot com I'm right here. You
Speaker 1: guys can't see me, but I'm with you. See, I'm
Speaker 1: still reeling for what we just talked about off air
Speaker 1: right before the show started. So I'm recovering from that.
Speaker 1: Yes you are. You are da literally and figurative. Nah,
Speaker 1: pleasure with us here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. We
Speaker 1: are having a ton of fun already all over the place.
Speaker 1: I think is safe to say early in the show,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to kind of get into things really
Speaker 1: quickly because we only have an hour, and of course,
Speaker 1: everybody tunes into the show to hear about the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk about them Dallas Cowboys. But first
Speaker 1: we got to talk about this virtual off season, because
Speaker 1: today is the officials start of the virtual off season
Speaker 1: as implemented by the NFL. At least at the moment
Speaker 1: it's been caused, it has caused a huge divide between
Speaker 1: the NFLPA, the players, and then also the owners in
Speaker 1: the league. Every part of this off season is voluntary,
Speaker 1: except for the June mini camps. But Rob, why does
Speaker 1: this cause problems amongst the NFL? Why does it cause problems? Yeah? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean there's questions about whether from the player side,
Speaker 1: whether it's really needed to have. And I think there's
Speaker 1: different viewpoints based on how long you've been in the league.
Speaker 1: If you're a veteran guy, you probably hate doing this
Speaker 1: in the spring. And Isaiah, I'm sure you can speak
Speaker 1: to this and so and part of it too is
Speaker 1: the pandemic. Part of it is their own research on
Speaker 1: the NFLPA side that says, look, injuries were down. We
Speaker 1: think quality of play went up based on the Cowboys experiences.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you could say that's the case,
Speaker 1: but there's you know, there's viewpoints on different sides. I
Speaker 1: think from the NFL side, it's like, look, you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to work out somewhere this spring, and we've shown
Speaker 1: a commitment to having safe protocols in place, especially here
Speaker 1: at the Star. You know, they really were able to
Speaker 1: mitigate risk with COVID and that'll be continue to be
Speaker 1: the case. So it just comes down to what team's
Speaker 1: comfort level is, what players comfort level is. It is voluntary.
Speaker 1: As you said, the Cowboys have not come out through
Speaker 1: the NFLPA and announced anything with their players saying look,
Speaker 1: we're not going to do this. So I think you
Speaker 1: can expect to see probably a good amount of Cowboys
Speaker 1: out here getting work in this spring, just like they
Speaker 1: always do. Cowboys never announced how much, but I think
Speaker 1: you're going to see a pretty good number, just like
Speaker 1: they always do. Now, I want to get Isaiah's, of course,
Speaker 1: former player opinion on this in a second, But heck,
Speaker 1: before we get to that, we talk about these Cowboys
Speaker 1: coming in and having that virtual off season. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course last year being a virtual off season and
Speaker 1: put the Cowboys behind the eight ball with a new
Speaker 1: coaching staff. So how crucial is it for this team
Speaker 1: to kind of find a rhythm around Mike McCarthy through
Speaker 1: the off season and once again not being able to
Speaker 1: be in the building or at least not the majority
Speaker 1: of the players being in the building should be a
Speaker 1: little bit of an issue, right, Yeah, it absolutely should.
Speaker 1: I was last year. You look at all of the
Speaker 1: you know, things that coach Mike McCarthy tried to build
Speaker 1: through the virtual all season and you realize that there
Speaker 1: was a disconnect, especially with the product that was on
Speaker 1: the field. I mean it was if it cost us
Speaker 1: nowhere else, but on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: that was it was apparent that the off season work
Speaker 1: out and Mike coach mc nolan then defensive coordinator him
Speaker 1: not being able to implement his scheme. But I get
Speaker 1: I'm very uncomfortable with this topic because I think that
Speaker 1: the players have dug in on something as it relates
Speaker 1: to COVID and the pandemic and basically saying that they
Speaker 1: want to make sure for the safety, for their safety,
Speaker 1: that they're not you know, putting themselves at any more
Speaker 1: risk for exposure. But then there's another side of this.
Speaker 1: There's another side where there's a guy that's fighting for
Speaker 1: that fifty third spot that wants to be a part
Speaker 1: of all season, that's fighting tooth and nail because he's
Speaker 1: you know, got bills and and maybe on the way
Speaker 1: bills to pay, you know, so the aspect of it,
Speaker 1: But I think from a coaching standpoint, you want to
Speaker 1: because traditionally coaches have been that they have this time
Speaker 1: as evaluators, as the best evaluators in sports, to try
Speaker 1: and implement the scheme and see where guys are. So,
Speaker 1: you know, look, I think even for coach Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: and his new staff, especially on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball, they want these guys to participate. But then again,
Speaker 1: like I said, man, there's there is an aspect of
Speaker 1: this with players that they are concerned, and you saw
Speaker 1: the NBA, NFL you know, get through a whole sceneson
Speaker 1: with you know, some cancelations of games and things like that.
Speaker 1: But still, all in all, Man, I think that the
Speaker 1: concerns are real and the guys have a legitimate right
Speaker 1: about this. All right, Isaiah, I want to hear your
Speaker 1: opinion all right now. I think you guys have done
Speaker 1: a great job of kind of creating a synopsis of
Speaker 1: with the issues that are at hand. From a coaching standpoint,
Speaker 1: we obviously know that coach Quinn and the rest of
Speaker 1: his crew want these guys on site. They need these
Speaker 1: guys on site. Um, and you know, last year, not
Speaker 1: only did we have a virtual off season, but we
Speaker 1: also had a virtual off season where guys were quote
Speaker 1: unquote not supposed to gather together to even watch film together,
Speaker 1: and not supposed to do walkthroughs together. So that compounded
Speaker 1: the problem last year in addition to having a new
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator. So it's looking as if this is gonna
Speaker 1: be a virtual off season across the board. I think
Speaker 1: there's nineteen teams already that I've already put out statements
Speaker 1: saying that they're not going to be there. So it's
Speaker 1: you know, now you start getting into a situation where
Speaker 1: you know, you do have a union, right and your union,
Speaker 1: the majority of the of the participants in your union
Speaker 1: are saying, hey, we're doing this in the form of solidarity.
Speaker 1: Don't show up, and you know, if you kind of
Speaker 1: go against the grained and you're kind of the outcast
Speaker 1: from the player standpoint, I get it. I mean I
Speaker 1: get it. I know fans don't want to hear that,
Speaker 1: but I do get it. I mean, it's it's you know,
Speaker 1: agin imagine you're you're a guy like me from Seattle,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, you know you have to
Speaker 1: go live in Texas or wherever your team is playing.
Speaker 1: Imagine you have to go live in in you know,
Speaker 1: New York, right for the for for four months, three
Speaker 1: four months, you know, just working every single day when
Speaker 1: you really don't have to, when you have an option
Speaker 1: to not have to do that and still have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to go out and do what you're paid to do,
Speaker 1: which is go perform on the field. Um. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people are gonna say, what's your job?
Speaker 1: And you're absolutely correct, but there's a clause in there
Speaker 1: that says that you don't have to be there. It's voluntary, right,
Speaker 1: And as long as that clause is in there, and
Speaker 1: it left the window open, right And I tell people
Speaker 1: all the time, we say it on the show, if
Speaker 1: you leave the window cracked, debos coming in. Right. So
Speaker 1: you know these guys, you know the windows cracked, and
Speaker 1: these guys have the option, um to exercise their right
Speaker 1: to not show up. And that's that's not to say
Speaker 1: that they're not preparing, they're not doing the things they
Speaker 1: need to do. If that, if there is another virtual
Speaker 1: platform for us again this off season for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: This year is different because guys will get together, Guys
Speaker 1: will have walked throughs, the leaders will hold meetings, they
Speaker 1: will watch film together. They would do a lot more
Speaker 1: things together because they won't be forced to be an
Speaker 1: isolation like they were last year. One thing to point out,
Speaker 1: that's admit a great point, Isaiah about where you live,
Speaker 1: because I think one reason the tenants here has been
Speaker 1: so good is most guys stick around. Most guys either
Speaker 1: live here, they don't go. I don't live somewhere else
Speaker 1: out of state. So it Cowboys have an advantage. Dallas
Speaker 1: a great place to live. But it's hard for me
Speaker 1: to speak on it because I didn't play. I didn't
Speaker 1: play the game. I didn't play at the level I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know from the physical aspect of it, Hey,
Speaker 1: I don't need to do this put that extra sprain
Speaker 1: in my body. I can do it at home. And
Speaker 1: it's worth noting that this phase one through May fourteenth
Speaker 1: is virtual meetings. Essentially, you come in, you can work out,
Speaker 1: but it's it's virtual. It's Phase two that I'm really
Speaker 1: focused on, where you get into late May, and it's
Speaker 1: OTAs and then you mentioned the Mini camp man that
Speaker 1: the Eagles have come out, the Giants have come out,
Speaker 1: said they're not going to do it. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that extends OTAs in mini camp, but the Cowboys
Speaker 1: to me immediately, if if things hold and they continue
Speaker 1: to work out here and do OTAs and stuff, they're
Speaker 1: add an advantage over their division rivals to me because
Speaker 1: they are working out together, specially defensively. Heck, you hit
Speaker 1: on it trying to institute a new defense. I don't
Speaker 1: want Layton vander esh having to hit the raise the
Speaker 1: hand icon on the zoom, you know, to to ask
Speaker 1: a question like, let's just do this stuff in person
Speaker 1: and and try to get better. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that could have It could have been a big difference
Speaker 1: if they were around for OTAs last year. That's just
Speaker 1: my opinion, and I think it could help that they
Speaker 1: do it this year. And Robert, I know, I know
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of fans they're kind of
Speaker 1: up in arms about this, But think about it, you know,
Speaker 1: I imagine if it was the four of us, right,
Speaker 1: we're all we're all old and busted now, right, So
Speaker 1: if we say we had an opportunity to make, you know,
Speaker 1: make the last spot on the roster. And and we're
Speaker 1: not really getting those checks, so you're getting those I
Speaker 1: know what I was playing. I think it was five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a week for your for your off season,
Speaker 1: offseason training. So from your your entire offseason all the
Speaker 1: way up until the point where you hit camp, it
Speaker 1: was five hundred dollars a week. Well take it. Take
Speaker 1: a city like DC, Take a city like New York,
Speaker 1: you know, take Dallas. I don't care. You're you're bringing
Speaker 1: home two thousand dollars for the month. Cool, two thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for the month, regardless of how much money your
Speaker 1: contract says that you're supposed to make. Right and then
Speaker 1: you're having to pay to get your car shipped right
Speaker 1: to and from you're having to find apartment or a
Speaker 1: house to rent right to cover the expenses that there's
Speaker 1: not enough money coming in and guys are losing money.
Speaker 1: So if you don't really have a pocket full of money,
Speaker 1: think about the guys that are trying to make the squad.
Speaker 1: They don't have the bread to be to be trying
Speaker 1: to you know, show up. And yes, it's an opportunity,
Speaker 1: but the reality is it costs money to go work
Speaker 1: off site, and when you're getting there, when you're getting
Speaker 1: those weekly game checks, it's different, right, But when you're
Speaker 1: not getting those weekly game checks, Yeah, yeah, but your pockets, hey,
Speaker 1: your pockets is a little light. Hey man, listen, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start and let's just take the COVID aspect
Speaker 1: out of it. When when we're when you're making that point,
Speaker 1: because look, the world's smallest violin is starting to play,
Speaker 1: and so is me. Is gonna play on the jukebox
Speaker 1: for you if you're talking about that, Because there are
Speaker 1: a bunch of twenty three and twenty four year old
Speaker 1: guys that need that five hundred dollars a week that
Speaker 1: will do anything to get that money because they're living
Speaker 1: off of their body in the production that they want
Speaker 1: to put out and get that one of very very
Speaker 1: few percentage that get to play this game. And so look,
Speaker 1: I think when that's what I believe happens with the
Speaker 1: fan base and professional athletes, where there's this disconnect between
Speaker 1: the exorbitant amounts of wealth fare through one whatever that
Speaker 1: is of guys that make in the league and the
Speaker 1: guys that are fighting tooth and nail just to get
Speaker 1: on the roster. And some guy that's sitting in his
Speaker 1: cubicle with cowboy memorabili all over it, and he's like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean you won't go and work out
Speaker 1: for half a million dollars or whatever it is. I
Speaker 1: mean this there is no connecting it. There's that disconnected.
Speaker 1: There's no way to connect that back because us I
Speaker 1: think as a casual fan, it's hard to even fathom,
Speaker 1: you know, fathom what you're giving up for this. And look,
Speaker 1: I think that at the at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: what's going to come out is that this is all
Speaker 1: about money. Right, we realize all these things is happening,
Speaker 1: with the betting and the new TV rights deal, all
Speaker 1: of this. The players are going, like you said, you
Speaker 1: leave that devo, You leave that when the open devo
Speaker 1: gonna come through, come through the playoffs. The players are
Speaker 1: finding every little, nuanced everything that they can do to
Speaker 1: force the ownership to come back to the table to
Speaker 1: negotiate about these things because in a pandemic year, they
Speaker 1: had so many things affecting them. That's that's just my
Speaker 1: point on well and and look, they both sides agree
Speaker 1: to an eighteenth game but that's that's more physical strain
Speaker 1: on players bodies over the course of the year. So
Speaker 1: and there's veteran players like Trader who's running you know,
Speaker 1: the player's side of things. He's there rappings like do
Speaker 1: we do we need this at all? You know, we
Speaker 1: were able to get through a season without it last year.
Speaker 1: Do we need it this year? My question, though, the
Speaker 1: extends beyond just the offseason workouts on the player's side.
Speaker 1: What about guys rehabbing though? You know that's a good point.
Speaker 1: I mean, Dak Prescott needs to be here to rehab.
Speaker 1: I mean he doesn't. It benefits him obviously to be
Speaker 1: here with the Cowboys staff. That's that to continue, you know,
Speaker 1: the progress he's made, all the guys that are coming
Speaker 1: back off injury. Are you asking guys not to do that?
Speaker 1: That's my question too, And maybe not, maybe not because
Speaker 1: because guys have been rehabbing since the offseason began from injuries.
Speaker 1: But how far does it extends? My question? Yo, Let
Speaker 1: me ask you this. J. C. Trader, he the union president,
Speaker 1: he's you know, he makes a valid point, right, But
Speaker 1: I think that when you as far as the man,
Speaker 1: the overall product of football sucked last year, and I
Speaker 1: don't care what anybody says. And it's from high school
Speaker 1: all the way up to the NFL, and you saw
Speaker 1: it and and it was because of guys having these
Speaker 1: virtual old tis, not having tool of Days abbreviated to
Speaker 1: a day. You saw the product on the field goal
Speaker 1: down and maybe offensively the numbers were up, and that
Speaker 1: was put the defense at a disadvantage. But still we
Speaker 1: there are guys, there are teams, especially the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: need this ota. They need two of days because without it,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get the same results that you had last year.
Speaker 1: Guys not having to the concept of the scheme of defense,
Speaker 1: not being able to communicate because they had nothing to
Speaker 1: draw from. And if you're depending on your rookie guy
Speaker 1: that you're gonna bring in to you know, upload video
Speaker 1: to his coach to say, hey, you know, this is
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. These are my workouts, and you know,
Speaker 1: my grandmother's at my grandmother's house. You know. I think
Speaker 1: that that relates to Sunday Dog when the lights are owned,
Speaker 1: and we gotta pay attention to that. I don't know, man, well,
Speaker 1: I think you probably accord with a lot of our
Speaker 1: viewership and a lot of our listenerhood and when you said,
Speaker 1: there's that disconnect between the players, the coaches, the owners,
Speaker 1: and the fans, and there's no ways to get it
Speaker 1: back in there because a lot of people who are
Speaker 1: listening right now are those people that are in the
Speaker 1: cubicle with the Cowboys memorabilia all over their cubicle. And
Speaker 1: I'm I'm right there with you. I do the same
Speaker 1: exact thing. I'm my cubicle up there has Cowboy Cowboys memorabilia.
Speaker 1: I grew up a fan. So there is that disconnect.
Speaker 1: But like like Rob was saying earlier, there's a disconnect
Speaker 1: between even the veterans and even some of these younger
Speaker 1: guys who are trying to fight for that playing position,
Speaker 1: that roster spot. But there's also a little bit of
Speaker 1: a caveat for those who have already had those roster spots.
Speaker 1: And per Todd Archer, he had a really good article
Speaker 1: on ESPN dot com said there's contract de escalators and
Speaker 1: the Cowboys contracts that could cost key players up to
Speaker 1: half a million dollars off their base salary should they
Speaker 1: not show up to at least eighty four percent of
Speaker 1: the voluntary workouts. And those players include Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott,
Speaker 1: DeMarcus Lower and Samari Cooper, Jalen Smith, Zach Martin, Tyrant Smith,
Speaker 1: Byle Collins aka the core. I mean, that is the
Speaker 1: core of your franchise in a nutshell. If you wanted
Speaker 1: to throw those names out there, maybe we'll take away
Speaker 1: a number I'm fifty four or something out of that
Speaker 1: group in terms of the core players that are there,
Speaker 1: but come contracts wise, yeah, that's a lot that you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to give up if you're not here. And
Speaker 1: you talk about how it benefits certain players, but there
Speaker 1: are players on that list that may not be comfortable
Speaker 1: coming in for these voluntary workouts. So, Isaiah, I ask
Speaker 1: you the question, as a former player, does that money
Speaker 1: change things or as you are, you still able to
Speaker 1: kind of take a stand there if you believe. So,
Speaker 1: come on, Isaiah, so let me let me let me
Speaker 1: send the president by by saying this. I've never been
Speaker 1: against off season workouts, So I like the work I
Speaker 1: like the off season. I like being around of guys.
Speaker 1: I like being near the coaches and being able to
Speaker 1: be in their ear, you know, prior to the season,
Speaker 1: so that it doesn't bother me um. However, five hundred
Speaker 1: stacks of us built into everybody's contracts. I wasn't. I
Speaker 1: wasn't making the money that these guys are losing. But
Speaker 1: then it could possibly lose. But it was in everybody's contract.
Speaker 1: If you didn't show it for a certain percentage of
Speaker 1: the off season program, you did, you took you took
Speaker 1: an l right, you took a loss. So that's why
Speaker 1: I made sure my boat was there. But five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, that's that's It depends on the individual. I personally,
Speaker 1: I'm not leaving that on the table. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, you know you you're you are a part
Speaker 1: of a union, right, you are a part of a union,
Speaker 1: and you are representing more than just yourself. I can
Speaker 1: take it back to Actually, this is directly correlated to
Speaker 1: my rookie year. And I'm not gonna say the player,
Speaker 1: but one of the one we were we were quote
Speaker 1: unquote holding out our entire draft class. Uh, Nick Folk,
Speaker 1: Anthony Spencer, everybody, right, all of us were in there
Speaker 1: and one one of one of our one of our
Speaker 1: draft picks, with his agent, was having negotiations with the
Speaker 1: team and there was one little caveat they were trying
Speaker 1: to put in all of our contracts and it was
Speaker 1: related directly to this, and it was you had to
Speaker 1: be a part of like ninety percent of the offseason
Speaker 1: workouts if you wanted to receive or there was this this,
Speaker 1: this penalty, and all of all of our agents were like, nah, like,
Speaker 1: we're not signing this. Our entire draft class. We're not
Speaker 1: doing it. We're holding tight together forget that. And you know,
Speaker 1: some people felt some type of way, but it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're doing this together as a unit. And the one guy,
Speaker 1: the one guy's agents signed a dog on contract is
Speaker 1: screwed everybody. At that point, we all had got to
Speaker 1: look up. This class wasn't trainer. But but now that
Speaker 1: you bring us up, I'll remember this. I we were
Speaker 1: down there in San Antonio. I definitely remember that, and
Speaker 1: we work on a practice. We were like, our contracts
Speaker 1: haven't been signed yet, so we can't practice yet. And
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the word came through some and
Speaker 1: Soul's agents signed a dog on deal. We're like, oh,
Speaker 1: come on, man, seven right in reality, seven, yeah, it didn't.
Speaker 1: It didn't affect us too much. But the reality is,
Speaker 1: this is the same situation. These guys are in. You
Speaker 1: got guys who really don't care and they either way
Speaker 1: it works for me. And then you got the guys
Speaker 1: who are like, no, hold tight and let's stand firm
Speaker 1: as a unit. Do you think there's benefit Isaiah too?
Speaker 1: I mean, you talked about being a pro and you
Speaker 1: can get your work done wherever. Is there a benefit
Speaker 1: to having the guys in the team setting pushing each
Speaker 1: other or is that just raw rod? True? Absolutely, I mean,
Speaker 1: but from the player's staff, Like, like I mentioned, right,
Speaker 1: you you leave your family, your family man, right, so
Speaker 1: you're leaving your family literally. You know there's there's there's big,
Speaker 1: big times in a year obviously from August until hopefully February,
Speaker 1: where you're just not around a lot. So you're missing
Speaker 1: out on all your kids games, you're missing out on
Speaker 1: all the night times, You're missing out on all the
Speaker 1: all the pteam meetings. You're missing out on a whole
Speaker 1: lot of things. And yes, I get it, your professional athlete,
Speaker 1: you you commit to this, you sacrifice a certain a
Speaker 1: certain part of your life. But the reality is these
Speaker 1: guys are still humans, so you miss all of that.
Speaker 1: So now again that windows cracked open and you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't have to go leave my home and go
Speaker 1: move somewhere else where my family is not I don't
Speaker 1: have to miss out on these things with my family.
Speaker 1: I'm all I'm gonna do is wake up. My day
Speaker 1: was done by ten o'clock in off season, you know,
Speaker 1: and during this part of the offseason, you get in
Speaker 1: there at seven o'clock in the morning, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you work out, and then you're done for the rest
Speaker 1: of the day. What the heck do you do with
Speaker 1: yourself for the rest of the day. So these guys,
Speaker 1: as they're looking at it, they're like, why would I
Speaker 1: leave everything that I have going on, whether it's a
Speaker 1: side business, whether it's my wife, my kids, activities, you know,
Speaker 1: or you know, nonprofit organizations, just to simply go lift
Speaker 1: some weights when I can do that at the crib.
Speaker 1: Right now, when we start talking about the second phase, now, hey,
Speaker 1: let's let's possibly look at getting on site for that
Speaker 1: because we need to get some snaps. But you're not
Speaker 1: getting no snaps right now. You're upload there. The guys
Speaker 1: are gonna be watching film. If you do that at
Speaker 1: the crib, we're gonna be working out. Do that at
Speaker 1: the crib, right, so it really it's not necessary to
Speaker 1: be on site. So I think that's where most of
Speaker 1: these guys are coming from. It's not so much the
Speaker 1: whole offseason, but at least this first part is kind
Speaker 1: of like, we're gonna be doing the same thing I've
Speaker 1: been doing for the last month. Gotcha. It needs to
Speaker 1: be the name of this podcast this off season at
Speaker 1: the Crib. That's what it needs to be. I think
Speaker 1: I will say, like, there's a lot that goes into this.
Speaker 1: It's not just basically moving in and or not moving in,
Speaker 1: but coming in and doing a workout, Like, there are
Speaker 1: so many different aspects and changing factors to this all.
Speaker 1: And I don't think we're even closed to being done
Speaker 1: with it. I think the PA is going to continue
Speaker 1: to have their last words and we're gonna keep moving
Speaker 1: into the off season without really the off season completely
Speaker 1: being happy. Nobody's gonna be one hundred percent happy. But
Speaker 1: when we come back, everybody listening will be one hundred
Speaker 1: percent happy because we have mail bag Monday. Is it
Speaker 1: scary to take a quarterer and back corner cornerback really
Speaker 1: high in the draft? Maybe at pick number ten. We're
Speaker 1: gonna ask that question and talk about it a little
Speaker 1: bit when we come back on the other out of
Speaker 1: the break. This is Talking Cowboys, presented by Geico Honey,
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Speaker 1: Do more. Lord, We're back in a tasty treat that's
Speaker 1: sweeping air waves and taste buds. It's new Doctor pepper
Speaker 1: and Cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor pepper and
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Speaker 1: Cowboys Way, where sixteen Hall of Famers and five championships
Speaker 1: shows us what success looks like. Where turkey is always
Speaker 1: the second best part of Thanksgiving Day, where we are
Speaker 1: all defined by one single thing, the star, where we
Speaker 1: as fans know it's our job to keep the tradition going.
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Speaker 1: America Corporation, to Talk in Cowboys. Back here on Talking Cowboys,
Speaker 1: presented by Guy Cooke. Glad you're with us, Rob Phillips,
Speaker 1: Heck Harrison, the Great Isaiah stand back, I'm Kyle Yomans.
Speaker 1: And whether you're watching from home or cheering in the stands, well,
Speaker 1: that's the Lord lenses. You can see every exciting play
Speaker 1: book an appointment at your local experts and see what
Speaker 1: selor can do for you? See more, do more, Isaiah,
Speaker 1: finally love it, love it. Finally got your lenses Isaiah,
Speaker 1: are is it just like a new day? Do you
Speaker 1: feel like a new man with with your eel lenses?
Speaker 1: Do you know what? I feel like? I could see
Speaker 1: things with a clear eye view, Kyle. Oh God, that's
Speaker 1: a different brand. It's complicate. You tell you what this brand?
Speaker 1: Lord say that. I would say that I've got my
Speaker 1: asselurs on too, and I love them. I'll tell you,
Speaker 1: I didn't even notice that this was really a thing
Speaker 1: until I read into it. But they have like the
Speaker 1: UV protection, the blue light, and they also have like
Speaker 1: the glare resistance. Yeah, the glare like these bl right
Speaker 1: lights in here and then in the TV studio. It's unreal.
Speaker 1: Oh it's awesome, it's perfect, Like in their prescriptions, I
Speaker 1: can tell you fantastic. Yeah. Kay. I'll tell you one thing.
Speaker 1: When I went, I like these frames right just keeping
Speaker 1: my frames out, and I said, you know these, these
Speaker 1: these are fire right here. I said, like these, nobody
Speaker 1: really has these, you know, these these these super trooper
Speaker 1: glasses right. So they said, oh, you know, we don't
Speaker 1: have the polar riz. We don't have the polarized lenses
Speaker 1: for those for those for those frames, I said, dog,
Speaker 1: go on it. You know, I really like these things.
Speaker 1: They said, But guess what, we're lure and we can
Speaker 1: do anything. So we're just gonna make some lenses to
Speaker 1: fit your frames. I said, you know what, that's customer service.
Speaker 1: That is fire. Keep them on, cal ram Rod, keep
Speaker 1: them on many see ram Rod. Oh, can't wait till
Speaker 1: uh till Rob gets his pair. You gotta get you,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm behind. I can't wait. Though. Man,
Speaker 1: they're awesome. I like, I wouldn't say, like sit here
Speaker 1: and talk about it as much like, but I love
Speaker 1: these glasses and I think they're fantastic. So shout out
Speaker 1: to the people that asked about them. Up behind, man
Speaker 1: that jumped the gun and got it off quick. And
Speaker 1: we needed to see we needed to analyze, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: we needed to analyze what you had and we had
Speaker 1: to level up. That's why all it was, we need
Speaker 1: to see our competition. Okay, okay, we'll watch this. This
Speaker 1: is what a good host does. He plays off of
Speaker 1: even the dumb things that Isaiah says and turns it
Speaker 1: into a segue. So taking taking what you just said
Speaker 1: about leveling up. Well, the Cowboys, at least in the past,
Speaker 1: thought they had leveled up at the cornerback spot when
Speaker 1: taking somebody in the top ten ak A Morris Claiborne,
Speaker 1: which led our good buddy JT. Chandler to send in
Speaker 1: a mail back Monday question. And for Dallas Cowboys dot
Speaker 1: Com you can go see David Hellman Johnny's responses to
Speaker 1: that specific question on the article itself on Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: dot Com, but we're gonna answer it here. And his
Speaker 1: question was the last time we used a high pick
Speaker 1: on a quarterback cornerback? I keep messing that up today
Speaker 1: if it doesn't work out very well or it doesn't
Speaker 1: work out very well. I personally think corner is the
Speaker 1: position that is easiest to miss on in the draft.
Speaker 1: So as Patrick's Rutan a sure thing, Rob, I'll let
Speaker 1: you start on this one, because I mean, there's no
Speaker 1: such thing as a sure thing in the draft. But
Speaker 1: Patrick Rutan is about as guy. He's got about as
Speaker 1: high of a floor as anybody that I've seen in
Speaker 1: the class. I agree, I mean, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's going to be a Pro Bowl player.
Speaker 1: But he reminds me of a I don't know a
Speaker 1: Terrence Newman, you know, coming out No. Three that you
Speaker 1: feel like he's gonna play a long time. His dad
Speaker 1: played the position in the NFL. He got as good
Speaker 1: at coaching as you can possibly get at the college level.
Speaker 1: Treyvon Diggs played in that program and looks like he's
Speaker 1: gonna be a really good one. So I if that's
Speaker 1: the pick, then I would feel really good about it.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if who's the name of the
Speaker 1: fan that j J J T Money, Like you know, cornerback,
Speaker 1: I guess you definitely can miss on that position. I mean,
Speaker 1: you look at the Cowboys you mentioned Mo claiborne. Uh,
Speaker 1: they drafted guys that haven't gotten second contracts now Byron
Speaker 1: Jones just came down to money. Um, but you know
Speaker 1: Cheeto didn't turn out to be a Pro Bowl player,
Speaker 1: got a second contract somewhere else. They haven't. You know,
Speaker 1: that seventeen class didn't work out the way they wanted to.
Speaker 1: But they also haven't spent really high picks at that
Speaker 1: position in a long time, not since Mo claiborne I
Speaker 1: mentioned Newman that worked out. Uh, the higher you pick,
Speaker 1: the better the odds, So I think that's part of
Speaker 1: it too. Heckma, you know, I love the question from
Speaker 1: j T, but I just don't feel that he's taking
Speaker 1: a one size fits all approach to this, you know.
Speaker 1: And and Mo Clayborn in his defense, man, he was
Speaker 1: just they played him out of position, man, I mean
Speaker 1: not out of position, but out of the scheme that
Speaker 1: he was more of a press man guy that they
Speaker 1: tried to convert into a zone corner. It didn't mix
Speaker 1: well with what his skill set was. Now when you
Speaker 1: flipped that and we're talking about Patrick certain one of
Speaker 1: the things that I love about him is that he
Speaker 1: can play in multiple styles of defense. And when you
Speaker 1: just look man going looking at Dan Quinn and what
Speaker 1: he does in his philosophy, just going back to days
Speaker 1: in Seattle, I think people are getting this cover three
Speaker 1: thing and thinking that it's just gonna be zone it's not.
Speaker 1: I mean, he played a lot of man on the
Speaker 1: outside with Richard Sherman and so Trey von Diggs certain
Speaker 1: they would be ideal in the system for Quinn. So
Speaker 1: I just don't feel I mean, it'd be the same
Speaker 1: thing as saying we're not gonna take Quitty Pay out
Speaker 1: of Michigan because of Taco. You know, it's like a
Speaker 1: man and I understand that. You know, you want to
Speaker 1: put everybody into the same shoe, but that's not the
Speaker 1: one Cinderella is going to wear it. I think Pay
Speaker 1: is a better player than Taco. Moe also had terrible
Speaker 1: injury luck. I mean terrible injury luck. If anything. That's
Speaker 1: what robbed him of a good career well and even
Speaker 1: saying that he was still in the like in the
Speaker 1: NFL for a good amount of time. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not like he was a one and done or just
Speaker 1: a complete bust. Sure he didn't live up to his
Speaker 1: draft stock or what he was taken at, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, there was a lot of factors that
Speaker 1: went into that. And if you want to throw in
Speaker 1: other first round picks in terms of the corner position,
Speaker 1: I mean Byron Jones, it wasn't an early first round pick,
Speaker 1: but he was a first round pick, and he worked
Speaker 1: out after kind of what the Heckman just said, not
Speaker 1: utilizing his skill set early on, then you finally put
Speaker 1: him back at corner and what did he do? He
Speaker 1: excelled and now he's one of the better corners in
Speaker 1: the league. So, Isaiah, I know you, I know where
Speaker 1: you stand in terms of the linebackers, and you want
Speaker 1: to go get Michael Parsons and the YadA, YadA YadA.
Speaker 1: But what would you feel about if Patrick's retan was
Speaker 1: the pick. Do you feel happy about that, you feel
Speaker 1: like you're a better football team, or do you feel
Speaker 1: like this is another Mo Clayborne situation where it's a
Speaker 1: quote unquote can't miss guy that you might end up
Speaker 1: missing on. Yeah, I mean not even going directly against
Speaker 1: a pet, you know. Certain. I just I don't think
Speaker 1: that it's hard to play corner in the NFL. It's
Speaker 1: just called it. Called it. Call a spade a spade
Speaker 1: is very especially these guys, especially right now. These receivers
Speaker 1: are quick, they're fast. They're the schemes against the defenses
Speaker 1: that there that are being ran are made to break
Speaker 1: them down and give these guys ability to you know,
Speaker 1: get some yak yardage. Some yards have to catch. It's tough.
Speaker 1: So that's why nothing against any of these corners that
Speaker 1: are coming out. I know that we have a handful
Speaker 1: of guys that are really they're exceptional athletes, exceptional players,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna it's gonna take time. It's gonna take time,
Speaker 1: you know. So if you go out there and you
Speaker 1: grab yourself one of those high high corners in a draft,
Speaker 1: you can't expect much from them in the first year.
Speaker 1: You just the reality is you cannot bear let them
Speaker 1: bear that weight, U And now you you put that
Speaker 1: on the main year two, three and four, right, but
Speaker 1: in year one they how much can you truly expect
Speaker 1: in terms of impact from a corner in this league
Speaker 1: coming out coming out the draft? And that's why that's
Speaker 1: why I lean towards the other positions in terms of
Speaker 1: having impact right now, because the Cowboys need impact right now. Um,
Speaker 1: that's not forfeiting your future. That's just saying what is
Speaker 1: going to have the most most effect over our success today.
Speaker 1: But I think if they go out there and they
Speaker 1: get a corner, yes, they could become better. To answer
Speaker 1: your question, call you become a better team, absolutely, But
Speaker 1: do you become a team that can just go out
Speaker 1: there and just have two revous islands not even close?
Speaker 1: Not even close? And that takes experience, and when you're
Speaker 1: facing guys like we're gonna be facing this year Kansas
Speaker 1: City and teams of that nature strap up. Whoever's out
Speaker 1: there is going to have to have their have to
Speaker 1: bring their lunch pail. The idea of having a rookie
Speaker 1: corner in the starting lineup with a second year corner that, yeah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't make you feel great, but but I mean
Speaker 1: the reason why it's such a hard position to find
Speaker 1: great players is another reason why you got to keep
Speaker 1: keep chopping at it, because it is such an important
Speaker 1: position to me anyway in terms of the way the
Speaker 1: league has gone, and you can I'm with you, Isaiah
Speaker 1: in terms of I would go pass rush first in
Speaker 1: terms of chicken or egg, what's more important. But you've
Speaker 1: got to have guys on the outside that can hold
Speaker 1: their own. And I just look at the depth trip
Speaker 1: and bring it back Jordan lewis big. I think I've
Speaker 1: always liked Jordan's game, but I think they need to
Speaker 1: continue to find playmakers there and I think you still
Speaker 1: can find that at the cornerback position. I do think
Speaker 1: it's a hard position to evaluate, like you've mentioned, Kyle,
Speaker 1: the way the game is now, but it's not the hardest.
Speaker 1: Quarterback is the hardest position to evaluate and the one
Speaker 1: where you can really miss the most, especially if you're
Speaker 1: drafting high, yeah, JT saying that it was the easiest
Speaker 1: position to miss on. I don't necessarily agree with that,
Speaker 1: because I think you can miss on a slew of
Speaker 1: positions in corner is one of those. But does this
Speaker 1: Mo claiborne pick still kind of haunt this franchise? I mean,
Speaker 1: like we talked about it, they haven't really spent a high,
Speaker 1: high draft pick on a corner since what was that
Speaker 1: I mean twelve? Yeah, so Patrick Artan was what twelve
Speaker 1: years old? Whenever that was probably that pick was made.
Speaker 1: So and he's about to be the pick at ten,
Speaker 1: So heck, mu, do you still see that kind of
Speaker 1: haunting this front office? Or is that something you have
Speaker 1: to put in the review mirror? Yeah, that's definitely in
Speaker 1: the review mirror. I mean you talk about his career
Speaker 1: and where he would be right now had he stayed
Speaker 1: with the Cowboys. So look, I really just think that
Speaker 1: when you talk about the twenty twenty one draft, before
Speaker 1: the whole Patrick Patrick Surtaan, Kyle Pitt's arguments started to
Speaker 1: come up, you heard everyone talking about Christian Barmore and
Speaker 1: needing that that guy to anchor this defensive line. We
Speaker 1: saw what happened with you know, we were the forty
Speaker 1: burghers and playing from behind and not being able to
Speaker 1: be effective with our pass rush or stop to run,
Speaker 1: and consequently that's why our secondaries suffered the way that
Speaker 1: they did because of the time that the quarterback had.
Speaker 1: That's why, you know, and I think all of those
Speaker 1: things when we start breaking this down and place importance
Speaker 1: on getting Patrick Soartan, I don't think that he's going
Speaker 1: to be the end all be all because of all
Speaker 1: the other draft picks that you have to be strategic about,
Speaker 1: and so look, I don't I'm gonna be happy if
Speaker 1: we get Patrick Soutan because I know what his skill
Speaker 1: said is gonna be. But I also am not gonna
Speaker 1: be happy if we don't do anything to shore up
Speaker 1: the interior of this defense. I love it. I think
Speaker 1: that might be my favorite scenario is if they traded
Speaker 1: down a few picks and got bart I love that scenario.
Speaker 1: He scares me a little bit just based off of
Speaker 1: the motor. I mean, he's got a motor and he's
Speaker 1: a baller, but it's a motor that only runs like
Speaker 1: two or three plays before you have to take him out.
Speaker 1: And then you got to put them back in. He's
Speaker 1: not a three down lineman. And that's what scares me
Speaker 1: a little bit with that. Now that can fit, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean with Tristan Hill, with Neville Gallimore, and you'd
Speaker 1: rotate Christian Barmore in there. It could fit. It could
Speaker 1: be just fine. But that's not what you want out
Speaker 1: of your first round. No, that's not what I want
Speaker 1: ont of my first round. So I think there's just
Speaker 1: better secondary players that you could potentially go get if
Speaker 1: he falls to you in the second at forty four.
Speaker 1: Sure I would be ecstatic about that. Yes, you leave
Speaker 1: it on Zerikie. He could be a three down interior
Speaker 1: defensive lineman. He could be your three technique and be
Speaker 1: a BA pretty quick. I don't know if I could
Speaker 1: say that on air the internet. He could be a
Speaker 1: badass on air or on the field. But I just
Speaker 1: think I think there's better choices if for that rule specifically,
Speaker 1: I think there's a better option there. But Isaiah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask you this question because I specifically know what
Speaker 1: you're going to answer, and I know what Robs Rebuttal
Speaker 1: is going to be. Because I feel like this is
Speaker 1: an argument that we've needed to have on this show
Speaker 1: for quite some time. Is there really is any other
Speaker 1: option other than corner at pick number ten, knowing where
Speaker 1: the needs lie, knowing where the the board falls. Is
Speaker 1: there any other option whatever it comes to a player
Speaker 1: there on the defensive side of the football outside of
Speaker 1: Patrick's or Tanner jac Horn. Yeah, I mean, you know
Speaker 1: where I'm going with him. I'm going right there with
Speaker 1: with Parsons. Yeah, and that's that's my pick. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know all the people out there talking about Kyle Pitts.
Speaker 1: Pitts is going to San Francisco. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: say that right now. That the bed. He'll be in
Speaker 1: San franc He'll be in San franc All right, he'll
Speaker 1: be in San franc What are you willing the bed? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Take him out the table and then uh and then
Speaker 1: so yeah, so Parsons, you know what I mean? Blue
Speaker 1: right past that Again, it's all about It's all about
Speaker 1: the front seven. I don't care how great your secondary is.
Speaker 1: You just heard Hecklist allude to it. If you can't
Speaker 1: get home, it doesn't matter how many dog are vases
Speaker 1: you have or want to be revises you have out there,
Speaker 1: They're gonna get thrown on all day long because you're
Speaker 1: gonna only stick a guy for so long. Right, the
Speaker 1: average average length of a play is what four three
Speaker 1: and a half four seconds something like that. So so
Speaker 1: if that's so, you go past that and you can't
Speaker 1: get home, those guys are getting open. So it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter how good your quote unquote your corners are. That's
Speaker 1: why you have to focus on your front seven because
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, what happened in Seattle, which is
Speaker 1: what we're trying to do plicate, right, and we're trying
Speaker 1: to do plicate what Quinn did years ago, is the
Speaker 1: front the front seven was McNasty as I call it. Okay,
Speaker 1: the front seven was McNasty. And because they were McNasty,
Speaker 1: the guys in the secondary, those four dogs were out
Speaker 1: there able to eat because they were able to play
Speaker 1: more aggressive. Not to say that they didn't have talent.
Speaker 1: We all know that all those guys out there had talent,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to be as good when your
Speaker 1: front seven is amazing and they can get and they
Speaker 1: apply pressure. In addition to the schemes that an amazing
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator can provide, it will put you in position
Speaker 1: to make plays. You don't have to have the excellent corners.
Speaker 1: You can have good corners and have an excellent front seven,
Speaker 1: and now you present a problem to every single team
Speaker 1: that decides to step in front of you. I'm watching
Speaker 1: these highlights of Michael Parsons on Life. It's Mike Singletary. Man,
Speaker 1: this guy, this guy goes sideline to sideline. What I
Speaker 1: would say, though, is he's a linebacker. He's not an
Speaker 1: edge rusher. They use him in blitz situations. He's played
Speaker 1: on the line of scrimmage you little bit at Penn State.
Speaker 1: If he were an edge rusher, an elite edge rush
Speaker 1: straight off the edge, then I would be all about it.
Speaker 1: I think at ten, I just there's not there. Just doesn't.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about bar More, defensive tackle, defensive end,
Speaker 1: there doesn't seem to be that big time top ten
Speaker 1: prospect there this year. For that reason, I'm thinking position wise,
Speaker 1: I would be more inclined to take the cornerback because
Speaker 1: it is a Markie position. It costs a lot of
Speaker 1: money if you if you hit on a Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: player in the top ten, he's under contract for five years. Yep.
Speaker 1: That's big for me. And I still think, you know,
Speaker 1: while front seven. I'm with you there, Isaiah. I still
Speaker 1: think you got to show up your second. The thing is,
Speaker 1: you can talk me into any position on defense. You
Speaker 1: literally can talk me to any position on defense. But
Speaker 1: if it's if it makes an instant impact or if
Speaker 1: it's gonna make you better, and it just seems like corner,
Speaker 1: the value seems to be at that position at time,
Speaker 1: it does. Right, I hear you, I hear you, right,
Speaker 1: go ahead, go ahead. I mean Robin said, But the
Speaker 1: thing with rob is saying that it's not gonna be
Speaker 1: a hard to sell, a hard sell on for him
Speaker 1: to get him. Just don't get me pis. Just don't
Speaker 1: get me piss and I'll be happy. Give me pits
Speaker 1: and I'll be just frying and love. I love it.
Speaker 1: I'm sick. Go ahead, look, man, I am sick of
Speaker 1: seeing last year man watching quarterbacks file their fingernails and
Speaker 1: look for their open receivers. At the same time, I
Speaker 1: don't think not something I'm interested in saying. I think
Speaker 1: that the whole execution of the defense was off. And
Speaker 1: you know that's just stunting everything that we did. We
Speaker 1: just could not get home, and we can't allow that
Speaker 1: to be our reality in twenty twenty one. You look
Speaker 1: around the league and if this is a copycat league,
Speaker 1: look at the Super Bowl champions and who they had
Speaker 1: a linebacker and what they can do. I think that
Speaker 1: a guy like Michael Parsons, if you just just keep
Speaker 1: it real with yourself and look at the highlights that
Speaker 1: you were just looking at, you see a playmaker. I
Speaker 1: mean all the other things that people are saying about him. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about a guy in this game in the
Speaker 1: four three what he can do for the Cowboys if
Speaker 1: you give him, you know, the Kama Kaze mission of
Speaker 1: getting home. He shows you that he could do that.
Speaker 1: He did it in college, he'll do it in the pros.
Speaker 1: So heck, did you just say a guy in the
Speaker 1: four to three who just happens to run of forty three?
Speaker 1: Is that? Is that? What I see? How that was?
Speaker 1: You said that? You said I did that? Right there?
Speaker 1: Listen here, Rock, Yes, I don't disagree you need a secondary,
Speaker 1: but be real with yourself. Right since we're talking about
Speaker 1: keep it in one hunting right on this Monday, we
Speaker 1: don't have to keep it real Fridays right now, we
Speaker 1: gotta keep it real mondays. If you say it with
Speaker 1: your chests, say with your chest. If you're in Kansas City,
Speaker 1: you're coming in here. If you're a Green Bay, you're
Speaker 1: coming here. I don't care who it is. Are you
Speaker 1: afraid of digs in certain if I'm I'm not afraid
Speaker 1: of anything much. No, No, not afraid of it. I
Speaker 1: don't care what team you're, what team walks in here,
Speaker 1: or what team you go with. Play. You're not afraid
Speaker 1: of those two's guys, No disrespect, good good players. You're
Speaker 1: not afraid of corners. There's very few corners in this
Speaker 1: league that have ever been that guy that you's like,
Speaker 1: I just can't throw that way. Very few, very few
Speaker 1: that we can name it an entire hissing Yeah, very
Speaker 1: very few guys that you just say, guess what, that
Speaker 1: side of the field's walled off. I'm just not going
Speaker 1: over there, right. Everybody else They got to show me, right.
Speaker 1: But there's plenty of defenses that we can name in history.
Speaker 1: Or you're like, crap, I'm not fooling with these boys.
Speaker 1: Front seven. We gotta get the ball out, we gotta
Speaker 1: get the ball out. Quit because guess what. Either the
Speaker 1: de line is gonna get home or guess what the
Speaker 1: d line is gonna consume the office of linement and
Speaker 1: the linebackers there they're running with their hair with their
Speaker 1: hair on fire, and they can shoot the gap or
Speaker 1: like you just said, they can run sideline the sideline.
Speaker 1: Oh and they're all six four oh and they got
Speaker 1: long arms. Come on, man, these dudes can cover the
Speaker 1: entire second level and office A line not be able
Speaker 1: to work up to them. You can't account for linebackers.
Speaker 1: You can account for deep as alignment. If you have
Speaker 1: an amazing defensive end, I can chip on you all
Speaker 1: day long. I can said another tight end over there too,
Speaker 1: you I can, I can. I can neutralize you as
Speaker 1: a deep as alignment. If you're a cornerback, I can
Speaker 1: run hot routes. I can run screens over there, I
Speaker 1: can run squat slants. One step now is making I
Speaker 1: can neutral I can neutralize you linebackers. You can't neutralize linebackers.
Speaker 1: So when you have three hungry young dogs out there
Speaker 1: that can run around, they have good size on them,
Speaker 1: six three six four two hundred forty two hundred forty
Speaker 1: five pounds and they can run all three of them.
Speaker 1: Okayess what you become dangerous. I completely agree with what
Speaker 1: you're saying. In the foundations of football, having a good
Speaker 1: front seven is better than having a bad front seven.
Speaker 1: I completely agree. But you also you brought up to
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You brought up how they built
Speaker 1: their team, right, Yeah, that front seven is just nasty.
Speaker 1: I mean they are just doggone impressive. Sure, how many
Speaker 1: of those guys did they select? And where did they
Speaker 1: select those guys? And where is the contract value kind
Speaker 1: of allocated throughout there? The highest paid corner on their team,
Speaker 1: by the way, right this second is their twenty first
Speaker 1: highest played player on their team. You know why because
Speaker 1: they're starting three corners were all drafted in the last
Speaker 1: three years, and they were all drafted in the first
Speaker 1: or the second day. So I think overall, you're talking
Speaker 1: about premium picks that give you cheap contracts at a
Speaker 1: premium position like cornerback, that allow you to be free
Speaker 1: to make additions elsewhere where. You're able to go and
Speaker 1: go and get an edge rusher that's established, You're able
Speaker 1: to go get a defensive tackle that's established. Sure, the
Speaker 1: Cowboys haven't proved to any of us that that's a
Speaker 1: possible thing, because they want to go find these bargains.
Speaker 1: That's the frustrating thing. But the way that things have
Speaker 1: kind of turned out for Tampa Bay, and if you're
Speaker 1: going to compare the Cowboys to Tampa Bay, look at
Speaker 1: where they're drafting these players and looked at where they're
Speaker 1: getting at. Sure, they've spent high end picks on edge
Speaker 1: rushers in the past. Sure they've done that with guys
Speaker 1: like Devin White at the linebacker spot. That's a thing.
Speaker 1: Sure because he was a player that was in that
Speaker 1: spot that was highly touted enough coming out of college
Speaker 1: to where he was worth it. I don't think there's
Speaker 1: that player in that trap. That's why I think the
Speaker 1: cornerback spot and keeping things cheaper on the outside where
Speaker 1: your top two corners, which would be either Treyvon Diggs
Speaker 1: or whoever you draft this year, are gonna be cheap
Speaker 1: for the next five years. That that's really clever the
Speaker 1: way you tried to do that, Kyle. But I was
Speaker 1: condidned that, Yeah, that's clever. I like that. But if
Speaker 1: you asked Bruce arians which would he have rather had
Speaker 1: the defensive line under contract versus those secondary guys. If
Speaker 1: he could have drafted Jason Pierre Paul and an In
Speaker 1: Dumbinkan Seul and guys like that. He would have rather
Speaker 1: drafted those guys and feel those resip He just had
Speaker 1: the luxury, right, right, He had the luxury to be
Speaker 1: able to do that. I mean, look, this is a
Speaker 1: necessity for us. This is the necessity part. We have
Speaker 1: to find playmakers and impact players. We think that we
Speaker 1: have a few, or we have one, uh in Tank Lawrence,
Speaker 1: but outside of that, everybody else has a question mark.
Speaker 1: So look, you have to start build the building blocks
Speaker 1: the foundation of your team. It starts up front. Whether
Speaker 1: it be Neville Gallimore, whether it's Tristan Hill, whether it's
Speaker 1: Antoine Woods, all of those things. We still need guys
Speaker 1: that are gonna make an impact on the front in
Speaker 1: front for us, the back half are linebackers. We realize
Speaker 1: there's a void there. If we can get better at
Speaker 1: the linebacker position, then great safety. There's a legitimate need
Speaker 1: back there at safety because he doesn't solidify anything. Okay,
Speaker 1: So when you're talking about what's going on on the outside,
Speaker 1: all of that's cosmetic, Kyle, Okay, look kind of like
Speaker 1: this cosmetic, right did you look at the sea tape
Speaker 1: and say that's cosmetically because it was pretty bad. Hey Kyle, Kyle,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you right now, if I'm a cornerback,
Speaker 1: if I'm a veteran cornerback, because that's where you're also
Speaker 1: going to feel in some of these voids after the draft.
Speaker 1: Let's not be mistaken. You're gonna draft young corner. You
Speaker 1: are gonna grab a young corner in this draft. But
Speaker 1: there's also guys like Richard Sherman sitting back there chilling
Speaker 1: right now. It's just training, just training and waiting to see.
Speaker 1: Guess what how dominant is it front seven gonna be?
Speaker 1: To determine how much work I'm gonna have to put in.
Speaker 1: I'm just being I'm being real with you guys. You
Speaker 1: guys don't want to hear this. This is the real quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: You have to work harder if you don't have a
Speaker 1: solid front seven. Question. That's just how football works. So
Speaker 1: absolutely so, there's premium. There's still premium veteran guys who
Speaker 1: are willing to come get the bread and go after
Speaker 1: a super Bowl. If the front seven looks good drafts,
Speaker 1: what I can go out here and I can mentor
Speaker 1: these guys. I can show these young bucks how to
Speaker 1: do this thing. And guess what I will rotate through
Speaker 1: And because of the front seven, I don't have to
Speaker 1: come out here and be what I used to be.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's the reality, guys. I know of your argument, Hyle,
Speaker 1: everybody was all these guys out there, No, they don't
Speaker 1: have to be at the top of their game. These
Speaker 1: guys just have to simply just be good and be
Speaker 1: mentors and be vets. And guess what I'll I'll take it.
Speaker 1: I'll take a little tax break. I'll take a tax
Speaker 1: breaking him out here. It helped these young bucks along
Speaker 1: in a in a system that I'm familiar with. And
Speaker 1: guess what, if y'all take care of that up front,
Speaker 1: I'll come in there. I'll come in. But if you
Speaker 1: got it, you don't take care of that up front.
Speaker 1: I'm not sticking these dudes that y'all about the face
Speaker 1: issue for six seven seconds. I'm not doing it. Okay,
Speaker 1: but we've stabbed, We've established they need a lot of
Speaker 1: help and a lot of spots. Yeah, So if they
Speaker 1: draft Michael Parsons at ten linebacker line but not a
Speaker 1: not a edge rusher, that's gonna played that right d
Speaker 1: spot then Alton Smith played last year. Don't need it, okay,
Speaker 1: but if you you get him in place, is the
Speaker 1: front seven so infinitely better that. Like you said on
Speaker 1: the back end, you just gotta you just gotta be okay.
Speaker 1: You just gotta be okay. I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I mean that's actually I'm not no, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: you're done. Don't let me don't know. I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: sure that I'm clear on this. We're not done making
Speaker 1: your acquisitions. You are nowhere near done. However, I feel
Speaker 1: really good about my friend about Dallas's front seven. If
Speaker 1: you put Parsons in there, I feel really good about it.
Speaker 1: With some of the other pick that they've already acquired
Speaker 1: early in the offseason, I feel good. Do I feel
Speaker 1: like amazing about it? Not yet, not until i'll see
Speaker 1: these guys all work together. But guess what I'm feeling,
Speaker 1: dog because I know at least I got some dogs
Speaker 1: that are hungry. They're gonna run around and they're gonna
Speaker 1: get after the quarterback. And guess what, you picked up
Speaker 1: the big the big dog on Gargantuan in the middle.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna run the ball up the middle right,
Speaker 1: you got a couple of guys who got Tristan Heal,
Speaker 1: we got Gallimore. We got some young guns, some dogs
Speaker 1: that are up front. We know they can play, we
Speaker 1: know they have a drive, we know they have a motor, right,
Speaker 1: and these guys are gonna continue to get better, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna get coached up by one of the best
Speaker 1: defensive coaches. So we is going to get better. But
Speaker 1: secondary is easier to feel with veterans for the discount
Speaker 1: double check than it is defensive lineman. That's the real
Speaker 1: I agree to a certain extent. But also, whenever we're
Speaker 1: talking about the draft, you have to draft where the
Speaker 1: draft allows you to draft. I mean, that's just plain
Speaker 1: and simple, where the value is, and the value in
Speaker 1: this draft with edge rusher's defensive lineman, you can talk
Speaker 1: about linebackers, front seven, whatever, all the front seven you
Speaker 1: can get in the Day two part of the draft, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, you have three picks, you could pick
Speaker 1: two guys if you wanted to to get that dude.
Speaker 1: I don't think Michael Parsons is that guy. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's that guy. That's that you say, all right,
Speaker 1: let's let's forget about getting a guy day two, and
Speaker 1: let's go find a guy day one and just solidify
Speaker 1: that spot. No, cornerback is that position. That's where the
Speaker 1: value lies early in the draft. I mean you can
Speaker 1: talk about offensive tackle there, you can talk about cornerback
Speaker 1: and talk about wide receiver pass catcher. Of course, that's
Speaker 1: not a need. Corner is a need. It is a
Speaker 1: glaring need right now for this team. And whenever you
Speaker 1: haven't pick at ten, you can make that selection and
Speaker 1: then go and get an edge rusher later on in
Speaker 1: rounds two or three that can be a starter for you.
Speaker 1: You're talking about him already, Tristan Hill, Neville Gallimore. You're
Speaker 1: you're relying a lot on those guys already. They were
Speaker 1: Day two picks. They weren't top ten picks. I think
Speaker 1: there's I think there's two different game plans, right, There's
Speaker 1: two different approaches. I think the approach to heck on
Speaker 1: myself are taking. I think we can go ahead split
Speaker 1: this up now on myself are taking an approach or
Speaker 1: what guys are going to have the most impact on
Speaker 1: our team right in our team, not which guys are
Speaker 1: necessarily the best in this draft. There's two different ways
Speaker 1: that you approach this. You can pick the best player available,
Speaker 1: right they're always guys always do that all the time.
Speaker 1: But does that feel the void that your team needs
Speaker 1: to be most dominant right now? Yeah? I can you
Speaker 1: argue that Patrick Certant is a better player than Parsons.
Speaker 1: You can make that argument. But but it does putting
Speaker 1: him on your team right now make you more dominant
Speaker 1: or does it just give you better outlook in terms
Speaker 1: of the future. You put Parsons on your team and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, your fresh seven unit is more dominant.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm writing about. You have to change
Speaker 1: your mindset to say, oh, well, this player is gonna
Speaker 1: he's great in college, he's gonna be great in the league. Yeah,
Speaker 1: down a road, down a role. But is he gonna
Speaker 1: have that impact right now? Is he gonna go out
Speaker 1: line up and stop freaking freaking heal and and and
Speaker 1: and everybody else is going to give you a better
Speaker 1: chance than than Reggie Robinson, and Rio Jones is going
Speaker 1: to rout You's going to round Chard Robinson. I mean,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, Kyle, You know this.
Speaker 1: It does because Peter c Anda stopping Mike Emson. These guys,
Speaker 1: they're not. Nobody else has stopping, so'll just be real
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, this is a sect of fact. Their
Speaker 1: receivers are going to win. Let's get home before they
Speaker 1: get old. When it comes right down to it, just
Speaker 1: give me defense, Give me defense. I'll high five you,
Speaker 1: Isaiah through the screen man. Just just give me defense.
Speaker 1: I don't agree with you, Isaiah, and I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: not going to change. But I do agree in the
Speaker 1: fact that we are going to be a better team
Speaker 1: after pick number ten. Hopefully, I mean, I just that
Speaker 1: better be. I don't know. If not. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of extra arguments on this show. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to take our second break when we
Speaker 1: come back. What are the biggest shoes to fill on
Speaker 1: that defensive side. I feel like we've already hit a
Speaker 1: lot of that in our argument, but we'll talk about
Speaker 1: it a little more when we come back. Here. I'm
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Speaker 1: in Cowboys. I'm exhausted after that last segment. I'm just
Speaker 1: I need another coffee. But you know what I'm not
Speaker 1: exhausted of is hearing with my bows quiet comfort earbuds.
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Speaker 1: Man Isaiah got hooked up with Bows headphones and oh
Speaker 1: he got him. He does. Yeah, looked their phone. He
Speaker 1: got it. He got He got hooked up with Bows
Speaker 1: headphones and Selor lenses in like the span of one week. Heck,
Speaker 1: what's it like, though, Rob, It's like a symphony in
Speaker 1: my head. Yeah, yeah, that's symphony. He just popped back
Speaker 1: up with glasses. Oh my gosh. It's all about that
Speaker 1: product placement, baby, all of it. Put it Dad on
Speaker 1: the I look like my dad. If I wear them
Speaker 1: like this, I don't like this. I don't. I don't.
Speaker 1: That's that's the uncle. I'm trying to say. That's that's
Speaker 1: that's that's the barbecue. Uncle. Give me the game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but hay me that hand me that paper plate. Put
Speaker 1: a little next. Oh goodness, all right, this is good.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is uh final three minutes. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask you rapid fire questions. Look at the roster right now,
Speaker 1: whatever the moves have been made in the past. Is
Speaker 1: there a position or multiple positions that stand out as
Speaker 1: having the most need entering this draft. I'm not even
Speaker 1: talking about premium picks. I'm just saying we need players
Speaker 1: here that can be young, good. Whatever you want to say, Rob,
Speaker 1: I'll let you start off. But is there a position
Speaker 1: that sticks out to you right now anywhere on the
Speaker 1: defensive side of the football. Honestly, I've been I've been
Speaker 1: saying defensive tackle for months, and I still kind of
Speaker 1: I think Heck kind of alluded to it, Like I'm
Speaker 1: still you could still find a big time tackle that
Speaker 1: could disrupt things in the middle and stop the run
Speaker 1: along with your free agent editions. Like I'm I'm still
Speaker 1: on board with that. Um, I mean, we covered corn
Speaker 1: and linebacker, and I'm not in disagreement about linebacker depth
Speaker 1: and talent. Like Isaiah said Alton Smith leaving you know,
Speaker 1: Randy Gregory can step in at edge rusher, but you
Speaker 1: could Abash Hims there, but you could use another edge rusher.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, like it sounds boring, but it's really
Speaker 1: give me a playmaker anywhere, and I'm happy about it. Isaiah,
Speaker 1: I'm going with I'm gonna go with we need a
Speaker 1: corner we need a corner. I think we want a linebacker. Um,
Speaker 1: I want to throw things. I'm so frustrated. Talk about positions.
Speaker 1: We talk about positions, right we are, Yes, we are.
Speaker 1: We're talking about position. We need corner. How you okay, bra,
Speaker 1: He's not take it take it from there? All right?
Speaker 1: Well I'm gonna Hey, I'm gonna start with safety. We
Speaker 1: need we need a safety. Um, I don't think we
Speaker 1: didn't fix anything. We have a because he that we
Speaker 1: signed from Atlanta. It's like that an achilles rupture. So
Speaker 1: don't know how he's gonna heal for that, but we define.
Speaker 1: I want to see us go into the draft and
Speaker 1: get one of these, uh safeties. But I'm gonna stay
Speaker 1: with the linebacker position. That needs to be depth at it.
Speaker 1: We need a playmaker. Uh. You know, Layton vander Esch
Speaker 1: is in the point where will the Cowboys pick up
Speaker 1: his fifth year option? There are a lot of question
Speaker 1: marks there, and I think drafting a stud linebacker pretty
Speaker 1: much puts a lot of things in perspectives and lights
Speaker 1: of fire under a lot of guys. We've been talked
Speaker 1: about counting Neil though he doesn't make you feel better
Speaker 1: at that position, even if he's kind of moonlighting there
Speaker 1: at two hundred and fifteen pounds, he doesn't make you
Speaker 1: feel better there, and he's coming down, he's coming down,
Speaker 1: and he said it moonlighting. He said it. He's moonlighting.
Speaker 1: So that's not gonna be you know it in and out.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to make this fages. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: you guy, Okay, no, I thank you. Outside of owner,
Speaker 1: there are three positions that I think you need to
Speaker 1: pick up guys in and I think it's safety because
Speaker 1: the exact same reason that Heckma just alluded to is
Speaker 1: Keyan O'Neil and demonte Kazi could both be guys that
Speaker 1: are good, like they could both be high ceiling signings.
Speaker 1: But it's not likely. I mean, you have a zero
Speaker 1: idea what they're gonna be. Keona Neil could come in
Speaker 1: and be an absolute stud. I mean, he's made a
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl before, he was on the upward trajectory as
Speaker 1: the season was ending last year. He could be really good.
Speaker 1: Who knows. He could also be terrible and not play
Speaker 1: a couple but a couple of snaps all year long.
Speaker 1: Who knows. So safety is one of them. The other
Speaker 1: one is ed Rusher and the other one is offensive tackle,
Speaker 1: even though you've signed Tynesseki to kind of be that
Speaker 1: swing tackle position. I want a guy to groom for
Speaker 1: the future, not necessarily to start this year, but I
Speaker 1: want I want to get somebody who's going to be
Speaker 1: the next the heir to the throne of Tyrn Smith.
Speaker 1: And then of course Lyle Collins is pretty good on
Speaker 1: the right side, so I want to go get a
Speaker 1: left tackle. That's that's one of my positions that you
Speaker 1: need to go and get. But that's gonna do it
Speaker 1: for us here on Talking Cowboys. Hope you learned something,
Speaker 1: Hope you enjoyed yourself over the last hour. We will
Speaker 1: be back next Monday, eleven thirty Central Time here from
Speaker 1: the SWBC Mortgage Studios. Hopefully I'm gonna put a pressure,
Speaker 1: a little pressure on our bosses upstairs. Hopefully all four
Speaker 1: of us will be in studio next week, because it's
Speaker 1: the week of the draft and it would be the
Speaker 1: third show ever that we would ever be in person for.
Speaker 1: So I'll chop to that. How about that for Rock Collops,
Speaker 1: for Rock Phillips, for the uncle at the barbecue I
Speaker 1: saw him stand back for Harrison for christ be I'm Kyleman.
Speaker 1: So long from talking Cowboys. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.