Speaker 1: The following. Here's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Cowboys, Let's go. Are
Speaker 1: you ready for a break? Yes? Are you ready for
Speaker 1: a break? Absolutely ready for a break? Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: much for that. It's time for the break on Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys dot Com. Were with Nick Eatman, Brian brought us
Speaker 1: and bar Garcia and Derek Eagleton. It is Wednesday, February eight,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, Season eighteen, episode number one, fifteen. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the latest edition of The Break Off s WBC
Speaker 1: Morgage Studios at the Star, represented by Miller Litte, the
Speaker 1: only beer of the Dallas Cowboys. We don't have two
Speaker 1: of our folks in with us today, Nick Eatman Brian
Speaker 1: brought us both. Actually Nick's heading to Super Bowl right now.
Speaker 1: Brian's already at Bowl, so they got things they're doing
Speaker 1: out in Arizona. We are blessed though, today to have
Speaker 1: my guy hitting with us. Patrick No c Walker from
Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys gets a chance to see how the real
Speaker 1: big dogs do it. Yes, every time we can, we
Speaker 1: give you a chance to come over here and maybe
Speaker 1: and as I was explaining before we went on the air,
Speaker 1: I don't know. You and Amver sit close to each other,
Speaker 1: so you might already know this. But on the air, man,
Speaker 1: she's a whole different person. On the air, she can
Speaker 1: get a little feisty. Sometimes we have to settle her
Speaker 1: down a little bit so she's the exact same thing
Speaker 1: and all good, perfect, okay, good good. It won't be
Speaker 1: a surprised. It will not be a surprise. Then when
Speaker 1: she starts kind of giving her full full opinions on
Speaker 1: this team, Uh, we're gonna talk about today what we
Speaker 1: typically do this time of the year. It's the show
Speaker 1: where we start trying to figure out how do we
Speaker 1: fix whatever is wrong. Cowboys, although they had, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: what I would consider to be somewhat of a successful
Speaker 1: season going twelve and five, getting the playoffs, getting a
Speaker 1: playoff win, still didn't get over that hump that everybody
Speaker 1: wants them to get over. And so now the question becomes,
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy, how do you get over that hump? He
Speaker 1: got a team that we feel like has a good
Speaker 1: amount of talent. How do we get them over that
Speaker 1: hump to get them to that next level, to get
Speaker 1: them to that championship game, possibly get them to that
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and ultimately winning a Super Bowl. That's what
Speaker 1: we're gonna start talking about today. Before we get there, though,
Speaker 1: I want to start with Brian Schottenheimer. Cowboys announced this
Speaker 1: week that Brian Schottenheimer has been hired as a new
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. I want both of you guys to tell
Speaker 1: me what do you think this means. Obviously we know
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy's calling plays, but what does disposition mean and
Speaker 1: what do you think it brings to this team. Well,
Speaker 1: for me, it means that the Cowboys offense is going
Speaker 1: to look slightly different going into twenty twenty three for
Speaker 1: obvious reason. It's not simply because you're looking at the
Speaker 1: difference between two offensive coordinators. But primarily the reason it
Speaker 1: doesn't the promotion doesn't necessarily move the needle for me
Speaker 1: too much right or too much left. It's because, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it is it is Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy calling in the plays. So I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: if Schottenheimer can bring the what i'll call prime Brian
Speaker 1: to the equation. And the prime Brian would be three
Speaker 1: of the four years he was in Seattle they had
Speaker 1: a top ten offense. Now, granted that was with Prime
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson. But we've also seen what Prime Dak can do.
Speaker 1: So if Dak can reel end the interceptions, which I
Speaker 1: believe he can because that's uncharacteristic of him, QB coach
Speaker 1: change that could affect it as well. So if we
Speaker 1: can get Prime Dak, the one who was an MVP
Speaker 1: candidate or in that conversation not two or three years ago,
Speaker 1: Schottenheimer brings over some intricacies that can help advance Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy's Green Bay play calling system. It could be something
Speaker 1: that helps the Cowboys get over the hump because, like
Speaker 1: you said, it was successful twelve and five twenty four
Speaker 1: regular season wins over the past two years, but now
Speaker 1: they're bumping their head up against the ceiling and that
Speaker 1: ceiling might require some changes. Well, he is a guy that,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, he has the experience, and I would
Speaker 1: assume Mike McCarthy was part of this decision. Kellen Moore
Speaker 1: was the guy that was already here, and he praised
Speaker 1: Kellen Moore a whole lot when he was coming in.
Speaker 1: He was excited to work with him. But now this
Speaker 1: is all on Mike McCarthy's like, this is his decision.
Speaker 1: This is what he's gonna do. He's the one calling
Speaker 1: the place. I thought something that was interesting Will McClay
Speaker 1: he talked during the Senior Bowl and he did mention something.
Speaker 1: You know, with his scouts, when they go out and
Speaker 1: scout talent, it can be challenging sometimes when you have
Speaker 1: a different coach position coach in those moving parts, because
Speaker 1: you're still trying to learn what they're looking for, what
Speaker 1: are they the type of players that they're attracted to
Speaker 1: or wanting to incorporate in the team. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because this is a guy that has already been here
Speaker 1: and you still have the Mike McCarthy. He's gonna be
Speaker 1: calling the play, so you have continuity in that aspect.
Speaker 1: So I think having somebody that's not completely fully from
Speaker 1: the outside it's going to help a little bit with
Speaker 1: that transition and still help the scouts in that way
Speaker 1: to try to bring in guys that now Mike McCarthy's wanting.
Speaker 1: He's wanting because what was his last year he was
Speaker 1: kind of like a consultant. Yeah, he was a consultant.
Speaker 1: He was he was with the team. Obviously spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time with team. I see him on the
Speaker 1: plane yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he was kind of up,
Speaker 1: But I wonder how much he really was doing. Typically,
Speaker 1: but that's the thing typically for consultants, like what they're
Speaker 1: really doing. They're observing if there are special projects, Hey
Speaker 1: we're looking at this team, what are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 1: Like they're there for their expertise. They don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: a role all the time. Now that we don't know
Speaker 1: exactly what he's doing, but consultants in general typically don't
Speaker 1: have a role all the time where it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: every game you're gonna do this, this, this, this, and this.
Speaker 1: It's more like, okay, well, hey, what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on this? How would you do this? Hey we need
Speaker 1: this extra help over here? Can you help out with this?
Speaker 1: Like that's kind of the role I would assume typically
Speaker 1: of a consultant. That's what I would assume he was doing.
Speaker 1: But here's the deal. The reason why it matters, and
Speaker 1: I think he goes to what you're saying, Amber is
Speaker 1: the word I keep hearing around the building is alignment.
Speaker 1: I think the way the way that I look at
Speaker 1: this is this is just one more thing that tells
Speaker 1: me they want to get this thing all aligned and
Speaker 1: really it's going to be aligned up to Mike McCarthy.
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy's ultimately going to be responsible for this offense.
Speaker 1: And so when you look at all the coaches that
Speaker 1: aren't coming back to me, I look at it and say, alignment.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, are you getting guys that are
Speaker 1: going to be completely aligned with the direction and how
Speaker 1: Mike wants to do the offense, how he wants the
Speaker 1: offense to function. Because it was kind of pieced together
Speaker 1: in a little different kind of way. Obviously, Kellen Moore
Speaker 1: was already here and and Mike said he was good
Speaker 1: with that. He was he was okay with the idea
Speaker 1: that Kellen was here, And quite frankly, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: it would have necessarily changed had not. You know, my
Speaker 1: personal opinion that maybe Kellen was as much a part
Speaker 1: of that decision as the Cowboys that Kellen wanted to leave.
Speaker 1: But all that being said, I do think a lot
Speaker 1: of this has to do with alignment. If Mike's gonna
Speaker 1: call the plays and Mike's gonna run the offense, my
Speaker 1: suspicion is Mike's gonna want guys that know what he
Speaker 1: wants that aligns with his philosophies offensively so that it
Speaker 1: makes it a lot easier to accomplish the things he
Speaker 1: wants to accomplish, and do it quickly. He don't have
Speaker 1: four or five years to figure this out. He's got
Speaker 1: to do it pretty quick. And for me, going back
Speaker 1: to and I love the fact that Ambery you touched
Speaker 1: on what McClay said about his scouting department. The play
Speaker 1: calling style that's now about to be deployed via Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy with an in coordination with Brian Schottenheimer. It's going
Speaker 1: to be more of the West Coast style. So if
Speaker 1: you go back, if you look at some of the
Speaker 1: more successful West Coast offenses. Let's talk about the team
Speaker 1: that has now elimited the Cowboys in two consecutive postseasons,
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan and that West Coast offense in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: He deploys a lot of motions, but at the base
Speaker 1: of it, it still get the ball out quickly, depend
Speaker 1: on your playmakers. Tell your playmakers to turn this four
Speaker 1: yard catch into a ten yard overall reception. The Cowboys
Speaker 1: need to make sure they have the personnel to operate
Speaker 1: efficiently in the offense that's to come Ceedee Lamb has
Speaker 1: proven he can be that guy. Michael Gallup win healthy
Speaker 1: and now he will have a complete offseason. He's now
Speaker 1: recovering from the scope on the right knee and the
Speaker 1: right ankle for those that didn't know, that's also not
Speaker 1: the same knee and that he told the ACL Lamb.
Speaker 1: But if a healthy Michael Gallop plus Ceedee Lamb and
Speaker 1: you would have to look at free agency. Maybe. I
Speaker 1: know they're going to try to develop Jaylen toil More,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna go back after Obj. See if that happens,
Speaker 1: I would love for them. I'm on the record I
Speaker 1: want t Y Hilton back in the building. If you
Speaker 1: can get the right personnel, those playmakers. Jake Ferguson will
Speaker 1: talk about the tight end position here shortly. Peyton Hendershot,
Speaker 1: he's a playmaker. When you get the ball in his hands,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to stack your offensive weapons for Dak Prescott.
Speaker 1: Those types of players that you can get the ball
Speaker 1: out quickly and then depend on them to get yet
Speaker 1: because this West Coast offense and any kind of type
Speaker 1: of variation for it, sorry requires yards after the catch.
Speaker 1: So make sure you have that personnel. I will say
Speaker 1: this though, and I want to be clear about this,
Speaker 1: even though we think that might happen. Fact the matter is,
Speaker 1: we don't know how Mike's gonna handle. It's true, Mike
Speaker 1: could go into this whole thing and say, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be calling plays, but I like what Kellen
Speaker 1: Moore was doing from an offensive philosophy standpoint, and we
Speaker 1: might continue to do that. Or he might say, you know,
Speaker 1: I figured out a hybrid between maybe some of the
Speaker 1: stuff Kellen's doing and some of the stuff I used
Speaker 1: to do, and now that's what we're gonna do. So
Speaker 1: I wouldn't go as far as to say it is
Speaker 1: a foregone conclusion that this will be a West Coast
Speaker 1: style offense. What I would say is that's what Mike
Speaker 1: did before Kellen's been doing what he's been doing. Where
Speaker 1: does this end up? How has Mike evolved? Because my
Speaker 1: suspicion is Mike has evolved. He's probably not the same
Speaker 1: play caller that he was when he was in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: and by the way, he probably at that point had
Speaker 1: different person Probably he had different personnel at that point.
Speaker 1: He may not think that personnel fits here, or that
Speaker 1: philosophy fits here, that scheme fits here with the players
Speaker 1: that he has. So we'll wait and see, and I
Speaker 1: want to say I'll be interested to see once we
Speaker 1: get the training camera what this offense looks like with
Speaker 1: Mike call in the plays and implementing whatever he decides them.
Speaker 1: And we spoke about it off the offline, off the record.
Speaker 1: As far as I believe that to your point, he's
Speaker 1: going to take the best of Kellen Moore, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's going to scrap the entire tire Kellen Moore
Speaker 1: playbook because that would be kinterproductive in trying to get
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott back to prime level. Right, So there has
Speaker 1: to be, to your point, Ambar, some type of continuity,
Speaker 1: not only in whom you're naming the offensive coordinator someone
Speaker 1: who is in the building, but in the playbook as well,
Speaker 1: in the language as well. So there's going to be
Speaker 1: For me, I believe a lot of the best of
Speaker 1: Kellen Moore that remains, but you'll see that mixed with
Speaker 1: some of the best of the Mike McCarthy Super Bowl
Speaker 1: Green Bay era and then see how Schottenheimer can kind
Speaker 1: of mix it in into that. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: that's the really cool part. And I hate every year
Speaker 1: because we get to the end result that's not obtained,
Speaker 1: the major goal is not obtained. But and now I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm done. I'm done. I'm freaking done.
Speaker 1: But then we hit this point where we start looking
Speaker 1: at things that we're interested in seeing and possibly it
Speaker 1: sparking a new little fire in you of excitement and
Speaker 1: wanting to see because I think it is pretty cool
Speaker 1: that he has that kind of experience where you've experienced
Speaker 1: both types of offense and then you can start picking
Speaker 1: out what really works and then hopefully now figure out
Speaker 1: exactly how to better cater to a quarterback like Dak Prescott. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting you say that. I was Mencini's my wife.
Speaker 1: We were literally having this conversation two or three days
Speaker 1: ago about fandom and how you kind of manage that
Speaker 1: feeling you're talking about, and I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I've come to this conclude and it's not just the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: it's Texas for me, because they are the organizations mirror
Speaker 1: each other so much, just in the fan basis, how
Speaker 1: the world looks at us versus how we look at ourselves,
Speaker 1: Like oh, it's just so just the same thing. But
Speaker 1: I told my wife. One of the things I figured
Speaker 1: out that that I think is a healthy perspective is
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it season by season, and what that
Speaker 1: means is, by February or March of every year, I'm
Speaker 1: going to allow myself to just say I don't care
Speaker 1: about what happened in the past. I'm gonna start over
Speaker 1: with this team and we'll see where it takes me.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna get excited in the moments I get excited.
Speaker 1: Big wins will mean something to me. I will not
Speaker 1: allow myself to be like, but what's gonna happen when
Speaker 1: it comes time for the real game, like the big game.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna take every
Speaker 1: season as it is and take the ride, and wherever
Speaker 1: it takes me, that's where it's gonna take me. If
Speaker 1: it ends in disappointment, I'm gonna have that disappointment, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get to February. I'm gonna tuck that away, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna move on to the next season, because otherwise
Speaker 1: it doesn't make sports fun, right if you're If you're
Speaker 1: the other way, then you're like, man, what's after a while,
Speaker 1: it's like, why am I even doing this? And it
Speaker 1: kills the whole fun of sports. So I ain't doing it.
Speaker 1: I'm not getting on that. I'm doing it from now on.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna allow myself year and like that that
Speaker 1: was me last year. I'm like, I might work, this
Speaker 1: is work. Let me just stay. We gotta do this,
Speaker 1: we gotta get through this. But then things start happening
Speaker 1: throughout the season that you get start getting pulled back
Speaker 1: in and reeled back in, and I'm like, dare it?
Speaker 1: Are hated this? But um, there's still there's always there's
Speaker 1: always something to look forward to. So well, the good
Speaker 1: news is is the Cowboys are showing progress. And granted,
Speaker 1: two things can be true at the same time. One,
Speaker 1: they did not achieve their ultimate goal last year. That's
Speaker 1: that's effect. What's also affect is they made progress last year.
Speaker 1: Year over year, they went twelve and five for two
Speaker 1: consecutive seasons, two consecutive postseason appearances, got eliminated in the
Speaker 1: wild card last postseason, made it to the divisional round
Speaker 1: this postseason. Well, logic dictates that as long as you
Speaker 1: can make the necessary tweaks at minimum, maybe you should
Speaker 1: be I mean, the next step in progress is the
Speaker 1: NFC Championship, right, So that's they're trying to make the
Speaker 1: next step. The needle is pointing in that direction, the
Speaker 1: trajectory is aimed in that direction. So that's that those
Speaker 1: are things to get excited about. You know that you're
Speaker 1: going to get a one hundred percent Michael Gallup back
Speaker 1: in camp versus the Michael Gallup who is trying to
Speaker 1: return from a torn acl in season and trying to
Speaker 1: regain his swagger on the fly, which is a much
Speaker 1: more difficult task. You know that they're going to be
Speaker 1: at least more aggressive in free agency than they have
Speaker 1: been in the past because they just showed you that
Speaker 1: Jason Peters Anthony Barr, you're going to trade for Jonathan Hell?
Speaker 1: Does that? Is that more aggressive or is that more
Speaker 1: of what they've been willing to do because what they've
Speaker 1: been willing to do over the years is, well, we
Speaker 1: will we will go out and get the guys that
Speaker 1: we can get at a time and a price that
Speaker 1: makes sense. A better hit rate. Let's say that. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's better hit rate because you're talking about Anthony bar
Speaker 1: and a Jason Peters versus let's say a Gerald McCoy
Speaker 1: and a Don Terry Poe, so better hit rate. I'd
Speaker 1: say the caliber of name would be similar respective to
Speaker 1: their off seasons that they were brought into Dallas. But
Speaker 1: the hit rate was phenomenal for the free agents that
Speaker 1: the Cowboys did bring in, and then the heat hit
Speaker 1: rate for the twenty twenty two NFL Draft was just
Speaker 1: through the roof. Jayleen Tilbert. Notwithstanding, but as of today,
Speaker 1: we had we had this conversation as of today, as
Speaker 1: of today, but ultimately there are things to be excited about.
Speaker 1: It's not a rebuilt season for the Cowboys, and now
Speaker 1: you're just looking for them to, like I said, stop
Speaker 1: bumping their head against the ceiling, like just now it's
Speaker 1: time to blow to the roof off. All right, now
Speaker 1: it's time to fix this thing. We're gonna take a break.
Speaker 1: When we come back, We're gonna go position by position.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start with the offensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: and each of these uh, these analysts are gonna tell
Speaker 1: us what one thing, if they had one thing that
Speaker 1: they would fix that they think needs to be fixed,
Speaker 1: what would that be? What would be that focus for
Speaker 1: that position. We'll do that when we come back Dallas
Speaker 1: cowboys dot com Radio. Todd thought it would be secure
Speaker 1: to jog in the cheetah Savannah. Todd believed the big
Speaker 1: Cat repellent he bought online was reliable, and now Todd
Speaker 1: is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can
Speaker 1: run eighty miles per hour. But the good news is
Speaker 1: Todd has AT and T five G. It is fast, reliable,
Speaker 1: and secure, and he learned the best thing to do
Speaker 1: is stop running and toss her the backpack with the
Speaker 1: beef stew At and T five G. Fast, reliable, secure,
Speaker 1: It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plan and device.
Speaker 1: Five G may not be available in your areas. He
Speaker 1: att dot com slash five G for you for details.
Speaker 1: So what do you call a group of grown men
Speaker 1: and women with their faces painted silver and blue who
Speaker 1: get together every week to share a three hour long
Speaker 1: ritual of jumping, sinking, and toasting Miller light and Tim
Speaker 1: Gallant hats while yelling, how about them cowboys? You call
Speaker 1: it Miller Time in Dallas. Here's to the cowboys, Here's
Speaker 1: to the original light beer. It's Miller Time. Celebrate Responsibly.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one, Miller Brewing Company for Ort Texas I
Speaker 1: want to use with the pros use. How about the
Speaker 1: official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black.
Speaker 1: Right now you can get the Jack Black Starter, a
Speaker 1: curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, for just ten
Speaker 1: bucks with free shipping. The starter includes four Jack Black
Speaker 1: skincare favorites plus a full sized and tense therapy whip bomb.
Speaker 1: Go to get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys and
Speaker 1: use the code word team JB. That's get Jack Black
Speaker 1: dot com slash Cowboys. The Jack Black Starter ten bucks,
Speaker 1: free shipping. When you build, you start with the foundation,
Speaker 1: and homeownership is a foundation of a stable future. The
Speaker 1: Bank of America Community Homeownership Commitment has helped over thirty
Speaker 1: four thousand people lay the ground work so far, with
Speaker 1: up to ten thousand dollars to at your down payment
Speaker 1: or three percent of the purchase price, whichever is less.
Speaker 1: The satisfaction of owning your own place can become a reality.
Speaker 1: Visit Bank of America dot com slash homeowner to learn more.
Speaker 1: What would you like the power to do? Bank of
Speaker 1: America an equal husing lender credit and collateral as soopie
Speaker 1: to approval restrictions apply. This is not a commitment to
Speaker 1: lend back to The Break. Welcome back. It is the
Speaker 1: second segment of The Break live from the SWBC Mortgage
Speaker 1: Studios at the Star. This segment is brought to you
Speaker 1: by blockchain dot Com. All right, here's what's gonna do.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go through each position. We're gonna start with
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball, and I want you
Speaker 1: guys to tell me what do you think is the
Speaker 1: biggest thing that the Cowboys need to be focused on
Speaker 1: trying to fix this offseason at that position. It can
Speaker 1: be about a particular player, It can be about a contract,
Speaker 1: it can be about a player's performance. It can be
Speaker 1: how that position is being coached. Whatever it is, just
Speaker 1: about this position. If you had to line out, here's
Speaker 1: the thing I think is most important for them to
Speaker 1: work on. This is what it would be. Let's start
Speaker 1: first with the quarterback position. It always gets the most attention,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, it should because it is probably not
Speaker 1: probably it is the most position in sports, most important
Speaker 1: position in sports. Right now, looking at the Cowboys and
Speaker 1: what they have and what they've done, what do you
Speaker 1: think is the most important thing they have to address
Speaker 1: This offseason. You got to get the interceptions in order.
Speaker 1: With Dak Prescott, and like I mentioned earlier, those are
Speaker 1: uncharacteristic characteristic of him if you look at the body
Speaker 1: of work that he's put on film in the NFL.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if because he wasn't throwing these interceptions.
Speaker 1: And this is not a shot to Douglas Smyer think
Speaker 1: he did a great job, but the fact is the fact.
Speaker 1: And when John Kittner was the quarterbacks coach, as one example,
Speaker 1: you didn't see Dak Prescott throwing these interceptions. What you
Speaker 1: did see with Dak Prescott find another gear and become
Speaker 1: prime Dak Prescott, MVP caliber Dak Prescott. But something happened
Speaker 1: over the past couple of years, and particularly over the
Speaker 1: back half of this past season, that the interceptions just
Speaker 1: completely ran away. Now I think I did some quick math,
Speaker 1: and I think only, not only, but sixty percent of
Speaker 1: the interceptions were attributable to Dak Prescott making poor decisions
Speaker 1: and or poor throws. The other forty ish percent were
Speaker 1: completely on his targets tip drill, Noah Brown picks six, Jacksonville,
Speaker 1: Peyton hendershot tip drill, interception and those things but at
Speaker 1: the quarterback position, that's a very fixable offense. So the
Speaker 1: onus is on McCarthy and nuss Meyer, whomever they bring
Speaker 1: in at quarterbacks coach to get that get into the
Speaker 1: lab with Dak Prescott this offseason, making sure that his
Speaker 1: decision making is back to where it was and he's
Speaker 1: not playing hero ball. I think he was pressing a
Speaker 1: lot on the back end of last season and that
Speaker 1: led to some of those ilevised decisions. But I'm on
Speaker 1: record saying this. I also wonder what was the impact
Speaker 1: to his fractured thumb as far as his feel for
Speaker 1: the ball, how he threw the ball. Does he need
Speaker 1: to recalibrate with how his thumb might feel now, But
Speaker 1: now he has months to do that, So that's key
Speaker 1: for me. And then from there, the backup conversation is
Speaker 1: a more robust one than most are thinking about. That's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting. Yeah, to me, it would be
Speaker 1: having a different voice in his ears. I think this
Speaker 1: year hopefully it might give me personally a better clarity
Speaker 1: on what I truly, truly think about Dak Prescott as
Speaker 1: a quarterback and where he could pass go and become.
Speaker 1: He's a quarterback that I think has a lot of talent.
Speaker 1: We've seen him make some really really great throws off
Speaker 1: the field. That's not even a question. He's the perfect
Speaker 1: guy you would ever want for your team, and he's
Speaker 1: a great leader and all that. But throughout the like
Speaker 1: throughout his career, there have been moments where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well he still needs growth. Well, the old line needs
Speaker 1: to improve. Well the running game needs to work out
Speaker 1: and create that type of balance for him. Well you
Speaker 1: got a receiver by comedian, it's not really working out
Speaker 1: to figure out the receiver. So's there's always been something
Speaker 1: and I think that this year and obviously I'm we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about receivers. That's another issue there and like
Speaker 1: everything else, okay, and now that ire again. But my
Speaker 1: biggest thing with him this year would be to see
Speaker 1: if if he does improve in just by having a
Speaker 1: different voice that's other than Kellen Moore, because that's who
Speaker 1: he's had this whole time and under Jason Garrett. I
Speaker 1: think that just bringing it different, just to see how
Speaker 1: his game actually changes a different perspective from someone that
Speaker 1: is maybe watching from the outside and seeing just a
Speaker 1: different view. You know, it helps being out of the
Speaker 1: room sometimes and just building, creating your own thoughts and evaluations.
Speaker 1: So to me, that's something that it's already maybe in
Speaker 1: the works with just having Brian coming in and he's
Speaker 1: a different guy, although not so much. And then the
Speaker 1: backup position for quarterback, well, I'm not sure what's going
Speaker 1: to happen there. I mean Cooper Rush he's becoming a
Speaker 1: free agent, and Jerry Jones he's mentioned it already as
Speaker 1: far as like the draft that they're hoping to draft
Speaker 1: a quarterback every year. So we'll see how that works
Speaker 1: out as well. But I'm curious to see what happens
Speaker 1: and who would be the guy behind Dak. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting to see what happens. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: that to me is probably the bigger thing I'm wanting
Speaker 1: to about this offseason. It's like it's the backup because
Speaker 1: let's be honest, Dak Prescott is a good quarterback, and
Speaker 1: I think there's what gets confused in some of the
Speaker 1: commentary around Dak after that final game is people confuse
Speaker 1: criticism of Dak in that game with Dak's not a
Speaker 1: good quarterback. Dak had a bad game. I don't think
Speaker 1: Dak played according to his standard. I didn't and that
Speaker 1: that I think he was clear about that. I think
Speaker 1: the difference is that doesn't mean Dak isn't your quarterback
Speaker 1: of the future. That doesn't mean that Dak isn't as
Speaker 1: good as what seventy five eighty percent of the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: in the NFL. He is up there in that top ten.
Speaker 1: I don't care what anybody says. I feel I am
Speaker 1: a firm believer Dak Prescott is a top ten quarterback
Speaker 1: in the National Football League, and you don't let those
Speaker 1: kinds of guys walk right, He's gonna be here. So
Speaker 1: that being said, it's not so much. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I think the problems when you start talking about particularly interceptions,
Speaker 1: I think you hit it on the head. That is
Speaker 1: not a tradition, no problem for DA Dak is not.
Speaker 1: That's an aberration. So I look at this season as
Speaker 1: an aberration. I think the problems he was having that
Speaker 1: we had a quarterback with interceptions, We're way more about
Speaker 1: the surrounding cast. And so when we start getting to
Speaker 1: some of these other positions, I think that's where the
Speaker 1: conversations have to be focused on. To fix that part
Speaker 1: of the Cowboys it's not so much Dak. I think
Speaker 1: the backup quarterback becomes very very important because if Dak
Speaker 1: is going to be the quarterback that I want him
Speaker 1: to be from the standpoint of what he's going to
Speaker 1: provide this team, it means he's gonna have to run,
Speaker 1: which means there is some risk, which means the backup
Speaker 1: quarterback is even more important. So for me, that's where
Speaker 1: I'm focused right now, Like, who's going to be that
Speaker 1: backup guy that if I lose Dak for two or
Speaker 1: three games, because I'm asking Dak to be give me
Speaker 1: more of that dynamic quarterback, the quarterback we see in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl right now. Dad can be that kind
Speaker 1: of guy, Jalen hurts, he can be that kind of
Speaker 1: guy if I'm asking him to be that that I
Speaker 1: got to have a suitable backup that if I lose
Speaker 1: Dak for a few games, just like this season, we
Speaker 1: don't miss a beat. We still have a way that
Speaker 1: we can and win effectively. And I'm speaking as the coach,
Speaker 1: we still have a way we can win effectively. Sell
Speaker 1: the backup quarterback is probably the biggest question I have
Speaker 1: a quarterback right now. I'm one hundred percent there with
Speaker 1: you on Dallas Cowboys dot com. For those that haven't
Speaker 1: followed the series, we have an offseason series that began
Speaker 1: called What's Next, and we address every single position. And
Speaker 1: on Monday I spoke about the quarterbacks, and of course
Speaker 1: I touched on the interceptions needed to be improved and
Speaker 1: how they could probably go about that, But most of
Speaker 1: that right up was about the backup quarterback position. Because
Speaker 1: as much as from a macro standpoint one hundred percent
Speaker 1: agree Dak Prescott is the top ten quarterback, you don't
Speaker 1: have No one has the numbers to disprove that. To me,
Speaker 1: you don't have the film to disprove it. He has
Speaker 1: bad games, so does Patrick Mahomes. So that's any of
Speaker 1: those top guys you're going to name. But he's had
Speaker 1: a running with bad luck when it comes to injuries lately.
Speaker 1: He's not injury prone, let's make that distinction. He's not
Speaker 1: injury prone, but he has missed some time over the
Speaker 1: past couple of seasons. And when that happens, now you
Speaker 1: the onus is on you to make sure that you
Speaker 1: have a capable backup quarterback. You've seen that Cooper Rush
Speaker 1: can do that, but he's going into free agency with
Speaker 1: fairly high value. I think it's inarguable that Cooper Rush
Speaker 1: is going into free agency this time with the highest
Speaker 1: stock he's ever seen in the n He's better than
Speaker 1: I'll put it like this, Cooper Rush is better than
Speaker 1: at least five to eight NFL starting quarterbacks from last night.
Speaker 1: And so now when you put that into the equation,
Speaker 1: that means he's going to get some some pretty healthy offers. Okay,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys tie that into the fact that the Cowboys
Speaker 1: were witness seeing Will Grier really challenge Cooper Russian training camp.
Speaker 1: There were times where we had these discussions. Will Grier
Speaker 1: took the lead for the role of QB two, but
Speaker 1: then suffered the growing injury that slowed him monumentally in
Speaker 1: the preseason, and then Cooper Rush kind of got bumped
Speaker 1: back up. So can a healthy Will Grier really be
Speaker 1: your QB two? If you let let if you and
Speaker 1: Cooper Rush part ways, because free agency is a two
Speaker 1: way street, but then what at what round do you
Speaker 1: go with your quarterback? Jerry Jones said, defend atively, Cowboys
Speaker 1: are going to start drafting every year. But are we
Speaker 1: talking to flyer sixth seventh? Are you willing to go
Speaker 1: a little bit higher than the flyer fifth, which makes
Speaker 1: it a little bit more of a mix between developmental
Speaker 1: verse plus someone who might be ready to step in quickly.
Speaker 1: That is the most more robust conversation at that position.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. The fact is, when you
Speaker 1: start talking about quarterbacks and drafting quarterbacks, I wouldn't expect.
Speaker 1: It's an aberration to expect a quarterback, even sometimes a
Speaker 1: first round quarterback. But certainly when you're talking about fourth, fifth, six, seventh,
Speaker 1: third round quarterbacks being capable of stepping in and playing
Speaker 1: a role in year one, that just it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: enough for me to rely on that. So the way
Speaker 1: I look at this is Cowboys quarterback position is about
Speaker 1: Cooper Rush and Will Grier, and one of those two
Speaker 1: is going to have to be there in that spot.
Speaker 1: And Will if it's Will Grier, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I personally thought at going into last when they were
Speaker 1: about to make cuts, I was thinking Will Grier was
Speaker 1: probably going to be the two, But for that injury,
Speaker 1: I think he would have been. But that all being said,
Speaker 1: I think it has to be one of those two.
Speaker 1: You draft somebody there become the third guy. And you're
Speaker 1: developing them in hopes that they can turn into Cooper Rush.
Speaker 1: But Cooper Rush wasn't going to be able to do
Speaker 1: what Cooper Rush did this year his rookie year. That's
Speaker 1: just there's a reason why you either go undrafted or
Speaker 1: you're drafted late, and at the quarterback position, even drafted
Speaker 1: as early as the third, fourth, fifth round. Typically that
Speaker 1: means you're not ready right now. And also not to
Speaker 1: take away from Cooper Rush, because we gave him his
Speaker 1: roses because they were due, but in his rookie year,
Speaker 1: he didn't have the defense that he had complimenting him
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two. So and for those that have
Speaker 1: man forgotten, I love that you point out that the
Speaker 1: odds of a fourth or even the third round or
Speaker 1: later quarterback being able to step in immediately and make
Speaker 1: an impact they are very very low, very low. But
Speaker 1: I think people forgotten that Dak Prescott did exactly that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but no, no, I'm not saying that he's the norm.
Speaker 1: I'm saying that makes him that much more special in
Speaker 1: what he's been able to achieve. So between that and
Speaker 1: what he's put on film as a as a macro,
Speaker 1: you can dissect the micro all day long, but as
Speaker 1: a macro, that is a special guy. That's a leader,
Speaker 1: and like you said, off the field and bar he's
Speaker 1: above approach, like he's just bulletproof off well, looking back
Speaker 1: at well his contract, we know that's a conversation right now,
Speaker 1: and extending him will create a lot more space and
Speaker 1: helped you with yeah, what you do this year, especially
Speaker 1: in free agency and all that. Where do they think
Speaker 1: his position stands now? Because we know how long it
Speaker 1: took last time when they were working out a deal
Speaker 1: together and him wanting certain things, the Cowboys another finality.
Speaker 1: They obviously made it work. But do you think like
Speaker 1: now the Cowboys have the apprehend in this whole situation
Speaker 1: as far as extending him. Honestly, I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's a necessarily an upperhand kind of thing, because when
Speaker 1: you do those extensions like that, it usually is a
Speaker 1: win win. The team gets more cap space and the
Speaker 1: player gets more money. Like it tens is just work.
Speaker 1: Everybody's happy. Players gonna get more money. They're just gonna
Speaker 1: space it out and structure it differently so that the
Speaker 1: team can actually get a benefit out of that an
Speaker 1: increased amount of money. And right now, let's be honest
Speaker 1: to some degree, when you start talking about the contract
Speaker 1: with Dak, that's an old conversation in my opinion, because
Speaker 1: at the time when they were doing the deal, and
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot at the time they
Speaker 1: were doing the deal, it was a huge deal. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's not any huge deal anymore. This is like, we're
Speaker 1: getting our money's worth, Like, this is worth it for
Speaker 1: the amount of money you're paying, and where he is
Speaker 1: if he's a top ten quarterback, because I think he is,
Speaker 1: you're getting a bit of a deal, Like, so you're
Speaker 1: not overpaying at this point. I mean, I just saw
Speaker 1: an article last week that the expectation is that Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones is going to get forty million. You're getting a
Speaker 1: deal like this is a good deal, right, this is
Speaker 1: a good deal. So you know, I think the conversation
Speaker 1: of Dak's contract is a bit overplayed at this point.
Speaker 1: I think when it comes to an extension sometimes and
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know how his deal is structure,
Speaker 1: but sometimes these deals have triggers in him that the
Speaker 1: player doesn't even have to sign off on. The team
Speaker 1: already built it in where they can just basically flip
Speaker 1: a switch and do it and it's automatically done. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the case here, but my
Speaker 1: point is, in most of these kind of situations where
Speaker 1: you're doing those extensions and that kind of stuff, it
Speaker 1: really is just a win win. The players gonna get
Speaker 1: more money, the team's gonna get more cap space, and
Speaker 1: everybody's like, yeah, let's do this because it makes sense
Speaker 1: for everybody. Yeah, and I agree. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is a negotiating a negotiation as much as it is
Speaker 1: just common sense. Right. Common sense says that if you
Speaker 1: if you extend Dak Prescott right now, you'll save over
Speaker 1: twenty five million dollars against toward your coup. Common sense
Speaker 1: says that he's the top ten quarterback and those are
Speaker 1: those don't fall off trees every day. So when you
Speaker 1: approach Dak Prescott with the conversation, you say, hey, we
Speaker 1: want you around. We know you want to be around.
Speaker 1: Here's why it makes sense for us. It obviously makes
Speaker 1: sense for you. You're rooted in dallasts, We're continuing to
Speaker 1: build the team around you. The changes that we're making
Speaker 1: in the coaching ranks, so forth and so on. You
Speaker 1: see us making these moves and try to take this
Speaker 1: next step, and we believe you're at the heart of
Speaker 1: it all. I think it's a fairly easy conversation, completely
Speaker 1: non contentious. There's not much to discuss as far as
Speaker 1: value goes, because now the Cowboys know its value, and
Speaker 1: like you said, Daniel Jones, he's about to potentially average
Speaker 1: forty million a year, So that's not even a conversation anymore.
Speaker 1: Give him a little bit of a pay bump to
Speaker 1: make it at least respectable against what the market will
Speaker 1: look like over the next two or three years, so
Speaker 1: that you don't have to revisit it again in two
Speaker 1: years because now he's potentially underpaid depending on how the
Speaker 1: Cowboys and he performed. But I think it's a much
Speaker 1: easier conversation to be had right now. All right, let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and take our final break. Will come back.
Speaker 1: We'll jump to the running back position. There's so many
Speaker 1: areas we can go with this. I'll be interested to
Speaker 1: see what you guys think is the most important one.
Speaker 1: We'll be back Dallas Cowboys dot Com rad Now the
Speaker 1: season is finally here. For months, we've been gearing up
Speaker 1: to win. Now it's time for the team that performs
Speaker 1: on any field. United Egg in Turn with John Deer
Speaker 1: zero turns for mowing, Compact tractors for loading, many excavators
Speaker 1: for Dick Gator utility vehicles for hauling, implements for grading,
Speaker 1: hay tools for bailing, United agg in Turf for winning
Speaker 1: the official LaGG and Turf equipment supplier of the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Visit United Agginturf dot com for more. Todd thought it
Speaker 1: would be secure to jog in the cheetah Savannah. Todd
Speaker 1: believed the big Cat repellent he bought online was reliable,
Speaker 1: and now Todd is trying to be faster than this
Speaker 1: cheetah that can run eighty miles per hour. But the
Speaker 1: good news is Todd has AT and T five G.
Speaker 1: It is fast, reliable, and secure, and he learned the
Speaker 1: best thing to do is stop running and toss her
Speaker 1: the backpack with the beef stew At and T five G. Fast, reliable, secure,
Speaker 1: It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plan and device
Speaker 1: five G may not be available in your area. See
Speaker 1: att dot com Slash five G for you for details. Sweet,
Speaker 1: did you get to work on time? Yeah? But I
Speaker 1: just realized it's Sunday. Slow sweets his head on home.
Speaker 1: Doctor Pepper's on its way. Maybe there's nothing better. I'll
Speaker 1: bet you've probably done something you investionistic n f G
Speaker 1: H and I don't even know what that is. It's
Speaker 1: the nonfunctable total something. When you build, you start with
Speaker 1: the foundation, and homeownership is a foundation of a stable future.
Speaker 1: The Bank of America Community Homeownership commitment has helped over
Speaker 1: thirty four thousand people lay the ground work so far,
Speaker 1: with up to ten thousand dollars to it's your down
Speaker 1: payment or three percent of the purchase price, whichever is less.
Speaker 1: The satisfaction of owning your own place can become a reality.
Speaker 1: Visit Bank of America dot com slash homeowner to learn more.
Speaker 1: What would you like the power to do? Bank of
Speaker 1: America an a equal housing lender, credit and collaterallet suffet
Speaker 1: to approval of restrictions apply. This is not a commitment
Speaker 1: to lend back to the break Welcome Back. It is
Speaker 1: the final segment of the Break Life from the s
Speaker 1: WBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, it's Super Bowl week,
Speaker 1: So before we end the show today, I'm going to
Speaker 1: nail these guys down on their predictions for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I have two questions for them. One, who do you
Speaker 1: want to win? And who do you think? Well, we'll
Speaker 1: do both of those here in the final segment before
Speaker 1: we end today show. Let's finish our conversation, though I
Speaker 1: guess not even finish it. We're gonna be doing this
Speaker 1: for quite a few weeks, going through these positions because
Speaker 1: y'all talk a lot, so we didn't get it. Took
Speaker 1: us too long to get through quarterback. We might get
Speaker 1: through running back. But let's start Truman. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the running back how we feel. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: running backround right now. Obviously, the Cowboys got got a
Speaker 1: lot to consider it running back. They got an aging
Speaker 1: running back who has been the main guy for a
Speaker 1: number of years, who finally has got into a point
Speaker 1: in his contract where the Cowboys could make a move.
Speaker 1: You've got a guy who has been the backup who
Speaker 1: this year I think has a planet the starter, and
Speaker 1: by the end of the year he was playing as
Speaker 1: though he were the starter. The Cowboys were using him
Speaker 1: in that way in a lot of games. And by
Speaker 1: the way, he's a free agent, so there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things to consider here. What do you think is
Speaker 1: the biggest focus for the Cowboys at the running back
Speaker 1: position this offseason. I think they're going to try to
Speaker 1: keep the band together between Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard.
Speaker 1: They want Zeke, they love Zeke, and justifiably so. The
Speaker 1: impact of Zeke both on and off the field, particularly
Speaker 1: in the locker room. He's one of the locker room
Speaker 1: leaders as well. I mean, it's it's difficult to quantify
Speaker 1: the value of Ezekiel Elliott, and kudos to him. The
Speaker 1: maturity that has been exhibited this version of Ezekiel Elliott
Speaker 1: versus the twenty sixteen version. Those are two completely different, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I say this all the time, but
Speaker 1: I'll say it again. Any one of us, and I'm
Speaker 1: talking anybody in this room or outside his room, all
Speaker 1: the listeners. Think about yourself when you were twenty one,
Speaker 1: and think about yourself when you were twenty seven, twenty eight,
Speaker 1: twenty different human being. You are a different person. Allow
Speaker 1: people to learn and grow, and he had. But you
Speaker 1: gotta allow that doing it because not every also true,
Speaker 1: not everyone does. Yeah, and not everybody does at that
Speaker 1: rate too. Some people take some more like thirty five
Speaker 1: before they get there, right but he has he has
Speaker 1: some hard knocks that helped him flip that switch fast.
Speaker 1: But I think, I think, and I'm on record of
Speaker 1: saying this, and I'm not speaking for Ezekiel Elliot. I'm
Speaker 1: speaking about Ezekiel Elliott when I've said time and again,
Speaker 1: I believe that he would be amicable to taking a
Speaker 1: pay cut if that pay cut were used to keep
Speaker 1: Tony Pollard in the building. I think he and Tony
Speaker 1: Pollard both understand that together they extend each other's careers.
Speaker 1: So that's a talking point when you approach Tony Pollard
Speaker 1: for the contract negotiation, and ultimately, if you feel like
Speaker 1: there's not anough traction with Tony Pollard just slapping with
Speaker 1: the franchise tag it's only ten million dollars you pay,
Speaker 1: don't show it's more than that. Eight hundred thousand more
Speaker 1: than that. It was ten point nine for tight end
Speaker 1: last year, ten point one for a running back, franchise
Speaker 1: tag him. Hopefully, get a pay cut on Ezekiel Elliott
Speaker 1: to lessen your hit at the position and then continue
Speaker 1: to develop me Lee Davis behind them, who might be
Speaker 1: really in play for next offseason depending on how things
Speaker 1: go with the Zeke and Tony Pollard. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you just keep the band together. Yeah, I freaking
Speaker 1: I love both of them, and I really really love
Speaker 1: zee and just everything that you mentioned. I don't need
Speaker 1: to repeat any of that. But part of me, and
Speaker 1: that's ideally what I would want to see happening, just
Speaker 1: keeping them together. But then part of me also sees
Speaker 1: the way that they were able to develop a guy
Speaker 1: like Malie Davis and the way that we hear it
Speaker 1: every single year, how quote unquote easy it is to
Speaker 1: draft a running back and plug in the player, fresh legs,
Speaker 1: young guy have that kind of speed, a new energy
Speaker 1: bringing in to the team. So seeing how successful those
Speaker 1: three running backs where, and even Malie Davis, he didn't
Speaker 1: play that whole lot, but when he did, he showed
Speaker 1: you the things that he can do, it leads me
Speaker 1: to think that possibly we will part ways with one
Speaker 1: of them, either Zeke or Polar. I don't I could
Speaker 1: see where they don't keep both, They keep maybe one,
Speaker 1: and then Malik Davis is still here, and then you
Speaker 1: draft and bringing some other new guy. I think could
Speaker 1: possibly be the way of their thinking. But yeah, like
Speaker 1: I said, it's just hard to say goodbye. But it's
Speaker 1: the reality of the business. I don't there's some other
Speaker 1: positions that I feel they would seem maybe more valuable
Speaker 1: as far as addressing through free agency and spending that
Speaker 1: kind of money rather than a running back. Yeah, I personally,
Speaker 1: I look at that. I agree with a lot of that. Amber.
Speaker 1: I really think they've got to get younger at the
Speaker 1: running back position. And what I mean by that is, again,
Speaker 1: in a league where we've seen it over and over
Speaker 1: and over again, it is the easiest position to turn over.
Speaker 1: It is the position where guys consistently can come into
Speaker 1: the league. You talk, we were talking about the quarterback position,
Speaker 1: where it takes a little bit of time. Running back
Speaker 1: seems to be the position where you can get immediate
Speaker 1: impact from guys immediate immediately out of college. And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be honest with you, guys, I'm not a big
Speaker 1: I usually am not the guy that's touting Texas players
Speaker 1: as guys that I want that I want Cowboys to
Speaker 1: take us. I'm harder on them than I am on
Speaker 1: other players around the country, mainly because I've seen them
Speaker 1: play every one of their games. But let's be honest, Like,
Speaker 1: if Bijean Robinson is sitting there at twenty six, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: and I know this is gonna turn some heads because
Speaker 1: people are gonna say, for a running back, if Bijean
Speaker 1: is there at twenty one or twenty two, I would
Speaker 1: be looking at ways I could get up there to
Speaker 1: get him, because when I tell you, this guy is
Speaker 1: one of those special running backs. And I think I've
Speaker 1: always been clear too, I don't love the idea of
Speaker 1: giving second contracts to running backs just because it's a position,
Speaker 1: and positional value says you can you can turn it
Speaker 1: over pretty easily relatively speaking. But looking at how this
Speaker 1: guy plays, he is one of those guys. It has
Speaker 1: that ability. He has traits that are that are more
Speaker 1: generational running back type traits, like he has the kind
Speaker 1: of traits of a Barry Sanders, which for some of
Speaker 1: those out there listening may not that may not really
Speaker 1: ring well for you because that was in my childhood
Speaker 1: and early adulthood. But when I say that, I mean
Speaker 1: he is the kind of guy that I saw him
Speaker 1: do it multiple times at Texas. The offensive line Texas
Speaker 1: was not very good, and this year was better than
Speaker 1: it's been in past years. There were a number of
Speaker 1: times I saw this man get to the hole there
Speaker 1: was no hole he should have been tackling in the backfield.
Speaker 1: He turns it into a seven yard game. He has
Speaker 1: that ability with no space and relatively poor blocking, to
Speaker 1: be able to make guys miss and turn something into
Speaker 1: what should have been a loss. And that's the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that I'm like. If you have an offensive
Speaker 1: line that's a little in flux, which the Cowboys are
Speaker 1: kind of the they're young, they're a young offensive line,
Speaker 1: he will make this offensive line look really, really good.
Speaker 1: And that's what I saw. That was probably the most
Speaker 1: deficient thing that I would say about Zeke. I don't
Speaker 1: think Zeke has or has really shown that ability here
Speaker 1: over the last year of when things are all clogged up,
Speaker 1: can he make guys miss and turn it into something?
Speaker 1: Is he even more like younger version Zeek or more
Speaker 1: like a Tony Pollard now? Honestly, in my opinion, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, his traits are better than either one of
Speaker 1: them at this point in their career coming out of
Speaker 1: and by the way, Zeke was a big time player
Speaker 1: coming out of college. He was a big time college player.
Speaker 1: Bijean's a different kind of back. Bijean has all of
Speaker 1: those like he's a he's an he has power, he
Speaker 1: has speed, Like he can turn it as Zeke used
Speaker 1: to do early in his career. He can turn that
Speaker 1: that quick run that he gets a little space and
Speaker 1: now he's off for a forty fifty yard touchdown. He
Speaker 1: has that um he can lower his shoulder and go
Speaker 1: through it like he has all he can catch out
Speaker 1: of the backfield. You can line him up at a
Speaker 1: wide receiver, he can catch like he can do pretty
Speaker 1: much all of those things from a trade standpoint. Now, obviously,
Speaker 1: going to the NFL, there will be things that you
Speaker 1: have to measure as far as whether it actually ends
Speaker 1: up being that kind of player on the NFL level.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you watching him play every single
Speaker 1: down in college, this man is special. And if I'm
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, now you have to make some decisions before
Speaker 1: you get to draft, correct. But if I have a chance,
Speaker 1: If I'm the Cowboys and I have a chance to
Speaker 1: get Bjean Robinson on my team, I'm doing it. The
Speaker 1: problem I have with it is not obviously not with
Speaker 1: the player. Bejean is an absolute horse, and for my money,
Speaker 1: he should have been in the Heisman conversation, the only
Speaker 1: reason he wasn't was because of how the team as
Speaker 1: a whole in Texas went. So I'm right there with
Speaker 1: you all the praise and credit to what Bejean Robinson
Speaker 1: is and can possibly be at the NFL level, but
Speaker 1: when you start looking at some of these other positions
Speaker 1: of need and granted, this conversation changes as we get
Speaker 1: closer to the last weekend in April, because then we'll
Speaker 1: have a better idea of what they did or did
Speaker 1: not do in free agency the Cowboys, I mean, so
Speaker 1: the conversation could change then. But let's say all things
Speaker 1: being as they are right now, I would be wholly
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with selecting the running back in the first round
Speaker 1: when you don't know what you're doing at cornerback yet. Right, So,
Speaker 1: you know what you got into, Ron Bland. You know
Speaker 1: you gotta Treyvon Diggs, whose contract negotiations are coming up
Speaker 1: here soon, by the way, so you kind of gotta
Speaker 1: get some not only someone to compliment him, but maybe
Speaker 1: someone who can be insurance in case those things don't
Speaker 1: go well. We'll see how it goes. But Anthony Brown
Speaker 1: is an unrestricted free agent who's also coming off of
Speaker 1: a major injury. George Lewis will be back in the building.
Speaker 1: That'll be wonderful as he's healthy. But it appears Kelvin Joseph,
Speaker 1: it's not the answer there. You like the needle pointing
Speaker 1: up on this Sean right, You like the needle pointing
Speaker 1: up on Israel mukuammo. But these are still very young
Speaker 1: guys who still need more development before they can show
Speaker 1: you that they're definitively CB two opposite Trevon Dixon. That's
Speaker 1: just one position. Linebacker. Are you going to be able
Speaker 1: to keep Laton vander esh and are you or are
Speaker 1: you not bringing man Anthony Barr? But then are you
Speaker 1: ready to unleash the unleash theman Clark. Yeah, unleash theman Clark.
Speaker 1: Unleash Clark. But my overarching point is these other positions
Speaker 1: are of such a high need and you don't currently
Speaker 1: have resolutions to them as much as you have at
Speaker 1: the running back position. If you just kept that back,
Speaker 1: that's that's great to say, but I think there are
Speaker 1: lots of challenges to that from a standpoint of you
Speaker 1: don't like, are you gonna franchise Tony Pollard? If you're
Speaker 1: gonna do that, great, you can control his rights. But
Speaker 1: if you're not, then you can't control that right. Um
Speaker 1: and and I will say this too. I get your point.
Speaker 1: But I do think at certain positions, if you have
Speaker 1: a good enough player, like a transition, like a generational
Speaker 1: type player, you can change how effective other positions. And
Speaker 1: I do. I think it's like when they got Michael Parsons,
Speaker 1: the reason why this defense took that big jump. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they brought in a lot of different players and pieces
Speaker 1: that all fit. But when you got a player like Micah,
Speaker 1: teams have to address you differently, which means like the
Speaker 1: guy who's whose deficiencies maybe should have or could have
Speaker 1: been exploited before can't be exploited the same way. Because
Speaker 1: you've got this guy, you're now worried about number eleven.
Speaker 1: That affects everything else. I think, Bijean, maybe that kind
Speaker 1: of back that may solve some of your offensive line challenges,
Speaker 1: may solve some of your wide receiver challenges, may solve
Speaker 1: some of the challenges you see when it comes to
Speaker 1: your tight ends blocking. Like, there are lots of things
Speaker 1: that this guy becomes, as Nick calls him, the diaper, right,
Speaker 1: he can cover up all the stuff. Right, So when
Speaker 1: when I look at it like that. That's where I'm like,
Speaker 1: I think somebody like Beijon has that kind of ability.
Speaker 1: Not again part of this. Maybe I just saw him
Speaker 1: and he was so great at Texas that I'm my
Speaker 1: glasses are too. Yeah. Maybe maybe that's it. Maybe that's it,
Speaker 1: and I will count. Look, I will acount for that,
Speaker 1: right right. It's like your kids, Like you see your
Speaker 1: kids and like I love my kids, like they're perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but so it might be some of that. I get it.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you this guy has some rare, rare traits,
Speaker 1: rare abilities that I think can fit for this team
Speaker 1: and give this team some dynamic ability that I don't
Speaker 1: know that they have right now. I love Tony Pollard's game,
Speaker 1: I don't think Tony Pollard necessarily has the elusiveness that
Speaker 1: this guy has. Like, this guy's does some things that
Speaker 1: are just like I literally watched some plays and be
Speaker 1: like I gotta rewatch that, Like how did he get
Speaker 1: out of this and he got out of the situation
Speaker 1: he was in and turned it into seven eight yards?
Speaker 1: It's it's amazing. Well, basically, you're telling me he's not
Speaker 1: gonna be there in the twenties. Andy well, honestly don't think.
Speaker 1: I think he's probably gonna get picked a lot earlier
Speaker 1: than that. I think he's gonna go to the Combine.
Speaker 1: He's gonna dazzle everybody, and I think I think he's
Speaker 1: I actually think there's a chance he might get into
Speaker 1: the top ten. All I'm saying is it would be
Speaker 1: a steal if he gets into the twenties. Even if
Speaker 1: you have to give up a little bit to get
Speaker 1: up a few spots, it would be a steal in
Speaker 1: my opinion, even after running back position. Knowing that there's
Speaker 1: so much value out there as far as running backs
Speaker 1: and where you can get them, I still think this
Speaker 1: guy is special, and for special guys, I don't care
Speaker 1: what the position is. You take that that extra chance. Well,
Speaker 1: the good news for the Cowboys is, be it for
Speaker 1: b Genre or whatever other player they might have an
Speaker 1: eye on, they are so flush with draft picks this
Speaker 1: this coming April that they can move up in any
Speaker 1: round easily and still have a come away with a
Speaker 1: ton of guys entering the building as rookie. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't talk about helping your quarterback. Give him a
Speaker 1: running back that can make things happen like that, because
Speaker 1: now the defense is going to really have to think
Speaker 1: very hard about how many how many resources are you
Speaker 1: going to really dedicate to ceedee lamb when you got
Speaker 1: this guy to the backfield, that can make a guy
Speaker 1: miss pretty easily. I'm just looking at there's a lot
Speaker 1: to think about of cornerback. You know, you lost Green
Speaker 1: Bay because of cornerback. You lost because I wouldn't say yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say now, but but I think there were
Speaker 1: some things that happened in that game that were more
Speaker 1: about injury, that were about who was out there at
Speaker 1: that at that particular time. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if you ran this defense back another year as it
Speaker 1: is currently constructed, you would be fine on defense. You
Speaker 1: would be for you could go to a super Bowl
Speaker 1: with this defense as it is. Would you say it's
Speaker 1: fair to say that the Cowboys lost in Jacksonville because
Speaker 1: of the cornerback position. Think about it, was it was
Speaker 1: part of it, was a part of it. Yes, it
Speaker 1: was a part of it. So yeah, anyone's a part
Speaker 1: of those types of things about the forefront. But that's
Speaker 1: that's nice to say. But again, once again, that's one game.
Speaker 1: Every you look at the two Super Bowl teams. I
Speaker 1: guarantee you they can point somewhere and say, yeah, we
Speaker 1: lost that game because of this, Like I don't think
Speaker 1: that necessarily means it is a big overarching problem. I
Speaker 1: look at the cornerbacks and I look at it and say,
Speaker 1: I am firmly convinced that Duran Bland and we're way
Speaker 1: over on defense. We're not supposed to be here. You
Speaker 1: just know you're not coming back. So but I look
Speaker 1: at and I'm like, Duran Bland is every bit good
Speaker 1: enough to be your CB two. I don't have any
Speaker 1: questions about that anymore. Not I don't have a single question.
Speaker 1: So if I got my two top corners and I
Speaker 1: feel really good about them, which I do, then to me,
Speaker 1: cornerback is yes, it's something I gotta address because I
Speaker 1: want some depth. I need to make sure I got
Speaker 1: guys in case somebody goes down. But that's not as
Speaker 1: big a problem as trying to get a player that
Speaker 1: I think can change my whole team, like a running
Speaker 1: back that's good enough to make my whole team better.
Speaker 1: That's my point. I got dan Quinn back, so it
Speaker 1: don't matter, I trust. Yeah, it still matters, but you know,
Speaker 1: I just stand Quinn with everything. Yeah, and you got again.
Speaker 1: I think it came down to you, like all the
Speaker 1: injuries and all of that, but with the off season
Speaker 1: and just recruiting more people and coming in, Like Derk said,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that later, but I worry about He's like,
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna be back. Had to fire that shot
Speaker 1: a real quick before we end the show. I need
Speaker 1: to get some predictions from you guys. Super Bowl. You
Speaker 1: got the Eagles, you got the Chiefs. Who do you
Speaker 1: want to win? Who do you think will win? Let's
Speaker 1: start you Amber. Okay, if you ever hear me say
Speaker 1: the Eagles, I picked the Eagles to win any game,
Speaker 1: please slap me in the face. Um yeah, easy answer,
Speaker 1: both forty nine ers both Yes. So you saying you
Speaker 1: want the Chiefs to win and you think the Chiefs
Speaker 1: will win. I am not gonna say I think the
Speaker 1: Eagles win. Okay, I don't want to hear it from
Speaker 1: the fan base. So anyways, regardless of what happened and
Speaker 1: I did, I'm still thinking I came out of that game,
Speaker 1: the loss against the Niners, thinking they played dirty, and
Speaker 1: they did. They were. There were some plays in there
Speaker 1: that I've just came with a very distateful, like bad
Speaker 1: taste in my mouth just some of the things that
Speaker 1: I saw, So just in general, that kind of left
Speaker 1: me a little pissed off about that. But I still
Speaker 1: rather than win than the Eagles. They do have a
Speaker 1: lot of talent, and I hate it. I hate that
Speaker 1: they're so well built right now, and we were talking
Speaker 1: about the draft and kind of what they got for
Speaker 1: this year as well to kind of keep adding to
Speaker 1: what they already have. But I'd rather see yeah all
Speaker 1: around Chiefs for you. Um, yes, okay, I'd rather see
Speaker 1: Mahomes holding a trophy then the Eagles celebrating or Kevin
Speaker 1: Hart going at it already see Kevin Hart posting around. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah Mahomes when I like, I really do. I
Speaker 1: like Mahomes a lot and he's a very talented player,
Speaker 1: so i'd rather see him get another win, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll see. So for me, I mean, you guys know me, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to say whatever I need to say, regardless
Speaker 1: of what the fan based reaction is going to be
Speaker 1: to it. But subjectively speaking, um, injuries a side because
Speaker 1: I don't ever wish injuries on anyone or any team. Um,
Speaker 1: But as far as the standings goes, I wish nothing
Speaker 1: but the worst on the Philadelphia Eagles. I want them
Speaker 1: to lose every game forever, ever, ever, ever, ever. So
Speaker 1: it's easy money for me to sit here and say
Speaker 1: I want the Chiefs to win. I want the Chiefs
Speaker 1: to blow the doors off of them, because if that happens,
Speaker 1: then it then the narrative becomes shit. The Eagles have
Speaker 1: been there in the first place, and that's the conversation.
Speaker 1: I would just love to sit back and watch. That'd
Speaker 1: be fun to watch. Objectively speaking, this is going to
Speaker 1: be a close one, but I think that the Chiefs
Speaker 1: are better in spots that will help them win this game.
Speaker 1: I think that bottling up Jalen Hurts is difficult to do,
Speaker 1: but the Eagles defensive line and particularly at the edge
Speaker 1: Frank Clark, Chris Jones, they have the ability to keep
Speaker 1: him in the pocket and then force him to make
Speaker 1: the plays down the field. Granted, you got a j
Speaker 1: Brown DeVante Smith down the field, but I love what
Speaker 1: I've seen from some of the younger guys. Hell, some
Speaker 1: of the younger guys were the reason that they were
Speaker 1: able to advance at this point. They made the big
Speaker 1: plays when they needed to make them in the AFC Championships.
Speaker 1: So and then at the end of the day, now
Speaker 1: you start thinking about Andy Reid's mind versus Nick Sirianni's mind.
Speaker 1: Andy read greater than greater than greater than greater than
Speaker 1: Nick Sirianni about a coach I do not want to
Speaker 1: see win either. Patrick Mahomes versus Jalen Hurts at the
Speaker 1: quarterback position, is that even a conversation. That's not to
Speaker 1: take away from what Jalen Hurts has done this season,
Speaker 1: But Patrick Mahomes is in a different stratosphere. So all
Speaker 1: in all, I want the Chiefs to win badly, so
Speaker 1: badly I can taste it. Just that's right there on
Speaker 1: a typical song. But I also believe that they can
Speaker 1: and will win this game. But I don't think objectively speaking,
Speaker 1: it'll be a blowout. I think it'll be close, a
Speaker 1: one possession game until it gets to the final couple
Speaker 1: of minutes, than the Chiefs pull away a little bit.
Speaker 1: So I on talking Cowboys. I put it at thirty
Speaker 1: four to twenty four, Chiefs take the win. This one
Speaker 1: was a very very hard one for me. Here's why
Speaker 1: I'm so perplexed right now, I am not like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of the Eagles at all, Like
Speaker 1: probably of any team in the league. That's probably a
Speaker 1: team I just like the most. The problem is personal,
Speaker 1: Like I actually really like Jalen Hurts as a player
Speaker 1: as a person. I love his story all that he
Speaker 1: went through from college all the way to the pros.
Speaker 1: I just love stories of people that are resilient, like
Speaker 1: people that just don't take note for an answer, Like
Speaker 1: they just figure out a way even when people doubt them,
Speaker 1: they figure out a way to make it happen and
Speaker 1: they still end up winning at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: I love Jalen Hurts. And in addition to that, it's
Speaker 1: family involved. Brian Johnson, the quarterback coach of the Eagles,
Speaker 1: is a distant cousin of mine from my hometown. Now,
Speaker 1: you gotta understand, I have a very very small hometown,
Speaker 1: so everybody knows everybody. Everybody's related in some kind of way, right,
Speaker 1: But it's like it's a big deal in our hometown
Speaker 1: that Brian's now the quarterback coach of the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: of a Super Bowl team. We don't have NFL players
Speaker 1: coming out of our hometown that doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1: Like we get excited when we get when that goes
Speaker 1: to a D one college, like it's a big deal, right,
Speaker 1: it's a small town. And so from that said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I really want Brian to get a ring.
Speaker 1: I really want Jalen to get a ring. Man, I
Speaker 1: wish they would have another team. This is really really hard.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna be kind of split on the whole day.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be kind of split on who do I
Speaker 1: think I want to win. Ultimately, I think Philly's going
Speaker 1: to win. And the reason why I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: win is mainly because of injuries. Right now, the Kansa
Speaker 1: City Chiefs are depleted at wide receiver. They don't know
Speaker 1: who they're gonna have running out there come come game day.
Speaker 1: And what I know of Patrick Mahomes is he is special.
Speaker 1: But if he don't have anybody on the other side
Speaker 1: catching balls that he can rely on other than its
Speaker 1: tight end, which is tight End's gonna be there. He's
Speaker 1: gonna do his thing, But they're gonna need some wide
Speaker 1: receiver help. If they can get something, those wide receivers
Speaker 1: out there and healthy enough to play a good game,
Speaker 1: then I think Kansas City can win. If not, then
Speaker 1: I don't think they will be I think Philly just
Speaker 1: has so much talent and specifically they have an advantage
Speaker 1: when it comes to their pass rush versus the Kansas
Speaker 1: City tackles, where if he doesn't have the receivers are
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get open quickly. Then I think
Speaker 1: it's going to create a bigger problem for them. So
Speaker 1: it kind of matches up an injury weakness with a
Speaker 1: strength of Philadelphia. From that standpoint, I think Philly ends
Speaker 1: up winning this game, but I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a close game. And uh, and we'll have to see
Speaker 1: it here Monday and talk about the Eagles being two
Speaker 1: time world tam only we won't because the Chiefs are
Speaker 1: going to win, only because Monday we won't do a show.
Speaker 1: Also that works also, all right, guys, I really hope
Speaker 1: so that they win. And I don't know why. Earlier
Speaker 1: my brain just kind of took me back. I see,
Speaker 1: if we were talking about the the whole NFC East,
Speaker 1: I was talking, I started talking about the forty nine
Speaker 1: ers and a lot of thinking, bed, uh, but you won't.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I'm gonna cope if that actually happens,
Speaker 1: and you know, going back to hers, going back to Hers,
Speaker 1: he's a guy that aside from everything, I actually like him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like him as as a person, as a player,
Speaker 1: but anytime I see something good, and this is just
Speaker 1: so I don't build any kind of emotional niceness towards
Speaker 1: him social media, just skip skip rolling through it because
Speaker 1: I don't want to get attached. But uh yeah, and
Speaker 1: I can't watches it for me and as a person
Speaker 1: and as a human being, I like Jalen Hurts, but
Speaker 1: once he suits up and he puts on that that
Speaker 1: dark green and that black, it's just it's a wash
Speaker 1: for me. And it's the same for me um across
Speaker 1: all sports. As a huge Braves fan, use Jacob de
Speaker 1: Ground for example. Loathe Jacob de Ground because he was admitted. Well,
Speaker 1: now he's in Texas, I want to go see Jacob
Speaker 1: pitch right. So it's it's that type of dynamic. It's
Speaker 1: it's the uniform. It's the organization that I so loathe
Speaker 1: and I want nothing but the worst for them. Well
Speaker 1: as as you made a lot of good points Derek
Speaker 1: about the strength and weaknesses that both like the teams
Speaker 1: have right now currently heading into the super Bowl. But
Speaker 1: crazy things happened something. Yeah, Absolutely, Andy Reid and Eric
Speaker 1: b Enemy to me are just better than Nick. Sirianni
Speaker 1: and his group. Well, I just think they're they have
Speaker 1: some things up their sleep. For Jalen, I'm seeing more
Speaker 1: purple and gold than I am green. So okay, shout
Speaker 1: out to the all Right, we appreciate you guys joining us.
Speaker 1: We'll see you guys next week exactly. Thank you for
Speaker 1: for coming sitting in with us. Patrick, it was really
Speaker 1: great having you on. We'll be back next Wednesday. I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna have our normal crew back in. Brian
Speaker 1: and Nick should be back. Maybe they have some stories
Speaker 1: from us for us from the super Bowl until then.
Speaker 1: For Nick, I'm sorry, not for Nicky because he's not here.
Speaker 1: For Patrick, no C Walker and Ambergar seeing. I'm Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 1: This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot
Speaker 1: Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.