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: training live from the Dallas Cowboys World Dowquarters at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisco, sat back Today. It's a Tuesday edition
Speaker 1: of Talking Cowboys as we bring you training camp updates
Speaker 1: for the next hour here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com.
Speaker 1: So glad you're with us as we continue to break
Speaker 1: down Cowboys Camp twenty twenty and leads you into Kickoff Week,
Speaker 1: which will actually start next week. Is this is our
Speaker 1: final show, guys, booing weekly next week. It's a daily
Speaker 1: occurrence starting, So let's celebrate a little bit because it's
Speaker 1: time to talk football in a real since we've been
Speaker 1: talking football all offseason if we're being real here, but
Speaker 1: it's time to talk football on a daily occurrence. So
Speaker 1: if you're sick of us, too bad. You're getting us
Speaker 1: every day starting next Tuesday. But so glad you're with us.
Speaker 1: Kyle Yeoman's heck Ma Harrison, Isaiah stanback or residence, super
Speaker 1: Bowl champion, and the Great Rob Phillips here from Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys dot Com. And guys, it's it's getting closer. We're
Speaker 1: under two weeks until kickoff in September thirteenth on the
Speaker 1: road against the ram its officially Football month. The fact
Speaker 1: that September's finally hear us, heck, well, what's that feeling like?
Speaker 1: As you kind of get that Christmas type of feel
Speaker 1: where you can anticipate it coming, but it's just not
Speaker 1: there yet, Kylis. It almost feels as though we are
Speaker 1: getting back to normal. We were right there. I mean,
Speaker 1: we were right there, and I felt like last week,
Speaker 1: last well Sunday, that you know, my life was returning.
Speaker 1: I was getting Cowboy football back on television. And I
Speaker 1: need to talk to you and Rob because I thought
Speaker 1: we were boys. I thought we were cool. But I
Speaker 1: have found out otherwise through this whole process that y'all
Speaker 1: didn't call me and let me know not to go
Speaker 1: through my ritual because we were not going to be
Speaker 1: able to watch football on Sunday. Thank you, Kyle, Thank
Speaker 1: you Rob. Here's the thing, and I'll go ahead and
Speaker 1: say this. The Cowboys still won on Sunday because there's
Speaker 1: thirty one other teams and there's an entire fan base
Speaker 1: and an entire nation that has zero idea what the
Speaker 1: Cowboys are doing based off of the television scrimmage. So
Speaker 1: the Cowboys had a w on Sunday. Can we not
Speaker 1: celebrate that? I mean, can we not celebrate the fact
Speaker 1: that they won that? Rob? I mean, we'll back me
Speaker 1: up here, because we weren't necessarily sure exactly what we
Speaker 1: were going to be able to show. Honestly, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't have one hundred percent idea until we got in
Speaker 1: the building. Heck, just to just to back up Kyle
Speaker 1: on that one, I will say this, there were fans
Speaker 1: that didn't love it. You know. I think a fan
Speaker 1: tweeted to me and said, what's with the area fifty
Speaker 1: one practice we got going on right now? Nobody can
Speaker 1: see anything that's going on, but Kyle's right. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess from the standpoint of they've had at that
Speaker 1: point eleven practices to look at their own team think
Speaker 1: about that, and so they don't want to show anything
Speaker 1: to anybody else, and they try to give some Citan
Speaker 1: sounds and they did that. But yeah, it's definitely playing
Speaker 1: close to the chess right now with final cuts coming
Speaker 1: up on Saturday. Mike McCarthy being secret Mike might be
Speaker 1: my favorite Mike Isaiah, But whenever you're talking about secrecy
Speaker 1: and kind of playing that next level chess game when
Speaker 1: everybody else is playing checkers. You played for a guy
Speaker 1: who played chess in Bill Belichick. But he pulled a
Speaker 1: total Bill Belichick move with no numbers, no name on
Speaker 1: Cowboys Night. That's the scrimmage quote unquote scrimmage we're talking about.
Speaker 1: It was more like a practice, but he kept it
Speaker 1: close to the chest as ever before. Did you expect
Speaker 1: coming from Mike McCarthy, Isaiah, Uh, you know what. I
Speaker 1: can't say that I expected it, but he definitely went
Speaker 1: blake Man on us man. We didn't know what the
Speaker 1: heck was going on out there. I probably would have
Speaker 1: been exposed because my dreads. But that's about it. But
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's I know, from the fan perspective,
Speaker 1: I know, everybody wanted to see the guys, right they
Speaker 1: wanted to see this team that has been that's been
Speaker 1: talked about so diligently over this entire offseason. They wanted
Speaker 1: to see the rookies that we've been talking about for
Speaker 1: the last few months and all this talent and the
Speaker 1: coaches and how these guys are gonna be work into
Speaker 1: the schemes and and then we just saw you know, zoom,
Speaker 1: you know zoom, zoom and no numbers. And that's fine
Speaker 1: because as a fan, you want to set your team
Speaker 1: up for the best opportunity possible to go out there
Speaker 1: and win games, right starting nating what in another week
Speaker 1: and a half right where over there? Um so um
Speaker 1: he did that right. He protected the team, as you
Speaker 1: always say, protect the team. Um. And he did that,
Speaker 1: even though it wasn't at the pleasure of the of
Speaker 1: the of the fans. I think they'll they'll they'll appreciate
Speaker 1: it later on. And it seemed like there was frustration
Speaker 1: from a fan standpoint, But and I understand both sides.
Speaker 1: As a football fan, you've been itching for that moment.
Speaker 1: We would already have had four preseason games by the
Speaker 1: absolute and so you're wanting that contact, You're wanting that competition.
Speaker 1: You want to see some of these young guys you've
Speaker 1: been waiting so anxiously to finally lay your eyes on.
Speaker 1: But I also get it from a winning standpoint, you
Speaker 1: want to take every single advantage. In a league that's
Speaker 1: so parody ridden like the NFL, you want to take
Speaker 1: every advantage you have to make it necessary and make
Speaker 1: it possible for your team to come out on top
Speaker 1: when the game's count and that's what we saw, I
Speaker 1: think on Sunday, and that's what the decision was made,
Speaker 1: and I can't disagree with it. I think I like
Speaker 1: the decision because it shows that winning is coming first.
Speaker 1: Heckma yeah. I mean, look, I feel as though the
Speaker 1: you know, the no numbers on the jerseys, that's you know,
Speaker 1: a Chuck No, that's an old Pittsburgh thing, and Chud
Speaker 1: Nole did that so that, you know, coaches would coach
Speaker 1: up their guys and not be looking at the numbers.
Speaker 1: So when it came on the television and I saw
Speaker 1: that guys who were not wearing numbers, I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: this is a new wrinkle, new fold. But that's clearly
Speaker 1: Tyrn Smith, that's clearly Ezekiel Elliott Elliott. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I get it. I understand the whole you know, mystery
Speaker 1: of it. And I'm sure once every all thirty one
Speaker 1: teams found out that we were televising a game, especially
Speaker 1: NFC East teams, they wanted to comb through everything they
Speaker 1: possibly could just to get a hit or a clue
Speaker 1: about what the Cowboys were doing. Well, none of us
Speaker 1: know what the cow. No one knows because we didn't
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to see anything. And so I see
Speaker 1: the genius in it, and I understand why it was done,
Speaker 1: but I'm pouting. I'm in my feelings that. I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, I'll get over it. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't blame you at all. Heck, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of had a flashback to Bill Parcels days
Speaker 1: from like the early two thousands when I think we
Speaker 1: took a picture of a player writing an exercise bike
Speaker 1: on the track out at Valley Ranch, and boy, he
Speaker 1: got so pissed off at us for doing that, like
Speaker 1: just he he wanted and there were no numberless practices,
Speaker 1: but there were some some days where he wanted things.
Speaker 1: As you know, kept as close to the chest as possible.
Speaker 1: That's what Mike McCarthy's going for. And like what Isaiah said,
Speaker 1: actually Jerry said it on the broadcast there. You know,
Speaker 1: there's sixteen practice squad spots this year and they're still
Speaker 1: evaluating their team. And you know, if you can get
Speaker 1: a guy to the practice squad that might not make
Speaker 1: the fifty three, that winds up being a Miles Austin
Speaker 1: type prospect. A guy that can develop into a special player,
Speaker 1: then then it's a win. If the rest of the
Speaker 1: world doesn't get to see that guy on Sunday night,
Speaker 1: Mayor Rob, let me let me add to that point, man,
Speaker 1: just in case for the football road out there that's
Speaker 1: listening right now. And I don't know, may Or may
Speaker 1: not get in trouble for this. But when you're when
Speaker 1: you're going through camp and you're going through the preseason games,
Speaker 1: typically there's always a handful of guys that are really
Speaker 1: talented that that just don't make them mark, right, They
Speaker 1: just they just won't make the team, whether you're stacked
Speaker 1: at that position, whether you have veterans at that position,
Speaker 1: but you want to keep them close to your program, right,
Speaker 1: You want to keep those guys close to that for
Speaker 1: the whole purpose of a practice squad team is so
Speaker 1: that if something happens to your primary guys, you can
Speaker 1: go down and pull them up. Right. But in typical
Speaker 1: preseason for them, if those guys are out there playing
Speaker 1: and getting a lot of reps and they're not gonna
Speaker 1: make your team, guess what, You're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to keep them close because somebody else is going to
Speaker 1: pick them up and put them on their team. So
Speaker 1: we used to see it all the time. Were guys
Speaker 1: that should have been playing in the preseason, should have
Speaker 1: been getting more reps. We're not getting reps, right, They
Speaker 1: just wouldn't get reps because they were being hidden, right.
Speaker 1: They were literally the gyms that were being hidden underneath
Speaker 1: the rock because the scouting department wanted to keep the
Speaker 1: guys close. So to the point, you know, continuing that conversation, now,
Speaker 1: of course you don't want to show some of the
Speaker 1: guys that you have on your ruster right now because
Speaker 1: they're gonna get plucked. And by the way, this is
Speaker 1: going on kind of around the league. I mean I
Speaker 1: saw something Mike Zimmer in Minnesota, the great Mike Zimmer
Speaker 1: saying talking about injured player and he sets up in like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's got he's got a thing. You know, he's got something,
Speaker 1: And everybody is being very secretive. And it's got to
Speaker 1: do with the circumstances this year. For sure, there's just
Speaker 1: no time for teams to really evaluate their teams the
Speaker 1: way they want to, and so this is just kind
Speaker 1: of a natural course of things. Well, in kind of
Speaker 1: going off of what Isaiah was just talking about about
Speaker 1: those young guys not necessarily getting those reps. One thing
Speaker 1: that I noticed starting on Sunday is we've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of those younger guys starting to get more reps
Speaker 1: with the starters. You see Dak Prescott out there throwing
Speaker 1: to some of these bubble guys, some of these guys
Speaker 1: that may or may not make the roster, and if
Speaker 1: they will make the roster, they're an undrafted free agent
Speaker 1: or there's something like that thrown into the mix, maybe
Speaker 1: a second year guy something like that. Now, whenever you
Speaker 1: keep that in mind, you also have these practices that
Speaker 1: are indoors and they're closed, and Rob, you were a
Speaker 1: part of these practices, you've been around it. Has there
Speaker 1: been anything over the less last two days that has
Speaker 1: really kind of stuck out to you, kind of in
Speaker 1: that same sense of some of these other guys who
Speaker 1: weren't necessarily in the mix early on finally getting those reps. Well,
Speaker 1: I think you said it about rotating guys, but really
Speaker 1: I think Mike has done that for the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. He really has cycled a lot of different
Speaker 1: players in to give guys opportunities, and I think that's
Speaker 1: been beneficial. I think Dak and the offense have really
Speaker 1: had some success the last two three days of practice,
Speaker 1: two minute situations, situational team drills, moving the ball down
Speaker 1: the field, some more competitive stuff now that they've gotten
Speaker 1: through the installations. I think it helps to have Lyle
Speaker 1: Collins and Tyran Smith back protecting the edges. I think
Speaker 1: that's a big plus for him. He had I think
Speaker 1: he led him on a seventy five yard touchdown drive
Speaker 1: yesterday against the defense. So he's been productive and had
Speaker 1: a really nice camp. And you said it, Kyle, guys
Speaker 1: getting more opportunities in part because of some injuries and
Speaker 1: knocking on wood. I'm gonna knock on wood here. The
Speaker 1: Cowboys haven't had a ton of injuries anything really serious
Speaker 1: besides Jerald McCoy, but you know, with some DB's been
Speaker 1: sitting out lately, Cheeto, Jordan Lewis, Xavier Woods with a
Speaker 1: little bit of a groin injury. Treyvon Diggs has gotten
Speaker 1: more reps and has been really productive, and you're seeing
Speaker 1: some other wide receivers step up, with Amari Cooper getting
Speaker 1: some some limited work that's not apparently due to an injury.
Speaker 1: They're just kind of monitoring right now. Yeah, I don't think.
Speaker 1: I think these unusual circumstances with COVID is what you're
Speaker 1: seeing in practice with guys getting those first teams first
Speaker 1: team reps because they would have been able to get
Speaker 1: that in the preseason. Without it, you don't know, So
Speaker 1: how else do you evaluate these guys, right? And so
Speaker 1: it's it's almost like seem like war military war games, right,
Speaker 1: and you want to be able to get them to
Speaker 1: the point that you understand that a guy is game
Speaker 1: ready ready, But without any preseason how do you know?
Speaker 1: So I don't take any weight. Well, I know what
Speaker 1: the injuries. Guys are getting those opportunities, but I think
Speaker 1: the rotation is what it is because you want to
Speaker 1: get a look and see what a guy can do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: even to that point, heck, I think while you're trying
Speaker 1: to get eyes on players and you're getting them more
Speaker 1: reps in practice, you still don't get a full evaluation
Speaker 1: whether these guys are game ready. The reason being because
Speaker 1: there's a whole lot of guys we call them, we
Speaker 1: call them a scout team, Scout team warriors or seven
Speaker 1: or seven champs. You know, guys can fly around the
Speaker 1: field and even thud up a little bit right. And
Speaker 1: when I say thud up, I mean just you know,
Speaker 1: hit with the shoulder pass or your helmet and not
Speaker 1: fully tackle somebody to the ground. Well, thudding up and
Speaker 1: tackling or two different things, right, And some guys, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of guys after that would thud up, But
Speaker 1: a lot of guys aren't able to wrap up and
Speaker 1: finish the tackle. And the unfortunately unfortunate part about a
Speaker 1: lot of these young guys is you don't get a
Speaker 1: chance to see how they would do in a real
Speaker 1: game setting. And as a coach, obviously this year with
Speaker 1: covid Um, there's no preseason. Typically you would have the
Speaker 1: reps to see whether these guys are finishing off tackles
Speaker 1: and making plays and finishing through reps. But now you
Speaker 1: don't want to do that in a scrimmage either, because
Speaker 1: you know you don't want to risk guys getting hurt. Right,
Speaker 1: So you don't have a preseason, and you don't want
Speaker 1: to do it in and get in practice because you
Speaker 1: don't want guys to get hurt. So when do you
Speaker 1: actually get a full evaluation, you don't. I was go ahead, Kyle, No,
Speaker 1: I was gonna leave it up to view Rob go
Speaker 1: for Well. I was gonna ask Isaiah on that subject
Speaker 1: just because Michael Irvin mentioned it on the broadcast the
Speaker 1: other night. The importance of having for a rookie, for
Speaker 1: a veteran, just having a preseason game to get that hit,
Speaker 1: to get that tackle, and they just haven't had it now, Kyle,
Speaker 1: I think the first time we saw it yesterday was
Speaker 1: uh some form tackling bringing guys to the ground and
Speaker 1: kind of a half speed deal just to kind of
Speaker 1: get the form down. Landing on a pad helps guys
Speaker 1: with ball security too. But Isaiah, I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: not it's just not the same. You don't have the
Speaker 1: live elements until until September thirteenth. That's just the way
Speaker 1: it is. And even some of these older guys, right,
Speaker 1: even the veterans out there, I mean, until you get hit,
Speaker 1: Like that's the whole purpose of camp in preseason. The
Speaker 1: reason why you have with your veterans played the last
Speaker 1: you know, game and a half of the preseason I
Speaker 1: guess a game and a half and totally out of
Speaker 1: the four games of preseason typically is because you need
Speaker 1: them to get those hits. You need their body to
Speaker 1: get to get accustomed to it because think about whence
Speaker 1: the last time they've gotten tackled? Yep, when the last
Speaker 1: time these guys have been taken to the ground. Eight
Speaker 1: months of them, some of them twelve months. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So so, I mean, your body's
Speaker 1: not used to it. So I think, you know, going
Speaker 1: looking towards this for this week one, I think there's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be a lot of turnovers. Hopefully not by
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, but I feel there's gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: of turnovers all across the league just because ball security.
Speaker 1: You can't. You can't. You can't replicate that scenario. Right.
Speaker 1: I can run them through drills all day long and
Speaker 1: act like I'm stripping the ball and I know you're
Speaker 1: stripping the ball, but until I know there's somebody coming
Speaker 1: at me full speed ahead from this direction. Meanwhile, there's
Speaker 1: somebody jumping on my back right here. So I got
Speaker 1: worried about getting knocked out and hopefully not getting knocked unconscious. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: this guy's jumping on my back and I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to the ground or I might get knocked out.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's real life, this whole that's that's real.
Speaker 1: These drills. These drills aren't real because guess what, I know,
Speaker 1: as hard as I run at this guy and I'm
Speaker 1: running at these two linemen on kickoff, I know they're
Speaker 1: going to stop right. But in the real game, I
Speaker 1: got six hundred pounds of a grown man have to
Speaker 1: try to run into and they're not going to stop, right.
Speaker 1: Do I do I get up from that? I don't know.
Speaker 1: You won't know. Two week one, Well, that will not
Speaker 1: be any tackling pads on the ground on against lat
Speaker 1: we gotta get rid of and well, the thing is
Speaker 1: back to that form tackling drill and Isaiah you mentioned it,
Speaker 1: even some of those veterans trying to get those first
Speaker 1: hits in the most notably that the loudest pop that
Speaker 1: I heard was late in Van Deresh and that's a
Speaker 1: guy who really needs those hits. We talked about how
Speaker 1: he hit Tony Pollard last week. That's why he's one
Speaker 1: hit and that's why he did it exactly. You're trying
Speaker 1: to get that collision, trying to test out exactly how
Speaker 1: the neck feels, and some of the positives of coming
Speaker 1: back from an injury is you do get to kind
Speaker 1: of have a little bit more leeway. They know, that's
Speaker 1: why you're hitting. They're young and up and coming running
Speaker 1: back pretty hard the scrimmage. So there is that back
Speaker 1: and forth. But now that things are changing from a
Speaker 1: media perspective, we're not going to be in practice the
Speaker 1: entire time. Of course, we saw what happens Sunday where
Speaker 1: they're kind of closing thing off. The players though, kind
Speaker 1: of keep that same schedule Isaiah, But what are the
Speaker 1: next coming practices in the next couple of weeks bring
Speaker 1: from a player's standpoint, to get prepped for that week
Speaker 1: one kickoff. Yeah, so I think it's two parts. So
Speaker 1: I think you have the veterans or the guys that
Speaker 1: the highly drafted guys that kind of know that they're
Speaker 1: going to be around. They have one mindset, right, They're
Speaker 1: in preparation for Week one, Right, They're getting in that mindset.
Speaker 1: They're getting prepared, they're getting used to their rotations, they're
Speaker 1: getting used to the calls, and they're ready. They're really
Speaker 1: looking towards the first week. And then you got the
Speaker 1: guys that are on the bubble, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: that are fringe guys or the guys that are not
Speaker 1: so confident that they're going to make the roster. I
Speaker 1: was that guy a lot. I was in that position
Speaker 1: dating there every year. Right, it's not only because of
Speaker 1: my injuries, but because of the the situations I found myself
Speaker 1: and I had to fight my way out of it.
Speaker 1: But you're you're nervous, you know, and you're not able
Speaker 1: to play free. Right, And now I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: to stress these guys have in practice, but can now
Speaker 1: they don't get enough reps in practice. But now every
Speaker 1: practice rep you get counts. Right. It was before you
Speaker 1: can have okay, you know, okay practices and um and
Speaker 1: then when you get to the game you can ball out,
Speaker 1: you know, and and they're like, oh, okay, well this
Speaker 1: dud's a player. Well guess what. Now you better practice
Speaker 1: like a dog on an All Star because that's all
Speaker 1: they have to go off of it. If you have
Speaker 1: one bad rep at practice, or if you if you
Speaker 1: miss a you know, if you if you have a
Speaker 1: brain farting, you have a have a mental error, guys
Speaker 1: are gonna be stressing over it because it's like, crap
Speaker 1: is at the play that just gotta be cut. Crap.
Speaker 1: Then I missed that as sigment. Now, man, now songs
Speaker 1: goes in there and makes a great play, They're gonna
Speaker 1: put him out there. And you start having these internal
Speaker 1: mind games and it stresses you out, man. And when
Speaker 1: you start stressing like that, you are unable to play free.
Speaker 1: And as we know, in this league, you have to
Speaker 1: be confident and you have to play free, otherwise you're
Speaker 1: not gonna You're not gonna do what you need to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: guys know that the eye and the sky don't lie,
Speaker 1: so they want to put that tape out there. They
Speaker 1: want to be sure because guys are fighting for livelihoods.
Speaker 1: Today's Tuesday cuts come down on Saturday. So like like
Speaker 1: Isaiah said, every single rep is important. And without the preseason, man,
Speaker 1: it's almost impossible to try and simulate that real game
Speaker 1: time experience. So look, it's going to be really tough
Speaker 1: to make these cuts for the coaching staff. And maybe
Speaker 1: they let go of a guy that's a quality guy
Speaker 1: that if you've got in the chance to see him
Speaker 1: in real action, he would have been the stuff that
Speaker 1: you need. So again, guys are putting that film out
Speaker 1: there because they understand that they are fighting for their livelihood.
Speaker 1: So you ask how important are these next couple of days? Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it's it's the difference between going to work at a
Speaker 1: car lot and making you know, six figures sold. To
Speaker 1: that point, Hey, I just want to add on to that.
Speaker 1: To that point, think about it from the coacher's perspective, right,
Speaker 1: what's your goal? Your goals all get ready for the
Speaker 1: next week? Right, you were in your head, you already
Speaker 1: have probably ninety percent of your roster set. I know
Speaker 1: guys don't want to hear that, but you have y
Speaker 1: percent of your Yeah, you got ninety percent of your
Speaker 1: roster set. So there's there's maybe three guys that you're
Speaker 1: looking at that you know may go one way or another. Right,
Speaker 1: So as a coach, you want to make sure that
Speaker 1: your guys are healthy going into the first week of
Speaker 1: the season. Right from the players standpoint, I need to
Speaker 1: ball out in practice, right, So I need to ball out.
Speaker 1: So from the coaches perspective, I'm trying to get ninety
Speaker 1: percent of my team ready to play this game, right,
Speaker 1: and get them healthy enough and get them confident enough.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna pull back on the intensity or practice.
Speaker 1: Why because I don't want to risk injury. Right. But
Speaker 1: on the other side. You got a handful of guys
Speaker 1: who are actually more than a handful of guys that
Speaker 1: are going out there trying to give it. They're all
Speaker 1: so do injuries happen? Do guys go a little bit
Speaker 1: too hard when you go one hundred percent when other
Speaker 1: guys are going seventy percent? Right? What happens over these
Speaker 1: next couple of days? Right? And it's really a battle
Speaker 1: between the two because you're gonna have these guys are
Speaker 1: trying to make plays and trying to make the roster.
Speaker 1: As Hex said, they're not trying to go bust, no dishes,
Speaker 1: you know. But at the same time, you got the
Speaker 1: coaches over there, they're like, hey, don't touch my guys, right,
Speaker 1: don't touch my guys. I can have these dudes. That's
Speaker 1: an interesting point, a really good point, because you know,
Speaker 1: Marii Cooper is for the last three days, he really
Speaker 1: hasn't done much in team drills. He's been limited to
Speaker 1: individual and Jerry spoke to it on the fan this
Speaker 1: morning that it doesn't sound like it's an injury. It's
Speaker 1: just they they're monitoring him and they don't want to
Speaker 1: put him in a situation where he's gonna pull something
Speaker 1: ten days before the opener, two weeks before the opener,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. I just as a young player, if
Speaker 1: it's an undrafted guy or a guy that's on the bubble,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you don't try to press in
Speaker 1: these practice situations absolutely and overthink it because you really do.
Speaker 1: Like Isaiah said, you've got to make an impression. And
Speaker 1: you know, we talked to Treyvon Diggs yesterday on a call,
Speaker 1: and obviously he's gaining confidence and he's he's been able
Speaker 1: to kind of settle in. There's more patience with a
Speaker 1: second round draft pick though, than there is somebody that
Speaker 1: wasn't drafting coming in and trying to make this roster.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a fantastic point. Go for it,
Speaker 1: I said, And I was gonna say for everybody to
Speaker 1: understand how how much of a mind game this is.
Speaker 1: To this day, to this day, I ended up getting
Speaker 1: cut by Seattle after I came back from my my
Speaker 1: achilles injury, right going into my fifth year, I got
Speaker 1: cut by Seattle, which in turn led me to go
Speaker 1: in the next year and win the Super Bowl. So
Speaker 1: it was all right, but I remember, I remember, I
Speaker 1: remember one particular practice I was doing really well in practice,
Speaker 1: and I was I was one of those guys that
Speaker 1: was kind of fringe, right. We had some really good
Speaker 1: receivers out there, and I remember running around and there
Speaker 1: was this play that the coaches were excited about all week,
Speaker 1: and they put me in for the play. Right, So
Speaker 1: they put me in for the play, so I know,
Speaker 1: all eyes, we've been waiting all week to run this play.
Speaker 1: And I go out there and there was a play
Speaker 1: action thing and I ran a little inside scene, got
Speaker 1: inside the corner and I stemmed up the safety and
Speaker 1: I ran a post route deep over over everybody. And
Speaker 1: I don't remember who it was. I want to say
Speaker 1: it was Charlie Whitehurst through a dime, right, nice pretty ball, right,
Speaker 1: looked like something off the dog on the little Giants.
Speaker 1: And I'm running and little toilet paper rolls coming and
Speaker 1: the thing comes down and it goes right through my arms.
Speaker 1: A man, I know, and listen the disappointment in myself
Speaker 1: and the disappointment that I could see on all the
Speaker 1: coaches faces in my head, that's what got me cut
Speaker 1: to this day. Had I made that catch, I would
Speaker 1: have made the team, right, And I don't know if
Speaker 1: I would have want to ring, but I would have
Speaker 1: made the team. I would have I would have made
Speaker 1: the team in my head, seriously, and I harped on
Speaker 1: that day after day, play after play. I can't get
Speaker 1: that back, And to this day right now, I know,
Speaker 1: had I made that catch, I would have made the team.
Speaker 1: So that's what these guys are thinking about every single
Speaker 1: rep that they take. You talk about the mental side
Speaker 1: of the game. There's always a physical side of the
Speaker 1: game when it comes to football, but the mental side
Speaker 1: is just as important. And like you said, it's mind
Speaker 1: games with coaches and players, and a lot of the
Speaker 1: time the minds are already made up. And that's what
Speaker 1: we're kind of seeing and we might see throughout the
Speaker 1: rest of the week as players and cuts are coming.
Speaker 1: Before we take a break, I wanted to reminds you
Speaker 1: if you're looking for something to change up your dinner routine,
Speaker 1: support local Frisco businesses by choosing one of the Star
Speaker 1: District restaurants. Some great options around there for delivery, takeout, herbside, pickup,
Speaker 1: and dine in. Visit the Star dot com. So there's
Speaker 1: a ton of great places to go across the street.
Speaker 1: But when we come back here on talking Cowboys. Is
Speaker 1: there a veteran that could be on the shopping block
Speaker 1: whenever cuts come around this week, we'll talk about it next.
Speaker 1: I'm talking Cowboys. Since eighteen sixty five. Stetson hats are
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Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys. Well. Training camp is starting to come to
Speaker 1: a close, But get your training camp coverage with the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine Training Camp Guy, The
Speaker 1: preview includes an inside look on scouting reports, position battles,
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Speaker 1: today for only four ninety five on Dallas cowboys dot
Speaker 1: Com slash Star. Back here for the second segment of
Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys. Kyle Yeoman's alongside Rob Phillips, heck My Harrison
Speaker 1: and Isaiah stand back and Rob, You're you're one of
Speaker 1: the few, the proud that have been at every practice
Speaker 1: so far. To ask you this question, I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to rub it in, Guys. I'm not trying to rub
Speaker 1: it in. I'm not rubbing think it kind of is.
Speaker 1: You're you're one of the You're one of the few
Speaker 1: that have been in practices really the entirety of training camp.
Speaker 1: But this is gonna be a completely unfair question to you,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to ask you this. Thanks. How grade
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy's first training camp, even though we're still kind
Speaker 1: of in the middle of it. I'd give him an
Speaker 1: A plus. I have to given the circumstances that this
Speaker 1: team is in. Um I mentioned the fact that they've
Speaker 1: been knocked on wood relatively healthy so far, guys have
Speaker 1: been locked in, They've clearly been in condition. Uh, there's
Speaker 1: been a good focus about camp and he seems that
Speaker 1: basically talking to him after practice, it sounded on Sunday,
Speaker 1: he sounds like they're very close to where they want
Speaker 1: to be in terms of starting the season. I just
Speaker 1: think having to navigate everything off the field with the
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen pandemic and trying to get guys ready and
Speaker 1: just the logistics of it all. And it's not just him,
Speaker 1: it's the support staff at the Star too. That's been
Speaker 1: a huge part of this. But I think it's been
Speaker 1: an a plus job so far. There's just a long
Speaker 1: way to go, and is Jerry said on the fan
Speaker 1: this morning, this doesn't end. I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: daily thing. It's for us too. We have to be flexible.
Speaker 1: I think Jerry called it, we got its option quarterback
Speaker 1: time right now. You know, nobody knows what's going to
Speaker 1: happen day to day with this virus and how everybody's
Speaker 1: got to handle it. But I think Mike's done a
Speaker 1: great job. What would you say, heck, Mom, Well, you
Speaker 1: know the thing is, I can't base it off of
Speaker 1: anything that I've seen, but I can base it off
Speaker 1: of what the players are saying and I love it,
Speaker 1: and it sounds to me like everyone has bought in.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I hear constantly being stated
Speaker 1: about coach Mike McCarthy is the fact that he's a
Speaker 1: player's coach and that he has this open door policy.
Speaker 1: But I feel like the open door policy works both ways, right.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's just knowing Mike McCarthy and the
Speaker 1: kind of fiery guy that he is. I'm really wanting
Speaker 1: to see what it's gonna be like once he puts
Speaker 1: these guys under the test, or give them that scrutiny,
Speaker 1: or tear them. Manu win on the side on the sidelines,
Speaker 1: But I love what I'm hearing from the team and
Speaker 1: just his championship pedigree and his attention to detail. So
Speaker 1: all things being considered, it sounds like everyone in this
Speaker 1: group has bought in. Yeah, I mean it sounds like
Speaker 1: you guys may have acquired of championship coach. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe along the way, maybe he's somewhere
Speaker 1: along the way he's done pretty well for himself. But
Speaker 1: it just sounds to me like a veteran coaches came
Speaker 1: in here, knows exactly what the winning formula is um
Speaker 1: knows exactly who he is as a coach and knows
Speaker 1: exactly the type of team that he wants. He's came
Speaker 1: in regardless of the circumstances that he's instilled his will.
Speaker 1: He's imposed his will here, and that's that's all you
Speaker 1: really expect from somebody like this. I don't there's you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what else we can really add to
Speaker 1: aside from the fact that you know, he has a
Speaker 1: heck of a heck of a support system. He has
Speaker 1: some great bosses, He has a heck of a coaching
Speaker 1: staff right in place. He has veteran coaches, he has
Speaker 1: coaches who have been head coaches underneath him. So I
Speaker 1: think this is I mean, it's about a greater situation
Speaker 1: as he could have possibly hoped for. I'm in terms
Speaker 1: of support from the Joneses, in terms of the scouting department,
Speaker 1: in terms of his coaching staff. This is easy peasy
Speaker 1: for him. I mean, he has the ultimate bubble over
Speaker 1: there obviously at the Star. So I think he did
Speaker 1: a great job well. And I would probably have to
Speaker 1: say somewhere sort of the same thing, Like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: it's a little unfair to kind of grade Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: at this point, because we don't know what the season
Speaker 1: is going to hold. We don't know exactly what success
Speaker 1: is going to pop up out of training camp, but
Speaker 1: it's something at least to look at now. At least
Speaker 1: to this point, things have gone to plan, and I
Speaker 1: think that's really what you're really hoping for now. There
Speaker 1: are some very tough decisions coming up over the next
Speaker 1: week and coming up this Saturday at three p Central time.
Speaker 1: That's the cutoff to have your roster down to fifty three,
Speaker 1: have your practice squad set, and there's cuts to be
Speaker 1: had as soon as really what today, maybe tomorrow rob
Speaker 1: that we could start seeing maybe some of these cuts
Speaker 1: start coming down. Well, I don't know cowboys. Cowboys usually
Speaker 1: like to wait to do all that. They usually take
Speaker 1: their time on that. But you never know. It's it's
Speaker 1: a new regime, right it's a new era with Mike McCarthy,
Speaker 1: So I would imagine usually that fifty three cut comes
Speaker 1: all in one big clump on the day of. But
Speaker 1: like Isaiah said, I mean, they're making these discussions right
Speaker 1: now as we speak. It's a daily thing, and you know,
Speaker 1: they've probably got a pretty good idea what they want
Speaker 1: to do, even with the compressed camp. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think you know it's it's largely a veteran team. When
Speaker 1: you think about the guys that they've brought in to
Speaker 1: help on defense, I mean, they've got some veteran additions
Speaker 1: that are going to help navigate this thing. But they
Speaker 1: do have some decisions to make on young players. There's
Speaker 1: no question about that. Well in a house or go
Speaker 1: for it head mone No, I was just gonna say that.
Speaker 1: I feel as though there when you start to build
Speaker 1: the roster and you look at are just the possibilities
Speaker 1: of what the Cowboys could intel on offense and defense,
Speaker 1: you start asking these questions about like are we going
Speaker 1: to have a fullback a true fullback on the roster.
Speaker 1: Are we gonna keep an additional tight end because we're
Speaker 1: going to have the flex or hybrid tight end fullbacks scenario,
Speaker 1: and so all of those are hanging in the balance
Speaker 1: as to how this team is going to be built.
Speaker 1: I think from a special team's standpoint, even with your
Speaker 1: wide receivers on the defensive, then if you're going to
Speaker 1: play that three four four three defense, are you going
Speaker 1: to keep more cornerbacks and linebackers because you're gonna need
Speaker 1: that in order to play that three four systems. So look,
Speaker 1: it's so much that goes into this that's going to
Speaker 1: be a deciding factor on who's gonna actually make the roster,
Speaker 1: h who's going to the practice squad. I can tell
Speaker 1: you guys this right now. The offensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: they know who as players. The players know who's made
Speaker 1: the team offense. It's no question from a receiver standpoint,
Speaker 1: even from a receiver standpoint, Even from a receiver standpoint,
Speaker 1: you know who's made the team. You know you're gonna keep.
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna keep three tight ends, right, you
Speaker 1: know you're gonna keep you know you're gonna keep three,
Speaker 1: you know, two running backs in a fullback. You know
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep two quarterbacks, maybe even three. Ay, I
Speaker 1: guess you gotta keep three quarterbacks, right, I think we
Speaker 1: get two more Rouster spots. So it's fifty five this year. Right,
Speaker 1: it's a fluction. Got you, Okay? Got you? So, so
Speaker 1: three quarterbacks, two running backs in a fullback, three quarterback,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So you got five receivers
Speaker 1: that you're gonna keep. So it's really easy to do
Speaker 1: the math on the offensive side of the ball, the
Speaker 1: question defensive side of the ball. These guys are stressed
Speaker 1: right now. It's a lot easier to know where you
Speaker 1: fall in the line when you say, okay, we're running
Speaker 1: a four three defense, right, we're gonna keep We're gonna
Speaker 1: keep eight D linemen. We're gonna keep you know, if
Speaker 1: five linebackers, we're gonna keep six secondary guys. They don't know.
Speaker 1: They don't know. So you talk about the secondary and
Speaker 1: how many guys you start counting positions, right, Okay, if
Speaker 1: the offense has this mini players, we have this many specialists.
Speaker 1: These are these are the conversations that you have with yourself. Now,
Speaker 1: just don't in this case, y'all don't know these a conversation.
Speaker 1: She's like, okay, so there's all right, So there's a
Speaker 1: there's twenty there's twenty spots left on the on the roster, right,
Speaker 1: and uh, but then but coach coach Ryan, you know,
Speaker 1: he wants to he wants to run this type of defense,
Speaker 1: so he needs at least a mini linebackers, and we
Speaker 1: need at least this mini D lineman. So that means
Speaker 1: that there's only this mini These are the mental mental
Speaker 1: battles that these guys are going through right now. And
Speaker 1: I can't remember distinctively when I was playing for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: This is a dude names Bruce Mays, Bruce Mays, and
Speaker 1: we called him the grin Reaper. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: You don't want to see Bruce around this time, right,
Speaker 1: do not want to see Bruce around this time. I
Speaker 1: was always taught as a young man growing up, you
Speaker 1: look a man in his eyes when he's talking to
Speaker 1: you when you walk, Do you see Bruce May's you
Speaker 1: get cataracts? You start looking around. You don't want that
Speaker 1: head down. You don't want to make any any conte
Speaker 1: with Bruce because Bruce and he was looking at you.
Speaker 1: Bruce was gonna do this one thing. Come here, no crap,
Speaker 1: so I mean you so Bruce will tell you to come,
Speaker 1: you know, bring your playbook, you know, get your stuff.
Speaker 1: And you already knew what that was. And you know,
Speaker 1: I have my day with the Cowboys where I walked
Speaker 1: in and they had a they had a desk or
Speaker 1: the table right there at the front. Hey, little eight
Speaker 1: foot table at the front, and he was getting guys ass.
Speaker 1: They came into building. And I used to always say
Speaker 1: Hi to Bruce. Hey Fruce, are you doing man? Hey Bruce?
Speaker 1: And for this this one time, I was like, hey Bruce,
Speaker 1: Bruce love me. And Bruce was like, Isaiah, I got you.
Speaker 1: I'm like got men. That's what goes on. That's what
Speaker 1: goes on this week. Man. So you literally go from
Speaker 1: you know, four to six weeks of giving it your
Speaker 1: absolute alle and it possibly being gone in a moment.
Speaker 1: And I feel for these guys. This is a very
Speaker 1: stressful week for the guys that don't know if they're
Speaker 1: on the roster or not. Um, I wish them all
Speaker 1: good luck. But yeah, there's there's some tough decisions to
Speaker 1: be made. And as we're talking about decisions, don't be surprised.
Speaker 1: This is coming from my feelings that I have inside
Speaker 1: here in my heart. In my heart, I think there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a big name on defense that gets cut
Speaker 1: that people aren't talking about right now. Okay, so too, okay,
Speaker 1: Well what are one of those names? What do you think? Oh,
Speaker 1: we don't. It's a big game. Yeah, I want you
Speaker 1: to throw it out. I want to know who you got.
Speaker 1: All right, let's look at this scenario. This is a
Speaker 1: gentleman about the name of haha. Clinton Dix, Okay, he's
Speaker 1: a veteran, he's a proven veteran. He's playing for his
Speaker 1: old coach. The reports have been what I've been reading,
Speaker 1: the reports of being that he hasn't been what they
Speaker 1: expected him to come in and bid to be. Why
Speaker 1: pay somebody now, no disrespect to hah. So if I
Speaker 1: see you on the streets, man, we're good. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: just my opinion. But logically, why pay somebody the money
Speaker 1: that he's probably that he's receiving right now? If you're
Speaker 1: if he's not going to live up to the expectations
Speaker 1: that you have for him. Going to our conversations last week,
Speaker 1: I think that you I think that you can get
Speaker 1: Earl Thomas for the same amount that you're paying for
Speaker 1: a haha. Now take this, If Earl Thomas was on
Speaker 1: the field right now, would you ever question whether or
Speaker 1: not he was gonna be at your roster? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: And I think that you can get him for the
Speaker 1: same price that you're paying haha. So that's my two cents.
Speaker 1: I'm out. That's it. Okay. Interesting. I like the call,
Speaker 1: and it does make sense. I see where you're coming from,
Speaker 1: because it looks like, system wise, it doesn't necessarily make
Speaker 1: a ton of sense. For you've got another Let me
Speaker 1: hit this stat really quickly, he Jasper Brinkley. You guys
Speaker 1: remember that name. A couple of years ago. Ye, he
Speaker 1: was cut for a very similar thing where he just
Speaker 1: wasn't only fitting into a system, he was owed two
Speaker 1: million dollars. Haha. Clinton Dix is guaranteed two point two five.
Speaker 1: So the money has been cut before ultimately, is what
Speaker 1: I'm kind of throwing out there. There has been instances
Speaker 1: where players that are guaranteed a couple million dollars, who
Speaker 1: are veteran contracts or veteran additions that haven't necessarily made
Speaker 1: a roster and haven't met made it through those cuts.
Speaker 1: Now the heck, moone, who you got? Now? I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of this, My feeling is it just feels sacrilegious. Man.
Speaker 1: But when I when I think about the linebacker group
Speaker 1: and you know, with LV and Jalen and just the
Speaker 1: backup the guys that we see emerging, and I know
Speaker 1: we can't talk about everybody, so I won't Sean Lee
Speaker 1: where does he fit into that? Get? Where does he
Speaker 1: fit into that rotation? He's a guy that has dealt
Speaker 1: with injuries and where he is right now, we don't know.
Speaker 1: When I'm looking at the defensive line, there's so man,
Speaker 1: the defensive line room is crowded and we have a
Speaker 1: bunch of studs there. I love Antoine Woods, I mean
Speaker 1: because I can't talk about anybody else, but I just
Speaker 1: feel like Antoine Woods is one of those guys that
Speaker 1: maybe and he's had a pretty solid training camp from
Speaker 1: what I've interpret what I've heard, I just feel like
Speaker 1: you have a youth movement there with Gallamore and Hill
Speaker 1: and all. As far as the way the rotation is
Speaker 1: gonna go, so all things being considered, I'm with you, Isaiah.
Speaker 1: I just feel like it's gonna be a name that
Speaker 1: no one was accounting for as far as the veterans,
Speaker 1: but when it comes down in the haha, I just
Speaker 1: feel like with and I know we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: this in another segment, but I just feel as though
Speaker 1: safety is a position where we have to have some
Speaker 1: veteran experience, haha. Didn't get an opportunity to compete in
Speaker 1: live in live action. I realize it. And you even said,
Speaker 1: you know, guys are all world, are all practice squad.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much of that is happening right now,
Speaker 1: but I just feel as though with the better experience
Speaker 1: that Haha has, that it would be hard to cut
Speaker 1: a guy like that. Now, if we're talking et on
Speaker 1: the other side of that, then yeah, let me let me,
Speaker 1: let me throw this curveball at you. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: a little insight for all of our viewers right now.
Speaker 1: Things get a little things get a little tricky when
Speaker 1: it comes down to the front office of pro sports,
Speaker 1: especially the NFL. And there's this thing called a guaranteed contracts.
Speaker 1: So as a veteran, once you've hit veteran status, if
Speaker 1: you're on the roster the first game, they are guaranty,
Speaker 1: your salary is guaranteed. So what you what you tend
Speaker 1: to see here, and you guys may see this, okay,
Speaker 1: musical chairs going on. Coaches don't know, especially right now,
Speaker 1: they don't know who's gonna get cut from other teams, right,
Speaker 1: So if you release a veteran, if you cut a
Speaker 1: veteran to prior to your first game, right, and you
Speaker 1: get through your first week and you go out there
Speaker 1: and you you scout the market and see what else
Speaker 1: is out there, you can now bring other players onto
Speaker 1: your roster, or even the same players that you cut
Speaker 1: back onto your roster without guaranteam their entire salary. Sault point. No,
Speaker 1: that you might see a little music of chairs going
Speaker 1: on UM as this season approaches, especially with the fact
Speaker 1: that nobody's been able to see anybody play well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jerry was asked about Earl again on the fan today
Speaker 1: and he the same thing. He didn't he didn't close
Speaker 1: the door. He really didn't want to talk about it
Speaker 1: because he's the competitive situation. He doesn't want to tip
Speaker 1: his hand either way. Obviously, there have not been any
Speaker 1: discussions there with Earl to this point. No, that's true,
Speaker 1: that's been put out there. Absolutely. Yeah, But I think
Speaker 1: I think with Xavier Woods is growing injury or whatever
Speaker 1: he's dealing with right now, I think numbers at safety
Speaker 1: are important. I mean, I I think Haha's probably here
Speaker 1: at this point at the end of at the end
Speaker 1: of cutdown day, and you know Sean Lee. I think
Speaker 1: they're trying to just get him ready for the season
Speaker 1: like they always do. I think they need numbers at
Speaker 1: linebacker too, and he's very important. I think he's still
Speaker 1: very important to what they do, especially you know late
Speaker 1: in coming off the injury. I think you're right. Heck,
Speaker 1: I think Antoine Woods has had a nice camp and
Speaker 1: I think they've got plans for him in a rotation too.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I don't see a lot of
Speaker 1: veterans getting surprise cuts, but I guess we never know,
Speaker 1: but injuries. Injuries always factor in, right, and hopefully they
Speaker 1: get through this. These last few days of practice proport
Speaker 1: to cut down in good shape. I I didn't expect
Speaker 1: to see Leonard poor Nick get cut either. That's fair.
Speaker 1: That's fair. I tend to lean with Rob as well,
Speaker 1: where I don't necessarily think any of those veterans are
Speaker 1: going to be cut whenever the time comes. I just
Speaker 1: think there's a possibility, and there's conversations that are being had.
Speaker 1: Like Isaiah said, it's a nervous week for anybody who's
Speaker 1: even in those conversations because of when you walk in
Speaker 1: the building, you don't know what that time is going
Speaker 1: to come. Now, before we take the next break, I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask one more question. We've talked about the
Speaker 1: secondary and will continue to do so, and yes, Earl
Speaker 1: Thomas his name will come up in the next segment,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to ask one more thing about this
Speaker 1: defensive line. A rich leave. Mike McCarthy said he would
Speaker 1: like to keep six edge rushers and four interior defensive linemen.
Speaker 1: Is that something that you say still see even with
Speaker 1: maybe some of the question marks in the secondary what
Speaker 1: we've seen back there, or is that just kind of
Speaker 1: a testament to the amount of talent that they have
Speaker 1: them a defensive line and the kind of rotations that
Speaker 1: they're wanting to have guys. Well, I think you know
Speaker 1: that'd be ten defensive lineman doing Texas A and m
Speaker 1: Aggie math That's ten defensive lineman. That's not too many,
Speaker 1: that's not excessive. And I was just kind of going
Speaker 1: through little roster exercise during practice with Dave Hellman and
Speaker 1: looking at the secondary guys. We talked about the versatility
Speaker 1: you might be able to if everybody's healthy, that's that's
Speaker 1: the key. But maybe go lighter in the secondary just
Speaker 1: because they have so many guys that can play different spots.
Speaker 1: I mean. Maurice Linguists, the new DB's coach along with
Speaker 1: Al Harris, talked to the media over the weekend and
Speaker 1: said basically told all our guys, you played deep, you
Speaker 1: don't play safety or corner exclusively. Now. I think there's
Speaker 1: probably some exceptions there, but the point is they want
Speaker 1: to cross train their guys there, so that impacts maybe
Speaker 1: what they do at the end of the day in
Speaker 1: the secondary with the fifty three well, and I think
Speaker 1: there's still plenty of tough decisions to be made. But
Speaker 1: Todd Archer and talking with him this week, and I
Speaker 1: think he actually tweeted this out, he said he could
Speaker 1: really cut the roster down to forty nine if he
Speaker 1: really wanted to. It's the next four that's really confusing
Speaker 1: because you don't know if it's going to be what
Speaker 1: position here or that position there. It's going to be
Speaker 1: very tedious back and forth of figuring out who those
Speaker 1: next four guys could be, just based off of what
Speaker 1: is the need for the Cowboys heading into the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty season. But when we come back, is Earl Thomas
Speaker 1: a legitimate thought process because of the secondary question March,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that and debate it. We bring back
Speaker 1: the debate next here. I'm talking cowboy. I'm Jay Nobachik,
Speaker 1: former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys back in the day.
Speaker 1: I was the guy who always got the tough yards
Speaker 1: and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact,
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Speaker 1: the final weekly show of Talking Cowboys here of the offseason,
Speaker 1: as we moved back to daily starting next Tuesday. Now
Speaker 1: we'll be at a different time next Tuesday. Just wanted
Speaker 1: to let you guys know. Starting next Tuesday, it'll be
Speaker 1: nine thirty Talking Cowboys Live. So hey, wake up, get
Speaker 1: your coffee, get your breakfast, eat a donut. You know,
Speaker 1: read the newspaper and listen to talking Cowboys apart, we'll
Speaker 1: be a part of your morning routine throughout the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty season. So it's gonna be a taboys super excited
Speaker 1: for everybody and really the entire season that's coming up.
Speaker 1: But guys, I was reading an article yesterday and you, guys,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you knew I could read, but
Speaker 1: I can so Bill Awesome, Bill Barnwell, Thanks ECMA, Bill
Speaker 1: Barnwell ESPN dot com. He does great work over there.
Speaker 1: He wrote a twenty Contenders article and there Achilles heel
Speaker 1: for each of the twenty contenders, and the Cowboys were
Speaker 1: a part of the twenty contenders, and he put the
Speaker 1: Cowboys Achilles heel as cornerback and he said the expected
Speaker 1: starter was Jordan Lewis at the cornerback spot. Now, of
Speaker 1: course he could have named a couple of guys there,
Speaker 1: but he said Jordan Lewis is the top cornerback at
Speaker 1: the moment and that that spot is the Achilles heel.
Speaker 1: And I kind of looked at it and I thought
Speaker 1: about it, and I was like, you know, sure it's
Speaker 1: a question mark spot, but is it really the number
Speaker 1: one Achilles heel for the Dallas Cowboys, and heck will
Speaker 1: start with you, do you agree or do you disagree?
Speaker 1: And if you disagree, who what is that Achilles heel? Well,
Speaker 1: one of the things I have to say is that
Speaker 1: way to go out on a Lambarnwell and point out
Speaker 1: that our Achilles hill is the cornerback position cloud. He
Speaker 1: had to do some extensive research to put that article together, right,
Speaker 1: I find I sense some sarcasm and you're being facetious
Speaker 1: a twinge, Um, but I don't. But but Kyle, I disagree.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I disagree with that is because
Speaker 1: of the way that we have showed up our defensive line.
Speaker 1: I think it's safety. I really do. I believe that
Speaker 1: safety has been our Achilles hill for a very long time,
Speaker 1: and it has plagued us in some really big games.
Speaker 1: If you go back to Minnesota, if you go back
Speaker 1: to the Green Bay game, heck, if you go back
Speaker 1: to the Rams playoff loss from two three years ago,
Speaker 1: it was our safeties that I mean, it got us burning,
Speaker 1: and it was through the middle of the field. And
Speaker 1: so now I feel like, with you know, our defensive tackles,
Speaker 1: our linebackers, and hopefully bringing those safeties on a one
Speaker 1: safety in particular, I feel like that's gonna solve your
Speaker 1: issue at the cornerback position, because look, there are okay
Speaker 1: cornerbacks that are supported by great safeties that end up
Speaker 1: looking good. And I just feel as though if you
Speaker 1: have a guy like Digs, you know he's young, he's
Speaker 1: gonna give up some some some plays early on. But
Speaker 1: I think that having that safety help behind him is
Speaker 1: going to help that maturation process. Isah, I would have
Speaker 1: to tell that gentleman, not so fast, my friend, Uh,
Speaker 1: get get the corner that pencil exactly. Yeah, we're good
Speaker 1: at corner. We're young at corner, but we do have
Speaker 1: some some vets sprinkled in there, and we have two
Speaker 1: great defensive back coaches um as well to teach them there.
Speaker 1: That's not our Achilles Hill by any means. As HECKMA
Speaker 1: just alluded to. Our front seven is nasty and make nasty,
Speaker 1: as I would like to say. Um. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier to cover somebody for two and
Speaker 1: a half seconds than it is to have to cover
Speaker 1: them for four seconds. So I can tell you there's
Speaker 1: a lot of corners who may not be cover corners
Speaker 1: that all of a sudden become really good in this
Speaker 1: league when that front seven is nasty like we have so, Um,
Speaker 1: that is definitely not Achilles Hill. They kills Hill, as
Speaker 1: he said, is the safety position, Rob Go ahead and
Speaker 1: give your agreed disagree, But then I've got to I've
Speaker 1: got a rebuttal for mister Isaiah standback. What I would say, Well,
Speaker 1: go ahead and do that. Actually, I'm okay, let me ask.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask the question back, are we really
Speaker 1: sure this front seven is going to be nasty? Because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of questions. Alden Smith hasn't played in
Speaker 1: five years, Everson Griffin's in a new system. Who's in
Speaker 1: the middle of this defensive line? Is it? Neville Gallimore
Speaker 1: is at Tristan Hill is a Tyrone Crawford. All three
Speaker 1: of those guys are question marks to me. Sure Tim
Speaker 1: Bords is a solid, solid choice. But is nasty the
Speaker 1: right word for this front seven? Yes, yes, it is that.
Speaker 1: Nasty is not the right word. Nasty? Okay, Nick nasty upfront? Okay,
Speaker 1: our line is stupid. Okay, it's it's it's ridiculous. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely stupid is a good word in this Contextum?
Speaker 1: So they are absolutely insane our linebackers are there's no
Speaker 1: weeks spite out our linebackers. Only thing you can say
Speaker 1: about our linebackers or if they get hurt, well, I
Speaker 1: mean that's the only that's all you can say, right,
Speaker 1: while yeah, yeah, but while they're healthy. There's some goons, right,
Speaker 1: We got three goons behind a whole slew of other
Speaker 1: goons right there. We don't even know who's gonna be
Speaker 1: in there at any point a time, any given time,
Speaker 1: this guy's gonna be rotating left and right. Guys are
Speaker 1: gonna be fresh, Guys are vets, Guys got moves that
Speaker 1: we haven't even seen since Michael Jackson bad and they're
Speaker 1: still gonna be pulling those things out because they're not
Speaker 1: going to be out there every play. So our front
Speaker 1: seven is nice and shirt up our safety positions where
Speaker 1: we're weak. Right, we're talking about how how Xavier was
Speaker 1: twe tweaked this growing right and in the Blue and
Speaker 1: White Knight the other day, Right, that's been reported, So
Speaker 1: how fast does he come back from that? Who's behind him? Right,
Speaker 1: who's the sure fit after him? Right? So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of questions there. You don't have that problem. We
Speaker 1: just law ever sing Griffin ever sing Griffin, we just
Speaker 1: lost and and we talked about it for a day,
Speaker 1: right why because our depth is so is so we
Speaker 1: have everything Griffin. What did I say? I'm so sorry problemize.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, Jerry McCoy. We just lost McCoy and we're
Speaker 1: not even talking about it because we have guys like that,
Speaker 1: right that can step in and take his position and
Speaker 1: take his place. Um So, d line, we're good. For
Speaker 1: our linebackers, we need some more depth, but our starters
Speaker 1: are good. It's the safety position, all right, rab I
Speaker 1: would throw out first of all, I don't think corner
Speaker 1: is a weakness. I think the numbers are really good there.
Speaker 1: And treyvon Digs if he can make this much improvement
Speaker 1: in two weeks after no spring, if he continues this trajectory,
Speaker 1: then he's gonna play a lot and he's going to
Speaker 1: be successful as a rookie. I you know, I had
Speaker 1: reservations about a lot of rookies just not having the
Speaker 1: time they need, but he just continues to get more
Speaker 1: more confident. I mean, you can see it out there,
Speaker 1: and so that's really encouraging. I'll just throw out one
Speaker 1: name to help at the safety position. Potentially how about
Speaker 1: Daryl Worley? How about number two? Because I mentioned last
Speaker 1: segment how they feel like different guys can help at
Speaker 1: different spots in the secondary corner safety cross train, and
Speaker 1: Worley is. The more I watch him, he's played, he
Speaker 1: plays a lot of different spots if needed. He played
Speaker 1: safety last year late in the season for the Raiders.
Speaker 1: I think after they release Swearinger, I just the more
Speaker 1: I watch him. I mentioned the numbers at corner and
Speaker 1: it's hard to get, you know, a rotation in my
Speaker 1: mind if everybody's healthy. But he's a guy more I
Speaker 1: watched like, you got to find a spot for him.
Speaker 1: So I wonder if he's part of that that thinking of,
Speaker 1: you know, if we do have an injury at safety
Speaker 1: or just part of the overall rotation, maybe he gets
Speaker 1: some work there. Who knows, But I just really I
Speaker 1: think that's a really underrated signing that they've made well.
Speaker 1: And that's also kind of that's what we kind of
Speaker 1: talked about in the offseason. It's that there are a
Speaker 1: couple of those cornerback spots. And this is why I
Speaker 1: thought this article was specifically intriguing to me because I
Speaker 1: agree with you guys, I do think the safety spot
Speaker 1: as the achilles heel of this defense and of the
Speaker 1: team in general. And it's because I think the corner
Speaker 1: spot has enough depth to where you can throw guys
Speaker 1: back as silence and we let me, let me, let
Speaker 1: me get in. I want to I want to bring
Speaker 1: this up for I forget this point. Man. When you
Speaker 1: talk about the safety's position. Also look at the NFC East, right,
Speaker 1: because that's what we want to do. We want to
Speaker 1: win the NFC East. And the NFC East is full
Speaker 1: of some really quality tight ends. Right when you look
Speaker 1: at Philadelphia and what they have would arguably two of
Speaker 1: the best in the league aside from the guy San
Speaker 1: Francisco and Kansas City, but also in New York with Ingram,
Speaker 1: that's tight end. Those guys are attacking the seam on
Speaker 1: everything that they an old joke and the way that
Speaker 1: offenses that have evolved, you depend a lot on your safeties.
Speaker 1: And so it's horton that the Cowboys get that position
Speaker 1: shored up so that we know going into those division
Speaker 1: games that we have quality behind the linebackers to go
Speaker 1: man to man if we have to go to our
Speaker 1: nicol Lar don packages to trust one of our safeties
Speaker 1: and there's a really good cover corner out there on
Speaker 1: the street. I don't have to say his name again,
Speaker 1: but another man's trash is another man's treasure. Come on,
Speaker 1: be our treasure. I'm just saying, come on, guys, let's
Speaker 1: make it make sense sense. And here's where the debate
Speaker 1: comes back, because we're talking about moving corners back and
Speaker 1: we're depleting the depth that we have at that position,
Speaker 1: especially after a couple of guys have been banged up
Speaker 1: throughout training him Jordan Lewis, Xavier Woods. You also have
Speaker 1: Cheeto Lousier. All three of those guys have been banged
Speaker 1: up in the secondary, and you're moving guys back there.
Speaker 1: It's been reported about Reggie Robbinson moving back there. There's
Speaker 1: always the possibility of moving around Daryl Worley in that defense.
Speaker 1: I think with the injury to Xavier Woods, and I
Speaker 1: know the conversations we had last week about Earl Thomas
Speaker 1: and the free agent market and exactly where that stands
Speaker 1: now with the severity of Xavier Woods kind of being unknown,
Speaker 1: his injury being unknown at the point, I'm not there yet,
Speaker 1: but if it comes out where he's missing a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks and there's a lag in the safety position.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be against I wouldn't be against going and
Speaker 1: trying to find a guy on the open market, most notably,
Speaker 1: his name might be Earl and end with Tom. I
Speaker 1: knew he was gonna come around. Yeah, I still have
Speaker 1: my reservations because I still want to know what happened
Speaker 1: in Baltimore. That's a top notch organization. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a benchmark organization that knows exactly how to have those
Speaker 1: players and personnel decisions. They make great decisions in the draft,
Speaker 1: they do it in free agency all the time. They've
Speaker 1: built from the ground up as a personnel department in Baltimore.
Speaker 1: Why was it the decision made to not only by them,
Speaker 1: but by their players as well, to say we need
Speaker 1: to get this guy out of here. I have my reservations.
Speaker 1: But now let's getting to the point where and I'll
Speaker 1: ask you guys this question too, are the Cowboys getting
Speaker 1: desperate at safety? Because I feel like that might be
Speaker 1: the case. I say, it gets what d Xavier Woods
Speaker 1: is gonna be fine, right, I think he'll be fine, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think And soft tissue injuries we've talked about those
Speaker 1: those happened, Those are gonna happen. They're gonna first week
Speaker 1: of the season, you guys are gonna see a ton
Speaker 1: of them. Um. But listen, Earl is the sure thing
Speaker 1: I'm telling you guys from the standpoint. I don't know
Speaker 1: what the heck he's been going through here recently. I
Speaker 1: hope that he gets you know, that he that he's
Speaker 1: okay mentally, and all the other chances, whatever personal issues
Speaker 1: he has going on as affecting him in that regard,
Speaker 1: because the Earl that I know doesn't represent anything that
Speaker 1: we've heard here as of late. So if that, if
Speaker 1: that earl is somewhere in him somewhere, then he is
Speaker 1: worth every risk that you can possibly take, because guess what,
Speaker 1: you can always cut him, right, You can always cut him.
Speaker 1: And that's why there's a reason why I don't want
Speaker 1: to throw too much speculation, but I'm gonna ahead and
Speaker 1: sprinkle it out there anyway. How many times does an
Speaker 1: all pro safety sit on the market this long? They don't.
Speaker 1: So when I talk about the fact that veterans, if
Speaker 1: there is any speculation in terms of his character right now,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to guarantee him a whole year. So what
Speaker 1: happens They wait till after the first week, get a season,
Speaker 1: and then what happens get him. Yeah, that's a that's
Speaker 1: a different it's not a difficult thing. And when I
Speaker 1: think about old tom So, I think about any quality safety,
Speaker 1: I always think about a guy that played for the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: Larry Brown. It's the Larry Brown, Larry Brown, m MVP
Speaker 1: and Super Bowl in EP But in part because of
Speaker 1: what he had sitting behind him, Woodson, Washington, Everett, those
Speaker 1: safeties made it possible for a guy like Larry Brown
Speaker 1: to make a name in the NFL. And I think
Speaker 1: you get the same with a veteran with veteran with
Speaker 1: veteran leadership. And so that's when I think in my
Speaker 1: imagination that if we could possibly pull this off, that's
Speaker 1: the kind of effect that I feel like him as
Speaker 1: an acquisition would bring to our cornerback room. And also
Speaker 1: and also call let's not forget about the fact that
Speaker 1: when players are unhappy, they would do whatever they know
Speaker 1: is required to get out of a situation. Not saying
Speaker 1: that that's what he did. I'm not saying that that's
Speaker 1: what he did. I think he required. That's another story
Speaker 1: that we don't need to talk about anyways, Rob, what's
Speaker 1: your what's your feel on that? I'm just listening to
Speaker 1: the man, Jerry Jones. If he doesn't close the door,
Speaker 1: that I'm not going to close the door. So we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens. And again, injuries happened. So the look
Speaker 1: of your position might be good one day and it
Speaker 1: can vastly change the next day. So uh, but you know,
Speaker 1: there's not a I can't think of a more accomplished
Speaker 1: player in the last few years. It's just sitting out there.
Speaker 1: So it is unusual. And I would just say TVD. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and Jerry said TVD this morning on one or five
Speaker 1: point three the fan, he said, it's misleading to say
Speaker 1: that we have had those conversations, But it's also misleading
Speaker 1: to say that we have not, which is about as
Speaker 1: riding the fence as you can potentially get on a
Speaker 1: certain situation. But that's where they stand right now as
Speaker 1: it comes to Earl Thomas. So guys, we've got to
Speaker 1: get out of here. Our time is up, which is
Speaker 1: crazy because I could have talked. I could have talked
Speaker 1: like this like every day this week throughout how about
Speaker 1: let's how about let's do that next week. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about this every day nine thirty starting on Tuesday. How's
Speaker 1: that sound to you. So we'll be back here on
Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys next Tuesday, nine thirty am. Be sure to
Speaker 1: press that subscribe button and follow all of us on
Speaker 1: the social media sites because until then, this is Kyle
Speaker 1: Yeoman's Rob Phillips, heck Ma Harrison, and Isaiah's standback saying
Speaker 1: so long for Talking Cowboys. This has been a production
Speaker 1: of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.