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: Screaming live from the Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisco, Sabol Scott Today. It's a Tuesday edition
Speaker 1: of Talking Cowboys and for the first time in almost
Speaker 1: four months or five months, what the opens correct? Half
Speaker 1: of us are live from the Star in Frisco as
Speaker 1: a part of Dallas Cowboys Training Camp. Welcome into the
Speaker 1: s WBC Mortgage studios for me. We've got virtual studios
Speaker 1: for Rob Phillips, Isaiah Stanback, our resident Super Bowl Champion,
Speaker 1: and we've got heck My Harrison joining as always. Boys
Speaker 1: Camp is here. We're in the padded practices where four
Speaker 1: practices into twenty twenty Dallas Cowboys Training Camp and Rob,
Speaker 1: it just feels great to finally be back at the
Speaker 1: Star and having football action being played. It's just great
Speaker 1: to see your face in person, Kyle. I saw you
Speaker 1: down the hall just a second ago. Really great to
Speaker 1: see you with the mask on. We're massed up in here.
Speaker 1: It's very different. Uh, the media access is different. It's
Speaker 1: the new normal for us. But yes, I told Dave
Speaker 1: down the hall a minute ago. I hate taking role
Speaker 1: during training camp. Usually it's eighty ninety guys. I've never
Speaker 1: looked forward to having a roster in my hand so
Speaker 1: much and just be able to just watch football. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's been great so far. Different, not great. We're
Speaker 1: not trying to brag to heck mine. Yes, yes, it's
Speaker 1: not say it all because we've been filling you guys in.
Speaker 1: You've been up on top of things as well. But heck,
Speaker 1: I know you from a fan standpoint that have just
Speaker 1: been itching for the day to learn more, to find
Speaker 1: out more about this Cowboys team. Where you're finally getting
Speaker 1: that opportunity. Well, look, man, it's it's all about the
Speaker 1: fact that training camp has started. All of these mysterious
Speaker 1: things have started to happen. You're starting to see all
Speaker 1: of the battles, position battles starting to take shape. So absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'm ecstatic about it from that standpoint. But man, I'm
Speaker 1: flying blind right now because I can't watch what you watch. Prey. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of time, man, It is a
Speaker 1: matter of time till we all get back together, I
Speaker 1: promise you it is. We're counting down the days to
Speaker 1: do that as well, so that way you all can
Speaker 1: join us here and they ask to BBC Mortgage Studios.
Speaker 1: But Isaiah, from a players standpoint, now that if things
Speaker 1: have kicked off, what's that excitement like building up to
Speaker 1: training camp, especially whenever you've had a crazy off season,
Speaker 1: none of which have been as crazy is this one.
Speaker 1: But when you have a crazy off season that you've
Speaker 1: had to deal with, what's that anticipation like to getting
Speaker 1: back to football? Yeah, you just want to get back
Speaker 1: to some form of normalcy, right, especially in the off
Speaker 1: season that these guys have had, it's been everything but normal. Right.
Speaker 1: So for the veterans, these guys are familiar with what
Speaker 1: it typically should be like, so they're excited just to
Speaker 1: be back on site with coaches, you know, in the
Speaker 1: regular your regular regiment, right, your regular schedule. And for
Speaker 1: the new guys, these guys they don't know any better, right,
Speaker 1: They don't know any different at all, So this is
Speaker 1: all brand new to them. But this is awesome. I
Speaker 1: know these guys are can't you know, could be more
Speaker 1: ecstatic about getting together and just you know, they can't
Speaker 1: put COVID behind them because they're still in it, right.
Speaker 1: But things are getting back to the way that which
Speaker 1: they're familiar with, which is, you know, going out there,
Speaker 1: putting some pads on and running around the field, no doubt,
Speaker 1: And that's the biggest thing, is finally getting back to
Speaker 1: football and kind of getting into the groove of things again.
Speaker 1: And I think that's something that everybody looks forward to, media, player, coaches,
Speaker 1: everyone after what has happened in our society lately. But
Speaker 1: one unfortunate news event has happened throughout training camp this offseason,
Speaker 1: or at least through the last couple of days. Gerald
Speaker 1: McCoy out for the season with a rupture to write
Speaker 1: quad tendon. It was confirmed by Stephen Jones yesterday. Just
Speaker 1: kind of a freak accident injury in the middle of
Speaker 1: individual one on one drills, Antoine Woods doing his drill.
Speaker 1: Gerald McCoy was working in a role as the offensive
Speaker 1: lineman as a blocker, just stepped wrong. Ultimately, is what
Speaker 1: it was. Robin and kind of go into the details
Speaker 1: of this injury and what this is going to do.
Speaker 1: What is this going to do for this defensive line
Speaker 1: moving forward? Well, it's definitely, according to Stephen Jones, this
Speaker 1: is gonna put Gerald McCoy out for the season. You know,
Speaker 1: they do have those designated to return irs, but it
Speaker 1: looks like, you know, he's gonna have surgery today and
Speaker 1: he will miss the rest of this entire season. And look,
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy. I asked Mike McCarthy an hour before the
Speaker 1: injury happened and talk about what an impact he's already
Speaker 1: had on the younger guys on the defensive line. He's
Speaker 1: such a leader, he's a six time Pro bowler. They
Speaker 1: I mean, he was the first guy that they targeted
Speaker 1: in free agency. So it's a big loss and it
Speaker 1: means that they're going to have to adjust. You know,
Speaker 1: Tyrone Crawford is probably the guy you look at first
Speaker 1: because of his experience and the fact that he can
Speaker 1: play play anywhere. And they're gonna be looking forward to
Speaker 1: getting don Terry Poe back into practice soon. But beyond that,
Speaker 1: I know we've talked about younger guys Isaiah and Heck,
Speaker 1: it's Nevill gallilor their third round pick. It's Tristan Hill,
Speaker 1: their second round pick, who's getting more work now with
Speaker 1: the defensive line, they're gonna get opportunities, and there's not
Speaker 1: a preseason for those guys to really show out. They're
Speaker 1: gonna have to show in practice that they can they
Speaker 1: can take those snaps and earn those snaps. But I
Speaker 1: look at TC first as the guy that that's probably
Speaker 1: gonna get more run here. Yeah, I believe that the
Speaker 1: absence of Eryld McCoy, it's gonna be it's gonna be huge,
Speaker 1: right only to the standpoint of the intangibles. He's a
Speaker 1: proven veteran coach. Mike McCarthy said it in this pressor,
Speaker 1: you know, a perennial pro bowler. Uh, it's the leadership,
Speaker 1: It's the things that he's doing with those younger guys.
Speaker 1: But make no mistake about it, man, there are some
Speaker 1: quality reps right now for some younger guys, and I
Speaker 1: look for Tristan Hill to take it full advantage of
Speaker 1: the opportunity and also Neville Gallimore having that opportunity to
Speaker 1: you know, turn that corner and have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: learn this defense firsthand with the ones. But you say it,
Speaker 1: said it right, Rob Tyl Crawford is big time in
Speaker 1: the fact that he can He's multifaceted and can play
Speaker 1: a lot of positions. So his value add just went up. Yeah, fellas,
Speaker 1: I mean man, it sucks, you know, and having been
Speaker 1: a former player and having been somebody who's dealt with
Speaker 1: some serious injuries in the past, Um, it's it's not
Speaker 1: a good place to be right now, you know, especially
Speaker 1: this time in his career where he act he came here,
Speaker 1: or a chance of the Super Bowl, right So that's
Speaker 1: and that's taken completely away from him. Um. I had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to reach out to one of my former doctors,
Speaker 1: doctor Kelly Ryder of the Writer Clinic, and just talked
Speaker 1: to him about the injury, and he was talking about
Speaker 1: how how how integrated the muscle group is, you know,
Speaker 1: from that quadrant of going down into that kneecap, and
Speaker 1: how this is one of those deep, uh in you know,
Speaker 1: inner layer muscle groups that is really hard to deal
Speaker 1: with based upon what we've seen on film. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to send prayers up and hope that
Speaker 1: he gets back as healthy as possible. But it sounds
Speaker 1: like it looks like he's gonna be out for about
Speaker 1: six to six to twelve months, depending on how serious
Speaker 1: of surgery is. Once we get the MRI and back,
Speaker 1: we'll have a better idea. But as you guys are
Speaker 1: already attested to. There's opportunity to get better, you know
Speaker 1: for guys. You know, you know we talked about Gallimore,
Speaker 1: you talked about Hell. You know these guys are you know,
Speaker 1: this isn't the way in which they wanted to have
Speaker 1: more reps. But let's be honest, most of the guys
Speaker 1: that have stepped up to the plate in this league
Speaker 1: and became big players that they got their opportunities from
Speaker 1: guys ahead of them has sustaining injuries. So um, not
Speaker 1: the way in which they wanted to go. But you know,
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity for guys to come out show who
Speaker 1: they are, show that they're prepared and go out there
Speaker 1: and make and you know it's we've talked, go ahead,
Speaker 1: go ahead. Well I was just gonna say to add
Speaker 1: on to what happened yesterday. It was disappointing for sure.
Speaker 1: And I know we've talked about soft tissue injuries being
Speaker 1: a possibility with guys having so much time off. I
Speaker 1: think this was just a freak thing. You know, he
Speaker 1: got his he got his foot stepped on by Antoine Woods,
Speaker 1: and I know they were on turf, they were inside
Speaker 1: at Fort Center and they were again today. I don't
Speaker 1: think it had to do with where they were or
Speaker 1: the time off for Jerry McCoy. It's just it just
Speaker 1: like Isaiah said, it just sucks. It happens. Tyrone Crawford
Speaker 1: got hurt the first day at training camp six seven
Speaker 1: years ago, and it's just it's just a cruel fact
Speaker 1: of the game. Yeah, Rob And just to give everybody
Speaker 1: a little bit better idea of kind of what happened.
Speaker 1: And for those that's seen the film, it kind of
Speaker 1: looked like he just failed right from the outside in.
Speaker 1: But as you watched a drill, you know, you see
Speaker 1: McCoy going back right and then you see the gentleman
Speaker 1: comeback step on his foot. Right, think about if you're
Speaker 1: going backwards and somebody steps on your foot, your initial
Speaker 1: reaction is to do what's to seize up right and
Speaker 1: stop yourself from going back. When you have that much power,
Speaker 1: when you have another three hundred pound man stepping on
Speaker 1: you, you you get that concentric reaction like that that that
Speaker 1: tended pulled exactly pulled right from behind his knee and popped,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what happened. So it sucks. It absolutely sucks.
Speaker 1: But it like like you detested to you know, I
Speaker 1: talked about how there's gonna be a lot of soft
Speaker 1: tissue injuries all around the league, and you're starting to
Speaker 1: see it already in the first week of practice. But
Speaker 1: this is not that. This is just something that was
Speaker 1: just freaking freak accident is and where you don't have
Speaker 1: a ton of that. Is there anything ultimately that you
Speaker 1: can do Isaiah as a what does a freak accident
Speaker 1: ultimately do? Do it? Nah? Absolutely not. I Mean the
Speaker 1: only thing I tell people all the time for some
Speaker 1: of the injuries I sustained, you can't control things that
Speaker 1: happened to you. You can only control how you react
Speaker 1: and how you respond to them. So him being the
Speaker 1: leader on the team, you're already hurt. In the interview
Speaker 1: earlier in the week about Loony Looney was was yelling
Speaker 1: at the Mountain tops about how big of a leader
Speaker 1: Corey wasn't. How much of a positive impact he's already
Speaker 1: had on the team. Um, And you know, so I
Speaker 1: think his role now becomes get healthy and to be
Speaker 1: that mental, that mentor and the mental and that leader
Speaker 1: on that defense to help help those young guys come
Speaker 1: together and really go out there and performing. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: freak accident, and I hate to see anything that as
Speaker 1: far as a friendly fire situation like that. When I
Speaker 1: saw the video of it, it I don't know. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to see him go down like that. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, it's his knee. How did that happen?
Speaker 1: And that just shows you, man, how you know a
Speaker 1: friendly fire freak accident like that where he's simulating basically
Speaker 1: a dummy for that play and he gets hurt on it.
Speaker 1: That is absolutely not what you want to hear as
Speaker 1: a Cowboys fan here and that he got hurt like that,
Speaker 1: But again, so is life, and Gerald McCoy is so.
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw a video of him this morning
Speaker 1: going into surgery and his thing was, man, I'm still smiling,
Speaker 1: he you know, saying Cowboy Nation, I'm here for you.
Speaker 1: I know you guys are you know, we got a
Speaker 1: ship to win and I'm just excited about his recovery
Speaker 1: and next year. But make no mistake about it, we
Speaker 1: have a ton of depth at the defensive line position
Speaker 1: and guys that can play multiple positions and move around.
Speaker 1: And I think you'll see that as well with Everson
Speaker 1: Griffin coming into the fold, that leadership that we were
Speaker 1: going to be looking for for McCoy will get that
Speaker 1: with get Griffin. But and I have to say this,
Speaker 1: Rob that you know, Crawford is that guy that has
Speaker 1: been you know, the straw that stirs the drink for
Speaker 1: the Cowboys defensive line. And so he is the guy
Speaker 1: that definitely leadership qualities are gonna be you know, on
Speaker 1: full tilt and display through camping, through the season. Yep,
Speaker 1: oh looks like we lost. We lost, Like okay, we love,
Speaker 1: we love hire. You're man there it is, man, the
Speaker 1: deepens of line is, the depth is It's what it is.
Speaker 1: Just for you, Robin, You've talked about Crawford and his
Speaker 1: leadership ability, you know, kind of expand on that. Well,
Speaker 1: I think he's been I think Isaiah said, what do
Speaker 1: you guys called him a swift Swiss army knife early
Speaker 1: in the offseason. That's exactly what he is. I mean,
Speaker 1: he can play four or five techniques on this defense,
Speaker 1: played pretty much anywhere you need him to play. And
Speaker 1: I think, you know, for me personally, when I came
Speaker 1: back to the Cowboys, it was twenty fifteen and he
Speaker 1: was getting a new contract right then, and I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of fans have judged him off the
Speaker 1: contract pretty harshly at times. It's not fair. I think
Speaker 1: the guy has played hurt, he's been productive, he's been
Speaker 1: a leader off the field, He's been a guy that's
Speaker 1: been someone that DeMarcus has really looked too in developing
Speaker 1: and learning to be a pro and be a pro
Speaker 1: bowler in this league. And I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: give him a lot of credit for coming back off
Speaker 1: the double hip surgery because that was not something easy
Speaker 1: to go back from last year. But heck, I know
Speaker 1: Gallimore is a guy for you and I say it too.
Speaker 1: This is a guy that could have been drafted by
Speaker 1: the Cowboys in the second round. And McCarthy spoke to
Speaker 1: him having to play and maybe a little bit different
Speaker 1: style than he did at Oe You but I'm interested
Speaker 1: to see what he could do with some more reps
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, the big Fellaws has a great shot. Right.
Speaker 1: We just talked about how many guys in the NFL's
Speaker 1: history has had a chance to come in and step
Speaker 1: in and get reps early on. Right now, we did
Speaker 1: touch on the fact that there is no preseason, so
Speaker 1: that sucks, right, we don't get a chance to get
Speaker 1: him out there and kind of work him into the
Speaker 1: system and work him into being a pro. Now, you,
Speaker 1: young fellow, you just get thrown out there. So now
Speaker 1: you're you're you're a grown man. You know, you're you're
Speaker 1: out of college. You're out there playing amongst grown human beings. Okay,
Speaker 1: these are not recolicized humans, but neither are you, right,
Speaker 1: So great opportunity for you to go out there and
Speaker 1: show who you are. You're you're a big fella, You're
Speaker 1: a strong fellow, You're versatile and um, you know what
Speaker 1: better company to be around. And the guys that are
Speaker 1: gonna be on each side of you on this defensive line.
Speaker 1: And then you look behind you and you got those
Speaker 1: three goons behind you as well, so you're not alone.
Speaker 1: You don't have to do it alone. He's going to
Speaker 1: be surrounded by great support systems in terms of talent
Speaker 1: and a great amazing coaching staff and defensive coordinator. That's
Speaker 1: gonna put him in a position to be successful. Now,
Speaker 1: speaking of those three goons behind him, LV and Big Smooth,
Speaker 1: we've heard a lot of great things about these guys
Speaker 1: being active, flying around and just the defense giving these
Speaker 1: guys an opportunity to show exactly who they are. Robbed.
Speaker 1: You're the only ones that gets an opportunity to see this,
Speaker 1: So you gotta tell me, you gotta Sell'm sorry, don't
Speaker 1: apologize now, but you gotta tell me. What's been your
Speaker 1: biggest impression of Layton vander esh and also Jaylen Smith
Speaker 1: and camp. Well, it's been good to see Layton back
Speaker 1: and he looks like himself. He's moving around great. But
Speaker 1: Jaylen Smith has been probably my biggest standout of the
Speaker 1: training camp through what four practice this so far. He's
Speaker 1: been all over the field, guys, and he's been and
Speaker 1: I'm talking about cover situations too, where he's having to
Speaker 1: and it's he's either he's carrying a tight end down
Speaker 1: the field as he did with Blake Jarwin earlier today,
Speaker 1: or it's Zeke Elliott and he's he's busting up plays,
Speaker 1: moving forward screenplays, things of that nature. He's looking really
Speaker 1: active and effective. And you know they've talked about how
Speaker 1: that that position switched. Guys, isn't necessarily a big thing
Speaker 1: between the two guys, but if he's going to be
Speaker 1: out of the box more and roaming more, it seems
Speaker 1: like he might be a great fit for him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's more his natural setting anyways, Right,
Speaker 1: I think his ability to be able to run around
Speaker 1: and make plays and just be free. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Nolan coming in and being a coordinatory is
Speaker 1: absolutely huge for his development because he's gonna have that freedom. Right.
Speaker 1: We all know that Nolan likes the blitz, Right, Nolan
Speaker 1: likes the blitz. He's gonna lean on his guys to
Speaker 1: be athletic. Well, we know Jalen Smith is an athletic
Speaker 1: human being, So he's gonna have the opportunity to run
Speaker 1: around and be on the running backs, to be on
Speaker 1: the tight ends, to blitz off the edge, and to
Speaker 1: run sideline. The sideline that's where he's best at. Right.
Speaker 1: We put that we picked the wolf in the middle obviously,
Speaker 1: and that we got Lee on the other side. So
Speaker 1: I think this group complements each other as well, and
Speaker 1: I think where these guys are sliding now allows for
Speaker 1: them to excel to the best of their abilities. Now,
Speaker 1: I've said it before, and I've always felt as though
Speaker 1: the Cowboys got extremely lucky with getting Jaylor Smith out
Speaker 1: of Notre Dame because of that injury injury that he had,
Speaker 1: you know, completely terrible injury that he had in the
Speaker 1: bowl game, but he's showing you how he has healed
Speaker 1: from that drop foot injury and just seeing him out
Speaker 1: in coverage against Ezekiel Elliott the other day. Like you said, Rob,
Speaker 1: he is flying around and also making plays in the
Speaker 1: run game as well. I mean, this is this telling
Speaker 1: us the type of coverages the Cowboys are gonna play
Speaker 1: when you're seeing him spending so much time one on
Speaker 1: one with running backs on is that just a part
Speaker 1: of the deal with him now being at the wheel linebacker.
Speaker 1: I think it's just part of the deal. And I
Speaker 1: think there's gonna be times where he's in the box too,
Speaker 1: and he and Layton are probably switching up a little bit,
Speaker 1: but he's going to be in positions where he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to cover, and he's also going to be in
Speaker 1: those those blitz type positions as well, and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: discount Layton or Sean Lee doing that as well. I
Speaker 1: think the key to this defense, and we've talked about it,
Speaker 1: is is disguising things and having guys play different spots,
Speaker 1: and you know, if they do change up some of
Speaker 1: their alignments, that's that's key because you don't know where
Speaker 1: those rushers are coming from and that's what's really exciting
Speaker 1: about it if they do change things up and make
Speaker 1: things a little more of disguising than they've done in
Speaker 1: the past, which guys have alluded to in the interviews. Right,
Speaker 1: and Isaiah, you've played with a ton of great linebackers
Speaker 1: in your career. How do you, as far as Jane
Speaker 1: Lin Sumid comparison wise, when guys think you've seen and
Speaker 1: you went out on a limb last week about it
Speaker 1: comparing this team, but you're feeling about Jaylen Smith, you know,
Speaker 1: with guys that you've played with in the past. Oh man,
Speaker 1: it's hard to draw a comparison right now. I feel
Speaker 1: like he's he's pretty dog on athletic man, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of hard to compare him to the old you know.
Speaker 1: For me, and I'm an old school now, the old
Speaker 1: schools style of linebackers, the old school linebackers were more so, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the box and I'm coming downhill no
Speaker 1: matter what. In this new age of football, you can't
Speaker 1: have those guys. Right. You might be able to have
Speaker 1: one out of your three linebackers, three to four linebackers,
Speaker 1: but your guys got to be able to run around
Speaker 1: because this is the day and age of tight ends.
Speaker 1: Tight Ends can are big, tight Ends can block, tight
Speaker 1: Ends can run, So you have to be able to
Speaker 1: keep up with those guys. And they also are now
Speaker 1: at being asked to cover running backs, and we know
Speaker 1: how shifty those guys have gotten. So I think it's
Speaker 1: hard to draw comparison there, but I think his versatility
Speaker 1: is something to definitely acknowledge and to appreciate. And I'm
Speaker 1: pretty dog I'm sure that that Mike Nolan is going
Speaker 1: to have a heck of a time drawing up some
Speaker 1: crazy plays with that with that young man. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what I love about him, and to me, he gives
Speaker 1: me that throatback kind of a field as at the
Speaker 1: linebacker position. But there is an undrafted free agent that
Speaker 1: is making some noise at the linebacker position. Bernard does
Speaker 1: that ring of ball? Rob You gotta tell me about
Speaker 1: this guy, because I'm hearing a lot of rublins about
Speaker 1: the rookie making some noise and padded practices. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I forget how many practices they have left before the
Speaker 1: season starts. Let's say it's sixteen. He's on pace for
Speaker 1: sixteen interceptions in training camp. Because he gets one every day.
Speaker 1: He got a second one today. I think this was
Speaker 1: a pickoff Clayton Thorson, who I think kind of just
Speaker 1: threw it right to him. But hey, it's still a
Speaker 1: big played for the rookie. It's still a big played
Speaker 1: for the rookie. But anytime you pick off Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: and Anthony Brown did it his rookie season. I believe
Speaker 1: it was Tony Rumo that he picked off. Anytime a
Speaker 1: rookie comes in and picks off the starting quarterback, that's
Speaker 1: a big deal. So you know, he's making his market.
Speaker 1: I know that he's a guy that they really liked.
Speaker 1: You know that it's a group of undrafted free agents.
Speaker 1: A lot the guys they had draftable grades on. I
Speaker 1: think he was one of them. And we're seeing why
Speaker 1: have we got our fearless leader back. I've been waiting
Speaker 1: to see if Kyle he's just smiling down here at
Speaker 1: the bottom. So no, he is not. He is not
Speaker 1: back keep rolling, hack, keep rolling. But I'm doing the
Speaker 1: best I can and my best. Kyle Yoma's I presentation
Speaker 1: right now. But as far as as far as athleticism,
Speaker 1: fit and scheme, who are some of the guys that
Speaker 1: you're seeing rob that are definitely, uh besides who we've
Speaker 1: already said, are making an impact in practices on defensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball. Yes, sir, well, I think you know,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been fun to watch DeMarcus Lawrence and
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit of different role than we've seen
Speaker 1: in the past. And you know, Mike McCarthy spoke to
Speaker 1: it yesterday, experimenting with him standing up and being in
Speaker 1: more of that two point stance. You know, that's something
Speaker 1: that's a little bit more of a versatile type role
Speaker 1: that he hasn't had in the past, and you know,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see what they do with that.
Speaker 1: It was it was interesting that McCarthy referred to Julius
Speaker 1: Peppers one of the best pass rushers we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: How that benefited him in Green Bay in terms of
Speaker 1: vision and being able to kind of get a read
Speaker 1: on the quarterback more that way than than the three
Speaker 1: points stands. So they're they're trying different things and I
Speaker 1: think it's you know, it's the time to do it now.
Speaker 1: We don't have a lot of time before the start
Speaker 1: of the season, but obviously they're looking at some different
Speaker 1: options for their for their top guys. Now, I did
Speaker 1: hear that Julius Peppers comparison. And if you're thinking of that, well,
Speaker 1: Julius Peppers is six seven, three hundred pounds. You know,
Speaker 1: that's a massive human being that can play it both
Speaker 1: ways as far as stick in his hand in the
Speaker 1: ground and also playing in that bicycle stand. And he's
Speaker 1: the largest human I've ever played against him my life,
Speaker 1: just a larger than the scene. There's a there's a
Speaker 1: story that I when I was when I was I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say the other team I was playing for,
Speaker 1: but I was playing for a team and this and
Speaker 1: I was talking to an offensive linement and this joker
Speaker 1: stood up and he walked behind me and the guys.
Speaker 1: The guys looked past me. You know what. Somebody's talking
Speaker 1: to you and they look past you. And I turned
Speaker 1: around and I see this terminator looking gentleman walking past me.
Speaker 1: And I think he's six to eight. I don't I
Speaker 1: was you say six seven. I feel like he was
Speaker 1: like seven ten, all right. And you see this ginormous
Speaker 1: human being just walking by with extra muscles and a
Speaker 1: black miser and you can hear his feet hitting the
Speaker 1: ground and I'm like that whatever that is is not human.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to hit it. Wow, Kyle is back. Let's say hello again.
Speaker 1: It's been It's been quite the first twenty minutes. I've
Speaker 1: been listening to you guys. You sound great, So I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't really need me on this show, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna provide my opinion anyway. So that's fun.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and take our first break before I
Speaker 1: use my WiFi connection again, and we'll try and figure
Speaker 1: this out moving forward. You guys did a fantastic job.
Speaker 1: But when we come back here on Talking Cowboys, could
Speaker 1: the NFL's most improved player be on this defensive side
Speaker 1: of the football. I've got three candidates coming up for
Speaker 1: you on the other side of the break here on
Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys. Since eighteen sixty five, Stetson hats are American
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Speaker 1: a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's
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Speaker 1: just do bad to talk in cowboys, and we're back
Speaker 1: here on talking cowboys. Thank goodness. We've gotten all the
Speaker 1: technical difficulties out of the way early, so that way
Speaker 1: the next forty minutes of this show are as informative
Speaker 1: as potentially possible. Uh. Sorry for the technical delays, and
Speaker 1: for those of you listening on podcasts later on, it
Speaker 1: was a debacle. Let me just let you know that
Speaker 1: later on. However, before we get into this next segment,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for something to change up your dinner routine,
Speaker 1: help support local businesses, you're hearing Frisco by choosing one
Speaker 1: of the Star District's restaurants. They're just across the street
Speaker 1: from where we are. Right here at the Star and Frisco.
Speaker 1: For more information on deliver very takeout, curbside pickup and
Speaker 1: dining in availability, you can go online and visit the
Speaker 1: Star District dot Com. Lots of great options. Heckma and
Speaker 1: I love hitting up Sushi Marquis across the way. It's
Speaker 1: a fantastic run. Yes, it's so good, and there's so
Speaker 1: many great places over there. I can name them all off,
Speaker 1: but I don't have enough time. But I also wanted
Speaker 1: to give credit to CBS eleven as well, CBS eleven
Speaker 1: giving us that shot of the Gerald McCoy injury, seeing
Speaker 1: it really from the beginning with Antoine Woods rising up
Speaker 1: out of his stance and making just minimal contact, just
Speaker 1: a freak accident in the first day on turf, first
Speaker 1: day in pads, and it ultimately is the first injury
Speaker 1: of Trout Cowboys training camp. But there have been a
Speaker 1: ton of positive storylines to roll around this Cowboys team,
Speaker 1: especially on the defensive side of the football. Guys and Rob,
Speaker 1: I want to start things off with you here because
Speaker 1: there's been multiple good things about the defensive side. You
Speaker 1: guys talked about it already, but I've really been looking
Speaker 1: at Jalen Smith, and I've been looking at this line
Speaker 1: back and court with Layton vander esh put back into
Speaker 1: the fold. This is something that Cowboys fans have been
Speaker 1: looking for, but Jaylen Smith's taking it to another level.
Speaker 1: It hasn't even really been normal Jaylen smith type of play.
Speaker 1: I don't want to put out a prediction or anything,
Speaker 1: but he looks Pro Bowl calider or caliber so far.
Speaker 1: Does any rob you calling a second Pro Bowl for
Speaker 1: fifty four might if he can stop this trend after
Speaker 1: four days of practice. I agree with you. I think
Speaker 1: I said it a minute ago. I think he's he's
Speaker 1: been my top stand out of camp, just how active
Speaker 1: he's been. And they're not tackling and they've only been
Speaker 1: in pads now for a couple of days, but he's
Speaker 1: making plays and coverage. He's making plays moving forward and
Speaker 1: so he's shown his athleticism. And I think it probably
Speaker 1: helps him having Layton next to him because they work
Speaker 1: so well together. And once you get done, Terry Pope
Speaker 1: back in the mix working in team drills. You know,
Speaker 1: you guys have talked about it, Heck Isaiah what he
Speaker 1: can add in terms of eating up space and letting
Speaker 1: those guys him even more. Yeah, I think it's very important.
Speaker 1: I think it's very important guys when you when you
Speaker 1: talk about smooth to just you know, think about what
Speaker 1: type of weapon Mike Nolan has and the versatility of
Speaker 1: being able to switch these defenses out and also have
Speaker 1: him rush from the outside, you know, being past coverage,
Speaker 1: all of those things that Jayle Smith is going to
Speaker 1: be going to allow this defense. But to say that
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a Pro Bowl season for him,
Speaker 1: I mean, he can make the Pro Bowl in his sleeping.
Speaker 1: I know that's a little arrogant of a statement, but
Speaker 1: that's just the kind of talent that he has and
Speaker 1: when he's playing full till he's a no brainer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's no there's no question about his physical ability. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I can't speak to the Pro Bowl after a couple
Speaker 1: of days of practice. I can't speak to that because
Speaker 1: there's some amazing guys who you know who we added
Speaker 1: on that list. But he is he's a he's a
Speaker 1: pree cathlete man, and everybody knows that. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's back healthy. He's had a couple of seasons under
Speaker 1: his belt, so he's good to go, and he has
Speaker 1: he has a new defensive coordinator. You know, he's gonna
Speaker 1: have some fun with him and his athleticism. So I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see how he's utilized. I know he's excited
Speaker 1: to be playing next to vander ash and his boy.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I said, we've talked about how
Speaker 1: those three guys work so well together, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: that he's just looking forward to being free and having
Speaker 1: an opportunity just to ball out, man, just to be
Speaker 1: and I had just ball out with those big guys
Speaker 1: in front of him. Even with McCoy going down, we
Speaker 1: still have some great depth a defensive line, and man,
Speaker 1: those it's really going to free him up. He looks
Speaker 1: that much better. We lost Kyle again again. This is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: You're on bud. Here we go, Here we go again. Hey,
Speaker 1: and you guys are so loud and you're hot in here,
Speaker 1: and I'm telling you, my ears, I'm trying to listen
Speaker 1: to that. I can't do it. By the wa Thank god.
Speaker 1: This is the craziest I'm at the Star. This doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense to me. My home WiFi was not
Speaker 1: this bad. But it's okay. We're moving it forward. You
Speaker 1: know what, it's because you've been bragging about being the
Speaker 1: camp being in the podcast. Dude, it's bad. It might
Speaker 1: be it. That's fine, it's karma. I'm gonna move forward
Speaker 1: with this question. I was going to ask you though,
Speaker 1: and whenever we've we've talked about in the past, to
Speaker 1: move from middle linebacker over to the week side linebacker.
Speaker 1: For Jalen Smith, how much freer is he able to
Speaker 1: play in that position and just play the football as
Speaker 1: opposed to what he was doing in the past. He's
Speaker 1: able to be free as you missed because as as
Speaker 1: a as a middle linebacker, obviously you're responsible for everything
Speaker 1: and everything on the defense, right. Um, you have to
Speaker 1: be that center point right, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to take it on all the blocks, and you have
Speaker 1: to be able to get guys lined up. Where you're
Speaker 1: a strong side linebacker, you're usually responsible for that tight end,
Speaker 1: right and I'll lot of times the defense is set
Speaker 1: to wherever the tight end goes. That's why it's called
Speaker 1: a strong side linebacker. And that strong side linebacker goes
Speaker 1: to the number one tight end, so you're responsible for that.
Speaker 1: So when you're on the weak side, you have really
Speaker 1: have the least amount of responsibility right, and you really
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to run around and use your athleticism
Speaker 1: and run around. You utilize more to blitz, utilize more
Speaker 1: in coverage, utilize more if they do have a two
Speaker 1: tight end set to get hands on that number two
Speaker 1: tight end right to disrupt him so that your secondary
Speaker 1: can now come and play coverage. So he's going to
Speaker 1: be able to just be a guy man and just
Speaker 1: be an athletic. And I'm really looking forward to seeing
Speaker 1: how no one's going to use them. And that's something
Speaker 1: heck that we've talked about. Yeah, Mike McCarthy has talked
Speaker 1: about that and several of his press conference is just
Speaker 1: saying that, look, it's all about rotation. It's all about
Speaker 1: getting guys to play when it's important. And Jaylen Smith
Speaker 1: and the other guys, and we have to bring some
Speaker 1: light on the like Luke Gifford, Bernard Thomas, these guys
Speaker 1: are gonna play a tremendous role in that linebacker rotation.
Speaker 1: So Sean Lee right now I've heard isn't you know
Speaker 1: he's just on the sideline working in bands. But Jalen
Speaker 1: Smith at the will linebacker is gonna be lethal. And
Speaker 1: I guess if he have to look at it like this,
Speaker 1: at the mic, you're controlling everything. You're pretty much the
Speaker 1: quarterback of the defense, making sure coverages, your you know,
Speaker 1: protection and everything is right. But now I mean he
Speaker 1: just hey, he can let his hair down literally and
Speaker 1: play a solid as he's been rob Yeah. Absolutely, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the key to this defense, what Mike Golan
Speaker 1: wants to do, what Mike McCarthy wants for all of
Speaker 1: his players is just find the best thing they're good
Speaker 1: at and accentuated. And I think that's that's the biggest key,
Speaker 1: and not try to fit a scheme or fit a
Speaker 1: schema round players strengths, not make the players fit into
Speaker 1: the scheme itself. And I think they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 1: try some things out and see how players respond, and
Speaker 1: if they're better suited to do something else from a
Speaker 1: technique standpoint, maybe alignment standpoint, they'll they'll change gears. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got to remember, it's the first time they've been
Speaker 1: on the field with these guys. This is all brand
Speaker 1: new for the coaching staff, and like we mentioned, for
Speaker 1: the younger players, this is almost like a rookie camp
Speaker 1: for some guys. So it's gonna be a little bit
Speaker 1: of a feeling out process, even though they've had virtual
Speaker 1: meetings and virtual discussions about scheme and those things. And Isaiah,
Speaker 1: how refreshing is it? Because we've seen it with Layton Vandersch,
Speaker 1: We've seen it with Jalen Smith, We've seen it with
Speaker 1: a lot of these different players. You can even go
Speaker 1: to the offensive side of the football and say the
Speaker 1: same thing about Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup last year
Speaker 1: with Kellen Moore. But how refreshing is it to have
Speaker 1: a coach understand your strengths and play to those. From
Speaker 1: a scheme perspective, it's Everything's absolutely everything, especially in this league. UM.
Speaker 1: I think in college guys are are they do just
Speaker 1: that right? Coaches put the best players in the best
Speaker 1: position to be successful, right, um, their jobs on the
Speaker 1: line for whatever reason. Typically when you get to the NFL,
Speaker 1: you're now expected to work within our system. Right, whoever
Speaker 1: you are, you work for me now, and I put
Speaker 1: you wherever I want to that works my scheme, um,
Speaker 1: And I think you're really starting to see a change
Speaker 1: in that that mentality and that thought process around the
Speaker 1: league as you're starting to see these these running backs
Speaker 1: like Kmara, you know, and you're starting to see you know,
Speaker 1: you got guys like you know, Leshan McCoy who really
Speaker 1: changed that, you know, with with old coach Andy Reid
Speaker 1: back in the day, and um so guys have really
Speaker 1: changed that that dynamic and with this group here. You know,
Speaker 1: Mike Nolan, you look at his history, right when he
Speaker 1: was with the Saints and everything else, he didn't care
Speaker 1: who you were. If you can get to the ball,
Speaker 1: he's putting you. He's putting you in the game, right
Speaker 1: And if you can make plays, putting you in the game.
Speaker 1: If you're explosive, I'm putting you in the game. I
Speaker 1: don't care who you are. I don't care how big
Speaker 1: you are. I don't care how small you are. If
Speaker 1: you can get to the ball and disrupt things and
Speaker 1: create havoc on that side of the ball and bring
Speaker 1: energy to the team, you're my guy. So I think
Speaker 1: that he's going to be excited about having all this
Speaker 1: talent around him. And it's amazing to be able to
Speaker 1: play for a coach like that who acknowledges that and
Speaker 1: doesn't ask you to do more of what and ask
Speaker 1: you to do what you're unable to do or ask
Speaker 1: you to do something outside of yourself. He simply says, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what you do, well, I'm going to put
Speaker 1: you in a position to excel at that because that's
Speaker 1: where you're most confident, and when you're most confident, you
Speaker 1: play free. That's so true. I mean that's when we
Speaker 1: met with Mike the first two weeks on the job.
Speaker 1: It extends to the evaluation part, the drafting part two, like,
Speaker 1: we're not going to draft guys just based on what
Speaker 1: we think is gonna fit for us. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: get good players and then we'll adjust. And that's that's
Speaker 1: what they've done with their draft, with their free AC
Speaker 1: and the heckless point. When you've got guys who are
Speaker 1: versatile defensively. You mentioned Everson Griffin when he's starting to
Speaker 1: work back in strength and conditioning and he'll get back
Speaker 1: into practice here probably in the next few days. Alvin
Speaker 1: Smith can play different spots. Like I said, I said,
Speaker 1: you get these guys to get after the quarterback, they'll
Speaker 1: find a spot for him on the field, and sometimes
Speaker 1: they'll all be together, sometimes they'll be in a rotation
Speaker 1: of sorts, but they're all gonna be able to contribute
Speaker 1: in different ways that that's pretty exciting. And it's still
Speaker 1: it's still amazed to be seen how they're going to
Speaker 1: use everybody. But but they've got the pieces, even with
Speaker 1: McCoy heart, they've still got so many pieces. Yeah, Rob,
Speaker 1: I love to hear that when you saw hearing those
Speaker 1: words from training camp. Defense is pinning their ears back,
Speaker 1: guys are flying around, is they're being disrupted. Those are
Speaker 1: all the defensive keywords that you want to hear. And
Speaker 1: it sounds like to me, this whole new defensive regime
Speaker 1: is gonna you know, look, I don't not better than
Speaker 1: the last one, but just you know, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: some improvements to the scheme that the Cowboys are playing.
Speaker 1: And you've heard that in the interview with a Woozier
Speaker 1: just talking about the way that the defense, the guys
Speaker 1: up front are able to play more fast, more free,
Speaker 1: and he sees it in the skies in the disguise
Speaker 1: and scheme that they're the new disguise and scheme that
Speaker 1: they're playing right now. So kind of taking both what
Speaker 1: Heckmug just said and what Rob said of allowing these
Speaker 1: schemes and fitting players, but also you're starting to see
Speaker 1: the change from the previous staff into the new staff.
Speaker 1: Rob out of the practices that you've watched, who's benefited
Speaker 1: the most, who has been that player that you've said
Speaker 1: from the last game into this new one, who has
Speaker 1: actually played better because well he fits better. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's all about fit, but I mean
Speaker 1: I mentioned Jalen Smith earlier. I think Anthony Brown has
Speaker 1: had a tremendous start to camp in terms of his coverage,
Speaker 1: being active around the ball. And I know you guys
Speaker 1: have talked about the competition that we're seeing and we're
Speaker 1: going to see different guys get opportunities. Traymon Dix has
Speaker 1: made plays out there. I think guys are are comfortable
Speaker 1: with being aggressive and knowing that they're getting pressure up front.
Speaker 1: I will say this, you know, there's there's an issue
Speaker 1: that the offense is having right now with Loud Collins
Speaker 1: not practice and yet with Campa Irving not practicing yet.
Speaker 1: And those aren't aren't serious injuries or issues there, but
Speaker 1: their tackle depth is not what it should be right now,
Speaker 1: and you're seeing Tank Lawrence get to the quarterback a lot,
Speaker 1: and it's it's affecting the offense a little bit earlier,
Speaker 1: I think, but you are seeing dbs make a lot
Speaker 1: of plays on the ball. It's exciting. Well in heck,
Speaker 1: whenever you hear about these defensive backs, that's been a well.
Speaker 1: Kyle was we lost Kyle again and he was asking
Speaker 1: the question about Anthony Brown and his production. And for
Speaker 1: Anthony Brown, I feel as though this training camp is
Speaker 1: going to be pivotal. The coaching staff knows the type
Speaker 1: of production that he's had and rob Anthony Brown out
Speaker 1: of Purdue. His production his first year as a rookie
Speaker 1: was phenomenal. I believe he had forty forty breakups or no, no,
Speaker 1: forty tackles and eighteen and eight. I'm in bellishing the numbers,
Speaker 1: even does in the numbers, But what I'm saying is
Speaker 1: he had the production his first year which gave everyone
Speaker 1: in cowboy Land, you know, the impression that he is
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, a ball hawk, a guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna be around. Uh. He took him, you know
Speaker 1: after I believe it was Brandon Carr left in his
Speaker 1: second year. But then we we drafted a Woozier, we
Speaker 1: drafted Lewis and he had an opportunity to earn a
Speaker 1: starting spot. Nolan Carroll I believe took that over, but
Speaker 1: then he ended up playing ten games and then a Woozier.
Speaker 1: I believe he was benched for a Woozier and week thirteen.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that's had his opportunities. He's up and down.
Speaker 1: He even competed in twenty eighteen. Uh with the guy
Speaker 1: that's in I'll just refer to him and as the
Speaker 1: guy that's in Miami right now now. But he had
Speaker 1: plenty of he had plenty of opportunities to make an
Speaker 1: impact and be a starter. I just believe that a
Speaker 1: fresh set of eyes, as you know, a fresh opinion
Speaker 1: about Anthony Brown is going to give him what he
Speaker 1: needs to take that next step, because, look, he can
Speaker 1: play on the outside and he can also play a
Speaker 1: slot receiver. So his value, just like defensive linemen, are
Speaker 1: there because he's a multidimensional player for us. You nailed it.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's I was just gonna say that he
Speaker 1: can play anywhere for you, like like George Lewis, and
Speaker 1: they've been competing for that slot role the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. When Brown's been healthy, he's been productive most
Speaker 1: of the time. He's had some some penalties early in
Speaker 1: his career, but I think he did a better job
Speaker 1: with that as as he's gotten older in his career.
Speaker 1: But I mean the competition, Isaiah, it's it's really good.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you've talked about Daryl Worley as
Speaker 1: a guy. I mean that guy has more experience than
Speaker 1: anybody at the cornerback position. And Mike McCarthy has also
Speaker 1: spoken very highly of what Traymond Digs has been able
Speaker 1: to do as a natural athlete coming in. I'm still
Speaker 1: very curious to see how it's all going to work out.
Speaker 1: And I actually have a question for you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: can you really can you establish a rotation of corners
Speaker 1: within a season, within a game or would you? I mean,
Speaker 1: is it more of a chemistry type issue like it
Speaker 1: is with the offensive line, where you really need your
Speaker 1: top three guys and go from there because they have
Speaker 1: some tough decisions to make them feel like Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think as a defensive coordinator, when you have so many
Speaker 1: options at this position, right at this cornerback position, I
Speaker 1: think that you really have the freedom of putting putting
Speaker 1: guys in a rotating guys through but you don't want
Speaker 1: to do that. At the cornerback position. You want guys
Speaker 1: to be able to get in and get the flow
Speaker 1: of the game right. You want guys to get used
Speaker 1: to the releases of the receivers. You want them to
Speaker 1: have the timing. You want them to be in sync
Speaker 1: with their safeties and positioning and angles and all kinds
Speaker 1: of things. Right. So you really that's not a position
Speaker 1: that you want to swap guys out all the time.
Speaker 1: You really want your staple of guys on the outside
Speaker 1: and your third third guy on the inside. Um. But
Speaker 1: as we're talking about Brown and some of these other guys,
Speaker 1: when you're a veteran in this league, Um, first of all,
Speaker 1: if you're a player in this league, right, if you're
Speaker 1: if you're blessed to be in the NFL, you're you're
Speaker 1: a competitor, period, point blank. Right. You had to work
Speaker 1: your butt off to get to this point. Once you've
Speaker 1: become a veteran, right, and you get a little bit
Speaker 1: of status, and you've established yourself in an organization and
Speaker 1: you have some respect, and then they draft, they draft
Speaker 1: a couple of guys and they bring in a veteran. Oh,
Speaker 1: your your your position is getting challenged, right, They're calling
Speaker 1: you out in a sense, right, so that competitor has
Speaker 1: to come out within you. And and I'm really looking
Speaker 1: forward to see how some of these guys respond to
Speaker 1: new acquisitions because we know the three guys that they
Speaker 1: brought on, they're not going anywhere. Those guys are on
Speaker 1: the roster. That's just called how it is. Those three
Speaker 1: guys are on the roster. Right when we talk about
Speaker 1: um um, well I can't. I just blanked out right now.
Speaker 1: But we talked about yeah, yeah, but we were talking
Speaker 1: about we talk about digs and some of those guys
Speaker 1: that we just brought on, those guys are gonna be there,
Speaker 1: so we talk about and all these other guys that
Speaker 1: are gott to becoming Jordan Lewis. The guys got to compete.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna see what they're made up. We're gonna see,
Speaker 1: I think, the best version that they have to present
Speaker 1: because they have to. They don't have a preseason. They
Speaker 1: have to come out there. They got a bought out
Speaker 1: in practice and didn't guess what if they're blessed to
Speaker 1: be on a roster, they got to show up otherwise
Speaker 1: they'll be calling it another guy back. Did we get
Speaker 1: off fearless leader back. Guys. Hey guys, Hey guys. Fearless
Speaker 1: is probably not the right term, because my fears my
Speaker 1: WiFi will go out again moving into the final segment,
Speaker 1: but let's go ahead and take our next break before
Speaker 1: we do so. Get the ultimate fan experience. For the
Speaker 1: ultimate Cowboys fan, join Dallas Cowboys United. Get an exclusive
Speaker 1: DCU fan pack and member benefits as memberships start at
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Speaker 1: to join today when we come back. Is the offensive
Speaker 1: line now the number one worry on that side of
Speaker 1: the football? Will answer that and more when we come back.
Speaker 1: Here on Talking Cowboys. I'm Jay Novachek, former tight end
Speaker 1: for the Dallas Cowboys Back in the day. I was
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Speaker 1: a world more beautiful than you can imagine. For a
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Speaker 1: buy the latest generation of transitions lenses. Would select SLOR lenses.
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Speaker 1: Wi Fi? Issues? Magazines Get your training camp coverage with
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine Training Camp Preview.
Speaker 1: Preview includes an inside look on scouting reports, position battles,
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Speaker 1: You don't have to have Wi Fi connection. After that's done,
Speaker 1: Thank goodness. That's the read. That's an interesting but get
Speaker 1: your Star Magazine Training Camp Magazine. It's worth it. Somebody
Speaker 1: hot over there. I don't know with dial up. I
Speaker 1: don't know dial up and download, don't go to hand
Speaker 1: to hand Kyle However, what Jay, who's a great fan
Speaker 1: of OAR and a friend of ours on the comments section, says,
Speaker 1: I think Kyle's about to blow a gasket, and he's all,
Speaker 1: he's not wrong. But at the same time, it's still
Speaker 1: fun being with you guys, and honestly, I'm laughing more
Speaker 1: than I'm mad. So that's good. Yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. Before I lose the connection again, though,
Speaker 1: let's go into these offensive tackles, because we've had a
Speaker 1: lot of the positive story lines on the defensive side. Yes,
Speaker 1: we really want to get into corners, linebackers, but really
Speaker 1: it's been the pass rush that that's taken the storylines
Speaker 1: even before Gerald McCoy's injury, because of what Alden Smith
Speaker 1: has done, because of what DeMarcus Lawrence has been able
Speaker 1: to do, and then also you throw Tristan Hill having
Speaker 1: a great start to camp as well. But Rob, is
Speaker 1: this an issue moving into really the tackles. I know
Speaker 1: Lyle Collins is out at the moment, Tyrn Smith has
Speaker 1: seemingly been on a back and forth battle with Alden Smith,
Speaker 1: But are you worried at all about those offensive tackles
Speaker 1: moving forward? No, I don't think so long term. I
Speaker 1: think cam Irving and Lyle will be back at practice.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's gonna be long but for right now,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, it's just you know, it happens
Speaker 1: in preseason games with you when you've got younger players
Speaker 1: and maybe you're trying to evaluate a quarterback in game situations.
Speaker 1: It's harder when when the protection maybe isn't what it
Speaker 1: needs to be. And I think that's been an issue
Speaker 1: in terms of just having young guys playing that right
Speaker 1: tackle spot and cycling through without the depth there you've got,
Speaker 1: you've had tiring left tackle. Brandon Knight was able to
Speaker 1: work back in today and play a little bit. He
Speaker 1: started off working with the trainers. He's a guy that's
Speaker 1: played in the league already a little bit, so that'll help.
Speaker 1: And the reports that they've worked out a couple of
Speaker 1: tackles for depth. We'll see what happens. But I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about a long term just I think the rhythm
Speaker 1: of your offense you're trying to get that early in
Speaker 1: practice and it may be affected a little bit right
Speaker 1: now because you're seeing a lot of pressure from the
Speaker 1: defensive front. We've talked about it. It's a lot of good,
Speaker 1: a lot of past on this defense trying to get
Speaker 1: after the football here. You know, how big are the
Speaker 1: eyes of the rookies. The right tackle steal from Texas
Speaker 1: Tech where he sees de Marcus Lawrence in front of him,
Speaker 1: I mean that is that's a large undertaking for a rookie.
Speaker 1: And so I believe as Cowboy fans, for years we've
Speaker 1: been despoiled with all of our embarrassment of riches at
Speaker 1: the offensive line. I mean for Pro bowlers every year
Speaker 1: seems like and so now when we you know, a
Speaker 1: guy like Leo Collinson, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: You know, everything has been mum from camp, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, it doesn't sound like it's serious. I
Speaker 1: think I believe it's a conditioning uh deal. And Lyell
Speaker 1: is going to be back in the fold, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna change everything because we still have our guys. For me,
Speaker 1: Connor Williams is who I want to like, circle him
Speaker 1: underline and highlight his name because he is the one
Speaker 1: dude on that offensive line that has the most to prove.
Speaker 1: I know, Looney's done it. You know, you've seen what
Speaker 1: his production, but Connor Williams. He has got to anchor himself.
Speaker 1: He's been in the league now for a number of years,
Speaker 1: he's gotten stronger. We know, high draft pick for a
Speaker 1: guy like him coming out of Texas, but this camp
Speaker 1: is very important for him because look, guys, in two
Speaker 1: and a half weeks we fly to LA and it's
Speaker 1: a guy in LA that is a serious monster, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to deal with that guy. And so
Speaker 1: I want to see things take shape for Connor Williams
Speaker 1: right now. Heck, you gotta tell the fans who that
Speaker 1: master is in Los Angeles. You gotta say the name.
Speaker 1: I know, it's it's it's I'm sorry, I'm sorry. His
Speaker 1: name is Aaron Donald. Yeah, everybody you don't know, now
Speaker 1: you know? Now you know? Yes, he's good. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And in reference to the old line, man, I feel
Speaker 1: like we're in a good position. But to your point, Rob,
Speaker 1: we gotta get these guys on the field. And there's
Speaker 1: no there's not enough time. There's not practice games. You know,
Speaker 1: to four practice games underneath your belt, even though the
Speaker 1: starters are probably only playing maybe three quarters of that,
Speaker 1: um you know, four games typically, But you know, these
Speaker 1: guys need to get on the field. They need to
Speaker 1: get and sync. There's too much communication that has to
Speaker 1: take place between all these guys being connected on the
Speaker 1: symmetry between the center and the guards and the tackles.
Speaker 1: There's and a tight end. Right, we can't forget about
Speaker 1: Jarwin now out there. He has to be able to
Speaker 1: relay information as well. Sometimes he's in a position to
Speaker 1: change the entire, the entire, the entire blocking schemes. So
Speaker 1: these guys need to get together. There's too many new
Speaker 1: moving parts. And you think about the fact that we
Speaker 1: have Mike Nolan throwing all kinds of craziness at them.
Speaker 1: Probably with by next week he'll probably start start dialing
Speaker 1: enough the blitz packages. If these guys aren't working next
Speaker 1: to each other to be able to communicate properly and efficiently,
Speaker 1: it's going to cause problems. And then if we have
Speaker 1: any injuries at all to either of these tackles, right,
Speaker 1: I think we're okay on the interior, but at either
Speaker 1: of our tackles, if we lose one of those guys
Speaker 1: at any point in time, I think we are in trouble.
Speaker 1: I think we're in trouble because now you're putting a
Speaker 1: younger guy in that position or an unproven guy in
Speaker 1: that position, and with this defensive line that they're facing
Speaker 1: every day, at what point do they gain confidence? They
Speaker 1: don't get They don't gain confidence in practice, right, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, their teammates don't trust them,
Speaker 1: their teammates don't believe in them, and then they go
Speaker 1: out there and then they face you know, somebody who's
Speaker 1: starting and getting paid a lot of money to make
Speaker 1: them look bad. So I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: these guys stay healthy. But to Rob's point, these guys
Speaker 1: that you get on the field and get in sync well,
Speaker 1: and Isaiah, I want to turn this back around on you.
Speaker 1: You mentioned these moving parts, and you mentioned the different
Speaker 1: looks on the defense, but explain how challenging that is
Speaker 1: to pick up from an offensive perspective. You're a quarterback,
Speaker 1: you're a former wide receiver, You've played on both ends
Speaker 1: of it. It's a challenge. It's not something that is
Speaker 1: just an overnight thing. This is something that Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: and the entire offense have to do is continue to
Speaker 1: challenge themselves to pick up that defense. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: especially when you have a wild card and defensive coordinator
Speaker 1: like Nolan, who's throwing craziness at you? Right? I mean
Speaker 1: I can, I can. I can remember back when I
Speaker 1: was playing with the Patriots and I was, you know,
Speaker 1: backing up when I was backing up Tom Brady. And
Speaker 1: we're getting in preparation for the Jets at the time, right, Um,
Speaker 1: and there's a crazy defensive coordinator that happened that happened
Speaker 1: to be for with the with the Jets back back
Speaker 1: in the day, and um, and he would he would
Speaker 1: dial up and in the name of Rex Ryan, let
Speaker 1: me go ahead and say that Rex Ryan. He would
Speaker 1: dial up the craziest place, right, Rex Ryan would put
Speaker 1: one defensive lineman, five linebackers, five dbs, and he would
Speaker 1: have guys walking around. And as a quarterback, you have
Speaker 1: to be able to identify, Hey, if we're gonna be wrong,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be wrong together. Right. But the person you're
Speaker 1: talking to is you're talking to that center. Right, So
Speaker 1: as we talk about that center battle, right, whether it's
Speaker 1: gonna be looney or or it's gonna be the rookie
Speaker 1: right that we just drafted, right, it doesn't matter. Beyond
Speaker 1: and beyond is I don't want to mess up his name,
Speaker 1: but uh, if it whether, you know, you want somebody
Speaker 1: who's gonna be there. So most of the most likely
Speaker 1: it's gonna be looney because you need that guy who's
Speaker 1: confident and you need somebody who can handle that dog
Speaker 1: that you guys just referred to Aaron Donald in week one.
Speaker 1: So there's so much symmetry, there's so much communication that
Speaker 1: takes place. You know, we're talking. Not only is Dak
Speaker 1: talking and calling out the middle linebacker and telling everybody, Hey,
Speaker 1: that's who that center. Now listen to the center. Now
Speaker 1: the center has to communicate that all the way out
Speaker 1: to the tight end. Right. If you don't have your
Speaker 1: guys and they're practicing, how do you work in that communication?
Speaker 1: You don't. Yeah, it's tough, and you're going to see
Speaker 1: a little bit of a defensive side of the football.
Speaker 1: Have that advantage early in camp. You see absolutely year
Speaker 1: because of especially with a new system, it's so tough
Speaker 1: to pick up. But heck, when we were kind of
Speaker 1: mentioning this offense and really going into the season with
Speaker 1: the new edition of Ceedee Lamb with all these weapons
Speaker 1: that Dak Prescott and company have to work with on
Speaker 1: the offensive side, is really the entire success of the offense,
Speaker 1: or are we getting our ahead of ourselves in the
Speaker 1: fact that it's really the offensive line that needs to
Speaker 1: answer their questions before we really have a big year
Speaker 1: on that side of the football. Well, I mean, the
Speaker 1: thing that we have to draw into account, put into
Speaker 1: account and is the fact that these guys haven't had
Speaker 1: any OTA's quarterback camps, any of that. So the timing
Speaker 1: of the offense is completely thrown off. And so it
Speaker 1: may be we try and make this an indictment against them,
Speaker 1: but truly, defenses are going to be a little bit
Speaker 1: ahead of the curve because they just read and react right.
Speaker 1: But for offenses, it's a timing thing. And I gotta
Speaker 1: say this about something that Champ said about the offensive line,
Speaker 1: and man, we're just fall because of all the great
Speaker 1: guys that we've had, and you look around the league
Speaker 1: at offensive linemen and there are not a lot of
Speaker 1: teams that have as great offensive line as the one
Speaker 1: that we have. I think Indianapolis is the only team
Speaker 1: that I can think of with Nelson. But look, we
Speaker 1: have to really concentrate on the fact that we have
Speaker 1: a very dynamic running back in Zeke and don't matter
Speaker 1: what the timing is looking like what the easiest thing
Speaker 1: to do is turnaround and hand numb between one the
Speaker 1: ball inside zone, outside zone. Let him do his think
Speaker 1: because everything is going to be predicated on that. And
Speaker 1: if you think about Mike McCarthy and what he's doing
Speaker 1: right now, and even Kellen Moore with the offense from
Speaker 1: last year, he's able to communicate a lot of that
Speaker 1: to the new guys and the guys that we've had
Speaker 1: from previous years. But we understand that Zeke is going
Speaker 1: to be a big part of that. I know Ceedee
Speaker 1: Lamb is attractive to talk about and the offense and explosion,
Speaker 1: but guys, the truth is Ezekiel Elliott is going to
Speaker 1: be the guy that makes all of this run succinctly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I want to be clear to the offense has
Speaker 1: had their moments too. I thought yesterday it was a
Speaker 1: really good day for the offense. We've seen some great
Speaker 1: connections between Dak and Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, Ceedee Lamb,
Speaker 1: Blake Jerwin and Zeke two hack to your point, because
Speaker 1: one thing he spoke about yes a via conference call
Speaker 1: was trying to be more of even better as a
Speaker 1: pass catcher and This is a guy that's had I
Speaker 1: think seventy seven catches in a season, but he wants
Speaker 1: to be even more well rounded. And then now you
Speaker 1: add in, you know Tony Pollard as a guy that
Speaker 1: can be a compliment in the same manner, a guy
Speaker 1: that can that can beat you a bunch of different ways,
Speaker 1: and it just kind of adds to that whole versatility
Speaker 1: thing we're talking about now on the offensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball. But yeah, I think the offensive line is
Speaker 1: gonna be fine. That just the right side is just
Speaker 1: not where it normally would be. Right now, you still
Speaker 1: got Zack Martin, you still got Tyrn Smith, Tech mentioned
Speaker 1: Connor Williams. He's gonna be fine. Joe Looney has experience,
Speaker 1: h and you can turn around and hand the ball
Speaker 1: at twenty one. That's pretty good. Heckman's looking really nice
Speaker 1: up on that screen right now. I think he's just
Speaker 1: he's just owning the camera time at the moment. But
Speaker 1: I'd have to agree because there's so many different Uh,
Speaker 1: there's there's so many fun things about this offense. When
Speaker 1: you look at Zeke, when you look at Tony Pollard
Speaker 1: getting the backfield and involved with both of those guys,
Speaker 1: I know Mike McCarthy briefly mentioned did Zeke talked about
Speaker 1: it like you mentioned Rob, But I think whenever you
Speaker 1: get to the point Rob of looking at this offense,
Speaker 1: it's really how creative is Kellen Moore going to get
Speaker 1: to be and what are some of the ways that
Speaker 1: he can be creative with this offense and can get
Speaker 1: all of these weapons involved in order to get the
Speaker 1: touches that they need. Yeah, and Zeke spoke to him yesterday.
Speaker 1: He was asked about they used he and Pollard together
Speaker 1: at times last season, and he just talked about how
Speaker 1: they can really play off of each other in terms
Speaker 1: of their roles and keeps the defenses honest and it
Speaker 1: you know Pollard as a guy, they really love his potential.
Speaker 1: The issue, like as as Hegma has said, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: as Aias said, there's just guys that have a hard
Speaker 1: time ever really breaking out in the NFL, just simply
Speaker 1: because there are great players in front of him. So
Speaker 1: I'm still curious to see what his snapcount's going to
Speaker 1: be because we saw him blow up in certain games
Speaker 1: and then he might get five or six snaps on offense,
Speaker 1: and I'm just curious to see how consistent it's gonna be,
Speaker 1: but there is no doubt about his talent. Isaiah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we've already touched on it to boy can
Speaker 1: play unfortunate as a due by the name of Freaky
Speaker 1: Ezekie in front of him, and they don't have to
Speaker 1: find a way to get both of those guys in
Speaker 1: the game while getting all three receivers in the game
Speaker 1: while also trying to get both tight ends in the game.
Speaker 1: I am not Kellen Moore. I don't want to be.
Speaker 1: He has a good problem on his hand, but he's
Speaker 1: got to earn his check for this year. For sure.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be interesting because there's so many different ways
Speaker 1: that you can ultimately move with this offense, and there's
Speaker 1: so many different weapons to use. How you use them
Speaker 1: that's the biggest question moving forward. We can't wait to
Speaker 1: answer those for you here on Talking Cowboys. Throughout the
Speaker 1: course of Cowboys training camp, keep up to date with
Speaker 1: all four of us. Whenever we're reporting here about the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: You've got Heckma Harrison on Twitter at Heckma Underscore Harrison.
Speaker 1: You've got Rob Phillips. He's Rob Phillips three on Twitter.
Speaker 1: And then Isaiah SA and back as well. I am
Speaker 1: stand Back the champ. I love it. Go and follow
Speaker 1: those guys on Twitter because they're fantastic all the way through.
Speaker 1: I'm at Kyle underscore Yeoman's Hopefully no Wi Fi problems
Speaker 1: on my tweeting side of things, but that's gonna do
Speaker 1: it here for talking Cowboys today. Sorry for my technical difficulties.
Speaker 1: I'll be better next week, I promise. But for heck
Speaker 1: My Harrison, for Rob Phillips, for Isaiah stand back, I'm
Speaker 1: Kyle Yeoman saying so long from the start in Frisco.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. I'm talking Cowboys. This has
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