Cowboys Break: 0-3 Preseason a Cause for Concern?

to the Break. I'm Derrek keep thirty two. Thank you. Why you didn't understand what I said? No, I ain't hear it. I wanted to make sure I was on the same page of what I keep up. I do keep us Scandric episode, It is a scandridas grumpy. Oh well, do you have to ask for that? I'm a Lumba, Donovan Lumba. Welcome to the s WBC Mortgage Studios. We're coming off a game Cowboys lose last night, twenty seven to nothing. No, no, no, no, you're just gonna short

change Brett Marr like that. Oh sorry, right, No I did, I did. I don't even remember those last three points twenty seven to three. All right, so twenty seven to three, Yeah, they didn't get picked out. Friends, Okay, maybe they didn't get shut out, But we're gonna talk. We're gonna put that all in perspective today because I've seen all kinds of stuff on social media, which of course social media always goes a little crazy with things. But we're gonna

put it in perspective today. We're gonna talk to you guys about what we think that all means, if it means anything with it being a preseason game and with the guys that the Cowboys had out there, but I do throughout the show, I want to hear from you, guys. I want you to give us a call and let us know what you think, what maybe you're concerned about as as you watch that game last night, as we have one more preseason game this week and then next week it all turns to the regular season. I want

to know what fans are concerned about. What are the things that that you coming off this preseason are are wondering if the Cowboys are gonna be able to get better at and be able to be able to compete in those areas call us eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven, So you can chime into the conversation. How's everybody doing today. We're good, I'm awesome, Yeah, good, perfect, All right, so let's let's get into Let's get into

the conversation on the game. I guess as a big picture thing, I'd like you guys to tell me first how dismissive or not you are of what happened last night. Obviously, the starters on offense primarily didn't play. The veteran starters for the most part didn't play. There were a couple

of defensive starters that didn't play. Although the first team defense did get a chance to get out there, Cowboys just look completely out of it from from the word go, and, as we said, end up losing twenty seven two three. Tell me how dismissive you are or not of what you saw last night and what it means for the future. Nick Well, I thought, you know, let's let's look at some of the positives. I mean, the defense. First team

defense did play and they played really well. They I think they posted a shut out, you would say in the first half. A couple of touchdowns were not on the defense. I thought they've looked good all preseason, they very fast. Uh, there's some very positive things to point to for that defense. They were trying to play. They had their starters out there, and they look really good. So that's the positive thing that came out. I'll let someone else talk about maybe the flip side of it,

the difference talk about the negative. Whoative the one negative? There's plenty of negative. I mean, I get I get upset a little bit of the people that just kind of go off on Twitter and get so upset about the Cowboys losing the game. And you gotta remember, these are not your first team guys. So there's a big difference there. And someone sent me a comment out like, oh, are you saying they didn't make any effort. They weren't putting an effort out there. It's not about effort. Obviously.

There's a big difference between backup guys and the starters now as far as death goes, and that has been a concern right now. Who the backup guys are at this point is very important, and clearly what we saw yesterday last night was not very promising at all as far as backup guys. I guess there's also a difference when you combine several starters and then you have maybe a one backup guy that we shouldn't be seeing something as bad as we saw last night. But this does

raise a lot of questions. If I'm calling it a wash, it's a complete and like, I don't view it particularly good or bad one way or the other for either side of the ball, honestly. And the reason why is you can look at this across a variety of spectrums. Defense looked really, really good. I think we would all agree that they did, and they have, to their credit, Larry Fitzgerald and David Johnson didn't play in this game the same way that Zack Martin and Travis Frederick didn't.

The offense looked pretty awful pathetic. They were going against Chandler Jones and Patrick Peterson. I mean, it's it's hard to do a full evaluation with the way this is all mismatched. I think the best way to look at this is just to literally individually pick things out, Like maybe the most encouraging thing from the whole game for me is that I thought Joe Looney looked like he

played pretty well going against who he went against. Playing with Lyle Collins and Connor Williams, obviously Zack and Tyron weren't out there. I thought he played really well. I thought, obviously, again, you gotta keep the personnel in mind with the defense. But that is an encouraging trend over the course of three preseason games that you feel good about what they've done. Other than that, again, just kind of a wash, and

that's you know, I'll even I'll own it. I didn't want to see good players out there, and that's what you get when you don't put good players out there. It was boring and ugly, but it's better than the alternative, which is talking about somebody not being available right now because they got hurt. So we know Dave how Dave

falls on that for YouTube. You think that was the right decision, not letting some of the a lot of those veterans play last night, because when you think about it in the grand scheme of things, I think Dave has made a point that you know, at the end of the day, doesn't really matter you still these guys are still going to be ready to play when the

season begins. But if you're one of the people that believes you gotta play football to be ready to play football, you're running back is not going to play a preseason snap. Your middle line, I mean, you're your best linebacker's gonna play what a few snaps had he gotten in the second week of preseason. Your quarterback won't play for this week or next week probably, So there's a ton of guys that just won't get if you believe in that,

won't get that kind of seasoning heading into the season. Yeah, I mean, I think that this is the first time that we've seen Zeke nine to get any carries at all in the preseason. But it's not like he got a ton. I mean, this is like down from like six or seven to zero. And I think in that Seattle game is rookie year, he had a few there and he you know, he hasn't actually started out the seasons that great. Um. Anyways, the first two games, I think for the first of us two seasons, he hasn't

been that effective. The second game last year was one of the worst games we've ever seen from him. So I think there's different theories on exactly, you know, how he gets ready to play. He's had an outstanding Zeke He's had an outstanding training camp, and I think that he'll he'll be fine, But I would have liked to

see a little bit. Sorry to answer your question so long, but I think the domino effect of Zach then Travis led to you know what, not tiring, so not Dak, so not Zeke, And it just makes sense that way that that was the best decision. And I don't think those guys, I mean, they're not going to really improved in the spam of like a week and a half. So you know what you're getting with Zee, you know what you're getting with Dak and all those guys there.

So this time, I would say this is the right time and the time that he's needed to see the guys that we did get to see last night, and crucial time for them. I was expecting to see a little more that made you feel better, especially let's say the backup quarterback position. That was pretty disappointing, but it's I mean, I guess this is where we're at right now. But yes, to answer your question, I think it was

the best decision to keep them out. Speaking of the backup quarterbacks, four of the eight turnovers last night came from those two quarterbacks, Cooper Rush Mike White eight eight eight turnovers eight eight turnovers. When was the last time you saw a game with eight turnovers like preseason, regular season.

I don't care, like any any level of football, Like that's that's stuff like where you're from, Like when you watch a high school team where the center can't snap the ball, Like yeah, anyway, And the worst part is it was a minus eight in the you know ratio. You don't get any in return about that. You would think if you have you would think that if you have eight turnovers, you'll at least be like minus six, you know, like maybe your defense gets you too. Did

you hear minus eight? I asked Jason, I asked Jason the Garrett. Yeah, the Garrett. I asked him in the press conference about these turnovers, and he just went down the line and he was just like, well this one, this, you know, this play was bad. Then this interception, he's gotta do this. So there's two. What else? He's like, oh, and then you know Rod Smith did, there's three, there's four. You know, he's getting all the way. He's like, how many are we had? Seven? It was like, yeah, he

went through them all. This is like a little while. This is like yeah, I kind of well, here's the thing. A guy that We've been talking about Lance Lenore and in his role here and if he does make the team, we talked about it last week and when you see these are the this is the time that he needs to show up and prove that he can do that,

and especially especially in special teams. And again, that is one of the things that he messed up last year as far as when he was given a chance, we saw that Again clearly there was not really an improvement there. So that was disappointing. And the tough part for him is that that isn't even a job he probably was

going to win as a returner. Yet it could be the thing that might get him keep him off this team, which it is tragic because I think he's had a really good preseason, really good training camp as a receiver and that may have been undone a bit we'll only see that, but it may have been undone. You know, I hear your point about, well, he wasn't making these plays a special teams. You know, of why he was a guy candidate to make the team because of what

he was doing at receiver. However, you get the opportunity when whenever it is and the lights come on and we've said this for years now. These receivers aren't going to make the team out how they catch, how they block, how they tackle, how they play on special teams. So an opportunity to perform, and you know he did. He did have one bad play. The other one, you know, the other one's kind of a there was a real bad play on Byron Jones. He's got to be a

little bit more aware of that. Yeah, So when you look at those those four in those four turnovers that came from the quarterbacks specifically, how concerned you more concerned today than you were three days go about the backup quarterback position. I have a hard time articulating how I feel about that because I don't think Cooper Rush is bad by any stretch. But I don't think at any point in either of these two seasons have I been convinced that he's like the answer at backup quarterback. Even

when he was killing it last year. I mean, he played really well, but I would have had not much more confidence in him to lead this team for a prolonged period of time than Kellen Moore. You know, I mean, maybe he's a little bit better than Kellen Moore, but he's not you know, he's not going to go Kurt Warner on you and like guide your team to the

super Bowl or anything like that. And so I'm kind of I'm like, I don't think he's good enough, but I don't think most backup quarterbacks are good enough, and honestly, and then in the back of my head you think about Nick Foles and what he did for the Eagles, and I know that's the that's the ready made answer anybody's gonna have for you. Is if I say a backup quarterback doesn't really matter anyway, that's that's a great point.

It can we can, and I'm not. I'm just I'm not sure that anybody on this roster is the guy to be this team's backup. But I don't think the Cowboys are going to go shopping for one. But the interesting part there is, can't he get to the point where he's good enough now be Nick Foles? No? Right, No, I don't think so. And the reason why I can say that it is with those two throws that I saw. You cannot play in this league if you can't make all of the throws like that. Now you can be

a good backup. Jason Garrett did it for years. Jason Garrett could not make all the throws, I mean, and he was a different game plan when Akeman came out. That's just the way that it is. That's okay, there are some quarterbacks that are that way. But you just look at that out throw. Peterson was sitting all over it. Now a little bit different knowing that he's not gonna get beat deep, they're not going to test them and all that. But the one in the red zone, same thing.

It was late, it was not it was it was not on a rope. It needed to be there. But isn't that more about or at least could that be more about decision making? That number one, he was in decisive can get it out as soon as he should have, and then it was probably a bad decision on the comeback. It's probably a bad decision to throw that ball in the first place because of the tight coverage there, and he was he basically was coming back like he the

defenders saw that there was an opportunity there. He's gonna bite on that, And so to me, I think of that more as bad decision making, not decisive enough to get the ball out when it was when the player was when the receiver was open, then I do that he didn't have the arm string to make the throw well. And the question was, do you think that he's a guy that could develop into that? And I don't really

think so because of because of the arm string. Now you can get better at some of those other things that the decision making and all that. These quarterbacks do get better. But I think he either have those tools or you don't. It doesn't mean he can't go and win games for your two or three weeks. It doesn't mean that because it got quarterbacks can do that. But I just don't. I don't mean I don't think he's one that's going to develop into a starter for some

other team one year. I don't think that. You said right there that a cornerback is going to bite on that play, and you're right. But the thing that concerns me is like bite implies that it was a gamble, Like Patrick Peterson diagnosed that place so well and was so much better than Cooper Rush in that moment that it was like SloMo, like it wasn't a gamble. He was like, I'm taking this to the house and he knew it. Yeah, if I gave that impression that was

not the impression. You're right, Patrick Peterson knew from the beginning what was happening in ideally that is a gamble, where like there was the cornerbacks got to make that choice. But that's how much better Patrick Peterson was in that moment that that play was just on a platter for him. And much of what you want to see, right, much of what we've seen from Cooper Rush though, has been against backup. Yeah, he's never seen, so he's now starting to see. He last night he got to see there's

a big difference between the backups and the start. You know, this offense though, I'll say this, if Scott Lanahan is going to continue to run this type of offense, there's gonna be a lot more pick sixes because you have to you have to show that this dink and dunk

stuff will work every now and again. But if you don't have the threat of a deep ball, then you know, there's no reason why Patrick Peterson should be one hundred percent convinced that Tavon Austin is not going to run by him, but he was because they're not gonna throw it deep like that. They're not going to do that. Well, they tried Michael Gallup and not and and Cooper rush overthrew Beasley, which I love that play. No, it was

a good that was a good play design. But but that to me, was that the play design at the watch that again? Or did it kind of develop into that? Did he kind of break off? I mean, was he running deep or was it kind of a breakdown? I was like a double move type of situation. But I don't know. It's funny because we Jerry Jones talked about it after the game, and he kind of talked out

of both sides of his mouth. He was like, I'm not ready to say that we're gonna look for guys, but I'm not ready to say that I feel great about these two either, which that's kind of how I feel where. I'm like, if Dak Prescott for whatever reason, were to be unavailable for a period of lengthy period of time, like more than a game, I would be pretty worried. But I don't know how realistic it is to think that you're going to drastically upgrade this position.

I know buddy at home is yelling about teddy Bridge Bridgewater right now too much. I was gonna say, what are you giving up for that, which and again, if Nick Voles hadn't just won the Super Bowl for the Eagles, I would just be like, everybody's screwed at backup quarterback. I can't completely discount that, Like, you can be better off at backup quarterback than this team is, clearly, but I don't know what they're gonna do about it right now. They could go get your him idol drew on a blank.

Who's my idol? I don't even know if he's been hellable or not. Jay Cutler, Oh god, no please, I mean he is my idol, but he's a reality TV star. Now they don't need that. You know what I would have liked to see and touchdown, Yes, that would be yeah, no, but in the two first games. I mean, the preseason to me is the perfect time to try out different things and not worry about the outcome of the game

at all. Obviously, but I would have liked to see them give some revs or like, maybe I don't know, few snaps to Cooper Rush and even Mike White behind the whole first team offense and just kind of get a taste of what your backup quarterback could look like when and if that time comes, but with all the right guys around him, because again, we know Dak Prescott as a quarterback. Yes he's good, but he's not at

that greatness level. A lot of his good things about him comes along from the online and what they are able to do in the time they're able to buy him. So I would have loved to see that happening. Obviously, what isn't going to happen last night's game, but the first two games, when you're still kind of unsure of these two backup guys, why not give them a try, just a little bit, to get a quick little taste.

The tough part about that is, though, then you got to make those decisions of are you going to take Dak off the field while your first team is still out there? And that means that that he's not getting those opportunities to get himself ready for the season. H And does that or does that mean you're going to take him out the normal time you would, but you're gonna keep those other guys tying Zach, you know, out there longer to be able to give this guy a

look behind. That's the tough part. And I'm not saying you're right or wrong. I'm just saying that's too serious. But that is just that's what you got to think about. That's what the coaches have to think about, is we are exposing our guys a little bit longer, or we're not giving Dak the time that maybe he might need to get ready for the season. That's the hard part, you know. And this could always be famous last words, but I mean, you're young at quarterback. Dak is six two,

two thirty and twenty four years old. This could be, you know, knock on wood, but I'm I'm way more worried about other aspects of this team than your depth at quarterback. Because da Dak, well, I mean, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. I mean injuries happening football. But Dak has given me no reason to be fearful for his health. Again, I can hear people screaming at me. I'm sorry, but I just don't understand that logic because college football players get hurt

all the time, so to high school kids. I wasn't worried about Travis Frederick, but again, look what happened. It's it's the same logic y'all always use with me when I don't want to play for people in the preseason. They're like, injuries happen. Yeah, I mean obviously something terrible could happen to anybody playing, but at some point you just gotta do what you gotta do. Like, am I gonna give up a third round pick for Teddy Bridgewater because I'm afraid Dak's gonna get hurt? I don't really

want to do that. You have one, because you're gonna have to give it up for something I'd rather. I'd rather give that up for safety. Who can help me right now than a guy who I hope well actually about to go to break. When we come back from break, we do have to talk about the defense. They played really well, but they did sustain another injury at the safety position, and what does that mean. Let's do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot

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we're dissecting that game from last night. I think that the crew kind of feels like it was much ado about nothing, literally and figuratively. But let's get into the defense. I thought Dave you mentioned earlier in the first segment that the defense, you thought the defense, first team defense played really well. That's now three games where all we've seen of this first team defense is really good football.

How much are you buying into into that kind of hype and do you think that this team really has the ability maybe to make this defense not just pretty good, but maybe possibly elite. I'm buying everything I'm seeing so far, which is like, it's really promising. It's still preseason. I

thought Sean Lee had a great quote last night. I'm paraphrasing, but he essentially said, we gotta we gotta put the stats and the wins and the takeaways and this performance on paper for real before we can really talk about anything. And as of right now, we've proven nothing. And I think that's true. They the early returns are fantastic, Like I mean, you know, the linebackers are active, Randy Gregory looked fantastic last night. The whole pass rush really and

that's even without Malie Collins playing. The cornerbacks not I mean, Cheeto and Byron have been good all training camp, but the guys on the back end of the depth chart really rebounded. I thought Jordan Lewis played great last night. Char Various Ward made two or three really nice plays before he got hurt. Cavon Frasier was flying around a lot to like, I gotta see it when it matters before.

I'm sitting here trying to convince anybody that this is a dominant because every time I think about I agree with that everything he's saying. Every time I think about how good this defense is looking, and it has looked really, really good. Can't you just see Christian McCaffrey just kind of going off in that first game, you know, in Carolina and break down and the linebacker wasn't there, and all of a sudden, these forty five yards you don't

see it. I don't, and maybe I should. The reason why I don't is because I think maybe for I shouldn't say the first time, but maybe first time in a long time. I think they got the kind of linebackers that can run. I mean, I've seen they've had some linebackers that are pretty good. These linebackers can run. I don't think anybody's running away from these guys. They can, they can move, and I think from that standpoint, like

maybe a receiver does that. A guy like Christian McCaffrey, though I'm not certain he can do that against this team. Well he can run, Yeah, he can run, he can run. Yeah. And then they have another guy too, Samuel. I think we're not Samuel. Oh yeah. I'm just my my thing is. And I thought about that because you know, it's classic. It's fan one oh one to be like, whoa, we didn't have Tyrant and Zach. Of course we weren't any

good Dackinzie. Of course they were bad. But then Cardinals fans are over there saying like, well, yeah, David Johnson didn't play. Who's Larry Fitzgerald didn't play? And so I'm racking my brain. Who's the baddest ass that has gone against this defense this preseason? Yeah? Probably aj Green? Yeah he had a nice I mean he had some nice games. In that game, he got behind the uh he and he caught at least one or two passes for some yards. I think he beat um was it cheetoh? Am? I

making that up? I gotta but I'm again, I've been very impressed with what I've seen. But that's that's all you can say. I can't take that into the regular season and say this is what it will be very encouraging start, but it's still preseason football now. The big the big question mark now is they had another safety

go down and Cavon Frasier he heard his shoulder. Um tell us the status of that injury and kind of where he is right now, or at least what they know at this point, not necessarily that they know everything at this point this morning. Um, I'm not seen yet the results are Am I missing that? No, I haven't seen anything. I mean, Cavon told everybody. Cavan and Jerry

both said he'll probably be fine again. File this under football players are crazy, because he was saying he was like, I was trying to slam it back into place on the field so I wouldn't have to come off. And I'm just like I would be weeping in in the fetal position if that were me. That's why you don't play. I know. No, you're right. Um, he says he's gonna be fine. He says, yeah, among other things. Um, that

broke my heart. He says he was coming off and then he's trying to come off and then just falls down to the ground. I'm just glad it wasn't worse. Yeah, down goes Frazier really hood type. Oh I didn't even know. Wow, I didn't even put that footype. That nice. Not you, not me. Wow, that's an upset. That's a good Hopefully it's the only time we ever used that. Yeah, yeah, you can't. Oh yeah, that's good. Nice And the best part about that is that reference is still like forty

years before Kent was even born. No doubt it was a good um. He said he would come back in if it was a regular season game. I don't know if that's true. That's you can never hundred percent take a player's word for it, because they're going to try to play. They're you know, they are trying to downplay it so they can get back on. They're wanting to

play with the blood clot exactly for sure. So whatever was going on, Yeah, he's like, I think he's fine, but that bears monitoring because the player's assessment of himself is usually a little more optimistic than the one hundred percent truth. But just from talking to him last night, he said he wasn't even really in any pain, So I think he's okay. Especially he's probably not a guy that would play on Thursday anyway, so I think, you know, with ten or twelve days whatever it is to get ready,

I think he'll be Okay. That would have been an iffy. I think, you know, with with let's say Xavier Woods was healthy, I think Frasier might have played. I mean it's possible, possible, But now I think I agree with the injury, plus the situation that they have to count on him to be a starters, they don't do anything. I wrote that last week is like not that I thought Cavan Frasier was making this team from day one, but if for some reason there was doubt, it's gone.

I mean, like he's yeah, you got to think of him as your starter for the time being, unless something happens in the next week. I'll tell you who I did not like out of there really was Marqueston huff. I thought there was a couple of plays where he just looked like a guy that hadn't played in a while. Angles weren't good, and that you have to have good angles at safe that touchdown his a little bit of his work. Yeah, it was all his, yes, all right, not all I mean it was a lot of guys.

He had a shot he made took back where you go to school, Wyoming, maybe Marqueston, No, maybe not Wyoming. I don't remember something like that. Wherever it was like high school college of like, Oh, I'm faster, I can go get this guy and next thing you know, he's just That would have been like a nine yard game if he had taken a better angle or gotten there quicker. Yeah.

So do you think the Cowboys have to at this point go out and try to find more bodies because of the fact that obviously Xavier Woods is injured and now you don't know, I mean you think, but even if he's fine with a dislocated shoulder, does that make you nervous or it should it make the Cowboys nervous enough to where they need to find more bodies just to have going into the season. I'll say this, and

this is just my perception. M I feel that Chris Richard he's a very front guy and he doesn't really dance around his answers or hesitate when answering. He's very direct.

Last night during the locker room, when the media was talking to him and asked him about the safety position and concerns there, he didn't, as he said, he didn't really know the severity of Cavon's injury, but when asked about what's happening with safety, I felt that his answer he still gave somewhat of you know, what you expect to hear, but the way he answered it wasn't as confident and direct as he usually is. It was more kind of like, um, trying words to say what he

needs to say, but fighting off. I guess what he's feeling inside, you know, exactly exactly. So I'm like, Okay, this is getting a little out of hand. I mean, at some point, you know, he's he's like I mean even he's probably the most optimistic person there is, But at some point it's like, all right, well, what else has to happen here? I mean, we've got to do something. And maybe it's not the guy that everybody wants or that I want, but I mean it's got to be

somebody else. Um. I think when that when that waiver wire hits on Saturday, Um, there's gonna it's gonna be a lot of a lot of trades. It's gonna be a really crazy Saturday and Sunday. I hope it doesn't bleed into the Sunday night game. Yeah, it'd be nice. I mean I won't get all that stuff done before Sunday night. I'm gonna I'll need an assist if that's what happens, because I won't be in any condition. Yeah about I don't know if I even want you writing

anything coming Sunday night. That's probably a bad idea. LSU Miami at the stadium. I'll be there. That's awesome you going. We'll see I might be the one having to write somebody stories, might be the one that gets tagged in. Yeah, to write that night a team where you are believing Dave has done it for on the other side more times than than I had not even that. It just does all the all the time. So hopefully though it'll be because and we're speaking like this because we've we've

seen it too often. The cuts will be made five three o'clock, five o'clock on Saturday, something like that. Um, they changed that rule a couple of years ago, or change the time, but it'll be Saturday afternoon. Don't make the cuts. Somebody, probably even on our staff, we'll say something stupid than say final cuts when nothing is really final. And then and then the waiver we're wire, we'll start it. It'll be weird. Yeah. Uh. Then twenty four hours from that,

some guy thinks he's made the team. He's gonna get cut. They're gonna pick up a claiming the guy off waiver, they're gonna make a trade. I feel for that guy even more than I feel fairy the first wave, because if you think, you know, they call home, tell the family I made it on the team. And then they get that phone call a day later, and it's just like, yeah,

I'll tell you who I don't feel bead for. I don't feel bad for the guy who makes the team on that Saturday and then goes to watch his college football team play. And then it gets told by a teammate, hey, come on, we better make it for this eight am meeting, and he says, nah, I'll be fine, I'll get there later, and then doesn't show up, and then it gets cut. Who would do that? Anybody would do that? And then

never plays in the league again. Don't do that? All right? Um, let's let's talk about Randy Gregory who got a sack last night, played pretty well, continues to play really well, um, and then after the game, some report comes up to be honest with you. Wait, wait, Clarence Hill and the press.

I'm sorry sorry to cut you off, but Clarence Hill and a veteran sportswriter in the press, products actually cut somebody off or saying, that's the same thing about report, and he says, no, that's not a report, is an actual story. That is a rumor. Yeah, that's a rum you know. And that's where I was going with it. And you're right, I should correct that and say it better. And I told you this this morning in my office.

Anytime I see one person, one person that says something on Twitter that's that big and no one corroborates it. You don't hear any of the national guys, the Schefters, the Mortenson's, nobody was out there saying I'm hearing it too. That makes me question the validity of the tweet. And certainly there hasn't been anything else that's come out about it. Last night, it seemed to be everywhere and everybody was

talking about it, but nobody could corroborate it. And that doesn't mean to say that maybe something comes out later. Who knows. All I'm saying is at this point, and I assume you guys can can chime in on this. At this point, it doesn't seem like there's much to this. The tweet said, I expect, but I'm hearing there might be more trouble on the horizon for Randy Gray. This is a former NFL writer, Yes, former NFL. He's now with Yahoo. I think I thought he was a CBS.

Maybe c couldn't even tell you for sure. Um, yeah, No, it's it's I'm at At best it's reckless and at worst it's malicious. Honestly, Wow, No, I mean that's true. No, I get it, but that would be really that Really it's best it's reckless speak. I mean, give me something follow up or wait to get you put somebody's name out there like that without having more than just absolutely I'm hearing, and I don't really believe this. I work

in media. I understand the way it works too well to think that it's genuinely malicious, But like you could convince me that it is in a worst case scenario, because it's so just brazenly outside of what you would consider like ethical or respond consible journalism. And the thing that sucks for Randy Gregory. And we asked Jerry Jones

last night Randy didn't talk. We asked Jerry Jones, he said, I haven't heard anything other than that we know that this is going to be a daily battle where Randy's always going to have to worry about this, which is he said that more times than I can count. He said, Yeah, why would we be playing if we didn't expect him

to be ready for the start of the season. Stephen Jones follows that up today by saying, we haven't heard anything, but the club is not part of the league's process, so we would be the last people to know if there was anything. Which if you're listening at home and you kind of don't understand the way this works is a lot of these national reporters have sources within the league office, Like they're not hearing this from Cowboys sources,

which is where we get most of our information. It's very plausible that he that there could be a source in the league office in New York that told him something. That was primarily the reason. Also though that I said that it was curious to me that you didn't have other national guys chime because they also have sources at the league and sense then I mean, I think every reporter in the Dallas area has has gotten in touch with a Cowboys source who says we haven't heard anything.

I've heard other things from people who have sources in the league office who are like, we don't know what that's about. So as of right now, like I'm tempted to say it's bs. But the thing that sucks is, well, it's such a fine it's going to remain such a fine line for Randy Gregory for the foreseeable future. Is as I understand it, forget a failed drug test. A missed drug test is game over. You know, it's so

season over. He could he could very well be right, just because Randy has such a fine line to walk. But as of right now, I haven't heard anything that suggests there's anything to that, which to circle back, why are you quote unquote reporting it if you don't have anything else to go on. It's reckless. And I just

thought it sucked. And then the thing that's sucks even more about it is that you want to be excited about it for him, You want you want to pull for him, and you watch him on the field and I mean, you know, Arizona was trying to block him with a left tackle and a running back and he on the sack that he made And I know I said this to you in the press box, but everything you want out of a pass rusher, he gave it to you right there. He gave I mean he was the first off the line. I mean he burst off

the line, the left tackle had no shot. Then then he like bull rushed him back. The running back tried to get in the way. He spun through that, and then the awareness to find the quarterback and then bring him down. I mean, the only thing you didn't do was was stripped the ball for a fumble. I mean, like it was an outstanding play. I know it was one play, but it was a really an outstanding play that showed, man, this guy's got all the tools and look kind of real quick. I can't if you can

play that, Clay. You just played the clip of it, play it back, because I want fans to see how quickly he got off the ball. And it wasn't an off size penalty. He got off the ball. He was already running before the offensive line even moved. I mean, it was just and that shows you just how athletic, how quick this guy is. Like when he showed the when you showed the view that was from the end zone,

you could see it really well. It was just it's amazing how fast, how quick he gets off the ball and uh and was into into the offensive lineman before he even was out of his stance. And that's that's pretty remarkable. It's pretty remarkable. It's amazing. I mean, a full beat before anybody even moves. That wasn't much of a chip there. No, we probably and we've we're talking about it. We've talked a lot about it. We're still probably not talking enough about how amazing it is that

he's made as much progress as he has. And who knows if it carries forward to the regular season. Who knows for sure if he even plays in the regular season, apparently, but it's remarkable how much he has done. I mean, he missed the first two weeks of camp because they were being careful with him, and he's just been it's been a freight train since. It's been crazy. Yeah, let's take our final break, will come back. I want to hear from you guys. You guys, give us a call.

The numbers eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. We're talking big picture. What things are you concerned about here heading into the season, Heading into the final preseason game and then getting ready for the opening of the season. Will do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. It can be hard to find the right resource for learning about important

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Tommy John two day called the front end zone. Huh on your end zone because he's got an ass, right damn right? Yeah right, all right? Open up that debate again and who I was talking about? Yeah, we want some questions. Give us a call eight eight eight five two two nine seven. Again it is eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. We are going to start with a call from Al in Pennsylvania. Al, what up here's up, guys. What's up? Hi? Amber? How

are you? Just a few things? Have a lot. Since I've done the roster about four times, forty three minute roster and the Steve go with seven wide receivers, I would go all four of our halfbacks. Since the identity of our team is running, I would take all of them. In regards to Rico Gathers, I'm sick of him. He blew a hot read last night. And my idea is this, if you're if you are drafted and you miss all of last year, are you putting? Is he putting in the same kind of time that Sean Lee was putting

in when he was injured. I don't think he is, so I don't think he's committed. And in regards to why are we saving a nice chair on top of the game last night? For us, positively we have been Dan Bailly kicking a field goal, not some guys gonna get cut. I didn't like Austin's effort level. When mister Peterson's running down the sidelines, he could at least try and tag called the guy like Zeke last year in Denver.

And to answer your questions, Derek, real quick, I'm an old School Cowboys fan, I would like to say, you know, I'm like, you know, preseason at least get a few a few series to, you know, to get ready for the series, to get ready for the season. Because when Zeke fumbles, like he has the second game of the second week his rookie year at Washington and last year when he got off to a slow start, is coach Jones going to raise his hand say sorry, I sabotaged

Jason Garrett and preseason game three. Thanks. Okay, I don't know the last apartment, but I don't know either man that that is He's take a breath. That was brought his first point. I actually thought like that has some merit to it. I love it he got to it first. But but no, let's let's let's talk about that first point. Because his point was, look, you have a team that is built around the running game, why wouldn't you carry

more running backs than carrying more receivers? And I heard Brian even further that point a little bit earlier, and he was saying, especially when you got a bunch of receivers that are very much the same from the standpoint of their level of expected production, Like there's not a big difference between these guys. So if that's the case, why wouldn't you try to maybe carry an additional running back or two additional running backs and only go five

wide receivers. Listen, because you have the best running back in the NFL arguably. I mean, if he's not here, he's in Pittsburgh or LA. I mean, like, this is one of the top three backs in the league. So what is four running backs going to do for you? What is Darius Jackson or an Scarborough going to do for you when you don't really want to give either one of them to football? I don't under I mean, I get the point about the running team, and if you had a bunch of running backs that were kind

of all the same, that makes sense. But you know, like New England can carry four running backs because none of them are that much different than each other. But I don't think that's the case here. Not only that, and y'all know I'm a fan of both of those guys. I love Darius Jackson, and I've said before how unique

I think Bo's skill set is. You're still I mean, if you're in dire straits, like they're not giving you anything that you can't find around the NFL, like I mean, can go back to the draft day debate if you want to about the nature of the running back position, especially if you have a good offensive line, it's easily filled. I mean, you know, if you get to that point where you need both of those guys, somebody's on a practice squad or on the street. Even so, that doesn't

worry me. I will. I mean, I have made the argument that you could keep seven receivers before. I certainly don't feel like that's necessary as we sit here today. Six still feels realistic to me. But even if you want to go five, that's fine. But I would use that roster spot on something like safety or offensive line before I worried about running back. There was one of his points I was like, in the middle, I can't Rico was a second point that he made. He was

saying that he's tired of Rico. He says it he doesn't think Rico puts in the amount of work necessary. You know what, if you're starting to compare people's efforts with Sean Lee and the film, you're gonna have fifty two guys that need to be cut because nobody does what Sean Lee does. And I understand the point about if you're hurt and you're banged up and all that, but I think that you might be or might be forgetting. And I think all of us aren't really sure what happened.

Nobody really knows what happened last year with Rico. Not on the outside. There's a weird thing. I've never seen it before. Concussion in the middle of the training camp and then all of a sudden he's out for the whole season. I think there's more to it than that. So I don't know about his effort and all that stuff. I think that that was a two way street. I know he's here, he's committed, he's playing. Yes, he has some busts, whatever, But you also can't ignore the fact

that he makes more play. He's making plays out there when he's getting the opportunity. He catches the ball just about every time. He's got big, strong hands. I mean, there are things that are correctable, in my opinion, that you can do with him. I think he's in every day every game inactive That's what I think. I think he'll be the highest paid practice quad player in the league because I think he'll be on the team inactive

and I think that's a waste. If they put him on this roster and they don't find a way to use him, if for nothing else then to give you another option in the red zone, I think that's a waste and it's not worth maybe keeping him on this roster. Just look, I mean, just look at where he is and what he's continuing to get better. He's going to continue to learn. Now, if this thing goes bad and there's a new offense and all that stuff, that could

be a huge setback. But I just think you know this is you want him to If you could get him on the practice squad, you would do it. I don't just don't know if you can. You might, I don't think you can. I want to address the last thing and talk about a player who's actually gonna make a difference for the Cowboys this year. Sorry, I don't know why. I don't know why I felt the need to take a shot like that, but okay, there's no

doubt about it. Week two against the Broncos is the worst game of Ezekiel Elliott's career to this point, and in his second game against the Redskins in his rookie year, he had fumble problems. We talk about him playing poorly against the Giants in twenty sixteen, he had eighty three yards in a touchdown in his first nflme that was

a really good defense, and miss me with that. He ran for one hundred and four yards on twenty four carries, averaged four yards four point three per carry, and had five receptions for thirty six in the season opener last year. If that's a bad game, it's not great by the standard that we've gotten used to from Zeke. If that's a bad game, miss me with that too. So basically what you're saying is by not getting a lot of work in the preseason, Zeke plays solid in the opener

and then forgets how to play in Week two. That No, that's craps got to give then in Week two because he's not a good Week two player, But he's pretty good against the Giants. So it's pretty good against the Giants. I'm going to give there, that's true. I think. No, yeah, those are better stats than I thought at a Week one. Yeah, it was Week two both of those years. Week two was I mean, yeah, he fumbled twice against the Redskins

and everybody was ready to set him. Yeah he did, But I'm saying they remember Week three against the Bears, was like Morris needs to play, and then Zeke ran for one forty five or something, hurdling people. Um, I just Zeke is on that level. He is. If he's not the best back in the game, he's in the conversation, and I just don't think he needs to be out there in the preseason. Yeah, you mentioned the New York

Giants agree real quick, got your boy got paid? Yeah, got paid five years, ninety five million dollars sixty five million guaranteed for a wide receiver, and the Cowboys are going the opposite way. That's the interesting part is the strategy of the Cowboys is, hey, we're not gonna necessarily go with the high paid wide receiver. We're gonna kind of mix what if they had that blond haired guy

running around. I get I get that, but but their strategy, like they let DEAs walk, and their strategy was, we're gonna go the route of really focusing on our passing game and we on our running game, and we think we can use receivers at a little more middle level

to be able to get the story. Now that may change next year if they're if if all the wheels fall off and they're drafting in the top five and there's this really really great wide receiver, then strategy shift and all of a sudden, now we're gonna get a high party. I mean a high you know, a high draft choice wide receiver. But right now, it's just interesting the difference in strategy in forty seven career games from Odell Beckham. He's played forty seven career games in the

past fifteen years. No wide out in the NFL has more catches, yards or touchdowns to this point in his career. So he's pretty damn good. You know, when you think about athletically of the running backs in the league, I know he hasn't played a snap, but I know se Quon Barkley athletically does things that a lot of running backs really can't do. We'll see how he goes to the field athletically. I don't know if there's anyone that's

really better than him than O'Dell. Maybe Antonio Brown, but he's not as I mean, it's not the same type of athletic player tight end. I mean, Evan Ingram is one of the more athletic tight ends. So they've got from a skill set standpoint, and they got a quarterback doesn't miss that many. He doesn't miss any games if if he's not, you know, if there's own team, that's their big question mark. Now, how are they gonna pay one? Yeah,

although which they drafted one, right or two? I mean they drafted Flowers and he's I know, I know, I know, but no, you're right, they think they drafted first or second round. They drafted they drafted Will Hernandez. That's right, right, Yeah, Actually, well, I know we're not into the we're not into the week by week, you know, routine of the season yet.

But Olivier Vernon twisted his ankle pretty seriously and it sounds like it's gonna be dicey if he's there for the season opener, which if it's dicey for the opener, maybe it's dicey for week two. Also, we'll see that defense is really good. Remember last year when the Beckham thing went out and was it was it you that were like, he's not playing and I was like, definitely he's playing, And you said I saw him his eyes or something like that, he's not playing. I don't remember that. Yeah,

I was totally awful on that one. Was right, she saw it in his eyes that that was maybe I'm thinking of upthing different. It was. It's funny though, I mean I remember there's what Odell's probably played six games against the Cowboys at this point, because I know he missed. If he didn't miss both games last year, then he missed at least one. Like he's back. He obviously had

the amazing game in fourteen with the one hander. That was when he hit the scene like nably so um, and he caught two touchdowns in his first game against them that year. But like other than those two, really he hadn't He has not killed the cow There was a game, Was it the same game with the one hander? I don't think so. There was a game that was really close and he caught a slant over the middle just broke away from Church. It was that was the That was the second game that the Cowboys or the

that was the ten seven was the ten seven game? Yeah, it was the only play he made. It was only play anybody made in that crytastic game. Yeah, you're right, okay, so that was that was one I remember of him, just like you know, hey, Brenda car has been playing pretty good. That's right, you know, so he but I mean he's had eight possible chances to play the Cowboys, and all things considered, he has not just crushed them

the way that some other rival players good. But you know the interesting part of that, that seems to be the way good. That seems to be the way it is a lot of times though, in divisions where you know you have a really great player and they're good against the rest of the league, and where they find their struggles a lot of times will happen against division teams, and I think it's because they know him so well they know how to take away some of the things

they like that. It doesn't mean they're not gonna be great still, But sometimes division if you go and look at like stats of really great players, usually you'll find a game or two every season where they're in the division where it's not that great absolutely and your division opponents are gonna know you better. But like ask Giants fans about Jason Witt and I bet you they'll they feel some type of way about that. Or Fletcher Cox comes to mind, like he always seems like he shows

up when he plays the Cowboys. So I don't know, just something to keep an eye on. Now that I've said this, Odell's gonna catch ten for two. Yeah, crazy Sunday, but he is a rich man. Now is a very time forty one million guaranteed. Yeah, all right, We appreciate you guys joining us. We'll be back tomorrow. Check the website for the time. We don't know exactly what time yet. There's a lot of stuff moving parts over here, but we'll let you know sometime later this afternoon. Until then.

For Nick Eatman, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia, I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.