Cowboys Break: A Closer Look At LB

still at training camp. It's episode nineteen, by the way, Oh, thank you for season fourteen. Season fourteen, Episode nineteen. Okay, awesome, I'm glad. I'm sure fans want to know that. They absolutely do they All right, well, let's jump riding to our topic and we're gonna focus today on linebacker doing well if we here, I care, Nick, remember you don't care. I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. Awesome. That's very rare. But let's get to the name. Let's get to the name. Sam. Wow,

that's rare, but thank you. Okay, we're all doing good. Well, we're all doing good in one of those moves. This is gonna be fun. Are we whispering? Because they moved this down closer to the to the field players, down closer to the water. I feel like there's like someone about the chip on the eighteenth, we're here, live at practice, here in Augusta. Here comes bubb On. Okay, well, fairy. Today our main focus is welcome to training camp. Yeah,

we're live, and there's lend Drapers. Okay, topic linebackers. That's our focus today. But before we get into that, we've been talking all week about the safety position, and today our old Thomas name has been trending on Twitter. It has so basically he keeps holding out and saying, you know, give me an extension or train me to a team that wants me and wants to keep me for the rest of my career. So definitely that whole thing has

not died down. And oh, I mean every time it tries to die down, something happens and you like I would blame Nick, but Earl did it himself. I'm telling you, I don't know. I don't know how y'all start your days, But like my alarm goes off, I grabbed my phone off the bedside table and I opened Twitter and I just started reading. And that was the first thing I saw and I immediately was like, Okay, this show will be good today, show will be interesting today. You know.

It's it's with the same confidence that I feel like the sun is gonna come out tomorrow at here and it's gonna be a sunny day. It's it's it's happening. It's gonna happen. Wow, it's gonna happen. He's gonna end up with the Cowboys. I don't know when, I don't know how, for how much, I don't know for how long. I just think he's going to be wearing number twenty nine for the Dallas Cowboys at some pert. Yes, I think that point's gonna be twenty nineteen. I don't think

that's happening this year. I really don't. Yeah, you can't say that you were right if he signs next month, right, you're right about between now and like October, you gotta put an expiration data. Yeah real, Wait, what did you say, like if he signs here in free agency? I thought you said next month. I thought you said I was telling you back a training camp in two thy eighteen. Yeah no, no, that doesn't count. I lose them. Yes you do. I think you're saying between now and October fifteenth,

whenever the trade deadline is, I don't know. I'm top of I am one hundred percent confident he will be playing in that game in week three Dallas again Seattle, but I don't in some form or fashion, I'm not certain. I'm not certain about that because I'm not certain he shows up if he doesn't have the contract. I think he might be one of those guys doing this so they don't do that. We've seen some players do that. Name more than one. I can't There was only one

I can remember. It was even the first There was Joey did it Joey? But there was also there was a few years ago there was a I think it was a defensive lineman that held out for like first four or five weeks of the season. I can't remember. It was just you're gonna put your money on the line. Didn't hold out like that. The gona be honest. I

don't think he's coming to the Cowboys this year. I personally don't think that because I don't think if if the Cowboys are willing to give up what Seattle saying they would take in order to make the deal happen, it would have already happened. This has been a prolonged period of time, it has not happened. I don't think he's one of is necessarily prone to move their position because think about it from Seattle standpoint, why do they

have to? Seattle looks at it, and it's like, well, whenever he shows up, you know, we're gonna we're only gonna get him for one more year anyway, So whenever he shows up, we'll get whatever he can give us and then we move on to next year. Think what needs to happen unless we can get a deal that makes us One of what needs to happen in this situation is the Seattle needs to allow the Cowboys to talk to him and his agent. That's what needs to happen.

Because if you ask people, and I have done this, I've asked several well even yesterday, and I'm what's the hold up? What's the biggest issue? And the issue is they don't want to pay what Seattle wants for one year. They're afraid they might get him for one year point Yeah, So if they're gonna make this happen, if Seattle really wants the two you know, or that's that's what Seattle wants. Then they're gonna have to let the Cowboys have those

discussions with his age. Gonna have to get permission so they can talk to the agent and they say, how close are we on the parameters of getting a long term deal, because if we if he's gonna sign here, Oh, I got a ranch here, I bought this house. I want to stay in Dallas where I want to be. Trust me, I'll do this. Okay, they'll give the two That's what I believe. So I think, I think that's what's gonna have to happen, is that you can't do

that until you get permission because you got tampering. You know what's funny there there's a precedent for this that involves the Seahawks that's less than a year old, which is Dwayne Brown. He held out for six weeks. He missed the first six games of last season before the Texans finally, I mean he reported and like two weeks later they traded him to Seattle and he I believe he just signed an extension with the Seahawks, which so his deal didn't come until after he changed teams. But

he played it. He played hardball big time and what stops Earl from doing the like there's there's no real advantage for Earl showing up until he gets what he wants, or just to keep putting pressure on them because he knows that's not his long term. He seems stubborn enough, proud enough, and has enough money to where I won't be surprised if he's just like Seattle's making money off the deal because he's getting fined. Yeah. Absolutely, But that's my point. I think in this instance, I don't think

he cares. Obviously he doesn't care because he's not there, And I think Seattle's like, unless we get the deal we want, it doesn't hurt us. So I think this is just that classic case where nobody has is compelled to say I will give more than I would normally give in order to get it done right, and that includes the Cowboys. For whatever reason, the Cowboys aren't I don't think, at this point willing to give more than

where they where they've been. If the Seahawks were like, all right, you're not budging on the two, how about this year's three and then a future draft pick and not like a first or second, But if would you do that, like we want we want your twenty nineteen three and your twenty twenty three, right, something like that done. I'm just do it. I would just would you do next year's two straight up? Just next year's two? And yes,

it feels just my decision. Yes, yes, yeah, I think it's worth it because I think you're going to get a player that, for the next three or four years, will be, if not the best player in your defense, one of the best players on your defense. And in a secondary where I feel really good about the young cornerbacks, you give them an experienced Pro Bowl caliber safety back there. I think it takes him from being a pretty good unit to maybe being a great unit. So to me,

it's worth that spin. And I don't think he's even close to being done. Like he's twenty nine years old. Safeties can play for a while. As a matter of fact, great cornerbacks moved to safeties in the later safety and the later part of their careers. He's fine to get to continue playing. I would. I would do it, maybe no doubt in my mind. What if Xavier Woods could be your third safety coming in and out in certain packs. Pretty good about that. His ability to play some slot

corner This has to happen. I'm sorry, I just don't know. I just don't see it happened. Does not see it happening this year, because I really believe because all those things I just said about about Earl Thomas, all those same things can still happen next year when he's a free agent. Right There's no reason why the Cowboys couldn't get him next year when he's a free agent. So it doesn't have to happen right now, and the Cowboys can still get what they want in the future, you know,

just wasting a year of his prime. Well okay, I mean, yeah, you. I mean, if you're building the team for the future, I mean I'm focused on this year. I don't know about you, but I'm focused on this year. I might focused on next year. So this is the year. And if you have the ability or the chance to get a great player to be on the team, have proven one that you don't need to be developing or anything, then bringing him on. I mean, but whatever, why do

I know? So let's just see what happens. This is still the waiting game. Amber takes it personally like she's just like they're not doing it because they want to piss me off, like, that's basically who does she learned that from? How do you not take it personal? You're here, Brian brought us. He gets mad if you care you take it personal? Well, no, no's not true. You feel part of the family you have you're so involved here, you're this is work. You do it every day, So

it's work. It's a business. Earl Thomas wrote a story about it this morning. Can't get too involved, gotta this goes back to what we said yesterday, though. You know, they they made this move with Dez Bryant for multiple reasons, but one of them was the money. A financial part, and they admitted that. They said that, They said, this is a business. They cut him for those reasons. They said, now, locker room, yeah, that's probably part of it, but but

it was it was also financial. So if it's financial and they wanted to save this money, then let's let's spend it on something that could be available. What upsets me is when there is something that you can't make it happen, or someone, let's say a player that you know has the ability or potential to do something and it doesn't do it. That's when it's upsetting to me. And that's why quotation mark, I take you personal. Okay,

and this is a scenario like that. You know they can make this happen, okay, but what if what if in two weeks whatever, we play a couple of games here and all of a sudden, the Cowboys trade they land Earl Thomas Seattle for a third round pick, and then it was then it was a standoff. It was a standoff of you know, who's gonna who's gonna blink first, and they ended up getting what they wanted and for not you know, not giving up at three. So you know it's not over yet. It's not over. I mean,

get upset or mad about it. In when the Ravens come in and they throw a two and it's over. And then they take it and they say, wow, this is good. We gotta two. He's not in the NFC anymore. He's over there. We don't have to play him. A good point I think could very well happened. So the Cowboys are going to have to have one of the strongest you know bids there. Well here's but here's also

what has to happen as a part of that. And you mentioned this earlier with the Cowboys if there's that other team, they're going to be in a similar situation if they can't get him to sign a long term deal. And this is where it goes back to Earl. Thomas walked in the Cowboys, So so whatever other team might be out there, they have to be okay with the idea that we really might be rending him for one year.

So whatever we're giving up is just for a year, and there's a good chance that he walks away from us because maybe he wants to go play a day. I think the team that makes the most sense to throw a second round pick at him is the Cowboys for two reasons. Number One, like you said, he walked into their locker room. I don't know if he's done

that somewhere else. And number two, oh, I hope he's making that a week clear character just walks into everybody's locker room saying come get Yeah, you wouldn't like that. Oh he did he did that. He did that in Saint Louis whatever. St Louis, Yeah, years ago. No, Um, they make it makes sense for that reason and also the fact that the Cowboys really have have left a void there. They've left it. They definitely have left an experienced hole there at safety. Um, there's some players there,

but they're not experienced. UM, so it would make sense for them to do that. Okay, before we go on break, let's go ahead and take a quick call from Reuben in Arlington. Reuben Hell, Hello, Hello, Hey, I wanted to ask defense will this year and I'm just wondering because Mum, I've seen the defense on the Cowboy app and they're looking pretty good though, And you guys are awesome. Thank you, thank you, thanks, thank you. I like to think so well goes back, It goes back to the conversation we

just had in the previous ten minutes. They could look really good if they made some moves. But as is, as you're asking the defense as is, I think that they're gonna be solid. They cannot suffer any injuries, which that's hard to say because injuries always happened. UM. But I think that there's some key players there like Sean Lee and and Cheeto and DeMarcus Lawrence, probably not in that order, but those three guys right there that I mean, they have to play at a high level and keep

them on the field. So yesterday we watched a very interesting practice. What I was just saying, y'all, what do y'all think about the defense? We've been talking? Oh? Great, just play, just playing what I just wanted to ask them a little different. I think they have a potential to be really good. We'll see if that actually happened. Okay, there was nothing else to be said than why you said.

That's why I moved on. So you agree with that day? Yes, exactly. Okay, Yeah, I'm about to be more pesimistic, Nick, Do I have permission to move on? Wow? Thank you sir. Okay, we watched the fun practice yesterday and it was very interesting. So I want to go around the table and just hit on whatever stood out to you overall. So Derek,

you want to start it off? Hmm, let's see. Um, the first thing I'll point well, the thing i'll point out, and this is probably gonna take one fro everybody else, because I thought it was a highlight of practice yesterday, but DeMarcus Lawrence in the one on one drills, um, and I actually didn't see it live. I was actually watching the linebackers and tight end and a couple other offensive because a couple of other players in the seven

on seven. But during the one on one. De Marcus Lawrence lined up against every offensive lineman on the first team except um Martin, Frederick, No, no, he want against Frederick except for Martin and and basically one against everybody. Well Frederick, he kind of does a draw. The first time he beat him. The second time, Um, I think Collins played him pretty well. M Collins kind of get him. But he the first time, and then the second time

he snatched him out of his shoes. As Nate said, I mean it was it was pretty pretty interesting interesting what he did. But he went around Tyron. That was the most important thing. But as he did it, literally he started with tyron. And if you notice how those drills go, like you have, the tackles will go and then they'll move in and they'll be a guard and a guard and then they kind of go down the

line all the way. Well he would he started with tyron. Uh, then they moved to a guard working against another offensive guard. And then what they did was he jumped in to to go against that guard, and then another person would go and then he jumped in to go against the center, and then he moved in and so he went all the way down the line. Martin was the only person he didn't go against. But I thought it was pretty remarkable Number one, because it shows his versatility and how

he can move up and down the line. But the fact that he actually won a fair number of those with the reps that he was doing too. I mean, it just shows you this guy's locked in right now. He is He is playing as well as anybody out here during training camp, and I'm very, very excited to see what we can do this season. We all I always say, you know, real football is not like Madden.

You can't just like you know, you don't just magically jump a few numbers in the stats during the off season, and guys aren't just magically back up to speed when they come back from injury. But it always is fascinating, and I've seen it a few times in my career here where like you can just see a guy making a jump as a player. And DeMarcus wouldn't have done that last year, and he certainly wouldn't have done in the years before that, but he just he looks like

a different person. A few days ago, John Mashoda, my buddy, got a video of it during individual drills. He was working on fake spin moves like the one DeMarcus Ware did to Joe Staley back in the back class day like three years ago. But he just his and he was talking about it too. His repertoire is like he's I think he said he's got like more than fifteen different moves. I didn't know there were that many moves. Like he's just he is making that leap, so to speak.

And I don't I don't know if he's going to have fifteen sacks this year, but he is just on another level than the guy that we thought we knew even just a year ago. Yeah, all right, let's take our first break. What's that look? I don't know, because I'm about to say something, and then we come back. Maybe we'll hear Nick's opinion or maybe not. I don't know. We'll see when we come back. It can be hard to find the right resource for learning about important financial matters.

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grown up. To learn more, visit Better Money Habits dot com. I definitely have an Instagram foody thing, but the low light camera on my new Samsung Galaxy S nine from ATNT is getting me a whole new world of likes and chairs, baskets of bread by candlelight, colorful fruit plates in full sun. Even a dimly lit Cobs salad was

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or bad whatever he was. I tweeted about this last night and it might totally be a knee jerk reaction on my part, but specifically from a blocking standpoint, I'm not sold on these tight ends, and nothing I have seen at practice has convinced me otherwise. I think, can I can I interrupt real quickly? Yeah? Sure, So you only talked for the last ten minutes. The reason why I'm saying is, don't give away too much because that's our topic tomorrow. We're gonna talk about these tight ends,

So don't give away too much. All right, Fine, I'll just this. I'm not I'm not hating on Jeff swam. I think the world of Jeff Swayin. In his first padded practice as a pro, Dalton Schultz got dumped on his ass by Damian Wilson in a manner that I haven't seen many times before in a pro practice. And he came from a little bit, he came from Stanford.

And the line is that he's, you know, he's a blocking tight end, which I mean, you know, I'm not trying to bury the guy just yet, but I just I saw it and I was like, I wonder if they're gonna try to add a veteran tight end just because it's true. I mean, he just had a baby. I'm not trying to hate. I just life just had a baby, more so than a lot of cool stuff happened at practice yesterday. That when I saw that, I was just like, oh my god, it was like a posterization. Yeah,

it was really a nice welcoming. It was cool to see Damian Wilson's first highlight with the Cowboys. Who's that name? Another highlight that he's had? Really there are now. It was not very competitive there. It's supposed to be a compete drill, and it didn't help that the whole team was watching there. Um. I mean a lot of people talked about it. It It was it was a really really nice catch by Terrence Williams that he made it. He had a couple of nice plays, but but his catching

front of two people. I believe it was one handed too. It was like it was really a nice play. Um. And it was down the field too. It was about thirty yards down the field, so um it was it was his best practice. Uh and it you know, it probably happened because of Alan Hearn's you know not um not being out there. I guess he had like a veteran day, So yeah he did. I thought one of you was going to mention Michael Gallup. He had a

great day. He did. It was on fired yesterday. The interesting thing was, I didn't as I went back and thought about it, I couldn't remember specific moments, but I just thought overall, he looked really good out there right um two minute drill when they were on the move trying to get into field goal range, and he made a nice catch on the sideline, got his feet down and almost took out Mickey. About our feature back Ezekiel Elliott in the red zone, they gave him. He got

the ball four different times. They threw him a screen pass, they threw him an angle route, they gave him a he went off right tackle and then on the four yard line, first and goal, they handed it right up the middle and he scored. They said he didn't score because he's not there's no tackling. He would have scored out of my mind. Yeah, that's one thing I don't like about the defense and offense part of these padded

or these padded practices. But even when they're not hitting, a lot of times a defensive player will come up right up there and he'd be like, oh, that makes some noise. I'm like, you wouldn't have tackled Zeke like you guys met at the twenty five yard line. The ball is gonna be on the twenty one. There's no way you're gonna just bring him down right there when he's going full speed, if you're going to tackle them at all. But they don't ever account for that, which

is fine. You know sometimes like these these guys will blitz and then they'll like touch the quarterbacks back that sack. Yeah, listen, I've seen that a thousand times, like just touching the guy. Actually the Terrence one handed catch. Cony Eely had a shot at Dak, but I'm gonna give Dak the benefit of the doubt. I've seen him right, seen him resist full speed pass rushers before. I think he could have

gotten away. Can I throw out this question real quick? Nick, maybe think about this because we haven't really talked about this, I don't think. But you talk about Zeke and his ability, like you try to take him down the middle of Phil, He's probably gonna carry you a little bit. How much do you think this new rule in the NFL when it comes to luring your head affects a guy like Zeke who is a power back. He's got some speed. But he's a power back. He will hit you. How

much do you think that's gonna affect them? Do you expect him to be one of the guys ends up with one of these penalties this season? Yeah, I think that's gonna happen. Depends on how much they call it, and I think certain crews will probably call it more than others. But you're really asking, you know, they're trying to prevent, you know, concussions and and obviously the of safety of the team. But um, you you bring it. How many running backs have you ever seen? There are six? Three?

I mean, it doesn't happen much. You don't see a lot of running backs that run straight up like that because they're gonna get hit, so natural instincts are to kind of crawl down like that, ball up and get down. I don't, I don't know. I don't something's gonna give here. Because you just come running straight like that, you're gonna get You're gonna get hurt as well, So I don't know.

I don't think that. I don't. I hopefully they don't call that as much, you know, I mean, you know you gotta and they say you got a nose for the nose for the goal line. I mean where that's what you're doing. You're like loading your head and get in there. It's I don't know, they wear helmets right. One could be wrong, but I'm I just I believe this rule is going to have a major impact on the game when I see it happen. Because it happened, I'm not buying because well, they did something like this

a few years ago. Me and Nick have talked about it. I we you know, every year they show us a video of the new rules, and I remember, uh, you know that it was kind of like a baby version of this, where like if the running back was inside the tackle box and he lowered his head and used his head first, it was going to be a penalty. And they showed a bunch of clips from Trent Richardson

because that's how he used to run. And they never called it because that doesn't happen that often in all honesty, like, yeah, you take contact to your head. You don't lead with your head that often, I don't think, and if you do, I think that can be corrected. You know, you try to ward people off with your hand, with your shoulder, maybe your helmet takes contact just because it's a physical sport.

But I don't think it's that common to see a running back genuinely lead with his head like actually try to, you know, bowl people. But the only problem with that is I think that when you when you're running and you lean down to lead with your shoulder, and we've seen this with the hits that come to from defensive backs to receivers, you lean down to give him a shoulder. But because of the way things kind of work out,

now there's helmet contact. How I guess my point is, I don't think they'll call it that, don't think because when it's in a situation of a safety or a cornerback making a hit like that, it's bang bang contact, Whereas when you know you're running you kind of see the hit line up a little bit more. When you're talking about a running back, you have more time to brace for it. And I just I don't I don't

think the refs will be that strict with it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really think this is a lot of hand ringing about something that's not going to matter that much. That's just getting way too peaky. I mean, I get the reasoning behind it, but to be able to watch that and see and call it every time, and especially when you're trying to get those extra yards, you're gonna lean like that with your body to get those.

So DeMarco Murray had a play against the Eagles a few years ago when he was with the Cowboys, but he really kind of leaned in and struck the linebacker and knocked him down. And that was a play. It was very noticeable and you could tell he was he kind of targeted him. And if that happens that, yeah, I think that's one that you'll call. But I just don't see, you know, somebody catching at eight yards third and eight or third and ten and then having to die for the goal. And I just don't see them

calling it like that. Agreed, Which, yeah, that would that would get called, and DeMarco did do that from time to time, but it wasn't something that happened every time you touch the ball. So, okay, let's jump into our main topic of the day, which, as I mentioned earlier,

it was linebacker. Yesterday, we all got a chance to watch all the linebacker group and we know the Cowboys spent their first round pick this year on a linebacker late in vendoresh And we've talked about how kind of difficult it is to evaluate this guy is out here just because of the whole thing where you can you're not really tackling or anything. So let's just go over each guy. I'm gonna start. If that's okay, it's just like make sure and get I mean, we're gonna make

your host next time. Cool, that's cool. Actually that's a good idea. Why don't you hose tomorrow? Okay? Sounds good? Um? Can I start? Is that good? I mean, I don't grabbing my wheels still still my point? Um, you don't even know what the question was, but go ahead, what's the question? Let me got a all right? Um? Actually in the Star of the Day that that I wrote about was Joe Thomas. I think I think he actually is doing a really nice job on UM in pass coverage.

He's replacing Sean Lee who's not practiced yet in the padded UH practices, and they're showing some some depth there. Obviously last year when Sean Lee went down, UH, that was one of the three guys they really did not have an answer for from the defensive prospective. So Joe Thomas has come in here, and I think he's going to be a player that that he'll get on the field at some point. But at least they're showing them that they've got some depth there behind Sean. If they

need to do that, he's got good. He might actually play something in the diamond the nickel because he seems like he can cover the tight ends, at least these tight ends. Uh. It is hard to evaluate linebackers because it's such a physical position and these are not physical practices, you know, compared to real football. But the scouting report on Layton Vanderesh is that he's good in coverage and he has shown glimpses of that out here. He's had some really nice plays. He broke up a pass and

seven on seven yesterday. The day before that the justin March Lillard pick six that we talked about where Chris Richard was so excited he broke that up. It was a tight end. I want to say it was Blake Jarwin. Yeah, Layton Vanderesh got in there and punched that ball out. He has shown some ability there, which ironically he gave up the touchdown to Dalton Schultz on the last play

a practice yesterday. But what did he do. When that was over, he was out there with the goat Jeff Heath working on angles and pursuit and stuff like that for probably ten fifteen solid minutes after practice. So he's showing glimpses of his athleticism is off the charts, and if he knows where to be, I think he could be really good in that record. Do you think won the battle? It was a compete battle between him and

jamaz Ola. Wally called it a tie. I mean they they were definitely locked in for about like three seconds and then he he eventually you know, ripped him and got to the quarterback. But I would think ball would have been gone by now. I mean, I think Garrett actually gave it to Olda Wally. I think he did. Yeah, but it was it was a physical hit where you're like, I feel good about the linebacker being able to go

in here and do that. I feel good about OLDA Walley being able to kind of stand there and watch. Forty five seconds before that, Dalton Schultz got thrown like a sack of laundry. That was probably Yeah, you were like, oh man, somebody's got a hey. Good for him, well, good for one, good for that. Watch Dalton Schultz today and see if I watched yesterday, I know he he he finished strong. He caught a touchdown at the end of practice. Yeah, but I honestly, and I don't want

to get too far and tight ends. We'll talk about that tomorrow, but there. I just think right now tight end position has some work to do. Of all the positions on the team, that's the position I think right now they got they need some work. Yes, we knew Tony Romo was was really good. We knew he was good. Some people called him great when he played for the Cowboys. When he left the Cowboys, you really saw, you know how how great he wasn't how he made other players great. Now,

Dak they had that that awesome year. I kind of think Romo they would have had an awesome year as well. We're seeing Dez isn't the same without him. The offense wasn't the same. Definitely in twenty fifteen. We're gonna see that by leaps and bounds with the tight end position. We're seeing it now. There's no yeah, yes, good good play by by Schultz there to make a catch in the red zone, but he got dumped on his ascid blocking. I mean, yeah, he's good hit at this and Jarwin

can block, but he's not really good out here. And I don't know what Rico can do yet, but Witton could just do it all. And I think that's what I'm trying to say. We were spoiled. I think we definitely talked about it. Like day one in pads, Blake Jarwin got dumped by Charles Tapper too, like it's not just Alton Schultz like these guys particularly, And that's that's my point. I think all these guys can catch the

ball and Swam can block a little bit. I don't know if that's I wouldn't describe him as a blocking tight end, but the blocking is what concerns me, especially for a team that has liked to use tight ends to blocks that you got to get a new tight end, guys up tomorrow. We're just doing something else. You will pick another position to talk about tomorrow. Let's just keep going with it, the three flowing conversation. Stop trying to

about Earl Thomas every every single seriously. I mean, there isn't a lot to talk about there though, and we just did it. We'll talk about the tight ends tomorrow and hopefully after today's practice, they can get over the average. Right now, you want you have something more to say about the linebackers. I mean, we've talked about the one person. I'll talk about Jay and I actually spent some time watching Jalen yesterday and I wanted to see more than

anything else. Again, when you're out here practice, you can't really tell the linebacker like you but both of you guys are said, But what what I was looking for is how fluid he looks. Is he reacting quickly when he has to make a cut and go in another direction? Can he do that without looking as though he's lumbering to bring that leg along? And to me, again, I'm not a scout, I'm not a coach, but to me, he looked like he's pretty fluid. It looks much better

than he looked last year in my opinion. What that means for the season, who knows. But at this point, right now, what I'm seeing, he looks a lot different than he looks three hundred and sixty five days ago. When we were out here and he was trying to move around, it wasn't quite looking as fluid as my developing theory, and it won't be this clear cut, because just like offense, you can't be so one dimensional that you're tipping off the defense, like I mean, you know

what I mean. Yeah, it can't be so to one dimensional you're tipping off the other team. So if Jalen's only in there on running downs, the offense is going to throw. But I just think they're working it to a point where Layton vander esh can deal with the passing aspects, so to speak, and Jalen Smith looks like he could really be great as like an early down linebacker. I know you want more than that, and I think he's capable of doing more than that, but I think

that's a great place to start. That's what I was going to ask you. How do you expect the Kyle voice to utilize both of them? I just it's so much fun to think about. I think about it more than anything else. I don't know about that we'll think about the linebacker position in terms of the team, Yeah, probably.

I just I just think it's fascinating. You have so much talent there and uh and and every time we talk to him about it that you're like, well, we can find time for all of these guys to play, and so if it's If it's third and twelve, I bet you Layton vander esh will be playing linebacker. And if it's third and three, I bet it'll be Jalen Smith. And you can Jalen's been doing more blitzing than he did last year, and that's I think that is a

hallmark of Chris rah Shard. I can't wait to see if it carries over to the season because Rod Marinelli is notorious for not blitzing, and that gives you an idea of how much influenced Chris rah Shard has. If all of a sudden they start doing that to a much higher degree, so pressuring the quarterback being near the line of scrimmage. I think Jalen can do a lot of that stuff. I think he could play Sam in a lot of situations. Um, you know, a part of

the the blitzing stuff too. And this is why I think Christopher Chard is gonna have a big factor into this. Is that you have bigger cornerbacks now that are longer, that are more physical. They're gonna get in your face. You trust them more to blitz. You can blitz more people because it's like I'll trust you for one or two seconds because we're gonna be close, we're gonna be physical, and we're not gonna give you anything right off the bat. So yeah, I'll send three or four more guys there

because you're gonna have to rush you quickly. We're not gonna get beat in two seconds. You know, we might get beaten four or five, but not two. And I think that's that style that Chris Schard wants to play. It's gonna be more conducive to blitzing a little bit more. And that's honestly why I thinking we talk about it

a lot on the show. It's one of the reasons why I think this team has not gotten as many interceptions over the last how many years, is because I don't think they play the type of defense that will lend itself to that. They don't let the cornerbacks really play physical and send the extra pressure. So quarterback has to get it out quick, sometimes get it out before he's ready, sometimes get it out off target. Sometimes the receivers and where you're supposed to be. All those things

turn into picks. I don't think they do that enough and give themselves those and give themselves those kinds of opportunities. Now you can get beat on that, but I think you also give yourself some chance for some turnovers that that they haven't really been able to get. Where do you think that the power Have you seen power rankings for the Cowboys overall, like you mean like ESPN? Yeah, just like, oh this is where they are not really like my guess is their middle of the league. I

saw actually sixteen Yeah yeah, Yahoo Sports. I don't think they're even done with it, but they do like a team a day starting with thirty two and going up to one. And I think the Cowboys were fourteen, yeah, thirteen that sounds okay, yeah, just just making the trade. Like we talked about, you put him in on this defense. Where do you think where do you think that the rankings would be? Then I think immediately they would damp probably three spots. I did too, I think eight nine.

I think they'll jump three. You look at this this defense now and you and just think of you know, you got Heath that you would have Thomas, you'd have you know, the Byron and Cheeto, the linebackers that you, like you said, got the talent, got a one of the top five pass rushers maybe in the league. Problem, the problem and that's their weak side of the ball. As we've talked about the Broder and special teams, guys

that are really good. And then you got an offense that's from a from a national perspective, which I think we can all agree is usually three steps behind us. Not to pat us on the back too much, but I think the questions on the offense are big enough that it wouldn't drastically change anybody's opinion. It would still be is that going to be good? And who's catching

the ball? Yeah? But the difference is the difference is because everybody respects this offensive line and respects this running game. If they feel like this defense can actually be a defense that can get stops, it does change their opinion on the team overall. It would be why it would be wild if the Dallas Cowboys, who have been middling to bad on defense as long as I can remember, like, were contenders because of their defense and their run. That'd

be a whole different thing. Whole different thing. But those are the two ingredients. If you can put them together and creates a team that actually can contend in the NFL, you know, all you have to do is ways with it draft back that you took to have an escabar with you. Let's not make it that simple. You still gotta get your linebackers to play to the potentially say you still got to get the cornerback. Let us. You won't let us talk about linebackers like that was your

idea and you won't let us do it. You know, we just got derailed like so hard. All right, let's take our final break and when we come back, hopefully we can just keep nick kwiet for a second so we can get this show back on track. So when we come back, Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it, and your skincare should

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Right here in Texas. There's still the unofficial crowd of all self respecting Cowboys, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Find a retailer nearest you at Stetson dot com slash Cowboys. I definitely have an Instagram foody thing. But the low light camera on my new Samsung Galaxy S nine from ATNT is getting me a whole new world of likes and chairs, baskets of bread by candlelight, colorful fruit plates in full sun. Even a dimly lit Cobs salad was recently hailed as

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whole break. Nick and Derek have been arguing about what they would arguing as harsh for this trade to get that safety over here, and we don't need to get back into it. But Nick, honestly, I mean it shifted. Do you have a says it just shifted to oh what Basically what I was saying is it mightn't take more than our draft pick. It might take a player. Then it's like, yeah, play which player? Um and one

of y'all throughout? Would you would you include Heath in the deal, and I'm like, no, I'm not gonna do that because now I feel like I could be back to square one. Yes, my safety is gonna be better than with Tom. So that's the deal breaker. If I got to part with Heath. Now I'm out. I don't have that one thing. I don't have to part. If they liked him and they said, what'll get us to do this, we will do that third round that you talked about. But you gotta give us heat. And you're

saying that's your deal breaker. That's what he was saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's other ways to do I don't. I'm sorry, I like Jeff, that's not my deal break. My safety position is here and I want to take it here. Now it's like, well, now we're gonna be back to here. It's not not. If you got Earl Thomas, he's not gonna be back down here. Let me finish. I mean, he's gonna bring it up, but I think he's gonna bring it up a little bit more than what it was.

Golden State's not trying to give up Curry to get cousins. They want cousins with all of them. They want them all did just compare the greatest three point shooter at basketball history. Yes, okay, well the goat. Then I'm saying I'm not trying to just rob Peter to pay Paul. I want all of them to play. I will gladly, well, gladly employ Earl Thomas and let Cavan Fraser figure it out as strong safety. I would, It's fine, I would. You don't have to do that. We can keep arguing

about this. Give him Bruce Carter. Bruce Carter, Yeah, second round pick, you give up Jalen Smith in his knee injury. You give up second round pick because you're you know, yeah, but in this scenario, you now have two second round picks, which means I like your odds of hitting on one of them, because they got a good track record like every other year or the second round picks not bad. So if they can do it in one year, yeah, you can do it, all right, Yeah, we'll see. Let's

take a call from Tim in Boston. Hey, guys, thanks taking my Callie appreciate Nick. I'm one hund Just do whatever we have to do to get Earl Thomas. Yeah, but give up uh yeah, yeah that's tough. Yeah, I can see that but you know what, Seattle's gonna lose him anyways, and they know they're gonna lose him. A second round pick should get this deal done. Like you said, I agree that we should have the opportunity to negotiate with his Asian him. But UM, I'm with you one

hundred ten percent on that. But the other thing was is the position that I'm really concerned about is defensive tackle. Um. I think I runs a good. I think a linebacker is a good. I think our secondary is solid. I think that if we bring the guy from Seattle here, I think we get instant credibility. Um, why hasn't Why haven't we spent more resources and assets at defensive tackle? Dave Hellman Brian brought us. Um, they can play the

draft show. They always talked about defensive tackles and Dave's more of Dave's most common you know quotes is until this team spends the resource. Um, you know they then he would do even talk about a guy. Why don't they do that? Don't you think it's time hurt us now? And you think that that that philosophy is starting to show up. Yeah, I'll listen to you guys, off hit. Thank you so much. So explain to me. Explain to me, though,

how how's it? How's it hurt them? At this point, I say, I disagree with the point because I kind of get the point. I just want to explain why. How is how is what they've done so far a defensive tackle hurt them? I just well, it's in the

grand scheme of things. I guess you could argue it hasn't hurt them because their defenses have been all right, slash, not that bad, but they're the talent at defensive tackle has been lacking basically the whole time I've been covering this team, Like, look everywhere else, they've never addressed it. DeMarcus Lawrence with a high DeMarcus Lawrences pick thirty four, Taco Charlton has picked twenty eight. Tyrone Crawford is pick eighty one. Uh. Gregory Randy Gregory's pick sixty. Coney Ely

was picked sixty in his draft. And then you got Malie Collins, who, to their credit, he was picked sixty seven. Uh. And then like in terms of like guys that they have brought in themselves, Daytone Jones was a first round pick for the Packers six years ago, but they have not spent those resources. They just haven't done it. And I think the reason why is Marinelli doesn't That's not the type of player he's trying to he's trying to

bring in for the in the first round. I think he looks at it like, we can get other guys in there. We can get you know, underdog type players that can go up there and which lay well. Not only that, I mean, if we want to get deep into the draft weeds, we can. Stephen Jones said it the combine and he caused a huge tizzie when he did it. That like there there is not a pure one technique that they would put a first round grade on.

They just won't do it. And that's you know, Vita Vea, if y'all remember him, the Washington the monstrous d tackle. You know, they said, well, we think he can do both, so we give him a first round grade. But a guy that's purely just a run stuffer. They don't value that position. They set it themselves. And he's in Tampa.

I think he was like a top ten pick. I mean, Cowboys twelve overall talk on draft night that he would they wanted him, they would, they could maybe move up to get him if he had if he falls, if he had fallen, they certainly might have done something. But again, that's because they saw him as a penetrating type of defensive tackle as well. Whereas it kind of goes back to my point again, Sorry, if we're getting into the draft, weeds, but everybody was like, you know, they don't want Taco

because he doesn't have those right side end characteristics. You gotta gotta come off the right side like Randy Gregory and Ba Bah. That's why they traded up for DeMarcus Lawrence because he was the last right end in that class that they really thought could make a difference. Well, what if you just draft a good left end? You're like, again, I know people dog him because he could have been Randy Moss, but like greg Ellis was a good, solid

defensive end. Maybe he didn't live up to the hype of a first round pick, but like, you need those type of players too, You need those guys, and that's you need a good one technique. Just because he doesn't get sacked doesn't mean sacks doesn't mean he's not good.

That's always driven me crazy, But I do think this, I think there's a distinction has to be made between one technique and three technique, because I think you can get a good, solid one technique without spending the highest draft pick that you have in order to do it. Three technique, on the other hand, I think it's a whole different story. So if you just talk about tackles,

like you look at the defenses in the league. To have a a really a stud three technique, you look at a guy like Aaron Down to look a guy like Fletcher Cox, it makes a difference for the whole defense. You give me the best one technique in the league, doesn't really change their defense dramatically. I would argue that if Snax Harrison was on this team, it would make a dramatic difference. Yes, which to your point, it helps. I don't know if it. I'm gonna make a point

for you. He wasn't undrafted free age. There you go. But like, obviously that's it's like a winning a lottery ticket. Like they haven't had their best one technique in this era has probably been Nick hayden Is. I'm not kidding. What is Sean Lee's biggest issue? Okay, well, keep these big guys off of him. With a big guy up front, I mean, why don't we ever try that route? Now I know he's not in the middle anymore, but still you're worried about the health of that. Then you're talking

about the conceptually how they play defense. That's not how they're asking their play. But if you get a big, big guys up front that not not these quick All they're trying to do is just get trying to Okay, but people run in this league. When they run and they push those guys off the ball, uman you, well, he'd be a good three. What's this movement one? Okay, Millie Collins can't play also, so get rid of the defensive coordinator because this is the the court, this is

the defense. I mean, that's my point. Like what you're saying, what you're saying, what you're saying is change the philosophy. And that's a different conversation then than change the personal. And they're gonna play three four next year, That's what I think I do. Tell them me on that. I'm not sure I'm buying yet, that's kind of that's kind of mind. Close to three four. You're getting closer than you you have been in a while. If you wanted to go there, let's save that for another day, but

tomorrow it's kind of caller. The caller kind of made my point for me, which is it's a lot like, you know, why are we whinding about Scotland and being here in August? That bed is made. And it's the same thing with defense, Like I don't even like talking about it because as long as Rod Marinelli's calling the shots, that's how they're going to play it. It's just the way it is. And that's I said it all during the spring is like we can talk about Vita Veatil

we're blue in the face. I refuse to believe he's going to be on this team until it happens, and that goes for anything else, which I got my problems with it. I'm with Nick. I think Malie Collins should be playing three technique. I agree with that. I hate to insinuate that I know more about pass rushing than Rod Marinelli because I absolutely don't. But he had a great rookie year and not so great second year because

of that positions which I didn't like it. Factor in the fact that you can't count on David Irving, and there's just not a lot of reasons to feel great about that position. I completely agree with him. Even if Jihad Ward and Diatone Jones or Diamonds in the rough, which they very well could be, it's not enough. So yeah, that's how I feel. Shout out Brian Price, though he's

he's flashed still. Like Brian Price, I've been saying since last year, I think maybe maybe they don't like he might be the best thing they have in a one technique right in terms of and so maybe if he can keep it up, maybe he can be your trash can of dirt let Malik, and when David Irving comes back, he can do the same health I mean, don't hit that play we saw Frederick just yeah, yeah, but you're

not gonna win every play. Not asking you to win every play, I'm asking not to get smashed to the ground. Brian Price absolutely returned the favor yesterday. He threw Travis Rerecord to the ground. Yeah he did, just saying yeah, I usually don't see Travis on the ground, and when I saw him, my damn Price. Probably I think Price is a legit one technique. He's probably the best one technique you got on this team right now. In my opinion, I would agree with that. Yes, even and I don't

think Malik is a particularly effective one. So even if Malik was practicing, I think Brian Price might better. I agree. What about miss Price, I hadn't heard her yet. I haven't heard her either. He thinks he's a one technique. Jeez, all right, Well here's a question from Twitter. And since we've been talking about everything on the team, let's just might as well hit defensive end. Randy Gregory. He still hasn't practice with the team, but he's active now and

we've seen him kind of doing his little workouts. One nick, he talks to thee my God, like, can I finish saying anything. Let's go, let's get let's get to it. Randy Gregory. He talks a little bit about his um um weight. He says, my weight is like Lebron James's hair. I don't really, I don't. I don't talk about its fleeting. I don't talk about it. I just say he can't keep it. He goes, I'm too, I'm two twenty two eighty. I'm somewhere between two twenty to two eighty. That's where

he is. Jason Garrett put a hard number on it. He did so, and it was like a hard number. Two forty two. Yeah, he said, he's like more than that. He's like, yeah, more than that two fifty. He just then he started like all right, you're not gonna get me on that. But he definitely looks like he's Is it a state secret? Who cares? Why? Why is that a big deal? I don't know, but uh, yeah, he's eligible to go through walkthroughs now. I got. Yeah, we

didn't really hit the hard news today. I mean, it's not hard news, and I'll tell you why I don't. He's not going to be in practice before this team plays its first preseason game. That's my bet. Do you think he'll do? You think he'll be ready to play in the preseason this year, and if so, maybe the last preseason games that would I think Jason Garrett has stated that's the goal, and I don't see why not. Like the preseason doesn't end until August thirtieth, you really

can't get him into one of those at least. So I think he will practice in pads before we leave Oxnard, and I think he will play in maybe not the Bengals game Cardinals August twenty six. That's what I'm circling. The rehearsal, the dress rehearsal as we like to call it. Okay, he needs to play before that. I think, in my opinion, maybe he will, just because I mean, he's gonna make the team. But I think you got to figure out

is does he play in the games? Is he gonna be in the fifty three or is he gonna be in the forty six? And to determine that is going to affect well, what about Tapper? What about these other guys? Who else is gonna play? So it's a good point. I think he does need to play a little bit, sooner hopefully he can. We shall see go ahead, I

mean you're hosting. Um moving on to the what do you think like other than Randy, Other than Randy Gregory, who is clearly and totally a three four outside linebacker, why do you think this team has three four personnel? Um? I think from a linebacker. First of all, you've got these defensive ends that can kind of play tackle in whatever I think Taco, I think Tyrone Crawford would be really good ends in this technique. And yes, and I

could see DeMarcus Lawrence on the outside. I definitely, I mean, Gregory would be great if you can count on that, I'm not really sure. But I'm not sure Jalen Smith couldn't be an outside three four defensive end. I like Layton in the middle. I like, um, the Sean Lee in the middle. Um, and then you know you gotta get me another um. No. I mean you'd be good there you had those two guys in the middle of the nose, right, you gotta get a nose. But I mean I think you need one. Now. I don't know

exactly where Molik would play. I don't, But then again, I mean I saw Jay Ratlin. Yeah, I say Jay Rale can play the nose. Yeah, the unfortunate when you make it, when you make a personnel switch like that, like somebody's gonna be sol that's just the way I go. Oh yeah, But I mean you can't count on David Irving. But David Irving would be an outstanding three four end. Yeah, just defensive end. I'm not I hesitate to bet against him, but I have a hard time to seeing Tank as

a three four linebacker. Like he's very athletic, he's obviously great at what he does, but like Randy's just got that. Yeah. But I will say this though, David. I mean, and you might you might know some names you can throw out here. I have a hard time thinking about a really good hand in the ground four three defensive end that got switched to a three four outside stand up linebacker that wasn't better, right, I mean most of them,

they they they're sacks, go through the roof. If they're good up with their hand in the ground, you stand them up, they get better. It seems like h and again I may be missing some guys that didn't obviously make that job, but I think it seems like that to me. I think you make that movie. I think you could make that move and and have to maybe do a you can do it in one offseason now and do maybe one or two, you know, one or

two changes. I think I think you could play it if you needed to, well, if you if you wanted. I mean, for the sake of argument, we all love Christopher Shard. I mean he's for three all the way. Yeah, so as Nick says he's gonna be them here for well, that's I mean, that's kind of what I was getting at. That's what I was intimating. Okay, clear, yesterday, well, the boys have started their little yoga sesh. So you say

it's so dismissively little yoga, which is very helpful. No, I absolutely agree, and it's exciting to see them doing this kind of stuff now. So anyways, that is all the time we have for today. We'll see what Nick does tomorrow and yes you are, yes, he will be hosting. We're gonna see how this goes. I want to see how this experiment works for Nikki Men, Derrick Ingleton, David Hellman, remember GARCS. See you guys next time tomorrow on the break.

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