Cowboys Break: Change of Pace?

live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, we're talking Cowboys football. If you gut for forty five minutes, A lot to talk about today. Little stuff that we that we kind of threw out yesterday that turned into news last night. And oh yeah, I'd say certainly can't say that I knew anything or that I don't know. Dave, maybe you didn't know something. I didn't know anything going in.

But Paul Alexander ends up getting the acts yesterday. He is no longer with the Dallas Cowboys, relieved of his duties as offensive line coach, Mark Colombo promoted to the new offensive line coach, and Hudson Howeck a name that We've known around here for a long time. I've been with the Cowboys organization before for a pretty long stint. Twice is it twice is now back in a consultant type role. Big question for you guys is I guess is this a good move? Is this something that's good

for the Cowboys At this point, we'll find out. We'll find out if if that's the the issue. I mean,

I think it's more than than just performance there. I mean, you know, we talked about the interview that I did and sorry that I was a part of it, wasn't wasn't just me, but um, it's that kind of attitude that it was like, nothing's wrong, everything's fine, and you're talking about interviewing with Alexander and I just think it was a clash of philosophy there that not just recently but all year and it just it just didn't mesh.

They thought it would and it didn't. And you know, yeah, I mean you look at Twitter and you probably your Twitter feed the same thing. Well what about Garrett, what about Lenahan? Okay, you're not doing all these things. Here is the best position on the team, and all of a sudden they're they're underperforming what's what's changed? Frederick, Yeah, can't get him back? What's changed? Paul Alexander, Well you can change that then, Like, yeah, no, I actually I

talked about that earlier. Today is like, just spare me what this means about Jason Garrett. Like, whatever your opinion is about Jason Garrett, you don't fire a guy with a winning person a positive winning percentage one game below five hundred halfway through the season. Like nobody does that, nobody, So spare me. This is a change that makes sense. I didn't know anything yesterday, or else I would have

been way firmer with what I said. I was. I was like, I was like, I guess they're not going to do it, because honestly, that's the timing that's surprising to me, you know, because well, why don't you do it during the actual bye week when you're supposedly self outing and really evaluating. But you know, to be fair, the team's just now getting back today. They weren't here yesterday. Yesterday was technically part of the bye week, So I wouldn't be surprised if they kind of came to this

conclusion last week. And I know, and Mark might have known and been preparing. There's also which I don't completely buy this because Jason Garrett is a close personal friend of Clayton Kershaw and Tommy LaSora. But there's plenty of speculation that Hudson Howe lives in the LA area, so maybe he went out there to have a chat with him. And I agree, like I did it over the phone exactly. You can't pick up the phone right like, I don't believe it. You need to go out there to do that.

I think it was probably more about wanting to see the World Series, but he does live out there. I'm sure they were in communication over the weekend, so I feel like this is probably something that they thought they were going to do, regardless of when they did it. I thought the timing was weird, though I would have done it before the weekend. But you guys are as

close at team as anyone had. You guys heard anything just just in conversation, and I'm not asking you to divulge names or anything, but just in conversations that pointed to a feeling of either discontent or just the fact that maybe they felt like they weren't getting that players maybe weren't or coaches didn't feel like there was enough

going on there as far as what Paul Alexander was provided. Yes, right after he was high, right after he joined the team, I had heard that some of the players were not really enthused with the higher at all and didn't know if he would really help them. Um that right there is bad from the start because you know, you know how it goes, and just just in life, if you already have a bad you know, feeling about something, it's hard to even buy in, even if you should be

doing that. So that was that was the first issue. And then then even after this last game, we heard that, you know, what they're asking them to do is not the same with what they're used to. It's more of a reactionary type, you know line than more of attacking. And maybe that's because of you know, some of the changes you have at in the offensive line, but I mean, I just I don't think that they're doing the same

type of things. It's different philosophy in the line. So yeah, and I don't want to pretend like I know the ins and outs of offensive line play. It might be the biggest thing in a football game that I'm the most ignorant of, you know, in terms of like the actual minutia of how you play offensive line. But I do know Alexander plays more power blocking like suited for big like the old school Nate Newton style of offensive lineman. This is clearly like a more you know, they played zone.

They were so good at zone. That was what Bill Callahan brought here, and this is a smaller, more athletic offensive line. I mean, Connor Williams obviously is not like your prototypical NFL cart Tyrant Smith. As good as he's been, he's not what you think of in terms of the build of a gigantic left tackle either. So it makes sense. I think this will help getting back to what they

were good at before. My only question is why they do it in the first place then, And I think you know that's the flip side of that coin as well. We're gonna get a lot better now that we're going back to the old way. Is well, why did you think this higher was a good idea in the first place. Yeah, I think I think that's a good point. And also the same reason why you do it is the same reason why you shouldn't be that excited about it. And I say this because you don't ever quit a job

if you don't have something else in play. You don't ever fire someone if you don't have someone else in play. And Mark Collombo was obviously here ready to do that. But I really doubt that Mark Collombo, sitting in the room going God, would have done all the desk or would have done I mean, maybe a couple times, but I don't think a huge philosophy change there. Yes, he can come in and try some new things, but I

don't necessarily think it's going to be this complete. I did talk to Nate this more because I had that similar kind of question. Nate Newton, who works on Hanging with the Boys. He's played line before, he's played line before. It very pretty decent. Dabbing it led, He dabbled in it, And my question was like, is this something we can expect significant change? Like does a coach bring that much

to the table. He said, well, the way he views it, he looks at this offensive line, he says, I think that the way they played under Paul Alexander was much more of a passive style of offensive offensive line play. Basically, their their job was kind of to take a couple of steps back, give ground to be able to then try to adjust and react to what's coming at them. He said, Back when they played and even when you had guys like Bill Callahan here and they were always aggressive,

it was always about take the punch to them. Don't sit back, don't give up ground at all, don't the goal was never to give ground in order to do anything. You're not catching guys, You're more attacking them. And so he says, I if Mark Colombo, which he thinks he is, if Mark Colombo is more on the side of I want to be more aggressive as far as my offensive

line is concerned. And he starts giving them that those kinds of techniques and working with them on those kind of techniques and really giving them the license to be a lot more aggressive, then it could make a big difference. And it could make a big difference really quickly, because these guys have done it before. Right a weekend for Colombo just thought of that. I mean, he is a die hard Boston Red Sox fan, like, oh is big time,

Oh yeah time. Yeah. He One time on the bus he just said to me, He's like, did just he who's pitching to night? I'm just like, I don't even know. I don't think Pedro's on the team. I don't know, you know, he's all you know, he's just talking all about it. I'm just like, okay, I don't really know or care, but he's really he's six eight and three three twenty and so I'm just like's not through twenty anymore. Now, he's not. He's a basketball there now, I mean he's

still he's six eight, two sixties. The difference though, two sixty three eight and half of me, that's that's Lebron James, like six eight, two sixties Lebron. So he's a big. He's a big two sixties. He's probably two eighties. He's probably two sixty. Then. I don't know. I would think maybe I don't have the guys weight memorized, but he's Lebron. Let's say two thirty. No, not at his height. He would have to be a bean pole to be. Kevin Durant is two thirty and he looks like a twig.

Now I'd say he's probably two fifty, two sixties. What I would just two thirty No way, okay, whatever, all right, anyway, according to hist there we go. Wikipedia can trust that can go change. I'll check the Lakers roster just two fifty two sixty. He's a big dude. Whatever, we're sidetracked, you know what. You're right, yeah, that saw opening nineties. He's a big dude. He's kind of that jersey kept he kept pull pulling it out a little bit, all right. So all in all, you guys don't think this is

a good move for the Cowboys. It's something you know, I mean, like, well, we'll find out, but I mean they get criticized for another team to make a trade, like why didn't the Cowboys do that? Why didn't they do that? Why didn't they go get Josh Gordon? Why didn't they go get whatever? You know what, they're making moves, and they're making moves for probably right now and down the road. You know what if if Mark Cooper he's gonna be the receiver, the number one receiver for a

few years. And Mark Colombo, if things go well and they you know, pick this up a little bit, he's probably gonna be the offensive line coach. So this is this is one of those things where it's it's a band aid type thing now and it might lead to down the road things as well. I just I think it would be a mistake to assume the same thing with Amari Cooper. You're crazy if you think this is just going to be a magic pill that makes everything better. But it's a minor tweak where you don't have to

like overhaul or give up on the season. That gives you hope that they can play better. And that's they only need to be a little bit better, right They only you know, same thing with the receivers and only need to be a little bit better to make it work a lot better than it has been. So if you scored two more times a game, a touchdown in a field goal a game, I mean, and that's that's a lot, but I mean, you know that's that's one

in every half where the drive did it install? For whatever the reason, you get this team ten more points a game. You know they have a different record, And you know, you could say that about a lot of teams, but I think I think you got to apply to the Cowboys for what they're doing here. They're not giving up on the season. They know they're there. And I talked to Stephen Jones last week. Last thing he said was I like our team. I really like our team, and I think we have a shot. So you know,

they've gone and they've made some moves. I mean, when you look at the thing overall, they're really only two other areas where, at least from what you hear from fans and from media, two other areas that you would think the Cowboys even where their problems lie. The quarterback is one of them, and the offensive coordinator is another.

They're not changing the quarterback at this point, not right now for sure, and it doesn't seem like they're They're very prone right now to make a decision that would change who's gonna be causing I'll call in the offensive place. But they addressed the offensive line, which has been a problem, and they addressed their ability to run the ball, which is now being hampered because they're not getting anything on

the passing game by bringing in Amari Cooper. So, at least from that standpoint, the things that most people think are the issues, they've addressed a couple of them, and hopefully that makes a difference for the other two that they did not address. Maybe according to some people sufficiently, we're gonna take our first break when we come back, we're gonna finally get to the topic of change. Is something we're carrying over from last week Paul Alexander obviously

was a big change. We have a few others and I'm gonna throw out to you guys, and I want to get your opinions on whether you think that their good ideas or bad ideas, and then whether you think the Cowboys would be open to them or not. We'll do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com radio. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a right thing, then cutting the chord is scary. But then I found out I could switch to DirecTV Now and still get the

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This is the second segment of The Break live from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star Talking Cowboys, Talking Change. Cowboys make a big move yesterday and make a big move last week. A couple of big moves. Here, we're gonna talk about a couple of other moves that could Some of them could be big, some of them

could be small. But just things that we think are I'm not even gonna say possibilities, but just things that exist out in the ether that could be possible changes that the Cowboys could make here coming off there bye week that may or may not be able to help them. Last week, we talked about a couple We talked about changing the offensive play caller from Lenahan to Garrett. We also talked about Lyle to guard and Connor Williams to write tackle. So let's get into a couple of these

other ones. Let's mover to the defensive side of the ball. The first one I'm gonna throw at you guys before you say that, I just want to say this, if and I don't know this, but if you're gonna change the old line, coach, I mean, Colombo could be sitting here thinking that that's exactly what they need to do. So I doubt I doubt that we'll see Collins flipping with with Connor Williams. But when you are talking about a change, he's he's the new coach. He's got to

do something different here. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see something. It could be a philosophy change. I doubt it's that, but I'm just saying before we just completely we addressed it last week. Things have changed. Now he's got to do something. But I would guess. I mean that's I was joking about that on Twitter yesterday. That for me would be as easy as just being like,

close those playbooks we gave you in April. We're not doing that stuff anymore, and there's your philosophy change right there. I'm just that's true. Maybe mean he was here for the he's been here. He's been here since sixteen he was I mean, he's been around here. He knows he's been here longer than that. But he's been part of the offensive line room for the last two years. And I think the other part to be factored in here is he is a former offensive lineman of former offensive

lineman here. I think sometimes when you're coaching what you played, there is a level of empathy, so you know when you're asking a guy to do a certain thing. They brought this up. I thought it was a really great point. He said, there's some games you get into or the guy you're playing against technique. It's nice staff technique, and you want to always emphasize technique, but there's some dog fights you get in where it's just like keep your

quarterback clean. And a guy that's played the position will have that level of empathy to not hound on a guy when he's on the sideline if his technique isn't right, but he's keeping the guy off his quarterback and say, keep doing what you're doing. We'll figure it out next week. Right.

And not only that, but this guy Colombo played the game like a street fight every single snap, like he played it that way, right, So maybe maybe if you're in your rookies ear about technique technique technique on the sideline, maybe that does more damage to him than by than just saying, look, man, right now, you need to survive this game, keep him off your quarterback, figure it out right, And so maybe him being a former offensive line helps

with that kind of communication that helps your offensive line play a little better in game. I'm interested to see what this does for Lyle Collins. I mean, Tyron Smith is Tyron Smith, like I have a hard time believe in like he was gonna do. He's gonna do what's been working for him. I would assume, you know, he's got the All Pros and the Pro Bowls to go along with that to where kind of like Zach Martin, he almost functions independent of scheme in my opinion. You know,

but Lyle Collins is still a young, developing guy. How much did this new philosophy that Paul Alexander brought in hurt him? And how quickly can he get away from it if that is what was hurting his game? I don't know. And the fact that he's still developing is what makes that interesting. So I mean, it would be fascinating if he just shoots right back up to where he was in December of last year, that would be very telling. But I feel like it'll be a little

easier said than done. Yeah, And that also when you say it that it made me think of another point

for Connor Williams, that does this throw him off? Like we don't consume it and consider that part, But when you put a different person in his ear mid season as a young guy just learning the NFL ropes, does that throw him off now because he's now thinking too much because maybe what he's being told now is different than what he's been told And maybe, you know, there's a lot of things the factor in here, and we won't know until we actually see it in practice and

see them play, see if they get better over these next few weeks. And that's I wouldn't assume that they're just going to magically be the Great Wall of Dallas, you know, I think it's probably going to be a mixed bag at least at first. All right, I'll give you this next change. It's on the defensive side of the ball Byron Jones. He's been really good by some estimates, and I'm talking him at some of the sites that actually rate players at different positions based upon their play.

I know, as of a couple weeks ago, he was the highest rated cornerback in the NFL. Now take that with a grain of salt, because there are a lot of factors into that. But it doesn't seem like defenses are necessarily throwing at him as frequently as they're throwing

at other guys in the Cowboys secondary. That being said, do you think the Cowboys should consider the possibility of taking Byron Jones in each week, maybe traveling him with the best wide receiver from the other team, so it forces teams to make a decision, are you going to avoid throwing at him if that's what's actually happening, and that means you got to avoid your best wide receiver or do that? Does that force him into throwing at Byron Jones and maybe give Byron Jones a few more

opportunities to make some plays on the ball. I wouldn't do it in all weeks. I don't think you need to do it this week against Tennessee. You know, obviously you've got Atlanta coming up in a couple of weeks and that they've got a clear cut number one, so maybe you try it. Then that's also, by the way, big and long, right, so that may help having Byron

who's also very long. Yeah. You know the thing about it though, and I always said this about players, that you know, when a guy travels, it's also the other guy has to travel as well. So is he capable of doing that? Is that you know Cheeto? If Cheeto capable of playing both sides as well, it's not just one guy, And then are you going to help him? And you just have to change the way you want to play thing on defense. I'm not saying you don't do it. I think you probably picked your spots at

times when you want to do it. And I think that they have done that. Actually, when who was it they played when they played um? It seems like a couple of weeks ago when when they played somebody that they put him on UM they played Jacksonville. Wouldn't mean anybody for Jacksonville. I remember we talked about this. It was like a tight end or something like that. We talked about when he's over there, Byron Jones should be playing against him, and he was I can't remember who

it was though, who was before Detroit, Seattle? I don't know. I'm drawing a big blank. I just remember talking about I would put Byron on this guy, and then that's actually kind of what they did. I can't remember who it was though. Rod Marinelli and Christopher Shard both are not known for doing that. Like Rod's always true. I thought Christmas, I thought when Chris was with Richard, Sherman never left the left side and Seattle, really I thought

he did travel. He's not a traveling cornerback. Okay, He's like I mean, Jason Garrett loves to say that when they play those cover three schemes. This is paraphrasing. It's like they're gonna do what they what they do. They're gonna play their guys where they play them and demand

that you beat him. Sherman and I remember, you know, when Sherman was really at the peak of his powers in like twenty thirteen fourteen, there was a lot of debate about like him and Patrick Peterson, like, oh, Peterson travels and he'll take the best guy, and Sherman just stays on the left side. So clearly Sherman's not as good and blah blah blah. That's not what cover three schemes typically do. And Rod Marinelli is notorious for you know, he just wants to execute what he wants to do

well rather than mix and match and switch it all up. So, regardless of what I think, I would be pretty surprised if they started doing that, especially since what they've been doing has worked way more often than it hasn't. All right, let's stick with the cornerbacks. Let's talk about Anthony Brown. Anthony Brown. I think he's kind of been up and down this year. I mean, you guys can give your

own assessment of how you think he's played. But I do wonder if there's a possibility at some point the Cowboys consider putting Jordan Lewis in that spot as the as the as the starting slot corner for the team or the guy that comes in as the third corner in those situations, What do you guys think? I just I feel like, you know, they drafted him to kind of get on the field, Jordan Lewis and play. He's got the body type you would think to play inside.

There's a reason why he didn't beat out Anthony Brown. I mean, he kind of plays on the outside, and so when he plays when Lewis is an outside corner and he's smaller than that, he's gonna be limited. I think he's had the opportunity to be an inside a slot guy and he doesn't do it as well as Brown. So if they want to try it again, that's fine. I think he's playing with more confidence now. I was talking about Lewis. This might be a good time to

try it. But I know that it's been their preference to have those three guys as the cornerbacks, and it didn't happen in training camp, and so if he's better now, that's fine. But I mean, I know that they tried and it hasn't worked. I'm gonna do my best key impression. I didn't even realize how. I haven't looked at it since the bye week. Dallas is third against the pass. Thank you for that, Ken, I appreciate that. And was it actually Kin? Don't you know that that's that's Mickey?

I remember I was on the show when he did Yes, thank you. Sorry, they're third in they're third in the league against the pass? Like what why are you trying to make all these drastic changes? Like they have four he does they have two? Are they have two above average cornerbacks. I'm trying. I'm trying to get through this, y'all. All right, let's go. They have two above average cornerbacks

and they are third and fourth cornerbacks. Haven't been as good as you would hope, but they're still probably above average league average wise. Um. And you know, even when when Jordan Lewis kind of got this break, I even asked him, I was like, has it been hard to sit back and play like two snaps? And he's you know, christ Shard called him their relief pitcher. Like you need a guy like that, You need a guy who can come off and play when he needs to. And so

Anthony Brown hasn't been great. Jordan Lewis has also had his slip ups. Like whatever, I'm not I don't care about switching it up. Like the result overall has been very, very good, so drastic changes don't seem like they're needed. You feel the same about the safety position, Like I know at the beginning of the season we were talking

a lot about Earl Thomas. But at this point, do you feel like the safety position has hindered this defense or do you feel like it's all kind of shakes, it's all kind of leveled out, and they're playing within the context of the overall defense, and that's been good.

I think it's been pretty good. But if you look at who they've played, even the games that they've lost, I mean Russell, Russell Wilson, I mean Alex Smith, they've been tested a little bit down the field, especially in Seattle they gave up a touchdown, but they haven't been tested a lot. And I think that when you go up against Atlanta, maybe even Philly with Carson Wentz, you know, New Orleans is coming, I mean, they're gonna get tests

coming up. Yeah, definitely. I mean, and really Indianapolis, take a look at what they're doing. They're throwing the ball around. Yeah yeah. So I just feel like they haven't really been tested a whole lot. They've been playing okay, but they hadn't been a whole lot of those shootout games. That's an interesting point because you even think about a team like Tampa Bay have a Bay could throw it around, especially now they're going back to Fitzpatrick. They were slinging

it around the beginning of season. So you've got a lot of teams coming up here down the final stretch of the season, during the second half of seasons, that are going to throw the ball a lot. That's not gonna help him much. I mean, what do you mean, I don't think Fitzpatrick. He reminds me of other backup quarterbacks over the years for the Cowboys. When he comes in, things are okay. But when you really scheme and game playing him. Yeah, let's be clear. I'm not saying they're

about to change the fortune. What I am saying, though, is he will throw the ball, and he will throw the ball down field. Might not even be the quarterback. By December twenty third, he might be the quarterback again.

It's yeah, exactly. The safeties have not been as bad as I thought they were, but I yeah, I tend to lean more toward thinking it's just favorable matchups at this point because they I did the numbers on this earlier in the season, Like, they've given up almost as many chunk touchdowns so far this season they did all of the years where they've been playoff contenders, you know,

two against Detroit, one against Seattle. Safety. I know Anthony Brown misplayed the ball to DeAndre Hopkins in that game, but mistackle by Xavier Woods is what allowed it to get them into field goal range. So no, it hasn't been great. The thing with that is what can you do? And that was always That's always been my problem with the safety thing is they didn't really give themselves a

lot of options as far as fixing it. I mean, you got what you got three hours still the trade deadline and your first round picks gone, like, I don't know what they're supposed to do. So Xavier Woods and Jeff Heath have been fine and they're probably just gonna have to hope it stays that way. Would you trade a seventh round pick to Seattle to get to get the rights for all at this point? Yeah, I mean that's a lot of money in your cap for a guy that's not playing. But I mean they got the money, No,

why not? I don't. I don't think Seattle would do it for at this They're gonna get nothing from him, that's I think them so, and he can they can't play now anyone and especially as a matter of comp's gonna be better than the seventh round that they would get in the trade match. The comping, No, I wouldn't do for a guy that can't play who if he wants to be here, which he says he does, let him be a free agent and then let him come here.

You don't have to give up anything. And they're not gonna not gonna play him this year, so they're not gonna franchise a thirty year old. You have the ability,

you would have the ability to resign him first. Yeah, but what I'm saying is if if as he says, he wants to come here, it's very clear he's not going to be in Seattle, so he will be a free agent most and most likely, if he's a free agent and he wants to come here, you have to give up nothing, and you're basically just you give him a contract that makes sense, that he likes, you like, and he's here coming off an injury at thirty or thirty one, and we've seen what the NFL thinks of

safeties in the last two years. He'll probably will be in like a tyro in Matthew situation where a couple of years, he'll year he's on Matthews on a one year I know, but yeah, one or two years and he'll have you know, he'll have ten or fifteen offers and he can take the one he wants, So no, I'm not giving up anything for him at this point. All right, let's go ahead and move on to actually's sick,

our final break. When we come back from our final break, have a couple more questions for you about some possible changes. I'll also get some calls. Give us a call. Eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. Again it is eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. This is the break. Well, the player could look good on paper, it's one he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than just stats

and scouting reports when building their team. When picking a tractor, it's why you should rely on more than just specs and features. You've got to take it out and put it to the test. The Cowboys did when they named John Dear their official tractor experience one for yourself. If this is my John Dear dealer dot com slash football, it's time for tailgate with the Autobox boys. Auterbox the makers of those crazy protective phonecases so one and only.

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be on the field with America's team. Find steps and hats in the Pro Shop or at Stetson dot Com. Today Back to the Break, Welcome Back, final segment of The Break Live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We'll talk and change Cowboys change. Before we get to change, Nick, give us a little message here, Hey, you need to go to the Star today. Five o'clock in the five to seven. There's two shows out there, two live shows, one of them being the Cowboys Happy Hour.

I'll be on that one today. Dave will be on there, Shannon Gross. It will be in the Ford Center. In the Ford Center, it'll be in that whole area over there, you know, throw the ball around. But six o'clock hour, that's the Cowboys Hour. Brad Sham, Taylor Sturm. They got different cowboys each week. They got two guys this week. You might have heard of. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott. Respected to be there today. That's sponsored by Albertson's and it's

the Miller Light Cowboys Hour that starts at six. Emission is free. Get there. They'll sign some autographs. I believe they'll do a little bit autograph signing. Did you really just say that I think they will, right, I think that's some of you would say. I just think like, let's hold off on saying that they do they sign on. I don't know. I think it might be a raffle. They signed some some stuff. I mean, you may not be able to get it right there. But I know

that they'll sign some stuff. It may not be maybe it's available to you, but right there. But but the good thing is you'll be out there. You both get some pictures, there'll be some great shows, great commentaries. If you've never been able to hear those two together, it should be good commenties like we're gonna be the pregame show to that at So there's lots of good, good programming going on in addition to just being QB one

and RB one of the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, I don't think you will be leaving at five fifty, Like all right, I don't want to hear any more about Dave has to say. We saw it, Nick and Dave. So let's beat the traffic wells on the Happy Hour today Again, it's myself, Dave, Shannon, Girls, Kurt Daniels. We're making this Happy Hour day you and Nate's on there. So it's really like hanging with the boys. We'll just be hanging with the boys to wow. Yeah, you're right, that's okay.

Are they gonna have food? I'd be awesome and I don't think so not because we're in the Ford Center, so that food of hot ducks good point. So maybe I should go and get you got some hot dogs and bring them over. Hey, does that work? I thought I exacted? Okay, yeah, okay, I thought this was the happy hour you drink beer and food an happy hour. But that's you're right, depends on what happy hour you going to. It's fine, all right, this is not a

food happy hour, okay, or a drink happy hour. Sounds awesome, It does sound awesome. Great, all right, all right, let's jump back here. We got a couple more I wanted to hit you guys with a couple more changes, Dave, I know you're gonna love this one. Who how about the Cowboys use more ten personnel versus eleven personnel? Now that they have this new great wide receiving option in the building. And Jeff Swain injured last game, maybe he's out. I think finally, maybe we see a little bit more

of a difference to ten verses eleven. Why would you bring this up? Why would you do this to me? I just I know how much you love it. The answers no, Actually the answer is no you shouldn't or no they won't. They won't like But that's there are two questions here. But should they? And then well they that's I can talk to him. I'm blue in the face about all the reasons why I think they should,

But who cares if they're not going to do. That's why people tune in, because they do care about your opinion. You're paid to be an analyst. I would love it, I think, especially when you add Amari Cooper to this group. Like your tight ends. Jeff Swam has played, he has played admirably. I think that's the word I would use. He hasn't been great, but admirably. But tight end is still a weak point on this roster. Jeff Swam might not also be able to even play in this game

depending on his knee. So between Cooper, Beasley, Gallop, and I would throw in Alan Hearns. I think you've got four pretty capable wide receivers. You got one of the best running backs in the game. I would love to make defenses have to go small to defend you and exploit that mismatch. I don't think the Cowboys will do it, though I clearly agree. I think we when we say it all the time about offensive lineman, get your best guys out on the field, you know, and I think

it should be the same here. I mean, when you're looking at the tight end position. Those guys are listed as tight ends, but they're not. They don't really help you that much. It's not like you have this great advantage of them blocking. You know, if you had complete tight ends like Gronk is, like Witten was, then yeah, you can do everything that you want to do with them. But just having Sholts out there and having Jarwin out there doesn't mean hey, they can go deep or they

can stay in and block. It doesn't work that way. They're not they're not at that level yet. So I think your best guys or those receivers he just mentioned, you have Zeke in there, you spread them out, you

can run the ball. I like it. And that's something I asked Jason Garrett about this personally, and it goes back to what I said about Rob Marinelli and Christopher shard Is, like, well, you know, if something's not working, if if if your tight ends aren't playing as well as you'd like and they're not blocking as well as you like, you have two choices between you switch it up and do stuff like play more ten personnel because that suits your strengths more, or do you just try

to make it work with what you want to do and hope that the time on task gets them better, and that's all around. That is typically the Cowboys strategy is we gotta work harder at what we want to do rather than we've got to change and do something else. We can say whatever we want to, but we know that that the that drafting players buys them at an opportunity to stay here longer. Um. And I think that the draft drafting Schultz has really kind of affected them

to the point where they have to keep them. They almostly they almost have to play him a lot, and he's not ready and you're not going to give up on him, but he hasn't really done a whole lot for you to to justify him being out there. They still like something. They like the size of Jarwin. That's really all that there is to like right now about him. Um And maybe you know potential and then you got Rico.

You got potential there and his size. It's just it's just a bunch of different things to sort of like. But you know, it's nobody's really worthy of saying, oh, well, I need to put them out there and play. I mean, I think it's a position they need to address something now. I mean today, real a teaser for tomorrow show because I don't want to give it away, but I'm been doing some research about personnel groupings because the Titans are very similar to the Cowboys in the way they like

to play offense. I was surprised, like damn near, like nobody in the NFL really uses ten personnel more than as like an occasional gimmick, which I thought was kind of weird, Like I thought there would at least be I don't think there's a team in the league that uses it more than ten percent of the time, So maybe maybe I'm wrong, And I would say eleven is probably eleven is a forty percent of the offense across the board. Eleven is everybody's favorite, and actually, which finds

something you're good at doing and doing. The Rams run eleven like ninety six percent of the time. I would imagine the Lions do it a lot too, the Lions. Actually, I think the Lions run ten more than anybody else,

which but they run eleven most of the time as well. Yeah, but anyway, so it's interesting to see, you know, how NFL teams value that stuff, And like I said, I mean, hey, just for Jerry Madeline out there, who might be, you know, listening, Just real quick, ten and eleven, So it's real quick for those of you that don't know Jerry Madelon, he's a guy that helps make sure our guys are developing as on air person it is always tell this. Make

sure you tell everybody what you're talking. It's about it's football. It's football speak specifically for the sake of football seak. Like, you could just say three receiver, four receiver, but it makes you sound smarter if you say ten and eleven personnel. So the first number is run. First numbers running back, second numbers tight end. So then you just surmise what the receiver and then the receivers are a given because

there's only so many guys left on the field. So if you're running eleven personnel, that's one receiver, one running back, one tight end, which leads three receivers. Ten personnel is one running back and no tight ends, which is four receivers. Thirteen personnel would be one running back and three tight ends, twelve, etcetera, etcetera.

That's worth the mickey. Get ready because we're gonna talk a lot about twelve and thirteen personnel tomorrow when we talk about the Titans, So I do a lot of that, a lot of that. Okay, anyway, So actually sticking with tight end, that's actually the last question I have for you, guys. Let's assume, for the sake of this conversation that Jeff

Swiam does not play this week. Would you guys consider the possibility of either making him the starter or giving him the majority of the reps a tight end one reco gap. Yeah. I think I think when he comes down to I think we said this last week. I mean, I think he will probably be the starter. I think he's the best blocker you've got right now. He's not the best route runner, but I think he can make some plays down the field. I wouldn't be surprised if

he does start. And I'm not just saying start the game because they go with twelve or thirteen. I mean I actually start. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he did. That. Give him my choices, Yeah, seriously, we kind of limited on where you are right now, and that's right now. I'm watching the practice reports starting on Thursday to see what Swain's doing. Jerry Jones said this morning that they feel good that he Gregory and Tavon Austin are the two guys he mentioned. Tavon's out

and then Gregory's a guy to watch. But I don't think he mentioned Swains, so maybe there's a chance he could be ready to go. It's something to watch. But yeah, I mean, if he's unavailable, bull, why not? I mean, I have not seen anything from Blake Jarwin that gets me excited. And then Dalton Schultz obviously is a working ProRes So yeah, Rico time, let's go. All right, let's get your phone call from Chris and Connecticut. Chris, what up? Hey, guys?

He speak with you? You too. I wanted to say, I really this is listening for a very long time, and really enjoy your objectivity and really appreciate that. Thank

you your insight. Um, there's about thirty things I could questions I could ask you, but I got a limited to one right, So, UM, at this point in time, I guess my question for you is um, And it's partly a statement, is that you know my frustration with the with Lenahan and Garret and that just are they are they stubborn or are they just incapable of making I mean, not only can they not make real time adjustments. It doesn't seem during the game, but even at halftime,

it seems they're always getting out coached. It was the same scripts almost every game second half of the season last year, where they get scored on right before halftime kick off the ball because they were so stubborn they wouldn't never defer. It took them a year to finally stop doing that and then get scored on and you know, the game flips like in a two to three minute time frame. It seemed like you just over and over

and over again last year or so. I guess that's my question is why are they not They don't seem to be able to make those those adjustments during the game, just kind of like they have the game plan, seems like they stick with it and this is what we're gonna do. It's just seem very frustrating as a fan. All right, thanks, thanks, I don't I can't disagree. I mean, I think there are stubborn I think a lot of coaches.

Most coaches are stubborn because that's they're at this point because they believe in what they believe and they're here and they and you know, they're always kind of like I'm more smarter than you type stuff. Adjustments in the game. Yeah, they hadn't been great adjustments from game to game. We've seen that. We've seen when everyone starts saying, why don't they throw a deep? Well, watch this, We'll throw a DP. Why don't they use tavon more? Watch this? Why why

don't you run dack Moore? Watch this? But then they don't carry it over? Um, well, not only that, and then I agree with you, but like when they do it too, they act like that, well that's what we were going to do all along, Like what are you talking? Like, what what do you mean? Like, no, we don't pay attention to ye. Definitely a stubbornness. And I don't think it's just them in the league. I think I think other teams do it. But I think you're the NFL.

And but you're right about last year. I mean, they just weren't. It took them a while. I don't even know if it's stubbornness is the right word about not taking the ball. I think it took them a reality check to realize we're our offense is not the best thing we do. We don't just line up and run you over like we did two years ago when Dak was a rookie, it didn't matter. We'll be in Lambeau Field, doesn't matter. We're taking the ball, we're going down, we're

gonna score. Watch this And they and they didn't set the whole tone. It took them a whole year to realize we don't do that anymore. We're punting from the twenty two yard line. And now they'll get the ball to start the you know, they get the ball at midfield and to start the third quarter. This isn't working well.

And stubborn too. I mean, I've always gotten the vibe basically the whole time I've worked here, Like they think they're the smartest guys in the room, and I mean they know more about football than I do, for sure. But you know, and I think you see it reflected in stuff all over, not even just on the field. But they hire Paul Alexander, which we just tall, you know, doesn't really fit what they're used to doing. They're like, well, anybody can coach this offensive line doesn't look like it

right now. Well, we don't need a badass wide receiver, like these guys are good enough. This is what Dak friendly looks like that wasn't really right either, and so you can call it stubbornness. I think the word arrogance applies in a lot of areas as well, and sometimes they're right. To be fair, I mean, the Dan Bailey decision worked out pretty well. Right. There's another one too

that I oh. I mean, hey, you know, Josh, Josh Gordon got dis by the Patriots last night, you know, after three weeks being so they're not they're not always wrong, but I think I think that they can be stubborn and arrogant and it can lead them in the wrong direction on a lot of occasions. I've always thought next man up as an arrogant phrase if you really go buy it, if you just say, you know what, Tyron's out, Chiles Green's in, next man up, let's go do it.

Doesn't work that way. He needs help. He's not Tyrren Smith where he would be starting. So don't treat him like the next guy. You could say that to him. It's a great poster. Yeah, you can, you t shirt all that, but you know, they spent three and a half quarters with you know, Dad got sacked what's fourteen times or whatever it was. Before you realize you're like, you know what, this isn't working, So the next man up didn't work because he didn't come up. All right, guys,

appreciate you join us. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll talk more about Cowboys versus Titan. Still then for Nick even, Dave Helm and 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.