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Are you ready for a break? Absolutely ready for a break? Yeah, and so much for that.
It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Thursday, November seventh, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number sixty four. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We are live from the s WBC Mortage studios at the Star and we're presented by lglg's the world's number one old TV brand for eleven years, accounting see why at LG dot com Ford slash O lead EVO.
Sorry, mom, I was late today.
That's why we're running a little behind, a little behind.
Sorry. Yeah.
The the roads out there a little crazy today for some reason.
For whatever reason whatever. That's the thing about Dallas. You just never know.
You never know.
Sorry about that pop up anytime.
All right, we got we got a few things. We'll hit it hit today. Cowboys versus Eagles coming up this weekend. We'll talk about the Eagles defense versus this Cowboys offense for most of the show. We'll try to get some questions as well. I have a few already that have flowed in from Twitter. You guys can also hit us on the phone lines eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven in the third segment.
Today, even giving up phone numbers and everything. Okay, I'm not in the movie.
I'm literally not in the mood for your stuff today. I'm not you.
Have you ever watched a magic d act Look at my hands, Look at my hands. Don't focus over here, look.
At my hand in the mood, man, I'm not in the movie.
That's my favorite of the show.
All right, let's get it.
It's the number. Please, Sorry I interrupted.
Eight eight eight five five seven.
Please call in third segment, Third segment, third segment.
All right, Uh, let's go to let's go to some injury updates.
We've got several guys.
That that misspracticed yesterday. Uh drawn Bland obviously he's been out. Eric Kendricks with a shoulder, Zach Martin with a shoulder, one Yea Thomas with a concussion, and Nick Vigil with a foot.
What are we hearing about these folks? That did not practice yesterday.
Yeah, I'll go from bottom to the top one. Yay, Thomas definitely avoided a more serious injury. But yeah, just a concussion. They're gonna be smart with him throughout the week and try to get him through protocols.
But not to make concussion seem small. Absolutely, like just a concussion. Not to make it seem ye, not to make it.
Seems small at all. Absolutely, but it was. It was initially feared to be a little bit worse. But yeah, concussion. They're gonna be smart about the protocols and everything this week, but uh, they feel confident about where he's progressed day by day. We'll we'll see more today or tomorrow if he gets back on the field. Obviously, Dak did not practice with a hamstring. We've we've talked about that one. Zach Martin with a shoulder. It looks more so like a like a veteran rest day at the end of
the day. But no, no concerns as of yet about his availability going into the week. Likewise, with Eric Kendricks, you know these Wednesday practices, they they tend to be a little bit on the lighter side. So any any of these guys that have some nicks and bangs, they they they will rest them on Wednesday, especially if they're a veteran like a Kendricks or a Martin. And then Deron Bland did not practice with the foot. It's starting to sound more and more like he won't be able
to go once again this week. And then Trayvon limited with the cav Tyler Guiden limited with a neck and shoulder. He had kind of tweaked his neck in that game against Atlanta. You could kind of see him rolling it on the broadcast as well. Uh So maybe something to keep an eye on throughout the week. But he was limited yesterday, So good start for him.
With someone like Deron Bland, And obviously there was there was optimism a few weeks ago that he would be able to return. Uh he started practicing, had a couple of days, and then had the setback.
Yeah, does it get to a.
Point where they have to start considering maybe shutting him down for the year just because if it's not getting better,
do you want to risk anything? Especially if things keep going the way they're going and they're they're not winning and you've lost Dak for an extended period of time like at what point or is there a point where you do that or is he so young in his career where it's like whatever amount of game action he can get, even if you're a week, you know, seventeen in the season, he needs that work.
I think it's a situation for Deron personally. I mean, he's he's going to be negotiating a contract extension this offseason, so to get back on the field and to show that he was what he was. Yeah, there's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. It's not just Michael Parsons, but Deron Bland negotiating a contract over the offseason. It'd be important for him to get back on the field in some sort of capacity this year, just to show that he still has the same ability.
He just got here. It's already be looking at Nick Ferguson all these guys.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's I think to me, just maybe just to try and help the defense a little bit, you know what I'm saying, Just you know, with some of the it's you know, Carson getting work I think is good. You know, I mean, if things start to go really, really south, and maybe you've already believed that they're really really south. I know, to them, they're they're thinking, hey, we could still find ways to win games, we could still fight a way back, you know, And but it's
been tough. It's been tough. It's been tough on Bland. And you know, I was so encouraged by some of the news I was getting, and then the setback. And then once the setback happened, I didn't even ask anymore. I didn't even want to know. I didn't want to know why, you know, I just like I figured there was something that happened. I mean, I know Britt Brown and those guys that work extremely hard to get these
guys back on the field. It's got to be a level of frustration by the you know, the medical staff and then also the player, you know, because they're going through a tough situation right now. I mean, they could they could use Micah Parsons, and they could use Bland, and they could use you know, a tank, and they could use all these guys to maybe dig their way out of this thing. And it's just not looking like that's going to be the case right now.
What's crazy. I mean, he's been out this whole time, the whole time, and even with Micah Parsons when he talked to the media, he did mention how even with the breathing and just getting back into form, and Micah, he's been he played a few weeks to begin with, so different injuries and situations there. But you know, it's hard getting back into form when you've been out so long. And just to make reference of what I just said, Mike, I mentioned of just obviously he's going to be out
there when he feels like he can fully go. He doesn't want to take just a few reps. He wants to go one hundred percent. But he mentioned how it's been kind of difficult with the breathing and just running around and doing all that that you feel the difference that your body is just you haven't been doing the same type of uh practice and that intensity and all that.
So I would imagine it's the same scenario for a guy like darn Blend who's been out all season, hasn't been out there and it takes a while to to get going. And the least that you want to do, and of course they're not going to put him out there if he's not ready, but the least you want to do is make the or create some other injury or make it worse, because we know mentally that's another
thing that you got to deal with. So depending on where the Cowboys are at, and regardless of him needing a contract, I do think that what he did last year was amazing and he broke wrecords and that's good enough for anyone to want to offer him or extend him the contract. But I like to seeing these younger players because you're gonna you're still gonna have to rely on a lot of these young talent, these young guys next year as well.
That's the one that's kind of the good and the bad of what's happening right now for your team is, yeah, a lot of young guys are playing. The bad thing about it is you're losing football games.
Yeah.
I think about it as a lot of young guys are playing.
Yeah, And so you got to think about a lot of young guys playing, and you know, that's the unfortunate thing about you know. I always like to see guys get opportunity, the young guys, But at what price?
You know, what you know is our you know, is our season going to continue to go south?
I mean, if we'll still have a chance, I definitely want their own bland to come back.
Yeah, but I think there's some questions about doc you know where that situation is, you know, and you know.
Force we're hearing doesn't that mean doesn't sound good? You start hearing that that the muscles turned off, the bone off the bone like, that doesn't sound good.
No, And then you know there's two options there. There's just letting it heal and then there's surgery, you know, and if you take surgery route, and then you're done for the year kind of things.
So you know, they've.
They've just have not caught any type of break this year when it comes to, uh, the you know, the injury front at.
All, and the fact of the matters when you start talking about the defense specifically, if you want to talk about Cooper Rush and his ability to win games, especially in the in the space of time when they want they need that defense, Like you go back to that that year when they were when they did win those games a Cooper Rush, those four wins the defense all their opponents to seventeen, sixteen, ten, and ten. This defense
isn't doing that right now, not right now. And so if you're going to get to that level, if you have any chance of getting to that level, you're probably gonna need some of these veterans that you've lost injury back on your active roster.
And playing on game day in order for you to be able to do that.
Yeah, all right, let's take our oh real quick. We do need to talk about a couple of the limited guys. Michael Parsons back in a limited way. Tyler Guiden was limited with neck and shoulder injury. Trayvon's still nursing that calf a little bit, but everything I would assume is still looking like he's available to play. And then obviously CD, who Jerriott addressed, has the shoulder injury, he was limited as well. Let's talk specifically about Michael Parsons. What are we hearing there?
Yeah, they're taking a day by day with Micah, but there's a lot of optimism that he's going to go on Sunday. He would talk to the media yesterday and he said he feels like he has a high chance of playing. He was talking like he was going to place to already talking about defending Saquon, So in his mind, he is going to be available for this game, but it's going to be very day by day. I want to get him in a full practice before the end
of the week. I know that's typically the goal for these guys that are coming back from an extensive absence. And then, like Ambar said and like Mica said yesterday, as far as him getting his wind back under him and getting back to game shape, that'll be big as well and determining how he goes There was also a couple of Eagles injuries that I thought were notable if you wanted me to point on. DeVante Smith did not practice yesterday with a hamstring and then Nolan Smith, are
outside linebacker, did not practice with a groin. Aj Brown left the game against Jacksonville with akne issue, but he got back on the field yesterday he was limited. And then Jalen Hurts was limited yesterday, but they attributed that to rest.
And Dallas Scott Yeah full full.
Yeah, that was another one. Yeah, yeah, that popped out to me.
Of course he saw he saw the tape. And then playing against George.
Kettle, Yeah, they were like, oh, I'm good, Yeah, they got both.
Wait wait, they don't cover tight ends. Okay, let's go.
I'm healed, all right, we gotta take our first back going to come back. We'll talk about the Philadelphia defense versus the Cowboys office. We'll be back Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.
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Back to the break.
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Welcome back, second from the WBC Morgan Studio. You there, I'll try to quick phil Rian.
Let's talk about the Philadelphia defense right now. They are ranked number two defense in the NFL, their number five in passing, number five and rushing. That seems pretty zotting. If you had to say which one they're better at? Which one would you say they're better at? Brian pass for defensive rush defense.
Dick, you got a fun on that one. I mean, I'm saying that pass the buck, but I'm just interested.
I lean rush defense, yeah, because that they have a little bit more experience there, whereas their pass defense has had to kind of come together with the young guys that they have in the room, but it's still a solid part of their d I have to give them credit for how they approached the draft this last year. They went out and got two of the better defensive backs.
They got my favorite corner in the entire class, Mitchell Mitchell, and then got Cooper de Gene as well, and he's been doing a lot of different various roles for them. So they they've done such a good job revamping that secondary and so the pass defense is right up to par with the rush defense. But I leave rush defense only because they've they've had that over the course of us.
You know, it's funny when you watch teams and I was, I went back and the great thing about the next gen stuff and you can take the film and make it, give me the explosive runs. I want to see how people are doing it. And it was to me the ball was going on the edges. You know a lot of the big the lot of the big runs were and it wasn't just okay, shotgun handoff edge run. It
was under center edge run, shotgun edge run. You know, they've had a little bit if you if you look at this and I and I was just like, okay, there's there's something. There's a rhyme or reason for this. And if you talk about Sweat, Josh Sweat the one of the edges or he's released as an outside linebacker beating you talk about him, and then you also talk about Bryce Huff who they got from the Jets, and
I'm like, Okay, something's going on here. And I and again, this is where you can go have fun with some metrics. If you want to really look at this as you're seeing on tape when opponents have been averaging five point three yards of carry when they've been on the field, when they're.
Off, when those two players on the field.
Yeah, when those two players are on the field, five point three a carry, when those two were off three point six.
Huh fascinating.
You know, now, Brandon Graham is that. Brandon Graham is probably their best. When you start to talk about run edge, you know, veteran savvy, I'm gonna grab you, throw you.
You know, I'm a kind of stshysic.
I'm a stocky, you know, kind of a guy that's played a million years kind of a guy. He's better at it. And they've they've had some mistackles along with But I was just watching because I'm like, okay, does anybody run the ball on these guys? And there's you know, Atlanta, but we saw Atlanta firsthand. We understand how Atlanta runs. You know, they zone you and then they've got those backs at make. But there were other Green Bay, there were some teams that I'm not saying Dallas can run
the ball, but it gave me a little hope. They they're inside are hard to move, you know. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter and those guys. Those are big guys. Milton Williams, those are big guys. You know it's hard, but man, it just seemed like to me, huff and sweat.
Up the field, up the field, up the field, up the field kind of guys.
Take them out of that, you know, take them off. They play better run defense, so maybe maybe take a little advantage. But we talk about Dallas all the time, at no point of attack blocking with a tight end. You know, Hunter Lipkey, how often do you see that?
You know them?
I think if Dallas is gonna have some success, it's gonna have to come off the tackles if they're going to run the football in this game.
You know, it's interesting that I noted about their run game, the run defense. They although they're fifth in rushing defense.
Which is the total amount of yards when you.
Start breaking it down, they're actually giving up four point four yards per time. Yeah. But here's the interesting thing. Teams don't run against them. The number of attempt at runs yeah from opponents is like the fish lowest amount in the NFL. Teams just don't run. Do you know why teams aren't trying to take Avat how.
About this there.
I think they're eighth in the eighth when it comes to the least amount of drop back passes. I just don't think teams have run a lot of plays against them, got it? You know It's like I mean, like you say, you know, doubt Dallas. It's it's just so funny when you start Dallas leads the league and not getting dropped back passes.
Well, you know why that is because people run the damn ball.
You know, it's rushing attempts, nobody, nobody's throwing the ball against out. But you had two games there where the Saints and the Ravens through the ball less than twenty times in two games. But you're not Philadelphia, not getting a lot of drop back passes against them, not getting a lot of runs against them. So maybe it's it's, you know, some offensive stuff that's going on for them,
kind of you know, keeping things together there. I'll say this though about the Eagles, and they've had some success in the last four weeks, and I and I and I'm but they have faced the last four weeks offensively. Cleveland, Giants, Cincinnati and Jacksonville. All those teams are with the exception of Cincinnati seventeen in below. When it comes to offense and you start about Cleveland is damn last, Jacksonville is damn near to the bottom. I think their twenty second
the Giants are down there at the bottom. They face some you know, now, hey, you play your schedule. Yeah, you play your schedule, and they've got talented players. But sometimes you catch a run where all of a sudden, you're playing against some really good offenses and it's putting in harm's way and you're giving up a lot that way. I think Philadelphia's kind of caught some breaks with some
of their opponents. Somebody's like, tell me, you know, oh, the last four games they've done it, they've been top defense. You've played some of the worst offenses in the National Football Leagues last four weeks.
The Cowboys saw it last year in that run after the bye week, and then they run into that December schedule where they see the Bills, the Lions, and the Dolphins. So yeah, it's just playing your schedule.
It's playing your schedule. But you know, hey, you give them credit.
I can say their defensive line, I think they've got some quality players there. The pass rush now here's another thing about them.
Pressure rates.
You know, I was just about to go there.
Pressure rates. We saw this last week with Atlanta. You know,
this team is given up again. They got fourteen sacks in the last four games Cleveland Giants, since they had eight sacks against the Giants at fourteen sacks, you know, so up until these last four games, it hasn't been if you want to go through you know, the losses they've had, they've had losses against the teams that are I believe that with Tampa was one of their losses and it was and then the other one they had was Atlanta Top ten offenses.
Let me ask you something if you if you identified this as well, it feels like most of their pressure comes from the interior, the middle, not not even necessarily they got beasts.
No, that's that's what I'm saying. The middle pressure is what you're going to have to do. And if you felt really great about Zach Mark right now, which you feel like, man, you're you feel like you see that you see the light in the end of the tunnel, that's you know, and I hope it's not an oncoming train. But but yeah, they've struggled with Martin has struggled with
some pressures. He was he was with the most pressures last week against the Falcons, you know, and you worry about him having to deal with the size of Davis and Carter and Williams and those guys.
Cooper Rush. I was going to say that we know Cooper Rush. He's not shown to be a very mobile quarterback. So it's not like that's an area of his game that you can expect him to get out of the pocket and run. That's an area where maybe a tree lance you could see him doing those kinds of things. But I don't, I don't know. I think I like, I think the.
Ball for Cooper is going to get out. I think it's get the snap and throw it.
I think that's where we're at right now.
Yeah.
Where where they Yeah? Where you are this? It looks like to me they've got good course. You mentioned Mitchell as a rookie. He's a quality corner. We'll see what happens with Slay because Slay's been dealing with growing didn't play, and then Isaiah Rodgers was playing.
Last week.
Isaiah Rodgers did a really fine job filling in the nickel Cooper Dejene like I say, they've taken Maddox out of the nickel and they put Dougine in. You know, he's given up some plays, he's given up some some receptions, targets and things like that, but he's playing better than Maddox. Where teams have taken event they found ways to get guys on.
CJ.
Gardner Johnson, the safety. You know, like twelve twelve attempts against him, four touchdowns. So you're kind of and I was watching these games and watching the explosive plays for passing and why every time is number eight kind of giving up a play? So how do you scheme? How do you get guys? Maybe you get Ferguson. Maybe this is something for Cooper Rush. He's thinking like, okay, wait a minute, that number eight's covering my number eighty seven.
Here we go, whoo throw right there. Or maybe maybe they tried. They're giving that cover two look to safeties and then they walk. They walk Johnson and blanket Ship has had his share. The other safety has had his share of some issues too. So you know you see all of a sudden, Gardner Johnson walks over somebody. Maybe that'll trigger you to say, balls got to go there balls got to go there. I mean, they say I think their corners are pretty good.
I do.
I have no I have no issues with the question. They've had bad corner play in the past. I think they've gotten better at that with the addition of Mitchell and de Gene.
So if you're getting ready for this game, for the Cowboys offensive coordinator, you understand the limitations of your offense. Yeah, you also understand what they do well and what they don't do well. What's your best way to attack this defense?
Quick game? I do like that.
I was looking back here on the five games that Cooper Rush had to start back in twenty twenty two. Is time to throw two point four to three was his average time to throw throughout throughout that season. So I think that's an opportunity for you know, this offen to be able to find some quick game action. You know, That's what I feel like they were best at last year.
It doesn't work, though, if your receivers can't get separation.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm just asking. It's a great point.
With what we've seen so far this year, that's been a big problem for them. Yeah, if you're trying to get the quick game going. You kind of need them to. Either they're gonna have to get separation or they're just gonna have to be really, really great ball placement one of the two.
Right.
I'll tell you one thing I would like to see in this game is ten touches for Dalvin Cook, not only in the receiving game, but also in the run game. He's their outside zone guy. They just him what they outside zonne stuff. Let him go outside zone. We've seen what he can do in the receiving game a couple of times in his two games this year. Give him some receiving opportunities. It will allow Cooper Rush to have a reliable dump down option. And then you hope Jake
Ferguson can get open as well. These are two guys that I think that can get open in a hurry, and they're big, they're physical, and they can make some things happen in the open field.
On the same token.
All right, let's take our final break. We'll come back. We'll get to some fan questions. Got some loaded up here. You can also call us eight eight eight eight five five to two ninety seven again eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. Well, be back, Dallas Cowboys dot com radio.
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Welcome back the final segment of the break life from this WBC Mortgage Studios. At the start the segment brought to you by blockchain dot Com.
All right, here we go, let's get what's the phone? Calls Gary out of New Mexico. Gary, what up?
Hey? How a y'all doing good?
Are you good?
Good? Hey? Brian? You talk a lot about the importance of the offensive line coach. And I agree with you on that. And it seems like, you know, the problems on offense go directly to the offensive line and not so much the young guys, but the right side of that line that are underperforming. My question to you is how Terrence Steele has regressed since his injury. But also
in conjunction with that they changed offensive line coaches. How much of Terrence Steele's problem do you attribute to the change from Joe philbin Now to Mike Solari.
It's Amy, Yeah, thank you for the call. I knew where you were going with that one. Uh.
The you might have to ask Terrence Steele how he feels about it, but yeah, to me, I know, Todd Archer and I've had this discussion of Bunch Todd Archer from ESPN have had this discussion of Bunch. It maybe you're your third most important or your second most important coach on the staff is your offensive line guy. And yeah, there's some guys that seem to thrive. I mean, look the look what the Eagles do. They might fire their coordinators,
but what do they do. They keep their line coach because they know they got a pretty good one in Jeff Southland. So I kind of feel like that maybe that some of these guys. You remember when they we went through all these coaches too.
We had Mark.
Colombo and Hudson Howick and mean, it was all these guys, and then Paul Alexander came in here, and what do they do in the middle of the season. They said, no, this high hand, low hand stuff. We're not coaching that stuff anymore. We're not doing that. We're gonna bring somebody else in. So, yeah, I think you would have to ask Terrence, but I'm be willing to bet just my observation that he misses Joe Philbina, he really really does.
What worries me about it is whenever it's one thing when you see one player on the offensive line that maybe seems to not be having a great year, when you look across the offensive line and you say, outside of Tyler Smith, is there anybody else that you say is having a good year, That's when I say that feels more like it's across the board. That's where I
look more at the coach. Again, I think the players are the ones that would have to say that, and they're obviously not going to say that on record, you'd have to talk to them off the record and they'd be willing to kind of admit it. But the fact of the matter is that's how I look at is when I see an across the board issue at a position, then my thought is what is the coach doing to
address this? Is he spending enough time on it? Are the are the players understanding what they're being asked to do? And are they feeling like they have a chance and an ability to be able to do those things? And if you're not factoring all that in, then you're not coaching them well enough to get the right results.
Well.
No, they've had some great line coaches here. You know, you can go back and Tony Wise, they're in the Super Bowl, Hudson, how you know? And then you know, one of my favorite one was Bill Callahan running game Moses.
Yeah, you know.
I mean they've had some They've had some really some quality line coaches.
Here, and I think Joe Filber's right there with.
Joe Philbin, you know. And for all the things that we kind of gave, I know, me personally giving Joe Philbin a lot of grief for actually kind of pulled through pretty well. I think that I think that the right tackle really miss as the coach. I think father time's getting your right guard. I think that's what happened.
I think that would happen no matter what.
You know, he he.
Was he was kind of feeling his body like he you know, he was talking about how this might be the last campaign kind of thing. You know, he's kind of hitting around, you know that maybe this was last year.
Yeah, and and and so, you know, he's he's.
One of those guys that kind of understands himself. I just think that the center and the left tackle are young, young guys.
I don't know.
Necessarily if Joe Philman wanted wanted Tyler Smith. You know, I think there was some some back and forth between the scouts.
And men when they were originally drafted.
Originally drafted him, but you know, maybe his opinion changed after he watched him play. But but I know the right tackle thrived with Joe Filman here, he really did.
All right, let's let's take a actually that Michael Smith. Actually I'm gonna give him a shout out because he actually asked the exact same question. Get Twitter to give him a quick shout on that. When we went a question from Bjesh Patel. He says, with Dax torn hamstring, why not start Trey Lance to see his actual ability with starters? What we saw in the preseason obviously he
was playing with backups. Do you think that's an interesting way to look at it, at least from the standpoint of if you want to see him with real starting caliber players on the field, this is an opportunity to do it.
I think there's a couple of things that factor into that. A being Cooper Rush has done nothing to deserve not being the starter in this case. And you know, as a backup quarterback, you don't hope anyone aboves you gets injured. Him and Dack of a great relationship, but you do wait on your opportunity, and when you do have your opportunity, you want to be able to strike. And Cooper Rush has only proven and his two big opportunities in Dallas that he can strike five and one as a starter.
So I think that's part of it also too, being that there's a lot of people in this building that still feel like this season where they can make the playoffs eat right, and Cooper Rush gives them the best chance of doing that. Now that being said, I would be shocked. If you don't see Trey Lance over the course of the next few weeks, ye'd maybe not this week. As the week goes on, I think it's going to be more Cooper. They want to get Cooper ingrained in
the offense, They want to get him going. Thinks, as soon as you see Cooper get comfortable, you'll see Trey start to get worked in.
Yeah, let this thing get to three and eight or something, three and nine, something like that, and then all of a sudden, December is all about.
That's the self decide.
You know, fans, fans have moved on, Fans have you know, the people in that building across the way from us still believe now the fan and that's cool, and the fans, you know, you're thinking I met personally, I'm thinking I'd like to see Cooper rush assuming uh, Trey Lance, just because I'm curious. I'm curious, did San Francisco miss this guy?
And and is there something that these coaches can get out of him that could be and also the compensatory pick, you know something, and maybe it turns into as well that he plays well enough, but he still wants to be here, you know, kind of thing. And maybe you got your idea about your your backup guy that you feel a little bit better about about that.
Such Cooper could also be your compensatory.
Yeah, so I.
Think that teams would look I kind of feel like that that Cooper Rush. And everybody likes to talk about the floor of the ceiling thing which I don't even understand, but the ceiling right here, Yeah, that's what I'm saying, the ceiling for one guy. I feel like Cooper Rush is kind of at a ceiling. Maybe with Trey Lance, that somebody would say, hey, young guy, we could take him, we can do stuff with. Yeah, that's why I think maybe he would get a better opportunity.
I look at some of these teams though, that are just a system quarterback away, and I don't want to throw out any team names out there, but there are a couple of team names out there that I think could work with a guy like Cooper's.
That's the only reason.
But see, even though I agree one percent with Cooper Rush being the starter during Dak's absence, I do think, like, what what prevents the Cowboys from working trade Lance in in certain nothing place not be creative? Take this opportunity to use trade Lan's ability to run and has his type of mobility to design certain specific plays for him, especially because you don't have a running game or you're hoping to kind of create some running game here with the running now, but uh.
I, why not?
Why not do it where your main guy and is still Cooper rush? But you just throw him in there situations.
Just make sure you alert him so there's not twelve guys in the hub that kind of thing. That wait, Mike, Yeah, when if you see him coming on, Cooper, you need to go to the side.
You know what, I will throw this out though.
I heard Babel Offenburg this morning. He was on the fan with Sean and RJ and Bobby, and I thought he actually made an interesting point from the perspective of a quarterback. He said, you know, when when you are a backup quarterback, if you get called into action and it's week one, two three of the NFL season, it's probably a little bit easier. Not probably, he said, it is a little bit easier because you're not that far and move from actually getting reps back during training camp.
The farther you go into.
A season, those are weeks when essentially you have not played football. You may run scout team, but scout team is not developing your skills. It's not developing your understanding of the offense. You literally are get a card and saying on this play, throw over here, and so you basically just go through the mechanics of it.
You're not developing.
And so he said, you know, when you start thinking about it from the standpoint of working in packages for Trey Lance, the challenge with that is right now Dallas is having to reacclimate their backup quarterback to playing football.
So all those reps that he's.
Getting in practice, those are critical, Like he needs those reps in order to get back up to speed. And do you want to take five of those reps, ten of those reps during practice when you really need to get him up to speed to actually give those to Trey Lance so Trey Lance can be prepared to come in for four or five maybe reps during the game.
I just thought it was an interesting because this is from a formal quarterback.
Yeah, this is where I disagree with with, Babe. Yeah, and I disagree with you got twenty seven coaches on this staff last year. I'm sure they had you know, the smart team would have had practice for Trey Lance.
After practice, they.
Would have taken all the scout team excuse be, all the practice squad, wide receivers and running back on whoever was on that and they would have had another thirty minute practice for him.
They did that in pregame last year. Every game they were able to travel with that QB three, So about three four hours before games they were able to work.
That's what I'm saying. You know that.
That to me is yeah, it's not actual game reps, but it's you're right.
He's right.
In practice you have nine you have nine plays. You know, every the offense has nine plays, defense has nine plays. And then you go to the next period. You know, backup quarterback might get two reps, three reps, so you know Dak gets six, Cooper Rush gets three.
Next drill here we go.
So to me, it's with all these coaches on staff have a practice for him after the practice. Hey, you know, like you say, wide receiver guys, stay out, we're throwing the ball and put him through all that. Yeah, okay, down in distance situations, you want to make a fake rush on him, make fake rush, make him have to move around, do stuff with him, challenge him. Hey, give him different looks.
You know.
That's that's coaching.
That's that's making sure that like you don't have to like, oh, hey, we're all those notes we had in the preseason what we did with with Trey Lance. No, you've been working on it, you know, week two, week three, week four, You've been doing these things and kind of finding out what he's good at and what he's not good at.
And I read zone stuff seems.
I am probably with like the reps and all of that. Obviously that matters who you're getting what team you're getting those reps with. But at the same time, in my mentality, even if you're a backup or a backup of a backup, you should always be ready regardless. You know, that's your job to be ready when the time is called. Your job is not to let may warm up for two weeks and maybe then I'll be ready. It's for whenever
emergency happens, you're ready to go. I mean, yes, but I get what you're saying and what baby is saying and all that. It makes one hundred percent sense. But at the same time, I don't think it should be an excuse as to not plug him in and try to see some of him too.
Yeah, if it means doing read option stuff, either seeing if the end's gonna crash and him go or him hand the ball and do a fake, that's not I mean reading defenses and stuff of throwing the football. Okay, I get that.
But he's sitting in meetings, he's watching practice. He's like, I'd make that throw. I'd throw it over there.
I mean he's watching and he's hearing the mistakes that Dak's making. So he's like like, okay, but you know, like I say, I just I just sometimes it drives me nuts when they talk about it's not like college football where these kids have to go to class.
You have the whole job.
Yeah, this is your job, you know, make sure that all your quarterbacks have are ready to play.
Make sure they're all ready to play real quick.
Before we end the show, what are we hearing about at this point them being able to work in Jonathan Mingo? Is there a chance he plays this week or is this something he's gotten here too late? Really at this point, he's just trying to get acclimated and maybe by next week you have him ready.
Yeah, it was a little bit later than expected. I think for us as far as Mingo not being at practice yesterday, but expectation is that he he is in the building.
That is as.
Far as expectation goes practice, and they'll kind of see on Saturday if he'll be ready to go. But if he can't go, then that that's an easy inactive to figure out.
Yeah, my guess he's probably going to be inactive this week and we'll see what happens next week against against the Texans.
Right, Texans Day and some Monday night games, you get an extra day, extra day. Yeah, all right, appreciate you guys joining us. We will be back tomorrow. We'll wrap this thing up. Get you guys ready for Cowboys Eagles still then for Nick Harris and Brian brought us Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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