Cowboys Break: Defensive Improvements?

to the latest edition of The Break. I got Isaiah Stanback, I got Jesse Holly, I got Amber Garcia with me. It is day two of our mix up here, and these guys, I think they learned a lot yesterday about what it takes to make a really quality football podcast. They I mean, I got a lot of tweets saying how much better you guys have gotten in one show. I think, by think by next week, we're gonna send you back to your shows. And I expect some everybody's

I really do. That's called leadership. I'm just coaching you up. I'm just cluching you up. All right, we got we got a lot to talk about today. We're gonna continue our big picture look at this team. Yesterday we talked a lot about the offense. Today we're gonna focus in a little bit more on the defense, and we'll have some some topics too on the overall team um as well today. But today we gotta first start with some

news that came out yesterday, not the greatest news. And the reason why I want to bring it up because I'm one that, like a lot of times when it starts getting into who got arrested in this kind of stuff, I'm like, if it, if it affects the team and what's happening on the field, then we'll talk about it. If not, I really don't care to talk about it.

But the reason why I want to talk about demonte CAZy being arrested for a DWI, it's more from the standpoint of you, two guys as former as fleets, both

played here at the Cowboys. My question for you, because I think the general public, speaking for myself and probably a lot of fans out there, you probably are like, man, like you know that to some degree, in the position that you're in, you're probably a target to some degree, like you're gonna be looked at it with you know, with a lot of great things in your life comes a lot of responsibility. So you accept that as being a professional athlete, you got a responsibility to live up

to that. Do you guys talk about or did you guys talk about that kind of stuff in the locker room, especially heading into a bye week, did you talk about, like, man, let's stay out of trouble. Let's make sure we're not putting ourselves in situations where we can end up being a headline for the wrong reason. Yeah, I think. I mean, it was a real brief conversation. I don't know about locker rooms that you've been in Jesse, but it was a real brief conversation. It was more so, hey, hey,

protect the team, be smart, and that was it. And that was pretty much extended a conversation. That's all that needed to be said because you knew that you needed to take care of your business. Go enjoy the off week or you know, really just a couple of days off really during or bye week. It's not a full week off, but I go enjoy your a couple of days off, you know, have fun, but be smart, right, stay off your legs, don't don't kill your legs, and

don't make bad decisions. And that's really it. There's no sit down and let's pow wow. Hey, now, what are you about to do? What am I about to do? Just protect the team? Be smart. I brought show and Tell today. Okay for this very reason. You didn't. We didn't plan this or we did anything like this. But I can guarantee you the very last thing out of Mike McCarthy's mouth at the end of the team meeting whenever they broke was hey, guys, enjoy yourselves, take care

of one another, stay out of trouble. I know for a fact. I know for a fact, and I have a zero I have a below zero tolerance for DUIs or dwis or whatever you want to call them. And here's why this Cowboys football team, we are not. People on Twitter drive me insane with the oh, well, you know it's just a d WI. I mean, you know, did we forget We're not too far removed from a good friend of mine, Josh Britt, in a duy situation where someone was killed. And it's always just a DWI

until it's not. And the reason why I have a blow zero tolerance for dwise, we live in the era now where there's left, there's uber right that those are easy fixes. You know Brian Wansley, You know Brian Wansley, you know I know Brian Wansman. Amazing human being. His phone is always on at any point in time of the day to call him if you need something. Every NFL team in the country has a ride service. Every NFL team has it. You call them, they come and

pick you up. Because it used to be the thing. Well, well I didn't want to leave him one hundred thousand dolls a car somewhere. I get it, I understand it. They have it to where now they bring another driver to bring your car home. Here is my my NFL players cards, right, there's three of them. Okay, on the back of everyone. This is my NFL player card. This is my NFL player card. This is my NFL player card.

On the back of each one of these cards. What does that say though it's crossed out, it says DUI crossed out On every single one of these players cards. It says d UI crossed out. There's a number that you can call on these cards that'll have someone come pick you up for free. No questions, ask, no no, no no distance, no matter what that will come and pick you up and bring you home. The NFL Players Association has it, Every NFL team has it. Every person

on the every NFL team has a Brian Wansley. Pick up the damn phone, pick up the phone and make the phone call. But too far, too often we have these superhuman thoughts in our feelings that you know what, I can make it, and you know what, nine times out of ten sometimes you make it home. But what happens that one time you don't make it? And now someone's life, not only yours, but someone else's life can

be impacted. And that's where I have a below zero tolerance for dwis because you have every not only do you make a god awful amount of money you're gonna do an old school yellow cab, but you have every opportunity in the world to get home safely. When it comes to this type of situation, I'm sorry. I have zero tolerance for any body in general, but especially professional athletes who get d wis. It is a necessary, it

is completely avoidable. In anyone who just says, oh, it's just a d WI, it ain't that big of a deal. Shut up, shut up, because until you have been impacted by someone in your family or you being impacted by a drunk driver. Shut up. And for professional athletes, it is far too easy to get home safely or plan ahead or plan ahead, and for you not to do so is reckless. It is careless, it is selfish, It

is unacceptable. And I have zero, below zero tolerance for anyone who gets you d d Wis and I had to go search for these because I wanted people to understand how easy it is make a phone call. You ain't gotta leave your car nothing, ye, And I am, by the way, I appreciate that and that that that's

a good word right there. But I think in addition to that, I think the message here is whether you're a professional athlete or not, this is a serious thing, absolutely like, this is a serious thing that not only, as you said, not only can impact your life, it can impact your family's life and other people that you don't even know. And so I think the message that has to come from this is everyone should look at

this as a cautionary tale. If you didn't, if you didn't get the message back when that happened with Josh Brent, then then you should, you know, you should just be paying attention like this is something that affects a lot of people. So the message here is, don't take the chance. Don't take the chance. Just go ahead if you feel like you've had a drink or two, Like I know for me and my wife, but we've gotten a point now we're like, if we're gonna have a drink or two,

we're ubering. We're just ubering. It's not even a question. We're just ubering. And it's not even it's not even a thought, it's not even a second thought. It's just what we do. Because and I will I will say this, that's also about perspective and wisdom that you get sometimes from age. The older we've gotten, the more we realize, and this is a this isn't worth the chance because by the way, you could probably have two drinks and

still be fine. For me, I'm just like, I'm not gonna take the chance the chance, right, So I think the message here for everybody is don't do that. If you if you're gonna have drinks, just playing ahead, as Isaiah says, and just and be prepared for that so you can do the right thing. And just getting a ride home, all right. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna move on. We're gonna talk a little bit about this Cowboys team. Got some big picture questions, questions

we're gonna hit here. I want to start first with the defensive side of the ball, and particularly I want to start with Michael Parsons, who coming into the year. I think we all after weeks one, two three, we were like, man, this dude is freaking amazing. And I think over the last few weeks, not that he hasn't been still playing at a high level, but some of that talk has kind of come back. My question becomes to you, guys, is where do you think he has

a greater impact at linebacker or defensive end? Linebacker, linebacker all day long? The reason being, yes, people like to see the flash, people like to see the first round or get shown off right because he's a nice little little little, nice little ornament that's all nice and brand new and shiny. But the reality is when he's at even though he's effective, he's effective anywhere you can put the man at cornerback, he's gonna be effective. Even though

he's effective at the defensive in position. What happened to a snap count? All right? He went with thirty eight snaps. I think thirty five thirty eight snaps. I think for those two games he was playing primarily defensive end, Right, But what happened when he goes a linebacker sixty five snaps? Right, So you're taking somebody's ability. Yeah, they can impact the game maybe two maybe three out of those thirty five snaps right when he's playing defensive end, But you're also

subjecting him to getting chipped. What happened in the last time he played DN, he got his ribs hit. Right. He ain't been at that defense end position too much since then, Right, So you're you're you're putting him up. You're putting him in a position where they know where he's at, we can get to you. Right, you're playing Dan, You're going against one of our heaviest, more's, most biggest athletic guys on the team. And oh, by the way, I can send a running back out to take a

shot on your ribs on the way out. Right, So you're that's one thing that you do when you put him at defensive end, when you put him at linebacker, not only do you increase his snap counts by him being on the field more, he can affect the game more. He can also rush, he can drive back in coverage, he could play guys man man of running backs out of the backfield. So he can do a lot of things, multiple facet from the middle of the field that he

can't do from the dfenc end position. And just even if you just looked at it, just basically off a snap counts, you want you're one of your most dominant guys to be on the field as much as possible. I one hundred percent agree with everything that he has said. The only thing that I would add, aside from him playing defensive end, I think that absolutely limits him and

what he can do on the field. Like everything he just said, but also looking at position wise, that's an area where last year when I would watch film and you know Dayalen is no longer here and all that, but that was an area that the Cowboys were struggling at linebacker. And I know Layton Vanderah he has skills and everything, but sometimes he misses and so he needs to help. So the Cowboys do need a player with his set of skills to be right there at linebacker

and do everything that he had. It just it's so impressive to me honestly. And he's very freshing to see a player like that come in right off the bat and show even when training camp, I mean rookie minicamp and all that was starting, I was still here and watching all that, everything that he was showing. It's like, Okay, where can I have a player position that he can do the best that he can and use every single

talent that he has. So for sure, linebacker, defensive end, like he said, you can mix it in and he can still rush and be effective, but he doesn't need to be stuck at a single position. Yeah, a linebacker, he becomes any racer for this football team. He's able to do so many different things in the In the way that this league is evolving, you have running backs

to a more versatile now. Right For every Derrick Henry that you have to worry about in the league, you have more of the Dalvin Cook type or the Gibson types or the Kamara types that that this league has evolved too. And Micah, he gives you the ability, like Isaiah was saying, to play coverage. He gives you the ability to uh play in between um uh you know, behind the behind the tackles and guards at the linebacker

spot play tight end. So the versatility uh that he has at linebacker, you don't have that at at defensive end. And this Cowboys team. And when you go back and you watch the film earlier in the year when he had most of his success, he was playing backup offensive lineman. He was playing against backup offensive lineman. So when he was rushing, he was playing against the number two guys, which when against the Chargers, they put him against the number one and they said was like, yeah, hey them go.

Because at the end of the day, your more experienced offensive tackles have seen all of the moves he hasn't developed and he had so all he has a speed power And if for experience offen tackles says speeding power, please, thank you. Come on, I'll take that all day. But I don't have to deal with speed, power, spin, shift,

hands and all that out of stuff. And I think a linebacker his versatility just shines more and it gives you just a plethora of thing that you can do with him there, and he becomes ultimately your racer in the middle of the football field. All right, we're gonna take our first break when we come back we're gonna

talk a little about free agent signings. I want to talk to you about Demonte Casey, Jyron, curse Keyan O'Neill, who's been the best free agent signing on the defensive side of the ball for the Cowboys so far this season. We'll talk about that. We'll come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Before there was a draft. You get sized up a cowboy by three simple factors. The crease in his hat, the bend of his brim,

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the deal? Is it Jackie Flash, Jackie Flash. It's not complicated at and t Our. Best smartphone deals are for everyone. Restrictions apply. Is it att dot com for details. Back to the break Welcome back to second segment of the Break Life from the s WBC Mortgage studios. At the start, we're talking some Cowboys football here with you, guys, let's talk about the free agent signings. There were three specific defensive free agent signings that I wanted to talk about.

And by the way, you guys can throw in another name if you think there's another name that should fit on this list. But what I wanted to find out is who do you think was the best free agent signing on the defensive side of the ball? Kzy Um Curse or Neil dan Quinn wasn't on the list. But none of those guys are here. Dan Quinn's not here right good like he is and by the way, he makes them look probably better than they would look otherwise. You got those three guys combined for a million dollars.

Like think about that. Like we have been clamoring and begging and pleading for better safety play for the Cowboys since Ken Hamlin. Ye back when I was here. We were here two thousand and seven and eight shot um and dan Quinn comes in and he finds three guys, brings him in, fits him into the scheme that he wants, and they're thriving. And when you look at it, you're saying,

we did all of this for a million dollars. Like that, that is the equivalent of value when you could get players to play at this productive level at that less of a price. That is bargain shopping at its best. That is thrift shopping. You going to the thrift store and you found something of value that no one else

thought would be of value. And so yeah, and so for me to add the name to the list to it's dan Quinn, It's dan Quinn because we have been looking for something of this type of caliber and not only did we found one, we found three guys that now we're looking at saying, you know, well, how do we play them all? Look at this rotation we got.

We got these guys all playing at a at a I'm not saying they're all playing at Pro Bowl level, but we don't worry as much about the back end of this football team as we had in the past, And for me, the culprit behind that is dan Quinn coming in, seeing the vision, seeing those guys believing to get trusting it, bringing them in, giving them instruction and it worked, it flourishing and burd isaiah'na, I'm gonna make

y'all get give me a players. But I'm that's the right answer to the right It probably the easiest answer. Don't think I'll give me a play. No, I'm going I'm going with curse. I'm going with curse Um. Not only because he's been on the field the most really between him and Casey, but I feel like he's had the greatest impact. I feel like the position that he plays in the responsibility that he has to cover some of the biggest, most athletic guys on the field, and

he's pretty much taking them out. We haven't had any tight ends go ham on us this year at all. Um. That's primarily because of him. The reason why this big nickel personnel has come about because of him, Um, and I think the versatility that he gives us to be able to not only cover in the box, but also be able to cover from the top down has been huge it's been huge. He's a large human being, right, they don't make him like that. He's only handful of

dudes that are made that size. Right. You started hearing they've owner Sean Taylor, you know, just recently you got Cam Chancellor and you got you know, Curse. Yeah. I mean, you guys are six four two twenty plus. You know, there's not that many of them. So the athleticism that he provides with the freaking physical attributes he has is amazing, and it just provides a lot of options for dan Quinn and his whole defense. Well, I mean, he's the guy that has the most debts right now out of

the players. But and I know you want a player, but I haven't been. I mean I've been watching the games, but not in like full on details how I usually do. So it's it's hard to answer. But going back to sorry, they're going back to dan Quinn. The thing that's impressive to me is that these guys, this free agent guy, they weren't anyone that was that. I was like, oh my god, wow, yes, the Cowboys got this guy to play safety. It wasn't anything like that. It was like, Okay,

these guys have some experience. All right, well, bring him in, can't hurt, but man, we still need to address that position. Let's wait until the draft. Than it wasn't so it wasn't like something that we were for sure comfortable with. So to me, that's the impressive part having and we've seen it even last year, having so many new players, it takes a while to get them playing well together,

the chemistry put in the defense. We know very well how they struggled last year and they're so much confusion and everything, and even though these were veteran guys, it was still something that you know, the fact that they're playing that the way the way they are playing and not just in that area of the field, but also

also a cornerback. And then you talked about the defensive line, which yes, they can be doing more, but it's just as a whole everything that dan Quinn has been able to do with everyone and the fact that we're not like saying, man, the safety position is absolutely killing us right now. It's it's just very impressive and there's no one really stands out to me, so they're kind of all kind of right there, but the fact that it's working, it's it's what's great, right now, All right, well, what's

the next question. How can Dallas best improve its interior run defense? And I'll give you two options. You guys feel free to throw in something else if you think there's a better answer here. But I said at the return of gallimourn Hill that could be one thing that could help. The other one was better played by the linebackers, because I do think in this last game, specifically, especially early in the game, I saw a number of times where the holes that were created the linebackers just it

was what we saw all last year from the linebackers. Basically, you take a false step and then you're out of position, you can't get off a block hole, and there you go, and then and then the run turns into something where the running back is now on your safety before you know it. So I do think that there's probably a little chance that the linebackers could play better here and help your run defense. What do you guys think it's the best way to improve the interior run defense. I mean,

guys just have to play better. I mean, really, it's not I don't think it's necessarily a scheme thing. It doesn't matter what linebacker you got, you can put trigging bray Ray back there and anybody else. Bart's got anybody else you want to put it in the middle. If the offensive linemen get up to the second level, it's a wrap. Yeah. They're just bigger, larger, stronger humans. Right, It's just what it is. It's kind of like the

Big Brother company just grabbing you, throwing you somewhere. You can't do anything about it, no matter how much you're getting paid. But the interior defensive linemen just have to continue to play better. And obviously what do you do there? Though? Because right now defensive tackle, we knew going into the seasoned defensive tackles an area that they probably could use some improvement. Um, I think they've had some play, Carlos Watkins,

I think is played pretty well. Yea, all things considered, And you know, Bohan's a young guy, he's a big guy. But what do you think, just from a standpoint of the defensive tackles and their play, where can they be better there? I mean leverage? Right? Um? Leverage playing you know, playing half a man, trying not to get let these guys reach you. Um, that's I guess, you know, playing playing your gaps. But we don't know the schemes that

they're playing, right, so I'm up speaking just in general terms. Um, I don't know what their assignments are, but just trying to be more stout right and just trying not to get moved off the ball. There's a lot of different techniques those guys can can utilize to not get moved back to the second level. But at the end of the day, we're missing our big boys. That's that's the real We're missing our big boys upfront. Our heavy hitters

are not there right now. We have explosive guys, we have guys that can get some penetration, but when they actually want to come off to these other teams want to come off the ball and set their mind on running at us as a struggle. When you play teams like like like New England, you know it's gonna be a struggle. When we play teams like like Minnesota, you know, as you look forward to the schedule, then you got

the Broncos and Falcons. There's some teams that we're not going to worry about that being a predominant part of their game. But when you have teams that are built like the Patriots, Yeah, until you get your your your your your meat upfront, it's gonna be a struggle. Well, Jesse, I'll ask you this question. Can you fix that problem? Because even the guys you're asking that you're going to be expecting to return, they're not your big traditional one techniques,

Like you don't have one of those. Are you going to improve this without having to go outside the organization? By the way doing that like who knows what's on the street at this point, But can you really improve that because you're not gonna get much bigger. Yeah, and that's the that's the difficult part. And you know, to use a term that that my guy, big Nate Newton always uses is big greasies. And you want you want to get big greasies in that middle, not necessarily to

be game changing playmakers, just to eat up blocks. I just need you to commit two guys to me every single time, or have to have that second guy stay on me a little bit longer before he passes me off to go to the second level to get to the linebacker. Because when you talk about football being a game of inches, it is literally a game of inches.

A linebacker, you take one false step the wrong way, that guard's up on you and now he has an angle or if you're not getting him off from just like we say you're not, you're not getting off of them, like yeah, he is. He is paid to grab you and moll you and like a pit pit yeah and yeah and it and the same thing when it comes to the big guys up front is if I have to make that guard stay on me just a tad bit longer. Now my linebacker has read his keys and

is attacking. And if I'm attacking and you're still engaged, I win. And and some I mean, some of the greatest linebackers of our time had what great defensive big big And that's that's the only thing. And and and what you can hope for is when you get a guy's like Neville Gallimore company back, is that your rotation becomes better. Guys become fresher, stay fresher longer throughout the game, and you have more wins than you do losses up front.

But there's nothing you can do at this point in time. Never got them more. Ain't getting twenty more pounds in the middle of the season, right Carter's Walkers ain't getting fifteen twenty more pounds in the middle of the season. Some people maintaining you maintain. Yeah, you're trying to hold on or whatever weight that you have right now to maintain throughout the throughout this year. So it's it's given what you got and hope for the It's really hope

for the best. It's given what you got and hope for the best. And hopefully you don't run into many teams like New England like that, and and the and the and the reality of it is you aren't. That's the reality of it. You are. Are they that much different from a personnel stand point or was it more scheme? Yes, personnel standpoint, it's both. I think he's having to skin the scheme for sure. I mean that's every coach, right. But when you look at somehow how these teams are built.

Let's look at our schedule coming up here. We got the Vikings. They're going to run and crap out the ball. Yeah, so we better are they, because that's that's one thing I heard about New England. I'm not sure, but supposedly their offensive line was bigger. Yes, And so are you gonna face that similar type of big offensive line against Minnesota against other teams down and so I'm talking about it. It's it's all about it. So to your point, right,

it's a scheme as well. Bro scheme not only just translates just from what the coach is saying to facilitate on the field. It goes back to the weight room, right, How how is your team built? Right? When I when I was when I was here in Dallas, we lifted right, but we lifted for explosion. When I went to New England, you know, we lifted like it was offseason, like big boy heavyweight, throughout the whole season. Why because that's how that's the type of team we wanted to have. We

wanted to wear you down. When I went to Seattle, guess what it was all about, moving lightweight and moving it fast, right, just being fast, being fast. So that the scheme right, and how they want their team to the identity of their team, That's how everything's gonna translate. That's how your dietitian's gonna make your food, That's how your weight room's gonna do. All it goes. It goes all the way back to that in terms of how

they want to approach this thing. So there's gonna be games where you face teams that are built to have the advantage against you, and you got to find ways to make plays. Um, you know. But as we look forward, we're not going to worry about that. How we are in terms of speed and being an explosive, that's going

to work to our advantage. But the majority of our opponents we have remaining on our schedule, Yeah, they must be on that fast thinking out program because I am most of these guys, like, I never really see them putting on weight, like usually they start, yeah, muscle wise, they'll start building muscle, but then trimming down. Like even with Tristan Hill, you know, he came in, you could see him a little weight and then he starts trimming down.

So that's something I never even thought about. But I have noticed physically, you know, physical wise, Yeah, I think this year especially, we talked about this on the break. This year especially, you saw a lot of guys coming

back a lot leaner than they've been before. And I don't know if that was what Harold Nash was trying to do with this team or those guys just specifically we're working with our own trainers to do it, but you definitely saw a difference in guys like Zeke and Dak like they came back much leaner than they've been in the past. It wasn't the big bulky, it was the league fast, very explosive, is what it looked like

they were trying to achieve. And what most coaches will tell you as you begin to age in this league, you want to get light, right, you want to shed some of those pounds because it's a lot of harder to do that than trust me. I know, I trust me where we fight, we fight the battle every day. Um. But but also your body doesn't recovers faster. Yeah, you know you want to have that. You don't want to

have to carry those extra pounds. And again, look at the way this league is going, Um, you're you're gonna need more explosion. You're gonna need more versatility, more athleticism. It's it's not the nineties Cowboys where Nates three hundred and forty pounds because he's going up against another guy who's three hundred twenty pounds and it's just just mauling big group type things. It is speed, more speed, and

more speed. Like when you look at the combine numbers we used to we used to be like he ran a four three, Yeah, what what what now It's like, dudes, Now, I was like, oh yeah, Michael Partson ran a four three at two hundred and forty some pounds, fifty some pounds like I'm in at three hundred pounds of running five four seven four eight, You're like, wait what that was unheard of fifteen years ago. Now it's almost a norm. And so the only way that you can you can

keep up with that kind of speed. Have you run a four four? Just go, just go. It's in the corner like like I remember throwing up and it was like that was like the number. Oh you gotta run a full four like that was the pinnacle of speed. Now it was like you run a full four as a receiver, it's like okay, like that ain't nothing special, Like yeah, that that dude average who's forty pounds heavery than you, Yeah he runs he runs a four to

five nine Like you know, a four four nine. You'd be like, dang, I'm two fifteen, you know, two eighty five. But doesn't even get tricky once you start mixing that. Okay, I'm intally of being faster and lighter with inexperience and younger guys, you know, when they come in. I feel that it's it's a tough balance there because they don't have the experience, not necessarily the full on technique that they need that maybe having that extra weight kind of balance,

you know what I mean. I think there's also a difference between weight and strength. Like I don't want to confuse weight and strength, because I do think what happens and you see it all the time with guys going from their first year to the second year, Like you can see the difference, and they grow into their bodies and you could, yeah, you could tell that it's starting to get to that point where they're stronger. They might

be lean, but they're very, very strong. And I think that's kind of the difference here is not necessarily weight, but but strength. No, I mean, that's that's a huge I'm glad you brought that up. I can give you guys an example when I've finishing up my career. I went to Jacksonville as a tight end and it was

Mercedes Lewis and myself. No one asked me why how I got to tight end, but I was that's kind of like the Hernandez era, right when it's like, you know, the two hundred forty two forty five pound tight end that could run and create mismatches against guys like Curse. So that was Mercedes. Lewis was the underlying guy. I was kind of the wing back. He's one of the league's best blocking tight end even probably to this day.

Still he's amazing. You're still team He's ridiculous, right, But he knew leverage, he knew how to use his length and all those all his limbs to create movement. I was strong. I was stronger than he was in the weight room, right, And he would get frustrated with me because when I got on the field, I couldn't block these big dudes. While I was two hundred forty pounds,

these are three hundred pounds, right. So I was strong, right, but I didn't have enough none, enough junk in the truth right, So to that point, you could be a strong man, you're stronger. I've seen you go ahead though I can't because I'm strong and weight room strong. But these boys are these are grown human beings, grown man strength right and there, and so to your point, right,

it can be a disadvantage. But when your whole entire program is built off of it, and then you have these offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, you know, special team's corners come in and put you in position to be successful based upon your skill sets. Now, all of a sudden, that becomes an advantage. Now if they ask these guys to come in and play something and be something that

they're not. Right. Two hundred and forty pound guy trying to go up there against two hundred and eighty five pounds, that's not that's just not. That's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. So we start talking about why it was New England so successful on the ground, Well, they're big upfront, and then oh, by the way, then they have they have four tight ends that are active every game. Then there they put three of them out there, and there's two of the best tight ends that happened to

be in the league as of last year. And that's they're getting paid forty million, fifty million dollars for it. Yeah, that's why they were able to move us off the ball because they had two hundred and sixty pounds coming up and moving two hundred and thirty two hundred and forty pounds off the line. So that's I mean, that's that's how this league works. It's all about mismatches. I mentioned it yesterday. Every team's not built the same, every

team's not built the same. That's why we needed to get up on New England because they can't catch up right once they're up right. The reason why we didn't want the game to be closest because if it is close, and guess what New England could play New England ball right now? They can just run you down down the fieldgate chunky, Okay, who's gonna be chunky? Heavy player here? And then we got the strong, which job one. So you create that balance, you hit that will to play right,

Let's go sometime. Can you give us some chucky? All right, we're gonna take our final break. We're gonna come back and I'm gonna ask these guys a question. I'm gonna ask him, what's the biggest problem that you think would most concerned. You're going down on the stretch and here are the options I'm gonna give coaching decisions kicker run defense or red zone offense. We'll talk about that. We'll come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hi,

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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 to you at Stetson dot com. Slash Cowboys. Back to the Break Welcome back to the final segment of The Break Life from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star.

Here's my question for you guys, and I'm hopeful that this question is going to bring a very thoughtful answer because there's a lot of things here that I think people are talking about as potential gotchas as you go down the stretch. The question is what is the biggest problem that concerns you? In this second segment of the season, we heart coach talking about it. They broke it into three segments. You got six, six and then five games.

In this second segment, would it be coaching decisions, would it be the kicker, Would it be run defense? Or would it be red zone offense? Can I throw another one in there? Sure? Absolutely, I think I might. I don't know if I said this are on a talking Cowboys, But my concern is that when our guys come back, our guys gallup more Law, the injured guys, right, d Law, gallop right, all these got our guys, right, the guys that we expect to go out there and make big

plays for us. Do our current guys that are out there doing well for us, do they do they back down? Do they go into the corner? Because we've all seen those guys right when you're when you're considered to be when you're number two when they call you up the number one and number one's out for a while. Okay, here we go, let's rock, right, let's go. I'm me again, right, I'm gonna do it from college, or to do from

earlier in my career. Let's ball, right, and the cats out there trying me, and then they become ballers again, right, and everybody's like, you know, to your point, Oh my god, I didn't know that these guys get playing. I know these guys can ball, they just have been subjected to being a second tier guy. What happens when they're when the dogs come back, when the number ones come back and they get their thrown back. I've seen it two ways.

I've seen it where guys that remain competitive and they pushed their starters and they make them create a rotation

like we're talking about. Or I've seen guys kind of back down to kind of what you expected him to be in the first place, which is kind of just ah, he he's inconsistent, right, What players would concern you most because immediately when I started thinking about that, I'm like a lot of these guys, they've already been in rotations even before those guys out, So it doesn't necessarily I don't think it would have. Like think about a Cedric Wilson.

This shouldn't affect him much because he's been used to playing in a position where he's rotating osa defensive tackle. They put, they rotate, Like, what are the positions or players that you would be more for. I'm thinking about cornerback Kelvin Joseph hasn't touched the field. Yeah right, I'm thinking about I'm thinking about cornerback position. I'm thinking about Enough Brown and Jay Lou What are they gonna do? Right?

A Brown got himself a pick so far, but you know, is he gonna is he gonna be a starter still, Joseph's not ready though, I'm just I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I mean, I haven't talked to you about that. Yeah, yeah, it is Joseph Ray. I don't think I don't. I don't think he's ready either, But I mean, we don't make those decisions up there either. You know, they took they took him pretty high, so he gonna play. He gonna so it does matter is he is he gonna

replace those those five million dollar guys. They're both getting pay five Millie. You know so, I mean that's a question that you that you have to ask. You know, what happens there? What happens that the D line position happens? D line has a heck of a rotation going right now, all of a sudden, you bring Hell back, you bring Gallimore back, you bring d Law back. Those are three bona fide starters. What happens to that rotation? Now? Yeah,

I think we're different. I think we're different. Where in past times it would have been oh yeah, he comes back, he has to play, or we drafted him high, he has to play. I think we're different. I think this coaching staff, specifically on defense, I think we're different. I think it's you know what, Son, Yes, we drafted you high, but right now we roll them and maybe we'll get you, maybe we'll fit you in there, you know, but you

haven't done anything that says you deserve that position. And I get your draft at us and maybe, well we'll attack this full goal next year and OTAs and mini camps and so on. The so fourth, I think in years past we would have been subjected to up. We drafted him eye, we gotta play him, no matter what. I personally just feel like it's different. And I think that so you think, do you think the culture in

the in the front office has changed as well. I think that the guys who are putting these players on the field, the coaches and such, have earned enough say so with the way that things have gone this year, for whether it be one of the Joneses or someone that he'll go just trust me on this one, like like let let like I know that we drafted him in the second round and I get it, and he'll he'll be fine, and we'll get him right and we'll get him to a position where he's playing at a

very high level. This is not feed but we're not right now. Yeah, like you know what I'm saying. And and we'll we'll we'll work our way back in there, and we're working in there. We'll find spots for him to get him some confidence, to get him some playing time.

I just feel like this is just a different set of circumstances and a different set of dudes who are who are called the shots, and you know, I hope they have that power and on the and on the same the same respect, I think I think dan Quinn has done a great job with and can have and you know this, I said, there are certain coaches who can come to you and have that man to man conversation and you respect those guys like I've always respected coaches.

Just told me straight off, like don't don't we're too old fall that well, you know, just keep chipping away. And I don't think Dan Quinn is that kind of a guy. He's a Jersey dude. I'm a Jersey dude like we are. We are straight up dudes. And I think he has the conversation when you come in and say, listen, son, here's the deal. Okay, you're a part of this football team, but right now we're going this and here's why we

still want you to be engaged, you know. And once you have that real conversation man to man, I think many men accept that better and you'll get the same productivity. And Quinn will tell you like, hey, this doesn't mean stop competing, This doesn't mean we can't we can't use you,

we don't need you, probably saying your expectations. Right, Hey, go out there every single day, every single practice and worked like you want to be the starter, or worked like you were before this guy, you know, came back from injury, and I think when you do that, you get guys to respect you more, and you get guys to go out there and give you a great How do you go about practice though, during the week when a guy like that comes back, for example, a veteran

guy gets back ken, do you give them half the reps? Let's talk about it from the standpoint of Donovan Wilson, Like he's trying to come back in and Jayron Curse has been playing his button. So what happens in that situation? What happens for Donovan? What happens for jay Ron? Like

that's the question, right, Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I've never really been in those conversations, but I don't and we only get to see a portion of practice, so I don't really know how they go about distributing in a scenario like is where these guys on the field are playing well and now you got these other veteran guys that you have been expecting them to be the starters come back in. I don't know how most teams is not this competitive, So it's this difficult when

it's this competitive. When it's this competitive is very differently deep, Like this is a deep team. Relative to other teams in there. And it's a good problem, it's a great problem to have. And again, you you divvy those reps up and practice, you're saying, you know, you can say, hey, all right, listen, jay Ron, when we go team seven on seven, you're in uh uh de Wilson, when we

go you know this team period, you're in. And then now you just kind of gauge it throughout the week about giving both of these guys reps and and this is what they pay the coaches the big bucks for this. This is this is a good problem to have, but this is your problem to figure out, and it's not always going to be an easy situation. And then it comes down to at the end of the day, what

do you feel most comfortable with? Because when you're when you have to go to a game and coach, the last thing you want to go into a game doing is having uncertainty, because if you have uncertainty, there's no way you're calling a definitive football game. So most coaches, once they get to that threshold of Thursday is Friday,

most definitely Saturday, here's what we're doing. I'm going here until something changes, and then next week we'll try it again, and then when I get to that Friday, that Thursday

is Friday, most definitely Saturday. We're going here because my team and I need to know as a coach how I'm going to call this football game when we go out there and injuries happen and things happen, and to Isaiah's point, matchups, they may come a time when you're saying, you know what, Donovan is a much better fit for this matchup or this scheme that we're going this week than jay Ron. Jay Ron is a much better fit because we're playing a taller tight end, or they may

have whatever it may be. So to have those options is a great thing. But that's why they played the coach the big bucks. Yeah, I can tell you I'm looking at these these snap as we're talking about matchups. J Ron week one sixty two percent of the snaps Week two ninety seven percent, per week four ninety seven percent, and then one hundred percent for five and six. Yep. Yeah, he probably by the way he's making the most of

those reps. He is balling out. And to answer your question that you previously stated, it's a red zone, it's red zone because that has not only been one. You need to score in this league, and I've kind of almost unless there's an injury to Dak Prescott that prolongs him from coming back on the football field. I pretty much summed up this regular season, We're gonna win a division. There's nothing in this division said that we're not going to sweep this division. It maybe lose one game, we're

gonna win a division. I start looking at playoffs. You play Arizona, Arizona, you better score touchdowns. You play Green Bay, You're better score touchdowns. You play Tampa, you're better score touchdowns. You know, you play anybody in the NFC. Ye the best school touchdowns in the playoffs. And one of the problem that the Cowboys has had years and years and years and years has been red zone offense. So I think that's always going to be a concern for me.

They were doing better earlier this year with the red zone situation. They kind of fell back a little bit with that. And say what you want about the calls in the red zone, whatever, you know, but that is going to be so important. We cannot we cannot kick field goals when you're talking about playing the really good football teams you'll get away within the regular season, get away. You'll get away when to get the Giants in Washington and Philadelphia and you know teams like that. You ain't

getting away with that. Against Tampa back, you ain't getting away with that. Against the Ramp, you ain't getting away again. You know, even even sometimes against you know, a team like New Orleans. You never know what. You never know what jamis you might get. You might get bove touchdowns, right, Minnesota, you never know, right, you might get eating w Jamis. You might get twelve, you might get twelve new Kirk Cousins. Right, you might not get nighttime Kirk Cousins. You might get

twelve new Kirk Cousins. So always getting in the red zone and being able to come away with touchdowns rather than field goals. All right, folks, that's a rap, real quick. Tell us where when we can hear you guys? Aah working fans here? Oh yeah, yeah yeah talking cowboys. Man, You guys know what it is. Okay, nine o'clock every day, Monday through Friday. We're the first show because we're the best show. We know you guys, when you guys wake up,

get your cup of joe. You want to come out here and get the real come out here and make a deal. Hang out with you boys and talking to cowboys. You understand I'm saying, listen, man, Jesse, all that was and all that kind of stuff. Y'all know what. Y'all know what it is. I don't got job turkey he talking over that. Come through hanging with the boys. If you want to come with you, if you want to come hang out with your drunk goncal and talk good sports.

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just every every body week for sure until then. For until next week. Friday is stand back. Jesse, Holly amber Garcia. I'm Derek Hilton. 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.