Cowboys Break: Final Thoughts

is finally here. It starts tomorrow, and yesterday was a press conference, first press conference, free draft where we got to experience some of these technology issues. Our group didn't really get a questioning yesterday, but we gotta put it out there. It wasn't yours fault, right, got to address the elephant in the room. Man. There's no way I promise I was there. Okay, It's not like I'm making a sandwich during pre draft press conference. Yeah, but we

were all there listening. It wasn't all asked Dave going to uh, Stephen Jones. You know you you're so insistent on addressing the team's needs and free agency so you can draft purely, but you don't have a slot receiver, So what gives I'm very curious about the fact that the Cowboys haven't done anything with Randall Cobs addence, So I wanted to know if they were putting a higher priority on drafting receiver or did they think they can

find a veteran and free agency after the draft? But well, well, Dale, is it? Dale? Oh? Dave? Sorry, Yeah, we're wrong. We're confident in the receivers we have. We have a lot of good receivers behind those starting two and uh yeah, it's hard to replace Randall cop but you know, we're confident we could. We could go into the draft, so there's some good receivers in there if that's the route we want to go. But we're confident we don't have to get a wide receiver if we don't need one. Yes,

a really good impression and a bad answer. Okay exactly, which is remember when we had the whole like player by comedian thing. Yeah, yeah, I'm landed, and I was going to ask to McCarthy. I was like, obviously, you don't know that they haven't drafted a safety in almost two decades, but you had haw Haw Clinton Dix in Green Bay. What are you expecting what type of player are you expecting to get in Does that solidify your safety position going into the draft? Dave, I guess we

don't have the answers to that. I'm not going to try to do the impression, but I like, I genuinely do think like Stephen Jones Um whenever it was that he talked, he went, he went on one of the fan a week ago and said, you know, we spent significantly at safety. We like, we made this significant addition and I was like, oh man, I didn't realize four and a half million dollars for haha. Clinton Dix was like,

this insane investment, Like I didn't realize that. So I don't know this for sure, but we know the Cowboys value a lot of positions more than they value safety. And we know that they feel pretty good about Haha and darry and Thompson along with Xavier Woods. And I'm just after what happened last year, I'm not going to get my hopes up that they have these big plans

on drafting a safety. Sorry Amber a trade apparently, because he did say, you know, there's been a lot of talks about Jamal Adams and a possible trade with the Cowboys, but Jerry Jones were very was very clear yesterday making a comment saying that they weren't gonna invest on a trade using a trade for a high profile player. So there goes Dad, unless they're keeping it a secret for I don't know what their plans are for right now. You know, if anybody, I'll go back real quick what

we were talking about. If anybody doesn't understand what we were saying. There was the pre draft press conference yesterday. They had all the media guys are in girls in there, talking about, you know, different questions and it was their turn. When it got to my turn, they couldn't hear me. When it got to Dave's turn, they couldn't hear me.

And don't you find it ironic, David, As we're doing this and talking about this, the guy that's running this whole thing just send us an email that asks us if we want to test for tomorrow's thing, which we definitely need to test. But yes, the timing is hilarious. And to talk about your point, I don't know if everybody's talking about Jamal Adams, but I feel like there's people well I feel like I'm talking about in the media.

I think it's being driven by one or two people, and I think a lot of people are picking up steam there. I just Jerry said it highly unlikely, and I believe that. That's one thing I do believe. And you know, these press conferences that yesterday are always so frustrating because I'll never forget them telling us in twenty sixteen the drafting running back really high, Isn't that's smart of a move? And then they picked a ze Kilo like three days later, So they don't really want to

give you a lot of information. So I don't know, do you think they would get someone day If you think they'll they'll no, not at all. But yeah, I mean if they had plans on doing it, they wouldn't tell us about it. It's lying season, that's what happens in the lead up to the draft. But for the cost of what you'd have to pay for Jamal Adams, I have a hard time believing the Jets would let them go for just one pick, even if it was

a first round pick. On top of that, I think, I mean, that's just another guy that needs a big contract really soon. I mean, it's risky drafting players. You never know if they're going to pan out, but they need to find some cheap talent. They have enough expensive talent. That's something that no offense to the fans. It's just it takes a long time to really understand that because they look at it, and so certain media people look at it too, and they and they say, well, he's

better than anybody. You're going to get a seventeen, which is true, but you've got like you said, you had a five. You had four years with a quarterback making less than two million a year. You should have done more with that. I mean, you can't just keep getting these players in here. You need cheap players, like you said, Layton Vanderesh. You know, he needs to play two or three years on a deal like this and be really productive.

And it hurts when you don't have when your first round picks turn into Amari Cooper and he's making twenty million a year. So yeah, I mean, it's way more likely than not the Cowboys would get a better team in twenty twenty with Jamal Adams and no first round pick. But you look at the long term, you look at what it's going to cost you, you look at the you know, the overall health of your roster. One to fifty three, like, I mean, they already had they've got.

You know, their top twelve is among the best in the NFL, but it's you know, players fifteen through thirty. Those guys do a lot of heavy lifting on good teams, and you need draft picks to make that work. And you know, if they traded for Jamal Adams, I wouldn't

hate it. I would I would compliment the move, but I understand why they're more committed to try and to replenish their roster with affordable I mean, you can make the case, would you rather have Jamal Adams at safety next year making what twelve million thirteen million a year? Quite more than that? Depends on when he would get his deal. I mean, he doesn't need to be resigned

right now. Whatever his rookie salary is like five or six right now, but I mean he will be worth like fifteen million a year very soon to help it. Or Xavier McKinney for you know, a million, maybe, I absolutely yeah. And Davian McKinney and Grant Delpit might not ever be as good as Jamal Adams like I I mean, Jamal Adams unquestionably makes you better in twenty twenty but this, like this draft, I can't. I just keep going back to how important I think this draft is for the

Cowboys chances of competing on a higher level. I mean, you know, they need to find three or four, you know, starters or heavy contributors in this draft class if they be a playoff caliber team, a team that's capable of winning playoff games. Also, I love Will McClay to death. I like all the guys in the Cowboys personel department, but this is a big draft for their reputation. You know, they they really earned their stripes and got a lot of well deserved accolades for how well they drafted from

twenty fourteen to twenty sixteen. Twenty seventeen draft looks, I mean, yeah, terrible. I think terrible is a stretched because you got three starters out of it. You got Jordan Lewis, you got um Fido Woozier, and you got Xavier Woods. They're not like amazing players. They found three starter caliber players. Obviously Tacos a bust. Yeah, but those three starting caliber players or players that the Cowboys are looking to upgrade with twenty seventeen is not good by any stretch. Twenty eighteen,

you got gallop and we'll see about Layton. Jury is still out. Twenty nineteen looks pretty rough. Like they need to hit on this raft. You know, if if the if the narrative of the Cowboys being among the best drafting teams in the league is true, this draft is really important. They need to kind of get back on the horse because the last two or three years have been mediocre to bad. So this is important for a

lot of reasons. I mean, twenty sixteen, there's more good players that have come out of that combined in seventeen, eighteen and nine together, right, which, yeah, and you know, I mean twenty sixteen. I don't know if it's fair to say twenty sixteen is the standard. I mean, that's one of the two or three best passes in Cowboys history. But you know, twenty fifteen you found an all Pro corner and Byron Jones. You have found a four year

contributor in Damian Wilson. Twenty fourteen, I mean, you're two big picks from twenty fourteen are still on the team, Zach Martin and DeMarcus Lawrence. I mean, you gotta and and even you know, Anthony Hitchins was a four year star while he was here. That was a great pick for where you found him. They need that, They need their first, second, third, and preferably fourth round pick to

all have to start. But those are guys that need to be contributing big time from the get It's gonna be interesting to see because I was having a lot of hopes on hopefully getting the players from last year's draft to have a good offseason, get a lot of workout, team, gain some power, get health, you know, and start training camp off pretty well. But with everything that's going on now, it makes me wonder how much this virtual life is going to affect their physical performance when they do get

back on the field. So we'll see what the Cowboys decide to do now. Staying on the topic of the defense just for a moment, we're still having some confusion here as to what the Cowboys plan to do there, whether it's a four three defense or three four. I mean, they say it's a four to three, but then you get talking about different players that look more like a three four. So what did you guys gather from one McCarthy said yesterday, it was pressed pretty hard about that, like,

you know, what, what is it? What's it gonna be three four or four three. I mean, it doesn't matter that much. You just nailed it, Amber, thank you. Doesn't really And I think there's only confusion if you're obsessed with the label as this black and white thing that matters, like and you know what, it makes sense why people feel that way because the last defensive coordinator had a very rigid black and white approach to things. We're gonna have four down linemen. The right end is going to

have this skill set. I need this from my undertackle. My left end is going to do this. We're gonna play these coverages. I get it. But Rod Marinelli is gone, and I just don't think that Mike Nolan and Mike McCarthy are going to approach their defense that way. It is a four three front. They are going to have four down linemen at least for the time being. But from the sounds, they want to bring pressure with players that aren't necessarily always pass rushers. Jalen Smith comes to mind.

Alden Smith and Randy Gregory are also obviously versatile guys that could play in either front. I think you're gonna see a lot of everything, and it should be exciting more than confusing because for years and years in years, we kept hearing, Oh, that guy's not a scheme fit, that guy doesn't do what we've fit what we want to do. Well, we'll see you mean they like it.

Sounds like they just want to draft good football players and figure out what to do with them later, which is how everyone in the world should approach this thing. I'm very excited it's going to look like yeah, me too. I mean when you when you look at Randy Gregory and Alden Smith, if those two guys get reinstated, and it sounded like Jerry and Stephen didn't really want to be the ones to talk about that because it's a

touchy situation and they don't know. And I guarantee the NFL's thinking about bigger things right now than than reinstading some of these players. But you know, they look like three four pass rushers. That's what they look like. Their body types are. DeMarcus Lawrence looks like he is a four three pass rusher. He's not. He doesn't have a great fit in a traditional three four scheme. Ontari Poe looks like a three four guy. Um Durri McCoy to me a four three but that's the beauty of it.

I mean, you can make these switches in between a series, in between a play, and I think that that's just saying what Davis is pointing out, just get good playing. A really good example of this is two of the guys that we're talking about a lot at the top of the draft, Caleb and Jason out of LSU and

Zach Bond out of Wisponsin. I wouldn't be shocked if under the previous regime both of those guys were out of consideration because we don't know if he can put his hand on the ground and play right in does that remind you of T J. Watt at all? Like that was the bit like is can he play? Can

he put his hand on the ground and go? Whereas if the Cowboys were to draft Zach Bond, they would probably say, all right, we're gonna find some looks for you where you can rush as an outside brusher, can play a little bit of sam lineback, or you can do this, that and the other, and by the time it's all said and done, you'll be playing seven percent of the snaps. And that sounds awesome to me, rather than just saying, oh, he's never really been a four or three end, so get him out of just get

him off the board. We don't like him. When we went to a restaurant in Indianapolis at the combine, we were fortunate enough, Dave and I were fortunate enough to go with some of the other media guys and we were just kind of talking a little bit on the record, mostly off the record, and McCarthy said exactly that. He said, you know, if you got a player that doesn't really fit your scheme but he's a great player, then you need to change your scheme. And I like, look over

at Dave, and Dave is you didn't do it? But about as well then like the Dion Sanders, it was just like, oh, thank you, thank you, We'll see you can actually do that. But it's they've said everything I want to hear. But now this is like the first true test. Obviously we haven't seen any actual football under Mike McCarthy, but the decisions they make this weekend could go a long way about, you know, shaping what they

actually want to do. So that's really exciting. Now. Another thing that was discussed yesterday, actually Jane Slater was pressing on pretty hard. It was about that. Dak Prescott was the topic of discussion yesterday. The whole franchise tag number was recalculator recalculated, and he finally came out with a total what was it, thirty one point something point four thirty one four and four around there, which was kind

of around the amount we were expecting. Now. When asked if Dak has been participating in this virtual voluntary offseason program, McCarthy kinda he tried his best to kind of not answer it. Basically said that Dad has been in communication with the coaches, but he's not going to be taking role of all the players that do take part on this program because it is voluntary. Now in the way that I thought I heard it, I mean, that didn't make me feel like it sounded as if Dac was

participating in the voluntary program or not. What do you guys think I think that there? I thought, I think that Mike mccartthy answered that question as best as he can because it is a volunt Like you said, it's

a voluntary program. The minute the Cowboys, especially their head coach, start revealing to the media who's who's participating and who isn't, then he's subject to you know, I don't know if I don't know if it's a fine or anything like that, but but you certainly don't want the league jumping in and saying, why are you throwing out these players business? Because he said we're definitely not going to be taken role.

But he also mentioned that he's doing everything he's communicating, so I looked at it like he is participating somewhat,

but he can't say whether or not he's there or not. Yeah, And I think talked about this last week, like if if this was the real offseason program and we're doing workouts and on field learning and all that stuff, I understand, but like I don't care if if Dak is on the zoom call, I don't care, Like like I said it last week, like he's got his iPad, it does because like you know, I mean, it's you know, do I need to be Do I need to be on a zoom call with Derek and Nick at all hours

of the day for them to know that I'm like handling what I'm supposed to be handling, you know, No, Like we're all we're mature adults and we can accomplish what we need to accomplish. Without having somebody virtually breathing down our neck, Like I don't care if Dak logs into a single call. He's got his iPad, and like I said last week, like I think he cares way too much about being good at quarterback to like throw his iPad across the room and not ever look at it.

Like I'm sure he's looking at it. I'm sure he's gonna handle what he needs to handle. In the meantime, as long as all this weird stuff going on, I don't care if he's logging in or not. Maybe I'm alone in that, but it just seems silly to quibble over. Well. Another thing that was interesting though about that whole conversation.

It is okay, yes, they said that they're still in the work so in the hopes of getting a long term deal with Dak Prescott, but they are not kind of not canceling the possibility of drafting a quarterback in this draft. Jerry Jones mentioned how Mike McCarthy likes to have extract quarterbacks in the room, get them to develop, and hopefully in the future, use them as a trade or just you know, as an investment overall for the future.

What are your thoughts on this whole quarterback drafting. If they do draft one, what would be like around what round would you be looking at? Well, I mean, yes, Mike McCarthy likes to do that, and that's what's something Green Bay has on that they drafted five quarterbacks in the time he was there, and they had five and

Aaron Rodgers. But that's not what Jerry Jones likes to do, and so it'll be interesting to see that he's done it once or so with Mike White, and I don't think you know that that didn't work out, But that doesn't mean you stopped trying. Some of those Packer guys didn't work out either. How's it going to work out when you have a Pro Bowl quarterback there? So I just think that that if we're looking at it, I

would say fifth or sixth round. That's that's how you develop a quarterback, because anything higher than that, these guys should be somewhat ready to contribute. They still need development, But I think fifth or sixth round because you have other needs. You have guys, like Dave said, you got to hit on these top four picks. Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask based on all the other needs. I mean, do you would you Dave think that there is room for a quarterback to be drafted in this draft.

I don't not high not in that, not enough. I know, you know they talk to Jalen Hurts. That's a name that keeps getting brought up. But you probably have to draft him with or maybe eighty second. Maybe he falls that far, but he I mean yeah, like we keep saying they need they need pass rushers and cornerbacks and safeties and a receiver. They could probably use some linebacker depth like all, I mean, where, how how are you justifying that on a guy that you hope is not

going to trust the field? Um? And I mean I get it, I get it. The higher you draft from, the more likely he is to be good. But if they want to do it on Day three, that's fine with me. I think you know some guys you could draft in the fifth, six or seventh round that I'd be fine with. But a premium pick on a quarterback when your quarterback is only twenty six is scary to me.

And it's hard to convince Jerry Jones otherwise when he's got one of the best quarterback that he's ever had here in the last ten years that he got an eighth round, if you will, and there wasn't one an undrafted free agent Tony Romol. So you know, I think when you get to that point, you might as well just get you know, get it undrafted. But I honestly, I would rather, I would rather draft a punter. I'm not joking. I would rather. Yes, and we're gonna go,

We're gonna get that excited punter. We're gonna go draft to A and M kid. Yeah, it's the Braden Man in the six or seventh round. I'd be on board with that for sure. Yeah. I just think, you know, I think at that point you might as well just get an undrafted free agent, knowing that he's probably not gonna be better than Cooper Rush anyways. Cooper Rush enough that he's been around for four or five, you know, four years whatever it is at this point, and he

was undrafted. So and I you know, I don't dislike Jalen Hurts, but drop off between him and some of the Day three guys is so severe that you just have to grab him in the top one hundred. I mean again, you know, if if your quarterback needy, I get it. But Prescott's never missed a game. I'm comfortable betting on that. I mean, you've got one of the You've got one of the most productive college quarterbacks on the roster in Blake Belle. Yeah, I'm holding out he

didn't throw a pass. I don't even know if he threw more than five passes his whole career, but you didn't have to. I am holding out hope that they you've got fun package for him lined up, like you know, whether it's goal line or just something to throw defenses off. I mean, I'm not saying he needs to throw passes or whatever, but it would be fun if they could find a way to utilize that. Do you know the two players on the roster that have thrown a touchdown pass?

I mean, other than Dak there's only one more, I believe. I mean, I'm guessing it's Blake bell based on the conversation. I don't think so. Don try Poe. Yeah, okay, if you haven't seen that YouTube that it's one of the coolest things you've ever seen, I've watched it. I forgot about that. Well. I've been receiving questions about this draft and how it's gonna be handled. It's definitely gonna be

a challenge just putting everything together virtually. But in yesterday's press conference, Jerry Jones he said that they've done some practice runs and they don't seem to have had any issues with it. Well, they've had issues, but they've addressed it and tried to perfect it to where tomorrow it shouldn't be a problem. Even if they were needing to

trade for whatever reason, they can make that happen. How comfortable are you feeling about this whole process when it starts tomorrow as far as looking at how the only example we have is basically the press conference that we were able to witness yesterday. So after that, how comfortable are you with tomorrow's process? Do you expect this or the Cowboys to experience difficulties that would affect then and

when it comes to their turn to draft. You're talking to two guys who couldn't get in on the press conference call. I didn't see Steven Jones for the first twenty minutes. Not sure why, but I don't think he I think he was having some problems too. Yeah, I mean Dave and I argued with Derek I think a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be chaotic. How can it not be? It is going to be chaotic

for what they're used to doing. Yes, they'll figure it out, but they'll be trades probably left on the table because they just can't communicate with everyone. You know, other teams honestly might have more of a problem than the Cowboys because they've got an owner and a GM that they need to talk to with the coach, Jerry's going to make the call if they really need to. So you know, the owner in the GM are in the same head. So I you know that that's an advantage right there

for the Cowboys. Yeah, I'm not I'm not worried about the Cowboys, but just from the league as a whole, Like yeah, I mean Jerry kind of glossed over that. He was like he was like, yeah, I mean we had glitches during the draft, but we sort of threw him. I'm like, okay, well, but like it didn't matter, you know, like it was fake. But you're probably gonna have glitches when teams are on the clock and when teams are

trying to trade. And I saw it somebody one of the GMS has like the team's it guy is going to be living in a Winnebago in the draft, something goes wrong, and I think I heard John John Schneider is like ripping down walls in his house to like boost the Wi Fi signal. Like, I don't know, there's a bunch of crazy stuff going on, and you just can't convince me that we're gonna make two hundred and fifty five picks and a couple of dub trades without

some craziness. I just feel pretty good about that. Like, if it goes completely smoothly, I'll be shot. I was expecting to hear something from the NFL saying that maybe they were going to extend the time that teams get to make the decision, you know, thinking that because of these technologies that are now being used, I would imagine that there is some error. Errors are gonna happen. You're

gonna have glitches. So I was expecting there to be a longer time period where the teams just have more room for, you know, to mess around in case something happens. I think, Okay, well, are you gonna say something I was gonna I just yeah, I would just say, you know, just just the part about communicating trades to the league. That's gonna be one thing that's that you know, yeah, they can talk with amongst themselves and going to the

league and getting all that in. I bet you the league is going to be a little bit more lenient when it comes to trade and pass the deadline and stuff like that. All right, Well, to wrap up the show, Um, you guys had your predictions last week. Have they changed since then? Do you have a better gut feeling of what's going to happen tomorrow? Who the Cowboys might be drafting? Dave, what is your gut telling you? I mean, I've been on this train for about a month and a half,

so I'm not gonna get off now. I think if he's there, I think they'll pick calevon Chason. It's good value for pick seventeen. He's not a slam dunk prospect, but he's twenty years old. He's an ascending, highly talented player. They do not have much in the way of like proven options at right end. Again, you're talking about a versatile guy. If you're going back talking about the versatility of Mike Nolan, you know, having multiple fronts. The only

question is whether he lasts that long. Because he's the second best ad dresser in this class, and that's valuable, so he might not be there. If he is, I think he'll be the pick. I think CJ. Henderson would be in consideration too, but I don't expect him to be there. He's the second best corner and those don't last long either, So I'm thinking Jason. If he's gone, I wouldn't be surprised if Jerry tries to get out of the pick. Based on the way he was talking yesterday, yeah,

it sounded like trade down was a possibility. I'm gonna just say my prediction is a cornerback. I just think, you know, they've tried to cover themselves with defensive end and hoping that those guys get reinstated. But you know, and you've got Jelson, you've got Joe Johnson or Joe Jackson. Joe Jackson, Yeah, Joe Johnson's great basketball player, by the way. I think that if you I just think cornerback, and if they don't get uh, you know, Henderson, I see

him trading back, maybe faulting from LSU. Maybe the kid from TCU Glad Me and A Tarrell from Clemson are both names to know too. That would be a tradeback. But I just can't imagine them not getting a cornerback high if you have a possibility to get a corner tomorrow and I I think they should all right, Well, we don't need to keep guessing because we will find out tomorrow and I finally will get to know what the Cowboys decide to do with their first round pick,

a number seventeen. Dave, do you want to just go ahead and tell what time the draft show is starting tomorrow? We will be going live at six thirty Central Time, So if you're on the East coast seven thirty, it's gonna be me, Kyle Yeoman's Kevin Turner. And then Dane Brugler is coming back for the entire three days, so the fourth Rust will be on. We'll have you covered.

And then Friday and Saturday we get Jeff Kavanaugh, Brian brought us or coming over from the fans, so we will have all of the usual suspects from Yeah, we got the whole team together. It's gonna be a ton of fun. Hopefully we don't have any glitches together together together, Hopefully we can make all the technology work. But yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. We will be there all three days all two hundred fifty five picks. Well, there you have me, guys. Make sure to tune in

and check out Dallascowbeys dot com. You can find everything all the broadcast on the app, on the website, on connected tv, YouTube, I'm assuming it's everywhere. It's gonna be in every single platform that you can think of. So thank you guys so much for joining us. Thank you Nick, Dave, thank you. See you guys next time next week, once we have all the Cowboys draft picks and we can talk about them. So this has been the break on dallascowboys dot com Radio