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Cowboys Break: Have You Noticed?

Jul 26, 202152 min
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Episode description

As we enter the second week of practice, we picked a few names to see where they’re fitting in so far.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Clubs. Are you ready for a Break? Yes? 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 Nick Eatman, David Hellman, and bar Garcia and Derek Eagleton. It is Monday, July twenty six, two twenty one, Season sixteen, episode number three. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break.

We're live from Oxnard, California. It is day five training Camp twoy twenty one, presented by American Airlines. Got David Nick here with me. We got a lot of topics we want to hit today. We'll get to a new segment. Actually, in the final portion of our show, I call it I get around. Well, let's see how much these guys get around here in the In the final segment, we got some player names. They're gonna throw to them and see how much they can tell us about that. Well,

you do like that? Well, I mean probably one of our new players. Maybe never mind, we'll see. We'll see what names we gotta throw out for you guys. But before we get started, Nick you said before the show you had you had a little announcement you wanted to miss one. You know, one of our listeners, a long time listeners, My dad, Tim Meetman's his birthday. Awesome, happy birthday,

Happy birthday to him, a whole life. It always happens when I'm out of camp, so every people, I hope he's listening, and uh, happy Bob Lily, Okay, all right, he's getting up there. That hold on, let me see if there's another player nobly Yeah, no, probably, you don't have to think too hard about it. Very nice. Well, happy birthday, miss you Eatman. Thank you for listening to all these years. Doctor sorry doctor, Yeah, for listening for

all these years. Is because those might be our some of our biggest and longest fans, Your dad, your mom, my mom. Like, it's just like they've been listening for a long long time and they and supporting us back when we were like had two listeners or three listeners, the three of them pretty much. So they never think we have a bad show. No, absolutely, I love that show today. Yeah absolutely, Yeah. I talk to my parents. They don't listen. They're not in now they know you're

on the show. Yeah, actually they might not. I don't. I don't tell them my parents a whole lot that might be on you. Ye, you're right, it might be on me. All right, So let's jump in. We got a lot we want to hit today. Cowboys are now three practices in. They got ten more to go while they're out here in Oxnard. Let's start the show, as I like to do on training camp days, with one observation from the previous practices. It can be a player that you notice, It can be a moment that you notice.

It could also be an interview that you were part of. But give me one observation. Let's start with you. Dave. Well, let's just get it out of the way. I mean, it was Dalton Schultz day yesterday. My god, he was the start of the show. For sure. He's Dax's security blanket. It's worth noting Blake Jarwin's not doing a ton, he's still working his way back from ACL He's on a rep count, so he wasn't part of the team portion of practice. But Dalton Schultz was, and he he caught everything.

He just well, he actually had a drop. He had one drop, but I mean he must have had five big, big catches in the in the two minute in the third and fourth down work. He also had like a like a one hander type of deal in the seven on sevens that was really impressive. So just really really good day from him and makes you, Yeah, it's encouraging.

I want to interject with a quick question of both you guys, because if memories searched me correctly, I think both of you were big believers that Blake Jarwin adds something that you don't necessarily get from him. And I don't know that I agree with that because I look at days like yesterday, and I look at how he performed last year. I don't know that he can't do a lot of those things as well. Maybe he's not as fast or as athletic as Jarwin, but for some reason,

the guy gets open and he makes catches. Do you guys still believe that Darwin is appreciably better in certain areas of his game than what you can get from Dalton Shawl. Yeah? I think so. And you got to remember this is training camp is I mean, practice is always this way this something's good, something's bad. So let's not let's not forget that the one of the biggest concerning parts of this team, which is the defense and the secondary. So just because you're lighting up the secondary

doesn't mean well. But he did it last year in season when he had sixty two sixty he did a lot of it was was closer to the line of scrimmage and so not as much of the yesterday was encouraging to see him down the field. He needs to do it more in games. But he told me after practice, like I asked about it, of course, like you guys said, he was like, well, I dropped the pass. That was

the focus, which is good. But he was also like, we want to make it really hard on Kellen Moore to go eleven and twelve personnel because we know he said eleven personnel is outstanding. We got one of the best eleven personnels. We want to make it tough on him. Me and Blake to say we need to call some twelve personnels, which is basically saying him on the field over than over, gallop over CD, so hard one one of them is challenging. Yeah, and they they got to

be able to run block. If they're gonna do that, that's what makes it, that's what makes it intriguing. Um, I didn't I didn't come this far driving the jar when bandwagon to hop off because Daltons I didn't expect you had a good day. I mean, which I like Dalton Schultz. It's a good day, a wonderful a wonderful year, and a good day. Like they got two good tight ends. I people pee. I always say that, like people look for stress where there shouldn't be any. They're like, what

are we gonna do? I'm like, you have two good tight ends? Who cares? Like? Why? Why is this a problem? All right, let's move on, Nickel. Was your observation from yesterday, charltz, But let me come up with something else. No, the uh, good luck figuring out the receiver spot the end of it. I mean, that's the games are gonna matter the most. It's funny we watch all these practices where we're gonna see a lot and we're gonna have our idea, and all it takes is like one guy say that. I

think I say this point every year. But like you know, I can't think of one of the receivers that isn't making a lot of plays right now, but that guy comes out and has four catches. I mean, yeah, so the Malik Turner and um Cyrus Mitchell, Well, I don't

love Noah Yeah, Brandon Smith, the Iowa kid. But what's funny is, and I'm not picking on the guy, but I would say of the young guys, your Texas guy Brennan Eagles has probably I haven't noticed him, and just but the no but like the way this goes is he's going to be the one that catches four balls for four yards. Yeah, when they get to Canton, he's going to be the one that has a great night. Right.

But is this all kind of a moot point? Just because I feel very certain in the fact that, barring injury, the first five spots are taken. I don't wonder about that. I think the first four four. I think because because of what Cedric Wilson offers on special teams, I think the first four. Do you think Noah Brown is at risk? So two million dollars, I like, I've been on the

Noah Brown train forever. I've I defended him when everybody wanted to cut him back when he was just the guy that they strangely decided to throw two in the red zone during games. So I love having you guys together. You barely agree. But to Nick's point, he's on a two million dollar contract, and Stephen Jones won't. He loves talking about how cash strapped they are and how they He basically throughout the spring was like, we would love to fire some of these expensive guys. I mean, he

basically said that. So I think Noel Brown is one of the four best receivers on this team. But if one of these young guys, if they prove that they can do it at a fraction of the cost, that's

part of team building. One thing I know is I've seen Noah Brown catch a significant number of balls out here, particularly from four, and that suggests to me that that I would I would think that he's gonna have at least some say we in who these receivers are that are going to be catching piece And that I love. That's a team building is so much fun because you like, the front office is like, Cyrus Mitchell can do this for six hundred thousand dollars, why are we paying Noah

Brown two million? And then the head coach and the quarterback are like, because we have years of rapport with this guy and he does this and he does that, what the hell are you talking about? And he's not a bad player. It's not a situation where he's a bad player and Noah is off to an outstanding start. I'm not trying to dog him at all. It's just these are the realities of putting the roster together. You think there's a chance they might consider six here, I

think that's our mail bag today. I give it away. Then, well read it on Dallas cout was that come? I think six is almost a foregone conclusion in my film, especially when you when you factor in, I mean that fifth round pick usually has every chance to make the team. They're not gonna just give up on a fifth round pick unless he's just hero. You didn't even mention him. He's been good. It's been pretty good. H and so that's something to to watch. And so yeah, he's That's

why I think six is on the table here. Well, you hit the nail and hit earlier when you see it that ultimately it's going to come down who plays special teams. Well that's how you get that fifth and that's fifth and six spots will be all about special teams. So we'll see how that all pans out once we get to the preseason games. Let's move on. Give me a status update on Malik Hooker, the free agent that the Cowboys have been rumored to be very interested in

signing at some point. So he, as far as I'm aware, he's quarantined, like he's still testing. He's not done. I think he can get out of that tomorrow. It's probably about right. I think this is the fourth day. So and so, you know, I felt stupid yesterday. I asked Mike McCarthy, like, how does he look? What do you all think? And he was like, we haven't seen him yet. He's still in the protocol So that's that's just that. Come on, how does he look? Whenever you decided to

bring him in? Like, you guys know something? You know that was give me something. That's what I was kind of trying to get at, is like, you know, you saw him in April or March. You clearly liked him enough to bring him back. You must have an idea that he's doing better. Which so they worked somebody out yesterday and I thought it might be Malie Cooker, but clearly not because of the protocols. It was this new guy,

Chirroon Brown, who they signed while we were at practice yesterday. Chiron, Chiron, what's that it's a Chiron machine. It's a oh yeah, yeah, Christ knows, I'm talking about the most specialized thing in the world. Like you got it. There was only six feet. I've had way more conversations about the Chiron than I choose to. But go ahead, move on. Um So, but you know, he said, there's definitely interest. They clearly see

something they like. I would expect he's going to join the team here when he does clear protocols, So keep an eye on that as this week goes along. That means that means I gotta cut someone if yeah, if they sign him, they do. Um. Which, so you know, William and I thought we saw the guy yesterday. Really well, we we some somebody's walking through the park alone was a big bag. Anytime you see a big bag walking

with a big bag, Yeah, we've seen it. I mean we've seen all way up at the top, first two years, first few years we were at us and are the starting quarterback cut got cut in the middle of camp, starting quarterback. We saw banks walking through here, we saw a Quincy Carter, Chris Beams laying and the bush is getting the odds of the video for Yeah. Um, so we saw a guy last night long dreads. It's like, I'm a big bag, Like and uh, it wasn't Um. It was Jalen Smith. He's probably going, he was going.

It was probably going out for him. Yeah, yeahs a bag. It was big bag. But you know it happens people because people pack a couple of bags. They don't have the little bags and all that. He's do have one or two bags and so but for a second we were like, I didn't know it was him. I didn't. Of course Williams sitting over here. William knows every person on the team. You know what he looks like. You know, he can go buy their shoes and all their by their braids all that. But it was day off. But

I'm just saying, they got to cut somebody. It's not going to be a starting linebacker. So I got Brown, no doubt. Brown, I assume is filling in for the fact that they cut Richard Robinson right before UM, right before training camp. He signed a two year deal, but I found out none of the money's guaranteed, So I

think that's just a that's interesting for a two year deal. Well, I think my educated guess is maybe you know, if this guy sticks, that way, they don't have to deal with him being a restricted free agent or anything like that. But they are like, there's no obligation to keep him whatsoever, Like it's a two year deal. But trying to think whatever the years ago as a guy that they signed like that just out of the blue and it was a two year deal and it was like what I want,

I want to say it was Antoine Woods. They're like, not only did they get him, but they got him, you know, for that sounds familiar, kind of lock him up for a little bit. So I think it's it's just a negotiating thing if if he turns out to be good, but so he can replace for Shard and then you know, the Jets have so many corners over there, they couldn't keep all of them. Yeah, I don't, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't

understand that. Sometimes you got like that, like hes not good enough to make the Bengals or the Jets or whatever, but you just need a body to get through camp Man real quick. Jerry Jones did also give it up date yesterday on a couple of the veteran guys that have not yet practice. They've been on the populist Marcus Lawrence and Mary Cooper. What are we hearing about when we can expect to maybe see them either on a practice field or on a game field, which is coming

up here, So that's kind of vague. Yeah, mid August, mid August Metroplex, Dallas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco, Texas Ford Center. Yeah, that's when, because he said after he said after the air, no California tank, no Ohio tank, no Arizona. Thank good. You know, honestly, I'm very I'm questioning whether we'll see a lot of these, even the ones that are practicing right now, we'll see them in a bad tank, right, Like, well, we'll see when we get a look closer to the

regular season when it comes to games. You know what I needed. We can have an empty tank here for a while, you know, we don't have to fill this one all the way in. Yeah, we went on in I'm not ever gonna be mad about Pro bowlers not playing in the preseason ever. Yeah, I'm kind of coming

around on your way of thinking as well. On that is that when was sure was yeah, you don't you know practice remember that, Remember when Dak got hurt and like just it took you thirty minutes to even realize what was going on, because just because it sucked so much, having that happened when the game doesn't even matter, it's even worse. Yeah, it's just the worst feeling in the world. So no, thanks, All right, we're going to We're gonna

take our first break when we come back. I want to jump into a conversation Jerry and Mike McCarthy, both in press conferences over the last few days, have talked about how they can get back to a better, better performance than what they had last season, and really even historically as they've performed over the last several years, some people say last twenty six years. But I want to

talk a little bit about that. There's some questions I have for you guys with regards to some of the players that are on this team and how optimism they provide you as to the fact that the Cowboys can get back to that level of success. We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Before there was a draft, you could size up a Cowboy by three simple factors. The crease in his had, the bend of his brim, and his

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online at shop Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Welcome back to the second segment of the Breaklife, Oxnard, California, and we're talking Cowboys football for forty five minutes here on the set, got Dave and Nick with me, and let's talk a little bit about the the success of the Dallas Cowboys.

There were a lot of questions during the opening press conference, have been some since then to Jerry and Mike McCarthy about how this team gets back to just being good because last year they weren't, or even getting back to the point where they were in the nineties where they actually were a Super Bowl contending team. So I have a list of questions here. I'm gonna ask you guys about some of the facets of this team and what

they mean to maybe the overall success. Let's start with the first one, which is more important to them being better this year than last year. The return of Dak or the return of time and Smith and Lyle Collins and you gotta give me one. You can't just say both. You gotta give me one. Which way do you go? Dave, Dak and and you and you're not wrong, but like you've been big on that train that the tackles are so important than they are. But like a quarterback, always quarterback,

it's tack Yeah, i'd say quarterback there. I mean, if you're gonna, if you're gonna combine the tackles, I mean, that's that's big there. I mean it's two tackles. But because you didn't have either one of them last, you'd rather play seventeen games with Dak Prescott and your backup tackles and Zey and and Terrence h. Eric Gilbert, whoever you want to put out it right? Yeah, ipect I was even I was gonna give you Andy Dalton, but just just to be nice, but you don't have them anymore.

So seventeen games of Dak with mediocre tackles or seventeen games of Garrett Gilbert with good ones. I would rather play Andy Dalton than the two starting tackles. Yea, yeah, I was as you were saying, no, I no, no, I would give me, yes, give me Dak. I mean we saw we saw Dak without the tackles in Seattle and they scored thirty one points and we're winging it all over the yard like d's the result. They Okay,

they lost. It's a hard league, but I'm saying, though, it's I don't know if I know Dak is great, and I believe that Dak is really a great quarterback. We've had that conversation. You compare him to the rest of the league. I think he is a top five quarterback in this league. The problem still remains, if you cannot protect your quarterback, then yes, he could still put up some big numbers, but at the end of the day, I don't know if it's enough to be able to

win in the NFL consistently. And I'm sorry, Derek, but have you ever gone out to dinner with me and know that, like I'm gonna order the combo platter, I mean, I want to know, I want all of it. That's why I specifically said, you got to choose one of the others. You cannot go both, but we don't have to choose. Yes, you do both all three. I mean, yes, that is the right answer. But if you're making me pick, just give me the quarterback and I get your point, Dave.

Obviously we know in the NFL quarterback is absolutely the most important position. I'm just thinking on a team like this that as a really, really, really good running back on a team like this, that your defense cannot get exposed like they were last year, and that means you cannot leave them on the field. So the offense is gonna have to be able to consistently stay on the field.

I just think if you have to choose between the two, give me a solid offensive line that could assure that I can still run the ball and can assure that my quarterback is gonna have time, and I will take a little lesser without a little a significantly lesser quarterback, because I think consistently, I think I'll win more games that way. And you look at but look at twenty fifteen though, yeah, twenty fifteen, and it's five years ago.

But with Romo's first two games, Romo had it rolling and then he gets hurt, and I mean four and twelve, but the two that they win when Romo comes back, the team doesn't just can just drop off play better. And that was a pretty good offensive line. Three starters in the Pro Bowl. But I think if you go back to the first five games of last year, they didn't win them all, obviously, but they were putting up numbers.

Terrence Steele starting all those games in Seattle, Atlanta, No Flozell in those games, layout was out the whole time. Dak got him in position. They didn't win all of them, they lost some, but it was it was right there about five hundred. And that's Dak with those guys, I think, I mean, I think Dak is a huge difference. That's what we say all the time. Right. It's like the Cowboys word only as good as eight and eight all those years because Romo was dragging them along for the

ride basically, which is what Dak was gonna do. He was gonna drag him to eight and eight last year. Probably, Yeah, I just I your point's not wrong, But I just think quarterbacks too important. And we are splitting hairs here a bit. The hope is that you're gonna have all three. Yes, But but I but you know, I do mad back together. Yeah, I do. I do think that last year a lot of what they experienced, in my opinion, was about the tackles, and I think it all gets dumped onto a lot

of cases, gets dumped onto Dak. I think the tackles had as much, if not more, to do with that. Absolutely lets one. One's the next question, who will have a greater impact offensively? This season, Zeke Elliott or Ceedee lamb Um Zeke to me, because he's he's still the starter, he's the he's the main guy. Um. And you got to it's a pick your poison type thing with with you know, with CD's gonna have some big games. He's gonna get some games, and maybe they shut him down

and the ball goes over here. But I think, if if everything's working the way it's supposed to work, Zeke's the guy is supposed to get the ball. They want to run out the clock with him. If you can get to that point, I think it'll still be Zeke. Yeah, I think yeah, And I love CD, and I think he's gonna he's gonna take another step. He'll be better

than he was. But I'm not you know, I'm not ready to say that he's the guy that the other team is game planning around heading into that week yet yet maybe how that is a week three, four, Yeah, maybe maybe he will be that guy, but I'm not ready to say he's that guy yet. And you still have two really other you know, two great receivers. I think I think Amari Cooper is maybe not criminally underrated, but underrated by the league. In terms of how good

he really is, so he didn't underratate him. I saw that he's yeah, no, and on the list. Actually it's like okay, ea, like thank you because he you know, we had that argument with Danny McCrae a month ago, like he's I think he's one of the ten best receivers in the league. So, um, if I'm choosing between those guys, I guess I say, Zeke, would you resign him? Though maybe already know? And I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you this. I don't have to resign him.

He's under contract. I'm gonna tell you this. At Yes, go ahead, David. I like, if everybody tries to answer that question now and you don't have to, don't happen. You don't have to. You're right, you're right. Let's see what happens. See what happens. Let's see if Ceedee Lamb gets pulled off a punt return because he's too valuable to put there, then that's when I understand that. Okay, this is where the Cowboys kind of think about him.

But I do think it's something we're not we don't think about it right now, but the Cowboys are definitely thinking about it. Everyone first, Michael Gallup is completely going to be gone. I'm like, I don't know about that. I agree with that. That's an interesting point because maybe they look at and say, you give me CD, and you give me Gallop and then I'm filling with other guys. Maybe that's the way they look at it long term,

you know, and everything points toward optimism. With a Mari injury, we think he'll be fine for the season, but keep an eye on that. I mean, you know, it's a long season. Your opinion changes drastically from July to February, and so you know, if if Amari has a really disappointing season, which I don't think will happen, but if for some reason he does, maybe it's a conversation. But

I do agree with you that he isn't underrated. He's Maris is an underrated play because you just I don't know if it's demeaner or you just don't think he's very fast or whatever. Doesn't make a lot of the people. He doesn't make a lot of the you know, we talk about Dez doing Dez things, and we're seeing that now from CD as well. He doesn't make those kind of plays as often they don't look as spectacular as sometimes even they are. Right who he reminds me of it.

I believe he was right under Amaria on that Madden list. Is Keenan Allen? Yeah, you don't. You don't those guys are you don't flashy, They just haven't. Keenan Allen is better probably than Amari Cooper. He unfortun I mean, he just he plays for like the least visible team in

the NFL, and that's part of it. Yeah. I will say this though, the things I've seen from CD Lamb suggests to me that if I'm trying to project out, I think he and the reason why I asked this question, I think he has the ability that by the end of this year, other than Dak, he will be the next talked about offensive player for the Cowboys. He will be the guy that's making the plays that everybody's talking about. He will be the guy that makes that game winning catch.

He'll be the guy that makes the catch that you know is the game sealer. Like He's gonna be that guy, I think because I think he and Dak are building that kind of rapport and he has that that level of ability. I was trying to do my David helmet an impression a practice and take some really good saw that and I got one of CD and I thought it was bad. I thought it was bad video because he kind of ran out of the shot. Then he

comes running right at me. But really what happened was is he broke Anthony Brown's ankles on this play and he went down like straight to the ground. So someone said, and I didn't know this was a verb, but I like it. He said, you're trying, You're out helmting Helman, I'm helming. I'm I'm It's taken me some time. I'm not on my a game yet. I really I gotta recommitt to find your right out in the rhythm. Yeah, I'm out of practice. We didn't get to do this

last year. Yeah you need this. The Tier two designation might help you. Alright. All right, let's go on to the next question. What have you seen defensively that could allow you to be optimistic that the defense will be better? Now, I'm I'm saying that. I'm saying that, first of all, knowing that Dave is the opposite of optimistic, like he's

not an optimistic But there's a reason for it. If you want to be optimistic, if you want to give fans out there who are optimistic reasons to be optimistic, give me one thing you've seen from this defense that would give you a reason to be optimistic. Randy Gregory, Oh oh, I was gonna say Michael Parsons about but no, but Gregory's a better answer. Gregory's a better answer right now. Yeah, he's he's um, he's looking like he looks like a stud. It's a good number for him. He's a good player.

He like, holy, he's a good players. Yeah, which doing it? I know, like we're doing it, We're doing He looks so good though he does. But Tyrant Smith, I don't think Tyrn Smith's lost it. Okay, Now he looks like a robot with all this stuff that he's got working on, you know, but he They have some good battles and Randy doesn't win them all, but he gets some. Yeah, he gets a couple, he gets he gets a few.

And think about it. Any game, Um, if guy has three sacks in a game, you're like dominated left, you get a couple of wins, there's seventy snaps and then he might have been pancaked for twenty of them. But but he got three sacks. Yeah, So I think Randy's gonna have moments like that, Like what McCarthy said. We're not gonna run a reverse around on him. He's too he's too agile, he's too he's too discipline. Really if

you could throw that word in there for Randy. But I mean when it comes to that, he's just got that range, those long arms. I think he's having fun too. I mean, oh yeah, see, I mean why wouldn't he being him? He's got it. He's got a defensive Coordineta believes in him. Now, Yeah, like that's those were his words where he's talking about how last year he felt like he wasn't in those fair opportunities. So that could

certainly improve his move. He's got an organization that has always believed in Yeah, you know, and I think he knows that too and understands that. And and we'll see. You know, we just said we're not going to see Tank till we get back to Texas. But like he's out here and working and looks good. Nobody's talking about it because we haven't seen him on the field yet. The Marcus Lawrence looks lean like even. I mean, he's never been a big guy, but like he even looked

like I saw him on it. He posted something on Instagram the other day. I was like, you look small like he like he is cut down and you know they do the you know, the hula hoop drills where they like work on their bend and he still got it. He I mean, he, Marcus, you've ever seen do it? No? No, no, but that's not fair. He yeah, yet that's sixth all time on the NFL Cyclist or wherever where is. Yeah? No, but he doesn't he doesn't look like you know, you

you look at him. Some guys you're like, oh, he looks like he's far away from being able to play football. The Marcus doesn't look like he's far away and nothing against his body now and all that stuff. We gotta remember the guy and played football in a while. But what is Micah Parson's gonna look like a year from now when we come to training. Can jesus it's kind of scary robot, kind of scary upside down? Yeah, but talking about him, you said you were excited about him.

I mean, hey, if that's the case, next year, he's going to be intercepting that ball instead of just running down the By the way, he's already intercepting balls like this guy, he's everywhere. He's rushing pass protection. Where I play him, his position is middle of the field, just defensive tackle, linebacker, safety, whatever the hell you want. He's gonna get to that point. And this is why you draft him this side. But where they get on the

field of the quarterbacks, like where's eleven? Okay, right, there's right here? Kind of thinking could be? I mean, and how dynamic is that? Like he does everything? He does everything. They had him, They had him blitz in the A gap yesterday. He was dropping in zone, he was following guys down the field. He should he should have had a pick. He dropped in his own and read Garrett Gilbert's eyes, you, I mean, broke on the ball, just couldn't bring it in. He broke up another one. So

he had two breakups yesterday. He just and and and you know, they got him running from seven on seven to pass rush drills, like hey, get over there and go against tiring a couple of times, and then get back and go against Dak and the receivers. It's just fun. He's he's fun. If Dad goes down, I'm not sure that maybe we ought not consider letting him about. There's your backup quarterbacks? Quarterbacks? Yeah, I'm not really so. I'm not really so enamored with the quarterbacks they got right

now behind Dak. But let's let's move on to the next question. It is a one that kind of hits on the what you guys just said. But which defender do you think will have a larger impact if you have to choose one, Nick, you have to choose one Randy Gregory, Michael Parsons or Trayvon Diggs. I'm gonna have

the best impact, the biggest impact on this defense. Good question. Yeah, I think I go Randy just because I know what his role is and how much he's gonna play like he's gonna be your right end and unless something crazy happens, like he's gonna play sixty percent or more of the snaps and I'm Dig's will too. But I pass rushes and pass rush is more important. Do you do you

want to alter? I know earlier this this offseason, you and I had that little gentleman's wager on on whether we thought Parsons would be a starter to begin the season actually up a little bit. I told somebody yesterday, I was like, I might be in trouble on that, but I'm not. I'm not ready to be because remember all I said was first snap, Yeah, I get that. I'm still I'm I feel okay thinking that they'll be like, all right, rook you, you know, get out there for

the next one. But let Jalen have this. Let Jayalen get the start stet. I know one thing. I mentioned this to Nick yesterday in the press conference. And this may mean absolutely nothing, but Mike McCarthy was asked about Jalen Smith, and in his response he spent the majority of the time talking about Michael Parsons. I don't think that's an accident any The point he was making was there's a lot of competition at linebacker. You I might, I might wind up owing you dinner, but I'm a man,

I can I'll stick with it, all right. Do I get to pick the place? By the way, No, okay, well you're gonna pick the place. Don't kill me. I mean, all right, let's not go to let's not go to Nick and SAMs. We'll figure it out. Yeah, all right, Nick, I mean I think all three of them are dogs, and I think that that that mentality on defense can be better just just by the three of them. And they're on all levels too. I think trey Von Diggs is really really going to have a big impact. Um,

I agree with it on that. I'm gonna go with the pass rusher because the pass rusher can make the Diggs a better play ass rusher well of the three. Yeah, and I get that you're saying that that parsonsal blitz. I don't do all that stuff too, and that'll help. But Gregory, you know, Bill Bill Kawer, Okay, rush the quarterback. Just rush to the quarterback, and I he'll He'll make Parsons a better player. He'll make Diggs a better player. But I'm telling you, I love what I'm seeing out

of Diggs. I really do. He doesn't win them all either. That's okay, Cornerston don't win him. They don't. His mentality is fun and you talk to him. I mean, you know, you guys got a chance to interview him and stuff like that, and he's just he's just refreshing, you know. I think he has a chance to you know, we asked that question. I guess it was on the show with Shannon and Nate yesterday about cornerbacks that are dogs. I mean, it's just it's hard to have that mentality, really,

but but he he can be that. He's got yeah, And I think the thing that gives me pause about Diggs is I'm not a big believer in the rest of the secondary. And you know, and that's a it's a fascinating debate, and there's plenty of evidence that suggests having a dominant secondary is better than having a dominant pass rush. But this isn't a dominant secondary like Diggs. Diggs looks really promising. I don't feel amazing about anybody

else back there. Not to get too far into that, but give me an example of a team where you have a dominant secondary but the pass rush isn't as dominant. I mean, because to me they seem to go hand in Typically, when you have a really good secondary, you have some beast up front. I can hear what you're about to say, So don't know, I'm not going there. I'm just saying, give me somebody else. No, just don't.

I mean Seattle's pass Seattle's pass rush was good, it wasn't on the caliber of what those players were in the back seven, like three Hall of famers in the secondary, and like the I mean, the pass rush was good, but who was the best one? Michael Bennett probably, which I mean a good player, not like you're not going

to the Hall of Fame. Neither's Cliff Avril some years where he played really really well, but not not just this dumb and even you know, and they're not the best in the league right now, but um, you know, my Miami's defense is good because their secondary is good right now. Buffalo is similar. You know, they they got

a couple of solid safeties. Turdavious White's good. You know, ninety five Cowboys all about the secondary, well, the uncovered half the field, and Darren Woodson was back there as well. Now we also are talking about the greatest cornerback in NFL history. But that's my point is if you have amazing secondary, you can have a great defense without a

pass rush. But that's not what this team has. Could that also go as far as to say, if you have an amazing one cornerback, that could make the difference for the rest of the secondary, make the secondary, rest of the secondary a great secondary. Sure, I'm the Jets did that with Rivas for a few years. Yeah, but absolutely, Okay, but Diggs isn't there, and that right, Yeah, so bad part is that Diggs is gonna have to go up against the best receiver night in and night out, and

and he's not. And that's that's the point I'm trying to make, is I feel great about where Trayvon Diggs is going. I'm not sure he's got enough help back there right now that you know that it's gonna pay off for him, at least right away. I'm not sure that of your three guys that you mentioned, I'm not sure. Kean O'Neill might not be the better player on this on this whole. I mean he might be. They're saying he might be the best player on the entire defense.

He might be the glue. Yeah, yeah, I just want to I And this is a conversation I had with some people last night. A lot of Dalton Schultz's wins yesterday came him in coverage. Now, I mean, Jalen Gate had his fair shoot too. I saw him on a few of those. We're not I'm not here to bear somebody based on one day of practice, but that going back to what Nick said at the top of the show, like when somebody does good, that means somebody did bad when it's all the same team. And Dalton Schultz was

beating up on Keiana Neal a little bit. Yeah, all right, we're gonna say good point. All right, we're gonna take our final break. We come back. We'll get to our new segment. I get around. Let's say how much these guys get around. We'll do that. We come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com. Regal Hi. I'm Clint Tullison with you United aggin Turf. Before you can park yourself in front of the game, park yourself in a John

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the zero you deserve is finally here. 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, and it's unbended attitude a man. Stetson didn't just protect him from what life through at him. It projected a rugged, unstoppable spirit. Stetson hats are still American, made with pride. 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? Why are you always standing at the front of the complex? All right? Get on demanded Cowboys content on your home TV. Get the latest player interviews, video podcast, documentaries, and so much more. Download now on your connected TV. Documentaries. Oh, coming up, we got some documentaries coming up for you this year. Here I'm starting to see some of the work that this

team is putting together. Wow, some good documentaries we got coming up, and we got them. We'll start rolling them out. What is it in two weeks? I think it is. It's for the Arizona game. That'll be the first one is the night of the Arizona game. That'll be the Drew Drew Pearson story that we have which I've watched that one, absolutely love it. It's really really well done. Alex Lilly and Kurt Daniels have been working on that project, so just know we got some really good We got

a Darren Woodson documentary this year. We're doing one on mister fourth and Long himself, Jesse Hollywitch Never. You guys listening probably know him as just a guy that does podcast for us. You got to hear his story. His story is a phenomenal story. And for those who don't know, like he's the first and only player in the history of the NFL that got an opportunity to go to training camp based on him winning a reality television show. There's a really interesting story there. So we got that

one coming up. And then our final one, which I love, called War Stories. We went back and found footage from war rooms of the past on draft days from I mean, I don't know, nick, going back to the eighties, um, and it's just all these all the these great stories things that happen in the in the war room on draft day. And we've got the original footage to show you guys and tell some of those stories. So again, this slate of documentaries for this year, you guys are

gonna absolutely love. We got a story that tells you that there's a there's a decent chance that Dak and Zeke neither one of them were drafted. Yes, I can't wait to tell that story. Don't tell it now, but you gotta make sure you check out war stories. It's gonna be really good. All right, let's jump in. We got a new segment. It's called I Get Around. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna throw out a name and the as you guys know him for the listeners out there. I tell you guys all the time, your

job is to know this team. So we're gonna test how well you know this team. I'm just gonna throw out random names players on this team. Hunt there we did yesterday? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Mendick had a run through yesterday. But I'm just gonna throw out a random name and then I want you guys to riff on him. For each one of you have a couple minutes to riff on him and talk about what you've seen, what you've heard, maybe a little story that you have about the guy,

just anything you know about this player. So we give fans an opportunity to know more man about this team. So we're gonna find out you get around, all right. Let's start first with Demante Casey. He's a sixty year player, undrafted free agent that the Cowboys picked up from Atlanta. He wasn't undrafted, wasn't he was a six I'm sorry, not undrafted, I'm sorry, unrestricted, already already unrestricted free agent out of Atlanta. Nick go oh Man, Well, I mean

he's not. He's not the biggest guy I've ever seen in the world, you know, but I mean he's I think by default he's one of the better safeties on this team right now. And so he's out there. He is. He's not made a lot of memorable plays to me. But I think was he held out in last in practice yesterday or the day before. I feel like he wasn't in a lot of Honestly, I had held out. We were having we had an argument about that yesterday. I think I think they which and people freak out.

They didn't demote him. But he ran with the twos yesterday. From what I see him win the twos a lot, and and so that's why I was like, I don't even know if he was out there a lot in teams, Maybe that I mean, and he's coming off in Achilles. Maybe they're limiting him because he was getting a lot of work the first two days, a little haha and him, which I'm like, I mean, doesn't say I don't know. I'm saying, come on, as soon as you say that,

you know what everybody's thinking. Well, I'm just saying, just from the storyline, Okay, he's coming in from from you know, another coach had him before. Okay, McCart if he had haha before made a Pro Bowl, I don't think because he has. But he led the league and interceptions in one year, and so you know, and then you're like, Okay, well he's in. He's for sure. And then he's like, well where is he now? He's with the twos and all that. I'm just saying, I don't think it's so

good that they had to sign Mallie Cook. It's too early to say it's the same thing, because if that was true, then why was he the starter all through OTAs, like, you know, ten practices. He was out there doing his thing the whole time. I mean, hadn't signed Hooker yet, but he said he's gonna be a two name guy. It's two it's too. He's kind of you got it the first name in there. You know, we don't. We don't call him Pollard, him Tony, people do. I don't

think so. I think it's Tony Pollard. I call him TP different book for different reasons. You can't just say you're gonna have to use Malik with it. I just think you need to always say MALIEK. Cooker. Well, and you're I get around segment. I mean think about that. That could get a little bit right, all right, go ahead. I just hope I hope that's not true, because he's he's got one of my favorite new nicknames on the team. He's apparently he's gone by a crazy casey since he

was a kid, which an awesome name for a safety. Um, so we'll see. I'll tell you I hate and I'm not a big number dork, but I hate his number. I don't thirty five like especially. Thirty five is fine if you're like a thumper, but if you're a free safety, doesn't. It just doesn't look right. I don't like it. It seemed like a fast name. If he makes if he makes the team, maybe he changes out of it. All right, let's move on. Second name I'm gonna give you guys,

Connor Williams. He used the fourth year players second round draft pick in two thy eighteen out of the University of Texas Hookham Horns, Dave go. Uh, they got him doing that. We figured out who their backup center is. It's Connor. They got him working at center. He did it yesterday, he was running with the twos. I think he got some work with Dak as well. M not something he did in college, although he did. He did work at it a little bit during his draft process,

So that's interesting. And Mike McCarthy talked yesterday that you know, he likes to train his guards as centers, and that's a way that you can kind of finagle the roster math so you don't have to have two centers. Um. Yeah, he looks he looks good. And he had a funny comment yesterday that he's like, I'm glad that I feel young again because Tying and Lyle and Zach are all back in the lineup, and so like he's back to being the young member of the line instead of last year.

He's the only veteran on the line. So uh, yeah, that's fun. That's fun that he's doing a little bit of center. Nick. Always a little tricky when that happens. When you're taking a guy to do more things. It's like, are you taking him away from his craft to be a better guard? You know? And and it's always kind of tricky on the offensive line too, because what you're doing with competition, you, continuity is such an important thing. Oh, he'siveness, so you gotta get him all together. So I don't

think it will affect him that much. I'm okay. If he's the backup center there, I do question why does it take so long? I would like to see him do this. Last year practiced a little bit more. We hadn't seen that before. But yeah, I mean I think he's doing He's doing well. And he talked about having Tyring on his left. I mean, he's a much better it's a much better player when he when Tyrant's out there,

no offense than Brandon Knight or Steel or whoever. But Tyrant takes up, you know, cleans up from some trash a little bit more. All right, So let's go to Malik Charner. He is a fourth year wide receiver acquired through waivers from Green Bay in twenty twenty. Nick, Yeah, I'm surprised they resigned him, honestly. I mean, Riding was on the wall last year. He kind of got phased out of this, you know, of the team. He was just a special teams guy, not really much a receiver,

and then he wasn't even active. So for him to be resigned as an unrestricted free agent, it was surprising to me. Not only is he coming out here and probably one of the core guys for John Fossil's group, but he's been really good at receiver. He's I mean, I asked him yesterday. I talked to him a little bit and I said, you know, you're not just those pressure teams guy. He's like, I want to be a

team guy. I want team, the whole team. I want them to say put him on teams, put him at receiver, anywhere, you know, and those guys are real valuable. So we didn't mention him yesterday earlier today and we talked about that. But he's right in the mixed. He's made some place. Yeah.

Probably the best throw of Dack's camp so far was to him just it was like a flag route down you know, far coming to the sideline, made a great sliding catch and I'm Yeah, there's always a guy that flies under the radar that the coaching staff values a little bit more than people realize. And maybe he's one

of them, because talking about John Fossil. Fossil was working with him on punt stuff yesterday for a while after practice, and you know, he's the type of guy that's gonna need to play a lot of snaps in the preseason if he does a good job with it. Who knows. Kelvin Joseph he is a rookie cornerback. He was the second round pick of the Cowboys this year out of Kentucky.

Dave go I don't I don't have a ton to say yet other than that, you know, I feel like there was a narrative that people were like, oh no, like he's already fallen behind. You know, he he had COVID in the spring and he didn't get to practice and he's just he's the rookie years already awash, and that that's not true. I mean, he looked, you know, he's fighting out there. He looks like he belongs. He had a pass break up on a long ball a couple of days ago against Dak and I don't remember

who the receiver was think, so he's he's battling. He doesn't look like a liability. But I you know, I can't say that I've he's jumped out to me in this insane way, but he's He's part of the mix for sure. I was trying to walk behind the defense of the during a practice, trying to get out of the way. But as I was doing doing that, there was a play on the sideline. I don't even think the ball went that way. I just think it was a reaction play that he kind of saw the running

back or whatever. And Al Harris, the cornerbacks coach or the backs coach, got so excited about that. He was like, you saw it. You saw it, Kelvin, you saw it. You know, like he was like so excited, jumped up, had him on the helmet. He was just like, I don't even know what it wasn't even again, the ball wasn't his way. Was just more about the zone or the coverage and how you know he let the safety

take it when and got the running back. But I'm telling you, like Al Harris was excited, and it probably means that there was a few plays that he hadn't been seeing it, but so you know, it's early, it's and he's gonna he's got a learning curve there, you know. All right, we'll see Jeremy Sprinkle, fifth year tight end. He was an unrestricted free agent that the Cowboys picked up from the Washington football team. Nick go, you know, he hasn't done a whole lot. He really hasn't. And

Arkansas guy, Yeah, he's the Arkansas guy. And he was a good pass catcher at Arkansas. You know, he played two tight ends with Hunter Henry. I always forget, I don't know what Henry it is, always forget that was your guy. There's seventeen Henrys at Arkansas. He was like all other American Hudson Henry. And then there's a there's another tight end at Arkansas down and his dad was Mark Henry. I don't know Henry. Mark Henry has in

the wrestler now wrestlers, different guys, sexual chocolate. I know Mark Henry, but go ahead, a little different, okay, a little bittle bit cool though I haven't seen a lot. I haven't. I just haven't. I thought, again, what he's here to do is to be an on the line blocker on tight end, and I don't think at this point we saw a lot of the Blake Bell either. I think he's gonna be the third tight end that can do some some some blocking, some things like that.

But um, I haven't seen any of the other tight ends to do much either the other the backups, see, I don't quite agree with that. That's Sprinkles probably on this list the name where I'm like, I don't got a lot for you. Um, he's all around, Um, he's been out there, but no, no, But I was gonna say I've even seen they've featured Sean McCune. Oh, I'm thinking of the other guys. You're right, Yes, they've featured they've featured McCune a good little bit on some of

the rollouts and the boot stuff. But I can't stress. I can't stress enough. I feel like I feel like I'm like everybody keeps forgetting that they haven't put pads on yet, like we've you know, these are Ota practices. Basically, Jeremy Sprinkle's game probably doesn't translate super well to this style of practice. So when they start doing the run fits and you know, you start watching people setting the edge and thudding up, I bet he'll show up. A

little bit more than he has these first few plays. Yeah, and that may be more the role that they're going to ask of him, and so he doesn't show up right now. Whereas you know, right now, it's really the skill players that were noticing more because they're the ones that can actually get out there, thing on around. You can see what they do. We started this show off talking about how you know, great the receivers look, which

is I mean, that's the right. It's a rite of passage every year because it's the easiest thing to notice in these practices. All right, that's a rat man. We appreciate you, guys, Jonas. We'll be back on Wednesday and we'll give you guys some more updates. Cowboys will practice tomorrow and then hopefully a little later this week. I did get a little note from our buddy Brian. He's gonna try to jump Brian Broad's gonna try to jump on with us on the show later this week, either

win or Friday. See if we can jump in here with us and give us some of his thoughts about training camp. We'll do all that later this week for Nick Eatman, Dave helm and I am Derek Eakleton. 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.

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