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It's time for the Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com.
Were on with Ambar Garcia.
Brian brought us Patrick Walker and Derek Eagleton.
Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of The Break. I'm hosting today. Derek is al being lazy, just kidding kind of shots. It's somewhere and I hope he's enjoying his time. I don't know where he ended up going, but I'm here with Brian and I'm here with Patrick. We're going to talk about free agency. And I don't really know start the show because not much has happened,
but early thoughts on free agency. I know last week we got to discuss some of the options that were out there, some of the guys that you guys liked or could potentially see ending up with the Cowboys. We saw a whole list of different guys that have parted ways with the Cowboys. Most of them have gone to Washington, joined Dan Quinn over there and then only Tony Poller ended up going to the Tennessee Titans so far, so let's start off with him. Let's start off with the
running back position. Thoughts on where it's at right now. The Cowboys currently do not have a starter at the running back position. Where you guys land with the current situation.
Yeah, I think you need to keep an eye on AJ Dillon. Here is what you need to do. I think they're in the price range right now where at that back that's site between one point five and maybe three million dollars. The key here is going to be able to pair a running back, a veteran running back with the current running back in this college draft. And there's several of them that have the quickness, the explosiveness, the finishing of the runs, the ability to catch the football.
The one thing that a guy like AJ Dillon will bring you and if you look at the numbers, it's not really impressive. But what you look at, though, is his ability to blitz, pick up, his ability to be tough inside runner, and when he gets down on the goal line, his ability able to finish. Now you might say, well you got Hunter Lipke that kind of situation. I think they're going to need a little bit more here.
So my focus right now would be on a guy like Dylan potentially coming here at their type of price, and then more importantly, pair him with one of these college backs in the draft that we've been talking about on a weekly basis here on the Draft Show.
Yeah, Dylan is definitely in play, and I think that at this point, whether it be Dylan or or whomever else you might bring in veteran, wise, you're gonna have to tandem them with someone in the draft. Anyway, that's where you are now with the Cowboys. You don't know what you have with Duce Vaughan. He struggled to get onto the field, and then when he was on the field,
didn't show you much. Last year, Hunter Libkey he took some strides, so roses to Hunter lib Key, he's on the right path, But you can't look at him and definitively say yes, he's going to be my RB one or even my RB two right now. And then you have Malik Davis futures deal that's about to activate, but still looking to prove himself as well. Snoop Connor's still looking to prove himself. You've got a lot of unproven guys, so you want to go and get a proven guy.
Dylan is an option.
I still wouldn't and I know a lot of people are wondering, I wouldn't put a strike through on a guy like Ezekiel Elliott. Not quite yet sure, you know me having some conversations with inside of this building and in Zeke's camp. The dialogue has remained open between the Cowboys and Ezekiel Elliott. They've had some sit downs. Now the topic, how do.
You see that scenario?
He fits.
He fits in what we're talking about with an AJ Dillon. He's a guy, he's a tough guy. He blitz pickups, He's always aware. You know, he knows the situation, he knows the team, they know him. You know. There's a lot of positive things that way. You know, if you again, I think Patrick's onto something here. JK. Dobbins is another one that was with the Ravens. I think you talk
about Freeman with the Chicago Bears. If you gave me a choice of who to pair as well as I know these college guys, to me, a guy like Ezekiel Elliott or then Dylan makes the most sense because on third down you're not asking a rookie. And we've seen guys like zeke Win in twenty sixteen when it came to blitz pickup and how well he was able to do that. We saw with Pollard how he had to
develop that way. So to me, I'm going for a guy that trying and make a match of somebody I know I could put on the field in third down.
If I don't want to put the rookie out there, I could put a bigger guy, a blitz pickup guy, and then my offense can kind of either run the football to get short yardage conversions, or they can find a way to throw the ball knowing that they have somebody that could pick up in the backfield, or you can swing the ball to them and allow them to get to get your yardage.
And keep in mind, when it comes to Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys parting ways, it was solely based upon salary. Yeah right, it wasn't because he had fallen off of the running back cliffs, so to speak, as far as production ability is concerned. So this will be a scenario where he'd be possibly returning at a price point that they'd be extremely comfortable with and at a point in his career where he understands that they are probably going to use a top pick on a running back that
compliments him as well. So I think that makes a lot of sense. So AJ Dillon, I would not put Ezekiel Elliott out of that conversation.
JK.
Dobbins and Brian said, those are the types of backs you're looking at right now.
Well, we'll see what happens today again. Free agency starts officially at three pm, right, yeah, three pm time Central Times, Yes, so we'll see what actually happens. I know a lot of people have been freaking out online on social media about the lack of movement and understendably.
So yeah, but that was going to be the case. If you follow any one of the podcasts that we do on this platform and or you listen or you read Patrick's work or any of your work or anything like that, you knew it was going to be. You know, the all In thing kind of made us think something differently, and then when wen we learned it all in was
really kind of the status quo. You know, they really don't have money, They just don't when you know a great example of that is, you know when they tried to sign their you know, the running back the other day, and they're into basically into a situation where four million dollars is too much, you know. I mean, they have price point is somewhere around three, you know, Zack Moss.
They're trying to sign Zack Moss potentially, and it got to four million dollars and they just said we can't go there, so you can like, okay, well then maybe their price point is around three million dollars or less. So when you're you know, there, they could have flipped switches. I'm sure Patrick can tell you all about they could have done this with. They could have done this with steel.
They could have done this with you know, all these contracts that they have, you know that they could have done with digs, and they chose not to do it. And they chose not to do it because maybe they're getting ready to clear the decks here. Maybe they're getting ready to say, all right, you know what, we're going to reset this thing, you know, and we'll see what happens going forward. But they could have they could have created enough money to go out and play in this game.
They chose not to because they have some things coming up that they feel important that they have to do.
So.
I think that once those things kind of became on the horizon and you saw them up close, you knew they weren't going to do anything. But if they flipped all those switches, all those things we talked about, boom, they're going to play in this game. They chose not to.
And so here's here's the problem that I have, and thanks for the segue brought us. The switches are there to be flipped by the cowboys. And for those that are listening who haven't followed yet on Twitter, here it is. If you restroke your Trevonis deal, you get eight million dollars. You restructure still, you get five million. You restructure Donovan Wilson, you get three million. You're likely going to release Michael Gallup if you can't find a trade partner, which you
probably won't. We'll see if that happens. If you do, you post him, you set him as a post June first designation. That's over nine million, almost ten million dollars. That's what twenty five million dollars roughly. And I haven't even talked about Deck's contract yet, So you can free
up twenty five million before you even touch DEAK. Now, if you want to go ahead and restructure or extend DK, throw another twenty one twenty two million dollars on top of that they have roughly between just the switches I'm talking about.
I haven't talked about anyone else.
You could do, Zach all of that, But just based on what I've mentioned, that's forty five forty six million dollars in cap savings waiting to be used if you wanted to use it. But the fact that you're not does not. It flies in the face of the all in comment, right, And that's the problem that I have with it is the problem that a lot of fans are having, right it And.
I said, I tweeted it last night.
If you look at it from outside acquisitions, in the first two days of free equency, free agency, this is that's quote for the Cowboys, right. But the problem is is you went into this saying you were all in, so you set that expectation, right, so that expectation.
Is not being met in any regard.
And on top of that, what worsens it is this time last year, one thing the Cowboys have been good about is keeping some of their in house guys. Yes, so not only did you not bring anyone in, which flew in the face of your all in comment. Right on top of that, now you're an overdraft when it comes to you lost Durran song Strung, they lost Tyler, Yadish and you Fowler, you lost Tony Pollard.
Hey we got a snapper, We got Trent that we do need a snapper.
But my point is is you you are zero here and you're in the negative here, so everyone's looking at you saying what are you doing now? Of course, realistically speaking, a deal might land today. The things are going to start to pick up over the next several days because as you get into the secondary and tertiary waves of freegency,
that's when the Cowboys really start doing their work. But again, this is why the fan base is upset, and that's justified because if the owner in general manager never says all in, then how does this what's the perception of what's going on right now? It wouldn't be as pressing as it is right now. And then you tie that to your head coach is going into the final year of his contract, Your franchise quarterback is going into the final year of his contract, you know, and then Tyron Smith.
Is he staying? Is he going Zach martin his country?
I wasn't close to the door in Tyron Smith though. For me this and this is just my thought because there's only one coach out there that knows how to handle Tyron Smith, and that would be dan Quinn. Dan Quinn saw it firsthand that if you don't practice him and get him to the game, that you're probably going to get thirteen games out of him. There's not many other programs out there that are willing to just let guys sit out of practice just to get him ready
for the game. You know, I talked to several coaches last week about it, and I said, you know, hey, we love Tyron Smith as a player, but what happens to you is he's going to come in, he's gonna have to learn a new system and all that, and you're going to have to practice. We want our players to practice. Jason Garrett used to talk about that all the time. We want our players to practice. Every coach that's ever coached Pee Wee High school, whatever, they want
their players to practice. So dan Quinn is the only one with the Commanders that saw it like, okay, if we had to do this, but the fact that he hasn't got any type of offers yet, I think it's pretty significant, you know. I think maybe people are saying, listen, this tackle class is really deep in the draft. Might not have to go that direction. It might be where
really where Tyron Smith doesn't have an option. And I could be dead wrong about this, but right now, the way you kind of read it is that there's teams out there that are like, listen, we'll draft to tackle. There's quality tackles here. We don't have to pay for a guy that potentially can only play thirteen games, you know,
and we don't have to practice he doesn't practice. That could be significant that he could come back hat in hand and say listen, okay, I like being with you guys, know, but I think a lot of it has to do too. We'll see where Dallas is with this, because I think the way the draft falls for Dallas. If Dallas gets the tackle they want, I think that keeps Tyler Smith that left guard. If they don't get the tackle they want, maybe this makes it now where they have to move
Tyler Smith to left tackle. I think the draft is going to dictate. They're not going to tell us what they're gonna do with Tyler Smith. I believe they're gonna say, well, we want him to play guard, and he's a he's a Pro Bowl guard, and there's people that believe he could be a Pro Bowl tackle, which he was, so to me, I think the draft is going to dictate what direction they'd go with Tyler Smith. That's just my opinion. And again i'm not I'm not. It might happen today,
might happen tomorrow or the next day. I haven't closed the door on Tyron Smith because because he's he's a unique situation that most teams would love to have. But there's a lot of things that go along with there's a lot of things that go along with him being on your team.
Yeah, there's baggage.
And that's why when the news broke that the meeting between the Cowboys and Tyrant's representatives at the combine didn't go well, that's why I said, hey, let it play out, this is how it goes might and so many people were writing it off or he's already going.
It's not going until he's.
Gone, Yeah, until it's official. Yeah, and he's he's out there still. That's the thing you have to know.
And keep in mind we're saying he's out there, and yes he's he's one of the more premium tackles left tackles out there. But guess what, Tyler Biadis flew off the board on day one, right? Are you telling me that Tyler Biaddish has more value on the open market than Tyron Smith. If that's the case, then it just kind of goes to what we're saying as far as don't close the door on the possible retention of Tyron Smith.
And if the Cowboys, if that happens and the Cowboys can keep Tyron in the building, that would be massive.
That would be huge. That would be massive.
Well, let's go ahead and take our first break. When we come back. I do want to circle back on the whole situation as to why have the Cowboys not restructure more contracks to free up some money and what do you guys think is actually happening or what is their thinking right now? After this break?
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On, Get your dance on. Amber, Thank you, Brian, thank you.
Well, let's go ahead and circle back, because we know how we all feel currently. We know the moves that could happen. But there's always two sides of the story, right, There's always a why and just trying to get in their heads and see what's happening over there. What do you guys think is actually?
Oh yeah?
Segment presented by blockchain dot Com. There you go, Okay, you guys just talked about how you guys feel, What do you guys think they're thinking? What is the reasoning? What is the possible reasoning if you had to try to find some type of understanding as to what's going on, because we all know when free agency starts, we knew when legal tempering starts, and we also knew how much money.
They knew how much money they had available, so they could have already made some moves to free up a bunch of money to be able to use once free agency hit. So why tell me a reason what's going on?
Because the math is right in front of us, right, So they have all these switch that they can pull. But the reason, one of the reasons they're probably not pulling it is because they're staring at the brick wall of twenty twenty five. All of this dead money that they've been kicking down the cam from restructures, it's waiting for him in twenty twenty five, and they can't push that. What's waiting for them next season can't be pushed anymore.
So what they're trying to do is put themselves in a position where they can be a competitive roster but also have some cap rollover that helps them with what's waiting for in twenty twenty five.
Now that's the fact.
Okay, the problem though, because what I'm about to say doesn't make that untrue. But it's also true that you said all in. So if you're saying all in, all in is not worried about twenty twenty five salary cap. It's about building a championship caliber team in twenty twenty four, and then whatever happens after that is whatever happens after that.
I either rams for example, So if.
You want, if you're looking for a thought process, and you're sitting there and you're beating your head against the wall and you're like, oh I am barb Brian. No, see why on earth are they not pulling these triggers. You just told them how to free up forty five forty six million dollars. It's because they're trying their best not to free it up to use that money for
free agency. They want to use the majority of that money to roll over to next season to help them with what's waiting for them as far as dead money in twelve.
You can still be all in with those two chips, you know. No, you can't still be all in with Technically you kind can.
Well, if you only have that's what I'm saying, If you only have two chimps, you can still don't use those. Those are two chips that you have in front of you in the back. You got a couple duffel bags full of chips that you can bring out that you're not bringing out because you're squirreling them away.
But you can't. You can't do both things at the same time.
You can't say you're all in and squirrel forty six to fifty million dollars away.
Which direction do you want to go?
You gotta pick one because you can't go both in both directions at the same time.
That's all. We'll see what kind of movements.
You know, Patrick's absolutely right, they're stearing twenty twenty five right in the face. They'll never say the word rebuild, but this has more of a more of a not a rebuild, but a reset is what this has. I think. You know, you look at your quarterback situation, you look at your head coach. You know, there's a lot of a lot of questions right now. I've always believed this team will never be bad. They won't be Carolina bad or Arizona bad or any of those themes because they
do draft well. Now, last year was a totally different situation. We'll see if Mazie works out, you know, you know, Mike's going to play him at the one technique and try and put some weight on him and see if he can build him back up to what he was in college. But you know, they need the draft now. It's even more important with all the holes that they're
having to fill. This draft has got to be huge, you know, I mean every pick that they make will be a Okay, this helps our tackle situation, This helps our center situation, This helps our running back situation, this helps our linebacker situation. You know that this draft is going to be specifically targeting players, is what it's going to do. And because say the twenty twenty five, all the dead money that's been pushed into the future is going to the bill is going to show up, and
they've got to be ready for the bill. And I just feel like that they're in that point. They don't have the money right now. Anything that they want to do, they're going to try and make themselves is they're going to try and make themselves as the best they can in twenty twenty five. They're going to try. It could be really really tough with the cap situation that it is. But what's happened to them. They've drafted super well, so all of a sudden you have players that they have
to pay that anybody in the league would pay their guys. Now, they've paid some guys early. They gave money to Pollard, you know with the franchise tag, they paid Steel early, they paid Gallop early. You know they didn't have to, but maybe you know, they saw something that they could have got out of that. Those are kinds of deals that may be a little bit troubling right now. But they couldn't get the fifth year on Dak. And that's on that's on on on the his agent, Todd Frantz France,
did a great job and negotiating that contract. He's getting Dak back to the table quicker than Dallas wanted him back at the table. That's just an agent being really good at his gig. But now here's Dak once again back at the table. You know, it felt like we were in Oxnard three years ago.
Very quickly.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It happened very quickly. But they couldn't get the fifth year on him. That hurt Dallas and they couldn't get the contracts to stagger like they needed to to give themselves. They all kind of came at the same time. And again, that's that's drafting Michael Parsons, that's draft and Digs that's draft in ceed Lamb. That's back to back picks. You make Lamb and Digs two guys that you're gonna pay, that's at the same class.
So that was a little that's little troubling for them right now, I'll.
Tell you really worked in their favor that they were able to get that Digs deal done. Yes, they did, yes, because if that was still looming along with Lamp Parsons, that would be a nightmare scenario right now.
That would have been tough. So as we say here today, it's currently eleven twenty five on Wednesday. My question to you guys, is there any move right now that the Cowboys could make that would potentially change your opinion as to how free agency is currently going for the Cowboys.
I don't think. To me, I'm some of the defensive tackles that I really liked. Now we'll see, like a guy like DJ Reader, if they could grab a defensive tackle. If they can grab a legitimate one technique tackle. You know, the Colts resigned their guy yesterday, Buffalo resigned their guy. The two tackles I really really liked. But you know, if all of a sudden they can get a reader from Cincinnati, maybe his price comes down as a little
bit older guy. You know, that would help me a lot, just is knowing that, Okay, I don't have to go into this draft thinking about it one. Even though there's some really good there's some good one techniques. It's not like they're have in the past, but there's you know, there's some guys that they can clearly, you know, say okay, we could play this guy to one and we would be just fine. The thing that's killing him right now
is the Mazzie Smith thing. If Mazzie would have just been able to get on the field and chose some promise and you know, I mean he was very frustrated and so was the team. He lost all that weight. Now you really don't know where he's at. So now here, all of a sudden, instead of Mazzie Smith being okay, we got a replacement here, now there's questions there. So I'm looking at the one techniques, I'm looking at what linebackers. You know, does Devin White do anything for you from Tampa?
You know that kind of I mean I've heard like great things and I've heard really bad things about him. So yeah, it's those are the kinds of things. If you could just pick off one guy. And we mentioned the running back thing. I watched AJ Dillon. I know
what AJ Dillon is. He's a two hundred and forty seven pound player, but he does things for you, potentially on third down if paired with the right guy, that would make me feel better about the running back situation because I don't have a lot of faith induced fun. I think his height limits what you can do with them. Maybe you could figure some things out, but just as a as a cobac with somebody, I don't know if that's something I would be excited about.
I need to see multiple moves on two separate roads. I need to see some outside of the building acquisitions at positions like nose tackle, linebacker for example. They lost out here this morning on Eric Kendricks. Yeah it's going to the charges, I believe.
Yeah. But the thing about yeah, the Kendricks thing to me and just talking and talking with some people in the building and outside. Kendricks is not the same guy that played at Minnesota. Is he better than what you're playing with right now? For sure? But a step I watched him on tap myself. He's not that same player. There's things about him that would he be an upgrade
of what you're currently playing with. Sure, but if you're expecting him of Minnesota guy that Zimmer had, no not even close now.
What you should be expecting, whether it would have been Eric Kendricks or even like a Bobby Wagner. Bobby is still playing at a high level. He's timeless at this time. So let's say you go with a guy like Bobby Wagner, huge splash in my opinion, especially if you're talking like a day three, day four free agency. The money is
much more reasonable. Okay, So you get Bobby Wagner on subjectively a reasonable deal that's an outside of the building, and then you look inside the building and you say, Okay, Stefan Gilmore, where are we at, Tyron Smith, where are we at?
You need to get some of these because.
You lost three guys four technically you lost four guys, Impact Guy and Dante Fowler impact guy in Durrence Armstrong, I argue that you could upgrade at center and Tyler pad. It's not a big deal, but at least Tony Pollard was an impact guy for you. Maybe not as an RB one, but he's an impact for RB two. You need to start re signing some impact guys, whether that be Jordan Lewis, Deefan Gilmore, top of the lizz is Tyron Smith. So I need to see acquisitions both from
outside and insight. That's how you regain the confidence to say, Okay, we get it. You didn't go all in on the first two days, but you get some damn good talent day through Day four, such such and such, so nose tackle, linebacker, running back, you know, cornerback.
The Gilmore, the Lewis thing would be huge for this football team. They will even though this draft is really deep in corners, but they have only so many picks. That's the problem. They're gonna have to figure out. They're actually gonna have to move back in this draft. And I wouldn't be surprised if they moved back in the first round to pick up you know, maybe the first or second round. I could see them moving back and grabbing an extra three or.
It would be interesting because I see.
So many they don't have a four, and I see so.
Many people on social media and I'm talking from like the fans perspective, them talking and wanting the Cowboys now to move up instead of back so that they can no get a talented place.
Yeah, they you know what, at twenty four, they're going to get a talented player. You know, maybe one of the centers falls to you, one of those offensive tackles. Everything they've done with the offensive line has been plug and play. They do a great job with plug and play first round offensive lineman. So I have faith in what they're going to do there. But if you move back, say you go back to Buffalo, and we've talked about
this before in the Draft show. You go back to Buffalo, you know, at their pick in you know, to twenty eight, and you pick up their last pick of the in the third round. Since you don't have a fourth round pick. You end the second night with a pick. So now you've got four players you've drafted inside the top one hundred. That makes you feel a lot better about Day three when you're gonna have to go and now you've got compensatory picks. You can use, you can move around a
little bit. But if you give me four picks, by the time day two ends, I'm feeling a lot better about what I could do to help this football team. That's that would be my strategy. Some way, somehow. I'm gonna have to back up. I mean, they're gonna have to back that first up. I'm gonna have to back that two up and try and pick up another another pick, or at least get a fourth round pick to start.
That's a hard round to sit in after, you know, when day three starts and there's guys on that board that you're like, damn, we got a second round grade on that guy. We got a third round grade on that run. And then all of a sudden, you're watching guys just come off that board and you got no and you're just watching it and you're and you're dying.
We've seen this movie, oh no, and you're dying.
With every pick. You are literally just dying, like and you're watching and you're going, we should have been there, we should have been there, we should and you know, but hey, you got a quarterback out of the thing. This this whole thing with Trey Lance this fourth round pick. That might be the one that we look back and say,
they that was a good move. But right now I'm sitting there dying because I don't have a fourth round pick, right you know, that's kind of where But I'm going to do my best to try and navigate that and get one back, get a third or fourth round pick, and make this single a little bit more manageable because
they got too many holes to fill. They can't they can't sign everybody that we want them to, So they're gonna have to just they're gonna have to hit this draft in a way of and it's all probably going to be a needs draft.
Everything they do is hoping that they can all be an impact in the first year, which is tough to do.
They didn't. It didn't happen last year, But previous years they've got impact players. If you look at guys like Bland Hell, they didn't even draft steel bast They didn't even draft him either, but they got him signed. You know, that could be your starter at guard right there. They those are guys that should have been drafted and they but Dallas somehow lyle Collins back in the day, but he had all these legal issues hovering over him, but they got him, and he was a good player for them.
They need some of that magic to kind of reappear for them in this particular.
Well, one thing they definitely have some magic for executing is a scouting offensive lineman for a first round pick. Yeah, so whomever they picking, the whomever they picked in the first round based on their history that I'm just going to go ahead and assume he can drop right in.
See.
I wish I wish we knew more about about what they you know, what they thought about the kid are North Carolina kid from last year the tack Awesome Richards. I don't know, I know Awesome Richards. When I watched him at North Carolina, I'm like, I told will, I go, that's a good pick. It's a good pick. And then you watch and it's like, also, they're playing a doga and you're going, Okay, I don't know anymore. I mean I don't. I mean, I'm watching Ausome Richards playing camp
left tackle, right tackle. I'm thinking, Okay, he's making a little progress here. But obviously they didn't think enough of him to put him out there instead of a doga who we were all kind of like, I don't know, I don't know about this one.
No, there were plenty of chances for Richard's yeah to correct that rotation, and any fact that he didn't, I don't know if it's because he couldn't, because they just want to see more.
Well, but it's disheartening, is what it is.
They love Well, let's go, but the sublixations.
Of the shoulder kick shoulder both take a shoulder.
Yeah, I mean see, that's the problem is you know you feel like that, Okay, we lose Tyron Smith. To me, the best thing would be to kick Smith to tackle, which they don't want to do. But I do think this, and the more I watch this, I think that whatever, if they get a tackle they want, Tyler Smith plays guard. If they don't get a tackle they want, I would be I would keep an eye on Tyler Smith kicking outside the tackle and somebody else playing guard. That's what I would keep an eye.
Oh, this conversation is trusting me out, like there's so much done.
Not a promising situation right now. The good news is, though, is that it's only day three.
Yeah, for this was a twelve win team that lost a lot of players.
Yeah, they lost, they taken some steps back.
Now they got to take the steps forward then behind the eight ball right now, so I'm interested to see how they get.
Back in front of it.
Let's go ahead and take our final break. When we come back, I do want to to talk about some of the things that division rivals have done in free agency and kind of compare and see what's going on with those teams right now.
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Back to the break.
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All right, Well, thank you, Bryan. All right, before we end the show, I do want to discuss, Like I said, we do face division rivals twice every season, so Let's start off with dan Quinn, familiar face and what he has done so far in free agency with his team as the head coach of the Commanders. How do you guys assess what he's done in the free agency?
Well, on paper, at the moment, they're better than they were last year, So I mean he's making some progress as far as improving that team. We still don't know what their quarterback situation looks like as far as their franchise quarterback. We'll see if they use their top pick on that probably will, but we'll see. He's making some impressive moves, a lot of raiding the Cowboys cabinet, but you know, we'll see. We'll see how that all plays out in the end. But I mean, this isn't dan
Quinn's first rodeo as a head coach. He knows how to build a team and the team that he built in Atlanta actually did make it to the Super Bowl, so he knows how to build a team that can win in the regular season in the postseason. Obviously, they fail short when they fell short, but I think the Commanders going to be something that the Cowboys need to worry about in twenty twenty four. For two reasons. Number one, they are improving, whether you like it or not, they're improving.
And number two, until the Cowboys start making some moves, the Cowboys are not improving.
So there you go.
They've made a lot of moves.
Yeah, they had a lot of cap space, and they also have the second overall pick, and they earned that by losing nine straight games or eight straight games, however many games they lost. That was a team in a while back that I thought was a quarterback away. I thought defensively they were going to be much better. They're awful in the secondary, they were awful rushing the passer.
They've got skill guys on the offense. You know, I'm super impressed with that, you know, but you know they're trying to add with you know, I think we were all here on this show. This is no disrespect to this gentleman, Tyler Beyottish. We were all kind of I'm sorry. I should speak for myself. I was ready to move on from Tyler Beyottish. That a guy that I was okay with moving on from ended up at one of your chief rivals. That's okay for me. Dorn's armstrong. We'll
see how he handles now. Having to be the starter. Dorrin's armstrong coming off the bench is a good player. You know, we'll see Dante Feller. We've talked about Dante Faller, how much we really really enjoy watching him play. It seems like he plays twelve plays. It seems like he has three impact plays in twelve plays. I respect that. You know, Austin Eckler, the running back we'll see might be down time the end. I felt like they had
a pretty couple of good running backs there. You know, when you look at when you look at Brian Robinson, I thought, was, you know, at Austin Eckler. Great, he added a pass catcher and and all those things on that. So to me, the best player that they've added was Frankie Louvu, the linebacker from the Carolina Panthers. Everybody else in that thing, I would have to say, it's just okay, just kind of a okay. That's you know, it's not like bow dan Quinn knocked this one out of the park.
A couple of players that we like, but I think overall though, that he's kind of adding Zach Ertz very much reminds me of what Jason Witten was at the very end of his career with the Dallas Cowboys, catch the ball for five yards, get tackled. That's what Zach Ern says. We saw him last year at Arizona. So to me, I'm not overly impressed. And if they turn around and draft, if they turn around and draft Drake May from North Carolina, I'm going to think they went
the wrong way on that one. You know, I like Drake May, but there's probably three other guys I like more than Drake May. So I don't want them to get some other quarterbacks I don't want them to get But if they draft Drake May, and I'm willing to be wrong about it, admitted if I am, But I don't know if that's the path that I would go. So this team right here, I think there's a couple of things they did well, but there's a lot of that I had. I probably wouldn't have done that. With
all the money that they have. Well, they they got bodies that well, you guys might might think differently.
No, no, not page.
I'm just thinking about I'm just thinking about what we were thinking about about a guy like Tyler Smith. Actually Tyler you know they gave Tyler Biottish ten million dollars. I don't think the Cowboys were going that that way. I don't think they were going that way at all. So I the commanders, Uh, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm. I'm a wait and see guy with them.
Yeah, it's the same.
I mean, they've, like I said, through the first two days, they've improved.
Over what they spend a lot of money.
However, you don't you still don't know what their quarterback situation looks like. I mean, before you even get into anything else, if you don't know what your quarterback situation looks like, then you got to put a pin in it.
Yeah, all right, New York Giants. They've also made quite a few moves. What do you assess? How do you assess their free agency?
The Giants really have been and I mean when you look at the NFC East moves orlack there were of obviously the Cowboys at the bottom of that. Washington and Philly sit the top. So when it comes to the Giants, I mean, you lose Saquon Barkley, right, Yeah, you know, you bring whatever it was it Donald is that who they brought it in.
No, they brought in Drew Lock.
Drew Lock that's what it was.
So you bring in Drew Lock, you again, I will say it again, you don't know what your quarterback situation looks like. So I respect Drew Lock and I like what he did in his time with the Seahawks. When Gino went down for those couple of games, he came in won at least one big game in Seattle. So that that's a solid acquisition, especially considering you have no clue what the future holds for Daniel Jones.
But that means that you QB. You have a QB battle.
If you got two qbs, you don't have one QB. But know if you have two quarterbacks competing, that means you don't have eighty right. So and you lose sa Quan, which is the heart and soul of your offense, you lose them to a divisional rival. So I mean, Giants, will they be competitive, sure, but I'm not looking at them right now through the first two or three days of free agency on the same level as I'm looking at Philly and what the Commanders have done.
The Giants have tried to help their offensive line throughout their existence. They've tried to do it with draft picks. They've tried to do it through free agency. They signed a couple, They signed a tackle from the Raiders. They signed John Runyon from the Green Bay Packers. We'll see if they just continually throw money and high draft picks and capital at that position, at those positions and it hasn't worked out, We'll see if it does this time
around for him. I liked the signing of Devin Singletary though I do like that one. I felt like that that was a pretty good signing for them. The trade for Brian Burns, I think they actually stole Brian Burns because Carolina had a chance to take Brian Burns and trade him last year for a first round pick, and the Giants got him for a second round pick. So now you talk about Thibodeau and Burns on the edge
with Dexter Lawrence in the middle. That makes a little bit of sense to me what they're trying to do there. So trading a second round pick, there's probably somebody not on their board that they did. Maybe there's not another edge that they liked in the second round. There's a lot of good edges in this draft, but they're probably looking at it like, geez all, we had to give up was a two and a five or something to get this guy. I think they stole that guy right there.
So I like the Burns trade and I'd like the Singletary edition. And we'll see what happens with the offensive line. They've still got to find a way their quarterback situation, and then they're also the skill guys at receiver, but sitting there in the sixth hole, they could address both those positions if they wanted to.
Well, let's go ahead and to end the show, dive into what Philly has done. They have been known to be a team that has been able to spend some money and make big moves during free agency. So far this year they have signed Bryce Huff, Sagwin Barkley, CJ Garner, Johnson, Brandon Graham.
Graham However, you.
Rick Lovado, Brandon Man and then Sack Bond.
So Philly has been cooking and I have Philly atop the NFC East as far as through the first two days of free agency. At first you look at the fact that they lost Jason Kelce to retirement and then Fletcher Cox to retirement, You're thinking, Okay, they're moving in the wrong direction. And I love every bit of this, and then what do you see them do? They go out and they get Bryce Huff and then they bring
back CJ. Gardner Johnson to help boaster a secondary that was just absolute toast last season with Brad Berry and Slay. You get sa Kwon Barkley, You lose DeAndre Swift, but you get sa Kwon Barkley, right, And I don't think it's arguable. I love Swift obviously, go dogs, but a healthy Barkley keyword being healthy. A healthy Barkley gives you more than what DeAndre Swift gives So maybe that's an upgrade.
We'll see how that plays out. Bryce Huff huge acquisition, but we also need to see what happens with this a Sun Riddick stuff. Reports are that he's being shopped for a possible trade. If a Sound Retick is not on the Philadelphia Eagles defense, that.
Is a massive up backwards.
He is a just an electric pass rusher, and I get it they're looking for more reps for you know, my former dog, Nolan Smith. I get that, but Hassan is already proven and he's still in this prime So all told, I don't see the Eagles are taking steps forward they've had some massive losses, two future Hall of Fame guys. You lose those guys, that hurts. It absolutely hurts, no pun intended. But then when you replace them with a guy like Bryce Huff who's a young guy in
his prime, he's eating well, you boaster your secondary. You get Sakuon Barkley. If he can stay healthy, he can be a problem for you alongside Jalen Hurts in that running attach. So yeah, the Philadelphia Eagles, as they tend to do in the off season, they cook in free agency, and they're cooking right now.
The thing that I worry about is and people are gonna if you clip this. You know, shame on you what.
I'm about to say.
But you know, shame on you if you clip this and plan it for everybody but we If you're a Cowboy fan, you don't want Saquon Barkley to become healthy like Christian McCaffrey has for the San Francisco forty nine ers. Christian McCaffrey was an often injured player for the Carolina Panthers and they moved on from him, and Saquon Barkley has been a killing. Has been an often injured player for the New York Giants, and your hope as a Cowboy fan is that he doesn't all of a sudden
find sixteen games. Sixteen games in sixteen games, that's your hope right there. I mean, I'm not wishing injury on anybody, but he has been an often injured player. It's amazing to me that this team has paid their quarterback what they've done and all the players they have their roster. You can go player for player with their roster and the Cowboys players and they still find ways to make moves.
That's you know, I mean, that's that's a fact that you when you start to talk about the best rosters in the NFC, Philadelphia Dallas were neck and neck on that last year. I mean, you talk to personnel guys, they'll tell you, hey, those are two of the best rosters in the NFC right there, and they find a way to continually add players to it. They're really bad at linebacker, they were last year. They added Zach Brown from the Saints. We'll see with the with Bryce Huff
where they play him and all that. Getting CJ. Gardner Johnson back I think is a big thing for him. He was in Detroit for one year, but he was kind of a heart and soul player for the Eagles. I think they really didn't want to lose him, but Detroit blew him out of the water. They got to figure out their cornerback situation. That's that's where they're looking. And we'll see what they do at center because Cam. I think Cam Jurgens is going to be their center.
But they might say, what if they draft the best center in the draft, you know, And that's that's where the Cowboys are kind of sitting. Do they want to Dallas would like an opportunity have either the best tackle they can get or the best center and make that choice.
Philadelphia could take the best center off the board for you there with Powers Johnson and so that that right there, the kid from Oregon that could be up a big gut punch for you right there, in fact, that they go for the best center in the draft instead of replacing them with Cam Jurgens. So they it's amazing that they signed their quarterback and they have all this money allocated to guys, and it seems like that they continually make moves that that's something you got to kind of tip.
Your cap to him for Kylie Rosman doesn't sit still, No, he does not.
It's very impressive. It's very impressive the way that they hand but that was with the division last year.
It all has to play out in the field their teams. Every year they win free agency and can't get it done when it needs to get done. And not to say that the Cowboys are, but if you're sitting on the same couch the Cowboys are sitting on and you won free agency, then you know who's the biggest loser of those two losers.
I guess.
I guess one way to look at it, half a glass, half empty or half full.
It's all the same couch and there's only one champion.
So if you didn't holdays that Lombardy, then doesn't matter if you want the free agency where you or not.
Well, we'll see what happens today again. Free agency officially starts at three pm, where teams can actually sign players, and we'll see if there are any actual moves happening. Take your center the park, Dang, then Brian, give no hope.
Maybe you get a running back. Maybe you get a running back. Derek keeping eye keeping on.
That's why he took this week off. Derek new he's at the beach somewhere.
He's all right. Well, thank you guys so much for tuning in for for Patrick Walker, Brian Broadus, I remember you. See how this has been the break on Dallas Cowboys dot com radio.
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