Cowboys Break: Position to Fix?

episode number seventy seven. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break pretended by Geico, Live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. When I say live from the s WBC Mortgage studio at the Star, I mean me, Nick and Amber are live from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star. It is good to have everybody back in. Dave's not here, but that's beside the point.

We won't worry about that right now is Dave, and I think we just lost him on web backs on top of that, but I do think that that we do. I do know that we got the three of us here together, and it feels good to be all back in. I'm worrying my mask, but that's okay. I talk too loud anyway, Hey, baby steps here, baby steps, you gotta get comfortable with the idea. You're in the same room

with me and Nick. That's a problem, but you know, well, we'll work that out and we'll see how that goes over time, and maybe in another two or three months, maybe after we all get vaccines, we can take the masks off. Who knows, how's everybody doing today? What I'm rolling up my sleeve. Let's go. I won't be ready for it. I'll give me first in line, obviously, but whenever, whenever it is my turn, I'm whenever it's available. And

I'm a person that absolutely hates needles and not hate needles. Yeah, like I mean like literally, when I know I have to get a shot or give blood for like days before, I have a knot in my stomach, Like that's how much I hate needles. But when this thing's available to me, I'm like, just like you, come on, what you got, give it to me. I'm ready. Let's go. All right, let's jump in. We got a lot to talk about. Today's a light stuffering in here. I don't know what

makes amber. Amber brings the sunshine here. And by the way, we didn't get a chance to say happy birthday to Amber. She had a birthday earlier this week. I think that was the day that we weren't on the air, was the game day, But happy birthday here. Yeah, yeah, go Cowboys. Yea, it was a great birthday. Yeah. Okay, So we're gonna jump in real quick before we have Bucky joined us with It's our normal hit with Bucky Brooks today where

we'll talk a little bit about the Cincinnati offense. Before we do that, though, I do want to get some updates on some injuries. We got Anthony Brown, we got Donovan Wilson, who all missed the game last week, and also Tyler Battish who has who has not played for several weeks, but Mike McCarthy did have a little update on him yesterday. Let's let's see what's going on with Anthony Brown first, Nick, what do we know about Anthony

Brown at this point? Well, I mean, he's got obviously dealing with the ribs injury, and that's an injury that kept him out I guess three games later this season, so that's kind of I wouldn't know if it's a lingering problem, but you know, anytime you had that twice in one year. I'm sure that's probably related. So I think he's going to be limited this week. I don't I don't remember. I honestly don't remember what McCarthy said

about him yesterday. So I would imagine, though, at this point in this season though, they're gonna air on the side of caution for everything, um and I can go look at it. Maybe maybe they've heard that. I don't know. I don't know exactly what if Anthony Brown's status, but I would imagine he's going to just work his way back in. I would be surprised if he plays, really, okay, I would be yeah, after being out and then after mid yeh, especially on such a yeah the hey day

you there, yeah, Hey, can y'all hear me? Yeah we can? Yeah, y'all hear me? Yeah, okay, okay, I'm sorry, yeah, I mean on such a short week. I thought, you know, if they didn't practice yesterday, it was an estimation, but ay B might be able to go against the Ravens, and he obviously didn't working on right now. That would kind of surprise me play this late in the season. So we'll see. We'll see what it looks like when

they get on the field. But I'm not super optimistic, and Tyler, be honest is technically he's still on IR. I believe, like the thing Martin said about him is that he's got a good shot to start practicing, but not gonna play on Sunday. What about Donor Wilson, you know, we'll see on him question. I think the fact that they didn't put him on IR last week, which means that could have been one game. This is two games, so that gives me a that gives me thought that

maybe he can play this week. Again, it was all an estimation of what they said, but I would imagine that the Donovan Wilson would have a shot to play in this game. And he's one of those young guys that you know, I think that he needs to keep playing as much as you can. I'm not saying Russian back from injury, but he would be a guy that you'd like to see more of. And obviously this week you're probably not. I don't know, maybe you are a

little bit concerned with the team that they're facing. It's probably not a team that you would think has a juggernaut of an offense, but they do have some receiving threats that you probably want to be a little bit cautious of. And with that, we will bring in our guy, Bucky Brooks of NFL Network presented by Texico with tech Ron. Bucky, Welcome to the show. We're gonna okay, well tell you what. Let's I think they're getting him queued up, and we'll

jump right into that read. I know I was just gonna go straight to him, but I should have told our producer that. But we'll get to that in just a second. As I was mentioning, and I'll actually ask you this question, Nick. You look at this game, and you look at the fact that they got some pretty good receivers. Tyler Boyd last week has a seventy two yard touchdown and you got t Higgins like, they got

guys at the receiver position, their quarterbacks out. So they may not have the trigger man that you would want, but they still could be dangerous against a defense that is by all accounts, just not hitting on all cylinders when it comes up giving up big place. Yeah, that's fair, not good. Not on all cylinders. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't take much to to make big plays on this team.

I mean, we've seen it all year. Long. I mean guys quarterbacks and receivers and running backs that you don't think are that good turning into really good, good, you know, good performances against the Cowboys. That's just the sign of a bad defense. And that's kind of where they are. So, yeah, they don't have Burrow. I don't think they have Mixing. Yeah, non't. He's on ir There'll be someone's time to shine, you know, on somebody one of the one other side of the ball.

You know, maybe the Cowboys can make some plays. I may maybe this is their get right game. But I'm at the point where, again I don't care who the opponent is because we see the same results regardless, basically. But I'm at the point where, Okay, from now on, I'm looking at every game to evaluate every single player individually, looking into next year. And I know they're still trying to compete in trying to hopefully make it to the playoffs and all, but if we're being realistic here, that's

probably very unlikely. So if they're not going to sit out some of the veteran guys, some of the starters, and let some of the younger guys play, then this is the time to really start figuring out who you're gonna keep next year. So now we're joined by Bucky Brooks of NFL Network presented by Texico with techron Bucky, let's start where we normally start. This is not a team that the Cowboys play very often. So so happy, Why are you so happy right now? Where are you

smiling so much? Well, Okay, here's what we're gonna do. Bucky, tell us what the greatest weakness and the greatest strength of the Cincinnati offense. Knowing that those two guys that we talked about, Burrow and Mixing are both out at this point, Yeah, I mean Burrow Mixing ouse a the dynamic a little bit, but it's still a very, very talented group of playmakers. On the outside. Tyler Boyd is a monster. He's a guy that can control and he has really stepped into that number one wide receiver role

in spite of AJ Green's presence. T Higgins has been a revelation for them. Taking in the second round. He has played lights out for them, and AJ Green is still on the perimeter, but he's nowhere near the player that he once was. But they have some dangerous weapons and now their quarterback Brandon Allen has done a decent job of getting the ball out. But it's a different team because if Joe Burrow and the Bengals come, if

it's Joe Burrn the Bengals, it's a different expectation. But this team is still dangerous because we've seen other teams that I've set up here and said, hey, they're not danger don't have any playmakers, and then lord behold the Washington football team in the New York Giants find ways to move the ball. And so I think this is a game where the Cowboys should try and keep it simple on defense and just allow their talent to overwhelm

the Bengals. I know that every game, I mean, both teams go out to compete and try to win a football game, regardless of the scenarios. But looking at what's currently happening and where the Bengals are currently standing and the Cowboys where they're at right now, I mean, what are your expectations as far as what to expect from both teams in a game like this. Well, in the game like this, you know, front officers may be interested in seeing what you have, but I think both coaching

staffs want to win. Zach Taylor has not won a lot of games in Cincinnati. He doesn't want to continue to take these l and stack them up on his resume. He may be fighting for his coach in life, so he's gonna have his team ready to play. I think in Dallas, with coach McCarthy and this group, like you have to figure out a way to just get this group going offensively, defensively, special teams have been a lot of errors, and so you just want to see if

you can accomplish having a clean football game. And so there's still a lot to play for. I know with Dallas things look bleak in terms of the playoff picture, but you just never know. I think you have to ain't a w on the board and just kind of see how it plays out. But this has to be a game where they played with a level of urgency. Then maybe we haven't seen to this point, and I wonder if we will ever see from this group. Hey, Bucky, you, I mean you made If there's something to feel good

about the Babel's offense, it's probably their receiver. You know, Higgins seems like a good pick obviously, Boyd, but like Brandon Allen, I mean, it seems like he's going to be the guy. Is he capable of getting them the ball? Has he been doing that during his opportunities? Yeah, I mean they've been a feisty and competitive team. Like it hasn't been like they've been absolutely embarrassed on the perimeter. I give Zach Taylor credit for that. He's gotten the

group to play are. They kind of buy into his methods and the playmakers on the outside have taken advantage of it. Now. The difference was when Joe Burrow was in there. It was more empty formation, more dink and dunk at the ball into the pans of the playmakers and let them work. Brandon Allen certainly isn't on Burrows level, but he doesn't have the biggest armor, so he does rely him to short pass the game to allow te Higgins and Tyler Board and some of the other playmakers

to have their way on the perimeter. Dave, you were supposed to ask about the LSU quarterback and when he was out and then Arkansas quarterbacks in there. I get to ask the question because really the question I was gonna asks, how was this guy there? I mean, I see in the league. I didn't like him when he was Arkansas and starting, Like, I can't believe this guy's starting.

You know, nobody from Arkansas has ever started a game against the Cowboys in like the last forty years, well a quarterback, and so I just don't understand how bread. So I was gonna, I mean, I was gonna ask about him, like can he hurt this team at all? But you kind of already asked all that. But what about the running back about I mean, go ahead, I mean Jeff Jef Vonning Bernard has a change of pace back.

He's not ideally suited to be in the lead role, but he is dangerous, and he's dangerous in the way that they've utilized him coming out of the backfield. When we think about the linebackers Jalen Smith and Lady Van Desh and even Sean Lee, you don't necessarily want to put those guys in one on one matchups in space. We've seen how that has turned out, and so I would say that Giovanni is as dangerous as some of the guys that we've seen have success. DeVante Freeman had

a little level of success with the Giants. We saw Antonio Gibson and those guys from the Washington football team have success and so I think you certainly have to put your eyes on them and make sure that you know where it is. But man, I think anytime you get gutted for two hundred and ninety four yards on the ground, any and everybody believes that they have a

hundred yard day on the horizon. And so this is gonna be a tough team because when the Cincinnati Bengals look at the film and they looked at the way they've been able to run the ball, teams have been able to run the ball, they feel like, just like Cowboys, Hey, this is a get right game. The Bengals are chalking this up as hey, this is a get right game for offense. We have an opportunity to do some stuff. So this is going to be a much tougher game than we may think about it as it looks on

the surface. There have been a lot of conversations Bucky over the last day or so after following the game against the Ravens where people who have been asking the question, is the problem with the Dallas defense a player problem? Is it a scheme problem? Is it a coaching problem? We saw a lot of things in that game, and I'll give you one We were talking yesterday about on the big thirty seven yard touchdown run, how basically Dallas

goes zero coverage. They've got a safety down in the box playing linebacker or at the linebacker spot there in the middle, and they've got all guys manned up on the outside, which just screams. So I'm sure, Lamar Jackson, I'm running the ball because the secondary is not going to be much of a help here. Those kinds of schematic things certainly point out that there's issues maybe with scheme, but back McCarthy says, at this point, we're too far down the road. I think this is a scheme problem.

Where do you see it? Is this a scheme? Is a problem? Is this a player problem or just a coaching problem? It's all of the above, is everything, And I feel bad because I feel like I got duped. I feel like when I looked at some of the players that were brought in over the summer and I was like, man, this guy's gonna be a good player.

I can see him fitting Understanding Mike Nolan, having talked to him and knowing what he wanted to play, I thought that he would have a scheme that would really fit the vision of how they wanted to play, and then just the coaching. I thought there would be a level of development that we saw from the young players, even though in the pandemic or whatever, that this team would gradually get better, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong,

on all aspects. I think what you have is you have a coach who look is married to his scheme and he wants to play a certain way, but right now the talent doesn't fit his vision of the team. You have players who don't really trust in the scheme, and for whatever reason, in a two year period, I've seen guys regretted in the level that I've never really seen before. Guys don't understand how to read blockers, Guys

are overrunning plays, they're not stand in their gaps. To effort has been inconsistent, and so it's just been disappointing

in all areas. And I think it's highlighted and magnified by the fact that you look at the division rivals, the Washington Football team, New York Jazz Football team that we would like to say are lesser talents but are playing better and are legitimately trending up where they're beating teams that we would say they shouldn't knock off just because they play hard and they do exactly what it's expected of them. I think this is indictment on every aspect, and I think this has to be one where you

have serious conversations in the offseason about how you go forward. Well, we've kind of lost hope. Most of us have lost hope on the Cowboys defense, and we know for sure that they cannot be trusted. So I want to ask you about the Cowboys offense and looking at the matchup there against the defense from the Bengals, is this a game where whether it's through the running game or the passing game, is this a game where we will be able to see the Cowboys finally get to the end

zone more than they've done so far. You know, I felt like the game plan that they utilized against the Ravens was a pretty solid one. They were only a handful of occasions that I thought Kelly Moore kind of forgot whose coach. In terms of like the way they need to play, I think it has to continue to be a mix of Zeke and Tony Poll running the football. I think the quick ery than passing game that they utilize against the Ravens will be effective against Cincinnati because

Cincinnati likes to dollar the pressure. You'll see some cover zero looks which will give Ceedee Lamb and a Maury Cooper and Michael Gallup opportunities to make plays. I think the same game game plan could work. I think the big thing is when you play the style that Dallas has had to play of late, which is a little more conservative, a little more complimentary. You got to get

contributions from the special teams. You got the big return from Tony Poll, but man Zerolin has to knock down the field goals when they get into scoring range, because when you don't, the margin for error is so thin that it's deflating when those things aren't converted into points. I hate to put the big picture. When you were answering their questions, that's what I want to talk about.

I don't want to talk about this. You mentioned, like what you you mentioned having hard conversations in the offseason. You know you're on the spot too much. I mean, how hard of a fix is it? A new coordinator or there? I mean, can one draft class of decent defending players and some free agents fix this? I mean, how deep of a hole? Do you think this is I think this is a huge hole now that we've

seen it play out. It's a huge hole because you have to look at your team in comparison to the teams in the division, and you have to build your team to beat your division rivals. The Giants and the Washington football team. The two things that stand out. They're big and physical in the trenches on both sides of the ball, and they're playing a physical style that will

really exploit you if you don't embrace that. So now, if you're the Cowboys, you have to make a decision, and the first lynchpin is obviously what do you decide to do with Dak Prescott? Because you can decide to go all in on Dak Prescott, build up the offense, meaning draft an offensive tackle, adding another offensive lineman, go with this offense and say that we're gonna put thirty on everybody coming out the gate, be young on defense, and play a simple scheme that allows you to play

that way. If you stay with Mike Nolan, I don't think that is possible because his scheme doesn't necessarily allow young players to come in and play fast right away. Then it's about what key playmakers can you bring in to help this? Because when I look at this team, and most teams have to have three defensive playmakers that are dominant to play at a high level. Well, who are the three defensive playmakers in Dallas? We can say

to Marcus Larrence, We'll give you that. But who else is a guy that we could say as a blue player right now? Jayleen Smith hasn't played that way, Lady benn and S hasn't played their way. There's no one in the second here that we could count on that we could say that Traylon Diggs is maybe an emerging player.

But without playmakers, it's hard to succeed in this league unless you play a simple scheme one that was utilized a couple of years ago when you have Rod Mary Nelline Christph short that allowed young guys to run around and play fast. And so if you don't do that, it has to be the talent. And I don't know if you can acquire enough talent in one offseason to get them up to snuff. Bucky, this is kind of

a this could be a tough question to answer. So, but you don't have to name like names or anything, but have you has it ever been your experience that you get this late in the season, and you said, the Bengals, this could be a get right game, the Cowboys get right game. There's some fan bases out there that don't necessarily want them to get right. Maybe do you have you ever experienced even in the organization, the scouting department, it's like, this is a big game when

it turn in terms of the draft pick. Have you ever noticed that with like scouts may want one thing, coaches may want another. Have you ever experienced that? Yeah, then they're the outlier in this. From a Cowboys manage point is there's still hope that you can win the division. You're two games out, you have four games to go, but two of those games against division rivals, and so looking at the other schedules, those teams can lose and give you a chance to maybe back door into the postseason.

So from an optimistic standpoint, you're like, well, man, let's win out and let's just kind of see where it is. But if you don't have that hanging in the balance, absolutely, when you're assessing your needs and what you want, you

don't want to fall out of play. And so for the Bengals, I mean Zach Taylor may want to play hard, but Duke Tobin, those guys are like, hey, if we finished with the top three pick, it gives us options because we not only maybe get a chance to get a blue chip player, but we can trade it off. If your Dallas sitting at four right now, if the division goes away, you don't want to fall too far out where you miss out on a pick that can

immediately help the team. So, whether that is an offensive tackle, whether that is the quarterback, if you say that that you're gonna go that route, you don't want to fall back where now you're out of the hot cock and you can't get any player. If I'm gonna go through all of the struggles of not being good, I want something at the end of the rainbow that is going to reward us, to give us an opportunity to be a dominant team going forward. So yeah, I can see that.

It's hard to say I'm a root against my squad, but I can see where you would want your team to lose to give yourself the best opportunity to upgrade the team in the future. Yeah. And the interesting thing here is if you look at the Cowboys, have they don't have a single game left on the schedule. I don't think against the team with a winning record now, they are bad, and so it's it's hard to assume that they're gonna win for in a row, even against

bad teams. But that's the part that certainly makes people who are kind of thinking like should they be playing for something, like, yeah, they have to keep playing it out because that's what's on their schedule, and those other teams that are two games ahead of them right now don't have that kind of benefit. They have teams that are actually pretty good on their schedule that are left.

Did you guys, it's funny, Derek, Like, I mean, no one expected Washington in New York to win last weekend, right because that changes the equation because if they lose, then you're sitting here, Hey, we're one game back. All we have to do is win. And you probably didn't chalk up the Baltimore Ravens game as a win, but because they won, it changes the way that you look at it. But you do have to say, these are four winnable games on the schather because they're all losing teams.

If we can find our way and find our identity and somehow find a way to get hot, which is hard. After twelve games, there's still a possibility that you can get a T shirt and a hat at the end of it, So you still have to sell that hope to your team and to your fan base because we've

seen crazier things happen in this league. It's just hard to be optimistic when you visually saw the Baltimore gut the Cowboys for two hundred and ninety four yards and you're saying that they probably could have run for four hundred if Greg Roman didn't decide to pass at all. Yeah. Yeah, It's just one of those really, really really weird situations where you're looking at the NFC East and looking at the Cowboys. Hey, Bucky, appreciate you joinius. We'll have you

back tomorrow. We'll get into the Cincinnati offense versus the Cowboys defense. I was Bucky Brooks of NFL Networks, presented by Texico with tech Ron. We'll take our first break when we come back. We've talked about the Cowboys defense, and they're on pace to give up more yards than any Cowboys defense in the history of the franchise. If you had to rank the levels of the defense from best to worse? How would you rank them? And we'll be the toughest part to repair. That's what I'm going

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Welcome back to the Break, presented by Geico Life from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star I have some questions for you guys. We're gonna talk about the Cowboys defense and the Cowboys special teams. We didn't get a chance to talk about special teams earlier this week after the game, so I do will have a question for you guys on that. But let's start first with the defense. I teased up before we went to break, the idea

that obviously we know this defense is bad. But if right now you had to rank the different levels of the defense defensive line, linebacker, and secondary, how would you rank them as relatively speaking best to worst. Let's start with you, Dave, best to worst linebackers, defensive line, and secondary. So I think this is the classic case. You know, Nick and I argue a lot about whether or not you great on a curve or not, because just in terms of like the talent level and what they've done

is probably the secondary. You know, going all the way back to the offseason, you know, they don't have any playmakers back there. Trayvon Diggs is like and maybe Donovan Wilson are the only guys that you really even maybe want to be on this team moving forward, and they've given up a lot of plays. Having said that, it's the linebackers. The line blackers are the absolute worst thing about this defense because they were supposed to be a strength.

They were you know, it was a year ago that we were talking about them maybe being the best unit in the NFL. Layton Jalen Sean Lee as like the best third linebacker in the NFL. Jalen's on a seventy million dollar contract, Layton's a first round pick. And they're bad. They're very bad. The run defense is terrible, and so I mean, not only are they not good, but it's extra disappointing on top of that because they were supposed to be a strength and they're not. So I would

say linebackers first, definitely easily. So you're saying that the worst, yes, Okay, so the way, they're the worst thing about this the way I interpret that, you're saying defensive line best, then secondary then linebackers. Yeah, I think so that's probably fair, all right, And to be clear, that doesn't mean that I think the defensive line is good. Yes, you're asking me to rank three bad things. It's all really all right, Amber, Yeah, where do you go? Okay, I'm I'm on the same

page as Dave with the whole thing. Like to me, I think the linebackers are currently the worst because these are starter guys. These are guys that you expect them. Again, same as Dave's point, and the differences or not the difference, but every time I look at place, I cannot help myself. And I'm not trying to bash on Jalen Smith, but it's inevitable for you to not notice him. But in a bad way, like he is really really bad. He

is so slow I cannot tell. I mean, some of the defensive linemen, you see them running faster than Jayleen Smith right now. And the difference with Leyton, Yes he's not making plays, but at the same time he still has the athleticism, he still has some energy to him and the ability to run and run fast. But I

would say linebackers and then the secondary. I would want to say the defensive line because of the talent there, but I can't help talk about the secondary and how bad they've been a just allowing receivers to make so many plays and just you notice all the separation between the secondary players and the receivers. It's it's so bad. So uh yeah, same page on that as Dave. I would say, all right, Nick, I mean it's there, it's this is hard. I mean, because they're all they're all

bad right now, they're all bad. I would probably say the worst. Well, had you asked the question, what's the best, best, the worst, best, the worst between the three units or three levels, just just like the ball goes D line linebacker dB, maybe DBS worse. Yeah, definitely the worst. I almost said linebacker is the best. But it's they're the same. I mean, who's making a play? Yeah, who nobody makes

a play. You could say that about the linebackers, like, because they have guys that you expected to make plays, But we expect the defensive lineman to make plays to expect do you a lot to have more than three and a half sacks? I think he's had three sacks in a game before, so he expected him to play better than that. And it's just across the board. But it's gonna be a secondary at the back because they haven't done anything. But you know, I will say this, I mean, if you on a bad unit, an overall

bad unit, and three levels that are all bad. I started looking at, well, which ones have at least given me some moments, given me some flash plays. Linebackers probably the only unit that I'm like, I can't really recall a lot of plays that they've made. You look at some of the stuff that you've gotten from Donald Wilson, you look at some of the plays you've gotten from

from gigs. Secondaries given you a couple of plays. They've been bad, Don't get me wrong, all of them have been bad, but they've given you a couple of plays. Tank Lawns has given you some plays this season. You've had some moments with Gallimore where you're like, oh okay, I seal some Trinston Hill the same thing. Linebackers. Once again, I don't recall a lot of plays being made by

the linebackers. So that's where it puts me back to like, I think the linebackers have just performed the worst because they have they're not making enough plays. The ironic part is, though, the one play that they made, one of the plays they both the two starting linebackers both didn't make a play on that that same play, it was an interception by Jayalen against Washington and then it took about four

days to get down to the end zone. If if Layton would have turned around and watched event team, they didn't make a play on the play. They even make a play on the play. Now, that's what end did hit Carson Wentz and force a fumble there and pretty nice pay. Yeah that was a nice play. Ye, yeah, I was gonna bring that one else. Okay, that's it. I can't think of another one that's a good one. And how many games where yeah, it's it's been a minute.

They've had opportunities and Yon's Layton's been back since what Philly, Well, I mean Layton missed like five games. He's been back for a while though. Okay, so here's I'll change the question a little bit based upon what you just said. Which is the easiest and which is the hardest to fix. Let's start first with you Nick. Yeah, um, he is just fix coaching because basically one person you start over, you're good, that's the person that's gonna Yeah, those people

are gonna try to fix it. Of course that's how you start. But from a personnel standpoint, UM, I don't I don't know if you could really answer that on because and I've said this before, whenever they they're drafted in the first round, like I've got asked this yesterday, which position do they take? And I said, they take BA That's what they take. They take the best of all, No, no, not best available, the badass. Yeah, and if he's a middle linebacker, okay, if he's a deep passworder, if he's

a deepensive tackle safety, I don't care. Whoever the badass is that sitting right there in defense for them, that's what they take. And so that is how you fix that position. And then I don't know, I don't know how to answer that, what's the best? I just think you gotta take the best badass defensive player you can take, and then then you gotta see where you can go from there. I don't know. Do you know which one

you would think is the hardest to fix? Um? Secondary, because those guys don't typically just jump right in and start playing immediately. The best you know, I would, I would say secondary. I don't know. You got me on these two questions. I don't I'm not answering them. Well. I feel like I'm back in high school again. I because I don't know. Well, you know, Derek does send the rundown before the show, so he gives you some time to look at it and think about it a

little bit. It's a good point. I ain't got the page two, three four, all right? What you got? Easiest and hardest to fix? Easiest? Um? I would say the easiest would be the D line because of the talent there. Yes, they are not at the level we all expected them to be, but I still believe that there is talent there. And with just I don't know what the easy fixes will be, but if you get it right, I do believe that they can perform at a way better level

than what we've seen so far. The hardest would probably be the secondary because you don't really what was the name that you guys use in English player by committee type is that it's like that whole same mentality that we have last year or one? Was it with the receivers that we were just let's see, let's try out everyone. That's how I feel that the secondary is right now.

There's no one except for Trevon Diggs that you know, he's gonna be a guy that's gonna turn into a starter and be a great player for the Cowboys, or at least that's the expectation. Other than that, looking at the guys that are veterans that are going to become free agents and all that, you don't really have the

talent right there. So I think that that's gonna be the hardest because you need to find so many different bodies to replace what you don't have right now, even though you have bodies, but you don't have the talent. Dave easiest and hardest to replace or fix. All right, Well, let's let's get hardest out of the way, because that's the easy one, and it's linebacker because you're you're saddled with a huge contract that you can't get away from very easily. And I mean you just you have to

find a way to fix Jalen Smith. I mean, whatever that's that's somebody's problem, make him a viable player, or find a way away from that contract. For that matter. You know, Yon Layton has been he's had ups and downs, he's been fine. But again that's I mean, that's a sizable I know, you know, rookie contracts aren't huge, but that's a sizeable contract for a guy that isn't playing amazing. So that's that's the big problem. And then I would

say easiest after that, people are gonna laugh. It's probably the second Dara in my opinion, because you have a starting cornerback and Trayvon Diggs that you feel pretty good about. You're gonna have a high draft pick that you could theoretically use on a defensive back maybe. And I you know, people are gonna laugh because like me and Amber have

been whining for years, they don't draft safety. But this team has fielded good defenses without elite secondaries before, like they haven't had that, and they've still managed to piece together some decent defenses. So you draft a few guys, you sign a free agent like you can piece together

a competent secondary. The thing that worries me is Dallas like good at evaluating defensive linemen, drafting them, developing them because with the exception of DeMarcus Lawrence, their track record says No, in the time that I've been here, you know, I got here right after like DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer were pretty damn formidable. In the time that I've been here, they haven't really had like this terrifying pass rush.

They've tried to piece it together. You know, they've had some minor hits in free agency, like Jeremy Menzi and Terrell McClain. Robert Quinn was great for a year, but like too was a disaster. Malie Collins never really worked out the way that you wanted it to. We'll see about Tristan Hill and Neville Gallimore. But like in the time that I've been here, this team has not fielded a great front and they've put a lot of resources

into it. So that kind of concerns me that I don't want to say they don't know what they're doing, but that's a spot where their track run is. It's not inspiring when you think about the fact that they've got to add some talent to that group. Yeah, I don't know if I agree with that all the way. I mean, obviously Tackle was a disaster. We know that

they didn't get out of that what they expected. But you look back and again the interesting part, you've got to look at the history even a little bit longer than maybe the time you've been here, Dave, because it's been the same people making those calls. You know, McLay has been around for a long time. Although Suskowski was the head guy for a minute, basically it still came back to Jerry and Stephen and and you look at

just the last I don't know, fifteen twenty years. They've had a lot of hits on the defensive line, I think, and I think Taco obviously was the the outlier there. I don't think Malie Collins was a bust. I don't think maybe you got exactly what you wanted out of him, but don't think he was a bust. I think he was a decent player, decent to average, solid player that ended up getting a better dealing free agency. So I don't think he was a bust. It was not a

Taco situation, I would say. So. I don't know if they necessarily have shown that they aren't good at that. And I'll put it to you like this, there are some positions where I feel like there it's more warranted to say they're not really good at evaluating those positions. Safety is one of them, obviously, But I just I don't know if I agree with that on defensive line, see okay, but do they are not good at evaluating

safeties or do they just not try? Like they don't draft him and they certainly don't sign him in free agency. Whereas on the defense, like, like I'm thinking about it in even more detail now that we're talking about it the real Like, let's think about the resources that they've put in, like going all the way back, even free agency. Henry Melton was supposed to be Rod Marinelli's three technique that replaced Jason Hatcher didn't really work out? What about

Hardy another god off? What about Quinn? Like, if you're giving me those things like Hyder was a good player for them, don't don't say he wasn't Hyder was a good player. You throw Hider out like I mean Hyder as a fact that that's your first name as a guy that was brought in, the fact that that's your first name kind of proves my point. A guy that was brought in for the role that he was brought

in for. I think he did an adequate job for what they were bringing him into do like again, when you're bringing in those kind of guys, those are guys that make you not have to reach in the draft. They're guys that can be steady, guys that can give you good reps. And I think Kerry Hyder did that. Did Randy Gregory. We're all rooting for him. But did he live up to the billing of what they hoped he could be? Again, maybe he wasn't a bust. But did MALIEK. Collins live up to what they were hoping

he could be? Probably not. If you don't get a second contract with your team as a top seventy pick, I think that's disappointing. I just the track records not great in my opinion. We can disagree about it, but sorry, Yeah, ever,

go ahead and have a question for you. You're a draft guy, you know, you do the Draft show and all that, and you look at all these talents and I feel like with a lot of these defensive linemen, we always talk about them pretty good, and the way I see it is just like maybe they're not being coached well. So when you look at these names that you have listed, how do you remember seeing them as

before getting into a game. Here with the Cowboys. Man, that's a that's a fantastic question, and it honestly gets hard to do the longer you do it, because I mean, shoot, I guess my first my first draft would have been twenty fourteen. So I mean the guys that got drafted back then. I mean, they've been in the league for seven years at this point and for the most part, you know, like I don't, I don't fault them for

any of those picks that they made. Um So, And for that matter, I mean Rod Marinelli was the guy coaching them for most of that time, and I don't know say what you will about Rod, but I trust his ability to coach defensive lineman. So I don't. I don't know that I specifically put it on coaching maybe um And like again like I don't, I don't know. I think the world of Will McClay and his guys, Like, I think for the most part, they've done a very,

very very good job. But with the exception of DeMarcus Lawrence, Like, there's just not a lot that you feel amazing about in terms of like developing this pass for rush. I mean, am I crazy for thinking that? No? I mean I think the results are the results, And quite frankly, you could say that about pretty much every part of this defense right now, Like this talent is not performing to the level that it's supposed to perform. So from that standpoint,

you're absolutely right. I just don't know that I see this glaring difference between defensive line picks and how they've performed versus linebackers who we've been talking about, or secondary guys we've been talking about, or you know, you can go down the list on the different positions, like there's a lot of positions on this team just aren't performing to the pedigree of what you thought they should have

when they've selected them. So again, and you know as well as anybody else, Dave, the draft is a it is a you know, you're rolling the dice, like you hit on forty percent of your draft and you feel great about it, right if you can get that first pick right, which you better get the first pick right. Everything else you're really betty, and you're hoping the percentages

go down the farther you get down the draft. So it's a crapshoot and you just kind of got to see where you go from there, and you hope that you can get some hits, and you specially hope you can get some hits with guys as you get farther down the draft that are just kind of, you know, a Dak Prescott that you get in the fourth round to actually turn into a really really great player. Right yeah, all right, we're gonna take our final break. When we come back. I do need to get the question in

on special teams. We're gonna gonna have a couple of minutes to do that, so we gotta get a quick break. We'll come back lass our line. We'll let you guys go. This is a break. We're backing in the tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor Peppett and cream Soda. Is he a new combone. Let's music to

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Can be watched on the Dallas Cowboys Facebook and Twitter on December eleventh and the twenty fourth at six pm Central, or on demand at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash Christmas. Welcome Back to the Break, presented by Geico Real Quick here before we finished the show, I didn't need to talk about Greg zerline this last game. He missed three of four field goals. He missed a forty yard or fifty two yard or fifty three yarder. Fifty two and fifty three didn't worry me as much as the forty

yarder did. My question for you, guys is how concerned are you about the kicker at this point? And I'm more speaking of it long term. Obviously this season probably doesn't matter a ton, but going forward, has he shown you enough to where you think you may have a kicker or do you think you got to go back to the well and find a kicker. Let's start first with you, Nick. Um, I don't. I don't necessarily think I've got to go find one. I'm not concerned really

at all about what he did. I'm looking trying to find his stats here for this year. I mean, I just he missed. He missed a forty yarder. I mean, that's that's about. He missed the forty yard kick. Um, I'm telling you, I was down there. I mean, it's it's I had a feeling it was gonna be a problem just with the wind, and it's one of the toughest places to kick. And you can look at Justin Tucker. He is exceptional. He is definitely an exceptional kicker. He's better on the road than he is at home. And

he really yeah, he missed a kick that day as well. Um, the two fifty yarders. I mean, I'd like for him to make one, but I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna judge him by that, you know, I don't. I don't like. I don't think you can judge kickers based on what they do. Strictly on what I do is I judge the coaching staff and the play caller for for what they did. If we had more time. I mean, I I was just perplexed with some of the things that they did and preparing for those field goals. But now

I don't have a problem with the zerline at this point. Amber, I'll make it quick. No, I don't either. I think he just had a bad game that day. But just in general, I still want the Cowboys to bring in several guys and see a little competition like they never bringing competition. And we've talked about the kicker position for a few years now, and for some reason they just

simply don't like doing that in the recent years. I don't know why, But regardless of the situation, every offseason, I do want to see several kickers out here at training camp kicking it and just going at it. Dave, it's December, what tenth and this is the first time we've ever had to talk about Greg zirline. I think that pretty much sums it up cold Wendy Night. Two

of the misses are for long range. Greg didn't blame it on the coach, but they screwed him by taking a delay of game penalty on the forty yard or and Justin Tucker missed from the same distance in the same stadium, so he was hitting I think he was hitting ninety percent before Tuesday night, and I mean it wasn't a good night. That's not great. If it happens again, that's problematic. But I'm not worried about it at all. Right now, I did look at his fifty yards that

he's one of six. No, he's not great for it. But by the way, I mean, but looking at his career, he's last few years five and seven, four six, six of seven to a four three of nine, five of seven, I mean he's isn't that Also I'm sorry Nick to cut you off, but like that's the conversation we had for years is like, awesome, Brett Maher, I'm so happy you can make it from fifty five. Can I get a guy that can reliably make it from inside of fifty? And by the way, Greg's or line has been doing that.

We were having this exact same conversation in training camp, because if you remember back in training camp, he was hit hitting everything below fifty and got past fifty and it was just like, you know, he's just all all over the place. Maybe he gets it, maybe he doesn't. But that was where it was like is he's not great to beyond fifty, but less than fifty he's gonna

be money. And I personally, I am a believer that if I can rely on my kicker under fifty yards and I get whatever I get beyond that, to me, I'll take that in today's inn. And I'm adding extra points because they're all about the same type of kick. He's got forty five kicks this year inside of forty yards. Forty five kicks, he's forty one of forty five. Two of those are been blocked. I don't know if it's low kicks or just bad blocking, but so really, missus,

it's you know, forty one of forty three. One extra point and then that miss. That's not bad. I'm okay with that. So we just get the Cowboys to convert on third down Town and I don't know, maybe make it to the end zone, get in the red zone for once in a while. And quite frankly, if you're kicking a fifty plus yard field goal, in my opinion, in those kind of instances, I think you're at the part of the field where you should be able to. Now their defense is bad, so that that changes the

complexion of the conversation. But you should be in the part of the field where you feel good about going word on fourth down in those instances and converting a good percentage of those. So I just think all all all things considered, I think he's been fine. I don't I don't get worried too much about this last game. All Right, we appreciate you, guys, John Us. We'll be back on tomorrow. We'll talk about the Cincinnati defense versus the Cowboys offense. Tilling for Nick Even, Dave Helm and

Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Eagleton. 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.