Cowboys Break: Revisiting The Redskins

of The Break. I am Derek Eagleton and I'm joined by the normal cast. Here. We are talking Cowboys football he guys for about an hour, and we are going to get into a little deeper talk today about the Washington Redskins. Cowboys face the Redskins Thursday night. It is Thursday Night football this week for you guys paying attention at home. So we'll talk about both their offense and their defense. Dave's gonna give us a scouting report on

both today. We're gonna go to Amber and Nick and they'll tell us what they think is most alarming or interesting or just something that they're keeping an eye on with regards to those two units. But first we got to start by talking a little bit about some injuries, some injury updates, and some players that misspractice yesterday and what we expect from them. This is like a Friday. This is like a Friday for the team. This is a Friday for the team. No, yes, yes, this is

a Friday. It's a Friday for the team. Can't keep it. We're coming on a show tomorrow. We're gonna have a show tomorrow and then Friday Friday, all of you guys are gonna be off. We're gonna send you guys away. I won't be no talk for on Friday. Sorry, but I'll take that on Thursday. So most gowboys on Friday sho game. Well, you can't just do it before the game. Why would you tape a show before the game if it's gonna run on TV? Say Derek, say what you want to say. Say it, Say what you want to say.

I'm not gonna say what I want to say. It's all right, you know what I want to say. I'll be here for What a horrible song is that? There is a son mayor say what you need to say. It's not a horrible Yes, it is pretty good. Any song where you have say the same lyric forty seven thousand times in a row. It's catchy, can't What do you think? I don't even know the song, so I like a simple song every now and then. I don't know.

Do the fans know that we've fallen? I'm going is a musician like the previous life, he actually traveled the world singing and playing. I feel like at hit Yeah top forty right, kit Yeah are a one since day one, like the real crazy not crazy, but like the real passionate fans who like really keep up with everything they know they know. Yeah, I don't think that's a widely known thing though. Forever the Sickest Kids. That's the name of the band, right, yep, pretty damn good. You're on

the Warped tour, toured the world, sold out arenas. One day, we're gonna have story time with Kent and we're gonna have him tell us his craziest story from the road. He has to have that after dark. It has to be a late night show. Hey, have you not heard some of the stories that Nick tells. I think we could probably get away with it and Amber's mouth on this show. I mean, I think we could probably get away with it. True. Yeah, oh cool, So we're off Friday. Okay, cool?

Moving on, all right, Yeah, it's gonna say Ken, we're talking about a guy, you know, in a band, like in a world tour. That's probably some good stuff, right, depends on your definition of good. This is Kent's nightmare, right it is. He's probably sitting over there one one. All right, let's get to injury talk. Um start first, I guess there were four guys from the Cowboys who did not practice yesterday, Lele Collins, Justin Durant, Anthony Hitchins,

Sean Lee. Uh tell me about which ones are most concerning or which ones you think are just symptomatic of just giving a guy a little time off. Well, Jerry Jones said this morning on the radio, you know It's weekly radio interview, that they hope that they'll have Sean Lee back soon, but he doesn't. He doesn't know when soon is and hope hopefully it's soon, but he doesn't know what that means. So so probably that this week come down doesn't sound like a guy who's ready to

play in forty eight hours. Tell you that, um, so, I mean you think about it that it's you think of it in terms of games, and you're like, well, he only missed two games against when he was out the first time. You forget there was a bye week thrown in there as well, like a full week and a weekend off, where so that's an added nine days where you're not really in the weekly grind. So this will be his third full absence since he injured the

hamstring in Atlanta. But that's only twelve days. So the wonkiness of the schedule right now really kind of messes with him. Like if this had happened at a different time in the season, I think it would have been better for him. But that's neither here nor there, so it doesn't look like he's going to be there Thursday. We all know what that tends to mean for the defense. I don't have a good read on the Hitchins situation. It's growing injury, it's it's well, yeah, it's it's related.

I mean, he played through it, so there's every possibility that he could get himself up for it. I don't know the fact that it's not a short week, but it's not the long week that you typically get after a Thursday game, So I don't know. We'll see what he does today, that could be really telling. Durant's a concussion, and you know typically with that you're either like good to go or you're gonna miss again. Like for instance, Zach Martin had the same thing and he was back

at practice already. Right, it seems like a good bet that he'll be available Thursday. But I don't know about Duran The interesting with a concussion. It seems like, again,

none of these things are the same. But it seems like when you get to what would be a Friday or at least what will be a Thursday, and the guy still has not practice with a concussion, that doesn't seem like it's a It's great that it seems like there's like that's kind of what I meant is not good to go, But like you go through the protocol and it's like okay, like you're fine, You're you're cognitively you're good. It seems like you kind of missed a

bullet here. And Zach Martin was he was limited, but he was out there doing stuff. Yes, because it's either all or none. You're not just gonna be right. Yeah, if they I mean, if you're not doing anything two days into the practice week, that tells me like, all right, calm down. You don't need to be out there doing you know, over exerting yourself like that. You need some time.

But also when you think about what needs to happen with the roster and a linebacker, like if you're not gonna have Durant, you're not gonna have Sean Lee and Hitchens is banged up, you know, what are you? What are you doing there? That's a really that's a good point. And the fact that they haven't added a linebacker this week maybe says that they they hope one of those guys can play. Yeah, but I'm still thinking this could be the most we've seen from like Justin marsh Lillard

so far this year. Well, the other thing to consider here is you are playing a team that probably and we'll get into this when we start talking about the way you match up against this team, but this is a team that throws the ball a ton, especially now that their best running back is gone for the year. Ah But is that I mean, is that the case there? I don't know, And that's what we're gonna get into when we start talking about the Redskins breakdown. But their

best running back is gone. But now, like I think, and it's only one game, but it looks like they maybe adapted their style of play to fit what they have because I know it a minute. Wait wait wait, wait wait, you have an injury, you stick to the plan. You don't adapt to another game plan. You don't do that because no one does that. Nonsense, Dave Sing, I know, Nick, well, listen to you know what the hold on before we get right into what the Redskins are doing? Are we

into that right now? I mean yeah, you just just want to send too what happened yesterday when you when listen to the coordinators both of them, Scott Scott Nahan and Rod Marinelli said the same thing and that you know,

you do what you do. And I think the quote from from Lenahan was, you know, we're the same team that we were when we won three games in a row of back just a few a month ago, which is not true, but he said, you know, you just want to do what you do and you just keep doing it hard, hard, do it better, you know, you know, just keep practicing and all these things. And it's like that's to me, that's the problem here, that's the problem.

You can't just keep doing what you do and say we're the same team we were three weeks ago, because you're not. Thing is it sounds good and it's certainly if you can. Ever, if you can actually get to that point, then yeah, now you've hit the holy grail of how you handle injuries in the NFL. The problem is, it just doesn't make sense when you think about it.

If you could do, if you could be the same team you work when you were on that three game win streak, then there's no way to do I let me say like this, there's no way to do that in today's construct of the NFL, where your depth is going to be affected because you can't because of the amount of money that's on the cap. You cannot have players at every position and have depth at every position to be able to absorb all those injuries. Can't. Alabama can do that because they just pull up the next

five star recruit. But in the NFL, I don't know. That's what I wrote in my column. This isn't just like Trent Green going down and Kurt Warner comes in and you know, a made for Hollywood slash Canton story. It doesn't happen like that all the time. It's very rare that an injury goes, you know, happens, and then guy just comes in and says, Romo, Deck Prescott, that's rare.

That's really rare, And people don't realize how rare it is because of the way they're talking about Dak Prescott this year, with the struggles that he's head and I thought about that yesterday too, which that kind of tends to get glossed over. But this team did, you know, adapt really well to a major injury last year in the form of Dak Prescott, And I'm sure that must weigh heavily in their minds that, hey, this has worked

before like this. The whole reason people have high expectations for us is because we handled this type of adversity the right way before. So there's that line of thinking. I'm not saying I completely agree with it, but like, I'm sure that line of thinking is there and I follow it at least. Although the difference is, if you want to go back to last year, they did adapt, Like they didn't do the same thing with Dak Prescott that they would have done with Tony Romo. But they didn't,

and so they did have to change things up. They ran, they ran some zone reads last year that they were not going to run with Tony Romo out there, so they did adapt, they did change. Huh Tony Romo is a readoption king how right? Yeah, maybe in year three of his care But I'm just saying noo. I just think they did adapt last year, and and again, I just I think some of this as tends to be the case in the NFL. I think some of this

is probably overblown a little bit by us. I'm talking about the media, because there is kind of this all or nothing. They probably did make some changes, they probably did adapt some things, But you're right, Nick, just the overall mindset of we're just gonna throw the next guy in there and we're gonna keep doing what we're doing.

That just doesn't when you hear it. When you I mean, when you're waiting to hear Scott Linehan talk about this whole situation, you expect to hear something hopeful and something that okay, at least you know they're going the right way, and it gives you some hope and some of the changes they're doing. But one of the things he did say yesterday was kind of like, all right, well, we focus on the things we are doing well instead of the things that we're doing wrong or bad. It's like, okay, well,

what are those things that you are doing well? Not many? So how can you be folks? You're seeing on that on the positive when the negative is overcoming the positive. And he said, third down third down conversions is something we're doing well. Okay, but the problem is is you're not doing anything on first and second down, so everything is a third down. I mean like the Chargers didn't have many third downs because they just kept moving it up and down the field. First down, first down, first down,

first down. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought that was odd too that he said that because you're five and six and you've lost three in a row, like there's obviously more bad things happening than the good. I don't understand that mindset of where we're gonna try to fix. We're gonna just just keep doing I mean, what does that mean. I think a lot of that And I tried to articulate that yesterday too, though, is like if you admit it, then it's a and then it's like this problem and

it's a problem. Yeah, and then you know they know this stuff, they're not gonna say it to you. And I'm not saying they're gonna go make like wholesale chain. They're not going to do that. But they're just like they're they don't want to put it out there that they agree with you about that stuff, because guess what, then you got a big headline saying Lenahan Colin. Yeahs.

At least you want to feel like you're on the same page, that everyone is on the same page, although you know they know obviously they know everything that's going on. But I will obvious say this though, Ambert, like all of you guys, all three of you guys, spend time in that locker room and you talk to you guys

off the record. That's where you hear the real right, So that's where you get to find out, you know, if if they if they don't believe things are going right, they're gonna say it, they just won't say it in front of the cameras. And so you know, I think they I think I agree with Dave. They know, they just don't want to put it out there publicly like that.

But guarantee, in these meetings this week, they're probably talking about those things that they don't do so well and saying how do we improve this and what do we need to do differently? And I mean that's a part of being a coach, and that's I mean, we'll see what it means for the offense. But like they're they're benching dudes and shuffling dudes in the secondary, so like they can say all they want about how to stay the course, Like that's not true if they're benching people

and shuffling things. So I think they know and they go about it their own way. They don't want to admit it publicly or like put that out into the universe. So why not make a change it running back? Then? Why didn't they do that? I don't know, because they probably feel like right now, they don't. They probably feel

like the running back. They probably feel like the running back position is one of the lesser of their concerns and may feel like making a change there doesn't necessarily give you an appreciably better result, you know, Like right now, I don't think the Running game is horrible. I think the Running Game has been okay. I think the Running Game is the only thing that hasn't been horrible. But and the difference is this is the irony of the whole situation. The running game has to be great in

order for everything else to work. That's the problem. But you don't have another guy to roll in here. That's Ezekiel Elliott, right, So you're not going to improve that to make it great until Zeke comes back. Right now. You just have to deal with what you have to deal with. So getting an okay running game is what you're gonna have. Can you fill in with all those other things that you're saying. Zeke's in the running game is great, and a great running game makes everything else

pretty good. But when he's not in, then it's just an average running game, and an average running game makes everything else bad. Yes, that's why that's it works. I was at practice yesterday for what ten minutes and talking talking to a guy that I don't really talk to a whole lot about stuff going on in the field, and he said to me, you know what this team needs. This team needs more speed at receiver. And I was like, yeah, yeah, they do, Yeah, you know, it's fill point. I was

just like yesterday on the radio too. I was driving home. I was listening to this showing radio and there were a bunch of media types from Dallas that were on the air, and they went on for about twenty minutes on this team needs some speed receiver. And I was just like, Nick is just like sitting there, just like, come on, man, come on. I think I've been saying that everybody at Alexander, right, yeah, everybody sees it. They You guys don't even know who that is. No, I don't.

I remember the name played at Auburn. It was like nineteen Get him. He was drafted the same year as Emmett m How long he playing the league? Not three years? He was? Hey, he was on the reunion they had the other day of the nineteen ninety two. Oh yeah, I didn't recognize his face. Yeah, yeah he was. He was the little guy out there. Eighty one played for three years. Huh. Yeah he wasn't He wasn't that special. But I mean he was a speed guy. You know.

He was a guy drafted in the second round because he could run. He was a track guy. That's kind of what they need to just need somebody like that. But if they don't have that, and they're not gonna have it for a while, they need to at least use what they have, and I think use the field. We said it yesterday spread the field a little bit. I will say this, I'm starting to disagree with you just a little bit on that. I don't want just

to speed guy. I actually want them to get a fast guy that actually can play receiver, like a oh a good fast gut Okay, So yeah, I actually want to I want to see him. I want to see them. I want to see them go out and get a stud wide receiver. That's fine. So you're saying the first round, no, yeah, no way, you don't. Not in not in today's NFL. I do third round, Jarvis Landry, third round, Juju Smith Schuster, your third rounds A Jones like, you don't have to

go Antonio Brown, fifth or sixth round. Yeah, but that's an anomaly, obviously, it's not. That's an anomaly. That's not the best receivers in the game right now. The five Julio guys who first round Abe Abe, So he's in the Julio first round, Backham first round. Um. I thought going into the year of that Mike Evans would be in that group, but he the way that inconsistent. It just hasn't happened. You don't put keenan Allen in there.

Third round. Here we go, third round. Yeah, I mean, I just didn't know if you want to do made meet my words. Made said that, like before the game, you're like, this dude is about to happen the whole world day. And I mean he was good. I stand again, I stand by what I said, like like he's not the worst of the one receiver that they place. He's not as good as like Julio Jones. Yes, between those two. Right, I'm trying to I can't even focus on who they

who's the best number ones that they've played? But he's not who is the best number one they've played. He's not in the top like three number ones that they've played. Probably if I had to think about it, we don't have to go there. Yeah, I have to go back, and he made me my words. I'm sorry. I know keenan Allen's list. Did he have the best day of a wide receiver the Cowboys a face this year? Yes? By far? Yeah, Okay, it's Josh Gordon in there. Best

receivers Josh Gordon. We'll see he might come back and have a two hundred yard day. He does that. Sometimes you can find a stud receiver in the third round that's all I'm trying to say. Okay, go find them. All I'm saying is I'm not I don't think I'm just satisfied with saying, go and get a track guy. They may have deficiencies out there, go and get me

a guy that can actually play the position. Because I think right now, one of the problems with the Cowboys receivers that you hear all the time is they're not great route runners. Well, throwing another guy out there in the mix is not a great route runner. He's a one trick pony that can just run a nine route. I don't know if that necessarily helps you in the Yeah, And I think it all comes down to what happens

with Dez. I mean, because if you have Dez on this team, then you could just need need a speed guys going anywhere. Okay, well you just need a speed guy. Then you just need a guy that can run, like Dave saying third round whatever, But you want that guy that can do everything. That's a difference maker, number one receiver with speed. Yeah, those guys usually go higher than what the Cowboys are gonna pick. Yeah, I think I'm okay with that. Stefon Diggs and Adam Feeling are both

late round guys, are they? I don't even know if Adam Feeling was drafted, Nah, he wasn't. Diggs was a fifth round Heeland is one of those kind of guys though that I think that you know, he just kind of fits his role really really well. Um. I mean, Diggs, what makes him special is you write the speed is what makes him special, Like he can get down, feel and get open and you just don't have any answer for it. But that kind of guy's also going to

be inconsistent. Some games he's gonna have big players other games he's not. So you know that there was a speed guy drafted seventh overall, could do everything Pump return from the Rams Tavon Austin has not, hasn't done extremely and consistent. Yeah, gotta be careful with that. I mean there's cases for everything. But I just Cooper Cup third round pick is runner. Is he really fast? He's No, he's not, but it's a good receiver. Yeah he is. I mean he's a great route runner. He's got an

awesome hands. He's not super fast, but it makes some really outstanding catches this year as he's awesome. Yeah, I just I don't know. Just seemed like a white receiver right there. Just good hands, not a super fast, good route runner. Yeah, but he makes plays. He does, he makes plays. No, that's fine, That's definitely fine, Adam. I think the Cowboys could use a guy like that. Doesn't matter, yep, just somebody that can make plays right now. And you

know another thing that this team is lacking in. You know, Dak said it. I know we talked about this on the show, but I mean, just make some plays when when the balls in their hands, I mean, break a tackle or three every now and again. That's that's one thing. And Dak hasn't. I mean, Dez has not done that at all this year. You know they get the ball to does he hasn't. I bet you the guy that's got once in Arizona. It was a great play when he I mean he duke Peterson and like which bowled

his way into the end zone. Feels like it happened about five years. Oh yeah, Frederick's touchdown. But that's the only one that's really surprising to me is DEAs Like those are guys those aren't. They aren't. That's not their game. But that is DES's game. That's what's the part that's surprising that needs some help. Those those kind of plays more as close as Days and Terrence are, or they seem to be on and off the field, they're not good together. They both need a different type of receiver

on the other side. In my opinion, they both could be. You know, he just doesn't He needs a better number two and Terrence needs a different number one, different type of number one. All right, let's take our first break. We'll come back. We're gonna jump into the Cowboys versus the Redskins. Dave's going to give us a scoutter import on both the offense and defense. Will do when you come right back? This is Dallas Cowboys dot com radio. It can be hard to find the right resource for

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and turf equipment of the Dallas Cowboys. Find Texas sized deals at my John Deer dealer dot com. Slash football terms, conditions, exclusions and warranty limitations apply so you can you love for details. Back to the break, Welcome back. It's the second segment of the show, Live from the SWBC Mortgage studios. At the staff talking about Cowboys versus Redskins. Dave, let's do a shatter for these guys. All right, we'll take it real quick, especially because we've already played these guys,

but have we? Yeah? I was actually like, back when the Cowboys were playing really well we really What I'm saying is he really played them the same team we're about to face it well in so many ways, yes, because they're still dealing with all the same stuff they were, Like their offensive line is still a nightmare. Okay, yeah, I mean you saw the injury report yesterday, right, let me pull that. It had a lot of guys on. It's got a ton of guys, five linemen, but the

injury report. Four of them are the starters, I believe, and then the backup tackle who's been backing up for Trent. Trent Williams is on. He's on the list all season long, like he's gonna be dealing with his knee, and he did not practice and did not play last week, did not play. Ty and Secki's his backup. He played left tackle. Brandon Sheriff's probably gonna play, but yeah, he's on the report. Chase rul Yer, Rule Yer probably h he's their backup center.

Spencer longs out, so he's on the injury report as well. Morgan Moses has been dealing with an ankle since around the time the Cowboys played him. He's probably gonna play, but yeah, so your starting line is not in much better shape than it was the last time we saw them. Um Ari Quanjo is probably the guy that's gonna play left guard. They brought him in in the time since Tony Bergstrom is the center. If Rulier can't go so like, I mean, they're dealing with a lot of issues here.

But also, like we alluded to, Chris Thompson is now on IR after he heard himself in New Orleans and correct me if I'm wrong. I think we all said at last game he was the guy that scared us most of that offense he was having I mean, like Lance Dunbar but way better. Like remember how Lance Dunbar was on pace for like one hundred catches or whatever, Like he was having that type of season, but he had sustained it for way longer. Um. But so here

they come out. They remember they drafted some aj p Ryan at Ou, who's good running back, solid running back, solid, just workman like bulldozer guy, like doesn't really wow you with anything that he does, but he's just a solid all around guy. He had twenty like Alfred Morris. Yeah, twenty four carries for one hundred yards. That I mean that hasn't been their style since Rob Kelly got hurt. Really and still the answer to a trivia question, no, no,

because did he break Gordon's record the week after all? Right? Then yeah, as far as I know, he still has the records rushing yards in a game college football, which bums me out because Darius Guys has come really close a couple of times. Right, what's the record thirty six? Oh never mind, No, Darius Guys never came close to that, and like four hundred. I thought the record was like three twenty something. That's NFL. I don't know whatever. Darius Guys never played the NFL, not yet yet. He's on

his way. He's coming. Um twenty four carries one hundred yards, like just much more straight, straight ahead, just running the ball, like, I mean, that's what they have, That's what they gotta do. Like Rob Kelly's hurt, Thompson's on ir he Ryan's like really their only viable running back left now. They gave up six sacks in this game to the Giants, like their offensive line is and probably will continue to be

a problem. Jordan Reid was ruled out of last week's game, and he is also on the report with a hamstring, so Vernon Davis and Niles Paul are probably the guys you're looking at. I think that could be huge for the Cowboys just in the sense of that's one less tight end. I mean, they've done pretty well against Davis is not a bad tight hint up, Oh he's not. And he's he's having like a career renaissance up there.

So like he's a guy to watch. But I like their odds of dealing with him a lot better if they don't also have to deal with Josh Reid or Josh Reid Jordan Reid. Josh Reid was an LSU wide receiver. Let's say I don't know that Josh with his work. Josh Docson, Yes, he's coming on, he's looking. He's looking like he's a guy that scares you if he gets a going, because he's a guy that can catch balls

all over the place. He scares me because the cowboy secondary hasn't been that great at covering guys in the first place. But like he's he's making catches when he's well covered, So what can he do if he's not well covered? Um, he looks like a first round he looks like the first round pick that he was. And then if you're looking for like I think, and this shouldn't be surprising, but the way that they're replacing Chris Thompson, at least through one game, it looks like Jamison Crowder

does even more of that. He had ten targets, seven receptions, one hundred and forty one yards in a touchdown. And he's fast, but like he's not the guy that you send down the field outside the numbers, like he does a lot of his stuff underneath a lot of crossing routes, a lot of bubble screens for the most part. Yeah,

and but he did. And when I think about the first game of the season, first game they played, when it like early in the game where he was streaking down the field and that was the first big like he did it last year. I want to say, I don't mean to say that he can't do it, like the stuff that scares me, Like if you remember the first game up there, he was the guy who just crossed the field from the slot and got just he just was behind everybody and was standing there in front

of the safeties. It was like a forty one yard gain. I think he just got lost. And that's you know, Brian talks about it all the time, like just lose him in the trash, like he'll just cross the whole formation and like the guys trailing him get picked off by their own guys and all of a sudden nobody's covering him. Like, that's what scares me. And if he gets that kind of lead, he's fast enough where he'll

turn it into a score. Yeah, and again samaj p Ryan's a good player, but he's not like a dynamic running back. He's not a pass catcher. So he did have three receptions for thirty yards, but he's not Chris Thompson, That's what I mean. And I think they probably look at Crowder to fill that role or try to fill that role of you know, slot stuff, short passes, swing routes, wheel routes, crossing routes, all that type of stuff. So I think it's it's a lot of the same stuff.

But the thing that I'm curious about is like I would imagine they're going to try to run the ball much more smash mouth with this, you know, current group of personnel defensively, Uh, well, we got to start with the injury report again, Like it's I'm it's unbelievable how many things these guys are dealing with. Martrell Spate is limited with an ankle. Um Monte Nicholson's starting safety, has a concussion and did not participate. Terrell McClean, our old

friend toe did not participate. Yeah, yeah, that's different. Matt Aonidas, who is also he's another defensive Oh wow, that was Shade. Where'd you get your degree? That was Shade? Yeah? Right? What? Uh he played the first game, didn't he? Yeah? Yeah, that he'd been a He had a pretty healthy season, is what I've been getting to. Matt Ionias, who has been really good for them on their defensive line, has handed ankle injuries. He was not as smooth as you'd

think you are. I'm just saying I went right past it. Like I was like, oh, yeah, he's hurt, Derek, what's your problem? No, but like you were no problem, Okay, I just asked where you got your degree from? Zach Brown, their best line back is limited with shoulder and achilles injuries. Now a lot of these guys are limited on Monday, which is good signs for their availability, but clearly they're not at full strength. Of course, they got the guy

back from the last game. They do have Josh Norman back, thank you. That matters. He will be playing in this game. He will be on the left side. Look, he doesn't he doesn't travel a lot. He can, but he doesn't do it a lot. But I would imagine he'll be ondaz a decent amount. Yeah. Um, DJ Sweringer, who like I've always been down. I've always thought of him as like he's like the guy that's always trying to lower

the boom, and more often than not he misses. But he's got like three picks in the last three weeks or something like that. He's so he's playing well. And then you have Kerrigan and Preston Smith as your Russians, which is especially concerning since now both of the Cowboys offensive tackles are gimpy right now. So I mean, we'll see what that means. But the Cowboys lineup on Sunday was Chads Green and Byron Bell, and I don't like that one bit. I can't Ryan Kerrigan and Preston that

guy always plays well. Kerrigan, Yeah, he's a good play I mean he does it every week. Like you know, you know, I was, I was thinking about this to the Cowboys offense. You know how we saw the Chargers do it in the Redskins have done it where you know, just guys are just streaking across the field. You know,

next thing you know, there's is wide open. Dallas never seems to do that, and I think it goes back once again for the ninety seventh time that when you have speed, you have guys that can I mean, you have guys that can open up that middle there when nobody's going forty yards down the field and not only going eighteen nineteen yards, then the middle's never opened, you know what I mean. It's there's never this wide open space.

So that's why I think that this team needs to use a little bit more of the field vertically to open up those things like that. And you got to have a good offensive line that can block long enough for that play to develop like that, but you just never seeing that they have enough room that way. Somebody's got to be taken it deep, right, don't you think part of that though? If you gotta have you gotta

get open. And that seems to be what what I'm hearing more often than not as one of the big problems is even if you got a guy going deep, if he never can shake loosely anyone and if there's never a guy that's actually open, it depends if he takes the safety with him. That's the key. Does he take a safe I'm saying, even if even if he takes the safety with him. If you got guys underneath it were in man coverage and they can't get open, then are you still in the same position. Well, that's

that's the point. If if say Bryce Butler has got to step on his corner and the safety has to go back with them. So there's two guys now forty yards down the field, and you're blocking pretty well up front, and you've got a quarterback that can buy a time. I would think any receiver in the NFL could probably get open. I mean, can figure out a way to find the open man. Anybody can get open if you give him six seconds, That's what I'm saying. But they

don't have that much room because the routes aren't going deep. Whatever. I don't know anything. What do y'all think about Kirk Cousins. I like him. I think he's a good quarterback. I think he is. I think if Washington lets him walk out of the door this next offseason without giving him a new contract, I think it's a dumb move. I

think I agree with you like I have. I mean, he's not the best quarterback in the league, but I think he's about as good as you can reasonably expect to find again, Like you know, you're you're not just gonna find a guy as good as him if you let him go. He's good enough. He's good enough that if you give him the right parts, you can have yourself a team that can compete. And that's the whole point of the NFL. You've got to have a quarterback that's good enough to give you a chance to compete.

He's good enough. He's certainly good enough. Sixty six percent on the year and three thousand yards already with another month to play, nineteen touchdowns, six picks. I think he's really good. I mean, yeah, he could use some help, and he's good for like a bone headed mistake or two now and then, especially like from Traffa do too much, Like he's not he's not on the Rodgers level. But

I think he's a really good quarterback. And it's crazy, like a report came out after they beat the Giants that the Redskins want to see more and he even said, he was like, if you want to, Okay, Like I'd like to think I've got a big enough body of work that five more games isn't really going to make

that much of a difference. But Okay, it doesn't matter because for him, when they don't franchise him this year, if they don't offer him the right contract, there will be I know, there will be a list of teams that will be lining up for his services because they will see the fact that he is certainly good enough

to win in this league. I would hire him as if I needed a quarter the quarterback I'm trying to think of, like where he could go now that San Francisco is no longer an option, well that the Denver they could be. Just because San Francisco getting Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't mean is it is this deal up after this year next year Jimmy Roppolo, Ya, it's up soon. And I you know, like people are like, hey, san Francisco could try to trade him to somebody else just because

they have him now, like whatever. So San Francisco Miami denvers an option for Jacksonville. So there's teams out there that are looking for quarterbacks that'd be very happy to have. I think it would be awesome if he left the division. That great for the Cowboy Yeah, absolutely, because then then what is Whington hive? Though he's one in five against the Cowboys, and that's I mean, it's not for lack of trying, Like we can pull up his stats in those games. I mean, he's a good quarterback and I

would prefer if the Redskins didn't have one. He's a good quarterback. But the problem is is that people want the elite quarterbacks. You know, when Romo was probably almost entire career, he was probably five to ten in the opending on what year he was at. Yeah, but always like right there. He just never was the elite. And there's not thirty two elite quarterbacks, and so Cousins that's where Cousins is. And I don't think Cousins is five to ten, but I think Cousins is probably ten to fifteen.

And but that's fine though, I mean there's always there's always guys like that. I mean, like it's just kind of frustrating for a team because it's like somebody like Cincinnati, like he's your guy, you paid him, he's your guy, but he's just not that good. Yeah. But I'll say this kind of in the same boat. I mean, Stafford's really good. It puts up a lot of stats, but he's good for a bonehead player, you know, one or two a game. But you're describing Romo. That's fine, and

I think I think that's the point. Though, you're stuck with them, That's what I'm saying. You're stuck with them because you have to sign him. You're stuck with that quarterback for a while. And he's not gonna be Brady Rogers or Breeze. But that's the problem. That's the best you're going to do. You're not gonna get Brady. If you're waiting for Brady Rogers or Breeze to show up in your building, then you're probably gonna be waiting for very very same thing Romo did. Romo was always good

enough to get you eight and eight or better. And so you're not picking where the Eagles were to get wins. You're not able to do that. Son. Then at that point you have to surround them with the right talent in order to make use their skills. But they can't be just it can't be Guessler. To be fair, the Eagles picked like fourteenth that year. They did drastic things

to get up there and get him. But yeah, um, but you know what, though, like I think, like like Derek said, like that's as good as you can hope for at the end of the day. As amazing as they are, Rogers and Breeze have won one Super Bowl, and they did that with the help of, like, I mean, those were great supporting casts. He had, like Charles Woodson on his defense, and they weren't great, and you know, Breeze had the benefit of a defense that forced like

thirty six takeaways that year. And they've struggled to get back there ever since. And and this year is the year that they are doing well, but it's their defense is back to playing like he was playing that year. And the last time they were good before this, their defense when they had Rob Ryan, their defense was second in the league, magically, and then it fell off a cliff. I just I've never really just thought he was that good. And I think it goes back to this one game

that they played. I forgot what year. The Garson went nuts on him from you know, and it was the end of the game and he was fourth and ten and he just, you know, he's getting rushed and this is it. It's like, you're down by three, you gotta go win the game. He throws it out of bounce because you know, he saved the sack it's fourth and ten. Yeah, God, boys took over kneeled the ball three times when we

got out of there. I think that happened sometimes, though, when you have a young quarterback, young quarterbacks make young quarterback decision. I know, well you say that, but I mean,

you wouldn't expect a senior in college to do that. No, But I do think though, when you're playing in the NFL and you're dealing with the NFL pass rush and the speed of the NFL, sometimes you make decisions when you're young because you're trying to get You're frantically trying to I can see the Redskins frustration of wanting a little better than that you're getting just not there is what it is. Yet you can do that with a small sample size across the board, though, Like I didn't

even work here at the time. Y'all probably think I did, But I watched the season ending lost to the Redskins in twenty twelve. I watched on TV. I had no idea I was ever going to work here, and the pick that Romo threw on that wheel route to basically in the game, I was just like, yeah, it happens. The worst thing I've ever seen in my life, Like how that happened? You know, And then you form your opinion of a guy based on that one play rather

than like a decade worth of work. You're just like, yeah, he sucks, I get white out. His fans don't like him. Right. Then you get here and you cover him and you see him do all I mean twenty fourteen, and you see all the plays, not just that one play that was on high that was on Sports Center, right, and it's and once you get an appreciation for all that they do, then it's like you're a much better quarterback

to people getting you know. And the thing about Romo is last year he wasn't really getting that appreciation because you know, Dad jumped in and did all these great things, and it's like, see, you know, Romo was the problem. Now as you see it this year, you're like, I mean it's a little bit fifty fifty. I mean the things that Dak is doing, Romo couldn't do. He couldn't run, you know, he couldn't take some of those hits that in the Atlantic game. But I'm writing a column about

that right now. I can't wait to read it. Kind of like the you don't know what you have till it's gone slash. Not only that, but like appreciate what you have at the same like, I'm terrified that people are going to start doing the same thing to Dak that they did to Romo and that, like and it's a career full of people just bashing you for really, like my opinion, know no reason. Learn your lesson from the first time. Basically is what I'm trying to say.

All right, let's take our final break, we'll come back. We're gonna get some questions calls two on four eighty seven to twenty one h two or hit us on Twitter at Cowboys Break. This is the breakcare. Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it,

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Mortgage Studios at the Star, Nicholas take it away. Yeah, I really don't have anything specific each other than the fact that Tommy John, you know, it's it's it's consistent, it's always there, it's always good, and every time you put it on you realize, man, it's the best underwear I've ever felt. And if you'd never put it on, it's your fault because we only tell you every day that you need to go to Tommy John dot com Forward slash Cowboys. You get how much you get off

your first order Darren McFadden percent. You get Darren McFadden percent off your first order Tommy John dot com Forward slash Cowboys Cowboys. Way to keep it brief, you know what I mean? Oh got it nice? I thought, Oh, this is a women's that's a woman's. Yeah. Hey, I got a great man's cap here for you. What's up with the toys here? The same mess? That's not a net to keep the bobblehead? I know? This is actually a great hat. It's it's called this one they put

in here for us a day. Actually like it. I'm taking this one home. It's called the New Air of Monochromet not monochromatic hat. I would put it home, but it's gonna mess up my frow, so I'm gonna keep it off. But oh, I actually this this hat. Actually it's half price right now. I'm sorry, Yeah, I think got it's twenty nine ninety nine usually now it's only fourteen ninety nine. So it's a good deal right now.

Going you know Thursday night, the Cowboys are gonna be playing. Um. You know they always have to change up the uniforms a little bit. Yep. Thursday night when the Cowboys play, they'll be wearing their regular helmets as always. But this helmet right here just looks cool too. I love it. Yeah, blue wouldn't if they'll never wear but color rush. If the Cowboys one year went all Navy or all royal like that would be really cool, I do. They would

probably would like to see a blue uniform like me too. Yeah, this is just still you know, still in a Cowboys uniform, not like with a neck brace. Head said, and he's not the Tennessee j See head coach. I didn't realize his eyes were like this. This is a little creepy. That's okay, as is Halloween. Jason Witten right here, it's good though, still still playing with the Cowboys, though not planning a coach right now. No, this week not a story you expected to write yesterday. Hunt Dave been a

weird season, guys, It's been a real weird season. Jason wappens like that sometimes. Jason Witten was like he looked just as surprised as me. He was like, wait what somebody did not help him out there? No, he did not get a lot of it. Because that story was. I mean, you came into the podcast room yesterday talking about it. I knew about that at eight o'clock yesterday morning. I don't think Jason Witten learned about it until like one the locker one o'clock in the afterday. Huh huh, yeah,

wait what but he got to do what? He was very careful with his answer, because it's not you know, being the head coach of Tennessee right now in two seventeen is ridiculous. But down the road or yeah, I mean twenty twenty one. Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind, he wants to be a coach. Well he said that yesterday. Yeah, yeah, he said it. Coaching is something he has an interest in his future. But like I would have imagine going to play a game, I gotta I'm I just got

done practicing for a game that I'm playing in. Right, whatever whatever this next coach that ever that they hire, that hopefully they can appease the Tennessee fans. But and they can hire a coach, but whoever it is, let's say he's the forty or thirty fifth coach ever in Tennessee history. This this got'll be thirty six Wow, that's

what I think. Call your shot. So so Witton's probably hoping they get someone, okay, not someone that's gonna be there, just somebody that's okay, just win a little bit every now and then and just warm the seat for him. Yeah. All right, Um, let's go and jump into some questions and numbers two on four, eight, seven to twenty one two, or you can use some Twitter at Cowboys break. Let's start with a question from the phone lines that got robed in Vegas. Rob what up? Hey, everybody? Hey, what's up?

You know we're talking about kick return his last kick return on them and I was really fast? Was Randall Williams for when paus Hills was here a couple of years, you know, to kept trying to get this guy in the field, couldn't catch. His claim to fame was running back that onside kick against Silly fastest touchdown history of the NFL. That's what they say. It is talking about, you know, moves. I see they're gonna bench probably Anthony Brown.

The two moves that I would like to be made pretty quickly is I think they got to get Byron Jones out of safety position and move in the corner I don't think he's built the play safety, and his tackling style of jumping on your back and hanging on until you fold out from the entire just doesn't work at a safety. I think he's a better corner. And let's get Dez to return punts. It's the best wide receiver in football. Antonio Brown can do it. I think we could risk Dez doing it, get him into the

flow of the game. And I think, you know, he's an excitable play he could he could jump start this offense. And I just think those are two moves they could do Thursday and let's see what happens. I mean, we got to win five in a row to have a chance at the playoffs, so I'd like to see that happen. All right, Thanks so Cal. You know I've said that about Dez and returning punts for a couple of years down and I agree that. You know, you see other stars do it. Deshan Jackson had had done it for

many years. Wes Welker did it when they were the starters. The only thing right now that I'm not sure it would work is because Dez isn't making anyone miss in the open field as a receiver, you know, so like now, it's a little different when you're playing kick returner because you don't have the same type of tacklers and they're running full speed and they're not you know, they're a little out of control, so you can maybe make some

plays there. But you know, he hasn't really shown that ability of just get the ball in his hands and make plays. He hasn't done that this year. But it's it's an opportunity to give him a chance, and I would do it. There are great special teams players in the league, but they're not starters for a reason, like they're I mean, they're not your front line tacklers. So I you know, i'd like to see him. I'd like and I wouldn't want it to do it all the time.

I've always said that, but like, I would give him a chance. But but what I would tell him is is like, if you're gonna do it, catch it. Go up there and catch it, because we're gonna put you in there. When they're pinning back at the ten yard line, the guy's standing in his end zone, he's gonna punt it to the midfield. You better catch it. Because if you decide that it's going a little crazy. I'd rather

just let it bounce it. It goes thirty yards down to the twenty and you just killed the field position we gave you. That's not good. And Switzer does it too sometimes, you know. I mean, I don't care who it is. I mean, the best punt returns the Cowboys have had have been the slowest guys other than Dion. Dion was different. He was just insane. But guys like Kelvin Patrick Crayton, they were really good. They weren't very fast, they just caught the ball. Swinton was fast. Regie Sinton

was pretty fast. Yeah, just but got up the field. Just go whatever it is, don't worry about it. And you know what, you're gonna get hit. It's gonna hurt because they're going. So you gotta be a little crazy. You gotta be looking really enjoy the that part of it. Yeah, whis are crazy and I'd be afraid of that part of it. Huh oh sorry. Um. Jason Garrett was asked about moving Byron yesterday and he said, no, So, I mean,

maybe he'd be better at corner. I think Nick's been saying that since like week two, really, so maybe he would be. But and I'm sad about that because if you remember two years ago on this show and Brian and I argued about it a lot, I thought he was a safety from the start, and he thought he was a corner, or at least set it at the time, and I saw I thought, you know, he needed to be a safety. And but Rob's right, and you know on the caller, because he doesn't tackle well enough to

be a safety. He's got pretty good awareness, he's got good range and all that, But then again, is he is he that good of a cover guy? I was just what you say, like, I don't know that that his coverage skills are good enough for him to be a corner. So I almost think, you know how you hear about tweeters on the defensive front, I almost wonder if he's a twitter Like he's an okay cover guy, decent tackler, but not great at either one to make

you say, oh, yeah, that safety for him? It may may yeah, that's the deadline to offer him a fifth year option? Would you do it? No? No, although, but I don't know where I would argue. He's made some really fantastic plays in coverage, like throughout his career. I don't know that I trust him to do it eighteen times a game, like as an outside corner. Really, this isn't what you want to hear about your first round pick.

But like his his best role to this point has just been like when he covers the tight end and he's like a dime back type of good. He's out there in situations where there's extra defensive backs on the field. That's That's the other thing to consider here. Most of those plays you've probably seen him, he's been covering it ends right, if he's a corner and having to cover.

That's what I'm saying. I trust him to make good plays and coverage against tight ends and maybe bigger wide receivers, but like not not the Julio Joneses of the world, at least not from what I've seen. Um yeah, paying kind of money for a slot corner, he's basically what he has become. You're you got to make a decision on his fifth year option in May, and we'll see. Now you just don't think it's worth it. I that's that's tough. I mean they didn't. They've they've been giving

these guys their options because they've been good players. I mean it's been Zach and Travis and Tying. They did not offer Mo his and that was mainly because of injuries and got him back on a one year. Yeah, Byron's been available. You can say that for him, Like he's never missed a game? Has he? I don't think so, He's never missed again. He even been on the injury point like I'm trying. He was earlier this year really briefly remember like Thursday practice and yeah, he had a

little something growing or something. So I mean he's available. He's good enough to be out there. He'll he'll make a play every now and then. But I don't know if that merits a fifth year option, I don't know. It'll be interesting to see. Well, I think all part of that also has to be what do you think about Xavier Woods? Right? I mean, if you if you you're a lot of times what you do is dictated

about what you have as well. Well. The other I believe, and I need to read up because I'm not in offseason mode right now, but I'm pretty sure that deadline is after the draft, so you could also wait and see what you pick up in the draft. Right, So okay, and let's take a question from Twitter. Well, we alreadly talked about Tony Romo and Dak for a little bit, but here's a question. Can you guys compare the growth that each of them have had during their second year.

So if you were to compare Dak right now versus Tony Romo's growth in his second year, well, well it's tough to do because Romo's second year of playing was his fourth year the year. Yeah, so and you know Dak, Dak was prepared, you know, his senior year is playing again Alabama and LSU in those tough places to play, while Romo really didn't have a big crowd until he got to the preseason game, you know, And so a

tough comparison, but we'll try. Um. I don't know. I think that I think Romo is a little bit more of a student of the game, you know, when it when it comes to knowing where you know defenses are and knowing you know how to how to beat them, and so I think that he's got more development that way. But I think Dak's got more physical tools to kind of just when the lights come on, just kind of go make plays. Just kind of doesn't look pretty all the time. But you know, and Romo did that as well.

So I I was we talking about his second year as a starter. Yeah, yeah, I mean have to the second year as I was. I was a freshman in college, and I like, was was Romo like great at moving guys and audibling at the line the way? What what actually what Romo was great at that early in his career was he was great at extending play. That's what he was great at. Like he had the ability on

any given play. The play that always comes back to my mind as a game against the Rams, Boss gets snapped over his head, he runs back, he grabs it, he makes a little move, he gets the defense to kind of buy into maybe the fact that he's gonna throw it, but he runs it and he picks up I think two yards or something like that, right. But the fact is it was one of the most remarkable players you ever want to see. That sums up what

he was early in Okay. But but here's the difference though that that mentality was I can make this play. I am good enough to make this play. And what Sometimes he'd get down in the red zone and there would be a linebacker here in a safety here, and he said, I can make that throw right between you. Didn't. It was intercepted, and that in Bill Parcels is now yelling at you, and he discriminate throws. And he did that even twenty twelve when you weren't even with the

Cowboys yet. He was just kind of doing like flip passes with the season on the line and getting intercepted. And Brett far did that his whole career as well. One of his last throws ever with the Vikings was helped the Saints gets to the super Bowl. So he's when it's in you, it's still in you. But Dak is better than that. Like Dak has been like taught, trained, brainwashed, whatever it is, like, he doesn't really make those that often.

And so I guess that's the point I was gonna make before Dave started talking about that, is I actually think that if you want to look at Dak and Tony at this at the same stage in their career, I actually think that they were very similar from the standpoint that they both could make plays by extending by

extending plays. But I do think from a standpoint of Romo, I think he was way more reckless with the ball at this stage than Dak is okay, and here Dak is like history and mean, it's a bad time to talk about it because he's got five turnover the last two games, but he's been historically good with the ball

for such a young player. If Zeke comes back and these last two games that he plays and gets somehow gets two hundred and thirty yards and gets to a thousand, that'll get that'll be the second one thousand yard rusher that's played with Dak. And I think Tony has three so and all of his career, and Dak would have two. That just goes to show that they had different offenses

around them as well. Julius Jones went for a thousand and four yards like his first year, and then not until DeMarco, not until DeMarco had a couple And in fact, if you really want to say Romo as a full time starter, because he wasn't a full time starter, no. Six. So if you want to say it's this full time starter that he's had two in his career, and Dak has a good chance to get too. Obviously would have

had two. Zequinn and I think that his ability to be able to because they really they were I won't say they put it all on his back because they still with Marian Barber. They were efficient running the ball. That was a big part of their offense, and they had a good offensive lineback then too. So I think that, you know, you could probably make a case that both of them, and at this stage of their career, everything

wasn't necessarily heaped on them. They had other parts to the team they I think back then they had a better defense that Romo was working with then what they got right now Dallas probably not as big stretch to say hit in Dallas set an NFL record for Pro Bowlers and Romo's second season, and that's not always a good indicator saying yeah, I got like thirteen of them or something. When they have a good season, they get guys to the Pro Bowl. You know, it happens like that.

All right, We appreciate you guys, John Us. We're back tomorrow. Check the website on the time. The time may differ a little bit tomorrow. We'll check that out until then. We'll see you guys next week on Monday. If we don't have that show tomorrow for Nick even Dave Hellman, hamber Garcia, I'm Derek Eagles and 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.