Cowboys Break: Scouting the Lions Defense

forty s seven. Welcome to another very special edition of Mess Up dot Number live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We've got a lot of a lot of really good information to get into today. We appreciate you guys taking some time to talk to us, and we're gonna talk some Cowboys football. How's probably doing this morning? Hi? Hey? What the heck? Alright, it's very creepy. What's going on on? How are we doing? Guys? Hey? Jason? All right, let's get right into it. We gotta get

to this Detroit Lion defense. Yesterday you guys talked about the Lions offense versus the Cowboys defense. Today we talk about the Lions defense versus the Cowboys offense. But before we do we do need to catch up on some injury information. Yesterday there were three players that did not practice Malik Collins, Travis Frederick, Shawn Lee. Nothing surprising about that,

but there were a few guys that were limited. Cole Beasy with an ankle injury, Jeff Heath with another ankle with an ankle injury, and Antoine Woods with a groin injury. Talk to me about those three guys and what you're expecting this week as far as their health. Well, I'll

start with Sean Lee. I have the chance to talk to Steven Jones every week for a special edition and it's going to air on Saturday, so I don't know, I don't know when, Saturday night, ten thirty in Dallas, but all over the place, and if you're in that, we'll have it on the website too. The website, and I have a feeling that he's going to have an interview. We haven't done the interview yet, but I have a feeling that during the interview that he will say something

like two to four weeks for Sean Lee. Yeah, feeling. I've a feeling that that's going to come out in the interview. We'll see it sounds about right. Yeah, So that's not really what the head coach I don't think is saying. No, he's saying day to day, but I think he really means like fourteen to twenty eight days sounds about right. What nothing. I'm just and you guys already talked about it yesterday. It's just it doesn't surprise

you anymore when this pops up. But at some point it's like, you know, I guess they're gonna see this year what happens in his absence. Last year, in his absence, they realized they couldn't do without him. This year in his absence, I wonder if that maybe starts to change a little bit. If what we've seen so far from these linebackers is accurate in the fact that they've played pretty well. I wonder if we will get through this period and say, you know, these linebackers pretty much can

handle it, maybe need it. Maybe them said sitting Sean Lee for most of training camp or a lot of training camp wasn't really about Sean Lee. Maybe it was about point getting Joe Thomas and these other guys acclimated to the system. So when it happens, not so much if, but when it happens, they'll be ready for it. And I talked to Joe yesterday and he kind of said, you know, he's anxious to prove that that's not going to be the mantra here when when Shawn's out, I'm excited.

I want to see what it looks like. Yeah, you drafted a guy nineteenth overall, he looks he looks good so far apart he looks like a freak. Actually, I saw Matt Patricia was talking about you know, they the Lions spent some time on him too. They've been trying to revamp their linebacker corps. And I don't want to miss quote him, but he said something like, you know, it's it's insane that a guy who's that big can

take up that much space that quickly. Which and so Laye Vanderesh is going to make his first start on Sunday, there's very little doubt, and it will only be his fifteenth start in eleven on eleven football. Ever, he made his first start in eleven on eleven football September second of last year. All right, Jack Black, like alone, I'm scratching my arm for a while, though I know it was like absent mind that ever gonna go away. It was an absent mind. Like you guys throw me off,

appreciate that you're a distractable player. Day I'm distracted. I'm just you know, I just wanted to throw in some product of Jack Black. I can help that. I'm intrigued to see what it looks like. And I think there's a lot of potential there between him and Jalen Smith. And yeah, I mean I love Shaun Lee. I respect the hell out of him, but the writing is always on the wall when you draft the guy in the first round that you're thinking about the future, and Sean

Lee's thirty two. He might be here next year. I don't know. I mean, it's hard to predict that type of stuff. Where contract, Where are we in this contract? I couldn't tell you how many years he's got left, but I believe you could save seven million dollars on the cap if you wanted too next year, which I think it's too soon to say that, but um, but

that's the nature of the NFL. So I just feel great about the fact that the Cowboys actually are going into because this does not through nineteen, so he's got one year left on him, and usually that one year left on his deal is usually one where you can actually yeah, I just like the Cowboys. I know. What I'm saying is I do think that that the conversation I do think that the conversation said, what's this contract? Look like that? That's what that means. It doesn't mean yeah,

that's exactly what I mean. It does. The fact of the matter is, I think that if these young linebackers, if these young young linebackers play well during during Sean Lee's absence, then it does beg the question, especially if you're talking about, like you said, you can save that much money, it does beg the question, at what point did the Cowboys say we no longer can rely on him. It's happened with a lot. Look, yes, every player that to the Cowboys organization. I don't care how great they are.

At some point it's going to come to an end. We have seen it with every single player that comes through here. Don't lose. Okay. Here's the thing though, And when you talk about like possibly cutting him or maybe thinking of that or going there, that's dumb because Sean Lee is not like any other player. He acts more

of a coach as anyone else. I've even seen here and now that I know much about the history, and I can't go that far back, but in the time that I've been here, he's the one player that has the right attitude and is absolutely fully invested. And not only that, he shares that with his teammates and acts as a coach and teacher, so he has a lot more value than just being on the field. In my opinion,

Aaron Woodson was the same guy. I mean, there have been other guys like that to come through the Cowboys organization. The problem is, at some point you no longer can rely on them because their bodies get to a point where the bodies just can't take it anymore. And that's

my whole point is are they at the point? At what point will the Cowboys get to a point where they say, you know, we really can't rely on the fact that Sean's going to be able to be helped four years left on his con and on top of that, we actually have options because last year they had no options. Yeah, like they had to have Sean Lee because that's all

they I mean, that's what they had. Right now, everything we've seen in training camp suggested maybe they've got other options and maybe their defense doesn't fall off a cliff when Sean isn't there. Well, just to be just to clarify on the contract, it is through next year. If they decided at the end of the season to release him, next year's cap hit is ten point there's ten million, and he if they released him, they would save seven million on the cap, which they would also save seven

million on this year's cap as well. So if they would have they would have done that. It is it's far too early to speculate on that, but it's something that from the minute they again from the minute they drafted Late and vander Esh, that's something you should have been keeping an eye on and it's something to watch see how they do. Like I said, I mean between Jalen Smith and Layton vander Esh. I actually wrote about

this in my column today Shameless plugged. But you've got arguably two of your most athletic players playing linebacker now. They're both under contract for multiple years, and they're both younger than twenty five. So the writings on the wall, that doesn't mean that Sean Lee will be cut you know,

this offseason. It's way too soon to say that. But he is not the future of this defense, and don't don't be mistaken if you have, if you don't think the Cowboys will move on and make tough decisions from guys that are franchise type players you haven't been paying attention to say, are a franchise now that a rock. At times, they get kind of cutthroat, like I'm like, wow,

they did that. I mean, they are doing what they feel like is in the best insies of the organization first, and whether those are the right decisions or not, you can debate that all day. But they I don't think they get caught up on well, this guy's been with us for a long time and we really love him and respect him. Like the end of the day, they're gonna make whatever decision they think is best for those organizations.

Those guys that were way more you know, productive than Shaun Lee has been, and Sean's productive, but he hasn't been consistently productive because he gets hurt. Yeah, and he's hurt again. All right, So let's talk to me now about those guys that are limited because I know, we know, as Nick just said, he's not playing this week, probably not playing for a few weeks. But Cole Beasley, Jeff Heath Antoine Woods. Those are three guys that were limited yesterday.

Are we thinking that these are injuries that we really need to be concerned about? Are these precautionary type limited practice type players? All three guys got hurt and well Beasley had the ankle last week but played with it right, Woods and Heath got hurt and came back, and they are limited on Wednesday. Again, I just I look at what's the word and what's the day of the week. If you're limited on the first day of practice, you're

probably gonna play. If you're limited on Thursday, you're probably gonna play unless they take a back step back on third, which is rare. Backsteps in the course of practice are rare more often than for last year. Remember last year on Thursdays for the most Yes, if I really I don't want to say I don't care, but I'm really only studying that if it's getting to Friday and you haven't practiced yet, which all three of those guys were there again today, so they're going to do at least something.

So again it's trending toward being good for Friday slash Sunday. Travis, Travis Lee and Malik we're all still not there today, which I mean, I think obviously Travis no, obviously Lee no. And I think I would lean toward thinking Malik can't go this week either. But we'll see. All right, we're gonna go ahead and take our first break. We'll take it a little bit early. When we come back, Day's going to jump into this dissection of the Lions defense.

We're gonna talk about the Lions defense how it matches up with the Cowboys offense that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. If you're like me and you love, I mean, if you have a high thing, then cutting the court is scary. But then I found out I could switch to direct TV now and still get the live sports I love. No satellite needed, no bulky hardware, no annual contract, just that the live sports. You try direct TV now for ten dollars a month

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and a Cowboys can cooler. Go to get Jack Black dot com, slash Cowboys and use the code word Cowboys. The Jack Black Playmakers ten bucks free shipping while a player can look good on paper, it's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than staffs and scouting reports when building their team. When picking a tractor, it's why you should rely on more than

specs and features as well. You gotta take it out and put it to the test the Cowboys did when they named John Deer their official tractor. To experience one for yourself, visit your local Texas John Deer dealer or go to my John Deer dealer dot com. Slash Football. Back to the Break Welcome back. It's the second segment of The Break Life in the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star talking Cowboys versus Lions. Cowboys take on the Lions this Sunday at noon at and T Stadium, and

Dave's gonna get you ready. We've already talked about the offense, the Lions offense, and now it's time to talk about the Lions defense. Dave, what do we have to be afraid of? Uh? Well, you know I tweeted this last night. I didn't feel good about this game, and I still don't feel great, I guess, but I fired up the tape and I watched a couple games, and I feel better after watching their defense. I do. I do feel better,

which is funny. Because the Cowboys can't throw the ball to save their lives and the Lions have the best passing defense in the NFL one hundred and fifty two yards a game. That's not great, But what is great is they are absolutely dead last in the league and defending the run so money. That's nice. They're surrendering. When you read that last night, you got so excited. Well, I mean, if you're looking for ways for this all year to win, it's funny. I wait, let me read

your mind. Yeah, they ran the ball really well in Seattle. And still that wasn't what I was gonna say. What I was gonna say is I was going to harken back to what you said. I think it was last week that this NFL as soon as you see something that is so drastically the points to one thing that's gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. True, we'll see how you're right. But you know I've all week I've been saying, shut up about Zeke's carries, like it's not Zeke only

getting sixteen carries is not why they lost. You can't expect. You can't expect anything more like you got to throw the ball at some point. But a guess the defense like this, maybe you really can just load up and try to run forty times because it has worked. It has worked for two of the three opponents that have played the Lions. They gave maybe keeps their offense off the Yeah, they gave up one hundred O. No, that's the biggest part of this for me is keep Matt

Stafford off the field. So they're giving up one hundred forty nine rushing yards per game, twenty nine point three points per game. Forty nine Ers hit him for thirty the Jets hit him for forty eight, which those aren't great offenses. No, well, that well that's go. You know, if you have a NFL game Pass, it's one hundred dollars for the whole season. I highly recommend it. You can see all the you can see the All twenty two.

Then you go to Dallas cowb was that com forward Slash game pass, and that's how you can get in and get your subscription. You can get the All twenty two. You can also get the condensed version of the game where it literally just jumps right to the next snaps. You can watch a whole game in fifteen minutes. Anyway, You're right, Like, I know, you know, Jimmy Garoppolo was playing well, and they gave him that extension before he

got hurt. But like, that's not this Gangbusters offense. You know, they're throwing Pierre Garson and rookie Dante Pettis out there, Matt Brada and Alfred Morris or their running backs. They ran for one hundred and ninety eight yards on these guys and scored thirty points. Jimmy Garoppolo I charted it. He threw five passes that went more than twelve yards downfield. He connected on two of them, and he drew a flag on third. So there's something to be you need.

You need to hit on some of those longer plays. I think we would all agree with that. But the vast majority of what he was doing was out's curls, smoke routes, short quick stuff, and they did just enough and they let the running game take over. So there's a blueprint for success here. So you look at it. A lot of big bodies on their front y'all were talking about it in the break a. Sean Robinson, Sylvester Williams, DeShawn hand Ricky, Jean Francois Romeo, Aquara, Carrie Hider. They

all basically comprise your down linemen. It's it's listed as a four to three, but it's very multiple. It's a lot like the Patriots, not surprisingly with Matt Patricia being there, they kind of mix and match. Your main pass rushers are Ziggy Ansa and Eli Harold, who they got from the forty nine ers. Actually, Ziggy hasn't played a full game yet this year. He's got a shoulder that knocked him out of the Jets game. He missed the Week two.

In Week three, he has not practiced yet as of Thursday, which I don't think their report is out, but that is something to watch because that would be big. Your linebackers, Devon Kannard, Gerard Davis, Christian Jones. It's Gerard Davis is a first round pick, but it's it's so so. I don't don't see anything that scares the daylights out of me the way that Bobby Wagner and Luke Keikley do.

And then obviously, you know the prime guys or your secondary Darius Slay at one, cornerback Nevin Lawson, and then your safeties Glover Quinn and Quandre Diggs, who just signed a contract extension before the season started. They're very aggressive. They make a lot of plays on the ball. They are confident, you know if I mean if you if you throw at them, they're going to try to jump in front of it or swatt it down. You see a lot of contested balls, which you know, it makes sense.

They don't. Um, they don't give up a lot of passing yards. Um, you don't see a lot of bad coverage, like even you know, Tom Brady couldn't throw his guys open in their game and the Patriots always scored ten points as a result, which the Patriots only ran the ball nineteen times, which I don't understand because the Jets and the forty nine ers both did whatever they wanted to them. Um. They also didn't have one of their running backs though, but go ahead, which which x Burkhead

was get hurt. That's they are. They are typically a team that that splits the carry, so you got one less guy. But they had White and they had Sony Michelle, who's their second round pick. Yeah, they should have done better. Forty nine ers twenty eight carries one hundred and ninety yards.

That's six point eight yards per carry. Jets thirty six carries one hundred and sixty nine yards, which again, that's what gives me confidence, is like, you can't do that against most teams, but I feel like you might just be able to run against these guys all day. You gotta get a lead on them, though, that's the thing. Start fast, please, That's that's the really thing with anybody. But if you get a lead and you could run on them, that's probably where where it's easier to beat

the Lions. If you're down and you have it to pass, pass pass, that's what they want you to. But the one thing I would say is I wouldn't panic if I got down, because I would still keep running. And that's the thing about an offense like I mean, a defense like this, If they really are as bad against the run as we think they are, then you can

still eat. Taking time and going down the film methodically, going down and field and scoring still is just as valuable as feel like you got to throw to get back in a game you can't get back down by too much. But you can't wind yourself in a track meet. And we talked about yesterday with with Stafford and those guys, and they could put up some points, so you know,

you hope. But if you watch these last few games, I mean the Cowboys have gotten down early third quarter of they kind of buckled, you know, buckled down, and they get themselves back in the game if their offense could score at all. Yeah, one thing, like you really you can't substitute actually sitting down and watching tape. I mean, you know, if you don't have a hundred dollars, I

get it. That's what we're here for. But Lions are fourth in the league in sacks with ten, which says to you, oh man, this stallus offensive line better buckled down. I wasn't that impressed. Like again, ziggy Onza is not here, he's not playing right now, so maybe that could take him to another level. But this looks like a lot of coverage sacks to me, like they use their linebackers. They blitz their linebackers to make up for the fact that they don't have Anza. They bring Devon Kaannard off

the edge. Gerard Davis will have delayed blitzes or he'll run stunts where he loops around the line. But again I counted, Jimmy Garoppolo was sacked six times. More than half of those he held the ball for four or five six seconds before he was eventually sacked. Which that's a testament to the secondary, Like they're covering their guys, but they don't have this Von Miller or this Frank Clark who's just ripping around the line of scrimmage and

they just can't account for him. I didn't see that once. Like these are delayed sacks that as a result of the quarterback not getting rid of the ball. So again, run the ball again, get it out quickly, curls, slants, all that little stuff, stuff that Dak has actually shown that he can be good at. I don't know how many long developing plays you really want to try against

these guys, knock on Wood, Scotlanahan. I don't know if you listen to this, but maybe some RPO would be good here because I think you can misdirect these linebackers. I think like they get washed out of plays. This is I don't think this is like an elite unit, and I think you could probably confuse them, create some easy throwing lanes with some run pass stuff. So I don't know if they'll actually do that, but I think

I would. If you had to identify one guy that you thought was the best player on this defense, who would it be. It's hard to say because let's let's assume if Once is there at I think your answer is gonna be Once. But if he's not there, who is the best player on this defense? Probably Slay Um. I think Gerard Davis will and at times is a really good player. He's I mean, he's their centerpiece linebacker. He's a first round pick out of Florida. I think he will be good, but he's he's just looks like

a young player who's not consistent. Second year yes, yes, second year Um Slay is really good. And then obviously you know they love Quinn and they obviously love Digs. They gave him a twenty million dollar extension. But I would I would probably say Slay, which again I don't you know, I don't want to use this game to try to try to prove a point that the Cowboys can pass like you don't need to, or at least you would hope you don't need to just pound the ball.

And take what you get in the passing game. Don't make Dak try to sit in the pocket and read the defense this week. I mean he needs to do that at some point, but I don't think he needs to do it this week. I mean, you know, you think about them having a really good corner and sleigh, and you know, usually it's like, well, he's gonna match up against somebody, But I mean who in this in

this situation? And the question is does he really in a game like this, does a team say we're gonna match up with anybody wherever you bring out there, the Lions or any opponent really will ever do that. For years, it's been like, Okay, well who's getting DEAs? Who is he gonna follow Dez? And now we're just like, literally, I don't care about that, Like, I don't think that the Lions aren't gonna bother traveling a guy with any of these receivers, and unless they decide that on certain

situations they want to do that. So for example, if they know on third downs, we'd feel better if we pay a little more attention to Cole Beasley because he could be a third down guy. That always I always liked what the forty nine Ers did way back in

the nineties. I think that's a better approach. If you've got a stud corner like that, put him on the number two receiver and him up and he's done, and then you double the number one and now you're pretty much shutting them all down because Alvin Harper could not do anything on Don and then you kind of would try to shut you try to double Michael that that seemed to work better, But you know you can't do

it the same thing in the whole game. But I mean, in the situation like this, when you know, if you said, hey, give me one to seven the best receivers on the team, we would have all kinds of different answers if we tried to rate them. Yeah, I mean, it's not hard to rate the Giants in Atlanta's and the Steelers receivers. But for the Cowboys, I mean, I don't know who

the number one receiver on this team is. I don't have the first idea but that and to that point, I think I'm not worried about it because I don't think you need to worry about paying extra attention to anybody. If this secondary is as good as it looks, you just put a guy on everybody and clog the box. I mean, that's that's gonna that is. That's been the blueprint, and it will continue to be the blueprint. But I

think against this team it might not matter. You talked about the fact that you thought a lot of their sacks came as coverage sacks, that came as linebackers blitzing, blitzing off the edge. It seemed to me, and I know they had Frank Clark. He's a much better pass rusher than it sounds like most of these guys, except for you know, maybe if you want to throw Ezekiel Asa in there. But it seemed like the Seahawks had a similar kind of game plan. They were sending linebackers

at times, they were sending extra guys. It wasn't just always a four man rush because of that. Do you think that does that worry you at all? That they had some success with sending linebackers in that kind of thing, and that this team that the Lions seemed to have done pretty well doing that these first couple of games. I'm definitely worried about it, just because the past protection hasn't been good enough. In two of the three games.

But I just and you're right. I mean what they got five sacks in that game, and it came from a variety of different places, but it just seemed like the most obvious culprits there were. I mean, Frank Clark beat tyran in ways that I'm not used to seeing, and Lyle Collins as well. I mean he was moving all around. Unless Onsa plays, I don't think they have that guy. And I you know, Connor Williams will probably get taken advantage of, you know, like a delayed blitz

type of situation. It'll probably happen. That's football. He's a rookie, but I don't think he'll not to a degree that it recks the game, which is what I'm always worried about. And I don't think they have that guy that can win these tackle matchups consistently enough for it to be a big problem. What are we hearing about Ansa? Have we heard anything about what his status is at this point? I mean, I think if you're gonna make him a focal point of your video, he's probably gonna play. I'm

talking about this run right here. He did a video right of breaking down. I mean, well, each week I break down one guy from the offense and defense from whoever team we're playing, And that was the guy I broke down. Why. I don't know. Brian suggested that guy. So I better hope. I'm hoping well, but he's getting the sense that he's gonna play, is yeah, yeah, I mean just by the maybe they're talking to some people over there and we'll say, hey, he's way more plugged

in across the NFL than I am. But again, we talk about our own practice report. He didn't he's DNP on Wednesday. We'll see Thursday's, Thursday's not out day. I mean, where if he's still a DNP today, then you're feeling more like he's not gonna play. Yeah, yeah, especially coming off a week when he didn't play last week. I don't even know. I mean, I know he's a great player. I know that, but I don't know what to expect

from him. He hasn't played. I didn't spend a lot of time on the Jets game because it was forever ago, and I think the sheer amount of turnovers kind of skews that. But he hasn't played since then. What was his injury? Shoulder? Shoulder? So all right, let's go ahead and take our final Do you have some nick Nope, I'm saving it for an article, all right, actually, so free to preview here. I just thought of an idea, actually for an article. There you go. Yep, all right,

we're gonna check our final break we come back. Let's get some phone calls. Call us eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven to get it is eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. Will be right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. While a player can look good on paper, it's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than stats and scouting reports when building their team.

When picking a tractor, it's why you should rely on more than specs and features as well. You got to take it out and put it to the test the Cowboys did when they named John Deer their official tractor. To experience one for yourself, visit your local Texas John Deer dealer or go to my John Deer Dealer dot com. Slash Football. Want to use what the pros use? How about the official men skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys.

Jack Black. Right now, you can get the Jack Black Playmaker, a curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, for just ten bucks with free shipping. The Playmaker includes four Jack Black skincare favorites, plus a full sized Intense Therapy lip bomb and a Cowboys can cooler. Go to get Jack Black dot com, slash Cowboys and use the code word Cowboys.

The Jack Black Playmaker ten free shipping. Star Sports Tours is the only official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, offering exclusive game weekend travel packages with sideline access and photo ops with current players, alumni and cheerleaders. That's not all, though, You'll get to talk xs and os with Senior Director of Player Personnel Will McClay and of course with yours truly me, Brian broad Us. You can trust the official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, and with us

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seems very efficient. It is. I'm just saying, free guy, if you want efficiency and you're on the good Tommy John, very simple, one more time camp, you know, all right, when you just let us do it, just let us do it. Like the commentary, I always want you to be involved. I've heard yours when I'm not here, and it's pretty lame. It's pretty It's also about twenty five seconds and forty five minute show. We don't need to be talking about, all right, so we get back into

this thing. We got a phone call from Sean and Maryland. Sean, what up? Hi, Hey guys, first time caller, a long time listener, too quick opinions and done a question? Um first, as I truly believe that if we still had Ron Larry and Tony Loma, we'd be making a Trooper Bowl run right now, Um, Tony, because if Tony was here, I believe would still be here and that Brian would still be here. And Ron Larry I believe when two thousand and sixteen he was the biggest bulldown on that

offensive line. And my question is, um, I heard Tony Romo on the fan yesterday and he sounded like she could still play. I was wondering, he's such a chance that Jerry will go after him and make all right. Thanks for the call. What does it sounds like? Hey, I wrote down the exact same thing that. I don't know what it means. Guys. I'm feeling good, Like my back is great, I've been throwing the ball really well. My feet are good. I see the field better than ever.

I have that hunger to win. I think we could go out and rally this team around and and I'm really excited about the opportunity. What it takes something? What does that mean? I mean, what does I don't even know what he said, but I mean I think that sounds like I'm ready to play. When was the last time you think Tony threw a football, like really through a football, not like not just playing with his kids. Yeah.

I think Hawkins was going deep in then yeah. Yeah, yeah that Instagram video when he heard his kid in the stomach. Yeah. But you know, here's the deal, here's why did you did you listen to the interview? Okay? Just I just wonder it was there something that you no pointed out? I thought it was classic Tony Romo, Like he's I mean, he is a confident, funny guy. He wants you to know that he's a confident, funny guy. He I mean he was. It was it sounded tongue

in cheek, you know, he Tony rum. He never even officially filed his retirement paperwork. As far as I know, he still hasn't. Wait, he's still an active player. He's not active, but he wants you to know that he could still do it, which you know, wouldn't the Cowboys have to really quish his rights or something though? No, no, for sure, yeah no, which if he was going to come back, would come back to a team that needs

a quarterback he ain't doing. But here's the problem. Here's the problem with with the first thing is Sean talked about when he said, if Tony and Ron Levery were here,

they'd be making our Super Bowl run. The problem with that is you'd still be in the same problem you were in for the last several years of Tony's career, which is you'd have him for some games and then same thing we're talking about Sean at the beginning of the game, then you'd be without him because it had gotten to a point where Tony just couldn't stay healthy. For whatever reason, he just couldn't stay healthy. And I don't think backs and those kinds of things get better

as you get older. I think you're gonna if you're having those kind of problems, you're probably going to continue to have those kind of problems. It became a chronic thing for him, So I kind of agree with him on Ron Leary. I think if they would have kept Ron Learry. Now, the money, that's a whole different thing, and making that fit with all the other high priced offensive lineman you got around here at some point. I don't know if you can pay five offensive linemen at

one time. So I kind of understand the business reasons why he's not here. But if you were here, I do think this offensive line would be appreciably better. But I don't I don't think that Tony necessarily would would have you in that kind of position consistently throughout an entire year, because I don't think he'd make it through

a year. Well, he's right about the dezen Witten part, though, that's true, and they would be here, that's true, and they would be better with him, you know, But when he were out, would it still be the same thing as what we saw last year? Because I think that's really the issue. Both Dezen Witton were here last year when they were having the same kind of struggles offensively,

and you didn't have Tony, who's the backup Dak. Probably like the chances with Dak as a backup quarterback that comes in there because you know, and we don't get a good read on him. Go back, go back and watch the games where you know, Vince Young came in for teams when he was playing, I guess for the Giants or the Eagles or something. I mean like not bad. Yeah, went in there and won a game one time on on Monday Night football. I mean, nobody knows what to

expect a guy like that. You can come in and do some things. I think he would be a pretty good backup there. But that doesn't matter that that's not that's not the situation, that's not what it is. I don't think he's coming back. I firmly believe that if I was six four instead of five six, I'd be playing football instead of talking about it for a living.

I mean, so what you know, Dan, I'm almost six four, I'm not really close to playing almost smart ass analogy no, I mean, let me have it, and I agree with that, But I was looking at it more like I just I believe that. I actually believe that. But I'm thinking to myself, like, man, I just I'm not saying there's no validity to that. I take issue with the everything more than the romo things. Really well, No, I love the hell out of Ron Learry. He was severely underrated.

It's the salary cap era. What do you want to do? Like you're gonna pay I mean what he got like fifty million to go to Denver or so, I mean what you can't pay all five? What are you supposed to do? And maybe his cap hit though, is something that they could absorb right now because they're just sitting

on it. Probably it's so it's so far under the bridge at this point, and they've drafted a talented kid to replace him, Like I can't dog them for that, Like you can't you get the way the NFL is built, You gotta let guys go. There is no team sometimes there is no team that can keep everybody. And that's that's a whole other conversation. Next year, I think they're gonna be a little bit more aggressive in free agency. I think I think the cycle money, they're gonna have

some money they're not spending it as much here. We keep thinking that all they got to spend it on a quarterback. I don't know if you necessarily have to not at least next year. And you can just go into that if you. Um. I don't think they necessarily have to sign Zeke. They I wouldn't a question for you guys. And I had a point, but go ahead finish it that it was just second too long, Okay, boom, Wow,

it'll be better, Ezekiel Elliott, it'll be better. But the thing about it is that's that's a question that the Cowboys have to figure out about Zeke, because yeah, you can wait till five years and just say, well, let's see what happens. But or you can start that clock early and say all right, let's put five more on and you know, like the Rams did with Gurley. I think it want to be your running bank. I think it would be smart to try to extend Zeke. This awesound.

But is he going to play ball with that because he having guarantees anymore? He probably should maybe, But that is a good point. At Levion Bell has proven that you can bet on yourself and have it potent. I don't think he's proven. I think he's I think he's on the way proven. He has proven that players have the capacity to do that. Like, if Zeke wants to

bet on himself, nobody can stop him. And that's so I mean, is he willing to sign for less than what he thinks he's worth right now just to get it out of the way if he thinks he can double that in two more years. I don't know, right But the problem with that is we still don't know how this is going to play out with Levon Bell. No,

we don't. But it could be a situation where if the Pittsburgh Steelers wanted to forget, like franchise him again next year or get Levon Bell, then what I mean, He's like, I want girly money and they're like no, and he's like, okay, cool, then we're gonna play this thing out. He could do that. But here's the reality right now. I would actually with Zeke. I would be willing to pay Zeke a fact contract because he's that

kind of running back. The problem with the second contract for most running backs is that they get to an age where when you're giving him a second contract, part of that's going to be after they get past that magical number where running backs seem to fall off. And so for me, if I'm doing it a little bit earlier, I can still bet on the fact that if he's a great running back, I will get great production throughout his contract, and then I won't do a third contract.

I reserve the right to change my mind because it's only September. But as we sit right now, I would like to try to get something done with Zeke this offseason, and I would very much like to get DeMarcus Lawrence locked up this offseason. Then that's how money. It's a healthy chunk of your cap right there, but it's on worthwhile pieces in my opinion. And don't forget what you're paying right now for just one year with Tank, you would cut that because he would only make a small

fraction of that against your cap every year. So I would still would have some money. You could still have room to do some shopping even after those two deals. No doubt about it, No doubt about it. Speaking of Zeke, I did oh, actually, let's go to your pain. What got It's not a point, it's a question, Okay, give me a question. Well, I didn't get to watch Tony

Romo since the beginning of his career. I got to start watching him towards the end, and I was just wondering, I mean, what was the main problem with the Cowboys of them not being able to get to that next level as far as the offense goes. Honestly, and Nick can give his opinion, but I think it was just they were circumstances. I don't think that Tony necessarily was

the problem. I'll get I'll take you back to that Giant game, and it was a playoff game against the Giant c year that they were in that they got it was seven. Um. I don't I don't think that game was his fault. I think the offensive line failed him that game. That defensive front for the Giants was all over him, and they they made it very tough. As a matter of fact, that defensive front they went on to win the Super Bowl, but they went through him.

I think they played the Packers and Aaron Rodgers that year. I want to say it was Aaron Rodgers at that point, but they went through the Packers um and then beat them up and then beat Tom Brady and the Patriots. That that front was just really good and that was the reason why the Cowboys was I don't think it was was Tony's fault, yeah, So I think it was just circumstances. It was just bad circumstances in particular games. That was the reason the Cowboys didn't go farther. Because

I've I've seen several quarterbacks coming here. I've seen changes on the team, and obviously as far as quarterback goes, no one great, no one like big name or anything like that. But the changes that I've seen, at the end of the at the end of the day, the

results are still the same. So I'm wondering, it's this a player thing or now we start talking and I know people all over Twitter start talking about Jason Garrett and all that, But I was just trying to get to that were how much can your talent do for you if on the other hand, it's not really working out. So I was wondering as far as when Tony was here, how was the play calling, I mean, was that a

theme happening back then? I'm well, the joke is always that which I was only here for the end of Romo's career too, in I mean, considering his ten year career, I was here for three of his seasons as a starter. The joke was that Romo audible, that of everything they called for him anyway, right, I mean her play he was your play caller in your car. I mean Tony

Romo especially was pretty good at it. Actually, from like from twenty at least, I would say from twenty ten until he retired, Romo was that type of quarterback who could mask a lot of your deficiencies, which is what Dak is not right now. I mean, there's no way around that there was this, you know, I'll full disclosure. I think Cowboys fans, they're fiercely defensive of Tony Romo to a point that I can't go that far like

he did. He made a lot of mistakes in his career, but in a in that one stretch, there was not a lot of talent on this team. And I do agree with the assessment that some of those teams from twenty ten to thirteen or probably more like four or five win teams as opposed to eight win teams. I do think that's true. So you're talking about a quarterback who can single handedly account for four or five extra wins,

you know. So funny to me and Nick might remember this though that was It's so funny to me now that there's so many fans out there that are fiercely loyal of loyal to Tony Romo. I don't know what you were, because back in the day, I swear every Monday, it was always somebody man Tony Romo just he just can't do it. I don't think Tony Romo can do it. He can't get them where they need to go. I don't think Tony. And now it's like everybody's just like, man,

I wish we had Tony back. I wish. It's so funny how fans just kind of jumped from one to the other, which and maybe it's different fans. Maybe everybody just vocalizes whatever they're feeling at the moment, where every million fans that said that though, there's a million people screaming into their whatever they're listening on right now, they're just like, I loved him from the beginning. Like it's

whether they did or didn't. But a lot of them did though too that they did, Stafford, Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan. That's why I don't ever really give them the respect that they deserve. For that reason, probably because those guys did everything that Tony did and they were drafted number one, number three, number two, whatever overall and Sam Bradford, all these guys, and I don't I was never in that in that city. But there's no way they took the grief that Romo took. And it's fine.

Once you get to a starting quarterback, that's that's fine. You're you're there and it's your job to be, you know, the guy that takes you to the playoffs. But the thing about it is is that for some reason, you know, Romos has an unbelievable story to get where he is, and yet it's always it was never good enough. It was absolutely never good enough. And that's that's the thing that always bothered me. I don't think Stafford gets that he's the number one pick in the draft. What's he done?

I don't know. I think he gets that he's not he doesn't have a running record in the end of Yeah, I think I think he takes I don't know. If you went just if you went to Detroit, I think you would. Is Matt Stafford a bust? No? I don't think so. No, he's not a bust? What is he he is a He's a good quarterback. I do think he's a good quarterback. He is a good quarterback who has not lived up to the expectation of a number one.

And I'm okay, I understand that he's ill. I'll tell you like this right now, if he was a free agent, how many teams are jumping in to say I will take him and pay him big money? Matts that are putting the Cowboys? Probably Sam Bradford is or should uh Sam Bradford's Yes, he's on a different he's on his

fourth team. How many full seasons as he played? But luck, it's too soon to say, it's too I mean those first years he gotten he was playing, but the first few years in the league he was playing of his it's too. It's too soon to say because Albert Griffin a bust. Yes, yeah, it was out of his mind first. No, not like not like Luck. Not like Luck. I don't think you can compare the all the beginning of cad

like three great years and took his team to an AFC. No, he was a he was a quarterback that we were all saying, he's gonna be one of those guys going to Hall of Fame one day, Like that's how good his start was, I guarantee. I mean, in an alternate universe where Stafford's available, people would jump to put him on this team, which he can't be a bust if that's true, I know. But the point was about was

about Tony's Tony. It's always been been you out question has always been, in my opinion, treated unfairly for that. Maybe so maybe so. All Right, we're gonna sad you guys. You want us for back tomorrow, We're gonna give you guys the final on what's gonna happen this weekend Cowboys versus Lions. Until then for Nick Even, Dave helm and Ambergarcia. 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.