Cowboys Break: Scouting the Rams

the first time in a very long time. We got everybody on our crew at the Star at the same time, but myself and Dave are here in the SWBC Morgan Studios. Nick's upstairs in his office, Amber's upstairs in somebody's office, and we got a special guest today. So very welcome and very unhappy to welcome Bucky Brooks to the program. He'll be joining us as I mentioned you guys on Twitter every Wednesday and Thursday. He'll come in and talk

to us about the opposing team. Welcome to the show, Bucky. Yeah, we love getting you here because it's gonna give us an opportunity to take advantage of your experience. You were a player and a scout in the NFL for a total of twelve years, and I guess just give before we get started out some questions for you. Give our listeners a little bit of a background on your career and kind of what you've been doing and where you are now. Man, it's been a it's been a long journey,

been a crazy journey. But spend five years in the National Football League as a player, bounced around from team to team after being the second round pick with the Buffalo Bills. Spend time with the Bills, the Packers, the Jacksonville Jaguars, to Ken City Chiefs, and finish with the Oath and Raiders. Got a chance to play it for a lot of great coaches, saw how the game could be won at the highest level. Transition into being a scout. Spent three years with the Seattle Seahawks and then moved

on four years with the Carolina Panthers. While I was with the Panthers, we went to Super Bowl thirty eight, didn't win it, but we were close enough. And so from a team building perspective, have really been around a lot of great teams and have seen it done a bunch of different ways, and so I've tried to parlay those experiences and to being able to kind of scalt for the masses with my role at NFL Media, NFL Network, and the things that I do with Dallas Cowboys dot Com.

Just trying to share what I've learned to kind of help people take a start, and to appreciate you taking some time with us. We're gonna do it like this every Wednesday. We're going to talk about the opposing team's offense, and so we would do a round robin. We got a lot of questions we're gonna throw at you today about the Rams offense, and then tomorrow we'll jump into

the Rams defense matched up with the Cowboys offense. I'll start off first, as you look at this Rams team last season offensively, it looked like they took a little bit of a step back from what they were the year before that. They scored fourteen fewer touchdowns, which is a significant number, almost an average of one touchdown per game. They were down about seven hundred total yards from what they did in two eighteen. What did you see looking

at them in two eighteen and twenty nineteen. That may have been the difference last year. Just to why they may have been a little less productive. You know, it's funny because Sean McVay was really hailed as an offensive wizard the first few seasons in the league for the job that he did with the Rams. Offensively, they were explosive, they were dynamic, they were exciting to watch, very creative in how they went about their business. But Sean mcvagh

is a disciple of the Shanahans. He wonts the Shanahan system. It's a lot of stretch zone run. We're complimented with bootleg and complimentary play actions. So what they want to do is give the defense the rum look while pulling it out and taking shots down to field, and if you're not able to contain the run, they pick your part with these misdirection passes off of that action. Jared Goff is at his best throwing all play action. Last year,

he wasn't on his game. Some of that was due to the offensive line not being able to really build a fortress in front of him. Some of that was due to what if issues they had with Todd Gurley and Sean McVay. They didn't play him the way that they played him before, and without the threat of a strong running game. It really impacted Jared Goff. And when you look at the Rams and you look at Jared Goff, he is really a guy that needs to play, actually

needs everything right around him. When he does that, they win. And so the magic number from Jerry Golf if he has a passer rating over ninety, he is twenty six and two in his career. So when he's efficient and effective, the Los Angeles Rams question, you got who's the running back? But you know, like so right now they're talking about doing a running back by committee. They have Malcolm Brown, they have cam Acres. I would put my money on

cam Acres playing a significant role in this offense. The second round pick coming out of Florida State is special. He's dynamic with the ball in his hands, can run an inside and outside. I can catch the ball particularly well in the screen game. If they get him going, this offense could look like the offense that we celebrated as one of the best offenses that we've seen in sometime now. Something that we always used to talk to

a while is what's the biggest matchup here? What would be the main area where the Cowboys should probably focus more on these two once their offense and versus defense come together, they have to focus on the outside. Obviously, the biggest question mark for the Cowboys coming in is the secondary. Can there guys on the outside hold up where they're facing one of the best one two punches at wide receiver and Cooper Cup and Robert Woods they were the only due They had ninety plus catches and

one thousand yards apiece last season. They ranked third in receiving yards behind the Cowboys duo. So this is a tandem that is dynamic, the explosive, the outstanding route runners. So on the perimeter, can the Cowboys hold up and prevent diff from having big plays in the passing game? That is ultimately where the game. You touched on this in your first comment, but I think it merit's going back to is the Rams offensive line, because you know,

last year it felt like a revolving door. I feel like Andrew Whitworth was really the only member of that group that was available for sixteen games. They didn't address it much in the offseason. So my question for you is is getting everybody healthy going to be enough for them or is that a problem spot? I mean, it's certainly a weakness until they show that they fixed the problems that plagued them a season ago. Rob Havingstein and Andrew Whitworth, they'll hold up the edges. And I'll say this,

Andrew Whitworth is in severe decline. He's an older player. You're thirty eight years old. You're not supposed to be playing on the edge. And so there's a weakness that the Cowboys can exploit and the pass for us game interior. Look, they're just very very average on the inside. When you look at the guys that they have, Note boon blythe Corbett,

they're okay, but they're not overpowering. And the problem that they've had in this system, which really doesn't take a five road greatest many that can push people off the ball, but you have to work in unison. When they're not working in sync, they have a tough time creating the push that they need. And so this game will also be decided in the trenches. Can they get movement off

the ball so they can establish the run game. The running game is critical to send Jared Goff up to be able to go to take you back to what you were talking about with Jared Goff. He's a guy that seems to have more mixed reviews on him around the league with regard to disabilities as a quarterbacks as much as anybody. Yeah, I heard you say. It was a really interesting stat that when his pass rating is

over ninety, he's twenty six and two. My question for you is what have you seen defenses due to him that keep him from that number? Like, what is it that can you know? Some quarterbacks are susceptable to pressure, some are susceptible to more his own like, what is the thing that really really tends to affect him more than anything else. The number one thing that you have to do when you're play in the rams and Jerry Golf is you got to be able to contain the

running game. Because if you can make the rams pass and obvious passing situations where the play action pass is not a factor, he is not as great when he has to operate on straight drop back passes without the deception that lures the linebackers near the line of scrimmage. He doesn't have those open voids at intermediate range ten to fifteen yards to hit the digs and the deep overs that they like to hit, and so contain the

running game. You have to find a way to put your hands on the wide receivers to disrupt the timing of the passing game. For j Golf, he likes to throw from a clean pocket. He wants to get to the top of his drop, and he wants to let the ball go on time. So anything that the defense can do to disrupt the timing gets him out of sync. And lastly, you have to hit him. Most quarterbacks change when they're effected in the pocket, but if you get

hits on Jed Golf, it disrupts his rhythm. It forces him to throw early, and with those early passes under durest tips, overthrows, interceptions, those things tend to happen, and so stop the running game, disrupt the rhythm of the wide receivers, and then you have to get around him. You do those three things, he has a tough time having a solid game. Bucky, what how have you evaluated

the ram? I mean, if it's going off the last year, I mean, this is going to be a problem that all teams have to deal with right now, no preeasy game. I'm just kind of curious. I assure him last year's state, but do you kind of mix in the personnel that they've added and go back and look at them, and how do you kind of come up with a game plan when you have at them? You know, so you have to go back and look at last year's tape,

and last year's tape would be the indicator. Obviously, every year teams do self scout, They look at where they did well, where they were poor, and they obviously try and work directed by those while sprinkling in some new stuff. So you understand exactly what their personnel is. You know how Jared golf plays, You understand what the weapons are

on the outside and cup in woods. But then we had the opportunity and watching them in hard knocks, and even though hard knocks doesn't really give you all twenty two perspective, you certainly can kind of see some of the things that they're trying to do when you're looking at the b role. And so when you put all that together and you listen to how Sean McVeigh has talked about kind of getting back to the basics, not being too cute, getting back to what the essence of

this offense was. Well, you think about twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, when they've made Super Bowl runs, it's because the running game, the complimentary passing game, the explosive plays they want to get acted that. So that has to be the expectations. Now. Something that we've talked about a lot last year was the Cowboys in their struggle when it came to the

tackling game this offseason. Due to no preseason games, we haven't really seen the Cowboys be able to tackle or because you know, you don't want to create any kinds of injuries prior to the season starting. Do you see this and as an area of concern for this defense once they get to this first game as far as just struggling with the right way to tackle. I mean, it's gonna be a huge concern for everybody, not just the Cowboys. When you haven't had the preseason to really

get live tackling, it makes it difficult. Obviously, we have heard about the practices. Some of you guys have seen the practices. They've been trying to work on those things, simulated drills or whatever. But it's gonna be rough because the speed of the game is so different from practice. What you hope is that not only can you tackle well in open field, but you get enough guys running to the ball where if the first guy misses, there are two or three other guys to clean it up.

But yes, it's something that is a concern. They have to really be able to make solid open field tackles because a missa two leads the explosive plays on a perimeter. And obviously, you know our work that we've done together has been draft related to this point, I'm the draft guy. So it seems like there is a lot of hype coming out of this RAMS camp about Van Jefferson, second

round pick out of Florida. It honestly reminds me a lot of Cede Lamb in the sense that you know, Robert Woods and Cooper Cup are already there and they're not asking Jefferson to do too much. So with that in mind, what role do you see him having and how successful could he be as a rookie. So they have a couple of guys to keep an eye on

when they go to their four receiver packages. You have Josh Reynolds from Texas and m who has come on has been a solid number three for them, But then Van Jefferson and the reason the excitement over Van Jefferson is due to his rail running ability has polished and his just pro demeanor. When you think about a son of her wide receiver coach Sean Jefferson, who's the wide receiver coach for the New York Jets. He comes in

with all of the tricks of the trade. He has it all, and really he matches what they already have in Cooper Cup and Robert Woods. Our standing route runners, understands how to create separation. Anyone who had a chance to watch him at the Senior Bowl saw he consistently get open. So Nam, would you add him to the mix working against the third dB. Is the third cornerback able to handle a route runner? That would be one of the challenges that because the FOI let you go, Bucky.

I have one final question for you. I'm looking at these three pass rushers for the Cowboys, Everson Griffith, Tank, Lawrence Alden Smith. They remind me a lot of what Nick and I tend to do in fantasy football. Like you look at our teams and three to five years ago they would have been great. Now we don't really know. So my question for you is what are you expecting from these three pass rushers. I think they all at different points in their careers, have been really really great

pass rushers. What are you expecting at this point? And with all of them together as a group, I think collectively they could be a dominant unit. And I'm gonna say this, and I'm gonna put ALDA. Smith in the wildcard category because he hasn't played in four or five years, so we just don't know. But I'm gonna say this, Everson Griffin and DeMarcus Lawrence they are a problem. They will be a problem. DeMarcus Lawrence didn't have a great year by his standards last year, but the talent is there.

The pass rushing prowess he possesses Everson Griffin will make him a better player. And I'm gonna say this, and I've said this repeatedly, Everson Griffin is a significant upgrade over Robert Quinn. Robert Quid was a little more one dimensional a speed rusher. Everson Griffin has it all and what I like about him. His repertoire is small, but

he is masterful. He has an upfield speed rush move where he can consistently dipping rip pass blockers, but he compliments that with a nasty spin move working on the inside. When you add those two moves plus a relentless motor. He is going to get ten plus sacks just by showing up. Alden Smith is unique in terms of we're seeing a guy that has been a dominant edge player early in his career come in, balked up and played

really heavy handed. I think his biggest contributions will not be as a pass rusher, but more as a heavy handed run stopper on the edge. He may give you something in terms of garbage sex, but really he's a heavy hand at presence on the edge. But in everything. Griffin and DeMarcus Lawrence, I wouldn't be surprised to see them Telly twenty five, twenty seven sex collectively because those

guys are dominant. And if the Cowboys play the way that I think they're going to play on offense, where they run out score points and they make the opponent chase points, meaning they have to pass, it could be to the ears of all the Cowboys mans listening, Let's hope that that goes from your mouth to God's ears. Hey, Bucky Man, we appreciate you joining us. We'll be back tomorrow. We're gonna have you on with us. We'll talk a little bit about the Rams defense match up against the

Cowboys offense. Thanks for joining us. We're gonna take a quick break when we come back. We got a lot of things we gotta talk about. We're gonna talk a little bit about some of the things that Mike McCartney said. It is press conference this morning. We're also going to get into some conversation around the unofficial depth chart which was released yesterday. Well, then when we come right back,

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we fly back to The Break. Welcome back. We were in the second segment of The Break live from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the start, Well, appreciate you guys taking some time with us. First segment we had Bucky Brooks and he broke down the Rams offense versus the Cowboys defense. Will do the defense tomorrow. But now we're gonna move on to talk a little bit about

Mike McCarthy. He had his press conference this morning. He did give us an update on Xavier Woods and Cheeto Awoozia h Nick give us an update on what he said and what's expected of those two guys as far as practice and maybe even playing this week. I think they're gonna give They're gonna give it a go. Chetosa get the practice Zavier as well. I think expect Or been hearing that all week. Zavi's gonna get a chance to go out there, you know. But they're obviously you know,

they got Brandon car on practice. Why. I think Brandon Carr will will get the chance to move up. He's going to give them some versatility in both of those areas at corner and safety if he can pick up the defense in the scheme quickly. But I think I think they're gonna we'll see today and then tomorrow how

they respond on Xavier and Keito. Another thing question that I forgot to ask yesterday, but now that Nick brought up Brandon Carr again, with guys like that that haven't been able to have an off season with the team, how long do you guys expect players like that to be able to get acclimated and bat and get back to that level too. Okay, now we can feel comfortable putting that guy on the field in a real game.

It's a great question that I struggle with the answer, to be honest with you, because common sense says Brandon car didn't have a training camp, he didn't have an off season, even as a twelve year and it seems wild to think that they're gonna put him out there seven days after he signs with the team. But if anybody could do it, it's probably a twelve year vet um. I think it's gonna be Brandon's comfort level as well as the coaches comfort level that he can handle it.

But I mean, like I said, it sounds odd that he would be on the field seven days after signing with the team. Yeah, I actually think there are two things at play there. I mean, one, he's a twelve year VET, so from the standpoint of him picking things up, I think that that works in his favor. I think the flip side of that is he's a twelve year VET where his body maybe like I need a little bit more time to ramp up right. So again, it all is individual. We don't know how his body works.

And he said he's been working out quite a bit during the off season getting his body prepared. You've always heard the phrase from players that there's off season training and then there's football shape, and maybe it takes him a little while to get up to football shape. But I don't think they're actually gonna be bringing him in to go out there and play, you know, fifty snaps. It's gonna be a situation where you're gonna come in

and maybe provide a little support here and there. Or he might just be a guy that's active for the purposes of if someone should get hurt. So either way, I think they're probably feeling like, you know, he probably has been able or we'll be able to acclimate himself enough to play that kind of role in these first few weeks and then we'll see where it all goes from there. All right, let's move on to another thing that Mike McCarthy brought up that I thought was kind

of interesting. He mentioned the fact that there were three coaches on the Cowboys coaching staff who were with the Rams last year, John Fossil, Skip Pete, and Matt Daniels. He says he thinks that that could be an advantage for them from a personnel standpoint. He made that specific. It's more from a personnel standpoint than necessarily a scheme standpoint. Dave, what do you think as far as how much you think that could help or help the Cowboys from a

standpoint of their coaches knowing the personnel well with the Rams. Yeah, I mean, I think that stands to reason, espect honestly, the most interesting part to me maybe sounds boring on the surface, which is special teams. I mean, John Fossil ran that unit for almost a decade. He knows exactly not the new players, but he knows they're veterans. He's very familiar with their punter, they're long snapper, all of their core veterans. I wonder if that gives him a

leg up in knowing their tendencies and their weaknesses. I think you make a mistake thinking that they're going to know a ton about scheme because that changes from year to year. But these guys should have a really good read on the veteran players on that team. I have to believe it's going to be an advantage. So if it's not schematic, Nick, how much does the Cowboys really have an advantage from the standpoint that they haven't shown

anybody their scheme? If if scheme changes every year and most teams are going to come in with a little different scheme, does it really help the Cowboys not having anything out there in the preseason from a schematic standpoint. I don't know. I don't, I don't. I'm not buying that one at all. I know that people the Cowboys are counting on that and they're like, you don't know what they're going to do. But you know, that also means you haven't played it and practiced it. That means

you haven't put it out there. I mean, yeah, you meant it. Might have practiced it, but not against anybody that's trying to tackle you and knocked the ball out. So I think it's just kind of goes you know it's fifty fifty on that. Sure, the Rams aren't going to know exactly what they're trying to do, but the Cowboys might be kind of rusty and what they're trying. What do you think, Cambridge, does this give the Cowboys an advantage not having any scheme out there and also

having coaches from the Rams? And do you think it's much to do about nothing? I mean, I do see it as an advantage we that we are here and we get to see things a little bit more close than most people. We don't really have a clear idea either, so I'm sure that people from the outside are gonna have a much harder time. But then again, that applies to much of all the other teams out there in the NFL. What I'm really curious and interested about is to see what coaching staff is able to adjust better

during this situation. This is something that we talk forever about Jason Garrett, era and their own ability to adjust throughout the game and switch things up, And I'm just I'm ready, I'm excited. I'm so excited to see the way they're able to adjust to whatever the Rams bring onto them. And then also one of the things that I'm excited about and we've heard players say it. We heard Jerry Jones say it is the fact that they're supposedly not being as predictable as they've been in previous year.

So that's really really exciting for everyone that's gonna watch be watching. And I think that it is an advantage to just not know what's gonna happen. You just go out there and let the best team ever preparing the best. All right, So we're gonna move on to a topic that that kind of follows from that not knowing what's going to happen. The Cowboys yesterday release their unofficial depth chart. Every team in the league has to. The league requires

them to release that. It is an unofficial depth chart, and so I don't want us to get to bob down in the you know, whether it's right or wrong.

I do think there were some interesting things on it that can lead to some interesting conversations, and so I'm gonna throw a few things on you at you guys that I noticed in that official depth chart, and we're gonna talk a little bit about what that could mean or where we could see some differences from what's on the depth chart as to what Cowboys fans can expect to see on the game Sunday night. So let's start first with your Ryvon Diggs. He was listed as a

starter at cornerback. That was the thing actually that jumped out to me immediately as the most interesting thing based on what you guys have been able to observe in the training camp practices, do you think trader Onon Diggs is ready to be a starter in the NFL. Let's start first with you, Dave. For the record, I think a big part of it is that Cheeto a Woozia hasn't practiced in two weeks, so as of right now, they don't know if he'll be available. And on top

of that, why would they admit that he's available. But I have to admit, and I was a guy I leaned toward veteran experience in every training camp battle. I really didn't think very many rookies we're gonna have sas crack in the starting depth chart. But I do think Trey Von Diggs can probably handle it. And that's not to say he's gonna be Jalen Ramsey from day one,

but he has looked really impressive. He's I mean, he's going against Lamb Cooper and Gallup like he's going against one of the best receiver corps and he has looked up to it. So if that's that's what happens, I can totally buy that that he's up to it. Amber do you know this year is it's very interesting to me.

I don't know how much being having like the name starter, like how big of a deal that is in certain positions, just because we've seen it in previous year, how you could start a game, start for the first few plays and at any given moment just switch it out and bring another player in. How much of irritation is there gonna be at these kinds of positions, especially in the secondary. So I don't I'm not trying to get too crazy

about the term starter. I just see it more as Okay, this is the guy that's going to open the game, and then we'll see how the game goes, and they have the ability to just rotate so many guys and then get a good field who is really performing at the best so that for later the upcoming games then they get more playing thick. I think it's significant. I mean, I know I was told that, Yeah, Chito didn't play much but Tyrence Smith didn't play a lot either, and

he's playing at left tackle. He's still the guy at left tackle, so you know, they didn't change that out, and obviously that would have been, you know, kind of a bold move there, but you know it, maybe there's some there definitely is some strategy going on here between Mike McCarthy. All you have to do is count how many offensive guys are on the depth goal and then you know what they're They're just trying to hide everything.

M Yeah, hey, hey, Trey Von Diggs is starting attack him, attack him, you know, telling the Rams to kind of to go after him. And maybe he only plays nickel or diamond. Who knows if there's a way to not throw their hand. Mike McCarthy's doing it. I don't know if he's good at poker, but I bet you he thinks he is. Yeah, I bet he thinks he's good

at poker. It's interesting. It's interesting that they didn't put They only put ten offensive players are positions on there, and I think obviously the game has been shipped there is you don't know if they're gonna start out with an extra tight end, an extra wide receiver or a fullback, like they didn't put it on there. They just have those other ten starters, and that's just kind of where they leave it. Maybe they just don't care and they had a PR person fill out the depth chart. Maybe,

so maybe they let us do it. And that's kind of the Yeah, you're trying to break some news here on Cowboys Break, did you know? I'm not really just saying like they could have had anybody do this, right, Derek, did you leave off the eleventh guy? I kind of just forgot him. I don't know, it just it kind of happens. You know, he's only the first round pick. That's fine, all right. Um, here's the next thing. I noticed.

The offensive tackle position, the right tackle right now, Actually they have Terrence Still listed as the swing tackle with Lyle out. They have obviously Tyren Smith and Cam Irving as the two starters. In the event that one of those two guys goes down. Do you think Terrence Still is the guy that actually goes in? Is it Brandon Knight who right now they're listening as the backup guard?

Do you think that if he went out, if one those two guys went out, they actually consider the possibility of taking Connor Williams moving him out the tackle and throwing Brandon Knight or Connor McGovern into that guard spot. Nick, I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I'm pretty confident. But correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think I've seen Connor Williams play a snap of tackle in his pro career, let alone at this training camp. Yeah, is that? Do you agree? I have? I haven't seen it since

the university. Yea. If anything, thank you well. If anything, he's played more center I think than he has tackle. I think, um and and that's and that's barely any at all. I think the Connor Williams playing on the out side narrative is dead. It's just a media narrative. It's well, I mean, I think it might have been a thing at one point, but then you signed a veteran swing tackle, you draft a center, you're just kind of like, all right, we're gonna give this guy a

shot to stay where he was. I don't think that's happening. I am interested about Brandon Knight being listed as a guard because I know he played some garden training camp. He's moved around a little bit, but he's also played a lot of tackle, and he's looked better doing it than Terrence Steele. I mean no offense to Terrence Steele because he was going against the Marcus Lawrence and Alden Smith, but he looked out of his depth. So hey, wait,

what's up? If if Terrence Steele is out there, I can tell you who that eleventh guy is gonna be. It's gonna be Blake Bell and he's gonna be right next to him the other game. Like that's those those are gonna be the eleventh starting lineup. I have to believe Night is the next guy up at tackle, even if he's not listed that way. All right too, m

let's go and take our final break. When we come back, we're going to finish up some of these things that were on the unofficial depth chart that we thought were interested. We're also gonna get some questions. Amber's got some questions for us from you guys when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com review since eighteen sixty five. Stetson hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with

America's team. Want to show your Texas and team Pride two. You can by purchasing your own Stetson, you can look just like how the flag guys do on field at every home game. Stetson hats the official crown of all self respecting Cowboys and your favorite football team. Get yours today at Shop Dallas Cowboys dot com or at Stetson dot com. I'm Jay Novachik, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day, I was the guy who always got the tough yards, and that's why I

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Sweeping Airwaves and taste Buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and Creep Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor Baba cream Soda. Is he a Newcombonut's music to my ears? Okay, time to ears and mouth new Doctor Pepper and cream Soda. Deliss just do bad. Back to the Break. Welcome back to the final segment of The Break. We're live from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the start. We got our our entire crew here at the start of day. So it feels good to be moving things or moving

the season. Starting tomorrow night, they're actually gonna be playing a real game in the NFL. I cannot wait. She'd be very very interesting this season, and hopefully everything keeps going on a good path to where we can actually get through the season and into the playoffs and Cowboys can do something all right, So let's jump back in the unofficial depth chart. Another thing that popped out to me was Tony Pollard is listed as the primary punt returner,

Cedric Wilson listed as the primary kick returner. Ceedee Lamb not the primary returner on either of those units. What are your thoughts about that, because I think we, or at least I'll speak for myself, I was actually excited about the possibility of Ceedee Lamb being the primary returner, either on kicks or punts. Let's start first with you, Nick, Well,

you know this is more gamesmanship of what's happening. You know, for years they had different punt returners when you know, Dion Sanders was the guy when you really wanted a big return, but Kevin Williams was back there, you know, or Kelvin Martin or somebody like that. So I think, you know, you have a safe returner. You have a guy that's gonna go catch the ball, faircatch and all that.

That maybe is Tony Pollard, but I guarantee you if there's a pun or standing in his end zone and he's trying to, you know, get the ball and trying to get as much field positioned as possible. You know, I would imagine Ceedee Lamb's out there, but let's not act like having Tony Pollard in the open field would be bad either. I mean, just catch the ball and go north. That's it. That's really all all you need to do. Amber. I mean, who doesn't want to see Ceede Lamb Just give it a go and see how

he does. But he and Tony Poller, I'm a huge fan he. That guy is freaking quick. He's quick with his feet, He's able to move around. He's a small guy, but he can move, he can cut, make cuts, and he's really good with anticipation. So I'm excited to see him give it a go. This year is again and just see how he does. But hopefully at some point in the season we get to see to see see the Lamb give it a go as well. I am.

Everybody knows. I'm one of the people that's in favor of Lamb returning punts, but I never expected him to be the exclusive punt returner. I don't know if it's smart to send him back there six times a game. You know, what's that eighty times a season or whatever. I think, Yeah, like Nick said, if you've got a chance to field a punt near midfield, or if it's a late game situation and you need to play, that's

when I expect to see Lamb. The Pollard thing is weird because I've never seen him field a punt in my life. I don't think he ever has. He's the kick guy, so I think that's an outright lie, to be honest with you, I would expect it's gonna be Cedric Wilson. Maybe you might see Treyvon Diggs back there, and then Pollard's your kick returner. I would be pretty

surprised if Tony's fielding punts on Sunday. I will say this, It did pique my curiosity though, because, like as you guys are saying, Tony Pollard is a really really quick guy. He has some of those attributes that you think would be in a good punt returner, So I kind of want to see what it looks like. I do want to say, I've said a million times I would love for Tony Pollard to rid purn punts. I just haven't seen it, which, to be fair, doesn't mean he hasn't

done it right. There's a lot of stuff we don't see, but I'm going with what I've seen, which is not Tony Pollard, so I'd be pretty surprised to see it. All right, let's go ahead and get some questions, am Bro. Let's pull up some questions from some of the fans out there listening, some questions that you were able to get off of Twitter. What do you have? Well, I know we're tired talking about this, but it is what the fans are still talking about, and that is the

safety position. Now that the whole Zack Martin's contract and the way they're trying to restructure it and all that brings up the question could the Cowboys possibly be clearing up some money to bring Earl Thomas here and do something? So what is the reason behind this whole restructuring Zack Martins?

You know what I want to do. I want to see if I want to see if Chris, our producer, can actually get the you know, get something set up to where we can just say, hook them horns, like every time we bring up the name Earl Thomas, like you just hear this loud, hook them horns, and so, you know, just it's just what we do as a part of our show because we bring them up all

the time. I think we ought to give a little love to Texas, right, we want to go back to the days when Texas actually produced big time dbs a decade ago. Yeah, he's just riding that high. I so wish, I so wish Texas was playing LSU this year. I really do me too. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. All right, So what do you guys think? What is Earl Thomas still in the mixer? Nick? Do you want to? Okay, yack, go ahead. I think he is.

I mean I think he is until he signs with another team, and then when he gets cut by them, he'll be in the mix again. I mean, I think he's in the mix with until the Cowboys, you know, really show up the position. I mean, I don't Again, it's a good question. I don't know what they're getting money for. But I said this yesterday. I think that week one, obviously, it makes sense for all teams to kind of pass on Earl Thomas because you don't know what you're getting there, and you don't want to lock

yourself into a contract for the entire year. I would imagine that the sweepstakes for him ramps up after this week. We'll see if somebody gets hurt, you know, injured or in the league, and maybe that creates a more leverage for him. But why not, I mean, keep it, keep it alive. I still think there's something to it. I'll say what I said yesterday, which is they're gonna trot out Darien Thompson, Donovan Wilson, and Brandon Carr as their

answer across from Xavier Woods. That's not a guarantee to work. So I can't rule out Earl Thomas. Like I said about the receivers yesterday, if it's a disaster and they're giving up three hundred and fifty yards a game, you can't rule it out. But I don't think that's why they restructured Zach's contract. They already had cap space. Earl Thomas is not going to be nearly as expensive to sign as he used to be after what after the year that he's had, so I think they could do

that with the space that they had. I think that they know that they are going to have to pay a quarterback a lot of money next year. The CAP's not guaranteed to grow, so they're making room for it, and that doesn't mean a long term contract that's going to be expensive to tag Dak too, So I think they just want to make sure they have extra money in the bank. I'll just would would you sign but Earl Thomas to a two year deal? Would you sign

him to a two year deal one year? If it's a two year deal that allows me to cut him after one sure? Like no, I wouldn't give him like a two year deal with lots of guarantees. I mean, I bet that he's trying to get a one year deal and trying to get a one year deal, which means and not to a huge pay cut. So you know, you may not have a lot of lot Not a lot of teams have that kind of cap space. If he's trying to do that, yeah, they would probably want to do a two year deal, three year deal that

can can get cut down to one or two. But you know, I I would imagine he's trying to get a one year deal to get another big payday next year and do that. You got to have a decent amount of cap space, you know. I will say my desires kind of changed at when he first became available. I was like, bring him like tech. I want to see him on this team. My my role, I think, my my my opinion on this has changed a little bit to this point. I kind of want to just

see what they can do with what they have. Like I like the idea of some of these young safeties that they have, and quite frankly, I love their pass rush and I think the pass rush is going to help this secondary be pretty good. And so when you look at it from that standpoint, that's what we thought about. No no no, no no no no no no no no no no. I remember back they had they had two pass let me finish, let me finish. They had two pass rushers last year. This year they got three, and

they got three. As you heard Bucky say, Everson Griffin is an appreciable difference he has. He is he is a much better pass rusher than what you had in Robert and Robert Griffith was good, but I mean, I'm sorry, m Robert Quinn was good. I said last year, I thought he was gonna have he was gonna be your best, most productive pass rusher. But even at that, he's not as good as Everson Griffin. So you got three pass rushers this year that I feel like I'm gonna be

much better than what you had last year. I don't think Tank played his best football last year. I think he will be much better this year. All that being said, I think that there is a difference between what you can expect from the pass rush in two nineteen and what you will expect it from it in twenty twenty. Is that enough to maybe hide your secondary? I don't know.

What I'm saying is I do think it'll be better, and if it is better, there is a chance that it will be good enough to make your secondary pretty good. And if that happens, there's no need to go out and take a risk with Earl Thomas. That's the whole point. I think you can hidey. Sorry I was I was gonna say, first of all, thank you for being a gentleman. You shouldn't let me stay first, But that's okay. Second of all, here's the thing, here's the problem. It all

sounds great, it sounds amazing. Yes, we're excited about I am excited about it. But I've heard this story before. We heard it last year. We heard it after the draft. How they spoke about, oh yeah, if our pass rush is great, you know that trickles down and that's gonna help out the secondary. Didn't didn't really help the secondary. We've My point is here, and I'm not saying what the players that we have right now are are bad

or anything. I'm excited about them. But the thing is, I've heard this story before and i haven't seen it actually happen. So that's where my problem comes in. I've just I need to see it actually happened. I'm tired of seeing Oh yeah, let me see this young guys. Sometimes you just need to see vettering guys that are experience, that can actually go out there and are proven players. Well,

what is Brandon Carr? Is He not a proven player? Okay, he's a proven pretty good players, right And what we know right what we know right now, from what we know right now from Earl Thomas is regardless of what he can provide for you on the field, he has been unreliable as a teammate, right, So you can't say he's for sure either. Like what you're gonna get might be you might get a great player that can last the whole season. You might get a player that completely

destroys your locker room. All I'm saying is there's no point in taking that risk until you know a little bit more about what you think you already have. Let me clarify, I'm not chomping at the bid to sign Earl Thomas. I'm fine seeing what this is. But I can't help but think about how many people were okay with going into the eighteen season with no real receivers and it took seven games to realize that that was a mistake. And I think I won't be surprised if

that's what we wind up. Okay, So let me ask you this though, in that instance, you actually took something away from your wide receiver position. Do you think the Cowboys safety position is worse this year than it was last year? I just think the secondary as a whole is worse than it is, and you those things have to be weighed together, like your safeties are impacted by your cornerbacks and how good they are. The Cowboys do not have a proven playmaker in their secondary period. That's problem.

Did they have one last year? I mean byer, he was not a playmaker. It was a pretty good cornerback. He was not a playmaker. He's a guy that you can count on to take away half of the field on a regular basis. I don't know if I say takeaway half of the field. Okay, he was a pretty good corner. Let's just he was a pro. Opponents never targeted him ever. Okay, they just didn't do it. Maybe it was because they felt like they had better options on the other side. Right, Well, yeah, Derek, what happened

to you? I thought again about this is I'm just thinking right now, you look at the safety position, I don't I think they're actually better off than they were last year. I think having darry and Thompson out there with Xavier Woods, to me, is better than what they had last year. So I'm okay with the safety position. I kind of want to see what they can do with this pass rush and if it's fine, if they go out there and the Rams put up thirty five

forty points on them, then okay, let's rehab. Let's have this discussion all over again, and let's talk about bringing in Earl Thomas. But I just kind of want to see if this pass rush makes the secondary better or not, because you're right, Dave, they don't have a bunch of proven great players in their secondary. I do think their pass rush is better and that's always been a football thing. Ever.

To get to your point when you talk about, you know, if you have a good pass rush, I think everybody believes if you have a really good pass rush, it does help your secondary. Maybe it wasn't enough last year, but I do think with those three guys this year, it's gonna be different. I think it's gonna be better. I wish I had worn sunglasses for this segment, for all the sunshine that's coming at me from this direction over here. Sunshine, it's very sunshiny. It's just very bright,

very bright. All I'm saying I want to see. I'm saying I want to see. I just want to see. Nick, what did you have thoughts on this? The funny part is I'm saying the exact same thing Dave just been saying, which is, let's wait and see, but go ahead. Yeah, I mean it's interesting. Honestly, at the end of the day, I personally don't think the Cowboys are gonna do anything. I think they're gonna wait and see. So it's kind of a move point. I'll say it again. I don't

care if they signed Earl Thomas or not. But as we sit here on the cusp of the twenty twenty season. Their secondary is not better than I was last year. Things about the same. Okay, all right, well, well we'll check back in after we finish this game against the Rams, and we'll decide what we think after that game. How's it all right? St If that sounds good? Awesome? All right, we appycate you guys join us. We're back tomorrow again. We're gonna have by Bucky Brooks join us. He will

talk about the Rams defense versus the Cowboys offense. We'll also get into some other topics tomorrow and we'll start getting you guys ready for Cowboys versus Ram. Till then for Nick Eatman, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia. I am 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.