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Are you ready for a break?
Yes? Are you ready for a break? Absolutely?
Ready for a break? Yeah, and so much for that. It's time for the Break on.
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We were with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought us, Patrick Walker and Derek Eagleton.
It is Monday, August seventh, twenty twenty three, Season nineteen, episode number fifteen. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We're life Moxnard, California. Man, we're rounding this thing out. We've been here two weeks. We got about two more weeks left, although we do get a slight respite. We get to go home for about it's not even a full twenty four hours. We'll be at home for the upcoming preseason game of Cowboys to kick it off this weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Come back out for a final week, head out to Seattle for a game.
Then we'll be back and then we'll be heading into the season two weeks later. So it's coming quick. It's coming really quick. It's almost it is so what we're gonna do today. Brian's out with us today. He's actually back in Dallas at this point, So it's up to us to hold it down, or at least up to the three of us to hold it down for the next week. And then when we go to Dallas, we're gonna actually leave Amber. She's like not coming back. She's not coming back.
She's not dropping me off in Dallas.
That final week is gonna be me and Patrick and Uh. I think we might actually have a little special guests for everybody that final week. Yeah, I don't know if Amber likes that idea, but we're going to see how it goes well.
She's really relaxed right now for her massage. I don't think she cares.
That's true, right, she's feeling.
She's on her wave right now.
I just think once you part of ways with somebody, you shouldn't necessarily go back to that. There is a period where you just stay away from each other and then maybe down the road you might reconnect. But this is too soon. But hey, I'm not having a relationship.
Relationship advice from new Garcia, all right, So here's what we're gonna do today.
We got a lot to catch up on Cowboys have their blue white practice.
It wasn't really a scrimmage. It used to be a scrimmage. It wasn't a scrimmage. It as a practice.
But have the practice Saturday, and we had some some notes from that. I want to hear from you guys on some of the things you saw, some interesting notes of players in moments. We'll definitely get into that mojo moment. That's something worth discussing. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna round out our We started this conversation last week, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. We have a few more positions on the offense and
then on some on the defense. But we're really talking about camp battles, and we're gonna go through each position and we're gonna.
Kind of line out the top.
Four or five six players at that position, so the fans can get an idea of, based on what we've seen out here, how this thing is shaping up. As far as who's gonna be your starters in most instances, we know that, but what does your depth look like? Who are the guys that are your depth pieces, your third, fourth, fifth guys on the roster at each position? We'll go through some of that. We'll also take some questions. Remember,
we got our new text line up and rolling. The number is eight one seven two nine zero three two nine eight again eight one seven, two nine zero three two nine eight. Will take questions. We'll take comments throughout the show. So send us what you got and we'll try to integrate you into the show. All right, So let's start first with uh Patri, Let's get some injury updates. A couple guys, Ronald Jones, Luke Schoonmaker. What are we hearing about those guys right now?
So?
Ronald Jones left the Blue White practice on Saturday with what's being described as a growing injury.
The severity of that is unknown at the moment.
We'll get more information from Mike McCarthy today as far as if Rojo is going to practice. Obviously, you know, tough week for him last week, gets the news of the two game suspension and then he leaves on Saturday, So and groins can be a bit nagging. So we'll see if he practices today or at all this week. We'll see other Cowboys handle that. Luke Schoomaker bittersweet news
more sweet than bitter. He suffered what Mike McCarthy described as a minor setback in his recovery from plantar fasciitis. The expectation initially was that Schoon would be on the field potentially for the Blue White practice, but the date was changed, but not too far out because the expectation is now moved to today. So we'll ask Mike about that today if that's still the plan or if they're
going to give schoolmakers some more time. Donovan Wilson, he was seen without a boot on Saturday, so big news there as he battles back from that cap string he suffered a couple of weeks ago. Initially the injury, the prognosis was several weeks for he and Israel mcwamu. Donovan Wilson was on the sideline with no boot, that's key to note. And Israel mcwuamu actually returned to full team practice,
full team duty. So the safety unit is getting healthy for the Cowboys, and that's great news, especially when you combine it with the fact that young guys je Ye, Thomas Marquee Spell they've been out there doing some good work. Sam Williams shoulder string last week, he returned to full practice duties last Thursday, so of course he was participating on Saturday. So Cowboys are the minor injuries that they're
dealing with. They're getting healthier, and Luke school Maker looks like he's making his way toward a training camp debut.
How much do you guys think this injury to Schoonmaker set him back that tight end position. It's a it's an interesting position, and we're gonna talk a little bit about that when we get into our depth, but that's one of the positions that I look at and I'm like, every day I'm seeing different guys that are lowered down the depth chart making plays out here, getting familiar with the offense.
How much is this setting the rookie back.
I mean, for a rookie, you never want to miss any type of time. You're still trying to build that relationship with your quarterback and just go out there and run routes. But for a guy like him, I know when he was drafted, we were talking a lot about him and possibly him making somewhat of an impact this year early on, but I never really saw them that way. I still saw the other guys up front, and I'm curious what Brian would even say when it comes to blocking,
how he was looking. That's the guy I haven't seen much out here when he was doing things. Were you noticing something as first the blocking aspect of his game?
Not quite yet? Not quite yet, So.
Those are things that you're I mean, it's a big step back, but like he said, we don't know how much time that's gonna be. But as far as what I was expecting to get from him this year early on, it wasn't necessarily much.
Well for my stance when it comes to schoolmaker Amber makes a great point. When you're a rookie, you don't want to miss any time at all, especially at the beginning when it's your first training camp. You're trying to get your legs under you. You're trying to get a chemistry with these quarterbacks. You're trying to build that on field chemistry with the Titans coach Lunda Wells, and you know the veterans that are on the team, Jake Ferguson,
Peyton Hindershot Sean McEwan. But you also have to factor in when he does come back to the field's not going to immediately be immediately be one hundred percent coming off of a plantar fasciitis injury. As a tight end, who's going to have to block, which means he has to plant his feet into the ground and hold anchor.
He's going to have to run routes and get open in space.
So when he comes back, let's say it takes two to three weeks for him to acclimate fully. So that's most, if not all, a training camp before he's back at one hundred percent physically, maybe mentally, and then it's week one. So it made to your point, Derek, we may not see prime Luke schoon Maker until you know, four weeks into the season because he's missing training camp.
And what's song from my understanding from this type of injuries is that it's not necessarily something that you just fix. You know, you don't go and get a surgery and get it fixed right away or anything like that. Something not even when he's still he feels good now and goes back out there, it can pop up again all of a sudden. Who was it? Was it a Maari that that was that? For Ai it was a receiver a couple of years ago. I think it it's a very painful injury.
I mean painful injuries that takes your while to get past, and there is no there's no real like escaping the pain.
Like the pain is the pain. You're just gonna be pain.
And it's also a weird injury in that if you've ever suffered it, or if you just kind of know of the the athletic medical side of it, you kind of wanted to pop, so to speak, you would rather that ligament go ahead and pop so it can heal faster as opposed to just being that strain, because it's the strain that's more aggravating, it's the strain that takes
longer to heal. So I'm sure there was a decision made there on if he wanted to have that done forcefully, or if he felt like or if Britt Brown and the training staff and the medical team here felt like it was not so much of a strain that they didn't have to go to that extreme. But it's a weird injury because you would rather it just and then you'd heal faster. So a lot of things are are kind of factoring into win school Maker can or cannot
come back. But again McCarthy said, the expectation now is that it happens on Monday, and as we're having this conversation. I'm seeing a report that he will in fact come up with a non football injury list today. Again, we'll confirm that with Mike when he speaks in about an hour or so from now. But if that's the case, then yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get our first look at second round pick former Wolverine Luke Schoolmaker in today's practice.
And what we have to know is like that also the most important thing, I guess I shouldn't say the most important thing, but the thing that I want to see most from him, as you mentioned, Namber, is the ability to block, because that's where I feel like they had some room. I think they got a lot of tight ends on this team who can catch passes, who can get up field, who to make plays.
You've seen the blocking not be there at times.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and that's what he did at Michigan. They feel like they can get more out of him than just being a blocking tight end. But at the end of the day, if he's a great blocking tight end.
That's valuable for the Dallas coultl He's very solid on his film for Michigan as a blocker. I believe, like you said, I believe that there's more in that two box than just being a blocker. I think he's the most well rounded tight end in the room right now. Again, we have to see that on the NFL field. We have to see that on the Cowboys practice field before we can really definitively say that. I like the progress
in blocking that Jake Ferguson is making. For example, He's making strides in that category, so I think he's right there with Ferguson.
But Ferguson obviously has the leg up. But I'm really really looking forward to seeing what Schoon can bring. Uh.
And he's not a small dude. This is a this is a big boy. So I think the blocking will kind of take care of itself. What I'm looking for if and when he shows up in practice today, tomorrow, whatever the case may be, I want to see how comfortable he is running routes on that foot. That's going to tell the real story on how he how good he feels or does not feel.
I will say, at least, at the very least, he's been getting work. What are those machines called jokes, they throw the ball. Yeah, he's been doing a lot of that, and he's looked pretty good. I mean, that's a it looks like an easy exercise. But you know those balls, yeah yeah, yeah, But he's looked good catching those balls and at least working in that sense. So we'll see it once he gets out there.
I'm not worried about his hands. He's got hands. Yeah, Honestly, I won't look at his foot honestly for.
Both the first and the second round pick.
I know that the Cowboys feel like they can get more out of them than what they showed in college. But quite frankly, for me, if they can at least do what they did very well in college, Mazzie stopping the run, Schoonmaker blocking, if they can do that in their first year, that's putting the Cowboys far ahead of where they were because those are two areas where they could use that extra, that ability where they don't really they didn't really have it consistently last year. We're gonna
take our first break when we come back. I'm going to jump into some standout moments from the blue eye practice. We'll get to that mojo moment. We'll let these guys tell you about some things that stood out to them. Some players that stood out to them. When we come back Dallas, Cowboys dot com Radio.
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Back to the Break in the second segment, Welcome back.
We are in the second segment of The Break live from Oxnard, California, and we're going to talk about this Blue White practice that happened on Saturday. I want to get to you guys giving me some of your standout moments or standout players. But before we do that, we got to talk a little bit about the Mojo moment. And for those out there who are listening that don't know what the mojo moment is. Essentially, during practice, coach will have a short period of practice where they will
work on something. It's usually a competitive type situation that he wants to put them in offense versus defense, or special teams or something where there is competition and he just kind of highlights it for the whole team to be around and everybody's watching and see how the competition works. That day on Saturday, Mojo moment was built around Basically,
it was kind of a two play type situation. You have the ball, you're needing to get into field goal range, kind of right at the outskirts of field goal range. You get one play, and then after that one play, you gotta get the field goal unit on the field. They got to try to kick a field goal to win. There were six opportunities. There was one made field goal, one five misses. Who know, what were your thoughts about that?
And is it?
I know there was a lot made of it.
I think we all raise our eyebrows quite a bit in the grand scheme of things. How how important was that or how much of a problem is that?
In your opinion, that.
Was a massive problem. I've sat here on this panel now a couple of times and we and I specifically said, I was not convinced that the kicker that that's going to be the eventual kicker for twenty twenty three is on the roster right now. And I said, because the body of evidence is lacking. I hadn't seen anything. There's nothing on the resume. Now, Viscayano, he did well in mini camp, but that's mini camp. So now you're out here and I get it. The win and whatnot the elements,
but that's football. The crowd you just heard. You heard how the crowd was just eviscerating them after each miss. That's football, and that pressure packed situation in the Mojo moment you missed between the two kickers, you missed five of the six, and the misses were not pretty.
One in particular, it looked like it hit.
A bird and died in the end zone, only it did not hit a bird.
So I don't know what happened in that instant.
In that instance, my main point being I already had concern and I needed these kickers, one or both of them,
to string together good days. But when the pressure was on and everybody was watching and the crowd was first cheering for them and then jeerying against them because the crowd was displeased, they just started to fold more and more, to the point where when they finally made the one, which was the final kick, the crowd exploded because the crowd was so upset that the first five were missed and these weren't sixty yard field goals that were being attempted.
So I had concern already.
Now it's Defcon one for me, So Cowboys, I would love to see that kicker competition, get another body.
In the room.
Hopefully soon, Hopefully soon we'll see what happens and what they just had to do. Something that I don't understand, and maybe you guys do, is this whole thing. When you start talking about it, some people will say, well, this is a hard place to kick, just the wind, the place, the trees. And I look and I stand out there, and I'm just like, how like, I don't
understand why that's even a point to point. Yeah, And I know Nick would be one to argue that and say, well, this and the trees, and it looks pretty simple to me. It looks pretty basic as to what you would have in any other place. The wind has not been crazy. You have the little orange flags on there on the poles.
Talking roughly, if you look at it, it's about ten to twelve miles powers what the wind has been at.
It's worse out here, which is not again that's not horrible.
Yeah, nothing, nothing that it should create the problem that we're seeing. So definitely very concerning. And you know, this is once again I feel we're sitting here similar to what we were last year. Hopefully it doesn't play out the same way as it did going into the season and towards the end of the season. But uh, they
have to do something. They have to do something quick and try to fix it and get the whoever it is to come out here or go to the Star and start kicking and kicking and and just better the craft. I don't I don't know what else to say about this, but right now, I don't think the Cowboys have the answer.
Yeah, and that the tough part is kicker is one of those positions where there just isn't a lot available to you at this time of the year. Now, ironically, there are a couple veteran kickers out there on the on the on the free agency in the free agency market. The the issue there is there most of them are you know, older, which means most likely you're probably not dealing with kickers that have a lot of juice in their leg from the standpoint of and I.
Gonna be booming fifty two to fifty three yarders regularly.
But if you can get one of them that can consistently kick from forty five and inn and consistently hit those and get all their extra points, that may be your preferable option at this point and now, your offense.
Is just knows I'm kicking a lot of those long field goals.
That's not gonna be what you had, Like last year, you had that you could kick from from deep.
But I'm like, give me forty five in and I'll take it.
See this, this is why, this is why we get along so well.
Because I was saying this during the Mojo moments.
I was having this conversation with going to our colleagues, and you know, obviously when you start to see these kickers make these misses, and the conversation was Mason Crosby, Robbie Googe, and then the conversation moved to what about age? These guys are mid thirties whatever. And my point then is your point. Now we're all on the same page when it comes to this. The guys out here are in their thirties and they're missing. Okay, So I don't
want to hear about age. What I want is an accurate kicker, someone who's accurate up to forty forty five if you had to push them the forty five, Because at that point, your offense no longer has the crutch of knowing it has a Brett Maher or someone who can boot it sixty yards, So you actually know going into this drive you better get across the fifty yard line minimum, right, You better convert on second and third down to avoid fourth down and avoid needing your kicker
to come in and save the day or save the drive. If you remove that crutch, it will probably and likely add that much more motivation and push for McCarthy and schottenheim Er and Dak and the skilled players to say, hey, we have to get this. Why you call the players, Yes,
we have to get this next conversion. We have to get across it because we know, respectfully that this particular kicker, be it in their mid thirties, be it Crosby, goul whoever they bring in, we know they can't give us a fifty five yard We got to get in their range. So that makes the offense more aggressive just by default. I love that thought process.
Do you guys prefer a guy like a Maher that you know has the leg to kick those fifty two fifty three, fifty four yards maybe even deeper than that if you needed him to. He's just a little bit inconsistent as he was last year on the on the extra points. What do you prefer that or the guy that you feel more certain that he's gonna kick that forty yard in forty two yard in, and you really don't have much of a shot once you get into that fifty plus range.
I think it comes down back to Patrick's point. How confident are you about your offense? How confident are you that you're gonna just drive it down the field and get closer to the end zone. And I just think that's that's a tough question there, because you need both. You need you gotta make you gotta make those extra points and you gotta be able to hopefully get in there if you're far enough. Give me freaking both. Is that too much to us in today's.
It is?
I don't know, Like nowadays it's too much to ask, And definitely at this time of the year, it's too much to ask for the cowboys, Like, there's not that guy's not sitting on the street. If he was that guy, he wouldn't be sitting on the street, right, that's fectual.
I mean three points is worth more than one. So if you're.
So now you're okay with the guy that misses the extra point.
Perfect segue to what I was about. I'm going to completely. Please the analytics crowd out there right now, and I'm going to say the hell with that extra point. Go for two, okay, because the numbers bear out that you have a great shot of getting that two point conversion.
So don't worry about worry about the extra I can get a fifty something.
Fifty something yarder because inevitably, like to the point of you don't want to have that crutch for the offense. So that point still stands. But inevitably in the NFL game, there will come a point where your kicker will have to win the game for you on a three point field goal. I need that to be more solid than yourself. No, I said, no, you're not hearing it. Because there's an inevitability. Two things can be true at the same time. I want the crutch removed, period. I want the crutch removed.
But we also have to understand that at a certain point you're going to need your kicker to win the game. But now that ties back into the offense because let's say it's a game winning drive, right, you gotta go ninety eight yards if you don't have Now here's the inevitability.
You're sitting here your face.
With third down or whatever on the opponent's forty five yard line. Right to Derek's point, it's going to force your play calling to be different from the first play of that drive because you know that this might end up being one of those inevitable situations where now we might need a field goal kicker to save us, but we can't have it at fifty five yards out.
We can't have it at fifty yards out. So you know, going.
Into that drive, we gotta get chunk plays. We can't come out on the first play of screw imagine and run up the a gap. No, no, no, you gotta deep inside, deep outside, get some spacing. So it is an inevitability. But it's also true that it changes your
approach if you don't have that kicker. But to answer the question succinctly, if you gotta choose between one or the other, I don't care about the extra point because with this offense and this you know, these skilled players, you should be able to get two points far more often than not.
Okay, I'm just visualizing all of it. I'm thinking, well, we don't have Zeke anymore? Can this in those situations? I mean, you gotta die whose still can run I'm talking about that scenario trying to convert and what that looks like, and what the offensive line currently looks like. Hopefully it's improved by the start of the season, but I guess some they just hopefully they just find a kicker that can kick.
You bring up an interesting point there you're talking about. I think what you're getting at is kind.
Of short yardage, third and two, third and one. How are they gonna pick those up?
I actually expect, and I don't know that this is true, but I expect that we will see on some of those short yarded situations, we're gonna actually see them throw the ball a little bit more this year. This is the kind of offense that's predicated on quick passes to get the ball out.
I could see some three step drops.
I've seen that already here at training camera. Yeah, than run.
I think I think three step drop, get the ball out quick. You got these quick routes with your receivers. Uh, You've got quick routes with your with your tight ends.
You got quick out routes with your I mean flare routes with your your running backs. I think there are ways that you will see this offense be a little more multi dimensional, uh, in how it approaches short yardage. It won't just be either line up and let the quarterback just run up the gut or hand it off to the running back and have him run up the gut.
I think you're going to see a lot more opportunities for the receivers to get involved in those some of those short yard situations and then to convert in that way.
All right, we're gonna take our final break. We'll come back well from.
These guys on some of the things that they saw in Saturday's practice.
We'll get some of their points. We'll also get some of your questions.
You can hit us at eight one seven two nine zero three two nine eight at That is our text line again, it is eight one seven two nine zero three two nine eight.
Will be right back, Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answer life's questions with an ice cold can of Doctor Pepper. Sheila, let's hear from my next caller, would.
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Back to the break.
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Welcome back. It is the final segment of the break. We'll lie from Oxnard, California. The segment's brought to you by blockchain dot Com.
Thank you, Christy, and we are Uh.
Let's let's get some opinions from you guys Saturday that the Blue White practice. I want to hear from you guys, a couple moments or players that stood out to you.
Let's start with you Amber, what do you have what stood out to you?
Well? I think overall, I love how this defense is looking in general. And I will say this, I am very very happy and glad that they decided to pay a guy like Trevon Diggs and that he is on the team. Because when you see the guys on the depth chart, you notice, you notice the difference. You notice so much the difference. And one of the things I've noticed from Trevon Digs, the only thing I feel that he's right now missing is just being able to get
his hands on the ball. There have been so many different plays in situations where he gets so close, so close, but it just misses. And I think if he can start just grabbing those balls, getting those interceptions. He's gonna take it to the next level. But overall he's just you can tell why he's here and what he's gonna bring to the table and the way that he's elevating this offense defense.
I'm sorry, And speaking of that, secondary, I mean, and then you extend Maali Cooker for three years twenty four million dollars a few months after you, you know, re signed Donovan Wilson. Secondary is gonna do numbers, and even now looking at the depth, the depth is starting to show up his safety. One year Thomas Marquis Bell, but one year Thomas he stood out to me again in the Blue White practice.
But I'm gonna go with Michael Gallup here. I know a lot of people.
I mean, we've been seeing a lot of work, a lot of impact plays already being made here in camp from Brandon Cooks and from Ceedee Lamb. And the question is and has been, what does Gallup look like? How is he coming along? We're hearing a lot about Cooks and Lamb, but what about you know, the third guy. Michael Gallup had a fantastic day on Saturday. He looked springy, He was in and out of his cuts, he was crisp,
he was one handed catching the ball in traffic. He looked fluid on the cross routes, on the quick slam, Michael Gallup looked phenomenal. So for me as much as many other players stood out one year, Thomas Jabill, Cox, Dumont Clark, he's really starting to kind of give me the wide eyes, like, whoa, I'm ready for that.
Michael Gallup. He really showed up on Saturday.
And that's that's the Michael Gallup that I want to see that the Cowboys need to see coming into twenty twenty three.
When you look at this this this overall offense, where are they right now as far as where you would where you would have expected them to be? And you mentioned the receivers, but just overall how they're looking. The defense obviously looks great.
We knew they would look great.
But offensively, do you get the sense that they're right where they should be? Do you think they're a little bit behind? You think they're ahead of where you would have expected them to be at this point.
Well, going to the most recent practice, the red zone drills, that was not good. That was not good at all. I don't know what you're about to be overall, and the defense, oh my god, I can flip in the offense in general, as far as training camp has been, I think they've been doing a pretty nice job. There have been areas where yes, you need to perfect and work on, but Dak to me has looked really really
good overall in training camp. But going to the most recent one, that red zone drill, I was standing right there, I'm just like, oh my god, nope, miss miss, miss miss and everything. It was on the defensive side where they were just winning every single play. So that was an era where I'm like, Okay, this may be something that they need to work on. And most of these came just passing the ball. It wasn't necessarily running on
the ground. But that's the point where, yeah, you don't want to see those types of things or daks throwing the ball that way at times.
And you're not wrong.
The offense absolutely struggled in their rid zone drill. But the day that, the practice before they had the practice before they were surgical. Yeah five touchdowns between five right, yeah, five five five for five. So my point was you're not wrong in that the offense struggled. My point was contextual in that the offense had such a phenomenal day against an elite defensive secondary that you could tell the defensive secondary went back into the lab and said, that's
not going to happen again. So then that very next padded practice, Dak in that offense looked very disjointed in that red zone. So credit to McCarthy, Schottenheimer, Dak and his players for going five for five and basically just eviscerating the defense on that particular padd of practice last week. But then kudos to McCarthy and Wit and Deron Bland and Treyvon Diggs for coming back out and saying, I.
Bet you can, I bet you can't.
They basically looked at Dick and said, I bet you can't do it again. And so now I'm interested this back and forth between an elite defense and an offense that's trying to regain its elite status. That's what you want to see now.
If the if it was a consistent struggle for the offense in the red zone day after day after day, yes you could still give roses to the defense, but the concern would be rightful on the offensive side of the ball. They're trading blows right now. As long as they keep trading blows, I'm completely fine with it.
But to your question, Derek.
I don't feel like they are where they are going to end up being, And a large part of that is because the offensive line is still being sorted out. So until the offensive line is sorted out and Zach Martin is back in the building, back on the field, they're not going to be able to win as many
battles in the trenches. So there're going to be more disruptions from the defensive side of the ball because you have Matt Farniak and you have too money Doga and Idoga is kind of struggling, and then you have a rookie fifth round pick and as some Richards who there flexing trying to figure things out. So you would expect that the defensive veterans on that line would win out more and they are so No, they're not where they
need to be offensively. But even with a disjointed offensive line right now, they're still giving some hell to the to the defense. So if you're talking potential wise, imagine what it looks like when that ol is sorted out.
Yeah, this is not a this is in my opinion, this has not been a defense dominant training camp. I've seen camps where one side of the ball was completely dominant over the other. It has not been that. I think the defense has shown that they're extremely good, which we already knew, but I think the offense has also had some days where you're.
Like, oh, they got after the defense today.
So that's the beautiful part about it is, and that's what you kind of want to see during training camp. You want to see kind of this back and forth because that means that they're competitive, number one, but number two, they are kind of matching one another. You know, you have a day where the defense will be able to win, and then the offense will come in and say, Okay, we're gonna try some different things today, and they try some different things and they win, right. So I don't
think it's been lopsided. I think this has been a very competitive training camp. I think the offense has been equally good. I think the defense, we know that they're going to be exceptional, and my hope is that they will take that next step from being a top ten defense to being one of the top two or three defenses in the league.
But we'll see how that goes.
But we certainly are seeing out here that this offense is extremely competitive. I think when you match them up against this.
Defense, absolutely, and again I'd love being able to agree with that in the same breath as saying the offensive line still needs to get figured out, because I just keep coming back. It keeps coming back to the same point in my head, which is, if they can make this many impact plays against this defense, who is, like you said, exceptional and you still don't know. I mean, there's chemistry still being built between Tyler and Tyron on
the left side. You're figuring out your right guard situation the absence of Zach Martin, and yet you're still being able to make plays. So that goes to both the play calling, getting the ball out quickly, getting out on screens, quick routes speed guys like Cooks and Lamb, but it also goes to how hard those.
Young guys like Matt farnioca fighting. So I love it all.
Right, you mentioned sorry, I was just gonna say real quick with Idoga. He that's the guy you just mentioned too. He's a guy that I mean, he's been constantly being getting beat. He keeps going up against the guy like Micah Parsons and that's an automatic. But I will say this last practice, he he showed some fire. He was fighting back, and that's good to see. That's something that you want to see where you're not seeing a guy just that's constantly getting beat and just keeps going down
the slope. You know, he's the guy that showed up and is fighting back and now he's having very few moments but somewhat of a slight victory at times, which shoot hopefully build his confidence. But you want to see that type of progress where now he's making it harder on a guy like Michael Parsons to fight and try to do to get to the quarterback.
All right, let's sake, we're gonna get a couple questions here before we end the show. We got a question here and he didn't. Oh you know it is Mario from South Texas. He said, shit, schoonmaker. We were talking about him earlier. Be forced to miss time. Do you think that helps the chances of Hunter Lepke making the opening day roster or with Dallas use that roster spot on a different position. He's talking about the full backing fullback on the roster.
What do you think about that?
Thought, I don't know that the two are directly related. I mean, obviously they're related as far as the math is the math when it comes down when it comes to cutting down the roster. But the more you ask Mike McCarthy about Hunter Lipkey, the more he kind of doubles and triples down on special teams, special teams, Special teams. And then you go and talk to Bones, and Bones is impressed with what Hunter is bringing to the special
teams front. So from the aspect of Hunter Lipkey, he really just has to beat somebody out as a special teamer. I think that's gonna be a special teamer versus special teamer battle. Luke Schoolmaker. I don't think that the Cowboys are going to force anything. They're not going to force him onto the field any sooner than he needs to be, and they're not going to force him off of the field any sooner than needs to happen if they see him making some plays and they get super cautious. So
just let the Schoolmaker thing play out. And I anticipate him being available for Week one, but I don't know that he'd see equal reps as say Peyton him to Shot and Jake Ferguson as TE one t E two and then just give you time for that to develop
over the course of the season. But no, I don't think there's a direct correlation between if Schoon is ready to go, because I don't think Schoon is going to be a reservist starting the season, so he's going to get his roster spot in my opinion, and Hunter Lipkey just has to beat out another special team or whoever that might be.
Retweet repost.
Actually, this is actually an interesting question. I'm interested to see how you guys take this. This question comes in and says current Cowboys offense less than greater than are equal to Amari Zeke and Schultz Era.
Hmmm, that's an interesting one. Spicy, Yeah, that's interesting. Okay, wide receivers. I really like what they got going on right now. I think it's better than what it was tight End. I'm not ready to say they miss a guy like Schultz. I think they're sorting some things out and they need to perfect some areas that definitely need work, but I think they will be Okay, Zeke, I'm not over that yet. I I don't know about you guys, but I miss seeing twenty one the White Jersey twenty
one out here. Why are you making up face, Chris.
You're just talking about someone breaking up and not breaking them back.
Oh my god, I got you, Christ. That was more of a force out of your contradicting yourself. No, I am not. I am not.
Break up the High five. He was kicked out of here. That's like someone that you have a relationship with it then gets drafted in the military, has to be taken away from you. Well, I'm just saying. I'm just saying it wasn't necessarily a Meo chol breakup, I don't think. But right back to the point. Back to the point. Even though some of these young guys have been showing some things, and we keep talking about a guy like Chris Vaughan, he has been explosive. They've used him there
are using him in many, many different ways. Oh my god, I mentioned his dad. I'm sorry I talked about his dad.
Chris looks like he can get out there too, Chris, Chris looks like he can get out there too, dad.
I'm sorry. Well, I see Chris working out every morning, so yes, he was fresh on my mind. But no, his son, Duce, he's been doing really, really good job, and Tony Pauler has done a good job as well, but there's still something for me that is missing that is not what Zeke was bringing to the table. And you talk back about those short yardage situation. I think that's something they're still liking out here. They I don't.
I haven't seen a guy. And this is kind of hard to tell because you're not really fully tackling anybody, but you know, as soon as you see a small contact, the defense is not gonna go hard or anything. But you see that initial content, You're like, Okay, yeah, that would have been it. They wouldn't gotten far. So that's I would say right now. Overall, I feel like it is a little bit better with the exception of not having Zeke.
I'm gonna I'm gonna make it real easy, break it down in three parts. The running back room I think is a lesser than signed than the one that had Zeke in it until firstly, Zeke in his prime until further notice, I think the running back room has taken a step back. Hopefully they took a step back to take steps forward. But we'll get to that when we
get to that uh tight end room. I'm with Ambar on this, I don't think that they'll miss Schultz's production nearly as much because of the ability of ferguson hindershot and then when Schoolmakers is full fully go and read ready to show out. So tight end room, I think this tight end room, especially given that it's young and it has a longer shelf life, it's greater than the tight end room that was led by Dalton shows wide
receiver group. This is where it gets arguable. Mark Cooper easily won of the best route runners in the game. He's not a slow guy by any stretch of the imagination, but he's also not Branding Cooks his speed and an ability to just teleport from spot to spot. So again, on paper, which is all we can go by right now, On paper, Cook's his speed and route running ability combination
of those two plus Lamb plus Gallop. If we assume Gallup is back in prime form, which was what was present with Cooper and Gallop in that trio, then I'm going, on paper say this wide receiver group is a greater than sign over that trio.
So that's two out of three. So my overall answer is yes, this group on paper is better.
Yeah, I agree, with all that, the only part I think is a question mark is the running back room. And really, for the points that you brought up, amber, we haven't seen yet their ability to be able to
convert those short yarded runs. I think in a lot of other areas, I think in the passing game they're probably better because even though and I remembered back when he was drafted, I remember the Cowboys talking, and I talked specifically some in the organization who would have known and was part of the conversations that was, like, man, we really think we're getting some in the passing game from Zeke. He's one of the better running back pass catching running backs coming out of the draft in a
very long time. And I don't know that the Cowboys ever really realize that. I think I think Pollard is a has been at least from the production on the field, has been a better option. And even out here you see he just has a it's a very natural pass catcher. To me, it seems like more of a natural pass catcher catcher than Zequil. So I think in a lot of areas they may even be better. I still don't know what they're going to do on short yardage.
They may have the right answers.
Who knows.
I haven't seen it.
Going to your body of work, I haven't seen that yet. So that to me is the is the big question mark, and especially Zeke and his prime, Zegan his prime. You're giving the ball on third and one. It was almost like you just didn't give questionable. Yeah, but but but that's what we're comparing. We're comparing his prime to where they are now, and I think compared that's the one area where I think there are still question was yeah, give the ball to Deuce.
Vaughn and still he still hasn't signed with anybody.
Yeah, but I'm not sure he's still that anymore. Like that's the other part to it. I don't know that Zeke is no.
But I think going back to last year, what we saw last year, if you find the right combination, I think it's the perfect recipe for the running backs. What you do with with Z versus what you do with Tony Poller, they both have different set of skills that
you use him. I think what fans were getting kind of annoyed about last year is that you were using Z. You were still using Zeke a lot more than Tony Poler and people wanted to see more of Poller, But I think if you if he was here, you would be able to create a better balance to where now you're just really utilizing Zeke in what he does best, which are those short jartage. I can't get on that.
But but the tough part to that is is Zeke willing to be paid as a guy that's just gonna come in on third Shore.
Well yeah, well you're not talking about money though, and that ties into what I keep hearing from Mike McCarthy. There's one statement Mike McCarthy said last week when he was asked about the Zeke equation, and he said, and I quote, it's the reps end quote, it's the reps.
McCarthy is hell. I know the front office.
They have the door still open for Ezekiel Elliott until the door's closed, ie he signs with another team. But Mike McCarthy has hell been on getting these young guys into these games and seeing that, and then when you look at ric o'dowdo for example, I think ric o'dowddo has an excellent chance to challenge for RB two. That's an opportunity for him. It's an opportunity for Ronald Jones to kind of step up. Malik Davis here too. They're looking for that jump. You don't find all of this
stuff out if you're giving the reps to Elliott. So that means, to his point, you would have to pay Elliott whatever his price might be, because it ain't gonna be veteran minimum for him to come in and then willfully accept that he might not actually get reps that equal RB two. They'd be RB three ish. So that's why Mike McCarthy is like, I don't see how that fits. McCarthy wants the young guys and he wants to see what he has and go from that.
I get it. My concern is, and I know we're about in the show, but what I'm worried about is every year we improve in certain areas. Right, every year you're like, Okay, I feel better about this, I feel better about that, and then we get into it and then you're realizing your weak spots. This year, yes, but this year, this year, I think the wide receiver group took such a big step forward compared to last year. Running back, I don't feel the same way as of
right now. I hope I'm absolutely wrong, But I just I don't want to see it where Okay, we thought we were all in this year and this is gonna
be the year, and the defense is looking amazing. We were able to keep so many parts of the defense and Dan Quinn and all of that, and then you get into the season and you can't freaking run the ball or convert in certain areas because again that I'm not talking down about on these these running back to be able to run poler is fast and some of these guys have been doing a really really good job here, I can't. But is it gonna be enough? I don't know.
And that's an area that I'm currently concerned about going into this.
You know, like I said, on paper, they took a step back in the running back room. But hopefully the step they've taken back ends up in two steps forward. But we won't know about that potentially being two steps forward until we get November, December, January especially.
And I would also real quick for you in the show, what else I'd like to see maybe to help that is same way Philadelphia did last with Jalen Hurts.
You get the third and one line up and let your quarterback run the.
He's not a small dude. He can do this.
And so in the same way Philadelphia did and became routine for Philadelphia, Like everybody in the STADIU knew exactly what they were gonna do, and they converted.
The vast majority of the.
Time, it's the copycat least. So push him, give back the ball and get behind him and they can do it way.
To do it exactly. I appreciate you guys. So we'll be back on Wednesday.
It'll be our final show of this week because Friday will be traveling back to Dallas because Saturday.
We'll get to kick this thing off.
Cowboys will take on the Jacksonville Jaguars. So then for Patrick Walker On Ambergar Sie, I'm Derek Eagletson. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.