Cowboys Break: Time to Hit the Panic Button?

Season fourteen, episode number forty seven. Welcome to another edition Up the Break, live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and here from the s WBC Mortage studio is at the Star. It is a Tuesday. It's big picture Tuesday. We're gonna take a big picture look at this team you're Dallas Cowboys and give you, guys, kind of our thoughts on where this team sits right now through three games, and hopefully we'll have something that we can tell you that here's you hope, God, I don't know. I don't know

what to say at that point. No, but we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. I mean it, hope for what hope? Well, effs, I guess that's a good good playoffs. I mean playoffs. I mean, hope for what, they're gonna go out and score points, play win games. Yeah, all that stuff, go to the super Bowl, something that'll make fans a lean. Half the thing is is that, you know, you look around the league and you're like, wow,

one and two, one and two. I mean there's probably a couple of one and two teams, maybe a few that are going to make the playoffs. I mean it's so early right now, the whole league is turned upside down. You really don't know what to expect. I mean, in the second quarter, everybody was tweeting about how this is tragic, like fits tragic, And the next thing you know, you're like, Okay, this guy's not bad, Like he's not losing his job.

I mean, everything changes in a quarter or two. So it's still early in the season, it is, And I I was talking about that yesterday, like, you know, the Seahawks have the same record as the Cowboys, but they probably feel a lot better about it than the Cowboys do. Having said that, it's it's just it's the trend. I mean, you know, I looked it up afterday This is thirteen point seven points per game over the first three games. To start a season is as bad as it's been

since nineteen ninety. For the Dallas Cowboys, Gosh, nineteen nineteen the lowest scoring average to open a season in the first three games since nineteen ninety. That team went seven and nine. Worse than that, they averaged nine point three the year before that, when they went one in fifteen, and every team that's even been close to scoring that few points has been pretty bad. The mid you know, the twenty twelve team first three games was fifteen point

seven points. They went eight and eight, And then there were some teams in the early two thousands, you know, the Campo years, when they weren't good like that. It's early, it's definitely early, and things can definitely change. But the trend over three weeks is very bad about well, no, because and I'm I'm being facetious, but I said this too though. I mean, it's a it's a seventeen week season. It's never like it never stays the same as it's

supposed to, for good or bad. I mean, twenty sixteen, they sucked for a month, remember that the Vikings game, the second Giants game, Like they forgot how to play offense for a month. Last year, they had their ups and downs. They looked like the best offense in the league for a month, they look terrible. Like it's gonna change. It will be better at some point this season. I guarantee you that. Who knows how long it'll last. But NFL season is a steadily evolving thing. It's not set

in Week three. Here's the thing that I wanted to talk about today. Earlier this morning, Jerry Jones had his weekly call with the guys over at the Fan and one of the questions he was asked was about whether he's ready to push the panic button, and his response was, I like our players, I like our coaching staff. I think your question is have I hit the panic button? The answer is no. A question for you guys, are you ready to panic yet? And should fans panic yet?

Based upon what they've seen so far and the possibilities of them being better this season? What does panic mean? Whatever you wanted to me, Yeah, but think about it. Let's really break down. What if Jerry was hitting the panic button? What is that mean? Though? Panic button means like some kind of tragic situation, We got to get the hell out of here or something. I mean, that's time to evacuate. But what does the panic button mean to this team? The coach? Are you worried about it?

I mean, are you worried that they are gonna be what we see? Worried about what his football team? He's got to be worried about his football team because his offense can't score and they haven't been able to score since last year, and the backup behind the quarterback looked horrible in the preseason. So there's no recourse there, there's no changing, there's no Fitzpatrick there. So yeah, he's worried

about the offense. There's no doubt he's got to be panic button, though, I mean, I don't know what that really means other than firing people or having them change their jobs. I think the point of the question, whether it's the right wording or not, the point of the question is are you worried that what you've seen so far is the trend and that's what you should expect from the year's team for the rest of the season. If it is, you should be you should be worried.

So the question is if what is what you've seen, is that an aberration or is that what you're going to expect to see still, And I'm gonna go back to what Dave actually wrote on the board up there. You wrote, you know, just to the story that you wrote already, you said, Jerry changes. Yeah, That's what I think you're saying, is is that to the point where you need to make changes? And I don't know what

changes you can really make. And I'm sure people have just said to themselves, well, I know what you can do. You can fire this guy and this guy and this guy from the coaching staff or whatever. But I'm just saying that's I think what he's really saying is are you ready to make a change? Ironically, and that what panic button means. That's not how it took but you can take it over you. That's what I think. That's kind of do some different conversation, but I think that's good.

That's a good conversation. I kind of agree with where Nick's going with this though, is what is your recourse? Like if you're hitting panic button? What are you doing? Yeah? Are you firing the head coach? In week three? Even even as the biggest Jason Garrett Hayter on the planet would eventually agree that that's a little ludicrous. Like Week three one, and two even as I mean nobody gets fired week three maybe Yeah, no, I mean you could

do that. Jerry said he doesn't want to do that either, and that I actually I can make an argument for that actually, and I said actually like three times right there, Um a very ironic bit of timing. The New York Jets are doing that. Todd Bowles is taking some play calling away from his OC after they lost to the Browns the other night. Yeah, which interesting. Hey, you know, I think you said this, or maybe Brian said, when your ass is on the line, who can't like you

might never have called an offense in your life. You're like, I'm gonna, I'm trying. I'm going down, I'm going down. I don't. The way I read it is that he's not just going to be the play caller, but he's gonna have more interest than he did he only have forty seconds to make a call. Yeah, that's a little bit of inside joke there, you saying, Todd Bowls is kind of a slow, slow delivering guy. We're gonna we're gonna run the ball man, We're gonna run it here.

I think you get that urgency is not his thing. He's just cool. He's just the cool cat. I didn't get bang right, trips left, double y. It's option Isaiah and get Isaiah Crowl in there or somebody. It's it's never if you are panicked, it's never too early to hit that button. I guess you know what I mean? Um, I get My thing is like, what what is drastically gonna change if Jason Garrett's the one calling the plays instead of Scotland a hand, Like, is the playbook or

the philosophy just gonna be drastically different? And that's ahead you look like you got something. Well. The thing I was gonna say is I do think there's a big difference. You can have the same playbook. The way a game

is called, though, can be drastically different. And in an offense like this one, where, in my opinion, you saw a stark contrast in how effective they were moving the ball in that first quarter of Game two versus pretty much the rest of this season, and in my opinion, it was it was for no other reason than the fact that the way they call those plays, the way they put those plays together in succession, gave them better opportunities to be effective. And I think I think there's

something to that. There's something to developing a rhythm, because the rhythm is all about making successful plays and as you guys don't want to hear, staying ahead of the chains, right, that's all about the rhythm of the offense. And to me, play calling has everything to do with that, and two different guys perspective on how they like. If you throw me into a booth to call plays in an NFL game,

it's probably not going to go very well. Right, compared to even Scott Nhan or whoever anybody's doing that professionally, is gonna have a better handle on how you put plays together in succession in the same playbook to be able to know exactly how to get your offense moving. And now I'm worried that I misspoke, because to be clear, I don't think the Cowboys play calling is great by any stretch of the imagination. I just don't have a ton of confidence that it's going to be a lot better.

You don't expect that Garrett's better than Lynhan not appreciate some type of noticeable way. Well not really. Here's what I think is part of the problem too. It's one thing to scheme it up for the week. You know, you get you install the game plan and you're throwing it out there and you've got all week and I don't know if they script the first ten plays, I've

never understood that. I don't even believe that scripted. What happens if you get an eighty yard run on the I mean, I don't like scripting the plays, but I'm just saying, you have an idea of what you're trying to do. The problem I see is the Cowboys have been out scored twenty seven to three in the second quarter. So whatever they're doing, let's go it deep to table on,

let's try to this, let's try to that. That's cool and it works, but then you start getting in the flow of the game second quarter and adjustments, and now it's back to like, what are we doing now? And then they become predictable and they get stopped. I mean not until they regroup in the third quarter or they find themselves down by three scores and they got a hurry back. But at the second quarter, that's when the flow of the game's going on, get a feel for

the game, and that's not working well. And that's what I think maybe a different play caller maybe can mix it up there. I'm try something. This isn't three games though, and then Dave would be the first one to say this has been seven, eight games, maybe as many as

eleven eleven games since that awesome Kansas City win. It's been and a lot of there's been some factors for that, I mean, historically bad, I mean, but the thing is is that, yeah, Tyrant Smith was hurt, Deek was out and all that, but the Dack that we saw in that game, we saw Dak and he was running for his life and he was a really gunshot. But from that game, even though he's got his left tackle back, even though he didn't play that well, he's got his

running back back. Even though the defense is better, he still looks like the Dack that was in Atlanta. And that's been That's the problem. I hate to do it because, I mean, Ben Roethlisberger's probably going on the Hall of Fame. I don't think it's fair to compare him to Dak.

But at the same time, didn't have the left side of his offensive line last night, doesn't have a levion bell, and he's just bombing away against not a great Tampa defense, but a two and oh, up a defensive and I'm sorry real quick, I'm just I'm not asking Dak to be Ben Roethlisberger and have one hundred and eighty yards at the halfway point of the second quarter. But like, if you can't, if you can't consistently move it and you know, top up over, I just need you to

get over two hundred yards, man, I get you. But here here's the difference. And I looked at at what Pittsburgh was doing and their philosophy is I mean, think about they have They've had the best receiver in the game now for what three years? I mean him and Odell or Julio. They're all right there. You say what you want Fantasy wise, of course, sure A B is great and he is, He's amazing. But they haven't stopped though. They get Juju Schusters second second round, Juju second round.

Then what they get James Washington? Yeah, second round. They trade for Ryan Switzer who scored a touchdown man and really nice catch in that game. Um, they they've added a lot of guys and then they keep you know, you would think, well, I mean you have Ab, I mean they you take Ab out and there was vers are still better than the Cowboys right now, He's easily and better than a lot of teams. So I'm just saying down the field, that's great, They've got the speed

to do it. Are we gonna talk about that game though at all? And in a way we can? I mean, there's really only one thing to talk about in that game. It seems like everyone's and it comes on the heels of what happened with the tyrone. Crawford I mean is getting you know, But honestly, I don't know what's I don't know. The problem is, I don't know that that's

going to change. I think the NFL has has now basically drawn the line in the sand, and there the expectation, at least in my opinion, is unless there isn't all out mutiny. And what I mean by that is fans actually stop watching the game because and it's a noticeable change if you can stop watching. No. Actually, ratings are up this year, and that's a part of the thing. Is this decision, in my opinion, was all about who drives the most ratings in the minds of the people

that are making decisions. And I think they believe the quarterbacks do because I think they believe they are the names of the game, and so they are gonna do everything they can to keep those guys from being injured because that affects ratings, saying and you make a good point, you're saying that. Let's say on the other hand that the forty nine Ers defense has been called for eight penalties and their fans are upset about it or whatever.

That won't get them to stop watching the game. Like if they lost their quarterback out for the season and now there's season tanks and they're like, who's the backup? CJ. Beth. When you got Aaron Rodgers sitting on the sideline last year because a guy tackles him and falls on top of him, the NFL looks at that and says, that's bad for ratings, that's bad for business. If a guy as good as Aaron Rodgers, that's going to be on

our highlights every single week. And he is a name that people know and people love to watch him play by self included. If he's not playing for eight weeks of an NFL season when you only have sixteen games, that's a miss. So everything they can do to keep that guy healthy, they're gonna do it because it's good for business. I hear you. Although you know you mentioned Jerry's interview on the fan this morning. It was a long answer, and I think that's probably why it's not

getting more traction. I mean, jeez, this thing is like three hundred words long. But you know what, we would all agree, Jerry's one of the three or four most powerful people in the NFL. He says when it comes to pro football, to use a boxing term, that's when you put the six ounce gloves on. That's when you don't want to fight with those ten ounce gloves or

you don't want to fight with those head gears. Everybody's being really paid to go out, and you're paid a lot of money to go out and incur those types of situations that have more risks in them. It's real important that pro football distinguish itself as a very physical game relative to the game at college, relative the game at the high school and amateur level. How to find

that balance, that's one thing. But when we get to a point in the future, in time, you'll see pro football where they've put the six ounce gloves on and where the men are playing. So I mean, that's the only half of the answer. It was very long, but Jerry basically saying like, yeah, like pro football is supposed to be a physical, hard game, I mean, reading between the lines. I don't think he's really happy about this,

but that's the thing. Well, obviously there is a committee there, and I think that includes guys like Troy Vincent and those guys who are making these decisions, and whatever decisions being made, they've made the decision they're willing to protect the quarterback at the extent of the defensive guys. You know, they don't care as much stairs they do about what I and I hate this rule. This is the worst rule,

in my opinion, in all of football. And you know where I'm going with this, probably because I've said it for years. I don't understand how hippocritical the league is at times, and I think it is. And we'll talk about, you know, in concussion protocol and all that, But then they played Thursday night. You cannot touch the quarterback in the head. You can't. You can't hit him in the head. If you're a defensive lineman, you cannot put your hand

in an offensive lineman's face and drive him back. However, if your advance McDonald and you can get the ball, you can club a defensive guy straight in the face. Yep, twice though it was awesome, But why what if he has a head injury? Does his helmet? Does it not hurt anymore because you have a ball and you hit him a like? Is he okay now? Because of that? Like, that doesn't make sense to me. If you can't hit

in the head, you can't hit in the head. That's the crap that I think is a problem, and that's why defensive players should be mad. And then they're gonna get into this body weight thing when a safety he's gonna put his body weight on Cam Newton even though he weighs four hundred pounds more than him. You know,

I think I said yesterday. I don't know if proud's the right word, but I was just I was impressed by Tyrone Crawford's willingness to kind of come out and crap on it basically because it's crap in my Opinionum. Another thing worth noting about that Judy Batista, longtime NFL writer for the New York Times. I think she's with NFL now, But the Competition Committee's having a call about this, Like, I mean, there's a lot of unhappy people about it.

I don't think I don't. She said, it doesn't seem likely they can drastically change it this season they stop calling it. I mean, that's the thing you could stop. You can stop emphasizing it too, with your your referees, right. I will be surprised if it stays like this for all seventeen weeks. I think there is a clarification that you can make there, I really do. And I think it's one thing to drive a guy down. It's another thing to pick him up by his legs alf the

ground and then deliver him to the ground. Now, Romo had three broken collar bone injuries in his career, something like that. Three, And I'm trying to think if I can remember them. The second one, the one in Philly in twenty fifteen, Now, that would have been a penalty right in today's game. I mean, if I remember driving him in and I think the first one against the Giants back in twenty ten, I think that was the case. Carolina was a little different story. I don't know about

that one. Yeah, I don't know if you get a penalty there, But um not that none of it matters. I mean, but but I'm just saying, you go back and see, I guess over the course of you know that that body weight has been some you know, had some injuries. But maybe there's a way to say, Okay, you tackle the guy to the ground, but maybe you're not lifting him up. And but even at that, my thing still comes back to, how else are you going to take down Ben Roethlisberger? How else are you gonna

take down Cam Newton? These are big These are not just your average quarterback. These are big quarterbacks that are really strong, heavy. How if you're not going to tackle them by basically grabbing them, buy their legs and lifting up, well, how are you going to take them down? Because you're force hitting them. A cornerback or a safety that's coming in to try to hit that quarterback, You're not gonna

take him down by just groute force. You're gonna have to actually get leverage, and leverage means grabbing their legs lifting to actually take their legs from We're getting so close to having like a training camp situation where like if you hit the church, you hit the quarterback. He's down. Now, Now, how good is Cam Newton? And changes everything? Changes everything? And that's my point is I just think I think that the game has gotten to a point now with

this particular call where it's become completely this is it? Sorry, what Vince? What was Vince Young's best year? I can't remember five, two thousand and five, four, six, okay, back then two thousand and four or five. Ever. Remember they were playing the Giants in a game, and I think his name was Kiwanuka for him. I remember from the

Giants there was a play where he did that. He came off the edge and he had him wrapped up and then he kind of let him go and then Vince scrambled out and got a really big play in the game. I think they won the game, and it was just because he was afraid to tackle him like that, and so that that was going That's been going on from fourteen years or so. But you get players like that, you don't know, now, Tyrone not going to know how to hit a guy, and it's it's frustrating. All right,

let's take our first break when we come back. I have some other big picture questions from these guys that include things like Dez Bryan and whether the Cowboys made the right decision with him, and whether you think Dak Prescott is the quarterback for the Cowboys. Moving forward into the future, not this year, but into the future. We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a right thing,

then cutting the chord is scary. But then I found out I could switch to DirecTV Now and still get the live sports I love. No satellite needed, no bulky hardware, no annual contract, just that the live sports you love. Tried DirecTV Now for ten dollars a month for three months. Visit DirecTV now dot com direct TV now more for your thing that's out at the US called really a limited time price with a a little litle page. If a three months when he's monthly, ay full price currently mad

aimum forty dollars and less. Can Prices may change. We subscribers on cancel any time. Content barries by package and maybe limited you sixtent. The plot Star Sports Tours is the only official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, offering exclusive game weekend travel packages with sideline access and photo ops with current players, alumni, and cheerleaders. That's not all, though, You'll get to talk XS and os with Senior Director of Player Personnel Will McClay and of course with yours

truly me, Brian Broadest. You can trust the official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, and with us you'll travel like a Visit Cowboys Travel dot com to book your travel package today. Want to use what the pros use? How about the official men skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. Right now you can get the Jack Black Playmaker, a curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, for just

ten bucks with free shipping. The Playmaker includes four Jack Black skincare favorites, plus a full sized Intense Therapy lip bomb and a Cowboys can cooler. Go to get Jack Black dot com, slash Cowboys and use the code word Cowboys the Jack Black Playmaker ten bucks free shipping. While a player can look good on paper, it's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more

than staffs and scouting reports when building their team. When picking a tractor, it's why you should rely on more than specs and features as well. You got to take it out and put it to the test the Cowboys did when they named John Deer their official tractor. To experience one for yourself, visit your local Texas John Deer Dealer or go to Hi John Deer dot com. Slash Football Back to the Break, The first annual Restaurant Week

is coming to the Star in Frisco. Enjoy special lunch and dinner menus from a variety of unique restaurants while raising money for the North Texas Food Bank. Don't miss the Star Restaurant Week. It's really two weeks now through October fourteenth. Visit The Star and Frisco dot com for more details. It's a good place go out. There a lot of good options out there at the start. What's your favorite day Oh, I'm a big meet Casina fan.

I'm a fan of that as well, But but I mean places that you really haven't heard of as well. Something there's um, try Tip that's a barbecue type ish place, Sushi, Marquee is really good, Marquis is really good. Liberty Burger. I'm a fan of Concrete Cowboy. I think the food's really their food is speaking of Concrete Cowboy. Tonight at six o'clock there will be the happy hour. I just foods delicious. I never I never thought of the food at Concrete Cowboy before. It's good. It's pretty good. Yeah.

I exactly go out there and dance and nary night dance on table, you know the funny things. I had a Concrete Cowboys story when I was I was maybe four or five months ago. I had some friends of mine and we decided we were going out, Like we'd never go out, but these are all middle aged guys with wives and children, so we just decided one night we were going out. So we decided we're gonna go out. We went out and had dinner, and they were like, well, we don't want to go home and go gass some

drinks somewhere. And somebody said, well, whyn't we go up to the Star I go to Concrete Cowboy. I'm like, man, that's fine, I've heard good things about it. We go in there was liddy let me just say it. At one point there was a table full of people dancing on the table and I was like, whoa, Okay, that's the scene we got. I have not did you go up and talk to Dave or did you you don't know me at all? Many there we go, There we go. Hey.

I had a very similar story just with hanging out with one guy tried to go to Concrete Cowboy like one thirty in the morning. He's wearing like Nike dry fit stuff and they're like, nah, may not happening. So with the sushi Marquis, No, it was it was. It was a club, it was it was. This was a late night Saturday. I think it was like a Saturday night. That is not my scene. The people from Virginia right now that a listener like, I'm not going up there

just talking about the offense. Yeah, probably go that's okay. Though, that's okay they can. But if you're close, come to the Star. If you're gonna go to the game, like this weekend or something like that, you want to come over here. There's some things to do. I had four big picture questions that I was going to ask you guys.

We took so long in the first segment. I don't know that I'm gonna get to all four, and I kind of have a feeling this next one might take us most of the rest of the show, but we're gonna talk about it anyway. Um No, Actually, I was gonna say that one, because that's gonna be a whole show onto itself. I think, okay, but there's I think that all of this happening with the offense, um it begs the question did the Cowboys make the right decision

with regards to its wide receiver position. I think there's a lot of ways you can take this, and I'd love to hear your opinions. I think you can take it from the standpoint and did they make the right decision with Dez? Do they make the right decision in free agency? Should they have gone after a I like Watkins who it was rumored that they were trying to go and get you. They have maybe even willing to spend more money to get him. Should they have evaluated

it differently in the draft? And maybe draft? As Dave told me this morning, every wide receiver in the draft, including Calvin Ridley, was available to them in the first round. Should they have maybe considered making that first round pick a wide receiver? Have they mis evaluated what they can

do with the wide receiver position. Knowing what you have at quarterback and how he has played, does he need a number one wide receiver a difference making wide receiver or are they still okay with the strategy they have. Now you want to jump on this first, I'll start. I think, you know my stance on Ridley when I watch what he's done, and I've heard people will tweet,

you know, wow, why did the Cowboys do that? I don't think it matters because I don't think Ridley is First of all, he's not you know, he wouldn't be opposite of somebody like Julio Jones over here, and he wouldn't have a Matt Ryan type quarterback throwing him the ball. I don't. I think it's a totally different situation. They have a better overall offense, hands down, So in a lot of receivers, you can you can make that case for I think it does stem back to the quarterback.

I don't know if a number one receiver, I mean, he'd help, he'd help here, you know for sure. But you know, I think that they looked at it like they they had a chance to kind of help some other things and get some you know, good quality route running receivers. But that's not working like that, that's not it's not working right now. But I still think that they need to throw the ball deep more. And you know what. I was going to ask you a question yesterday. I forgot to do this. You were in dak Um

press conference after the game. Yeah, and if you just if you just listen to it, not a big deal. But if you put it out on tram, you know, like just put it out on paper and look at a quote, He says. I'm still shocked that it didn't blow up me either, because if you just if you just put it like on Instagram and just put the quote and says we need to throw the ball down the field more. We need to take more shots down

the field. He says that, I mean he kind of I think everyone was kind of surprised at what he was looking like. I mean he was a little different, different post game attire and you know, had all down and stuff like that. It's so different. He said that, And I only did he say he said twice. He was like, it's not that they're taking it away, it's just that we haven't tried it. Well, but here's my thing. He could have easily said, we just haven't tried here's

the follow up question that who's who's at fall for? That? Is it that it's not being called but no running down the field. That's my question, is is it not being called or is it that Dak feels like when he says we held includes himself and that he's not taking those shots because we've seen some of that earlier in like I know that that play that he had where he had um Swain opened down the field in the end zone, like he didn't take that. He didn't pull the trigger on and he had a guy open.

So is it partially him or is it partially the But think about called fifty yards and and that was like twenty five yard line. He's he's vertical down there, But I'm talking about down the field deep balls. We don't even see them running like, oh man, there he is, Like he was running down there and he had I mean they did the last game and it worked once out of three times. Giants. Yeah, I know, But I'm saying last week, it's not like you saw these verticals

that he didn't. Ah, he could have gone to gallop there, but he didn't. Like they're not being called. I'll steal a line from Garrett Well and no verticals that going

sixty yards? No, But I think Garrett said it like three times yesterday, like every every play they call has a deep route of intermediate routes kind of checkdown route, and so you know, I know that it's making the rounds on Twitter, like his throat of Zeke that Zeke dropped Cole Beasley was probably open, like further down the field. It's hard to tell from like screen grabs, like he probably could have gotten it to him, but he had Zeke with a step on the linebacker way easier. So

I don't fault him for that. Certainly, certainly they're not throwing it down the field enough. But again I go back to, you know, the Tavon play was nice, Like I don't I don't think Dak's gonna win just consistently chunking those types of balls, but they got to be able to go deep. Again, not deep, but more than ten yards down the field. But if he does it more, if Tavon runs by a guy, he can run by

a guy on any play. If he runs by a guy once a quarter, then in the third quarter when he does a stop route at the you know, after ten yards, he's probably wide open. There's no doubt that. So defenses and I mean, we saw this coming even when we were optimistic about these wide receivers. Gary Brown said it back in May is like, give me a

lot of stack boxes. There's gonna be a lot of defenders near the line of scrimmage until these receivers can prove that they don't that they can't be there, which hadn't been the case so far, Which to your which I don't have a good answer, to be honest with any like, I don't think this offense would look remotely different with Dez Bryant and it. Honestly, I don't think it would. And he might have more yards, he'd certainly have more targets. I don't think it would look different

or better. The fact is we saw it last year when when they started this, as you were saying, it was, what's nine or ten games with offense has been kind of anemic. He was a part of that last year for most of those games. He was a part of that. So I don't think this is something where we didn't get a chance to see Dez and we just all of a sudden assumed he couldn't that he wasn't going

to make a difference. But let me say this part about Dez and I don't think they you know, I think they probably did the right thing and they don't need to go get him back and all that stuff. But you know, it wasn't like this was late December in the Giants game where he had some drops, but he also made a slant over the middle told you know, told the guy to get off me and went fifty

yards for a touchdown. I mean, would you would die for a play like that right now where a guy could make a play, break a tackle, have the speed to do that. Taylene is not breaking any tackles. We saw that in the open field. I mean, he'll get

away from a guy that's not going to happen. He did the same thing against Seattle last Christmas that Michael Gallop did last week, difference of meaning dropped an easy ball that should have been a first down and was an interception instead, it didn't come back with his cap hit was is way bigger than Michael Gallas, which I love Dez. I don't necessarily know that they needed to or should have cut him, but I don't think he

would be making a big difference right now. And that same thing, which I don't like what I'm about to say, Like I don't think Calvin Ridley and or Dj Moore would be making a drastic difference here, and I'm not These receivers aren't just like wide open and Dak is missing him. But like, it comes down to quarterback play. In my opinion, I think you could probably be doing the job well enough with better quarterback play in my opinion,

which the one thing I will give. I'm so glad Sammy Watkins isn't on this team eating up sixteen million dollars in salary and finishing with three catches for thirty yards. Like, thank god they didn't do that. Their quarterback will sling it. If he's open, God, he would have found him. So yeah, so we're gonna take our final break, will come back,

and and I will ask that question. I guess I'll ask the question, is Dak the quarterback or should he be the quarterback the Cowboys rely on in the future based on what you've seen through this point of his career, Well, then when come right back. This is the Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. While a player can look good on paper, it's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than stats and scouting reports when building

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

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

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

like a pro. Visit Cowboys Travel dot Com to book your travel package today. A man's steps and doesn't just protect him from life's elements. It projects an unstoppable and legendary spirit, just like the men wearing silver and navy on the field every Sunday Sends eighteen sixty five. Steps and Hats are American made with pride right here in Texas. They are still the official crown of all self prospecting Cowboys, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with

America's team. Find Steps and Hats in the Pro Shop or at Stepson dot com. Today, back to the break well. I think we've already heard two commercials for Jack Black on this show. But I'll make it real quick. It's just a quality, quality product, guys. I've been using it since training camp. They gave us a whole boatload of it. I had it in my shower today. I've already mentioned it.

The charcoal so exfoliates my skin makes me feel like a million dollars, got some face cleanser and a beard loobe, and they'll they'll get you right, like if it is a skincare product. They make it and I've been using it for six weeks and I think it's all awesome. I couldn't recommend it enough. Get Jack Black dot com. It's good stuff. I wouldn't steer you wrong. Yeah, I use it this morning too. It's great stuff. All right, let's get back into it. We've been talking a lot

about a lot of things on this team. We've talked loosely about the quarterback. But now I want to ask you guys a very pointed question based on what you've seen from Dak Prescott over the course of his career, because I don't think you can just take the last ten games. You got to think about that first year

when he did some pretty amazing things. Do you think right now, based upon what you know, that Dak Prescott is the guy that will be the quarterback of the future for the Cowboys, or should be the quarterback of the future for the Cowboys, or do you think the Cowboys need to start looking at other options, even if that means you get to the end of the season,

you're looking in the draft, you're looking in free agency. Well, I think these next you know, thirteen games or whatever, and they're going to be thirteen games probably for him, because it's not like you've got a backup option that you're gonna go to. I don't I don't see that happening at all. If they had a veteran guy in here. I think we would be talking about it a little bit if they had a veteran and you think that

might be the reason why they didn't have one. Other reasons we don't have one maybe, But anyways, I think, as what we know right now, he's got to be better than this. He's got to his arrows got to go up for him to be the quarterback of the future. He's got to show us more than he show because if it's just like this, up down, up down, up down, and it ends with this season, I think the Cowboys are going to draft a quarterback in the draft. I

mean one hundred percent believe that now. He's gonna have to be better than that. He's gonna to show us, oh, look at that, look at that he can play better, and maybe they runs the ball better and all that stuff, But as what we've seen right now, I think if it continues, I think they get a new quarterback next year. That's the beauty of it is, which I answered a tweet about this this morning, is this is a hot take society. Like everybody like you know, you're supposed to

have a firm opinion on this. I don't have to. And that's what I said this summer when I said Dak Prescott has more pressure on him than anybody in this organization right now, And did I mean has from the beginning, Because if Jason Garrett gets fired, he's gonna fall back on a ton of money that he already got and he can have a job in the NFL

a week later doing something. Dak Prescott, this is the dividing line between are you a guy who had a great year and we talk about you five years from now the way we talk about RG three, or are you going to be the face of a franchise like that's what this season's all about. And that's a huge disparity.

It is trending one way right now, but we got thirteen more games to figure it out, and I think about I think about twenty fifteen and even in twenty sixteen, you had an aging, you know, all pro caliber quarterback in Tony Romo, which he was, he was your guy. He gets hurt and you're just scrambling. You're like, we

gotta find a way to stay afloat. You remember twenty fifteen, we got to find a way to if we can go five hundred when Tony gets back, if if you know, it sounds ridiculous now, but in twenty sixteen, like, if Dad can do the job until Tony gets back, we'll be fine. Obviously, it went way better than anybody expected and let us down this road that we're on right now. But this isn't that team. This team is a blank slate. With the exception of Sean Lee, your whole defense is

more or less in place. I can't imagine the Cowboys are going to let de Marcus Lawrence get away from him the way he's starting this season out. Your defense is in place for the foreseeable future. Your offensive line, as shaky as they've been, is in place for the foreseeable future. Quarterbacks a blank slate. You're gonna try to bench Dak Prescott right now, and you know and scramble for worst quarterback play or are you going to let this thing play out and figure out if you've got

a real quarterback? Which I know that's not what a fan wants to hear. Who like, you know, you want to be able to talk crap to your co workers on Monday, and you want that great feeling of winning. But if you pull back and look at this in the big picture, that's what's important is figuring out if Dak Prescott is your guy, And that's what these next thirteen weeks are for. If he's you know, if he doesn't have it and the Cowboys are terrible, it's not

going to be a fun season. But you will have a clear answer, you know, by December thirtieth, of what you need to do. If he climbs out of this and is you know, back to being the guy that we saw in twenty sixteen and this team wins ten eleven games, it's a different conversation. But I don't know right now, but we will know, and you know, it'll be interesting how he plays. Is there a new coach here in January? Not saying there will be, but if

there is, his input will matter. He's still under contract for a year. It's not like you have to get rid of the guy. You could bring a whole new guy in here and he could revamp his career the way Sean McVay did for Jared Goff. But that I view this as a thirteen week audition to figure out if Dak Prescott is worthy of a one hundred million dollars investment. Basically, I'm gonna take you down an off shoot. You said your offensive lines in place here for foreseeable future?

Are you at all Wait? Are you at all concerned about that? Because I think we all coming into this year felt like number one, the offensive line is the best unit they had on this team, and number two you had him for a long time. You take Frederick out of the mix, and all of a sudden, for whatever reason, they're not looking like the offensive line we've

been used to seeing the last couple of years. Are you now concerned about the statement that they're the best unit that you have and number two, they're in place for the foreseeable future. I don't want to hear another word about them being vaunted or highly touted until they start playing better. Yeah. No, how could you not be concerned? Tyrann Smith? This is his eighth year. I mean, like he's ancient by NFL standards, and you know, not necessarily

about offensive lineman standards. Right, No, no, And I don't think Tyren Smith is a bad player. I don't think this offensive line is a bad line. There's no doubt it has dipped. It is something you should be worried about us. I mean, you know it's not his fault, but you don't know what Travis Frederick is or will be in the future. Lyle Collins, I've been his biggest defender. He has not played like the guy that I insisted he was in the second half of last year. It's

definitely something to watch. It is still a functioning and competent offensive line. I mean, you know we're not This isn't Seattle. I know that they won that game, but they would love to have this offensive line, I promise you. Yeah. So I'm not to go back to the beginning of the show. I'm not hitting the panic button, like you can play and win games with this offensive line. And but and it kind of goes back to my point, this could be a blank slate, like you built that

offensive line to help prolonged Tony Romo's career. Right, Well, if you're getting a new quarterback, you can start this thing all over again. You can draft, you can sign free agents, you can do things to address it. But you have Tyrn, Connor, Zach. Yeah, you have Tyrn, Connor and Zach under contract for the foreseeable future. And I think that's a start at least. I mean, I don't. It's concerning, but it's it's not time to hit the

panic button. Yeah, I agree with that. The one thing I will say, though, is I do think that the way the Cowboys want to play, I think, and with what they have, the other pieces they have around, I think it's not going to be good enough for this offensive line to be pretty good. I think this offensive line is gonna have to be exceptional in order for

them to be successful in twenty eighteen. Yes, for these next thirteen games, they gotta get better, but this team could go in a completely new direction next right, and we don't know that. I'm saying, as far as the strategy that they've kind of put out there, this is how we're gonna play football. We're not gonna worry about having a number one wide receiver. We're gonna have complimentary receivers. We're gonna be focused on having a great running game.

We're trying to build our defense to being a great defense in order to do that well, and to do that exceptionally, I mean, the offensive line is gonna have to be exceptional, in my opinion, or to do that well, especially with the quarterback you has that looks like he's gonna have to feel comfortable, because it doesn't seem like

he feels comfortable all the time. The blueprint they have put down for themselves, with the way they've drafted the linemen and Zeke and all that, it's it's not working right now. It's not working well enough, which that's a problem that we have to figure out in twenty eighteen. But and again this is all hypothetical, but draft a quarterback in the top ten. This offensive line is probably good enough to let him sling the rock around a little bit. So it could all change in the coming months,

which we will see. Yeah, Nick, Nick, at this point, would you shuffle this offensive line? Are you? Are you at a point now where you're worried enough to where you would shuffle things around. Well, while Dave was talking here, I thought about the right tackle. I thought about I wonder if they what they viewed Connor Williams as a tackle. I know that they wanted him as a guard and that was where the need was. But I wonder if

they how they projected him at tackle. I don't know about flipping him right now, maybe Lyle back to guard, Maybe Cameron Fleming on the right side. You Cameron Fleming, though you're gonna with Tyron the way he is. I think right now you might need, you know, need to hang on to that that spot right there. So I don't know. I think it's something worth talking about, um, but I don't. I don't know if that's really the issue. I don't think I'd never liked Lyle as a guard.

I thought he was pretty good as a tackle, and he's been pretty good, but I don't I don't really like him as a guard so much. But then again, Connor Williams was a tackle in college. Maybe he's better at right tackle. I I got him and panic button again. Yeah, but I don't think you do it. I think that's a knee jerk reaction. Lyle's got to play better, Tyrn's gotta play better. I think, all things considered, I think Joe and Connor are holding up fairly well, like they

are not sinking this offense. I do not think. Um. I think they both have moments where it's like and that's the thing about an offensive linement. This was the the to me, the narrative on Doug Free. You could have a pretty good game. You could have two or three bad plays, and two or three bad plays turned to sacks, and now everybody's like, he had a horrible game, right, And I think that's what's happening with Connor Right now.

He holds up pretty well most of the time he gets but it's gonna be, Yeah, there's gonna be one or two three times in a game where it's like, wow, he just got beat really bad. Right, It's it's not bad enough that I'm trying to shuffle the line in week three, right week four? Now, that's just me. All right. We appreciate you guys joining us. We are back tomorrow.

We are going to jump into Cowboys versus Lions. That'll be an interesting matchup, not as not the game that we thought it was gonna be maybe a week ago, but we'll talk about that tomorrow. We'll get into the Cowboys, sorry, the Lions offense versus the Cowboys Defense to then for Nick Eaton, Dave Helm and I'm Derek Eagleson. 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.