Cowboys Break: Who You Keeping?

to the latest edition of The Break. We are live from this of WUBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Presenter by Milla Lake, the only beer of the Dallas Cowboys. Glad to have my crew in all of us today, and we'll spend the next forty five minutes talking to you guys about free agency. There's a lot coming up here that the cow Boys are gonna have to make

decisions on. Free agency will begin on March fifteenth. Although the period of I'm not gonna call it legal tampering, it's just kind of that period where you can start flirting a little bit with the players that you might be interested in from a free agency standpoint. That begins on the thirteenth. It'll run through the fifteenth, and then at three pm Central Time, Free Agency will kick off

today's show. We're going to go through the list of free agents and talk a little bit about the guys that we think the Cowboys need to make priorities, the guys that can just be a nice to have, and the guys that maybe you think is just no longer a fit. Before we do that, though, I want to talk about Tony Pollard. We talked about him at length last week and what the Cowboys should do. Since then, we've found out they have done something. They put the

tag on Tony Pollard. I don't think it's a surprise, but I wanted to go around the table and just get your thoughts on the decision to place the tag on Tony Pollard. Brian, you weren't where you want on the show last week. I was in Arizona. Watch it on the show. Yeah, Yeah, let's give you. Let's go first with you, because I know Nick and Amber talked a little bit about it lesson. Yeah, you know what, I feel like they did what they had to do and what they felt like was right for their for

their offensive attack going forward. You know, we talked about weapons. Nick has brought it up numerous times on the show about the situation with Pollard. Once he went down in the San Francisco game, their offense wasn't the same. And so now even with a new you know, primary play caller, the head coach being that guy, you know, you got to you know, uh, you got that situation where he's like thinking, Okay, how am I going to incorporate, how am I going to move the ball? What do I need?

You know, likely losing Dalton Scholtz likely, you know, with some of the things you some of the unknowns with you know, with Gallup coming back and all that, one of the sure things you do know about is what Tony Poller can do. Yes, he's coming off the injury. But I think it was the right thing for them to do. I know, I have my own other thoughts about, you know, maybe with the injury, maybe let that one ride and see if in fact somebody would come in and and you know, take a chance on him, give

him a contract. But for them, they did what they felt like was right. I just I know myself evaluating the free agent market or the running backs and then also what's going in the college trap. If you were to lose Tony Pollard, there are suitable replacements you know, maybe you know, maybe comparable to what you have with Tony. You know, maybe not, depending on which direction you go.

But for them, they felt like they had to keep that weapon in the building, and you know, you have to give them credit for you know, trying to do that and be able to you know, to continue to try and help dak Age. I think it was the right decision, and we've talked about it before. It doesn't prevent them from still trying to come up with the contract and keep the negotiation negotiations going with him and working that out. Um, yeah, we've talked about the injury before.

That is a concern of mine. And another thing is it always makes me a little bit uneasy because I feel like anytime you either extend the contract given you contract or even place attack anything that involves a new amount of money involving a player, there's always that are they gonna meet the expectations now? And I know this is not the franchise tag does not mean a long term contract or anything. This is just for a year. But even so, with that injury alone, it does give

me that kind of worrisome. It's like, is it gonna be worth the money? Is it gonna be worth taking that risk of having him here and trying to rely on him, also not knowing what's gonna end up happening with Ezekiel, elliott I said this from the beginning. It's hard to imagine a scenario where they do keep both

guys on the team. So it's just I'm glad it happened, and I agree with their decision to place the tag on him, but at the same time, there are concerns and worries around that decision and how he's gonna be this year. Yeah, I mean, I think I don't think you give the franchise tag to anybody unless you have some concerns. I mean, I think I think you have.

I think that's why you give them the tag. I mean because you have concerns, Because if you didn't have concerns, you would just sign them to a long term deal and meet whatever they're asking for. So either you need to see them one more year or you got it, or you don't know if you can sign them to

a long term thing. I mean, I think the Cowboys had concerns with Dalton Schultz last year to give him the money that you know, David and a Joku got, you know, and I don't know if it's worth it, you know, And I don't think they thought it's worth it, and they still don't think that, you know, for that market. But if you look at all the franchise tags, it's the cheapest franchise tag of a position player running back. It's the most second most important position maybe, but yet

it's the cheapest one. So there's reason, and you can take that argument anyway you want. I just think it makes sense this year to do that, and then, as Brian says, you still draft someone. But the key about drafting and running back is if you go back and look at history, and there's examples for everything. First round running backs I think do well early because that's why you draft them, because they're ready to play right now.

But I think second, third, fourth, fifth round running backs some of them come come in and do well, but I think that they needed little development as well. I mean, Tony Pollard wasn't ready to kind of take over like he is now. So I think I think it works out in this case. You still draft some one, second, third, fourth round and then you know, they'll be ready to go because you don't know what's going to happen with Pollard after this, probably won't come back after this. This

is what I would think would be the last year. Yeah, this is me. I totally agree with what Nick and Ambar are saying about this. But the thing is that with Pollard I kind of look at this like Dalton Schultz, like you're keeping a guy around. They you know, they just couldn't get rid of all their weapons when they got rid of a Maori Cooper, and we didn't know what with Pollard that he was going to emerge like

he was. There was questions about Gallup. You know, if you all of a sudden you let Dalton Schultz walk last year and stuff, or just you know, you move on from that, well, then you know, it's one of those situations where you're kind of in a you know, you're like, where's the weapons, who's da going to throw the ball to, Who's how they're going to move the ball,

how they're going to score and all that. So yeah, I just think that Pollard it's one of those things that you know, I don't think they want to I think they've learned something from the Elliott situation. I do the league. The league doesn't value running backs like it should. But there's gonna be a point in time where you know you're gonna have if when you don't have one of these guys, it's going to show up in a game. You know. Look what Tampa Bay look at their situation

with Leonard Fournette. It's just he had a similt thing about Buffalo. Yeah, it just got to the point where when you can't run the ball, you know your your offense gets put in peril. And the one thing we learned about Pollard is he's capable of taking the snaps

and being able to function. But I do love this these running backs, And again I encourage you to stay afterwards and listen to the Draft show because there's a lot of them you could talk about, and a lot of them that does a lot of the similar things that they asked Tony Pollard to do. So let's toss that up just as a general question of what comes next,

because there are lots of offshoots of this move. You know, do they do a long term deal with him, Um, what's Zeke's future and how does that play into the decision to tag Tony Pollard right now. I saw a graphic that I think the Cowboys or eight million dollars twenty eight million dollars right now dedicated to the running back position. I don't think any of us believes are going to go into next fiscal year with that being

the case. But it now put some question marks on Zeke's future, talking about what is the effect on the draft and should they draft somebody and how high are they willing to draft somebody knowing that they have Tony Pollard on the tag? And the final thought, what's the usage of Tony Pollard next year? If let's assume for a second that this does affect what they decide to do with with Zeke, and maybe Zeke isn't here. Is Pollard a primary bat? Can he take the load of

a primary back? He can he do the things that Zeke was asked to do for a long time his career. When you're paying him ten million dollars for a year, maybe he needs to all those things. I'm just gonna toss it up and you guys take it in the direction you'd like to take it. Wow Zeke, I mean, that's the big question, and they got to figure that out was Zeke, And I think that me personally, I

just don't see a scenario that he's here. I don't, but I don't know him, what he's trying to do, and how much he wants to be here and for what price. But I just I can't see that scenario. This is a really tricky situation because I don't think Tony Pollard is a starting running back. I don't. I think he works out the way they have got this thing working. I think it works good for him. So I would draft another running back, and I think that

running back would probably be the starter. I think where Pollard fits. But you want to say ten million dollars? Could you do that? Yeah? You can look how many Look at what backup quarterbacks make. They make a lot of money, so you can have it as in this role like this. But I think I just don't think Zeke can be here on this team the way the way it's set up. I could be wrong, but that's gonna because he's taking a lot less money than I think he's ready to do. Explain it to me for

just a second. When you say you don't think he's a starter, are you saying are you talking more about the number of reps that he can take, or do you or is there a delineation between a starter and a backup that you're kind of making No. I think he's I mean, I think he's one of the top ten fifteen running backs in the league. I think he's a he's a he's a top talent. He's definitely that. But I like, I mean, I believe in what Skip

Pete was trying to do last year. I think that there's a Zeke comes in and he kind of hammers them down, and then Pollard comes in. I don't think it works the other way. I don't think that way. I don't saying you don't think it starts with the speed guy or the lusive guy. You think Pollard's role is perfect go and I just there needs to be another guy that handles what Zeke did. That's what I think.

I think there's some football fibbing going on here, not with you, but with what the Cowboys are doing right now. I think they're talking about the football fibbing. Is Mike McCarthy's like, we got to run the ball more. I think that's football fibbing. And I say that in a way, Mike McCarthy doesn't have a history of running the football more. He just doesn't go back and watch, you know, he's I think he's trying to. I think he's trying to say that, you know, I'd like to run the ball,

but he really isn't. He's going to throw the ball. So now to me, that that that is that I'm okay with that. I feel like, though, you need to run the ball better, not more, run the ball better. And so that's kind of where I think football fibbing's going on here. And you know, with Pollard, I think he can run the ball better. I think the more opportunities he does get, they'll run the ball better. I think having Terrence steal Back at right tackle will will

run the ball better. You know. I think if you add a tight end, a blocking tight end, with the tight ends you have, I think you'll run the ball better. You know. That's that's kind of where I look at with with what I see with Pollard. I think he's here to run the ball better. You know, the more carries it, just the way he plays, you're going to get more yards with him running the football. And so I think that's a that's a football fib you just need to not run it more. You just need to

run it better, is what I see. Right. They asked this question because I've heard a couple of different people with that particular argument, and I think it's coming off of what Mike McCarthy said at the combine. I actually took it differently when he said that. I didn't take it as he was saying the Cowboys need to just generally run the ball more. I thought he was talking more about specific situations and I thought back the Green Bay game. Yeah, I thought back specific games where his

relationship where the Cowboys. I think he might have looked at it and said, hey, I think there were situations this year right where we should have been running the ball more than we were, not necessarily just overall, we need to run more because by the way, they ran the ball plenty, like they're one of the one of the run heavier teams in the NFL. So I didn't take it that way. Is that are you saying? You took it kind of as he's saying, just holistically, we

got to run the ball more than I think. I think to me that he was the divide I think between him and Kellen Moore caming that day you guys were at lambeau Field and they lost that game. That's where I felt like right then and there, if you want to pinpoint a spot where maybe McCarthy and Kellen Moore had their divide, it was that game right there, because Mike McCarthy put his heart and soul into wanting to win that football game and it didn't happen. And and we the next day we came on here and

talked about, well, they could have done this. It could have ran it here. They could have you know, they could protected the lead. Dada da da da. I think that's where we saw the end of Kellen Moore and Mike McCarthy's relationship, right And that could fit with Mike. And that's the xampoint. If you want to try to run up the scoreboard, when that's your point, be running the ball, that's your point. I I, like I said,

I think that's a I think that's a fib. I think he wants to run the ball better, is what I how I take it. And I also the whole thing with like Nick talking about I think it's a fib about Zeke being here. I think that's a fib. I think that's a football fib I don't think there's any way that he that he can be here, you know, I think that they move on. They talk about, well,

they'd like to have it, but I see this. I'd see this ending like it did for DeMarcus Ware and for ter Arrol Owens and for uh, you know, for you know, pretty much everybody. Yeah, there's an express being a player in the NFL. They talk about wanting to keep guys and stuff like that, but they're going I agree with Nick, I believe they're going to move on

from Zeke. I really really do. I think these are these are things that you kind of look at and you say, well, they're they're telling us this, but in actuality, this I think is what's going to happen. Yeah. I love I absolutely love Zeke, and I would personally like for him to stay here. But again, I just like all of you guys, I don't see a scenario where

he just works out financially for the Cowboys. UM. I do know that regardless of how much you want to throw the ball or not, you do need to establish the run. You need to create that balance. And we've we've seen it before when Dakney's that kind of help as well. And going back to Tony Paul or whether he can be the starter or not. I agree with Nick on this one, like I personally only do not

see him just taking on the full load. And we saw it just how well it worked, kind of bouncing it out between the two types of running back just because of what each brings to the table and that

the other cannot doesn't necessarily do it as good. We saw how many times like you needed Zeke to be able to just go out there and block and block, just those like nasty little runs, one yard runs things like that that Tony Polar just physically doesn't have that type of ability and and just like that, they can't run and escape the way that Polar can right now. So it's just a tough balance. But I do think

that they go into the draft. It does make me wonder though, if they head into the draft just having Tony Polar and Malick Davis, or if they just kind of sign somebody else to have them there. You know how sometimes they just sign get to make it look like it's not like a top priority, and then they do still draft somebody. So I can see something happening, maybe like a signing somebody that's not necessarily go trade for Derrick Henry if you want from Tennessee. No, I'm

not gonna. I'm not gonna talk about him away from that, but um only talk about our guys, Brian, Okay until free agency opens up and then you it's a trade from that one. And just to be clear, this is like we are not the football side of them. I'm sorry, just conjectur, just talk. We're not tampering. No, we're not tampering.

Not tampering it tampering. I did have this question because you guys mentioned this, Nick you mentioned as well, Amber mentioned it about the running backs and him being kind of that starting role. Did you think in the game where it was him and Malik Davis that things functioned as you wanted them to function at and and at optimal level for Tony when he had I mean, Mollie Davis was another back, Tony was the starter, Tony was

the guy that was the primary back. Did you think did you like that or did you think there was still something missing in that game? Well, the victory was missing in that game. I mean that they lost and they lost and not necessarily think it was because the Pollard. But but I think it's all about running the ball when you when you want to, and running the ball when you have to, and when you have to run the ball at the end of the game and you

can't get that. Um. You know, I do think that that there's part of that UM Like like Amber said that they they complimented each other perfectly. I mean some Zeke scored twelve touchdowns and most of them down there by the goal line, and so I don't think Pollard gets twelve more touchdowns if he's the guy doing it. He just doesn't. I mean, go look at the Washington games. He doesn't run against that. Um. Not that many teams do, but I mean that they're not built that way. He's

not built that way. He needs another back and so that somebody else needs to compliment him, and it just needs to be at some something less than sixteen million a year. But um, I just I just feel like the role that Pollard has, I wouldn't change it. I wouldn't change it by running him. I mean he needs to maybe run the ball more, but not necessarily to the point of he's the starter. He gets the first

two series and then we'll see what happens. I think that they got to be creative with it and doing it every week, because I remember there were staying games and I'm like, okay, I've seen Pollard. I'm like, I can't remember exactly why game. We're like you have. Maybe Zeke wasn't playing the whole game. I don't know if it was just a couple of games. Yeah, but I remember being like, Okay, it wasn't terrible, but I don't feel confident that Polar can do this week to week.

So it's just one of those things that he's a talented guy, but I think he would reduce the spark that he has if he had to. Kind of He surely didn't. He surely didn't do it against the Commanders. You know that game the two worst rushing games he had at the season. We're against the Commanders, and if you want to use that as your benchmark, the Commanders played great run defense. As I say, it's not a

lot of runners that are. So that's that's what I'm saying. Though, if you're if you're trying to say, well, listen, where where was he productive against? Who was he productive? What style of defense was he productive? Against and to your point, a defense that has a lot of physicality to it might not be the best thing for Tony Pollard to have to deal with, you know, so they need to think about other options there for sure. Yeah, the game

I was talking about was that Green Bay game. He had twenty two carries for one hundred and fifteen yards and a touchdown. Malique Davis supplemented that with five carriages or thirty eight yards or seven point six average. So again, it wasn't the same balance as what you saw between him and Zeke. It was more, Hey, we're putting the load on Tony. We'll let him get spelled by by Malique Davis. And to your point, Amber, maybe he can. Maybe he can't be a guy that can sustain that

for an entire seventeen game. See, I mean they didn't lose that game because of that. They made one stop on fourth or nine. Not only did they win, they blow him out. So that's just kind of the way that game. But but but you also can look at it. In the fourth quarter, it's all right, you have a lead, you know that there's ways where you can kind of run the ball, and that's just and that you're right that might be the game that he's looking at it.

If you if you asked me, if you said, Brian, pinpoint a spot where you think there it was the divide between the two that was the one I would point to. And quite frankly, I think that's a fair thing. And that's again why I assumed when when That's why I assumed when when Mike McCartney said that that he was talking specifically about games or moments in games more so than the full totality of running the ball throughout the season. We're gonna take our first break and we

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Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com slash Camps. Welcome back to second segment of the Break Life from that st WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. This segment presented to you by blockchain dot Com. Let us talk about free agency. As I said earlier in the show, next week, next Monday will become the period will open where teams can start to talk to potential free agents. On Wednesday, March fifteenth,

at three pm Central, free agency will officially begin. Cowboys have a whole list of guys that are not I mean, these were pretty guy, These were guys that contributed quite a bit to the Cowboys last year that will be free agents this year. Presumably not presumably we know they will be because the Cowboys have used attack on Tony Pollitt, which means all these other guys will have the ability to hit free agency unless the Cowboys do a deal with them before free agency begins. So we're gonna go

down the list. I got three options for you, guys. I want you to give me one of these for each player. Is he a priority you think the cow and I'm thinking from your perspective, not necessarily how you think the cow Alays play it, but from your perspective, is it a priority guy you need to resign. Is it a guy that's a nice to have if you can make the deal work, then go for it. Or is it a guy that's no longer a fit you're good with just moving on? All right, let's start first

with Dalton Schultz. I mean, I'm gonna have a hard time saying anybody's a priority. So I don't know if I'll say that number one level for anybody nice to have? Yeah, nice to have. I'm not gonna I wouldn't push anybody out the door because Layton vander Esho proved that last year that you know, you think so you think that's what his market is, or he thinks it that's his market,

and then it comes back and it's not. And then you're like, well, you know, here's a guy that that trust and he can you know, he's gonna throw the ball to him and he'll catch it and he's not gonna make a lot of plays, but he'll make some. So it'd be nice to have. But I mean, it would only have to be week two of free agency win his market, you know, and if that's the case,

he's going to be salty year. Or I kind of feel like we Dalton Schultz seas in an interesting situation because he's a good player, but a really good tight end draft And so to Nick's point, do you get a great deal of money being on the market when teams know that they could draft a tight end who has a similar skill sets? I think you could go through probably four rounds of draftable players and get the

guys that have similar sets. Athletes you know, play well, flexed or outside, catch the ball, well, maybe not great blockers. He kind of falls into that mode where people could go, listen to get one of these guys in the fourth round, or do I give Dalton Schultz ten twelve million dollars? So to Nick's point, I mean, I could see somebody coming in and you know, swooping in and grabbing him. But I also feel like there's a lot of guys that have very similar skill sets to him in this draft.

Would he come back on a one year kind of a thing? I think that's probably unrealistic, but it's an interesting thought. I'm not really really guy in last year's draft in the fourth round and see if that could work out like a Ferguson. Yeah, well go ahead, Yeah, no, That's what I was gonna say, like I think it to me personally changed the situation on how I view him. I mean, he's still a time to player, but knowing that you got two guys Hender Shot and then Ferguson,

and they both did pretty well. Honestly they I guess maybe my expectations were a lot lower and they just ended up playing better than I thought. But knowing that you had two guys that were able to get the job done as well and be even at times, I guess it was the whole time when it was Cooper Rush Schultz just completely disappear and you wearing really the ball wasn't getting to him. But anyway, my point is that I feel that the Cowboys can make it work

without him now. So that's that's where it's at right now. It's not like you got nobody behind him that you're just have a bunch of question marks. You still have two guys, and that doesn't mean you wouldn't draft somebody too, But yeah, I just don't see it as a priority. I think it was very telling. This was not a

football fib. I don't think the owner and general manager told you know, he started talking about Kelsey in Kansas city and that having that kind of weapon, and when you got a guy that, you know, maybe they didn't think that of Dalton Schultz, you know, they feel like that. You know what, Yeah, it's a great it's great when you can get a guy with this Kelsey guy, you know, and stretch the field and do this and do that

and be dynamic, you know it. His thoughts, obviously from the front office perspective, is that Dalton Schultz wasn't that guy. You know. They to Nick's point again about the you know that you see in a year, you see in a year what you have, and you know, they probably look at that and it's like, you know what, we've got two young guys. We'll move on from this guy, and we got a whole draft that we can we

can work with. All right. Yeah, I wouldn't move on from Schultz because of Ferguson, but I would because of Ferguson and Hendershot. Hendershot's to come there. He's the one that's the wild card that you didn't expect, and you know, he can move on and Ferguson's gonna be franchise. They might have a chump point. I mean, just look at the franchise tag. The last four years, it's been a fourth round pick every year, so so it's just coming that's in his future. Yea. They might be in a

situation too, where they were the at twenty six. The best player on their board might be one of these tight ends, which is you know, it's people cringe to think about, but it might be to the vision to what the general manager was saying on that bus the other day, Yeah, that's the point for me. If you're gonna use that high a pick, you better make sure he's the Kelsey type. Well, he can't be, in my opinion, the Dalton Schultz type. He's got to get on the field.

He's got to be a guy that immediately gets on the field, right, But he also has to be a guy in my opinion, that you can move around and do different things with that becomes a nightmare for other teams to match up with. That's where it's worth it to make it a first round pick. The one thing this team has proven their draft thoughts is they would rather have the first or the second best at a

position than they would the fifth or sixth. You know, when we say, oh, they need a corner, well do they want the fifth corner or they want the second best guard in the draft. You know that that's their Their mode is we'll take the first best, we'll take the best player, and then we'll work from there. And it works for them. All right, Let's move on to Terrence Terrence Steele Nick, Well, um, I think they're gonna I mean that one. I guess I would say, I

wouldn't expect him on your list. So yeah, I would say that he's got to be a priority on that because he's a restricted free agent. I would probably give him the first round tender, but I don't know I would, you know, I think that I would, But they probably feel like with the second round tender, you can you

can get get by with him. The gamble they have here is if he was it hurt, you would probably first round tender him because again, you know, when you start to compare who's in the you know who's in the draft, you know the tackle group, it's a it's a it's not as deep as it's been the last few years. But if he was, with him being injured and coming off an injury, I could see why they did the second round tender on him. I totally get

I think the priority is to get him done. I don't think he's I don't think he's I don't think he's gonna play on the on the tender tag, I don't. I think they're gonna They're gonna try and find a way to get this done. I would say, then in that case, he's a priority for sure. Absolutely. Um. I mean and even then, even by signing him and getting something done with him, you still have other issues in the old line, you know, even at the tackle position.

So uh, definitely get him back here. And he's a guy that, honestly, he's done everything you've wanted him to do, and maybe not at first in our perspective, but he's worked so hard and he's improved over and over. You know, he's trending upwards, and that's exactly what you look for in a guy. I hope, I hope the growth continues with the new line coach, because him and Joe Philban clearly had a good connection, all right. Connor McGovern nice

to have. Yeah, I think they would like to have him back, but I think he's a nice to have. I don't think it's a priority he's got. He's got to see the market and I think his agent will let that happen to you know, anybody that signs at this point, he's gonna be. To be honest, he's going to be this year's Connor Williams. He's gonna go to Miami and get a starting job and get too much money, and they're they're not going to be able to match that. Well.

The fact is, if if, if what they're saying about Tyren Smith, if they want him back and they want to have him in the building, if that's all true, Connor McGovern isn't even gonna be a starter. We wouldn't think because you would assume that means dad Tyler Smith will be playing guard. So maybe another sports football fib we'll see, we'll see. You know, that's part of right

now that looked like you'd want him to. He had some injuries, but he's just he's he's never gonna be a guy when you're sitting there in the draft and you're like, whoa, we could take this guy right now, no one's gonna be like whoa, WHOA, whoa we have McGovern.

He's never gonna be that this guy that stopped you are always gonna try to get it it's gonna I see it as one of those situations that if it's not McGovern, the Cowboys are still gonna get a free agent kind of like that, but from somewhere else, and maybe they get it cheaper that way. I don't know, but I think it's just it's gonna be about it's it's a thin draft at guard. He might get some play. That's why I kind of feel the draft just because the draft, I kind of feel like veteran guy that

could play center. Also, there there's gonna be a value. That's why Cities this year's Connor Williams. You know, that's why Cooper Rush. Well, there's a lot of silence here. I thought that would be one that you guys would be pretty to jump on. For other reasons. I would make it a priority. I would. I would think I was talking about um other stuff. No, I think he know I would. I would. I'd bring him back. I think. I mean I would bring him back for you know,

if you can. I mean, because he's won games. He's won games for you so he's probably got the best record of pretty much any backup quarterback you know in the league the last few years. So I can't imagine. I mean, and I think he works well with Dak. We talked about Dak having different voices, and he will have a different voice in some regards. But I think that that Cooper Rush is a guy that works well with him and they know how to win games with him.

So I would I think he's a priority. I really do. And I say this in a way because he came in and was you know, you mentioned it, won the games. You know, they they they had to adapt to him. They adapted the offense, they did what they you know, everything they needed to do. He kept him in the sea every we were all doom and glooming, and he won games. And so you're probably gonna battle the you know, the Los Angeles Chargers on him. You know, where does

that number come? But if you're if you're Cooper Rush, you have a legitimate right to stand there and say you need to pay me. You need to pay me to be a backup here. I saved your damn season last year, you know, And so I I think he should be a priority because I don't know what the alternative is here. The alternative probably is Will Greer could be Will Greer, absolutely, but but I've seen Cooper Rush

win games, and I didn't believe that. But in this in this system, and maybe a new system will be different, but I would I would try and make him a priority for for sure. Yeah. I've been here where I've seen Brandon Weedon kill him more Castle Castle. Um, what's that other guy's name be Nucci? Benda Nucci? But the one that oh my Mark Sanchez. Uh yeah, So some point. The point is I've been here where I've seen enough backups not being able to do much when they needed to.

Just one that Okay, he became his harder, right, Okay, point is stop it, um no, But now it feels like when you do find somebody backup, you need to hold on to that person because you haven't had much success having like backups that can truly just be there and help you out. And what happened this year so games exactly, and so it just goes back to I don't know what the money looks like, but if it works out, absolutely all right, We're gonna take our our

final break. We'll come back and we got a couple more offensive guys and we'll try to get over the defensive side of the Babaldo when we come back Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. The season is finally here. For months, we've been gearing up to win. Now it's time for

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and more. Welcome Back. It is the final segment of the Break Life from that s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star presented by Middle Like the only beer of the Dallas Cowboys. Got more names for you guys, A free agents. They just keep coming. Noah Brown, what do you do with Thoah Brown? Move on? Probably? I think you didn't have any of those, but you good with this one, like just saying just doesn't fit anymore. Well, I don't know who his real sponsor was, and I

don't know if his sponsor is still here. I mean, I don't know if his Jason was a sponsor or, Kellen was a sponsor or both. I don't know, but I mean he's had one and he's been for dak dassn't. I don't know, but I'm just saying I think he's probably still going to count the minimum. I can't imagine, you know. And so Noel Brown is fine if he's

the fifth receiver. It's not okay if he's the second or third, and you know, and for some reason, it just kind of just pisses you off when it's third and eight and he's over the middle and there's double coverage or he's covered and they throw it and he doesn't catch it, and you're like, even though he's made some plays, You're just like, is that who you have to You have to force him. You need you need Jalen Tilbert to grow up. Yeah, you need Jalen Tilbert.

You need to push Jalaln Tilbert out there and say listen, sink or swim, here we go. We can't talk about other teams right now. I can't talk. Okay, So I had an idea, but I'm not going to talk about that. I can assume which time I know where you're going with because because they'll admit, they'll admit they messed up. They'll admit this that they messed up. So anyway, but think about that, Um, maybe it's something you can do.

Can talk about Odell being here. If O'Dell's going to be here, well that to me, okay, real quick on that one, and no, get through your list another day on Hodel, another day on Ode because actually, you're right, I do want to I do actually want to get to that in a longer more we can dive into that when we start talking about that, and next week will be an appropriate running out of Wednesdays. I mean like next Wednesday. I mean it'll be in the middle of and by the way, we still got all these

the composition stuff that we had. We got a lot we got to do in the next seven. I don't have much to say about that. It's the same as you guys said, I got the memo. I did get the memo. I did read the memo. I'm sorry, Thank you. T Y Hilton. Listen to to seven every day on the fan. We'll get that. T Why Hilton. He was

an interesting one because he came in. Yeah, and he had some plays that were like whoa, Okay, but he's an age and you know, as the season wore on, I don't know that you could say he was a reliable regular contributor in that way. What do you think about t Y Hilton. I'm moving on there again. You get Turpin. I'm trying to figure out ways to develop him a little bit better. There. T Y Hilton did what exactly what she needed him to do. I mean

I thought he would come. He made some really good early plays, helped you win a game too with some long plays, drew some pass interference calls. But you know, I've got guys like Turpin. You know, maybe maybe that Kellen Moore didn't want to use Turpin. Let's see if Mike McCarthy will use him. Yeah, I don't know where his t Y Hilton's mindset is. You know, he came in and admitted that he waited until the season was over for his kids to play sports and all that stuff,

his bank account a little. Yeah, so then he was like, Okay, now I'm ready to help and I'll sign with this team because you guys are have a good record and all that. And it worked. He did a nice job and he helped some of the young guys. But I don't know, is he wanting to do training camp and all that stuff. Would I would probably move on. He's probably gonna be a rental player for another team, you know.

Yeah at that same time of year. Yeah, I'm not a fan of having guys can just sprinkle things here and there. Occasionally those type of players like he worked out last year towards the end of the season, that you're struggling and okay, let's bring someone in and that they can't help in certain situations, and at least if they make one or two catches, that's gonna just take the game too closer to where you win a game. But for this point of the year, that's not the

type of guy I'm looking for. I need a guy that can give me everything that I need, full one hundred percent, not just twenty percent or ten percent. I think, I think to me, I call those band aid players. Most people don't wear band aids unless you're Derek Chiefs from Missouri back in the day. Remember Nellie, Yeah, Nellie, look at Brian. Most people don't do that. You put a band aid on when you need a band aid,

just wear. I'm just a fare him, and so I think when Nellie a band aid, if you can sign him, you know, he's a free agent. Probably Nellie. Did he play football? I don't know, why would you did? I think there's a movie he was in a movie? Yea, yeah, that wasn't he in the Last Yard? I think it was? Yeah? Yeah, I think he's in the long He made plays a player. He wasn't Michael, you know, but he made some plays for Adam. Sure, why not? All right, let's let's swept

to the deep inside the ball. And actually, this is interesting because there are five names, and I know we don't have a lot of times that they're five names here that you could make an argument that any one of the fives, for whatever purposes you want, is an important part of what the Cowboys did last year. So I'm gonna throw the five names out there, and I want you guys to run through them and tell me priority, let him walk or nice to have Layton vander Esh

Donovan Wilson, Jonathan Hankins, Carlos Watkins, and Anthony Brown. Okay, everybody but Anthony Brown on matlist for me is a like to have back kind of guy, not priority, just like to have like to have back on those guys. I would absolutely Donovan Wilson to me, and you could talk to people in the organization. The coaching staff absolutely loves Donovan Wilson. But we're paying you know, we're paying two thousand and six prices for safeties here, you know,

so that I don't think that's gonna work out. I think Donovan Wilson again a pretty deep safety draft. Will see how if he could circle back, But I think he's asking for a lot more than the Cowboys are willing to pay, but I'd love to have him back. He him. Everybody that you mentioned in that pocket of people, with the exception of Anthony Brown, I was really wrong

about him. Yeah, the Brown you're putting him were like, as we're gonna move, We're gonna Yeah, he was not playing well and so I'm gonna try and get better at corner there. I'm gonna try, especially with the injury. Coming off the injury he's got. Um yeah, nice to have for all of them. With Donovan Wilson, I have to just go off of Dan Quinn and say, all right, you did it with Jron Curse, you did it with

Donovan Wilson. You're gonna have to do it again. This is why we're paying you what we're paying you, and you work your magic on another safety that you know you have the vision for. Unless he unless he just wants to play here, but he's gonna probably want more money. He's gonna want he wants a lot more money. The whispers coming out of Indianapolis is they're not even close

on this, and that's and that's fine. I mean, like like you would probably just move on and let's say, all right, you know, you've got Malie Cooker, You've got Jayron Curse. You're gonna have to find some other safeties. You got some other young safeties too, you like in Mquamu and stuff like that. You know, I think you

move on there if it doesn't work. I'm interested to see how the draft is split as far as like, is it more on offense or defense or kind of half and half you can get from on your safeties. From the second round through the fifth round, there's probably ten names, and there's in each position, whether it's a

strong safety or free safety. So it's a good pocket from rounds two through say rounds five, where you can grab a safety that has that has not somewhat maybe at the top more of a similar skill set to Wilson. As you get down to the bottom, it's more guys that cover is what you got into draft. So there's a pocket of safeties. It's not like it's say, like the guard group I think is really narrow to what you can get. I think the safety stretches a little

bit more. If you want to let him walk question, I know we have to end the show, but real quick, you know how we always talk about how the Coweys don't necessarily make splash in free agency and they typically sign their own. But what a signing like Done and Wilson would would you consider that, oh, they made a splash, they will have the sounds like they may have to

because of the amount of money he's asking. And quite frankly, the part that I think should be considered a little bit more with Donovan Wilson, to me, I don't even look at him as just a safety outside of Micah. Give me another defensive player that made more plays for this defense last season, and I'm talking just a playmaker. He's a guy that I think without him, you're not just missing a safety, you're missing a guy who made plays. And I don't know, do you have somebody that's gonna

fill in that role? Is jay Ron Kurs gonna fill in that role of being a playmaker, not just a good safety, but a playmaker. That's why I think Curs should maybe think about him a little bit more as it should there be a little more priority on trying to get trying to sign him Curse. Curse was just so banged out, but he played through the wild card. Here is is Marquise Bell That's the one that they've kind of sneaky put him in situations to maybe that

he could be the Donovan Wilson guy. See, and I think, look, I don't want them to break the bank on Donovan Wilson. Let's be clear. I'm not saying go out and pay him, make him the highest paid safety. If that's what he's asking, then hey, good, thank you for what you did. We'll

have to move on. All I'm saying is I would really he's one of those guys I look at at the upper end of I'd like to have back because I think he provides so much from the standpoint of a playmaker for this step, I would take him over. If you said you were going to spend money on the Guard, if you were going to spend money on Connor McGovern, I would say I would rather have Donovan

Wilson than Connor McGovern. And if you're talking about starters, yeah, and with Layton real quick, I think it starts with Mica. Like anything does. Figure out what you're gonna do there, if you're going to play him the way you still play him where he does a little bit of both, and maybe not who Mica well next year, but I'm just saying, I'm talking about rush and the passer. If he's going to be more of a pass rusher, then you really do need some linebackers here. So and I

would go that route. Hello Jabril Cox, and Hello Clark and Hello. You know, I actually think too, there's there's going to be, how a feeling there's going to be more veteran linebackers available in free agency, and as a part of that, that may drive Layton's value down a bit. You might be able to bring him back for a number that his injury hatroll many options out there. He's injury history. People might have had him off the board when he came out. They still might feel the same way.

All Right, we appreciate you, guys, Jonas. We'll be back next week. Free agency will start, man, we get into the fun of the offseason. We'll do that next week. Till then, for Nick even Brian brought us an Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Hieltson. 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.