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This is Girls Talkboys Talk, presented by Jigsaw Dating, preferred dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys, and broadcasting live from Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters at the Star. Now your hosts Christie Scales, Aisha Morrison, Nicole Hutcheson and Jess Navares.
Hello, Cowboys Nation, Happy Thursday.
Welcome in the Girls Talk Boys Talk presented by Jig Saw, the preferred dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys. You've got Jess Navares and Christy Scales in the studio with me today. Guys, it's been a minute since I've talked to you, well, not really. We've seen each other in passing, but that's that's pretty much it.
But when you go from seeing each other every day to once week, it's little weird, weird. It feels like a breakup.
Low key, it was a little weird.
Sorry, we're back though, we're back better with our well sure yeah you think.
You shout out jazz.
Banger and Butter, Yes, this way, this way, this way Banger.
Right, Brian Ainger, Brian Ainger and Butter of course, Brandon Aubrey because he's smooth. Yeah, so Prescott called him butter and what do you.
Have going on? Are you emulating him right now? Love that? Lining up?
Lining up your kick?
Chas He told me I couldn't kick, so I just have to do this a practice I did earlier. She saw me. She said, kick right here before you got here, and I did and she went, yeah, the was it was not.
Okay, too bad, too bad Tyler Bastd use that for Buffalo, you know, soon as a.
Wig wide ride.
I just went, oh, man, poor Buffalo fans. Just was too reminiscent of the Scott Norwood miss back in Super Bowl.
And man, but what.
A great weekend of games and so much happening. The latest, of course, Jim Harbaugh now officially with us Andy A Chargers.
All right, sorry, dang it, the Los Angeles Chargers.
Five year deal. Well we just announced it there.
Yeah, crazy.
Do you guys think he's gonna I was just mentioned a little bit before we got on camera that he might possibly I could see him bringing bringing in his Michigan staff.
That'd be yep, that'd be pretty wild.
Why would you not at that point? Why would you not.
That goes to the question which you asked, what happens to Kellen Moore?
Probably less of more, is my guess.
You know what to take your mic away, to take your immediately.
Yeah, that's that's the thing.
People don't People don't think about the Domino's falling and families affected, Kellen and Julie and their little kids.
You know, it's just interesting. It's interesting because when you think of a head coaching change, you think it's just the one person, and then it ripples down and yeah, I don't know, I'll see what happens.
But we've got we got we got a little bit of news. Not really much going on around here. But of course McCarthy is staying. We didn't get a chance to talk about that because he announced it, well they announced it after of course our podcast.
I mean, what are y'all I'm sorry.
Sorry, No, I just wanted to kind of touch on, you know, what's y'all's thoughts of us keeping McCarthy kind of like the benefits from that? Maybe I guess you could say some cons from keeping McCarthy has one more one more you're left on his deal.
So what's y'all thoughts?
Well, the pros are the continuity of the offense and the play calling and the same system, the verbiage and DAK in particular, but the whole offense not having to learn a new system. And it's hard to argue against you know, the top scoring offense in the league and the numbers and the success that the offense had through the majority of the season. The cons are selling to Cowboys Nation.
What's different?
Yeah, you know, yeah, and.
Same thing.
Yeah, twelve wins for three consecutive seasons, amazing hasn't been done in Cowboys history. That's you know, high winning percentage, all of that. But here with the Cowboys, it's measured in playoff success in Super Bowls, and so until you get to the Super Bowl, they'll be answering the same question every year.
I think for me, you've obviously seen the love that these players have a McCarthy, So it kind of goes back to what you were saying, like the consistency, right, and I mean the players are of course, when the announcement was made, they went to Twitter posting that viral
video of him in the locker room. So I mean, I think that players get that one consistency of getting you know, that same system, like you kind of mentioned, but you also get to see how McCarthy continues to develop Dak, right, because you've seen the best of Dak this year, and you get to see what he does with a guy.
Like Trey Lance as well.
You obviously know that McCarthy's really good with developing quarterbacks, so I think I think that's actually going to be pretty cool to see as well.
Yeah, I agree, I agree with both of you, and I think consistency is the best word. And you know, as far as Dak, we talked about this last week last week, having you know, if they decided not to renew McCarthy or I guess go with his last year on his deal, that's three different systems he would have had to be under in the last three years. And I think, especially where he's at in his career, expecting an older quarterback to continue to adjust that way is
just not setting him up for success. And then the ripple effect it has on the rest of the offense. So, as far as you know, another year of them working out the kinks of McCarthy in the play caller. And what I really liked about his press conference when he talked about that is you know, they went through everything already, so when you think of things in terms of doing it the first time, there are some kinks in it, and we saw that throughout the course of the season.
Your real turnaround time was the bye week, and that's when things kind of turned around and you know they got fixed and adjusted. But you won't have to see that next season because they already know what is going to work for them what is not. And I think the biggest thing I'm going to look for in this second year of the McCarthy offense is the run game. I think that's really one of the biggest questions I
still have going into this season. But overall I was for that move and I'm glad that he gets another year. Hopefully you can break that threshold.
What are some things that you guys dislike about this move or not dislike, but just some.
Cons Yeah, I think it's more what's the definition of insanity doing the same thing and expecting a different result. So I think the naysayers and the critics are, you know, why do you want consistency when the same thing has happened where you get to the playoffs and then have failure. And I think it's not just that the Cowboys lost in the first round this season, but the way they lost into an up and coming team and to be down twenty seven to nothing, I mean, they're really what
excuses can you have for that? There aren't any, and so to me, that's the biggest con. The other thing is we're still not sure what's going to happen with dan Quinn and the defense. The thing is, these slots are filling up this time of year, this coaching carousel of head coaches, it's like a game of musical chairs. And so now these slots are filling up. You have Brian Callahan in Atlanta.
Now you've got Harbaugh.
Excuse me, Callahan is with the Tennessee Titans. And then multiple interviews for Belichick and others in Atlanta include dan Quinn interviewed there the Commanders. So you're still unsure, you know, this time next week hopefully we'll have some will have some definitive to talk about with the Cowboys defense and whether there'll be any changes on the coaching staff. But you know, remember it's not just a coordinator that that has gone. Oftentimes, the contracts are such that the it matches.
So if a coordinator were to leave, how many coaches would he take with them? So it's not just a one for one. Sometimes you're replacing multiple spots.
And not only that, but you look at the laundry list of the free agents that are in the Cowboys locker room come the off season, a lot of those guys are the dan Quinn guys. Really, when you look at who is on that list, they're the dan Quinn guys that came in his first year, that have followed him before, that have a track record of following him
where he's gone, came from Atlanta coming here. He's just that kind of coach to these guys where he ohs, they follow And so that kind of worries me as far as personnel is who could follow It's not just coaches, it could also be personnel. And we'll see, hopefully this time next week we have a definitive answer. That'd be nice to just know what's going on.
I think what worries me is you talk about the laundry list of you know, defensive guys, there's there's quite a few offensive guys too, you know, especially with kind of like what you mentioned mentioned the run game you got Tony Paul Rico Donald.
That's two guys right there. Oh wow.
Eagles have also requested an interview with Kellen Moore for their host see job. There's a lot of news going on.
And they've got Vic Fangio for the defensive coordinator who had been had a mutual parting of the ways with Miami earlier this week. So Sirianni keeps his job with the Eagles, but they're going to have a couple of new coordinators.
So very interesting.
Yeah, sorry, my bad, I lost you.
Sorry, you're just talking about it, You're good.
Yeah, talking about the run game, some of the different free agents and guys moving on.
Yeah, And I say one of the cons for me is, I guess kind of like piggybacking off what Christy said and the definition of insanity.
But for me, it's more so of what is out there to help improve this offense.
Sure, and you have some guys that, like I said, you know, could be leaving, They could possibility could possibly re sign.
But I mean, you don't want to.
Expect the same thing that happened this past season as far as like the way that you guys went out. So it'll be interesting to see, you know what. How aggressive, the guys that the team is when it comes to the draft, what they select in free agency as far as offensive.
But now I mean talking about Dak. We talked about I don't know.
If we did get a chance to talk about McCarthy staying, but as far as you know, how much trust that you can have in the fact that he is staying, because that's what James later asked I'm in the press conference, but more so moving to Dak Prescott, how much trust do you guys have in him to be able to come back next year and take this team to a whole different level.
We got a chance. I don't know if Jazz has the sound.
Yeah, we got a chance.
To hear from oh Bett, we can go ahead and play with Troy Aikman said yesterday, go ahead, Jazzy.
I still believe in Dak. I think that until you do it, there's always those criticisms. And I know Peyton may you went through that his first three years he didn't win a playoff game, and then you look back on it now you can't imagine the next question whether or not you could win a playoff game.
And yeah, that was Troy Aikman speaking this week at the George Bush Presidential Library. It was for a sports business journal naming Dallas it's the number one sports business city, and so that's why Troy was there.
But he's right about.
Until you do it, you know, and unfortunately, in something that we've talked about ad nauseum here on Girls Talk, Boys Talk is the standard here. You know, when you follow the agment, when you follow the Stallbucks, you know, it's the same thing that Tony Romo and you know, Danny White following Roger Staubach. If it's not the Super Bowl, it doesn't matter what numbers you put up in the eyes of many Cowboy fans.
That's something that he also touched and credit to Calvin Watkins, who was actually there. He put it in quotations of what Troygman also added about a sense of entitlement. This is what was said from Troy Aigman. I don't know about a sense of entitlement. I think that when you play for the Cowboys, every national show leads off with the Cowboys, and there's lots of perks are playing with the Cowboys, a lot of benefits playing for the Dallas Cowboys.
So I think the challenge for the organization and for the head coach is to be able to still keep the players with their edge, which.
Is actually a kind of a good point there. Do y' all think there's some some truth to that.
Well, yes, I want to touch base on what Christy said too of what the standard is, and it should be Super Bowls, it should be playoff wins, and that's all viable. What I do really like about McCarthy and kind of how he coaches this team is he tells them you're not responsible for anything that did not happen
before us. And so, yeah, in the last three years there has not been a success in playoff victory, and so you can scrutinize that part of McCarthy, But what I do like is that he doesn't put the pressure of the last twenty five years, thirty years on DAK to fix that, because again, there were predecessors that came after Roger Stallback that also didn't get it done, that also still contributed to this dry spell that you've seen of not getting past the divisional round in the playoffs.
And so I think as far as hearing from Troy that he still believes in DAK, that should hold weight because he did get it done. And given football was very different from when Troy played to now, but he's still an analyst. He's a color analyst and he knows what the heck he's talking about. So I think if Troy Aikman can sit there and say, hey, Dak's still your guy, he can get it done. Who are we to argue with one of the greatest quarterbacks ever.
Yeah?
Well, really Troy's greatest quote, and I think it puts everything in context. One of his greatest quotes, and this is back when he was playing. This was from back in the nineties. Yeah, because it's always Oh, Dallas is such a great sports town, and Troy said, Dallas is a winner's town. They love you when you win. Yep, right, And of course you can say that about any community.
Yeah, you see him on Twitter. You see it everywhere on social media now, So no truth to that.
It's so true. And you know it also goes back. We were talking about the Bills kicker and I don't know if you all saw that story trending about just him having to deactivate a social media because of the amount of hate he was getting after missing the field goal. I just it's so sad to see kind of this world we live in where media takes over the human aspect of these guys. And yes, look, the loss was
bad enough. We don't have to be the first ones to tell the guys in the locker room that the loss was embarrassing, that it sucked being in the locker room after the game. They knew that it was very obvious. And you know, after that locker room experience, I had never been. That was my first time being in a locker room after that kind of loss. And Christy and I were talking right before and I told her it was like, I don't know what to expect to go in here. I really wish people would keep in mind
and look, yes, you can be upset. You can be mad that you have a very long off season with a very special team that should still be playing, should still be preparing to get ready for a game this weekend. You can be upset about that, but also just remember these guys are human. I mean the human aspect of this. We talked about it all the time on this podcast.
There's no need to get personal. There's no need to send them hateful messages and other really gross, ugly things that aren't even speakable I mean, the fact that that is just such a common thing that these guys have to deal with really, you know, Dallas, but across the NFL just urgs me so much because at the end of the day, yeah, it's just football.
Well you know, but when Tony Romo after the playoff loss, and Tony Romo says, if this is the worst thing that ever happens to me in my life, then would have had a good life. Well he got crucified for that, you know, by some fans. Not all I mean, but it's hard to keep things in perspective when losses are fresh. But the thing about Tyler Bass getting all that vitriol, this is the Buffalo kicker that missed wide right.
And it's what happened with Scott.
Norwood, the kicker who missed it in the Super Bowl in the nineties for Buffalo and the Giants win the Super.
Bowl instead of the Bills.
Wide right. That is part of the lexicon of the NFL, and it's the two words words in Buffalo Bill's fandom and then to miss wide right. So what happens with Tyler Bass is what happens with these Dallas Cowboys, the current players. That's they all saying paying for the sins.
Of your fathers.
Yep, yep.
Well, of course they're not their fathers, but they're you know, the people that came before them. And so when you have the way that you lost in the first round and these these players feel the pressure, I'm to your point. I'm glad that Mike McCarthy says, hey, they're not responsible for that, but they have to live with it in terms of the pressure that they feel from cowboys.
Do you have to fix it now because you are responsible for what has happened in the last three years that you are responsible for it and you still haven't gotten it done. So I'm not saying there's not room to be upset and emotional for the next long off season that we all have, But I'm just saying there's limits to how we channel that frustration. Everybody. We don't have to send gross messages to players to channel frustration. It's just weird.
Do y'all think it's worse for the players or the coaches.
Well, I don't know how much of the coaches actually see to be fair, like Mike McCarthy's not on Twitter, that's true to be getting the direct mess well, but his kids.
Yeah, Zach, that's what Mike McCarthy talks about is you know, it is as I can take it.
He says, I don't like it when you know, my kids have to deal.
That's fair with this, And I would say in some ways it's worse for the coaches because you can't fire all the players, right, get a salary cap and money, they're constraints. You can't fire a whole team. That's why you get rid of staffs. Yeah, and so you know, yeah, I feel bad for the coaches because usually there's the ones that are out the door.
Yeh.
Jordan Lewis in the last day of Locker Room, when they were doing locker room clean up, he talked about Dak and Mike having the hardest jobs in America and he said that he said, the coach of the Dallas Cowboys and the quarterback have the hardest jobs in America and they get the most scrutiny. So I think that was spot on.
Well, on that note, we're going to take our first break.
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Yeah. I got to give him a tour here at the Star twenty won Captain Morgan Savannah uh was with us and great, what a great guy. And the vote for him, Yeah, vote for him.
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I'd like to welcome a special guest to Girls Talk, Boys Talk. This is Flat stan Lee, who has joined us from Ohio from my niece Brooklyn's third grade class, a Tree of Life in Dublin. Dublin, Ohio, traveled over three thousand miles to join us. Thank you for traveling. So Flat Stanley is a cowboy adventure today and joins us for Girls Talk, Boys Talk.
Glad to have you, Flat Stanley.
Glad to have you Stanley.
What do you think about this whole thing we were talking about?
Yeah, well, Flat Stanley flet Stanley is surrounded by a lot of Bengals, Browns, and even some Steelers fans there, but there are still a lot of very devoted cowboy fans in Ohio, including the Nicholson family. So Brooklyn and Brienna and their friends at Tree of life.
Well, there you go, and shout out for Stanley for being so loyal.
I think we used to draw a flat Stanley when I was younger.
Really yeah, I heard of a flat Really yeah, I've definitely heard of a glad Stanley will for They're cute.
He's cute.
I like him.
So I have some trivia for you for some playoffs. Trivia Okay, I love trivia?
Yes day?
Oh goodness?
Really yeah, that's what. Yeah, that's what we fall asleep watching every night. It's like clockwork. Matt and I are like time to turn on Family viewed such old people.
I didn't tell her that. She said that's what she watches to go to sleep.
So let's talk about how things how things work in the NFL for the playoffs. So let's take how much players get paid? Okay, so we had Round one Cowboys, uh, Packers. Why did the Cowboys players get paid more for playing in the Round one play a wild card round than the Packers players? I mean, the Packers won, and why would one team get paid more?
And how much did they get paid? I'd say, would you like to take a guess?
It's it's a what happens is in the NFL. Once you get to the playoffs, there are different amounts for each round, and it's a flat payment, just like Stanley flat. Everyone gets paid the same thing.
The players get paid the same.
Amount, I'm gonna say because they had higher seating.
Because they were division winners. Right, So if you, if you were a division winner, you for playing in round one fifty five hundred dollars each player on the team.
Okay, if you were if you were.
A practice squad player, you did get your weekly practice squad check of twelve thousand dollars. So as long as you keep going in the playoffs and you have practices leading into the next round, practice squad players get paid their practice checks.
So each player on the Cowboys roster got paid fifty thousand dollars for the first.
Five hundred dollars playing in the wildcard run. And the Packers players, because they were the wild card entry and not one of the division winners, they paid five thousand dollars less forty five thousand, five hundred dollars. Now, ultimately that the Packers the pack The Packers came out ahead. Packers came out ahead because they advanced to the divisional
round and the divisional round. Everyone, all players get paid the same amount in the divisional round, whether you're a wild card entry or division winner, you get paid fifty thousand, five hundred dollars. So the Packers players, they were eliminated after round two, So one hundred and one thousand dollars fifty thousand, five hundred for two games.
Okay.
So now for the conference championship game where.
Let's say that.
So we've got what Detroit Right is hosting. So the four teams actually eight teams now four teams, okay, in the conference championship games, seventy.
Three thousand dollars per player.
Okay, So all of those players, and then if you make the Super Bowl, you're back to a difference. If you win, if you're on the winning team, it's one hundred and sixty four thousand dollars. If you win, if you're on the losing team, eighty seven eighty nine thousand dollars.
So there's a discrepancy roughly two hundred something thousand dollars.
Well, depending if you play all four if you play all four rounds, and it's more, it's more than that.
It's over three.
It's about three hundred and seventy if you win and all that. Now, here's the thing enough to go to the playoffs? Well that that sounds like a lot of money, right Hey to me, now here's the thing. To me, if I were in the players Union, this would be the one thing that I would would change because the fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money, isn't it.
I mean that's that's.
The person on it, on the team.
Yeah, so that's that's a lot of money.
But what if I'm pick a player for the Cowboys.
Let Lewis go?
Okay, Jordan Lewis, let.
Me site his all over here.
Okay, let me get to Jordan Lewis's base salary.
So give me a moment. It's Tyler Jordan Lewis.
I think it's okay, Well, Dak, what is Dak's base salary? Look on there for sportspo track for.
Twenty nine nine million.
I'm sorry, yeah, but what's so his salary?
That's his salary. I need his base salary, not his for the year working base salary.
Base salary is twenty nine million. Okay, So twenty nine million divided by eighteen games is one point.
Six one million. Dollars.
So Dak Prescott gets paid one point sixty one million dollars in base salary per game.
You work all year and you make it.
To the playoffs, and your paycheck is fifty five hundred dollars.
Oh, I see where we're going with this.
Hear me out though, extra fift thousand dollars. I'm going out there and get this win thousand dollars. Fifty thousand dollars, you.
Know what I'm saying.
Yeah, but I also.
See, like, why is it a pay can it's.
A pay compared to what they're making.
But when the.
Ratings are higher, more people are watching. You know, I don't think that they discount the I don't think they discount parking and concessions, do they? I mean, everyone's paying.
It's still I it's so interesting. I'd be interested to compare that to somebody that obviously doesn't get paid as much as Dak. Okay, Dak gets Let's do that, Okay, let's do it.
Don If you're if you're a rookie, If you're a rookie, there are minimum based salaries.
There are minimum based salaries in the NFL.
So if you are a rookie and you're on the fifty three man roster. Your minimum salary is seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So if you divide that by eighteen weeks, okay, it is forty one thousand, six hundred and sixty six dollars. So for a rookie making the minimum, So Brandon Aubrey, let's say Brandon Aubrey.
For Brandon Aubrey.
Playing in that playoff game meant a lot Butter Butter actually got a raise. Butter made an extra one thousand dollars basically then he would have if it were a regular season.
Well, it doesn't count because he's technically not considered a rookie in the MANAF.
Actually, that is an interesting question because Brandon Aubrey, according to NFL in terms of like records and stuff, because he would be an all time rookie record holder, is an NFL kicker, but because he has experience in a previous pro league USFL, the league is contending that Brandon Aubrey in fact not a rookie but a first year player. Yet Brandon Aubrey is paid the rookie minimum of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars instead of the first year
minimum of eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars. So there's a discrepancy there.
The math is in mathing.
I have a.
Headache, you know.
Oh it's a Thursday morning. I should have told everyone to bring their bring their calculators today.
My mom's a math.
So what about what about Mozzie Smith? His base salary is one point three million, So.
Okay, so we divide.
So you take one point three one point three million by eighteen, undivide it by eighteen, and it's seventy two thousand, seventy two thousand, two hundred and twenty two dollars. So Mozzi took a twenty two thousand dollars pay cut to pay in the play in the playoffs. But to your but you're right, it's fifty thousands to two thousand more than than you had before.
That's what I'm saying.
That's extra money that you had before to put in your big account.
Mm hmm.
But that's that's how that's how it works in the NFL. The point is to let me go kick over here running back.
I won't give Brandon Aubrey any run for his money at all, but I just it.
Is interesting though that once you get to the Super Bowl the winning team, it's basically double right, yeah, and then the same The same thing holds for the Pro Bowl, even though the Pro Bowl isn't a true game anymore like it used to be. So let's see that was interesting every year one hundred excuse me, no, it raises a little bit each year. So for example, last year would have been say like thirty eight thousand dollars and then compared to forty thousand.
Yeah, what was it just.
In the day like in the sixties, Oh.
Like five thousand dollars?
I mean, but money value was different in fact that as well.
Okay, when are they our second break?
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At Jigsaw Dating, we obviously want the Cowboys to bring that sixth ring home, but to be honest, we're more focused on finding the person who will put a ring on your finger. That's why we created a dating app that reveals your face through meaningful conversation so you can date deeper because it's personality that matters the most, not looks. Join Jigsaw Dating Today Dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys.
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Friday ninth annual East West Shrine Bowl will feature one hundred and thirty of the nation's top NFL draft prospects on Thursday, February first, at the start in Frisco. Tickets are as low as twenty dollars and are available at Shrinebowl dot com. Proceeds benefit Shriner's Children's Please real quick.
Again, My bad, sorry, and I'm gonna cut you off A real quick update. Lady Conboys Nation Dax Oh base salary is for twenty twenty three one point seven twenty twenty four.
It's twenty nine million.
Yeah, so the one point seven million.
So for each game, his base salary this past year was just over ninety four thousand dollars and then fifty five hundred for the wild Card playoff game. The highest base salary was Tony Pollard. All of his money was put in the base salary because he was franchise attacked. So yeah, so even though DAK counted twenty seven million this past year against the salary cap, with all of the restructuring bonuses and signing bonus and all of that, his base was one point seven million.
Yeah, we have a few questions. The number one question is what gets excited about the upcoming off season.
Who's that was?
Oscar? H Oscar?
Shouty's. Oscar is very loyal. Anytime I would tweet anything but Bland, he was ready with his response. It was the same, so shout out.
Well, there's so much to build on. Yeah, right. I think the continuity.
Of the offense is something to look forward to. I think getting CD signed to an extension is something to look forward to. I think the improvement is the run game is something to really look forward to. It's just that it's cloudy right now because Tony Pollard being a free agent, Rico Dowdell's restricted, and then with Tyler Battish and Tyron Smith may be a very different looking.
Line right in the in the next year.
So I think that that's going to be a big emphasis is improving the run game. I think that having continuity on special teams and Brandon Aubrey coming back is a huge thing. And defense, boy, so many questions there in terms of what you're going to do. There's I think there's gonna be a lot of changes in the in the defensive backfield with guys like jay Ron and
Curse and Stefan Gilmour, Jordan Lewis free agents there. But I think improving the linebacker corps is something to really look forward to because because the injury to Layton vander ash was just the killer blow.
It was a brutal blow. And I'm when.
You say most excited about to me, I would say for me, it's more like intriguing and curious about. That's that's what I'm going to What am I going to be focused on? And I would phrase it that way, and That's what I'm going to be looking at.
I think it's also guys coming back from injury. So obviously Trayvon Diggs went out prior to Week three in practice with a freak ACL tear, him coming back and being able to kind of re establish that and build off of the year that he was supposed to have
this season if not for that injury. To Marvin Overshown, Yes, another guy you can be so excited about from what you saw in the preseason ahead of his injury, John Stevens Junior on the offensive side of the ball, who great good flashes during training camps that we were so excited about. A tight end. Is he a wide receiver? Is he a both?
We don't know.
But again, you have these really talented guys coming back from injury, and those I think with de Marvin Overshown and obviously Layton vandersh being out impacting the linebacker corps had a big ripple effect on the linebackers this year to your point, Christy, So having guys come back from injury that were projected to have really big seasons and getting them through the hardest part of their injury and getting them back on the field is something I'm excited about personally.
I'd say, knowing that this team is so close, you know so close.
Like christ you mentioned the twelve and five seasons.
Back to back, three straight seasons, twelve one seasons.
I'm sorry. You talk about.
The talent that this team has, the talent that there's out there, and of course this is my first NFL off season, so I'm excited to see the way that are the different players that come in yea, you know that could add to this new offense, or you know, if they maintain the same guys that they keep just seeing how they fit in, even defensive guys, the new guys that we could possibly.
See come in as well. Uh so, I.
Think, I mean that's what that's what makes it fun about the NFLF season. You really don't know, it's it's really about the unknown. But with knowing that this team was so close, you know, it'll be interesting to see how much more and how much fun it'll be to see how much how much closer they can get to possibly like an NFC championship game. Yeah, so I think that's that's kind of Yeah, it's gonna be interesting.
Even look at this time last year, you had no idea this time last year you'd have a Brandon Cooks. Yeah, you had no idea you'd have a Stefan Gilmore. Yeah, you just had You had no idea you'd have a Brandon Aubrey. I mean, there's so much unknown. And Christy always talks about the retention and the changes that come in the off season between trades, free agency, everything about twenty percent twenty to twenty five percent being changes. But
that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. You can have a lot of really great additions to this team. So I'm trying to really have the glass half full here because we got through the emotional couple of weeks
together and we had our therapy session on here. But look, there's just you're also building off of a really talented roster, and I think that's why the loss was so disappointing, because of the talent that you had already built on this team that's still going to be there, maybe not all of it, but there's also going to be new additions that could help as well.
Yeah, what was your favorite surprise of the season. That's a good one, and it doesn't have to be a player. It could be you know what, what or something something or someone that exceeded your expectations.
Okay, dang I have to go.
I'm gonna go Deck.
I'm gonna go Deck.
Okay, because I came in I think it was I think it was the forty.
Nine Ers game. It was it was ame that was my first week, and I was like, hmm, okay, I don't know.
We'll know where to go, but up.
Yeah, Well, I was like, okay, thanks a little rock rough week over.
Rough week for my first week.
But just seeing, you know, his improvements in the way that his instincts have changed, his reads.
Have been have gotten so much better.
Granted, of course, I know fans don't want to hear this because of the way they went out and pretty much no one showed up that Sunday, But I mean, come on, like, Dak showed that he's he's a top QB in NFL, and I think since that game he really showed that. So I'd say that's probably my my biggest surprise.
Oh man, that one's hard.
I don't know biggest surprise. I'm gonna I'm gonna veer a little bit here. I'm gonna say for me being my first year actually covering the team and being able to do that, my biggest surprise was getting through it and and uh, fighting through the burnout because it was hard. So personally that was my biggest surprise. It was really a lot and I think, uh yeah, just learning through that. But as far as the team, I I mean, I gotta go with the obvious.
Yes, absolutely, Look, if you knew me, it's across your heart right and mine as well.
Butter next to that hers, But if Nicle, I really wish you knew me before the whole Brandon Aubrey thing started, because they're in training camp, Christy get a test. All last year, all I nagged about was the kicking situation and how firm I was in wanting to keep Brett Maher on the roster. I didn't agree even after his uh incident in the playoffs last year. I was very firm on wanting to keep a stable kicker. And that was fear talking because I didn't know what was ahead.
Uh.
And then in comes Brandon Aubrey randomly during training camp. Everyone's like, who is this guy? He used to play soccer and he did not have a great training camp. I mean, every time you saw tweets about Brandon Aubrey was like, oh he missed two today, Oh he missed three today. He never had a perfect day at training camp, I think maybe except once. So in my head, I'm sitting here on the podcast, real smug, like, here we go with another kicking situation, and then all of a sudden, yeah,
here comes Brandon Aubrey, proving everybody but myself wrong. I will happily, happily, happily, happily admit that I was wrong about Brandon Aubrey. And that was the best surprise I could have asked for all season, being a kicking queen and loving a good stable kicker. Brandon Aubrey was such a fantastic find by the scouting department here John Fossil had a hand in it in finding him in the USFL. Just such a great story. Yeah, he wasn't even supposed
to ever kick again, much less in the NFL. He was a software engineer that kind of just was inspired by his wife to come and try. Fantastic story, fantastic guy, fantastic player. That was my biggest surprise was seeing just a historic season from Butter.
And shout out to a Hailey Sudden, former team reporter, my big sist. She actually was the one who I guess predicted that he'd have a pretty solid she did.
She did.
She was adamant. We were arguing with her about it. We were like, Haley, girl, are you not seeing what's going on in training camp right now? And she's like former soccer player here, trust me.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's interesting because Rich Basacia, who is the Packers special teams coordinator, but he was here several years and friends with Rich and his family and his daughter Mattie who worked here for the Cowboys, and had a great conversation with Rich before the wild card game, and he said, make sure you give Henry Schroka a pat on the back and some love and recognition for all the work that he does in looking for kickers and recognize his part of bringing in Brandon Aubrey as well.
So shout out to Henry, and I.
Agree, but Brandon Aubrey is my most pleasant surprise.
So you bet.
I'm just obsessed with the shirt around.
Thank you, Jazzy, Yes, shouting to.
Our producer for these shirts. If you've seen me around town today doing this, just ignore me.
What you gonna do.
I'm gonna walk around. I'm not by my mic so I'm gonna walk around.
You're just gonna see me like, we need video proof, we need evidence.
Let's do it right now.
Okay you're like that, Oh my gosh. Okay, stay tuned.
That's a wrap for this week's episode of Girls Talk Boy Stop.
Will see you all next week.
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