Hangin' with the 'Boys: Inside the War Room

what you thought about the draft? But we have such a special guest that is he probably doesn't have much free time these days, or maybe he does have a lot of free time now that a big chunk of his job has been put to bed. Let's welcome to the show. Chris Hall, Assistant director of College Scouting. How are you, Chris good? How are you guys doing? Great? Man? You've been on the show. What this will be your

third time? I think I think so. Yeah. Talk a little rock music, talk a little football, But today we want to talk about a little thing that happened over the weekend. Because you're in the big room with the with the with the big boys. It's like Jones family will lay Chris Hall, Yeah, not the Battle of winter Fell. Did you watch it? Of course, Nate did you? Did you side at last night Game of Thrones? Don't spoil it?

I got a lot. Okay, Hey, by the way, Nate doesn't watch the show, but he knows everything that goes on the show. Yeah. So, so Chris, tell everybody if they haven't listened to us while you're on the show before, tell us what you do on on actual draft day, and then tell us what do that leads up to

draft you. So I'm the assistant director of college Scouting, and my main role is really just trying to keep everything organized our college scouting as we get through through through the whole process of the draft, which which for us will start in a couple of weeks within a new meeting at the end of May to get next

year's prospects. But I kind of manage all that information, manage our scouting staff, do a little bit of scouting myself, and then as we get into the spring, coordinate the pro days, the combine the All star games, make sure we're getting our coverage right at all that, and then just kind of help run and organize our meetings as we build our draft board and put everything together in there. I just I mean, we've got the greatest director in the world and Will that does an amazing job of

facilitating everything. We've got a fantastic scouting staff that does an unbelievable job and puts in untold hours on the road, at home, in front of in front of TV screens, watching tape, watching practice that helps build this whole process. And there's a lot of unsung heroes in that room that that put together a great package of information that allows our ownership to make great decisions when we get to the weekend like we did this weekend. When when

was your draft board set? When is that? Were you ready to go? We're ready to go. I mean, the draft board is kind of a work in process progress for us as we build it. We probably do it differently than other teams. I don't know how other teams do it. I've only been one place my whole career. I've been super fortunate. But we kind of work through

our board and get it right at the end. Really, we actually set the final board just a couple of days before the actual draft, but we know where players fit, we know their value. We build that all the way up through the fall through the spring as we get to it, but we make a lot of final decisions really in the last couple of weeks as we get up to the draft. We bring our whole scouting staff in.

Our coaching staff is very involved in it. It's it's truly an operation where we work together and we try and find the right guys that we feel are going to be fits for the Cowboys and that can come in here and compete and not just compete to make jobs, but to make other guys better too. So, I mean, we believe competition is the best way to improve this football team. We think we got a great group of

guys to come help do that right now. Number one, can we ask how many players y'all haveing on y'all board on an average per year? You know what it's it's changed a little bit over the years. When Parcels was around, we had a really skinny draft board and we've we've added a few more players to it each year. And I don't want to get into the exact numbers of it and everything, but we've added more guys in there. And you know, we've talked about that a little bit too.

But as Will likes to say, Hey, if they've earned a spot on the board, we're not going to limit it too. We can only have one hundred and fifty three guys on the boarder, we can only have two hundred and ten guys on the board. If a guy has earned a spot on the draft board, we're gonna put him up there and consider him to you know, at some point when the value is right to be

a selection for the boys. Okay, walk us through the process of Tristan Hill, because you told us before he's a junior, right, so you don't get a quick glimpse at him as though you were as he was a senior exactly. So, yes, so we have you know, there were a ton of juniors that came out again this year. I can't remember if it was the highest number last year. It was a big number as well, And it's a big trend in college football that you know. That's a

whole other discussion on how that works. You can ask Nick Saban how that went over when he had his comments about that. But so with Tristan's case, you know, we kind of knew who he was throughout the fall. You're keeping an eye on that. You know, he's a good football player at a team that you have several scouts into. But then when he declares, that's when you really dive back in and you're you're finding out more about him in the character and who he is, and

you can see how he plays. Anybody can cut the tape on and have an opinion on whether a guy's a good football player, what he does well, what he struggles with, but you got to get to know the person too. And you know, we're allowed to have thirty visitors throughout the spring, and Tristan was one of those guys,

and we worked him out. We spent a lot of time with him, just like we did with a lot of other players, and you know, he checked off the boxes that we needed him too, and we're really excited to have him in here. As as as the first guy we took over the weekend as a sophomore freshman, a sophomore Wadow he played. He started thirteen games, then he kind of they changed the system and then they say he kind of ran into some difficulties. I know,

you men can't get into the difficulties. But he didn't start as many, is right, and you know he started his first two years and then they had a coaching change down there, and anytime there's a coaching change, you know, young college kids they can get you know a little bit, Hey, it's different. You know, something news coming in, there's a new set of rules, there's a new sheriff in town.

And you know he tested the patience of the new sheriff here and there and they you know, part of what happened to him was that they didn't start him this year right right right if you watched the tape, he was playing when they needed you know, you might not start for certain reasons, but when it's time to make sure somebody's playing, he was on the field floor. Your research, you really had to deal with two different coaching staff there didn't because you talked a lot to

them very much. So you know, you had the Josh Hypel group this year that you kind of got a little bit of one story and you had the Scott Scott Frost group that you got a different story recruited him, and you know, that's part of what our guys do when they're out on the road, is they're building relationships with coaching staffs and who they can trust with information. They have to protect that information that guys share with

them too. So it's about building relationships and getting to know coaches on staffs all over the country that you trust the information that they're given to you about a player, and then taking care of that information as you get it too. So it's a two way street. And you know the biggest thing that, like I said, anybody can put on the tape and be a scout and offer their opinion, but it's I think we get beat up a little bit sometime because we didn't take a player

people like or they like somebody better. But there's a lot of other reasons why we might not have taken a player, be it medical, be it off the field things, be it scheme, fit, all different kinds of things. And sometimes the highlight packages look great when you're watching ESPN and Fox and all that stuff, But there's there's more to the story than just what you're seeing on that.

When we coach Marinelli over the years have just went past guys that like Vita Vale last year, I mean, he made him fall to us, whatever the reason, man, But you see guys that have had these abilities, what really because we saw him like talk up for this kid, Don't you know what I'm saying? What is it about

this Tristani Hill kid before we go to conom government. Yeah, well, Tristan, Tristan has all the tools and the traits, traits the big buzzword now that you're are in scouting um to play the undertackle in our scheme and you know are the way Rod coaches in the way our defense is built. It's based on penetration and getting upfield and being disruptive. And when you can find a bigger man that can do that, that that can play with the quickness of

a smaller man. Man, you're you're hitting, You're hitting the jackpot there. If you've got a big guy that can get in there and be disruptive, that's what you want. Man. You get bigger, helps you against the run, but you don't lose any of that quickness to get in there and help other guys make play. That's what we see

in Tristan. I did have a question about that. I had one too, and you cut me off on the you know, they had the war room cam up and it looked like there was a lot of discussion going down right to the wire on that Firt would be here. I don't know how much you can tell us, but was there a lot of debate going on about Hi was the right pick? I know safety was kind of

in play, and um, not really, no, it was. You know it, there's a lot of we always are talking everything out right down to when they tell me to tell Robert Black turn the card in. And you know, it's more just the more times you positively answer the same question and the room feels the same way about it, you as a whole group feel great about the pick, and there's validation from the scouting staff, there's validation from the coaching staff. There's the ownership wants to understand that, hey,

we're all in on this guy. Everybody's got a good vibe about him. And when you've got that, you feel great about it, and you know, hopefully two years, three years from now, we've made a great pick and we're winning championships and he's a part of it. You know. Yeah, that's kind of my question too, was to be a fly on the wall when those conversations, because we watch the war room cam. Sure, you know, we're watching we

have the NFL network up, we're watching the draft. We watch the war room cam on Dallas Cowboys dot com and we see if it's offensive coaches that come in or defensive coaches. So then we're like, okay, so we know that there's probably about ten guys that could fall in the spot. So yep, here's what talk us through. What those conversations And you don't, I know, you can't pull the curtain fletely back, but like when when Mayor and Nelly and you know, Richard come in there are

what are they what are they coming in there? What are they saying? And what are those conversations? Like a lot of that comes down to, Okay, let's go over this one more time. How does he fit? Who's who's he going to compete with? Um? How does he make us better? Is he the right? Right kind of guy? Is just it's it's checking your pulse. It's making sure everybody is completely on board with the player, whether it's Tristan Hill or whether it's Mike Weber in the seventh round.

You know, that's you want to make sure that everybody's

on board with the player. And you know there's always going to be a scout that likes a player better than the one guy we took, or a coach that would have rather had another guy, but he went off the board and things like that, But you just want to validate that you're you're taking a guy that can come in and compete to earn a job, and you have so few resources in draft picks, and you don't ever want to waste one on a guy that maybe not everybody's on board with, or yeah, he might be

the best looking player at the moment, but he might have a hard time making our team or competing with what we've already got. So a lot of it is just, hey, let's go over one more time. How does this guy fit into what we've got right now? And who is he going to compete with? And Kenny went a job. That's a good point, not only talking about the player and what they have, but also coming in who's around him and who's he trying to beat out for a job.

And you know, if there's no if you know, this guy's locked in for the next three years and he's not going anywhere, this guy can't compete with that guy. And you just brought up another great point that I didn't mention. You got to look at the contracts of the players that you have on your roster right now too. If we all of a sudden no, that we're going to be losing three or four players at a certain

position within the next two years. Maybe that's a pretty good spot to start adding some death too, because you can't keep them all. And we've got some really good football players that are going to continue to cost us more and more money each year, and we're gonna have some hard choices to make in the next couple of years on where to allocate our salary cap dollars, so which kind of may lead us into our second pick. Come on, you get you've done. You've done this radio thing,

so just keep talking about Connor. You already a little bit. But like I said, that was kind of looking towards well, and honestly it probably surprised us a little bit too. I mean, you know, he wasn't a quote unquote targeted player of ours, but he was high up on our draft board. He's a he's a really really good, versatile football player that already plays the way we want our guys to play. I mean, he's cut out of the

Colombo cloth look at, which is fantastic. He's a big man, six man that's a load, and you know, he gives us some versatility along our line. And you know, as I was saying, you can't keep everybody out. I mean, I hope we can find a way to keep Elsie and here next year after he plays one more year at his contract. But don't know how that's gonna work out with our stuff. But he was too good of a player to not take at that point the way our board said. You know, we've done a great job

of kind of following that draft board. And when I think we made the common a couple of times, when the guy's up there and it's a blinking light and he's kind of by himself and he's a round or two ahead of where where the discussion is at the time, go ahead and take that. They usually turn out pretty good. Yeah. You know, as Confucius said, you're drafting to your strength. Because you're drafting to your strength, y'all even catch that,

y'all to catch that is mister Jones. Yeah what he's saying that I almost died, And everybody's like, wait, what, Well, but I'm gonna tell you when when when you went kind and like you said, you see the highlights, and when they were showing his highlights, you know what impressed

me was he's built the role. You know. I know he's gonna smash up against Temple and anybody like that, sure, but he's built the role of what we like when I feel exactly, And so I knew he's got the heart and determination if because if Colombo has anything to do with it, I knew it's gonna be right. Oh, let me tell you, he was the happiest guy in the room. I mean, he wasn't expecting to get a

second round draft picked. His basket of wealth he's got over there or and you know, you couldn't wipe the grin off his face when we added another high pick. And I mean, the guy's gonna he's gonna play, and he's gonna play well for us. You know, at some point in the future. Might not be this year right out of the bat, because we've got damn good one right now. But we're gonna let him compete, right sure, because to me, a natural guard in center, he's a

natural guard. So you got that left guard with a lot of a lot of young talent, and plus Looney gets a shot at it too, so that thing is wide open. Oh that's one of the things I said when we came in here, this, this, this group is going to compete with what we've got and the cream's gonna rise to the top and we're gonna be a

better team for it. Yeah, it seemed like this year, more than in recent history, that you guys were set up to where you had some some needs but nothing really glaring where you had to go get somebody and it and it's, hey, if a guy's there and like like this pick. That's what we got right here with with with Connor. I mean, we weren't dialed in on taking a guard center type guy. But when the guy's sitting there at least caliber B Lincoln Lights said, it's

it's hard to pass that up. And but with the moves that we've made in the off season, with our with our pro free agency, you know, it's we've shored up some things with some good depth players who are going to compete as well, and that gives you the opportunity not to have to lock in on, oh my god, if we don't get a safety, we can't go play football in September, right, which I think a lot of

people feel that way. But you know a story, Tony Pollard, give me, because we've all sat here and we we we've all believed that if we get a running back, we wouldn't have been mad. This group here, we wouldn't be mad because we're not saying rod Smith can't be be explosive. But I feel like this that a guy at running back, that when Zeke walks off the field for those ten to fifteen plays, that backup running back should have that ability to at least be explosive two

or three times out of them fifteen plays. Is any one of these guys Tony Pollard one of the guys you got lad or Mike Weber, you know, they both of them have great traits. There's a word again, traits. You know, Tony's Tony's probably a little bit more of a space player than Mike is. But Tony, what we

love about him is just the versatility of him. I mean, if you go back and look at his his career arc at Memphis, I mean he's got seven kickoff touchdowns, you know, returns, you know, and now I know kickoff return isn't as big as in the NFL game, but it's still nice to have a guy back there that, you know, hey, if there's a kick an opportunity there This guy's got a chance to take it to the house. He played as a wide receiver, in the slot, he

played as a running back. Now, Memphis had three really good running backs this year with u with to go along with Tony in there. And then one of them stayed in school and Tony and I'm losing his name. The Henderson Daryl Henderson was the other guy. Um. Three really good backs, so there's only one football and you know, now he does so many different things well. And the other thing that really kind of took us over the edge for him was he got a chance to play

in the Senior Bowl. And if you go back and watch that Senior Bowl, he ran inside in between the tackles, which I hear a lot of people saying, Oh, he can't do that, why they take him. We'll go watch the Senior Bowl and see how he did between the tackles when they fed him the ball in a pro style environment with it he did pretty good. Good size for a running back and yeah, I mean he's he's six foot two hundred five ten pounds and he can run. Is he going to be in the mix for punt

returns to or just kiss Um? Maybe eventually he's more of an established kickoff guy then he was a punk guy. Um, but I'm sure he'll get the opportunity to work at that, I would imagine. And you know, you go back to Mike Webber, he's a guy that another Ohio state back that you know, those guys have played, they have a track record, they run the football there. Mike's a really

good running back as well. And again it's it's great competition. Um. You know, it saved us from having to go out there and maybe find a veteran guy to to plug into the mix there like we've done without you know, Morris in the past or or other guys like that. You know, you don't have to go get um, who's the guy we had a couple of years ago too, Rain dead right now? Yeah. Yeah, the drafts when you've been working was kind of I was not like it

was kind of a surprise though. He took two running backs. I think people were, you know, obviously Paulard was a fourth round the expect big thing. But to come back with Webber later, I think maybe that again, that's just best player on the board. Honestly, again, it was little bit of that blinking light theory up there. When you're looking up there and well, who's the best player up here? And you know, honestly, there's there's a very good chance

that both of those guys can make our team. I mean, really are We've got young guys with with Darius and Um and Jordan Chun back there, but you know, neither one of them have established themselves yet. And we've got Jama's at fullback. We also think we can give the ball too, and I think you may see him a little bit more involved in things this year. Um. So

there's really two spots to be competed for there. And you know, we we thought very highly of the two guys that we took, and you know, if we're right, then and again our team gets better. Is there a guy on this list? Aaron McFadden, thank you, that's it. Is there a guy on this list that you think could be a a I guess a sleeper kind of you know, has a really you know, kind of under the radar guy that people probably don't know a lot about, that has a shot at really competing and getting some

play into our draft picks. Yeah. Chris Hall's pet cat, Yeah, pet Cat, pet Cat. Yeah. I'm a big fan of Donovan Wilson, you know all the safety. Donald had an interesting career arc at A and M, and he missed his original senior year and he came back this year. He's a big hitter. Uh. He packs a big punch for a guy who's not a real real big big frame guy, but man, he can he can knock you out.

And I think he's got some coverage skills too that that he can bring to the table and at that spot, I think there's a chance that he can compete and get out there. He's going to be a great special teams player. And obviously that's the way those younger guys, the later picks have to get to the roster and show they're worth with that before they can really find some playing time. But he's the guy I'm interested to watch and develop personally out of the group. I love

all the guys. I mean that. I mean everybody's gonna say that after your draft, right, I really do. Each one of these guys that we took, they have a role, they have a fit there. We got a great group of humans in the in this group of guys, they're they're really good guys. Coach Marinelli likes to say get a check what's under the hood, and we like what's under the hood on all these guys. Yeah, so we're excited about this group, and we're really excited about the

about the free agents that we signed afterwards too. We plucked a handful of guys off that we had draft right. Yeah, we got Larry Ellen Jr. Yeah, that's right. Your job is not done at all. You're you're very busy right now trying to bring these guys in rent. Yeah. We well, we we we got all our guys signed up right after the draft. You you go hard because it's full competition with thirty one other teams that first call first. Yeah, there's there's a lot of deals being made um to

get to get those guys in there. And we get them all agreed to that night, and uh, you know, you look up and we added probably another six or seven guys that we had draft bull grades on, So you know, we're excited to see those guys come in and compete. You know, we got two receivers in Jalen Guiden from North Texas and John Vay Johnson from Toledo that can there or three guys they can really fly.

So you know that gives us a whole other dimension when you roll out there in preseason games and you're competing in camp and everything. So we're excited about those two guys as well. You said the word good humans, and I've heard that this locker room that this team has now is one of, if not the best locker room as far as like character guys and good people

and just really a solid group of human beings. Has there been, I guess a focused effort on not only getting good football players, but when you guys draft, really making sure they're good people, have the right attitude and right character. I wouldn't say it's a focused effort, but it's it's something that we look for definitely. And part of that reason is when you come here the way we compete in practice, you've got to be made of the right stuff to go out there and do what

we do. We are a hard, hard playing team, and I mean, I think you see that when we get guys that come in off the waiver wires or or come from other places. And one of the first things I always say is do we do this every day? I mean the way they go after it, and that's that's a great tribute to our coaching staff, from coach Garrett to coach Marinelli on down that they demand these guys come in and practice hard every day and are focused and work at it. And I think you've seen

that paid dividends for us and it'll continue. You know when when you have that kind of mentality and work rate, you get better work done. That's what it does is it cuts down on mistakes. Guys that can focus and practice hard and practice right, it cuts down on mistakes and when and where it really helps you is you may not be a better player, but in tighter situations, on harder times, you're not gonna make that mental physical mistake. You can rely on you. Yeah, yeah, I understand it

because Jimmy believed in that practice hard, practice smart. Understand what is going on is stay focused, and if you do that, you may like Brian Young was a better player than me, Dana Stopfield was better, but we beat San Francisco and I knew how to handle myself under certain situations and that helps, believe me. Great example, you gotta get out of here. Can you stay around a

little bit? All right? Good, because we want to talk to you a little bit more so you'll have we will absolutely We'll take a quick break and we'll be back with Chris Hall right after this. Caboo Texas is three days, six stages, over one hundred artists including The Killers, Minel Witchy, Leonard skinnerd You Miss, Lauren Hill, Kid Rock, Lennis Morris, Set, Little Big Town, eight Ft Brothers, County Crows, Pitfall, Sting, The Black Eyed p and the list goes on. Don't

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Save twenty five bucks with early bird pricing when you register by May first, So hurry up and do that. Register today at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash Academy. Get to hang out with our buddy Danny McCrae or dcc depending when you say customized curriculum one more time, customized curriculum. Very nice. He's a radio professional. Why did I screwed up the first time? You're trying to make me say a bad word? No, sir, not very nice. Sounded like

a jackpot, wait and happen. Question for you, who do you think besides the Cowboys, of course, who do you think in the NFC East had the best draft? Huh um, you know you had. Everybody did good. I mean everybody feels like they did good. You know, the Redskins, I think they added some weapons to their deal. They got a quarterback. They could be really interesting for us to deal with. The Giants did the same thing. You know, So they both have a rookie quarterback that's going to

be in play for the next next few years. Gonna say, if those work out, all of a sudden, this Divi Asian becomes like a long term, long term quarterbacks special to have four really young quarterbacks that can play a long time and compete against each other for a long long time if they all hit so uh, you know, anytime you had a guy like that, you got to pay attention to it. If they turned out, you know they're gonna be there's gonna be some tough competition for

a long time for us. You know. The Redskins, uh did nice with market sweat was it sweat man defense already nice inside? Yeah, you know he was a guy that some people had some health concerns on, but boy, we loved him and that that dude can get after the past. Yeah, you know, you had a potential starting quarterback and a guy that can disrupt the quarterback. Yeah, that makes you pay time. I like his name. He got a cool name. And they went back. Yeah they

went back later. They're Washington, go back later and get a guy from Ohio State or wide receiver. They went back later. Yeah, and got one. I don't have stuff. Yeah, yeah, he got one of these boys. Man, I assume it's hard though, to keep truck during the heat of the moment. You don't have a real idea what who's got what and who's Yeah, we've got a lot of great tools in there to where we can click on a team helmet and see who they've picked and everything. But man,

you're so focused in on what you're doing. You can't be worrying about what other teams you're doing now every now and then, Every now and then you might drop a explicative when one of your guys goes off the board that you really liked and was hoping he would get to your draft pick. But at the end of the day, you got to stay focused on what you're doing in there. Who is the guy scout our coach that you know they got two or three guys that they really how who gives you the most bad words

when they got back off? You know what it might be Will McClay. Yeah, But I mean, you know he's so focused and driven in there. I can use that word that's gonna be on our t shirts now. But it's you know, you spend so much time and energy and effort into studying these guys and learning them, and you know, you develop favorites, and you develop guys that you know would be great fits for us. And you know, you only got one pick in each round generally, and

you can't take all the guys you like. And that's why, you know, we spend time trying to put together the best guy that'll fit the spot, that we think is the right fit and value on each one of these picks. And it's a it's a sliding scale, and it changes as you go through the draft. You know, what was it like then day one, when you knew you weren't going to be doing anything. I mean, we just that was rough. I mean you're in there, you're in there

watching everybody else get better. And then all of a sudden, we said, you know what, we already won about seven or eight games with our number one draft this year, So it didn't it didn't sting as bad when you stop and think that we got our draft pick ahead of time, and he helped us become a better football

team in Amari Cooper. And you know, we really looked up at that board all the way back to the fall when that whole thing took place, and we made a decision back then that there wasn't going to be a receiver in this draft that had anywhere near his talent and ability and his capabilities. So that ultimately is is one of the main reasons why we chose to make that make that trade. And you know, I just imagine pretty good team. It was just a punch we needed.

Gave us an unbelievable shot in the arm at the time, and it it helped Dac, It helped, it helped our entire team on both sides of the ball, and brought a great energy to it. And uh, you know, we got what eight ten plus games out of our first round pick this year already. It's obviously great moving all that, but I would still just think from your point of view,

you've been working hard all year. The first day, you're just sitting there wait, waiting on waiting on the catfish to be and then you know you're sitting there picking fifty eight and you're thinking, man, we're gonna lose about forty of our first forty players on our board before we even get a crack at one of these guys. Sometimes time, so it's hard on that that regard but when you when you stop and think why we don't have a pick, it made it go down a lot easier.

You know what's amazing is this is one thing I hope i'd never do again. But this draft has taught me a lot. It's a lot of guys win in the first and second round where guys were like, oh, you could have waited on that. But I don't notice people people are starting no, look at the whole draft. I'm quite sure he can go down and say this guy didn't rate as higher as you know what I'm saying this. I mean, you know we took Tony Pollard

too soon? Why did we take you know, it's you can question every one of these things with every single team, but there's not a team in the league that didn't walk out of their Sunday night going, man, I love how we made our team better. Yeah, you know, we did great. Everybody thinks they got an A. But you know, there's all your grades and somebody got to see and there's a few d's out there. Everybody feels like they

did a good job with their guys. We all feel like, hey, this was great value in in this round where we took this player and then people get on the radio and on TV. Oh, they took him too earlier. They could have waited. Do you know we could have waited, or maybe we had intel that said we knew that somebody else like that guy too, and we had to get up ahead of that team to make sure that we got them. Yeah, I guess you just don't know.

I'm assuming that's why you guys to a degree traded down then in the fourth fifth round, because you you had a block of players there you knew were going to be there. When you're exactly well, you don't know, but you feel good when you've got in that situation, when you've got maybe five or six guys that you like and you're not just in love with one of them, then it's okay to take that slide back a little bit.

And that enabled us to pick up two more picks and get and get two more guys that we didn't have to maybe compete for in free agency with other teams. Now, did we lose a guy. We might have lost a guy or two on the way, but we also had enough players in that vein. It's when you get when you dial then on one guy and somebody calls and offers you a seventh round pick to slide down a little bit. I mean, you don't. You don't want to

lose that guy. So those are the deals you say no to um to make sure you get the guy that you want. It's just it's just amazing, Chris, that you know. I do a little radio show for one of the locals, and all I heard was if they liked it, they got great pick. If they didn't like, they go, oh, he could have slid back to the third.

And I'm saying, in my mind, you think that teams spend millions and millions of dollars, got scouts of different levels, pro scout, college, pro person and they don't know who they want for their team, regardless of way you may have them placed. That that don't make no sense. It's just don't And don't get me wrong. You do wonder about some gms or managers over the years because you've seen them make bad plays, But we don't know. This is a new set of gms that came into place

about two three new sets. You know, like they killing mister Kettleman in New York. That's just that's that displayed. You know, did you notice the super Bowl team he built in Carolina. Yeah, he might, he might have an idea what he's doing. I mean, I've known Dave for a long long time and he's a great man, and you know, I know their direct competition, but he's up there getting roasted for all these things that he done.

I mean, we could be getting roast. I mean, good lord, Jerry's been roasted so many times over the years that it's crazy. So it goes on in every in every city because you know, some fans or radio personalities, they get locked in on what a team should do, and you know they're not in the room where it happens,

and they sued one player. It's you know, how much how much I just I don't want to bag on that industry at all, but how much work have I promise you scouting staff in the league, whether it's the Dallas Cowboys or any other team, has done more work building their draft board than Anyboddy who's putting together their top hundred list or looking at the top ten guys at each position. And I'm not taking anything away from

what they do. I mean, some of those guys work hard at it and do a great job of it. But there's a lot of snake orders don't have all the information that we have. Yeah, when it comes to evaluating a draft, you know, we typically say, well, let's give it two or three years and then look back at it. What's what's kind of y'all standard when you say, was that a successful draft or not? Is there a

time frame or how do you guys evaluate drafts? You know, going all the way back to coach Landry, it was, you know, year three, you're gonna know about a player for sure, Um, he might come into the league as a defensive tackle and you know end up being a hell of an offensive lineman. Mark tuone was that way? Now? Was that way? Real? Hey? Look, hey, but this is this is so funny because draft grades NFL dot com A But you go all the way over here to the datas in the news be mine to see everybody.

It's like, really, and I'm not going to talk bad about Davia's Morning News, but come on, I know your history. It's Baskin Robbins. Everybody likes a different flavor. I mean, wow, sometimes the mill is pretty good and sometimes you want, you know, let's see, let's see what's the road. I don't know, but let's see what I got. I think Douglas Well, I think that's the voice. I think that ourselves used to say that the best of them got

fifty fifty and got fifty fifty right. And I think that the most one of the most criticized picks in recent years, as far as you could have gotten him later, was Travis Frederick And I think that turned out fine. And just because so many picks for everybody don't pan out. Anybody that sniffs of being a reach, the odds are against you already in perception. Yeah, I was one of those guys, Travis Frederick man, and I had to eat

that up quick. Yeah, yeah, I'm serious. I had to eat that up quick now for real and see that. This is what in my industry, you're ready. That is what I hate the most is guys can't even say, hey, man, I was wrong. You know, they still got to be a reason why Chris Hall should have went out and got this guy from Jamaica. You know what I'm saying. You know they got a team over there, Jamaica, a

six eight guy. Yeah, and at the end of the day, you're you're not going to be right on all these guys and we know that, and sometimes that, you know, whether usually not the draft picks with some of these free agents that we're excited about. They may walk out here our first rookie minicamp and go, that guy ain't gonna make it, yeah, you know, or holy cow, human law, this guy's got a chance to be on be playing this fall human law. You don't know, human law? Human

there you go. Finally, Yeah, to ask for it four times one would not. No, he got it. I was just trying to hope we get it, you know. But I guess they call them by their names and instead of their nicknames. But let me ask you this, Chris, if we had to draft Shannon, what do you think his shrints are? I was about looking at it, his handsome, good look nailed, nailed the face of the franchise determination. Okay, god, what about what about our partner over here? And I

already did it. He's got the rings to show for it. But now this is where we start. Now, so OTA's mini camps. So what is y'all part in that? Um? Really, it's just kind of a little bit of why tune and evaluating at this point. I mean, the coaching staff really takes over at this point, you know, full force, and they've got they've got to teach these guys. They've got to make sure they're knowing what to do. We talked about the accountability of the players and the competition

as we go forth. I mean, these new guys have to be they have to learn what our standard is. They they'll be held to that standard. And it's going to be hard for some of them at first because they're coming from different programs where they've never seen anything like this. I mean some of them are small school guys, some of them are big school guys, some are Power five.

They've come from all over the place, but right now they're they're all cowboys and they've got to learn, you know, how we do things here, from everything from how Mike Wisick teaches them how to lift weights to you know, how Scott centered is going to try and help fuel their bodies with nutrition and everything. And then of course, the most important thing is learning the playbook and showing a coach that he can trust you when you're out

on the field. And that's what all this first camp is is a teaching session more so than anything else.

And you know you're gonna get your first taste of who's who maybe is going to need a little extra time to learn things, or what coach is going to have to spend some more time with certain guys, or you know, as they dive into the playbook, you know it's not easy and it's a different book, especially for some of these offensive guys that have come from these some you know, spread systems in college where you know, you get some of these guys that don't don't have

much of a playbook in college. They're they're looking at that superman side, hard Joe, but the side that tell them what to do. You know what you know what amazes me is and I think, and now I understand college is not four pros. When what I mean by that is if I'm a college coach, I got to coach with us before me and make it better and get I gotta win with what I got. But I think it's a shame now that what are you talking about is all linemen just stand up two points stand

That takes away from learning leverage. A lot of times that take away from getting quick feet. I think running backs just standing eight nine yards deep never get the really block linebackers and defensive tackles and linement and that. So when they get in pros and all of a sudden, three hundred pounds coming at you and dash your guy to help, and they don't even know that keeps you off the field wide receivers. All I do about all

over do was run a nine route. Well, brother, we're gonna ask you to run a little you know, we're gonna actually run a little bit different. There's there's eight numbers before nine. Yeah. Yeah. And so now a guy, a guy that does not understand this thinks to be like when they get a break to away from the field, they don't understand that they should be on the field saying, hey, hey, getting one of the backup quarterbacks and hey, man, help me learn this route tree yep, help me learn how

to come out of breaks. Let me work with a coach. So I know that, you know, all routes look the same, but you know it's it's nine different routes that we're gonna run. But all I'm gonna look the same coming off of this line. They don't know that. Well, Chris Man, it's always a pleasure. Yeah, I enjoy it, man, Tay what came around the corner? Man and kind of like looked at us spiding left. Now I don't think tall.

What gonna lead table? What t what the bullet? Oh she's hiding over well, Chris, thanks for taking some time out. Busy Man was awesome. So we'll have you on at some point to talk rock music before the season. Got some good news we'll give you in some bad news. You don't say it now, you wait till we good news. Good news is we can we can promote you doing the regular season, preseason, but doing doing the season and playoffs.

You want to make pretty, don't do it? No thanks, We'll be right back with Taylor stern On Tay, what one you love? I mean, if you have a heart thing, then cutting the court is scary. But then I found out I could switch it or actv now and still get the life sports I love. No st I needed, no polky hardware, no annual contract, just the sports you love. Tried DirecTV Now for ten dollars a month for three months.

Visit DirecTV now dot com DirecTV now more for your thing that's out a thing us called real the limited time price a litt little page if three months when he's month at full price Currently mad Aimum forty dollars and less cancer. Prices may change. We subscribers on cancel any time. Content barries by package and maybe limited districts. In the plot, it's time for tailgating with the Outerbox Boys. Outterbox,

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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 Stetson dot Com today back to hanging with the boys, back the Star and Frisco and we swapped out. That was good. That's probably one of the best best guests we've had all well, you know, I think I think I think the reason he let's introduced her first.

It's great, Tay great, it's great. Used to fill though with Chris Hall. Chris Hall is very knowledgeable. I'll tell you what made Chris the best so far. What's that? It's because he understands what we do. I think he knows how you segue and moved around. I think he knew and then uh, we've Pepper with basically say questions every years. His answers different way. Chris is a hell of a golfer too, is him and I hit the course last year after I started learning, and he's very patient.

I think that's one because he also has daughters, so he understands that. But yeah, we played golf together. It was right before training camp and we've been training to knock down another day. But draft, he's been a little busy. He's been a little busy getting some new players in here. When he went blank on names that guys that played here, and he kind of went blank. I said, yeah, he

getting tired. Yeah, even though even though he's rested. You know, even though they rested a little bit after the draft, it went to sleep, got some long rest. It still man because they Wow, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes too much time. What you got for us today, Tay Well? I was gonna ask Nate because you know, we were lucky enough to be together during the draft. But Nate, we weren't with you. Were you happy with the Tristan Lpeck? It seemed like right? What you yeah?

You know? And I kicked myself from miss tab because for a month I want to fire Hydrant. I just need not give me the fattest man in the world home have it and the last two weeks bound out. But when they came back to and I was happy over one place where I was doing the draft at got the guy who I was working with at that time, he was so set on safeties. You know, I think

a lot of fans were too. You know what that a that all teach us a valuable lesson because the Cowboys and past years could not keep a secret that I only kept a secret, but they had everybody going down the wrong road. Yeah too, they don't value that position as much. Yeah. Wow, you know truth bombs upstairs? What's that brother? Because you said you did a one eighty on us, and you said, first pick, go get

a fat defensive linement and the rest offense. Right, and they went fat defensive line sixty three three oh a offensive line running back. And I said, Lord Jesus, please don't draft Nate. Will never let us live it down because I switch. But I'm gonna tell you something. Somebody who I liked, and I should have asked Chris, when you saw talking about the Savage kid, I kind of went reading up on him with the Green Bay right, yeah,

like first round. Yeah, I kind of went reading up on him, and I'm like, I like this kid, and uh so he was one of my wishless guys because normally when you go even though there you may have this guy sliding for a second round pick, normal would everybody go to just talking about the kid and then everybody forgot about the next name. Boom he was gone. I was like, wow, I know I told Shannon that no more Savage jerseys. No, you tell you man. We

got Hill jerseys. We got we got the whole Jackson family, Michael and Joe. I don't know if this is a good year to to draft Michael Jackson. We're just good. He likes to go by Mike, so we'll call it. I do have an interesting little tidbit that Scott of Goldnett gave us. This is the third year that for the Cowboys Draft they've drafted at least two players from the same school. So a couple of years ago it was Michigan with Jordan Lewis and Taco and actually also

Cheeto and Jordan Carroll. Jordan Carroll isn't here anymore. And then the next year was Boise State with Cedric Wilson and of course Layton vander esh and then this year was Miami with the back to back picks. Yeah, Kurt, you did a cool story sixty facts about the Cowboys Draft. Yeah, just like he didn't even tell him, tell us on the show or anything. A couple of things out of there that I was shocked by is that they drafted pat Riley the basketball coach, and Carl Lewis the sprinter.

What are some other what were some other facts in there that was some of your favorite They've had some other guys like they can't remember names now that Lou Hudson I think was went on to be an All Star basketball player. Um, the drafted guy that played twelve years from in the majors as a baseball player. Um. But yeah, it's there's some interesting both good and bad. Actually facts, were there any facts that weren't like player

related that were I didn't read your whole list. I just read thought it just the interesting part Kurt and still has to go back and read it. Let miss it is, uh, miss take what what what else? You know? Listening broadest and other people where you got a little bit of information. What are some of the other players of things that you liked it about this draft that

you heard that was nice about this draft? Well, yeah, of course I was surprised that they didn't go after a safety earlier then you know, when they started focusing on that the defensive backfield. But the biggest thing that I was surprised by it was the fact that they went after two running backs and in prominent positions drafted those guys. And I was listening to Will McClay on something and they were talking about, like, Okay Webber from

Ohio State, what does this mean for Tony Pollard. I think Stephen Jones compared him to Alvin Kamara, not saying that he is, but just saying that he had similar traits and skills that they could utilize the intangibles. And I was very surprised that they went after two guys because now that's a big competition spot which really wasn't around before that. And I think you think they won't be resigning Zeke. Yeah, just you know, we got a new Ohio, say, guy, let's just keep keep him around.

Well they picked up his fifth year. Yeah, so wow, maybe they're setting themselves up if he gets upset about that and tries to hold out or something. They got some insurance. Who knows. I'm interested to see how that's going to play out, because see a lot of people won't admit, you know, and I like what, Chris, So you better be factory in. We may can't pay this guy, right, and that better be a part of how you draft because if you don't, because that's real life, you'll be

left naked man. Yeah yeah, yeah. And I heard a bunch of people last week. They were asking questions like, after we'd been so heavy on Cornerback and safety talk and was like, oh, so they're not signing Byron Jones, like they're just gonna get rid of him, and that's not the case. Ultimately, they would like to keep all players. But just with the salary situation, said it what it is. You have to be aware of that because then they're gonna be mad when they're like, oh, Jacksonville just paid

Byron huge money. You know, who do we have now? Because you guys never set anyone up. So that's what they're doing right now. And it seems boring kind of because you don't know what these guys are. But it's great. Yeah, great safety literally safety a guy. We had it here the other day. Miss te brought in Danny right see, and I'm going along with Curtain. The other guys that have said is that they don't value it the way they do a three technique, or they don't value the

way they do running back at dis cards. Yeah, but that's not to say that we we we can't look at our safeties as no bodies. You know, we just automatically took that. Okay, Yes, Jennifer Heath has some traits that we don't like. That there word again, some traits that may not be appealing to most, but I've always thought, who gets to the quarterback first, the safety or the three technique in this in this scheme, in this defense

are the defensive man. That's why I was so keen on that getting that defensive tackle that can stop the run. But it's a health acious pass Russian because that, I promise you, if these guys up front can mash with with Quinn, you don't have to worry about the back

end as much. They're gonna be set up. They can stop being so scared about blowing the coverage and take calculated risks on jumping that rock, because that's that's the difference to happen after that capability and the knowledge to know when you can drop that rock what route can possibly be ruined, and not be scared to get beat. Yeah, and I think we saw that with the movies they did make to get Quinn, and yeah, you know, to

get deal paid the way they did. But then you're bringing up guys, I mean, Danny McCray, Burry Church, Jeff Heath. A lot of those safeties they've had in the years past were either late, late picks or completely undrafted. So I think they feel comfortable about that, and that seemed

like everybody else better than everybody else. But the thing about it, until they got like Danny said, until they get a guy that's ahead above him, you can't be six inches better than it because right now he is a veteran and he's learned, so he knew a limit of tricks to the trade. So you're gonna just go out and draft the guy that's gonna run willy nilly back there. So you gotta get a guy. That safety gonna have to be that guy that comes in and

he's maturer off the bat. He's a professional right off the bat. He understands his position and what he's back there doing and the responsibilities that come to it. Was that guy there. I think that guy was, but he probably got took early because the safety is rap was still there after them. There was a few safeties still there after that second pick. It was a few guys still there just rolling off the board, five or six players down at US. So if the Cowboys wanting them,

they were there. But I think the Savage guy and the other guy that went first, who nobody thought. The two guys that they think was going in the first round they went in the first round. Yeah. Two things, I want to get too real quick, get there? What are you? A couple of years favorite things? I saw you looking at him. I'll give you my favorite one here from nineteen sixty four, we drafted Bob Hayes, who obviously was bullet Bob Hayes went on to win the

gold medal at the Olympics. But unlike Carl Lewis, he wasn't just a track guy. He was actually a pretty good football player. He played at Florida A and M. First African American to ever play in the Senior Bowl. And really I didn't know that in that game, but Bob, hey, he caught a touchdown pass from Joe nainleth in that game. Wow? Was that immobile back then? I think so? Has it

been amobile the whole time? Wow? And the head coach of the South team, Tom Landry, that's some that's some deep digging for Walker was a world class sprinter in college. He was he was running against Carl Lewis. And then the last thing I want to get to Taylor, do you watch a game of Thrones? Here's my thing and part of the one percent of the population does not here you donate does but he knows everything that happens

on the show Guilty Pleasure. So um back, I guess a couple of years ago, when it really was like gaining all the popularity, I was like, maybe I'll start watching it, and then I didn't, and then now here it is the final season, three more episodes. I thought last year was the final season, so I'm confused, but no, this is the final. Okay, but didn't they say last year was I don't think so, or they like hin did it something? I think they left it up in

the air. I don't think they said that. I tells right here they did this, so sweet, don't don't sail people. Let me say something. All the main characters, all of the main characters. I'm telling you they you knew that day was gonna get wiped out by the Walkers. Why is he I don't even know what he's saying. And now, well, I was gonna say, I'm waiting until this season is over to completely go back. Just remember everything you thought

everybody thought John wasn't name John John Snow the Dragon princess. Uh, the raven guy who went raven the other night in the wheelchair. Uh, bran Brand, all these people, I mean, the d's white and then the white King. He woke up even the bodies to night that I don't ever say something, girl, I tell you something. This is what was so funny. Right at the last minute, my girl just came out. What are you seeing it? My girl came out of waste. Oh yeah, that was sweet. Bro.

He did a bunch of people. Really, man, I don't care. I don't care. Watch it when you're supposed to watch. But but the super Bowl is coming though, bro, Yeah, the super Bowl. Because the queen that thought she was gonna get the queen that thought, y'all watch the Game of Thrones, don't listen, put your fingers on the queen that thought that she's never make it through the White Walkers. Now she's sitting there like with that little smirk on her face. Okay, yeah, it was. It was. It was.

It was a good show. I mean, they did it right. It was so sweet to all of these people just to know you're gonna die and all of a sudden you just starting now, no telling you, girl, Taylor. Here's the thing, day, blue baby day, y'all blue. First thing Taylor's going to learn when she starts watching the show. Is no one is say no one, So no one really hasn't given anything because and everybody expected this episode. You expected at least half the main characters to get

wiped out. And you know, we had we had a death pool Saturday night at the bar, and me and two of my buddies, we all we we drafted four characters a piece, and every character that died on your list you got ten bucks from the other two guys. Wow. But I'm gonna tell you the sweetest I'm gonna tell

you the sweetest thing. The sweetest thing, Miss Tay, and I'm not a sentimental guy, is you know the one that the one guy that was fighting for the for the Dragon Queen, then all of a sudden he got slave and then the big dragon came without the noise. But you know he liked John Snow, the red Dragon kind of like old John Snow at least smelt him out a couple of a week ago. Jeez. You want

to know the sweetest thing about Game of Arms. If you guys have seen the documentary series that cnnded called two thousands, basically when HBO, like after HBO finished The Sopranos and they had Nurse Jackie. They had a couple

different series. They were like pretty much like bottoms up because Netflix was really entering the movie market and before that, HBO was like the king of that, like they had all the old movies, and so the HBO executives were like, we don't know what we're gonna do, Like we're either about to just be completely done or we have to

get a couple other like big time shows. And so they had a couple other ones I can't even think of, like White Queen, The Queen Show like Rome I think was a show that was on HBO, but then The White Queen is the show it always be. Yeah, yeah, here we go. Game of Thrones astarted. The budget was so small they didn't even have like enough money in that season one to show any of like real battle scenes. Yeah, and now it's like and now it's episodes of movie. Yeah.

It's like one of the most historical television series that will ever. I'm telling you, it's an existence, say, HBO. Yeah, that's what That's pretty cool. But no, let me say this. In this last season, things that you thought they would drag out to the end, like the Big Wars and all that you thought they would, but they brought this in the second. You see what I'm saying. You would have thought that they would have build it up more and they the battle would have been very last. Yeah,

there's gonna be another. Yeah, let's go super Bowl coming girl. Yeah, right now, they got the AFC Championship game went up. Let's get out of here before Nate pisses every one of our visit pushers offs. So I'll tell you what, man watch this. Yeah, he said he didn't even watch it. His wife does. He just said, forget I hate that Game of Thrones goes. This is my Christian beliege. Thanks for showing up, Hurt, Thanks for Brandon date. I tell you I seen saw Taylor peak around the corner. Thanks

for joining Douglas, Thanks for doing what you do. Ken, Thanks for pushing the button. And I'm sending somebody the draft. No, thanks for scheduling everything. We will be back next Monday. What we're gonna talk about next week the fans. I'm gonna try to get one of these games. Will McClay oldest Will McClay said he will be glad to Yeah, check with him. He said he would do it. Maybe Will McClay, maybe a draft pick, maybe fan calls, maybe all the above. Next week on Hanging with the Boys.

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