Hangin' with the Boys: Make or Break Player?

I am here at the Star and the s WBC mortgage office of Derek Eagleton, once again, joined by my co host Kurt Daniels, Nate Newton, Jesse. How are you fellas doing? I'm doing great, man, I'm excited. But you say taking the color? You got color? You got me, Jesse, Kurt and checking the color baby, I'm geep me. And they got original color. You got that spray tan color. Though,

I tell you what. We we got these sweet set up for our podcast, for our show, since it looks like we might be doing them from home for a little bit. We got these nice fancy microphones. Chris, you know Chris Beam dropped him off to us. Beam st We got h We got these nice little lights and I turned my light on right before we came on the air, and I looked straight into it and I still cannot see, Like that thing is bright and it's small. It's only like that bigger round. I am struggling right now.

So so much to talk about. First off, did y'all have a good weekend? How was yalls weekends? My week you was good? Can I turn on my light? Good? Thing? You got that Nate's broadcasting closet? Yes, sir, you better know it. How about you, Jess? How Derek let you back in there? Well, he doesn't know I'm in here, so and he doesn't know what's missing. He didn't take

a good inventory. So if y'all, if y'all see something behind me that you like, Um, if you see something over there that you won't let me know, and I'll i'll might be able to borrow it permanently. Take all If he got into que doll paraphrom there, you take that out of you. Oh no, you do not mess with that stuff. You do not mess with that, Jess. How you do it? Brother? I'm good man, had a great weekend. I'm happy it's Monday. I got a little joy inside of me. Read a good word this morning.

But when I got up and I'm ready, I'm ready to talk some football. Man. I'm happy. I'm always happy to see you guys. Well, I'm wonderful to see you too, jes Let's let's just get into it, man, let's go. I'm gonna throw it out there. I know everybody wants to talk about. Are we getting this man or not good idea or a bad idea? What are we doing? The fans are going crazy. Cuss us out, come, cuss us out. We need you well, you know stands. What do you guys think signed him? Don't sign him? What

are you thinking? I'm letting Jesse go curse on that one? Well, I'm letting Kurt go first. You guys have seen practice, may know better. But the report you're sounding like Clinton Dix isn't playing very well and Darian Thompson could be your second starting safety. I don't know, are you feeling good about that one? Um? You know, Thomas sounds like he's got a lot of baggage with him, so I

don't know. It better be a sweet, sweet deal for the Cowboys, you know, uh, you know, I've got to see a few practices thanks to Nick eating and the guys, you know, and and Derek though and uh, Shannon, you didn't have anything to do with it. But anyway, Uh, you know, I think these coaches are liking Darien too. He ran a lot Sunday with with with the first team. Uh. But I heard him. I heard coach Nolan Holland some

positives at how Clinton Dick. So we'll see, man, the competition is thick at a few positions and a few positions I found out the competition ain't even what we thought it would be, you know. So because they get they feel good about certain guys due to this pandemic and uh speth on the young guys. Uh, you know, they got thirty one in there, Treyvon Diggs, he's working. Uh. But other than that, the other rookies, man, they just

getting in where they fit in at. But for me, it's it's a it's a complicated thing for me because you think we always remember what Earl Thomas was when he was with the Legion of Boom and Seattle, just how good of a player he was. I'm not saying that he's fallen off a lot, but he's fallen off something that just happens with age and time that you lose some of that productivity, some of that ability to

go out there and be just a supernatural athlete. And my biggest thing is when you're trying to create a new culture. When you brought in Freaky Mike and the crew, you're you're trying to create this entirely new culture with guys who the coaching staff is kind of still unfamiliar with. They met him, you know, via online, but this is the first chance they got a chance to be with them hands on. And so when you're trying to create that culture and you're trying to have those personalities come

to the forefront. And we've seen this team in the past before that when it comes to leadership, they don't have the alpha dogs that Nate you had in the nineties, right because we saw guys come in who's been here for five or six days and all of a sudden they lead the team. And we know the guys that you played with Nate and other teams with a come in and said, hold on, young fellow. You know, hold on,

my guy. We appreciate you being here. But I do the hooting hollerand around here, I tell folks who are to go So now what you have to always have in the back of your mind is if you let a guy like Earl Thomas come into this fold, who seems to be one of those guys who is a dominant alpha male, what message is he's sending you got guys, you're trying to get acclimated, guys, you're trying to bring a long system, you're trying to input things that you're

trying to get figured out. And when you add an Earl Thomas to that mix, and from what the reports have been saying, from what he was and Baltimore was, he just beginning to do his own thing. He kind of almost went rogue, showing up late for meetings, being contentious with his teammates, doing his own thing. If that's the kind of culture that you want to input into your you know, that kind of adds to you want to input into your culture, then you could be setting

yourself up for disaster. So it kind of comes to that point where does his talent outweigh all of the other things that comes, all the other baggage. And if the answer is closer to know than a resounding guest, then I stay away from a guy like that, and I just go forward with the guys that I have, because it's much easier to get those guys to kind

of do what we need to get done. Maybe not as a maybe maybe not be more as athletic as Earl Thomas, but they're gonna be where up they're supposed to be, be there own time, have the right attitude, have the right culture viewpoint, and and and and you know, be assigned aligned, and just do their job and not try to go off script like we've seen and heard Earl Thomas was doing in Baltimore. Uh. And so that's where I'm at with that. I'm not I'm not a I wasn't a huge fan of signing him when he

left Seattle. I'm not a huge fan of signing him now. The thing with him is just as he's not. I watched him play a little bit last year because I like to follow guys who i've fans seem to go overboard with, and I follow him. He's not that guy anymore. And when you start showing up late and not being the guy you was in Seattle, everybody, everybody knows that you've fallen off a liit physically, but they wanted that leadership that you brought in Seattle, that promptness, stood attention

to detail. You went off on this guy about him probably blowing us sigmon or vice versus. We don't know the inside stir on that, but you took it too far. So what you're telling the Ravens is your services are no longer needed because they have a culture of toughness, of doing the right thing, of playing great defense. Here with the Dallas Cowboys. What I felt we lost over time, Jesse, you may you can bite into this is we lost

the voice in the room with the coaches. The coaches here are trying to establish themselves and who they are. They are the alpha males right now, and they will let as this team go, they will find their own alt for males, guys that they can trust to step up and say and do the right thing, much like Jimmy did. We when Jimmy got here, nobody was alt for mail. But as time went on, the Emmett Smells, the Charles Hayles, the Tony's Holbers, Troy Agmans, they stepped

up and went into the leadership roles. And I think that's what they want. They When you have a bad report as a veteran player, especially one that's making a lot of money and not living up to that production of that money. No, you don't bring him here. And I'm always be excited about a player. But does he fit I don't think not right now. Maybe maybe coach can talk to him. Freaky Mike has a way of talking to guys and getting them settle down. But to

know what, I couldn't trust Thomas at this time. Who do y'all think? Go ahead, shall Well, you're gonna to expound on that, curt Are You're just gonna say, hey, I think you'll bring up a great point. I don't want to cut off our favor. I think y'all, Hey, I think y'all brought up some great points. Stop go ahead, and my point, I mean, my point is exactly your point. I guess I hadn't thought about it in terms of

the leadership aspect. But I mean they have some young guys who are trying to develop now as leaders of Jalen Smith. I mean, does he get affected by that, DeMarcus Lawrence? Does he get affected by that? I just I'm agreeing with you guys, is that I don't know if the talent there is worth it anymore. To potentially disrupt what McCarthy's trying to build, what this defense is

trying to build. I mean, Jaylen had some quotes yesterday or over the weekend about, you know, the defense has something to prove and he wants to be a leader in that, and according to reports, in practice, he's doing

exactly that. He's playing ball. So I would hate to disrupt any of where this team has headed, what this team is building by bringing in the guy that you know, he left seat under bad terms and you know, apparently got in a fight with a teammate in Baltimore and like they said, you know, in late to practice and all that, I mean not apparent, not apparently not yea,

not apparently. Yeah, but you don't. You just can't bring that into this this situation where got a you know, Harbo and that that already established regime there can't control or keep you know, they're him from affecting their locker room. I'm not sure how a new one can either, you know, Yeah,

I think Yeah. To expand on that, I think one of the weirdest feeling things on game day last year was when they brought in Michael Bennett and and he stepped up towards the end of the year and became a vocal leader on the team when you kind of thought, okay, the vocal leaders are these guys, and he kind of stepped in and you know, would would break down the huddle, and he was very vocal in the locker room and like, like really vocal, like you could hear him yelling outside

of the locker room sometimes. And to me, that was a really weird vibe because you had built this team and you had kind of got your guys in there, and then another guy comes in that that was new to the team and was very you know, outspoken and a very alpha, alpha male type guy, and to me, it just you know, I'm obviously not in the locker room, but just being around the team, it was just a strange vibe, and I wonder, you know, obviously this would

be a little different because it's at the beginning of the season and not in the middle of the season, but it's kind of the same premise. You bring a very outspoken, you know, dominant guy in a locker room and it changes the whole dynamic when you've you've built it with the guys that you want here. So I'm from that standpoint, I'm kind of like, hey, let's just let's see what you got. You got this team, you you built it in the offseason. You got your guys

in here. Now, if the guy can play and play his lights out, obviously that changes a lot. If a guy can, you know, come in and he's the best of his position. Um, but I just I'm kind of like, you, guys, why why mess with it? Why messed with the chemistry when you have your established leaders in the locker room. If you're not bringing in Lebron yeah, I mean honest, I mean, because you just don't need him, you know it. And it probably it probably wasn't a long discussion. You know,

it probably wasn't a long discussion. We probably gave it more conversations than they did, you know, because coach McCarthy made a statement, we're confident in our eighty guys. Is that not what he says? I mean, y'all've read something, you know, some statements. Well, he said he's contact with his eighty guys. With that said, though, not to say that behind work closed not to say behind closed doors,

y'all know, Like, oh, Nate, you gotta eat your words. Uh, we got we got talking, but still said, are you guys, how was it with Clinton when you guys were worried about the position that you knew was a a vocal guy and he was gonna change the dynamic of the locker room. What were the conversations among players? Did you guys even care? Were you just like whatever? Or were there conversations of like, hey, you know this is gonna change, or hey, you know this guy's gonna challenge this guy

or things like that. How is it as players when you know that a new guy might be coming in? This is how it was for me because we I experienced that with Charles Haley. When you see Jimmy with bring guys in. Jimmy liked to bring guys in the just let him hang out. He will say, hey, Mike, come get this guy. Got him over here, He'll let it if he's serious about he would let him hang out with us and watch how we worked and how

we do things. How this guy mashed with other guys, but Charles Haley he was getting regardless of what we thought. Because all Jimmy wanted to know was did he love football? And was he went in to work and rushed the passer and all those criterias was met. He brought Charles in and the first time we got in a team setting, Charles just started giving out advice, whether it was wanted

or wounded. He started scouting everybody. I mean, he broke down the whole locker room, every player that he thought was an intricate part of his team. He broke it down. He broke them down, he scouted them and cussed us all out as he did it. Now, the day's locker rooms can't handle that, and I promise you ain't. But a few locker rooms can handle that type of guy. But we can handle that guy because we know who we were and we know what we were about, and

that's winning games. So that was a difference, Jesse. And maybe you have a different experience than me. No, I think the same thing that you said, Nate, which I think rings true through a lot of locker rooms. In the locker room that I was in, several locker room that I was in, the biggest thing is the biggest thing is it's can you help us? Like, can you help us and win football games? If that's that's a yes, right,

then everything else we can adjust with. But if you're if if that's the first thing that you want to see when a new guy comes there and you go, Okay, I've seen all this, guys, and then you start looking at his work ethic, what is he doing in practice and meetings? And can he help us win? Because what you don't want, you don't want the distractions to come in because you're already saying it's hard enough to do

what we do and to get wins. And when we bring somebody else in who ain't really with us, who ain't been with us for instead of big amount of time, and you're a distraction. But then that's when you come a little bit of an outcast. But guys want to know can this guy help us win? Because everyone understands that there's a fine window of opportunity that you have to play in this league to win football games and

win at a high rate. So if a guy can come in and does it it can play and does it kill our chemistry, then he's welcomed in, you know. And you look at a guy like Charles Halley, and Charles may have come in and cussed everybody out, but Charles came in and he went to work, you know what I'm saying. So his productivity was at a level where you say, you know what, it's maybe not the dude that we want to always be friends with, but

I want them on my team on Sunday. And that's the kind of thing that you got to be able to differentiate when you're talking about the guys in the locker room at different positions and so on and so forth. So you know, and that's the thing is that what a lot of times is is the talent worth the tolerance of whatever they bring. England when you went to New England, man, your talent was so great on the special team that hey, Belichicks and we could put up

with Jesse, right. You see, I ain't stay long. Wasn't good enough, Kurt, Kurt, you drought up earlier Jalen and you know he's he's been having a good training camp so far. And you know, we know that the issues that Sean Lee's had was staying on the field. And then you know, Layton, we'll see what happens with with his health issues. Jalen's been doing some great things off the field as entrepreneurs Approach entrepreneurship program that that he

started this year. It was just really cool thing that he did, and he's doing a lot of stuff off the field. Is he ready to take that step and become a leader on this defense and step up and be in the same conversation as a Tyrone Crawford and and a DeMarcus Lawrence and those type guys, because you know, if Sean Lee and Laton have a hard time getting on the field, he's going to be a guy that these some of these younger guys look up to because he's been on the team for quite a few years now.

Is he ready to take that step? And is he that guy? Is he ready? I think I think Nate's shaking his head. Let me say this, man, I've watched him and he is practicing lights out. Yaya, don't do nothing for me? Does a lot for me? Okay? And who was beating Jaylor's horn two years ago? More than me? I go by what I see in games. Jayalen can go back to that guy two years ago easily because he has athletic skills and he has the will to do it. Now. Jayleen has been looking good in practice

the three or four I've seen, he's looked good. Lateness came up and it's not been live, but he's came up and stuck his his head and his shoulders and everything into the little bit they've done. Both of these guys combined can be something truly special, especially when they get pulled back in there full time. But right now he's doing everything perfect. And the reason I'm shaking my head is not that I can't believe that he can't

be a leader. But if under the direction of playing well through these coaches scheme and they're gonna put him in position and make plays, and if Jalen stole back chackling the way we saw two years ago, and you'd be like, Yeah, ain't nobody gonna doot his horn bigger than me? But right now, no, until I see it. No. Last year he got some criticism for a kind of freelancing a little too much. Well to move to weak side. Help that because he can roam a little more, is

Kurt let me slow done? The coaches were not tolerated. I don't think the coaches would tolerate the freelancing unless you prove to them that you are instinctive enough to win. You freelance seventy percent of the time you win the great I can't pronounce the kid name, y'all help me to get this safety for the Stillers, Oh well, I

the model. Yeah and Earl Thomas when they were in their prime at safeties, they would freelance a lot and coaches would never say nothing because seventy five the eighty percent of the time they were spot on making plays. If Jayalen exhibits that, then coach would be like, okay, what did you see? You explain, They're like okay, cool, I understand, but what did you see? And you ain't made a tackle all game? And you're like, well, I saw this. What did the defense say? What was your assignment?

Jesse speak on this? Please? No, you're hitting it right on the head. That's the that's the that's the catalyst for Jaylen Smith is we don't need the raw rod. We got enough. Ra Roy guys, we don't need enough. We don't need all the words and the speeches and all that just swiping all that kind of stuff. For Jayleen, it his leadership comes with the productivity. Can you go out there and make plays at your position, That's all we care about, That's all your teammates are going to

care about. And then once you do that, because we see we get a chance to sit on these shows for an hour and talk this and that, XS and those and all that kind of stuff. But Jayala is sitting in the meeting room with his teammates and they're watching the film with him and seeing him freelance and be wrong and be out of position and miss tackles, and they're like, damn, bro, I mean cool, you know it. We cool and were cool and all. But you know

if your message falls on deaf ears. When I'm sitting in a meeting room with you and I see your screw ups and then you come out and tell me, come on, we gotta be great today, I'm looking at you like damn. But in practice what your priest brother like, you've been great. First, before you tell me to be great, you go out, head in, lineup and be where you're supposed to be and make the tackles cover guys. And then once you do that, man, you could tell me.

You could tell me that annexation of Puerto Rico and I'm gonna listen to you. You can tell me every you can read to me the back of a paint can, and I'm going to listen to you. But you can't. You can't sit here and be the leader of me, of another grown man. You can't leave me when I'm

sitting here watching you in film be trash. And I'm not taking personal shots at Jail, and I'm just giving you what it looks like when you're sitting in a meeting room and they get to see every single snap dissected over and over and over again, whether that be in the defensive meeting room or when you go to the linebacker meeting room. Because offensively, you know we're in

a team meeting. You know we may we may watch every play, but then you know it gets broken down again in your offensive meeting, and it gets broken out of getting your position meeting. So it's gonna be hard for my leader at the receiver group to tell me I need to do X, Y and Z with my routes. When you ain't doing X, Y, Z and your routes, that message falls on deaf ears. So the leadership part for Jailing is yes, showing up every day, being a

leader on practice, being a leader in the meetings. But when we turn that film on broad when we turn that film on baby boy, you've got to be where you're supposed to be fifty four Every single time. Before you can start telling me where I need to be. You gotta go ahead, get the spec out of your own eye, for you are about the log in mind and you see a big enough you need to be

right now is heading into a commercial break, Kurt. Sorry to cut you off, but as the leader of this podcast today, I am leading us into break so we can pay bills. Hold that thought, Kurt, because I know I know, Kurt, don't. You don't have many thoughts on this show, so I'm sorry that I just cut you off from one. So hang on to that. We would get to it when we come back from this cartial break on hang it with no boys, ladies and gentlemen.

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the season. All right, You're welcome, sir. Do you want to you want to expand on your thought or do you do you remember? Well? I just had I had a question, and maybe we want to move on or not. But just from the first segment, two questions. Really, I mean, oh my god, we let you expand on a thought. Then you have one question. Now you got two questions. You hijacking the whole show. I'm just trying to set you guys up to talk more. That's all so one. I mean, we all this talk about Earl Thomas. The

flip side is are you worried about Clinton? Dis I mean safety again, seems like it could be an issue. And then along with that is Jalen. Well, let's let's just start with that. I'll get to the other question later. Are you worried at all about safety? Not right now? I'm not not yet, not yet, nope, no, no, no, oh, that's simple enough. I want to give these players with I want to give these players with this this culture staff and this culture staff with these players an opportunity

to show with something. Thank you you m all right? I guess it's uh. The disadvantage though, is you're not going to see something until you're what two three weeks into the regular season and that preseason right about? What what about Jayleen? Shannon? Scare you? What about Jayleen that you have to ask that? Well? My other question about Jayleen simply was this he I mean, you still got some questions marks a linebacker with the vander Ess. You're not sure what is health is going to be, shan

Lee haven't even practiced yet. And after that, you know, you're not sure what you have. You got some some good role players and like Thomas, but is Jalen good enough talent than he can kind of carry that group or is that another troublesome spot. The talent of Jalen Smith. We've seen flashes of it, right. We saw what he

was at Notre Dame pre injury. We saw him get back post injury, and you see these magnificent, magnificent flashes of a guy who can be sideline a sideline He's built like someone put them together in the lab, and you just want more consistency. It's always for me with Jalen Smith. Can you be consistent? Can that talent? Can that talent and productivity consistently meet and be on a high level, Like Nate was saying about the safety play, can you be on a high level seventy eight ninety

percent of the time. Yes, you're gonna make mistakes. This is there's no perfect player that's ever played this game. But you can't make the critical mistakes in situations consistently.

And we've seen that from Jaalen too often that in moments where we need you to be correct, what we need you to make the tackle, what we need you to be in good coverage, you come up short and then we see flashes of like, oh man, if we can get that player right there, like the dude that just ran from one hash mark to the sideline and covered the receiver. Can we get that. That's the biggest

thing about Jail. It's the talent. We've seen flashes. But in this league, especially being a starter, being a flash and the playing pipe player is not something that we can you can't depend on it. A coach can't depend on it. A defense can't depend on it, the teammates can't depend on it. And that's the kind of player that keeps coaches up at night when saying, man is the hell of a talent, But is he going to be where he's supposed to be and do what he's

supposed to do every single time? That's the biggest thing. See a guy that can make or break this defense? Yes, no, no, yes. And the reason I'm saying no is I don't think they'll let him. See he don't have the same and Jesse, you can correct me, but I don't think he has the same pool that he had last year. Well I would say yes, he can hurt this team when you missed three and four attackers the game, I don't think.

I think I think they would take a shot with a young guy like Francis Bernard, number forty four, Luke Gifford, who's who's who's coming up banging pretty good the last few practices. By scene, I think they're like, you know what, come on, come on, guy, this is your going into your second year of starting. Come on, we expect better. So but they're gonna have to give everybody three or four games being no training camp for its preseason games,

no hard banging. They haven't had a scrimmage. They've done they do they bang a little bit, but they didn't. They an't. Nobody's smashing nobody. So I think they'll giv him opportunity. But I don't think the ropist is loan for any guy, you know, and maybe the money dictate that it does, but I don't think these she just

want to go through that. So I'm saying And the reason I say yes, I was just gonna say, Nate, you're you're saying that the leasha is shorter here, that this coaching staff, if he has a bad you know, two or three games in a row, they wouldn't hesitate to bencham Yeah, to do something because if you if you allow this what message Jery you're seeing, Okay, man, you are untouchable, go ahead on do your thing. What then you ask another guy, No, I don't think it's

gonna work that way. That's why I'm saying no, That's what I'm saying. And the reason why I say yes is because I think this culture staff, when you look at Nolan and McCarthy, what they've done in the off season has seen the flashes that we've all seen, and they're saying, man, we're gonna put a lot on this guy to produce in his third year, and if he does it, then we are required now to do something about it. And now you have to put guys in

who aren't used to being starters. That breaks your defense down. And for me, like Jalen, playing at Jaalen's best consistently

can make this defense one that is unstoppable. Jalen not being in there, and I'm having even putting one of the guy the guy in the names that Nate just mentioned, Guys who aren't used to playing forty fifty snaps a game, Guys who aren't used to going up against a Russell Wilson, m A A Drew Brees, and they haven't been able to hear those things happen, and they're now having to learn on the run, which again hurts your defense because you're getting to a crucial moment and because those players

haven't been putting those positions before. Those quarterbacks then abuse them, those running backs then abusing those Titans don't abuse them because they haven't been in it. So I think that's why to make a break with Jalen that if he's good. If he's good Jalen and on point Jalen and consistent Jalen,

this defense could be one that's unstoppable. If you have to remove him from the field because he's just not that guy, and you have to bring in one of these guys who and now maybe you go get a guy off the off the street to bring him in, a veteran guy. I know the guy like in Philadelphia, Nigel. He's an available linebacker guy. He's a guy who has skins on the wall. But if you have to go one of these other backup guys to be your starter, that that that makes your defense, That puts a hole

in your defense more than it does anything else. I agree. But but they but they're gonna try to use Jalen in so many different ways to if this cat don't be effective, I would be shocked. They're gonna try to give him so many opportunities and put him in so many positions to win. If he don't. Man, Wow, jes don't don't even go there, brother, go there. Man, You're you're telling the truth. Now he's telling the truth. But I'm just saying they're gonna give him ever opportunity and

put him in so many positions to win. They are they are I just realized yesterday. And I don't know because I guess because it's such a weird year and we're kind of in a holding pattern on a lot of things, and we're trying to wait see how things shake out, and you know, from a you know, just a I guess an operational standpoint, You know, Kurt, are we going to be in the office next week? Are we going to get to do this? And that that I didn't realize that the seasons in three weeks fellas

like the season starts in three weeks twenty days. You start thinking, Lyell cam Irving, Sehwan Lee haven't practiced yet, Tyrant Smith is out, Jordan Lewis might not practice this week. You know, doesn't sound like any really significant injuries, but a lot of time getting missed in the seasons only three weeks away. Are you guys worried about prep times and having enough time on the field and the new

coaching staff and everybody messing together? Is that is that something to be worried about or is all that going to take care of itself and kind of come out to the wash. When you start playing football here in a few weeks, you know, done, Terrrio Poe is limited, Griffin is Everson. Griffin is just getting back into the groove and he's got a little team work the other day. Uh they should everybody should be okay. Everybody should be okay because after this week passed, then you start slightly

stopped prepping for you your first game. Ain't getting everybody ramped. Yes, it's because they's a player. Everybody's as long as Tyron Smith got legs and can run, as long as uh, you know, let's play that Cam Urban. We don't need him anytime soon. Uh done, Terrio Pole, We're gonna need And I saw him, he shotting the ramp up. He went from a baby crawl to you know, I said, man put a poke chop Sammich out in front of him.

Hill sprint. But uh, I mean they they are moving these guys, Brent Daniels and Jim Meyer and these guys, they're doing the right things to strength. They're just slowly ramping these guys up. It's it's much like college. Our bodies kind of get older. And Jess can talk about this, but it's just like college. You older than me. You tell us, Yeah, not what I'm saying. I'm the youngest one of the group. MYO, I got rusty, got rusty. You look like a young Bob Marley. But anyway, but

I'm just saying, it's like college. You've been some losses. I've been to college, Joa. You know it's safe for you. But these guys gotta sign a cold turk and get out there. So they gotta have a scrimmage or two. They gotta bang up a little bit this week. I'm maybe sunning out to be the last day and all of a sudden, now you take off from that, bro, it's gonna be one hundred miles an hour. So they ramping exactly that two week window. As a player, that

two weeks, Yeah, there is enough to get ready. The thing about this is everybody has to do it. Ain't nobody got advantage. It's it's certain teams that's dealing with the COVID more than others that's being held out. There's some guys that are injured. Being that we don't know about these season. We're not We don't get these beats on our phones and then on our desktops and computers. The way we were last year. Hey man, remember Jessica say, hey, fellas,

guess what just happened? You know, he would break in like, bro, oh, we just gotta break this team. This guy ain't practicing to day. You know, we don't have that. We don't have an injury report that you give, Kurt, so we don't know what it's truly going on with the rams, you know. So I'll say this to your point, Kurt is, it's two weeks enough time to get ready for a football game? Yeah, player, Yes, okay? Is it enough to get a player ready to perform at his highest level

in a football game? No? No, no, no, Now what

you hope is, here's here's your hope. Your hope is that I can take this time to get said player ready for or the game, and then within that game, I have to be able to schematically do things to protect him, to see what his strimps are right now, and then use those and hopefully, whether it's offense or defense, that I've built up enough of a lead where now I can do things that doesn't put us in a very compromising, persistent position when you're talking about the fourth quarter,

because yeah, everybody's hyped up and up juiced up for the you know, from the start of the game and your emotions are on high, but then then reality begins to hit and that second to half that to happen third quarter. Now your lungs are burning and your legs a little bit heavy, and now you start to feel the effects them not practicing all off season. And so that's Can your player be ready to play a game

in two weeks? Yes, Canny be ready to be at his optimal, top tier self in two weeks, that's a no. And it's going to take a lot of finagling between schematics and uh scoring and whether not on the side of the ball they're on. If we're up, we're up. I can do things in a more conservative way, but I don't want to get to the fourth quarter. Now I'm depending on my left tackle to hold up against you know, Aaron my left guard, whoever to hold up against Aaron Donald William you know right, you know, I

don't I don't want. I don't want my guys to have to be trying to go up against someone who's at their optimum prime and they're not. It's a three or five offensive linement may not be at their Prime. That's that's w Yeah, that's worried. Something expecting when you talk about going up against a guy like Aaron Donald and Brockers and other players on that Rams defense. I'm parting that you Kurt on my screen. You know what man for you? You're bringing Frat house down and duomy

globe doom globe God you brought. You've been rounding this game long enough. I'm trying to learn happy about Jesse. You always pascified Kurts, so happy about pacify Kurt Kurt and not pacify its bat man because he delivered wings. That's right, don't forget it. That's about all I come through with. We are having at guacamole. We need to get on now. We're gonna take our last break. When we come back, one of us was at practice yesterday.

We'll find out who it was and what they saw, who impressed them, who didn't, and what they're excited about when we come back for the final segment of Hanging with the Boys, Ladies and gentlemen, It's that time again for tailgating with the Autterbox Boys. Autter Box the company that builds wildly overproductive phone cases, The one and only, but cases are just the start. Autter Box is the official outfitter of tailgating. If they can keep my phone safe,

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Shannon screamed something about exploding diarrhea. And ran out of the room. I wait on him. You bad? It was yeah, back, it wasn't that kind of it was the baby with the diarrhea. You there'sn't no one you washed your hands either. No, it wasn't for the twenty seconds, but it was a good It was a solid seven and a half seconds. So yeah, no way he washed his hands off. I did. Did you see? Did you see happy birthdays? Twice? Because if you didn't, it wasn't a lot amount of time. No,

I didn't. I didn't get my twenty seconds in. It was about the solid okay and a half. But I did wash him, Jesse. I did wash him because I wouldn't couldn't live with myself if I came back in here with dirty hands and touching his desk and everything. So all right, we're back hey. By the way, get the ultimate fan experience for the ultimate Cowboys fan. Joined Dallas Cowboys United and get an exclusive DCU fan pack and remember in the fits. Membership started only twenty bucks.

Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com slash United to join today. Kurt, were you at practice yesterday? I was not? Jesse? Were you at practice yesterday? I was not. I wasn't at practice either. I'm still I'm still winning on my my practice pass. Who do I have to call by? Called Jerry, probably called Derek Jerry and called Nick Eatman because Nate did and Nate got to go to practice yesterday. Hey, right man, it was nice man, different right, Yeah, to get to see these guys move around. Uh they don't,

they don't. They got a whole jess. When you go see you can be like, this ain't the same practice We've been seeing it for ten years. A lot of the one on ones and two twos are gone. Maybe it's the COVID situation, but you get a lot of teamwork, a lot of three on threes, a lot of half lines, a lot of quarterlines. I mean they do a lot of situational stuff. I mean it's way different way in the temple. You know, maybe if it's cause it's a

new coach or whatever. But the tempo is up, but just a touch, just a not as tempo is a people are moving faster and faster, you know, Uh, the in between breaks way to have the challenges and all of that. You know, the music us almost none existent. They want people knowing what to do and here here and and execute and so practice is nice, man, practice practice is nice. Uh. There's some guys out there showing it. Man, who's Wilson's showing who? Yeah? Who were some guys Wilson

You didn't expect that you saw? Cedric was one of them. Yes, sir, he's showing it. And believe it or not, the guy that we've been critical of, Tristan Hill, it's putting a little pressure up the middle. He had a bad bad Yeah. And Gallamore is trying to do his thing. And I'm telling you, man, and I know they have a hit. But Tyrone Crawford is looking fluid in his work, individual work, and I'm talking about when the when the just the D line is working together, working on Damon's hidden He's

looking nice. Alden Smiths is uh he just wow. I mean, I am. I saw him a couple of times in the run situations, not in the past situations. He's he's heavy handed, you know. Uh, he looks good. Uh six four six five two eighty. He looks good. Uh done. TERRYO. Poe is working back in. Evan Griffin is working back in. We're not allowed to talk about all the formations, but but they got some defensively, they got some things that

are working. Jalen is running like, uh, like a bat out of you know what, bro, He's doing his thing. He looks good. He stood out to me. He looks really good in coverage like he looks yeah, really good coverage. Yeah. And secondary wise, man, they look okay because the receivers are doing it. The quarterbacks are doing it. The first team quarterback. I had to look at the second team quarterback. They're all are doing it. They seem to seem to

have the advantage as of right now. They get a few picks here there, they break on the ball pretty good. But the offense is basically to me, it's been winning and so I think it's a backs look okay, it's gonna actually uh take I think games for us to see how good they have been. Because Amari Cooper, you know nice uh that young kids the first round pick, lamb ceedee, lamb. Man, he is smoothed. You know when I heard people say, oh, man, he looked at party,

looked the role. He does a gallop, had a drop or two in the practice. I was there, but he was all over the field making catches. Noah Brown is trying to make it make a bid for this thing. And so now what I want to say is this right here. Your left guard's Connor Williams, and that's your left guard. Your center is Lunar and that's your center. The other guys they get the practice when those guys decide they don't want to practice. Other than that, I

don't see no competition. And that's why I was trying to tell y'all offer earlier. And the only one that's competition is thirty one because he's starting. You know what I'm saying, Dig Trayman, he's starting, So that's your competition. Ceedee Lamb is your third receiver. That that ain't no competition. But on but on our offensive line, they are being smart and by saying we ain't in, ain't no competition,

these guys ain't ready for the NFL. And not if the Rams are first opponent, because but Aaron Donald would do to them rookies, they would ruin them and we won't have them very long. You know said, hey, yeah, you've said before that that the defensive line can only get better because they're facing such a great offensive line in practice all the time. I said, I said the opposite way the offensive line is getting better because the

defensive line. Yeah, at that particular time when they had McCoy, Pole Smith Lawrence, Yeah, I thought those dringer guys on the offensive line who were trying to get reps that I said they would get better because of that, Right, that's I assume that's got to work the same with the receivers right in the cornerbacks, I mean, our our quarterbacks or that's such a seems like you need a

lot of confidence to play that position. I mean, I'm assuming they're not getting their confidence knocked down a peg or two here. They're actually getting better from from maybe getting burned. And let me say this right twenty seven seventeen baby sharpness iron Yeah, that's how you gotta do it better. This. You gotta be cutting to get some good stuff right there, man, to get yourself sharp. These guys are not making the catches that these receivers are

making are nice catches. It ain't in their contested catches, And so I'm hoping that their mindset and their mental makeup is okay, okay, Yeah, this dude had to make a great play to get this, you know, And so they do make their fair share amount of plays, you know, but you know, as an offense, you always say, what do we remember, Yeah, do we remember that bat down? Or do we remember that old man? This dude, we just caught one between two players. So we always gonna

glorify the offense on that one catch. You can have nineteen great bat downs and all of a sudden, that Waine catch for a first down on the one yard line's the grettest thing in the world. So did everybody's playing well? The office in line, Uh, they look nice, They've been practicing well, but but uh they much you can do against Alden as a backup. Alden crushed the backup. Demarkus rons crushed the backup. I mean, I'm like, what,

what what do we expect here? If they was handling needs to god, we'd be like, oh my god, I deep, this is in trouble. Right. Did you did you notice that the backup quarterback is getting a lot more reps than in previous years. Did that kind of stand out to you? That's one thing that I kind of absolutely and were getting. Yeah, and end the receiver would be in. They're gonna throw the first team thirteen fourteen, They're gonna

throw the end of receiver. So anybody can be in bend newtie got a lot of work, especially before practice. They kid pretty fast, he pretty fat. But I know whether they ain't what we were about. But he can throw. It's that. That's the That's the history of Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy has been known to develop quarterbacks. So you know, I can't develop guys if they're standing back, they're holding

the clipboards. This is my time of development. This is my time to see what guys know, what they can do, and how I can kind of get get them ready in the event that something happens to dak. That is the That is the history of who Mike McCarthy is of getting and developing quarterbacks all across the board. He uh, And I'm telling you they'd be out there before practice. The quarterbacks office line deepens line. They were out there

thirty minutes before. Everybody seemed like working working their craft, working their craft, and they went through some simulations of two minutes they was working. Man, the quarterbacks are lining up at the receivers and they and they calling it. So you know, I see DA telling to dude, move off, move off, Like what the world you know, he had the slide. You know what I'm saying. So I hope

I ain't getting getting the trouble by saying that. But anyway, I'm telling you, Jesse, when you go out there, I know you use a Twitter freak. Don't do it. Don't tweet doing the price run. I'm gonna I'm not gonna have my privileges were voting, man, because almost yeah, I almost twitted something Clarien Hill. I was saying, hey, man, what you twitt I'm like, I'm tweeting my wife. Man, Okay, yeah, you know what I'm saying. So I haven't I haven't seen enough of Denucci to to have an opinion on it.

But he throws a good looking ball. Man. I don't know if it always yes, hepposed to, but I mean he's got a that ball looks good when it comes out. Man, it's it's a good looking tight spiral. So all of those guys, I mean, yeah, I'm with you, Shannon, all of those guys man, Dad, Clayton, Thornson, Uh, Denucci all up and the Dalton is throwing some nice balls. And uh but you know, ain't nobody coming, ain't no multiple coverages.

So we don't see it seems like that fourth wide receiver spot, it looks like it's it's down to Cedric Wilson or no People Brown. Yes, question about Noah Brown. It seems like, and Jesse, you've been around the league a lot, or does every team kind of take on a project and have like a pet cat that they keep around. It seems like Noah Brown is kind of that project that we haven't really seen a whole lot. You know, why do they keep him around? It seems

like Rico Gathers was that project. It seems like they they've always had a guy that that that they you know, they keep around a little bit longer than the fans would like to see, or like kind of a head scratcher. What what causes a team? Are the Cowboys unique in that or do all teams have that guy that they just don't want to give up on and keep him around.

I think all teams have that. And what makes Dallas a situation, especially now, is it's a guy like Noah Brown who you like and you think may have talent, who can help you out at some point in time, is where do we play him? Like you have so many other guys that you want to get the ball too, is that you can't even find space for a Noah Brown.

So the best thing that you try to do is you try to keep him on your roster, continue to develop him because you're gonna say, at some point in time, we're gonna probably need a guy like this, and we know that he has the skill set to compete. Not as a starter, but you get reps in a starting position and in the event that we may lose somebody or trade somebody, or something happens to somebody. Now we have guys on our roster where the drop off isn't

such a large drop off. It's just you know, it's gonna be a Dropta from Amari, but it ain't gonna be Niagara Fall drop off. It may be a little bit of a bop and we can still go out there and compete. But that's all across the board. And I mean, we look at a guy last year in Philadelphia and Greg Ward, who was around hanging around, you know, practice squad, got and came in and all of a

sudden he was there. You know, there's always guys that they have on their practice squad and you know, kind of tucked away on their roster, just trying to develop them, trying to groom them, trying to grow them in the event that they need them or when it's time for them to get out there and play. They're already in the system. They already know what to do. Now I can just insert them and we can keep going forward. See. But I think, Jesse, the difference is in these coaches

if they keep those guys. Unlike in the past, we would keep a guy like that and we would never see production. But I've known McCarthy to keep quarterbacks and receivers and all would saying. You'd be like, whoa where's this guy? Men? And you sit there production DeVante Adams in Green Bay. That's a guy. Davanta Adams was that guy.

He was a guy they tucked away and developed and developed and developed, and all of a sudden, around you're saying, well, damn vont Adams one of the top ten receivers in the league. Whered he come from? Well? He was a guy that and they kept tucked away and he got his chance to go out there and Seane, thank you, Jesse, You're great. You're great, Jess. Is it just trying to earn my ten dollars, man, I said, is it is

it too early? I know, I know in training camp, if we were all out in California, we would we would have a guy or two that we could say, hey, don't be surprised if this guy makes the roster. Kind of a dark horse candidate to make the roster. I know you guys are or even though we're not able to get out to practice, y'all are still and you still have sources, um that we may be surprised that we love a dark horse guy. Nate. I mean you, if you've been there more than anybody else, what do

you think about about that? You know? Once, once we get on the linebackers, man, I don't know how many they're keeping, you know, but everybody's housing that Francis Bernard. I saw him make a few plays. He's a hustle type guy. He's built pretty good. Uh. And once again, uh, just watching these guys, man, A lot of guys look good, but uh, it's gonna be good what the scouts think. The scout's gonna play a major role in trying to say, okay, this is what we see, how do you like this guy?

Because they're gonna be able to have, They're gonna have a list of guys that are gonna be coming back further earliest guys get the virus or get injured. This list is bigger, the practice squad is bigger. So it's just hard to say. Man, you know what, they really don't want to speak in on bubble guys. They say the here, they really know what you're speaking on. But I'm but I am gonna say that. Friends. And Bernard is a nice living kid. He's got a lot of

buds so far, let's for sure. He said yes, yes, yeah, yes, yeah, Darian Darian Thompson. I ain't the way he sided at the beginning of the year. But as Kurt see it earlier before we got there, they're liking this guy. Yeah, he's getting some starting reps. Sounds like yeah yeah, with Clinton disks struggling. So well, boys, it's uh, it's noon. We've done our hour. I guess uh, Shannon had raised it up, Jess floating, let's do it. I'm back, Kurt, I'm back. My phone dropped out. You know, Kurt, I

did not have diarrya to begin with. I had to I had to go number one. But thank you for thanks for thinking that I had Diarrya. But you know what, Kurt, why don't you, why don't you bring bringing home today? Take us, take us home, fearless leader. You got on. No get Mama Gross to bring it home one time. Man, come on, need to get Mama Gross back on the show. So Kurt, take it home, sign us off, brother, take us naga. Kurt. Hey, Shannon, thanks for you know, staying

with us through all your troubles over there. I hope, I hope Derek's office is going one piece. Jesse, Thank you, sir for bringing bringing the hot takes. Always appreciated. Nates. Always glad you snuck into the practice. I hope you can keep doing it. Yes, sir, Baby Grace, all right, we'll be back. Thank you the fans for listening. No appreciate it. Next, no love for Chris Beam, no love for baby Chris. We appreciate it. We will be back

next Monday, eleven am. We'll see it in on Hanging with the Hanging with the boys, see you boys, hanging with them. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.