Mick Shots: Back At It

Bill Jones with Mickey Spagnola. Everson Walls is away today and tomorrow, I think, probably getting sized up for his Hall of Fame bust. He's a Wall, he is a Walls, Everson a Walls for the next couple of days. But Mickey is here to bring us up to speed on all all that is going on after a by weekend, and Mickey, what I would say was the worst weekend of football I have seen in quite a while. Number One, are you starting with college or what? Number one? Because

the Cowboys weren't playing. Okay, it's always worse when the Cowboys aren't playing. Number two. There were some bad there were some mismatches. On Sunday, it was a Sunday full of mismatches. As a matter of fact. You know, the guys on the fan asked me on Friday, they said, oh, just pick a game, and we want you to pick a winner and a score. So I start looking at the at the matchups and I'm going, god, there's nothing really, you know, gripping, And I guess I passed over the

Tennessee Kansas City game, right. I was like, oh, you know, Tennessee a surprise, surprise, right, So I picked the Saints going up against Seattle as the game of the week, right, and that's tonight. Okay, yeah, yesterday, that's tonight. So that was that was like that I thought was going to be the best matchup of the weekend. And m boy, when you look at what took place, there were twelve games.

I think seven of the winners scored at least thirty points, which is instructive that you'd better be scoring points in this league if you want to win games. And the other thing is you better have good quarterback play because if you don't, you got no shot. And we got quarterbacks falling left and right in the league. Now. Yeah, the last couple of weeks, which affects things. Baker Mayfield last week. Yep, you know when he kept saying he was going to play even though it was his left

shoulder with a torn labor Yeah, you can't play with that. No, No, that made surgery at some points. Been playing hurt for a little bit. Yeah, and then Mahomes gets beat up pretty good yesterday. But that was that was a tough hid he took. Yeah, it was like a full body blow to the head. Which, by the way, as you look ahead on this Cowboys schedule in the month of November, where Minnesota Sunday Night, Denver, Atlanta, and then Kansas City, Kansas City doesn't quite look like the same team that

now expected when this season started. Well, I mean if you look at if you look at the rest of the schedule, then who knows what happens tonight with New Orleans at Seattle. The Saints are three and two and the Saints of the week after Thanksgiving, right, But the rest of the teams they got to play, right now, Arizona had as a winning record, and what are the Raiders? And the Raiders are at five and two. Rich Besacchia two oh as a head coach, right, and that's it,

that's it for point all. They needed to do is get rid of Gruden and they kidney season around and so yeah, that's what they have. You know, there's a couple five hundred teams Minnesota right now, five hundred, but you know, going into tonight, it was Saints three and two and then the two teams that I just mentioned, and that's it as winning records. And to think that what we're seven weeks into the season and they've got a three and a half game lead on every team

in the NFC East. So yeah, they got to kind of look where they you know, like where they are, but you got to keep playing, right, They don't give you a trophy after week seven, That's right. And I think you look at the NFC East, and especially with Washington losing its quarterback early in the season, it's not a surprise that the other teams in the NFC East

are where they are, No, not at all. You know, I thought the Giants would be better, but they've got They played the game yesterday without their three top receivers and running back, right on the one position that they shored up in the off season, getting getting first round draft pick on a wide receiver, acquired a couple in free agency, and they've been hurt by injuries at the

wide receiver position more than any position. So yeah, it's just uh yeah, and like you mentioned, you know, Okay Kirk Cousins, you know, good quarterback coming up with Minnesota, Um, but after that, you know, I guess um Ryan had a little bit of a comeback this week, played well Denver.

They don't know who their quarterback is, well Bridgewater, yeah, I know, but yeah, and they ended up yanking him the other day and bringing in Drew Locke, who they should have started in the first place, because that's right. And now with Mahomes hurt, right, um? And New Orleans would you know, who knows what you're gonna get week to week with Jameis Winston. So now you got to go to the Raiders. Okay, Derek Carr is playing well, didn't They got to go through the NFC East. None

of those quarterbacks at this point scare you. And you got to get to Arizona, right Kyle second? Yeah, yeah, so you and you hope that things are and that's the second to last week of the regular season, and you would hope the division is wrapped up by then and you're playing for a first round seating, right. Yeah, And that's what somebody brought up to me today. It was like, as we get way ahead of ourselves, were so far ahead of themselves, it's like, Okay, you can't.

You're gonna have four or five games. You've already clinched the NFC East. And I said, okay, that's a little bit ahead of your think. Think about where Carolina was a month ago. Yeah, when they came here and I did, I did a podcast or an interview with Carolina reporter. I was on for about twenty minutes with him to a zoom with them, and they were just convinced that Carolina was all of this and that the Cowboys they had Carolina went in and come in here and beating

the Cowboys. And I was nice to them and only picked the Cowboys by three in that game, but they were they were thinking Carolina was going and what is Carolina done? Since then? They've lost every again they've played won a game, right, And I was just thinking of

that yesterday when I saw that score. I said, and I know they're without McCaffrey and that hurt them, but still, and they didn't have McCaffrey coming to Dallas, right, But they were thinking they're gonna come in here and and the Cowboys did have a fat chance of beating them. And I said them without MCA. I think I said it last week, right, I said they were frauds. Well, they're continue to be frauds. The three and oh was misleading.

Which also now, when you look at this Cowboys team, all right, you're one injury away from being in a bad situation yourself. But what I really like about where the Cowboys are right now and the way this team was put together in the offseason, is they've got depth around the horn on this team. And not only depth, but they created even more depth with the injuries they had to deal with, right, because some of these guys are going to start coming back, and just you know,

I'm not sure when DeMarcus Lawrence is back. But had he had been at Hey not been hurt, you wouldn't have heard of Goldston and probably very little of Bashroom, right Neville Gallimore gets hurt. Oh, Diggy Zoo would have not started six games. Let me tell you something else about creating depth. They've created more depth by the way they're playing defense scheme wise, right, by using so many

different and not only using different people. But this they have scheme versatile players on their roster now, so where if you lose a one of those hybrid safeties, you've got a Keyan O'Neill who's a linebacker or quote unquote a linebacker but came into the league as a safety. Well, Curse can do a lot of the same stuff that

Keyan O'Neill. Kick you. If Wilson can too, and if Laylee Collins doesn't get suspended, we would have never known Terrence Steele could could play right right, and you can just go through, you know, same thing with Michael gallup. Michael gallops out, Cedric Wilson steps up and gets an opportunity and and most people don't know much about Cedric Wilson's because he's always been hurt, especially his first two

years here. Got a little bit of a chance last year and now all of a sudden, you're going, oh, Mike, can they resign him next year because he's headed towards free agency. Also, so by by you know, no choice of their own, they had to use some of these guys and they found out, Yeah, DIGGI Zoa can play, and Terrence Steel can play. And I think that's significant going forward. And by the way, so the one injury I'm sure you were worried about it was Dak Prescott. Yes,

what do we know? Well, we had interviews with four guys, four players at noon, and towards the end of the last one, uh, Dak Prescott sticks his head out the door and starts yelling at um At Scott, the nutritionists, who was doing some sort of workout out there on his own, and all of a sudden somebody yelled at him.

He goes, well, what do you got for us? Any any He kind of stepped out the door, so he didn't have a boot on, okay, but he didn't have anything on his right foot, which meant he was getting some sort of therapy right going through rehab and all all that was audible that he could yell back at us because it was way down the way. He goes, if I come today meaning to do an interview today, you would not have any thing to talk about the rest of the week. It's like, oh, he's so cute.

So that's that's my update on Dak. So what is happening with the team today. It looks like from the setup that we can see out the window here before we enter field that they were going to do a little something. It wasn't going to be. I think they were probably coming in late, had a team meeting, and

the player availability was at noon noon. So now they've done so they basically perhaps came in late, yeah, sort of the morning off whatever, right, had probably late meeting, team meeting break, and then it looks like they would probably have some sort of maybe a walkthrough or mock game type thing that they call and do a little something before they get to wins. They're having practice with helmets, and Chris Beam chimes in practice with helmets, so like

a mini camp practice. I guess you know what, well what Mike McCarthy And I don't remember if McCarthy said this in a press conference last week, because the only how many press conferences you have last week? Just one, right, just one Monday. I talked to him on Tuesday, and this was the self scouting day right today, they're using today to have all that's right across the hall, across the hall meetings where offense and defense go across the

hall and self scout. That was Zach Martin mentioned that that they did that today. Yeah, so that was what their morning was probably right now, it looks like they're going to do a little something here since they've been off for the entire since Monday, right, a week ago, Monday, right, Yeah, they ran on Monday. Yeah, let's see. Yeah, that's right, Chris. So so yeah, back to kitting knocking the cobwebs out, and it looks like they got through the week okay.

And by the way, they'll they're here today, off tomorrow and then it's a normal work week for the Vikings game starting on win So we'll nor know more about Dak's status come Wednesday when they have to report in. McCarthy's first press conference will be Wednesday morning. So yeah, but we got that if I came out today, you would not have anything to talk about. What are we supposed to read into that that he would come out

and say, how I'm good to go? That's right, because if he came out and said I think I don't know, and we'd still be talking about it. I mean, that's kind of what he said after the game, So we're going to read into it that means he is good to go. Yeah, And all signs are pointing to that, and I think Jerry mentioned it on Friday when he did his radio segment that he felt very optimistic about Dak being ready to go. So so that's okay. So,

and that's the injury we know worried about. But as far as we know, they got through the weekend unscathed, other than Kaz which was a week ago now nearly nearly a week go right last Tuesday morning. So we haven't seen any bulletin's yet, right, any no police blodder things. Oh, we keep checking Twitter to making sure that there's no police activity going on as far as Twitter goes. I think the biggest thing coming back is everybody had the COVID tests and they had to be negative before they

got into the building. Oh there's a good point, that's right, and that's you have the way for on Wednesday COVID testing when they come back, and by the way, around the league. Matt Nagy, the Bears coach, apparently tested Possi after this game, as if this weekend what did go bad enough for him going to Tampa and getting drilled. They're going to ruin that quarterback. It's going to run. Why you go ahead and play Andy Dalton And he's like,

I'm good, guys. Last year they're runing. I mean, we need to remember what Mahomes did his rookie year, which was not sat until the last game of the year he got in. Yeah yeah, and how did that work out for him? I mean think about Aaron Rodgers and how he sat early in his career. Okay, I mean it's very rare that guys can come into this league

like Dak Prescott did. Was just going to say, like Dak, and and it was out of necessity that Dak played and played so well his rookie year, I mean, how many But and the other thing to consider about Dak is what he had done at Mississippi State. I mean, he got a lot of reps in in college, and he was an older player coming in a lot of these kids they're being drafted at age twenty one, and you know, Dak was two years older than that and had turned around the Mississippi State program to the point

that they're building statues for him there. And um, I don't know what they actually have, but they should getting ready to. But uh, you know, like Trey Lance at San Francisco. I mean, this guy, he didn't even one game last year in North Dakota State after playing the year before. So few snaps a sound like parcels right, that it's and that was the plan with San Francisco. That's why they kept Garoppolo around and that they it's

a future pick. They give up a lot. But you can't expect him to come in as a twenty one year old and without with precious little college experience at the FCS level and be able to play in this league and I mean succeed in this one. You could ruin these guys, right, And maybe the best thing that happened to Joe Burrow last year was he hurt his knee and he didn't have to go through the rest of the season because now you've got a taste of it, and then he's able to to watch. Yeah, right, and

now look at he's blossomed already. But the rest of these guys that they force fed right there at the beginning, they're they're still struggling. So yeah, And in the difference on Burrow too, is he was in two elite programs MS and he didn't didn't play at Ohio State, but he was an older player coming in, didn't necessarily have the reps, but he was more mature than he has a twenty three or twenty four year old coming into

the league. And I just don't think people, you know, understand that you come from college and you try to play that first year, all of a sudden you got to make adjustments at the line of scrimmage. The coach is not sending in another play with five seconds to go, right, you got to go under center. Sometimes they're not putting signs up for the next play. To think how long Breeze sat? Think how long Romo sat? Yeah, Romo sat for three years, So did Breeze. You know, they just

they just and this is a quarterback league. Let's not make any mistake about it. Look at the NFC. Who are the quarterbacks of the teams that are either five and one, seven and Ozero or six and one Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Kyler Murray, Dak Prescott and Aaron Rodgers. Shocking makes a difference. All Right, when we come back, we got the trade deadline coming up. Oh yes, by golly,

a week from tomorrow, right is the trade guest? Okay, when you look at this Cowboys team, is there a position group of need or is this team set to I'm talking in the long haul it's a three and a half game lead in the division. If this team is gonna win the division and gonna be in the postseason, is there a position that you need to shore up at the trade deadline, or at least try to in order to make sure that you're good to go for the long haul this season when we come back here

on Mick shots, Honey, big news, Gary? Are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore? Jackie Flash? What see? I want the latest smartphone, but the best deals are only for new customers. So to get a new customer deal, I change my name to it Jackie Flash. Okay, But the best smartphone deals at AT and T are for everyone, new and existing customers. That's huge. And guess who's getting a deal? Is it Jackie Flash? Jackie Flash? It's not complicated. At AT and t our best smartphone deals are for everyone.

Restrictions apply. Is it att dot com for details? The Cowboys Way, where sixteen Hall of Famers and five championships shows us what success looks like. Where turkey is always the second best part of Thanksgiving Day, where we are all defined by one single thing, the star, where we as fans know it's our job to keep the tradition going. Bank of America is proud to be the official bank of the Dallas Cowboys and to support the quest of living life the Cowboys Way. Copyright twenty twenty Bank of

America Corporation. Hey Cowboys fans, ready to spice up your next watch party? Bring yoki Erro guacamole and be the game day hero. The Yokierro means I want and we know you want. Great fresh tasting, ready to serve guacamole for your home gating and tailgating events. Made with real avocados and the perfect blend of spices, it will be the star of any party. You can find us at your local Albertson's or tom Thumb in the Delhi section. If you can't find it, talk to your store manager

and tell them Yokierro, Yokiero guacomole. It's game day. You know what that means. First, kabob prep steak pepper Runnion, Steak pepper Runnion. Next, a counterclockwise lap around the road. Now the lucky grease stained jersey goes on. And lastly the dance you know the one. This is a game day ritual, no matter where you are, whether you're traveling to the game or watching from your favorite vacation spot. FUCA plays to stay on hotels dot com and keep

the tradition alive and well. Hotels dot com proud partner of the Della's Cowboys. Back back to mix Shots. Head to at and T Stadium on Saturday, November sixth to experience rally Day presented by SeatGeek. Take a tour of the stadium, play games, get autographs from the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, and more. Visit at T stadium dot com slash Rally Days for tickets and more information. All right, we continue here on mix Shots. It's not an off day for

the Cowboys. They are back to work. The players are after a week off and on the practice field as we speak, with helmets on, ready to get back at it. Can you see him behind the white cand I'm just as subek. Chrispieve told us they have helmets on. Maybe he saw the itinerary though I was. I was, I saw, I saw the jugs gun machine all set up for the guys to come and catch passes. So I assume though they're gonna practice, they can do something. And by

the way, and eighties something. The mid eighty degree weather out there, I think, yeah, I think summer is going to just continue on here. All right. So my question before the break is, with the trade deadline fast approaching next Tuesday, is there a position of need that the Cowboys should explore at least to talk about with some teams to try to shore up just in case they have an injury at a certain position. So, knowing that they have guys returning, right, it's almost like you're already

made a trade because you've got DeMarcus Lawrence. Okay, Now let's let's do it by position group then, Okay, you're gonna start on defense, the defensive line. You've got DeMarcus Lawrence coming back, You've got Neville Gallimore coming back. We'll see where Tristan Hill is. Lawrence Armstrong coming back and maybe sooner than we think, right, Yeah, and I'm talking long term here, Yeah, I mean, you got a three

and a half game lead in the division. And that's why I think they have the luxury of thinking along term, because when you look at the landscape of this NFC East, assuming that there's not a collapse coming for the Cowboys, uh yeah, and you have to look at it that way, and your next game is Sunday, the trade deadlines Tuesday. Um, yeah, I think you've got designs on the postseason here, but you want to make sure you take advantage of this opportunity in case there's someone to pick up at a

reasonable price. And okay, so we took care of the defensive line there, right, Yeah, okay, how about linebacker. I mean you got Parsons, Vanderish, Keanu Neil, you like Jabril Cox, you like Luke Gifford. I mean yeah, I mean they and they haven't played and they haven't played much right, by the way, So I don't think it's a pressing need. But you also have to look at your roster, and I mean it's hard enough in the fifty three and roster creating spots for the guys coming back. Well, you

know what, that's what Jerry pointed out on Friday. You know, it was it, which is one of the reasons Jalen Smith was let go, right because somebody they got to let guys go to get guys back. And uh, and I think Jerry's point was we're gonna have enough trouble getting guys back on the roster that have been out let alone, trading for somebody and creating, and you get you get through Sunday's game, hopefully without any major injury.

And could you Sunday night you could be sitting there going, okay, we need to shore up blindbacker or whatever. You know, right, all right, how about in the second secondary? I mean, you're getting Calvin Joseph back. We'll see what that doesn't much he will contribute as it doesn't he give me a lot of That doesn't give me a lot of

confidence that he's going to come in. But where you are right now at corner, you love obviously what Trayvon's doing, Anthony Brown, and you get Jordan Lewis and the slot. You got the depth with Kennedy of course, the rookie and theo Sean Wright and then Kelvin Joseph coming back. So not look, it would have to be a sweetheart deal on the defensive side. And so you would be looking at a team that has already played itself out of it. It has a veteran corner that they're wanting

to unload. Yeah, and that would be that would be the ones. But the other thing you do on that if they're wanting to unload that player. Then they may just cut him after the trade deadline they came down suit and then you don't have to pay you're paying the veteran minimum for him probably. See. But if you do that, you got to cut somebody. Who do you want to take a chance of losing? You want to lose? Get to the practice squad, right, yeah, you want to lose.

You're talking you got to cut someone at that position, right, you want to lose Kelvin Joseph No, second round. So that's the that's the hard safety. Well, we're gonna assume we assume Cazin's good to go. The NFL's not going to intercede. We're gonna assume that for now. Now they may have knowledge that we don't have. Right, curses playing awfully well, right, probably more snaps than anybody on defense. Uh no, no, and second leading tackler to Anthony Brown,

by the way, and Wilson Malie Hooker. You know Hooker's been okay, um, but nobody, I mean, it's it's not like, oh gosh, we gotta do But you're in better shape at the safety position than you have, right, Okay, So let's switch over the offense wide receiver. You're getting galloped back and you're feel pretty good about the wide receiving corps. Right okay, tied end. You're getting even Sean McEwan back, and looks like he's getting close as a depth piece. Okay,

any offensive line. Layle Collins comes back this week. He's on the roster now, by the way, so he's back. You've found out steel can play. Um, you've found out that Connor McGovern can play and do different things for you. Um? Do you you worry about backup center? Still? Other than that, you're probably good? Maybe do you? So who's playing center up the otisches now? Um? Well they got Forniac and he's the only true center. You know, they keep working

McGovern and Connor Williams there. I don't know if that gives you any significant back up. So that's kind of a semi week spot right there. Yeah, and and then is some sort of veteran quarterback going to fall in your lap to be about wait, wait, we haven't got there yet, Oh we haven't. We were running back? Oh, running back. I'm good at running back. Okay, I'm good at with McGovern being the fullback. And you're good and

you still have Ralston on the practice squad. Okay, but at running back Zeke and Pollard and yeah, Clement and then okay, and so that brings us to quarterback, right, And so how do you feel if the quarterback if there was a veteran quarterback that is, there's just a roundabout way back to get to my point, we had to go through the whole day. Why didn't we just start there and just say, okay the rest there's the reason I saved the quarterback for last. Who do you

got in mind? Well, I would say, okay, First off, how do you feel if, if Heaven forbid, anything happened with the quarterback? How do you feel about this team making a run hot? And it's hard to say because I haven't seen it. Right, right, Cooper Rush three passes in it. I think this team really needs to and that's the reason I'm saying this. We haven't. Maybe Cooper Rush would be better than anybody, any backup on betteran backup on another team, but we haven't seen him play.

Of sort of going back to I mean I even go back to the Super Bowl teams of the nineties. I was going to say ninety three, the backup was Jason Garrett, and then they had Bernie Kozar. Cozar came and this time, this time of the year, Rnie Kozar. So that's what I'm looking for. That maybe not. I mean, Bernie Kozar obviously had some skins on the wall in college and early on and his well in his career with Cleveland, okay, and there is a comfort level that

the coaching staff had with him. I would and I'm not saying that this player is Bernie Kozar even but he does have experience starting in the league. I would keep an eye on what's going on in Miami. If the Dolphins really are trading interested in trading for Deshaun Watson, Okay. If they acquire Deshaun Watson, then they've got Watson, tuah and Jacoby Brussette okay. And so I would keep an eye on Jacoby Brussette as a perhaps and I'm not and I don't think you'd have to give up much. Okay.

Then you have a veteran guy who can be and and you get him here at midseason and he's learning the offense as you go along. Here, someone like that one. That situation just popped a mind for me because of the rumors out there that the Dolphins are interested in that there could be something in the works, and they've got two of their already. Obviously Brissette's not their guy going forward or anything that he might be available. Does he fit into this offensive scheme? I don't. I haven't

watched him enough. Yeah. Yeah, but but I'm just looking at but he has some experience, a veteran guy, and I just throw him throwing it out there. Why don't the Bears just do the cowboys of the There is some product knowledge too the other side of the ball. But you know, he started his college career at Florida and wound up at North Carolina State and Dan Quinn Quinn was was the defensive coordinator there when Brissette was

at Florida. But anyway, I just throw that out or go around, just as a project for anyone out there, go look at rosters. And I haven't just done the drill yet. That's just the first one that popped a mind for me. Go look at rosters and see if there's a veteran quarterback on another team that you would like to have in case of a need. Here Andy Dalton and well, there you go, there's another one the Bears just saying we're done. You're not, You're not taking

on that contract. Unfortunately it's guaranteed. Yeah, yeah, you're not. You don't. And I haven't looked at Brissette's contract, but I assume it's not that bad, or at least if they if they cut them, I mean, if I'm trading, I'm not trading for anything more than a sixth round pick. But it's just an idea. It's what NFL front offices have to go through right now. Just that that's the thinking that's going on, not only here but for the Rams.

I mean in any team that is starting to season five and one right now, they got to be looking at that if if they because most teams don't have a high quality backup to begin with, not saying Brissette is even a high quality, but you know, at least he's played games. I mean, like when I ask you questions I don't know the answer to, like who's the backup in Green Bay? Well, their first round draft pick, right, who hasn't played a leg? Right, who's the backup now?

But you would think that they feel good enough about him that if Rogers went down, It's loved game and in Arizona they signed McCoy. McCoy right, and that's the kind of guy you would be looking at. The Chargers have Chase Daniel right, Okay, uh, who are the Rams even have? It's us, It's on the tip of my tongue. It's nobody of note. All right, I've got it right here.

It is doctor or not nobody of note. John Wolford, Yes, who actually got into the game the other day because they played the Jets anyway in the backup and so they might be interested. Tampa Bay. Is is it Glint? Not Quint Glennon. We're back with more mixed shots. We're doing our research. Bill just a second, but more that. Smoothie King. We are blending goodness to fuel your grayness. Every blend is crafted to help you achieve your health and fitness goals. Sweetie King uses only whole fruits and

organic veggies. You'll never find sugary syrups or artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, and unlike some other smoothie places, there are zero grams of added sugar and many of our blends. Smoothie King is proud to be the official smoothie of the Dallas Cowboys. Place your order in the app or online for pickup or delivery. Smoothie King rule the day. Hey Cowboys Fans, ready to spice up your next watch party? Bring Yokierro guacamole and be the game day hero. The

yokiro means I want and we know you. Great fresh tasting, ready to serve guacamole for your home gating and tailgating events. Made with real avocados on the perfect lend of spices. It will be the star of any party. You can find us at your local Albertson's or tom Thumb in the Delhi section. If you can't find it, talk to your store manager and tell them Yo kiaro, Yo Kiero Guacomole. The Cowboys Way, where sixteen Hall of Famers and five

championships shows us what success looks like. Where Turkey is always the second best part of Thanksgiving Day, Where we are all defined by one single thing, the star, Where we as fans know it's our job to keep the tradition going. Bank of America is proud to be the official bank of the Dallas Cowboys and to support the quest of living life. The Cowboys Way copyright twenty twenty

Bank of America Corporation. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison. Will you not at agin turf before you can park yourself in front of the game, Park yourself in a John dear and power through your chores. Our land Run package is a ten twenty twenty five horsepower tractor with a loader, rotary cutter and a box blade for two twenty nine a month. And the price you see is the price you'll pay. No surprises, so don't miss another kickoff. Visit United agginturf dot com. Offer ins February first, twenty twenty one.

Restrictions apply he see dealer for details. Now let's get to work. Back back to mixed shots. Be the first to receive new offers, event info and more. When you sign up to receive text messages from the team, text Cowboys to NFL d AL. That's six three five three two five to receive ten percent off your next pro shop order. Message frequency may vary, Message and data rates

may apply. And Blaine Gabbert is the backup quarterback at Champa Bay And how a Missouri grad does not know that off the tip of your tongue is beyond me lost track, that's on you lost tract of them all, Right, what else do you have on that legal pad there? Oh, this is old stuff from last week when I was we were talking about the I wrote about it on Friday on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. The unexpected's the guys that came up and had to fill in and probably

did stuff we didn't expect. Guys like who tops your list there, jay Ron Curse yep. I thought when he came here he was no more than a special teams guy and hadn't started that many, which is pretty much what he was throughout his career career, although when he was with Detroit he ended up starting seven eleven games, right, Tuh Cedric Wilson, We've never got to see him this much in a prominent role as the third wide receiver. Terrence Steele would probably be near the top of the list, right.

I don't think we gave him a fighting chance after what we saw last week, I mean last year and then not Trayvon Diggs playing well, but Trayvon Diggs with seven interception this level six games is totally unexpected. And you know, and I and I ruled out Dak coming back. I think we thought he was good to go. I think we thought Zeke was a different guy. Gregory, I think we expected it. Parsons, I expected it. I was, you know, I was all over him, you know, being

the guy they drafted. So what he's done so far, I don't think it's been unexpected. And you know, in the way the wide receivers are playing, I don't think that was unexpected. So yeah, the fact that those four guys that I mentioned have played at the level they have, I think has been quite remarkable and continues to add to their depth going forward. Curses and we talked about it one of our shows last way the surprise player during the first six weeks of the season, and Curse

was my number one guy on the list. Yeah, just what he has done. I mean for him to basically lead the team in snaps and what second end tackles and so forth. But it's an eye for the potential of a guy, right, you know, especially when he's in this fifth year, fifth sixth year in the league. He

came in, he mentioned it. He was one of the guys that did the interviews today and he said, you know, he and Anthony Brown came in at the same time and they're you know, kind of buds and talk, and he talked about playing the big nickel and he mentioned that when he was in college, the coaches wanted to move him the linebacker and he didn't want any part of it. You know, he didn't he didn't think he needed to be taken on the three and twenty pound

offensive lineman and he wanted to stay at safety. And then he said that probably in Detroit they started using him a little bit more in this big nickel situation.

And it's kind of a new the NFL coaches have created a new spot to help with think of who is the coach, Who is the coach with the Lions last year Matt Patricia, Matt Patricia from the Patriots, right, And it's the same thing the Patriot whatever since talked about with Belichick going back to his days with Belichick as Super Bowl against Buffalo with six dbs on the field and that was thirty years ago. And where we've seen it with the Patriots and this and we've seen

other teams. You know, Todd Bowles has done it with starting with this time with the Cardinals where you know they had a first round draft pick who is a safety out of Washington, Dion Buchanan who they drafted him with an eye that he's a big linebacker or a smaller linebacker, a guy with speed. And there have been other Clemson big Clemson safeties like Isaiah Simmons who's now with the Cardinals, who was a linebacker in the NFL.

But more and more teams now over the last several years have gone to that where it has created a whole another niche for Jayron Curse type players and maybe range safeties who can tackle and play down in the box. And maybe this big nickel thing will have a rebound effect to the first guy we saw it doing it here was Darren Woodson, and didn't call it a big nickel right because back then it was a dime and and basically they would put an extra corner or in

the each slot. But then when he got here, it was like, oh, we're going to move our safety up there because not only can he cover, he can play the run like a linebacker, which he kind of was at Arizona State, a highbred linebacker. Right now, he was the ultimate right, he can cover Jerry Rice in the slot, right, I mean, we're talking about a guy with you know whatever. He had four three speed, right, And and that's if you've got a safety with that kind of speed. Now,

Curse does not have that kind of speed. He has the size to kind of deal with the tight ends tight ends, and Kean O'Neil is the same type, right. And Joe Witz said that last week about Curse. You know, he can come in and eliminate the tight end just because of his size and his ability to cover. But yeah, I think that. You know, and there's another guy you signed him to a one year proven deal. Well he's

kind of proving it. You know, you got any chance to keep him or is he you know he gonna be on you know, in all those safeties, they're all in the same boat basically. You know. It also gets back to the scouting department and the coaches working hand

in hand with each other. Okay, the scouting department does a great job, led by Will McClay, of knowing what's available out there and having the resources to know even on a guy who's in a sixth year in the league, and how and keep an open minded about the possibilities for a guy like jay Ron Curse coming in here. But it's also I think what gets lost a lot is the communication abilities of a coach like a defensive

coordinator like Dan Quinn. He's got a great ability to communicate exactly what he wants to a scouting department and they can then go, so, okay, here's a handful of guys who do you like? You know? And it just speaks to coaching staff and front office staff work in hand in hand and being on the same page. And I think I think I've heard this a couple of times from Mike McCarthy, the relationship he has developed with

Will McClay, they're pretty tight. And so when you got a head coach, you know, in your kind of personnel guy, day to day personnel guy, with a good relationship, then yeah, communication, what minds are open, and it's that relationship built on it's trust and Will McClay and the scouting staff, they've got a track record of success here, whether it's the

college draft or in free agency. Yeah, last year they missed on guys in free agency, but that's because they went with the veteran guys who were injury prone, overdone in the case of Don Terry Poe two two t oo veterans right two old right, right, Yeah, And you got to be careful. And that's why one of the things that people bring up to me, do you want to bring this guy in or that guy? I said, you cannot keep getting older. You know. It was the

same thing with with Sherman when he cornerback. You know, it's like, do you want to keep getting older? And sure enough he gets hurt. But they even though there was a reason that Kaz and Neil were available because they had injury in their past, they were still in the sweet spot of their careers if they are back from their injuries, and Neil had already proven that he was back last year Atlanta. Yeah, and they were not thirty years old. They were in their midst That's what

I mean. They were right in their second started their second contract, and as it turned out, because of the injuries, they wasn't a high dollar contracts for either one. Yeah, no, absolutely. So, Yeah, they've done a nice job, and Curse has been a big part of what they've done. Defensively. Now they're not out of the woods defensively, they still got to play better. They still got to eliminate the big plays that they've been giving up. You know, And I don't remember if

I mentioned this last year. But what stood out to me when I looked up the yards receiving that we look at this Cowboy offense throwing the ball awfully well. Right, I think they were ended up being number well, there was a number one offense, number two rushing offense. I think they were three four in the passing game, so

they're pretty good. Right. Opponents have passed for thirty two more yards on the Cowboys than the Cowboys have passed on the opponents, which is shocking, right, So that tells you that Jalen hurts. I mean, some of that can be Now I agree with you right that it needs to be short up, but some of that can be misleading on the passing yards because teams are playing from so far behind that they're throwing on every down right in the second half of game, but they're still giving

up too many big plays. You know, they've given up twenty seven pass plays of twenty yards or more. And of those twenty seven plays, the average per play is thirty one yards. And you just you can't exist like that. You've got to do a better job. Dan Quinn talked about it, Joe Witt talked about it, that they've got to tighten up. And the thing that Joe Whitt was pointing out was the fact that, you know, the first game against Tampa Bay, he said, we had three missed assignments.

But lately it hasn't been missed assignments. It's been missed tackles. Like they're throwing a twelve fifteen yard pass, it's turning in the thirty. Got a tackle better, even if the guy catches the ball. And he said that would be something that they work on leading up to this Minnesota game. And we know Kirk Cousins wants to get the ball down the field. Yes, he's not always wanted to. He's not. He's not he's not playing uh horizontally right, that's right,

he wants to go down the field. All right. I think that does it for this edition of mix Shots. I figured we had at least five minutes left. Well, uh, well, here's something that I want you to come back tomorrow. Not another homework, No, it's it's just you have to ward off over confidence. Mickey ward off over pretty good at that. Don't be looking at the standings right all right? And just remember seating in this playoff system is going to be very important. Yeah, how has the postseason changed

this year. Well, I think there's only one bye one bye, yeah, and that's going to be played for right to the last week I've met, or the second to the last week, or at least I guess exactly. You got something to do about it, right, That's a long way down the road, all right, But a short time down the road is the next edition of Mixed Shots, which will be Tuesday at one thirty, and we will see you then. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.