Mick Shots: Camp According To Mick & Bill

get Mickey's perspective on what he's seen through. What is nearly a full week out here in Oxtar? Does it feel like nearly a full week? Yet? It's officially a week today the end of today, it'll be on the seventh day they rest there you go, I like that, and uh yeah, it's it's been interesting. I didn't get out, I didn't come out until Friday, and so I feel like but it's been the busiest three days of my

year so far. Right, I mean, there is with this schedule that they have here where they're working out in the morning rather than in the in the evening. As far as from a TV standpoint on CBS eleven, we work until late as well. I have someone who wanted to do a podcast in another part of the country. I said, I gotta get my bearings. I gotta figure this thing out first, because we're going from sun up

to past sundown. Right. No, absolutely, and especially you know, um, if I get up early and I started doing my morning radio reports on FAN, that's eight thirty here, but ten thirty back home. And then but we're not complaining. No, And and by the way, if you want to find something to complain, it's sixty seven degrees right now. I put my sweatshirt on because when I walked back to my room, the wind was blowing, and I said, you know, it's a little colder than I thought. And of all things,

it says rain starting in two minutes. There were some sprinkles on me as I came from my hotel. Now, I did this probably fifteen years ago, and I did it in a sing song, like I thought, it never rains in southern California, And my interns looked at me like I was cross eyed, like well, what is he talking about? Right? And that's I reminded myself of how old, you're going to do that. No, I'm not sing song anyway, but I thought it never rained in southern California. Just

sprinkles a little bit anyway. All right, So what are your impressions? Just to get us started here, as the team has the day off today, right, and they'll be back for three straight practices Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Put on the pads for the first time on Wednesday, And I'm glad Bill pointed that out because I think we needed to put a disclaimer out there on everything we say, because everybody wants to know, what did you see, how's

this guy doing, how's that guy doing? You know, it's no more than a mini camp practice or an OTA practice, helmet, jersey shorts, minimal contact, so it's really hard to judge, especially the offensive lineman. I think the easiest thing to look at is the skill guys, the quarterbacks, the wide receivers, the cornerback, safety's, linebackers, some in pass coverage. But as for somebody said, well, is Michael Parsons ever gonna beat

Leal Cownds in a pass rush? And it's like, all right, I mean Tyrann Smith, let's wait to the pads come on before we start judging things. So I think the probably the highlight of this first What did they have four practices now? Is that right? Three practices Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Thursday, Saturday Sunday. Right. Uh, Well, you know what, some people can consider the conditioning test the practice because they didn't running, and there there was that was why there's a day

off now. But Dak is moving awfully well. And I thought these last two practices, uh, he was. He was really good. He was good, uh throwing the ball, throwing the ball on the run. Uh, being able to move uh like he you know, they did one of the scramble drills in team or seven on seven and um, he had no problems moving whatsoever. So I think they're out of the they're in the clear there with him. And you were there when Jerry talked yes with the scribes. After yes, he did the car wash with the TV

people yesterday. Jerry said that was probably the best practice he had seen of Dak since he's been with the Cowboys. And he was saying a lot and and I thought both Saturdays, Saturday, that was Saturdays, And I thought Sundays was every bit uh as good. And you know what people need to understand, Bill. And by the way, it is raining. Wow, it is Look at that not not hard, not like we get in Texas or anything, but it's a nice So you're saying fifteen years ago you did

see rain out here. I did. I think it was two thousand. It was two thousand and four, two thousand and five. One day kind of got delayed because it rains. I would have been out here then. In fact, now you talk about reminiscing, Uh, those were the good old days, uh in two thousand and four or old five. Remember when we interviewed Kevin Costner out here, Yes, yes, on the set. Yeah, And that was the old the old

days of the Cowboys Channel. And we were filling a whole lot of time for the Cowboys Channel back then. And we did a fifteen minute interview with kes like Bill was sitting there, I was sitting there and Kevin Costner in the middle of course, with the with the practice field in the background. Yes, yeah, where we're not in a tent or on like a TV set. Then yeah, absolutely. But Dak just you know you can you can throw

the football. You never forget how to do that, right, And and his mobility is fine, but then it's another thing of getting acclimated to see in the field, like seeing all if you've ever played quarterback, and I haven't, right really, or maybe in a pickup game when they needed somebody. You know, there's a lot of muck out there, right, and there's a lot going on, and you got to get used to sorting through when the play breaks down.

That's why I think the scramble drill that they do is invaluable, because I don't know what the percentage of plays that you call in the huddle actually come off the way you designed him right there, you gotta add lip sometimes and and he was doing that fine. He was throwing the ball fine, he was hitting guys on

the run when the play broke down. So I think that probably was the highlight of the first week of training camp, along with just the fact that guys like Tyrant Smith, Leale Collins, Zach Martin, Blake Jarwin or back out there with the offense. And as Dak said that one day, it's like the bands all back together again, and it certainly looked that way. And that's what this Cowboy team needs from this offense if they're going to succeed this year. All right, let's get into some of

the news of the last couple of days. Anyway, give us, give us a status report on the potential signing of Malik Hooker, who, of course Mike McCarthy basically confirmed during his press conference yesterday that he is out here and yet he's going through the COVID protocols. Yes, and he has not worked out for him yet. And remember I think it was September twentieth, it was September twentieth he ruptured his achilles, and Demonte Casey ruptured his achilles October fourth,

two weeks after, and Casey's back out here. But when they brought in Hooker got all achilles injuries are yes, they are not, especially when your age is a little bit different too. But I'm glad to say that's as is talking about his own experience. I'm glad to say I'm running now and actually played tennis a couple of weeks ago, sou. But when they brought Hooker in in the spring for the kind of a workout, my understanding

was he wasn't he wasn't ready physically. Uh, And you remember he laughed and they didn't sign him and then you know they had already signed Kazy and Keane O'Neil, so, uh, he hasn't worked out for him yet because when he got here, COVID nineteen protocol mandated that he quarantined for five days. And my understanding is he's here, he's in his room, but he can't go anywhere. He's got a

he's sequestered in his room. So I think the five days are up tomorrow and that would be vaccinated or unvaccinated, and so they can work him out. So they had while they planned on signing them. They still need to work him out and make sure the the achilles is healed and he's physically ready to go. And I would imagine they clear. They probably have seen video of him, and they've got a pretty right idea, and I would imagine that they've already kind of worked out the contract.

But it's what is it July twenty six today, and you don't have a job. Your bargaining poler ain't real high, right, especially with other teams getting ready to go to camp and probably have their ninety man roster set. So so you'll be interesting to see in my understanding on why it wasn't any reflection on what they scene from the safety so far, it's just trying to bring in the best talent that would be available at safety and let them sort it out. And he's likely to be a

pup guy to start anyway. Yeah, there's a good chance of that. And you and you, you would have until you got to set your fifty three man roster to either activate him off pup or you can leave him on pup and get six a minimum of six weeks into the season. And that's why some of the guys they put on POP early, they just it's an insurance

policy against them being ready. Well, and that's the other thing is with an Now we've got a seventeen game regular season, right, okay, a guy coming off an injury like that, keep him on pup and he's he's a guy that even if it's not till mid season before he is or the second half of the season before he can contribute, it's going to be a veteran minimum deal. Yes, And so that's not much to pay for insurance and you might hit on something. Yeah, No, absolutely, And I

have no idea where he is physically. He may be able to go out there right now and be just like Casey running around like crazy right now, right, And that's his nickname, Crazy Casey. Right when when I first heard him say it, I thought he said crazy Cajun. And then I was like, well, no, he's not from New Orleans or Louisiana or anything. And then I looked at where he was from, and he was from Kajoun, California. Ka Still j Yeah, and uh, there's Jerry walking by

right now. He's going to do the Cairo Wash with the radio stations that are here too. And we'll get into Bill's interview with Jerry here in a moment. But one of the guys that Bill gave you an example of being on pup is Tristan Hill. Like he's out there, he's working hard, but they know that they've got a little bit of a log jam at that defensive tackle position,

so they're not going to rush him. And if they give him another six weeks when the season starts to continue rehabing his acl, then they won't have a problem with that, knowing that at some point somebody on the roster is gonna get hurt and they're gonna open up a spot and they could bring him back. So they kind of got him in their hip pocket right now. And I thought the best thing coming out of Bike

McCarthy's press conference yesterday was what he said about Neville Gallimore. Yes, because they he's been working with the first team and they're expecting. It's one thing for us to sit here and say, oh, yeah, he looks all right up there. But when the coach gets overboard and praise of how much stronger he is, and they've gave got some high hulks for Gallimore. And by the way Bill would mentioning Gallimore.

You know how the Cowboys do their offseason awards for how hard guys work there, how much they increase some of their stats, the things that they judge. He was one of the guys on defense that got the award, So that gives you an idea of how hard he

was working in the off season. And talking to Harold Nash for a game day story in the preseason, he was talking about Gallimore basically came to him and said, hey, I need to get better at this, this and this, and he said that's always good when you see a player do that. You can have the physical talents, but you've got to improve strength, your weight, all those things. And he was really high on Neville Gallimore and how

complicity was with working hard in the offseason. You know, he's one of those guys that when you look at his history. Of course, he's from Canada and he's a late bloomer type as far as football goes. And so I'm sure when the Cowboys drafted him in the third round, they were looking at upside with him as much as anything.

And so that's that's exciting to hear that he's got that kind of work ethic and the want to to be as good as he can be and not and not to nothing against Oklahoma on how they played him, but his natural position I think is a three technique on a four man line and just to use his speed his quickness there more than being a defensive end in a three man line, which is what they were running.

They were running before Alex Grinch got there, and so that would have been I remember if he played for Grinches let he wouldn't have it, so he would have been in that yeah, you know, three man front. Which so getting back to Tristan Hill, he's I watched his workout yesterday. He is moving just fine. And the other guy that was working out with him at the same time was DeMarcus Lawrence. And I know Jerry when he was asked about Lawrence and Amari Cooper, he said probably

after Arizona. Well for Lawrence that that's a team decision because he could go out there in practice right now. But you know this first week, as we talked about, it's a mini camp practice. They don't need Lawrence out there. He he better serves himself rehabbing at this point from the yeah, and the same with Cooper exactly and he and yesterday I finally saw Cooper out there on the chords with Britt Brown. Uh, DeMarcus Lawrence his workout yesterday.

I guarn darned tea that it was harder than any practice guys went through yesterday because he was doing all the little rehab stuff and had the chords on and he's running hard. And uh Britt Brown uh is very optimistic about when he'll be ready sooner than later. So that all the PUP people you want to talk about, well, let's see, um the other guys on PUP. Uh, you know, the guys with the hamstring like Gholston. We got to

see on that one. But the guys that um that they they put on there that they were recovering from injury or whatever. I think they feel like they would be ready uh to go uh whenever, whenever needed. They just didn't want to push him. Off the top of my head. I was trying to, um, remember the guys that ended up on pop Let's see if I got my and they're a list here and all of them they're they're not concerned. They're just easing them in, right

and trying to be judicious about it. Yeah, and it's not like, oh no, this guy's not gonna be ready. He's not gonna be ready to go, but that they feel good about um, about everybody. UM, like I mentioned Gholston, will see Lawrence. I think they feel really good about um. And then uh, Greg Zerline had back surgery. It's an acl I saw him out there. He was rehabbing on the chords and usually when you when you get to the chords, then you're you're you're getting a lot closer. Uh.

We mentioned Cooper had the foot surgery. Uh, and Mitch Hyatt uh, who I thought was probably further off. They've got hopes that he'll be ready to go at some point in training camp and they haven't given up on him. The poor guy. You know, he was in the off season, and some guys have it's their rehab is different for an ACL than everybody else's, So I think those are the guys. And then uh t J. Vassar was on Texas. Yeah,

he was on non football injury. So we'll see where that one goes, all right, And they signed a cornerback yesterday too. They did U Kyran Brown cornerback. Uh. He was a signed by the Jets as a rookie free agent in twenty nineteen and he only played in three games uh that year, and then last year he spent the whole year on pup with a quad a quad injury. So you know, they had an open spot and they just uh wanted to fill it. Got a lot of activity going on here with a little bit of rain on.

We're on Radio Row, which is located right next to where Mike McCarthy has his press conferences here on the tennis courts overlooking the River Ridge playing fields here in Oxnard. And I don't think anyone really anticipated rain drops at all, but there there are tarps here, yes, And so they're they've they're mobilizing yes, the other radio stations are putting the tarps up to make sure. And it's not like the rain is coming anywhere near inside the tent. Good,

we're in a tent. We're expecting a torrential downpour at a matter of moments, I guess. And it's a fine rain euipment they're yeah, I know they're not covering us up now. They wouldn't worry about us, right, And since Chris Beam is doing that, I don't know if we are in position to take a break. Yes, we are. And then when we come back here on mix Shots, let's get into the car wash. Yes, Gerry Jones and the car wash, which he's doing with the radio cruise now.

But we did it with the TV guys last night. We'll talk about that when Mick Shots continues. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with you United Aggin 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 five R twenty five horsepower tractor with a loader, rotary cutter and a box

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Bank of America Corporation. Back back to mixed Shots. All right, we're back here on mixed Shots. What a day it has already been, as the Big twelve is blown up today, especially Oklahoma and Texas gave their notice and my phone is blowing up because of that. And you know, Vicky, it's I got here Friday, on Saturday and Sunday. I'm telling you it's fourteen hour days out here, you know. And with this new schedule, with with the with the team practicing in the morning day and Saturday with the

opening ceremonies at ten so noon Dallas time. It had to be out here an hour early for that because there's a crowd too. I mean I got here eight thirty or so. So I just grabbed I went by a seven to eleven and I grabbed a bear claw. A bear claws I have never had, have you ever seen I've never even heard of them. I don't know I had neither until I've picked it up, and I love them. It looks good. I've been living off bear

claws here the last couple. That's your breakfast. You cannot it's it is a to the we we park now you you're staying on campus. Yeah, but we got to walk all the way around though. We park three hundred yards away. Yeah, okay, in the parking lot. And with the fans here and everything, there was a full house on Saturday. There's you could not even think about leaving here and then to come back going to get lunch

or something like that. And so I lived off two bear claws that day, and I did the same thing yesterday. And uh, anyway, Breakfast of champions, that's it right there, and water and bear claws is what I'm living on. So it's rating harder by the way. Now, thing they did with their with they put up the tarp to

protect the equipment that was next to the fence here. Uh, Jerry did the car wash yesterday, and my understanding what you guys were supposed to only have six minutes minutes and I saw the clock like standing up there like this the whole time. So how did he go with you?

And Jerry? Well, we were told in advance we get six minutes each, and it was Mike Doucey Channel four went first, Louis Scruggs Channel five went second, myself, CBS eleven went third, and then Greg Simmons with k Satin San Antonio was fourth, and then they saved the big Cohuna Dale Hanson for fifth. I figured there's no way that there's a six minute time limit when Dale Hanson

and there was his last interview with Jerry. Of course, Dale's retiring in September second, So Doucy Stoptember September second. All right, Doucy starts and I'm seeing David A. Brusie give him time cues and he is ignoring every single time I guarantee you do. He got hung up and

I could just barely hear from a distance. You know, Troy k Mos out here yesterday, and so we weren't able to get Troy ourselves because the way they're doing the interviews after the practice is each station is set up at a post and they bring a player over. What Connor Williams was the last player, and that my CBS eleven photographer Bill Ellis. He was tied up at the far end of the practice field having to get Connor Williams. And then we distribute the interviews to all

the stations have all the interviews. So anyway, then Troy's doing an interviewer. So Doocy asked Troy about being a GM and you know, being up in the tower with Jerry and stuff, and so I'm from a distance, I'm hearing him ask all these questions about Troy being a GEM, and I can't hear anything Jerry's saying. J's faced the other way, and so I'm going So that is why Doucy went well beyond six minutes on his because he was just trying. He was trying to get that sound

bite from Jerry that he can tweet. I talked to Doocy afterwards, right, Yeah, he's trying to get that sound bite that he can tweet out, you know, and it goes viral that. Yeah, there's a chance that Troy would be the GiB of this steam and he never he never got him to say it. Yeah right, and not gonna happen. Yeah, so uh so anyway, so I probably went about nine minutes with him something like that, and

I went past the stop sign. Also, Uh, he's great talking, you know, he just as you know, he just absolutely loves training camp, you know, and he and you saw it in his opening press conference, the emotion that he had when he gets sentimental about the past years here and so forth. Um, you know, he actually with me he talked to it's the same kind of feelings that he had. I mean, that's how much it means to

him when his granddaughter got married on Saturday on Saturday. Yeah, and uh, you know it means so much to him, and um, you know, and WHENI gets criticized for the twenty five years without a Super Bowl, that's when it the emotions, you know, get going both ways on right

you know. Yeah, So, uh, it's it's great talking to him, and I wish that we had we knew in advance we've got ten minutes with him, because then you don't because as a as an interviewer, when you're you know that Jerry goes along with his answers to begin with okay, and so you have to parse it down to your questions to there are certain topics and so I think

all of us are the same. There's five or six questions that we have, but you don't really know that you have time to follow up with the exactly know, when he says something about his granddaughter getting married, you would like and then even more emotion would come out to be able to follow up, But you got four more questions you need to ask, you know. So that's

that's one of them. And it's hard to it's hard to cut him off too, by the way to you know, like interrupt or not interrupt, but you know when it's kind of you go, but you can't see on live TV, and the since these were taped right now live TV, you would be more prone to cut him off because you know the clock's running yeay, yeah, and you gotta you gotta get it done in six if there's a shot clock on you right so you were watching. Uh. Uh, I watched the interview with Dale, Okay, I want to

hear that. And and Dale had all these props ready to go, and uh, he wanted to bring up Switzer and you know ninety four. And as a matter of fact, they were doing Dale's you know, top twenty moments with the Cowboy or just hit in his history and number six was the interview with Barry Switzer and ninety four at training camp. Uh. We were still in Austin at at the at the college there. And as matter of fact, I remember it explicitly because I was sitting on the

ground underneath their camera too. I wanted to monitor what was going to go on. Right, Well, we knew in advance the fireworks and I and I when I warre and Dale remembered it when he did the deal for number six that I warmed him that Switzer's coming after you,

and he mentioned it. And the reason that we knew in advance that there would be sparks flying was because Dale was on Norm Hitska's radio show right morning and made comments about the assistant coaches right that the assistant coaches were going to revolt, that they all wanted the head coaching job, and they weren't cooperating, which I don't know about how far that went, but anyway, and so Switzer, Switzer got all excited and he started punching Dale in

the arm like yeah, you know you gotta do this, and yeah, you know you say that and then and then Switzer and Dale never never said it, never reported it, but Switzer got on this thing that he heard that Dale reported that Tony Casillas had a brain tumor, and that got Dale mad because he did not do that.

And then Switzer just started punching him harder and finally, finally, uh, Dale goes, hey, that's starting to hurt a little bit, right, And and they continued for a while, and they they blew by their break, right, and at some point Larry Lacewall was there kind of next to me and Larry it didn't get on the air, but Larry finally said, guys, guys, that's enough, just like that, right, And so Dale, when they were talking about it, Dale brought out a pillow

and put it on his shoulder so Jerry could poke him like that. When they were talking about it again, I was wondering how he's going to work. Yeah, it was pretty It was pretty funny. And then he had something that this long scroll of paper and he started and roll it and started reading the things that you know,

he needed to Jerry needed to explain. And he got to about the second one and then Jerry ripped the paper and fickt or like he had something there, and he goes, well, let me read this about you now, right and uh And at the end, uh, they were they were basically, you know, telling each other how much they enjoyed each other's company and and and Dale wanted to Jerry to explicitly point out that he quit. He didn't get fired from the radio show, but he was

gonna get fired by Ron Chapman. And they told Jerry told that story, and he said, so I helped Chapman out, you know, I got got rid of you. And he goes, no, I quit before you got rid of me. And it was pretty funny. So I worked Hanson into my interview with Jerry too, Did you really? I said, A normal retirement age for a lot of people, sixty five. I hear, there's a sportscaster there's retiring at the age of seventy three.

But you're never retiring. Are you, And of course Jerry said that you know, when you don't work, you're not gonna you know, what do you what's sort of retire from when you're right, you know, basically saying when you love what you do and it doesn't feel like work to you. So after after he said that, I say, well, they're the sportscaster're retiring and working twenty five. That's a pretty good dig, right. So yeah, so and so he's he's in the booth next to us. Um, I think

he's with the is it is the ticket next? Yeah? I think so, Uh, he's doing them. What if he thinks this is whatever radio station riches there, referee and dark and he might have just thought he was supposed to talk to us and we got a we got another mic right there you go. If he walked in all right, But yeah, he does that every training camp and it's it's usually at night and they do it live. But because of all the protocols, they had to do it this way. Well, I was just pleased that we

were able to sit side by side. We were separated by about six feet whatever. But all the other one on one interviews that the TV stations are doing out here we're doing having to do it over the fence, right, which is just like all of the interviews are being done over the fence where you're separated by six feet or so. Yeah, and you know it's kind of working.

Just have to remain flexible. And look, we see what's happening right now out there with the variant, and so precautions, precautions, precautions. And Frank Reich, the Indianapolis coach, sat a head coach, tested positive. He's fully vaccinated, and so they're just getting started with their camp and so he has to have two negative tests over a seventy two hour period in order to be able to be back with the team. Now, how do you think he contracted COVID nineteen if he's vaccinated,

somebody that's not vaccinated passed it on to him. Okay, yeah, don't get me started. And that's why all of us in the media have to be fully vaccinated before we can get entrance here. Well, I saw that the NFL came out and it was maybe a month ago. It basically said if the media member wasn't vaccinated, they weren't allowing to the press box to cover the game. Well, and I saw a report yesterday that they're requiring it,

that it hasn't been announced yet. The edict hasn't come down yet, but for network broadcasters, they can't go into the network booth unless they're fully vaccinated. Yeah, yeah, so that's coming down. You know. I thought it was interesting and a lot of times when these guys are doing the interviews here, they're they're being asked if they're vaccinated. Some guys, you know, kind of beat around the bush.

They won't say. Michael Gallup was asked it yesterday and he just came right out and said, yeah, I'm vaccinated. And they were asking them all a lot of people are a little worried. You know, what was your incentive to get vaccinated? He said, you know, after games, I like to be able to hang with my family and friends. And he goes to me, that was incentive enough for me to get vaccinated, and what it didn't mention why I wanted to be safe or whatever it was. The

protocols out there for unvaccinated players should be. It seems enough for guys to go, I'm going to get vaccinated, right because the guys around here that aren't vaccinated, they got masks on all the time, and they're not supposed to eat in the cafeteria. No. Now, I will say this, I understand, and Mike McCarthy's kind of talked about a

little bit. I understand. I don't know if hesitancy is the right word now, but there are Everyone has their own situations in fact, and I'll just go ahead and say with me, I had COVID in February, and I was told by my doctor to wait to get vaccinated for three months, which took me to June, okay, And then I decided myself, I want to get a physical, okay, because I was due because I didn't get physical last year.

I wanted to make sure everything's good, you know. And so it was it was first of July before I was able to get vaccinated, and so I got the Johnson and Johnson because it was a one shot and then to go right. And so that's why I went with the Jay and Jay was so I would be fully vaccinated. And I got an antibodi's test at the time of my physical, and my antibody's test shows that they didn't explain what the number meant, but it was I have a lot of antibodies. Oh well, good, yeah,

so you're doubly right. And that's what And a doctor friend of mine who who's actually on a board advising corporations around the country about it, that he was encouraging me, Yes, you need to get vaccinated. Okay, great, I'm I'm all for it. Whatever. He told me, wait three months and then get the J and J and U. And so there could be players like these players who are who

got vaccinated late. You know, they're maybe checking out, they're making sure that they get the right advice and Jerry and Jerry pointed out that they had a lot of guys in what he called the pipeline where maybe they were got the first one, they're waiting for the second one, or maybe they got the second one but waiting for the two week period. Afterwards, Michael Parson said that he is in that. Yeah, I think he's fully vaccinated as

up tomorrow. And so so my physician friend told me, as old as you are, you better get it as soon as you can and try it. And I would have back in February or whenever my age came up, you know, and I was able to, but I had it. Unfortunately I didn't have it badly. I felt it for three weeks and I was able to work from home, you know, and didn't miss a day at work. And for the people in the traveling party with the Cowboys that were on the charter, we all had to go

get tested before we came out here. Well yeah, and all of the media members hadn't have a negative test before. Yeah, and you know what, the results didn't say negative, It said not detected. I wanted to hear something more affirmative, right, not detected That that kind of leaves wiggle room for a while. We didn't find anything, but maybe you know so anyway, all right, that's our COVID nineteen talk from today.

That's enough COVID talk, and we've got much more to talk about with this Cowboys team when mix shots continues in just a moment, Honey, big news, Gary, are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore. I'm 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 changed my name to Jackie Flash. Okay, but the best smartphone deals at AT AT ANDCRE for everyone new and

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Restrictions applying see dealer for details. Now let's get to work. Back back to mick Shots. Welcome back to Mix Shots, Bill Chilves with Mickey Spagnola, our final segment. We're gonna take it another nineteen minutes or so. Here and by the way, we told the story about I think it was two thousand and five when Kevin Costner was a visitor to Cowboys training camp and we had him on one of our TV shows on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Back on the Old Cowboys Channel, before the NFL network started.

And Jake ben Waugh, who is an avid listener to all of the podcasts here on Dallas Cowboys dot com. Uh, he found the video on YouTube of our interviews and he tweeted it at us. He is, Jake is at run Emmett Run on Twitter and he's got some seal shots of us interviewing Kevin Costner from sixteen years ago. So we got another tweet out and the Guide tweeted, it's better weather here in Scotland. Want to trade place? That's a good one. No, we're good. We're good. We're

good where we are, all right? Other impressions from the early days of camp. Let's start, how about Connor Williams, who got some work, who's been getting some work at center, you know when he came out of Texas. Of course he played left tackle at Texas and because of the short arms, was moving inside in the NFL. But there are a lot of people, there are at least some draft people experts quote unquote who thought that his best

position in the NFL might eventually be center. Yeah, and he said there was only when he got worked out before the draft. There was only a couple of teams that suggested that maybe he was a guard center. He said most of his workouts before the draft were tackle guard, but it always kind of came up, and you know, the last couple of years they kind of dabbled with it,

but not really hardly in the off season. Well this year, now, this is the first time I've actually seen him take like snaps in practice, and yesterday was a little more extensive as he was taking the second uh, the second team snaps at center. Uh the day before, he skied a shotgun snap over the quarterbacks. Say that didn't keep from playing. That's right by golly, because they had been using uh, Matt Forniak Uh, the Nebraska guy they drafted,

I think it was in the sixth round. Uh. He had played guard, he had played all the things, but he played a little bit of center there. So they decided instead of him working at guard, they would work him at center. But uh, you know, Connor said, basically, you know, you just make himself more useful. And so what they're looking for, and it's one of the spots on this team that you know, has to get decided. Who's the backup center. They're fine with Tyler Biadish as

the starting center. And and to me, and I've said this repeatedly, had he not gotten hurt last year, that center job would have been him his the rest of the way after he took over for Joe Looney who sprayed the knee. Uh so they need a backup and uh, you know the only other guy that they had been looking working as as a backup center? Um wash, where's

the guy's name? It was Jones, Braylon Jones, free agent and he at least played center last year, right because other than be Idish on the roster right now, no one played center in the NFL last year on the roster. Uh. So again, um, we'll see how where this goes. But he seems willing. Uh, they seem serious about it. But at some point, you know, if if they don't think that works out, and Farniac's not ready, you know, they're

gonna have to find somebody. So it appears that they view Connor Williams as a better uh backup center, even though he's starting at guard right now than Connor McGovern would be as Yes, that's the way it looks. And and and now here's the other thing with Connor McGovern. To me, if if if ty Niseki or Terrence Steele or Josh Ball don't show that they're good enough to be the swing tackle, the backup swing tackle that the Cowboys have struggled with for how many years, you think,

four or five? If something happens to one of those starters, Zach Martin goes out to tackle, Connor McGovern goes to guard, And I think that's got to be in their mind because I think if that's the case, Connor McGovern can play guard better than the backup can play tackle. And I think you have to make that move with Martin, and you don't mess around like they did last year.

You know, but because we hated to see what happened last year with the offensive line, but because of what happened with the offensive line, their depth is better on the offensive line now than it has been in all right, And as those guys got those snaps last and and and by the way, Terrence Deal was another guy that won one of the offseason workout awards, and and they're they're given him a chance on that backup job. Also, Brandon Knight, who started the other games at mostly at

left tackle, he's been working at guard. So they're hoping the struggles Steal with last year benefited him to the point where he's that much better. See, you can't have a first round pick at every spot on the offensive line and especially the backup. You've got to have some developmental guys. And if Steel can do better than he did last year, then it'll be interest. And that's what we haven't seen until the pads come on, and that's that you know, that build that first preseason game, the

Hall of Fame game. I think we're going to see a whole lot of these young guys playing because they've got the extra preseason game and those games are going to be important to guys like Steele and Josh Ball and who knows, maybe they tell Connor Williams, even though you're the starter, we're gonna give you some snaps at center. But to bury the lead. We just buried the lead on the offensive line. And the lead on the offensive line is that Tyron Smith and Lyle Collins look good,

look really good. As a matter of fact, I think there was maybe the day before Randy Gregory got got a pass rush on Tyrn yesterday, he didn't get past the line of scrimmage. Tyring. I think got serious and locked him up. But I'll tell you what about tyring that I saw after Saturday's practice. He and Micah Parsons stayed out afterwards, and he was giving them tips on rushing the quarterback good and showing him the things that

he's picked up on how he's stopped other guys. And one of the things he was showing them was Michael was trying to use this spin move to go inside and he was spinning before there was contact, and he was basically explaining to him, don't spin before you make contact because the tackles just sitting there waiting for you to come to him. Right, you got to hit him and then spin. And then he was showing him how to use his hands to get the hands off so

he can complete his spin. Okay, so now let's talk about Michael Parsons. I love him, and I told you I love him as a player. I also love him as a guy to talk to. I think he's going to be the best interview on the team. How about you love him as a chess player. Because there were twenty hard knocks people showing or taping Michael Parsons and Ben d Nucci playing chess. It was the whole crew. Well, they probably didn't have anything else to do, right, So

everybody was there but Parsons so far. Remember what I told. Somebody asked us, well, where's he going to play? And I said, on the field. They'll find a spot for him. Okay, So that's my question for you. All Right, the Marcus Lawrence is all right, knock on wood, he's gonna be ready to go. Right, What is the inventory of edge rushers that are going to be contributing during this regular

season for this team? Okay, we start with the Marcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory correct, and Michael Parsons is right in that mix. Well, Terrell Basham is playing one of the defensive ends. So here's what they're doing with him, Bill when they and how about this, They've got some formations that they've got three linebackers on the field at

the same time that we didn't see last year. Right, So when the three guys are out there, Jalen Smith's in the middle, Layton Vanderish is on the week side, Michael Parsons on the strong side, and when he's on the strong side, he's lining up on the line of scrimmage like head up with the tight end. So depending what the formation is, he's either running with the tight end or they're blitzing the strong side linebacker off the edge. He can get there quit and he's awfully, awfully good.

So they're gonna have to not just assume that he's covering the tight end and no matter how many wide receivers around the sit in other words, instead of the offense dictating, there you what the defense can do to try to defend them. This I think dan Quinn's putting a defense together because he says he talks about this defense is not the defense that they ran in Atlanta Rights. He's taken this personnel and he will be able to

dictate defensively what's gonna happen on it. He's gonna match up like I've got the personnel, and that's what he said. Somebody asked him, how are you gonna get all these guys on the field. He goes, well, we're gonna have different matchups. So that's one of them. Now at this point, since it's young, early in camp, when they go to second team nickel, then Michael Parsons the middle linebacker, and

somebody said, well, yeah, he rushed from the defensive tackle spot. Well, he was the middle linebacker in the gap like they've used Jalen Smith before. It right, and he rushed up the middle. But he the other day, I don't know if you were here yet or not, they were doing that scramble drill and he was one of the He might have been lined up in the slot as the strong side guy. I don't remember where he started, but

they scrambled and ceedee. Lamb was kind of dilly dowling at the line of scrimmage and then he takes off right and he goes deep and he was almost to the end zone and right behind him, step for step, was Michael Parsons, And I'm going, are you kidding me? There's number one against number one? And they were running step by step together. It was it was a thing

to see. So they've used him on the nickel in the middle, and then at times when they do the individual drills, instead of Michael working with the linebackers covering tight ends or running backs, he's over there with the defensive lineman working on his pass rush drills. So he's as versatile as anybody I've seen, and he kind of knows what he's doing too. By the way, right right, And that's that's where I'm so impressed with him. Even

you can see it in his interviews. Why I say that he's eventually going to be the best interview on the team. He gives thoughtful answers, he listens to your questions, and he's he's very real in his yeah, and in the way he responds to questions and stuff. Yeah. So so they're they're going to figure out how to get him on the field. It's interesting. Uh, with the exception

of Dak, you know, he's Dak is Dak. Okay, the rest of the team, I think my two favorite players on this team are as far as what their potential is are Michael Parsons in cd L. Yeah absolutely, And they were first round draft rights and you know, and CD should have been higher if people are going to find that out right, those two players give me more excitement about this team than anybody anybody else. And part of that is how young they are, you know, in

the in the futures all in front of them. And I don't I don't mean this disparagingly, well, maybe I do. The people that are like when they drafted Parsons at number twelve, well, you can't take a linebacker that high. You needed this, this or that. And it's like, you didn't just take a linebacker, you took one of those guys that comes along very not very off finger right. Yeah. And I remember one day it might have been us. I said something when somebody said, now, it wouldn't because

you guys wouldn't have said that. They said, take a linebacker. I said, he's not a linebacker. They go, but you can get a linebacker. Later, I said, what if he's Lawrence Taylor? Just like that? And they go, oh, you're gonna go that fire And I go, okay, I get it, But what if he is. I'm not saying that instantly, but boy, he's got some talent now and it's showed

out here Cede Lamb in his second year. And let's remember ced didn't have an off season last year, and he didn't have a preseason, and look what he did. Now he's got all this under his belt a second year doing the offseason workouts. Better watch out for him. And they're moving him around too, and you know it's it's like, let's take the honey badger Tyre Matthew. What position does he play? We don't know. Yeah right, I mean you'll list him on the depth chart maybe as

a safety all over the fields. It's like it's almost like Paula Mallo. I remember talking to Bill Parcels about him, and Parcels goes, yeah, you know, I don't know where he plays. He says, I don't know that he knows where he plays. He just out there making plays. And I think that's what you're gonna see with this guy. Right. Okay, so in our last five and it's what are you looking forward to this week? And especially as they put

on the pads on Wednesday? Yeah. Now, now when they put the pads on, I get a better idea of what's going on on the offensive line and defensive line, a much better idea when those guys can can use their pads. And then the other thing is, you know, wide receivers are really brave going over the middle when they know they're not getting hit. Right. Well, okay, let's see if you continue that, you know, or and will you hang onto the ball? Uh? Those are the things

that to me always stand out. Now from a physical standpoint, I got no problem with the three offensive linemen that are back with the Tyrant Smith Lelle Collins and Zach Martin. Those guys physically are ready to go. Blake Jarwin physically, he's running well, he's ready to go, you know. And and a guy that really showed up, maybe it was yesterday day before, Dalton Schultz. Yesterday we saw what he

did the year. You know, sixty three catches. They're not many tight ends not named Witten in Cowboy history that have had sixty three catches in a season. Uh. And then but a lot of that, a lot of that was dump off stuff, right. But what we were seeing yesterday with some downfield stuff right exactly and making nice catches too. So uh, yeah, be interesting to see if the younger wide receivers, you know, I think Noah Brown, uh, Cedric Wilson so far have had really nice camps. Um,

Johnny Dixon is interesting. Uh. And then yesterday, uh it was Malik Turner. I don't know much about Malik Turner, but he had a nice day two, number seventeen. So we'll see if that stuff continue. About the draft pick Hoko, Yes, and he's had a couple really nice catches too. So uh, here's here's the part. I think I'm looking forward to the most because I think defensively, there's gonna be a lot of competitions, not only for a starting job, just

to make the team. And I think when the pads come on, then we're going to see the competition increase. And that's the best part of training camp. And I know Mike McCarthy keeps talking about the competition, the competition, and I think when the pads come on that that we're going to see that. And it's mainly I mean, we can sit here, assuming they're hopefully there are no injuries, we could put We could pretty much tell you who's gonna make the team. On the offensive side of the ball,

oh absolutely, hey, but defense, it's all up in the era. Yeah, I think I think the only sure things DeMarcus Laurence starts at left defensive end, Randy Gregory starts at the right, Trayvon Diggs probably one of your starting corners. The other starting corner right now is Anthony Brown, but he better not have two bad days in a row before. Calvin Joseph. Yeah, and he starting to show up just a little bit, and they've actually moved him in the slot a little bit,

but mostly outside. Jordan Lewis has been in the slot. Maurice Kennedy has been in the slot, so yeah, we'll see how that works out. The safety position, let's go. You know, if they're looking at Malik Hooker, then they're saying okay, kind of like the other guys, but let's see what this guy can do. Donovan Wilson maybe because he started last year ten games, but I think defensively

it's gonna be competition. Offensively, the main competition would be for the backup swing tackle, backup center, and then backup quarterback. Oh yeah, yeah, and we can't tell you who's the backup quarterback here. I can't know. And then Cooper Rush didn't do himself any favor. He had back spasms on Saturday, he didn't practice, and any misspractice again yesterday. I'm told it's it's not that serious that he should be back soon.

So we'll see if he's soon backup quarterback on this roster right now, but Ben d Nucci has been getting a lot of snaps as with the second team kind of sharing him with Garrett Gilbert. And when I asked McCarthy the question about the competition at backup quarterback, the only one he ended up talking about was Ben d Nucci.

So he talked about how he got stronger. If if Ben da Nucci is your backup quarterback, how many quarterbacks are going to be on this roster, Well, they'll be three, and they will keep their eyes open on the free agent wire for an experienced quarterback to come free, because everyone the quarterbacks on the roster now not named Dak Prescott have a combination a combined two NFL starts, and that scares me because that backup quarterback needs experience to

be able to play that position. And so you never know with all those new quarterbacks that got drafted, somebody that's gonna be its gonna be released. So keep an eye on They'll keep an eye on it, and you keep an eye on it too, not you, okay them? Folks? All right? Are we done? I think I think we kind of used hour. Right, how about that? That was fun? All right? So maybe the next time they have got a day off that there's an opening, which would be Friday, Friday,

we'll have another mix shots. All right, as long as you're still here. I'm still here Friday, all right until next Monday. Sounds good though. All right? That does it for mix shots and we will see you again next time. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.