Mick Shots: Full Steam Ahead

Bill Jones with Everson Walls and Mickey Spagnola inside the s WBC Mortgage studios there at Ford Center at the Star in Frisco. And there's so much to get to as the Cowboys are trying to put this team together and the NFL is talking about putting a schedule together that includes seventeen games, one fewer preseason game. Let's start with you, Micky, how are you doing on this fine

Tuesday morning. I am doing great. And you know what, when you are with a bunch of older guys, don't ever start the show by saying this is the finals. I said, Oh no, does he know something I don't know? Why did you hear? So? How you doing? I am doing well. This is what the last day I believe of National Women's Mouth. Is that correct? No, y'all want the world don't tomorrow? Yeah, I'm what are you honoring today? I am honoring today my mother who has passed on.

This is her birthday today, Weta Walls. The Weta is o U I d A. I would always have to clarify that it's French. So the old is silent. And I always help something against my people because they name us all of these weird names. I never liked Everson, you know, of course, you know, you know my mom gave it to me, so I have to love it. But everyone always said it wrong. Emerson. Uh, you know, my dad's name was Welling w E L l O. And all these country names. Her name Weeda. You know.

It's like when you get the mail. When you get the mail, all of our names are misspelled. I don't care growing up all of our names are misspelled. But happy birthday to wed the Walls. This is her birthday

to day, so I have to definitely honor her. And if you check my Facebook post, you know you'll see that you know gave a little honorarium to it, just to make sure everybody realize how much we loved her and how important she was to Hey, if it wasn't for her, guys, oh my god, you you wouldn't know me. You would not know me. I would never know you. See, just like most mothers, they saved our lives. They saved

us from ourselves. So I want to thank we the walls for doing that and saving me from my my my worst habits that I had that she had to break me from. I'll put it away. Hey, there's only one person, only one person on this show that that uh, nobody had trouble with spelling first or last name. Okay, Yeah, I ever said I was gonna say, I was gonna tell you go through life with the name Bill Jones and then complain about right. I can see the other side of that. I would love to have a unique name.

I can see. I can see the other side of that. Definitely, where your high can I've had more. I've had more volves added to my last name than you can shake a stick at. And well we're at it. Then I'll give a shout out to my late mother as well. Her birthday April third, coming up this week twenty seventh, they were born exactly coming up one week apart, March twenty seventh April third, and how how amazing is that?

And then twenty nine years later they came together in marriage and here we are today, all right there, Yes, the Cowboys are trying to come together in marriage with over the last couple of weeks in free agency, and they still have a one huge gaping hole in one spot in their secondary. Mickey, where do you where do you think the Cowboys are in free agency right now? And of course that gaping hole right now in the secondary is at one of those starting cornerback spots. Is

they have not replaced Cheetawwoozia who signed with Cincinnati. Yeah, and I understand that with a with a veteran. At least they have Anthony Brown who they did sign last year to a multi year deal, so they can use him as a veteran starter no matter what happens or should happen in the draft or if the guy's ready or not, Mike, gaping hole still is the backup quarterback

position that they have not addressed yet. I was encouraged though listening to Mike McCarthy last week during his media conference, saying that they have spoken to several veterans and they'll continue to kind of monitor that position. But he did call the quarterback position and I know Everson doesn't like this the most important position on the team, and to me, one should get Dak Prescott signed. The next most important

position is the guy behind him. And I'm just not sure they're willing to go into training camp with three guys that have like a combined uh three starts. Maybe I think I added them up if I got that correct. So, uh, that's something that we should keep an eye on. Although you know what, guys, with with how volatile the quarterback position is along the league, there's gonna be some guys released or some guys gonna be cheap, especially after the

draw up last year. Mickey, Right, exactly where did Cowboys get Andy Dalton last year? It was after Joe Burrow was drafted number one overall by Cincinnati. So so true, So yes, as that goes, yes, absolutely, that's right. Well, Jed, I just want to let you I just want to let you guys know that you know, with the absurdity of this, uh, the safeties that we've been signing of course you know my position on them. I have decided to commit myself to working out and I'm going to

try out for the Cowboys at safety. So there you go. I love that we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna put that out there. I mean, I I instead of fussing about it, and we're gonna do something about it. So that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna get out and I'll be in my yard. I only have ten yards of sprint sprint space back there, so I'm gonna be in the backyard doing ten yards sprints. I'll be getting

ready for you. I can probably set you up with one of those one year veteran exception deals, so your only count nine hundred and eighty seven thousand, five hundred dollars against the salary cap, okay, because that's all these guys that we're getting and you only get one year exactly. I saw. I saw the parade. I saw the parade, last week's bags of signings. I saw the guys, and I gotta say, they look they look older than me, man. I mean, some of those guys are just some old

looking dudes. Man. I can't I couldn't have grown up in this area. These are some of the toughest looking guys I think I've ever seen. I don't even think they're even out of their thirties, and they're looking like this. But you know, when you when you talk about the gaping hole, Yeah, that that secondary is something I'm still concerned about. When you're talking about bringing back Anthony Brown

and guys like that. My concern with young defensive backs and they can't be they can't keep playing young if you keep playing all these games. I remember in eighty one Madden said about us in our secondary, we want Thurm and Stieves yet, but our young secondary. He said, you know, by the time you get into the playoffs, there are no more rookies. You know, you should have that experience. So I'm looking for the Cowboys secondary to

show me some experience. The thing that frustrates us so much by watching our secondary is that we don't make heads up plays, you know, and that that concerns me. We don't show the experience that we should have after playing all of these games that we've been playing, not just in one season, but over two or three seasons. I would hope that they would show some type of experience, and sometimes the way we did back in the day

and the way most good secondaries do it. You start to play the team, okay, and I play your technique, necessarily you play the team, and you start to anticipate what they're doing. We just in our secondary, I just don't see, when I say playmakers, guys that are heads up enough to sniff out of play and then make that play. I would just love to see more of that. And in that regard, I don't give a damn who

we signed as long as they can make these plays. Now, these guys that we just signed, they have experience, so hopefully with that experience they can sniff out a few plays and be able to make a difference in our secondary. Just remember, because he had seven interceptions in one season, yep, and somebody and Mickey Well I had I had to correct somebody on that because they said those seven interceptions are more interceptions than any Cowboy player had since Michael

Downs in nineteen eighty three. I oh, no, eighty four And I said, no, oh, I think some guy named Walls had nine and eighty five. Okay, that's true. How do they forget about me? Spas? I don't know I don't know what kind of listing. Oh my god, man, you know you guys, you guys should give me more shout outs on whatever you do, because obviously I am fading in everyone's memory. So thank God for this show.

I can bring it back up. Well, no, thank you for the show, because I think we spoke about that and I remembered I said, no, I think Everson had nine one crazy, I don't remember. I love Michael Downs, but I don't remember any Michael Downs interceptions. I remember every single one of Everson Walls seven interceptions of this career. Hey, I gotta say, in fairness to Mike, he saved my ass many times. So uh yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to differ with you on that one, Bill because

Mike might never forget me on that one. That's what the boys need to do. They need to get local guys like Everson Walls out of high school and Michael Downs. Yeah, we knew the culture coming in. We knew Tom Langer didn't play, We knew we were going to have to work hard, and we knew our secondary already sucked. So we came in ready to play. We came in ready to go. And Charlie Waters like, come all in here, young fellow. You could do all the work and I can sit back here on my one leg and just

have a good time and play it out. That's just what happened, you know. The bottom line? Yeah ahead, I'm gonna say. The bottom line on these safeties though, is you know they're basically signing wall to one year deals, so it doesn't preclude them from drafting a guy uh, you know, second third, fourth round, uh to go along with Donovan Wilson. I saw where demonte Kaz. Is that how I say it? Bill, Yes, that's how you say it. I don't know if it's right or not right, Caz case,

I don't know. Anyway, he basically signed a one year deal for the veteran exception, so that kind of tells you what kind of market value he may not have had. So his cap hit for this year is only nine hundred and eighty seven thousand, five hundred dollars that I

was going to give Everson. So with the veteran exception, you get a you get a minimum signing bonus which is one hundred and thirty seven thousand and five hundred and then basically it's a one year, one point two seven million dollars deal, so very similar to those other offensive line I mean defensive lineman. They signed offensive lineman too, by the way, all these one year deals that they've been signing, and Bill I also saw and expect it's

less money than less money than those guys early. Yeah, those were those were four and five hundred thousand dollars signing bonuses and this was just a two hundred thousand dollars signing bonus per Kaze and in fact mentioned market value. It turns out Xavier Woods had a better market value than demonte Kazi did because he signed for basically what the Cowboys were given these other guys, which was a base of one point seven five million with incentives up

to two point two five with Minnesota over the weekend. Yeah, because his signing, they at least gave him a signing bonus of five hundred thousand with a base of one point two five So his cap hit is one point seven five for this year. So to me, that tells me that he didn't price himself out of the Cowboys market. They just decided to go ahead and move on. And if you look at all these other contracts, they signed guys to Terrell? Is it Terrell? Terrell Basham had the

most lucrative deal. If lucrative is two years, five point five million, So again that's not an extreme amount when his base salary is two point five million for this year and he has three point seven five million guaranteed.

So again that's lucrative as far as I'm concerned. Yes, but what you see going around the league right now, but this is but ever since, right it's a lot of one year deals and everybody's kind of hoping for a prove it deal that they can come in and have a good year and then get a bigger contract when the salary cap goes back up next year. I do recall when I went to the Giants from the Cowboys.

Obviously I was one of the higher paid players on the Cowboys before they got rid of me, and then when I signed with the Giants, now you're like starting all over. I do recall coming in with a two year deal. I think you're like half a meal apiece. And that wasn't bad back then, but it wasn't anything that you could, you know, really brag about, especially coming off the career that I had had, So it made

me by signing that short term deal. I was gonna be hungry anyway, but you definitely understand the urgency of the situation because if you don't play well, if you don't practice well in training camp, then they really had invested that much in you, so you can be out of that, you know, And so I wanted to make sure that I made. You have to make a quick impression. I was a veteran, so they were looking forward to

me making plays. But if you're one of the younger guys out there trying to sign a one year deal like that, you better come in making smoke happen from day one. That needs to be your incentive. So to put that money into perspective. In eighty six, when the Cowboys the usfl folded in, the Cowboys signed Herschel Walker. It was basically a one million dollars a year deal

and that was considered huge, right. And I remember when Tony Dorset reported to training camp and somebody said, well, what do you think of herschel getting a million dollars? And he goes, I feel like a million dollar man. Hint, hint.

He wanted he wanted to get his but that was that was that was that was considering that was considered very controversial as well as it was bringing in a guy like Hersha Walker when you already have a future Hall of Famer in your in your backfield, that's when you knew things were going off the rails over Valley Rent. Getting back to my point about the gaping hole at at cornerback, I think it's clear right now, it's clear that the Cowboys are taking a cornerback in either the

first or second round of this draft. Uh do you think they're fine? Though, Mickey? As far as any any more veteran guys at cornerback before the draft, you know, I think it would have to be another very inexpensive one year deal on somebody. If that guy is out there, you know, they still have Rashard Robinson, right, and you know he's got a little bit of experience. I don't know. You know, at times he played well and then towards

the end he didn't play very well. So I don't know if they look at him as a corner And the same thing with c J. Goodwin. You know, he's a special teams guy, and you know he's a guy that's just going to count one point six million against the cap. They signed him to a three year a three year deal and gave him an eight hundred thousand dollars signing bonus. So but again, how about Maurice Kennedy And they have his right opted out? He was signed

last year. Yeah, he was signed last offseason. He opted out right and all those contracts carry over to this year and so technically he's still on the roster. But I haven't heard anything about But they haven't released no, no, they Yeah. Experience think the biggest thing is you want you want to go into the draft having all your positions filled where you don't have to draft for need.

You have priorities, but you can go out and you can Basically, I think the best philosophy through free agency is you do enough where you could actually go out and play a game on draft day where you don't have to fill in the desperate need. I would say that Cowboys have a pretty desperate need UH in the secondary to add talent back there, but they don't have to UH in the first or second round do that. UM. And there's other veteran guys out there, uh in veteran

cornerbacks that are out there in free agency too. That will probably still be out there even after the draft and see how it shakes out. Yeah, then after where your draft at France goes down. Right, So well, you talked about you talked about Robinson's facts. That's a good one. This guy's he played cornerback in college. Correct, Yes, he did play corn cornerback. Tall. I know people, he's not that.

He's a little bit tall for a cornerback. You know the way they have coming out of college these days. But you know, when you look at somebody who's had one year experience, you expect them to come in the next year and you know, after having a few games under their belt to be able to improve. I have played with young players. I came in playing with young players. Was that I was that young player. Initially, I'm sure Charlie Waters was very concerned about who was coming in

when they brought it in, Michael Downs. But this guy, you know, came in and did what Michael Downs did. Even though Bill doesn't remember any of his plays. Michael Downs, actually he actually played had a pretty good career. Uh And even when I'm w he did. Even when I went to the Giants, we had two young safeties that we had to deal with, and that was Greg Jackson and Myron Guiden, and those two guys stepped up because you had two cornerbacks that had a little bit of

experience in myself and Mark Collins. So you have to look forward to them developing, don't. We don't We have to look forward to them making plays. I knew I was disappointed about Brown and talked about how they don't really they need to use their games and that game experience to get better. Someone that they have signed the younger guys, they have to show improvement. They have to show development. Hopefully Trayvon can show that this offseason. This

train account. But as you say, we go into a draft, yeah, we might need to draft a corner but I still want what I signed and what I paid for in previous years to show me some type of development. Either they bring it out themselves. You have to have coaches that are able to show them the era of their ways and make them improve. I just I have seen players come here and who have been stagnant in their development. If you don't come in ready to play, that's great,

but you have to show me improvement and development. I want to see that in our young guys. And we need to hear a break. But we also need to make the distinction that there are two Robinson's in that Cowboys secondary. Of course, Richard Robinson, who started some games at cornerback last year. I believe it was three games. Now, he was a fourth round pick back not of the Cowboys of San Francisco back in twenty sixteen, so he's

a more veteran guy. And then the guy you're talking about, Everson Reggie Robinson, who was the Cowboys fourth round pick last year and didn't get much playing time and was

actually the previous regime. And as far as the defensive coaches are concerned, we're looking at him at safe and so it'll be interesting to see what Joe Witt Junior, the secondary coach, and Dan Quinn view Reggie Robinson, whether he works at safety or at cornerback, and of course we won't know that probably until after the draft and we get into OTAs and so forth. All Right, there's

so much going on. Alabama is having another Pro day as we speak, and their quarterback Mac Jones is throwing again, and the forty Niner brain trust is once again there watching Mac Jones. Ohio States Pro Day is going on. Tyrone Crawford has made an official statement on Instagram in Twitter, we'll get to in a moment, and there's so much and we'll talk about a seventeen game schedule. So much to get to as mix shots continues in just a moment, Honey,

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back or better if your event is canceled guaranteed. Download the Seki Gap today and when the time is right, let's go see geek Back back to mixed shots. Cowboys fans, show your football pride at the Pro Shop, the official store of Cowboys nations score classics like your favorite player jerseys number twenty four Everson Walls, Perhaps you find it at the Pro Shop. Two thousand hats, plus exclusive collections and unique accessories with options from Nike, New Era and

many other brands. The Pro Shop has more Cowboys gear than anyone in the game. Visit your local Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop or online at shop dot Dallas Cowboys dot com. You might you might see twenty four, but it was probably Marian Barber. That's the way they always confuse me with him. Hey Bill, there's no number twenty four right now, and pretty soon, pretty soon to hit the pro shops is this year's draft magazine the presses right now, Son,

you got it. We'll have some We'll always good to have somebody on the inside hill that's right or here at the building. But there's a there's good. It's a pretty comprehensive scouting reports on all the top prospects and analysis on what the Cowboys have done or will do. First round mock draft, and I sort of wrote a piece on how the preparation for this draft for the scouting department has been altered in a little bit more

difficult with the inability to have a combine. So a lot of good reading, but stay tuned and we'll let you know how you can get your hands on one of these. All right, I want to get into the movings and shakings in the draft and what happened last Friday with San Francisco moving around, and how all of that stuff kind of impacts the Cowboys. But as I mentioned before the break, just moments ago, Tyrone Crawford has made an official, a lengthy post on Instagram and Twitter

announcing his retirement from football. Of course, Mike Arthy at his press conference last Thursday let the cat out of the bag and Tyrone to to kind of summarize. He says in his post that he didn't want to make so much of an official farewell. He just wanted to kind of ride off into the sunset. There's so many people that he wants to think and he has proceeded now to and what is our producer Chris Beams said it was like a four page post on Instagram is

doing just that. But Mickey, he had a lot to say, He had a lot to say that's exactly right. You can only imagine. There's so many people that have impacted him. First and foremost is his wife, Kelsey. He points out he's been at his side through all of his surgeries that he's had and throughout his journey. Mickey Tyrone nine years in the NFL with the Cowboys, and that's a very nice career. A third round draft pick out of Boys State, you know, and a really good soldier for

a third round pick. I always have to call him a defensive lineman because when he would show up the training camp after preparing in the off season to play defensive tackle, it's like, well, you know what, we need you a defensive end. And then the years that they said, okay, you're a defensive end, and then they get injuries inside and said, well Tyrone, you're a defensive tackle. And he never complained. He did what they asked him to do

and did it at a very professional level. I remember one year we gosh, I think, I'm not sure if it was in the off season or it was the beginning of training camp. I was interviewing him and I said, so, what are you a defensive end or defensive tackle? He said, I don't know. You tell me, he goes whatever they

tell me to play, I will play. And he would adjust his weight because he would come in a little heavier to play defensive tackle, and then they had to move out the defensive end or he driveway to play defensive end. And they said, well, you know what, at two seventy, we want you at defensive tackle. So that's gonna be to me. His legacy here over nine years is he did whatever they asked him to do and did it as well as he could. That's a great

legacy to have two Spags. When you look at his career and we talk about the sacrifices he made physically, think that the hip surgeries that he had in the off season, and then he still comes back and tries to contribute as best he can. You know, I coach some kids every once in a while, and yes, Spags, I do teach them all the bad habits that I learned in the NFL. And one thing I tell them, I said, the more you can do, the more you can do. That makes you more valuable to almost any

team that you're on. If you're playing cornerback and they ask you if you can play safety, you say, yes, I can play safety now. In fact, you tell them you were a safety. You just tell them whatever you want to want they want to hear, to make sure that they have a comfort zone with you. The Cowboys had a great comfort zone with Tyrone Crawford, a guy that you know, we talked about the big names in these organizations, and the big names are always what drives

that notoriety. But when it comes to really the heart and the soul of the teams, this guy's like Tyrone Crawford, who are the ones that really keep us in good standing? And once again I throw guys like Michael Dowell's in there who just did all the hard work and really didn't get much fans fair for it. So yeah, the Tyrone Crawford is he should go down as one of

the favorite Cowboys of this particular generation of players. You know, guys, sometimes you just can't define a player's career by stats. You have to be around it and see it. And I know before he decided that hip surgery was in his future, dual hip surgery, by the way, he was contemplating, do I really want to come back and play? You know, I've done a lot and I'll tell you what. I've got the greatest respect for anybody in this game, including a couple of these dbs. The Cowboys sign that come

back from a torn achilles, that's no joke. That is difficult. And he tore his in training camp and I'll never forget it was a couple of years later. He went down and let out it was early in training camp, the loudest screen you ever heard, and they carted him off and his biggest fear was he retore the achilles. It didn't, It wasn't. It ended up being a really bad ankle foot sprain, but he worried so much about that.

So the fact that he came back and played another year, I think that's just a credit to who he is and the fact that he wanted to come back improved to everybody that he could come back and play. You know. The other thing, Mickey, just look at last year with the Cowboys and he was in the last year of his contract. This shows I think the respect that the organization had for Tyrone Crawford because if you look at what the breakdown on his contract last year, what was it.

He had a base salary of eight million dollars last year and they could have very easily released him and saved a lot of money on the salary cap. But they had so much respect for Crawford, not only his ability as a football player, his leadership in the locker room, and his want to to come back from the surgeries that he would be able to get back to be able to contribute on the field, that they didn't tear

up that contract. They didn't release him, and they and he played it out, And that is uncommon in this league. But I think it really shows the respect that the entire organization, the coaching staff in the front office had for what Tyrone Crawford had contributed to this team. You know, I gotta say one thing as you look at the different organizations when you go back to the eighties, seventies, and then you compare them to the old regime to this.

When I say new regime, more recent regime with Jerry and the guys, it's a little bit more politically correct, don't you think Guys back in the day give brand Tex Stram. They wouldn't give a hoot about any player, no matter how much respect he had. We had guys offensive lineman like Coop the point guardways have Coop that played on a bad knee almost his whole career, eventually

had to have knee replacement. You know, you had an offensive lineman and tight ends who were playing with search with bad injuries all the time, and they knew if they got the surgery, they were gonna get cut right after they came back. You know, it's so different now compared to what it was then. Now, I don't know if that's a good thing, because we were winning back then, even though we were being treated like crap. I mean,

I mean like like dog crap. But now the way that Jerry Show's favor in a good way took out like Tylone Crawford, you, I don't think you have gotten that type of treatment. Tyrone Crawford wouldn't have gotten that type of treatment if we were still over a Valley ranch. Hey, Bill, I was gonna point out one thing when you asked about gaping hole on the roster, and I was gonna bring up the linebacker position. And I think you got a good look at the guy I've been talking about.

What if you got to number ten and the best defensive player in the draft is still on the board, would you take a linebacker named Micah Parsons, Mike Parsons, Wow, just go look at his tape, the Penn State linebacker, and it blows you away. His speed. I think he ran a four three nine at his protam No that okay, that's all. It's hand it's hand salivating. Now you got

me salivating here. I'm salivating now. Now he's not gonna be there, and I'm gonna be mad now when the draft going, And to make elevate a little bit more. He's six three and one eighth two hundred and forty six pounds and he bench pressed two twenty five nineteen times and ran and that was the slowest one that they hand timed him. Now because it's not the combine, but they hand timed him for three nine. By the way, if you're around the four five as a linebacker, I'm

still impressed. You know that. That is amazing. I did not know his forty time was that good. I thought he was really just all initiative and drive. But he's also extremely talented. So that's something that I'd love to go with. And you're talking about the gap guys, we're talking about Tyler Crawford leaving and all them didn't sign right they're not bringing back Aldon Smith. There's a big

gap right there in our defensive lineman positions. So you know, if we have a defensive lineman that's available, that's a hell of a defensive lineman. Are there any out there Spags that you would I know you wouldn't have the same feeling as you would with the Penn State guy, but any defensive lineman out there that would make us change our minds and go another direction. If he's the best available player, well we're ready to pick. Yeah. And I don't know that they go defensive end that early,

and no tackles are probably available at that point. But all I know, and you know, say what you want about Charlie Casserley or however he evaluates people, but castile, he said. Number one thing about Parson. He finds the football instincts jump off the tape and he can pass, rush off the line of scrimmage, blitzing or blitzing. So you know, if anybody needs to look, just go look at the twenty nineteen Cotton Bowl and he was the

most valuable player in that game for Penn State. But again, you know, look at the linebacker position other than the two guys you know, are starters with Layton Vanderish and Jalen Smith. As I said last week, who's next, because it's Luke Gifford, Bernard Francis and they don't really have

anything else. So now they talked about playing Kean O'Neil starting off with the linebackers, but again he's two sixteen, And I understand playing safety and making tackles against the run, but lining up at linebacker and trying to make tackles is another thing. And so especially if it's not Yeah, especially if it's not in nickel situations. So yeah, to me, linebacker is a need. And you know, and I get it, You don't you have to get everybody in the first round.

You got a hit on second round, third round, fourth round guys that can come in and play. And again I'll go back to Bill bringing up the safety position. You know, this this this draft is not all about twenty twenty one because all these guys we talked about signed one year deals, So who knows if you can bring them back if they have a good year, or what if they don't have a good year and you got to move on. So, yeah, you name a position on defense, and I got my hand in the air

and saying, yeah, they need one of those. That's exactly right. So here's the other thing though about this draft for the Cowboys, with what's happening with the quarterback market. In this draft, you're looking at and Urban Meyer basically admitted this past week that they're taking Trevor Lawrence number one overall, number two. The Jets are taking a quarterback, and the most of the speculation is Zach Wilson out of BYU.

And then you've got San Francisco moves up and gives up the ranch to move up from twelve to three. Uh and obviously they're taking a quarterback at three. Yeah, yeah, exactly, that's exactly right. Now. Now the speculation is who who is it that John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have their eyes on at quarterback. Let's say Lawrence and Wilson go one and two to the Jags and the Jets. All right,

is it Justin Fields, the Ohio state quarterback. Is it Trey Lance, the North Dakota State quarterback, or is it Mac Jones the Alabama quarterback that the forty nine ers have their eyes on? You know, most of those the quote unquote, so called experts with the mock drafts prior to San Francisco moving up to number three on Friday, they basically had it as Lawrence, either Wilson or Fields. There's your top three. Trey Lance also in the mix in North Dakota State, although there's not a great body

of work on him just yet. It only played one game in the fall because North Dakota State didn't have a season, and then mac Jones was he was considered on mid first round whatever it will. Now, the scuttlebutt around the league is that it's actually mac Jones that the Niners are interested in and that he would fit

shanahan system. Well, the Niners were at mac Jones pro day last two day and I'm sitting here watching it right now, and both Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are at Alabama's second pro day to day and mac Jones is out there throwing a second pro day in front of those coaches, which is going to lead to more speculation that it's actually mac Jones. How does this relate

to the Cowboys. Well, now you're looking if if that is true and mac Jones is going to be the third pick, well then you've got justin fields you got Trey Lance. There could be five quarterbacks taken in the top nine picks of the draft, meaning that for the Cowboys picking at number ten and they're out of the quarterback market, you're basically looking at a five player draft for the Cowboys. As far as positions of need for them, that's pretty remarkable for them. They're sitting at a pretty

good spot. The Cowboys are at number ten. Well, if you think about it, if there's nine picks ahead of them, if five end up being quarterbacks, and I'll guarantee you they're waving the flag for that, Yeah, take them quarterbacks. There's probably two wide receivers they're going to go in the top ten, and there's a tight end as a tight end, and at least two offensive linemen probably worthy of a top ten pick. So when it gets to the Cowboys, unless somebody does something you don't expect, they

should have their choice of cornerback. And if the Giants don't take Micah Parsons because they I think they think he's the next Lawrence Taylor, then he's sitting there for the Cowboys too. And then you have the option of, well, what if somebody one of them top five quarterbacks hadn't gone yet, and somebody wants them at ten. You know, if you move back a couple two or three spots, you can get another second round pick for sure. Maybe if it's if they think they're getting a quarterback, you

get next year's first or something. So they're in a pretty good spot at number ten because they don't need a quarterback. And I like that position because to me, it would be just like last year. I'd be extremely comfortable. If you've got these quarterbacks going all in the top five picks, then they're gonna make room for the roster for these quarterbacks, and that just might mean a veteran has to be let go, and one of those veterans

could come here to the Cowboys. We could sign him as we did Andy Dalton last year, and we could save that money as far as draft as concerns and things of that nature and signing bonuses, and we could go that route while picking up a good defender, a good cornerback, or a good linebacker instead in that first round. To me, that's a good idea. That's a good way

to go. All right. We got much more to get to in regards to not only the draft, but also the NFL owners convening this week and things are going to be hammered out as far as a seventeen game schedule. We'll get Everson and Mickey's reaction on that and much more mix shots in just a moment. We're back in the tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and Cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor pa and Cream Sodas heat a new combonet's music

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For details, visit att stadium dot com slash tours. All Right, how I've failed to mention off the top, Mickey? How's your college basketball bracket doing? It was doing really well until Arkansas let me down last night. Yep, that's right. We had a gold Southwest Conference matchup of Baylor versus Arkansas Baylor one, and now we got another old Southwest Conference matchup in a national semifinal as Baylor plays Houston.

And it's the first time in thirty seven years since the days of five Slam A jamma, that Houston is in the final four. Five slam a jamma. I'll tell you why. Kelvin Sampson's done a wonderful job. Yeah, school, and I think it gets overlooked. And by the way, my saving grace to make up ground, I had picked Houston to go to the finals against Gonzaga. So if they can somehow some way beat Baylor, I would be in pretty good shape. All I know. In regards to we,

I forgot about the women's muff. Uh. The Baylor women are not feeling too celebrated right now. Well, it's such such a shame for losing that manner. How do they not make that call? How do you call? They could have called it. Both of them should have got four shots. Now, those girls, those girls should have gotten arrested. That's how hard they hit her. One hitter in the arm, the other hit in the face. That's that's an assault. I mean, I don't know how they could could let that go.

Everyone's tweeting about it and how you know, the miscarriage of justice that occurred. Just you just hate to see a game go down like that. I know, rest I have swallowed the whistle, you know, in the last few seconds, last possession, so to speak. But some things are just so obvious you gotta you gotta call it as even though if it goes against your you know, whatever thing you got going on. If I was Kim Lucky, I

would have got thrown out of the game. I don't know how much time was left, like point eight seconds or something like that. Yeah, they would have had to carry me off the court before they restarted the game, which is why why I'm not a coach? Right? And which which network carries the women's tournament? ESPN? Yeah, yeah, right, guy?

Conspiracy theorist. Literally, I know this for a fact that inside those uh that building at ESPN, the Yukon women's basketball team probably is more is more popular than the New York Yankees inside that building. Interesting, Yeah, and that was unquestioned that you have to make that call. It was crazy as we celebrate National Women's mouth here on

mix shots. Okay, so today and tomorrow the virtual owners meetings will take place, right, and it seems like it's going to be a rubber stamp to play a seventeenth game and reduce the preseason to three games. So where do you guys thought thoughts on that? Because that issue and how they decide to go forward with the offseason in relation to OTA's mini camps and what the players will be allowed to do are not allowed to do this year seem to be the biggest issues of this

owner's meeting. You know, to me, this is typical of you know, this American business. It's the way businesses they are on capitalism. If they're gonna pay you more money, then they want to drain more out of you. That's just the way it is. They're getting this this great TV contract and I'm talking about the NFL owners getting this great TV contract, they know that they're even though that they're receiving money, they know they're gonna have to

pay a lot out. That's what Dak Prescott's entire strategy was in regards to holding out for more money, so to speak, knowing that the salaries are going to go up after this new TV contract. So the owners are sitting in the meetings going, hey, guys, we're gonna have to pay all these players, and they're typical owner fashion. What can we get out of this from them? We don't. We're going to pay them, but we're going to also

increase their output or their their load. We're going to increase the load that we put on them as players. And that's just the way business is. They don't want to so call and they think give away that money and not get anything from it, So they decide to add another game to it. And when you when you think about it, what the NFL started way back in the day with maybe twelve games spags. If i'm then then when then fourteen? Then fourteen games? Was the was

the the limit there? Back for a minute, because I know that's when Night Train Lane end up getting like fifteen freaking in the setons in fourteen games, something that I never I knew I'd never be able to do. So, yeah, fourteen games. Now after sixteen nine he would go seventeen them. I mean, what happens when they have the next TV contract. We're gonna move it up to nineteen are We're going for a twenty games season, no preseason? I hope I'm gonna try and get all they get out of it.

I hope when they do that, still doing mixed shows. I hope I'm still align with the still doing that. The show may go on. They want to be a co host. So yeah, hey Bill, what do you think because this seems like the nfl PA gave some concessions up from a monetary standpoint, from captap to basically they say, okay, you can decide if we get a seventeenth game. It seems like it's just a rubber stamp procedure here now.

And I think where the where the player? Where the owners convinced the players it would be worth her while to do that is because of they knew what was available in this TV contract. If they not only expanded to where you got a seventeen game regular season, but more importantly than that is you expand you extend the season on indo February. From a TV standpoint, February is a sweet month and which is big for TV as far as their ratings go and their sales and so forth.

They make a lot of money during that month of February if you've got NFL games on your network, and so now you're gonna, for instance, the twenty twenty, well, this coming super Bowl will now be played. I think it would be February thirteenth with a seventeen game season, fresh back a week, and so now you're taking up half of the month of February, which is a huge TV ratings month, and you're I think the regular season would not end until January ninth or tenth, so your

postseason is starting in mid mid January. You're basically going mid January to mid February on it. So I think that's that was one of the keys on it. And it gets back to whatever since talking about it's money, you know, but I think the NFL, and I know the horse is out of the barn. It's a done deal. It's going to happen. But the NFL has since nineteen seventy seven, I think has had the perfect setup of

the sixteen game season. One of the reasons that the NFL is so popular is the fact that every game really matters during this season because they play sixteen games. Compare it, Compare it to the NBA or the NHL, and you've got these eighty two game seasons, these NBA regular season games. Who cares who went? We already know by just looking at the rosters who's going to make the playoffs. There's there's no meaning to these regular season games.

And so I think with the NFL, when you're stretching it out to a seventeen game regular season and who knows a couple of years and they may go eighteen games whatever, I think when you take the importance of the regular season games away, you may be walking down a path that you don't want to go down. Well. And then the other part of it is from a player acquisition stand point, and everything can speak to this, just the wear and tear on players. We're seeing the

injured list us being used more and more. Of course, last year was a different year because of COVID, they had different rules, but uh uh yeah, you basically have to have a ninety man roster that Mike McCarthy's talking about last year or last week, because you're you're with your practice squad and everything. You're basically we're gonna use seventy five eighty players during the season. Good point. That's a good point, Well, and Andrew, the injury's a gonna

pile up. Go ahead. Fact now I was I was just gonna say yeah, And I think possibly they need to adopt some of the things they did last year to get through the pandemic affected the season. You know what about you know you there's no load management in the NFL, and especially if you keep it the playoffs the way they were right and you only get one team gets a buy. No one's loafing the last two or one or two weeks of the season because that

buy is so important. And then the fact that you might have the extra teams in the playoffs, I think that's significant. The other thing I've seen where the way they're going to have a rotating basis the NFC will play the AFC in corresponding divisions. So from the Cowboys standpoint, the NFC East will play the AFC East in the corresponding position. You've finished which means the Cowboys would be at New England for the extra seventeenth game of the year,

and the AFC's hosting the seventeenth game this year. Next year it'll be the NFC. So yeah, I think it's going to happen. And I think that they have to continue to consider the forty eight man game day roster and can continue to make adjustments to injured reason deserve where you don't have to be out for eight weeks before you're ready to come back. I think those are

things that need to be discussed now. The thing that bothers me is the NFLPA is pushing for virtual OTAs and virtual mini camps, and J. C. Treder is, the player president of the nfl PA, keeps saying that the league was better last year not having an offseason, and I disagree with him. I think defenses suffered tremendously with not having an offseason, and all we gotta do is look out the window here and see what the difference was with no offseason and not an excuse, right because

everybody played by the same rules. But I don't think the level of play was as high as it normally is by eliminating the offseason help, and it hurts the players because young guys don't haven't as much an opportunity. Now it's one less preseason game right to impress people. And you got no offseason to make an impression on anybody if you don't have that training. And I still say it increases the level of injuries that take place without that type of preparation for the regular season. Well

I have. I'm going to charge this to one of you guys. Since I don't do homework, maybe we should chart. Maybe we should chart that. I mean, take a look at you know, how did they score me more points this year? Did we have more defensive injuries this year? Those are kind of things I could I could say,

it could be easily checked out. But as you look at Bill's scenario, Go ahead, Bill, Well, I was gonna say, I've done the research, and the Cowboys gave up more points than they have in the sixty one year history. Said there, you go by this team anyway. No, but I would have to say, based but based on your logic in regards to February being such a marketing month for TV and things of that nature, why don't we

just move the season? Push the season back. Instead of worrying about August and training camp and preseason games in August, why don't we move all that stuff into September and then you can have your regular season going into late January, and then the super Bowl is going to be later into February. I don't see a reason why we are held to starting the preseason in August or in September. I don't is there any advantage to that. We could

change that as opposed to adding another game. You understand what I'm saying. Just move the season back as opposed to adding another game if you want to take advantage of February. That's my point. Well, understand that the new shows start the beginning of February. I mean the beginning of September. I Television, it's back to TV. That's right to the to be in. The new season starts with the Sunday after Labor Day, Right, that's the whole that's

win the seasons. But the NFL season starts also, Well, what we're gonna do about fourth did July? Then? What about what about fourth did July? We want to get some of that money too, right, I mean, come on that again, Mickey, that is so old school, right, I know. Yeah, and that thus moved the season back. That's what I'm saying, moved the season up to you know, late September. Why I'm married to that. But I see what you're saying.

All right, we run out of time. Oh No, of mix shots, I had a list for you and another the top the top guys at at Ohio State were scheduled to work out today other than justin Field, so linebacker Baron Browning, linebacker Pete Werner, offensive lineman Wyatt Davis, and Josh uh I didn't write his name down very well. Josh McGee. Maybe defensive tackle Tommy Togia and running back Trey Sermon. Those are their top guys, huh. So. And and we're being told that Mike McCarthy is at Ohio State.

So why would he be at Ohio State? Probably got tons of players to keep an eye on. This is not all about the first round, right, And you've got Browning, the linebacker, is the most notable name as far as I'm concerned on that list. He's from Kennadale right here in the metroplex. The first rounder is he considered the first rounder? He's in his name, No, he's not. In fact, I looked at I looked at a top one hundred list Pro Football Focus. That he's not on the top

one hundred. I would think though, he's probably could move up into the second or third pun isn't that the poor linebacker who ended up in single coverage on DeVante Smith in the championship game? No, it wasn't Baron brown Okay, No, it was a different linebacker. Yeah, Brownie, h Brownie was

highly all Ohio State players are highly recruited. But he was one of our Landry Award finalists three years ago coming out of Cannadale, and uh now he'd be He looked very good in the Cowboys uniform, and he's got those same qualities where he can rush off the edge a little bit too. All right, Anyway, as long as it's a big game notebook, Hey, I'm starting, I'm starting.

What are you saying? I said? As long as that that poor Ohio State linebacker that was chasing Dete Smith, Yeah, I got I'm starting to fill up my twenty twenty one Big Green NFL Draft scouting notebook, and so I'm going to have some nuggets for you out of that in the coming weeks. Leading up to the draft, and I'm kept mine right here. Okay, all right, I'd better hurry up. Chris is leaving the room. Chris is walking out of the room. All right. That does it for

Mick Shots, for Everson and Nicky. I'm Bill and we will see you again next Tuesday at eleven thirty on Mick Shots, Go Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.