Mick Shots: Ground Covered

Bill Jones, Everson Walls, Mickey Spagnola, and oh what a beautiful day it is here in Man, Oh my good. Little different than last Thursday. It was like the other day. I walked in and I realized, Oh, I don't have a code. I don't need one. Hey, I didn't need this one. Yeah, it's too much. I'm glad you wore it though, yes, yes, And so here we are. It is well. The combine has been going on in Indianapolis

all week. But but as far today, but as far as those of you at home who can watch what's going on, we are t minus three and a half hours in counting before NFL Network coverage begins of the quarterbacks running forties. Quarterbacks is quarterbacks, wide receivers and tight end tight ends. So what have they been doing before? Now you said it's been going on, but they've just they've been measuring them physicals. Okay, winter reviews, which brings

up one of the notes. I had the guy, the quarterback from is it Pitty Kenny Pikett, Yes, eight and a half inch hands that Wow, that would be the smallest on the NFL. He throws such a good ball. And so when I've heard that, I'm looking at my hand, I go, no, wonder, I can't throw a football. I'm not sure minor even seven inches? Right? I got an excuse eight and a half inches. And so the smallest the story I read, the smallest in the NFL right now is eight and three quarters and it was Taysom Hill.

And supposed we saw him against the Cowboys in December. Yes, we did. Of course he had an injured hand too, and he still threw the ball against him. To all the ladies out there, you know what they mean. I think I wondered how long it's go? Four? Everson went there glad, right, and so which, by the way, that's not always true. Is here to tell you that? Yeah, yeah, speaking from so, I think I think it was Taysom Hill. It was one of the quarterbacks that had their hand

hands were small. They said they did exercises and they got they stretched them out a quarter of watch. Come on, man, it's like eight and a half to eight and three quarters. So so Picket said, yeah, I guess I got to start doing some exercises hand. That's like what the ones who they're not tall enough, Okay, you need to be a certain height to be a quarterback. Whatever, they're there, Yeah,

they're they're stretching themselves. So they had So that's the main that's the biggest story coming out so far, right, because everything else has been interviews with the coaches, GMS and and and then the biggest thing is is the medical Yeah on everyone, right, and seeing that's what people don't understand, they go, well, why why have the combine? Some of the guys don't work out, You got tape on them. They want to work out on their pro day.

But the key thing at the combine is the physicals that go on the measurements because they're legitimate, right, every school measures their guys differently. And it's the interviews that the teams can go through with the players, because at the pro day they don't, you know, if there's thirty two teams there, they don't get thirty two interviews. So that this is this is that's what's most important. It's not who can run a cone drill or anything like that.

They can't do that in their pro day. Who are you looking forward to? Like, if you're gonna say, I want to look at this guy, I'm not sure I know enough since it didn't start yet. But that's why we got to green green notebook. And I have in my big green notebook so far I got names. I got names, and that's it. Well, who are you looking forward to? Who? Yeah, I don't have anybody yet. Yeah, yeah, no one has. You know, no one has top building.

Now look out for this guy. As a matter of fact, like Kenny pick It uh is probably and there's Malik Willis, the quarterback from Liberty. Uh. There's some other quarterbacks to uh corral, Matt Carrall uh Um, Daniel Jeremiah, who is well respected. Of course, used to be a scout in the league, so he's done this for a living. Okay, and he's uh. I think he does a great job for the NFL network. His pre Combine mock draft has Kenny Pickett I think going number eighteen overall quarterback first

quarterback off. So that there's the and then he had Willis going twentieth to Pittsburgh. Obviously Pittsburgh needs a quarterback. Most of the better quarterback I've already come out. So contrast that to this past year. Yeah, and the quarterbacks were these story and you've got teams that are trading

up and into the top five. San Francisco traded what they did to get up to get trade lance and you know, so last year was the big year for and that that happens a lot when the quarterbacks quarter There'll be a quarter quarterbacks who are top ten picks one year and then the next year not so much. How many went in the top fifteen? Four? Last year? Was it four or five? For mac Jones went number fifteen? So what about what about the class of the quarterbacks

eighty three? There you go, my man? How many went in the top fifteen then that would be interesting. Well, I'll have to go there was at least six or seven I think went in the first round Yeah, that's that was impressive. And let me brag on nineteen eighty one, even though I wasn't drafted me or Mike Downs, but nineteen eighty one considered the best defensive class in the history of the NFL, Hugh Greene and lt topping the list. Kenny Easley, h Ronnie lott Wright, Carlton Williamson, good guys,

Wright University of Missouri. That's right, all right? You asked about quarterbacks. In nineteen eighty three, John Elway went number one overall, and who is he? Who is he? Drafted by Cockles Baltimore. Coles got Baltimore. Next quarterback taken was number seven, Todd Blackledge to Kansas City and yep. And then the next quarterback taken number fourteen overall out of the University of Miami, Jim Kelly to Buffalo. So there's three in the four of the top fourteen. Tony Easton

went fifteen to New England University of Illinois. That's right. So there's four in the top fifteen. And next quarterback was Ken O'Brien to the Jets at twenty four. There's five out of twenty in the first twenty four. Yeah, there you go. Where's Ken O'Brien from. You'll never get it. You'll never ever ever ever get it. No way, Okay, I won't try to California School. I thought it was Sandy Go State. No cal Davis, Oh wow, cal Davis.

So there's five in the first twenty four. And then a guy went number twenty seven overall to Miami from Pitts Busy Italian Dan Marino goes twenty seven overall to Miami, And so that's six in the first round, and I'm looking to see the first second tapping it off with Dan Marino. That's pretty good. Yeah, right. Guess who went

after Dan Marino? Twenty eighth overall, not a quarterback but a cornerback twenty eight, twenty eighth overall, ninety three in nineteen eighty three out of Texas A and m Kingsville or Texas A. And I probably back there. Daryl Green. Daryl Green talked to him last night. Did you realize? Man? We talked for like an hour? Can I say come? Yeah, you can. He's just one of those times where you know, you just I say pandemic, But you know, like I did when we were really on lockdown, I would call

certain people that. I just know I hadn't called in a while. I got the number. I was doing that. Yeah, checking on people, man, my entertainment, me too, Me too, got bored. I started making phone calls to people and didn't hopefully they were born too. So now we just talked, he said, he asked how his cousin was doing Roy Green, which they're not cousins, but we just talked about so much. And you know, I have a foundation ethos education, and we were talking about you know, it got kind of deep.

We were talking about sports, h kids that having sports, having suicide problems, and just so happened. He grew up with two people that committed suicide. So kind of putting a little damp on this, but that just happed to me one of the things we talked about. And I'm going to invite him onto my podcast because we have a panel that discusses that. All right, Okay, So seven Hall of Famers. In the first round of the nineteen eight three draft, alway Eric Dickerson went number two to

the Rams, Jimbo Covert Chicago six pick offensive tackle. Bruce Matthews twent to Houston at a usc offensive tackle. So there's one two three. Four out of the top nine picks were hall of famers. Jim Kelly at fourteen. There's five out of the top four team we're hall of famers, and then Marino and Darryl Green to close out the first round. It's pretty good first round. Now, that's that's the hell of a draft. Uh huh, Well that ain't get the quarterbacks just hall of fame. That's not going

to happen this year. No, See, as you go, you're such a down now. I think if you look at when you you know, the projections or mock drafts, there's a lot of offensive linemen in the top ten um, which is not good for the Cowboys. But by the way, I see there's a rating service that the Cowboys don't need an offensive line. Oh wow, Okay, before we go there, before we go there, mickey my tongue since since Everson brought it up, before you talk offensive line whatever you

top defensive Draft nineteen eighty one. Okay, three of the top eight picks hall of famers from the on the defensive side of the football. That would be Lawrence Taylor number two overall, Kenny Easily number four, and Ronnie Lott number eight. Sorry, I knew what he was talking about. So there are only three Hall of Famers in the first round. Wow. But there were three more Hall of

Famers in the second round, all defensive players. Mike Singletary number thirty eight to Chicago, Howie Long number forty eight to Oakland, and Ricky Jackson fifty one to New Orleans. So there you go. There's six defensive Hall of Famers in the first two roun. Guess whose name is not mentioned on that who was one of the greatest college football players to ever play? Everson Walls? Well, Hugh Green, Yeah that's right. Yeah, yeah, I mean he was up.

He was the first linebackground for the High So no wonder get in the Hall of Fame, right, yeah? You Green went number seven to Tampa Bay. Yeah all right, Mickey, go ahead. You're offensive line, offensive lines. I saw the ratings service that supposedly grades every player every play, every game. Uh. They rank the offensive line offensive lines in the NFL for the twenty twenty one season, number one, Your Dallas Cowboys. What do you think they watch? What? Come on, man,

this is what service. It starts with a Homer. Homer service, that's where it starts. That's where Is this the one that you're always on? Yeah? Really not on I'm on them, on them yeah, And I was like, did they did they look? I mean, and so you know, you go back and it's like so well, So I guess it was all Zeke's fault. Zeke did not a run and the hole and Dad couldn't read defense because he must have been holding the ball getting sacked all the time.

I was like, I was flabbergasted. Wow. And I heard someone say the other day the line must be doing well. My other conclusion was offensive lines in this league aren't very good. Now. I'm not saying they were terrible, but maybe in the top ten, but not number one. No, we're not that offensive line anymore. I mean we used to be that line. And I believe they had Connor Williams ranked either the second or ninth best guard in the league. Wait that's wait so okay, I said second,

seventh or ninth somewhere in there. Right, So each team, each team's got two guards starting right, that's sixty four. Wow. I guess they didn't dock him for penalties maybe, And you know what, if you get away from the penalties, he wasn't that bad. I mean, he's not perfect. That sounds funny. It's like, you know, if it wasn't for Niagara Falls, I could walk through Buffalo. Somebody signed him in free agency. I bet he gets signed and probably

for some decent money. Yes, yeah, more than the Cowboys will want to pay. Wow. So anyway, Yeah, that one caught my eye and I was like, huh, you know, I gotta say, guys, I was doing pretty well this week. This past weekend, I had a couple of gigs where I was able to make a little money. Sound a few other graphs. And one place that I went was Batavia, New York. I've heard of it. I've never heard of it.

It's right in between Buffalo and Rochester. Yeah, okay. It was so much snow on the ground it was ridiculous. But I met some of the nicest, coolest people out there, and they told me to tell you, guys high because they listened to me. Why well, I didn't know anybody listened to us. And the people in in uh Batavia are listening to us, Like, man, you must be boring right here. That's great nobody I know really, that's one Wow.

Hello to the people in Batavia. I had several people come up to me and say they love to hear us all mixed up, you know, the the and not to you know, pat ourselves on the back. But I think it was the reception Star Sports Tour reception before the playoff game San Francisco U the night before or the day before. Um, I had a bunch of people come up and say thank you, but well, you know, we get there all the time when we when we

do a little bit a little gig. Yeah, so that not that that after there was a bunch of guys they were probably all our age too. Well these guys weren't. Yeah, okay, these are younger people. I'd say around fifty much younger, much younger enough. So anyway, go back to the quarterback thing, because this this just kind of hit me. Um, Cowboys, we sit here and talk about the problems in free agency, and I was thinking, well, at least they've got a quarterback.

And I was looking at teams that have quarterback problems, like they don't know maybe who the starter is going to be. Carolina, they're not sure, Denver has no idea. Detroit, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Detroit, Detroit, Yeah, what what what What do you mean is that anything new? On the first round? He took a team to the Super Bowl? Mickey, you think they're sinking his teeth into him? Then gonna get rid of him next year? Well, they might they find some if they find a replacement that

you need. Take that one off the list. Okay, Indianapolis, there's another one. They're no, they're right. I'm with it because I watched Hard Knocks. That was brutal. It was brutal watching those last two episodes and the Saints. What if Jamis isn't totally healthy every time he looked up, he's hurt. Now, how about this one? Houston and I looked up to Shaun Watson's contract for the twenty twenty two season, thirty five million dollars base salary. It's already guaranteed.

So if they get rid of him before June first, his dead money fifty one point two billion dollars. Wow, and that means cut or trade. Now you know they can make him a post June one cut. So what's year some of it? Next year? What does he count against the cap as a suspended player? What's his capt number? What's his captain But he hasn't been suspected. What is his guy, I didn't write down that. Wait, Bill, this

thing about what he just said. He has not been suspended and we have not seen him all year long. All sridiculous. So he counts against the cap whatever his cap number. They have to if they want to get ease that they got a restructure or do something with the contract. And if he's on the roster March twentieth, permission to restructure, right, Bill, No, they can just do they just damn money, okay, yeah, yeah, no, And so

he will accept that money. Yeah. And if he's on the roster like Amari Cooper on March twentieth, his twenty million, uh, his base salary of twenty million is guaranteed for twenty twenty three, and they have to pay him his roster

bonus of seventeen million. This is if they don't do anything. Yeah, if he's on the team, yeah, okay, So, which is why Houston has to go the economical route at quarterback with a young quarterback, because they're already paying a quarterback that kind of money, right, and if they have that and if he's not playing, yeah with Mills, so who by the way, if he was in this draft might be the top quarterback taking in the draft because he

was an early third round pick last year. Well, if it's not just a bunch of bs the coach is talking about, this is going to be my guy. Oh and I forgot one team Washington. M and Ron Rivera this week says he feels like they need a veteran quarterback. Yeah. Now, if Garoppolo he's got he had the shoulder surgery and if he and I don't know how that affects his trade status whatever, but Garoppolo seems like he would be

a good fit in Washington. Yeah. Good defense. They've been able to somewhat run the football and they don't have to over expose him if he can stay healthy. Right, and he's San Francisco. His guarantees have expired, Okay, so he's not. They don't owe anything if they let him go. And so, yeah, and so, which is another reason why they went ahead and drafted their quarterback of the future

last year, thinking young player Trey Lance. He'll red shirt and then they can get Garoppolo off the books this year or he would have been really expensive if they got rid of him this last year. Yeah, yeah, this past season and then the other one I noticed is his name keeps bouncing around. Russell Wilson in Seattle his captain this year thirty seven million, but if they move on from him, twenty six million dead, so everybody goes one more. The Cardinals, Oh yeah, right, now he would

be movable. Kyler Murray, Uh yeah, because he's he's basically in the last year of his contract if they have if they don't pick up the fifty year option, right, which is why he's doing what he's doing exactly. You know my note in mix shots today on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. You know that his agent released this long That's what I was talking about. He wants to be here, he needs to develop. And I said, right, and the and the GM basically, uh, what was his comment? His GM.

The GM's comment was something like pretty simple. It was simple. It's like, yeah, we have to work, you know, And basically it was about money, right, he wants a new country and and so I wrote, I said, so this kind of reminds me of uh was it Rod Tidwell in in in the movie Jerry McGuire. Oh yeah, right, show me the money. That's what he might as well. Just he could have saved that long tweet he had out there and just put the stay on the team.

Who's that till now? Bidwell did Wells? That's good? Do they stay alone them? They stay on the Michael Bidwells still still because they were known at one point is one of the cheapest organizations. And they just extended Kingsbury in the G seven. Yea, So take that all right? So does Kyler Murray? Does his style fit with every NFL offense? I would say no, especially what narrows the field down down the shot. They have surrounded him with some good people. I mean, I don't know what the

excuses are. The second half of that season. Well, I mean Hopkins got hurt at Hopkins yeah yeah, but even with even with Hopkins, if I'm not mistaken, they had their faults in the latter part of the season. Well, he was gone when they started. Was that when it happened? Yeah? It was halfway through the season, wasn't it when he got hurt because they started off ten and two? Yeah?

Well then and then Murray was out and McCoy started three games I feel right, like three games in mid season, and so um and he came back and they weren't quite the he weren't the same and he was just making bad decisions. But yeah, because I know. But the GM said, yeah, this is just business, and it's like, yeah,

like it's about money because he doesn't want him. He doesn't you know, if they don't pick up that fifth year option and he's playing the last year of his contract and he don't want to take that chance, well then Russell can leave. They can just switch. Russell can come to Arizona and he can go up to Seattle, right just and that would be hand off kind of cool. It really wouldn't be kind of cool. Everybody wants, right. I can't imagine Seattle, especially within the division. Yeah, oh

my good. If we just came up with something that's drama, that's drama that that there would bring the NFL probably a billion. Okay, So the perspective of the two fan bases, how much would Arizona like Russell Wilson over Kyler Murray. First of all, Russell would be closer to Los Angeles and he can be he and his wife can not how much Russell would like The Cardinal fans like it. Oh oh, the Cardinal fans would love it, don't you think? And then how about Seahawk fans Kyler Murray over Russell

was just as excited, but right, just as excited. The grass is always greener on the other side. But if you trade, they would both be both fan based, would be extremely If you trade for him, you better have a buttload of salary cap space because that's going to count the salary. And he's only got after this coming season.

He only has one more year on his contract, So Russell is more U it's safer to take as far as financially well less if a financial risk for us anybody, if I mean, if you look at it, you know, thirty seven million dollars cap hit. Who is he on this contract? He's got this year and next year, which is why Kyler has two if they picked up the option. Yeah, so it's a match, I'm telling you man. We just we just made a deal, right, a deal, all right? And one more Okay? Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay. Yeah, he

says he stayed. His base salary this year is twenty six point four million, and if he's not there and his cap numbers forty six point six million, and if he's not there, twenty six point eight million in dead money Okay, okay, I know we gotta take a play. But giants are they solid? Well, they're gonna go with Jones. I don't know that they've sunk their teeth into No, they have new new head coaches. Yeah they have not, I promise you they have not. But they probably almost

got it. The guys had a different offensive coordinary every year. Right, he was going to get two years in a row with Jason Garrett and then they got h The judge got him right here, come to judge stories about that guy. Can we hear him? Yeah, he knew everything we can. We can hear him. Next here on Mick Shutts. Oh maybe, Oh we'll get that all right. That's when we come back here on race yourself for an existential question. Has your butt been having enough fun lately? Have you been

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two to five four eight six o and forever. Since it's k postcompany dot com, you don't have to worry about all right, We've got some breaking news. Would you have a breaking news sounder, Chris Bean not currently bam bam. I think I do, and it's your voice breaking news. NFL, the NFL, and NFLPA have agreed to lift the joint

COVID nineteen related protocols teams were informed Thursday morning. This means no more testing regardless of vaccination status, no more tracking devices, and no more tears or limits in cafeterias, weight rooms. Masks are no longer required in team facilities, regardless of vaccination status. Chris Beam was ahead of the ball game. You're no more plexiglass in front of them before that got released. He knew it was going on.

And this story does not say it, but our producer Chris Beam informs us that there will be media returning to the locker room soon. Oh I bet there's a lot of celebration going on in that library, right, coming back. We missed up, missed up, no piss all right, breaking news to go ahead, go ahead. Browse resigned. Well a couple of days, I know, but it's it's breaking for this for my ground author author couldn't hang in there. Man, Well you can put that on Doug Williams. Yeah, once

he said that. Yeah, that was pretty much it for him. But it's so funny though. Duck said in his statement that he had already expressed his disappointment to athletic director to the president. I mean, you know, isn't like he's he's Moses around there. But still here was the Here was the mistake they made because they probably caught grief on social media and they tried to respond to it and qualify and you just got to let that stuff go, right,

you can't say. And I think one of the things they said, well, this is calling bringing in attention to this to make sure that everybody doesn't do this, and that's going to help out. And it's like, well, you know, I think the main thing was when you when you have someone like Hugh Jackson, he's got a big heart, he really does. He's one of those guys that he's going to give you that second chance if anyone's going to do that, because he got screwed a lot in

the NFL. He was let go unceremoniously a couple of times in the NFL, which is why he's in the position he is now trying to work his way back in through grambling. But I don't think a lot of people appreciated the fact that Art Brows was going to work his way in after just the reputation that followed. True or not, take all the blame or not. You can put it here and put it there percentage wise, but when it's all said and done, they just felt

that Grahamlan didn't need it here. We already fight enough enough battles up there trying to get some money. Be kind of tough to to try and raise some money up there with someone on our brows who brings the baggage with him, not necessarily as he uh you know, implicit in any way, but he brings baggage with him. That was the tough part about it. Radioactive, what's it whether he likes it or not. Um, Okay, we're not to be concerned about Dak's shoulder surgery that he had

a sound that way. I mean he played it was left shoulder, left shoulder, non throwing shoulder. It was scoped

and he probably got it. He got hit so many times. Yeah, but other part of the season that could have been a problem, which, by the way, when I was talking about the offensive line, yeah, speaking of I pointed out that maybe they didn't watch the Kansas City game when he was sacked five times and hit eight other times, and maybe the playoff game against count you can keep it when he was sacked five times and he was hit fourteen times. I wonder his shoulder. Another game that

was similar to that as well. Yeah, goodness gracious, So yeah, I don't. I mean, you know, we sit, we hear it's a scope, right, Well, a lot of surgeries are scope, but it's still surgery, except when it's you know, when it's you, it's like, oh no, that's a little different, man. You know, when you look at these guys, they're younger, you know, their their bodies are shite. That's why you see some scopes I got might comeback in two weeks, you know, just depending on the kind of ship and

what it is and how young he is. All right, next thing on your legal pad? What do you get there? So, oh wait, we were going to get him to talk about Joe Joe Judge. Yeah, man, talk to someone. Told me, yeah, he's got all the answers. He knew everything, and that's why he's fired and and and and supposedly his practices were just ridiculous, way just from an organization standpoint, from chaos what they did or how hard they practiced. Yeah really, yeah,

so it bees old school. Huh yeah, so here here was on my on my list, and this is this is a weird thing, cowboys, you know, one of the things, Uh, I think Steven pointed out at the combine. Mike McCarthy pointed out that they got to emphasize penalties this year, you know, when they're preparing too many penalties. They led the league with one hundred and twenty seven penalties for

one thousand, one hundred and three yards. And that's regular season, right, he didn't count the fourteen more in the playoff game. But here checked this out. So the Cowboys were penalized one hundred and twenty seven times in seventeen games. Their opponents were penalized one hundred and twenty one times, only six less. So what is every game that we play? Do we check this out? Are we magnets for yellow flags? Are it's it's the cruise that you you, you know,

pulled up. The Cowboys had sixty three penalties on offense, their opponents had sixty four. They had forty seven penalties on defense, their opponents had forty four. And on special teams, the difference was Cowboys seventeen point opponents thirteen. So and how about this goodness? Now, how about the Cowboys. Three of the Cowboys opponents Chargers Vegas, Arizona. They were the other three in the top four in most penalties, Yeah, Vegas,

I can see. And seven of the Cowboys top seven of the top eleven most penalized teams in the league were Cowboys opponents Minnesota, Kansas City, Carolina, and Philadelphia. What does that say? That's what I said. I said, Yeah, it's like, how did they got all these penalties? But the teams they were playing got all these penalties? And usually to me, when you're in current penalties, it's not all pre snap right. Some of it you're getting your ass beat right and you're just grabbing on. So were

the Cowboys beating up on their apologies? Defense was causing and they were causing penalties? Are they were causing false starts because you're you're start and get jittery up there. So I just passed. I just saw that when they talked about the pet and I called up to make sure they were number one, because I thought they were one hundred and twenty seven. So one hundred and forty one if you count the sand we beat, we beat

the Raiders, we bes. Look who's here? Did you want to inform the masses making it's missus Romo and Romos wearing their nine jerseys. Well, you know, in case the kids getting lost, you know, right, yea, they returned hands who used to work with us. By that's right, that's exactly of course, she started beating Tony. Yeah, get the whole crew. There another good journalism graduate from the University of Missouri. Yeah, like that in Missouri. She was in

TV by that, Okay, okay, yeah, she was acceptional. She was actually missus Missouri. I'll see, she was acceptional. I thought they all like she, by the way, I thought they all looked like that. Obviously not and looking at you. By the way. We used to do the Jerry what was it was the Jerry Jones Show, right, we did. We used to do it together. She hosted it and

I was for special edition, special edition. Yeah, beauty and yeah, you know the other thing when Canadas started in this business, I mean she worked her way up where I remember on Friday night she'd be at high school football games with the camera. High school, by the way. I went to a playoff game and she was covering it on her own. Same thing. She's running up and down the sideline with the camera taking notes. And then I saw her a halftime do a stand up on her own.

No came one man person. And that's how they taught you at the universities. Okay, here goes you know what. We had her on talking cowboys one time. I don't know if I don't know if you would with us

at that point when we were at Valley Ranch. I think she had some charity going on and we had her on and she gave us words charity, Valley Ranch, Valley Ranch, and she gave us some pretty good insight to what Tony was like after games and she goes, oh, home games, everybody was required to watch the game with him, right, win or lose, and he would go through the entire game. If we were having people over the house, it was

like he was almost practicing post career job. Yeah. No, he just needs somebody to listen to him, fust himself, you know, that's what he needed. By the way, the deal came up with Troy Hickman. Yeah. In fact, I saw Candice the other day at North Park they had the heart She walked by when they were doing the interview.

She was, she was there. It was part of the for Children's Hospital, the charity gala where they they announced to the patients the children who are going to be models for the fashion show, the annual fashion show that draws over a million dollars and uh fundraising for children's hospital. She was there, but Troy was there with Rogers Staubach and they are the chairman once again of the event. Roger's been at it since its inception over thirty years ago,

and Troy has for over twenty years now. It's a great event that comes up April twenty second at the Hilton Anatole. But to your point, then, the question of the day for Troy was, you know, with free agency in the NFL, who's the who's the biggest name free agent out there right now? Will it's Troy Aikman in broadcasting circles which they're talking about. If he gets the it sounds like it's on the way right Well, he

did not. He didn't deny it. He did not. He basically said that the reports out there are not untrue. I think I think whatever, I think that what I saw as they I guess Fox Fox would have a have a barbecue, a barbecue dinner. I don't know if it was before Thanksgiving or before a game or whatever for him and Joe and the crew. And somebody asked him, so does you know, will you be going to Doucy asked Docy. Mike Doucy asked, are we going to see

you at the company Picknick this year? And he said, if I'm invited as a guest, So anyway, it maybe so the five it was five years ninety million, right, So I looked up his contract that you know, the first one with the Cowboys was five years, eleven million and total money he made playing for the Cowboys in twelve years with fifty five million, and now you're talking eighteen a year for five years. Come along. It's a matter of fact. Mirrors. Harris anderss h I guess we

could ask her. Yeah, Tony's only eighty, right, Which made me think back to the first time Troy came to training camp in Thousand Oaks. Myself and I think it was Edward or we were standing on the side of the road in front of the remember the old Gymnasium where John Wooden would do this camp. We were standing there and here comes Troy pulling in and he's in this old pickup truck, right, and he gets out because we're gonna do an interview with him, and he's basically

got Remember the old Grace sweats. We used to have big, oh heavy hot thing. Yeah right, that's what he was wearing. And I'm going he just got like a five million dollars signing bonus or whatever it was, and he showed up like you know, like we would have shown up in high school, right. You know who the first person he met was, the first cowboy he met, It was me, Troy. Yeah, what do you mean? Uh? When Lee Steinberg and he came to town right after they signed, the jones Is

invited myself in Trurell to meet them. I was a captain of the team at that time, and we met Troy and Lee Steinburg like even before the draft because they signed him before the draft at Foosies. That was before you met Jimmy. Oh yeah, you're you're a captain of the team before. No, obviously we met them after after he signed, but definitely before. Why do I remember Foozies because it's a great place. What do you mean why where it was on the Uh that was down

wasn't great McKinney. It was on McKinney. Oh oh yeah yeah. Because they used to have that special drink that's Troy. I can't remember it. Yeah, yeah, you remember they were I mean they were called why I remember that, I called the foosies. Well that's good. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. He had chew, of course, and Lee had chew in his mouth too, just because Troy had it, which, of course, you know, Lee never had two in his dog gonna light. But that day they they signed the contract,

they had you. That's funny, all right? Time for another break here and Mickey is I got more? You got more? More? Where that came from? Next? Here on mix shots. Before there was a draft, you could size up a cowboy by three simple factors. The crease in his hat, the bend of his brim, and his unbending attitude. A man Stetson didn't just protect him from what life throw at him. It projected a rugged, unstoppable spirit. Stetson hats are still American,

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of mix Shots. Okay, it's March third, I'm doing the math here on Okay, March sixteenth is the start of the new year. The whistle goes off, but it actually goes off March fourteenth where teams can start negotiating with free Bag as if they're not doing it all. That's the day that that's Adam Schefter's big day where he announces all the deals. Right, and so that's a week from Monday, So we're closing in on it. Franchise tag

deadline day is this coming Monday or Tuesday? Right? Okay, I mean we've talked a little bit last week about or is there anyone on this Cowboys team that they would put a tag on? And we determine that likely no, right, probably not because the salary cap starts on the sixteenth, and you've got to be able to cover the franchise tag, so they would have to make room for that. Okay, what do you make of what I said at the combat what Stephen Jones in particular, was asked about it?

And Jerry will be talking at the combine here in the next day or two. Yeah, either I think tomorrow or Saturday. Typically in the past he's done it on Saturday, but that was when the combine ended on Monday. Combine ends on Sunday this year, so he might do it tomorrow, mightbe do it Friday. And he had his hands full yesterday boxing. Um a matter of fact, he said they he flew back just for that press conference by the way out at the stadium. Errol Spence Junior. Right, how

do you say the other guy's name? Yeah, Ugas, Yes, that's good. I have no idea. Yeah, yeah he didn't. Yeah, that's good. So so the big question was Amari Cooper, right, because March twentieth is the deadline for his contract being guaranteed if he's on the roster. Um, so what are we Today's the third so we're seventeen days away from that. So whatever they do, they got to make a decision

before that. If they're keeping him, okay, fine, he gets his twenty million dollars base salary, two million dollars count two mile and more on his provided signing bonus, so twenty two million dollar cap hit. If they let him go, they get the base salary back, and then they'll occur

six million dollars in dead money. So everybody talks about what you saved when you release a guy, right, nobody points out they already got seven million dollars in dead money to account for six point eight of it Jaalen Smith's by releasing him. And you can't just keep releasing guys and saying, okay, well we're getting this money back.

The other thing I noticed on March twentieth, six point four eight million of Lale Collins ten million dollars base salary guaranteed on that day if he's on the roster. And by the way, I heard somebody say, well they can release him, Well, that's fourteen million in dead money because not only is it signing bonus, it's restructure bonus. And the same thing with DeMarcus Lawrence. Oh you know,

it's nineteen million dollars based salary. Will guess what, Release him and you're gonna get nineteen million dollars in dead money either all this year or part this year, part next year. And then the other question that I keep posing is, okay, say you do it. Who's playing wide receiver for you? Ceedee lamb? And what other guarantee do you have? None? Right, they're all free agents. Yeah, you're Gallop free agent. Come Cedric Wilson free and coming off in ACL. He's gonna end up on pop. Do the

math on that. If he gets back in seven months, which is a very fast recovery from a torn ACL that takes you to September, he's gonna miss September. He's gonna end up on pup uh. And there's no he may take eight months, he could take nine months. So you really can't count on that. Um, Just thinking about how quickly we forget right. When Mary Cooper came, he turned this team around. Remember remember it was wide receiver by committee. My you know what the committee didn't work

out so well until he got here. Uh, Cedric Wilson, he's up, Noah Brown's up. Malik Turner is out, a league turner like the league turner. So how do you don't know you're gonna get all these guys? And who's playing wide receiver? Are you spending your first round pick on a wide receiver now? Because we need four? We need four? Right? Yeah, at least at least So, yeah, you're saving money, but you're not helping your roster out.

And the same thing with DeMarcus Lawrence. Oh well you can save all that base salary, and everybody keeps I don't understand that. And here's the one I don't understand what people keep saying that is like, well, look what his numbers were. Well, do you realize he only played seven games? He missed nine ten games, right, and when he came back he was bawling, right, And so and okay take him out. Who's playing defensive end for you? Because Randy Gregory, you have no assurance at this point

that you can get him resigned. Dorin's Armstrong's unrestricted. I don't know what other teams think about him, but you never know what happens with market value. As I pointed out last week, we saw what happened to Anthony Hitchens. It's like, well, yeah, he's good, but I don't know.

Let's see what market value was. Well, market value was forty five million over five years, and the Cowboys couldn't afford that, right, And and so if those three guys are gone, you're looking at Chauncey Golston and Terrell Basham. How you feel about that? And you still got problems at safety because three of your top four safeties are free agents. And you've got problems at linebacker because not only is vander esh unrestricted, but so is Kean O'Neill.

So you can't start just and there are other defensive linemen that are free agents, and Carlos watch. Yes, so I gotta say that just lets you know that this past year was the year? Was the year? Right? You let it get away from it? Obviously you're telling me, I mean, we're supposed to be talking about how many people were losing after we just made it to the super Bowl. That's what we should be talking and you'd feel good about yes, right, yes, So yeah, they've got

a lot of work to do now. They'll start um as soon as I guess it kicks in, they'll they'll redo Dak's twenty million dollars based salary, so pick up anywhere from I don't know, fifteen million right there. They might pick up enough too, because they're in the rears right now to kind of come even. And then they got to restructure some contracts, you know, and they can restructure Lale Collins again. They can restructure Tyring again if

they wanted to. They can do to Marcus Lawrence again and reduce that nineteen million dollars base the way they did the previous year. My bold statements is that Tyling may not be back well. And that's say he would count twelve million dollars against the cap if you didn't have them so and he's only got a thirteen point five million dollars base. And by the way, he was the cowboys number one graded offensive lineman on that analysis,

higher than Zach Martin. You know, I think I don't think either one of them played up to their full potential. I really don't. I'm not sure anybody did on that offensive line. Um. I thought they struggled. That's why I was very surprised by that ranking and say what you want. But Conrad Williams is unrestricted, so they have enough of enough of those contracts that they can restructure where they can create enough space to do business. I believe they can't.

And then put a team together and then just grit your teeth because where they don't don't they don't have to get rid of any of the veteran guys that aren't free agents right now in order to and see And I guess what you have to weigh is what what am I getting for my twenty million dollars with a Marie Cooper? Now, everybody like Wally they only had sixty eight catches or whatever it was. I think that's right.

But because you're basically you missed three games, what you're basically going to have to do with that twenty million dollars that you're saving on Amari Cooper is you're going to sign or draft a wide receiver class that takes up that twenty million dollars. Basically, you know, yeah, and and and just because you're drafting them doesn't mean you're hitting right. Michael Parsons doesn't come around every year with your first and they don't have the what was the

eleventh they traded down to Twitter. They were or CD Lamb there was around sixteen or seventeen. Was sixteen or seventeen. Parsons was twelve. And what are we looking at twenty four? Twenty four? You can get in Everson Wallace, get Bryan Bryant that you could trade down to thirty one and get traps and you probably need help on the office of line. But are you gonna use and everybody? I saw some of these mock drafts and they're giving him a guard, not using my first round pick on a

guard unless he can play tackle. If it's a tackle that can play guard and then eventually go to tackle. Yeah, flows Al Adams, did that? Do we have a star? There's no stud tackle out there coming up? That's what I was asking you about the Green Book. There's a couple. Maybe you have an offensive lineman. I'll get to work. I'll get to work on it. I mean, I've seen as many as three offensive tackles taken in the first ten. Hey, look, but they ain't gonna be there. This this is this

is Batavia. That's your snows in New York. They have they have a race track. Can you see this stuff? They have a race track. That is the race track. It is a stock car. Oh that's probably where because they've got they got a Yeah, that is all. That was all snow. I mean that was that was crazy upstate New York. Yeah. Man, that's that's Cannada, Cana. Yeah. All right, So by this time next week, well, well you won't. You're going to be here next week, but

that'll be our free agent preview. That'll be I'm sitting in your chair. Here you go. You're more than well, thank you. Make sure you fill it. I'm gonna spray it with quality, and I'm gonna fill it up with quality, and I'm gonna start filling up this big green notebook with quality. But three o'clock this afternoon when I start watching the combine. All right, so what's what's my what's my Uh? You got an assignment? Yeah, what's my assignment?

That's my assignment. You need to watch the linebackers. Okay, which is Saturday? I think I think you're linebackers are Saturday. Yeah, schedule is today, Quarterbacks, wide receivers tight ends Tomorrow is three o'clock. Three o'clock is what they pushed it back to get it more into prime time because it's a TV of it now, and then the tomorrow is tight ends, an offensive lineman, and then Saturday will be defensive linemen and linebackers, and then your DBS go on Sunday. They're

always I'm doing both. I'll do both. What happened to the running backs? Running backs tomorrow tomorrow? Yeah? Okay, yeah, I'm sorry, No tight ends were today. It's it's quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends today, running backs and offensive linemen tomorrow morrow. Yeah. Come on, y'all, let's get out of here. I got a copy some papers, as can we have a TV show to that's right, and it's the return

of the Blitz. He right o'clock on CBS eleven. I think it's the nineteenth year of the Blitz and it starts now next week. Go Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.