Mick Shots: In Depth On Aldon Smith

Dallas Cowboys. On a Thursday, May twenty eighth, twenty twenty and if my calculations are correct, it's day number seventy seven. Now day number Jim, let me write down seventy seven, Okay, a seventy seven and there are less than seventy seven days before we're headed to training camp in Oxnard, California. I haven't done the math on that. Let's see twenty two and they're fifty three about We're about fifty seven days away from living on a jet plane for Oxnard, California.

Doctor Fauci, what do you have to say about that? He is way too happy. He is way way too happy. I'm just I don't know what's going on with him this morning. He took a shower this morning. Now he's all bright and bushy tail. I'll look at you, Bill,

you look great man. That's exactly right. But Micky, we got so much to get to Mike mc Mike mccarthurw with a car Prince call yesterday and were re established communication with Mickey spagnolan in a second Everson and so he talked with the media for oh, pretty much twenty five minutes or so. I didn't put a clock on it, but there were a lot of things that he went over as far as how he is handling things and how the team is their virtual offseason talked about Alden Smiths,

by the way, coming up a little bit later. It will be the agent for Alden Smith, Ron Slaven, who will join us and talk about how things are going. As Alden Smith joined the virtual offseason program on Tuesday. Mickey, understand you are back. I am back. I'm not frozen anymore.

But yeah, you're exactly right. Things really kind of moving along this week with some of the other teams opening up their facilities to just a certain amount of people, the Cowboys doing that, and then the NFL owners having their meetings today virtually of course, and also voting on a couple proposals, so we can also get to that. And you know, I thought Mike McCarthy was pretty good

yesterday talking about the different things. And I'm not sure we all really realize that he went back to Green Bay after the shutdown, and basically he's been doing all the stuff with the team virtually from Green Bay, all the meetings, the teachings they were having, he was at his house and as he said, you know, he's anxious to get back, and he felt like his family was anxious for him to get back and get out of

the house. So the little levity there from him, but yeah, you know, they're moving along doing the best you can. It's a tough thing for teams that don't have new head coaches, but regardless, everybody's kind of in the same boat trying to get prepared for a season. There's got to be a little strange. You know, your coach is not at the facility. That's a little bit unusual. I didn't know he had gone back to Green Bay as

well as facts. That's kind of unusual when you're talking about getting prepared for meeting your team, working with your team and to do that virtually. I did read a quote where he said that it is affecting their preparedness because you just really can't do the same things while I'm in Green Bay. The players are here, we're not even practicing. We can't even meet really, not in a regular,

normal standpoint. I just really think that this is going to be a challenging thing for McCarthy because this is a new team. Now, if he was still with the Green Bay Packers, it'd be a totally different thing. He's accustomed to the system. He doesn't have to indoctrinate anyone at this point. Everything is new, and he's doing it from a remote location. It's got to be weird, you know, Emerson,

I heard something really interesting last trunk. Maybe it was the end of last week or is the beginning of this week. I've lost track of time days, but seventy seven, okay, so I don't know what day. They did the conference call with Anthony Brown, I mean Xavier Woods, and he was they were asking and he got asked about is it difficult to learn when you're doing everything virtually? And he goes, you know, it's different, he goes, but it's

almost like being back in college. He goes, I took online courses and that's how we learned it was online. So he goes, this is kind of the same, Uh, you know, paying attention when you're online to listen to a professor. So for some of the younger guys, they might understand this better than you know, what we do because they kind of were used to that in college. So yeah, it's different, but everybody again is in the

same boat. The problem is, yeah, he still hasn't had face to face meeting with all ninety guys on the roster, and as he pointed out, with whatever he's using zooming to stream or whatever, that you can't get ninety faces on the screen at the same time. So that's kind of the biggest difference, and just the personal contact you have with the players. So what you're saying, Mickey is the Johnny Manzil was a trend setter as far as

college athletes are concerned, and now everybody takes all their classes. Yeah, he'd he'd fit in real good now going to summer school or finishing out the semester, right, because that's what most everybody had to do. The high school kids, elementary school and who knows. You know, you may end up doing that on a temporary basis when everybody goes back

to school in the fall. You know, I've read different things about come on, doctor Fauci, we're gonna be back in cle everybody right, going two days and some going three days alternating next week. All of these, all of these colleges are turning into the University of Phoenix. That's right here. How much is University of Phoenix is going

to benefit from this stuff? All right? Let's about as far as Dak Prescott is concerned, Mickey, Because back in April, when Mike McCarthy met with the media, of course he was he was not going to say one way or the other whether Dak Prescott was participating in the virtual off season. He as much as alluded to it yesterday,

didn't come right out and say it. But when asked about Dak Prescott, I don't think he was asked point blank about whether Dak is involved in the virtual off Season, But he said that it's a business situation that Dak is going through right now. There is communication and it's something that they'll just have to deal with, and but he doesn't believe it will be set back any Yeah, and you know you would like certainly like your quarterback

taking partner in anything. I still don't understand, you know why. It's not it's not creating any leverage. It certainly hasn't affected, uh, the negotiations one way or another. I mean again, you know, you roll out of bed. You don't even have to put a T shirt on to join the meeting, right, don't have to comb your hair, you know, take a shower.

It's pretty simple. It's not like asking a lot. So that again does Yeah, everybody I know, and I understand agents, and you know they it's his their their client and telling them what to do. But to me, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. That's always been the move. Though nothing's different here just because it's virtual. It's not going to make a difference to the player or to the

agent themselves. They're still trying to take their stand and they're trying to show that they have resolved and that Okay, as long as we're gonna have these issues and this is going to be dragged out the way it is, then this is gonna be my punishment to you. Uh, you know, that's just that's just the way it is I don't think at this point it's extremely urgent. I don't know how much they're changing up the offensive game

playing spans. You might know more than I would, but uh, you know, when you come off of a season like Dak had, you know, all mistakes and bad games aside. You're talking about a guy who had a premier year, and uh, I would imagine he's thinking, I've been out there practicing with dead Bryant, so I'm ready, you know. You know. My thought on that though, is if what if I have to you know, what if we don't get a long term deal done and I got to

play on the franchise tag. Well, if I'm playing on the franchise tag, boy, I want to have the best year I've ever had, and I want to be totally prepared because I don't want to have a down year. And then I'm either you know, trying to get the second franchise tag or they say, you know, don't know that we need this guy. I would and that's far fetched, right,

I understand, of course. But if you're you know, maybe you do this if you're a quarterback, but say you're I don't know, an offensive lineman or a cornerback, or I would want to have the best year I could have to market myself just in case I had to go into free agency. I'm sure now as now I'm speaking as a player. When you're talking as a player

and you come off the year that he just had. Now, team wise, of course, that was a lot of things left on the table, but as far as his own individual year, I think he's feeling pretty good about himself. And you know, just you know, one offseason camp won't really make a difference. Hopefully we won't have to deal with this the next time around. When is the next scheduled virtual offseason camp? Do you know how do they do this? You know, we're going to have more than one.

Seems like they could have it every day since we're going to the University of Phoenix type of learning. Yeah, you don't. You don't want to overburden the players now in the off season, right, can't taxing them? Right? Plus you know, and Bill Bill mentioned you know that everything kind of moving forward. So I was going to ask mister optimism, So you think the players and coaches will be back in the building, say in two weeks the middle of June. You know, I'm not so sure. I'm

not so sure about that. You know, my man Lincoln Riley up at Oklahoma, he said that it'd be crazy

on the college level. It'd be crazy for the student athletes to be back on campus as they normally would be at the beginning of the summer on June first, and ou as they're bringing their players back on July first, even though conferences are now allowing players I believe to be back on campus as early as June eighth, summer June fifteenth, So in the abundance of caution, they've been advised at that particular university by their doctors to bring them back as late as possible, Which leads me to

the question, I don't know that it necessarily matters right now outside of yeah, with especially with the Cowboys with a new coaching staff, you would like to have some hands on time with your players as early as possible, But Everson as a player has not had an offseason program hands on on an NFL in an NFL facility. How much time will these players need to get ready for the season. How different will it be from past years as far as physically being able to play a

regular season football game in early September. You know, to me, I think you have to look at veterans versus rookies. You know, we've signed some very prominent rookies for this team through the draft, and if we want these guys to be involved in this game, in this team and in this season, that we're gonna have to get some some of these players a chance to play. So, having said that, it's very important at this point when you're talking about bringing in Ceedee Lamb, you know, this guy

has to be ready to go. We're looking at him as one of my slot guys. He's gonna have to be ready to go. We're looking at the defensive ends that we signed, They're gonna have to be ready to go. There. You've got a because of the free agency and because of the draft picks, you're gonna have to have this team running on all cylinders if we want to make a move that we didn't make last year. Coming off of last season was not good. So these players are going to have to be really in tune to a

new system, especially defensively the cornerbacks themselves. You know, it's about timing when it comes to cornerbacks. You can't just get out there and say, well, I've been looking at film of myself and now I'm ready to go. No, you have to go out there and compete against these other players, so you have the time that they need to get prepared for the season. Is very precious right now and definitely more precious than it has been doing other off seasons. But as far as training camp goes,

normal length training camp should be good. Right as far as from a nautical nasical standpoint, get ready for the season or do they need more time? Now? They're gonna need more time. You've got different players, You've got newer players coming in. You got even though the veterans that came in from Carolina, You've got the free agent signings. I truly believe they're going to need more time because I'm still including this off season as a factor. You still have to get some work done in the off

season as you prepare for the training camp. Right now, players are they're not like we were a bill. We used to come in off season. We didn't do jack. We came to training camp to get in shape. Right now, these guys are different. They're in shape all year round. They are having a bit of a problem doing that with the special situation with the disease going to happen, how do you think the Players Association is going to

feel because there's an opportunity here. Let's say it all clears up and people can be back on campus by June fifteenth or so in a normal off season, that basically is when the off season program is ending June fifteenth or twentieth, and then the players have a month

off before the start of training camp. Yeah. I don't know if the league will, if if the teams will propose this to the players, But how will the Players Union feel about, Okay, going ahead and that last month that you're normally off, you're back on campuses and you're doing you're doing an off season program, getting set for training camp. How will that go over with the players? You know? I think the players just wanted to work

whatever it is. At this point. Everything is so unique Bill that we're all as players, as the as Players Association and management is concerned. We're all trying to make it work. Now there is no schedule that we are accustomed to. Everything has changed, the scheduling for the off season has changed. I think there will be a better meeting of the minds when it comes to management versus the union and how the players want to deal with this.

Uh Now, the only thing that I think would be a problem as long as you don't talk about taking away some of my money. If you're talking about taking away some of my money, yeah we have an issue. But if we all coming together in a coordinated effort, I think I think they would they would all meet in the middle and they in regard to this this. But so you'd be fine with taking away your July beach

time to get ready for the season. Nobody's going to the beaches, Bill, Okay, as doctor Foucci, no ones, you already had a right. They might. They might go to how it looks like we've lost Mickey there Everson. A little bit later in the show, we are going to in just a moment, we're going to be joined by

Ron Slaven, the agent for Alden Smith. Will get into that, but we're also going to get into cornerbacks on this team coming up later in the show, and Mickey talked about the virtual owners meeting that is going on today and the big proposal that is out there. Mickey, I understand you're back with us now. The big proposal out there is the on side kick alternative, where a team can instead run a play a fourth and fifteen play from their own twenty five yard line in order to

keep the football after scoring a touchdown. What do you think of it? You know, to me, it's quite intriguing that you get that option. I mean, you can still on site kick if you want and take your chances kicking off from the normal spot, but this kind of gives you and you can only do it twice in a game, and not in overtime. Uh. And it is not a time play. So if you're desperate and you think you got a nice fourth and fifteen play, uh,

you know, why not? My? My? What I'm thinking though, is are the owners gonna do something like this so far removed from the tradition of the game to go ahead and say, okay, let's try this. Because this is sort of an AAF thing. This is sort of an XFL thing, And it really does sound like that. Facts, that's that is an XFL CFL thing, if I've ever heard it. I don't know. If I don't even see the validity of using that form of a special team, I guess I don't only see the I don't know

who came up with that. I mean, we could pull something else out by butts, I guess, well and just come up with something like that. But what what is the basis of using that format. Well, here's here's what happened. They've looked at the last two years since they've changed what you can do on kickoffs, like no run up where you're kicking from the type of blocking that goes on, and they've discovered over the last two seasons only ten point two percent of the on side kicks have been recovered,

so it's almost like useless. Uh. In twenty eighteen, seven point seven percent was recovered, and I'm told that from two thousand and one through twenty seventeen, on side kicks were the average of all those years were recovered at nineteen point five percent. So it's almost like the on side kicks it's not working the chances of recovering it. So that's why they this was proposed. I think it was Philadelphia, and I think there was one other team in the end. Wh Why go to the fourth and fifteen?

Why go to the Why would that be used because the same percentage of success that that part. I don't know if they've looked at how many teams have converted a third and fifteen or a fourth and fifteen. I'm sure that right. The rewards pretty good. The downside pretty bad, right, because if nothing else, if you don't convert, you're basically saying I'm giving them a field goal. You know, if you don't recover ann site kick, well, okay, they're they're

halfway there. They're probably around the fifty yard line or so forty yard line. It's not an automatic field goal attempt. But this basically is an automatic field goal unless you have Brett Maher. That's right. Don't bring that name up again, Bill, dude, not bring that name up ever again on this show, please, you know. And Patrick, well he can nail that sexty yard and said, I'm good. I've got a lot of fourth and fifteen plays i can complete. That's exactly all right,

all right? Coming up next here on Mick Shuts, we will be joined by the agent for one Alden Smith. Ron Slaven joins the guys. Just remember, if you go to Jack Black right now, you can say five percent and never run out again. Choose auto replenishment, get five percent off every order, plus you get these other great benefits that we always talk about free shipping, free five

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to micked shots. Oh man, I'm I'm just so happy for who we're all in this right now personally, UM, I mean, he's such an impressive young man and you know in in his path uh to Dallas is special in unique. So it's just um thankful and blessed to be to be a part of this opportunity with him. So um, you know, he he wants to get back and you know, professionally and and be part of being part of the football play to be productive. He's in

he's in great physical shape. I think it's gonna be exciting to see him get out there for the first time. He's you know, he's bigger and stronger, um than he was when Um, you know, we had a chance to compete against him with he was with the forty niners obviously playing at an elite level. So UM, I think it's gonna be exciting to see him get on the field and and and get back into it. But you know, he's in a great he's in a great place, and UM, very thankful and for his you know, for him and

part of the Dallas Cowboys. Well, Mike McCarthy yesterday in the conference call with the Dallas media talking about Smith as the as the Cowboys defensive end reinstated last week, able to take part in those that virtual offseason program starting a couple of days ago. And here on mix Shots, we are now joined by Ron Slaven, the locally based agent for Alden Smith, practically a neighbor of mine. Ron,

we appreciate you joining us here on Mick Shots. Just how excited is Alden Smith to be here with the Cowboys and being able to now to participate on a regular basis with the team. He's fired up. He had his physical yesterday, got sized up for his pads, helmets, all that type of thing. So he's excited and he's ready to go as soon as they open up for business. Ron, you know the fact that he's given this a shot.

I was just worn ding. If you could walk us through just sort of how you got hooked up with Alden and what that process looked like for you even to have confidence in him to say, Okay, I think

he's serious about doing this. In December, I was actually watching I don't remember, one of the Sunday night football games and I got a phone call from Jay Glazer, and Jay called me and said he had been training Alden since August, that Alden had been sober since then and wanted to know if I had interest and work with them. I made a few other phone calls, had actually a couple of people on that associate with the league side call me on it, and then Alden flew

to Dallas. We met, and after spending a couple of days of them, I just felt it that he was serious and ready. And I think I've said this before, but you know, when he told me that he's not blaming other people anymore, he's taken upon himself. And when people with substant abuse issues taken upon themselves to get themselves right and quit blaming everybody else for their problems

is usually the turning point. And when I heard that come out of his mouth, I knew that he was ready and couldn't put in the work and do everything

he could to be right. And that was in That was the end of December, early January, and here we are at the end of May, and he's still on a great track, and he's bigger and stronger, like Coach McCarthy said, than I mean, when people see this kid it's he's he's different in his but the athleticism and you know, he's been working out with a defensive line coach here in Dallas, Brandon Tucker, who works with a bunch of NFL guys, and I went out and watched

them a couple of times. It's in this park out in Plano, and his getoffs and the work with his hands and all the things that he does. He's an elite athlete. Ron this is that's and I wanted to

ask you about his abilities. You know, with the standard that he's set when he was playing and at just one of the best players people have ever seen, did his abilities have anything to do with the decision that you made to representative besides the fact that you knew of his substance abuse problems and things of that nature. If he wouldn't have had that great ability, would you take the time and deal with someone like that. You know,

every situation is different. I get phone calls with all different players that are either going through things or you know, maybe their agent wasn't you know, thought they were done and they want my opinion on if they could still play. So when Jay called me and said what Alldam was doing physically. It just made sense to take the meeting

and see where he's at. I mean, if you're asking me, if a guy calls me that had two twelve, had one sack and I'm probably not there, but you you would probably take Everson Walls though when you look at his stats and he had fifty seven career stats, but maybe not at his age right now, well I still take him. You know, you never you never know. You might you might have a little juice in the system still and a little hair dial. You could be that you could be the original gray haired Glo bol Corner.

There you go, man, You know ron it it seems like Dallas is the perfect fit for Aldon Smith when you consider the fact that Jerry and in this organization is one that is willing to take second chances on guys. Mike McCarthy, of course, it's been well chronicled. He visited that Jay Glazier's Jim his daughter works out there and

had a conversation with Alden back in December. And uh in the fact that Jim tom Sula is former position coach with the forty nine ers, he's here with Dallas, and the fact that you his agent based here as far as accountability goes that sort of thing. It seems like the perfect fit, doesn't it. I always thought it. But I also didn't want to make the decision for all that, and I wanted him to be comfortable with

the decision he made. So when I went to the combine and had a bunch of interest, I wanted him to go through it and talk to people and make the decision. And again I've said it before, but you know, Alden called me, I think it was March twenty nine or thirtieth, and said, you know, this is Dallas. Feels like the place that I want to be. So when I heard it out of his mouth, because I didn't want to coming out of my mouth. I don't want people thinking, oh, he lives in Dallas, so he's gonna

push everybody the Cowboys. As much as I like to see the Cowboys win, when you live in the city, it's more bearable to live here, you know. To have him make the decision on his own just was the right thing to do. And all but all the pieces definitely, you know, added up and made sense. And um, the Jones are great to work with. They they are more willing to give people second chances and coach McCarthy and Alden hit it off, and Tom Seula having the familiarity

with Alden. You know, all those things lined up me being here. But again, I wanted all them to make decisions, so he was comfortable with it. You know, Ron, that sounds like how you deal with your kids when they're getting ready to go to college. You kind of got to let them make that decision, and you know, if it doesn't work out or you don't agree with it, that's on them. You can't tell them, no, you're going here.

So that's a that's a really good point. So I'm interested in the fact that, you know, when he last played, and it was five years ago and the end of the November fifteenth of twenty fifteen, I think he was playing at like two sixty two sixty five. And my understanding, I don't know what he weighed in yesterday, but reading from what some of the things Jay Glazer said, he was in the two eighties, but strong, a lot stronger. Uh,

Is that the case? Do you think he still has, uh, you know, the the ability to be that pass rushing defensive end even though he might be twenty pounds heavier. Yeah, so Alden, you know, he literally didn't miss a workout since August. So even you, Mickey, if you showed up to workouts every single day since August, you're probably gonna get stronger, right, So Negg, but you know, I mean, he got off the plane here and I was like, Hey, I got to set up with Brandon Tucker to work

with you on the D line stuff. And I had a bunch of stuff lined up for him. And the first thing you said was I'm gonna take a couple of days to chill because I literally haven't had a day off from workouts and those MMA workouts, you know, punching people, getting hit, all those things are tough, and

he just wanted a couple of days to relax. But it's it's power and strength and if you you know, Jay Glazers talked about it, where he's worked with hundreds of guys there coming in and out of there, and I think he said the only guy that's physically as strong with his hands was Kyle Long and Alden's even

stronger than that. And Coach Tucker he called me after his first workout with Alden and he's like, Ron, I had a pad in my hand, and every time he was striking me with his hands with these past rows moves, I felt like I was getting hit by a frying pan. So's I'm telling you guys, he's just different. You know the thing. I mean, forty two and a half sacks and forty three games wasn't for not And then people said, oh, that was five years ago, like you just said in

your question. But there's this certain I mean I remember as in Adrian Peterson. I mean, there's a certain guys that it doesn't matter their age, they can just keep coming and their work ethic and their strength and all of those types of things just never go away. You know. I saw where Jay Glazer was talking about some apparatus they have the guys working on and it's on a wall, and he was the first one to pull the apparatus off the wall. He just didn't pull it off the

wall is concrete. He dried it out of the wall. Like a lot of people down here like to drive pick up trucks and pull stuff. I mean, Alden could probably do some work for him in the yard if they need. With the strength that he's showed, uh pulling that thing out of the wall. So who has the stronger handshake Alden or Adrian Peterson, because Adrian's is legendary.

Oh that's yeah, No, that's Adrian all day long. You know a lot of old linemen and d linman they don't have the firmst handshakes because their hands were always so beat up and sore, so they Sometimes you'll get a fish shake from a three hundred and twenty pound guy, but it doesn't matter for six in the morning or six at night. Adrian's trying to break your hand. How's that handshake, Everson? Now I have a great handshakes guy. My dad had the strongest handshake you've ever been around.

I tell people out of time, he could change a tire with new tools, that's how big hands with all my life, so I'm prepared for that. But Ron I had to ask you. You know, it's great to be in physical shape. Of course, he's always been a physical specimen. Uh, and it. But his attitude is something obviously that that everyone's been worried about. Do you think of the loss

of the game that being taken away from him? Uh, even though it took a while, do you think that was a big motivation in him being so so intent on coming back and finishing what he started. He just you know, he he said it in the reinstatement meeting that you know, he screwed up and he wants to not only be come back and be the player that he was, but be an influence for younger players coming into the league and younger players that might end up having problems and be, you know, a guy that they

can come to. He wants to be that person in this league. And you know it's it's I mean ever since you played, and you know you've seen it, but guys coming to the league and it's tough. And people can sit at home and be armchair quarterbacks all they want, but you're twenty one, twenty two years old. You're giving a bunch of money. Um, there's a bunch of the attribute to players going down the wrong path. And he wants to help guys, you know, so that these same

things don't happen. So the fires burning for him, Um, you know, him and I have had talks a lot too about you. You're thirty, You're not twenty five anymore. I mean, you know ever, so I'm sure you said it yourself. You guys came to training camp and got yourself in shape that way. Um, these guys work out all year round, but Alden was one of those guys where he bend over, touch his toes and he's warm,

ready to go and go get five sacks. So you know, being to thirty instead of twenty five, you know, the warm up routine, get you know, taking care of your body, that extra work that needs to be put in. Those are the things too that he's gonna have to adjust because he wants to you know, he wants to play a long time now and he wants to get those years in. So it's also this team care of his body off the field and doing all those things. Because I always tell people NFL lives are like dog lives.

For every one year in the league, it's like seven years on your body. So if you're not taking care of yourself, they're not doing things off the field, you know, you're not gonna last a long time. I think a lot of people, not just Cowboy fans, but there's a lot of people when they hear the story of Alden Smith, they're going to be rooting for him to have some

success as he comes back into the league. Let me ask you about another client of yours, Layton vanderash Of course you had his season shortened to the neck injury and had the surgery after the season, and he sounds like he is one percent and rare to go. Give us an update on Layton. Layton feels great. We actually want fishing the other night and you pulled in a monster bath like the first five seconds before bowl in

the water. I told me should quit while he was ahead, because then we sat three more hours and every guy but Layton's awesome. He does everything right, works his butt off in it. Again, armchair quarterbacks want to be like, oh, they drafted a guy with a neck injury. It's that's not the truth. That's not what it was. Mike Mayock said it on NFL Network and everybody took off and ran with it. Um. You know, he was born with a condition that a lot of guys play with. Some

guys never have issues with it. Other guys, you know, get hit the wrong way or something happens. And injuries happened in this game. So got surgery says he feels better than he ever has in his life because he doesn't have that tightness in his neck anymore. I mean last year he was playing with one arm, and he was missing tackles that the guy never missed. I think the year, I think his rookie year, his tackling percentage was the highest in the league. He rarely missed tackles.

And so now they's you know out there will be one hundred percent rare to go. And I think in this new scheme, he's going to be able to do a bunch of cool things because the guys in front of him are going to be a lot bigger, taking up a lot more space. And I have a feeling that Layton's going to have an incredible season and make a ton of plays for the defense. You know, and Ron, we talked about this last week on you know, anytime you have surgery on your neck, it's it's pretty serious surgery.

And h you know, I had seen someone referred to him as having minor neck surgery, and I don't think there's anything, uh ever, that's minor when they're you're having surgery on your neck. Mickey, you needn't hire me to be your PR guy. You got to put off the statement that it's a minor injury. I don't care to put it otherwise. The fans pylon and everybody thinks it's the end of the world and cowboys suck at drafting. Yeah, blah blah blah. Well, yeah, it's not. No, And the

reality isn't. This isn't agent talk. I don't like to b s people. It was minimal or a neck surgery is the actual I guess wording that was told to me from the doctors. It was an easy, get in, get out. It wasn't a you know, an eight hour surgery. They were in and out quick. They opened up the area that had the the issue and fix them up. And I mean the first couple of days were rough for him, because you're right, any surgery on that area

is tough. But he's been raring to go. And I mean he's two hundred and fifty something pounds again and he looks great. Glad to hear that, because I was one of those guys that was really concerned about it. We saw how important he was for this team, and we saw that when he wasn't playing well defensively, we weren't playing well. So I wouldn't say so goes Vanderige, so goes the Cowboy's defense, but he's an integral part

of that defense. And I like the way where Mike Nolan's going to come in with the activity of the front line, which is going to be amazing. Our linebackers are going to be even more active than they've always been, and I really look forward to to Van Durett doing a whole lot better than last year. We were very concerned about him, to be honest, and you've kind of alieved that concern a little bit the way you've talked

about this surgery. So let's hope that that that's just the way it is and he can come back and be the guy that we saw when he was at Top Nights level. So I'm gonna take your word for a rounds are going to be you know when you're talking about Mike Nolan. Um. You know, during the draft processes, the whole time Layton wanted to come to the Cowboys,

I was his team. Um, when I signed him here at the Cowboys Club, we are dinner and we were like, you're going to be a top twenty kid, in top twenty pick, and let's get you here to Dallas because that's all that was always his team. And but during the process, the other coach and team that he hit it off with was the Saints, and it was when he had his visit in New Orleans. Coach Nolan was the one who picked him up and took him around the facility and they hung out like pretty much the

entire visit. So when coach Nolan was hired here, Layton was fired up because he had really hit it off with them during the draft process. And again, Everson, you know in this you know in the league there's certain you never burned bridges, and you always take advantage of the opportunities with the meetings you have because coaches move around a lot and never know who's going to be your next coach, And um, it's I got bailed out

a whole lot. Yeah I got. He got an opportunity to spend it with UH coach Nolan, and now he's here coaching them. You know, Ron, before we let you go, I want you to relate his story to us. I don't know how much you got out there about Layton and we all know he's a great athlete, but his basketball playing ability growing up and AAU basketball is pretty legendary in the state of Idaho, isn't it. That's just not the AU is you know, he led his high

school to two state championships. I think he averaged like thirty points and ten boards. Yeah, he evers thirty points, ten boards all the way through the tournament. His AU teams though they used to play, you know, because it was an Idaho AU, peopleouldn't give in respect. But then Layton showed up and they'd beat teams all on the West Coast all the time. And there's guys playing in the NBA now that Layton was dunking on. So uh. You know, his three older sisters were all really good

basketball players. They played in college. One of them played overseas Um. They had an indoor basketball court there and Riggins growing up. So yeah, you know, I've said it before. If Layton wasn't an NFL player, he probably would have been an NBA player. And if he wasn't an NBA player, he probably would have been a Navy seal and killed Osama bin Laden. Like anything, anything Layton wants to do, he can get it done. The guy is multi talented.

So Everson, don't you say bad things about Lake vaderish all right? He obviously that white man hand jump, So that's one to getting his way on guarantee, I'm moving out the way. Yeah, did you have that forty eight vertical? Whoa, Okay, anybody was too good? That's still amazing. Wow. Yeah, two hundred fifty six pounds of the combine jumps forty ridiculous. Wow. Well, Ron, will we appreciate you joining us? We'll have to do

it again sometime, especially since you're writing. When we get back in studio at the Star, we get invite you right into the Star wear one of my sweet suits. All right, Ron Slavan the Agent and Alden Smith than others, we appreciate joining us here on Mick shot, say we continue in just a moment. Since eighteen sixty five, Stetson hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and team pride too?

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gay your fire tickets. Since we're talking, we're talking single game tickets. I was doing some research in the Sea around April of nineteen ninety and things. One of the things I ran into it was an announcement in the newspapers that the Cowboys nineteen ninety single game tickets were going on sale June first. Cost the cost twenty five dollars and nineteen dollars per ticket. Wow, things have changed.

Just yeah, they were alway saying in the nineteen if I remember correctly, that was for the second level at Texas Stadium. But all the all the seats down the bottom and the don't love him were twenty five dollars in matter you were on the fifty year of the line a goal line, they were twenty five dollars headphones, and please I hear feedback. It's like passes now, not even the party passes now. Yeah, right right, all right, all right, um, how about Broun Slavan. I love talking.

That was good stuff. I could have talked to him my whole show. That was great shots. But you take from what he said, what anytime I tell you what, dude, they can anytime you get a white dude, they can play some basketball, a whole movie. I have a whole new respect. No idea, okay, I have no idea that he had those kinds of skills on the West Coast. When you're talking about go on the West coast, we have some basketball, and you're a white dude from Idaho

and you know that. Of course Idaho is a basketball Okay, then we just didn't know about coast. But when you're going on the West coast, man, this is good. That is the man. This is some good news for me, especially with him explaining the intricacies of intricacies of the surgery actually makes me feel a little bit better going about what they were doing and hopefully the result is come out and making keep us is optimistic. It really

have been. It really gives me a better look at what our linebackers might be able to do behind me. So I think the key word there that he explained about vander Esh's surgery minimally invasive, not minor surgery, mentally invasive. And Bill, now ever since got more respect for you. Right. Bill was a basketball player, now I remember that. No, no, no, when you think about Bill's burticle a little bit different from vanders Like, we played basketball at the same time

back in Dallas Sport. He was at Burtner, I was at MacArthur. Didn't play against each other, but I played a Bill used to jump center. I used to jump center Bill, I don't think he used to jump center body. I was an outside shooter. I was a six four, three point shooter. Only problem was we didn't have a three point line. All that's right, that's right. No, I was a set shooter. That's worse. That's all right. Um about what he said about Alden Smith, and I really

do think when you get to know. You know, before Alden Smith signed with the Cowboys, I didn't know that much about him. It's part what kind of person he is. Yeah, you see the reports and everything, but as the agent alludes to, I mean, he had issues that he has now taken account for and uh it sounds like he's turned his life around. And uh, you know it's going to be very interesting and absolutely and I think with people need to understand, you know, just because you get

reinstated doesn't mean you're in the all clear, right. You know. They they give you a program and guidelines that you have to continue to follow, and you better meet all those uh you know objectives that they have in that program otherwise they can reverse it, you know, in a minute. Uh. So it's like he's got to continue to do what

he's been doing for nine months. Uh. And you know, I thought it was uh interesting to hear that he would like to help other people that may have been going through some of the things he was going through. Uh and kind of met a saltsman or a mentor for guys that have started through some of that. That chance he got that chances this is the last chance. Uh, there's uh, you know when you talk about doing something

like this. That's what I wanted to ask Ron about what is what the mental aspect was in regards of what the Alden is dealing with. You can be as physical as you want, you can get out there and work out, and you can Okay, I'm back physically, but when you go through some of the things that he's gone through, given the chances that he's been given, there comes a mental approach to what he has to do and all those things he has to make up for, because I'm sure he's given many promises in the past

about how he's turned things around. You have to be mentally aware of where you are in life, not just physically aware if you want to come back and do this game again because all of the things that come with it, and Ron kind of talked about it. You know, you got young guys out there that can't really understand what's going on and they get taken a certain way. Just as Alden did. He has to make sure he doesn't repeat those mistakes that he made when he was

twenty five years old. And it's easy to do that because now this is a brand new altar smith coming into his thirty years of age and he's going to have to deal with all those same issues that the twenty five year old Alton Smith had to deal with. That's what we have to look out for, you know. I also think the fact that Jim tom Sula had him during those days where he was racking up all those sacks in San Francisco and the issues arose, and I would imagine he gave his seal of approval to this.

Otherwise he wouldn't have, you know, the Cowboys would have listened to what Tom Sula had to say because he was the one coach who had hands on experience with him. And the fact that I think that tells you that Aldon Smith was in Tom Sula's mind, is not necessarily a bad guy. He just had a problem that he had to deal with and get through, and so hopefully we'll see good things from him, you know. And Bill.

One or the other interesting things they think Ron pointed out was it wasn't just the Cowboys interested in I mean, he made it sound like there were other teams that were going through an interview process and we're likely interested in sighting them. You know. I hear all this stuff out there with people that don't know talking about well, only the Cowboys would do something like this to take

a chance on a guy. It sounds like there were other teams after they saw maybe what he's done and the shape he got himself in that we're interested in signing them. And really the Cowboys aren't taking a chance in my mind. I mean when you look at the contract and the way it is structured and with the incentives in it, and also what they did by drafting and I you know, we'll see what happens with Randrew. Gregory's coming back as well, and they've got several other

defensive ends on their roster. They've got numbers at the defensive end position. Now we just have to see who can play. Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And you know when you haven't played for five years that you know that's that's a huge comeback. But again, and you know, to amplify that, he doesn't get maybe an offseason to get back into feeling like playing football. So this is going to be kind of a shotgun start for him, probably when training

camp begins. All right, let's talk cornerbacks. Okay, I think everything we'd like to talk cornerbacks. Mickey, you want to get us started with your thoughts on where the Cowboys are at the cornerback position, of course, having drafted Treyvon Diggs in the second round, Reggie Robinson in the fourth round, Daryl Worley a new player coming in here as well, and then they've got the returning guys at cornerback with

the exception of Byron Jones. Yeah, and I think that you know what they've done for sure, is you know, stock some depth at that cornerback position where there was no depth what soever heading into the offseason. You had Chitebeo, Woozier, Jordan Lewis, and they resigned Anthony Brown and that was really it. So the fact that they drafted a couple guys, I think this is going to be one of them more and I'm going to assume there's a training camp

bill and they're going to start on time. This is going to be one of the more competitive positions I think going forward, just not only because of the number of guys that they've thrown at this position, but the fact that it's a new coaching staff. And we all know if you played athletics and you ended up on a team with a new coach man, you tried your hardest to impress that guy, and so that's what's going

to happen. I just think there's been somewhat out there in some of the media a rush to judgment that just because the Cowboys drafted a guy in the second round or they got a guy in the fourth round, that these young kids are just automatically walk in starters. I think Chitebeo Roozier and Anthony Brown and Ordon Lewis might have something to say about that. So I don't think anything's just given to these guys. And certainly Everson understands that the situation he came into when he came

into the league. Yes, speaking of that's facts. This is a piece of cake compared to what Mike Downs, myself and Brown fellas have to go through. We had twenty five k dvs, you know in training camp. Twenty five Okay, let's just think about that. So I'm not really concerned about the number. I really am concerned about the quality because you're talking about two good cornerbacks coming in that

I think are going to play immediately. When you're coming into training camp and there's these young guys come in, hopefully they can really bring something new to the game. What what Mike Downs and myself and fellas brought in well, the fact that we were ballhawks. Okay, we we were going for the ball. We were hungry. You could see that in every drill that we did. And I want to see these guys, especially Diggs, come in and show me what he's learned and teach that bring bring that

turnover minded ball playing ability back to the Cowboys. I was talking with Mike Downs the other day and all I did was just fussed about what happened to the culture. Okay, the culture of this Cowboys team has always been to get interceptions, always to get just turnovers. Even after Mike Downs and I left, that continue with Woodson and continued with Dean Sanders, that continued with some good players that they had a cornerback position. Now we're so I guess

we're just content. We're not making plays, but just kind of I call it catch and release. You let the you let the guy kiss the ball, you follow on top of go back to the hull back. It does yes to me. That's not where cornerback is supposed to play football. And I like the way Diggs played. I like the way he deciphered plays in college football. It wasn't just the fact that he was trying to shut down the receivers. He had an idea of what the

office was trying to do to him. And when you think about the players they brought in, I believe the other kid's name was Robinson, and I correct Robinson Robinson that that young man also has a nice head for the game. And that's what you want, some heads up players who can make the plays in the clutch when we need them. I don't need the guy just out there just running beside the receiver. Guys that realize, once the ball is in the air, I am the receiver.

And that's what I saw from these two ball hawking guys that they drafted. All right, And Trayvon Diggs had three picks last year for Alabama. Reggie Robinson at Tulsa had four interceptions, all right. Now, and you've got returnings Arder Cheetoor Woozier who had one interception three in his career. You've got Jordan Lewis two interceptions last year, four in his career. You've got Anthony Brown no picks last year, of course, he was hurt quite a bit of the season,

and four picks in his career. You've got Daryl Worley, who's been a starter throughout his time in the league. Fifteen starts for the Raiders last year, one interception, and five in his career. Maurice Kennedy is another veteran guy they brought in who started three games last year for the Jets. Who's your starters, the left cornerback, the right cornerback, and the slot corners. As this thing gets under way, Everson,

I'm looking at Dick. I'm looking just to keep it simple, I'm looking at Dix to come in halfway during the season. I think he's gonna be started. I truly believe that as they started off because of his face fell ability, because of his size. I love I love Jordan, I really do. This guy can play. But I'm looking at physicality here, Okay. I'm looking at imposing players that can intimidate wide receivers. So I'm looking at Diggs to come

in and play that slot position Woozier. If he continues to do well, he could be the cornerback and we're looking at Brown on the other side. Otherwise, that's going to be a change as the season goes on. I don't know. I never was. I never was impressed with Brown in regards to his recognition and play making abilities, not just interceptions, I mean tackles as well, I mean

just making making plays on the ball. I don't know how long he would be able to last at that position without being able to make plays on the ball. So I think Diggs is going to eventually end up being a starting corner along with the Woozier. You know, it'll be interesting to see where they line up Diggs that are they going to put them left? Are they going to put them right? Because if we remember, Jones was on the right side, Shitubey was on the left side.

And it'll be interesting and I think we'll be telling of what the coaches think on where they line these guys up when they initially finally get to go out there. And you know, and Bill, you mentioned Worly, you know to me, and he's done it a little bit, not a lot, but he's got a safety body and if somebody's going to be moving, it might be him moving

to safety because they need some depth there. And I think there's going to be a lot of expectant of Donovan Wilson in his second year to come on and show something. You know, we think we know who the starters are, you know, with a Xavier Woods and Aha Clinton Dix, but you need another couple of guys back there. Worley could be one of them. And Donovan Wilson, you know, does he show up and give him something after really

not getting much of a chance as year. Yep, that's right, and who knows Jamal Adams who's going to change the whole picture for everybody? All right? That does it for this edition of Mick Shots form Everson Walls and Mickey Spagnola. We appreciate Ron Slaven joining us this week, and we will chat at you again next week right here on Mick Shots. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.