Mick Shots: It’s A New Day

The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.

Cowboys.

This is Mick Shot streaming live on Dallascowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys at now Here are Bill Jones, Everson Wolves, and Mickey Spagnola.

It is a Tuesday inside the SWBC podcast. Do you go at the Star in Frisco? And this is one of the biggest days of the year. Do you know why?

Tell me Bill, because this is Meet.

The Teacher Day Whoeverson has no idea what I'm talking about either do any of you out there, But Mickey knows exactly what I'm talking about. This is the day we get to meet the new coaching staff of.

Your Dallas Cowboys.

Welcome to mix Shots brought to you by Miller. Like, we got a late start here, but we are raring to go for the next half hour to get you up to speed on all that's going on with this team.

How we don't have much times bags.

Okay, go right, yep, let's go go.

Did you like to meet the teacher day school?

I remember those? Yeah, they were sometimes traumatic. Well that was before you got into trouble though.

Yeah, is you find out who's who's elementary school.

I was the best kid. I loved my teachers. I knew them all. They are in the neighborhood, you know, with the church with him and all of that. Those are good times. Yeah, those are good times. Only only until the sixth grade.

And then you got bad.

Yeah, well the things got bad.

We got all new teachers this year.

So wait a minute, I see it, all those people.

You got your list in front of you right there. I do the coaching staff finalized, So we're going to talk about that over the course of the next half hour. I actually met a guy who might be the number one overall draft pick in this year's draft last night. And you know who that might be?

At the Davy O'Brien Award.

I tried at the Davy O'Brien Award, who do you think might be? And besides Travis Hunter, I don't know, it would be the first quarterback that's going to be taken in this draft, according to the so called.

Airs out there.

Kam Ward the Davy O'Brien Award winner, and I met him last night and he said.

You will rule the day. When you don't draft.

Rue the day, rule the day. Okay, so he's already throwing you know.

You know, it's interesting. I was going to talk about this later, but since you brought that up, one of the things I was wondering about him was just how much confidence he has, And based by that comment, he I was impressed with him. And he's on the surface, he looked like the humble guy, that kind of soft spoken whatever. But then you get to talking to him and you can see he's got that confidence about it and he's got that swag about him that I'm sure if.

You're going to come out with that statement, you know, you must be feeling really good about yourself. And I'm not mad at him. Uh, it's the quarterbacks League. And if he gets with the right team.

Are you familiar with his story where he came from?

I know it's a all the way around about yeah, all the way overseas?

Right.

Well, no, he wasn't.

But no, Well if Washington State is.

That, it's close to the scene.

You know where not where incarnate Word is. You know where incarnate word is?

Is that in the all right? So real quick?

He's from Texas. He's from Texas, south of Houston. West Columbia played for the Columbia High School Roughnecks. They ran a basically a wing tee offense, and he was the cort baby, so he did not throw the football much at all. But he was a basketball star average, as he will quickly point out, the leading score in Columbia High school history. But he had one scholarship offer coming out of high school for football.

Why do you think that is?

Because he did.

Buddy six three, I mean six two two and twenty three pounds even in high school, so good size. And but Eric Morris who's now the head coach at the University of North Texas, which the head coach at Incarnate Ward, and Incarnate Ward has the stadium, Gale and Tom Benson

To North Texas, but he wound up transferring after another year there, up transferring to Miami and had one of the best seasons in Miami Hurricane's history.

And here he is pleg.

Move because would you stay at Washington State. I wouldn't if I were.

Here, especially because the conference and the conference brother right, so they didn't even know who they were playing.

Uh.

And so he transfers to Miami and they went ten and three, and he set the record for FCS and FBS combined touchdown passes. And now here he is and a lot of a lot of the so called experts have him ranked ahead of Shador Sanders and Jackson Dart is the number one quarterback on their board.

And if you watch them play.

It confirms believe I would believe that, yet now I heard.

The only knock on him I've heard is he's one of those guys that will take chances like not sometimes high percentage. So he's kind of a hit and missed type guy sometime. But I'll tell you what. When I watched him play at Miami, it was one of those deals where I go, I want that.

Right, right, but you know we're not signing that guy, right. Yeah.

He passed for forty three hundred yards, thirty nine touchdowns, and seven interceptions at Miami this past season.

Yeah, and he's pretty darn good. And I think the only other guy, if it's not a quarterback, that's going to go first is the linebacker from Penn State. Okay, the next Michael Parsons.

Okay, And he literally looks just I'm sorry.

I hadn't seen him out of his same number, same number, same results, same explosiveness, same everything.

Yes.

Yeah, so Micah's career might help him in the draft. Well, he'll be a top five pick.

Well, I mean, you're looking at Philly has two defensive linemen from Georgia.

Correct, Yes, they got three.

Actually, he was wrong with two Penn State linebackers.

They got they got two defensive tackles from Georgia and then a rusher from Georgia. Golden Smith.

Also, yeah, he won't last past five. He's he's really good.

Yeah.

Uh so Davy O'Brien. That's two years in a row, right, But Daniel Daniels won it last year. Yeah, they're on a hot streak, which, by the way, and this might.

Get should be it's a top quarterback in the country.

It might get us back to the Cowboys. But I listened to so Colt McCoy, what was his deal at the Davy O'Brien.

He was, I think he may have. Well, he's a past winner and a lot of a lot of the past.

Was last year.

Maybe, oh no, because White was probably a legend. Yeah, Mack Brown was the Legends Award winner. He was there last night and talked to him as well. But Colt was there just because he's a past winner of the Davy O'Brien Award, and probably because Mac got the Legends away.

I heard an interview with him on the ticket. I didn't realize he made it fourteen years in the NFL. Fourteen years, Danny, No, No.

This is cult.

Quote yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so he was injured most of last year. Right, he had a no, it was an elbow thing, he said. Anyway, But he was on the.

Cardinals the year before the year twenty twenty three season, right.

And he he got to know Clayton Adams Okay Cowboys. He was the Arizona offensive line coach, and that's who the Cowboys hired as the quote unquote offensive coordinator. And he had nothing but great things to say about how this guy was able to coordinate the offensive line for the Cardinals. He said, you know, I didn't get to play much and I saw this guy operate and he said,

I wonder how much weight he would have uh in the room during the draft when it comes to your offensive line.

Oh.

I like that a lot, because he has been an offensive line coach through As a matter of fact, he was a walk on offensive lineman at Boise State.

Oh my god, I hate them.

And then he and then when he got to Statue, he got to eventually got to Colorado as a co offensive coordinator, offensive line coach, was an assistant offensive line coach, and then tight ends coach with the Colts, and then the offensive line coach for two years with the Cardinals.

You know, with he was with Mike mc McIntyre, who was a barber Cowboys assistant coach.

So if he's feel in some kind of way doing the draft and he sees offensive lineman out there.

Ought to listen to it as you listen to it well.

And not only him, but also the new offensive line coach, Connor Riley, who is coming from the college ranks as well as he was at Kansas State coach Cooper Beebee at Kansas State and prior to that was at North Dakota State, which produced a number of NFL offensive linemen in this time there too. And the last the Cowboys are doing all right, They have done a good job. Now we'll see what happens.

Yes they're here, but I think I like the hires that they have made.

To try to shore up things in the run game. And as far as the offensive line.

Is concerned, to me, that guy seems to be very important right now because I will run game. It needs to be up to par, not necessarily with the Philadelphia Eagles, but it has to be better and it has to be an element that we can we can hang our hats on doing any game that we need to. We need to hang a hat on the run and hang our hats on a good defense.

So they've got several guys on this staff now that have been coordinators at some point in their careers, either college NFL, and they're not coordinators here, but they've got that experience, and so I think that helps out. I was counting up they've got and I'm going to count Carlos Polk, who's been here before, but he's new this year.

He's an assistant special teams coach.

Fifteen first year coaches, not in their careers, but fifteen new coaches for the Cowboys.

Fifteen new faces on the seat.

And I've been told that there's a level of enthusiasm and excitement on that staff. And really they haven't done anything football yet, basically meetings and analyzing players getting ready for combine, right, but it sounded like there was a renewed enthusiasm on that coaching staff.

Well, they all made an impact, a somewhat impact where they came from.

To me, that gives me, you know, a little bit of optimism.

Yeah, you know, to know that you can you've been very good at turning something around or showing something innovative.

You know, I'll take those guys.

But it looks like there's a huge investment on the offensive line. If you look at the coordinator, the offensive line coach, the guy that's the assistant offensive line coach, I would think, and if you look at Schottenheimer's history as an OC, he's had pretty good running offenses, So I think that that bodes well. And the other guy that is a former offensive coordinator and I know he's been let go twice, but Ken Dorsey, who is now the past game coordinator, I think he was the last

Well, when you start talking about offense, that's starting with the offensive line, and so what about defense?

And he changes, and he well, Matt Aberfluss head coached and the Bears. So now you got a former coordinator with the Colts, head coach with the Bears coming back with you as your defensive coordinator. So I think, you know, that's another one that's I think bodes well for having that kind of experience on the staff. He's this will be his He's got seventeen years of experience in the NFL. The linebackers coach who started here, Dave Borganzi, He's been

And several of those coaches have been with iberflus for a number of years, most recently at Chicago, and some of them go way back with him.

Curtis was with him in Chicago.

He was also on the staff as the past game coordinator in Seattle when schottenheimers. That was there, so there's a familiarity there.

And what I remember.

About Eberflus is how well his defense has always played and how he has always had playmaking defensive backs.

Yeah in Chicago, right, and he was here first as the linebackers coach and had been a defensive coordinator in college at Missouri by the way. Oh so we'll hold it against him. He's had pretty good defenses, by the way.

And not to mention so the special teams coach, Nick Sorenson, was the defensive coordinator for the forty nine ers last year.

Yeah, so they they've got some you know, when you put together a staff, it's difficult. You don't have carte blanche treatment out there, right, I just get who I want. You find somebody you want, but are they available? And it doesn't always work out that way?

So and will it fit? And they've got to fit.

Right, And a lot of these guys came from college too, so you've got some guys that you know, kind of been in the college game also, so.

New ideas like Jimmy Johnson right exactly.

In fact, that crew did the research on it.

The average age of this new coaching staff is forty one years old.

Okay.

Okay. And last year the average age was forty six years old. Okay, So on average five years younger. Okay, across that's across the board. I mean you're talking to twenty five man coaching staff basically, okay, As far as the coordinators are concerned, head coach and coordinators, the average age on this staff with Schottenheimer, eber Flus, Clayton Adams, Nick Sorenson is forty eight years old. And the average age last year with Mike McCarthy, Mike Zimmer, Schottenheimer and

Wise, some of them at Pittsburgh.

Yeah, I try in Oklahoma State also, the average age of that coaching staff was forty three and a half years old, okay, And this one's forty one years old.

And it was only forty three because of dick. No, actually take that.

I take that back, by the way, I didn't look at it.

I didn't look at nineteen because there were some of the veteran guys that there was a right. Alan Lowry was another one that was still on the staff in eighty nine. It was a holdover.

But I went and.

Looked at the Super Bowl year nineteen ninety two, So this was not when these guys were hired. They had three or four three years experience in the league by then. The average age is forty three and a half. Guess what the average age of the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff was last season twenty twenty four. Forty three and a half years old, the same average age as the Jimmy Johnson staff. So there's the sweet spot right there. You went your coaching staff out in their early forties.

It helps when the head coach is not sixty years old. That's true, starting right.

But he's only a counting one of those twenty five that's right.

I don't. I don't. He kind of throws it off though, yeah, uh huh.

But even the average age of the coordinators when Jimmy was coordinators and head coach, they were all late thirties early forties. I mean they've been orv you know who was in.

That same he's the oldest.

He's fifty four, fifty five years old. Yeah, and so he is now Schottenneimer's fifty one, and Sorenson's in his forties, and Adams is likewise, Yeah, because Adam's Adam forty two. He just turned forty two.

Right, So but yeah, so yeah, it's a kind.

Of a new and Sorenson's forty two.

It's a new young, energetic I would imagine coaching Stone.

All right, we got to take a break here, and we got more mixed shots than just a.

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All Right, we've got one more segment here of Mick Shinz, and Mickey's got a lot of numbers he wants to get to here because this is not only Meet the Teacher Day, yes, also another big day as far as NFL players are concerned. Free agents to be this Franchise Tag Day.

Franchise Tag Day February eighteenth through March fourth, So any player that's headed towards unrestricted free agency, you could slap the franchise tag and with this transition too.

So I'm listening to some national shows and they're talking about Michael Parsons and what the franchise tag is.

I'm like, yeah, they don't.

He's on his fifth year option. He's not eligible for the French he's not a free agent. I have no idea.

I didn't know it, but they should know it. I didn't know it.

And so this does not apply this year to Michael Parsons. And because he's on a fifth year option, which is around twenty.

Three million dollars three twenty four million.

Yeah.

Yeah, And the franchise tag for just looking at this year or going next year if you couldn't get a long term deal done with them linebackers twenty seven million. It has gone up dramatically.

So if you can't get a deal done, if.

He couldn't get an extension done before free agency in twenty twenty or even this year, yes, this year, everybody's like, well they got to get this done. Well yeah, but uh, he's going to count twenty four million either, you know for sure?

So have you.

I've got the history of it right here, you know, at a certain point, and I'm looking back when that point was. This is going back to twenty twenty one, the year that Micah was drafted. Okay, you want if you played edge rusher, you wanted to be listed as a defensive end, right, not an outside linebacker. Because in this as an example, the franchise tag value in twenty twenty one for a defensive end was a sixteen million dollars salary for a linebacker it was fourteen point seven

Didn't know was he aware?

Oh oh yeah, oh yeah, Mike is aware of everything. Uh, and so but in the time that Micah has been in the league, things have shifted. In fact, the next year, in twenty twenty two linebackers, the franchise tag was slightly more than a defensive end. And now it's gotten to the point, as Mickey just pointed out, where a linebacker, it's twenty five million dollars. That's the right number, and I'm looking at the right thing, right.

So it's the franchise tag for this year linebackers. What I would you as twenty seven?

Oh, twenty seven?

Wow?

Okay, So spow track does not have it updated. What does it have for defensive ends?

Twenty four to seven?

Okay, So here's what's happened.

These pass rushers are playing in three four defenses and they're technically an outside linebacker in a three.

Four, but they're pass rushers, that's right, And once they go to Nickel a defensive end.

Right. But that's what's caused this explosion with the linebacker franchise.

And I don't understand why they don't differentiate between an outside linebacker and an inside linebacker, right. You would never you would never tag an inside linebacker because the inside linebacker has the same tag number as an outside line right, which is, which is way more than what inside linebackers are getting paid.

And what has happened on the offensive line because they just list offensive line. They don't put tackle, center, guard right they need because the guards aren't getting paid.

You know, that's when they really point them out when it comes to getting paid.

Oh no, no, he's a guard now.

But you're paying. But you're paying big bucks for the tackles. Yeah, and so that ups everybody else.

What do you got for a running back?

Running back? That's one of the first things I looked at. Thirteen point six million.

Okay, So if you had if you were to predict who we were going to put on.

Franchise if we have this year, Yes, who do you want franchised? Well, among here are there's twenty one unrestricted free.

Ag Okay, give me names.

Well i'll give you Okay, I'll give you one name, the one that everybody says they have to resign Osa Odiggie Zua. And they have defensive on the defensive defensive tackle. What do you have I've got for defensive tackle twenty three point four to six million franchise.

And that is a hard cap number. It's one year, twenty three point whatever.

That was Now, if it's somebody that you absolutely want to keep and you can't get signed to an extension before the March twelfth start of the new year, you can franchise them and it gives you until July Bituly sometime fifteenth to sign them to an extension as long as you've tagged him. And then if you can't sign him to extension, that guy can only sign him.

And sometimes it's you tag him now because this window is open before free agency starts. You tag him now, and that get and then it gives you the early time a free agency leading up to it, you can still you're still working on a deal. Doesn't mean that he's going to play on a franchise. Tag This is just okay, we're securing your your servant, your rights, and so you're not hitting free agency, and it will make them okay. Sit down at the negotiating.

Table, and the other guy that you know you'd love to have back you're probably not going to sign them to a big, long term deal would be Eric Kendricks. I mean, he only led you and tackles right now.

The difference being, of course, he was a Mike Zimmer head of history with Mike Zimmer doesn't have the history with Ebert.

Right and he and they only signed him on a one year deal for it was less than five million. The linebacker tag, like I just said, is twenty seven million, and that's probably not happened for a guy that's in his early thirty.

The Kendrick Steel was much like what Philadelphia did with Zach Bond, right, same type deal, which is one year, three and a half million dollars.

Yeah, and I think that's about what they signed Kendrick.

So go find another one like Parsons or Zach Bond and a half million.

I hope you get lucky that.

Has a history with Ebra Flus.

So he has a history with a lot of good.

So I'm going to tell you the unrestricted free agents. You tell me to stop when you want to franchise, that's okay.

So I think you're gonna have a green light the whole way.

Trey Lanson Hooper, rush.

Right, the light is green.

The light is still green.

Brandon Cook, come on, guys, come on through.

Tuma.

He don't go.

Oh there you go stop.

Zach Martin. Uh, now we get into the defense. Chauncey Golston, Lynnville Joseph DeMarcus Lawrence, who, by the way, when I ran into him the other day, he said, he wants to play, and he's healthy or he's ready to basically run that he will be good to go.

So he's on track.

He's on track to play Osa. Carlos Watkins, Eric Kendricks, Nick Vigil, C J. Goodwin, Jordan Lewis, Israel mcwamou.

He said stop, He said, stop Lewis, Now, what's your cornerback number?

Cornerback twenty point three million guaranteed Nickel corner.

I know, I know, I know.

Yes, Okay, so ever, what would you have paid if you were playing today at thirty years old? What please would you have put a stop sign on the franchise?

Dadamn? Right, I'll take that franchise, dad. But this is speaking as a sixty five year.

Old, right, because you know, you could think, okay, we're going to sign him to a twenty million franchise tag or offer it to retain his rights, right, and then start negotiating a long term deal. Well, he's got to be thirty by now, Jordan Lewis said, So you're not going to sign him to a five year deal, But whatever you sign him to has to total, like immediately,

Okay, can you you cannot have two franchise tag players, right, but from a salary cap standpoint, can you afford what is in essence to franchise tag players? Because you already have one this year in Micah Parsons who's playing on a fifth year option at twenty four million dollars, which is a hard cap number. The Cowboys are unless they got unless they had a long term deal done for Micah, they are out of the game. As far as franchise tagging another player, we think just went through the list.

A young guy. You know you know that mind signed.

Well the other one Rico Dudele for a running back thirteen million dollars whatever it is. Okay, that is doable, But you have to look at the market out there and what is available, not only in free agency, and it's not as good a year in free agency. See as far as running backs, it is a great year in the draft as far as running backs go, so.

And saying you have to make that decision ahead of time because you've got to do the franchise tag by March fourth. The drafts not till April, and so that's why you want to know whatever what yah's out there and the chances of improving yourself in the draft at running back. And there's a great chance this team is going to improve itself at running back in the draft, because you can't sit there and say, well, I'm going

And then en Rico also has not gotten to the point and you got to look at what his age is right now, too, but he is not He's had basically a half season of accumulating multiple one hundred yard games.

Do we see this as a good draft for offensive lineman?

Yes, if the projections I see for the first round, it.

There's no one in your I don't hear you about your green note book.

Well that that's because we haven't had the combine yet.

But you still you still know, you still know someone jumped the gun.

The process. Yeah, it's a process. Yeah.

And by the way, the combine is next week. I'll start getting putting some numbers with these players and then we'll have a better idea what's what's available. But I can to Now you just said offensive lineman in the first round. Okay, but what about this running back we're supposed to take in the first round, Ashton Gent, Then you're not taking an offensive lineman in the first round, right, So then offensive lineman drop off after that, right, and running backs are still there after that.

When we the next show, because we don't have time now, we're going to go through the decisions the Cowboys have to make roster wise before the draft shows up, because that will dictate where they go.

Well, ever, since will be interested in listening to that show?

I will? Yeah, well I won't be here.

But you know, we're getting down to the to the nuts and boats here to where this is when you start first.

Picking your parts before you put the robot together.

You know, and I want to see what that process is because this is the biggest offseason the.

Cowboys have had in a long time.

Guys, because you're looking at first of all, the NFC East is paramount.

I mean, they are at the top of the NFL game.

You would say the arrow is pointed up and we are our butts off.

Okay, but they are no. We better be though.

Yeah they are, but we better grab onto something because right now they're elevated. We don't want to be down there with the giants, man, we want to be up there, up with these two guys.

That ship is sailing, is.

Really sailing fast. They got the uh where, they have the sales up. They're ready to go. Man, wins at their back. We got to catch onme. We better grab something, and this is the off season to do it.

We gotta do it this.

Year, except they don't have a lot of salary.

Capt I want to hear this bag se. I'm like them damn fans.

Out there and there we're gonna talk about Anderson. They are due to have an injury plague season like the Cowboys had this year. This was the Cowboys injury plague season. Now and the next year it's a new ball game.

Do you see how the thing in this town slides like what the Mavericks are going through. Now, Oh, the injuries. They got all these guys missing, and it's like the Cowboys. You talk about the injuries all week and then you lose and go, well.

What the hell happened?

Jerry? Fire the coach? What's wrong? Jerry?

So I went back and counted up miss starts by starters or guys who they needed to start and got hurt. I got to one hundred, one hundred miss games by starters.

But you didn't do the whole league, right.

No, no.

Else did. But one hundred sounds like a lot.

Yeah, especially when you're talking about missing Pro Bowl guys from the season before.

I got guys looking around the corner of us, like they.

Got to get going here, Okay, we're going to get going.

No, I'm looking at my camera. I can't see behind me.

Okay, I have.

No idea your job.

And I still didn't get to tell my.

Dick knowledge story. Remember about the shoulder?

Oh yeah, okay, do it next time. Yeah, Okay, that doesn't We'll see you again. We're back Monday, eleven am. Some of us will be here for the next edition of mix Shots Go Cowboys.

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