Mick Shots: Lineup Change

their roles. I can play my role, okay, and your guy's role is to pay attention to me. Okay, okay, okay. Because we don't have Bill Jones here today, we don't have Everson Walls here today, so we had to go to the bullpen. But in our bullpen, our depth is so good. Yes, we have starters in there coming out of a bullpen. Nate Newton right across from me. Brad Sham, the voice of the Dallas Cowboys joining us special guest, right, and how about this between the three of us, We've

been together for thirty four years. Wow, you showed up in eighty six, right, Brad was already here by that time, ten years. Yes, and I got here in eighty four. So when you showed up the three of us, we've been kind of doing something with these Dallas Cowboys ever since. Thank you, and I appreciate it. I've been blessed and we've been blessed to get to know who used to be the kitchen. All right, well, we are gonna do

a little cowboy talk here on this Thursday. Need to point out that the Cowboys finally got in a full practice on Wednesday. It's been a while since they've been able to practice, and they hit the pause button today

for Marcus Paul's memorial service. It was held at the North Colony Church of Christ, which is in Colony, Texas, just down the road from here, and the Cowboys decided that if they got a little football stuff in in the morning, because I'm sure everybody had to show up to get tested as they do on a daily basis, they did a little bit of football and then they paused and allowed the players to virtually watch the memorial service,

which I think was a really good idea. I don't know about you guys, but when I heard Mike McCarthy talked the other day about this pause that they've had has given them time to reflect after Marcus's death the day before for Thanksgiving. I think that helped out. I think it helped out if especially if you saw the interviews with the guys on Wednesday, you can tell it the emotions were still pretty raw with Layton Vanderish the things that he had to say, So I think that

certainly helped out. It was ended up being a ninety minute memorial service and it was pretty pretty well done, pretty emotional, but I think it was something that these players needed to see. I don't know about you guys, what your thoughts are on it, but I think it

will help out in the grieving process. Well, I don't think there's And if you just want to know what the impact of this event was, Mike McCarthy, I believe now, and forgive me, because you're talking about Wednesday and Thursday and I have no idea what the hell do right, I don't know what day it is in real life, and I don't know what day it is in football week because I can go from if you tell me, I got a Thursday game, Thursday game, then Friday's Monday,

and I'm good to go. But I had right now. I got no idea what day it is, but I believe it was Monday of this week, real Monday, when McCarthy spoke right now, when he said, at like midday, eleven o'clock in the morning, whatever it was, that he had not yet watched the tape of the game before. Maybe it was last Friday, maybe it was the day after the game. Yeah, he had not Yeah, and he had not watched the tape because he'd been on the phone all morning talking to people from around the league

who worked with and knew Marcus. Now, when's the last time you heard a head coach at like noon, the day after a day game say that he hadn't watched the tape. Yeah, I mean that's never. I have never experienced that. And you can tell he was not over it, and I'm sure a lot of those guys are not over it. So I agree with you. I think they needed I think they needed the time. Maybe you were,

you know, you would know better, Nate in the locker room. Uh, if you could, you can just imagine somebody dying right in front of your eyes. What kind of an impact that would have on you is somebody like that who you're around so much, you know, uh, you know, the

gruff guy. But coach Warsick was close to us, like this guy, you know, and uh, you know, and and me, I just I just say prayers to the family and and and I hope that these players can get through it in the coaches and you know, it's just, uh, it's it's a sad thing when you lose somebody you love, friend, family or whatever. So I you know, when I hear

things like that. Man, you know, it ain't like I don't want to say that no one's important, but when you have a guy that has to touch every player and some coaches with their workout schedules, and he leads these guys out on the field for stretch and brings them up and when every injury, he's a part of it. So you know, that's the impact that I can't even express.

And so as you say sorry to the family, in to his family, personal family, into the cowboy family, you guys, because every time I saw him, he was smiling, smiling, and he spoke to me, and he was on the run. Yes, he was always moving right, yeah, but he always had a smile and He always had a nice word. And you know, since twenty eleven with the Collective Bargaining Agreement, strength coaches have their hands literally and figuratively on the

players months before their position coaches. They're quote unquote football coaches. They're like the head coach at that time, right, and they have them all year round. If you're hurt, you're not maybe in a meeting with your position coach and your coordinator, but you're darn shure with the trainers and

the conditioning staff. They just touch everybody. Think how much time Laton Vander has spent with him after having the surgery he had last year and then having to rehab, you know, in the building, and because of the COVID nineteen, the guys that were rehabbing were the only ones allowed to be in there. And the strength and conditioning so him, he and Marcus Paul and Britt Brown, you know, they're

they're tight. And then he breaks his collar bone and now he's back in there working with those guys again. You know, make there's a thing about um that you're talking about why they needed the time. And it occurs to me, we see these gay you and I we see these guys and I put Nate in the category of these guys. These are they all know they can be injured when they play. They're aware of that. They've all been injured in some degree at some point. But

this is not an injury. And all of a sudden, these players, especially the players coach is usually a little older, and they figured out they're they're not quite so immortal. But players football players have to, in my opinion, have some sense of invincibility about them to go out and play this game. You can't worry about getting hurt. And

that's the that's the ultimate thing. And you know, we always joke about Nate probably lived a little bit of this about guys in any sport who are active players think of themselves as young men, as being bulletproof and invisible right right, and now, this is not an injury. This is a slap in the face, bucket of cold water right in front of your eyes. You're mortal. Yeah,

And you know what it made me think back? So what I did, and I mentioned it, I think on our show a day or so ago or whenever, like I said, I don't know what day it is. I counted up. There's fifty three guys on the roster, there's sixteen practice squad guys and whoever else is on injured reserve. So we're talking seventies some guys, right, And I counted up forty nine guys on this team are no more

than twenty five years old. Think back to when you were twenty five and and think about you know, you're you're you're not around death to young people or people you know, maybe your grandparents something like that. But to these guys, this guy was like a father to him in there, and at that young age, you got to deal with death. And I was thinking back to myself and I only could think of one person was my

cousin's husband. My cousin's ten years older than me. It was her husband passed away, and I remember being just I was mad. I was like what, why and how and how old was he? He was? He I don't even think he had hit maybe forty at the most. He was. He was a former marine, you know, and it was like, God, what what's going on? And I remember being mad. So yeah, I think it was good. And I don't how close you guys got to Marcus Um.

You know, i'd see him, I'd say hi, right, because the weight room is that's their domain, right, you don't go in there. You just don't go in there. Um. And I think the longest conversation I had with him one day, so it'd have been two years ago. I was showing somebody around and we were looking through the glass wall to the weight room and the guy was

pretty impressed with everything. All of a sudden, Marcus comes out and I wouldn't even know he knew who I was, and he's going, hey, Mickey, Mickey, I go what He goes, Mike Weissick wants you come in? And I said he does what just like that, right? We don't oisick? Right? Yeah? Yeah ed? He says, yeah, yeah, come in. So we kind of chatted as I walked in, and Mike was like, hey, bring the guy in here, show him around. What are

you doing? And I was like, oh, okay, which, by the way, that was the real right, that is right. But the boy his exterior was don't tread on my treadmill in here there. Yeah. And so what Marcus Paul was was the real Mike Woyseek without the gruff. He could be businesslike because he had to be, but he

wasn't great. He was just he was a sweet man, and think about the fine line those guys have to draw between being that nice to these guys, befriending the players, but also saying, oh, oh wait a minute, now, you're not getting away with murder in here just because I'm friendly with you. And I saw someoney comment about that, but really that was the longest conversation I might have had with him. And I was sitting there reading all the tributes, all the tweets, and I'm going, you know

what I missed out. I missed out on getting to know a really neat guy because I just just wasn't around him that much. And I don't know how much interaction you guys. I mean, you know, after time, after all this time, I really try to foster That's this, by the way, the hardest thing for me about this year.

I really try to foster some kind of a personal relationship with as many people as I can, because you're gonna learn something and U and sometimes you run into Marcus Paul who there's never an interview that you want from him, right, there's never a quote. It's just you're gonna be better off for knowing him. And so I know him a little bit and we had several conversations and he it's you can really understand why you were completely right. They needed the time. Did you get to

know him at all? Like I said, I just met him a couple of times. But the greatness did you play again? Did you not play again? But let me say this, fellas, I have nothing more to add to take away because the greatness of a man is how many people that that were miss him And it's just not no one that's not gonna miss him. So that showed you what's a guy was. Now some guys that then went away and I'd be like, wow, okay, and you go to bed, but this guy here, you pray

for his family? Yeah yeah, and and and it was certainly tough on him, his kids, his wife. But anyway, it was could you could you give us a list of some of those guys who some guy that go away and just go to bed, some guys pray for him. But it was a it was a really neat uh memorial service people talk to, you know, And before this happened, I didn't put two and two together that uh Marcus and DJ were teammates at Syracuse. Not only were they teammates,

have you yes, Have you seen the pictures? Have you seen Daryl Johnston's quotes about Darryl wore thirty two and Marcus wore ten. And Daryl tweeted the day after Marcus passed he said, every every time they're in the same class nineteen eighty nine, and Darryl said, every time he walks past a clock and it's ten thirty two, that's he said, that's me and Marcus he's ten, I'm thirty two. And that's how kind that's the kind of an impact he had on Darryl as a teammates. You said, co captains. Yeah,

and that's going back. Yeah. So eighty four, almost forty years eighty four was their freshman year at at Sarah

excuse they got together. And I don't think I'm giving away anything, but one of his h his Marcus's roommate for those years at Syracuse, was at the memorial service and spoke and they've they've been tight, and like DJ, if you've heard DJ talk about it, he basically pointed out that you know, you you get busy, right, and you hey, we were close and we knew each other, and he said, but not until he got here that they kind of reconnect on a personal basis because DJ

was part of the expendables, right, the guys that would come in and work out, the old guys Tony Tilbert, and that they didn't drag you in there. They try, they try it, but you know what, see who did you turn down? Yeah? But you know, and once again, it's certain people that I look at. If coach Jimmy Johnson say nice things about you, well that's a pretty short list. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So when I hear you got like coach Johns, Wow, you know, Markus

tesched a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, he certainly did, and and and and I guess I didn't realize or take the time to read it about his career at Syracuse getting drafted in the fourth round by the Bear. So you would have played against him in that playoff game ninety one season. Sure. And uh that's why it was so ironic that Washington was the team that the Cowboys played when that happened, because Ron Rivera was teammates

with Marcus Paul Chicago. Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Uh yeah, his antenna when he got back into coaching strength and conditioning with Wisik and New Orleans and then going to New England, then going to the Jets, and then the Giants, and I didn't realize he was with the Giants for eleven seasons, won two more Super Bowls. It's got five Super Bowl rings. Wow, it's amazing. But that maybe that's the test of a man, you know, not what you accomplished, but the trail that you kind of left behind and

the people you touched. All Right, we're off to a great start here on Mick Shots, and we shall return in a moment. Hey, they're Cowboys fans with Ty Cleaners at home pickup and delivery, Cleaning your clothes has never been more convenient. Simply sign up at your local store, set out your dirty clothes, and one of our Ty Cleaners professionals will come directly to your home for a

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game that's autterbox dot Com. We're back in a tasty treat to sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor and cream Soda. Is he a new Combone's music to my ears? Okay, doctor time pass music to my ears and mouth. New Doctor pepper and cream soda a delicious to back back back to mixed shots, You can now support your beloved Cowboys from anywhere. Open up at AT and t's fan Zone feature inside the Cowboys app and record your personal

cheer and referee signals. I'm not sure which signals you want me to give, but I can give a few. You will receive a personalized mosaic and may show up on the AT and T Live FX video board during the game. Not sure, Not sure? AT and T wants you using some of the sub Yes, yes, but they wouldn't make it to the mosaic. That's always an option. Yes, So we returned here on Mick Shots, Mickey Spagnola, Nate Newton, and Brad Sham joining us. Get him in on this

routine on the podcast. Nate and I have done several shows together. Actually, Brad and I have done several things together. So this is kind of like a old home week, right, Yes, yes, it is. Wow. So the Cowboys, Um, we'll get back to practice tomorrow. I believe that's Friday Wednesday. They did have somewhat of a practice. Uh, they treated it as the first practice back from a bye week. So he went kind of easy on them. And then they did something where teams don't normally get to do. They watched

the next opponent on TV. Had the opportunity to do that after their meetings as by positions. Do you ever do that with your teammates? Watch the next opponent live on television? A possible opponent. We had a shot, I think when Jimmy first got had to get into playoffs, so we all admitted a Cowboy cafe. The last that was the last game of the nineties season. You needed New Orleans to lose. It was Green Bay, Yeah, somebody.

The reason that I remember is I did the game in Green Bay for CBS Radio and they had to lose. And then the Cowboys were in Atlanta in a rainstorm and that was Babe Waffenberg's last He was talking about the next game. Yeah, this was the Monday night game. We needed them somebody to win. They needed the way before the last week. They need they needed the UH

Saint Star lose to the Rams. And it was Monday night and it went down to the last second of the game, and I believe h New Orleans kicked the winning field goal as time expired, and but they were all there watching the game. But if you were at Cowboys Cafe and it was nineteen ninety, we're any of you paying attention to the game. But we were. We were into that game. And I'll tell you once we saw that we wasn't in it, then later yeah, we wobbled out. They run out of beer or crown or

whatever else. Yes, sir, seven and nine was going to make the playoffs. Yes, so don't be making fun of seven to nine this year. Right, you would have thought that was the greatest thing in the world. As a player. You you never give up as a player, You never give up. You just you never know what happened. You just never give up. And that's kind of the situation. The Cowboys are in now at three and eighth, five games to go, and they will return to practice on Friday.

So today is Tuesday, yes, yes, yes, yes, And then you got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. You travel, but they normally practice on Saturday, which is Monday's Saturday. Right, so practice and travel. So now I think I'm gonna now I can. And the only problem now, now now I know that that Thursday is Tuesday, But the problem is the Baltimore team that we saw yesterday was still missing twelve or fifteen COVID patients, right, and they they can get eight of them back, Yes, they can. Will they

get the quarterback back? I mean he's one of them who can come back. Okay, The tight end Andrews from Oklahoma, he won't be back, And the wide receiver who used to be with New Orleans he won't be back, Snead. And there's one other player who won't be back, a linebacker. The rest of them can come back. So um, I'm not entirely sure how much good they got out of watching that game in terms of preparing for what Baltimore

can do or will do. Their center yesterday was a rookie who has been on he's been inactive all year and it was his first NFL snaps because their first two centers are on the COVID list, and one of those guys is their backup guard and tackle also, so I mean all of that stuff's different. So joined the Cowboys boat, yeah, but same thing except injuries instead of COVID. Yeah, on their offensive line, right on their offensive line. So will these guys see here's the key thing, though, do

they get back allowed back into the building. To be able to practice for the game, because I start counting days I don't know Jackson, and I thought it was getting pretty close to Yeah, he's eligible to play, but can he practice? You know? And that's a lot of work to you guys commin y'all because I'm not doing that type of work to find out. So that's too much work, man. So you either can play or you can't play. All I want to know is who lining

up on that day. And this is what this COVID world has brought us is today I can't play two days from now. I am practicing two weeks, but today I can play, and I'm playing now. If you're an offensive lineman and you're preparing for them, you may not have seen that's right yesterday who you're going to see.

But I will say this, when training camps were starting and we were all trying to guess what was going to happen, it seemed to me that every team at some point would just deal with not having a guy available for a couple of weeks for COVID. And that hasn't happened obviously. Baltimore is an extreme case. Tenver ran into a little problem the other day and Now as we get later in the year and the weather is worse than the breaks going, there's more and more guys.

But every team has not had players unavailable because of the virus, right, And so I think in that respect, the league maybe has exceeded some some expectations. I was one of the guys that from day one have always believed that put on your mask, if you you know, it's a little bit scarier than that, put on your gloves, and let's face this thing, because now by what's happening here the sports world, the real world, people are starting

to move forward and figure this thing out. And as this thing go forward, it will get a little bit worse because of the weather change, but we would deal with it without panic. And as we see now, the world does not fall apart because the ravens lamar Jackson and the world continue to move on. So now we can just relax. If he's there, Like I said, if he's there, he's there, you just have to deal with And so, uh would he be that same guy? He won't.

I'm telling you, we don't know the effects. That's that's the only thing that scares me. We don't know the effect of how to each person. Each person's going to affect differently. So will he have a little breathing issue, you know, trying to get his legs on him? Would he be you know, we saw it physically affect Cam Newton well affected. But another thing we don't know is when a guy is missing time because he's tested positive, right that he's missing time, that doesn't mean he is symptomatic.

It could be someone, thank thank you. So the guy may be affected, he may not be affected. And um, actually, if r G three is the quarterback, then he's just going to run through the Cowboys defense. That doesn't really matter which one of them, don't. Right. The thing that's that's amazing here is we we finally have some similar, some order on Tomine on defense. Because I'm just a firm believer that we're gonna get a few of our

guys back next year our offense. You know, I'm not saying all of will be in place, but we will have enough guys on our offense next year to be effective, to be more than effective. Now, the problem is, well, these guys, the young guys, have enough knowledge and understanding on what the NFL game is about. Because I just believe and I know we probably need to be talking about the Raiders. But I believe that the NFL and

all major sports will find a way to practice. What has been missing in all the major sports is practice except the NBA. Because they can. They can bubble with they got twelve players, fifteen players. They can bubble mostly more important, you know, easier than we can. You know. And that's an interesting question because I m I raised the question to somebody the other day, why not have every team bubble right now? The league can't do it.

There's too many of them. As you're saying, why couldn't the Cowboys have already done that with their coaches, but the coaches are in a bubble? Yeah, why could you not have every two We're not talking about four months now, We're talking about one month bubble the rest of the season. Yeah, bubble every team New England, find a place in Rhode Island or wherever you want to go and bubble up Dallas.

You've got that. The OMNI is right there, and that's where your coaches are, and that's where your players put themselves in training camp for a month to finish out the season. Bubble up. And I don't know if you guys saw the interview yesterday a halftime with the commission Commissioner, and they basically asked him, have you considered a playoff bubble? And he said, no, We think our protocols if everybody follows the rules, but I do think we can do

more to create isolation. To me, he was saying, in the teams that make the playoffs get in a bubble. Do what the Cowboys are doing right now with their coaches, because now you're only looking at so many teams. You're not looking at thirty two teams time seven. That's right, But I would respectfully say to the commissioner, um, be a responsible federal government and don't leave it to the states. Right right in the playoffs, you just tell everyone that

they've that's what you need to do. Just do it. And I think he was hinting towards that that the playoff, if you get in the playoffs, you don't have to bring nate. How many teams? How many are in the playoffs? How many teams? I think sixteen right now? Sixteen they will bring in sixteen football players to one spot like the NBA did, is probably unrealistic. Sixteen teams you mean, yeah, yeah, you said players, Yet sixteen football teams may but to

tell each team to isolate what's up? Nate. See, see, this is where I have an issue with a power. There's three powers that I know. It's the NBA, it's the NFL, It's Major League Baseball. You pay a dude over twenty five million dollars a year, and he does not have the power to say, Brad, I'm sorry, bahla la? Are you talking about the commissioner? Yes, bubble fifty million dollars. You know if fifty let me not drool on myself, fifty million, I don't have a power to say, bubba la,

it's gonna happen in the playoffs perteen. Come on. That's the only thing that that's the only thing that bothers me. And that's why I fought so hard. And I love the commissioner of the NBA. He said, you know what, I have a responsibility to the players, and I have responsibility to my sponsors, and they're one and the same.

Bubble up. Don't you think if your team, if you were the Kansas City Chiefs, that you would just say, hey, we're hotels right there next to the ballpark, we're staying there. Just four weeks. See, right, that's what I'm saying. We're we're all on the same thing. We're not talking about what six weeks ago. We're talking about the last four weeks of the season, the most serious time of this of this COVID. You won't tell me that the Marcus Lawrence and those guys won't love you to death because

of hate fellas. Let's make a run at this thing of the last four weeks. Tear your wives that, hey, this is a bad time of the year, seeing them, seeing them money. What if you're the owner of Pittsburgh you got an undefeated team, you know you're gonna tie. Try to tie history here, bubble up the Lions and

the Jets can do whatever they want. Well, see the thing in Denver, right, the thing that is And thank thank god man, and I shouldn't say thank god because it may upset somebody, but thank god that I got two sensible men with him on the show today, because I just I've never understood my wife be like, baby, you don't understand, I said, what baby, he makes up with twenty five million fifty you're fifty and he can't tell his owners. For the last part of this season

this is what we're doing. This is what we're doing. Fellas, all right, don't go anywhere because this is a sensible mix shot show here out of Thursday from our SWBC Mortgage studio. Will return in a moment. We're back in the tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor cream Soda. Is he a new Combonet's music to my ears? Okay, Doctor music to my ears and mouth new Doctor pepper and Cream Soda. Delas, just dear, it's

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It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plant may not be in your area. See att dot com slash five G for you for details. I'm Jay Novachek, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day. I was the guy who always got the tough yards and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Dear three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yard work I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand, John Deer has the

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experts and find a perfect lens for you. Seymore do Moore Selre back back to mixed shots. The Doctor Pepper Big Twelve Championship returns to AT and T Stadium on Saturday, December nineteenth, when the top two football teams in the Big twelve Conference Face off tickets are on sale now at sekgeek dot com. Get yours before they sell out. You think the boxing match will sell out on Saturday? Who's going at it? Who's going at Earl? Errol Spence Jr?

Well Danny Garcon. When you say sold out? How many tickets are they making it? Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean it's not eighty thousand. Yeah, no, absolutely not for boxing. I think this might be a pay per view for me. I went the last couple of times he fought one here at the Ford Center and one at at and T Stadium. I think, right this is just me right now. I don't think it's a good idea to go to

a restaurant. Yeah, let alone a big sporting event two or three more months where it's been a hellscape of an eight or nine months and it's and here we are, and we all made it to this point except the ones who didn't accept the ones And you said something before and eight that I wish more people would pay attention to because the presentation that we get is about you you live or you die. That's ninety nine percent survival. Yes,

that's correct. Now, do We not all know people who have had it didn't die and have residual physical effects, and they don't yet know how much longer those effects will last. Thank you. It's this is not to be messed with. So I'm really not doing much more than this. You know, see my son, and I mean that's about it for you know, I would come this far. We can do it three more months. I remarked to some of the other day, I said, you know, I don't

think it's a good thing. I like where I live because I don't think I've eaten a meal anywhere else but home, lunch here, and at the stadium when I went to a Cowboys game in the press box. That's it. I haven't eaten anywhere since the end of March. Well. You know one thing I found out, man, and I'm truly happy now, is I know that I love my wife. There you go otherwise every day? Can I tell you

something more important? Wow? You know that she loves you? Yeah, because after all this time, if she didn't really love you, than you'd be out to be in the street. Brother, if you were that lucky. I'm telling you and so follow you guys and gals, that you didn't like you. Go back to work, go back to the office. So date, you said something about the game yesterday Baltimore Pittsburgh, and somebody asked me today, what did you learn? And I said, well,

here's what I learned. No matter how badly you might struggle on offense, that doesn't mean you have to struggle on defense. Defense can keep you in a game, Yes you can. And unfortunately, what we've seen here is the defense has rarely given the Cowboys a chance to stay in games. I under stand, you know all the debate on fake punt, no fake punt, smart, dumb, desperate, but that didn't mean the next play you gotta give up

a twenty three yard touchdown room. And so the defense can help this team out when they're struggling out an offensive line and they're not scoring a heck of a lot of points. This is a we were probably gonna set a thousand more times, you and me and everybody and you make we're gonna say a thousand more Time's strange year. The way this game was played was we were trying to match up with this team. When they

went two tight ends, we're bringing out big people. When they went h three wives we're bringing out and it got so weird for coaches, so they went dime needs to forget it. We're gonna we're gonna stay without high bred package, and they went with it. And we have nobody that could tackle these guys. So you know what, Mick, I ain't giving up on this year by no means. But let's play this year out defensively and offensively. Let these young guys have opportunity, and the veterans that you

know they're gonna keep, let them play. Just let them play shore the way to line up at ask everybody to do the best job they can. Let this year play out. Let's figure out a way to have a real training camp, a real offseason, and let's see where we fit now because this year here it's critical. It's critical for our head coach, our defensive, offensive coording is everybody can learn something about themselves and the players in

front of them. And more importantly, just promise me we're not gonna get guys on this team that don't care. I see a lot that it ain't the defense, it ain't the coaches, it's the guys. You gotta get a few more guys that care. You know you touched on two things. One is a texted baby yesterday or the day before, And I said, you know, feel free to slap me for even saying this. What's the Cowboys record

right now? Three eight? All three other teams, I will make this bold prediction, the other three teams in the division before the Cowboys take the field in Baltimore will also have their eighth loss. So you just can't say that, no matter how bad what we've been looking at has been, you can't say you don't have a chance because you're going to take the field probably even in losses with everybody else. So you got to win some games. Now. The next thing that you were talking about is um

think back to training camp. You know you're talking about it. They're going a dime and they're doing this. This team's base defense is nickel, Yes it is. They have never I don't. I didn't miss a practice. To me, I did not miss a practice like you like you in training camp, but there were never a practice with it was three linebackers on the Thank you. Now if the linebacker, if the linebackers you have don't play like all stars.

Now you get what some of what we have been looking at and I mean, shoot me, when you're not running the ball that well and Sean Lee's healthy, can I have those three linebackers on the field. I'm not a coach. I don't know very much, but I know what I'm looking at is not very good, and so

can we do something else? Now, what you said about guys who care so right, And one of the reasons I think they started playing better is additioned by subtraction with some of the personnel moves they back and you that you you took away some guys and you empowered people like Armstrong and Neville Gallimore and those and those guys. Now you have some more injuries. You lost Diggs, he's your best corner. Anthony Brown's probably your second best corner.

He's probably not going to be able to play again this week. Well, okay, that's personnel. You just you have to do the best you can. But and they've tried. They've tried this. Two was it two games ago? They played five defensively. It was a road game. I know that they played five defensive linemen the whole game. And really Armstrong was more of a stand up linebacker. It was like the strong side guy. Yeah, except he was up on the line of scrimmage most of the time. So,

I mean, we all love offense. We all love the emphasis the organization has put on acquiring offensive players, making a premium of it for so many years. And I think what Nate said before is really important the offense next year, as far as I know, they're gonna get both tackles back. Yes, they're going to be. If you resign, Luna, you're gonna have Beotish and Luna, you're gonna be stronger upfront than you've been. You now know that Jarwin and

Schultz can be too effective tight ends. Oh, by the way, you're gonna have your quarterback back. I think your offense is fine. I should have invited you guys on the show. Everybody got tired of me saying that about two linebackers one linebacker. Can I have a real linebacker be that third guy instead of a defensive end standing up masquerading as a linebacker or your fourth safety. Yeah, yeah, see, And I don't understand. Say we see that, we you.

You can still play defense in this league, and if you don't put some emphasis on it. What we have been watching for the last two or three months is what you're gonna get and which, by the way, Trayvon Diggs was out there doing some rehab on the field yesterday, so maybe he's not that far away. It might not have been a weight bearing bone he fractured in his foot. I would think it's going to be a short week after this game, right, maybe the final three games he

could very well be back. Anthony Brown you mentioned was on the side. Yeah, he's still fighting that rib and he didn't. He didn't. He was not close to practicing, yeah, but he was at least doing running and rehab. So I just now you're down to the same problem in the second I just think this coaching staff needs to really put emphasis on next week. These two games one at a time, but don't throw them away because you're saying, well,

I've got two more division games coming. You gotta win every game because you're gonna I'm telling you're gonna wake up Tuesday morning and find the other teams in your division with the same number of losses. So Brad is not betting on the Giants winning at Seattle with with without Daniel Jones, right, He's not betting on Washington winning at Pittsburgh. I am not and he's not betting on Philadelphia winning at Green Bay. I am not. If they win, wonder,

it's amazing. And you know what, for those teams, it gets worse because then the Giants have Arizona, Washington is at San Francisco, and Philly gets to play host to New Orleans. So how about this, how much time do you we can stretch in another minute? Or which of the if you're objective and you're not, we're not doing a Dallas Cowboys show. Which of the four NFC East teams right now do you think is best position to

win the division? I think the Washington risk is that was going to be my guest because of their defense. I think their defense, but do you think think about it, quarterback is more stable. That's why I think it's Washington. I think it's Washington because because of they've got an outstanding defense, but they've got the best quarterback situation right now. And I'm not knocking Andy Dalton. I think that what he's dealing with in the offensive line is somewhat problematic.

And those guys they can play better. Maybe they can play better, and the and the game plan has to accommodate, you know, get the one thing you can get from watching Pittsburgh and Baltimore is if you can get the ball out fast, then you know you don't necessarily have to deal so much with the pass rush. But I would say Washington right now is best position because I think Alex Smith and the way their offensive line is playing.

They don't have the Cowboys receivers NA named the next well you will because you did play by play the next receiver after Terry McLaurin. Yeah, some guy named Sims. I think they have two guys named Sims. Two guys you can't tell them apart to take by choice. Yeah, so four and eight would be looking pretty good just telling you Tuesday night. You just they have to really concentrate on every game and they have to. They have to figure out a way to make Baltimore a winnable

game because they could be. They could be four and eight, And right there the reason you can beat Baltimore. And I know it's simply said, put eight in the box and don't be scared. Don't don't be scared to pass that ain't there. Let him they passed as a camouflage at this time. Just stop the running game and let's see what they're throwing. I promise you they can't throw good enough to win. What's my number here? Thirty second and run defense one hundred and fifty six yards a game, Dallas. Yes,

I'll put eight in the balls out there. Give me three linebackers. Yeah yeah, I'm telling you, man running, you would not run the ball this team. They can't. I don't care if his RG three, I don't care if his Lamar. He's not progressed since he started from day one to now. I don't see the progression that's needed to be a next level quarter of what you do. But you have to. But you have to deal with the Baltimore defense yet. Oh now, you didn't say that,

I just did. Maybe they can store more than one one touchdown. You gotta score at least three touchdowns gets them all right. You don't get this kind of information every day, just anywhere. I appreciate everybody joining for Mick Shot. Thank you for filling in day, Brad, Thanks for stopping. This was a delight of a lot of fun. Mix Shots will return on Monday Monday. We return on Mick Shots real Monday. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club