Mick Shots: Making Sense

tell you this much. In New York they are not talking about the Giants because, as you know, I like to listen to I like to go behind enemy lines and hear what they're saying about the other team. On my drive in I tried to listen to and I put quotation marks around to try to listen to New York sports talk radio. And as you can imagine, wait, let me guess they aren't happy with the Yankees. A couple of former Rangers that play for the Yankees did not play very well for the Yankees. But what we

are here to talk about are your Dallas Cowboys. And of course there was breaking news last night, and we'll fill you in on what we know about the breaking news from last night. Yeah, I'm sure it might have caught most people off guard, kind of not knowing what's probably was going on behind the scenes. But as Mike McCarthy pointed out today in his press conference, you know, they had a pretty extensive personnel meeting after the game

and minor standing. He kind of goes through every guy that played in the game with the owner and the CEO and whoever else has probably got Jones on their name, including me. Uh maybe not yeah, but because you're not upstairs. But the coach did meet with me yesterday evening we taped the Coaches Show, and I will just let you know this much. He tipped you off. No, he did not tip He tipped me off that there was something important happening, and so he was in a hurry to

get that Coaches Show taped. He got a phone call in the middle of taping the Coaches Show about six o'clock last night. But go ahead, this is not going to make the Coaches Show, is what you're saying. It will be another in other parts of other part of Yeah. Absolutely. So. Um, look, I'm sure it's been hashed already and you know, our

chance to talk about it. The thing I took from Mike McCarthy was he said there was He was talking about the big picture and multiple factors on why they made the decision to release Jalen Smith four games, four games into the season. And this is the way I look at it, number one, And this hasn't been pointed out. You know, every company points out that they were worried about his nine point two million dollars base salary next year.

All right, but to do this move, you know, they've got to cover his salary cap hit for this year, right, and to show you the dissatisfaction they had with him, it's going to cost them six point eight million next year in dead money, so you never get away from the guarantees that have already been paid, right, So six point eight he's gonna he's gonna count against the cap

next year, next year six point eight. You know how when Travis Frederick retired and then there was dead money for this year, well, next year dead money for releasing Jalen Smith is going to be six point eight million. And had they waited until now, you do not want to wait until the fifth day of next year because the right contract was guaranteed next year on the fifth

day of the new league year. But if you waited and maybe he may June first cut, then you could spread that cap hit over two years two next year, right, And so that's the significance of doing it now from a salary came exactly and doing it now because the

contract next year nine point two million was guaranteed against injury. Right, So what happens if he, I don't know, has some sort of injury that he's out for the rest of this year, Well, if it's something that he has to rehab sort of the way he did this past offseason with the wrist surgery, right, And so he wasn't healthy at the fifth day of the league year this year, so that guaranteed his contract. Okay, they couldn't cut him. Everybody goes, why now, why didn't they do it before?

And at that point they had still not decided on vander Esch's if they were going to pick up his fifth year option. They still hadn't drafted Michael Parsons nor Jibril Cox, right, So from a linebacker stamped point, basically hadn't a sign and right, so their hands were tied right, So to me, um, they were dissatisfied with his play. Let's just get right to that. You know, we can come up with all this other stuff, but if the guy's playing well, then you're not doing any of this.

And they gave him a chance over the first four weeks of the season to show what they could do better into this defense or whatever. He did not. He did not if you just watched the game against Carolina, they gave him every chance because they opened in a three four defense with Jalen and Layton in the middle, and that's where he belonged. And that was the second series of the game. That was the first series of the game. Jalen was not on the field. They were start.

They were in that right. Second series of the game, they came out in a three four. Michael Parsons was playing left outside linebacker, I think maybe it was Bash him on the other side, and the inside linebackers were Jalen and Layton exactly. And the first play Cuba Hubbard went for fourteen yards and then one play later he went for twelve yards, and then they were in it one more play and then they discarded the three four.

The rest of the day, and whenever Jalen was on the field the rest of the day, it was alongside He was alternating with Layton, alongside Michael Parsons, right at the traditional exact spot. And I went back and looked at almost every one of his twenty eight snaps, and he would he was an entity. I saw him make one tackle, so that had a you know, that was the overriding part of the multiple factors. Now the other factor was, is my understanding, they went to him and

tried to restructure his contract for next year. And I don't know if that meant lowering the base salary. I don't know if that meant okay, we're going to take this guarantee away or the injury guarantee away. But when they come to you and ask you to do that and you say no, well they're sitting there going, okay, Now we got to be careful because what if he gets some sort of injury and he needs a surgery and now the contracts guaranteed, right, So they didn't want

to risk that chance either. My other point is, just look at the roster. Now. They knew Keane O'Neil was coming back this week, Brandon and I coming back off of COVID, So that would have given them that added to the roster that they would if Jalen was on it, they would have been right at fifty three. But with Jalen gone, they're at fifty two. But look at the guys that are about ready to come back off of

injured reserve. And I counted between Lale Collin's suspension and then the guys on IR, there's like six guys that they would like to get back on this roster. So they were going to have to start cutting guys right now. Do you want to get rid of young guys that you feel like they've got a future and risked them getting picked up because you're gonna wave them and try

to put them on the practice squad? Or are you looking at somebody that's as McCarthy pointed out, he didn't say he didn't fit into this defensive system, but he said we have a defensive system that we're going forward with. To me that he didn't fit into what they were doing. And so if somebody's going to be expendable, well there you go, right, And sometimes I think guys have to Now I don't know what's going to happen to him. I don't know if somebody's going to sign him, he

doesn't have to go through waivers. But if you don't feel like this guy's got a future with you, well you're not going to keep him and say cutting somebody that you would like to go forward with. But it's it might not be there yet. It sounds like jibberral Cox is not quite there yet, but he's playing special teams. You don't want to cut him, so or Gifford. Yeah, so you you got to move forward and you can't

keep looking backwards. So to me, if you look at where your situation is and they ask you to restructure, probably restructure is probably a pretty good idea because if you're not, then this might be you know, the result of saying no and um and even from the standpoint of I mean, just look at snaps this week against the Giants with Neil coming back, and you look at the game against Carolina, and when you're grading the film from that game and you've got Layton Vanderish grading out

much better than Jalen Smith. You would like to have Layton. How many snaps did Layton getting that game? Late thirty something right? Layton ended up with forty forty snaps. J had twenty eight. Okay, those twenty eight snaps. Michael played sixty eight snaps. Yeah, okay, if if Layton, if you've and and this is even even factoring in Keanu Neil coming back and which way. But by the way, sixty eight was one short of right, all right, And so if you if you decide that Layton deserves the playing

time over Jalen. Okay, so what is Jalen doing? Is he inactive this week? He's the fourth linebacker, right, and he doesn't play special team and he doesn't play special teams. So and you got Jabril Cox who ends up planning nineteen special team snap sixty six percent. So that in

essence is the timing of it that I mean. And from a very practical standpoint, he doesn't have a role this week on this roster, right, And and again you know seven point two million base salary, Now you got to cover that, right, But if somebody picks him up and signs them for say two million dollars, then you can take that off the seven point two that's been guaranteed already. So it sounded like reports where they tried

to trade him. I don't know well, and you could see you could see this coming throughout the off season because of the abundance of linebackers they had. The other part of this, this was the first game that Parsons has played the full plays. Yeah, he's been around thirty eight forty snaps every game so far. This is the first time he's had the full plate of sixty eight snaps in a game. Yeah, And they tried to give because there were some there were some snaps that Parsons got.

They came at defensive end, so they gave him a chance to be out there, right, and it works out so well. And there was some alignments I saw in the second half where when they had Parsons at a defensive end, Layton was the only true linebacker on the field and then they were playing Curse kind of as a highbred type linebacker slash safety guy in the slot.

It would be interesting to know if how much they tried or at least inquired with other possible trading suitors throughout the summer and leading up to the start of the season, because I was looking at it going and I thought all along, you know, he's from Indianapolis or Indiana and the Colts middle linebacker signed elsewhere and they had a need, and then you've got Ebraflus familiar with them. I thought that would be a good trading partner, if

I remember you bringing that up. And yeah, and so I was looking because you could just see that there was more inventory than playing time on this roster at the linebacker position, barring injuries and so forth. And so now we've gotten basically a quarter of the way into the season and it's has sorted itself out fortunately, and knock on wood, of their fine health wise at that position.

But even if they do suffer an injury that position, they feel good about the depth obviously that they they've got there. And you know, and the other guy, and I know they like him for special teams purposes, but the other guy that's on injured reserve, Francis Bernard, they like him. Remember they kept him on the fifty three last year, right, they'd give him some snaps other than

special teams. So, yeah, it's about going forward. And you know when the head coach says, you know, we got to look at the big picture, well that kind of says it without saying it, right, right. You know, he said all the nice things about him that you could, and then it comes down to can you play? Can you produce? And it wasn't happening, So he gets he's expendable well as we were. And by the way, I did not mention off yop that there is a vacant

seat here. Everson told us at the end of the show yesterday that he was traveling today and would not be able to make it, but he'll be back on Thursday and Friday. And don't you know, he's just chomping at the bit to be able to talk about this because we know that because he was texting as soon as it happened last Yeah, how did he know? First? I gotta, I gotta what the heck text or whatever that thing is wth But yeah, he'll be joining us remotely.

So yeah. So now they went out there in practice today, so you know, but one of the questions that kept coming up was how's this going to affect the locker room? And that's what I was about to say right now. As we began this show, Michael Parsons and Layton vander Esch were talking. Okay, so that'll be we need to listen to right afterwards, you know, And I'm sure, but it will say the right thing. I just I never and I so, look, we haven't been in the locker

room since twenty nineteen. I don't know what happened last year. I don't know what's happening this year. But if I look back to twenty nineteen, I just didn't think he was like a locker room guy that everybody gravitated to. And I'm not sure he gravitated to anybody else. And I've said that before, and I said this year, I saw a change in him in training camp. He seemed more engaged with his teammates. You know they who was running around pattent guys on the back, and but that

wasn't him those other years. So I don't know that it affects the locker room. And somebody tried to suggest the Cowboys were sending a message now. They weren't sending a message like, oh, you guys better start playing well because otherwise we're gonna cut you. This was not a Jimmy Johnson move, right, And you don't do that when you're gonna get six point eight million stuffed in your

cap next year. In fact, I look at it as they gave him every chance to by keeping him on the roster the first quarter of this season gave him every chance to show that, yeah, that he belonged exactly, and uh, you know, and you know, the story is a great one as far as the way he came back from his devastating injury his senior year or last

year at Notre Dame and rehabbed and so forth. But at a certain point, um, you know, if you're not getting better, uh yeah, you know, it's there's it's like it's like the roller coaster was going uphill and then it hit the top, right, and then what happens. So he got to be able to stay up there, right, and I'm not sure he did. Yeah, So that's the

bottom line. Okay, I've got some questions about this defense going forward, and along the lines of that little three four look that we saw the other day, and maybe what Dan's Quinn's ideas are going forward here as the Cowboys take on the Giants this week, when Mick shots continues in just a moment, honey, big news, Gary, are you okay? Oh I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jackie Flash. What see. I want the latest smartphone, but the best deals are only for new customers. So to get a

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Mixed Shots. Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Making the Team is back for another exciting season. Don't miss new episodes every Friday at nine eight Central only on CMT. All right, we continue on mix Shots and the other little bit of news that broke this morning around the National Football League. There were some speculation that the Cowboys perhaps could be on the radar of this certain player who is about

to be released by the New England Patriot, Stefan Gilmore. Well, as it turns out, it didn't even get to three o'clock this afternoon, and Stefan Gilmore is now instead headed to the Carolina Panthers for a two thousand and twenty three sixth round draft pick. Do other teams need any players other than the Cowboys every time somebody comes available, Well,

the Cowboys got to be interested in him. Well, what was being talked about locally on sports talk radio is the fact that, okay, we need to do something about that other cornerback spot opposite Treyvon Diggs. And okay, we got Anthony Brown, but you know, Gilmore Sherwood look good over there. Have we forgotten that Kelvin Joseph is coming back at some point? Yeah? And you know they used the second round draft pick on him, right, So, and how much is he going to cost? Like going forward?

Are you going to run him for? It's nearly with his roster bone us and I'm sure that has tied to games played. He wouldn't be available until Week six seven on PUP and he would cost six million dollars. So that's half your cap right there, that you supposedly have available. And then you know, are you going to resign him next year now for a six? You can throw a six the way I guess for three quarters

of a season if you want. And that might be what Carolina's doing because they've had so many injuries and they lost JC Horn and of course they signed or they traded for CJ. Henderson last week. Yeah, and c J. Henderson being a second year player in the league, they've got him under control for a couple of years at least. Now. Everybody's saying Gilmour is healthy because he got put on pup.

It was a supposedly a quad I believe it was, And but he was unhappy with the contract, right So if five million or six million a year weren't enough, uh, yeah, he's gonna want, you know, double digit figures. And sure, and you you would like to use some of your salary cap if available next year, you would like to at least entertain the possibility of resigning Layton Vanderish, you might want to resign um um Michael Gallup. I don't know if it's affordable. And then Randy Gregory's up too.

By the way, so this money that they freed up, not to mention the free agents that they signed this year on one year deal, right and Demante Casey, who are all playing pretty well right now. Yeah. Absolutely, So you got to think ahead, big picture, right, it's not all about today. You've got to plan ahead. So you can't be keep spending money at the same position or draft capital at the same position all the time. Sometimes you got to have a fifth round pick, start, a

sixth round pick start. I think Anthony Brown was a sixth round pick. You know. Sometimes you got to have a Terrence Steel step up as a rookie free agent and the next year look like, Okay, I've got to

save some money. I don't. And by the way, tying the SEC's back out on the on the practice field, we'll get into a practice And by the way, with a month left before the trade deadline, you don't know where where your needs are going to be leading up for the next month, because something else that you might need more importantly, right, might show up. Right, your folks at Pro Football Focus, who was tweeting where they were tweeting about Stefan Gilmore signing with Carolina, and it just

caught my eye. The Carolina Panthers have these second best defense in the I saw your tweet accord to EPA per play. How mighty you can fall right from the first best to the second best. That's where it's so early in the year. I just laugh at it because, oh, they got the best offense in the league. They got the best, second best defense in the lady whatever it is.

And it doesn't take into account strength of schedule, right, And as we talked about leading up to that Carolina game, they had played whom yeah, played the Jets and the Saints with Jamis Winston and the Texans. That's right, with Miles Davis smile David's mills. I was gonna say, Miles Davis, No, I think he's a singer, right, And so so the

Cowboys put thirty six up on Carolina in three quarters. Yeah, and that if that's the second best defense in the league, then the Cowboys are going places, right, absolutely, So yeah, you get you got to look inside the numbers something, all right, you want to go with a practice report. Yeah, In fact, I just saw Zeke talk to the media. Yeah, and Uh. He say he was resting. He had a knee discomfort. Knee discomfort, but he's gonna be okay. It

sounds like a veteran day to me. Okay, And he he did not you know, Mike said that there would be some guys limited, but he never put on a uniform and so, uh, you know, he was out there kind of stand around watching. I thought the other guys that, uh, you know would catch your eye. Marii Cooper who had the hamstring in the game. Uh, he was out there. He might have been limited, They might have limited his snaps, but while special teams was going on, he was doing

the resistant chord work. Um, along with the guy you mentioned, m Joseph who Joselvin Joseph who was out with Uh. Was it a knee trying to Yes, it was running it. Uh, he was doing some resistance work. Uh. Trayvon Diggs, your NFC defensive player of the Week from the month to the week. He's working on his second month right now. Remember they said a little back tightness. I don't know if he was doing everything, but he was at least out there and it looked like he was prepared to practice.

At least at a limited time basis. Randy Gregory, you know last week it was a little bit of a knee, but he was out there a Nie and Neil were practicing along with Carlos Watkins. So that's a good sign for the defensive front. And it'll be interesting to see what they do with that defensive front. You mentioned the three four that they played at times in the first half against Carolina. But if you get Watkins back and Gregory's good to go, you've got your full complement of

linebackers that actually can play linebacker. Basham looks like, what do you mean by that linebackers that can actually play linebacker? I should I should have rephrased that Parsons playing linebacker because he can play linebacker instead of defense. That's not what it meant. No, that's not what I was trying to do. I'm not that mean. And so and so, Yeah, they're starting to get these guys back. And then look at some point talking about the roster, right Lelee Collins

is going to come back. Now they're fifty two, right now, they're three games in. He's got two games left to go. I think he's back after the bye, So he's got the he misses the Giants and the fact through his five games suspension, which could have been two. Yeah, I'm just shaking my head for people that underaction. Uh. So he's going to take up a roster spot at some point. You want DeMarcus Lawrence back on the roster, right, And that's so we're probably looking at much of this after

the bye. Uh. You probably want when he's healthy, Kelvin Joseph back on the roster. You want Michael Gallop back on the roster. Uh, Sean McKeon, you'd like him back. Mckewan, I'm sorry, Neville Gallimore when he's ready. Uh, you know if Francis Bernard, Josh Ball. So they got guys that they would like to get back on the fifty three. Well, you're not gonna have room for all these guys. Now, You're not gonna sit there and go, well, we'll probably get some injuries and we can rotate guys out, but

you can't plan on that. And that's that that doesn't the physical game mickey, So oh my hamstra it hurts. Yes, absolutely, go sit for three weeks, right, That's what I like about this. Uh, and I think going forward, Uh, it needs to stay this way where you can use this injured reserve in this capacity. Uh, kind of like baseball with the injured list in baseball where you got it used to be fifteen day and now it's ten day. Where it just makes more practical sense as far as

your roster is. You're spending so much money, okay, on all these players, and in the past you had if guy got hurt and he's out for projected for a month, well you got no spot for him, and so he's out for the season instead, right, you know, And what protects against stashing players is the fact there is a salary cap exact opinion, because I was going to say that's why we were in the situation with the ir previously, because there was too many Oh yeah, I got a hamstring, right,

and then four months later you would bring the guy back. You didn't want to lose them. And that made a lot of sense back in the pre salary cap era. But there was phony injuries why it went away, right, So that's right. They that was nearly thirty years ago,

that's right. And I told you this story about the cowboy quarterback in a preseason game, right, they purposely called a quarterback bootleg, and they wanted to keep the ball and run towards the Cowboys sideline because he wasn't going to make the team, but they wanted to get him on IR and they told him and then when you run towards our sideline, our cameras right there, and just before you get there, grab your hamstring. And he forgot

to drab his hamstring. And I'm going if he ain't smart enough to do that, you know what about their calling place. So they wound up having to cut him. So, yes, I believe that's what happened to him, But that's what was going on back then. And then the NFL said, okay,

these guys you got on IR. We're bringing an independent doctor there to check them out to make sure they really do have an injury and they really aren't practicing, by the way, And so that's how we got to the you know for the year, I r you know the other thing about it, well, I'll get to that

in just second. Since I tease the three four. I love the fact that this roster is is has enough hybrid players on it where they can they can run a three to four or a four to three week to week basically or series to series basically, I thought, though they played better the second half without it, right, right, but there are more pressure, right and uh yeah, And

I thought the adjustment made it halftime. I mean, it was it was as if Dan Quinn told the Carolina Panthers, Okay, you're going to treat our offense that way and put six or seven guys up on the line of scrimmage and we don't know who's coming, and all right, we're gonna do the same to you. Yeah, and Donald could not handle that. That was a huge reason why that that game tilted in the third quarter. I'm always worried

about a three to four against the run. Yeahs as evidence the other day, yeah, I mean, and as evidence, I mean they were kind of doing it last year, you know, especially with Everson Griffin who had never played without his hand on the ground and they were trying to stand him up. And Lawrence two h and Lawrence is a four three defensive end, okay, And but there aren't very many other players on this roster who you would say, okay, he is quote unquote one or the other. Yeah, no, absolutely,

But the guys that they acquired. Brent Urban has been in the three fourth throughout his career, Carlos Watkins. I'm talking to the defensive lineman. Guys with long arms, you know, who can play that five technique whatever. Parsons can play either insidebacker or outside. Obviously your defensive end. Vander Esch has that same ability where he could play an outside linebacker,

kind of that Clay Matthew's mold whatever. And I just think from a strategic standpoint, it just makes a world the difference because the opposition doesn't know how to you can tailor your game plan to fit whatever the other team does if you've got hybrid players, right, Because what they did is they they used a lot of early Justin Hamilton and and Bohannah Bohannah as the nose tackle, and so you got to have, as Randy White used to say, that big Bazooka in the middle too, you know,

and he's always a called for. We we got to get a big bazook in the middle of that defense. Yeah, Although all I know is every time back in the nineties when the Cowboys were winning Super Bowls, when they went up against a team with a three four, they ran right over gash them. They gashed him because those outside linebackers couldn't hold up against the run. So you just send, you know, Nate Newton pulling against a two hundred and forty pound lineback. And by the way, it

wasn't the three four. But when we're talking about Carolina's defense being the second best defense in the league, well that defense could not handle Zeke Elliott and running back running up them, you know, between the tackles like Zike and run and an overpowering offensive line, which the Cowboys are featuring right now. Yeah, and they will continue. I mean, they had two hundred and forty pound defensive ends out there, you know, and so so they gave up two hundred

and forty five yards rush. There you go, pound for pounds, yard for pound. I guess I should try different deal this week against the Giants. The Giants defense they've got, they aren't big bazookas, but their defensive line they've invested heavily yet in that defensive line led by Leonard Williams up front. And we'll talk more about that as we go along. And by the way, and when we come back on Mick Shots, there's a Giants player who has won an award much like what Treyvon digs one for

the Cowboys when mick Shots continues. At Smoothie King, we are blending goodness to fuel your greatness. Every blind is crafted to help you achieve your health and fitness goals. Sweetie Key and uses only whole fruits and organic veggies. You'll never find sugary syrups or artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, and unlike some other smoothie places, there are zero grams of added sugar and many of our blends. Smoothie King is proud to be the official smoothie of the Dallas Cowboys.

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Back back to Mick shots. Cowboys Nation can join the fight against cancer with twenty twenty one crucial catch gear. Every dollar of NFL royalties from this collection will be donated to the American Cancer Society. Visit your local Dallas Cowboys pro shop or log on two shop dot Dallas Cowboys dot com. Of fanatics experience, I want to say fantastic experience, Let's say fantastic fanatics. Yeah, experience fanatics experience. Is that spelled fa in or is it one of

those funky fanatics? Okay? Daniel Jones, Giants quarterback, named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week after his performance last week a Giant's victory in overtime over the New Orleans Saints, and of course, as we mentioned earlier, Treyvon Diggs the NFC Defensive Player of the Week. I wonder how many times they've gone up against each other, the offensive player of the week against the team with the defensive players.

Something for someone else to research. But Daniel Jones is playing well, Yes, and he had four hundred two yards passing in that game. Now I would make the case that well, Zekeo had one hundred and forty three. But yeah, but it was against the number one d I tried to the number one defense in the league, number one rushing defense, number one rushing defense, number one bassing defense, number one overall defense. A matter of fact, he gave he came up two yards short of the total yards

Carolina had given up in three games. That's right, that's all they've given up was one forty five. Yeah, and nobody had rushed for more than twenty five yards against him. Oops. Wow. Yeah, um, so now they're number two defense. Huh but I would say, yes they are, well according to well, I'm sorry, that was according to your friends at PFF, Carolina number three. Oh, they're going down the charts. Three. They got the Eagles

this tenth. Again, they went from first against the run to tenth, and their second against the pass because the Cowboys didn't need to throw the ball. Yeah. Um, but uh, I wouldn't sleep on these New York childs. So I would not. I absolutely would not. Um. And and obviously the Cowboys are different team than when Jason Garrett left. Right, the guys from It's turned over quite a bit between twenty and twenty one. But he does know some of these guys and he knows them all all right. Would

they consider they lost their middle linebacker Blake Martinez last week? Yes, they did, think his brain. What do you think Jason always liked him? I mean, at least he said he always liked it. And how that guy of the combine, he just lit up the room when he walked into the room, as Risma and so forth, and and of course they had Rod Smith, his brother on here, right, and so he loves the family. Do you think Jason has enough pull with the Giants to say, hey, they might?

That probably depends on how much he's willing to play for. You know. That does have a little something to do with the timing of the release. You know, it's smart

on the Cowboys part. If you're going to release a player, don't do it Monday morning whatever or where he hits by three o'clock Monday, he is um If you think he might be picked up by another team, yeah, you know, wait until the wave at least the transaction transaction time at three o'clock on Wednesday, where a team can't pick him up necessarily to and and basically have one less day to pick his brain right right, And and then the other thing is h and then you teams that

have a full roster, they got to cut somebody, and now you're one day into preparing for the next game, and that guy's not going to get there till Thursday or Friday. Probably can get their Thursday, I guess, um. But yeah, that's that's a consideration. But yeah, you know what, I thought, it was a good thing that the Giants won that game. I don't ye don't want anybody coming in here oh and four because at some point they're gonna win one, right, no matter how bad you may

be playing, and they're not playing bad right. Two of the losses where they easily be three and one, yeah, okay, I'll put take that back, they could easily be two and two. Yeah. I mean they lost to Washington because Dexter Lawrence jumped off sides on the what would have been the game winning field goal attempt, which was missed right, and they gave him a second chance and they made it and lost thirty to twenty nine. So if he

doesn't jump off sides, they win that game. Yeah. Having said that, had they won that game, they might not have won this week's game. You know it. It's one of those things where it became desperation time for him going to New Orleans this past week and everyone gets a little more focused. But and then the other game was against Atlanta. They had a lead against Atlanta and they lost on game ending field goal in that game too, seventeen fourteen. Yeah, so it's not like, oh, okay, they're

not really good. You know, watch out now, what if we said though they were playing in Atlanta and they were playing in New Orleans? Is not looked to be the same New Orleans team that beat Green Bay and the opener thirty eight to three. I don't know how that happened. Yeah, how did that? That's amazing? Yeah, that tells you what a good coach Sean Payton if he could pull that off with Jamis Winston, who you don't know up and down right, that's kind of him what

you're gonna get. And so yeah, a lot of and we've said this all along. Just look who's playing quarterback for these teams. And you know, there's a lot of similarities between the Giant and the Panthers. When you look at Daniel Jones can run the ball like Donald ran the ball, right, Okay, he has He's not turning the ball over his only interception, and Donald was not throwing was not throwing interceptions until he went up against Diggs this past week. Uh, Daniel Jones only interception was on

a hail Mary. Okay, and now he only has four touchdown passes. But they're playing it close to the vest conservatively and uh staying in games, and so that is that is their recipe. Coming in here on Sunday afternoon, and his quarterback ratings ninety eight point three. So he's he's uh one, one spot behind Justin Herbert, who everybody thinks is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Right um, top fifteen in the league. As far as his passer rating goes, I would have to quote, I can tell you,

hang on, where's he yet, Jones? He's fifteenth. There you go, there you go. So let's stop fifteen. Yeah, I did see something. There are two quarterbacks in the league have five straight games with passer ratings of ninety point zero or higher. You follow me on that, Yes, five straight games with passer ratings of ninety point zero or higher. Two quarterbacks in the league have done that. So we're taking an account four games this year plus the last

game last year. Who would post two quarterbacks be Well, it can't be Dack since he didn't play the game well last twelve the last lay Okay, he would have, so he has to be one of them. He's not one of them. He's against one of the games this year only his passer rating was only eighty seven. I guess against the Chargers maybe, oh maybe, yeah, because they didn't really throw the ball that much. Well, get this

and I'll answer the question for you. Daniel Jones and Kyler Murray are the only quarterbacks in the league that have five straight games with passer rating. So fourteenth, So he's fifteenth. Fourteenth is Herbert justin? Herbert thirteen, Tom Brady twelfth, Aaron Rodgers. Wow, he's in some pretty good company about that are not sleeping Jones? Oh, DA's like fourth, fourth, okay, third in touchdowns? Okay? One? Two? What since we're going down this road? And one, two and three? One is

Russell Wilson, two Mahomes and three Matthew Stafford. Where's Murray? Murray is fifth? There you go see there, you got your top five. Russell Wilson has not thrown a pick, right, Uh, you're right. Yeah, And Murray's thrown four. That shows that he's done a lot of other stuff. So where's why is his so high? Well, he's got a seven five percentage, seven seventy six completion percentage, nine touchdowns, so one less than dak Um. Yeah. And he's at the yards per

attempt he's at one fifteen and Dak's at one sixteen nine. Okay, and his yards per temp and here's the here's the one. He's at nine point five. Yeah. And that's the other thing with Daniel Jones. His yards per tempt is over eight, it's eight point two. So all right, we'll get more into the Giants as the week goes on, and Everson will be with us tomorrow, and we are out of time already this edition of Mixed Shots. We will chat

at you again tomorrow at one thirty. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.