Mick Shots: Nothing Can Stop Off-Season Chatter

Mickey Spagnola and Everson Walls. This is day sixty four of the United States portion of the pandemic, and we are just over sixty four days away. In fact, I counted up to I think it's sixty eight days away from when the Cowboys will be departing for training camp. You say that, Bill with a lot of confidence that will be departing. Yeah, we might have to talk to that California governor in the meantime, but that's when the Cowboys should be departing for training camp. I think it's

on like a Tuesday, July twenty first. And since they're gonna be playing in the Hall of Fame game, are we are? We could be departing for Frisco. That's exactly right. We could be departing down the Nikeies star Walk at the Star in Frisco to go. Well, they won't be practicing at that point, but hopefully we might be able to actually interview some Cowboys players one on one in person by July twenty first. But we get ahead of ourselves. There's still lots to talk about on this edition of

mix Shots. So Bill, what have you been doing? Well, I've been working away here in my home office here. It's the CBS eleven Sports studios here and Dallas Cowboys Television Studios here. I need to paint my room blue. It's a red room. I need to paint it blue. Get started on that shortly. Well, my few everson. I have been watching Doctor Fauci. That's what I've been doing. I want to make sure. I don't know. I don't know if I weighed between Bill's optimism or doctor Fauci's

facts of science. So I don't know. I'm trying to weigh that out. You know, you got a heavy you got a lot of weight on your end, Bill, But you know Fauci Fauci is, you know, he's kind of smart. So I'm trying to weigh it out and see which way I'm gonna go for this fall. We'll see. I don't want to be the guy. I'm gonna blame it on Fauci. How about that? Hell? Well, I think Funci doesn't want to be the guy and talk. So I try not listening to Doctor Fauci as much as I can.

You don't. You just don't want to deal with reality. Right, Hey, we got us a schedule a week ago. My golly, we're gonna play that schedule. You know it? Yes? Absolutely? And you know what, you guys, When I find myself writing about it or talking about it, I always seem to be prefacing with, well, we hope. It's like we're talking about it like it's all gonna happen, and you know the season opener is gonna be on that day, and it's like, well, maybe you know September thirteenth. We

hope we're gonna be in LA for a game. We hope they'll be sixty thousand people in the in the new stadium, But that part we don't know. And we're still what three four months away, so there's time. But you know, when you hear baseball talking about starting up with no fans or twenty five percent in the stadium. Same thing with the basketball and hockey you're sitting are going, well, they don't have time. The NFL has time, but again they haven't even opened up the facilities yet, and the

Cowboys and all the other teams continue their offseason streaming lessons. Everson, could you imagine sitting at home and trying to learn the playbook talking as we are right now, Man, that would be so weird if you would call back in the day, we had computer papers, right, We didn't have iPads and all of that. We had the computer paper. We had the big book and it looked like it was about two inches thick of all types of formations.

So you would have heard a bunch of page turning in regards to what we would trying to learn that particular day, what kind of formulation we had to deal with. Now the guys just have our passed. They can just swipe and do their thing. I think it's a lot more advantageous for them now. A matter of fact, I would I would love to be a guy learning from home right now if that was the only choice that I had. So you had those big wide sheets of perforated IDM paper and it was in a big green

cardboard cover, so to speak. So the papers, yes, they were all part of that binder, that big, ugly green binder that we had. And guys, that was what you call innovative at that time because the Cowboys were ahead of the game as far as everyone was concerned. Our workouts, our schedules, everything was typed up on computer paper. So we're even talking what beta am I talking the beta age? We're going back that far. It might go back farther

than that. But you know, when I did an interview with Cliff Harris, Uh, he took me into his huge closet and he's got all those stacks of game plans in his closet still, and it was sadly what you were talking about. And he even opened him up and he had his notes on each page when he was supposed to remember right. Uh. And then the other thing. Uh, I don't know how many of those uh Peyton places

you guys have watched that aired during the season. Well, I just watched the one on the draft and uh and uh he was interviewing Gil Brandt and Gil was actually had video of the big old computers they were using. There were these big wall things. I mean they looked like a refrigerator and that's where they were charting, uh, everything, Peyton. I mean it was really interesting stuff. But yeah, you could just put all of that one. Yeah, it's amazing

or I pad like Bill, right, Yeah, that's right. So Everson, if you were a player, now, let's say, let's go back and say you are twenty six year old Everson Walls. You're playing today, okay, and you've got what's going on right now? What would you be doing to get ready for the season? Here May fourteenth, still sixty eight days away from the plane departing for California, and the and

the current circumstances we have. Well, let me see, if I'm twenty six years old and this in today's time, I would probably have about fifty seven of the septions already considering how must they throw the ball? Hold on? Let me let me get that. Wait, I'm trying to get there. Okay, So I'm probably in my third contract,

probably riches, I don't know what. I probably got a big old house looking like Troy Ekla's house or something like that, and I would probably be doing what I did, even back then, I hated working out at the campus. I just did. I never did like coming to the old or the new campus that was in Valley Lant at the time, new being in air quotes. He didn't like those outdoor weight rooms. Did not like any of that.

As a matter of fact, I recall my first offseason with the Cowboys, and I was had all this pressure on me. I was a free agent. I had twelve workouts out of a possible sixty four or some crap like that. So I was never much built for going to the facility anyway. But what I did used to do, I thought was very innovative on just for myself. What really helped me was I would do shadow coverage. Everything was about shadow coverage. I didn't need a wide receiver

out there. I started a ten yard line and I would do back pedals and cover imaginary receivers and imaginary routes up and down the field until I was just bone tired. So everything about me was trying to get myself into rhythm or playing man to man defense. Zone. Of course, you don't have to study for zone, especially when you're a cornerback, but as a as a top notch cornerback at that time. Shadow coverage was something that was that I had always implemented into my workouts, and

that will work perfectly for coronavirus. At this point, what do you think, so these those full team workouts, those oldtas that we normally have starting this time of the year, those are overrated? You think? Yeah, yeah, I think a little bit overrated, especially when you're just doing walkthroughs and things of that nature. To me, the most fun and the most important part of a cornerback's practice, which you can never do over and over again, is to play

one on one coverage. To me, that gets a cornerback or defensive back ready for any type of challenge that he's going to have for his entire career. You can worry about lifting weights all you want. You can worry about running the four of your dash, you can worry about all of that, but when it comes down to it, you have to cover your man no matter how slow you are or how fast he is, and nothing's gonna get you ready for playing one on one that a

whole bunch of one on one webs. That's just the way I've always taught it and the way I always played. It are shadow boxing, right, shadow boxing? That's all it is. Facts, that's a shadow coverage shadow boxing. You know what that sounds like my one man backyard whifferball. I would send, Hey, I might pattent that man. You patting the wolf of ball. I'm gonna patting my shadow coverage. We'll see who makes the bottom of the ninth series. I'm Mickey Mantle on math. Well,

Mickey alluded to it. Think Cowboys had their virtual rookie mini camp last weekend. Ever, send, you're a guy who came into the league as a rookie and hit it off big right off the bat. What's the key for a rookie, especially in this environment where they aren't necessarily around the veterans at least in a formal way right now? What's the key for a rookie to be able to make an impact like, for instance, a CD Lamb or any of these draft picks this year, to make an

immediate impact when they get on this team. But one thing you have to do is impressed them in the drills. You know, whether it's you're doing virtual drills, whether you're talking classroom work, things of that nature. If you're trying to learn the defense. If you catch on quickly, the coaches will notice that. And that's from a mental standpoint, and once you're out there physically, you've got to stand

out in some way. I remember I stood out quickly my first drill for the Dallas Cowboys in training camp in Thousand Oaks, California. I got cursed out by Gene Stollis. So yeah, that's that's one way to get on the coach's radar. Imagine that getting cursed out by Jame Stone first drill, you understand. So I was going for it, guys, I was really really going for it. And I think from there, whatever happens. If you don't get cut first date, which I almost did, then you have to make sure

that they see what kind of progress you're making. So what I did I set the bar really low by getting cursed out first day, and then from there I just improved and improved and improved. And then that's how you make it. That's how you make a difference in the coaches room, because you want to make sure that they that they're talking about you in one way or another, and hopefully it's for being doing something good. You know, you mentioned they were showing the films of Cde Lamb.

I don't know if you guys have caught this online, but I saw one of his high school punt returns. Oh my goodness, this was a man a bunch amongst junior high boys. I guarantee he was weaving, spinning, cutting, turning. Unbelievable. Uh. And so you know we keep talking about him being a a wide receiver in the slot. Well, I'll tell you what. I'm putting him back there to return punts. Yeah,

he returned punts at Oklahoma. And you know, he doesn't really look like your prototype punt returner, but his run after catchability as a as a receiver obviously is off the charts, and he flashed that a little bit as a punt returner as well. One of the things is a punt returner at ou where he really showed it to me. I think it was a game against Baylor,

might have been TCU. He got lit up on a on a punt return where he should have been making a fair catch but he didn't, and a guy just lit him up and he went into concussion protocol for about two plays and he was back out on the field. He really showed how tough he is uh in that in one thing about CD that I'm impressed with, and it's really confounding when you look at it. What you saw spags in high school. Bill, what you were talking about in regards his returns and how depth he was

at big returns in college. He really doesn't look like he's going that fast. Number one, he doesn't look like he can break the tackles that he breaks. Number two. That that to me is amazing, how many tackles that he slips. And I don't mean that he's shaking people down. I mean he's making contact with them first and he's breaking tackles. That's very impressive for our guy. That really looks a bit slight in his bill. And also what I like about him is always I always think about

from a track standpoint. You look at Michael Johnson, the famous sprinter that for the United States from Skyline High School, and you see how he keeps his feet on the ground. He keeps his feet on the ground. There's no long strides, that doesn't take much into everything looks effortless, and his feet stay on the ground. You might see his feet hit the ground three times within five yards. That rarely happens with most runners that have that kind of explosiveness

that he has. So I think his ability to keep his feet on the ground helps his balance as he runs the ball, and it also gives him the ability to make the moves going from side to side, you know when you go later these fags. You know, some people can't do that as well. And I think his ability to keep his feet on the ground really gives him the opportunity to make the moves and also to pick up speed when he needs it. Everybody was confounded

about how Michael Johnson was just so fast. It was the amount of steps that he took that provided his power. That's the way sebe Lamb is well, if you watch these highlights were showing right now, his ability to see the field I think is incredible, where the angles are where look at that. That's unbelievable. When he turns the corner, Uh, it's almost like he's turning the corner like a defensive end coming coming off that tackle, trying to get to

the quarterback. Because he explodes when he turns, he doesn't lose any speed. Uh. And that that's just that's God given right there, and it's just amazing. It's it's the balance that he maintains while all of this is going on. He has complete ballots, and it seems everyone else is just confounded on how he does it. Hey, Billy, you mentioned you mentioned the schedule. I was going to ask you to you guys, like, what what was the one thing that stood out to you on the Cowboys schedule?

What do you think Everson? Oh, as far as I was concerned, uh, that the last stretch okay, the the entire Thanksgiving with three games in so many days, and then even though you get that a week off afterwards, I believe it's still that divisional stretch. You've got the Eagles, You've got the Giants at the end of your season, and then you throw in the San Francisco forty nine is while you at it. I think I think that stretch of the schedule is going to be very telly

for the Cowboys, as it is every season. I mean, let's just what we're used to it by that. Well, and the thing that stood out to me and I was just looking at that this morning, was the late bye week, which is Week ten this year for the Cowboys, which is they get the bye week the week before that Sunday before they play back to back two games

in five days Thanksgiving. It's November fifteenth, it is their bye week, and then they come back and it gets to that schedule, that the part of the schedule that you're talking about, where they play at Minnesota the Sunday before Thanksgiving on the twenty second. Then they come home to play Washington on Thanksgiving Day a week later on

Thursday night Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. Then they're at Cincinnati and that's where they get the mini by after that Thursday game, and then that's on the thirteenth at Cincinnati. Then they closed with San Francisco, Philly and at the Giants. That's what stood out. And even before the bye week they got Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. So the second half of the schedule, the second half of the season, I think is tough for this team. Well, Bill, the thing that

stood out to me was what you just said. And I cannot believe the NFL has done this for the fourth season in a row, making the Cowboys play three games in twelve days around Thanksgiving. You know, we talk about players safety. How safe is that you usually played one three games in twenty one days? Yeah, the fourth year ago, they got to play Sunday Thursday and then again on Thursday. And the key thing here also is the fact that that Sunday game is almost always on

the road. Now, at least this year, it's at Minnesota, and it's an afternoon game, so it's not a long flight back, right, You get back, you know, nine ten o'clock at night, not too bad. You can get in some sort of practice on Monday, and you're only going to have a kind of a walkthrough type thing Tuesday your practice, and you know, Wednesday, it's time to get

ready for the game. But if you'll look at last year when this happened again, and this was a six and four team, they had to go and play as far away as possible and at New England, right, and it's a late afternoon game, it's cold, it's raining, it's windy. They lose thirteen to nine. By time the plane touched down, it was one thirty quarter to two in the morning, So by time anybody gets home, gets to bed at the earliest, it's three, probably four, and then you've wasted Monday.

It's supposed to be your day off, it's not a day off. And you go out and that second half of that Buffalo game, it just looked like that they were tired, they had nothing left in the tank. And then on top of that, the next Thursday, you got to go to Chicago and play, if I remember correctly, a night game. And so it was almost like the

NFL punishes them for hosting the Thanksgiving Day game. And again, this was a six and four team, and they wiped out the season those three twelve days because they lost all three games, and suddenly you go from six and four to six and seven. Now, I'm not saying these teams wouldn't have beat the Cowboys anyway, but still, why do they put them through that grueling gauntlet of games

in a short period of time. Well, the reason they're doing it is because now all teams to play a Thursday game and in order, and so they feel like what they're doing is they for to for the Cowboys to play that Thursday that's not and the Thanksgiving Day is not counted in that group to play the Thursday

night game. They put it back to back every year with their other Thursday game in the case this year, and I think it was this way last year too, and maybe maybe the previous years, Baltimore is also playing on Thanksgiving Day. They're playing at the Steelers on Thanksgiving night, so they're in the same boat with three games in twelve days themselves, so that they're trying to make to

even about that way. But that's the that's the reason they're doing it now is because it four years ago is when they started playing on every Thursday, where every team is playing on Thursday nights during the season now, well, the other season that I was worried that Bob was the first party to see. The first three games to me are a little bit challenging. You know, you're looking at going on the road week one. That's gonna be tough. Of course, you know, playing against the Rams coming back.

I worry about not necessarily these teams as much as I worry about the talent matchup. Now, you bring someone like the Falcons in after you've been on the road for the first game, you're playing at home, yes, but the Falcons an extremely talented team, especially offensively, I think that challenge is going to be big. And of course then follow that up with a game in Seattle, going against a well coached, well led team with Russell Wilson those first three games, I would not be surprised if

they gave us some unexpected problems. Guys, I really, I really am worried about those three games. Having said that, as we don't know will there be fans in the stands or not, and so it doesn't look like there will be or there'll be a less number of fans in the stands. Can't predict the future. Running on all doctor Faus, you would say about that? Now? Quick are the what are the things about playing at Seattle? You take the fans out of the stands, and that's a

different place to play. Interesting, William, that's very interesting concept. No, no, twelfth Man, right, that's right, all right, I think we need to take a break. We're gonna take a break and we're gonna come back with much more here on mixed shots here in just a moment. I'm Jay Novachik, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day. I was a guy who always got the tough yards,

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on GWS one s cour September twenty nineteen. Back back to Mixed Shots. Shots continues on a Thursday, May fourteenth. We're here each and every Thursday throughout the off season with the live show at eleven am Central Time and Bill Jones with Mickey Spagnola and the Everson Walls and you check out mix Shots on Dallas Cowboys dot com. He was breaking down the schedule a little bit. This weake Mickey and we were talking about it earlier. Some

of the things that stood out for us. How about the Cowboys strength of schedule and what's being reported about that strength of schedule. Yeah, and it's ranked thirtieth right now, it sounds like whoa piece of cake? Right, And they do the strength of schedule off of last year's opponents record, and the Cowboys opponents ended up with a four fifty nine winning percentage, so it was the it was the lowest in the NFC. But you know, when you start

looking at it and I understand how it goes. You know, they they played the same games with the exception of two as everybody else in the NFC East, including Philadelphia. They got to play the teams in the NFC West, AFC North, and then you play the team in the other NFC divisions that you're not playing, so that finished in the same place you did. So Philadelphia has to play the first place teams, so they get New Orleans in Green Bay. The Cowboys get the second place teams

and they end up getting Minnesota in Atlanta. So there's the difference in the two schedules. But the Eagle schedules ranked twenty fifth. As a matter of fact, all four teams in the NFC East are ranked between twenty five and thirty and the reason because of that is because Washington and the Giants were so bad and you get to play them twice. They totaled only seven wins between them,

and so that factors into the equation. And that's why the Cowboys strength of schedule is so low, because they're still playing from pretty tough teams, you know. And then also of course with the NFC East, I mean, that's always going to bring the winning percentages down because all teams were pretty average when it comes to the when he came to the final outcome of the season last year. But when you look at the AFC North, that division

did not have their best year last year. Extremely competitive. Of course, Baltimore comes out with an amazing season, but there's no way you can just, you know, put aside the strength of Pittsburgh Steeler team, especially especially with Rockelsburg coming back. You know, when you're going on the role playing these teams, some of them are just set up games that you could easily lose. Everyone brings out their

best for the Dallas Cowboys. So when you look at this schedule is I think the combined record for the opponents is one on one and one of six. Taking the NFC East out of that, I think you look at the combined record of the opponents, and I think it really goes up a notch. So you're talking about

your divisional rivals, that's what they are, their rivals. As much as you might say, oh, we're gonna go in and beat these guys, anytime you have a rival game, sometimes you can just throw you can just throw the schedules out the window. So I think it's a little bit uh misleading when you just talking about the opponent's

strength of schedule, you know, making him. One thing that I look at and you you wrote about it this week, is when when the schedule comes out, I look at the quarterbacks that the Cowboys are going to be facing.

That's that's just amazing. And I started putting a list together and I'm going, Okay, you got Jared Goff, Matt Ryan, Russell, Wilson, Carson Wentz twice, by the way, Ben Roethlisberger is gonna be back this year, Kurt Cousins, Lamar Jackson, Jimmy Garoppolou and then throw in you know you're gonna get these these top picks in the draft over the couple of years, along with Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, Daniel Jones, you know they you know, whatever Baker Mayfield is, so you got

all these first round quarterbacks that you're gonna play also, so, uh, you know, don't go to sleep on that having to take on those quarter backs. And probably a good thing that they loaded up on their cornerbacks in this draft and in the off season. Very misleading strect of schedule, guys, very misleading. I think, yeah, I agree, And you know, we never know from year to year. I mean, what's the old thing in the NFL. The more you lose, the closer year to winning where you win, the closer

year of losing. And you know, is like when Mickey cites the difference in the Cowboys schedule in the Eagles schedule, or the Saints and Packers both thirteen and three. Who says Atlanta in Minnesota might duplicate that this year? You never know, especially and we even we didn't even mention that the San Francisco forty nine ers, as far as that schedule is concerned. You're talking about the team that's, come on, they just won a couple of plays away

from being Super Bowl champions. So that kind of thing kind of it gives me pause, guys, and I'm I'm really not comfortable with thinking, oh, well, thank god, we didn't have a big season last year. That's why we have this week strect of I am not I'm not falling for that, not at all. Well, let's put it this way. When we look at the quarterbacks, right, tell me the worst quarterback they're gonna play probably Daniel Jones. Yeah, and he's got year him now, or the way Baker

Mayfield has played here, or Haskins it's Washington. Yeah. I mean, and we're talking sixteen games and you just name you know, two guys. The rest of them, my goodness, and who knows what Daniel Jones is If he has a better supporting came as a defensive line you are so that. Yeah, that's not a put down that he's the worst one that I could think of, because all of these guys, including Haskins, they've got the ability to get hot on you at any time. They may come in and have

a great Dak Prescott year. You know, I know Dad came in as as rookie. You're doing it. But some of these guys could come and have that's that Dak Prescott year they could have in this the third years,

and that would be bad timing for the Cowboys. Well, the good news for the Cowboys, Mickey and Everson is that the Cowboys will have a quarterback playing for them this season who will be the highest paid quarterback in the history of the game, or at least he certainly wants to be, right, you know, Bill, Bill's optimism is just thick, isn't it. It's thick, is honey man. I'll tell you, well, he'll be the highest paid one if he decides to sign a long term contract or it

was just my way of transitioning to deck. I know, I know. And if you think about it, uh, you know, what if what if he gets paid? I mean, right now, the highest average is Russell Wilson, right, Uh. And if you look at his his just kind of total average, if you count the four year extension, it's thirty five

million a year. But he had another year to go before the extension started for an eight million dollars based salary, So if you throw that into the quation and divide by five, he's not even averaging thirty million a year. And if you look at the guaranteed money of his one hundred and forty million dollars deal to the extension, the guarantees one hundred and seven. So divide that out by four and you get in like twenty seven million

a year. So is that what Dak wants? Because I'll tell you the Cowboys are pretty close I think to matching that total he has. Now it comes down to how much signing bonus do you want? My guess is, and I guess it's easier to do it this way. From a math standpoint, it's going to be fifty million dollars. You know, he could put fifty million dollars in the bank tomorrow if he signs a long term deal, and

then you average that over five years. It's ten million a year pro rated on the signing bonus, and they could cut his salary cap total almost in half for this first gear. So you know, to me in this day and age, I mean, what if you don't play seventeen games, you know, and you're still on the franchise tag,

do you take a pay cut? Because I don't think they're gonna pay you for games that you don't get paid don't play if you're making one seventeenth a week, So to me, I would consider that, And especially now with the economy the way it is, boy, I'd hate to be going to June first, and I don't have a payday coming. Well, listen, Spags, here's what I see in you. I see you as the doctor Fauci of

this entire situation. Everyone's asking questions to doctor Fauci about what are the real facts about what the heck is going on? Okay, give me the real facts on why this contract has not been signed? Has Is it because he won't accept it? Is it because it's not enough money? Is it because the cowboys a dragon f field? Come on, doctor Stags Tilly, what's going on? I think they've made him an offer. See, here's the thing we don't know ever since we haven't heard from their side what they're

asking for. You know, they could be asking for forty five million a year. We don't know that, right and I'm exaggerating right now, But what what do they want? And again, when we're talking about that big of a signing bonus, dividing it by five and dividing by four as you pro rate the signing bonus is significant. And then here's another thing that it kind of occurred to me yesterday and I was kind of reading a whole

bunch of stuff. It's like what if and here we go with BB and doctor Fauci, Right, what if they're playing these games in front of an empty stadium the first say, four weeks, and you're not bringing in revenue from ticket sales, Well, then your total revenue for the season's gonna go down. So instead of the salary cap going up next year to absorb these contracts that are structured for the salary to go up, what if it

goes down. What if instead of two hundred ten million in twenty twenty one, it goes down to one hundred and seventy million all of a sudden, the way you structured contracts, there could be a lot of guys out there, you know, having to take either a pay cut or getting released because they're salaries. Those base salaries went up in a commensurate proportion to the salary cap going up,

assuming well, what if it goes down? And so there's another factor the Cowboys have to, I think, at least at this point, factor into how the base salaries are structured going forward. So there's a lot of little nuances that you know, most people are doing well, just pay them, get it done. You know, I had a tweet today It's like you know who else has to franchise their quarterback. Well, unfortunately it was an easy answer because the Redskins did

it twice. Towers, thank you, sas. But again, you don't know what the other side's asking for, and until you know that, it's hard to say, well, just pay them. It's not that easy, you know. It's interesting now this pandemic plays into the negotiations right now, he say, as we go forward. Obviously it's a critical stretch here over the next few weeks as far as baseball is concerned getting their season starting. As we go forward, it'll be

the same for football. And that franchise tag deadline in mid July is of course the critical time as far as Dak's contract is concerned. Where are we then, and from both sides, from Dak's side and from the Cowboys perspective, does it behoove them to wait to then? Or and factoring in everything that doctor found she just said here on next Shots, Yeah, how does that all affect things? Very interesting how this is going to play out over the course of the next six weeks. We're gonna rename

this show Doctor Mick, Doctor mix Shots. Now, as far as I'm concerned by two thousand twenty one. The beginning of two thousand and twenty one season, I think we will all be settled into a new norm. I can't say if the NFL will start making drastic decisions based on one season's unusual loss, meaning having to go through this whole COVID thing in an unusual way. I think by two thousand and twenty one things went back to normal.

You will have some players are on the fringes, whether they're younger players who are out in the fence right now and not really doing that well, or maybe a veteran who was really looking to make a move last year meaning two twenty if I'm thinking about two twenty one, but two twenty made a good move, a big move last year, I didn't make a big enough move because of this whole thing. Now he's going to be on

the chopping blocks before two twenty one season. So I don't see it affecting the superstars as much Spags as it will affect more of the lesser known players and the older players in the NFL. Yeah, And my point is though, that the salary cap is going to be factored on what the revenues from this season, so you know, what if some of these games, I mean, you don't play them, and I'm sure the TV's networks will want a refund, right, they're not going to pay that top dollar,

and they got no games. The revenue is gonna go down. And if the revenue goes down, then the salary cap goes down. And the revenue has never gone down since they started this salary cap as far as I know, so it's always gone up. I think I read somewhere where it goes up six percent. So this year it's like one one night, I believe, the cap for each team, and next year the projection was two to nine to

ten something like that. So yeah, but what if it goes down, then you don't have as much money to spread out, and you've got these base salaries that are already figured in because like this year that you know, if they signed Deck to a long term deal, they don't have to give him a base big base salary because he's gonna get that signing bonus so he'll make his money. But next year the base salary is going

to go up. And forget about the forest. I'm just talking about the tree right here, Okay, not the not how it impacts the salary cap going forward or anything. But from Deck's standpoint, right now, does he want us go ahead and get the guaranteed money now, meaning signing bonus money right now, making sure he's getting money this year or if he plays in the franchise tag. We don't even know whether there's going to be a season or not. He doesn't even know if he's going to

make any money this year. Yeah, no, exactly. And you know, and then if you just use and I don't know if they're using the Russell Wilson as the kind of model. But of his one hundred and forty million, I think I said this one hundred and seven of it was had guarantees in it, so gosh, if somebody was, I mean, I understand, it's a different story. But getting guaranteed one hundred and seven million today regardless of what takes place, oh my, well, you know the Cowboys are also looking

at it the same way. I mean, if I'm a player, then of course I want to take advantage of the upfront money. But I'm if I'm a team then I know that you want to take advantage of the upfront money. So then I'm gonna be coming from another standpoint, so it's still gonna be a matter of how much they're gonna favor their quarterback versus how much the season is

going to be affected by Corona. Yep. And from the team standpoint, maybe they want to wait and see where we are as far as the coronavirus on July fifteenth, when that franchise tag deadline hits, and they wait until then, decide, you know, to pull the trigger on it themselves. All right,

it's gonna be another fly in the build. Another line went Yep, that's right, all right, more with doctor Fauci here on mix shots and just all Since eighteen sixty five, Stetson hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and team pride too, You can by purchasing your own Stetson. You can look just like how the flag guys do on field at every home game. Stetson hats the official crown of all

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so nice to treat you. And even though it feels weird to talk to we, can you pick one up and say, it's so nice to be treated doctor Pepper, so nice to treat you. Back to Mick shots seven new picks in town. Well, if you go to Jack Black, there's a new pick in town and it's called Pick six free Deluxes. If you purchase seventy five dollars, you get to pick six three of their deluxe products and they've got a dozen of those products you can choose from all the way. Um, now get this one Everson

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Good good eye pronounced it properly right, Yes, thank you, whether you. As we talked about earlier in the show, the Cowboys had their rookie virtual Rookie minicamp last weekend. Mickey mix shots this week he wrote about a rookie mini camp back in two thousand and three, some seventeen years ago, and there was a youngster in that camp that making thought it was fairly impressive. Vicky, would you

like to relate that story to us? Yeah, I was doing some research on after that two thousand and three draft, and the Cowboys had that that rookie mini camp, and I ran across just a short I guess. I don't know if we were calling them mix shots back then, but I ran across the little note I had on Jason Witten, and I thought it was interesting they had

just completed there, you know, nonpad practice. Uh, you're going up against a bunch of guys that probably didn't even get drafted or didn't play much to the year before. And so here was my synopsis of what I thought of Jason Witten back then. Now it's only now it's only a non pad'd work out and really against the majority of guys who weren't even drafted or haven't played much, if any in the NFL. But tight end Jason Witten sure showed an abilly this weekend to get down field,

and he sure has some soft hands. And I'm thinking I might have missed a calling. I got this scounting stuff out, so we used that was places was that pass? As the head coach there, that was That was Parcel's first year. Wow. And I you know what else happened

that that week? I believe it was that mini camp week. Uh, Whitton caught a pass over the middle and kind of kind of a slant, uh, kind of a down and end and he kind of ran away from everybody and and very sarcastic league Parcels barked and loud enough for everybody to hear it. By the way, he goes, yeah, there's my pass catching tight end. Because he saw visions of Bivaro in Jason Witten that he could be a complete tight end, and boy, he stayed at him to turn him into one too. And that was a tiny

year old Jason Witten back in. He just turned he went to turn twenty one May sixth, that year. Right, Yeah, yeah, I think that was perfect timmy for Jason Witten. When you have a coach that's accustomed to a Mark Bivaro and accustomed to an offense that runs the ball and needs that not only pass catching tight end, but you

have to have that blocking tight end. Bavaro was the ultimate to me, I think, really the first tight end for the New York Giants that really carried that team in regards to every position, every every part of the game. Bavaro was a threat. You didn't have that many tight ends that could do that kind of thing, or at least one utilized as well in that day and time.

And I here you come. Here comes Jason Winton at that particular time, having having plus Sales as his head coach, having that emphasis on getting him the ball and trusting his blocking. I think that could have just really led to him being noticed and being utilized in the perfect way. All right, let me throw it out to both of you.

All right, whether it's a rookie minicamp or just the first time you saw a player come into the league at at a practice, or the first time you saw him, what was the who was the number one guy that you said Wow, look at this guy. When you go back over time in an NFL rookie minicamp, or first first time you saw him in practice as the body come to mind, Toni has said, Tony Door said said the first time you saw him? Yeah, the first when I remember seeing it on video. We were watching the

news at that time. I was very young, and I remember here. I don't I don't think I saw his feet hit the ground during the entire practice. That's what I knew was gonna be good. I think I would have to go with Troy Aikman. When I saw him throw the football, how tight the spiral was, how accurate he was, and the velocity on the ball. It was

one of those oh my movement moments. You know, you can see that stuff on TV, but it just doesn't translate to when you're standing kind of almost on the sideline watching one of those mini camps, and when he was throwing the ball, it was like, this is a thing of beauty. You know, you don't even have to mess with this guy's mechanics. So I think that's probably the one that at least first stuck out to me

over all these years. You know, one of them for me and I think it would have been training camp more so than a rookie mini camp was Leon Lett and it was more of a surprise then I was like, I was like, I went searching my roster, going, who is this guy? Remember how fast off? Well, you know how fast off the snap? He Wasn't wasn't just his quickness, Bill, it was the size that went along with that quickness. He was extremely polished for someone that came from such

a small school. And I don't know, I don't know who taught him when he was in college, but when he came to the Cowboys, I wouldn't call him a finished product, but he was way He was well ahead of being a rookie in regards his talents. You know another guy that made an impression on me, and it wasn't so much just his talent, was his U gosh's mental capacity to know what was going on. Patrick Creighton,

I believe, seventh round draft choice. And in his first practice or second can practice, uh, he he damaged his plantar fasciitis. And we know how painful that is. It's it's like somebody's sticking nails, uh in the bottom of your foot. And you could see he was limping, but he wouldn't take himself out. He just kept pushing through the drills, kept pushing through the drills. And I remember going up to him after the practice was over and I said, you hurt your ankle and he goes, nah,

it's bottom of my foot. It's really painful. And I kind of knew what he was. You know, it had to be his plantar fasci and uh. I said, well, do you are You're gonna hurt it worse. And he goes, hey, I'm a seventh round draft pick. I'm from what was it bill Srthwestern? Yeah, double directional and state and probably an AIA at that time. I don't remember an Oklahoma. He goes, I've got Bill Parcels looking at me. He goes, I can't take myself out. I got to push through this.

And I said, you know what, this kid's got something. He just might make it. Yeah. He had toughness and he had smarts both and uh yeah, and and that's a great example of a guy who came out of nowhere and immediately and had he not had the planter fasciitis early on in his rookie season, you know, I think it was halfway through he was he was making a contribution by mid season his rookie year as a

seventh round draft pick, and he was so versatile. This is a guy that had played quarterback, he playing wide receiver. Uh they would you know, he was a due everything guy up there. Uh you know, hand him the ball return kicks. Uh and and you know, it proved out that he ended up being a very good sound football player for a seventh round pick. He really did. He really did. SPA I got another one more, one more, one more guy that I that I was impressed with.

And it wasn't just his ability on the field. He was already doing well, but Michael Irvin when he came in, I don't think as much as he talks trash and as much as he's so you know, flamboyant and almost everything he does, Michael Irvin is one of the hardest

workers I've ever seen. I have seen this guy just torture himself, especially coming into his second year after he had turn his ACL Most of the season his rookie year, I would come into locker room and see him in in the hot tub, and he was so sad from not being able to play. You could just see it. I would come and talk him because he looked depressed, so you could just see his love for the game was there. Whatever he does nowadays, and I know it's

all flamboyant is a little bit over the top. That is real coming from Michael Irvin. When Jimmy Johnson came and that was his second year. When Jimmy Johnson came in in nineteen eighty nine, he even stepped it up a notch in regards to his his emotions and his dedication to being better. And initially, I must admit I thought it was a little bit over the top of myself. But as I looked at him progressed throughout his entire career, all of that was real and it was very impressive

to me. His dedication forget to himself, his dedication to the team was always prevalent, and I really enjoyed that about it. You know. I remember Jimmy when he got there and he kind of looked at his wide receiver corps and he started shaking his head and we were starting talking about the wide receivers and he goes, man, he goes, I had more speed at Miami than I do on this professional team, and you know when he

looked at him. Michael ever wasn't that And I think he was just Michael in that yeah, because Michael wasn't Burner right, No, you know along those lines. I remember, you know, back in those days, early nineties, the rules for the media at Valley Ranch, where there were no

rules basically, I mean in the off season. I was working at Channel five during those days, and in the off season, if it was a slow sports day, we just went and we hung out at the locker room at Valley Ranch and we just waited for guys to come off the practice field. There wasn't any formalized workouts. These are just individual workouts, guys getting their off season workouts in and invariably you'd see Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman coming off that field in March, April whenever it was,

and we'd interview them or whatever. But I had got to see firsthand the work ethic they're putting. They would put in on their own. It wasn't anything that the team was doing at that time. And I was thinking, throughout this coronavirus thing, the guys that the teams that are going to get ahead are the ones that are

putting in the work right now. It's really it's it's really the dedication that in the sacrifice that those guys are putting in right now are going to play a big role going forward because they don't have any organized So so, Bill, Bill, did you remember Michael Irvin with the waves, Yeah, the way best on doing the standing broad jump for like fifty yards on the on the turf, you know, those kind of things that they just really really stood out in my mind because at that time

he was completely healthy, but he was not going to get hurt again, and you could tell he was working towards that very well. I've got this other image of Michael Irvin after he tore his ACLU and he was starting his rehab that offseason, and I was living in Carrollton at that time. Michael lived in Carrollton, and I'm

driving down Trinity Mills. I can see this year's day and there was kind of a median and I believe it was grassy, right, and I see this big guy on the tallest bicycle I've ever seen in my life, right, and he's riding right down the middle of the road and it's Michael Irvin. He's riding to the ranch and it was probably I don't know, ten miles or so something like that, but that was part of his rehab. It was just a spectacle. You've never seen anybody bigger

on a bicycle in my entire life. Unfortunately, that was before cell phones and so you couldn't take your cell phone out and take it. Hey Bill, I'll tell you what. Another guy that made an impression on me the first time I saw him, because I had no idea who he was, was Larry Allen. And he shows up and I see this big, massive, wide guy running the way he was running, and I'm sitting there going, oh my god,

where did they find this guy? And I'll guarantee you those defensive linemen we're probably sitting there going, oh no, I don't want any part of this. There was a lot of in the in the NFL those years he was playing. There was a lot of Larry Allen flu going around. You know, you gotta feel bad. You have to feel good about the fact, especially coming from a small school like myself. You know, the cowboys have always been extremely good at going to find those diamonds in

the room. If you're talking about the Patrick Cragon, myself and talking about Larry Allen. You know these one guys that were on everyone's radar. These guys had to be found, and the cowboys were always pretty good they finding them, so that that that tradition continues to this day. Hey, I got an idea for next week's show. Okay, this week we showed where we talked about the guys that were, oh my god, where they get this guy in a

good way? Next week, I want to hear your oh my god, where they find this guy in a bad way? How did they draft this guy I could get I could get one of those guys right out of the way right now. I have one too, Bill, I gotta I have one. Also. You can do it now if you want. No, I'm saying, I'll give you mine, and this will this will tease for next week. Okay, um nineteen the same guy in nineteen eighty six, So then

not gonna say guy was Kevin Brooks. Oh come on, come on, come on, No, you just took it away. That was it. Thanks, I told you we should have won the next week. Now I gotta be out how to come up with somebody else. That's all I know is he was a defensive lineman, I believe it was Michigan State and no Michigan. Okay, when they drafted him back then, you had to call the guy and tell him, okay, you know we drafted you. There was no live TV

and they couldn't get ahold of them. They couldn't get ahold of them, and they found out he wasn't home. He was out roller skating. And I don't want my defensive linemen roller skating. He was out skates. His whole career is bag. There you go, And that's a good way to end this one, all right. You need to come up both of them. You need to come up with somebody else and out a guy too. All right, that doesn't for mick shots, and we'll talk at you

again next week. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.