The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Cowboys.
This is mick Shots streaming live on dallascowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys apt now Here are Bill Jones, Savannah Humoller, Everson Wolves, and Mickey Spagnola.
It is a Monday morning, the first Monday of June inside the SWBC podcast studio, our final mix shots until the start of training camp twenty twenty four, and we're getting you ready for the Cowboys mandatory mini camp this week. We got so much to talk about, getting you set for the next couple of months as well as the Cowboys get set to start the twenty twenty four season. As the off season wraps up, Bill Jones with Everson Walls, Savannah,
Hughmoller and Mickey Spagnola. But we have just learned of some tragic news that we first need to pass along and Mickey, would you like to do it or you want me to read the email? Keepers go the email that was just sent out by the Cowboys announcement from the Cowboys on the passing of Larry Allen. Cowboys are very saddened to share the Cowboys legend, Super Bowl champion, Cowboys Ring of Honor member and Pro Football Hall of Famer Larry Allen passed away suddenly while on vacation in
Mexico with his family on Sunday. Larry, known for his great athleticism and incredible strength, was one of the most respected accomplished offensive linemen who ever play in the NFL. His versatility and dependability are also signature parts of his career. Through that, he continued to serve as inspiration for many other players, defining what it meant to be a great teammate, competitor,
and winner. He was deeply loved and cared for by his wife, Janelle, whom he referred to as his heart and soul, his daughters Jayla and Lariana, and son Larry the Third. The Jones family and the Cowboys extend their deepest condolences, thoughts, and prayers to the Allen family and grieve along with the many other friends and Cowboys teammates that also loved Larry. Memorial service arrangements and details will
be announced in the near future. So that is the news that we are met with as we walk in the door on this Monday.
Morning, and puts a downer on mix shots, doesn't.
It puts it down on everything?
Actually very sad.
I yeah, as a former player, of course, have to give much respect to him. One of the aletic offensive lineman that is known in the NFL. Really a feel good story because I think he came from a small college state Sonoma State and ended up just being one of John Madden's favorite And that's when you when you hit the when you hit hit the mountaintop is when John Madden speaks of you like he did with Nate Newton and guys like that. So he's pretty much iconic.
And they had to go through Butte Junior College to get to state.
What Butte Junior College?
Yeah, it's uh actually, if I have my story right, Aaron Rodgers went there also. It's in north of San Francisco or northeast of San Francisco Oroville, California.
Is where Butte College is.
It must be one of those, uh like Coffeeville, Kansas. You know. It was always known for having big time players before they went to the big time schools.
So in twenty sixteen, hopefully we can resurrect us. On Dallas Cowboys dot Com, we did a legends piece on Larry Allen and we went to California to do the interviews, and yeah, it was quite a story because they were the school was recruiting a couple guys and somehow, some way they said, well, bring Larry along.
Yeah, oh by the way, oh by the.
Way, and they found them.
In.
He grew up in south central.
La Compton, Compton, California.
As bad as it was. And when he got to the junior college, they found out that he never really graduated high school. So to get him into even junior college, they had to send him to what Larry nickname the Pregnant School.
Everybody was pregnant back then.
When girls got pregnant in high school, they dropped out, and so they developed a program to get your your GDE and so ged. And so he had to go to that during the summer before he was eligible to actually play uh in junior college. And the head coach there told me the story about how Larry was working for him in the office and they were working late one night and he goes, Larry, we need some pizzas. Here's my car keys. Go go get a couple. I'll
order them. Larry goes, well, I can't do that. And he goes, what do you mean you can't do that? He goes, I don't drive. I've never learned to drive. So then he had to take them to driver's ad to get his driving degree right. And to add just a touch of humor to it, Larry liked the pizzas and he kept ordering pizzas from the place that the school used, the athletic department used, And finally the guy that had owned the pizza place said, hey, coach, we
got a small problem. And he goes, what's that and he goes, well, Larry keeps writing checks for the pizzas and they're bouncing and he goes, what do you mean. He goes, yeah, so Larry, Larry didn't understand when you had a checking account, you had to have money in your account to pay for the checks. Hero he thought you just wrote the checks. So not only was he behind, you know, from an athletic standpoint, he was behind socially too.
Went to four different high schools, Yeah, different high school.
And he and he ended up at oh Napa Napa High School and he ended up living and this was before the old miss story, uh with the black offensive lineman living with a white family. Yeah, Michael or uh blindsight.
Yeah.
Anyway, Larry ended up Uh. He was commuting from his grandmother's place in Napa, far north of this high school. And finally the family took him in. And it was funny story about how I said something to Gosh, I wish I had done my research. But the quarterback he befriended him, and Larry in like two months, ended up being voted the homecoming king. Living with this white family and napp of all things right and yeah, and he was the one that got him to Butte Junior College
and two. I mean, the story is long, but when they finished at Butte, Larry was basically giving up and he went back home to Compton. And one of the coaches at Sonoma State had heard about him and and and was like trying to find him. And he went down to Compton and found him and uh, you know, told him, here's my card, we'd like to talk to you. Well,
Larry never follows up on it. So the coach uh had a wide receiver I believe it was that was from that area, and he told him, I want you to go to Compton, go back home, go to the basketball court and find the biggest guy you can see and it's Larry Allen and and and tell him give him my card. So he does. Larry puts it in his pocket and his mom find washing clothes, finds the card and it's like, well, Larry, what's this And he goes, oh, some guy wants me to play football. And he goes, well,
did you call the man? And he goes nahn. And so his mom calls, his mom calls the coach and they're talking to him and I remember the coach the greatest lion ever. You want to take care of my baby?
And yeah yeah.
And so just to get a workout, he has this white kid listening to country music drive up to Sonoma State and it's a couple of hours drive right with Larry brings them in to the gym and the head coach says, yeah, you know, I'll think of the assistant coach's name here in a minute. Look the guy can dunk standing still, and the coach is like, yeah, right, and he goes, no, he can't, So they bring him in.
They're sitting in the gym, Larry walks in with a he's got an all white kind of warm up suit on and the coach goes Okay, Larry, go go, show coach you can dunk. So he goes under the basket, doesn't take a step, standing step, and dunks it, and the football coach goes, okay, I think we've got a scholarship, and the rest is history. But it was it was almost a miracle that he ended up where he did. Yeah, yeah, and uh yeah, it was quite a remarkable, remarkable story.
The other and I'll tell you one more, and I know we got to move on. When he was at the junior college, like he shows up with t shirts and shorts and basically had athletic department issue. He didn't have clothes. Well, they had a banquet and awards and you have to be dressed up. He didn't have nothing.
So the coach gets his wife to take them shopping and he get him a shirt, tie, shoes, suit, and so they're looking for shoes and Larry goes, I really like these right here, and they were, oh, what were the fancy shoes that had the kind of wing tip type things and they had the holes in the front or whatever. They were really expensive, like one hundred and fifty two hundred dollars, And the coach's wife goes, Yeah, Larry, you know what we can buy like three pairs of these for what those costs.
Right? Okay.
So when he made it in the NFL, got his contract, he was a rookie. Every year he brought that coach and the family he lived with a NAPA in town for a game Cowboys game. So the first time they came coach and his wife, he goes, hey, I got to show you something. Brings them in to a closet. He's got three pairs of wingtips in.
That's his shoe of choice. Yeah.
So anyway, it was. It was a remarkable story tracking his history, short of driving through Compton, I guess I don't know that we did that, but we went to the junior college Sonoma State and then went to his house and had the longest conversation ever with Larry Allen after what was he here? Twelve thirteen years?
How many years he was twelve years nineteen ninety four through two thousand and five with the Cowboys and then finished up his NFL career with the forty nine ers in six and seven, which I don't remember.
But he was actually affable, funny.
And very very very soft spoken. Yes, during his time here or not spoken.
Yeah, and he opened up and it was it was amazing. And then this is the last thing I'll tell you and we can move on the Hall of Fame. When he got inducted his second daughter, there was two of them, right,
she was, she was still in high school. She was determined that he was going to get up there and give a speech because we figured the over under was three minutes, right, And she interviewed her dad for weeks to find his life story right, and she basically kind of wrote out a script and they practiced right and practice and I didn't find this out till afterwards, and somebody told me the story where she was. She she was on the edge of her seat and she was
rocking back and forth. Okay, come on, come on, you can do this and do it and he actually did it right, I mean, it was really good, and she was so relieved. Brad and I were taping a segment to send back here after the awards ceremony and a friend of ours was walking off with his daughter and we got to talk to her about what she did, and she was near tears, tears that he pulled it off right because he wasn't going to get up here, but he was good. He thanked everybody told some funny stories.
And it was I didn't say that, but I'm sure that was something. I was shocked.
But she did one hell of a job preparing.
Them for that.
So anyway, fifty two years old, had a son that went to Harvard, played football? Was it Harvard?
I don't recall.
Larry, Yeah, and one daughter went to Stanford and the other one was going to call soow. He and his wife raised three really sharp kids. Fifty two.
Here are the career accolades, not only of course, he was a second round draft pick in nineteen ninety four, played on the Cowboys Super Bowl thirty team, seven time first team All Pro, eleven time Pro Bowler, All Rookie Team, NFL nineteen nineties All Decade Team, NFL two thousand's All Decade Team, NFL one hundredth anniversary All Time Team, and of course Cowboys Ring of Honor in Pro Football.
Hall of Fame. Crazy. I mean, Luk started trying his best not to play best, to just.
Not he was going to be a two All Decade Team in the NFL.
That's crazy.
With the junior college coach. Imagine Larry playing against junior college guys, right, and uh, he was just destroying people.
It sounds like a Grambling State story from way back with those guys. It sounds like one of those stories and even more outrageous.
And he basically blocked the guy and just put him in the ground, right, And I guess the kid got up and started yelling and screaming and cheating and whatever. And the head coach does He goes, oh, Son, don't do that. You don't want to make Larry mad. And the next play they pulled him right, and he just knocked the guy out of the game.
Right.
They thought they thought they were sheating, that the guy was too old and too big.
Right. You can't find the Larry Allen out there these days.
Can now?
Not much too much coverage, too much internet, right, they can't. You can't. You can't lose a guy like that anymore.
And the stories, I mean, you could call him Larry the legend. I mean, the stories about Larry Allen are just legendary. From bench pressing over seven hundred pounds, chasing down the linebacker exactly, and I just looked it up.
That's crazy.
Dan Deardorf going crazy on Monday night football Larry Allen. I'm really sure she gets to say.
As slow as I was, I'm pretty sure he would have called me.
Also, Hudson how found out about him at Sonoma State? Oh, and he was the one that when they were in the second round, basically goes, we got to get this guy, right. I mean, how many guys come out of Sonoma State.
He had a touchdowns, think, Dary, I mean he gained on you.
No, it wasn't like you know, I barely got him. No, he like throwing to them a little bit of an angle. But this is like a huge man.
This guy's got a rocket.
Hoster.
Alan is still standing there.
There he is to the left yard screen.
They've got a running start at us.
No, he's standing. I remember seeing it. It's like a sprinter.
I'm telling you, that's one of the most impressive athletic.
Feats I have ever. That's true.
I remember watching it and I'm seeing him because he's coming. So it's on the left side. If I remember, Larry's coming from the right side and he's angling, I'm sitting there going, are you he's gaining on it. He almost beat him to the spot, right, he did because he didn't cut from behind.
That was not no, that was easy, easy tackle.
Unbelievable.
Wow.
Well, we've got so much to get to. Yeah, And it was obviously very important to spend the first segment talking about Larry Allen, and there would be a lot more talk about Larry Allen, but just being our last show before we take a little break here and we want to get you ready for the mini camp and for training camp because this this podcast will live on the shelf, as they say, for a couple.
Of months, so.
We'll be back and talk about all that other stuff when we come back here on mix shots. In just a moment, I'm.
Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and.
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He'll look for a first down.
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All right, so.
Segment number two of big Shots.
And yeah try this segue. Uh huh, Hey, I'll help it out.
Glad they build a big books.
It's June third. June sixth is the eightieth anniversary of D Day, when the troops landed on in Normandy and I saw a really neat thing. They do this every year, but for the eightieth anniversary, they flew in a bunch of guys that are still alive, most of them from ninety five to one hundred and five to DFW and they were going to fly them to American Airlines, flying
them to France to commemorate the eightieth anniversary. And these guys, they had them in wheelchairs and they had a parade basically through the gates to get them to where they needed to go to take the flight to France. And so my dad landed on Omaha Beach on d Day two, so June eighth, and that was eighty years ago. He was twenty five years old. After boot camp and serving, he was stationed in, of all places, Galveston, Texas. You know, have you ever been to Galveston?
Yep?
On the Gulf Coast. They have those jetties they go out into the water. His patrol was on the jetties because they were worried that enemy submarines might come through, uh the golf and land in Galveston. And I'm going, Okay, he's got a rifle, what's he going to do if a submarine.
Shows up, right, go get his bow and arrow.
But he landed June eighth on d D two with bodies still floating on It was very sobering. All right, Bill, I'm gonna hand.
You know what we're driving today, guys.
We're going Those guys turned, those guys turned.
World War two around exactly right.
And I and I heard someone uh saying the same thing on the radio driving in. And I don't know if they've already landed, if the eighty or so, I don't know how many that were on the flight going right, if they've already left or what. But apparently we're I don't know if it was at DFW Airport or someplace else they got whenever they arrived, they got a standing ovation and it's really so go find I haven't found it yet. I haven't had a chance to look for
it yet, but go find that. And it's really it'll make your you know, give you goosebumps. Yeah, okay, very briefly, I'm sorry Savannah about the stars.
Okay, okay, but.
The plague, I mean, they play on and on and on the sea. It seems like, okay, they're dustin to win it all, and as we find out with Cowboys seasons, it ends so abruptly.
It was a little heartbreaking, but very proud of what this team has done and looking forward to another season with them.
And you know, it didn't end how we wanted it to.
But we have some strong young guys on that team and they will persevere in the next few years.
So lots to come.
I don't know, as a fan of something that was invested in what was going on. I was almost sick last night. I mean I was just I just knew they were going to tie it up, right, it was going to tie it right.
They kept watch, they kept.
You talk about it, valiantly trying to get that mayor that tying goal in the final seconds.
Yeah, the last three minutes, Yeah, right.
Eight when Mason Marchant got a goal for the Stars.
At one point the total was thirty five shots on goal for the Stars and only ten for the opposition.
The problem was two of the first three went in.
Yeah, on the power plane.
We couldn't do crap.
I started looking up those damn officials too, but there you go. It's a Canadian. It's a Canadian conspiracy.
Well I thought maybe they were official.
We're all board in Canada, damn it.
At one point you had a guy posted up and that was like in the last I think, in the last minute, and I just knew he was going to get it inside to him and he was going to make a play on it.
In this case, the defense wins championships.
Yes he did.
They had a discipline defense on that other side, yep. And uh, we still have the Mavericks alive. I'm headed to Boston tomorrow and so well, you know.
My brother knows more about hockey than I do. And I said, look, man, the goalie looks pretty good, and he said he's okay.
Was that just the goalie for the other team. Yes, that's what I understand.
You know what happened.
Yeah, look at sometimes you can have your your your teammates can be in there helping you out.
Of those thirty some shots on goal, I bet thirty of them were right at them, Like they weren't good score chances. They were getting the puck on goal.
Maybe he was always positioned well.
Now they just never had open They didn't have any open shots like their second goal and that first one the penalty.
Hey, we had our chances. We had our chances, They had many power plays.
And.
Now we devoted two minutes to that, and now we move on to the happiness here for the happiest.
I just want to know that Cowboys had lots like that. Who gets to blame for this?
Right? Right?
Because it can't be the other teams better than you?
Right.
Happiest man in America today is whom Cede Lamb? Or is it Justin Jefferson?
Because I'm coming right out, I was going to say the second half.
Lamb, it's the same firm.
Come on, So what were the numbers?
The numbers?
We have a sign deal with Justin Jefferson for four years, one hundred and forty million dollar extension that includes one hundred and ten million dollar guarantee.
That's thirty five million per year.
The highest non quarterback contract in NFL history, and he's due eighty eight point seven million at signing. So between guaranteed base salary and the signing bonus, that's a pretty good chunk of change.
Well, Bill, last week, we were all discussing this as to who was potentially going to go in first, and Justin Jefferson is obviously the one that took took.
The bait first.
So now that really does set ceede Lamb up to kind of look at his options, and I would assume so that CD's going to go for quite a higher deal.
I don't think it'll be much higher. It'll lead close to the same agent. Yeah, that's be Yeah, that's that's agent. Be close to it. Yeah. So and we did. That's exactly what we talked about last year as well. One comes in and the other one was right behind him.
And the other thing is why Justin Jefferson went first is the Vikings aren't paying a quarterback or a top defensive player about to pay him what the Cowboys are having to pay, and so there it was easier for them to fork over the four years one hundred and forty million and all the guarantees right now.
So if you.
If you look at their careers, I trying to find I wrote down Jefferson's numbers.
Did I do that? Well?
He had three hundred and ninety two catches in sixty games, five and ninety nine yards, which, by the way, is the most of an NFL receiver in the first four years of a career, thirty touchdowns c D three hundred and they were in the same draft class. Remember, wow, CD went seventeen to the Cowboys. He went twenty one to Minnesota. And if you're wondering who got drafted ahead of them, Chase Henry Ruggs.
You talk of wide receivers, they got dressed to them.
Yeah, wide receivers. Henry Ruggs went twelfth, Jerry Judy fifteenth, and then after CD went seventeenth, Jalen Rager went twenty one, and they were doing handstands in Minnesota to draft him at.
The Philadelphia Oh oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Philadelphia drafted Raager and then Jefferson went to Minnesota, and then Rager wound up in Minnesota.
So CD in sixty six games had three hundred and ninety five catches, five and forty five yards, thirty two touchdowns, three more or rusheding rushing. So they are one of five guys to start their NFL careers in the first four years with five thousand yards receiving, which is rather remarkable when you consider the receivers that came before them, that they would have two five thousand yard receivers in
that short of time. Jefferson was first. Michael Thomas five, five hundred and twelve and sixty three games, Randy Moss three hundred ninety six and sixty four Lamb and then Tory Holt five thousand and eighty eight and if you can believe this, Jerry Rice four thousand, eight hundred and eighty one in sixty games. But think of the difference, how many receptions that is in sixteen game season, and how the offense changed from what eighty four Terry Rice through the nineties.
Okay, on SPO track or however you say it, Yes, the website s p O t r ac dot com.
They've already got they are the breakdown.
They already have the breakdown for the cap hit for justice justin Jefferson for the next five years.
Because I'm an eye last looked they must have just done it.
And so, and what's interesting about this is because Jefferson was in the same draft, just four picks later than CD.
They are.
They are on similar contracts right now, and so there it's apples to apples.
His was two million more fifty year option. I think that was nineteen million.
But so here's the here's the way it's been structured by the Vikings. And now compare this to what the Cowboys have facing them with a DAC contract looming, with a MICA contract looming, which the Vikings don't have, so they can just do whatever they want to manage the money.
The cap hit this year for Justin Jefferson is eight point five million dollars, Next year fifteen point three million, in twenty twenty six thirty nine million, in twenty twenty seven forty three point three nine seven million, and then in twenty eight forty seven point three eight million.
Does it show where the guarantees run.
Out after he's a potential cut after the twenty seven season, which would be a four year, one hundred twenty five
million dollars dead money. No dead money then would be, well, they'll let you look at it if you want, but okay, look at how they are able to structure that where he counts x amount of dollars thirty seven million in one year, forty three and another and then times three times what cowboys have to do with DAK, which they already have money sitting there on DAK, and what they have to do with Micah, and try to structure this thing.
And you can understand why it may be a little more difficult to structure the CD contract from a Cowboys perspective than what it was for the Vikings here.
So they can get out in twenty twenty eight when the day salaries forty seven to eight for like seven point three million dollars. So if you're that fared, the CAP's going to keep going up, right, So that basically is you know when we were talking about it last week after who signed for thirty two?
Well, it was Aj Brown from well we talked about the guy from the Texans as.
Well, right, and the most was Aj Brown at thirty two million, I believe his extension. So this is thirty five. So CDs looking at the Cowboys are looking at thirty five million on a four year deal. And I'm guessing that he's supposed to play for seventeen to nine guaranteed on his fifty year option this year, so he's got to make They got to hand him at least that much money, right, if not more for the first year.
So it's an investment, and that's why the Cowboys are you know, it's like, okay, are you good with that? Because they agreed the thirty five? Now can you agree to thirty five? The other thing is when I looked up, we need to point out Bill that June second was yesterday.
I'm looking at Michael Gillo.
They get the Michael Gallay guys, they can add nine and a half million to the salary cap and that gives them somewhere between ten and twelve million dollars in space for just the top fifty one, because that's all they count now when you have a ninety man roster. But he still counts four point three to five million in dead money this year, eight point seven million next year to get that nine and a half million back now, so they have the ability now to spend a little
bit more. And my guess was, depending on what happens with CD that they might have been waiting for this to possibly re sign Stefan Gilmore, who I understand is hell.
That was my next question, how are you spending the freed up Gallop money?
So I don't know what my understanding is. He lives here now, he wants to stay here.
Stepan Gilmore, Okay, all right, let me ask Everson here. You look at the Cowboys' depth chart at cornerback right now, and you have Trayvon Diggs coming back from his injury as one starting corner You hope you have Deron Bland the starting corner on the other side, and you've got Jordan Lewis as you're starting slot corner. Beyond that, you have Naseean Wright, the third round pick from twenty twenty one, who.
Is working right now with the first team defense because Diggs is still rehabbing, and who.
Had fifty snaps on defense last year. Eric Scott, sixth round draft pick from last year who didn't.
Play last year, working second team.
Kaylan Carson, the fifth round rookie draft pick out of wake Forest.
Akuambu is he going, oh, well.
He's safety safety. Sheldrick RedWine, Josh Butler. There's your corners.
They kind of like this.
Josh Butler guy, Okay, just judging from how they're using them in the OTA practices.
So last week they caught by the way, Josh Butler is not a youngster coming in here. He's twenty seven years old. He'll be twenty eight in November. He came into the league out of Michigan State as a college free agent in twenty eighteen.
And what about red Wine and red Wine is he was.
A fourth round draft pick of Cleveland in twenty nineteen, So those are more veteran guys, and Red Wine got seven snaps on defense last year. He was signed to the practice squad and then activated.
Those guys were practice squad guys.
So my question to you ever since, could this team use Stefan Gilmore?
Oh, yes, that's easy. I thought you were coming with something hard up.
Seriously, you have three cornerbacks on this roster. You have playing experience in this league basically, and Diggs went on Lewis but uh didn't lead the league and Digs and blanded. Okay, yeah, now you're talking. If you added Gilmore, then you have boy. If you added Gilmore, you feel much better about the cornerback.
Yeah, I'm talking about with Gilmore.
With Gilmore, and let me add this.
And we're working with the assumption that Diggs is Digs right right from the start of the scene.
Because he did it was in September that he suffered the ACL injury.
So but still I get nervous about that, right. You know, these are things I didn't pay much attention to as a player. You know, I never really noticed that it was tougher for some of these guys to come back from these injuries. First year UH and and Gallup was one of those that were I saw even Tony Pollard, I saw where they did suffer.
Uh.
In regards to trying to come back. Probably this coming year, Polo is gonna look like the same guy he looked like two years ago. And you know, maybe Michael Gallup will come back and do the same thing. I'm hoping it doesn't take Diggs and tell you, I don't want that buffer year for for Trayvon back. Now we don't. We can't afford it. We can't afford it. We're gonna need it.
And he needs to. Just watching what they're doing out there where he's what's he doing compared to overshown who got hurt in training guys?
Right, yes, the.
Wide receiver, uh, Durton Durden, David Durden toward his A c L in training camp. John Stevens, John, Yeah, Steven Stephen. I was thinking, oh, no, that's that's Stephen Jones' son.
That would be John Stevens.
Yeah, this is John Stephens. Right, those guys looking they're ahead of Diggs. So just from what they're doing and what he's doing with his rehab.
So you would talk about how fatigued he was, You're just hoping.
That he's ready to come September. What is it ninth tenth, it's September, September eighth.
Yeah, Well, having Stefan Gilmore, you have that additional veteran depth at the cornerback position.
And then I know we mentioned Jordan Lewis and he did.
He came off that injury from the year before, so he's still redeveloping in that position, and.
He missed the first four games.
I think he seemed to be a guy that handled his rehab very well, and it was that that was really career exactly exactly.
Yeah, yeah, and he's he turned twenty nine August thirty. First that he had seven hundred and thirty two snaps on defense last year.
And let's point out that Gilmore played that playoff game with a harness sign of course, because he had suffered the shoulder injury that was presurgerily repaired the end of the week, no.
Doubt, so I would not have played.
That's that's what to me. That's that's kind of a tipping point to what the Cowboys thought of their next corner back up that they didn't want to go there, and they kind of changed how they played in the secondary to accommodate having Gilmore on the field.
It's hard to hide an experience in the second day. It's just because they're coming after whoever they put in, they were going to come after him. They came at Gilmore knowing that he was injured, right, so you know, you do the right thing. You're gonna you're gonna attack the weakness. And it didn't matter who was going to
play that cornerback position, they going to be attacked. It's just maybe the only thing I could say, you might have might have had a Michael Downs, You might have had the Nerrison Walls that might actually step up and played better than the veteran did while he was injured. So you know, to me, there are times when you can't believe the press clippics. You know you have to
play outside of that. If you look at the way we came into nineteen eighty one, no one thought you have Michael Downs at safety, and if you did have Michael Downs, you would not expect him to play as well as he did, so, right, So, sometimes the story doesn't match the individual. Throw him out there. You just never know what could have happened. I mean, obviously you're out there with a guy. It kind of goes to his reputation. I don't want to give more out there
playing like he did. Now everyone's looking at him as some type of weakness, not knowing the background of how his shoulder was being.
And who would take his place to thank you?
And that's the whole point. Who would have taken his place? He may have stepped up, he may have done better. So sometimes you can't just go with with the resume. Sometimes you gotta go with your gun and see what the guy can do.
That's just you know, do we need to take any the state of the break?
And we have our final segment of this offseason when we come back on MIXSHOTSUG just a moment.
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All, right, final segment here before we take a little break and Mickey, there are not ninety players on this roster, right eighty six eighty six, So there's room to sign four players from the United Football League, right Yeah? Well, I mean think what happened two years ago? There was a player from the USFL in Cavante Turpin who turned out to be a Pro bowler. What happened last year there was a player from the USFL named Brandon Aubrey
who wound up being a Pro Bowl player. And so do you think maybe there's something the Pro Bowl players on on a UFL roster right now? Maybe there's four of them that'll be signed by the start of training camp. Mickey's nodding an agreement there. He likes that idea.
But signing those guys, you're signing to Rooking minimums. Although the minimums going up, that's right, seven one thousands, So if you signed four guys, that's another three million.
That's what they're saving that Michael Gallup money, right, all right? So a position we talked about, cornerbacks is another position group that seems like it might be a little light as far as the depth goes, would be the wide receiver position. You got C. D Lamb, You got Brandon Cooks.
Well, you hope you have CD Lamb.
Yes, you hope you have.
Not passing up.
That's even more to my boint. What if you don't have and then you've got Brandon Cooks, you got Jalen Tolbert, you got Jalen Brooks. It's you got c D, you got Brandon, and a bunch of guys named Jayalen.
I hope they's not forget either.
You got and you got one as a slot receiver, now right. They heard you the other day, Yeah, talking about it, that's right, all right?
So with me, first of all, they didn't hear him. I was the one.
I was the week before. I wouldn't hear last, all right. So Savannah, you've talked to a couple of Jalens.
Yes, So my focus last week was to look at that third guy as far as you know, who's going to step up to the plate here. And I talked to both Jalen Brooks and uh Jalen Tolbert in the locker room last week, and uh, I know, one thing that we were talking about was the trip that Dak plans every year where he takes the wide receivers and they, you know, go and bond and do some field work. So I asked Jalen Tolbert, he went last year to Atlanta.
This year they're going to Portland, Oregon. So that's their their trip this year. And uh, I asked him, you know, his kind of connection to Dak right now and as far as what they're doing off the field and outside of the Star, and he said he gets with Dak about once or twice a week outside of the Star and that he said, you can tell that the chemistry is continuing to grow. It's special to have a quarterback who believes in you, understands you as a person and
as a player. So I really like their kind of bond that they're having right now. And then when I talk to Jalen Tolbert, I kind of asked him what he's working on as far as his physicality and speed goes, because you know, I think that was something that he was trying to work on off of his rookie season. He said his goal right now is working on his
lower body strength and conditioning, stabilization. He wants to get off the press really well, being able to maintain balance after catches, might being able to jump forward a little bit more. But he's using a sand pit as his outside very nice. So I liked hearing that he gets with a couple of the other wide receivers and does a sand pitt. Is his kind of off season outside of her training, I ran a god, it was horrible.
I ran a four of your dash on a sand based turf.
Tough to get fast off.
Way way. The other way much slower, but it's good for the It's good for the joints right and your muscles. It will help you longevity.
It's interesting that a guy that wears Jordan's brand shoes and other gear would be taking his receivers to Portland, Oregon.
Very good.
That's why I want what's the connection? Connection?
Headquarters are in Portland, track.
Like, why would you pick Portland?
I mean the weather though, Arizona.
Or they go with Atlanta. Where did this come in from?
Gee?
I wonder why Oregon?
Huh, it's not far from U Gene.
But yeah, that trip that they do is always before training camps.
Let me give you a sleeper guy that caught my attention, Ryan Floornoy six round draft pick Racy McMath.
You know he.
Did the head racey McMath. I saw this guy out there eighty who's huge, he's six three two twenty four, went to LSU and probably got overshadowed about.
Neighbors and those guys.
Not neighbors, Jefferson and jermal He was a six round draft pick of Tennessee in twenty one, and so Jefferson came out the year before that, it was and then Chase was that year, right, Jamar Chase. So I looked up his background and the first two years he had injuries hip injury, I think he told me, and he was ended up on practice squads, then got released again. The Cowboys put him on the practice squad. Uh. Coming out for his like pro day, he ran a four to three nine.
Wow at sixty.
They don't have slow receivers.
Right, So I don't know where he kind of fits in, But I just saw him make a couple of catches in a couple of runs, and I'm going, who's this guy?
Well, I don't worry about blocking. If I need a blacker, I'll put a tight end out there taking up.
Another guy that we were looking at was Princeton Fan. He's an undrafted free agent out of Tennessee and he is huge.
Rookie this year, first year, he was a practice squad last year.
Six to two hundred and thirty five pounds.
He is just built huge, Actually two fifties, Savannah, he's fifty. Well that's what they listening on this.
He got down.
You probably have his combine weight where he got down to he can run faster, and but his true weights up to two fifty.
And because of their missing uh tight ends. So Schoonmakers still rehabbing, Peyton Hendershot still rehabing. Uh, Stevens still rehabing. This guy's gotten some first team reps because of those guys being missing. So he's he's you know, good, that's why you noticed his number. Yeah, absolutely. Hmmm.
So you think maybe we don't have to go outside the organization to find some players who can step up this year? Huh?
Young guys.
I keep telling you.
Actually, Mike McCarthy keeps saying that that their biggest improvement on this roster has to come from within and young guys. And they need, by the way, Micah Parsons to get his button.
That's the next thing we're gonna talk about.
Okay, I got that off my chest here doing.
I understand. Listen with Mickey rant I understand, I understand, I understand.
The boxing thing, right. But he came last week for the media days stuff, went through all that, but he didn't stay. So you know, at some point, if you're going to be the leader of this defense, you need to bond with these players. And and and they're watching now. I know players, they know how talented he was, and they won't hold it against them. But still you gotta new defensive coordinator with somewhat of a new defensive system.
And I still get the feeling that Mike Zimmer would like to use three linebackers and they would like to put him at anbacker at the time.
But now he's it's a negotiation thing right in the contract.
Well, I don't know if that's behind it or not, or that you know, he never he's never done this. He did this last year.
No, he did last year.
He trained on his own and he was in good shape, you know.
And and.
Uh M talked about Yeah, he talked about how he you know, he he stays in contact da da da da. But he also said something to effect, but you should never miss opportunities to be to improve or kind of be with your team. So while I thought McCarthy said, oh, you know, no big deal, but I deep down to him it was a big deal. Now he's.
I think, I think with a new defense, yes he should be.
But he McCarthy did acknowledge that in his press conference last week. Publicly, Yeah, they publicly acknowledged what he's missing by not being here.
That's good because has got a few more.
Yeah, and his point was, you got to do this stuff now so that when we hit the ground in Oxnard on July twenty third, by the way, and they're there to August twenty second, that you're ready to go. You're not playing ketchup and so yeah, so it'll be interesting to see. Now you get fine for missing mini camp practice.
Now last year, then you don't have to do anything.
You just going to say last year Zach Martin was here, he just didn't do anything. He had that hamstring, right, Yeah.
Well they weren't putting it in new offense either.
Uh so you can show up and say I got an ankle, but at least be here, be in the meetings, be with your teammates. That's kind of my point.
Do you like, ever since this setup where they basically have an off season where they start April twentieth or so with the official off season program and end they're ending this week because he's let's say June tenth, and then you have the break before training camp, or do you like the proposal that's out there that they would not have to do anything until June and then they would basically you're doing a three week ramp up to training camp. You just go right into training camp.
That sounds more like old school the latter you know, we you didn't have anything.
Well, yeah, I mean back back in the day. We have many camp Back in the day, I mean we're talking fifty years ago, sixty fifty five years ago. The Cowboys would they basically the rookies. The rookies would report to training camp in Thousand Oaks basically the fourth of July.
Fourth of July was to start a training camp. Basically, oh, and they would be there for a couple of weeks and then the Vets would be there and they would they would and even the Vets would still be there for like six weeks from July seventeenth until September.
First or whatever. The regular season, and you had opportunities, you know, to work out. You sign in, you had the opportunities to work out in the off season all off season, and if you did, you well, they had a little motivation and things and well I think they gave Way.
Watches and stuff like that for you know, doing well and coming for like the sixty days in the off season or forty days in the off season, and so that opportunity was always there for the veterans. So that kind of reminds me of the latter proposal that you talked about.
I remember asking D d Lewis. I don't know how we got on the subject during the interview, but about off season workouts. I said, so, how much did you work out in the off season? He goes, oh, he goes, My workouts were in the pool and I said, you swam? He goes, no, I did twelve ounce curls.
Well, DD's body because it shows that he played with his writing experience. DD was not a guy that was gonna go out there and muscle someone. He played with instincts. So and I must admit I did not enjoy coming up to the practice field and work out. I did a lot of stuff on my own.
Uh did you do it indoors?
No?
I was come on, I was still did swimming, basketball. I mean it was micah before. I did a lot of stuff.
I was referring to. Your weight room was outdoors.
Oh no, I didn't do weights, No, no, no, weights. I didn't do wights.
Sand Pitt, Yeah, sanm Pitt.
I love sant Pitt. No I did. I did work like that, that stuff that could not break you down, but build up your muscles, and working in the sand pit does that. I wasn't into running four hundred meters. How many times you can run four hundred meters and all that crap. To me, that is not football. You know. When it comes to football, you have to be able to play football. And I wanted to do one on one coverage. I wanted to do what I was good at. Tackling is one thing, but I made my living playing
one on one. So as long as I did things, That's why I played tennis, That's why I played basketball because those helped me with my man to man technique.
Yeah, so did you have to run the Landry Mile?
Yeah? It was a mount and a half, by the way, mile and a half. Yes, Dry mile is a mount and a half.
How many game?
I just hated it, dude, just at that time. Now, I'm a half manthon I guy.
But I hate the best in Everson Walls. In his career sixteen games in eighty one strike shortened season eighty two nine games. He's a regular season game sixteen games in eighty three, sixteen and eighty four sixteen and eighty five sixteen and eighty six strike shortened season in eighty seven twelve games, eighty eight sixteen games, eighty nine sixteen, ninety sixteen games, ninety one fourteen games in ninety two sixteen games. So how many games did you miss in
your career? Two two in that nineteen and the Giants in ninety one season, it seemed to worry.
Got my ReBs cracked.
Did you do try to make a tackle?
Yeah?
He already said, it's man and man coverage one on one.
And look how many games players are missing today? You got a weightlifting that's it. It's the weightlifting.
I think the argument for beginning the off season stuff in June, middle of June whatever, and then blending in the training camp is the quality of play might pick up because you're more ready than to take six six weeks six weeks off before training camp.
See, now they're on their own for the next six weeks to try to keep what they're already started this offseason.
And now they're different than we were. You know, they're just different.
Well, guys probably in better shape, don't you think, Yeah? Remember you you I don't know if you guys had this available, but all of them go to these different workout places, like the offensive linemen, the wide receivers.
No.
Specific thrills. Yeah, okay, we're out of time. We're passed out of time.
Covered a lot of all right, and covered it well.
Yes we did.
Okay, So next time we chat at y'all, it'll be Oxnard, California or beyond.
Are you going to be done with all this hockey and basketball?
Hockey right now? With basketball? Hopefully in four games? Is gonna be done with basketball?
And if the Rangers keep going, you won't have to deal with them.
M hm.
Number one five out of the last six. Now that's players are on the injured list coming back.
I told you he's gonna he's gonna rap him up. He knows exactly what he's.
Got, an entire tire, starting pitching staff.
He what he's doing. All right?
Does it for Mick Shines? We will chat at you next time.
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