Mick Shots: That's A Wrap

the Great USA. A lot of people didn't think we'd be at this point eventually, but we've got with one cut down day in the NFL on Saturday, and the Cowboys have begun preparations as we speak for the Los Angeles Rams a week from Sunday. Micky, it's a great time to be alive in America as it isn't Oh, it certainly is, Bill, And you know what, we had football outdoors on a grass field today for practice, so moving right along. That new field is down and ready

to go. Didn't rain any here this morning, so the Cowboys were able to practice outdoors. And yeah, I don't know if everybody thought we were going to get to this point, but we're here, and it looks like it just might work, at least for this first week of the season. Ever, since we're getting this season ready to go just under the gun, just like Mickey got here

for mix shots, just under the gun. Right. Well, whether I like it or not, I'm the pessimist of this group, and I must admit I didn't even think we get this far. So I'm a little bit optimistic now. Uh My, my optimism was a little bit taper today because I thought Mick was gonna miss the whole show. All right, So you want me to pull back to Carton and tell you what happened? Yes, I was in dire need uh to go to the eye doctor because my glasses I sat on him and they were no longer workable.

They were about in bad shape as my bicycle. Okay, so now, so you haven't been buying your bike, so your ass it's probably pretty big right now. Yeah, right, No, I've been riding the stationary bike, you know. I tell you I set to use now because I was gonna

use Derek Douglas Barraclough's office because he hadn't been coming in. Well, he came in to day so anyway, I had I a doctor appointment, and I rushed back here just in time to do my fan report that's usually at twelve twenty, but it was at eleven twenty today because I think the Arrangers had an afternoon game. Ye, So I walked in just as they were going to me, and then I told them I have to be done at eleven thirty, and so we were done at eleven thirty, and here

I am. I don't know about that, spags. If this was Eddie Robinson or Tom Landry, you would have been fined. If you're on time, you are late. Let's remember that. So yeah, and for Joe Abazanos on time, I was ten minutes late, and Nicky. There are a lot of people. There are a lot of people who think you sat on your glasses a long time ago, and so they're very happy to hear that you now I have glasses where you know, I get some new ones, so maybe you can see right right. So what's your take on

this football team now? As we are now down to forty eight hours away, a little over forty eight hours away from the cut down time in the NFL get down to fifty three, and had a practice this morning. They were in pads this morning. Weren't they had a practice? Yes, they were preseason and got another practice on Saturday. But obviously the decisions will be made to buy then on this fifty three man roster. Yeah. Absolutely, And they started

making the decisions yesterday. I believe it was up to seven guys that they released, and really the only two guys you know of of somewhat note would have been Devin Smith, who was on the team last year. I don't know what happened to him. He didn't have a good training He just didn't do anything in training camp to kind of stand out, so they they let him go. And then Adam Redman, who was on IR the backup center guard candidate, they also let him go. So you know,

those were the only two. You know, Mitch Hyatt had it's gonna need knee surgery. They least him injured. I'm sure he'll clear waivers and he'll go back onto injured reserve. So they started whittling down the eighty to get to fifty three. And you know, if you look at it, Bill, you know they've got a few decisions to make here

and there, but nothing major. I don't think, and I don't see any you know, we get to this point and it's always, well, is there going to be a veteran that's gonna get let go that you didn't expect? And I just don't see that happening now. Davin Smith. That was a young man from Ohio State. Correct, Correct, And remember he had the really good game the first game he got in there, and then he kind of faded.

And one of the reasons why is they they he didn't play special teams, and so they started using Ventel Bryant, who, by the way, a couple of days ago suffered a knee Well it was at the Cowboys night, right Bill, He suffered the knee injury in the warm up. So, uh yeah, it was a shame because I thought this guy had some talent and he certainly I did too. I did two spacks, I really did, and they just

couldn't find a spot for him. So, you know, maybe they it was one of those things where they do a veteran, kind of a veteran guy of favor, let him go early, give him an opportunity to latch on maybe with somebody else. Now, that would be a good thing because you know, and Bill will talk about it. You've got a great talent coming in as Ceedee Lamb. That kind of ups your upsta Anne just a little bit. Uh, you gotta bring it now. Whatever you were doing last year,

which was, you know, somewhat adequate. He had that touchdown first game of the season, beautiful touchdown, by the way, gave us a lot of hope and optimism for him. Then all of a sudden, you don't hear anything from him for the rest of it, for the entire year. And now here he is in training camp. You got Ceedee Lamb coming in making plays, You've got this this great wide receiver corps. You gotta step your game up

a little bit. You gotta do something different from last year because now you've got all these studs coming in here from college, and you've also got two studs that were already here in Gallop and the Cooper. So I guess he just did step his game up. Yeah, And then if you factor in the fact that Cedric Wilson was healthy and really didn't he was one of the stars of training camp. You know, it kind of goes under the radar, but he had a really good training camp.

Former I believe it was sixth round pick Boise State, and then Noah Brown kind of came out of nowhere and had a good camp. So there's your five right now. So now their question at wide receiver, are you good with five or do you want to keep a six guy? And and so we'll see where that decision goes. I'll point out we are on periscope as usual. I'm monitoring periscope, so if you have any comments, any questions, I can pass them along, and also monitoring Twitter as well. I'm

at CBS eleven Bill Jones or Mick Shots. You can follow along there and ask any questions as we go along. So at the wide receiver position you're making, you're thinking to keep five the obviously the big three Cedric Wilson and Noah Brown. And then and when what happens with Ben Tell Bryant. Yeah, we'll see with his injury situation with the knee, I mean, he might be a guy that you say, gosh, I really liked him. I can just put him on injured reserve at the final cut.

And remember injured reserve this year is a little shorter and there's more movement that can take place there, so they may try to keep his try to keep his rights because I think that they liked what he could do. Yeah, and he was another guy that would you know, the reason he was active at the end of the year.

He was a special teams guy and that was something that like I said, Devin Smith wasn't and Cedric Wilson, you know, he would be one of their top two punt returners if you figure Seat Lamb if they're going to allow him to do that. But if they don't want him to do it full time, then Cedric Wilson was doing it some last year. So yeah, five for sure, and then we'll see where I'm not sure anybody else's you know, John V. Johnson had a really nice last

couple practices. I don't know if that's going to be enough to get him on the fifty three man roster, but I think it could get him on the practice squad.

And remember the practice squads expanded this year to sixteen guys, and you have four spots that have no limit on ac crude seasons, so you could put a veteran on there if he clears waivers because at four or six I thought it was six spots or six spots, you're right, sorry, yes, yeah, And so I mean that's huge now, but they can protect up to four each week, right, correct, And then the other aspect, maybe we go through this practice squad.

The situation, it's all because of COVID. I mean, you got a fifty three man roster, they cut down two on Saturday, Your game day roster is gonna be fifty five. So there's two players that can be promoted from the practice squad to the game day roster and then you can put them back on the practice squad without them having the clear waivers for the coming week, right right, And if you keep eight offensive linemen active on game day, you can stretch that to forty eight man roster for

the game day instead of forty six. Yeah wow. So so anyway, and that's so it's gonna be very interesting. Of course, the cutdown is on Saturday afternoon, and then they clear waivers what by noon on Sunday, and then that's when the sixteen man practice squads are being put together. It's gonna be interesting with veteran players. I mean, you can be a crusty old, fifteen year veteran, easy on that crusty old okay, and be on the practice squad.

I like, no, no, you're exactly right. So the waiver claim ends at eleven o'clock and then at noon you can start signing guys to your practice squad. And Bill, that was one reason. And you know you were there Sunday night and you understood what they were doing. One reason why if you're gonna put sixty guys sixteen on your practice squad, and you're probably not poaching off somebody else's because you haven't seen those guys. So you want to keep as many as your own guys probably as

you can. And they just didn't want to expose those guys out there because it was being streamed Bill Jones calling everything. So that's why there was no numbers on those jerseys, right, because Bill would have been all over all eighty of those guys that were playing, and they didn't want to help out the opposition. Bill, Bill, please don't help out the opposition. Well, yeah, I made sure

it's so accurate in everything that you do. This is a time that we need you to just treat And by the way, Sean mcvain, he admitted in his press conference, I think it was yesterday that he did watch the Cowboys scrimmage and reporters asked him about it, and he said, they didn't show anything, and so mission accomplished. As far as the Cowboys archid. I know fans out there, you had to be aggravating because you're thinking you're gonna be able to watch a scrimmage. I never advertised it myself

that we're going to be seeing a scrimmage. It was Cowboys night. This is Cowboys night. This is your chance to watch Cowboys on the sideline. And the whole reason for that was answered in Sean mcvay's press conference yesterday in La where he said, yeah, I watched, so they didn't show anything. So there you go. Hey, those other teams pay attention to what we do here, and you know, we get a lot of access to do stuff on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. So yeah, you gotta watch out

for that. You know, last year, I don't know if I told you this story. I was going up from the sideline at AT and T Stadium. The Cowboys were playing Philip Alfia and their radio analyst um former wide receiver, and he got on the elevator at the same time and all I said, Hi, introduced myself. I said, I remember you when you were playing. He goes, oh, I know, I know who you are. He goes, week week, the week of the game, we tune in the Dallas Cowboys dot Com all the time. He goes, you guys are

really good. We probably get we're really good at spilling all the secrets. That's what they're telling you. Yes, so you gotta you have to tone them that down just a little bit. I gotta admit, guys, I was very uh tickled by, uh, this little cat and mouse thing that we have going here. I mean here, we've got this dire situation here in this country, and that lays out certain rules for different teams to abide by, and here they are trying to pull pull the wool over

everyone's eyes. And this is this is just gamesmanship at its finest. This is what I'm seeing right now. So we don't care what the heck is going on off the field at this point, as much as you know it is pretty serious. Let's see how we can sneak some plays in. Let's see how we can sneak some practices in and still be as undercover as possible while being right out front with everyone. I think that's pretty dog on ballsy coming from all the different coaches. McCarthy

is one of them. I had spags. I'm sure he didn't do it, but I thought it would be interesting to see what teams that had new systems coming in if they played the same cat and mouse game that McCarthy did for the Cowboys. Sou Spags. I'm sure you didn't do it, right, I didn't. I didn't have time. When I'll guaranteed you sat on your glasses, you couldn't see anything. That's true too, that there was a lot of teams that probably didn't have scrimmages that they televised

live like the Cowboys did. Because here you have to you know, in a normal season, of course, the preseason would be an opportunity for not only new teams with new systems to come in and practice it doing other other squads. That's the good thing, but it also you gotta show your hand when you do something like that. Well, of course, now you don't have to show your hand. I put it like this. You could show your hand, but you just show the back of your cards. You're

not showing the front of your cards. Is that how they're doing it? Well? Yeah, think about this. Ever, since you know all about paranoia, right, because at the old practice facility with the hotel at the end of one of the of the field their days in right, Yeah, Texts would buy out the second floors because he was worried the Redskins during Redskins Week would have a spy

up there renting a room to watch practice. And I believe that's true because when you start thinking about George Allen, the late George Allen, former coach of the Redskins, when you think about all the antics that he pulled while the Cowboys and Redskins were having their rivalry, I could see him doing something like that. Do you ever have to take a cold shower in RFK after a game? Uh? No, I have not, no, thank goodness for that. That's old

school walk. Garrison told me the story. They came in and after the game and the shower the hot water was turned off, and he said, I ain't getting in there, and he just kind of got on the plane with all the grime on him, probably in his uniform. If you know wal Garrison, you know about spying on other teams or whatever. There's all sorts of different ways that

teams can get information about other teams. And Rich Dalrymple prior to the Cowboys night broadcast the other night reminded me of a story from a Super Bowl twenty eight Jimmy Johnson. You know, that was a year that the Cowboys. There was there was only one week in between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, so the Cowboys

went straight to Atlanta for that week. And so Jimmy one day that week, Jimmy Johnson was in his hotel room, probably drinking a Heideken or two, and it had his TV on, and there was a television report. There was a TV reporter who was broadcasting from the Bills practice site. You could see the Buffalo Bills practicing in the background there, and so Jimmy starts looking a little bit closer at the screen, looking not paying any attention to the reporter

or what he was saying. He was looking at what's going on with the Bills back there, and he sees he sees them run a shovel pass to Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelly with a shovel pass to Thurman Thomas. And he said, whoa wait a second, what is that? So we called Butch Davis up and said, Butch, in all our work on the Bills. Have we seen them throw a shovel pass? And but no, they have not run a shovel pass. There's no time this season they run

a shovel pass. Okay, So fast forward to Sunday in the Super Bowl, and the Bills run a shovel pass and James Washington was right there to put a stop to it. They had a emmlar played later in the game that wasn't a shovel pass, but it was a similar concept and Leon let force to fumble, James Washington picked it up and ran fifty yards for a touchdown. Two huge plays in the game. But that shovel passed was something that they picked up just off a local

TV broadcast. Well, Bill, let me let me tell you opposite paranoia of the Bills. So when they were in the Super Bowl the year before playing the Cowboys, it was in Minneapolis, right, and they were at they were practicing indoors at the University of Minnesota, and I was the pool reporter for the AFC team, so I got to watch practice and just basically right a sanitized report. Well, the Bill Polian and their security guys saw the lights come on on the second floor where the Minnesota coaches

offices were and they went crazy. They went and found somebody to go up there, closed those curtains and turned the lights on, right, And I was like, oh wow. So the next year they're practicing at Southern Cow and the Southern Cow h football field they were practicing on at the end of it was the campus pool. They wanted them to shut down the high dive because they were worried that somebody would have been spying on the practice, right, And so I'm watching this and they're I mean, they're

going nuts. And then the next thing I hear is there was a dormitory, a high rise dorm and there were students out on the balcony that overlooked the field. They wanted them to shut down that dormitory, don't let them out there. And I'm thinking, you ought to be a little bit more worried about stopping Emmett Smith and worrying about the students that probably don't even have any idea what's going on on that field. And I was right, because they didn't worry about him at Smith or Troy Well.

I mean, you know, you talk about the shovel pass, you talk about all of that. It didn't make much of a difference in the game. I mean that those were big plays Bill, as you mentioned they turned out to be, but to me, those were just uh stack plays. By that time, the game was pretty much all the way out of hand. Well no, no, this is the

game in Atlanta. This was the close one in Atlanta. Interesting, Yeah, yeah, so uh and so yeah, the Bills needed to be more concerned about that TV reporter doing a stand up. Could you imagine someone on the high dive with a with a big camera on his shoulder. Yeah, tried to get and you know how laid back people in La are. I'm sure those students had no clue what was going on,

but I was. I was interested in watching it, right, And I remember, you know, they they practiced pretty light, and I know Jimmy had him knocking heads over at UCLA, and so the I want to say it was the Thursday practice, maybe it was Friday, and they weren't in pads, and I looked out on the field and Shane Conline made made eye contact with the coaches on the sideline and it was like the practice was running a little long, and he huld up his wrists like this, and he

had a watch on and it was like, Hey, time to quit, and I'm going this team's in trouble. Oh yeah, you know, it's not like they hadn't lost one Super Bowl already. Yeah. No, they hadn't lost two already. They were on their way to two more. All right, it's getting started here on mix shots when we come back in a moment, Just how full will Dak Prescott's plate be this season? Hey, they're Cowboys fans. With Type Cleaners at Home pickup and Delivery, cleaning your clothes has never

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choosing one of the Star District restaurants. For information on delivery, take out, curbside, pickup, and dine in availability, visit the Star District dot com. As we continue here on Mick Shottsville Jones with Mickey Spagnola and Everson Walls as Yes, the Cowboys. What are is it now? Ten days away? Yep? With September third, September thirteenth the opener against the Rams and that Brand News Stadium in LA and then the home opener the following week against the Atlanta Falcons. It

will be here before you know it. And basically, Mickey, they've started preparations on the on the Rams and Mike McCarthy with his press conference at seven fifteen sharp this morning, I know you were tuned in for it, weren't you, Mickey. I was sitting there and watching it as no matter you were sitting there there, So this was this was like an in person that was well, no, it wasn't in person, but we no, no, but it was in the press conference room, Yeah, it was. Orders were there.

They've got a new system now. Instead of just calling into the WebEx number, Uh, they've set up a spot in the socially distance in the press conference room with a big screen and I believe Mike can see us and we can see him, and uh, it's a little bit more organized, so everybody's not talking over each other trying to ask a question. So on a regular basis during the season, are they're gonna be seven fifteen ams? No? I think I hope to god this was the last one.

That's a that's an early wake up call to you know, I guess you could watch it at all. In my time it's over. You got to rush here for the start of the eight o'clock practice. So I usually get here around ten to seven, seven o'clock in the morning, which means with a half hour commute, I was getting up at five in the morning to get here, and uh, we thought we were done with them, but he surprised

us and had another early one today. But I think normally they're gonna practice at I think ten thirty, eleven thirty, whatever the cowboys were doing last year, I think eleven fifteen. Uh, those will be the normal morning practices. And you know he likes to go outside, so uh, they rushed to get that field that had a fungus on it out of there and laid down an entirely new sided field like in two days and it's ready to go, and

they practiced on it today. They practice outside, and yes, okay, absolutely, this is all. This is all why the rain was happening and all of that. Uh, they welcomed the rain the other day because it that new side was sitting there. I guarantee those blades of grass were clapping. Get all that free water like that road. You know, there's a reason there was a hole in a root. Yeah, for that nice grass, that nice natural grass we had on

the on the on the floor. Yeah. Good Lord knew that that that sod was in and needed some rain. And so the brain's pain this week. Well, here's what I want to know. Here's what I love. I want to know here about you and uh Jerry Spags. I mean, you guys were like squeezing each other's You guys were squeezing each other's apples before the social distancing and everything

was going on. Now more intimate readings. I'm glad you were reading because you know everybody, uh, and Jerry talks about all the protocols they go through, and you know the testing that people have to do here that are around the team, uh each morning when they come into the facility, if you're in Tier one or Tier two, and then masking up right, and so when we and Bill knows, we walk around the hallways here, uh, you know,

you gotta have your mask on. So I was getting in the elevator the other day and the door uh it was like good, oh, hold on, it was Jerry and he was getting in the elevator at the same time, and he had his mask on. So don't think just because you own the place, you don't have to, uh, you know, go through all the protocols. And we stood on each side of the elevator because the sign said no more than two people in the same elevator. And so Jerry and I wrote up together but he had

his mask on. Okay, Nicky, what you make out of what Dak Prescott had to say at his press conference yesterday. In particular, he wrote about it in nick shots the fuller plate that appears that he may have had to see. Yeah, everybody see everybody keeps asking about the changes in the offense, and you know, every time Dak or Mike answers the questions, it's like, you know, we're gonna use a lot of what we did last year, and this just kind of add to it, right, and and why not? The offense

was pretty good. The problem was, Yeah, it was pretty good move the football. They just didn't score enough when they got in the red zone, right. But it was the number one offense in the National Football League, the number two passing offense. So when Dak was trying to explain what might be different, his explanation was, I'm getting more control of what we're doing on the field, like in two minute drills, you know, calling my own plays during the game, getting the plays that I really like,

and coordinating with Kellen Moore. And it sounds like Mike McCarthy's kind of encouraging that to give him a little bit more authority, and you know, we forget about it because it seems like he just got here yesterday. This is this fifth season. You know, this is a guy and has started what every game for four years. So we're talking about an experienced quarterback, and so they're giving them sounds like more leeway in decision making in game and on the field when it comes to play calling.

You know. And we can talk about Dak and the offense and all the excellence that we had seen last year and even some of the mistakes that we were able to view, but let's just face it, guys, and we always try and build up a particular facet of the game or a particular individual in a ball game. We dwell on either their greatness or we dwell on their failures. What I learned all while I played is that I don't care how great you are as a quarterback.

You're going to have to have some help. And if you don't have help, you're going to be great all by yourself, and that does not lead to wins. One thing that you saw last year Tom Brady average season, but he played with a great defense and that's what got them as far as they went. Anytime you see a team that is coached well with very few penalties. They might have a culture of being a smart team

that doesn't shoot themselves in the foot. You can also look at other teams out there that have all three fasties of the game working together offense, defense, and special teams. How many times have you seen special teams in the critical part of a game, especially during the playoffs and

whether the games really have significance. Have you seen that special teams come in and put your offense in a great position or pull them out of the hole that they could have been in, whether it's for a great return or whether it's for a block, something that makes a difference in the ballgame. Of course, I'm always harping on turnovers. These are things that the greatest quarterbacks in the NFL have been privy to in regards to their

teammates and other fascists of the game. So while we're looking at what Dak is doing, we must look at other fastest of the game. We're talking about the practice teams and what you're able to keep. We're also talking about probably starters playing special teams. Because at this point we've shown that our special teams has not except for the kicking game. Our special teams has not really shown up for us, and we leave it to our offense to make eighty yard drives every time we get the ball.

There has to be a moment in this organization to where we realize that there are other fastest of the game and they all go together as three, they all go together, and if we're going to go to a championship, we can't just depend on our offense. We've seen that

we must. We must have other fastest of the game working for us this season, because that's the only way you're gonna get past the Baltimore's, the Rams, the forty nine ers, all those teams are that are well coached through every asset of the game, every fast of the game. We got to have that. We must, you know, Nicki, one of the things things that I noticed in the in the practice on Sunday was in the two minute drill.

It seemed to be pretty crisp, and uh, it's what have you noticed throughout your couple of weeks of watching the team practice in terms of a two minute drill? You know what? It's almost like the entire practice is a two minute drill. Because Mike McCarthy's big on tempo in practice, not only tempo of running a lot of plays, but I think it also has a conditioning aspect to it that there's not a lot of standing around, there's not a lot of a lot of times, there's not

a lot of huddles. You know, they're running different guys in and out. So from from a two minute standpoint, yeah, they do practice that, but they also the tempo and practice picks up greatly. Uh. And it's like sometimes I catch myself writing down, Oh, they're in two minute. Well they're not really in two minute, but uh, it's it's the pace that they go at. But yeah, and the thing that stuck out to me from Sunday was the fact that he's got a lot of trust in Blake Jarwin,

his tight end. He'll go to him in those two minute drills and they're not a little dump off passes. You know, He's putting them in in situations to get down the field. And I don't think that's any secret because that was his strength last year when he was catching passes. But I thought that was a good sign that Dak has confidence in his tight end who's trying to, you know, make his way in the NFL. Uh. You know. The other thing is is using Zeke and that's no surprise.

He caught fifty some passes last year. You know. I keep hearing people say, well, you know Zeke's deal was when he does his interview, It's like, yeah, I've been practicing catching the ball more. I've been practicing lining up and doing it as a wide receiver a little bit more. And it's like, oh, they're gonna start throwing the ball. Well, they he caught fifty some passes last year. It's not like they Nordom, and a lot of them weren't dump off passes. So the versatility to this offense I think

helps Bill during a two minute drill. And these guys seem to understand that when they catch the ball on the sideline, you get out of bounds right. You don't turn up field like someone did the year before or two years before. Well, one thing you have to realize is the Cowboys an't gonna need that change of pace Bill and Spats. They're gonna need that change of pace.

There are times last year where even though the offense is playing great, there were times when we fell into a little bit of a low we just kept trying to do the same thing over and over again, falling behind and then having to come into the second half with all of these passes and the up tempo offense. There's a time to do that in the first half

as well. I think what coach McCarthy is doing, he's trying to work on his tempo, controlling the game and not letting the opposition's defense control the tempo of the game for our offense. I think that's a really good

UH practice UH demonstration. I think it's also good that the players and UH offensively, especially on the same page with that, because they're gonna be some some very hectic moments out there to where we can't let the uh that activity, that upbeating activity mess with our thinking process. So if they could be, if they could be on the same page while they're in a chaotic situation, to me, that's gonna be that's gonna bode well for us offensively.

You know. The other thing I noticed building practices, especially in the individual drills with the quarterbacks. UM they do a lot of drills like throwing the ball off schedule, and what I mean is it's not just taking a five step drop or seven step drop or catching it and shotgun and throwing the ball. They've got them doing these drills, moving in and outside pylons and cones, moving with their feet and then having to throw the ball on the run. And it just kind of it made

me think back to Aaron Rodgers. How good he was at that? Right, Yeah, how good he was at that? And maybe you can practice that. And that's one of those drills where they they throw into that net and there's there's uh three rectangular uttle pockets in there, and you're supposed to throw and hit in the pocket, and

you score points the more you throw in there. And uh, he's got him moving in and out, in and out over over over, and then throw the ball on the run and and and this day and age, you've got to be able to throw the ball with your arm at different slots, uh and and off your wrong foot sometimes. And so that's one of the drills I've noticed that I thought was very interesting. You know, it's not by accident that Aaron Rodgers has been able to make those

offer platform grows in different armings and so forth. It's something that you that he's practiced in the years. And there's probably some ideas that McCarthy got in coaching Aaron Rodgers that he added to his practice regiment to be able to get hit work in those types of situations. Yeah, and I haven't seen them throw those sky high hill marys. No, we don't want to get into that situation hopefully. Yeah, right,

only at the end of the half. But you can imagine if if the Cowboys are going to play with with more tempo on offense, there has to be more on Dak's play because there's gonna be decisions that he's gonna have to make on the run. Oh. Absolutely. And you know the versatility they have even with their wide receivers um, you know, you can do a lot of different things, same thing with your tight end. So yeah,

I think the versatility of this offense may increase. You know, they're not running fancy plays and not a lot of gimmicks. You know, there's only and Everson knows this, there's only so many pass patterns you can run, right, That's true. And it's like you're not reinventing the wheel. It's just

a matter of timing and how you call it. And he's relying on Kellen Moore more and more and so I think that's interesting, but he also didn't want to have to change, especially without an offseason on the field, without preseason games. You know, if you can keep some continuity between your quarterback and the offensive coordinator, I think

that's huge. And as McCarthy talked about this morning, I mean, he came into his interview with the Cowboys with the feeling that he wanted to do to keep Kellen Moore as as the offensive coordinator. I mean, obviously he had studied the Cowboys intently throughout less season and knew a lot about Kellen Moore even before he met him. And I thought that was interesting this morning and was talking about, Yea,

he was my guy. He was one of the first decisions I made was keeping him as the offensive coordinator. As a matter of fact, at his first interview, when he was asked about, uh, you know, keeping Kellen Moore, he pointed out that he goes I was on to him before I even got this job, and he said I had made my mind up that if I went somewhere else and he was available, I wanted to bring him on. I liked what he was doing. But here's

I would pay for this to happen. Because what was the big criticism of the Cowboys last year that the first play of the game or the first down they would hand off to Zeke. If the first play of the year this year is a handoff to Zeke, I will roll on the floor laughing. Okay, what will what will you do again? What I said, I will roll on the floor laughing, like that was the problem this That's why that was the problem with the offense, right,

because they handed the ball to Zeke too much. And now the question is, well, with all these receivers and throwing the ball, will Zeke ever touched the ball? And it's like, this is the best running back Mike McCarthy's ever had. All right, when we come back here on Mick Shots, Mickey, I want you to cut down this roster for me, okay. And there's there's much more to get to as well. Here's all my notes right now if you want to see them. But from SPADs, you

have no notes on what I asked you to do. Yeah, yeah, to know what the other four teams with new coaches were doing in the off season, SPADs is like, yeah, I'll get right on that walls. Yeah, thanks a lot time.

Time just flies for some reason I don't understand. So the question again, ever since this one, we wanted to find out if all of the other teams that had new systems and new coaches coming in to this year if they were playing the same cat and mouse games that coach McCarthy did in regards to no numbers and no names on the back of the Josephs. All right, I was told by our crack producer, Chris Bean that we were not going to break just yet, and so

Chris let me know when we are going to. We are now okay, all right, so we're back with more mix shots in just a moment. Hey, they're cowboys fans with Tight Cleaners at Home pickup and delivery, cleaning your clothes has never been more convenient. Simply sign up at your local store, set out your dirty clothes, and one of our Tight Cleaners professionals will come directly to your

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Back back to mixed shots. Get the ultimate fan experience for the ultimate Cowboys fan Joined Dallas Cowboys United and get an exclusive DC you fan pack and member benefits. Membership started only twenty dollars. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com slash United to join today. As we continue here on Mick Shodd's final segment, I'm monitoring periscope tweet at me

at CBS eleven, Bill Jones. If you have any questions for Mickey and Everson here and Mickey you write about the decisions, the roster decisions that have to be made here over the course of the next forty eight hours and you don't expect very many surprises, do you. I really don't. I kind of went through it, and you know, it just seems like when you look at contracts and the guarantees on some of them, I don't see where you would see a huge surprise. We talked about the

wide receivers. We gave you five, would they keep six? You know, I don't know if, and we talked about who that might be. You figured they're going to keep three tight ends, right, and that's pretty cut and dry between Darwin Schultz and Blake Bell. Don't think anybody's gonna argue there. Quarterbacks? Would you keep three because de Nucis looked pretty good? They cut Clayton Thorson already, or so

you keep three quarters? And I think the decision maybe at running back, we know they're going to keep two. Do they want a third? You know, those two guys have looked good, but I imagine every team has a guy like that on their roster right now. Between Anderson and Donald, you know, practice squad guys. Do you want a fullback? Maybe you want another full tight end instead of a fullback. Ola Nlua has looked good when he's

gotten opportunities, but there haven't been that many opportunities. And then when you look at the offensive line, do you keep ten? You know, I can get to nine. I don't know who that tenth guy might be. So those are some of the decision offensively that you you you certainly would have to consider, okay. And then you look

at the defensive side of the ball. Uh ten defensive lineman, Yeah, I think and I think I think like nine of them uh seem to be uh you know, okay, the tenth one, I think you might have to decide between uh your was it the fifth round pick Bradley and I uh and then last year's sixth round pick Joe Jackson. Maybe you can't have both of those. Maybe you just get one of them. And really, Michael, let's wreak it down. Let's break it down inside guys, outside, guys on the

defensive line. Okay, inside, obviously you've got done Terry Poe and Antoine Woods, Tristan Hill, Neville Gallimore. There's four, right, there is Tyrone Crawford. What's he can He's I think he's an either Okay, so he's either or right. So there's five guys who can play inside right there? Right? Four that are legit or for sure inside a fifth who was a versatile, all right defensive end with DeMarcus Lawrence, Everson, Griffin,

Alden Smith. There's three right there. You mentioned Joe Jackson, Dorian's Armstrong grew up to five there, so I think four for sure with Armstrong and then and then maybe either And that's why I didn't even mention any the so An I or Jackson. Yeah, I think that's what it probably comes down to there. So I just listed eleven defensive lineman right there right, and you could go long there, you go short somewhere else. You know, they only have seven linebackers on the roster right now. You

could make a case to keep them all. I think Francis Bernard, the rookie free agent, has had a nice camp. Can you get him on the practice squad? I don't know. And then what's going to happen with Sean Lee who is yet to practice? You know, does he go on an injured list to start the season, And then you could qualify keeping h Francis Bernard for sure if that happens, or what if Sean Lee is ready to go and they just uh and I love it. Bubble wrapped him

another term we used to do. It's no longer trevl lit here in twenty twenty. So there's there's that that but to me that the linebacker thing too. I mean,

that's that's a no brainer right there. And then you get to the DVS and I think if you look at the numbers we just talked about with three special teams guys, you could qualify keeping ten defensive backs and this one might be more up in the air than the other decisions we talked about if you think about it, and we can go through that bill if you want, Yeah, let's go. Let's have at it. So numerically, I'll just

go from the top. You've got Darien Thompson at safe, d chitabey O Woozier, Xavier Woods, Jordan Lewis, Haha, Clinton Dix, Darryl Worley who can play safety or can play some cornerback, and he had been in the slot quite a bit. Uh C. J. Goodwin had been a corner that you used basically last year as a special team's guy. Anthony Brown, Trayvon Diggs and then Donovan Wilson from last year. You liked them at Reggie Robinson you drafted in the fourth round.

I don't know right there. Yeah, that gives you eleven already. And I had even brought up Chris Chris Westry or

Deonte Burton who has shown up at times too. So, uh, you know, if they go along at a position in short, somewhere else, it might be in the secondary, just because I think they've got a bunch of guys there that they would like to hang on to, especially for like we talked about the special teams purposes, it seems like they're trying to get a lot of starters and a lot of experience on special teams or any linebackers being considered to be kept on the team simply because of

special team's abilities on special teams potential, because it'd be great to have some of those studs on kick coverage and Putmton and things of that nature. Yeah, if Bernard makes the team or makes the you know, forty six or forty eight, certainly he's a special teamer. Joe Thomas plays special teams. Justin March Justin March is a special teamer, and then Luke Gifford would play there. Although he's still not practicing us. He's been nursing an injury and just

kind of working on the cords. So and then other than your two starters Jalen Smith and Layton Vanderish, probably not on special teams. So those other five guys or four guys, because they're not going to put Shawn Lee out there. We're basically your special teams guys. So you might go, you know, you might instead of six linebackers,

you might keep seven, you know. And then there's also you know, the what happens if somebody releases a guy and you go, oh, I would really rather have him than who I got, and and so there's always that possibility. But those things don't take place, I think until well, they'll clear waivers, like I said, but it depends on when they release them. Now it regards to excuse me, Bill,

it was glards to Thompson. Now, that was a dB that was making all the plays last year, making the interceptions and and and practice and things of that nature. Am I am I speaking correctly? No, it was Donovan Wilson. How's he looking this year? Yeah, he's he hasn't got as many opportunities to to to play with the front line guys. Uh, And so you know, but I don't think they're ready to give up on him. I mean, he is a safety. Now they've got other guys that

you know, can play safety, you know the versatility. Uh so can he play special teams? And when he was on the forty six man roster last year, he was a special teamer and he was pretty darn good too, So I would think that that gives him an inside track to remaining on this roster. Okay, when they when the Cowboys are scanning the waiver wire, Mickey, what position are you looking at if you're scanning the waiver wire for this Cowboys team? Which is the position you're really

looking hard at? Offensive line? Because specifically offensive tackle tackle? Right, because other than Cam Irving, who has versatility, I mean he's actually played guard, uh tackle and has had his hand on the football playing center. But after him, uh and with Mitch Hyatt, uh gonna have knee surgery and

we'll see what happened with Brandon Knight. I don't know that they have another guy as a tackle that they would want to keep on the on the roster as a backup, or even a guy that's a um, you know, developmental guy, because um, if you if you look at it. I mean Terrence Steele, I mean he's one of the few guys left that's played tackle. Um okay, and then they also have Isaac Alcorn or Mexico Mexico. Yeah, there's the international player. All right, let me ask you this

because we all it's it's basically on this day. This is this is be the day of the last preseason game, a Thursday. It seems like every other year the Cowboys are making a trade that's a quote unquote minor trade on the around the last preseason game. As you get closer to cut down day. All right, you're say there's a young player offensive tackle on a team that you're

interested in. You want to were you if you were to work a trade and you're trading from another position group work at the Cowboys work a trade like that. They said, from that defensive line depth that that you have where you might be able to swing something. Maybe the defensive backfield, it does look a little crowded if somebody needed something there. You know, for the defensive line that we mentioned, the guys that you might trade didn't

really wouldn't have played that much. When you're talking to Joe Jackson, right, you know, one of the interesting guys is seventy nine justin Hamilton. He has shown up at times in practice, but again I don't know. You know what you could get for a guy like that, and he may be a perfect guy, a perfect candidate for

your practice squad. Did you may not want to, you know, And as you say, if you if you think you have excess and you don't think you're gonna get much for him, you you might roll the dice and say, well, I can get him on the practice squad and I can keep him. I'll tell you what, guys, I still have nightmares, and I'm sure that Dad Prescott does as well. Of the Atlanta Falcons game, when his backside was never protected.

We allowed a defensive lineman for the Falcons to make the Pro Bowl in one game he made his career. I don't think he's gotten four sacks since he played against the Cowboys. So we understand how important that tackle position is. Would we let's say, God forbid, Thaylon goes down again? You know we're looking at some problems. I think the problem in the Falcons game was we didn't make the adjustment. That coaching staff did not make the adjustment I think it would be different here with this

coaching staff. But at the same time, that's gonna hurt you having to relieve other areas just so that you can show up the protection of your quarterbacks backside. You think they would be willing to go as as deep as uh into our wide receive a position if we had to give up something that we would go as deep as a way to receive a position, because that's so attractive for us, you know, And I get that, Everson,

but think about this. If you've got a good backup offensive tackle, you probably don't have two of them, and I think those are the that position there is so hard to find. And your your points good though, because think about this. So, say you know Collins has had some back issues that have flared up. They flared up last year, they flared up in the offseason. Say he's not ready to go for the first game, Okay, so

Cam Irving's starting. Now, who's your backup tackle? And and and when you look at the list, it's like, WHOA, I don't know, Maybe one of those guards have to move out and help me out at tackle. Brandon Night started a game last year, right, But as I said earlier, that he looked like he might have done a little something to himself. Today, Mitch Hyatt's gone. So the only tackles are Cody Cody Whitman is the only other tackle. And why are not White Miller? They cut him? Steel,

Tarrant Steele. Those are the only two other tackles that are healthy that are on this roster. So I would keep my eyes open for that. But chances are people aren't given up on a developmental tackle because they're so hard to find. Yeah, every team's got the same problem at offensive tackle. So Micky, what do we what's our schedule next week? Next week? I think we're supposed to start a daily podcast Tuesday. Uh, and right now it's

at one thirty, and that might be subject to change. Uh, there's all the all the podcasts go daily starting Tuesday, starting Tuesday, right, we're uh, we got other stuff to do to labor on Labor Day, right, Yeah, So can you believe it, Mike, Mike McCarthy said it today. I can't believe Labor Day's already here. Ach. It just goes to show the tunnel vision also that that coaches have that oh wow, it's Labor Day. And one other interesting thing I saw I saw the other day in practice

when they went inside at the Ford Center. Uh. They the coaches were practicing. They were up in their coaches booth with the headsets on when they went into some of the team drill, and especially when you brought up the two minute drill, they were up there corresponding down to So Mike Nolan looks like he's going to be in the coach's box. I think he likes being up there. Kellen Moore was practice the other night, right, and Kellen Moore likes it to be on the sideline. But they

were practicing. Uh. And it was interesting to watch the operation in there because there had to be in my mind, I'm counting five guys on the front row and three on the back, and they all had some input on what was going on. It was it was quite enlightening that what goes on in that coach's booth. All right, Well, we hit the ground running on Tuesday with mix shots and it can't get here, fat well, I can we

We can wait until Tuesday. We can enjoy one long labor day weekend, stay safe, and then we hit the ground running on Tuesday. And I can't wait for the start of this season, and I and next week we've got our bold predictions that we will make for this season. So so Everson, I know you'll have some bold predictions for this season. Ready, I'm ready. We need to hit on some bold predictions every day. Next week, Everson, you need to bone up on those rams too. I want to.

I'll get right on that spags, all right. I want you to study Van Jefferson, a rookie out of Florida, Okay, wide receiver for the rang Okay. That does it for Mick Shots for this week, and we will see you again on Tuesday for more Mick Shots. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club