Mick Shots: The Pregame Show

Everson Walls, at Mickey Spagnola and Everson. Look at Mickey. You can tell it's game week. Mickey has time. Oh my goodness, I word him. If I was single, I wore it just for you guys. Has I think to do what TV shows I have to do? Right? Well, you know, almost late and we were going to dock your pay. Yeah, well I was almost showing up at one thirty until William goes, there's a show with your name on it. You need to be in there, right all right? Well I see ever since dressed up too,

by the way, yes, thank you very much. Yeah, look at that boyish looking how that in the HBCU Hall of Fame. Sure, you know, just kind of supporting this weekend. Thanks for How did it go? It went so well, man, I had so much fun until they started. They showed me a picture of the last class of Hall of Famers, and see, I've never watched the stuff because you know, me and my dad made this this promise each other.

I got pissed because at Water, oh you mean the NFL, not the I thought you were talking about Water Black College Hall of Fame. Oh, I know at Water. Come on, man, this is killing me. And I got depressed right away. And John Lynch, oh see I wasn't gonna say that, but dude, John Lynch, come on man, what's going on? Man? What's what I need to do? What's that to do? Instead of you or Darren Woodson give me a break

on that me or Darren Woodson. I wouldn't even think about Darren because I'm selfish of course, though, of course Darren Woodson. John Lynch over Darren Woodson, I don't even think about that. Yeah, that's amazing, man, And I'm just getting I guess I just got. I walked out. There was at the pro shop where they had the T shirts and all the guys names. Yeah, like got the pictures and I had no idea. So I'm looking at it, and here's Robert Bazil, who had just made it after

being dogged out for decades. He found they probably put him in and so you know, he was up when I was up for the one time. And so he made it along with Cramer, which was amazing because if you're not gonna make it, then those two guys were long overdue. So he comes up to me, Hey, man, calm down, got patting me on my chance, you know, calm down, man, I'm sitting up there. All I can say was that water. That's all I can say. That

sound like I was ordered to drink or something. But at least tell me you went into the section where your picture was on the wall. Oh I've seen that, Okay, yeah, no, I've always I was waiting for your interview. I was watching the game. No no, I didn't make the game. No you didn't. I left the game. EARL got participated everything up until the l. That's that's that's where you're making yours. You gotta get as much attention as possible. I did. It worked for Lynn Swann. No, it word

for word, dramatically. Yeah, going way back then Swan. He's a sideline reporter. He keeps everybody just top of mind. Everybody. Hey, I did the interview on the NFL Network leading up to the game, which was hilarious. I cracked on Doug William's new hair. I don't know how they hit. You get that old and you got twist in your head all of a sudden. So I had to crack on him in that regard. But now really had a great time, and I have to give a shout out to Doug

and James Shack Harris. These guys have kept this thing going man to where HBCU was a really getting the love that we would hope that they were gotten way back then. I mean we're talking about thirty years, maybe even forty years of being ignored. I know, a Grambling we never got a look from a scout after Doug Williams left in nineteen seventy seven, and that was it. We were like, no one got drafted from Gramling, no

one got signed. It was just pretty pretty average. I think we had a couple of guys that got signed late round. But you know, when you look at those three years after that when I was there, after Doug left, we were a good squad and we got hardly got any recognition, and Grambling wasn't the only team with a flagship of black college football. And for us to get that treatment, then you you wouldn't think what would happened to FAM? You or Jackson State are also great program.

So uh, it's good to see Doug and Shack and David Baker. Yes, David Baker is the man. He can make you feel good about not making the Hall of Fame, can make you feel good about anything. And he is very good at at really being positive. You know, you could call it one way. You know, you could say that he's you know, just able to use those words to keep you at bay. But at the same time, the words that he spoke, they're truth and you can't no matter how you phrase it, truth is truth. And

I like the way that he supports us. Biggest man I think I've ever seen. He is a very large man, and and Everson would love for that very large man the film and his store. That's right. And by the way, as far as the game is concerned, that you missed, Grambling did win over tesse Eddie George's Tennessee State squad. Tall Jones but Eddie George is in his first year the head coaching. To this, we spanked and pretty good, pretty good? Yeah, yeah, sixteen to ten. Much Okay, so

how about this game? Yes, Thursday night Cowboys and the Bucks. I'm headed there on Wednesday, and Mickey, you are headed there too. Looks that way at this point. Yes, Okay, he's handed man, but he needs a place to stay. Bill. Why well, there's there's also another level in there. I had to do my little test, so well, oh okay, make sure nothing pops up on my phone. Jim Mauer. Okay you mean yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, let's hope that stuff it comes back negative. Yeah, forget the other guys.

Just I don't care about the drif or in the same room with you for an hour. Wow, that's true too, And he definitely won't be staying with you, Bill, if he does that, he's staying with me regarded. He's not going anyway. I'm going yeah, all right. So we've had an active day already. The head coach met with the

media this morning. The team has virtual player availability later this afternoon, and Jerry and Stephen were over at the stadium with the debut of Miller lighthouse just moments ago speaking with the media, I'm sure, and so lots of talk about So where do you want to start, Zach Martin. That's right, That's why I wanted to start right there. Yeah, we haven't had a chance to talk about that. No, we have not, so I'm nervous. Yeah, and you know, I think I think the right term for this. It's

highly unlikely he'll be available. There is a slim chance, which Jerry is kind of latching onto with hope, that he can be asymptomatic and then test negative twice within a forty eight hour period before the game. Now is it tests negative twice within a forty eight hour well or twenty four hours every twenty four hours so to four hours. So yeah, he could be Okay, we could

take it. He would have to be, this is the way Jerry's looking out, Okay, But he could be asymptomatic for two days, like like yesterday and today or today and tomorrow until eight am tomorrow. Let's say, okay, eight am Wednesday, he does a test that's negative, right, he can also he can then do a test at eight oh one am Thursday, right, and be negative, and then he gets on a plane and goes to Tampa and

Air Jerry comes to picks him up. Damn right, right, And somebody, somebody, somebody was talking to I heard him saying. Today he goes, well, the team's leaving on Wednesday, and it seems like it would be impossible for him to you know, and it's like Air Jerry. Yeah, yeah, Air Jerry can pick him up at seeing the afternoon, have him there ready dressed for an eight o'clock start eight am. The deadline is three pm basically on Thursday, for his second day. Or they can fly him there, keep him

somewhere else, snatch him. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. So I wouldn't even wait for the test. He's gonna be there, just test, test there, right, it doesn't matter where you test. So that's that's the slim chance that is available. Uh. And I think that's why Mike McCarthy keeps saying, you know, it's as close to know as close can be. Uh. And I understand what he's saying. Now. The other thing is is, you know, it's it's good that there's a mixed message out there. They don't have

to tell Tampa Bay what's going on. Right, there's no need to do that, although the COVID list is official on the on the NFL wire. Uh So, yeah, so that's where Zach is and his replacement, Connor McGovern would go in and play guard. And you know, here's the thing that I did myself a little search Bill Okay, and I saw that in preseason games he played in all four. He told him one hundred and thirty two snaps.

I'll guarantee you his one hundred and thirty two snaps are more than anybody else on that offensive line, maybe be Idish. I haven't checked his out right. He had one hundred and thirty two snaps, ninety of them in the three games he started, so it wasn't like it was scrub time, right. He was playing against starters. And he did start in the first game, the second game, and the fourth game, so that's a lot of snaps. So that's why I think Mike said. Mike said, he's

clearly Connor is ready to go. So did he go up against Damikong Sue in any of those games? I don't think so, And I understand that that part of it. The other part, from an experience standpoint, he did start eight games last year so it's not like sending tern Steal out there as an undrafted rookie like they did

at tackle last year. And they also played against Jacksonville. Correct, Uh, yes, Jacksonville, and they had that Jacksonville they had front four front the first year their defense was in there, right, yes, so yes, and he played. He started the last eight games last year, so you know he's and he was a third round pick. They were big on him. Now.

I'm not saying he's four time All Pro Zach Martin Area, but it's at least a guy that has some experience, unlike last year when they just threw a guy in there to the Wolves. Uh so yeah. Um, you know, he's looked good in the preseason. I thought, um, so he he'll have his hands full, Tyler Biadas, he'll have his hands full. Connor Williams will have his hands here. And it's hard. And you tell me, it's hard to help the guys inside, right, you can help the tackles,

it's hard to help the guide. You. You might be able to help one side, right, yes, but because help, you got to overload to do something right, you have to overload to protect. So if you overload one way you're gonna be weak the other way, just mad And even if you use two tight ends, chances are the tight ends helping the tackle. I don't know that you want to turn the tight end loose on a defensive

end while the tackle helps inside. And not to mention that that hurts you on your pass game as well. Right now you're limited with the different wide receivers that you have. Yeah, you're less one, you're less one wide receiver. And now you've got a tight end, which you've got great tight ends, but they're not Gallop or CD yeah or And that's that's one of the concerning things against

this Tampa Bay defense, Todd Bowles defense. If you look at Devin White, one of their inside linebackers, he may be one of the best inside linebackers in the league. Not just in Yeah, he was the fifth pick in the draft in two thousand nineteen and these are his

numbers from last year. Okay, we talk all this stuff about Tom Brady and the Bucks offense, Well, their defense was a top five defense in the league last year and Devin White, from an inside linebacker position, had nine sacks last year, fifteen tackles for lost, sixteen quarterback pressures the leading tackler on the team in my concern, without a Zach Martin in the middle of that Cowboys offensive line, where you're got McGovern at right guard beyond his should center,

a young player who doesn't have a full season of starting under his belt. Neither does McGovern and Connor Williams at left guard is what Todd Bowles might bring as far as some blitz packages and then thinking bit chops and then not to mention Jpp had nine and a half sacks playing on a I think it was a foot that he needed surgery. No, it was a knee

that needed surgery after the season. And then their other defensive end, Shaquille Barrett had eight sacks, Sue had six with nine quarters at night quarterback hits, by the way, and Vita Vea, who only played in five games last year, had two sacks in those five games. To do the math on what he would have done if he have played the full season, he would have had at least

six sacks. Now, the weird thing about Tampa Bay twelve games into the season they were seven and five, and then they went on a streak and won all the rest right offense the final four games, and then however many playoff company to date they had to play. They

played Washington the first round. Yeah, so they won eight consecutive games after they started off seven and five, and they had lost three out their last four to heading into December, which included like a thirty eight to three lost in New Orleans at home in the month of November, and then they lost back to back games to Kansas City and the Rams, and I think it was the where did I write it down? I think it was like the same score, twenty seven, twenty four something like that.

So yeah, I mean, just for them to make it to the Super Bowl alone, that that to me. Let you know that Todd Bowls is just another Bill Belichick. That's all he is. He's a guy that knows how to work for his offense. Your defense can work for your offense. You keep blowing it offensively, you keep on making these turnovers, you put us in a bad position defensively, we're gonna be okay, we're gonna hold it to three. We're gonna hold the damage to a minimum if we can.

And usually they do with that kind of defense, And all that does is give the defense, give the offense just another chance over and over again. We did in New York all the time. Plus Sales called his game plan in that manner. We're not gonna be through one a bunch of depasses, We're not going to be trying

a bunch of stuff. We're gonna play the field position game with a good running game, solid short passes, and let the defense hold it down for us until we're able to make our move and say, that's always been and that was the problem last year. And we can talk about the injuries on the Cowboys offense last year, the guys they were missing the offensive lineman, Dak the tight end. That didn't mean the defense had to finish

thirty first against the run. The defense could have kind of rescued held their ground right y, and they did. They did not. They failed miserably. And so what you had was, you know, let's just face it. Yeah, when you're old, we've been there, it takes you a little while to warm up a little bit. And I don't mean just for like a practice, I mean just for

a season. And as Brady started to kind of get the feel of that offense, you know, get his own feel, his defense gave him game after game right to be able to come back and not have a bunch of pressure on him to make all the plays. So eventually they started to show up offensively and the defense is like, okay, welcome to the club, to the season. So here's the other part of this, as Bill Parcels would always say,

the other side of the pancake. So if you're starting your backup at right guard, now who's the backup to the backup right because you got to have another guy. Uh. Mike McCarthy sounded encouraging that Brandon Knight would come off the COVID list in times steady to play that he would have been the immediate backup guard. And he was a high risk close contact, so they had to put him on and that's different from right right. Yeah, And if you're vaccinated then you know you can cut, you

can get off quickly, so he could. They are kind of counting on him being eligible to play, so he would be the backup guard because if he's out and Zach's out, that would leave Matt Forniac, the seventh round draft choice rookie who was a guard at Nebraska. The Cowboys moved him to center. He's kind of played both in training camp, he would be the next guy up if they didn't think either of those tackles could play guard.

I think Nasecki's played a whole bunch of things. But my injury report, the first injury report of the season, had Tie n Secki limited with a foot injury. So that guy's got to get healthy. They cannot have their backup tackle once again missing like they did last year with Cam Irving. Yeah, we got enough money to go out and buy another one. Yeah, if there's one of it.

No one leaves offensive lineman worth anything out there in free agency if you look at the cuts and look at offensive tackles or even sitting on a practice squad something right where you can go get right, Yeah, and you can protect them. But they don't. I mean they just signed a guy that's a tackle to the practice squad just for numbers to get through this way. See here, here's what's happening as far as the backup offensive lineman.

They're getting hurt around the league. Okay, they were on the fifty three man roster, and this is how you stash offensive linemen. Now you stick them because of the new rules on the injured reserve, where they just have to sit out three weeks. In fact, Tampa Bay is

a great example of it. I was looking at their roster today on their offensive line, they have one, two, three, four, five offensive linemen on injured reserve, so they don't have to stash them on their practice squad where someone can come get them. Now, they probably legitimately have injuries whatever, but that's how otherwise they would have to cut them, okay if they're or they have to keep them on

their fifty three. If they're hurt after that September first date, or if you put them on injured reserve before that, they're out for the year. Well here's how you stash guys for a seventeen game season. Where you think about this spags, they wouldn't do that in the NFL. Damn date. The reason that I I'm not changed, Tampa Bay is a lone ranger on that. Oh no, that's going on

all around the league. The reason that IR rule changed before these last two seasons now because of Covid, it was because when he was playing, they were stashing guys just the way you sounded on IR. They only had to be there four weeks, and so they can stash a guy and they're thinking, okay, in four weeks, and they were coming up with phony injuries. By the way, in four weeks, we're gonna lose somebody. You know, I can get him back on the fifty three or whatever

it was. Back then, I could remember there was a game, I want to say, late eighties. I forgot who the quarterback was. They were playing Denver, I want to say, and they told him we're gonna call a quarterback run play. You run towards our bench because the cameras facing the field, and just before you go out of bounds, you grab your hamstring and then we'll be able to keep your

rights and put you on IR. Well, the quarterback forgot that they ran the play, got to grab his hamstring, and I'm going, if he's not smart enough to remember that, I don't know if I want him on my right. But that's what was going on. And if you remember then in the early nineties, they started sending an independent physician to watch practice to make sure the guys that were on IR weren't out there working right, and and to double check the injury to make sure hated that.

Oh suretice with so really the only the only returnable guy the Cowboys have on ir right now? Is Josh Ball? He can come back after three? And he was legitimately hurt with a high ankle spring right. Uh. And they didn't have anybody else on the practice squad really until uh. They had Isaac Alcorn but he was playing guard. He wasn't playing tackle. Uh. And then they signed some guy ave Heaviante Collins Collins, thank you? Oh? Is that worried that?

So he was close? It seems like sissy Larry's brown, right, Save Jerry some money. It's the twelfth round. Take somebody close here. Give him twenty four? What the hell? Give him any number? Yeah, okay, we're gonna take a break here, we're gonna come back. I'm seeing that Tom Brady has just had his press conference, and I'm thinking Micah Parson's number maybe playing tricks on Tom Brady because he is not not just talking with the media. He is on

his soapbox right now. I'll talk about that when we come back in a moment. Honey, big news. Gary, are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, but the best deals are only for new customers, So to get a new customer deal. I changed my name to Jackie Flash. Okay, but the best smartphone deals at AT and tare for everyone, new and existing customers. That's huge. Then guess who's in the deal? Is it Jackie Flash, Jackie Flash. It's not complicated.

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yet still uninspiring. Uninspiring. They just had their Miller Life press confer the ribbon cutting for ribbon cutting, think that's what they described. I saw these in Joe Treyhan's office in PR. They had these gigantic scissors and I go, oh, that was what was for? Okay yep. So I'm I'm scanning the Twitter verse to see if Jerry has said anything to the media out there that has warranted any tweets.

I am also following Tampa Bay media this week, and Bucks quarterback Tom Brady would like to reiterate one last time how much he doesn't like the new number change rule. To quote him, I don't want to get into it. I've already talked at nauseum about it other than and I think it's a this is all in all caps stupid rule. Just to put it out there one more time, does he sound like bags? I like that old d get out. Well, there's Brady. For twenty one years in

this league. He's been able to identify the linebacker. Oh he's a fifty number. Okay, and now you got number eleven. And then there's a safety number six, Donovan Wilson, who kinda sometimes looks like a linebacker and not got to and identify these guys. And there's a fourteen that's a linebacker's right now they've given us and so he's been studying the Cowboys all preseason. And number forty was forty eight? Was it? What was turned into fourteen? And now who

knows what they're gonna be wearing on Thursday night? Even got a cornerback wearing seven. H H. Trey Von. Yeah, it's weird. Ye. So if you got your choice to change your number, would you have changed number nine? Number nine? Number nine? Ye? Yes, number nine. I think fortys of the best. So you just can't beat that. Now. If you're gonna get a number for a dB, well really it doesn't matter if you're a dB or not. I wanted twenty two. Everybody wanted twenty two. Really it was

Bob Hayes. Everybody wanted twenty two. If you were the man, you wanted twenty two. And then when door set game, all of a sudden, everybody won thirty three. Yeah. Yeah, that just depended on the player himself. I mean these are how conic players that Bob Hayes gold medal, Super Bowl. Come on, everybody wanted to be the fastiest man the world,

even though I was not close to that. Thirty three was my junior high basketball number two my high school basketball that that was from No wonder we're together at the time, lou Au Center. That's really yeah, yeah, absolutely, Larry Burden not at the time. So you mentioned Todd Bowles their defensive coordinator, former Cowboy defensive I'm not a second. He coached Grambling for a while with Doug Williams as well. Really, yes, So they've got three former Cowboy assistants. Casey Rodgers was

the Cowboys defensive line coach, and their specialist coach Chris Boniol. Wow. Yeah got himself a Super Bowl ring as a matter of fact, So good for Chris. Yeah, he was the kicking coach here. He was. He was the guy that spoke up for um hold, I'm gonna blank out the Cowboys kicker in twenty eleven when he was a rookie Um Bailey, Dan Bailey. He was the one that stuck his for Dan Bailey, saying, this guy's better than everybody else. And we've brought in there, right, he was something else.

And then poor poor Bonial. This guy was kicking serious important field goals that rookie year, and he was like, Oh, my job's on the line. That was you talk about a shooting star. M I thought he was just one of the best kickers. Yeah, and I think it was wasn't just his effectiveness, No, it was it was his style. Yes,

it was so his mental approach to it. And then unfortunately he kind of lost that that you're talking Bailey, Yeah, yeah, in fact, and here's the other thing on Dan Bailey and to your point, a Boniol having to stick his neck out for him. You remember at at and T Stadium once training camp resumed back here, he was in a slump. That was his rookie season. And there was one twenty eleven, right, twentyland was the strike year that they didn't have any preseason. Yeah, and so here no,

not preseason, they didn't have any offset off season. And so but he was in a slump and one of the practices out there he missed like three out of four field goals, and when worked two weeks away from the first game, and every everyone he had been kind of flawless. Before that, I want to scratching their head going.

I think they got a problem at Kicker now, right, And remember they kept bringing vettering guys in and then but he got it together and he was as mentally strong a kicker as you will find for so many

years too. Yep. Absolutely, And by the way, to your point on Todd Bowles, I looked it up, and yes, in nineteen ninety eight and ninety nine he was a defensive coordinator at Grambling, and then that was prior and then the following year in two thousand, he became the secondary coach with the Jets, and then with the Browns, and then here with the Cowboys. And you love to hear stories like that because the path taken is very unusual, so you just never know. People always ask me, well,

can I don't think I can do this? I don't, dude. Everybody's story he starts somewhere, So don't put yourself down before you even give yourself a chance. Who knew what Todd would be right back way where he be what he is now after being the DC at Grambling, come on and a head coach and then back to being the defensive port and of course he was Bruce Arians DC at Arizona before he became the head coach of the Jets, and now he is the head coach in

waiting whenever Bruce Arians decides to hang it up. Good guy too, but yeah, that's right, and has always put together good defenses. I mean, look back what Arians and Bulls did in Arizona. Arians took over in twenty thirteen and it was just a couple of years later they're

playing in the conference championship game against the Panthers. Right absolutely, And how about it, speaking of Arians, how about the coach the quarterbacks he has coached in his career and you go back in his history and now he's what seventy years old or whatever he is, and it's easy his first head coaching job. And this is, by the way, this is something he has in common with Todd Bowles. Okay, his first head coaching job was at Temple at age

thirty in the early eighties. Bruce Arians. Todd Bulls played for Temple and undrafted in nineteen eighty six. And so that's how far back Bulls and Arians go. Play good lay for Arians at Temple, um so and then okay, so the quarterbacks that Arians is gun has has coached now He's got Brady and in Arizona had Carson Palmer, he had Andrew Luck, he had Peyton Manning, he had been he had Big Ben also in Pittsburgh. Ay, come on, man,

Jameis Winston and Jameis Winston. And by the way, we talk a lot about Jameis Winston and his thirty picks or whatever. How many yards did he throw for year before last, not just yours thirty touchdowns? Right? He had it was thirty and thirty. It was thirty. They could do a thirty for thirty. And that's why that's what I always gives me about Jameis Winston. He's so befun

linked to everybody. Five thousand yards. You talk about the interception, Oh man, this guy's crazy thirty interceptions, But god, the other side of the ledger is amazing. He's gotten one last chance. And once again you could imagine what the arian was trying to do to be the quarterback. Whisper to Jameis Winston. I mean, do you blame me for the thirty picks or do you give him credit for

the thirty touchdowns? Yeah? Well and again and the five thousand yards give me but it also gets back to arians offensive philosophy is a vertical passing game, and that's where Brady had to get on the right page, on the same page with Arians and vice versa, Arians on the same page with Brady to marry their to so many years of still have to say his defense put Brady in that offense in so many good situations, doing

important time. So you're telling me it's a good thing that Donovan Wilson and Demonte kay Z are ready to place. That's the next thing where when we're looking at matchups in this game on Thursday night, and the pressure that's going to be on the Cowboys secondary against this offense is going to be pretty unreal. The pressure has got to be upfront. Tim guys got to get there. And they know it. They've been preaching it all week about getting Brady off his spot. And it's not necessarily sacks

because he was only sacked twenty one. Time to move, get him to move and you know, and it started with o'diggy zoo is saying, well, yeah, he's not that mobile or rookie. They asked him the question, you know, what, what do you think his weakness is? And he goes, well, you know, he's been in the league, he's forty four years old. He's not as mobile, And all of a sudden it's like, oh, are you worried about you know, giving Tom Brady bulletin board? I'm going does Tom Brady

really needs? And then he came back. They asked the question as well, they would, yeah, exactly right. And then he came back and said, I don't think. I don't think Tom Brady knows who I am or cares what I'm saying. Right, if you, if you have a rookie says something stupid and bad, Brady, that's gonna be an alarm goes off with every reporter. They end up right

in front of his life. And they did, and they and and you know, at least here anyway, right, and it's like, oh, well, look what he said about Tom Brady. He can't move, Well, he's not as if you leave him in the pocket standing there patting the ball, you're in trouble. You know what. Though, Now Brady may not know Odega Zoo's name. That's a hard name to know, okay, but he knows his number. He's changed numbers now, fuse, that's right, that's another. That's another thing that Brady he's

in disguise. Does he know he's ninety seven? He was seventy five and now he's ninety seven. Yeah, so now we figured out why all the number changes here after the last preseason game, and more and more this week too, by the way, some more numbers changed. Yeah, you got to met your disposal the fellow. Everybody's changing the numbers.

It's like, no, I didn't write him down. Well, you don't want to report him either, because then Brady and they're they're probably listening to us, right, you know, did you report what you think you're the Cowboys records going to be this year? I did. We're gonna get to that in the last segment. Okay, Okay, yes, we will get to that in the last segment about that passing game for Tampa Bay. Though, Hey, mister cornerback over here,

mister Hall of Fame cornerback, Okay talking to me. That's right, okay, Jack, all right. Number twenty four is not playing for the Cowboys. He's on ir new rookie second round draft pick, Kelvin Joseph. Okay, but you got Trayvon Diggs number seven. Now you got Anthony Brown. Okay, you got Jordan Lewis in the slot, you got that the safety position. You say that the safeties are ready to go. Okay, z and uh Donovan Wilson, and then they'll bring in jay Ron Curse right at

at times? What's going on with Molly Cooker? And I don't know how they're gonna if they're gonna use him or not. I mean they've kind of eased him in the things. I mean that last preseason game was his first snaps since he tore as achilles. I don't know how they'll how they'll use him or I assume he's going to be active, but you know, who knows. Maybe he's right Nishan Right, I don't know if he'll be

active either. You can only keep so many, right, and if you keep John, if you keep Jordan Lewis as your third, Maurice Kennedy as your fourth, I guess you could keep one more cornerball always forget about Jordan. Yeah, I just don't know any any starting too, by the way, and by I didn't mention Kennedy too, who had a very good preseason. And you're gonna keep C. J. Goodwin for special teams persons and purposes, and he's technically a cornerback two. Okay, So I mentioned all those guys Tampa

Bay's receivers, you get six to five. Mike Evans coming off a season in which he had thirteen touchdown catches in the regular season and that was an off. He'll be wearing number thirteen for them, Number fourteen. Chris Godwin had sixty five catches in seven touchdown in twelve games, only twelve games. I'm gonna save one guy here. Tight end, you got Gronk O. J. Howard only played in four games last year, with one start, and they're listing him

as a starter on there. Yes, they are on their depth both two tight ends, right, and he's right, so we and he was a first Roundabama, Yeah, Alabama first round draft pick, all right. And then they've got Scott Miller slot receiver who had thirty three catches last year. But it brings me, are you bearing the leading It

brings me to number eighty one Antonio Brown? Okay? And remember when Antonio Brown caught the touchdown pass in the Super Bowl and he had kind of been off people's radars even though he had joined the team in mid season or whatever. And I hadn't really paid attention much to how many catches he had during the season, and I thought, oh, well, that is nice that Antonio Brown got his touchdown in the Super Bowl. Whatever. Will you

go back and look at his numbers last season? He had forty five receptions and four touchdowns in eight games. Double that. That's a ninety reception season there for Antonio Brown. And so what do you think it's done for Brady and Antonio Brown? That they've now had an offseason together and a preseason together. The fact that it's so quiet makes me nervous. No one's mentioning his name and all. And if you look, you know, people keep talking about

the Cowboys triplets at wide receiver. And by the way, Arians said, and Arians basically this week was saying that that they He said, the Cowboys might have the top trio of wide receivers in the league. But I like our guys. Yeah right, I'm sure that Scotland, I'm sure that was the question this morning around the talk radio was which team has the best corps receivers? Yeah, and that was a big debate this and it's a good

one one. It's a real good one. What you say, okay, the quarterbacks can separate them, you know, can really separate and one of the key things will be so Gallup missed time early or last week, end of last week, beginning of this week. I think his uh significant other had the birth of a baby. Uh and then CD just getting back in the swing of things after his COVID.

He was pretty funny the other day when he was talking about it, and he said, you know, you get up in the morning and go brush your teeth and can't taste my toothpaste. Oh wow, And he goes it taste toothpaste, and he goes and then he said, suddenly I got up one morning, I looked in the mirror and it's like, oh, it's meant well, that's a good sign. So yeah, I got because there's a lot of people that I mean, you don't have your taste for a while. Oh wow. Maybe, and maybe that's a good sign that

he had from Utah. He had a lighter case. Lighter case, and I do think that is concerning. I was talking with a friend who passed COVID right now about it and talking about Cowboy players that are been either tested positive or whatever, and my own experience having it had it, if you had it, depending on how bad it was, I can definitely see how it couldn't affect an NFL player.

I mean, you have to play at such a high level to compete, and I don't think you can, um, you know, any of these guys if they truly have had symptoms. Some of them may not know for sure until they get out there and play in that heat and humidity in Tampa where you've got to have I mean, you got to be able to sustain it for a long time and play at a very high level, which was it's concerning, which was a fact I thought was overlooked last year with Ezekiel Elliott. Oh he had it

in June whatever. Yeah, he didn't have an offseason, he didn't have a preseason for col right, Yeah. Miles Garrett was great talking about it. I mean, he had it during the season and it he said, it lingered with him. But it's different for different people, right, you know. But but that was you know, Zeke not in shape or Zeke you know, wasn't this or that, Well the offensive line wasn't in shape, right, But he had that, and you never and we didn't at that time. We had

no idea what the effects would be on people. We didn't know about long term yeah effects at that time. Yeah, and so now I would deal with that. And so now they got athletes who are have all of this talent,

they've got all of these this physical ability. It attacks them just as hard and sometimes worse than they would any Joe blow out there who doesn't even especially because their job is to from a physical standpoint, be at optimal left and so and so when you watch in Domin Kung Sue, I mean, I don't know if he had how bad his symptoms were or whatever. When he plays on Thursday night, it might be tough for him

to go very I'll tell you what. Somebody put on put a little video on Twitter or maybe on the Internet of him working out the other day, and he was doing one of those uh them tall block and dummy drills. Well, he sure didn't look like a guy

that was zipping through those things. I don't know if he was taking it easier, but you know, you have to hit this and you gotta get that one kind of like, yeah, you have to watch when you're when you're scouting off a video, just like when Phil Simms is watching Dak Prescotte on hard knocks and saying he's concerned about it, that I don't know what the hell feels talking about I was looking forward, I was looking for anything that would say, First of all, you can't

tell anything, you know. I mean, the passes were the passes, and they were just showing us as little as possible exactly. Yeah, we want to show it. But and the real good one they showed him throw it. It was up in the air, and they never showed where it landed or who caught it, or how far down the field. You think that wasn't by design, But take that out. They mainly isolated on his throwing motion for the most part, right, which is what Phiel thought he saw something. Yeah, he's

not throwing to see. There was nothing to see. Okay, That's what happens when you have too much time between games. Right. Well, we don't have too much time now before the next game on Thursday night, and we were going to make our picks when we come back in a moment. Here on mix shots. Yeah, at Smoothie King, we are blending goodness to fuel your grayness. Every blend is crafted to help you achieve your health and fitness goals. Smootie King

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don't miss another kickoff. Visit United Agginturf dot Com. Offer ins February first, twenty twenty one. Restrictions applying see dealer for details. Now let's get to work. Back back to Mick shots. Does your Cowboys fandom go beyond the game. The NFL Fan of the Year Contest, presented by Captain Morgan is back and we're relaunching the search for one extraordinary Cowboys fan who is a positive influence and inspire

as others through their love of the game. Nominate yourself or others for the chance to win a trip to Super Bowl fifty six in Los Angeles. Nominate today at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash fan of the year who will be playing in Super Bowl fifty six in Los Angeles against the Cowboys. Now, that's the way you do it. Everson says he wants to make picks. And so my question to Everson is, do you want to make picks

just for this game? This is the start. We want to make pigs for the entire season, not only for the Cowboys but for the rest of national football. We can we can do both. I'd love to because you know you're looking at this is this is it, man, You know this is pretty exciting. I got all fired up when I watched college football this weekend. Now here we are. Um, everybody's doubting the Cowboys, the NFC East alone talking about Washington. Everybody said Washington is going to

be the surprise team this year. You believe that based on their defense last year? Yeah, because they were a game better than the Cowboys on record. That was my point. So yeah, I'm just very curious, not just the NFC East, but God Lee. Okay, so where do we want to start on these picks? You want to pick this game first? Or you want to go for the season first game? This game first? Okay, all right, so we'll pick winners. It will pick picks to click as well. Ever soon

you want to go first? Yeah, yeah, I do. I want to go win it, I believe it or not. This is gonna be good for the Cowboys, but I think they're gonna lose. Okay, it's gonna be good for the cowboys'll be good for the Cowboys. You know, when you start off putting so much hype on one game, I don't go for that because there's so much more football to be played. And they're seventeen this year, yeah, one more than usual. So no, I'm not I'm not necessarily worried about this game. Tampa Bay is the more

polished team at this point. There's no doubt about it. How the Cowboys will play well if they played an over inspired ball, I don't know. I hope they do, but otherwise I just want to see if we can make plays. I want to see if defensively we can make some plays. I want to see if defensively we know how to stop the run. You know. I want to see if defensively we can have our Mojoe moments. Those things are important. You have a mojo moment, still

lose the game. But I want to see if you can come through and make a play, not just as a team, but certain individuals. Their reputation is going to be on the line for this first game. Say, I think that's the hard thing to judge this team. I think you have a certain level of confidence with the offense. Uh. And if you look at um, you know what they did last year, Um, after the after the Rams game. Um, they ended up with four games of five hundred yards

of offense. Now, is are we going to get that again at this point with Dak coming back but not having played in any snaps in preseason, which he didn't the year before. By the way, UM, no one, no one wants to bring that up. Yeah. And then defensively, is what we see really what we're going to get because what we see so far looks pretty good. Uh, They've been pretty good in the preseason games when the starters were out there. But again, you're playing against offenses

that are very vanilla. Uh and who knows, you know how long teams are playing their first guys, but it's been at least two series, three series that they've gone up against and they've really The only uh, downside was the third game after the interception, the interception that they got the ball at like the twenty three yard line or something like that, and they drove right down and scored the touchdown. But that's the only touchdown the first

string is given up. Other than that, it's been field goals. So we'll find out now. Unfortunately, they're going up against one of the best offenses in the league right off the bat. It's not like you you know, starting against you know, Missouri State or something. You didn't want to say Missouri. You just had those stated I was gonna say Central Michigan. But they gave Missouri all they can two lane and yeah, right, and yeah exactly. Uh so yeah,

it's like it's it's hard to judge it. I think now from an overall standpoint, I feel pretty good about this team. If the defense can do half as good, maybe are half better than what they did last year. I'm looking at some of the matchups and so if you talk about pick to click, some matchups that are

gonna be extremely important. Of course, Zekiel Elliott, that's going to be extremely important on how he's able to run the ball, take the pressure off of that, like that against the number one run defense in the league last year. So how do you if you were, if you were the offensive coordinator, how do you attack this defense? Or do you think you can run against them? Or do you have to throw to be able to run against them? I would do what we do, and that's because we

have no choice. We can't break away from the run game. That's just not possible. We have Zeke Elliott. There's no way we're doing that. And we certainly not shining away from the passing game because that's what we do. So I'm not worried about offensive if we're if we stick with the game plan, how effective it will be that's obviously a whole another thing, which bringing me to my

pick to click. Tylan Smith is going to be extremely important in this game, and I'm so curious to see how he plays, because if he plays the entire season, this changes our entire look, especially coming from last year, because it changes your ability to run the ball as right to run the ball to protect them from the backs because they could not run the ball with those tackles last year. They were they found out how important tackles were yea or last year, or reinforced how important

thought they were. And so that's that's, you know, the kind of the curious thing I think this offense can function. So to me, it's like, defensively, can they get pressure on opposing quarterbacks because they didn't do a very good job of it last year. Just thirty one sacks last year. Yeah, And I'm not worried about the sacks as much as can we stop they get Yeah, well that's the other thing.

That's the main thing. Can we stop the I think the linebackers are in better positions this year to take advantage of what they can do, you know, for all the heat Jalen Smith gets, and if they're gonna play a two tight end, if they're gonna play both of those tight ends, the Cowboys are going to be in base. He's going to be in the middle and he needs to be going downhill. Vander Esch needs to be where he is where he wasn't last year, and then Michael Parsons.

They don't know where he's going to be, which is key, I think to this defense now, can can can the front hold up? Because you lost a very good guy in Neville Galliman. I think that injury hurts him as bad as anything other than Zach. But yeah, if they can hold up in the front, and seeing they've got so many guys that they can move inside in nickel situations to create pressure. You know, quiet has it been kept to l Basham is practicing? You know he missed

the last half of training camp. He's a guy that can move inside. They can move to Marcus Lawrence inside if they wanted to, and or Armstrong. You can get all these guys on the field with Randy Gregory. Um so another another nice pick to clip, Yes, exactly. You know he's my guy. I before training camp, I said, this is the guy, uh that that really had to step up, that they need this guy to become relevant.

A lot of football, real good football people, football minds have been looking at Randy Gregory Hoyd, yes, and want to make sure they take a good look at him this year. So um okay, So your pick was Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay. Okay, Tyrone. And Okay, so that is regardless, that's your regardless of what the score is, you think Tyrone's gonna have a matchups, That's what that's what a matchups extremely important this game because we have to see a lot of the guys that were hurting last year.

They're gonna have big time matchups this year. Okay, let me ask you this. If the Cowboys are to win this game, is it is Tyren Smith your pick to click that He's he's got to play well for them to win. If we win this game, it's gonna be partly because of him. Okay, all right, Mine would be

Randy Gregory. If the Cowboys are gonna win, if they're gonna to click, Randy, he's gonna have to emerge and be what I think he can be this year because just watching him, you know, they gave him that week off and when he came back that next time in practice, he was like shot out of a cannon. The fact that we haven't heard much from him, I think that's a good thing, right, yes, and and uh, although I think we're gonna hear from him today. I think he's gonna be one of the guys. What time is that

supposed to be? Okay, So yeah, that's I think. He Yeah, it's hard to pick the Cowboys to win this game. Yeah, I think the key thing is that come out and play well. Everybody's a lot of people are picking them to lose forty four to ten. I just think they're better than that, right, I just think they're better than that to keep it close in the twenties even if they get beat. I mean, you look at this Tampa Bay team and they I mean with what they everybody

coming back. I mean, it kind of mirrors the Cowboys in ninety five when they open the season at the Giants and one thirty five to nothing. I mean it's that kind of It's that kind of team coming back and in scene and so forth. That's what I think. That's kind of what the what the Cowboys are up against in this game. And the only guy, the only guy they might have missing from the starting lineup is their safety Jordan Whitehead. He's got a hamstring. It didn't

practice yesterday. We'll see what this practice report has for today. So you have a score, how about like, I don't know, twenty twenty six twenty one, twenty six, twenty five. I think it's going to be a close game. I really do. I think that we're gonna see how important Dan Quinn is to this team, like what they do defensively. Thirty one twenty. I think they'll score in the last so many minutes just to kind of put it away. But yeah, thirty one twenty and I got about thirty to twenty.

Also Tampa Bay and my pick to click for the Cowboys is Michael Parsons. I think he's gonna have a big first game in the NFL. By the way, this is the first time I've ever picked against the cow That tells you how sure he is about this pick. Pick to click for Tampa Bay is their safety and Twine Winfield. Okay, I just I just want to mention safety. I thought it was a corner. He's a safety and um, but he had he has corners skills and he can

play slot corner that they played corner. Yeah so, But their corners are Carlton Davis who had four interceptions last year, Sean Murphy Bunting who had one pick last year, and then they've got their third corners Jamal Dean. But that safety in Antoine, Winfield is listed as a strong safety and speaking as a guy that feasted off of the defensive line, I think that's what the second day does. The corners, if you're going to look at them, to me,

Stepha Winfield, I think that's the weakness of the squad. Okay, we got we got like one minute left, so we need to make our picks. You let's go all the way to the super Bowl. Ten seven, ten and seven, ten and seven for the Cowboys. Win in the East, win in the NFC East, and how far do they go in the playoffs. Oh, I'm fking for them to go all the way after them. Okay, we're just super We're going to improve timely this and the timely fashion

just the way. Good to win the last eight games all the way to super Bowl like Tampa Bay and say six and two. We can we can tell who they play. Who are we playing in the super Bowl? Ksey, That's okay, all right, that was my super Bowl pick last year. That was a good pick. That's it. And Cowboy win over the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. That's a tough homes man. It's hard to go against my homeboy. I don't know about that would be okay, I'm going to hold off on that one, So make you what

do you got? I had in my column I said, if the defense can be average, that they can transpose six and ten to ten and six. And then I had to add, oh, there's an extra game, so how about ten and seven? So you got ten and seven? You got ten and seven was ten and seven also, So for the sixteenth straight year, seventeen straight year? How many straight years is it? We will have a different NFC East champion than what we had the year before. The last time they repeat was oh four. Philadelphia won

like four straight from one through oh four. I say, with this, with this squad, I'm very surprised that we hadn't doubled up in its right East wins. I really am. And and think about it, that shows how quality the UNFC East year. Not last year, but when I've been when I've been asked the question. And I was on with the guys for the one of the radio stations in Washington, DC and then the guys at the Giants dot Com and they were asking me about can the

will the Cowboys win it? And I said, well, you answer me this, who has the best quarterback in the division. It's pretty simple, right, and he's ready to go by the way, oil, Okay, I'm going with I'm going with ten and seven Cowboys win the UNFC East where I write this down, and my super Bowl teams are Kansas City and Green Bay is going to come back with the vengeance. U yep, that's what I got. Okay, love, So we'll close it out. Well, how about we close

it out with mixed pick? Okay for the Super Bowl and what the Cowboys are gonna do, and we're gonna call it mixed Shotever do we have it's Mickey's minute. Huh. I was gonna go U Kansas City and um, Green Bay myself? Where you really? Yeah? I I don't know. I gotta see Tampa Bay do this? Does a team have a Super Bowl hangover? I don't know. We'll see. We'll see right away, right. Um. But there's so many it's just hard to repeat like that. Uh, Kansas City.

I just don't see anybody else in the NFC East. It gets me all excited. Do you have a second choice in the AFC, Well, I've got Kansas City and Buffalo playing in the KAFC Championship Game. And Green Bay and the Rams in the NFC Championship game. Wow, you think, Matthew, I think, Okay, yep, yep, that's what That's what I've got over there. I hope Detroit did. Now. The big thing for Tampa Bay playing in that division with Atlanta, Carolina and New Orleans without Drew Brees, they're going to

wrack up some wins just in their division. So they will. And that's what the Cowboys need to do in the NFC. That's right, if they're going to get to our ten wins, all right, So there you have it. It may not start out the way you want it to start out, but it sounds like it's going to win to end the way you want it too, especially if you're trusting in the future Hall of Famer and in the true spirit of Dan Quinn. This game is not an end. It's a beginning, right, and so we can build on

what we're doing defensively. So we'll see if what he said is that here it all right? And we will reconvene on Friday afternoon, right, I believe so, and I should be back by then. What's okay, uh tbd TBD mid afternoon or so, right, afternoon sometime, so I can't, I can't drink. You must doing the game, right, Chris. Chris said, one thirty, So maybe it's one. Maybe we're talking one thirty. We're talking one thirty. All right. That

does it for mixed shots. Enjoy Opening Night in the National Football League, and we'll talk at you again on Friday. Go Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.