Training Camp Kickoff Show: Storylines Abound

As we are the first podcast to get things underway for the twenty twenty one season, And just like that, gentleman, we're back in the thick of it. It was about time, right, I mean, I was just gonna say, I'll just take a line from from Jerry Jones and we're gonna get into it. But which which is gonna be a clean It's gonna be it's gonna between uh no, not not planning on dropping any F bombs right now, but just he was talking about how he you know, are we

ever gonna do this again? Are we ever gonna like, Yeah, I have a press conference where you can talk to people and just feel kind of normal about what we're doing. And that's what's happening right now, and it's really exciting. It's very very exciting. It's as close to normal as we've known it in quite some time. Right we're oh my god, like twenty five people on the on the tennis court out there for the press conference. Uh, the

press conference was normal. It went an hour, that's about what usually takes place, and it was pretty darn good. But we got to talk about the cowboys and it wasn't on zoom. Yeah, and we were actually looking at somebody that we were asking questions too, and then they were looking at us and they could see who was listening and who was asking the questions. Uh. Yeah, And you know, the weather's back to normal here, which is seventy five degree and sixty two in the morning when

you wake up. And yeah, it was refreshing after what we've been through. Now, there's still a lot of protocols the media has to follow, but I think everybody would rather do that than what we did last summer. I

think you just hit it on the word refreshed. I actually wrote that down at the end of the press conference because it kind of had that feel, and where of course talking about the opening press conference the State of the Union that was just here in Oxnard, where all three of the figurehead of the Dallas Cowboys, Stephen Jones, Jerry Jones, and of course head coach Mike McCarthy talking on the podium to the entire media, which, like we just said, is refreshing in its own right that they

were on a podium and hey, there were people in person talking to them and able to have a little bit of dialogue. But it was emotional, and I'm sure a lot of that compounds based off of what twenty twenty was, but I think there's a lot of expectations heading into this season as opposed to what we had a year ago. That also adds to a little bit of that emotion as well. Absolutely, I mean last year

was a nightmare, like for like for a lot of reasons. Nay, I mean, obviously the pandemic is the big headliner there, but it was the worst Cowboys season. I mean, I don't want to Mick, I don't know, You've done this a lot longer than Yeah, Okay, how did that? How did last year stack up among like the very worst? Well, it's gotta be top three. It was. It was as

bad because of what the expectations were. Yeah, because then eighty nine there were and and that's and and it was a promising season that just got absolutely directed, legs cut out from absolutely and so not just the you know, the record speaks for itself, but you went into that season thinking that it had the chance to be special, even with everything going on with COVID, and that was

part of it. And so yeah, it's it's almost like hitting the reset button on your PS five for I still have a PS four, but you get my point, uh yeahs at the end of my letters, which you still right. So and you mentioned the emotion, Jerry's emotion, and I think that exhibits how much this all means to him. You know. I think some people think, oh, yeah, he's this great businessman and all he's worried about is making money, But he he loves this. Right. The training camp,

the whole deal with the media. You know, I'm gonna guess, and just to let everybody know how everything's set up, they set up the media in a U shape around the practice field well before we had you know, the full rain, the whole the whole practice field, and when practice would finish, we would be at the end of the practice field where everybody would exit, and Jerry invariably would come over and stop, you know, and invariably it was after you know, the second practice at night, six o'clock,

when everybody's ready to get done because it's eight o'clock back Central time, and he would hold court right just on a spur of the moment. Well, yeah, I guarantee you because we can't be at this end and the interviews are going to be at the far end of the field, the other end zone that he's going to walk over there one or two times he's gonna find to talk to us, right, Jerry Jones is a showman

and he loves the show. And that he said that he like, that was the last thing he said today, was talking about the show of the NFL is back, and you know, we played a season last year and Tampa's championship is totally valid. Like, it's amazing what the NFL pulled off, but it it sucked. I mean that that was it was not the NFL that we've all come to know and love in the pomp and the

circumstance and having six weeks of anticipation and storylines. We don't really get any of that last year, and I promise you very few people are happier about that than Jerry Jones to kind of bring the fireworks back to all of this. And I think the media is happy about this as well, because I know, certainly we are as part of a team. The pageant tree is back, and there's a little bit of a pep in the step I think of everyone here, and of course the

Cowboys returning. Jerry Jones certainly a big time fan of that. But how big of an advantage is this for the team itself? Jerry said it in the press conference. Only four or five teams actually went away for camp this year. A lot of them had it in their facilities at home or at least near to home. So I don't know if that's an exact number. There may be more or less than that regarding teams leaving and going somewhere.

But Mickey, is this a bigger advantage for Mike McCarthy heading into camp this year as opposed to compared to last year? Because you know what I'm gonna say, I think kind of pertains to what's going on now. Because there were other times we came to camp here and it didn't make a hill of beings a difference. Right, they were bad, and you know they were still bad, but here's what happens compared to last year. You have more camaraderie among the players. They're they're all here together.

They're not some guys are staying at the hotel. Last year, some guys are going home. It was just so disjointed. You don't get that team feeling. But when you're here, you're messing around at night with everybody you know after all the meetings, and guys are just kind of bonding, and I think that helps. He didn't have that last year. He didn't have an offseason last year. He didn't have

a preseason last year. Now I'm not saying that's why they turned out to be six and ten, because there was other first year head coaches, but I think just the whole combination of it, as I said early, kind of derailed the season. And you know, it was bad and defense was bad, but there was a lot of other factors that went into it. But I just think having everybody here two practice fields outdoors, you don't have

to practice indoors all the time. You know, you guys saw at the Ford Center, I experienced set the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. That was the most depressing training camp practices day in and day out. And this was two padded practices a day. And the place is so gray. It's just gray. There's no sunlight. And it was depressing. And so yeah, getting back here, I just get what's

a little pep in your step? Yeah, I hesitate to call it an advantage because Mick just pointed out, you know, some first year head coaches did some great things in the league last year. Cleveland comes to mind, and the Cowboys have been coming to California for a long time without a ton to show for. It's true, but again compared to last year, and you know, actually even going back to like OTAs like we were fortunate enough that we got to be more involved in that this year

and kind of be around the team. Mike McCarthy seemed so happy to like, just that's why you're on a team in the first place, right, It's like the camaraderie and feeling like you're part of something. They didn't get that last year, Like you know, they're on Zoom the same way that everybody was doing that and you're not. You know, you don't get to stop and rip a guy about his college team or what are you know, the basketball game last night in the hallway, like all

that little stuff that you take for granted. They didn't get it. So no idea if it means that they're going to be a better football team this year. But I do think it's important for Mike McCarthy in terms of like establishing his culture and the way that he wants his team to be, and obviously the players themselves getting to know each other. This is a great place to do that. I promise you that. Yeah, then let

me give you an example. Like I was walking back from I think I was walking back from breakfast this morning, and I passed Randy Gregory and he's got a big smile on his face. He goes, hey, man, kind of gives me a little fist bump, you know, good to

see you. Yesterday when I was going to see where our trailer was or where our digital media's working from the Cowboys and Dak was going up the steps to his place and he yelled, and I looked to see who was like on my left, and then he yelled again and he goes, no, good to see you, just like that, right, And we didn't get that last year. We never ran into people. Last year, I've run into coaches that I've never met before. I had to introduce

myself to Dan Quinn. I introduced myself to Cedric, the new assistant strength and conditioning coach, who, by the way, the big guy but all the muscles. He was Emmet's fullback in high school. There we go. I said, no, wonder he had him. Yeah, no wonder he had such a great career as Scammia. That guy is huge. I thought he was interviewing for a nose tackle position, you know. But we didn't see these guys. You know, we didn't

see anybody last year. Um Davis the assistant head coach, you know, we were taping something before the draft and he introduced himself. We went through this whole season and three quarters of the coaches that were new we didn't. We didn't meet him personally. Mike McCarthy in January, didn't see him again to November in person. So yeah, it's it's just different. And you know, to go back to

does this make a difference. I used to hear from people that because the Cowboys were playing on Thanksgiving, they had as big advantage. And I would point out to them they only had a big advantage when they were good. When they were bad, it didn't make a difference whatsoever that they were playing at home on a short week, right, So yeah, but it's just better. The whole atmosphere is just better. The return to Oxnard doesn't mean we can reserve a spot for the Lobardi Trophy at the start

just yet. No, that's not the case. However, and there was a lot of talk about this throughout the press conferences as well, But Dak Prescott is back, the offensive line seemingly healthy. Heading into training camp, you have your weapons returning on offense, and then of course the defensive additions that make this thing kind of exciting because of course, the last year, last year's defense historically bad. This year, hopefully you're less than historically bad. It's not hopefully that

was the worst case scenario. How do things start off on the right track for Mike McCarthy, What does he have to do in this coaching staff? He had mentioned establishing a winning culture, that's one big thing. But but Dave, whenever you look at practice starting tomorrow. What is one of the biggest things that Cowboys have to do to get off to that hot start to ensure that they don't have a repeat of twenty twenty. Oh well, I mean,

I'm this is my yearly crusade. Stay healthy, please honestly that they gotta practice, they gotta they gotta do all that, and a more nuanced ancer is especially on the Like, I don't really care about the offense, to be honest with you, Like, as long as everybody's healthy, that's they're good. They're stay healthy. That's the you're good, They're good, They'll be fine. The defense, I think you do need to keep a close eye on that and how they compete.

Are they getting hands on footballs? Are they, you know, killing themselves to win every rep? Maybe even you know, little stuff as seemingly innocuous, as like talking trash, like I'm thinking about Micah Parsons front and center and wait to showing up day one to let to let this you know, these vets know, like I'm here to compete and to win and to to fight on every rep.

Like little stuff like that. I think that's what I think of when I think of a culture, and you can do that out here, and it's important and I think people will rally to that. But my baseline answer is always just keep keep everybody, keep the important guy's healthy for three weeks while we're out here. That's the keys. As I wrote on Friday, it's the old Brad Sham thing.

We go to training camp to see who's going to get hurt, right, and look at the Rams right there slamming on that and on the wood they they lose their running back Cam Akers right torn achilles, And yeah, you just can't. There's not enough depth these days to get through that many key injuries to key players. I think Jerry or Stephen talked about it about their top ten players or top ten paid players. You got to have those guys. You got to have those guys on

the field. And last year half of them weren't on the field. So um, yeah, I here here's my deal with the defense. Can they just be average? I'm not asking for top ten. Just you know, they were eleventh the year before, by the way, when it came to total yards. Uh, can they just be average? Because they were pitiful and and and they couldn't they couldn't. The offense couldn't compensate for how bad the defense was, you know,

And somebody said, well, yeah, Wellen Dac was there. They only went two in three, and I said, yeah, they averaged thirty two points a game while the defense had given up thirty six in those first five games. Turnovers certainly didn't help with that either. Well yeah, but still you scored thirty two, Okay, thirty six. On the other side, they didn't stop just because you turned the ball over. The defense doesn't have to say, okay, next play, go score, right,

and that happened. So yeah, dan Quinn's gotta make a difference. And it's not just dan Quinn. Think about this from a defensive staff standpoint. He's he's now the defensive line coach too. By the way, you know they brought in the specialty. Yeah, they brought in Adam Dird, but he's kind of just gonna be the overseer while he's doing the whole thing. They they they've moved George Edwards to

the linebacker coach. You know, that's it's kind of unspoken, but when you watch kind of running things right, all right, And then they bring in Joe Witt Junior for the secondary. So they're three key guys on that defense for really, Uh that it's gonna change. Can they make a difference? Well, they better hope they do. Uh. And just listening to the players in the offseason, dan Quinn's a hit already

and they look organized. You know this time last year defense, the linebackers weren't calling out plays right, They weren't telling guys, hey, move there, move here. They were and that in the OTAs that didn't happen last year. That was a lost defense, meaning guys didn't know what they were supposed to do. A lot of the problems they had. Somebody asked me about the secondary. You know, can the defensive line help

out a secondary that struggled? I said, well, they can't help him from missing assignments, and they missed assignments last year. It was just get beat physically, okay, but when you don't know where you're supposed to be or who you're supposed to cover, that's just awful. And that's happened too much last year. So defense, can you be average? When the question was asked to Mike McCarthy on the podium about how much improvement he's already seen from his defense

and how improved he thinks they could be. That was one of the conversations he had as well. I need the defensive line to be up to part of what we're putting out there. On the offensive line. There needs to be competition. Last year, I remember we were talking about it, and every time that the offensive line was banged up, the defensive line had success. But whenever the offensive line had their top five guys out there, even though that was only for pretty much a snap or

two the defense, the line had no success. And you've got to have a little bit of competition. Camp is where that thing starts, and I think that we're going to see more of that. Maybe that's a dan Quinn effect. Maybe that's the effect of having Randy Gregory in for an entire offseason. He was talked about a lot during the press conference. Do you think those guys can have that much of an impact to maybe try and even the playing surfaces between the trenches. I mean I do.

I don't say this to sit on the fence, but like that's why we're here, right yeah, I mean exactly. And I was just about to say, and this is this happens all the time, and I get it. It goes with the territory. But I'll sit here and say a lot of people in the building are really excited about what Randy Gregory can do having had a full offseason, and I am too for that matter. Neville Gallimore is

another name that you will hear a lot. Obviously came on really strong in the second half of his rookie year. The coaches are excited about the potential that he could make a leap and become this fantastic defensive tackle. And again I'm excited about that too. I got really excited about Malie Collins every summer. Also, like I've done I've done this before and that's all so so we're here for I'm here to watch and see if they can because like on paper, there's a lot of reasons to

be excited. But will I be shocked if it's mid October and I'm like, they're not a whole lot, They're not a whole lot better than they were last year. No, that that shouldn't surprise anybody. But that's gonna be the fun part about the next five six weeks is finding out just where they stand in that on that scale, and there's gonna be competition because if you look at

this defense. What's set in stone going the adgdressers and about it, maybe Treyvon Diggs maybe yeah, I mean say yes, but yeah, so that's not as secure as the adgere. So that's three spots that there's eight more that I think there's a lot of competition, and that includes the linebackers. Right, nothing's given to Layton Vanderessh and Jalen Smith. They're going

to have to earn what they get. I bet if we pulled, you know, if we pulled all the people that we work with, I'm just coming up with content ideas right here on the air, we'd probably come up with ten different starting elevens. Maybe only slightly, maybe only slightly, but like you know, oh easy. Yeah. So I mean that's a really good point, man. It's good. Good for competition,

that's what you want out here. And the other thing I think I pointed out last week was the fact that with these new defensive coaches, you know when you were a kid and you were playing whatever, say it was little league, and you got a new coach that year, where everybody was jacked up to show the new guy what you can do, right because he didn't know. And these new guys come in here with no preconceived notions.

So you better not have a bad day, you know, you better, Jordan Lewis, you know, don't have two bad days in a row because they get another corner they'll put in the slot. So I think that's good for this this whole deal. Now the other good thing. And you know what, we probably went fifteen minutes in the in the beginning of the press conference talking about the Cowboys vaccination, right, and you know the way Jerry put it,

he said, it's only a handful of guys. Now, last thing that came out was seventy percent of the ninety man roster vaccinate. There's an important designation there, Jerry said, there's a handful of guys that have done nothing, like a handful of R five guys are less that have not committed, not done anything. And Stephen Jones actually made the really good point. You know, getting vaccinated, it's like a five week process, like shot, two weeks shot, blah

blah blah. Exactly. It takes some time. So and we don't know the number. I will probably never know the full number. And that's that's fine. But so now, but so you know, there's a certain number of guys that have gotten one shot but not both. There's a certain number of guys that have probably gotten two shots but

aren't through their two week period of waiting. But man for Jerry Jones to say that only five guys on a ninety man roster have done nothing, and he kind of intimated too that he thinks that number will go down as well, Like as we go through this, he thinks some of that handful will start to do stuff to give back inconvenience. That's what I'm saying. Not being vaccinated would be enough incentived. The minute I would run

to the CVS right now. The minute I read that memo about what unvaccinated players have to go through, I was like, that would be enough for me, even if I hadn't already done it, that would be enough for me. So but that's that's that was a good sign. And he said he said he thought by time the preseason game, the Hall of Fame game showed up that everybody we want to play should be eligible to play. Yeah, he said, there should be much eligible to play. You just you

would have to fly there on your own. Yeah, lots of there's a lot of a lot of a lot of hoops to jump through for those So but that was that was encouraging news, especially after you know, and I don't blame Michael Irvin for what he said, yeah, because he looks at it is you've got to do everything you can do and more to be successful. And that was him, right, And and if you're not getting the shot, then you're not doing everything you can do

to help the team be successful. They can't say that you got to be politically correct because it's a personal choice, right. But you know, Michael, you know, I tell you a story on Michael. One day he lived in Carrollton in the suburbs where I did. And I'm driving to the ranch one day and I see it would look like the biggest human being ever on the tallest bicycle coming down the middle of the road. Right there was a

four lane road, and he was coming down the middle. Well, he was still rehabbing from his torn acl and he was riding the bike from and it would have been ten miles for sure, but he was riding to the ranch to get ready. And that was Michael that he would do anything he could, short of holding out to the point he missed the game almost to help this

team win. Everybody's entitled to an opinion, and Michael has earned the point of which is what Jerry said, right, if he speaks, I listen, and Michael Irvin has certainly earned that. You mentioned how encouraging that is, at least the COVID nineteen talk. But going back to the football field, Dak Prescott had some encouraging news or at least encouraging news around Dak Prescott. He's gonna be a full participant. This is something that we pretty much anticipated around the Cowboys.

But before we wrap things up here, what did you think about what was said about Dak and not a part of team drills throughout OTA's in the off season. No surprise there, but he should be a participant here in Oxnar we have to cover it. But I didn't bat an eye last Yeah, because I was there through the off season program watching him do his thing. I stopped. I stopped having concerns about Dak sometime in early April

probably for like see him. Well, we're fortunate enough, like where we work, you know, you see him working out on the fields and the amount of stuff that he does when nobody's around, So you feel good about that and then he goes to OTAs. I know he's not part of team drills, but you know that the scramble drill that they put into there, he's running, sprinting to the sideline and just torking and throwing off of his you know, off of his hurt foot sixty yards down.

Feel I'm just like, now he's fine. I don't need to see anything else. So, you know, I've anticipated he was going to be a okay for a long time. At this point, I'm just excited to see him go, you know, and he's human. And I'll guarantee you when he first started going out on the field and he started doing you know, getting away from his rehab where you do premeditated steps right now, you go on the field and you're going, okay, can I count on this, you know, and you push off, and he's he's over

that the mental part. And I'll give you a good example. Um, two weeks ago to three weeks ago, I played tennis for the first time since my achilles was repaired, and there were a couple of times when it was time to push off and I was like, I don't know,

I don't do that right. And then the more you played the you know, the more you get over that mental part, right, And there was one point I was running for a ball that was behind me and I stopped and I go, I don't need to get that, you know, And I was like, well, let's just see how good it is. And I'm sure these guys go through that, especially with torn acls. Absolutely that you got to recover mentally too. And I think he's past that.

And he looks like because they wouldn't have put him out, they were not going to say, yeah, he's full participant, you know, whatever is going on. If he wasn't ready and mentally he's ready, I'll guarantee you because of who I am as a person, I'm probably going to hold my breath the first time there's a little bit of trash around every Cowboys fanchild No, and that's that's human nature. But he's not going to He's he's the most confident person.

I'll guarantee you. That defensive line or the defensive room, it's like you see that red jersey you do not get I know, you know, some of some of somebody some well I'm just some of you old heads, like I know it was it was a you know it. It was a tradition for the Cowboys quarterback to not wear a non contact jersey going all the way back

to Landry. I'm happy Dak's gonna be wearing red. I'm happy Mike McCarthy instituted that rule because I don't need any stupid reason for why he's getting smacked around during training camp practice. You know. One of the one of the reasons. In the old days, they used to show up for training camp like a week and a half, two weeks ahead of everybody, the rookies, and then the guys that hadn't been there to let them get the

little fire out of them. Yeah, so they didn't like ruin somebody you know that year the Cowboys and I'm going to forget the guy's name, the g when they drafted him at Smith they also had signed a kind of veteran type running back and one of the first practice, some rookie stand Smagala tears his acl takes a cheap shot on the sideline because he's trying to show everybody, hey, I can play this right, fifth round draft choice or something like that, and no, you gotta get that out

of you. You can't do that. You see four. You can't hit four. You can hit I don't know what the other guys numbers are, three, ten, seven, whatever, hit almost whoever you want, which is just don't hit four four. That's a good point. It's a good point, something that we'll be looking at throughout training camp, and well, you guys are gonna be pretty busy throughout training camp as well as The podcasts are officially back on Dallas Cowboys

dot com. Dave, you'll be on the break tomorrow, Mike Shots today, Mike Shots today, but column not not the podcast, then joining you on Talking Cowboys on Friday, right for the first time. Band back together, back together, Yeah myself, Rob Mackey on Talking Cowboys. There will be a group of hosts back home at the Star as well, and then David Hellman, Nick Eatman and Derek Eagleton on the break, the normal break, and then they'll be doing the post practice thing out on the Yeah we got, we got.

We're going all over the like. We've heard you all whining about their not being as time. We get it. It's been a slow six weeks, but we're back and we're ready to go. It's officially go time. The green flag has dropped we're in. It's time to time to get after. It's special. Thanks to all of you at home, though, for being patient and excited as much as we are for Cowboys training camp, because there is plenty more coverage coming up over the next three weeks and then into

the twenty twenty one season. But for now, for Chris Beam in the back, for David Hellman, Mickey's back. No, I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long from Oxnard, California. We'll see you next time. I'm talking. Oh, there you go. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.