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Cowboys.
This He's Talking Cowboys, springing live from the Dallas Cowboys World Course at.
The Star in Frisco.
Seconds dot T, touchdown and.
Now your hosts Isaiah standback, Patrick Walker, Josh Rodriguez and Kyle Yeomans.
It's a an Ota edition of Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, live from the Star in Frisco, Texas, in the s WBC studios. Welcome in, everybody. We've got the whole cast and crew ready for.
You to rock today.
Up, I hit, I hit the table and the mic went out.
We've got Patrick Nosey Walker back in business.
Welcome back, sir.
It's been a couple of weeks, but Patrick is back from VAK and he's ready to go. We've got Josh Rodriguez back from Mission Impossible screenings and meeting Tom.
Cruise and yeah, absolutely no.
He was on the red carpet.
Yeah, yeah, he was there your red carpet. Oh no, Tom was Tom.
Cruise was here, Tom where he was trying barbecue, He was doing all sorts of things. Now we were supposed to go to a screening with him there.
He canceled at the last minute.
Makes sense, Only I didn't know that.
You know, that is the first time I've ever heard anybody refer to Tom Cruise as Tom.
Tom, Thomas, Tommy.
They're on the first name a big deal.
You have kind of carte blanche to use whatever version of Tom Cruise's name is.
You like Thomas, If you will, kobd.
We've got Tommy arras shupstairs.
We've got Isaiah State back in the building, back on this side of the planet.
After your trip to Ghana, how was that?
It was good? Many trip? Yeah, and I went out there just like four days, four day trip, quick turning around quick, yeah, just a quick there and back.
It's quick there and back. Man went out there, had to take care of some business. And now I'm back here with.
Them, No biggie, just a quick hop to Gana. It's the way you're down playing.
Hop skipping a jump over.
Listen, I have a puddle jump listen. I told, I told this guy. I told Barry Church and Nate Newton.
I vowed I made this statement last year, and I actually I sent Barry a picture of me sitting I was actually sitting on the beach, uh waiting buying time before my flight because I had a ten pm flight.
Right, So we were chilling on.
The beach because you're right there at Akua, right on the on the ocean front there. And I sent Barry a picture. I was watching the show. I was watching the podcast and I was listening, and I sent him a picture. I was like, don't tell you. You can never say your boy don't support you, right, he said, boy, he said, you told us last year that you were going to be catching trips this year and you weren't playing.
Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm listen. I'm finding out. This world is large. It is and it is.
I love the Us of A and I'm grateful, but there is a lot to see.
Got to get out in the sand. I got to get out of the sandbox I have right now.
I've had these blinders on for a long time and I'm I'm taking them off.
I'm putting on the buifocals now. Man, I'm trying to see it all. So where's your next trip? I don't know. You've always wanted to go to like Japan? Right? I went there? Well, you did go to I went to Japan there.
This is my second trip to Africa in the last you know, third fourteen months.
I don't know what's next. I have the Philippines on my list.
I have Australia was supposed to happen before my wife and I actually got married, but she wanted to be a flight attendant and that took presential time. But Australia, I definitely want to do it, but I don't really do all the dangerous stuff that's in Australia.
You know, they have maybe New Zealand maybe.
Maybe Have you ever been to Seattle?
I think Thailand? Thailand and Philippines are probably next up on the list. Those are high.
Have you ever been to Waco, Texas? I've been through. I'm through.
You can go there with like very little money and have an excellent time. Yeah, like you could be a thousand diar like myself and live it up, live it large.
Yeah.
Well, I really want to go to Thailand, Like that's very high on my list. But I did one of those prepaid vacation things for Hawaii, so like I have to do that like in the next year, so at.
Some point I gotta take the family at some point. That's gonna be yes, Hawaii is definitely not all right.
Well, glad to have you all back a little bit since we've had the whole cast ready to ready to go, Miss Beam in the back to get into some some OTA news and notes. The Cowboys started OTA's last week last Monday, in fact, and as we alluded to last weekend or last episode, uh, we only had the one look and it came on Tuesday, and it came after the show was recorded on Tuesday, because of course that's.
How it always works with guess when we're going to get.
A look this week after the show.
So it does take a little bit of time to to really get to see it. But Patrick, I know you were out of town, but you were keeping up very closely with it all.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And one thing that stuck out to me most certainly is the budding chemistry and how quickly the chemistry between Ceedee Lamb and George Pickens is kind of taken off. I'd love to see that Cede Lamb is so fully embracing this trade. I mean, going back to a day
before it was announced. If you look at the kind of subterfuge behind his tweet with that the waving hands set right, and then you look at how you know there's one thing for George Pickens to come in as the new guy, and everybody's like, well, how's he going to react to knowing that he's not the one, knowing that at best he's the one B. Some people are saying he's wr two, rightfully so, but then you have the king on the throne and ceedee lamb come out
and say, we're both ones. You look over there and you gotta one. You look over here and you gotta one. Which one do you want to that's the goal? Which one do you want to have a problem with? So I love that that's really standing out. I think that's going to help them both hit the ground running very quickly with Dak Prescott Dak and George Pickens. That chemistry is starting to kind of take off quickly. I just
love that the cohesiveness. And then when you talk about Brian Schottenheimer, one of the things that we all spoke about was just how impressive Schottenheimer has been to this point with all of his talking points. Every time he speaks, rather be publicly or to us behind the scenes, it's
a home run swing every single time. But the question was how would that translate on the field to be determined, But so far, with OTAs and veterans having now reported, you start to see people like one Yea Thomas go to Twitter and say we're having fun again, right, So, when you start to see things like that, and Isaiah spoke to this quite a bit over the past season or two, the locker room chemistry, how players are reacting
to the coaching staff. There is this energy that's kind of permeating throughout the locker room and throughout the coaching staff that I would love to see that translate into wins, and hopefully it does. But again, with this next step having been taken in OTAs, things are really really ratchetting up. And I love that the Cowboys front office has given Shottenheimer a lot of firepower.
It's something that the podcasts have talked about since run Brian Schotenheimer's been the head coach, and like his press conferences and like you said, every time he speaks, he wins something. He's winning over the team, he's winning over the press and everything like that. And you see a lot that the Cowboys are winning the off season, like in quotations, winning the off season My thing is like, this personality has a huge personality.
He's very likable.
But the thing is, if you go into the season and you start losing games, that personality is going to start to be like, all.
Right, what are we doing here?
You know like it, you're going to call for more professionalism and more Mike McCarthy is kind of a stoic leader. Yeah, whenever the chips are down, and my thing is like, as long as he's consistent, wish he has been this whole time, You're going to see that. It might get a little grading throughout the season if we're not playing up to the caliber that we were. I mean, this is a seven team, seven win team last season, so
you expect them to do really well. If it doesn't go well, I don't want the narrative of Brian Schottenheimer to be like, this guy's not taking any thing seriously. What is he doing playing ping pong with the players for us?
That's why I chuckled a little bit there when Patrick was talking about it too. Was because they are having fun again and they're talking about it in the press conferences.
Brian Schotneimer last week talked about how competition every day that's been the theme of the off season competition every day, and they do it in little spurts, and they do it even in themed games like the Masters and like they did with the Kentucky Derby, And there are a couple different things that they've done to kind of get the guys engaged, get them competing. And then the free throw shooting contest that we've heard about, different elements and
different contests. That's all great, that's all fine and dandy, and I love it because it helps build culture, and it helps build camaraderie within the locker room, and it helps everybody know that you are here to compete as soon as you step in the building. But right now, it's easy to do all that type of stuff when you're not playing somebody on Sunday. And so at some point there will be a switch. There's a flip of
the switch. Maybe it's training camp, maybe it's before then, but at some point you're gonna have to flip the switch. And it's like, okay, at the free throw shooting contest, it's not May anymore. It's okay to do that in May. It's okay to have that type of mentality in May, because.
I don't want the narrative to become what Joshu.
Is alluding to there and what it has been in the past when there have been ping pong tables in the locker room, that it's all about that this is just a byproduct of switching a culture what it is, but you can't let it become a distraction.
I think what I'm looking for to most obviously, you don't want to see the Cowboys suffer any kind of losing streak at all. I want to see them run the table lift at all possible. Unlikely, you know, but that's what you would love to see happen. My thing is, I want to see how Shottenheimer's Cowboys react to a two game losing streak game.
I don't want to see that.
No, I don't want to I don't want to see them suffer the losses. But this is the NFL, and hard times arrive, and were going to see this time and again with the Cowboys, be it injuries or just the bounce of the ball or bad call you know, from the sidelines, or with the zebras, whatever the case may be. When the Cowboys inevitably run up against adversity this season, what does their bounce back look like.
What does their shake back look like? Right?
Does the locker room remain together or do they start thinking, oh, well, the paint poll table can't save us, now, you know what I mean. So I do want to see how that how that bounce back looks, because that's going to determine what they look like in the long run. So okay, So too many people I believe are putting too much emphasis on the things that are going underneath the umbrella of this culture change talking about them and speaking on the actual activities.
Yeah, you know it's listen, y'all, it's the headline stuff.
Listen, this is you've been playing this game your whole life.
Okay, just because you're playing at the highest level doesn't mean that all of a sudden fun should go away.
Agree, and like people have to understand that.
Like this whole and it is this really you know, to me correlates with the whole shut up and dribble and you know, you know, saying be a professional, you shouldn't have an opinion like why can't I have fun?
Like why why can I not have fun? Like he is.
Literally taking the blueprint from people that he's been underneath who have been highly successful at what they do as being a head coach.
Oh yeah, Pete Carroll. Yeah, so this is literally he has fun.
Literally what happened when Pete Carroll was with Seattle, and I would imagine it's the same thing with what the Raiders are doing right now. When you're underneath Pete Carroll's lineage. When you go into the meeting rooms, they're putting pictures of you from high school and college that are very compromising in blackmail type photos. Everybody's laughing at you. The cracking joke sounds like it coming from a come on man, absolutely, I can have stories upon stories about just laughing with
your teammates and competing. I've said this how many times now. When dan Quinn came in as a decordinator, What did I tell you what was gonna happen? Competition, competition in a culture change. What happened immediately? Competition competition in a culture change. Where is dan Quinn underneath Pete Carroll? What was he mimicking Carroll? It's the same thing. It just so happens to be that this was now somebody who was underneath coach McCarthy and now he doesn't have to
conform to anybody. This is him, this is me, This is what I've always wanted to do. This is what I told the Joneses that I was going to do, and they saw I would imagine that. I would imagine that dan Quinn had an impact on Schottenheimer's ability to become the head coach for the Dallas Cowboys because same things that he was telling the Joneses, that Joneses saw that through dan Quinn. So they already had a taste
of it. Right they lost dan Quinn. He went over and started coaching Washington, So they already know what they had, they know what they lost, they know the impact that that gentleman had. Now they know what they have, they know what they did not want to lose, and they're going to allow for him to execute the game plan that he has said that he is going to come out here and do. And that's exactly what's happening. He's
having fun, he's connected with the players. He's bringing down this barrier, this wall barrier of player and coach that says that we can't be on the same playing field. You have to just bark all the orders and I just have to listen everything you say all the time. Yeah, that's the case, but it doesn't have to always be in this type of gift rapping. So people need to understand that there's different ways to coach. Dan Campbell coaches a completely different way than a dog On Pete Carroll.
Pete Carroll coaches a completely different way than the Bill Belichick and oh and Tomlin and everybody else. There are different approaches, different styles. This is good for this organization at this time with these players. I've mentioned it many times when who's I'm blanking out now? The decordinator that came in, uh uh Zimmer, Mike Zimmer was there.
I said what I said, I don't like it. You guys remember that.
So I don't like it for a number From a personality standpoint, I said, I don't like it. I don't believe that he's going to connect with the players the way in which these players.
He's not going to meet them where they are. That was my thought process.
Now he has some success with those guys, but I still don't believe that he connected with those guys where they are with this generation of player. Agree with this generation of player is very hard to go with that old school type of mentality not to say that you can't be productive. I said that he would still be productive, but connecting and those guys playing for you completely different things.
It doesn't It matters what you have in terms of the personnel and the generation probably generational player.
You have to meet these young guys where they're.
At and you gotta you gotta play to their strengths. Teams like the Chiefs can have an old school mentality, and even Andy, I mean Andy Reid has fun.
Different nugget commercials.
Yeah, with his quarterback so exclusively wears Hawaiian shirts exactly, you know what I mean.
Even that's kind of a mismatch of an example. The old school mentality works sometimes, but it depends on who the players are.
And who you have. I think the type of player that.
Brian Schottenheimer is trying to connect with are the ones on the fifty three to ninety man roster that we're going to have going into training camp that are on the other side of the building.
Yeah.
First, I want to give Isaiah that that rant sensational brand.
Wise section, and I love the comments section.
The comments section back set up because they keep saying the Pete Carroll comparison. I mean You're a guy who played for Pete Carroll, was recruited by Pete Carroll. There's a lot of connection there with Pete Carroll. And so you seeing that that comp with Brian Schottenheimer is accurate. I mean that's you've been in this building, You've been in that building.
Yeah, And I want to make one comment before you take this, because I'm sure you guys can run with this. Now, there's still there has to be a lot that has to be proven in terms of the Pete Carroll lineage.
Right in the NFL.
Right, there's been four coaches to be head coaches that have come from underneath the Pete Carroll umbrella, one of which is Gus Bradley. I played for Gus Bradley also in Jacksonville, same type of culture.
Didn't work out, right.
I'm not going to say that it should be completely comparable, but it didn't work out there for another of reasons. Okay, But I could tell you that the morale of the team and everything else, the competitiveness was all there.
Okay.
Robert Sala came from underneath the Pete Carroll Lennax right, Well, we know he's one heck of a coach. Just didn't pan out. There's a lot of things that were working against him there, right, coordinator, you got a Jackville Jaguars. Okay, Usually if you guys get head coaching opportunities and you're walking into a pretty terrible situation, right most of the time, not the case necessarily here, right, So Gus Bradley, Robert
solid those things didn't necessarily work out. Dave Canalis. Right, he's down in the Carolina trying to turn things around. You can see this offseason what they've done.
It's turning. It's turning, it's turning down there.
That's not got midway through the season. Absolutely, it's definitely.
He is finally being able to make decisions for himself that he really wants to make it and you really love him, love him. He's a freaking little offensive Jedi workhorse. Okay, So that's going to change down there, and you can see it right with the personnel that's going down there. Guys are choosing to go play for him now, so that's to be seen.
Okay.
So we have two guys that right haven't worked out as head coaches, but great at their defensive coordinated positions. Dave Canalis, who were you know the jury's out, right, but we could see things are changing. And now you have Brian schotten Harmer all right, sorry and dan Quinn. Dan Quinn, we know where dan Quinn is. So we're kind of two and two, right, let's call it two and two. Brian Schottenheimer's the tiebreaker. Okay, he's a tiebreaker, but he's all so the one who's walking into the
best situation. Oh absolutely, of all these coaches, of all these coaches, he's walking into the best situation. Gus Bradley was the worst situation. I would say Robert Solo was right above him, right there, right nicka neck. Okay, then you had dan Quinn, are they Dave Canile's where jury's out? Dan Quinn, we know what he walked into and what
he was able to do. And now you have Brian Schottenheimer, who's come from this lineage, right, this is this umbrella tree, and obviously he's walking into the best, most talented situation.
Possible with cornerstones on both sides of the ball, actually on all three phases. Because when you talk about special teams, you're talking about turping, and you're talking about Brandon Aubreys will So yeah, I mean, hands down, is the best situation.
Nick. My mic is on, I.
Don't know what's going on. Nick Sorenson taking the special team's coordinator job is catching in the best job he could possibly land in in terms of his specific special teams coin. He's just walking in. He's gonna I've.
Got Brandon Aubrey and Brian Anger.
Yeah, it sounds.
Pro bowlers as spots that you're responsible for and in the long snapper obviously, but he hasn't made one yet.
He hasn't made one.
Yeah, he's right there, right, So you got three out of your four people that you're responsible for are all pro guys.
Yeah, that's funny, all right, I love it.
When we come back. Who I know mins cut off too, not going going well?
Whoever had this mic last rady, he's getting a fine Who who stood out at OTAs is what we'll talk about when we come back on the other side of the break. There are a couple of names that jumped off the page, a couple of them that it's a little too early to tell. We'll kind of decipher that when we come back with more talking cowboys right after this. If you're looking for fresh American roasted coffee that gives back.
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To Talking Cowboys.
Back here on Talking Cowboys. This segment has brought to.
You by Invisi Line, the official smile of the Dallas Cowboys. Glad to have the entire crew back and ready to go. We'll give you the comment of the day after the second break. We'll get some extra comments flowing in there. We've had just means they're not good enough. Guys, there was better comments.
This isn't the coming of the day. But I want to point this out. First of all, shouts out Tommy Yards, I see you upstairs. You're in the chat. The chat because Hoodie said he can't wait for me to dust Tommy at a training camp and in the forty yard dash and Tommy tom dinning was like hold on there, Hoodie shouts out the anti jumping on Tommy side. That's all little good, but that's the that's the losing team. And shouts out to Hoodie, when is this happening?
Wait?
Women, when we were all out understand that, but that's a long time. I need a date, I would say, like July.
I mean we got to get there and get settled.
And you and I are getting out there, Tartmacs. You and I are getting out there like the twenty eighth.
Who's my first class?
Probably I'm not passing opportunity again.
Hey, I'm on the free upgrade list now, made sure your airline miles American.
It's unbelievable, unbelievable.
I still hate you for that.
Uh.
What if we like tentatively set like August fifth, going into the first week schedule?
Huh we need to know Thatary, No, No, it's gonna be in the morning.
Yeah, good, the week of think eight.
How about that?
Out there a day any day anytime.
I was gonna shoot you saying day you are ready to take on.
Any day anytime. Once we're out there, dang, I.
Like it morning. We don't have no work. We don't have it anymore. So remember McCarthy had the Mojo moment.
Instead of just playing the NBC out there, we just dropped like Bamer plugs in his phone and just drops the talking.
Now y'all want the whole presentation, absolutely, Lawrence, everybody keep out there any day anytime, with the day. I just see back of Mike and the guys underwater break Look at this, Look at this.
We would make them up to Michael, my whole schedule release on it.
All right, So let's get out there because I A, oh gosh, your mic is not playing it.
It's not not going well today.
It's okay, we're but it's not cutting out to them. Okay, No, it's cutting out to everybody.
We're playing with it, cutting out with it. I'm not going to touch it again.
So ot as last O t A's last week.
Who stood out? Josh, get off the plate, That's what I said. Who stood out? On O t a s stood out?
Okay, I'm just doing the eye test, right. I can only see what I see, And we got some great photographers here that takes great photos.
But ah saw certain somebody.
I was like looking in a mirror when I saw Solomon Thomas, Oh.
Lord, he looks amazing.
He's home. Yeah, he's he's even good.
Mama's cooking jacked up, and I like it.
It looks like Cooler from Dragon ball Z.
He looks like a street shark out. He looks like a street shark. Bralli Bralli out there.
Uh, just a physical specimen. He looked like he could be in w today yea. But honestly, he looks. He looks great. He's running great, he's running around the corner very well. Uh, the footwork looks good so far, at least for me. That's what I'm really most excited about. I mean, someone that's going to contribute depth wise in
the season. There's a lot of guys if you look at the unrestricted free agents, if you look at the the draft picks that we have coming up, it's like, all right, you know they're gonna be vying for playing time. This guy is going to have playing time, no doubt. You're going to see him every Sunday fingers crossed. But just looking at him, like good lord, I could.
Say I could tell you Osa is excited about it.
Fact yeah, I had a brief conversation with Osa, and he was excited about the guys, not none of that that are coaching them now they have the position coaches, but he's excited about some of the additions that they've made for guys that fit the mold. He said that we're pretty much the same, same build, is what he said.
It's pretty good. I like that.
I'm going to hit you back off of what what Josh is saying, because it's it would be easy to attach to one of the rookies right now because obviously they're the incoming guys, and you want to see guys like Theoya out there such and such. But it's it's still it's still early, so I let the rookies kind of acclimate more so that takes me to the veterans. And of the veterans, one of the more exciting ones
for me has to be Solomon Thomas. And this was actually even prior to us seeing Solomon Thomas and OTA's the guys. Absolutely Thomas at the facts.
Look like street, that's Solomon time on the West. I'm I'm going to replace this roster phone once you cut back to the crib and you get Mama's home cooking bro.
But he's you.
You can just tell that energy wise, he's rejuvenated.
He's you know, hyped to go.
But one thing I wrote in one of the science labs after Salomon Thomins was signed was and I love that you pointed out that Osa is excited about it. There's several reasons Osa is excited about it, but here's the primary reason.
It's because Osa now gets to.
Rest Okay, he gets to remain fresh as the game goes on. When I went back and I looked at Osa's defensive snap count since he came into the league in twenty twenty one, fifty seven percent of the snaps in twenty one, comparable in twenty two at fifty four percent, comparable in twenty three at sixty percent, ballooned in twenty twenty four to.
Seventy eight percent. Seventy eight percent.
Now, keep in mind, this is a guy you just gave a cornerstone contract to four years with some serious money, right. You want him around for the long run, and you want him being able to impact games over the totality of four quarters. But what you saw in twenty twenty four is more often than not, he started to wear down in the second half. He started to wear down
in the second half of the season. Solomon Thomas's presence helps prevent that from happening because the drop off in talent, if you want to argue that there is any it's marginal. It's marginal versus pre Solomon Thomas, where when Osa came off the field, it was a precipitous drum. Yeah, right, in impact and productivity. So when you look at what Solomon Thomas brings to the table, and then you look at how prepared he is to make an impact as early as day one with just being a specimen.
That's exciting to me. That's just flat out exciting.
It's Jossome, really Jossome.
But I like it.
On the offensive side of things, I know there was a lot of buzz around the wide receiver room around Pickens and Lamb.
It's hard to see those guys go full force.
Currently because they're just kind of rotating in and of course Pickens is learning the playbook as we go along. One guy that really did stand out, two guys actually, both pass catchers that are on the fringe of making the roster and being around one of them Jalen Cropper, who is just an all time practice team member. I feel like every year at this time and every year of training camp, we'll talk about proper.
It's true, this will be year three that he's made the all practice, all.
Training and he's been decent in the preseason, but it's just not the same whenever he's out there catching six or seven passes over and over, and it's not just from the backups.
It's not Will Greer throwing on the rock.
It's Joe Milton and Dak Prescott that are also throwing it to Jalen Cropper. He had more targets than any other receiver during our time out there as the media portion wrapped up. So yeah, kind of interesting to see how he's taking a step forward. And if you want to talk about a guy that looks like a juggernaut but can still run and can catch the football, his name is.
Brevin span four tight end.
Oh Man, big Phil. This is a big dude. And he was hauling, he was pulling away. He had to catch over the middle and he took off and he was pulling away from the secondary that was on the field at that point.
Janye Thomas was trying to catch up to the gay.
You know what his weight is right now? It's not It's probably what he told me when I asked him. Yeah, I sized him up myself. I was like, I was like, bro, what is that one of.
The ones where the attendants were up? Yeah? Because I look at him, he dwarfs me. Right. So I'm looking.
I'm like, Brom, I'm six three, two fifty five right now. He's like, I'm like, how much are you going right now? He's like, I'm like two seventy said, I'm sorry, what was that. He's houling and moving that mass too. He's the biggest tight end in the room. Oh easy, Absolutely, not just my height.
Absolutely, and that's saying a lot because Schoolmaker is not a small and.
Not at all. He's a large human too, not a small.
Ye, Brevin span Ford looks like Lebron James playing basketball, I mean playing football, Like.
That's what it looks like.
He's not as long and lanky, of course as as Lebron is, but man.
I'm looking forward to his development.
Man, Yeah, this might be a year where of course we've talked about John Stevens before as like a tight end three option, Brevin span Ford is quickly moving his self.
Further and further up the depth chart. Somebody to keep an eye on as we.
Get agree, and they'll be fund at training him for.
Sure, especially as we all sit and wait to see if John Stevens Junion can stay healthy.
It's a big one that he's not back on the field yet.
So this is going to be a critical summer for John Stevens.
And Ravaldo Fairweather was the cowboys lone remaining draftable grade that was still available going into the undrafted free agent portion.
So fair Weather.
As a tight end there, I bumped it as a tight end. There has a little bit of h sponsor in the room. There are some people that really like what fair Weather can do out of Auburn. He had a drop in the OTA practice that was open to the media, So it's a little bit different than than what we saw from Brevin spam Ford. But again, only one OTA practice and only one open to the media.
What did you see from Tyler Neville? Another?
Yeah, at that time, didn't see a whole lot.
But see, this is what I mean when I say let's let's give the rookies some time to of course, because they rookie Minnie Camp okay, getting their feet with OTAs, they're starting out with the veterans now still getting their feet wet. I'm reticent to kind of say anything about rookie progress until we see them in Oxnard on the field after a couple of practices. Until then, they're just kind of going through the motions that are laid in
front of them. Right, it's the veterans that I'm looking at in OTAs.
How did Joe Milton look?
How did Joe Milton look?
And so in the media portion, he was on and off. It was kind of.
Okay in regards to accuracy.
Yeah, he missed a couple passes, especially downfield. There was one that I know he's severely under through, which is not a problem for He.
Had a really nice scamper too off ten years It was at least ten yard takeoff. But I mean, just the athleticability is there for sure.
You can see he can he can run, he can get up and go. From people that I've talked to within the building, they are very impressed. And these are people that don't necessarily sugarcoat it, like their coaches and their their scouts, and they're watching everything. They like Joe Milton. They're happy for him or happy to have him.
I'm really excited to see this QB to do. I'm really excited because as as much as Joe Milton needs to bringing to the table, what I want to see from Will Griar is which version of Will Gris shows up right?
Is it the version that.
Kind of did what he could to try his best behind Cooper Rush, but he couldn't really you know, supplant Cooper Rush. Or is it the one that showed up when after the Cowboys traded for Trey Lance and that same day basically told him, Hey, we're gonna end up letting you go, but we're going to let you go out there and show what you can really do and
just unleash, just take over the game. And he did exactly that with four touchdowns and you know, some on the ground, some in the air over three hundred yards.
If that Will Gris shows up time and again.
And I'm not saying one way or another, Milton, if you had to make me put money on it, which I can, good Hell, I'm not putting money on it. I would say Milton has the lead right now. But if Will Greer, if that version of Will Grill shows up and Milton can't sit back at all.
I would love that.
I don't know if it's much of a competition, No, I don't see it.
I see it.
I see this as Milton one, as a younger prospect that they're trying to build on high side. Correct, they're trying to build towards the upside.
They invested in twenty eighteen.
It was a hot minute ago. We're getting further and further from that Heisman vote here, Pat, But the facts you're right that it's a fact, but I don't see it as as that much.
And that's that's one hundred speaking from a competition.
Yeah, what I'm saying is.
I would love to see if will Grear can make someone like Kyle with a justifiable take like that. I love having and Isaiah and Josh and see like raising eyebrow, like, oh for sure, here's a competitive.
I like him.
Does my prediction at the RB one position still look like Williams is his prediction?
I'd say yes, so far he's taking the first snaps.
But again, veterans and OTAs, let the rookies. I'm not weighing that until I get the training camp. Let's see who begins with first team, who gets most of the first team, and who does what with their first team rest.
The only person who's been here for the last period of time has been Dusbon, So yeah, Javonte Williams. I'm looking. I'm excited to see what he can do well.
Brian toimer Heimer was given the flowers to one hundred lifkey in his last press conference, so.
We know he's not gonna RB one. I know.
I'm just I'm just talking about just guys in terms of that competing for that spot. Everybody who's truly competing for that spot has is having their first impressions with.
This coaching staff.
What's interesting about the Hunter lip Key equation is he gets a lot of praise and a lot of roses from the coaching staff, the previous coaching staff, and even the incoming coaching staff. He gets plenty of roses from analysts, he gets plenty of roses from the fans, but time and again it just doesn't translate to them giving him action on the field to points where sometimes we sit here and get frustrated, like you last year, for example, you needed a short yardist back.
Why not just unleash Hunter?
And can't keep punishing him that.
I was gonna point to that.
I No, I agree, that's im. You can't keep punishing him for that.
Yeah, but he was in the dock hats but for for a minute, Well you did jack.
The head coach that had him in the doghouse from that is no longer here.
So let's see if the new head coach.
Who has something that gives coaches PTSD it truly does.
Like I understand, it was one mistake. Everybody's over a second.
I agree understand the the damage, the psychological damage that doesn't coaches like it's embedded in their head, like that is the one thing that they're like, h no, on the one did get that.
Really lose the game? Or yes? Or was it listening not taking the right angle? That too.
He's not on the team anymore either, Bro, He's been on some He put on some weight too.
So all I'm saying is it's interesting to see because all of us, we all love what Hunter Lipkey brings to the table, his skill set, his flexibility, versatility even as a weapon out of the backfield at times. But it's not translated yet. Let's see if it starts to translate with Shahamer.
And will Schottenheimer commit to having a full back full time because he doesn't have to teams and a lot of times.
Don't you he's been a part of don't you say that? See where they they.
Haven't done it quick before? Before we go to break what's his linebacker competition looking like?
Let's talk about it on the other side of the what is the linebacker competition looking like? And do you feel better about the linebacker competition than me? We thought we would when we come back with more talking cowboys.
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To talking Cowboys back, I'm talking about.
Back again.
That wasn't the Mic Patrick, No s Walker. We've got Josh Roderiguez. We've got Isaiah's him back.
So like Pops, I got caught off guard the cartoons on the toilet. That's not the way I want to start by morning, All right? Linebacker conversation, gentlemen. Linebackers added in the off season, guys like Jack Sanborn, Kenneth Murray, Uh, the departure of Eric Kendricks, the innovailable or the inavailability unavailability of of a guy named the Marvi and overshown. It's kind of shaken up linebacker as a whole. The schamar James and what he's brought from a rookie standpoint
has been exciting to see. Do you feel better about linebacker right now than you did going, let's say, into free agency? Do you feel better about what it feels like at linebacker and do you feel like you can see this group surviving through the course of the season.
I feel much better about linebacker at this point, especially when you have a Marvin Overstown potentially possibly maybe might come back during the season, he says by Thanksgiving.
But well, I don't know.
We'll see, he said, I'm going to be active in that game.
It's what he tweeted. Oh no, I've learned not to doubt that young man.
No, no, not at all. And I'm not even saying that. I just mean, like, we don't do not know, We don't know. We will find out during the season, hopefully. My thing is, I'm surprised to see a guy like Jack Sanborn, who I think is wearing the green dot out there taking first snaps, and then Kenneth Murray.
I like his athletic ability.
I'm surprised Kenneth Murray is not getting the nod over Jack Sanborn right now. But then again, it is really early.
It is Ota had this conversation.
We had this conversation. He said, it would be Samborne and you you.
Were edging toward Jack Sanborn over Kenneth Murray, like early on when we were talking about it. And I think for all of us. It was sort of like a oh, yeah, Kenneth Murray, he has more of the pedigree, but in this defense, it might be Jack Sanbourne.
Yeah, and I believe it'll be Jack Samborne, just as I believed when we had the conversation.
It's still early.
It is still early, and we'll see how it shakes out. Training camp will tell the hotel. But when you talk about comfort level with Eberflus, Jack Sanborne has that prepackaged. So for nothing else, that's going to be the starting point for why I believe that Jack Sanborne was going to take the lead there, and thus far he is taking the lead. Now, can Kenneth Murray, you know, supersede him by the time preseason is over? Absolutely he can. Keneth Murray has a very versatile skill set.
He's a big guy.
He can hit, he can cover sideline, the side line, he can operate in blitz packages. I would like to see his coverage improved, but it's not poor.
He's closer in trades to de Marvin Overshaw.
Agreed, which is why you would expect to see him in good chunks of defensive snap counts going forward. But to answer the question, I'm right there with Josh I, how can you not feel better about where they aren't linebacker versus where they were standing ahead of free agency, Because ahead of free agency, first and foremost, you had nothing. Basically you had Marist, you had Merist, and you still still don't know what Dabone Clark's going to give you.
So we're going to circle back. So you had Merist because you don't know when the Marion Overshowan will be ready. He's telling us, and he told me a few weeks ago during the Jersey change announcement to the number zero. So shouts out to agent zero. He told me that he would be on the field before the season is over. But again, this is a medical situation.
We don't know.
We can hope that that's the case. So you look at the stable hand only being Marist Leafoul. Now you fast forward to now and they've made the trade for Kenneth Murray, they've signed sample In a free agency you go and you you get guys like Shamar James, you got Shavon Revel. Justin Barron comes in looking like a prototype, right, what can that young man do? So if you look at the talent, yes, it's there's a lot of raw
talent needs to be polished, needs to be refined. But then add that to the category of what is it that Matt Eberflus excels in?
What position does Hee excel with? Again? Linebakers? Linebackers? Okay, okay, so yeah, feel good? Feel detackle?
Well I should say feel better. I feel better. I'm not going to say I feel good yet.
So let me let me what would it take for you to feel good?
I gotta see him, I got I gotta see him in training camp. I got to see these young guys in preseason. I gotta yeah, I gotta see them on film. And honestly, that might take, you know, until week three before I can tell you if I feel good. But I do feel better than I did before free agency.
I'm with you there, And at least for me training camp, it's so hard to actually grade linebacker play like I just I can't do it.
On a slip.
Frankly, I'm you're seeing him out there and they're in the right positions, but you don't know if that that is a tackle or not, you know, And and at least for me my first camp, I was like, how do you how are we like I would think I was asking Kyle or I was asking somebody like, exactly how are we grading linebackers?
Because I just think it was you and I had that conversation.
We were standing on the side of the fence and basically I'm like, you can't can't talk about physicality.
Because I was just like, I was like, wait a second, what are we doing?
But you got to look at where they're going to be and if they're making the right.
Read Eric Kendrick Witness told the show at linebacker training camping.
Malea foul, I thought the same thing. The way he was able to demo, the way that they in their first camps were able to explode to the football and.
Be there knifing through and getting through pressure, things like that.
I think there's a lot of ways you can, Like you said, there's ways that you can evaluate and there are other ways where you're just playing in simple can't even Brian Schottenheimer talking about running backs in a similar light, he said, it's hard to really evaluate running backs while they're wearing shorts.
You just you can't. You can't really see it a whole lot.
But you can see the vision, you can see their explosiveness, But are you going to break a tackle? Are you gonna get around that guy? And are you gonna make on the opposite side? Exactly the same thing as linebackers. So it is interesting to kind of feel that out as the season goes on, especially when they're not even in pads yet and they're just wearing shells and helmets and that's all they've got out there.
And I I think you don't really know until camp or sorry Preseseason, Yeah, I think that's when you find an answer to like, Okay, who's actually your guy?
Yeah?
What do you think about the linebacker corps as a whole?
Yeah, I gotta see him, you know me, I gotta do to eye tests. I mean, obviously they've got some names, some guys that come in, Yeah, exactly, Pops.
I think there's some guys.
That are looking for opportunities that are currently on the roster, and I think there's some some veterans that have come into the room that that's gonna come obviously with some accolades that some of the younger guys may not already have, And it's going to be one heck of a competition.
Those preseason games are.
Going to matter more than huge than you could ever imagine for that for that particular position group.
I want to kind of transition a little bit of here. This is a conversation that was brought up on one of the other podcasts. I'll let Josh kind of lead this a little bit.
Uh.
Top thirty two wide receiver rankings. This was released by Pro Football Focus. I'm interested to see. I haven't looked at the list. Isaiah's not looked at the list, as far as I'm concerned. Pat's not looked at the list. So we're seeing this blind for the first time. Right, top thirty two wide receivers in football going into training camp? Where do you feel like our guys rank? And you want to ask that question first, Well, there are tiers in this list. Let me let me put that on.
The tears, or there are tiers of there were probably both, probably some tiers.
But there are six tiers. So consider that in your ranking.
Is it divided by what it's They're all.
Kind of different.
Yeah, yeah, there's no exact number two each tear, But just consider that, where would you guys place ceed Lamb in the top thirty two of NFL wide receivers according to Pro Football Focus?
Where would I.
For me, he's he's right there with Jamar Chase, He's right there with Justin Jefferson.
Top three for me, he's.
In the second.
I'll put him at six. I put him at like seven or eight.
Yeah, right there he is at number six six, Yeah, all right above him.
Pookin Nikoua at number five.
Pat Okay. Who are the guys that are in front of him?
Yeah, above him? Pookin nkuat number five.
Yeah. See, I would put Lamb above him.
An I'm on rossat and Brown torot Lions. That's fair number four, Jamar Chase number three, I'd argue against it. Justin Jefferson number two, yeah, yes, and yes A J.
Brown number one.
As much as I hate that, it's probably fair number one.
Yeah, number one. On AJ Brown.
They're saying AJ Brown is better than Justin Jefferson. That's not and Jamar Chase, Yes, throw the whole list away. This is awful, throw it away?
Serious? Isaya thought fired into the sun?
Yeah that I'm I don't have a problem with CD being S six, But yes, the top.
Three AJ I can see top five, yeah, but no on Yeah, but number number.
One is crazy, that's wild. Justin Jefferson number one.
So I already hate this list, but let's.
Get where did you guys play? George Pickens on the thirty two.
Not thirty two.
I think he's in the top thirty two.
I don't. I do think he's in the top thirty two.
I put him at like twenty three, twenty four, top twenty, top twenty.
That's that's you're crazy. Let me tell you about this, this national champion out of Georgia.
You're crazy, all right, right, all right?
Oh, of the thirty two top NFL wide receivers recording of Pro Football Focus, George Pickens is not on a list.
I think that's not on the list.
I think that's why. Don't you think it's harsh? I don't think.
Well, obviously he hasn't had a consistent QB play, so regardless of future abilities are you can't put out your production if you don't have consistency at that position, so you're tied to the production of the quarterback.
That's where I would argue he should be in the top thirty two because even with inconsistent QB plays, he still managed to produce. He still managed to be a top ten player in terms of yards per catch on average. So why because he hasn't finished lower than seventh in that category in the three years throughout his career, when, of course, in twenty twenty three when he had his breakout year, that was a completely different type of player, when he had a little bit of consistency QP.
Wise, I think it's fair to say though, it's the output, and you know you're looking at Pro Football Focus, who is taking in that into account the statistics that are there, And he hasn't had consistent quarterback play, So I totally understand.
Yeah, and if you look at what the Eagles have done to tistically, it kind of makes sense.
Okay, so far my problem with with Pickings not being on the top thirty two list.
Is who else is not?
Right?
I figured I figured there would be one or two names when I because I went to the list.
Now I'm looking at and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Okay, So start from thirty two. Yeah, from thirty.
Two, Okay, So at thirty two they have Jamison Williams with the Detroit Lions, Courtland Sutton thirty one, right, who that was one who was speculated that the Cowboys might have been interesting before they make a trade for the pickings for pickings.
Deebo Samuel, No, no, no, not this version.
Now that's for name recognition a lot, because.
This version of now Samuel not at all Josh Downs No, no, okay. And here's where really I started to get pissed. Though she Rice, Now it's better than George Pickens.
No not right now?
No always said, was he ever? No to be fair, had a twenty three yeap injured twenty four? Fine, but if you look at skill set and consistency of productivity, and consistency or productivity with a carousel of poor quarterback play versus you got Patrick Mahomes.
Okay, that guy's pretty good.
So and it goes from there, and and then you could start to argue, right because then you got JSJ with Seattle. Now it becomes arguable, Marvin Harrison Junior becomes it becomes it becomes arguable. But so I feel like the justifiable argument, did can George Pickens climb into the top twenty seven or twenty six on this list? But having him out of the top thirty two when I'm dropping names like Rice and this version of Deebo sam You'll get fired.
This list into the Sun Well and Rashi.
Rice missed a lot of last year too. He missed a ton of time due to injury, due to off the field stuff.
There was there was a lot going on with Ryan last year.
He's whereas if you're gonna hold that against Pickens and the fact that they had nine hundred dollars last year, then why is he not on the list?
And right now, I just think if you put them side by side and you had a choice as to, hey, which one do you would you place on your roster or which one would you start your receiving roster with, I think you're probably going with Rice. No disrespect to Picking, that's sure. Yeah, I mean he's just I think he's a personally, I believe he's a more versatile receiver. I'm
looking at terms of offerings at this list. Zay Flowers twenty five, Marvin Harrison Junior twenty six, Jackson Smith and jig But twenty seven.
That's right around where I right there, pick I think I would put it rafter.
That's that's when you start having the argument about Okay, fine, but to not having him in the top thirty two is egregious.
As far as this Brown at number one.
And this is me objectively speaking, not because aj is wearing an Eagles uniform, but he is not better than Justin.
It doesn't help our chase. I mean it doesn't help.
But deego, Samuel on this list is offensive. Yeah, right now, I don't see it this version.
If this was twenty twenty, I think he's a better option.
I think you don't even know what you get when he gets packed.
Hey, you don't where he's going. He's not. I don't think he's on this lish Is that nineteen? Is he? Yep?
But yeah, I like good player though he's a player.
I like Brandon Aik said every team has a number one nineteen.
That tier five through twenty nine.
I think I'm not because by by saying that, George and again listen, I haven't watched him since he's been here. By saying he's he's he's uh, he's in the top thirty two, you're saying that he's better than another team's number one.
That's the statement.
Yeah, and there are a couple of teams that have right Lions at Oh yeah, there's none of that to multiple.
Lions, multiple Eagles, multiple.
Rams, Nikua and Adam Adams, multiple Commanders, McLaurin and Samuel.
They put Terry McLaurin at.
Ten deebo is on this list. Terry, this version of debo is on this list.
Not the debo of Bold Yeah, not Friday Debo.
Not Friday Debo, not as scared of the debo that got Whoop Buck Craig multiple Dolph.
Down. All right, I steal, I don't kill.
We will have more O TA news as the week goes along, and then we've got more practices going into next week as well. Uh, Cowboys OTA practices tomorrow is what's open to the media, and then next Tuesday right after talking cowboys as well.
So well, we'll talk.
About it when we get to that point in time. Be sure to follow Dallas Cowboys dot com all of Patrick's work on there, all of Josh's work on there. I'll have some stuff along with Tommy Yarish on the website as well. Isaiah, standback, are you going good morning football this week?
Next week?
So you've got good morning football? That should be a whole lot of fun as well. Be sure to check out Isaiah and the crew on NFL Network starting what is it? Five am Central?
No.
Seven Am? Central Oh. It's in early The late.
Show show easy Stuff five AM is ection site for Chris Beam in the back, Isaiah Standback, Josh Rodriguez, Patrick no Seawalker.
I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long from Talking Cowboys. We'll see you next week.
One hundred days.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.