Talkin' Cowboys: Backup Plan?

As we've got plenty to break down. Just one more preseason game on the docket for the twenty twenty one Dallas Cowboys. We've got three in the books. All three have been losses, and we're gonna talk about that coming up here just a couple of moments. So glad you're with us on Talking Cowboys alongside professional football analysts, heck My Harrison, we've got resident Super Bowl champion Isaiah stand back in, the Great Rob Phillips, Cowboys insider, I'm Kyle

Yeoman's and gentlemen, well let's go. Let's take a step back for a little bit. The Great Rob he Oh, of course, that's the Great let's take a step back. You. Oh hey, I'm sorry your allergies acted up to you. I had the double back crop. I thought my allergies were tripping you double back. It was a little dusty, it was a little yeah. Yeah, the Heppo filter not

working at great in my house apparently. No, you did a great job right out with we're of course talking about the Darren Woodson documentary that we alluded to on Thursday, A Path to Safety the Deep Blue. Rob Phillips was a huge hand and putting that together. Great shout out to Mats as well as a fantastic job. Darren loved it, right, I mean that's what he said to you, Yeah, he said,

he told Nick he really enjoyed it. Um. You know, Keith Tucker, his best friend who's featured that part, reached out. I think he enjoyed it. So that's that's always important. You want to make sure that Isaiah and I were just talking. You don't want to disrespect anybody, you want to misrepresent anybody's life. That's that's something you really take seriously. So I'm glad. I hope people watch it, hope people enjoyed it. Up there. Yeah, if you if you missed

it on Saturday. You can go watch it right now on demand. It's on Dallas Cowboys dot com. You can go find it there in the video section. It's also on YouTube correct, Yeah, on YouTube, Facebook, the website, anywhere you want to go check it out. So plenty of plenty of places. The Cowboys now app as well, which you can download on your fire, your Broku. You can watch it on the TV screen like you would any other documentary, and it really is worth your time. It

is fantastic, very well done. Again Rob Phillips on that and everybody that was involved with the Path to Safety. Got a couple more I think one more documentary that's coming out in the next week or two weeks or so. Two more. Two more. Yeah, So there's one over Draft Stories. It's called War Stories and it's about like inside Draft News. Yeah, really really cool. I got this very cool sneak peek at that trailer. Man that's it's the guy that's really cool.

That is sick. Yeah, I heard it was and sultry. Actually, who who might that be? I don't know, I don't know. Just check it out in two weeks. Sound good, We're gonna have to get it We're in a box and like two weeks from the from the podcast, you give Heckma mad props for what his voice sounds like on the documentary. Um, what's the other one that's coming out? Jesse Holly, Right, Yeah, which some really cool that's really cool, cool life and career story for him too, sounds really cool.

Two already out, we had The Path to Safety and then also the Drew Pearson documentary, which is such awesome, super fantastic, So lots to catch up on. If you want to binge Dallas Cowboys, you can watch Talking Cowboys. You can see our interview with Darren Woodson that was last Thursday. But let's talk about going on what we saw binge watching wise on Saturday, and that was the Cowboys and the Houston Texans. Is the Cowboys fall twenty

to fourteen? There? Now oh and three? In the preseason, Rob, you would like to get a couple of wins, you really would just to kind of get the ball rolling. Is there any concern about just, you know, the wheels falling off, even though it's not even the preseason, not really wheels falling off. That's a little dramatic, that's doomsday sounding, but they haven't won a preseason game. Yeah, I mean, is there any worry about what's going on right now? No? No,

not for me. I mean, Dak hasn't played. He hasn't he hasn't had a chance to get in there and give him a touchdown drive. You would hope Cooper Rush now leads the quarterbacks in terms of touchdown passes in preseason with two on Saturday Night. And we had a discussion about the backup quarterback situation the other day, and I think, and I brought it up to I mean, to me, there's still some questions on the offense in terms of your backup quarterback, who's your backup quarterback, who's

your swing tackle, who's your backup center. I don't know if those have been fully all fully addressed. I mean, I think your backup center is probably Connor Williams and you're gonna have to live with some growing pains there. But those other two positions, I don't know what the answer is yet. And backup quarterback got more interesting coming out of Saturday Night. Definitely did Garrick Hilbert win three of five? He saw what one? Two series? I guess

two series series? My goodness, Yeah, I mean he was in there quick. Is that? Is that something to take note in Isaiah absolutely, especially in a quote unquote dress rehearsing, Yeah, he got snatched out the game. He's gonna say it just as about as blatantly as we can say. I think, so, yeah, he got snatched because he got hook That was not that was that straight saying man, you know, a night at the Apolo, get off the stage because you're messing up um, and we're not about to sting up this

whole game. So there's there's a thing to it. You know, you kind of alluded to it very beginning there. You know, things were kind of getting off the rails there for a second. It was ugly, and you know in that game three in the preseason, the most important preseason game. I think we talked about that last week as well. So you can't afford to let this thing get off the rails in the preseason game early. You just can't because then you're gonna have four quarters of just bad football.

So they got them about it there relatively quickly, and they got it back on the rails when rush came in a game. Mike McCarthy said he was asked that question, did you take him out sooner than you planned? And he said, we wanted to balance out the reps with Cooper Rush. So that's that's the head coaches. But the thing about it is, to your point, it's like, has this felt like a real backup competition within the roster

until Saturday night? Not not so much. I feel like it's more Garrett Gilbert competing against anybody else that might come available. And you know, and Cooper Rush has played pretty well, but every first team rep has gone to Garrett Gilbert. Absolutely, yeah, there really hasn't been any fluctuation. Do you guys feel that that change this week? I think so. I think I think it definitely that you

think so. Yeah. I really felt bad for Garrett Gilbert, like you said, getting the hook, and I think it was a sack that did it for him, and he was patting that ball and just didn't have any pocket awareness. And absolutely absolutely, And you've also pointed out, you know, the way that the receivers interact with him and knowing whether the ball is gonna get completed or not. But I thought that when Cooper, when Rush came in, things like you said, gout back on the rails and you

saw the offense move more efficiently. I was really happy to see Kelly Moore's offense work and click the way that it did. Ralston guys like that at the fullback. I love this guy. He's gonna be my favorite. I'm telling you right now if he makes the team. I just love what they bringing the fullback into play. It's like a lost art, right. But the things that we've been talking about, red zone efficiency and things like that, we saw Kelly Moore put together a few drives and

that was all Rush doing that. So and I I wrote about it during the OTA's about this position. Was Garrett Gilbert's to lou Well, if you're doing the underwear Olympics and you don't have to worry about pressure and you can just let that thing rip. He did a really good job of that. But the clock is just

not going off in his head. He's patting the ball and to that point, heck, some of the things that Garrett Gilbert was struggling with right in terms of holding onto the ball, in terms of getting to his reads and making quick decisions, Rush came in and had I mean, it was a direct comparison. Now he had the same

situations where nobody was open. There was a quote unquote coverage, sacks, sacks, and Rush took off right, got a first down, slid, get whatever the artists you can pop up and get back in the huddle, right, getting to your first second, third read sometimes right, making those quick decisions whenever you know, I said, of throwing the ball back and across coverage, what did Rush do? He came in and threw the ball away right. He had those opportunities to make those

same mistakes that Gilbert was making. Now, whether it had been he had an opportunity to see that right live and in in action to say, when I get him opportunity, I'm not going to do the same thing, or he just naturally was making better decisions. Either way, instinctively, he was doing better than Gilbert was. And I think that was a direct comparison from the time that Gilbert left the games the time Rush came in. What is that?

What is the hesitancy that you're seeing with Gilbert not trusting what he's saying, because you know in the in the NFL, those windows are very small, and most quarterbacks are throwing guys open, waiting for them to be If there's an anticipation. So yeah, so what you're touching base on right now is a quarterback. You can't wait in this league. You can't wait till somebody is actually open. You can't wait Heckman Harrison's running around, He's running a

ten yard out route. I can't wait for Heckma to put his right foot in the ground and plan to go open up to the left side, and then wait from him to turn his head look at me, show his hands and say hey, I want the ball, because that when by the time I release the ball to the time and gets in your hands, that window has closed. So what am I doing. I am anticipating that you're going to be open. I see your leverage on the on the defensive back or whatever it may be, and

I know that you're going to be open. And I trust that because we have that symmetry where I'm gonna release the ball, you come out, your break ball is going to be there on time. Boom. That's not happening with Gary Gilbert. He's questioning that, whether that's his relationship with the receivers, whether that's a timing thing, or whether he's just waiting for literally somebody just to come wide open. Either way, it's not working out for him, and and

that's okay because that's what happens in a preseason. However, you have to turn it up and say, guess what, I can't throw the ball right now, run on that ball. And where he got strip sacked right there, he had fifteen twenty yards of open space in front of him. I don't care if you're Tom Brady, go run with them, gimpy legs or whatever you got. And then they left in the tank, So go get you some yards, right he go get you some yards. So that's all the coaches want to see is make you see you make

good informed decisions. It doesn't matter if it's a big play, move the chains. That has happened a couple of times in the red zone in the first couple of games as well. And usually what you just said, like you see it with younger quarterbacks, and he hasn't played a lot in the NFL, but he's been around a while. I think you see it with the Nucci where you know he's not he's not trusting what he sees fast enough.

And that's normal for a young quarterback. But and obviously he struggling the game with every interceptions and their polar opposites, right, So Gary Gilbert holds the ball forever and the Nucci just throws it up right sometimes, so trying to make something. He's just trying to make something happen. So they're they're polar opposites as well. So it's kind of the economy of these guys. It's kind of crazy because you got

the two extremes and you got Russia. He kind of comes in the middle and just like, that's what you're doing wrong, that's what you're doing around. Okay, I'm gonna playing in the middle right in position myself strategically to see how this thing shakes down. I thought he looked Cooper Rush looked like a guy that's been in Kellen Moore system for four years. He had stopped with the Giants. But other than that, he's he just looks like he's

got command of the systems comfort. A fan actually tweeted at me a couple of weeks ago or a couple of days ago, and said, if you put if you combine Cooper Rush's skill set with what the Nucci does, well like that might be your number two quarterback because Ducie's got the arm talent, you know, but Cooper seems maybe most comfortable with all the three guys with the offense. But we'll see. And they responded to him, but has has your stance changed on the backup quarterback being on

this ross? No, okay, no backup quarterbacks in my eyes is still not on his rost. And I still think that the Cowboys need to And I know, I mean, I don't want get it put me in the principals suce. I'm not a GM. However, my suggestion would be, you're gonna have to make a big trade. You're going to have to make a big trade this week before before the preseason game. I don't know that the Cowboys know this for sure. I don't think they do for certain.

I mean, Mike was asked after the game if he wrote about this, has he seen enough evidence that Gilbert or Rush will be the number two guy? Clarence Hill asked that question. He said, well, we have one more week and we're gonna need it. That's why that was his answer. So, I mean, look, I mean, the Cowboys have made no secret to you guys point like they're going to keep their options open. They worked out two guys in the offseason. They're not married to the backup

quarterback situation. The problem is who's out there? What can you fit under the cap? All that stuff? But Pete, when you paid account of money that you paid a number one guy, you don't want to hear anything about Well here we are talking about the number two, but you just the number one guy. Yeah, but you have you got to prepare yourself for the worst case scenario because last year was the worst case scenario. So if you go into this year again underneath those same Now,

last year was a dog on F five tornado. Everything happened. Not only was in the bad storm, but the whole dog on town got wiped out. Right. But that's the thing is, if it wasn't a tornado, if it wasn't everything in front of the quarterback got wiped out along with the corn, you would have felt okay with Andy Dalton at the helm was Yes, every I think everybody did. But everything went wrong about Everythinge was not a good look regardless. I kind of want to go back to

Cooper Rush. You want to add something real quick? No, I was thinking about this the other day. Go ahead, I'll save it. It's kind of okay, It's a little winding. Okay, we'll save it for a second, but I want to go back to Cooper Rush because we're talking about the confidence, the comfortableness of what he was able to do in Calamore's offense. I've seen it, I think over the last couple of weeks, and Rob you could probably attest to this that has grown exponentially and visibly from Cooper Rush

ever since day one at Oxnard until this point. I mean, you have seen the confidence continue to grow because he came in did look great at the beginning, and now he has since then kind of taken every step along the way to get back to where he was I think before he even went before he was not on the roster anymore. Do you see that same kind of deal with Cooper Rush and the confidence that's continuing to grow. Yeah. And I asked him after the game about his comfort

level in Kellen's offense. He definitely has that. And the other thing too, is I forgot that he had a couple things injury wise that he's been dealing with since they got to Oxnard. He had up some back spasms early and he had a shoulder thing that came out

of the Canton game. So he's been a little banged up, and maybe it's a matter of being healthy, you know, because he let me say this, I will say, Garrett Gilbert, over the last month and you've seen it, you're out there, he's had some good practices, he's done well, he's had some good stretches where he's played well. And that number one offense deal. But is it enough? You know, it

is enough for them to stop looking. Cooper Rush looked like the number two quarterback on Saturday Night based on production. Cooper Rush played like someone that knew his job was on the line, you know. I mean, these guys are not blind to the fact that if we don't get this done, this game or the nixt I don't put enough on tape, I may not be here. The Cowboys are, They're gonna get this number two guy with or without me. I would rather it be with And he played like that.

He had the offense moving like that. He I mean, and the one thing that he didn't do didn't turn over the ball, didn't make costly mistakes. And that's the thing from an organizational standpoint that you want to see just don't lose it for us. I mean, we want you to make plays, but and be the proverbial bus driver? Can you do that? If we have our full litany of guys here, can you bust drive us to a victory? Because that's all you want from your number two quarterbacks?

If you guys were wearing your GM hats right now, what move would you do? Would you stay with one of these guys or are you going out and trying to make a big trade? I would trade. I think I'm on your boat from what I think you're definitely looking around to see what you can do to potentially upgrade. I think you have to do that. The closer you get to these last cuts, you're starting to see more

teams need quarterbacks. Sure, so like you're you're your window of opportunity as we talking about wind those right, window opportunity is really dwindling right in terms of the level of competition that you're gonna have for those remaining quarterbacks, there's only a handful of them out there that are probably realistically attainable. What are you going to do? That's the part that scares me though, because if indeed there is a higher price or excuse me, a higher need

on the quarterbacks, there will be a higher price. You're gonna see premiums paid out for backup quarterbacks because there are teams that have stashed them. There are teams with multiple backup quarterbacks. I mean, look at the Bills, look at the Bears. I mean there are multiple teams that could they could say, all right, come on, give me your best offer. Let's figure this out. I don't know how much the Cowboys would have to offer without giving

up some kind of comfortable level elsewhere. That's my biggest It comes backups are not at a premium. And when you talk about a backup quarterback is though. But you talk about teams like Chicago, let's say San Francisco, they have two young quarterbacks that are kind of making headway in the preseason. Do you it is the future now

for those teams? And you start and I'm not gonna say any names and get in trouble, but I'm just saying, like, there's those situations where teams like the Cowboys, would you know, go and say, look, we want to present this trade for you're a guy vice versa. Are those teams knowing that you're in a desperate situation? Are they hoarding those

because we want to bleed you as dry. The answer, the answer is yes, And I think the perfect scenario for the Cowboys obviously is analyzing their roster and seeing where are we deepest? Right, where are we deepest? And hopefully we're we're deepest. That's the same area that that this team that has backup. I think that question, I think we think. I think we have the most competition

at the defensive back right now. I think that's where it runs to mean you're deepest though in terms of competition level, Yes, because I think we have the most talented in terms of depth. Right, if we have one one first, bring our second stream go down, do we still have guys that we feel we can play with? An answer is yes. You don't have that top guy, that top as, you don't have a you don't have a bunch of absolutely right, you don't have all pro whatever.

But if you have, you have some very competitive guys that'll go three D easily. Right. So I think you're hoping that one of those teams that have a three deep quarterback situation needs that same position that you're deep in because you're now in a position to deal one of those guys to fit their need while they fit your need and that takes them the advantage of way. The one thing I will say about this, and I'll pass it to you, Rob, is if you're trying to

go get let's let's just throw Andy Dalton. I know I can't even say specific games. Let's just say you're gonna go try and get a quarterback. You're not gonna trade a Jordan Lewis or Anthony Brown for a starting I guess depend backup quarterback depends on where your number one is, and we don't know that. We don't know the extent of that. If it is, well a month thing, then you that's what you said, Well you're talking about about this before. Then you see a drastic move like that,

and that'll tell you everything you need to know. And they've done that. I mean they've thrown draft picks at when Romo broke his collar own in twenty fifteen, they went got Matt Castle. They they'll throw a pick out there and you can do that. Now, what did that take? Do you remember? Oh, it was like a fifth maybe Matt waspsing seventh or something like that. But there's there's teams calling I'm seeing there's teams calling for office Ave Lineman.

Oh yeah, so, I mean, you know, it really just depends on the needs of the team that you're talking to. You just hope that if you are going to make that move, that they are in a need of a position that you're willing to do. I do think it's to your point, had because you kind of let me where I was going. It's important to kind of bring it back to QB one and just just clear it that every he's okay. Every he's fine. He went through his pregame throwing session. It was fifty something throws. That's

what they wanted to fifty two. He looked really good. No issues everything we've heard, no issues. I know there's been reports out there suggesting he I don't get what what was that about. I didn't really hear about it till I got to the stadium. It was was it esp in? Was it a rapper? Poor thing? Why does he do that? Man? He drops a bump. I don't even know if it was like an official like source report. They have said something some screenshot. Are you talking about

dan Quinn? Sorry I was reading up. No, I'm saying this is something maybe Adam Schefter had said about Dak conversation and he got picked up. He may not be ready for the first game. He may not be one hundred percent, But I mean I agreed with this with his statement, Well, I didn't disagree with this statement. His statement was alluding to what we've talked about in the past. Not only now is he dealing with trying to come back from an ankle, but now he's dealing with overcoming

a shoulder. So did he did he ever get to one hundred percent? I think was a chef's question, like, is he did he ever even have a chance to get to one hundred percent? So if you've never even had a chance to get to one hundred percent from the ankle because he had to deal with the shoulder. Now, is he ready going into the season? Is he had one hundred percent going into the season? That is he ready? Is he one hundred percent? I think the ankle's good. I know the ankle's good. I think he's in good

shape with where the shoulder is. Right now. It sounds like he's going to more of this week in practice, not gonna play in this game Sunday. They're just gonna get him ready for the opener. I think that this discussion is more about the importance of having that depth because you mentioned Andy Dalton, like, and this is where I was going earlier, is I think some fans say, well, if if that goes down, you're screwed anyway, right, and

you're not gonna win the super Bowl. But I think the counterpoint that is, like two thousand and eight, Romo breaks his pinky finger in Arizona, misses three games. They just needed three games out of their backup quarterback to just kind of keep them afloat, and they lost two or three and they lost the last week of the season when Romo and they got blown out by Philly and missed the playoffs in a year that they were supposed to be contending for the Super Bowl. You bring

them back fan trauma right now. I'm sorry, that is like Silver Linings playbook forty four to six game and like, but that's that's what you That's why you got to feel good about your backup quarterback is even hopefully it's not the last that's eleven weeks like Dak last year, but maybe it's three games that maybe something pops up and you got to make sure in a tight division race, you're okay. You know, that's why it's important. But at

one more thing about Cooper Rush. Okay, your point. He does look more comfortable and maybe the Cowboys must be seeing that for them to decide, Hey, let's even this out a little bit. Let's see him behind the first offensive line. You know that's they clearly have seen enough in practice to give him that opportunity. And that was a good sign. To see our just real quick, our ones.

And to see Tyrn Smith, to see Lall Collins, We've seen him on preseason, but to see Zach Martin, just to see the full You know that those five guys together, and I thought it was important for them to get some run. And man, we just when they were in you could tell the difference in the offense the way they did it flow, not the turnal, not the turnal was and all the other stuff. So I've got a crazy hypothetical for you guys before we go to break. Oh I love the tea, so I'm gonna should I

should I save it. I'm gonna save it for the next break. I've got a hypothetical around the quarterback position. We're gonna pick three weeks this season. I want you to tell me what the record would be with each of the three quarterbacks we currently have on the roster behind Dak Blot. When we return here on Talckey cowboys say, Honey, big news, Gary. Are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone,

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Do Moore slore to talk in Cowboys. The final Cowboys preseason game of the year is this Sunday, August twenty ninth at at and T Stadium. Don't miss your last chance to see the Cowboys prepare for the twenty twenty one season. A limited number of single games tickets are on sale now. Get yours today at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash tickets once again. Final preseason game, and then the Cowboys go on the road for the first two

weeks of the year. So between August twenty ninth and September twenty seventh, this is your last chance to see the Cowboys at home, so you might as well stick it out. You might as well come to at and T Stadium and be a part of that Jaguars final preseason into a sideline will yeah, dog, you have been You're gonna take somebody job here pretty so d boy telling you, dude, I'm just super sidetracked. I've had so

much fun doing this, the sideline stuff. And of course that's not like a comfort level for me, like this that's all new for me specifically, But I've learned so much. It's been to go to dinner with this guy anymore. Man, People stopping this and you know saying, I mean between oh my god, you're yeah, between between the documentaries, the sideline voiceovers. I don't know what the heck I mean? Wait now can we can we even do it anymore? Who was in the booth last week? That is a mute.

You were there. You were there, and you talked and you made great points. There's there's only so much you can do. But yeah, Hey, the Cowboy's crew is on the ascension all the way through yea, hey, hey do you take that do Our whole crew is is elevating over here. You know what I'm saying. I heard you talk about you we threw over there yet you don't want to see us. Yeah, we haven't peaked yet. We're

not even in that fight. It's it's a yeah. I would love that if that happen, If if Chris just got in our ear and said, don't have him come down, I would love it if we got him. Come on now, all right, So I've got three games that I've picked out on the Cowboys schedule. I'm gonna give you a bye week beforehand too, So bye week Week seven, and then weeks eight nine in ten at Minnesota and then

at home against Denver at home against Atlanta. I want you to tell me to the record out of those three games if you had to keep the sale a liar, I guess the boat afloat. If you had to keep the boat afloat with a backup quarterback, something happens. It's a it's a three week deal for Dak Prescott. You're gonna tell us which quarterback? Yeah, and then you're gonna tell me what what the record would be? You want to start? Okay, Isaiah, I'm going one and two with

all three? All three? But what with the first two quarterbacks? Nucci three? So it's it doesn't really matter either way. You're going one and one and two? So which one would be the win? It's Minnesota Denver is going to be. It's gonna have to be Atlanta. Okay, So that third week, yeah, so you would lose the first two and then the third week would be a win with Cooper Rush and Garrett Gilbert. Okay, let's do Cooper Rush, Rob. I think

that's fair, like one and two. I mean, because like you're looking at the quarterback matchup right, We're talking Minnesota Denver in Atlanta. Well, Minnesota and Atlanta, Man, I mean, that's that's an edge at quarterback if Dak Prescott's not in there. So I mean, that's that's the most important position. I'd have to lean that way. Would you say, what about Ben d Nucci? For you? You know, I think it'd be hard pressed to win a game with with Ben. He's not I don't think he's ready to be in

that position. I don't think that. I think he's got a chance to still be a quarterback in this league last night notwithstanding, but he's not competing to be the backup this year. He's competing for a spot to develop. You know, I look at it that way, and so we saw last year he wasn't ready. I don't think he'd be ready this year either. To be honest with you, Okay, I feel like I'm in Tostito's plasita right now right

are you gonna go? I'm not gonna do that, but you know I would say, I'm right there with you. I'm gonna go one and two for Garrett Gilbert and I would you know, and close on that Denver game. I just think that Minnesota, I think they would they would confuse him defensively with all the tape that they have on him right now. So that's the reason why I'm saying that, But not that I think Denver is that much better. But Atlanta is a dumpster fire this

year anyway. But one in two I'm gonna be one to two, and I just think the Nucci wouldn't have a chance at all. So it's it's it's the same thing as Isaiah wanted two for Rush and Gilbert. Yeah, okay, how do you feel? I actually agree completely? I don't know for the Nucci. I know you really love I loved his POTENTI and is the Nucci for me? Yeah? I like his added to I like his confidence. He has some confidence. Yeah, well maybe a little too much. But it's hard. It's true you do or nobody else.

Let's talk. Let's talk about Nucci. Man here for a second. Um, that's a nice watch, Kyle, thank you? Are you trying to change the subject? Very nice? Thank you? Um, it's hiding a Watchtan right now? Um with Benda Nucci? Do you still like his potential? I like his potential, But I hate that word. I know you do hate. I hate that word because potential doesn't mean that you're actually going to attain it. It just means it. It's it's a possible. It's possible. Everybody has potential, So how does

that distinguish you from anybody else in the world. You supposed to be the top one percent in the whole world. Outside of his potential, What is the value to this team right now for him? Practice squad? Okay, yeah, development what Rob was talking about. Yeah, can he get you a good look from a practice squad stand point? Yeah? I think so. I mean, got to one thing Mike McCarthy said after the game was using his legs. He's

got that element of his game. They use some of that redraw stuff and he can do that and that helps you during the week, especially if depending on who you're matching up with. I think that's the best situation for him. I mean, I'd be surprised, honestly if they kept three quarters, these three quarterbacks, all three of them on the roster. I just think you could go heavier at another position. We talked about some of these other spots that they're pretty deep at. That's how I feel

about it. He's definitely developing. He's fighting for, like you said, fighting for a spot on the practice squad to further develop his career as an NFL quarterback. I think he has potential. There's certain things, I mean, besides the three turnovers, which were awful turnovers. He did make some plays. He did make some throws where you zip some things in you're like, wow, that's a good throw. He kept the

offense moving at certain points in the game. But just like every young quarterback, it's just an accident waiting to happen, and he fell victim to it. And you can't faught him or blame him. Every young quarterback goes through those young growing pains and he's not immune to him. You gotta think about this guy. His first start in the NFL was what Sunday night in Philadelphi was a Sunday Sunday night. And that's a rough that's a rough way

to go, you know. And you know, luckily for him, And there's been so many comparisons stone around for like on the on the broadcast, you know, is he more romo? Is he far because the gunslinger mentality is always put the label that's put on young quarterbacks that just throw it all around the park. But you know, again, before you start putting all that out there discussion, it was

quickly texted me that and I thought they were joking. No, I think babe, Babe kind of threw it out there, but you know, Moose kind of dusted a little water on it. I guess I could get it from the gun gunslinger standpoint. I guess right, because he does. I mean, he'll like As that said, he's not afraid to. I feel like he's a guy that once he settles down, once he settles down into a system, I feel like he would be a very confident player. Okay, I really do.

I really feel like once he grasped the offense and once he has confidence in that system, timing all that kind of stuff with his receivers, I feel like he would. I think he would. He would develop relatively quickly. When can he settle down though, because nobody knows that. I know nobody would know. But that's the thing is that's really discouraging to me, is because we saw it last year against Philadelphia, had to come in spot duty. Nobody

blames him for the Philadelphia game. I don't think because it was a terrible situation. She had zero off season, your rookie quarterback. You're coming from a small school. The pace of play was just not there. For being the nude she last year, you expected to maybe see an uptick and that has there been an uptick. I don't think there has. I think, if anything, it's even kind of leveled off a little thing. I think more of

what you're looking for is better decision making. And I think that's more so important than it is the physical right because his arm motion and that's not going to gonna change. It's just not it's too late in his in his life where that to change. So you deal with it. Um, he finds ways to create windows with his legs and all those other other all the other methods. However, his decision making doesn't seem to have improved. I mean,

you look at his game. He went fourteen for nineteen with three interceptions, so he was really seventeen for nineteen, right, but he just three of those went to the Roman people. I mean fourteen for nineteen. If you took the interceptions away, fourteen for nineteen for one twenty, that's not bad. It's a pretty good that's not bad at all. Right, So it's it's the decision making. We're not talking about how he was, how he had a really good pass completion percentage.

We're talking about the bad decisions that resulted in interceptions. So he has to figure out a way to take those off the table. If he takes those off the table, he improves his position on rosters. Well. He also then sent one touchdown, right, I mean in Arizona. No, yeah, he threw a touchdown pass in Arizona to the other team. He did, so he's got sound pass that's true. Truth. Dang it. Chris came in. There was a big six to Lonnie Johnson for those who haven't watched the game yet.

But yeah, that's that's where I stand. I feel like I'm grilling you here, But you are the former quarterback at the table. But how do you teach the decision making? Can you teach decision making? Absolutely? I think he's learning that. I don't. I don't believe that he's not learning how to make That's just decisions. It's just at the end of the day, he has to make the decision not

to make that throw, you know. I mean like for a long time when I was playing quarterback, I had to make the decision not to try to make the big play in the field. It's like throw it away, Like that was a learning process for me, Like, no, I want to make a play. I'm looking for anybody and everybody. Heck, but go deep, go that way goes six yards. I don't care. I'm gonna throw it if I hit you, good, if I don't hit you. It's at least incompletion. He's not to the point where he

can make it just incompletion. He's to the point where it's like big play or interception. He has to get to the point where it is either big play or guess what, maybe it's just throw it in the ground or just throw it away. And that takes a lot for you to get to that point. But there's gonna be one time where he does it in the game. He's gonna play that was easier to not thought why haven't done Why? Why haven't I done this the whole time? And when that clicks for him, I think he will

start making huge jumps. Parcels called it impulse throws. Yea when when Romo And I'm not comparing him directly to Romo because Dave got me in trouble on Twitter. I quoted me, Yeah, Romo needed some time too, you know, And I wasn't. I was joking. I wasn't making a direct comparison. That's not fair to Bed. But he had that touchdown drive in Arizona. That was impressive. Yeah, um, but yeah not Cooper Rush did it the other night, did it last night, uh, Saturday night and got away

with it. An impulse throw that should have been picked off. Garrett Gilbert strown it into traffic at least twice in these three games. You could be around the league and still, you know, get yourself in trouble doing that. So for him, it is the decision making. It's seeing things faster, seeing the field developed faster. That's where Dak, I think to me, is really his game is just taken off because he's seen everything now, you know, and sometimes it takes just

being on the field. You have to have the talent to do it as well. And I think for Ben too, like he's not the tallest quarterback and I think sometimes he's it looks like maybe he's struggling a little bit to see over things too. That's one that's a myth though. The whole Yeah, I know, so the whole scene, the seeing over the line thing, it's just not a it's not a thing because guys are looking at passing lane, you're looking through you're looking through lanes. So that's that's

when the footwork comes into it. I think that's I mean, Kyler Murray's he's totally debunking everything that everybody's ever said about about the hype thing. Drew Brees is totally debunked it. You know, you go Alway, Doug Flute, everybody has Oh, there's been a lot of you know, freaking um Wilson, Russell Wilson. I mean, these guys are not tall, um, so they're seeing you're seeing through lanes. It just really comes down to him, just hey, don't do that. Don't

do that, young fella, Like, just just don't. It's not worth it. Throw it away. You have your legs, us your legs. Nobody's gonna yell at you for for running three yards and sliding death. That's much better than throwing the ball up in the air. But to PE's point, that's exactly what you had even alluded to before. It's just having the vision to see when a guy is going to be open, to throw him open, that maturity in his decision making process. He just hadn't got there.

We hadn't seen him get to that point, and therefore that's why you're getting those errand throws. Yeah. I mean, but like even myself as a young quarterback, I had to learn to sit in the pocket because when I wasn't confident with the timing and when I wasn't confident with you know, throwing to just sitting back there in the pocket, I took off. I was gone, right, I was gone, and I was considered a running quarterback. But I bet you what we were getting the first down.

We weren't having a negative yardage. I wasn't throwing an interception. A matter of fact, I think I have the lowest interception percentage of my school's history because I was not going to make a bad throw, you know, I did not want to do that. So I had to learn to sit back and trust my guys and throw the ball and guess what to throw the ball away, and not try to run people over and slide. And so he has to get there. He has to get there,

and unfortunately he's just not there yet. But I feel like at some point in time, if he continues to receive opportunities, he will that that light ball will come on for him. Hopefully, So for bend In Nucci. And by the way, for those of you at home with you're talking cowboys bingo cards, if you we're waiting on a Doug Flutie reference to be bitching. You can now cross off your your Bingo card today because I'm sure

that was probably on there all right. When we come back, there's some other things we saw on Saturday, not all of which we're on the offensive side of the football. With great challenges come great opportunity. We're gonna talk about how we saw that from the defense. Will we come back on talking Cowboys? Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with United aggin Turf. Before you can park yourself in front of the game, park yourself in a John Dear and power

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sold glasses. Keep that up rop. He's gonna get his soon, right, Yes, yes, are you gonna go? Yeah? Come on, man, Hey man, I just I'm catching up on my sleeve. Man, I just got back into town. I get there. That's true. Well, we're gonna get it on a baby home. You've got a lot of stuff going on, for sure, so does the Cowboys defense this past offseason. By the way, Heck Mahrrison, isaiahs, Dan Back, Rob Phillips, and Kyle Yeoman's here on Talking Cowboys.

If he's just joining us, we've just talked a lot about the offense, talked a lot about the backup quarterback position and just how concerning it is for this Cowboys organization. The concern going into the off season was the defense, and so far I've seen a turnaround, at least in

my opinion. I want to get y'all's opinion. But there was a weird instance, and weird shouldn't be a thing anymore because of twenty twenty now into twenty twenty one by any means, but no Dan Quinn or Carlos Watkins, both of which leaving the stadium out of precaution in terms of contact tracing for COVID nineteen and so Joeett Junior had to call the plays on Saturday, really a last minute thing. But this is a guy who Coach McCarthy coach Quinn both have a lot of confidence in

what did you see from the defense on Saturday? Because even if the offense was pitter pattering, I thought the defense showed a lot of positives. Yeah, it's not enough to say about the job that Joe Junior did. And you know, when you talk about twenty twenty and the

whole newness of weird, that we're experiencing. When I heard that, you know, Quinn was was out, I was like, wow, this is this can't happen during the regular season, So whatever happens, let's see what Joe Witt does and it then it reminded me that Joe Witt was one of the candidates when we were looking for a defensive coordinator as well. So it just talks about how dynamic this

coaching staff is. And and I'm not going to go out there too far with some of the superstars that we have on this coaching staff, but I just felt like Joe Witt did an awesome job with dolling it up. And man, I don't know what we're We're three four A, We're four three hybrid. It's a hybrid all over the place. And I just thought that, first of all, just the way that they're using Micah Parsons. Micah Parson is everywhere.

He's standing in the A gap, he's out on the edge, he's at the same he's everywhere on the field, and just some of the blitzes that Wit was dolling up. I loved him. I love the pressure from the safety position. I love some of the stunting that we saw with Oca DIGGI Zola and uh Micah And I think you pointed that out in a tweet. How that you know how successful that was. And look, Michael Parsons is everywhere.

He is all over the place, and this kid is If you thought he was good in the draft, well at least Idea, Yeah, of course I thought he was good. But you know, he is a lot more. He is a lot We're getting a lot more. And his ability, uh to blitz it and just cover all of the weaknesses that people thought that he had. He doesn't have any, I guess right now in preseason. But from a defensive standpoint, Colum,

I'm with you. There's so much that I'm seeing from God's like Darnce Armstrong, even Bley and I I had himself a game, didn't Bradley a nice setting that this now? He did At one point he made a tackle and he like did a split. Did y'all see that? Yeah? That that that scared me a little bit because had Heckmiman done a split like that on the field. You care flighted me about it there too, but you definitely would have had a new talent. But all in all,

I was definitely pleased with the job. And the last thing is, you know, we talked Rob p. We talked p about the offense. Last year. I think that the Cowboys defense was number one at points off of turnovers, meaning points scored against them on turnovers. You saw when they did get have the turnover, they gave up that, you know, gave up the touchdown initially, but then in the second half had a goal line stance which and only gave up a field goal, which I thought was

good as well. And that's to me, that was the changing, Uh, to see the defense hold up like that. I think for the first time this preseason, we've seen the culture of our defense show up, the new culture, the dan Quinn culture, which is fast and furious and relentless. I think we saw that and regardless of who was in the game, Um, these guys were flying around dumb Toto defense. That's it. Yeah, all about family exactly, It's all about family. Family.

But these guys were relentless. I mean, you saw guys all over the place, and you know, you just alluded to the different fronts and stunts and things that they brought. Um. Obviously that comes from the defensive coordinator. You know, he did a great job. Stepping in for Quinn. But the players, the players showed up. Man Bradley and I Michael Parsons, you know, you started talking about it was good to see Malik Hooker in there. Um, it was good to see.

Um who else was Jabriel Cox? That's somebody had my eye on. He was flying around. I mean, you think about that's gonna be your second wave over, that's your second lineup coming in as your linebackers. So, I mean, it was really good to see these guys and they were having fun. They were having fun, and we talked about this all offseason. These guys were having fun, running around, hitting and just celebrating. Just hit him with the coach.

It just showed up. It showed up. And I'm really hoping that that was not just a one time appearance and that that is the new identity for this defense. So I'm looking at some of the PFF grades just for fun, just to kind of see where everybody kind of fell in. Michael Parsons scored a ninety ninety plus. Jabille Cox had an eighty two. He was the third best. Who was the second best player on that list If you had to guess, he's a defensive end. Wasn't Dorrence

Armstrong was mister Randy Gregory? Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah he was. He was coming off the ball man with with the front seven. I mean, and you guys, credit to both of you in terms of the idea to revamp the front seven, because at least at the moment, it looks like it's working. I mean, they are revamped. I mean, Randy Gregory coming back having a full offseason, looks like it continues on. He even said it. There's a lot of pressure on him. There's a lot of

pressure on that defensive line. Michael part and certainly adds to that mix as well. But how much improved have you seen from that side of the football. It's night and day right now year because last year, I mean, now you have now you have to compare it. This is preseason. Let's let's not get Crazil. Okay, this is preseason and we're playing against the Houston Texas. Okay, so let's let's yeah. I was going to make sure we

temper our expectations right correctly. However, what they put on films, where they put on film and they were flying around and they were being dominant, these are still professional athletes that they're playing against. Now, it's not Tampa base Front. Let's get that very clear now. But it is very encouraging to see these guys thriving, says, you know, seemingly thriving within this new system and building confidence, because that's really what pro athletes need. And it kind of sounds silly.

Everybody's like, well, your pact pro athlete, you shouldn't need to feel that. No, No, you do. You do every every level. You need to feel good about what you're doing. You need to feel good about your assignment. You need to feel good about where you fit in the scheme and how how impactful can you be on the field. Also, or Gizua, he did a great job. He was jumping off the screen. You know, you look at guys that are jumping off the screen. This dude was in the

backfield now, oh my goodness. Yeah, yeah, often and with energy. Not only was he making plays, but you saw guys after the play like being live. That's what I'm used to seeing in a successful dan Quinn system. They got to figure out that that d tackle deal because Neville's gonna come back, you would hope in the next couple of months. Before that, Okay, so Brent Urban started the game with osa Osa looks like he's gonna play, He's

gonna be could be an impact player week one. You get that out of a third round draft pick, man, that's a that's a really good draft pick. Um. So that's that's really encouraging. They worked justin Hamilton in there, so they got to figure that out. But yeah, the front seven man, Mike McCarthy spoke after the game. He's' he said, I don't want to disrespect any of my former teams, but I have not seen a linebacker group with this much depth and talent that we've seen, And

I think he's right. I mean that sub package where they've got Mike and Keanu Neel together, that's a really fun group to get in terms of fast, physical Have you ever seen Mighty Ducks too? This kind of reminds me of Fulton and Dean Portman's going at it, you know, and like that's that's a really good sub package there. Texans. Okay, look, Zeke said it last week that they want their this offense to be the number one offense in the league.

I don't think Houston's going to compete for that. You know, they're they're not. They're not. They're not a very talented offense top to bottom. But so that is keep that in mind. But look, anytime you hold somebody to zero for ten on third down like that is saying something. And one of them, I think it was a drop in the first quarter. But that was impressive. And you heck, you mentioned the quick change in the first quarter. They

didn't respond to that great. I mean, they gave up some some runs there in that first drive and you kind of thought, man, that's that's kind of looks a little like last year. But they did a better job overall. And it was three point two yards of carry for the game Houston had, so overall, I mean, yeah, that was an impressive performance. They just look comfortable. Like you said, they're changing things up. They are blitzing, which is some

cool blitz packages they got. They're coming. They're coming. But you know, I don't see a lot of bus either. The communication seems to be pretty good, you know, top to bottom. So now I love that, and I love what you're talking about as far as the linebacker group, because man, all of a sudden, there are a lot of decisions that have to be made there as well. Because what are you gonna do once you see your rookie Jabril Cox, take them you know where, take the

reins in that position. He plays really well in pass coverage. That's what got him drafted with how superior he was there. Now he's showing you things in the running game as well, also blitzing. Now he came on a blitzing and Thompson got credit for but that was all because of Jabril Cox and what he did. And so what do you do now with Layton? What do you do now with Jalen?

Guys that are making money, trying to make that big money that are now second tier, third tier guys when you're they're afterthoughts when you start talking about what they do as far as in those sub packages. Because ken On Nil is man. He is a general when he is out there, and you can see the way that the guys respect him and that's based off of his actions on the field and he's just putting it. He's putting that tape out there. Also man at the safety position.

If you didn't have questions before, you have bigger questions now because Jeron Curse he had a good game. You're talking about questions in a good way. Yeah, no, no, no, a great in a great way, great way. And I think that's going to be a discussion Wednesday, is I mean, we talked about the dB room last week. Let's try and let's try and talk about that on Wednesday a little bit because I want to get deeper into that. And we've got to get out of the way because

there is another podcast after us. It's Players Lounge. Just got to get started. Yes, you can tune into that on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. But we'll be here on Wednesday, eleven twenty. I believe it's the start time, so it's a little bit off. We have to work around coach McCarthy's schedule, so we'll make sure him do that and we will be right back here SWBC Mortgage Studios on Wednesday.

Do yourself a favor. Go check out A Path to Safety the Deep Blue on Dallas Cowboys dot Com, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, It's everywhere. Thank you favor. It's fantastic for Rob Phillips, Isaiah Standback, heck My Harrison and the great Chris Beam in the back up. Kyle Yeoman's thanks for listening so long. From Talking Cowboys, this has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club