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This he is Talking Cowboys, springing live.
From the Dallas Cowboys World head Coarse at the Star in fris.
Joe TiO and now your hosts Isaiah Standback, Nick Harris, John Mashoda, and Kyle Yeomans.
It's a Tuesday, March nineteenth edition of Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, live from the Star in Frisco.
Texas, in the SWBC studios. Welcome in, everybody.
It's time to talk Cowboys off season and what has happened and what has not happened over the last week. Inside this building, We've got the crew ready to rock and roll with Isaiah's stand back, John Machoda, Nick Harris, and Kyle Yeomans.
Chris Beam is in the back.
Gentlemen, have we uh, have we come to terms with what this offseason is going to be?
Just yet? Man? Almost like a show tried to warn you at some point, would show it was.
At some point. Yeah, talking cap last week, That's what it was. But uh yeah, I mean like salary cap or is that lies open for interpretation for interpretation as.
The kids say no cap these days, right, John, Yeah.
That's what I try and say, try to say no cap, cringe, cringe.
I have some others. I'm just not gonna say.
I like my friend, I kind of want to keep them rolling.
There's just a certain age you shouldn't be saying this anymore.
But yeah, Isaiah, it's about what I we.
I think what I assumed it would be. I'm not surprised. We talked about disappointment versus frustration, and.
It is what it is.
Man.
I mean, they don't have any money. We know they're cash strap.
They have I don't believe that they're willing to sacrifice the potential to re sign Ceedee Lamb or Micah Parsons by bringing on somebody to carry them or help them this season. That's just that's where I believe that this organization is at right now. I think those two individuals are taking priority over the best positioning for the team this year. And I just think that's the situation that
they're in. That doesn't probably sound good to most I would assume that's my opinion, but that's really when you dig deep, that's really what's at the root of this situation that they find themselves in, they are unwilling to compromise the potential of resigning those two individuals in the future.
It's those two, but I also think it's the quarterback position, so that that's dak or if they were to somehow go in another direction. I don't see them not spending on the quarterback position, regardless of who's playing it. So I would say, yeah, those three. But out of everybody that's signed with other teams out of their free agents, Tyron Smith is the only one that when you look at the deal that they sign, that makes you go, man,
that would have been really nice to have. A lot of the other ones I can move on from, but the Tyron Smith seeing that one, seeing how it's six point five million guaranteed, the incentives can take it up to twenty million, but that's he'd have to reach a lot.
But if you factor in a lot of the incentives in his contract are playtime percentages, and from what I read on it, it looked like basically like last year's contract, if he was playing under that one that he has right now, he probably have made about thirteen million because he played over seventy percent of the snaps and so I think they paid him about nine ten million last year, so it would be an increase off of last year.
So I mean, if Tyroann could stay healthy for a second consecutive year, if they can work out a similar plan in New York, then yeah, that works out for Tyron. But yeah, if Tyrone stays healthy, that'll be one throughout the season that will look back on to be like, but all the other ones, I don't those those are all guys that thought would be gone anyway.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, we could look at these free agents that have departed. Let's see Dorn's Armstrong and the Commanders, Tony Poller to the Titans. I think those happened around when we had our show last week. Tyler Biadis to the Commanders, Dante Fowlers to the Commanders, Neville Gallimore to the Dolphins, Which that was just that was surprising that he came off the board so early and that he landed at a spot like that, Tyron Smith to the Jets.
And then the ones that have been retained Jordan Lewis, C. J. Goodwin, Trentzig and Rico Dowdell and the one outside signing, Eric Kendricks, so yeah, when the Kendricks news came down last week, I think it makes a lot of sense. And as I looked more into Kendricks, I was like, man, this one just kind of flew right beneath my nose. It felt like, because he's a Zimmer guy, it makes sense him being a free agent being released by the Chargers a couple of weeks ago. It would make him make
sense with him to reunite with Zim. So you know, Zever made that phone call pull them away from the forty nine ers, and I think the Cowboys have at least a reliable body in that second level. Is he on the back half of his career. Absolutely, but I think you look at his health as durability that he's been able to stay on the field over the course of his nine seasons. If he can keep that going into twenty twenty four, that'll only help that second level for sure.
And I think the thing about Kendricks too, And we'll get more into this as we go along.
I kind of want to talk a little bit more about that in the final segment.
But it's that that veteran presence at linebacker that you've been missing whenever it was Dumont Clark, and it was Marquise Bell and now without Leyton Vanderischispoell, which we'll get into in the second.
Segment having him back in the building.
Maybe not the best x's and o's guy at thirty two years old and working into a double digit NFL seasons, but still a guy that you can rely on to bring insight, to bring veteran a mindset into that locker room, and help out possibly some young guys through the draft in April as well. So definitely something to look forward to. I want to talk about those two in the second and third segments. But John, you brought up how this isn't necessarily surprising and you go down the list and
you're losing starters. I mean, you look at it, Dorence Armstrong and Tyler Biattish, Tony Pollard, all these guys that are starters, Tyron Smith, which one hurts the most? Because I'm looking at it, I'm saying, Okay, none of these moves necessarily surprise me based off of what was said going into the off season, But which one hurts the most and which one's gonna be toughest to replace?
Tyron? Why is that?
I think Tyron hurts the most, not only from the leadership perspective, but I think from just.
The Do you think he was a leader in the locker room? I think he was a leader in the field.
Okay, I think when he steps on the field, you don't worry about what's going on where, you know, with his responsibility.
Yeah, so, I mean, yeah, I believe so in that regard.
Only concern that you ever had about Tyrone was his availability, which is huge. But when he was available, there was never a question about his performance. So I think that's going to be hard to feel because not only that, but the fact that Tyler Biada's got plucked. I think we all kind of assumed that he would move on, however,
but you didn't expect Tyron to move on. So now that you have two voids out of your five on your offensive line, that doesn't leave you with solid a solid intestinal track.
That leaves you with the but the bubbleas bubble.
So you know, no feeling, no cap and you know, I, like I said originally, when coach Zimmer first got hired back here with the Dallas Cowboys, He's going to want his guys and his type of guys, and you have to give him that free reign to acquire his type
of guys. Eric Kendrick obviously is a big acquisition for him, but he's going to have to feel the voice that he sees fit on that side of the ball because he's the new acquisition as a defensive coordinator now for the Dallas Cowboys, So you have to give him the ability to fill.
The roster that he sees fit.
Wow, still feeling voice that you have on the offense side of the ball at the office line position and the running back position.
I don't think there's any question its Tyron Smith. And the reason I believe that is because going through the roster for something I'm working on tomorrow with the athletic is, I got nine spots that they need to fill right now, and about four or five of those are starters, and tyront Is certainly that left tackle spot is one of them.
You know, I look at running back, I look at center, I look at possibly that number three corner, Depending on where you are with Jordan Lewis and how Trayvon Diggs comes back, you might need a third another starting CALIBERT corner there, and then defensive tackle is another one where you don't have Hankins, is Mazzi ready for that spot?
You might need a starter there, But outside of that, I just keep going back to the offensive line because you clearly need three starters still that aren't on this team. And to me, that's the running back position, left tackle, and center. And so if you had Tyron Smith, let's say they were signed into a similar deal, then you're going in this draft being like, yeah, you got to find an interior offensive lineman. Maybe hey, maybe you still take a tackle at twenty four, and then you got
to fill that running back thing. But now you look at it, you're like, you have to find a defense or an offensive tackle because and let's be honest, this isn't just a Tyron Smith thing.
This is because you.
Know, a Josh Ball, a Mett will let's go aren't where you would hope they would be, you know, awesome Richards. So I almost feel like you have to add a left tackle or a really good guard that pushes Tyler Smith out to left tackle, and then one of those will let's go Ball Richards. They have to at the very least one of those has to be your swing tackle at.
Least, so again they've.
They've done their due diligence in terms of trying to invest in that position. It's not like they're just like, uh oh, we gotta fell this void. Like they've been trying. These guys just have not been ready to step up yet. Well, and they're taking dark shots at a board, is what they're doing.
I mean, they're using a fifth round pick on Josh Ball, They're using a fifth round pick on Matt will Let's go. They're using a fifth round pick on Awesome Richards. I mean they're using these Day three selections to just throw a dart and see if it hits, and it hasn't necessarily.
Hit, and hey, to be fair to them, it does look like they found something with TJ. Bass who was undrafted and Terreen Steele who was undrafted. So it's it's kind of like almost the Calvin Joseph thing with me, where it's like, yes, Calvin Joseph, you missed on but you also found dron Bland. So it's not like it's not all doom and gloom, but I can see where there would still be you know, critsism.
And the one time that they've invested in the tackle spots specifically even without Tyrone Smith at his availability being in question.
With Tyler Smith saying that he's going to be the left tackle of the future.
The only thing that changes out of that is the fact that Tyler Smith is now a badass left guard and you don't necessarily want to move him as an all pro with the left guard spot, so you.
Don't necessarily want to bump him out of that position. I have questions in regards to interior defensive line.
Okay, with the acquisition of the hiring of Mike Zimbra as a divisit quarter and coordinator. Now Freddy Cowboys, how much of a role do you think he plays and the reason why Jonathan Hankins has not been resigned yet.
I don't think. I don't think that's a major role, because Hankins knows that there's a spot there for him to walk into our next season if you were to come back to the Cowboys. I think that's I think that's assumed.
It's interesting you say that because I think of Curse a little bit jeering and curse only because of the fact that Mike Zimmer was the coach when the Vikings drafted him. Mike Zimmer was his coach those first four years. Now I will say, I do think that there's some
good depth a safety, so maybe that's different. But there's also a part of me that thinks that with the Hankins thing, they could be trying to be a little cheap there, you know, Like you see, all these deals are all one year deals, and maybe Hankins is kind of holding out. He's in a position like I can get a one year deal in a couple different places. Let me just kind of wait this thing out. Whatever, Let's see if my number goes up, because you guys clearly need me, you know, So it could be.
A combination of those.
The Zimmer thing could be interesting too, But whatever way it is, I feel like they need two defensive taxes.
They need to. So that's what I'm saying.
As you start going through this and free agency continues on and the big names are gone, right, primarily that most of the big names are gone, the impact names. I guess you would say out of the free agent pool that at the beginning of the of this period,
most of those guys are gone. There's needs there aren't once there are legit needs for the Dallas Cowboys, and I think that's one of the frustrations for a lot of Cowboys fans right now is the guys you talk about all in they redefined it right and.
They said that.
You know, Stephen Jones mentioned the ability to resign your guys. Well, Jonathan Hankins is a necessity. I think that was the first name that we all mentioned that needs to come back. I'm glad they got Jay Lou back. That's awesome, right, I know we didn't mention that yet, but that's huge for them. He bought out last year, so kudos to him. They got good wing back. That was huge because he's a special teamer. They lost Dori's armstrong. You know, so
you lose one special teamer, but you resigned another. But you need Hankins back. And not only do you need Hankins, you need somebody to play next to Hankins while Mazie still develops because he's not ready unless he put his weight back on it, his mindset is ready to go be an impact player this year.
So you need Hankins to.
Be resigned and you need another defense alignment that seemingly, at least in a free agent pool, most of those guys are gone.
Yeah, it'd be a Day two drive you draft pick.
But then if for for Chouncy Golsli Fojoko filling in there at all, that's what they were drafted for.
Not big enough. Okay, especially Zimmer goes back to the edge.
I think a three or five tech.
Yeah, Hooko could be pushed into the three spot. He won't be a one tech. But I think I think Golston needs to drop the weight that they put on him. And they got too cute trying to fit him into avoid they need to put them.
But that's what I'm saying.
Like, when I think about what has to happen with this roster, especially defensively, I go back to the Zimmer defenses of the past, right, the Zimmer defenses that I played against, and I think about how the interior defensive linemen were always ginormous. They were always ginormous because the
linebackers were able to run free. We've talked about this, you know, a ridiculous amount in terms of big defense alignment, not allowing office alignment to work up to the second level and your linebackers.
Backwards. You don't have that. You don't have one. You don't currently on this roster. You don't have one. The next biggest guy you had was Gallimore, He's gone and don't be signed.
Carlos Watkins or whatever is carl Davis Davis, dang it, Carlos.
Knew So it made exactly. But you know what I'm saying.
What I'm saying like, there are voids that not only have to be filed, but they have to be filled according to what he wants, and there's just not a huge pool of it.
And another thing is when you say defensive tackle, it's it's not common for a defensive tackle to come out of college and come in and dominate, especially in that role that you're talking about, the big guy that eats it up in the middle. Whereas like you can see like a left tackle, especially one of these high first round picks having some success immediately, you can see a running back that you take in the second third round coming in having some success.
Media defensive tackle is not like that at all.
So to your point, it's like you need to Hankins obviously would feel one of them, but you'd almost want to see them get two better ends.
Absolutely, So I mean, you got two interior divids alignment, you got left tackle, you have a center, you need a running back. Like draft picks are going off if this is where you're going to acquire them, because free agency looks pretty bleak right now, right, Yeah, If that's where you're gonna acquire them, you're running out of picks and you got to hit on all of them, and you have to hit on all of them because last
year's draft didn't make hardly any contributions. Yeah, right, And that is the reality that they find themselves in right now. And I think that's why most fans have the bubble gups right now in regards to the Cowboys and their roster and what they're doing. Obviously restructuring Deak and I'm sure we're talking about that gives them a little bit of space right now. I think that's more a little bit gainsmanship going on right now between the two parties.
But I'm not confident right now that they're in a position to fill all their voids with the draft and the remaining free agency pool. I just think there's gonna be some voids that they're hoping on instead of knowing.
Yeah, And I think there's also a level of expectation of certain guys stepping up. We talked about the offensive line with Matt will Let's go Josh Ball, guys like that. I mean, there's gonna be a huge opportunity for them. But you look at the running back position, Duce Vaughan, there's an opportunity for him, Hunter Lucky to be able to take some shorty yards stuffhere go doubt. Oh hey man, you're the leading returning rusher. Now you're gonna have to
be able to step into a role. Whether there's a rookie or a veteran that comes in with him in that room or not. If it's a tackle position, that's a little bit different because all those bodies are gone. It's basically just Mazzie Smith and Carl Davis at this point. So you've got to be able to fill some fill some spots there. But yeah, elsewhere, I think they're hoping that there is some there's some uh, there's some certain level of stepping up that that that those rooms need.
We talked about the offensive line. I think that's probably most important because well, let's go has been hurt. Josh Ball was hurt all last year. Awesome Richards. He didn't touch the field at all, even though he was on the fifty three. So there's got to be some sort of stepping up with one of those three guys. I think that there's an expectation of that before.
You move on percentage that Connor Williams comes back and snaps the ball.
H twelve percent Yeah, going like seven zero yeah, thanks, thanks, thanks, Beamer says zero.
Uh man. It just feels like it's one of those off seasons where hope is a strategy, and hope should not be a strategy because you're hoping these guys step up. You're hoping that teams are going to let these guys in free agency, let the contracts go down and then you can afford them. And you got to I mean, John, you were talking about Jonathan Hankins trying to get a bigger chunk of the cash. His cash hasn't been big to begin with. Twenty twenty one, he was one point seven.
He played on the veteran minimum in both twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three with the Cowboys, so he may want a significant chunk above that. But I mean we're talking about probably five hundred k, right, I mean, he probably isn't going to get to two million. He's probably gonna be right around that one point six to one point seven Mark again, and.
That seems worth it to me because, like I said, man, it's just I would do that right now.
It's a veteran not my money though, right it's not my money.
It's it's a veteran player who plays a position that young guys generally don't come in and dominate right away. So it'd be one thing if the Cowboys were sitting in a position where they're offense of line was in good shape, running back was in good shape, and you're just like, well, yeah, this just looks like they're going to take like Devendre Sweat or whatever.
I think, say his name and yeah, like a big guy like that. I TEXTA. But now you're just like, they.
Can't even take him in the first round. They like, literally, they can't do anything but offensive line in the first round.
I can't.
I can't even imagine them doing anything but offensive line in the first round. And that's generally not been good for the Cowboys when they have to take a position.
Luckily it is offensive line, and they've been better at drafting that position.
That's in fact, I think overall Hank It's did mention on his podcast. I think it was a couple of weeks after they had lost the Packers, that he felt like he deserved more money wise, but that he wanted to be back here in this building. So we'll see how that kind of comes to fruition over the course of the next week or so. I know, I think Seattle is an interesting spot for him. Him and Aiden
Dirty did get close. Washington is an interesting spot. But if I if I were expect him to land anywhere else, it'd be Seattle.
Come on, now, Jonathan, let's let's talk this through. Let's talk to now. Let's make something happen which sit next to Big Leonard. That'd be interesting. It makes sense.
Yeah, that does all right. When we come back, we're gonna talk about the Dak extension. We're also gonna talk about Layton vander Esh and what he meant to this franchise is he pins his emotional retirement letter to the Dallas Cowboys and makes it official. We're gonna talk about what he meant and how tough it is going to be to replace Layton vander Esh when we come back with more talking Cowboys.
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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answer life's questions with an ice cold can of doctor pepper. Sheila, let's hear from my car, would you there?
Doctor? My friend supported me during a tough time. But what's the right gift that says thanks for being a soldier?
To cry out?
Okay, this one's easy, I say, give her a delicious doctor pepper. Nothing says thanks good better than one of a kind soda. Yes, any doctor Pepper flavor will do. Now, just a reminder that I don't need to be a real doctor to know that Doctor Pepper is the one you deserve.
To Talking Cowboys. Back here on Talking Cowboys.
This portion of the show is brought to you by a Quaker Oats, a super trusted super food Quaker Oats, the official oatmeal sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. Welcome back in, everybody, We've got Isaiah standback. Did you get your oats in?
I think I'm to the point now where it's just a regular season thing. Mm hmm.
It's an off season, off season, the off season off You can get your oats in at at home.
I mean they could send them to me. Oh, gladly do some little artie RTDs artes.
I don't know any of those.
Hey, Jay in the life eat ready to eat little overnight oats. Got John Machoda, Nick Harris, Kyle Yeomans here talking through the Cowboys offseason.
They did make a move to adjust some cap space. Yeah, nothing crazy, don't get too excited.
Cowboys restructure Dak Prescott converted Prescott's five million dollar roster bonus into a signing bonus, added two more avoidable years, which is something that the quarterback had to agree on. That move fred to four million dollars in cap space this year, knocking its cap hit down to fifty five point four million next year.
However, that four.
Million dollars doesn't go away, moves to next year's dead cap money, which is now over forty million already in twenty twenty five just.
On Prescott's contract alone.
So yeah, yeah, twenty twenty five is looking very bleak as far as the dead cap. It's y'all think this offseason is bad, wait until next off season.
But I I it's part of this off season just buffer for that off season, you.
Could say so, But also it's about fielding a roster. You're also wanting to field a roster for twenty twenty five, So yeah, I understand that to a certain extent. But also you look at freeing up four million dollars, right, that probably pushes the a cap availability to eight or so. They'll need roughly fifteen to work with during the season, so I mean.
There's still space. You gotta have eleven for your draft class too.
Yeah, I mean draft class coming in mid season, mid season additions, injuries, you got to be able to account for all of that. So they still have a lot of work to do before they can really put their put their hand in the sand and get some guys out.
That's what you gotta be careful about the whole Like we'll just restructure this contract and restructure that contract. Well, it's not like you don't have to pay that eventually somewhere, you know. And so that's the thing, like it makes sense for like, you know, if you get a deal done with CD, you know that that totally makes sense. And Micah Parsons obviously for a while there when they had Romo, they were doing that all the time.
With Dax contract, they're doing that all the time, and that's fine.
But if you don't know if that player is going to be a big part of your future, it's it's tough to just keep pushing it down the line like that because you're eventually gonna have to it's eventually going to count against your cap somewhere. So you know, I know that there's gonna be people that maybe reading to try to read between the lines of the whole Dak thing that that just happened recently with that that four million, But I don't think that for me, it doesn't change anything.
It doesn't make me think they're any closer any further away than they were the day before they did it.
So seven point seven five million is what they've got right now in terms of cap space. I mean that's with with a draft class still to be signed, with an entire offseason a free agency, that's nothing. So yeah, my my next question would comes, what's what's the next move? Where do you move that money around? Where do you find some space?
Yeah, there's there's a few options. It's restructuring Dax Steel as we that's sending him, that's the big one. But restructuring Treywon Diggs coming off the injury, restructuring Terrence Steele bringing up some cap space.
There, get a deal done with Ceedee Lamb.
Yeah, getting that would make the most sense to me period because it's you already know where he's slotted at.
I mean, the way he's performed, there's no gray area anymore.
But is he the one?
If you're CD, why do you do it now?
Though? That's the question.
I think that's probably where they run into some issues because you're waiting on Jamar Chase, you're waiting on Justin Jefferson. Mike Evans did just get his, but T Higgins also still waiting on him.
I find hard to believe that if you offered him a deal right now to make him the highest paid player, highest pay wide receiver in the league, knowing that those two guys will jump him, I find it hard to believe he would turn that down.
What would that take though, because his cap hit already is seventeen point nine it's almost eighteen million.
It's nine thousand short.
Of that, so nearly eighteen million dollars of a cap hit now, wouldn't it take more?
I mean, I know you can push it down the line again, but like that's what we're doing.
Yeah, right here, we're just pushing.
We're trying not to kick the can anymore? Is ultimate?
With CD Lamb?
I would do it because I look at him as a player that you can build around. You'll play at a high level for the next four or five years. So I would fine with doing that with CD Lamb.
Yeah, who's the highest paid wide receiver right now?
I think it's Tyreek Hill around thirty million a year.
Jesus, that's a lot. It's a lot of cash.
I said for our receiver that one.
I mean, you say that, but the cap went up thirty million per team. Sure, So like, let's actly, that's an act like that's that Camp Boys a whole act like that cap is exactly what these teams make like they're not proffiting like four times that like absolutely the so.
Okay restructuring CD.
He's your third biggest cap pit you talked about Treyvon He's number five on the list at fifteen million.
Uh, Terrence Steele's number seven on the list at eleven million. Even from that.
Point forward, there's not really a whole lot you can do because everybody else is under ten million dollars of a cap pit in twenty twenty five or twenty twenty four. But there's not a whole lot of restructuring you can do here. So is that kind of the issue that this team is run into.
Yeah, and that's uh, it's the struggle why the front office hasn't been able to make the moves that they probably wanted to make. You know, those are report last week that they didn't even make a call to Dereck Henry and fans.
Were like, how can you do that?
Well, why you know, you know, why you're sitting there, You're sitting there in third grade, like you know you got the you don't got the nikes on, you got like the you got the you got the rebox on, you know, and the hottest girl in class, right, You're just gonna let her keep walking like it's like, you know what, I'm gonna come back to you in a couple of years when I got my nikes on, you know, my bag's.
Up a little bit.
I will say, though, that is the best.
Metaphor I think we've ever had to tell you guys about the time I was in grade school and I went to a bathroom stall and Do walked up next to me.
He had on Jordan's, so I'd start peeing on his Jordan's you did?
What?
Why would you do that?
And why? Why was this? I was like in second grade. My mom told me.
I don't remember it, but my mom told me said at the urinal and that was hate bro. We didn't have no Jordan's. That was beer hate right there. And you said jans Bro.
There that.
I didn't expect to.
I don't know, I don't remember it. That would be immediate response. I would be done.
If you're that now adult that happened to you and you're listening right now calling to the show.
You're definitely that's definitely a fight.
I will say though, the only the only issue I have with your with your analogy is that there are times where Sean camp Allen iverson Scheck to a certain level made Reebok kind of cool for a little bit.
Yeah, Rebox was probably bad.
Yeah, but no, no, no, no, no, I.
Think it's good because I feel that same way about the Cowboys, where I don't think these free agents look at the Cowboys as like maybe they do the Chiefs or a team that has played in the Super Bowl the last few years, but there's still the Dallas Cowboys. If those are the Reboks, people still want to wear them. I'd at least make a call, make him turn you down, make him say like, hey, just I don't know.
I understand that you want to say you wanted to be here.
I saw I heard the interview, and I understand you don't want to insult him by giving him some low ball offer.
But I don't know. I would don't know what you don't know right exactly.
I probably would have made a phone call.
Yes, and I know you don't want to wear I know you don't want to wear those.
It's like it's like when I went to the don't even laugh. When I went to the WWE tryouts and I went down there to go work out. Okay, it was really work out for me. I had no intentions on actually being.
In a w W.
It was just happened to this. By the way, I'm just waiting for the day.
It was.
I can't release that, you can't come. I can't release that information.
But afterwards they made me an offer, but like they knew I wasn't going to accept the offer. Like they came up to me, They're like, hey, like, we know you're not going to take this, but like this is how much we can offer you and that makes it And I was like yeah, no, They're like, yeah, we knew that was going to be the answer, but we had to.
Yeah, because they don't know that that that hasn't been your your dream, your entire life to do that where you're just like, yeah, that offered us suck, but I'll take it right now because.
Yeah, it's an opportunity and I think that I can. I can make it in that world.
One thing I'll do make it better.
Of how different would your life be right now that would I'd be wearing.
A lot of underwear you would be on this show would be what would your intro so on be? Can you tell us that it'd be something with some kind of dog, probably.
So with your name somewhat dog related.
I don't remember the name. That's what dog is? That is cap that is cap it was dog was there was something. It was something related to a dog.
A lot of cap space and a lot of.
Wish they had it.
I just got done watching The Iron Cloths. I'm really really Texas.
I didn't Yeah, I didn't know a ton about the von Erics until I moved down here, and so I was watching that movie.
So when you said that, I'm like, I can see I can see you doing that.
He also did the wipe out like no, all right, so this cap space, you know, like wipe out space. So the show on ABC he did, like the.
The off brand version of that show, like you can you can you can sit there and be like, somewhat.
I've got it somewhere.
It is.
So why do you guys believe you.
Could be somewhat embarrassed or think it's cringey whatever, but at the same time, like, it's good that you did it, because you just never know what that kind of turned into who knows? If you know, there's just so many people that are so successful in the media world who knew that they would get to the level they were.
I just found an interview for Isaiah the title and it's right here. You can look it up. Everybody at home, and Isaiah's stand back. Make the jump from the NFL to the w w E. This is from the w WE website. Should we take a look at this? I don't know.
I mean right out of time when you go through our second brank time, it's almost up here.
I do, all right.
There's something I've kind of thought about over the course of the last week. I think it's are you trying to make the jump to w w's Well, no, absolutely not. I think the the Cowboys from an outside perspective, I've always kind of had a built an advantage of the fact that playing for the Cowboys brings you status. It brings you a certain level of you know, fame, notoriety,
things of the nature. We see it with Dak and all the endorsements that he's able to do, Tony Pollard being able to do endorsements, and you know, so on and so forth. Is there more flexibility there to pay a guy a certain amount knowing that that those opportunities would come with you. Is that a conversation with the agent or is it not anymore?
Just with the way media, it really depends on the player. Yeah, it really depends on the say.
For Ah, for Derrick Henry, I truly believe.
I truly believe that Dereck Henry would have taken twenty percent less to stay here. That's my belief. And I don't know that. I don't have inside information on that.
But hearing if he would have, it's one thing to afford twenty percent less of Derrick Henry's that point eight million dollar deal, but.
Here in the immediately becomes one of the top five.
Absolutely, But hearing his interview, like he wanted to be here, He truly wanted to be here, and he was. He wasnuinely disappointed that he didn't get the call because he just bought a new house.
He lives here in the off season. He's I think his wife is pregnant.
Like they have kids, Like he wanted to be here, Like he's like at this point in my career, like I really don't want to move again, but I'm really happy to be a Baltimore Raven. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. It was one of those deals where it's like he wanted to be here in Dallas. So you really don't know, to your point, if had they made the call, you don't know what.
He would have went for. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that when that one hurts a little bit. It really does.
Before we do take our second segment. By the way, take the second break, Layton vander Esh No, I'm not going.
To pull up WW the first sentence.
Uh, Layton vander Esh retires from the NFL. Medically retires. He pinned to an emotional letter. You can read the whole thing on the Dallas Cowboys social media page. Uh just wanted to wish our best to Layton. We had talked about it initially about how the medical stuff at
some point it is nothing to mess around. And I think this this was a decision that was a long time coming for late and I think some of the building knew about pretty quickly after he sustained the injury midway through the season.
But he will be missed in that locker room. He was a presence.
I remember talking to Damoon Clark the week after he was injured and seeing it. Really just hearing him talk about what Layton did to that linebacker room and the way he led that group of young individuals, and the way he was still involved even post injury, staying in there with x's and o's and film study and things like that. It really did show the impact that Layton Vandersh had on this team. Plus Michael Parsons put it out yesterday said, I don't think people realize how much
y'all are going to miss Layton vander Esh. One of the hardest, most devoted, loving, authentic teammates you'll ever have. A Cowboys Nation should be grateful, and he represented the Star well. I'm going to miss his passion and drive on the field, thank you. And he had a couple of Wolf emojis in there as well. So I wanted to wish our best to Layton vander Esh as he goes into retirement, whatever's next for him, and hopefully he remains healthy as well.
And really quick. It is really really rare for a player to come out of eight man football and be a first round pick. Yes, like that never happens. That never, especially in today's game. You see that in the seventies and eighties, maybe, but you don't see that anymore. Walk On at Boise State, played his played for his dream dream school, was on scholarship almost immediately, and became a first round pick, and it was a surefire first.
Round in his dream organization or what he calls his dream organization. So really cool seeing him overcome the odds like that, and he played well when he was healthy.
Just one of those things where it's tough to stay healthy in the NFL.
It's wild that that linebacker position, man, because you're just kind of like, you thought for a little bit there that they had it locked up with him and Jalen Smith. You thought about it for a while there after they drafted Sean Lee and just for some reason, the Cowboys
just have not been able to consistently hit at linebacker. So, yeah, it sucks because if he doesn't have that neck issue, I mean just seeing him as rookie year, the way he played, if he was able to keep that going, he could have been one of the better linebackers.
In the league.
But that neck thing, I mean, it was I'm pretty sure, but yeah, is known as an issue going into the draft. Yeah, but yeah, that's it's a pretty rough way to end it because they certainly could have used him during the back half of this season.
Who knows how things might have been different if he doesn't get hurt.
He had some great moments too, he really did. He had some big time stops, He had the wolf howls, he had the opportunities to lead that defense, did a lot of things well. But like you said, having that that reoccurring neck issue, that's at some point you gotta you gotta take a take a break from it. And that's exactly what vandersch did.
Scored his first NFL touchdown his final NFL game or final full NFL game.
That's cool.
That was That's a cool moment. That was a fun last how him been one Ya Thomas in the back of the end zone.
So very cool, cool moment. Well, congrats for for Lighton vandersh on a great career and good luck in retirement.
If he ever needs to hop on a podcast Talking Cowboys, we got you all right. When we come back here on Talking Cowboys, Let's talk about the arrivals.
Let's talk about Eric Kendricks a little bit more. I want to talk about Rico doubtell what he could possibly mean.
For this team and the same thing for Jordan Lewis as he returns to the nickel cornerback spot.
We've got more talking cowboys come in your way next.
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To Talking Cowboys.
Back here on Talking Cowboys presented by a Black Rifle Coffee Company.
The segment is brought to you by in Visi Line, the official smile of the Dallas Cowboys. What I was I was driving down to Austin this past weekend. Yeah, tomorrow, really, my daughter had some soccer games and I passed Black Rifle Coffee Company. Yeah, and I got excited.
There's one right off of thirty five in Waco that exit to take to the highway source. Yeah, it's like right by like a golf stuff like all over there.
I was super excited. And I wore my Black Rifle shirt that we got. I wore it for the first time last week.
Nice.
Did you I Did you work out in it?
What it was?
Did you work out in it?
No?
I did not.
I would not work out as Yeah. No, did you stop by Black Rifle Coffee? I did not make the stop because I was on the move. Only place, the only place I stopp when I'm on a road trip. Is BUCkies. Yeah, I respect that.
When you get there, what do you get?
I get a chocolate milk, and I get not what I expected.
I get a chocolate milk, and I get an apple pie, and I get the roasted pecans.
Oh yeah, I get the roasted pecans every time.
Every time he started with the chocolate milk, I was just waiting for it to be like a bunch of just stuff that you can get it anywhere you like.
Chocolate milk, Cheetos and.
Gym My son, my son always gets either cookie dough or the what's the other little thing I can't remember, cookie door or something else cookie do fudge, fudge or cookie dough. My daughter gets cotton candy, and my other daughter gets the diet doctor pepper because it doesn't affect your blush.
Sugar and everything. Everything about that makes me think that from that point forward, that car ride is just lit.
Everybody to forget the forty five minutes to charge your car. By the way, No I did not. I hadn't driven electric on the road trip. Okay, not to get a truck on that one. No waiting on it still, okay, drive an hour to charge forty five minutes half time with that. Hey, listen, it's no they got the new power chargers, the power threes. Those are good good threes. Talking tesla here, No, actually for like for.
They can charge on there now and and all the other card manufacturers can charge on there now.
I'm going to a Ford dealership this week. By the way, are you not for minivan? Yeah?
Still looking for either a minivan or a large suv for all these triplets around there.
If that that old school Ford Flex is still a really good vehicle, there you go.
That's serious. I almost popped about that thing for my mom when I first got in the league. I'm bout my mama vehicle, and I think it was my.
Second year in the league. Can't it fit a stroller? Absolutely? Size the Ford Flex. The Ford Flex has to. I'm telling you you should see the size of the stroll. It's the length of this table at least like top top to bottom, like end to end. It's straight line. Yeah, they're three row, so it's three in a row.
Bang bang bang, And there's car seats like it clicks in and then you pop it out and it goes into your car seat base that you put.
In your He's a freaking accordion he has to put in this car, you know, seriously, Like, look up, I know you probably want to get a newer vehicle, but look up.
Some of those those those fourth lexes. Those things are awesome. They're low. So your wife, you know, she's not the tallest. But if anybody's got the car connection, let us know, I do have a car plok, you know I need that. Yeah, all right, all right.
Uh. The guys who have come, we're talking departures and arrivals on talking cowboys like we're DFW. We Uh, we've got three real I mean one arrival, one stay or two stays. Jordan Lewis, Rico daddle Back. We'll start with those two guys. Nick, what is the biggest impact of having both of those guys back in the fold?
Yeah, Jordan Lewis. I think going into the offseason, it was an expectation that either Jordan Lewis or Stefan Gilmour would would be retained. It's fun Gilmore still has not found found a landing spot. There still could be a fit for him on this team, but just go ahead and solidify that nickel position. And as it stands right now, treyvon Diggs and Deron Blant on the outside. That just gives you a lot more stability at that cornerback position.
Granted you're one injury away from being in kind of a tough position, so you might need to spend a Day three draft pick on that position to be able to acquire, you know, at least some reliable depth there. You do have Naseean Wright, which at training camp at times last year he looked good, but you know, at other times maybe he was a little bit more shaky.
And then Rico Dada, as I mentioned earlier in the show, leading returning Rushiero at three hundred and sixty one yards last year, and that just provides again a little bit more stability. Can't he stay healthy. I know towards the back end of the season he was dealing with an ankle issue. I believe he didn't miss a game, but it was a couple of games where it was really a game time decision. So he's got to be able to continue that health that he was able to build
upon last year. And I think bringing in a rookie with him that can take over the lead the lead role capabilities, I think that'd be big.
For that room.
But also don't discount Douce Vaughan and Hunter Loppe to that room as well. Malik Davis too. I think that's going to be a very interesting position group to follow during Auxnard.
What do you think?
Yeah, getting Daubdell back for another year is good, especially coming off the year where he was able to stay relatively healthy, and so I think that's that's a big move there, just because running back has just looked like it was going to be this glaring weakness and they still need to do more there. I'm not saying that they don't, but that just one spot that I really think that they needed to do something.
So that was good. But next up, obviously I've put right after that.
So what we talked about earlier, having to get Hankins in there for the exact same reasons. Yeah, Jordan Lewis at cornerback I think is important because the way that they're spending right now makes you think that Stefan Gilmour isn't a real possibility because I don't think he's going to just play for a one year like three million
dollar deal or something like that. So you need Nayshon Wright or Eric Scott or somebody else to step up there Israel Mukuamu if they think that they can use him more at corner or you're gonna have to draft another guy. So it was good to get Jordan Lewis there because at least if you were able, if you had to play a game. Right now, you have three starting caliber corners. But they still need to do more at that spot because you just you need a lot
of defensive backs. That's just there's going to got be guys that get injured and it's a position that you need good depth in the NFL.
I'm very curious to see what they do with one day Thomas, especially in Zimmer's scheme. You know, is he used as a third safety or is he used kind of as a roving defensive back that can play at the nickel or he can play on the boundary in certain instances or play at safety. I think he's a very versatile guy that you can kind of throw around in that secondary, and you.
Guys go with safety with what they have, or do you think they.
Need to think so?
I think so Marky's bell, I mean he's going to you assume he moves back after the year he had last year. One Yet Thomas after the year he had last year. I'm okay. If they do not spend a draft pick on safety, I'm okay with that.
That might be the one position where that maybe quarterback just because you have Trey Lance back there too. But those are the two positions that I feel confident that you're you're set in tying into. Yeah, tight end, yeah yeah, I feel good with the top two guys. After that, we can have a conversation.
What are you guys looking for it? Wide receiver, a big body outside guy. I feel like this team has needed that for three years. They need a procession red zone guy. You saw it kind of hurt them in the beginning of the season last.
Year they had wims.
They had to work some things to be able to to make some action happen down there in the red zone. And eventually you got to give it to CD Lamb, Brandon Cooks and Mike McCarthy as well being able to scheme those guys open in those short, short range instances. But I think you need a big buddy guy you can just throw it up to, like if you have a big body guy there at twenty four. Granted, I think offensive line is a safe pick. I think that's what you need to do. But don't be don't be surprised.
Don't be surprised.
Be surprised out the cake with tassels are okay if they have.
Tassels, and if they do that at twenty four, I will lose my entire everything.
Don't look that up and I do not you were to have them freaking.
Tassels, don't. Yeah, listen to that idea. I am okay with the safety position, I'm not. I like the fact that they signed Jay Lou and Rico. Those are huge. Yeah, I think you need a Rico. I think Rico is a very viable number two running back. You still need one number one where you gonna get that at I have no idea. There's not many running backs available that are in a free agents market. At the beginning of free agency.
There was a ton. Now there's none. So not sure what you do there, assuming you're gonna draft somebody, but you really.
Have to start looking at all the voice that you have and say, Okay, if we had a pecking order of the top three picks this year, which is what end of the first, second third, I'm assuming twenty four or fifty six, eighty seven, there you go, Okay, what positions do you address?
Tackle? The center, running back, That's where I would be too. Defensive tackles a thought as well, though, Like if there's a defensive tackle there in the second or third round that you feel really good about, I would take a defensive tackle over a center or running back.
I think center.
I think there's a little bit more flexibility there because of brockhoff and and CJ.
Bass.
How you guys feel about defensive end.
I think there needs to be a body added to that room for sure.
There's Dante and Durrance too. Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a kind of a thought being thrown around on Cowboys Twitter that if La Tou, the edge rusher from UCLA is there at twenty four, you can't pass him up. Would he be scary next to Michael Parsons? Absolutely, But oh, I don't know if it's that big of a need, I don't know. We'll see.
You got to counter that with let's go or ball being or exactly that's.
That's what you're giving up. So yeah, training camp would be a bludget edge.
Actually, I do think they can find a center in like the third or fifth round.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cedric Van Pern Granger, I think is an awesome third third round option out of Georgia. So you know, there's there's guys there.
I think there's guys there.
But again, the conversation to me that just keeps popping up in my head is in that draft room, at what point does Mike Zimer get up to and beat on the table.
M hm?
Does does he have does he have the flexibility to do that?
You know, I hear you, but I it's hard for me to to believe that he came on the staff saying, you know what, what do we have on the roster? I can work with that, I can turn it into a top defense. I don't see that being the case. I really don't see that being the case. So that's my concern with the That's why I said that what dan Quinn did by plucking Tyler Beds was huge. You know it was Tyler BEONDI the greatest office in Linement.
He was he was he was very viable, he was a viable guy, he was reliable, wasn't dominant.
I think they believe they can find his replacement in this draft, and I don't mean taken in the first round. I think they believe that they can find his replacement in the third round.
So you're going offensive lineman with two of your first three picks. Yes, yeah, that's kind of okay. So when again, So when does Zimmer beat on the table because he has voice to for his stuff? He did that. Yeah, but for again, go back, this is homework for everybody.
Go back and look at the size of the players that he has always had on his defenses.
Just go look at its size.
I can see a revolving door of random guys coming in and out of training camp through whatever, it's trades, cuts, whatever like that, veteran players that are cheap at those positions.
That you're going to be like, yeah, this really is an answer or whatever. I don't see that. At offensive tackle, I don't see that.
I am in total agreeance with you, but I'm saying, Zimmer, you're pretty much tilling Zimmer.
Hey, you play with leftovers.
I think that the head coach is the offensive coordinator and he's not going to want to roll out there.
I hear you with a starting offensive line, But.
Just think about those conversations. If I'm coming on staff, what do I.
Have if you're taking an offensive lineman in two of your first three picks. That third pick is most likely going to go to defense regardless, it's going to go to defense, and it's go wherever Zimmer Is gonna want it to go. And that's either going to be at the linebacker spot or it's going to be at the defensive tackle.
So where's your running back? That's that's the conversation. That's where you got to Maybe maybe that's roster rushing.
Maybe maybe maybe running back is somebody that, like I just said, they run guys in and out of training camp that are veterans on like one year deals, Dalvin Cook types something like that, where you're just like, yeah, he's not really whatever, but we're gonna run with that.
I mean, they're not gonna I'm telling you right now, they're not gonna fill every one of these holes with somebody that is going to satisfy you.
You know, they're just not.
You're gonna have to know you're gonna have to piece this thing together with some paper mache.
Here.
And now you saw what the market looked like for c C last year. And it's not to say he had a great year in New England last year. He'll probably be sitting there on August first or whatever whenever they're sitting down there in Oxnard, like, you know what, we could use another running back in this room.
So and if you had to piece it a position together, I feel like that's the one.
Yeah, it's the number fifteen open right now, tru Lass at that point right, he's gonna whip that thing and make it happen. All right, that doesn't for us here on Talking Cowboys. We've got plenty to talk about going into next week.
We'll be back. It's just a once a week thing now. We don't have that money. Don't like it. Bubble guts me neither. I'm right there with you, all right.
That does it for Chris be and Isaiah stand back, John Machoda, Nick Harris and Kyle Yomas saying so long from Talking Cowboys.
We'll see you next week.
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