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Eight at eight eight five five two two nine seven call eighty eight.
Okay, c y.
S yes, I say it's nine here.
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We will answer those starting in the second segment. But before that, Jerry Jones just got off the phone he did with one O five three, the fan.
Flagship station of the Dallas Cowboys.
Oh hey, and there were some convos whoa multiple convos now I give credit to Sean R. J.
Bobby.
They kept peppering questions about trade, just captain trying to get somewhat and Jerry Jones did a great job of kind of deflecting a lot of that. But you can still read in between the lines that there's wheels turning whenever it comes to this stuff.
There is And like you said, shouts out to those three guys because they were just hammering at it man, and he was just batting them away as besty.
They were trying to get creative.
And they even threw some names out there that we can't say on this wow, but he threw a couple of pass rushers out there, who's uh serious names have been tied to the Cowboys. And they asked him, yeah, he's Jerry hey yeah, And they asked him if he could provide some clarity and he was like no.
No, straight up, he goes He's like no, yeah.
They would be tampering if he did.
And he did a lot.
Of subterview as far as like when when Bobby asked him about the linebackers possibly entertaining the trade to add to the linebacker cord and he was like, not necessarily, no, absolutely not, but then you never know. And then he laughed and he was like, how's that answer for you? So that just tells you, you know. But when you combine what little they were able to pull out of Jerry Jones in conjunction with what one O five three the fan was able to speak to and with Stephen
Jones about yesterday, they've been making calls. I mean, Stephen Jones told the fan yesterday that they had called the other every one of the other thirty one teams. Now, of course he painted it with the broad stroke of saying, you know, that's just us doing our due diligence and seeing what's out there.
But they're on the phone. They're on the phone.
But and remember their whole and so are you call in talking out that I can sprinkle that in there the whole thought process from the Jones families.
A lot of times, especially when it comes to the draft, that they want the phone to ring. But the fact that they are being aggressive at least shows that they see the problem too, And I feel like anybody can see the problem. I feel like that's an obvious think, Steve, It's not hard to diagnose.
Now, they see the problem and they want to find.
You can see what they're doing.
Yeah, so it at least gives a little bit of clarity the fact that there could be something done. The weird part about it is now we're less than seven days away, correct from the NFL trade deadline. It's a week from today, right Tuesday Afternoonuesday afternoons.
So yeah, we are.
Seven days away and you'll have anybody less than twenty four hours from That's what's key Monday Night football and what happens on Monday against the Cardinals to then turn around and make a deal. Right, you're going into your bye week, which is good, ye, However, not a lot of time to make a decision.
Well, you know, they said deadlines make deals, and that's rarely more true within the NFL than with this organization.
Yes, so you know.
Jerry was also asked if because he said Jerry did after the Broncos lost. He said that game in and of itself doesn't color their thought process as far as how they would approach the trade deadline. I honestly don't know that I believe that, ye, because I don't know how you watch that game and then say to yourself, you know, let's just watch that that doesn't really affect I don't see how you say that, But he did believe it.
If you choose, dude, it's up to you.
I don't But that being said, if I believe if you lose this game to the Cardinals, I don't see how you're not on it. If you're of the mindset, if you're on team you can save this season. If you're on that team and the front office is going to be on that team if they lose to the Cardinals, then I don't see how you're on that team and then don't get on the phone and try to make a deal at the deadline.
I think I don't know, man, when you're looking at it microscopically, how we are week to week and you know, result by result, game by game. In terms of how they look at it, I mean, they're kind of like the benajeser It in Dune. It's like they think in century, you know what I mean, you're thinking long term in this way, But if you're looking at the season as a whole. You haven't had a repeat performance this entire season. The season is literally what the Cowboys are lost, win loss,
tie win loss, win loss. And by the way, last week you won forty four to twenty two. This last week you lost twenty four forty four.
Yeah, almost completely flipped.
It's you were literally admit you are mid right now. So it should be no surprise to them. They built the roster, they know the personnel. It's they're not performing to the level that they expected at this point. So yeah, I don't see how the Broncos loss could affect you in a way to be like, oh, well, you know.
Sell sell sell or bye bye bye. It is the result of what you've built.
So now you have to make decisions. The deadline is here, Yeah, but they've set up many occasions that everybody else's deadline is not necessarily their deadline. Deadlines make deals, This is absolutely true. But if they're not willing to in the next two or three days make a trade that will impact this team, what else.
Can we expect?
You know, it's well, it's up in the air.
I'm frustrated. You have and you should be, as we all are. You have to do something if you are of the mice. And again, there are two trains of thought here, all right, So choose the train that you want to, you know, travel down the tracks. With one train of thought is season's over. Let's focus on the draft, keep your draft picks, build for the future, reload the defense. If that's your train of thought, so be it. If your train of thought is the other one, which is
you can save the season. You don't want to waste the window of Dak Prescott in this play. You don't know if George Pickens is going to return for next season. You want to take advantage of this offense is five power while you can. You have to do something, so be it trade and or go out into free agency. You have guys in free agency, particularly at the safety position.
I mean you news and notes. Would you like a news and note?
Yeah?
Your safety position?
Now, le's talk about Okay, Well, Elijah Clark per Brian Schottenheimer is going to be out a couple of weeks. Oh, he just lost another safety. So let me recap. Malik Hooker is on injured reserve and shot. He said yesterday that this is not the week that Malak's twenty one day practice window will begin. So Malik Hooker is still on an I arm. Donovan Wilson missed last week's game. We don't know if he's going to play this game.
The one year Thomas is now miss two games with my grains, and that's a real tenuous situation.
We don't know if he's going to be able to play.
The developing thing for him, he's.
A developing thing and it's new to him. I had that conversation with him. So he's trying to figure out how to manage my grains because he's not had them until recently. So from a safety position, you have Marquise Bell.
Oh I'm sorry.
Were you expected me to continue? You have Marquise Bell. That's I mean, you had to put your nickel corner ready Stewart back at safety. So I say that to say, you know, I think you have to do a combination of things. I think you have to look into a trade scenario and you have to dip your foot into free agency right now. If you're of the train of thought that you can save this season.
I think and just a playoff of your point, and I said this yesterday. With the way that we've gotten here as a franchise as an organization. I don't think anybody before the season was realistic, realistically saying this roster is an eleven twelve, thirteen wins team. Nobody said that. It was more like seven eight nine, depending on who you talked to.
I was of the mind that you maybe get to ten. I was of the mind that with a healthy dapt pressout you could win ten games.
But he probably also had Michael on this team before the season before.
That's fair.
But we also didn't anticipate the offense being as high powered as it has been.
We knew it was going to be good.
Did we anticipated being a number one, number two offense in the country.
Probably not.
But then you didn't realize this defense would be a bottom one, bottom two defense in the league as well. You thought it would be somewhat serviceable. And we've had that conver station plenty. So with all that to be said, how we've gotten here is now you're looking at Dak Prescott's window of really good football. And so I said it yesterday, you have to do something. You can't just
sit on your hands. You're either going to have to build toward next year in the year after that by making a move that encompasses twenty six and twenty seven, much like they did with the Mica trade. Or go all in on your defense right now because your offense as long as you've got extra possessions.
I have no problem on the offensive side of the ball.
So I think you're at a corporation crossroads right now, a campaigns crossroads whenever it comes to how are you going to handle this? And it's like that a lot of that's going to happen over this next seven days. Yes, indeed, whatever this campaign is going to be for the Cowboys is happening between now and what is it, three pm Central Time PM Central town four next next week, next Tuesday,
next Tuesday. So there's there's a cross roads that you're at right now, and you got to find which way you just decide to go down.
I don't know which way they're gonna go. I know I would go.
Toward let's not waste the MVP window and let's not waste what Dak has been doing throughout this season. I know he came off a bad game and there were a lot of comments yesterday, oh my god, it's Dak Prescott again.
Stop it.
He was playing at an incredibly high level use that as you continue.
And if that's the case, what do you do right now? What two positions do you got.
To get a pass rusher?
Rusher saying so, do you trade for a pass rusher?
Yes?
And then free agency is that involved in your decision making?
I don't know how many free agents that are on the street are going to just come in and be a not a passmaker at safety or really anafety.
I mean, who I think you need?
You need an impact guy at the edge, just need a stabilizer at safety.
Now I need a linebacker, I need another innerback. I don't I need.
I just don't see them.
I don't think they're.
There's one on the way that's kind of a big deal, and whether you like it or not, the expectation will be the expectation.
I need about nine to ten guys on defense. How's that extra? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see. I don't think they're that far out. I know they're bad, and I know the statistics are bad, but I don't think they're that far out.
I think if you.
Get some level and resemblance of a pass rush that is capable of opening things up, then I think you're going to start to see the play of Dante Faller Junior take a step forward, the play of Donovan as a rock who take a step forward. Marshaw Kneeland doesn't have to put pressure on himself to be a pass rusher, and he can kind of just defend the run like
he was drafted to do. There's a lot of things that will happen if you get one pass rusher, an elite level pass rusher, which is going to cost you.
In the middle of the season.
It's going to cost you, however, the safety position corner, whatever you do. If you want to trade a day two, Day three pick to get there.
Then maybe you do it. But I don't think there's that guy just out there on the open market, right I.
Would argue there's you could definitely improve by getting another guy in the middle, and not necessarily a pass rusher, because I think absolutely doing that would cost you less because they're not trading two ones for an interior defense.
So you're saying do that instead of a pass rusher.
Yes, Oh man, I'm thinking.
You got to have a password because that to Coyle's point, and I've said.
If you can control the line of scriptage and stop the run, permanently.
Defence from Oh, you're you're talking about interior defensive line.
I thought you're talking about middle as in like lineback.
That's so I'm fine with that too.
I'm okay with that too, if you're controlling the defensive front.
But the argument that I had.
The other day, or the debate that I had the other day with Isaiah, was you've had the best interior defensive line play you've had in decades.
And now it's not holding up.
And it's not.
It's not because because there is no threat of a pass right correct, one begets the other correct. But I'm saying, if you have another guy, solidified guy next to Kenny Clark that is able to stop the run, absolutely stop it,
the outside will feast. I think I have a I have an inkling of opportunity there there because instance, I'm not forgetting about what James Houston was able to provide and perry On Winfrey like, if we saw what we saw from training camp and we saw from preseason, if he's healthy enough to get back this year, I mean that's a plus. That's on the plus side. If he gets back. I haven't heard anything about him, you.
Know, same neither have I I would say that there. Yeah, maybe there is a point to be made that you're making in that there are instances where okay, if you drop another impact guy on that defensive tackle in that defensive tackle room and you put him next to Kenny Clark, Okay, I see where you're going with that.
I see what you're cooking.
But more often than not, you have to look at the fact that even when the run defense through let's say the first four five ish games, the first the run def.
For Carolina, Yeah, run defense, or before New York because Breese Hall players say that.
But now you're starting to see what's ha For example, JK. Dobbins, a lot of his runs were attacking that. Yes, absolutely right, So yeah, throw another body of the defensive tackle. It looks great, sounds great, It will work as far as keeping them from running ab but hit c right Chester edges. Your edges are not playing well in definit of the run and they're not rushing the passer. So for me, it's you know, you ask Osa to take the step up,
Sally to take the step back up. So those guys plus Kenny Clark, that trio was doing work in the first four games. You asked those guys to do work again. But in helping them do that, you add an impact, not just an impact, but a game breaking pass rush, which then combines with that also helps your linebackers, also helps your secondary, shortens the coverage windows if you can get into more, and then the safety issue that you have depth wise and performance wise becomes masked much more so.
Then if you say, Okay, I want to trade for this costly pass rusher. Yeah, I don't want to trade for a costly pass rusher and for costly safety.
Fine, cool, give me up. You're probably as rusher.
And then you go and get a capable, veteran proven safety to stabilize that unit back there. And now you're cooking or maybe like you do what KYL just say, you give a Day three pick away and then maybe you.
Can fourth round pick and get you a pretty good.
You know, you know what, because you're gonna get compicks anyway, and this team loves the fact that they have the compicks and you can find up those compics. So there's ways to make this happen. You just need to go make it happen.
But I think there's no argument that you need extra pieces on defense.
They currently do not have. And I think.
That's that's the crux of it, and that would be the problem if a week.
From now nothing has happened.
That's where I'm at. You gotta do something.
You can't just sit here before you're poking it with a stick.
Yes, please just do something.
And Josh brings up great points and he made the joke at the beginning of the segment of you need a corner, you need a safety, you need a linebacker, you need a defensive tackle, you need an addresser.
They need all of it.
But where is it going to give you the most bang for your buck right now with what you do have? And that's where I lean pass rusher because I think it opens everything up. I agree with you adding an extra three tech that can stop the run awesome, But you can't give up your entire future to try and trade for five or six guys on the defensive side, and wanted them to be included as a three teche.
I'm just not willing to part with those ones quite yet. I'm willing to take fee. I'm willing to take a bet on a three or four or two.
One of those ones, putting them in one of Isaiah's paper airplanes and I'm sending that thing and let's see what it hooks. And one of those AFC teams, see what it hooks the green Bay Green Bays base because it's gonna be And don't trade.
Don't trade your twenty seven first. Please you don't, because that draft's gonna be nuts.
All right. I'm with you. I have the internal struggle and I'm with you, guys. I think we're already together. Page there's something, do something. This defense is not good and you need to do something.
No.
I like campaign cross, I like that.
I like that.
Hey, that was a bar.
That was a bar.
All right.
When we come back, we're gonna give you the chance to drop some bars on this show. Eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. It's a Talking Tuesday. We're taking phone calls from Talking Cowboys Nation and from the phanom Maale Fan Moly.
I try it every time, you gotta do it different.
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Patrick knows you Walker, Tommy smiling, Josh Rodriguez, Tommy smile. What was that? What are we doing? Tommy?
Oh know, man, the screen shot yesterday and if you haven't seen it yet, to go to Josh's Twitter, Josh like close up to everybody that was in the middle of.
Our our wide shot to start, because you're talking like.
Yeah, I was in the middle of like the open so like don't yeah, don't don't need.
But but said it all my face said it all angry, angry. And then Tommy's.
The only thing missing out of Tommy's like close up headshot with was his teeth.
Yeah, it was the only thing missing and.
A thumbs up.
Yep. He just come on, Tommy, come on, Tommy.
I did say, like I thought, he is the model of consistency because I mean, every day he's just happy to be here.
He's just happy to be here.
He's glass half full kind of guy.
Absolutely might go to what Melvin just said, and he said the fantomly is splintering.
That's what we were doing for sure.
But I would saying it helps to not be like a fan of the team, you know, because Tommy is just going to work.
Basically, Ovin kind of kind of stews the splintering though he's master splinter.
Yeah. In the chat, we see Melvin.
Yeah, of the foot of the.
It's time for talking Tuesday. Let's start things off. This is gonna be great. I love it when this guy calls in.
This is Dano in Florida. What's up, Dano? Welcome back?
Hey, hey guys, how you doing great? Hey Hey, let me preface this by saying you're talking to a real pissed off fan at this point.
I love it.
And when I refer to the front office, I'm referring to one man and one man only, and that's Jerry Jones, who I believe his commitment to mediocrity is is outstanding. Okay, you're gonna wind up wasting some damn good guys on offense. Uh, he's done that before. The Marcus Ware is a prime example. Romo is a prime example. He's wasted their careers in Dallas.
I've gone back and I've looked at a couple of Now I've looked at every game, and this is my grades on the defensive side of the ball d L A D minus linebackers, A D plus secondary and that minus coaching and F minus minus. You know, and defensive football any football. You know, it's technique, scheme, talent coaching. That's what it comes down to, and when I watched these guys, forget the scheme. I don't think anybody understands what Eberfoush is trying to do, At least I don't.
And I'm of the opinion that he is a deer in the headlights. When you see him on the sideline, he looks confused. This is just me. He looks confused. He looks like, you know, he's not three plays ahead, and that's what it looks like. I was wondering why he hasn't gone in the booth yet to be able to look down at how he's being attacked, rather than being at field level, which is much harder to see. But so I go back to that technique, scheme, talent and coaching. Do we have the talent more so? Yes
than no, I believe. Okay, but it's it's a bit of a rap shoot, all right, technique. You know, I watched these guys, and you know, back in the day, you know, when I was in college, if you got double teams, you got underneath that double team, you created a pile. You weren't getting blown off the ball. You wanted the linebackers to be able to clean up. Now, it's in college. At college level, I see these guys that get to a knee and it's almost the same
type of the technique. You don't get blown off the ball, you get underneath the blocker. I'm watching guys the other the other week, not this past week, but a couple of weeks prior. The tackles looked like they're like they were lined up in the seat in the big gap, like outside show inside shoulder to tackle. Well, Jesus, you know my mother could run through that hole, all right, and like, and I'm gonna throw something out because I think ibra flu should be gone wrecked. Ryan, Okay, he's
out there. He may be a bit of a wild card, but you know what he knows defensive football. He does. And I'm of the opinion, if you want to try and salvage this team this year, you got to do something. I agree, and I think I think again, and I think iber Flush has probably lost the defensive players. If I was a player, he lost me. He lost me. And so that's all I got, guys, I see.
So.
We love you, Dano.
Appreciate the call as always, dan O, and understand your feeling for sure. Yeah, I get the frustration and I get there. He's not alone, by the way, there's a lot of there are a lot of fans that feel that way.
He was cooking.
He absolutely accept that there's a lot to unpack there stuff.
Where do you want to start? You want to start?
He talked about I know you wanted to say something about the talent level. He feels like, yes, the talent is there on defense.
On oh, I think he was saying for the roster, but was it specifically he thought he was talking defense.
I mean, to be.
Fair, I mean he was talking about how the ownership has probably wasted you.
Know, offensive guys offensive because of the defensive talent.
I mean, I would argue that somebody's putting that together. You know, like there's a reason you have so many talented players on this roster. It's not clicking for a multitude of reasons, and you can't pinpoint it to one guy in particular.
I really don't feel that way.
And it's not that I'm getting paid to say that. That is my personal opinion. I think you don't have the personnel and defense.
We've talked about the x's and o's and the roster building of this front office before with very much so clarity and ability and.
Criticism about and praise when praise is due.
It's it's it's an amalgam of those things. But genuinely, you don't have guys on defense that you don't have the personnel that is going to get you where you need to go, because there are players that are taking plays off. There are players that are not getting off of their blocks when they absolutely need to.
I said yesterday the f you can't teach effort.
No, how many times does Isaiah have to tell us this before it really locks in? Not and not to us because of course we're listening and we're watching tape and we understand these things. But to those guys out there, effort is not taught. You have to get guys that have that claimed.
And he called out Jadavian Clowning for lack of effort on the R. J. Harvey touchdown run in postgame. And it's it's apparent.
Like there were there were a couple.
I mean, he wasn't alone.
No, when you go back and look at that film, there are a couple. There's Kyrie Elam, He's one in particular on a couple of those Jase Dobbins plays. I'm expecting him to crash down and help, and it, I don't know, felt like you were trying to avoid no gym, like it was a business decision.
There are multiple guys that are afraid.
Of just like it was a business decision.
I think are running back boy.
I think our running back from Texas is also afraid of contact.
It could possibly be I will say, you know, dan O cooked, he cooked in a lot of ways. I'm going to speak to the one thing he didn't cook on. This is why I was shaking my keep ricks ran away away, just keep him away. I realized it's it's the you know, the big name, it's the flashy name, it's the sexy name, etcetera, etcetera.
And people know.
It's the name people know.
And Rex has you know, tried to leverage himself through the media over these past couple of that guy coaching cycles.
Like yes, seriousness building.
But and he's a caricature of what you'd expect out of a defensive minded.
But I think what people are looking at when those who are on the Rex Ryan train, they're looking at the the yesteryear of res Rex Ryan. They're looking at peak Rex Ryan and I've said this, and I've said it before.
I say it again.
Time fades pictures for people. So what people failed to remember, they remember, Oh well he got Mark Sanchez and the Jets to the AFC Championship game. On occasions he absolutely did. How things go in Buffalo. My point being that as we sit here and have this conversation in twenty twenty five, you're trying to tell me for those that are on the Rex Ryan train and otherwise, Dan O, you cooked. But this is where I gotta, I gotta, we gotta squire. Respectfully,
Rex Ryan hasn't coached in almost a decade. So if you want a modern minded coach, Shoe, I get it. You want the old school ball coach, great, you had that in Mike Zimmer.
How that work out? Okay?
It takes more than just simply saying you're a hard nosed, all old school spur your type ball coach. In order to come in and fix a defense that's this bad, you have to be able to do that plus modernize it to today's standards. Because offensive nowadays they are so complex, because and the league is legislated toward helping offensive score points. You can't just simply drop in a Rex Ryan who hasn't coached in almost a decade and say, oh, well,
you know, fifteen years ago he did a thing. Congrats on doing that thing fifteen years ago almost anyway, But that's not going to fix it here. But what you will get is more drama because it's Rex. You had his brother Rob here. How that turnout? It was one of the worst defenses in the history of the franchise.
Bless you.
So I'm out. I could not be more out on Rix Ryan. But as far as everything else you said, Daniel, I'm with you on that. I don't know that I agree. Actually, I don't agree with the personnel stance. If you were in fact saying it's a defensive thing. So if your point was defense has to personnel, yeah, I think hockets they have the personnel, but sure they don't have all of them, which is why we're saying you need to I don't think they have a safety stabilizer or something.
No, and I don't think they have.
I said it yesterday, I multiple years now, multiple defensive coordinators, and we're all sitting here saying the same thing. You can't stop the run, and if you don't get a pass rush or secondary is a liability. So with all that being said, I think you just don't have the personnel. I don't think you have the personnel, and I don't on the defensive side of the ball.
I mean, I don't think.
One coordinator is going to change the outlook and the identity of your defense right here, right now now with the personnel that is currently.
Switch your coordinator in the off season may not have that impact.
You had an opportunity to kind of Keithson continuity whenever my gosh, Al Harris was here and he left, and that was you know, that was a choice to let him walk out the building when he had a rapport with the secondary as it was.
And it wasn't a good choice, but it was a choice.
It was. It was a choice to be made a choice on him. Yeah, it was.
It was a choice on him for a reason. And yeah, I mean, we're not going to make this the Al Harris segment, but we'll just simply say that we gotta be careful because he's under contract with another team. But I will say that I do believe in hindsight, I have to word this a certain way, and I'm wording it a certain way for a reason put me back
in the defense of the off season. And in the off season, I was one of several you guys who thought that Al Harris deserved more responsibility and deserved a look at defensive coordinator.
He didn't get that. Look. Now he's in Chicago, and I'll leave it there.
I am all right. Let's let's hear from Mike in New York. What's up, big Mic?
What's going on? Guys? What's frustrated about the Cowboys? Is talking about it for many years? When was the last time Cowboys actually had a good run defense. I have been watching this team for many years and that we talk about it all the time. But it's like I I mean, I I know we talk about everything with the defense, of course, but the last time we actually had a good run defense just spent a long time.
Yeah yeah, yeah, certainly what else is on your mind?
I just like I said, I like like Jerry, he made his point on the you know, on the post game. Yeah, you know we need we need more than one player, so we we got we gotta do something. I mean, it's kind of you know, we got you know, we we just hey, the defense has to improve. We were were the worst defense in the whole league. Like I mean, I understand that we didn't. You know, we should I personally,
we should have kept Parsons. We should have paid him, of course, but obviously money, salary cap and this and that. But you know, we got we gotta we gotta do something. We you know, we definitely got definitely you know, two Way Street, definitely definitely need you know, secondary help. We get all these injuries and this and that. Gotta do something. We got to improve some way.
Yeah, I appreciate your mic as always, and he brings up a point there is when it comes to the Micah.
Trade, you thought you were going to be a worse defense. You don't trade an elite, all pro, possible future.
Hall of Fame pass rusher and think you're going to be better on the defensive side. But to go to the depths that they have on that unit so far, I think that's what's frustrating about the whole scenario.
Youah, one hundred percent.
And I'll say this, it's interesting that it's a tale of two takes. Okay, because right now after the Michael Parsons trade, you hear the front office and you hear some of the fans kind of towing that line, saying, oh, well, you know you couldn't pay him and dot dot dot dot dot. Well you try to pay him, and the money you were trying to pay him would have negated the take that you have.
I think it's just coping. Really, I think it's just coping.
Yeah. I mean they were ready to pay him.
They were made Yeah, Jerry made the offer. Yeah, substantial, it had substantial guaranteed money. So I just say, I just think that the uh, the regression of that conversation between the two and how things devolved and how it ended up going at this point, there's cope involved on both sides, not just on the Cowboys side, because michaeh is he's still talking about the Cowboys. Oh man, every every bit exit, yeah, bitter exits.
It's just move on, buddy, move on, both of you. Move on.
But the fact of the matter remains, once you chose to trade Michael Parsons the way you, you just had to know that your defense was going to take a step back.
But again, you did not know what was going to be this and this is a good.
Chunk of it is accountable to Matt Eflues, a good chunk of it is accountable to the players and lack of execution, lack of effort, business decisions being made, injuries. I mean, you put all that in the pot and you probably end up with the worst defense in the league. And oh, by the way, you do have the worst defense.
Let me ask thank you this. If you were in the GM shoes in that moment and you could see halfway through the season to the NFL trade deadline and say, by that point we're going to be three five and one and the defensive unit is going to be historically one of the worst you've ever had in your organization's history, would you have still gone through with the Micael Parsons trade.
No.
I feel like right now you would say no, Right I.
Would have said no before without the benefit of that foresight. Yeah, I would have said no because behind Michael Parsons it was a lot of hope.
And go ahead and say it for me.
Yeah, I hope is not a strategy.
It's not a strategy.
You hoped that Sam Williams, coming off of a torn ACL would have a breakout season in a contract year.
That's what you were hoping. You were hoping that.
Dante Fowler would replicate his career best success that he had with the Commanders. His most successful season with Dan Quinn with the Cowboys was as a rotational pass rush. So you were hoping that you could possibly make danteo full timer, you would get that replication, and it goes from there. You were hoping that Donovan Israku would hit the ground running as quickly as Michael Parsons did, which is an anomaly and probably not going to happen.
And it's not happening.
I'm hoping Marshawn kneland would take the stack all this hope. Yeah, that's not enough for me to look at Michael Parsons and say, Okay, I'm good without you.
I would argue that it wasn't just hope, because you were seeing a lot of this at training camp and in the preseason. You were seeing a lot of those guys step up in ways that made you feel a little more comfortable.
I think, just so we're on the same page, my point of view comes from immediately post draft. That's why I mentioned don Israku. Right, So I'm looking like June, yeah, or you go to training camp, gotcha, it's hope for that point forward before you see anybody take a single step.
And my purview here is from training camp when you're seeing those guys step up in big ways and you're like, oh my god, is Donovan Azraku that dude because of how.
Quick he's able to get off the line training camp.
And granted, even Tommy was talking about how he's you know, he's right there, he's getting there, almost there, but the actual results aren't where they need to be.
Yeah, I said this initially, I didn't like the Mica trade. I still think it opens you up and gives you flexibility for the future. And when it happened this was talking about I'm talking about when that trade came down prior to the season.
I said, it gives you a whole lot of possibilities. And they've already taken advantage of some of that.
They signed Tyler Smith, they signed a Ron Plan, Jake Ferguson was already done. But they've got options to possibly sign a George Pickens in the future. And then they've got the two first round draft picks. Kenny Clark comes in, He's under contract for three years. All of the elements of the trade give you flexibility as an organization, which brings us right back to right now. You did not anticipate to be a better defense in twenty twenty five. This was a move for twenty six and twenty seven.
But with the offense playing that it has been, that's where it's changed my mind, and it's like, you gotta do something now, you gotta do something again something, all right, we got to take our second break.
That's what we're doing right now.
When we come back here on Talking Cowboys, We've got Allen and Phoenix. It's a Talking Tuesday. Hold on, Allan, we'll take your call momentarily. More Talking Cowboys right after this.
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I think we're gonna get some coffee on Monday.
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I'm gonna wear my Cowboys merch and go to Black Rifle and get myself ten percent off my how much order?
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What's going on?
Alex or Alan? Sorry? Alan, It's all good.
It's all good.
And man, honestly, like you said, hope is not a strategy. So I'm being optimistic. But every day after every week, it just becomes a little less, a little less, a little less.
It's all good.
Though.
I'm a huge fan of the show. Is my second time Colin Patrick. I love your life tweets. They keep me, honestly, really into the game because I feel like I understand a lot more. And honestly, ever since I started listening to the show, I've just been, you know, been understanding football a lot more and been more into at the game.
And honestly, I don't even know what to say.
Man, this defense is atrocious. I mean, they it's just it's rough. Rough. I don't I don't know. I want to I want to be on train, you know, trade for players and stuff right now. But man, I don't know, I don't know. I really got much to say. She want to say, A big fan of the show.
And because I have a good.
Day, thanks, Alan, appreciate you appreciate Colin.
He sounds so defeated, and I get it, no he does.
He's like, I love the show. I love listening to you guys.
But man, he is so tired. But so are so many fans. There's just it's yeah. All you can do now is hold on to the optimism that you have, which is that yes, we understand and we can't say this enough. Dak Prescott in the offense had a bad day at the office. So if you're going to criticize him, criticize him in that that framing. But to say that the offense is a problem and you're worried about going forward, to stop that.
The defense is the problem.
The defense is who you have to worry about going forward, and the defense is who you need to throw something at whether it be a trade and or free agency, just do something. If you're on the train of thought that you can still salvage the season, you gotta do something you can just stampat.
Let me just say that, like, granted, we're not here criticizing the offense very much.
It was a bad day at the office.
It was the worst time to have a bad day at the office. Yeah, it's bad, but they've criticized themselves. I mean, Dak Prescott was taugh talking about it in th post game presser about it, and he said, I was pressing.
I was pressing.
That is never good for Dak Prescott to be pressing that. That throwed it to Jake Ferguson. Kyle was very obviously opinionated about that throw.
I hated that throat.
At halftime, and understandable because he was pressing.
He broke it down too.
He said he thought he thought the seam would be open over the top, and it's the corner play closer to him than he thought.
And I was like, that's pressing that. That's the example of pressing.
All you got to do is throw that throw it to the boundaries and get your three points and you're down by two possessions with the.
Seven year old field goal man you.
Got the problem is is number one And I said this yesterday. Don't ever throw that ball again. Yeah, that being said, I see the thought process. I think this. He won't say it publicly, which is fine because he's a leader in the locker room, but we can say it when you when you don't trust that your defense can get a stop. You know, for a fact, you can't trade feeling goals for touchdowns. So you know, even though you got three in your back pocket, you're probably
going to press. And then what makes you press more is the fact that your protection was simply not there.
Right.
So also a quick news and note, sounds like Cooper BB is going to be back this week.
Per Stephen Jones to one on five three good Man.
He said he believes Cooper BB will be back, so at least you get some reinforcement there. But the biggest thing is this offense. I feel confident in the same they will not have too many more bad days.
At the office.
Now it's going to happen the.
Defense, though, I don't know if they have another good day at the office in them. When you look at the gauntlet that awaits them coming out of the by. This is why the Cowboys needed to stack as many wins as possible going into the bye week, because coming out of the bye that's pretty pretty nasty work waiting for you.
Yeah, you've gotten beat so far by Jalen Hurts, which is understandable. Caleb Williams, Bryce Young Bownecks.
Those are the three.
Who's blues to come? Who's to come?
Yeah, well, this week it's questionable.
It's gonna possibly be Kyler Murray they think he can play, but if not, it's Jacobe Brissett. But then you've got Geno Smith, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Jared Goff. Whoever the hell the Vikings are going to play in December. I don't know what's happening with their spot situation right now, justin Herbert who's having a career year. Uh, maybe you get a healthy Jaden Daniels and then you'll have Jackson Dart for the first time.
So it's definitely.
I mean, it's that that stretch where it's Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, Chargers, Bang Bang Banks.
Then the show. Dude, that was a terrible That's the worst thing I've ever heard.
You lost that you lost the.
Yeah, the smile of Josh's face is such a psychological thing, right, so it hurts so bad that your mind doesn't know how to process the paint anymore.
No, so now you just start smiling.
Can you read that list one more time, please?
Jalen Hurts, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young and bow Knicks. Good God, now you want me to read the list that they've beaten, please. Russell Wilson narrowly champion, Jayden Daniels and Justin Fish he was.
In the NFCY Championship last year.
They did beat up on Jane who was.
The last one, Jayden Daniels and Justin Fields Field they tied with Jordan Lowe.
Hey, it doesn't Fields won a game last week.
Da, I don't know.
I mean, at the end of the day, it's what we're saying is you needed the first half of the season to have as many wins as possible because what comes to you after in the second half of the season is just the nastiest of work when it comes to your schedule, which is another reason why you have to do something if you're trying to salvage this season at all. Now, in doing something. Does that mean that you magically turn to you know, a nine win team.
I don't know.
I don't know, but I do know that standing pad on, what you have when you see what you have is the worst in the league as far as defensively. I just don't see how you do that and then look, you know, Brian Schottenheimer in the in the face and say, yeah, we were, you know, trying to set you up for
success in year one. Yeah, there were moves that were made that you could look shoty in the face and say that, George Pickens being one of them, right, Solomon Thomas being to a lesser degree, but that kind of addition.
Right, But if you if you.
Fly through the trade deadline without Javonte Williams, absolutely Javonte Williams, because.
We believe in Javonte.
That was a sadder clap today.
It was because he didn't get so many opportunities carries a right thirteen carries in a homecoming to Denver. You should have let him just there's no reason to.
Nick had a good point yesterday.
I was talking about He's like, at one point in the offensive huddle, they should have said, hey, remember they let you go and they didn't want you anymore. Anyways, We're gonna run.
And give the freaking ball.
Yeah.
So yeah, so some thet them do is Marshawn Lynch impression, like sometimes you just got to run through a blank Blank's face.
Should have let them run.
Through their fist, should have let it happen.
Yeah, Trade Deadline is coming. Do something one.
Week from today. It's gonna happen. Next Wednesday, we're gonna we're gonna go talking to the Trade Deadline edition, and then Wednesday we're gonna be like, Wow, they did something, or here we go, they did nothing. Buckle up, everybody, we're going by.
Quick shout out to Benjamin Perez. I caught you in the first half of the chat. What do I know about Demon Slayer?
Stop it? So the movie? Check out? The movie is one of the best animey movies I've ever seen in my life.
Hm.
That was just ran.
I had that filed away because I want to give them props for knowing about demons.
What's the last movie watched?
The last movie I watched it's been a minute.
Was it the horror movie that you saw in Denver? Alright, then that'll do it for taking them Demons.
The title was forty four to twenty four the final That's gonna do it for us?
Here on talking to Cowboys for Patrick Nosey, Walker, Josh Rodriguez, Chris Beam in the back of Kyle Yoman saying so long, We'll see you tomorrow with more Talking Cowboys.
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