Talkin' Cowboys: Everson Griffen's Impact

The first seventy days there's not a whole lot that changed for the Dallas Cowboys, But the last seventy two hours, oh my gosh, we've got a lot to talk about as the podcast make their triumphant return to Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Welcome back, everybody. If you're like we are, we are so pumped up to bring you Cowboys Talk here in training camp twenty twenty as the football season right now is happening and there's a lot going on leading up to that point. Welcome back in everybody. This

is Talking Cowboys. Kyle Yeoman's alongside Heckma Harrison, Rob Phillips and former Dallas Cowboy Isaiah standbacking. Guys. It's so good to be back with you. I can't tell you how much I missed you over the last seventy two days. But it's also just compounded itself in the past couple hours because it's just it's so much excitement around not only training camp happening, But guys, the Cowboys got Everson Griffin. I don't know if you saw that news last night,

but they that up. You didn't, Well, good thing. We're going to talk about it over the next hour. But Rob kind of break this move down. But the Cowboys go out and get one of the best pass rushers on the market. Yeah, this one came as a bit of a surprise, did I mean it's it's a reported

one year deal for about six million bucks. And Griffin's been on the market for a while as a free agent to aid avoided his deal with the Vikings earlier this offseason, became a free agent, and then the pandemic hits, and because of Cota, calls around the league that you know, you can't have free agent visits, you can't have physicals, And he's been out there rumored to maybe go back

to Minnesota, maybe Seattle. But this is a big stroke by the Cowboys in terms of getting some big time defensive line depth, a guy that can help fit right in at right defensive end seventy four and a half career sacks had eight sacks last year. Guys, this reminds me a lot of getting Robert Quinn last year, a guy in his early thirties on a contract that's not hamstringing the salary cap and all of a sudden he can really help you. Hey, mom, Hey, you guys are

being way too cool about this. Okay, I'm a say you've been missing, you know in action. We're waiting to get back to talk football. But listen, I'm a good like everybody else is doing on all the other networks, and they have something to say. They say, listen first, all right, this is exactly what we needed. This is the piece. And it's not to say that Alda Smith

isn't gonna give us any production. But guys, if you think about where Mike Nolan is right now and at the Star, he has got to be kicking himself with all of the guys that he can put in this rotation. I mean it, just pick somebody, you know, and ever Everson Griffin. Look, and they're gonna be the pundits that say, oh, we're getting a little older, and I know you're older as far as the lineup is concerned. When you look at McCoy PO and guys like that. They're in their thirties.

But guys, this is a This is a group of guys that have all individually lit it up in the league, from Tank to PO, to McCoy and now to Everson Griffin. Hey, Pro Bowl of All Pro, all of those things we have on our front on our front line. Man, did we get thick or what? Okay? Champ, come on, man, you you come off? Hey, I know you got something.

Sam Well, I know, man, look at here. All I'm gonna say is my no. One he right now, he is in a Lego factory and he's a master builder because he has all the pieces that he absolutely needs to put together a heck of a defense. These guys are going to be a probe, all right. Anybody who's on the opposite side of the ball does not want to deal with these guys. We talked about it prior to the break, but we're back now. These guys have

even and they've improved even more. Right, these guys have somehow, some way went out and found another pro bowler to add onto this already ridiculous defense, this already amazing front seven. And we're gonna pair that up with the secondary that we have. Right that now we really said doesn't need to have a whole lot of coverage ability, but now we're just gonna improve it that much more, right by adding to this guy Griffin, who's a physical specimen six

four two eighty pounds runs of four to six. He's the only person aside from Aaron, over the last sixty years it has fifty five plus sex and you've got to add this guy to this one. They're cheating. Think about this. Think about this. Three years ago, he signed an extension worth almost sixty million bucks. Okay, but he decided to avoid it because he hit certain incentives with the Vikings, and the Cowboys get him for six million bucks. I mean, look, that is front office gold right there.

I mean, this guy can really come in and help them. And what Heckma said earlier about and Isaiah. Two guys that they've added that have been productive in the league five Pro Bowlers previously. For these guys that they've made Pro Bowls in the past, five of them. And Gerald McCoy's prob I think he's the highest paid that they've added at three years and eighteen million bucks. They're adding talent guys, yes, that are in their thirty some of them,

but that don't Hamstringer cap and half. Familiarity with guys on the coaching staff, Jim Tomsula without his death, George Edwards, who's their new senior defensive assistant, Everson Griffin for six years. So when you're talking about stepping into a training camp where you don't have a lot of time to work on the field, at least there's familiarity with the guys. They know what they're getting and they know exactly what

they're getting with Griffin. And the thing that makes it most exciting because of the signing, it's because it's the cherry on top. It's not the pie, it's not the whip cream. It's the nice little cherry that's placed on top. Because you made all the moves you did in the off season. You added Gerald McCoy, you added Dontari Poe, you added Alden Smith. Hopefully you get Randy Gregory back. But the big question going into this off season was how do you beef up the middle of the defensive

line and how do you replace Robert Quinn. Well, you upgraded the defensive line in the middle of it right in that interior with Dontari Poe, with Gerald McCoy, and then Neville Gallimore in the draft. Then you turn around and you add a guy like Everson Griffin to replace Robert Quinn. And for those of you who may not think he's an upgrade, let's look at this. Last year, Griffin had seventy pressures. Quinn, who was arguably the best pass rusher on the Cowboys last year, had fifty seven,

so thirteen more than Robert Quinn did. And when you talk about run defense, run defense wise, Griffin had a sixty three percent or not percent but grade at his run defense compared to Robert Quinn, who was at a fifty three, so ten points higher. So at least as of last year. And if you're watching the film and you get a little bit of twenty nineteen Everson Griffin,

there's no reason not to be excited about this. But heckmon, whenever you talk about the size and the speed and his ability, what does he bring to this defense that they didn't already have previously? Well, well, first of all, all respect to Robert Quinn and what he did eleven sacks and even missing four games last year. I mean you, he had a monster season. But when you talk Everson Griffin and Robert Quinn, it's like talking about two world

class fighters in different weight classes. It's just different, right. And the deal is is that Everson Griffin's catagorically way better against the run than Bobby Robert Quinn ever was okay, And so that's what you're getting the amount of moves that Everson Griffin has from the outside. Now, we gotta talk about technique because the word of twenty twenty is gonna be hybrid. And what you can do with Everson Griffin his ability to rush from the outside, but also

because of this size, he can move in. You also have the personnel to move guys like let's say Bradley and I. He can also move inside. And let's not forget about Crawford and the tweeters and the guys that you have and certain and I'm just talking about the chess game of football and what they're gonna be able to do. And so Everson Griffin just gives this defense a plethora of different schemes that they can play. And guys, let's talk about the competition that's gonna be on this

defensive line. When the Cowboys go ones versus ones, twos versus twos, My god, man, let's go gold line. When they go gold line two or days, you'll talk about nothing but pressure. The Cowboys are cooking with Chrisco or man, no, the cow wasn't with with Lord. All right, Lord, all right, that's what we are right now. And you gotta see it. You're not even a football person if you can't see that. Man, We've got legos in cooking and white classes. It's all

over the place. But you mentioned kind of the battles of the offensive line versus the defensive line. They've had their battles in the past, and Everson Griffins will won a couple of those battles against Tyrant Smith. And just a reminder, those two were teammates at USC back in the day. Well, Everson Griffin got the best of Tyrant Smith this past season. Actually had a sack in that ball game, and he had two sacks against Also new teammate came Irving whenever they played the Chiefs last year

as well. But I rewatched that Spinn move last night. I rewatched that Spinn move they made on Tyrant. That was nice. That was nice, And that's that's the thing. That Robert Quinn brings or not Robert Quinn, excuse me, Everson Griffin brings to the table. Is is he brings so many different moves and he brings that arsenal that you want from a pass rusher that maybe you wouldn't have had from maybe a Tyrone Crawford on the edge

or whoever was going to be there. But you mentioned competition, heck bun and I think there's a lot of tough decisions that are about to be made on this defensive line.

And Rob you can speak to this though, But if if Mike McCarthy goes to where he wanted to be with the six defensive ends and the four interior guys, you got Tank, Griffin, Smith, a Ni Armstrong, maybe Crawford on the edge, and then who do you put in the middle, Gerald McCoy, Poe, Gallimore, Hill there even and then if Gregory's in the mix, then you're gonna have to cut one of those names. Yeah, you're right, there's

there's a lot of competition. I think they got to figure out somebody to back up Tank on the left spot because I think Alvin Smith and Griffin have played the right end spot. I think are probably more comfortable there. They need some depth there. Maybe an I can keep over to that side. But you mentioned the depth inside Poe and McCoy, and I'll flip around to what Heckma said. You could kill McCoy out outside too. He can play

out in whatever you need. It's really good competition. Some of those younger defensive ends, it's gonna be harder on them. Just remember though, the NFL is allowing sixteen practice squad spots, so you know you can still keep rights for guys if they pass waivers if you're not able to keep them, and the way things are structured, let's just be honest. No in person work so far, it's gonna be harder

for younger guys to stand out. And it makes the Griffin signing to me even better because there's a guy that has played for someone on the staff. They know what they're getting and from when I heard about him last night, his dates absolutely love him. He was a leader in Minnesota, and I think he's gonna fit right in as a guy, you know, a vocal presence and a guy that really has has the respect of his teammates. Isaiah, Yeah,

I think I totally agree with you. Man. And the thing here is you guys keep attesting to it, and you guys keep talking about the versatility. You guys keep talking about their ability to be able to change things up on that side of the ball. We already know of the defensive coordinator likes to mix things up, he

likes to bring pressure. What this signing allows for, right, You guys gotta remember we have two guys that are on the pucklist right now, So there's gonna be an ability for guys to be able to get in there, get reps, get games underneath their belting for us to be able to use those first games as film study. Right, we get to use those as film said, to be able to get it to find out Ken Gallimar play right. You know, how are these guys that are feeling on

the inside, how's that they're gonna do right? Being able to rush on the outside against some real competition. So we're gonna get a good look at these guys early on in the season, and then when everybody is healthy, they're gonna be able to mix and match. I really don't believe that they want guys playing one position. We have enough talent on this side of the ball now where. I think he wants guys coming from all over the place.

I think every time the offense comes up to the line of scrimmage, I think he wants them trying to figure out, Okay, who's where. And when you're able to do that, you're able to take the offense's mind off of being able to execute and put their mind on

trying to figure out exactly what you're doing. That's a great point, Isaiah, because every time Mike McCarthy has been asked about Cheeto or guys on the d line, or even on offense, he was asked about guys on the offensive line, he talks about position flex, posive flex, can you do more than one job? And that kind of speaks to the competition. They what how much can you do to contribute to our team? And heckmon was kind of talking about that whenever he went into the hybrids talk.

And that's what Mike Nolan brings on the defensive side, and I think Mike McCarthy wants that to kind of transfer over to the offensive side. He's gonna you're gonna see that in the wide receiving corps. You're gonna see it with Maury Cooper and Michael Gallup and Ceedee Lamb, all three of those guys who are going to have a couple snaps in the slot or they may have

significant time in the slot. But staying on the defensive sideheck, Moe, whenever you have a guy like Evers and Griffin who can play inside, outside, left or right, and then he could maybe even go back in coverage if you really needed him to because of the speed that he has. What kind of flexibility did that open up for not only the defensive line, but the front seven as a whole. Yeah. Like I said, it's it's all about the chess game

of football, you know, not tipping your hand. That's the thing that you know if if a team can knows what you're going to, they're gonna pick you apart. Everson Griffith gives the Cowboys that confidence to be able to disguise things on the back end. Look at what this is gonna do for our secondary that's already you know, Look, we lost guys to free agency, guys that are now we're looking to repurpose and Cheeto Woozier and we're thinking

about maybe he's a safety. All of those things are relative. When you shore up your front line. It makes everything that you do that much easier, and so also I mean not getting ahead of ourselves, but what it does for the linebackers, you know, just being able to have that girth up front, knowing that your linebackers can easily move to the ball, you know, having guys like Done Terry Poe, now Woods and also McCoy. Look, man, it's it's just you know, it's just gonna make us that

much better as we go along as a team. Rob, I don't know how you guys feel about the chicken or the egg thing with how what's more important pressure or coverage on the back end. I've always been a front seven, get sacks, get pressure guy, and that, to Heckma's point, that helps your secondary. I truly believe if the Cowboys can get just in the top ten, top half of the takeaway market this year, they're gonna win

so many football games. They have such an opportunity to do that because with the pressure up front, if they can if they can build some leads and also defensively give some extra possessions to an offense that has just a ridiculous amount of options, this team is going to be in really good shape, and I think adding a guy like Everson Griffin gives you more of an opportunity to do that because he is a pressure player and

he can still do it even at thirty two years old. No, Rob, I like what you just said because I think when you talk about it in terms of, you know, what's important, the chicken out of the egg, that's a valid point. And I think that the NFL is starting to look at those things and how teams that are built struly

from the outside and help your pass rush. When when Treyvon Diggs is giving a quarterback fits and having to look out there and say, okay, oh, I need to hold this ball because he's pressing, that gives Everson Griffin and our guys internally at the line more opportunity to get those sacks. So, I mean, all of those things are relative, and that's why you know, obviously football is the ultimate team sport. But you're right having those having that out on the outside be impactful to make a

quarterback second guests. Man, I'm telling you, these are things that are all going to make the Cowboy's defense that much more formatable. And honestly, you know, teams always play a mix usually of man and zone and coverage, right, but they've added guys that can play that press man where you're up on the line of scrimmage. You've got to have pass pressure, pass ross pressure to be able to do that to not hang your corners out to dry.

And that's that's again that's why this is another another reason why this is such a big move, an exciting move, because it really shoes up your your depth in your pass rush. I think it also frees up the secondary like Hekma was saying, but it also it just solidifies

one of those other positions of need. And we were talking on the Training Camp kickoff show a couple days ago with Bucky Brooks and we asked him who's the biggest impact player, who's the under the radar guy that you're looking at, And he came out and he said, I don't have a specific guy. It's whoever starts at right defensive in it opens up tank Lawrence. And that's the specific side of the this edition that makes me so excited is because you can't necessarily double team both

those guys. And then we're going to talk about the linebackers a little bit later on in the show. So I'll save the how it opens up the linebackers for the third segment. But it's just it's the perfect move for Mike Nolan to have so many guys who can do so many things, and then turn around and it opens up tank Lawrence. What kind of season is he going to have Isaiah that he hasn't had in the past,

just because he has a guy on the other side. Yeah, freedom, Right when whenever I can tell you, as a former player, whenever you have guys around you that can make plays and the pressure is no longer on solely on you to be that guy to have to generate plays left or right all the times. Right when you have sixty snaps a game, if you have five great plays, that's a great day. Right Now, you're taking somebody who who doesn't have to have it on that pressure on him.

He has other Pro bowlers around him, he has other guys that can make plays. It's gonna free him up. And you feel like you're a kid in a candy store. You feel like you're playing with your brothers, like you're just playing some street ball. These guys are gonna have a heck of a time out there together. And I guarantee you that you're probably gonna see Law have one of his best seasons, if not his best season he's

ever had. Isaiah, and I want to add I want to add to that by the fact that you've been a former player, as you know, being fresh is the thing. So when you take Tank from let's say fifty eight snaps down to forty snaps, absolutely, I mean he is like Usain bolt out now because because he's that fresh

coming off of the edge. The other thing too, is he's got now everybody's offseason has been a little different, but he didn't get to train like he wanted to last year coming off the shoulder surgery that he had in April, and I think it affected him early in the year at least in terms of RUSS technique, all those things. He doesn't have that issue this year and he should be better for that should be and I

think it's gonna make a big enough impact. And one final thing before we end up, I guess going into this first break in this next segment, but the fact that the off season has been what it has been. Whenever you get a new head coach like Mike McCarthy, you're able to have the draft that this front office has had, and then you're able to have a free agency period where you add so much talent, the expectations are going to be high. But it doesn't always happen

like this. It doesn't always happen as a Cowboys fan to where oh, this is our year. You hear that all the time year to year, and sometimes it's a little bit facetious. It may not be exactly what you're saying it's going to be. But this year's it just feels a little bit different because you're not always is going to be on the same page as a fan base and as a front office. And Jerry came out yesterday in the press conference, it said, it's about our fans.

Oh it's it's most important thing is our fans. They're doing that right now. They're showing it that actions speak loud of their words, because the fans are calling for, hey, let's get a receiver at seventeen. If somebody falls, well, hey hello, here's ceedee lamb. You turn around in free agency, let's go get a pass rusher. They go and grab

the best one on the market. So it's really exciting as a Cowboys fan to finally have at least a little bit of time where you're on the same page as your front office, because as a Cowboys fan growing up, it didn't happen. A whole lot happened. Man, the stars

are aligning for us, man. I mean, I won't be sacrilegious to say God as a Cowboy fan, but I mean, look, ceedee Lamb falls to us as seventeen right, I mean just right, just falls right, and our lat then we get our cornerback with the second in the second round, and we've been juggling. Everybody has known and you've talked about it. Man, we knew that we needed a defensive end after Robert Quinn left for free agency. We had talked about in previous shows about Jadavian clowning Robert Quinn's um.

Even Everson Griffin's name has come up. It just didn't seem logical that thinks that it would align for us to be able to get a guy like that. Man, for this to happen on the eve days between well forty eight hours before our first camp. Man, it's just I mean, at this point, if we don't win it, what's gonna be that What can't we say is the excuse now because we got everyth we needn't. I don't want to hear that. I was asking the questions that

everybody's gonna ask anyway. Okay, that's right, Rob, you set the bar pretty high. Heck, it's high. It's hi, man. I mean, if I have a concern, and I've said this throughout the offseason, it is that this offseason prevented the Mike McCarthy from getting his program established, from Mike Nolan getting his scheme going, and I think that can

be an issue. However, you can flip it around on the other side and say, with no preseason games, nobody's gonna get a look at the Cowboys new look defense or their offense and that could help him or at least early in the season. I think it helped the Cowboys early last season with Kellen Moore coming in with some changes they had. So it kind of goes both ways.

And actually, right, I mean in terms of upgrading the roster and adding players that can make an impact on defense, because that was probably the main focus in the offseason. They've done that. They have set themselves up on paper

to have success. There's no question about that. Rod. That was a great point, Man, in terms of these guys, you know, possibly coming back and not having anybody have eyes on them, right, and Mike Nolan being able to have all these dog on resources and nobody knows what he's gonna do, what his plans are with schemes he's coming up with. That's again another cheap code that he has, right. But then we also take a consideration something that Mike

McCarthy said during the press conferences day. It was it was very interesting for him to say that he feels like they're ether ahead now than what they would have been had they been there the entire time. So that was very interesting when he when he mentioned that, you know, it was kind of curious to see from what point

of view. So that lets me know the confidence lover that he has in the in the the fact that these guys are absorbing this information, these this new system, both on both sides of the ball, actually in all three phases of the game. So that's that's gonna be something to keep an eye on because these guys seemingly, based off that comment, they must be absorbing as information and they were ready to apply it. And that's that's true.

And honestly, it's like when we're asked what the defense is gonna look like, it's hard to really give an answer because you don't you don't know. You know that they're gonna We've talked about the diversatility and how they're probably gonna try to disguise things more. But until we really see it four three three, four different alignments, we'll see. I mean, that's what's exciting is is that we really don't have a clear picture of it and that can

be an advantage. High. Yeah, that's Heckmon put it perfectly earlier when he said that's gonna be the keyword of Cony twenty that Cowboys fans are gonna have to learn. It's the word hybrid, and it's as simple as that, but it's so complex at the same time. So it's gonna be a lot of fun this year. But you mentioned a lot of the great things the Cowboys did

this offseason. One of those that they didn't necessarily get done was lock up a long term quarterback and was this offseason the beginning of the end of the relationship between Dak Prescott and the Cowboys. Will discuss what they talked about in the press conferences yesterday when week come back here I'm talking Cowboys. I'm Jay Novachik, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day. I was the guy who always got the tough yards and

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September twenty nineteen to Talk in Cowboys back here with the second segment here of Talking Cowboys. Glad You're with us, Kyle Yeoman's Rob Phillips, heck my Harrison, Isaiah stand back, and I do want to encourage you guys. If this is your first time listening to Talking Cowboys, push that subscribe button or that follow button. If you're on Twitter or Periscope or Apple iTunes, it doesn't matter wherever you're listening to it, press subscribe because we're gonna have a

ton of fun going into twenty twenty. This year, we've been together throughout the offseason. We're gonna continue education eating you guys on the Dallas Cowboys because if you're like me, whenever you start a podcast, you want to be smarter by the time you end that podcast. And that's exactly that's that's what we're trying to do. And we could talk Everson Griffin all day, and luckily I got permission from Derek. I don't know if he hasn't heard this

joke yet, but I got permission from Derek. We're gonna just take the Breakes time slot and we're gonna go for three hours today and continue talking. He conte that, Yeah, let's see how that goes over. I don't think. I don't think that's gonna happen. I think I gotta ask

you a question. Does your hat spen on your head anymore when you oh man, but h. But in all seriousness, it's a ton of fun being back with Cowboys Nation and talking about the excitement around the last couple of hours or the last couple of days rather with this

Cowboys team. We heard from the Mount Rushmore of the twenty twenty Dallas Cowboys yesterday as the State of the Program, State of the Organization press conference to kick off training camp with Jerry Jones, Steven Jones, head coach Mike McCarthy,

and then quarterback Dak Prescott. And we'll get to Dak Prescott here in a little bit, but I wanted to kind of start off by really what has been the theme of the off season, and that's challenges and that's exactly what are still on the table for the Cowboys, not only on the field, but off the field, battling COVID nineteen. There's a reason we're all still remote doing these podcasts. It's because we're still battling this as a world,

as a society, as a country. And so they came out yesterday and said we're still planning to play all of our games in front of our fans, which is extremely encouraging for all football fans anywhere. On some of these days when you're seeing college football in some parts come to an end, you're seeing certain stadiums around the NFL even that are saying we're not going to play with fans. But Rob yesterday Jerry did come out and say we plan on playing in front of fans, and

that's exciting to me absolutely. And Jerry is probably the most optimistic person I've ever been around. You know, He's just optimistic about every part of his life, and he truly believes that the NFL is going to complete a sixteen game season all the way to the Super Bowl and back to the A. T. T Stadium with fans. They're gonna adhere to any protocols that the Texas state government, you know, puts in place for that. But that is encouraging.

It's exciting that that's looking like it's a possibility or it's going to happen. It just comes down to on a daily basis, with the protocols that the league is put into place, that everybody does their best and takes the responsibility of being safe and doing things outside of football that will lend itself to preventing any spread at the virus throughout the league. You know, there is no

real bubble this year for the NFL. The NBA's has one right now and it seems to be working great, and but it just it just goes down to players, coaches, staff, us, you know, just taking responsibility and try and do the right things outside of football. So there's not a situation like we've seen in baseball where there's there's some outbreaks

and then it threatens games being played. Yeah, I think when it when it when I was watching that that interview, Like you said, Rob, it's it's Jerry's consummate optimism about the future of the organization always. And you know, we all know that COVID nineteen has it's unprecedented and everything that we've had to do from our personal lives to adjust to these times, you know, so you know this virus is going to dictate to us how we proceed

and go forward. When you look at other leagues and how they've handled it handled it, I think the NBA has been the example, but they have isolated those guys in a bubble, and I don't think logistically because of the numbers for football, you can't do it. But you see the NFL and especially the Cowboys, taking every precaution. Man, you have got to get tested every time you come into the building. Media does not have access to players, So the Cowboys are doing everything. Jerry is not just

giving you lip service. He is backing it up by making sure that his players are safe. Now you think you do the comparison between baseball and football. Think about baseball, those guys travel way more during the week to games, whereas in football it's just a one day turnaround thing, all right. And so look, we're just we're all all of us, everybody that's on this panel. We need football to happen, and we want football to happen. But the reality of the situation is is that, look, we want

to be careful. We want to make sure that we protect these men, you know, these men and everybody that's in the organization because we're dealing with something that's dreadful. Yeah, heck, I mean, I don't think that anybody that's sitting here right now listening, or even us talking, expected mister Jerry Jones to sit up there and say anything more than

anything less than we're playing football. I think I think, I think I think we all expected him to say that we all know that that's that's the man, that's the hand. He leads from the front, right. Um, And he's a he's a revolutionary, right, I mean Jerry, Jerry. He always sees things coming, he plans for them ahead, so he's never caught off guard. He's never reactive, he's always proactive. Um. He's created this amazing facility right out there at the Star. He has the hotel right there,

the partnership with the army. Um. I wish, you know, hats off to him and the rest of the organization that have created this form of a bubble. Right as you guys mentioned. You guys mentioned you know, base or not baseball, but you guys mentioned basketball and even hockey right there. They've done it right, right, we have We've have two sports that have went out there. We have

them as examples. They've done it right. So to try to do something, uh, regardless of how many people we have out there, to try to do something other than what we've already seen is the right way to do it. I think it's kind of absurd. I wish the NFL would mandate that every organization would do it. But without that mandated order, we have two organizations in the Saints and obviously here with the Dallas Cowboys that are taken it upon themselves to ensure the safety not only their players,

but also their fans in the entire league. So hats off to the Cowboys for doing things the right way. I hope that everybody else follow suit. Da go ahead, go go away, rod Well. To Issaiah's point, Dak said yesterday, just to be quite honest, the healthiest team is gonna win a lot of games this year and have the best chance. I mean, that's just the reality of the situation, and you guys spoke to it. The Star is kind of I mean, it wasn't built for a situation like this,

but it can handle a situation like this. The locker room, board center, you have an outside practice field. The Omni is big, I mean, you know, and that shows a lot of team unity for guys to decide with the option, Hey, we're gonna bubble up during training camp for three weeks and we may go longer than that. You know, it's a Dak said, it's possibility. Now that's a that's a heck of a commitment to do that throughout the season.

If that, you know, five months as opposed to three weeks, but that's a possibility and that only can help your chances. And you are right. The work behind the scenes that the Cowboys have done to get this thing ready is it really is extraordinary and it hats off to the operation staff. And to your point, I just want everybody to be clear on this. Everybody keeps talking about how much of a sacrifice it is for guys to stay at the hotel and it's inconvenient, all right, Let's be clear.

We all know that during this period of time they would have been at a hotel anyways, right, And as ciphrom this, if they had to go the entire season staying in a hotel, right and seeing their families every so often, Guess what, you have so many opportunities to make a run at a Super Bowl championship, right. I was blessed to play six years and walk away with a ring. There was guys that were way better than me. There was guys that played a lot longer than me

that did not have that same opportunity. So when you look at especially organization like this, that it's really really is set up and teed up to go out there and have a real run at the Super Bowl. Forget sacrifice. This is your opportunity. So if it requires me sleeping at a hotel bed every day to go get that ring, guess what, when I look back twenty years from now and I still have those diamonds on my fingers, it was well worth it. Isaiah, I kind of want to

turn that back around on you. And that's where we see the leadership from this Cowboys team is the fact that this was a player incentivized things, saying we want to go do a bubble. And by the way, we need a new name for the bubble. It's got to do something else. I get what it is, it's a bubble, but we've got to be more creative a Boys bubble.

I don't know that's even weirder. But I think whenever you look at the leadership that it takes for some of the higher ups, or at least the more veteran guys on this Dallas Cowboys team of saying we want to be the healthiest team. We want to be in a position where we're gonna make a run for a super Bowl because we understand the expectation and the reality of where we are as an organization right now. What does that take as a player. How respected is that

by other players in that locker room? Isaiah, I mean it's definitely you guys are gonna be looked at with high regard, right, guys are gonna be highly renowned, highly regarded guys. But I mean to my point, you know, when you're when everybody is as as coach him was saved back in the day, find focused on the same goals. It's no longer a sacrifice, right, You're not sacrifice or right. And this is this is our commitment. We commit to

this organization. We commit to this organ to this team, to this city, to each other, to give this the best opportunity to come in in the best shape, to be mentally as precise as possible, and go out there and execute to the best of our abilities. And if I do anything that's contradictory to that, I am no longer upholding my commitment to everybody that that's relying on me.

So kudos to those guys for stepping up to the play and saying this is what we want to do, because it shows you that these guys really want to go out there and get that ring. Yeah, I think that's a that's a great point, and Dak Prescott's been one of the forefront names as a part of really the group of players that wants to stay healthy and take care of their job and be responsible, even despite some of the questions surrounding his contract this past year.

And I'm kind of transitioning into our hopefully franchise quarterback moving for That's what both sides said. Yesterday. Dak Prescott came out and his press conference and said, I want to be a Dallas Cowboy till I can't throw the football anymore. Massic charging you talk about what the front office said, Jerry Jones says, I think he's outstanding. He's our franchise quarterback moving forward. Stephen Jones echoed that Mike McCarthy is never straight away from that. But Rob is this.

Is there any strain whatsoever in this relationship to the point of we could be worried Cowboys fans down the road that Dak Prescott isn't in the Cowboys uniform. Well, Dak said yesterday there's no frustration on his part. He's looking towards the season. I believe that. I'm sure there's some disappointment on both sides. They couldn't get it done. I mean, we've been talking about this for over a year now, and both sides want to get it done.

But for whatever reason, there's been other factors. I don't think you could say one side or the other is the reason why. I think to some extent, Dak wanted to be on himself last year and it worked. I mean, he had a great season and he just set him up up. There is the length of the deal. I think that's a real thing, and and I think there is some credence to what the Jones has said yesterday about you know, sixteen guys were franchise tag this year

and two I think two got long term deals. There is question about the economics going into twenty twenty one and what the CAP's gonna look like, because there's bound to be revenue loss in the NFL that will affect the salary cap level. All that being said, this is a deal that it needs to get done. It's got to get done because if the if the cap is lower or flat next year, you can't have Dak Prescott.

I don't think on a thirty seven million dollars franchise tag, I don't think that's I don't think that's really feasible unless you really have to. You have to do a lot of maneuvering, creative with your with your contracts to get that done. If it's gonna be long term, they need to get it done long term next year for sure. Yeah. Man, you know, I loved seeing Dak yesterday and I just want to speak to the act of how poised Dak

Prescott was. I mean, this was his first time being in front of the media answering these questions, and his ability to answer everything perfectly. I think it resonates to the kind of guy that he is, his leadership and just while he's an endorsement magnet, because he's going to protect the brand at all costs. Please know that the media were waiting for quotables, headliners, all of those things,

and Dad gave them nothing. And maybe the one when they pressed him about the difference between coach McCarthy and Jason Garrett was the one thing that he kind of went out on the limb and said, Hey, the differences. We just didn't play smart football last year. But I don't think that that was necessarily a job, so to speak. I think he was just speaking honestly about you know,

the football experience last year, but he was poised. He made sure that you know, there was no that he didn't speak to any contention between the front office and himself. He even said, I trust Steve and I trust Jerry and my and my agents to get this deal done. So to me, that was the best part about it.

But I don't see how anyone can look at Dak Prescott and look at the way that he answers those questions and have a bad thing to say about this kid, because, man, to me, he handled the pressure, especially with you know, all of the networks using his name and this contract dispute, as you know, ratings, clickbait basically for the last five months, and he just and he handled all of it with class, and I loved it. Well. I think the best thing about it is that this is the end of that conversation,

at least for now. I mean, the next thing is we're getting the football and we're going to see exactly what he does here in twenty twenty, and we're able to kind of close the book at least at the moment for Dak contract talk, because it's there's nothing else you can do about it except for maybe get a long term deal done next season. So with that even being said, I think I want to go back and talk about just real quickly. You mentioned that he brought

up that we weren't playing smart football. I think that was not necessarily a jab of the coaching staff. I think that was more of a just a straight flat out statement on the players and exactly what the execution was like as a whole last year. It just wasn't necessarily what they expected it to be. I mean, you go into twenty nineteen with all these expectations, much like we are in twenty twenty. I think it's a little

bit different than maybe last year. But you have to have a chance to execute now this season because you weren't able to do so a year ago. Isaiah, Yeah, I mean I don't think it was a jab either. I mean, you don't talk about previous coaches. That's a that's just a no no when you're when you're leader of the team. Obviously, I played quarterback in college a little bit of the league, and that's just something you just don't do. You don't go down that rabbit hole.

So you gotta see him, you know, play a little dodgeball on that one and get around that question. But you know you focus on the future. You know you're focused on the future. I think it's always critical as the leader of the team, as a leader of the organization, UM, the most highly acclaimed organization in the world by just everybody's clear on that, to let everybody know that there has to be some form of accountability. Right. We weren't

We weren't good last year. We didn't play good. We had pieces to be good, but we but because of our our faults, because of what we didn't do right, we did not succeed UM. So acknowledging that not only as an individual, be acknowledging that as a leader as a team is important so that it is said, it stated. Everybody's clear on that. Now it's our opportunity to go out there and show what we didn't do last year.

We have opportunity to prove that this year with a much better team, and thank goodness because it's time to talk football again. But it's also time to prove some of these expectations right with a new coaching staff, a whole new realm of players. Guys, we got Everson Griffin. I don't know if we talked about it, we mentioned that, did we mentioned so? I think we did, But we got that last night too. I don't know if you can tell I mean excited about that. I'm pretty pumped

up about it. But before we head to this next break, wanted to remind you that if you're looking for something different to change up your dinner routine, help support local Frisco businesses by choosing one of the Star District restaurants. For more information on delivery, takeout, curbside pickup, and dinan availability, visit the Star District dot Com. Lots of great options around there, so go try and check that out. Take out, be safe, be socially distant so we can have fans

in the stands. This football season coming up here and just less than four weeks now. Are close to four weeks now, which is crazy to think about moving forward. But when we come back, we even with that Everson Griffin signing, Layton vander Esh is the missing key and the biggest edition a healthy Layton vander Esh for this defense moving into twenty twenty. We'll tell you why when we come back here on Dallas Cowboys or on Talking Cowboys.

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near you, visit Hope dot Tide Cleaners dot com. Slor is a proud sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys, helping fans see more and do more with our best vision solutions. Our lens technologies reveal a world more beautiful than you can imagine. For a limited time, get the slur next Gen Offer, where you buy the latest generation of Transitions lenses with select Slore lenses. You can choose a second pair of clear lenses for free with qualifying frame purchases.

Restrictions apply. Find a participating eyecare professional by visiting slur usa dot com. See more, do more to talk in. Cowboys Training Camp is finally here in twenty twenty, and you can get your training camp coverage with the twenty twenty Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine Training Camp Preview. It's a long title, but it's a longer magazine with plenty to read. The preview includes an inside look on scouting reports, position battles,

the final roster projections, and even more. Get your copy today at four ninety five only four ninety five on Dallas Cowboys dot Com slash Star. We all kind of contributed to that in different bits and pieces, So go check it out. It's a ton of fun to read through it. I've read through the digital version. I still haven't had the physical copy in hand, but it's definitely worth it to go check that out, especially because training camp starts. Full practices start tomorrow for the Dallas Cowboys

at the Star in Frisco. Then they start eight am weekday practices Monday, and it's every day from here on out. You're talking to Mike McCarthy every morning. You're you're getting your cowboys in even before we really wake up in the morning for most people, I guess, but it's exciting that it's also here. But I will say, there's not gonna be Everson Griffin in that Training Camp preview magazine. Just tune to us to talk about Everson Griffin stuff

because we're excited about it in general. But I wanted to talk about the front seven, and I mentioned and teased a little bit earlier in the show that Layton vander Esh and Jalen Smith maybe the two that benefit the most from the Griffin signing because of how much it frees them up, along with Tank Lawrence as well. We talked about that earlier. You should go check that out.

But I think whenever it comes to this front seven, Rob, You're already making the switch between Layton Vanderesh going to the mic, linebacker Jalen Smith back to the will something that I think we all kind of anticipated and it's not necessarily a surprise, but the excitement for that is ramped up because of what Griffin brings to the table from a pass pass rush perspective. Yeah, you mentioned it.

I mean freeing up the linebackers to run and chase and make plays, and we talked about it all off season. Really the addle of the defensive line too and done Terry Poe that can eat up space and occupy blockers and allow that to happen. I think it's all kind of goes together. You know. We talked to vander Esh last week and by the way, he says, his neck is great. He's gonna have a little more a little more padding for his neck role this year. But he's

he's one hundred percent, which is great. Um, I'm curious Isaiah. You know, he kind of downplayed the shift to the mic because he said, you know, there's gonna be times where I'll be outside the box, Jay will play inside the box. It's it's not that big of a difference, but he is. If he is the mic, he's gonna be in charge of making the calls pre snap and that's more of a responsibility. But I think he's got

a chance maybe to benefit both guys. Yeah, it should have benefit of both guys, and like we can you know obviously to Heckma's point, the hybrid thing, right, so guys are gonna be moving around. But to your point, vander Esh, you know the wolf he's going to be. He he's the captain of the defense. If you're if you're playing Mike Ladbecker, you are the captain of the defense. You are the quarterback on that side of the ball.

So he's gonna be responsible for making sure that everybody's a line proper I mean everywhere from the linebackers being what they're supposed to be, communicating the calls of the secondary, you know, tapping into the interior d linement on the butt, getting them in the right gaps. That's his job, right. Obviously we're talking about these guys on the front flour.

These guys are gonna be interchanging all the time. They're gonna be able to apply pressure and like you mentioned, these guys to be able to roam free on the second level. Right. But something else to be considering her and then to be thinking about is the fact that vendors Yea, even though he's adding a little bit more padding to that neck role as the mic linebacker, you were going to take the most contact out of any

of those three guys, right. So though we're excited about him being able to be free up a little bit, if guys do get to that second level, guess who they're meeting. They're meeting there, You're meeting that wolf. That's a great point. Yeah, And I think whenever you look at split safety coverages and the way that they kind of read those RPOs, the mic linebackers, the guy, like you said, who's the captain of the defense one, but

he's also the first read. He's the guy who's gonna have to either plug the run gap or work back in coverage, and I think either way, heckmuh, that's gonna benefit Laton Vanderesh and Jalen Smith. We've said it all offseason. Jalen Smith's better when he's running downhill and he's going and rushing, He's not necessarily the best when it comes to the change of the direction and reading on a dime. That's what vander esh is good at. So this is a kind of a no brainer for my No. One. Yeah.

I mean, well, Kyle, look at it like this. I mean, I think from a defensive standpoint, there's people are making a lot of this move of Layton Vanderes to Mike and Jaylen Smith to Will, but the position is almost the same. I mean, the reads are the same. The only difference is is the mic is calling the plays on defense and look for Jalen Smith. For both of these guys, you have to think and go back to last year, where the expectation was they were going to

continue from where they were a twenty eighteen. They were the best, one of the best duos in the NFL, and this young duos and there are a ton of very very talented linebackers and look, last year wasn't their best output Layton vander Esche get hurt, gets hurt. But then he's saying, right now, look I feel good, guys, and having him at the mike, having him protected now by having guys in front of him. I mean, look, man, you got those big old butts in the middle. That

doesn't sound right. You have those big old guys right, and you have these guys gobbling up those blocks and giving these guys the opportunity to run downhill. But also with Jalen Smith, you put him in an advantage of what his strength really is and that's actually coming after the quarterback, and so that week's side blitz now is

going to increase. With Chandon Smith also, I mean there were the questions about him changing direction, but it's changing direction with a tackle ear holding you is the biggest issue. And so now he doesn't have to worry about that because he has that girth upfront with those guys that are protecting him. I'm gonna look, if you ask, you know, guys like Ray Lewis who protected you. Helodi Nada is a guy that he probably see it still says a Christmas card too. Terry Paul is going to be the

guy for Lake vanders that he says that Christmas card too, Rob. Yeah, and I think, you know, with Jalen, there was games that stand out to me, like Chicago where he was in coverage a lot, you know, and that was something down the middle where they were looking for him in that situation. And maybe it's not going to be as as much as highlighted where you guys are right where he's able to rush and get after the quarterback. It's all about that versatility deal. And Vanderesh, by the way,

it can do that too. Sean Lee can do that too. They've got linebackers that have a knack for blitzing and getting the quarterback. So you know, I think Vanderesh is willing to take on the challenge of being in that quarterback. As Isaiah said, he's very diligent as Jalen is about doing it. And you know, I think maybe he would have. You know, he didn't want to talk about his injury

last week at all. He doesn't have a preseason to get a live you know, a tackling to get that first hit, you know, And I don't know how important. I don't know how important that is, but guys in the past have with the Cowboys have had that neck surgery, Darryl Johnston being one of them, and they've come back and being able to play. So it's obviously encouraging and they feel good about him doing it, but you know,

he's there is no preseason to get that tested. And that's really a big thing for me, because, yeah, he was frustrating. He didn't want to talk about that during his press conference, But at the same time, it's a worry. It's and I we all know it's a worry for him specifically and for this coaching staff because having Layton Vanderesh in the middle of that defense as about as key of a cog as you potentially could have. You

could have all the pass rush up front. The secondary, of course it still needs improvement from a Cowboys perspective, but if you have those linebackers to complement the defensive line, then all of a sudden, the secondary doesn't bother you

as much. But but behind Layton vander Esh, if that should happen, whether it's it's an injury, god forbid, what is the depth like at linebacker and Joe Thomas is back there, Luke Gifford potentially with a breakout year, hopefully he stays healthy and he has a little bit more playing time. But is there any worry about the linebacking depth as a hole in that corp? No, I'm not

worried about the linebacking corps for it. I mean, I think Luke Gifford, like you said, if he's able to stay healthy, he's going to be a guy that's gonna be you know, a well, you know, invited addition to the linebacker corps. Also, Joe, I think Thomas is also that guy as well. But look, these guys have something to prove. And just to further the point, Laton vander Esh coverage wise, I think that the two he's definitely

better in coverage. But also I don't want to roll over the fact that, man, how much the front seven is going to make their job easier for the linebackers. But let's talk about, you know, the second day high for Ha Ha Clinton Dix, how he's going to be able to play free now and gamble because the front seven and the linebacking corps is that much better better. So, I mean, every piece of this, it's just one thing helps another thing helps another thing. And again, you know

you asked about the depth. I think that the depth is there, but also I just believe that the defensive line is going to make all of this look so much better on the back end, I totally agree. One thing I want everybody to also take into consideration is the fact that if we do run into some kind of depth issues, right, some injuries that may may present themselves. Right, we do have Thomas that can step in. We do have you know, Gilver that can step in as well.

But what about the fact that we can switch up our defense and going to a three four and drop all the Smith onto the edge and drop a Na onto the edge, right, and they don't have to be true coverage linebackers in that sense. We have the versatility, we have the personnel to really mix things up, and there's this dude named Mike Nolan who just may know how to mix things up on that side of the ball. So that's not it's not it's not a big worry because we're not paying We're not going to be playing

just simply a straight four three base defense. It's it's going to be all over the place, um, and we will be perfectly fine. I think that's a great point, Isaiah, because whenever we're looking at three four four three. There's going to be a blurred line there this year. It really will be, and we've mentioned that before, but now you're starting to see it. Now you're starting to see

the personnel makeup that makes it a blurred line. And when Mike McCarthy said, Hey, there's gonna be six adge rushers only four interior guys on this roster, that's indicative of the fact that you're probably going to see a little bit more of a three four look because of the option to take one of those guys off the line. They've even mentioned taking Tank Lawrence and putting him into two points to answer, having him play standing up, which is something that he hasn't done a whole lot in

his career. But Rob, this is something we've seen coming for a while, but now we're starting to see maybe the formula put together to actually see the experiment happen. Yeah, we've touched on it for sure. I mean, every guy in that front seven, I pose probably the exception. I think at three forty six you're a no tackle probably Joe Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't see him dropping. But but you know, I think Tank could do it. I

think he's a he's a terrific athlete. Um. You know, Alan Smith's been in that role too in San Francisco early in his career. And that's another guy that we haven't really talked about him today, but you know, I think there's a lot of optimism about what physically where he's at, and he's in a better place in his

personal life. And that's another guy that you know, I think people see the name Alvin Smith and they expect him to come in and be nineteen and a half sack guy, while you bring in Everson Griffin and you've got some other depth on on your defensive line and there's not that that pressure for him. Just try to They have a bunch of guys that can recreate Robert Quinn's production on that side together, and I think with Griffin in the fold, they've got more than enough guys

that can do that. In addition to what you said, Kyle, guys that can play different spots. If they want to change things up in the course of a game and try to completely throw off the opposing quarterback, they got the versatility to try to do that. Yeah, Everson Griffin, For me, I think Everson Griffin is that guy that allows for Aldon Smith just to be a dude, right, he it allows him to play free. Look, he hasn't

been in the league. He hadn't taken a snap in years, and so he's gonna be a little bit stiff, you know, and it's gonna take him some time to get back in the rhythm of an NFL season. But again, it takes all the pressure. Now, Now what we start really talking about, do we see does Randy Gregory even coming to the fold of this conversation anymore because of the sounding of Everson Griffin. So, I mean, there's a lot more to discuss all that part of it, But I

think all it does is shut of everything. It gives you confidence going forward that we got the right mix of guys. Yeah, this this defense is really starting to remind me of of my Super Bowl year with the Giants. It's a bad word, right, but we had a bunch of guys on that front. Seven were interchangeable, right. We were able to go four down linement, then we're able to switch it up and go to a three four.

But but thyas you know, Kiwanuka on the stand up end, Jason Pierre Paul on the end, right, we had a core we had. We had, we had a core of guys that were right there in the middle of the of the defense that we're not going to move right. You can't move it on the inside, but we can apply a lot of pressure from the outside. Um, so there's the weapons are there to you guys point It's gonna be fun. I can't wait to see what no

one puts together. Man, I know, I sorry I threw the giants out there, but hey, it was a long time ago, A long time ago. We're ending on that one boy, We're gone. That's it. That's talking Cowboys. I mean, Isaiah just threw it out there. We're throwing the expectations out the roof. It's it's over. Let's chalk it up, and we're back boys. And that's the thing is is there's so many exciting expectations around not only the Cowboys season,

but specifically the signing of Everson Griffin. It takes the pressure off your linebackers, it takes the pressure off tank wrns, it takes the pressure off the deep tackles. Say same thing in the secondary off of really even having a scheme. As an in general, there's going to be excitement and there's going to be options, and that's exactly what you wanted going into this optseason, and you're gonna have options coming up as a Cowboys fan in terms of your

media coverage as well. Coming up over the next couple of days, the podcast We're Back. We're back for good. We're back through the end of this season. We'll be back on Tuesday, so you don't even have to wait a full week to get more Talking Cowboys. We'll be back Tuesday at eleven AM, and then each of us will be spread out on different different programming throughout the week as well, so be sure to follow each of us.

But for Isaiah, stand back for heck Ma Harrison, for Rob Phillips, and for Chris Beam running the show back in studio, I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long this time for Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.