Talkin' Cowboys: Finally, Game Week!

got ourselves an updated intro. How about that? About time we hear Isaiah stand back and heck My Harrison in the intro, Rob Phillips along with us, I'm Kyle Yeoman's we are It's week one, episode one of the twenty twenty season as we get you ready every single week day this week leading up to the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams. It's it's here, heck, but I can hear the excitement through the live view. Unfortunately, we

are still virtual at the moment. We will be for quite some time, but we're just gonna still gonna bring you all the content, all the information that you can potentially need from a Cowboys podcast, and we're excited to do so. But heck, my, you're itching. I feel it bringing on. Where's the excitement. Let's let's pump up the fans a little bit here, man. It's it's starting to

feel real, Kyle. It's starting to feel I mean, with all of those sports that we have going on, and also this being the week of kickoff Thursday, it starts and I'm just I'm just right there on the edge of like exploding right now because I want I want to see it. I want to see it so bad. It felt like we would never get to this point. It really did with everything that was going on with the pandemic, and it's like two weeks ago we got kickoff. In two weeks it just kind of snuck up on us,

and I can't believe it. Man. Oh As a former player, you have that lead up and you start kind of feeling like it's Christmas. If you're on the roster at this point, you're starting to feel it. Every day that it inches closer and closer. Is it more excitement or more nervousness heading it into week one? Man? I got you know what tip In a typical year, it's just you know, you're just getting excited for that first real game, right.

You've gotten through camp, you've gotten through the preseason. Now all of a sudden you know that you have a job officially. But this year, I can't even imagine how anxious these guys are. These guys are more anxious in genuine and used to be. I know these guys. I know these guys are ready to run out there and

hit somebody in their mouth. Only anticipate what they're thinking right now going into that first kickoff and Rob It's the same thing from an insiders perspective, just being around in the Star, it's starting to feel a little bit normal, I know. But at least over the last couple of days and now leading into the week, it's starting to feel like a football week again. Yeah, we've gotten used

to the new environment up there for sure. And I just go back to what Isaiah said about the players and what they've got to be feeling like, straight it hit somebody, you know, just just get hit, blow somebody up. I think Dalton Schultz said it to us last week. He's just like, what's that? You know they've been talking

about that, what's that first hit? Gonna feel like after literally not hitting anybody except these kind of stage drills that they've had, I haven't hit anybody in like nine months, ten months, So that's gotta be fun, right, I think. I think just getting back to that more than anything is gonna be is gonna be great. And you know, and we're in a situation where we don't really know much about the Rams, Rams, don't know much about the Cowboys.

It's just everybody's flying blow. That's what makes it so fascinating, I think for Sunday Night, Yeah, I feel like it's really one of the more unpredictable years, not only in football, but really all across sports, because of the pandemic, because of the different situations that we're in. It's one of the most unpredictable years in sports history, if not the most unpredictable year. And it's hard to see. I mean, we're gonna talk a little bit of predictions later on.

We've got an article from Peter King that we're gonna hit up toward the later parts of the show. That's a prediction, but still it's still kind of way up in the air. The expectations surely are high for Mike McCarthy in year one. But it's still gonna be tough overall. And it's been a busy week for Mike McCarthy and that staff. The fifty three man roster deadline was on Saturday cuts signings. You prepare that sixteen man practice squad roster, you go out, you actually claim a wide receiver off

of Waivers and Malik Turner. You bring in a former Cowboy and Brandon car and we'll talk about each of those coming up here in just a little bit. But Rob, first off, whenever it goes to this past weekend, one of the busier weeks for a NFL front office out of the entire calendar year, what were some of the moves that stuck out to you as they got to that fifty three man roster. Well, they had to do some tinkering in terms of letting a few veterans go

and then bringing him back like literally within hours. You know, that's just part of the business. Now. When you've got players that need to go on IR, Sean Lee, Ventel Briant and of course Lyle Collins starting right tackle, they have to be on the roster for a day before they can go to IR. And you saw the Cowboys do this a couple of years ago with Kellen Moore.

They cut Kellen Moore knowing they could resign him a day later to get the great Rico Gathers to the practice to ir for the season the grand So that's what they did with the great Rico Gathers. I love Rico. So justin March, Who am I missing Joe Thomas and c J. Goodwhen we're brought back a day later. As far as actual cuts, I think the Clinton Dick's cuts surprised me. I know, I know Isaiah felt like, you know that was a possibility. He's he's no Stradamis he

picked that one. Yeah, you got it, you got it. Yeah, But I was I thought he might have bought himself a week or two with Xavier Woods status. But it sounds like, according to Jerry on the fan this morning, he's ready to go. If there's if there's a cut that surprised me, it might have been Francis Bernard, but the rookie linebacker, but he find found his way back to the practice squad, and you know, maybe we overvalued

what he didn't practice. I'm not I'm not sure, but but I think with no tape on anybody around the league. They felt like it was a worthy risk to put him through waivers and get him in the practice squad. It definitely was a risk, but it stood out to me. Heckmo, I don't know if you you felt the same way. I mean, it's always tough to evaluate these undrafted free agents, especially in a year like this where we already said it's gonna be tough for an undrafted free agent to

make the roster. But Francis Bernard not being on that fifty three mans prized me not to say that it's still out of the question, but it was still something that stuck out to me. Hema, yeah, I mean, with a limited offseason, not being able to have a preseason at all, you didn't really get the opportunity to give

guys a look. I believe that Francis Bernard, based off of Rob's reports and me cheating off of your notes Kyle from practice, that Francis Bernard had a hell of a two had a hell of a two of days. You know, every other every other day you're reporting that he's getting an interception in practice. But at the same time, he's an undrafted free agent for a reason. He's a guy that does go down to your practice squad and does have an opportunity to make an impact on your

fifty three on your roster on game days. The way that COVID nineteen has adjusted some of the rules is really interesting, and I think the way that the Cowboys are going about it it's pretty genius. So a guy like Francis Bernard will have an opportunity to get some in games, a real game action. Yeah, at the linebacker spot. Certainly, it'll be something to watch out for, especially with Luke Gifford kind of being tinkering on the side of being

hurt and being available. But what had to kind of shift into one of the additions and we'll talk plenty about really this fifty three man roster coming up later on in the show, but one of the additions that stuck out is a former Cowboy coming back but in a different role, and that's Brandon car formally with the Cowboys in the role of a corner. He comes in now as a safety, at least that's what we think

he's going to play. He could play a little bit of both, and we know what Mike McCarthy has said previously about the secondary, saying that it is interchangeable. It is something that is a bit fluid. But Isaiah, what do you think about Brandon Carr? I mean, this is a guy that's been vaulted as a solid locker room guy. But what does he bring from a football standpoint? From a football standpoint, he I mean he has experienced, right, he's a vet. He's been around the league. He started

for a very long time. But I think he came off with twelve starts last year or something like that. So I mean, this guy knows what he's doing. Um, he's been here in Dallas before. He's familiar. Um, you know. But more than anything, I think you were ready, you already mentioned it. You know, he brings that locker room by right, he brings that mentor in the locker room. He there's a lot of young guys obviously in that secondary.

There's a lot of uncertainty in that secondary. I think he brings really just that consistency, um, that stability in the in that regard and somehow, some way, like you mentioned, with this COVID stuff, they got this dude on the practice squad. I don't understand how he didn't get them, by how he couldn't get picked up by somebody that That just lets you know, how how how impactful not having a preseason has been the fact that this guy

is falling on somebody's practice squad. It is just ridiculous. But the Cowboys are not complaining. When when Brandon Carr signed a fifty million dollars contract in Dallas eight years ago, I never would have guessed that he would have laid it on the practice squad in twenty twenty at the age of thirty, at the age of thirty four, I mean, that's just that's just wild. With with the new rules, Hey, Kyle, we could have made some major clicks on the website

over the weekend. And if we said Cowboys signed former Ravens veteran dB to the what kind of clicks would that have gotten? Yeah? Exactly. Somebody who's formerly from Texas or I guess it's lived in Texas. Pretty play right, yeah Baltimore? Yeah sure, I mean, well, we should have done that as a headliner. I mean, I don't know why we didn't. We'll have to talk to Nick and William about that one. But you guys gotta have foresight. You gotta have foresight of that guy, you know, but

I think that was Brandon Car. Brandon Car is amazing when and what I love the most about Brandon Car not only from a veteran perspective, but what he has meant to the Dallas community. Not enough to say, you know, we're always talking about these guys athletic ability, and that's when we're here for. But Brandon Cars, that's a solid guy as far as personality wise, who he is and what he does. Cavon Frasier, guy that we lost to Miami, was really big here in Dallas in the community. And

Brandon Car former Man of the Year. I believe he was up for the Walter Payton Award at point in his career. It's just an amazing person. I think as far as the mentorship and experience, that's gonna give the Dallas Cowboys a solid backup if anything happens with Thompson and we need a guy Johnny on the fly, it's gonna be Brandon Carr. And I think that's really what he was brought in for. Is there are a lot

of young guys back there. I mean, you throw Thompson and Xavier Woods into that category of safeties who are a little bit on the younger side of their career and could use some veteran help. We thought maybe, haha, Clinton Dix was going to be that. He ultimately didn't turn out to be the guy this coaching staff wanted. But now you bring in a guy like Brandon Carr who could provide that and provide some flexibility in a

secondary that's already pretty thin. But Rob kind of explained this to me, like, I'm five, I'm not a math guy, I'm not a contract guy. But what does this do for the cat Because from what I was looking at and from what I had heard, it seemed like Brandon car is not counting against the cap. Is that correct? Well, when you're on the practice squad, it's a different salary setup.

It's it's a weekly salary and it's slotted. And I believe with these new rules, as a veteran on the practice squad, he's set to make a little bit more per week than the other guys, or the younger guys on the team. So I don't know the exact figure on that, but it's different obviously than if you get promoted to the active roster. And Isaiah knows this, the salary goes way up. I mean, the minimum salary for a VET on the active roster is way different, but

he's set to make more, I believe. I'm gonna look this up in the break than because of his veteran status, and you get to keep Every team gets to keep six out of sixteen guys on the practice squad this year, doesn't matter what their level of accrude seasons are throughout the league. So it's just it's just wild. And you know, he may very well find his way to the practice to the active roster sooner than we think. It may

not be this week, but it could be pretty soon. Hey, Rob, let me ask you a question about that man, because I was a little confused about the new rules for a practice squad. A guy can be moved up, up and down, back and forth to the practice squad is unlimited, whereas in before there was you had limitations on the amount of times a guy could actually actually go from practice squad to active roster. Yeah, I don't, I don't remember if there were limitations, then I know you're right there.

There are no limitations this time, but there are a maximum of two times that you can promote a player up and then before they would be subject to the waiver process, so you know, a couple different times and you can do that and then put them right back on the practice squad the following week, but after the second time, you got to put the player through waivers. So, uh, it's interesting. It's you know, it's basically creating contingencies for

teams in the wake of this COVID nineteen crisis. You know, it's it's basically a fifty five man roster on game at the end of the week in a forty eight man game day roster. So in a way, it's like

expanding the roster this year. It's you know, it's a lot deeper than that when you factor in those sixteen guys who are eligible to play that that week, right, I mean you literally have a I'm not gonna do my math right now, but you close to what seventy guys almost right, every week that you have the pool from, you got almost seventy guys that you can pull from every week if you have that flexibility to move guys

up and down. So when it comes down to teams and matchups, you know, you really don't run into those those issues like you've had in the past. Where man, guess what, we really don't match up well against these guys in this a certain position. Now I can go down to my practice squad. Oh that's right, we have these guys here. Let's pull them up right, and now all of a sudden you have the matchup that you need.

So this is this is a crazy year. You're gonna see a lot of movement going on throughout this whole season, I would imagine. And it's also really a benefit for the Cowboys in particular because they loved their rookie class so much, not just the seven draft picks, but a lot of their priority free agents. They didn't want to

lose them. So there's more spots for them now. And it just reminded me, Heck, I think in the past, if you promoted a guy up, I think you had to keep him on the active roster for three weeks at least week. Okay, three or four weeks, Chris so, yeah, So now there's not a limit on that. It was four four. Yeah, So you know there's gonna be a lot of shuffle. Like Isaiah said, well, I think some of that shuffle will come with Brandon car And and he I don't expect him to stay on the practice

squad for long. I think that was some of the finagling and some of the ship and at least the look that the front office has given. But Isaiah, I wanted to ask you this question. Is it possible? And one of the one of the commenters here on the periscope stream, Yes, I am watching the comments today, So if you have questions, shoot him our way. But here's the thing, Earl Thomas, I'm going that direction. This is a guy who was a teammate of Earl Thomas previously.

Is there a chance that this edition, other than potentially give them some flexibility in the secondary, is there's a chance that Brandon Cars edition is maybe to get some insight on the Earl Thomas situation if that potentially comes up next week or so. Uh No, what I'm gonna tell you is gonna happen, like like I mentioned, want to make sure that's cool. I'm glad, I'm glad you asked the question. You know, you know there's there's there's no bad questions out here, you know what I'm saying.

But as I mentioned, what a week ago, two weeks ago, whatever it was, we will see Earl on the roster on Monday. That's just coming from me. That's just my ink link. Okay, all right, it's my little crystal ball um. As I mentioned, you know, waiting for that that that first week to go by. But we'll see Earl on Monday, and you know I haven't haven't you know, be Car

out there. It's just just an additional depth, right if you're going into a week with a with a veteran, you know, a veteran receiver corps and you need somebody out there that that's a lot more. Whether there's some of the younger cornerbacks that you have, you have that flexibility to bring Car up. But you know it'll be Xavier Woods and and Earl Thomas going into week two. There you go, wow, wow, So he had last week. He had the claw last week. So he's he's trying

to ride the hot hand. And I admire seventy seven straight seventh hot hand in the nice game, man, I love it, and I don't. I don't know. I'm out at this point now where I gotta I gotta see it. I gotta see it, and maybe we do see it next week. But I just rob I'm asking this question. I'm asking this question right before you continue. Ye, with all pro current, all pro safety, be just sitting in

free agency while rosters are getting set. If it wasn't the case that he's gonna be signed somewhere a week two, well, I agree with you that it's just it's just so odd, right, But if if he didn't have the issues coming out of Baltimore that we all heard about, then it really wouldn't make any sense. So maybe it's just that I don't I don't know. I to me, I don't have a great vibe on it, But Jerry doesn't rule it out.

They continue not to rule it out. When he got asked about Earl today, I believe this morning on the fan, he just he kind of deflected the car and talked about what Brandon Carter could do for him. So Rob, this is the Dallas Cowboys. Correct every correct and and and that the man who runs the show is to mister Jerry Jones. Correct. Correct. He signed people with a lot worse backgrounds aside from oh, you know he was

batting the locker room for one year. Earl has had no legal issues aside from this one or with his wife. He's had no drug problems, no pds, no nothing, no arrests, none of that stuff, And all of a sudden, we don't think that he's gonna be here because of a locker room issue. Look, guys, this, this, this, this conversation is starting to be a debut downer for me because it is. It is because we have our hopes so

elevated that Earl Thompson's gonna come in. And you know that Jerry Jones, he has the guys that are gonna do their due diligence on you. They're gonna go through your trash, They're gonna find out who you are. So Jerry knows who Earl is. Everybody does. So whatever the whatever he did, whatever it was, whatever they're reporting. And I've heard so many things about what people think is up with Earl Thomas at this point, he's our potential Pro Bowl, not his perennial Pro Bowl, potential Hall of

Fame guy. And we're just sitting back and look, we're going into the season with Xavier Woods Darius Thompson. I believe that both of those guys have shown us in camp that they are more than willing and able to be safeties in the NFL our defensive line like Isaiah says, is McNasty right. So the McNasty boys, the McNasty hot boys up front are obviously going to be applying enough pressure for the safety position to not be as blaring

as it was before or as far as indeficiency. So look, I want Earl Thomas too, but I want to trust the scouting department. I want to trust our coaches. Oh yeah, they they have gone through everything to make sure that we are ready because people's lives, I mean, everything is on the line right now come Sunday night. So whatever we got, man, I'm with it. That's what Let's go with it. Man. I love it. I love it. I

love the passion. I love the really the confidence that you have in the front office because they are doing their due diligence. Even if they're saying they're not interested, you know, they're a little bit interested. They need some safety help, you know, that's really what they're being said or what is being said. But you can kind of look behind closed doors and think that's the case. I don't know anything more than you guys do in that regard.

I'm just saying that's just common sense at least at this point or at least it should be. But I think really with Earl Thomas, it's there's a lot to come. And I agree with Isaiah. I think when week two comes around, I think he will be signed. It's just whether or not he's going to be a Allas Cowboy, that's the biggest question. But when we come back, we're just getting started. We've got a new segment on the way.

It's fans on the fifty Grand going and picking up questions off of the periscope feed off of our Twitter accounts. So send us your questions. We've got a couple lined up. We're gonna answer those coming up next. In the first one, are the Cowboys already at a disadvantage heading into Sunday. We'll ask why when we come back on talking Cowboys. Since eighteen sixty five, Stetson hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to

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a delas just do Back to Talking Cowboys. It's week one, episode one of Talking Cowboys in the twenty twenty season. Officially Game Week around the Star in Frisco and if you're looking for something to change up your dinner routine, help out supporting local Frisco businesses by choosing one of the Star District restaurants. For more information on delivery, takeout, curbside pickup, and dine in availability, visit the Star disc

dot com. Glad You're with us, Kyle Yeoman's heck Mo Harrison, Rob Phillips and our residence Super Bowl champion Mister Isaiah's Stand Back and Guys were starting a new segment this week Friday or Fans on the fifty every Tuesday at nine to fifty we'll be answering your questions on Twitter and on periscope. I've got the periscope feed up. If you haven't sent in a question, go ahead and do that. We'll try and get to it. We've got about ten

minutes to do so. The first one comes from Milton, and I think this is a fantastic question, and Isaiah may be the best to answer this, but it's Milton said on Hard Knocks, it looked like the Rams and the Chargers were scrimmaging with hard tackling. Cowboys were very light on contact throughout training camp. Will this make a difference whenever it comes to game time? Isaiah? What say you?

That's of a question, mister Milton, I'm gonna say it doesn't make a huge difference, just because even though guys were doing hard tackling quote unquote hard tackling, guys were still being a little bit hesitant in terms of how hard they're actually going after their own teammates. So even though they are having more contact than the Cowboys I've

had to date, it's still not game speed. And I can tell you once once that balls kicked off on Sunday night, these boys are gonna be flying around game speed, and they're gonna be hitting harder than they've hit in the last nine months or eight months. However long it's best and some of these guys have played. Yeah, just to piggyback on what you said, Isaiah, that's absolutely correct. Man. The game speed is gonna change. I mean it's gonna

be an hour of that. So whatever you know, ten minute tackling drill they had going on, and nothing is going to replicate what they're gonna get on Sunday night. Yeah. Mike Nolan, defensive coordinator, talked about how you know they've staged some things they've done the tackling drills onto a map basically in practice with the Cowboys. It's not the same thing. But he pointed out, you know, look, these guys are professionals, and once they get back into it,

you know, they know it's like riding a bike. They know how to tackle. You know, I did see Kyle where Michael Brockers Dave Hellman had learned us to this that Michael Brocker set the rams. The Rams are watching YouTube videos of our training camp reports to try to get something from So I'm flattered, but they're not going to get much from that because we don't. We didn't get a whole lot of ourselves. So I think both

teams are flying. Both teams are flying blind. Oh, those guys are in for such a poor surprise whenever they have to listen to me and Rob talk about training camp and that's the game plan. Sorry, it's trying though. Next question, and Rob, I feel like you would probably have the best answer to this. But we'll see d land be fielding punts this season. I know John Fossil was asked the same question, but what do you think? Yeah, John Fossil said, tune in last night. He said, what

do you say? It's better to get information than give it, right, They don't want to give anything away. I think I definitely think we'll see it at some point this season. That's just my feeling. I know. Stephen Jones was asked about it. I want to five through the fan, and he said, you know, he doesn't think it's like an injury risk to have one of your top return candidates do it, even though he might have a significant role in offense. You know, they kind of kept dead away

from it years ago. But you know, Stephen didn't give the vibe that they're they're averse to doing it, and I want to see it, and I think he'd probably be their best option. I think it would be fantastic, either him or Tony Pollard back there. I mean, I know Cedric Wilson's been thrown into that conversation as well. Heck, but would you like to see cebe Lamb returning punts or is that a protected asset that you don't necessarily

want to put in physical danger at that point? Heck? Yeah, I want to see Celts, all right, Yeah, I mean that's there's no question. I want to see that young guy, those fresh legs, and I want to see him get into a routine and just throw them out there coals so and I think getting him in those special teams punt returns things like that, we get an opportunity to see this very special specimen just perform and do his thing. And I think we get to see that first in

punt return. Thank goodness. I hope he who he does get a chance at least maybe wants to see what happens. He was so versatile during his time at Oklahoma and just whenever he gets the ball in his hands, and I think if you get an extra shot to do that, it could prove to be something huge. Now, Heck, I'm

going to ask you another question. This one comes from tuber on the periscope chatt He says, can Jarwin or Pollard have a greater impact on Sunday than Cede Lamb and I would even combine the two Jarwin and Pollard, Could they both combine have a bigger impact than ced against the Ram Sunday. Well, that's definitely gonna be Blake. I mean, Blake is the guy that is got some

big shoes to feel. But I think in this abbreviated preseason and these unscouted looks as coach Mike McCarthy was talking about, I believe that it's definitely going to be the tight end position that's going to give the Rams fits because of Jarwin's ability to fit in that scene and you know, give multiple looks in twelve or eleven personnel. But yes, Blake Jarwin is gonna be a guy that's definitely gonna have a big week one. That's what I'm

anticipating isam. Yeah, he's gonna eat. Yeah, he's gonna eat. I don't know what his uh what his post catch a little celebration is gonna be he gotta figure out something. But that boy's gonna he'll be eat this week. I mean just just think about when we go eleven personnel, Right, You've got three guys that are gonna be covered by your two best corners and your third best secondary guy head in terms of CD Gallup and Cooper. Right, So those guys are gonna be gonna be gonna be covered up. Right.

So now now you're putting your fourth best person on on on BJ. So he's he's he should he should have some great one on one matchups. Um, I'm excited to see if he's gonna take advantage of him. Rob. I go with Tony Pollard just based on last year, I think, and he and Zeke made history to one hundred yard backs in the same game first time in like twenty years. The Cowboys did that, so you know the Rams are be ready this time for Tony Pollard. I think with Tony, it's gonna come down to a

lot of times, how's the offense performing overall. If they've got to lead in the second half, we're gonna see a lot of Tony Pollard and Zike. So if it goes that way number twenty mighty too, so we'll see. I love it. I think both of those guys could

have a fantastic impact. Maybe not in the same game and maybe at different times throughout the season, but I think the fact that you have both of those guys's options and whenever your backup running back is compared to your starting tight end and each of them are exciting, I think is something that you can attribute to the expectations for this offense and just how widely talented they are.

Now moving on to another question, I'll ask I'll answer this one first here in just a moment with just one word, or actually two words, but the biggest area of concern for the Cowboys leading into the season sides the secondary. That comes from Geo Melita on Twitter, and my answer to that is the offensive line because they're banged up. Heck, but what do you say? Yeah, that's an easy one. Uh man, It's like lovin Babe Ruth the Pumpkin. Yeah, offensive line is definitely be some questions.

I mean, Travis Fredericks were retiring still one of the saddest days in Dallas history, and not knowing what cam Irvin who From what I've been reading on your notes, Kyle hadn't had the best camp up until this point. So I'm really reluctant to just go out on the limb and just say, look, that's we're feeling pretty good about our old line. I just think there are a lot of question marks there that we won't have answered until you know, Monday morning. Not so fast, my friend,

I disagree with you. Wait, I'm gonna go ahead disagree with you, because even though we don't have, you know, the offensive line that we would like to have going into Week one right now, obviously with Collins being on on IRM, we can add help to the tackles, right we have extra tight ends, we have backs that can chip on d N so we can help. We can help out. So not worried about that. I am worried

about our linebacker depth right now. We have you know we have We're able to get Thomas back, so that's awesome. But I'm worried about these guys. Man. If you have one injury, one injury at that position, there's a lot of question marks, people are gonna start freaking out, right. So that's the position that I think that we need to be more most concerned about it's the same thing going offensive line that you have one injury. It's this,

it's the same thing. So your argument is not an argument, Champ. Come on, hey, all I'm saying is all I'm saying is we can help the offensive line. You can't help the linebackers. But I can't weld. I can't weld my tight end too cam irving and still run my offense. Now, hey, you think you think they picked up Blake Bell just because now they picked up Blake Bell because they needed

some extra help. So if they need to go twelve personnel a lot more than they go eleven, you have the extra guy that can come in there and be in the wing in the wing position. Oh so you just go tip your hand to say that's what you're doing on that side with Blake Bell. Okay, you're dog, all right, you're dog right. Oh, they've done that before. They've done that before when Tyrant or Lyle's missed time.

I think y'all are both right. I mean, it was wild yesterday to look up at one point and see or a couple days ago and say the Cowboys had two healthy linebackers on their active roster before they brought back Justin March and Joe Thomas. I'm gonna go with with Hack though and Kyle and say the old line just has a whole Tyrant Smith. They gotta have him for sixteen games. Don't know how much time Lyle Collins

is gonna miss. This offense can only be dynamic and function if Dad can can be have those clean pockets. So we'll see how how it goes. Tyrant's good to go right now, and you hope that he's he's good to go the whole season. But I go, let's see, Rob Let's not kid ourselves to say that, oh my goddess, were if we're missing our entire starting officeive line, that we're in trouble. We still have a decent officeive line even without the dog on Pro bowlers being in there. Right,

So these guys aren't. It's not It doesn't go from great to terrible. It goes from great to good, you know, So I mean that's why I say, But but if you lose a linebacker, yeah, oh my gosh, what happens when guys get through our front line. We've seen that. It's not it's not good. Happened last year, That's what happened. When Laton vander Esch went down, he seemed like he

was the biggest key, missing cog of that defense. And I'll say that every single time because I think he was the biggest key that was missing of the twenty nineteen defense. And luckily he's back for twenty twenty. But I will say this. You said that even without the starters on the offensive line, Isaiah, that the offensive line is decent. Let me ask you this question. Is decent good enough to stand across and block Aaron Donald on Sunday?

I don't think so Aaron Donald is. Aaron Donald's not gonna be But but Aaron Donald's not gonna be on the end that yeah, Aaron Donald's gonna be on the inside. Right, So I mean you're not. And again, you know, and I say this knowing because I've helped chip on like Dwight Freedy when I was playing in New England, Right, we had a problem at We thought we had a problem at left tackle and we needed to help Valomer.

So I went in there, Chip freeee, Right, So I know that we can help as an offense, you can help office a lineman on the edges, right. But so I'm not too concerned with that. So there's officive lines like you think about like the Giants. The Giants didn't they didn't, they didn't do too great last year, but they still got the ball off. They still told her that thing right because they had talent in certain positions that that made up for their lack of talent on

the offensive line. The Cowboys are, They're not the line that they've had them, and I think that's Dallas is spoiled. We've had an all pro offersive line for a very long time, so all of a sudden, when all of a sudden one person goes down, we're like, oh no, oh no, we don't have three All pros on the old line this year. But most teams are lucky if you have one. Right, so they are perfectly find the offensive line position. They're not where they want to be,

but they are perfectly fine. As I would continue to say, we cannot afford the linebacker to go down because it's going to be exposed substantially. I love it. I think I think it's a great, great way to say, a great way to answer that question on both ends. I think the biggest question mark outside out of the secondary on the defense is the linebackers, and I would agree

with you there. I think there's a there's an argument back and forth, but on the offensive side of the football, it's it's definitely the offensive line to me, and I think without Lyle Collins, it's not nearly as stout as it has been in the past. And we'll have to see away stack up on Sunday at seven o'clock against

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word team JB. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys The Jack Black Starter, ten bucks, free shipping to Talking Cowboys. We're having some fun during the break and just just to let you know and to peep behind the curtain, we're gonna have a good topic to talk about tomorrow. And that's the brilliance of having shows every single weekday. You got Talking Cowboys every day up until Friday, and they lead you into Graham's week here at the Star in first go, We've got a fantastic topic for

you tomorrow. Barring any breaking news or something crazy happening we'll bring it to you tomorrow at nine thirty every weekday morning Kyle Yeoman's heck Ma, Harrison Isaiah Standback and our Dallas Cowboys insider Rob Phillips joining it for one

final segment and guys real quickly. Peter King had an article with a great Peter King where he touted the Dallas Cowboys as the number one roster in the NFC, which should translate to having some postseason run right to being in the NFC Championship Game, to maybe being in the Super Bowl if you have the top row in the NFC. He says, they have the top roster in the NFC. He's picking him to win the NFC East, but he also picks him to fall short in the playoffs.

And I wanted to get Shall's opinion on that and what exactly are those expectations? Is that kind of the nation wide look at this team, even with a new coaching staff, Heckma, that postseason success and you have to see it to believe it. You know a lot of people it's oh, let me just say this. It's easy to say the Cowboys are going to the best roster in the NFC, but it just seems disingenuine to say that we won't get to the ship doesn't matter, right,

You're you're right there is that? Is that a compliment? I don't know. I'm not a compliment. It's not a compliment, right, But I just feel as though when I look at this roster and the players that are on offense, that weren't a lot of changes. But we have players that have multiple thousand yard seasons in Cooper and Ezekiel Elliott. With what we have with Ceedee Lambing, what that's going to demand from defenses to pay attention to. It's easy to say that this offense is going to be on

a roll. Defensively, I think that's where the rubber actually meets the road, because we're going to have to get production from that front seven. We're going to have to get those sacks, strip fumbles, and change the way that the tone and tempo of the game is played. Those are all those and obviously getting turnovers. Those are the

things that are going to change the season. Are change the environment here in Dallas because we know that the offense is going to be is going to be banging, but the defense is what we actually need to turn up. Seeing one of the craziest parts about this article, Heckma, is that the fact that Peter King's worries weren't necessarily

solely on the defensive side of the football. He was worried about the execution of Dak Prescott, and he was worried that the Boys should have gone defense with the first round pick and not picked Ceedee Lamb, which, of course, as everybody knows, I completely disagree with Ceede Lamb was the pick. That's common sense in that regard. But Rob, do you do you kind of see where he's coming from or is this just kind of out there from

a Peter King's perspective? Oh? No, I mean I think you look at the Cowboys roster and say, yeah, they're one of the most talented, because I mean, how many guys on this team are potentially future Hall of famers, you know, if you just look at it from that standpoint, especially on the offensive side of the ball, they got a ton of talent. It always comes down to depth.

Though Mike McCarthy keeps saying that over and over and over again that it took him seventy seven players to win the Super Bowl ten years ago because they had like fifteen guys on ir during the course of the year. So how deep are you We just talked about that in the previous segment. Can they withstand certain injuries? That's

going to be the question. And you know the other thing maybe he's thinking too, it's a new staff, it's new schemes, it's very little time to prepare and maybe year one it's gonna be hard to put that all together, even with the talent. And I think there is some merit to that. We've got to see it. You know, there's a lot of things we think about this team. But you know, defensively too, like Heckna said, a lot

of talent, they want to be multiple. Can they get all the communication down when you're giving a lot of different looks and things of that nature, so that those are things you still got to be able to see on the field and see how it all unfolds. Yeah, Fellas, So to Peter King's point, Peter King much respect. I respect the crap out of that man, But on this point, it's gonna really our deciding factors. Okay, on each side of the ball is really gonna come down to this.

On the offensive side of the ball is gonna come down to bouncing back with this new regime, this new Cowboys team, how we respond to situational football? Right? How

do we handle ourselves? To his point, you know, Dak Prescott, all these guys being able to communicate, but coming out of a Jason Garrett environment now coming into a McCarthy environment, which to my understanding, these guys are a lot more intuitive and terms of situations, they're being walked through these situations and practices, two minute drills, all these kind of things are going on on a lot more consistent basis. Will they be more prepared to handle themselves accordingly to

not lose themselves games going forward? So that's something that we have to wait to see. And then on the defensive side of the ball, what's the culture going to be? Right? What's the culture of this team on that side of the ball. Is it gonna be just very lethargic. Is it gonna be high energy? What's the rotation's gonna be like on a D line? I think if these guys have an amazing culture and a high energy defense, that's gonna be something that plays part and these guys gonna

go because he's the leads to well together. Now, you gotta see coach Tom Sula. Man, it's all high energy with this guy. So then oh my god, that this is gonna be a low energy defense. So that's the way that this whole thing gets turned around. With that energy and just the rotation that we have at the D line, I think that changes everything. But let me, I'm getting all subject I'm talking about things we're talking about tomorrow. But you know, man, we just have all

the opportunity. All the opportunity is there for us us to take strides and also go far in the playoffs. But Rob, like you said, it took seventy seven guys for coach Mike McCarthy to win a Super Bowl, So we know, even though we have our fifty three set, it's gonna be way more guys that are going to be in action to make to push us over the

hill so that we can get to Tampa. Yeah. Yeah, I think whenever you think about the energy and you think about the uptick that the defense could have, it's undoubtedly something that could push this team to the next level. But you got to see that execution, and we might have a chance to see that on Sunday against this Rams offense, which by the way we will be previewing

tomorrow here on Talking Cowboys. Thursday, we'll take a look at the Rams defense, and then on Friday we'll really hit some of the key matchups and give you predictions, as we're on every single weekday of the rest of the season, nine thirty here on Talking Cowboys. Be sure to join us. But that's it for us today. For Rob Phillips, for heck Ma Harrison, for Isaiah stand Back. I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long for now here on

Talking Cowboys. We'll see you tomorrow. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.