Talkin' Cowboys: Most Talented Team Since...

team arrived here last Thursday. They will be departing in two weeks for Hawaii. Are you ready to go already? Well, I'm actually just here for four more days. I'm two thirds of the way through my stint here. Well that's too bad, because you're gonna miss this weather. I am. And we got the Marine Layer this morning. And the Cowboys return to the practice field today after the players had a day off on Wednesday. It's an afternoon practice.

If you're in the area, come on out with a three thirty start time on practice this afternoon, five thirties Central time, and so much to get to as we get started here on another edition of Talking Cowboys. This is the first of four straight days of practice out here. It will culminate on Sunday evening Dallas time, six o'clock Dallas time. We'll be airing the Dallas Cowboys Annual Blue White Scrimmage on Texas twenty one in Dallas Fort Worth and right here on Dallas Cowboys dot com. So this

is the lead up to that. Everyone enjoy your off day yesterday, even though we did we were here for another edition of Talking Cowboys yesterday morning. I figured out that without practice, without press conference, without interviews, after practice, we say five hours of work, of of just doing stuffing stuff to gather stuff to do our work right. For me, it was a good day to get caught up on things I needed to get caught up with as far as work goes. You get your San Francisco,

what are you getting? Well, No, I'm just it's just getting narrowed in on players, rookies on this roster exactly getting ready for not only the scrimmage on UM Sunday, but also you know, the preseason games. We got all four preseason games this year, so we never really seemed to take the day off. You know, we're pretty much in that tent at least for a couple hours. And then because what they do is the Cowboys used that

time usually to work out guys. They will workout guys on you maybe make a couple of roster moves, and they made one yesterday. They did you want to get to that roster move yesterday? Well, the roster move is I'm working the four guys out, and so they bring it in a couple one yeah, yeah. And then they decided to sign Justin Phillips, who was with the team right after the draft. It was let go earlier in the off season back now, a rookie out of Oklahoma

State and Parland, Texas. And they released Larry Allen Junior yesterday. Yeah, you know what, And this is I'll say about Larry Allen Junior. Don't feel sorry for the young man because he's got a degree from Harvard. He's better off than a lot of us right now, and I think he's going to go on and do great things. I will say this about Larry Allen and I we were talking about it kind of going a little pre show here that Larry Allen came into camp and actually looked better

than he did in the OTAs and main camps. The five weeks that he had to be at the facility and lift and work on nutrition stuff like that. Let's be honest. You know, IVY League, Harvard and all that. Yeah, they've had some players that have played in this league, but the strength programs not the same, you know. And he came in. I think he took advantage that he looked okay out here. I was worried about him getting

run over. You know, he looked under sized, He looked over Matt and all that during the OTAs, but came out here and I think for the most part though, kind of did himself proud. You know. Mickey said he saw him on the way out of the place, and you know, he's probably disappointed that it ended this quickly for him. But I kind of saw him as if he made the practice squad, it was going to be it was going to be him just really blowing people away. I thought that was really the best level that I

could see him attaining at the time. And I promise you that was not easy for Jerry Jones to do. No, because the relationship he has with that family, Yes, his dad, and I'm sure they would have liked to take him all the way through preseason and see what he could do to try to make the team, make the practice squad. But it's about getting the ninety got right, ninety guys on the field, the best ninety you can get. And

that's the decision they made. But you, like you said in the offseason, Brian Larry Allen Junior has already won. He's won this. He's won. He's one, He's got a degree in biomedical engineering. He is going to go do great things in this world. Yep, Absolutely, what's biomedical jury? What do you do with bio medical engineer? Do many more things than what you would do out of practice squad. And yeah, yeah, he'll make more. He's gonna make more in a day than he'll make on a week and

a practice squad. And you know what, and you know what happened. They their their hand got forced because they got short on linebackers. So the next question, right, they needed to make a move. I think they were down to linebackers. Yes, well also too, and and also yeah, and Andrew dwal is one of the college free agents out of Michigan State, right, just getting Covington back, right, So see, and it's funny you say that you know a hard cut for Jerry Jones and the relationship he has.

I don't know if necessarily Jerry Jones would visit with a down the line player. I think that that Will or somebody would probably say, okay, hey, thank you very much. Move on the fact that the owner general manager says goodbye to you and thank you and shake your hand. Jerry Jones meets with players, don't get me wrong about this, but he also but I don't know if he would meet with a guy that you know, it's like, okay, we gotta make a roster move, Okay, get Jerry in

here to say goodbye. Usually Jerry's like, you know, he lets Will or somebody else handle that. And but the fact he took the time because of the relationship with the family, probably be seeing dad this weekend and can't know how absolutely go. Yeah, I mean, and he's and and they've known him. I mean he grew up on the sideline in the locker room at some of these games. I mean when they were winning Super Bowls. By the way, we've got football tonight. Sure, Hall of Fame game is tonight. Yeah,

didn't he looking at me quizzically Denver in Atlanta? I was thinking The game was right on a Thursday night. Yeah, and of course Gil Brandt goes into the Hall of Fame this weekend. Jerry Jones, the presenter. Gil was going from here to Canton. Yeah, so he was out here on Monday. It was a great honor. I got invited to his ceremony. I really, Yeah, he was nice enough. It's so weird. You get a call from Canton, Ohio on your phone and you're like, what's so, that's how

it works. Yeah, Well I got a call. Yeah, they invite you and I and I had to. I called Guil had to. I didn't recognize Yeah, there you go. Well I had to. I mean, he was nice enough to invite me into his induction ceremony, and I had to decline because of the work we're doing and stuff

like that. But what a what a great honor that a man who really the godfather of scouting, the godfather of all the things that guys like myself that we have jobs in the National Football League or had jobs because the stuff that Gil Brandt did in scouting, in the way that he formulated his department. Gosh, he worked with some great scouts throughout his career and stuff. So it's nice to see personnel men be included into the

Hall of Fame. Uh ceremony and those his bust will sit right there very proudly among all those great players. Is the induction at night or during the day gets Saturday night, right, sorry, we can, we can. You can check it out absolutely, Yeah see it yeah live yeah right great, yeah, and uh, he'll go on for a while now, Gil will tell some stories. If he starts telling some stories, right, good for his When he told me the story about the first training camp, I learned

something new because they had a split camp. You know, everybody knew they went to Forest Grove, Oregon. Yeah, but they had to play games in the Midwest, preseason games. And so they found a place in Della Field, Wisconsin, at a military academy. And uh, he said he went and visited the place kind of did a site inspection in April, and he said the place was just appalling. The dorms were terrible, the lights were dim, he said, there were bats flying around in the building. A perfect place,

he said. The commander. The commander told them, hey, don't worry, we're refurbishing all this stuff. And when you guys get back here in August will have it all spruced up. Not so much. They showed up and they sent the players into those dorms. Bats were still flying around. You

could barely see. And he said the next morning when he woke up, there was a big statue on the on the on the campus of the military academy, and some of the players went and hung him in effigen They got they got a dummy thing and a rope and hung it on the on the statue. Because it's like, Gil, you brought us here. They had to fly like from San Antonio on a DC six so an airplane right uh to Milwaukee and bust two hours to this military academy to practice for like maybe a week before they

went to the next game. One other part of the history lesson from Mickey here the first year the Cowboys in nineteen sixty and of course this is the sixtieth year of Dallas Cowboys football. They were there at Pacific University. Probably got there basically July fourth, I mean, you know what,

sixth preseason July ninth. And he remember about the day he told me we six So we're talking we're talking about yeah, they had six Okay, they had six preseason games, okay, and where I just started this show talking about where one week, now we got two weeks to go, how are we gonna make it the next two weeks? And they started, So they started July ninth in uh in Oregon. Their first preseason game was August sixth in Seattle against

San Francisco, so that's a month of trade. So then they were there probably another week, okay, because their second preseason game was in San Antonio, so they traveled from Seattle to San Antonio. They played Saint Louis in San Antonio. Then they played a home game against Baltimore six days later, so maybe I'm sure they stayed in Dallas during that week and then they padded off to where you're talking about. Their next preseason game was at Louisville at Louisville against

the Giants on August twenty seventh. Then September fourth, they came back out here at Pendleton, which I guess is Camp Pendleton where they filmed over poleshow it's it's It's It's it's Oregon, Oh, Pendleton, Oregon against LA and then at Minnesota against Green Bay to close it out, so that they were that one must have been when they

went to Wisconsin. God. So their their preseason in nineteen sixty started on July ninth in Oregon and their whoa wait a second, Okay, their last preseason game with September eleventh. Their first regular season game wasn't until September twenty fourth, another two weeks after that last preseason game. So they started July ninth, and then they finally played their first regular season game September twenty fourth, and they won their only game. It amongst those six preseason games in Louisville

against the Giants. Yeah, because Jerry said that they're gonna kick their butts. And the game, the game they played against um was it? Uh? Did they played Baltimore? Yeah? Speak like fourteen to ten? Or yes they did? Mo You got a great memory. No, I'd look guilded now. No, I looked it up. It was Johnny Unitas to Lenny Moore in the final minute of the game. And why were they playing in Louisville? Why were they That's where Johnny Nis is from. Why was Johnny and Nias played

for the Giants? No? No, no, no, you're talking about the Baltimore The next week that that's where I got that was the only all right, let's go to periscope. Cowboys? Yeah? How about yeah? Cowboys? That was talking about that was a tribute to Gil brand I was, you're not going to dis our tribute to I love Gil. I'm so happy for him. I am. Okay, we'll get a periscope and thanks again for everybody in pariscope. It's kind of

hanging out with us today. We talked about this yesterday, but Mickey, since we do have a question about I'll start with you on this one. How is Travis Frederick looking in camp so far? We'll just kind of rehash what we talked about yesterday. You kind of had an idea about Travis Frederick King his first padded practice and I thought, you know, his strength was good. He was worried about his power and his legs, and I think that was good. But he was just a tick off.

His steps were just a tad behind I think what he would want to be. He even said it's going to take a while. He hadn't been in pads for a year, probably more than a year by time they figured out what was wrong with him last year, and then the shoulder surgery, the umbilical core the umbilical hernia. I said, cordn't have one of those, right. Uh. But other than that, you know, he just needs to get back out there and they're gonna ease him back in

and you know, but yeah, he'll improve. But it was it was a good sign his strength and his power was there. Now he just needs to figure out the mass confusion in front of him. I looked it up. It was just about a year ago, maybe a little less because it was in camp. He left camp, went to LA I think, to see doctors, right, and at the time they thought stingers and then he kept getting second opinions and then found out late August last year

was when they found out about the GPS diagnosis. So yeah, it's been a long time, and expect him just to adjust the speed of the game as he keeps going. Overall impression of Dak Prescott so far, Glad you mentioned Dak Prescott and I've been I've been impressed with him and one of the things that I have every year, it seems like I'm more impressed with his conditioning. He comes into camp, it's slimmer and slimmer every year. It seems like I had a conversation with him last year

about it and his weight. He puts on weight as the season goes on, but I think it's really a

credit to his offseason conditioning. I remember two years ago, maybe after his rookie season, Mickey, you and I were taping a blitz show in the locker room and here comes this was this was in early March, before the offseason program had started, and here's a sweating Dak coming out off the practice or out of the weight room or whatever you know, to into it to his locker and I thought that was a signal that, Okay, here it is. He's the only guy up there and he's

working out. But I think he looks, he looks he looks sharp this off season with his passage, accuracy and so forth, and I think there's a lot of reason to think that this his game is going to elevate even further this year. And I'm sure when he came walking through, I probably said something smart like, oh, did you hit her rain shower out there? Coming in? Yeah, he'll sweat you up now. I told that. I told that to Parcels one day. He was walking he was

he was walking down the hall. He had one of those great t shirts, sweat shows on the Great His Coaching show that way, didn't he no the blue sweat top and he would be sweating while he was doing the show, so I can change into a suit. As I told him, I said, what did you do? Take a hose and hose yourself down? He goes, I was working out. He does the elliptical. Yeah, they trust me. I know that. I did it for an hour and I said, and then he looks at me, you work out? Yeah?

And he started asking me all these questions about my physical you know, like you to get a physical every year. Yes, coach, how do you weigh one hundred and fifty pounds? You know? Are you guys seeing any difference at killing Moore's no, see anything different that you kind of feel like that, you know that maybe it's a little bit different from what you saw with Scott Linahan. Personnel groups are different. Um, some of the pre snap movement, which is what they

talked about. I mean, it's what do the rams do. They do a lot of window dressing, right, but their offense doesn't necessarily change a whole heck of a lot. Right. The other thing is the ball, I would say, the balls going down field more. But they tried that last year. Yeah, they tried a lot of you know, a lot of go routes and stuff. They just didn't connect on until the quarterback starts getting sacked fifty six times during the season, That is true, Mickey, Uh, I got one. I'm on

Keller Moore. Yeah. Um, and it's stung in cheek. Okay. It's all this work on the Boise State hook and lateral and the Statue of Liberty that I know. This the big difference there and the five wide receiver sets. Speaking of wide receivers, maky, how has Jalen Guden been looking to you chances he makes the team? Do you think it's gonna come down to one of those guys?

One of those I don't know he's he's coming on. Yeah, you know, I think everybody saw John Vay in the OTAs in the mini camps, but uh, since we got out here and especially when the pads come on, Uh, people can't you know he's another guy. They can't run with him on the nine route. Yeah, he'll He'll blow right by and he does a good job of adjusting the ball and catching it. I think he got it down towarding his same boy, he did against Denton Geyer when he played it Allen that's right, the same way

at North Texas, right anything they're up. Could both of those guys make the team? Is it possible? Well, it's gonna. I think it would take attrition at the wide receiver position. Yeah, I think we all though. I mean, you know with Alan Hearne's not here, there's part of the attrition right there. Give him, give him Tavon. That's four. Yeah, there's two spots. Have two more spots. We haven't seen Noah Brown yet.

He's probably gonna. That's not a good thing. Yeah, no, But somebody on the show set yesterday, whether you like it or not, he's a special teams guy. They like him. Maybe these guys can play. They can. You'll settle up with Keith though Quinn. He'll tell you that about that special team Cedric. Cedric Wilson showed up a little bit too. He's put space. I'll get it out play special teams. Yeah,

Reggie Davis can return kicks. Doesn't look bad Minters did in the fact that returning punts, because if he could show enough there, maybe that's enough to get a spot. But I mean his speed, I don't know if anybody runs quite like him straight on speed on roster, except I'll quote Chris Hall when I asked him about his speed. Chris Hall said, and Chris is kind of the what like director, coordinator college got it? Yeah, coordinator, And he said that guy can run out of site. Yeah, his

socks move faster than everyone else's. Yeah, that's what it is. Unbelievable. All right, let's we'll get to more Paris questions coming up there. Also, I'm on Twitter at CBS eleven Bill Jones. We've got our car wash with Dak today right the local TV stations talking with Dak. I want some questions for Dak. I've got my own questions, but I want to throw it out there if you got any questions for Dak and the other thing I want to get into in our next segment. There's a lot of talk

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That is it, Doctor Pepper. Craving, Doctor Pepper, when you crave? Back to Talking Cowboys, Talking Cowboys continues from here in Oxnard, California. Cowboys hit the practice field for a walkthrough this morning, shortly after we get off the air, and this afternoon they practice. In fact, the next four days they're all afternoon practices Thursday through Sunday, and then their next day

off will come on Wednesday. First preseason game is a week from Saturday in Santa Clara against the forty nine ers. Second preseason game will be in Hawaii against the Rams. They leave here in two weeks on Thursday, August fifteenth for that preseason again. That's when they break camp and then they will have They Cowboys made the announcement yesterday, the official announcement the training camp in Frisco that will

be free and open to the public. It's as we welcome back football in the Dallas Foot War theory of August twentieth through the twenty seventh, and you can find the details on that Dallas Cowboys dot Com. We take your questions here on periscope with Brian and good numbers on periscope as usual. I'm sure yes. And Mickey wants to bring up something about Michael thomas contract with the Saints, how it might relate to Amari Cooper. I think microphone fall.

I think the Cowboys would love to sign MARII Cooper to Michael Thomas's contract because when you go inside the numbers, basically it's a three year, forty five million dollars deal that they can get out of. But wait, it was announced as five years, and it's really five years nine up to ninety six million, Okay, not one hundred ninety six. Whoever reported the hundred kind of pushed the envelope a little bit to make it sound better. But they can

get out of this contract after three years. Now there'll be eight million dollars of dead money. They can get out of it after four years, would only four million dead and sixty million paid out, So four years, sixty million. The guarantee runs out after four years, so that to me, my simple math tells me that's fifteen million dollars a year.

Wouldn't you be okay, with signing Amari Cooper to a fifteen million dollars sixty one guarantee, I think that's more in line to what they would like to do right exactly, And the last two years of his contract that aren't guaranteed total thirty four million dollars thirty four in the last two years of just basically signing our base salary.

The other thing is, I don't know if everybody can see this, but there's a list of contingencies here that he can earn if he does this or this, and it all adds up to a couple million dollars more So, it's like, I'll just give you one example. In twenty twenty three, his per game active bonus is thirty one thousand, two hundred and fifty a game, so that's five hundred

thousand dollars. He also has some incentives where if he checked this out twelve touched any of these twelve touchdowns, fourteen hundred receiving yards, fourteen hundred receiver yards, and a playoff game, one hundred receptions, one hundred receptions and a playoff game, he can get three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars for each of those incentives after Drew Brees retires. So yeah, so there's a lot of funny money in there that makes it look like, oh, it's twenty million

a year. It is not twenty million a year. It's fifteen million a year when you deal with where the guarantees are. And they didn't change his base salary much for this year. It's only like one point uh six million dollars because he handed him twenty million signing bonus.

And what I've been told is because of the way the CBA's going to be structor is structured for next year, the signing bonuses are going to be smaller, Right, They're going to be smaller so that you can get out of the contract and there'll be more of these big base salaries because of the thirty percent rules. So don't get all fired up. And you know Steven Jones, you know he was on the ticket the other day or yesterday it was yes, but he was on the ticket.

And if I'm going to give him credit for the quote, absolutely, Stephen said, we can't push the issue unless we want to be a market setter, and we're damn sure not going to be a market senter because of all the things that go with being a Dallas cowboy. So basically what he is saying, we gotta do Amari, we gotta do Zeke, we gotta do Dak and he goes in, it's not Jerry's money, it's the money that would go to other players that we have to be careful so

we can sign. And then he went on and talked about Byron Jones got to be signed, Lal Collins got to be signed, Jalen Smith's gotta be signed, Collins and LC Collins. So there's other guys that they've got to worry about. I don't know what the Saints have to do, right, but fifteen million a year when Mamari's making fourteen million this year, I'd do it tomorrow. That's interesting. You brought that up because the fans are fired up because the reaction was, all right, you saw wins get a deal.

Does the market go up for Dak? Now? All right? You son, Michael Thomas get a deal. Why are they waiting so long and letting other teams set the market. That's just not how they view it though, right exactly. And you know what, if you look on the inside of Winz's deal and you consider what he's getting paid

this because it's an extension. So the years of base salaries he's has still counts, and if you count those along with the extension, it would average over the next six years like twenty twenty seven million dollars a year. Would you do that with Dak right now? Absolutely? So He's not a thirty million dollars a year man, when you consider what he's got to make first before he gets to the extension. So my word out to everybody is,

look inside the contract. Don't take the number that first comes out, because that's an agent number, and all he's doing is advertising for his business to be able to sign the next guy. And he can say, look, I got Michael Thomas, the biggest contract ever for a wide receiver, which I don't. All I know is I think Odell Beckham Juniors is like eighteen million a year. Can I

ask a question? Maybe it's a little bit off topic here, but I was just sitting there listening to Mickey as a great analogy or a great explanation what's going on. As much as Jerry Jones loves the players, you know, and wants to take care of the players, do you think this whole thing with Zeke has shook him a little bit that his you know, And I'm no, I'm asking an unfair question here because I'm asking you to jump into Jerry Jones mind. But you guys all know Jerry.

You know he's has such loyalty to his guys. Is does this does this shake him going forward? That he thought, you know what, Okay, I put my neck out for this guy. I drafted him. I wanted him here through all he's gone through, all all all the things he's gone through, the fights he's had with Roger Goodell, the fights he's had with the league, the legal fights and all that. The ah, he's gonna play this week. No, he's not gonna play. Yes, he's gonna play. No, I mean,

does this decision shake? Does this shake Jerry Jones? Now? Because I think he's mad that it's happening, and he's done a very good job of controlling himself, although in the press conference he started getting to the crux of the matter there. I don't think he gets mad at the player. I think he gets mad at the agent. Okay, okay,

because he's just fallen along. Zeke didn't wake up one morning, can go you know, what I think I'm gonna hold out, right, So someone told him there, somebody told him this is how we're gonna set your money. So someone someone, He woke up and someone said, listen, you know they're they're gonna give you four hundred carries again this year. You okay with that? Do you think that's kind of how? I mean? Zeke's like, nah, just let him. I like to play. No, he saw what's happening with Melvin Gordon.

Sure no, but but someone told him, Hey, they're gonna give you four hundred carries four or touches again. I mean it was like Emmett's first rookie year. Sure he wasn't mad at Emmett, he didn't even hardly know him, but he sure knew those two agents, and he wasn't really happy with them. I agree with you up to a point. Up to a point because at the end of the day, who works for who? Yeah, but I'm telling you agents, he's twenty four years Do you think

Zeke understands the salary capit rules? Do you think he understands what market value is? Somebody has to explain it to him, and you get a smart guy. I'm not trying to say he's some sort of dummy, because if you talk to the players, he's a smart dude. I just know, I just know. When the Tank deal got done, it was DeMarcus Lawrence getting on the phone with Stephen Jones and saying, let's figure this out, okay, because I know I need surgery and I want to play this year.

There you go, so we'll it have to come to that point. Maybe it does well then you know, maybe it will. But I'm saying the agents running this thing. So that's uh. The reaction from the Foundation seventy seven on Twitter question for Dak would be calls Zeke so Zeke, Coop and himself to leave their agents at home and have all three deal with the Joneses and McClay to get a deal done. It's what he and everybody in the room. Bobby Lagger did his own deal in Seattle.

Yeah it's right. Yeah, that's a market for Jalen Smith. But I don't know if without an agent you could do all this, you know, Well yeah, I just I just wanted to know if, because like I said, Jerry Jones is so loyal to his players, He really is loyal. He'll do anything he can to help his players. Even you know, we've had people ask about any update on Randy Gregor. I haven't heard anything on Randy Gregory, but

think about him just going to bat him. Think of him trying to give an extra three hundred thousand dollars to Randy Gregory on really a contract extension, knowing that potentially this could happen where Randy gets suspended for the whole year. At least Randy could have some money to live on, you know. I mean that's you're you're an owner, and you're saying, you know, I gotta we gotta find a way to help him. We gotta find a way

to help this guy. And I just wonder if, if you know, maybe someday I'll I'll ask here, if i'd see him, I'd say this, you're confidence shaken when on players this way. I think he might be right. We don't know for sure, but I think Mickey's right about the agent. But I just wonder if it's like, man, I'm busting my ass to try and help the situations, and I and you're and what are you doing to me? You know, I don't have many campaigns left. I don't have many campaigns to walk up there and try and

win a Super Bowl. I assemble the best team I can. You know, I've paid Lineman, I've paid uh yeah, I've paid all these defensive players. I've paid people. And I'm trying to win this damn thing and you're and you're not helping me, right, And these guys are now they've got you know, the core players, sure, meaning even Dak and Zeke. They are now going to their fourth year. So they are in the prime of Okay, they there's

no none of the rookie stuff. It's okay, how good are they going to be the second year or the third year? Now they are in it. Okay, So you'll get your answer to that if they enforce the fines you think, so, which there they can do now? Right? Yeah? Well yeah, no, I mean the um and and after and asked for the fifteen percent of thirteen And what day did you say we were This is if you count Friday like reporting was, this is seven days right, right,

So that's forty thousand dollars a day. That's two hundred and eighty thousand dollars already that he can be fine if they want to, Yeah, if they want to, If they want to enforce it. And then now that the six hundred and thirteen on the signing bonus, and it can go up one percent each day until it gets to twenty five percent. You can ask another question. You think that Jerry and they were playing this knowing that

Zeke can't match the pot. If Jerry calls, you know, in the using poker terms, what do you mean, can't match the pot? Zeke doesn't have the money to match the fine pot. Well, yeah, not the fine pot, but just maybe overall, maybe he doesn't have every dime. Maybe he's not Terence Newman and has every you know knows you know it knows where his first nickel was. Well, do you think they're playing a game whether where Jerry's looking at him and going, Okay, I know you don't

have enough money to match that pot. That's possible, But I go back. I think I said this when this he first held out. Is it's a precedent thing. They can't they are So we just mentioned all these guys are gonna be up for deals after this current group. You can't set a precedent of Oh, there's no question right, Okay, you're not here. We gotta get a deal, said that. I mean, let me ask you this, all right, I

thought of this this morning. How much is it on the agent or Zeke's mind that the head coach is going into the last year of a contract. I don't think he cares well from this From this standpoint, this offense is based on Zeke being a key member of it. If if you changed coaches after this year and you brought in now, I'll throw out Lincoln Riley, sure, But but Lincoln Riley coach, he would he would love Ezekiel Elliott.

So let's say a college coach who spread it out and they don't rely Mike Leach, they don't rely on a r I could us to do what this offense asked him to do. Sky is that on their mind at all? That we need to get our money now because we don't know what's gonna happen even six months from now with this, with this offense and what Zeke means to this team six months from now because of the uncertain status of the head coach. It's not a

bad thought. No, I don't disagree, but I don't know that you can do what you're saying they could do in one offseason. Well, and the reason I asked that is there's a lot of people who say, WHOA, he's got two years left on his contract. He needs to honor his contract. He makes nine million next year, right, but he needs to honor his contract. He shouldn't be asking to renegotiate. Now, this is a little different than a normal contract, and when you're talking about a sports team. Yeah,

because of those kinds of factors. I don't think Zeke's focusing on Jason Garrett. Yeah, I don't. I don't think that's a primary thing, but maybe that's part of it. I just my gut is that if Zeke, I think the players are okay with him holding out until we get to that first game, and then once it gets into if he's holding out week one, week two, week three, then it's become it's going to become a little contentious

when Dicky asks when when it hurts them? See, this doesn't hurt this doesn't hurt them now, but Micky, when Micky goes in there and the pad open and ask a really tough question like about you know, now, you're going to see some guys gritting so well. And this is what I wonder when he gets down to that, if it does. Everybody looks who who's who's his best buddy on the team, Dak Press, Scott Press, are they?

I mean, he's really gonna leave Dak high and dry in this situation we're trying to go on Super Bowl. I mean, you know, if he really feels like financially, that's what he's got to do for his future. Okay, but I gotta see that. I gotta see that because all it takes is one loss that could decide this division. You know, all it takes is one miss game right to decide this thing. And this is built to your point talking when all these guys going in their fourth year.

One thing we don't talk about is all these guys down the line, all these worker b guys, role players down the roster who have contracts expiring. Randall Cobb has an expiring contract after this year. Robert Quinn, this might be the best shot this team has because this team could look there's a lot of young guys, a lot of good young talent, but this roster could look drastically different next year one fifty three. Yeah, because about Jerry. That's why I asked the question about Jerry. Yeah, did

he feels a little betrayed right now? Yeah, and so is this the cowboys best roster says win when we come back. I'm talking Cowboys. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a thing, then cutting the chord is scary. But then I found out I could switch to DirecTV Now and still get the live sports I love. No satellite needed, no bulky hardware,

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for just ten bucks with free shipping. Go to get Jack Black dot com and use the code Cowboys O. Boy, can't would have marked that comment so fast? Caden marked that I'm not a pro with a microphone. Save that admitted it. But guy for every day. Give me a typewriter and I'll write you guys under the table, Smith Corolla, that's right. You still have a typewriter. I do. I still have a typewriter. It's my affordable one that I

used to carry to the games. And you take the copy and put it on the telecopier and they would spin it back to those new spas. What sportswotter did you almost punch? Because you use your phone? Jr. And I would have probably been right behind you. If you didn't get a good shot on him, I'd have got him from that old press box in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadio, back when you had to Jack Murphy order your own phone line to be able to an old

sports writer himself. Oh Jack Murphy was a good one. Yeah, yeah, that was a nice night. There'd be a Mickey Spagnola stadium somewhere. I doubt that Chicago Heights. Just wait, little League. Maybe they probably forgot I was there. Now they've already named those stadiums after people from fifty years ago Jack Kin cannon Jack cannon Field. All right, um no, actually, Sam Piazza, Sam Piazza, Okay, Cowboys, all right, this Cowboys roster. Michael Irvin was out here the other day. He said

that he believes this is the most talented Cowboys roster. Well, he said in twenty five years, but he meant since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl. And then he corrected himself and said, since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl, best Cowboys roster since then. Tony Romo was interviewed yesterday or the day before and Tyler Texas playing in the Texas his state amateur Did he win? I believe he missed the cut, but uh stuff Uh he shot of seventy six the second day, which wasn't good enough.

But he said this, he believes this is the most talented Cowboys roster since he first came into the league, which was two thousand and three. He probably could take it back further than that, but that's all he qualified it with. So how this is the most talented Cowboys roster since when I'm gonna try to save this thing, I'm gonna try to save this team from the outside hype because every time this happens. It doesn't work out every time, So I'm I'm going to disagree. I'm going

to disagree. Wait, why are you granted? Because I'd love the what you're saying. I remember, was it two thousand and nine? It was a Cowboys camp in San Antonio, and I remember talking to Peter King, you know, I'm asking him about this. He was talking about the Cowboys

offensive line. Yeah, and he thought that that Cowboys offensive line. No, it was the it was last year, the last year, Wade, it was twenty ten, yeah, okay, when they got old, yeah, suddenly, And he said in his big deal that training camp was this is the best Cowboys offensive line. I put it on a par with those Super Bowl teams of the night. I remember that now. And and the Cowboys started the year well one and seven and seven. Yeah, I was thinking oh eight, when Hard Knox was here

and it was it was Super Bowl or bust. I truly believe it. I don't think you can say they're they're better on paper necessarily than the Oh seven team that went thirteen and three and should have gotten to the NFC Championship Game at minimum. You know, they had the Giants at home didn't win that game, and that looked like a huge missed opportunity. Um, let's look at that team. I mean, Tony Romo was in his prime, put up sky Wars numbers that year. Um, you had

a nice two headed running attack. I had heard that you had a t O guy remember Tarall Owens, Hall of Famer, DeMarcus ware Rush and the passer, a big dominant offensive line. I mean, I don't think we're getting enough credit to that team, but there's no doubt this team has a ton of young talent. That's what's so exciting about is how young these guys are. Yeah, I

think you gotta go. You go back to two thousand and seven, flows Al Adams, Kyle Kozar Okay, so okay, Andre Gerard Leonard Davis was still playing well, Mark Colombo, Witten. I forgot about Witting in his prime. And then you you shared the running back spot with Julius Jones and Mary and Barber. And that was the year that Barber scored ten touchdowns after Julius Jones did all the work getting the ball down to the five yard line. And it's like, okay, Mary and go score Bill. Just that

wasn't Bill. It was it would have been Jason right because offensive coordinator, but Bill had started it the years before. It's like Julius did all the work and then Barbar got all the touchdowns. Say they say, we're gonna go with the big back at the at the goal line. Witton had ninety six catches, Owen's eighty one, and Craton fifty. You know, if your third receiver gets fifty catches, you'll take that right now. So that that roster was pretty good.

Hit me the ninety two or ninety three cowboy roster. Well, yeah, yeah, I don't know that we no, I'm just saying. And then go back to nineteen seventy seven. So I thought ninety three Super Bowl team ninety three was probably their their best. Yeah, you had two and a Newton Stepnoski uh, Kevin Gogan at right guard and Eric Williams at right tackle. Okay, different line for the way they different kind of different kind of line. This is the These were bullies and

the line today is more athletic movement. So in the era of being a bully, that that was the best you could be. Right there. Emmett runs for fourteen hundred and eighty six yards. Um he also caught fifty seven passes. Michael had reception. It was the ninety four offensive line. It changed because Larry Allen. Larry Allen ended up at right tackle because that was when Eric got accident. So basically it was two and a Newton Stepnoski. Derek Nard

was pretty still good. Okay, but imagine that if Eric Williams hadn't had his accident. Yeah, they would have had two and a Nate step Larry Allen at guard at Eric Williams at tackle. Wives. Who's the only guy on this current offensive line that would have started on that group? Zack Martin maybe, yeah, Zach would have Zach probably gets

in at at guard. Okay, would you taken Frederick healthy Frederick ober step now, and and you guys know better than me on that, and you probably Tyrn Smith over two and a two and a was good, but he ain't Tyron Smith, Right, that's true. That's true. God rest his soul. Yea a great player. Wow. So, and Mike wasn't saying since those teams not that, not that, No, no, no talented than oh no, not at all right, No,

he's saying that in the last however, twenty four years. Yeah, he believes that this is the most talented roster since the Cowboys won a Super Bowl. He might be right. I wish you guys could go back and look at that seventy seven team. I keep mentioning that. And that's the one with Staubach and Pearson and Dorset and Robert Newhouse, Randy White, Harvey Martin, you know, the secondary probably Aaron Kyle, Yeah, Charlie Waters, Cliff Harris, you know, yeah, those are those

are all teams. Danny White was your punter. See this is See that's why I'm saying, if you if you say that, and you have to think of the great histories, right, And I grew up in that era from nineteen seventy two to nineteen ninety two of watching his team play. And that's why I'll always fight for guys from that era, you know, before the jones Is bought the team in nineteen eighty nine, because they played damn good football. They

were very similar to what the Patriots are today. Might have been the best Cowboys team ever with that roster, and not without doubt, see so and so, and I appreciate Michael or I appreciate Tony Romo, but again I've lived through some of this, and I go back and think about those teams and it's it's high praise. Oh, this is the best. Now maybe they're saying it's because since we've known the team. Maybe that's the attitude you have to take. And they're not they're not saying that

it's better. They're better. Time the Super Bowl teams, they're saying they're better since they won the Super they might not win the division and look at it. This is team. Look how close they came to not winning it last year. Absolutely Rob said it one game. This is still this is still a young team. Yeah, that's that's part of the excitement that has to be signed. And the defense is young. Yeah, you've got guys that are you know, for second or third year that into this thing. That's young.

That's why I think people will compare it. And Mike might be comparing it because it's like the ninety one team last year. I think you've made that comparison before. Now they're ascending, you're hoping they're ascending, and they're kind of to a point they're hitting the sweet spot of where those ascending players and then they bring these veteran guys in if if they if they still got what we think that they have left, like a Robert Quinn,

like a Randall Cobb. You know those are that better press even they only have now with Morris, they got four. But if Whitner can play like he played before, you know that one player might wreck this. About it? That one player, Oh yeah, he might wreck this. He ain't given up. You need a rushing the question, you need a former rushing champ to win a Super Bowl. He ain't given up two hundred four thousand dollars a week to miss games. I will, Micky, I that ain't happening.

I think you're two hundred and twenty four thousand a week. Jerry's calling his bluff. Jerry's gonna call this bluff. I just think they need they need to slide. And maybe it's too late to slide on the radar because it's it's out there now, all the hype is out there. But you know what, there's a lot of good teams in this conference. The Rams aren't going anywhere, The Saints aren't be where, the Bears, the Eagles, and how long has it been since a day NFC East team has

repeated as a division champion. Philly like fifteen thousand and four Andy Reid team or in a row. That's right, I mean. And by the way, no one has won it more than two of the last three years, which they've done, right, But fire the coach. Even if he wins a division title, he wins three out of four. I was looking at that. Okay, that's okay, that's okay, right, fire the coach. I appreciate you. Nobody else in the in the in the division has done it. I appreciate

your passion. Well, it looks like that shot clock has got us again. Yeah what shot clock got me? What? I didn't hear you? Yeah? All right? That does it for another edition of Talking Cowboys. I believe right, Kayden Gay, all right, so we will talk at you again tomorrow. You're on Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.