Talkin' Cowboys: No Early Christmas

from the Star in Frisco in the SWBC studios. It is the final bye week episode of the podcast as we head into a little bit of a break Thursday, Friday, no podcast and then of course no game on Sunday, and then we'll be back here on Monday with the normal crew Isaiah Standbackpatrick Nose, Walker and myself. But today we've got the mix up crew one more time. Brian brought us and Nate and Nton joining us here on Talking Cowboys. Gentlemen, how are we doing? I'm doing great,

doing great, Really enjoyed yesterday. Mom gave a big thumbs up after the show. She said, boy, that was really entertaining. She said, you two were outstanding, and I was a little subpart need to pick up my game. So I don't know but I'll try and pick it up this week. No, I'll tell you what it's. It's it's a lot of fun. I think Derek Eagleton said it best yesterday when I

was listening a little bit of their podcast. He was talking about sometimes you get in that bubble where everybody tends to have the same opinion, and it's nice to be to go out and get another opinion or hear another view. And I love doing that. I love working with you guys, whether it's the Draft show or back in the day when we did pre and postgame shows together. But it's just nice to hear a different opinion on

something that you might have been a little dug in on. Yeah, and you're like, you know, but they's right about that, Kyle's right about that, you know it kind of it's it's a good way. I think. I think the listeners benefit from that. Oh. I got a lot of compliments yesterday about the pairing of you two on the show, and they love Patrick and Isaiah two. And everybody brings their own different opinion and different personality to the show. But that makes up it's fun, just funning this every year.

And Nate, I mean, you're smiling over there. You must have had a good day yesterday too. Well, I'm just trying to figure out man, neither one of these us you or who you are. I don't have drizz, you don't have dress. He see Patrick because I'm you know, you know, it's funny. It's funny you say that. It's like it's like my mom was telling me this was funny.

My mom is one of my biggest critics, and she listens to everything, and she says, when you get people together that have lived it, you know, when you get people like me on the personnel side, and then Nate is a former player, you know, you when you live things, you could kind of you know, I'm not always clear about how I say it, but when you listen, this is why I'm telling you this. Yeah, you know, And I'm sure today we're gonna talk about the trade deadline.

I got to live that. I think there was a little disappointment on my end from that whole thing, but I think the experience of the room is always unique, you know, And I think that's what's cool about it. Six time Pro Bowl or in three times Super Bowl, change by two Super Bowls. Yeah, yeah, you got took a champ, a couple from us there in Green Bay. We were never good enough to play with that grew not to play with Nate, right, No, Nate just wore old Gilbert Brown out. Yeah. Man, we have fun. It

was glory days, man, a lot of fun. It'll be back. They'll come back soon, man, no doubt about it. It was funny the other day when when I said that you guys were coming on the show because it's mentioned you. It's funny you mentioned the dreads. Both Patrick and Isaiah were like, so, I guess you just kicked off the guys with the dreads. You bring it in Brian and Nate, and I was like, yeah, that's exactly what it is.

So let's get after the trade deadline a little bit because I think you said it your best a second ago, Brian. Then a little bit of disappointment on your end day. Yeah, and a little bit of disappointment I think from Cowboys Nation. There was no trade made at the deadline anyways. Of course they go out and get Jonathan Hankins prior to the trade deadline, but as far as yesterday goes, we thought maybe a wide receiver, maybe another playmaker, another valued player. No,

move made. What are your thoughts. Well, if you're a fan of the Miami Dolphins, you're probably pretty excited because they went super aggressive on you yesterday. It was good to see. I think with them moving the trade deadline back, I think it's kind of helped things. I think teams get to the point the halfway point of the season and they're like, we're two and six, we're not going anywhere,

or man, we need to make a big move. And you know, if you believe the reports of Albert Breer and others who covered this league so well, that the Dallas Cowboys were in on the Brandon cooksting. Brandon Cooks, we were starting to learn wasn't at practice, you know, so you're thinking, well, maybe the the Texans were working on something there. It sounds like to me, and reading into what Brandon Cooks said afterwards that he felt like that he was told that he was going to be traded.

And so you know that's Nick Sirianni and those guys down there at you know, next Sarrio, excuse me down there in a in a Houston, you know, we're probably trying to get this thing done. The word was Dallas was in on it. They couldn't agree on the you know, you get guaranteed money. You know, there's all these things that kind of happened. And I know Cowboy fans are going wherever they go, they're gonna tell us about guaranteed money. They don't want to pay this, They don't want to

pay that. You know. I'd like to have seen him try. I think they tried. I just I mean, the the the money aspect of it always is going to be a hang up here because they've got other guys they have to sign, you know, I understand rolling over cap and stuff like that, and you know, and they let over twenty million dollars receiver last last year, you know, with Amari Cooper, and were they interested in adding an

eighteen million dollars receiver. Well, I don't think that was you know, there was an initially, yeah, there was some thought about that, but you know, until you really sit down and visit with people afterwards and share a beer with him or whatever, and say, hey, how did that thing really roll down? And I'm sure that in the coming days will hear this happened, this happened, this happened, and we'll have a little bit clearer picture but I wish they would have been able to do something because

added Cooks I think could have helped. Yeah, it would give you an explosive player on the outside. And you know, maybe maybe this now is their explosive players get Turpin going. Maybe that's maybe that's the explosive player that they need to get going. Cook's is arguably one of the most underrated wide receivers in the entire league, but traded for

a lot of ones. Yeah, he's He's definitely benefited from from bouncing around and still kept his his explore n But Edward Or yesterday was the first one that I had seen the tweet, and he said two sources directly involved tell me that the Cowboys and the Texans discuss the potential trade involving wide receiver Brandon Cooks until the

final minutes before the NFL trade deadline. Expired draft pick compensation and the eighteen million dollars guaranteed salary for Cooks in twenty twenty three could not be resolved in time. So they were close. They were trying, at least that's the report. What would it have been A two, a three, probably a probably a two, at least a two, maybe a little bit more. See that might be where the line was drawn in the team, I step over it. This is where they let go a second round pick yesterday,

didn't they. Yeah? Yeah, I was talking to people on Twitter this morning about that. I'm like, well, maybe they didn't want to give up to two. I'm glad they didn't do it. And I'm thinking, you just let a two go yesterday and you got a three day. Can't catch a ball? Yeah. See see that's that's that's no, that's that's that's right now. It's a very fair point, Nate, coming in slinging fired day. I like it. This is what you know. You know, I'm sitting over here, you know,

just not saying nothing, but saying a lot. But I don't need anymore to see our receivers not play big inconsistent because what you said was whatever to read the money the pigs. We are staying pat And that's why you heard me say yesterday, what is my biggest if I can have Christmas today? Discipline, because that's that's your present today, you hope, Yeah, because that's what you're saying.

I didn't get these guys out there because we believe that with Jack at the helm we have guys coming back, guys getting better, and this is what we got, and we're good enough to get into the second round of the playoffs with not not in the first. We're good enough to be in the second round competing for the NFC Championship. That's what you're saying. So how tough is it on this coaching staff Nate to bring that present and put it at the doorstep of every player in

that locker room because they didn't make a move. Instead, they actually decreased technically their talent because they let go of Tristan Hill makes a roster spot. Sure, that's a whole different conversation, But how tough is it for this coaching staff to say, Okay, we didn't make a move. Now go out and let's figure this thing out from a wide receiver standpoint, because I think that's the position most people are looking at. Jimmy would have stood up.

If Jimmy would have let it passed, Jimmy would have stood up and told us, fellas I am telling you, you are good enough to win at all. Yeah, that's what you just said. Yeah, Because if I could have found a player that could replace Nate at that left guard, I would have gave up to one to two end of three because that gives me the best chance to win. So he didn't do that. So we are saying we are gonna win with you guys. So now he throwing the pressure back on the players. Do you think that's

the case. Oh, he's absolutely right, And you know, I think what's interesting is though that you did put the pressure on the players because you didn't get the deal done. But if Edward's report, and I don't think I think ed does an excellent job. I think Albert Brewer. I think there's people that cover this team to do excellent work. I don't think Edwards are stolen that out there with all those details. To me, they tried, and to me,

now you maybe created a little doubt. You've said, Okay, we tried, but now it's on you because we couldn't get it done right, you know. And that's the thing that I don't know how that's gonna play, you know, I think, adding I think adding, I know from my own experience. Again, here's the guy that lived it. We got Andre Risen the Super Bowl year, and we really didn't need Andre Riisen. We had Robert Brooks and Antonio Freeman, and you know, we had Keith Jackson, we had legitimate players, uh,

Dorsey Leab, we had guys. But we felt like if we added Andre Riisen, that would put us over the top, that would give us the ability to compete against Dallas and San Francisco and people like that. And games did Andre Riisen played for us? We were eight no wow, five five regular season games and then the three playoff games. So those you know, sometimes you say, if we could just add that one more piece. But now this is

the battle cry, and Nate's right. The battle cry is we didn't add anybody, and we're gonna get some guys back, whether it's Tyrann Smith, James Washington, you know, uh, you know, bash them. You know, that's that's the battle cry. Now we're going to add pieces from within in order to make this run. Do you feel like they're good enough to make a run with the I do? And you know I wanted him to add I wanted him to add an impact player. And I think Cooks could have

been an impact player. I was. I was not trying to limit myself to say, oh god, they got to have a wide receiver. Now they determined they needed a wide receiver. Now, I we haven't heard if any other names that they were maybe, but that was the one name that we did here. So they determined that, okay, if we can maybe add this piece, this will be I think that I think Jerry Jones has this right.

I think he has it right after Sunday's game when he looked at his own team and he looked at the conference and he said, you know what, we're competing against Philadelphia here right now. We're competing against the Vikings right now. We're not competing against Tom Brad. Now, I should include San Francisco in this, because I think San Francisco's legitimate. But Jerry Jones is looking at It's like Tom Brady's not in this thing right now. No, Aaron

Rodgers isn't in this thing right now. You know, those are those of the roads you've had to travel the last couple of years, and he probably feels like he's got just as good a chance of getting to the super Bowl, you know, and in battle in either Kansas City or I mean, the AFC has it tough. You have about Baltimore, Kansas City, Buffalo, one of those three teams is going to probably emerge out of all that mess,

and that's gonna be a tough team. But you know, your your path to victory, your path to the super Bowl likely will go through Philadelphia, you know, and you're gonna have a chance to play them again end of the year and potentially play them again if you can, you know, find a way to win a couple of playoff games and a thing that you gotta you can't lose. This is the thing. We're down two to Philly, I'm

not correct? Yeah, well one and a half. Yeah technically yeah, yeah, well I'm gonna say down too, but down two yeah, sure, yeah, exactly. That's a good point. And at the end of the year, we gotta either they gotta lose two, so that game can mean something. But if they stay that one and a half all the way through, what does that game mean in the end? Yeah, we gotta keep You get what I'm saying, Yea, was that was a possible player,

adding a player that you said could have gave us that. See, because I know this in my heart, I've seen it. We've seen it. If if we were fortunate enough to get a wide receiver with the impact that we needed, Ceedee Lamb becomes alive again because he becomes our number two guy, and he becomes alive again either that or one or one, one A and one B because Ceede Lamb could be just as talented as Brandon cooked talent don't be used that talent don't get it. You gotta

have the production performance gets it. So yeah, I see, I see him. I know what he can do as a want whatever how you want to put it one, Ah, I see what he can do. I think what I'm saying. Yeah, you know what, it's it's funny time. I mean, is everything, Yes, it is. And you're you're a year late on your defense being the way it is. And I mean you're late because last year you had all these guys, you had all these wide receivers, yes, and you had an

offense that was going up and down. Now, they had some struggles, you know, against some good teams, but they were one of the top scoring offenses in the league, one of the top offenses in the league. You know, And if you'd had this defense playing on that team, I wonder how that would have been. But yeah, you're kind of a you know, you're a You're in a situation right now where you know, you're your quarterbacks back, and I think that's the number one thing that you know,

the last he's gotten better the last two weeks. And that's kind of what I'm hanging my hat on right now, that you you kind of you need to figure out some more things with the running game, and but defensively, you know, you'll you know, it's it's it's been nice to add a player, but you are who you are right now, and that's not bad. See. The thing that I can't see cow and broadest is I'm talking different than everybody because I don't see us as a super

Bowl contender, not yet. No, I don't. Yeah, I see us as a guy that needs to get past the first round. Yeah, and that's where we're stuck at. That's that's well, if you were stuck at. Yeah, if you don't win the division, you're likely going to play the NFC South sure, which is going to be a nine and eight Tampa team nine eight Atlanta I think your favorite. I mean, if you catch Tampa right now, it's just a matter of how you catch teams during your schedule.

Right you catch Tampa now, you're probably putting them, probably putting a beating on them. But anyway, Yeah, if you're the fifth seed, you're likely going to go play the NFC South whoever they're whoever, and I guarantee you'll be favored over anybody that you have to go play on the road against in the South. Now, let's see what happens in too. And we all know this about the divisional round, that's where the upsets happen. Sure, that's where all of a sudden, number one seed gets knocked out.

How did you know the Rams went from being the Rams went from being a home playoff game, going on the road and then getting the NFC championship game at home. You know that's how that worked. So you gotta you know, it'd be nice to find a way to win the division so you maybe can get that home game, you know, and then maybe get the championship back to you if you can't. I think that's what's frustrating this whole conversation about why they didn't make a move yesterday, because it

makes sense. You feel good about your guys, but at the same time, you're, like Brian was saying, your competition through the NFC playoffs right now, isn't Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady it's Marcus Mariota, it's Kirk Cousins, it's Jalen Hurts. I mean, it's wide open in the NFC. So I think a lot of Cowboys fans out there are saying, why not go for it? Why not go get the Brandon Cooks and spend a little extra draft capital to go get it done. And we don't know what the

offers were yet. That's the problem right now. Once we go and see the offers, if it's like, oh, we didn't want to give up a two, then maybe there's a little frustration to me. To me, it's the compensation of giving up the two is. I've always said this about you kind of got to look at where the

two is. If you're a playoff team, if Brandon Cooks gets you to where say you get Brandon Cooks and he helps you get to where you're going to be, and say you're picking twenty sixth or twenty seventh, that's like, that's like a second round pick. Because we always talk about this on the draft shows. Yeah, we always talk about this on the draft show because every year there's sixteen to twenty first round grades. Yep, you're giving up

a second round pick. For the opportunity for Brandon Cooks to help you or anybody not just Brandon Cooks, anybody that gave up a second round pick yesterday. You're giving up that opportunity to maybe help your team win more games, and then it becomes a later and later pick. The compensation shouldn't be the problem. I can understand the money being the problem. I can understand them not want to take on eighteen million dollars in salary. I can understand that.

And Houston probably didn't want to eat a whole lot of that anyways, because they're trying to rebuild and they're trying to retool their whole ideal. Yeah, they're not a good team. No, not at all. Now. It's funny because we keep saying second round picks, just for context. They've had some hit some some swing and misses. That's second round picks. That's some good ones though, But that's some

good ones. But they've had some bad ones here. You have most recently Sam Williams, then Kelvin Joseph and then before that you had Treyvon Diggs and then Tristan Hill. So swings and misses on some, you've had a home run on one of those, and that's Trayvon Diggs. Sam Williams, he looks like he's gonna be a good player. So I think you feel pretty good about it that I was surprised about Sam. You know, I was told he

was going to be okay for that game. I know, we heard his knee in practice a little bit on Thursday, and then I kind of got the word that now everything was fine there, and then he was inactive on Sunday,

and I went that kind of got my attention. I'm like, oh, that's something we find out a little something, a little bit wor But Sam Williams looks fine and Kelvin Joseph on special teams, you know, the other day in the in the game that we were you know, we were all watching, and you know, he gets put in the game a couple of plays. First plays fine, second play

they give up the touchdown and stuff like that. You know, I felt like he was in position, good route, good throw, just you know, has had a problem not getting the ball down. But he's been really really good. And I know you don't draft second round guys to play special teams, but at least he's going in the right direction of learning what it is taking to be a pro. I think that's the biggest thing we're gathering from that. It's seen.

It's notables having fun playing football after really a terrible offseason, notable improvement. You can see that growing and Kelvin Joseph over the last couple of months. Now, let's take our first break when we come back. I want to give some first half superlatives. Let's do five different superlatives on what you thought out of specific individuals on this cowboy's roster after the first half of the season. More talking

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products and discounts from partner brands. Ease your mind and let Black Rifle worry about your coffee supply. Go to Black Riflecoffee dot com to join the Coffee Club Today to Talking Cowboys, Welcome back to Talking Cowboys. Before we get started to hear on our second segment, be sure to keep an eye out for the Multi Grammy Award winning global superstar Ed Shearon coming to AT and T Stadium Saturday, May six to kick off the twenty twenty

three Mathematics Tour. Sharon will be accompanied by special guest Khalid and Dylan. Get your tickets today at seacek dot com, the official ticketing provider of AT and T Stadium. You're a big edge shearing guy, right, Nate, It's on your iPod? Does alternative is? I think what he's too classified as is the rock and roll No. I wouldn't even say ron troll. No, he's writing an alternative. I don't know. I don't know. Yes, he has some really good days and he has some really bad days. He's kind of

one of those guys that's kind of right around it. Yeah, I like Ed Sheering specifically, but I just becially if he coming here. He's pretty good at what he does. Oh yeah, are you kidding me? Yeah, he would never believe he's a superstar by his appearance. Okay, he's got this long, like ratty orange chair, and I mean it's like it's kind of like a guy. Yeah, it just looks like they do. But he's got a fantastic voice.

He can go, he can go, he can go. A little bit back here with Nate Newton and Brian brought us. I'm Kyle Yeoman's here on Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, the official coffee of the Dallas Cowboys, And I thought, gentlemen, since the last day I have you, let's take a full look back to the first half of the season. I want to give some superlatives, some awards. I guess, okay, for this first half of the season, I've got five of them. Here. We're gonna start with

most Improved Player from the Cowboys roster this season. We're gonna start from your expectations to start the season and where they've gotten to this point right now. Most improved player for the Dallas Cowboys. Anybody come to mind, Conn mcgovernor. Oh yeah, why is that? Because no one has given him a chance. We wanted him out as the left guard. He battled, he kept playing. We tried to get him out with with the with the big guy seventy one.

He's still there. He's more than just a glorified fullback. He's he's a C plus player that gives you everything he got. Evidently he studies film well and he's holding up and and and I like that type of guy. I'm that type of guy, you know, give it all you got, and that's what this kid is doing. That's what he's doing. We I didn't have him starting, but he's starting, and he's done a nice job for the Dallas Cowboys. Condom a governor. I like that. I'll tell

you what, that's a really good one. I'll stay. I'll stay on the offensive line because I never give the right tackle any credit at all. Terrence Steele, I've I've been on so many platforms and people probably wondering why on so many platforms. And I have opinions about Terrence Steele, but I'll say this, though I've thrown a lot of dirt on him. I thought he was a liability. I thought he was His playing style was not conducive to how you really wanted to, you know, play, But you

can run the ball behind him. Is he perfect and pass protection? No, But he's the liability that I thought he was. I thought he was going to get just overpowered, worked, run run around. He's a he does a great job. If you want to always talk about this. They run sixty five plays, great sixty five plays. He's gonna have probably he's probably gonna have sixty two pluses and three minuses. Yes, and the three minuses don't always kill you, and that's

that's a credit to offensive line play. The center's kind of the same way too, you know, Tyler Bottish in my mind, But yeah, I really I was super, super super critical of Terrence Steele. And he is not as bad of a player as as I deemed him to be. And my expectations of him were zero. That maybe that Tyren Smith needed to play left tackle and Tyler Smith needed to play right tackle. We'll see what happens, but I think they're they're gonna have to make some decisions.

But it's not as cut and dry now as it once was. And that's a credit to the staff on the other side of the building too and grabbing him. Because I remember our initial conversation about Terren Steele. I was watching film on him at Texas Tech right when they signed him, and I was awful in the Senior Bowl. It was really he was not good at all. Yeah, And I remember watching this guy and I was hearing all of the noise that this staff in the front

office they loved this dude. Yeah, And I just couldn't put my finger on I was like, what is he doing that? And I texted you because I was at a loss. I had no idea what he was doing to where they were able to say and point to Terren Steele and say I love this guy. And I remember you you kind of talked about his feet, and you talked about he's a little top heavy. There was a lot of things that you were saying that I was seeing on the tape. And then he comes back

and he's the starter. In twenty twenty, fills In did a great job. He really basically, and then he's just grown and grown since then. Yeah, you know what he is. He deserves a lot of credit because you know, sometimes you roll your eyes when they say he's the opposite of what Lyle Collins was. If you talk about first in, last out, reliable, coming to work in, work out, you know those things I mean, and coaches sometimes fall in love with those guys. What hurt me was Kyle. Let's

tell you. I never even when he was young, rookie whatever, back and forth. Yeah, when you got a guy you have big questions, you put in one place and working. I hated that back and forth moving him to the left tackle, right tackle, Yeah that was that was such a hindrance and slowing him down. He's still a C pass blocker and a B plus run blocker. He's that guy. He's that guy, but he's willing to work. Yeah, I like it. I think both of your names were fantastic.

On defense, you could think about thinking Quentin Bohanna. That's kind of where I was headed there on the defensive side. You talk about a guy who six round pick, not a ton of expectation. He's come in and played well. He hasn't played off the charts, but he's he's been a contributor on defense and he's been in that rotation. So that's probably the name I would go with. I like that, and then I also wanted to add it Peyton Hindershot in there too. You talk about an undrafted

guy who's come in and found the role. I've I did the thing yesterday in wind five three the Fan where I had him grade Simil with what we're doing right now Gray just to ABC or d on players, and I put Hindershot and Ferguson together. I always just put him together because yeah, and then like, how would you grade Hindershot and and Ferguson together? They kittle? Yeah,

that's what I'm saying. They're like, they block really well together, they run routes well, they catch the ball win ass yea, Yeah, I mean expectation Hendershot plus Ferguson Eagles kittle. Okay, to the point where you like, if you really don't want to if you want to move on from Dalton Schultz and not pay twelve to thirteen million dollars or you know, if you could get a deal, you now have that option. Yeah,

you now have that option. Yeah, both of those guys coming in have made an impact and they found a role. What's your biggest surprise this season for the Cowboys team? Anybody pop up in that how well Cooper Rush played? Okay, I was not. I was like in camp, I'm thinking, Will Greer looks like a better player to me, just moving around and throwing the ball, you know. And there were a couple of times in practice where I'm watching Cooper Rush, I'm like, throw it, throw it, throw it,

and you know, and some of the stuff. You know, give him credit because my expectations for him was once again zero. I'm thinking, well, maybe Will Greer runs the offense a little bit better with what how you play with the waggles and the boots and the things like that. You know, But Cooper Rush coming in and win in

four games. You couldn't have drawn it up any better for the Dallas Colbert As a matter of fact, I'm watching Dallas Stars hockey last night and Daryl Raiser Ray the color commentary, says Wedgewood is the the uh uh

goalie for the Stars. Now he's filling in, and it's like he goes, think of this guys, Cooper Rush, you know, think of this as you know Cooper Rush, you know, and so that's that's kind of where you know, you know, that's how great he did for you then because the otter is out and that's your Dak Prescott, that's your yeah, yeah exactly. And then you're bringing in this guy and he sees your Cooper Rush. But Rush, he's turned into the broadcast. I'm like thinking, that makes a lot of sense.

That's awesome. Biggest surprise name, uh coach McCarthy alone with the quarterback because they became one hand in hand. He had to protect his kid, yeah, you know, and he and so he told his office according to don't do this to this kid. Yeah, no, don't hang him out to dry. And uh so coach your arth along with Cooper Rush, I think they did a magnificent job. I think my name kind of goes along those same routes. And and a guy that stepped up to allow Cooper

Rush to be successful. Noah Brown. That's one of my big ones too, because yeah, he was a Cincinnati game. He absolutely did. You could go to the defensive side of the football, maybe throw Doran's armstrong out there, but I had a lot of confidence Mstrong. See I was fifty fifty because noa noah, uh, I think, well, Doword's armstrong. And then all said Anthony Brown. Yeah, sure, Anthony Brown is not played to the level that I thought he was gonna play. Let me say this real quick, in

a bad way, in a negative way. I just think he's not I thought he would be a lot better. Yeah, I give him a pass because look at the guys that are eating him up. I mean, you know, maybe last week one, but he's normally facing the number two received. Yeah, he's it ain't a lot of great players in this league. He's facing Mike Evans, he's facing Julio Jones. If he no, I not a lot and I was. I was over. I was over, but he was camp way over hyping

Anthony Brown. Camp I felt like, I'm like, this guy's gonna get four interceptions, he's gonna lead the team, he's gonna make a lot of tackles, He's gonna knock down a lot of balls. Are you pro bowling it? I pro bowlded, but I pro bowled Uh door. It's Armstrong too, and he has always been my guy coming out of chance. Yeah, I think I think the last coach of staff knew what to do with this kid and didn't allow it, but didn't do it. Yeah, they knew what they knew

what they had, but they couldn't get it done. Yes, uh, Offensive Player of the Year Nate. Anybody come to come to mind there? Zeke and Tony Poler? Who the run game duo? Okay, Zeke and Tony Poler. Look, he's doing one of my things, lose tight end together. Okay, So you get Henry Zeke versus Zeke plus Pollard equals Henry. Okay, Well I think about it. He's not wrong. Twenty seven you know that. At a game the other day, I

keep using these numbers. Twenty seven carries one hundred and forty two yards, you know, five point two yards in average when you give one back, you know, fifteen carries in the other twelve. It's less wear and tear on if you give one guy twenty seven carries and let him go be. Now, there are people that will argue with you, namely the guys I work with from two to seven on one oh five three, the fan. They'll say, well, yeah, no, no,

give Pollard. All the carries get pollared, all the carries and so yesterday I went on a rant like, yeah, give him thirty three carries, give him thirty carries. That's the kind of number Zeke's had. Zeke's had career days where it's thirty three carries, thirty carries, twenty eight carries, Yeah, twenty seven carries. Tweet, I'm like, yeah, clote him up, let's go, you know, let's go, you know. And I'm really kind of trolling my guys. But that's they must

have Pollard in fantasy football. No, no, no, no, it's it's the eye test. Yeah, it's the eye test. It really really is. It's zest and the bank tests. You say twelve million, it's the oh is he really worked twelve Maybe may if you're not worth to wale, But together, let me ask you this. Did you when you guys started oh and two that one year when Emmett was holding out? Do you think him it was worth every pity they paid him? Oh? Yes, this he was. Okay, I just want to make sure that we're on the

same page here yet carries. Okay, I've never seen a team start off O and two and everybody kind of looked at you should have, like Jerry get Emmett back in here, Get him back in here. Nobody was speaking missus Jones. Then everybody's looking at miss walk Away. You knew he had old fat Nate baking sound offensive player, Brian, what you think? I think. I think Nate is completely onto something here with the with the running back situation.

I mean that to me has been I think that's been fabulous that they've been able to And what I've learned though, is if you look at all the top rushing teams in the league, most of them do have a running quarterback, but a lot of them have bad offensive lines. Yes, and so what happens is teams that run the ball with a bad offensive line usually can't protect worth a damp. This team kind of figured out how to run the football, learning how to play pass,

how to pass block too, is what they've done. So I think they've gotten better as they've you know, as they've gone along here. But I will I will say the running backs, but I also kick a vote to the to the offensive line, because I think they've gotten better since week one. I was gonna do Zach Martin, that was gonna be my name, Yeah, just because he's he's always been the steady guy. Yeah, on your team,

no doubt about it. You know that when push comes to shove, Zach Martin is gonna be the one shoving. And he's getting better because he was. He had some games where he was he went Zach. Yeah, it's a different offensive line around, That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I think about it. Yeah, when you got to pull, when you're anchoring, you gotta pull up a shield. It can't be even even Hercules can struggle a little bite. He's getting that that anchor off the off the ground. All right, offense,

I mean, defensive player of the Year. Anybody come to mind, it's got to be Parsons, right. Yeah. But I mean if you if you think about some of the things that they've been able to do, they've survived, Like we all kind of thought that Curse was going to be Curse, God bless him. Man. The poor guy comes off the field every third play. If anybody needed a bye week more than Curse, I thank you. I don't know who it was, but you know, they had guys step in.

Donovan Wilson stepped in for Curse. They've had linebackers that have had to step in a little bit and make some place. But yeah, Parsons by far for what he's done. I think Tank Lawrence has actually played pretty well for you too, you mean, And when you ask me like who's the best cowboy, who's the best who's the most complete cowboy defensive lineman, it's Tank rushed the passer, get after the run. You know, that's what that's what you want. You love for Armstrong and Fouler and all those guys.

They were recipients of those two guys and mainly freak out there. They're recipients of that. You know, has been damn good too. I mean, I know the run the run support stuff is not his big cup of tea, but man, he when he covers, he covers what are you laughing at? Name? Games? And the guy was sweeping out of it and he took the running back like I don't know how he did it. It's like I'm gonna get you down, but I don't want you to

touch me. So he kind of like like against Detroit Detroit the fourth and one, if you we all watch y'all twenty two, he had a chance to knife in there and make the play. They played the run really well against Aunt. The ball went towards Anthony Brown and he was able to get the guy on the ground on the toss sweep and a shame. I mean, you get a great defensive call. The guy I'm talking great about it kind of goes this decision. Yeah, but you know, man,

I'm loving it. I'm loving it, man. You know, I'm all about his D and I get mad when anything don't work. They're way man, you know, so I love the whole D like come up with some big plays. Yeah, I mean back to back. I've seen a lot of NFL games in my life. I've never seen two better plays than in Detroit when Parsons made that tackle in the goal line and then Tank knife through there and knocked the ball loose. I have never seen. I've seen a lot of impactful plays, but back to back like that.

It changed the way that coach thought, Yeah, I wouldn't never stop running. Yeah, but it changed the way coach coach like, we threw running, just throw it and he gave the game away right then that Micah Parsons stopped getting down right at the goal line and able to pull him down from behind the amount of space that he made up there, it's by far my favorite Michael Parsons play he's ever had, and he's had a lot of them. He's had a lot of great Oh no,

you watch him. It's every week he makes one of those plays where you're like, going, he can't get there, Oh my god, he got there. And you know the thing about when you watch the like you watch the end zone copy, he's running past other defenders. Yeah, I mean like and guys are hustling, but he's just blowing past everybody on the way. This is the first time that we've had a defensive player in a lot of years make plays when they count the most, third down,

fourth down, it don't matter. He makes the plays when we need it. That's a superstar. Other guys are just great players. That's a great way to end that segment. When we come back, I want to do Rookie of the Year and then give our expectations to the second

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realized it's Sunday. Little sweets as head on home. Doctor Pepper's on its way, maybe there's nothing better. I bet you've probably done something you investionistic and nft yap and I don't even know what that is. It's a nonfunchable token. Something doctor want to use, what the pros use? How about the official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. Right now you can get the Jack Black Starter, a curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, for just

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Emmett Smith headwear collection is here. Choose from six different styles and get your favorite exclusively at your local Dallas Cowboys pro shop, or you could go online and shop at Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Of fanatics experience, so some new hats to go look at with big old Emmett Smith. When's the Nate Newton collection coming out? Is that coming out soon? Man? Just go to your no local store to a will Walmart supporters like day you said, just buy a big old blanket and rapping round. That's the

Nate collection. Okay, okay. You should see Nate in his his extra polo that he brings to wear whenever we're in studio watching the game. Did he used to do? He never wore a stress shirt. He never wore a stress shirt in the game because I didn't want to waste food on it. Yeah, that's see, now he's gotten smart. He keeps the dress shirt on, but then he brings a polo and he puts it over the top of it. Yeah, so he's got a dress dress shirt on underneath. And

would he would leave his tie. He would never, he would He'd have to do his tie. He'd put it on at that yeazz, he had his jacket and his tie right and then he but he wouldn't wear his dress shirt. He would be sitting there just like in the polo and then he would change before we'd go on. And here's Lindsay Draper back in the day. She was just immaculate. She would never get food on her she was always so you know, and me and Nate were just red beans and rice were like on our slacks

and good times. Good times. But uh, but yeah, we'll have some fun coming up next week. So before we get into our final quick segment, give me thirty seconds or less why somebody who watches Talking Cowboys and listens to Talking Cowboys should also check out the break Well, I'll tell you what though. The thing about it is there's really good conversation. I think Derek does a great job of getting everybody involved. I think that's a great thing about a host is that, you you know, get

different opinions involved. And I think Amber Garcia has grown so much. Nick and I have fought a lot on things, you know, and Nick's always you know, Nick could be stubborn in a good way. And so yeah, I think that's the thing about it is varying opinions, some stubbornness, you know, and then some other fresh ideas I think are really really good about the show. It is a great show. So I came back, no doubt. Yeah, and it's a long running show too. It's got a great

following a lot of people that watch it. Nate, what about Hanging with the Boys. We we quirky man, We off the charts and we give you good information but you get what we'll we'll, we'll we'll ver off Man and uh, I'm that guy at a very off the courteins statistician and he gives us all our stats and updates and Jerry's let me excuse me, Jesse, I is that serious guy. I'm gonna stop breaking in on him a lot. Yeah, because you ship away at him, gonna

be that serious guy. I'm gonna giving him some tape like, hey, you supposed to not talk so much and let me do the talking. But it ain't gonna work. But we got a good show. We off the charts, we have, but we give you a lot of information, plenty of time to catch up on both of those shows. Throughout

the bye week. You can listen back to some of their old ones and and then whenever Monday comes around, listen to the break, listen to Hanging with the Boys, and of course stick here on Talking Cowboys as well. But I got one more superlative I want to get to, and that's Rookie of the Year. You got a number of names that have made impacts. You talk about Tyler Smith and Sam Williams and d Ron Bland who's come in and Blands a hell of a football player. He

is Ron Bland with the school at Fresno. He should have been playing at UCLA or USC Yep. You know, maybe some didn't help him that along that way, but they missed him out there on that West Coast kids a football player. Tyler Smith. Yeah, there was so much unknown about I mean, I've seen him at Tulsa. I've seen him play left tackle. I was half like thinking, man, he's gonna be fine. Don't worry about him. He's been more than fine to the point where when Tyron Smith

comes back just to see what they do. Yeah, I really am. But Tyler Smith has gone in there and done a great job of playing a very difficult position in the National Football League and not being a liability out there. I have a value asset Inne and Tyrone Smith. Yeah, you have a value asset. He could play two or three positions and you're gonna move him. Hum. Yeah, I ain't get my rookie. Yeah, you're you're keeping them there. Yeah, I'm not playing them. You've always had that, you always

liked the consistently. See, he just told you about He just told you about Steel. He hated the fact that they were playing still at left and right, left and right, left and right, and just keep him at one spot. See your first five guys, you don't play that game. Yeah, your first six guys, you don't play that game. Yeah. Now you the seventh and eighth guy, they got to be due all of us. But the first five you

don't play that game. But anyway, my rookie of the year is that kid that nevill got his chance and Bland is his name. Yeah, yeah, that's my rookie of year. I thought this guy will be star coming out of training camp because he was so good. Oh I really did. I'm like, and he's gonna prove me right. He's gonna shine at that slot position. He's gonna shine. Man. You know what's funny about Bland. I think I think he's shown you could play him at slot, yes, but you

could also play him on the outside. And I don't know if you could do that with Jordan Lewis. I think Jordan Lewis is just kind of a slot He's slot guy's it and nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that. But I think you could play Bland at both spots and I think you'd be fine. Well, think about it this way. If the Jordan Lewis injury happens the way that it did, and that's unfortunate because Jordan Lewis has been playing well, He's been doing a good job.

But if that injury happens, are you thinking of this cornerback situation a completely different way? I think I would be, because then instead you're talking about moving Anthony Brown inside, you're putting Kelvin Joseph on the outside, You're playing Nashan right on the outside. You're doing so many different things. But now you're just like, Okay, here you go to Ron Bland, have fun, get after it, and it hasn't

affected you. I wish I wish Jordan. I wish that Kelvin Joseph was durn Bland absolutely those Yeah, I wish I wish that. I wish that we'd be talking Kelvin Joseph like we're talking about durn Bland right now, no doubt. You know. That's That's the thing I'm kind of disappointed in the question was when he got drafted, everybody say it is he sincere about football, and into this bad

offseason he was not sincere about football. Yeah, yeah, Kelvin Joseph specifically, Yeah, yeah, no doubt expectations for the back half of the season. What are you looking forward to to see in here over these next couple of weeks. Of course, the Cowboys return, they'll play the green Bay Packers. Got three tough games, Yeah, got three tough games, and you're on the road against Minnesota. Minnesota's one five straight at home. But ye see that. I think Minnesota's playing

a lot better. We'll see what they're doing defensively, though, but their offense is tough to deal with with the running game. Kirk Cousins, though, in those those shine the Light games, tends to kind of fall apart a little bit when he's on that stage. I think Green Bay is a wounded, wounded team right now. Yeah, and if they get a victory against a Cowboy team coming off a bye that's six and two that everybody's talking about

right now, that could turn their season around. And I'm not just saying that because they used to work for the Packers. I work for the Packers, guys, a long long time ago, probably before a lot of you were even born that are listening to me right now. But I'm just saying, though, I always subscribe to the desperate team theory, and Green Bay has They've got a game against Detroit this weekend, find a way to win that one, and then you turn around and beat the Cowboys. Now

their seasons starting to come back. That's got me a little bit nervous about them. It's a desperation back against the wall sort of feeling desperate team theory. It's like, like I say, they Aaron Rodgers. His demeanor is getting worse and worse after every loss. And you know, they go out loose to Detroit this weekend, then they're done. And the Packers might be done right now. But if they if they want to get back into this playoff picture, you know, and get the last spot in the tournament,

they're gonna have to start winning some games. That's gonna be a tough game for the Cowboys to gonna lambeau Field. Hey, oh just something about Lamboys sell? No, just in general, two, one, two, three, four or five five road games? Yeah, second half, Yeah, we're gonna find out. Do you want to play for

your defense? Yeah? Because what you have to take on the road, especially against these teams that got good defenses in good run games, you gotta take on the road your run game, your special team's got to be tight and your defense gotta be right. Yeah, so we're gonna find out about this team. We're gonna find out who really wants to play football because you're on the road. So but I still got the Cowboys easily winning by

one about nine of these games. Yeah, yeah, he's gonna he's gotta be easily by one, easily by Hey, last couple of weeks he's predicted him to win by three. So I mean those are blowout numbers. Yeah, bout all right, that's gonna do it here for us on Talking Cowboys. Hope you had some fun with us this week. We'll be back on Monday to break it all down for you and get you ready for week number ten of the NFL season. The Cowboys on the road to take

on the Green Bay Packers. Brian Nate, it's been absolutely last man's been so much fun. Glad to have you guys along the ride. Good luck on the break, hey, good luck. Look on hanging with the boys for Chris Bean, Nate Newton, Brian brought us some Kyle Yeomans. We'll see you next time with more Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club