Talkin' Cowboys: Players To Watch?

seven up in Saint Louis Stars and Blues. You know, sometimes he gets pulled away from this football stuff and he gets to do that by the way he gets to get to I don't yeah, uh privilege. He didn't seem too excited about doing it. I'd love to go see a game seven like that. I've seen a couple of games sevens in my day. I guess he wants to hang with us. Yeah, maybe that's what it is. Yeah, he just doesn't like hockey, and I don't think how could you not like it? How can you not love

a game seven? Right? Mickey's been to a few games this year. Mickey Spagnola back from vacation. A short one. Welcome back, long weekend, Long weekend. What was that? Is that a new drop? Thank you? Ken Kid Garrison next door inside the new garrison dropping those drops and Brian brought us across the table from me as always, welcome guys. We got a big show planned for you. We're in this purgatory right now, this middle ground of end of draft and trying to get to some on the field stuff. Sure,

we're almost there. Good luck this weekend. I know right, we're not. We're not going to get an actual chick a few hands. It's more you're going to see some football problem exactly. We're gonna watch some meetings on the field when the rookies get in here. I think they arrive Thursday, and they'll have a mini camp this weekend, Mick where meetings on Friday and Saturday. Yeah, pretty much. They did this last year, and you know, in the grand scheme of things, it's probably smart to have more

orientation type style introduction for these guys. And if the weather reports are accurate, they'll probably be indoors. Yeah, good thing about having indoors. What do we live in Florida lately? What's the deal here with all the rain. It's good though, because in two months it won't rain a day exactly

one hundred and three. You know, I think to me when you talk about the way they handle these things nowadays, I remember going back some of those Valley Ranch days when Garrett first kind of started doing this, and were there were some guys that just weren't ready for this. Yeah, they weren't ready for the constant go, go, go go. You know a lot of these kids they do the combine, they work out for their pro day, and then they get ready for the draft just doing nothing. And so now,

I mean they're way way, way behind. If some of the guys that have been doing these captain's workouts and stuff like that, and they've been on a job interview, they have, and so I think it's really a smart play by by coach Garrett the front office to let these guys get some acclamation. Is that the right word? I hope I use the right word, but yeah, to come in at least you know understand, Okay, where's my locker, where's the training room? Where do I eat? Where's the

meeting room? I mean, you know, these guys when they brought him in. Initially there was a lot of throw a lot at him and see how they respond. And boy, I tell you what, I don't think the I think the return on that investment wasn't very good. And I think that's where they realized their fault and like, Okay, we need to figure this out a better path and allow some of these kids to have felt I felt like when camp started last year, correct me if I'm wrong.

You know, the rookie to be better suited for how things were going to be. They were able to work out beforehand, you know gets, you know, try and catch up a little bit and then go about their job and trying to make this football team. So I applaud them for doing it this way. If I was sitting in that chair, I would be the first guy saying, hey, well let's think about what we're doing here. Boys. It's probably twenty years too late. The way they used to

work them out. You think about it, and it used to be you got drafted Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and by Thursday you were here yea, and Friday you were going through a full football workout. Friday, Saturday Sunday, no pads. You put a helmet on, and guys were getting hurt and all of a sudden, oh, they're not ready for training camp. And the story of the day on Friday would be after they ran them. Okay, who got sick? Ban Yeah, Jess Bryant got says Bryant got sick. He's

not in shape. Well, yeah, surprise, because a lot of times there's also guys you draft from northern climate come down here and it's hot and it's ninety's. They don't have enough bodies to run the drills, that's the thing. And then you got coaches who haven't haven't coached anything since well this staff since the playoffs, So you get coaches that are anxious to be on the field and hustle, hustle, hustle. Move, let's faster, faster, move, you know, and then now you know, yeah,

you're evaluating. But man, its just it was really I think it's set the kids back. I think it. You know, if you again get them acclimated to what you want them to do, if you want to play with the tempo and practice, Okay, this is what we're gonna do. These are the drills we're gonna do. At least when the when the veteran guys come on board. They won't be just totally out of place. They'll be able to kind of, you know, follow Jason Witton, or follow you know,

Travis Frederick, or follow Ezekiel Elliott. You know, those the things that will help these kids to kind of have an understanding what the expectations are for him without being behind. You don't want to get a kid hurt in one of these three day practices and all of a sudden he doesn't he's not able to work out for six weeks because of a hamstring injury, right you know, And we know how cautious these guys can be in rightfully, so, so give these kids a chance to put their best

foot forward. I think the last couple of years that they've done this, we've seen that be the kicks. Plus, they didn't have enough to play football anyway, so you had to bring it on a bunch of scrappies to get on workouts to have enough to have eleven on eleven. Yeah, that's the other thing about this. They don't they won't bring in tryout guys here. They'll bring in their class right rookie free agents that they've agreed to terms with will sign and then their draft class and correct me

if I'm wrong. They used to have this camp and then guys, the rookies would have to go back and then come back here. I think they be here till May fifteenth. So now they can have this camp stick around. They get the foundation for really also the strength and conditioning program, how they go about that right, and then like you said, brian Ota start up in a couple

of weeks and the terns will be you know. And the other thing is is those guys didn't know how to practice without pads on, so they played like they had pads on, and they started getting hurt. Guys are spraying their shoulders because they're diving for balls, or they're getting going up and contesting passes falling to the ground. The trainers hated it absolutely, and even the OTAs are kind of sketchy sometimes too, with the contact that involves.

You know, we watched last week two weeks ago, the touch football or flag football whatever tournament they had out here. Those guys were wearing helmets. Now, yeah, that's sort of helmets kind of a new thing, like soft helmets, like water polo helmets. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, because you're gonna run into each other. It's gonna happen. So, yeah, this is the smartest thing they've ever done. Basically have meetings on the field and do walkthroughs. It's a good

group of guys. You know, we had a show since they've announced the group of guys, the undrafted guys. Yeah, and you if you got to look at the whole thing too, not just the class, exactly the guys that they're going to bring in here off the street. Yeah. I was really impressing on Dallas Cowboys dot com. I've been writing reports about these kids that were undrafted, and I you know, there's gonna be some very competitive guys.

Are not only guys that are gonna try and get roster spots, but those practice squad spots are very competitive too, because you have guys that are currently on the roster that still have practice squad eligibility. Ken one of these you know, undrafted free agents make a roster, make the fifty three. We've seen that happen before here. It's something quite common. But you also with those practice squad spots

are very very valuable as well. So not only you're playing for a couple of different things, but you're also potentially playing for another job somewhere else, and hopefully you keep the right guys. When it's all that said and done well. Stephen Jones said it after the draft guys that this might be one of the most competitive camps he's seen in a lot of years. And when you look at the roster, that's because they didn't have a

ton of turnover in free agency this year. Now next year, they got a lot of decisions to make, and on top of that, they covered themselves in free agent and see and added some good young players. Right, there's a lot of competition at a lot of spots, and we're going to talk about that too, maybe naming some guys that they're to step up here. They took fifteen guys off their draft board. If you think about it, you know,

and then that's as rare as it gets. I mean, I'm just trying to think of a number, and I know this is again I give Chris Hall. Will We had Will mcclan the Draft show last week, and I gave Chris Hall and that staff a lot of credit for how they set their board up. Will even offered a little bit of insight if you didn't get a chance to hear the Draft show with Will, and I encourage you to go back and listen to it. We have a podcasted for you that was great. But Will Thursday,

Thank you. Will was talking about though, that they have a meeting before the draft, the actual draft, and sit down and give priority to their six and seventh round guys. So and that's a smart thing to do because even if you know, you say, okay, what order would we take these guys, say you have forty six seventh round guys on your board. As they start coming off, okay, maybe we'll down to ten, okay, and what priority would

do we need to go after these guys? If those guys become available, and they they hammered that and that, and then good for them. I mean, they got a couple of guys off their board. And talking to some folks that you know, that had that had high grades, that had you know, fourth round grades, fifth round grades on their board, if you're pulling a guy, you're pulling

players off your board that have fourth round grades. And I'm talking about Mitch Hyatt, the tackle from Clemson, and talking to people around the league, they seem to think that it was just a fact that maybe that Mitch Hyatt his first year at Clemson was what he was, and then his second year he was the same. The third year was kind of the same. He was an All American player, but there was never that strength, that

strength improvement. I mean, I think there are a lot of people the guys I were talking about, said, hey, this guy deserved to be drafted, considering who was drafted by some of the other you know, they sue falls had a player drafted, no offense to that kid. But Mitch Hyatt is a better He's played in national championship games, big time football games. For them to out and get guys like that, you know, as as undrafted free agents that have fourth round grades on their board, those are

huge gets. You can't you know, that's just that's just quality depth right there. What's on average, like from your experience, how many guys on your board if would you get in a draft, you might get three, you might get three or four at best. I mean to get to get to get seven out of that drafted, yeah, to get but to get the quality, to get the quality of what you're talking about, though, again, fourth fifth round guys,

that that's kind of an unheard of thing. To have happened. Now, either, like I said on the Draft show and Will was sitting right there, either they're gonna be really right or they're gonna be really wrong. We'll see how it all plays out, but I'm going to take my chances. If I'm getting guys off my draft board to come in here as free agents to potentially making this football team or at least filling out my practice squad the right way.

That means they dropped a lot. Yeah, the players, Yeah, yeah, you know. It was a funny draft in that way. It was funny. That was like there were some names that were taken at spots that I didn't feel like that, you know. And again this is they don't care, and I'm not I'm gonna stop. I'm talking about just not them. The league doesn't care what my board or Danes board

or Jeff Cavanaugh's board looks like. But if you just evaluate where they're at, you know, and where guys were taking, you're sitting there thinking that might have been a little early for that guy. Oh that guy was drafted there, or oh this guy was not drafted, he was drafted late. Oh that guy wasn't drafted at all. So everybody. There

was a there was a wide wide mix. I was talking to you, my friend Steve Sabo in Atlanta about this, and you know, he was telling me, he goes, you know, Atlanta took them a Garry Kid the offensive tackle from Washington, And I said, did you feel like that was a little early? And he said, did you see the way the board was falling? Did you see what was happening to the offensive tackles when it got to us or how you know, we said, we either got to go get an offensive tackle or we're not going to get

one at all. And so teams were probably thinking that a little bit. And you know, maybe some guys weren't in exactly the wheelhouse of some of the teams, and that's why the Cowboys were able to get a guy like Brendon Knight, you know, and Derek Pooney. You know, these are a couple of guys that I kind of watched to go along with Mitch Hyatt, that I really really liked. You know, Larry Allen Junior nice. You know, Larry Allen Junior is winning right now. He you know,

whether he makes his team or not, he's winning. He's a Harvard grad, you know, that he's winning and like doing Okay, he's doing all right, So you know, I mean, but those when you add guys like that, Chris Westery was a guy. You know, this is gonna be the big experiment of the six four corner. You know that this is the kid that's gonna look impressive when he's standing out there and Mickey's interviewing him, He's gonna have to get his little box to stand up and talk

to him. You know that's gonna be That's gonna be impressive to watch this kid play, because that's the test case. Kenna six four, six four and a half corner have some success in the National Football League. You know that's that's that's gonna be the test And even the guys that they draft. I talked to Jordan Lewis Sunday night at Taste of the Cowboys benefiting North Texas Food Bank is a great event they do fifteen years in a row.

He went to high school with Mike Webber, and I think the first thing Mike told him on the phone was I should have been drafted higher man. Yeah, you know, third round grade I think the Cowboys had. Yeah, he drops to the seventh they've already drafted a running back, but they're like, hey, that whole blinking light thing, right, Yeah, but he serves a different purpose than Tony Poller. He does, and so but I don't know, a lot of times it's priorities. Teams have priorities what they want and what

they don't. And as Brian said, you know we talked last week about Tristan Hill. Yeah, it's like, well, you could have got him in the third round. Well maybe not. No, that that was something because there were no more, no more. And I said the Latin the next kind of three technique technique defensive tackle went like at one hundred and twenty five, right, it didn't stretch. So if somebody need one of those, they were gonna g them, right. Yeah. You weren't going to sit there and go, oh I

can oh they get fancy. That was another thing that guys around the league were talking about, because asked him about Hill in the assessment, and the first thing that everybody talked about was, well, you know, the coaching change probably didn't do him any good. And you know, but

he's a quality player, he's an outstanding player. He should have probably been drafted, you know, a lot higher than where he was and so you know, but that's that's where you had to go once you know, they made the determination and we'll look at this in the history of you know, the guys like Brian broad Us were saying, oh, safety, safety, safety, safety,

We'll see all those safeties were on the board. But they they felt like though in talking to Will again on that show, that he felt like they had they had to make that pick. They felt like they did the leg work on Hill. They felt like that they know Rod Marinelli and his relationship with the player, him going to run the work out, his relationship with Scott Frost who's now in Nebraska, who was Tristan Hill's coach. You know, there's not a lot of information coming out

of Central Florida now it's becoming a bad visit. And so you know, they they they had the right line of questioning for folks that they could get information for and that's why you make that pick. So you mentioned the food bank, Yeah, what was the big story, Rob, Well, you didn't catch that news because you were coming back what from it was not on my website when I pulled up Dallas Cowboys gun Well, there was no headline

it was there, all right? Was there? The big story came out of it was never raised money for the food bank. They raised a lot of money for Did you eat? I did? I ate? A lot of different stations man made then it's like your wedding. I just kind of walked around and ate a lot of food. I never saw you at the buffet table and the bar and the and the bar too. North Texas Food bab was a great event. Uh, DeMarcus ware probably was the top story that came out of it. Now he

was one of the hosts. Yes, okay. A lot of caberty cowboys people there. Yeah, yeah, a former players, a lot of alumni. Um. He wants to come back in a consultant role, and they talked with him about that about a year ago, year or two ago, and he wound up doing pretty much the same thing with Denver last year. Out of contract with Denver. Right out of contract with Denver. Would like to come in two three

days a week and work with the pass rushers. Now, Jason Garrett said, we'd love him, We'd love to have him. It's got to kind of work out for both sides. Obviously, DeMarcus has things he's busy with two What do you think about that? That's my goal in life, to be a consultant, like a pigeon, come in and everything two or three days a week, not be held responsible for witness and loss. That's exactly your pigeon, come in, poop on everything, and fly away. He wanted to do it.

He was sort of doing it in the offseason last year before Denver convinced him to go out there and do it. He's come by before. Yeah, yeah, I don't know if that bumps Charles Haley out of his consultant role. Charles does it for food. Yeah, Charles does the way back for food. Charles will coach for food. Yeah. I mean he can't hurt, right, it can't have another have another voice out there. Can I take the other approach? Then? Yeah? And I appreciate what you guys are saying. I'm not

trying to be a negative guy here. I feel enough. It's an important year for this football team, especially for the coaches who their head coach is on a year deal. I understand DeMarcus. I appreciate him. He was one of the best players by far when my last draft. Thank god, Bill mall with it. Jerry Jones and Steven Jones and everybody, and Larry Lace and those guys all kind of pushed it that way because it worked out well. Might be a first ballot Hall of Famer, absolutely, and so I

appreciate that about the player. If if DeMarcus Ware wants to coach, go be a coach. Don't be a consultant guy, you know, go be a coach. Go try and be a coach. If you know Jason Went and we've talked about him, go, you know he wants to go be a coach, go do that. If I was, if I was somebody on staff here, I appreciate what again, when he's trying to do but this, if you to pull this off, this has to be everybody on the right page.

I think you have very capable coaches here with Rod Marinelli and Leon let you know, they're even working Andre Girard a little bit as a as a defensive line coach, which is really kind of neat for him because he thinks about it from an offensive lineman perspective to try and help these guys. So if it's if it's something where it's affecting the coaches who you have in your contract to do then then that that would bother me.

I trust me, I appreciate the player, but if I think, if I'm on the coaching staff, I want to kind of keep things as tight and close and not have a bunch of different opinions, especially when you've got some young guys here that you might you know, you might want to say, Okay, we need to coach them this way. They don't need to hear something else, and you know, maybe the message. If the message is all the same,

then it works. If the message turns into well, don't don't do that with your hands, don't do that with your feet. You know, position when you're coming off, take this step, you know that makes sure that everything is going to be aligned. Yeah, I just I just think this is a really important year for the coaching staff. If this was a new staff, maybe maybe you maybe you could pull this off. But a staff that's essentially needs to have a really good year. I don't need

any outside consultants and distractions and anything else. It despite that, it's a Hall of Fame player given those kind of adjustments. So I didn't get to see Jason Garrett say what he said, but he said the right thing without saying anything right, like oh, yeah, we want to do this. He didn't say that right, It was like, yeah, you know, if both sides can work something out, and you know, he's a great player, and so I thought it was

kind of a lukewarm response to the possibility. And if I think back to when Bill was here and he would bring in some of his former players, that was yeah, but those were giant players. Yeah they and they were giant players. But the assistant coaches, I don't know how well they took to that. That that's to me, that's you know I I would look at it this way, Rob, you know, and we're all we're all trying to be

professional about what we're doing here. Yeah, I would take offense if some if they if they said, hey, we're bringing in somebody else to analyze film and do this just on a part time kind of a basis. I don't have a problem where if they said, okay, Brian Mickey is going to evaluate film with you full time, then I'm okay. But something that could be just as a consultant or part time, I really don't have I don't have time for that. I got to focus on

I got to focus on sixteen games. I got to focus on the best record I can get out of this. I've got to focus on keeping my job, you know. And it doesn't work out, and say he's an assistant for or a consultant for the whole year, well he just again goes away, and these coaches who are now and there, they maybe lose their job. I wouldn't want somebody coming in to my territory and being and being just on a consultant basis. You hit on it, I

think when you said, and he's welcome anytime, no question. Everybody. Tremendous person, tremendous player. But I'm just saying if you think, if you want to think about what the coaches mindset should be, I would worry about. I think you hit on it when you said, it's a young team and you've got to have messages and the techniques and everything aligned with your vision. That's in any business. You know, you got it. You gotta have things streamlined and everybody

on the same page. So we'll see what happens there. Let's take our first break and we come back. We touched on OTAs getting started here in a couple of weeks. Let's spotlight some guys to watch that. Maybe we haven't talked a whole lot about in the offseason, that it's a big year for them coming up. Let's get into

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John's horizontal quick draw fly. It's the most intuitive, simple and speedy feature that other underwear brands just don't have. Shop exclusive Cowboys underwear at Tommy john dot com Forward slash Cowboys, And when you wear them to the jazz fest and you have to go into the port of toilets, that quick draw is just and you know what, not not only does it help you, it helps the people in line behind you because you're in and out a lot quicker. Those lines are long, high patheticals. Yeah, well

this is a truth. Please me, believe me it is true. Brian's faces. Yeah, thanks good, Or to talk to me out about that quick draw fly. By the way, it's National Teacher Appreciation Week, So we do appreciate them. Yes, shout out to my wife, mother in law, everybody who makes a difference in young people's lives. And it got

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and at at and T Stadium. Do our buddy Danny McCrae a favorite, Register today at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash Academy. All right, Danny doing a great job with that stuff up. He is, he's we'd love to have him on board as a new teammate. Absolutely, really good player here for a few years. Eight five, five, two two nine seven is the number if you want to join the conversation. All right, we teased it coming out. We've we've gone up and down this roster in the offseason,

and I said it last week. We know more or less what the bulk of this roster is going to look like in twenty nineteen. Now the draft is over, but let's talk about some guys that have something really on the line this year. I mean something, maybe some names below the radar that we're gonna be watching coming up. You got any Brian as as OTA's come up soon? Well, I think it's really going to be a really important

There's a couple of guys that I've been saying. This guy's name a lot, just because I know what the coaches to feel about him, and I know he was on the practice squad and he gets opportunity to get reps. Is Donovan Olumba, you know, and he was on, like I say, he was on the practice squad the whole entire year. Here's a kid that's always around the facility, if you want to say, a guy that's always used the term and scouting a gym rat. He's always around.

You always see him. He's you know, when where seems to be gone, he's hanging out. You know, he'll be hanging out with Chris Rochard eaton lunch, she a talking. He's always doing something around the facility. He's a corner it's got some link to him, He's got some coverability to him. Him and the Ward kid last year that they traded to Kansas City, they were going to kind of be the guys that the young corners that they were going to shelf and then see if they can

get him, you know, get him to this year. So I'm really excited to see how he's going to play. A lot of talk about could the Cowboys with corners possibly contracts up the next two years, could they find somebody, you know, I mentioned Westery earlier from Kentucky as a

guy that they signed. Well, here's Donovan Alumba again. Another whole year on the practice squad, got reps with the first defense at times, and so he might be one of those guys when we start putting on the pads out there in Oxnard and one on one coverages and stuff. Maybe he'll stand up and then get some preseason games and then find a way to make this football team on the fifty three man roster. I like it. I like it, Mick, you're making a list over there. I

am who you got. It's a crowded field at the wide receiver position, sure is it is? If you look at what they added in the off season, and if you're on the fringe there, you better really step up, you know. And one of the guys they gave an opportunity to last year when he finally got healthy was Noah Brown. Right, So if you look at it, you have Cooper Gallup, Cob Tavon, Austin, Cedric Wilson is coming back. He spent the whole year on i R. So he's

like a new guy. You have Lance Lenore, who they kind of put on the roster late and you know he was able to get in there. And then Noah Brown. So when you're looking at things, you know, does he fit in and he's gonna have to show. I would think that he's more than just a big receiver that you put in when you're blocked. You got to be productive in the passing game. So between Tavon, Lance Leanoor, and Brown, I think there's gonna be some significant competition

out there with those guys. Bring up another night forget somebody, No, I think you're good on that. Kyle Quero, Yes, he was a safety at this time last year Northwestern. And it's funny because I once again had to watch Northwestern tape again this year for Nate Hall, the linebacker that they brought in from Northwestern. So it kind of reminded me of Kyle Quero. Here's another guy that was again practice squad the whole entire year and developed some strength developed.

You know, he's he's naturally a big guy. He was a strong safety at Northwestern and then they moved him to linebacker. Talking to people during practices about him. He was one of those guys that caused caused Dak Prescott fits because Prescott we try and fit the ball into somebody underneath the way. And here's Kyle Quero driving on the ball, knocking it down intersect. I mean, you know,

usually scout team guys aren't making plays. Well, nobody told Kyle Quero that he was making plays and that you know, it was like, you know, they're probably yelling at him. I'll get out, you know, don't do that, you know, And but I think that, you know, with the linebacker situation the way it is, Mickey breaking news last week about Sean Lee, which very well, you know that could happen, you know, but they're looking for a Sam linebacker. This

guy's got some potential to be some Sam linebacker. Traits, and let's see if the special teams holds up. Let's see if he could take a guy like Joe Thomas and put him on the street. You know, he's gonna these young guys, these alumbas and people like Mickey's mentioned that some of these young guys are gonna have to probably put some veteran guys on the street who've had two or three, uh, you know, years already here and they're saying, no, what, let's go with a younger, cheaper,

better guy, better player. And so these the names were talking about right now, those kinds of guys. And we mentioned the two running backs they drafted, and so where does Darius Jackson exactly? You know, and he got an opportunity, it was okay, I don't know if they were enthralled by it. He got to play a little bit in the regular season finale. Giants Yea and Jordan Chun spent the year on the practice squad. But you bring in two more running backs and now where did those guys

fit in? So the offseason and early in training camps gonna be really important for a guy like that if he's gonna stick around and you know, make this he's gonna have to bump somebody else off. I got a guy Daniel Ross too, Yeah, defensive tackle. I mean they've added some they've added some bodies inside now and where it was Read and Ross the law firm, as you would say, robs the law firm of Reading Ross, those

those two guys. I watched your show, by the way, that the day we sought the law firm of Jackson and Jackson. Yes, and so you know, but that's you know, when you have when you're bringing in bodies like that and quality bodies that we talked about earlier in the first segment where they're off their draft board, you know, cheaper help. You know, these guys like Ross and you know they're gonna have to figure out a way to you know, they've already you know with Read, they've already

moved on from Reid. You know, Ross they brought back. Let's see if he can fact hold his spot, because if not, then you know they'll they'll probably move on. They just that that's just the competition is a lot better at that spot. That whole defensive line, Mickey, I think you counted it up. It's like sixteen guys uying counting the couple of guys that they're going to bring in as rookie free agents. Yeah, undrafted vying for. There's about eight spots they usually keep. Sure, we kept ten

ten Yeah, last year they kept eight usually active. This might be the one day. Yeah, that's true. This might be the one year that I'm actually right about saying that. You know, when they get down to the cut, they always say, oh, it's a difficult cut, you know, and somebody's gonna play somewhere else. Yeah, but you know, teams lie to you. Yeah, they lie to you. I mean I could say it there like two weeks into training

camp and say here here, here, gone, gone gone. You know, I can kind of figure things out because there's a lot of guys on that D line. You know we're gonna be here. This might be I'll see another position to keep an eye on that needs to step it up. Those two backup quarterbacks, Well that's where I was going. Okay, I'm sure Making and I were just talking away. No, I was gonna that was gonna be my Coney and

I and let y'all go. Because the point to me, we keep talking all off season about running back and well what happens if something happens to Zeke. True, why aren't we talking about that at quarterback? I know, I know Dak looks indestructible. I know he's built like a middle linebacker. He hasn't missed a snap due to injury in three seasons, just like Zeke. We're all knocking on wood here, um. But there were some close calls last year, first Washing game, right where you got up on the sidelines.

He took some hits last year. And uh, I don't know that we've seen a large sample size of Mike White and Cooper Rush to say where they are. We're gonna We're gonna find out. I think I think I've seen Cooper Rush. I've seen Cooper Rush be really good to make this team. Matter of fact, he drove Kellen Moore into coaching if you think about it. Yeah, he was one of the best best quarterbacks. I'm not just

talking about the veteran rookie whatever. He was like one of the highest rating quarterbacks two years ago in the preseason, and then last year it's like they drafted Mike White and he spit the bit, you know. And I was expecting Mike White to come in and be more competitive and push and try and you know, get Cooper Rush to knock him out or put him on the third.

You know, maybe maybe this might be one of those spots where we look at they say they don't have the luxury of maybe keeping a third quarterback this year. If if we're right about all this competition at defensive line, at line, at a wide receiver, you know, at tight end, are we're gonna be able to get able to keep all these guys? So you might not be you might not have the luxury of carrying that third quarterback. So this is an important year for Cooper Rush and Mike White.

You know, Mike White needs to step up. He really does. He came in here and I was really just taking backs a strong word. I was just kind of disappointed because I thought he was a better player Western Kentucky. I thought, I'm like, oh, he's gonna come in here and beat Cooper Rush out. That's this is no brand. And then neither one of them either put put put the foot down on the accelerator. It was just they both kind of play just okay, and you know it's like,

all right, we have to keep two quarterbacks. Les keep too. You know, I don't think they're that luxury this year, I really really don't. Somebody's gonna have to step up and take this job. It's either bea Cooper Rush or it's gonna be Mike White or do you have a short list of available veteran quarterbacks out of work. It's interesting because I mean they haven't gone that route. A account floating around somewhere, those seem like to be the

popular guy. I mean they haven't gone that route since twenty sixteen when they really want koys, yeah, make boys, m accounts. I mean, they got such a steel with Dak in twenty sixteen, and I think they they change course and said, we we want to develop. You know, we've got a young starter. Let's see if we can find more guys that we can develop through the draft. The thing Mike White was a fifth round pick a couple of years ago. I mean, they tried Matt Castle,

they tried Weedon, they tried all these guys. To our dismay, it didn't work, you know, so um, But to your point, yeah, I think once you get into training camp, in these preseason games, the backups are going to have to show that they can handle. Somebody had better step up yeah, and that because again I'm just I'm making a prediction as we speak here May seventh, right, May seventh, today, seventh, May seventh. I'm saying, you know, they're not going to

keep three quarterbacks. I'm gonna make that prediction right now because I think the roster is going to be so strong at certain positions with some competition that they're thinking, like, we can't keep that guy, we can't keep They got to put them on the practice yeah, or you know, they cut them in. They're thinking, okay, good luck, you know, and maybe we'll find another quarterback down the line. But they if now, if they keep both quarterbacks, he'll be

because both quarterbacks earned the right to be here. But if one of them goes out there, like I said, spits the bid again and doesn't play with any passion and fire and intensity and moving the team and it's just you know, three and out, three and out, three and out in all those preseason games, you know, then I could see him moving on from that. So another position, which was a luxury last year, they kept four tight ends. Yeah,

can they afford to do that again this year? And if they can't, then Rico he's on the line with Witton coming back and Schultz and Jarwin. To me, he's fourth in line again. Keep and they signed the young guy Cody McElroy mackelroy. Yeah, and he looks like a tight end. Yeah, he didn't play much. He was about another basketball basketball right, But again, I was just gonna save everybody the UH having to call and ask about Rico. Where he fits in? Can I ask a question about Rico? Yes,

put him at tackle right now? We've gotten some questions from fans about that. I mean, would you would you just go ahead and say tough enough? You know what I think, the blocks you're gonna get hit every fight enough. But but but maybe it's about maybe it's a way that you tell him, listen, your best avenue of sticking in the National Football League and maybe maybe other team. Well, obviously if they put him out there, somebody will pick

him up, because everybody's interested in the basketball guy. By the way, every kite ind the Cowboys have cut has gone on and done great things. So that might be another reason to pick up a tight end from his team. But but would you consider putting Rico Gathers right at least in the minicamps, the OTAs and working him as some offensive tackle and see if if in fact it because I think he's got the feet the feet to do it, I don't. We'll see about the power of

the upper body strength and stuff. And maybe that's too much to ask mentally of him to have to switch that. But he plays that, he plays next to tackles. He plays next to tackles in blocking. So but but okay, you talk about your investment in time and all that. I mean, it's just tough because because he's the transition just to get the tight end from eighth grade I

haven't played, and now you want to switch him. But the numbers don't appear to be in his favor now obviously, right, it's gonna be tough because you've got a draft pick in front of you. They love Jarwin. You got Jason Witten, and he's maybe he's better than maybe he's better than Schultz. They listened to him at two eighty two. Yeah, I

don't know. You know, this is where I'm kind of like, if you if you did it now, he's two eighty two, and you could get him to two ninety four, maybe to ninety five something like that put about, you know, puts them a little weight more because he's gonna have the offseason program. As far as lifting weights, you keep bulking him up a little bit. I just think the footwork maybe can help being an athlete, But what about football awareness that that right there will get somebody killed.

But I was just thinking, if you're not gonna the investment that they made. Okay, so we're saying that the two year investment of three year investment of Rico gathers is has been a watch. I mean, this is not a watch, but as a that's a failure. This is the third year, right, right, you gotta do something your third year. You gotta make us say the same thing about the first round pick they had too that year. It's really his fourth year, but he's he missed basically

one year and no, he's in the same boat. Yeah yeah, except for the fact that he's got a guaranteed contract. Yeah. See, that's that's Will McClay came out and was was very very adamant about Rico needs to not Rico Taco such a crowded group. Durance Armstrong's gonna try to you know, you drafted a couple ends and we'll see what happens there. All right, when you have a four million dollars dead money if you get rid of him or trade him, and who would give you anything for him at this point?

I mean, he's got a step up, but again you're kind of hamstrung because of the contract. Maybe player for player, first round player, it's still cost you four million dollars. Well, they would assume the guarantee, yes, right, if you traded him, but the dead money on the signing bonus has still remains, so it should not Pittsburgh with dead money. That's a lot of dead money in Pittsburgh. All right, let's take

our final break. Kent's got a quarterback list for us when we come back, and we got one caller hold and just hang on. We'll get to you right after the break next. It can be hard to find the right resource for learning about important financial matters. You search how to build savings, you end up reading about the one weird ingredient from supermarkets that can make you taller. That's why Bank of America build Better Money Habits dot Com, a safe little corner of the Internet for answering your

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Jack Black, smart deserves smart. You know that, Yes, your graduate deserves Jack Black. And you deserve a free three ounce cleanser with your sixty dollar purchase. And here's what you need to do. You need to make your purchase by reading, and you will get a free three ounce cleanser with your purchase. That means you get to choose from beardwash, all over washed, turbowashed energizing cleanser, or Pure

Clean Daily Facial cleanser. And I couldn't bring all that stuff with me this weekend, and I definitely missed my TurboWash and my Pure Clean Daily facial cleanser. So to go to get Jack Black dot com and buy eleven fifty nine pm Central time tonight. You need to put in your order while supplies last. Now you've got a competing read with Shannon. Yeah, what's up? Give you some Jack Clack except mine's nut printed out there. You go, Thank you, Mickey. And by the way, big day for

Jean and Jerry Jones today. Yeah, today the Dallas Cowboys will help kind of break ground on what's going to be called a cancer society along with Baylor Scott and White and the Baylor's Foundation. They're developing sort of a to give you an example what it is, you know, the Ronald McDonnell House at Children's Hospital here in Dallas. They are going to give their combined donations are going to be able to give Dallas its first American Cancer

Society Hope Lodge. It's a Hope Lodge where pepe that have to come in in town from out of town forty or more miles away and gives them a place to stay, family members, support groups. If somebody's in here for cancer treatment, they can put them up in a condominium type place in this Hope Lodge free of charge.

They also allow them to you have facilities to cook, so you can stay there in a two bedroom, private bath basically condo while you're in town when someone that you're giving care to is having treatment and the person that's having treatment obviously is in the hospital. And I thought the neatest thing about it was they have available kitchen space and it was described as chef quality competition cooking space where families can go down and mingle and

cook and kind of share what everybody's doing. So the Cowboys, Jerry and Gene Jones donating seven point five million dollars to this. Baylor Scott and White is donating the land close to the Baylor Hospital downtown. It's in the Deep Album area and they're going to break ground on that and they're hoped to be up and running by twenty twenty one, so a really neat idea. They have them around the country. Yeah, and this will be the first one in Dallas. Awesome, Awesome, all right, I promise we

get to the phone lines eventually. Will you're still there from Chicago? Yes, I'm here. Thanks for holding buddy. What's on your mind today? So we just have a couple of comments and one comment and one question. Two questions. Really, So, Mickey, the next time he in Chicago, which will be in December, you have to try the Chicago Pizza pot pie at the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grind. Definitely something you would enjoy. Comes in half a pound and one pound? Can I

order it online? But yeah, you better order it because there's a long wait. So my first question has to deal with Randy Gregory. I know that we've had a lot of commerces for as his pending suspension. Do we have any kind of update on what that actually means, and the second question probably more discussion. I know that we put a lot of emphasis on moving to more a younger lineup, and I love Sean Lee. He's only

only player I have pictures with. But with all the young talent that we have, do you see the Cowboys being brave enough or having enough guts to really move away from a Shan Lee who was actually his last years and maybe nim with Jason Witten? I think Jason's will the safe and and Sean but will they make that type of decision? And I'll hang up and listen to the sir. Ask you a question quick, sir, sir,

so are you with me? Okay? Who? Hey? Yeah? Yeah, I was gonna ask okay, so you're thinking about this for final cuts? Then, right is how you're looking at it? So okay? So we need to figure out though. Are we liking that Sean Lee is gonna play sam linebacker, which Mickey I give him full credit for that. We

are we okay with that? For Shaun Lee played in that role and then being a backup player if something were to happen, Because I'll give you a really good example of what's happened the last couple of years, last few years, if I remember correctly, you know, you look at it with Joe Looney was able to do to step in backup guy, step in play sixteen games. Need that type of a player. Ron Larry did the same

thing for Lyle Collins. So to me, having a veteran type of a guy, especially a guy with the quality of you know, pedigree of Sean Lee, I'm not too interested. I'm thinking about week seven, Week eight, week eleven. You know, we're maybe I'm gonna need that veteran guy to step in because Joe Looney stepped in for sixteen weeks. Now Joe Looney becomes a backup again, and now there's questions about Joe Looney, you know, even is of Connor McGovern. So I'm just I'm just trying to get a handle

on this thing. You're you want to just completely move on from Sean Lee. It's what I'm am I right about this. No, I'm not saying let's move completely away from him right away. I think that we have to go through the competition. But if someone shows a talent and the ability to do, you know, that's the decision we have to make sure and I think I think

maybe a couple of seasons back I called it. It was actually last season I called it and asked the question, if Sean Lee goes down, which he did, who steps in? Your answer at that point in time was Joe Thomas? Right, So Joe Thomas is still with us. We have Chris Covington us there. Yeah, I think they brought in a couple of another other linebackers. Yeah, Chris. I think that. I think that what makes the Patriots the Patriots is they're willingness to move on, right, So, you know, are

we granted if the situation is right? I think having him there and that that's that experience is definitely crucial. Yeah, but at some point in time, you have to make sure that you're reliable to be on the field. Him playing Sam linebacker, in my opinion, taking on hits every play, I don't see that being a long term solution. Well, but you're not going to play every play, right, You're gonna play about twenty five percent of the snaps and

you're gonna back up the other two positions. And him backing up the Sam, I mean, the week and the middle is better than any other alternative. The Cowboys have, and as it was explained to me, he doesn't have to be on the line of scrimmage every play playing Sam. They can play him off. They've done that before with their strong side linebacker and protected him. But if you got somebody that's you think's good enough to come in and you know who is it, you know Covington's barely played, yeah,

you know. And Joe Thomas is more of a middle week guy, not a strong side guy. So I don't think he gets in a way. And the best part is his contract, the way it got restructured, doesn't get in the way either. I'm all, yeah, no, it's a good, good discussion. Now, sometimes you have to have a luxury somewhere. I just think that Sean Lee. I'm because I'm thinking about again, Week seven, Week nine, Week eleven, something somewhere right there. You're gonna need Shaun Lee to start one

of these games. You know, somebody's gonna get banged up and you know, not gonna be able to suit up for a game or two. And I think Kevin Shawn Lee, you know that that last year though, that they only played like the Sam linebacker in the playoffs when we played ten percent. Yeah, the two playoff games. Damien Wilson was under thirty in the snaps the season, So, I mean, and Mickey's right about that, but I think that I just also think like that they're gonna do more with

Shawn Lee. Maybe it's gonna give. And I don't think they want to take Layton van Rush off the field. I don't think they want to take Jayleen Smith off the field, Jaylen Smith. I think they want to develop Jayalen Smith Moore as a rusher, believe it or not, a guy, an attacking linebacker in nicol situations and stuff him. If you tell me, okay, we want to play straight coverage, I'll take Jalen Smith off the field because I don't think he can cover as well. But I think Sean

Lee can. I think see and there's other packages that can use them for it. You can play four linebackers and as Brian said, and then Jalen becomes a pass rusher. Yeah, is he Russian? Is he not Russian? Right? Is Shawn Lee covering? Is he not covering? Right? There's so many things they can do with that three man front that they kind of like to use. The people on periscope are saying the football IQ and that's that's that's absolutely right. I know that's a smart that's a smart observation by

somebody on pariscope. I'm sorry to catch your name, but yeah, that is it. You know, I understand what he was talking about with the injury and being young and all that. That's that's something that always comes into your mind. It's a young team to begin with. Maybe I need to carry a Witton, a Sean Lee, you know, I need to carry a veteran guy to make sure that the young guys are kind of doing things the right way.

If they're getting in the way, if somebody is clearly better than Shan Lee, then I trust Will McClay, Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones and Jason Garrett to make the right decision to move on from that player if that's what they have to do. I don't think you look at the linebacker depth chart and say there isn't that guy. I just don't now to Will's point, sure, he's got to stay healthy, absolutely, but the football IQ is big because number. By the way, Sean Lee was the best

linebacker on the field in the playoff game. The loss of the Rams. That was a bad day overall for the defense. But the football IQ thing, there were plays that you watched Layton last year, and he needs to be on the field as much as possible, but there were plays that experience diagnosing things, another year or two of experience would have done him well. And that's a play that probably Sean might have recognized and gotten taken

the right angle to the ball. Things like that. It shows up if you go back and watch some of that stuff. So what was the first part of his question of the Chicago Pizza Pot pie date on Randy Gregory indefinitely suspended right now? Yeah, he's indefinitely suspended, So I think he kind of worded it like it was impending or something. He is suspended. I think the best thing you can say is they are hopefully optimistic that he'll get reinstated. I think I've had some people tell

me that Randy Gregory's working out on his own. You know that he's trying to do some things to kind of keep himself active, keep himself going, making sure that while these guys are here doing OTAs and Captain's workouts and all that he's not gonna He's not just sitting there waiting for you know, somebody to decide his fate. He's going to. If it works, he'll be ready. If it doesn't work, well, then he'll do what he has to do. But now and again we talk about Randy

in his situation. It's unfortunate, you know, And I'm not going to sit and act like I made a mistake with Randy Gregory, you know, and evaluating him. And I'm not going to do that again, because you know, it's un fortunate. I don't know his complete, you know, completely, what goes on with him, But I was wrong about his willingness to want to play football. I thought, now he doesn't care about football. He really does care about football,

but he's got something. He's got an illness that's keeping him from being the football player that that he's he was in college. And you know, we have yet to see here with the Cowboy. He really is a unique case because it is a it's an illness and it's an issue that probably won't get resolved until the next CBA and he unfortunately he entered the league in twenty fifteen and under the current rule play, it's it's it's an issue trying to figure out where he falls with

violations of the substance he plays. He plays for a professional, professional sport that is very not very sympathetic to his kind of condition, or it has no understanding of his condition. That's that's the problem. If he would maybe maybe maybe the other sports baseball, basketball, hockey, maybe they have a better understanding of this. Football doesn't have a better understanding of this. And we don't know the circumstances surrounding the

reason for the indefinite suspension. There's a lot of things that he has to follow and and the only reason I say they're you know, hopefully optimistic. If you listened to Stephen Jones answer questions about it, I mean, he sounds like, but they know something we don't. Yeah, but we gotta be careful, Mickey. Remember we got fooled by the whole Zeke thing Jerry came out was a legal thing, and we can have analyze that. We can't analyze. No,

we can't analyze this. But it's if it's coming from the league, you gotta just be careful about And I appreciate what you're saying. I really really do the legal stuff we understood. I don't know if I really understood it, but I tried. Well, we obviously misinterpreted it because the way they interpreted. But if you've noticed since then, the league hasn't done again what they've done to Zeke. Yeah,

it hadn't happened, all right, KNT real quick. You wanted to drop a free agent quarterback list for us, just in case the Cowboys wanted to look that way. Yeah, let me know if any of these names, um excite you more than Cooper Rush and or Michael we'll just say stop when we're interested. Some of these names might be very familiar to Cowboys fans as well. Um, we'll start with David Fails. He was last with Miami. Free agent Brock Osweiler, also last with Miami, Josh Johnson, And

here's some familiar names. Brandon Whedon, Mark Sanchez, Matt Castle. Sanchez suspended the first four games? Or was that last year I was last? It was? Okay, there we go. Sanchez still out there, Josh McCown still out there as well. There's some accounco, there's some m account that helps Gino Smith and um, Rob, this is for you, Johnny manziel I gotta put it out there, put the feelers out, Rob, Johnny in there trying to get an extra thousand or two. Uh oh yeah, Well that's a great way to end

the show, isn't it. And that's kind of why you're trying to develop your own guys. Right, threw up in my mouth. So you got roots there with all of that. None of those guys. That's why you try to develop your own guys, because those guys had shot. Maybe Josh McCown, he forgot a very he got a very key name. He left somebody off. He left somebody off, left somebody off that that that just might be the best one out of all those guys. Tony Romeo, Oh, he's playing

golf this he's playing he's going to golf this week. Yeah, he's golfing. Colin Kaepernick. Yes, yes, if you're talking about get me a guy that I know is in shape that can whip the ball. But again, is the is there going to be important time in this NFL where we now understand what's going on here and then we

don't have the back and forth with that. I guess just as much talent as every one of those people that that can't just named has been to a Super Bowl almost, I'm none of those guys would create a controversy if Dak had one bad game. Yeah, no, you're fair, that's absolutely right. But I'm just saying, if if I was a general manager and I needed a backup quarterback, I know I would look at him and say I would I would work that angle. Yeah, you're losing Dak

week three? Would you take? That's a different story over. I need to see what Kellen Moore's doing with his offense. But if he's moving Dak around, this guy you can if you have an athletic quarterback, This guy makes a lot of sense. And then the other question is does he want to play football? Yeah, that's another question because we don't know that do Yeah, we don't. All right, we're out of time. KNT thanks for producing and for the Yaggy wore him at the end of the show.

Appreciate that. Thanks to Brian, thanks to Mickey. We'll hollerate you guys next Tuesday. Bill will be back in studio then for some more Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas cowboy dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.