Talkin' Cowboys: Ranking Offseason Priorities

Jones along with Mickey Spagnola. Salute again, Mickey, Are you good to be with here watching on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. The salute salutations from Mickey. We've got Rob Phillips and we've got Brian brought us hard at work with a laptop computer. It's this time of year you have to know numbers. Yeah, you know, people ask who gets cut, who's under contract? Why. I've got to the point I can't remember who is under contract and who's not under contract.

Did that dirty work yesterday and put it in my brand new blue notebook for two nineteen starting up. Yeah, actually just printed out same as a draft book, as it's easier. It's I got a blue book, my blue book or the Cowboys in the NFL, and my green book is for the draft. The draft. This sheet, this sheet is in every press media guide for every game, and you don't really look at it until this week. You know, you really just worry about it. The release,

season release, every week, season contracts. It's time to talk about it, right, It's never changes from the first week to the last week. That's something you need to have though. That's exactly right, because you can make some errors whenever you one wrong all wrong with that PR department, But you you can make errors when you are taking it from your laptop and putting it into a notebook. Wise,

that's what I did. Yet I was like, why did I put Byron Jones down as a free agent when they picked up his fifth year option, and so I put him in the wrong category. I realized that it

dawned on me this morning. Wait a second, and that's that's why to me, this is one of the most intriguing offseasons coming up that they've had in a while, because, yeah, they've got some guys out of contract, and Marcus Lawrence is the biggest one, but they've got a lot of guys with one year left on their deal that you're like, all right, what do they do with his deal? When does that deal get done? And it's it's not just Dak,

you know, it's Zeke, it's Byron Jones, it's Amari Cooper. Uh. They got to figure out what they're gonna do with these guys and and what the timing is going to be and how to make it all work. Jerry was talking about that on the fan this this morning, you know, said, hell, I want a bigger boat, you know, but how do you how do you make it all work under the cat? Yep? So what are you noticing on that? No? I was just looking at numbers. I was just looking at you know.

I mean, I just like to have names in front of me and I you know, and you when you're looking at your team, you have to think about again. I think that a lot of us has to do with you know, what happens with Lawrence, you know, I mean I I if they don't get a deal, do you use to use the franchise tag again on him? Now? Do you have some hard feelings? You know? All these things kind of play into and if you if you if you don't if you don't sign him, do you

draft somebody? Can you find? You know, these are all things you have to think about, the dominoes that all kind of fall into place. I think there's some guys that are probably not going to be here, you know. I my thought about Cole Beasley is I don't think Cole Beasley is probably gonna be here. You know, I should not. They don't dump out him? Comes out to money, right, Yeah, I think it comes down to money. But you're talking

about some of the guys. Some of the things they have to need, they're gonna have to to figure out. But you know, that's one of those ones. I kind of just in my mind, I'm thinking, Okay, maybe the draft I have to go look for a this guy or this guy or this guy. You know. That's kind of how I look at the end of the season here, especially with this team. Yeah, but you will know that before you get to the draft, right yep, I mean

you don't. So he's gonna be a market guy. You're gonna say, Okay, I'm not signing you ahead of time, right see, with the market value proven that, and then we'll see if we can sign you. Anthony Hitchins and if somebody gives you all that money, it's like, we appreciate your time. Have a good year. All right. We had the season ending press conference from Jason Garrett yesterday. What were your takeaways from that? The coaches, the coaching situation.

And by the way, Jason, I don't know that he completed all the player exit interviews, but he estimated sixty five he had done by two o'clock yesterday afternoon. We ought to be damn near done with sixty five. And I know, and he said he went into the coach meetings after the press conference yesterday, and that was and he did because I was trying to get something from him and he was running, well, I was. I was taping the Jason Garrett Show yesterday afternoon, and originally we

were going to do it at four thirty. He got pushed back to five or forty five, and we wound up doing it after a seven o'clock So yeah, oh, no, he was in a meeting that he couldn't get out of from three o'clock on. Basically, well, he was going into a staff meeting, yeah, immediately, So on that subject, he said, you know, no status of the coaching staff right now, they haven't had those discussions as of early Monday afternoon. M kind of in line with what Stephen

Jones said on the radio yesterday. Jerry wouldn't comment about the overall status of the coaching staff. So it is what it is right now, you know, I mean, what is it? Jerry said they wanted him to go on record, and he goes, well, there's no record because when I hang up this phone, I don't know what I'm doing, So there's no record. Yeah. I thought that was twenty four minutes of gold this morning. It was Greaham. He was on his game this morning. Believe me, he didn't oversleep.

He had this whole thing thought out, and I think he kind of projected every question he was going to get because he didn't stutter on one answer, starting with the one that you answered yesterday, which was about him not talking to the media to the game on Saturday night. Was it that he was avoiding the media. It was he couldn't get for the press box at the coliseum down to where nobody can. Yeah, that's what we talked

about yesterday. What's your biggest takeaway from that though? Of all the gold he had, give me the top three gold Moments. Number one, that he liked the direction this team was going coaching staff wise or player wise from a talent standpoint. Uh. That and that he's basically not holding twenty eighteen responsible for sixteen for fourteen for oh nine for seven for ninety six, that they couldn't make

the next step. He felt like, uh, they were building for the future, and that's why he thought this, that he felt good about what took place this season. As for the coaching staff, I think what he was trying to say is as the season went along, the staff did a better job because it was a new staff, and that they kind of came together, especially after they made the change on the offensive line. He felt like the assistant coaches grew as the team also, uh grew,

and that everything's open. It's like I don't know what's going to be available, And I think that's how he put it with the offensive coordinator, I don't know what's going to be available next week, so I can't tell you this week what I'm doing in two weeks, So I would imagine, you know, kind of things are are kind of open. He seemed pleased with the direction they went, and another strong support for his head coach too, and strong support for the head coach. And that's something I

think we've pointed out before. He kind of I don't know if he listens to us or what, but he kind of said Tom Landry wouldn't have been Tom Landry had the Cowboys not given him a chance to continue on. Yeah, I think people have more problems with Scott Linahan than they do Jason Garrett. It was funny you mentioned that because I was talking with Rob before the show and Kent Garrison, who's taking your phone calls here? You can we I guess we can throw out this question, Mike question.

I asked probably four or five different people over the last twenty four hours, what is your first order of business for the Cowboys this offseason? And asked who? Just these were just they were people people, Yeah, Oh okay, yeah, um, the production people at work, whoever? You know, Just what's your first dandy? Not dandy? Now, what's your first order of business? And to a man and one woman, each one of them said, uh, play caller, his first order

of changed the play collar. Did the play caller get it better when they got the receiver? Yeah? And the numbers went up. Numbers went up right, I'm just mentioning that as that is what a lot of fans are saying, is they got and I think it's knee jerk it's that knee jerk reactions. Well, we got to do something to get to fix this. Yeah, I know they can't further head coach. Well, and they're looking at the four teams remaining in the playoffs. Sure, they're all the highest

scoring teams in the NFL. Right, so yeah, what can you do to take this offense to another level? That's always a lot anytime they lose a game. What do we get the most criticism about? Yeah, the play call? Yeah, because we don't know. Yeah, that's that's easy for us. Yeah, it's really it's really easy to say, you know, and Mickey talks about execution and things like that. I'm I tweeted it out this morning. I'm all for bringing all these guys back. I'm all for it. Whole staff, the

whole staff. I'm all for bringing them back, and I'm making them all coach for their jobs is what I'm doing. I'm gonna I'm not going to extend Jason Garrett. I'm gonna make this staff coach as a group and and and see what we can get out of this. If you get it, if you win the division again, if you get into divisional playoffs again, you know, by all means, I'll find a way to reward you. Or if you want to stay, but I I you know, to to sit there and say, okay, well we're going to extend

this guy, and then then the coordinator doesn't work. If you want if you want to fire the coordinator, then if I'm Jerry Jones, I'm telling Jason Garrett you're calling plays now, then I'm not going to put up with some of these coordinators they're talking about right now, I'm just not okay, So fire the coordinator. Who are you hiring? That's exactly right, That's that's why. No, that's exactly right. Next questions, exactly you could hate Scott Linahan all you want,

but tell me who. And Mickey it drives me nuts when he uses this, but in this time it applies. He's absolutely Look what all these other teams are doing, guys they're hiring as coordinator. Experiously, if you if you were going to tell me you want Ken Zampez or you want to Jim Bob Cooder or who all hackets, Paul Hack. Yeah, if you want one of those guys, great, But if you extend and then you and then it turns out to be a Now what have you accomplished?

And you want to and you want to get rid of Verry, We're at the same point I think Jerry made. Did Jerry say it today? He said, I don't know how many more people Sean mcvagh knows. Yeah, because that's who's getting hired. Anybody that I mean, the better back coach who is never called plays right, that's why Kingsbury's a head coach in the NFL, Right, why people have trouble hiring coaches. And then your next question, Your next question, and for those people should be what did you predict

the Cowboys record to be this year? Well? They they gotten the plus. Let's not focus on that. No, I'm just saying that's not focus focus on expected it, focus on the coaching staff. It doesn't matter. Focus on the coaching staff. Well we just did. I'm saying, I'm with telling him when he gets those questions, those are the next two questions. But but the expectations changed, and it's a weird vibe in this building right now. Change it's a it changed when it changed after they made the

trade and they started winning. It's it's a combination. It's a combination of you. They feel like they accomplished something, but if you and there's a lot of voices this week, Steven's Talk, Jerry's Talk, Jason's talk, if you listen to

Steven yesterday, there's a lot of disappointment here too. Because yeah, absolutely, because Steven said on the radio yesterday, we've got to figure out a way to get past this this barrier we're at and it's the second round of the playoffs, and I think that this is a different team than recent years. But they've you know, it's been a glass ceiling. And so what you do. You know, you got a young team. You're expecting those guys to get to the

next level. But where else can they look? How introspective can they beating? Okay, so why didn't they get there in twenty sixteen? It doesn't matter, we're talking about twenty eighteen. No, I'm asking. He just said they can't get over the barrier. Is it a one year barrier or is it a five year barrier? It's been a twenty something year backer. Okay, So twenty sixteen. The reason they didn't get there because the defense wasn't good enough, right, Yeah, and the defense

got better until that game. So how do you figure they improve the defense? The offensive line faltered, and it faltered in the Rams game. Sure, Joe Looney played well all season long. Yeah, he was no match for Nodomicon Sue in that game. Okay, so what do you do? You hope, hope that your center comes back. Right. That was one of the great things that came out of Jason Garrett's press conference yesterday. Yeah, it sounds like Travis

Frederick is. I mean, he's already been by stuff and you Brian mentioned it yesterday that it looks very positive for his return. It's great night. I'm god just firing guys to fire guys. I think that's where everybody's going in the wrong direction here. If you want to tell me that the if in fact, they made the trade and then the team team started getting worse offensively and they didn't make the playoffs, by all means, move on, move on. But I'm again, I'm I'm letting this thing.

I'm gonna let this thing ride for one more year. I am I'm not gonna because I'm seeing the guys out there and again, if you want to make a change, my recommendation would be, didn Jason Garrett call the place. That would be my recommendation. If you want to get rid of Glennahan, if you want to get rid of Kellen Moore, go get your quarterback coach and let and let and let Jason Garrett call the play. Is that

because you don't want to vastly change the course. I'm trying to help Dak Prescott the best I can, and I don't know necessarily changing coordinators right now. If you tell me, I could go out next year and hire a head coach that's an offic it's a mindy coach, and he could come in here and sweep everything in Newton by all means. But also though I'm willing to give this coach a chance, I'm willing to give this head coach a chance, in this offensive coordinator a chance.

If it doesn't work, then make all your changes you want. But I'm not changing then all of a sudden, think about changing the head coach again and then probably having to change the coordinator if it doesn't work. And I'm not into changing a bunch of things right now just to change. And Jerry made that point that he has done that previously, that you changed the head coach, you changed the coordinator. Now I'm changing my staff and I have no continuity none. That is the biggest problem here.

Look at what goes on. You think that Arizona has continuity right now? Changing coach one year, they went through Bruce Arians all that time they changed, then they got a whole new staff of coaches. How about Denver? Denver two years, whole new staff of coaches. How would you convince the owner to make Jason Garrett the play caller again? How would you? Yeah, Batman, because he was the caller

and then though it changed. I believe there's two head coaches this league that are art play callers or primary or not that our primary or not? Oh not? Yeah, trying to think who the other one was. I think there were two in this league because if you feel good about what's going on with your defense, and you don't have to spend time there because think about it, they were struggling defensively, right and yeah until they got kind of Marinelli in and now you got Richard and

he felt like he needed to overlook everything. And that's when he gave up the play calling, right, So that was the reason why to give it, gave it up to begin with. So maybe things have changed now to where you convince them that, okay, yeah, that's the best route to go is to if this team was three and thirteen, I get it, I get it, move on, move on. They weren't at three. There were three and five at one time that that you know, they were on the path to being let go. But now you

turn things around. But I again, extension and all that stuff. No, h you make players. You make players play for contract extension. You got a seventeen million dollar guy that you're trying to get done. Now you made him play. What did he do? He played pretty well for you, didn't he? So what you're saying, you would be in favor, not to put words in your mouth, Yeah, you would be in favor of giving Garrett the play calling duties if

in one year and not extended. If I'm not saying if you want to, if you want to change, if you if everybody out there standing at out front of the Star here on one Cowboy Way and with the pitchforks and the torches and all that and about to storm the doors. If you want to do that, and you don't have an answer for what he just said about a play caller, you don't have a suitable offensive coordinator. Okay, then your next response to just be Bill Garrett and

need to call the plays that needs to happen. And if you want to move on from the quarterback coach, bring Wade Wilson back. Whatever you want to do, do it. But right now you don't have a good answer. You really don't, and don't act like you do. Don't act like you do. You just want blood, is what you want. Sure, And that's a you know what. That's why you're a fan,

because you want blood. I'm you know what, Hey, I'm all for I'm all for making changes and stuff, but I'm also making changes for reasons, you know, And everybody's out there it's like going, oh, the offensive offense got better once they made the trade. Yeah, started moving the ball better. Yep? You know, is that Lanahan or is that the trade that Jerry Jones made? You know? Did the front office help the coaches? I wonder what Robert in New York wants. Let's check out. Be careful, Robert

in New York. You're on talking Cowboys. Yeah, what's up? I was a um thinking, like we we definitely we definitely need uh defensive defensive lineman, like an interior linement. Um, it's interest because of what you saw in the game last week. Absolutely absolutely like we need like a almost like a game record, like I mean David David Irving. No, okay, guy, no you will. But if he had been there and been the David Irving you were planning on, it could

have been. Yeah. Absolutely, Um. I was thinking, maybe, like in the draft we can pick one up. It's gonna be hard. It's gonna be hard. I mean, they're really good ones, like the Jeffrey Simmons guys, like that Wilkins, those guys, they're all gonna be gone the first round. Right. What about what about I almost don't want to say him because I think he's gonna slide a little bit. What about the kids from Wisconsin? The Saga Polo guy. Yeah, I haven't looked at him yet, but we're gonna have

the draft show here coming up Thursday. I'm sure Dame Brugler can answer all the questions about that kid. I appreciate you, though, I think one of the one of the problems they had in that game, because that's the game we're focusing on now, right we are, because we are before that Seattle, it was the human Log and and it was MALIEK. Collins. Well, MALIEK. Collins didn't get the chance to play enough snaps in that game. I think between his illness and his knee, he didn't practice

that much either. And Karan Reads was terrible. He was he messed you know what. He his inability messed up the human log. Yeah. Uh. And they were forced to play Randy Gregory I think too many plays on the outside because he was not very good against the run. Yeah, and they picked on him. Yeah, and and so knew that coming in and they knew it. They knew it. They knew whites chandle him a man demand you saw it.

But on the in the running game, Yeah, they took advantage of him getting up the field and they ran underneath them. A little bit unsettling feeling for fans right now, because of the strength that you had all year didn't show up in the biggest a season. You go into the offseason, then how do you look at it? Well, you're saying the first thing you need is a defensive tackle, and I you know what that that there's where David

Irving hurts you. But you know what, this team played single high safety all year and defended to run right all year long. Yep, they were one of the best in the league at it. Let's not act like that one. You know when when they were bad? What two games were they bad this year? Colts and Rams? Colts and Rams? What happened? Got turned up front, got a got guys up on the linebackers playing to playing, playing single high

coverage the whole way. You caught a team that just physically beat you up, just like the Colts, did, you know. And if you want to say, yeah, well they need a defensive tackle, well you know what you need to say too, they need some linebackers too. If you're gonna base it on one game because vander esh and Smith weren't any good either. Only played a lot in that game and he wasn't any good either, well the reason they weren't any good is because they had offensive lineman

blocking them the whole game. That is why you lost that football game. They had often on that thirty what was what was this touchdown run? Girly thirty five thirty five. Whitworth is coming down field with him. Yeah, and he didn't have to touch anybody. How does he get off the line of scrimmage like that? They washed a lot of our guys. They did it against the Colts. We

got we gotta go to a break. Yeah, but when we come back, I want you to to if you recall the defensive alignment on that play and where Jalen Smith was lined up and and well we'll go over it in the break. I can't remeb what happened for breakfast Bill, but they were they were lying down. We'll talking about that. We come back on. Talking Cowboys has been helping Cowboys fans see better since nineteen seventy two,

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up on March sixteenth. They're on your own DNT Stadium in Arlington and we've got boxing Errol Spence versus who mikey Garcona Mike Garscia and it's March sixteenth at ATNT Stadium in Arlington, Garcia. You go, very good SeatGeek dot com is handling that. I believe, I believe you're there. Are there are partners for sure? That's right? All right, we continue here on talking cowboys. Right before the break, I mentioned that Todd Gurley touchdown run um and can

I say this before you say yes? In fact, there there we go right there as you were. If you're a great job, Yes, Garrison has it called up for us. Look where Jalen Smith is is lined up. He was basically over the tight end Higbee. Yeah all right, and then there's the cutback by Gurley. Happened to vander esh on that play? Yeah, he was in the middle of They got washed. I mean, they just completely got washed. To see what happens to Karen Reid. Yeah, I mean

he gets knocked on the ground. Did they run the trap? But you're talking, but you're talking about lining into the second level? Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's a replay here of it. Okay, Yeah, we got another Kent doing a great job of producing on the fly. Here if you're watching long, Ken has got up the replay of the Gurly touch here coming from the end zone zone. Yeah, the blocking there you go, there you go right there, yep, got and then here you go, that's the Jeffrey step

right there. He took out Gregory. Well, look and look at Heath too. Heath gets caught inside as well or on the outside as well. And you know, okay, great job. But you saw where Jalen was lined up there for the uneducated, uh like me, they're playing the bunch formation. It looked like to me. Yeah, right, So he was kind of playing in the middle shading over that. On the song side, they run crack, they run, they run a toss out of that, so you know they tend

to go to the where they went. And Girly did a great job. I mean, he's got vision. If you got that big of a hole, if you get the safety knocked outside and the linebackers all knocked inside and Karen read and all these guys washed, Hell, I'd run it there too. You know that place should have never taken place. What'd you get, guys? You had the fact friar to that book. The b ass almost said it should hands to the face on Byron Jones, And I didn't realize it until I got finally got a chance

to look at the coach's film. Yeah, the guy that called the penalty was twenty five yards away from the line of scrimmage. Yeah, heat threw his flag farther than Goff through the incompletion. Now you tell me the guy on the line of scrimmage that was sitting there watching that didn't call it. But this guy twenty five yards away called it. It was fourth down. Yeah, they'ref the field, they're off the field. Yeah, and that's what's sticking in

that coaching staff's crow right now, there's that penalty. It changed the whole complexion of the game. It does, it does bother me. And I'm not one that it gets on the officiating because I take it all kind of evens out. But in this case, in that situation, when you're looking at a third and fourteen play, and why are you're playing press? Right? Yeah? Well, yeah, yeah, that's a good question. That's that's the other part of it.

It is sometimes you put you you need to not put yourself in position where you can the call can go again? How many times this year if we've seen that though, yeah they have. You know, it's whether it's a Randy Gregory roughing the roughing the past or Anthony Brown defensive holding. You know, penalty on that is so punitive, you know that, it's huge. That's huge that when you when you comes with a first down that in a third and fourteen situation, I just think it's got to

be pretty blatant for it. And it had nothing to do with the play, right, yeah, well nothing, that's officials. They're responsible for watching the players, not the play all the time. Guy's got great eyes. Twenty five yards away. Let's go to Scott in New Jersey. Next up, I'm talking Cowboys. Hello Scott, Hey guys, what's going on? Man? The best thing about the season being over. You guys are on twelve o'clock. I can listen, see out lunch. There we go, first day. Enjoy it good. I appreciate

you putting me on a couple of things. I just want to You're not gonna nothing negget about him, because first of all, it was a great year. We remind us seven points for a reason. And I kept saying that all week. We should have won that, or we remind us seven points for reason. We lost by eight. So they knew what they were talking about Vegas. They're good, they know what they're doing. Why they're in bitting this

right and I'm steam fitting. Um, don't talk about Cooper. Listen, if let's say, if we don't get Cooper, would you rather be Cooper no first round pick or like three and thirteen? We could have went three and thirteen without him. Um, I thought it was a great pick. Yeah, we got a great trade, we got a good quarterback, we we got future. We're doing good. Dak Garrett and Lenahan that's another thing. Let's stop talking about them, right guys, like

Brian said, give them another year. If they woke up, we got something going on. Sure. You know what if Jerry Jones says Garrett and Zak is out our quarterback and our coach, that's it. It's over right. He's the guy, he's the boss, right, So that's that. I just want to say one more thing. You guys are great. I listened to you every day every day, and Cowboy Nation is young, We're strong, and we won the division. We're

gonna win it next year. We got a playoff win on a young guy's belt, right, I think that's gigantic. And next year it's like you guys say, we got to get home field advantage. That is everything. All right, Thanks for the calling, mister Jones. No Cowboy Nation there with Cowboy guys. I'm just kidding you man, Thank you for the call, Thank you, thank you, Scott. But you know what, every one of those next steps that they

didn't take only one time did they have home field advantage? Yeah, you know, I think it two years ago with home field advantage, and you played, you played a you played, you played the rarest of the rare quarterback seven two. That's what I was hoping. I was hoping that Dallas was going to pull a Green Bay and go and find a way to win a game on the road like that. You know this year with the divisional game, Well, yeah, and that's the out and you know, make one more play.

That's the frustrating part, because I think fans watched LA towards the end of the season and thought they're a little vulnerable offensively, they're not doing what they've been doing. Me talk about it, no, I mean, if you watched the Cowboys all season, their defense looked like they could

step up and make it difficult when it off. Yeah, that's what's I think confounding and frustrating probably in this building right now, is that what their formula didn't work and they thought it would and and so that you go in the off season with that bitter taste in your mouth. Give me my playback, and they would have held them to twenty two points. It's no time to gloat now, Mickey, I just said, I'm not gloating. I'm

just pointing it out now. That made a big difference in your in your view of what they did defensively, and what they could have done. They gave up two hundred and seventy three rushing out that got it that you know what? Anyone lost by how much? Eight eight points? M m yeah, And they were down fifteen if they if they a few minutes ago, and they and they had an opportunity on third and seven to get the ball back and go down and hie up. Jeff We

watched that one back yesterday, oh, Jeffy. So as bad as they played defensively, they were still in the ball game. I didn't say that they you know, didn't show up. I didn't say that. I mean you said that I did. I didn't. I don't think they played obviously, they didn't play with the damn. I mean they've been playing well all year. The owners said they didn't get any traction literally little We talked about that a little bit about

nighttime games there at the LA Coliseum. It was yeah, but they wore they wore longer cleats than normal bucking them do their job. They buy, they knew what they're doing, and they normally were a half Yeah. Yeah. Um. We didn't talk about the reports coming out after the game from the offensive lineman for the Rams talking about great scouting. Yeah, great scouting. That's what you do. Do you have a week, think about this, guys, extra week, think about this extra week?

But who think about who they're gonna play. They're either gonna play Us or Seattle, who they played twice a year. Who are you going to prepare for? Well, who are you gonna prepare for? That? Actually would have played then Seattle? Right yeah, Saints, Saints played Philly, was the last seed?

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, right, yeah, it was us. It was us, or it was gonna be us, or they didn't have to prepare extra for Seattle at all the all the well, they could have played the Bears, they could have played you know on that Sunday watching Philly and Chicago, right right, But yeah, they were playing either Chicago or Dallas. Yes, right, But I see your point. I mean they Seattle, they know Seattle. Yeah, that's my point. You never heard they already played Chicago too, Yeah, but

they played but they play him twice a year. But but what I'm saying last month, they sure to your point, Yeah, they've already played exactly the extra preparation they needed to do on Dallas because they had they didn't have they didn't They played Dallas last year Week three? How many? How many times we heard, oh, Sean Lee knew what they were doing, they were stealing our signal. No, Shaun Lee studied film. That's all you gotta do, a study film.

I can't remember who I was standing next to. I was watching the Redskins play and it was somebody in the scouting department and basically told me what play was coming up by how they lined up was exactly right. Freaked times in a row. It's like, how do you know that? Well? I can tell how his hands on the grind rock back in his stance. They get and what do they do? They could they get three? They put they put Lawrence Crawford and Collins on one side. What do they usually run? Run a twist out of

that stunt. That's what they use. Look, they usually run a twist. What did they do in that game? In that game? We talked about this. In that game, they said, Okay, we're gonna take our four block your three, and we're gonna let like Mickey said, We're gonna let We're gonna let the right tackle. We're take Randy Gregory one on one. It's just that that's their That was their answer. It's

just like when Romo predicts play in the game. DeMarcus ware we had him up for a preseason game, a preseason game, and he's basically predicting what's going to happen on the child. He was like, wow, this is great from this angle up here. Fans they think, all right, Rob, we're I'm standing there several years ago and at training camp. Would that win? Yeah? And that win told me what was going to happen before it happened each time. That's the basics of scouting again an opponent, that's what you

You spend all week in a normal week. And they and they, as Brian pointed out, they had two weeks to prepare for Dallas. That no one brags about that when they lose, by the way, right, Oh we knew it was coming. Oh well, why didn't you stop it? Seattle? We stole we stole your signs. Yeah, sorry, you lost the playoffs? Bye bye bye. You know I didn't hear it. I didn't hear any signs after that. Hell they took bye. You know. It's amazing, it is. But when you win,

you earn the right. Oh no, you get you get the right to beat your chest and beat up on people and everybody believes you. Yeah, that's right, Well, that's good luck. I hope the Saints just mall you. I'm pulling for Sean Payton this game. I'm not gonna lie Sean mcvagh. Okay, great, like that smug mo right face. That's the other thing. You as a coach, you want your your players to think that, I really do. You want your players to think they've got the upper hand,

that they were sure you do, Sure you do. He's the difference. Make Let me tell you what. That's what. Let me tell you. Let me tell you what, mister McVeigh, that coach across the field is is pretty crazy. He is gonna find a way to he's gonna turn this into a game that you're not gonna like it. He's a great coach. He is a great coach. They had the star wars this offense, right, and they threw for one hundred and eighty six yards. Again, maybe they ran

for two seventy one. Yea, they didn't have to Why why I could have called players offense right? All you needed to do is figure out how high on the football. I was kind of hoping that Zeke was gonna run for two hundred and seventy three yards in this game. Yeah, well they didn't. They played great run defense, though, give yeah, give the Rams a lot of choys in contrast the way they pay. As Zeke said, all y'all asked me

about was the five point one yards per carry. And I told you, guys, none of that s matters anymore. It's the playoffs. Like he knew what they were up against. No getting getting hitting. You're right, Zeke, You're right that man, he's right. Maybe she's doing this show. I should be toting the ball. No, no, no, no, no, bad, We've got it. I think we got it right. We got that one right. They should have just thrown the ball every play the Cowboys. Yeah, did you see how far

back their defense was playing? Yeah, that was That's an interesting thing. But and and you know, maybe maybe if you want to be critical, maybe you say, yeah, sure, because your left guard was actually holding up you know, your left guard wouldn't killing you in the game. So, I mean, I think that's what you're worried about. You're worried about the pass protection, Am I wrong? No? Yeah, But the fact that they stayed in base Michael Gallups

plays that he made were a product of that. They were able to hit some plays in the passing game because they had more big plays than the Rams did. Right, yeah, I think the longest pass I was twenty one yards. Yeah. Yeah, they had like six I think more than twenty yards like Cowboys did. They only had three. You know, the issues that the Rams were having all season, We're getting pressure on the quarterback at the exception of Donald and his twenty and a half sacks, and that's why they

made the move to get Dante Fowler at mid season. Right, Hockett was pretty clean for Dak Overall, I felt like in the game, I mean to some degree, you know, yeah, no, no, yeah, they in the grass call. But Mickey might be onto something. But overall I thought it was okay. There was one play the free safety was thirty yards behind this line of scrimmage and it was backing up, so Edred used to play. They just they just sold out to stop the run. They just you know it, well, I mean,

maybe Mickey should be the OC. I just lit it up. Mickey light them up. As Aikman pointed out on one of the play one play um which was the one play where he was really critical of dak Um. He prior, you know, prior to the snap, he was sitting, look at these corners, they're ten yards off and uh. And then it was the pass. It was an errant pass and on a like a I don't know where it

was going. I can't remember, but anyway, but but my point is Troy said, well, there were four guys open on the play, so m but there were too many times when he hit his back foot, the receivers were still with their backs to him running routes and he got forced to dump it underneath. But they were playing off. That was like they were running right into their defense. M all right, we're going to continue to play him next year, Mickey, we'll get We'll give it a go.

Then it's gonna be here. By golly, you go in our house. Although I thought that was our house time, it almost was. Believe me, all right, we continue with talking cowboys. More of your phone calls in a moment. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a right thing, then cutting the chord is scary. But then I found out I could switch to DirecTV now and still get the live sports. I love. No satellite needed, no polky hardware, no annual contract, just that

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have that too? Yeah? Why not? Wow? How about that? This is offseason? Mickey doing a little research on the prepare emails from the company. Now, that's right. They know who does what happens when your liner disappears? You create your own. That's right, Yeah, all right, clean break oil free moisturizer also, m m there we go. Okay, So should we bring people up to speed on what the

offseason plans are for Talking Cowboys. Go ahead, Tuesday Tuesdays at eleven am, right, yes, erect Yeah, and you got draft show is going to be on Thursday this week at eleven and then we'll be Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday from the Senior Bowl doing podcasts. We do those in the in the afternoon. Okay, so after practices and stuff, and we'll resume. We'll resume while you're in Atlanta. Huh. I'll be in Atlanta two weeks from today. And I'm not really looking forward like you need to get this TSA

thing fixed. You're not feeling you're not a priority guy, I am. But apparently this whole the certain airports are getting backed up big time shut down right now, love Field though. Yeah, and the teachers in LA shut down the schools they're on strike. Yep. I didn't see that. Yeah, So so we would will resume two weeks from today, Talking Cowboys. You could drive to Atlanta, Yeah, I could do that. I'm afraid you're gonna say that you drive, although I might get back quicker stop off of the

Senior Bowl. What you can stop at the Senior Bowl on your way. Yeah, man, that green bind your ears. Yeah, that's right. The Latin people up there, you go. I did that when this when the Super Bowl was in Tampa, No, Jacksonville. I drove, went to the Senior Bowl and then went on to Florida. As a matter of fact, Atlanta, Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami. I have actually made that trip from I went Dallas to Atlanta to Mobile and back to Dallas. Because of

club volleyball that we had a national tournament. See that. My kids were playing club volleyball at national tournament in Atlanta. It was fourth of July and we spent the fourth of July down at the Gulf Shores, went down to Mobile in that area down there. So there you go. I've done that and then they're done that. Don't need to do it again with the drive. And if you drove to Atlanta, you know you go through if you don't stop at the Senior Bowl, you go through Tuscaloosa.

You go to Dreamland Barbecue. Dream Land Barbecue absolutely and there you go. Bill Alladega's right on the way too. Folks are sick of our travel schedules. All right, um, off season priority? Yeah, throughout the first priority I've asked fans, as we talked about earlier in the show, all right, going forward, what are the top priorities this offseason for this team? Lawrence got to be Lawrence, doesn't it? Lawrence

one on the list? Yeah, I think that. I think you look at that and then you say, okay, now, the next focus would be do you do you try and do you try and extend Byron Jones? I think you try to work on the two contracts that are in their last year that are exorbitant, Cooper Cooper and Byron Jones. Byron Jones, We've got both of them. Byron Jones is like nine million. They picked up the fifth year option, right I remember correctly, And Cooper's is fourteen million.

If you redo those, you create cap space. Yeah, you got Sean Lee on the books for seven million. That will change, That will change. Yeah, okay, so yeah, you're right. What about Alan Hearns though, too, that's another one that's a team option, right, Yeah, And there's a couple of different things there that have to that will make the contract like more than it really looks like. I think if they pick up the option exactly, you're right about that, and so if you want him back, you probably do

something there. Yeah, I think Mickey's right about Okay, give me the priority on Cooper or Byron Jones. What's the bigger No, No, Mickey said both, and I think Mickey's absolutely right. What's the bigger Cooper? Cooper's fourteen? Well, yeah, thirteen nine two four. You're right about that. I'll go Cooper there. In addition to the fact that Byron Jones is six two right, you traded your first for Cooper. Yeah, question,

he's part of your long term plans. I think Byron is too, but factor in that with the number on the on the cap, I'd give me Cooper first to look at along with DeMarcus. And I don't know. I don't know how that one's gonna play out either, but I think you got to find a way figure it out because they're killing me. My Earl Thomas thoughts why they're killing me, I don't. I don't think they're gonna be like Gerald Thomas. I don't think so. I'd love

to have Earld Thomas playing safety here. For a couple of years. I'd love it. Steveton was asked yesterday he's not gonna do you see yourself, you know, signing impact free agents, and he reiterated what he always says, his own guys, that's what we focus on and hitting on the draft, and we've got young players that need to improve. They he just doesn't see it. He didn't say specific names. If they were gonna get him, it was gonna be

for that trade. The best shot they had was on draft night, on the second round, and when that didn't materialize, it was over. In my opinion, it was they just have a lot of their own guys that they need to take care of within the next year. Yea, So it's the right way to do it too. What positions

you looking at, guys? What positions you looking at? If we if you okay, if you say you do sign Lawrence and you get you get uh Cooper done, say, like Mickey wants to, are you gonna have to look at cornerbacks because I mean, you know, if you think about Byron Jones long term, I mean, if you're not gonna do that right or you're gonna you you're comfortable playing with with the Woozier and Lewis and Brown. And then the other thing I think you look at two

is where are like for Anthony Brown? He is East free after next year, right, and so you look at where you are if guys going into their last year. Right, It's what Rob was talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this whole secondary's up after nineteen just about I suffered George Well, not everybody, Jordan Lewis, Xavier Woods, Cheeto, but Anthony Brown, Cavon Frazier, Jeff Heath, Byron Jones. Brown next year is his fourth year. Yeah, yeah, so he doesn't doesn't have

a restricted year. No, See, that's that's I mean. I was thinking, if you're talking about draft, which I you know, I don't. I mean, I gotta we gotta show for that. But if you were looking at positions, where would you start? Is it a tight end? Running back? We talked to safety, offensive line line tackles. Convinced that Travis Frederick is okay, you don't need a center. It sounds like Joe Looney's coming back, right, Joe Looney's under contract another day. Would

Joe be in my backup absolutely, my backup backup guy? Yeah, Wide receiver could be a sneaky one because you got Tavon and Cole up. Yeah, I think I think we're sleeping on Cedric Wilson though a little bit. Guys. Yeah, but do you have a slot guy, you know Mary Cooper? Well, yeah, I mean I mean, I mean, maybe play him a little bit in there. It sounds for sure again he's done the changeable parts there. Yeah. Maybe if you bring Hern's back for another campaign, you can play every position. Yeah,

I want another defensive lineman that I can groom. Ah, I was thinking more of that shorter. Are you more worried about more worried about Human log or Collins going forward? Collins's going into his last year, isn't he in the Yeah? Now he's through nineteen. He's He's I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Yeah, right he is. Yeah, he is going too. He's a pretty good three technique. Yeah, when he's healthy. Rights one would human Human Logs exclusive rights fore agent after nineteen.

So you gotta have to worry about a couple of years. And then you got to figure out Crawford. What what is he? Do you want him inside? Do you want to want him outside? Game? If I want him outside and I tell you what. Another guy that didn't really take a step forward in that game was Tacco. Yeah, he was a wash. You know what, I think tight end is a priority. Yeah, I've got a tied end for you to take a look at. Well, you won't be at the Senior Bowl. You got Cayden Smith, Oh, Stanford, Sanford,

another Stanford tight Endower Mound Marcus. You gotta tie you gotta tight ends. Coach whose son is the starting quarterback at Flower Mount Marcus? Yeah, Doug nust Meyer, gotta go with I'll go with Cayden Smith. I don't know what round. I haven't projected a round for Caden Smith yet, but take a look at him. Is that because is that Flower Mount Marcus? Is that what you're saying? He's from Flower Mault Marcus. But he's a he's a good player. Mickey,

wh's the last? James Hannah, Nikki, what's your guy's name? Pronounced? The guy's name at Missouri? Albert okwombo nam Albert Oh, Albert Oh Yeah, six four two sixty four four seven six tight end from Missouri. This guy's this guy. I couldn't pronounce his name, but Albert Oh is a damn good tight end. I like him. I like this. This he's and he's not like one of these little skinny guys. Now, he's a big he's a big guy. He's a tight end. Yeah. Dawson Knox is another guy from Oldman. I'm just giving

your names at tight ends I've seen so far. You would have to thank you. I appreciate that you would have to take him in the second Dawson, are you Albert we gotta pick, gotta pick at fifty eight, right, Rob, Yes, Sir. Josh Oliver from San Jose States another one. I've looked at Man. There's some tight ends in this strap. Mitchell

Wilcox at South Florida. And then if you look at Dane Burgler's list his top fifty, twenty four and twenty five, or the Iowa tight ends actually twenty four, Hawkins, Hockinson and then fant there's some tight ends, folks, if you want to if you want to go get one, if you want to go get one, there's there's availability there at the second round. I know if Mickey wants to do that, right tend you to help out your quarterback. I'm doing anything I can to help the quarterback. Jeff

Swam as a free agent. Yeah to b Yeah, yeah, that's definitely one of note. No question, what's the most important there? You go look at this. I think it can't coming up a study the Garrison. Cayden Smith's on my list. Yeah, I haven't seen that. Caleb Wilson NFL. I guess top one hundred. I don't know guys would be on there. Yeah according to CBS, Yeah, we need to kind of we need to look at Yeah, I need to see that that Caleb Wilson guy though I

haven't seen him yet. Kind of going through on Albert, Oh, wouldn't one. He's good though, Mickey, that guy's a good player. Alberto is a good player from Missouri. I did a story on Cayden Smith when he was a junior or senior in high school. He won a contest. It was after Odell Beckham made his one handed catch against a back flipping catch one there was there was a one hand catch competition in the spring that following spring, and

Caden Smith won the national competitions. I went out and did a story and we caught footballs one handed together. How high would you draft a running together? Yeah? You showed him. I showed him how high. How high would you draft a running back? Not before the third or fourth round? Probably the fourth round on third if I like him the third I like him, yeah, I mean second. I mean it all depends on what your roster looks like by then. But I think you've got other names.

I look at him. I look at it this one. You know, when did levy On Bell come out? He was a second round pick? Okay, the same year that the Cowboys drafted Gavin Escobar. Yeah, okay, And at that point DeMarco Murray was so the year away from being a free agent. I can't remember these specifics on it, but I would look back. You look back at it and go, if we weren't sitting there having to get a tight end, you know, and fallen in love with a position, we would have just taken the running back.

We would have had Levon Bell the year before DeMarco Murray became a free agent. But I think you have to look at it that don't pass on talent or a position. Smith. Absolutely, Bill, he's a free agent. He's free agent. Yeah, there you go. But I do, and you look, you need some insurance for your best player. I get it, but I do look at it a little bit like when Witten was here. It's like, yeah, oh you need another running back. But how often is Zeke off the field? You know? I think that there's

other pressing. We were trying to extend his career. Are we just gonna rush? I don't want to know. I'm trying to ask you. I'm not trying to be I don't want to trying to be round, but I mean, I mean, are we trying to extend him to where if you don't have Tavon and you don't have Beasley, then who's given me that juice inside? In Nickel's situations, I wish I could draft you this this Devin's singletary from Florida Atlantic Mickey. That's why I brought up a

slot receiver. Yeah, or somebody like versatile guy, jack of all trades. I think you can go across the board. Yeah, give me the best players because they can use the defense. So you're saying, you're okay, I like this. I like where you guys are going here because you're saying, if whatever they gets to their pick, whoever, the best guy regardless of position, regardless of position. What I'm saying need

always factors in a little bit. Oh, it's like regardless of position with need that coaches will tell you over my years now of doing this. Yeah, fit, I mean it's a system too. Best available always sounds great, but you always have to have a reason why. There's always good value at the bottom of those boards though. Every draft. Cam Fleming's up. Yes, yeah, got away with one there by the way, he played two games and you got away with it. Got two victories there. I know, that's

what I'm saying. So you're not bringing camp flaming back, Mickey. I gotta look at what's available. There's never anything available at tackle. Oh, he's not wrong, he's not wrong. It's another one. There's another attive round pick. Actually, drafts got some good tackles, a lot better than had the last couple of years. A guy DeMarcus Christmas from Florida State. Just so we have another DeMarcus in. His last name is Chris. You're looking at a bunch of defensive tackles there.

Those are all we're talking about offensive tack Yeah, yeah, okay, that that whole group right there. That Gary Kidd from from Michigan, he's really good. There's a bunch of first round guys right up there, all the way down to oh my gosh, I think he's going all the way down to since a after pass Wilkins. All those guys I think would be considered first round guys. Wow on that board, deep group, and you start your list with number fifty five on yeah yeah, Hey, hey, the one

it's funny. The one guy that CBS doesn't have up there is that Quinnon Williams. I didn't see him up there. He's playing might be the best player in the Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do the draft show here. I'm just talking about look names. It's never too early. Now, Hey, we all want something. We're here. In fact, you've motivated me. I'm gonna start filling in my big green NFL Draft scouting shoebook when I go home. This already started. Bill,

check it out. KNT Draft Show eleven o'clock Thursday morning and get you a bigger boat. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club