The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club Cowboys. This He's Talking Cowboys straining live from the Dallas Cowboys World Course at.
The Star in Frisco to.
Second Pas, Got techsy Texdown and now your hosts Isaiah Standback, Patrick Walker, Josh Rodriguez, and Kyle Yeomans.
Welcome to Talking Cowboys. We are live from the Star in Frisco, Texas. Welcome, Welcome everybody. It is a Talking Tuesday. Basically, we're talking on a Tuesday. I'm here with Patrick No C. Walker, I'm here with Nick Eatman. It is Talking Cowboys storyline Wenda Turn.
I was like, I always have to wait for the the intro.
Got it.
You don't have to turn?
No, I don't not really, Yeah, you never got to turn.
Man, it's a thing for us. I like this.
I like, actually, you know, talking to other people, I mean talk to in the studio. In the studio.
So you don't want to bring Rob he can have a spot. You know there's four chairs.
R P.
Rob Phillips, No, Robin Vegas, Rob Vegas he said one for Ali.
Well, whenever you say Rob, my brain is all going to Rob. Yeah, that's that's King. Oh, Rob from Vegas. He's gonna have some things to say tomorrow.
No, yeah really yeah you think so, Yeah, we'll see, we'll see.
You know, he's got If.
You have Rob from Vegas here, you'd have to like keep the censor button like right, yeah, just over your fingers.
Yeah.
Well we're gonna be ready for tomorrow on that like that. But anyways, that's that's for Tomorrow's.
That's for tomorrow, guys. Obviously, we had the of course new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, that was announced. We had the productory press conference yesterday. But I kind of want to bury the lead here. Obviously that happened, we have the press conference to talk about, but I kind of want to walk through what the last week has looked like for you guys, obviously as staff riders of Dallas covers dot com. Obviously it's the editor for Dallas Cobies
dot Com. I kind of want to walk through the timeline and basically get a sense of what to last week look like leading up to this decision.
Well, I'll say this, it looks it's it's it starts early and it ends late, so you know, you're not. Just because you're not at your desk working doesn't mean you're not working and grinding. And if you know, you know, our guys worked hard. Our guys worked hard and trying to chase this thing down. I know, Patrick's a big part of it. I get more text messages from Patrick, Tommy, you know, you you know, as far as things that we see and all that, And that's that's the thing.
Off season to me is so much harder than the regular season because the regular season is like, all right, you know exactly what's coming. There's gonna be press conference tomorrow, there's gonna be locker room, you get that. But this is like maybe there's something, maybe there's not. You're kind of your head's always on the switch.
There are more things important than a clock.
Yeah, that's true.
That, I mean, it's just facts.
That and that is true. That was a good answer because that I don't know if I love the question, but you know, I mean just because it was like there's no timeline on things like that. And that's that's the thing about the off season. You're just you don't know when things are happening, but you just always have to stay ready. And I think you know, so I'm talking about the process, Park Patrick, you talk about the actual his actual question of like how things developed, how we got here.
Well, I mean, I mean it was unexpected.
Well yeah, it was unexpected, wildly unexpected. And had him on the list, Yeah yeah, I did have them on the list of twenty candidates, and I know some kind of looked at that and said, you know, no, no shot, even though I didn't list him as a front runner as far as internally, internally, I listed Mike Zimmer as the front runner. But then with that being said, I said, it's up to Zim to decide that he wants to
continue coaching. And right now, as we have the conversation, the expectation is that Zimmer is going to probably retire from the NFL. But that being said, he won't be back as DC because we expect Matt Eberfluss will reunite with the Cowboys, and that news could drop at any moment. To your point, it could come out of the left field,
right field, center field. But the process was I mean, obviously it led with the informal conversations with Dion and then of course, unfortunately that colored the remainder of the search because everyone then was expecting the hoping the Dion thing would would be a thing. But as we sat here on this panel and said, it was never really a thing, right. There was some interest there, but it didn't have enough traction to make sense. That's why there
was no formal interview. So then they move on from that. For the most part, you get Leslie Fraser in here, Robert Sala, Kellen Moore, and everybody was panicking because they thought Kellen Moore would be returning. They have questions about is he a leader of men and things like that.
So spent the entirety of the weekend after Kellen Moore's virtual interview basically watching Twitter coordinate Kellen Moore as the head coach and then what have On Monday, out of the darkness comes that horse, Brian Schottenheimer, and basically they never really looked back from there. Pete Carroll had a very real chance, but they couldn't agree to terms, and so here we are. So it's a definitely a roller coaster there, and then you talk about the assistant coach
is starting to leave. Robert Prince Bones fossil Al Harris, who I spoke with and he told me that you know, he's agreed to terms with the Chicago Bears. So and this is just the beginning. We're not done. They have an entire staff to build around him now. So tight ends coach is Lundawell is going to be back in the building hopefully, So offensive line coach clipped to the defensive side of the ball. Assuming Matt eber Flus is in,
who's he putting this linebacker's culture? Is he going to try to handle that particular task because he's done it before, right, So Scott Tozine reporter Scott Tozen is out reported least choosing to not return. So to Nick Eaman's point, man, there's so much that makes it more difficult this offseason because we don't have guaranteed access. So we Nick myself, Tommy, Josh, we have to track down this information. It's not coming to us like on a Wednesday in a press conference,
on a Thursday in the locker room. We gotta make you go find that. Yeah, so we're still working in the Cowboys. They crossed the first finish line and choosing the head coach, but there are several more finish lines that need to be crossed.
Selfishly, is there a sense of relief now that we have a head coach.
Yeah, I mean selfishly is a good is a good answer. It's a good word because I get asked a lot, like during the season, you know, the last few games of the year, do you want a new coach you think McCarthy should come back? Selfishly, I hate coaching searches for everything that Patrick just said, I don't like them. Now are they necessary in this case?
Yeah?
Probably, And it seems like it seems like it was so because it's it's it's tough to deal with because everybody now with the media has got it, you know, source here, this has happened.
You know, I heard several different onesers like oh it's done, Yeah, Shill is done. You know, it was several different names that it's like okay, and then you're starting to cope with that ye throughout the day, and then two hours later you hear another thing. So at that point you kind of.
I did include you when I said Patrick and Tommy, I didn't, y, Yeah, because if I if I remember correctly, I think Josh actually told me the news. I'll just leave it at that. It's happening.
I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, I kind of have a source here and there. But yeah, the tiny But like I said, the news was kind of changing each and every day.
Yeah, and we were.
And as a fan, first me, I had to kind of cope with decisions that I didn't necessarily love right off of that. But now we're here, Now we have the name picked. It's official. We had the introductory press conference yesterday, which I want to get into. Obviously it happened. It happened on a of course. It was late Friday night when we got to announce it, and now Monday morning when we have the press conference, big deal. Obviously a lot of people in the the upstairs, the big,
big hall. As he said, what was the I'm mature in the room before the press conference versus after, Well, I know what you're seventy.
Well it actually wasn't. It was more like eighty five. I don't know.
The sunlight, we needed curtains and that place up there, I'm sorry, he said.
I was like, I'm going to say he's getting hot.
But anyway, now I know what you're saying and we're jacking around here. I guess this is what would give is talking about love it. Yeah, let's go now, he if you could win a press conference.
He won it.
Okay, if that's possible, that's not the wins that he that has to happen here. I understand that. But but he did a really good job. I you know, the whole leader of men can I think, well, we already know that. I mean, we already saw the guys coming up, you know, and and and Dak is the leader of that. A lot of guys too, a lot of coaches as well, coaches that have already been signed, some coaches probably still looking for jobs.
You know. Some of that could be like I'm here for grats.
But but and still though, I just think he's got people's respect, especially the players, and I think he got a lot of the media's respect to it.
And it sounds like some of the fans too. Hey, all sounds.
Good until you lose a game or you see what happens and you lose the fourth quarter, and you know, and you make a bad decision, and then then the bullets will be flying. But as it stands right now, I thought he did as good as he could do to change some perception.
I agree with that because a lot of fans that I'm speaking with and they're reaching out to me social media. I'm getting a common thread in that they did not realize how impressed they would be with Schottenheimer as far as his ability to speak and his ability to go the extra mileth So, for example, take the question that I posed to him. That was not an easy question. I was basically asking him straightforward. I was like, Hey, how are you going to modernize this offense? What is
tell us what this looks like? He not only answered, But then what impress me even more was when he had provided a sufficient answer for me, but then said, let me explain more. Yes, by all means do so. This is a very high football like you guy, right he's born and bred in football, talk about his dad
and his just family, the Schottenheimer's. But as much as we have rightful concerns that we talked about on the podcast yesterday, the fact that this is his first NFL head coaching job, the fact that we don't know what Schottenheimer's offense looks like because he wasn't the one calling plays, and we'll get to those concerns. But as far as winning the press conference, I believe he absolutely did that.
He's won a lot of fans over just this me looking at the fandom and the temperature warmed up to him. As far as the fans are concerned, Leader of men was never a question and definitely solidarity there. You see brock Hoffman, de Marveion over shown, you see Dak Prescott, you see the entirety of the strength and conditioning staff. You see coaches that are not even under contracts sitting there just showing the solidarity.
Would like, I was curious on what you thought about Shottenheimer as well.
I was, this is something that's been brought a lot on Cowboys storyline, and as a fan, I listen all the time, and you're right about a lot of things, about quite a lot of things. But one of the things that kind of always pops up for me is like the interest is always going to be there. If you're you know, a fan, you know you're going to get upset when we don't make it to the super Bowl and that cycle is going to start repeating. It's it's I mean, at this point, it's it is a
thirty year drought. There is kind of an abusive relationship going on with being with loving the Cowboys, but I mean, seriously, you know it's toxic toxic. And then when we come back around to training camp, I think you're going to
get a lot of people that are excited again. Yeah, you're going to see a lot of the changes that are made, hopefully in free agency and the draft, because you know, we always that there are always draft picks that you can be excited about when it comes to the Cowboys because you have Will mclan in charge in that respect.
That's a good point, and I feel like you need to build from the inside out, you know. I think that the Zach Martin pick was such a great pick, and that you can get another pick like that at twelve, get a guard tackle that's gonna be great. But the excitement from ox Star if you get Ashtroon genty or or a boom a player or even Missouri receiver, which I'm not a huge fan of.
At that spot, but playmakers, playmaker and difference makers and more building blocks. Because you saw the building blocks there yesterday. Those at the press conference. You saw the guys that are going to be here for a long time, that are going to be able to build this team around you that you want. Right as far as what he said,
I was very impressed. I liked what he said, and I guess kind of what gets caught up in a coaching search like this where you have a lot of I mean, you had big name coordinators out there that were taking that next step and becoming head coaches. That's like, okay, I wish we would interview this guy. I wish we'd interview this guy. And a lot of that is caught up in x's and o's, whereas Schottenheimer was very clear to be like, it's you know, the x's and o's
will come. It is about being a leader of men, and it is about commanding. His opening statement very much said that and talking about his legacy as well. I mean I had a quote here. I mean, of course, he goes, I'm ready now, I know what, I know what I want, I know what it looks like. He also says I'm gonna get a chance to do what
my daddy didn't get, which was a super Bowl. If it kills me, things like that, I think are going to flip a switch for certain fans, because if you hear something like that and you can relate to that at all, it's it's romanticized.
Yeah, he's he seems like.
Jason Garrett, but less robotic and more like a person.
No because Jason Garrett.
No, I say that from a fan person.
But Jason, I heard the collector say, Garrett, Hey, he's a leader of men. He can stand up in front of the room. You ever heard him stand up in front of the team and talk to the team like like he he can do that.
He can do that.
I don't know that that. The x's and o's were quite there for Jason Garrett. But I know what you're saying as about instilling a culture, right, I.
Think you could go and and we we saw he walked by us the other day and yesterday and you know, sugar sugar hands talk to us a little bit. I think he I think you introduced yourself one time. I think he knows your name. I mean, I think I think that's kind of the way he is, and that that is that.
Is Oh you've heard that multiple times people person Yeah when it comes.
To but but but it's gotta it's got to lead to that. And you know, there were some there were some really interesting things about his personality that I kind of saw that I just I just liked it.
Well, there are two parts of this. First part is saying the right things.
Check.
Yeah, he's done that. Now it's doing the right things. So and it's like I said on the podcast yesterday, I'd loved nearly everything he said in that press conference yesterday. Now it's show me, show me, show me the your love for pre snap motion, as you said, because now I want to hold you accountable to it.
You said it.
Now we're all gonna hold you accountable pre snap motion cut splits and things like that. Not establishing the run for the sake of saying you established the run, but establishing the run so that you can play off of it with the play action.
For Dak Prescott, we.
Are making those plays look the same.
So credit to him, right.
Credit to him for being transparent and putting that out there knowing full well that now you're going to be held accountable for that.
And that the first part.
The fact that he was being transparent and communicative with that, Now, that should give you some type of optimism because he's not ducking dodge and he's not giving you these prepackaged answers. He's saying, this is how I want the offense to go. Great, wonderful. Now when training camp gets here, part two is let me see if.
You prove this.
All right, boys, let's take our very first break. When we come back, we need to talk about some of the comments made by Jerry Steven in the press conference as well, and some of the hard hitting questions that they received as well. So when we come back on dallascowboys dot com, we will be back over with these messages.
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To talking cowboys.
Oh go back, Talking Cowboy Sponsored by Black Riffle Comedy Sponsors. Was This segment is brought to you by Quaker Oats, the official oatmeal sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. You know where you can get your oats. Alabama's head Coach's on the internet used the Quake card code.
It's all right.
I'm sorry the way you opened that up. I thought I saw you lowly down.
I thought Grave Digger was about to take a big Foot three at the stadium.
And if you didn't notice, I'm not Kyle Yeomans. Kyle Yomens is I know as.
It's top of the artist, which is why he's not here.
I mean we kind of, I mean he stole the beard from me a little bit.
Yeah, and you guys have the same hair, so that's true.
I don't know. No, he's guys should beat three nothing.
They're in mobile kids. Oh yeah he does.
Yeah, but I got he's got dogs.
I got him beat in a free time.
Okay with it.
You're you're winning that you always and.
Sleep Yeah, rub I.
Don't know they did.
They did a six o'clock, uh, six o'clock press carver or six o'clock. I think it was some kind of podcast and mobile six o'clock. You're getting players down there.
They're working. Oh yeah, Oh, they're always working. We work, folks. You don't see us.
Ducking out of the office a little early. Guess what, buddy on this thing. We're taking this with me. That's why it works. Works mind your bill, all right, but yeah, Tommy's over there too.
Yeah those guys. Because look something nice for the draft show.
We got a little talking cowboys storyline matchup for you. All right, Okay, so we need to talk about comments me from Jerry Steven.
Patrick.
I liked it, man. I like the heart hitting questions. I mean it's like you're a journalist or something. I don't know. I don't know, unqualified, tell us the questions that you asked, and tell us what the responses were and how you perceived their responses, because of course there's going to be a lot of work around when you ask direct questions like you did, I want to know your interpretation of those.
Well.
First, when you're going into an augurial press conference for a head coach like that and you have so many people waiting to ask the questions, you're going to get the expected questions, which would be you know, how do you feel? What did you feel when you first got the news, and things like that, and those are rightful
and justifiable questions that you need answers to. You want to get his mindset going into a big gig like this, But I really wanted to take that opportunity to kind of dive into the minutia of it.
So with Schottenheimer, good word, thank you.
With Schottenheimer, I wanted to get past the superficial part of Okay, well the offense is going to look different, Okay, what does that mean? So I asked him about the modernization of the offense, what does that look like under a Schottenheimer era? And feeding off of some things that Jerry and Stephen had said. Steven said something that really stuck out to me when he said the offense needs to.
Solve for the quarterback.
Okay, well, what does that mean in regards to Dak Prescott's skill set? We know as analysts that Dak excels at play action in order to have play action work. What does that mean for you as the play caller going into this year? So I love what he said about cut splits and pre snap motion. And one thing about McCarthy. I will give McCarthy credit in that, over the course of his five year tenure here he evolved
to do more motion, but it became inconsistent. So even after in games where it would work, he'd have sixty percent pre snap motion and they would blow the doors
off of someone. The next game it would kind of dip down, and then you'd find that there was a correlation in them struggling sounds like with the whole Jerry saying Schottenheimer quote unquote air quotes bit his lip several times during the McCarthy era, which is no shade to McCarthy, it's just basically saying there was a difference in philosophy there. I wanted to hear what Shottenheimer's answer was, and again
I loved what he said. It was succinct, it was clear, it was transparent, and it did not provide any fluff. He basically looked us in the eyes without giving his whole playbook away, and said, this is what you can expect going forward.
Wonderful.
Second question was about free agency, roster building, cap manipulation, and management. Question direction, which is yeah, question directed towards both Jerry and Steven. When you look at a team like the Philadelphia Eagles, who have operated a certain way in free agency and never used the cap as an excuse, and now they're back in the super Bowl, we consistently hear that the.
Bill's gonna come.
Do not to say that it won't, but certain teams like the Eagles, the Rams, they continually find a way to keep the bill from coming. To What can you take away from your opponents, Because looking in the mirror only gets you so far. The art of war dictates that you also have to look at the other military generals and say, that's what they're using against us. I'm going to turn that around, as sons Su said, As Sons Su said, and use that against them I love
what Stephen. The majority of Steven's answer I loved because he took full accountability in saying, yes, we can do better. We do look at teams like the Eagles, the forty nine ers, the Rams, we do try to take some of their practices again, said the right things. We'll see if that translates in this year's free agency. Jerry was Jerry, and that's yeah.
The stories.
Yeah, sure, Jerry had the stories.
And nothing Jerry said surprised me because Jerry is always going to give you the Jerry answer. So for that, that's the best way I can describe that. I wasn't disappointed or excited. I was neither of those things. It was exactly what I expected Jerry to tell me. But from what Steven told me, I saw glimmer of hope. I saw a glimmer of hope. And as far as what Shoty told me, as far as the play calling and what they might look like, I really got optimistic about that.
So again, now just show me. You know.
I was a little surprised, but Jerry calling him a risk like twenty.
Three times big risk, Yeah risk, biggest risk.
Yeah, there's a huge risk. He's right here, he's a huge risk. He was treating him like the five year old Bronco. He's the Bronco. I can't have it all.
So we got.
Jerry. No, I mean I was.
I was impressed with, you know, the way that Shottenheimer handled himself, and then with you know, it was an emotional press conference, and then Jerry got emotional too a little bit, just you know, because you start talking about family with Jerry, whether it's real life, whether it's on a TV show, you know, the Landman or whatever, and even if it's someone else's family, because you can relate.
You know, he called his mama, he said that, you know, he called his mama, and so he understands that stuff. So there's a lot to take from. When they talked about deference to and I said this on the radio this morning, they asked about McCarthy and Schotenheimer working together and how much difference there was. I'm like the fact that they hired Schottenheimer is proof enough that there were some changes.
Because usually look at this offense and be like.
All right, we got it. We got to move on here. We got to move on play caller, offensive coordinator, we got to make changes.
But the fact that they said.
All right, Mike, we're gonna move on, but we're gonna we're gonna keep Schottenheimer. Yeah, that makes me think there were a lot of biting, a lot of that going on, and so that they just they just see things very differently and let's let's hope so because you know, this team wasn't prepared at all. I mean, they don't score coming out of the game. I've said that a million times. They don't just come out and score. What are they doing all week long? What are you doing all week?
You should have your fifteenth plays scripted.
Worried out punt.
One of the more frustrating things whenever McCarthy would have a press conference after the game and talk about how, yeah, I wish we'd have leaned on the run a little more at a certain dude, you're calling the game.
Yeah, you know right that I never understood that is is that sounds a whole lot like I got to get like the previous play caller who Mike McCarthy stood on the podium and Basic Lee lambasted into the bus a little bit after the lost to the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers killing got dragged that's indirectly Jackson.
He said, you got it, you got it to run the ball right.
Fast forward to last year, and now it was was like, oh oh, oh interesting.
I mean the irony here for Mike's is going to be very interesting when you think of the last three years where your defensive coordinator here and your offensive coordinator you know, is over here playing in the championships game game together.
One's a head coach.
Kellen Moore is probably going to be the head coach in New Orleans, I would think, and then here, and then then your your next offensive corner who you didn't even want to call plays is now calling the plays, and he is the head coach in your job and you don't.
Have a job.
But also to add to that that little twist, assuming killing Moore is that means he will have beaten out Mike McCarthy.
Four.
Yeah, I just don't Yeah, I don't think Mike's getting that job in New Orleans.
And you don't get one this year, you know fund next year.
You think.
I say that because and you've you've covered the NFL long enough to know that time makes people forget the worst things, right, So if he sits out a year, when the next cycle comes around number one, he might have a better opportunity than some of the ones that are out there right now. But also a lot of these gms and owners, they're going to forget the skin of a seven and ten and they're going to remember that,
you know, thirty six and fifteen that seeded it. So the year that year off, if it's to happen, I don't think it will hurt.
Him at I all think in college. I don't think the college route would be too bad for him.
That's interesting.
The way that NIL is now and the way you're managing money and you're managing these egos and agents and all that stuff. It's a lot more pro style than it ever used to be. I think, you know, that would be a miss. I can be a Big ten school. I don't know one specifically, just just something where you know a good quality program looking at it, you know, looking to kind of make a mark and say, well, that's a super Bowl winning coach he's coaching that's Arkansas.
Look, no, no, we have that guy. Okay, you got your guy.
They're about the same. We got that guy.
So no, no, that's not what I was talking about. You know, you go back to pitt I don't know, Yeah, nothing like that. Yeah like that right, Yeah, Pennsylvania area.
But that that's I liked that.
I would like to see McCarthy in that spect because he is absolutely a leader of man.
You can't take that away from him.
No, he motivates and I could see him absolutely connecting instantly with these younger guys and like you said, with NL and how you can kind of equate it with free agency.
Yeah, he might be. He might be able to do some damage to the college.
Though hopefully's not calling place anyways. Uh, let's go to Schottenheimer again once again, we have a new head coach. Even you had a one on one with Brian Schttenheimers excellence and it's on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Shouts also to Rox Sanmadena because the production on that video is like a plus man, the cinematography, the b roll, the production just really a plus on all efforts.
And yeah, I love it. I love being able to do that.
And you know it was I didn't know when I walked in this morning, didn't know what that was. That was possibility, So you always got to be ready. But I love the fact, you know, he came in and you know, he's worried about his tie. He was like, make sure his ties right, you know, and he goes. But then he goes Jerry Steven didn't have a tie on, so this is the last time I'm wearing So he was like, let's get I was resident have his visor on it. One true, he did say, oh, we'll be
getting advisor on for sure. And I'll be honest, I've never understood the visor. Yeah, I don't understand it.
I mean, I think it allows more air.
It just seems like Texas Stadium to me. You know, you got the hole in the roof.
It's like having it's like wearing sunglasses without having to worm lasses.
I guess, so, I guess.
So it's a sweat. I don't know. I could see it.
I throwing a lebron and get put ahead, bet On and get over with.
As for the interview, No, it was. It was good.
And and here's something that that came out of that that I noticed a couple other times. This is this is something that is a small detail, but I think it could be a bigger thing when you're talking about commun indication. I asked a couple of questions and which maybe they were bad questions, but he he disagreed with. He also did it two or three times in the press conference too. Did at any point did you ever
think at any point yesterday Schotenheimer was disrespectful in any way. Not, but he disagreed with at least four or five questions. The way you disagree with people at lunch here on the show, you're like, I hear.
What you're saying, but as opposed to be like no, no, no, no.
You know the dismissive verse that long way, right, So the way you handle your assistant coaches when they say I think we need to get this guy planned more, it's like, well, hold up about that, or I see your point. Let's let's talk about the way he kind of could massage a conversation like that and say, not trying to make someone feel dumb or idiot, but say I see it differently. Here's why that that that that
can go a long ways. And so it's a small thing, but it could be a big thing when you're talking about how you handle people. That's one thing I really took from that. I loved his answer. I mean I asked him, I thought I asked the question of like, hey, what's a bigger challenge the super Bowl or living up to your father's expectations. I'm not competing with my father, you know. He just he's just Serena Williams that.
Thing right back. I was like, oh crap, but.
Anyways, but but I love it was a great answer.
Yeah, he still gave a great answer.
Yeah.
I got to hear here's some kleenics. What's this question?
Like?
Nah, I don't see it like that boom gotcha? All right, fair enough, But it was, it was, It was good, and I think we're all going to be I think I think we're going to enjoy working with him.
I think he I don't know how.
Old he is in forty eight, fifty twofty two, he seems thirty seven, you know what I mean to me, he's got the younger.
He just kind of it's kind of like a dan Quinn, right, Yeah, dan Quinn doesn't feel like how old he actually is because he connects. Yeah, able to connect and be that people person and be able to coach and and have that conversation with you and disagree with you respectfully but also offer up his take on it.
So that's what can you imagine nine hundred and eighty eight missed text messages or texts.
That's crazy, that's how many he had. Yeah, and he said to all the people that love him, like, I have like five people that love me. Dudeyeah, that's crazy, but thanks man.
But he also six he also said, some of those are.
Hey, congrats, Shody, you deserve it. So you know, you know, I'm still out there, right, I'm a.
Free agent, which which then you know what he said.
But you heard the next part he goes, which I get because I've been there, you know what I mean. Yeah, that's the thing about a guy that does a lot of things. He's he's been on all sides of this. He's called the plays. He's not called the plays. He's not had the job, he's been out of work.
He's you know, he's been the intern. Yeah, you know.
And that was obviously a big sticking point for the Jones is like he's only fifty two and he has like twenty five plus years of experience.
Yeah, this is a great balance of this is new and fresh and also continuity at the same time. Those players know them like it, but it's still new and fresh because you can't just roll out last year's stuff and say all the assistants back, all the free agents back, all that stuff. That's why I think they're gonna be really aggressive. They're gonna be active in free agency. Not aggressive,
they're gonna be active. And I think and I think they're going to sign a lot more free agents than they have because they have a lot of spots to fill.
That doesn't necessarily mean.
It's gonna be Saequan type moves here and there, press conference type signings. I don't know about that, but i'd like to see one or two.
Well, and to your point, Stephen and said that yesterday, I think shot he's the perfect combination of keeping somebody for continuity but also affecting change.
So yes, you did say that getting kind.
Of the best of both worlds in that scenario, hopefully.
And that's what a team that's won.
Well, we got twelve twelve, twelve and seven forty three games in the last four years.
I mean like that this has been a good team.
Right, It hasn't been a great team, but I think people talk like we won three games last.
Night, and now what makes you wonder could it have been a great team if he didn't bite his lip.
I don't.
I don't know. I don't that's the thing. Yeah, we don't know, but it's time to find out.
All right, boys, let's take our last break. When we come back, we kind of have to face the music because not everyone is happy about this move, and we kind of have to provide some silver linings when we do. We'll do that when we come back. Right after this break on Talking Cowboys.
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To Talking Cowboys.
Welcome back to Talking Cowboys sponsored Black Black Raffle Coffee, the official coffee sponsor the Das Cowboys. This segment is brought to you by in Visi Line, the official smile of the Dallas Cowboys. Nobody giving the parly white.
ID I did you didn't see me do it?
I did it?
We did it now our boy. Our final segment. We got to face the music a little bit. We've been talking. We're a little too positive on the angry music. Heavy metal, metal, yeah, yeah, metal, there we go. We've been listen to a little Kublai contaday. You know what I'm saying. Have you ever heard that band?
No?
I just would say Metallica. I mean that's what I've got.
My wife said that to me, like when the first time we mentioned I was like, oh, yeah, I'm in the middle band and she goes, oh, like Metallica, and I was like, oh god.
Because the people that have really listened to heavy metal think Metallica is even metal. Tallica is like dad rock, you know, like Will Smith is wrap well.
I mean like yeah, like Metallica is like early. Their early stuff is great obviously, and like all the music is great, but like at a certain point they became dad rock where they cut their hair and they're like, yeah, you know what I mean, It's like all right, man, it's all good. It's all good.
Okay, So let's face the music. They do music.
Now, all right, let's face the music. The fan base. Obviously, there's too much music. There's a yeah, the music is pretty loud right now, you know. Not everyone's happy, and I get it, man, I'm a fan too.
There's too much music.
Oh, there's too much.
Yeah, I mean okay, let's go, let's go.
Yeah, not everyone's happy. Which is completely understandable. You're not in the super Bowl and you're seeing the Eagles and the freaking Commanders and the NFC championship. Which is it hurts man, it's not great. Jalen hurts if you will.
Hate it.
But obviously we're not We're not in that position. We're not there yet, and it's it's not necessarily that close. What can we do? What are the expectations that you guys have going into the off season to get us over the hump into make a one year change, much like Dan Quinn did with the Washington.
Want to exercise difference.
I get it, but you know this is this is your house.
First and foremost. You got to get active in free agency. And it's not simply the quantity. It is the quality. It's it's not about you know, bringing in four running backs between you know.
May Fils the currency right May first.
And in July fifteenth and saying hey we did a lot, we were active. No, it's about you know, doing things like number one, looking internally and saying can we retain Rico doubt or who deserves to be retained? Maybe comboying him with Ashton or something like that.
In the draft.
But you got to get active in free agency internally, but not using the internal retain or retentions as a way of justifying not being active outside of the building. So try to keep Eric Kendricks also diggi Zue Jordan Lewis.
To try to keep Rico. Try to keep those things in the.
I know, I don't, I don't, but I enjoyed that. I enjoyed.
I enjoyed the fact that did you set that up on purpose just to get the music and just the world.
I love it.
It's chemistry.
Aren't you married to do Hispanic family rights what they are?
Ye, get active in free agency and honestly, let's just keep it, Frank, ditch the excuses, all right, Because I understand the salary cap is a thing.
I get it.
But for those of us, the capologists, we also understand that it can be massaged and manipulated. So that's why I'm not buying a lot of the things that get sold. And I say it on the podcast, and I you know, I say it in press conferences. I understand how it can be finished. So retaining Osadiggie Zoo, for example, that that would be a big one. Don't then look at me and say, well, we did this, so we can't do that. Well, actually you can, because here's a trigger. Here,
here's the trigger. There'll pull this, pull this, release this person.
Make it work.
Right Howie Roseman does it in Philadelphia, Sean McVay and those guys, they do it out in Los Angeles. It can be done, so do it. So go out there in free agency. There are gonna be some whales. We understand that they're not going to go in free agency the first wave and really get super active in that.
But if you give me one of those guys and then several meaningful guys thereafter, as opposed to throwing throw some running back names out there that we had last year that didn't even make it through training camp.
It was like no on the team.
On the team, right, they were like, we.
Walked in the training camp with like ten running backs, Boyce Freeman and Daniel.
Pee, Ollia P.
Davis, He's on still here.
But my point is you you quite literally had like eight names, including Hunter lifty eight names, but how many of those names were meaningful? Ezekiel Elliott was brought back in the end, it turned out to be Rico Show, which it should have been in the first place.
That's what I mean.
Don't just throw bodies at the problem, throw the right bodies at the particular problems and kind of start from there.
We're not asking you to throw off the pie. Just make a new pie.
I'm saying is an excuse because there's a way to bake the pie where where it can be delicious and everybody can eat, as opposed to saying, oh, well, I only know how to make pumpkin.
Learn how to make apple, learn how to make cherry.
Like sweet potato pots, sweet sweet tighter.
Let me tell you about that sweet tighter pie. It's something good, is what it is.
Not it's rubarb, So respectfully, just make it work because we've seen that other teams can make it work. So look at what the enemies are doing. Look at what the opponents are doing. Take the strategies that are helping them be successful and their strategies they're using to beat you.
To adopt it, I mean, go ahead, answer well.
I also think I think a big part of it, before you even get the free agency, is that the guys you have here that you've invested in, like they've got to take that leap, Like if Tyler Guiden doesn't live in the weight room this year, then that's gonna be on them or on Tyler Guiden. And I mean that's he's got to want it. He's got to want to do that. Like he's a first round pick and they're not getting They didn't get the production.
They didn't get fifth.
Round production out of him. I mean really, I mean they they they didn't. He Then the end of the year with Chuma Idoga, I mean I thought that was going to be a couple of weeks into training camp and then he takes over and at the end of the season, like week sixteen seventeen, he was a better option for them to evaluate talent because because of just how better he was as a player that you know.
Yet that can't happen so these other teams. Yeah, the Cowboys have drafted well, but the last two years, your first round picks are not guys that are even starting all the time or competing for Pro Bowls or any of that.
And you need guys, like you said, like Sam Williams coming back from this injury. He was supposed to hit last year, but he towards ACL. You need him to hit this year. So that's a good that's a good.
One to pivot. This is my last question for the day, obviously with the draft coming up, and I think, well, I don't know if we have the draft coming up anyways, sorry, but not today. When it comes to the war room, do we think shot he's going to have a more of a say in the players that you're that you're drafting than Mike McCarthy.
Yes, I don't know about more. I mean, I don't know about more than you.
I mean, I mean the reason I say yes and let's let's qualify it, or I should say let's quantify. When I say more, I don't mean that it's guaranteed to be light years ahead of what McCarthy's input was.
More in the aspect of what I.
Gleaned, one of the things I gleaned from the press conference yesterday is Stephen this is taken from what Steven was saying, is that they understand the position they're in with Schottenheimer, right. They understand even when you talk about how many times Jerry said risk and identifying Shotenheimer, they understand that they got to put the pieces around Dak Prescott and they got to put the coaching pieces around Schottenheimer.
This is a first time NFL head coach.
You, unlike with McCarthy, you don't have the luxury of leaning on his Super Bowl ex in, one of the winningest coaches in NFL history, to say, oh, we can throw you some scraps and you can make this work. You don't have that luxury. This is a new NFL head coach, so you have to go in with a different mindset instead of yourself. We have to be more aggressive and all of the things that we do. Does that mean that we turn ourselves into the Eagles? Doubtful.
But you can't continue to do what you've been doing and using the experience of your head coach as an excuse to not be aggressive, because the experience is not there anymore. So that's what I mean when I say yes, so doing some things differently. I do think they will go to Shotty more often and say, hey, what are you looking for?
What do you need?
Tommy talks a lot about alignment, and I love that he does. I think this will be a more direct alignment between Will McLay, Stephen Jones and the head coach, which currently is Brian Shotenhamer.
That's what I mean.
That's fair.
I mean, I definitely think the thing about the draft though, is there's so many key players in free agency that they're just not going to resign them all. I think they're going to have some holes to fill in the draft that you don't want, that you don't want that you want to kind of band aid it up here in March and then when you get to April you can be able to take best player available. I just
don't see that happening. I don't I don't see you know. So, if you don't resign Osa, I think you're going to have a problem at you don't resign Jordan Lewis with Diggs injuries, You're gonna have an issue at Corny Ken Kendricks at linebacker injuries, so you know, and then you look at Zach Martin potentially retiring, and then you know, just guidance not his development isn't there. So the lines
an issue. All the running backs are free agents, that's that's gonna be a They're just not going to be able to piece this together in free agency to the point where I think there's gonna be holes in the draft. So that's why it's kind of hard to say what what happened it's.
Going to be hard to be the team that uh picks the best player available.
It don't have holes, regard less thing. And this is piggybacking off.
Letus you have a lot of holes.
You know.
Then then you're like, well, just you know, you can't you just best you know? I'll yeah, yeah, the best best you know, The best available need is what I always say. I always say it's banned. It's the best available need. And there's gonna be a lot of them.
Yeah, you're going to there's no way you're going into this draft without some kind of voids that need to be taken care of because you have such a long list of pending for free agents inside the building. So even if you keep Olsa Jordan and Eric Kendricks, for example, you still got the Zach Martin equation. You still got some depth issues because you don't know what Kayln Carson looks like in year two coming off of a season
ended injury. You know, so forth and so on. But that being said again, if you go back to how to massage and manipulate the cap, you know it'll be sold to you as oh, well we have.
To pay Michael. Well, if you pay Michaeh.
Now, so you're actually free up tens of thousands, tens of millions of dollars in salary cap space for twenty twenty five like immediately that you can then use to go shopping a free agency to help out at as far as your BPA or your band approaches concerned and free agency in the draft. So the sooner you get deals like Micah's done, the more cap savings you actually have. It's not until after the contract is about to expire that you do the extension. That's when you get penalized
for waiting. So that's what I mean when I say, you know handle it how some other teams are handling it. Adopt some of their strategies. And it's not that none of your strategies are working. Some of them are right, but identify the ones that aren't, see who's doing that thing better, and then marry those two things.
All right, boys, we're a few minutes over. That'll be it for talking talks. I know, it's talking storyline. We're leading into it. I know, I know. Thank you Nick even for joining us.
It's been great.
Thank you Kyle, thank you Tommy, thank you Isaiah, who's not here, shouts to my rich mocha.
Are you going to Isaiah standback? Is he going to do the things? It's a trademark thing. You gotta do it for raw No, im good? What is that I was going to see?
Oh yeah?
Thank you for listening to Talking Cowboys on a Tuesday. We'll be back with you next week. Thanks for tuning in Dallas Cowboys dot com.
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