Talkin' Cowboys: Roster Projections

to Hawaii. These are J C. Penny shirts. I believe they are. Yes, go get you one of those whatever Yanning got for us. Yeah, yeah, sponsors get you tho. I bet Bill Jones jealous of us. Yeah, it's a great look. Micky got the tan going to you know, like you're on your own dive shop. It's Mickey's Dive Shots warmer this morning. Yeah, I don't need long sleeves. Actually good for you. Well, it's you know, it's dive shot, Mickey's dive shot. I'd tell Mickey's bar would probably be

even better. A little surfing going on, Mickey surfing conk Chowder I like it ice cold beer. Maybe had maybe have a w gn on. No, I've never surfed Mickey. No, they'd harpooned me on the snarkle. I'll do that. I don't know. You guys got a day off on Friday. You could try. I'll tell you a real quick little storkling story about Hawaii Wi. Do you know size fourteen shoes? So I'm so worried we're over this this coral bed. It's like they tell me it's like a million years old,

one of those things. And I was so worried about my flippers, like hitting the being too long a bottom and hitting the coral, you know, breaking off pieces. I was like, I was floating around. I was like, oh, please don't touch the coral. Please don't touch the coral. I was worried that my Finn was gonna knock it. Okay, right, yeah, yeah. Snorkeling is the best. It is great. Yeah. I don't

think I would dive, but I can snorkel. How about it? Well, it's always it's sad leaving here every year because the weather is so great, everybody's so hospitable to us. A lot of good work done here, and knocks start a lot of good heart talked about that yesterday. Yeah, selfish say it was selfish about that, you know, I want teams coming to me and for scrimmages whatever. Yeah. And

I noticed that the intensity and practice. I thought the assistant coaches did a good job of ramping it up, like making sure these players didn't think, Okay, this is over with, we're leaving. I thought these last two days of practice were really really good in the and you can see the assistant coaches were making an effort to like, Okay, we're not letting up here. We still got work to do, and and they were very vocal, I thought, trying to

inspire the guys. So yeah, and even even the little by play in the afternoon practice between Richard and Dak Prescott. You know, I'm not sure that just happened organically, like I think they had it in their mind, Okay, we

gotta jack everybody up. Yeah. I think it was really funny on the the last compete period at the very end, right where they you know, where it was down to the three plays offit scored really like on the first play and Mark Colombo yelled at the defense two extra point two extra points, you know, and like all those defensive coaches were all sitting there and Mark was like two field goal, two field goal indio and he said he was laughing. He was kind of high five and

the defense came back. So yeah, I thought when he yelled at that they were going to go for a two point No, he was, he was. He was rubbing it. He was, he was rubbing it in. And by the way, uh, the head coach said, had they scored that touchdown at the end of the game on Saturday, they were going for two, they're too Yeah, there you go. I think I think I read on the transcript that Kyle Shanahan would have really been disappointed in that decision. Yeah, he

would have. Well, good, maybe the Cowboys were disappointed. He didn't play any of his players. Yeah, that's okay, fair enough, it's preseason, that's right. It was. Brian always say to Woody Wou and everybody out there in periscope, only worry about what you can control. That's right, that's right. Don't worry about Woody Wou and everybody in periscope. Good mor mat us. Yeah, questions whatever you have for getting to the championship game. He shouldn't like complain about anything. Yeah,

fair enough. All right, So speaking of we're not letting up intensity, all right? Uh. Contract talk, Jerry met with the media. He's only done in a handful of time since he's been out here, about ten twelve minutes, mostly about dak Zeke and Amari. Yeah, what did you take from that discussion after practice? I don't think any things changed. I don't think they feel like their backs are against

the wall. And it kind of furthered what he said on the pregame show when I asked him about the contracts and I specifically said those three and he said, well, all I know is I'm working on six of them. So he kind of reiterated the deal about we've got to sign a lot of guys and the market doesn't mean anything to me. What means to me is getting my guys signed as a team. And I think he

used the analogy of DeMarcus Ware. Yeah. I was going to ask you guys about that if you had a thought about how he explained that to you, And what was the translation the Jerry whisper on that there. Well, I mean he started it off with saying, I don't have the responsibility of dealing with the market. I got to realize I could let a DeMarcus ware out of here because I don't have enough money because I paid

it to many others. There you go. And so that's his analogy of I give it all to these guys, then the other guys that I'm trying to sign ain't gonna get done. And he didn't. He and he raised the possibility of one of those other guys getting done before the start of the season. I have a feeling Rob's gonna make quizzes on that a little bit here.

Any thoughts on who that might be. I mean, we threw out a few names in our recap yesterday on the website, guys that are either restricted or unrestricted after this season currently who are not in the quote unquote big three, like the roster Jalen Smith. There's one Layl Collins yet, mcleake Collins. Yeah. Uh. Anthony Brown Byron Jones

Byron Jones, Yeah, absolutely so yeah. I mean he kind of threw out a little mystery there, you know, could there be a fourth guy that they're because one thing he said throughout the offseason was there's no pecking order here. You know, there's a lot of guys on this team. We like if if you know, we're not waiting to get one deal done to go get another done. I've I've had I've had guys tell him me, who do these contracts and stuff? You know, they said, listen, there

is no order. Rob, you made the exact point. There, there is no order. If you're one of those guys that's coming in and willing to deal and and make a deal and give us an offer, and we'll make a counter offer and if you're willing to work with we'll sign you. I don't think it's like the It's like the cap guys have been sitting here the whole time and just okay, let's twiddle our thumbs and let's watch practice and let's not do anything. I mean, their

doors open for business now. Like Mickey would tell you, you you got to be realistic with me here, don't you know, don't live in fantasyland, you know, live in reality of what like Jerry Jones is talking about, Jerry Jones does not want to go through losing another DeMarcus ware because he overpaid somebody else. That that is a that is a fact, and that is a fact that now you know, we talk about the things that the Cowboys over the

years have done. They developed their their their mantra has been if you want to say, draft, sign our own, where when I was here it was maybe draft well, but overpay for other people's talent. That that's now in the past. Now they're moving to Okay, let's make sure that we could take care of all our players and still keep our team together without wrecking our salary cap and us having to lose players. So that that's a

really salient example. D where like when it happened, was that the issue, although he was dealing with a lot of injuries right at the time back and they decided that where his base salary was right, it was a little bit high for their for their blood, how rich it was, and and so they decided to move on. And I think it was that it was that philosophy, let's cut a guy too soon than waiting too late

and getting a broken down player. And he was he had injuries right at that time, but you know, he went on and had another year or two that was pretty good in Denver, right, So yeah, I don't But I think the other part of it was that, you know, they thought he was physically breaking down and then if they paid him that money, it might not have been available because of who you know, the Tony Romo contract as Brian contract coming up. So there, Yeah, there was

a lot of factors in there. I thought. The interesting thing is, you know he said, really he goes, you know, when people said, are you getting worried and nothing's getting done, and he goes, He basically said, there's there's no leverage for either side until the season starts, meaning Zeke and the Cowboys. He said, because the leverage is, well, he could miss games and we won't have them, but our leverage is he can lose paychecks, game checks and twenty

four thousand dollars worth of game checks each week. So that's the leverage. And now you're sitting there going, I don't know if that they're playing chicken, but that's the leverage eats, you know, for each side. So he seems to think, and Jason seems to think that they still have a really good relationship with Zekiel Elle absolutely, So you know, the deal is dealing with the agent and what the agent's trying to get. And I guess at some point the player can step up and say sort

of like where I mean not where DeMarcus Lawrence. That's I think let's get this done. You and Rob have talked about that. You right now, Rob has talked about that before that. In order to get this deal done, it maybe takes Steven Jones getting on the phone with Ezekiel and saying, listen, this is what I can do for you. Can you help me here because I'm trying to build and keep a team around you. I'm trying to give you one of the best top five offensive

lines in the in the in the NFL. I'm trying to give you a quarterback that we feel like he's on the rise. I'm trying to give you a wide receiver that's one of the top five in the National Football League as well. If you can help me a little bit on this, you know, we can work together here. And I think I think I think Zeke could be reasonable. I think Zeke's a prideful guy though too. You know

he knows this where this team. I mean he's if if Zeke was in camp and it was a Maury Cooper holding out, I'm sure Stephen Jones would have the same thing. Hey, I'm giving you a top five running back. I'm giving you a quarterback on the rise. I'm giving you, you know, I mean, yeah, trying to keep players around you so you're not going you're not getting beat up and losing football games every week. Deadlines do make deals. DeMarcus Lawrence's deadline, to a certain extent was I should

shoulder fixed. And if I don't get it fixed in the spring, then I'm jeopardizing my season, or at least part of it. And we just spoke about Zeke's and the Cowboys kind of artificial deadlines. I don't even know if they're artificial. It's the fact that there's games coming up that matter that will pay Zeke a lot of money per week, and the Cowboys and Zeke are trying to go win a Super Bowl this year and see, and you got to remember that those those base salaries,

they exist even though you get an extension. It's not like you take off the base salaries for this year and you take away the base salary. He's guaranteed for next year. The extension starts after twenty twenty, so when you figure out the package, you know, like I've been trying to explain to folks, so when a player gets an extension, he's on the last year, that base salary for this year still counts, but it's next year, then it starts, and then it starts next year, so you

have to factor in if it's a five year deal. Okay, what's he getting over six years? Right? Right? What's he getting over six this current year? Right? The other year, which devalues the average of its twenty million all of a sudden, now it's fifteen million. The question for Periscope, they want to know, Okay, if Zeke does sign before Dak, does that affect Dak's negotiations? Are you concerning it two separate things? You can looking at this as all different

types of things. Money. Does it affect how much they can pay them or or does it affect what they want? Yeah? I think I think it. The question is how does that affect negotiations for Dak? I would imagine it might speed him up, but I mean it takes money out. Yeah. But but but they they've they've prepared for all three

of these top guys to be together. Yeah right, yeah, Now, now, I mean maybe there's gotta be some wiggle room at some point, because you can't just say this is what, well, I guess you could just say this I mean if I overpay, But if I overpay robbed and does that mean I gotta underpay? That's the question. I think that's what I think. You don't think that's the way it's gonna work, Okay, fair enough. I think each guy probably knows what, you know, what they need to have, you know.

On the interesting thing I just thought of. You know, you mentioned DeMarcus Lawrence and they got together. Could that have happened a month earlier? Yeah? Like did it? What? What did it take to get to that point? Because he got what seemed like a fair contract right to me, I don't know, you know what he thinks. And it doesn't look like obviously feel like that. Obviously feels like it was a fair deal to him because he signed it. And what what got it done? He walked in the

room and talked you say that along, right? And and I know this for a fact that if if you're not just contracts, if you're negotiating a business deal with Jerry, if you're walking in the room, you better be prepared to get signed or signed the deal because he will talk you into it. Yeah, face to face. That's famous for when free agents come on official visits. Yeah, it's like if they're interested, and you know, if they're coming in,

obviously there's mutual interest. Usually the guy's not leaving without a deal, or if it does, it's it's no more than twenty four hours. You know. It's like, I don't know if if Pepsi walks in the room, you know, yeah, better be ready to do a deal. Yeah, because he is that good and engaging when he's in a negotiation. Jerry, I don't think the forty million report came up, but Jerry was asked about Dak reportedly turning down thirty million,

and this is what he said. You don't have any financial way of knowing, any way of knowing where you are financially until a deal is done financially, and so you have no idea. It takes two both of us

haven't said yes. At the same time, he also reiterated he's not focused on what the market is right and because there's a lot of talk about, well, there's top five offers, you know, for for these guys at their respective positions, and he just went on to say, it's it's if I'm listening to advice, it's how to get all these top players under the cap. And so I don't have the responsibility of dealing with the market. It's it's the cap it's under one roof. That's that's continues

to be the line from Jerry and Stephen. We've got to be able to field one through fifty three long term, a team that can compete. See and from Dak's standpoint, he knows even if they don't get an extension this year, his guaranteed contract under the franchise tag next year is going to be somewhere close to thirty million. That's true, right, that's what you're gonna get, true, and it's guaranteed. Now. Do you want some of that money early? Do you not want it all from in front or do you

want to get it week by week? And that's the that's the chance you take. And I don't know. I'm not a financial expert to know. Again, I would imagine his signing bonus is somewhere. If you look at all the other signing bonuses have been out there, they're not as high as they've been previously. So the signing bonus is probably twenty to thirty millions something like that. Do you want it all now or do you want to work for it? Next year under the franchise tache and

that's the difference. The other thing Jerry said was he's gotten no indication from each camp that they wouldn't be willing to negotiate into the season. Yeah, if it came to that. So at this point, you know, things can change. But that's still a possibility, assuming or if these deals don't get done in a few weeks. That's in the book of sports writing questions. I know you negotiate during

the season. If somebody was going to give you offered you thirty million dollars signing bonus in the season, you're going no. No. But that's a fair question. We discussed it yesterday and Zack Martin said a couple of years ago, I just want to focus on the season. That's fine. But so what if it didn't get done and they gave him the deal he wanted, he wasn't gonna go now now we ain't doing this, that one's gonna happen.

It's a fair question to ask. It's a fair question. That's, like I said, it's in the book the Questions of sports right now. Okay, okay, you got to ask that's a standard question. All right, We've didn't mean to bring the house down. But no, I'm just look at the absolute truth. I'm just trying to take I'm trying to take off contract question. I mean, I'm trying to take us away from contract. Well, let's take a break and then move on to say he talked about a lot

of other things. That's what we need to get into that. Let's take our first break and we come back. We'll talk about more from Jerry, and I've got some questions for you guys, kind of a larger view of training camp as we wrap up with two practices left in Oxnard and our final show today. That's next has been helping Cowboys fans seed better since nineteen seventy two. He said, they don't miss a moment on the field. Get glasses best vision, clarity and protection with the Ultimate Lens Package.

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segment two of our final show. As we we gotta pack our stuff up right, Yeah, get rolling. You gotta have it there tomorrow morning. Yeah. Um, you could put it there tonight if you want to get wet. Well though, it's going on the truck tonight. No tomorrow, six to ten. Yeah. I just talked to Mike mccordon. So you get six in the morning. They're not leaving until three tomorrow. Oh, so you could, okay, put it out there the night. The way that Fogg has been coming in, you're gonna

have a wet said Hayes. The last two nights out here, it's been kind of has it been purple? No? No, okay, hazy though, hazy foggy all right, Uh, what's a periscope cooking? Like Brian? What you got? Well, they're they're asking questions about uh really, they're they're they're interested. They appreciate the fact that we did have a little contract talk there, but you know, do they they're wondering though about the situation when John Vay Johnson and Guiting, you know they're

looking at that. Do we see I mean, I know Johnson's a little nicked up right now. Is that still? Do you still have John Vay Johnson in your plans? Mickey robbed Is he still or now all of a sudden you have to talk about Devin Smith and now talk about also Cric Wilson. Yes, yes, so, I mean, is are the two guys that we're clearly depending on how he's coming out of OTAs how you looked at it, the two guys that were the OTA darlings or now

or they have they fallen behind? What we've seen with Devin Devin Smith, Yes, looked like to me, why I see why he was drafted in the second round. Absolutely, I see why. I see. I get it now. Maybe you know the fact that his health wasn't good that that probably a big factor. But he's making some plays out here, guys, he really is making place. So my question is have the the OTA darlings taken a back seat?

And again this is coming off periscope to the guys we've seen now, make don't know if it's a back seat. But I think there's higher level of competition right now, and now I think it's for one spot potentially. Potentially, I've got Tavon Austin at five. It depends. It depends

on Noah Brown. Yeah, I think that they haven't They haven't rushed him back, and he's ready when they get back to the Star, he'll be ready to practice the way out of see him running out here, and he's finally standing with the guys going through the walkthrough, which he hadn't been doing before he had a jersey on. Uh, So I think he's getting closed. So I think all that depends on what they think of him. So I think there's depending on him or Tavon. There's one to

two spots open unless they go really long. But I think the other two guys that we've been taught, actually the three guys Reggie Davis. Uh. We were thinking it was a three man race. Well it's a five man race, right because they really like what Devin Smith did in

that preseason game. He should have had two touchdown passes if Rush had thrown the ball the way he should have because he had good protection on the deep one and the fact that he missed him wide open across the back of the end zone, and then he might White White rush. Yeah, sorry, Mike White. Yeah, and then he missed Darius Jackson underneath. It's fourth down, right, So the fear of throwing underneath on first, second, or third down is you don't have a time out right, and

you might burn the clock. But on fourth down, if he's open, and he's that wide open, then throw it underneath. I mean, I saw Troy Aikman dude in the game to Jay Novochek and the ball came up like two feet short of the goal line Cleveland, I believe it was, and they lost the game. Yeah, and everybody's like, what's Troy doing? Well, the guy was wide open underneath and they came up and made a really good tackle. Bill Belichick in uh in company. So I think those guys

are in the conversation right now. Brian, you said you got Tavon at five. I thinking Noah's on. I'm thinking Noah's Okay, Okay, I'm thinking Noah's on at four, And I'm just going I'm not That's not me, That's that's I'm I'm I'm telling you what I think they're gonna do. Yeah, I think so it might be one spot. I mean we've seen they've this team has kept seven receivers before, but it's not easy to do well. So it's a

matter of who can return punts. Yeah, and you noticed in the second half Cedric Wilson was back there returning punts, and then yesterday Jordan Lewis was actually fielding a couple and we really hadn't seen much of that. So I think it's turning in their heads. Well, if we don't have Reggie Davis or Tavon, somebody else has got to return, somebody we trust catching them. Okay, Okay, let's let's play this little game. Gosh, I know you're gonna hate this, Mickey,

I'll let you know. Okay, of all those guys, of the five guys we talked about, who would you hate to lose the most of the five? Yeah? Sure, of the five of the five guys that Mickey put out there, he's Mickey, and we were all thinking maybe it was a two or three man race. It's now five man race. Who would you feel the absolute worst about losing if they had to put one of those guys out? John By Johnson, I think it's too early day step question. I think for me, it's john v. Johnson. I think

he's got I think he's got the most too. Really, I know you're gonna go with it. I'll answer the question. He's got the most natural to me, the most natural physical ability out there. Like to me, I look at a guy that's got a potential to maybe even be a starter in this league just based off of ability. Now he's got to be able to finish plays. But I just they love the guys makeup. I love his his pedigree, his dad played in the league. I don't

think it's too big for him. Even though he's had some drops, it has been too big for him, don't you think. I don't know if he doesn't, because he's going with him and I appreciate his he's I don't think he made a lot of plays too, and he plays in the game. This happens in meetings all the time. There will be one guy tremendously passionate about a player and in potential, and then and then water and then no, no,

but that's what you do. That's what you do, and and it makes and you know what you did the right thing by not going off on him. But it makes you think like, Okay, I've now I've got to really dig in. I've got to really dig in why I think this guy needs to be on this football dude, because I would fight you. I would fight you thinking like, Okay, what does what does Devin what does you know Devin Smith look like to me? Or what does Cedric Wilson look like to me? You know? Those are those are

the kinds of I'm thinking of. Okay, here here are guys that I know, I know they have this talent. And not to say that, not to say that John Bay Johnson doesn't have everything you said, but I'm thinking like, Okay, what have I seen? And now sending Mickey throws in there. Okay, guys, let me ask you this. What has he done when we've thrown him onto the big stage? That? And then all of a sudden, now you have to think, Okay, how about all those practices, Mickey? How about all you

know that? Now the arguments really start, and that's where it's tough, because you've got six tags on that board tilted that you're gonna gift to get rid of one of those guys, and so you rank them and you're thinking Okay, who who do you feel the absolute the guy who they feel the absolute worst about losing? It's going to make this team. That's how this one is

gonna work. Because I don't know. I mean, you're looking at diamonds in the rough, right, and now you've got to ask yourself if I lose this guy, yeah, is there another guy coming around next year? Right? Yeah? Or is this guy so special he? I mean, or every one of them besides Wilson and Devin Smith fell through the draft this right? Can everybody be wrong? Now? Sometimes they are right because I think they're wrong on Gifford because I think you can pencil in him. He's gonna

make this team. Okay, he is going to make it. He even injured. Jerry Jones mentioned him. Yeah, okay, but he also mentioned John Vay Johnson. Okay, are you willing to fight in that case? Are you willing to fight for Chris Kevington? Are you stand up at the table for Chris Kevington. I haven't seen enough for him to say I would rather him than Gifford, But you've seen enough of Gifford. I've seen enough of Gifford. Okay, he's

on this team. I think I agree with him on that, and he made Mickey makes a good point like coaches love consistency, and you can argue there's been other receivers in this five we're talking about that have been more consistent. Yeah, but it's also about upside. I'll give you a great example too, if I could go ahead for Robin No, No, it's it's it's a combination of both. You gotta go off of what your eyes have told you from day one through fifteen or whatever many practices they've had out here.

But then do you have to balance with what do we think this guy can be if we can just get him to this point? I heard a coach one time in a meeting say this about two players. Coach said this, Julius Jones is just as good as Steven Jackson the running backs. Yeah, okay, that and that was that was that was the argument. That Nay, that's like, Okay, we don't need to pick Steven Jackson, right, if we lose Steven Jackson, We're okay because we're gonna get Julius

Jones two thousand and four draft. That is the That is an argument that that was happening in a war room that Maurice cath On, the running backs coach, said he said, at my evaluation, Julius Jones is better than Steven Jackson. Everybody was trying to justify not losing Steven Jackson. And when when when Parcels heard that, then everything swayed. Now there's your okay, you you get you know, Julius Jones is a nice player. Stephen Jackson ended up with

sit you know, twelve thirteen, fourteen thousand yards rush. You had a long career, yeah, exactly. So that's the argument that you have. That's why when they ask, they say who do you feel the worst about losing? Then somebody will argue, well, this guy's just as good. So if you lose John Vay Johnson, Mickey will tell you We'll wait a minute. I think that Devin's I think that Devin Smith will be just as good. I think that

Jalen Guiton will be just as good. That's that's the problem that you deal with when you're trying to cut your team, especially at these spots. But what you have to calculate is if I try to get him on the practice squad, can I do it? And Jason talked a little bit about it yesterday, Right, you got to decide can I get him? And then if you lose him, if then you say okay, all right, well fine, or are you sitting there pulling your hair out because you

took the shot. That's the thing, if that's that's the problem you run into is because you're sitting there thinking if you if you're sick about losing the guy, then but you can't keep them all. You can't keep them all. Matt Matt Moore's the best example. What ten years ago or so? Yeah, yeah, they get him on the practice squad when they couldn't. And now the guy other teams are watching, you'll take two, especially that last preseason game which he I mean back then he had a great finale.

And okay, Dan, I'll ask it in a different way. Out of that group, who's the best that you've seen perform out here? Who would be number one on your list? In practice or in games? Both? Whole thing, whole package. Oh, I think we've seen more from John Vay, but the He's two guys are coming on now because they're getting more opportunities. No question. Well, I'm not sure anybody knew Devin Smith was on this team during no, ta me, right,

I failed scouting. The only reason I knew it was because I was told about his speed and that he looks like he's running now the way he did coming out of Ohio State. Uh. And remember I said Ohio State, right, Oh no, heaven second round pick. So if he's running as well, he's got something. And we never got to see Cedric Wilson last year. See right, This is this is now a good point. This is to me, if you ask me complete package of practicing games, this is

where I'll fight for Cedric Wilson. I don't argue with you on that. This is where I'll fight for Cedric Wilson because downside is he's wearing dark glasses because he's in concussion protocol. The only guy out in practice with sunglasses on. But that's wear sidelines. Yeah, but I mean on the field, I don't have a jersey. Yeah, so

um yeah. So you know he he's a again, it's a different type of slot receiver, right, He's a little bigger, but he's got speed and he seems to get open on a consistent basis, and he's not afraid obviously to go over the middle. Now, I don't know if that changes after he got jacked up on that pass that shouldn't have been thrown. Uh, but you know yesterday we have to we have to see, I mean, we have

to see. There's three more preseason games to go. Lance Lenora was all Frisco, right, yea or Valley Ranch wherever he first started. Yeah, and then the lights came on and no, he shrunk yeah, uh to the point where they waived him injured and you know, and he reverts back to the to the injured reserve list because he cleared waivers. Is there another position that we're going to be talking about that's similar to what we're doing with

wide receiver? Yeah, Defense, the defensive line. We talked about linebacker too though, right or is that just clear cut? I think I think that's over. You're calling that you're you're waving. It depends how many they're gonna keep. Seven. Well, they could six, So then you would have Covington and and and and March. Those would be the three guys Covington, March, and and and Gifford. And I got this feeling Gifford's

on this team. Mickey has a gut feeling get defensive line is still fascinating to me because we were talking about it just sitting out of practice today or yesterday. There's guys that are showing up that you kind of know aren't gonna make it because there's just not enough room at the end. But like the second team defensive line yesterday was all rookies. Yeah, it was Jelkes, uh, why Walker and Joe Jackson. And that's not even counting Tristan Hill who was getting first team reps with Malik

taking a rest day. So I mean they have a lot of decisions to make up front there. And and don't go to sleep on Christian, Yeah, Christian Christian Christian Covington, who's gotten some first team reps on the nickel right, he did as a pass rusher, see this is where and he did have I think four tackles in that

game by the way. Okay, another question for Mickey that he's gonna say it's too early, while it is too early, okay, But if it's too early for okay, what position of the of those of Okay, as we're looking at our team, the linebackers, the defensive ends, and the wide receivers, which one is going to have the most difficult cuts. It's

still the defensive line. Yeah, thank you for answering that question, Mickey, I agree, do you because because it's sixteen guys in a vast majority of them are good enough to make an NFL team. So you're gonna you're the likelihood you put defensive offensive line out there, they get claimed, right, Yeah, especially offensive lineman. Yeah. So all of a sudden, now you're looking at these guys, you're saying, Okay, if we mess around here and keep an extra wide receiver, that

means we might have to put an extra line. Okay, so let's do it this way. M Carrie Hyder I talked to Rod Marnelly about him yesterday. He was really excited about him, and in a way that I didn't think he would be. That Joe Jackson. He's excited about Joe jack and the and the and the head owner. Yeah, keeps bringing his name, the owner, general manager. Yeah, that's

usually pretty good. Sime. Robert Quinn's in. Yeah. Then you got Daniel Wise, Shakier Soto and Ricky Walker, who two of those guys are kind of stepping out saying you put Ricky Walker out on the street from Virginia Tech. Someone's gonna go back and look at their college scouting report and say, man, maybe we were wrong about that, but you look at the numbers right now and you're like, how do you do it? Oh? No, I know, I know that's give Will McClay in that group finished, Jalen

Jelks see talent, that's practice squad, so practiced. It makes Lawrence Armstrong makes it Daniel Ross be able to be careful. I think Daniel Ross has got one foot in the parking lot much. Christian Covington. I think he's impressing. Yeah, you know, he got MALIEK. Collins, Charlton, Crawford, and Woods. So that's a that's that's ten. It's really you could you could really keep twelve. Yeah yeah, see I think

they keep ten. So you just named twelve out of sixteen that are you think are good enough to make this y yea yeah, yeah, that's the guy that you mean. You gotta hope, but you're gonna just know this. You put guys like Walker out there, he's gonna be gone because people will go back. Though he played well enough that San Francisco game, He's probably gonna play well against

the Rams and their backup offensive lineman. You know, he's gonna show again, and then he's gonna get to play the whole game against Tampa at the end of the year or the end of the preseason, and then he'll probably show up at that and it's gonna be well, can we let him go? And it's like, no, we can't. And then you know, now we have to figure out, Okay, who else you gonna what veteran guy? I'll tell another position to keep an eye on, is safety. I don't think.

I don't think that. I don't think that Cabon Frasier's safe here. I don't think Cabon Frasier's safe. And who's taking his spot? I think the young man from Texas As Wilson. Yeah, absolutely. I think do they love Thompson. They will. They rave about Thompson. Oh he's so smart, he could do this. Thompson, Darren Thompson. They rave about him. But I think that I think that if you talk about a veteran that might be in trouble, you know, maybe veterans are in trouble. At wide receiver Tavon Austin,

maybe he's in trouble. Maybe he is, maybe he's not. Chris Covington, linebacker, maybe he's in trouble, maybe he's not. Well, if you look at the defensive backs, I'll give you the if you're including Thompson, yes, okay, as the givens, right, Thompson, count him up, Oouzier, Woods, Jordan Lewis, Anthony Brown, Byron Jones. How we got already the five? You guys were supposed to count one? I thought you were okay, Yeah, that's six, six okay, okay, and then and then and then uh

Jeff Heath seven, So that's seven. And now you got maybe three spots, Yeah, why not for Donovan Wilson, Mike Jackson Senior? And then uh, good one alumba okay, and I'll throw a lumba in there. So yeah, there's four to fit into three. I'm not sure about um what they think of C. J. Goodwin good special teams players? Yeah, see they'll tell you that. And then, Nicky, you made up a great point that if I was in a draft room arguing, I would say, why do we have

all these special teams guys? We punt, We kicked the ball out of the end zone. We punt to the sideline. I did include Frazier in that. In that That's what I said yesterday. How many specialty guys can you? Yeah? Yeah, I mean you're keeping one at wide receiver that hadn't practiced the whole ye, right, if that's what you want to call him. Man, that's pretty his primary roles. He's been a blocker. He can catch an occasional pass out

for you. But yeah, I mean he's I'm not trying to make Mickey's point, but I'm just saying he's not there you are, Yeah, Okay, there's gonna be Do you think there's gonna be three guys on this roster that we're gonna go? What do you think? Or do you think we got that thing covered with what we just did? Well? I think the what's would be if Gifford makes it injured, Govern's gonna make it injured. Uh. And and you know at this point, if you have to shave, you're gonna go.

I don't know if it's yeah, yeah, you're gonna go two quarterbacks and and and then um the offensive line after eight. I don't see where nine and ten is eight. You could, but you don't want, especially with Zach situation. Is McGovern your eighth lineman, he's nine, He's nine. Okay. I think you have to cover yourself with Sue Philo. Okay, because Redmond Looney, Yeah yeah, okay, yeah, that's your eight. Get five with the eight, with the threes eight and

McGovern is nine. Yeah, I think that's and then I'm not sure you got ten. Who's the next guy. I would rather keep an extra defensive lineman then I would an extra offense. Yeah, maybe you can get away with that. Those guys will go to the practice war because you've got you mentioned Looney, and there's some flex there, so maybe you can get away with going to one extra. Rob just told me though, if I put offensive linemen out there, they get claimed. We have two and a

half more weeks of practice. Yeah, it's fun. Somebody else I'm gonna get hurt. These things clear them up. They absolutely do. All right, let's take our final break, we come back. I have I have my own questions for please do as we wrap up the Oxnard portion of camp on this show next. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a thing, then cutting the cord is scary. But then I found out I could switch it or ACTV now and still get

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dot com. Black Reserve. I'll tell you what, Mickey, if they don't have bottles of that waiting for you there to give to us, I'll be really disappointed. What do you think carmantin is. It's got to be something good. I've never heard that. Looks really upscale, fancy good stuff. Man. Look I'm in Look at this the bottle. Yeah, it's like a Yeah, it's like a wine bottle. I'm in for that black reserve. We might have to try that, Micky, get some of that police. Let's see what we can do,

all right. A couple other things from Jerry yesterday. Not concerned about him Mari's injury, as you said, I mean they think if he had a practice, he could practice. Right now, he's getting closed. What they don't want to do is send him out there and then he's got to come back to him. Yeah. They want it totally taken care of, healed, uh, and it's basically rest right now.

The other guys we mentioned that, Jerry. You mentioned a couple that Jerry it has caught Jerry's eye, John Vay, Johnson, Luke Gifford, Doran's Armstrong, Tristan Hill and Tony some guy named Tony pot Tony Pollard. Keep those young guys coming, yeah, keep the young guys. Yeah, give them rolling. Some draft

picks in there, some undrafted guys, and that's good. We got a credit to how you know Chris Hall and those guys post draft able to go out there and and and round up the college free agents post draft because they've got some kids that got shots making this team right now? All right, I got some categories for you. I know. Look, you're right, two and a half weeks of practice left, three preseason games. Yeah, but we're those two come real fast. The last two come real fast.

But we segment this right. We're a Knox Snard right now and we're about to not be so. But we still got a week of training camp, actually a week and a half, right, Rob, I'm with you on this game. Go ahead, what do you got I'll put my name on it. Give me the best player you've seen on offense? Here a Knox narc for him? Oh wow, best player on off Okay, skill guy, Robber or anybody, anybody, lineman whatever.

The quarterback, why, I just think he's had a really good camp and he I like the way he's driving the football when he wants to throw it down the seam. His feet footwork is feetwork on footwork is really good, and he's really getting his legs into the throw. And that's what he's got to concentrate on consistently driving the football, and you drive the football with your legs, not your arm. Tyron Smith. Yeah, I just feel like that. Tyren Smith.

If you know, if if the Good Lord allows him to stay healthy the entire year, he's back to that level. I'm starting to You see the power, you see the mobility, the agility, the just the nastiness in which he plays. It doesn't matter. They've tried to throw young guy, old guy. He Robert Quinn is a quality rusher. He beat Robert Quinn up. Robert Quinn I think has the utmost respect for him now going against him every day. But they've thrown a lot at Tyron Smith and they've given him

some veteran days hopefully to kind of get him. Just don't need him in week six to wake up and feel miserable with a back, because he is he is of the of like the top three type players. He's either one or two for me, Right, these guys are gonna start having Tyron Smith flew. Yeah, I'm not the next one in line. Oh, Tristan Tristan Hill said that. I interviewed Triston Hill and I said, I said, What's

what are you excited about. You know, it's a terrible question, but what are you excited about the forty nine er game? He says, I don't have to go against Tyron Smith anymore. Yeah. That that that's that's what. That's how he thinks. I'm with you on Tyro and I'll gallop honorable mention. Gallop is but that's a very good get good break out player of the year. So he kind of broke out the second half last year. Yeah, but he's doing better.

It's not just everything's not just totally vertical now with right there's stuff that you see inside and he's running smooth route, catches the ball that every time. That ball he caught in the back of the end zone yesterday, I don't know how he caught it because I thought it was going to be intercepted, so he couldn't have seen it into his hands. Jason Witten had one too yet and yeah behind his back. Just Witten just threw his right hand up in the air and it went

into his hand. That's I mean, but that's guys that could catch the ball through that guy thinks. Actually, he's been pretty good. He's been very good. He's I think a lot of people if they were out here with us every single day, would be shocked at how well he's practicing now. I think a lot of the evaluation then will come down to can he block the way he used to when he was younger. They ran a couple of plays yesterday where he does enough now that

ball gets to the touchdown. The touchdown that they had where they pulled uh they pulled uh, Suephilo and was Pollard Pollard ran in untouched. Yeah, that's a cave down. That's a cave from Looney, a cave from Collins, a cave from witten Poe. They secure the edge, They get the guys in the outside ball up inside, and he and from your tight end. You're not looking for pancakes. You're looking for a guy just to shield off up,

shield him off. You don't have to put somebody on the ground and and you know, and that's one of the things those young guys still I think they have to improve. Jarwin and Schultz, for sure. Schultz got better towards the end of show yere. Uh. Now they're both banged up, but you need them back because if you saw what they were doing, they started putting Looney out there in too tight end because those guys they just got I'm sure McIlroy's not a who's ever asked him

to block? And uh Marcus, Yeah, but let me tell you, Lucy, he's not a block. Let me tell you what is there is there a player that's grown more since OTAs to where we are today. Think Cody McElroy has made himself a legitimate practice squad player. He caught that pass and ran. Yes, yeah, yeah, I think I ran. I walked by Todd and very sarcastically said, yeah, that guy reminds me of Rico. He's he's Rico two point zero. He's and he's much better. He's much better, not even

in the same clock. I'll take Ricky Walker in that category of the most improved gay. Yeah, that's on the mail bag right now. Actually, who you get that guy? They have him playing defensive end Ricky. Yes, they'll kick him inside. Mary Nelly knows what I'm playing all over. They're gonna they're just Mary Nelly's gonna put these guys in position to shine. He will the Rams game. You'll see him play more of a natural position. So now Ricky Walker is the flavor, not Daniel Wise they're both

been good. But but but I noticed the game. Well the other day I noticed Daniel Wise more in the off season than I did Ricky Walker and Walker, Yeah, I didn't power Ricky Walker's guy. I started memorizing numbers to do the Blue White, and I was like, I don't need to worry about those two. I mean, he had He's had three sacks in the last two days. I know wouldn't be sacks. And then but who's he

going up? I don't care. He showed up in the other games, going up against a bunch of guys that aren't going to make the practice squad, so he better do it in the games fair enough? All right? Uh defense, best player you've seen defensively quickly, best player defensively that's not quickly Xavier Woods, Xavier Woods, Xavier Woods or either him. I was going go the corner, Cheeto. Cheeto has been

awfully good. Cheeto. I'll go Malik Collins. All those guys have really good I don't I don't think that we should have picked five. Yeah, yeah, I don't think you're wrong about Malik College. Yeah, because you're I mean that one. But I was thinking about, Okay, the dominant you've ever seen knockdown ball? Yeah, they were, they were. The linemen were grateful he wasn't practicing yesterday. Yeah, they they're like, oh,

day off, thank you. All right. Last one, biggest question you've got as they continue camp in preseason, what are you still uncertain about the most the kicker? Kicker? Kicker kicker, and only because there's no well, I don't think there's any alternatives out there. I think they're getting ready to have a big workout. But yeah, and that's fine to bring them in. But if those guys are out there at this point, how good they can be? When the Vikings had to use a fifth round, no question to

trade for one question, because they're still worried about Dan Bailey. Yeah, and so if you got a trade for one on another team, you would rather bring in a free agent? Right? Well, Casey Redfern kicked yesterday. We'll see if Brett Mohurt kicks today. Redford wins six of six finally, no, no, four of six? Ye excuse me, h, Yeah, he's done. Okay, if we had to cut the seventy five, he's gone. All right, Well,

thank you guys so much for joining us. Right, Oh, we're gonna increase to four when we get back to the Star. Yeah, back on Monday, Monday. Yeah, we'll be back home. They'll be all refreshed and ready to go, and we won't know what time zone we're on. Bill, we'll take over the pilot seat. Thank you guys so much for joining us out here. Thanks to Caden for getting us on the air every day, and William really appreciate it. And uh enjoy the preseason game. Thanks for

the Sandblaster out there too. By the way, we've loved the Sandblaster. We've loved everything. One more one more day. They kick you in the button, right, it's like, okay, it's fine, this with you. Don't even anymore now, it's all good. Drop an fbomb on and the shareh whoa, whoa. My mom told me I need not to do that anymore. By the way, it was fine. You didn't actually do the other three letters, still being scolded by his mama. Thank you guys so much. Love you. We'll talk to

him Monday on Talking Cowboys. The break is next. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.