Talkin’ Cowboys: Rough Seas Ahead?

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Cowboys.

This He's Talking Cowboys, straining live from the Dallas Cowboys World.

Course at the Star in Frisco.

Straight touchdown and now your hosts, Isaiah Standback, Nick Harris, John Mashoda and Kyle Yeomans.

It's so wonderful Wednesday edition of Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company. And since it's the day before a game, Isaiah stand Back, you know what that means.

You can say at this time QB vision.

No, no, no, I mean yes, we will talk about QB vision, but you can say at this time it's it's a.

I don't know, cow it's not a Friday.

But say it with your chest. Say it with your chest Wednesday.

I didn't get my push ups in this morning?

You did.

It?

You doing this here in the show. That's why just the whole time, Nick's gonna be banging on the chest. It's a say with your chest Wednesday.

Weird? Come on?

I say, sorry, man, my body is like on a clock on a timer, you know.

Like is it on West Coast time?

What you did there? Yeah?

Pack twelve time, Seattle time coming soon.

There's I will say, the Thursday to Thursday whole mix up of the schedule where today is Saturday in the building, but it's still Monday through Friday nine to five for.

The regular work week.

It's it's not beneficial for the body clock, and I feel like there's a lot of uh, there's a lot of adjusting.

That has to be made along the way.

But glad you're with us here on talking Cowboys presented by a Black Rifle Coffee come. But we have plenty to talk about today. We're actually going to do all three of our weekly segments today. We're gonna have QB Vision here in this segment, we're gonna have John's national storylines and segment two, and then we will have Nick Harris's key matchups in segment.

Three, followed by our pick him for the.

Cowboys game specifically following that, and then of course we've got our news and notes to start things off, so we.

Got to get to it. Yeah, we'll make these news and notes super quick so we can get to Isaiah's beautiful segment that does every week. We'll start with the practice report from yesterday. It looks like there's a sickness going around the D line room. Dante Fowler not just a D line room, Yeah, definitely, not just a D line room. I can tell you that Dante Fowler missed his second straight day of practice yesterday with an illness, and then Michael Parsons was added to the injury report yesterday,

Lot of time talking about this. For a second, I can't let this go.

If you walked up, if you're a member of the front office staff, and you walked up to his agent and even tried to sell anything on linebacker, Oh yeah, you don't even respond.

You fold up your stuff, You just put your stuff away.

You walk right out like there's no way that you can get away with even if that's a non star, Well, nope, we're good.

No.

That was kind of the rhetoric. And again, I don't want to spend too much time on it, but we're gonna have a ton of time on this throughout, especially the off season as well. But there was a lot of rhetoric throughout the off season from people that were not Michael Parsons saying that he was a linebacker, and he was saying that he was a defensive lineman. And I guess there was a little bit of variance you

That is good.

In the last news and note we'll get to really fast, just kind of recapping the Shaquille leonard A visit from yesterday. We were kind of talking about it pre show. I think Isaiah asked the question was was he always going to leave without a contract? And John answered, and it's it's how I feel as well, and it's what it sounds like it was, as far as truth goes. He was always going to see his options out. And I kind of tweeted about it yesterday on Twitter or zed

Yeah, I'm not saying nothing bad about before tomorrow. What if?

What if he names the cyber truck the X truck? Are you gonna are you.

Gonna call it? I'm calling it whatever I purchase it, stand.

Back, the Standmobile.

I like that.

But I tweeted about it yesterday and I said, look, this is not a normal free agency. It's or not a normal mid season free agency. He was always going to see his options out, and it's gonna happen a lot and a lot shorter of a time frame than a typical big time free agency would happen if it were say over the off season, just because he still wants to get on the field and contribute for a team down the stretch and learn the playbook and thinks

I thought you hit all of it. No, I have nothing to add to that.

That's I mean, obviously Cowboys would like to add him. They made that pretty clear anytime that there's similarities I see with the way they've gone about this too. When they went after Adell Beckham, you know, it made it pretty open, and it hasn't always been that way, So I wonder if it'll be like Odell Beckham too where it comes down to Jerry made it pretty clear in that one throughout that he didn't want to give more than just the contract for the rest of the season.

If I'm Shack, I'm looking for a two year deal and I'm again I might be off as far as numbers go here, but maybe like a sixteen million type deal just because you want to have two years, yeah right, exactly, Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, not not per year, just because you want to have enough stability obviously for those two seasons, but give yourself two gears of opportunity to earn a extended contract where you can get that money that you were earning in

And the other thing effectors in is that you know, Layton's out over Shown's out. And then I just go back to the game last week where Markue's bell was in that tent. For a while, I kept looking back, and he's still in there. He's still in there now. He ends up being fine. But it just is one of those things that go through your mind. You're like, all right, well, then who's the next one up there?

What does your gut to you that.

He ends up being a cowboy?

Yeah, my gut tells me Eagle, me too, Okay, me too.

I think I'll split it right down the middle of my gut, says cowboy. I don't think they'd let him because I agree with John and the fact that they need him specifically.

If they don't get him, it's not the end of the world.

I thought it was outlined yesterday pretty well that you temper your expectations based on wherever he signs. No matter what, he's not going to win you the super Bowl immediately. If he signs here, he's not going to win the the super Bowl immediately.

So that's that's my I guess that's one of the reasons why I think he'll end up an Eagle, because Dallas takes that Oh.

You know, if it works out, it works out.

If it doesn't, it doesn't type approach versus Philly's like, no, we need you in the building like we need you like we need you.

We want you from the outside looking in. Now we're in the buildings, so we get a pretty good indication. Understand, Howie Roseman does have a track record of saying, yep, I want you.

You're now here.

Absolutely, I get it. But that's not always the case. They pass on prospects all the time.

Absolutely, But I'm just going off of the most most recent history in terms of being aggressive and adding pieces to his roster to ensure that he has the best shot at winning a super Bowl. Philadelphia has a better track record of that than Dallas, than the Dallas Cowboys, and you add into other added the added elements that you were just talking about, Nick, in terms of the family and all the other, you know, underlying factors. I don't see how Philadelphia doesn't secure the bag there. I'm

If I felt, even though he was.

Always planning on going to see multiple teams, I always felt in my in my heart, if he's allowed to leave this building, chances are he's probably not going to come back in this building.

That's the key as well. Nick Eapman wrote about it yesterday on the website. He said Leonard has apparently made promises to other teams that he would at least listen to all offers before making a decision. So not just the Eagles, not just the Cowboys. There are other teams here that we don't know about yet. I keep it's so easily comparable to the Odell Beckham junior scenario, because at that point it was two teams and then oh

Yeah, the difference was Odell hadn't shown that he was capable of playing yet.

Correct, that's not the case here.

Yeah, Shack's been it's not the case here.

So it's totally different.

There was a huge question mark regard over over O'Dell Beckham and whether or not he was play ready and all that jazz.

Beckham's play ready. There's no team that's letting him.

Go exactly exactly right.

So if O'Dell Beckham had been on the field and then started taking his visits, yeah, totally different, totally different situation. So I'm just my gut. I hope that Dallas finds a way. I don't I don't see it happening well.

From this side right here, it's trying to be a glass half.

I mean.

Also, if you're him, though, honestly, what are you thinking.

Go to Dallas because it's the best scenario out there.

Let me just let me just state this is somebody that I'm not a Cowboys fan. I didn't grow up a Cowboys fan, but there is something about the Cowboys that's different than I'm a huge sports fan like, and I'm not sit at home watch TV sports fan like. I'm a single guy. My life is sports. I've been to a lot of places.

It's tough. The Cowboys, man, it's tough to beat. It's tough to beat everything that comes with it.

I don't agree. I've been around the world.

In right, I get it.

But there's there's there's some there's something when you look at what both teams don't like.

I don't want to play outside, so I got something A bad example out one Seattle sounds very Enticingladelphia playing outside like. I don't oh no, don't love the idea that you just have a couple of bad plays and your fan base is ripping you harder than anybody else.

I don't love.

I mean, Dallas does that to me. I don't know, man, This whole ordeal is reminding me of my last job in recruiting, because he's like taking visits and he's going to make his decision this weekend and what's predictions exactly. I was thinking about that yesterday. I was thinking about it, if honestly, truthfully, if I were to enter a crystal ball, I wouldn't have one right now, so.

We'll see the biggest thing with me too, and I say that about the Cowboys is because it's been twenty seven years and I always feel like if you could be one of those pieces that got them back to glory like that, just I challenge you to compare it to something else. I'm Lakers, Yankees, they've all won since then. I'm talking if you were one of those key pieces that helped put them over the top, like, it's tough to beat that.

Now.

Number one, though, is money.

So that's the money family convenience.

Speaking of money and this, of course you can finagle quite a number of ways.

But Dallas right now has six point six million.

In cap space and the Eagles have two point three.

So it's about.

Four million dollar difference this year, specifically between the cap for Philadelphia and the cap for Dallas. Now, Philadelphia's cap next year looks significantly better than it does for Dallas at the moment, but that'll be rearranged and figured out along the way as well.

So there's only two point three million left in cap space for Philly, oh for Philly, for Philly, six point six for Dallas. Current that's considerably different it is for the rest of season.

You're talking about a pro rated contract for the back half of the camp Camp Philly.

Does Philly have an open roster spot? Didn't they just let you go over?

Dear Barnette, don't drink your walk are like that?

I love that. I heard the little air bubble and that.

All right, you practice that.

Things don't happen by chance. That's all I'm saying.

The ab we spent a lot of time on this. Isaiah, you've got like four minutes.

Why Eddie, it's time for QB vision with Isaiah's standsback, go for it, all.

Right, y'all were gonna blow through this real quick. Seattle Seahawks, these dudes are fast. They're really fast. That's probably the best way to describe them. I think that's been their model for some years now. Defensively, that's what they rest that's what they rest on. They always have. This year is no different. We can start up front and with their defensive front there, they don't really have a bunch of dogs up front. I would say, you know, Mafe

The guys that are absolute dogs for them.

You got to go up to the second level and that's when you run into Bobby Wagner and you run into Jordan Brooks. Those two guys are complete monsters. I think Bobby Wagner has one hundred and thirteen tackles already. I think Jordan Brooks has like ninety five or something. It's crazy, like they're right there with each other. Those guys play downhill. They're sure, they're smart, they don't pick

He's a beast as well.

And then a man who doesn't huh them, you know, And another man who I don't think gets enough appreciation, is going to be Julian Love, and he's the guy who pops off the film for me. He's not the big name, but he's a man who has a ton of tackles and I think he's had a greater impact

At the same time.

This team, Dallas is number one in the league in terms of having Nickel. I'm sorry, not Nickel, but dime. These guys are at the top of the league in terms of having Nickel. So these guys like to have three dbs two safeties in at all times, which leaves their box a little bit lighter. But that's why they have those two guys at the second level. They can pretty much stop anything that comes their way. They're tackling machines. In terms of what do they run coverage wise, they

They can make you.

You'll feel like your receiver has a step on somebody, but because of their speed on the outside, you don't have a step. They're able to run all over the place. Their safeties run sideline the sideline, so a lot of gaps that are in your coverage. A lot of times those guys are closing those gaps. Much like we talked about Doron Bland closing gaps on these receivers and getting interceptions. These guys do the same thing with PBUs. Okay, they're running all over the place. You think you have a

To the second level. You have to get up to the second level if you want to.

Stop Brooks and Bobby Wagner, because if you don't, they'll ruin your day.

So it's almost.

The flip flop of what Dallas brings defensively. Where Dallas it's the pressure, yep, that helps set up the secondary. Here it's the secondary that helps set up the interior.

Correct.

Yeah, those guys, Your guys aren't even though they're not playing a lot of man to man, it feels like man to man.

They're playing zone.

But this zone eighty three at the top of the four, fourth in the league in terms of how many times they run zone.

But it doesn't feel like zone. It's weird.

So like most teams, you play play zone and it's like, Okay, well there's going to be a gap there.

It is the weakness.

So there's a pure speed, this pure speed man, and these guys have the freedom again to kind of freestyle, and I kind of relate it to you mayber Trey Polamalu.

Trey Polamalu like you to be playing.

Yeah, yeah, so you might be playing cover. He might be playing cover three. You look back there, there's no safety was because he's at the line of scrimmage and next to you know, he's freaking jetting out twenty five yards back to the middle of the field and try to throw it over his head.

If you want to he has the speed to get back.

So they give their guys that kind of freedom to mess around and try to screw the look of the quarterbacks. So I foresee them trying to do the same exact thing with Dak and the receivers of Dallas are not going to have free releases. Whether it's whether it's man and man, whether it's cover three, whenever they go single high safety, or whether it's there too high shell defense, they're gonna get hands on you. I mean, I Honda style. You're not getting off the line. You better work on

Would you say this is Dak's best, Uh, competition will be as tough as matchups in San Francisco.

Defensively, I think this would be not necessarily Dax. I think this is gonna be the receivers. I think I think this would be the biggest challenge.

This is the.

Best secondary that Dallas has faced this year. I think cross the board fair, across the board, across the board straight, straight up.

And this is a team that, again they don't play man.

So that's saying a lot, right, that's saying a lot for a team that doesn't play man to man. They're gonna pay man and man techniques in zone covers, so they're playing you like as man, but they still have zone help.

That's a problem.

How similar do you feel like this defenses when it comes to personnel and scheme, especially with how young this this defense is too to the Jets and kind of like what they've been able to put together. The only difference is they don't have an offense behind of the Jets eats Seattle.

Has a little bit more there, I can see. I could see your comparison there. I think that these have more dbs. I think they have you know, when you start talking about you know, Witherspoon, Brown and yeah Willing, those three right there are highly skilled guys.

You know.

The Jets have I think two guys that you know, obviously Hot Sauce and I can't remember the other guy, but they have two guys that can play play man to man and lock you up, and they want to play Manda man.

The Seattle doesn't want to play man of Man.

They don't, right, so, but they're gonna get up there and get in your face as if it's man and man. And when you when they do that, it's distracting because you're so concerned about trying to get your release that you almost have you have to now remember what what coverage they're actually playing, right well, you get so concerned about just trying to beat that one guys Okay, I got him, Okay, like crap, Now, what the heck is the coverage? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Jamal Adams or or

I mean, I mean, it's it's seamless, you know.

And and Dallas, for for instance, you know, think some of the things that I've been open for Dallas in terms of Brandon Cooks.

Am I blinking right now? Not you know, be Cooks and Turp.

You know those guys coming in short motion, kind of going across the field and things like that, and they've kind of been wide open. I don't foresee that being the case, because these guys communicate so well.

Right they're they're doing their own thing.

They're back there having fun, their freestylings, like we're playing in the backyard, and as soon as somebody comes in short motion, it's just literally like there's a it's a bump of coverage. It's not like they're trying to say, okay, hey, over over, now, let me see what I have.

It's like, okay, now, I got this guy, and it's just like smooth.

There's no gaps in the in the passing off of responsibilities whatsoever. They you could tell these guys have fun playing together and that they are literally on one wavelength.

I know we have getting a break, one little note that I wanted to throw in really quick. It's fair to say it starts in the secondary and it helps everything else. For me, it starts in the second level because those guys are so disciplined, Bobby Wagner and Jordan Brooks, it allows everything around them in the secondary to try to focus on their job, and they know that the middle of the field's gonna be fine and those boundaries, they just focus on that and it'll allow for everything.

These two are as good of the sure thing at linebacker position there is in the league in terms of a tandem.

Yeah, I don't.

I can't think of any other outside of San Francisco. I can't think of any other tandem that's as good as these guys are in terms of working together well.

And there was a fear early in the off season once we got to like preseason game number two, whenever we were calling it in Seattle, we kind of knew Jordan Brooks would be back, but there was early off season concern that he wouldn't even play this year. And instead he's played eleven games and he's been fantastic all the way through, and he's he looks like his old self, which is a credit in his own right, credit to their training staff.

To get him ready to go. But Bobby Wagner too.

You talk about Bobby Wagner, what he's doing in this is year number twelve, razy for.

Him and got one hundred tackles them.

I mean, yeah, in terms of Leonard Williams is the only one on their injury report of note he's dealing with an ankle.

Didn't Prikes that Monday, but he was limited yesterday.

Good to know.

Bobby Widener one hundred and thirteen tackles. Jordan Brooks ninety five. That's Julian Love seventy nine.

Jordan Brooks w reckon, by the way, go ahead, what was it tech?

By the way.

For those that watched the Draft show and talking cowboys, because I know you're out there as well, you might remember Reek wollen was a big pet cat of the Draft show of myself because went to UCSA.

They called me me meet me, called him Reek the freak is.

What they called him at Utsa, And I mean he is a freak of nature.

He's long, he's speedy.

But then they go out and they spend a first round pick on Devin Witherspoon, fifth overall pick, highest drafted player the Pete Carroll or era ever, and he's even more of a freak than what Tyreek Wollan is.

So you know what, how does Wolan just like just like Bland, how do they follow the fifth round?

He was he played at a a group of five school, he had limited time. He dealt with some injuries at UTSA. It was a it was a bad secondary, good front seven. So they probably just film wise didn't trust exactly what they had seen. But man, he six foot four to two oh five. His numbers at the combine with phenomenal. He had six picks his senior year.

He makes to Seattle too. Yeah, yeah, I want to add one thing.

These defensive backs, they they will hit the crap out of you, all of them. Their safeties are headhunters. All three of their safeties are headhunters. They want to they want to decapitate you. And then you have there, all three of their corners come up and hit two. Devin Witherspoon is their fifth highest tackling on the team, has the fifth highest amount of tackles on their team. These guys will come up while they're playing that too high show. They wanted to They want to come up and hit you.

So that was the calling card for Weatherspoon draft is that he wants to be He has.

Over sixty tackles a year, these fifth intackles on their team, which is is absurd for a corner.

Another thing I just remember going back to John's questions. Just now for Woolen, he was a He was a wide receiver who made the switch to corner as a junior. So we only had two years as a cornerback at UTSA.

So there's just you know, ant that thing during the draft when it comes to the Cowboys, a lot of people talk about on their DB's in the corners they like those long arms, tall corners or anything like that.

Yeah, yeah, that's not the Cowboys, that's the NFL.

The guy like that.

Everybody was Fort Wurth, Arlington Heights.

There you go, the Yellowjackets, right, yes, sir, there you go.

All right, we got to take our first break. There's QB vision. When we come back, we're gonna hit some national storylines. Continue previewing the Cowboys and the Seahawks right after this on Talking Cowboys.

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To Talking Cowboys. Back here on Talking Cowboys.

This segment of the show is brought to you by Invisi Line, the official smile of the Dallas Cowboys. All right, John let's get into some national storylines.

Yeah, so at the Athletic we did an anonymous player pool. Writers from cover all the teams went up to players. I went up to a few in the Cowboys locker room, and so their names aren't included, but they vote on We basically read off ten to fifteen questions if you don't want to answer when you don't have to. But so and all we got about I think it's like eighty five ninety players. So I just want to run by a couple of things real quick. The first one,

Guys?

Wonder which ones those are? Well? What happened to be in the same division they do? Cowboys? Yeah, one of them's right here, and the other ones in.

Philly neck and neck man Eagles beat them out twenty five percent to twenty four.

Percent or the Cowboys, so Philly one.

Yeah, that's that's right.

How would you how would you rate overall officiating in the NFL? And I know it's a small percentage, but two point five percent set it ten like that it couldn't get any better.

I can't believe they even got a vote.

I'm shocked you got to vote to how many players did it?

Say eighty one for that one? Because like I said, there's not every yeah, like, no, you have to answer this. It's like if you don't want you can just pass or whatever. Yeah, two point of ten.

Three people said ten had to be like three punters.

That that just I don't know that really surprised.

They all for the one. Yeah, all three played for Philly. That's the only thing.

Ten percent said. I was a one like that couldn't be any worse?

Was that the overwhelming number one?

No, it was kind of in the middle five six where it was at yeah, which I would probably agree with.

I think if someone asked me that, I would say that everything it's.

Terrible ever since the replacement officials and that whole debacle back in what year was that where they had the strike in the question?

Yeah, I can't remember what year that was. I will not the size.

I'm sure a lot of money that your come.

I'm sure. Yeah.

I don't think I would criticize them as a one.

Now.

I will criticize officiating significantly if it's bad, but I don't think it would be that bad. That was as bad as bad as it's ever been.

So you played in the NFL, so you answer last on this. I want to get your guys opinion. If the NFL had a team overseas, would you be willing to play for it where?

I can't tell you that just it's over just overseas, so it would have to be.

I mean, it's an NFL city, so I don't think that they're going.

To put it in. It would mean like outside of North America.

Right, yes, yes, could be. I guess that would mean.

Yeah.

The question is where would you most like would you be?

Well, think about the places that they've been playing these games, right, London, Germany?

Right?

Have they played anywhere else that I'm thinking of? I'm missing one.

They're working on Vehico.

Oh yeah, they played in Mexico. But that's not over the that's not.

It's the country. Throw that in this.

It is like the thirty thousand foot view literally, because what I'm thinking of is travel. Yeah, gosh, some of these you think about Dallas and the road trips that they have to take because their division is all the way across the country. And then they have to play at least three West Coast games a year. Dallas travels quite a bit, arguably more than any team in the league. Seattle actually travels the most, by the way. That would

For like certain weeks where you're like you're playing two different teams.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You would have to be able to stay in the US and have like a headquarters somewhere on the East coast.

And that sounds like a blast.

Do I get paid in euros?

That's a great question.

That's a great question.

Doesn't matter, definitely matter.

If it's the six reason number now you want to talk about, then it matters. But if you're I mean, it's gonna be currency equaled out, I'm sure Texas.

You want to talk about.

Okay, you want to talk about free agents, acquisitions and the Dallas's ability to be able to re paying some free agents.

Taxes played a big, big role in it. Buddy, I say no.

I would say no. I would love I would love to play in the same division as probably I would say no, I.

Would say no, I would you would?

Okay, so fifty five percent said no, which actually was higher than I thought.

Uh, big land Slide.

Best player in the game, Patrick mahomes forty six percent of the votes.

Nightment close. This one didn't surprise me either.

If you which coach, which current coach in the NFL would you like to play for other than your own?

That was my first thought. But I'm McDaniel. Climbing high on that list is Mike McDaniel.

Gosh, that's hard. I would probably go I'd probably go McDaniel. I was about to say, yeah, it's kind of your dude. You guys are Yeah, it is.

You guys are really good.

Tom Timon was number one by a deep smully twenty six percent McDaniel.

And honestly, that's are he was.

He was like others like kind of like in the middle, a bunch of different things wither. But Andy Reid was next one. So you got this down.

What was Pete Carroll like? And I know you've had interactions with he got vote back and forth.

Pete Carroll's fun. Yeah, he's fun.

He's all about he's all about competition.

High energy guy.

He's all about, you know, letting guys duke it out to be the best. He doesn't crown anybody aside from probably Bobby Wagner or Russell Wilson.

But they're just their their their starting role. Everybody has to work for it.

And every week there's competition days, there's turnover days. Like there's certain points of emphasis and like this, there's a lot of jokes, a lot of clowning around. He brings in comedians all the time and magicians and he keeps it fun like.

He really does a great job of cutity.

Like you look forward to team meetings because you just don't know if Will Ferrell might walk in, you know, like just just random stuff like that. You know, you somebody gets called up and has to shoot a basketball to win something, you know, and try to make it like it's or you're walking there to be a picture of Kyle back in high school with a leotard on or something.

You just don't know. Where'd you find that I don't know about?

Don't put that out there.

Last one before I go to the next subject. Last one from the player poll best stadium to play in.

Superdome No, I love the Super Dome. I really hope that's the oddly.

Oddly enough, I've never been to the Superdome world I know, but I'm just saying that's there's no way that's number.

Why do you guys like it?

Oh?

The atmosphere, The atmosphere is great. The culture of New Orleans. I do love New Orleans. I would. I would probably say, though, I bet you AT and T is number one on that list. No, I doubt, Wow, I doubt at and D.

Sam's eighth.

Eighth Jesus was a question again.

Best stadium to play in, best stadium to play in Miami?

No, no, not so vibes. You don't have to really deal with an opposing.

It has to be l a.

So if I was third, I don't know that Lamb Lamba Lambo was Bestmber.

This is from players perspective. Oh Arizona.

No wow, not even no even on there? Well, no, it is, it is on there, but.

It's way done.

Levi Stadium, Casey.

No, Casey is number one, eighteen percent and second is what what I Probably my favorite stadium to go do is in Minnesota.

US Bank.

Okay, everyone always I forgot about so we.

Used to play there every freaking year.

Lumanfield eight point three Top five.

Not atmosphere dope. Yeah, see that was fun. But in terms of like surface awesome.

Yeah, I really liked Seattle Stadium.

It was it was really cool.

Okay, when I can put you on the spot on that, never I'm gonna say which is the worst?

But no one.

Other thing I wanted to get in the last one here, just because it's become a popular topic in the last twenty four hours, is just Aaron Rodgers basically going to bat for how well Dak Prescott's been playing.

Aaron Rodgers does that.

Weekly Pat McFee interview just to go over real quick. He goes, he's playing, He's playing the position in a really impressive way. I love the way he's playing, like really playing. I'm not talking about just making good throws. I'm talking about it seems more rare that guys are actually really playing the position where you're making adjustments, you're handling everything at the line of scrimmage.

I love it.

So that is a pretty popular topic right now. But I just want to throw this at the end, he said, I just wanted to shout out Dak for really impressing me.

It's just such an Aaron Rodgers thing to say, Yeah, that is kind of like a shout out for you really impressed me.

But it was like shout out, low, bro, that's kind of what it said exactly what it sounded like. What was funnier about that too, is that it was in response to a question for Pat about his cadence. Like here we go. I goes like, hey, that's that's like pretty cool. You know, it's like different, like what kind of cadences do you do? You have you used in your career? And then that's that was his answer. Is

Week, keep your sweathirt on.

That's funny. I got to take top unders this, let's go. I think one no.

I think Dak Prescott is starting to finally get the national recognition, maybe not even recognition, because recognitions respects respect.

That's the better way to put it.

The national respect of what he's been doing. I think it would explode if he can do it against Seattle, Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami, all these teams down and Buffalo down the stretch. If he can keep this up, not only would he be in the MVP conversation, but he might be the MVP front runner. He has a chance to take off right now. He's playing really, really incredible football and there's no doubt about that.

I don't care who's on the opposite sideline.

If he can continue that with who's coming up on the opposite sideline, he's going to be the MVP front runner. That's where Dak Prescott is. And I think Aaron Rodgers just jumping on the boat before a lot of.

People do not a bad year to have that run for him.

No, not at all.

Yeah, I think it starts with you have to beat you have to beat Seattle, but then you have to beat Philly and you have to outplay Jalen Hurts because that's gonna be your number one competition to win the division, to probably win that award.

I just don't understand why Jalen Hurts is a front runner. And it's not Philadelphia hate, like it's just legitimately looking at teams looking at Yeah, I understand that, but like you remember when Pittsburgh started the season eleven and zero, it wasn't like they were looking at Ben Roethlisberger, like, ah, runaway MVP favorite. You know, it's just like, I don't get it. It's it's very weird to me. It's also Jalen hurts hate at all. I actually really like Jalen.

Yeah I do.

It's a really good pay.

But it also has been a weird year where a lot of the MVP front runners or per se that you could have had have either been hurt or injured for a significant amount of time or just haven't played well for a stretch of time, and it's just kind of been up and down.

It's a weird year where it's wide open.

And honestly, the MVP front runner right now may not be the MVP or even close to the MVP by the end of the year because there's still a long way to go this season.

It's it's one of those weird years overall.

But I think Aaron saying that was it's great for him to give that recognition, but it's also he might just be jumping on a bandwagon before he gets an opportunity or before everybody else gets an opportunity to join him.

So all right, yeah, we're good.

All right, when we come back, we're gonna go through some really quick key matchups, and we're gonna give picks for the Cowboys and the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football.

More talking Cowboys.

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Did you get him in this one?

Apparently I did not.

I love that this is a daily question. I hope we can keep that going. We'll keep it going. We're gonna fly through key matchups. Is that all right?

Yeah, let's roll.

Let's do it, go for it, starting first with Devin Witherspoon versus CD LAMB. CD Lamb is going to see a couple of different matchups, I think on on Thursday, but Devin Witherspoon's probably gonna be the guy that has lined up opposite of him the most, just because they're gonna pair him with a guy that not only has a little bit of physicality and Witherspoon, but also has the a center of gravity to be able to move with CD. That's the biggest thing whenever you're trying to

Do you think that CD has a big game?

No, I don't.

I don't either.

I think he has a big game, but I think he has you know, touchdown sixty yards, you know, I think I think it's what he's been doing the last couple of weeks, which is fine. Like, you know, I think it's it's going to have to be a group effort.

I think the highest potential to have a big game for the Cowboys offensively, like stat wise, if you like, at the end of the day, you're just like, hey, that the reason they won was because so and so had a big game.

Tony, No, I don't. I don't believe so I don't. I don't believe. So I look at Jake Ferguson and see an opportunity. But the only thing I worry about with Jake Ferguson if they can't get the running game going, then he's going to be wiped out. So for that, I'll say Brandon Cooks just because he's he's got more speed than anyone on the field.

Yeah, I think this is a game for Cooks to have to step up, and even that's not going to be easy against the secondary.

This offense.

They might struggle to put up points in this game.

They really might.

This is gonna be a game where your defense has to help set the tone and give you an extra possession or two.

Yeah, it's gonna be a challenging game.

They really will be huh yeah, second one really quick, and this is gonna be this kind of goes into a running game. Bobby Wagner all of that. This is the first time I've ever done a running back versus linebacker key matchup this season, just because it's with the way the running back position is played in twenty twenty three, it's hard to like find a matchup between a running

That's so funny about just where we are in the NFL with how much it's his change, because I just think of, like when I was watching in the nineties, like the top running back vers whoever the top linebacker was from their team would always be like a key matchup, but just the way everything's changed, that is it is gone to the wayside.

It's almost like a running back versus Nickel at times too, just with the way they're so they're used so much outside zone in the screen game and the receiving game, like Eckler, if they played Seattle like it'd be Devin Witherspoon versus Austeneckler like every single snap. Yeah, you would think, but that's just the way the game's played. It's it's very strange. Two very good matchups for you gentlemen.

By the way, before we get into our picks, Chris Beam doing some live producing in the back. You sent me a tweet apparently DeShawn Jackson, Cowboy Killer, has announced his retirement.

Wow, and he's a fish. He done.

He hasn't played this year, but finished his career with sixty one receptions, thirteen hundred yards and six touchdowns against the Cowboys alone.

Did he drop the pen before he signed the retirement? Whoa wow? That was one of my biggest memories of Eagles Cowboys when I was when I was a kid, where he dropped the drop the touchdown. Yeah, yeah, there you go. So just a little bit of news there.

All right, let's pick it Cowboys versus Seahawks, the fighting Dallas Cowboys versus the fighting Isaiah Standbacks. I mean the Seattle Seahawks. You're not a Seahawks guy, I.

Mean, are you gonna pick Seattle? Are you going to pick Seattle? I am a Seattle guys.

You're a Gattle sport You're not a Seahawks.

I am a Seattle sports fan. I'm not a fan of Mets around here.

But okay, now every athlete ever from Seattle go.

Doing this right down.

As much as I love Seattle, I don't see them beating Dallas. I do believe that it will be a much more competitive game than Dallas has had in recent weeks. I think this is gonna be like a twenty four to seventeen type of deal. Lower scoring, we're scoring.

Game, a little bit grinded out game. I like it. I'm gonna I'm right around the same scenario.

I think Dallas maybe gets a big play late to hit the thirty point mark. I'm gonna say thirty one sixteen, and Seattle misses like a pat or something along the way. So give me, give me the Cowboys to win it, and I think mostly it's because the defense, like I

I love that. I think the defense is going to be the catalyst towards this one this week. I think, especially with it looks like Kenneth Walker not playing, I don't feel like there's gonna be a lot of opportunities for this Seattle offense to really get going. And yeah, it's gonna be a sharbon eight times shout out to PAC twelve UCLA. I think I have it at twenty four to fourteen Cowboys. Rip that the PAC twelve thirty thirty.

One twenty Cowboys.

I just the way they've been playing at home, it's I can't go against it. It's it's I've been It's the most impressive thing that they've done over the last two years to me, just I can't believe that they've been able to build that type of an advantage at home. This will be a tougher game than any of these previous ones have been at eighteen T Stadium, But I just feel like the defense will make a big play here or there, and I think the offense will do enough.

So thirty one twenty, let's go. Let's go. What's your way? What's your definition of a big game? What does he get to hit? One hundred yards? Just don't say over under hundred yards, no hot sauce.

I'll say.

I'll say seventy five yards? Touchdown? Two point conversion?

Yeah, oh I could see that.

A point conversion.

I guess how would he get to thirty one?

Then?

Yeah?

I missed extra point?

You know, I have sixty one yards in my head.

Okay, okay in a touchdown?

Sixty one winning a touchdown?

Pretty good game either one of you guys hit pretty good games.

Zone.

I mean, yeah, all right, that does it for us. You're on talking Cowboys but it doesn't do it for us. Throughout the week. We will be back on Friday. Not Isaiah stand back. Isaiah is going to be at the last Pac twelve game ever played. Congrats your Washington Huskies. Good luck on Friday.

Let's go.

We can catch Isaiah on Cowboys Pregame Live though way through.

Just make Bo Nicks not win the Heisman, please, I don't want to.

Yeah, but we will be back on Friday.

John will be here, Josh will be here, Nick will be here. I will be here as well. Chris Beams always here.

We will be back Friday, nine am Central Time to break down the Cowboys and the Seahawks Thursday Night Football seven fifteen on Prime Video.

Don't miss it.

Cowboys Pregame Live gets underway at six pm Central Time for Chris be Isaiah Standback, John Manchoda, Nick Harras, and Kyle Yeoman saying so long from the Star in Frisco.

We'll see you on Friday for more Talking Cowboys.

This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.