Talkin' Cowboys: San Francisco Bound

Spagnola at the River Ridge Complex here in Oxnard. Bill Jones has left me in the captain's chair for the remainder of training camp. We've got a preseason game tomorrow night in San Francisco. Will continue previewing that as well for the next hour. Kent Garrison has got us on the air. Thank you for that and welcome fellas. Good to be here. Better believe it's Talking Cowboys. Yeah, did you talk about cowboys last night? In your hand? Absolutely

all night long? Did you? Yes? All night? All night? Who'd you harass? He mingled? That's you, He'll mingle, But he'll harass though, too. Who'd you harass? No? Nobody? Really? Yeah, you beat anybody down with your story. We're retracing the annual media party that yeah, I'm sorry about so nice to put on every year. They do it for Mickey? Is what they do? Is it just for Mackace is on the was a senior member of the media staff? Am I right? Were you the senior member there yesterday

of media other than Brad Sham? Brad Sham Mike Fishers cover this team for a long time. Not as long as me. No, but I'm saying it's not as well either. But wow, Okay, I knew, I knew I could get this show started the right direction. He's going in, He's going in for two minutes in. Can I ask a real quick question? Yeah, bring Okay, I'm not gonna make it a personal thing. Was it because newspapermen generally, No,

I'm just serious. I'm serious about this because you did you you covered it when there you got ink on your hands, That's right. Did you watched the show The Post? The movie The Post, which I absolutely love, great movie. You you're You're That's how newspapers? That was? Mickey? Right? Was it? Was it so competitive to this day that you don't have good relationships with guys that were that were part of that that that covered the team like

you covered the team. Is there's still that bitterness somewhat, but only it seems like with the guys that were at the Morning News, we kind of got along with the guys at the Start Telegram, okay, but the gat was Galloway. Was he with you or Hernings morning? Okay? Okay, yeah, before he went over there, and you know guys like Gary Myers. Yeah, you know, I don't like Gary Myers either,

put up with I don't like Lacey. At least now we speak civilly to each other, you know, before I just like, so if you guys were working shoulder to shoulder, it was, it was it was difficult. I never teld you my story from the preseason game in San Diego. No, you know that press box, You're like, oh, I hate that. Wait wait wait year was this nineteen eighty nine, eighty six? Maybe? Okay, all right, and we're we're in the press box and the Times heralds right now. It's good. This is good.

Until the left was the Morning News, right, we had ordered that was back in the day when you had to order a phone, the phone, you had to order a phone. Yeah, they didn't provide phone, so the phone is sitting next to me, in front of me, and my guys are all to my right. Gary Myers is on my left, and they forgot to order a phone. Of course they did, right, ha ha ha right right uh. And he reaches for the phone and I go, Gary, you know that's our phone. Oh it is I go, yeah,

it is ours. We paid for it. And he goes, well, it's okay if I use it. I said, you use it now. But when it gets to nine forty five, right, you can't use the phone. And and so it gets to nine forty five and all of a sudden he grabs the phone. I said, hey, what did I tell you? And I took it and I put it over and seat in front of the guy next to me. Yeah, it's like, you cannot use our phone. See Vicky surprised. Vicky didn't roll up the sleeves the full day, put

your Jack Johnson. You know, we did bare knuckles. We didn't get bought out by the Morning News because they out competed us. Right, Okay, you know it was a war. It was a battle. It's also just like who you are. It's not it's not just the time period, No, it is the time, it's who you are too. Who okay, who on the other team did you respect? Who is the most respected guy you said? You know when you when you were battling with those cats, who was the one guy you said? You know what? That guy he's

good at his I'm trying. I'm trying to remember when see that time David Moore was at the fort Or Star Telegram. Okay, and so David Moore a young guy then and then he moved, Yeah, he moved to the morning news. Um still covering the team. Yeah. Uh? Jan Hubbard, Yeah, I think, um maybe maybe, and the guys that did um kind of put him on the Hi. I'm trying to think. I'm trying to remember the guys, the guys

that did baseball. Oh yeah, okay, who we weren't battling back in Uh David David david that NBA right, Uh yeah, the columnists, David Stevens, Yes, yes, how do I remember this? Yeah? Thank you? Yeah, David, because you read him prod I did. I enjoyed getting ink on my hand, David Davidson. Guys, guys, he was a good cat. He was a good cat. So things changed with those guys. Well, no, just the bitterness. Oh yeah, yeah, because I feel like, finally it's me.

It's competitive, but everybody gets along. It's like for the most part. I mean, you obviously still have your enemies, but yeah, Scouting, I'm I don't mean to throw you into me, into your story, but Scouting, they're still guys from twenty five years ago that I you know, I see them and I my teeth grind a little bit. I'm sure they do the same with me. I'm pretty hated you probably, Oh, I just got into everybody's I

was always involved in everybody's business. Yeah, well not everybody's business, but I but I was so I was like Mickey, I'm competitive. Yeah, you know, I wanted our group to be better. You know, I was a little I wasn't cocky, you know, but I just you know, I think there's a certain way you do your job, but you want to be better than the guys. You're battle and you're

you're the only way we got to measure ourselves. And is the wins losses, Like in those three years, I mean, I come from off a super Bowl winning team to go in five and eleven for three straight years. And the great documentary is about to come out today about that the you know, the Bill Parcels the last ride, which you were gracious enough to pay. But I'm saying, yeah, Mickey covered the team. We were god awful. We were

we were got off it. It reminded me of it reminded me of a time where I'm like, gosh, can I do I know what the hell I'm doing here? Do I know? Do am I helping this team? Am I doing? That's that's the thing about I appreciate Parcels coming in and changing over. But the whole story, though, is we're all competitive. Yeah. I mean, Mickey didn't want them to get a story. I didn't want them to draft a guy. So I can understand where he's coming.

I can understand the sports hate a little bit. But you know, there's some of these guys that do they rub you the wrong way and you just in it's twenty five year long grudge, you know, And and maybe that's a bad way to live. No, I mean it is probably not healthy. And in the newspaper business, you were every day with these guys. Yeah, it wasn't just here every day with these guys. You know, you're you're living training camp with him. You went out and had

drinks with him last night. I did. I wouldn't do that. He did mingle though he did. He did move around. Oh no, he's to move around seven or Spagnola, Illinois. I got another another good one for you. No, Rob's heard this story. So it was training camp eighty six. Yeah. Uh, the Cowboys had just won the rights to herschel Walker and Tom and I'm I'm in thousand Oaks in my room. I gotta do a big, long takeout on herschel Walker. And I called him put a. I got a phone number,

called him, left a message. It is eleven o'clock out here, So that's two o'clock in the morning in New Jersey where he was staying and probably Trump Tower or whatever wherever he was. And I get a phone call, Hi, this is herschel Walker voice, herschel Walker. Yeah, and I I've never heard this story and I I wasn't gonna

buy it. Like he's calling me at two am. And my college roommate covered Georgia for the Atlanta Paper when he was playing there, and he had his voice down perfectly high pitch, high pitch kind of squealing, and I go, this is John. I just know it's John and I'm not buying in and I just like, hi, thanks for calling me back, and I and I just like innocuous stuff because I didn't believe it was him, right, well it was him. Yeah. Finally it came around and I said, oh,

this is really him. So we have this half hour conversation. I had written this long story. Now I got to go back and put stuff in him. Right. So at the end, he goes, um, do you know Gary Myers? And I go, yeah, I do, and he goes, well, he uh. He tried to call me too, and I didn't get an answer for him. Could you leave him a message that I called? And I said absolutely, I will no story. He never got that message. Good deal. Well, I mean, look, it's competitive in the newspaper business, competitive

and scouting environment. It's competitive on the football field, right. You gotta respect for your opponent, but you gotta, you know, do whatever it takes to win. The Cowboys are trying to lay that foundation these last two weeks in camp. They've got a game tomorrow. That's a really good transition on his part. Thank you, Thank you, broadcaster. Then one more week when they get back on Friday, running of days. Yeah, before they get back to Frisco and then continue training

camp there. Let's continue evaluating what we've seen and maybe take an eye towards tomorrow night. Hey, let me touch on what you just said. Go ahead. So you finished training camp here, but it's not over, No, it's not. So do the coaches have to work really hard when they get back to get them to start concentrating again like they did here because now you're home, you're living

at home, you got your family. Do you lose your concentration on what you gotta do because this is gonna be two of days there too, and you got a young team. That's a good point. The thing that I think you get their attention is you remind them every day that the days are running out. You know, you're trying to make a football team. I mean, there's there's a lot of spots that are up for this. Yeah, on this team, it's not and there's no cuts, yeah,

and there's no cuts to the final one. So you have got to carry this thing through September first, you know, and even after September one. There's other teams playing preseason games too, and they might determine that, you know, you're not good enough, and we're gonna go get this guy from the Buccaneers or we're gonna get this guy from the Rams. So there's I think to answer your question, Mickey, there's always that pressure if you if you don't realize

what's ahead and stay focused, you're gonna get cut. Because if you if you lose at the at the final ten, you know, twelve days or whatever we're at right now, if you start losing concentration, don't play, don't practice well, don't play well in the preseason, it won't matter. But you've got to You've got to carry this thing through.

I mean, when you get back home, Yeah, there's gonna be more distractions because you're probably gonna be sleeping in your own bed, You're probably gonna be family members are gonna be around. But you got to focus in on where you at, where are you right now, on as far as the roster, where you're on the depth chart, all these things. You need to be like Antoine Woods, those guys mean, Mickey's brought his name up a long

time ago. Yeah, you need to keep pushing. You need to keep pushing Rico Gathers, keep pushing to try and make them make a decision about you as a as a tied end on this team. What do you think happens? Now? They'll put the young guys up in the hotel, Yeah next door, have a job, yeah next Now will there be curfews? Dallas ism Frisco's a nice down and you've been you know, kind of held up here for three

three and a half. But a lot of these players, if you remember, guys every day at the start, when we come to work, we look on the field, A lot of those rookies are out there running. I wonder if somebody get kids have got apartments and stuff already, so maybe they don't need to be but yeah, next door, the kids that don't have places, they put next door.

But I think it's I think it's you know, I don't know about the curfew aspect of it, but I feel like though that there's you have to monitor what's

going up. But you need your own self discipline, if you know, if you look what happened in Cleveland with that kid, you know, you know Callaway, you know he gets in trouble and now it's news and you know, now his careers started off badly, you know that way you just can't find yourself to get you can't be getting in trouble because don't give them a reason to

cut you. Make them cut you or keep you because of what you're doing on the field, not because you're at or find establishments around the star and having a little bit too much fun out out of the deck of concrete Cowboy, And Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen. I don't think that's an easy walking though. Yeah, that is an easy walk in plain side of Ford Center. And now they just can't lose focus. That's that's the thing.

But I don't I don't worry about that as much as I would for another football team in this team's past, because of I mean, we've gone up and down the roster. There's there's some guys that you know what their spots are. Most of the guys don't. I mean, they may make the team, but they're not guaranteed to start. They're not guaranteed to get consistent snaps. I think you've talked about

wide receiver the team. The guys that are gonna make the team at wide receiver are going to be the most consistent guys for three and a half weeks and then into the star practices as well. Maybe the good thing is is when they return, you got a game to play the next day, right, and so it'll be treated like a night before a game. Everybody will be um. You know, you try and scramble the best you can't in the hotel, and then the night before they stay

at the hotel. But then there's that that next day it's a day off. Yeah, and then you get back on Monday and you gotta get reminded that hey, we got two days and this stuff is not over. You know, you changed locations, but it's not over. And I could remember back in the day when they had split camps and we changed locations and the next practice was just got off. Yeah. Well, and to your point, this is

kind of a that's a good point. This is always a benchmark time for me anyway, watching a team around camp, these last two practices that they've had, because they had one in the afternoon, typical pad practice. Then you turn around and you have Garrett has been grinding them so much he decided, let's see you get something out of these practices if you scout them. Yeah, okay, So what did you think of those last two practices? Because you're to a point in camp where they've been grinding in pads.

They see an opponent coming up and they're sick of each other. Right, what have you seen these last two days? If I could real quick, Mickey, I'll tell you where it became very evident to me. Standing in the corner of this exact corner we're behind, they throw a vertical route to Tavon Austin along with Jordan Lewis and coverage, and both are on the dead sprint to try and get the balls overthrown. And what happens. Instead of jogging back, they both turned and walked together up the field and

you and you could this was the non pad. This this is where I think Garrett looked at his team a little bit and he saw how much these receivers are running and these defensive backs are running non stop. You go down here, linebacker drills, Ben Bloom. I know it's football, folks, I get it, I really do. But you, as a former guy, former scout, you get something out of these practice. You can evaluate how hard the practice is. I give Garrett a lot of credit for that, the

tempo of the practice, the physicality of the practice. But I think he looked at guys like I saw my own eyes, you know, Tabon Fraser, Tabon Austin, who can run all day, and him and Jordan Lewis are kind of like both kind of looking at each other like, okay, we survived another one. And then they go walking back, but you could tell there's a little bit of soreness to him. You know, he's just trying to help them get through. And I think there's a lot of guys

that are like those two guys out there. And it sounded like he made a mental note during that practice that hey, I may need to talk to my staff and we may need to tail it back a little bit on him. They did. How about the one the compete thing with vander eshh, Yeah, and he was gonna go for the fourth time in a row, and they were running wheel routes and he's running thirty forty yards downfield trying to cover the full back up and he goes back up there and it's like, well, you're not

gonna make that guy, Garrett, I mean, Garrett's gas. I give Garrett credit again for that too. Garrett looked at like quickly Bloom tries to or that no Brown tries to send an Ola Wally on yah run. Garrett's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? You know? And the vanders is like he's just lining up, like, hey, I'll do whatever you want me to do. But yeah, I think that Garrett that It's one of my criticisms of Garrett has

been not knowing the condition of his team. It's sometimes in games, you know, And there he showed me, Hey, he learned, he's seen something. He was able to read his team. He knew these guys had been practicing hard. He wasn't just throwing him a bone because he's a good guy. He was throwing him. He was throwing him a bone because he was He's like, Okay, I've worked these guys hard. They've They've given me everything that I've asked from them, and a little bit more. I need

to back off him a little bit. I think that was a smart play getting ready. You want these guys in tomorrow night in San Francisco to be at their absolute best. I mean, somebody actually came up to me after that practice and said his Vanderish in bad shape. I go, what are you talking about? And he goes, oh, I saw him Ben over grabbing his shorts and I said, do you do you realize what took place? You know?

And to your point, think about the day before the blue white practice when he did the little deal where okay, pick a guy, a non skilled guy to catch a punt. If he catches it, we're not running, and he kind of knew they didn't need to run, right, you know. And then and then that's Martin catches the ball and everybody goes crazy. But he was starting to see, you

know what, I better start backing off. Just you know, those wide receivers at one point there was only seven of them out right, and and you could see they're running and running and running, and then they're running the sprints at the end and then the sprints at the end, and they were they were in they were in last. The seven of them were all in last place every time, and they were just dragon. I think, like I say, he's been critical before, but knowing your team is part

of the coaching dealing. I think that if you check that, mark Off is like, hey, I think he's understanding it. He has to do the age. These practices are great to watch from a fence if you're out here along the fence line, or if you're standing on the end zone like we get to you know, you could see it. Do you watch what we do with training Camp live? You could see the competitive aspect of practice. It's a

it's a grind every every rep, no doubt about it. Well, Nick, let's back off for just a couple of minutes, take a break, come back. Nine seven two four nine seven forty four hundred is the number we've got one caller holding, and we'll get to him when we come back on Talking Cowboys. It can be hard to find the right resource for learning about important financial matters. You search how to build savings, you end up reading about the one

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an off day. Cowboys set to travel to San Francisco today. There's no off days in training camp, well not for us. We're rolling through another day, another dollar seventy one degrees. Can I promote something hit it? I mean, you can. You have a great thing coming up with yourself. But like I say, the thing on Dallas Cowboys dot com today, I wrote something about each pition your beast not tried. I mean I just kind of something maybe to look for when you in the game, just you know, kind

of an idea of who's competing for what positions? Who probably needs to get off to a good start, So that will be up later day. I know some people on Twitter ask me, hey, who do you who are you looking at? I know we're gonna probably do something. We've every thing in traditional where we do like the gut feeling with a couple of guys that we were

looking at, you know, kind of that thing. So a lot of things still on Dallas Cowboys dot Com that you know, pertaining to what we're doing with the shows. But you know what we're kind of going to look for to se should be up a little bit later, definitely, we'll look forward to that should be up on Dallas Cowboys Mobile soon. How about your Deep Blue thing today? Yeah, that is that's airing today live. You've got to check

that out right. Where can I find it? Yeah, Dallas Cowboys dot Com, Facebook, Live, Twitter, the app, all our connected devices. Three pm Central, one pm Pacific Live Parcel's Final Ride. It is incredible, folks on regular TV, not no deep but it will be locally um leading up to the game tonight tonight to night to night. Sorry, so like uh, seven o'clock, it's a nine o'clock game out there, so seven o'clock, the pregame shows eight to the probably seven eight ken is that right? It may

need I mean need confirmation on that one. But but there's a lot of avenues to see this. That's that's the forty two minute version, right, Yeah, this is the full one in its that's correct. It's too different. The one that's on CBS had to be cut down to forty two minutes for TV. The actual one that it was we're putting on our website and on all our platforms is an hour in twenty So there's forty extra minutes. Basically, you'll see it. Yeah, yeah, you can see it in

your entire in its entirety today. So you overwrote, Well, we we had so much great stuff. I mean, ken't just some of the stuff we on Earth, some of the old press conferences, uh, the interviewers, the interody and and Greg Ellis and Mike Zimmer, Sean Payton, I mean, and that Chris Mortenson, mean, so many people that were involved in all that. That was my answer to my editors. They said you overwrote. I said I was too good

to leave anything. Well, I mean, hey, Kent was like, look, we're gonna put together the best possible stuff and just see how long it goes. And that's when we got everything we could in there, the last drop of it. So I think everybody will enjoy it. It chronicles the O three season bill coming in and also his impact on the organization in the four years that he was Can I promote one another thing? Hit it? Okay? We do a thing with Alexa, Yes, sir, and it's if

if you guys have the Alexa Divide. I'm learning a lot about it and we do a lot of content for it for Dallas Cowboys. For the Dallas Cowboys. When you ask Alexa question, give me news about the Cowboys. Yeah, how you're through your Amazon right, So we're doing a

lot of things on that. So if you have any questions that you want to get answered for that, make sure you submit it to at Brian broad Us because I like doing that stuff, answering those questions, and Rob does a good job of kind of getting everybody involved. But I've I've liked the way that's going with the Alexa So if you do have questions and you want to get him answered that way, let me know, send him to me and then Rob and I will work to get those things answered as well. We got daily

do that all season, yep, daily updates. Lindsay's involved with it too. We'll be talking to players, getting some quick bites from players, exclusive stuff. If you have a question right for a player that you want us to try to get answered for you, tweet me at Rob Phillips three or at lens Cast Draper and we'll see what we can do. Get exclusive. Exclusive. It's exclusive, exclusive, exclusive.

It's a great way. I mean, you did it with me the other day and you could kind of you could, you could center it just keeps going news news, news, news, I mean you could just keep everything you want to hear. So again the avenue for answering some questions that way might be good as well. Wherever you are making her smart, then huh, we're trying. We're always What are the cowboys doing? Yeah, exactly, here are what the cowboys are doing. Alexa's knowledge is growing. Yes, indeed.

All right, let's let's hit the phone lines. First call of the show, Miles in Connecticut. What's up? You're on talking cowboys? Hey guys, how you doing? A long time listener? A big, big fan of the show. Great, thanks, I just wanted to say to my main man, Brian there man if he if he loved football and the xes and os and all that, Brian, you're You're a dream for all of us. Thank you appreciate that. It's very

kind of really really appreciate it. So I know we've got a lot of depth and a lot of positions across the board, especially on defense. And who's like the guy for all you guys like your pet cat right now, the guy who'd like bang on the table for to make this team. That's a good question, he had. The original one, you were the first guy question? Was first guy to talk about Antoine really, because I was standing there next to Clancy Pendergast, the Cowboys former assistant who's

at USC. I'm talking with him and number sixty four comes walking by. I got no idea who he is. And Jerry looks at him and starts saying, Hey, you know what got my eye on you? Yeah, got my eye on you, and he says, don't let up, and the kid turns and goes, I don't know what that means, right, And I instantly said, I like this guy. I don't know anything about him. So I started asking Clancy and he goes, oh, yeah, that's my guy, donnah, and then

you go talk to him and it's like okay. And then the next day or two days later, he's in that goal line drill, you know, making tackles, getting penetration, doing the little worm crawl on the ground, and it's like, okay, well, let's keep an eye on this guy. And then the next day he's on the first team. It's amazing, he's done a nice job and he hell, at this point he might be your week one starter, ye, the way things are going, because yeah, I mean he got well

you got jahad Ward in that mix. Remember he came he Malik played the three technique right originally his rookie years did. Maybe it's those two guys. It's two big bodies inside if you're gonna do it that way, But yeah, you got a pet cat Bran. Well, I'll tell you what I've kind of gone through my mind of you know,

initially it really started up. I love what I'm seeing with these cornerbacks, you know, and I think if you again you go through what a what I wrote today on for Dallas Scotways dot com and he went position by positions today just kind of give me a yeah, give it a read. But you know we've early initially Donovan Olumba was showing me some things and number thirty two at the corner, and then all of a sudden, there's here comes Davis Ward, Verius Ward. He comes in.

Now he's starting to play. I'm interested to see because there's gonna be there's a battle. There's gonna be a battle for those I think for that final two spots. Who is going to be I think he could probably

get four. But if they keeps six, who is going to be the guy with Ward, with Alumba, with Duke Thomas, you know, with that group, who who is going to be the guys that play well enough in mar kids White's I'm saying, there's I think there's four guys battling for two spots spots and and maybe maybe if if three of those guys show up out of the four, okay, does that allow you to maybe move somebody to pick

up something from another team. Again, I'm looking at positions that maybe have a little but the best surplus to get the best return. So you know, maybe this is a position need to keep an eye on. If somebody in that group of six, you know, like I said, I don't think they trade starters and stuff like that, but some of those backups keep an eye on that position.

But the pet Cats, it's got to be those cornerbacks right now, because I'm fascinated to see which one of them will, which two of them of those five and six will make this football team. About you, well, I've been watching wide receiver probably more than any position in camp. I'm just I'm I'm fascinated with how many guys they've got in camp and how many guys could potentially make this team if they have a strong enough preseason. I mean,

there's a lot of guys that have some talent. They've just got to put it all together and they got to figure out the right and mix for Dak One guy who's gonna make the team, who I just Michael Gallup to me, is going to be a very good player in this league. I don't know if it's gonna happen this year where he's gonna be a go to guy, but I've seen it. You guys have seen it. Stephen Jones told us during the Blue White You know, they

just they love him. They think he's got a really high ceiling it's just gonna be a matter of consistency from him. So I can't wait to see what he does in the preseason games. A guy that is more on the bubble is lancelo Or Junior. Yeah, and Mickey and I were watching practice two days ago and you kind of nudge me and said, he's gonna steal somebody's job. And he keeps this up. Now, I don't know if that's gonna happen. I think he had a drop or two later, one drop, yeah, yeah, after he made some

fabulous catch. He's made some circus catches. I think every day in my notes that I put out that, I think every day I've written about him making a catch, and it's almost been the catch of the day, you know, whether it's a turning, adjusting, reaching one hand, leap diving, diving off the ground, lunging, you know, he's I'm just very hopeful of these guys that were mentioning that they've looked good in camp. I just hope they can all

carry into the games. I just don't need I don't need, I don't need, uh, I don't need Woods to look so good against Zack Martin and Travis Frederick and those guys and then go out there and get blocked by some backup. There's obviously some reason Tennessee let him go, right, Yeah, so I mean people make mistakes. Yeah, he's not. He

doesn't have the measurables that you look at. Yeah, who knows how the style of defense they're playing, they're knowing and and and speaking of Lenor, just from watching the practices, he's probably gonna be the first one up on punt return to Uh. They they think he can do that. And if he can do that, then he separates himself from maybe some of the other you know, not Beasily.

Of course, Beasley is your guy inside the twenties, go catch it, but you know, maybe maybe they get if they're using Tavon Austin in so many different ways, maybe they take that away from him. If Lenora can do it. Now, remember we saw him last year and then he got to the Hall of Fame game and the ball clanks off number fourteen's chest. Yeah, and when rams game too, right, Yeah, when you said that, Brian reminded me of a guy.

And I'm not knocking him. He's not here anymore. Andy Jones. Yeah, he had a terrific set of practices out here a year or two ago, and then the price season games came along and he struggled, you know, just got here, Yeah, trying to run routes inside. He's dropped, and I remember that he made but he made the practice, he made the practice squad or they cut him. I don't think they brought him back because I remember talking to somebody and they said, you know, sometimes you get out there

and the lights are too bright. Yeah, yeah, that's I just want these guys that are all in competitive situations. And that's just the selfiest side of me, because yeah, I want Will McClay the front off as the coaches. I want them to be able to put the best fifty three together they can just so they can go compete against the Eagles and the Giants and the Redskins and Carolina. I that's that's what you want. You want whatever, these young guys that can step up and make plays.

That's important. You know, you don't want to be a team that's gone all through training camp and then you have to claim like four guys because your guys can't make plays. Right now, You're having to start from square one with those guys. She's like, Okay, well, you know, I'm not against claiming one or two guys, I'm really not. But some of these teams have to claim four or five six guys just because their their roster is not

good enough. And I'm hopeful that everybody that's on this roster currently when we get to the September one, you know that way say well, it's gonna be a difficult cut. It's really not because you know who you're gonna you know, you know who you want to play with, but you want to be that you want to be that team that's been able to say, Okay, man, we gotta go with this guy, we gotta go with this guy, we gotta go with this guy, you know, and we all

picked kind of somewhat visible position backup offensive line. That's that's a good that's a goold group. Yeah, what what do they got there? Well, they've got a good starting five. Yeah, we know. I think Joe Looney's played himself into a position where you could kind of say, wow, Joe. I think Joe Looney looks like a different player out here. He's nick he brought up. Maybe he's in better shape. You know, he doesn't look as round as Joe Looney normally looks and I think when you watch him fake

zeke you the fake ze. But you watch him go up against Woods, who we kind we like, and you see him go against Jahad Warden those guys, you know, he's playing on his feet, he's square, he's he's got his hands inside, you know. And he got into blue the Blue White practice the other day with the starting five or the starting at that time. You know, he was with the first first group. They didn't really miss

a beat, you know, with him in there there. You know, he's the one thing I have notice with Joe, snaps tend to be a little high sometimes and shotgun. We need to kind of work on that and get that spread up. But other than that, his mobility and agility, it's been really good. And it's deceptive because you look at him and you go huh, and then he's got

the jumbo Joe damaged classical. He is a clown, but he has shown he can play and he can probably play guard too, But you still need a legitimate backup guard. I don't think they know if they've got that guy, well, well, could it beat Marcus Martin if he can get I guess weight wise, where he wants to be. I don't know if that's the case. He's been conditioning out here. To sound crazy, I think Kadeem Edwards has played better

than him. Yeah yeah, I think you know number seven, Kadeem Edwards is not the strongest guy, but Kadeem Edwards is. He's He's again. The mobility is good, the agility is good. You know, he's Marcus Martin needs a wake up call. He does, and maybe because they took him off the

field a couple of times. They said, listen, you're too you're too big, you know, don't go beat don't go go eat with Brian broad Us at at lunch and dinner over here, you know, go go something you know has been Go to the Mickey Spagnola area and heat, you know, the salad and stuff like that. Don't go do you know do that? You know? I you know they brought him in. He's probably thinking, hey, I got a job. Everything's okay, but there there's some questions about

him making this football. He's got to do more than take up space, and he takes up a lot of space. His body taught. Yeah, go ahead, I know I'm saying, but at some point you gotta play. Yeah, And and then you know who's who I mean back up center? Yeah? Is it Zach? Well? Yeah, Joe And you know Zach Martin. I saw it, he practiced, practiced, And then and then the tackles you're gonna keep two of those guys, you know, is is is fleming the answer? See, this is where

you're counting on. This is where I wrote about today though, because and people don't you know, Vick and Ventura does not want me to say this, But since they've moved Chad's green to write tackle, he's played better. Yes, he has played better. His reps have been better, his technique has been better, his footwork has been better. He hasn't he doesn't get he doesn't look out of sorts when he's setting, and you know he's doing some things in the running game to cut off. He hasn't been terrible

with that. So folks, trust me, keep an open mind about what's going on at this tackle spot. They have not given up on Chad's green, and neither should you. And you know, and I trust me. I know out there everybody's throwing their pins and getting mad at me for saying that. But if if he can if he's better than Fleming. You know, he's he's playing games for you and had success. But he did have a disaster in Atlanta. We all know that. But we shouldn't just

judge him on the Atlanta game. You know, this right tackle thing now, I don't know if he could be your swing tackle, Mickey, because if you put him back over on the left side, maybe he's not confident on the left side. Maybe he's much more confident on the right side. But if they keep working with him on the right side, maybe he will develop some confidence to get over on that left side and give Cam Fleming

a run for his money. You know. I mean I was talking to with once that you think they wouldn't keep both, right, they would keep they would keep one if there's some people, there's some people. If he can, yeah, they could they have before? Yeah, I mean that's that's guard center, guard two tackles. It's it's hard. You would like a developmental guy though, right, that's where maybe the Buccaneers guy or the Saints guy. Yeah, that's what they did. Who's my guy? I always forget his name. I'm sorry

I do this because I played some games. Jonville. Yeah, Jeremy Parnell. Jeremy Parnell. Jeremy Parnell came off the Saints like practice squad. You know, they kind of they got an idea of where you know, Jeremy Parnell was serviceable for you. I mean, he did it, he did it. Was it terrible? I mean, I know there were some times where he Mickey I could feel just I could feel Mickey just burning holes in here right now. But I mean it's not the sun, but he's he got

signed and paid. But but he wasn't terrible. Well he was, he was, but to your point, he was truly developmental. He was a basketball player at all. Right, Yeah, right, See, this is where I would maybe do with our basketball guy number eighty. I'd maybe teach him how to be an offensive tackle. He's two eighty two right now. Maybe if you worked with him full time on being attack just being a tackle. Yes, but don't worry about runner routes anymore. God had you three years now trying to

make him a tight end, and he's showing progress. You know, But that's what I'm saying. Yeah, but you tackle eligible. Yeah, I like that. I like that call. I could do that, you could do that. I just to me. I don't give up on Chaz Green. I swear the mentions right now on Twitter are going and he's probably been drinking his gatorade because he's finished all finished practices. But I think I think he I think he's one of those

guys that got beat down. I'm pulling for I think he really got beat down by the whole There's people, there's people I've talked to the believe that you could actually trade him and get something. And people again are going, oh, bag of balls, bucket of gatorade. You know No, there's there's and you know what, And the other part about it, he's he's really a nice guy. He's a super nice guy. But he's pay because he's a nice guy. Pulling for him because they need somebody. They need somebody to step

up if something happens to one of those tackles. They need that. After the game, he has talent number one and number two. After Atlanta, he stood there in front of fifty media guys and when he knew he was got awful and stood there and took all the questions. That's on the coaches too, now, yeah, yeah, that's on

the coaches. You can't be late to change. And I think the coaches realize that, and and and and maybe the good thing too out here is they haven't screwed around with them at at at guard, Yes, he spin at tackle the whole Carrot admitted that he admitted that, All right, well, we'll keep an eye on number seventy nine, Thursday, five and sixty, all of them. Yeah, all but see what, let me see another thing. You need those backup guys to be good to help your evaluation of your quarterback

in the running back, Yeah, give Cooper rush the chance. Yeah, give Cooper Rushing a chance. You got some veteran guys. Joe Looney playing center will help. You know. You got Flemming, he started a Super Bowl, you know, get him out there. You know. If Chaz Green's playing right tackle, hold up Chaz Green, do good, do the best you can, you know, and then kind of work some things around with the guard. Marcus Martin has played in the league, go with him.

You want these linemen to give Cooper rush In Mike White a chance so you can evaluate not only the receivers, but how about those runners. Right, you got, I think you got, I think you got with three runners for one spot Am I right about this the way the runners are? Yes, because I think I think Jackson, I think Derris Jackson's got his name in the race. Now see that's I'm saying. Jackson's in the race, Scarborough's in the race, Williams is in the race. You want to

see one of those guys. You want to see one of those guys really emerged. Now, traditionally they keep draft picks. That's this NFL. That's just not the Cowboys. But traditionally they keep draft picks. But you want to be able to evaluate those guys. And if you have a good line, it helps the quarterback receivers, help the QUEI know, you get a good evaluation if your whole team with a with a veteran group of guys playing in front, soast go.

So we just talked about the entire second team offensive line. Is there anybody behind that that you say, well, he's a he's a practice squad. I was wrong about Jake Campos, the kid from Iowa number sixty three. I hated him and No, camp Yes, his feet, his feet are better than they were at Iowa State. He looked like a disastered at Iowa. Stay he's I always keep saying not strong enough yet. But you know what, he might be one of these guys that I saw every morning in

the Star eating breakfast. I didn't know who the hell he was, you know, physical, what he looked like, and he had to stay the whole time and work and all that. His footwork is much better. They play him on the N six. That's I was gonna say, the only guy of that group. I've noticed that Jap three. Yeah, I never put a name with Yeah, Jay Campos, he must have done something. But the time he walked off the campus at aims to the time he walked on to Star. Yeah, because he's made me look like a fool.

Because if you go back and read my scouting reporter whim Iowa stayed, it was not glowing at all. It was very questionable. Now did you say just say this? Because I was trying to find sixty three. He's been out on the field at the Star, working by himself. That's the deal. He's by himself an offensive line, he's got his footwork has become better. It's not a strong guy. He'll get an opportun you'll see him. Hopefully he didn't get called for holding or get somebody hurt. But but

so far, so good. I've been. I have to submit I've been. I was wrong about my scouting report about him. If you go back and read it, didn't see a quick foot. The guy NIC's got better, and you know what, that's what Gerard has been working with him, and not here because gird is kind of with the defense. But back at the Star, I've seen him out there doing the little ladder drill that's on the on the field, right.

Can't hurt. We're going with a five time Pro Bowls. Yeah. Absolutely, let's take our final break, Tim and Boston keep holding. We'll get you right out of the break. Ninety four hundred is the number. Will be back in a second. On talking Cowboys, Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it, and your skincare should

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get going tomorrow night in San Francisco. Let's go back to the phone lines. Tim in Boston, You're up next. What's up? Hey, guys? Lets taking my college appreciate Hey, quick question, Jordan Lewis. Haven't heard his name a lot so far? Yeah, kidding, number forty the award, hearing quite a bit of him. Sure, what are you guys seeing as far as uh, you know, obviously forty. He fits that prototypical guy that I knew secondary coach likes a lot um. You see him stepping up and possibly, you know,

competing for that job. And I think the thing that makes me nervous is I've heard nothing on Jordan Lewis. Brian, Okay, thanks for the call, Tim, Brian. That was our male back question today. Brian took offense to that question a little bit. He's talk he's written about him some, we've we've talked a lot about Cheeto and admiring he just hasn't made any like spectacular players or anything. But he's

been solid. When we talk about the second that This is what bothered me out the question Tim and Boss. I loved him. I loved him a matter of fact, I loved to have Tim's voice to do radio with. I would call called the game with Tim's voice. I'd be good shape, definitely. But the thing, I just kind of this thing, I feel like we talk about the

secondary guys. I feel like I talk about you know, when we write about it, and people I haven't heard much of, and yeah we've heard, you know, when when guys make plays, you talk about him, Like Mickey said, but there's times when we were just mentioning about you know, we just mentioned about him running a vertical route with Tavon Austin. You know, it's kind of how you work. But I think I think it's easy for him to slip through a little bit because Byron's been a star

in camp Geto looks great and everybody's watching up. Yeah, he's been solid his coverage. I don't think I give guys enough credit for coverage. That's what I'm with you on this, Mickey, because I but I feel like when they do do something well, that's that's the easiest thing for me to write about. When when Michael Gallop is going against Jordan Lewis in a compete period and a that's the easiest thing in the world to write about. You could say technique was really good covered or Michael

Gallop ran this route kind of spun Jordan Lewis. That's that's how you mentioned these guys. But man, if if you said, Okay, hey, Brian, haven't heard a lot about Katie Cannon. I'm with you. You got me, you got me, the great words of Rowan Cabner. You got me, you know, you know. And sometimes that's that's when you talk about these guys. When you don't hear about a guy, sometimes that's good because he hadn't done anything like really bad,

Like I don't Vanderesh, Yeah, Vanderes. People are like, how's Vanderesh playing? And I'm like, he talk about him. He hasn't been terrible. Is there things he needs to work on? Absolutely? But does he make does he make plays? Does he do what he's supposed to do responsibility wise? Yeah? Absolutely, My star of the day. The other day there was Chris Rochard was amazing, right, I love that. Did you hear about that him yelling at the referee? Yes, yes,

I was watching him. I was standing right there. Richard looked like guy, the guy walked up. It must be a new official he walked up the line. It wasn't the NFL guy. Yeah, So it was the training guy that was on the side. Because that guy that talked in there all the no, no, not that, no, no, not the guy that talked other guy. Oh yeah, a training guy had his hands full because he was with him. This who this group was like, there was shaking going

on out there. I'm thinking, okay, that that game will be wherever the bottom two teams are, this crew will be out there. I thought you picked Rashard just because how he spoke after practice that day. No, no, no, no, And he was no, he's oh, he's great to talk to. He did it really if you go back watching with with Ambar to piscope Ede. But he he went up to the official. I mean, the official was walking away from him and he's talking. He goes, I can't get a call. I can't get that call. I can't get

a push off call. And the guy kept walking but said something like under his breath, and Rashard just started. I mean, he's like, you will look at me like a man, like I am looking at you right now. I mean, but he I mean, he was dropping some I couldn't print what he the curse words were? Was it? Was it the Beasley catch? Oh yeah, it was one of the first ones out of the block. Was a little bit, yeah, a little bit of pushing going on there. Great and Richard was like, I can't get that call.

You're gonna call stuff on me, and he was going on and this official kept walking and when he said, you will look at me like a man like with you and the eyes like I'm looking at you, I guess the super well, you know, and he he was like the shirt was wrenched and great when you know you're not gonna get a penalty, right, say all the stuff you want to say. He kicked you out. Another

Richard story. I was watching goal line, you know, we had the live goal line the other day, and he's back there with Gary Brown and Gary Brown former player. So like the first one, you know, both scarboard just blasted in there for the touchdown and so like Brown turns to Rochard and like says something, and Rochard goes

walking into this. And so the next time they get to stop Rochard, I mean Rochardon and turns to Brown, it starts going at him, and Brown's like throwing his hands up, you know, and Andrew Gerard's in there, and I mean they're all just fighting among each other on these on these plays. Speaking of ambar aroscope, yeah, she

just discovered that he can speak some spans. Mom is Hispanic yeah, yeah, and she's like seriously, yeah, and he goes, yeah, I don't know if I can carry conversation on with you, but I can, I can do some. And she goes, oh, you're dead where we're gonna be doing this every time, you guys are gonna be But she she had some really good question. He had some good insight about the secondary and what why they did some of the things they did. So if you had a chance to check

that out. So look at those first two guys out for the walkthrough, Byron Jones and Jeff there you go. One more thing on Jordan Lewis. They were partners together and the back back back they were. Yeah. Now now Byron's making that transition. George Lewis and Lance Lenora. Those battles they've had all throughout camp, barking at each other. It's been good. It's been good competition. Um, no offense to him. We no, no, And sometimes maybe I need to do a better job. We throw so much information.

Sometimes guys just kind of slipped through a little bit, you know, Um, but you've hit on it for sure, Brian. Let's let's talk about the quarterbacks a little bit. Um. We touched him a little bit yesterday. They both spoke yesterday. Not Dak, not to us, he spoke to NFL Network. But the backups who figure to get most of the work tomorrow, Cooper Rush, Mike White, What do you hope to see from then tomorrow? Because look, they're not This isn't gonna be a true game plan situation for either

team for more bout evaluation. So how yeah, just move the offense, get thee move the offense, get in the huddle, get the call. Act like you're in charge in the huddle, so guys know who the quarterback is, get to the line of scrimmage, get the snap, and just run plays. You know, you'd like to move the ball at her first down, But just kind of how they execute, how they carry themselves, more than anything else, this will go

a long way. You know. We remember remember the impression that we had of Dak Prescott after that Rams game three years ago. It was like, my god, this guy, I mean, he's the ball. It's like back shoulder to Deaz, you know, Williams wittinga ball is going down the field, going who is playing a quarterback for us? Yeah? Yeah, I remember saying open air, press box. That guy I'm going, whoa who is that? You know? I mean, I say next to Taylor, and Taylor's goes, she goes, dak is

lighting this thing up. And I'm like, my gosh, you're right, and you know, but that's and then the next week against the Rams, all right, see me against the Dolphins. Yeah, that that same thing down the field and you're going, okay, okay, this is we're starting to see some But to Mickey's point, he's absolutely right. Getting the huddle, make a confident call. They're not probably gonna give you something exotic to look at, you know, pick out who you'd like to kind of

get the ball too. In the situation. Know the down and distance, move the team. That's all you can ask. You're not I mean, I don't want you to be a hero tomorrow night. I just want you to be consistent, protect the football, move the team. That's all I ask. You don't have to call an audible on the goal line instead of calling time out. You go, Romo. That was absolute brilliance and stupidity all in the same play. It was what was the situation? Again? After I wasn't

there for that game? Was Sean Ryan. Sean Ryan, he throws a fourth down path he gets to pass down in there, remember tight end sean By, he gets knocked unconscious basically, and he can't even get in his there picking him up, putting him in his stance because they can't they can't waste time. And like he like gets in his stance and like he falls on the ground like he's hurt, and Romo you know, knocks it in.

But yeah, they were. They're trying to call time out, I believe, yeah, and Romo just and he just said, now we're gonna stab at it. And he runs a quarterback snating scores and they win the game, right, and Bill is just hot. Yeah, in subordination yea, not listening to the coach. It was brilliant and stupidity all the same. You know. It's one of those things, no, no, no, no, great, Yeah, but that was Romo like a basket, that was a

Romo career. Yeah, that's good. You know we knew all a. Yeah, I smid short court shot that what that happened with the with Danny It didn't turn out well it was no no, no, no no no yeah, yeah, all right before we got a couple of minutes before we get out of here. You wanted to touch on Randy Gregory, right, yeah, yeah, just a little bit. I mean he's doing a little bit more. He's got the pads on now, working on the chords, trying to get in shape, had the helmet on.

So I think he's taken that was the next step. And then after that maybe Saturday, Oh, we see him out here please doing a little at least individual drills something maybe maybe Yeah, Brian's ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready to see I'm ready to see Randy Gregory play. You know what, everybody I I you know what, I'm one of the guys I admitted I was not I didn't think Randy Gregor would ever play again. I'm one of those guys. I'm like this, this is he's not

gonna play, you know. But you look at him and you see what he where, he's what he's gone through, where he's got to at this point. He physically looks really good, you know, running that low shoulder and all that stuff he does. I want to see him practice. I want to see him going against these tackles, you know, kind of making that you know, maybe get a couple of reps against Tyrant Smith there. You know, kind of see how that works for him. You know, we had

an open chair there. We should have got the six time pro bowler. He's got his own show. Well, the sixth time pro bowler is up next. Yeah, hanging with the boys next. No, no, no, he's with Oh I see a little cross date. Newton will join the break next. Check that out. We could have got two hours out of him on Dallas Cowboys Radio. This has been Talking Cowboys. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the game tomorrow night, and we will be back on Friday Deep Blue to wrap

it all up. Check out Deep Blue today too. Thanks guys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.