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This he is Talking Cowboys training live from Dallas Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, Calistown, and now your hosts Isaiah Standback, Nick Harris, John Mashoda, and Kyle Yeomans.
It is a Thursday edition of Talking Cowboys presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, the official coffee of the Dallas Cowboys. As we welcome you in to the SWBC podcast studio at the Star in Frisco's training camp continues, the padded practices are now in the books and now we've got one more preseason game to look forward to.
Isaiah Standback is excited about the preseason game.
That's right, He'll be in the booth on Saturday booth as they take on Las Vegas seven pm Central time kickoff. We have John Machoda from The Athletic. We have Nick Harris of Dallas Cowboys dot Com.
I'm Kyle you oomics, gentleman. How are we doing so well?
Yeah?
Turn it up a little bit, turn me up fantastic. I need to be louder fantastic. That's the first time I've ever had to be told to be louder.
Ever, that's a compliment.
Yeah, usually or usually I'm I'm pretty vocal. Yeah, to say the least. It is your job rather yeah, yeah, somebody told me on Saturday to not talk as much.
I'm not going to tell you.
Who, but needs help. It looks like, oh, yes, okay, you good. I can hear you're right next to me, so we're good.
I found it.
We're good, John. How are you doing today?
I'm good.
I got I had a little complaint here that maybe you guys will disagree with me, But do you think these practices have been as exciting those last two as the ones that ox snard?
Am I off on this?
I just when I'm watching them, And maybe it's because we're not allowed to take pictures or video, so maybe that that is it for me. But there's only been like a handful of really wow plays to me over these two, these last two practices, which are the ones that we're going to be the most interesting with pads on and stuff like, am I wrong on that?
Am I missing out? Where?
It?
Honestly wouldn't surprise me after what happened to Tyron last year? This week and then also coming off of the injuries that happened on Saturday, maybe there was a conversation had before the week, like hey, let's just let's let's let's take it easy this week. The other part of twos and threes really get it.
The other part the other part with me too. It's kind of a weird comparison, but so like if you watch a game at Globe Life with the roof open and the roof closed, to me, it's two different things. Like when the roof is closed and there's all that dead time in between pitches, like you feel like you can hear somebody talking, like over on the other side of the entire you know, stadium.
Sure, But when the roof's open.
There's like some more natural noise and things like that.
So at training camp, I feel like you're outside and there's a little bit of that and so, but when you're back inside and there's really no music, I just feel like sometimes it drags from a spectator standpoint, you know, because obviously, like I don't know if you people listening probably heard this, Like Mike McCarthy's not big on playing a bunch of music like that was always big, Like Jason Garrett used to always play a ton of music, to the point where like I've had some of my
videos taken down because in the background of the videos, like a Drake song or something like that copyright, right. Yeah, so that part of it is fine whatever, But I just I don't know, just for me personally, it just doesn't seem like there's as much juice as maybe there was out Knock Snard.
Not the juice. You're not missing juice, I think. I think you're right, I really do.
And it's not like they're not getting quality work here, right, It's just not the.
Same player seem to They're probably fine with that. I'm just saying from a spectator standpoint, from just a.
Fan standpoint and watching it, I think they need to get like the drum line in there, you know, the rhythm and blues, get the drum line going.
They maybe bring it up a little bit. I'm sure we could find a way to get that done. But yeah, it is. It is a little interesting.
And of course they've got one more open practice today at one thirty Central time inside Forts, But I don't it's more so a walk through, right Nick. Yeah, it's not really even a get up and go padded practice.
It's more of a walkthrough.
So did you did you like listening to music a practice or would you rather just get down the business.
I love the music and the reason and the reason why I believe most coaches opt to use music nowadays is because the crowd noise. So you become accustomed to working under those conditions. Whenever you're ever gonna play and it's gonna be quiet, it's not a thing. So making sure that you have noise, background, noise always constantly going on, and your ability to be able to think and still produce. I think that's the reason why most coaches go that round.
So you wanted it as loud?
Me turn it up.
You know who loves Mike McCarthy arguably more than anyone on this planet. Those house owners right there in a.
For sure songs and they're done.
I'll tell you what that the forward center can can really turn it up.
Oh, there's been some time during the season where before they let us in, uh to see a certain port up portion of practice, they'll have it the crowd noise cranked up, you know, and there's obviously not a fan in there, just the team, and it's amazing how loud that they can turn it up if they need to to make you feel like, you know, you're you know, to prepare you for a road environment. So I know
what those speakers are capable of doing. And so maybe that's why I'm also a little disappointed they're not taking advantage of that.
That's fair.
That throws me back to like twenty twenty twenty one training camp, right when it was kind of covidly distant still and you kind of they were just cranking the crowd noise even though there really wasn't going to be a crowd in twenty twenty, but then twenty one, they knew there were going to be crowds, so they wanted to crank it and they wanted to push it.
But that was that was such an odd time yosness.
But were they allowed to pump in artificial noise in twenty twenty.
In stadiums during games?
Yes?
No? No, okay, during practice you can do whatever.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I was saying stadiums, yeah, deering.
Right, I'm trying to think there was no artificial noise. There was.
It might have been very very faint.
Yeah, Chris Beam said there's not.
So there you go.
All right, based off of what you've seen in practices, you got's got the broadcast on Tuesday, Isaiah, what were some of the standouts and some of the things that you took away from when the Cowboys returned to Ford Center.
I don't think there was anything that really stood out. It was just more the same. I mean, guys just continue to trying to get reps. I think paid a little bit more attention to the office line and kind of the Cupid shuffle us going on there for the second string guys and third string guys, trying to figure out who's gonna feel what roles should somebody ever you know, obviously cross your fingers, somebody have to step away from
the game for a second for whatever reason. But I think just trying to see who's gonna really be those six seven to eight officeive linemen. That's really a lot of my question marks right now, aside from the linebacker position.
Yeah, linebacker position, I mean Marquise Bell rotating down, kind of taking some snaps. They've used juan Ye Thomas in a couple different areas. John, what did you see in terms of how they're trying to adjust now that both Malik Jefferson and.
Marvey and over shown are gonna miss some time.
Yeah, you see more Marquise Bell trying to help out there a little bit more at linebacker, and that it's pretty obvious that Devin Harper and Jabril Cox are now you're they were the twos behind Deimone Clark and Leyton van Dersh.
But even in that, I mean, I can't.
Say that anything really stood out from there, and even in like individual plays, I'm just thinking of the last two days, Like there was the one go ball that Dak threw up on the right sideline to Brandon Cook's and it was a nice ball because he put him between Gilmour and jay Ron Curse, so it's you know, good on good.
So those always stand out to me.
And then there was the one where we don't get to see Dak with a ton of time, just because I always feel like in most of these when it's ones versus ones, it's either Lawrence or Parsons closing in. But he had some time yesterday and he had CD on that deep ball up near like where he actually had enough time to come across the field and hit him on the deep ball up on the left side.
And then one other play was with Schoonmaker in the back of the end zone yesterday working with Greer, just a nice one handed grab And just getting a chance to talk to Schoonmaker the other day after practice, like says that there's not really any pain in the foot. He's been working out, trying to build up the strength around. It seems like he's in position to where he can contribute. And so for maybe people listening to this, that's not
that big of a deal. But I think everyone has different perspectives and things, and I was kind of wondering, like, is this gonna be a thing where he just got to play through pain for a while. Is it ever going to come back to where he's fully healthy this season? Like how long is this gonna be a nagging thing that we're talking about all a year. So it seems like he's, you know, ascending, heading it, heading in the right direction.
I guess yeah.
He's really starting to set confidence too. They're integrating him more and more every day that passes. And even in this past preseason game, I think we may have touched on the last show, but designed third down plays to him where he's picking up the first down, even on the play that John Stevens got hurt. That was probably his biggest design towards him, and so they're definitely trying to integrate him as much as possible. But as far as like the last two days, yeah, that dack ball
to Brandon Cooks definitely stood out. There was a play from I believe it was Cooper Rush to semi Fojoco down the left sideline oo joemyt yesterday that was big time and I think it's gonna be interesting going into this last week with the semi Fojoko, Jaln Brooks insert
anyone else in that conversation as well. Battle and Will Greer said yesterday that Jalen Cropper's really starting to stuck some good days again after he started camp really strong, and I think he could have a big game on Saturday too, especially if Tulbert's out.
I was a little surprised that they didn't give Aubrey any opportunities in like a Mojo moment thing with having some fans in the crowd and stuff like that. I just I don't know, he just hasn't had that many opportunities even in the games, you know, Like I think we had talked about at the end of the game in Seattle, he had a chance. They could have probably brought him out for a forty five yard field goal.
YEP. I don't know.
They might just feel a lot more comfortable about the situation than maybe I do and some fans do. But I thought during one of those mojo moments the last few days, because they've had the fans, I was thinking like, maybe they would try and get the fans get loud and put them in a pressure type situation.
I know we were sitting in the booth on Tuesday and they were in the middle of a mojo moment and it was thunder thunder, thunder, and they were running on the field and it was kind of the rush deal, and I thought they would do it a couple times.
They did it once. Yeah, he knocked it.
Through, but it was like a twenty nine versus a super short field goal, and the crowd really didn't get into it a whole lot. At that point, I was saying to Nick and Booth, I was like, Man, if I'm jog Fossil and I've got the microphone and the head headset put up, I'm trying to get the crowd hype before every snap all right, guys, like you've got six thousand in the building.
All you got to do is put on the right song. Come on, everybody will get it.
Get into it a little.
Bit if you want to do that, or now, song are you putting on? Don't move me on this spot, let me get back, get back.
All right, Well, we'll think about it. We'll start the second segment.
It might be different for me than it will be for other people.
It's Mumford and Sons. No, it's a fast card by Luke Combs. That's what's coming on. That's Isaiah's playlist. So we've we've heard a couple different times offensive line, and we've talked a lot about the offensive line on this show, whether it was out an ox narder.
Now that we're back here in.
Frisco and you've talked about the revolving door and the lack of continuity, and it continues to kind of show itself.
Tuesday was a rough practice for the offensive line.
It felt like every play, to John's point earlier, it was DeMarcus Lawrence, it was Sam Williams, it was Michael Parsons getting in the backfield, and Dak Prescott was under pressure constantly.
Yesterday it felt like they took a step forward a little bit.
Is that encouraging enough, Nick to where you can say, I know it's only one practice, but you're seeing a bit of improvement even with the extra reps that have been added in.
Yeah, but I need to see consistency. That's the biggest thing. Like one good day does nothing for me. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're Michael Parsons or Josh Ball or whoever on this roster, you gotta stack good days because when you need a reliable offensive line option, whenever that problem or issue does a rise during the season,
then you need consistency. You need that reliability. I think there are there are a couple of intriguing options right now, especially if we can get through at least ten weeks before having to really tap into that depth. That's a long time. That's the goal I'm shooting for. I know,
I know it's a long time. That's the goal I'm shooting for, though, And I because I think by that time, rookie Austin Richards he'll have completely settled in by that point, whether he can come in at left tack or left guard TJ.
Bass.
I know we were talking about it, and we'll probably talk about it more on Monday. I think he's very close to making this team, and if he can stack good confidence, then you know, maybe there's a right guard option there as well. And then you got guys like will let's go farnioc. I think those guys just need time this year, get back used to playing with their
guys and rotating in when they can. But I don't feel great about the consistency or reliability right now, even if they did have a good day yesterday.
Yeah, I don't like the fact that none of us can sit here right now and say who number six should be?
Yeah, who would your number six be? Depends on who goes down?
Well, right now, right now, who's your number six?
I mean what I'm saying, it depends on who goes down.
If I mean, if we're at the tackle position, then you're back to shuffling chairs around.
My question would be, if left tackle goes down, then Tyler out and put in the left guard or who do you put it? Left tackle?
Yeah, you have to put bump Tyler out. I mean, that's that's automatic.
That's what I mean.
It's gotta be.
Yeah, now you're back to the musical chairs. So yeah, bump Tyler Tyler Smith out and then you're inserting who farnioc yeah bad, like Richard slide him down. I mean like you don't know, and like I'm saying, because you don't know, I got the bubble guts.
I don't eve think my number six on this is on the team right now.
Yeah, and now when I'm gonna say this name, I'm not saying this player don't do it. And I'm not saying that the return on investment they got from this player, but I'm saying something along the lines of how they went and got Jason Peters. But I'm not saying Jason Peters isn't coming back. I'm not saying that, But I'm saying that getting a player from another team that you're like, hey, you had been a starter in the league for this amount of time.
We need you to be our swing.
Task sure thing.
You know that's the type of thing.
Sure thing? Yeah, a sure thing, something that you could rest your head on.
You're not completely satisfied with it, but you're like, you know what, at least I know he knows what he's doing, and I know that he's capable of handling the opposition. I don't feel as if any of us at this table right now feel like we can put our finger on anybody right now in the backup, in a backup role that can step into the fold. If something happened at practice today, we would all be sitting up here like, oh crap.
I'll tell you my player is.
If we're gonna talk about somebody that's not on the roster, it's like somebody that was at training camp for a day and I know he doesn't want to come back.
But is Andrew Whitworth because he has that.
He could easily be a guy that comes in and you're not asking him to like play right away. But he even said when we're out there talking to the one day that yeah, that ship's kind of sailed because he promised his family, like after they won the Super Bowl with the Rams, he was done. There's actually a really cool NFL Films video of him with his kids around him.
Yeah after the game over time him like Daddy's gonna be around or whatever like that.
But when I saw him ou at practice, I was like, man, that's the perfect guy that you come in and be like, hey, Andrew, we're not asking you to start. We just need you to possibly be the swing tackle. And if something goes.
Wrong with you, drinks like rifle coffee cover. Yeah, and when we need you, we'll call you on it will make h.
Make it happen.
In front office is going to call and be like, hey, it's a three way with Tom Brady, why don't you talk to him?
Hit?
Uh.
Some of the guys that are available, I guess at tackle, and I'm talking about veterans that have been starters in the league. Juwan James, who was in Baltimore most recently. He's thirty one years old. Eric Fisher's still out there. He was not last with Miami. I mean he's thirty two. Justin Pugh.
He was more of a guard though.
Taylor Lewan, I don't even know if that's how you say his last name, thirty two years old out of Tennessee. I mean there's guys there. I mean, none of them are gonna move the needle from an offensive line standpoint. But if you want a veteran tackle, somebody that could come in and at least give you some sort of ease of mind and some sort of stability, then maybe you go and get some of those guys. I mean, you went and signed forty year old Jason Peters last year.
I guess he was thirty nine, but he was turning forty by the time the season got done.
So these guys are thirty one, thirty two, thirty four.
It's a possibility that you could go out and get somebody.
I just think that this organization recognizes how close they are, and I think they realize I know they realized it because the moves they made this offseason and what they did to go out there and get Cooks, you go out there to get Gilmore Right, they're trying their best to say what we call secure the bag. I think he will be a mistake personally. I believe it will be a mistake to not give yourself a sure thing option for that scenario that has occurred every year for
the Dallas Cowboys. So I think that they need to prepare themselves for that. Obviously, free agency dog on Denver grab all the high dollar guys that you could ever imagine. But I still think that there has to be something that you can do, whether it's when this ninety man goes down to fifty three and you go out there and try to hurry and suit somebody up, or you go out there and you use some of these assets that you still have and you try to trade for
it before guys start getting flipped around. I just think that you have to secure that because it's been a reoccurring problem and there's two position groups right now that none of us feel secure about. Is to backup office alignment, and it's the linebacker depth, both of those spots. I feel like something has to be done to assure confidence going into this year, and.
It may take that next step.
It may take till next week, the middle of next week, whenever those roster cutdowns do end up happening, because it is I mean, you think about the chaos that couldn't next week because there aren't tiered cuts anymore. It's not one week, two week, three week, and then you're at fifty three from ninety to begin with hundred players. It is ninety players to fifty three in one day across thirty.
Two teams in the league. I mean, what is that? Thirty seven players?
Twenty seven players almost telve hundred players?
Four good math?
Wow?
Dropping the same day quarterback.
I wish, I wish you guys, I wish.
Jill Jones credit for that one.
I wish you guys could have seen, like inside my mind when you guys are gona like, please don't come to me, It's like.
It looks like Zach Gallafernakis, like in the yeah oh yeah yeah about the formulas facing the.
Front guys, there's no chance word here, right.
Thirty thirty seven players across thirty two teams, and of course a lot of those guys are gonna end up on practice squads, and of course teams will try and keep their guys, but there's gonna be a lot of mixing and matching. So maybe that's the next step in the process. Maybe that's what it takes, and then after
that you reevaluate. But if if we were the front office, if we were in the GM chair for this team, where would you rank the priorities, Because I think in the off season going into it, you were saying wide receiver was.
Priority, corner was what priority? Offensive line?
You've gotten two of those taken care of out of the three, with running back being one, we'll say, linebacker being two, offensive line being three.
Where would you mix those in order?
Reversing your order on O line, linebacker, running backs.
I think I'm the same way.
So there's maybe the thought process that you have to go through next week, because you could use a guy at each one of those positions. I feel best about running backs, specifically because of what we've seen from Deuce Vaughan Regodoudel. I feel much more comfortable there than I did maybe two weeks ago.
We can we ask Black Rifle to send a package to our scouting department, because they're gonna need it.
They're gonna need they're gonna need it. Black Rifle Coffee Company. I'll take my one shot right here. If you want this team to be successful, Black Rifle, that's right, send the scouting department, the pro scouting department, that's right, a shipment of your best espresso.
Let's get it done, all right, let's get all the caffee.
Well, we'll put from Talking Cowboys and Black Rifle Coffee with like.
A little hard lot or something that it'd be great.
All right, let's take our first break when we come back. Hit us on the text line the Cowboys podcast text line eight one seven two nine zero three two nine eight. We'll take your questions and we're gonna take some calls. Eight A eight eight five five two two nine seven. That's eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven For the phone calls. We'll take some from Cowboys Nation when we come back.
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To Talking Cowboys.
This portion of Talking Cowboys is brought to you by Quaker Oats, a super trusted superfood. Quaker Oats, the official oatmeal sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. Welcome back in to Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, the official coffee of the Dallas Cowboys. All right, John, We talked about hype songs in that first segment. Before we take our text line at eight one seven two nine zero three two nine eight and take calls at eight A eight eight five five two two nine seven.
I want you to give me your hype song. What was it?
So when you asked me earlier, I didn't want to say what mine was because I feel like it's outdated because I'm an old man now. But I'm a huge DMX fan, and so in nineteen ninety eight, he came out with this album It's Dark and Hell is Hot, and I can listen to the whole thing. But so when I was playing high school basketball, our intro was always the intro to that. So it just has intro as the name of it, but it's the song that, like Mike Tyson used to come out to.
All the time. It's a song that Conor McGregor will come out to all the time.
Yeah, and then as soon as that song ends, it's only like maybe about ninety seconds, So as soon as that ends, it goes right into the rough Rider's anthem. And so just like those two, you can just play him back to back like that, and I mean there's I don't think there's anything for me that that would top those.
I like that. I love a good album, run album all the way down.
I just got to visual him coming out of the tunnel, Oh yeah, with Mike Tyson with a towel over his head, out on his phone.
He's tweeting, So he got John tweeting on the way through.
Because as well of those songs you really like.
And I remember right around that time, I can't remember who thought and he came out with that and I was like it was over.
Yeah, every just.
Go back to your locker room see Tyson coming down with that? Does he have a town cut out? Match is over?
What would your song be? Did you have a song back in the day?
I have many songs about to say U DMX guy myself, but for me or for the crowd, because that's that was the question was about for practice, right, turn it up. So if it was that practice, I would say, stand up and get crunkd by yingang twins. Okay, I think that crosses generations, right, and I think I think anybody would a pulse gets moving with that one. So that's that's my that's my choice for for practice. Yeah, let's say let's keep not shooting in if.
We're saying in the time era, then I'll go trying to make it to heaven by a fifty cent because that that that definitely gets me going. But if we're talking current salute by future, so okay, yeah, that's that's the future.
A lot of those types of yeah, yeah, it definitely does.
He can go for like a little bit where I don't feel like I'm hearing anything that really stands out like that, and then he'll just come out with a banger that you're just like, well, where did this come?
This man's forty three putting out hits?
Is he really forty three?
He's in his forties, I know.
Okay, Yeah, I did not think that at all.
Yeah, I know, I.
Don't know where there's nothing wrong with being forty three by the way, Yeah, nothing.
Wrong, nothing wrong, a lot of wisdom.
It's like a fine wine. No, it's great. The I don't know where I would go.
I was really in the like hard rock back in the day. I wasn't really like evere.
Rap guy real yeah, like like hard.
Rocks from Yeah, I messed somebody from Waco yesterday.
I thought about it.
Did I promise you had had a new client come in? I was like, where are you from?
Went to high school?
I'm not she's a little younger.
That was okay, was talking like Metallica.
Yeah, like a little bit of Metallica, like they were great. Yeah.
They were in at at and T Stadium the other day, did you Yeah. I was actually a little sad because we were in Seattle.
I would love to go to that. Uh like Headstrong by Trap? Do you remember that song? Like that was like big back in the day, like that one. Yeah, late nineties, early two thousands.
Yes, yeah, Oh jesus, I wasn't like like wear the black clothes all the way through and like.
Honey like film honey pictures.
This is the shortest, No, this is the shortest your hair has ever been?
Yes, No, I used to have the long wavy Nick can attest to this. I used to have the long wavy hair all the way through like high.
School and everything. Research I'll pull it up on Facebook out right now.
Is that?
And I don't know, maybe it was an iconic to you guys, but to me was that esp AND commercial with John Clayton. He was doing his like Live Read or whatever like that, and you know, he's obviously not some of you think would get into slay or whatever like that, and then it's cut. As soon as Live Reads over, he's like undoes his hair and he's turns on his headbanger music and then yells, yells down to his mom that his set's done.
What he's doing upstairs in his room.
Like jumps on his bed. He's got the Chinese food, He's got like chop. I'll tell you what.
Like it's I don't know, I don't remember the exact dates that there were, but from like I don't know, like late nineties to maybe two thousand and five or something like that, ESPN had so many of those good commercials like that where I think it was I think it was Sports Center, Like I mean, there was one where I was saying com was.
It wasn't the one with Romo where.
Like he was working the desk and then like they asked him for like an extension or something like that, and he used the armband to like look up, who wasn't that one of those.
I like sports.
I always like the one with like big Poppy.
That's David Ortiz and Jorge Pisadas right next to him and the Yankees, and he was like, you don't even wear your hat right.
He pulls it up and he like bins the brain.
He puts it on, and then the Finnway mascot walks by, like the Red Sox mascot walks by, and he just like drops his books and like storms off.
There was so many good Stuart Scott ones, like Russian spy ones.
That one, the one whe the elevator walk opens up in the New Jersey devil mask.
Up and he looks at him and goes nope, and he's like, we'll take the next one.
I've got some pictures. I don't want to put them on.
No, No, let's see what I want to see any you want to be put it on here.
This is me and my buddy case and this is when we were doing a skit in uh in high school?
That's the hair.
Wow.
Yeah, okay, that was ponytail level.
But okay, not ponytail level. I'm trying to find something. I don't think I ever had like ponytail level, but it was, I mean it was.
Long, Isaiah more disappointed in his life.
You don't like it?
All right, let's uh, let's take our first call. Let's go out to Baltimore. Derek and Baltimore. You're on talking Cowboys. How's it going?
I'm good. How's it doing?
Fellers doing great? What what would be your hype song? First?
Yeah, I don't know about a hot song. I'm like, no, I'm just all concentrating on these boys.
Okay, that's a good way to put it. You're all locked in. What's on your mind?
Okay, I just watched the Risk Is Baltimore Games of the other day, Cody. Okay, I'm just curious about what team in division you think we are capable of? But we probably sweep this year, or do you think we're gonna split against every divisional opponent.
That's a good one.
All right, great question. Thank you for calling in.
As always, I'll start with you, Isaiah, who is the lock to sweep. He's referring to the commanders there, of course, But do you think do you think there's multiple teams?
Do you think there's a chance you sweep all of those teams.
I'm not to go and look at this dog on schedule.
I can pull it up. I'll pull it up for us. What do you think, John just off here?
I think they go for into the division. I think they lose one of the Giants and one to Philadelphia.
Okay. Do you think they'll lose a home game? Who do you think both of those come on the road.
I think they lose at home to the Giants, Okay, and they win.
The opener, so the opener at New York, Yeah, and then week they don't see another divisional opponent till week nine at Philadelphia first week of November in Philly. Then you go at home versus the Giants after that game, So that would make sense.
I wouldn't.
I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if they went five to one. I definitely do not see them sweeping it. I think it would be tough. Just if you asked them if they would sweep the Eagles, I think it would be tough to that now that your commander. Sure I could see that depending on where their season goes, but I don't know.
It's hard to say. Until they say everybody touches.
It really is, then you don't know how healthy the team's gonna be.
I mean, heck, if you just looked at the schedule last year from an opponent standpoint and you told them, yeah, you're not gonna have Dak Prescott for like this five game stretch which includes like the Rams and the Bengals, and like, I don't think anybody would have had the Cowboys going four and one during that stretch without Dak Prescott. So it's so hard to project. But as I look at the rosters right now, like I clearly think it's
a two team race. I think it's the Eagles and the Cowboys, and then the Giants are next step down, and then Washington is a step down from them. But the other part that's you have to factor in is and I know this might sound stupid and not have any logic to it, but just look at how this division's been since two thousand and five, Like, you just do not have repeat winners in to win the division.
But the other thing is is just how often, the team that you think is going to be the worst in the division ends up being one of the best. It's happened to the Cowboys multiple times over the years. I mean, twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen, you know, I did not think that the Cowboys would win that division or even be in the conversation. You know, I remember one
of those years out in training camp. I'll never forget it because it was the only time I've ever heard Jerry go like, you know, it's gonna be an uphill battle. I'm just like Jerry Jones at that Wait a second, yeah, at the training camp press conference, like the kick everything off, and it ended up being one of their best seasons. And so that's the only reason I don't completely slam the door in Washington as being like the clear fourth. I mean, I just when they went with Sam Howell,
I'm like, I got it. I'm gonna have to see a little bit more, just because it seems like they're pretty unproven there at that spot.
The way the schedule is constructed, in my eyes, the opener, I feel like that's that's an opportunity that everybody's used to playing on Sunday night to start the season on the road, I don't think I think they get that one going at Philly. Don't think they get that one. But getting the Giants the very next week, I think that's a good bounce back opportunity. So I say they sweep the Giants, split against Philly, and I say they split against Washington just because you have to go to
Washington in Week eighteen. We saw how that kind of happened last year. That was bad playoff layover. But who knows, maybe they come in this year with that on their minds and like, hey, let's beat them by forty.
So yeah, and let's not forget Washington has some pieces, They have some talent, especially defensively. They still have a pretty solid front seven. Their defensive line still pretty good. As long as they can stay healthy. You get them late in the season, and if your offensive line is warned down, that could be a tough matchup. And we just talked about the offensive line depth and how it could stretch late into the season. So I think, just to give my answer, I think they sweep the Giants.
I don't. I just I don't know.
I could see them being tight games, but I just think they're better, especially if Dak is healthy and he's your quarterback.
I think you're going to sweep the Giants.
I think you sweep Washington, even with it to be in that last game, and then I think you split against Philly, but I think it's gonna be a flip sweep.
I think you lose at home and then you win on the road. Is where I think.
That's my weird prediction because it just never seems to go the way you think against Philly and in the NFC East in general. So I think this team is good enough to win the division. Are they a lock to win the division? Absolutely not. This is a tough division. Three teams made the playoffs last year for a reason. You're gonna have to earn your keep in the NFC East, no doubt about it.
From the five to.
One two, which duo has the most impact this season? Ceedee Lamb and Brandon Cooks, Trayvon Diggs and Stefan Gilmour, Michael Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence.
Those are the three duos.
What was that?
So?
I like that question?
They go hen in hand, right, I'm got let's go with Trayvon and Gilmore because of a DEFERENDI line you had Lamb. No, I don't hate c Lamb.
You hate Michael Parsons, not at all.
I think Michael Parsons, D Law and the rest of their committee up there are going to do wonders for a Trayvon Diggs and Stefanie Gilmore. So they're going to be the benefactor of the front seven pressure.
Wouldn't that mean that the most impactful if the impact comes from the defensive line, That's what I'm saying.
You can say, you can say both, right, I mean you could. You can say both. I mean because coverage.
Coverage allows for the for the D line to get home too, So it's kind of hard to separate those two. But I think, I think that tandem of cornerbacks is going to be a complete problem for a lot of teams.
And having both those guys makes me really believe they have a legit shot at being the league leader in takeaways for a third straight year, which is just silly to think of because it's gone since the early seventies. Even have a back to back to If they were to lead the league three years in a row like that, just that's that's such a huge outlier.
But they have the piece to do it.
But for me, it's got to be Lamb and Cooks just because of the fact of I just love how much they line them up together and how much they can play off of each other, and and I think their skill sets fit each other. Cooks being the savvy veteran, you know, yeah, you could have maybe, you know, obviously we saw some times here where they had you could say, quote unquote two number ones with a Mari and CD. Like, I just think the way Cooks and CD Lamb fit together,
it's like the perfect one two punch. I would try and have them as close to each other as possible, just because, like enforces, the safety have to make decision and both of them are just huge play, big play threats. And then the other part of it is is that there's like a big drop off from me between them two and everybody else with who Dak's most comfortable with,
at least what I've seen from these practices. And when I say that, it's because you know, you don't have Shultz, who was obviously like a deck safety blanket, And that could be Ferguson, that might be Luke Schoonmaker, who knows, but as we see it right now, or as I see it right now, like Lamb and Cooks are just like they just seem like I mean, they're just lockstep with Dak, knowing exactly where he's going to be, where the throws are going to be.
I was twying with both of these answers. My answer is going to be Trayvon and Stefan, But I hope the answer eventually becomes Lamb and Cooks, just because we saw what a lack of playmakers did to this offense and whenever it mattered last year. So having these guys ready to go whenever week eighteen, week nineteen playoffs come around, you know, it's I would love for that to be the answer.
It's kind of scary, I'll say.
I say it's as scary because as good as Gilmore and Diggs can be together, I don't know if we're if Dallas is at a point where they've created enough of a deterrent not for teams to not attack them the way that they always have, which is on the ground, right, so there's a deterren on the outside. I don't want to throw the ball either way. So knowing that I want to throw the ball, now, what am I going to do? I got to run it right. And obviously Hankins is back, big Molesei Smith is still learning.
Right.
Is there enough of a deterrent on the interior defensive line now to really just change the team's approach?
And I just don't know.
Yeah, especially with the questions.
But that death that inbacker two, I mean, that's that's the thing that teams are gonna do. They're going to try and run at them, and if you can stop it, then that's great, and then you're playing right in their hands. But they're gonna make you try and beat them that way.
I've talked about this with Nick Eatman. To start the season, Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook, week three, James Connor. Does that even count as kind of a layup though? Week four? Zeke? Week five?
Who's week five?
That is san Fran Yeah, McCaffrey, Christian must eler before you go into your bye week. So they're gonna get that running game. They're gonna have to get that running game figured out very early on. It's funny, perhaps by fire.
The front part of your season is loaded with tailbacks and and sporadically wide receivers, receivers and then you've got the middle of your your your schedule that has of course Cooper Cup, DeVante Smith, aj Brown, the Giants and all their short wide receivers, and then you've got at the end of the season, you've got the quarterbacks. You've got Jalen Hurts, Gino Smith, Kyle to a tongue about Lowa, Jared Goff, Like, it's all that at the back end.
So it's almost like your your schedules cut in thirds. First third is run game, middle third is weaponry on the outside, and then the last third is quarterbacks. So that's kind of where it's.
Reason I agree with Isaiah on the on the running back part of it because even when you say that to me, I think of just going into those Vikings games last couple years because I think Justin Jefferson is the best receiver in the league and the way that they were able to neutralize him because of you know, having digs and some of the stuff in and now
you add gilmore to that. I can deal with like even one of those guys, one of those receivers maybe having a big it's the running game though, that could really gouge you, and then it keeps your offense off the field, and then it's keeping your defense on the field of these long, you know, drives and wearing them down. That would be That's been a way bigger concern for me than those big name receivers.
Yeah, I I'm trying to even think about it.
I think I agree with you. I think I do.
I think it's Gilmore and and Digs that make the biggest impact because you've had Micah and d Law, you've had Ceedee Lamb and another wide receiver before, but you've never seen Diggs and Gilmour and two high end corners on this defense. I think it does open things up a little bit defensively, and it allows some of those
guys to run free. I think if Mazzi Smith can continue to grow to and Jonathan Hankins can continue to push the role that he had last year, then all of a sudden, those defensive end guys are gonna get after it. And I'm not even just talking about d Law and Mike. I'm talking about Dorance and Sam Williams and some of the guys behind him as well, or Dante Foller.
When you said about the Parsons Lawrence thing, I was like, well them two, you know, Yeah, that's that's gonna be tough. But it's also that next wave because that reminds me of those Giants teams that you know, going into those seasons, you were never like, oh well the Giants will probably be in the super Bowl. But you know, Eli Manning played well at a key moments. But it was really
that defensive front. It wasn't just like they had one good It wasn't just oh see, it wasn't just straighthand I mean they just had waves, you know, talk and all that.
That's what makes me think.
Matthias Kanuka that that's what makes me think if Sam Williams can take the jump that it looks like he's capable of taking as a player, then all of a sudden, you could potentially have three guys double digit sacks, you know that, maybe even four, who knows.
But so you couldn't do math, but you could pull these names out of a hat like that earlier.
No, man, math is always like one of those objects in the school where he saw your yeah, tea. Your teachers would sit there and they'd be like, you know, you're gonna have to learn this because you're not gonna have a calculator around you.
All the time, and I'm like, yes.
All right, we got to take our second break. When we come back, we'll wrap things up. We got a couple more questions. We got a couple of hype songs on the text line as well. We'll see what the fans are thinking when we come back with more talking cowboys.
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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answered life's questions with an ice cold can of doctor Pepper, Sheila, Let's hear from my next caller, would.
You, Dear Doctor?
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To talking Cowboys, this segment is brought to you by in Visi Line, the official Smile of the Dallas Cowboys. Back here from the SWBC studios with Isaiah Stanback John Michow to Nick Harris.
I'm Kyle Yeoman's all right, we've got some some hype songs.
How about still Dre from Dre himself that it says, first two minutes, first couple of minutes. That's kind of the one. Then you've got melody from Saint Louis, She says, Nelly melody melody. Oh yeah, no, God blessed Texas by Little Texas. Yeah go through, Uh yeah, a couple couple good ones all the way through. All right, as we wrap things up, going into preseason game number three this
weekend Vegas on Tap seven pm Central Time. Isaiah, you'll be in the booth with Bill Jones, Michael Irvin, give me one position group that has to have their best preseason performance.
Position group as a whole, and it could be as deep of a position group as you want, or it could be maybe just one guy in that position group.
I'm going to go right back to an offensive line. I think you still are trying to find your guy, like, who are your next handful of guys that you could depend on and rely on? Right So that's where my attention goes. I think there's still a lot to be uncovered there, that's a lot to be shown. I don't I don't have a ton of confidence right now in that group.
That's a great one, that would probably be my number one, But kickers still lie on my lege. I want to see him kick some meaningful field goals, you know, for me, I would love it to be one of those games where he Brandon Aubery kicks three extra points and three field goals, like I'd love for her to see him have that many opportunities to see what it looks like there. And maybe there's other things that are more important than that, but it just that's a guy that there's no depth
chart there. It's are you the guy? And if you are you could be asked to make some really huge kicks starting Week one immediately, big time plays that you have to make, and so yeah, that's pretty high my list.
I'm going to focus on the interior offensive line specifically, just because there's a lot of guys that have had up and down camps, up and down preseasons. In that group. You could start with Matt FARNIOK. You could start with brock Hoffman, who did really well in the first preseason game at center and really struggled at left guard in the second preseason game. Awesome Richards whenever he's sliding into left guard, which I feel like he's done really good
work inside. Just somebody that can step up in that interior make me feel a little bit more comfortable, and preferably not a rookie, you know, because I know those guys are going through a process right now, so that's a little bit different. I want to see farniok. You know, that's a draft pick. That's a guy that I want to see step up when it's time and I just haven't felt that.
And when I say offensive line, it's just to your point, a lot of these guys are young and they just aren't the guys that they're going to be yet, So it's just a waiting game. You're they're going to hopefully they're going to get to that point where you can rely on them when they could be consistent players. But right now, in terms of contributions, if they if something happened in practice, we've seen a number of guys go
down as of late. Unfortunately, if something was to happen like that on the offensive front right now, you would be running around here with your hair on fire and invisible fire like Will Ferrell.
It just don't.
You'll be running around right now like crazy because you don't have that guy that you could say, you know what, all right, good, We're still good.
You don't feel that right now?
Do any teams in the NFL have that guy?
I'm not sure.
I mean, do the thirty two or thirty one other teams in the NFL have that same problem though, because I feel like there is an offensive line crisis in the league as as a whole.
I mean, Dallas has tried to address this. Sure, right, they got ball, they got Will Let's go. I mean they've been working towards this, right, they got Tyler Smith. Think they've drafted guys.
Tyler Smith was an investment, but Ball and will let's go with day three picks that they're hoping panned.
Absolutely, they're hoping right, but their thy injury riddled right. And then also some of the progress has been slowed. So I mean, so some of these things that they planned just haven't panned out. So it's not like they weren't aware and they didn't try to rested, it's just the game plan hasn't went the way that they've hoped. So now is that I think it's at a point in time in their year where they're like, we have to.
I believe that they need to pull the trigger and make.
Something happen just to just to put their mind at ease, because there's too much writing on this year to have a question mark that big spot like that, a big spot that you historically has always put you in a position where you have to fill that void.
Yeah, I look at it as I'm not gonna site your neck, Like I know all the depth trits of all the other teams, so I just compare it to the one team that I cover. And that's when Jason Garrett took over as head coach. They were really weak on the offensive line. You know, it's the first draft pick that they made when he took over. His head coach was Tyron Smith, and so it still wasn't like, oh,
we drafted tire and everything's fixed. So it took a couple of years, and I would say after thirteen they get Travis Frederick right around that time, you know, then fourteen they start went. So from that time thirteen fourteen until now, this is the most concerned I've been about that. Like I've always felt like there's at least been some guys where we're like, yeah, if they need so and so, they can step up things. That's why I say if I feel that way, they must they have to feel
that way. And that's why I say I don't think that the six my six offensive I'm not necessarily even on the team right now. And also because of the fact of what they did last year when they went and got Peters, Anthony Barr, t Y Hilton, Jonathan Hankins, like they were not going to leave some question mark positions up just to be well, maybe somebody will step up, Like you have to be a little aggressive there.
Yeah, do you feel like this trends more to a reality if someone goes down. It's similar to last year where they put Josh Ball in for the rest of the game. That's his tryout and if it doesn't work out, go get Jason Peters or someone like that. Quote unquote Jason Peters. Yeah, yeah, you were saying earlier, but a potential picking up like pick up, Yeah, Well, if.
You feel if it's a player that's on another team, I think right now that you're trying to get off of maybe cuts or some type of a trade, I think you get away with that. But if it's a player like some of those names that Kyle mentioned that haven't been playing, you need them to just even be in the facility so that they're ramping up for if
that situation happens. Because if you call one of those guys that he mentioned right after, like you don't want to throw them out there right now, you know, right off of you know who knows what they're doing. I just saw a good quote the other day about they asked Bill Belichick why I guess the Patriots have signed a bunch of guys from the USFL XFL type guys and he's like, that's because they're coming off seasons and we know that they can come in right away and
give you something. They might not be as talent as some other guys, but a lot of times when you work out guys that have been not part of the trading camp process, it takes them, you know, some time to catch up, whereas at least we know these guys can come in and do something right now. They might not be as talented, but we know that they can kind of hit the ground run.
And yet that's an interesting wrinkle. I mean it's true. I mean you've seen it a couple different times. I mean, look at what Cavante Turpin did last year in the preseason, coming off of a season like that, and I.
Think there's levels to it for sure.
To answer the original question, I think offensive line is the easy answer for me as well, but I'll flip it to the interior of the defensive line.
I'm want to see Mazzie Smith have his best performance.
Yeah, I'm going to see him step up because there were times in that Seattle game where he was getting turned, he's getting pushed off the ball. He looked like a first year player. I need him to look like a first round player. I wanted to switch a little bit for him, and there's flashes, no doubt, there's flashes of it, and it's one player too.
But I want it to be more consistent and I wanted to continue.
Forward, especially whenever you give up four and a half yards per carry.
And one hundred and forty one yards on the ground.
So I want the defensive tackles and I want the first round pick Mazzi Smith to have a better week in week three. But again seven pm Central time kickoff. Catch Isaiah on the call, Good luck my bud, appreciate you well, get after it on Saturday for John Matchoda, for Nick Harris, for Isaiah standback, Chris Beam in the back. I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long from the SWBC studios.
We'll see you next week. Come more Talking Cowboys.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
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