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Studies show that the toughest week to show up to work throughout the calendar year is the week in between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. That was certainly the case for the Dallas Cowboys in Philadelphia, as they did not show up to work in Week seventeen of the NFL season.
They fall forty one to seven, not.
To Jalen Hurts in the top offense in the league, but instead to a guy named Kenny Pickett and a guy named Tanner McKee, the second and third string quarterbacks. Welcome into Talking Cowboys, presented by a Black Rifle Coffee Company, live from the Star in Frisco, Texas and the s WBC studios. As we break down, we talk about it every Friday, win or lose, we will be back.
To talk about it. This one's tough to talk about. Gentlemen. Not gonna lie, Patrick Nocy, Walker, Josh.
Roderiguez, Tommy Yarish. We've got Chris Beam in the back, Isaiah stand back.
Will rejoin us tomorrow for a Christmas Eve.
Edition or excuse me, a New Year's Eve edition of Talking Tuesday.
Patrick, haven't seen you in a couple of days. Welcome back.
First off, glad, glad you didn't show off to work last week.
Oh but we heard of showed up here. He shut up in spirit my name, I tell you. The bat signal popped up in Alabama and.
I felt it. I felt spidy since was tingling Man?
Love it?
Yeah, No, back in the building, Happy to be back. Mischie guys, Hello a lot. That's why I had to absolutely call in once the name was mentioned.
I can't wait for training camp for a couple of reasons.
So yeah, but you know, I was hoping that my return today would be under better circumstances. Yeah no, no, it's just not m GB, not great, Bob. So cowboys fall to the Eagles in spectacularly bad fashion. And like you said, they didn't fall to Jalen Hurts. They fell to Kenny Elway and Tanner, Montana. That's basically what they were made to look like last night. And I mean, really it began with the implosion of the offense from
the Cowboys. I mean, you do not walk into a road game, let alone against the Philadelphia Eagles and give the ball away three times in the first half and then expect to really have a chance to win their game. So talk about the two interceptions from Cooper Rush, the fumbled by Jake Ferguson. The e goes turn around and get you know, manifest seventeen points out of their first
twenty four points off of those turnovers. Yeah, you were able to bounce back in your second drive after that pick six, but ultimately constantly giving the ball away, you could, and I said this to Tommy, you could kind of see the defense, Cowboys defense becoming more and more mentally defeated by the fact that they had to keep going back onto the field and then unleash the Sa Kwan Barkley and just pound you into dust from that point forward.
So yeah, grit season is basically over.
M HM.
So that was fun while it lasted. The Eagles won and the Commanders eked out of winning overtime. So on to week eighteen, we go and yeah, roses and tombstones.
That was tough. That was a really tough game.
You see one starting caliber corner out there and they just decided to pick on Andrew Bruth.
Oh oh god.
They Yeah, we were talking about those numbers.
That was rough to watch.
But like you said, it did feel like the defense sort of after the ineptitude of the offense for the first half.
It was just like, I'm.
Tired, boss, tired perfectly. See. It was.
That was tough to watch.
The air left my body in the second in the first half, actually just before the first half ended it it was tough, man, Tommy, Do you.
Want the Andrew Booth numbers? Yes, we get into that, let's do it.
Yeah, I'm looking right at them, but please, by all means and.
Monte Smith and Andrew Booth lined up on one another eight times yesterday. Smith was targeted six times. On those eight reps. He caught five of those passes. It's not good for eleven yards and two touchdowns.
What's that average? Like twenty two to two.
Something like that. You're better at math than I am, am.
I yeah, you did because you had to correct somebody on Twitter who wasn't so good at math when.
Yeah, that's a different conversation.
We'll talk about that, but there's your math.
Is that the biggest math is that's nine yards less than his total for the game, which was one hundred and twenty. So essentially, aside from all that he caught what was it, one more pass, two more passes for nine yards Andrew Boothy gets one hundred and eleven and two touchdowns. That's not great. It's not great. And we a lot of Yeah, he hadn't moved to ir that kind of was the writing on the wall. This's gonna be a really thin cornerback room and they just couldn't get it done.
And they mentioned that on the broadcast a couple of times.
Greg Olsen was like, man, at some point, it was gonna raar its ugly head again. The revolving door cornerback, whether it was the Ron Bland early in the year, Trayvon Diggs, now, whether or not Jordan Lewis was available for a couple games in the middle.
Of that stretch. Yeah, they they have had zero.
Stability at the cornerback spot, and there have been times where every reserve has been.
Picked on from the Cowboys cornerback room.
We've talked about Butler at one point, We've talked about a Warria at one point, Carson at one point. This time, it just happened to be Andrew Booth. And give credit to Devonte Smith. He is a high level, elite caliber receiver, and the Eagles have two of those.
That's what makes them so good.
They've got two elite receivers, whereas Dallas only has the one to work with. And you saw what that looked like on Sunday.
The difficult part is that it's not Jalen Hurts throwing the ball et either. You know, you had the two backup quarterbacks, the second and the third string, just like you said, Patrick, like you alluded to Chust.
To George Way and turn of Montana, uh, and a lot of a large part of it was you know, of course, you go back and look at the numbers, and you look at the film and if you watch it in real time, Andrew Booth just got picked on.
Yeah, it was absolutely.
Picked on, Like where's twenty five?
Yeah, absolutely picked on. The Only way that you could help him in that situation is to get after the quarterback. Cowboys only had four pressures yesterday four, and three of them belonged to Michael Parsons.
Wow. The other belonged to Olso Diggi Zuwa.
So two of the top ed rushers in football in the back half of the season only got four pressure four pressures.
It's a good offense that offensive line mat when you're averaging one pressure per quarter and they've already identified the blinking light in your secondary, you're you're long for the.
Ride at their toast and you can't stop the run.
Yeah, and you had.
Nothing for that, So then it became just keeping the Cowboys defense off balance. At that point, it's like, Okay, Barkley, Barkley, Barkley, Oh hey, booth pass.
For what it's worth.
I And and this is not to sprinkle sugar on what was a burnt toast in the in the early parts of this game, But I was actually impressed with the way that Dallas fought in the run game.
Early.
They weren't getting off the chunk plays, they weren't allowing Barkley to find it. They were getting them in the backfield. And it's almost impossible to tackle Barkley for a loss, but they were close multiple times, and they forced him backwards.
So that way, he only was limited to one or two yards per carry.
I mean even at the end of the day, whenever he finished with a number, he did thirty one carries, one hundred.
And sixty seven yards five point four yards per carry. Most of that was in the second.
Correct, one hundred and twenty seven yards in the second There you go.
So he was what forty yards in the first half.
You know why I'm okay with that because the Cowboys couldn't stop the past correct, So then they changed coverage style to stop the pass and opened the seat or the green sea, and.
Then and then they were record watching.
On top of that, it's like, oh, we'll give Saquon the most carriages out of all season.
Now, Oh, they were trying to get him to two k because borderline, they get him to two thousand. He's at two thousand. Now they can sit them if they want. Or going up against the Giants this week, the Eagles can possibly have against his former team one hundred and four yards and put up a I don't know, man, that's.
A big former team, a chance to break the all time rushing record.
It's pretty big.
Yeah, I understand, I understand the risk, but it's the risk, and to be fair, I'm also of the mindset of seventeen and sixteen aren't equal, so that's kind of different from the ego see seventeen to sixteen.
Hey, but when you look up single season rushing record, would say still exceedingly impressive if he were able to do it.
So I don't want to take anything away from that other than to say the facts are the facts, and if you do it in a fewer amount of games, then it's more impressive that it's not impressive, it's just more.
I mean, he's still top ten considering the sixteen game window right, still top ten.
Because he was a player all time to hit two thousand and he did it in sixteen games. So yeah, it was impressive. And Barkley's a specimen. We've talked about it all week. We've talked about it twice a year for every year he's been in the NFL.
It's foolish.
There's a being there's a video circling right now that's.
Some hard knocks cool man. It's bad. So it keeps resurfacing every every few weeks.
Don't blame him, don't blame another kind of silver lining. This is Saquon Barkley's only good game against the Cowboys, like really really good in his career against the.
Cowboys, and that is quite impressive from but I guess I mean.
It goes back to the original part of the conversation of the reason that Saquon had success in the second half as opposed to the first half was because in the first half you had guys like Kenny Pickett throwing ten of fifteen for one hundred and forty three yards in a touchdown with his quarterback rating at one twenty.
Can't get much worse than that, right, Tanner McKee comes in and.
Goes three of four throws for two tuddies and fifty four yards through the air.
I really liked Tanner McKee as a as a Day three prospect out of the draft. I wasn't really high on Kenny.
Pickett, and sure enough that didn't turn out very well for Tanner McKee.
KYLEE.
Oowmens guy, not a Kylie Owens guy. But I did like him out of the draft. I thought he was a draftable player. Kind of wanted Dallas to take him in this third like that Day three side of things. Instead Philadelphia did, and here he is throwing touchdown.
You know what's wild to watch is when a player, a player's kryptonite is identified and there's nothing they can do about it, and it seems like every player has it. Quarterbacks have it. Right for the longest time, Peyton Mannon's krypton kite was Tom Brady, Right. So when you talk with Dak, dakx kryptonite is those folks out in San Francisco, right, sure? And even I mean Fangio really has Dak's number as well. Cooper Rush versus the Eagles, the Eagles just flat out
half Cooper Rush's number. Cooper Rush is now all one three against the Philadelphia Eagles. Tommy and I were talking about it yesterday in the booth. This is the only the second multi interception game of Cooper Rush's career as an NFL started, and the first since twenty twenty two Week six, when he went up against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia and he gave up three interceptions, which, by the way, in that season he had no interceptions in any other game. Oh wow, So all three of his
interceptions that season were against the Eagles in Philadelphia. So he was asked about it yesterday and kind of tongue in cheek. He was like, I don't know. Maybe it's the stadium, maybe I don't like the color green, whatever it might be. The Eagles just have Cooper Rush's number, and there seems like there's nothing he can do to gain any kind of leeway. I mean, in those interceptions that he threw. We've seen Cooper Rush play some solid football. That's how they got the four and one in the
last five games. But those two interceptions are unforgivable.
That first one was just this if he even explained. He was like, Oh, it's an option route. No, that's that's c J.
Gardner Johnson. It was mixed coverage.
C J.
Gardner Johnson. He does a two step drop and he sits in the zone. He's sitting there waiting for Brandon Cooks to come on the inside slide if he comes off. If Cooper Rush comes off of that read and sees Jake Ferguson absolutely.
Toasting the line as the window right there.
Not only does he have a window, Mingo has sleigh pin to the sideline. So maybe if he blocks that, then all he has to do, Jake is beat the single high safety. Best case scenario, you're down to the fifteen ten yard line. Oh, worst case scenario, you're down to the fifteen ten yard line. Best case, Jake Ferguson gets a touchdown.
Then on the interception.
Triple coverage, Brandon cooks his two safeties and a cornerback over there.
Ar.
Meanwhile, if you go back and look at that set, you have Jalen Tolbert coming free on the middle fade on the outside, you dropped that in over into his own bucket, or Jake Ferguson on a slight curl ten yards it was a third and six.
Either one of those is the.
First down, but Jake has yack potential after that triple coverage. As soon as the ball went in the air, Tommy and I sat back and was like, oh, because.
There were three Green Jerseys ready to take that ball.
I think I think Patrick and I were closer to that ball than Brandon Cook was. It wasn't along with the three defensive It looked like a punt.
It was was it on punt? Yeah? It was third down? Right third?
But there were still like thirty one seconds left on the clocks.
Oh, I'm not saying it was excusable. No, it basically was a pun that it just gave the punt up and.
Jalen Tobert is a first down option right there. Jake Ferguson is a first down plus yack option right there. But you decide on Cooks. So two of his interceptions came forcing the ball to Brandon Cooks, not coming off of the read. So those were just unforgivable and for as good, good as really really good as a tight end as Jake Ferguson is. And we all know I love me from Jake Ferguson. You got to protect the ball, Michael, you got to protect the ball. Doubt will how to
fumble too. Yeah, when the Eagles go down, they score, they take the lead fourteen to seven, you're trying to answer first play of your next drive. You're tight in fumbles the ball. Eagles get a field goal off of that, and then that's for me, that's kind of where it started to snowball, because the Cowboys never regained composure after that.
Oh, it was the Ferguson fumble is where I wrote it. Even in my highlight.
Package that I wrote last night, I said, this was the point was where pivot point. Yeah, everything started going downhill for Dallas because even then you go down the field, you tie it up at fourteen, and then you're you're still answering the serve at that point from Philadelphia. But then you fumble there, you give them great territory even if they don't get the touchdown, and they ended up going and kicking a field goal instead.
It was rough.
And then think about the number of plays that the Eagles ran on that drive, that scoring drive that took them fourteen to seven. Defense, they're tired, it's time to get some water. Let's reset fumble. If you're the defense, you immediately hit drop. You like, okay, al right, here we go. And it just went from there.
Yeah, after that fumble, eleven plays, twenty six yard drive for.
The Eagles to keep the field goal around them.
A minute and nineteen seconds later was the Cooper Russian reception. And I think the real killer was after the pick. There's thirty six seconds left in the half and the Eagles go sixty five yards and four plays for a touchdown. Yep, there's her no.
Big off chunk play over the top to back.
That's when the game was over. Yeah, that's when it was over. So that's the first half, right, Yeah, that was that was the end of the first half.
So reiterating that's when the game was over the.
End of the first half, run more real quick is I know we're going to break here soon, and here we go.
You know.
I typically write three things that'll usually have to happen for the Cowboys to win. Number one was Cooper Rush need to beat zone. Eagles and Vic Fangio play zone at I think the highest level in the NFL or the highest rate in the NFL. So Cooper Rush against
Zone ten of twenty seventy nine yards an interception. The second point was regardless of who he plays quarterback, because we didn't know during the week, get home, no sacks, four pressures, and the last one was find a way to limit Saqua and they did in the first half. Second half, he breaks a record and goes into NFL history.
Well, yeah, it's almost like you know what you're talking about, Tommy. Sometimes to win.
Sometimes sometimes yeah, like all caps.
Once in a while.
Just because you brought it up, Pat, I was curious and I went to look at Cooper Rush's splits from Philadelphia.
He's nine and two against every other team.
As a Star Ryptonite except for philadelphia'szero and three kryptonite. His totals against Philly, oh Man, these are bad. Forty seven completions on ninety one attempts. That is a that's just over fifty percent, fifty one percent for the mathematic nerds out there, three hundred and eighty three yards on ninety one attempts.
Uh.
He has two touchdowns and five interceptions. He doesn't have a single other team that he's ever faced throughout his NFL career where he's thrown more than one interception.
It's not like the Eagles are team that we need to be often, right.
Yeah, pretty often.
He's played against them three times as a starter, six times overall, and it hasn't gone well.
It's just amazing to watch. Dude. Pretty weird. It is pretty weird.
All right, Let's take our first break when we come back. We did have some positive and it was really over the course of the season that came to ahead and Rico Dowtell is now a one thousand yard rusher at the NFL level. We're going to talk about that and how much weight that holds, and then also what does it mean for this offseason for the Cowboys going into the final week of the regular season. Lots to talk about still when we come back with more talking cowboys
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Forgot it again? That's okay, I didn't forget this morning. I had some oats, got some oats. I did a strawberry and cinnamon the salad.
Yeah, you know it didn't have their roads yesterday.
Who's that Cooper rights? Oh darn it. He could have maybe. Nah, he wouldn't have played like that.
He wouldn't play like that.
He would have gone for like week. He would have gone for like three fifty and four tuddies.
If he would have he had the.
Wheedies.
You know what I'm saying, word or not?
The wheaties.
What's the one where it's just the big rectangle, you know, I'm talking about what.
The shaker are you talking about you just got one singular?
Yeah, it's just like the box comes a four of them prison issues.
And you just you just dunk it in milk and then just clawed it. What have you not seen this thing?
No, that sounds like that's.
What whatever it was, it sounds like that is what he had for breakfast.
Yeah, that's oh.
Man had listed one one big single large oats.
My god, that's what my guy had. It's a goat oat. Yeah, not the same, all right, it's a.
Good You can't spell goat without oat.
Yeah, that's true. All right. So we mentioned the bad, and we'll talk a.
Little bit more about the bad as we go along. But I do want to give the flowers to Rico Daudell. One thousand yards on the season, and he did so in.
How many games?
Fifteen games because inactive for one and the Cowboys that played how many games?
Seventeen sixteen sixteen, they've.
Played sixteen games in seventeen weeks. But yeah, don't try and discredit. I saw some people online was.
Like, oh so a thousand yards in a sixteen game season? Wow, that's discussing.
Oh yeah, what is that shredded week?
Yeah?
That's that's all my boy uaker oats from the internet.
Ricco O Daddles had his oats, and that's the thing is I want to I want to shed light on how not only is it a thousand yard season at the NFL level, that's unbelievable in his own right, he's the first undrafted player in Cowboys history to ever also a thousand yards in a single season rushing. But he's done so with really only having the back half of the season to run the ball effectively, and to run the ball as a.
True RB one.
That's impressive on and that's what I and I'm so glad that you pointed out the math for those that are trying to discredit Rico's thousand yards. Oh, a thousand yard season doesn't matter anymore in a seventeen game NFL season, Well, when the guy was only active for fifteen games.
So that's one.
Number two, Like Hal said, when it was a running back by committee for.
A large portion, a large portion. It wasn't until.
Midway through the season where we heard Mike McCarthy get on that podium and say that's our lead back, and up until then it was a mix up. Well, Zeke started in Cleveland, right, So that tells you number one how that went. And then it was force feeding Zeke and they tried to get Duce involved. They gave the Delvin Cook experiment a chance. Hunter Lipkey got his shots, and suddenly, now Hunter Lipkey is nowhere to be found.
Now that I think about that, it just popped in my head, though it is true where to be found. But nonetheless, the running back by committe approach, that's how the Cowboys entered training camp, that's how they entered the regular season. It wasn't until midway through the season that McCarthy was like, Okay, we get it.
Rico is our guy.
And he still went on to get a thousand yards and again, unbelievable because this is not an expansion franchise we're talking about. This is a franchise that's been around since nineteen sixty with endless draft classes and an endless number of undrafted free agent signed.
And he's the first to ever do it.
We'd like to see him do it on a day where he doesn't add a fumble to the stay.
Yeah, he's got a hold onto the ball, hold onto that ball. We'll get to that.
But the but the achievement is still the achievement.
So he didn't necessarily get the the RB one spot until what week is this? It was November twenty fourth against Washington in Washington. That's when he had nineteen carries. Before that, his carries were ten yards or ten carries, twelve carries, twelve carries, five carries, eleven carries, eight carries, seven carries, eight carries. Like it's he did not have the book of the ball when he did the one game that.
He did Pittsburgh, that was what carries. That was when we created the Rico.
Drop.
My boy had twenty carries at that game for a seven.
So obviously he has not had the rock very often, especially for the majority of the season, and it wasn't until that long losing streak where they actually really all right, maybe give it to the reco.
Well, look at the discrepancy in terms of yardage prior to.
The bye and after the bye too, And the buye wasn't midway through the season.
Of course, I know there's a couple extra games added on after that, but after the bye week and we'll actually say we'll say after the San Francisco game, because that's where he was inactive after that, He's had six hundred and seventy one of his one thousand yards in those nine games.
In the six games prior, he had just two hundred and forty six yards. So when you feed.
Ricodowdele and remember those a forty six yards with eighty seven of those game in that Pittsburgh game that you won on the back of Rico Dawdle out of those those back half of the season, it shows.
When you feed Rico Dawdle, you get some success running the ball.
You know, we've talked about just how impressive it is in general considering how late he started getting the bulk of the carries, but I think gets all the more impressive that he's done it with so much movement on the offense. As true, you don't have a clear cut left tackle. Left guard's been solid all year. You've had two different centers. Zach Barton doesn't play, you know, in these last in these last couple of games where he's had you know, a big year, he's run over one
hundred yards four times in the last five games. I mean that, and he always he's like he's like an offensive lineman's dream running back because every time we talked to him after a game where he has one hundred yard day, he's like, oh, yeah, credit to those guys up front because they make it all happen for me and they have I mean, you can't argue that because they've created the lanes for him and he's been able to hit it and that's slashing running style that Mike
McCarthy's talks so much about about how the Cowboys love that from Rico Daddle. It's paid off for him and now he's a thousand yard rusher versus undrafted free agent for the Cowboys to be a thousand yard rusher. I think he's the twenty's the twenty second undrafted player in NFL history to rush for over a thousand yards in a season. So there is no discredit that accomplishment whatsoever. And it's nice to see because he has especially wanted
that one thousand yard market. You think about the injuries that he's gone through in these five seasons in the NFL and everything that he's had to do to get to this point. You know, you got to feel good for the guy because it's a cool accomplishment.
I think it's a bittersweet in that he achieved that, where Saquon Barkley also achieved.
Two thousand yards in the double. That's a good point double the moment.
That's bittersweet in that way, also bittersweeten in that he only has one touchdown, one rushing touchdown to show for it.
That to me is.
Tough much to Tommy yrs.
Well, no, no, no, there's two points there because you make a good point. So Kyle looked the stat up for me. If Rico doesn't score a touchdown next week, he'll be the third player in NFL history to rush for over one thousand yards and have less than two rushing touchdowns. He's joining pretty good company here, Thomas Jones from the New York Jets in two thousand and seventy at nineteen.
Yards and.
Garrett Hearst from Arizona in nineteen ninety five one thousand and seventy rushing yards and one touchdown. To your point on Saquon Barkley, Rico got asked that yesterday and he said, quote, he's sitting the standard right now and doing what he's supposed to do when he's had a great season. Think he's probably about sixty away from the record, So hope he can do that. That helps everybody out in the running back world. So definitely a lot of appreciation for what he's doing.
Oh wow, I love that, love to see that running back solidarity.
And he's right because I think this this season has showed you that in the last couple of years, where people who have tried to tell you running backs aren't important, running backs don't matter to an NFL offense nowadays still do.
It's all cyclic, Still run the ball, cyclical.
And now it's cycling back to running backs math yeah again, yeah, cycling.
I mean, look at what's happening in college.
I mean, one of the biggest names to look for right now going into this week is Ashton gent who could be a Cowboy next year. By the way, Cowboy's currently picking at twelfth in the NFL right here for just so you know. But the I mean, that's the thing is he's he's got a chance to break Barry Sanders all time rushing record. You've got a chance to
see Saquon Barkley this week break Eric Dickerson's mark. Now, both of those guys have more games to work with over the course of their schedule in order to do so, but it is. It is a pretty good microcosm of Hey, the running back position is not as devalued as it may seem to be in the modern day NFL. With that being said, now the decision will have to come from.
Rico Dowdell moving forward.
It does, so.
Let's talk about it. He's hit a thousand yards.
He's done so with just the one touchdown and a couple of fumbles along the way. Six fumbles, I believe right, that's significant. That's a lot of fumbles for an RB one. So my question to you is what's your confidence level that he's back next year in a Dallas Cowboys uniform. Remember he has more yards now than Tony Poller did last year. And of course he's a little bit younger than Tony Pollard. Tony Pollard signed his deal with Tennessee at twenty seven years old, and Rico Dawdle is what
twenty six years old? I believe I'd have to live he is twenty six, twenty six years So my question is where are you looking at the value of Rico Dawdle and where does that lead in the future.
To just a quick correction, I only see three fumbles for Rico on the season.
Three loss fumbles, three lost yas, I think he's actually put it on the ground. Yeah, okay, okay, is that true?
Lost fumbles? Is two oh three total?
Bumbled three times three times lost? Two? Where did I see six?
I don't know. Maybe it's I'm looking at ESPN.
Yeah, maybe it's six total. Okay, I'm going to go with your number. Yeah, three, So still three fumbles, had a couple of those in the red zone, which is significant. You gotta gotta hold on to the ball.
I think yesterday, to me, it's a no brainer.
I think you want to see what Rico continues to do with his offense, especially if the same coaching staff returns. I think you want to see how Rico builds on this. But also I'm looking to the Lions here where they have a David Montgomery and they have a Jamier Gibbs.
I think you are able if you are able to get a playmaking running back in the draft or free agency that is a kind of knuckles to your sign or Sonic to your knuckles right, more of a quick, great reference playmaker that is able to beat you with his speed. I mean, you saw Quante Turpin kind of spell in and do that. I would I would be down to see more of that as well. But I think you give him a contract, I think you have
him returned. I think you see how he builds the top of the performance that he had this year.
I think you need to see it.
I one believe the Cowboys will try to keep Rico Dwell in the building, and I am one hundred percent in a green so that they should. That being said, free agency is a two way street, and Rico Dawdle's leverage as it stands may never be as high again as it is right now, sure coming off of a thousand yards season, So that means that he's going to
get suitors. And the question Rico Dawdle will need to ask himself number one is the money, because because his leverage may never again be this high, he may never again get a chance at the size of the bag that he's going to be offered from whatever team or teams plural. But also he has to look at the
situation as well. Is the team offering him a deal, be it the Cowboys or one of the other thirty one are they offering him the deal as RB one, Are they offering him the deal as a combo because I think that Rico Daludo is tired of combos, right, because the majority of his career in Dallas was spent trying to earn his way behind Tony Poverd and Ezekiel Elliott.
Yes, so then Zeke gets waived.
And then even when they bring him back, right, they still give it to Zeke to start in Cleveland, and then you still see the reluctant side of things to give him the ball until the second half of the season.
Like they're just talking.
And even still you've given him the ball second half of the season. And Yards is going to love this point because really pisses him off. When Rico tears off a big run, you pull him off the field, and then Zeke comes onto the field. So that's a scenario where if he's to return to the Cowboys, I'm sure Rico Dado is looking at it as what's my fit here, and the same goals for any other team. I think Rico Dado is looking for two things. One, he wants to be the definitive RB one and in someone system.
He's tired of playing Robbin and any one of the other Titan team Titans. Okay, he wants to be Bruce. But at the same time, what does the money look like? And you Tony Pollard averaging seven point two five million dollars a year. Pollard had a better resume, yes, but as far as the final season before departing, Rico.
Is having a better season, right Yeah, yeah, So Racho said the resume and what Pollard did previously. He had more explosive runs, he had more touchdowns, he had more experience. But you could also look at it from the running back position as lower tread on the tires. So he's a younger player by a small margin whenever he's signing the second thing.
And he's put the injury woes behind him for the most part, So that's no longer a conversation at the moment. So my point is Rico is going to get offers, and they probably will be I.
Think it'd be about five to six.
I was going to say five a year. That's probably where he ends up landing. I don't know that the Cowboys will be willing to do five year considering because they're going to sell you the salary cap pie thing and they're going to say, well, we got to pay Michael, so we can't.
Okay, fine, as long as you bring me genty. We could talk about the list.
Okay, there's a guy playing in bois right now. Then you're talking about it and everybody has their eyes on.
The Cowboys have that pipeline to say the least, to boys draft a couple guys.
And if you're picking at twelve, there's a much greater chance than if you were to win out these.
Last two games.
Obviously, Yes, yeah, because you were at fifteen last week.
You know why Rica's got a little bit more tread on the tires because they take him out. And I, I mean, I have no problem with Zeke coming in for short air situation because he's the bigger back, he's the more physical guy. I get that. But when Rico comes takes off the field after he gains like thirty yards and they're at the thirty yard line, it's like, all right, Zeke, why do we just not want to
carry over positive moment? I just don't get it. So unless he summon himself out, And that's just one of the things that I don't know if it infuriates me, because because I seem pretty infuriated, Well, it's just something I don't understand. I think, calm down it very well. Maybe something that I don't understand, but that's how it is. I don't understand it. No, Rico Dawdle has earned every single bit of the consideration to be a number one
running back really anywhere. I'm fully in agreement with what Josh said. I think he took exactly what I was going to say. There is no problem with having two high end running backs in your offense. Sure you cannot go wrong with that. The good thing that Rico Dadell gives you, and we've seen it this year because he somehow has more receiving touchdowns than he does rushing touchdowns, is he can catch the ball out of the backfield.
So that's increasingly more and more valuable in today's NFL is getting the ball out of the backfield, being able to be that kind of scatback type guy at the running back position, to be able to do a lot
of different things. And if you've got two of those guys where you've got a bruiser and you've got a scat back, then you've got a lot of options on offense because you can run the football and if your receivers are covered, if you have a guy like Ceede Lamb when he comes back next year, and you bring in a wide receiver two, whether it be in the draft or in free agency, and that's going to being
so much attention downfield. When you can check down and get five, seven, ten yards, that's going to help you out a lot on offense. And I think Rico Daddle can do that for you. I think he should be back in Dallas now. Patrick brings up a good point of is the price tag going to be a little bit too hot?
Was that?
That's where I stand?
I have a question.
Yeah, you know, let's say God forbid, Let's say Rico decides to go to another team, he gets the bag, which is, you know, great for him, right, Yeah, then you are not stuck.
I don't want to say that.
Then you have duce font a running back that you have not used to his abilities at all. Do you trust that the offensive coordinator would give him a chance to carry any sort of the load next season? And what kind of running back would you need to supplement a guy like duce Fon if that is one of your starting running backs next season.
Well, to answer your questions, am b A. So if we're talking the science of the matter, you got to go by the data in front of you, and the data in front of me suggests that the Cowboys can't seem to figure out how to utilize duce Fon to the full of stuff his abilities right, And they've tried, not once or twice, but at several times since he's come into this league to try to get him in their shoot, horn him in there, and it's just not working.
There's a disconnect there.
So I'm not confident that dynamic can be figured out magically suddenly going into.
Another It's not like it'll be.
Your first full off time. But if there were science.
If they were science, if they were to figure that out magically, the science doesn't believe that they can. But to answer your second question, you would need a hammer.
You would need a hammer because, like like Tommy was saying, if you're going to have a scat back, which is essentially what duce Von amounts to, you got to have somebody who can just pound and ground, right, who can get you those dirty runs in between the A gap to B gap and takes a lot of that bruising that Ezekiel Elliott was brought in to take right, So don't don't So you started that, I saw your face.
I didn't do anything.
It's to see you almost.
Went to Tommy again, another outburst like that, just to see.
But yeah, so you got to have someone who can come in and do the dirty work if you're going to try your best to make Douce that step back. But just circling back to your first point, nothing indicates to me that can be figured out.
Of course, but he is one of the running backs that is going to be on your roster next year.
Yeah, he's under contract. Yeah, the one thing. It doesn't mean that you're going to be aver. He's under contract.
I think it's more fair to say that you they probably assuming McCarthy is back, and just let's just assume nothing change.
Now we don't know that it will or wuldn't.
That's fair, that's fair, But for the sake of argument, assuming nothing changes, you didn't have to assume nothing will change. When it comes to Duzvon and the Hunter Lipkey equation, which I say to say, I think Hunter Lipkey would get the nod before dus Von would get the nod.
There's there's a chance at that I'd agree with that there's a chance at that. The the other thing that it does too.
If you don't bring back Rico dabtle It Pigeon holds you in the top one hundred picks one of your Remember you don't have your fourth round pick right now. You might get a camp Oh yeah, you traded for a guy who hasn't played very well.
Anyways, you don't have your fourth round pick.
So in your top three rounds you would have to one good pass and yeah, you would have to end up taking a running back, plain and simple. If you don't bring back Dubt you're spending a first, second, or third round pick on a running back.
So that's a lot to keep in mind as well.
Patrick brings up a point, and I want to talk about it when we come back.
I want this Cowboys.
Franchise to make a decision on their head coach, and I want them to make it this week.
I'll tell you why.
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To Talking Cowboys.
Back here on Talking Cowboys. This segment is brought to you buy in Visline the official Smile of the Dallas Cowboys, Patrick noci Walker, Josh Rodriguez, Tom, you are as Chris.
Beam in the back. I'm Kyle Yeoman's glad you're with us, all right. I said it. I want the Cowboys to make a decision.
I'm gonna say I'm gonna say it.
I'm gonna say it.
I want the Cowboys to make their decision on their head coach this week, this week. I don't want them to make it after the season comes to a close.
Here's why.
One point number one out of unnamed amount of points I'm about to make.
Point number one.
If you get blown out by Washington like you did last week against Philadelphia, does it change anything in your mindset of the future of this team.
No.
No, If you win in a blowout fashion so complete polar opposites, does it change the future of what you think about this organization? No, it absolutely does not. You know now what you're going to do one way or the other. This Washington game has zero effect on what your head coach will be in the future, whether you're deciding to extend him totally fine, cool with it.
Extend him.
If you're waiting and you're gonna let him go and you're gonna move on to a new head coach, that's totally fine as well.
Make the decision.
Do it this week, because then this game can hold weight, because then you get a look at a whole different element of your roster without the penalty or without the pressure of going in and trying to win the game. Specifically, you get to see guys like Trey Lance, Douce Fawn, Jonathan Mingo. You get to see guys on the defensive side of the football that you haven't seen previously, and you get to do it with either an interim head coach as Mike Zimmer or interim head coach is Al Harris.
Or your head coach of the future in Mike McCarthy.
So either way, make a decision. If you're going to make a decision postseason. Anyways, you haven't extended him yet. The report last week was that talks have stalled. Either get the talks going again and make a decision that he will be your head coach of the future, or move on so that way you get to see who will be in the future.
A Dallas Cowboy. That's my point.
It needs to happen this week in my opinion, to be effective as a front office and as this team moves forward.
No notes, I agree, yeah, no notes, because either way, if you're going to keep him, you need to hit the ground running as soon as this regular season concludes with trying to shuffle pieces around and having that conversation which assistant coaches are going to stay, which assistant coaches are going to go, who might you replace them with, and start building that process for twenty twenty five as quickly as possible. If you're going to part ways with Mike McCarthy, it gets start as.
Quickly as possible.
You need to open up the door to potential interviews and things like that, especially for teams that may be entering the playoffs, whatever the case may be. So either way that cal said, either way, the sooner the better.
And let me reiterate, I'm not saying fire Mike McCarthy, that is sound.
I'm saying make a decision either extend him in destry or don't.
Let it drag out into the outlet. And that's the last thing you want as an organize.
Because it's also going to negatively impact free agency because if you let it drag out, and as it drags out, you don't know if McCarthy's staying, is he going Keep it in mind that McCarthy's going to get some interest as well. I know right now coming off of the Eagles loss, recency bias will tell fans who wants McCarthy, and Chicago will want McCarthy's.
That's the situation.
There will be some teams that want a Super Bowl winning head coach, so he's going to have that decision to make. But if you drag this out, then it becomes more of a fifty to fifty ify thing, and free agency starts approaching, the new league year starts approaching, and as your scouts start to do their work on trying to build their boards for the draft, and you don't even know who you're really building it for.
Me. You set it in the last segments. You said it.
In the last segment, you're like, let's assume that Mike McCarthy is back even doing any sort of assuming.
What do they say about assuming? You're making ass out of you and me? Exactly? Like that's the thing.
You're assuming everything right now? Stop assuming make a decision, make a decision.
I like it and floor it and start Tree Lance, just do it.
That could happen too, honestly, just either way, it's art him.
Why not five million dollars for a season?
Freaking start him, dude, Like, what are we playing for at this point?
Start him well? And that's another reason why I want them to make a decision.
I don't want Mike McCarthy having to go into this final game questioning his future and saying, you know, what best chance to win games is Cooper Rush and my futures in the balance.
I'm gonna start Cooper Rush.
If you extend him, if you make a decision, if you decide to move on, you make a decision. Then either way you can say, Okay, I feel comfortable throwing out some of these guys and seeing what we have in the future. Out of the lesser played players, Rico Daddle has a thousand yard ceed lambs out for the season. You've got Cooper Rush who just threw two picks and coming off of one of his worst games of the year.
Why not listen? Why not? I'm now this pisses me off. This is your Rico Dada one touchdown? Yeah, the whole.
Everyone who follows the show, follows me on Twitter, knows that I have been in evaluation mode for quite a while, and a large part of my evaluation mode is I want to see Trey Lance because I want to see as he if he's worth the conversation at free agency, as far as potential QB two right for behind Dak Prescott in twenty twenty five, It's not happened.
It's not happened. It's not happened.
You go into the Eagles game, Cooper Rush throws the ball away twice on unforgivable interceptions. It ultimately helps lead to, you know, Eagles getting twenty four points.
You're at the half and.
You're on the road, and there was no more of.
A perfect time for you to send Trey Lance in and maybe invigorate the offense, maybe in shot.
They didn't do it, and they did not.
And when I saw Cooper Rush coming back out and it was not Trey Lance, I officially threw my hands up and said, you know what, one of those all right, okay, Mike, okay, f me then okay to that point, now, I'm so over it because the second half wasn't given to Trey Lance. I don't even care if they start Trey Lance against the commanders. Show me, will Grear, just just just put start Will Grear. So you give me somebody to evaluate.
I want to. I know, Cooper rush Is.
I need something to evaluate for twenty twenty five, twenty twenty four is done.
It's done, so it's over.
It's a wrap for need to roll the credits and bring the curtains to a close.
Show me that you've already said no. See, I'm not going to give your train lasts.
Ok.
Cool, you will give me give me the guy that had a heightsman.
Vote, give me, give me. We'll wantre It was a badass in college. It's one more than I got.
Yeah, we don't need to talk about a college days. I mean, you guys all have good points. I think human nature, you know, naturally tells us that you you genuine You get more trying to find the right word for this honeymoon sugar. When you know what the future looks like like, it's easier to operate. Like word, it's
easier to operate. It's easier to operate moving towards the future. Yes, when you have a clear pastic idea of what it looks like when there's a lot, have a plan and what's and yeah, when there's alignment in what's going forward. So what this team needs is alignment. They're not aligned because your head coach doesn't know if his job is safe. The rest of the staff doesn't know if their jobs are safe. Some of these players don't know if their
jobs are safe. You need to get alignment. You can't deal with the player's portion of it until free agency starts. You can resign some guys now, Michael Parsons, and but the biggest stepping stone that you can get to moving forward there is making a decision on mich McCarthy.
Yay. So once you've got.
Alignment, things start to slowly and slowly churn and get better. Yes, and maybe even it doesn't get better. But once you once you align, you can at least move towards the future and try to execute your plan. Whether that plan is successful or not, that's all just left to be seen.
Yeah, I just set sail with no destination, no.
Correct and we made our feelings very heard. Last week.
We had an extensive conversation on this show about Mike McCarthy his future respect that you need to show for the way this team fought down the stretch and the way that things started this season can be a knock, just like the playoff success. So one way or the other, we made our thoughts very very true. That doesn't change with a forty one to seven loss in Philadelphia, nor would it change in Washington either. So make a decision one way or the other. Let's start moving toward twenty
twenty five in the right direction. And that's that's my one plea. That's my one plea of the year. I don't ask for.
Much, but that is that is, but that is what I'm asking for.
I ask for a lot, give you will career, ask for your head to be relevant in twenty twenty five.
Would be nice. Thanks, That's what I asked for. Man, it would be nice. All right.
That's gonna do it for us here on Talking Cowboys. We will be back for a New Year's Eve edition tomorrow, a little ring out the twenty twenty four ring in the new year with by ringing the phone lines.
How about that?
Yeah, we'll talking to you. Yeah, yeah, you interrupted my bar. Its fine, Oh sorry, no it.
Was sorry for Patrick, No sy Walker, for Josh Rodriguez, for tommy Rs, Chris Beam in the back of Kyle Yeomans saying so long from talking Cowboys will see you tomorrow.
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