Talkin' Cowboys: Where Can The Offense Grow?

Mortgage studio for an offseason edition. We're gonna be here every Tuesday at eleven am Central, Talking Cowboys, Rob Phillips and for Bill Jones, joined as always by Mickey Spagnola, Brian brought Us and Kik Garrison, producer next door. How are you guys doing great? Bills on assignment? Huh, he is on assignment. He kept his word. He got to the super Bowl. We didn't. Yeah, he was right. Yeah, we might see him on this screen over here, one

of these, one of these segments. NFL Network, they should be doing the interviews at the team hotels probably right about now. Yeah. Matter of fact, got opening night coverage from Monday night, Rams and Freezing Atlanta and Patriots in Freezing Atlanta. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are in full off season mode. Team team just got back from the Pro Bowl and Senior Bowl. Brian went to the Senior Bowl. Yeah, checked out some prospects there there are. It was one of

the best rosters that they've had in years. And I give Jim Naggy, former NFL scout and his staff a lot of credit. There were a lot of quality players there. I thought that the San Francisco bunch, the Oakland bunch did a great job of showing showcasing the skill of these players. And so I have actually up coming up on Dallas Cowboys dot com today. We got a scouts eye of the game, had a chance to take a look at the game, and so that's going to be up later on today. So I hope every takes an

opportunity look at that. But I was really happy with the roster. The quarterbacks there, if you're looking for one, you know, a lot of good names, but probably didn't show up like that. We thought they might through the practices, but a couple of them played pretty well. You know, Tyree Jackson from Buffalo played well. You know, he didn't look good in practice, looked good in the game. So you know, it's you're gonna have to go through this tape,

evaluate and see where you're at. But at least it was a good roster to look at, and I think that's always encouraging for the scouts. You want to go to Dallas Cowboys dot com as well, you can check out top ten performers from the week. That's true, you

and Dave put that together. Yeah, so yeah, I mean early start on draft prep, grind in a way, and no first round pick, but obviously a Senior Bowl is great for trying to find guys in those middle rounds even und Well, that's that's going to be the whole thing for the Cowboys is and we don't know what's going to happen. You know that he might find a way, he being Jerry Jones, might find a way to get back in this draft. So you can't just say, oh, well,

they don't have a first round pick. And I'm not saying that to slam you or anything. I'm just saying, you don't know what happens. You know, they might get a call someone say hey we'll take next year's one, and we'd start to dance all over again, and he gets back in this draft. But yeah, I think with the I think with the twenty seventh overall pick, you would be very happy to take a guy like Amari Cooper. Then move forward and then at fifty eight. You know,

that leaves the board wide open to you. And again I'm not going to get into the draft show here because that's on Thursdays at eleven am. But it does leave the board wide open to them too when you want to kind of focus in on some things that they might need, some positions that they might look at, you know, defensive line, offensive line, maybe a linebacker, maybe a safety, maybe another cornerback considering what they're doing right now.

So a lot of things, a lot of possibilities. And I think that's the great thing about it is that you have to you can keep an open mind and not just have to pigeonhole to say, Okay, we have to have a tight end, we have to have a defensive tackle, we have to have you can keep an open mind and make that work. Just go get my man, Debo, that's your guy. That's the guy from Missouri. Through the ball pretty well and a nice touchdown passed the guy dropped into the end. Yeah, it was a great read.

Wrote about it too. He it is a you know, talking about an anticipation throw from mister Locke, and yeah, you know it should have been should have made McLaren the receiver had it and it was in a good spot. Just dropped it. But I want debo. Okay, we'll see if we get that done for you. You know, it's funny that they tried to target him and he's he's talking about Deebo Samuel from South Carolina is who he's talking about. And he was outstanding during the practices and

in the games. Though. They tried to target him quite a bit and they just could not connect with him, and that was a problem. The guy guy runs excellent routes. You got to figure out where to play him. You could play him in the slot, you could play him outside, could hand the ball to him, Yeah, kick it to him, kick him more. Missouri out Yeah, like twice in three years. Man, he's a really good player. I didn't know much about him going in, but he clearly showed up in this game,

and that's I think that's important for him. I knew enough about him that in the one game I think it was two years ago maybe, and Missouri took the lead, and they had to kick off, and I knew better to kick the ball to him, and they did and he returned it for a touchdown. Yeah he deserved what you get. This guy is really good and he's my little toy player that I'd like to see. He's a little bit bigger than a toy. Yeah. Well, but but he's a good players first. Yeah, he could do a

lot of things for you. There's no question. He was highly ranked on your top ten list. Go check that out. All right, we have so much to get into today. Man, we've only got an hour if you want to join us. Eight five five two two ninety seven is the number the last time that we all gathered in this podcast studio. It was a couple of days before the Cowboys mutually air Quotes parted ways with Scott Linehan. So let's let's

start there. Okay, Cowboys haven't opening at their offensive coordinator spot. Yes, and a lot of discussion about what they're gonna do there nothing official yet. Let's get into that. Were you guys surprised by the Cowboys decision to move on from Scott Linahan, And then let's kind of look into what they're trying to do to fill that vacancy now, yes and no. I just felt like there was a good

chance he would be back. But it didn't surprise me that he is not back, I think, and it had more to do just for me, more to do with maybe some behind the scenes stuff than just oh, the Cowboys offense was so bad and they had to get rid of Scott Linahan. I think at times there was probably a little bit of the disconnect between Garrett and Lenahan, and I think they tried to go through it and go through the season, and I'm not sure it patched itself up. So I think when they probably sat down,

it was like, Okay, let's let's part ways. But I don't think the move was just saying, oh, this offense was so bad that we had to make a change. We got to have a Star Wars offense. All I know is all to talk about Sean Payton. Got to get Sean Payton. He's so brilliant. Saint scored one more point against the Rams than the Cowboys did the previous week. Yeah,

so I'll just leave it at that, you know. I think where I think Mickey did a great job there of saying, really, what happened this was more about more about the personality than it was about or maybe more about direction. Mickey, Is that is that fair to say? Yeah, you know, I shouldn't say personality because I don't think Scott and Jason don't like each other. I think that there was more direction that how they wanted to go. And you know, and it could have been very easily.

We could have just said, well, they just needed to get a better offense, any sense. But Mickey nailed it. He absolutely nailed it there, because to me, it was more about I was I was one of those that said, let's keep the thing together one more year and then you know, if it if it works, great, you extend everybody you go on. If it doesn't work, then you get a clean sweep and you get a whole new staff and you could do what you want to do.

I was willing to do that. But when you have coaches that don't agree on what's going on, you know, or the direction that they're going, then it's very very hard to work together. And I applaud Mickey for not bearing the lead and saying something that that's you know, that's just oh well, it's just because the offense. I just I honestly believe that he's absolutely right about the way that these two gentlemen were getting along and it it it wasn't going to work out the way that

everybody thought it was. It needed to work out, and it's you know, I applaud them for making a switch. You know, if if if you can't work with somebody else, you know, in this day and age, you know you need to make a change. How often do we see people continually work together and it not work, and then at the end of the day you wonder why it happened. Well, you saw what happened, you know. So I'm I'm on board with with what Mickey's saying right there. You know.

It's it's almost like the thing that Bill Parcels used to say. You got somebody on your staff and it's not working, and you find yourself spending more time talking about that, right than coaching the football team. Yep, then go ahead and make a change. Ye absolutely. I don't sit there and waste your time. And I think a little bit of that is what was going on. And I'm frankly just uh fed up tired of hearing about how bad this Cowboys offense is, you know, or was,

and it and no one wants to look at the facts. Right. The offense carried the Cowboys the first eight games of twenty seventeen, right they were. They were averaging twenty six points a game. How much more do you got an average? We know what happened the second half. They took a rookie quarterback the year before and averaged nearly twenty seven

points a game and won thirteen games. And all of a sudden, when they got a wide receiver and an offensive line playing well the second half of this season, oh, they started scoring more points. So I think it's it's just so convenient for the people from outside to just try to one of those deals, Like I say, they want to put it in a box and tie it with a little bow on top, instead of looking inside the box and tell me why it happened. Don't just

tell me. Oh yeah, they just don't They don't know how to call plays, and they don't know how to run an offense, because all these other teams they spectacular offenses. Right, Okay, All I know is in these playoff games, the teams that were running the football all did a heck of a job of winning games, including the new England Patriots. Some guy down the road here scored their two key touchdowns Burkehead and all they did was run a off tackle play at the goal line to score, right. It

was no fancy motion. They motioned the tight end across, he blocked like like Noah Brown blocks and he ran for the touchdown to win the game. And senior high. Yeah, okay, that's high. But Mickey can ask a question of you then, did you were there times though, were where you were a little frustrated with the offense. I was frustrated when they got inside the ten yard line. Yeah, and we didn't have a good answer for that. Everybody talks red zone, it was it was more of the golden goal zone

they were. That's where they struggled. They were near the bottom of the league and scoring touchdowns inside the twenty and they were dead last inside the ten. But but when you can't when you can't do a good job of handing it to the NFL fells leading rusher and score, when you're three yards out, four yards out, then you're

you're you're probably having problems with something else. And this offensive line when we look at it, yeah, it was fine, but it wasn't the offensive line we're used to seeing. That's true, and the Domican sue blew up his offensive line had the game of his career. Absolutely did. He

was trying to get to the super Bowl. Yeah, he knew. Yeah, they couldn't find any traction for speaking that game and and really that we've cited that in the red zone and the goal of goals situations, they just couldn't line up and run over guys down near the goal line like they used to, you know, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, even among the best red zone teams in the league,

and he just couldn't do it. Maybe getting Travis Frederick back, you know, next season, which they think is going to happen, can help in that area. Do you feel like though that that was Scott's frustration? Yeah, I think, well I think that's where maybe if we could just we're speculating here, and I'm again I'm not trying to you know, cause any problems, but if you wonder, if I wonder what Lenahan I wonder if his argument was, listen, what have

we done the last couple of years. It's the same plays, basically the same players. We didn't execute as well. Yeah, you know, what's Garrett's answer to that, because he's absolutely right, because a lot of that's the issues they've had were pure execution the play. I think a lot of it was execution. Yeah, I thought there were some times where there were some creative play calling. And I guarantee a cowboy nation out there right now is losing their mind

with me about saying that. But I felt like there were some times where things were there were some good calls there and then and Mickey's right and Dominican Sue Noah Brown, you know, boot to the right that doesn't get blocked by you know, by the tight end. You know, these are things that happen. You call plays, you try

and be creative. If the players don't execute the plays, you know, I can understand if it was just one thing where it's just you're banging your head against the wall and you're just running the same play over and over and over and over again. But what that But if you look at twenty sixteen, that's how they had some success running the same play over and over and

over again and scoring touchdowns. And then this year and then this year they started searching for different things to do and running plays that they don't normally run, and then the execution breaks down because they tried other stuff. Yeah, it just didn't work. Yeah, the creativity I felt like at times was there. Absolutely. I felt like if you wanted to say, Brian one word for what happened inside the five yard line execution, it to me it was

that was that was as evident. You know, you don't need some like I always say, there's some former NFL scout to tell you that you can watch with your own damn eyes. When they don't block, when they don't run the ball, or they hit the ball where it's supposed to hit, or the quarterback doesn't get the ball to the guy that's open, or the fullback in the flat doesn't catch the ball. You know, that's a problem. That's execution. That's not play calling. That's execution, and that's

on the players. They fire, they fire the coach, or ask the coach to leave, or he resigns or whatever you want to what they said, whatever you want to call it. But you know, in reality, you look at him and you're going, Okay, well I could pin this on him and this on him, but I can't pin this, this and this now. If you're if you're gonna say, I felt like the offense improved once they made the Cooper trade. When we're talking about between the twenties, felt

like the offense really improved. You were able to run the football with some success, You're able to throw it with some success. You got a Mary Cooper going, you got Michael Gallup going. You know, Mickey's right about the offense overall. The first eight weeks of the season, it was god awful. Though. It was really bad. It was hard to watch, hard to watch. They put themselves in better positions to score down the stretch again, trying to finish Rise was a huge problem, and they had a

major hiccup. Indian Apples, Yeah, you know, just nothing went right really for each Indian Apples is just look at the Indianapois did on their run. You know, they just got they got caught in a situation where you know, but they were incredible the way they play there one one in five and then the rally, the way they did. So the Indianapois loss, it's very reminiscent of the Rams loss. The same thing when when this team couldn't stop the run,

you know, it struggled, It struggled badly. And that's where I think that you know, if you look at this team defensively, okay, what do you need to do to do differently? But for nine weeks, ten weeks, run defense was pretty damn good, you know. But but offensively that's where we you know, we all have to point the finger at something. I'm guilty of that. I point the finger all the time. It's my job to try and point the finger. But also think you have to be fair.

I don't think you could put it all in Scotland hand. That's kind of why I was saying, bring them all back and if it doesn't work, then now Because we did see some improvement after the Marie Coop trade. Ended up scoring five more points a game the second eight games. And that's with a new wide receiver who hadn't been here. You know, tight ends started developing. Tight ends played better. It was two points a game more. No, it was nineteen to twenty four. Final, the final thing was two

points more pre Cooper post Cooper. Now, I said the first eight games. I look at the season in two halves. Yeah, well I did eight and eight. See it's that's not six and nine. What's to you, robber, I mean, I don't. I'm not I'm not sitting there shilling for Scott Lenahan or the coaches or yeah like that. But I'm just saying to me, where where do you? Where do you see this thing? I mean, I I know Mickey said his point. I mean, I I'm trying to find her.

I'm trying to find reasons too. Did they not? As a personal guy, do you not have goodenough players? But why did they lose the last game? Oh? They got there? They got the run. Defense was bad in that game, really bad. They barely had the ball offensively. Yeah game. Yeah. So yeah, that was almost an outlier because you're really don't get you there that yeah, yeah thing, the part of your game plan that that got you to the playoffs failed exactly. Yeah, let's keep talking about this and

I'll answer your question on the other side. Okay, because because in trying to find solutions, and you talked about you wanted to maybe bring everybody back. Yeah, they like their in house candidates, and while they don't have an announcement on a new OC, it very well could be filled within house. Let's touch more on that when we come back on talking Cowboys has been helping Cowboys fans see better since nineteen seventy two said they don't miss

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If you're picking number one, they got any thoughts, Oh, they're they're they're they're liking what we're staying. I mean, that's always encouraging that the kind of a long I think there are a lot of people talking about that. We were talking about the execution, and we were talking about you know, but a lot of people felt like that just a change needed to be made. Well real,

real quick. If I say, when do you think And I want to get to your question too, Rob, but I just answered, do you think the quarterback handcuff the OC at all? Well? I was and I'm not trying to blame it on him either, but but do you think that that that was something guys? That might have been the way he calls plays. I don't know if it's a perfect fit. Um. And that's kind of where I was going to answer your question. Yeah, they may very well. Look yeah, I mean Dak limited him. Yeah,

well maybe maybe a little bit. But I think they're all in on this quarterback. They want him to be the long term answer. And I think they may have looked at this and said, all right, it's not all on Scott Linahan, but like as they're saying on periscope, maybe a change needs to be made to try to further this young player's progression. Sure, and find whether it's in house, whether it's out a house, find another voice with Jason Garrett's influence that can take him to another

level and bring it and maximize his strengths. I know all season we were talking or hearing from fans they gotta run Dak more. They got to do that. Maybe maybe there's ways to plement more of that into it without getting him hurt, because I don't want to see him in the same boat as Cam Newton or a guy that you know is way too mobile conscious, you know what I mean, or just Shaun Watson. Yeah, yeah,

But can how can they get more out? How can they get more out of this young quarterback that they have a lot of faith in and who made the Pro Bowl this year? Get him a wide receiver that gets open? Well? Is that is that? That was pretty simple? That was But is it good enough? Is that good enough? It got into the second round? You know, they want to get to the next They're tired of making it to the Vision round. You know. But if you play better in the first eight games, then you might have

been playing at home instead of on the road. Maybe, but you had fifteen points with a minute to go two minutes to go in that game in LA And look, Stephen Jones said it, and he's absolutely right. And it's not all in Scotland Ahan and it's and it's execution, the red zone and all that. But when you look at the four teams left in the playoffs, they were the highest scoring teams in the NFL. So what can we do to try to get to that next level? And yeah, sometimes you have to make decisions, and it's

Scott Lanahan who's leaving. But what can they do? You know? And what that kind of brings me the next point is if then what's next? You know, what, how can they get squeeze more out of that Orange I guess if it's Kellen Moore as moved into that role, or if it's Jason Garrett with more influence. See, I think that's where everybody has the issue, is that they're staying in house and they think that things are going to

be the same, you know. Yeah, And I don't I don't necessarily agree with that because I think the general feeling Brian is that he's the Lenahan guy. Yeah, and that and Jason Garrett's core values of this offense are going to going to allow them to do anything differently. You're not gonna, like you said, Star Wars offense. You're not going to see a college offense run next season, you know, So how what do they do that's different?

And I have that question myself and they haven't made announcements. Jason Garrett did not speak at the Pro Bowl. He wants to make sure all this is fine, realize first what they do. But it's worth a question. I mean, what are they going to do differently? Do you have to do something differently or you have to do it better? Maybe a little bit of both. I mean, are we do we just dismiss what happened in twenty sixteen like it didn't take place. I just I'm the same quarterback,

same offensive coordinator, not the same offensive line. Yeah yeah, so I would do you have to make concessions to what you're trying to do because your offensive line is not as good? Or is it going to be good when Frederick gets back and Zach Martin is healthy, not playing with a sprained MCL that he probably shouldn't have been playing with, and that you're starting left guard might get a little stronger and not a twenty one year old rookie anymore. Maybe you figure out a way to

We talked about this just kicking out. Yes a spell, Ezekiel Elliott Moore, Ye give him, keep him fresher about the time running back situation just at lunch the other day. If if, if, if you hear any of us all say need to give it more touches, then just go ahead and take a bad upside our head. Yeah, because they need a somebody they can hand the ball off too. That's that can do something and not the same thing that that Zeke does. But again, it all worked in

twenty sixteen. What can they do different? Mickey? What what could what could Kellen Moore possibly do different? I mean, that's where we need to focus. If that's my question. I mean, I'm with you. I'm with you on the execution part and be better. I'm with you on that. I'm with you on the health of the offensive line, I'm on I'm with you on the the emergence of a of a really quality wide receiver, some young tight ends. I'm on board with that. Rob's right, we need to

back up running back to help. But what what could what cannot you cannot finish? Once again? And whoever you want to blame for it, right with your quarterback taking fifty six sat okay, season, No, you can just start right there. You saw what Brady did after the game, took a picture of his jersey. There was nothing green on it. And they get hit and they had injuries up front too. He didn't get Oh you look at

that Super Bowl he lost to New York Giants. Grat stain on the back of that first two series of game, nothing but green on the back of that jersey he had. You knew they were gonna lose that football game. So the Giants beat the Cowboys too that year. Didn't have the blitz, just front four pressure could start right there, keep keep keep him clean in the pocket, and and and let's not just sit there and go well, he holds the ball too long. Well, sometimes there was a

reason why he was holding up. Killing Moore help him with that, or whoever's designing the offense, or who's ever Okay, I'm just I'm just gonna throw, Okay, Kellen Moore, John hitting Us Smier, whoever, whoever's involved. Jason Garrett, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, Though you feel good about four guys involved, or would you rather have one guy kind of being the guy. I'll be honest,

do you worry about four guys being involved? I would like, just to me, it makes the most sense in the situation to have Jason Garrett put his fingerprints more on this thing because of his experience, because he was the OC here Jones's gonna allow him to do several years. Maybe not. I mean they he had that role for his first couple of years as the head coach, and then I think they decided, hey, let's be a walk

around guy. We bitch too much. He didn't run the ball enough then, right, it was a boy that that thing changed when they drafted a couple offensive lineman DeMarco Murray and sure, but I just you know, given his experience, I would I would like to see that. But I don't know if that's that was going to happen. I honestly thought that was gonna happen when they made the change. Well, he still may and we may never you know, we might be right, mickey, you might have a figurehead as

the OC and the head coach. That's just what Sean mcvayh does. That's not that's a that's not out of the roma possibility, the same thing Cliff Kingsbury's gonna do. And it Arizona offense, of course, and he's a figurehead. He's the secretary. He writes the scripts for practice, he does all the bookwork, the paperwork, and then yeah, and the game day, the head coach is calling the place

just the way Bill Parcels did. By the way, Jerry was asked in mobile about it and what kind of influence could Jason have, and he said it could be more or less very crypt I mean, very vague coming out of you know, the front office and the coaching staff. They just don't want to announce anything yet. And maybe they're still working through it. But Mickey's right. Bill's first year here in Dallas, sure, I mean, you know, he had a passing game coordinator, running game coordinator, but everything

was going through him. Yeah, so maybe, you know, maybe it does, and we don't honestly, we don't know how much Jason might have gotten a little more involved as the season went on. He might have. It's possible because you talk, I mean, he believed me, he did, OK, So maybe there's more of that, Uh, But they do seem to have lot of faith in Kellen Moore as a young offensive mind, albeit lacking the experience. If they go that route, and he's obviously rumored to be a candidate,

so we'll see how it goes. What do you what do you think? I mean, I'm I you know what, I'm okay with that. I mean again, I'm from the school of bringing everybody back and taking a run at it again. But that's probably the definition of insanity, as they would say. But I you know, I'm okay if it's Kellen Moore. You know, I'm okay because I feel

like that. You know, there's guys in this league. You know, Sean McVay didn't have a whole hell of a lot of experience to calling plays at Washington because that was Jay Gruden calling plays at Washington. You know, that was that was Sean McVay coming up with ideas. It's a good point. You know, John Gruden left us in Green Bay to go to Philadelphia to be offensive coordinator. He didn't call plays. Mike Holmgren was a primary play caller.

SRM lewis. There were guys calling plays well before John Gruden was calling plays. Sometimes you have to give these guys a chance, you know, I speak from my own experience, I never ran an NFL draft at thirty five years old and got to run one. You know, you got to give people chances in this world. You know, either you shine or you don't shine. You know, I have

no problem with with Kellen Moore being the guy. I mean, I've I've said all along that I thought Kellen Moore one day would be a great head coach at U and LV or air Force, so one of those places. Maybe his old alma mater at Boise State. You know, he's he's a highly respected guy. He might look goofy and not talk very much, he's got a really big football brain. Quarterback loves him, respects him. That's yeah, just him. He listened to the players, listen to Travis Frederick and

those guys talk about him. Yep, there's the utmost respect for this guy as far as you know. He might not have had a great NFL career, but there's something about him that I'm okay with. You know, We'll see, we'll see if it's him. It might not be, it might be him, but but at least you know, I'm gonna give him a try because I can say I was a young guy thirty five years old. I never never ran an NFL draft. Turned out okay in Philadelphia. You know, you like the move of bringing kitten A back.

I do because I like what I like about John kittena is. I wish I had the trait that John Kitten had. John Kittna has the ability to play dominoes with people and lead the Bible study later that afternoon, and he and and everybody in that room. I've been with guys that didn't have that respect. Tony Romo had that total respect. Be in real honest here, I think I don't think people have gravitated to it. People gravitated. Tony Romo wishes he had John Kitten's pull on players.

He connects with people. There's no sure he doesn't, you know what. He kind of rallied that football team when Jason was at the interim coach. Absolutely it was a bad season overall. Yeah, but they did go five and three the last eight games. Absolutely, And you know, and they they thought about him in this quarterback coach role last year. Yeah, he went with Kellen because probably because Scott said he wanted to go with Kellen. You know, I'm you know, I'm I'm okay with John Kinney because

I think that John Kitten. John Kitten is tough minded, He's lived this and he has that ability again to interact with people. As a coach, you got to be able to do that. Well. What's one of the best traits about Christopher Shard his ability to interact with his players. Communicate, communicate, Yep, that's what players want. Players want a guy that they could talk to. They go up, Chris Man, that's you know, that's bs. Hey man, you know, come on, work with

me here. This is what we gotta do. Not close the door and you know, let things fester out there in the in the meeting room. You know, you want a guide's got communication skills and that's one thing John Kitten can do. He could he can adapt to whatever setting he's in. Plus he's a smart guy. Yeah, and I think he would. He would be more technically oriented with quarterbacks, your steps, your feet, teacher, teaching all the little things that probably he had to learn to overcome

his shortcoming physical shortcomings. Play a long time in this league. They did the league as long as he did ye just the details, and I think he'd be good. He he reminds me of what Wade Wilson did for a lot of young quarterbacks around here. Yeah, we never got Wade Wilson a very good quarterback though he had to do. He was at the bottom of the barrel, no question, with what he had to work with. Yeah, especially early

in his career. Yeah, I felt I apologize to those guys all the time for doing a horse s job. I mean, just think about having to teach a quarterback how to take a snap under center Quincy Carters. Yeah, yeah, that was that first day was a nightmare. Or take two baseball players and try to turn him into NFL quarterbacks. Sticks Sticks knew what he was doing. He helped he. Hey, let me tell you what the reason why Quincy Carters assume me by Dak Prescott's here is because of Sticks Stixon,

who did all the legwork on that one. Yep. So it worked him out. Did everything, Yep, did everything. You want to grab a long distance phone call, guys? How long? France? Very long? Not France, Germany, not Germany, England, London, Marco in Italy, Mark, Hey, what's up? Marco? Hey, guys, good morning, Thank you for taking my call your afternoon, Yes, thank you. We spoken a couple of months ago. As always, thank you for your courage. You're awesome and made decision much

more enjoyable for me. Appreciate your listening. Man. Thanks Following the departure of Scotland and I won't show you with you my thoughts on the coaching stuff in Germany and team's management and hear reviews about it. From what I heard on these show, understand you made is agree with me, but I love you nonethe lesson We'll keep calling Okay first, and to be sure, I believe that coaching and managing the Cowboys does not come close to anything you might

experience with the other thirty thirty one franchises. The amount of scrutiny and pressure you're under and the level of expectation are much likelier in Dallas than Hells were in the NFL. I doubt you would have a fun from Italy dialing in talking Browns or talking bills, not disrespect intended only the Cowboys at this kind of fallen worldwide. So I give a lot of create to coach character, as he's always impeccable in the way he undered his

exposure to media and fans, even the most tont and circumstances. However, at the end of the day, a coach, in my opinion, should be evaluated in his results and the best at coach Garrect achieved during his long tenuring Dallas are a couple of divisional games despite am in the services of future Hall of famers like Whitton, Tony, Romo and Zeki. Through your fall offensive line players, maybe shown leadlow, etc. Etc. And Mika hear you, and I read your articles, and

I love your articles. But at the end of the day, the Rams are in the Super Bowl. The Patriots will play the third consecutive Super Bowl while we are at home. So my criticism as regards to the way the Cowboys have been managed lately on and off the field is that they're generally too slow to react to events and too predictable during games. Let me give you a few examples.

Atlanta game last year when tann'smid went down in the coaching staff kept insisting on leaving easy replace meant alone without any help, starting a rookie guard this year next to a new center after Travis Frederick became unavailable. No selection of valued replacement for shown Lead despite him being so injury prone until this year with Lvy, etc. The receiving byte committee approach which costs us house of the season, despite everybody saying, you know, maybe this is not a

good idea. In fact, we traded for a married Cooper. So finally, from the outside I can see the coach Garreton in staff are very methodical rational in the way they call the place during the game. But in my opinion, being methodical and rational does not necessarily mean being predictable. For example, there is a lot of metals in the way the New England Patriots to do for weaknesses in their opponents, and surely they do not become predictable. Just watch the tape of the last drive as Cancel City

to find proof of this. Sure So I wanted to share with you these thoughts, which is I will end up and listen to what you think. I wish you all a great twenty nineteen. I look forward to injoying a new exciting season a football with your comments. Love you all, keep doing your wonderful job. Goodbye, Thank you all right, Marco, well done? Yeah, thanks for calling it. Any time Marco needs to come and take my job, Are coming cook for us? Yeah? Yeah, he you know, Marco,

Marco Will he cooked some words right there. That was a boised rant right there. No, and I and I'll trom afar. Yeah no, you know, and he's he's not wrong. You know, there's there's a lot of evaluation it needs to be had. And you know, whether it's on the coaching staff, the players, you know, the way the game matge whatever. You know that that's something when you go

through a season. Yeah, this team went to the playoffs, got through the Visional round, but still, you know, we're now in a point where you look at and say, okay, what do they need to do to get to that next step? And I feel like though that there there are things that they clearly need to identify. They have obviously feel like that the offensive coordinator needed to be changed. You know, let's see if that works. You know, you got to have a faith at Will McClay and Steven Jones.

Sherry Jones will come up with some some more players. They've done a great job with the draft. They went out and they went out and got a super player and Amari Cooper. You know, you got some young guys. Hopefully those will develop. So you know, I don't think Marco's wrong. I mean, I was falling along. Sometimes I get lost in these conversations, these rants and stuff, but

that one made a lot of sense. And you know, and I hope that all the things that he pointed out will will be evaluated, looked at, and if if need be corrected or corrected. And I think that's where I think, that's where Jerry and Steven are committed to

trying to do it the right way. I think the only thing he missed on is blaming the head coach for some of the before season personnel decisions, Like was Jason pounding the table saying, yeah, let's go receiver by committee or did he buy into yeah, hey, let's do it this way. Let me ask you this, mickey, Okay, and I'm only asking this question. Do you know if has I do not? Okay, See, that's where I'm with

you on that. But but I'm always under the oppression that and I trust the coach for saying this, we make decisions collectively, right And that's now. I've also heard that the coach has stood up, he was how calculated all of our decisions are? I mean, i've heard the coach also, I've heard rumors and stuff and the Reliabay reported me that the coach fought for players that management wanted to get rid of. Does Briant. He was one of the last ones to come on board for Dez Bryant.

I mean to want to get rid of Dez Bryant. Well, Jason said after that season and that he owned Jerry owns the team. He's gonna make the final descis. Randy Gregory was another one. I never felt like that. Jason Garrett was totally on board with Randy Gregory, but he understood what the other three wanted to do. So you know that. But I'm just going on that, Nicky, That's

all I'm going on that. Collectively, he understood that the going into the season with the committee, that there could be a possibility a it could work or be it could not work. I get him credit though, for saying, well, we need to go get somebody else, because that we ask a coach, you say, hey, could we use Absolutely, we could use another wide receiver. Absolutely. The whole thing turned after that. You know, he drafted, He drafted Layton vander Esch. He helped draft Jalen Smith. Those are two

picks I wouldn't have made myself. But he did. Congratulations, So you know, I give him credit for that stuff. I think, I'm I'm I'm from the thinking that he had a hand in this. All right, let's take our final break. We come back a little more news and notes from this past week Senior Bowl, Pro Bowl, and Super Bowl. Let's take a look at the Super Bowl and what happened. Sure before next you're like me and you love. I mean, if you have a thing, then

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essel or USA dot com. That's USA dot Com terms and conditions applying back to talk in Cowboys. So it's been a while, you guys have heard of Get Jack Black? Oh yeah, all right, So if Winner's got you chaped, keep your skin and lips protected from the elements with the Winterize free with your seventy five dollars purchase. The Winterizer includes dry erase, Ultra calming face cream, Industrial Strength handhealer.

We need that Chicago and Intense Therapy, lip bomb, natural mint and shade butter use Code Winner and you can get these on get Jack Black dot com. All right, ask you this, I mean, I ask you a question off this periscope to feel It's amazing how much they've people have changed on the human log that everybody feels like we need a one technique here. I think that's case Mickey one or just defensive tackle in general. But what's going on? No, it's not against him, but we

were asked that of the mailbag. Yeah, one round draft hypothetical. Yeah, position going go for Mickey first. That's a good question because I love that question from the mailbag. By the way, Um, you're going to draft one position. I'm okay with a defensive lineman. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be a one technique. But if I find me another defensive end, yeah, I'm good with that. And I'm good with a defensive tackle.

Lake Collins is entering his last year kind of banged up to um, do you want Tyrone Crawford playing inside? Do you want him playing outside? What? Exactly? Yeah? What are you gonna do with him? I think he's a really good rotational player. He's a chess piece for him, right. Yeah. So if you tell me that they took a defensive lineman, tackle or end, I got no problems with that whatsoever, because I'm done with David Irving. Well, yeah, that's where

I was on. Yeah, Brian and I separately said defensive tackle. Yeah. Well, and it's it's not to do with the Rams game. I just look at the position. Yeah, I look at the position as a whole. I mean, who was your backup behind Woods? See, that's what I'm saying. It was Read and Ross and that that it got you, It got you by. But I think I could do better there. There were games where if it had David Irving for

fifteen snaps, it could have made a big difference. They tried, but he didn't well, and he I wouldn't imagine he's back. He's a free agent, and you know, I adios, you never know, but I don't see it. So they need to find some some help in that rotation there, and by the way. They got a couple other guys in that rotation that are free agents, to be right, Daniel Ross and his Karan Reid free agent as well. I think it was they gave a two year they give a two year deal. Reid got a two year deal,

I believe. No, he's an undrestricted free agent. Yeah, Daniel Ross is exclusive. Riots he'll be back yeah, um so Yeah. I think I think it was a asing what they were able to get out of the human log myself. Yeah, a terrific here. And if you get him some help, you know, I mean to me, that's but I'm I don't know. I'm looking at these defensive tackles, man, there's some there's some good ones in this draft. Yah know, Williams and Simmons and Wilkins and Tillery. I mean, they've

got some defensive tackles. That's just a name a few. Drey Jones. I mean, they've they've got some guys. So we'll see guys in that second to third round. Yeah, I mean it's good. Yeah, you're not gonna get Williams or Simmons or Wilkins of course, you know. Or Oliver is another one. I mean, that's the university of Houston kid. But you know, you go down, you go down through this draft, they'll they'll be a guy or two that

they can look at there. And the thing you got to remember about Woods also is it's gonna be better next year. Yeah. That was his first year to play in the league. You know count really play? Yeah, count well basically was a practice squad guy in Tennessee. Yeah. Where's Gerald McCoy from. I know he would, I know he would drafted by by the Tampa is the Texas guy he went to Oklahoma. Yeah, I wonder if Gerald McCoy does he want to move? Well, I mean he's he's a he's a he's on the street. Well he

is until until the league year starts. Yeah, I mean that's thirteen. There's a lot of guys. Let me seeing on these guests. How about a one year deal? What who? Okay, Mickey, one year deal? Okay, let's go let Oklahoma City. All right, it's close enough that that's the point he was trying to make. Yeah, driveable, Micky, let me ask you this one one year deal on one year deal on the safety Earl Thomas or one year deal on a Gerald McCoy. Oh, I'd take McCoy. You don't. Yeah, Mickey's not the big

safety guy. Yeah, I guess I gotta go de tackle too. I've been because we've been we've been pushing it, right, pushing it. Yeah, And I don't think that I don't think the safety caused the Rams to run for two hundred and seventy three yards. Yeah, but all year along, they're playing pretty good run. That's and that's that's the frustrating part, micause that's what got you there. Well, but he didn't we that's But so why is the complaint

that you didn't score thirty points? The complaints should be you gave up the most points. You gave up all year defense, this team the whole year. Big fans like you want fans to take that global macro view, that's what they're doing. No, they're not not just one game. Okay, so one game? Yeah, should I have given up thirty points? Nor should I have scored thirty points? I was kind of hoping we were gonna score thirty points. I was

kind of hope they were. I was kind of hoping they were gonna be the team that ran for two seventy three. Yeah, they have scored thirty That's where I was hoping. If you go off stats in the regular season that ran the defense was leaky. But as Zeke told us after the game, I told Joe, it's the playoffs, none of that. Yeah, they weren't leaky in the NFC title game. No, Well, you know, the great Sean Payton scored twenty three points. Just look at those, he had

overtime to work with. Just look at the guys in that just ran the ball in first down he might have had might be the game, right, Yeah, but the quarterback, that's the God's gift. The quarterbacks couldn't complete an easy five yards slant because his accuracy wasn't good. Mickey's hatred of the Saints is impressive. I mean it was. It's Breese didn't complete the pass. Yeah, he could have. He could have handed under underhand like Locke did. Yeah in

the Senior Bowl. Yeah, or you just keep running it and force him to use it. But see what happens is and when you analyze Dak, it's like when when a play like that breaks down, then the the perception is he's inaccurate because he missed that play. Now he could have completed seventy one percent of his passes. But you missed that one and you're inaccurate, so as Drew Brees inaccurate should have completed that pass. Folks on periscope want to know if you signed Thomas though. Doesn't that

help you with your turnovers? Does it? I'm just asking another mail bad question yesterday. Thanks three things to put this team over the top, and that was us said that both as though, Well, maybe it helps you with your your giveaways because you would have had two less that handed landed in his lap after the balls were tipped. Yeah, Brian had another one too, and that's get some and Mickey you said this too, get some juice out of that return game. Yeah, help your offense out with some

shorter fields everything debo, Okay, this guy, what else you got? No, I'm just I'm just any. I mean, I just like Parisco because I think people are like I like people coming along with in the conversation. I mean, just look at takeaways and sacks. Yeah, if you get more sacks, you probably get more takeaways. They were average in sacks. They got one more sack this year than last year. Yeah, and they were ranked fifteenth or sixteenth sacks by the way,

Earl Thomas. Guys can play both strong and free safety. Don't let that well if he if he can stay healthy and play strong safety, then oh no, Micky, they're agreed with you. They're agreed with you. Joseph saw with you on that. He's he's talking about injury. Yeah, you're right. Just as an aside while we were talking Saints Rams. Yeah, if that had happened to the Cowboys, Oh my god, we haven't discussed this. I would have walked into the

studio Monday wearing a football helmet. I would have grabbed a helmet from the TV studio because you guys, I don't I don't want to know what that discussion would have been, Like, you should as much as I had my white hat. Oh. I was talking at lunch yesterday when we were all sitting lunch. We were all sitting lunch yesterday, and I said, if that would have happened, I told Derek this. I said, you would have fired me after that postgame show because I would have broken

every rule known the man about that conversation. I would have lost my You know what, if you're a fan of I don't know how you get over it. I just had hair in the lawsuit today, of course. I mean, that's how far this thing is going. And silly senator from Louisiana or government shut down about a foot. He works for a poor state anyway, so he understands it might as well be shut down. But you know, and this thing is continuing to fester, you know, and it should.

Commissioner Goodell has not spoken yet on it. I guess he's waiting till his State of the Union. If Mickey was there, Mickey would have the first question. Mickey would grab the mic it's I think they're They used to do it on Friday. I think I saw it. It's on It is Thursday week. It might be going to talk to Marine five on Friday. I might be worth watching. Yeah, I hope somebody. I hope they go after him. I hope. I hope somebody from New Orleans, the newspapers, the Times,

Pecune or somebody's there just going on. I mean, I bet it's going to dominate the whole thing. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It might go for twenty minutes on that subject. To be honest, I like Mike Pereira's idea of an eighth official, and he's the eye in the sky, and he says, listen, boys, beep down. We can't ye, can't have that one, can't have that one. Nope, you gotta change it. Yep. Yeah, and you know, fix it.

They need a mister fix it, not a not a two minute delay of game looking at five different play reviews. They need to let the coaches challenge that there was a penalty too. Yeah. But then yeah, and I'm okay with that all. Yeah, that's yeah. That's the problem though, And to me, things shouldn't rely on challenges to get

it right. Just get it right. Yeah. You've got two officials within five yards of each side of that play, and the big guy that's been there sixteen years comes running in going and then the other guy's got his hand on his hip and he sees the senior guy and he goes, yeah, it's like, seriously, you want a guy in booger McFarland's chip. Yes, yes, put them up, put them up high so you can see. You can't see down there, but that one you should have been

able to see. I'm sorry standing there looking at And then Vinovich says, well, I didn't get a view of it. If you go back and look at the coaching tape. He's looking right at that place. Yeah, you see, I saved this to the last five minutes for your blood pressure. We could have done it for an hour real quick, though. The periscope wants to know what our thoughts are on Beasley, if anything on Beasley. Well, he made some waves on

Twitter last week while you guys were gone. The way he indicated on Twitter, he said utilization is more important than money, which now with a new I don't know if that was all about Scott Linehan, but with a

potentially altered scheme, yeah, maybe he's more willing. I think you have a chance now, at least with the change, don't you make so two of the last three years he's led the receivers and receptions, and he was on his way to matching by the way his career high from a year ago and catches before Amar he got here natural and before he got hurt. Yeah yeah, and he dealt with a foot ankle thing all year, but he still had sixty five catches. Yeah, he had a

good two years ago he had seventy five. But again, there are a lot of things they've got to look at. Guys who are up to Marcus Lawrence. They said it's huge priority. Absolutely got other guys, Pro Bowl got I mean just about everybody that was at the Pro Bowl for them on Sunday is up within a year. Except right, twenty twenty is not going to be fun for this organization.

Happened and you have to consider that. And people say, oh, they got fifty whatever a million under the cap this year to use, Well yeah, but what about next year. It's not a one year deal. Beasley's gonna come down to what's the market value, kind of like Terrence Williams a couple of years. I don't like Anthony Hitchins. You know, there's a lot of folks make you that are agreeing with you, and they're saying bye bye Beasley though, I mean if if, if, if somebody gets how much are

you gonna pay a thirty year old slot receiver? Yeah, especially when I saw three really good but the Senior Bowl sometimes those are decisions you have to make a cap era yeah, you know, yeah, not that, not that he's not a good player because he is put debo with the slot. Oh boy, well he can play. There's no jersey. Now he down on the goal line. They're putting him the slot. He's very good number. Yah, mickey him a number one South Carolina Jersey. I see enough

of that guy at South Carolina. But that's that's your that's a good point periscope. That's another question. They've got an answer. Yeah, we're almost out of time, and that is can that penny Hart play? Oh, penny Hart can play too. He's a good little he's cute him, and and and again that you're you're a guy from you mask can play too. Now that's where that's where all we're Dane and everybody India Savella, you know, every thinking you're gonna have to probably take him earlier than fifty eight,

that somebody might jump up there ahead of you. But that's a great thing about being at that spot. You're gonna keep that board wide open. And I love it. They're in a position to go best available. They are they are they have somebody slides to him. Yeah, somebody slides him. You could keep this thing wide open. You know, might have an extra third round pick, actually a fourth micke yet but yeah for hitches h eight point Yeah, the eight point million dollar threshold is right around four.

So yeah, that's a pick you could trade an extra fourth round pick. Think about what they did. They drafted back with an extra fourth round pick. Sure, think about that. That type of thing. At least these these compens story picks are valuable for sure. Keep in mind Tavon Austin as a free agent to be he is too. Yeah, all right, before we get out of here, let's pick the Super Bowl because we uh won't be back until next Tuesday, Tuesday eleventh Central. Every week in the offseason,

that's our spot, guys. Yeah, all right, super Bowl Pats are Rams, you got. I'm gonna take the Patriots in this one myself. I just think I think history is on their side as far as the experience and things like that. The quarterback play, I think it's just gonna be too much. McVeigh, You'll coach well, but but Belichick, that staff, Brian flor has had the defense ready. I'm going with the Pats in this one. Patsy thirty twenty four, Okay, Patriots. Yeah.

I picked the Pats back in September to get here, but did but I made I never learned, never pick again. I never I never go against Brady. But you know, Rams are going with the throwbacks. Yeah, look good, feel good Man. Yeah, that's a great look. I'll just go with the Rams. It worked against the Cowboys. Yeah, yeah, it sure did. That's why we're talking about Rams again. Rams. I'm sorry, I think you put me up against it the wall. I'd say Patriots, okay, but he's taking the uniform. Yeah,

I like that look. Good change that. It's a it's a great look. But Tom Brady Belichick, that's hard to beat. Thank you guys for joining us. We're gonna be back next Tuesday at eleven Central, breaking it all down, Draft Show Thursday. Draft Show Thursday at eleven right. Thank you check it out. Thanks Can for producing. We'll talk to you guys next week. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.