Talkin' Cowboys: Will Randy Gregory Contribute?

left for the Cowboys starting this afternoon. They'll roll it through Thursday, I believe, and then head home on Friday. Rob Phillips in the Captain's share filling it for Bill Jones is always joined by Brian brought us, Mickey Spagnola and Nate Newton. So gracious to join us again. How are you but special, great man? I'm you know, excited man to hear what you guys gotta say man and chiming. You know, when I get opportunity listen to this, you make time for you Like you don't have an opinion,

right right? I mean I have opinion, but you know it's just I like to hear what you guys have to say, the experts, and then a guy six times such as myself, me and Rob. You know what I'm saying, Rob Novice, Man, he's saying backing right now. Yeah, yeah, I can't allow we can't allow this to don't try to soften us up. I sell you what fellas. It's been wild. Man. I gotta hit the road today. We're gonna leave today today. That's why I'm doing his last

show with y'all. That's why I'm willing to listen. That's why I'm willing to be all ears now. Now you've got a long drive ahead of you. There's a lot of listening going on there. That's why you got Louis little More and you listen to tape. I've been doing that since I was six. Man. That's cool. Yeah, okay, I've learned some things about you this trip. With your taste in music, I love it all man. He loves eighties movies. It's it's funny because with Nate, I think

Nate missed his calling. I think he could have been an overnight disc jockey, one of those, you know, for stations in Detroit or Chicago. I mean, your taste of music, is is unique in a way that I would not have thought that your taste with you know, Eddie and the Cruisers. Yeah, when I was, I was like, you're like, you know, we have Alexa and Nate's Nate's talked by the way, by the way, go to Amazon your Amazon show.

Alexa played Dallas Cowboys, Yes, for your Cowboys News exclusive content including Brian broad Us Q and A's But yeah, it's been j Nate's been DJA and for Us at Night, and it's been it's actually really entertaining. The various musics about twelve times to get her name right. Alexis, Yeah, Alexis Alexis, And I was like, I know, Alexa, she's

got sensitive ears. Yea, it is straight. You know when you it's a lot of as your upbringing, though you know it's in various parts you cut you think, well, okay, well house music has music affect me and stuff. But yeah, you have a good taste, good taste of music. And he's got a good eye for practice. We're gonna get into that. And Cowboys have had a couple of practices I believe since our last show, and one guy in particular has showed up and look pretty good first time

in camp number ninety four. Randy Gregory like in that, let's start off with that. You know, my point on it was, I didn't care how well he practiced. What he did in practice. The fact that he practiced after missing all that time and he's back in pads, I think is sort of a triumph pumpler itself. Uh and then anything after that is gravy. And he actually started showing some of the signs we saw of ya. This guy can rush the quarterback. You know, nothing else he

can rush the quarterback. And uh so, yeah, I thought it was a good start for him. And you know, when I think the players see that, Nate, you tell me when you get an addition like that, I think he kind of juices everybody else up. Yeah, I just got it. You know you're rooting for He's just a guy that everybody's rooting for us, So you feel good for him when you see him out of moving around

with a team. Well, they had him in a Nickel's situation yesterday as playing that right defensive end, and you know it was against the one so well against the ones in the way of with Cam Fleming playing as the left tackle and Connor Williams playing as the left guard, but he and Tyron Crawford come on a twist stunt and Crawford got such penetration on the play that it tied up Fleming and Williams together, and all of a sudden, Randy Gregory's up the field and he reads what's happening

with Crawford getting the penetration, and you talk about knife quickly just right behind the you know, instead of going wide in there and getting all wadded up. Yep. He he hits it, like Mickey says, with some with some angle and with some bend, and he's on. He's on Prescott and Prescott throws the ball. But what happens. What happens in the secondary? They got a busted coverage on the back end, so Tavon Austin is running free. Well,

it's gonna be a sack. Gregory pulls up and Gregory is on Prescott as he's I mean, the ball is still in his hand, and Randy pulls back. So you know, here they have this is what we talk about. With good pass rush, you bust in the secondary. But all of a sudden, now you get a rusher home on a good well executed twist. But that's Randy Gregory. That's how that's how you can use Randy Gregory. He's got that slinky, slippery way of doing things to get to

the quarterback. I bet you hated guys that could couldn't tart their body like that. That the line of scrimmage. Oh yeah, it wasn't a good deal, man, But who cares? Nah what? I what? I look at Gregory and when I think of him, I think time is on our side. I really feel like he's gonna give it as all in all to be on that field, and as bad as I want him on the field, I want to Thinking about the other day, I asked him, I said, hey, man, how you feel and just from being with the team

and being around man, I guess it's that anxiety. And he said, I'm a little bit gass. He don't look at right. He said, I'm a little bit gass. And I said, Okay, maybe the coaches do know what they're doing with the trainers and bring them along slowly because he has lost his foundation outter eighteen months. That that endurance that you endurance that you have as a player, you know. So I was just glad that he was out there to talk about that a little bit though.

The endurance that you talk about to play the game. As you know, and you guys been around long enough now every day is a build up. You're trying to build up. And you got equity in what you do, and you got money in the bank. And if you can get that base foundation where you where your body, it's called muscle memory. As quick as your body can get back to that, it stopped building that endurance. So okay, this is what I do, This is how I recover, and your body just builds off of that year out

the year until you get a certain agent on the dcline. Well, he hasn't had no equity, no money in the bank, no nothing, so he's been running free. You know what I'm saying. He's just like a guy going to workout every day. When we work out every day, were in great shape and to somebody hit us until a grown it's a difference when you get when you're getting hit. You know all of that, what the weightlifting you've been doing and running, His friend, that you ain't built up nothing.

All you did was got in shape to get hit. Now you got to get in shape to now you gotta get hit to get to build that equity. And that's what he's missing. So there's two layers to it, right yeah, because he's getting that second layer right now. Before that, Jason Garrett talked about how he needed a baseline for conditioning and football movement more so than just okay, he's out here under a round going north south. There's certain football movements he needed to work with the strength

coach and get used to with that. Now he's got to put the pads on and get take a little pound and come back with that. I mean, you know, it's like it's like a guy training for a boxing man. Yes, you can do all the shadow boxing and running you on and hit the heavy bag, but guess what, the heavy bag don't hit you back, thank you. And you got to get used to getting hit. And and I and I you know, I saw a flumming a couple

of times. Time up a little bit and it's like, okay, now I'm pushing three hundred and thirty pounds, right, that's difficult, but moving. That's moving. See that, That's what I said. That's moving dead. Wait is a funny thing. Man, you know, you you you you can control it. I'm talking about to wait. You know, it's just scoring a certain way where it won't hurt you, But that way out there is moving all over the place, right, and they can

hurt you, you know. But as Brian said, he was in the backfield a lot at the end of practice in that team period. He talked about the stunt, the twist he beat Rico had the play of practice to catch in practice, right, But I don't know if that would have been a catch in a game because because Gregory was busting through that line, I can't remember if he beat compos or flaming off that rights compos compos. He you can just see the natural gifts when he's

out there, even in team drills. And he's added we've talked about it too. He's added Nate that that bulk up top two, he's carrying two hundred and forty two pounds, and that's that's gonna serve him well when the season starts. I think, yeah, I think it will to it. And on top of that, man, he's been going eighteen months, so he got eighteen months of natural man strength. Yeah. You know how old is he now, twenty two, twenty five,

So he got that fool man strimth not. I tell you when you get a certain age and y'all can the test it is. You know, you think you're strow at twenty one, twenty two, twenty two, until you come up against the grown men at twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, you start to hit your prime as a man. And that's what he's starting to hit. So he's building his endurance, he's in shape, he's been in his his indorance,

he's getting his foundation of hitting. And now he got a living of that man strength about it because I'm still getting stronger. You are here stilling out. Yeah. I like what Jerry had to say when he was that you think he can contribute against Carolina and he said yes, yes, yes I do. So that kind of gives you when Jerry says that that that's not him just making stuff up. That's what he's hearing from his scouts, in his assistant coach.

Here's your stupid former personnel man sitting on the panel. And and I'm wanting him to make the team, you know, I'm but no, I'm wanting him to do I'm wanting him to go into the Carolina game with some of those good twists, rush some of the good one on

one wins. Playing well in the preseason, you know, and maybe we'll get that, maybe you get you know, get him late in some of those games and all of a sudden when you're trying to get off the field, when the two minute warning at the end of the San Francisco game, you got a guy like Randy Gregory who's capable of getting to the quarterback and not allowing the ball to go tick tick tick tick down the field.

You know, maybe he's a guy in the uh in the Arizona game when they go back to pass, you know, with games online, he goes and makes that play. I wanted him to make this team by him being by coming back and doing all the things necessary. But they're gonna put him on this team, and you know that's that's good. I mean, that's good for them. How do you think they're gonna, like you said, they've been kind of slow playing it be they've given him a bassline,

he's now he's into pads. How much preseason work do you guys think he gets or he needs to get ready for games? Oh? I would think he's gonna at least play two preseason games and who knows. Now, you guys tell me, because I didn't think he dressed for the game. He did, he did, he went on the trip. Did it was in a dressed which which means that the uh play by play here didn't list ninety four as one of the guys that you know, I remember looking down. I remember looking down at the national anthem.

That's why I saw him first. Yeah, you know all the Cowboys were lined up. Okay, so that's a start. Yeah. Yeah, Now it's now, maybe you get him in for a play or two. You're not nothing extensive. You don't want to get him hurt at this point. But I think

those last two preseason games. Let's see what happens this week. Yeah, maybe let's see this week if he's getting more, if he's getting if they're running eight plays in a team period and he's playing in three of them, you know, I mean, it's just like these other it's just like Charles Tapper and everyone else. You know. Maybe they're trying to get him ready to play. And if they can get good Cincinnati, they can get him the team to Carolina, the Carolina game, they can get him the third down

he's in. Yeah, Nate, don't worry about the run. Remember you last night you're talking about Charles Haley. You have to have one or two guys on your team, and y'all had him, a Green Bay had him. Well, this guy, you know, yeah, okay, he ain't a great run stop, but let him come a past the situation. And every team has had a guy. Oh you know, I don't understand stop the run, coach. We know the quick is about the fields. To wreck the quarterback, that's the quickst

way off the field. And if you got a guy that can possibly wreck that quarterback and have him have his feet tap in and getting rid of the balls. Who so I thought they affected Garoppolo the other day with the way they were side, even on the stuff on the boots and the way I mean, if they continue to have that and then develop somebody else besides Lawrence,

Doran's Armstrong, to me, is got a chance. Now. The thing about Doran's Armstrong is it's been a little bit of a too deep get caught now, you're right, you know, I mean, he's they're trying, they're really really trying to develop him as a pass rusher. But you know, Doran's Armstrong Randy Gregory, somebody help DeMarcus Lawrence on that other side. If they could get somebody Legitimi, if you can kick Crawford inside and let him go to work and say Woods or whoever else you want to put at that

tackle spot Cony, Ealy, whoever. Yeah, I mean, whoever you want to try in there inside and they can and you could get some penetration like they had the other day. For that sets up stuff coming off the edge, because now you've got guys occupied. You got centners and guards occupied with inside players, and then you got tackles one on one other. Yeah, single matchups. Yeah, if you got one horse. If you got one horse, you got something special on your defense. If you got two horses, Yeah,

it's no way you can have a double. Yeah, is no way you can have a double. I look at the rams. When you got Sue, Yeah, and you got Donald, you can turn, you can do whatever you want. It ain't gonna work. If Sue feels good and we know Donald rockers you you you don't win it. All we need is somebody on the other side. All right, the tackle. See, when you got two horses, non't matter whether they playing tackle or whether they deem as a means. But if

you got two horses, it ain't no turning. See, this is where David Irving was just second horse, right all of a sudden. If you, okay, say you do get a Randy Gregory developed and now you've got okay, Crawford's playing the one, Irving's inside on the three. You got Laurence on the left side, and Gregor, I mean, now you're tacking him with four guys. You got power guy, you got a tall guy, you got a fast guy, and you got a guy that's got a lot in

the tool belt rushing on off that other side. So okay, how do you block that? How do you account how do you account for all that discarded? Malik? Well, I'm just saying, okay, Maliki, good I'm doing. But I'm just saying, though, if for what we're seeing right right right know, but this is where David Irving and what we know about David Irving is a pass rusher. This is where it's a problem. Now, this is you know, and then and this team might not be its absolute best rushing the

passer until week five. Yeah, and that and that's and that's that's a that's a shame because you know, once he gets we all know what David Irving could do. Yea, how you talk about slinky and you know, not be blocked and get inside and attack gaps and knock passes down. Capture the quarterback. We saw him do that against Green Base. Captured, doesn't throw a deep cross and with twelve seconds to go to set up a game winning field goal. See that's you know what you know, David Irvin? Yeah, I

don't know. I don't know what it's physical. I don't know. I don't know if he's gonna be physically ready at game five. No, this this is the scouts. This is the scouts. In my office, putting my hand, I'm looking at my personnelboard and I know his tag is over here on the bottom quarner. And I'm thinking, okay, what did I just Okay, who am I going to rush this week? Oh? Gosh, I need you know, I need that.

You're playing the Lions. You're playing the Lions, You're playing Russell Wilson, You're playing teams that have these quarterbacks that you know that that could throw from the pocket, move around. Nate brings up two many points one MALIEK. Collins if he's healthy when he gets back, that helps inside number two. We saw David Irving come in after four games that spension last year and make plays. He had seven sacks and seven eight games whatever it was. But he had

a training camp in a preseason last year. He doesn't have that this season. So what you don't really know it is a wildcard. R what kind of shape he's in? What you know? How ready is he to contribute just after four games? Just start making your plans without him, and then if you get him, it's gravy. Yeah, because I just don't think you can count on him right now. See this is this is where I mean, we haven't

I should I shouldn't speak for you, gentlemen. I have not heard one thing about David Urban and the scamp, not one thing. Well, he's he's in California working out. Yeah, that was all Jerry would go, and he said, I can't talk about it, so he refused to answer the question yesterday. You know, if you look at if we look at our devons of line, we we you know, open up our cars and look at our Devensive line. Guys, you can depend on the Markus Lawrence. Guys. You can

depend on Tyrone Crawford. Guys, you can depend on talk with child for what he can give you. Guys. You can depend on guys. You can depend on guys, you can depend on. You ain't got no more names. You've got some. You got some young fellows inside shrugs, and yeah, so Daytone Jones is actually stepping Dayton Jones has been

better than Ward. Yes, yes he's and and you know and now that you have you know with his situation and you know, I there's got I I felt all along there was gonna be guys on this team, especially this defensive line, that was gonna that we're gonna cut themselves. We cut themself. They were gonna play and we still

got games to go. But when they when it gets to the end, whoever their best nine guys are ten guys that'll be their best guys the other guys, like Nate says, he named off four guys and then he went, depend on depend on it. But you can't know, you can't.

But we'll we'll know. We'll we'll know if we can depend on Dorance Armstrong by the end of this, you know, we'll know if we could depend on Randy Gregory by the end of this I believe, which is which is why these these preseason games are not just a nebulous exercise. They're important that I think they're important to this team's growth. It's not like, Okay, let's throw them out there eight plays and everybody's out and let's put the scrubs in.

This is the important discount more than an account we've seen in the last five years, and y'all may have seen something different than me, but this is our first truly competitive camp in five years. I'm talking about offensive line and defensive line. I'm talking about the power and swiftness and athletic ability of our offensive line versus fast, athletic defensive line. Price. You know, we hear his name. Woods,

We hear his name. We didn't hear that last year, right, you know we hear guys, you know, and as good as David ever it is to all of us and how we feel about him. You know, maybe one or two of these guys can as a unit replace David Irvy as a unit. I'm talking about maybe Price, maybe Woods as a unit, because what he does, he's a game changing David ivers a game change. So when you lack that don't know how many teams have a game change. It ain't many teams have game changes, like David Irvy.

So now we gotta look who can give us this in a cluster? Do you feel any better about this defensive line? Um? Then, compared to last years ago, three weeks ago when you got on that airplane he came and landed here. Did you feel better about that group now than you did when you we got on that airplane a little bit? In both spots, because, like you said, Dayton Jones, I thought he played well the other night. Um.

And then it's specifically a defensive end. It's always nice to have ninety four out there and looking like he's making progress. But I'm with Nate, Dorence Armstrong looks like he could be a player, and I'm not saying he's gonna be a ten sack guy as a rookie. But we had a mail back question this morning. This is a good question. Why don't we get to that when we come back from our break. Let's continue talking about

the defensive line for the Cowboys. Who's showing up and some guys that may be surprising you, either good or bad so far in camp. By the way, the phone number nine seven two four nine seven forty four hundred will be back in a moment. On Talking Cowboys Mangel Matters. You search how to build savings, you end up reading about the one weird ingredient from supermarket gets that can make you taller. That's why Bank of America build Better Money Habits dot com, a safe little corner of the

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Find Texas sized deals in my John Deer Dealer dot com slash football terms, conditions, exclusions, and warranty limitations apply seem to love for details to talk in Cowboys come back to Oxnard, California, rolling through a Monday edition of Talking Cowboys Find a Week. Throw us out here in Oxnard nine seven two nine seven number. If you want to give us a call before we get to Brad and Virginia and Brian, let's carry over your question in

my hotel room. Different Brad. We could just bring him on over, get a fifth mic, and hey, mister sham, what's going on? We could do that. Yeah, he would definitely be held. He'd be good anytime, anytime. All right, we had a mail bad question on the side. By the way, check out Brian's notes scouting notebook from Sunday's practice. A lot of good nuggets in there. Who stood out at practice? Maybe what didn't go so well at practice?

It's on Dallas Cowboys mobile right now. Today's mail bad question? What'd ye? What'd you think about that? How does Dorian's armstrong look in camp this year compared to Taco Charlton's camp as a rookie last year. That's funny you brought that up because I was getting ready to ask the same thing. Who great mine? Panel? Here? What do you think, Mick, He keeps his feet a lot better than Taco kept his feet last year. That's what I said. He's natural. That's that's the that's this is a good this is

a good scouting report. This is a good scouting reports. Natural. See. I think that I think that Dorance Armstrong has a better feel for how to rush the passer than Taco did. I think nothing against Taco, but to me, even though he went to school at Michigan and played some big time football, I don't think he was a natural pass rusher coming out. I think there was some struggle there. I think he was he was struggling with his his strength. I think he was struggling with his moves. I think

he was struggling with his plan of attack. You know, he's got a better plan of attack now. Armstrong, on their hand, is not gonna give you the same move. He's not gonna he's He's a little bit more bendy, he's a little bit more flexible, and I think he's got a little bit better reach, even though Taco's got I think he's got a little bit better reach to effect ways in the pocket. He's he is better at this point, Armstrong is better than Tacco was at this

time last year. What do you what do you mean by he's a natural name because he can line up and he looking at that defensive he looking at that offensive tackle and he may have one thing in mind. But if you kind of can mess with him, he can adjest. Yeah, he can aggest. But now his first thoughts is when he lined up, you can see in his eyes like I'm beating you. Whereas you line up in tacle. He got up and he listening to the

Lion laden Marion Nelly. He listening to a number ninety, and all of a sudden he lines up and be like, Okay, out of the eight moves, I just heard, which one I'm gonna do? Well, it might be I know. You're right. It's like a pro golfer. That's how you know. It's like a golf swing swing mechanics, SSS, swing mccannic. If you're swinging it, well, nobody says a word to you. You just hit the ball. If you're like pulling him into the woods every day, it's like you got five guy,

will listen. You need to kind of turn your hand and you need to take your right foot and put it back. And then the other guy comes along. No, no, no, turn your hand over, open your stance. This you know, and now you now, now you're now you're really Yes, nobody anybody ever give Charles Haley advice. Nah, tell Haley crush you, yeah, cush. But that's I think that's what I think. That's the problem. Even though the Taco there has been improvement, he does have a lot of people

telling him what he needs to do. And you could tell what it happens to him. He gets crossed up. Yeah, and I mean get crossed up that you. Oh no, here comes the rush right down the middle. You know. It's like he's like he gets caught into thinking do I go rip swim combination? Do I extend left arm? Yeah. It's so funny because he will go right and they say, you know, they kind of halfways stopped that heat going into a late span and all of a sudden on

the ground. Yeah, you'd be like, and where's the dance? He just get there and he bends that corner and if you get him, he'll try to grab you. Oh, he'll try to push it up. I mean it's a counter to a counter. And that's what Tap hasn't learned yet. When he learns that, which the scouting part I read on him was he wasn't to start his first few years right, but as time went on he grew into the position, Yes, what is you may not never make it out here if you know, if you don't hurry

up fast. He has looked better in this camp. I do and like you said, more and he number one, he needs to stop. If it ain't Tyron Smith, if it ain't number seventy one, he needs he need to tell a coach, I ain't rushing against Chad. When I ain't rushing against number sixty three, there's no growth in that. There's no growth in that. I would not well. And the thing about it, though, is he gets going and he, like it said, he gets crossed up. He's thinking, Okay,

I'm gonna throw this move along the way. I'm gonna I'm gonna set him up with a quick you know, And I say a quick move, A quick move. He didn't have a quick move. He's trying to develop a quick move if he can win on the first step and then get you know, see this, this is what this is where I thought. Last against the forty nine ers, I wrote about this on the on my notebook today in practice. Yesterday dat got him on a third down play on the on the read, on the read option

stuff sucked him down. And but last week in the game, what do he do? He played his assignment, He stayed wide, he chased Garoppolo's throwing it out a bounce, Bethard's throwing it out a bounce. But he's you know, he didn't get sucked downtil. You're thinking, ah, assignment, taco good, you know, you know, playing my assignment. Yeah, but here and then you see it You're like, oh no yet. But that's just that's gonna happen with him and he and he

needs to develop more consistent. If I think if he won, I think if he had a day where he won two or three times, say in a row, then maybe things would flip that switch for him that he would say, Okay, this is how I have to do it. You you blocked guys for years, years and years. How many moves does an edge rusher need in his toolbox? Two? Two, two great moves and one counter? And that counter can be whatever it need to be. Off of those two

great moves, because uh what what what? What? What beaches that freak ability that he called it end ability to flexibility, that that you can have a guy blocked, but if they got that ability to twist and turn in and get that arm out there, yeah, man, And they get that, and they always Richard Dent, Lawrence Taylor, Charles Hayley, no matter how you blocked them, they always was rushing. And if you check yourself, they always be this far away

from the quarterbackst in hand. They always be this far away. And so they continue to work you the whole game until that fourth quarter calm and all of a sudden you see you in the yaw you looking around it. Oh my god, he finally got it. You know, you thought you had him, but he had been working you. And see it's a game plan. That's what number ninety has.

He has a game Yeah. Yeah, it's clear he did. Yeah, you can see it doesn't he's not affected by whoever he rushes again, Right, he's just as good at seventy as he is against seventy seven. I mean it's like it's like a pitcher, right, you don't need eight pitches. You throw a fastball, curveball, change up, maybe a good slider. You're gonna do that, right, You're gonna succeed. I don't need a knuckleball. I don't need the slurve or any of that sinker. If my fastball is good, then I'm good, right,

and then everything else works off of that. So if you got the ability to come off that edge like that, then they got to be conscious of that, and then you come up with your other moves. Offensive lineman hate not having hitting surface, yes, they because it's all about their hands. If you make an offensive lineman feel uncomfortable with his hands, yes, then yeah, with Connor Williams, if you make him feel uncome comfortable. And that's where he

was talking about the guys like Taylor Dent. You know those guys DeMarcus where you don't give them a place to put their hands. That's tough because they're always like, oh, they're still rushing. You know, I can't. You know, you never slow the rush down. That's where that verbbin comes in the bend. Yeah, you know, and if you, like I said, the good ones can get really small and all of a sudden you're missing with that hand off a shoulder pad. Now he's on you. Oh wait, I've

got to get my left hand now. Oh wait, now he's buying me with that hand. You make offensive lineman uncomfortable with their hand placement, you can affect the way they block, and the good ones can do that. You know what. I don't know if this was by design or they were just running plays on offense, but when Gregory was out there, after a couple of plays, the tight ends started lining up on his side, right they did.

They started chipping him. Yes, that Yeah, great observation because Garrett told us that, hey, we're gonna go bone on bone and just run football plays out there. And that's what I think. For three periods it was just straight team. You know, you throw your defense out there, will throw offense out there. We'll compete a little bit. He does in Randy has that gift that bend to be able to, yeah, become a small target. I did not see him in one on one's yesterday name looking forward, and I thought

he did one or two. I thought he took one turn. Did he not do one? I don't know. I don't remember. He took him out. Yeah, he patted up with his helmet like he was gonna get one, And I thought I saw the okay, Michael Gallut and I'm just using this out third round, Pete. He is positioning himself where is no where in the world you cannot give him a bunch of opportunities when the reel, when the season stars, No, when the where you cannot give him opportunities. He's positioning

himself like that. Right now, this kid Armstrong is positioning him himself where you cannot pass him up against him if he keep going the whey he's going like Michael Gallup is going away. So he's defensive version. Yea. See, that's why, that's why earning reps. That's why I'm so excited because you said it when we got off the plane, when y'all got off the plane and I drove up when you got out the car. Yeah, we was like, wow, I defens line gonna get killed. And from the very

first day everything changed. From the very first day when they first got together and did their version of what they call an inside run, and I said, man, who is number sixty four, Wow, number ninety two is doing a good job. And it hasn't changed. So when I look at this kid, I'm sure I'm saying now, and Broden, you gave him a good grade. And I listened to you that day like broden slightness, dudy, like his d place man. I said, I'm gonna watch this kid. That

was my guy coming into camp. This guy is not disappointed. Yeah, he's not disappointed. Now let's see how the games play out. And I know he may not play a much in the third game, but you cannot I have him. I will be high to disappointment. He's inactive? What riv? Yeah? No, And because no one else has really stepped up and yeah and said, you know echo that is they started moving Ealy inside because he really hasn't shown the speed

on the outside to play the defensive end spot. So, not to change the subject, but somebody else, I thought is starting to step up in a very needy position. Is Kadeem Edwards. Have you guys took some reps with Marcus Martin out last couple of days some additional reps? Didn't did he not? Is it three straight reps in the compete? Sill yesterday? Who's it against? It was? It was? Was it? Any won all three? It was the first compete.

I remember practice. I remember that a guard. Yeah, I great eye by Mickey there because I noticed in the one on one Mark Colombo hiss like that's it, you know what I mean, Like he has a good set, he's not off balance. Everything works, and in Colombo like you know, he has a good rep. And Mark Columbia is the assistant line coach goes over hits him on the back. Yes, that's it. That's what you gotta do

right there. That's perfect, you know. And he's encouraging him and so you know, build the guy up as long as, like you say, he's having good reps. He is playing an important position. But because Nate, I'll tell you what, after him, you're the next best guard out there. No, no, I just do not. He's not went through this with

other guys. And that is another guy I have to I have to see play because what I've become accustomed to now in the modern day era is I'm serious and the mode of day are is a lot of guys don't practice well, I don't they play better than the game. Yeah, And so I gotta see in the game. Yeah, I think he's I think the thing that you and I've seen is the strength. Yeah, that's that's the thing. And it's easy for those guards to do. You could

tell if a guard doesn't have strength, quickly, quickly. But but compared to what else they got behind him, I'm not right. Here's the eighth lineman this team. You September first and say, okay, let me see what else is out there. Because Martin's not playing regardless if he has surgery or not, he's out for a while. I mean Collins, Collins was in the same boat Lyle and any last year surgery, it was a two years ago, two years ago. Guy, the years just run together. He had the torn ligament

in his toe Chicago Bearer game. They debated whether to have surgery. He ultimately had surgery. He didn't play again the rest of the year. And seeing the only reason he's not having surgery right away, he went for a second opinion. But even if the second opinion says you don't need surgery, it's like you can't opinion you need to have surgery. Yeah, yeah, it's not like the doctor made a mistake, right, all right, I've been making this go ahead and go ahead, go ahead now negative, we

don't need to do that. We gotta go. We gotta go to analyzing us. I don't want to be too negative. Carry carry Analyzer. Just be honest. Don't worry about being negative. Carry'll tell you if you're not doing. Absolutely I believe this in today's you don't. When I played, you have

five six weeks to get in shape. You don't have five or six weeks to get in shape because you spend your first five weeks before you come to camp getting out of shape, so by time you get back in shape, camp is over and you have not helped help your team. Whereas when I played, you have five or six weeks to get in shape. So Martin, no, Nah, it's you know you know who else was falling into that category. Noah Brown Brown, He's gonna get left behind. Yeah,

he's gotten back in showing some stuff last year. He showed some toughness last year, but he didn't show what Lanceleneur show and fourteen showing up. Let's grab Brad and Virginia. Thanks for holding before we go to the next break. What's up Brad? So big fan, y'all? Thank you? Is Joe Looney? I like to I like seeing what I'm seeing out of him. Is he ever getting the chance maybe competing with the guard spot there with Collins or is he just mainly going to be the backup center?

Thank you y'all take care of God bless, Thank you. Thanks Brad. Probably talking about Connor Williams, maybe maybe I think he's the backup center guard. It's a valuable position. It is a really valuable I mean, it's just like last year when we talked about how valuable the backup tackle was going to be, right, and it was invaluable because they didn't have anybody. Joe Looney was your starting he was with the Ones yesterday. It was a veteran

day for Travis Frederick. So Travis Frederick did not participate. So Joe Looney in and they went to their offense like they do. Let's pull the center, Let's pull Martin, Let's Tay Williams, let's pull you know that's where that's he. You can't follow him Looney Tunes anymore. Joe Looney, is he without a doubt, he's that sixth best guy. Yeah, yeah, he's that sixth best guy without a doubt. I mean, uh he he this dude two three years ago I

got through training camp off him. He was so funny to watch and I'm like, how is he gonna make the team. But he's taking things a little bit more serious. Man. He's conditioned and one of the one of the best reconditioned bodies I think I've ever seen was when Ron Leary. If we all remember Ron Larry lost his job and then you know with Collins, and then what happened, Collins gets hurt, Ron Larry comes in and they never missed back. They never go back to to Collins a death spot.

And that's I think what Joe Looney has done is he has slimmed down. His mobility is better. He's got to work on the high snaps. We've seen some of those. You don't want that to happen. And him, I was gonna crest Joe. Go ahead, go ahead, But I think I think that Nate's right. He used to. But okay, so your seventh best is your is flaming your seventh best line? Yeah, okay, your eighth best lineman is we say, Kadeem Edwards at this point, who are the other options here? Yeah?

Go ahead, and you guys talk to a lot of people. You guys talked to a lot of people in this at work, in this front office and coaching staff and all that, What are you hearing about Chad's green other than what Garrett said to us yesterday? Is Chad's green? Now they hey, we're pulling for Chad's green, but we know what Chad's green is and it's not good enough.

I asked the question yesterday, Uh, if there's any thoughts of moving them back to guards since your guard depth has diminished, and I got the headshake and it was like, no, I think he's a better tackle. I'm not sure he's a guard so so as a tackle, so he can't make them. He he is not playing well in for them to have to keep him instead of a kildema. Well, we talked about this last year, right, there's point. They tried him a guard last year. Oh yeah, and decided

it was not gonna keep him at tackle. And I think you know you remember he started starting, He started, then he got hurt and they put Barron Bell or no, no, the other guard in there that played wasn't very good, the Cooper, Jonathan Jonathan Cooper. And then when he came back, they decided, well, we could live with Cooper because we need a backup swing tackle that's more important. And then he got his opportunity and his confidence were like down

his leg. Yeah, he was shattered. So now you've invested trying to build him back up at tackle. I don't think you want, but look at it this way. You would like that other tackle to be a developmental spot on your fifty three man ross compos But have you seen anybody that's worth developing? Maybe a practice squad type guy? Yeah? Right, potentially,

you know. I I sit there, I'm hopeful that somebody tries to sneak somebody through and if this pro department has been on it that the Jets tried to move this guy in or the way they're trying to the Buccaneers are trying to sneak this guy, and you're willing to claim that that night. I mean, look at who's the next guy up or a guard is Stanton? Yeah he's not been either. Sixty three one thing. We can rest the shares every day we get that same thing, Mama, Mama,

he's in there too. Yeah, sixty I'm gonna tell you something for for a group of guys that I know I was. I was how Martin Fleming, Uh, Joe Loony, I'm like, okay, we got we have a dress they fixed along with Connor, and I knew it was gonna struggle living with Connor, but I'm like, Okay, we've fixed this and saying, wow, man, we don't have the linebackers. Yeah, I'll be saying, well, I don't bugs looking pretty? Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's a good question. Let's want to hit it

after break. What you got because I want, I want it's the linebackers. The second best position on this yeah dinner last night. The answer is after the break. We'll get it on Talking Cowboys next. Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it, and

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minutes left on a Monday edition of Talking Cowboys. You want to squeeze in a phone call before we get out of here. Nine seven two four nine seven forty four hundred. But Brian, he's got a question for us based off of dinner last night. Yeah, we got we were all sitting around. It's funny how dinner for us is at nine o'clock at night now, eleven Central back eleven Central dinner. The question at the table was the if,

the if? The if? Everybody feels like I'm again not putting words over his mouth, but if you feel like the offensive line is their best position, what is the second best position? You Know, people were saying, Okay, maybe it's the corners, maybe it's the maybe it's the defense on whatever you think. I think it's the linebackers. If you watch the play of the linebackers, I think it's the second best position player to player of the of the groups that we have out here. And I was warning,

what you, gentleman Mickey out to start with. My answer last night was linebacker, Yeah, because I think the depth is so much better than it was last year, just better because of Joe Thomas. I mean, Joe Thomas looks like he is a player. And then you got your first round draft choice to add to that, because last year, after you got past Hitchens and if Hitchens was starting,

then you really didn't have anything behind it. So and I think with Sean Lee on the field, and we haven't seen a lot of Sean Lee, right, that's right. I got back into teamwork this past last couple of days, last couple of days, right before that, you're looking at the linebackers, going Okay, Jalen Smith looks like a different guy Amy and Wilson once Sean Lee gets on the field is a different guy. Uh. And they've they've got some some depth there. I think guys that can do

more than play special team. I wouldn't have said this or I wouldn't have agreed with you going into camp, Brian, And I'm not sure see what you think. But Joe Thomas is the key for me because the question going into is, Okay, you drafted Laton vander esh, You're gonna bring him along. He's gonna be a middle linebacker for you. Do you have a guy like Hitchens who can play multiple spots and fill in if needed. Joe Thomas is the one eating up these reps when Sean Lee's getting rested.

He's a He's a better Anthony Hitchens at will linebackers. Does that make sense? Yes? You know Anthy Hitchens as a MIC. I love Anthony Hitchens as a WILL. I'm thinking maybe not as much, but he's still yeah, he's still yeah. Serviceful is a very good word. I think you plug in Joe Thomas at that will and you don't miss a beat. And I mean that in respect to you know, it's not a huge gap. It's not And I know it's terrible radio to hold your hands

up if you're watching. Yeah, we got cameras here. Yeah, I got cameras, but you might be not. You might be driving home like Nate and you know you're listening to me. I'm holding my hands up a foot apart. You know, there's not that huge gap. I think that. I think that Joe Thomas edition in the stack position, Yeah,

it's that, but I think the thanks for clarifying that. Yes, but this might be one of those editions that we look back on at the end of the year and say, oh, Tavon Austin, Joe Thomas, you know where was you know, Chris Rochard, who was the who was the difference maker for this football team? Yeah, I think that's I I and I like march Lillard. I like Justin march Lillard as well. I think they've got some good guys at that spot. And it's a shame that he got sick,

but Covington was He's back out there today. Yeah, yeah, it's back out there now, you there. No, I got our first six offensive liman and and I think I got our first six. But I'm telling you you said it that Joe Thomas as a will. But I promise you if we need a Mike, he's sitting there, he'll see he'll play Mike. Yeah, because when me and brought us is watching film on him, Mick and Rob. He makes the plays he's supposed to make. If you make a mistake, that play turns into what he's supposed to

make into a big play. He's always around the ball to tip ball by came on Phrasier. He makes the plays he's supposed to make, and if you make a mistake, he'll make a bigger play. See this is where and yesterday too. I'm like on the notebook this morning, I wrote about if you saw it late. They had a compete period with the young guys, but he happened to be on the field for the for the defense. Well, they try and throw a slant inside the JUNI, you know,

and it's it's Mike White. He tried to throw the slant and what happens. Thomas reads, the slant drops and now you got length going in the air. I can't remember the last time I've seen a outside linebacker read to defend the slant, you know, and White's gonna I mean, there's gonna be a catch because they've Duke Thomas's beat to the inside. Right, they're gonna they're gonna get this slant. Now, say Mike White might have held the ball. We've you know,

we've that's kind of a documented thing right now. But when you see an outside linebacker defend the slant and knock a ball away, that's a guy that's locked in and playing well. You seeing that. That was the part a lot last year when we would try to say how they were doubling Dez Well, one of the things they were doing right linebacker and buzz him out, and then Dez is he's chopped meat there. He can't run that route. So that's how you can double a linebacker,

I mean a wide receiver pass that stunt. Well issue, my issue is this here, he's gonna say, when when, somehow, if something happened to Sean Lee, the first guy ain't our first round pick at this point, right, Yeah, you're right about that. Yeah, it's been playing, they've been moving and give him some snaps. Yeah yeah, And see my my issue is, and my issue is, is this team tough enough to say at this time, Layton, we love you.

What Joe doing is a little bit better. I mean it's always been uh that first round, second round, third round, and then you know me. Now, if I figure Gut better, then I go with a better guy. But if if Laton this much behind him, I'm going with Laton. But this guy has separated himself. Are you showing your heads? Yeah? No, I'm one in front. Each other's stacked. But you agree or disagree. The second the best lineback on that field for the Cowboys other than that, I felt was the

number forty. If I had to play the Carolina Panthers and something happened to Shanlee or Jalen Smith, I'm putting Joe Thomas. That's what I'm saying. Okay, he's that he's he's trust. No, bro, he's not on the trust. He's played better and by the way, so why do you think he was available? This is seriously watched. The documentary had three five and eleven seasons in a row. We messed that thing badly. Other factors besides that, this was a Joe Thomas, by the way, who was on this

Cowboys practice squad? What a couple of years ago signed off it? Yeah, to Green Bay he played in a three four scheme with the Packers. Get him into four. Yeah, you know where he playing in a three four? They play him inside. They played him inside, Yeah, inside back. A matter of fact, he played against Carolina. One of the tapes I watched was him playing Carolina and how to heck? I mean he was blowing people up in that game. He's a musical guy. You know, say meals though, No, man,

guy's hard to block. Yeah, he wasn't find he was. He was a center block. I mean he's like a center block, like a center block in that best position. Argument besides the old line is it is it a cop out to say running back with Zeke because not just Zeke lot Smith is looking is having a terrific camp. He looked good in that first series and I think you know he provides some depth for Zeke and he's throwing table if you want to use okay this go four for four, then go four, go four running backs,

four linebackers, four, four cornerbacks. Okay, what's what the flies today? I don't know what y'all give guys stars? Right, y'all give guys stars Man of the match of the match. And I am so shocked. Nobody has given Zeke a star yet? Have we not? Just take not because I take for granted. Well, if the thing with Zeke is they did you see that double Oh the double move is the hop hop and about it hop out? You

give him a start. I did not gave Gregory, did any did any of the running eight of y'all gave Gregory star? Not for me? I stopped reading because every game, all right, you know what, no matter what happens to there, I'm giving Zeke a star. All right, you go with that has a running back? Got a star yet? I think I got Rod smith Smitz Yeah, you know both scart Bowl has been nice. Yeah, I gave him a star yesterday. He was my man in the match. Yeah.

He gave him after he got blue bow on a pass No no, no, no no, I I but did his pass rush the one on one pass rush was bad and then he did something click and then he did compete. Yeah, and he got the real Yeah. Yeah, I game man of the match. Yeah. Check out our Man of the Match series. It's really called camp Star. Yeah. I'm gonna send I'm sending mine. Zeke's gonna be ze get one more call before we get out of here, Scott in North Carolina, you're up next. I'm talking Cowboys

morning guys. Hey, Scotty. First off, as a longtime Cowboy fan, I want to thank Nate especially for all the joy that hit him and his teammates brought me while watching his coming backs on armed Ports TV being away from home and that was just such a joy to me. Thank you for that. My question is about coaching. How does coaching UH affect the player? To say, you know,

there's a lot of excitement about chrismas Shard. My question is, say, for example, Nate, if you had been in Washington, would you have been the same player where the coaches made you the same player? I'd have been with Joe Gibbs. Yeah. Yeah, I've been with Joe Gibbs. They had a great Joe buble. They had a Joe bugle, I had a hey, great coaching staff. Yeah, I'd have been with it. But they didn't keep you. They didn't keep me because they had the hogs. Baby. Yeah, I was hog ish, but not involved.

You're a piglet, yeah, but I want one of their homes. I couldn't wild in the mud. That was that was a big at that time. That's a big athletic group with all the countertrait stuff, right, oh man Joja Kobe Man out of Louisville. I think it was a free agent, you know, Russ Graham's second round pick who was always mad at Mark maybe because he had one of the big Wow, that was a good group, Joe Boster. They had they had athletes, I mean that for big men.

They were athletes. So yeah. But but but coaching, though, it does make a difference here, Oh it does. Man. As a coach, you want to do everything to help your player be the best he can be. You want to be able to The difference is if you can see who your players are. If a scout he sayd hey brother, it is this type player. I want I go get this player. I find out what he can

and cannot do that. That's that is what a good coach does and helps you through those weak times, you know, exempt blows up your your your good part, but but helps you through the bad ours. That's what Chris doing that there. Yeah, and we'll see what Chris be consistent, Yeah, consistent throughout. We'll see more of that this afternoon. Now, the practice in the afternoon for your Dallas Cowboys from Oxnard, California. Thank you Nate for joining us. Nate, I got another

show to do. Safe travel, happy trails. I got another show to do. Okay, and then have a safe trip back and we'll see you guys Wednesday on Talking Cowboys. Thanks to Brian, thanks to y'all, see you guys then. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.