The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This he's Talking Cowboys training live from the Dallas Cowboys World head hours at the Star in Friscola. Here are Mickey Spagnola, Brian Brothers, Rob Phillips, and Bill Jones, and welcome into Talking Cowboys final practice of the week before the cowboys third preseason game against the Houston Texans at AT and T Stadium on Saturday night. Rob Phillips, Mickey Spagnola, Brian brought us
right down yonder. Bill Jones might be joining us again today,
He's got some TV duties to attend to. U. Cowboys starting to trickle onto the practice field here for like I said, it's the third open practice of the week and their last prep if you want to call it prep for for the preseason game against Houston first though, a somber feeling among the Cowboys organizations the Cowboys family this morning, as former Cowboys quarterback and current play by play man Babe Laffenberg's son Luke passed away after a
courageous fight with cancer. Um just awful news, uh, that that Babe announced today and that you know, word has gotten through the Cowboys family. Just a tough moment right now. You know, guys, it's never easy, even if you that was sort of the expected outcome. Unfortunately, when Luke's cancer came back, and and then when it happens, it just it just hits you, and it hit the head coach,
which in turn hit the rest of us. I think when he talked for about I don't know, what do you think two minutes trying to explain what he thought of Luke and just go to Dallas Cowboys dot com you'll be able to listen to it. And that's all he talked about today. It was very brief, and I don't think anybody would have even tried to ask a football question. So yeah, it was pretty sad to see Jason in that situation. He's out at practice right now, standing on the fifty yard line and I think practice
probably gonna it might start a little late. I'm sure it took him a while to compose himself. He was very close to Babe and to Luke, Babe's family, and so this one I think it hit really hard. And if if I noticed right, it looked like he and Darryl Johnston had an embraced there just before we came on the air. So, yeah, tough day. And as Jason said, he was an amazing young man. How hard he tried to fight to defeat this, and he had some choices and his last choice was I'll do everything I can
to try to live. Coaches do a great job of putting things in perspective. They understand they deal with a lot of emotions as they go along. It was very difficult to watch Jason Garrett stand up there because he was clearly grieving. We've always seen him as being a rock up there. If you want to say, I you know, we've all had our difference. I mean I've had differences, but you saw the human side of him today in this press conference. So he obviously has lost a close friend.
It means a lot to him. You know, he tried. He'll try and celebrate Luke's life the best he can as as a coach. He'll go out here and as Jason Garrett say, who will have the best day he can have practicing And that's all you can do. You celebrate the young man's life. You move on. Jason Garrett is doing his best right now to be out there and to coach his team, and you know he knows he has a job. But again, you saw the human side of Jason Garrett today. It's a very difficult situation
to deal with. But coaches tend to have this mechanism in them. It's in bread that they're able to take things that happened to them, put them aside for a little bit, focus on their job, and then come back to him when need be. Here's a go ahead, and I was going to say, if we can get a shot at the field, they normally get going right, and he's called the team up and probably trying to explain to everybody what went on. What's going on? Babe just
tweeted it out at about ten twenty this morning. The press confidence was supposed to start at ten thirty five, and it probably didn't start till ten forty five or fifty for that matter, and for good reason, as Jason tried his best to compose himself. But Brian's right, a lot of people don't see that side of Jason all the time. We see it, yeah, but other folks don't. Right, he's not as automated as everybody thinks he is. And again, he's very close to Babe and Babe's family. This is
a partial quote from what Jason said this morning. Again, the only question that he took in the press conference today said quote, Luke was an amazing young man. You guys have heard me talk about fight a lot. I don't know that I've ever seen a better example of that in my life. What he's gone through in the last couple of years, The spirit that he had every day to battle through it to always be thoughtful of
the people in his life. So again, a tragic, you know situation, young man that really that really fought through something awful. Yeah, that has you know, affected so many people. Cancer is difficult to deal with. Any illness is difficult to deal with, but especially with kids especially you know, I'm talking about two dads right, yeah, and soon to
be a dad down there at the end. And the the thing about it is, you know, you we go through this life and we you know, we do the best we can, and it's just unfortunate that sometimes there's there's illnesses and things that happen to us and you wonder why they happen to us. But again, you you find ways to to be stronger forward and to live on and Babe laughlinburg again former, you know, former professional player. Former.
You know, he understands, he's his life has been a lot of ups and downs, and you know it's difficult. Yes it's his son, but he will choose to find a way to live in a way to honor his son's life, you know, And that's what you got to do. Keep going forward, honor the ones we lost, move on and because that, you know, Luke would want him to do that. Luke would want Jason Garrett to go have a great practice today and have the Stallas Cowboys team be a team that is the best that they can be.
Well said, Well said both guys. Um Okay, practice getting set here to get going in a moment terrely the team's out on the field, they're in they're in shells. Today looks like not a padded practice. So trying to kind of ease back a little bit with the game here in a couple of days. Well, it's a typical Friday practice is what's going on here for a Sunday game. So you just move up the schedule to Thursday. Uh, And he's got to do his best to get him
off their feet a little bit. I'm sure it'll be a shorter practice, uh, and then just get ready to play a game on Saturday, six o'clock against the Houston Texans. And I'm sure there'll be a few vets here. I can see Whitton doesn't have a helmet on. UH, so they'll get some of these guys to get a day or Tyrn Smith's you know, no helmet U. Zach Martin obviously hasn't been practicing and I don't expect to see him until the first week of the regular seasons. UH.
There's a couple other guys without helmets on. I think it's UH to coup and Mike Jackson. I believe that Mike Jackson's been one. And that's unfortunate for Mike Jackson because we've talked about this before. These cornerbacks, even the starting cornerbacks through with what we've seen with Donovan Olumba, have come out here and played. There's been there's gonna be some difficult decisions about what they're going to do
at this cornerback spot. And Mike Jackson is in that mode right now where not practicing, probably not going to be able to play at least this week. UH. That that sets him back because these coaches. Now it's you know that we've had several weeks of practices, we've had a couple of games. It's now about trying to find these fifty three players. And if you're we've said before, if you're not practicing, you're not on the train, and if you're not on the train, you're not going to
the next stop. You're stuck in where you're at. And so I feel bad for a guy like Mike Jackson, who you know, had had moments in training camp where he actually looked pretty good and and now he's going to be behind the apall a little bit trying to catch up. Yeah, I see, uh Dalton shows still no helmet. Um. I was looking for Blake Jarwin. I can't tell if he's getting back into practice because they were getting really low on tight ends and Cody Mcroys, yeah wearing a
ball cap as well. He is too, And if Witton's not practicing, they might have to go, wow, you're tight end off Lucas though. Yeah, yeah, you know what they did yesterday did was kind of neat, was they They took uh Jay's Jama's old wally and put him as a tight end guy. So you might see more fullback today in the practice, you might even see more wide receiver. We need to figure out some of these wide receivers,
you know, And that's good. And if if the game planned today, that if the practice, if the attitude of the practices, Okay, we don't have this position group, well, let's lean on this position group today, and so keep an eye on fullbacks and keep an eye on wide receivers today having to make some play. That's a good point because it gives you a little bit more of
a broader evaluation of these guys. Absolutely, wide receiver. We've talked about it quite a bit, but we still don't know exactly how the bottom end of that receiver depth chart's gonna shake out here after a couple more preseason games. You know. I think it was good listening to san Jay Lyle talk about it the other day, and he didn't he made no bones about it. He was, you know, disappointed in his young receivers that he was very high on, right, But as you can see, coaches, you know, they can't
be biased. Now. He before, you know, we were in OTAs in mini camps. He was singing the praises of the speed of these young receivers, Reggie Davis, Johnson, Jalen gud and all of us were, and then their play kind of fell off once they got into the preseason games, once they got to the Blue white scrimmage, and he said, yeah, he goes if you know they're gonna need to pick it up. You know that's not acceptable, dropping passes and
missed assignments and bad alignments. And then suddenly, with all that happening, the guy that really nobody was talking about, Devin Smith, all of a sudden he arose. And now if you're looking listen to and Cedric Wilson, if you're looking at the two guys, if we're gonna count Tavon Austin in the top four, uh, those are the two guys. If they go six to me right now, that's who would make this team. Yeah, Mickey, and so, uh, it just goes to show you this whole thing is a
long process. But you have to be very objective when you cut down your roster. You can't have pet cats and say, well he did well before, he's just having a little dry spell. No, you can't have dry spells when you're an undrafted free agent. Yeah, no, bad days, right, no bad days here. I think Mickey made a great point yesterday and I was listening to our show. I always go back and list our shows out walking the store because I don't remember what I said, but she
made it. Made a really good point about the pup situation with Noah Brown and if and I don't think if there was a push that there would we would see we would If there wasn't a push from these young kids, I don't think we would. I think we'd have to see Noah Brown start to practice. They have to get him ready. But the fact that you know they have some options there, absolutely they could kind of take their time with Noah Brown and they don't have to push him. I think that where what I really
appreciated about what Sanjay Lyles said yesterday. And this goes back to the old personnel man guy and me. When I used to sit in those meetings with coaches, I always felt like the coaches, you know, they would they would like they would cheerlead for guys and then and I was like, but this guy's not playing well. Why are we keeping this guy in their officer? But to me, Rob, excuse me, the evaluation The biggest issue with teams in
the National Football League is misevaluating their own team. Yeah, it sounds like to me these coaches aren't misevaluating their own team, like Mickey said, Sanjay Lyles said, Hey, I was very high on two young kids. Want to see him go up, but they really haven't shown me that. So I've got to get these other guys ready. That's the sign of a staff that's not gonna misevaluate their team.
And I think you guys did a better shot than I did in Oxen are evaluating or at least talking to you mentioned pet cats like john By Johnson's talent level. To me, I think he's got a lot of potential. And I kept saying that in Oxnard, and you guys kept pointing out to me, well, number sixteen is playing better, Cedric Wilson has been more consistent. We've seen Devin Smithy
more consistent. And that's Brian. That's kind of the challenge for the staff, for the scouts when you're cutting down this fifty three man roster, how much do you look at potential like this guy's not playing well right now, yeah, versus maybe a guy And I'm not saying those guys have less potential, right, but they're playing better. So how much I mean, do you have to head your bets at some point and say, well, we're boping this guy eventually corrects things. Yeah, well, or is it too late
because we just haven't seen it. Devin Smith will remind everybody that one time he was a second round pick. You know, john By, Johnson and Guidon weren't drafted this in this draft. Good point. So all of a sudden, now you're you start to say, oh, I see what the Jets saw in Devin Smith. The knee injuries was robbed him of any chance early in his career sacl twice. Yeah, So all of a sudden, now you're saying, ah, I get it. It's like he caught a break, Like the Jets.
I go back and Mickey covered this guy a long time. Jimmy Smith, Jimmy Smith had so much talent here and then Jimmy Smith got injured, got caught up in some things. Front office is saying no, and end up Jimmy Smith went up being a wide receiver with the Jacksonville Jaguars and had a hell of a career with the Jaguars. But all of a sudden, it's like you had to you had to deliver the baby, but you didn't get
to see the baby grow up. You know that That's the thing about it there, And you know, if that's I'm sorry if it's a bad analogy, but that's really what it is. The Cowboys did the leg work on Jimmy said, The Jets did the leg work on Devin Smith. He he just now healthy, no where the Cowboys maybe could benefit. It was a it was a hell of a second round picked by the Cowboys out of Jackson State, by the way, right, And he got here and and
he broke his leg, missed his rookie year appendicite. Then the next year, near the end of training camp, he ended up with appendicitis. They thought he had something else, and all of a sudden it wasn't just a pendicitis, but as appendix ruptured UH and he was in the hospital for seven weeks trying to drain UH. The basically the the infection caused by the pendix rupturing. And so he missed that season, as I remember, And then they
tried to reduce his base salary. And this was at a point where Jerry wasn't making five billion dollars franchise and so from from they were getting close to the start of the salary cap and it was like, okay, we got to cut somewhere, and it's like we want,
we're gonna release you, but we're gonna resign you. Well, old John Wooton, who was working for the Cowboys when they drafted Jimmy Smith, was in Philadelphia and he ended up in their pro personnel department and he was like, you know, if nothing else, this guy can return kickoffs for us. And so Philadelphia signed him and then they'd let him become a free agent and that's when Jackson got grabbed him. And after that, you know, here it goes. So with Devin Smith. You know, it was funny when
I talked to him yesterday. I said, you sort of reminded everybody who you are and kind of got your hand up in the air. He goes, well, you know what I had to do that because I haven't played in a while, and I you know, my job here was not only to play well, but to remind him of what the player I once was. And he said, I'm finally feeling I've got confidence in my body and in my legs to be able to go and go
back out and play at that level. And I think one thing we've seen will McClay do so well with this front office pro personnel is fine guys that have had been high draft somewhere else and for whatever reason didn't work out, and then you bring them in and you see and it's and it's worked out in Camphor Devin Smith. We'll see if it continues. Let's take our first break and we come back. We'll talk about today's practice.
We'll recap some things we saw from yesterday's practice. And you know, once again our deepest consult condolences to Babeloffenberg and his family. Your new apartment's big, such a great deal, that's okay, just okay. What's right above the subway, Well, I bet you don't even notice it after that's my neighbor hangs. A deal that's just okay is not okay. Get a great deal with America's best network. Come into an AT and T store and learn how to buy one smartphone and get second one on us based on
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proud to be on the field with America's team. Find steps and hats in the pro shop or at Stetson dot Com. Today, back to talk in Cowboys. Welcome back to the Ford Center Ford Center at the Star in Frisco. Cowboys with another open training camp practice here at the Star. Things just getting going down here on the practice field, and I've got my buddy's Mickey Spagnola. Brian brought us here. Bill Jones might be joining us here a little bit. He's gotten some TV stuff to take care of there
he is at a boy Bill. Okay, Brian, you've got a scout's eye coming up here shortly, might be up already on I haven't checked yesterday. What stood out to you from yesterday's practice? A lot of two minute work? What do you like about that? What I didn't like about? What a nice drive to get the ball down there to the six yard line, and all of a sudden they're gonna try and fit it into Jason Witnight. It gives a good plack. Yeah, dak Is gonna try and fit it in there Joe Thomas. Yeah, we've seen Joe
Thomas make plays. How about these linebackers, Mickey, these guys it's interceptions that get their hands on the ball. That's a that's a good sign for this linebacker group. But Dak Prescott once again kind of smartly moving the team down the field all of a sudden, he's gonna try and fit into Witting on that end cut there and witness having to fight Joe Thomas, and I thought that was really cool in itself. Joe did a nice shot, but man, he had he had Randalled Cobb running underneath,
and he just he let it fly. He made the decision to go to Witton before he saw a Cobb on the break. You know, somebody gooks back on the film, he's gonna go. Ah, Man, I had a sure six right there. But I like what I'd like what I've seen with Dak Prescott moving this team, whether it's been drives to start these preseason games or what we saw on that too many and Mick it was the situation was a minute two left offense down by three at
a Fario golden pocket. Yeah maybe so my question maybe, Yeah, does Dak make that throw at the game in a game situation, you would hope not. Uh, because it's second in five. What'd you tell him after practice? It was second and five at the seven yea and he had ten seconds, so one more play and then you can kicked the field goal. Bye it because it should be in your back pocket. So we were chatting with him.
He didn't do his interview, but he was chatting about a whole bunch of stuff at his locker with all of us, and Uh, I don't know how it came up, but he said, yeah, I probably should have thrown that and hit the crossbar, and I looked at him. I said, no, you should have thrown it into the second row seats. Yeah, And then I said, oh, I hope I know him well enough to joke. Yeah, if you earned the right, then I earned the right to joke with that Prescott.
You've been on you've you've been around him enough to And I think I got away with it because he smiled and he kind of nodded his head and he knew. But you know, when you see it like that and you react, you know, you said, Okay, let me try and see if I I mean why not. That's what this is. I've all along. I'm like going the ball to Jason Witten in the red zone or for a first down on third to try and get a first down on third down, to me, is never a bad option.
He's I think's won games doing that. Hey, let me tell you what these defensive guys have made. There's times of people, well, how's Dak looked? Oh well, Dak's done this, done that. There's been times where Dak has looked bad, not because of Dak Prescott, because of how good the defense is playing. I think that, to me is what's encouraging. Jason Garrett talked about that early in camp. Good days for offense, good days for defense, back and forth, back
and forth. That's what you want. You don't want one team just coolly just dominating one side the ball dominating the other because you don't feel good about your team. I think Joe Thomas has had a really, really nice camp. He was one of our top fifteen guys when it was all said and done at the end of the day.
Another guy who stood out on defense for me yesterday and I wrote about him, was Brian You mentioned Donovan a Lumba two pass breakups and one on one drills and those are not easy, especially when it's down inside the ten yard line, right one against Michael Gallop. And he ended practice in second team work in that situational deal with a pass breakup on fourth down against Cooper Rush. He has been he was all over the field. Did
he get it? Oh? No, he got a pod. But Mickey Mickey from his press box seat would have challenged it. Mickey would have said, if Mickey it was one of those things where Mickey's team needed to complete the fourth downpad, Mickey would have challenged that. I thought it was a good Alumba he did. He kind of jammed with the right, but he grabbed Donald Lumba has got these white gloves and he's figured out that the offense is wearing white jerseys.
So he's got these big white gloves that he wears and he's able to kind of grab him, pull and kind of go around guys. And that's what he did. Yes, even But see, Donovan Alumba is smart, and Mickey talked about this. Donovan Olumba knows he's not fast, he knows he's deficient in a lot of areas. But what Donovan Olumba does is he puts himself in position to make plays and that the officials are not gonna throw flags
on him. They got him the other day. But if they're not gonna throw flags on him out here on fourth down, why not grab whole pull, get around, playoff handball. I would have challenged several more calls in the game on Saturday too, By the way, I was in the box and I'm supposed to be the stat guy right and spotter, and Night was going like this, I'm throwing my red flag and they only threw it once. I would have thrown it about three times. Micky can ask
you a question of periscope here. They want fans want to rob too. They want to know if the if the uh, the Jalen Smith's signing will have any impact on the other ones maybe signing. I was going to throw that out to you Saturday. No, we just didn't get to it. Um. Yeah, that's a good question. Could that spur allspie now if they trying to get in the door sooner. If there's less pie, it's very very
less pie. The piece I would eat like a little sliver that Brian would take on his diet, just very well, just to have a taste. So look here, here's the effect on the cap this year. Uh, what they did with that entire contract is basically he's under contract for this year. Next year he would have been under on track as a first round tender as a restricted free agent. So they basically gave him what the projected amount of that for his base salary, so it's right around five
million dollars. His base salary for this year is lowered, but they put five million dollars signing Botus into it, so he's gonna make over six million dollars with big Kick, so it'll go up some next year, and then when the extension hit, that's when his base salary goes up. So essentially, to make this very simple for you guys, it comes down to a seven year, sixty nine million dollar contract. So if I divide seven in the sixty nine, I'm right at ten million a year, just a little
bit less. A very good club friendly contract. But Jalen gets his money before he was gonna have to get it, So he's got five million dollars in his pocket right now, two years before they would have given it to him. The other thing is because of how they structured his first year. Actually, his cap value for this year only goes up five hundred thousand dollars, so that doesn't affect anything that they do with the other guys for this
year and really for next year two. Then it's the following year that the base salary goes up, probably doubles, and then it starts getting high. But then again, the cap should go up, right, It's never gone down, it's always gone up, so it really shouldn't affect it all that much. And I'm looking up Jalen's age right now. I think it's twenty twenty four years. I was gonna say twenty four years, so you know he signed I think through twenty twenty five. Yes, that correct, right, so
he'll still be a young guy. He'll be about thirty years old with an opportunity to cash in one more time in his career. So I'm sure that's a factor too. You know, you hit free agency a little earlier than you might have been if you'd waited it out, so and try to bet on yourself for another year. And the other thing they did in the contract they put a couple of years of guaranteed roster bonus in there, and then there's roster bonuses over the next couple of years.
So actually, if they wanted to get out of the contract after three years, it would be a three year, thirty five million dollars deal and they would have six point eight million in dead money. So the way they structured it, as Jerry was trying to point out through that whole deal, was this was very team friendly. Team was the precedence. Yea, all right, let's let's that's Michael Gallup, Yeah, Michael Gallup, Cooper Rush showing the ball ruin, and there's
Devin Smith for you right there. And you know the other guy that's out here catching passes as Taran Taran Christian too, So they've had him lined up all over the place fullback, uh, little tight end. You know what, I think this kid's gonna make this team on the practice squad because not only can he play quarterback for you, he can also fill in at other positions. He's pretty good. He's Jamal shot ye get ready. During camp, he's gonna
learn how to play safety too. For practice squad. Stuff's gonna he's gonna do everything that showers to who ran out of practice squad eligible a run for that kid, he's done that for three four years, where just whatever you need to give the team a look during right, Um, he got Christian got some quarterback reps yesterday, but it was two days the first time a long time. Yeah, yeah, but yesterday it was kind of back to Jack Jack of all true before he was getting like one snap
and that was it. Right. Yeah, but they like him, They like him as an athlete, yep, they sure do. All right, let's take our final break. When we come back, more questions from you guys on periscope, hit us up and continue to look at what's going on here at practice the final practice of the week before preseason game number three on Saturday night. It can be hard to find the right resource for learning about important financial matters.
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Cowboys and use the code word team JB. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys the Jack Black Starter, ten bucks, free shipping. Back to Talking Cowboys, Welcome back inside Sports Center at the Star in Frisco Cowboys just getting warmed up here at practice today, a lighter practice. They're in shells, no pads, and Brian it looks like they're doing some minimal prep as they always do for these preseason games. Yeah, they are. Rob They're down in
the red zone area. As we could see camera angle down there with them, and as you can see either had the coach holding the cards that's say actually defensive front or the second it's to seven on seven. So they're showing the Texans secondary and how they would play down here. So the twos are getting a little look about that and kind of going through their pay getting some look just Jason Garrett always talks about this, give these kids a chance to go play, but trying to
equip them with a little knowledge along the way. And then they're also keeping the big guys off their feet. They're the defensive linemen are over to our right, the offensive lineman to our left, across the field doing just little individual drills. But he's probably trying to keep those guys off their feet as long as he can. Got a Twitter question from Jake A couple questions. Number one, who do you all believe has the edge currently? On
the defensive end depth chart between Joe Jackson and Jalen Jelks. Also, Connor McGovern finally got into pads this week. Is that correct or No, Well, he got into pads. He's always worn pads. He just doesn't get to play in the pads. He goes out on one hundred degree field and runs and sweats and does all that. He's got to get stronger. But no, he didn't. He wears pads, he just doesn't get to play it ready to practice. He's not ready
to practice yet. So I'll take care of that. I think that if they had to pick one, I think they would take Jackson over jokes. I just feel like that that jokes to me, Carrie Hiders the one that's put himself into this mix, right, So if it's if it's jokes or a Hider, to me, that they would take Hider, you know. I feel like that they with some of the things that they've had happened at defensive end, they have to protect themselves. Hiders a veteran guy. He knows how to play, he knows how to get to
the quarterback. He could also play as the undertackle if you need him in some stuff and they're starting to do that too, with a little with Joe Jackson. I don't think you could do that with jokes. I think they're gonna try and get jokes to the practice squad myself. And they've kind of flipped it now. They're running big offense, the defense. Calvalero, the Coachsons looks there. You go, Yeah, you're gonna see. This is what the Texans gonna do.
Texans play with multiple tight ends. I watched them a little bit last week. They played multiple tight ends. But they've got these really, They've got some good receivers. Nice. They run through a lot of backs too, is another thing that they like to do. So. By the way, Uh, Jeff Heath back out on the field. He had had a stinger. Uh worked minimally yesterday second team. He's back
out there with the first team defense. You got a little more clarity speaking of injuries on Amari Cooper's Yes, I've got I've got a name for what he's suffering in that what did they call it initially to heal irritation or something like that. Did you have to hyphenate it? It's called an intrinsic muscle strain. There you go, and what the muscle is. It's a muscle on the outside of your foot, very small, thin muscle, and it controls
the inflection of your little toe. Wow, So who would think that the season is hanging on a little bit a little toe? Yeah, and what do you do? You don't need to inflex it or whatever. The I know if you try, if you ever tried not using the outside of your foot to do anything, it's it's pretty difficult. Uh. So they're pretty confident. He's pretty confident that he will be ready to go for the season opening. Speaking of ready to go, I noticed that Chris Covington is back
out there too, working with good eye. Uh March uh, justin March. Shan Lee, Yeah, and Sean Lee out there. Yeah. So it's good to see Sean Lee, Jalen Smith and Day. It looks like they gave the man, the money man, get the day off here. Maybe he's out there earlier though. Yeah, he's out there at the thirty yard line. He's just taking him out of the team stuff. Yeah, give him an easy day. Sean Lee, by the way, has jumped
right back in. I think we mentioned that yesterday Hanna would be sack on Dak yesterday and I think that was daring Blitz period Um. He looks good, No, no issue. This linebacker crew is a good looking crew. When you stand there next to him, like it practiced when we were an ox start, I'm going, my gosh. You know vander ash Smith, Thomas Covington, you know those guys, they all look like they got off the bus together, you know. I mean it is a good looking group physically at
that position. Now you forget how big Vanderish is down next to him. Yeah, that's a big man. It's a really big man playing linebacker. Well, remember how physical Sean Lee looked. Used to look at it. Sean Lee's bulked up. He's small compared to those other two linebackers he plays next to. He really has. Yeah, I'm supposed to visit with Justin Phillips Vanderish right there, My gosh, Sean Lee getting a good man. You're you're like a safety. You're
seeing what Cavon Frasier's looking at right now? Oh, here we go. There's there's a lumba again, number thirty two. Yeah, I'm supposed to visit with Justin Phillips. Ever, Franks, I want to ask him what it's like being in that room because it's got to be maybe a little intimidating giving the amount of talent experience a kid make. He makes play. He's not a step right in and played well. They have to appreciate how well he's come out here
and played. You know, you see, you know, it was ninety something degrees on that field in Hawaii there day and he's running around like it's you know, week thirteen in the National Football League. I mean he's running around making plays. That's a bottom of mine. I mean, that's you know, it's funny. See Mike White, he held the ball again, and it's scout team. There's Phillips right there. It's Scout team. You can't come on, Mike, throw the ball to move the ball on and I don't know
that Jalen guy needs to be celebrating. So that's team Scotch mode today and we are hopscotching the coach. Were sorry about that, but we're going what's on the video, coach exact, paying attention, paying attention the videos. One more question. Stan checks in on Twitter asking about Donovan Wilson. Yeah, what you've seen from him the last week or so, maybe at safety you got anything on that room. Uh, you know, I think you know obviously he stepped up.
You saw him with the interception in the one preseason game and uh suffered a little hand brewis yesterday. I think it was his thumb. Yeah, but trainers said, okay, right right, yeah, you got that report, So okay, So he's uh, he's back out here today. He's got a little black glove on. But you're watching Crawford, uh and Lawrence that's too drill. That's tools right there. I which we can we go back to that. I don't know
if we could produce on the flyer. I guess we're gonna get some inside action here more from Mike White and then throwing the football. But if you saw what he was doing right there, that's what every young player needs to watch. That's what That's what Tristan Hill. Nice job right there by Wilson again, Cedric Wilson. He's a good looking kid. We're finally gonna get a little team. Actually look at that man. Yea. Even even Jalen Smith went over and said, hey, nice job there, man. That
kid he's he's feeling it. He's feeling it. That's what you gotta have he's playing with a lot of confidence right now. That kid made a lot of plays at Boise. You think it helped him to just be around the team last year, even though he was hurt. I mean, just to kind of be around the system a little bit. But he didn't show up until like the like the second week of practice or the you know, I mean,
maybe it took him. Mickey always likes to say, hey, these guys haven't played in a while, maybe it takes him time to get going. I need to buy into that theory a little bit. I think that's what happened with Devin Smith. Yeah, you know, he hadn't played in over a year and a half. Yeah, and you know he's out here and it's like okay, and then all of a sudden he's feeling it. But we're still on card practices. So yeah, the scout team defense is out
there against the first team offense. Here we go. So again, it's one of you don't read too much into that when they're running cards, hey and prepping. Can I ask a question all along, I've kind of thought if they had to play the Giants tomorrow, that Alfred Morris would be the sign, would be the starter should I go away from that? Right now? This was a mail back question like what what does Zeke? How does Zeke impact? If I'm sorry, yeah, if Zeke's not playing, I'm sorry
about Well. If he's not playing, is he that's your question? Is is no? If he's not playing, no, I'm saying, Oh, he doesn't count against the fifty three? But is Pollard gonna be the starter against the Giants? I thought it was gonna be Alfred Morris? Am I wrong about that? They haven't seen any sight of that what I'm saying, I'm kind of I'm kind of feel like I'm being wrong. Not only do I think it's Pollard because he started
the first two preseason games. If Zeke's not he played nine, the first nine taken him out, just like they have Dak Prescott, right and the guys that you know, we're going to be a big part of this thing. So yeah, I would think so too. Um, of course we don't know. I mean, you know you're hoping Zeke can get done before I think Morris, or he just shows up without a new deal. What Morris gets a series here or a series there? Uh? As long as Pollard uh is
sharp on picking up his blitz pickups. There you go. You think Morris is the third running back on this team with Zeke Nicky said all along, Chun, I think Mickey's onto something. That was another male back question. I think, I said, I said, you know, I think a better Rod Smith. He plays well on special teams. He's a physical guy, he could catch, He's got toughness to him. I Mickey said it all along. He said, hey, well
that wash Morris got here. Yeah. But but I so basically they only gave Morris a ninety thousand dollars sign. If it's if it's Elliott, I would feel good about this Elliott Pollard Chun. I wouldn't feel poorly about out that group because we saw yesterday and to check out scouts, I I wrote about OLDI Wally catching the ball down
the sidelines. I mean, that's something he can do. If they have to play with a single back, Old Wally might get into that have to be special teams too as a factor with I mean because it is because you got you got two linebackers that don't play special teams. I mean, does Slate Vanderis really play special teams? Really? Three? Yeah, Sean leadon play special teams even though he's a starter. I don't want to send Jalen Smith Smith. Yeah, I
mean you win. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. And and in the game against the Rams, Chun had two special teams tackles and he had another play and I don't remember which one it was. He went down there and he blew something up. He caused another guy to make a tackle. So he was active in coverage on special teams. And if you're gonna have three running backs active, at least one of them has to play special teams.
And actually you would have two because Pollard can return for you if you want Number eighty Marcus Lucas running with the ones today he's the only tight end of the early tight end. What have you guys seen from him? That was another question on opportunities. I talked to him yesterday. I said you weren't out yet. He goes, oh, man, this was great. And I said, well, you can only ask for opportunities. He goes, that's what it's all about. Yeah, And he was happy Camper, even if they looked at
him as maybe the fifth tight end out there. Uh, he just feels like he's getting an opportunity to show people not only here, but maybe somewhere elsebody needs to be at the tight end up. You're absolutely right. The kid has been in a lot of places. You know, he's just trying to find a home right now. And you know, we we all believe that the tight end injury situation will take care of itself. Yeah, I don't think any of these injuries are considering. But I don't think, yeah,
I don't think. I don't think the kid has done bad for himself. There's a lot of times you're very apprehensive about bringing somebody in off the street. I remember George Selby come in here, you know, off the street basically on a July thirtieth practice, and Allsen showing up and playing, having a nice career for the Cowboys. And now he's still here. Yeah, but as a volunteer coach or whatever they call him, as a personnel guy, you'd never want to bring a player that doesn't show well
in camp. But you just remember, well, Marcus Lucas was the University of Missouri's second leading receiver on the team that went to the SEC Championship in in in Atlanta and lost to Auburn. Talked about the tight with a tight game into the fourth quarter before they didn't score enough points because I think a uh oh, gosh, I'm gonna forget Auburn's running back. Uh I think he's still running for yards. No, no, it was it was before that. It was a twenty thirteen season. Okay, the guys still
gaining yards. I'm sorry, Mick. And a matter of fact, I prought it up to him and he goes, yeah, he goes, for some reason, we changed our defensive for May, and I go I know, I was yelling from the stands that that's not the formulation to be Mickey. On a game day on an airplane wherever we are traveling, we get and I was I was almost close enough time I'll catch I was gonna ask any thought about just carrying five wide receivers. I said that the other day.
The possibility. I said that the other day, And you're gonna have to go along at one of these other positions that you know, if you don't feel great about the six wide receiver here, why not go long at another place. To your point, if Noah Brown starts the season on pup, you don't know if that necessarily means you gotta keep sig weather receivers. In addition, if you know, if you have said, you're right, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah,
I don't. I mean you could go. Defensive line is changed a lot in terms of depth from those George Selvy days and right, I want to keep an extra defensive lineman. We'll see what happens there. Practice is continuing on. Thank you guys for joining us. Thanks to Mickey Brian Caden Alex for producing The Break is next here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.