Talkin' Cowboys: Wrapping Up from Oxnard

the West Coast this year. Brian brought, Usky Spagnola, Bill Jones is back in Dallas. He'll rejoin us as the host and captain. Who we get back to the Star in Frisco. What's up, guys? How much it's gone by? Yeah? Ready to kind of finish this thing out? Yeah, it's gone by kind of fast, right, sort of. I think

it has three weeks. I mean, before you knew it, we were, you know, you did the blue white practice and then a couple of practices, a game, a couple of practices, and here we are basically two practices away from pulling up stakes. So yeah, I think it went

by fast. The guys that were interviewing Zack Martin and Travis Frederick yesterday said they were talking about how physical the practice was, and I don't know that it was more physical, but I think it's been more competitive, which resulted being in more physical situations, especially for those offensive linemen. You know, they got their jobs, but the majority of those guys they're going up against in one on one and team they're fighting for their careers and so I'm

sure they're not getting any brother in law out there. No, you're absolutely right about that. I think the things Mickey said absolutely right. With the competition of the practice. I'll tell you another thing, I don't think these players and coaches expected, but it was it was. It's good for Jason Garrett and staff was here we go. The weather, the fact that they did get heat and they did get you know, you could still practice out here and

survive even though it's physical practices. You know, you could still survive and you know, getting through the practice of

getting good work and concentrating. But they got really you know, the weather conditions here were a lot warmer than normal, and so you know, you look at those are kind of those sneaky things when you're looking at the season, you're going, well, hey, they got some It wasn't just they didn't escape the heat completely, but they got some of it here, and I thought that was a good

thing too. So one practice today in the afternoon, they're going to come back, I believe, schedules of practice morning ten thirty tomorrow tomorrow morning on Thursday, and then they're breaking probably so probably say what they did last week right absolute days before the game, sir. Now, they did go two days in pads, but three days in pads before that before they had to kind of light practice really no helmets on. That's when it's kind of a

meeting on the field. Yeah, that's when Jason Garrett was talking about he kind of he understood the condition of his team. He saw some guys and they were giving him great effort, but they didn't look as as you know, the efforts good. But he said, you could tell they were dragging a little bit. So, uh, he made that determination.

I think that we'll see the same thing, you know, with try and get him ready for the Cincinnati game coming up at being a home game at at and T. So let these guys have an opportunity to go out and shine in that, give him, let him be as healthy as possible and go into that game Cincinnati at home, right, yes, Saturday night at and T Stadium. So a little bit of work before then. You mentioned, Brian the physical nature

of these practices, Yeah, Mickey two. And the running that these guys, that these receivers are doing in TV in the heat. I mean, how would you rank the kind of the physicality and the work they put in this camp compared to other Jason Garrett camps. Think they've done more. They've done sprints at the end of practice, and I think conditioning seems to be a focus. It does, maybe even more so than it does. Yeah, it really does.

And I think it all really stems back to what they were able to do in the OTAs and the mini camps, and then in the off season when those were over, you had guys staying at the Star, you had people working out there, working out in one hundred

degree weather. There was a lot of running there. I've been I've been a part of training camps before where you've had conditioning at the end, but the coach takes the receivers and defensive backs out of the drill, out of the running because that's all they do, not Jason Garrett. I mean those guys are right now. It's not full on sprints, it's the strides and stuff like that. But those guys are running from the time that horn blows to the time that double horn blows to in practice.

So uh yeah, it's it's And I'll say this though, and knock on wood as I say this, you haven't had the soft tissue things. They've kind of cropped up it. You know, we've seen before in some of these camps where you do get an extensive amount of running and then all of a sudden those things pop up. So for the most part, again, uh, the receivers, defensive backs have held up pretty well in these in these training camp practices yoga, Mick. Well, you know the other thing

about this running, it's a younger team. Yes, you don't want to run an older team into the ground and then they come back to training to the star and they're they're worn out. You got to make sure they, you know, keep their legs. So thus the guys getting their days off every once in a while, the older guys, the established guys, and then make the young guys run. And I think he's done that. Uh to what Brian's point was when that one day the wide receivers were

absolutely dragon. There was only seven of them out there, and after practice they ran all these routes and I'm going, God, he's gonna kill these guys. Well, they ran sprints, but theirs was about maybe half speed, third speed, and it's like, Okay, I know what we've been through. Let's let's just put through this. So all in all, I think it was well coordinated. Yeah, it's one of those these practices robbed from a former personnel men's standpoint of evaluating the team.

I think you could watch the way that they run drills, even even the stuff. You know, I was talking to Gary Brown about this and some of the things that he did the drills, and you could be able to see the vision, the balance, you know, with his running backs, and from a scouting perspective, you get a lot out of watching this practice. There's not a lot of standing around.

There's there's competitive periods, there's one on one periods, there's a team periods, there's individual stuff they go to they hit the brakes and then you know in between and but it's it's one of those ones if you sat here and watched. You could get a lot. You could evaluate ninety players out there practicing, no cupcakes being pastor and it's not caucake out here. No, I don't think

so either. All right, let's uh, by the way, phone number nine seven two four nine seven forty four hundred if you want to join us over the next hour, and we're gonna I mean, it's it's hard to have like a retrospective when they're gonna get back to Dallas, they're gonna play a game on Saturday, and then they're gonna have I think a set of five practices out at Fort Center which fans can come out in attend. Yes, so training camp doesn't end here. No, but we've seen

roughly three weeks of work out here. Let's look back a little bit on the show kind of see what we've evaluated, what we like, what we didn't like, and maybe we start with maybe the biggest storyline going into camp, Dak Prescott and the receivers. How that has sorted itself out or has it been sorted out so far after three weeks. I don't think it's been sorted out. I think you got six or seven guys in the way

they've been practicing. There's seemingly are interchangeable. No one's got you know, goes out every snap with the ones, or some guy goes out with every snap of the twos. They rotate those guys through and you know, I think that's a good thing this early. Now, at some point you're gonna figure out, Okay, here's my three guys, here's my fourth guy, and they'll kind of be a more of a rotation that you can can count on. But for now, keep doing what they're doing and let get

let all these guys get experienced at several different spots. Yeah, I totally agree with on that situation. With the what we've seen with Prescott is there's been some very good practices he's had. We've seen command of throwing, the intermediate underneath stuff, the touch, the leadership, moving the team, you know, the ball handling stuff. Made some really good things from him.

Still working on the deep ball stuff, still trying to get it down the field, missed a couple here and there, but then he hits one in the game, so you're like going, Okay, it's it's gonna come along here. It's all about, you know, his mechanics, how he stands in the pocket those things. As far as the receivers go, I think it's down to like a couple of final spots and where you where the couple of final spots are agent can a guy. You know, there's been no

Noah Brown, which is a little bit disappointing. There's been no Thompson, which has been disappointing, But that doesn't mean that you know, McKay and Cannon and Lenore and those guys haven't stepped up at times. I you know, I think that the one those you know, sometimes you get to the bottom of the roster with those guys like a McKay, you know, and you're going, okay, he's got no shot, but he's kind of put himself in the mix. He's a different body type of a guy than what

they have. So you know, he's got three more games to to really try and get into that spot. Lance Lenore has had some really good practices himself. He's trying to put himself in that spot. So you know, it's

it's it's a shame for Thompson and Noah Brown. You know, one of those guys might make this team just not practicing, just out of like okay, we signed this guy and or we know this guy, and boy that that that might be unfortunate for a guy like Lance Lenore or McKay or one of those guys that's really gone through the whole entire practice or maybe not m I mean maybe not in the way of Lance lanor is not gonna get xed out. Yeah, but I'm just saying, if you if you count, if they keep six, he's hard

to cut right now. Yeah, if you're if you're Jason Garrett, I just use him as the name of the guys that if you think about four guys, you know, if you think about four receivers, and then who were the other two receivers and and very well be right, Mickey, I mean maybe you count Thompson as a special teams guy and not just solely a wide receiver. Yeah, that's what I was gonna think. That was thinking what I was thinking of Noah Brown. Yeah. See that's the thing.

They know Noah Brown, they do. But Sanjay Law loves Deante Thompson and that carries some way. That's what I'm There's gonna be, there's gonna be there's gonna be a guy or two on this team that gets cut that probably didn't deserve to be cut, and it and most likely will come from the wide receiver crew if I if I had to, and and I think there might be a cornerback, well, I shouldn't say the cornerback yet

because the corner fine, the fine. Yeah, the cornerbacks have been interesting in a way that that you see him practice very well and then they get in the game and it's not the same. And I was kind of hopeful. You've seen guys practice, We've seen Joe Thomas practice very well. We've seen Joe Thomas at the linebacker play very well. You know that those are things We've seen Antoine Woods

practice well and we've seen him play well. So that's I was hopeful that some of these corners would be able to carry that into the game, especially those young corners Olumba, you know, Ward, I was hopeful that they and they're still opportunity time, there's time. But as we're as we're talking about the end of the Oxnard portion of practice, that's what I'm that's as if they're not

gonna make it. Yeah. Yeah, And you're also in the secondary, you're looking for another safety to add some depth too. Behind Xavier Woods, Jeff Heath, who, by the way, mildly sprained his ankles the other day. Yeah, talk to him about that. But you look at numbers there and you know you lost um Huff Marquess and Huff's dealing with a growing injury. You got Cavon Frazier, who's back, But like, who's gonna step up at that other corner safe? Who

else is gonna add some depth there? See, there's are you keeping extra safety and one of those guys is either or you could do that you keep get another cornerback in there, either or they can play safety. They can play corner for you tight end too. I mean, have you seen anybody else that caught your eye after Huff after those guys? Not really No, And I was not consistently I was hopeful. I was hopeful that Woods or not Woods uh uh, cam Kelly, Kelly cam Kelly

would be a guy that or williams Uh Robinson? Is I'm right about that? Robinson? Yeah, you know I said Woods flashing you a little bit. But yeah, but see that's the thing about it is I haven't seen enough to where you know, there's might be a couple of spots where they're okay, where would you probably claim a guy or two again from the oxen Are portion of practice right now? I think they would if they were looking at guys safety as a possible claim, and maybe

even offensive lineman is a possible claim. You know, if you look for that final that final spot, if you don't trust Kadeem Edwards, if you don't trust Chaz Green, if you don't trust uh, you know, Cam Fleming is going to be the guy. But if you know for that last spot, there could be a couple of different spot a couple of different opportunities for somebody outside of this football team, because it hasn't short shown uh shown, yeah, shown itself here you know that that And again Oxnart

portion exactly. We're we're we're jumping the gun here just a little bit. But I mean this is look we've we haven't I think we've built enough body of work to at least make some evaluations to this point on how guys have performed. And you mentioned guard Marcus Martin officially on IR his season's done so and that was a guy they signed to provide some insurance in the middle there and Joe Looney's kind of your backup center, So you need somebody else's best player on the offensive line. Yeah,

so that's another spot. And you mentioned throughout tight end just a minute ago. I mean, are they gonna go status quo there? You think by the end of preseason you mean just three well, I mean, could they look outside for a veteran there? Do you think Jeff Swaim is shown he can be the veteran guy there? And then you've got some guys with certain traits like Blake Jarwin who can catch the ball, get down field or

clearly the receiver of ye the tight end group. Yeah, you know, I think that one's still got to shook itself out a little bit over the next couple of weeks. Jar one's gotta start blocking better. Yeah. I think Swaim has been solid. I think he's been who he is and that's kind of an all around dependable guy. Um, but you know, there was talk about, you know, they're they're largely unproven. Could they look at maybe you know,

ask the guy a veteran at some point. So you're gonna add somebody else's team fourth or fifth tight end, it might be better than it might be better than what you're playing with. I mean that's what that's why I have to look at that. I mean you their determination is is can they find a James Hannis somewhere?

You know, that's where they have to that if they if James Hannah was on this group, on this roster, I think it would be we'd have a different opinion about the blocking tight end and what you know that that availability of that kind of a guy. You know, yes, someone's gonna get cut. That's probably same or not as good. But do you trust Rico Gathers or do they trust Rico Gathers or just don't play many downs with a tight end. You don't have to have a tight end,

well they do. They do the tight ends where they're gonna where they're gonna use their tight ends if they don't use them in the running game or that just in the normal offensive sets. Is they those guys all play special teams. Every one of those guys, you know, play some form of special teams. And that's one of the things that Keith O'Quinn was talking about. He's got more linebackers, he's got more tight ends that plays special teams. So if you don't use them as if you don't

use them in the offensive scheme. I would rather have players that legitimate can play special teams, not just some guy that you're trying to put out there and be a special teams player. And maybe you use the fullback a little bit more instead of a tight end. You do that maze. There's different ways, I mean, just just different ways to do it. I don't think the tight end holds you hostage. My question though, is is you know who's who's emerged there. What does that rotation potentially

look like? Well, after three and a half weeks it's Jeff Swain. You haven't seen anything differently see. But this is where I disagree with you on the tight end spot. If you look as much as his team boots waggles, stuff like that movement in the pocket. What's the one thing they do. It's one short, one long. It's a it's a it's a drag tight end. It's a route behind. Sometimes they get in twelve personnel, it's a it's two

tight ends, one drag, one behind. If you're gonna be a team, it's gonna play action and move the pocket. You're gonna find ways to use your tight ends throwing the ball that way. If that's it, they want to continue if they want to have now maybe they have that, Maybe they have that with Jeff Swain in there, maybe they had that with Blake Jarwin in there. But it's been a little bit of a struggle for Schultz, their rookie. Yeah, to me, that's that's the one that's been really surprising

to me. I mean, I think there's and I know we'll probably get into his show goes on, but there's a couple of a couple of players that have surprised me that haven't haven't shown the ability that I saw coming into this. Yeah, that that's a that's a little bit disappointing to me. And I you know, again Oxnard, portion of the practice time to try and develop you know,

those guys. But I've been I think that Dalton Schultz has been a guy that I felt like was going to come in here push for an opportunity to start as a blocker, as a catcher, you know, kind of a complete tied end, and it really hasn't materialized for him that way. Well, if you think about it, last year that that reverse boot and throwing the tight end wasn't very successful, and it wasn't very successful, uh down

the stretch. If you think about it, yea was keeping it or he's throwing it in the ground because no one was open. Now the difference is you got Zeke on the field, right yeah, and when you you know, play fake the handoff to him, they got to account for him. They can't just assume that you're not given it to Alfred Morris and that you're going to roll out. So I just think there's different ways to do that stuff. If you think your tight end is not up to

part fair enough. You spoke of Man of the Match. We've got that series going on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Camp Stars, we call it match Match. We come back, let's talk about some men of the match, men of training camp, guys that have stepped up. Surprise you a little bit and continue what you just said about certain guys, maybe guys that you still need to see more from. Sure, as we get through the end of Oxnard portion of camp and move on back to Dallas next week. That's

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of the Dallas Cowboys. Find Texas sized deals at my John Deer Dealer dot com. Slash football terms, conditions, exclusions and warranty limitations apply so you can you love for details. Batter to talk in Cowboys, Welcome back to Oxnard, California. One segment down to to go for our Oxendard portion of Cowboys training camp practice this afternoon for the Cowboys. They practice twice more out here. You guys. Uh, everybody refreshed after a day off yesterday. Feel good? Yeah, yeah,

feel good. You know, worked a half a day almost, and then you know, when you start doing stuff at seven twenty in the morning, it's kind of working. You're not the only one to go where. You reminded us like three times yesterday, I worked today, I worked today. Williams got his computer out at all times. He's working harder than you are, Webmaster William Boykins. He sort of forgot something though, Oh he did. Yeah, oh boy, okay, we gotta mention that on shots that was Why did

I even bring that up? All right? Everybody? You you you you, that's self inflicted right now. I'm trying to kind of lighten it up. I mean, I feel like everybody's still dragging a little not at off. I went to sleep before at ten o'clock. Well that's good. I was paying for the night before. M hmm. When we had our team dinner. Yeah, okay, yeah, that was fun. It was good. It was great. All right, everybody's going to talk football, please, Yeah, let's keep going. Let's keep going.

Looking back and forward at what they've done here in Oxnard. Two practices left. Let's talk about some guys that maybe have surprised out here, guys or guys that you you expect things from, have looked have kind of done what you expect, or guys who have stepped up and and and been pleasant surprises. I'll start off this. I'mt's steal one from Mickey. This Antoine Woods defensive tackle. He has

had time in the league, He's been with Tennessee. He's not a rookie free agent coming in here and trying to make the team. But all of a sudden, I mean, you've got Malie Collins trying to work his way back into practice, coming off pup a couple days ago, and he's gonna fill in one of those starting spots if he's healthy. Right, But I think they found a guy that at least can be part of the rotation at defensive tackle. No, what's interesting about him is he doesn't

he doesn't have the measurables. You know, you look at him and he's not built like David Irving, right, No, but he finds a way to push the pocket that trash can right there holding down the tent. Yeah, about the same height, the same height, same same s yeah, the same squareness. But he plays, he gets penetration, So you're right, Yeah, he's coming out of OTAs. I kind of thought that we would see with with Dayton Jones and then with uh jahad Ward would be the guys

that would step up and go that direction. But it's been Woods that has I still worried about the defensive tackle spot in this portion again, that might be another area that they go trying to address with a claim or something like that or sign. But the defensive tackle interior offensive line maybe just maybe tied into if maybe if if they don't, if they just go three, we'll see. But I like what with Woods and what he's done. I've been waiting for Woods to fall off the cliff,

and he hasn't fallen off the cliff. Right. He's he's They threw him in there, they had an idea of how they wanted to play him. He showed up well in the early practices here. He was physical, he got in fights, he showed he wanted to play. Um. You know we talked about Mickey was standing by with the general manager there and you know he said, hey, keep going, you know that kind of thing. Those are all things that you kind of, you know, you appreciate about the kid.

And I've seriously I've been ready for him to take the left turn and he hasn't taken the left turn yet. He's kept the thing right on the road, and you know, hopefully, hopefully he can continue to be a part. They need him to be that bridge until David Irving gets back and until they figure out and it's we've gotten some good word about with MALIEK. Collins. You know, hopefully by

the time we get back to the Star, MALIEK. Collins will start practicing because they need to figure that out inside and to your point, Woods has been a very very pleasant surprise. Okay, So to help with maybe avoid at that defensive tackle spot, I think we've seen the last day or two that if Randy Gregory is for real, then Tyrone Crawford's been moving in that to go three three tackle spot and on the nickel. Yeah, and that simplifies it for Randy. Now again we've seen him for

about three or four practices. We need to see more, as Brian keeps saying, the Oxnard portion of practice. But if he continues moving that way to me. He's absolutely the biggest surprise of training camp that he could come back after only playing two games over the last thirty two games in two seasons. And we also say two seasons, but you got to count the six or seven months that he didn't practice after twenty seventeen was over, so it's really two and a half years since he's played football.

And you know, it's it's it's encouraging, let's put it that way. I don't yeah, I don't think you can put you know, all your marbles on that, but for now, yeah, maybe. And then on the other side, what they were doing when they got to nickel Cony Ealy was moving inside. Now I don't know how well it worked, but they

gave it a shot. And and I thought the other thing that happened with Randy Gregory, he played a game with Tyrone Crawford, and Crawford came over and kind of got his guy and he circled around and he instinctively did it. So to me, that's the biggest surprise. And if I was going to pick somebody else, it's probably Tavon Austin because I didn't know what they were getting from him, didn't know he could be an outside guy.

I didn't. I just didn't know much about him and being out here with him, you know, he's on this team and an EFFI right work on the outside. He's working on his routes. He's not taking anything for granted. He's not saying, Okay, I'm an experienced wide receiver. I don't have to really go through all this. He's going through it harder and helping everybody else out. So keep

an eye on him. I'll tell you what. Give the pro department a pat on the back for not only making that trade, having an idea the coach is having a plan for Tavon Austin. But give the pro department in my a pat on the back. And that a boy for Joe Thomas. Joe Thomas is another guy where you know, people are asking me, how do you replace? And it was one of our male bad questions this morning as well, was how do you replace Anti Hitchens? You know, And I think that they've found a way

that with Joe Thomas. You have a guy that is a veteran player, but he's a young veteran player. They understand what type of ability has I think he's come out here, he's practiced hard. He's played hard in the games. If something does happen to Sean Lee, I don't think the drop off is like totally off the cliff again. I think it's it's like, Okay, you got a guy in there that's stable. He's capable of finishing plays. He's a physical guy, he can run, you know. Those are

all very positive things. I always thought it was a struggle for Anti Hitchens to go from the mic linebacker to play in the will, you know, because it was just a different techniques and things were different for him. But it looks like Joe Thomas to me can play the mic and is very comfortable playing the will linebacker in the scheme. He was in the refour scheme with the Packers, you know, having to play in the as

an inside linebacker. But he has a great feel for where he needs to be, not only in coverage, run fits, finished the tackle. All this thing, he's been a guy that I think the Pro Department, if it continues on the trajectory continues up, the Pro Department needs to the general Magin's boy them all those guys a steak dinner, because they did him some good things there when the other guy we didn't mention, and I think it's necessary

in that group. Layton Vander, if you've been watching out here when they've gone to nickel and Sean wasn't out there, they've been using him in the nickel with Jalen Smith by the middle, and he was the weak side guy. And uh, you know, his improvement is coming in increments. It's not like lightning right right. I see every day he gets better, he recognizes things better. And the good thing, the dude can run. Yes, he can run. He can

cover for a two hundred and fifty. And if you're using them, yeah, and if you're using them on the nickel, chances are well they ain't running all that much when the nickels there, so he doesn't have to, you know, lock up against the run. Speaking a linebacker, because I know Brian said this, this might be the second deepest position on the roster right now, what you've seen. I think we all said it. Yeah, I think everybody agrees on that, Yeah, pretty much. And Jalen Smith, I mean,

I wouldn't say it's a surprise. And I give you gotta give credit to both Jalen the Cowboys in their their medical athletic training staff, Britt Brown, all those guys, they've been adamant that the year, this was the year, and we are seeing it out here, but we saw

it in the game the other night too. Not just the fact that he can go run in a cover two setting forty yards, cover a tight end down the field, it's little things like even in the red zone, his change of direction quickly to be able to go and close on somebody and make a play. He looks like a different player. He looks great. Doctor Cooper, who did the surgery, from the beginning, maintained this was the year. Yeah,

this absolutely the year that he shows you. And if he doesn't show you, then that's probably all you're gonna get. But if he shows you, this would be the year that physically he's he's taken care of. Because remember you

know we talk about the drop foot towards ACL. Yeah, right, tore everything, tore everything, and he comes to training camp after having that surgery and they kind of held him off, held him off, and you know, the year wasn't up until January first, after twenty sixteen, so he was playing, you know, last year, trying to get back from that ACL. And now the ACL looks good and he's moving well. And I think that is a huge surprise to a

lot of people that criticize the Cowboys for taking that chance. Well, there were a lot of unknowns Brian, right. I mean, it's you're talking about it, You're talking about a career threatening injury. Anytime there's nerve damage involved, it's there's no timetable. It's like when's this thing? Is it going to fire again? Will there be enough for generation? And apparently that's not even a factor anymore. I still maintain that if doctor Cooper would have done wouldn't have not done the surgery.

I don't believe they would have taken him. Yeah, but the fact that he did was it was good enough for Jerry Jones and Steven Jones and Will McClay and and you know, credit to them, they had him high enough on their board. Uh. They they they had an idea what they wanted to do with him once they

got him. They knew the timetable. Mickey's right, Doctor Cooper and Britt and Jim Allen, those guys said twenty eighteen, twenty and eighteen, they kept saying that, And and Jalen Smith is is proving me wrong about his Where I miss evaluated him was his willingness to fight to come back. You know, I thought the injury was going to be too devastating to come back and be a fully But even last year, even late in the year, he showed

signs that things were starting to get better. We did the thing with the you know, with we break down the players, you know, with the on tape, and he and I were working together, and you know that Melvin Gordon run and Melvin Gordon can run to the sideline, Melvin Gordon can get around the corner from from the Chargers, and Jalen from the middle of the field chased and fetched him finished the run behind the line of scrimmage. That right there should have been enough for me to say, Okay,

I was badly, badly wrong about the football player. And he's he's he's I don't know a player out here. And it happened to the last year with Byron Jones. Remember how many times Byron Jones got his hands on the ball, denied the ball. It seems like every day Jalen Smith is in coverage and he gets his hands on a ball, and you don't get your hands on ball by accident. It's positioning, it's it's speed, it's it's understanding of where you need to fit. And he's been

able to do all those things. He's been one of the top players at this camp. If you had to vote, I think he would be in the top three of guys that are have gone through this Oxnar positioning of camp. You know. And and the thing that I think people didn't know about doctor Cooper, it wasn't just that he did this surgery. He's become known a renowned ACL repair surgeon in the country. I mean, Teddy Bridgewater came to him, Uh,

Kyle Schwerber came to him, right. The guy was not going to play baseball for you know, looked like the rest of the year, and by the playoffs he's out there hitting a home run in doubles and yeah, yeah, And it was like, were you surprised? And you know, he never pats himself on the back, but it was like, well, you know, if all he had to do not go out and play right field or first base, just just hit, you know, and if you hit a home run, you

don't have to run. And so he's done a lot of these guys that have come to him that nobody knows that they come to Dallas to get their acl Doctor Andrews in Birmingham and doctor Cooper and Dallas wow to worldwide. Yeah, it's worked out. It's looking good. From number fifty four. One more guy you mentioned Byron Jones. Yeah, I think it's a little bit of a surprise, maybe surprised the mickey that he's played as well on the

outside as he has in camp. I mean, it's looked like a seamless transition for him for the most part out you know, go go and get a Star magazine training camp preview and we all contributed. Brian did all those player analysis and there were other stories. But if you read mine, it started off with about twelve questions that needed to be answered out here. It was that many. Now I don't know that we got an answer for ever every one of them. Randy Gregory was one of them, absolutely,

Jalen Smith was one of them. Big Byron Jones was one of them. Who's gonna come in and take you know, David Irving spot, who's gonna play the right defensive end? I can go on, who's the backup quarterback? We didn't really know, um you know, is Jama's old Wally, you know, because is he a good replacement for Keith Smith. There was just all these questions that they had to answer out here. Now I'm not saying they aced every question.

It's still to be the term on something, but they're doing a pretty good job of knocking them off one at a time. Yeah. Yeah, the Byron Jones one, that one, I believe. Give the player credit for his willingness to work in the transition. Give Chris Richard credit for immediately

when they made the switch. I remembered us vividly of going down towards the locker room and Chris Rochard was standing there with Byron Jones and they were working on technique, just those two standing there, you know, talking about what they needed to do and how you needed to move and stuff like that. And I think Chris Roshard convinced Byron Jones that you can do this, you can be a corner in the National Football League if I will

work with you, I'll make sure that. And just through the portion of this practice is we've seen a guy talk about getting hands on the ball, offhand, drive, be physical, willing tackler. All these things are showing up for Byron Jones. Now we've seen this Byron Jones, have a great training camp before and just play. Okay, maybe this moved tower will now elevate him to where his game is now, you know, instead of just being level, is now going

the right direction, you know. And since you brought that up, the other question was what happens when you change seven position coaches in one year. It's a good one too, and so far I don't I don't know that we've seen any trouble. I think Chris Richard was the key one because not only does he take care of his guys, but he's the past game coordinator on the Nichols, so now he's watching the linebackers and probably has a say good there. And Ben Bloom never had a position before.

Keith O'Quinn was only an assistant special team Now we will see. We've only seen one game, but there was a lot of newbies, right. Doug Nussmeyer, I don't think he had coached, had he coached in the NFL. It was all college right, So well, I think that he was. I think he was a quality control coach for one for Scotland Hans someplace. Okay, one of Scotland hands and then he got into where he was at Michigan and

Florida as an OC. And it doesn't hurt to have your tight end coach having been a former college offensive coordinator, right, you know, you kind of got another voice in the room. So yeah, I think that you know so far and Paul Alexander, you know, I don't think we've seen a drop off. And that's nothing against the other coaches that left, but I think christ Sire is probably the key factor in that whole. You know, chain talk about the offensive

line a little bit. You give Alexander, give Mark Colombo some credit. They've got Kadeem Edwards actually playing pretty well. He's taken up, he's absorbed some of Marcus Martin snaps with second and you know it's it's not always going to be the prettiest thing. But yeah, that's a lot of work going on there, a lot of work. Describe a phone call before we go to break all in Philly. You're up first on talking Cowboys today. What's up? Morning,

God morning. I'm really excited about the wide receiver position. Um can't wait till we prove that we don't need a number one to be successful. I'm really happy about the draft pick of late Vanderesh. I think, after all of a sudden, done be one of our best linebackers that ever lived in Cowboy history. Does cam Kelly have a shot of making his team where maybe to practice squad will um will will there be? Do I have a possibility of seeing um seeing Rod Smith get carries

from the full back position. Maybe play Zeke and Smith in the same backfield and Rob Finally, Um, great job on the Parcels thing. Just want to let you know. On the morning of a preseason game in two thousand and three in Pittsburgh, Coach Hoffman came up to me who was really mad, and he was really mad that Parcels want to use Woody Danzler as a place as the holder for them for field goals. And I just thought that was so you'd like to know that. Take care. Thanks,

I appreciate that. Thanks for watching well. They were trying to find a job for Woody dans Bill. Bill loved Woody dan did he absolutely When we watched tape on Woody Danzler, Bill was mesmerized by him. He thought, of Dave Meggett, that's right, that's right, and Meggatt was at that first training camp. I think that was one of these stories that made me do Mick, which is a good one. It was about a kind of similarities between the two or what Bill was trying to get out

of it. Bill loved Dave Meggett and he loved Woody Danzler too, And Woody Danzler was a if you remember, mcclemson was a dynamic player. I mean he was when you put the ball in his hands almost he was a he was a bigger version of Tavon Austin, a stronger runner, right and and so, but he was. He was dynamite in this m vander esh best all time. I think that I think that you need to this.

This organization has a great history of linebacker play. And if if he could find a way this first year, you know, he Mickey said this, he looks more comfortable playing, you know, and and before I don't think he looked totally comfortable play in the position. And uh, you know, the more they throw him out there, the more confidence he's gonna build. Uh. He made some stops in the red zone and some coverage situations. So I think that

that's u at least let's go that way. First, you kind of gave him the again, Well this I I you know, my my history with the team is I family with season ticket holders for twenty years, so I saw from seventy two to ninety two, and then when I got to the Packers, we played against great linebackers as well. So I you know, if Layton van Rush could come in and do what he needs to do, he's a good enough athlete. He can finish when he

gets in position. There's some things he's gonna have to learn, and that I think a lot of it has to do with experience, because the more experience they give him, the more he's seeing things, the better he's gonna be. He could have played better. He would have played better than anybody on that ninety two team at linebacker Robert Jones first round pick Smith, Robert Jones, Darren Smith was pretty good player. No, not not Darren Smith, um al

Al Smith. It was the kid Smith's politician from there. And then the strong side linebacker was was just a was just a guy. I mean, Dixon Edwards can never break into the starting lineup. So but but there are yeah, there is, and you know as soon as well, how about the guy that's right now, number fifty, he's pretty good. Yeah, he's one of the all times. Maybe that should be the standard. Yeah, I mean, if you can make an all pro like Sean Lee, if Jalen or Leyton can

eventually get to that point, let's start there. Yeah. I think they have a plan for this kid, I really really do. And about the wide receivers was another one at his points. I don't know if we're there. I'm one of the guys that believes you have to have it one. I think there's somebody that you that defenses has to fear. The coordineers have to fear, you know. But you know, if you could, if you could spread it around and make this work, you know, more power

to him. But I think that you have to have I believe you have to have somebody that that you can go to, you can go to, you can go to, and then you know, everyone else is a complimentary piece to that. You know, if you can get a guy to elevate, you get a guy so a two one or a guy that's a three two. You know, guy, I'm saying that that's okay. I don't think you could have just a team of guys. I think he needs somebody you can hang your hat on a little bit with.

With Ezekiel Elliott on the field, it'll make it more hopefully pliable. Hopefully well, but that's true, but you still need somebody to consist and maybe multiple guys to do what Michael Gallop did on that one drive like San Francisco, Like, Okay, they're going to give a single cover that that's that's over the top. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And that's and then and that's exactly right. That's that's what we

got to find out. That's what you If Michael Gallop can come in here and develop as a one, you know, two one, if he could be that guy, then that that's great for this organization. They need somebody, you know. And the thing with Gallop what I've noticed him, he is not afraid to take that thing inside. When you get him down in the red zone and they run bunch formation and they drive him to the inside, he is not afraid to go when they're and get the football.

And that's a good pass for Dak when he can hit receivers right over the top of the ball and then let those guys go all right, let's take our final break on talking Cowboys. When we come back, we'll keep looking at what we've seen through two and a half three weeks here in Oxnard, maybe some guys that you still need to see more from as we continue through training camp at preseason next. The Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it,

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the se store for details or att dot com. Left Samsung fifty dual labiature supports f one five mode and two four mode du labiatures installed on the beer camera. Back to Talking Cowboys, fifteen minutes are so give or take left in our final edition of Talking Cowboys on the West Coast has been a lot of fun. It's always fun coming out here, getting out of the studio a little bit and uh and talking a little cowboys

with practice or walkthroughs whatever right behind us. A little more energy when you're outside, but a little bit kind of juices you up. Now you get a little more distracted in this situation. That's okay. Yeah, sometimes quality of the information doesn't fall off less we start talking nineteen fifty three baseball. I'm gonna start forwarding all my tweets about people saying how I love your stories. They're great. Okay,

that's the only ones, he answer. What about the host with you that are like, let's let's go just listen up, you might learn something. Okay, fair enough, all right, let's keep rolling. Walked right into that. Yeah I should know by now, right, you should, but you really don't. You just you just drive right into the fire. You know, what do you do? I don't know. I don't know.

All right, it's a mistake. I'm stupid, all right. Uh, looking at what they've done here in practice, for about two and a half weeks or so, we've talked about guys that have really stood out, either guys that you expected things from or that surprised you a little bit. Give me a guy or two that we need to see more from. And you mentioned Mike. There's still time here, there's still some practices left here and back home, and then we've got three preseason games left. Who needs to

stand out here? As we keep going, I think I'm circling the defensive ends not named Gregory Crawford or DeMarcus Lawrence. Yeah, Tapper needs a show some more. Yeah. I think Cony Ealy needs to show that was gonna be my guy because he's a guy they signed. And remember this is guy he's played in the Super Bowl, has played well. You sign him and think, Okay, if he gets his weight down, he gets recovered from that shoulder surgery, he can help this line. He still can. But I think

Dawnce Armstrong has been a guy that's risen. There's one more up, Taco. Well, he's having a better camp than he did last year, right, who's having a better camp? Armstronger Taco Armstrong. I think Armstrong has been maybe the most consistent player at defensive end, not sides, not name tank. Yeah, and you know Tyrone's always steady. Sure, but this guy's

really surprised people. I think as a pass rusher. As a past I don't know how well he'll play the run, but as a pass rusher, he's got that ability to turn bannd and not lose a step. If you watched last when we had training camp live, go back and watch that. You know that was really good. That was one on one stuff that was going on. You'll see some bend from that number seventy four. I mean, he knows how to get around the corner. I like his names though, I really do, and I is it is

it bad for me to ask? I need to see more from Xavier Woods? No, not really, and Xavier Woods does not make mistakes, but does he make plays? You know. I mean that's where I'm trying to figure out, because I'm I'm the guy that they like, you know, push all the chips in and go get you know, Mickey's trying to be responsible and not let me burn the building down. You know. I'm trying to push this thing and he's saying, wait a minute. But I'm still need

to see more from Xavier Woods. I'd like to see him in one of these preseason games when he gets the opportunity knock a ball down range, play intercept one. You know, I'd like to see I saw it like guys like Joe Thomas and those guys making plays. I'd like to just see some more from him to to to keep my thoughts that okay, they don't have to do something at safety. We talked, Yeah, you're right, we talked about it. That's what I'm trying to kind of

figure out right now. I I loved Xavier Woods, and there's people out there like no I brought us, you were, you were on him, Now you hate him. I don't hate Xavier Woods. I just like to see him make more plays. You know, Jeff Heath is a guy that you see Jeff Heath make plays out here. You know, I feel good about him, but I'm just not sure right now with Xavier Woods saying okay, you're the starter, now go do it. Because there's not bus back there, that's the thing. But you want to see a little

bit more. I'd like to see, you know. And maybe it's because Byron Jones is making plays. Maybe it's because Cheeto Ewoosier's making plays. Maybe I'm seeing guy Jeff Heath make a play. Maybe I'm seeing Joe Thomas make a play. Maybe I'm seeing Jalen Smith make a play. Maybe I'm seeing Laton vander Esh make a play. I just want to know of my eleven that are gonna play. I want to see his ability. Now we could all say this, he's not screwing up. He's not giving up big plays.

I mean the other night in the game, you know what happened to San Francisco game with him huff busts of coverage. All of a sudden, Pettis is behind. Now the balls down the field. Okay, if you saw that with Xavier Woods, you would say, oh, okay, okay, But I you know, he hasn't cost him anything. See that's and I think that's good. I think that's good. But I've I've seen eleven, ten, eight nine, whatever you want to say, defensive players at various times. But who are

you mentioning? Are they second year players I mentioned, I mentioned the first year player? I mentioned, uh, I mentioned the linebacker vander Esh he's making a play. Yeah, it's closer. It's easier to make plays closer to the line of scrimmage than what you're deep playing free syfety. Well, I'm just you know, come up, you know, I want to see him make plays. But I don't think he's hurt him No, And I said that he hasn't. We haven't seen major bus in the game or at practice really

out here. He's he's he's carried out his assignments. Um, we haven't seen uh series changing plays from him out here, though, I mean, you see Byron Jones, and again, maybe it's different in that Byron Jones is playing a man who's trying to go get the ball. It's one on one coverage, and that's a little different. Maybe safeties because the way they play in practice, can't make plays, but you put him deep and yeah, the line sometimes maybe my my understandings.

I would like to see the Cincinnati, the uh, the the Arizona, and I don't know if he's gonna please probably not gonna play against the Texas. So the next couple of weeks i'd like to see when when we're talking about man of the match, I want to see one of us ride about Xavier Woods as man of the match. You know, that's what I would like to see. Do it today, Just do it, just spite us. I thought he did a good job driving on that play right there. Yeah, watch him get beat several times. We'll

see your man of the match. Yeah. Yeah, you don't want to jump the gun there for sure. People on Twitter remind Mickey if something happens today anybody else. I mean, I think we talked. You mentioned Dalton sterm a rookie. So yeah, Mike White, I was gonna throw him out. I mean, I think Cooper Rush at this point is that point job. He's your number two quarterback, and it's based on what we've seen out here as well as

the way he played in the first time. I thought maybe Mike White in the Houston game will be it'll be a different story, you know, when he gets an opportunity to probably play the full game or But I had really high expectations of Mike White, and I know he's a rookie quarterback, but I there's there's things I've seen about him that I did not see on Western Kentucky tape. He was one of the best when it came to getting rid of the football, when it came

to fifth step or shotgun, take it, get it. You know, he was one of those guys. And I love that about him. I'm not seeing that here. I'm seeing I'm seeing a little bit about like a he double clutched one the other day that he had no business double clutching in the in the red zone. So he's like, he's throwing and instead of throwing it, he pulls it back, he pulls it dawn, he pulls it back again, And I'm like, you cannot do that in the red zone. You can't do that. Is it moving that much faster

for him? You think, well, sure it is. Yeah. But the other thing is he's a smart guy. Third string offensive line, yeah, but they're playing third string defense. McHale's out there. Yeah, But so McKay's not bad. Well, okay, but it's not like he's playing with the starters. Well,

well he's not gonna get that. No, I know, and I know Dack he's got to step up, and and I just I just want, I just want him when he gets an opportunity to do the two minute drill that it's it's it's bang bang bang, decisions, the balls moving, and he finishes Western Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Western Western. So he's playing with the first guys at Western Kentucky, not the scrubs. But he was he was a quality quarterback in college. That's but who's he playing with? That's all

I'm saying. It takes a while, right, No, it does, it does. I was. I learned my lesson when Romo came out here, Right, the guy was garbage. Get rid of him. He can't throw the ball straight in The personnel departments say the same thing. So I think sometimes you just got to be patient with some I'm being patient. The problem is, though I've seen him perform at a high level, Well, Dan, let him, let him have some time. That's I'm gonna I'm no, I'm willing to give him

time because you drafted him. To give him time. I feel like I just I was hopeful that it would be a better He's pushing Cooper Rush. He's pushing Cooper Rush. He's pushing him. He's making you think about putting him in the equation instead of now we're thinking about not carrying three quarterbacks. Yeah, well, because we're talking about how many wide receivers are gonna carry how many tight ends

and that Ye does the math work? If you if you were not thinking about carrying, if you're if you're when you went into you're thinking, oh, they're gonna carry three quarterbacks. Now you're like, they might not carry three quarterbacks. I don't know what my opinion was. Let's see. Yeah, I wasn't immediately put him on the fifty three man roster. He was one of the questions. Now with Romo though when he first got here, was it more of a

Brett Farve type thing like don't throw it there? Mike is trying It's almost like he's trying not to make a mistake. He's trying not to make a mistake, and he and Chucky he cut it loose. Quin Quincy doesn't get cut in two thousand and four, Romo's out of here. If Quincy didn't feel a drug test. He's not answered my question though. Well that was my point. But it's too different issues for a young quarterback, right, a guy that was too aggressive maybe versus a guy who's maybe

a little too concerned. I don't know that he was too aggressive. He just wasn't very accurate throwing the ball, and then he developed fair throwing the ball better as he went along. He was always smart. He just like I said, you saw absolute brilliance and stupidity all in the same place with him. So, I mean, think about how long it took for him to actually get in a game. He yeah, two thousand and three, two thousand and four, he got in at the end of a

couple in two thousand and five. Bill didn't want to ruin him. Bill kept well, he'd said it not ready, he's not ready, He's not ready, and he was ready. Maybe he was done. But also Bill didn't want to give up on Drew Blitz. That was gonna be true, that was gonna be one. Oh, I don't know. He did it in the middle of the season in two thousand and six, thanked him out at halftime. But but at that point in time, he was not willing to give up on Drew Bless Well, it was only two

years yeah, oh five when blods got there. I do think you're right though in that. Let's give it a little time to these quarterbacks. Heads are swimming when they're out here, and it's and a lot of it is still installation, first part of camp. They're trying to process all that stuff. So we'll see they're they're still time. There's still time. Good, Mick, I'm good. All right, let's get out of here. We got the break hovering is

the next? Yeah, thanks for yeah, we didn't point that out then maybe it's yeah today am Yeah, the leaf blower might be coming back for the break, which is next on Talking or Dallas Cowboys Radio. Thanks for joining us on Talking Cowboys through out ox Are. We really appreciate it. Thanks to Kick Garrison for producing The break is next on Dallas Cowboys Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Tallas Cowboys foll