This is a downbeat on ninety seven one freak comedy man TJ. Miller joins us in thirty minutes. You might know him from many things Silicon Valley, I think his big breakout role and we watched that office Christmas Party movie at Alamo Drivethouse Cinema. Who does bring us this segment right now? Back in December when we did let's freaking chill, turn this flanky light off? Is it flickering? Yes? Lights just flicker. I feel like you should see
a huge band aid put her on the building. TJ Miller got a new stand up comedy album out. He's a good dude. We had him on and then he was up in the building a few months ago and then he came in. It's like, what's up, guys, and he's like, oh, and they turned out like the nicest guy ever. I already talked to him, thought he was nice. Then he came in and kicked it. Just get it around, pop back in and he's a friend. He's a friend now he's had tough stuff right now though, JJ is my audio
up here because we're going to try something here. Big day Yesterday, all day long is even though it wasn't full you're not fully legal to sign contracts. It was like the tampering period's open and negotiations are happening, and so many huge things happen in the world of football. So I think we should take a drive on the Franklin Frankel Free agency Freeway. All right, Mike, you got the wheel around there. We're in Mike's jeep. Buckle up,
because safety first. It's not gonna be my fault if something goes down, but if it's someone else's fault, I'll be calling Franklin Frankel. I don't even want to do too much Cowboys, I don't think. But while there's not too much to do other departures, every team in the NFC East is doing a lot of moving and also some shaking, and the Cowboys have done nothing except lose people. The Eagles one of the you know, big
boys so far of maneuvers. I mean, they brought Saquon Barkley in three years, thirty thirty eight million, buck that tight end with a tough to pronounce name. They got Landon Dickerson eighty four million, Brandon Graham, Bryce Huff. I mean, they made a lot of moves and I'm not gonna panic and say, you know, Cowboys aren't really doing anything, but it is odd to be one of I think only a couple teams in the NFL who essentially did nothing. If you look at the Commanders, they added two
former Cowboys and Tyler Biattish and Dorance Armstrong. Doran's going to play with Dan Quinn over there in Washington. They also added Zach Ertz, who's at least a name five million dollar deal, and then Austin Eckler, who is one of those very good, albeit aging running backs that is productive and from what I can tell, a great dude. I think I love Austin Eckler.
Yeah he does. He's a future media man, smart man. But he got a two year deal worth of almost twelve million bucks if there's some incentives and stuff laden to that. But I mean pretty big names coming to the division. Giants not huge names, but they at least made four moves, including getting edge rusher Brian Burns from the Panthers for a second and a fifth.
So it's just weird to even look at like the transaction list, and you can determine the significance of the transactions, but when you see Giants Eagles commanders and a lot of bullet pointed names and numbers and information. Then it just says Dallas Cowboys and there is nothing written underneath it. I mean,
the most famous and lucrative franchise on the globe. And they're like, it's time to go shopping, and they're like, and it does go back to our lack of faith in the front office, which is headed by Jerry Jones, And our nightmares were like, are they just like we've joked about Stephen being at south By Southwest? But oh, did the date catch up on you know, sneak up on them? That's I gotta think not the case.
And they've had massive meetings and they know what opportunities they have, and I guess they have deemed no one worth making moves for just yet or they're just handcuffed by their finances. Which is also a thing, and we played it earlier Kavanaugh mentioning the Iceberg that this ship is headed toward probably next off season where you've just put yourself in a position where you don't have the finances to add anyone significant right now. It makes something you can make some trades,
Yeah, And the thing is like they're very good at drafting. The thing they're not like picking in the top ten here, like you're picking twenty fourth, you're gonna be picking late in the second round, and those aren't sure things obviously up there, so you can try to fill holes through that. I couldn't help, but think about what is Mike McCarthy thinking and lame
duck of your contract? Which you know what, he can go and earn a new contract by having a great season, so that's fine, but like if your final year of a contract and you kind of feel like you're close, you'd think that he's got to be burning on the inside, going, can we do something. I couldn't help, but think too Tyron Smith, as it was reported a couple weeks ago, like they're probably gonna have to
part ways with him because of his contract or whatever. But now that we know that beatdish is gone and now you have two gaping holes on your offensive line, do you maybe see if you can figure something out with Tyron and make that work just so you know you're protected. That's usually how they treat free agency. Anyway, We'll get enough bodies to make sure we're protected and we don't have to draft from need. But they're gonna have to. If
you have two holes on your offensive line, you're not replacing that. Like, I want Tyron to go get whatever the hell he can get. Yeah, because he's been here a long time, he had a team friendly deal for a very long time. This is very likely the last contract he saw. I don't know, probably never know, dude, like that might be around five years. You know. He's just a horse that can probably still be worthy of a roster spot for a few more years, and younger than
you'd guess. But yeah, I don't know. So I like the chatter around here seems to be running back, but there's big running back moves, we said. Saquon Barkley is an Eagle. Josh Jacobs is a Green Bay Packer and Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones just as of like an hour and a half ago, it's apparently signed with the Minnesota Vikings. There's your upper echelon guys, gone. I think Derrick Henry my name, is in that category. I don't know if if I think of him that way,
you know, And there's still rumors that he could sign. Apparently the Ravens offered him one year, six and a half million. I don't know if he's considering that or what. I don't know. Do you think the Cowboys if they signed Dereck Henry to a deal about like that one year for seven million? Does that appease the torch wielding cowboy fan today by doing what we all kind of know now is bad to pay anything to aging running backs. Or I mean, Derek Henry is still King Henry, and he still ran
for a dozen touchdowns last year and thirteen or fourteen hundred yards whatever. Yeah, he is still better than what we currently have, which I guess isn't saying a whole lot. Yeah, it feels like he'd be great in a great situation, right rather than Tennessee where they don't know who the quarterback is. I mean they do now, but they didn't. Or is he great here with a newly decimated offensive line seemingly more so by the day. Another
thing I'm going to throw into all of that conversation. I think Kellen Moore's name needs to brought up because he's the offensive coordinator for the Eagles now. And the best thing Kellen Moore was good at was run like designing run plays, and I think that was a big problem with the run offense last year, A little bit on the offensive line, a little bit McCarthy is. I think we saw they did some good things on offense last year. But
he likes to throw it. Even though he said we're gonna run the damn ball, he likes to throw it. And I just think Kellen Moore now and it was in a bad situation with the Chargers, moves over with Saquon and a good situation with the Eagles. I mean, my goodness, that is that's dangerous to me. So it's a Kellen Moore and Dan Quinn in the division. It's just stuff you could have imagined two years ago, making moves and swinging ds. Swinging d's for sure. By also saw Mike the
Justin Fields might go to the Eagles too. Maybe that's a fun interesting one whatever. The Justin Fields mystery is, of course, with the Bears holding the first pick, overall the Falcons have. I mean, if you're a Falcons fan, you have been acquiring offensive talent drafted very highly in the first round for the last few years with Drake London and b John Robinson and how
Pits and you just don't have a QB. So they I mean, does anyone run out in the streets and dump a forty ounce on your own head? If you bring in Kirk Cousins, it's probably not the most exciting thing, but that is a steadying of the ship for them, and that is a division that is pretty much gettable, you know, like I for the Falcons, you bring in Kirk Cousins, all right, we at least got
a good quarterback, right. It is funny to think of Cousins in Atlanta, the most milk toast quarterback in the NFL, out there doing the dirty bird. Oh yeah, for shes well, if he starts wearing bling, he already has clock around his one of his bits. He took all the chains from everyone on the plane and put them along. Yeah, a lot of weird, dead energy. I like Kirk Cousins, do boy that the
quarterback that these shows it helped him. These reality shows really do swing you, because I kind of like, I'm able a douche and there he is. Just I thought it as a nerd. I never liked you. Liked that, you know, really, I like you like blowing up. I don't know. He signs a four year, one hundred and eighty million dollar deal fifty million signing bonus, one hundred mill guaranteed for Kirk Cousins for being a good quarterback, and he is now running up the list of all time
paid dudes. Who's now with his third team. Bet on himself. I think he got franchise a couple of times back in the Washington days, but he's made a lot of money. And for him at that age to get a hundred mill guaranteed coming off of Achilles, Yeah, but it just shows Atlanta's been so screwed and they are a steady hand at quarterback away from having what should be a potent dophense. They kind of get that turned around that division real quick. Now it's I mean, Derek Carr, whatever you think
about him, and then Kirk Cousins and Baker Mayfield. Yep. And I know it's not sexy, but they The Falcons also signed Robert Hunt, who was a Dolphin for a long time. He got a five year, hundred million dollar deal with another twenty six million dollars signing bonus, and he's a good interior lineman. Guards making twenty million a year now. I love guards. Guards are badass. I think Zach Martin has changed well We've had some
great guards in this town, but I don't know. Guard is very underappreciated. But if you have the plug and play guard, I mean, not even Zach Martin, you don't be that good because he's maybe the best guard of all time or one of the best. I love when you draft the best guard, like at the beginning of the second round. Oh yeah, and you have some stud guard it just because by the name of his position lasted longer than he showed and you're like, well, we'll see you in
there for a better part of a decade. I mean, the Cowboys had the chance to do that last year. I mean they just chose not to because they've thought they were good. And I think they were committed to leaving Tyler Smith at guard now, which makes sense, like he's proven he can do it. Let's just handle that. We think he can play left tackle some but let's just leave him the left guard. They're going to draft the left tackle and their figure out center, and it's all I don't know,
man, they have to do something on the offensive line. You have to. I mean, you can't have another year of running the ball like that either. And I don't know how much of that is Tony Pollard coming off the broken ankle, because I like Tony Pollard a lot, but I wasn't gonna give him eight million dollars a year. And the report was that Zack Moss was four and they didn't do that. I don't know, just draft
a minimum wage guy. It's clear that they're going to try to fix all this stuff in the draft because look, a lot a good portion of free agents are signed off off the market, and for them to open up any cap space and get any flexibility to sign people, dude, they've got to restructure or rework two contracts. You got to make a decision on CD what you're gonna do with him and Dak You probably need to what you mentioned, cutting Gallop would be a move in that direction. But all those decisions take
time. That's negotiation, yeah, you know, And and that's not just gonna happen overnight. And the longer they wait to do those things, the less available free agents are gonna be. So it just leads me to believe that by the time they get around to doing this, there's nothing gonna be nothing but scraps left out there. They're gonna have to they're trusting themselves to draft well or make trades. But I don't know that it. Man.
The more the more that you really kind of think about this, the more that what Kavanaugh was saying yesterday might make sense, even though it doesn't make sense since their owners in his eighties. Yeah. Again, we go into the season with a lot more questions than answers, and nobody knows what's going
on. It's funny to look at this. I'm on the NFL free agency tracker and I'm just quickly scralling up and down to every single team in the National Football League, and every one of them has some transaction done except one, except for one, because I didn't think the Saints did. The Saints have. They got Tomorrio Davis on a two year deal, Honey Badger, so they've signed at least people the Cowboys have. It's as Dallas Cowboys and there's a space, and then it says New York Giants. I thought they
would do something. Still, they will do something. They will day, they'll do something, I think, yeah, probably right, Yeah, even if it's bringing back one of their own guys. Yeah, like Tuma Doga, as he was your backup guard last year. He'll probably get brought back. But yeah, you're right. I didn't think about Steven Gilmore, who was really solid all year long. Yeah, you really wouldn't have any complaints about him besides the last game, where you have complaints about everyone on defense.
Yeah, we like, how much does that cost? They traded a fifth round pick for him, and maybe that's the plan. Maybe like, hey, we're getting comp picks every year and we're using these fifth and sixth round picks to get people. I mean, the Browns just traded a fifth and sixth to get Jerry Judy and he is probably a good wide receiver too, you know, so you can't find ways to get stuff. Jordan Lewis, I think it's important to this thing. I don't think I can pay
him again, and he'll probably be taking off. There's a lot of a lot of things though that I just sit there and go if you would have gotten Dac done and maybe hey, Dax, team probably is like, no, why do not need to do this now? We'll do this later. Dak's not gonna do it. Like I know people think, well, Dak O, if you want some better people around him, it will take less
and all that stuff that's not real that doesn't. That's just not how it works, especially with his agency of CAAA and Todd Frantz, Like, you're gonna go get as much as you can get, you know why, because there's other people relying on you to do that. Other quarterbacks have to get the next amount of money, and no one is doing it for their team to have the rest of the league mat at them and the rest of the Players Association mat at them for taking less. I wonder how I mean.
The Vikings are an interesting case because they said screw it. They're the most iconic, like, just watch this because this is what the cowboy's future could be. Well, because you're in the position of having a good quarterback, and I'll put Kirk Cousins in that. I'll put tu a tongue of Ilo, who's about to sign a fifty million dollars a year deal, which I don't know if he deserves, and Dak Prescott good. But the Vikings said,
forget it. Kirk Cousins gone, We're gonna rock Sam Darnold for a one year deal for up to ten million dollars, and then we'll take Aaron Jones and sign another half dozen other guys and just use that money elsewhere. But the Cowboys are in a position where you just have to pay for a good quarterback. I mean, if it's Patrick Mahomes, you don't think twice fine. And this Chiefs lost people as a result of the money that they had to pay to Patrick Mahomes, and I think it worked out well for
them. Can I play a quick game? Oh right, just family feud and Mike and then Danny here, Mike, are we playing the eliminator again? It's not the elements? Oh man? Do you have any faith in Tua going into Kansas City or Buffalo in January and it's twenty degrees and winning a playoff game? Well, I hate to say we just the Dolphins just did that. I know it was minus twenty degrees, but do you still
have any faith in that? No? So therefore why gush far out your head into the wall when you could just But that's what we always say is because you have to, because you have to, And that's what you say with Dak, Well you have to And I still think that and it but is that yeah? I think that too. But once those good quarterbacks get through their first contract, which Tua is, Dak's, well passed it and then you have to pay them. The team around them just has to get
worse because you don't have the money to do much with it. Dude, the Dolphins probably had their window and it's probably closing now as they've lost great players like Christian Wilkins, who signed one hundred million dollars plus deal with the Raiders. Hell Andrew van Ginkel was a late round draft pick, a good linebacker and pass rusher that get signed by the Vikings. Robert Hunt is a guard they just get signed by the Falcons. They drafted all through those dudes.
You did it right, you hit them. We can't afford to keep you, but we got to fire fifty million at TUA. Damn. That sucks. Any faith in dak going into San Francisco for the NFC Championship game and bringing it home. I don't have faith in them beating the Packers in their own in their own yard in the first round, the first round. What's this NFC Championship game? You mentioned? What does that mean? True?
But like Mikey said, you've got to feel the team. You still have to sell jerseys, you know, You've still got to make money and be a profitable organization, which Jerry is. That's clear that that is his number one priority. Yes, he wants to win, but not at the expense of everything else. It's better to have a chance of making the playoffs than missing the playoffs, is it? Though? I don't know, because I kind of agree. Yes, there's been a long time since the Cowboys
have sat here and had a you know, five win season. But sometimes that's the time and investment you need to make. But when you're owners ancient and he'd rather have ten wins and no chance of advancing in the playoffs and maintain interests and ratings for the year, like is that better? I bag
myself off of it. And then say, when you said no chance of advancing in the playoffs, like we know that because they were favorites to win at home and then two years in a row of a one score game loss to San Francisco, who was probably the better team, and you so you're going, yeah, I could beat this team, the San Francisco team, and we could shake this demon because if they were close games, not they wiped us out. And that's why I keep going back to it. But
I'll be damned if the Vikings haven't made that interesting. They're a big test case for a lot of teams. I'll say Houston kind of did that too. Now it took multiple years of tanking for them, but letting Deshaun Watson go, and he probably had to go given what was going on there. It's a little different. But they're like, we'll do Davis Mills for a couple of years, we know it's not gonna be good, and then you get your guy. Yeah, and now they're looking sexier than the Cowboys.
Absolutely. You know it's because you invested four and twelve, four and thirteen, three and thirteen and one. I mean it's different sport. But the Rangers and the Astros totally did this. Yeah, absolutely, and guess what it works. I mean the thought of a lot better than pissing around and being first round or second round fodder in the playoffs, getting your ten win
season, and you do that for three decades and I hate it. I hate it right forever cool And that probably is the reason why we all yell, you haven't won a super Bowl forever. It's because they won't take the dive. If the forty nine er are gonna feel good about paying brock party when it's time. Is he just hangs out on rookie dealt nothing, Probably not, but ten wins the season guarantee you they give. They give the fan base hope and they put money in your pockets because every year you can
sell them a bill of goods. We're all in. We're all in. Sure, you're all in. Look man, and look, the fans are just gonna keep going back for it. We're gonna keep buying it. As many people wring their you know, shake their fists at the sky after getting smashed by Green Bay and say never again, I'm not buying it. It's just a matter of time. The NFL is God. The NFL is God, and all of you cowboy fans are going to worship your Lord every year,
no matter what. And if they if they went to ten twelve games, even more better to have that one little thing that Jerry knows is the is the freaking heroine that keeps you coming back, and that is hope. Meanwhile, Stephen and Charlotte at south By Southwest for the Neutral Milk Hotel Reunion Tour. Okay, I love that JOT series. I'm glad it's continue. Glos Stick Stephen Jones did y'all see Monkey Maya. Okayred Man, good show.
Thank you for riding with us on the Franklin Frankel Free Agency Freeway. It didn't crash as much as I thought it was going to. Yeah, two and four, all three on that number, but we did crash. Let's hit the road, oh by muted myself here all right, coming up next to Mike Live Spotting comedian TJ. Miller joined us on Nice one.