The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This is the Players Lounge, broadcasting live from Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the Star. Now your hosts Barry Church, Danny McCrae, Hecma Harrison, and Newie Scrugs.
Live from the taj Mahal of Football in the SWBC podcast studios.
It is the Players.
Lounge, supposed to by Aristocrat Gaming. Hey, you are now rocking with the best you know who's at the desk HECKM Harrison, my man, Barry Church, former free safety for the Dallas Cowboys, And we have the.
Pride of Windsor Yes, indeed, Tyrope.
Yes it's here, Yeah, yes, sir, yes, sir man. Look, first of all, it is you never know a man until you do a show with a man. And I'm telling you I've been dying to meet you. I don't have nothing but respect for your game.
Dog. But we go, we go dig in too some things to day.
No stone will be left unturned, and we got we got some defensive lines, specially especially.
That's what you want to hear about that We've been throwing.
Our opinions out there but I know specially I already knew it was coming. Danni mc cray is on the sign of today new we shrugs. Let me drive the bus, and so that's what I'm gonna do. But man, when I get an opportunity to do a show, first thing I do is I check in with my brothers. Man, I want to know how your mind is before we start talking ball.
How are you, Tyrone? Man?
My mind is great. You know, I got a beautiful family around me. I'm super grateful. You know, God is good. He's put four girls, you know in my life, actually five, you know, my wife, my four daughters. Obviously I got my mom and but yeah, I mean we just been We've just been vibing out. We've had a good summer, you know, got the kids to experience a lot of different things. I got to go down to Idaho, visit the vander Rushes and uh.
You know, do a little bit of lake time. There.
Got to go out to camp go and watch the boys practice a little bit, and then go down to Santa Barbara, visit the Uncle Sean Lee.
There we go.
Yeah, in general, and uh yeah, man, in life, you know, I've just been chilling. Uh, me and my brother, you know, put together, you know, a couple of businesses, one of them being outdoor construction that we love. You know, it's called Crawford Signature Spaces and uh uh you know, other than that, I personally, I do a little bit of d line stuff, athletes stuff online and through YouTube, and that's about to be released here soon too. And you know it's it's my same brand, the work brand.
Uh.
Just work extra hard, get a little bit of extra working, dude.
That's awesome. Man, I'm glad to hear that, man, Glad to hear you doing good. Four girls. I have three, so I'm gonna pray for you. You pray for me.
A lot of girls. Exactly how you do it? Brother? Man?
Like all he's doing amazing. Man, you know, caught my blessings every time it's hot. It's real hot down here Dallas, but I'm kind of used to it nowadays. Family doing great. Little one, you know, he's battling a little bit of a headache, so he had to stay home from school a little bit, so I've got daddy daycare for a little bit before I came out here. But other than that, man, things are doing amazing. Wife's business is crushing it as usual.
So yeah, life's pretty good. Man, can't complain, Man, I love to hear it. Man, glad to be in the room with you.
Brothers. Man, how you doing?
We didn't even through we got throw How you doing? They dog every time the light turned green? And to open that door down there, I date somebody punking men that's talking about all the football. Man, all good in my world, man, trust me, it's all good.
BC.
Man, everything is everything is wonderful. Man, I'm straight, but guys, I know y'all got an opportunity to watch the game on Saturday, Cowboys take on the Las Vegas Raiders and pulled out a victory, uh for the first preseason victory. And man, there's a lot of things to take apart in that game. And what I want to do is just kind of segmented and make sure that we get into the players that we knew coming into that game
needed to have a pretty good showing. And so expectation wise, what you thought, or you know, who were some guys that you went in saying, look, this guy has to have a game.
He fulfilled that.
Who are some guys that you were looking at in Tyrone I saw with you.
Well, I mean, you know, personally, when when I'm watching the game, I can't take my eyes off the D line, yep. So you know, for me, it's hard for me to you know, give you offensive perspectives and my opinion on a lot of different offensive guys.
Although I did watch, uh.
You know, I had my eye on Max Crosby a little bit and I got to watch Tyler go up against Max, So I mean, I feel like you did a great job, and you know, I was, uh, you know, I was. I thought I thought his performance as well, but you know, going on to the defense, you know, and again I don't want to. Yeah, I'm not the guy like this is why I don't think I could do TV or anything like that, because I'm not the data, you know, try and crush a man for you know,
how he played football. But you know, I feel like the D line, you know, did a good job. But you know, I feel like, obviously there's room for improvement, and one of the biggest things in improvement as a D linman is just doing your job. If everybody does their jobs, as Church knows when we were playing, you know, if everybody does their job, everybody has an assignment. If you do that job, you leave the game with an a like we most of the time, you know, you
control your assignment, then things will go well. And you know, if if something goes wrong then but you controlled your assignment, everyone was right on their assignment, then you know, then you can put another de coordinator, which it should be anyways, right, So yeah, I mean, I mean again, I think the
D line did good, secondary linebackers did good. But again, you know it's it's bad coming from me because I'm not the guy that wants to stow any negativity any any any players, but especially when they're trying to make a team. And you know, this is huge, man, this is huge for people's families, lives. You know, changed my life completely, So I don't want to I don't want to crush anybody to earthly.
Maybe later out of the season I'll talk about Tyrone.
Listen, you're on the players lounge.
I hear that.
And one thing we do on the lounge we keep it real. So well we do.
We're not gonna hate, We're not gonna bake them completely, but it will be a waft of smell.
Well listen, well, listen, I'll do this.
If I have to agree with something, I'll agree with it. You know, I won't be the I won't be the flame throw Let me ask you.
All right, let me let me let me ask you this specifically before I go to you. A guy like Chauncey Golston who mimics some of the things that you did. You were a guy that went from D tackle the d N and so he's a twinner and that's he's gonna be a guy that we depend on for sure this season. What did you think about him in that preseason?
Okay, so I'm not I've always been. I've been I'm a Ghoston fan. So I mean, you know, obviously playing D line if you know, a lot of people want to see the flash and you know, the glam, the glam plays and all that stuff. I'm okay with seeing somebody do their job. Like I said, if somebody does their job, they do it well, and they make it easier for the linebacker, and they make it easier for the safeties. You know, I think I think that's that's important,
you know. So you know that's where I'm gonna leave that. But you know, I've always been a fan of I've always been a fan of him, and please don't don't take this the wrong way, but please mention the number, uh, the number of the player, because I'd be forgetting these dudes.
Right, don't even worry about.
Right, Yeah, I forget these dudes days. So like, if you give me the number, like I, I do like the way ninety eight played. You know, I don't know his name, but I like the way or ninety three, but yeah, I mean I like, I like the way some of these guys played. You know, when I when I when I, when you tell me the number, I'll be like, oh, yeah, okay, I remember, I remember some.
Of the places play.
But yeah, so just throwing off, just keeping it real. But that's why I loved going to war with a guy like Crawford. That's why I loved him being in those trenches because he wasn't about you know, hero ball and trying to make every single play out there. It was do your job and your gap, your responsibility. If the play comes your way, you're gonna make it. And he made, you know, my job at safety a hell of a lot easier. So that's what when I look
at this defensive line, when I looked at them. You know, this past game they played, to me, in my opinion, a lot better than they played in that first game. We did see a little bit of leaks here and there from the rank game, but you know that that's gonna happen. That's gonna happen. We see that's gonna happen. But from what I saw out there, those guys, at least at the point of attack, I thought that they played a lot better. They were able to put some
push back there, and they were going against ones. It ain't like, you know, it was our starting defense versus there. It was you know, the backups for the Dallas Cowboys didn't have d Law out there.
He didn't have Parsons.
You didn't have you know, old said Diggy jut out there against you know, the ones for the Los Angeles. They had been to you out there, they had that you're white running the ball out there, and those guys were able to hold their own. I believe they held them the what was it, six six sixth points out there. They were able to hold.
Those guys out of the end zone, which was huge.
But the thing I looked at most from that that defensive perspective, at least what I saw early on was those linebackers once again were able to fly sideline the sideline, and that's what we've been missing from this. I don't want to defensive line dep whatever the case may be, those offsive linemen from the other teams getting up to the second level, getting these guys off of their mark
and not being able to get downhill. The d line, in my opinion, did a good job of holding those guys up at the point of attack during their responsibility.
And you saw all guys.
I don't want to butcher lad his name, I want to say, Maurice la the rookie from the rookie from Notre Dame line back at number thirty five, that dude is he looks like a missile out there, young rookie from Notre Dame. He's coming downhill. You saw him all over the place. You know, he popped off the tape all over the place. Of course, you love to see what you saw from Marquis Bell coming downhill as well.
But to me, those.
Linebackers, this is the second week in the rower they look they look pretty good. We talk about coming downhill, defending the run, and it's like I said before, this was against the Ones. Yeah, So to me, I feel like overall offensive defensive league will tap into the offense a little bit later, but overall, I feel like from what I've seen in this performance, at least, it was a tad bit of bit of hope I'm coming in.
You know what I mean.
I told you hope you're narcotic. But there's a tad bit of that coming in. And you know, I like what I've seen so far. I like what I've seen so far.
So Tyren, we have we talked about a lot of these defensive linemen. In one of the comps that I've gotten from Barry Church about our rookie marsha On Neeland
was Tyrone Crawford. And when he said that, I was like, wait a minute, I praise we starting to come on, man, he's jumping out the gate and so a guy like that, I mean, especially with this defensive line, with the woes that they had last season, what are some of the things for you, Like you're looking at and saying that this year's team has to be better at this and if they do have success, it's going to be because of X.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, again, like last year at the end of the year. You know, anybody you talk to, they blame the game on the offense and you know one guy in particular, which you cannot do. This game is not about that. It's there's eleven people on the field you know for a reason. And you know, I mean on on the defensive side of things. Again, it comes back to, you know, the assignments man if and and what Berry's saying, like, the linebackers have to be
able to move. The linebackers have to those are the play those are the playmakers. And you kind of have to humble yourself as a d lineman at times to let them to let that be the way the game is played. If you, I mean, if you want to win the game from the defensive side of things, it has to you have to be you know, poison your position and letting the linebackers be able to do their job,
safeties be able to do their job come downhill. So yeah, going back to last year's game, you know, you know, I personally, if I was on that team, I would have held us as the defense very highly responsible for that loss because of that in particular thing, people weren't taking care of their their responsibility alignment asim key technique.
It's the thing.
And and if that's taken care of, there shouldn't be no explosive plays. I mean, you're gonna get the odd exposive places, but there shouldn't be as many explosive plays happening. And explosive plays is what is what kills you on the defensive side of things. And personally, you know, when I seen Green Bay come in here, which I yeah, yeah, so yeah, well the gunslinger a rod got me a bunch. But yeah, you know when I see that, I just you know, that's the thing that makes me cringees.
You know.
Of course the fans want to see the plays, the huge plays on defense, the sacks, sacked strips and all that. Those are great, Please have those happen. But what needs to be handled is the alignment assignment key technique, you know, like that has to be handled. And like Marion Nella you saw say, which is you know, I'll resort back to Marinelli a lot because you know, he's one of my favorite coaches, favorite you know, coordinators. And the star
of the defense is the defense. You know, there's no star, there's no one person. There shouldn't be one person, you know, there's going to be as there is on this team. But you know, the star of the defense is the defense, and if that's the way you guys play the game, then the defense should handle enough to win the game every time.
So how how hard is it?
Because it is you know, it's easy for me to sit here and say, he got to hold his point of attack. He got to be able to sit there with you know, double teams and be able to get you played the position you played on the inside and outside you played at extremely high level. How hard is it for that, you know, one tech, three tech, whatever the case may be, to hold it there and hold that gap position when you got guys, you know, big three hundred pounds barreling down on you from either side.
Because I look at it and I asked you the question because last year's you know, first round of Minze Smith, you know he had some struggles, you know, staying in that gap, and you know.
It's easy for us to come up here and say, man, you gotta stay there. You gotta How hard is.
It doing on that defensive line to be able to maintain that gap presence, to be able to allow your linebackers to go sideline ail.
Yeah, and it's hard, you know obviously, I mean what Kenya, you say it's a man's yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, so I mean down there, it's hard, man. But you know, there's a lot of factors that come into play, you know, and again a lot of the linebackers have a lot of responsibility there as well. You know, if if the offensive lineman doesn't coming down as hard, it's because they
were worried about what that linebacker was about to do. Right, So you know, if the linebacker gives a little bit better disguise and you know, you know, you guys are touching on that in film, you know, that could help. But also you know, wait, you know the weight of a player, and then maybe uh you know, like for instance, I'm gonna put my I'm gonna put myself out there.
You know. I went from Marinelli where I was off the ball, I'm off, I'm off, I'm off. So I'm used to that.
I'm used to get into a spot, and I'm used to blowing up the I'm used to blowing up the cap to going to Nolan's defense where I was stepping.
I went from stepping forward to stepping sideways, which I.
Did not you're getting you're getting hit. Don't go ahead, don't okay, let me ask you what I'm saying. I'm sorry, you can ask me that.
But like for what I'm saying for certain players is maybe the maybe they're still getting used to the technique that needs to be played in that certain defense, you know. And and I don't know, I don't know it in this case. But what I'm saying is, maybe they are getting used to that. Uh, if they're if they're getting out of gas, maybe they're telling them to hold onto the guard, you know. And like he's like, what do you mean hold on to the guard? I'm used to
blasting his head back, you know. Like That's what I'm used to, and that's what I was always used to, is getting that.
You know, I was disruption. I was a disruption player, you know.
I wasn't used to I wasn't used to holding somebody.
Yeah.
But yeah, yeah, but you could go, no, we're getting passionate I.
What we do.
My my question to you is, being a former player and a guy that took so much pride in your job and your alignment, assignment and just stopping the run, is it surprising to you the last couple of years, even with Dan Quinn, uh that the Cowboys just haven't been able to solve that problem in stopping the run.
You know, I love DQ and I loved him as a as a coordinator. You know, yeah, it's been surprising for sure. But you know a lot of that falls on I guess. I guess yeah, as an as as an Induri or d lineman. You know, you gotta take responsibility for a lot of that, you know what I mean. And you know that's what I you know, that's what we did when we played and you know, when when I knew that, hey, I got to do my job better. You know that, you know, the responsibility falls on us.
And yeah, I'm you know, I'm the interior D line. I guess we haven't been able to, you know, put the puzzle in order, put the puzzle like correctly right now. You know, I feel like that that's that's near and you know, but you know, obviously playing nose is not easy. You know, there's like Nick Hayden played nose the best that I've been around. And he will golden cock doodle.
So wow, yea his name. Wow. He literally had a golden rooster on his shirt. That I love everybody. It was awesome.
But yeah, I mean, like there's just you know, four equals one on the D line and that again, you know, like to be able to play a double team the way you know, some defensive coordinators want you to play. It's it's just more difficult. But it takes. It takes everybody. You know, if that's the way you need to play it, then everybody needs to be playing it the same you know. So yeah, I mean everybody just needs to be on
the same page. And I think I I truly think that they did do a really good job at stopping the run for a long time last year. It's just there's there's breakout games where everybody is like damn, like and stop.
Yeah, like those games, they're like, ah.
Man, they didn't really they did bad, And those games stick out to you more than the games.
Really they did good st games, but they did they did. Oh guys, man, we are rolling along. We gonna take a first break. But he's already teased what our second segment is about. Man, this man seeing a bunch of defensive coordinators. So we got some questions about the transfer of power in the defensive room. I got my man, Tyrone Crawford in the building, Barry churches here on mc maherson.
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The second segment is the best segment because we get to pick more brains over here.
Tyron Crawford is in the building.
My man BC is up in here, and man, nobody nobody's seen more turnover as far as the defensive coordinator room than you. I mean, you've seen quite a few guys come in and out. And what has that transition been like as a player to lose one defensive coordinator that you may be attached to. I know, you you talk fundly of Marinelli and what that may have been like going to the next administration or the next defensive coordinator.
Yeah, I mean, you know, coming in it was was quite easy.
You know, I came in and we played under Rob Bryant's defense, and you know, I was I needed to gain a lot of weight. I got up to like three hundred pounds, and you know, it was like, I guess that's really the difficult, difficult, you know side of things is the different way they want you to play D line and different way you need to play D line in order. Like I said, if if, if you're not doing it the same as everybody else and you're trying to do your own thing, it's just not gonna work.
You're gonna have a lot of explosive plays and that's not good for ball. So you know, Rob Ryan I was two gapping, you know, and which was good for me at that time, and that's what I love to do. But then you know Kiff came in. R I p Yeah, yeah, kid, And Kiff came in and and and that was a great transition because Marinelli was the D line coach and it was again off the ball, off the ball, and then speed speed was our thing.
Yeah, went from a three four to four three four.
Three yeah, and and so yeah, and so Kiff was the coordinator, but you know, Marinelli was you know, I don't know, like they were both kind of running the ship right, so it was it was it was Kiff, but it was really Marinelli, you know, holding it down for those entire pretty much my entire career, almost my entire career, which was which was great because you know, I love the way our defense was played, and it
was played the same every time. You know, the point was, hey, you could know what we're doing, but you got to stop it. You know what I'm saying, like we're gonna get off the ball and you got to stop it.
And the lad.
In your gaps and they were like, you ain't your gap. This is what this is why we had an explosive play.
It was like blaming on you because that's why exactly what it was. But then yeah, going uh when when Marinelli left and went to the Raiders and then we had Nolan come in, and then you know, it was completely different technique for me. So again, you know, they tried to play me inside, wasn't I would have I would have preferred outside in that in that defense just because it just wasn't meant for me. I was, you know at that time one hundred or two hundred and eighty poundy lineman.
I wasn't I wasn't able.
I wasn't able to about a hundred something found you ain't probably waiting, I wrote, there we ball right, No, but yeah, so yeah, just the just the difference in uh in decoordinators is the difference in the way uh you know, you play your gaps the way your assignment's played. And you know that's where I struggled when Nolan came in. You know, I struggled to hold the gaps and to play the double teams. They wanted me to play the
double teams. I was used to blowing up the double team and you know, getting there first before, you know, letting them get to me is weird, and I wasn't a fan of it.
Tried my best to do it. I'm again, I'm not the type of guy that's gonna, you know, of a from the from the team the way we're supposed to be doing things. I'm gonna try my best to get to get it done the way it's supposed to be.
Uh.
But that's kind of new, that's kind of you know, you know, a little percentage of the reason why you know I knew it was it was getting close to the time that I need to be done the game. But yeah, so yeah, I mean it was definitely a blessing to be able to, you know, have all those coordinators in my career and meet different men, uh that love the game of football. But yeah, I mean Marionelli's
defense was obviously my favorite. And and again like even in Zimmers or last year, like like I'll say this right now, to have a great say like if they had a Barry Church, you know.
Like like a bear.
Like safety like this, the safeties and strong safeties they're like so like important in those defenses. And like you know we had the Blues Brothers. We were just talking about that allet but you know, hitters, downhill players, fast players and just just ball guys.
Yeah, that's what they wanted. Barry. How does that? How does that impact you?
Because obviously the front half impacts the back half also you've been through that transition as well. Going from dan Quinn, we think about three safeties you know, now going to the two safety look man or our zone look now with the with the no zone, look now with versusly versus what dan Quinn would do and man, how much of a transition would that be for the secondary guys? Also to make an adjustment.
It's a huge adjustment, just like Crawford was talking about with the D line, and when you look at it, you know, like Knew, he always says, Warren sav says, you know, the back don't work without the front, and that's one hundred percent true. The more you can get on that quarterback, you more can stop the run and make that team one dimensional easier.
It makes our job in the back end.
But when you switch up coordinators like that, and I'll go back, you know to our example early on in your career when we had Rex, Ryan was here and you know we got Mo Claiborne, who was a corner in the secondary and you know, he was a man guy LSU four perward winner because he was able to lock people down and just play man to man and that and that was it.
That was what his job was.
So in Rex's system, you know, he was a man guy and he was able to flourish. And then we transitioned to Marinelli system, which was you know, more of a four to three. You know, we played you know, some man here and there, but we were more like a fire zone type of thing, getting after the quarterback and having eyes on a quarterback as a secondary.
Now for me, I loved it because I was able.
To just kind of float around and do my poll of mylu thing where I'm just kind of like, all right, I'm gonna help over here, I'm gonna help over there.
I made blitz here and there. So I loved it.
But when you got guys like a you know, a Clayborne or a car on the outside of that used to just man and man, I need to lock this dude down and play zone and kind of communicating more with the secondary, it makes things a little bit tough. So when you bring up those points about the d line, you know how they play double teams. I didn't even really think about it that way. I'm thinking, oh, yeah, this guy needs to be able to hold it down.
But there's true because when you you know, you're used to penetrating and and blowing things up, and you come to a system where, oh man, I got to hold it down right.
Here instead, it's a whole lot different.
And I didn't even think about it through that lens that it can turn things around. So that's why you know, we brought up that question, you know, switching decordinators because this team obviously went from Quinn and now to the Zimmer and Quinn was a predominantly man kind of exotic multiple defense blitzing from here and there, and then you got Zim who's kind of kind of similar to Marinelli, which is, look, we're gonna line up in this.
We're gonna have variations off of it.
You know, we may look the same, we may blitz from that same look, but it's predominantly gonna be like, this is what we're in.
We'll see what you can do.
So the player is definitely gonna have to transition, but you know that's why you know, they're professionals, and he should be able to go out there and get the job done and we'll see what they can do.
This show how.
Refreshing is it as players to see like this defense is still kind of in that vein of forcing those turnovers. They got to pick six in this game as well. But you guys know, you know, if you live by that, you die by that? Is that something also? Obviously you see that transition carry over to this this team. Is that something positive for you? You saying, look, I just want to see y'all start to run. All that other stuff is gonna come later.
You know, I love it because, like you said, when you when you're talking defense, ball guys or where it's at. And if you got guys that can get after the football and take the ball away and any means necessary, then you're gonna have success in that defense. So we got ball you like, look at Digs Diggs. I don't think it matters what system he's in. He's gonna get
after the football. Same with Bland. He's proven these first two years that no matter what system, zone man, he's gonna find a way to get the ball and take it back the other way. And then you got guys like you know d Law who you know, he may not have those same sack numbers that he had years ago, but.
We talked about it last year.
He probably the best run defender that we've seen on this defensive line.
I mean that guy plays at an extremely high level.
And of course you got the big Mazukah Parsons out there being able to do what he does. So they have, in my opinion, enough ball guys throughout that defense to where they can make some noise. They could definitely make some noise, but it all comes back to me, you gotta be able to stop the run, because if you can make that team one dimensional, then I mean the rest is history after that.
So guys, I gotta you know, I believe. Over the weekend, Jerry did an interview where he was talking about the team still being active in acquisitions and free agency and they're combing all of the rosters in the NFL. But history has shown us that when it comes down to signing a free agent, we're gonna get the guy that is you know, long in the tooth, tenured. You know, it's not gonna be one of those splash pickups or anything. Do you see that this team, this is the way
that things are rounding off right now? Do you think that the Boys, even with having a sign CD even to sign back signed Micah, seeing them make a splash in free agency on this to help this d line before the season starts.
Do I see that happening taking the church?
I could be honest, I don't see it happening. You know, it's been a string. I think the last we talked about the last big time free agent signing, like like splash top of the market guy was you know, you know, maybe b Car you know when we played and you know we talked about it, just it's just not in
I don't know if it's their formula or however. They you know, want to break things down, but you know they rely on getting the free agency free agent guys that you know, maybe your towards the you know, the bottom half and you know, get long in the tooth ten years, eleven years, and you know that that has worked on some occasions. But when you look at it, the season is so much longer now almost you know,
eighteen seventeen, eighteen games. You know, it's hard to put you know, X amount of plays on a guy in year eleven.
You know, it's tough. It is real tough.
And that's just something I you know, I really didn't understand when it came to you know, the Cowboys as far as you know, going out there and acquiring new players on the team is and you know, and it ain't guaranteed to work. If you go out there and get a prime guy, it's not guaranteed to work. But you know, I just feel like maybe just to take a shot at it every now and then, to take a shot. But it's easy for me to sit here and say that, you know, I ain't on the field no more.
That's easy for me to sit there and say that.
So you know what Jerry always says, you know, he likes his guys and he likes to you know, groom them from when they draft him and pay those type of guys, which I understand as well. But you know, sometimes you may need to go out there and get you a prime guy to take you over the hump.
You know, I don't know how you feel about that. I really appreciate it about that about Jerry by the way, you.
Know, like around.
But philosophy as like that, stay with your God, No, but I do.
I do think, yeah, like you know, if they're if there's the person that you know you can't pass on, yes, take that shot, you know what I'm saying. But like, I don't see anybody out there right now that they can go and grab the D line. I love Osa, you know, I love what OSA can do. He's not in there, you know, like he's dealing with some things
right now. So you know, he's not in there right now, you know, And I think, you know, with a little bit of help and a little bit of I guess like understanding of you know, what this defense of interior line needs I think it's just going to grow on these guys and just they're just gonna get better and better inside.
You know.
But it kind of it's just it needs to happen, a lot of people want to see it right now. You know, a lot of a lot of people want to see you know, you know, that improvement right now, and you know, hopefully it does happen sooner than later. But you know, I don't feel like, you know, there's anybody out there that that can go and you know, fix the problem. The problem is to me, it's easily fixed.
You know, we will tell us please, I mean, which hanging on every word?
What what you got to say? Oh man, well it's not it's not.
I'm not saying it's an easy fix, but it literally is just just do your job in that moment. Just do your job or that moment. And there's ways, so say we were talking about people getting kicked out of their gap, there's ways to stop that from happening, you know what I'm saying, bring it, like make the linebacker do something to stop that from happening. You know, like there's ways to you know, improve on those on those you know, areas where it's a little bit flawed right now.
And I think, you know, yeah, please go go and get the splash guy if you can go and get him. And I don't know any if you know a name, throw it out there, but like, I don't know any name. I can't think of anybody that can just go and get at easy or I mean.
Point at this point.
Yeah, I mean, it would have been great in the off season. But again, you know, the guys that we have, I think they can handle the job. I'm you know, and that's keeping it real, taking ahead of the job. I just think, you know, it just needs to be. This defense needs to just they just need to feed on it and just get better at it and and and and live it and and just just you don't have to be all fancy. Just get in there and
hold that gap. Hold that gap so a linebacker can make the play here here and then the nose hold that gap, you know what I mean, Like, I mean, it's it's.
When you're thinking about it, it's not that hard.
But yeah, you you see, like if somebody didn't do the right thing somewhere else, then yeah, you're gonna get knocked out of your gap.
It's gonna spill out.
He fighting, It's gonna come out.
What are you doing on Sundays?
Man?
You busy on Sundays? Man, you're still uckily.
You got a little running, you got some days. Some days is for you know, relax, relax on someday. Yeah, that's for the girls.
And you know, just to just to learn and you know, uh, you know, give give our praise and our appreciation to him.
Believe that.
Hey man, hey, we like I said, you never know it man until you do a show with er Man. So we asked a couple of questions here on the show just to get to know people. Uh, Tupaca, biggie, I'm going Tupac. Your favorite Eddie Murphy movie. Come, don't be taking my card?
You know what I'm saying. Cards?
Card? Oh my god, come on, we're waiting.
Come on, your card is out of your pocket. Yeah, I.
Don't got one, man, man, I got a favorite.
Eddie like I mean, I love I love him all. I don't got one.
But if you know, if I had to say one is it's when I was a kid man like you know, watching him.
It's life is lifetop fast, Who give me? Give me?
Course you ain't likely don't even worry about smarting. I'll watched it when I was older. Yeah no, ask me about Martin. No, no, no, no, no no. We're good right there, We're good.
Yeah.
Jip jazz, jip jazz. Go ahead, take us the break? Yeah you good man? Hell the Here it is why.
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Cowboys Nation twenty twenty four Dallas Cowboy Training Camp presented by American Airlines is here. Here to Sonny Otsnard now through August twenty first to watch the team practice.
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For more information, visit Dallas Cowboys dot com slash Training Camp Back in action for the final segment of the Players Lounge, check Maherrison. That's Barry Church and then Tyrone Crawford has come into the building and sat down with us, keeping it pc.
He'd thrown anybody under the building. Nobody's under. He's kept it real, all right.
But I've been digging, man, I'm trying to get some dirt, just something from you.
Cap.
Come on, that's why they called him that the cat took. I got an accountability listen. I'm sorry.
I'm good though, So for me, honestly, I I had players do the same thing to me, and I'm like, I'm a fighter. I mean, sadly, sadly, I've had some regrets in my life. But like when I would hear it, it would initially like get me angry to the point where like the next time I seen him I was like, yo, like you're smiling in my face, Like why are you smiling in my face?
Like I heard what you said to me on air. You know what I'm saying, Like I want to punch you in your mouth right now. But like so that's why I don't do it like I have I have to calm back. I have to stay back from. I don't think you have to worry about that. Bro.
Oh no, I'm not worried about I.
Just I just I can tell you from one man to another, I don't think that I.
Don't know about them to have them emotions. I want to let's keep in church.
So here's a question that half of you guys, obviously a lot of Cowboy Nation is concerned about the running back.
How concerned are you guys right now going into the season.
You have Ezekiel Elliott that obviously is ninth year in the NFL, recaldal Or a guy that really still I think is unproven.
I would say that, all right, we got el Boogie, we got I can't believe you.
I can't believe you, but I'm trying to do I'm trying to help the show out here.
I get it.
So look, here's here's what I'm asking guys, and you gotta feel peel. As far as this coming down to the final fifty three? Will the Cowboys keep four running back? So you go with three? And that comes down to the question about Rico o'dado and Malik Davis.
So when it comes to me, like you said, I think you're gonna.
Keep Zeke for Shore is gonna be here because at the very worst, even if he's nowhere near you know, zekea twenty sixteen or however you want to see him, at the very worst, he's gonna be able to put the ball in the end zone. Like when you get to the two yard line, three yard he's gonna be able to punch it in. And that's where you know this team last year kind of struggled. They had a lot of exposive play though when you got to those short yarded situations, there wasn't really someone who can get
it in the end zone. So you know, Zeke's gonna be here because he's gonna, at the very worst be able to do that and he can pick up blocks, you know, as with with with one of the best of them to do that. So to me, it's gonna come down to Malik Davis and Rico and I you know, they may keep I just I can't see him keeping all three because you're gonna have to put Hunter Limke on there.
But you're gonna have to be in there because he's a special teams guy.
Yeah, you're gonna have to keep him on there because he's gonna be special teams guy, your full back. You know you're gonna have to keep him on there. So I think it's gonna come down to those two, and they're very similar if you look at it. You know, Rico's a slashing guy. He can get you explosive plays, but so is Malak showing a burst in the preseason game. So to me, what it's gonna come down to those two individuals is what can do Who can do more?
Who can receive out of the backfield, who can you know, pick up the blocks if something were to happen to Zeke as far as a blocking back, who's can put the ball on the end zone from the two yard line, and who can who can contribute on special teams Because you're not gonna hold a roster spot if you're not that starting guy and they're not going by you know, running back by committee.
Who's gonna be able.
To contribute on special teams under fossils you know, crew a little bit over there, because that's what you're gonna have to do in that backup you know, second or third team back, you're gonna have to participate on special teams. So who's gonna be able to go down there, cover kicks, cover punts, you know, do those types of things. Is what it's going to come down to. I didn't mention dus Won. Forgot to mention dus Won out there as well. He showed some some spark and then that Raiders game,
elusive guy. He can be that kind of receiving back as well, maybe a returner as well.
So it's gonna be a tough cutdown.
But you know, to me, when it comes down to those guys, it's gonna be between Rico and the league because they're very similar.
Then it comes down to me, is who's gonna be able to do more for the.
Team running by I mean, just just in my time at camp, you know, I said my top three.
Zeke, Duce, Juice, and Davis. Davis is his last name, right.
Yeah, yeah, I like those three and again, yeah, like you said keep four or three.
I don't think they're keeping four. So those are my.
Top three, and I think I think, yeah, Zeke, like you said, you made, you made a lot of good points.
You know.
Zeke is uh is the guy that if you if you need that ball and that end zone, he's he's pick, He's a dog. And then I've been a Deuce fan. You know, I'm a huge fan of his dad to Chris, love Chris. But that's I'm not being biased. I think Deuce is is a great running back, and you know, I think he can he can hold his own. He's got heart, and then you know, I just I just feel the heart out of Davis as well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm really instill in that vein where I'm looking to see who can be that home run hitter, who can be that home run guy, you know, who can be your guy to take that take it, take it to the outside, hit it, you know, your forty fifty yard game, something like that. I think that's what we were looking at before with Pollard and and Elliott being that thunder lightning or whatever, you know, one two punch and everybody and every team in the NFL kind
of has that one two punch. Now that we got Zeke back, who's going to be the other guy? I mean, looking at duce Vun, I think offensively, you ask yourself, can he pick up the blitz things like that? Obviously he's gonna have to contribute on special teams as well, So it's going to be interesting coming down to the cuts. It's gonna be a lot of guys, a lot of great guys uh out there that you know that get cut. But I got to ask you this before we go.
Does the ceedee Lamb contract thing bother you at all to this point? Are you saying, Look, they're gonna get this thing done here pretty soon and he's gonna be ready to go for the season. As a seasoned veteran, do you say, look, this guy needs to get here now, get you know, get this timing and everything down.
You know, just just watching how the Zach Martin thing played out and just being a cowboy and seeing Jerry's Shenanigan's uh, you know, throughout my whole career, I'm not worried about it. You know, I can see how people could be worried about it, But I'm not worried about it. I know that one huge thing for Jerry is you know all media is good media. Yeah, and uh, you know, the even just the little the little shots thrown back and forth at each other is good for the Cowboys.
And I don't I don't. I don't see I don't see any I don't see this going further than Game one.
Obviously, it would.
Be great for him to be a part of the team before that, but CD is one of those players that doesn't need to be you know, like, he's still gonna he's still gonna go for dumb numbers. You know that game one if if if he showed up on Friday, yeah, Thursday, Friday.
But I don't want that to just get it done. I don't want the way it is. But you know, yeah, I don't.
I don't want to see him go anywhere else to tell you that he's I feel like he's the best wide receiver in the game right now.
So you see where you at on this man, If he took the button, have took the glass off the button?
Yet he gotta get it done. I mean, I mean, this is this is a must. We talked about it. The passing offense is is CD lamb When you look at it. I mean, yeah, Ferguson is an upcoming you know, great tight end and you know he can he can do. He can be a mismatch nightmare for those linebackers and safeties. But when you talk about it all around threat and defenses, you got to put all all their resources towards stopping one guy.
It's CD. And even when they do because we've seen it the past. Those are the last eight games.
Each game was almost a buck fifty out there for him, and they double team, the triple team. They tried all they could that guy. He's one of the top in the game. And if you want a passing offense and you want your offense to be productive, you got to get the guy in there.
Hey, we had we hadn't got an opportunity to see Cooks. But I can tell you this at looking at that fourth, fifth and sixth CD, you know, wide receiver out there for the preseason. Get it done, get it right now. Guys we talked about I didn't think we was gonna get through this whole thing.
Man, the time was short. Man, looking back, man, we had a good time. So you was that close.
We need showing that you are all the show. Need you can just get it there. We're gonna lie. All I need is one show with you.
Dog.
You're gonna be You're gonna be mar You gonna tell doll it might be back.
They're gonna be running up on you in the Let's not have a glass with us, right.
Man.
This has been so much fun, Aristocrat, we're spoiling y'all. Right now, man, the Players Lounge will be back on Wednesday.
Now.
He will be right here. I'll be over there somewhere. BC will be want Tyrone Crawford, my man. Man appreciate brous Piggy's up.
Baby. This has been the Players Lounge.
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