The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Boys.
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 newly Scruggs.
Welcome in savitaj Ma Hall of Football.
It's the Players Lounge on the Star from the Star in Brisco, and I'm a player with the players. Former Dallas Cowboys safety my man BC in the place, there by Danny McCrae, former special teams ACE and safety as well LSU national champion. And as we're doing the five, Hey, he's booked and he's busy. Speaking of booked and busy, newest Scrugs, it's getting his all change. Yeah, that's what we called. But this is a player Slauds. Your your
favorite man crushed Monday, move to Thursday. So hey, we're here at eleven o'clock. But guys, as I always start to show, man, I check mentals right off the back.
Make sure my fellows just straight. BC. I'll start with you, man, how are you? What's on your mind? Was good man?
Everything's going great, man, had a little little leak in the sorry in the little leak in the master bedrooms. So underneath the floors there was a little wetness right there, dribbling up.
And it got that all fixed this morning. So everything's going great.
Man.
So little man's birthday today turned eight. Man, Man, that's all crazy. Gotta love him man eight. They still in that cute stage and in the birthday presence. Ain't bad legos, that's all he wanted.
Legos. I'm straight, birthday don't cost you much. It don't cost you much.
Love it.
Let's give me some legos the target and get you. You know what I mean. You step on them though, man, believe that the little helmets.
Man.
The thing is, do you help put them together? At first I did this first couple. I helped to help them put them together. But now he's so much Yeah, I'm like, I ain't.
Got He's trying to build a death sto like you gotta put the rotation. I'm like, man, I thought it was just a wheel on there. I'm out, Man, d MA was good with you. Lit'st before you get to me.
I just want to ask Church, did you did you do the construction the renovation yourself.
Did you go to Lows and get.
Talking about the floor. Yeah, you know the warranty, you know the building. I told him like, hey man, you know fixed this lead they came through.
Come on now that you put your Dickey's over rolls on and you run down and loads.
I can't do it.
It's trying to fil growing up too much. Manual label for me what it is. I ain't messing with it.
Man, I ain't doing good man, I'm doing outside. You know the yard, I pulled a couple of you know, that's about too much. I ain't cutting no grass since he got with the college. Yeah to twenty ten, twenty ten, well you about fourteen years's trying to get back on the you freaking canalyized.
The front shoulder was kind of tight this morning, man, shoulder was a little tight.
Unbelieveful, man, take it all over. Everything good with you. Everything's good man, everything's good. Uh.
We got the kids when they start getting sick.
I'm still three, So they still go to school, get the sickness and bring it on, and.
The whole house is just stuffy. It's surcessful. Yeah great, they gotta wipe them down.
How much hand sanitized. They play in the hands. Sometimes they spread all over their face and everything. Still come home, see sniff, That's all I said.
You've got a call. You know the sight. You know it's coming. You know it's if you see kids play together.
You already know that this is the germs are gonna be everywhere.
The way that they play.
When you drop them off at the front door and then you see one of the other little kids come through and you see a little running you, Hey, come on back home.
Chris Bean knows two a thing or two about that. Man.
You guys see all the trailers out there. The Country Music Awards are tonight. Uh you wanted the guest presenters. I know your country music. You can have it on the tube though, right, I'll be at home though.
All right, Well, I'm good if you if anyone wants to know you jump straight.
Into man, put it on right, you know how I do, Man, I'm good, Man.
Spring My son is in spring ball right now.
Man, So you know that's we were full well like full steam ahead with spring ball right now. So that's the videos you'll be posted to jail. It's junior, junior, sophomore. So so we still got a ways to go. But hey, yesterday, were you guys paying attention to the schedule release for the time?
Boy?
You got to?
You got to. Man, I don't know about y'all.
I mean this is this has become like they're raising the bar each and every year for these schedule releases. If you look around the NFL and all the teams, the media departments that get involved to do, like, it's very creative the process that they're going to. But the Cowboys media department.
Is just spanking, man, that's what they do. That's like everybody right now.
And man, I don't know, Like I went through it the whole thing a couple of times. Man, it just gets funnier and funnier every time. Man, what was your reaction guys from the just the schedule release from the media department.
When I'm looking at it first, the videos were funny for the release and things, it was funny.
But when you're looking at.
The schedule, I think it's tough. I think it is a tough schedule. And look, this is a first place schedule, so you're going against all.
The first place teams and all the other divisions.
So I believe this team has their work cutout for I mean, we'll go through what stretch we think is hard and all that good stuff. It wrong, But just a first glance at it, I mean, when you look at it, Cleveland, you.
Know what they love to do, run it.
Chubb's coming back, what's the what's the what's the he's coming back off of.
But he has done it before, He's had a crazy injury. It came back even.
Stronger before you got Chubb, you got Cleveland coming at you, I mean Baltimore those.
First three weeks, it's not easy.
You're going to get some defenses and you're going to get some teams that love to run the football. So I believe early on in this schedule it will be a great test to see how Zimmer can get this defense going in the right direction. Has he fixed those problems when we talk about the run defense. But I believe overall, it's an extremely tough schedule and that first chunk.
Of it should be a little difficult for the Cowboys.
Danny, Yeah, listen, first, just to start off with the video, listen, I watched it and as I was watching it, I was like, I'm kind of out of the loop on like who these like celebrities and people are. So I watched it knowing that I probably should know who they are, and knowing that they are probably famous, saying, oh, that's that's a pretty good catch, even though who half of the people are. So it was very creative how they
did it. I can't imagine Jerry like sitting there as I opened up my FaceTime with Jerry and Mike, I could imagine.
I thought that was really cool. I thought that was yeah. Yeah. Then they always do.
I mean even when they did it with Steve and a they did a post malone like, they always find a really creative way. And then also they always include Jerry.
Harry is always in there.
So that's why he's, you know, one of the best owners, and the Cowboys always going to be so big because he knows how to do it. Media department, Derrek Eagleton, all of them. They did a really great job. I agree with you on that one. My only thing is you just know how the NFL is to where there are teams that you expect to be really good based off what.
They did the prior years.
And then they come out here and you like, hold on, that's man, that's not them. I thought they were gonna be really good and then they just so happened not to play as well as they did the previous year. And to me, I think that's probably the only thing that may save us here because based off what you just said with Cleveland, we know how they looked last year. Another defense, Chubb, it's coming off of injury, so we don't know how good it'll be, especially with that being
the first the first game of the season. The Saints, you know, they don't have anything, so they're gonna run it. They're gonna try to run it. You got the Baltimore Ravens with Derrick Henry. You know he's gonna try to run it. So we're gonna be tested really quick, and we're gonna know, hey, did we fix the things that we haven't been able to fix over the last few years. We're being able to stop the run. With Mazzie Smith in there saying he's gaining a little weight or or
is it some of the same old same boat. Hey man, we're gonna we're gonna beat depending on Dak Dak Prescott and Brandon Kills and Ceedee Lamb to get out there and just put up a bunch of yards because we're not able to stop stop the run. So we're gonna learn a lot in those first three weeks. We'll learn a lot. So when I saw the schedule, that's the first thing I thought. BC was like, Man, we're gonna figure out what Mike Zimmer got going on these first the first couple of weeks gonna be a test of
the season, will be a test. And I really loved Uh. I believe it was Patrick Walker that did the interview with Mike Zimmer just talking about his play style and in his scheme and how it's gonna scheme it up and how it's gonna be much different from Dan Quinn.
And I think when you talk about him as a legendary as a coach basically, Uh, one of the things that I thought was very unique about what he said was when he's come into situations as a head coach or even as a coordinator, it's been because the defense is horrible. In this situation, I'm coming in on the defense that already has you know, has some success. How do you build on that? But it's not gonna be
the same scheme. But even when you look at these first couple of weeks and you talk about a Cleveland, even the New Orleans States and a Baltimore Ravens. Boy, those are that's like that's that button up your chin strap. You already know what they're gonna come with. Especially when I got down to Baltimore. Yeah, you know, you already know, you already know that unless they do that Baltimore that showed up in the playoff.
Game, I mean.
That would be like trading play is identity crisis for Baltimore if they did that. But I think for me, like going and obviously we're not gonna pick anything without you know, without We're not.
Gonna let him get off.
We're not gonna let Bernie made off with penwhipless you know how extra set of books.
Uh.
But but also you go to this book, I want to bring out the you know he got to After that, you get Detroit. You get Detroit, and then you get a buy and then right after that San Francisco right behind.
If you look at that all the way up until San Francisco, all those squads outside of New York, then they're gonna try to run that rock New York and maybe the same they're gonna run they got Pittsburgh. You at Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, all these teams exactly. All these teams are like, look, we ain't got the quarterback option outside of outside of Baltimore. So we're gonna run the rock, We're gonna run the right and we're gonna see exactly
what Zimmer and this defense can do. Can Mozzie Smith have that bounce back here?
You know?
Do we have the three tech and the one tech in there to solve these problems? Are linebackers gonna be able to work like we think they're going to be able to work? It's gonna be a great test these first come And that's why I'm and that's why I'm going with my question for you because I think even before the draft, your your concern was linebackers. And post draft, do you feel like you know the linebacker they got from Notre Dame bringing in Kendricks and company and already
what we already have. Now that you look at the schedule, you know what you're going to be coming up against, especially that first quarter of the season. Did we get better at linebacker to be able to take on some of your concerns?
So you got better? You got better because you got some guys.
I think last year, depth was a huge problems when you have Marquise Bell stepping in to play the linebacker position. So we got some guys, we have a veteran guy and Kendricks that that you know can probably get those guys lined up and ready to go. And you got some young guys in there. But I think I think you're you're better at the position. What words me still
is the defensive line. And I heard the defensive the new defensive line coach say that Monzie Smith playing last year was a lot of get up feel and he's going to play more to the stress of being able to read blocks and play in the blocks. I gotta see that. I have to see it. But the thing is we won't see it because he's not gonna be
there until training camp. So he's like, he's not going to be able to work on any of that stuff, and we're not going to see if he's better at doing that than what dan Quinn had him doing, if there was really truly a difference.
So where y'all like, were you confused.
At all about that about the Minsie Smith getting up the field talk excited?
I didn't so what he was So from what I just I got from it was he was more focused on getting that early penetration through the defense or through the offensive line and getting after the quarterback, which a lot of the defensive line in Quinn system, that was their first mentality, that gotta get up to the quarterback.
And that's what to me. You didn't have enough guys that were anchored that were like, you know what I mean, you know, if the quarterback comes my way out, be all right, but I'm gonna sit in this gap and makes round get moved. I don't think there was enough of that on the defensive line. I think it was always we gotta get up field, we gotta get up field. And as you see throughout the season, guys were playing, we're running counters on us. Let these guys get up field.
Were gonna let them get right past us. And here comes a running back right at that hole where they've just left. So I think, you know, hopefully the you know that hope them again hopefully you know, the scheme this year with the defensive line, especially the interior guys, is more get those concrete blocks that we talked about
all this foot and just just sit there, let them run. Linebackers, let those guys run all over the field and chase down bloss Just make sure you don't get moved out of your out of your block, or out of your gap.
But you know, a lot easier said than that. I think that's that's the thing.
Like it's the Jecko and how the kind of good and the bad that goes with the defense that that Dan Quinn Quinn runs where you're trying to get these guys in one on one, especially guys like Michael Parsons.
Sometimes the linebackers to where you have to run these stunts with the defensive line and these ets so often and these other stunts that you see so that the linebackers can play off of it, and it doesn't sometimes it doesn't give the defensive line interior one technique knows technique the opportunity to really, hey man, this is where I'm locked in that I'm playing the double here and this is and this is this is just my one
job versus wait. I read his step and he has to do this, and I got Michael Parsons coming behind me, So now I gotta figure out how to make these things work. I think this is gonna be one of those Hey man, we're playing base defense, you line up here at the nose, you line up here at the three, and if there's a double team, you playing to them, and everybody else is gonna have to play off of y'all versus the opposite. So I think you'll see a lot less of probably the et stunts and the spikes
into the b gap. I think you see a lot less of that and more of, hey man, we hold a point. We need guys who can whole point and make sure that those those linemen stay off our linebackers.
It reminds me a lot of that that Marinelli system, you know, when I was playing coming up with because we didn't know, we didn't have a great names or anything like that, but we had guys that were like, look, I'm gonna sit this a gap. I'm gonna sit in this big gap, and we're gonna be good against the run. And we were through those stretches with Maryonelli. We're good against the run. Granted, you know, we had on the other side of the bar offensively a prime ezeque El
Elliott taking all the time of possession. We had the Marco Murray taking all the time of possession. So teams really couldn't get into that that run system. But I believe if you have a you know, a group of guys understanding their role, not playing hero ball, sit in that gap, let those other guys do what they gotta.
Do, that I think you have a better defense overall.
Now, integrity wise, when you have the difference between what Quinn is doing and what Zimmer is doing, because historically Zimmer is one of those guys that believes in gap responsibility, alignment, assignment. Where you were just talking about those stunts. Now, does that take away from what you have on the outside with Michael Parsons. Does that take away from the DeMarcus Lawrences to be able to do what they do best?
I think less so on DeMarcus Lawrence and more so on Michael Parsons just based off what we've seen them be successful. Let with Dan Quinn. Can't Michael Parsons line up at defensive end and continue to make plays. I believe that he can, Like I believe he can get that done. We will have to see him probably do it more times now this season. We've had to see
him do it in the previous seasons. Especially if you're playing that hey man one technique, knows technique and the three or whatever that is interior and they're gonna stay there and just do that. Then yeah, you're gonna have to see Michael Parsons be probably more stationary than you've seen them in the past.
What hurts me, or what got me a little bit a little nervous, is that.
That you know that all that you know early penetration et stunts and all those great blizzes Quinn was running. You know, against the running might not have been that great, but against the past, they were getting after the quarterback and that helped that secondary in the back end tremendously.
When you talk about being able to take the football away, sitting all routes, intercepting things, not having to cover that long because you knew that pass rus was gonna get there with this Zimmerar system and you know, I still don't know all the ins and outs of it, but if you're playing that base where it's like, all right, we're gonna be hunkered down right here, that secondary they're gonna have to cover, They're gonna have You're gonna have to You're gonna be covering a lot longer than you
were in years past. So that makes me slightly nervous. But you got two great corners on the outside and blanding digs. You got safeties, reliable safeties back there. So as long as they can, you know, work off of each other, I think they'll be good. But that makes me a little nervous when talking about the past coverage. Man, we're getting off to a hot start. We're gonna take a break and lick Chris being pay the bills. Is BC watches golf. He's playing double.
Duty right now, and then we'll be right back here on the players lounge.
How do you do that? Man? I leave.
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Right to the Players Lounge.
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he scrugs he'ld be back next Monday. In here with my Man BC and d Mack, and we were talking about the schedule, but more importantly talking about how things areligned up front on this defensive line, and how you're gonna get pressure, and one of the most important things of the off season. One of the things is happening
right now in the off season is Mozzie Smith. Mozzie Smith, as you know, guy's lost a ton of weight going the opposite direction on the scale where we would like for our one techniques, got under under three hundred under three hundred pounds during the season. So now it's rumored that he's getting his weight back up after the shoulder surgery.
But I think the more.
Troubling thing for Cowboy fans is the fact that he's not in the building and you know, there's some other things that's going on. I mean, we'll tread lightly around that, but at the same time, you have to have he I mean, he has to have a great second year and it's not starting off good for us in the off season. Danny, what are you making of all of this rumor around our number one draft pick last year? I want to say first, I want to purpose it by saying this. I know the guy wants to be
a really good player. Like nobody comes in and they're like like, nah, I'm all right, you came in as a first round pick. I'm sure he did his much as he possibly could. That he thought was the best thing for him to be really good. It just didn't work out. Now the surer showed the surgery. He can't help that. He can't help that. Now he has to get that in order to be healthy for the season. With all that being said, that is a very tough thing to do to come off a season like you had last.
Year where you lost weight. You are underweight.
Now you're trying to gain weight the right way, but then you're not able to work out like everybody else is working out. So one we got to find out that's even true weight. Once you get out of that training camp, all of a sudden, you can drop another twenty because you haven't been doing the things that other people have been doing. I exaggerated with the twenty out, but you dropped. You figure out that that's not what you really thought it was.
Too.
You got a new defensive line coach, you have a new defensive coordinator. Who are they already have come out and said they're going to teach you to do new things or take you back to what you did good at Michigan that got you to be a first round pick, and you're not able to really get out there and
do it. Like you can do as much footwork as you can, but if you're not getting your hands on guys and being able to really find out what that positioning and your leverage and getting back into that that groove and that habit of doing that stuff, and it's gonna be hard for you to get out there. You know, in the first week and you're going to see h Nick Chubb and then the next week you go see Alvakamar.
The next week you go see uh King Henry Henry, you know, and like that's that's when you knocking the rust off. Like it's gonna be a really quick catch up for him in order to really be successful if we wanted to be the season now that words me.
But can he be great? Yeah?
I don't know.
He's the first round picked for a reason, that's true.
And now I echo everything you just said when it comes to MASI, I mean, you know, he's gonna, you know, try as hard as to get to where he wants to be when the season comes up.
The one thing I will say about it is.
When you when you're a young guy, and you know, it's your first real off season as a team and all that good stuff.
Y'all have been to other.
Places, but with the Cowboys, they love all their players to be here and working out, and I understand that that's not gonna be everybody. Everybody's not gonna be here working out at the same time and all that good which is volunteer, which is volunteer. It's one of those, you know, with the question mark, especially if you're a young guy.
Especially if you're a young guy.
Now I could see you know, Dak and you know Zeke and Ceedee Lamb and those guys, they might want to go work on their own, but they're they're proven commodities in the National Football League, you know, all pros, Pro Bowls, they've they've done it all. So they've kind of, I don't know if I want to say earn the right, but they they've gotten to that point where they if they want to go work out somewhere else and come back for captains workouts, then they could do.
So.
When you're a young guy like Miles Smith was, you were drafted by basically the Dan Quinn regime and they, you know, they first round picked you weren't drafted by you know.
The Zimmer regime. So you want to make sure, especially coming off an injury.
I could see if he you know, Pro Bowl All Rookie Team or something like that, coming off as rookie year, even if he played and we saw flashes like man, he got it, he got something in the tank, we didn't.
We didn't see any of that. So when you're coming.
Back off your second year injury, going into a new system, you want to make sure you're around everybody. You want to make sure the coaches are seeing your face each and every day that you can be down here in Dallas, not to me, only that, not only that you got possibly, in my opinion, the best training staff International Football League with Britt Mauer and Jim or Jimer, Britt Brown and g Money and those guys.
They'll get you right. So there's no really real reasons to go anywhere else to do your rehab. If that's the case that's going on right now.
So for me, you know, if I'm Mozzie Smith, I want to be in the building each and every day learning the new stuff that the new defensive coordinator wants me to do, keeping my face around, letting these guys understand that, hey, I'm here and I want to get better. Just from my own experience, That's how it was. We had the new defensive coordinator almost every year here in Dallas, and I'm telling you, if I wasn't here working out or making sure my face was shown, they were trying
to replace me regardless of every single year. So I just had to make sure I was here in attendance. And maybe if you're a first round pick is different, but to me, I want to be showing my face as much as possible.
I think they're interesting.
Well, the question I have for you guys, because you are former Cowboys, you know the pressure. I mean, speak to the pressure that possibly Mozzie Smith is under. Because no one's full out and came out and said use the word like this bus.
You know or anything like that.
But there are in you windows and people saying, you know, little things about his first year, but it seems like he's a young man under a tremendous amount of pressure being the former first round twenty six pick taking in the draft. What is that pressure like for a young guy like that to come into this building every day
knowing the expectation that's placed on you. I think it's tough one because you already have the big pressure of being the Dallas Cowboys and we haven't won the Super Bowl in this long and we got all the play because you always here. They got all the talent, they got all this and they just can't figure out how to get it done. And then you say, you he knows, a man, Cowboys haven't been able to stop the run
for the last few years. They drafted God in the first round, coming from Michigan who was successful in college, and they say this is going to be the missing piece, and then it doesn't happen that way to where what do you play like six naps? Maybe in the last game, he couldn't be like like he didn't really play much in that last one. Right, So now he knows and he feels the fact that, hey, man, I'm a first
round pick and I have to play better. One of the pressure is that too, is everybody's trying to get paid, right, so at some point you have to be able to show man put I can put it on tape to where the ownership looks at me and says, one, I earned this first round selection and two I'm trying to get the bag moving moving on in my career. His
third one is now he's hurt. So now you got all that pressure, and now you have the pressure one to be healthy enough when the season starts to really get out there and make a difference.
And then hey, man, now.
I gotta worry if I'm one of those guys who are always injured, right, because now you got that on you of like, well, listen, he's a really great player, but.
He's just not healthy. Right.
So all guys who go out there and they get hurt, what happens is when they first get back on the one thing in their mind is they don't want that to happen again. When you don't want to be labeled as a hurt guy, and you also don't want to miss that time again. So I think he has an imiss amount of pressure on him. Hopefully he gets back and then he gets his mind right and he can overcome that. But right now, it's a lot. You think he can handle it?
Yeah, I do think he has the capabilities of handling the pressure.
It's a lot though. There's a lot of pressure on it.
Just like what Daddy just said, being that first round pick, understanding that the one achilles heel for this defense over the past couple of years has been the run, and you right, you know, fair or not, you were the guy that's gonna be.
Drafted to fix that problem.
So you got drafted, you didn't really show up your rookie season for whatever the case may be. Now the pressure is even announcing even more because when you look at all the first round draft picks before him, I think there was maybe maybe one that didn't pan out and we talked to Taco. Other than that, you got all pros, Pro Bowlers, all decade players as first round picks for the Dallas Cowboys and then so it kind of like just kind of cascade. It might not be fair,
but that's just the way it is. They're gonna put that pressure on you to be able to stop the run. It's a team effort, but you're the first round pick. You're in the trenches. We want you to stop the run. That's how it's gonna look like. I keep saying that it's not fair, but that's just the way the game goes. So there's a mint pressure on Mazie Smith going forward to to kind of be that guy, not saying he
has to be Aaron Donald. Not saying he gotta be you know, Chris Jones or anything like that, but if he can just hold the paint in there and we can go from being, you know, one of the worst run defenses in the league too, I would even say above average.
You know, you ain't even.
Gotta be great, just above average. Now I think he'll he'll have done his job. But man, there's a lot of pressure going on Mazie right now.
Look that that Dak Prescott Montra pressure is the privilege doesn't apply to.
Everybody, a lot of everybody.
But speaking of first round draft picks, we all got an opportunity to see Tyler guiden Uh in the building, our first round draft pick, and big young man that's coming into.
Hats his work cut out for him as well.
He is replacing what could be a first ballot Hall of Famer and Tyron Smith switching gears over to the offensive line. I know there's a lot of expectation, a lot of question marks placed on that offensive line. And look, it's the underwear Olympics. We're not gonna know how these guys, especially at the defensive and offensive line. You don't get a chance to see exactly what these guys can do.
But a guy like Tyler Guidon stepping into going from the right side to down to the left side and expected to come in and be a staple and an anchor on this on this offensive line, what are your expectations from him coming in and Barry go ahead.
To me, my expectations.
You got to go in there and you gotta be a day one starter, you know, you gotta be a day one starter, and you gotta be able to contribute, you know, for this team a sap because to me, it seems like they're gonna keep Tyler Tyler Smith at that left guard position, which you know they all proed. I mean, the guy's amazing, got the left guard spot. So they're gonna put you know, the first round draft
trick guiding out there on that left tackle situation. And to me, we've heard, you know, through through through great founding reports that he's a project, that this guy, you know, he has all this ability, but he's kind of wrong.
He's a raw project.
But we heard the same thing about Tyler coming out. Man, he's got get a lot of penalties. You know, he has all the talent in the world, he's just not refined just yet, and look at he came out and was able to do his rookie season. So if he can be even a third or half of what Tyler Smith was his rookie season, I think we'll have made leaps and bounds and his officive line is gonna go forward.
Great.
Yeah, listen, And we talked about that pressure, and I think the pressure is on him to get out there and be a day one starter and be successful because we go back to Massie. He said, hey man, we got a first round pick who didn't really wasn't really impactful for us the year before. We're really counting on you.
And I think, to me, it makes sense to move him out to the left one because Tyler Smith has been really good and now he's in the middle of now a rookie center and then in a rookie left tackle, so he's gonna be he's gonna be like that, hey man, we're gonna.
Lean on you, though. We're gonna lean on you.
You the veteran guy, and he's just outstanding at left guard, so I think it makes sense for him to be there. But I actually have faith in the offensive line. I mean, it's it's rookie here, rookie there. But just based off what they were able to do with Tyler Smith and if he really needed to move out the left tackle they could have. I think they're gonna do everything they have to do to get Gutting ready, and I think
he's gonna be okay. Now, he's gonna have a rough start on I mean, that's what I'm going with this, but I'm not gonna judge it. I'm not gonna judge it because he's he's a rookie. I'm not gonna judge it based off those first three against like, that's not fair to him to be to say, listen, he go out there and he struggled against everybody, some of those guys, then he's just not gonna be a great player.
He's gonna struggle a little bit.
But I think as the season goes on, I think he's gonna catch the same thing that happened with Tommas Smith. He did start off with some penalties, so it wasn't all great in his first year, but I think he's gonna have an opportunity, especially once you get into the Giants.
I think he doesn't get that's nothing easy on here. He's gonna be bye week twentieth.
He's gonna have an opportunity to take a breath and see what he did wrong and come on back. And I gotta fake them like I'm actually I'm I'm happy with the offensive line until.
I and I see him feel I think.
I think they did what they needed to do, especially knowing how your defense performed in the run game. They knowing you're gonna have to go out there and throw the ball and score some points of offense.
They did. They did the best they could.
Guys, I'm not gonna lie I'm nervous. No, No, I appreciate, I really do, and I and I think where where my greatest concern comes from is that he is moving from right tackle in college to left tackle in the pros. And I mean, you guys, being two former veterans in the NFL, y'all know the speed difference is completely different than still when hello, that was during the season. That's true.
I think the difference in those This man.
Is gonna have a whole off season and extra work to play left tackle. They were moving guys from right to left mid season, Yeah, which did.
Tyrans trying to play right?
Did tyrns play yes, like like those are like he's been doing this for his entire career, playing left. So I think that that is a that that's a slight difference in like what what's going on with g versus what we've seen previously. And I was here saying, a man, it's not the same and Nate knew what to tell you,
the same thing. But when you got a whole off season o t as Ricky Minnie camp, training camp, and then going to the season learning that position, that I think is a little it's a little different.
Words like raw, like.
That'll take you a little bit. And I'm just saying, I'm just saying, like Rock, he still has work to do, right, Okay, I think that I think that worries me. I think words me and and you know, Nick Nick Harris had an article about Tyler guy and this is Coaches Corner if you got to check it out. Those articles that he's writing where he's getting an opportunity to interview some
of the coaches from my draft picks. He talked got an opportunity to talk to Tyler Guid's offensive line coach, and those are some of the things that he said, Like the mature factor from the jump that he made his first year in at Oha because it's transferred from TCU to Oklahoma. But still just saying that, you know, he was more of a project because of Look, he's he's big, strong, long arms, is quick feet, but he's not as heavy handed as you would like for for a guy to be.
So that's all. That's my only thing.
And you keep bringing this up over and over again, and I look at this schedule and I'm saying, this kid's confidence could be shot, especially knowing that he's going to be going up against one a couple of the best pass ruptures in the league. Yeah, he gonna get them. Yeah, and you look at it.
Let's see right now. Man, you got Miles Gear. I mean, you got the Baltimore Raate's. They got two guys coming off there, t J. Watt. You got what's the guy from New York, Tip Iteau.
You got Detroit, Detroit, Yeah, in the Zimber Bowl, you know, not him, him and his officeive coordinator gonna he's a rookie. Okay, you're talking about confidence. You gotta you have to find a way to get the ball out of the dak Hans quick You're gonna have to figure out a way to me. The one the thing that can always fix a worry like that is figure out a way to run the ball. Absolutely, offensive lineman and that situation want
to maul you. They want to They want to get their confidence up by moving you off the line of scrimmage. And then you know, then they feel a little bit more comfortable with that. If you get him out there and you're throwing forty passes in the first game against the Cleveland Browns, that's where your confidence might get shook because now you've got opportunity, forty opportunities. You got forty opportunities to get out there and get some sex.
Now.
So now I think I think us establishing the run game, which I know is total opposite of McCarthy, and it's and how he and how he rolls. But I think you just last year he did start off trying to
run the football. So hopefully this year he follows up and he tries to run the football at the beginning of the seeon, so are we going, and we start looking at this the start and five right now we are saying Tyler Guiding at the left tackle, Tyler Smith at the left guard, and there's gonna be a battle for the center center position between Brock Hoffman and Cooper BB. Zach Martin's a lock, and ter Steele is a lot at the center center position. Any interest in that battle between Hoffman and BB.
That's gonna be a good battle because Hoffman when he came in that that commander's game.
I mean, he shows some nastiness like he was he was finishing.
His blocks, and I mean he's been in the system, so he knows how to communicate through the offensive line. So but you got BB as a high draft pick, So that's gonna be an interesting battle.
Right there here for either one of those centers. I'm looking and that's why they got to sit up this way. I believe I'm looking to my right now, I'm looking at a uh at Zach Martin left. I'm looking at a Tyler Smith, and I'm feeling more comfortable because that's who I got there. And I feel like when they got to make those calls and those switches and stuff, you're looking at a Tyler Smith who's been there, who's Pro Bowl guy. You're looking at at a Hall of
Fame guy. And Zach Martin, you said I feel more comfortable here than if I had guiding anybody else right there in no spots, So yeah, I think I think it's okay, man, I think it's all right.
All right, we'll take our last break, man.
But before we take this break, it was a quarterback in Detown that got paid and it wasn't Dak.
We'll be right back facts.
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I'm Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and they snapper.
The press guy who looks right, it's not there.
He escaped, flapped.
He'll look for a first down.
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There's always something to shop, dine, and do in the Star District. Visit the Star District dot com for more information. Back for the last segment of the Players Lounge, I said NEWI Scruggs is out today. He will be back on Monday. But I teased before I left on the second break that there was a quarterback in detail that got paid. And I'm talking about Jared Golf. Jared Golf got he got what he deserves. As facts, he got what he deserved. That's that's facts, you know. Hold on,
Jared Golf got broke off. Jared Golf is now the second highest paid quarterback in the NFL, behind Joe Burrow, who is at fifty five fifty five million a year. Behind that is your guy Justin Justin Herbert. Behind Herbert is Lamar Jackson, and your guy Jalen Hurts is after that at fifty one.
That man, I'll be like that anyway. I mean he a Texas guy.
Yeah, like you go play for a little you know, he's gonna be a Texas guy speaking.
Yeah, yeah, so go so keep won't.
Now I'm doing the very podcast. It's like, sorry, guys, players, player, they gonna bring it, and they're gonna bring up all this stuff that I'll be run out of town. Don't even worry about it. But I mean when you look at this, I mean you say Jared Goff deserved Jared Goff, in your opinion, deserves to be paid more than Lamar Jackson at this point in his career. Who went who went further in the playoffs twice?
What?
What what what Jared Golf has done since he's gotten gotten got to Detroit, earned him that fifty because Matthew Stafford wasn't doing it. Matthew Stafford was making a hundred meon you're talking about what he did last year. No, what he know since he's gotten there, since he's gotten that team when he got there, had won. I don't even know how many games it was. It was bad, maybe five six, and they went from there from from how he was playing till last year. They were good
because of him as well. Like it wasn't like he was just you know, being a bus driver. There were games where Jared Golf go out there and he got three hundred off Rots Down Saint Brown got paid like tight end tight ends balling. These guys are balling because Jared Goff is getting them the football and they were in the NFC Championship and they should have, like they coach.
Is the reason they weren't in the Super Bowl.
And that's including the game they played against US and then also the game that they lost up there against San France. So to no fault of Jared Golf. So you're looking at the guy and you say, you what is a franchise quarterback, a guy that we can depend on to take the NC championship, a guy that we can say, hey, man, we really need you to get down there and get us a field goal at the end of the game or touchdown, which he did all those things last season in the playoffs multiple times.
Seen it drops. So yeah.
So I mean, if anybody deserves it, I mean, give me the reason why he does it.
No, I'm not look, I'm look.
What I don't like doing is taking away from one person to big up another question.
I'm not going to do that.
But what I guess my question is is that coming into this season, I hadn't heard either one of you guys when we started talking having a quarterback conversation mentioned Jared Goff as far as a top ten quarterback in the NFL, even with the success that he's had in Detroit.
I don't know, am I wrong? I mean, I think you are a little wrong because we talked multiple times about Detroit being the top five team because of how they run the ball and how Jared But it's always been because of how they run the ball and how they play defense, not so much that Jared Goff is gonna get them there do you.
I mean, come on now, don't tell me that you had.
We never picked up Detrot's defense, bro, I never said that said Detroit defense is and reason today because Aaron Glenn that was struggling last year, okay, tend to keep them going. It was because they could run the ball if Jared Golf was not turning it over. But he also had say Brown, and they picked up the tight end and he was making those guys better. Jared Golf just based off how he played the previous year and this year earned that money and that's and that's how it goes.
I would take it one good year.
But for you to say, hey man, it's time for you to pay me because I got us here, let me turn there, let me pivot out of this time because if that goes n NC Championship, he should get sixty.
And that's what he's gonna say.
Okay, what because I feel like you have to get DA's deal done before the season. Am I only one that feels like you have ton you right, you got to get him and then feel like you gotta get them done.
I don't know what they're doing now. I'm just so all right.
So as far as the conversation when you saw Jared Goff get his money, the first thing you say to yourself, all right, the clock is ticking. Now this number is gone from fifty three.
To it's going it's gonna five at least, I'm gonna come back, Beau. They're gonna be like, look at the highest paid guy is Joe Burrow, fifty five, been in the super Bowl. There is you know, what have you done? And that's gonna be the you know that's gonna it's my time, Like that's how it works. So it's gonna be it's gonna be a interesting battle, gonna be in the battle, but he gonna get paid regard me, he gonna get his bread.
So as far as quarterbacks and just doing the comparison annalysis between those two quarterbacks, I mean, who do you give the nine to?
Jared Goff for DAK regular.
Season the Cold to Prescott playoffs just the last, Like I'm just going off who has had more success.
In the playoffs, even it's running last, It has been Jared Goff.
And that's the thing, the only thing that's holding DAK Prescott back from being one like one of the perennial top two top three guys, is how he performs in the playoffs, or let's say this, how his team's perform war in the playoffs, because it always falls on the quarterback.
We've seen that.
It just it hadn't been up to par to where you say, you finished second in the m v MVP voting, but then you get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, and partially is your fault. And I could see if like we went to these playoff matchups and he had like a hurts in the super Bowl where he outplayed my homes but they still lost.
We look at these last two playoff performances. Now, I mean that's five interceptions, you know, so I think two got taken back for touchdown. It's like he's been I'm not gonna give him the majority of it, but he's he has his fair share in the l's taking in the playoffs. So I think you got to put that in there as well. But I think he'll still get me.
Barry you drug Robbie Blake portals to the championship.
This what's hurting you get so upset the vote and then they paid them, So who did you take? So you got that?
You got that, and you got damn, I'm gonna go golf on this. I got to you just got to go by the factuals. Two different teams, and you deck all the way.
You know it, you know what I mean.
I'm looking at the numbers too, But I understand you. We're going we're separated. It's not that you're moving the goal post. You're basically saying, look, there's regular season and this postseason, and you're you're giving the postseason to Jared Goff because of the success. And I can't argue with that because we always say, man, you're gonna go twelve and five and then and no one cares after that. Like if you go to and five this year, get
nobody cares about that twelve and five. They only care about what then happens in round one, round two, round three. Yeah, I got twelve and five right here too. Anyway, that's the end of lads. We'll be back on Monday, Newly Struggs will be back with us. Man hand your business new way.
Man. Thank y'all for joining us. We'll see you.
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