Player's Lounge: Dak vs Russ By the Numbers

safety Barry Church. Our other partner, Danny McCray, former Cowboys safety, is at home with a brand new daughter, the first child Danny and his wife. Welcome to the girl Club, the Girl Dad Club. Danny McCray. Yeah, it was so heartwarming, you know, I just just as I say, I got chills, just as I said, it was so heartwarming to get that picture from Danny, to see him holding his daughter. Because one it's it's life, and you know, just so

precious your first child. You never forget it. And the baby's healthy and that his and that his wife is okay. So I'm just warned by that, and I just get chills, eyes watered up when I just looked at the picture because it's a miracle, man, and I'm really happy for Danny McCrae. Yeah, I mean, shouts goes out to Danny and Kiki. I mean that. I mean, that's just a beautiful blessing. And then just to have your firstborn child in your hands, I mean it just it just gives

you a whole new perspective on life. And he and he's welcome into the girl club. I mean, that's just like when I had my first girl was just unbelievable experienced. So shout out to Danny and Kekey for bringing a beautiful blessing like this into our world. And man, we're gonna hold it down and tell you get back. Man. But man, that's like you said, that's an extreme blessing right there. Yeah, so you get the holder she wants

to be near. It was cool. My oldest will be sixteen and about three days, and you know, I got a better shot of communicating with her on TikTok or getting any contact with my daughter. You know, man, she hey, you know how you know how it is with the teen social media has taken over everything. Man. I'm looking hopefully they take their time with that. Man, enjoy it while you can enjoy it while you can. So yeah, my kids are older now, they talk back to you.

You know, they got their own minds and their own things they want to go do. And I mean I ended up buying a car from my oldest couple of weeks back. So when I tell you things, that just change it. Man. And and I see Danny's little baby, I just look at like I remember those days because because the days he's in the girl club, baby in the in the girl dad club, and that's it is. That is a good place to be, all right, A

place you don't want to be right now. If you're Mike McCarthy, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, is dealing with, you're ever changing secondary No Cheeto Alousier. This week for the Cowboys is a face Seattle, and Cheeto's gonna be down a few weeks. According to the coach, he's been dealing with a hamstring injury. So an addition that they made two weeks ago, give Will McClay and the Cowboys a whole lot of credit, because how fortunate are they to have Brandon car on this football team

right now? Because they need Brandon Car You've got Jordan Lewis, who came back in Week no. Last week Week two for his first game of the year, looked okay, but you got Anthony Brown on the IR. I mean, Church, this is this is some tough times here for this football team. When he comes to the injury standpoint, Yeah, I feel like you know, the Dallas Cowboys have been hit with a serious injury bug right now. I mean,

like you mentioned Anthony Brown's out. George Lewis, he came back last week, but he was out the majority of training camp with an injury. So he's he's just now starting to try to get his rhythm with this new defense. So and you saw it last week he struggled a little bit. So he's just now getting back. And now we got a woozy over here who's dealing with a hamstring injury. And I mean, look, if you ask Miles Austin, who knows when those you know, hamstring injuries are going

to come back. So we got a lot of shots to our depth right here, and especially in the secondary. I mean, with this injury, the cheeto, I don't I don't see it as a as a big of an injury as an lvee or a Sean Lee or a you know, Tyrn Smith or Lyle Collins. But it does take a shot at our depth. I mean, we were already reeling a little bit in the secondary, but now with our starting cornerback out and who knows when he's gonna come back, this is a huge shot to our depth.

But huge, huge props. So, like you said to Will McClay for bringing a guy like Brandon carr in, who's you know, he's never missed a snap throughout his whole career. He's versatile, he can play nickel safety and he can play corn owner as well, which is, in my opinion, his natural position. So huge shout out to the Cowboys from bringing him in. Let's just hope, you know, the rest of this team can stay healthy because I mean, I don't know if they can afford another injury bug

like this, because their depth is definitely being questions right now. Okay, So Seattle is got two receivers that are really good and Tyler Locketkay Metcalf here and I was just looking at Tyler Lockett already he's got sixteen catches for one hundred and fifty nine yards and two touchdowns, and dk Metcalf has been sensational for Seattle, And I was looking at some notes here dk Metcalf has run twenty three

percent of his route in the slot. So Church, tell me, if you're the Cowboys and you see that that that big wide receiver line up in the slot here, how do you attack it? And it's and it's Julio Jones. Last week they held up fine, Julio dropped an easy touchdown pass. He also had hamstring injury in the game. Right now, you just go from one top player to another set of top players, because you had Julio Jones

and Calvin Riddley, even Russell Gage. But but now you've got two other guys here and a better running game, which I think makes these two receivers of Metcalf and Locket more dangerous than what we saw last week. Yeah, it makes them a lot more dangerous because now you can implement if they get that run game going with Carson and I forget oh Hide, it's gonna be tough

with that play action. I mean, you got, you know, your third string linebacker in there, who he did perform pretty well last week, Joe Thomas in that second half. But if that run game gets going, that play action can can suck up the best of them, So he's really gonna have to be on their toes. This linebacking corp is really gonna have to be on their toes. But if I'm the Dallas Cowboys, believe it or not, I'm hoping DK Metcalf lines up in the slot position

that way. Being a defender, it's easier to double team. Now you can go with your with your nickel back on the outside. You can bracken him with a linebacker, or you can bracken him with a safety. And if he's in that slot, it's easy to disguise that bracket

as well. When he's way out on the outside outside the numbers, and you have a corner out there, and you're usually gonna let your safety hover overtop the quarterback sees that pre snap easily that their safeties he's well outside his numbers, he's going over there to double So that opens up the rest of this team and it's and it's Russell Wilson out there, he's gonna be able to just pick that apart. So for me, I'm hoping

he lines up in a slot that way. You can double teaming with all different types of players give him different looks and kind of frustrate him. But to me, I think they have to focus a lot of their attention not only on DK, but Lockett as well. I mean, we talked about him a little bit yesterday, but Lockett, he's such he has such great rapport with Wilson that when stuff breaks down, when stuff looks like, oh man,

this is going to be a bust at play. Somehow, some way, those two are on the same wave length and they're able to create these these amazing, big explosive plays. So to me, I think they have to focus their attention on DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and to me, hopefully hopefully one of them is manning the slot on any acc Asian, because I think it's easier to double

team in the slot. But the Cowboys are gonna have their their hands full and we need, we need, with everything in our heart, we need this defensive line to step it up because they have to find a way, somehow, some way to contain Russell Wilson. They're not gonna stop him, but if they can slow him down, that'll prove huge dividends for this Cowboys defense. Players Lounge brought to you by hotels dot com. I'm new restructs. He is buried church. Danny McCrae is off because his wife gave birth to

a beautiful baby girl. So I'm hoping we don't see Danny the rest of the week here and make all the adjustments. Just just be at home, be a dad, enjoy that process. Here we can talk for forty five minutes. We love him, but uh, you know, the football this is bigger than question than the podcast. Also today, in case you didn't know, Tank Lawrence is going to miss practice with the Dallas Cowboys, being reported by several Cowboys media beat reporters that his wife is going to have

a baby and cheese and labor. So that's always a goose not to be at practice. So so there could be a new addition to the Lawrence family. So that's why we'll congrats to uh well, congrats to the laws Well. I mean I had no idea he was expecting another child, but I mean congrats to him as well. There must be something in the water down there in uh in Frisco and play though, because a lot of your cats

down there having kids. Man, So I'm gonna make sure my wife stays far away from Frisco because the boys don't have little ones. Man, Now, okay, let let me ask, Let me ask this question. It's missus Church done. Oh if it was up to her, we'd probably had about seven by now. But your boy is out of there, all right. There may be a star in the east real soon for you, Church, because you know, who wants something, when mama wants something, just gonna let you know, it's usually.

I thought I was done too, Okay, I thought I was done to five years without you know, five years about any kids. Um, my wife was forty three when the last one came. Yeah, when the last one came forty three, I thought I was done. You know, I'm done. You know, had two daughters. I was good. You know, it didn't really feel like add to the payroll. Um, so I was fine. You know, you guys live near Frisco. No we don't, No, we don't. But so so here's here's what happened. Church. So. Um it was the two

thousand and ten World Series. It was the Rangers and the Giants. So my wife's from San Francisco, and we talked about me going to work out in the Bay Area, like you know, hey, I wouldn't mind working out back, going back to California and work. So acquired about a couple of jobs. But I told her, I said, hey, look, it costs a whole lot more. I remember it costs a whole lot more to live in California. And I said, I said, you're gonna need to get a job. You're

gonna need to get a job. I want to move out to California. Fine, I'll go work, but you need to get a job too. And she said, as well, what about what about the girls, because the youngest, you know, was still at home. And I said, well, she goes to school this year, so you can go get a job. Just, you know, make sure you I can go pick up the kids. And I lie, you not church she was pregnant. About five weeks later, Oh, value FURTI mentioned, job got real. Further,

all you had to do was mention that magic word. Man, you're gonna have to go back to this workforce. You're gonna have to go back to the job. And and like you said, five weeks later, oh, I guess I can't do it no more news. So yes, pregnant, and and and had ended up having our having our last child about two weeks after the uh, the Mavericks won

the twenty eleven NBA NBA Championship. So so my, my whole point of this story is you can say you're done, I need to know when missus Church is done because that's when you truly be done. And this is true. And and when when she when my wife finally said, you know, I'm done, this is it, and she said we can't do this anymore. And and then the doctor went ahead and tied them tubes and I watched tubes. I was in go ahead. I was going out of business baby. It was the going out of business baby.

So I'm just like, you know, so you can have you can have these plans, but you let me know when when missus Church says that she's done and then and then she's out of business. Okay, So that's that's that's when you that's when you know for sure, because just because you're thinking it doesn't mean that that's what she's wanting to do. So just you know, these are the abc of of of being married, the fun, the fun parts of it as well. Hey, let's get to

our first break here. When we come back. I've got couple numbers that I want to dive into with Dak Prescott and Russell Wilson, the two exciting quarterbacks in this game, and something happened with the Chargers that I believe is really going to test this franchise, and how the players deal with the team doctors. Let's get into that. On the flip side. This is the players Louge brought to

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visiting slor usa dot com. See more, do more to the players loud All right, coming to a Cowboys game or coming to the Cowboys game next week, and make sure you know before you go, wear a mask, keep distance, and be prepared for cashless transactions. Please be aware that all the safe stadium policies of the safety and policies prior to arriving at AT and T Stadium. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com slash safe Stadium for details. I was

there for that Cowboys Atlanta game. It was different, but look, you got to bring your mask and just operate under the new COVID policies. From what I could tell, there were no incidents and everybody seemed to follow them. And the only folks who have had issues trying to follow

these NFL protocol rules have been the coaches. And I think there's all changing this week after they that slapped one hundred one hundred thousand dollars fines two coaches who weren't wearing the mask and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the team. So you start snatching that cash all of a sudden, people start respecting the rules. So I expect Pete Carroll, one of the coaches who got fined that hundred grand for not wearing a mask. I expect Pete have a big, old nice mask this week

when the cow yeah are taking on the Seahogs. A hundred grand. I don't care how many millions you make. Hundred grands are tough. That's a tough note to take out your wallet. Man. Oh, that's a tough pill to swallow. And then when you get to your office, I mean, I'm sure they you know, they got their office over there.

For us players, it was a locker room. But when they get to that office and they see that FedEx envelope sitting there, that white FedEx envelope with that orange and purple logo, Oh, you already know what's inside of that. That's not that's not fan mail. You already know. It's super thin, and it's it's super it's like a piece of paper almost, and you know what's coming in there.

That's some type of fine. Every player and coach hates to get one of those FedEx things plopped right on their right on their desk or in their locker room. But knew it real quick. I want to ask you, I didn't know you were at the at the game the other day. How I know we had twenty some thousand fans there, But how was the crowd noise? Was it? You think it had a little bit to play in the momentum change or crowd? You know, twenty thousands just

not that big of an impact. Look, you could hear the fans, okay, and you could hear the fans, and once the Cowboys got going, they got excited. I heard a lot of Atlanta. I heard there was a couple of Atlanta fans near me, so I could clearly hear the cheering from them throughout the game. The press box, okay, we're high for the press box, but for some reason, some Atlanta fans got tickets and they got close to the press box, so we could hear them cheering throughout

the contest. But it was definitely audible when the Cowboys had the football and they were going in the second half, and of course we all saw the role that they were on here and so you could you could hear it. You could hear the groans with the funk when they were fooling the ball and turn it it over so you could hear the groans there. So, um, look it's it's not Here's why you know it makes a difference because we see the games where there are no people

at all, like that Ram game. Yeah, so it definitely it definitely helps and the guys, you know, certain guys are going to feed off a crowd and they need it. So I thought the people who were there and Dak Prescott had had had given them a shout out. The players were thankful for those fans that showed up here. So if you're if you're going to go to a Cowboy game, I said, you can be prepared to do

all the cheering and everything that you've done before. A little bit different, but at the same time, so much has changed that I don't think it's that different because our whole lot, nothing well nothing we're doing in our lives right now is different. Um. In the press box, for instance, we sho have those little long buffet tables

and you know, you just go you serve yourself. Well, now they come in, they come in to lunch an individual packet, so you just tell them, yes, I'd like I'd like the breakfast meal, and so they give you the breakfast meal, the oh yes, I'd like the lunch meal. They give you that. So a lot of it's individually done things. And so now if you want to buy concessions, you just know, okay, it's cashless transactions, so you can still you know, do things just a little bit different.

Your space differently. Um, you're with a seat target, they got spaces there. But I can't emphasize enough that this is our new normal. And I think once you just get used, Okay, this is my seat, this is where I'm at, then you're gonna go and you're gonna cheer, and you're gonna have all the fun that you had before. And for me, I'll tell you this, you got space. Now have to worry aboudy some leg room, all right, all right, right, you got some space. You have your

personal space space around you. So um, I've got I tipped my cap to all of the teams in the National Football League who are doing what they can to try and still give fans the experience if their state governments are allowing them to do it. Los Angeles right now out there, you know, think they're not having fans at the game, But in Texas they can have fans at the game. Kansas City, they had fans at the game. So if you're able to have them and you're going

out there, you can help give your team an advantage. Seattle, by the way, no fans. So there's no fans out there. There's no twelfth man. No, no, it's not. And so this is a break for the Cowboys. Seattle still favored by four. The Cowboys do bring in the NFC Offensive Player of the Week in Dak Prescott, who threw for four hundred and fifty yards, completed seventy two point three percent of his passes against the Falcons, had four total touchdowns with a one hundred and point four rating in

the football game. So Dak Prescott and two football games is doing his part. Russell Wilson right now, he's been sincere so he's throwing an NFL high four touchdowns, burry over twenty yards. He's averaging twelve point one yards per pass play, and the Cowboys have allowed ten completions of twenty yards or more. That's tied for the most of the NFL with Miami and Atlanta. So we're seeing two defenses that are going to have some issues. Let me

throw this number out here too. For for Seattle, that defense has allowed four hundred and fifty yards of passing. They did allowed that in Game one to Atlanta. Then they allowed three hundred and ninety seven yards of passing to Cam Newton and the Patriots on NBC Sunday and Night Football. So we see that both teams are having an issue when it comes to their secondary and they're clearly not putting the kind of pressure you need to

on the quarterback. So the Cowboys obviously right now are in worse shape when you look at their secondary, having lost a Cheeta a Woozier for a number of weeks. Anthony Brown's on IR So this could be a high scoring game. I think it may be indicative of what we saw last week when both teams were with thirty nine and forty points. I think that so we get I can see each team scoring in the thirties in

this one. Because if you can't defend and you're dealing with injuries and you're not getting to the quarterback, good luck, good good luck tank Lawrence Tank. Lawrence m was if we talked about miss practice because his wife's in labor, but he's also dealing with a knee injury, So we don't know his status in terms of Sunday, and even if he can go Sunday church, how good. Canny be Bate Law from BA Cowboys radio broadcaster said Tank was basically playing on one leg last week. It should have

got pulled earlier. Yeah, and that and that's what to me, that's what it comes down to with this Dallas Cowboys defense. It's how can we get after the quarterback. We know going into this season we were gonna have a younger secondary experienced. I mean, they played a little bit in their first year and their second year, but we were

gonna have an overall a young secondary. And we thought going into this season that that front seven, especially that defensive line, with the additions of Everson Griffin, you know, Alden Smith coming in here, you know you still got Tank, you still got Crawford in there. We thought at the beginning of the season, this was going to be the strength.

This was going to be that unit that pushes this defense over the edge and gets them that pressure that they need, gets after the quarterback and gets the ball

back to their offense. But for these first two games, I'm not sure if it's the lack of training camps, the lack of mini camps, or the lack of OTAs, but and having this new system brought in with Mike Nolan, but we just haven't seen that pressure generated, whether it be four man rush, whether it be them bringing guys from the secondary, whether it be them bringing gays from the linebacking corps. We just haven't seen that pressure. And I think with this defense needs is they need to

get after this quarterback. Their secondary they can hold up as much as they can, but if they if the quarterback's back there, especially if Matt Ryan or Russell Wilson, if they have time back there, they're gonna pick apart any defense there is out there. I mean, they just they've just seen it too much. In Russell Wilson right now, he's playing at an all time level, at an MVP type level. So with us, I feel like the key is to get after this quarterback. We gotta figure out

a way to generate a pass rush. And since it's not coming from our twenty one million dollar man, who now he has a neat issue, we gotta find it somewhere. Whether it be Aldon Smith, whether it be you know, Crawford in the middle of Everson Griffin. Somebody has to find a way to generate this pressure because if not, Russell Wilson is gonna tear this defense apart. And you talk about, you know, our injuries to our corners. Right now, we got a Woozier out, Brown's out. What are we

gonna do. We're gonna bring car down there, or we're gonna put Robinson move him back from safety to the corner. I mean, there's a couple of things that we can do, but overall, I think this defense has to rely on that defensive line in that front seven to not only get after the quarterback, but they got to stop the run. If not, it's gonna be a field day in Seattle.

Is gonna be like just picking their poison. Do we want to run and gash you with Carson and hide or do we want to put you over top with you know, DK Metcalf and lock it. So for me, it all predicates on getting after the quarterback, and it's a must, especially this game in Seattle, that we get after Russell Wilson. Let's let's start with the run, because I just went back and looked at numbers here. So the Cowboys allowed one hundred and fifty nine yards of

rushing to the Rams on thirty three carries. They allowed one hundred nine yards of rushing to Atlanta on thirty three carries. So we're seeing teams who are running of football and the other teams are winning the time of possessions. The Cowboys these last two games have lost the time of possession. The other folks are out here deciding we're going to try to run the football, and if the Seattle Seahawks can run the football and win first down,

then that's at a disadvantage for the Cowboys. So right out of the gate, to me, the defensive line has got to be gap sound and stop the run and make sure that Carlos High and Chris Carson they're starting running back, that these guys are not out here put in Seattle in the situation where they're looking at a second and seven, I mean a second and three gaining seven yards or a second and four because they're gaining six yards on a run. They've got to do that.

So that's where I'm looking at. Terry Pole, Tristan Hill, Antoine Woods. You need these guys to be upfront holding their blocks. The Seattle offensive line is not there's no, Zach Martin's over there. Okay, there's you know, they don't have any great offensive line, they're good enough. They know how to win, and Russ makes up for a whole lot of issues and mistakes and guys that I think are just average. But the Cowboys who were just average as well, I had to figure out a way to

be better than they've been. They've got to improve, in your hope, and that's all that's that's always a scary words. We're talking about football. Yeah, what your hope is that they're getting used to this system a little bit and they can't And one other point, they can't be bad on third downs. I mean, that's the money down. That's how you get off the field. That's how you get the ball back in your offensive's hand, back in Dak

Prescott's hand, and being able to win the game. And when we saw that last game, the first half, they were horrendous on third down. I believe they were maybe you know, I think the Falcons were maybe over sixty percent and third down. But in the second half they were able to get those fortunate stops. Now they did have a couple drops by Atlanta, but they were able to get those stops and able to get the ball back in Dak Prescott's hand, and we saw the rest

is history. So the first two games, I think they were a little bit shaky on third down. If they're able to you know, get their percentages up and get the ball back to this offense, like you said in the past, I mean, the offense, in my opinion, is the best defense to stop Russell Wilson. If they're staying on this field as Dak Prescott and Zekiel Elliott, those boys are on the field for twenty five thirty five

plus minutes. I think that that basically limits the amount of time that Russell Wilson has back there to basically pick apart your defense. And I think going into this game that can be your best defense instead of just relying on our you know, four to three or our front seven and shut down Russell Wilson, I think this offense has to maintain the possession of the ball throughout the whole game. Okay, here's something else. Okay, and you

get this one. Haven't been a safety buried Church. We saw Matt Ryan running for first downs last week, and that's You've got Russell Wilson here now with that ability that if the Cowboys are covering guys to go ahead and pick up some first downs. And Russ is not a guy who takes hits either, He's not so. And from a defensive standpoint, how do you how do they cover or account for Russell Wilson on a third and six, a third and seven? How do you do that? Well,

let me tell you first, it's demoralizing. It's like a dagger in the heart when, especially as a secondary, when I feel like you're holding up your own You got your man locked up, everybody's locked up around the board. He has to throw the ball away. There's no way he's gonna get the ball off. And this guy, somehow, some way escapes the pocket and picks up six, and before you're able to stop him, before you're able to

let your frustrations out on him, he slides. He slides right before you, and you gotta go over top of you. It's probably one of the most demoralizing things an offense can do to a defense, because you first you get another set of downs when you're probably tired from already doing those first three downs, and then you can't even let out your frustration on a guy like that. It's extremely, extremely heartening. But to me, what this defensive line has to do is they have to have an ability to

contain this guy. If they line up in their gaps, they can't have a hero ball or what I call it hero ball. You can't have a guy out there who's rushing the passer and thinks, oh, let me take this easy path. Let me take this easy path inside to him because I can go ahead and get them. And that's all that's gonna happen is Russell Wilson's gonna spin right up out of there. You're gonna lose contain.

And that's where we've seen all their big plays happen when Russell gets out of the pocket and he got time to throw it, to lock it, throw it to Metcalf. So I think this defensive line they have to do an amazing job of keeping him contained. If that's putting, you know, a spy somewhere, if that's moving you know, taint Lawrence or Alden Smith on the inside, just to kind of hold a block of there in spy on them.

They have to figure out a way to do it because if he goes there and picks up first downs and extends the drive with his legs. I mean, you're asking for a lot from this defense. So they got to be able to find a way to contain him and hopefully not let him use his legs to pick up first downs, and hopefully on the other side, Dak Prescott can do the same thing and use his legs

a little bit more to pick up first downs. Because this offense has got to find a way to help to win the time of possession battle in this football game. I think they've got to win the time of possession battle. They've also got to win the turnover battle. Here, let's take our second time out here on the Players Lounge, brought to you by Hotels dot Com. Tyrod Taylor missed the Chargers game for one are the strangest reasons I've ever heard. Let's dive into that in the impact that

it's going to have on their football team. I'm knew, he scrugs. He's buried church. Players Lounge on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio since eighteen sixty five. Stetson Hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and team pride too. You can by purchasing your own Stetson. You can look just like how the flag guys do on field at every home games and heats, the official crown of all self

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are on sale now. Get yours at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash tickets all right, Church, So you're telling me that some news just happened here From John Machoda, the athletic who covers the Cowboys, it's a good job for the John's a friend of mine. Diggs the corner the Trey Digs going on there. Yeah, from from the reports from Cowboys campus, seems that Trayvon Diggs, um, you're starting cornerback and arguably your best corner Um, did not practice today.

He's listed as a shoulder injury. I'm sure we'll hear more about it later in the week, but that's just another injury and another big time part of this Instead, it's just not practicing today. I don't know what's going on over there in Cowboys Can what they're doing in practice or what, but this is just another injury for that secondary man. So a shoulder injury to Digs. Exusier out with a hamstring. Jordan Lewis has just come back.

They've signed Brandon car For those Cowboy fans who come on our feed and want Earl Thomas, Earl Thomas you're concerned right now, you need some corners. You may want to call Dion see if he can leave Jackson stay for a week or two just to come over here and defend somebody. I mean, it is right, It is right by the way. You see Byron Jones left the

Dolphins game on Sunday he had suffered an injury. I mean, the injury bug is all across the NFL and right now, man, you just got to be hopeful that you can make it week to week. And also, who is on your practice squad right now really matters. I mean, you gotta have some people that you're working with because this is not going to stop. We're going to keep seeing injuries throughout this season. I think we'll see more guys on IR than we've ever seen before. I haven't seen this

when the ACLA injuries in a long long time. So, yeah, here's Diggs. Maybe Diggs has to take Maybe he has to take a shot in order to play against see I don't know. I don't know about taking shots anymore. Yeah, let's dive into that right now. So b Taylor, the Charger starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor is going to take an injection before their game against Kansas City on Sunday, and

the team doctor punctured his lung. He didn't play. They ended up having to take him to the hospital during the football game, and Steve Wise of NFL Network talked about the things that could happen for the Chargers based on this is number one, that they don't trust the team doctors anymore. The guys you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go see somebody else before I just rely on the word from your doctors. And then also, Barry, you will

get this one because you understand it very much. What if Tyrod Taylor ends up losing his position because of this? Justin Herbert, the rookie, came in, played well, the Chargers held their own against Kansas City ended up losing to the Chargers in overtime, So Herbert is supposed likely getting

the start this week. If Tyrod Taylor's no longer a starter because of the team doctor puncturing his lung, that's just a bad look for the Chargers, not only within this team, but when you're trying to recruit free agents as well. Oh yeah, it's a huge bad looking. And I'm gonna start with the team and the doctors to begin with. What this look does is, how are you, like you pointed out earlier, how are you as a player.

If let's just say you get injured, you know, you tweak something or something like that, how are you supposed to go to the doctor and say, you know, what do you have that's best? What's what's your best advice? So how do I fix this up real quick? If you can't trust them to get you healthy? Um, and that'll make a huge, huge divide amongst the team if if you can't trust the doctors. Now, you know, everybody makes mistakes, but that right there, I mean, that is

a huge mistake to make. And they put you that doctor, that specific doctor, and not sure what his name is, but they put you in charge of that like you're the head of all that. You can't make a mistake like that. Now it brings me to Tyrod Taylor. I'm not sure you know, with the CBA and you know if he if he was just like you know, yeah,

I can accept this this help from this doctor. I'm not sure what he can do legally, but if it was me, I would be looking at every single angle of how I can sue the crap out of this team. I mean, there's no way that you're supposed to be a professional doctor injecting this for your ribs to try to get the pain down for your ribs and you go too deep and you puncture my lung, Like, I

just don't understand how that can happen. And you're right, new if he if he goes out there, just say, Herbert, who looked phenomenal in his opening game the other week, if he goes out there, and let's just say Tyrod can't play this week and Herbert has another amazing performance and this time they get the W and Coach Lynn is over there like, hey, you know, I feel for my guy. I said, what, he's one hundred percent healthy,

he'll be back in the starting lineup. But if Herbert's bawling like this, you just can't take that momentum away from a team. I mean, the team is greater than one player. We all know that. But if he's bawling like that, you cannot take that momentum away. So let's just say he loses his starting spot. I mean, then where does that put him? I mean if he if he becomes a free agent next week, you know, teams aren't gonna look at him like, oh, this could be

our franchise starting quarterback. They're gonna look at him. It's like, Okay, he's a he's a backup type. He'll you know, he'll be like a Chase Daniel, you know, be around the league for a long time just backing people up. And I could take a huge hit on his money. So if I'm Tyrod Taylor, I'm telling you now, I'm looking at every different avenue to try to recoup as much

financially as I can from this situation. But overall, it's just a it's just a bad look for this Charges organization because I don't think this is the first time they've had trouble with the team doctors. It's not the first time that the Charges have had issues with the team doctor that. That is definitely true. You can just go google that and you'll find stories there. The two things come out of this. I wonder does the doctor

keep his job? Don't know, I don't know who the doctor is, like you, I don't know how long they've been there. But do you you know, is this one of those where you got to tell the doctor, Hey, look, you may we like you, but you're gonna have to go ahead and take this hell because they have our players, our players and our player agents saying they don't want you touching them. Because if you're if you're a player on the charges this week, you got to get a shot.

Are you gonna let him do it? I'm like, hey, who else we got? I mean, you know, so that's an issue right there. One to replacing the doctor and two Verry. Does the Players Association get involved in something like this for a guy like Taylor? I think they would have to. I mean, you know, the NFLPA, you know, they're supposed to have our our best interest in heart and everything like that. So um, and there's already reports out there, you know, Tyrod talking to the NFLPA out there.

But this is this is what you got a union for it. This is what you got, you know, this whole NFLPA. And I believe who's the head of a deep Dean is it still Deans Dean? It's d Smith. D Smith, Yeah, it's d Smith still head. This is why he's the head. I mean, this is the reason for that organization to help look out for the players and have their best interest in hearts. So hopefully, if I'm Tyrod Taylor. I'm contacting them, I'm contacting the legal team.

I'm doing whatever I can to get this situation better in my favor because I mean, you see, how how how can you trust a team doctor after that? I mean, I've had toward all shots and I've had you know, pain killers in the past to get through games. Um, and if you can't trust the doctor to get you through that game pain wise, I mean, it causes a whole It's just a slippery slope, as I should put. It's a slippery slope. And to me, this is where the agent for Tyrod Taylor has to go to work.

That's his job now. I mean, ty Rod's gotta do what he can and to get healthy and get into playbook and see whatever he you know, where his status is. He's got to worry about football. But this is where the agent has to get involved. So he's on the

phone with a Spanos family about what happened. He's on the phone with the nfl PA, and he needs to take this all Tyrod's you know, he just needs to come from Tyrode with Okay, here's the latest details in the Tyrode cannot get involved in the minutia of what right now is I don't want to say mount practice, but obviously it's a medical issue here and a mistake that was made. Um, they got to he's got to do that for him. So the player can can do his job, but he altos. Let me ask a job.

I'm sorry, Yeah, let me ask you a question real quick. So what what can the what can the that team do? Can they can they contact Tyrode and say hey, you know, like do they take their legal team to Tyrode and say, hey, man, you know these are the options that you have. And you know, we had imagine you not to do this, Like, you know, what can they say to Tyrod right now? It's basically what I'm what I'm asking you. No, it's a good question. And to me, this is once again

this is the agent. The agent now has to step in here and try to protect the player at all calls. I mean, this is one where okay, you just go to you know, you just say, hey, talk to my people. You know, hey, Barry, let's talk to about you know what, talk to my people. I have to go worry about, you know, my job right now. Talk to my people. Almost like when you're selling your house, you got to go to the realtors or when you go into court

and you say it tells him. I talk to my lawyer here that that's what needs to happen for Tyrod Taylor, and he should be dealing with at all, with the medical staff or or the Chargers legal team at all. This is why you have representation. This is also why you have the NFLPA, because anything that they bring to you, if you're Tyrod, you're taking it to your agent, You're

taking it to the NFLPA. You're not signing anything. And I don't even know if you want to have a conversation with anybody without your people around, just because this is this is serious. This is a serious I mean, like tyrode rehab, that's right, Where does he go to get better? Like, like, how how did that work? Is the team hand for that as well? Or does he because I wouldn't trust going back into the facility. He's talking about, I need this rehab for my lung after

that happened. So do they pay for his you know, medical issues and medical rehab outside of the team. I mean, it's just there's a lot of things going on with this right now. Steve, which of NFL Network had spoken about how he covered teams where where players had lost the confidence of the medical staff and how debilitating that could be. The person I feel bad for right now it's head coach Anthony Lynn, because he's now put in a situation that really, you know, it's unfair to him

from the standpoint. Okay, if Herbert keeps playing well as you brought up and he was drafted to be the future, he's got to have the conversation now with the team and with the quarterback about how this aul went down. Barry, let me ask you this because you were you've been around two NFL teams now between the Cowboys and Jacksonville. Is that old adage you don't lose your job to injury? Does that is still apply or are we dealing with different things now? You tell me no, that doesn't apply

at all. I mean I've seen it happen left and right. I mean, you can't tell me, you know, or Tony Romo didn't lose his job because of injury. I mean if he never gets injured, who knows? If we ever hear about you know, Dak Prescott, but um and in my case, when when they brought in Brodny pool Um to be the starting safety back in twenty thirteen. Um, it was you know, I'm back in two thousand and twelve, Um,

he got injured. He got injured early in camp and he just wasn't in shape you know, during OTAs and during camp to pretty much to take over that starting job. So I was able to supplant him. But if he doesn't get injured, and you know, he stays in shape, you know, I might still be on special teams or it might still be you know, vuying for a job somewhere else. So, UM, that whole that whole old adage of just you know, you know, if he's injured, he'll he'll he'll have his job when he get returns. I

think that's a little crap. And yeah, I mean that's just how it isn't in today's NFL, and the quarterback situation is much different than any other position. And I go back to Dak Prescott and Tony Rowe. Dak had won so many games and he'd also won the confidence of the locker room that they were able to make that decision and everyone was okay with it. That that's something else that I think a lot of people haven't talked about enough. You could never find anybody who wasn't

a Dak person. I mean even guys who were close to Romo were all saying, yet, Dak's the guy, this is the guy. So so he had that spinning his way. Is justin Herbert able to have that same thing where the locker room is all behind him, and that that's going to be interesting because all you know, all rooms are different, man, All rooms are different, all coaches are different.

Here this is That's why I say I feel bad for the head coach, Anthony Lynn, because you're now put into a position that you have to figure out a way to try and you're not gonna make everybody happy, but you try to figure out how do you treat it in a in a classy fashion and you you can keep everybody in your room together even as something this may be and you're you're completely right. I mean I think when it comes down to it, I think only a couple if you can swing a few players

like it's it's in an instant. With that Dak and Tony situation, Um, Dad can't have to get the whole locker room on his side. He just had to get a few players on his side, and once he got those few that basically swung the whole team. And um, I'll we get off air, I'll tell you about the story. And when when I tell you when I thought that

Dak pretty much took over that job. But UM, to me, I think, you know, if if Herbert has you know, the confidence of the Keelan Isllen and a you know one Hunter Henry or whoever else is the leaders of those teams, Um, I think it'll be pretty easily you know, to sway or to to pitch that to to team that Hey, Herbert's gonna take over from now one? Is it right? You know? I don't know, but I think it'll be pretty easy if he can get those guys to to buy in with him. Kansas City ended up

beating the chart Argers in overtime. And if Herbert can go out the way Dak Prescott did, Yeah, Dak Prescott rolled off with seven, eight, nine, ten wins. Yeah, something like that. And I go back to the Pittsburgh game where it looked like the Cowboys were going to lose as Ben Roethlisberger faked the spike and and it is just you know a little bit of time less than sixty some odd seconds left. Then the Cowboys go down

the field and win the game. And then I remember that Green Bay game at lambeau Field was another game where you're kind of thinking, okay, rookie quarterback, let's see what he does. And Dak showed out, and Brett Farvee was in the booth with Troy Aikman and they were just saying, how you can't you can't go back to Romo. It's Dak's job. And so when you got two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in here saying Dak's the guy, then Jimmy Johnson's back in the studio, that's when I thought

Romo really lost. It's like, oh man, the national media is now telling the Cowboys what to do, and they're saying it over for Romo. And and then then of course you're covering the team and that you were there as well. But you could tell he won the locker room, so you won. You won the media perception, then you won the room, and it was really nowhere for Tony

to go. If Justin Herbert is able to do that same type of thing, then it makes a job easier for Anthony Lynn in terms of having to deal with it. But if the charges are just a team that's under five hundred and he's starting to struggle because now guys have have schemed up against against him, then he gets a lot tougher. Whenever today it's healthy and wants to come back and play. So that's the tough thing about

the National Football League. But I'll say this for Dak Prescott, since since he ended up winning that job, he's done nothing but proved he is worthy of being the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Hey man, that's our show. We've been running here, running and gunn and so Barry church Man always fun to chat with you. We do it every day at two THIRTYES Central time right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Brought to you by Players Lange. I'm new he Scruggs. We will chat with you on

Thursday right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys four o'clock. How about you go