Player's Lounge: How Tough Is This Schedule?

by former Dallas Cowboys players, Danny McCray and Barry Church. Gentleman, we got a lot to talk about within this hour. First off, has everybody doing day, I'll do it better at Earl Thomas. Now, I'm doing good, man, I'm doing I'm doing I'm doing it. I'm doing it really, I'm doing it really well. I'm doing it. I'm doing I'm doing it really well. Man. Quarantine Wow, just interesting stuff, man. We got a lot of good stuff to talk about. Shots thrown early, Shots thrown early. Man, I'm doing good.

By the way, I'm not laughing. I'm not laughing a big or crap, not laughing. My bad. I don't know the man, you know. I will say this, Danny, just based on what you just said to start off the show. They do play the Ravens. This year was to play the ras I ain't worried about it. We will live into other topics non Cowboy related throughout this show. All right, First off, everybody, um, the schedule is the twenty twenty schedule is out the National Football League. Chris, go ahead

and pop up that schedule. Let's look at the first quarter of the schedule. The Dallas Cowboys are slated to start the NFL season in Los Angeles, California, specifically Inglewood at the new Sofi Stadium, where the Rams and the Chargers are going to share the stadium. The Cowboys, interestingly enough, are going to go ahead and take on the Chargers in a preseason game. So September thirteenth on Sunday Night

AMBC by Sunday Night Football Rams. Then it's at home against Maddie Icy Atlanta Falcons, then up to Washington to face the Seattle Seahawks. Then a October fourth game against Baker Mayfield the Cleveland Browns. All right, gentlemen, break down these first three games. Here, Church, what do you see him? I'm kind of conflicted here for these first the first four games. Man. Overall, I feel like they have a favorable schedule, but these first four and it's only it's

coming down the one team. For me, it comes down to the Atlanta thoughts. I feel like they'll go through um at La in that first game. But I feel like the Atlanta file because they're a tricky team, man, because I feel like they have a lot of momentum coming into this year. I think I finished a year pretty well, if I'm not mistaken. Last season, even though they didn't make the playoffs, feel like they won the last couple of games. But they got mighty ice there.

They got Julio Jones. They got a newly acquired Todd Gurley in the backfield, and he's had success in things Cowboy defenses in the past. So we shall see. But that's a conflicting game for me. I got them winning it, but I'm not quite sure about it. But the rest of them, I feel like they should easily mop up those last two games. But the conflicting one. Oh and I'm sorry, I'm mistaken. Oh no, no, they will not

be to Seattle Sehawk. So the first the first that got him more, I got him going maybe three and one or two and two. Yeah, I'm a three and one you had me confused church, which with the church? You had me confused with the with the Seahawks and mop them up. I was, I was, I was questioning your no. I see, I mean I believe they beat the Rams. I'm not even sure like what the Rams are right now. They don't have cooks, they don't have girly, they still have golf. So I think we go out

there and we get get a dub. The Falcons, I think we get the win just because they are such an iffy team. They have so much talent. They kind of remind me of us, the old US. We have talent on the roster, but we aren't able to get those wins. So I think with the new regime coming in, I think we go out there and we beat the Falcons the red skin, I mean the Seahawks. I think

that is kind of up in the air. If it's only fifteen or twenty percent capacity allowed in the stadium, I think we have a better chance of winning because that twelve man is a real thing, So that just depends. So I'm gonna chalk that up as an l And we go out there and we beat LSU North. So I got us going three and one. Okay, So three and one for Church and mcraig to start the first quarter of the schedule. Right, Let's look at the second part of the Chris gored and throw that up on

the screen. There, Chris Bean who helps us out and makes this whole podcast go. We appreciate Chris, all right. So the second part is an October eleventh game against the New York Football Giants. Joe Judge is a new head coach there, Jason Garrett the offensive coordinator. Mark Columbo's the offensive line coach. So it is a game against the Giants. Then it's Monday night football as Kyler Murray of Alan High School comes back to Jerry World to

take on the Cowboys. Then it is a game at Washington and FedEx Field to take on that at that sad outfit. And then it is a Sunday night football game at Philadelphia. All right, So Church, start with me here, give me the wins and losses for this quarter part of the schedule. You guys might think I'm crazy for this, but for this quarter in the schedule, I'm gonna go too. And two I'm gonna go when they play New York.

I know New York's coming down here, and I know they had all this success against New York, but I feel like New York might be a little a little name some juice to him. I feel like Garrett going up there, coming down to Jerry World for the first time with the New York Colors on, I think he's gonna get a little bit of juice to them, and I think they might steal one over in Jerry World. Um, I feel like they'll easily mop up Arizona. That's a

that's a younger team. Yeah, they got DeAndre Hopkins, but I don't think that jail right there that early in the season will will click. So I think they'll get rid of them pretty quickly. The Washington Redskins, like like Danny's Ethel like they'll they'll mop them up as well. But the Philadelphia Eagles, that'll be an intriguing matchup right there. I'm not quite sure it was that Home or a Way is a away game on Sunday night, Okay, that's away game. So I feel like Phili will take that

one away. Um, they got all their their weapons back offensively, if everybody's healthy, Plus they added some speed on the outside. Plus they've had the Cowboys number here this last year, So I feel like Philly will take that one and get leaving the Cowboys two and two after the second quarter. All right, McCray, Yeah, I'm I think will beat the Giants. I do think that it will be one of those, uh, those offensive games whereas it's scoring whoever's the last person

to score wins. They scoring fifty fifty five points because I think j G has has it on his mind that he has Danny Domes and say Quan to work with it. He's gonna come out and try to prove a point. But I think we still get that the Cardinals. For me, man like history for me playing against the Cardinals when I'm with the Cowboys is it's always super tough and we never never know how it's going in. So just just for that reason, I'm saying that they

come to town and and we lose that one. We lose that one, and then we finish off the two division games with the win. So it's another three and one start for me in the second quarter of the season. Okay, So at the halfway mark, Church, you got the Cowboys at five and three. Craig, You've got the Cowboys at six and two. Let's go to the poor third quarter of the schedule here, which starts November eighth against Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then it is a game

on the road against Minnesota. Remember last year it was a Sunday night game in which Kirk Cousins and company came into Jerry World and ended up getting the win. That's what table and Austin had the fair catch at the end that we all question, which led to the demise of Keith though Quinn's special teams coach. Then it's a Thanksgiving Day game Washington comes to Arlington. And then it's a December third game against MVP Lamar Jackson and

the Baltimore Ravens and Earl Thomas in Baltimore. So Church run it down. How do you see this quadrant? As the Cowboys started Pittsburgh, it ended up in Earl Thomas's town. To me, this is going to be the hardest stretch of the season by far from the Cowboys. I mean they got a stretch right there which would have teams that are experience have made the playoffs. How those Steelers missed it last year, but they didn't have Ben Roethlisberger.

He's coming back fully healthy. They have to get you just miss smooth Schuster on the rights track because last year he kind of dropped off. But I feel like they're gonna they're gonna have an impressive defense and they're gonna bring an offense that I'm not quite sure our defense can handle. So I'm gonna give Pittsburgh to win on that one. Ken Folk Cousin, you know Kirk Cousins over there in Minnesota, we gotta go up there as well.

I'm not seeing a victory there either. I feel like he definitely had our number last year, as he performed pretty well when he came down here, So that's going up there. I don't see us getting that win at all. I feel like they're too balanced of a team for us, So I'll give us an l on that one. Um Washington, Yeah, I think that'll be a rap. That'll be a deve for us. And I believe that last game was that against Philly. It's Baltimore at Baltimore. On the symbol Baltimore

at Baltimore. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's a Thursday night and that Thursday night game, primetime game. You got the former m v P Lamar Jackson right there. I just don't think our defense can handle him. I think it's kind of a that might be kind of a blowout on Thursday night. But I'm gonna go Baltimore there as well.

So that's this third quarter. I'm gonna give the Cowboys a one in three, all right, Church, And you want to make sure I stretched this out, stressed this into all of the Cowboys fans right now here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. That Thursday night game against Baltimore is a week after the Thursday game against the against UM Washington at home, so it's not a short week. So it's a full it's a full week. It's Thursday, and

then they play another Thursday. All right, Church, you go ahead, give me your your your rundown here for Pittsburgh at Minnesota Thanksgiving Day against Washington and then on the road at you Manuel Thomas's ten. Listen, I'm going to say this season that we beat distillers. Distillers are coming in. All they have is juju. I think we get that. Dub McCarthy shows that he can be the top tier team. We lose against the Vikings. Uh, you know the way

that week we came out last last season. They played defense on us, they ran the ball until I see something different. I think the Vikings still have the upper hand on us. We beat the Redskins, and I mean, if you're being honest with yourself, playing the Ravens and Lamar Jackson, if they anything close to what they were last year, we will have a tough time beating them. So I'm gonna give us the l on that one as well. Okay, So Dan, you gotta win against Pittsburgh

and what do you have against Minnesota here? Again, I gotta I got a loss against Minnesota, and then I have a win against the Redskins, and I have a loss against the Ravens, putting us at two and two. Okay, two and two? So all right, Chris put up the final part of the schedule here. It is a return to Cincinnati for Andy Dalton. Then it is a Sunday night football game against the San Francisco forty nine ers who come to Arlington. Then it is a home game

against Philadelphia two days after Christmas. And then it is the season finale January third, in New Jersey against the New York Football Giants. All right, Barry Church, give me it. Give me your take here these last four games, U're kind of tricky, but I'm gonna I'm gonna give a shot out of a shot at it here real quick. Um at the Bengals, like you said, December thirteenth, that's a Newton game. I think the Cowboys will be ready

to get up and play there easily. Um. I think they take Joe Burrow and the Bengals down pretty quickly. So I'll give them a win right there. Uh, San Francisco, they don't have to make the trip out west, so that's an advantage of San Francisco has to come here. And it's a night game. It's a night game, and I think the Cowboys played well on prime time. So I'm gonna give them the dub against San Francisco right there, um and gets Philly December twenty seven, three twenty five.

That's here in Cowboys Stadium, so earlier I gave Philadelphia the win. I feel like they've they've thought they normally split the series here and there um during the season, so I'm gonna give them a split series here and I'm gonna give the Cowboys to win. And then that last game against New York with them going up to New York and going against Garrett and those boys up there.

I feel like they'll win that one as well. So I got them going undefeated through this last watch these four games and in the season four and though okay, all right, okay, okay, I'm close. I'm close on that one I got. I got us getting to win against the Bengals. But I think it'll be a tougher game than we expect. They do have some offensive firepower there.

It is a twelve game. I think at this point of the season, we're rolling a little bit, so we gotta gotta fight that urge to let our let off the pedal against a team that we believe is a little a little lorder than us. But we still get to win. I think we get a win against the forty nine US tough game. I don't trust Jimmy g so I think we should we should beat them. I think it's a tight race at the end of the season.

So that Eagles game is very important for us. So we go out there and we handle business and we take a game off against we take a game off against the Giants, because we got it all wrapped up. We got our seat and everything locked in, so we rest some of our players so we can get ready for the playoffs. So that's ill, but that's you know, only because of the circumstances. So three and one yea, all right, So gentlemen, looking at what you have, Church,

do you like this record you got? You got a tenant six mark for the Cowboys and h Gray, you've got the Cowboys going eleven in five. Yeah. The schedule, the schedule says that, man. And of course all this is based on what we believe the teams are, how they played last year, because we no one can know how how they will be this year. But looking at the schedule and the teams that we have on there and how they performed last year, if they just get a little bit better, I still think that we have

a chance to run this schedule pretty pretty nice. Yeah. John Clayton, Hall of Fame, NFL writer, he writes from Washington Post. He's written down the teams. The five teams have the easy schedules in the NFL, and the Cowboys are one of those five teams. So you've got the Cowboys eleven and five or Gray Church, you got him tenant six. This will get them in the playoffs. Here's the question. Does this win the NFC each for the

Cowboys In your opinion, Dan, Yes, Yes, I don't. I really I don't know how good the Eagles are going to be. They are a question mark. But I don't believe that the Giants and the Redskins are are going to be in competition for the division crown. So I really think it's just between us and the Eagles and we sweep them. So I believe that that we win a division this year. Church, Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with McCray on this one. I'm gonna have to

go with the Cowboys winning the division. Usually it's it's between Philadelphia and Dallas to win this division. They go back and forth. I think Washington they're gonna be a little bit better than they were last years, as well as the New York Giants, but I just don't think they're there yet to compete for this division division titles. So I think it'll come down to the Philadelphia Eagles

and the Cowboys. I think they'll put that series. But overall, the Cowboys have a better record because the Eagles have a tougher record, being as they want a division last year, so I gotta give it to the Cowboys, and I think they'll make the playoffs this year. All right. So the Cowboys with five prime time games this year. They

will play Monday night, that's a that's against Arizona. They got three Sunday night football games that They've got, that Thursday night game in December, December third against the Baltimore Ravens, and of course we know they got the annual Thanksgiving Day games. So a lot of Cowboys on your television screen. Gerald McCoy has joined the Cowboys son a one year deal, and Gerald McCoy had an interesting take on opening up the season against the Los Angeles Brands his Gerald McCoy

last night on Dallas Cowboys dot com. Yeah, those divisional games are huge and what the home or away. You always want to do your best to win those divisional games. And like you said, that's when you get into We're getting into those games where you're getting into the meat of the schedule and it's around you know, like mister Jones said in November December is when people are playing the best football. But you really start to figure out

who you are after week seven. In the week eight, then you kind of start to see who's really who and teams start to develop into who they really are. You know, you have those first three four weeks where people might be like, oh, well this team is going directly to the super Bowl, and then as the season

stretches out, it's like, well, they not really. So when we start playing those division games, we'll start getting into the point to where people will really start seeing who we are and we'll start figuring out who we are. And there's no better teams to play than your division games when you start to get to that point in the season. Okay, that was some really good stuff because you missed it last night On Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Gerald McCoy, Tyrone Crawford, and Hall of Fame with Jerry

Jones came in to wigh in on the schedule. I want to take a break right now when we come back. I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but I'm gonna go ahead and channel my inner Danny McCray and ask a question that some of us don't want to talk about with what's going on with the schedule here. Also we'll talk about Andy Dalton will becoming the Cowboys backup quarterback and what that means and also why Cam Newton can't find a job right now. A whole lot more

to get to. You're listening and watching the players on Dallas Cowboys now. I'm Jay Novachik, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day. I was a guy who always got the tough yards and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Dear three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yard work I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand, John Deer has the equipment that's just right for you. Visit a John Dear dealer

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Come into an AT and T store to find out how to get one of our popular smartphones for zero dollars down based on GWS one course September twenty nineteen to the players Love A lot goes with getting to be a part of the team, whether it's from a

player perspective or any member of the team. We're gonna all have a memory, Jarl is all the players are coaches, I'm gonna get to have a memory of having played that first regular season game against the Los Angeles RAYN team that stepped out there and they entertainment capital of the world in that iconic stadium, and your Dallas Cowboys are coming out there to show up on center sting. So I see it. I feel it feels like the Cowboys really to get to be out there and be

in that gorgeous new stadium. On a personal basis, I was born almost where that stadium sits. I was born in Englewood, right off the end of the runway, and I have a lot of my cousins and second, first, second, third cousins out there, and it'd been an exciting time to go back out there and take these down as Cowboys and put it on those Los Angeles rams. But it's a big night. I was having my fingers crossed that we'd get a chance to open that stadium against

the win. All right, that is Hall of Fame owner Jerry Jones was born in El Segundo, California, and Jerry was given the key to the city before the Cowboys ended up playing Super Bowl twenty seven at the Rose Bowl. That was the first Super Bowl won by Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson. So he gets to take the Cowboys to Los Angeles to open up the new stadium that he and stand Crunky helped get done. Jerry's very inteable part of helping get football in Los Angeles and Danny

and Berry not sure if you know this. And Jerry said this last year on one or five three the fan the Cowboys to put a radio home, that the NFL came to him and asked him if he would be willing to sell the Cowboys and they would give Jerry the Los Angeles market and send Jerry on out there to just really get LA going. Jerry said no, but he would be helpful in terms of helping the NFL get back to Los Angeles. McCray, what do you

think about that? Jerry could have been the owner of whatever LA team and running I think old by himself, but he decided to stay with the Cowboys. First of all, one Jerry loves the Cowboys. It's like one of his children. He will I don't believe he will ever let it go. So I mean I know that they I know they had to know that they were reaching when they asked, and that he would probably say no. But I mean,

you just gotta give it a shot. So think that Jerry also knows that when there's something this big going on in the NFL, the Cowboys are gonna be a part of it. When you opening up a stadium in LA. His fingers were crossed the he but he knew in the back of his mind that we would be the first team up to open up the stadium because you want to get as much attention and notoriety on it as possible. So he's he's accustomed to doing things like this. Even though he had his fingers crossed. I'm sure he

already knew that it was it was. It was in the works. Church your thoughts, Jerry Jones. It could have been the owner of an NFL franchise in LA and would have sold the Cowboys. Yeah, he made the right decision. I mean, I gotta agree with McCray on this one. Like he said, he pretty much you know, raised the Cowboys franchise into this multi billion dollar empire. That's the face of the NFL right now. And and like he said, the Cowboys have their fingers and everything when it comes

to the NFL. So we pretty much knew that if the La Rams were opening up a stadium to get the if the seats are filled, if we can fill the seats him with this whole COVID night thing, the team going thing going around, if they can feel the seats, the only team that would be able to do that would be the Dallas Cowboys. So, like mcrai said, in the back of his mind, he knew that we were gonna be able to in that first opening game. But like I said, he made the right decision. And the

Cowboys are multi billion dollar empire now. And he's the main reason that the um they're that beneficial. All right, Barry staying right there, And this is something that I get from Danny mc craig is Danny. Danny's our big time realists here. We don't know what's gonna happen right now with the NFL, and we're putting out the schedule like, hey,

everything is all good. We don't even know if the Cowboys are gonna be able to go out to auction our California for training King because right now the governor California, Gavin Gavin Newsom, has that stayed on lockdown. So who knows what's going to happen in terms of the Cowboys being able to even play in Los Angeles. And if they do, maybe it's fun and no fans, but but who knows right now? Where your thoughts on that? Yeah,

I mean who knows. Like you said, man, I mean, right now, we're in the time that we don't even know anything about, and we never experienced such a such a pandemic like this, and for the NFL to you know, they're trying to keep give people hope that you know, the season's gonna start, We're gonna gonna put our fans in there and all that good stuff. But like you said, we just don't know. We don't know how fastest thing can spread again if we get masses together, or how

fast we can get a vaccine for it. So we just don't know. And I think it would be it would be a bad bad news if if there was no football for the American public throughout the season. I mean that that would be pretty bad. McCray, Yeah, same here. I think it would be really bad, especially since that means that we've gone that long without having any other

sports besides UFC putting on a few fights. I think people will be going crazy about then bed and fantasy football, everything that it's around the NFL season not taking place or have people going a little crazy. Um yeah, honestly, and then with the with the pandemic going on, I just at this point, we don't know. I mean, the NFL has to do, you know, business as usual. They have to to plan like they're still going to be able to play, so it would be irresponsible for them

not to have a schedule. But I did hear something about them having a contingency plan with if you don't play a game in week one, then you'll play that game in week eighteen, and then week two, if you don't have a game, you'll play that game in week nineteen and so on. So I mean it's it's good to hear that they have a plan and the season will still be able to play out even if it's delayed.

So everybody's fingers across man. But like like Neuis said, if you're being real about it until we really see a drastic change and how this pandemic is affecting us. My hopes are our modest at best. To me, it's going to be very interesting to see you, particularly by the time we get to September. What states are in? What states aren't. Let me just throw this scenario out here,

and Danny, I'll start with you. What if California is not going to allow football to happen and other states are you could you see the NFL going to stand crockey and saying, all right, Stan, move your game from Los Angeles to Dallas to start the season. Your thoughts on, oh yeah, oh yeah, most definitely. Yeah. I don't think they will let one state hold them back if you have another option, right, If you can't play in LA, then play in Texas. This is football. You say, we

play wherever. They'll let us play. Like Bruce Arians, you lie them up, put them on the field, and we'll play them. It doesn't matter what stadium, what arena we're in, We'll play football. So I mean, yeah, if California don't want to play, bring him to Texas. We know we'll let them in Church. Let me throw this out here to you, just looking at the schedule the first three games for the Cowboys. Okay, so it's at Los Angeles home against Atlanta, and then it's at Seattle. We've seen

California and Washington hit hard by COVID nineteen. I remember when the Rangers and the Seattle Mariners was supposed to face each other to start the Major League Baseball season and their governor ended up she ended up shutting down all activities in Washington. So what about the possibility that the Cowboys first three games, two of which are being one in California and one in Washington, one in Washington, could be games they don't play if those states do

not open up. Your thoughts, Yeah, if those states do not open up, that'll be, like, like mcfrai said, that'll be extremely tricky. I mean, like I said, this is a Marquis franchise that you know, the NFL kind of hair, has their backs and they want to they want to see them on the field and want to see their

their product on the field. But if this COVID nineteen thing is still going around, with California and with Washington being hit so hard, I can see them saying, you know, those games aren't being taken they're not going to be taken out there, so they might flip them and have them and Cowboys starting, you know, three straight home games. I could see that happening as well. But I just think there's so much money out there for the NFL as as an organization and for these franchises that I

can see them playing games. I just don't know if it'll be in front of people or if we'll just have to go all to where states are allowing these these things. If he played, but that's just a lot of money out there to lose. If if this pandemic

is a continuing I'll tell you what. One positive about this is that, uh, you know, the NFL stadiums will be open, so you won't run into an issue of there's a concert plan, so you won't be able to adjust and have the home team be the away team or away team be the home team because the venue is already put these these venues should be open, and they should be able to adjust to have a home team becoming away team if they need to in order to play the game. This is the players lounge on

a Friday. I knew he scrugs on time. Cowboys reporter Danny mccraigberry Church joined me every Friday the former Dallas Cowboys defensive backs. Let's talk about quarterback Andy Dalton. So we did our show on Friday. Andy was not signed. The Cowboys end up getting him on a one year deal. He gets three million dollars up to seven million dollars based on incentives. I have seen a whole lot of Andy Dalton. Watch his entire career at TCU, which ended

with a Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin. He also played against Kellen Moore twice during his TCU career when Kellen was a quarterback in boys and State. They were both in the Mountain West Conference together. I'm gonna start with you, Danny mccrage, your thoughts on Andy Dalton coming in here as a backup quarter and you know right now, I'm still I'm still pushing this July fifteen to see if if he's actually going to be the backup quarterback, is

that gonna show up? And then Jerry and them have to be looking at this offense and saying, all right, Andy Dalton is not Matt Castle a right, He's better than that with the weapons that we have around him on the offense, if we have to put him into play. I believe he could still win us some games. So I mean Andy Dalton as a competitor and a nine year starter has to be thinking the same way to

some extent. Now, him being a backup, I think that's great because if you if you're starting caliber, you should be able to back up a guy when you get on the field. So I still think it's a great move. I think it puts a little pressure on this contract situation with Dak as well. For me, I think it was an extremely smart move by the Cowboys as as an organization. I think on both fronts and some smart move.

For one, you haven't experienced quarterback that can go in there and if anything happens to Dad, you know, he gets hurt or anything like that, he can step in there and play. He can help, you know, mold dass game and show him how he's experienced and pretty much be that backup quarterback that we needed we never had

in the past. And on the other front, on the contract situation, if you know that's trying to hold out and doesn't want to play and we've starting game, we haven't experienced quarterback back there that with all these weapons around him, should be able to produce on a fairly high level. So I think it's a extremely great move on both both behalfs and hopefully it works out for the season all right. Andy Dalton has won seventy games and nine seasons in the National Football League. He took

Cincinnati to the playoffs five times. He's a three time Pro Bowl. One thing that I know from reading my social media, there's some Cowboy fans that aren't really familiar with how the Jones family has dealt with backup quarterbacks during their tenures since buying the team in nineteen eighty nine, They've always had good backup quarterbacks. I go back to Steve Burline when Jimmy Johnson was the head coach of Steve Burline helped the Cowboys win some games and going

into the playoffs. They ended up winning that Bears game before they ended up losing to the Lines, and Steve Burline started those two playoff games for them. Bernie Kosar was cut by Bill Belichick and the Cleveland Browns. Jimmy picked up Bernie. Bernie came in to the NFC Championship game against the forty nine Ers and helped deliver a victory there as The Cowboys ended up going on to win Super Bowl twenty eighth or second win over the

Buffalo Bills. Rodney Pete was a backup quarterback. Detroy Eightman random cutting hand was here's a backup back. We saw Kyle Orton backing up Tony Romo. We saw John kitting A backing up Tony Romo. So Andy Dalton falls in line and what the Cowboys have always trying to do if they found a capable backup player, a guy who's been a starter. It's almost been a pit stop for guys. Because Berlin ended up leaving the Cowboys and going to play again. We saw that with Bernie Kozar, we saw

we've seen it with other dudes. Andy says, hey, how they reevaluate my career here for the season, get some work with Mike McCarthy, and he hopes to get back on the market next year and become a starter. So I think the Cowboys have made a pretty good move here, And I also, Dany I would think this is I don't think this is a negotiating issue at all. I think this is the Cowboys doing what they've always done. I don't feel like this has any type of effect

on the negotiations with Dak Mussen. Yeah, any type type of at all. You ain't saying nothing. You don't think it has anything to do with the contract situation. This is about years. They pretty much have agreed to money. By all reports, it's a number of years. Dak wants four years, the Cowboys want five, five or six. Now think about it. Now, you go back and just look at the deals they've signed. They got six year deal for Zekiel. Basically, the Cowboys aren't doing four year deals

with anybody. Zach Martin signed for more than four years, Tak signed for more than four years, Amari Cooper was a five year deal. The Cowboys don't want to do a short deal. That's not how they do business. Dak wants to do a short deal se get back on the market. So it's not about the dollars. This is about how long deal looks. But no way that I mean, that's but newly that's that's the point. You just said that the Cowboys don't do four year deals, and Dak

is wanting a four year deal. So even though it's not about the money, that's still a big part of the negotiation. So even though it's not them having to pay him more money. The guy wants a four year deal. So as you explained that, they're far off in negotiations. So I don't think they made this this move intentionally to affect the negotiations, but I think it will have an effect on how they move forward with this. I believe, gentlemen, on July buy because the day the deadline is July fifteen.

On July fifteenth, there will be a deal done. I just I just noticed the Cowboys have always gotten their man. And if they got the Ezekiel Elliot deal done, because to me, that was the one time where I was really wondering if Jerry Jones and Stephen We're gonna stick to their guns where they said we're not going to reset the market, and they reset the market. Ezekiel still had years left on his deal. So if Ezekiel Elliot's getting done, you better believe Dak Prescott. But but knew it,

but knew it, knew it. Remember, remember they saw what the team looked like without Ezekiel Elliott UH the year before, so they knew they didn't want to go into that. They haven't seen that with Dak. I think that this situation is just a little different, but you know you're optimistic, so July fifteenth will see. Yes, I am optimistic, very I'm optimistic. I'm not buying into Danny's Danny's turned down the Naked brow. I'm going to stay positive and just

also go. But history, all right, see Bay history shows that the cowboys get their guys. They always do. I mean, they always get there. They get the tank Lawrence, you know, they got the Crawfords, like you know, Hitch they let Hitchens walk out the door. I don't know about that, but I mean you're you're right, they do get their guys. But I mean, like mccrai said, if if they're a year off on negotiations, they're still pretty far off on it. So we'll see, Like you guys said, we shall see

July fifteen today. But my question is, if he doesn't sign by the fifteen, does he show up to camp. Does he have it in them to just be like nah, I ain't showing a period that will play. I mean, keep in mind, you're still going to get thirty one million dots. Okay. I don't think the truth man, Joe, because it keep in mind by the fifteenth that there's not a deal done, they can't do a long term deal,

so it has to get done by July fifteen. So come July fifteen, if there is no deal that's agree to, then it is a one your contract for thirty one million dollars. So that that that's just how it's going to be. And Lord knows, as a quarterback you can't just sit out, and with all this talent around here, if he sits out, he's just gonna drive his own market value down. So I don't see a I don't see him not reporting at all. Barry he Dak Prescott

will quarterback the Cowboys in season. It's just the whole question market is it on a one year deal or a long term deal? And I feel like it'll be on a long term deal. I'm going with a one piece. I'm going I'm going with the piece. Ye. No, no, we've been talking about this, but how when we started this show were talking about that contract they talking about they been talking about years ago. We're talking about this.

You're okay, you're right, You're right now. I'm gonna go by history again, okay, because history is a good barometer. What happened with Cooper went down to the end didn't man. Yeah, yeah, that's not that's not to say Cooper was here for Cooper was here for one year. Let let me finish. Let me finish now, all right, all right, my man? Fa what was zeke? Ellie? What'd that? Dude went down to the end, didn't pretty much went down to the end. We take Lawrence pretty much went down to the end.

This is kind of how they do business here. Zack Martin even held out. Okay, he decided not to show up to the OTA. I mean, they had to get that deal done. So this is kind of in line with what we've seen here. Luckily, and at the end of the day, they get the guy they want. When they say they want you, they don't let you go. I knew he take take take Lawrence out of it because he played on the franchise tag, all right, so he was you gotta take him out. They got him,

but he was franchise tag, so so that don't count them. Yeah, Cooper was here for one year and he was about to leave. They had to do it because it was no it was no franchise tag for him. Oh yeah, the law took who Yes, it was the second way he was like said I'm not doing this again. I'm not doing I mean, you know that's the other way. My history there is pretty pretty decent um. We got to take another break here. We My gosh, it's forty minutes after. We are just chewing up so much time.

I still have a whole bunch of topics that I haven't gotten to yet. There's one signing that the Cowboys made that I don't think people are talking about enough, that they do enough to help out this defense, and an issue that all three of us have talked about off the year. We want to bring it to the air and chatted up here. So this is a lot. It's a busy Friday. The Cowboys always in the news year. I knew he scugs a dandy mc cree, Barry Church.

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on a Friday, Players Lass, Dallas Cowboys dot com. We appreciate you giving us some time on your Friday. I'm doing we scruggs long time Cowboys reported joined by former Dallas Cowboys players Danny McCray and Barry Church. All right, gentlemen, A signing that I don't think people are talking about enough, which I believe is very important. That is Cam Irving coming on on a one year deal to be the swing tackle for the Cowboys. He late with the Chiefs

last year. Chief says we know won the Super Bowl. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, had a tenure there that did not did not live up to the building. But I believe this is big. Cam Fleming ended up leaving to go to the New York Giants. Tyrant Smith has missed three games the last four seasons, if we know he's going to miss time, and then last year that Jets game, Tyran was out, but we also saw Lel Collegs missed that game as well. So to me,

I think Cam Irving is a signing that matters. Church. Oh yeah, I agree with you on that one. I think this is just as important as the Andy Dalton signing. I mean, you got to have a quality backup at an important position. And as we've seen, like you said, Tyrant Smith, Pie's misstime with his back and injuries like that, and we've seen Lyle Collins have injuries and throughout this

throughout the last season. So to have a guy that can swing tackle between both a quality pickup of a veteran guy who's had experience out there's a he's a solid piece for this offense and you need depth pieces. So I think this is a very very solid pickup of the Cowboys. Yeah. Same here. I mean in the over the past, I want to say you know, and Barry you went through it yourself. Go ahead, then, oh

go go, go ahead. We moved it all right. I was to say, here, you guys both you guys have both made the Dallas Cowboys is undrafted free agents, and I was looking at the class of kids they bought, brought in here and signed and looking at the biosh, there's some pretty impressive resumes here. Do you guys see any particular player that you like? As they get ready for some of these camp battles, he say, hey, look

out for that guy. And I ain't going to take credit on when Barry Church came out of Toledo, I said, there's a guy I think from that team, when Romo, when Romo came from Eastern Illinois, I had a conversation with Terrence Newman. I said, hey, I like this Romo guy. I know he was the Walter Pig player of the

year and you played against him. And Terrence told me he is the Carson Palmer of small school quarterbacks, because that year Carson Palmer was a number one pick of the Cincinnati Bengals and Terrence had played for them both. So so um, go ahead, give me your guy, all right. So so so I take it. Um. My guy is a is a safety from Illinois State, Luther Kirk. He was the MVP of the of the Shrine Game. We

don't have enough safeties on the roster right now. We talked about that being something that we addressed in the draft, but they waited. They waited until after the draft to address that. And I think this kid can play U. He's not the fastest, you know, he ran around him in between four or five and four to six. He's explosive, jumped to thirty nine inch vertical broad jumped ten foot six inches. He had some streams seven seventeen reps on

the two twenty five. So I think he's a prototypical special teams guy for his first year, and he can learn from those two guys that are starting ahead of him, and he can be one of those developmental guys who shows up in a year or two in a starting lineup. That that was a solid pick right there. For myself, I'm gonna have to go with Francis Bernard, the linebacker out of Utah. Now, this is a guy who he

started out as his careers are running back. They went to b YU and then took off a year and then signed back with Utah and as a senior year, he led the team in tackles. He's a very quarterback of the defense type of linebacker. I mean he's not the fastest. He went to the combat. I think he ran into four sevens and whatnot, but he's extremely smart. He knows how to quarterback of defense and he knows

what he's doing in past coverage. And you can never have enough linebackers back in rush the passle or that can drop back in pass counters. So we've seen with the linebackers in the past with the Cowboys, they had injury history. We've seen Lake Vandreas out for multiple games. We've seen Sean Leo for multiple games. So just to bring an up the death piece in there, like mccrai said, that can that can contribute on special teams as well as well as being a depth piece for this linebacker corps.

I think he has a great chance of making the team, but like you said, you gotta put a work on the field first. I'm gonna go with two tight ends that I'm gonna watch very much. Charlie Tima payout with the Portland State. He's a pass catching tight end and then Sean McKeon is a big tight end from Michigan and he can block. Look for Charlie to see if he can work on his blocking. He was an All American at the FCS level. I just don't know if Dalton Shot, I mean Dalton Schultz is gonna end up

making his team as a backup tight end. I think that we could see one of these rookie tight ends sneak in here, But Charlie Timber Payout is gonna be

a guy like a whole lot here. McCraw, uh yeah, I mean we need something to go with Blake Jarwin and the tight end position, as we see across the league, if you look at the Kittles of the world, is a very important position, especially if you come across a guy who's athletic enough to block and create a mismatch on out on the outside if he's going against a cornerback or on the inside when he playing against linebackers and tight ends. So I think it's a good position

to watch him. Hopefully we can strike gold with with one of these guys. Church take me back to your time being an un drafted free agent. Why did you pick the Cowboys? Who else? Offered you. And also the stress of trying to make an NFL roster. Oh, well, for me, yeah, it was. It was super stressful for me, you know, because I didn't think it happened that quick after the draft. You know, I was heartbroke. I didn't

get drafted or whatnot. But um, as soon as the draft was over, my agent said, hey, all right, you got basically like ten minutes to pick a team. Um, these teams that you want to pursue. So I thought, you know, I was gonna have a couple of days or something that pick a team. I wanted to do research on it, but I had to go pretty quick. And my agent told me, he's like, you know, the Cowboys special teams reached out to us at the time.

It was Joe D. Camillus and he was saying he liked it for your game, and that's the fastest way to make the team is through special teams, and then you might have a chance to play on defense. So I went with my agents gut feeling, and I decided to sign with the Cowboys. And I ended up being in a great situation. I had a great leadership up there with jeral Cincinmball and our coaches at the time, Brett, Maxie and Campbell were great and act accelerating my game

on the field and defensively. So um I ended up picking a right situation. But it's definitely a stressful, stressful pass to take. Man, you know, you gotta make a decision extremely fast. Right after the draft, Murcraig, I'm gonna be a homer here. But let me also bring up running back Darius Anderson had TCU. He has to kick returnability here. He also was a tough guy that could

kind of get between those tackles as well. That's a running back and I think about where the Cowboys look if they carry for that, I can see him being maybe that third tailback kind of guy, but also a dude who plays special teams. That was how you made the Cowboys here. And I just feel like a guy who's got experienced already playing special teams in college has a little bit of an edge, especially if they do

not have a full training camp in OTAs. Yeah, definitely, because most of the time what you see from these guys coming out of college, especially the starters, is that they hadn't played special teams before. So it takes the coaches a little bit more time to get these dudes trained and developed to play these different positions and get

used to these new movements. So with him being a guy who's already played special teams and already being labeled as tough and a guy who never quits and can go out there and play something like that, I think it's definitely advantaged for him when he steps on the field. Church Cam Newton unsigned, your thoughts, I was, I'm pretty much surprised right now that he's unsigned. And then I think he came out the other day with something some money.

Doesn't want to be a backup quarterback or something like that. He wants to be a starter, and I know it's just gonna be hard for him to break the break any team through with being a startup. Mean, he might just have to be that backup for a year. But I was pretty surprised that he was not even you know, picked up or anything like that. But I feel like Carolina, you know, kind of did him a disservice by releasing

them as late as they did. You know, guys are already in situations with their quarterbacks and everything was kind of sewed up by the time he hit the market. So I think they kind of did him a disservice. But if he wants to be that starting quarterback, he might have to wait out a year before getting back into the NFL, because I just don't see him cracking the lineup anywhere right now. Guys are kind of sewing

them into their positions. So we'll see. It's gonna be tough if he if he doesn't want to be a backup, he might have to be out for a year, all right, Guys, We had spent our off air prep talking about the death of aman are break down in Brunswick, Georgia and Brunswick, George down there in near the Savannah area place I used to live. My dad was stationed down there when I was younger. The Players Coalition ended up making a statement today. I want to read part of what they said.

Says today, the Players Coalition and Professional Athletes send a letter to Attorney General William Barr, FBI Director Christopher Ray, and Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights Eric de Bryan, requesting an immediate federal investigation into the tragic death of

vermand Auvren. Signers include Ann Kwon Bolden and Malcolm Jenkins, co founders of the Players Coalition, and other athletes and coaches across teams in leagues, such as Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots, Camp Georgian of the New Orleans Saints, Mark Ingram of the Baltimore Ravens, Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, and stand Band Gundi, former NBA coach and current broadcaster in

Mini Moore. They requested the FBI and the Department of Justice Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division lead the

investigation into this horrible shooting. The Georgia Prosecutor's delay in moving forward and arrest and grand jury investigation to move spark only a considerable amount of public activism, and the existence of numerous local conflicts means that a robust, federally led investigation is the only way to restore community trust that mister Aubrey's death will be fully investigated because on February twenty third, two white men, Travis and Greg McMichael,

tragically gundown mister Aubury while he was on a job. They claimed that they were attempting to make a citizens arrest, but no credible evidence exist that mister Albury committed any crime.

It wasn't until yesterday, seventy four days after Aubury was killed, that police arrested the McMichaels, the prosecutor on the case, assigned after the previous two prosecutes, rescued themselves due to the conflicts and neglected to send the case to the grand jury until after a video of the terrible incident was made public. So that's the first part of this letter for the players coalition. Gentleman, your thoughts go ahead, Okay.

I think it's amazing and very concerning that it took all of that for this to happen, for them to get arrested. We saw the video, and then the first thing that goes into your mind is if if that video doesn't come out, these guys they get no attention and they possibly get away with this, which is absolutely ludicrous. I'm watching this video and this is and for me, this is probably one of the more clear versions of

things that we've seen going on in the past. When you think about like something happened to Traymon Martin and some other people. This video was clear. You see everything happen on there, and I think that's where the outcry is coming from and I don't think that like this should be necessary for people to start speaking out, but I'm glad they did, and I'm glad that we finally got a little bit of justice to start from from this issue. Yeah, I know, I agree with you on that, Cray.

I mean that it's it's it's kind of a frightening situation. I mean, like you said, Um, the guy was out for a job, and I mean, she feels your safest while you're just taking a job to them, right and broad daylight and something like this happens. I mean, it's tragic, and like you said, and I'm glad the Players Coalition, you know, they spoke out on it and and they're

trying to get justice for this situation. But like you said, it's a it's a very scary and frightening, frightening world we live in now, and the situation is evidence of that. And I'll just close the letter contained more, but I'll just close the end of it here, where he says Players Coalition is dedicated to advocating for social justice and racial equality and holding those who commit injustice as accountable.

The letter was sent to Attorney William Barr and signed by the following below, and it goes through through numerous players that we talked about there. So the Players Coalition had worked with NFL owners in the past and so they continue their work on this issue here. So it's going to be very interesting to see exactly where they go forward this. I saw the video as well. This is not what America is about. A person on a

jog not be shot down by people. And as I said, I will be very interested to see where it goes. But at the end of the day, you've got the NFL players as well as who all Steve Kerr, the NBA. We've got people who are who are saying, look, this is not right, and this is players using their position to try and bring light. And once again you go back to Colin Kaeperty, who is really at the forefront of trying to say, look, there are things going wrong here and bringing this to justice. So I'll be very

eager to see exactly where this goes. Joy Nor question for you, dude, because because one of the most concerning things is even though that these guys have been arrested, the thing that worries me the most is I still have to sit here and think will they be convicted or will they go to jail? Or will we see an instance where we're watching on TV and they get that not guilty verdict and they're free to walk the

streets again. Like, I just don't think that that we should have to think that, well, that should even be a possibility, especially when you see a video like this where everything is evident that they did everything wrong in the situation. I'll use a Bill Parcels quote. All I can go by is what I see and what we have seen with the criminal justice system tells you that

you should be worried. It just is that an outcome that what you saw the video, that you think these guys are gonna go to jail and we don't know that. We don't know. I mean, that's why we have to have the trial. And what do we know? We know what we think sometimes is, hey, this is an a ab happen equals does not always happen. So I understand what you're saying, and because of history and the way things gone, is one hundred percent accurate in terms of

your your thought process. All right, let's end this the way we started with the Cowboys schedule, Gentlemen, according to both of your takes on the Cowboys schedule. Dallas is going to the playoffs as NFC championship. Church, you got them going ten and six. McCray, you've got them going eleven and five under new head coach Mike McCarthy, gentleman. That's that's that's pretty ambitious considering right now they don't have you know, there's no in person OTAs and these

guys aren't able to work with them. So you know, McCarthy could be under the gun depending on how much time he actually has to work with this team. Let me tell you this. So also, the Browns don't have virtual. The Giants, who have an also a coordinator don't have virtual. The Cardinals have a new new star receiver who will have will only be on virtual. The Redskins are the Redskins. The Eagles didn't have receivers last year, but they drafted

one who will only be doing virtual workouts. Juju Smith Schuster is the only one. With the Steelers, it's a lot of opportunities here for us to get dubs on people who will will probably have less uh familiar familiarity with people on their team than we do. So I think that the chance is nice for us to go win that division. Okay, Soman Craig here, Mary helped me

understand Danny's optimism. So Danny has this optimism about that, but he doesn't have optimism that Dak Prescott's gonna get signed by Jerry Jones, who continually shown you in the past that he gets the deal's done with the guys. He wants good an here one more time doing I said, help me understand. Danny has this great optimism that the Cowboys are gonna be okay without all season workouts, but he has no faith in Jerry Jones Son and Dak Prescott to a long term game. I don't I don't

understand that one as well. You're saying he has that Dak Prescott don't get his his deal done, but he asked faith that the Cowboys will come through and make the playoffs. As I was just saying, yeah, yeah, but yeah, but you said he's gonna play this year on the tag or not, so it's not like we're not gonna have that. I'm just saying that we might only have them for this year, and if we have them for this year, they better making the best year impossible. Danny mccraye.

I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to get me the bet, and I'm not getting bet with you again. I'm done. I'm done paying off bets because I don't like where I have to go pay off these bets. I don't like the restaurants, so I'm not making the bet. Okay, the fact, the fact that you don't want to bet, the fact that you don't want to bet, lets me know that you know that there's a possibility that I'm right. So I take that. Make the bet at the restaurant of my choice. At the

restaurant choice. I ain't gonna lose the bet and pick the restaurant because I'm exactly I'm gonna have to pay for them at least eat somewhere I like, Unlike the last time that that's not what a bet is. You' supposed to do something that you don't like, that's a bit and suffer the consequences. Yes, yes see, I'm not Michael Jordan. I don't have a competitive problem. I'm not gambling. I'm good. I'm good. Okay, I'm good, I'm I'm okay,

I'm okay. No, listen, I'm gonna tell him not to feed you at the at the table when you sit out. You go ahead, you go ahead and try that. Good. I'll use that Thomas his wife used that hotel. Y'all all, y'all, hey, this between this, this is between us now. We don't need no questions, bro right man, Hey, fellas, it's one hour on the DIT. It's one hour on the DIT. This was fun. As always, we appreciate everybody who tunes into the Players Line Fridays. We do it eleven eleven

am Central Time, So thank you so much. We'll do it again. He's buried Church Dani mc cray. They're both former Dallas Cowboys players. I'm new rescueds a long time Cowboys reporter. Thanks to Chris Beam and everybody here for the Dallas Cowboys will help set up this podcast. We'll talk to you next Friday. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.