Player's Lounge: Ready For Some Football?

a ball time. You are in the players lands of Newey Scrugs, a longtime Cowboys beat reporter, along with Barry Church, former Cowboys defensive back, and Danny mccraig, former Cowboys defensive back. We're also getting you set for Cowboys Rams Week one at the New Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California. All right, guys, it's here, Kansas City, Houston, Kansas City, the Super Bowl champions here. Um. I don't know about you, guys, but I am going to get in front of the TV.

And I don't want to be bought Church, what about you? I don't want to be bothered at all. I'm gonna go into my little man cave, got my whole football set up. The situation going on. There, no kids coming in, the wife coming in, a man. It's solely football. It's finally back, man. I just I just can't wait. I can't wait. Yeah, look ay, church, Church, I like it to dress for the weather. The cool friend that came in, Man, I see you. You're like what I got. You're like,

You're like what I got going on over here? Man? Listen, yeah, listen. I'm a little torn. Man. I'm excited for football, and I'm definitely gonna be tuned in, but I gotta watch Serena and I gotta watch Lebron. I'll be looking between shambles. Man, I'm every commercial break, I'm switching from a different sport. We're about to Serena with the best ticket player ever to live. We got Lebron, one of the greatest, and then we got football on. So I gotta pack schedule

from my TV today. Hold on Netflix. No Netflix, No, no Netflix. You're just gonna forget about the Dallas Stars. Just like that. Dallas Stars taking on the Vegas Golden Knights Game three, Pivotal Game three tonight in Edmonton on NBCs N. I'll be tuned into that too. You know. Yes, I'm from Houston. We don't have a professional hockey team, so I didn't really grow up on that. The shout out to the Stars. But that's not nothing that I'm watch.

I'm a hockey team. Was like one of those semi pros, and I don't even think your your hockey team down there was the Houston Arrows, so that was your team there. But okay, Star, the Stars had Dak Prescott Zeke Elliott speak to the team last year. So the Stars are Cowboys fans here, and look, let's let's let's just keep it real right now. We haven't had a team in Dallas Fort Worth. Go this far the major pro sports here, Top four, go this far in eoch Tire. We'll talk

about the Western Conference final. So the Stars are three wins away from playing for the Stanley Cup. So I'm into it. I know you, Danny, you say you're not there, but go ahead and lets we jump on board Stars taking everybody who wants to roll with them. Okay, jump on board Church. I know you're a Pittsburgh guy. You know about those Penguins, so you understand this. But really, I mean to get to the Western confersation. Imagine what this city would be right now if the Cowboys were

in the NFC championship game. I mean, that's where the Stars are at right now. They're right there, three wins away from playing for the Stanley Cup to win at all, and tonight's game three Pivotle. Because it's the Stars win, they can go up two to one. So yes, I hyped about football, But obviously you know my job working over as the main sports guy at NBC five here Dallas. I'm excited because if the Stars do win, um Man, the Stanley Cups go beyond our station. Unfortunately, I can't know.

Go ahead, I'll put you on the spot. Can you give us a rank for like which one is most important? For what you all tonight? Oh? You know, I could go ahead and we'll see. Here's a great thing. I don't have to do the six o'clock TV show to do, so I can sit up here setting this bad boy up and watch a both. Now. I'm into the Houston game because I've got Deshaun Watson. That's my quarterback, so so I got to watch that. That's that's my quarterback, man.

And obviously you see behind me, I got the Fantasy Football Trophy. So the defense starts tonight, so I will be watching Deshaun Watson heavily and also watch the Stars in Vegas. Golden night's game, so I can multitask. I've done this job, you know, since you guys we're in diapers. I've been doing this job so so I know how to multitask and get both things in there. So, but I will not be watching Lebron, so I won't be watching that. Uh um, Serena I can catch on my phone,

so I got so No, I'm I'm balancing both. You know, I love Serena. This is another great opportunity for her. I mean, look, she didn't have that many chances to go ahead get these major championship in, so you got to get him in while you can. And and you know, glass, Serena won't to do something as dumb as Novak Djokovic did when he got himself kicked out of the US Open by hitting that hitting that lines person with a balling. I thought it was yes, yes, right, yeah, go by

by and the crazy thing for him. And I know some of you cowboy fans are tennis fans, but but I am a tennis fan. This this road was basically a give me major because the doll And feeder decided they didn't want to play the dollars like man, I want to do with this COVID so so those three are basically the guys win in the Major. So no vak Jokovic had had a clear, clear opportunity to win it.

But oh well, go out there and do stupid things, which which kind of is interesting because I think about what Mike McCarthy said yesterday in his press conference where he said, hey, these first games, more teams are beating themselves and actually losing them in week one. Um, your thoughts on what Mike McCarthy said about that is, Hey, look, folas, let's not go out here and beat ourselves Sunday night against the Ransom Gray. This is this is this is true.

I like that he said that. This is what I was trying to say of our special teams. Go out here, do what you're supposed to do, right, and if you get beat, get beat because the other team was better than you, or the game plan of something was better than yours. Don't come out here thrower interceptions, fumbling, getting

the game away on silly mistakes. All right, So just focus on what you have to do, take care of the easy things in the game to take care of yourself, and then you can get in there and review the film you know, for next weekend and fix something right. But don't go out here and just have turnovers and silly mistakes below coverages and out here looking like a ravity team. Man. Just come out here and be focused

and ready to play. Yeah. I could get with him on this statement right here, because I mean we've seen it time and time again early on the seasons with sloppy play. I mean, penalties going on here and there and tackles, a lot of that being happening. That I do feel like these first couple of weeks will be sloppy. I mean there wasn't an OTA's, there wasn't a mini camp that the training camp was abbreviated, and then with training camp you didn't get to go against other competition.

I mean when I was playing, we had, you know, the Rams used to come down for a couple of practices before we played them in this preseason game. So I feel as though there's gonna be a lot of sloppy play for these first couple of weeks. But I can get behind him with that saying that we gotta just we can't beat ourselves because too many times last year, I mean the Cowboys started out slow. I mean there's

so many. There's countless games we can name where they Calivats started out slow and the butt in the end. So definitely could get behind what he said right there as far as not hurting ourselves. The good thing is the advantages to the offense. The defense has not been able to tackle, be physical, do any of that for almost a full year, so they advantages to the offense.

There will be a lot of broken tackles, people getting run over trying to get their feet underneath them for the first game because they just hadn't really been able to do it. So those slow starts should be fixed at least at the get out a season. All right, let me let me ask both of you guys this question here, because I don't think we've talked about it enough. Is the fact that not only are the Cowboys coming in with a new defensive coordinator, the Rams are too.

The Rams ended up running off Wade Phillips, who took them to a Super Bowl two years ago, and in fact, I thought had an amazing game play limited New England had just thirteen points, and I put that off that loss on Sean McVeigh and his offense in the Super Bowl because Wade gave you. Yet your defense get just thirteen points of Tom Brady company, you're supposed to go ahead and win that football game. So what about the fact we got two different defenses to two defenses with

new coordinators? Then Bury what you talked about here, there's been no tackling here and now we got guys trying to learn learn new systems. Your thoughts on what we could see defensively for both teams. Well, defensively, like I mentioned earlier, I think it's going to be extremely sloppy, at least for the first you know, half, maybe the first three quarters, until people get their feet underneath them.

I mean, like you said, or mcraiz said, when there was no mini camp, no ota, nothing like that, those are the times where you get to actually no kind of thud up and do contact that way and kind of bring people down to the turf. But without those opportunities, I mean, training camp was limited, and even with training camp,

there was very few contact practices. So I feel as though they started these games will be extremely sloppy, But it's going to be the team who's more disciplined in my opinion, that's going to walk away with the w But with both of these schemes being new, it's going to be pretty difficult for not only rookies but veterans. I mean, they haven't had that much time to go out there and really practice these new schemes. So I'm intertioned to see what these defenses can accomplish tonight or

I'm sorry on Sunday, Yeah, same same year. Secondary to me, I think as a disadvantage, I think the D line should roll just like they normally doing. That should able to still get a pass rush and hopefully stop the room. But I think the big, the big question mark will

be on the secondaries. But at the beginning of the season, just because like you said, hadn't been able to overfill tackle, they hadn't really been able to playballs against top receivers because you don't want to get your receivers hurt going one one hundred miles per hour trying to defend passes. So this will be a quick, a big wake up

calling for those rookies. They hadn't played this fast before, so this will be something for them to catch up too, So you know, it'll be a learning curve, But I think by week three or four they'll be called up and they'll be okay, you are checking out the players lounge Knewis Scruggs, joined by former Dallas Cowboys defensive backs Barry Church and Danny McCrae were brought to you by hotels dot Com. So let's stay talking about the secondary. Let's jump on to the other side with the Rams. Now,

we all know about Jalen Ramsey and his excellences. He's been in the National Football League, he got his big contract. But the guy, if I'm Dak Prescott I'm looking at is a gentleman named Troy Hill there left quarter, and I checked out his stats from last year. He had just two interceptions. But you know I can't sit around him to sniffer two interceptions only nine starts and this is his fifth season in the league. So to me, if I'm Dak Prescott, whoever, Jalen Ramsy's got jaal Rams

gonna be over there with that guy. I'm looking over here and checking out left corner Troy Hill. Your thoughts on that Church, Yeah, I'm agreed with you on that one. If I'm if I'm Dak Prescott, when I break the huddle, I'm looking where twenty is at at all times. I mean, if he's on the right side versus Amory, on the left side versus Gallup, I'm pretty much shying away from him, especially after he got all that money. He's feeling pretty confident right now. But I'm interested about the guy you

brought up, Troy Hill I think his name was. He doesn't have a lot of starts. It doesn't have a lot of starts because you know, they recommend or they say starts or you know, base packages or whatever. But he has had a lot of burn at that nickel slot position, so he's an experienced player. But last year he was known to give up a lot of big plays, a lot of double moves, and a lot of streaks down the sideline, So he is a player. I feel like Dak Prescott can attack when it comes to this

ram secondary, but I mean he's the only one. I pretty much feel like that because they're two safeties. You have the young kid, Tyler Rappe his name is, and then you also had number forty three Johnson out there. They're both kind of a ballhawk safeties. They're interchangeable, So those are guys that you kind of want to stay away from as well. But Troy Hill. I definitely think that Prescott should be putting him on his target list. Let me tell you something, man, let me tell you something.

We better not be trying to stay away from nobody. All right, we've been tapping up this offense, but entire si we got three one thousand yard receivers. I don't want to hit. Nothing about staying away from Jailer n He got a hundred million, Coop got a hundred million. Thank god he was at practice practicing fool yesterday. So

that should be a battle. And you can't go You can't pay a guy one hundred million and then say we're not gonna throw to him just because he has a top corner on No way, if that's how you're gonna go through out to see you should have never paid him. Say you what happened when the Cowboys were stubborn? You saw when they left Chad's Green out there, stubborn not gonna help me? Who we don't listen to that?

Go ahead and try Jailer. Yeah, I'm just saying, listen, I'll tell you that Chad Chad Green ain't get played one hundred millions. If that's if that's if that's the way that you have to treat your top receiver who you paid one hundred billion dollars. You paid the wrong guy. They're gonna do that to DeAndre Hops. They don't get that to the other top receivers out there. They're gonna get they burned. And they're gonna battle Juliill Jones and

see Patrick Peterson, Jalen Ramsey, all those guys. He's still is going to get thrown at, like he's still going to get thrown at. We can if a Mark Cooper come out of here and they throw the ball in him two times, that is an epic film and you can expect to see for the entire season every time. All right, all right, so so you say that, but but we've got okay here, we got Troy Hill, all right.

The backups. The backups are Darius Williams who's been in the league two years, zero interceptions, no stars, and then David Long Junior is your other quarter three years, two interceptions, only three stars. So you're telling me that if you're Dak Prescott, you want to sit up here and let's go, let's go at Ramsey when you've got other goals that you can go ahead. No, no, no, no, No, I promise you I'm not saying that. I'm saying Church is like you know, I wouldn't even look over there at

twenty and I'm like you better at sometime. Right, you're just gonna throw the ball a gallup the CD the whole game. Like Amari Cooper still has to show up. He is your playmaker, right. You can't just say like he can't be neutralized in the game plan the defensive corner. They can't say every time we put our best corner on a little they top notch, they're not gonna throw this way, so we can scheme my defense to go look at the other guys like you shouldn't be able

to do that. Yeah, you know, don't go ahead. Hell, they should focus on they should they should focus on, uh, you know, taking advantage of that mismatch. But Coop should not disappear in this game plan just because Ramsey is on and it's on my fantasy team. So I hope it so I hope it doesn't happen. I don't know on your fantasy team. So I remember it many years ago. But if you guys were, you know, it was Sunday

night football. Cowboys opened up against the Jets, and it was it was up there and in the end, you know, the Cowboys had the ball and romo through it through it read this, read a silent Reeves picked it off, and I just immediately said to myself, why go with Reeves? Man? You know, just just here's one of the best around here. Why do it? And I know that, okay, you go ahead, go ahead. That was bad, all right? He listen, listen to church. You remember that, because I just I think

I just closed. The fumble just got was a fumbles He was was playing two man on das two man and and roll on through a seven rouble. They turned kind of into a thing. It was a it's a bad throw, it's a bad decision. He just throwing that. The whole game playing for the viewers, explained to the viewers what two man is, so just so they know so so some said that essentially, essentially two man is

a double team. So you have a corner black cornerback who was Reeves, who was the best corner at the time, playing underneath. He didn't even have to stay on top of desk, and he could just break on all the underneath routs with the safety over the top. So essentially, Tony Romo threw that into a into double coverage and they got picked off and we end up losing that game, which we should have won. But but listen, he would he was still he was still throwing that there, soough.

You know, he didn't just go away from the rivers. Was all the read. There's still made some plays. So Mary Cooper, don't disappear. Please, I need you to get some points from a fantasy team. Please. I'm praying for everybody. I praying. Okay, I think I'm being in the New England night. See that's not good. I'm gonna start out receivers. Man, it's not good. Knew you knew, you knew it. You cannot second this. You can tell me that you don't expect a Marion Cooper to catch passes and uh and

made some plays on Jaman Ramsey. It just sounds like it's so down, like Jay Jaylon Ramsey almost a whole throw to him. It just sounds so bad. I'm just sitting here saying that if I see Cooper Ramsey and and I'm looking over here at Troy Hill or or Darius Williams or David Long Junior, well I'm gonna sit up here and check what's Gallup got if he'll probably one on one coach for Gallup. I'm sitting over here

looking at CD left Jarwin. I mean, I'm just thinking, you've you're going to have some It is about going to the mismatch. No, No, you should I'm saying he should not. You should not just go away from him. The entire game is what I'm saying. Yes, you should look to exploit mismatches. Glad rookies, go ahead, guys, and ain't that much playing time. But he should not. It should not be a guilboard game. Okay, all right. All I know is I'm expecting Michael Gallup to have a

huge Get Michael Gallup and Blake Jarwin. I expect these two to have real good games. If I if I if I'm doing right, if I'm doing a fantasy lineup for help anybody out there, I would tell you you should play Gallup and you should play Jarwin and Zeke because I think those are gonna be the three guys that they eat. Those three guys I think are really gonna eat. So there. Yeah, if you oh yeah, yeah,

because hers terrible last year. If you expected three month thousand year received that you should be expected a lot from everybody in this fantasy line. I never said I never said that. Hey, look I never said that three

one thousand yard receivers. I've never said that. And I actually saw Michael Irvin, our boy Michael last night on NFL Network saved that the Cowboys would have three one thousand yard receivers and then Zeke would have um a thousand yards and then even said somebody would have fifteen hundred yards. Uh, it was three footballs out there or something right right, I'm like, Michael, what are you talking

about it? What kind of math are you doing where you're gonna say three and one thousand yard receivers and you got one thousand yard running back possibly fifteen hundred yards from from one of the three here I hear. I don't get it. I don't get it. But the way y'all talking about he's not gonna sniff a thousand, I didn't say that. We all say all that he's got other know we've seen it. We've seen the tape of the away games. I mean it's proven facts. New York,

New England Patriots. I mean, this goes on. You gotta do it. We know, okay, we know Cooper is going to have three games where you say, m this's gonna be a pretty good tough matchup for this one against the Rams and Jalen Ramsey and the two that he's got against Darius Slay with the Eagles. Now, those are three games I'm looking at and I'm saying, okay, hmmm mmm. So but you know, it is what it is. This is why we do this show. I like this show

because we have different opinions here. Um, for mccraig, it's just so obvious he's so biased because it's all about his fantasy team for fantasy listen. None, I'm just saying. I'm just saying, we paid on one hundred millions that he should produce against top the top quarterbacks. That's all I'm saying that that's what we don't. That's legitimate, that's a legitimate concern. But I'm also saying the five Dak Prescott, I'm sitting around here trying to find the easier matchups

which I can explode down the field. We got to take a break, our first break right here, all the players lads with Danny McCray and Barry Church of newy Scrugs. This show brought to you by hotels dot com. Hey, they're Cowboys fans with Tight Cleaners at home pickup and delivery. Cleaning your clothes has never been more convenient. Simply sign up at your local store, set out your dirty clothes, and one of our tight Cleaners professionals will come directly

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Would select essel or lenses. You can choose a second pair of clear lenses for free with qualifying frame purchases. Restrictions apply. Find a participating eyecare professional by visiting slur usa dot com. See more, do more to the Players Lounge Players Lounge On On a football Thursday, we got the Kansas City Chiefs defending the Super Bowl title tonight at Arrowhead Stadium against the Houston Texans, so we'll be definitely checking that game out here. I'm know we scrugs

cover to Cowboys long time, long long time. I want to start dating myself, but I go back to Jimmy was coaching the team and the Cowboys were training down at Austin at Saint Edge University, and we got two former Cowboys cornerbacks here, defensive backs Danny McCray and Barry Church. Has to say, safety's not corners, So we have cornerback that I was said quart because I'm leading into this quarterback Jordan Lewis showed up at practice today. He's missed

three weeks of high ecle spring. He is your best slot corner. The Rams roll out Cooper Cup who likes to operate in that slot there. So, gentlemen, do you expect to see Jordan Lewis out there on Sunday against the Rams for Game one? Absolutely, like I said, like we said yesterday. As long as he's able to be out there for practice during the passing periods, which usually happened on Thursday and Friday, he can get some feel for what's coming at him on Sunday, he should be

good to go. And I actually think this is a really good matchup for one because I don't see Cooper Cup as being one of those super quick and shifty receivers. He's just real, real crafty and learning how to get open and exploit holes in the coverage. So I think if they put him in man to man on Cooper Cup, I think he has the advantage on that one because he's he's quicker and more shifty, and he can make

players on the ball. So as long as no belong coverage has come, I think he'll be able to handle Cooper Cup. Okay, yeah, I think I think this was huge for him to come in on Thursday one. It just shows that he's in for the game plan and that he could end up playing on Sunday because Thursdays, like mccrai said, are all about secondaries, you know, extra

two minute drill, extra team pass drills. So for him to go out there and practice a little bit shows that he's probably on the right way to playing on Sunday. But he definitely is gonna beat me all his health when he goes against Cooper Cup. I mean, this is a guy, like mccrai said, he's not very fast, he's not very quick like Cole Beasley, but he's extremely just saddy. He knows how to kind of push off slightly with that elbow or kind of create space because he's not

that fast against the slot defenders. So he's definitely gonna need all his health to be able to stick with a Cooper Cup out there. But the Dallas defense, to me, I think they need him. I mean he might be the most Yeah, I wouldn't say the most value piece, but definitely definitely in the secondary opinion, he's one of the most value get voluble guys, even with the addition of tape O Dicks. I mean, it's a guy, like I've said before, I've said all offseason, he's great against

the run. He can blitz, and he can cover you know, slot. You know, he can cover those slot receivers, which is not an easy task. So hopefully he'll be able to get back in there because the Cowboys defense will definitely need him on Sunday. You guys are former players, so so let fans know about what a contract year means for a player. This is Jordan Lewis's last year under contract. He's not one hundred percent. So when you're not one hundred percent, you're in that contract year, how much do

you push it? How much. Is a guy like Lewis push it out there or do they need to possibly push put him on a pitch count here? Um, take me through that, guys, McCrae, listen. I think it's a little different than in all sports. But I don't think there's a true pitch count. And in football, like once you get out there on the field, those injuries that you had and all that stuff, none of that, none of that really matters, right. So I think he's going to push it to the limit just just because, like

you said, he needs to perform. And when you play nickel, the the opportunity sometimes may be limited limited, so he might not have as many opportunities as as as the starting corners. So he's gonna go out there and he's gonna play as much as he can. And I'm sure with all that time off, he feels like he can go out there and make plays against anybody. So I expect to see him out there as much as he can possibly play. Uh. Yeah, for me, I think it's

it depends who you are. Um. I think if you're like a if you're like an AJ greenum, he can miss all this year. And if if he was in a contract year, he can miss all this year and then next year somebody would still pay him top dollar to perform. But if you're in a situation like for example, myself going into twenty sixteen, I was my contract year

and I broke my form. Now I could have, you know, had the surgery and sat out the rest of the year, but you know, I felt like coming into the offseason, I wasn't gonna get paid what I did, so I ended up, you know, putting one of those big old casts on my forum and you know, try to make it work for these last couple of games, because you know, I wanted to hit free agency with good tape under my system or good tape under my belt to end up getting paid. So I just think it comes down

to who you are and what position you're in. And if I'm George Lewis, I'm thinking he's gonna probably go, you know, all out this season so he can get a max page when his contract is up. How much do you believe Jordan Lewis is excited to play from Mike Nolan Because we know Chris Richard wanted and liked taller quarterbacks. I just felt that while he wasn't six foot six one. This kid. Just when they put him out there, I thought Lewis performed well as a defensive

back Church. I think I think he should be extremely excited. I mean, if he if he knows anything about Mike Nolan's defenses, he knows that they have you know, multiple looks to him, and he'll send anybody from anywhere. I mean, he might send a field corner, which is you know when we say field and boundary corners, those are where the corners that's into the boundaries on a short side of the field, and the field corner obviously has most of the field over there. So Mike Nolan, he'll send

guys from every different direction. And that's one of the Jordan Lewis's great abilities is for him to blit. So, like you said, this guy last year, christ Rah Shard like the taller corners and he was shorter, but he was a ball magget out there and he seemed to always be around the ball and always making plays. So if I'm him, I'm super excited going into this opportunity

with Coach Nolan. Yeah, same thought here. And then playing in the slot, you really don't have to be as tall, so I mean that's a little different for him this year. I don't really know much about Christira Shard, but I know I know that he wanted to put guys out there who were gonna make plays, especially the position that they were in at the end of the year where turnovers were a must, and they were they weren't coming

as much as they as they hope. They were going to put anybody out there who could make some plays. So they saw that in Jordan and he was able to carry that over into this next coaching staff. So he's going to get out there, he's gonna start, and I think he's going to be that same ball hawking guy, blitzing off the edge, sack force fumbles. I think he's gonna make plays everywhere, and this will be a big

year for him in a contract here, all right. We spoke about this a little bit yesterday terms of guys we were most excited to see and guys who needed to break out twenty twenty seasons. We did not mention

Tank Lawrence there at all. But what are the expectations for the highest paid cowboy in history to come back off a season in which he had five sacks and now, in my opinion, has two guys that are better should be better collectively on the other side of him in Olden Smith and Everson Griffin, Robert Quinn last year really good eleven and a half sacks, got a nice contract from the Chicago Bears to leave town here. But I really like the fact of what's on the other side

for Tank Lawrence. So you guys, give me your opinion on what you expect from Tank Lawrence this year. McCray, I'll start with you. I might be a little barased because I'm a big fan and you know I like Tanks. So I'm going with nothing less than fourteen sacks from him this season, just because I think he's really really hungry and he's been hearing all the noise about what

he he was, what happened to him last year. We're just putting up five sacks, even though I say that that was a lot on the defense and not being able to stop the run and getting those situations that allowed him to really get into the pass rush. With the change this year, i think we'll be able to cover long enough for him to make all the players

that he made that actually got him paid. So I'm expecting big things from Tank this season, especially with the help that he has on the other side, So nothing less than fourteen. I'm gonna go a little bit less. I'm gonna go a little bit less. I'm gonna say he's working with the round. You know, eleven eleven and a half sacks for the season, which is still to

me a great number out there. I think he'll do most of his damage with helping other people get off, So I think, you know, the optive lines will all be focused on him, as they should. I mean, he's He's a perennial Pro Bowl type guy, and I think the opertive lines will be forced to go towards him, which will open things up for the Alden Smiths, the

Don Terry Poles, the Tyrone Crawford's out there. So I think he'll make his presence known in the backfield as far as you know, sacking the court back maybe eleven to eleven a half times. But I think he'll be more of a destructor dop back there in the backfield and also open things up for his fellow teammates. But let me piggy back off what Church that said, just so I can clear it up, because I saw new his face when I said fourteen. I see it. I see that we have a bunch of guys out here

that can rush the passion. Like Church said, the offenses, the offensive line probably will be turning toward tank. But I think with the guys that we have and Nolan being creative as he plans to be with this season, a lot of times you will see two defensive ends on the same side to free up some one on ones for tanking whoever lines up and possibly the three or inside right, So you won't always see defensive tackles

defensive vents lined up on the end. You will see them lined up on the inside as well, so they can create those mismatches and one on once you know what, you're ready for this? You're ready for this? McCrae, I don't know, I don't know. I'm gonna get. I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you my tank sack number. Are you ready for Are you ready? Go ahead? Man, because because because the noise I was talking about what's coming from you last year. But go ahead, let me here,

let's get the drum roll. Well, I'm gonna I had a real good conversation with DeMarcus Ware and his new Gym three vol and he told me that he had helped Tank in his contract negotiations with Jerry Jones. He said he ended up telling him, he said, look, you need to go to Jerry to go get this thing done. And he knew that Tank wasn't going to have a big season last year because of the shoulder. And DeMarcus said,

I know because I went through it twice. He said, you couldn't really have that kind of injury and be the kind of pass rusher you want to be to get your moves off and execute. So he knew DeMarcus was going to have a down year, and so he says, now he's healthy and he expects him to get back to it. So if this guy is gonna be left one on one, I mean, if Smith plays the way we think and Griffin is playing the way he thinks, my goodness, gracious, you know there's gonna be some one

on one opportunities. And if Tank Lawds is healthy the way we believe he is gonna be Oh, he can get twelve because you're picking poison right now. At the end of the day, they're gonna start have to pick poison. And if okay, if this Cowboys offense can put up

thirty a game, and Mike McCarthy is spoken about it. Well, he hopes that, hey, look, our offense is putting up the numbers and that we're getting you're getting a fourth quarter and then the Cowboys are, you know, just getting off and trying to get to that gets to the quarterback because that other team has a thrower to get

back in. That's how you start to pick up you know, your your two three extra sacks a game as a unit, and then it's just a matter of who gets Smith gets one at the end is at Griffin getting one at the end is a tank. So I think twelve sacks for tank lawds in this defense because it's not gonna be as predictable as it was last year. I don't think that is out of range right here. So there you go, McCray. How about that now? Shocking you up?

It's shocking you. You did? You did? You did, because listen, I thought you was going Lord in church and I'm just you know, I'm sitting at fourteen. I'm glad you missed. I'm wear in the middle of that. That's good. Wait, wait to play defense. Well, look, I'm just talking to a guy who's going to the Hall of Fame, all right, who's done it in this league. So when DeMarcus where is talking to me about guys getting back to the quarterback and what he expects that I'm gonna buy it

because he absolutely understands it. And I look at the work he did with Von Miller and helping Von Miller unleash you know that Super Bowl season which Van won one of the MVP of Super Bowl fifty. So, men, we talk about a guy that understands what it is and the fact that he knew he knew Tank wasn't gonna have the year he was gonna have last year because of the shoulder injury, and he's back healthy. Now, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna buy what DeMarcus is selling because

DeMarcus Ware understands the position. So I'm gonna go ahead put down twelve. And I love the fact that there's help on the other side, so that right there should help the Cowboys and that the Cowboys can get their sack numbers up. To me, that's one of the biggest issue. To me, two big issues for this team has been the fact that they don't get enough sacks and interceptions so they can create some turnovers to get to the quarterback.

Then the Cowboys will have opportunity to meet the expectations that so many people have for this football team. And to me, the biggest expectation is just win your division. Win your division, and then you start, you know, you're able to start, you know, taking yourself and going where you want to go. But it starts to trying to win the East. And I think the defensive front here for the Cowboys are going to be much improved from what we've seen in the past few seasons. So there

there you go. Everybody happy with that? You're good with that? Superhaven I love it all? Right? Football tonight, Kansas City against Houston. What are some matchups you guys are looking forward to when these two teams meet on NBC tonight. Church. For me, I mean, I gotta I gotta look at the one hundred and sixty million dollars man back there. I mean, we all know how spectacular he is on

the field. I mean this guy, I mean, we've seen it in the playoffs versus the Bills when he when he magically I don't know how he pulled that Houdini tricky did, but he got out of the sack, got the first down, he ended up getting the victory. So for me, it's all about the sign Watson. Tonight. He's going against the defending Super Bowl champions. I mean, on the biggest stage, Thursday night football. I mean, you can't pretty much expect anything else but a big time game.

So I'm hoping that he comes through and provides w for the Houston Texans because I do not need my homes doing big numbers. I need Houston to just shut them down. And so I'm looking forward to Watson doing big things. What about you, mccraig, Yeah, I mean, listen, I would say the Battle of the quarterbacks, but I really don't think that it's even because I think the chief just have so much more firepower than than the

Texans do. So for me, it's an eye test. It's it's an eye thing just to see what an expensive quarterback looks like. What does the play of that of one hundred million dollars hundred and sixty million dollars, five hundred million dollar guy, what does it look like? Right? What type of players? What type of decisions do they make coming out in Game one? And I'm really looking

forward to seeing David Johnson. I want to see if he can, uh, you know, if he can make some things happen in this in this new team and new systems that he's in, right, because he was he was a bawler up there in Arizona, then he went through some injuries, then he got traded. So I want to see if he can rejuvenate his career here in Houston. Because other than that, I don't think that Shawon Watson has must have played with on the offensive side of

the ball. I like what you said about David Johnson. I'm gonna be looking at there as well. David Johnson had a good camp talk to come up Houston people out of the the city's been looking good at camp and Johnson is saying, hey, look I can be what I was a few years ago. But how many times have we heard guys in all professional athletics wanting to talk about, you know, hey, I could be as good as I was a particularly great season two three, four

years ago. So let's see what he can do. But we know with this he'll have the opportunity because they're going to feed him. They're going to feed him the football. So what does David Johnson do in the run game, which will help out Deshaun Watson. And then from another Houston standpoint, what does our old friend Randon Cobb, Randall Cobb do Because Randall Cobb, in my opinion, can be a safety blake because he's That's one thing that Watson had with DeAndre Hopp because he had the safety blanket.

So I'm interested as he can. Randall Cobb hals of chemistry with Deshaun Watson and kind of be that that that safety guy for him. So if the pocket breaks down a little bit, boom, Deshaun can just go out there and find Cop because I think that we could see some chemistry there. Because I thought Randall cop last year was good for the Cowboys. He had at least three touchdowns called back last year, so I had a very good season for the Cowboys. I like the professionalism

of the player. And then on the other side for Kansas City rookie Clyde Edwards Hilaire, I know Church, you know this very well. He was sensational of lsu uh Andy Reid and the GM Brett Veacher saying a lot of good things about the young running back. But for me, I want to see how he does in past protection here, because you cannot have your your, your five hundred million

dollars quarterback not being protected. So that's what I'm going to interest it te is how much how much run they get the rookie tonight and how does he do and pass tection because if he can't protect Pat, that means you're gonna have to put in Darryl Williams because you cannot afford to have my homes get hurt at all. So that's my take on what I'm looking at tonight. My ls. You guys will protect the passer, he will catch passes, and he will make plays in the running game.

All right, this is what we DONI you watched it, You've seen him play. There's no issue here. He's gonna be able to do whatever they ask him to do. And I'm sure they will not put him in any crazy situations to where he's trying to block a defensive end because they slid the line of the wrong way. That will not be on him. So I expect to see big things from Clyde tonight. Well we didn't make a good point. You're gonna go ahead, now he go ahead? No, No, Church,

let me hear, let me hear you. And I was just saying, basically, I thought you didn't make a great point about Randall car I forgot he had went down there to Houston, to be honest with you, But he's an extremely smart quarterback, friendly player, so I can see him doing a lot of big things out there today. I might actually see it. Did anybody pick him up on our fantasy? Yeah, he's gone. I think I think

it's a free engent. He's a freeg the free agent that make that mistake based off players to go out there and get and get scumped. Well, keep in mind too, Brandon Brandon Cooks was on the injury report with a hamstring, So I don't even know if Brandon Cooks is gonna be able to get out here and do his thing.

So if Cooks isn't able to go, that obviously is you know you're gonna have Kenny Stills out there, You'll have cob Um, you got Will Fuller, who's a speedster, and if Will Fuller's healthy, I mean, here's a difference maker. So we'll see if this commit, if this committee can help help Houston and also the linebackers. Who's gonna pick up Clyde Edwards a layer out of the backfield. I mean, the mismatch in Kansas City can throw people. Man, it's gonna be it's gonna be a fun thing to watch

it that. Hopefully, Hopefully it's a whole lot of points score between both teams. Hopefully. Listen, the honey Badger will be taking care of Clyde and was Hilayer right, Especially if you see the linebackers take an advantage of they'll put Tyron on them. Okay, all right, all right, let's take another break right here on the Players Labs brought to you by Hotels dot Com. Hey, they're cowboys fans with tight Cleaners at home pickup and delivery. Cleaning your

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at our s WBC virtual homes doing the show. I'm knew he Scrubs, long time Cowboys reporter, and we got two former Cowboys safeties, Berry Church and Danny mccraig joining us. Mccraig, you got some some news here that some of the Cowboy fancy to be up virtual camp. Yeah yeah, so to start our season, you know the data for our first game. You can sign up for our first ever

virtual camp and is free. You'll get an hour of teaching, thirty minutes of out to be a question and answer what legendary cowboy rocket ishmael Right, So you can go sign up for that for free at www dot Callas Dallas Cowboys dot com slash Academy. We also have a cheer camp, so any of you cheer leaders who want to get out there to be the same thing with our current Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders Atlanta and Victoria sign up. The spaces are limited, so we'll be looking forward to

seeing you on Saturday. Hey, when you see Rocket asked him about that time O J. Simpson was trying to get a hold of him during the Orange Bowl. So it is uh, it was pretty cool. The description alone got me, got me? You say, O J. Simpson? O J. Simpson looking for you? Hold on? Yeah, this is bad

was working. Yeah, OJ was working for NBC at NBC had the Orange Bowl and Notre Dame was playing the National Championship game against West Virginia and you know Rocket was Rocket was was the biggest thing in college football, the most exciting player in the sport, and so but Rock didn't really like doing a lot of interviews, and so O J. Simpson was trying to track him down so he could could get an interview. So I think something along like say, you know, hey, it's the juice.

That's how I referred to himself, the juice. You try to tell me the baby called him a man. Look, it's the juice. You sound like that day Chapelle. Joe's the first time I met O J. Yeah. Now it's not as good as it's not as good as the Charlie Murphy's stories with Rick James. Now's not that good. It's not that good, but but it is. It is good. Though. I'll tell you what Me and Danny got a got a story about the actor who who played it television story. We'll tell you off the We'll tell you off the

air though. Okay, we know why he's in trouble now, exactly exactly. See, there was when I looked in la I used to live in the valley, and there was a little Mexican restaurant down VN tour about probably Brown Encino area that he used to be at all the time. So uh, yeah, I know what's talking about. I know what. So go old ride till well show me too. Yes, yes, Man of Honor, Man, he fooled me. He had me food all the way food. Oh you know that was that wasn't one of his better movies that, I mean,

Man of Honor. I see qus about it. It was all right, it was all right. I like is that the one where he was in there too? Yeah, that's what the neural went. He was trying to be a navy seal. Uh okay. And now he's been in some he's been Now did you know he was in a few Good Men? I did not know that. Yes, he's in a few good Man. The list of films that he has been in it's pretty good, it's pretty good. But yeah, he was in he was in a Few good Men. A lot of people forget that he was

in Boys in the Hood. I mean that that's one of those that people miss all the time. Tree and card Dough. Let me out the card Dough. And then he won the Oscar Best Supporting Actor for Rod Tidwell and Jerry McGuire. So um, that was that was an

interesting uh victory for for Cuba. Gooding junior years. So um, but yeah, he's had some films in his career, so yeah, but but but just ask Rocket to give you the whole O. J. Simpson story when OJ was trying to try to track him down because Rock didn't really want to do any interviews, and so the juice the juice called. I don't know if he was wearing those old Dingo

boots or anything that he had up. By the way, Forbes has come out with its annual list of the most valuable ranchise to the National Football League, and for the fourteenth year in a row, the Dallas Cowboys are number one, valued at five point seven billion. Would it be five point seven billion dollars for Jerry Jones? Wow? By the ultimate business man. I mean when he bought the franchise for back when he had first got it, I want to say maybe one hundred because five point

five billion he just didn't buy the Cowboys. He had to also buy Texas Stadium, and a lot of people at the time said Jerry was a fool to buy a stadium that you didn't want to be in the stadium game. A lot of teams at that time were renting their stadium, so they pay a buck, like for instance, veteran staving in Philadelphia, so you know the city owned it, you didn't have to worry about it. So Jerry Jones not only had to run his football team, he had to figure out, how do I take Texas Stadium and

make this thing a moneymaker? Because when he bought the clubs losing a lot of money. So somebody either one hundred eighty nine, one hundred and ninety eight million dollars highest price for a pro sports franchise back in nineteen eighty nine, and Jerry Jones really added a whole lot

of suits. I mean, that was a big thing that changed the National Football League and where Jerry taught a lot of his owners how to make money own your own stadium because then you get to pay yourself, you get to keep all the parking, all the concessions, and then he added more suits there. They shared the ticket revenue, but the sweet money a team was able to keep for themselves. And so that was the whole thing that not only did you see in football, you see it

in basketball, every in hockey. Everybody wants to add sweets. That was Jerry Jones going overdrive over there and Jerry really and when you talk about why he's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor, Jerry taught his owners, fellow owners how to make money. One are the things that are that made a guy like the late art model who I got to cover and talk to in Cleveland, arn't not like Jerry. But Jerry brought pepsi as the end as the initial soft drink of

Texas Stadium. So other owners were mad because at the time, Coke was the official dream. But Jerry's like, wait, wait, wait, fine, Coke's the official drink. But this is my stadium. As a stadium, I get to cut my own deal. And so what you see all across the league, now what Jerry talk people is that you could double dip. So there's an official beer the NFL. Then there's the official

beer for the stadium and for the team. And so look how many times you look up there you see you know, the official car of the Dallas Cowboys, the official truck, the official phone provided me all these different things. Jerry was the guy who brought that to all the fellow owners. And now you see everybody's training campus sponsor by so by that was Jerry Jones doing that, and so he really turned this investment into you know, something

we have never really seen before. And now I mean, Barry, the team you want to play for, the Jacksonville Jaguars. That franchise is worth over a billion dollars here, and I believe the price tag for that team. I want to say it was one hundred and thirty two million dollars for that team when they when they when they got rolling back in the in the late nineties. So the NFL is big business, but nobody's making bigger businesses Jerry because he's got AT and T Stadium. You see

what he's doing in Frisco with the headquarters. Everybody's trying to get into that game too. He's also got the real estate, so he's truly changed American sports and even sports worldwide. Where they're going to on Sunday, SOFI Stadium, that's Jerry. Jerry helped stand Cronky get out of Saint Louis built this thing. And I don't know if you guys remembered or not, but he had the Charges and the Raiders who were looking at a site in Carson

to build a stadium together. Jerry went ahead scrapped that whole thing and ended up having the Chargers go in with Stan Cronky, and then Jerry helps leverage the deal to help the Raiders get his stadium out in Las Vegas. Because Mark Davis was supposed to be working with Sheldon Adelson, the big casino guy out there, that deal blew up, so bam, Jerry goes and make some moves. Bank of America comes in and there's a new stadium with Las Vegas.

I mean, Jerry is the most powerful owner in the National Football League, and some people think he has more power and more juice than Commissioner Roger Goodell. But there I mean, it's uh, yeah, I know a lot about Jerry very well said. I mean that was very well said. I was about to say, you're talking, you talking about that juice. I just remember how mad Jerry Wills when he thought that Roger Goodell wouldn't go suspend zeke Goodness graciou. I thought it was gonna be a fight blows over there.

And Jerry's trying to hold out that hold up that extension too. I mean, Jerry was not happy, not happy about it. And when you go when you kind of look at how they have done their their quote unquote justice. Uh, they did Zeke dirty because they make it the best. They go um six games. You even had the person who investigated and said that you know, they didn't think that it was worthy of suspension. So how they did

Zeke was was not that that was dirty. Then the lady who ended up but to give him the suspension, she's the Giants fan. So that was always one of those shady things that I looked at Jerry and I say, you know what, man, I get the understanding on that, but that's something else in the NFL. In my opinion,

the NFL has got to be smarter than that. You're out here to spending Tom Brady games for deflating footballs and Zeke Elliott, I mean for I mean, you know, one like Zeke ended up getting jail or even arrested on this. I mean, why are you taking away the guys that people tune in to see each week? You people want to see Tom Brady, they want to see Ezekiel Elliot. You can't be out here just suspending guys on some with this random goofy stuff that has disputable

evidence there. I mean, you gotta have these guys out here on the football field, which is also, in my opinion, one reason why we've seen them really relax the standards on marijuana use. You know, why do you want to sit up here to spend your players and they're not there on Sundays when you're out here trying to get ratings, trying to get yourself a new TV deal. You want your guys here. And many states allow guys and I just got allow their citizens to smoke marijuana because the

citizens have passed the law there. So the NFL is getting a little bit better about these suspensions here, and that's uh that that's a good thing. But Jerry's been at the forefront of that as well with his displeasure, and he's also wanted to have the rules relaxed about marijuana because hey, look, we all know there's plenty guys in this league that that you know, that that smoked marijuana, and so why are you why are you gonna go

out here. It's just spending guys where it's legal, and so many states it's just goofy to me about how they've been operating it. I mean, I remember that Seattle game when when when Ezekiel Ellie there's video. I don't know it was teams without that. He went to his dispensing and I became big news. It's like, ah, so I had to the next day, but my TV boss had me do a story on it. I was like, really,

I got the story on this. So we had to go down to the dispensery place, talked to the older and the owner ended up you know, he tells, yeah, he was here, and the owner was cool about it. But I just sat and Zeke said, you know, I was just with a friend tagging along, and I just thought, this is what it's come to. We're really worried about what guys are doing here, and that's a story Like that's crazy. Yeah, yeah, so so that that's uh, that's

that's that's what it was though. All right, fellas, give me a winner for tonight. By the way, as we get ready to head out the door here Church Houston, Texans thirty one to seventeen. Whoa, I got the Kansas City Chiefs forty one to twenty one, and they'll blowout forty one twenty one Kansas City Chiefs. Uh. Make sure y'all tune in and watch the national Anthem of the night. It will be a little different and also be different

to see the stadium without as many fans. All right, give me a forty to twenty eight victory for the Kansas City Chiefs or nine and a half point favorites with Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes putting up some numbers here on these two defenses. So I'm looking forward. I think these offenses are gonna be good tonight. So I'm excited football is back. So make sure we're watching that. And Danny, go ahead and throwing a little Dallas Stars

while you're out there, Man, go ahead, slip on over here, Tea. Yeah, I'll see if I can fit it in. Man, I got I gotta. I gott about Serena and Lebruno. Hey, we're mixing it all in, and we're gonna mix it all in right there. Hey, that is the players Lives. We're back tomorrow at two thirty pm. He is buried Church. Danny mccram new Scruts, thank you so much for watching Dallas Cowboys dot Com. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.