The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 'Boys and Girl - HOF Game, McCarthy's Future and Dak's Status with Jon Machota

Episode Date: August 8, 2021

On today’s episode of the 'Boys and Girl Podcast, Jane and Bobby welcome Jon Machota from The Athletic to discuss the Hall of Fame game, Mike McCarthy’s future, and the status of Dak Prescott’s injury. Follow Jane and Bobby on Twitter and subscribe to get all the latest inside information from two of the most connected people in the Cowboys’ community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome in to the Boys and Girl podcast with Cowboys NFL Network reporter Jane Slater and NFL network producer Bobby Belt, a Cowboys community with the inside scoop on the Dallas Cowboys. Now, coming straight to you from the lone star state. Here's Jane and Bobby. 16 to 3 the final. Not exactly the outcome that Cowboys fans were looking for as we got

football underway in Canton, Ohio, Steelers versus Cowboys, Cowboys not coming out on top. We have got John Moshota of the athletic to weigh in, but before we get to him, Bobby, your initial thoughts. Mike Parsons is exciting. That's about it. The quarterback situation behind Dak Prescott's a little concerning. I think that's pretty, you're crossing your fingers about healthy, your quarterback and your tackles right now, I think is the first impression from this first preseason

game. My favorite moment of the game didn't even happen in the game. It happened off the field in the pregame. Jerry and Jimmy, if you missed it, here you go. When are you going to put Jimmy in the ring of honor? Well, I think that's fair to say, shall we do it right here?

Absolutely. We've got time. We've got plenty of time. You picked the game. I think we can go. I think we've got some great days ahead of us. I know we are going to certainly be recognizing what's happening here with the Hall of Fame. But Texan, who started that Ring of Honor, said, Jerry, keep it, keep it kind of limited with people. But make sure it wasn't just about the plays they made. Make sure they contributed to the story of the franchise.

That's kind of hard to not recognize this country. contribution to the story of the franchise. So are we making an announcement here? Well, we can be. If we can, I don't know how we're going to upstate. No, yeah, you can. Go ahead. Make the announcement. But we'll be in the ring of honor. There we go.

Jerry, love it. You heard it here. And we'll be there. While I'm alive, are you going to be able to make it through this Hall of Fame there, Mark? Jerry Jones, incredibly introspective this season. Is it because the ball was taken away from him, as I've said, because of COVID? not being able to interact the way he has, or is it because Father of Time is beginning to catch up?

Let's hope that we have plenty more years with Jerry Jones because he is so meaningful and impactful to this game. I don't think we'd have the season that we have the fans in the stance, Bobby, if it wasn't for the vision of Jerry Jones to get things back to normal. But enjoyed that moment. And the biggest takeaway, Jimmy Johnson going in the Ring of Honor where a lot of fans and myself included believe that he belonged. Let's get real quick to John Moshoda. All right, we are now joined by a friend of the show and one of my buddies out at training camp, John Moshoda. How are you, buddy? I know that it's helped this year to have access to the football field and get content

because there are a few better on the beat with putting content out there. And that hurts my soul as content queen to say that. But do you love being up close and personal and being able to smell the players again, John? Oh, I mean, I can say this right now. biggest concern driving to Oxnard was after I got to LAX was all right what's the social media policy going to be this year because we didn't really know for sure until we got there and so I had some other media members I got there a little bit early who did screen grabs and what the media policy wasn't sent it to me as I was driving over just to be sure that we could take video I was

really nervous about that because every team isn't allowed to take video and for me I just I love being able to post that stuff immediately and I know fans eat it up and then the other part of it is too is you know, going into these camp practices, you don't really know what you're going to get. And I'll be honest, these last few practices have been pretty boring, especially without D.D. Lamb and just how almost every practice, it's like, well, you can at least come out of this with at least one decent CD Lamb clip. And so that's been enjoyable. Well, and I think, you know, to peel the curtain back a little bit, that every time they push you back on the social media policy, I feel like it's a conduit to get the fans excited, right? Like, we're supposed to be

the eyes and ears. And it does feel like camp has been a little boring. You don't have the off the field drama of Zeke not showing up because he's in Cabo and he's holding out for a new contract. You don't have the lingering questions about, you know, Dax's contract situation. You know, Des isn't there anymore who used to be a big draw. And then I think back to when I joined the network, Tony Romo had of course entered himself at camp, then Kellan Moore. And then this guy, DAC became the storyline. So I'm glad that the Cowboys see the value of having us be the eyes and ears out there. But again, I just want to get your take on this.

It does feel like Jerry appreciated what the media does for teams while we're out there. He has been more complimentary than usual of media, which I, but it also feels like he just missed everything that came with it, the good and the bad, which is something I've always appreciated about Jerry. Absolutely. There's no question about that. And that's why, you know, I don't think every single team in the NFL, I don't think every GM, every owner would be thrilled to have hard knocks cover their training camp. But like with Jerry Jones, I think he genuinely enjoys it and we'll make sure that they get some good stuff. Whereas I don't think every team is like that. And this training camp going into it and even a few months before we got to camp, I sense that from Jerry, him talking how much he wanted things to get back to normal. And with Jerry, it's interesting because I don't know that there's many people that the pandemic, you know, negatively impacted in terms of like just how they are as a person taking health out of it, obviously. But just as their interactions, like Jerry is a people person. He wants to be around people. You know, everyone sat there during the draft, you know, two years ago and talked about how great it must have been to be on this yacht. Jerry doesn't want to be on that yacht.

I've heard Jerry say that he doesn't like being on that yacht for more than a couple of days because he just doesn't like being there. that's not a Jerry thing. He got that yacht for his wife. That's why he's named after his wife. Like Jerry wants to be around people. And last year he couldn't do that. And even when he was around, he had to wear a mask and stay distance.

Like, no, Jerry doesn't want that. Jerry wants to be around reporters. I don't know that there's any owner that appreciates having reporters and media around more than Jerry does. And so to get back to this setting out in Oxnard where you're just able to get closer to the field and be around the players a lot more than you can back at the star. Absolutely Jerry Jones wanted that. I think if you leave it up to.

to Mike McCarthy, they probably don't do a lot of this stuff. But Jerry wants to do it and Mike's got to do what Jerry wants to do. Well, and to that point, so nobody's happier that the things are kind of returning to normalcy than Jerry. So do you think there's anybody more unhappy than Mike McCarthy that he has to like stand up there with you guys every day now? He would be at the top of my list. I can tell just by the fact of training camp is a good spot that where you can probably

pull a coach aside. maybe for a quick, like, what we used to call the walk off with Jason Garrett. And Mike McCarthy was not having that at the camp practices I've been at. You know, he might say a quick comment, but he's trying to get out of there immediately. He's not trying to make any small talk after he leaves the podium. And, I mean, he even made the joke multiple times where we're out there that, you know, he almost crashed his truck when Jerry told him that they were going to have hard knock. So, and then you see the little bit of a teaser about him talking about the Super Bowl a week ago

that they teased and shown a little clip from what hard knocks is going to be shown next week, towards the end of the preseason game, you know, Thursday night against the Steelers. That's stuff that I'm sure Mike McCarthy doesn't want getting out there. But I think, you know, from what Dax said, it sounds like it's a real give and take with the NFL, whereas like when he's miced up, they're going to get some good stuff, but they're also going to protect him and keep some stuff out. So they're going to, there's going to be interesting moments, but there's also going to be certain things that they cut out because they don't want in there.

And I think Mike McCarthy is going to want to say in some of those things. because this is far, far, far away from the way things are running Green Bay. This is, this is a lot different. But with that being said, he knew what he was getting into when he took this job. Did he though? Because I feel like there's guys like, I think back to Randall Cobb in the locker room with this, John, when he said this feels like playoff media. I think people have an idea of what Dallas is like, but you've covered other teams.

When I go to other locker rooms and other facilities and I'm around other coaches and other PR departments, it is. substantially different. And even when I try and think of owners with similar clout, like I think of the Shod Kahn's in Jacksonville, like Tony Kahn is your next Jerry Jones in the sense that he loves being around football.

He loves everything that comes with urban. I'm actually shocked that they said no to the hard knock cameras, which I didn't think you could. But Tony's kind of your next enthusiastic. I'm obsessed with it, whereas I think there's a lot of owners who genuinely care about the team and the sport, but I don't think that they derive the sort of pleasure, excitement, live for the highs and lows the way some of these other teams fill.

But I also feel like Mike has leaned in a bit more this year. He seems a little softer. And again, this is very early on, John. He seems a little softer. Seems like he got a little media training. He's a little bit more engaging. And I will say this, you do get very, very. full and complete answers with Mike, something that we didn't get from Jason last year.

And before we move on and start actually talking about this Hall of Fame game, got to ask you to weigh in on Jason Garrett. Real quick, Bobby, I think we've got the clip from him with the New York Giants media. Good to see you guys. Good to see you guys. Yeah. Yeah, we say good to see you coach. That's how we do.

Jason, we can see you guys. All right. One, way in. So when I first saw the clip yesterday from the Giants interaction, well, first of all, I didn't see the clip first. I saw a tweet describing what happened. And when I saw that, I was like, oh, this is like a Dion Sanders thing. Like Jason really pulled this as the OC in New York. Okay, I can't wait to see this video.

Immediately went to the Giants website, wanted to see if they had posted it, knowing that they might cut off the end because a team website can certainly do that. but then the video got posted and I was like, oh, that's the same Jason Garrett that, you know, we're used to or whatever like that. Well, interestingly enough, so I send that to my brother who I talk about the Cowboys and what goes on behind the scenes with him more than probably anybody. And when I sent it to him and he's heard me talk many of times about Jason Garrett, his takeaway was like, no, I think he really wanted them to call him coach or whatever. And I was like, oh, that's interesting, you know, coming from another perspective.

But to me, being around Jason Garrett, I didn't take it that way. So, but I can understand where people. do. I mean, personally, when I see the video, I kind of thought it was funny that he took a Sharpie marker and wrote fight on it because that was such a motto of his with the cowboys. And he's clearly, I've seen him wear fight shirts now with the giants. I'll say this, going back to what you said about Mike McCarthy, given long answers and things like that. With Jason, Jason, I believe now more than ever wanted the walk off because that gave him a chance to further explain things, not on the podium and give us a little bit more background.

because, I mean, Jane, those walkoffs sometimes would be 10, 15, 20 minutes sometimes. You get a lot of, like, background and you could explain things further, whereas what you get on the podium from Mike is all you're getting. And so because of that, I think he's trying to be a little bit more forthcoming this year, but he hasn't lost any games yet. And then the other part is, is he is coming off of a very disappointing six and 10 season when it was sold that we're bringing this guy in because he's going to help us take the next step. This isn't a rebuild.

And so I think it's in his best nature right now to try and be, you know, everything's great. Let's, you know, let's be positive and things like that. But if they start losing and they look anywhere like they did last year and discombobulated, too many guys on the field, not enough guys on the field, just, you know, plays just being run where you're like, do you even practice this stuff? If it looks like that over again, when you've had a normal offseason, I don't know that we're going to get these long, in-depth answers. And then the one other thing I want to say is to your point about the Jags.

I fully expect the Jags to do Hard Knocks next year. I think the only reason they didn't do it this year is because you can't do it with a first year head coach. And so I think just because Urban's new, I think that's the only reason they didn't. But they seem like I just an absolute lay up to do it next year. You know, I and I'd go back and forth on this Mike McCarthy experiment. You know, if he were to have a repeat of last year and there weren't the injuries to justify it, would he still be around? And in all of my conversations with the Cowboys, John,

I'm sure you've had similar ones, they are all in on him. They are. I have been stopped in my tracks multiple times during conversations about him where they are all, like, emphasized to me, we love Mike.

Mike's my guy. So every time I think, well, Dan Quinn looks real good out there. The players seem really energetic to play for Dan. and we don't even have to ask them how they feel about Dan and they volunteer it. I think of, you know, when it was Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett waiting in the wings, is it going to not very different than when you even told the story about Jimmy Johnson and, you know, bring in and Barry Switzer, you know, do they have this guy waiting in the wings?

I'm conflicted now, John. I don't know. I agree with you. Everything I've heard from the Cowboys front office is that they're absolutely in love with Mike. Now, I don't think that they necessarily run. leak out before his second season that this is make or break. I just, I don't get the sense that they would do that right now. But yeah, it certainly appears that they're more bought in behind the scenes and let's say maybe us in the media. But just speaking from my own perspective,

because, you know, you get a lot more access to other teams. I'm, I find myself and I'm constantly out there practice, not even doing this on purpose, just kind of subconsciously. It's like I'm comparing it to the way things are run with Jason Garrett. And it's just not like that, whether it's the organization in practice, whether it's just the way, you know, Jason carried himself in practice to just kind of the juice in practice. I mean, maybe just that they had more music playing or things like that. Things seem to look. The way he interacted with his quarterback and the play. I mean, we don't see Mike out there throwing the ball with the quarterbacks the way that we saw Jason Garrett doing it. It did feel like a very authentic interaction with him sometimes

in the players. It did. And so I guess my biggest takeaway, is that there's not one way to do things because because of some stuff I've written and been researching lately for some offseason projects for the athletic on some, you know, older cowboy stuff, you know, Tom Landry didn't keep a really close relationship with anybody, including Roger Staubach. Like, they just wasn't that, they weren't like that until after. We know that Bill Belichick and Tom Brady weren't like that when they were playing together. And so I hold those two in some of the highest standards. And when I look back on some of that stuff, I think now,

And I didn't know this at the time. And I certainly wasn't saying this at the time. But I'm like, those guys never would have went to Duke with Tony Romo. Those guys never would have went to SMU with Tony Romo and Jason Whitney and things like that. So why Jason did that and I agree with you, it made him seem like he's closer with those guys and they had a better relationship. I don't think Mike wants that. And I think it's because he knows that at any minute he has to make a tough decision. And he doesn't want to get too close with a guy that he might have to make, you know, a cut or,

reduce his playing time or whatever. And so I've gotten that sense from him where he is players first. I mean, everything about the way his camps are structured practices during the week. It's all the trying to keep these guys as healthy as possible. And the way he talks about them. Right. Even though that didn't work out last year in terms of the health,

but we'll see. I mean, maybe it was just bad luck. We'll see how that runs this year. But he certainly seems like a player's first coach in doing things that makes it most comfortable for them. But I also don't see him grabbing a beer with it. any of these guys. No, and you know, it's interesting that you say that because, you know,

to your point, I do wonder if there's a layer there that because Jason played in Dallas and he was a player, that he feels more, he felt more of a connection to those guys. He wasn't that far removed from being in the locker room and, you know, putting on his pants the same way as they say. And maybe with Mike McCarthy and the Bill Belichick's the world, they're not quite like that. You know, Sean Pate and I cover the Saints. He's a little bit like that, but he's a lot more like Bill Parcells,

even though, you know, he played, you know, obviously, like, had a cup of coffee in the league, played at Eastern, you know, Illinois. There was some kinship there, but there was also a lot, there's also a lot of removal with him and the players. And so, yeah, maybe Mike is walking that line a little bit. It's just when people ask me about Mike McCarthy as a coach,

I think all of us are trying to give him a little bit more of the benefit of the doubt last year because of the way things went down and then also trying to make sure we remove some of the comparisons with Jason Garrett because it's just different in Dallas. It's different the way the coach interacts with with the front office, the owner. Everything is different. So I have tried to just say, remove some of the bias. You know, we try to on a daily basis as a reporter, but give him the best shot possible. But that then transitions us to the Hall of Fame game. Well, hold on one more One more thing I wanted to add on that, Jane, real quick, is just that the other part of it, too, that makes me wonder sometimes when I see Mike carry himself that way and it be different from kind of what we saw with Jason is that I felt like the Cowboys during the Jason Garrett era, like Jason Garrett wanted to be the face. He wanted to be the leader. He wanted everything to kind of go through him, whether that was on purpose or not. I feel like Mike wants the players to take over like that. He wants them to be the leaders. He wants the guys in the locker room to kind of take that forefront.

And part of me thinks, well, maybe that is the difference in the postseason. You know, maybe that is the thing that helped them get to, you know, the NFC championship games and win a Super Bowl in Green Bay. So maybe this does work. I mean, I'm, I'm skeptical. But at the same time, I know that there's more than one way to do things. And maybe his style is more about empowering. Let's let these guys take over.

Not to say Jason Garrett didn't do that. I just out of what I've seen from Mike McCarthy so far, it really seems like he wants certain players to kind of step up, take the leadership mantle. them to kind of be the face of this thing and him kind of be like, I'm going to be the CEO, but I don't need, I don't really care about being in the forefront of it. I don't. I mean, I and I guess I'll be negative Nancy on McCarthy here because my, my thing is that, okay, I think there's a difference between not wanting to be too personable and having too close relationship with players and not appearing buddy buddy,

the way Bella chick and some of these other guys do and keeping it professional and just being flat out removed, which I think is something that may have been the case last year. and I don't think should be the case moving forward. And when we talk about relationships, this is a guy who last year, I think, in large part, made some of these poor coaching hires based on the buddy system and bringing in friends like Mike Nolan.

And so I don't think that there's a full pass here on Mike McCarthy. I think a year into this, he's made a lot of poor decisions and not just from obfuscation, but from actually actively involving himself in a poor decision. Well, but I also would, I would submit here, to give you a little bit of Sally Sunshine, at least he owns some of it. Like I do feel like he's owned it.

The Cowboys have certainly not absolved him of it either. I mean, Stephen Jones was asked if it was a combination, if this was just bad luck, or if it was a combination of bad luck and bad decisions. And he essentially said, to paraphrase here, John, it was a mixture of both. So I don't think there, I don't think anybody is naive enough to think, well, this was all very much a result of the pandemic and the situation he came in.

I think there was a lot of going back to the drawing board. And I do wonder sometimes if this organization and the expectations for it would have been a little bit different if they had made those changes in the middle of the season defensively, if that would have helped this team out at all. But then I think back in, I don't know if that would have helped either. you know, then it would have felt very reactive last season. And you almost kind of had to give those guys the rest of the season to figure out in a bigger body of work in order to really realize, yeah, we've got a problem here. Maybe, but I mean, they partially saved their season in 2018 by making an offensive line change in the middle of the year.

And that was a big part. A lot of those issues that they had with Paul Alexander kind of strained out when they brought in Mark Colombo. So, I mean, there is that balance. How long have Paul been there? Eight weeks. That was his first year. Yeah. you're going from like,

I get it's different. Yeah, I get it's different. A defensive coordinator and a defensive line. Look, I think, I think if they, if they could have anticipated COVID being what it was, I think they would have held on to Jason

for another year anyway. I think they wanted as few changes as possible. So I get that once they were in it, they wanted to just be married and not make any more changes. But, you know, it's just like I say, I think that there is, and to your point,

I think Mike McCarthy has taken more, responsibility than, you know, he deserves credit for taking as much responsibility as he has. I remember last year when your story came out, that when Mike got asked about it, Mike had a better response about it than Jerry did, which is when you're losing football games. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged.

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You shouldn't have to share one with anybody. Mm-hmm. From navigating friendships and healing to setting boundaries and prioritizing your mental health. These are real honest conversations. We don't always get to have out loud. Totally unreasonable with different parts of life, right? Like, oh, we'll have all three meals and make sure you're mindful during all of them? Absolutely not.

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Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! But there's so much more to me than me. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, hope from a hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions.

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This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrite as part of the Mike Coutura Podcast Network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is how people talk. This isn't anything unusual. I'm not concerned about it. We just need to get back to winning football. That he didn't even, you know, he wasn't finger-pointing.

He wasn't doing the, you know, late in Vandereche. This is cowardice. Mike was saying this is what happens when you lose football. So, yeah, I get it. People are frustrated. let's get back to it. So I do think there is a bit of a steady hand with McCarthy that is valuable. It's just I do think there are a lot of things that need to be corrected heading in this year.

They can't just run it back and say, well, if it's healthy, we'll be good. There's a lot of things logistically that have to change this year. Get right to the romance and find the way to wow this valentines with 1-800flowers.com. From classic roses and bouquets to decadent chocolate-covered berries, gourmet treats, and more. Surprise your Valentine with 1-800-flowers. Flowers.com. Right now, get the 18th stem enchanted rose medley for $3999 or upgrade to 24 red roses for $10 more. Go to 1800flowers.com slash tune in. That's 1800flowers.com slash tune in. And we're live here outside the Perez family home just waiting for the... And there they go. Almost on time this morning.

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Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families and the Ad Council. But there's a chance that if they are just healthy, they will be good. They'll be, I think they can, if they are fully healthy, they're a playoff contender. I don't think you can do enough to switch how bad that defense was to be a Super Bowl. contender this year. No, but I feel like if Tyron Smith and Lyle Collins are healthy, there's just enough weapons on that offense. Sure. They'll win the division if that happens. Yeah, that I think that they'll still win a decent amount of games. And frankly, you know, Jane, you mentioned earlier about like, what if, you know, certain things would have happened

if Mike doesn't come back after one year. Like, I've always felt like Mike was getting at least two and probably three years at the minimum to try and get this thing where they want it to be. So, you know, I think that they'll get past six wins, and I think they will win the NFCs, and whether they make a playoff run or not is another topic. But I think that they'll do enough for him to at least get one more year out of this. And then, you know, if they're not winning playoff games in year three, even though I know Cowboys fans don't want to wait that long because that's the reason they got rid of Jason Garrett, then I think they go in another direction.

Jerry doesn't want to wait that long. Yeah. We always talk about the windows closing sense of urgency. it feels even more significant now. I think having the ball taken away from him, not being at camp, not being around these guys, he wants to win.

And, you know, I've said this before. If I had the money on the yacht, you know, at his age, I'm living my best life, John. Like, I've got the most profitable sports organization in all of the world. People are going to come if we're eight and eight.

Or, I mean, even after last season, people still showed up in the stands. You know, people still care about the cowboys. I'm living my life in San Trope and I'm frequenting the islands. I don't know if I'm in Oxnard, California, sitting up, you know, in the, you know, his skybox, watching practice every day and dealing with media. But that's why I think what people kind of question his passion, when I've got, you know, let's go ahead and we'll put 15 years on Jerry, you know, because I feel like he can go that long.

I'm not spending my last year's doing what he's doing. So that's why I truly do believe if we see a season like we saw last, year he gone he gone well i hope so one other key part of that though is you have to find the next person and is it dan quinn in the building i mean if you want to walk about coach that your players respect and like let's see how the defense plays this year you know we got i mean everything right now with dan quinn seems great and everyone seems bought in but let's just see how the season goes oh i agree i think it's less to do with what they're going to do on the field and more to do with at least the players respect and buy in.

You know, at least they're not like checking out on this guy. That's to me what was missing last year is I didn't think they were going to run through a wall for anybody on the coaching staff. Right. But if they do run through the wall for Dan, like we believe they will from what we've seen so far, this defense will be much better. I mean, regardless of, I mean, there was just, there was too many times last year when you were questioning if guys were even trying, particularly late in second halves and games weren't even out of hand yet. and you were like, is this, is this really what they're trying to do right now?

If you don't see any of that, then you'll know, I mean, the actions will speak louder than the words. You'll know, you will know if they've completely bought in and Dan Quinn pretty quickly. All right. So action speaking louder than words. Micah Parsons has been a curious rookie for me from the jump. He's very brash. He seems like the, like the little sibling who's constantly knocking on your door and wants to play, you know, with the older kids and your friends. and I've also wondered if that would rub certain players the wrong way.

But he backs it up. He backs it up in camp. He backs it up in practice. And then he backed it up in the Hall of Fame game. What have you thought of Michael Parsons so far? I've been thinking that there's a good chance that they probably lucked into another outstanding first round pick like they did with C.D. Lamb. I mean, they're sitting there at 10 and they desperately want J.C. Horn or Patrick Sertan.

And both those guys go before them. So they're just kind of like, okay, well, what's our next plan? And for any of this talk of like, well, no, they liked Micah Parsons as much. Oh, did they? Then you don't trade back to even 11, much less 12. You stay there and you take your guy. And from what I've seen in training camp, I mean, even in that first pre-seasoning game,

he only plays the first two series, but right place at the right time, picks up the fumble. That's some of the same exact stuff we've seen in training camp. The very last practice before they left for Canton, really boring, not in paths, just in shells, kind of going through the motions, tip ball, boom. Micah's in the right place of the right time, picks it off. And you're just kind of like every, not, I wouldn't say every practice, but it seems like almost every or every other practice,

he seems to be making a play like that. And just the way he's been moving around and just kind of how they're using him to kind of be like, hey, we're going to give you the freedom to just kind of roam and just make plays. I just think he's going to be in a great situation to as long as he stays healthy. I mean, he'll be in the defensive rookie of year conversation all season. and right now he has to be the betting favorite there. And this is a guy that that was not,

that was not their plan to take him like, Mike Parsons going into that draft. It was not their plan to take CD Lamb. And they might, I mean, there's big time luck involved in this. I remember Will McLeigh tell me that when I asked them how you find a franchise quarterback in the fourth round.

I mean, you can't underestimate luck. Sometimes you just get lucky. And I think they might have got lucky with like Mike Parsons. I think that one of the things that I really wanted to see from Michael Parsons, because you can see it on practice, but it's still a little different once you're in shells and you're out there in game speed is one of the biggest things you hear from rookies consistently when you talk about like this jump to the NFL and how difficult is you can ask any position on the field on the field. What's been the most difficult thing? They consistently say it's so fast. These guys are so fast. Like the fastest guy on my college team is every single guy on the field right now. And so they talk about how quick the game is. And so it's tough for speed to stand out. It's tough for quickness to stand out at the NFL level. And when it does, it's like, wow, that pops. And so that was one of the things I wanted to say. to say, okay, does that Penn State speed that Micah Parsons have show up on an NFL field?

And even if it is a Hall of Fame game and it's, you know, a bunch of guys who playing in this game aren't even going to be on NFL rosters here in a month or whatever, that would flash. And it did. I think you saw how quick he is, how strong he is. You saw how, you know, he'd take on blocks and he'd break things up. And so I thought that Mike Parsons, more than anything, I didn't want to see, you know, the instincts or anything else, which looked fine. I think the biggest thing I want to see is, does that athleticism, translate. Does it carry over into the NFL? And I think it clearly did. No, I agree. And I'm just amazed

that he can play multiple positions already the way that they want him to. You know, I mean, there's certain things at Penn State that he just wasn't doing one being, you know, shedding blocks and things like that that you expect from your linebackers. But he's shown to be able to do all of that stuff so far. And, and I mean, not playing last year. He's clearly fresh. You know, I mean, Ezekiel Elliott obviously had a heavy workload at Ohio State, but 2016 Zeke was just, I mean, Everything about him was just, he was fresh and it was just like nothing bothered him. He could, you know, lower the boom on a guy like Cam Chancellor or jump over a safety on another play.

And it just like, there's that, you know, youthfulness. Just I see that with Michael Parsons where it just like, even in practice, he's running down these plays where, again, they're not tackling to the ground, but he's at least doing the things where you're just like, man, this guy is going to be all over the place. And I mean, as long as he continues to love the game, he's going to be a monster. but it just like from watching it from the sidelines, I'm just like doing all this seems exhausting, but he seems to be all about it. And he seems to really relish that idea of like, no, they're going to use me as this chess piece where one play I'm going to be rushing the passer might not even be

off the edge. They might line me up in the middle. We've seen some of that in practice. I might play some on the outside. Might play some of the inside linebacker. I can drop into coverage. I'm going to be all over to place. You know, I'm going to try and leave this team and sacks, interceptions, tackles, everything. And who knows? Maybe he does that. He does seem like a little Pac-Man out there. He just wants to move all over the field. All right, so let's talk other positions of interest. I know to the fans,

cornerback safety. Let's start with cornerback. Obviously, didn't see a lot of Trayvon Diggs, you know, yesterday. So what are we thinking is the guy playing opposite? I think it'll be Anthony Brown. Kelvin Joseph has a chance. I know the Cowboys like him a lot, but I just think that going into week one, Tom Brady,

you're going to want your veterans out. there. And so I think it'll be Anthony Brown and Trayvon Diggs. The slot is what's interesting to me because Maurice Kennedy has really come on. And it makes me wonder, damn, this is the player they got last year. Like if he didn't opt out, what would he have done last year? He has the most interceptions of anybody at camp with three right now. You know, I thought he played pretty well last night against the Steelers. He just seems to constantly be making plays. And that's a guy that, you know, one year deal, I was kind of like, well, if he doesn't impress. he's probably not making this roster.

I don't see any way you don't keep him. And so you're looking at, and obviously injuries happen, but you're looking at a good six, seven corners if you're counting CJ Good, when you even though he's a special teams guy, that they're going to have to keep on this roster because either they've played to that standard

or there's guys like Nashan Wright, who he's shown glimpses, but also you're not cutting a third round pick in his rookie season. So they're looking like they have six solid corners. And one thing I want to note is that I know that in some of these CD Lamb or a lot of these CD Lamb videos I posted, you know, Trayvon Diggs is defending him and people think that like he's having some bad, he's not having a bad camp, but just for one, they're not tackling to the ground.

Just imagine being a defensive, yeah, imagine be a defensive back and you're sitting there and you're like what you're going to do in a game. Do it about 75%. That's what you got to do in practice. You're not getting as much safety help. There's not a real pass rush so the quarterbacks can throw, uh, some of their best passes and be right on the money on a lot of these things. I think Trayvon Diggs will be just fine.

He just seems to have a knack for making plays. And so while I don't, he's not Byron Jones. We saw that last year where he's, you know, Byron Jones is not going to give up a big play, but he's probably not going to make a ton of plays either. Trayvon's going to give up some plays, but he's going to make a lot of big plays. Three interceptions last year,

I wouldn't be surprised if he had five or six this year. Well, and, you know, to that point, you mentioning there that they can't bring him to the ground and things like that. That's another thing fancy to understand is that these training camp practices are ripe for receivers to look like stars. That's just what they, I mean, think back over the years of how many times fans have fallen in love with a receiver who ends out getting cut or who was like a fifth or sixth guy.

And it's like, wow, this guy's made no impact. How many times has Noah Brown, but a star receiver at camp. And it's just, it's really tough. The way these drills are set up, the way the practices are allowed to happen, it's natural for the receivers to look like studs out there. That's why Malik Turner looks great and Noah Brown has looked great. Not that they can't carry that over, but it naturally is going to be a little bit tougher for the corners, which again, to that point,

That's why it is so impressive that Maurice Kennedy has looked as good as he has. Well, shame on Jordan. You can't make the club if you're in the tub. You know, they brought Jordan Lewis back. And Jordan's allowed Maurice Kennedy to shine in his absence. Yeah, for sure. The other thing about Diggs, too, though, I will say out of all the corners, like he is still very aggressive even in these practices.

Anthony Brown has been too, but it's stood out to me. And that's good for CD. I mean, that's what you want. You're number one. Well, number two or one, whatever he ends up being this year. Yeah. I mean, he just, it's, it's hard for me not to see him emerging as that just because we're going to just see so much more of him being moved around. But no, I mean, Trayvon Diggs and him going against each other.

I know it's cliche to say iron sharpens iron, but that's certainly what it appears like they're doing, you know, out in California. And the nice thing about that, unlike, you know, some other positions on the team, both of them have been healthy. So they've been going back and forth every single practice. And so it would be interesting to see how much those guys play against the Rams on Saturday in that practice, just to see them go against another team. but I got a feeling they're going to be a little limited in that as well. I do also appreciate what a quiet workhorse, C.D. Lam is. You don't hear much about him. You certainly don't see the flash off the field, at least not yet.

We're so used to brash, loud, wide receivers in Dallas, and he's just not that. I mean, he... None of them are, though. No, it's the crazy part. I was cracking up at Jory Epstein's tweet the other day talking about the use of the word cleave and, you know, the way that Amar, Amari just literally makes you always second guess, do I have the smartest questions for you? Because I literally feel like if you do not ask him

a smart question the right way, he's not going to give you the goods. And so he is one of the and it's not in a condescending manner either. Like be clear, but it's literally in a way that it's like, I can't even, that question, I can't even compute what you just said. I genuinely need you to flesh it out for me better so I can give you an answer. And I'm sorry, the other day when he was saying that stuff though, when you mentioned some of that stuff that Jory was tweeting, that's the best interview, I think, that we've had with Amari Cooper since he's been a cowboy, just because he just seemed really motivated talking about how, like, he's been around guys that when they've suffered injuries and setbacks where they've had, you know, several months

to recover, how they've contemplated, like, how much more do I even want to do this? And they start thinking about retirement, where for him, it's been the exact opposite during going through all this. I mean, he gets, in, I think it was January, he gets that, that ankle surgery and then has a setback from that. And this entire time, he talked about how it just made him hungrier for the game. And that's a lot of stuff that you didn't really hear from him when he first joined the Cowboys or even when he was in Oakland and what making it maybe one of the reasons why the Cowboys were able to get him in the first place.

And he just, it was a very motivated Amari Cooper that, not to say he isn't motivated, but that's the first time like vocally, he's got gotten to that level. It kind of surprised me. It was, it took me from being like, I think C.D. Lambs emerges the number one. here to after that 15 minutes or whatever, the Mari Cooper, I was like, I don't know if it's going to be quite that easy of a jump there. And again, Mari fully expects to be ready to go week one, just because he isn't doing anything out in Oxnard. That's not because they think that he suffered another setback or anything like that. Like, they want him to be ready for the bucks.

And he looks to be on track for that. I think how ready it was when he came into Dallas midseason. Remember during, you know, the trade, I think a lot of us were shocked how ready he was. I just would love to read a bathroom book, Deep Thoughts, the Mari Cooper. I literally could, I would love to just ask him anything, like his thoughts on like parallel universe, the fourth dimension, the wall. I bet you he has very intense thoughts about all of it

because he has intense thoughts about a route that did, that busted or a play that didn't develop the way that he expected it to. I mean, I've always joked. He reminds me of a golfer when you walk him through a round. take me through the round. And Jordan Speed will walk you through all 18 holes. That's a Mari Cooper. I feel like he can walk you through every single route in the game.

Oh, and also a little bit like, you know, Roger Stavak after his career made all this money in real estate. Nothing would surprise me 20, 30 years from now. If they're like, oh, Mari Cooper is one of the most successful, like, ex-NFL players. Like, you know, he bought into Bitcoin when nobody even knew what Bitcoin was or something like that, you know. That's developing a shoe line too. Right. He's always reading. He's always like, I don't know, like, I'm happy.

He had a book club when he was with the Raiders. He was reading a book a month and like blogging about it or something. He's built different. No, absolutely. Like I'm, I'm obsessed with like football. Covering this one NFL team is enough for me. That's enough for my brain. For Mari Cooper, it's like, no, no, I play football.

Yeah. But I'm doing this. I'm reading this. I'm kind of like learning about this stuff all the time. Like he's constantly like trying to grow and, you know, find out different things. But yeah, no, he's, he's one of the most interesting guys if you can get him to open up and start talking. Amari Cooper's dating profile on Bumble or Hinge or the league is very extensive. I feel like NFL player would be at the bottom of it.

It would be like humanitarian citizen. It would just literally go down the list and then it would say NFL football player. He would not lead with it is my takeaway from my experience dealing with him. John, can you confirm the rumors that Doc Prescott's arm has fallen off? You know, it hasn't fallen off. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

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Good. You see he has both of them still? He still has both of them. I think it was interesting to hear Troy Aikman on the broadcast during the game, talk about how, you know, obviously a guy that's played, not only played for the Cowboys, but, you know, Troy was around a lot of the same medical staff that the Cowboys have currently.

And so for him to sit there and kind of point out that this might be a little bit more than what they're leading on was interesting, to say the least. The thing I keep going back to is so when a pitcher throws a pitch that like, you know, and then right when it's, they injure themselves, they grimace, grab their elbow, grab their shoulder, whatever. I was watching DAC the entire time this happened because I'll be honest with you. I watched the offense probably 85% of the time when I'm out of camp. And that's not, that's probably not me doing my job to the best of my abilities, but that's what I'm doing.

And so I noticed in the drill they were doing, I'm like, oh, Dax's not in this thing. Because normally like, it's just like with Daz, like they weren't going to have any of the backups like throw to Daz in training camp. If Daz is stepping up on the line, Ramos throwing them if Ramos practicing that day. Well, it's the same way with when Dax out there. It's like, no one else is throwing a CD. If Dax, well, then CD went and Dacked and throw.

I was like, that's interesting. Well, then he's talking to their head athletic trainer, Jim Mauer. And not grimacing or anything. It was just kind of like almost how I would describe it almost like, if you kind of woke up in the morning and like you're just like man my neck feels weird like I don't know how I slept last night but my neck is just sore and that's and like so mower started like grabbing like he just was like grabbing his shoulder and going through like a series of tests and and dad was moved around his shoulder fine and didn't appear to be in much pain at all and even stayed

out there at practice and then it was kind of like well I'm not going to do anything I might will go in and get this evaluate and get this, you know, this x-ray or whatever like that. And so it's hard for me to think that it's still this major thing, right? And I know the Cowboys aren't going to tell you everything, but I'm still kind of like, if they think it's this bad, why is he even out there running? And I mean, because this is the other thing, like, if you went to one of these training camp practices and you saw DAC on the cords, you'd be like, why is he doing all of this? Okay.

I'm not sitting here saying that, that quarterbacks in the NFL are divas and they don't do anything, but they don't work, most of them don't work out like that. They have their days. They throw, they do certain things like that. They're not killing it in the weight room, generally speaking. They're not killing it on the cords in the middle of a practice that they really don't need to be doing that. I mean, he doesn't have like a, you know, a medium speed. It's just full speed all the time.

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Here's the whole thing that fascinates me about all this, John, because you're hitting a lot of the touch points that I'm going to bring up here. When I, I am the, and I am the, and I'm a, NFL network setup is right in front of him. And he is literally going through these drills, holding a football, running across the bags, running back across, you know, the bags on the ground, going through his footwork. He's twisting the hips. But even when you're running with the resistance cords, you're pumping your arms. So for people listening on the podcast, you can't see me do this, but I'm literally pumping up my arms back and forth to give you more power

when you're running. If that shoulder is in pain so much, you're not moving it that way, still, when we're seeing him going, going through the motions, and he's sort of marking plays with the backup quarterbacks or quarterback drills, he's always tossing the football with his left arm. And we even saw him at practice, throwing to, you know, wide receivers just to have a guy thrown the ball with his left hand. So he's not using it that much. But on that particular day, like you, it was one of those kind of like his injury,

you know, with the ankle. It was just kind of this innocuous player. Like, how did that happen? but he's been so vague about it. Like he hasn't really told us how it happened or, you know, it wasn't like, did I just wake up with that weird crink in my neck and I can't move it? Like he hasn't explained that too much. And then when I'm listening to the report with Jay Glazer last night,

he's like, oh, this is a baseball type injury. And they've consulted with the Texas Rangers baseball team. Well, I've put out some feelers to see if I can get info that way. And everybody is being so quiet about this thing. And even when Terry Bradshaw was pushing him a little. bit more last night. We'll explain where the injury is. It's like under the shoulder, like under the arm. He's being very vague about it. That's the only thing that I find very curious. And if it's not that big of a deal, I understand not putting him in the team drills, but we're almost two weeks out

from this thing. What starting Tuesday will be two weeks removed from when it happened because it happened on the 28th, right? 28th, yep. Yeah. We're still not seeing him do much. But then the day that it happened, He had a prearranged interview with the local media, which again was pushed back a couple hours, which is when I was like, spidey senses are going off. Nancy Drew Bell, something's up. He comes out there, does the interview. He's not a guy that is that is downtrodden after spending an entire all season to come back and get the ankle. I mean, he could have said, I don't feel like doing media today.

I'm in the dumps. Like the information was so bad. I can't talk to people. He didn't come out with it iced. He's been in great spirits. And to your point, like I said, going 110 percent. during the rehab and we don't see him throwing. So I think a lot of us,

we're not trying to sound the alarms on it. We're not getting a lot of information on it. We're on just a wait and see approach the same way that the fans are. So I just think it's fascinating that a lot of us that cover this team, have a lot of sources. We don't have a lot of information on this either. So if you're wondering why we didn't leave the show with this, and I'm not talking about it more,

is I don't really know what to say other than what they're telling us on what we've seen. Right. And then, you know, you don't have to go that far back. Just go back to the start of training camp last year. I remember getting out to the Ford Center and then them leading us outside for that first practice and being like, I wonder how this thing's going to go. Like, I'm not used to training camp out here at the star.

So they lead us over to this hill on the back part of the where we never would normally stand because they were just kind of going through the motions of trying to figure out how they're going to set this up. And here's Sean Lee and Lyle Collins. like on the resistance courts. And I'm just kind of like, well, what's going on here? And, you know, for the next at least week, if not longer, it was like, oh, you know, Sean's got this, you know, hernia.

He's, he's, you know, sports hernia he's recovering from. And Lyle's, you know, just came in a little bit out of shape is a big thing you heard. Thanks a thing you know, like, you know, Sean's going to get surgery. Lyle's getting surgery. His season's done. So it's like, there's always going to be a part of you in the back of your mind where you're like, you can't fully believe everything that you hear on these injuries, because if it's not something that's like all of a sudden like,

okay, this is going to be season ending, they're going to give the player the chance to try and like, let's kind of see what we can do here over the next couple of weeks because surgery is always the last option. They don't want to do surgery unless they absolutely have to. And when I say that, I'm talking about Lyle and Sean. I'm not talking about DAC here because to me right now and again,

obviously I'm not a doctor, but I think for DAC, the biggest issue that he would run into with this particular, injury is that he'd have to play through some pain. Like I don't think this is all of a sudden like, oh, this is going to be season ending. You know, you better go out and sign a better backup, something like that. As of right now, I think it's one of those deals where they're like, let's try and get this thing calm down as much as possible. Let's get him on a pinch count when he comes back. We're not going to be having him throwing any bombs. Let's just have him work on

intermediate stuff and like kind of get back into it so that he's not going in a week one and the arm is just, you know, super sore and he has to get it shot up or anything like that, you know. I don't think this is going to be something where all of a sudden he's going to need surgery. That's all I'm saying. And my only concern with all that is just the offense has just not been able to get in a rhythm. You know, we haven't had Tyron Smith out there because the elbow tendonitis, Amari Cooper hasn't been out there. And so even last night, they didn't seem sharp.

I just, he keeps talking about continuity and availability and getting the cadence down and getting better at the line of scrimmage. And you're not going to fix all of that until you get your quarter. back back. And so that's the only thing that I would say starting out the season. But if there's one thing that Dax said last night, it's like, I'll be ready to go for the Tampa game. I believe him. Like he's ahead of schedule. And it's to me, wild that given the nature of that injury and the things that we were being told after it happened by people who had had similar injuries, that he had no setbacks at that ankle. And when you watch him at practice, it's not heavily taped up. He clearly is,

you know, he's not worried about that ankle the way he moves on it. That's to me the most shocking thing about all. I expected the ankle to maybe limit him a little bit. They'd be cautious with it. But with this thing, I just don't know what to make of the shoulder to be completely based on everyone I've spoken to. I just don't know what to make of it. And I mean, just as John kind of pointed out, just like, let's think back just through

recent history. Lyle Collins and Sean Lee got shut down out of nowhere after a little bit of like a, oh, it's not nearly as bad. All of a sudden it's Sean Lee's out multiple weeks. Lyle Collins out for the season. A couple weeks into last year. We kept hearing, something's up with Tyron Smith. And then all of a sudden it's Tyron Smith having surgery.

His season's over. You go back to the year before. Amari Cooper was having injury issues with his, I can't remember where it was. But Amari was having injury issues the second half of the season. They kept saying he's healthy. He's healthy. Jack Prescott. You talk to people in that building, that shoulder issue he had going into the Philly game.

You talk to people who were there. They go, that was more serious than we were talking about at the time. He probably shouldn't have played against Philadelphia. Go back the year before. Layton Van der S's neck. This was something that they got. Des Bryant's knee in 2017 or 16. This has been an ongoing issue with them.

Shame on me for not thinking about that shoulder back in Philly. I mean, is there any chance that this is connected? I don't know if that's the same shoulder. Yeah, that was like an AC joint. And I think that because here's the thing. Like you mentioned Jane, Terry Bradshaw, even though DAC didn't maybe answer it directly. And what I took away from that is that he agreed with Terry,

that it is underneath the arm, that it is on his side more than is above the shoulder, which would be your AC joint. And I don't see any connection there. I also want to say what the Cowboys are doing, though, with him, I have no issues with it all. Like, because, you know, Jane, you mentioned the everybody getting a rhythm again on the same page.

Like, I honestly don't even care about that. I mean, the way the NFL is nowadays, I don't think we're that far away from them not even having preseason games and you just go into week one. And it's such a long season. I mean, you look at the way the buck started out. out last year. I'm just fine with like anybody,

anybody cares if they win that first game against the bucks. Yeah, it'll be fun to like brag about because they just whatever. But that's not what it's about. It's about getting to week one healthy and build from there. Because yeah, they got to work on their timing and things like that. But with all the weapons they have,

it shouldn't take that long. And if it takes the first couple of games of the season, so be it. You're not winning or losing, especially with the awful division they're in. You're not losing and your playoff. or your playoff chances if you're not quite clicking in those first couple of games. I'm far, far more on the side of error on the side of caution with these guys.

Because I know how quickly going, as Jason Garrett would say, bone on bone, how quickly you can have Carson Wentz, Quentin Nelson. And I'm not saying that that stuff, because they practiced like that in the past, they had injuries like that. But I would rather go into that first game, not being a rhythm, and going that first game being like, well, we're not going to have our best offensive linemen and our starting quarterback. And real quick, to your point, I do think that it helps the Cowboys got so much done during OTAs and mini-camp. I think even though I talked to another team who didn't participate in OTAs and they weren't worried about it, I think this team needed that.

I think it helped them in the bonding department, the installation department. So we'll see. I just, camp has been a little boring to your point. and I have focused on certain areas, but it's just so hard to say what we can expect from this team, given what we saw last season and some of these injuries. And I think the, I think all of us agree,

DAC is probably, it's probably exactly what we're being told. It's just the issue with the shoulder, it's rest, it's conservative treatment, and he'll be fine. It's just there is this little part of you that goes, this feels like deja vu with other injuries we've dealt with before. And the one that,

it was the quote from McCarthy that, breaking it down a little bit, where he said, we've kind of taken a step back, not a step back in rehab, but even saying a step back to look at it differently. It's like, well, okay, that means at least you felt like you weren't approaching it the right way, necessarily right, when you found out about it. And then after research and looking at, okay, so you needed to do more research into this thing than you initially thought you had to. And when you did, you came way going, we need to play this even more differently. And then it's, we're just being a little bit more conservative with the rehab.

We don't want this to turn into something big. So again, it seems like you're insinuating. This is something that could turn into something big if we play this wrong. And so it's just these little tiny things. It reminds me so much of 2019 Garrett getting up there when we all thought Leighton Vanderash had a neck stinger. And Garrett goes, we don't think it's career threatening. You know, we just wanted to calm down a little bit.

It's like, okay, Jason, you just ramped it up significantly that this is a much more serious deal. And it's turned out to be something he's dealt with for a while. So that's just the only thing. Dak is probably fine. Dak, it's probably exactly what we're hearing. But there is just this little bit of like, you know, this is very familiar with other things we've dealt with. So when I was poking around about the Rangers correlation, since this is more of a pitcher's type injury, I was told it can be very serious and take a picture out for a season,

or it can be masked by a cortisone shot. So I think there's just a wide range of possibilities. I think that's why we're all sort of being careful too is we don't want to sound the alarms, seeing what we've seen just from our perspective, the way he's interacted with players, the coaching staff, going through the drills. it doesn't feel significant, what we're all going to wait and see. What do you think old number four is going to do there?

Coming off of missing almost the entire season last year, getting a brand new contract, I think he's probably going to get some shots if he needs to. Yeah. I say we bring a remote back. I say you stop being so negative. They haven't even started this season yet. And you're just so negative, Bobby.

I know, I know. Without Jason Garrett's optimism around the building, I struggle myself. Well, hold on, Bobby. how'd you feel before 14 and 16? I feel like some of this year kind of reminds me. 16, I felt great because I believed in Doc Prescott, damn it. Well, I guess from the Jerry Jones perspective,

some of this is felt like 14 and 16 to me where like Jerry is really trying to be guarded about saying anything bold, whether it be to us at that, you know, press conference to kind of kick off the start of training camp. The times he's been two different times talking to the fans in Oxnard. And there's been times in the past where he's talked about, you know, coming out and seeing us kick the Giants. ass in week one, stuff like that. And we haven't seen that Jerry Jones. I mean, for, I mean, heck, Jane, he goes on with you guys and talks about how week one could be David versus

Goliath. I'm like, Jerry, come on. Exactly. You know, so like it reminds me a little bit of 14 and 16 with him where I think he's trying to do this on purpose where it's like maybe if I downplay, like I did those years, you're talking about it how it would be an uphill battle. And then we caught lightning on a bottle. Like maybe we can do that again, you know. Reverse psychology. There you go. Well, John, I always appreciate having you on the show. I know that you've got a lot of stuff to do while you are back in Dallas before you get back to the beat. So thank you for taking time with us. We always say it's going to be 15 minutes, but we always have robust conversations with you

spanning all areas of this team, whether it be social media clicks or whether it actually be Andrew Report. So thank you for dropping by the show. And you can find John on Twitter on Instagram. Plug your handle, my friend. No, it's just at John M-M-A-H-O-T-A. But thanks for having me on, guys. I'll do this anytime.

I always have a good time. You're the best. He comes on the show and he's also my designated driver when we go to Jaley James Media Parties. I appreciate you, bud. No problem. Anytime. All right. Thanks again to John Moshota from the Athletic for stopping by. Always good chat with John. Lots of stuff to look forward to coming up. This was just the first of five preseason games. We'll continue to cross our fingers on Dak Prescott and that shoulder of his.

And we'll be talking about it with you guys over the course of the next month as we head towards week one versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh, not now. That sounds like it's going to cost you. I know what to do. I'm going to cashnetusa.com. I can apply in minutes, get an instant decision, and if approved, I could have the money in my account as soon as the same business day. When you need money fast, be the hero. Go to cashnetusa.com to apply for the money you need now.

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