HOF Game, McCarthy's Future and Dak's Status with Jon Machota

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.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, Boys and girls, Welcome in to the Boys and
Girl Podcast with Cowboys NFL Network reporter Jane Slater and
NFL Network producer Bobby Bell. Cowboys community with the inside
scoop on the Dallas Cowboys now coming straight to you

(00:22):
from the lone Star State. Here's Jane and Bobby sixteen
at three. The final not exactly the outcome that Cowboys
fans were looking for as he got football under way
and can't Ohio Steelers versus Cowboys, Cowboys not coming out
on top. We have got John was showed out of
the athletic to weigh in. But before we get to him, Bobby,

(00:44):
your initial thoughts, Michael Parsons is exciting, That's about it.
The quarterback situation behind dark Prescott's a little concerning. I
think that's uh, 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. My favorite
moment of the game didn't even happen in the game.
It happened off the field in the pregame. Jerry and Jimmy,

(01:07):
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? We've got time? If we got plenty of time, well,
I picked the game. I think we can go. Yeah.
I think we've got some great days ahead of us,
and we are going to certainly be recognizing what's happening

(01:29):
here with the Hall of Fame. But tex Swam, who
started that Ring of All, said Jerry, keep it, keep
it kind of unlimited with people, but make sure it
wasn't just about the plays. They may make sure they
contributed to the story of the franchise. That's kind of
hard to not recognize this contribution to the story of

(01:53):
the franchise. So are we making an announcement here? Well,
we can be if we can. I don't know how
we're gonna upstag. Yeah, you can't go ahead there, Love?
Are you going to make it through this? Jerry Jones

(02:18):
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

(02:40):
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 belongs. Let's get
real quick to John, but showed up. All right. We
are now joined by a friend of the show and

(03:00):
one of my buddies out at training camp, John the Showda,
How are you Anybuddy? 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 be able to smell
the players again? John? Oh? I mean I can say

(03:23):
this right now. My biggest concern driving to Oxnard was
after I got to l a X, was all right,
what's the social media policy gonna 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
with the media policy, wasn't sent it to me as
I was driving over, just to be sure that we

(03:43):
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 and 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 gonna get. And I'll be honest, these lad a
few practices have been pretty boring, especially without Deaf being
out there, but the key has been Ceedee lamb and

(04:05):
just how almost every practice it's like, well you can
at least come out of this with at least one
decent Ceedee lamp clip and so that's been enjoyable. Well,
and I think, you know, the pill 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

(04:27):
the off the field drama, Zet not showing up because
he's in Cobbo and he's holding out for a new contract.
You don't have the linkering questions about you know, Dax
contract situation, you know does 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 Kelln Moore and then

(04:49):
this guy Dak 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. 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

(05:10):
I but it also feels like he just missed everything
that came with it, the good and the bat which
is something I've always appreciated about Jerry. Absolutely, there's 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,

(05:33):
I think he genuinely enjoys it and will 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 sent 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

(05:53):
many people that the pandemic, you know, negatively impacted in
term of like just how they ads a person taking
health out of it, obviously, but just as your 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

(06:14):
say that he doesn't like being on that yet for
more than a couple of days because he just doesn't
like being there. That's not 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

(06:36):
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 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

(06:58):
kind of returning to normal, say, uh, than Jerry. So
do you think there's anybody more unhappy than Mike McCarthy
that he has to like standing up there with you
guys every day? Now, Um, he would be at the
top of my list. I can tell just by the
fact of training camps a good spot that where you
can probably pull a coach aside maybe for a quick

(07:19):
like uh, 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. Uh. You know,
he might say a quick comment, but he's trying to
get out of there immediately. No, 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 gonna have
hard knocks. So uh, and then you see the little

(07:41):
bit of a teaser, uh about him talking about the
Super Bowl a week ago that they teased, and and
and showing a little clip from what Hard Knocks is
gonna 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 from what Dax and
it sounds like it's a real give and take with

(08:01):
the NFL, Whereas like when he's miked up, they're gonna
get some good stuff, but they're also going to protect
him and keep some stuff out, so they're gonna there's
gonna be interesting moments, but there's always gonna be certain
things that they cut out because they don't want in there.
And I think Mike McCarthy is gonna want to say
and 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

(08:23):
being said, he knew what he was getting into when
he when he took this job, did he though, Because
I feel like there's guys like I think back to
randallkov 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,

(08:45):
it is substantially different. And even when I try and
think of owners with similar cloud like I think of
the shot cons and Jacksonville, like Tony Cohn is your
next Jerry Jones in the sense that he loves being
around utball, he loves everything that comes with urban I'm
actually shocked that they said no to the hard knock cameras,

(09:07):
which I didn't think you could. Uh, but Tony is
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 these
other teams filled. But I also feel like Mike has

(09:29):
leaned in a bit more this year. He seems a
little softer And again this is this is very early
on John. He seems a little softer, seems like he
got a little media training. Uh, he's a little bit
more engaging. And I will say this, you do get
very full and complete answers with Mike, something that we
didn't get from uh Jason last year. And before we

(09:53):
move on and started actually talking about this Hall of
Fame game, I got to ask you away in on
Jason Garrett real quick, Bobby. I think we've got the
clip from them with the New York Giants media. Yeah,
good to see you guys. Good to see you guys.
Yeah good, that's how we're doing Jason, all Right's sehnay

(10:17):
in So when I first saw the clip yesterday from
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
us as as the OC in New York. Okay, let's
I can't wait to see this video. Immediately went to
the Giants website wanted to see if they had posted it,

(10:40):
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 talked about the Cowboys and what
goes on behind the scenes with him more than probably anybody.
And when I said it to him, and he's heard

(11:00):
me talk many of times with 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 what where people do? I mean personally,
when I see the video, I kind of thought it
was funny that he took a sharp marker and wrote
fight on on on it because that was such a

(11:23):
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 to walk off
because that gave him a chance to further explain things
not on the podium and give us a little bit

(11:44):
more background, because I mean, Jane, those walkoffs sometimes will
be ten fift twenty minutes. Sometimes you get a lot
of like background and you could explain things furtherwords. 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 for forthcoming um this year.
But he hasn't lost any games yet. And then the

(12:04):
other part is is he is coming off of a
very disappointing six and ten season. When it was sold
that we're bringing this guy in because he's gonna help
us take the next step. This isn't a rebuild, and
so I think it's 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

(12:27):
did last year and discombobulated, too many guys on the field,
not enough guys in 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. But and
then the only 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

(12:48):
reason they didn't do it this year is because I
don't don't you can't do it with a first year
head coach, and so I think just because Urbans knew,
I think that's the only reason they didn't. But they
seem like I just an absolutely lay up to do
it next year. You know, I and I 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

(13:11):
be around? And and 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 very 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

(13:34):
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 gonna not very different than when you even told
the story about Jimmy Johnson and you know, bringing in
Barry Switzer, you know, do they have this guy waiting

(13:57):
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 a 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

(14:17):
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

(14:38):
just not like that. Whether it's the organization and 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. He interacted with his quarterback and
the player. I mean, we don't see Mike out there
throwing the ball with the quarterbacks the way that we

(14:59):
saw Jason and Garrett doing. 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 and some you know, older Cowboys stuff.

(15:20):
You know, Tom Landry didn't keep a really close relationship
with anybody, including Roger Staubach, like that 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 and 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. I certainly wasn't saying this

(15:41):
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 s MU with Tony Romo and
Jason Witten 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

(16:02):
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
try and keep these guys as healthy as possible, and

(16:23):
the way he talks about them right. And even though
it 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 and doing things that
makes it most comfortable for them. But I also don't
see him grabbing a beer with 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

(16:45):
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 Belichicks the world,

(17:07):
they're not quite like that. Uh, you know Sean Payton,
I cover the Saints, he's a little bit like that,
but he's a lot more like Bill Parcels, 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 in
the players. And so yeah, maybe Mike is walking that

(17:29):
line a little bit. It's just when people asking 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,

(17:49):
everything is different. So I have tried to just say,
remove some of the bias. You know, we tried to
on a daily basis reporter, but give him the best
shot possible. But that then transition transitions us to the
Hall of Baby Gas. Well, now one more, one more
thing I wanted 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

(18:10):
way and it'd 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

(18:31):
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

(18:52):
about empowering Let's let these guys take over. Not to
say that Jason Garrett didn't do that, I just out
of what I've seen from Mike McCarthy so far, it
really seems like he 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 gonna 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

(19:13):
negative Nancy on McCarthy uh here, because my my thing
is that, Okay, I think there's a difference between not
wanting to be too personal and having too close relationship
with players and not appearing buddy buddy the way Belichick
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.

(19:33):
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
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,

(19:53):
but from actually actively involving himself in a poor decision. Well,
but I also would I would sit met 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 has has was
asked if it was a combination, if this was just

(20:15):
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 uh notive 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

(20:38):
and I do 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,
and I don't know if that would have helped either.
You know, then it would have felt very reactive last season,

(21:00):
and you almost kind of had to give those guys
the rest of the season to figure out and 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 Tea 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 straightened out when
they brought him Mark Columbo, So I mean, there is

(21:22):
that balance eight weeks that was his first year. Yeah,
I don't. I mean you're going from like, I get
it's different. Yeah, I get, it's differ coat and a
defensive look. I think I think if they if they
could have anticipated COVID being at what it was, I
think they would have held on to Jason for another year. Anyway,

(21:43):
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 said, I think
that there is and and to your point, I think
Mike McCarthy has taken more responsibility then you know that

(22:03):
he deserves credit for taking as much responsibility 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, 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 fingerpoint and he wasn't doing the
you know, Layton vander esh this is coward Michael saying

(22:25):
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 correct at heading in this year. They can't
just run it back and say, well, if it's healthy,
will be good. There's a lot of things logistically that
have to change this year. But there's a chance that

(22:45):
if they are just healthy they will be good. They'll
be I think they can if they are fully healthy
their 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 Tyrn Smith and Lyle Cowins are healthy, there's just
enough weapons on that offense that, yeah, that I think

(23:07):
that they'll still win a these 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 at the minimum to try and get this thing
where they wanted to be. So, you know, I think
that they'll get past six wins and I think they

(23:27):
will win the NFC e s 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 get 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

(23:49):
the windows closing, Sin sub 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 it. And you know, I've said this before,
if I had the money and the yacht, you know,
at his age, I'm living my best life, John, Like
I've got the most profitable sports organization and all of

(24:12):
the world. People are gonna come. If we're eight and
eight or I mean even after last season, people shall
still showed up in the stands, you know, people still
care about the Cowboys. I'm living my life in Santra
Pay and I'm I'm frequenting the Islands. I don't know
if I'm in Oxnard, California, setting up you know, in
the you know, his sky box, watching practice every day

(24:33):
and dealing with media. But that's why I think what
people kind of question is passion. When I've got you know,
let's go ahead and we'll put We'll put fifteen years
on Jerry, you know, because I feel like you can
go that long. I'm not spending my last year's doing
this doing so That's why I truly do believe if
we see a season like we saw last year, he
gone he's gone, well, I hope. One other key part

(24:57):
of that, though, is yet 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 gotta I mean, everything
right now with dan Quinn seems great and everyone seems
bought in, But let's just see how the season goes.
And I think it's less to do with what they're

(25:19):
gonna do on the field and more to do with
at least the players respect and buy in. At least
they're not checking out on this guy. That's to me
what was missing last years. I didn't think they were
going to run through a wall for anybody on the
coaching staff. Right. 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,

(25:39):
and 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 halfs and
games weren't even out of hand yet, and you were like,
this is this is really what they're trying to do?
Right now. If 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 if
they've completely bought in dan Quin pretty pretty quickly, all right,

(26:01):
so action speaking louder than words. Mikeah Parson 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 Austen
wondered if that would rub certain players the wrong way.

(26:21):
But he backs it up. He backs it up in camp,
he backs 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 locked into another
outstanding first round pick like they did with Ceedee Lamb.
I mean, they're sitting there at ten and they desperately
want Jacy Horn or Patrick Sir Tan and both those

(26:44):
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 Michael Parsons as much,
Oh did they? Then you don't trade back to even
eleven much less what you stay there and you take
your guy. And from what I've seen in training camp,
I mean even in that first preseason game, he only
plays the first two series, but right place, at the
right time, picks up the fumble. That's some some of

(27:06):
the same exact stuff we've seen in training camp. The
very last practice before they they left for Canton, really boring,
not in pass, just in shells kind of going through
through the motions, tip ball boom, Mica is in the
right place at 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

(27:27):
other practice he seems to be making a play like that.
And just the way he's been moving around and and
and just kind of how they're using him to kind
of be like, hey, we're gonna give you the freedom
to just kind of roam and just make plays. I
just think he's gonna be in a great situation too,
as long as he stays healthy. I mean, he'll be
in the defensive rookie of the year conversation all season
and right now he has to be the betting favorite there.

(27:48):
And this is a guy that that was not That
was not their plan to take him, Michael Parson's going
into that draft. It was not their plan to take
Ceedee Lamb and they might. I mean, there's big time
luck in Baldness. I remember and McLay tell me that
when I asked them how you find a franchise quarterback
in the fourth round. I mean, there's you can't underestimate luck.
Sometimes you just get lucky, and I think they might
have got lucky with like with Michael Parsons. I think

(28:10):
that one of the things that I really wanted to
see from Michael Parson's 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,
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

(28:33):
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. When it does, it's like, wow,
that pops. And so that was one of the things
I wanted to say. I want to say, Okay, does like,
does that Penn State speed that Michael 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

(28:56):
gonna be on NFL rosters here in a month or whatever, um,
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 out. And so I thought that Michael 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 it I

(29:18):
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 that Penn State that he just wasn't doing,
one being you know, shedding blocks and things like that
that you expect from your linebackers, um, but he has
shown to be able to do all of that stuff
so far. And I mean not playing last year, he's

(29:38):
clearly fresh, you know. I mean a zeel Oh he
had obviously had a heavy workload at Ohio State, but
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 jump over a safety and another play
and it's just like there's that you know, youth youthfulness.

(29:58):
Just I see that with Michael Parson is where it's
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 we're just like, man,
this guy is gonna 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

(30:20):
about it, and he seems to really relish that idea
of like, no, they're gonna use me as this chess
piece where one play, I'm gonna be rushing the passer.
Might not be off the edge. They might line me
up in the middle. We've seen some of that in practice,
might play some on the outside, might play some of
the inside linebacker, I can drop into coverage. I'm gonna
be all over the place. You know, I'm gonna try
and leave this team and sacks, interceptions, tackles everything, and

(30:40):
and who knows, maybe he does that. It does seem
like a little pat man out there. He just wants
to live 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. Uh obviously didn't see a lot
of Trayvon Digs, you know, yesterday. Uh So, what are
we thinking is the guy playing opposite? I think it'll

(31:02):
be Anthony Brown. Kelvin Josephs has a chance. I know
the Cowboys like him a lot, but I just think
that going into Week one, Tom Brady you're gonna want
your veterans out there, and so I think it'll be
Anthony Brown and Trevon Diggs. The slot is what's interesting
to me because Maurice Cannidate has really come on and

(31:22):
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 he has the
most interceptions of anybody at camp, with three right now. Um,
you know he 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

(31:44):
see anyway you don't keep him. And so you're looking
at and obviously injuries happened, but you're looking at a
good six seven corners if you're counting c. J. Good
wouldn't even tho. He's a special teams guy that they're
gonna have to keep on this roster because either they've
played to that that standard or there's guys like Sean
right who he's he's showing glimpses. But also you're not
cutting a you know, a third round pick in his

(32:04):
rookie season. But so they're looking like they have six
solid corners. And and one thing I want to know
it is that I know that in some of these
Ceedee Lamb or a lot of these c Lamb videos
I've posted, you know, Trayvon Diggs is defending him and
people think that like he's having some back. 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 the defensive back and you're sitting there and you're like,

(32:26):
what you're gonna do in a game? Do it about
seventy 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. Uh. He just seems to have a
knack for for making plays. And so while I don't
he's not Byron Jones. We saw that last year where

(32:48):
he's you know, Byron Jones is not gonna give up
a big play. But he's probably not gonna make a
ton of plays either. Trayvon is gonna give up some plays,
but he's gonna make a lot of big plays. Three
interceptions last year, I wouldn't be surprised if you had
five or six this year, right, Well, 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
fantasy to understand is that these training camp practices are
ripe for receivers to look like stars. That that's just

(33:11):
what they I mean, think back over the years of
how many times fans have fallen in love with a
receiver who ends up getting cut or who was like
a fifth or six guy and it's like, wow, this
guy has made no impact. How many times has Noah
Brown been 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

(33:32):
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,

(33:54):
for sure. The other thing about Digs too, though, I
will say out of all the corners, like, he is
still very aggressive even in these practice Anthony Brown has
been too. But it's it's stood out to me and
that's good for c D. I mean, that's what you
want your 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.
Is that just because we're gonna just see so much

(34:15):
more of him being moved around? But no, I mean
Trayvon Digs and him going against each other. I know
it's cliche to say iron sharp and 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'll be interesting to see how
much those guys play against the Rams on Saturday and

(34:36):
that practice, Uh, just to see them going against another team.
But I gotta feel and they're gonna be a little
limited in that as well. I do also appreciate what
a quiet workhorse Ceedee Lamb is. You don't hear much
about him. You certainly don't see the flash off the field,
at least not yet. Uh. We're so used to brash,
loud wide receivers in Dallas and he's just not that.

(34:59):
I mean he None of them are though not crazy. Yah,
it's not Mark, I mean Mark. I was cracking up
at uh Jory of Stein's tweet the other day talking
about the use of the word cleave and you know
the way that a Marmari just literally makes you always
second guests, Do I have the smartest questions for you?
Because I literally feel like if you do not ask

(35:19):
him a smart question the right way, he's not going
to give you the goods. And so he is one.
And it's it's not in a condescending manner either, like clear,
but it's literally in a way that it's like, I
can't even that 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'll tell you the other day when he was
saying that stuff though, when you when you mentioned some

(35:41):
of that stuff that Jerry was tweeting, that's the best
interview I think that we've had with a MARII 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 want to do this and
they start thinking about retirement, where for him it's been

(36:03):
the exact opposite during going through all this. I mean,
he gets and 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 making it maybe one of the reasons
why the Cowboys were able to get him in the

(36:24):
first place. And he just it was a very motivated
Amari Cooper. That um 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, ceedee Lamb's
emerges the number one here too. After that fifteen minutes
or whatever, the Mary Cooper, I was like, I don't
know if if it's gonna be quite that easy of

(36:45):
of a jump there. And and again, Mamori fully expects
to be ready to go week one just because he
doesn't do anything out Knox Nord. 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 and he looks to be on track for that.
I think how ready it was when he came into
Dallas mid season, remember during you know the trade. I
think a lot of us was shocked how ready he was.

(37:06):
I just would love to read a bathroom book deep
thoughts the Marie 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 uh, a play that didn't developed the way

(37:31):
that he expected it too. I mean, I've always joked
here reminds me of a golfer when you walk him
through a round, Take me through the round, and Jordan's speed,
they'll walk you through all eighteen holes. That's a Marie Cooper.
I feel like he can walk you through every single
route in the game. And also a little bit like
you know, Roger Stovack after his career made all this
money in real estate. Nothing would surprise met years from
now if they're like, oh, Marie Cooper is one of

(37:53):
the most successful, like x NFL players, Like you know,
he bought into bitcoin when nobody even knew what bitcoin
was or something like that. You know, that's when he's
developing a shoe wine too. Right, He's always reading. He's
always like I don't know, like he had 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

(38:14):
I'm obsessed with like football, Covering this one NFL team
is enough for me. That's enough for my brain. For
Mary Cooper, it's like you, 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 and 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

(38:34):
to open up and start talking. Marie Cooper's dating profile
on Bumble or Hinge or the league, it's 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,

(38:55):
is my is my takeaway from my experience dealing with him. John,
can you confirm the rumors that Dark Prescott's arm has
fallen off? You know, it hasn't fallen off, But that's 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 guy has played not only

(39:17):
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. Um. The thing I keep going back
to is so when a picture throws a pitch that like,

(39:39):
you know, and then right when it's they injured themselves,
they grimace, grabbed their elbow, grabbed their shoulder whatever. I
was watching Dak the entire time this happened, because I'll
be honest with you, I watched the offense probably percent
of 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

(39:59):
I noticed in the drill they were doing, I'm like, oh,
Dad's not then this thing because normally, like it's just
like with dads, like they weren't gonna have any of
the backups, like throw to des in training camp. If
Daz is stepping up on the line, we're almost throwing him.
If for almost practicing that day. What's the same way
with when dacks out there, It's like no one else
is throwing a CD if well, then CD went and
decked and throw I was like, that's interesting. Well, then

(40:19):
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, damn, 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 Mauer started like grabbing,
like he just was like grabbing his shoulder and going

(40:39):
through like a series of tests and and Dad was
moved around his shoulder fine, and it 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 gonna do anything, might as well 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 now I know the Cowboys aren't gonna tell
you everything, but I'm still kind of like, if they

(41:02):
think it's as 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 prices
and you saw dak 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,

(41:24):
they're not killing it on the cords in 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. Like, why is he doing all of that?
If there's a seriousness to this, here's the whole thing
that fascinates you at all this John, because you're you're
hitting a lot of the touch points that I'm going
to bring up here when I I am the NFL

(41:49):
network set up 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 courts,
you're 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

(42:12):
you more power when you're running. If that shoulder is
in pain so much, you're not moving it that way.
But still when we're seeing him going going through the motions,
he's sort of marking place with the backup quarterbacks are
in quarterback jells. He's always tossing the football with his
left arm, and we even saw him at practice throwing
you know, wide receivers, just to have a guy throwing

(42:34):
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, 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

(42:54):
I just wake up with that weird creak 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

(43:14):
when Terry Bradshaw was pushing him a little bit more
last night, will 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
you're what, we're almost two weeks out from this thing.

(43:36):
What's starting Tuesday will be two weeks removed from when
it happened, because it happened on the Yeah, we're still
not seeing him too much. But then the day that
it happened, he had a pre arranged interview with the
local media, which again was pushed back a couple of hours,
which is when I was like, spiky senses are going off,
Nancy Drew bells, something's up. He comes out there, does

(43:57):
the interview. He's not a guy that is that is
downtrodden after spinning an entire offseason 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 that. The information is 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 hundred and ten during the rehab and we don't

(44:18):
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. Were on
just to wait and see approach the same way that
the fans are. So I just think it's fascinating to
a lot of us that cover this team. I have
a lot of sources. We don't have a lot of
information on this either. So if you're wondering why we

(44:39):
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. Now, 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 forward center and then them leading us outside for
that first practice and being like, I wonder how this

(45:00):
is gonna 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 was 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 course, and
I'm just kind of like, what's going on here? And

(45:21):
you know, for the next at least week, if not longer,
it was like, oh, you know, Shawn's got this, you know, hernia,
he's he's uh, you know, sports hernia he's recovering from.
And Lyles, you know, just came in a little bit
out of shape. Is a big thing. You heard. Next thing,
you know, like, uh, you know, Sean's gonna get surgery,
Lyle's getting surgery. His season is done. So it's like
there's always gonna be a part of you in the

(45:41):
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 gonna be season ending, they're gonna 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.

(46:02):
And when I say that, I'm talking about Lyle and Sean.
I'm not talking about Dak here because to me right now,
and again, obviously I'm not a doctor, but I think
for Dak, 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 gonna be season ending.
You know, you better go out and sign a better

(46:24):
back up 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 calmed down as much as possible.
Let's get him on a pinch account. When he comes back,
we're not gonna be having him throwing any bombs. Let's
just have them 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

(46:45):
is gonna be somethinghere of a sudden, he's gonna 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
Tying uh Smith out there because the ebbletondonitis, uh Mary
Cooper Haigh haven'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

(47:10):
getting better at the line of scrimmage, and you're not
going to fix all of that until you get your
quarterback back. And so that's the only thing that I
would say starting out the season. But if there's one
thing that Dak said last night, it's like I'll be
ready to go for the Tampa game. I believe him,
like he's a head of schedule, and it's to me
wild that, given the nature of that injury and the

(47:32):
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

(47:54):
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 Shawn
Lee got shut down out of nowhere. After a little
bit of like, oh, it's not nearly as bad, all
of a sudden it's Shawn Lee's out multiple weeks, Lyle
Collins out for the season a couple of weeks. In

(48:15):
the last year, we kept hearing something's up with Tyron
smith and then all of a sudden, it's Tyren Smiths
having surgery. His season's over. You go back to the
year before a Marii Cooper was having injury issues with
his uh can'tmeraer where it was, but Mary was having
injury issues the second half of the season. They kept
saying he's healthy, He's healthy. Dak Prescott, you talked to
people in that building that shoulder issue he had going
into the Philly game. You talk to people were there,

(48:36):
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 Vanderesh's neck. This is
something that does Bryant's knee in or sixteen. 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. It was like, yeah,

(48:57):
that was like an a C joint. And I think
that because here's the thing, like you mentioned Jane Terry Bradshaw,
even though Dad 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 on his side. More than his above the above
the shoulder, which was would be your A C joint

(49:19):
and I I 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 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 and it's such a long season. I mean,

(49:41):
you look at the way the Bucks started out last year.
I'm just fine with like anybody, anybody cares if they
win that first game against the Bucks, that, yeah, it
would 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
gotta work on their timing and things like that, but
with all the weapons they have, it shouldn't take that long.

(50:04):
If 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 and your playoff spot or your playoff chances if
you're not quite clicking in those first couple of games,
I would I'm far far more on the side of air,
on the side of caution with these guys, um, because
I know how quickly, going as Jason Garrett would say,

(50:27):
bone on bone, um, 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 go in that first
game being like, well, we're not going to have our
best offensive linemen and our starting quarterback well and real quick.
To your point, I do think that it helps. The

(50:49):
Cowboys got so much done during O t S and
mini camp. I think even though I talked to another
team who didn't participate in No TIS and they weren't
worried about it, I think this team needed that. I
think it helped him 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,

(51:10):
but it's just so hard to say what we can
expect from this team given what we saw last season
and somebody's injury. And I think the I think all
of us agree doc 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

(51:31):
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 and 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

(51:53):
than you initially thought you had too. And when you did,
you came away 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 insituating this is something that could turn into something
big if we play this wrong. And so it's just
these little tiny things that it reminds me so much
of twenty nineteen Garrett getting up there when we all

(52:13):
thought Layton vanderash had had a next 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. Doc is probably fine, dec it's probably
exactly what we're hearing, But there is just this little
bit of like, you know, this is very familiar with

(52:36):
other things we've dealt with. So when I was poking
around about the Rangers correlation, since this is more of
a pictures type injury, I was told it can be
very serious to take a picture out for a season,
or it can be masked by a cortisone shut. 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

(52:58):
we've seen, just from our perspective, the way he's interacted
with players, the coaching staff, going to the drills, it
doesn't feel significant. Well, we're all gonna wait and see.
What do you think old number four is going to do.
They're coming off of missing the almost the entire season
last year, getting a brand new contract. I think he's

(53:21):
probably gonna get some shots if he needs to. Yeah,
I said, we bring a romo back. Say you stop
being so negative. They haven't started this season yet, and
you're just so negative, Bobby. I know, I know. Without
Jason Garrett's optimism around the building, I struggled myself, Well,
hold on, Bobby, how do you feel before fourteen and sixteen?
I feel like some of this year kind of reminded sixteen.
I felt great because I believed in Dark Prescott. Damn it. Well,

(53:43):
I guess from the Jerry Jones perspective, some of this
has felt like fourteen and sixteen to me, where like
Jerry is really trying to be guarded about seeing anything bold,
whether it be to us at that uh you know,
press conference, to kind of kick off the starter training camp.
At the times he's been two different times talking to
the fans in Oxnard. There's been times in the past
where he talked about, you know, coming out and seeing

(54:04):
us kick the giant's ass in week one, stuff like that,
and and we haven't seen that. Jerry Jones, I mean
for I mean Hack Janey goes on with you guys
and talks about how a week one could be David
verus Goliath. I'm like, Gary, come on, you know, so
like it reminds me a little bit of fourteen and
sixteen 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 you're talking about it how it

(54:25):
would be an uphill battle. And then we caught lightning
on a bottle, like maybe we can do that again,
you know, versut psychology. There you go. Well, John, I
always appreciate having me on the show. I know that
you've got a lot of stuff to do. Well, 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 gonna be fifteen minutes, but we always have
robust conversations with you spanning all areas of this team,

(54:48):
whether it be social media clicks or whether it actually
be Andrey reports. So thank you for dropping by the show,
and you can find John on Twitter, on Instagram. Plug
your hand on my friend. It's just at. John showed
us so at j O N M A C H
O T A. But thanks for having on. Guys. I'll
do this anytime. I always have a be done. You're
the best. He comes on the show and he's also
my designated driver when we go to Ja le Jo

(55:09):
Media Park. I appreciate you, Bud, No problem anytime. All right,
thanks again to Jama showed it 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

(55:31):
course of the next month as we head towards Week
one versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.