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October 13, 2025 12 mins
In this fiery and revealing episode of The Ben and Skin Show, hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray peel back the layers of the Dallas Cowboys’ latest meltdown — and what they uncover is more than just bad defense. It’s a franchise in disarray, led by a ringmaster who’s winging it.From the baffling decision to trade Micah Parsons a week before the season to the chaotic hiring of Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator, the crew breaks down the timeline of dysfunction, missed opportunities, and the lack of any coherent strategy. KT delivers a scathing analysis of the Cowboys’ front office, while Ben drops the ultimate truth bomb: “There is no culture. There is no system. Jerry Jones is just winging it.”
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ay, yes, it is the world famous Ben and Skin
Show ninety seven point one The Eagle.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Thank you for listening.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
I got to share an awkward situation that happened with
my daughter and play for you the most awesome song
of all time that's coming up at four thirty. But
this segment right here is brought to you by Franklin Frankel,
Mark Frankel, Scott Frankel and Jean Burquette. Those are the
three partners there at Franklin Frankel. Very good at what
they do. If you've been injured and it's not your fault,
if you've been involved in a car wreck, reach out

(00:25):
to the Frankeles. Two one four three three three three
three three three two one four all threes for the
greatness of Franklin Frankel. But right now it's time for this.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Mawns around the sports KTD twins as all the sports.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yes, okay, I would say that the number one name,
uh that has drawn ire from Cowboys fans is Matt Eberflus,
the defensive coordinator. He's the one guy, and I think
that's just human nature a little bit that you immediately
put things on the coach very quickly. I don't know
what's fair and what's not fair. I don't know what's
going on. I think you'll find out that over the

(01:05):
next couple months. Will players start quitting on him? Things
like that?

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Do you think that it's part of his game plan
to not contain any of the edges.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
I don't think that's a part of the play.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I was just curious.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
I think guys just run on the outside and no
one's there.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
I think there already is some quit I mean, I
think all that back and forth with Trayvon Diggs and
asking to play man and.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
All that, I think that's that's a huge red flag.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, And I think some of those guys, the younger guys,
I would say to a little bit, like what we
traded Micah week before the season, So what will we do?
I thought we were trying to win here, Like it's
it is really easy to go h huh, right, and
you might be having questions with the scheme and things
like that when Mike's not practicing, like that's a big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
It's a big it's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
You're right, and it's it'd be a lot like for
the offense if they traded Dak in the week before
the season started. The defense is sitting here, going, this
is our best player. It's not even close. He might
be the best player in all of football, and you
just traded him at the last and it clearly didn't
get the most value you could for him.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
A minute, you screwed our whole season. Do you guys think?
Who do you guys think is their best defensive player?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Now, I was gonna say Katy Clark, but I was
gonna say Kenny Clark. But yeah, maybe it's also but
Kenny Clark did not have a good day yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I mean it's probably overshown if he's healthy.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
If he's healthy, and if he like, if he comes
back one hundred percent, like dude, he ripped his entire knee,
Like he's not gonna be ready to go one hundred twice.
It's gonna be tough.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
So I don't think this matters because of the personnel
on defense, right, And he goes back to a theory
two you could if I'm being very generous, the Cowboys
did not bring matten Abrafolo was in ear to fix
the defense in twenty twenty five. They fixed him to
make this is a long term thing. It's a new
program with schottenheim Er like, this is a god, this
is a long con here, if we're being generous. But

(02:51):
I do think it's very strange. So the Dallas Cowboys,
basically when they fired McCarthy on January thirteenth, and that
was up in the airs again to come back, a
contract was up, didn't want to give a new kind
of saw where it was going though he had his
five years on his five year deal. That ends up happening,

(03:11):
and they're just being so slow with how they're handling things.
But they did put in a call because in the
NFL you have to interview minority candidates, and they did
bring in Robert Sala, who was the former Jets head
coach and the defensive coordinator of the forty nine ers.

(03:32):
And the reason they interviewed him is so they could
say we interviewed an ethnic candidate. That's it. They were
never interested in Robert Sala. Why don't they just.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Interview Michael Irvin every year whenever they have to do that.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
So Schottenheimer is hired as the head coach on January
twenty fourth. Also on January twenty fourth, Robert Sala signs
a deal to be the San Francisco forty nine ers
defensive coordinator. Boy, he's so because, look, you spend eleven
days trying to get headlines, McCarthy making a story. Who

(04:10):
are we gonna get now? Oh well we might get
Shotty Dion, Pete Carroll, My god, we're the all of it.
It's just all a circus, dude. Then Sal was like, well,
I'll just gonna take the forty nine ers defensive coordinator job.
I don't think you guys are really that serious about
having me in anyways. And then five days after Shottenheimer's hired,

(04:30):
they bring in Matty Refluce because he knows the Joneses. Look,
he's got a really good track record of being a
defensive coordinator. He does a horrible track record being a
head coach, but a great track record of being a
defensive coordinator. If you fire McCarthy on the thirteenth or
let him go on the thirteenth, and you hire Schottenheimer
on the sixteenth or seventeenth, then maybe you can like

(04:51):
legit have a process. But like they didn't even try,
they don't even like. It's lazy and it's just arrogant,
and that's why we're here. It's just that attitude of
everything's good because we're good.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
Are you suggesting that they could have had Robert Sala
as their defensive coordinator if they wanted.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I'm saying he interviewed for the head coaching job here, right,
He interviewed to be the head coach here on the eighteenth,
six days before he took the defensive coordinator job in
San Francisco.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Like, yes, they could have said, look, absolutely could have
if we go in a different direction with the head coach.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Would you be interested in being a defensive coordinator?

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Don't you think Robert Sala who didn't have any dude,
he was being an advisor for the Packers, okay, just
because his friend works there. But well, let me just
say I don't.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
I didn't follow the San Francisco you know timeline closely.
But he got a good He was going to coach
two of the best defensive players in football before they
both had season ending injuries.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, man, he was there for many years. That's them
being good got him the Jets job. Just saying like
ebra Flus is a name, everyone in the football world
would go, yeah, we'll take Robert Salo over ebra Flus
is one hundred percent. Okay, Now, I don't think EUF
has some bad reputation until now, like now it's really bad.
But he didn't like you still find but they knew

(06:09):
and Schottenheimer was given Maddie Refluse. I don't think Schottenheimer hired.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Him like this is right.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
This is a little different than Mike McCarthy handpicking Mike Nolan,
you know, back in twenty twenty. Right, It's just this
is something I think could change how we look at this.
They had a window if they would have just got
on it and did what they were supposed to do
the same way, if you would have just made the
decision if it we're not doing the Mica thing, you know,
or signed him. Even then, if you make that decision

(06:37):
in March, then we're not dealing with this.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Was they just don't hit any urgency. But also don't
they just not know what they want to do next?

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Right, because in fact, I'll tell you why coming up next,
I'll tell you exactly why this is such an s show.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
We're three minutes away from that. Don't miss it.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
That's next, Ben and Skin Show ninety seven point one.
The Eagle will be listening for your chance to win
Seither End Dot Tree tickets later in the show. But
we're keeping the cowboy talk going, and Ben just gave
us a miraculous tease telling us why things are the
way they.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Are, Well, they are the way they are, which you
look at you know what Kat was breaking down you
the you know, Schottenheimer was given Eberflus as a defensive coordinator.
Schottenheimer was chosen because the familiarity with the Jones family.
Iberflus was chosen for that reason. And you know, you
just look at their whole approach to everything. The micah

(07:28):
that they're trying to pay him forty million dollars a
year and then they're like, oh my god, we no
way we could pay him forty seven. That's what we'd
pay him forty three. And then they bail in their
a week before the season, they trade them. I mean,
all that is crazy, dysfunctional, and it's all because of
one thing. And it's all because the leader of the circus,

(07:48):
the ring master, Jerry Jones, is winging it. It's a gambler.
It's just a guy gun slinging who's winging it. He's
going off his gut. There is no culture, there is
no system. They aren't following any core beliefs that they have.
He's just out there winging it on a whim all
the time. And that's why this thing is such a mess.

(08:11):
And it's never going to get better on his watch. Like,
as long as he's alive and he's eighty three today,
as long as he's running the Cowboys, this is never
gonna change because you see billionaires. We've interacted with super
wealthy people before. You can't tell them anything. They are
the smartest people on earth. They're not gonna listen to
mere mortals. They are money gods. And it only gets

(08:34):
worse over time. And so sadly, I don't think this
is gonna get better.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
And it so makes me wonder what the dynamic is
like between Steven and Jerry, because I do believe Stephen
knows better.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Now.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
I'm not saying I think Steven would be great in
the job. I don't know that, but I think it's
very obvious Steven knows better, and you know, how can
he communicate that.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
To the dad.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Now, there's lots of stories in the past of things
that have worked out, like the Zach Martin deal. They've
talked about, you know, that's been on a billion different platforms.
I'm telling that story and Jerry wanted Johnny Manziel and he,
you know, insulted his son and stormed out and then
came back later and said, you're right, I'm sorry and
all that crap, and then we know the don story.
But I'm just so curious about what those interactions are like,

(09:20):
because there's no successful sports franchises that operate this way,
if anything, in every sport. Why I can't speak on hockey,
I don't know enough about it, but in football and
baseball and basketball, they have all increasingly gone in the
direction of more and more data, more and more analysis,
more and more sticking to a specific type program like

(09:41):
almost universally across the board, and the Cowboys aren't doing that.
I know Steven knows better, but I just I'm dying
to know.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
I wish that.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
Could be the fly on the wall for what those
kinds of conversations are Like.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
I do too, and I mean I think we all
look at twenty thirteen was a time right around that
era where Will McClay was brought in with Steven Jones
kind of taking more of a getting more control of
the draft and less of Jerry winging it and making
bad trades and moving up and down and things like that.
And I still now look at that and go, Okay, yes,

(10:17):
that's fine. I like Will McClay a lot, but he
is now at the point where we can start asking questions,
Oh yeah, what is the process? And maybe he's been
there for the last couple of years, like the dynamic
changed a little bit and now we're kind of going
we kind of needed to change even a little bit
more to see more of a vision because our teams,
like we do things with their money. They pick and choose,

(10:37):
like we know we're not gonna be good this year.
We have to. We were just like, whatever happens happens,
but we're gonna make some moves. So we're cap with
our salary cap at our money, we're able to go
for it. This year. I've absolutely just seeing it with
my packers like they had two years of like, we're
gonna cut back on some of the things we're doing here,
get rid of some bad contracts, and then we're gonna
lean all the way in. And I think that's the

(11:00):
cowboys are under sitting there going Jerry said it last week.
People are asking are you a playoff team and he's
sideswiping Micah in the press conference. Man, Like, come on, dude,
Like it's really really petty and it's all just silly stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Man.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
They've had three defensive coordinators in three years. I guess
Zimmer wanted to be head coach. That's the only reay
he would have stayed or whatever. But I mean, when
you have that much turnover and that much change, you're
not gonna have identity, You're not gonna have a culture.
And then in the draft room, you're gonna have that
coordinator in there with a voice and they're having input.

(11:36):
And it's like have it renting a room to somebody
temporarily in your home and letting them have input in
all the decisions you're making to your house on a remodel, Like,
why would you do that. That's not a permanent guest,
that's just somebody stopping by. And I think a lot
of that's led to just the lack of continuity.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
It's a bummer that we're here because look, at the
end of the day, you lost to the Panthers and
the Bears. Oh boy, you can't do that. You just
can't do that. And you know, what they're gonna beat
Washington next week because it's the NFL.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Maybe three three in one, let's go all right, there
you have it. There's a little cowboys talk. We'll get
back into it one more time today because it is
a cowboy Monday at five o'clock. But coming up next,
I got to share a personal story about my daughter
and share with you the greatest song of all time.
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