The Kyle Bailey Show: Bob Sturm

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports Radio ninety two to seven wfn Z KB and
smoke back with you on a Wednesday, and that means
Roman Harper, two time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl champion, SEC
Network analyst, our boy, Roman Harper back at five o'clock.
Make sure to stick around for that, a lot of
SEC football and we'll talk some Panthers with him as well.
Oh and he is a Saints Hall of Famer and
they got to win, so that may come up, but

(00:21):
well probably not all right, but right now though we
talk Panthers and Cowboys, don't forget Sunday morning, ten am
countdown to kickoff in Uptown. We're right across the street
from the bank. It's the only Panthers pregame coverage you'll
ever need. Myself, Chris McClain, we get you ready for
the Cowboys visiting the Panthers. And we know that Cowboys
fans will be here in abundance on Sunday, because well
they always are everywhere when they're on the road. And

(00:42):
we're headed down to Dallas right now to talk to
a man who talks cowboys every day, Bob Stern. Afternoon
Drive ninety six seven The ticket down in Dallas. You
can check out his substack as well. If you're a
Cowboys fan, you probably should, and I'm sure he'd appreciate that.
Bob Stern back with us for a Wednesday conversation. What's up, Bob,
how you been.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm great, Great to be with you guys. Looking forward
to Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
All right, well, I guess just big picture of thirty
thousand foot view Dallas two to two and one. Kind
of a weird record, right, kind of a weird start.
But you know, what's the what's the pulse of Cowboys
Nation right now? Are fans happy? Are they panicking? Are
they What are Cowboys fans feeling right now about this team?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, it's difficult to speak for all of them, because
we get some weirdos in the fan base at all
times that that you know, have some really wild views.
But from my standpoint, and I think from from the
reasonable middle, I would say that the Cowboys should feel

(01:41):
pretty good about where they are right now because they
have a quarterback who's playing excellent football, and they have
a coach who seems to have the right idea of
where this team is headed. And I think both of
those Brian Schottneimer and Dak Prescott were not considered sure things.

(02:01):
And you know right now they are performing as real
legitimate positives for this organization. And you know, you guys
know this as well as anybody. If your coach and
your quarterback are on the same page and are performing
at the higher level of their range, then you're going

(02:25):
to have a chance to win a lot of football games.
So we didn't know if the Cowboys would be good
this year, and we do know their defense is pretty awful,
but overall they're in every game, they're entertaining, and they
have a chance, partly because coaching quarterback.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, no, we take entertaining around here. It's been a
rough seven years so and listen, I'll get back to
them in a second. It has been more entertaining for sure.
But go back to Schottenheimer because as we understand it,
he's got a lot of family here in the Charlotte area.
In fact, we know that to be the case. So
we talked a lot about him when he got the job,
when he was promoted. What has stood out about maybe
his his leadership and style compared to Mike McCarthy. Has

(03:01):
he really stabilized things down there? What's your take on
what he's done so far.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, you know, there's there's a couple of prompts to
that that I think are both important. The first one
sometimes gets the eye roll from people, but it's the
it's the culture component. It's it's sort of you know,
it's one of those things people talk about if the
team is playing well, but when it's playing poorly, we

(03:26):
think it's you know, that sort of thing is hocus
pocus or or a fairy tale of some sort. I
you know, I think anybody who's been in a locker
room knows that it's important for a team to all
pull in the same direction and all have a common agenda,
and it's really family. And I do think the Cowboys

(03:48):
organization because of the chaos and because of the Jones family,
which is another way to say the chaos. I do
think it's important that a coach can sort of create
a bias sphere where we isolate and we do our
job and we play and when sometimes we play in
spite of the chaos, and so we we uh, you know,

(04:10):
perform as part of it, or whatever you want to say.
I think culture is important, and I think Mike McCarthy
had a good room and a good roster but I
just don't know that he ever fully understood what he
was dealing with. And I feel like seat and Ivor
kind of gets it. I think he sort of understands.
You know, how to speak to the fan base and

(04:31):
and how to handle and and and rut walk the
tightrope that that you have to have things your way,
but you also can't out, you can get angry. You
signed up to work for the Jones family, so you
need to know what goes with that, but also how
to manage it. So I think it's it's a it's
a very sensitive and not always easy path to navigate.

(04:54):
And then the other thing, which is probably more important,
is you have to have the strategic and tactical solutions
for a football team that is not good enough to
win just anyway. And so for me, I think the
way he's put this offense together makes a ton of sense.
He's not recreating offense. In fact, he's doing what a

(05:17):
lot of the smart teams in this league do, but
that's not always consistent with Cowboys football. So Schottenheimer in here,
he's marrying the run and pass. I know everybody says that,
but he's actually doing it. He's using play action well
a pre snap motion at snap motion, tighter splits. There's
a lot of things I like about the way the

(05:39):
Cowboys offense looks right now, and I think he deserves
a ton of credit for that, and also hiring Clayton
Adams from Arizona to sort of coordinate the run game,
Connor Riley from Kansas State to be the offensive line coach.
It just feels dooal around here with ideas, and now
we're seeing it on the field that they were able

(06:01):
to win a game last week with four offensive linemen
out of the lineup. And Cowboys football never rises up
when they're losing, when they're missing that many pieces and
cdee lamb, and yet their offense still look great, and
so there's optimism. And this is usually a fairly apathetic

(06:22):
fan base right now after thirty years in the wilderness,
and so optimism is a very good thing.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Is this a different Dak Prescott or just a better
Dak Prescott?

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Interesting, that's a good question because in twenty twenty three
he finished second in NFL MVP voter. Completely new Dak
Prescott because in twenty twenty three he ran a really,
really solid offense and played a really good style quarterback.
But I think what is new would be sort of

(06:55):
him taking ownership of this organization. And I've always wanted
him to speak up and stop being so polite and
stopp being so courteous on your fist on the table
and say we need it this way, or I need
this guy, or let's get this done, or this is
distracting the team whatever. I feel like at times, a quarterback,

(07:15):
especially ten years at the helm of a franchise, needs
to start taking over the franchise to a in a
positive way, but to an extent where he becomes a
bit of a de facto assistant coach, and I feel
like he's doing that more and more and more so.
Some people will say, if you're the highest paid player

(07:36):
in the NFL, that should be expected. I get it.
But his personality has always been to sort of be
a courteous, agreeable, kind human being, and at times that
works and at other times I think you have to
throw your weight around a little bit, and I sense
Dak is doing that more and more. And I also
think he's taking leadership for a guy like Jordan Pickens.

(08:01):
Like Okay, Pickens doesn't have a great reputation come to
our huddle and I'll take you under my wing. And
now George Pickens looks like one of the better acquisitions
of the NFL offseason. So that's a long way to say.
I just feel like Dak's taken the next step as
a as a leader and as a dude in this organization,

(08:21):
and this organization desperately needed that to happen.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Bob sterm ninety six to seven the Ticket, Dallas Fort Worth.
He's with us here for a Wednesday conversation, you know,
But Brian Schottenheimer comes in, he finds himself himself in
the eye of a storm of sorts. I guess there's
always kind of one in Dallas. But referring specifically to Michaeh.
Parsons and the trade that I still surprise me that
it actually happened. Cowboys are thirty second in total defense,

(08:44):
last in passing defense, I think twenty third in rushing defense.
But I know they were much better against the Jets.
Is this kind of what you thought they'd be? What
I mean, is this a reflection of them post Micah Parsons?
How would you describe the defense? You know where they
started and where they are now.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Well, they're still pretty bad. You know, they were better
against the Jets, but I think we should probably assume
the opponent had a lot to do with that. The
reality is the Cowboys defense doesn't have the personnel, and
I think that was fairly obvious to everybody not named Jones.

(09:25):
You know, in the summer, they they let some guys go.
They kind of have stripped down most of the defense
since Dan Quinn was here in twenty twenty three. And
really they just need to replenish the dudes on this
defense because they don't have enough dudes. The linebacker is
ridiculously soft right now. You know, safety could use some turnover,

(09:51):
But really, defensive tackle has been an issue for years.
They've never really addressed it because they had great edge rushers.
Well now they don't have great edge rushers. They have
okay at drushers and really no defensive tackles except Kenny
Clark who just came in the trade. He's he's good,
and also Diggi Zua is good. But neither of them
are big big dudes. They're they're not three twenty or

(10:14):
three thirty. They are more like two ninety five. And
and you know, just overall it's an undersized Cowboys defense
that doesn't have Micah Parsons anymore, and so they took
a step back to pick up a couple first round
picks and to get away from the contract. That might
mean that they just didn't get enough in the trade.
I just think Micah was worth more to getting involved

(10:37):
in late August, but there were a few, and obviously
drank Bay was. But I just think the Cowboys are
bad at defense, partly because they just don't have good
enough players. And I know that's simplistic, but I think
that's the answer right now. And the only way to
fix that probably is a couple really strong drafts. And

(11:00):
obviously they can't do that before Sunday, so Carolina is
gonna have some opportunities. Dallas is just gonna have to
make every game a track meet where first to thirty wins,
and you know, luckily for them, they seem equipped to
do that on offense.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
All right, last thing, I'll let you go. Cowboys have
taken three straight in this series, including a game last
year where Panthers fans are pretty confident with Cooper Rush
coming in as the starter, and it did not work
out in their favor. You probably saw last week Rico Dowdell,
NFC Player of the Week, had himself a monster performance
against Miami. After the game told Cowboys told the Cowboys
to buckle up. Obviously, you know him down there spent

(11:38):
the first five years of his career in Dallas. I
think they're gonna look to run the ball a lot
on Sunday, But coming off a seventeen point comeback against Miami,
this team's kind of been all over the place. What
do folks down there think of this matchup with Carolina?
Do they take the Panthers seriously this weekend?

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well? I for me, I just think that the Cowboys
do not have the luxury of taking anybody for granted.
They can definitely lose this game. We were thinking they
could definitely lose the Jets game. I mean, we assume
they'll have Tyler Smith back on the offensive line, but
they're still going to have a ton of backups. They
probably still will not have CD lamps. So I think

(12:15):
the Cowboys are expecting a pretty good slug. We know
Carolinas I'm beating at home, and we know Ted McMillan
was somebody the Cowboys. Holts could be wearing a Cowboys
uniform after the draft and the Panthers scooped him up
a little early, and I expect him to have a
big breakout at any time. I know he's been good,
but not where both teams should be able to get

(12:40):
into the mid to high twenties, and then it might
have come down to who can take care of football?
So you try to get turn the ball over, and
I'm sure the Panthers will try to get Deck to
turn the ball over, and that might actually be the
determining factor in the football game. It actually should be
a fairly entertaining game. I'm expecting.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well, I mean, yeah, I hope so too. I had
to ask, what did you think of the Jerry Jones
explanation for the middle Finger? What'd you think of that?

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Come on of his explanation for what.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
The middle Finger at East russ and Met Life on Sunday,
what'd you think of that?

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, I think it's ridiculous. But I will also say
I've worked here twenty eight years and I've learned to
pretty much assume that anytime Jerry says anything, he's kind
of full of it, and he's a entertaining guy who
is always starring in his own movie. But just about
everything he says is ridiculous and probably to be taken

(13:39):
with a grain of salt, So whether you were talking
about that, or his thoughts on the pass rush, or
his thoughts on literally any topic, I don't know why
people honestly interview him. I realize he's an important news figure,
but honestly, he's also a lot of hot air. So
I'm sure he'll say the same about me if he
knew my name. But but honestly, I'm fine with that.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Got it, Bob, You're the best. Always appreciate the time.
Brother enjoyed the game on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Thank you. Enjoy the game yourself, and it should be fun.