Cowboys Break: Hold the Staff

Bryan Broaddus, Derek Eagleton, Nick Harris and Ambar Garcia discuss the complete Brian Schottenheimer staff now that it is put together in Dallas.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Cowboys Let's go.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Are you ready for a break?

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Are you ready for a break?

Speaker 5 (00:18):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Ready for a break? Yeah, and so much for that.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's time for the Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com.
Were with Mbar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and
Derek Eagleton.

Speaker 6 (00:37):
It is Wednesday, February twelfth, twenty twenty five, Season twenty,
episode number one oh two. Welcome to the latest edition
Over the Break, Live from s WBC Mortgage Studios at
the Star, presented by LG. LG's the world's number one
O lead TV brand for eleven years in counting See
why LG dot Com Ford slash O lead EVO. We
got the crew back together. We did not have a
show last week because so many people just decided they

(00:58):
didn't want to come to work. Everybody stay what except
for me, and but now we got you guys back. Happy,
everybody's back. I'm sure you got some great stories from
your uh, your trips to the super Bowl and Amber
had a little family trip.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, so everybody had.

Speaker 7 (01:13):
Very cool land or world World.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's fun Diego's first time. So you know, that was.

Speaker 7 (01:19):
Great, awesome, you know, it's magical.

Speaker 6 (01:21):
But you guys coming back from the Super Bowl, and
actually I wanted to start the conversation there. Obviously, the
Eagles get their win, they get their second UH championship
in the history of their franchise. As you watch that game,
and I found myself doing this, I thought it'd be
an interesting question just to go around the table.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
What do you think was.

Speaker 6 (01:40):
The biggest takeaway you had as you put it in
Cowboys world and you watch the Eagles do what they did,
and obviously, knowing this is a league where it's a
copycat league, people typically look for things that are successful
when they try to do some of them, not all
of them, but some of them. What was the biggest
takeaway that you grab from that Eagles game? You're like,

(02:00):
that's what the Cowboys need, That's what the Cowboys need
to do.

Speaker 8 (02:03):
Can I can I look at it from a totality
rather than the game. You know, Stephen Jones has said
that the Eagles eventually their payday is gonna come as
far as all the investments that they've made into into
their roster, and he's right, But how much do you
balance that with sacrificing it for the now and trying
to push for a Super Bowl for the now? And
Jerry Jones said last offseason, and he said again on

(02:26):
the NFL Honors Red Carpet and New Orleans last Thursday night,
Is said, we're not building for the future.

Speaker 7 (02:31):
We're trying to win now.

Speaker 8 (02:32):
And I think if that's truly the case, then they
can look at what the Eagles have done as far
as Okay, hey, we we're gonna shorten our window by
about two years by investing so much on both sides
of the wall here, but it's gonna give us a
better chance during that window. And obviously it worked out
for Howie Roseman. He gets to put a ring on
his hand and you know, whenever those whenever the cap

(02:53):
hell is coming around the corner, then he can wipe
it with a ring on his hand, you know. And
I think you have to balance that, and that's the
balance act of a GM. It's what makes this league
difficult from a GM's perspective. But I think that's one
thing I look at and saying, like, hey, the Rams
sacrificed it, they got to ring out of it. The
Buccaneers sacrifice it, they got to ring out of it,
and now the Eagles have done the same thing. So

(03:14):
you wonder maybe that's maybe that's the bread and butter
figuring this thing out.

Speaker 9 (03:18):
It's about really the ability to navigate the draft and
then free agency. How important both of them are. If
you look at the key player, even though he didn't
play the key role in that game with Barkley and
going out and getting they made the commitment to go
out and get him, spend eleven million dollars to get
that particular player, even though there's like you know, the
injury history and all that, the draft was outstanding for him.

(03:40):
Cooper Degene, you know, you look at Quintin Mitchell. You
look at those guys and the way that they played
with with that, with those guys and the secondary, the
draft picks that they made throughout the Georgia kids are
starting to show up now. I mean there was you know,
that was something they had multiple first round picks, they
moved around, you know, they they the earmarked players and

(04:01):
were able to get them. Some players fell right to them.
They made the picks. It just showed me how important
is they balance between the free agency and the draft
is the building the football team.

Speaker 10 (04:14):
I wanted to ask you something and this is not
U because I completely agree with your point, and this
is not to argue with it, but me with someone
that's not one hundred percent super knowledgeable with the cap
and the money and all of that. But right, it's
so complicated.

Speaker 9 (04:32):
Even the people that work.

Speaker 10 (04:33):
But at what point do you get to that because
we keep hearing, okay, your your hands are so tied, right,
but when when do you get to a point that
you can actually make those moves or have the ability
to put that kind of money and invest in that way.

Speaker 8 (04:57):
Let's we can put it from the Cowboys perspective. Yes, easy, Yes,
this offseason specifically, and you go on spow Track or
you go on over the Cap, and yes, there are
things you can do with the current cap number that
the Cowboys have available going into this offseason. However, it's
not as easy as just clicking a button on Spowtrack
or over the CAAP dot com. Yes, you could restructure

(05:17):
Terrance Steal this offseason. Yes, you could restructure Trayvon Dix. Yes,
if you got a Michael Parsons deal done today, that
could allow you to push some of that money down
the line and maximize the two to three year window
that you have right now. Yes, and I think that
should be priority number one when you go into this
offseason and saying like, hey, we need to get Michael
Parsons done before March twelfth, when the new league year hits,
so we know what we're spending in free agency.

Speaker 7 (05:39):
If I were the Cowboys, that's what I would be saying.

Speaker 8 (05:41):
But you can move some of those things along to
create more money for now, and that's you look at
what Philadelphia did last year as far as getting Jalen
Hurts done early, DeVante Smith done early. It allowed them
to kind of figure out what they want to do
as far as pushing that money down the line. They
were able to bring in Saquon Barkley, they were able
to bring in Zach Bond, who's a Defensive Player of
the Year candidate. And granted, they're going to have to

(06:01):
pay that bill when that time comes because they push
that money down the line, so that that ninety million
dollars cap hit or whatever for Jalen Hurts, it's coming
in twenty seven.

Speaker 7 (06:09):
I think that's coming, and that's going to.

Speaker 8 (06:10):
Be really difficult to get out of but they got
a ring out of it, So it's it's from the
Cowboys perspective. I think they don't want to be in
that situation at any point in time, so they don't
create that. And part of that's respectable. But I think
also you also have to look at, Okay, some a
lot of these teams that are winning rings and have
rings on their hand they've sacrificed. Does there come up

(06:34):
points where you eventually have to sacrifice?

Speaker 6 (06:35):
But I also think part of it is I think
they did it, they did it a different way, but
the amount of money that they spent primarily on their
own players in that two thousand to two thousand and
three window, that was really their window. Like they had
a team that they built that was on paper good enough.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
To do some stuff.

Speaker 6 (06:57):
They just missed their window, in my opinion, now they're
having then they had to pay the piper last year,
Like it was like, Okay, now you got to pay
the bill on what you've had the last three years,
and you didn't get to that promised land with the
strategy you took the players you decided to pay. Now
they never went all in like the Eagles. From the
standpoint of we're gonna go out and free agency and

(07:18):
spend that kind of money. But they certainly were spending
money on their own guys and resigning their own guys,
and so I just believe like they had a window.
They just didn't achieve what they wanted to achieve in
that window.

Speaker 7 (07:29):
Yeah, I think that's fair.

Speaker 9 (07:30):
I was just curious because I was looking up Jalen
Hurts because he doesn't he never makes more than fifty
million dollars a year, and that and to the void
the the cap pit you're talking about the ninety seven
million that comes in twenty twenty nine. Yeah, I mean
he makes his cap number this year.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
How long is this deal?

Speaker 9 (07:50):
His deal, his deal actually goes through, He's got they've
got voidable years going through this thing all the way through.
It looks like twenty thirty two.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (08:01):
So when he did it, it was like a Yeah,
they got him for They got him on his rookie deal.
They got him to sign it on his rookie deal.
His cap number this year was thirteen and a half
million dollars. His cap number next year is twenty one eight.
The following year is thirty one nine. Very manageable for
the cap the cap year in twenty twenty seven, forty
two to one, twenty twenty eight, forty seven to five,

(08:22):
and then you get the and then you get the
ninety seven million dollars.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Now, of course they're gonna have to do something with that.

Speaker 6 (08:28):
You would have to, but they might be thinking about it, like,
but he's signed be at thirty one mins old.

Speaker 9 (08:32):
Yeah, he'll be thirty one years old in twenty twenty nine,
so they'll they'll figure out some other way and then
that's probably where they'll have to pay him, if you know.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
But think about that.

Speaker 9 (08:41):
I mean they've got him from from from well this
year until twenty twenty nine, and he's there, he's not
making more than fifty million dollars a year.

Speaker 8 (08:50):
Yeah, you look at aj Brown in twenty thirty his
cap number is fifty three and a half million.

Speaker 7 (08:55):
I mean that there's there's a lot of Steven Joones
is right. The bill is going to have to be paid.

Speaker 6 (09:00):
But they got but they got a window of what
four or five years where they can.

Speaker 8 (09:03):
Just kind of twenty twenty eight to really run this
thing up. So I mean that's a hell of a window.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
And they got a ton of talent.

Speaker 7 (09:11):
Window they got a talent. And I'll put.

Speaker 6 (09:12):
It to you like this, And this is what jumped
out to me as I was watching that game that
I think every team in the NFL. You hear it
said all the time, but everybody doesn't really invest in.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
It the same way. The trenches matter.

Speaker 6 (09:25):
If you've got the better offensive and defensive line, you
will win. And we saw it play out in that game.
They were playing the best quarterback on the planet and
he couldn't be the best quarterback on the planet because
their defensive line was too ferocious. They just couldn't be
And by the way, they have the best offensive line,
so they were able to protect their quarterback and they
weren't able to get the kind of pressure on him.

(09:47):
The trenches were where that game was won and lost.
And I think that's that was the takeaway for me.
And then you want to apply it to the Cowboys
and I'm like, Okay, look at the offensive line. Man,
there's a bunch of question marks on that offensive line
right now. Other than Tyler Smith. You don't have another
guy that you say, yes, that is he is where
he needs to be. There a lot of guy.

Speaker 7 (10:09):
What we know about.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
BB is he looked pretty good as a rookie. He's
got a lot of development to do.

Speaker 6 (10:14):
So if he keeps developing, great, that's still a question mark, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
I mean so guid In same thing. Like Guiden had
some moments that were pretty good. He's got some developing
to do. You know, still had a better second half
than the first half.

Speaker 6 (10:25):
But is he like is that is that a sign
of things to come that he's going to have more
of the bad games and the good games the time
goes on?

Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know, are you going to have Zach Martin back?
And is so is he going to be healthy?

Speaker 6 (10:36):
Like you have all these question marks on that side
of the ball, On the defensive side of the ball,
you got just as many, if not more questions about
where you are right now. So I think just looking
at the trenches, just looking at the trenches alone, I
think the Cowboys have a lot of questions answered. If
everything works out and everybody meets the standard of what
they're of those questions, great it works. There are a

(10:57):
lot of questions there, and I think that's the part
where I'm like, if I'm going into this offseason and
you start talking about draft as you guys are doing
on the Draft show, I would be looking at this
thing saying, man, build my lines.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Build my lines.

Speaker 6 (11:09):
That's why that's what I got out at Super Bowl.
Build my offense and build my defensive line. I can
make everything else work.

Speaker 7 (11:15):
It's tough. It's a discussion.

Speaker 8 (11:16):
I know we've had a couple of times already on
the draft shows the offensive line.

Speaker 7 (11:19):
When do you start investing on the end.

Speaker 8 (11:21):
Do you want to go three out of four years
picking in the first round on offensive line?

Speaker 6 (11:24):
And they did it when it worked for them back
with that that last crew they had.

Speaker 7 (11:28):
Right, certainly, certainly there's a case to be made for it.

Speaker 9 (11:31):
There was those guys though, were collegiately. They played a
lot more than what you had with Geyton. Yeah, you
know guys, Frederick Martin, you know those guys. They they've
played they yeah, they played you know Smith, They've played
a lot of football in college.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
The problem is Smith.

Speaker 6 (11:50):
Came out after eleven. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
He came out after his junior year. Right, did all
of them come out after their junior year?

Speaker 9 (11:57):
I think I think I think the scene I think, uh,
I think Frederick and Martin were seniors because they Yeah,
I mean they played a ton, They played a ton
of football. The thing about is you caught Geyiton on
the tail end of the tackles in the draft last year.
You know you you caught him on the tail end,
and that's that's you know you're picking. You're picking twenty

(12:19):
eighth and you're looking at a tackle and you you
know you picked him, and that's you know, he has
not played a lot of football. Bbe played a lot
of football and didn't look the learning curve for him
didn't look as steep as what it looked for Guiton,
you know. And I think that's you know, the problem
that I have with this draft. And I'm not going
to speak for Nick. If you're told me to fix

(12:40):
the trent, to fix the trenches, I feel better about
fixing it with defensive linemen than I do offensive lineman
right now. It's because of the talent pool and the
talent pool and then and I think there's a I
think there's a really big unknown for a lot of
these offensive.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
Linemen and you want to see a playout.

Speaker 9 (12:57):
I you know what, it scares the f out of
me right now, to be honest, if.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
You were the personnel guy in there, you'd be like,
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (13:03):
I mean, I I have, I have.

Speaker 9 (13:05):
I have really good feelings about I feel have really
good feelings about the defensive tackle group. I have really
good feelings about the running back group. I have good
feelings about the wide receiver group. In a way, I
actually have a good feeling about the corners in this draft,
I don't I'm gonna have to go into free agency,
you know, I'm gonna have to figure out do I

(13:26):
want to? And I was looking at over the cap
on this. You know, when you talk, we're not allowed
to talk about guys that are contracting on the orion teams.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Okay, unless they're gonna be a free agent.

Speaker 9 (13:37):
Okay, O our linebacker Kansas City, right, Okay, is he
he's I think he's a I think he's a free agent.

Speaker 11 (13:43):
For it.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Let's make sure he's a free agent.

Speaker 9 (13:44):
Yeah, I know, But I'm just saying. We got your
point though, we get okay, But I would rather, I
would rather. I would rather spend money on that than
I would spend money on what I what I know
right now, what I what I know. I think I'm
right about.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
What you know right now? On the on the on
the Guy.

Speaker 9 (14:01):
Osa, Golston, Lewis, those kinds of guys.

Speaker 7 (14:05):
Yeah, Nick Bolton will be a free agent.

Speaker 9 (14:08):
Thank you. Okay, Nick Bolton, I just I thought I
was right about that. But Nick Bolton, Okay, I don't
have a linebacker that. I don't have linebackers that I
could just say that's my guy, that's my guy, that's
my guy. It's just not a deep position. And if
you look at the valuation of Nick Bolden as a player,

(14:28):
he's basically he's on a rookie deal, but he's like
a nine million dollar player. So you're probably going to
have to spend twelve million dollars to get Nick Bolton
is here. But then, but if you look at the
valuations of guys like Golston nine million dollar player or
or Osa, which might be a twelve to thirteen million
dollar player, give me the linebacker over what I know

(14:52):
with with Osa and what I know with with Golston.
In that kind of situation, I would rather I think
I could I could draft, I can draft the defensive line.
I don't know if I could find the linebackers for you.
So if I get a guy, it's a stud linebacker.
And these scouts, right, now are gonna, you know, they're
starting to meet with the coaches because they got the

(15:13):
staff together, and now Flus will be able to tell them, hey,
I like this type or I like that type, and
the linebacker I like this type and I like you know,
they'll be able to kind of map that out. But
I just feel that to me, if I have to
spend thirteen million dollars on os, I would rather spend
nine to ten million dollars on Bolton, the linebacker from
Kansas City. That's what I would rather do.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
All right, let's take our first break.

Speaker 6 (15:34):
When we come back, I want to talk about some
of the hires that we have not talked about for
this coaching staff, particular offensive coordinator and what he could
potentially bring to the table.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Do that when we come right back. This is Dallascowboys
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Speaker 3 (18:35):
Welcome back.

Speaker 6 (18:35):
It is the second segment of the break life and
that's WUBC Mortgage Studios at the start of the segment,
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Speaker 7 (18:41):
Ding.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Okay, ding, that's what we're doing. Yeah, twenty twenty five,
that's what we're doing.

Speaker 9 (18:47):
All right.

Speaker 6 (18:47):
Let's let's talk about some of the hires that this
coaching staff has made let's start first to the offensive
coordinator Clayton and Clayton Adams. What are your thoughts on
that hire as an offensive coordinator coming from Arizona.

Speaker 8 (19:00):
I think it's a strong hire personally. I think there's
an emphasis being taken right now to running the ball
that they want to. They want to run the ball
with this new system Schottenheimer talked about in the presser.
Dak mentioned it yesterday at the Children's Cancer Fund event,
and you look at the hires that they've made. They
are trying to emphasize marrying what Schottenheimer can do from

(19:22):
a West Coast passing perspective with an efficient run game,
and the Clayton Adams hires a big, big key of
that coming from the Cardinals as their offensive line coach. Obviously,
I'm going to throw some numbers at you and let
me know if it starts getting too confusing, Derek, But
this is the splits that Arizona had last year when
it came to run concepts, and I'm going to compare

(19:43):
those numbers with the Cowboys numbers from last year. So
inside zone runs Arizona ran nineteen point six percent of
the time last year compared to the Cowboys thirty one
point one percent, so a lean, heavy on not a
lot of creativity. Same could be said with outside zone.
When it came to inside zone and outside zone, the
two most common runs that you'll see in the NFL.

(20:05):
The Cowboys ran one of those two fifty three point
seven percent of the time. You compare that with the
Cardinals from last year. I'm trying to do quick math
in my head, thirty nine point one percent last year.
But the one that really sticks out to me and
the one that I think will really help benefit this
not only this running game, but this offensive line group
is the poll lead run that is getting an offensive

(20:27):
lineman out in space, having him run down field and
and you know, pull guys from across the angle blocks
angles than line scrimmage one on one blocks. And Arizona
ran that fourteen point two percent of the time last
year on one hundred and twenty three carries. Compare that
to the Cowboys eleven point nine percent on ninety nine

(20:47):
carries last year.

Speaker 7 (20:49):
So there's going to be.

Speaker 8 (20:50):
A lot of different things that you see with with
this run game, and the Clayton Adams hire is a
big part of that. I think you marry that with
offensive line coach Connor and what Kansas State has done
from a creative running perspective with goos Vaughan, with DJ
Giddens over the course of the last three years. You
were going to have a creative run game finally, and

(21:11):
I am so happy to say that right here.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
So here's my question.

Speaker 6 (21:14):
You talk about that, do you have the offensive line
personnel to be able to do those things.

Speaker 7 (21:20):
You hope you will?

Speaker 9 (21:22):
At right tackle you do, yes, I agree, At center
you do, At left guard you do. Now we'll see
with what happens who's the left tackle, if it's Guiden
or if it's somebody else. But the one thing some
of the better plays that Geiiton did have if you
watch Oklahoma tape, was him getting out in space. So
the pind and pull stuff is really.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Just that's actually easier blocks.

Speaker 9 (21:43):
So simple because you just and the the you said
eleven percent Dallas on the that's cracked toss. That's you know,
we saw how they get the ball to the outside.
It's take the receiver, crack the edge, then kind of
pull guys on the outside and and Dallas had some
success doing that. So, uh, yeah, the center got better
second level during the season. The right tackle is clearly

(22:07):
athletic enough to play pen and poll, I agree, and
then the and then but in the left guard is
athletic enough to play pen and pool. So you're gonna
have to kind of figure out though the other spots,
if that's what I think. The thing that tells me
that I look at those numbers is that people that
that Arizona got to a point where they were like, listen,
you try and stop us doing this. We're going to
do this. They're able to kind of adjust. And and

(22:30):
the thing that I heard about Adams as a coach
from talking to people with the Cardinals is that he
is a guy that will coach veterans and rookies the same.
He'll cook, he'll coach them hard, but not to the point.
I mean, he's more of a teacher kind of a guy,
not a yellow screamer guy. But he this is where
guys like needs Godon needs a reset, you know, Goidon

(22:51):
needs a reset on. Okay, maybe a different voice. We saw,
you know, we saw what happened with with Steele when
Philbin left. It kind of you know, that was Philbin
was his guy. So I think that if you tell
me that I have a coach that will work with
rookies and veterans the same way and teach them the
same way. That gives me some hope for guiding and

(23:12):
going in the future.

Speaker 8 (23:13):
I'm glad you mentioned Steel because I think these hires
that they have made that benefit the offensive line benefit
Terrence Steel more than.

Speaker 7 (23:19):
Any five of those guys up front.

Speaker 8 (23:21):
When you when you can maximize his athleticism, get him
active in the run game once again rather than just
point of attack blocking, you know, front, I think it's
going to really help Terrence Steele moving forward.

Speaker 10 (23:32):
Well, I what I like the best is obviously the
running aspect of it. But the point that the Cowboys
and Schottenheimer, they all decided to go and hire somebody
that has exactly the qualities and the skills where you're
lacking that they and that doesn't always happens when the

(23:56):
Cowboys go out and hire somebody that you're like familiar, yeah,
like okay, what else are they bringing to the table.
But this is someone that is clearly bringing something that
you have been struggling with and we're unable to truly
find the answers to it. Got better at the end
of the season, but you clearly needed a change there.

(24:18):
So that's the biggest thing that I like is the
fact that it's refreshing to finally be able to feel
like you addressed an issue, and that isn't always the
case when the Cowboys do hiring or get somebody in here.

Speaker 8 (24:33):
Kind Of to that same point, I got to give
Brian Schottenheimer credit because twenty five years as an assistant,
you run into a lot of coaches, you run into
a lot of relationships, you build a lot of relationships.

Speaker 7 (24:43):
Obviously he's a relationships guy.

Speaker 8 (24:45):
I got to give him credit for stepping outside of
his comfort zone and building the staff and bringing in
the right guys. And you know, Clayton Adams isn't a
guy that he has experienced with. Then Connor Riley is
not a guy he has experienced with. There's multiple guys
you could say that about on the offensive side of
the ball. Granted, they retained two guys that were on
staff already, but I think you ask anybody, those are
two staffer retentions that you would have wanted. So I

(25:08):
gotta got a credit Shotenheimer for doing that.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yep, all right, let's talk about.

Speaker 6 (25:12):
Excuse me a couple of the other position coaches who
have been hired Connor Riley. You mentioned offensive line coach
from k State, Junior Adams coming from Oregon as wide
receivers coach, and Derek Foster as a running back coach
running backs coach.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Tell what you like about some of those guys.

Speaker 8 (25:28):
The first thing that popped in my mind is running backs,
so we can start there, just because it's going to
be a position group that gets a lot of conversation
this offseason, whether we're talking about the draft, when do
you take one? Do you take one early? Do you
take one late?

Speaker 7 (25:41):
Uh?

Speaker 8 (25:42):
Free agency? Do you do you grab one then or
do you wait and grab two in the draft? There's
gonna be a lot of free running back discussions that
we have, not only in this show, but on the
Draft Show. Derek Foster when you when you factor in
his evaluation of running backs, He's drafted three running backs
as a running backs coach in his time over the
course of the last five or so years. Have not

(26:03):
loved the resume as far as who he's brought in.
The best running back that he has drafted, the only
one that is still in the NFL is Isaiah Spiller
and hasn't done a whole lot obviously, so I wonder
how much he will get when it comes to the
evaluation of these guys. But you look at how Derek
Foster has maximized what he has gotten at the running
back position, I think there's a lot to like there.
You could look at Austin Eckler when he was kind

(26:25):
of overseeing his rise for the Chargers. You could look
at Kamara this last year when Kamara was healthy and
we were talking earlier in the year about Kamara being
an Offensive Player of the Year candidate before the Saints
fell off a cliff. So I think I think as
far as marrying the run with the receiving game out
of the backfield, Derek Foster is a good higher there.

Speaker 9 (26:44):
Yeah, you know, you start to talk about with Adams
the wide receivers coach, you know, that's gonna that's a
really that's a big hire. That's a that's a group
of you know, Dallas has got to figure out some
things at the at the receiver room, whether that's you know,
with Tolbert and you know players currently behind Lamb. You know,
this is a pretty deep group that Nick and I
are talking about with you know, the guys that can

(27:06):
play the exposition, play on the line, allow CD to
kind of have some of the movement stuff that he needs.
But uh, it's interesting that they went the collegiate route here. Uh,
you know, because usually it's a group. It's kind of
a that wide receiver room usually has a lot of
egos and usually so you just wonder, maybe you have
to have a player that relates or excuse me, a

(27:26):
coach that relates to the players, and you know, hopefully
he can get the maximum out of these guys. I
do think they're going to have to address this thing
through the draft, you know, I think they're going to
have to get better at that position, so you know, hopefully,
I mean, you know, we'll connect the dots here on
the show because you know, Tess Johnson, who is a
wide receiver from Oregon, is a very talented receiver. People
will probably connect the dots here that you have an

(27:48):
Oregon coach that maybe if you go and get a receiver,
but he's very similar to some of the guys you have,
so it might you know, we'll see how that all
plays out. But that the fact that they've gone after
these collegiate coaches is an interesting way of navigating things.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
All right, let's take our final break.

Speaker 6 (28:06):
When we come back, we will talk about Actually, we'll
do our season and review. We've been wanting to get
to this for a few weeks now, but now the
Super Bowl is over and we are clearly into the
offseason and it's time to start evaluating players and looking forward.
I'll take one more look back at the twenty twenty
four season and get some bigger overall thoughts on what
we saw and what we think it means going into

(28:27):
twenty twenty five. We'll be back Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.

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Welcome back.

Speaker 6 (31:09):
It is the final segment of The Break Live from
this s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Let's start
our season in review. I'm going to start this with
this big picture question. If you had one word that
would describe the twenty twenty four season for the Dallas Cowboys,
which of these three best describes Disappointing, frustrating or predictable?

Speaker 8 (31:32):
Disappointing, disappointing in the fact of injuries, in the fact
of team performance, and the fact of offensive performance too.
You can factor it in before the injuries even got involved.
Look at Dak Prescott's play. He was on pace to
set his career high in interceptions at a certain point,
you look at any facet of the game.

Speaker 7 (31:53):
The run game was disappointing. That was a little bit
more predictable, but.

Speaker 8 (31:57):
The overall offense success was disappoint The pass rush before
Michael Parsons was able to come back into the equation
was disappointing. UH seven to ten overall is disappointing.

Speaker 9 (32:09):
I would say expected because to me, you look at
the situation with the with the you know, the coach
on a one year deal, the you know, the staff
on a one year deal. I mean, what were you
really expecting here, you know? I mean you, yeah, the
injuries and all that. You had some of the same problems,
and there are things you saw during training camp that

(32:31):
that bothered you. You know, as the season was, you know,
you're like, well, man, this is not going to be good.
So in a way, it's you kind of got what
you You kind of got what you were expecting, that
that this was going to be a struggle because of
the front office saying, hey, the coach is on this,
the coaches are on this, got a new coordinator here.

(32:52):
You know, it just seemed to me that there was
it just never was going in the right direction once
we left Oxnard.

Speaker 10 (33:00):
I would say predictable because even though there are times
that you're hoping and you get into the emotions and
you think, oh, they're gonna do better than it's that
hard over logic type of battle there. But when you
go back to the beginning of training camp and when

(33:23):
you go back to how the year the game ended
against Green Bay and you talk Derek about missing that window.
You missed that window. You knew the struggles you were
heading into training camp with. And then even at training camp,
you start having those practices with the Rams and you
see these battles and you see them getting beat and

(33:46):
you're like, Okay, am I really seeing what am I seeing?
And you're not really wanting to believe it. But if
you look at that like that, it reflected back to
all the way back to training camp and those battles
where they kept getting beat. So it's just a lot
of it pointed to that season being bad. That was
gonna be bad in a lot of different ways because

(34:09):
of the resources that you no longer had prior because
of the previous year. So but also I didn't predict
the defense to have players that would play as well
as they did, So that's another thing. There were a
lot of players that played a lot better than I
expected them to in the second half of the season.

(34:31):
So I don't know, it was disappointing, frustrating, and predictable
because you already knew you you were heading into a
season with a lot of struggles.

Speaker 6 (34:42):
You know, I actually said frustrating because I think going
back to even training camp, I think we all agreed
there were things that they needed to do in order
to have success, and the big one was the running game,
and I think we I think we.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Said it over and over.

Speaker 6 (34:57):
You got to give them an opportunity to s show
you that they can run the ball, and they were
not willing to do it at the part of the season.
And so for me, it was frustrating because I think
there were things they could have done throughout this year
that would have made this season better. I don't think
they did them, or I think they did them too late.
And Mike Zimmer talked about how he felt like he

(35:17):
had regrets because there were things he should have been
doing earlier that he just didn't do it, and then
later he decided I'm gonna do it and things changed, right,
And so that was what was frustrating is I think
this team was better as far as their talent is concerned.
I think they were better than what the result was.
And I think some of that could have changed if
they'd handled things a little bit differently from the standpoint
of how they were being coached. Yeah, all right, let's

(35:39):
go to the next question, which injury do you think
most impacted Dallas this season Deron Bland, Tank, Lawrence, Dak Prescott,
or Zach Martin. And you can talk about Zach Martin
from the standpoint of him being out there playing even
though he was injured.

Speaker 7 (35:54):
I would have to take Dak.

Speaker 8 (35:56):
Granted, this team was three and five coming out of
that Atlanta game, if correctly, so they were already heading downward.
But I think that ship gets corrected a lot sooner
than it did if Dak was still in the equation.

Speaker 9 (36:09):
I think that the Zach Martin one really really hurt them.
Uh well, I should take that back because I feel
like that, you know, some of the reasons with you
know that you struggling outfits, but think about what happened
when Bland didn't play and you had like seven dudes
having to play that position. So Zach Martin was not great,

(36:30):
not ideal, but the cornerback rotation at there that that
that just was not good enough and it not where
it needed to be. And Bland was a big part
of that.

Speaker 10 (36:42):
Yeah, I was gonna say Bland because he has been
a big part in the secondary and I'm blank, you
know what was the rookie guyon Carson Paling? Carson.

Speaker 7 (36:56):
He poor guy.

Speaker 10 (36:58):
He was thrown into the fire and it was it
was a lot for him right off the bat. I
think that defense right out the beginning, the secondary definitely
needed to have a durn Bland healthy again and being
able to play alongside Trevon Diggs who was healthy at
the time, So I think that was a big hit
for the start of the year.

Speaker 6 (37:19):
As we sit today, which player do you think which
player are you most concerned about their health moving forward?
The Barbion Overshown, Dak Prescott or Trayvon Diggs.

Speaker 8 (37:32):
You said more concerned about, more concerned about. Ooh, this
is kind of as we sit here today, Yeah, that's
kind of a two way tie for me. I would
have to say Trayvon Diggs just because he's coming off
of these back to back knees and there's more money
invested in the Trayvon Diggs than there isn't a Marvine Overshown.
When you compare that they both had back to back
knee injuries. That's a tough one because you have one
hundred million dollars price tag on Trayvon Diggs and you

(37:54):
need him to not only be on the field, you
need him to perform, and I think there were times
last year after he's really started battling with that knee
around the Atlanta game, that the performance was starting to
dip alongside the health, So that one hurts a lot.
I think there's ways you can work around Dak. You
can run the ball more, you can keep him in
the pocket more, you can emphasize, you know, trying to

(38:16):
make him a different quarterback in some ways. There's some
ways you can get around making him not as a
mobile moving forward, which sucks, but it might be the
reality that they're facing if they want to keep him
around for four years. There's not a lot you can
do with Trayvon Diggs and his knees.

Speaker 9 (38:30):
I think it's Dak, and I think it's Dak because
of the reasons you were talking about Nick and the
fact that you're going to have to read and maybe
this is why Briton Schottenheimro's name the head coach is
because he has an understanding of Dak's limitations and what
he can and cannot do. And so to me, it's
going to be about can you find the running game,

(38:50):
can you find the ability to make him a pocket passer?
You know how much mobility is he going to have?
Are there things you're going to have to completely eliminate
from the offense that we've seen other NFL teams implement
and play well with them. So, uh, the Dak the
Dak injury is to me is really really big and
how that I think it's going to affect the offense

(39:12):
going forward because if they don't tailor things to him,
I'm curious of how productive he can really be.

Speaker 10 (39:20):
I would have to agree with the Trevon Dicks one
as well, because you look, initially I wanted to say
the Mario overshawn, but with him, I think he's gonna
be fine. He has so much working in his favor
as far as like his youth. Then also his personality
and how much positivism he has. I think that really

(39:43):
affects when you're recovering from anything. His positive outlook at things.
It's a very different personality than Trevon Diggs. And there
are things that I've heard about him when it comes
to what he's doing in let's say rehabbing or a practice.
There's a certain lack of discipline discipline that I've heard

(40:06):
there that it's gonna be challenging. He's gonna have to
give it a one hundred percent and if it doesn't,
then that's gonna go into the season. You're gonna see
him just on to the side. We're gonna see him
walking around at training camp, just watching from the sideline.
So I think that's the biggest one because, just like
we talked about prior, the cornerback.

Speaker 7 (40:29):
Position is a.

Speaker 10 (40:31):
Sorry there, the way you're standing right now because of
our new layout is freaking me out.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
I'm not looking at you. Yeah, okay, somebody who's over here.

Speaker 10 (40:44):
Yeah, yeah, it is freaking me out. Guys, we have, yeah,
we have a new layout on the show. So it's
just yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Yes, but Chris.

Speaker 10 (40:56):
But my point being, that's a position just like you said,
you you paid the guy, you're gonna need him, and
you don't have time to uh because of all the
cap salary and blah blah blah. That's gonna be a
key position of a guy that's a veteran guy that
you need him to be able to perform, you don't
have time to waste. And I think that's a that's

(41:17):
one to keep an eye on because I know de
Marvin Wovershown he's gonna give it a one hundred percent, Dak,
He's gonna give it a one hundred percent. As far
as the recovery and the everything that they need to do.
I don't feel one hundred percent on Trevon Dicks and
the way he handles things.

Speaker 8 (41:31):
There's there's no way this front office could have known
what they had ahead of them when they signed Treyvon
Dicks to that contract in the off season of twenty
twenty three or training camp of twenty twenty three. But
there's gonna be a lot of internal knee slapping if
they have to let a guy like Deron Bland walk
because of that contract. And it's it's it's it's a
tough one because I feel like you really can only
pay one or the other. And unless there's some major

(41:53):
restructuring that can be worked out with Treyvon Diggs, uh, Yeah,
Deron Blaine's gonna be a tough one to keep the
keeping the fold.

Speaker 6 (41:59):
Yeah, that's That's also one where you wonder, if you know,
the traditional wisdom in the NFL says, go with the
young guy right, no matter what, if they're equal, go
with the young guy right. And so it does make
you wonder when they get to that decision. Does that
affect the decision as well, that he's the younger guy
and they try to figure out some way if they

(42:19):
can't keep both, to keep the younger guy, because I
think that happens a lot in the NFL, because it's
just typically it's better to have the younger guy, you know.
All right, let's move on the next question, which would
he performed at a level farthest from your expectation? And
this is a little bit of a tricky question because
when I say farthest from your expectation, your expectation could
have been really high and they underachieve. Your expectation could

(42:40):
have been lower and they overachieved. So who was farthest
from what you expected from them? Of these five candidates, Cooper,
Beb Tyler, Geiden Kaylem Carson, Marris Lefoul or Marshawn Neeland.

Speaker 7 (42:55):
Kind of a two way tie again for me with
BB and lea Foul. BB.

Speaker 8 (43:00):
Whenever we were looking at him at camp, I know
we've talked about it on this show before, but we
were two weeks into camp and this guy was still
snapping it all the way to a Ventura and we
were like, man, this is gonna be Yeah, it was.
It was nowhere close, and I was like, man, this
guy might need a year of seasoning before we can
throw him in at the center position. And he ended
up being fantastic, so uh, And I'd have to give

(43:20):
the same for Lea Foul. I just didn't see him
being as major of a contributor that he ended up
being by the end of the year. So credit to
Lea Foul. I don't mention Geyton just because I had
an expectation that there were going to be a lot
of learning cars. Were there more than I expected, Yes,
but I I think I think there was. There should
have been an expectation that he was going to have
some growing pains in his first year.

Speaker 9 (43:42):
Felt like I was wrong about Carson in a way
of being this higher level, and I was wrong about
Leah Foul because I didn't know that he was going
to play the way he did. And those are the
two that to me. The Carson one bothers me a
lot because I really felt like that he was going
to come in and really compete in the outside corner spot.
You know the fact that they had to run through

(44:03):
all those guys and he was part of that, and
you know, him not being a training camp some as
far as you know, missing with injury and time and
stuff like that. Then he got hurt, you know, and
then it probably was a big whirlwind for him. But
unfortunately he did not play at the level that I've
seen him play at Wake Force, and that bothered me
a lot. And Leah foul I questioned that pick right
off the jump if that really was the right pick

(44:27):
with running backs on the board and stuff like that.
But he played at a much higher level than I
even was willing to give him credit for.

Speaker 7 (44:35):
Yeah, Leo fou he.

Speaker 10 (44:38):
Surpassed my expectations because the moment he stepped on that
feel he there was no like misbeat, There was not confusion,
and that's something that takes a lot for a rookie
guy like the feeld awareness, your ability to react in
the time that you need to, and he didn't miss

(45:02):
a beat. He was on there as soon as he
was giving the green light. He went on out there
and started making place, tackling, hard tackler, just being aggressive
in that way. So that was impressive for a guy
like him to be to have so much focus and
being able to take advantage of the opportunity that appear

(45:23):
and how quickly he did it, that was impressive.

Speaker 6 (45:26):
I know we're running over time, but I had one
more question, so we're going to try to get this
one in quickly. Which which rookie do you expect to
take the bigger jump in year two? Cooper Beebe, Tyler Guiden, Kln, Carson, Marris,
Lea Foul, Marshawn Nelon.

Speaker 8 (45:40):
I would go Marshaw Neeland. I think he's gonna have
an increased opportunity here. Granted with the free agent set
are here at the defensive end position, with Chauncey Golston,
Carl Lawston to Marcus Lawrence, there's going to be an
increased availability for Marshawn Neeland. I think he takes advantage
of it now that he's healthy.

Speaker 9 (45:56):
Thank Carson. I'm going to bet on him once again.
I think the talent's there. I think he got caught
in a situation with him being injured, him missing time.
You know he's going to come back with a much
better understanding. He gets kind of a fresh start too
with the with the new secondary coach there, so hopefully
he will be able to show the things. Like I
said that wake Forest he was an outstanding player for
the Demon Deakins, and hopefully he'll be an outstanding player

(46:18):
for the Dallas cow which He's got that kind of ability.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
You know what.

Speaker 10 (46:22):
I'm gonna go with Carson as well. He's a guy
we've seen him. I just think it got It was
a lot. It was a lot for him for someone
as young as him. You could see how offenses they
they were attacking him over and over and over, and
that's a lot to handle for a guy like him.
Uh So, But going back to things that we even

(46:44):
saw at training camp that he he the plays he
was making. I mean, you you've seen the talent, You've
seen him. He has it in him. So hopefully he
can come back this year refreshed, renewed, got some self
evaluation to do, and then now he can put it
back into action because I think he is a very

(47:05):
talented player. It just the situation wasn't a good one
for him this past year.

Speaker 6 (47:11):
All right, that's a wrap. We appreciate you guys joining us.
We'll be back next week. We'll get a little deeper
into this offseason. We'll try to add a little flavor
to this thing, maybe get a little draft some little
draft talk going with our guys from the Draft Show.
I think every might even have a little game for
us next week. We'll see until then. For Nick Harris,
Brian Broad, Sambergarci. I'm Derek Eglton. This has been the
Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and
the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.