Cowboys Break: Impact Players

Bryan Broaddus, Derek Eagleton, Nick Harris and Ambar Garcia discuss which Cowboys players have made impacts in winning three of the last four games.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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 2 (00:16):
Yes?

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

Speaker 4 (00:18):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ready for a break?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, and so much for that.

Speaker 5 (00:23):
It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com
with mbar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.

Speaker 6 (00:39):
It is Tuesday, December seventeenth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty,
episode number eighty seven. Welcome to the latest edition of
The Break. We are live from this WBC Mortgage Studios
at the Start, presented by lglg's the world's number one
O lead TV brand for eleven years accounting see why
at LG dot com Ford slash O lead EVO. Welcome
to a Tuesday, Today's Big Picture Day. Today we'll hit

(01:00):
different topics. In the opening segment, We're going to talk
a little bit about this defense, and I want to
talk about Mike Zimmer in particular, talk about what we
think of him and where we think he is relative
to what we thought of him coming into this year.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Questions today, I mentioned it yesterday. We were going to
talk about that, sorry man.

Speaker 6 (01:18):
And then as Mike zimmern and then we will get
to that. And then in the second segment we will
go inside the brain and Brian brought us and he'll
have lots of questions.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
One then will.

Speaker 6 (01:30):
Not be about zimmer We'll talk about him in the
first segment, and then we'll try to take some questions.
You guys can hit me up on Twitter or your
calls one eight eight eight five five two two nine seven,
and we'll try to get some questions from you guys.
Uh and if you have any comments you want to
just talk to the crew here. We always love to
hear from you guys, so hit us up and we'll
see what we can do to engage you in the show.

(01:51):
Let's start first with the Cowboys defense real quick, before
we get into the conversation of Mike Zimmer, I do
want to at least spend a little time talking about Trayvon.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
What is the I guess it all kind of came
to a.

Speaker 6 (02:03):
Head over the weekend where oh my god, he's not traveling.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, he's gonna probably be out for the rest of
the year.

Speaker 6 (02:10):
What do we know about that and how it developed
into to the point to where it is now and
when can we expect to see him back on the field.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes.

Speaker 7 (02:16):
So it is the same knee that he dealt with
last year, but there was the issue that he had
been battling most of the year was fluid in his
knee and it it bothered him and it kept him
out a couple of games, and then he goes and
plays what was it seventy something snaps against the Bengals.
They come in and he has a little bit of discomfort.

(02:37):
Early in the week, they do some testing and some imaging.
He's still limited in practice early on, and then Friday
is when they kind of come to the determination that
he's dealing with that chondrial issue, which.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Is the.

Speaker 7 (02:48):
It's like the cartilage at the end of your bone
and your knee. He's dealing with some issues there and
needs surgery to repair that injury. So I'm not a
doctor anything. I'm trying to communicate as best as I can.
But the recovery is looking like about eight months and
that would put him Stephen Jones has Yeah, Stephen Jones.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Says, I'm counting on my face, yeah, lsu. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (03:12):
Stephen Jones would have has some confidence that he'll be
back by week one, but definitely looked at training camp
and was like, yeah, we might not have him at
camp this year. So yeah, that's definitely gonna be one
that we will be tracking all off season and hopes
that he can make it for Week one. So we're
looking at him and Marven overshown already as potential missing
time in twenty twenty five and we haven't even ended

(03:33):
twenty twenty four yet.

Speaker 6 (03:34):
So yeah, how concerning is it that someone like Treyvon
is now going to miss the entire offseason because you
look at it, He's now.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Had last year, that's two years in a row.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
Now he doesn't get the off season, won't have training
camp this year. And when you're trying to get to
a point where you kind of really the off season
is when you're preparing your body for the rigors of
NFL football, right, you're getting yourself ready.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
How much does that concern you?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
It's huge.

Speaker 8 (04:01):
It's huge because you know, you went through this all
of last year and there's so much unknown now that
it's one thing to have one injury, but to have
too And this man makes his living with his feet,
his knees, his legs, I mean, that's what he makes
his living with and the fact that you've had now

(04:22):
two major surgeries on those legs. It doesn't doesn't bode well.
And especially when you're talking about cartilage injuries and bone
on bone situations, and you know, what's the next step.
Is it always going to be completely Is it going
to be better?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Uh?

Speaker 8 (04:39):
You know, you kind of feel like when you fix
the knee one time that things are going to be okay.
But this is a this is a very significant injury.
And you know, initially you thought, okay, scope, clean it out,
that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
No, No, this is a very very serious injury.

Speaker 8 (04:53):
And you know then, I know, talking to trainers and
doctors around the league, they've microfracture.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
You hear that.

Speaker 8 (05:02):
That's a scary thing when you start to talk about
what's the what's the next step or the potentially next step,
And you know, that's.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Very few, very few if.

Speaker 8 (05:12):
Have dealt with that and come back and played at
a very very high level. Not to say it hasn't happened,
it's just a it's a very very difficult thing to
deal with.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
I mean, one key injury is already bad enough, and
then you start adding everybody else that's on that list,
including your quarterback like when because they're recovering from surgery
and you still there's that unknown of how are they
gonna look when they do come back from injury, because
most often than not, it takes multiple weeks for them

(05:45):
to get back and sometimes they don't even go back
to what they used to be. So it's gonna be
a very very challenging off season for the Cowboys as
they try to manage this roster and also try to
figure out that'll known of these guys, key players, what's
gonna happen with them, and how are you going to

(06:05):
address all these issues?

Speaker 9 (06:07):
But man, for this secondary just a terrible, terrible hit.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Darn Bland. I think he's on track. He's been looking
good with his recovery, him coming back from injury, and
so far, so good. And we still don't know what's
gonna happen with Jordan.

Speaker 9 (06:22):
Lewis as far as his future here with.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
The Cowboys, and then now add this Trevon Digg's injury.

Speaker 9 (06:30):
It really sucks for this team.

Speaker 8 (06:31):
The positivity will be coming probably from the draft, but
I think they'll be going into training camp when we
all get back on that train in July will be
I think there'll be a lot like Ambar's talking about
a lot more questions instead of sure, there'll be some
positivity about some of the players they got, and if
they don't play in free agency, then it'll be like, well, okay,

(06:54):
where's this team at. You know, the Commanders look like
they're a better team. The Eagles clearly are the class
of the division. You know, right now it's you and
the Giants that are kind of But I think the positivity,
just like she's talking about with all the injuries, not
just the Digs, but the the Dak injury. Uh, look
at you know, uh, look at the the situation.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
With juan Ye, Thomas and Bell.

Speaker 8 (07:17):
I mean, all these guys that you kind of counted on, uh,
and then what guys.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
You're gonna lose.

Speaker 8 (07:23):
I think that I think teams are a extually. I
think the media fan base is probably going to take
a big step back and say, maybe this team isn't
as good going into the season as it was coming
into twenty twenty four.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Well, good thing is that there's still three games left
on the on the schedule, and with that you get
a chance to look at depth and the guys that you.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Currently do have in seeing depth all year.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
We have, we have, but you get a different look
and more time to see real game situation. Again, it's
very hard to replicate real games. You know, you can't
do that at practice. It just does not look the
same and it doesn't give you the same results that
you're looking for. So it's just another opportunity to look

(08:07):
at what you have in younger guys and in depth
to maybe give you a better idea of what you
can do or who you can keep during this offseason.

Speaker 6 (08:16):
All right, when you look at the Cowboys defense right now,
we're going to we're gonna move a little bit, but
continue to talk a little bit about injuries as well.
When you look at the Cowboys defense, how well they've played.
I saw this morning Joyce Joseph Hoyd put it on Twitter.
I thought it was an interesting tweet. He said that
to this point, Cowboys for the season are the twenty
sixth ranked defense relative to EPA per play allowed. Right

(08:39):
over the last four games.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
They're fifth in the NFL.

Speaker 6 (08:42):
A big difference obviously in the first four games, I
mean in the last four games. Now, part of that
you have to consider is the competition that they were
up against. Now, I will also say they played an
equally poor team in Week two in the Saints, and
the Saints kicked their butt, right, So you can say that.
But they've lost some bad teams this year too. They've
been equal opportunity providers there when it comes to giving losses.

(09:05):
But that all being said, they've played a lot of
this season without some of the key guys on defense Parsons,
d Law, Diggs, Bland, Overshown, Williams, Kneeland. All that being said,
how much do you how much difference do you give
Mike Zimmer and this defense when it comes to the
injuries and all the guys that they had to play
without and having to kind of get his defense going

(09:26):
when you try to evaluate him as a as a
play caller for the season.

Speaker 7 (09:29):
Yeah, if I look at everything after, I would say,
I don't know week seven, give or take, then yeah,
I think you can give some difference to that, and
you understand the challenges that he's been battling throughout the
year as a coordinator. Because man, it's defensive end, it's linebacker,
it's corner. I feel like the safety position might be
the only one that hasn't really had a lot of

(09:50):
a turnover this season because of injury. So I have
to give credit to Mike Zimmer because he's been dealing
with a lot of guys. And you look at Josh Butler,
how he was a the step up, Amantio Ro Warriers,
had a couple of strong outings. Carl Lawson was a
guy that we didn't even think might make the team
out of training camp, and he's become a legitimate pass
rusher for them. So with what the pieces he's dealing

(10:11):
with over the course of the last few weeks, you
got to give credit to how he's put it together.
From a defensive coordinator and a play color standpoint, Yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
Give him tons of credit and a lot of respect
because even though we talked about it yesterday, Brian mentioned
the whole you know, would have been good for him
to have everybody buy into his new system, a new
scheme earlier on to potentially win you some of this game.
You got to look at it the other way too,
looking at all the injuries, all the things that he's

(10:41):
had to battle through, but also with the season, how
he was going and how it's been going. How do
you keep players motivated and wanting to go out there
and compete and not give up and not throw in
the towel and say hey whatever. And I think you've
seen that with this defense over the last few weeks,
that they are actually going out there putting in the

(11:02):
effort and playing at a high level or at least
the highest that you can possibly give in the situation.
So to that, I think it can be very challenging
just keeping guys wanting to still put in the time
during the week in preparation and then go out there
on Sunday and fight and battle and do what they

(11:25):
need to do to take care of the game and
help their off. And so I think I've I mentioned
it yesterday. At first I was skeptical because of some
of the results, but as the week went on, I'm
very impressed and I would not mind him coming back
and being here again with the Cowboys.

Speaker 8 (11:44):
Jump ahead ran, Yeah, no, I it's it is one
of my favorite new things. And kind of falling in
love with these numbers and looking at numbers and stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 8 (11:55):
I never was, but I was looking at overthecap dot
com and they talk about contract and stuff, and you
mentioned about Carl Lawson. Carl Lawson's playing like a player
that's like over thirteen million dollars in value, fourteen million dollars.
He's playing like a fourteen million dollar year position player
and he's making a million dollars, you know, And so

(12:15):
you know here he is, he's playing thirteen million dollars
over value of what the player of How you determine
his you know, how you determine what he's doing.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
And that's super impressive to me that.

Speaker 8 (12:26):
But you are getting guys that are playing now whatever
we were I'm used to seeing. And I've always talked
about the OSA falloff.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
We haven't seen the OSA falloff.

Speaker 8 (12:37):
You know, you're getting some guys that are You're getting
to Carl Lawson, who man, we were sitting there at
training camp and they just kept throwing names that, it
names that, it names that, and they finally hit it right,
and we're all worried about Carl Lawson.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
I know I was.

Speaker 8 (12:50):
You know, I'm like, well, Carl Lawson playing the run well, Well,
he's playing the pass and the run well for you
right now.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
So Zim deserves a lot of career. I tell you where.
I really do.

Speaker 8 (12:58):
Like Zim and and I've been with him, known him
a long time. I think that he's done a better
job than And one of my questions was about him
and dan Quinn, So this is how I'll answer this question.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Then. The thing that I like about Mike is I.

Speaker 8 (13:14):
Think he knows how to match his guys up against
their weakest opponents. I think he's kind of figured out
how to How many times have we seen and this
is really no disrespect to dan Quinn, but how many
times have we seen Micah Parsons taking rushes against Trent
Williams of the forty nine ers or Lane Johnson to

(13:35):
the Philadelphia Eagles And you're just like going, man, you're
beating your head.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's this is a wash, this is good verse good.
You know, Zim has kind.

Speaker 8 (13:44):
Of figured out how to get his really good players
on their bad players. And I appreciate that, you know,
because that's what to me when you go out and
you advance scout and you look at it and you're thinking,
what's this all about? Teams trying to hide their bad players.
Mike finds your bad player and takes advantage of that.
And that's what I appreciate about him the most, and

(14:05):
that he's he's taken guys like Parsons osa Lawson, Wilson,
whatever he has to do, He's found ways to attack Lewis,
attack these offenses by just some of the matchups.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
I think that's where I want to give him a
lot of credit.

Speaker 7 (14:23):
Yeah, I feel like dan Quinn at times last year
got better at that because we saw Michael Parsons lined
up over zero tech many times, lind up over center
at zero tech many times, we saw him moving around
quite a bit. I agree with you, but I think
dan Quinn did get a little bit better at that
last year specifically.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I just to me, it's I see it.

Speaker 8 (14:42):
Maybe it's because of Parsons, but I see it with
all his players, you know, I see it. And maybe
some of the things that's helped Osa not be Week
fourteen go away Osa could be his contract that he's
trying to get, maybe better conditioning, maybe the fact that like,
oh wait a minute, he's he's going against their their

(15:03):
their fifth best offensive lineman. You know, I don't know
if we always saw that, but I respect what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
I will tell you this.

Speaker 6 (15:11):
The one thing that I'm keeping an eye on that
I think I like more about Zimmer is it feels
like at this point he may have finally solved the
enigma that has been the running defense for the Dallas Cowboys.
Now we're gonna find out these next three weeks, because
you got some teams coming in here who can run
the ball, particularly when you play Philly. We're gonna find
out how good this run defense is.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Right.

Speaker 6 (15:32):
But I will say this, I so far, I look
at what they did, and I know these were bad teams,
not the Giants so much from the standpoint of what
I'm talking about with rushing.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
But Carolina has a really good rushing attack. That runner
really good.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
That's how they been competitive year.

Speaker 6 (15:46):
He is a really good runner, and he's run against
some good defense in this league and run well.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Cowboys held in the thirty something yards.

Speaker 6 (15:52):
Yeah, I think right now that's the part where if
I'm trying to compare the two I look at the
run defense and I say, man, finally, maybe somebody has
solved this run defense problem that has been kind of
popping its head up really for the last several years.
It's been this ongoing thing of you get to this
week and just you cannot figure out how to stop
the run. And I think that might actually Zimmer might

(16:13):
be onto.

Speaker 7 (16:14):
Something Dallas is fifth in the NFL over the last
three weeks and rushing yards allowed per game eighty three
point three, So.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, they're doing quite well.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
You've started to see a little bit more discipline just
from the defense as opposed to last year. I feel
like that kind of started taking a drop off with
discipline overall and penalties. Not to say that they've played
a completely clean game at all, but you see guys
just tackling better, running better, being more on their assignment

(16:43):
and do what they need to do. And again, I
love Dan Quinn and I think he was very very
well respected by everyone here and the players in the organization,
but there's something different about what Zimmer has been able
to implement in the whole defense.

Speaker 9 (16:57):
And also not.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
To make Mica Parsons like he's the I mean, I
know there's a lot of debate there, but I guess
what I'm trying to say, when you get a guy
like him to respect you and buy in. And again,
I'm not trying to make Micah like the biggest diva
in the world or anything like that, but it helps.

(17:19):
It helps when you have a guy like him buy
into what you're selling and everyone kind of follows, and
it's just he just made it better than what it
was last year. And there were things that dan Quinn
was able to do also, and again he didn't have
to deal with as many injuries. And I think with
the turnovers, that's something that you're starting to see in

(17:41):
these last few weeks where it was lacking this year,
but now it's starting to pick over and you see
the kind of things that they're practicing out there and
just reflecting back to the field in the game.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, we will.

Speaker 6 (17:52):
Now we have to move on to a much more
complex question, which we'll have to say for another time
about Mike McCarthy whether he gets that same difference with
regardless of the injuries.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
We'll have that.

Speaker 6 (18:01):
Conversation at some point. We're gonna take our first pick
when we come back. We dive into the brain of
Brian brought us that when we come back Dallas Cowboys
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Speaker 3 (21:00):
Second segment of the Break.

Speaker 6 (21:01):
Life in that s WBC Mortgage Studios at the start
of the segment brought to you by blockchain dot Com.
All right, so Blockchain Blockchain take us into the brain
of Brian brought us.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (21:10):
Appreciate that Nick Harris currently the most important offensive player
CD lamb or Rico daddle.

Speaker 7 (21:18):
Uh Rico Dawdell. I would say currently for sure. You
look at what he's done to help sustate drives for
Cooper Rush. I think he's been more of a benefit
to Cooper Rush than Ceedee Lamb has been. And that's
no discredit to Ceede Lamb. It's more of a credit
to Rico Dowdell winning the time and possesion battle against
teams that run the ball really well in Carolina, you know,
keeping that offense off the field from Cincinnati. You know,

(21:39):
you're one, you know, executed block pun away from winning
that game because of being able to win the time
position battle and stand front.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
So I'd have to give Zrego Dawdell.

Speaker 7 (21:47):
He's he's been great over these last few weeks and
it's helping us overall off.

Speaker 8 (21:51):
And Bergarcia currently the most important offensive player CD Lamb
or Rico.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
Daddle currently us like this weekend currently defined currently. I
don't like this question because well that's the that's the
point of it, right, Okay, hold on, let me process this.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
I currently process this. Please.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
I would like to say, uh, fine, I'll go with
the running game. I'll go with Rico because, and this
is taken into account that Cooper Rush through three touchdown
passes to three different targets. So because initially my thought
is like, okay, what do you have at receiver. Really,
what have you been producing there? Not a whole lot.

Speaker 9 (22:43):
But then also now that.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
It's kind of opening things up, is due to reco
down and moving the chains through the running game. So
as of right now, in this moment, in this second,
I'll go with Rico, what.

Speaker 9 (22:57):
Are you looking at me like that for? Is it CD? CD?

Speaker 3 (23:03):
Like it's CD.

Speaker 6 (23:05):
I'll I'll take you back to this game, right, Cowboys
offense kind of been floundering a.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Little bit after and then what happened?

Speaker 6 (23:11):
What happened there was there was a there was one drive,
the first scoring drive.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
What happened?

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Third down? Three times on that drive? Three times CD
CD CD. That's the difference.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Saying this whole season yes, yes, no no no no
no no no no no no.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
What you have to realize, what you have to realize,
what you have to realize is on this team. Okay,
to put it to you like this take away CD,
you think Rico's getting much on the ground?

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yes, How if.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
Defenses say we don't have to worry about CD, lamb,
how are they going to run the ball. I don't
think this is not a dominant offensive line. This is
a good offensive line. When they play at their best,
They're not dominant. So if defenses say we're gonna put
eight guys in the box, we're not worried about any
anybody on the back, and we're gonna man up across
the board.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
How do you think they're gonna run the ball?

Speaker 7 (24:03):
There have been some first down opportunities where CD has
been off the field in recent weeks, Bear and Rico
has been able to produce. That's that's what comes to
mind when I think about that and talking about Okay,
Rico wouldn't have any opportunities off CD is on the field.
I do see where you're coming from in that sense,
but I disagree. I'm not saying I'm not saying more
of an upfront situation with this offensive line. Truthfully, it's

(24:24):
because of the offensive line. I'm saying Rico dwell in
this instance. I think they would still be able to
pay lanes with the way that they are.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Blocking against an eight man front regularly. Yeah, I don't
think I don't get yards.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
I don't think that.

Speaker 6 (24:35):
I don't think they would consistently do that over a game.
And I get what you're saying, A player or two whenever,
when when one may be on the field and.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
The others off that's fine.

Speaker 6 (24:43):
I think if a defense goes into a game knowing
we don't have to deal with ceedee lamb, it changes
how they look at the Dallas Cowboys offense.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
At that point they're like, guess what, we're gonna man
up and Cooper rush.

Speaker 6 (24:54):
If you're good enough with these receivers to be able
to beat us in man coverage, great, go for it.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
But at the end of the day, we're not going
to let you run.

Speaker 6 (25:02):
And I think if they said we're not going to
let you run, they would stop that.

Speaker 7 (25:05):
I think it's.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
Okay looking at both you're taking CD all day like
if you gotta yes absolutely currently currently yes absolutely.

Speaker 9 (25:15):
But the point is it just goes back to.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
You being able to.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Okay, Brian, you know what you're doing, and you started,
but the point does know But the point goes back
to right now, what's happening with the game. The the
reason why you've been able to start doing a few
little things offensively is because you started running the ball.
And it doesn't go back to rica I'm saying, just

(25:43):
the ability to run the ball.

Speaker 6 (25:45):
Obviously see commitment to comment, commitment to it right, and
I agree with that, but my point still remains. In
the NFL, as is the case in the NBA, as
is the case in Major League Baseball.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
Players matter. When you have great.

Speaker 6 (26:00):
Players, it affects how the other team has to deal
with you. And and right now, you look at this
offense right now, just currently constituted, how many great players
are on this offense?

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Not good players, great players are on this offense. What
who is he?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
CD Lamb?

Speaker 3 (26:13):
You're right, I'll take the left guard.

Speaker 7 (26:16):
Yeah, I'll take the left I'm not to discredit cd
Lamb because he he would easily be number two and.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
A second thinking how can I then you get my
guy touches.

Speaker 7 (26:30):
But he is a great player, absolutely, And we're looking
at the totality of it, like you said, we're taking
cdee Lamb. But if we're talking about right now, specifically
looking at these last three weeks, looking at the impact
that Rico Dawdell has made for this offense as compared
to the impact that Cede Lamb has made to this
offense throughout the year. Even what we can even look
at these last three weeks too, I would take doubtell.
I mean it's it's like Dowdell Lamb everyone else.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
I mean fair, but I would flip those two and
I think Dawdle's up there.

Speaker 6 (26:57):
And don't get me wrong, I think Dabdall has played
a role really well this year, or at least when
they wanted to use him like that. And I'm as
big of me and Brian said back during training camp,
we both were agreed, if they give him the ball,
if they're willing to commit to him, he's more than
enough at the.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Running back twelve hundred yards, yeah right now. And you
kind of gave us sat where he right now?

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Like where's he's eight eighty?

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Well yeah, but yeah, twenty yards.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
He's had couple of weeks ago when they were not
running the ball doing nothing, you say CD.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Look, CD is still the centerpiece of this offense.

Speaker 6 (27:36):
They needed to commit to running the ball because when
they run the ball, when they're committed to running the ball,
it creates opportunities for CD to do what he does
because now defenses have to at least be respectful of
the fact that Dallas will run the ball. When they
weren't running the ball then there was it was just
basically like we can take CD away and they're not
going to do anything.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
Else, You're not wrong, and I agree, but currently out
one answer is slightly better than the other, and that's
mine and Nick's answer.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 7 (28:05):
We're gonna find out a lot about what the respect
that Rico Dawdle's starting to gain around the league going
into this week. I don't want to get ahead of
Wednesday and Thursday. But this this Tampa Bay defense. They
stop the run.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Really well, but they can't stop bringing.

Speaker 7 (28:21):
But they cannot stop the pass. So where do they
dedicate their time to Do they load the box and say, hey,
you have to make CD Lamb beat us. Or do
they put a couple of guys on CD and say,
hey you have to make Rego Dawdle beat us. And
I'd be curious to know what that looks like in
the first quarter.

Speaker 6 (28:33):
On the point is you keep them off balanced by
doing different things. You move CD around, you see if
maybe you can get down out of space, like there
are things you can do to No matter which is
that decision they go with, you make it hard on
them to make that decision because you're still moving guys
around doing different things.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
So there's a way to defeat it. You know, if
Dallas can do it.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah, that's true. If Dallas can do it's question. Boy,
that was a good than.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
That brain and Brian Brock got.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
That one over. I got that one.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Give me another one, all right.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Derek.

Speaker 8 (29:06):
Bigger impact on the future of this defense, Marshawn Kneeling
or Mars Leafoul.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Mars that's pretty easy for me.

Speaker 6 (29:14):
I think what we saw this last week was my
best hope for him. What I saw of him in
college from the things I saw, was that he was
a playmaker. He was a guy who's always around the ball,
and this defense, in my opinion, that's one of the
things I think this defense has really lacked for even
when they were pretty good under Quinn, they didn't really
have those playmaking linebackers. And you look across the NFL,

(29:36):
and when you get great defenses, they don't just have
great pass rushers. They don't just have a great corner
or two. They also have somebody in the middle of
the defense that can make a difference, that can get
to the ball and knock the ball out, that can
create turnovers. And so what I'm most excited about right
now on this defense is the linebacker position. If overshown
comes back, and I think he will be and just
be just as good as he was before. And Maryus

(29:58):
leafile there with him. I think Dallas is onto something
with those two linebackers. And we've seen when you've got
two of those guys, how great your defense. San Francisco.
I was thinking that Carolina here back when they had
keik Ley and and what was the other guy's name?

Speaker 8 (30:13):
The short uh, I'm gosh, Keiley.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
He one Man of the Year, he won Man of
the Year, NFL Man of the Year.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
I know, Greg really small guy, the small line short linebacker.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
I have to look at it, but pay for them.

Speaker 8 (30:30):
No, I'm like, I'm going way too far because I
I was going back to Sam Mills and guys like no, No,
it was it's like way too far back for there.

Speaker 6 (30:39):
I see his face, Thomas Davis. That's what it was,
Thomas Davis. Thomas Davis. But I thought that was a
good linebacker with Keiley and him. I thought they had
a really good tandem there. I think if you get
two really good linebackers, and if one of them is
special and one's really good, you can do some damage
in this league. And I think right now, I look
at those two and over showing and I think you

(31:00):
can get too maybe two great ones.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
And bar how about that Marshawn Kneelan or Marshleafel.

Speaker 9 (31:07):
This one's easy.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
I'm disappointed in you, Brian great first question that you
made it easy and I'm just kidding.

Speaker 9 (31:13):
Uh, well not, I'm not.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
I love Maris like I absolutely love the guy. He
has been so great and it quickly took a shift
because going into training camp after the draft, Nielan was
the one that you're excited.

Speaker 9 (31:32):
For looking for.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Then he gets the injury and that kind of I mean,
it's sucked. But the moment that Marius got the opportunity,
especially with overshown coming out, he did not miss a beat.
And that's why you love. You love to have a
guy ready for the moment. And he was ready for
the moment, took advantage of it. And you see the

(31:55):
in the way that he plays. You see the amount
of preparation that he he has done. You see him
that he puts the work in his studies and he's
fast and not afraid to tackle. And like Derek said,
and going back to what happened this weekend, him punching
that ball out, those are the kind of players that
you want, that you that don't only go and tackling

(32:16):
out the plays over like you go for the ball,
be a what is it called ballhowker ballhawk?

Speaker 7 (32:22):
Ball?

Speaker 9 (32:22):
Yeah, an eagle ball hawk that ball just.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Like that.

Speaker 7 (32:31):
One time specially, you gotta be ready for it.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
What do you got there?

Speaker 7 (32:35):
Is this more so talking about the future or is
it talking about what we see impact.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
In the future of this defense?

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Is there a difference?

Speaker 7 (32:41):
Yeah? I was if we're talking about the season the future,
future of the future. Yeah, I'm thinking back and forth
here because we haven't seen what Marshawn Niland has can
do completely because he's he's been he hasn't been healthy
all year.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
And I know what marsh sh Nieland.

Speaker 7 (33:00):
Didn't as as a college player and what he can
bring to the NFL. I feel like he hasn't gotten
a fair shot at seeing that yet, whereas Mary's Leafel
is now starting to get that complete opportunity.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Okay, so so real quick, not to interrupt, but I
want you to answer this.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Are you interrupted part of it?

Speaker 3 (33:16):
You said you saw what he did in college.

Speaker 6 (33:19):
Explain for the folks out there what you mean by that,
because that that's what you could expect as very best
of him in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (33:24):
Yeah, whenever we were going talking on the Draft show
about Marshaw Neeland compared him to a poor man so
Marcus Lawrence, in the sense that he can seal the
edge really well. He plays the run really well. He's big,
he's physical, he can overpower undersized offensive tackles or even
average sized offensive tackles and get to the quarterback. The
sack numbers haven't really been there for him throughout his
entire career, but he does have ability at just making

(33:45):
life difficult for opposing quarterbacks. And but it's it's his
strength in the run game that I think is really,
uh really fun and and if you're looking at Mary's leafel,
you also kind of see a well rounded player, but
maybe with more so an emphasis on on the run
game that we've seen in the NFL so far, him
being able to fill running lanes and be a very
decisive of doing that. I'm gonna I'm gonna say, Leo foul,

(34:06):
but I am not discounting the fact that Neiland has health.
Bro I'm not riding the fences.

Speaker 6 (34:12):
Such a good argument, and I wanted to go he
wanted you to go.

Speaker 7 (34:17):
I am saying Leo fl but it made such a
good argument for that is I'm giving neland a little
bit more credit here.

Speaker 6 (34:23):
Okay, So Brian, let me ask you this question. Both
of you, guys, Amber jump into here. Here's the question ceiling.
Let's but let's see. Let's see you just said you
compared him to a poor man's Tank Lawrence. Yeah, let's
assume he becomes Tank Lawrence. Give me a comp for
what you think based on what you've seen, on what
you think marys Leaphile.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Can become mmmm man because.

Speaker 6 (34:45):
You're giving him best case scenario. What's best case scenario
for Marris Leophile?

Speaker 2 (34:48):
What did I come?

Speaker 7 (34:49):
I gotta look at what my convoys for him last
year coming out?

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Can he be like if you're doing Cowboys?

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Anybody you give me?

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Could he be like Brady James? Maybe a or maybe more.

Speaker 7 (35:01):
Notice a little bit higher than Brads. Let me cook
on this all right.

Speaker 6 (35:09):
Reason. The reason why is because I hear what you're
saying about Tank, and I have a feeling if it's
James comparison, if his career plays out exactly like like Tanks,
I think Tank is very underrated because he doesn't have
the sacks, and at defensive end you don't have the
huge number of sacks, then you don't get the same

(35:29):
level of respect. But if you're a linebacker that's a
playmaking linebacker, you're going to have those splash plays.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
You're going to have those plays everybody.

Speaker 6 (35:38):
So in a lot of people's minds, if that's the case,
Marris would be a higher ranked player than Eland would be.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (35:44):
See to me, I don't know, are we kind of
is this the ceiling for Merris the way he's playing.

Speaker 9 (35:51):
I don't think this is a ceiling for him. What
the heck the first year? Come on, what do you
mean the ceiling?

Speaker 2 (35:57):
No? I mean sometimes players are they play at their
best level.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
That's who they are when they come in, that's who
they are.

Speaker 9 (36:02):
Na, I see a brighter future.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
Okay, the schemes, right, No, I think also it helps
the scheme and like when you talk about having a guy.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
Like I think this guy is going to become a
good pass rusher.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
But I don't anything. Oh yeah, I just wonder. I
just wonder if Maris.

Speaker 6 (36:24):
If we're looking at Maris and we're gonna look up
three years from now and you're looking at Merris and
and and and uh demo and saying that is the
best linebacker tandem in the NFL. And if you're doing that,
I don't know if Neland's gonna be on that level. Gotcha,
now here's gonna do. We're gonna take our final break.
I love these questions so much. We're gonna do a
double dose. We're gonna come back and I.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Got I got one other question.

Speaker 6 (36:46):
We're gonna do that when we when we come back,
it's Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.

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Speaker 6 (39:20):
Back to the break, Ye, we'll continue inside the brand
of Brian brought us.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
He's got one more question for us, Brian, what you.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Got a G rank these offensive linemen and level of play?

Speaker 9 (39:37):
Hold on, let me pull up go ahead.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
And level of play? Guidon Smith.

Speaker 9 (39:44):
Bb are.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Who am I gonna put it? Right? Card Hoffman Hoffman.
I was kind of thinking maybe I'll put him. That
was put.

Speaker 8 (39:56):
Hoffman and Steel, Guidon Smith, bbe, hoff and Steel them
ranked them as a level of play.

Speaker 9 (40:07):
Okay, I'm talking about this season.

Speaker 7 (40:09):
Yeah, last year, I didn't know if we're talking about
like career wise, the last.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
Couple of weeks almost said a bad word on there.

Speaker 9 (40:26):
All right, let me process this.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
I would go with Smith first, and then what I'm
battling with is excitement versus looking at the whole year
like what it's been. With that being said, I'm talking
about Hoffmann specifically, just because he brings a different level

(40:49):
of excitement that you're like, Okay, you've seen this type
of aggressiveness that you kind of have lacked for a
little bit. It's just something different to have in there.
But also sometimes I think about.

Speaker 9 (41:00):
He's a little too aggressive.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
It's like, Okay, calm down a little bit too But Smith,
I'm gonna go with potentially bbe next, and then Hoffman Steel.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
How about you, Derek.

Speaker 6 (41:24):
You know, ironically I did the exact same thing, and
I was the only part I was a little bit
torn on is I was torn between Guiding and Steel
whether I thought Guiding was a bit better than Steel.
But I think will push me on exactly. And I
also think the last couple of weeks have kind of
shape given me a little more towards Steele, Like.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
Yeah, he's been pretty good.

Speaker 6 (41:45):
They made the change the right guard exactly, so it
makes me wonder how much that was affecting his place.
So I'm giving him a little bit more difference there.
So that's kind of how it would go. Smith Bebe,
Hoffman Steele.

Speaker 7 (41:56):
I also want to give credit to Steel in the
run game. I feel like he's been he's been really
strong in the You want to do that, yeah, I
am sure this time I had the same order as well.
I'd be going Smith, bb Hoffman Steel, Guiden is is guiding.

Speaker 8 (42:13):
The issue, like I say, is the with goe if
he has not had not had the penalties, the holdings,
the lining ups, the things like that.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Would you give it more? Are you agree?

Speaker 7 (42:24):
He's also boom or bust at times though, where it's
it's like he's great against Cleveland and then he has
some severe breakdowns against uh trying to think of one
off the top of my head where it was just
a bad game for him, Yes, Saints is Yeah, I mean,
may as well just go to the next week where
it's just like, man, how did he allow that to happen?

Speaker 18 (42:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (42:41):
I thought Geydon was might sound weird, but I thought
he was actually better than I expected him to be
this year. I thought as bad as the penalties were,
I thought they were gonna be even worse because in camp,
literally it seemed like every rep.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
His hands are outside.

Speaker 6 (42:55):
I was like, he's gonna get flagged every play, Like
literally every play he's gonna have a holding call.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
And it wasn't that bad.

Speaker 6 (43:01):
Like he had some penalties, it wasn't as bad as
I thought it was going to be.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
And so I still have.

Speaker 6 (43:06):
Hope that he's going to be a really good NFL player.
I wonder if it may be on the right side
versus the left, but I still have hope he's going
to be really good player. And then when you say
talk about BB, I think BB, in my opinion, was
every bit what I thought he was going to be,
which is a really good player. So far as a rookie,
the expectation for him is that now he's going to
be competing as one of the better centers in the NFL.

(43:29):
If they keep messing and they might move in the
guard my expectations. If he moved guard, he probably just
as good there. So either way, I think he's gonna
be a really good player real quick.

Speaker 8 (43:37):
Just maybe yes or no answer. Were they wrong not
starting Hoffman the whole.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Year at center and putting BB at guard.

Speaker 8 (43:44):
Or BB being a swing guy or being the guard yeah,
the backup guy?

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Mm hmm, you know, like he could have been. He
could have been now the role that Hoffman hads.

Speaker 6 (43:52):
I don't know if I think that. I think BB's
been fine, like I don't think BB was. I think
BB has played well, So I think getting him reps
as a rookie and he played well is a great thing.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
That's better.

Speaker 6 (44:03):
That's better for me than Hoffman being in there and
maybe not seeing an appreciable difference between the two.

Speaker 8 (44:08):
It so, I wonder if hapman playing sixteen or seventeen
weeks is a good thing?

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Yeah? Is hap been playing five weeks a good thing?

Speaker 9 (44:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:15):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
And wait, what are you getting?

Speaker 8 (44:17):
Well?

Speaker 2 (44:18):
He gets broken down? Got like he plays really really well.

Speaker 8 (44:21):
He's fresh for five six weeks, and then week seven,
week eight he starts to get beat up and get war.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Down and is not as effective.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (44:29):
Well, I had to ask him last week. I was like,
this is the first time in your prayer you've been
able to stack.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
Nick's doing his job and that's what he does.

Speaker 7 (44:38):
I pushed my glasses. I asked him last week, you've
been able to stack games for the first time of
your career. Do you feel like you've gotten better over
the course of these games? And he does feel like
he's playing his best football right now and his body's good. No, No,
you're right, seventeen games.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
I wonder if you wonder if what he would have
been at center for seventeen games? Yeah, what do you have?
Been broken down? You know that kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
But I love what they got from BB.

Speaker 6 (45:02):
I think he's been a really good for them, and
I think that that experience is in value.

Speaker 17 (45:05):
Was a rookie.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
All right, Thank you guys.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
All right, that was good stuff.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Brian, I try, I try.

Speaker 8 (45:09):
It took me to week sixteen, but here we are.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
All right.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
We appreciate you guys. Tomorrow, tomorrow we dive in.

Speaker 6 (45:17):
This is gonna be the gauntless of these three games.
It starts with Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tomorrow we'll start breaking
down that team, that Tampa Bay offense versus the Cowboys defense.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Until then, for Nick Harris, Brian brought us an Ambergarci.
I'm Derek Eaglet, and.

Speaker 6 (45:27):
This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot
Com Radio.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
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