Your Dark Companion Podcast

“Four Wins and a Pool to Pay Off” — Jeff Cavanaugh Joins YDC for Cowboys Therapy
The season starts tomorrow, panic starts now. Mike Rhyner and Shoopy drag noted Cowboys whisperer Jeff Cavanaugh into the Mothership to talk through… everything. From the Micah trade spiral and Jerry’s “trust me, I’ve got a plan” era, to why the left tackle might give you acid reflux and how Trayvon Diggs pulled a Week-1 magic trick, this is Cowboys talk with jokes, receipts, and the occasional threat to trade for Jameis just for vibes.
Come for the football nerdery (zone vs. gap, hand placement, pass-rush reality), stay for Jeff’s planner redemption arc, YouTube super-chat economics, and a very real debate about long pants. If you’re a Cowboys fan, this is either group therapy or pregame gasoline. Maybe both.

Chapters
0:00 – Lightning, Gen-X, and the Planner That Saved JeffMike sets the table; Jeff admits calendars are hard; Shoopy supervises adulting.
2:12 – The Anus Is On Us (Yes, He Said Anus)Cowboys open on TNF; why this episode is required listening for your blood pressure.
4:58 – Emergency Pod Energy: Micah’s Gone, Draft Picks Grow on TreesJeff’s first reaction to the trade, the “weighs more = better” logic, and why “we’re better today” doesn’t math.
9:56 – Jerry Math vs. Real MathCap talk, anger talk, and how to spin a Herschel move without admitting it’s a Herschel move.
14:09 – Are They Ready for Philly? (Vegas Says ‘Lol’)Dak’s 12-win gravity vs. a roster that looks… light. Range of outcomes, none of them chill.
18:28 – Who Sacks People Now? Asking for a DefenseLife after Micah, why “scheme pressure” isn’t Eberflus’ thing, and the hope in a rookie named Asaree-what?
22:04 – Fashion, Feelings, and Long PantsA brief intermission where Jeff’s wardrobe is managed by someone wiser.
24:40 – Sneaky Names You’ll Pretend You Knew FirstJack Sanborn alert, the Marist kid, and why Asaree-Raku (say it with confidence) already has pass-rush moves.
31:58 – Trayvon Diggs: Surprise!From “maybe October” to “see you Thursday?” plus the $500k rehab subplot.
34:06 – Running Back Room: Juice Not IncludedJavonte hand-waviness, Jaden Blue speed, and the annual lesson on bargain-bin shopping.
39:30 – Ad Break With Slushies & Super ChatsCBD House of Healing, then Jeff explains how to make Google your business partner.
43:10 – O-Line Autopsy: Tools, Rules, and RealityTyler Smith is a stud, Beebe might be a Pro Bowler, and Tyler Guyton’s big Year-2 reckoning.
51:18 – Zone vs. Gap for People Who Like HittingWhy the run game’s switching lanes and how Booker fits the smash-mouth vibe.
55:20 – Predictions and Reckless HopeMike says four wins, Jeff says eight, everyone says “trade for Jameis and let’s get weird.”
59:15 – Hugs, Zoo Nostalgia, and Pants RemovalA tender sign-off the FCC can’t stop.

Show Notes

“Four Wins and a Pool to Pay Off” — Jeff Cavanaugh Joins YDC for Cowboys Therapy

The season starts tomorrow, panic starts now. Mike Rhyner and Shoopy drag noted Cowboys whisperer Jeff Cavanaugh into the Mothership to talk through… everything. From the Micah trade spiral and Jerry’s “trust me, I’ve got a plan” era, to why the left tackle might give you acid reflux and how Trayvon Diggs pulled a Week-1 magic trick, this is Cowboys talk with jokes, receipts, and the occasional threat to trade for Jameis just for vibes.

Come for the football nerdery (zone vs. gap, hand placement, pass-rush reality), stay for Jeff’s planner redemption arc, YouTube super-chat economics, and a very real debate about long pants. If you’re a Cowboys fan, this is either group therapy or pregame gasoline. Maybe both.

Chapters

0:00 – Lightning, Gen-X, and the Planner That Saved Jeff
Mike sets the table; Jeff admits calendars are hard; Shoopy supervises adulting.

2:12 – The Anus Is On Us (Yes, He Said Anus)
Cowboys open on TNF; why this episode is required listening for your blood pressure.

4:58 – Emergency Pod Energy: Micah’s Gone, Draft Picks Grow on Trees
Jeff’s first reaction to the trade, the “weighs more = better” logic, and why “we’re better today” doesn’t math.

9:56 – Jerry Math vs. Real Math
Cap talk, anger talk, and how to spin a Herschel move without admitting it’s a Herschel move.

14:09 – Are They Ready for Philly? (Vegas Says ‘Lol’)
Dak’s 12-win gravity vs. a roster that looks… light. Range of outcomes, none of them chill.

18:28 – Who Sacks People Now? Asking for a Defense
Life after Micah, why “scheme pressure” isn’t Eberflus’ thing, and the hope in a rookie named Asaree-what?

22:04 – Fashion, Feelings, and Long Pants
A brief intermission where Jeff’s wardrobe is managed by someone wiser.

24:40 – Sneaky Names You’ll Pretend You Knew First
Jack Sanborn alert, the Marist kid, and why Asaree-Raku (say it with confidence) already has pass-rush moves.

31:58 – Trayvon Diggs: Surprise!
From “maybe October” to “see you Thursday?” plus the $500k rehab subplot.

34:06 – Running Back Room: Juice Not Included
Javonte hand-waviness, Jaden Blue speed, and the annual lesson on bargain-bin shopping.

39:30 – Ad Break With Slushies & Super Chats
CBD House of Healing, then Jeff explains how to make Google your business partner.

43:10 – O-Line Autopsy: Tools, Rules, and Reality
Tyler Smith is a stud, Beebe might be a Pro Bowler, and Tyler Guyton’s big Year-2 reckoning.

51:18 – Zone vs. Gap for People Who Like Hitting
Why the run game’s switching lanes and how Booker fits the smash-mouth vibe.

55:20 – Predictions and Reckless Hope
Mike says four wins, Jeff says eight, everyone says “trade for Jameis and let’s get weird.”

59:15 – Hugs, Zoo Nostalgia, and Pants Removal
A tender sign-off the FCC can’t stop.

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Creators and Guests

Host
Mike Rhyner
Mike Rhyner… "a little on the bumpy side, but rather likable"…so stated famously by a grade school teacher in Oak Cliff, where Mike grew up. A complicated guy, yet a guy who can do long division and remember call strike three to A Rod. Probably best left unattended. Don't expect assistance from him if a medical situation arises.

What is Your Dark Companion Podcast?

"Whatever I want it to be about on a given day; is what it is." Your Dark Companion couples your familiar friends from radio, Mike and Grubes! Mike brings his classic interviews that draw you in, and Grubes—The Devil—drops…well the drops, and throws the occasional grenade. Mike likes to draw on his fascinating acquaintances and friends allowing them to tell their stories as you've never heard them. But he also goes outside his network, sharing Grubes' network, and often outside of both, to bring you those they don't know, but believe have a story that will make you laugh, make you think, think differently, or just entertain you…"that's what we are trying to do here."

0:00:02 - (Mike): My name's Mike. I host your dark companion. And I want to thank you all for joining us on patreon.com and also do check out the Sunset Lounge because there's all kinds of good things going on there, such as the Engel angle, a weekly combination of commentary on sports, entertainment, pop culture, family with Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Mac takes a very unusual angle on things, so check out the angle angle.
0:00:36 - (Mike): Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Reiner Sports talk. Baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, okay, now I get it. Isn't that a lightning strike, boys?
0:00:56 - (Jeff): What happened over there, Grego?
0:00:57 - (Mike): We had a little light right outside the window. All right, all right. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams.
0:01:09 - (Jeff): Don't. Wait, you said tip?
0:01:11 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:01:11 - (Jeff): Okay. The P. I would keep jamming the ticket colon.
0:01:16 - (Mike): Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off. Is this a cool night or what? Although somebody would hear that.
0:01:22 - (Jeff): Go.
0:01:23 - (Mike): I'm back. Hey, hey, hey, everybody. How about another episode of your Dark companion? Are you up for it? Well, if you're not up for it, I'll bet we can get you up for it because we got some stuff going on here today. It is the 3rd 3rd of September. And this is episode 148 of Little YDC. And the thing that we've got to remember today is that it is the 3rd of September. That means tomorrow is the 4th of September.
0:02:12 - (Mike): And on the 4th of September, NFL football starts with a Thursday night extravaganza. It just so happens that this year the Thursday night extravaganza includes the Dallas football Cowboys.
0:02:35 - (Jeff): Does that really mean it's an extravaganza?
0:02:37 - (Mike): That even makes it more of one? It takes it next level. And that means that the anus is on us to discuss said extravaganza. And because it includes the Cowboys, I can scarcely think of anybody I would rather talk about this with than the great Jeff Kavanaugh. You know him, you love him.
0:03:08 - (Jeff): You.
0:03:08 - (Mike): You see him on dlls, you see him with Brian Broadus all over YouTube. You heard him on 153, the Fan, you heard him on the Freak. And you know that if it comes to Cowboys football, he is all things to all people. And today we're going to make him a few things to a few of us.
0:03:31 - (Jeff): Hey. Hey.
0:03:36 - (Grubes): So fun.
0:03:42 - (Mike): Oh, yeah, yeah.
0:03:45 - (Jeff): Welcome into the speakeasy bag, doesn't it? Welcome to the speakeasy, everybody.
0:03:51 - (Mike): Yes, sir. That is it. How you doing, man?
0:03:54 - (Jeff): I'm Doing quite well. And I appreciate you having me. I appreciate you having me on here, and I apologize doing this. I apologize for what happened last time, and I hope you didn't tell anyone about it.
0:04:04 - (Mike): No, I didn't.
0:04:05 - (Jeff): Never even mentioned it.
0:04:07 - (Mike): I got. Well, I've got your back.
0:04:09 - (Jeff): All right.
0:04:09 - (Mike): See, I like you. Yeah, she does it.
0:04:11 - (Jeff): We got to sneak this one in before football starts, since it was supposed to already happen, and because I totally forgot and groups texted me a couple hours before I was supposed to be on, and I was like, oh, I forgot.
0:04:23 - (Grubes): No, I think I literally called you, like, at Showtime. Supposed to be on? Yeah.
0:04:26 - (Jeff): And I was like, oh, what?
0:04:28 - (Grubes): I was elsewhere myself.
0:04:30 - (Jeff): Okay.
0:04:30 - (Grubes): So I wasn't as tuned in at the moment as I probably could have been, and all of a sudden. Yeah. Have you heard from Calves?
0:04:40 - (Jeff): Excuse me?
0:04:42 - (Mike): Well, as a matter of fact, no.
0:04:45 - (Grubes): No, not so much.
0:04:46 - (Jeff): So, you know, I got a little ADHD brain, Timmy. And it was probably a year ago, something like that, that I had forgotten many other things. And my therapist was like, have you thought about a planner? Did you know your phone can. You can put in the things that you have to do and. And. But I will say that forgetting I was supposed to do this show was the anus for actually using it.
0:05:14 - (Grubes): That's nice.
0:05:14 - (Jeff): I was like, all right, groups, reschedule. Give me the date. It's open. I got. I got both pages open, and I have pen in hand. It was a dinosaur pen. And I wrote excellent. And I wrote that in there.
0:05:29 - (Grubes): I was very proud of you because I did have a note in my calendar to contact you by noon today, and I got a message from you, probably about 10am or so.
0:05:38 - (Jeff): Triple confirm.
0:05:39 - (Grubes): You know what? Blah, blah, blah. When am I coming over? What time do we start?
0:05:42 - (Jeff): And now we win the Super Bowl.
0:05:45 - (Mike): Yes, we do win the Super Bowl. The super bowl of planning. Anyway.
0:05:50 - (Jeff): Yes, we've done it. We've done it.
0:05:52 - (Grubes): Up next, skylight calendar.
0:05:54 - (Jeff): Yeah, no, that does sound cool, though. We were telling you. He told me about that. Sounded cool.
0:05:58 - (Grubes): Get it as a Christmas present so you don't have to pay for it.
0:06:00 - (Jeff): Raise the banner, ladies and gentlemen. Jeff remembered a thing.
0:06:03 - (Mike): Yes. Well, Jeffrey has done the draft.
0:06:08 - (Jeff): I've done it.
0:06:08 - (Mike): He has been to training camp.
0:06:11 - (Jeff): Been.
0:06:11 - (Mike): There he is. Maybe made his way out to a couple of practices and stuff like that. I don't know.
0:06:17 - (Jeff): Done that. Went to the Netflix premiere on Hollywood Boulevard at the Egyptian Theater with Jerry for his. For his Netflix show.
0:06:23 - (Mike): See there?
0:06:23 - (Grubes): He's connected.
0:06:25 - (Jeff): I did the week Since I bet if they could do it over again, they wouldn't have approved that one for you. For me? I've been mean to Jerry lately, but I don't mean to be. I mean, real mean. Like incredibly mean.
0:06:39 - (Mike): I mean, things.
0:06:41 - (Jeff): He sucks at his job.
0:06:42 - (Mike): Things in his direction, you know?
0:06:44 - (Jeff): Yeah.
0:06:45 - (Mike): I mean, you take something wrong with this thing and trace it back to the cause.
0:06:53 - (Jeff): Yep.
0:06:54 - (Mike): Of that thing being wrong with this thing.
0:06:56 - (Jeff): Yeah.
0:06:56 - (Mike): Where does it lead?
0:06:58 - (Jeff): Well, I believe it would say that 30 years without playing in a championship game is 16 years longer than anyone else. And that 30 year stretch also coincides with when Jerry Jones started making football decisions. So, I mean, you know.
0:07:13 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:07:14 - (Jeff): But I mean, we could play Tony Romo and we could blame Dak and we could say that Mike is selfish and wants too much money and is a terrible run defender. Choke artist doesn't show up in the playoffs.
0:07:24 - (Grubes): This agent wanted to be involved.
0:07:25 - (Jeff): Stupid agent. I mean, what? Mike and Jerry had a deal, bro. Yeah. It couldn't possibly be the entire window being tied to the suit. Singular event of him beginning to make football decisions. Couldn't possibly be that. It must be other things each and every year. It can't be the one.
0:07:46 - (Mike): Let's talk about this one thing that happened most recently first. Where were you when you found out about it? And what was your initial reaction?
0:07:57 - (Jeff): Oh, what time did that happen? Where was. I have a bad memory.
0:08:00 - (Grubes): Mid afternoon, Late afternoon.
0:08:03 - (Jeff): Four o'.
0:08:03 - (Grubes): Clock. Yeah.
0:08:03 - (Jeff): I was.
0:08:04 - (Grubes): We were about to do our fantasy football drive.
0:08:05 - (Jeff): Okay. So I was at the house doing one of two things. Either napping or that which must not be spoken of. And@dlls YouTube.com@dlls underscore sports, we do a cowboy show five days a week. We do an emergency pod if something happens. So I got a little buzzing on my phone. It was like, Michael Parsons got traded. And I was like, somebody got tricked. Which was the same. I was out of town when I was in Hawaii when Luca got traded and we were on a night mana raid, snorkel thing.
0:08:44 - (Jeff): I tell you all these things to brag that I'm a wealthy housewife. But also so that you understand, I didn't have my phone. It was in a little dry bag or whatever. And so I have is my watch. And my watch doesn't send me any notifications except slack the work thing. And I started getting pinged and I'm seeing like, emergency pod. Luca got traded and I started laughing. I'm like, who works for us that's believing this?
0:09:06 - (Jeff): What Twitter Accounts are they following? And I kind of had the same reaction to Mike, but just a little bit because that one made more sense because, like, well, Jerry is mad at him and he's 82 and he'll do rash, irrational things.
0:09:18 - (Mike): Yeah. I mean, you could see a path there.
0:09:20 - (Jeff): Yeah.
0:09:20 - (Mike): You know?
0:09:21 - (Jeff): Yeah. So I was right at the house, pinching one off and then. And then had to hustle into the studio to record emergency pod. But I mean, it's a good thing he got traded because we can't stop the run and we can now.
0:09:35 - (Grubes): Damn right.
0:09:36 - (Jeff): This team's really upgraded defense wins championships. And he didn't play defense. He definitely wasn't one of the best defenders on the planet right now. So what do you want him for?
0:09:44 - (Mike): And the guy you got certainly is. His skill may be a little bit.
0:09:49 - (Jeff): He weighs more. He's clearly better. Now we can stop the run because we traded for a guy who weighs more.
0:09:55 - (Mike): The skill may be a little bit limited, but he's still. Who would you rather have when you think about it?
0:09:59 - (Jeff): Yeah. Would you rather have the better player or the one you. Draft picks.
0:10:02 - (Mike): Draft picks, man. They got draft picks out the ass now.
0:10:07 - (Jeff): That's important.
0:10:08 - (Grubes): Could become pro Bowlers.
0:10:11 - (Jeff): Like six of them, according to Jerry. Yeah, it could be six. I mean, it could be Mozzie Smith and Tyler Guyton, but it could be six Pro bowlers when you think about it.
0:10:21 - (Mike): So I don't know about you guys, but I see all kinds of upside here.
0:10:24 - (Grubes): Absolutely killed it again.
0:10:27 - (Jeff): Yeah. I try to. I've tried to go into Micah Parsons retirement with talking about it because I do have a portion of the people who listen to me make words that are like, why are you so bitter? Why do you hate Jerry? Why don't you get in bed with Micah and David Mulaguetta since you love them so much? And so I'd. Considering I'd considered retiring from Micah Talk, but it still has to be handled at some point sometimes.
0:10:53 - (Grubes): I was kind of wondering about that because I saw your tweet. I was like, this can make for an interesting show. If he decides to just stay retired on Mike Attack.
0:11:00 - (Jeff): I can be unretired for the dark companion. I can be unretired for that. I mean, I just think it. It's very Cowboys and that there's just not a. There's not a coherent plan to the reason they did it. The way they explain it doesn't make sense in any way with any plan that you could draw up. So they're just like going back and Forth on this. Okay, well, was that a move so that you could rebuild? No, no, no. We're better today. We traded the better player, so that's not true.
0:11:31 - (Jeff): And we'll be better later. And we needed way more players. Okay, so you're saying you're not better today. You needed to be better later, and you're. But we're better today. I'm like, well, hell, you crushed that trade. Hell, you got way better. And you're getting all the Pro Bowlers later. What a beast.
0:11:46 - (Mike): Got everything you wanted, man.
0:11:48 - (Jeff): Yeah. So they just. I think Jerry got mad. And when Jerry gets mad, he does whatever he wants. And whatever he wanted was. I'm pissed at Micah, so I'm gonna trade Micah. And after the fact, we'll spin it on all of our reasoning and that everybody was on board and all that. I would respect it way more if he was. Like, the fact of the matter is, we haven't been good enough at our job the last half decade. We haven't put our best foot forward drafting. We have not signed real free agents. We have not.
0:12:14 - (Jeff): We haven't actually tried to get better because of. I'm not sure I'd need him to come up with something for that part, but we just. We need so much. And honestly, Micah is kind of wasted here. He's so good. We are bereft of talent. We need him to be our Herschel so that we can figure this thing out. That's what we need. But they're going to spend it as we're better day. And we traded Herschel. Do we cuss here?
0:12:46 - (Mike): Oh, yeah.
0:12:47 - (Jeff): We don't win every super bowl, starting with this one.
0:12:50 - (Mike): We're not regulated in any way by the Federal Communications Commission.
0:12:54 - (Jeff): Okay, that's good.
0:12:55 - (Mike): So there you go.
0:12:55 - (Jeff): So, yeah, we're going to win every super bowl now. I think it was a stupid trade, but now I look forward, and I hope that they move differently than they normally do and actually use the money that they didn't want to spend on Micah Parsons, on other players, because their history is that that's not what they'll do. And I hope they get back to crushing the draft. And I love the draft, so if they start 1 in 4, I'll start tweeting out the ice tank cheer for the other team.
0:13:23 - (Jeff): Be ready. What if Green Bay has some injuries, you know, but what if I. What if I get to spend nine months talking about two top 10 picks?
0:13:31 - (Mike): I love the draft, but what if you wind up having to talk about two picks in the 20s?
0:13:39 - (Jeff): I think it's highly likely. The Green Bay pick is in the mid-20s at best. Saw Bill Barnwell, who I respect on ESPN did his season predictions and he was like Super Bowl, Chiefs and Packers and I was you son of a 31st pick. No, I want better.
0:13:58 - (Mike): All right, so is this team ready based on what you saw in training camp and what you've seen in preseason games and all the work that I know you do on this thing?
0:14:09 - (Jeff): I'll be working.
0:14:10 - (Mike): Yes. Is this team ready to play a real game that counts tomorrow night?
0:14:18 - (Jeff): I mean I have no evidence ready to win one. I mean I'm not going to pick them to Philadelphia's really good. I can't predict them to beat the Philadelphia Eagles. I'm, I'm interested. I think there's a, there is a fairly wide range of outcomes for this team because of a couple of different things. But Vegas says they're going to win seven games. Well, the over under seven and a half and they're not favored in seven games, they're favored in less than that.
0:14:53 - (Jeff): So Vegas thinks they're bad. I don't know that you can be bad bad with Deck and cd I don't know that you can healthy. Dak has never had a losing season. I think he's probably going to, but he never has.
0:15:13 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:15:13 - (Jeff): And that's kind of what I, what I hang on to if, if you can get, if you can get decent to good offensive line play with Dak, CD Lamb and George Pickens.
0:15:27 - (Mike): You have a dangerous offense.
0:15:28 - (Jeff): I think you stumble into eight wins just like whoops, we scored 30 again. But I think if you go up and down the roster position by position and I guess it's like this every year for every team, but it seems like a lot of guys that you're, you're flipping a coin and you're really hoping for heads or tails, whichever one you want in a lot of ways. And a lot of position groups. Yeah, they've taken on kind of reclamation projects at different spots on the cheap to try to get some things done from teams that were grateful that you would just take guys off their hands that made decent money. And it's like.
0:16:05 - (Jeff): And we are being told, well that's from first round pick right there. That's what we got. Guys like who Kenneth Murray, the linebacker that they traded with Tennessee, Kair Elam, the corner that they traded from Buffalo. Those are both guys that are former first round picks that their teams had quit on them and were this off season looking for anyone to give them Anything to take them off their hands. And so the Cowboys traded late round picks for each of them.
0:16:33 - (Jeff): And those teams and their fan bases were very grateful to not have them on the team anymore because they didn't have to pay them. And for the Cowboys, they're viewing those players as starters that are going to help us win football games where the other teams are celebrating. Thank God he ain't on the field for us. And Kyrie had a nice camp. I honestly, I think he was probably the Cowboys best corner in camp and Ron Bland was out there and I thought Kyrie had the best camp. So, like, those things can work and I hope they work.
0:17:02 - (Jeff): But you know, you're looking for positive answers to things like that. You're looking for somebody to play decent or well at left tackle when there's no one on the roster that ever has in the NFL so far. Tyler Guyton, when he played last year, was atrocious and he knows that I'm not speaking out of turn. He said it. I appreciated that in his off season because, you know, you got, there's a lot of die hard sports fans and they're not trying to hear it when you're negative about their team. And I'm like, it's my team too.
0:17:31 - (Jeff): I'm just telling you what we've seen. Tyler Guyton had an atrocious rookie year. Nothing about it.
0:17:37 - (Mike): I thought he was going to be pretty good too in preseason and, and early in the season, but man, it just went bad real fast.
0:17:45 - (Jeff): And then he was hurt for all of camp, all of preseason. Sounds like he may go tomorrow. And the assumption or what they want you to believe is that like, oh, we're good at left tackle, baby. We got Tyler Guyton. And I'm like, I saw him play last year. You're hoping for really, really, really big strides going into year two from a guy who didn't get to take part basically in training camp or preseason. That's tough.
0:18:09 - (Jeff): And if I can't block, I'm dead. So there's, there's things I believe in. I believe in left guard, center, right guard. I believe in that combination. I believe in the dude they're snapping it to. I believe in the dudes that he's throwing to. But that's about it. The rest of it, we're kind of hoping just you take Micah from this thing and who's sacking the quarterback? I guess it doesn't matter. We just want to stop the run.
0:18:35 - (Jeff): They're gonna do that either, but it doesn't matter. Rushing the passer doesn't matter anymore. Cowboy said. We. We don't want to rush the passer. We want to. We want to be girthy. He doesn't want to be hefty.
0:18:48 - (Mike): You're not making me come off my preseason thought, which is four wins.
0:18:56 - (Jeff): Okay. So I would say for me personally, it wouldn't be fun early in the year as you're working your way towards that and for most fans, like, you just want your team to win. So I'm sure a lot of people would hate that. But as a guy who loves the draft, sign me up. I get to talk about the top five players in an NFL draft. We're going to be talking about a quarterback because don't think if you get that high, you don't know when you're going to be that high again.
0:19:22 - (Jeff): And if you don't think they would look at. Hey, who's after Dak? You give me four win season. Well, we cook some up now. We can cook some up now. I think I picked him to win eight.
0:19:35 - (Mike): I'm trying to talk myself off of that, and I'm going to try to.
0:19:39 - (Jeff): Talk myself into that.
0:19:43 - (Mike): And I just. I just can't. I just can't. I just don't see any kind of decent season ahead for this team. And I hate that for Brian Schottenheimer, because I've been waiting for that guy to say something, to hang himself, and he's not done it.
0:20:07 - (Jeff): Even that is tough. And this is where my disdain for Jerry Jones, football man, shines through a lot. Boy, I like Brian Schottenheimer. Yeah. I didn't see that. I want that guy.
0:20:22 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:20:23 - (Jeff): To do so well. I want everything good for that guy. Yeah. The process of hiring that guy was so cowboys. And you want to talk about. And I don't know how many years you got to be a coordinator before you're qualified, but you talk about 32 teams, 31 of them had no interest in talking about that dude as a head coach. And Jerry was like, all it takes. He's. He's cheap, and I can attach the strings to his back, do what I want our guy and, like, into the fan base. I'm like, you want to win the super bowl, right?
0:20:57 - (Jeff): Your owner is not interested in interviewing coaching candidates that other people want. Not even interested. And it's like, he's doing the best for this team. He's doing amazing. He doesn't even. He's not even interested in interviewing the best people at any job. Not even interested. Because I don't know this guy's dad was Marty. I think he's gonna call him Marty at some point this season. May he rest in peace.
0:21:22 - (Grubes): He hasn't already.
0:21:23 - (Jeff): He probably has. Didn't know Micah Parsons name. Boy, their interview after they traded Mike, I was so proud of Stephen Jones. After the fifth time he said michael, Stephen leaned forward a little bit and said in all caps, he goes, micah. And then just sat back. I was like, damn, that a boy. He's about to yank the keys out of his hand. You ain't driving no more.
0:21:53 - (Mike): Was Stephen wearing his clear glasses that day?
0:21:55 - (Jeff): I think he was, yeah. Yeah.
0:21:58 - (Mike): Each to his own, I guess.
0:21:59 - (Grubes): Yeah.
0:22:00 - (Jeff): He's got the clear shades. He gets his. I like what he's doing with his hair these days. I got the same thing. I'm 41. I don't know what to do with my hair. And so I kind of push it up and kind of fake mohawk it or something. Something weird. Steven's doing the same thing where we're both like, I don't know what to do with hair. Let me try to do what I think a 20 something might do.
0:22:18 - (Grubes): How do you do, fellow kids?
0:22:19 - (Jeff): Yeah, how you doing, kids?
0:22:21 - (Mike): You're doing the same thing you've always.
0:22:22 - (Jeff): Done with I don't know what. I used to have a comb over. I was bald headed. I had long hair. I don't know what I'm doing with my hair. I don't know.
0:22:29 - (Mike): Just be glad you got something to figure out up there.
0:22:33 - (Jeff): Fair.
0:22:34 - (Mike): That's the best thing.
0:22:35 - (Jeff): Yeah. I'm dating a girl now and that makes things easier. I'm just like, what do you want me to do with stuff? She bought me the shirt. She tells me when to get a haircut. All right.
0:22:45 - (Grubes): It's a nice thing.
0:22:46 - (Jeff): And to some people, it's like, you are emasculated. And I'm like, no, I am thrilled. I don't know how to dress. I don't care what my hair is. I would like to feel good about it. And now I got somebody who can affirm that. Hey, that's good. And I'm like, thanks. Yeah.
0:22:57 - (Grubes): I got someone that's not let me wear basketball shorts for two years now.
0:23:01 - (Jeff): That's tough.
0:23:01 - (Grubes): It's weird.
0:23:02 - (Jeff): It's tough.
0:23:03 - (Mike): Just be good at taking instruction.
0:23:05 - (Jeff): I love instruction.
0:23:06 - (Mike): You gotta do.
0:23:07 - (Jeff): Yeah, I love instruction. She's gonna make me wear long pants on Saturday, though. Oh, she wrote in my calendar, long pants. Because my whole deal is like, if we're going out in public, if I can't Wear my short pants. It's probably not a place I want to go.
0:23:19 - (Grubes): Where are you going?
0:23:21 - (Jeff): I don't know yet. She just wrote in the. She just wrote date, long pants.
0:23:25 - (Grubes): Okay.
0:23:26 - (Jeff): And I went, damn. Okay. All right.
0:23:29 - (Mike): Well, you may have a pretty big surprise ahead for you. I mean, what if it's 94 degrees out there and you're outside, you're wearing pants.
0:23:40 - (Jeff): I'll bring scissors. Turn them long pants into short pants in a heartbeat.
0:23:45 - (Grubes): Maybe she found some of those old Alberna's gift cards that Paul Corvino gave us.
0:23:49 - (Jeff): I think I have one of those in a drawer somewhere still.
0:23:52 - (Grubes): I do too.
0:23:54 - (Mike): I remember when he made those are about to expire. I'll bet. If they haven't already.
0:23:57 - (Grubes): I don't think they have a date.
0:23:59 - (Jeff): They made us go on a date at Albert Nay. Remember that? Yeah, before the switchy switch. Right now, before the switchy switch, they made us go on a top secret date. Oh, they're like, I think you guys need to go talk about some stuff.
0:24:12 - (Grubes): Okay.
0:24:13 - (Jeff): All right. And we got it all figured out.
0:24:15 - (Mike): Sure. And you see the result.
0:24:18 - (Jeff): That's right. Everyone got fired.
0:24:20 - (Grubes): Let's. Less than a year.
0:24:21 - (Jeff): Mike and I got everyone fired.
0:24:23 - (Mike): Yep, we did.
0:24:24 - (Jeff): We missed.
0:24:26 - (Mike): All right, so who is, in your view, going to be the biggest good surprise this year? The guy that maybe nobody's talking about that you see him out there every day or you saw him out there every day in training camp and you thought, man, that guy's doing good stuff.
0:24:46 - (Jeff): Oh, I think the linebacker Jack Sanborn is a candidate for that. Trying to work my way through names because they have those guys, like I mentioned, the guys who were traded, like given up on by their former teams who are now here. Jack Sanborn's a guy that had played for Eber Flutes in Chicago and every time he played, he played well. But he was an undrafted guy that isn't running a 44 40. And so even if you play well, there's just never a starting opportunity. And there is one here.
0:25:18 - (Jeff): And he's looked good. Maybe Marist Leopold, a couple linebackers that have looked pretty good out there. I don't know if a second round pick counts, but I'm a believer in Donovan as a Raku pass rusher. Now, I think his life would have been way easier and his transition into the NFL would have been way easier if teams didn't care about him, which if there were a incredible pass rusher on the other side, you would have had some really good opportunities.
0:25:44 - (Jeff): But I think he's a guy that even as a rookie is kind of rare. And that most of the times when you come into the NFL, it's like, all right, and now you got to figure out how to boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And for him, it's like, well, why was he second round pick? Because he's not 6 5, he's 6 2. He's not 6 5, 2 60. He's 6, 2, 2 5. Whatever. And so he's probably initially a pass rusher instead of a real life. Like, you're out there every down playing defensive end.
0:26:12 - (Jeff): But. Well, you want to talk about a dude who comes into the NFL knowing how to rush the passer. Like, it's not just run around or run through. He's got all. He got all you want. You got this one, you got that one, you got that one. He's got the woot, woot. So I miss this.
0:26:29 - (Mike): Boy. I do, too.
0:26:30 - (Grubes): God almighty.
0:26:31 - (Jeff): He's like. He's a. He's a polished up pass rusher. As a rookie coming into the NFL.
0:26:36 - (Mike): I've never had as much fun talking cowboys as I did with Cavs.
0:26:40 - (Grubes): There's so much happening when he's doing it.
0:26:42 - (Jeff): If you're not doing it doing some dumb stuff, what are you doing? Like, I want to have fun while I broadcast, and I want other people to have fun. And if that's not happening, that's why I'm even more mad at Jerry Jones. Because when I get mad at Jerry Jones, I'm legit mad inside. Now I'm broadcasting other people aren't having fun. I'm not having fun. I mean, sure, there's some people out there like, yeah, rip him. And I'm like, yeah, I did it.
0:27:05 - (Jeff): But you don't finish being angry and be like, now I feel great. You're like, now I just want to just like, maybe I just need to retire from Jerry talk. I do. Like, now that we're in the season, I can just do football. Would you.
0:27:20 - (Mike): What would you do if you retired from Jerry Talk?
0:27:22 - (Jeff): Oh, I'd be so X's and O's. I'd be analyzing this game. Mike boy, you want to talk about what is this Terrance Steele matchup looking like this week? Is he still high hand, low hand? How's he doing? Is that. No, I'm talking about Jerry. A bunch of.
0:27:37 - (Mike): So what is the Eber flu defense going to be like, do you think?
0:27:42 - (Jeff): He's done a couple of different things, but I would say that generally speaking, he is a rush for drop Seven into coverage. A lot of zone coverage.
0:27:55 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:27:55 - (Jeff): And in a lot of ways, it actually doesn't fit the players that the Cowboys have. Like, for instance, I'm gonna talk bad about Jerry for a second. They were at their little press conference, and I think it was actually Stephen that was like. And, you know, floose, you know, he thinks we can trade Micah because you can scheme pressure. You can't scheme run defense. Yes, you can. And so it's like, cool. Let me look up Eber flu's history.
0:28:25 - (Jeff): Let's scheme pressure. Because. What does that mean? It means stunts. It means blitzes. That's scheming pressure. It's not just my guy beating your guy. We're going to trick you. We're going to make something happen. Is he a blitz heavy guy? Absolutely not. Do they tend to get pressure with four guys? Absolutely not. They don't. The one time that they pass rush their best, it was because he realized these guys weren't good enough. They traded for Montez sweat and suddenly they were able to get pressure, which would lead me to believe it is not scheming pressure. It is going to get better players.
0:28:52 - (Jeff): So the fact that you're lying about what your coaches tend to do, what they've had success with and how they've done their jobs, and we can just look it up and it's a lie. I'm just like, okay, so now we're just justifying a trade that we made without being honest, which means that for some reason you can't tell me the truth right now, which is weird. And so we'll see. Defensively, I think you're going to have to. If they're going to be a team that contends for the playoffs, you're going to have to out coach people.
0:29:22 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:29:22 - (Jeff): And you're going to be out coach. You're going to have to out coach people with coaches no one else wanted to.
0:29:26 - (Mike): Now, I was listening to what you and Mr. Broadus were talking about when.
0:29:30 - (Jeff): He'D say any f word at me all the time. Did you hear that one?
0:29:33 - (Mike): No. No, I didn't hear that.
0:29:34 - (Jeff): He f worded me about 11 times.
0:29:36 - (Grubes): Lord, what'd you do?
0:29:37 - (Jeff): Well, because I've been mean to Jerry all the time. And he was kind of like, well, let's not forget that Micah did what he did and agent and this and that. And he was kind of carrying the water for the front office for a while. And so we would. We would have almost. No, we'd be almost tense at each other throughout it because I was very. I'm pro player. I'm pro employee. I'm not pro billionaire. Not trying to win, ruining my football team.
0:30:01 - (Jeff): And then. And he is not. I love Brian. Brian's amazing. He's a beast. But whatever it was that set him off, he decided to go off on Jerry in a different way. And I was like, oh, you're on my side now. And he was just like, look at the effing coaches. This guy's hired Jason Garrett for an effing decade. Are you effing kidding me? And just going down the list of all the head coaches, he's like, you want to win? How about trying to hire a effing winning coach?
0:30:28 - (Jeff): And I said, I don't know where this came from, but I support it. But it was also the morning Mike who got traded. He hadn't been traded yet or at least hadn't been announced. And I think Brian knew it was coming, but he couldn't say it. So I think he was just mad. And it affected our show that morning. YouTube.com Jeff Kavanaugh check it out. Trust the tape. Every. We just change the schedule on it. Tuesday and Friday.
0:30:50 - (Grubes): Oh, God.
0:30:51 - (Mike): It's good stuff. It's really good stuff. I was watching it today and I was looking for a little bit of info on what the defenses might look like this year. And like you insinuated a minute ago, Eberfluz doesn't seem to go for.
0:31:09 - (Jeff): He does not scheme pressure as they said that they will. He. That's not his tendency. His tendencies to play you straight up with four pass rushers. They like to drop seven guys in coverage. They like to play fairly conservative on the back end. And yet they have a history of giving up big plays, which is not ideal. He's now also. His recent history is with the team that sucked. But as far as what he wants to do that we have a grasp on, I shouldn't spout off. And they sucked like the players sucked. He was coaching a bad team.
0:31:44 - (Jeff): Um, but yeah, they're going to be trying to. They're going to be trying to play you fairly, fairly straight up. And I don't know if they have the horses for it. You just. You hope. You hope that some of the guys that they brought in that are kind of unheralded do well. You hope that some of the young guys get going. You hope that Kenny Clark and oh so Diggy Zoo next to each other is not just pretty good, but awesome.
0:32:09 - (Jeff): You hope that digs coming off an injury sounds like he's Actually going to play tomorrow, which is insane.
0:32:13 - (Mike): Really?
0:32:14 - (Jeff): Yeah. Sounds like he's going to play tomorrow. And if he doesn't, you're deep doo doo. So I need him to play. The difference between Trayvon Diggs, Kair Elam Duron Bland and Kyre Elam Duran Bland, guy you've never heard of that made the team four days ago. Like, there's a pretty big difference there. Yeah, he's.
0:32:34 - (Mike): We're going to see him until like, what, four or five games in or something.
0:32:37 - (Jeff): I was thinking probably week three or four because it sounded like that was what he was saying. He was like, you know, because he talks to. He talks to my buddy Clarence Hill, DLS Cowboys podcast. He talks to him a lot. And he'd always been like, yeah, he keeps telling me, like, no later than week four, my goal is week one. No later than week four. And he'd say it. He'd come and tell me that, like, every third day. He's like, yeah. He's saying, you know, three, week four, goal is week one. I'm like, why such a big spread? Like, it sounds like we're gonna see him in week four and that's what.
0:33:06 - (Jeff): What's going to happen. And then as of today, they. They say it sounds like Trayvon Diggs might be playing.
0:33:15 - (Mike): Wow.
0:33:15 - (Jeff): Which would be good.
0:33:16 - (Grubes): Maybe he's been sad, sandbagging under promise over deliver and oh, my gosh, I'm ready for week one.
0:33:22 - (Jeff): And they took $500,000 from him this offseason for not rehabbing and working out with the team in the offseason. He did it at his own place.
0:33:29 - (Grubes): But maybe he improved so quick because he was now with the Cowboys trainers.
0:33:33 - (Jeff): Oh, yeah. That's the way they would do it. That's the way they would say it.
0:33:35 - (Grubes): People are saying.
0:33:36 - (Jeff): I was going to say that he. He's going to be out there in week one when the Cowboys have been telling people, or at least what I've been hearing in the off season was Diggs. Yeah. Sept. Or October, November. And now we're months before that and he's back and he did his own thing. Yeah. And the Cowboys are going to be like, yep. Because we really crushed it in the last few weeks.
0:33:55 - (Grubes): There is no doubt.
0:33:57 - (Jeff): I was thinking he would come in and do the degeneration X. Suck it. He took 500k from me. Bow worth it. And I'm like, well, not really. I'd rather miss another month or two and get my money. Yeah.
0:34:08 - (Mike): Who's gonna be playing running back for this Thing now.
0:34:11 - (Jeff): And halfway through the year, Javante Williams now, I hope Jaden Blue halfway through the year sucks, that he kind of was getting banged up. That was one of the things that I think frustrated me the most about this off season is there's. There's some things that just aren't hard to get better at. I'm gonna be mean to Jerry for a second.
0:34:31 - (Mike): No, no.
0:34:32 - (Jeff): Come on. So one of those things is how much they harped on, like, we would not have traded Micah Parsons if we didn't get Kenny Clark in return because we want to stop the run. And I'm like, don't use a job and position that can get done literally every off season. Multiple options for seven to $10 million a year to stop the run. They're out there every off season. You know that they can do that job and it can get done for seven to $10 million a year. Don't tell me you had to trade one of the best players in football to do that job.
0:35:03 - (Jeff): You had three years to figure this out. Don't tell me that you need to use Mike Parsons to do that. And so when they talk about stopping the run and running the ball, I'm going to be mean to Jerry for a second.
0:35:18 - (Mike): If you must.
0:35:19 - (Jeff): Rico Dowdle is a better player than Javante Williams, hands down. Javante Williams was wonderful as a rookie. Hurt his knee, hadn't been the same since. I'm a Cowboy fan. I hope he bounces back and he's great. Even he said, yeah. I was real surprised with the way the preseason went that they didn't make him earn a roster spot. They didn't make him play in the preseason. They zeked him for a guy who's coming off multiple down years in a row, who never really got back from a big knee injury from three years ago or whatever.
0:35:52 - (Jeff): They were just like, oh, you're good. You're the guy.
0:35:54 - (Mike): And that's what I thought was kind of weird about the whole thing.
0:35:57 - (Jeff): Yeah, you know, I think they brought in two guys that most of the league thinks is very are washed. Javante Williams and Miles Sanders. Jade Blue got banged up, like, for a job and running backs, another one of those things. If they hadn't just dove into the bottom of the bargain basement barrel and free agency. They signed Javonte Williams, I believe, on day one, and Rico Dowdle was coming off of a nice year for them.
0:36:24 - (Jeff): And so his agency's out there trying to get more money. He ended up getting barely more than Javante Williams. If you would have waited 24 hours. You could have brought back a better player for the same price.
0:36:35 - (Mike): How does Javante Williams just walk in here as the day one starter? Was it just nobody else?
0:36:41 - (Jeff): I think that's it. The thing, because they didn't even try. What's weird is in a way I almost respect it, but not quite because the Cowboys did for years. Like, when you talk about what are the most important positions, what are the hardest to replace, I can find a running back now. I would love to have the best one. But if you say, hey, what position are you okay with being bad at in an off season? I can figure out running back. I can sign a mid level free agent, I can draft one in the third round and we're off and running for four years.
0:37:09 - (Jeff): But they have gone so far in the direction of it doesn't matter that they just signed totally wash dudes and just like, yeah, really doesn't matter. I'm like, well, you took that running backs don't matter thing. That's just a tagline for a general idea and you went with it. And they've kind of done like that's.
0:37:27 - (Mike): That'S their great white whale now.
0:37:29 - (Jeff): It's, you know, they just. And again, I think it goes to. They don't ever have a plan because the front office is incompetent. Outside of everyone below the top two, they're all great, but the top two are terrible at their jobs. Like, it's just like a pendulum swinging. Like, Zeke holds out, we give him everything he could ever want, he immediately hits a wall. Well, hell, we ain't paying running backs then and that's fine.
0:37:55 - (Jeff): But you still got to try to find a good one. Nah, don't worry about it. And now I'll tell you what's going to happen. They're not going to run the ball well this year we're going to get to the NFL draft and they're going to have the 11th pick and they're going to take Jeremiah Love, Notre Dame running back. They're going to just swing that sucker back the other way. Guys, there is a meaty, there's a middle here.
0:38:21 - (Jeff): Position matters. You can't do nothing, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything. But yeah, I just, I hope I'm wrong. Javante Williams just looks like a guy that he is a guy. Like, he's strong, smart pass, protection, catch the ball, run where you're supposed to tough. I just don't think there's any explosiveness. Whereas Jaden Blue, fifth round rookie, out Of Texas. Run like wind. That sucker can go.
0:38:52 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:38:54 - (Jeff): I hope that he takes a bunch of carries. I hope. Probably get a little. You're gonna get a little. A lot of fullback action. I don't know if you guys saw the huge news today. Hunter Lipke got a contract extension.
0:39:06 - (Mike): The fullback did not see that.
0:39:09 - (Jeff): Two years, like seven point something million. Sometimes it pays to be an undrafted free agent. It can get a contract extension after two years.
0:39:17 - (Mike): Sometimes it does.
0:39:18 - (Jeff): You got him one. Go get him, Lipke.
0:39:20 - (Mike): This is the great Jeff Kavanaugh with us here on your dark companion today. Where do I Now it is time for the dreaded and feared highlight of every episode.
0:39:34 - (Jeff): What is it?
0:39:35 - (Mike): The mid show read.
0:39:37 - (Jeff): Oh, who are we talking about?
0:39:41 - (Mike): We're talking about the CBD House of healing.
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0:41:04 - (Jeff): I like that. I'm glad it's online only. It could be a fire hazard in store. Maybe. I don't know.
0:41:09 - (Mike): Is that all I got here? Shipping?
0:41:10 - (Grubes): I don't know. Yeah, Ashley's the one that knows things.
0:41:16 - (Jeff): I'll do an ad. Oh, all right. Go ahead. Oh, the CBD place. I was just gonna make up a company.
0:41:26 - (Grubes): Okay, you can do that.
0:41:28 - (Jeff): Check out Jeff's YouTube page.
0:41:30 - (Grubes): Oh, that's cheap.
0:41:32 - (Jeff): Where fun is free, but the super chats are not. And send me your money. Oh, thanks.
0:41:38 - (Grubes): How much are the super chats?
0:41:40 - (Jeff): I think the biggest one I ever got was like 200 bucks. 200 buck. $200.
0:41:45 - (Grubes): Do you have to take off clothing?
0:41:47 - (Jeff): No, no, no, no. People just fire them things in.
0:41:50 - (Grubes): Yeah, it's good work if you can get it.
0:41:51 - (Jeff): Yeah, people just fireman.
0:41:53 - (Mike): It's great for the super chat.
0:41:55 - (Jeff): Yeah, the super chat. The bit is basically that if you.
0:41:59 - (Mike): Have a question just you or is it you and brought us or what?
0:42:02 - (Jeff): I mean I do different things on the tube. Some of our DLS shows go on there brought us and I do twice a week. Sometimes I'll just go run in there and hit go live and just D around. But the bit is that a super chat, if you hit that and then you say how much money you want to give with the message you send, you just know that then I will read it on the air. Otherwise you can just be chatting into oblivion.
0:42:26 - (Jeff): And if I'm not getting any super chats and I've run out of words to say, then I'll interact with the chat. But you put something on it. I'll answer your question. Yes, I do think that player is good. Thank you for the $9.99, about 30% of which will go to Google, but I'll take the rest.
0:42:47 - (Mike): That sounds like a pretty good deal, I must say.
0:42:51 - (Jeff): Everyone. Venmo. Me.
0:42:53 - (Mike): Yes, Venmo. Jeff.
0:42:55 - (Jeff): Just today just do it at Jeff Kavanaugh one Jeff.
0:43:00 - (Grubes): Yeah, Jeff Kavanaugh was already taken.
0:43:02 - (Jeff): I don't know, it's just whatever it assigned me. Pretty sure it's number one. I think I'm wearing a bucket hat in it if you want to send me a bunch of money. Oh, the classic try to pay off a pool. I think I still.
0:43:11 - (Grubes): You're still working on that?
0:43:12 - (Jeff): Dude, I keep forgetting what the number is, but I think it's like $33,000 I still owe on a pool.
0:43:19 - (Mike): All right, now we're just splitting about madly across the cowboys landscape here.
0:43:23 - (Jeff): Pool fund.
0:43:24 - (Mike): Have. Have we got to the offensive line yet?
0:43:28 - (Jeff): No, not specifically. We sure haven't.
0:43:30 - (Mike): Okay, well, let's digging on them a little bit.
0:43:33 - (Jeff): Make words on the O line.
0:43:35 - (Mike): Make more words on the O line. I guess there you start with Tyler Smith these days.
0:43:40 - (Jeff): Tyler Smith is a stud.
0:43:42 - (Mike): Very good player.
0:43:43 - (Jeff): I would read it'd be really fun if they would announce that good news. We saved all that pie by trading Micah. Now we got more pie. It would be great if they announced that Tyler Smith was going to be here for the next five years. He's played three years, which makes him extension eligible. The best and smartest teams in football. Once you realize you've got a dude and you know who what you got, pay him as soon as you can because it just, it gives you, the markets go up, gives you the flexibility to play with the salary cap.
0:44:13 - (Jeff): I would love to hear that he's been signed because Tyler Smith's great. There's just. You don't need, you don't need much of a scouting report. You don't need a bunch of words. Tyler Smith's great and I hope he's here for a half decade and the.
0:44:25 - (Mike): Vibe around him is that he's very good and everybody out there knows he's very good. You know, when people talk about the Cowboys and things roll around to the offensive line, he's the first guy they mentioned.
0:44:36 - (Jeff): He's one of the best interior offensive linemen in the sport. So sign him today. That would be great. I think Cooper Beebe, the center next to him, I believe Cooper Beebe could be a Pro Bowler this year. I believe that to be possible. I think he had a solid rookie year. I think he was pretty good. And transitioning to center I don't think is the easiest thing. I mean, just think about it. If your life of playing football has been they say hut and you push people and they go, all right, what we're going to do now is we're going to up the degree of difficulty because we're gonna go to the NFL now when we say hut, you're not allowed to go hit people yet.
0:45:22 - (Jeff): You snap the ball first, step over there and do that. Like I do think there's some learning and getting used to there of crap. There's a 340 pound man an inch from me and when I move this ball he can punch me. And I'm not used to being the one who has to do this. And you know, he had a couple of little snap things and you know the adjustment of I've got a snap and go and. But I think he's nice. I think there's a chance that Cooper BB could be a Pro bowl or at least play at that sort of level where you have a monster left guard and your center is quite good and it's the rest of them that's going to determine can this thing be a playoff contender or not. I don't think it's those two. I think the other three determine are you a potential 10 win team or are you six win team?
0:46:19 - (Jeff): I think that swing is rookie Tyler Booker at guard, who I like, and I think he's gonna have a good NFL career. But you gotta start from day one and day one, day one, is maybe the toughest D tackle in the league to deal with. Philadelphia, Jalen Carter is a monster. Now ain't no time to fiddle fart. Welcome to the NFL. Go kick his ass. Terry Steele. I think he kind of is what he is. It's just you've been long enough in the league that to expect something different seems a little bit crazy.
0:46:50 - (Jeff): And so what that means is, at his best, good run blocker, below average pass protector, average it out. And if he plays his best football, that could be league average, Maybe better at tackle. You get league average, maybe better at right tackle. I can work with that. At left tackle. When we saw Jalen Guyton play as Tyler Guyton. Jalen Guyton is a former receiver. Back in the day. Tyler. When we saw Tyler Guyton play football last year is bad.
0:47:18 - (Jeff): I mean, technique.
0:47:21 - (Mike): Penalties, man, I had high hopes for him in training camp.
0:47:25 - (Jeff): Too, and I don't want to. I'm not quitting on a guy after a bad rookie year. I do. I did make a new rule, because when the Cowboys kept trading for guys and they were saying he's a former first round pick, I told our friend Jesse Holly, I said, I have a new rule. After two years in the NFL, I do not want to hear when you were selected in the draft. After one, we can keep going. Like, all right, you know, we're waiting on some growth here. We saw potential. Now it's time to. Let's. Let's see something.
0:47:59 - (Jeff): After one more. If you were awful, don't tell me where he was drafted. Like, going into what is. This is year three for Mozzie, right?
0:48:09 - (Mike): Yeah.
0:48:09 - (Jeff): Year three for Mozzie Smith, I think. Don't tell me. Former first round pick Mozzie Smith. I don't care. I'm pretty sure this is year three.
0:48:19 - (Grubes): Year three.
0:48:20 - (Jeff): Don't tell me when he was drafted. I don't care. Now it's two years of evidence that the guy can't play. Don't tell me. Be patient. Here it comes. He was a first round pick. Seen it for two years. Can't play.
0:48:29 - (Grubes): Show me the baby.
0:48:30 - (Mike): Yes.
0:48:30 - (Jeff): After two, we're done. So it's a big year for Guyton. According to the rule of Jeff. Yeah, big year for Guyton. If you see growth, that's good. He's flipping the side of the line that he played in college. When I studied him in college, I thought he was a second or third round player. They took him in the first because what NFL teams I think love to do is it's probably just the thing you do professionally and football and sports, probably more so than most jobs. Boy, you believe in yourself.
0:49:04 - (Jeff): And I think it's NFL coaches are incredibly cocky. So Guyton at Oklahoma, the scouting report is basically, you know, he moves pretty athletically for his size and he's really big. That's it. Like you weren't going to say he's one of the best pass protectors in college football. He's one of the best run blockers in college football. You went, boy, he is young, he is big, he's pretty athletic. I can get out of that.
0:49:44 - (Jeff): And then if as a rookie he plays as the guy you saw on tape, and don't get me wrong, against college players, he was a good college player. It worked.
0:49:52 - (Mike): All that tells you he's toolsy, right?
0:49:55 - (Jeff): And so you get toolsy guy and it's always like, yeah, yeah. And with our coaching, I'm like, well, I might want to adjust a little bit and start picking the best players, not the ones where it's like, hey, once we get him blank, blank, blank, blank, blank, he's really gonna. Because that was him. Like when they drafted him, I said, you know, I like the prospect. If he has to play as a rookie, I'm scared for him.
0:50:21 - (Jeff): And then it happened. And just because we live in 20, 25 and when you talk about something you were right about, it's important to acknowledge the people who are going to come out of the woodwork. Boy, I've had some misses too. Haven't been right on all the scout reports got guiding though, and that, you know, what happened in his rookie year, I kind of expected to happen in his rookie year. And so I think it sucks that he got hurt in camp and missed so much time because he's the sort of player that needs it the most.
0:50:46 - (Jeff): Like, there's nothing more important than that guy. Working with your new line coaches on what we want to do with all the technique, things we're trying to get out of you and having your best chance to be as strong as you can in as good a shape as you can. It sucks for him that he was banged up and we're still going to expect him to go play good football and he hasn't done that in the NFL yet.
0:51:08 - (Mike): Is the new overriding philosophy of the offensive line different from years past, would you say?
0:51:18 - (Jeff): Let's see what Clayton Adams and the gang do. I Don't think it's totally different. I think you may get a little bit less of the bits where you want to. Like, you'll see more of what is called a gap scheme blocking or power scheme blocking than zone. Whereas if you think about on a zone blocking play, we're going to hand the ball to the running back. He's going to be running to the right at an angle. Okay. He's going that way.
0:51:50 - (Jeff): So is every offensive lineman in front of him. We're all just going on the same track. And wherever defenders are in that track, if there's a guy between I'm the center and you're the right guard, we snap the ball and here we go. We're both blocking him until it's clear on what side of whomst he is and who's got it. And once you know one of us has it, I'm a let go and I'm going up to the next guy. And we're on this track and it's up to the running back to see how all that plays out and find where to go.
0:52:23 - (Jeff): This they will do more of. We are saying that we're going to snap the ball and the running back is going between that guard and that tackle. That's where we're going. So you are going to smash down this defensive end. You are going to turn to piece of my fake dip can into like a floss that I've been playing with. I'm an ADHD kid. I am an ADHD kid.
0:52:49 - (Grubes): I even never finish a show with you all time.
0:52:51 - (Jeff): I even had to say stop and say it. It's shredding out in little pieces too now. Looks like glitter on me, but yeah. So now what you'll do is you'll see more of. We're trying to create the space right there. Not we're going that way to see where it is. And then you foot the ground, figure it out. Now it's go there, there. We're going to open that spot. We're going to have this tight end or this tackle is going to just wham tee off coming downhill inside and smash that end this way.
0:53:26 - (Jeff): And then the next defender who's coming out here, we're gonna have a guard who's pulling that's going to kick him out. That's the hole. That's where we're going. And so, yeah, it'll be different a little bit.
0:53:36 - (Mike): Have they got the person for this?
0:53:38 - (Jeff): I actually think the drafting of Tyler Booker, that that's good for him because Tyler Booker, your First round pick was he's a power player. He's a lot of the things that people look for an offensive lineman now a lot of guys are really looking for those sort of zone block on the move, get to the linebackers, be a really good athlete. Tyler Booker is more of a tell me who and tell me where you want me to put him. Yeah, and.
0:54:05 - (Jeff): And I'll put him there. And so, yeah, I think that it fits. It definitely fits your first round pick better. I mean, Tyler Smith can do whatever you want. I think Cooper BB could play it either way too. Steal. Yeah, I'll say. If I had to choose, would they be a better zone blocking or gap blocking? Yeah, I think I would take what they're gonna do now. I just wish the guy who I think is gonna get the most carries had a little more juice.
0:54:35 - (Jeff): They're gonna be handed to Javante Williams and there's just not a lot of.
0:54:38 - (Mike): Yeah, you think he's gonna get the most carries?
0:54:42 - (Jeff): I'm definitely to start. Miles Sanders was banged up in camp. Dude, they zeeked him. He didn't even have to play.
0:54:49 - (Mike): Yeah, but what about Jaden Blue?
0:54:52 - (Jeff): I think Jaden Blue. I hope Jane Blue is what I think he can be. But I mean, like he got hurt in camp and so it was like he hurt the same ankle that he had hurt before. And I'm like, oh. And I think initially they'll view him as a. As a. Like the scat back is like when Pollard came in the league. You're our change of pace. You're getting four or five carries a game maybe, and hopefully three or four catches and seeing if we can bust a big play.
0:55:22 - (Jeff): But if Javante Williams lacks juice in the way that I believe he does and a cowboy fan, I hope I'm wrong. I hope he's Emmett Smith. Not hating. Okay, can you tell me a little self conscious about people who think I'm negative? Okay. Am I looking at the right camera?
0:55:38 - (Mike): He's negative.
0:55:39 - (Jeff): I'm not negative. Not negative. If he lacks juice in the way that I think that he does, and if Jaden Blue is more than some people think he is in the way that I do, then I think we could watch that seesaw, teeter, totter, pendulum. We could see it swing blues way throughout the season, I think he's got an opportunity to become the dude. You just gotta do well in the initial opportunities. And I hope, I hope it's Jaden Blue.
0:56:15 - (Mike): All right, so how many games are you predicting this year?
0:56:18 - (Jeff): Eight. I got him going eight and nine. And I'm not hating. I hope they win 17.
0:56:28 - (Mike): We all hope they win 17.
0:56:30 - (Jeff): Yeah, I just.
0:56:30 - (Mike): I'm not hating either. I'm just going. Pouring.
0:56:33 - (Jeff): Yeah. The only thing that gives me hesitation is if Dax healthy, they win 12. It's what they do. It's what he's always done. I don't think this roster is. That is as good as the ones they normally have, and I don't. And I think the schedule is harder, and I think the division is better than we're used to. Although, get ready. Washington's gonna let you down this year. If you think that Washington's about to take this giant next step, I think you're wrong. I think they're going backwards. I think they're gonna be gonna miss playoffs, too.
0:57:04 - (Jeff): But, yeah, I just. I think it's a. I think their roster, talent wise, is bottom half of the league, not top half. And you're gonna need the defense to overachieve a little bit. You're gonna need the running game to be better than I think it will be. And you need Dak to be an MVP candidate. You do that, then we'll talk about 10 or 11, but my guess is 8. And I could see it being less, but Dak always wins 12.
0:57:35 - (Jeff): It's the only thing that keeps gnawing at me. I'm like, oh, Dakota deck wins 12 games every year. He's healthy. Eight, nine, maybe. Nine and eight, maybe.
0:57:43 - (Mike): What do you think the New York Football Giants are going to be?
0:57:45 - (Jeff): We've touched on 5 and 12 on.
0:57:47 - (Mike): The red, on the commander.
0:57:49 - (Jeff): Yeah. Don't you say that.
0:57:50 - (Mike): I. I didn't.
0:57:51 - (Jeff): I.
0:57:52 - (Mike): Don't you say I caught myself, don't you? That doesn't count. I caught myself.
0:57:56 - (Jeff): You want to get some face paint, bro? New York 5 and 12, something like that. I'd love if they traded as Jamis James. They signed Jameis Winston, then they signed Russell Wilson, then they drafted a quarterback in the first round. Jameis Winston makes football better for everyone.
0:58:13 - (Grubes): He's so fun.
0:58:14 - (Jeff): I want Jameis. If Dak gets hurt, I don't want Joe Milton out there throwing it at Home Depot for no reason. And then a spectator gets hit, and it's like many has a big run, throws a touchdown, then he throws a pick six like there's some fun there. James's bit is who's running the furthest. I'm throwing to him.
0:58:33 - (Mike): That's the Cowboy way, though.
0:58:35 - (Jeff): Three tutties, three picks every week. That's football.
0:58:39 - (Mike): That's the Cowboy Way though.
0:58:40 - (Jeff): He said, I'm praying the Lord to deliver me from pick sixes. If that.
0:58:44 - (Mike): If that goes down, then season over. They don't go in big on backup corner.
0:58:50 - (Jeff): So let's have fun.
0:58:51 - (Grubes): Yeah, let's have fun.
0:58:52 - (Jeff): Sh.
0:58:52 - (Mike): Because you don't think Joe Milton's fun.
0:58:55 - (Jeff): It could be fun. First two preseason games I watched, I didn't have much fun. James is fun. I like fun.
0:59:02 - (Mike): Okay.
0:59:02 - (Jeff): And then he gets to talk, and his talking is the best. Yeah.
0:59:06 - (Mike): I would not be opposed to this.
0:59:08 - (Jeff): I want Jameis to get traded the Cowboys and stay at my house. I'll get up and make breakfast tacos every day. Like, I'll do whatever you need, buddy.
0:59:17 - (Grubes): Maybe you could pay off your pool.
0:59:18 - (Jeff): I see. That'd be great. I just want to wake up and have James there and talk to him for a few minutes before I go to work, you know?
0:59:26 - (Mike): There you go. There's an offer you can't refuse, man.
0:59:29 - (Jeff): Trade for James. Yeah.
0:59:30 - (Mike): Yeah. Get him down here. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you doing this. Appreciate your cowboy knowledge and insight. There is no nobody like you. I tell people that I talk to all the time. The best guy on the Cowboys I've ever been around is Cavs.
0:59:46 - (Grubes): Damn.
0:59:47 - (Mike): And I mean that.
0:59:49 - (Jeff): That is. That's incredible praise, and I appreciate that. And there is nobody like me because I am a psychopath.
0:59:57 - (Mike): Yeah. On top of everything else, he's that, too.
0:59:59 - (Jeff): I would love if you could just. If there's a way to map and put it on the wall. Like, here's what's going on in Jeff's brain at any given moment. He'd be like, there you go. There's that much happening, huh? How's he making words?
1:00:12 - (Mike): See, he's just like all the rest of us. He ain't perfect, and he knows it.
1:00:15 - (Jeff): Yeah, that's it.
1:00:18 - (Mike): Well, thanks, man.
1:00:19 - (Jeff): I love you. I miss you.
1:00:20 - (Mike): Love you, too. Miss you.
1:00:21 - (Jeff): I miss. I miss the freak zoo.
1:00:23 - (Mike): Oh, boy. I do, too.
1:00:24 - (Jeff): Why do we have 17 different stuffed animals?
1:00:31 - (Mike): Let's see. I think I got another read here to do. As a matter of fact, I do.
1:00:35 - (Jeff): So what is it? Can I do it?
1:00:37 - (Mike): And we will get on out of here?
1:00:38 - (Jeff): Can I do it?
1:00:39 - (Mike): Yeah, you can do it.
1:00:40 - (Jeff): I can lean and see it, I bet. What is it? Is it the stuff that's scrolling right now?
1:00:43 - (Mike): No, we're coming right down to it right there.
1:00:47 - (Jeff): Here it is. Remember, you can find all episodes on our Patreon page. You can also find us on YouTube and Spotify. Listen, follow, and share us on your social media. That means everything to those of us who swim in the waters of the podcast. And while we're at it, if you're feeling what we're throwing down, how about a nice review? If you're by the channel on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can help others find us by leaving a review.
1:01:12 - (Jeff): It sure would be kind. So do it, or else. Remember, you have no idea what anybody's going through, so be cool to everybody. We love you. Be easy. All right, I'm gonna go take my pants off.
1:01:46 - (Mike): Your Dark companion is a stolen water media presentation.