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NFC East Preview: Dallas Cowboys Have Talent, But Question Marks · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Inside the Birds with Jeff Mosher
• 0:13
  and Adam Kaplan, And of course we're starting our NFC
• 0:16
  East preview series. We do it each summer. When we
• 0:20
  do it, we bring back the man who breaks down
• 0:22
  more NFL tape than anybody that we know, the godfather
• 0:26
  of tape breakdown, Greg Cosel. Greg, welcome back. Excited to
• 0:30
  start the NFC East Preview series with you.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: You know, Jeff, it's hard to believe it's mid June already.
• 0:36
  I feel like I get two months where I don't
• 0:37
  have deadlines, and then all of a sudden, I'm back
• 0:40
  in deadline moude, you know, and those two months go
• 0:43
  by really fast.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Greig, because you live in a tape breakdown
• 0:48
  cave and probably don't get out very much, you probably
• 0:50
  realized that from a weather standpoint, it felt like fall
• 0:54
  for most of spring, and now it's about to feel
• 0:56
  like dead middle of summer with ninety one hundred degree
• 0:59
  I know, I.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Saw, I happen to see. Yeah, it's gonna be the
• 1:02
  next I guess in three or four days it's gonna start.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy, but hey, it's a great
• 1:07
  time to look at the NFC East. The draft is over,
• 1:10
  like the major part of free agency is over. Coaching
• 1:13
  changes have happened, and we're gonna start with the Dallas
• 1:16
  Cowboys and Adam. This one becomes interesting because we usually
• 1:18
  saved that for third in the pecking order. We get
• 1:21
  the Giants and Washington out of the way, then we
• 1:24
  get to the meat and potatoes with the Dallas Cowboys
• 1:26
  and then finish it off with the Eagles. But there's
• 1:29
  been a little bit of a changing of the guard
• 1:31
  or the hierarchy in the NFC East last year, and
• 1:33
  Dallas Craig is a team that is coming off a
• 1:37
  losing record. There were seven to ten last year. They
• 1:40
  made significant changes in the off season, and we should
• 1:44
  really start with what you know. And Adam will get
• 1:47
  into some of your stuff too, just about the new
• 1:51
  head coach, the philosophy, what you're expecting from say a
• 1:55
  scheme or personnel kind of grouping. Look with Brian Schottenheimer
• 1:59
  now as their offensive coordinator, Greg, when you think Brian Schottenheimer,
• 2:03
  you think.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: What I mean. I think that ideally he's a coach
• 2:11
  that wants to be balanced. Now that's obviously not a
• 2:14
  profound statement and it's not it's not an amazing thing
• 2:17
  to say, but you know, Brian Schottenheimer is always done
• 2:22
  well where he's been with quarterbacks, but I think it's
• 2:25
  always been part of a pretty balanced offense. In other words,
• 2:29
  he's not just a throwball guy. And I think what
• 2:32
  they've done in the offseason kind of speaks to that
• 2:35
  a little bit. And we can get into kind of
• 2:37
  the specifics of what I think their run game will
• 2:39
  look like. But there's no question in my mind that
• 2:44
  he wants a little more physicality in his offense and
• 2:47
  he wants a run game to be a determining factor,
• 2:52
  and I think that that's where it'll start. And I
• 2:55
  think there's a chance they could do that. They've got
• 2:57
  some unknowns, but they've also got the kinds of players
• 3:01
  that I think would would speak to a specific kind
• 3:04
  of run game.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: And Adam, wouldn't you say, just because we've talked about
• 3:07
  how Schottenheimer when he was with Pete Carroll, wanted Pete
• 3:11
  to open it up a little bit more. Yes, you
• 3:13
  can foundationally run, but wanted the whole Russ Cook thing. Yeah,
• 3:17
  this will be his opportunity, Adam right to kind of
• 3:19
  put his final say like, yes, we can run the ball,
• 3:22
  but I'm curious to see, As Greg mentioned, what his
• 3:25
  impact will be on the quarterback in the passing game.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he And by the way, a couple things on Shotty.
• 3:32
  He coaches quarterbacks hard, like.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: He and well and well.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was brought in specifically to coach Russell Wilson hard.
• 3:39
  And it did actually work until Pete Carroll and Shotty
• 3:42
  had a philosophical difference. Shotty's very analytical, like the let
• 3:48
  Russ Cook movement was Schottenheimer's idea. Now, I will tell
• 3:51
  you the Seahawks have been after Pete for years. Hey
• 3:54
  would be more aggressive earlier in the game, from yeah,
• 3:56
  we're gonna run the ball, no question, but we'd like
• 3:58
  to come out and throw it early.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: And that's what he did in twenty twenty.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: And that was the season where Wilson had twenty eight
• 4:05
  passing touchdowns in eight games, which is damn Marin alike
• 4:07
  from a number standpoint. Then it fell apart, and that's
• 4:10
  where Pete and Shotty had a disagreement on the function
• 4:13
  of the offense. But Shotty also has his dad's background
• 4:16
  of running the football, so you're mixing both worlds. Jeff
• 4:19
  is the looking forward throwing the ball, but yet you
• 4:22
  still want.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: To be balanced.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: As Greg talks about, it's an interesting balance of the two.
• 4:27
  But I find it interesting though when you look at
• 4:30
  this situation with Dak Prescott coming off another injury. Are
• 4:34
  they gonna just come out and try to because you've
• 4:37
  got a number of running back which we'll get into.
• 4:39
  Are you going to try to come out running? But
• 4:41
  you've they made the trade for George Pickens, You've got
• 4:43
  Ceedee Lamb, and you get Jake Fergs.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: It's a good tight end.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: It's really interesting, Jeff, as we throw it back to you,
• 4:50
  how they're going to attack defenses.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: Well, here's what I want.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: To get with Greg on the point you're making on quarterbacks,
• 4:57
  because I thought one area that Dak developed well Greg
• 5:00
  under Mike McCarthy in that West Coast offense was and
• 5:04
  really he saw two years ago obviously more than the
• 5:06
  last year.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: We it was hurt.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: But if it's there he could throw. He throws his
• 5:10
  tight end, he throws the seedy lamb. But if it
• 5:12
  wasn't there, he was starting to use his legs again
• 5:14
  and get maneuverable and be able to move first down
• 5:18
  so A, with the injury, you wonder if he's still
• 5:20
  going to be, you know, wanting to do that. And
• 5:22
  B I just wonder what Schottenheimer will introduce into his
• 5:27
  game to try to make him different.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Let's get a little specific into the weeds, because this
• 5:31
  is my sense of what they're going to do. I
• 5:34
  think run game wise, okay, I think they're going to
• 5:37
  be more of a gap scheme duo type run game
• 5:41
  than a zone run team for a couple of reasons.
• 5:44
  Number One, they drafted Tyler Booker from Alabama with their
• 5:47
  first pick, and he's going to play right guard. He
• 5:50
  is not a zone type guard. Is he's a power
• 5:54
  player Cooper BB the center, He's much more of that
• 5:58
  kind of player as well. And I think I think
• 6:00
  with Deravante Williams, who when an ideal world, becomes their
• 6:03
  lead back. Now when I say lead back, I don't
• 6:06
  think I'll have three hundred and thirty carries, but I
• 6:08
  think if he's healthy, he's their lead back. I think
• 6:12
  he's much more effective too as a downhill, gap scheme runner.
• 6:17
  So I think the way they've set up their own
• 6:19
  line with their back is that you're going to see
• 6:22
  more gap scheme and more duo, and it's going to
• 6:25
  be downhill and the play action pass game will work
• 6:28
  off that because Prescott, even though Jeff, you're one hundred
• 6:31
  percent right, even though two years ago he did use
• 6:34
  his legs more than we'd seen in the previous two
• 6:37
  or three years, I think at this point in his career,
• 6:40
  I mean, is he in year ten now, I believe
• 6:42
  something like that. Yeah, he's much more of a ball
• 6:48
  distributor and an executor than a playmaker, you know, and
• 6:51
  he run for a first down pretty much most quarterbacks
• 6:54
  in the NFL at this point have enough athletic ability
• 6:57
  to run for a first down. But I don't think
• 7:00
  you're designing a big quarterback run game unless maybe you're
• 7:04
  inside the ten yard line. So I think at this
• 7:07
  point he's a ball distributor and an efficient executor, and
• 7:10
  they'll work off the the you know, the power type
• 7:14
  run game.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, to piggyback off that ad him, I thought.
• 7:19
  And again, I think Javonte Williams fits perfectly. Like Greg said,
• 7:22
  I thought the Miles Sanders signing was a little bit
• 7:25
  sneaky too, in that he's clearly, you know, had a
• 7:28
  difficult time in Carolina. He was the beneficiary of great
• 7:32
  offensive line with the Eagles, but he ran tough with
• 7:35
  the Eagles and he is more in my estimation having
• 7:38
  watching him out, better fit for teams that run inside
• 7:43
  like the Eagles do. And maybe he will find a
• 7:45
  decent role if he can stay healthy with the Cowboys.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and honestly, I think in an ideal world we'll
• 7:51
  get the jayda On Blow because we got to talk
• 7:52
  about him. But oh yeah, an ideal world, Williams kind
• 7:57
  of finds the former talent that he had. You remember
• 8:02
  how talent he was then he had an awful knee injury. Yes,
• 8:05
  he just has not been the same, but if he
• 8:08
  could get close to what he was. And then Sanders
• 8:10
  comes in and Greg as, I throw it to you,
• 8:13
  jayd On Blow. I know he's not the biggest guy
• 8:14
  in the world, and I know he went in the
• 8:16
  fifth round, but he may not be a leadback, but
• 8:20
  I know this guy can run. What are your thoughts
• 8:22
  on him in this offense and also his college state.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I'm going to try to say this as clearly as
• 8:27
  I can so people understand it the correct way. He's
• 8:31
  not jimur Gibbs. Okay, he's not Jamir Gibbs, but in
• 8:35
  the context of an offense, he can be deployed in
• 8:39
  a similar fashion. Now, he's not going to have over
• 8:42
  two hundred carries, and Gibbs would not have had over
• 8:44
  two hundred carries if David Montgomery didn't miss three or
• 8:47
  four games, and Jaden Blue probably is not going to
• 8:50
  even have one hundred and sixty carries. But he is
• 8:53
  so explosive and he's a really good receiver out of
• 8:57
  the backfield. So there's a place for Jaden in the
• 9:00
  NFL and with the Cowboys, you know he'll be on
• 9:05
  the field at times. Again, we don't know right now
• 9:07
  as we speak in mid June exactly what role he
• 9:10
  will have, but he will have a role because he
• 9:13
  can score touchdowns from anywhere on the field. And when
• 9:16
  you talk to coaches, and I've had the opportunity to
• 9:19
  do so a little bit this offseason, that's what offensive coaches,
• 9:23
  you know, they can't say the word explosives enough. That's
• 9:26
  what they want, and jay Don Blue can do that.
• 9:29
  So it remains to be seeing what his specific role is,
• 9:32
  but it could be similar to the way Jamir Gibbs
• 9:36
  is used in Detroit.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So speaking of explosive, let's sort of take a bigger
• 9:42
  view now of the offense. They add Pickens, Yes, very
• 9:46
  good wide receiver George Pickens, and they have Ceedee Lamb.
• 9:49
  Ferguson kind of had a down years injured, but I
• 9:52
  think we would all agree it's a pretty good tight
• 9:53
  end when he's healthy, and he has a good rapport
• 9:56
  with Dak Prescott. So when you look at the offense
• 9:58
  as a whole, greg A, what are you expecting philosophically
• 10:03
  offensively as far as route concepts or how they will
• 10:06
  attack with this offense? And B do you think it's
• 10:08
  explosive enough to compete with the big explosive teams.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think you know one thing with Pickens,
• 10:15
  and I think this is a big factor. First of all,
• 10:18
  we know he's extremely talented. We're not going to get
• 10:20
  into the character stuff. I mean, the guy is a high,
• 10:22
  high level talent. But I think in the context of
• 10:25
  their offense, Pickens is a true boundary X. So now
• 10:29
  you play him an X because Ceedee Lamb is really
• 10:32
  at his best as a movement player. You know you
• 10:35
  can line Cedde Lamb up at X. They've done that
• 10:37
  in the past. Because they were short on really quality wideouts.
• 10:41
  But now you have a clear boundary X in George
• 10:44
  Pickens and Cedee Lamb can do what he does best,
• 10:47
  which is really line up anywhere and be a movement player.
• 10:51
  That's the strength of Cdee Lamb's game. And you made
• 10:55
  the point about Ferguson. Ferguson started to come on a
• 10:58
  couple of years ago when Dak was there, because one
• 11:01
  thing about Dak is he does throw the ball between
• 11:03
  the numbers. Dak is an aggressive thrower. He has no
• 11:06
  problem doing that. I can picture in my mind a
• 11:09
  number of catches Ferguson made at the intermediate levels, you know,
• 11:13
  between the hashes. So you know, again they're not gonna
• 11:17
  have three guys with ninety catches. But I think Ferguson
• 11:20
  is assuming health will be more of a factor in
• 11:23
  the offense if Dak can play.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Jeff, I do want to mention one guy somewhere on
• 11:29
  a shot. He's coaching staff as Junior Adams, the receivers
• 11:32
  coach never coached in the NFL, but this guy is
• 11:34
  one of the best. He was one of the best
• 11:36
  college receiver coaches. He coached a really well known guy
• 11:39
  on the West Cougs. Yeah, Cooper Cupp. He coached him
• 11:41
  in Eastern Washington. He was a co coordinator and receivers
• 11:45
  coach at Argon. This guy's a really good coach. Now
• 11:48
  now he's a pro coach chef, and now we got
• 11:51
  to see how he handles George Pickens is George Pickens,
• 11:55
  as Greg said, is an elite talent. And he also,
• 11:58
  by the way, is on a contract year. This is
• 12:00
  a huge year for him. I'm I'm I'm fascinating to
• 12:03
  see how this thing's gonna work out.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: All right. I think I'm sorry, Jeff. I think we
• 12:07
  were remiss and I don't know where you were gonna go.
• 12:09
  So I don't want to jump on you, but we'd
• 12:11
  be remiss if we didn't mention Tyler guy and I
• 12:13
  didn't know if you're going to.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Go thereat subject to make good left tackle. Yeah, yep,
• 12:17
  yep good.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: The point I was going to make to sum up
• 12:20
  their offense, Greg, is that, based on what we've discussed
• 12:22
  about their philosophical philosophy, now under Schottenheimer and with Dak
• 12:27
  needing to stay healthy, for this team to be productive,
• 12:30
  they need their offensive line to be as good for
• 12:32
  them as to draw compared to the way the Eagles
• 12:35
  is for them, the way they run their offense, and
• 12:37
  that to me means Tyler Geyton has to take a
• 12:40
  big step as their left tackle. Everybody else I think
• 12:42
  it plays pretty well. Yeah, he's a big part of
• 12:45
  what they need to do.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And he struggled as a rookie because don't forget,
• 12:50
  he only played fourteen games to tackle at Oklahoma, and
• 12:53
  he played right tackle, and the transition from right tackle
• 12:57
  to left tackle is so much bigger than people might think.
• 13:00
  And he really struggled. You know, I've been very fortunate
• 13:04
  to go to the O line masterminds for the last
• 13:06
  couple of years, and I'm going to go again this year.
• 13:08
  And you could see that he struggled with his set
• 13:12
  number one and his stands, his stance, and that's the
• 13:16
  first thing that these old linemen say, stance, and he
• 13:18
  struggled with it. He was on the other side and
• 13:20
  he just didn't have a lot of experience playing tackle.
• 13:23
  And then the next part is he struggled with his set.
• 13:26
  And what happens when you struggle with your set is
• 13:29
  you become you just struggle in with speed to power.
• 13:34
  You're susceptible to it because you're never really you know,
• 13:37
  these they always talk about setting your house. He'd never
• 13:40
  really set his house, and guys would just get into
• 13:43
  him and they would drive him back. So it's a
• 13:45
  technique thing. He's a very talented guy in terms of
• 13:49
  athletic skills. He's got really light feed. I think he
• 13:52
  even went to Oklahoma's a tight end. He's got very
• 13:56
  light feed. He's got the sort of athletic traits you
• 13:59
  look for to play life tackle. He just really needs
• 14:01
  a lot of technique work, right, Jeff, real quick.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: And again they have a coach who's day an offensive
• 14:08
  line coaches not work in the NFL before it's Connor
• 14:10
  Riley was a former offense cordator Kansas State and being
• 14:15
  that guidance of project right now, that that's something we're
• 14:17
  gonna have to watch.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: That's a big deal. It's a big deal.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: That's a great point, Adam, That's a great point. Yeah.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: So I think i'd have to say, as I as
• 14:25
  we summarize the Dallas offense, I'm not completely convinced that
• 14:29
  Javonte Williams, who really has not been the same guy
• 14:31
  coming back from the injury paired with Miles Sanders is
• 14:35
  going to be the effective, dynamic run game they need
• 14:38
  for this offense. And I would say Jalen Tolbert really
• 14:43
  needs to come into his own this year because I
• 14:45
  still think in general the offense outside of Cede Lamb
• 14:49
  and your occasional splash two pickens, is missing an explosive element.
• 14:53
  Now maybe again it's Ferguson hard to get it from
• 14:56
  the tight end spot, but maybe it's Jayden Blue being better.
• 14:59
  But I thought I up by now that would be
• 15:01
  the discussion about Jalen Tolbert and what he could bring
• 15:04
  to this offense.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: One name I'm just gonna mention before we moved to
• 15:07
  their defense, and he's a seventh round pick, so we
• 15:09
  might not even make the team. But Phil Maffa from Clemson.
• 15:13
  You know, I think back to someone that Schottenheimer is
• 15:15
  familiar with with Chris Carson, who it was either a
• 15:18
  late round pick or undrafted as I recall, and had
• 15:22
  good years as just a kind of a power back.
• 15:24
  And maff is that kind of guy. And again, if
• 15:27
  they end up wanting to be a power team, you know,
• 15:29
  running gap scheme and duo, you never know. I mean,
• 15:33
  maf is not going to break it and he's not
• 15:34
  going to average you know, five yards to carry. But
• 15:36
  he's big and he's physical, and I guarantee when he
• 15:40
  was sitting there on the board that's why they drafted him. Again,
• 15:44
  he's a seventh round pick. He could get cut after
• 15:46
  three weeks, you know. So I'm not sitting here saying
• 15:48
  he's the guy. But stylistically, the kind of back he
• 15:52
  is I think fits what they want to do. And
• 15:54
  because there was that experience with Chris Carson, you know,
• 15:57
  I think that that Schottenheimer might see it and go, Okay,
• 16:00
  this guy maybe maybe can sort of fit that role
• 16:03
  if need be sure.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Jeff at the at the combine, MafA six feet five
• 16:09
  ays of an inch two thirty four.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, he runs like that?
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Nice all right, MafA name to keep it. Not the
• 16:18
  guy buried in the middle Lands parking lot. This is MafA,
• 16:21
  right right, right, right right right, all right?
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Hey real quick.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Actually I did want to throw this at you. It's off.
• 16:26
  What do you think of the Joe Milton acquisition?
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: You know, I've heard from some people that Joe Milton
• 16:31
  was phenomenal for the Patriots, you know, all in practice,
• 16:34
  and obviously he wasn't going to be the starter, and
• 16:37
  he played that last game of the season and he
• 16:39
  was really good. Yeah, and uh, you know it's a
• 16:44
  it's a really good trade for them. Number one. Dak
• 16:46
  has gotten hurt a lot, and you know, Milton is
• 16:49
  super talented and in that last game of the season,
• 16:52
  again it's one game, but he looked like a professional quarterback.
• 16:57
  So we'll see. I mean I spoke to some peopleeople
• 17:00
  who said that, you know, he he just was unbelievable
• 17:03
  with New England in just one year, like just they
• 17:05
  were blown away by him.
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: No, obviously, so why would they Why would they trade him?
• 17:10
  I mean, that makes no sense to not It was late.
• 17:14
  It was a six or son front pick.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: His arm strang, Jeff, I remember I remember the just
• 17:19
  watching the combine.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: Which is at the Senior ball and I'm going back,
• 17:26
  uh since O two, I don't remember seeing a strong arm.
• 17:29
  I saw Carson Palmer frow he at the Senior bawll
• 17:32
  O three, I mean seeing that and Flacco. Flacco's right there.
• 17:36
  But this kid's arm is ridiculous. But the problem has
• 17:39
  always been with him his accuracy. He's just never had it.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but certainly higher upside been interesting.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Interesting acquisition.
• 17:47
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• 18:11
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• 18:18
  Speaker 1: All right, let's transition to defense again. New coach, new
• 18:21
  person presiding over the defense. Of course, it's Matt Eberflus,
• 18:24
  the former Chicago Bears head coach, former Colts defensive coordinator.
• 18:28
  And I find this interesting because a we know that
• 18:32
  the Cowboys have not been able to stop the run
• 18:34
  since the Truman administration. So now you bring Matt eber
• 18:37
  Brus in. And if I'm Jerry Jones, you know I'd
• 18:40
  say Matt, he got a lot of jobs here. First
• 18:42
  of all, we want to win a championship, but job
• 18:43
  number one is figure out a way for us to
• 18:46
  improve our run defense. Because Greg, they have tried different
• 18:49
  sets of personnel, different front sixes, running guys in and out,
• 18:52
  but they've struggled for a while in stopping the run.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and ebn Flus. One thing I remember when he
• 18:58
  was in Indianapolis is he did a lot of things
• 19:00
  with his fronts that were a little different. And I'm
• 19:02
  sure you're going to see that. You know, we don't
• 19:04
  know exactly what there would be, but I remember there
• 19:06
  were times where he would line up on first down
• 19:08
  with two one techniques. You know, he would do a
• 19:11
  lot of different things with his fronts to you know,
• 19:14
  obviously try to cause some problems for blocking schemes. You know,
• 19:18
  there's a couple of players that have to sort of
• 19:21
  play better, you know, and one is Mozzi Smith and
• 19:24
  you know, Mizsey Smith was the first round pick and
• 19:26
  his tape in college was actually really really good, and
• 19:29
  I liked him a lot coming out. I mean, there
• 19:31
  are times I thought he looked very much like Jalen
• 19:34
  Carter made those kinds of plays, and it just hasn't
• 19:37
  happened in two years yet, but the physical traits are there,
• 19:41
  so now you hope they can, you know, a new
• 19:43
  coaching staff can get it out of them, we'll see.
• 19:46
  You know, they actually drafted and again you're talking when
• 19:50
  you start getting into later rounds, you know, you never
• 19:52
  know obviously, but they drafted another guy in the seventh
• 19:55
  round whose tape I found fascinating from UCLA. You know,
• 20:00
  everybody focused on Carson Swesinger when they watched UCLA, but
• 20:03
  they drafted this kid, Jay Toya, who is clearly a
• 20:06
  big run stuffer and was really good on tape. You know,
• 20:10
  he's a seventh round pick because he's he's a run defender.
• 20:13
  You know, he's not going to rush the quarterback, so again,
• 20:15
  seventh round pick.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Buts just so everybody knows.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: And he actually does that pretty like feet by the way.
• 20:21
  But but he's obviously a run defender, so we'll see.
• 20:24
  I mean, that's got to be priority one. I mean
• 20:27
  I remember over the years talking with offensive coaches who
• 20:30
  played against ebra Flus and said they told me that
• 20:33
  on first and second down, he tends to be relatively predictable,
• 20:37
  that he's more of an execution kind of kind of
• 20:40
  a decoordinator, but that he can be difficult on third
• 20:43
  down with what he does. So we'll see. I mean,
• 20:46
  this is a you know, a chance for him to
• 20:47
  sort of regain some status, and they did some interesting
• 20:51
  things in the offseason, which leads leads me to believe
• 20:54
  that I'm not sure what they're going to do on
• 20:56
  the back end. All right, explain, well, they they got
• 21:01
  Kyer Elam and Elam was a first round pick for
• 21:05
  the Bills three years ago, and the strength of what
• 21:10
  he does is man coverage. He's a press man player.
• 21:13
  He's not a good zone player. And that was the
• 21:16
  issue with the Bills because Sean McDermott is very detailed
• 21:20
  in his own coverage concepts and Elim never quite picked
• 21:23
  it up. And in fact, when Elam had to play
• 21:27
  and start, they ended up playing more man coverage because
• 21:30
  he can't play zone very well. So the fact that
• 21:33
  they got him, and you know, I guess is he
• 21:36
  penciled in right now as a starter. You know, I
• 21:38
  don't know. But the point I'm making is that getting
• 21:42
  Elam and having Digs back healthy, who's a really good
• 21:45
  man corner as well. They drafted Revel in the third round.
• 21:50
  He's a pure press man corner. Is this going to
• 21:55
  be you know, a majority or a high percentage man defense.
• 22:00
  Even though eber Flues has not necessarily been a high
• 22:02
  percentage man defensive coordinator. The players they have fit that better.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: A couple of things.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Diggs right now is very questionable to dabtfle that'll be
• 22:11
  ready for the start of the season. He had a
• 22:13
  follow up surgery on the ACL and then ravel obvious
• 22:16
  is coming off in ACL, so we'll have to see
• 22:18
  about that.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: So they're questions.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, they still have Andrew Booth, who Tein's picked
• 22:22
  on when he was able to play. You mentioned elim
• 22:26
  kick Kaylen Carson was drafted last year. Of course, Jarron
• 22:28
  Bland we've talked a ton about on the show. You know,
• 22:31
  it's still in the roster. Is Troy Pride. You might
• 22:33
  remember it was a draftee of the Panther. So, Jeff,
• 22:36
  they have a ton of corners, but they have a
• 22:38
  lot of questions at corner.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm sort of fascinated by what Greg said because,
• 22:42
  I mean, this is what Dan Quinn did when he
• 22:44
  became the Cowboys coordinator. He was known as the cover
• 22:47
  three guy, his own defense guy in Seattle, right, and
• 22:51
  then he came in, came to the Dallas and just
• 22:53
  decided he was going to play man and blitz a lot,
• 22:55
  and maybe I almost think if eber Flus did that,
• 22:58
  that would be even a ranger deviation because you know,
• 23:02
  his I feel like his reputation was not just playing
• 23:05
  zone but almost soft zone, like you know, you try
• 23:07
  to get a front four rush, but he didn't have
• 23:10
  that kind of attack. Seattle defense really burden, you know,
• 23:14
  and banging around. It was just like kind of a
• 23:16
  good Colts defense that was hard to move the ball
• 23:19
  against when when they were at their best. So that
• 23:21
  would be a real big deviation for.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Him, But he got to play to your personnel.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So getting back to the front six, though, if
• 23:29
  the mission is to get better against the run and
• 23:31
  have Mazi Smith finally come into his own Jay Toya
• 23:34
  gets in there, I worry about or I wonder about
• 23:37
  their linebacker level. Obviously Damarian Overshown very talented, but coming
• 23:42
  off another injury, and then Kenneth Murray is a light
• 23:45
  undersized linebacker, not necessarily your guy that you think is
• 23:49
  going to come in and thump against the run. So
• 23:51
  I wonder still if they have the personnel.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Well, Marty's a fascinating guy. He's not really Jeff, He's
• 23:56
  not really undersized, he's over two forty.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: He isn't he short though?
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Like five?
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: I have the wrong dimensions on him.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, The problem with Murray and the reason he's
• 24:08
  no longer in Tennessee and the reason he was no
• 24:10
  longer with the Chargers is for all his athletic traits.
• 24:14
  And I loved him coming out of college, but you know,
• 24:17
  college is different and sometimes you can't pick this up,
• 24:19
  or I certainly didn't. So is he just doesn't see
• 24:22
  things very well. And he's not a quick processor, which
• 24:26
  leads to him being a slow reactor. He's not one
• 24:29
  of those you know, you always hear key and diagnose
• 24:31
  that term. He's not that guy. So wherever he goes,
• 24:34
  what happens is is you get excited about the athletic
• 24:36
  trades because he's sixty three two forty. He was in
• 24:39
  the same draft with Patrick Queen. Okay, he's a bigger,
• 24:42
  more athletic player than Queen, but Queen is just a
• 24:46
  better player, you know, and Murray's you know, he just
• 24:50
  hasn't been able to reach that. I hate to use
• 24:53
  the word potential, but I mean he just hasn't been
• 24:55
  able to play to his size and his athleticism because
• 24:58
  he just doesn't see it the way you have to
• 25:00
  see it. So he's going to get probably his final
• 25:03
  shot now because this is his third team, and I
• 25:05
  assume he'll be the starter. Although I got to tell
• 25:08
  you there's one guy I've always really you're going there, Sanborn.
• 25:15
  And you know, it's funny because two years ago he
• 25:18
  was an undrafted player out of Wisconsin. And you know,
• 25:20
  they they send linebackers to the NFL, you know, like crazy,
• 25:24
  and two years ago he had to play a lot
• 25:26
  because who got two years ago, someone got hurt, I forget,
• 25:30
  and and he ended up having a start, and I
• 25:32
  thought he played really well. And then of course the
• 25:34
  Bears made that big commitment with t J. Edwards and
• 25:38
  Tremaine Edmunds, and Sanborn became, you know, a backup. Essentially
• 25:42
  he played in their bass, you know, which they only
• 25:44
  played what twenty percent of the time or whatever. But
• 25:47
  I don't know. I think he's a good player. Now again,
• 25:50
  is he the best athlete on the field. No, but
• 25:53
  he's not a bad athlete. And it'll be very interesting
• 25:56
  to see how that shakes out once, you know, the
• 25:59
  pads come on and the real work starts.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: All right, Two rookies we want to talk about. Let's
• 26:04
  talk about you talk about Revel for his ACL injury,
• 26:07
  and then Donald Azaraku, who Yeah, I know some teams
• 26:11
  had a late one on him, he went in the second.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: What are your thoughts on these two kids?
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Revel to me, and again, I think you would
• 26:17
  have been drafted a little higher if it wasn't for
• 26:19
  the ACL injury, which happened pretty early week four or five.
• 26:23
  So you know he may be ready. Revel to me.
• 26:27
  He's big, he's physical, he's a pure press man corner.
• 26:30
  You've got to teach him how to play off coverage. Zone.
• 26:33
  You know, zone has so many parts to it. You
• 26:35
  know people just go, oh, well they'll play zone. Well,
• 26:38
  you know, if you play zone, you have to understand
• 26:40
  a lot of things. You have to understand route concepts,
• 26:44
  route combinations. You have to understand what the stress areas
• 26:47
  are in zone. You have to understand what the conflict
• 26:49
  areas are. You know, you have to understand how to
• 26:51
  play the midpoint of routes. You know, there's a lot
• 26:54
  you have to learn to play zone coverage. It's not
• 26:57
  just oh, we'll play zone. You know, it doesn't might
• 27:00
  work like that. Talking about it as a Ruku. I
• 27:03
  liked his tape. You know, he's he's not big in
• 27:06
  terms of height, but I thought that he was powerful.
• 27:10
  I thought he knew how to use his hands reasonably well.
• 27:14
  I thought he was a really intriguing guy. Some teams,
• 27:16
  you know, don't like their edge rushers to be six
• 27:18
  too what every way, you know he's not tall, but
• 27:21
  you know, I think he's got a lot of good traits.
• 27:23
  And don't forget they got Micah Parsons. Well pretty good.
• 27:26
  Ask me about that.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Let's go, because Maddi Eberfleus, to my recollection, both in
• 27:31
  Chicago and as defensive coordinator of the Colts did not
• 27:34
  have a player like Micah Parsons.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Well, there's not a lot of those guys.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: No, there are, there are not, but I mean even
• 27:40
  even in the same like Strattu Street, I think his
• 27:42
  best pass rusher from the edge was maybe justin Houston
• 27:45
  in Indianapolis, and then with the Bears, they really lacked
• 27:49
  good edge rushers outside of Montese Sweat. But those are
• 27:52
  not not guys in the same vicinity. So do you
• 27:56
  expect Iberflus is kind of known for you said, doing
• 27:59
  some things up front, but I don't know if he's
• 28:01
  ever had a used a movable piece like Parsons. Do
• 28:05
  you expect Parsons to be more of an edge guy?
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: And just because I think you know eber Flus normally
• 28:11
  is a four man rush guy normally. And the question
• 28:16
  is I think that you're asking, will they move Michael
• 28:18
  Parsons around as previous staffs did where he lined up
• 28:21
  all over? I think that becomes a function of as
• 28:25
  a ruaku. Even Marshawn Neelan, who was a second round
• 28:30
  pick a year ago, who you know, showed flashes. I
• 28:34
  think you know, they even picked up Peyton Turner from
• 28:37
  New Orleans who was a pretty high pick and he's
• 28:40
  actually an interesting guy. So I think that depends Jeff
• 28:43
  on these other players as to what Parsons becomes in
• 28:48
  those third down and pure pass situations. I think that
• 28:52
  that that's we don't know the answer that they don't
• 28:55
  know the answers to that yet. They probably have a
• 28:56
  sense of it, but they've got to go through training camp,
• 29:00
  you know, to see how that works.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Jeff, I'll say this, if you they have a ton
• 29:04
  of talent on defense summer. Look, Solomon Thomas is also there.
• 29:08
  Payton Turners, had a number of injuries in his career.
• 29:10
  That's why the Saints move on from him. But he's talented.
• 29:13
  Greg mentioned Marshawn Neeland, who had kne injury last year
• 29:16
  but still has played well overshown unfortunes coming back from
• 29:19
  another bad at an injury. We mentioned Diggs and Revel
• 29:24
  and Donovan Wilson and Millie Cooker. Jeff, this team, this
• 29:28
  defense got a ton of talent, but kind they get
• 29:30
  it to play together and stay healthy.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: It's got all you know. I've always thought Donovan Wilson
• 29:35
  was a good player. He shows up on tape all
• 29:37
  the time. They've got, you know, Jeff, you you mentioned that,
• 29:41
  you know, the front group. They've got a lot of
• 29:43
  guys who played in the league. Okay, they signed Solomon Thomas,
• 29:47
  who's a rotational player. Payton Turner was the first round pick.
• 29:51
  I mean obviously they drafted as a ruaku. You know,
• 29:54
  Mizi Smith was a first round pick. Odiggie Zua, I
• 29:57
  mean he signed, you know, he's he's a pretty solid player.
• 30:00
  They brought back Dante Fowler. I mean they have a
• 30:03
  lot of competition. Is Sam Williams back healthy?
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: Another one? Yeah, he's got the knee injury, but yeah,
• 30:08
  he you know he'll be back. Jeff.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: This this this team is deep. But if you have
• 30:14
  to put it together for whatever reason.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got they've got to figure all this out
• 30:18
  and they you know they will in their mind obviously.
• 30:21
  But there's going to be a lot of competition with
• 30:23
  that defensive line as to who plays in what packages?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Right, I mean I think as we wrap this up
• 30:29
  for the team in general, I just see boom bust
• 30:32
  potential for the Dallas I think Cowboys. If everything goes
• 30:35
  really well and these young guys develop and their stars
• 30:37
  play like stars, then they can be a double digit
• 30:40
  win team and who knows what happens. But if not,
• 30:43
  they could be the kind of same old, same old
• 30:45
  Dallas Cowboys that could be a seven to eight win
• 30:48
  team like they were last year.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: So that's how I see it.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: You guys say, yeah, I mean there's but I don't
• 30:55
  want to say there's issues. There's just questions because there's
• 30:57
  a lot of good players. It's not like they have
• 30:59
  they have the bad roster. It's just there's a lot
• 31:01
  of questions.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Awesome great stuff, great stuff, great stuff. So all right,
• 31:06
  that's gonna do it for our Dallas preview, and on
• 31:09
  the next NFC East preview we'll move on to Big
• 31:12
  Blue the New York Football Giants. So for Greg Osel
• 31:16
  and Adam Kaplan, I'm Jeff Mosher, thanks for watching another
• 31:19
  Inside the Birds NFC.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: East preview show.
• 31:22
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• 31:26
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• 31:29
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• 31:32
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• 31:35
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