Expectations For First Year Defensive Coordinator Christian Parker

0:00Yamaha Resort & Casino at San Manuel is bringing hip hop and R&B legends to the stage. Experience the Queen of Neo Soul, Erica Badu, September 28th. Catch Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Wutan, clan October 1st. And don't miss multi-grammy award-winning Nelly October 15th. Tickets on sale now at Yamaha theater.com. Only at Yamaha, now celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in, must be 21 to enter. Okay, brought us now we, we flipped the script and we get to lay eyes for the first time on a Christian Parker Dallas Cowboys defense on the heels of the single worst defense. Any of us have ever witnessed last season. And we're all pretty optimistic that this is going to be quite a bit better. And hopefully much, much, much better. And we'll see where Christian Parker can, can take this thing. You know that he is keeping things close to the vest throughout training camp. And the preseason, but now is the first time that he gets to unveil things.

1:02You talk about Denard Wilson and the Giants maybe having a little bit of the element of surprise defensively for the Cowboys offense. Well, we certainly have that when it comes to the Cowboys defense versus this Giants offense. They're going to be trying to figure out, okay, what, what is Christian Parker really trying to do here? We understand a couple of things we know. But how much is he going to have up his sleeve with a, with a totally revamped look on that side of the ball for this Cowboys defense? And I think it starts with making sure that you can contain Malik neighbors who it looks like he's going to be playing. And when one of the best receivers in all of football, and then I look at Jackson Dart and just his mobility, like how much, how much is he going to want to run around? And we know last year quarterbacks that, that had some wheels. They were, they were running on you. So being able to stop Dart with his legs and be able to contain Malik neighbors if he's healthy and feeling like himself, those are the, those are the two elements

2:03of this offense that I feel like you got to have buttoned up defensively. Yeah, and I would throw Isaiah likely in there too. Oh, yeah, I would throw Isaiah lightly because I feel like to me that, that they're going to want to make as many simple throws as they can for Jackson Dart. This offense, we know with Matt Nagy. It's like I talked about earlier in the broadcast. You're in a situation where if you're Christian Parker now, you're going back and looking at Kansas City film. You're going back and looking at Chicago Bear Film. You're just going back to trying to get an idea of some, some tells. You know, what does, what does Matt Nagy, you know, we're going to see things. I think you're going to see, they want to play. They really do want to play Jackson Dart under center more. I could be difficult because if you watch Jackson Dart throw, it's generally Jackson Dart likes to throw the ball down feel, but he likes to throw it to the receivers going away.

3:07He likes to try and throw it into space. He's not very comfortable when it comes to the contested throws. He wants those receivers to be breaking away from him so he can make those throws. It goes back to with likely and then I'll get into neighbors because I have some thoughts about neighbors. He's come out in the media and either there's a term called playing possum where you're not, hey, I got to watch myself. I got to think about myself. I got to think about long term. That's the kind of talk he's talking right now. He's not talking like a guy that's like, yeah, I'm going to ready to jump in there and all that. No, no, neighbors, he might be trying to fool us. Talk to the people that know the Giants very, very well. I've seen the Giants practice stuff. They say neighbors just looked really good. They've said he was wearing a red jersey. They took the red jersey off. The practices that they saw. Also, people within the Giants organization will tell you, listen, the first game might

4:09not be neighbors best game. Maybe week five, week six, week eight. That's when neighbors can start to get back. You remember last year what he did at the Cowboys in week two in that game where Russell Wilson just went off. That's the kind of thing you need to worry about. But I think that neighbors likely dart running the ball. I'm going to throw another one in there that we need to kind of, they really do like Malachi fields from Notre Dame. He's a six four, a six four wide receiver. They talk about him as like being a rookie, but being beyond his years. And you know, I heard some of the Plexico Burris. They throw like, it reminds us of Plexico Burris from back in the day. Yeah, six four, you know, six four kind of guy. You know, and so that's where that's where that comparison, you know, not the fastest guy, the quickest guy.

5:10But down in the red zone, there was a game when they played in the preseason. One thing Harbaugh does, he was playing his starters pretty much that first preseason game against the Vikings. And you saw a field, excuse me, you saw a dart, you know, get out of the pocket, run to his left corner, front pile on of the in zone. Malachi fields goes up, ball looks like he's trying to dart, looks like he's trying to throw it away. And all of a sudden the six four just extends and then there's a catch, both feet down and it's a touchdown. And they really do like what they've seen from him. And so, and they talk about Odell Beckham. They say, Odell Beckham still knows how to separate. Odell Beckham still knows how to catch the football. Odell Beckham can still be a problem for you. So, you know, that's that's kind of what you're up against with the skill, the skill guys. And I think I said, I throw likely in there because it just seems like that they want to make as many easy throws. They just don't think that Jackson Dart is the surveyor of the field and one, two, three

6:16re, boom, get rid of the ball guy. He is very much a, that's my guy throw him the ball. And you see a lot of times where, you know, this is where the Cowboys linebackers, I think are going to have to be big in this game is where all of a sudden if you got likely who plays detached or away from being in line, you see him playing like he's not a, he's not like a true why, but he's detached. Then that means you're going to have to kind of deal with him playing out of the slot is what you're going to have to do. So those are the kinds of things that you have to be aware of. There's these routes, these combinations of these routes that they have that's that they want to, you know, they want to get likely involved because they're really simple throws. It's, it's wide receivers clearing and then him driving to a spot and then sitting down. Simple throw up. That's the one thing with Matt Nagy at Kansas City. What is my homestay? He moves around, but he, that ball gets out of his hands. Mm-hmm. Quick, quick, quick throws.

7:17And I think that they're going to try and do very much the same thing and just, it take as much off Jackson, Darts played as they can. Well, when you look at the, when you, when you look at the offensive line for the giants here, of course, you have the rookie Frances Maui, Noah, top 10 pick out of Miami, played tackle in college and I'm playing right guard. And then John Michael Schmitz at center and he's been there for some years now. I think this is probably year four or five in 2023. 2023 came in the league. Yeah. Okay. So, so year four for him and he's never, I mean, I don't think he's, he's gotten to the point where the giants hoped he would be just looking at that right there. I'm expecting Quinn and Williams should have a lot of opportunity when it comes to going up against that center. John Michael Schmitz, the rookie Frances Maui, Noah, who, you know, we all expect to probably be a very good player at some point, but this is game number one. Welcome to the NFL. Here's Quinn and Williams. Here's Kenny Clark from, from an interior standpoint.

8:20I mean, I know Andrew Thomas that left tackle, certainly one of the best in the league, but I would expect this should be a Quinn and Williams game. And even Kenny Clark, the rest of the interior, interior guys should be able to take advantage there, but is, is there one guy on the offensive line you think is kind of the mark here other than Schmitz? Cause I love that match up for, for Quinn. Yeah. I, you know, when you look at, and you look at Quinn and Williams, really, I think that John Roney and Junior is the guy that you kind of need to, he's the left guard. I, and listen, you can put him over on Frances, Malonello too. I mean, Malonello is a rookie, you know, he's, he, he hasn't, you know, he's played in a very good conference there in the, in the ACC, he's played as a tackle. There are times when you watched him in the Minnesota game where he struggled a little bit, he got a little over extended, he got a little quick, he got a little anxious, you know, and now he's kind of off balance and guys are able to kind of get around him that

9:21way. So I would say the inside three for the, for the, for the giants is kind of where you would attack and then, you know, the, the, the, the, the main element or the right tackle is very similar to what you get with steel that you, when you see, when you see defenders put their head down and, and rush him and put their head in the middle of his chest and push him, you see him give ground. Um, they're, they're clearly their best player, their best players, Andrew Thomas at left tackle. So you know that's going to probably be a wash for whoever you rush over there. That's probably going to be, you know, when you throw, if you throw as a rock who over there, what you probably will, you're probably going to throw Lawrence at him a little bit, you're going to throw Vaughn Miller at him, you know, you're going to throw some guys at him and, and, you know, that's, I just know that that's probably going to be a wash. So you got to find a way then to make the others work and, and where they've struggled

10:24and, you know, John Michael Smith was the second round pick at him in a soda and, you know, he's an undersized guy. We all kind of thought that he was going to be because of his athletic ability and, his ability play second level and all, but the lack of power is just so prevalent when you watch him play and running is a slow-footed guy. So there, if there's going to be some issues for the giants, it probably will be inside at this, at those, those three inside spots. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to that in a big way for sure. And then there, you know, just in general when it comes to a Christian Parker defense, I'm hoping to see big time improvement, of course, across the board, but in particular, I would say the explosives, I think they gave up 72 plays last year of 20 or more yards, just disgusting. And that's one of the things that a Fangeo defense is like priority number one, we're not going to give up huge chunk plays. I would love to see that come to fruition for the Cowboys defense early on here versus

11:26the giants. And then the red zone defense as well. I mean, they were given up a ridiculous, you had the number the other day on our show and the G-bag nation. It was something like 60, almost 70%. 67,000. Yeah, 70% touchdowns, yeah. Yeah, 67% touchdowns in the red zone is absolutely brutal. The red zone defense and just the explosives limiting those, I think, would be a nice first game under your belt to see, okay, you can already see the immediate improvement there. I do expect to see plenty of improvement from a run defense standpoint. You already saw it a little bit just by adding Quinn and Williams last year amidst the ebber flus, disgusting hellhole of a defense that we were watching. But now I do think the Christian Parker run defense with Ezraku, of course, in your two with Gary Clark, Abonia, what you have at linebacker now. I can't wait to see Barham and Skataboo meet in the hole for the first time to physical

12:27monsters running at each other. Skataboo, of course, off the serious leg injury that he suffered last year. He's there starting running back and he doesn't really scare me other than just the physicality that he runs with, but certainly not a burner, not a big play back. So I like the idea of the Cowboys run defense getting off to a really, really nice start here. And then Jackson Dart, how reckless is he going to play? Can you take advantage of that a time or two? Is he going to go to the blue tent multiple times? I don't know. Everything's on the table when it comes to the way Dart plays quarterback. So I cannot wait to watch this Cowboys defense in Christian Parker game number one Caleb Downs, game number one on the field with Arville Reese's Ohio State Buddy. So much to be excited about for Sunday night and the kickoff here for the 2026 season. Let's hit a little mail bag brought us and then we'll get a bat at here, man. You're listening to the Love the Star podcast. Love the Stars and Odyssey podcast. You can find it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

13:29We are presented by the on time experts. They're the best in the business. The official AC heating and plumbing partner of the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas stars and right here on Love the Stars summers winding down, but you can still capitalize as a first time customer on a $59 AC tune up and professional cleaning. You don't want that thing going out on you on a football weekend. That's for sure spending your Saturday, your college football Saturday or your Cowboys Sunday in the midst of a sweat box would be an absolute disaster. Get that thing handled for you and it'll set you up beautifully for next summer as well. You'll go into next summer feeling fantastic because you got the buzzer beater deal of a lifetime $59 AC tune up and professional cleaning with the on time experts. They'll clean out the dirt, the dust, the debris. Those are all the number one killers of air conditioners. Don't let those things clog your coils and choke your air flow strain, your system and make you come out of pocket in a big way that you don't want to have to mess with. The on time experts will remove all of the harmful build up and it'll take them a couple hours. It's not just going to be a quick once over in and out in 30 minutes.

14:30When they give you an AC, a clean bill of health, they provide you with a no breakdown guarantee. Go to the on time experts.com, schedule your $59 AC tune up today. You can also get a $99 drain clearing for the ground level of your home as a first time customer. So two birds, one stone, head into the football season, feeling 10 out of 10, all thanks to the best in the business, the on time experts.