Not the Musers- Ranch Report with Calvin Watkins

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2:01Not on the Diamond Factory Ticket Hotline, but joining us now, thanks to our friends at Mylam and Green Whiskey, it is our Ranch Reporter. From the Dallas Morning News, it is Calvin Watkins, Calvin Good Morning, sir. It's nice to talk to you. It's been a little bit. How are you today? I'm good. What's going on? Man, we are getting ready for a big week here in Cowboys Land. We hope. We all hope. I mean, we've just seen the news this morning that the Cowboys took care of another contract restructuring with Terrent Steele, cutting about 13 million off his cap number for this spring, but they have a couple more moves that they could make and really relatively simple moves involving their defensive tackles. Do you think we're going to see those over the next couple of days to free up even more space? Yeah. I think so. You know, Quentin Williams has got a cap number of 21.6 million, we've got a lower that, Kenny Clark.

3:01He's got a high cap number as well. Also DeGazooa. He's got a cap number of about 20 million. So yeah, those are three guys that you can look at and say, okay, let's get this cap number lower to create more space. They restructured Terrent Steele as you guys said on the ticker. Doron Blanche, a Ferguson, those other two guys that could also possibly get restructured. So going into today, and since today just started, they had about $222,000 in cap space, right? So that's not going to get it done, right? They probably can't sign me and you. Well, they might be able to sign me. Maybe so. I'm sorry. Maybe so. I don't know how to cut you short there. So again, the 13 million a day, apparently from Steele, I think it's a good start, but any a little bit more. So the early Twitter rumblings, because this is what we have just going on all day long, I'm sure.

4:02Ricky? Yeah. Trey Hendrickson joining the cowboy is what? It seems too good to be true, and even though it almost seems like an overpay because you could have had probably Max Crosby or even maybe Micah Parsons done for the same number that Trey Hendrickson will want if you had gotten Micah Parsons done early and hadn't waited. I guess what is your read into the Trey Hendrickson situation? Do you think he's on the way? Is he an actual cowboy's target? What are we looking at? His name is his surface going back to last season, you know, after they traded Parsons and the cowboys figured out they need a pass washer, right? So his age is 31 years old, I think he turned 32 in December, he's had some health issues. He does fit in it three, four, you know, so I think there is some interest in Trey Hendrickson, but it's got to be at the right price, you know.

5:05And I'm not trying to give him a three-year deal. And then you have to look at, well, the Damien Clowney lettuce and sacks last year, does he fit better without scheme than Hendrickson? And if so, is he going to be a little bit cheaper? That's, I think what you're looking at, I think Clowney doesn't kind of fit Christian Parker scheme the way Hendrickson might, but I'm not trying to give Hendrickson a more than a two-year deal. And I think he's looking for something more than that, but we'll see. But you never know when Ricky sometimes chatting with Calvin Watkins from Dallas Morning News covers the Cowboys there. Calvin, what is your sense, you've been around this franchise, you've been around the Joneses for a long time now. What is your sense of their pending approach to this free agency? And do you have a feeling, do you have a sense that perhaps this might look a little different? Well, they say it's going to be different. They say a lot of things, don't they? They say a lot of things.

6:07But then you look at who's on the free agent market, right? So you go, you know, look at the best names on the market. So that would, you know, that, the first name I think of is George Pickens, right? But he's already with the Cowboys and the team controls, they gave him the tag. So he said, what's another good name, we just talked about Hendrickson, right? He's going to be a thousand years old, right? And then you say, oh, they can get Tyree Kill, but he's got a bad leg, he's coming up straight to you. Oh, they get Debo Samuel, they don't need him, they got CD, oh, they get Travis Kelsey, oh, they got a couple of tight ends. So oh, what about they get a quarterback, get Russell Wilson or Kurt Cousins and now Tuha, oh, they got a QB. So to me, there's no, all the big names have flaws, but all those big names, the Cowboys have guys already at those positions that are stars or in their prime already. So when the Cowboys say, oh, we're going to bust a bank, which is what, or break the bank. I think, as Majority said, a couple of weeks ago, I'm like, on who?

7:11You know, there's nobody out there that, to me, that you would say, I'm going to give you a big money contract, too. Cowboy, when you look at what the Cowboys may do, I mean, obviously, everybody's going to talk about the big names like a Trey Henderson. But do you think the Cowboys, since we saw them over the weekend, actually stick to their guns, which I gave them credit for, and not meeting the Raiders demands of two number ones for Max Crosby. Do you think that they may hold off on trying to overspend on guys like a Hendrickson, and maybe focus now, not that he would be cheap, but focus on a guy like Jalen Phillips, a guy like a Nicobie Dean, that not only are familiar with Christian Parker, but also would weaken their opponents in the NFC East. I think the Cowboys would be fiscally responsible here. I don't know if they were real serious players, in a sense, for Max Crosby. Max Crosby Dean has been yelling them in the face for such a long time.

8:14Cowboys did not have the necessary capital to get him. It was always going to take two first round picks. And if you were giving up two first round picks for him, well, you had a guy named Michael Parsons on your football team, and you let him go. So I just think they were just trying to piecemeal something together, but I really don't think it was as serious as being reported. But they do like Nicobie Dean, he's a Michael Imbacker for them in their scheme. They do like him, and it's all about the money. P.J. Locke, a safety at a Denver, played 16 games last year after having Spawn and Fusion surgery. That's another name. I do like Jalen Phillips. It wouldn't surprise me if they looked at Malcolm Coonts from the Raiders. Jalen Thompson, a safety at a Jacksonville. That's another name that you should probably look at today. I've always liked Hassan Reddick. I think I'm on an island there. I've always liked him, so let's see if they throw some money at him, because Donovan

9:18is a rocker, as you know, he's got hip surgery. So he's not going to be around for the off-season program. He will be back, we believe, a training camp. So the Cowboys normally bring guys back a little slow when they come off a surgery, and that's fine. So you definitely need a pass thruster there, you definitely need a safety, you definitely need some inside linebackers. You definitely need a pass thruster. Defense needs a lot of work. So I don't know if you can get it all done in free agency, obviously you have the draft. You don't have a lot of draft capital to kind of fix your whole defense, but those are some of the names I've been hearing since the combine, and we'll see what happens today. Speaking with our ranch reporter, Calvin Watkins, at Dallas Morning News, Calvin, over the weekend, the second round tender officially placed on one brand in Aubrey. And then there was a little bit of leak, I guess, early leak, maybe some illegal tampering from the packers that they allegedly had interest. Do you have any inkling on A, whether the Cowboys and Aubrey have discussed any further,

10:20whether there's an actual deal on the horizon, and B, if there's any other teams that you think might at least throw an offer out there at the kicker? Well, to get the kicker, since he's tender, yeah, give it a second round pick, right? So if you're the Cowboys, do you want to match that money and say, whatever they offer Aubrey? Because someone's going to match the money and give them a deal. So the Cowboys offered them just under $7 million, and Aubrey asked for 10, and this was before the 2025 season. And as someone in the organization told me a couple weeks ago, you know how kickers are. Once they go left, it's over. Once you see a little bit of slippage, it's done. So I think the Cowboys are going to keep Aubrey not so much because they got the tender, but they've been negotiating with this agent, and he does have this high-powered agent, Todd France, who's also a depressed guy's agent, and he's asking for the moon and the stars,

11:21and the Cowboys are like, yeah, but your version of the moon and the stars is different in hours, right? So I think they would come to the meaning of the minds at some point, because they value Aubrey. I think Aubrey and his agent, you know, overvalued his money, right, a little bit. So they'll get that done, and it doesn't surprise me that the Packers were a quote-unquote tampering. I think everyone's tampering at some point. That's what it's so funny about today. Today's the legal period where you can talk to agents, and I'm like, I was at the Cowboys, I just saw the Cowboys talking to like 10 guys, you know, so what it is, right? Calvin, when we look at, we know that defense is going to be the focus of free agency, and even of the draft of coming at the end of April, with Christian Parker now in the fold, how much influence is he going to have over what directions they go? We mentioned a couple of names that he's already familiar with, but we also have a guy like Reed Blankenship, The Safety, or The Corner, Lonte Taylor with The Saints, who are very familiar with his system.

12:21How much is that going to play a factor, do you think, in who they go after in sign? That's going to play a huge factor. One of the things that they liked about Christian Parker doing the interview process was that they asked him, hey, what do you think about a defense? Do you like our guys? And he was like, no, you know, and they love that because it was an honest conversation. It was a real conversation, and Brian Shottenheimer wanted that in the next coordinator. He didn't want a guy that came in and said, oh, yeah, I can work with him, I can make him work. Okay, great. You get him in training camp, you go, just kid can't play, you know, so they love that about Christian Parker. You have a big influence on what they do in free agency and the draft, and obviously Wilma Clay and his staff, they do a fantastic job in getting the ball players for the coaches. But Jerry Jones has always leaned towards coaches in some situations because he wants the coaches to feel empowered about the draft and free agency process to get their guys.

13:22So I definitely believe Parker will have a big influence on a lot of decisions that's going to be made here in the next couple of months. Calvin, great to talk to you. Thanks for hopping on with us. And let's touch base later in the week once we have hopefully some free agent signed after Wednesday, and we'll get your thoughts on them. And maybe if there's early breaking news, we'll have you back on. Appreciate you. Appreciate you. Maybe they'll sign Travis Kelsey, you know, that makes it up. Only for Taylor Swift in the deal as well. Oh my goodness. Taylor Swift, halftime show it. Thanks for giving us part of the arrangement. Oh my God. halftime is not big enough for her. This is true. She's super ball bus. Doesn't Ferguson have the Cavendor twins, though? Yeah, well, maybe, maybe, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. All right, Calvin. Thank you very much for jumping on with us. We'll talk to you later this week. But all right, guys, take care. He is Calvin Watkins, our ranch reporter, the Dallas Morning News.