The Invasion- Cowboys Day 1 Recap

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1:00Healthcare. Hey football fans, it's Cam Hayward from The Pittsburgh Steelers. I still remember what draft night felt like for me. The nerves, the waiting, and then hearing my name called knowing everything was about the change. The 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light is coming to Pittsburgh, April 23rd to 25th. Enjoy three days of football, family fun, and the moment draft dreams come true. I just stuff a free entry at NFL.com slash draft access. Maybe I'll see you there. M. Dog Star All-In Now Tour is coming to the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on August 2nd. Get tickets and information at LiveNation.com, text star to 22126 for your chance to win a pair of tickets. 935, thank you Travis. It is Tuesday morning here with the Invasion, Donovan Lewis, Matt McLean. We will throw up the signal, coming up in 15 minutes, of course Gordon Keith on vacation. But I do believe one Dave Lane may answer the call.

2:02We'll see because that's 15 minutes from now. But the legal tampering period, man, it fires up everyone. And it does so when you have an owner that tells you we're going to bust the budget, we're going to be aggressive and free agency. And it sets the expectation that after day one of free agency that you would have tightened it or panthered it, and you've got multiple high level, big name, high cost free agents that you're bringing in. Now the Cowboys did not approach free agency with $85 million in cap space like the Titans did. They could have, they could have easily have created that cap space and kicked the can down the road and added void years and done all sorts of things and they still can do some restructuring, which is expected to be. And I think to me, when you look at what the Cowboys did on day one of free agency, again, am I elated? No. But I also don't look at it and say, well, I didn't do anything. Or the same as usual. I don't say that either.

3:05It's cautious optimism without being ecstatic, believing they could have done more, wishing that they had done more. But at the same time, looking at a franchise who does not sign high price free agents from other teams that went out and on day one of free agency signed a high price free agent from another team with the deal for Jalen Thompson. It's $11 million a year. If he hits his incentives, he will make $12 million a year. And that would be the richest external free agent ever, ever signed by this franchise. Yeah, and I know if you're not first, you're last. We learned that. So you're in on the Kobe Dean and you're right there, if you're going to believe what everyone's saying out there, they were right there for the Kobe Dean. He chose the Raiders over the Cowboys and getting really aggressive this past weekend trying to get Max Crosby. So when you talk about doing things a little bit differently, they are usually not into

4:06mix for names like that. And they weren't. They didn't get them. So it's no consolation prize of saying, oh, man, you would aggressive. You were right there, but you didn't get it. That's something that maybe they expected all alone that they were going to be in the mix for that didn't do it. And now they have to think about this plan B, a plan C or whatever it is. And I do understand that. But yeah, plan and award is like they've played with the trade for Gary and the signing of Thompson and resigning Sam Williams. If you want to just talk about that, that's not the most active of free agent days and it's not going to make you go, whoa, man, yeah, things are different. No, we're not saying that. No, they got a ways to go. But now it comes to a point to where you need to hit on some of the guys that won't go on day one. And that's been a problem for Dallas. Yes. And to change your way to do things a little differently is to win on free agency days two through 20. It's going to be tough. And we're going to have to count on this front office to do that.

5:06And I would stress that I don't have the utmost confidence that they can pull that off. Hell day one last year when it's on Javante and Miles Sanders, no one thought that they pulled off. Oh my gosh. Yes. We won free agency. We had a really good free agency signing period. No one thought that until you see what Javante Williams did. So it's possible they can get into being that we're so used to them shopping in to find someone that can come in and make a difference now. And now it's the familiar names that are off the board. And that's when you can look at the cowboys and go, okay, it's not different. It's the same old thing because you just don't have a huge name that came here for a ton of money. What do they want? I guess I never expected that they were going to go out and get like one of the top ten free agents available. Well, if you're going to tell me things are going to be different, I would expect. I don't know you to play in those waters a bit and they try with Max Cross. They didn't work. They tried with Nicobie Dean. I don't know where you think that name. That's going to be a question to me, either 13 million a year or 12 million years, what

6:07he signed for. Right. And then you have Devin Lloyd signed and that's you have your linebacker issues. And that didn't seem like it was too incredibly expensive and they felt like they weren't even in the mix for that. So maybe they had all their chips in a Nicobie Dean basket that they could be going to get him. Like, let's get it. It didn't happen. And now they have to pivot somewhere else. Those things as well as is that's actually I think what that's a very good point that we never consider is we believe Nicobie Dean. We're going to get them. We're very competitive. They're considering our offer. Meanwhile, when you go, this is a guy we want. How many of the other backup guys, like, hey, we want Devin, if we can't get him, let's get Devin Lloyd. Devin Lloyd, do you think his age is like, hey, let's make sure, hold on a sec because the Cowboys may make you an offer or a quay walker. I mean, whatever the case may be. And there's still a lot of names that are out there. Now some of these are older veteran guys that may not excite you as much, but like Drake Greenlaw is going to be available to 49ers or he's getting released by Broncos. Excuse me. He's the Broncos now. Levantay David, Bobby Wagner, who's older, Kaden Ellis, who would probably be a good

7:10fit here. You got him. You've got some edges. Tray Hendrixson is still available. Everybody's convinced they're not going to even attempt anything with Tray Hendrixson. K Levant Chase on who, depending on what list you look at is one of the top 25 free agents available. He's out there. Josh Uche, Hassan Reddick, Joey Bosa, again, even Clown, he's still out there. Yeah. And some of these guys are veterans that you may kind of look at and roll your eyes at, but they've had productive seasons in the past. They're not done like they like again, free agency hasn't even started yet. This is a legal tampering period. So they're not done. There's a lot of guys that are still available. And I was reading this morning that they are in with Patrick Queen from Pittsburgh, who Pittsburgh would like to move on from and might be willing to take like a fifth rounder. Well, the Cowboys just picked up two fifth rounders as comp picked, right? And Patrick Queen would be a guy that would fit here fantastically. I think that's the name that I don't know. I think it's a name that excites the fan base because it's a no name.

8:13It is. Yeah, it's, it's really weird because the Cowboys usually aren't swinging on day one of free to see at all ever and they swung and they tried to swing and they missed. And it's one of those six and one hand half and dozen any other to me because you didn't come away with the guys that you wanted, which is pretty disappointing if you're the Cowboys. And I think if you're going to as a front office, put everything and your main focus on one guy and you miss out on that guy and you have to pivot and try and go somewhere else, where you kind of get in trouble, I think in day one situations because if you don't get that guy and you want to try and quickly pivot somewhere else, oh my gosh, that dude is going also and now you're trying to recalibrate and see what the heck you need to do. So it's just one of those things to where they have that plan. And I think for the first time in a long time, it is a plan that they have listed. Now whether they execute that plan correctly or the right way or the way that's going

9:15to have them winning and make some notes in the NSEs, that's yet to be seen, right? But at least there's some type of vision that they have that they're trying to make sure that they execute. They just missed out on the Kobe D and that's probably really disappointing. It is we heard that they were really, really devastated that Max Crosby didn't, is not a cowboy. That's one thing. You pick yourself up. All right. Let's get in the Kobe D and now it's between the Raiders and the Cowboys and he picked the Raiders and you go, oh son of a gun. I wasn't expecting that. And now you have to take that punch and just make sure that you are evaluating that talent and get the best for the dollars that you want to spend. It's man, I feel like if you say anything good about the team, you're just trying to kiss their ass and not looking at the main big picture and all the disappointments that they've had and all that. And I don't think that could be the case and especially for you, man, I hear the biggest Cowboys fan that I know. And to have some type of optimism that things appear to be going in a different direction.

10:19Now what, whether it is, it's yet to be seen. But when you talk about at least trying to do something, you kind of see that happening. Now they have to start winning at doing these things. Yes. And it is just day one and people do freak the blank out after day one of free agency. If your team does nothing and there are a lot of other teams out there in the NFL and their fan bases, that'll freaking out because they didn't do anything on day one. Even Philly Philly resigned Davis and lost like three or four of the guy, I don't think they're freaking out right now and Philly down for you. Right. But the problem is because they've had very recent success that you have a map that you trust what they're doing more than you trust what the Cowboys are doing because the Eagles have shown the ability to stay competitive, right, regardless of how their off seasons tend to play out. It feels like. And so you buy into that more. They're break down and trying to recalibrate, right, always gets them back to the level where they want.

11:20And while the Cowboys have yet to say we need to tear this down, kind of go bare bones and then build it back up. It hasn't resulted in anything. Now they had three years of 12 wins where they had a chance. They was there. They didn't get it done. They didn't get it done. And there were times before where they felt like, man, this is the year we all felt the same way. 16. What are the years? Seven. You thought, man, this is it. Maybe even the desk catch it. No catch year. You thought, man, maybe something could happen and it just didn't go their way. We always talk about some of these franchises in all sports that will take advantage of their situation. Never mind. It might not be in the playoffs of time. Look at the ranges. Yeah. And they got it done. They got it done. Right. Right. Right. I mean, it's. And the Cowboys have yet to do that. And I think it's a collection of everyone to blame for all those situations. There are times where I think the front office set this team up to go out there and win. They put the talent around them. And then when they got down to it, they could not execute on the field. And then there are times where the front office just left this team high and dry with no

12:24talent at all to even have a chance. So everyone I think is the blame and the lack of playoff success around here. It's just you have to have this change of mentality. And it feels like they're tilting towards that way, letting their coaches and coaching staff kind of put the bugs in there about who they want to bring in, who they should bring in and how this thing should go. And now all the talk that we've talked about leading up to everything, man, when it gets to training camp and preseason and all that. No one's going to remember anything they said now is time for action. But they have to build up to that and try to put this team together. And day one feels like a little bit of a letdown because you don't have those big names, but it's still a long way to go. And they have plenty of opportunities to get some talent in here and make sure that they put themselves in the best situation. They did something yesterday that they've not done before. Right. There's a high priced, double digit free agent signing from another franchise.

13:25And we have not seen them do that before, especially on day one of free agency. That's a chunk of change by the way at a position that they do not value safety. We haven't seen them done that. The thing with Christian Parker so is it baby steps, probably it is. That's why I say it's cautious optimism. But again, it's, it's, it's not sitting here. It's going to be different. This is going to be amazing. It remains to be seen because the other side of this is Jerry. We're going to bust the bus budget. We're going to be aggressive and free agency. They tried to be aggressive, but trying to be aggressive and being aggressive are two different things because busting the budget and being aggressive means you are solidifying and maybe Nikobe Dean and we can get into this more in the lunch hour. Maybe he simply just did not want to come here unless they're going to money with him. When the money was the same, so then the other side of that argument is, well, if the money was the same and he was leaning raiders, why didn't you say, fine, we'll give you $2 million

14:25more a year than the raiders, $3 million more than a year than the raiders. Then you go back to the cowboy side and you say, well, you wanted to buy this car and this was the limit you set for yourself in your mind. I cannot go a dime over this and they won't budge. It's about busting the budget and then it's another thing about being reckless. If the Titans come out and they have a terrible year with all the money that they spent, I think a lot of people say, man, maybe it was a little bit reckless because it didn't work. You have to try and find that balance. The Cowboys tried, it just didn't work out. No consolation prize is at all for this. Not saying that's an excuse to say, man, we just tried so we're not going to do anything else. There's no way to go in a lot of work to do, but you can find those and they've been trying their best to find those guys in day two, three, four, five and six and it's worked out a little bit but mostly it hasn't and that's what they have to have that different type of thinking and have to change their ways there to find those guys now that they tried to play on that field and it just didn't work out.

15:27It's not 49. We'll get back into the NFL at 1050 because I'm pretty sure some more news will come down about signings here in the legal tampering period before free agency starts on Wednesday officially when those deals can be signed is the invasion coming up next. We put up the signal one Dave Lane will answer it. We'll do it next here on the ticket the six Olympic