The Invasion- Lunch with the Cowboys

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1:051157. That's a good point by me. No, it wasn't. And we all know what that means. That means it is lunchtime with the invasion. Brought to you by Matt Osbrook, the Texas Lodog. Matt McClaren, Donovan Lewis, so happy to be joining you on this Monday afternoon. Start the week off the right way. So chilly outside. It's a little windy. So protect the food. If you're eating outside, doubt if you will. It's a little windy, but thank you so much for joining us. We'll get back into baseball and the World Baseball Classic at 1230. We'll have a weekend catch up because we both have pretty interesting weekends that we will talk about at 1215. But let's have lunchtime with the Dallas Cowboys. We are one week into free agency and a couple of questions for you, Matt. How are you feeling? And you did say you had a concern that's starting to bubble up in your head now. So I will give you the mic. You take it away because one week into this thing. You feel good about some of the moves that they've made. You feel that this defense, especially in the secondary is better than it was a year ago.

2:11You signed a high price safety and then you got another safety. You can play special teams as a backup. So now you've got with Jalen Thompson and Lily Cooker and then PJ Lock. You feel solid. Signing Kobe to rant that corner gives you a little bit of that depth at corner as a guy that starts a lot of games and is capable of playing in inside or outside, which is great. You can go out and you at least try to some degree address your pass rush situation by making the move for Roshan Gary and look for $3 million a year. Sam Williams fantastic. That is a guy who now you hope is on a prove it deal for one year who goes, OK, I thought at this point, I was going to I'm a second round pick former second on pick. I dealt with some injuries. I should be better than this and maybe the light goes off and if it does, you got a bargain there. But after the first week of free agency and seeing some of the players that have signed elsewhere, I don't know how in the world you look at this group of linebackers and don't freak out.

3:12Because even if you want to show Roshan Gary is a part of that. And as a Raku, the inside linebacker position is a nightmare. Wish Lamar James, Demarbian overshown in Justin Barron. They're going to move Leah foul to linebacker. He's going to be out there. And then as I mentioned, as a Raku, I guess Sam Williams is going to stand up and you're going to consider that perhaps. I don't know, but it's this group of linebackers for a team that wants to address defense has yet to even bring in a veteran linebacker. Like bring someone in because now concern is if you don't do something here in free agency to bring in a veteran, you're putting so much pressure that you have to draft a linebacker in the first round at 12 or 20 and that that absolutely has to be a hit that walks out of the field does impact media. Well, but they're approach a free agency. You know that you end with the amount of holes that they had on this team.

4:14There's no way you could fix everything in one free agency period. No matter how aggressive you are and they tried to try their best to get into Copey Dean to try and help that out and that didn't work out. And and you see some of the other names that are still available. And it won't give you the oh my gosh, we have this thing fixed. But they need so much depth on this team that even if they signed an out inside linebacker in free agency, you will still nod your head and approve if they pick one in a draft. Yeah, you have three picks in the top 100 trying your best to see if you can make it more see if you can get for my goodness. If you can get five, if you move down from 12 or 20 to see if you can pick up additional picks is something that I think they are really looking forward to doing because they want to try and tackle this thing with numbers. And while you can do that with quality, if they are top 100 picks, you have to make sure that you are on point with that. And they've got to make sure that linebacker is going to be their priority. Now we always talk about staying true to your board. And I think the Cowboys have been really good at that.

5:14And you have an edge rusher that you cannot believe fell to you at 12. But you have the top linebacker there. I think you have to make sure that you stay true to that and get the guys that you feel that's going to fit within your new defensive coordinator system. But you have to prioritize that position now that you couldn't do it. And even though they're not done, maybe there's a name that they can bring in to try and help out still at the linebacker position. Man, they got to have at least a couple of draft picks come in and immediately started make a difference. You do. And that's that's tough, man. That's tough with this team. They are the last couple of years. They've been whipping so hard with these premium picks that they got to make sure that sometimes the. Oh, let's take a chance. That's in the fifth and sixth and seventh rounds and not in the second. Jerry said that and it kind of acknowledging that they are willing to take that risk pretty highly in the draft because the reward seems to be pretty high. It just hasn't paid off for those guys here. It's recently. No, it hasn't.

6:15And that's where it's a big concern because again, that especially the inside position because right now it's overshown and Shamar James and Justin Barrett. And we say overshall, that's great. Is he healthy? Right. I haven't seen that guy healthy. Is he going to give you an entire season because if that's what you're rolling with, which of course it'll change, but it puts a lot of pressure on finding that piece. And even if you do find a piece in the draft that you like quite a bit, I got to imagine you still want some sort of a veteran presence. I mean, you've got to do it in Shamar James going into year two, merrously a foul who they're going to try to change up what he does. And then overshown who's only played 19 games in his NFL career. You've got to have somebody else. Tell Justin Barrett was an undrafted free agent as a rookie a year ago. You need someone who seems some NFL action. It feels like it really what is a key position on any defense? No, and you're just looking at the linebacker's still available in free

7:15agency now. And you realize why the Cowboys haven't signed any of them because yeah, you want some NFL experience, but Bobby Wagner is probably the name out there. That's the best out of the crew that's still available. And he's almost 36 years old. Yeah, and he's obviously not what he once was. But at least he's seen some things and I would wonder like having a veteran presence like that, even just going through camp. Wouldn't that help and be beneficial to these young guys? And you wonder if he's at his part of his career like it was Jadeve on clowning. Like, I'm just chilling and just waiting and seeing if I can get my spots. Someone's going to get hurt and you're good. Try and find a situation that's best for them. I don't know. But yeah, you don't want to try and just. Count on that because you're going to be resting with a lot of the teams and you would want I'm signing this guy because of your veteran because you're a veteran. And you have all this experience. And I want that to shine through TAs and I want that to shine through many camp and training camp and not just this hired gun to come in when everything has been established and already done. And I know again, 36, not what he once was.

8:20He did start all 17 games last year for Washington. And the year before that, he started all 17 games for Washington. And it was a second team all pro. So he's not that far removed from being one of the best linebackers in the NFL. Again, how much are you willing to pay for that? You're probably hoping to get him on a one year deal. Maybe he wants more. Who knows? But there's I don't think there's a team out there that would give him more than a one. You can do worse than him. And he doesn't have to be. And to your point, you do kind of wonder now when you get into this, you kind of wait and see how the draft plays out. Because if your Bobby Wagner, you don't need to sign with the team right now. You'd be fine. And I wonder if some of these older guys that are veterans like, let me wait and see because I don't want to go to the Cowboys and then they draft the dude at 12 at my position and like, well, we got to start him. No, that's a good point. I didn't think about it like that. I don't know if it's that wait and see as far as what's the best situation for you. And then some of these linebacker numbers that are coming out aren't what we thought

9:20they would be like they aren't breaking the bank. No, it feels like that position is not saying that you have to just open up the checkbook and pay a ton. So if you have a Bobby Wagner that's out there, man, about four or five million dollars a year for one year, I think we all feel that it would be worth it because it's definitely an improvement. But that's saying something about where your linebacker couriers that Bobby Wagner would be like a immediate upgrade and immediately the best guy on your squad. But you're right. You get 12 and then you don't sign them just to sit around. And especially what they're going to play, you know, four to five probably the majority of the time, you're just going to have a couple of linebackers on the field. Who is that going to be? It's a man. That's the one position where I wish I wish they would have tried their best. And you just don't know where the Kobe Deans head was as far as his ex teammates, college teammates, Texans. Hey, man, we're going to the Raiders. Let's do this and how much influence that that had and how much it would have taken for him to get out of that and come to the Cowboys. Would that have been an overpay?

10:20I don't know. Is that worth the overpay to bring in the guy that you want? And there are sometimes lines that you don't want to cross, but man, that feels like maybe that should have been one of them to say, I know why does it go on to take it feels that way, especially when they were more than willing to take on the money that a Max Crosby was going to cost. And you could have got a linebacker whom apparently you really wanted for a third of what again, totally different players. Yeah, totally different impacts, but you're so you're willing to take on salary for certain guys. You made a really competitive offer to the Kobe team. And maybe it was just like, look, the money is just never going to happen because you guys can't give me the situation I want. Maybe that was part of it. I want to go ball with these guys I went to college with where young single dudes and Vegas is awesome. So unless you're going to blow me away with some ridiculous offer, even within a couple of million, I still want to, it's not worth it to me. Who knows? But it is a little disappointing to be a week into free agency

11:21because it's that baby steps to difference. Of well, it's true. They did something that they don't normally do in signing a $13 million a year, $12 million a year free agent, but then everything else they're doing. I know it's kind of like they always do. I know they got better at getting to the quarterback. They got better on the back end, but that second level of that defense has been so bad. It was so bad last year and you just need some improvement there that I mean. And to have the one plan and we always talk about having to go to plan B, plan C, plan D pretty quickly because I've things move around. It's almost like they did they didn't have a plan out the Nikobe Dean. I almost feel like they thought that they had them in the bag. It's that this is our guy that's going to be our guy instead of pivoting somewhere pretty quickly because after that, you just didn't hear a word about any other inside lamp linebacker coming here to Dallas. No, that's the position that they need in the worst way. Yes. The college basketball playoffs are here. And now you can trade the tournament in all 50 states on calcium.

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