Cowboys Break: New Club Culture? | Dallas Cowboys 2025

Cowboys Break: New Club Culture? | Dallas Cowboys 2025

The following is a production of DallasCowboys.com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. How about you? Go. Let’s go, baby. Are you ready for a break? Yes. Are you ready for a break? Absolutely. Ready for a break? Yeah. And um so much for that. It’s time for the break on dallascowboys.com. We were on the break with Ambar Garcia, Brian Bris, Vach Lombardi, and Derek Eagleton. It is Wednesday, May 21st, 2025, season 21, episode number 11. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We’re live from WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, presented by LG. LG is the world’s number one OLED TV brand for 11 years in counting. See why at lg.com Evo. Feels like forever since I have been on the air with you guys. I’m sure you have missed me. Uh, but I’m back. Derek, what do you think about George Pickings? I haven’t heard from you in two weeks. You haven’t heard me talk about George Pickings? No, sir. I love love love the move. I mean, like he argue with me and tell me why he’s not a number one receiver with a good quarterback. Man, you know what? I was listening to 1053 the fan and I don’t want to say nothing bad about them because we like work together or whatnot. They had some audience. Okay, we all and by the way, we all are good. We talk we talk a little bit back and forth. It’s all good. They had some character from uh Pittsburgh. He’s a Pittsburgh writer or something like that. Bobby Belt asked, “Well, is George Piggin a one?” He was like, “Oh, that guy. No, he’s a really good two. He’s Well, I watch film, you know, and and and you know, if you’re watch film, I sure do, Brian Broad. And if you’re able to beat Pro Bowl corners, that’s that’s false. If if if you’re able to beat Pro Bowl corners, all pro corners, like number one corners in man coverage, I think you’re a wide receiver one. Like if I think about what a wide receiver two is, I just think about Michael Gallop. I don’t think Michael Gallop’s whooping certain like that. You know, Gardner, DJ, I don’t think he’s whooping guys like that. There’s film of George Pickkins whooping guys like that. So yeah, to me, George Piggins is a bonafide is a bonafide wide receiver one with Justin Fields, Kenny Pigot, Mason Rudolph, and old Russell Wilson, please. Right. Can I ask you this question? This is a question for the table. Right now, if we all assume he is a one or at least a 1A, 1B, whatever. Sure. Who has a better receiving core right now between the Cowboys and Eagles? People going to hate me for saying this. I think the Cowboys have the better quarterback. So, I think by way of that they’ll have the better wide receiver core. Um, and we’ll kill you for that. That’s fine. That’s fine. Tight ends. Are we adding tight ends, too? No, we’re just talking We’re just talking two receivers and quarterback. Well, you don’t have to take the quarterback, just the two receivers and and their skill set and what they can provide for a team. I’m taking the Dallas Cowboys because in my mind, shouts out to the Eagles, right? If they had like a terrible quarterback, I don’t think they would be producing in the same way that I’ve seen George Pickkins produce with terrible with like terrible passers, right? Like if you just watch Pickkins highlights and you will walk away going, “Man, that’s a fantastic catch. Boy, that’s a tough catch.” But look at the the pass that he had to c. Don’t just think about the catch. Think about him having to flip in the air six times or having to change shoulders where he’s having to track the ball and find the football, right? Think about think about why that pass looks that way. If if George Pickkins finally gets passes on the money. Yeah, there you go. Oh, come on, sir. And ladies and gentlemen watching. Go ahead, Bramley. Yeah. This is where it’s going to come down to is because I kind of feel like that that Lamb, we’ve got an advantage with Lamb there. Where it’s going to come down to is where Pickkins is with the others. And to me, Vaj hit it perfectly. When when you look at when you look at Pickkins and how his ability to play on the move and then catch, give him the opportunity to catch a pass and and and make a run after catch. There’s so many times we’ve seen him have to adjust and now his run after catch gets negated because of a poor throw or an inaccurate throw. Yeah. I think that when you start to see I think George Pickkins is going to benefit from having a quarterback that can hit him on the move and allow him that that skill that we saw in college where he’s able to finish these runs. But there’s so many times where you’ve watched him have to make plays behind him way too low and not take advantage of his skill set running with the football. That’s where the Eagles have you a little bit there. that ability with Smith and those guys when they catch that ball on the move and then they’re able to get north south and go, you know, that makes him a very very dangerous combination. I think you’ve got the best one in Lamb. Now, how do you how do the other two how do their two compared to your guy? And I think the other I think your guy will have a better a more even playing field with a quarterback that can show the skill set that he’s capable of having. Awesome. And this whole thing, I was just going to say this whole thing, even the addition of pickings, I mean, this is going to elevate Lamb’s game even more. This is going to create more opportunities for him. So, we know what we’ve seen with Lamb with not really having great wide receivers around him, now having a guy like Pickkins come into the game and create more opportunities. I think we haven’t seen the best yet. Well, okay, let me let me do one thing real quick here. And this is and when AG when you were talking, this reminded me so much of what you always say, you know, and and I and I’m just I’m asking here. I’m looking right in the camera and asking here right now. I’m saying this, let’s not get in a thing where it’s Brandon Cooks and in week five AG’s asking the question, where’s Pickings? Why isn’t Pickkins done? This is on this coach. The talent is there. Find a way to get this guy going in games. You know, you can find a way. Get Lamb going. get all these receivers going, but especially this guy. This guy is a weapon, but don’t have AG in week six ask where where’s Pickicket? Like that’s why you have a different coaching style. Exactly. Exactly. And that’s what I’m saying is don’t let’s not let’s not this might be the only year you have this guy. We we don’t know. But for right now, it you know, we we’ll see how contracts and stuff play out. But please, as a coaching staff, I’m asking, don’t waste this guy’s talent, you know, and don’t don’t make us have to make comments about it in week six, week seven, like, well, why are they not getting him involved? Here’s what I will say. The last time the Cowboys had this talented of a receiver as a number two or whatever you want to call it, 1A, 1B, whatever. When they’ve had this talented of a second receiver was Amari Cooper. Cowboys at that time were putting up 30 plus points a game. There you go. Um, and so I think when you give this quarterback that level of talent around him at the wide receiver position, he certainly has shown that he has the ability to make it work and actually produce in that way to show you the value of having those kinds of receivers. Well, also too on that point is even if Cooper was like big dog in that room, Lamb was a baby that year. You finally have an opportunity where you got two guys in their absolute prime. CD is in his prime. Pig is in his prime, right? So they’re at the top of their game right now. If you Brian Shenheimer, he has no clue who I am. They care nothing about what I got to say. Well, that’s the truth. Come on. All you got to do I think that way sometimes, too. All you got to do, that’s facts. All you got to do is be better than what Mike McCarthy rolled out last year. And he’s not here anymore, so I can kick him all around. The alarming rate of hitches, slants, or just go ball. There’s no variety in that. At least I can say Kell Moore got the best out of the Eagles guys or at least Shane got the best out of the Eagles guys. How many times did we watch games and go, man, why don’t we do this with CD Lamb that’s working or this with Turpin that’s working or this that’s been working. And it’s like in the middle of the game we’re doing stuff that that’s never worked. Why are we doing this? If you’re Brian Shenheimer, keep it simple. Do what works. Throw the ball to Pickings. Throw the ball to Lamb. Ferguson is going to be like, “Hey, I’m here. Throw the ball to Ferguson. Follow the game plan.” And I’m just a dude with a camera and a microphone. They don’t pay me millions of dollars to do this. They don’t pay me millions of dollars to do this. Keep it simple. To that point, how do you guys think they’ll use Pickkins? Because we’ve tal we’ve heard a lot about his ability to go down field. Is he a guy that maybe you move around? Is he a guy that the whole route tree is available to him? Like what what have you seen that suggests uh that gives you an idea of maybe how the Cowboys will want to use him? Pig said it perfectly. We are going to work off each other. So, they’re going to double team Lamb sometimes and pick is going to get a one-on-one with some dude that they have no faith in, some some some miscellaneous quarterback, too. And that’s where your one-on-one’s going to come from. Then, when they shade safeties over, okay, cool. Now, the middle of the field is open. All right. Well, we’re going to go away from Piggins a little bit now. And there’s been this thing to where the defenses may not go for Dak’s wide receiver, but they’ll go for Ferguson because they know that Dak likes tight end. Cool. Let’s kind of move towards tight end a little bit. All right. Well, CD Lambs just run over here by himself now. I think that they have to work off each other. And Brian makes a fantastic point because me and him podcast about this all the time. There may be games where Pickkins only gets three targets. It just wasn’t in the cards for you that day. They’re just doubling you today and they said, “You know what? We just not going to let Pickkins beat us today.” Shenheimer, Pickkins, whoever, Clayton Adams, Dak CD, they all got to work together be like, “Hey man, sometimes this is going to happen.” CD has to sometimes go, “Look, I know I’m lambing. I’m making all the money and I’m the guy. But they one-on-one in pickings over there and we’ve won by 30. I think everybody’s got to come together and have an understanding. De said this a long time ago. Hey, look. We winning. I only got five catches and seven yards, but boy, we we won. If these wide receivers, quarterback, staff, everybody can just fall into that kind of line. As long as we win, cool. Put him in bunch formations and let him scatter out of that because he has a feel. This guy has a feel for how to play across the field. how to play. You could watch some of his most successful plays there with the Steelers and stuff. And they did they get in bunch formations, they bring him to motion across and then it’s one-on-one or they bring him into a bunch formation, scatter that and now there’s confusion in the defense about who’s got who and now he’s running with that speed, that quickness, his ability to get away and separate. Yeah. anything anything that you could do where you have him play on the move, I think is a real advantage because of his ability to catch the football and his ability to catch it on the move without slowing down. He can catch the ball at full tilt and and and make plays for you that way. So, just find ways to put him with if you want him if you want to stack him in there with and make these defenders have to deal with him and Lamb together and maybe Tolbert in there just that’s what you have to do. make them have to make a decision of how to play him and give him a running start, you know, with his ability to get into route. You know what I love and something that Sidi has already talked about and also Pickkins yesterday, he it’s just the chemistry that they already have. They’ve had a working relationship. They used to work out together a few times during the offseason training together with other receivers. So they they know each other already and that I think helps a ton just to get the process started a lot faster in that way. And another thing to note, I know there was one of the shows where he got signed or where the Cowboys made that deal where we talked about the attitude and all. He came here yesterday obviously first day smile. Nothing has happened yet, but big old smile with a great attitude saying he’s just a chill guy and everything is, you know, happy happy, but and I know we’ll get into the LTA and something, but something that I noticed and you continuously see it is the environment that Brian Shodenheimer has created and continues to create for the team that I think is just it it infect it’s infectious like it it just carries and everything. It’s just a completely and we’ll probably talk about it later. Sure. Very different than previous years as far as pickings. He’s not a bad guy. I mean, his teammates love him. I mean, and if and if you’re winning, I’m I’m sure he’s fine. But it’s just all about if you’re a if you’re a coach and if you’re Tomlin, like Tom’s like what, 60 or something now? He’s an older coach now. And maybe he doesn’t have the patience. Brian’s 61. Brian’s 61. And you know, maybe he doesn’t have I have the patience with you. How old is Brian now? 61. Okay. You 61? I’m 61 years old. Yeah. Okay. Trust me, man. Information. But you know, you know, may maybe Tomlin ran out of out of patience here. You know, Shanheimer got a got a point to prove. He got a decade or you know what I mean? Like, hey, man, let’s let’s let’s work on 50 year olds. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I said? 50 year olds got different energy, I guess, Derek and Brian Bro. Uh but if if there’s one thing, cuz I don’t want to just be super homer, everything’s going to be, you know, cool here. If if there’s one thing that I have thought about as far as Dak and and Pickkins, Dak normally throws the ball if you’re wide open. And if you’re not wide open, he’s looking somewhere else. I think Pickkins is going to have to earn trust from Dak to where I may not look like I’m open. There’s a lot of film where Pickkins technically wasn’t open, but he’s so physical fighting towards the football that he really was open. Go back to uh Green Bay playoffs, Brandon Cooks, um Jair Alexander, and Cooks just couldn’t run through him. Yeah. And that kind of had to throw it anyway, but ended up being like a pick or whatnot. Maybe Dak didn’t have faith in that throw because Brandon Cooks is a little bitty compared. Pickings makes that catch. Yeah, Pickkins is running through Gy Alexander and he’s making that catch. So, I think in camp and these OTAAS, I think they just have to work on somebody being on on George’s hip, George Pickins’s hip, and Dak just throwing the ball anyway and bailed him out. One thing I will say about that on Dak, whether he throws to to guys that are not open, he did pretty good with Dez Bryant. And Dez Bryant is not a guy that traditionally was always getting open. He was a guy that you drew the ball up to him even though he had somebody on him. Dak figured out a way to get him the ball. So hopefully we’ll see some of that same chemistry develop with George Pickkins. All right, we’re going to take our first breaks. When we come back, we got a lot to talk about, man. We can get into OTAAS. We can talk about the schedule. We can talk about rules, man. We got so much stuff to talk about. We’ll be back. DallasCowboys.com radio. Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the cheetah savannah. Todd believed the big cat repellent he bought online was reliable. 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We’re in the second segment of the break live in SWBC mortgage studios at the Star. a segment brought to you by blockchain.com. I’d like to since we’re gonna probably talk about rule changes and proposals. Yeah. Every once in a while, AG, let Vos read the ads. It’s hilarious. I’m not doing it. I don’t work here, man. Yeah, you do. I don’t. Huh? Yeah, you do. I’m a friend of You’re not going to get a paycheck coming up here whenever. All right then. Get paid, right? All right then. He was so proud. So proud of his paycheck. He showed it before our show. He goes, “Look, I got paid by the Cowboys.” It was the See, it wasn’t about the money, Brian. It was I’ve been doing this for 10 years. Did you tell your mom how excited you were? Was she happy for you? I tell my mom everything. I know. But was she happy for you? You were working with the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. You know, and and I I don’t even think defense rest or prosecution rest. I rest my case. Come on. But but yeah, man. Mother’s happy for me. She probably is. Grandmother’s definitely watch. She watch everything I do. Uh we work for the Cowboys. Maybe they’ll pay me a million dollars one day. There you go. Maybe. Maybe. Who knows? Man, ain’t nobody pay me. Please move on. Let’s move. They pay big checks around here. What’s on the other side of the building? I was about to say where on the other side of the seen that kind of money. I’ve been here a long time with Derek about 1999. Yeah. Still a seen that much money together. Yeah. We’ve sp we’ve spent that much money together but we haven’t ever doubt. What’s the rainers man? We got a nice budget. All right. Let’s get into it. Uh let’s talk about OTAAS. Uh yesterday Cowboys had onfield activities. Um and we got to hear from uh coach Shotty. We got to hear from Dak. There were lots of lots of talk around it. just what were your thoughts and what were your impressions on just the the general vibe of what we were hearing from players from coaches and and maybe what we saw on the field with regards to this team in their first availability on the field. Well, I’ll start. You know, I’m like every year by the end of it, I’m like next year I’m not buying it again. You ain’t fooling me again. It’s not happening. And I’m not saying it’s currently happening, but hear me out. We at May 21st. You already in Kool-Aid. Hear me out. What’s Kool-Aid in Spain? Kool-aid dudes busting through the the fence right now. I am not trying to fall in love again. I am not trying to fall for it and I’m not trying to sell you guys. May not be in love yet, but listen. Here’s my problem. When when you’re around this and you start seeing the changes and you start seeing new things, you’re like it. Let me just say Brian Shodenheimer, he’s making it very hard for you not to like what he’s doing. He’s making it very difficult because you walk in there and you and I’m not and I’m trying to say that last year the culture was terrible. There was some division. The culture was terrible. No, there was some division that started happening. You know, when things go when you’re losing game, obviously people are mad. It happens. But the point is this year he he’s so focused on building that culture, building those relationships, making sure that they’re a family, that they’re all in this together. We’re all not working for you, but we’re working with each other and making things happen. So, an example that people brought up yesterday was even the music that was being played at at at practice. me. I don’t pay attention to music that much, but it was clearly big enough to where people were talking about it. And in the playlist, there was a ping-pong table inside the locker room. Let me give you guys an illustration of years past. Nothing has happened like that before. They’re throwing a ball into the dirty trash can. like not the trash can but the dirty clothes, the dirty laundry where they all are sweaty clothes and then they go and get the ball and they play basketball and that like that but a ping pong table in the middle of the locker room. Initially I was like what is going on here? But then you see the guys playing and and even after a practice they’re in there playing with each other having the laughs and that’s what builds chemistry. That’s what builds those relationships. So again, the way that the players are speaking about this new changing coaching staff, the way that Dak has expressed also that there’s a lot of understanding from like the communication is there and the vision is there. They’re all in sync. And again, whether or not that’s going to translate on the field when it comes to actual season games and all that, that is yet to be seen. We’ll see what happens. But right now it’s it’s I’m falling I’m falling for it again. Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid. And I wasn’t happiest in the world about the, you know, signing or what, you know, I just think the Cowboys didn’t do a great job of just, you know, exhausting the options, right? It was like, all right, we just going to bring in shot and just go from there. Um, but the more you listen, the more you just listen to the players respond and you listen to him talk and you listen to what Jerry has to say about him and and you just really start to think now like, hey man, you really just got to motivate the guys and keep everything on on on track and you in charge of hiring and things of that. I think the one of the biggest things Shenheimer’s done already is he just didn’t hire friends of his or just hire people that just needed jobs when the rent was due. Just 90 year old men that needed something to do. He hired some of the best people in the business and he’s going to need that help like scheme wise or whatnot. But besides that, it seems like the the young 50s Derek, sorry, is doing better than the old 60 year old men. Hey Shotty, what you got in that cup? A shotty. That means something. You know what I mean? And and and it’s something small, but just hey, coach got swag. Coach Da da and Mike McCarthy doing that goofy little thing that he did that ain’t you know what I’m saying? That’s not relating to these guys. Or no, we’re not going to play music loud. Not that’s not that’s not relating to these guy. That’s why, you know, I think old old coaches, they get kind of stuck in their ways and they just kind of do things that they want to do and we’re not going to play. I think Shotti’s able to adapt. Hey, Dak, what do you think we can do here to make XYZ work? Hey, CD, what do you think? Oh, y’all want to listen to music? Play Kendrick. I don’t care. Play some play some. You know, I think he’s I think that that alone makes him a much better hire than some old coach with, you know, um, championships or like, you know, just please go ahead. I know. I was going to say this and to that point. I think when you talk about the process that the Cowboys went through in making this higher, one of the things I’ve heard that I think we’re all starting to see now is I think the Cowboys I don’t think the Cowboys when they initially sat down with with with with Shotti were even thinking about him as a head coach. They were talking to him as a coach that was on the staff. They’re trying to get a feel and I think they woke up two or three interviews later with him that weren’t scheduled and were like, “Man, this dude’s got something different. This dude is different. He’s he’s got something like there’s something here.” And I think we all have gone through the same process that I think the Cowboys went through when they were going through the interview process, which is we’ve started to see these little things that say, “Man, this dude’s different.” No. And honestly, I last week when we did the live stream uh with Micah and Sidi and Osa and Tyler, I was on that cart when Shotti came up. What happened before the cameras caught that moment is they were basically like they were like, “Oh, Shotti’s over there.” Like they were like, “Hey, stop. We want to talk to Shotti.” And so Shotti sees him like, “What’s up?” And he gets off of his cart, comes over. They have a whole conversation before they got to the the famous line now about the Shotty. And they’re just talking like they are not talking as coach to player and player to coach. They’re talking as just men that are hanging out like Derek coming here comes Derek. Oh, look the other way. No, but it’s like that that’s when I I started saying there’s something different here because I’m also a big believer in culture. I think it makes a huge difference in a work I don’t care what the work environment is. Work environments if you have the right culture, you will get way more done and you’ll be way more effective. That doesn’t mean everything’s going to always be perfect. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to win. It means you’ll be in the best position to win. And when things go wrong, you’ll be able to weather storms because you have great culture. And I think because he leans so much into that culture, I think players are certainly buying it. What we’re seeing, what I’m seeing from players behind the scenes in the way they’re responding to us, in the way they’re responding to the to up to their other teammates says to me something is different going on here. And I’m that’s not a knock on McCarthy or anybody else. It is saying shotty is doing something different and this team is responding right now. Can I give I know Brian you want to talk but let me give you a quick story another story. This is not something that was very publicized or anything but when he got hired and this was something very refreshing very new to us because we haven’t experienced that at all. He took the time out of his day to show up early in the morning with bags of water burger breakfast and went around the whole office desk by desk, introduced himself, shook hand with employees that literally have nothing to do like on hands with football or anything. This is all on this side of the building with people accounting, marketing, everybody. He went around the whole building and shook hands with everybody introducing himself. And it was one of those things like, “Wow.” Again, you’re not just hearing it with words. You’re actually seeing it. You’re seeing it happen. And it was and I told him that day, I said, “Hey, you know what? We I personally really appreciate this because we’ve never had an experience like this. For someone to value this like this side of the building in that way is very new to us. And I just I I love everything that he’s doing. And so far based on this time of the year, he’s doing he’s going above and beyond in my opinion to what he can actually do this time of the year. That’s awesome, man. We got a coach. Go ahead, Brian. Yeah, I’m going to take this in a different direction. The most encouraging thing to me yesterday was your quarterback wasn’t limited. Mhm. Mhm. And you know, we all talked about the injury and how it really, you know, the season was not great last year and then, you know, he gets hurt and then it becomes even worse and you know, you are what you are at that point. But the thing that was most encouraging to me is because on our station on 1053, the fan, Stephen Jones was talking about, you know, well, Dak might be in the OTAAS and the mini camps might be limited. Well, he wasn’t limited yesterday. He went out there and did what he had to do. He was moving around well. Physically, he looks fine. And Dak is always going to be in the best shape he could be in going. And in him and Britt Brown, they put in the work. You know, that’s the encouraging part of it to me that when you got a guy like new players, you’ve got a new right guard, you’ve got new wide receiver, you’ve got new players, you know, Dak being out there and being a part of the offense and just from the jump and not all of a sudden that, you know, and nothing against Joe Milton, it’s nice to see Joe Milton out there throwing the ball, but this team is going to come and go as that quarterback is. and the fact that, you know, we’re not having to worry about him in these OTAA mini camp practice and what’s his status going to be for training camp. You know, you can get this thing started now. He could be in the Dyard throwing with Pickkins, throwing with Lamb. He can do all the things necessary to get this offense up to speed by the time we gets to get to Oxnard. That’s probably the most encouraging thing that I’ve seen from the from the OTAAS mini camp so far after just only one day. Another thing real quick, Overshung, y’all better watch out. Y’all keep an eye on him. The way he’s walking around, that guy, I don’t know what he has in his system, but I think he he might not necessarily be completely out like we think he might be for the season. He He is looking good. So, uh the way he’s doing his recovery, he’s doing a really great job. You just see him walking around and physically he looks good. That’s what happens when we work really hard at rehab. Like really really hard at rehab and you trust Brett Brown in the in the whole process. And I ain’t going to say nothing else. No, it’s it’s facts. I think they have they have guys in that training room that will get players back and ready to play. You got to follow the process. And not everybody always does it that way. But I think when you’re committed to it, and certainly he has youth on his side. I’ll tell you that when you’re young below that 50 age range, you can recover. you can at 32, you might not even be able to recover like that. But I’m just saying like when you’re young and you’ve got the right people around you and giving you the right information and you’re following it, I think you can see some really great things happen. All right, we’re going to take our final break. We will come back. I want to get some reaction from you guys on the schedule. Schedule was was released last week. Some interesting things for the Cowboys. We’ll talk about that when we come back. This is Dallas cowboys.com radio. If you can’t be at the stadium, there’s no better way to watch your Cowboys than on an LG OLED EVO TV. That’s because everything you see is more lifelike. Every play, every hit. I mean, you might as well be on the sidelines. That’s how clear it is. It’s all thanks to LG’s legendary technology. Perfect black. Over 8.3 million self-lit pixels. No one comes close. 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Better yet, gather your Cowboys and Dr. Pepper fan friends to watch the next game and crack open a delicious ice cold Dr. Pepper for everyone. The wins will be even tastier. It’s a pepper thing. And we’re going to overtime. Erica, how much have I spent on concessions? For questions about their money, Dallas Cowboys fans can turn to Erica, the virtual financial assistant in the Bank of America mobile banking app. Learn more at bankofamea.com/era by your side. Bank of America, official bank of the Dallas Cowboys. Erica responses may vary. Digital tools featured require downloading the mobile banking app and may only be available on select mobile devices. Erica is a mobile feature only available in the English language. Your chat may be recorded and monitored for quality assurance. Message and data rates and additional terms may apply. Bank of America NA member FDIC. Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the cheetah savannah. Todd believed the big cat repellent he bought online was reliable. And now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run 80 mph. But the good news is Todd has AT&T 5G that is fast, reliable, and secure. And he learned the best thing to do is stop running and toss her the backpack with the beef stew. AT&T 5G. Fast, reliable, secure. 5G requires compatible plan and device. 5G may not be available in your area. See att.com/5G for you for details. Back to the break. AT&T connecting changes everything. Welcome back. We are in the final segment of the break live from the SWBC mortgage studios at the Star. Let’s talk schedule. Schedules came out last week. Um, and a lot of interesting things for the Cowboys, but I I here’s how I’m going to frame this conversation with you guys. I think there are three things I’ve identified on this schedule that are, let’s call it, challenging. Yeah. And I want you guys to tell me which of the three you think is most challenging. Cowboys, for the first time in the history of the NFL, have four, count it, four Thursday games. Yeah. Uh there is a late late stretch of games uh versus 2024 playoff teams. That’ll be Philadelphia, Kansas City at Detroit, Minnesota, uh Chargers at Washington. And that’ll be six six of their last seven games all in a row or the stretch of three games in 11 days when you have a Monday night or at Las Vegas and then a Sunday game against Philadelphia and then a Thursday game against Kansas City. Which of those three do you think is going to be the most challenging? You got old veterans, but you have some young guys on your team. So, I think Dak will be fine with uh, you know, three games in this, you know, time here or these like, you know, the the veterans have seen nonsense like this before. Oh, all we got a Thursday and another Thursday and a Monday and a Thursday again. Uh, but if you’re like Booker at the end of the season, how do you feel? Or like Jay and Blue or like, you know, some of these young rookies, some of these young guys that they don’t have the man body yet to deal with this stuff and now we’re on a short week after, you know, like it’s week 13 now and I got another game in four days. So, I think that’s going to be something tough for the young guys to deal with. Uh, but of course, playing tough teams towards the end of the year, conference games, of course, that’s that’s that’s something that’s going to be tough for you. But, you know, they’re they’re all they’re all uh crappy equally. I me my beef with the NFL is one first week one. What are we doing? Thought you were going to say at the Commanders is what I thought you were going to say. Oh, she’s already out. That’s next. Hold on. That’s next. But the first week one, I mean, sure. Let’s find out right off the bat how we do those people like no no give us some breathing room like we have so many moving piece so many new pieces to the game that I’m like that’s going to be challenging for the Cowboys week one away from home have to put together a great game against you know who but you got all training camp to do it right I actually thought that’s a that’s a value because basically you get weeks to be able to prepare prep for that first game, right? We know training camp practices is not the same as real game. No, get that. I’m just saying and again is what’s going to happen in the preseason. Here’s my question. Are is Shottenheimer going to play some of the starters in the preseason or not? That’s I’m I’m really curious to see because I I think the opponent in week one has to change your strategy of what you do during the preseason. There’s no way you sit out all those guys those three weeks because of who you’re playing week one. Now the rest when you talked about that stretch later in November, December, I’m okay with that because this is what we do. This is what football is. You got to play those games and if I mean it is what it is. Let’s just play the games at that point. You hope that you’re not attacked and dealing with a bunch of injuries again. You hope that that by that time actually your team now is it should be what it’s going to be. Uh and then my next be beef number two. H. That’s just number two. Beef number two. Oh, that was one. That was one. Oh goodness. Okay. Beef number two. Hey yo, Beam, can you zoom out to watch her? Her hands going crazy over here. She upset for real. I’m sweating. She upset for real. Please. Washington. What’s number two? Come on. In Dece. Yeah. Like we think differently because obviously NFL is a business. It is. It is. But man, we got to play. Come on. Daylight. Ag. You’ve worked a lot of holidays. Okay, come on. We got to play Thanksgiving every week, every year. That’s fine. We love it. We love Thanksgiving. That’s a tradition there. But no, go to Washington out of all place. I’m I mean, you already know I’m taking that one. Oh, I already when I saw the schedule, I was like, Amber ain’t going to that game. But that’s so messed up. Like Washington is one of the worst places to like that stadium is just terrible. That stadium is terrible. It is. I haven’t been. Don’t Don’t miss it. Good. They’re going to have a new one in a couple years. So again, that one that one is more of a personal thing. I don’t the rest. I can’t wait to tell the county he don’t work. I am not on the list of that flight. Please go ahead and keep going. No, that’s it. That one was more of a personal You know what I I’ll say this though about the Christmas Day game and I this is my only thought about the schedule right now. That right there is going to be for a playoff spot. Yeah. Christmas night in at Washington. You know, it’s going to be one way or another, Dallas’s season is going to come down to a Thursday. And Derek, get your crew ready for Sounds of the Sidelines. Oh, yeah. And Deep Blue on how this game and how it all transpired on a Christmas night and maybe snow in the air and all that stuff. That game right there is going to be whether you get in the playoffs or not. That’s just my as I look at the schedule, there’s a lot of things you’re going to have to navigate here. That’s probably going to be the most important one you’re gonna have to navigate if you want to get in the playoffs. And not even saying about winning the division. I’m just saying getting into the playoffs. Yeah, that this is going to be a tough year for anybody in the NFC East. The schedule against the NFC North and the AFC West is not going to be easy. And then now mix in the games because you finished first or second. You know, now you’re, you know, you’re playing other teams as far as that. And who knows if you go out and find a way, you get off to a good start in the season, then you go and play like crap against the Jets who are 1 and4 at the time. You don’t know how this thing’s going to play out. But the one thing I do know, I think that Commanders game Christmas night is going to come down to whether you get in the playoffs or not. Yep. I think I I will say it right now. I I I firmly believe that game will break records when it comes to the amount of people that will tune in to watch it. And it’s an early talking game. Literally, people will get up, they will open presents with their families, and then they will sit down to watch this game. And especially if both these teams are in playoff contention, that game will break records. I put money on it. That game will break records. Is the renewal of a rivalry that has been missing for a long time, but you’re talking about a Washington team that’s gotten a lot better over the last year, and I think a lot of people feel like Dallas is better now than they were last year. If both those teams are in contention, that game will break records. Yeah. Word is Mike Zimmer will come back and be the defensive coordinator for that game because he has a handle on how to play that quarterback. There you go. It took Marcus Mariota to come into game for the Commanders to get the victory on the final week in a game they were trying to win, you know. So, yeah, it it’s going to be a tough one. Also, too, let me just say games that are that are just weird looking that are probably going to matter later on are Cardinals and Packers. And I think the Cowboys are I would say more talented than Arizona right now. But but but those those games are always weird. Last time we went up there, it didn’t matter. That’s what I’m saying. Th those games just are goofy for no reason. I I even think you technically can beat Green Bay. The Cowboys just haven’t. Yeah. You know, so they did when I was there, when you were there, you know, back in the 70s or something. Well, it was a Brian problem. Yeah, it’s a I need to walk away from this thing. Maybe it’s a Brian problem. Maybe a Brian problem. Need to go back with the Packers. But those games those games Packers.com conference games just weird games. I I just don’t like them looking at them. You know, the It’s funny the one game on this schedule that I absolutely thought they were going to lose. Just I’m going to say it’s I just you know when you play that game win, loss, win, loss, win, lost that game. True. The game at Denver. I just They have not won at Denver since 1995. It’s a hard place to play. It is. Well, didn’t the last time you guys went there when I was back here, but then we have a weather delay for like an hour and then and then Zeke had eight yards fell off. Yeah. Yeah. that that game right there to me I just immediately when I saw it at Denver I just put an L right next to it and please prove me wrong. But I will say this when you look at those two games particularly um Denver and Chicago. Yeah. Those are two games I was quickly going to look at when I got the schedule. What time of year? Yeah. What time of year? And to get those in September and October. That’s a win. That’s coldest I’ve ever been in my life was at Chicago. That game was miserable. And I wasn’t out there on the field the whole time. It was miserable. And so I I look at this and I’m just like they won from from the standpoint of those two games being played at the time of the year they are. And also I Amber, you talked about the fact they have all these new pieces. When you look at their early part of the season, they really have only Philadelphia and Green Bay in the first what’s that six weeks. Uh four of those other games that they’ll play in the first six games are all teams that are not were not playoff teams last year. So, you got actually some time when you get to November that you you should be you should be ready. But you have some time there to kind of get your get things going, get your guys in, get them ready, and get them on on the same page so that by the time you hit the the tougher part of your schedule, you’re ready to go. I I hated this looking about the early part of the schedule. The fact that you had three noon games like in the first six weeks. You don’t like the noon games? I love the noon games, but but you stacked them all together, you know. I was at I was thinking give me a noon game, give me three games, a TV game or whatever. Give me another noon game, you know, kind of give me a little bit of a break to to like and especially give me if you want to give me noon game, give me noon game on East Coast and let me travel back where I have a, you know, where I have a chance. Don’t make me come home at, you know, at 4 in the morning or something like that. I always look at those like, like for example, the Jets game, great. That’s a noon game. Travel back for the team will be good. Carolina. Carolina, another East Coast game. Good. Travel back. You know, noon games on the East Coast, I think, are a really good advantage to get your team back home at a decent hour so you can have a Monday to get things kind of organized instead of rolling in at 4:30, 5:00 in the morning like we normally do. Yeah. I’m just going to say right now, Amber, you’re out on Christmas, so day after Christmas, you’re hosting because I’ll be at home with my family opening presents. So, fair. Trade off. Fair. I’ll I’ll take that. All right. Good. Y’all remember she said it the day after Christmas. What’s that? That would be the day we have a show on the 26th. Oh, I can’t make it, man. I can’t. You can make it. The 26th. The 26th. What’s wrong with the 26th? Christmas is all week. Christmas. You know, we don’t do vacation. I mean, you know, we don’t do uh holidays, Ryan. I got to change my mind about what we talked about behind the scenes a couple weeks ago. We don’t do We don’t do holidays around here. I thought it was all roses and bubbles up in here during the season. We don’t do holidays around. Oh man. And which is the funny thing. every time we get the schedule is I’m not looking at oh how the team is going to play. I’m looking at how is my life affected. Like I love all those Thursday night games, the Monday. I love it. Then we go to the weekend. So we get no breaks on the break. Is that what you’re saying? By the time we get to training camp, we don’t take a break until the Cowboys are done. Welcome to the NFL. That’s true. That’s how we do it. Come on, man. You signed it for 18 minutes. That’s how we do it. Are you in it or are you not? If you’re in All right, we appreciate you guys joining us. We’ll be back next week. We’ll have more to talk about. Uh we have some more OTAAS next week, so we’ll talk about that again next week. Till then for Bot Lombardi, Brian Bratis, Amber Garcia, I’m Dererick Eagles. This has been the break live on dallascowboys.com radio. This has been a production of DallasCowboys.com and the DallasCowboys Football Club. How about this, Cowboys?

Derek Eagleton, Bryan Broaddus, Voch Lombardi, and Ambar Garcia discuss George Pickens’ arrival and how he’ll fit in with the new Cowboys culture and break down the 2025 schedule.

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