LIVE: Countdown to Kickoff #BALvsDAL | 8/16/25 | Dallas Cowboys 2025
Goowboy. Why is training camp different? Because these guys actually get to hit each other. They get to lean on one another. And then when you play the game in the trenches, that’s what matters. It’s not what you do in OTAAS. The key of training camp is uh you’re able to do things as close to simulates what you’re going to do on game day. We want to see all these guys compete. We want to see who’s developing, who took the things that we taught in the spring and who carried it over. The most part, we need to figure out and make the right evaluation of these guys to make sure that when it comes time to trim the roster, that we’re keeping the guys that we feel like fit our football team. Not just based as a player, but as a person. The Dallas Cowboys presentation of Countdown to Kickoff presented by AT&T is sponsored by Bank of America. What would you like the power to do? Reliant, official energy provider of the Dallas Cowboys. Sleep Number, the official sleep and wellness partner of the Dallas Cowboys. Yeti, officially licensed Yeti cowboy gear, is now available at stadium pro shops, concessions, and on yeti.com. And by a connecting changes everything, the first game jitters are no longer. This week, the Dallas Cowboys return home to AT&T Stadium after 26 days on the West Coast. Their second preseason opponent awaits. It’s the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys, including a couple familiar faces facing off here in Arlington. Welcome in to Countdown to Kickoff alongside Mickey Spagnola. I’m Kyleman’s leading you up to kickoff between the Cowboys and Ravens. And we’re joined right off the top of the show with head coach Brian Shottenheimimer. And coach, welcome home. First off, I know it’s been a long month, a hardworking month on the road in the West Coast. And now you get a chance to come home, see all these families. What’s this moment like for you opening the doors here for the first time? Well, we love number one being back home. We had a great training camp out in Oxnard, but we’re thrilled to be back and be around our family, the people that we love, but also these fans. And uh we’re excited to uh uh have a uh a great game tonight against the Ravens. What are some of the things that you’ve learned about this team now with one preseason game in the books? Of course, the 26 days in Oxnard. What are some of the things you’ve picked up on here in your first month as an active head coach? Yeah. Well, I think number one, these guys, they give us whatever we ask for. Whatever we emphasize, they’re going to do that. Uh they’ve practiced their butts off the entire time in training camp. Uh last game, you know, we started a little bit slow, you know, so that’s something we want to try. Uh tonight, you know, how do you do that, Shotty? Well, the way you do that, number one, is you focus on one play at a time. You play that play to the best of your ability. When that play’s over, you move on to the next play and then you stack good plays together. And so, that’s one of the things that we’re excited about tonight. And uh again, we found our rhythm a little bit uh uh later last week in the game, but uh the biggest thing for us still is the evaluation process. There’s some really cool position battles that we’re trying to figure out, and that’s the number one thing you’re trying to get done with preseason football. You know, Brian, I think you reminded everybody of the end of this week that while we’re changing training camp locations, training camp’s not over. Uh you’re going to get another look at Joe Milton tonight. you got a pretty good look at him the first preseason game. What do you want to see him take maybe the next steps uh in a game like this tonight? Well, I really wanted to pick up where he left off in the second half, you know, before he got dinged up a little bit. You know, he he came out a little bit sped up last game and and it’s funny talking to Joe after the game. He said, “You know what, Se?” He goes, “I really just didn’t have fun early on. Like, I was a little bit just nervous and excited and all those things because I didn’t have fun.” And really, when Joe’s at his best, when he’s out there having a good time, and that’s what he kind of did late in the game. Um the the end of the the end of the game showed just his ability to move the pocket, move the football down the field. He ran a little bit, which I think helped him settle down. He ran the guy over on the sidelines, kind of got him going a little bit. That normally always has a way of doing that. But, uh again, I think he’s going to pick up where he left off in the second half. In other words, play football, right? Don’t be a robot. Uh looks like you’re going to use some of your starters on the offensive line. You’re going to get to see those guys. Uh what are you hoping to get out of Booker, BB, uh and Nate Thomas? Yeah, again a little bit, you know, it’s again with Booker playing, we wanted Cooper to play, BB to play a little bit alongside him. That’s important to help him with the calls and things like that. Uh but really, it’s just again the physical nature we want him to play with. This is a really stout run defense that you’re going to see here in Baltimore. They’re a three four read and react defense and uh they do a really nice job with their big guys inside of trying to hold the point of attack. So, we’re going to challenge our guys and come off the ball a little bit and see how we can do running the ball against a very physical front. You’ve talked multiple times about the afteraction reports and and following up a game with things that you can improve upon. I know you’re over the the offense entirely, but what did you see from the defense and their afteraction report with coach Iberlu flying to the football? Some of the things you did well in that first preseason game. Yeah, our guys competed really, really hard. You know, uh again, in the first half, we actually slowed the run down pretty well. Well, I think we gave up 3.1 yards per carry in the first half. Uh got away from us a little bit in the second half. Um the where area we need to get better is tackling. So, we changed a lot of things. We’ve been doing a bunch of ball drills in in the early parts of individual. This week, we went back to more tackling drills, just the basic principles of tackling, same foot, same shoulder, striking, lifting the guy up. Um and so that’s been really good for us. So, what you expect as a coach is when you emphasize something, which this team has always done, when you emphasize something that that shows up on game day. One of the positions I think you’re still trying to sort through because of the injuries, the quarterback position. You going to look at maybe some different guys longer tonight? Yeah, again, I think you’ll see Ky play a little bit tonight. You know, he won’t play a whole lot, but yeah, we’re going to keep mixing guys around. You’ll see us moving some guys in. Kean Hall, Zion in the nickel spot. Some things we want to look at. Boo’s going to play quite a bit. Uh so those are guys that uh those uh those battles when you start looking at the numbers, it’s like, okay, uh we got to make sure we have the right information. And that’s not just on offense, defense, but that’s on special teams as well. And so we’ve got a number of position battles where if you asked me right now to okay, hey, who are your five of this or who are your six of that, it’d be like, well, I don’t know yet. So we our job these next two weeks uh between now and next Friday against Atlanta would be to figure those battles out. Excited to see that position battle, some of the running back position battle today. It’ll all be on display here in preseason week number two. Head coach Brian Shottenheimer joining us now. Coach, thanks so much. Good luck tonight. We’ll talk to you again next week. Thank you guys. Always a pleasure. When we come back here on Countdown to Kickoff, we’re here from AT&T Stadium. Jerry World. Jerry joins us here on the sideline. This segment is brought to you by Dr. Pepper. Raise your Dr. Pepper glass to America’s team. It’s a Pepper thing. This Tuesday, the brand new documentary titled America’s Team, the Gambler and his Cowboys will debut in front of the world on Netflix. And we have the Gambler himself joining. premiere early this week out on the West Coast and now you get to return home to AT&T Stadium. Jerry Jones, the owner, GM, president of this Dallas Cowboys team, joins us now. And the Hall of Famer, it’s always fun getting you on for the first time, but it’s even better when it’s right here in the home stadium. Oh, I couldn’t agree with you more. And uh uh just so many uh reasons to be here. And I was with some of our group of of uh really young people that are in their early years of their occupations. And if anything, this documentary is going to show uh some downtimes, some hard times that everybody has. Uh certainly I’ve had hard times. And then you get to see how staying with it, getting up, the proverbial get knocked down, get up. But the thing that I’m the proudest of, it shows a lot of fortitude by a lot of people. A team thing. And so, uh, look for that when you’re watching that documentary. A team thing. And speaking on the team, we get a chance to see this roster top to bottom tonight and a lot of starters getting some opportunities to play. When you look at the the roster moves throughout the offseason, both the the ups and the downs. What’s going to are you going to remember about this 2025 offseason? Well, first of all, I’m going to go to where I thought uh we needed to address uh and our big men in the front, our offensive line and our defensive line. Now, there are parts of that that have to uh really excel to make those guys have a good year, defensive, offensive line, guys outside. I love our skilled guys on offense all the way around. Tight ends, receivers, and obviously we think Dak is one of the best there is in the game. You got to keep him standing though, and that’s that offensive line’s job. And they need to block him up. Uh keep him uh keep him protected, so to speak. And then again, we really need to have more cohesion, less pre-nap mistakes. Uh those are penalties usually. Uh, but we just got to get a little more efficient and work on that edge with our offense with our offense at front. One of the reasons that Brian’s our coach is because I really did everything that I could do to get him back here to call the plays. He’s been with this team now going on for years and so he knows the personnel and he actually knows the defensive personnel as well. So that gave us a a head start with him. Uh he’s been in the NFL for over 30 years. He grew up around the table. His father’s one of the greatest coaches in the history of the league. So we got a guy that has all the experience in the world. Very young, but getting to do it for the first time. Now, I buy into that. I love it. No matter what the age, when you’re doing it for the first time, want to show yourself, want to show them. I think we got some of that in Brian. So Jerry, you come into today, you got a new head coach, three new coordinators, a lot of new players, not just young, but some veterans. Your impressions of what you saw in training camp for the first time under this coaching staff. Well, uh, you hit on one thing that needs to be noted. If you are going to be different, then you got to change from within. And while that represents a very accountable numbers game, which having those new faces in those spots, we’ve also asked the staff, we’ve asked the people around them that support the staff, the scouting, player personnel, of all of the areas to look in the mirror and change what you’re doing. I’ve always worked for myself. There’s not but one cat that you got to straighten up when you work for yourself. if you’re going to change it. And that’s the guy in the mirror. Now, the problem with taking him away that’s easy for everybody else is that uh there’s no place for you to go. Go away. And so, the bottom line is there’s some changes need to be made in that mirror. And we’ve done some things. We’ve done some things that I think will help us this season regarding uh not only what we’ve done in personnel, but in some of the ways that we’re coaching them up. For sure. You know, Brian reminded us of of this the last day in training camp that the Philadelphia game coming fast. Do you have a position that needs more clarity before you get to that season opener? Well, I frankly with this game and this next week and then our last preseason game, um we have several of them that need some more clarity and uh we’ll need some more clarity because on the way there we’ll have a surprise or two, whether it be uh talent or whether it be uh injury we play in a game of attrition. So, uh, it’d be, uh, uh, too naive to think that from where we are tonight, after this game, that by the time we get to the first game, we won’t have some real changes tonight. Uh, but tonight is to uh, see a lot of these young guys uh, really compete. We’ve got to have them. Uh, we’ve got a third of the guys on the team. I’m roughing it now, but about a third that are new faces on this team. And that’s the way it is around the NFL. That’s a good thing. It’s really a good thing. And so we’ve got the enthusiasm of someone that hadn’t played, hasn’t played in this stadium. Uh that’ll carry them to a level that uh maybe the older veteran guys don’t have. That’s their unique. Jerry, you you talked about uh the the addition of Pickkins early in training camp and how much it has changed the offense. That was a huge move that you guys made this offseason that has helped change the the whole complex uh whenever it comes to that offensive side of the ball. What does that tell you about making those big moves in the offseason and how much that can help a team with those guys around them? Well, we’ve had success uh in years past uh with adding to uh an area that has real uh I’d say very good capability. our quarterback receiver was pretty good before George got here with Lamb and of course with uh uh with Dak, but then we like what we’ve got with our tight ends. But when you get a player that can come in and really create problems for the defense plus just can make plays, uh then that does create more of a problem and better opportunity for the offense. Uh we have that. You’d love to get that ideally from a young player that you’re bringing along, but in this particular case, you look for the opportunity. George Pickkins was there. For whatever the reason, he was there and I’ll tell you right now, he’s melled in beautifully with this team and uh I’m really proud for him. I think you’re going to see an inspired play. Could be the move of the off season in the NFC if it continues. Looking like it has in Oxnard. Jerry Jones here on the sideline for countdown to kickoff. Thank you for taking some time and good luck this afternoon and we’ll see you again next week as well. I’m thankful I interrupt you, but I’m so thankful for you that are watching out there and uh I realize that uh uh we really need to win more games than we won last year. Uh and we need to get in that tournament and we need to do well into that tournament. Uh that’s fresh heart of my mind. I like it and I think everybody watching at home can agree with that. When we come back here on Countdown to Kickoff, we’ll talk more about George Pickkins and that Cowboys passing game. How does that affect the rest of the offense and who’s under pressure here in week number two of the preseason? Download the Cowboys Now app on your connected TV to get the latest news and programs all year long on your home TV. Download the Cowboys Now app today. Welcome back to AT&T Stadium. It’s preseason week 2. The Baltimore Ravens taking on the Dallas Cowboys. 6:00 kickoff on CBS1 and your local stations alongside Mickey Spagnola. I’m Kyle Yman’s now joined by Nick Eatman. We just talked with Brian Shottimer. Just talked with Jerry Jones and both shared a sentiment that there’s some excitement around this passing attack and George Pickkins is a big part of that. Yeah, there’s no doubt. When the Cowboys traded for him, everybody knew that they were getting a great player. We’ve all seen the highlights, but when you look at Dak Prescott after a full training camp, he’s been even better than Dak expected. Yeah, honestly more versatile than than I would say that I thought before we got him, you know. Um, and then now having him, as I’ve continued to say over and over, it’s a guy that loves the game of football. So, everything that you give him and the more you give him, he’s going to answer that bell and and he wants the more he wants more as much as he can. Uh, so I I don’t almost say I’m surprised, but he does have every tool in the bag and and it’s fun to be able to get out there and as we just said in different periods, different throws, different kind of routes, um, different coverages for him to make plays just show he’s a big time guy and and to have another guy like that alongside CD is just going to be fun. And on our website, Dallascowboys.com, when we finished training camp, guys, we we did a top 20 players of camp. Everybody voted. You guys voted. And number one was CD Lamb. Number three, George Pickkins. And who who was number two? The guy giving him the football. I think what it shows is those three guys formed a really strong trio. And it kind of trickles down after that. And then when it trickles down, one of the guys that Ryan Shottenheimr had uh intentions to turn into a real wide receiver was Cavante Turpin. No more gimmicks. Catching the ball down the field. I think you saw that. And and where did he finish on the list? Fourth. Number four. So, you’re right. I I think it did show it starts with CD and and he’s certainly getting loud in here, but it’s starting with CD and then George Pickkins and then like I think we everyone’s going to eat and I think Ferguson’s going to have some, you know, benefit from that. But just what Pickkins provides another guy that, you know, isn’t playing tonight, that’s even better. So, you got a bunch of young guys too trying to make it maybe as the fifth guy or force a sixth. There’s some other young guys like Fenoi. Uh you you’ve got Holden, uh Jaylen Brooks who was on the team last year. How do you see maybe that uh working out? And I and I like Mingo as well. I thought Mingo, you know, he he did some really nice things uh as well. But I Tay Sean Holden is very interesting because you know when you look at where he came from Oregon with Junior Adams is his position coach. He was at Oregon and it just seems like he was a step ahead of everybody. May not be the fastest receiver but still he gets open and we’ve seen that. You know if you can get open and make make plays and so I’m anxious to see what he does. You know Kelly had a nice game last week too. Yeah. Josh Kelly undrafted free agent out of Texas Tech. The thing with these wide receivers, it’s who is going to give you something different than what you have on your roster. With guys like Lamb Pickins complimenting each other so much at the top of the depth chart, who can complement you toward the bottom of the depth chart? And that might be the difference on what wide receiver 456 looks like. You know, Mickey, you you’ve seen this for years. We’ve always talked about this. When you get to the very end of the wide receivers, it’s not who can catch, it’s not who can get open, it’s who can tackle, who can who can actually play on special teams. We’ve seen those over the years. the last guy at receiver is not the best guy in practice. He’s the guy that’s the gunner that gets down there and makes the tackle. And that’s a great point because when you’re watching these games, the guys that are on special teams are the guys trying to make the team. These are guys that are trying out just as much as whatever their box score is going to say with receptions, targets, and yards. Whatever they do on film from a special team standpoint is going to be big for this Cowboys team today. When we come back here on Countdown to Kickoff, we have an opportunity to look at some of these offensive linemen for the first time, including first round pick Tyler Booker, who’s suspected to start This segment is brought to you by Ashley Hometore, the official furniture store of the Dallas Cowboys. Welcome back to Countdown to Kickoff. Tyler Booker looking on. He is expected to start on that Cowboys offensive line making his preseason debut with the Cowboys. And he is one of the gentlemen on this offensive line that Patrick Nosy Walker has had his eye on for quite some time. He is Patrick’s American Airlines player to watch. You know, I think Tyler this past week especially has made some really significant gains and there’s some things where I believe, you know, he needs to cut it loose and be measured. And we talk in our room quite often about playing to win as opposed to playing to not lose. But, uh, you talk about a professional who is at that young age and very pleased with his, uh, progression thus far. Tyler Booker as a first round pick has impressed offensive line coach Connor Riley so far. Patrick, why is it important for a guy of his stature, a first round pick, but also a rookie to get some snaps here in the preseason? For the two reasons you just mentioned, he’s a firstround pick and he’s a rookie. So, the reps are going to be integral for getting him up to speed as so he can hit the ground running. You got the Philadelphia Eagles, the defending Super Bowl champions. You have to visit their home field in week one. You need Tyler Booker ready to go. So the more he can more reps he can get, the sooner he can hit the field, the better. So how important also is it that you’ll have Booker out there, Cooper BB and Nate Nate Thomas? I think it’s monumental, Mickey, because you talk about chemistry that that’s exactly what you need. This interior offensive line, you got young guy, you got Tyler Smith, you know what Tyler Smith’s going to be, but with Tyler Booker being a first year guy, they have to have cohesion. The best way to get cohesion as an offensive line group is to play reps together. So, it’s no coincidence that while Tyler Booker is also playing in this game, Cooper BB will take the field as well. You know, there’s all five of them out there. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but very important though are the guys come in after those cuz they got to find their backups uh to be able to finish off this offensive line room. Yeah, still very much working through their depth situation as Tyler Gen continues to recover from his knee injury and he’s making great progress. But in his absence, what is Nate Thomas able to do? Nate Thomas was impressive over the course of training camp in Oxner showed some things against the Rams. Can he take a step forward? You have other guys. You have younger guys, Johnny Cornelius, Hakee Adeny, and some of these other cats that need to step in and show that they can show make some impact. And on the offensive line, just as we heard Kendra Lamar say a minute ago, you need a little extra mustard up front. That’s what we’re seeing with a lot of these starting lineups and with these offensive linemen. It has been tough though to really see a cohesion across the front because of the injuries that have suffered either at camp and then through that first preseason game as well. Why is that such a challenge for this team to keep guys on the field up front and and how does that change their thought process when looking and evaluating these guys? Well, whenever you’re talking about playing in the trenches, you’re going to be at a high risk for injury. That’s just how football goes at every level of the game, especially in the NFL. But it behooves all 32 teams, especially the Dallas Cowboys coming off of a season they had where they were ravaged by injury to establish depth. So you love what you see from a guy like Brock Hoffman going into this year. TJ Bass, he’s going to get reps at center today against the Baltimore Ravens. The Cowboys are doing what they can with versatility, flexibility. They’re trying to shore up the depth behind the front five and they’re going to need to make sure they do so. You know, and the good thing is with Nate Thomas, he he only got like 10 snaps in that first game. So, he needs to play, right? This guy has not played uh a down of real football since 2023 when he was at Louisiana on the IR all last year. And and to that point, this is a guy who’s trying to leave an imprint on this year’s camp. He struggled a little bit in last year’s camp as a Cowboys late round started ways with him. Later in the season, they brought him back. This is another shot for him and I think that he’s taking full advantage of it and they really like what they’ve seen so far. That’s why they put him in place of Tyler Gayton when Gayton went down to injury. Patrick, thanks so much. You can catch Patrick on Talking Cowboys Monday through Friday soon as the regular season gets underway at 9:00 a.m. Central time. When we come back here on Countdown to Kickoff, who has the most to prove in preseason week 2, especially at the running back position. This segment was brought to you by Ashley Hometore, the official furniture store of the Dallas Cowboys. This segment is brought to you by Reliant, official energy provider of the Dallas Cowboys, some of the quarterbacks, George Pickkins, Jake Ferguson in the spotlight. Yes, Dak Prescott has his pads on. No, you cannot expect Dak Prescott to play here in preseason game number two as we welcome you back to Countdown to Kickoff. Nikki Spagnola. I’m Kyleman. Tommy Yish, Dallas Cowboys.com. Just got back from the entire month on the West Coast. And you’ve kept your eye on these running backs throughout the entirety of training camp, but we might see some newcomers in preseason games. Yeah, we sure have. And Brian Shanheimer’s kept his eye on those running backs, too. Here’s what he had to say earlier this week about that running back room coming into tonight. Most of those guys are trending in the right direction. We’ll find out a little bit today. Today should be a really good practice, a chance to see some of those guys bounce back. Just all the guys that are trending in the right direction. But again, until we see how today goes and how they look, we won’t really know. Got a couple days to make that decision. And so they had a couple of practices to get a look at some guys, see what the deal was in terms of coming back from injury. Jaden Blue, who you see right there, will not play tonight. That injury is not meant to be severe. It’s not thought to be severe, but he did not practice all week. The rookie fifth round pick out of Texas. So, will not play tonight. Maybe next week in the final preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons. He’ll take the field. But Miles Sanders will play tonight. The free agent of the Cowboys signed after he spent the last two as the rookie Phil Mafa that you saw right there. Javvante Williams more than likely will not play tonight as well. So, it’s going to be a heavy dosage of Sanders who will probably get the start tonight. Deuce Vaughn and then Phil Ma the seventh round pick out of Clemson who had some good carries last week and of course Malik Davis who coming off of 28 hours of preparation signed with the Cowboys and then 28 hours later the team in rushing they’ll get all get some run tonight but excited to see Miles Sanders here first his first game as a Dallas Cowboy in need of a bounceback season. Yeah and I think he probably needs a good performance because if you look at when he got hurt Jaden Blue went from second team to taking first team snaps. that Sanders needs to produce. But the guy I want you to tell people about is Phil Mafa. You know, you’re a seventh round pick and everybody goes, “Oh, he’s a seventh round pick.” But he didn’t play like a seventh round pick. No, he did not. And I mean, you go back and watch his college tape at Clemson and this guy can really run the football well. He was a bellcow during this last season for the Tigers and Davos Sweeney really leaned on him heavily and you can see that in that first preseason game, he can handle this kind of workload, right? This is a guy, you see the the numbers right there, 6′ 234 pounds. One of the stockier, if not the stockiest guy in that room, just in terms of pure size, and he can run like it, too. So, this is a guy that you can give a lot of touches to. And he’s going to be able to physically handle the wear and tear of getting 15, 20 touches a game because he did that in college. Now, the NFL level is a little bit different. More time to adjust to that level of physicality. But this is a guy who has gotten his fair share of wicks coming up to the NFL and certainly didn’t play like a seventh round pick last week. We’ll see what he does tonight. So Kyle, he told me this past week that, you know, he played through at Clemson a torn lab and anybody knows about a torn labor and you got to turn your shoulder cuz you don’t want that to get hit. He is playing free now for the first time in quite some time. And I think he’s made an impression on this coaching staff. Well, and the confidence level showed last week, not only when he toted the rock and had those run carries. It was the pass protection I was impressed with picking up the blitz getting in front of a defender. He did a good job, not when he was just running the football, but when he was behind the line of scrimmage in his preseason debut. Now, you mentioned not going to see Javvante Williams or possibly not to see Javvante Williams again today. What does that the RB1 as a part of this Cowboys offense already? It would certainly seem like it. I mean, and you and you look back at the training camp reps that the first team got. Javvante Williams was always the first one out there. You know, this guy at four years in Denver, was able to be a lead back his rookie season, suffers a big knee injury, and he’s slowly but surely been coming back from that. I think this staff is confident in what they’ve seen in Javvante Williams. And the fact that he has he didn’t play the first game and more than likely won’t play tonight is a good sign that this may be your starting running back. But the question is, do they feel confident to make him a bellcow or will they split up the carriers between guys like Sanders, Blue, and Mafa if he continues to perform well in the preseason? I love running back battles in the preeason. You get an opportunity to really see what these guys are made of. That’s why there are American Airlines players to watch. Tommy Yish, thanks so much for stopping by. You can catch him on dallascowboys.com. When we come back, undrafted free agents tend to make storylines this time of year. Who is that guy making the storylines in 2025 as an undrafted free agent? This segment was brought to you by Reliant, official energy provider of the Dallas Cowboys. This segment is brought to you by your Texas Ford dealers. Ford is the best in Texas. Closing into kickoff, the Cowboys and Ravens. Preseason week number two. One of my favorite parts of the preeason and of training camp are the unlikely heroes and storylines that we get to see uncovered in Oxnard and then as the team returns home. And Nicole Hutcherson joins us now about one of those unlikely heroes that has shown up on the practice field. Yeah, Tan Holden uh someone who when he gets opportunities, he uh makes you pay attention, right? He had a onehand grab in the red zone uh in earlier this camp with Joe Milton’s uh pass. He also had a big play down the right sideline. So, preseason game against the Rams, but he’s a guy that came in and said that he’s coming for people’s heads, and he’s making the most of every opportunity. He looks forward to doing that again today. No guarantees, no promises, just production. That’s Tan Holden, a name turning heads in Dallas. every day he makes a play and um you know we kind of saw that they were playing some cloud to that side some cover two and Joe made a beautiful throw into the into the whole shot and you know Tan’s done that every day in practice literally every day there’s been one or two big plays and when you do that you get noticed and when you do that you get more opportunities and um just proud of him from spring workouts to training camp Holden’s been stacking days dependable hands precise routes and the kind of work ethic that’s hard to ignore And now it’s paying off early. In his first NFL preseason game against the Rams, he finished as the team’s leading yards. Joe Milton fires down Bill. It’s Tan Holden inside the 20 yd line. It felt great like just watch I keep I ain’t going to lie, I still I’m watching the catch to this day. The best thing for me I feel like consistency and availability, you know, that that’s what keeps you on the field. That’s what keeps you making the roster. So like I’ve dreamed of this since I was a little kid. So, it’s like keep going from now. Like, you know, keep going. That’s been the motivating message for him since he arrived in Dallas. Holden signed a three-year, $2.9 million contract, non-G guaranteed, just a team low $3,000 signing bonus. I’m the ultimate competitor. Like, when I walk on the field, I’m the best player on the field. So like just having that mindset and when I went undrafted, you know, I came in the building angry like and him competing has only made it easier with the reunion of his former college coach. I’ve been with Trey now going on year three. I’m happy with his growth right now. And if the last few practices now, he’s put together some really good practices for us. And you know, my thing to him is just being consistent and keep stacking days. He’s a gamer, man. He just he loves to compete. He loves to play the game and uh he finds a way of getting open and I mean there’s instincts, there’s route running skills that he has. Uh but I do think that you know the relationship with Junior has made him very comfortable uh in the beginning so his focus can be more on okay I got to learn I got to learn the system and what we’re doing. And with that comfort comes a chance to rewrite a story, one Holden’s ready to write himself. the narrative around my name coming out of college was, you know, it was negative and I’m trying to prove everybody that that’s not who I am and who the coaches at. Y’all picked up a dog. You know, talking about that narrative around his name in the 2025 NFL draft, his stock kind of dropped because of the off the- field issues, but he said he’s grown so much uh just being here in Dallas. you know, CD Lamb, guys like George Pickkins and even of course his former uh college coach, Junior Adams, have really taken him under his wing, helped him with his mental, his mentality. Uh, you know, guys, he also told me that, you know, CD Lamb, one message that he told him was that, you know, you’re going to feel every emotion in the NFL. He said he felt it the first day of camp, he dropped a pass. CD Lamb said, “Hey, tighten up. Get it together.” And he he that’s kind of kind of stood with him the whole time. So certainly leaning on those older guys in that room, which it’s going to be a big battle for those guys. These next two preseason games tonight especially really important for him. Practice is one thing, but you got to do it when the lights come on. Yeah. I mean, he’s shown us though. He’s shown that he’s a physical receiver. Uh you know, he uses his frame well for those contested catches. We saw him in uh in training camp, also in the preseason opener against the Rams. I mean, this is a room where you have guys like Jonathan Mingo who’s kind of chemistry with Dak Prescott, Cavante Turpin, we’ve seen him get more opportunities as camp goes on, listed as the three wide receiver right now. Jaylen Tolbert, of course, as well. I mean, this is a big room. You don’t know if they’re going to keep five or six guys at receiver. So, yeah, I mean, Tan Holden so far has has made a case. Uh, we’ll see if it’s worth it. And that’s the thing. He’s going to have to show out in these games for a chance at making the team. and Nicole Hutcherson joining us here on Countdown to Kickoff. When we come back, we wrap up things on the field and we’ll give you a couple position battles to look at, including some starters making their preseason debut. More to come from countdown to kickoff as the Ravens and Cowboys prepare for the second preseason game of 2025. Be sure to download the Cowboys Now app on your connected TV and watch all your favorite Cowboys content all season long. Just like us today, countdown to kickoff. Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys from AT&T Stadium. It’s preseason week number two. Alongside Mickey Spagnola, I’m Kyleman’s wrapping up the field portion of Countdown to kick off by telling you some of the positions to keep an eye on. Mickey, I’ll let you start it off. You said some position groups and battles. Does that change going into this second matchup? You know, I think the Cowboys understand who the starting five are on the offensive line, but you need backups, and that’s what this game and next week’s about. You got to be able to have 10 guys. So, don’t leave early. Watch the when the backups come in in that second half. Is Awesome Richards your backup swing tackle guard? Can uh Keem Adeny be a backup tackle? TJ Bass and Brock Hoffman. Who’s the backup center? That stuff’s going to get worked out in games like this. You’re starting with that offensive line and I do not disagree. Getting to see some of those starters up front will be huge to see exactly where they are and give you a good benchmark against a good defensive front from Baltimore. even despite it being some starters and some second team players on the Ravens side of things. I want to look at these corners though from the Cowboys element because Matt Eberlu showed it last week. They’re going to keep things simple. So, if you’re keeping it simple, it’s going to make things tough on your secondary. Guys like Israel Muamu made a big play last week. I want to see who steps up today because it’s not always the easiest when you’re playing cover four, cover three only on that defensive end and they’re going to have a chance to do so here this evening. And it’s more important at the quarterback position cuz you don’t know if your starters or like a Trayvon Diggs, uh, Siobhan Revel, are those guys going to be ready to play? Cuz if they’re not, these guys you’re going to see tonight are going to be awfully important when they hit Philadelphia for the openers. Reported to be on the field tonight. How about Ka Elum at the quarterback position? Kenneth Murray, Jack Samborn, both at linebacker. And then edge rusher Sam Williams will get some run today after he sustained an injury last training camp. This is his first game action in nearly two years as a Cowboys edge rusher. Good to see a lot of those defensive guys back in the fold. So we’ll keep a close eye on as we get ready for kickoff when we come back to AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is near. We go to the booth and join Bill Jones, Isaiah Stanback who will have the call for Ravens and Cowboys. Kickoff is coming right up. We are counting down to kickoff here at AT&T Stadium as the fans make their way in for the Dallas Cowboys hosting the Baltimore Ravens. Couple of minutes left here on countdown to kickoff as Joe Milton will get the start at quarterback for the Cowboys. Cooper Rush, the former Cowboy going for the Baltimore Ravens. Bill Jones along with former Cowboy Isaiah Standback here in the Globe Life broadcast booth at AT&T Stadium as we get you ready for kickoff. And how about we talk about the linebacker position on this team. A guy who flashed last season as a rookie and last week against the Rams from the opening kickoff on was Maris Leafoul and Isaiah had a chance to catch up with Maris. Coach always emphasizes our play style over Ski and I I couldn’t agree more with that as a defensive player. That’s uh kind of what I live by and I feel like if that bleeds throughout the team, we’re going to we’re going to do great things. the secondyear man out of Notre Dame, third round draft pick last year. And we really saw him. He got an opportunity last season to start games. And uh you can tell Matt Ilush really likes Maris Lee a foul. I mean, what is there not to like about him? He has a good size. He has great energy, great effort. He’s a smart kid and he has relentless pursuit of the ball at all times. He is literally a coach’s dream when you think about a linebacker in this league. He’s young as you mentioned, but these preseason games are giving him plenty of experience to be able to have the confidence to go out there and be a contributor for this defense. How about what the Cowboys have done with that linebacking core in general, not only with Leaf Foul, who’s been getting first team reps, but you got Jack Sandborn, you’re going to see him on the field tonight. Kenneth Murray came over, a former firstround draft pick in a trade with the Tennessee Titans. Deone Clark back. They’ve got a good group at linebacker, don’t they? Yeah. You take one of the defensive rooms that was probably the slimmest in terms of depth and now all of a sudden you have a complete 180 and you turn a lot of those names and then they went ahead and drafted somebody by bringing in Shamar James. So those guys are really really deep in terms of the linebacker position. I like their size. I like their mobility and the versatility that they they have now with coach Ilfloose in this defense. You know, and going up against this Ravens team is going to be a good test tonight. Even though backups will be playing for the Ravens, but the scheme that they have on offense, you know, the Ravens love to run the football. Yeah, these guys are going to be coming downhill. You talk about the number one rush offense from last year. It is not all about the running back, Big Dick Henry. It’s about that offensive line. And these guys are going to see some of those starters today in the game. So, you’re going to have a great opportunity to see exactly where your guys match up versus one of the best in the league. All right. And we’re going to see more players who will be on that roster in the regular season in tonight’s game than we did a week ago. We’ll be back in just a moment with the call of tonight’s game.
The preseason action continues!
Join our crew LIVE for #BALvsDAL Countdown to Kickoff presented by @ATT.
📺: #BALvsDAL on CBS11
#DallasCowboys
Subscribe to the Dallas Cowboys YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/2L07gMO
For more Cowboys content: https://www.dallascowboys.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DallasCowboys/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dallascowboys
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallascowboys/
Get the App: https://apple.co/1GG1G36
8 comments
Goodluck Boys
I hope booker plays
Dallas will have to kick a fg. Then punt 5 times same ole same ole
MILES SAUNDERS IS HOT GABBAGGEEEEEEE
Come on Cowboys let's win this
How bout dem boys
🏈 “Let’s go Dallas Cowboys!!”🏈
Lets Go Cowboys 💙💙💙