Swagu DOESN’T THINK that the Dallas Cowboys are going to the Super Bowl 😬 | First Take

Swagu DOESN’T THINK that the Dallas Cowboys are going to the Super Bowl 😬 | First Take

We have new sound from one Jerry Jones. Let’s hear it. Uh he’s not he’s lining up directly against you. Plus, you don’t have him on your defensive side of the ball. Now, that’s a real good test. And uh uh I’m glad that everybody got to see it uh where it goes and it left me feeling good about our trade. So, he’s doubling down his one Jerry Jones on feeling good about the trade. We’ve heard him say it postgame now. He said it after the trade happened and now a day later. Hi Drew Brees. Good morning to you. Thank you for joining us here. Drew Brees joining us on First Take every single week. Uh let’s dive into what we just heard from Jerry Jones doubling down. He feels really good about the trade. Cowboys and Packers ended in a tie. Do you agree Cowboys won the trade? I think it’s good for both of them. Uh I I don’t I don’t think I don’t think we would have gotten the best out of Mike or the best out of Cowboys had he stayed. you know, this just provided additional motivation for him to go elsewhere, get a fresh start. I think that’s going to be a great move long term for that team and that defense up in Green Bay. And honestly, it kind of forced Dallas to, you know, develop some of these young guys. You know, maybe not lean on the fact that you just have this, you know, one elite guy. You know, allowed you to really build and develop that defense. And honestly, it kind of puts maybe a little bit more, I don’t want to say pressure, but responsibility on the offense. You know, guys like Dak and some of those skilled position players to go out and really be efficient, uh, score points, you know, play complimentary football with your defense. Um, and and look, I think I think that was on display in that Sunday night game. Honestly, both offenses played outstanding. Both quarterbacks played outstanding. I know that wasn’t probably the defensive performance that either side wanted, but that’s what happens when you have two pretty elite offenses and quarterbacks going at it. Drew, it’s good to see you, my brother. You know, I got nothing but love for you. I always do. So, I will wait till another day to get on you about your wardrobe because you usually fly every time I see you. You see me a swag here. But I’ll get on you about that another day. Drew, let me ask you this question. In all seriousness, as the quarterback, if you were the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, would you look at this situation and be excited about what Jerry is saying? Or would you be mindful of the fact that Jerry’s putting it all on you? Because I think the reason why Jerry is comfortable doing what he did when it came to Micah Parsons is because he said, “I’m paying that man $60 million. Damn it. Figure it out.” I think that’s what he’s done to Dak. And Dak, to his credit, is stepping up and handling it. What are your thoughts about that? Yeah, he he is stepping up. I mean, look, you you you have to feel that sense of responsibility as a starting quarterback in the NFL. Honestly, I don’t care how much you’re making, but especially if you’re making 60 million bucks and whatever percentage of the cap that is. You know, you you recognize that, man, they they’ve put a massive investment in you and it is your job to lift everyone up around you to make everyone better. That is your number one job as an NFL quarterback. Wow. And especially when it comes to the fact that you you really have to build NFL teams now with the draft. You have to be able to draft well and develop young players. You’re only going to be able to pay a certain amount of guys and those become your core. Those are guys that create the culture, um, implement the culture, create the accountability structure within the team, and then you help raise the level of play with everybody else around you. And look, I think we saw that with Dak on Sunday night. Listen, resident cowboy, how you feel about Is this question is this called questions for Drew? No, you need you. You can watch Drew some more. Go ahead. I couldn’t disagree with Drew more than I am about do right now. And I get it. Drew loves quarterbacks. He like Dad. They love quarterbacks. Dak had 12 He had three 12 win seasons. Dak has been winning games in the regular season with Michael Parsons on the other side. But here’s my litmus test. This is what I’ll say. We The Dallas Cowboys offense looks good enough in the NFC to be Super Bowl contenders. That’s how good they look offensively. But we know damn well they ain’t going to the Super Bowl. And we know why they not going to the Super Bowl. So, I’m going to go back through a little bit of history. As much as we talk about Pat Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs making all these runs to the AFC Championship, who could argue arguably have been the best player on that team a large majority of the playoffs? That would be one Chris Jones, the defensive tackle. The impact plays that he was the able to make at impact times. When we talk about the Los Angeles Rams and we talk about Matthew Stafford and Coopa Cup with the triple crown, who made those plays in critical times to create championships for the Los Angeles Rams? Let’s talk about Philly, who you say the Kansas City Chiefs still ain’t recovered from the Super Bowl. Why Stephen A didn’t haven’t they recovered? Because that defense. Because of that defense. So, I get it. It sounds good to say, “Well, the future is bright and we got some draft picks and we need to develop.” And Drew, you are absolutely right. You are supposed to draft people and develop them. Guess who Dallas did that to? Micah Parsons. And he’s on another team and they are giving up 40 points when that offense put up a phenomenal performance. Drew, I sure would have loved to have Micah Parsons in some of those critical third down situations against the Green Bay Packers if I was the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah. Let’s see what the Cowboys do with those two first round picks that they got. Yeah. Yeah. We We’ll see. We can talk. We’ll see. We’ll see. Okay. So then if we’re going to talk about the Cowboys here, do you think Dak only Dak could take them far? I mean, there’s no way. That’s the right. That’s the issue. Like the Packers at least have more ways to win. Let me transition. Let’s move this conversation forward. Drew, when you look I don’t consider the Dallas Cowboys defensively. I don’t consider them to be a threat because their defense is horrid. Okay. But when you look at the Eagles and how they’re playing right now, a do you believe they’re playing the best ball of any team in the NFC? And if so, who do you view as being the number one threat to the Eagles? Yeah. No, I do not think the Eagles are playing the best ball. They have a formula for winning, which even despite statistically they’re bottom of the league in a lot of offensive statistical categories, they’re playing great defense and they’re taking care of the football. And that’s a formula for winning regardless of the fact, look, they’re not running the ball well. They’re last in the league in yards, uh, passing. Um, and yet they’re taking care of the football. They’re taking advantage of the opportunities that their defense has given them. They’ve gotten two special teams touchdowns so far in four games. So, you know, that’s the scary part is how good can this team be if they actually start running the football like they’re used to running the football, which opens up a lot of opportunities in the passing game and their defense continues to be who they’ve been. That’s that that’s pretty scary. That is scary. You know, I look I look at two I look at two weeks ago and the Rams I mean, credit to the Eagles for coming back from 19 points, but man, the Rams had them on the ropes. and and and then they have a chip shot 43 yard field goal that gets blocked, right? In this day and age, that’s a chip shot. That’s a pitching wedge, right? So, if if the Rams would have made that field goal and won this game, I think we’re having a different conversation. Um, hey, the Eagles deserve to be where they are because they’re undefeated. They’re the former champs. That’s But they’re they’re susceptible right now to the way they’re the way they’re playing. And it sounds like they might have a disgruntled wide receiver. Uh, they played well against the Bucks, right? Did the Eagles, they came out, they were up by a couple of scores, right? heading into halftime and they made it a game in the second half. But then you have one AJ Brown going on X and saying stuff after the game basically saying just two receptions for seven yards. If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw, don’t make a scene, shrug your shoulders and be on your way. Okay, that’s not great. I don’t like the way it’s bolded either. All of it looks bad. Let’s hear from Nick Serriani on his response to one AJ Brown. Obviously, AJ is very important to this football team. Um, you know, I know he wants to contribute. Um, I know he wants to contribute and, uh, you know, do the things that he’s capable of of doing. I question nothing about, you know, his desire to play great football, his desire of being a good teammate, his desire to be here. What’s he going to say? I suppose that’s probably the right answer for one Nick Seriani. Uh, you said all these great things about the Eagles. Kind of turned the tide on his boring statement last week. But if you have a disgruntled wide receiver, I mean, your former That’s what I want to know from that’s that could be a problem. First off, I’ll say this. I don’t know AJ Brown at all. Never met him. But I will say this. Every great receiver has the attitude that they are always open. Yep. And that they are a playmaker. They’re a contributor. And they always want the ball. Like I can point to three guys like Michael Thomas better get him the ball. Jimmy Graham better get him the ball. Um Jeremy Shocki better get him the ball or else they’re not going to be happy. But I will also say this, there’s a way to handle it. And social media is not the way to handle it. You go to your quarterback or you go to your head coach or you go to your offensive coordinator directly. All right? And you guys you guys have your your ways, your mechanisms of being able to sort that thing out. For example, Jimmy Graham, if we were in a game and I knew that he wasn’t getting the ball like he he wanted, he’d walk by me and he’d say, “TDB, that means throw me the damn ball, right?” I knew what that meant. He didn’t need to broadcast it. He didn’t need to make a scene. But he knew, “All right, I’m going to get that fixed.” Plenty of times in a game, Mike, Mike Thomas, early on in the game, they’re doubling him. I Mike’s getting frustrated. Got to go over to Mike. Hey, Mike, don’t worry, man. We’re going to make these guys pay in some other areas, and you’re going to start getting these singles, and then we’re going to go to work. All right. Sure enough, that’s what happens. Okay, Jeremy Shocki, man, we got to give him the ball within the first 10 plays of the game or else he’s he’s going to be on edge. All right. Like like and and and that’s what I I love about those guys because they’re so dang competitive and they know they’re difference makers and that’s the attitude that you love. Drew, I’m interjecting because here here’s where I’m coming in. Let’s again it’s an assumption. We don’t know for sure in fairness to AJ Brown and the Eagles, but what if AJ Brown did go to the coach? What if he did go to the first year offensive coordinator? What if he did go to Jaylen Herz? What if he did look at last year when he called you out and then ultimately that led you to getting him the damn ball and Jaylen Herz comes in a postgame press conference? Was that what y’all were looking for? What if he did all of those things? And then last but not least, came back to this year, fast forward into this year and and and played first take in the locker room showing Drew Brees saying, “Yo, your offense is boring and you ain’t utilizing everybody to the max, especially when the guy went out there and played like a man amongst boys in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams. What if he did all of that, Drew Brees, and still they were going out there being a bit passive, non-aggressive, not exploiting the weapons that they have available to them? What course of action would you suggest AJ Brown takes then? Well, uh, this is what I’d also say is I went and I watched I’ve got the database, all the NFL games, so I went and I watched the All 22. I know there’s a lot of people that that don’t have the ability just to go watch the All 22 and literally watch every single play from that game, which I just did. Um, they targeted AJ Brown a lot. Wow. A lot in that second half. They probably tried to force they forced the ball to him. You know why that pass play didn’t work right there? Because they bought brought a safety pressure off the edge. They the Todd Bulls always clouds behind the strong safety pressures into the boundary. And here’s Jaylen trying to force the ball to him into a cloud corner. It’s not going to work. That happened two out of three plays on a series. They tried to force the ball to him three times in a row. Two of them into a cloud corner. It’s not going to work. All right? So, you can’t force it. They were trying to force the ball to him in that second half. If you look at the number of targets, there was about nine targets. All right? Two catches for seven yards. Look, I’d be pissed, too, if I was the wide receiver. But you can’t sit here and say they weren’t trying to get him the ball. They were trying to get him the ball. They three long foul balls to him. Hey, give him a chance. Give him a chance. He’s a stud receiver. Let him go up and try to make a play. Maybe he’ll get a PI. But if you’re really breaking it down, like I watch the All 22. I watched every stinking play. All right. They tried to get him the ball. And I say this, in the first half, Jaylen Herz played lights out. Lights out. Whatever he was, 14 to 15, but like so rhythmic in his drop. Todd Bulls was lighting him up with pressure. They were getting to him every time. And man, he was just boom boom boom finding the open guy. And they scored 24 points, right? So, you can’t you can’t complain when you’re scoring points just about every time you touch the ball. But I recognize why he was frustrated because you come out of the game, you’re like, “Man, I didn’t get a chance to touch the ball a lot.” They were trying to get on the ball. They were complaining too, Drew, because Jaylen was 0 for eight for zero yards in the second half. The prism that we look through though is not the same one that AJ Brown or these receivers are going to look through, especially two weeks ago when you went to me and I took over the game literally. So, it’s difficult because of the 4 and 0 record to say that about AJ Brown. And the thing that he needs to understand is we are not going to get to where we’re trying to go without you eventually ascending and being the guy we know you are. But he looking at Puka Na catch 13 passes. He looking at all of this stuff around the league. So, that matters as well. Drew Brees A+ segment big time. A+ segment wardrobe. Hey man, this my surf this this my surfing time here. You know I’m go hit the waves after this. Surfing going surfing. All right. Thank you, Drew. We appreciate you. Appreciate you, bro. All right. [Music]

On First Take, Drew Brees joins Stephen A. Smith and Marcus “Swagu” Spears to discuss…

0:00 Jerry Jones’ comments
0:27 Drew Brees joins the show
0:45 Did the Cowboys win the trade?
2:15 Thoughts on Dak Prescott
3:40 Swagu DISAGREES with Drew Brees
5:40 Do you think the Eagles are playing the best ball in the league?
7:45 A.J. Brown’s social media post
8:05 Nick Sirianni’s comments
8:40 Thoughts on A.J. Brown’s comments
10:25 What Drew Brees recommends A.J. Brown does

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