FIRST TAKE | Swagu & Stephen A.: If Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs, Dak Prescott could WIN IT ALL!

FIRST TAKE | Swagu & Stephen A.: If Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs, Dak Prescott could WIN IT ALL!

because that’s when he’s been at his best. Yes, there’s nothing wrong with it cuz that is where that’s where he’s been. It’s just talk. It’s just talk. Now, if he actually were to get benched, that’s a different subject. But just talking is just basically trying to light a fire under him because nothing else has worked over the last several weeks. All right, you pull me You pulled me back in this conversation. The idea the idea that you need to light a fire under Jaylen Herz. Jaylen Hers has been a consummate professional since the first day stepping on the field for the Philadelphia Eagles. And I get it like we want to have this visceral reaction. Things are not going well right now. I understand it all. This is a second round pick that was drafted with a guy that just got franchise money was asked to come in and be the starter. What pressure is more than that? Create the pressure for what? Listen, this is where I get sideways with the fans, all right? And understanding that I know Jaylen Herz. I know the type of work that he puts in. I know how he’s built. Jaylen Herz is fine. They will be okay in Philly with Jaylen Herz at quarterback. Is he playing great right now? No. Everybody can acknowledge that if you watch football. But the fact that we got to have a fire lit under a dude that was a draft pick, been the two Super Bowls and won a Super Bowl and a Super Bowl MVP and we talking about lighting a fire under him with his team still in first place in his division. Well, first of all, awesome. Well, first of all, here’s here’s here’s here’s where the here’s where the problem enters with your argument. Okay. Swagoo, Mr. Dallas Cowboy. The Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboy The Dallas Listen then listen the Dallas Cowboys were up 21 to nothing. Okay. Not no not not not Green Bay, not Detroit, not San Fran, not Seattle, not LA. The Dallas Cowboys, the Phil Philadelphia Eagles was up 21 to nothing on the Dallas Cowboys and lost. Do you know anything about Philly? You can’t do you can’t let that happen to you against Dallas. Dallas. Now, it’s not quite the same as when the New York Yankees lost a 3-0 lead to the Boston Red Sox. Okay, which by the way, I still have not recovered from, nor has any New York Yankee fan. Okay, but the fact of the matter is, you know, that was the ALCS. That was the ALCS. That wasn’t a regular season game. So, we get it. But the point is when you Philadelphia and you fall and you fall like that, you’re looking for answers. And in the case of Jaylen Herz, the only part that I’ll say before I pass it to Peter is this. Jaylen Herz, no matter how professional he is, no matter how much he cares, no matter how much of a consmate professional, how much of a great athlete, how much of a bonafide winner he is, there are adverse circumstances that he has been faced with and then he has risen to the occasion. Last year during the regular season when everybody was chirping about him and then he goes out and balls in the game and getting the ball of AJ Brown, he looks at the at the media afterwards. He said, “Is that what y’all wanted? Is that what y’all were looking for?” Just to show he could do whatever he needs to do in order to get the job done. That’s who Philly knows. And that’s who they’re looking for right now because they ain’t seen him in a few weeks. And the clock’s ticking. That’s the reality, sir. That’s what’s going on. And if you need some history, Philly, again, I’ll say it is not Jacksonville. It is not Tampa. It is not Indianapolis. It is not many of the fine cities we have in this country. Philly media market is different. Doug Peterson won a Super Bowl, two years later was shown the door. Donovan McNab went to six NFC Championship games, was shown the door, traded on Easter Sunday to the arch rival Washington Redskins. We have seen Carson Wentz be an MVP se uh runner up and be shown the door two years later because they drafted a guy in the second round. I’m not saying Jaylen Herz should be anything. I’m saying that media market is one of one. And if you can withstand and rise above, which I believe Jaylen Herz can, and they will beat the Raiders at home on Sunday, then you’ll be okay. But if you let that stuff simmer and you let that stuff seek into a locker room, it has destroyed several world champions long before Jaylen Herz even stepped into that locker room. Okay, if they lose to the Raiders on Sunday, go ahead. If they lose to the Raiders on Sunday, this desk is going to explode on Monday because we’re going to have a lot to say about Philadelphia. But it the truth is they are in a bit of a freef fall right now. The Eagles are. They’ve lost three in a row. The NFC East, they only have a two-game lead. Here come the Dallas Cowboys. If the Dallas Cowboys can find a way to win out and miss the playoffs, does that now become a failure? So, think about it. If the Dallas Cowboys find a way to win out, but they don’t win the division, maybe they’re just below the Eagles or whatever the case may be, does that now become a failure for the Dallas Cowboys in the way their season has gone? What do you think, Stephen A? Yes. Yes. And it it becomes a failure for my buddy Jerry Jones. It becomes a failure. Here’s why. Here’s why. We’ve seen them be a different team. Sans Detroit. Obviously, that game against Detroit, that’s different. But prior to that, they were undefeated since the NFL’s trading deadline. How come you didn’t pull the trigger a week earlier? Because you pulled a week you you pulled the trigger a week earlier, you might have beat Arizona in that Monday night game. You see, the point is you let Micah Parsons go. It’s two things. Number one, it’s letting Micah Parsons go. At this particular juncture, we’re not going to knock him for making that move because of the moves that’s subsequently followed with the Quinnon Williams, with the Logan Wilsons, with the Marvian Overon coming back on coming back into the line of Don Bland and others who had been out as well. So, we see a Dallas Cowboys defense that was vastly improved. But you do find yourself looking at two things. Number one, you could have made the deal or you should have made a deal earlier, maybe a week or two earlier. Number two, when you look at Micah Parsons, when do you trade him to Green Bay? What the hell you wait? If you going to move, why don’t you move on in the off season? Why didn’t you position yourself to get additional assets? Why do you wait until the last minute? When we look at the Dallas Cowboys, if you end up having a 10, 11 win season and you’re talking about just missing out, nuggets like that matter. And that comes down not to Brian Shottenheimer, not to Dak Prescott, not to any of these guys, not to George Pickkins and being a little bit lack of days ago in this rap running on on a couple of occasions last week. It comes down to Jerry Jones pulling the trigger too late with Micah Parsons. Okay. And not pulling the trigger quick enough with the Quinn and Williams deal. That’s to me is where that to me is where it stands out. I I I I think Stephen A’s right if you look at it and from the 30,000 foot view, we missed the playoffs. That’s and we traded the best defensive player in football arguably. That said, to get Pickkins for a third round pick, to get Quinnon Williams now in his 20s at defensive tackle, to find some juice and some momentum that they go into the offseason, they’re like, “Okay, we made that massive trade to get rid of Micah Parsons, which everyone said we were idiots for the first two months of the season, but we did finish the season showing that we have something to build off of.” And at 80 something years old, whatever Jerry Jones is is right now, I think that for him is, okay, I have next year and we’re going to be a team that everyone’s going to be picking before the season and everyone’s going to be hot on us next year. It just took us a little while getting out of the gates. Uh I I don’t think it’s a failure if they miss the playoffs and they win out. In fact, I think it’s a pretty miraculous comeback considering where they were that Monday night in Arizona. Marcus, two things can be uh true, uh Shrags, and I I agree with you. you can be optimistic about maybe being 106 and one at the end of this season, but also what Stephen A said, maybe if you were a little bit more aggressive, you wouldn’t be sitting home watching the playoffs. Look, the goal when you start the season is to get in the tournament. So, it’s a failure for every team that doesn’t get into the playoffs. Now, some probably knew coming into the season that it was against the odds and a long way to go in order for them to have an opportunity to do that. But Dallas wasn’t one of those teams before the Michael Parsons trade that we didn’t believe could be a playoff contender. They wasn’t a team that we thought just would fall off a cliff and not have a chance if they were if they had everybody coming back. Obviously, Dearon Overshung, who is playing well, was on injury reserve, but he came back and is playing at a very high level, too. I understand. But see, this is this is where it gets sideways for me. This ain’t no damn moral victory. I don’t want to talk about Dallas with a moral victory. We’ve seen him in the playoffs. I’ve had to sit on this show on first tape weeks after a playoff game with Stephen A and hear him talk about the cliff and how much they fell off the cliff. I’m not getting sucked into well they 106 and one and they finished strong and it was awesome that they made moves. If they are sitting their ass at home at the end of the season, it is a failure based on what he thought would transpire after trading Micah Parsons. Or you potentially don’t trade Michael Parsons. You close out some of those games where you had an opportunity to and you may not be 66 and one right now. You may close out Green Bay. You may have a chance to win against the Arizona Cardinals. So it could be two ways. Stephen A talking about the moves that he made. Awesome. Quinny Williams, y’all know how excited I was about that. I think it’s paid dividends. But I’m not gonna sit here at the end talking about, you know what, they did a really good job finishing the season strong. And it was awesome that they finished with 10 wins. I’m not doing that. If they don’t make the playoffs, it’s a failure. We could look forward to next season when ne when the offseason come, but right now it’s a failure if they don’t get into the playoffs. I was hoping Shay uh Peter I was hoping that you know Swagoo was going to come on. I stole this I stole this it was it was you know it’s going to be it’s a successful season because boy was I going to have a field day with that. You understand what the come January I was I was just blotting and then he he just he stole my thunder. You know what I’m saying? He he didn’t fall he didn’t fall for it. He didn’t fall for Fair enough. I will say this to you Peter. I will say this to you Peter. You know, Jerry Jones, look, he’s in his He’s 83 years old. He’s 83 years old. And and and and you know, God willing, he’s around for a long time to come. Tomorrow ain’t guaranteed. It ain’t guaranteed to any of us, especially somebody in their 80s. And the reality is is that you can’t be walking around constantly thinking about next year. It don’t. I mean, if anybody should absorb and embrace the idea that a nonplayoff season is a failure, it should be Jerry Jones more than anybody because the clock is ticking. And I’m not I’m not I’m not thrown out there wishing it. We all know how much love I got for Jerry Jones. But the bottom line is is that knowing him the way that I do, having the conversations that I’ve had with him privately and publicly, he has admitted as much. the clock is ticking. Those are words that he echoed. He looks at his own mortality obviously now more than ever before. And so knowing that about him, the procrastination on some of these moves are a bit mindboggling to me. Either that or you, you know, you just you struggling to get it done. But either way you slice it, that ain’t good enough. The fact is Dallas Cowboys got enough talent. Their offense is a Super Bowl caliber offense when all their cats are healthy and their defense is really stepped up and showed regardless of what happened against Detroit last week that it can do some things. You expect more from these Cowboys, no doubt they missed the playoffs. That needs to be something that hurts. Well, they would have to win out first. This Sunday, they have a prime time game Sunday Night Football against the Vikings. This year, the Cowboys won three and one in prime time games. Coming up on First Take, Josh Allen going into Foxboro to take on Drake May as the favorite to win. Buffalo favorites in Foxboro this weekend. But does Stephen Agree that they actually should be? Plus Notre Dame.

FIRST TAKE | Swagu & Stephen A.: If Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs, Dak Prescott could WIN IT ALL!