Good morning, Cowboys Nation. This is Bryson with inside the star.com and your host Cowboys weekly, and this is the first week of training camp for the Dallas Cowboys and so far. We got a few practices in the books a little bit of drama with Ezekiel Elliott and some. Ooh signings that are worth talking about with me this week as always is Cowboys weekly co-host and inside the star.com senior writer Jeff haynie. How are you doing today? Jess good buddy. Glad we have some new developments to talk about. Yeah, it's kind of a catch-22 there because new developments is early aren't always a good thing and we've got some bad ones going here. That's true. I want to talk about one thing. This is from Tuesday, and I want to see how you know what you think is going to be. I mean, this is just one of those questions. It's so loaded man Sean Lee hurt his knee on Tuesday and they're saying it's not, you know a bad deal, but they're going to have to take it very easy with them. And you know, I mean we were talking about this and one of the earlier episodes this year about Moving him back out there too strong side linebacker. It's not a position that we really expected him to do very well on the injury front, right? I think I'd said this last week that I'm very surprised that that would be their move to me you use one of your younger guys, you're like Jaylon Smith or someone else who's more of a bigger sturdier younger player for that physical Sam roll. But this is what the move they made and then you throw on that the fact that he was also going to play special teams and it was like you're just asking for him to get hurt at this point. Yeah. I mean, it's I mean, I I just I don't know what to say about it. This isn't new, you know in the Cowboys front office. They know what they're doing, but we just move suggest maybe not I mean Sean Lee when healthy has been a phrase we have used now for almost a decade. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's healthy when healthy so there may not be a player in the NFL who is more thought about when it comes to being injury-prone then Sean Lee so you may now the Tony Romo retired. Well, yeah, which I that was a bum rap because of that injury prone. He was a bum rap. You're right. Yeah, whatever. No. Yeah. So I do find it very surprising that they put him at risk that way, of course, you know. To be fair. He has already had two veteran rest days in the course of just what a few days of training camp. So I mean they were trying to do some things to keep him healthy, but I mean it is what it is now. Thankfully, it doesn't look like it's a big injury sounds like it's just a you know an issue that might keep them out. You know, I didn't I didn't get the final word. Was it a it was just sprained, right? Yeah, sprain of the ligament of the knee. I don't remember if it was MCR MCL or KCl by saw MCL pretty sure it was MCL and that's an order MCL is not good because it that is a big one for cutting and lateral movement, which is huge for linebackers. But I mean that this is though the beauty of the situation we're in now, we're not talking about Sean Lee getting injured like we used to at this point. We're talking about the equivalent of Damien Wilson getting injured last year. So that's not nearly as big a deal. So thank goodness for Jaylon Smith and Vander Ash. Yeah, that is a very good thing. But and you know it his knee can be they can remove his knee and he can still bring value to that defensive group because you know, his brain is as much an asset is anything. Yeah, that's true. And I look forward to seeing Joe Thomas with more opportunities also. Yeah continuing with some of the training camp stuff. Let's look at let's say we got Blake jar one. And he's a he's someone that I really wasn't high on last year, you know in 2017. That was the year where I don't remember which team it was but they, you know game trying to poach him off the practice squad in Dekalb. It was the Eagles and the Cowboys quickly moved him over to the active roster to protect him and you know, he was just he was a name. I didn't know at the time very well and was surprised by the move but then comes last year and Jason wooden's retired and you know Jeff's Wayne's dealing with his usual. Shoes and what's his name? Basketball, dude, Rico Rico gathers. Why do I always forget Rico gathers Ricola and you won't have to remember them in a few weeks. You know, I think that I think he gets a bum rap with the team. I know that his performance isn't the reason he's not playing not that he's doing great, but he's doing good enough as far as the tide in groups go but you know the coaches just they don't like them. This is not a new story. This has been out for a couple of years. There's a coach who just does not personally prefer him and you know that can get in the way sometimes. But anyway back to the point Blake Darwin has kind of shown some soap last year made me forget all about Gavin Escobar, which was a couple of years too late my opinion and you know now with Jaden Jason wouldn't coming back this year. That's of course the story because Jason Witten is not a long-term solution. He's going to be here a year maybe. Be too if he stretches it if we win the Super Bowl this year, he's good done. After that. I don't see him coming back. There's no point. Yeah, but you know Blake Char one is still developing. He's still gaining experience. And you know, that's kind of the common perception out. There is that witten's return may actually hurt jar when because it's going to take away from his time and practice and on the field, you know, I I have to kind of agree with that but at the same time I also know witten's not coming back as a full time role leave it. Yeah, and you know what you just said about Sean Lee's mind as being a value at the linebacker position. I mean if Jason Witten is back with a mindset of he knows he's not Jason Witten anymore. He is what he is in 2019 and he's here to help the ways he can that one of the biggest ways he can help is as a coach. I don't I don't know much about Doug must Meyer as a tight ends coach, but I imagine Jason Witten can show these guys some things Doug knows. Arkan, yeah, so I'm gonna so I feel like as long as Witten has that willingness to share and I really think he does that's kind of player he is I don't think he'd be back if he if that wasn't part of the deal. So I'm looking forward to seeing the impact he has in that way. And as far as Darwin goes, I think he has asked the great athletic potential. It looks like from the things we've the flashes we've seen the things we're hearing from Camp right now. We know that three touchdown game in week 17 was an anomaly that would that game. You can't evaluate anything from that game because the Giants were so far done with that season in the Cowboys were basically playing for nothing. But so I mean, you can't take any much of anything from that game other than at least Dak Prescott and Blake Darwin knew how to connect when opportunities arose. Yeah, and that's going to be the key of course with an Leaving position on a football team is how well they are liked what kind of synchronicity they have with the quarterback, but don't seem to be crucial but don't sleep on Dalton Schultz either. I mean no. I'm I'm not I still go back to to last year's early pre-draft reports and the Word was in and even after he was drafted that he's Jason wouldn't like, you know, the things that they had him doing it was where was he from Stanford? I think so. Yeah, the things they had him doing out there. He was mostly a blocking tied end and that's really been one of the real strong suits with Witten taking away the Rapport that he had developed with Tony Romo, which was mainly passing game kind of stuff. When's a good blocker? He's solid and that to me. That's what Schultz reminded me of even looking at him. He looks like Jason Witten out there. The problem is to me. He looks like Jason Witten in 2015 not Some Whitman 2003. Yeah, now that that's true and you know, I do take some you know we go back to what you said about Darwin being poached by The Eagles say what we want about the eagles. They have known how to produce some tight ends. So if they had interest in Darwin that is worth noting for what you know in the Cowboys making that move to avoid losing him. So there's they clearly saw some potential the Eagles must have seen some potential. And we saw flashes of that toward the end of last year. So if this now this this third season for him getting Whitten in his ear, it could be pretty interesting. Yeah, and you know on the note of taking scouting critiques grades, whatever from what the Eagles are doing. Let's move onto a you know, new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore who has been from the very first practices of this training camp showing lots of pre-snap movement and I know what I think about that. What do you think about that? What do you think about the the prospect of not only having a new guy calling the plays that nobody knows that nobody has any film on but also is obvious desire to try to be confusing before the snap. It's beautiful. Thank you. Oh, it's absolutely beautiful. And it's one of those things that when you have a player who had at quarterback with with the versatility of Prescott. It just adds to that it gives you you've got now more ways to set up the variety of plays that you can run with that and I think that you know, we have several different players that really fit that bill Zeke's a good receiver. We have an underrated receiving Target at full bat in Jimmy's all the while a Linehan just didn't know how to use them the Raiders. I mean showed how to use him for several years. So I mean, I just think that we have different. Here's Tony Pollard Tavon Austin, we get them doing different things you throw that versatility on top of new looks pre-snap motion all of those things. I'm very excited. We are we've been complaining for years about the predictability of the Scott Linehan offense. So if we can that if that is the biggest change we see going to Kellen Moore that's a big deal. But for what we can tell there's not gonna be any actual. Changes to the Playbook. They're still going to run the same play book from 2017-2018. They're just it's just killing more throwing in new looks at the line to you know, try to get everybody off their paces. But I think that that's you know, those are the kind of wrinkles. You know, we talked we've talked before about when a new quarterback comes in like like when Nick Foles came in for Carson Wentz The Playbook didn't change. But what changed were certain aspects certain plays certain things that he was stronger or weaker at than went. Those are just wrinkles. So that's can make it. So we've seen the impact that that can make know the Playbook is not going to change a bunch. But you add you add some different nuances you give DAC some ability to do things at the line of scrimmage, you know, that's going to be a challenge for him. But I feel confident in his ability to do that and that is where I think those Little things on top of you know getting Travis Frederick back and what we hope are going to be upgraded receivers with Cooper and gallop and got cop maybe an upgrade at tight end with the development of these guys. There's just so many different wrinkles from what we've seen the last couple of years that could make an impact well, and then you have probably the biggest pre-snap movement of all that nobody ever sees with the run-pass option and you know, the whole controversy has surrounded Dak Prescott with the Cowboys and now that do you think we're going to see more of that under Kellam or we sure should we should uh-huh. I mean, I don't see why you would not run that given Prescott skill set and his body was about Linehan didn't run it last year. That's what I'm saying. Scott Linehan got fired. Okay, so we're just gonna drop it at that one off Scott Linehan did things right? He'd still be here drop it right on the gun dude feet. I mean, I you know, I I thought I was actually the one that tried I think a few weeks ago to say like I don't want to dance on this guy's grave because for the time he was here. He was a winning coach. Yeah, he worked and he overcame challenges. you're with changes in quarterbacks and suspended star running backs and things like that that he did that this team had you know for the most part has been winning every year that Scott Linehan has been part of it, but I think that they've been winning in spite of him in some cases, you know to me it kind of seemed like he got Like StarStruck on those just like he gets his players and he gets stuck on trying to work them in and then next thing you know, it's pretty much the same three or four plays for each of the players on the offense. You know, your Dez Bryant your Jason Witten. Oh, you're almost last prescod. You're particularly DeMarco Murray. I mean, it seems like he got they almost shell-shocked like he didn't know what to do. So he just kind of went with the Old Faithful and the only seven pole. Yeah 2017 was horrible from that standpoint because There's clearly was not Des anymore and we kept trying to use him like he was and and that was that is probably the least talked about reason the team went nine and seven that year. We throw at you Ezekiel suspension and tyrants Miss injury those were big factors, but we haven't talked enough about how poorly receiving targets where utilize that year. I am we're not going to now. Let's see in the past Dez Bryant has his only mention on this show. Well looking at something a little bit more. I want to say controversial to me. It's just it's just run-of-the-mill, but I know there are a lot of fans out there who have kind of lost their crap this week earlier in the week Dallas Cowboys re-signed Veteran running back Alfred Morris and The best the best thing that I can say the best thing that any of the experts have said is it is not a Zeke move. They need an experienced can't body. They don't need rookies only in Camp. They need somebody with experience and he's that guy and not only is he that guy he was willing to come in knowing he's that guy. Absolutely. I agree a hundred percent. I think I actually tweeted that earlier today that if the Cowboys were really worried about Ezekiel Elliott. They would have gone out and signed Jay ajayi a who's still floating around out there a player of consequence or maybe they make a trade for Duke Johnson that we can you know, we've been hearing about from Cleveland. Mmm. They made the move which which basically it helps them right now because like you said it gives them an Koreans veteran Camp who can actually execute the Playbook and then if they keep and pass Final Cuts, you know, we fully expect Zeke to be back. He brings value as a backup running back and if not his contract he signed a minimal contract almost heart. No guaranteed money. He's gone. It's it's not that he's a Band-Aid right now. That's all he is pretty much and I mean, I agree with them move. I mean, it's not just the fact that you need. Buddy, who knows the Playbook already and who knows the nuances of being a running back in the NFL but you need somebody who can kind of lead the guys that are in the debtor still at training camp you nosy Kelly. It's not there and they were talking about it. What did he do earlier in the week? No, it was last week what it was right before training camp a couple of days before he had the rest of the run the rookie running backs over at his place and at the star and he's having a meeting with them and going over things. They need that that's not something that Zeke was going above and beyond to do that's expected of him. He's a lead running back. He's a star rusher. Agreed I mean in that and that's a great sign to Zeke is not turn. He hasn't turned on the Cowboys. This is business that and I know I've seen people posting things about. Oh, I you know, I would play for a tenth of what he makes and I would and he should just be grateful Bubba Bubba Bubba. You don't live in this world. Being a podcasters no joke scripts recording and editing all take a ton of time. Even for advanced users the getting your podcast ready for the world doesn't have to be so tough Cowboys weekly is proud to use your Banker dot f m-- anchor is easiest way to make a podcast. It provides you with everything you need in one place that you can access from your phone or computer all for free creation tools allow you to record and edit your podcast to a sounds great all from the app and they'll distribute your podcast for you to Spotify Apple podcast through the I can't stand anymore plus you can easily make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. If you create a podcast or want to get started with one download the anchor app or go to Anchored on FM to get started now. You don't live in this guy's world. You don't have a prayer of ever playing in the NFL the people who say these things are I mean, yes, you would do this just like any of us would be happily handed a million dollars to do any number of things but we're not we're not even in the same mental universe is these players when it comes to their money, they're worth their lifestyle and all and all these different things. So spare us that crap, you know, it's just not relevant. He's doing what any of us would do in our job based on our market value based on other people and other businesses around us and what they make. Yeah, if we had agents who you know who their sole job was to focus on that. Yeah. Well, yeah, but we have to make our own agents in real life. Yeah, and we're not trying to do that. We don't have The experience we don't have the knowledge to do it and it doesn't matter how good you are at your job. That's not what this is. This is a contract negotiation its employment contract negotiation. And that's what the agents are really good at and the Agents solve as many problems as they create because that's what they do. This isn't a problem for his equally this is a problem for the Cowboys right now because it's a distraction we're having to deal with it. But you know, that's the nature of business in the NFL and more on that topic. Of course, we had Jerry Jones. He did a interview With CBS 11 s Bill Jones at a DFW and there is a particular quote a particular line from this interview that has gotten so much Play It's been in almost every headline and I mean to spend people have been shutting it down for days now and it's still going out there. And of course the line is that we don't need a rushing Champion to win a Super Bowl and you know, everybody's kind of leaves it at that. We're not going to do that. At and this one here, we're going to listen to a clip and this is the Full Clip. You're going to hear Bill Jones asks a question and you're going to hear Jerry Jones entire answer is Ezekiel Elliott to this Cowboys team what Emmitt Smith was to the 90s Calpers? Well, of course M Ed had participated in a Super Bowl being the first rushing champ. This is very important. First time ever a rushing Champion was on a Super Bowl winning team that point there is You don't have to have a rushing Champion to win a Super Bowl. But M. It was the first one to do it. And that's one of the dilemmas that running back is that the league knows that you can win Super Bowls and not have the Emmitt Smith back there or not have Zeke back there consequently when we are looking and putting Zeke's contract in place. We've got to realize that the ultimate goal is to win. In the Super Bowl and so you've got to do all of the things along with having Zeke that allow you to have other players so that you can win the Super Bowl and that's what we're going through and I'd have to say that he's spot-on with that. That's exactly what the Cowboys are going through. They're trying to and it's more so accentuated in this particular circumstance than I think it usually is because it's not only that are trying to retain Ezekiel Elliott who is a rush Champion were trying to also retain Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper and Byron Jones after we just took care of Demarcus Lawrence. There's a lot that's going on with this team right now. And yeah, we started with the big salary cap for this year, but that's down to under 25 million now, you know, so we're back down into a pretty pedestrian number and they have to figure out how to work all this stuff within that but more to his point about we don't need that rushing Champion for winning a Super Bowl. There's more to the Super Bowl teams than whether or not they have a rushing champion at running back, right? Yeah, I mean you tell me of the last out of the last 20 years all these teams that won Super Bowls that didn't have rushing Champions. What did they have? They had good quarterbacks. Not just good. They had Tom Brady Ben Roethlisberger Peyton Manning Drew Brees here in Rogers recitals and said no now I'm stopping there. But but that's my point. I and I wrote about this today go to inside the star.com and look it up for even more detail. But out of the last 18 Super Bowls in the 2000s. Those guys I just mentioned Brady Manning rothsburgher Rogers Breeze Wilson have accounted for 13 of the 18 wins. Wow, and the other five were Eli Manning with to Joe Flacco with one Nick Foles with one and Brad Johnson with one Brad Johnson had an all-time legendary defense. He was the bus driver for that and a very good running game with Ward done in Mike alstott. Hmm Eli Flacco foals These are all guys who know we don't think of them as Elite passers, but they got hot at the right time and ran that through the championship. Yeah for that year they were illegally exactly so, you know, none of these teams had a rushing Champion the only other player to do it other than M it to be a Russian champion in a Super Bowl champion and Senior. Was that one year with Darrell Davis and Denver. That's it. In all these years could even argue that the Packers just drop that one. Yeah. That was my that was my argument. I was screaming at the TV. Come on. What are you doing Favre? Yeah. So there is absolute legitimacy to what Jerry is saying you cannot deny. The problem is you have Dak Prescott and you're stuck with that Prescott because you cannot risk starting over with a quarterback. You have too much invested in this team and this offensive line and Demarcus Lawrence and other things that you would lose your Championship window. If you start trying to find a better quarterback through the draft or or even in free agency and as we as we covered not too long ago, it's not reliable at all to look for a quarterback through the draft. I mean look at what happened in 2016 before they picked up deck. They tried to trade to get Paxton Lynch. Where is he now exactly where all those guys that Are taken ahead of Dak Prescott. Now, there are two there are two that are actually doing anything in the league. Right? And they're they're not just doing anything. They're doing a lot. You know, you're talking about Golf and when's exactly so the point here is they have who they have at quarterback. He's really good. I think that on average he is a better quarterback than Joe Flacco, Nick Foles and especially late. You know, hot or cold Eli Manning. Hang on what who you're getting that week or that quarter. But with with Doc you have to give him what he needs to win and and until he proves otherwise until he takes that next step forward in his game, which he has not done yet. He needs Ezekiel Elliott to win a Super Bowl. Yeah, and you know, we haven't really had any chance any opportunity whatsoever to see how it fares in the other direction with Ezekiel Elliott on the field and Dak Prescott. Not the only times we saw that it was a few snaps years ago with their couple years ago with Cooper Roche and that was that was just game management. That's all that was. He didn't throw the ball didn't attempt throw the ball. It was all hand offs. So we haven't 2015 is a pretty good idea. What this team would look like without that Prescott in my opinion. We don't know that we hope so but 2016. That was also the art sorry 2015. That was also the year of Joseph Randle. True, but I mean that was also Darren McFadden with thousand yard rusher and who else what's his name? We talking about and who else Joel Randall Joe Randall Darren McFadden and you lost me. There was a third guy. I don't think so. There was a third guy. There was a third shooter up on I was pretty sure it's Alfred Morris 15 and 16 and then he was gone for 17, but it was a bit more sister 16 and 17. Okay, we're going to scrap that deviant erase. Just put a red flag right in that spot on the time not know. It was pretty much McFadden and Randall that here. Yeah, McFadden a grand old. There'll be some Dunbar dad to it was yeah, see we came full circle. We didn't have described that but now we have to scrap that. Yeah. Yeah see Lance Dunbar that's a name that I it's in one ear and out the other I forgot them completely because he never did anything but this front office who which is largely still intact. It's been a couple of changes, but it's hard to help us out of the ball. It's still largely intact still run by Jason Garrett. You know, you're still running the Playbook that linehan's been calling from I mean, do you do you change out the wide receivers coach you change out the tight ends coach, you know, but most of it's still the same there Lance Dunbar was picked by these guys. He was picked more than once they fought for him at one point and it didn't work. So my greater point with that is is much like the horrid string of mediocrity between Troy Aikman and Tony Romo, we kind of had that same thing for the most part going between Emmitt Smith and DeMarco Murray for the year that he flashed and we're lucky that we didn't continue with that again that we were able to pick up Zeke but we had to do so with the number four overall pick we had to spend a lot of capital to get that and You do that for a reason, you know, you don't do that because the guy requires his quarterback to be in there whether he's good or not the quarterback. So I think that I would like to see the reverse of this. You know, we've said that Dak Prescott means Ezekiel Elliott on the field, you know, and we've seen that there were other factors that mixed in but that was a contributing factor. We don't know that as a you Elliott needs Dak Prescott on the field. That's true, but I'm not risking the future of the franchise on Cooper Rush. My quite what's his face Taryn Christian. Yeah. I mean you can't do it we have who we have right now not and not just a quarterback. Like I said, this offensive line has a limited window at this point tyrants. Miss only got a few more good years. Probably Demarcus Lawrence is in his prime, but that Prime could in very quickly. With with a pass rusher and just throughout the team. We have a lot of good young players, but if you're talking about your best chance to win a Super Bowl with your mix of young talent and established Stars it is now it is the next couple of years and you have to run with what you've got and and it is it is a very harsh reality about the salary cap and what running backs make and how much value they We have if we could find a guy we talked about this last week, but you know, even at what he's making right now Zeke is still one of the higher paid running backs in the NFL. That's right. Especially if you look at his salary for next year on his fifth year old when he goes up to 9 million in his fifth year option. He's already the fifth highest paid running back in the NFL then so if we could find a guy that could produce and pay him only seven eight million a year good. But how are you going to find? Are you going to really risk losing Elliot on the hope of finding that guy and basically tossing this year away? You can't afford to do it. Exactly and you know, I don't know. I don't know if I agree with paying him quite so much money and it has nothing to do honestly with the way the Cowboys evaluate that position and what their value is as was established with DeMarco Murray. I don't know if I agree with that. I don't know if I agree with with a lot of things out there really what it is to me is it's just a lot of money per year and maybe I'm just stuck in an old school mentality. I automatically and immediately reject any references that NFL players make to the NBA style of paying their players. Yeah, they have so many more games so few players that is just an unrealistic idea that can never happen in the NFL it simply cannot happen. It's too grueling of a game. Too many players to be able to get through it and there's just not enough games and you can add many more. You know, I'd like to see him at a couple more as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, but you know, that's my big deal. And if you're talking about what's girlies contract for years 57 million. Yeah, that's what Zeke is wanting to best and that's that's a lot of money. I mean, you're talking 14 15 million a year, and I don't I don't know but then again we still don't know. Know exactly what the contract details are that the Cowboys have offered him and make no mistake. He's in Cabo right now. But he's there working same as he did during his suspension in 2017. It looks bad my immediate reaction to seeing that he was going to Cabo was what the hell are you doing? Dude? You're gonna go down there what dehydrate and relax no now that they didn't, you know, that was my own thing. And thankfully, I've got a nice private setting with, you know, all the inside the star staff I can share that. It and get it out of my system and not be a complete idiot and say that to the world but you know, he's down there doing his work and he's also closer to you know, Southern Cal if that's where he needs to be to get up there quicker when something that's going through there are conversations happening back and forth on the contract deal the Cowboys made an offer earlier this week. And from what I'm gathering from various sources like Patrick Walker over at a CBS Sports there that the sticking point right now is a a little bit of the guaranteed money in some language in the contract which I mean you can't blame Jerry Jones Stephen Jones anybody on the Cowboys Organization for having some language in the contract that is equally its agents might find questionable Ezekiel Elliott is Ezekiel Elliott Smith unquestionable. He said he is one very minor dumb phrase away from a suspension. Yeah, and you know that That is probably my biggest argument for this whole thing Ezekiel. Elliott wants to get some Assurance for his future. That's what this is about. This isn't about necessarily how much money he has paid. It is about being under contract with guarantees that can take care of him. Should the worst happen, you know and Week 1 he could be signed on his current deal. He could go out week one and God forbid. He could totally destroy his knee and never play again and in which case he He's in his mid 20s, and he's living on 16 million dollars. Most of which is already been spent and he's got to go get a job. You know, that's not what he's prepared for for his life. These players are usually done by the time that 35 unless you're Tom Brady or a kicker and they've got that's a reality they have to deal with but at the same time the Dallas Cowboys and I think the fans want and deserve some assured some assurance that he's not going to do something else stupid that we're not going to say. Okay, we're going to give you a you know, 35. Guaranteed on your contract and then watch you go out there and pull somebody else's titty out of their shirt. Well, and that's where I think I wish I knew more about NFL contract law, but to me you can guarantee put in all sorts of guarantees for injury, but then you put in also Clauses that void guarantees based on personal conduct issues. Yes, and it's not NFL law. It's just general contract law on the the typical thing that what we always hear but there's the NFL is there CBA rules that going back that which I canti can't put in the contract. I understand that. It's a governing contract over these so smaller contracts. I mean I get that what we always hear is a personal conduct policy is actually a moral turpitude clause which is exactly kind of what it sounds like it's about the morality of the person in that contract. And if you violate that stuff it can cost you things that are in the contract and it's written in that way and who knows what they did they may have just been a little bit too. Vague as far as getting in trouble again and what actually constitutes getting in trouble and you know how that AA it could be that one suspension of they could have worded as one suspension of any length during the time of this contract it could cut the guaranteed money in half and they want that quality and then then Zeke's team wants that qualify because he could get a suspension for getting in a fight on in the field. I mean there's a lot there things that can happen. So yeah, they want to make sure that everything is very clear. There's no way ambiguous terminology. If there are going to be caught moral Clauses like that and I think that you know, we all would love this. We sort of have this notion that you know, it would be so nice if DAC Ana Mari and seek would all agree to take less money so we can all play together forever and went and compete for titles and wouldn't that be so wonderful, but you know, none of these guys are married. You one of the most famous supermodels in the world so that Brady mentality of I'm going to take less money for the team. It doesn't work for it for the rest of these guys in the NFL. Well there it's not it's not even just that Brady is where he is for as long as he has been because of the results of that. They've gotten that is a once-in-a-lifetime pairing between him and Bill Belichick who as much as I don't like is an absolute genius when it comes to keeping the other team unsettled not being predictable and I'm sorry, but if you're in that situation like Tom Brady has been and you know it at some point you you worry a little bit less about the money. I'm worried a little bit more about the greatness you leave behind because you sacrificed a little bit right? It's absolutely true. But that's that's been one of my biggest things in All of this is don't call the guy greedy. It is not greedy to get what you think you're worth know and what he has proven he is worth. And it's not greedy to you know want to know where you're going to be sleeping in a year. Yeah, you know that that's really what we're talking about. This is how this guy makes his living. Yeah, could he do other things absolutely even if he gets injured eats a lot of things you could be very successful but this is million a year though. This is what he's been doing since he was in kindergarten. Yeah, yeah, and he has get outside of the personal conduct stuff. He has given this team everything he has he has he has played he has been a Workhorse. He has taken the risks that come with that. There is a proven history of risk that comes when you give a player the amount of carries that he and touches that he's had and he's approached. He's a taken every one of them with a pretty Fearless attitude. Yeah. He doesn't worry. As much about his own safety he worries about moving that ball exactly. So, you know it you can say what you want about. Whether or not it's the best thing for the team and that is the big debate Zeke's doing what's best for Zeke. And that's what every player should do. Yeah, but what's best for the Cowboys is the big debate and the salary cap, you know, I threw this out there today if we didn't have a salary cap. It would be so amazing because we have the ultimate owner for that situation. Oh, yeah, and we endless Posh we would never have to talk about any of this stuff. So it's just it's an unfortunate reality IV. I've also seen that that people are saying well, we'll Jerry's Being Greedy or Jerry's being miserly by not signing see he would give seek every dime and more that he wants if he could but he can't it's a budget there are limits. You know, I've actually seen that to that people are He's greedy for you know not signing him sooner. Well, I mean at what point are you supposed to start void now agreed to years on a contract, you know, I mean Zeke's already he's holding out with two years left on his contract. Should he do it at 30 years. She did it for years, you know, and I've heard the argument that well he didn't really have much of a say in what that contract was because it was a rookie deal on a first rounder at that and really sorry. Sorry, you got drafted fourth overall and have made more than most running backs that your position even on their second contracts. I mean, I'm sorry, you're 21 years old and just got ahead of a 16 and a half million dollar check and get to go do what you love for a living every day in front of millions and millions of people worldwide. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's not weak form either. Yeah. This is one of the things I mean, even if okay, let's just, you know, say for shit's sake even if we did do that. What happens to the entire draft process after that contracts? Then are no longer valid? You cannot negotiate on bad faith. No, and that's something that this next CBA is going to have to figure out because at this point the fifth year option thing is not working because players are desperate to avoid it. It's like the new franchise tag, that's exactly what it is. And so especially for running backs and that's I don't think that they I've actually seen this proposed that Mo maybe they come up with different contract rules for running back. She can't do that. You cannot get into that. I mean players have to be equal to a So I think that this is going to be a big Topic in this CBA. I think we will see some changes in when players can hold out and all that stuff. And actually it's kind of interesting. We talked recently about the NFL using the 18-game schedule as leverage Point click get something like they want that and so they're going to give up something else like marijuana rulings and things like that, right? I think that this stuff with Holdouts is a big thing. The NFL wants also wants to get settled that the owners want to fix. So this is I think this will be a major topic next year in the CPA and I'm not so certain that it's just the NFL that it will the NFL in the the franchise is I don't think it's something that they want alone. This isn't good for the players either. I mean Zeke has hurt his reputation to listen three times in the last week just because of having to respond to and take action. It comes to his own contract and hold. I'll status. I mean you're talking about merchandising and stuff like that. What was it in 2016? Was it him? Or was it DAC that actually led the league and rookie jersey sales that year if it whichever one it was the other one was number two. So right, you know these things that they matter, you know, you have you so much as eat because you probably still had Romo fans that weren't going to buy that Jersey probably but then it's that it's the quarterback to its at that winning. That they went on you know that get the things like that. They don't go they don't get attributed to a running back to get attributed to a quarterback by DJ so, you know, it might have been that but it's just one of those things you don't. Well, you're talking about this all day long. It's a wrap up but it's almost like you could take some of the mechanisms. We already have in place. For example, like there's the pay-for-performance escalators you could start to you could start to broaden the scope of that to account for some of these rookies who grossly outperformed their contracts or you could look at if you hit certain In certain Milestones within your first couple years, maybe it allows you to enter unrestricted for maybe it helps avoid the last year of your rookie deal or it gives you a player option or something like that like you earn the ability to enter free agency sooner. I mean there's there maybe they'll come up with things like that. But and that's another thing. You also have to remember that. There are rules in the league that aren't publicized very well. We don't know most of these very much. We're all learning pretty well about One of them right now and that's how the NFL handles first round rookies acquiring their ra free agent status at the end of that contract and as we've heard that Ezekiel Elliott, he's running out of time. He has leverage right now, but the closer we get to the August 6 deadline for when he has to be on the roster and actually at Camp doing work as how its defined the the less leverage he has because after that date, His first year of expected free agency Cowboys will still owned his contract. They will still own the right to him. He's going to lose out on some options and at that point he screwed, you know, so this this not only needs to be a very deliberate carefully thought-out process. It needs to be expedient for Ezekiel Elliott sake as well as the Dallas Cowboys what what I one thing. I remember I was talking to someone about this recently and one thing I could definitely see happen. Ying is that they're going to get rid of the ability to franchise a player twice, I think that's going to go away and I think that we could see where if you use the 5th root your option on a first-round pick then you cannot franchise him the following year because I think that has been one of Zeke's biggest fears here is that he plays this year he get he he plays on the fifth year option then it gets franchise now, he's 26 or 27 and suddenly he's an old running back and he can't get a top dollar. Anymore and I think that's been his biggest concern maybe in all this is not what might happen in 2020, but what could happen if the process is allowed to play out for the next couple of years and you know in closing we're going to go and wrap this up. I'll give you a chance to respond to this as well. But anybody who's paid attention to what I say or what I write knows that I've disagreed with the structure throughout the offseason for which players are allowed to even You know participate in team drills and things like that. And this whole deal was shown only this this week. It's that's brought it right up to me. It's not necessarily that he did anything drastic to hurt himself. It's nothing like that more likely based on the history of the NFL which you know goes by where in our hundredth anniversary year. So, I mean that's a lot of history. If you go back to before that really probably what the biggest issue is is that he had to take so much time off from doing football. Things from even just unpadded going through the motions at speed like we used to do earlier and earlier in the year than we do. Now. It allows those ligaments to step and just a little bit it requires so much more stretching, but there is only so much stretching you can do if you've ever had any of these kind of injuries, you know, you cannot stretch enough every time the greatest way to stay in shape is to keep doing the things you need to be in shape for so what I think I think we're seeing now is that the last bargaining agreement almost 10 years ago. Now the collective bargaining agreement or other it went into effect in even severely reduced all of this time in the offseason that they can do anything to keep themselves in shape. It's has made It's basically created this issue we have now. We're right now with Ezekiel Elliott and any player who is holding out and when you're talking about 50 or options and second-year franchise tags. Yeah, they're getting a lot of money, but this isn't about money. They're going to get the money a team is going to pay these players what they are worth. The problem is whether or not they're guaranteed to be paid. If something happens in a game in a job where something happening is not only likely it's expected. Often than not it has created this problem. So I think That's what we're going to see is like you were saying they're going to try to find ways to do away with the fifth year option. They're going to try to find ways to do away with the second year franchise tag, the one-year franchise tag, that's kind of a desperation move. We're never going to get rid of that. And honestly, we probably shouldn't because sometimes that is just all there is and it does pay very well. Maybe it'll be a little bit better, you know, when they get rid of the second one, but the idea is to get away from the idea to get away from the possibility of a player being forced. To a one-year contract because of what it does for their security going forward. I think that's what we're going to see. I agree. I feel like that that that is coming and it like you were saying we have to player safety is not just about concussions now, I'm if we're really going to talk about player safety. We have to give them the opportunities to do the conditioning work that they need to do to avoid the soft tissue injuries. I agree with you a hundred percent on that. So I do Think we're going to see some changes across the board with that stuff. What right now we are all this thing about less less practice less contact has been reactionary to the concussion issue. Yeah, and we're on the we're too far in the other side now, so they've got to get back to the middle somewhere. Yep. That's the whole goal. Get back to the middle find what works best and I don't know if I have every confidence and D Maurice Smith, but I do believe that the nflpa is Headed in the right direction and has learned what they needed to from the last to the current collective bargaining agreement and basically how bent over they got from that they were going to see a lot of changes with that and there's a lot of interesting points. But for now we are still ongoing in training camp. We're still ongoing in the Ezekiel Elliott Saga of 2019 and we are going to continue to Monitor and come back with you next week for more again. Thank everybody for for listening. For subscribing our listener count is going up steadily week to week and love seeing that please continue to keep sharing it and you know, feel free to interact with us with Jess. You can catch him easiest on Twitter at Cowboys addicts. You can also reach out to me if you want to on Facebook going through the inside the star page, which is facebook.com slash ends up star. You can also reach out to the main account on Twitter at Cowboys Nation and you can also leave a voicemail. For us here on anchor just go to Cowboys weekly dot U s-- is a quick link to get to our anchor FM homepage. They voicemail on there and, you know even throw in some monetary support if you want you to able to that's always good when they were turned down the money. We're kind of like Ezekiel Elliott and that way right, please please please. All right, just thank you very much. I appreciate you taking some time out to talk with me this week always. Alright everybody until next time have yourself a great weekend and go Cowboys.
Well, well, well... it seems the Dallas Cowboys have officially started training camp and that's awesome because it means we're SO CLOSE to Cowboys football, but there are a few bumps in the road to get there. This week, Jess and I talk a little about camp and more:   Sean Lee's latest injury only confirms what many of us have been worried about since his move to SAM linebacker was announced for 2019  TE Blake Jarwin is returning for his third season and, after bolstering his value to the team in 2018, he's moving nicely, but will Witten's return negatively affect him? The Cowboys signed RB Alfred Morris this week, raising concerns about the team's commitment to Ezekiel Elliott; should we be concerned by this? Ezekiel Elliott heads to Mexico during his holdout, Jerry Jones states in an interview that DAL doesn't need a "rushing champion to win a Super Bowl," and an extended discussion on Zeke's perspective, the team's perspective, and how the NFL may change in the coming years as a result of situations like the one Zeke finds himself in this year  As we roll thru our second month of Cowboys Weekly, things are looking up. Our listener count is steadily increasing week over week and that's entirely because of you! We don't promote this podcast too much beyond sharing it to our flagship accounts on Facebook and Twitter, so our growth is most attributable to you, our listeners. Thanks for sharing and coming back each week as we figure this all out. ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 