00:00Cowboys showed a great deal of restraint last weekend, or over the weekend, by not signing and not trading for
00:06Max Crosby.
00:07I thought it was a great deal of restraint because, traditionally, that would have been a place where Jerry Jones
00:12was like,
00:12we'll have all the headlines over the weekend. It's going to be the biggest splash.
00:16Everybody's going to want to know about this. We'll be telling this story for weeks.
00:19The Cowboys said, that doesn't fit our plan. We have a specific plan of what we want.
00:24Whether or not they make a big splash today, completely different conversation.
00:28Because, what would wow you the most? Devin Lloyd.
00:32Yeah.
00:32That would make me go, they're damn serious about this thing right now, if they went and got a Devin
00:38Lloyd.
00:39Otherwise, though, I think this team is going to be saying, we're going to add this piece, add this piece,
00:43add this piece.
00:44And right now, Kevin, you look and you say, Quentin Williams, damn fine move.
00:48Kenny Clark, in the middle of that defense. Osa, easy.
00:51And then Rashawn Gary across your front five.
00:54I'm feeling pretty good there.
00:56I also have this note from Nick Harris, Kevin.
00:58Filed under things that maybe only I care about,
01:02Rashawn Gary is the second former No. 1 overall high school recruit to play for the Cowboys.
01:08He was top-ranked recruit in 2016.
01:12Jadeveon Clowney was the 2011 No. 1 recruit.
01:16And Rashawn Gary, 28 years old. Clowney, 33 years old.
01:21I feel like at this point, you've got a younger version of that, and you're going to go and run
01:26with that at the moment.
01:27And if you walked away from today with Jalen Thompson, best case scenario, Jalen Thompson, Devin Lloyd, and N'Kobe
01:35Dean,
01:36I feel like all three of those players combined have a lower name value than Max Crosby.
01:40But I feel like we'd all walk away being like, whoa.
01:43No, absolutely.
01:44Okay.
01:45Yes, they played the game very smartly.
01:49With Max Crosby, you lose picks.
01:52So you just pointed out, Kevin, I don't know that the Cowboys are going to walk away with Rashawn Gary,
01:58For sure.
01:58Devin Lloyd, N'Kobe Dean, and Jalen Thompson.
02:01But you're right.
02:03Let's do it.
02:03If they did that, now maybe let's take Devin Lloyd out.
02:07All right?
02:07So you only have these three.
02:09All right?
02:09So you got Rashawn Gary.
02:12Would that be a bit of a shocker?
02:12It would definitely be a bit of a shocker.
02:14Rashawn Gary, Jalen Thompson, N'Kobe Dean.
02:18If you got those three, you're still feeling pretty good about yourself.
02:21Yeah.
02:22And now you can go into this draft and pick your cornerback and say, we're good there.
02:27Now you can use number 20 for whatever the hell you want.
02:30You want to trade that down and make some other moves in the first round
02:34and still pick up a second or third or whatever round pick you'd like to do,
02:38you absolutely can do other things with that.
02:41But at the moment, if you were to be able to walk away with those three free agents,
02:45now obviously I'm still a little concerned with Dean's health.
02:48I'm going to be every single day until he proves otherwise.
02:51That's why he's available, right?
02:52Exactly.
02:53Now Devin Lloyd being available, a little bit of a different story.
02:56I don't even, maybe he's not available.
02:57Maybe it's just that he's going to work that deal with the Jaguars
03:00and that's just Kevin and Mayans and Alex Pipe Dream at the moment.
03:04But the simple fact is, you make the Max Crosby deal over the weekend,
03:08you put yourself in a significant hole in trying to fill out the rest of your defense.
03:13I'm with you, man.
03:14And Schefter and everybody else was like, look, Cowboys were willing to go first this year
03:19and then a second next year.
03:22Which is still a lot.
03:24It is.
03:24Also kind of makes me wonder if they would not have then made the Rashawn Gary move
03:29because now all of a sudden you're out your second and fourth next year.
03:31I don't know that to be the case, but I'm just guessing.
03:35Well, isn't that Phil, the Gary void there?
03:38I mean, if they're going to, yeah, I guess.
03:41It replaces Clowney, which Gary is now essentially replacing Clowney.
03:45But listening to other people in the know right now,
03:48they don't think the Cowboys are done pursuing a person for the outside still.
03:53I hope not.
03:54Gary is a guy that they're like, okay, good.
03:56Just like Chris Young when it comes to pitching, add more defensive linemen,
04:01more edge rushers, give me more of those guys.
04:03I'm going to stack them all up, rotate them out, and we're going to go hit some people.
04:07So since Max Crosby came into the NFL in 2019, he's fifth in sacks,
04:12fourth in batted passes, third in total tackles, second in quarterback hits,
04:17second in quarterback pressures, first in solo tackles,
04:19and first in tackles for loss.
04:22All of that in mind, I'm good with the Cowboys saying, nah, this is our line in the sand.
04:30Like, we'll do a first and next year's second, but we can't go any further.
04:34But I wanted to know, and you and I are on the same page, Alec, the people listening at home,
04:40would you have gone for that?
04:43Like, knowing that Baltimore ended up making the move, 14 in the next year's one,
04:47would you have pulled the trigger and said a 12th in pick 20 or a 12th in next year's first
04:53-round pick?
04:53Although I guess we had discussions about that and the nature of that pick being frozen.
04:59So would you have done the deal?
05:00Because I'm good standing, Pat, and I'm curious if Cowboys fans are also good with that.
05:05I was never a fan of giving up two ones for really any player that could have been available at
05:13this point,
05:14just because I know how much help you do need on this roster.
05:17So I'd rather have the assets.
05:19I know Crosby is an incredible player, and especially under a defensive-minded head coach,
05:24he's probably going to continue to do incredible things.
05:27And Baltimore fans for years are going to say that the trade was worth it, and it probably will be.
05:31It was just too rich for my blood knowing this team's situation,
05:35and I just love that they did show the restraint.
05:38That's the perfect word for it, where they were like,
05:39hey, we have an offer on the table, we know what this player is worth in our mind,
05:45we are more than okay with walking away from this situation.
05:49That makes me happier than actually getting the player.
05:51Are you prepared, because you know it's going to happen all year,
05:56oh, Cowboys didn't have any sacks in that game,
05:58can't help but wonder how Max Crosby would have done.
06:01Because we got that all year with Micah.
06:03Are you prepared that that's going to happen all year?
06:07I'll worry about that later.
06:08Right now, just like, hey, I'm worried about weeks one through six.
06:14I'm not right now.
06:16So, yes, I'll be prepared to hear it.
06:18Hopefully they can get more pressure with the group that they have,
06:22because they have a pretty stout defensive tackle group
06:25that they look like they're going to line up out there and say,
06:28go get them.
06:29The value of it just didn't work for the us.
06:34This is the guy that you add.
06:36This is the Packers and Micah.
06:39If you're right there.
06:40You have everything built.
06:41You're ready to go, and you say, what else do we need, a war daddy?
06:45All right, go get them then.
06:46Yeah.
06:47That's the thing.
06:48And I think what people are going to not beat,
06:50because you can't prove it, it's not a number,
06:53with Rashawn Gary's deal, you're going to be like,
06:55man, our run stopping is pretty good.
06:58Right.
06:58He's underrated at that, but he only has two sacks on the whole year,
07:02and you're like, okay, well, he must be awful.
07:06Or, for this defense, we needed a guy like that.
07:10We needed somebody that could do something like that
07:12so that we could add a whatever other pass rusher so they could go do that.
07:17Travis Kelsey is expected to return to the Kansas City Chiefs
07:20for his 14th season at 36 years old.
07:23Are you sure about that?
07:24It was according to Ian Rapoport.
07:25Okay, because I had heard he was expected to return,
07:28but that he might try to try free agency,
07:31which I was like, ew, gross.
07:32Rapoport reporting this at 1027.
07:37He said he would command top dollar,
07:39but he'd rather stay with Kansas City.
07:41In what universe would he command top dollar?
07:44I don't know, dude.
07:45That's what Rapoport said.
07:46Okay.
07:46I was just saying what he said.
07:48Okay.
07:48I think he needs to be better.
07:50By the way, did you know that this was the first time in the Ravens?
07:53We also have two-a-news.
07:55Okay.
07:55Did he get picked up?
07:57According to Adam Schefter, the Falcons are expected to pursue him.
08:00Okay.
08:00So that's where we are right now.
08:02All right.
08:02The Falcons are like, hey, we need a Penix backup right now.
08:06In your face, Michael Penix.
08:07Do you think it's a bad...
08:08They'll have like a real competition, right?
08:11Or they'll tell everybody they're having a real competition?
08:14Yes.
08:14All right.
08:15This is the first time in the Ravens' 31-year history
08:18that they've used a first-round pick to trade for a veteran player.
08:22So the Baltimore Ravens are the opposite of the Rams.
08:26The Rams are like, that's fine.
08:28We'll figure it out.
08:29And then the Ravens, they never do this.
08:31Yeah.
08:31Traditionally with the Ravens, scheme has been king for them.
08:35And scheme has allowed their players to play free and fast.
08:39And what they did so well was they always had somebody laying in their lap in the draft
08:44and you were like, of course that dude's going to be a Raven.
08:47You know, it's just every year it just seemed like when they drafted,
08:50you'd be like, everybody would like a player like that.
08:52And how did the Ravens get him?
08:54And they're just sitting there like, okay, I guess we'll take this guy.
08:57And so they drafted smartly.
08:59And then they also were very frugal when they made other moves.
09:02He was very frugal but then said this player, if it was a specific player that fit well for them,
09:07they were like, we absolutely need that player.
09:09And you usually got the max out of those guys.
09:11Now, obviously, getting this max is a bit different.
09:15Will you get the best version of Max Crosby?
09:17I don't think so.
09:18I think you're going to get a very good version of him.
09:20Oh.
09:21But I don't know.
09:21I think you may look back at his career and go, his best years were behind him.
09:26But he's like, to go to that place, though, where that culture and that mindset is we play hard all
09:32the time,
09:32he didn't like being in Las Vegas where they said, hey, we're going to go ahead and tank this last
09:37game.
09:37Why don't you sit out?
09:38He didn't want that.
09:39He wants to be on the field fighting all the time.
09:42Now, somebody asked this question, and I think it is relevant, from the 6-8-2.
09:48Rashawn Gary averages about eight sacks a year.
09:50Why does everyone keep acting like he's only going to get two to four?
09:53So I think the issue on that front is he had seven-and-a-half sacks last year,
09:59but he had zero in the final nine games of the season.
10:03And so that's the concern.
10:05And what happened there?
10:05Yeah, that's the concern, is that he fell off a cliff,
10:09and that's one of the reasons that they were okay with moving off of him.
10:14And, I mean, I don't think anyone is viewing Rashawn Gary as like a game-changer or anything for the
10:19Cowboys.
10:20They need a lot of help.
10:21This is one avenue they're pursuing to try to get some help.
10:25But I think for the people concerned about the two to four, that's where that comes from, right?
10:30Yeah.
10:31They saw the second half of the season.
10:32They're like, uh-oh.
10:33Yeah, and so you've got to start asking, and obviously, Christian Parker, he knows the guy for two years,
10:39where he worked with him, competed against him over this time as well.
10:43So he knows the player, and I think that when you look at what he did for the team,
10:49and then what the Packers' future looked like, the Packers' future was not him anymore.
10:55The Packers' future, they drafted, they were like, playing time's going to be limited for you.
11:00I wonder how much that affected mentally, him mentally.
11:04And obviously, you want people that will be like, I don't care, I'm going to go out there and show
11:08out every time.
11:09But he kind of had that, well, they traded for Micah, I thought I was going to be part of
11:14this thing even more,
11:15and now I'm starting to lose some playing time, and I'm really good at these things.
11:19I think he can go out there and give you quality work.
11:23Your defensive line is better than it was to start last year, no matter what right now.
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