00:00All right, let's go back, revisit some of the happenings, or maybe non-happenings, of NFL free agency.
00:08Go ahead and give me cut number one, because one of the things that we really hoped would happen yesterday
00:15absolutely came to pass.
00:18On second down, Stroud off the play fake, looking toward the back of the end zone, and it's intercepted!
00:23Intended for Nico Collins, and Jalen Thompson is able to pick it out of the air.
00:27Now, we have a lot of ground to cover right here.
00:31Do you want to go with Jalen Thompson? Do you want to mention comp picks?
00:36Do you want to talk about the heartbreaker of the player we didn't get for a reasonable price?
00:41I mean, let's start with the dude that we wanted, that we got for a better price than we thought
00:47we were going to get him for.
00:48Jalen Thompson, three years, $33 million, worth up to $36 million in incentives.
00:53So that's $11 million per year, up to $12 million per year.
00:58Coverage skills, he can play in the nickel, he has range, knows the system with Christian Parker, and like Bobby,
01:06he knows ball.
01:07Yeah, no, this is when Will McClay, or Will K, as some people warmingly call him, when he told Sean
01:17and RJ and Bobby and Broadus that the thing, and I think it was Bobby that asked the question,
01:22what's the thing we get wrong when we're doing our scouting stuff?
01:25And he said, I laugh at you chumps sometimes whenever y'all put out your mock drafts.
01:30He didn't say it that way, but it was jokingly.
01:32And he said, but true fit.
01:35And this is one of those instances where they found the guy that truly fits what they're trying to do.
01:40And he is, it's, as Alec, I mean, Alec did a phenomenal job of dropping that information out there for
01:48everybody.
01:49And then we were thinking, where's this number going to go?
01:51And yesterday, Kevin, we were looking at 13 as a very consistent number that we were seeing over and over
01:56and over for safety positions.
01:59And then you get him in at 11.
02:00And, I mean, and that was a big deal for the Cowboys because Jalen Thompson is the first outside free
02:06agent the Cowboys have signed for more than $6 million since Gerald McCoy in 2020.
02:15So, there you go.
02:17As good of a player, Alec, as he's shown to be already, don't you think with, I mean, what we've
02:23seen so far, sitting in a room with Christian Parker, he's just going to be that much more advanced mentally
02:29and prepared for these games?
02:31Yeah, and I think he's already there for the most part.
02:34So, the idea that it could only get better because two great minds are going to be working in tandem
02:40now, I do think that it's just going to look even better on the field.
02:44And I just love the idea of making smart moves that elevate the floor of your defense.
02:50That is a position that needed a lot of work, and that is a very versatile and flexible player that's
02:58going to do multiple things for you.
03:00So, I just like the idea of being less predictable.
03:03And when you have a smart guy working with a smart play caller that is scheming up some smart looks,
03:09it's all starting to make a little bit more sense, a tiny bit more sense.
03:13Yeah, Kevin, you know how they talk about position flex on the offensive line all the time?
03:19And I'm like, that's cool.
03:20If somebody gets hurt, you need to swing somebody around.
03:23This is a position flex that allows you to manipulate offenses by defensively forcing them to see one thing, think
03:32one thing, and not find a mismatch against you.
03:36So, good move by the Cowboys.
03:38And for Jalen Thompson, 30% of the time he was lined up as a free safety last year, he
03:46forced a tight window throw.
03:48He's one of only six free safeties that can make that claim, so that feels like a positive as well.
03:54And now he's not going up against Dak, who's the best tight window thrower, according to stats.
03:59Fact.
04:00So, you know, here we go.
04:02All right, so there's a few more things, and we can talk, obviously, more about that acquisition if you want,
04:09but also a couple of acquisitions that were just missed out on.
04:15N'Kobe Dean, and it sounds like, to a certain extent, Devin Lloyd.
04:21Jane Slater reported last night at about 7.30, the Cowboys were still talking to Devin Lloyd.
04:28About two hours later, he ended up signing a three-year, $45 million deal with Carolina with $25 million guaranteed.
04:37I was particularly heartbroken about this, but as you were just talking about with Will McClay, perhaps the Cowboys do
04:45not see Devin Lloyd the same way as I do.
04:47I just thought for that price and the ability to pick up an off-the-ball linebacker would have been
04:53a big deal,
04:54because then it feels like you would have at least, you know, with Gary, and then if you would have
04:59gotten Lloyd,
05:00and then the Jalen Thompson that we were just talking about, you would have at least picked up one player
05:05at every single level of the defense.
05:08But, as I said, the Cowboys might not have viewed Devin Lloyd the same as we did,
05:12and thus they might not have valued him as much as the Panthers did.
05:16Do you think that they're looking at it, and they're like, we have DeMarvion overshone, guys.
05:20Don't worry about off-ball linebacker, we're going to be fine here.
05:24Or do you think they're...
05:25I don't think that's the case, because then the immediate discussion was like,
05:32hey, or take a look at Patrick Queen, and they were in the mix, so numerous reports say, on N
05:39'Kobe Dean,
05:40which is really interesting to me, because, you know, that was one of the things,
05:45is like, maybe there's been an overstated interest in N'Kobe Dean, but when push came to shove last night,
05:51that sure doesn't seem like that was the case, because N'Kobe Dean had it down,
05:56if you were to believe the reports, to the Raiders, or the Cowboys,
06:00and he went with the Raiders 51-49, or some real close margin, which is kind of dispiriting.
06:06You know, I love Jane.
06:08I don't appreciate her telling us how close this was.
06:11Okay, yeah.
06:12It hurts. It hurts too much.
06:14And then kind of, you know, wanting to know more about why the decision was that extra two went the
06:20other way.
06:21What was the decision there?
06:22And that being said, Kevin, the one question we kept asking regarding him over and over and over was,
06:28are we making too much of the injury concern?
06:32Yeah.
06:32And maybe that's a reason that they wouldn't go over the top for it.
06:35And they were like, no, we'll be competitive with our offer here,
06:38and we'll be competitive with the conversation to try and get you here.
06:41But to be able to add you, that injury thing is kind of, you know, in the mix still.
06:46Maybe that's one of those.
06:47Yeah, and like I said, I mean, and like Will McClay said,
06:51you never quite know exactly how the Cowboys feel about it.
06:56But I just, I keep looking at this, and I'm wondering about off-the-ball linebacker,
07:02and if you're going to go for Patrick Queen, neat.
07:05And then you went ahead and re-signed Patrick, or excuse me, Sam Williams,
07:10and I will quote the great Bobby Belt, who quote tweeted,
07:17when Jordan Schultz said the Cowboys are re-signing Sam Williams' one-year deal worth $3 million,
07:22former second-round pick has nine and a half sacks, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
07:25Bobby quote tweeted that and said nine and a half sacks and nine career personal fouls.
07:30I remember when we had this conversation.
07:34What's the number?
07:35What's the, like, is it one?
07:37I would like it to be nine to one.
07:39Nine to one?
07:40Yeah, not pretty much even.
07:42I mean, I'd like him to have the nine personal fouls.
07:46As long as he has 81 sacks.
07:48Yeah, give me three, give me something else.
07:50Yeah, but like, when we talked about this a couple weeks ago,
07:53it feels like the prevailing wisdom of the fan base,
07:56though that's not how you should make all of your decisions, was either way.
08:01Like, bring Sam Williams back for a minimum deal.
08:03Don't bring Sam Williams back.
08:05Don't really care.
08:06But Sam Williams is back on the $3 million deal.
08:10That doesn't move the needle for me whatsoever.
08:13I think Jalen Thompson moves the needle quite a bit.
08:16But I remain concerned whether it was Dean, Quay Walker, Devin Lloyd, or whoever else.
08:25I'm concerned that you were making a run at a lot of these off-the-ball linebackers
08:30and came up with nothing.
08:33I came away last night as I was kind of looking.
08:37Again, it's not done.
08:38Sure.
08:38It was day one.
08:40On day one.
08:40And day two now, Kevin.
08:42This is the second round of the draft, right?
08:44This is where you go reset, try and figure out who got taken.
08:48Man, that's a great question because that Devin Lloyd deal came out later in the night.
08:51But I do wonder if everybody takes this six-hour break and they're like,
08:56all right, let's all calm down and reset.
08:58Yeah, when are you supposed to have a drink?
08:59You know, this is a stressful time, Kevin.
09:01Once you have a job well done.
09:03Yeah.
09:04Well, you wait.
09:05Night one.
09:06Well, hold on.
09:06You can have a drink every night.
09:08All right.
09:10Day one, you got Jalen Thompson.
09:11No, you're right.
09:12But I'm just saying, how much better does that drink taste if you're like,
09:16it's a drink for a job well done?
09:18I don't know.
09:18I need you guys to help me out with that.
09:20That's the end of the period.
09:21End of the free agency period will be that drink.
09:24It's just, okay.
09:25That'll be an extra pour.
09:27All right, Kevin?
09:27You pour a little extra in there.
09:29But yet, no, I mean, I agree with you.
09:31The idea of, okay, let's refresh.
09:35Go sit back in the room.
09:36Have the conversations.
09:37Who did we miss out on?
09:39Who did we like behind them?
09:40That's why my mind right now is starting to go,
09:43is C.J. Allen more of an option now at 20,
09:47even though I don't see him on any of the mock drafts in the first round right now?
09:52Do I go, okay, that's the linebacker that I'd like to replace
09:55whenever I was thinking about getting to Kobe Dean
09:57because he's a plug-and-play kind of guy that'll go perfectly in there
10:00and really is smart enough to understand this defense?
10:03So my mind starts floating to that, but we're not done with this part yet.
10:08And so I have an issue with texts like this from the 903.
10:12I understand we've all been conditioned to feel this way.
10:15Cowboys still playing in the bargain bin prices apparently.
10:18Just take a look at both the money and the draft capital they tried with Max Crosby.
10:24A first and a second.
10:25They didn't get it.
10:26That's not bargain bin.
10:27For N'Kobe Dean, we talked about would it be in the $8-9 million range,
10:31and it really does sound like they were closer to the $11-12 million range.
10:35That's not bargain bin.
10:37It sounds like they've had competitive offers and they've just fallen short.
10:41This is a different deal than I feel like you usually see
10:44when we said, hey, we got Gerald McCoy for $6 million.
10:47We did it.
10:48Mission accomplished.
10:49I think this is a different deal even if they don't hit on all of them.
10:53If Christian Parker really wanted N'Kobe Dean,
10:56do you think that they would have N'Kobe Dean?
10:58Okay.
11:00I think the exact same thing about Devin Lloyd.
11:02If they really wanted Devin Lloyd, I think they would have made it happen.
11:06Yeah, and I wonder how many I have to have this one he gets.
11:11I think whenever your defense is as terrible as it was last year,
11:15you have to kind of be like, hey, acquiesce as much as you can.
11:19But I wonder if he's like, I need three.
11:22I need three.
11:23And all the draft picks, by the way, too.
11:25So whatever you got in draft picks, I need those.
11:27Well, you did pick up two comps yesterday, as we had talked about,
11:32I don't know, like a month or so, maybe two months ago.
11:35The Cowboys get two fifth-rounders.
11:37Go.
11:38Number 37 and 40 in that specific round, which is number 177 and 180 overall.
11:44Championships are built in the fifth round, bro.
11:46I mean, look, absolutely, and they need to be built in some other round
11:49besides the first.
11:50Because remember, you don't have a second-round pick or a third-round pick
11:54unless somebody comes and knocks it on one of your tender offers.
11:57Remember, the Legion of Boom was pretty much all fifth-round picks.
12:00That whole team, I'm pretty sure.
12:01I mean, they definitely hit some home runs on some late-round picks.
12:07And obviously, we would all love it if the Cowboys were able to do that again.
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