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Ross Tucker joined Shan, RJ, and Bobby and discussed the upcoming NFL Draft. Tucker broke down Dallas' draft strategy at picks 12 and 20, the value of trading back, his evaluations of top defenders like Caleb Downs, and more.
Transcript
00:00but joining us right now live on the fan cam twitch and youtube is our boy the great ross
00:06tucker host of the ross tucker football podcast ross tucker nfl on social media and of course he
00:14is a former dallas cowboy good morning brother how are you ready for that you ready for thursday
00:19i am i i love the draft it's like the nfl and college football having a baby it's amazing
00:27and i gotta tell you guys more so than when we were younger i feel like more weird stuff happens
00:35there's more trades there's more surprises do you remember when we were growing up and like we
00:41already knew the first seven picks would be you know in order like they already signed the first guy
00:47and then we knew the second guy was and the third yes it just seemed like there's a lot more
00:54intrigue now i mean we know who the number one guy is going to be but there's a couple choices
00:58for the jets at two cardinals at three and i was there what nine trades last year i just it's
01:05gotten
01:06cooler you know now i i really liked when the first whatever it was two or three rounds was all
01:12day on
01:12saturday you know back when i was part of it we would get a 30 pack with my college buddies
01:18and just
01:18sit there all day on saturday it was amazing yeah but in terms of the the the intrigue i do
01:26think
01:26it's better than it's ever been give us your perspective and outlook right now for the cowboys
01:30at 12 and 20 weird position to be in really weird position to be in i'm sure i'm not the
01:39first person
01:40to tell you this you know the reason look you don't even need to hear it from me the reason
01:45why the
01:45bangles just traded the 10th overall pick for dexter lawrence is that they didn't really feel
01:53that great about anybody that was still on the board at 10 i mean look they think that they're good
01:59players but they didn't really believe that any of them were necessarily difference making players
02:05and certainly not for 2026 so to be able to get dexter lawrence they felt like that was a move
02:12they had to make now i do think they're trying to send a message to joe burrow and the entire
02:17organization about that and we could have a whole other conversation like they could have just signed
02:23trey hendrickson last year and then kept the 10th pick you know i mean that's a whole other conversation
02:29uh but where the cowboys are at sort of a strange position because they're not high enough that they're
02:37going to get one of the guys that people really feel good about and then i think people really feel
02:44like the value starts coming later in the first round into the second and the third so i think a
02:52lot of other teams are going to feel this way as well it would be great if the cowboys could
02:57trade down
02:58and pick up a couple of second round picks i don't know that that's going to happen and i will
03:04say this
03:05the track record for dallas drafting in this range seems pretty good now i i know the way
03:13you know you guys are on local sports talk radio so i'm sure you'll tell me the guys that were
03:18total
03:18bust but just off the top of my head micah zach martin cd lamb des i think was somewhere around
03:28here
03:28maybe a little bit lower it just feels to me like the cowboys have had a really good run
03:34of getting pro bowl all pro caliber players outside of the top 10 you cemented yourself on this show
03:42because you were ahead of micah with the pennsylvania ties before anyone else preaching and you still let
03:48rj hear about it to this day give us the guys that you love that have been connected to dallas
03:54whether
03:55it's downs styles delane talk about who you absolutely love and in a dream scenario
04:02you think the cowboys should be thrilled if they get at 12 or move up for
04:08well i think if they could get delane or downs at 12 that would be amazing you know you're either
04:16getting the number one safety or the number one corner i just had greg cosell on my ross tucker
04:23football podcast this morning and i think that what he said about caleb downs is he does not have a
04:29weakness and i think that position has increased in importance with every passing year and even going
04:39back to his true freshman year at alabama he was so good you know the reason why nobody wants to
04:47take
04:47guys like that in the top five or maybe even top 10 at running back or safety and to a
04:56lesser extent
04:56tight end it's all financial you know because guys like will anderson are getting 50 million a year
05:04or mike again whatever it is 42 million a year if you can get an elite edge rusher like david
05:12bailey or
05:13arvel reese on a rookie contract you're paying him what 10 million a year so you're getting whatever
05:19that is 30 to 40 million dollars per year of value whereas you know the top of the safety market's
05:27like
05:2720 million and change the top of the running back market's not even 20 million so the thought is if
05:33you take one of those guys you're not really getting as much value out of the pick because you could
05:41more or less just go to free agency and pay top of the market for a running back or a
05:48safety i understand
05:49that but like what are we trying to do here i mean the financial part of it's one thing but
05:55we got to
05:56get good players you got to get really good players and i think getting a kid like downs would be
06:01amazing
06:02uh delaney greg cosell said he's his number one corner silky smooth effortless and i still think
06:11that's a position even though it feels like the cowboys are throwing a bunch of darts at it both
06:16safety and corner to be honest with you i think they could stand to upgrade either one of those spots
06:22i think sunny styles will be a little bit too rich i think there's a better chance
06:27that either downs or delaney fall to them or that they could move up a spot or two and get
06:35them
06:36styles i think is going fourth or fifth so i i don't think that's realistic for the cowboys
06:41nor do i think it should be ross tucker joining us here 105 we had this discussion uh last segment
06:47you
06:47know delane uh or styles that they were both available would you so do you shy off players
06:53based off position at all like or not not not not shy off them completely but choose the position
06:59like corner over you know safety or linebacker if you had them all three available i think it's
07:05primarily a tiebreaker rj you know i most importantly is getting the best player and getting the player
07:14i think on some level that you need that fits your defense etc but if you're really torn
07:23between a corner and a safety and you really have them with the same grade on your board
07:30then you have to take the corner just because of the salary cap and cash savings just like if you're
07:37torn between let's say sunny styles as an off the ball backer or arvel reese the edge rusher
07:44or david bailey for that matter the edge rusher from ohio state or texas tech
07:50if it's close i think you got to go with the guy at the position that makes so much more
07:56money
07:56you know the top of the linebacker off the ball market fred warner is like 23 24 million
08:01we talked about what the edge rusher is so i think it's more of a tiebreaker than like i'm going
08:08to
08:09take a guy low with a lower grade who's lower on my board just because he plays a certain position
08:17that is when i think you really get into trouble all right ross so specifically then on the idea of
08:23picking the best player available but obviously you want to try and blend it with needs that you
08:28have and that fit your team what if these defenders start getting wiped out and they're standing there
08:33at 12 and they're looking at the best player on their board is a wide receiver is that something
08:37where you go that's just not a good use of resources it doesn't matter if that's the best
08:41player or do you say no it's got to stretch this far you take jordan tyson let's say if he's
08:45sitting
08:45there and that's your top player well i think that's highly unlikely i think he's going in the
08:51top 10 i don't know if you guys have watched his highlights that kid is electric and i think someone
08:56in the top 10 is going to take him which by the way is good for the cowboys because that
09:01has somebody
09:01else drop down to you guys uh but i would not shy away from taking a receiver if i'm the
09:09cowboys
09:10number one you know there's nothing wrong with making a strength keeping a strength a strength
09:16or making it stronger you know we know they've got two really good receivers if you added a third
09:23plus it gives you some leverage in the pickings negotiations you know because you don't feel
09:30like you have to get him signed to a long-term deal we've talked about it before there's a reason
09:36why the steelers traded him we've even seen sort of the up and down nature of pickings with the
09:44cowboys last year i called that lions game where he kind of looked disinterested at times i have a huge
09:53huge concern with guys that are that whatever word you guys whatever fancy word rj or sean want to use
10:04right um enigmatic erratic mercurial and i can throw them all out there we never use i'm wearing
10:11the orange i went to princeton and we all know i'm a genius okay i can just keep throwing them
10:17out
10:17there if you want me to jason garrett went to princeton too but yeah but here's the thing if he
10:24acts like
10:24that when he was a second round pick and he's not making that much money and he's trying to get
10:32life
10:32altering money how do you think he's going to act when you give him 40 million dollars a year
10:39so i'm not saying that they shouldn't sign pickings but i'd be very careful about the guaranteed
10:47number and how long the guarantees go out and i don't think it's a bad outcome at all for the
10:54cowboys
10:54if one of these receivers falls to them they take them they have the best trio in the nfl for
11:02a year
11:03and then maybe they trade pickings or whatever maybe they trade pickings before this year i don't
11:07know ross tucker with us here on the fan ross you were obviously an offensive lineman so you dealt with
11:13different you know uh defensive lineman length and and the way that they play and and what kind of
11:18advantages are there there's a ton of discussion about reuben bain and the fact that he's got these
11:22under 31 inch arms and we've never seen anybody like this how do you view that as a real advantage
11:29or disadvantage versus just trusting what's on his tape which looks like a complete game wrecker off
11:33the edge so by the way i don't think we've ever talked about this and i didn't even know this
11:38i knew
11:39i had short arms okay but when i was coming out in 2001 it wasn't it wasn't as big a
11:47deal as it is
11:47now it wasn't talked about as much plus i wasn't invited to the combine i was at i was at
11:53penn state
11:54last year for a concert it's a long story and i went to the football office because i know those
12:00guys
12:00well do you realize i am 30.75 well my arm length is 30.75 and i'm six four and
12:10a half reuben tucker so
12:12so dude i i i'm like a t-rex call me a t-rex i went and looked at the
12:18combine the last five years
12:20the only guy with sub 32 inch arms was 6'1 tyler linderbaum the center that just signed with the
12:29raiders so i don't want you guys to introduce me as former journeyman offensive lineman anymore
12:35i'm one of the 10 best offensive linemen in nfl history accurate with under 31 wow okay and i'll
12:43say this i can't speak to it as much as a d lineman but when i was playing offensive line
12:51against some of those guys like i remember going against richard seymour i would set and he would
12:57do like a one-arm stab it was his arms were twice as long as mine like you know he
13:03would lean and just
13:04stab with one arm and i was like a fish out of water i really do wonder what my career
13:10would
13:11have been like if i was just average 32 and a half would have been that probably would have been
13:17the
13:17difference between me being able to dunk in high school or not think about how many more girls i
13:22could have gotten dunked in high school i'm the next room you're six four you can't dunk so it's it's
13:28it's so annoying that i didn't have like just average arms so for a d lineman i am not as
13:36concerned about it because you know it's wild you know like crazy long arms and was so hard to play
13:42against jason taylor from the dolphins he was reuben bain's d line coach last year so kudos to jason by
13:50the way for telling reuben bain how to play without you know having those long arms he knows how to
13:58play with that i love the way he plays kind of reminds me a little bit of brandon graham who's
14:05the longest tenured eagle ever longest career in eagles history he wins with power ferocity and i'll tell you
14:12the other thing guys that play with bain's power and effort there is a high floor for them so is
14:21there
14:21a chance he doesn't become a 20 sack guy because the tackles can get on him a little bit more
14:27yeah
14:27maybe but when you play with power and violence and effort i feel like the floor is he's a five
14:35to
14:36seven and a half sack guy on an annual basis just because of those those traits ross tucker football
14:44podcast ross tucker nfl westwood won the play-by-play the analysts uh here on sean and rj and my
14:52mom is
14:53used to this message every year i'm two weeks away from the back-to-back with her birthday and mother's
14:58day what should i get her ross have i ever shown it to you guys i know what are we
15:03on twitch youtube all of
15:04it look at this nice you can get it for your wife your mom your grandma i guarantee it'll be
15:12the best
15:12mother's day gift they've ever gotten a writer writes a story about how amazing your mom is and
15:19always has been or how amazing your wife is imagine them opening it up and saying i want to do
15:24something
15:25special for you so i had a story written about you that sounds like the coolest gift anyone's ever
15:31gotten their mom or their wife if it's not sean will give you a money back guarantee i was talking
15:38with him before the show sean sheriff find him on social 1053 ss something weird but my frontpage
15:47story.com my frontpage story.com he's good for it and rj is personally backing him with his home loan
15:55my frontpage story.com thank you so much brother we always appreciate your time love you enjoy the
16:01draft see you dudes the great ross tucker
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