00:00I was also excited to see, read, and hear about the Cowboys rookie minicamp in Frisco over the weekend.
00:07Yeah, and you know what's most exciting about this outside of just being able to see the players come out
00:11onto the field
00:12is that Christian Parker was going to be talking.
00:15And Christian Parker has already proven for us at Combine and through his press conference too,
00:20he is so cerebral.
00:23And it's, I'll be honest, for a lot of people, he's probably going to be a little boring at times.
00:29Not that he says it without any energy, it's just...
00:31He's not going to be Mike Zimmer, Dan Quinn, while mic'd up, I don't believe.
00:35No, no, no, no, no.
00:36He's going to be boring in the right kind of ways,
00:39and in the ways of just, like, knowing all the answers to the test and having to explain, like, calculus
00:44to you.
00:45You know how guilty I can be of getting excited with emotions.
00:51There's a picture that John Machoda took, and maybe he's got to get a new one in Oxnard.
00:57Once Caleb gets his number straight, but there's a picture that Machoda took of Christian Parker kind of down,
01:04kneeling next to Caleb, and I could see that picture on the wall at the Star while taking a tour.
01:11That's the shot.
01:12That's the picture.
01:14I went to the Ford Center, the great Bront hooking me and the family up with a tour last week
01:19before having lunch with Bobby,
01:20and I was like, that is the shot for the new Cowboys era right there with those two.
01:26Did you see the picture I'm talking about?
01:27Yeah, you've got to get that 18 off of him, though.
01:29That's what I'm saying.
01:29See, that's what he's...
01:30That's what I'm saying.
01:30Wait for Oxnard for the new one.
01:32That's what he's not...
01:33And he looked a little annoyed about it, just a little bit that, I guess, Kobe Durant's got it right
01:37now.
01:37Sounds like...
01:38Sorry, Rook.
01:39Just a temporary thing, and he'll...
01:41They'll figure it out, like, in terms of, like...
01:42Carnell Tate was going to give up a ton of money, but decided against it.
01:46I think he was trying to get his 14, ended up with 17.
01:49Yeah, you'll find...
01:50Maybe you'll find some local, like, coffee shop or somebody.
01:53Maybe just love coffee.
01:54Somebody will come through and just go, like, hey, we'll buy your...
01:58Not them specifically.
01:59But you got that kind of thing going, where you get a sponsor to come in and go,
02:02look, we got Caleb Downs as number two.
02:03But 18, not the best look so far.
02:06But Christian Parker was happy, nonetheless, to have Caleb Downs out there.
02:10And we'll start off with Cut 20 here.
02:13This is Christian Parker just on being able to get Caleb Downs in the building for rookie minicamp.
02:17Yeah, I mean, I think a guy like Caleb, you know, he's a natural football player.
02:20You know, he's one of those, you know, first picks in the schoolyard.
02:23You know what I mean?
02:23So he's going to have natural versatility and just a matter of, you know,
02:26what he can handle mentally and how we fit everything together.
02:28I know it's just day one of minicamp, but what have you seen from him now
02:31just being in the building and getting him acclimated to what you guys are doing?
02:34He's the same guy we had in the building on the 30 visit, same guy we saw on tape.
02:38You know, just an intentional person, consistent, really, you know, just flatline.
02:43You know what I mean?
02:43Not like in terms of not having energy, but he's just consistent in terms of his approach
02:46and everything he does.
02:47You know, you're just seeing the guys come off the board
02:49and you're just seeing his name is still up there.
02:51And you're just hoping that we're getting striking distance
02:53where you don't have to sacrifice everything to go get him.
02:55And I think we got to a certain spot we were comfortable with.
02:58You know, Jerry made the call to go make it happen, and I'm glad we did.
03:00What was your reaction after the pick went in?
03:02I was pretty excited.
03:04That's about the peak of his energy right there.
03:07Pretty excited.
03:08Pretty excited.
03:08In fact, we'll go to – this is always good.
03:10We heard the quote out there or the story out there from Will McClay.
03:14He kept sending me pictures of Caleb Downs.
03:17Will did?
03:17Will McClay said Christian Parker just kept sending him pictures of Caleb Downs.
03:20So cut 22 here.
03:22Christian Parker, why in the world were you just sending photos of Caleb Downs
03:25to Will McClay before the draft?
03:27I just wanted to give him a little reminders.
03:29You know, as you go through this process, you know, we have the position meetings
03:33and we restack the board and everything.
03:34It's a lot of names.
03:35You know, it's not just defense.
03:36It's offense and special teams.
03:37So just, you know, kind of send him a couple reminders.
03:39You know, maybe, you know, you can schedule messages to get sent on the iPhone now.
03:43So you send it at night, get it sent at 8 a.m. the next morning.
03:46So when he's walking in the office, you know, he kind of sees it and everything.
03:48So I'll say it worked out pretty well.
03:50Very calculated.
03:51But that's encouraging to me because it seems like everybody, and you referenced the audio
03:58that we'll play at 720, in that when they get the pick of Downs and everybody's reacting,
04:02you can kind of see in the background, like, Clayton Adams is, like, pumped.
04:07And it's like, even the offensive coaches were looking at this and go, like,
04:09that's the guy that changes the math for us.
04:12Now, let's just explain real quick for the Tolos why we're not starting off with, like,
04:17on-field stuff because we have heard a lot of draft audio.
04:21We've heard a lot of, you know, quotes from coaches.
04:24What did they actually do on the field?
04:26They stretched in a lot of ways.
04:28That's what Rookie Minicamp is about.
04:30They stretch.
04:30You got to remember, it's a lot of – it's rookies.
04:33It's a couple of first- or second-year guys who qualify.
04:37Like, I don't remember what the exact qualification rules are,
04:39but you don't have all the veterans out there.
04:41Like, the veterans are not in the building right now hanging out with them,
04:44so it's not like they can do full teamwork.
04:45You're getting a lot of individual drill stuff.
04:47You'll see coaches kind of more teaching and going over some things,
04:52but it's not going to be a whole lot of, like, wow,
04:53tell me about the play that Caleb Downs made in the secondary.
04:56Tell me about what he did.
04:57Tell me about what this guy did.
04:59So you don't get as much of that.
05:01You know what?
05:01Let's jump down to – actually, let's keep going with 21.
05:06This is Christian Parker talking about how he's been bonding with Caleb Downs
05:10already just over both of them being big football junkies.
05:13Yeah, hit it off pretty well.
05:15You know, I think even down to his 30 visit coming in here,
05:18he was very familiar with what we were going to do
05:19because he watched our tape from Philadelphia, you know, the past two years.
05:24Jim Knowles and Matt Gowary, their safeties coach,
05:26came up to visit us in Philly during the spring twice when I was there.
05:30So a lot of the stuff he was familiar with from the shell system
05:33and some of the things, they played a different style, but it was very similar.
05:37So talked about some of those things on his visit, talked about his tape,
05:40and it's been the same thing, you know, last night and today.
05:43Now this is what I think Sean's going to be interested in and really like.
05:46He's talking about he was already familiar with our system,
05:48and he referenced Philly there.
05:50He got asked a question at one point, and it wasn't a clip I could pull
05:52because he gave a one-word answer, but he got asked a question like, you know,
05:56hey, you know, you've got this system that you've learned from under Vic Fangio
06:00and stuff like that.
06:01So much talk about Fangio.
06:02So how much of Fangio's defense will you be implementing?
06:06He goes, we'll see.
06:08And they go, okay.
06:09And they move on.
06:10And a little bit later, Christian Parker kind of circled back on that
06:14and said, just so you guys know, this is not Vic Fangio's defense we're running.
06:19Yeah, I think, number one, I've had some really good examples to learn from,
06:22you know, with Mike Elko, Mike Pettin, Jarrell Everett, Vance Joseph, and Vic.
06:27They did that, so I saw that in that style.
06:29So really just what was comfortable for me, you know, meeting a lot together
06:32and kind of explaining the vision, getting that input,
06:34us kind of having a collective shared vision on what we want this defense to be like
06:37because it's our defense.
06:39You know, I don't want to be called the Eagles defense or Vic's defense,
06:42that this is going to be ours.
06:43So we've been really intentional about going about that process from language that we use
06:47and the workflow that we have and everything else.
06:50So it's been real fun.
06:51Caleb Downs watched about five or six defenses, learned them based upon where he thought he could go.
06:59So the Eagles, the Cowboys being thrown into that mix,
07:03and this is part of what teams drooled over and were blown away by in the pre-draft evaluation,
07:10saying he came in, he explained our defense, number one,
07:13and then he explained, like, our defense with him in it or how he would go ahead and adjust things.
07:18And that just does not happen in the pre-draft workouts.
07:21What do you think, dumb it down for us, Bobby, in terms of Fangio's defense
07:27and the biggest differences with what you think Christian Parker will want to do?
07:32So that's the part of this that I think he's – so the biggest thing is I think he's going
07:36to play the linebackers different.
07:38I don't think that the linebackers are going to be dropping into as much coverage as Fangio's defense has typically
07:44had them do.
07:45And I don't think that's a – I don't have the personnel to do what I want to do, so
07:48I'm going to have to adjust.
07:49Like, I think they pursued linebackers the way they did based on how he views things.
07:55And I think he's going to very much want – all right, we've got our front,
07:59where they're going to be in there just mauling and wrestling with guys
08:03and playing this gap and a half like he talked about with us in Indianapolis.
08:07You've got the secondary, which is – the secondary is clearly the most critical part of what he wants
08:10because he's invested all the resources there.
08:13He's a secondary guy.
08:14The linebackers, meanwhile, are going to be used, it feels like, heavily for some communication stuff,
08:20slight drops in coverage, slight switches in coverage,
08:23but a lot of it is going to be just kind of like wait, react, go, and then let guys
08:27kind of clear space for you.
08:28That's why I think they were so big on defensive line and secondary.
08:31Defensive line, keep them clean, keep the blockers off of them,
08:34and let those guys kind of see it and react and then play forward.
08:38And so with Fangio, a lot of the stuff is – it's a bunch of coverage stuff for everybody in
08:43the back seven.
08:44Everybody in the back seven is involved in that.
08:46I guess we should have looked at, you know, N'Kobe Dean, Quay Walker, C.J. Allen,
08:53and how they were in coverage to kind of look – winters – to kind of look at, you know,
08:59whether that's going to be a specialty here or not.
09:02Obviously, Dean running Fangio's system last year.
09:05Yeah, and Dean – but Dean was pretty insulated.
09:07But if you look at all those guys you just talked about, I mean, Dean and Allen especially
09:11were not considered big-time cover guys.
09:13And you've got – you've got somebody like Dean Winters who is a solid cover guy, I think.
09:19It's not like he's top of the NFL, but, I mean, it's like everything Dean Winters does,
09:22which is just solid.
09:24Now, one of the things we got over the weekend that I thought was important was
09:28Christian Parker did not want to talk about two things.
09:30One, he didn't want to talk about this being Phillies defense.
09:32Two, he did not want to talk about the green dot.
09:34That question came up in some form or fashion about three times, and he answered too early,
09:39too early, don't know, too early, and then was very quick to dismiss it.
09:43Brian Schottenheimer was willing to get much more into it, and even walked us up to the
09:47door of telling us who he thought it should be before he pulled back.
09:50The green dot is – it's interesting because I think some people, general fans, don't really
09:56know what the green dot is.
09:57Hell, there was never a green dot for defense up until a couple years ago.
10:01The biggest thing I would say about that is we're going to train so many people, you
10:05know, Clarence in the green dot, that we're going to find out who's comfortable doing it.
10:10It might be Demo.
10:11It might be Jalen Thompson.
10:13It might be D Winters.
10:15It might be whoever.
10:16And, you know, I think at the end of the day, communication comes down to not just the
10:22green dot, but the entire defense.
10:24And so, if we were playing a game this week, I could not tell you who was going to be
10:28the
10:28green dot, but we're not playing a game for a while, and so we've got time.
10:32There will be trial and error.
10:33There will be different things.
10:34There will be different packages of guys being together.
10:37And so, at the end of the day, I have my favorite, who I would – since it's the
10:43Kentucky Derby, I can talk about that a little bit.
10:44I have my favorite, not in the Derby, but – and who I think will be our green dot,
10:48but I'm not going to share it with you.
10:50You can't tease us like that.
10:52Yeah, I know.
10:52I saw you literally raise up like, is Shottie's going to drop some knowledge?
10:56No, Shottie's not.
10:58Like, unless you tell me who's going to win the Derby, I'm not going to tell you who I
11:01think the green dot's going to be.
11:02You ready for some classic Bobby overthink?
11:04I think he told us who it is.
11:06Really?
11:07Yeah.
11:08All right, is this more overthink than your Cooper Beebe wedding photo?
11:13Ooh, yes, it probably is.
11:15Okay.
11:15Well, I don't know.
11:17They're both probably overthink.
11:18That's a lot of overthink.
11:19We'll get to that later on.
11:21He listed when he said, it could be, and he listed all the players.
11:24You never want to list the guy you're thinking of first.
11:27Too obvious.
11:27DeMarvian Overshown.
11:28You don't want to finish with that guy too much.
11:30This is the guy in the middle.
11:31It was the second name.
11:32And it was the only member of the secondary he mentioned.
11:35He mentioned all linebackers, and then he mentioned some of the secondary.
11:37Jalen Thompson.
11:39That's who I think Shottie was.
11:40All right, there it is.
11:41Let's see if the TISM proves correct inside the star here on Sean and Bobby.
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