00:00Oh, should Jake Ferguson be concerned?
00:03Probably not, but Luke Schoonmaker should.
00:05Let's talk about it here in Below the Belt, which is brought to you by Window Nation.
00:09Before we talk about some of these undrafted free agents, we do have breaking Cowboys news, sort of.
00:15Yeah, Alec Medford always on top of it, along with other Tolos sending it over from Tom Pellicero
00:22that Dante Fowler is going to join the champs.
00:27It's a one-year deal worth up to $5 million for Dante.
00:32So there's a lot of people who thought he was going to be an upside guy this year.
00:37One of my biggest misses.
00:39I felt like it was an absolute guarantee that Dante Fowler would have at least seven sacks.
00:45How many did he end up with?
00:47Four, maybe? Three? Something like that?
00:49He felt non-existent the entire year.
00:52I'm super, super surprised.
00:54So, when we were, when I was in Vegas, and we were heading into that Raiders game,
01:01he finished with three sacks, by the way, is what he had.
01:04And I believe it was, how many?
01:06He had ten quarterback hits on the entire year.
01:12Oh! Ten hits?
01:13That's it.
01:14And three of those sacks are included in that, so that means he had seven that weren't sacks.
01:18Additional hits.
01:18Yeah, he had seven in addition to the three sacks.
01:21Oh, and he couldn't go ball out like Tank?
01:23When we were in Vegas, you remember we were talking about the game, and I was just like,
01:28the Raiders are so bad.
01:29Yep.
01:29And you should go bet on it.
01:30Won me thousands of dollars.
01:32And Choppy, you remember, was hesitant because he goes, man, the Sharps.
01:35The Sharps are heavy on the Raiders.
01:37And I was like, I never want to hear you reference the Sharps again if this is wrong,
01:41because every time you invoke the Sharps on these sort of things, it's been wrong.
01:45So I don't want to hear it anymore if this is wrong.
01:48And I was wrong.
01:49My next mission is going to be his pass rush win rate reliance.
01:54Because this comes from Ol' Hawk Blogger.
01:56And Hawk Blogger does great work covering the Seattle Seahawks.
02:00He's the one who...
02:01Hawk Blogger?
02:02Yeah, he's the one who caught the video of John Schneider reacting to Broadus.
02:05Oh, okay.
02:06And so then he interviewed Brian afterwards, Brian Nemhauser.
02:10Brian, I would say you shouldn't feel as good about this baby as the numbers suggest,
02:15because Brian is referencing that Dante Fowler had a higher pass rush win rate.
02:20RJ's favorite stat to invoke why somebody is better than somebody else.
02:25A higher pass rush win rate than any Seahawks edge rusher last year,
02:29and higher than Vaughn Miller, Cameron Jordan, and other veteran edges on the market.
02:35What?
02:36I don't remember him having a win rate of 1% last year.
02:40Much less higher than an entire Seahawks Super Bowl team
02:43that seemed like it was pretty good defensively and able to get some pressure.
02:46Vaughn Miller, okay.
02:48He's all basically done.
02:49All the Seahawks?
02:51Cam Jordan's still a decent player.
02:53He's not what he once was, but he's still a decent player.
02:55And I would have taken Cam Jordan last year over what Dante Fowler gave you.
02:59But this does make sense.
03:01This is Adam Dirty reuniting with former guys he worked with in Dallas.
03:06Although the interesting here that the highest sack total on the Seahawks,
03:13do you know what it was?
03:14It was Byron Murphy with like 7.5 or something?
03:16Yeah.
03:17Murphy was tied with Williams in Wasu.
03:22Tank had 6.
03:24Yep.
03:24Oh, their highest sack total was 7.
03:26So they will generate pressure.
03:28They don't generate a lot of sack production, but they generate pressure.
03:31And, I mean, similar to what we've talked about with Christian Parker,
03:34it's a very secondary-focused scheme.
03:38Like in terms of they want to create problems for quarterbacks
03:41with what they do in coverage.
03:42And so, similarly, I think Cowboys fans need to be prepared for that.
03:46This Christian Parker scheme is not going to be one where, man,
03:49we've got this monster edge rusher who's going to have 15 sacks a season.
03:52That's not what this defense is going to do.
03:54This defense, we've talked about it before.
03:56There's two ways to really stress quarterbacks.
03:59And it's you speed up the clock or you mess with their eyes.
04:02Parker prefers to mess with their eyes because he thinks speeding up the clock
04:05just – Aaron Rodgers is the king of this.
04:09If you start generating pressure on Aaron Rodgers,
04:12you remember the whole keep him in the well thing?
04:14Don't actually chase him.
04:16Don't actually like make him break outside the pocket or speed up his clock.
04:20Keep him in that tight space and make him uncomfortable.
04:22When you get a really elite quarterback,
04:24speeding up their clock doesn't do anything to them.
04:26They just – they have to go a little quicker,
04:28but an elite quarterback will be able to neutralize some of that.
04:31So third and 13.
04:33And you're like, they're going to pin their ears back.
04:36What's that going to look like going after a quarterback?
04:38So you still want to generate pressure on like a third and long passing situation
04:42because at that point it doesn't – it's just on first and 10.
04:45All right, you're generating some pressure.
04:46Fine.
04:46He'll take a profit.
04:47He'll get a quick seven-yard slant or he's doing this or that.
04:49Like there are ways to kind of neutralize some of it throughout the game.
04:52In longer pass rush situations, you still want to like bring the house a little bit
04:55and generate some pressure.
04:56Because the leading sack number and sacker for the Eagles last year –
05:01see if you can guess.
05:02You'll never get it.
05:04Was it – oh, gosh.
05:07What's his name?
05:10Moro.
05:10Moro was second.
05:12Okay, who was first then?
05:13I don't know.
05:14Jalix Hunt?
05:15Oh, yeah.
05:16Jalix Hunt.
05:17Jalix Hunt had six and a half sacks.
05:19Yeah.
05:19And Moro Ojomo, de-tackle, had six.
05:22Those are their lead.
05:23And then – so you had – look at this.
05:26My gosh.
05:27One, two, three, four, five.
05:29Their top six sack getters.
05:33Linebacker, de-tackle, de-tackle, linebacker, linebacker, linebacker.
05:37And then finally, Brandon Graham, de-end.
05:40Jalen Carter, Byron Young, Jalen Phillips.
05:44De-tackle, de-tackle, linebacker.
05:46Yeah.
05:46I mean, it's a –
05:47One de-end amongst their top, like, nine.
05:50And obviously, the year they won the Super Bowl,
05:52Josh Sweat was like a big contributor for them.
05:55Like, he was somebody who was – or which year was it?
05:58That was the year they went to the Super Bowl, I think.
05:59But he – like, he had 12 and a half sacks.
06:01But generally, yeah, it's a scheme that relies – they'll get some pressure,
06:06but it relies on really messing with the way the quarterbacks process
06:08what they're seeing.
06:09Because when you step up to the line of scrimmage
06:12and you can already eliminate half of what they're going to do
06:15because of certain looks that they're in at the line of scrimmage
06:17or certain things that you know they're doing,
06:19that makes it so, like, all right, I can –
06:21my brain can process quickly enough to eliminate other things
06:24once we're at the snap of the ball,
06:25and I can figure out where to go with the ball pretty quickly.
06:27If you don't have anything tipped off to you,
06:30but when you walk up to the line of scrimmage and you're like,
06:32well, crap.
06:32Like, Cam Newton's talked about this, that he said,
06:36there's something about walking up to the line of scrimmage
06:39and just going, okay, he's here, he's here.
06:41All right, cool, and I know I can do this, and I can do that.
06:43And then he said versus walking up to the line of scrimmage
06:44and going, okay, well, the safeties aren't showing me anything.
06:49The corner – damn, okay, hold on.
06:51Let's wait.
06:52And then you step back, and now you start really getting in your head a little bit.
06:55That messes with teams,
06:56and that's something that Christian Parker really believes in.
06:58All right, Joe Hoyt over at the Dallas Morning News
07:02has the undrafted free agents who could make the Cowboys roster,
07:07the guys with the best shots to make the team.
07:09And the number one name on this list,
07:12and the number two name actually, are both tight ends.
07:15We obviously know that Luke Schoonmaker's a little vulnerable.
07:18The Cowboys do have a history of retaining undrafted free agent tight ends
07:22in the last 10 years.
07:24Blake Jarwin, Princeton Fant, Brevin Spanford,
07:26and Ford, they find guys, give them an opportunity,
07:30and like developing guys at that position.
07:32So the number one guy on this list is Baylor's Michael Trigg.
07:36Michael Trigg would have been drafted if not for off-the-field concerns.
07:39Man, did I see this name a ton over the weekend.
07:43He writes,
07:44Trigg's talent is certainly evident.
07:46The 6'4 tight end looks like a basketball player on grass.
07:48He has a greater than 7-foot wingspan,
07:51a mark that's not only rare,
07:52but one that's earned a nickname around Waco.
07:54Trigg said people will say he has go-go gadget arms,
07:57like the character Inspector Gadget.
07:59Trigg uses those arms too.
08:01He made plenty of spectacular catches during a five-year career
08:04at USC, Ole Miss, and eventually Baylor.
08:06There's a reason he was at multiple programs.
08:08He had 14 touchdowns in his career,
08:10including six last season.
08:11He was rated as a potential fifth-round prospect,
08:13according to The Athletic.
08:15Of course, players are always available after the draft for a reason.
08:18He'll have to show throughout the offseason
08:19that he's not only athletic,
08:21but he can be diligent too
08:22and act like a professional on the field and in practice.
08:25If he can,
08:26and if he can make spectacular catches in Oxnard
08:28like he did in college,
08:30then expect him to push for a tight end spot
08:32on the 53-man roster.
08:33And that's one of the things that
08:35when you heard him this weekend,
08:38Michael Trigg sounded like
08:39he knows that he's got to be more mature
08:42and that he's got to attack things more professionally.
08:45And it's something that he seems like he's ready to do.
08:48Now, he had,
08:48there's talk about him having bad practice habits.
08:51He was suspended in 2024
08:55for smoking at a team hotel.
08:57He was involved in an altercation on the sideline
09:01in 2025 with Baylor's AD.
09:02Like, he's got issues.
09:04He's had problems.
09:05But this is the guy that when we had Josh Cameron
09:07in studio from Baylor
09:08who ended up with the Jacksonville Jaguars,
09:10Josh Cameron had talked about
09:11how he had gone to dinner with Lunda Wells,
09:14the Cowboys tight ends coach,
09:15and he was there with Michael Trigg.
09:17And Josh Cameron,
09:17the guy he kept referencing from his team
09:19when you said,
09:19who are some studs you played with?
09:20He kept saying Trigg.
09:21He's like, man, Trigg is special.
09:22He's, he's really, really good.
09:24And that's the thing.
09:24The talent's all there.
09:26That's the kind of guy that you gamble on
09:27in undrafted free agency.
09:28And just say, all right,
09:30let's see if this will work a little bit.
09:31Peyton Hendershot was that way.
09:33Hendershot had some off-the-field stuff
09:35about and that they wanted to get answered.
09:37But consistently,
09:38they will have a undrafted free agent tight end
09:40stick on the roster a little bit.
09:42Now, our boy, G-Bags boy,
09:45Jake Ferguson has unveiled
09:48a sandwich review video channel.
09:51It's really good.
09:52Yeah, it's good.
09:56Where are you with his standing here?
09:58Because I was telling myself during draft weekend,
10:02if they took someone,
10:04I'm not going to be mad about it.
10:06Again, trying to be FAF.
10:07Love Jake's personality.
10:09Need more, expecting more.
10:11Need more, expecting more.
10:13So, if someone got thrown into there as a threat,
10:16right now I would not be opposed to it.
10:18You?
10:19No, I wouldn't be opposed to it.
10:20I think there's going to be more
10:23two tight end looks.
10:24And, look, I think he's a good player.
10:27He's somebody that I do want here.
10:28And I think that more than just being a good player.
10:30Love his attitude.
10:31He is, yeah.
10:32Culture-wise, character-wise,
10:34the things that they're trying to build,
10:35he is perfect for what they want.
10:37That is a good teammate.
10:38That is somebody who practices the right way.
10:41That is somebody who sets an example.
10:43Somebody who is available to his teammates.
10:45He is everything from a teammate
10:47and a character standpoint
10:48in a football team that you want.
10:50So, he checks those boxes.
10:51He has become reliable hands.
10:53He has really good hands.
10:54And he's trustworthy.
10:55All right, you need four yards here
10:57and he's running a little, you know, out route.
11:00All right, throw the ball to Jake Ferguson.
11:01He's going to come down with it.
11:02So, there's a reliability factor there
11:04with his ability to catch the football, too.
11:07Hanging on to the football
11:08has been a bit of a different story.
11:09He's had big fumble issues the last couple years.
11:11And I don't know exactly where that's come from.
11:13Some of the offense,
11:14you want to see a little bit more wiggle from,
11:17a little bit more vertical threat from.
11:18He had more of that his first couple years here
11:20than he has the last two.
11:21That's not so much been the case.
11:22He caught eight.
11:23Are you looking at his stats by chance?
11:24No, I am looking at my phone
11:26that has absolutely detonated with dog messages.
11:30Oh.
11:32Explosion.
11:32Got that dog in you.
11:33Emily Pate, Lee Costa.
11:36I mean, just the phone is being overrun.
11:39Shelters here and there, everything.
11:41He was targeted last year, Jake Ferguson, 102 times.
11:44He caught 80 passes, which is a really good rate.
11:46How many yards do you think he had on those 82 catches?
11:51Seven per?
11:53Six hundred yards.
11:56I mean, imagine if he didn't get that extra yard.
11:58We're looking at 82 catches for something that began with a five.
12:01Yeah.
12:02That's running back numbers.
12:03But you're right.
12:04Seven point three yards per catch.
12:05The good news, obviously, he had more touchdowns last year
12:08than he had his entire career.
12:09And so he had eight touchdowns last year.
12:11I don't know if it felt like that,
12:12but he has become a reliable red zone threat.
12:14But I'm with you.
12:15I want him here.
12:16I'm glad he's here.
12:17But I wouldn't be mad if they had somebody split and snaps with him
12:20as a more vertical threat.
12:21Below the belt.
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