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Shan and RJ went Below The Belt to react to the news that the Cowboys will open the season on the road taking on the Giants. RJ questioned if another Week 1 clash with New York is starting to lose its luster, while they also dug into the Cowboys’ strength of schedule, and more.

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00:00There's NFL schedule release is set for Thursday, but you know we get nonstop leaks beforehand.
00:05And the first one is official.
00:07The Dallas Cowboys will start their season on Sunday Night Football at the Meadowlands
00:13against the New York Giants on September 13th.
00:16Will we get another leak before the show is over?
00:18Not the Cowboys, just NFL in general.
00:20Before the show is over?
00:21Yeah.
00:23I feel like Schefter's going to save one for, like, get up or start a first take or something.
00:29Right, right, right.
00:30Yeah, that could happen in 20 minutes.
00:32But you have all these other accounts that somehow get their hands on some of the information.
00:36So Cowboys at Giants for the 400th time.
00:39Yeah, I am so bored with this game opening the season.
00:43But does it change because the Giants have juice?
00:47I'm excited to see the Giants.
00:49I'm more excited to see the Giants this year than obviously in previous years.
00:54It's just been, it's so, it's happened so often that it's like I'm desensitized to the game at this point.
01:00And the Giants haven't been competitive.
01:02I think they're going to be more competitive this year, but they just haven't been competitive.
01:05So that's kind of where the boredom goes.
01:07Also, I love division games late.
01:13You know, I'm trying to think who they played.
01:16And obviously the end of last year didn't matter.
01:18You know, but there was a time where they played like Detroit like two weeks before the season was over.
01:22Like, why?
01:23You know, play Eagles, Commanders, Giants last three games.
01:27Well, sometimes they don't matter, like you said, and then you lose the juice of it earlier in the season.
01:34Warren Sharp, NFL analyst and others are trying to talk about how hard the Cowboys schedule is.
01:39He has them with one of the five hardest schedules in the league.
01:43Cardinals, Dolphins, Panthers, Rams, and Cowboys.
01:48And he was kind of crapping on the Cowboys prospects last week when we were going through his analysis.
01:54We really haven't dove, dived completely into the opponents.
01:59We'll know the order of them on Thursday.
02:01I wish they also did that.
02:02I know that people put it together because they know what division you're going to face, but I kind of
02:06view this as draft picks.
02:07Like, I don't like having the opponents before the schedule.
02:11I like just being hit with all of it at once, but I know it gets figured out.
02:15So, Cowboy home opponents, how tough is it?
02:19Giants, Eagles, Commanders, of course.
02:22Arizona, Baltimore, week three in Brazil, Jacksonville, San Fran, Tampa Bay, and the Titans.
02:37So, the easiest games on your home schedule right now, Arizona, Tennessee, and then whatever the Giants and maybe Commanders
02:49are going to be.
02:50And Arizona always beats you.
02:53Yes.
02:54Crazy.
02:55Always.
02:55I'm not a fan.
02:56They always play you tough.
02:58So, is that a tough home schedule?
03:02That's a very tough home schedule.
03:03Away opponents, obviously the NFC East, and then Lambeau, the armpit, Indianapolis, when you get the matchup of the Downs
03:15brothers.
03:17At the Rams and at the Seahawks.
03:21Peyton, you just made a face.
03:24I mean, I think 0-4, 0-5, just like that.
03:26You already got five losses.
03:28Hey!
03:28They might not win a non-division.
03:31Let me see.
03:31But, I could see them not winning a non-division road game.
03:35A non-division road game?
03:37So, that would be Green Bay, Houston, Rams, Seahawks, Indy.
03:41Yeah, I could see them going 0-5 in those.
03:44Now, Green Bay, a lot of that matters when.
03:47If that's in September, it's a gift.
03:50If that's in December, I mean, don't even make the trip.
03:54Dak's Thumb can't handle that.
03:56Houston's nasty.
03:57Cowboys don't play well on the road anyway.
04:00The Cowboys' numbers, road versus home, is crazy.
04:03The Rams.
04:03Yeah, the Cowboy fans there in Houston.
04:05It's true.
04:06The Rams.
04:08You know, I actually feel halfway decent about the Rams.
04:12More so than, like, say, Seattle.
04:14Seattle seems like it's going to be a tough place to play.
04:17Yeah.
04:17Green Bay, obviously, that's weather dependent.
04:21Houston.
04:23I mean, a lot of this is, what is C.J. Stroud?
04:26You know, their defense is sick.
04:28How much are you going to score?
04:29Like, one of my problems in making the Cowboys true contenders is not just the over 500 thing,
04:35not just on the road thing, but against elite defenses.
04:38Houston, in this matchup, will be all three.
04:41I don't have faith the Cowboys are going to light up any Houston defense.
04:44I have no faith in that.
04:45No, I don't either.
04:48Going to have to be a lot of Caleb Downs, pick sixes, scoring defensively.
04:52Might have to be.
04:52But look, the easiest, and again, we always get surprises, right?
04:55Indianapolis was the biggest surprise in the league last year, but the easiest games on
04:58your schedule are Arizona, Tennessee, maybe Indianapolis you throw in there outside of
05:07the NFC East.
05:08There's three games.
05:09So, like, two and a half games where you feel great about getting a W, but then, like you
05:13said about Arizona, they always manage to beat you.
05:16Tampa, I mean, Tampa could be anything.
05:18They could be, I mean, they were, what, six and one, six and two, and then they got basically
05:21everybody hurt.
05:22Jacksonville was a 13-win team.
05:25All right, how much is their fall-off going to be?
05:28I know they're going to have a first-place schedule, but, you know, the way Trevor Lawrence
05:32played the second half of the season, he played pretty good.
05:34This is kind of brutal.
05:35Their defense was solid.
05:37San Fran, I mean, they're in your head.
05:39They own you.
05:41Baltimore, don't know.
05:43Have the highest over-under win total in Vegas.
05:46Yep.
05:46That'll be a Brazil game, too.
05:48Mm-hmm.
05:48If that factors into anything.
05:50Yeah, this is tough.
05:51Right?
05:52This is tough.
05:54Now, the good news is the NFC East has to play similar out-of-division opponents.
05:59Right, and, you know, so Philly will have the first-place schedule.
06:04So Philly will play, their NFC North team will be Chicago, you know, and they'll play, I'm
06:11thinking here, they'll play Carolina, right?
06:14Carolina won the South.
06:16So, I mean, and then they'll have to play somebody from the AFC on a rotation.
06:21That's tough.
06:22That's a tough schedule.
06:22What do y'all think?
06:238-7-7, 8-8-1, 1-0-5-3, 8-7-7, 8-8-1, 1-0-5-3.
06:28As Warren Sharp pointed out, last year the Cowboys played the number three easiest schedule.
06:33They won seven games.
06:34In their eight games against teams with a winning record, they went one of eight.
06:38In their seven games versus teams who made the playoffs, they went one of seven.
06:45Three and one in games decided by three points or less.
06:48And this year, they played ten teams projected to have a winning record.
06:53Number two biggest increase in schedule difficulty and the number four overall toughest schedule.
07:00That's not looking good.
07:02No.
07:02Now, the good news is that the Rams, the Bears, Tampa, Seattle, all those NFC teams also have
07:13among the tougher schedules.
07:14But we don't play the Bears.
07:15No, no, no.
07:16You don't.
07:16But you got to worry about them for the playoffs, right?
07:18Just as the NFC.
07:21Green Bay, Minnesota, those are all on there in the NFC.
07:25The only NFC teams on the easiest schedule, one bad is Philadelphia's got the sixth.
07:33And San Fran is right there.
07:34Detroit's got the easiest.
07:35The rest of them are all AFC.
07:37It's below the belt brought to you by Windo Nation.
07:39Pepe, are the Tolos worried about this?
07:42No, not at all.
07:43469 says if they get ten wins, I'll be happy.
07:45Another 469 says 13-4 easy for the Cowboys.
07:48Not sure what they're on this morning.
07:50940 says if they win nine games next season, it'll be a good season.
07:53And the 9-0-1 says no playoffs for the third straight year.
07:58You remember last year, though, we had a brutal stretch in the middle of the year
08:02that we thought was going to be brutal.
08:04And they started like 2-3-0.
08:05That was the highlight of their year.
08:06Yeah.
08:06They started like 3-0 on it.
08:08Until Detroit.
08:09Right.
08:10Yeah.
08:11But that was the highlight of the season.
08:14All right.
08:14So continue to let us know as we know it's going to be Cowboys-Giants week one
08:20at the Meadowlands.
08:22Some draft fallout, and this kind of connects to college.
08:27Andrew Brandt, last year they said round 6 and 7 got wiped out in terms of quality
08:34because of NIL.
08:36And there's a thought, Joppy, that this year that seeped into rounds 4 through 5.
08:42Because you get guys like Riley Leonard saying, I'm making less money in the National Football League
08:49than I was in college.
08:53Like, the $1.5 million from Riley Leonard at Notre Dame, he said that was overinflated a little bit.
09:01But he said he made more than 10 times at Notre Dame what he was making the previous year at
09:06Duke.
09:06After being drafted by the Colts, his contract was 4 years, 4.4.
09:12Signed a nearly identical deal at 1.1 annually.
09:16Guys are getting that in school.
09:18So rather than come out and roll the dice of a 6th or 7th round pick, like Diego Pavia.
09:24Now, Diego played 14 years, so he had to come out.
09:28But if he had any eligibility left, you absolutely stay at Vanderbilt, make college bank,
09:36versus getting lucky and trying to have lunch with the Baltimore Ravens.
09:39And now they're saying that it's seeping into rounds 4 and 5.
09:43That's why Trinidad Chambliss wanted to come back.
09:45That's why Joey Aguilar wanted to come back.
09:47And the courts ruled that he couldn't because he was going to get $3, $4 million at Ole Miss or
09:52Tennessee,
09:53depending on which quarterback you're talking about,
09:55and they weren't going to get drafted highly enough in the NFL draft.
09:59There's two schools of thought.
10:01Quinn Ewers decided he could have gone back.
10:05He could have gone and played more.
10:07He could have got $4, $6, $8 million.
10:09Yeah.
10:10He could have.
10:11And he decided to start his clock.
10:13So you either start your clock in the NFL, bet on yourself, take $1 million a year,
10:18which is basically what he was going to get, right?
10:20Four years, $4 million.
10:22And start your clock, get the free agency, become the starter and play.
10:25Or it's stay in school and take $4 million.
10:29And, I mean, to me, I'm taking the $4 million, right?
10:35Give me the guaranteed $4 million in the one year,
10:37and then I'll worry about my draft stock next year.
10:40But I understand the thought.
10:41And I think Andrew's got it.
10:43That's a great point.
10:44Because you are going to see a lot of kids.
10:47Just take the money.
10:48And, like, there's less pressure in college.
10:51Yeah.
10:51It's probably more fun.
10:53And if it's not working, I'll just go to another school.
10:55How many?
10:56It has blown me away how many big-time quarterbacks.
11:00You think you're this stud.
11:01You're going to go to your first school that recruits you.
11:03You're staying.
11:04Right.
11:05How many stud quarterbacks on their second and third school?
11:09The Heisman Trophy winner, number one pick.
11:11Right.
11:11He wasn't at his original school, Fernando.
11:14What do you think is more fun as a 20-year-old kid?
11:17Yeah.
11:18Do you think it's more fun to be in Austin, Texas, and Athens, Georgia, and Miami, Florida?
11:24Or do you think it's more fun to be playing for Cincinnati?
11:28As what?
11:29As what?
11:29You're the rock star in your college town.
11:31You're going to start.
11:32You're going to get paid.
11:33You're going to be in school.
11:35You're going to have 20-year-old girls all over the place.
11:38Yep.
11:38Right?
11:38And you're in college, and you're a 21-year-old guy.
11:42Or are you going to want to go play for the Jaguars?
11:46You know, and you're going to make more money.
11:48And hold a clipboard.
11:49And hold a clipboard.
11:50I think it's an easy decision for me.
11:52Below the belt on your Home of the Cowboys, brought to you by Window Nation.
11:56We'll see if Bobby is back tomorrow.
11:59Sean Treve, RJ Chopper.
12:00We got Aiden and Peyton running the Odyssey app.
12:03The Fan Camp Twitch and YouTube.
12:04This is a great point for the 3-2-5.
12:07So if you're an NFL team, would you not trade your mid-round picks for veteran players?
12:11Mm-hmm.
12:14Are you not more likely to do that?
12:15Right.
12:16I think it's fair.
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