- 16 hours ago
Shan, RJ, and Bobby took a look at the massive offseason hype surrounding the Cowboys and Giants heading into the 2026 season. They discussed the legitimacy of Christian Parker’s new defense, debated which team is more overhyped, shared their thoughts on John Harbaugh’s arrival in New York, and more.
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00:00We know for sure two Cowboy games locked into the schedule, full schedule release on Thursday,
00:05but it's going to be the Eagles on Thanksgiving and the Giants Sunday night football on September 13th,
00:13or as we may refer to it, the over-hype bowl, Bobby Bell.
00:18Yeah, this is something that I'd seen over the weekend in both instances,
00:25as the Giants and Cowboys notes, that made me pump the brakes a little bit.
00:30Now, look, I want to be clear on something.
00:31Well, we've already gone off the cliff.
00:32You can pump them while you're in the air with the car going into a fiery ravine.
00:37What was that movie where the ladies drive off the cliff?
00:42Thelma and Louise?
00:43Yeah, Thelma and Louise.
00:44That's what it's.
00:45It's that.
00:45So this is something where, and I want to be very careful, because I feel like, you know how in
00:50the past, it's chic.
00:53It's cool.
00:53It earns you brownie points whenever you take a little dig at the Cowboys.
00:59Brownie points with listeners?
01:00Yeah, in general.
01:01People are just like, yeah, that's right.
01:02Digging them.
01:04This offseason, there are certain folks over there, I think, like, you know, Caleb Downs right now is pretty untouchable.
01:11If you criticize Caleb Downs, people are going to be very unhappy.
01:14They're going to turn into Mavs Twitter very fast.
01:16Yeah.
01:16And this is one of those areas where I feel like people are going to get a little testy is
01:22Christian Parker.
01:23Now, I just want to, I want everybody to be prepared and understand, eyes wide open, what is.
01:29He may be awesome.
01:30He may be the chosen one immediately out of the gate, and they may be great.
01:34I just think we need to talk about, all right, are we letting the hype train get out of control
01:39a little bit?
01:40And I was reminded of it from Peter Schrager.
01:42So, Peter Schrager, who's now over at ESPN, yours at Fox, NFL Network, everything else.
01:46Very connected guy.
01:48And this first clip, this is cut 12.
01:50This was from his podcast and the last week where he also tagged, like, eight people when he posted the
01:57clip.
01:57He posted the clip, and then he was tagging, like, RJ Ochoa and Clarence Hill and, like, all these Dallas
02:01Cowboys content creators, which is kind of interesting.
02:05But this is him talking about the Christian Parker difference in Dallas.
02:10Christian Parker, the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, might be the most fascinating person in the NFL this season.
02:19He's 34 years old, an absolute firebrand, like, out of bed, like, energy, energy, energy, beloved by players.
02:27And he comes from the rival Eagles, where he was a defensive back coach.
02:30He's now the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.
02:33And the Cowboys wake up from this nightmare of last season where their offense was high flying, and they traded
02:39Micah Parsons, and they thought maybe they can get by.
02:41And their defense was absolute crap.
02:43And they wake up from this nightmare, like, wait a second, we suddenly have Rashawn Gary.
02:49We suddenly have Malachi Lawrence.
02:51We still have Kenny Clark in the middle.
02:54And, oh, by the way, we spent in free agency a little bit.
02:57And now we've got Caleb Downs and the new defensive coordinator, who, by the way, is going to be a
03:04head coach very soon if they have success on defense.
03:07So first thing that stands out, obviously, is the way that Peter Scherger says coordinator, which is, like, five syllables
03:13somehow.
03:13That was the first thing that stood out to me.
03:15Coordinator.
03:17Coordinator.
03:17And I was like, I think you fit a bunch of extra syllables in there that are unnecessary.
03:22Coordinator.
03:23I'll say this.
03:24I am a big fan of Christian Parker.
03:27I'm a big fan of the hire.
03:28We all sat there and talked to him for, what, 15, 20 minutes or whatever it was, whenever he was
03:33out there at Combine.
03:34Oh, we all did it, yeah.
03:35I think the last word I would pick to describe him is energy.
03:40No.
03:40No, I wouldn't say that.
03:42Like, it's what makes him, allegedly, like, that's what makes him the savant he is, is that people say he
03:47is so zeros and ones about football, and he is so just brainy about it, and there's not a whole
03:54lot of just, like, you don't feel like you've got just the phony hype man.
03:57You feel like you've got somebody who is a scholar of the game.
04:00Now, I think he's got good relationships with guys, but energy, energy, energy, energy, as, like, the leading line on
04:06Christian Parker feels a little excessive.
04:09You know, remember you mentioned the back-to-back Saban texts?
04:13Well, here, same thing here.
04:15Christian Parker gives me D'Amico Ryan vibes.
04:18Okay, pretty awesome, right?
04:19Where is this from?
04:20Just the fan text here.
04:21The very next one, people need to slow down.
04:23He's never been a coordinator.
04:25There's going to be growing pain.
04:27And I think the reality is that, yeah, we're going to come in here one day and be like, man,
04:31that was a, he got that call in late, or that, right, they got 12 men on the field, right?
04:36Rob Ryan was, how many 12 men on the field penalties did we get Rob Ryan, right?
04:40It was chaos, because he's chaos.
04:43Now, Christian's not chaos, but there's going to be growing pains.
04:45There's no doubt about it.
04:46And that's the thing, is that first-time coordinator and your key piece on defense, the guy you are pinning
04:55all your hopes on, is a rookie.
04:56He's a very high IQ, high-level rookie, but he's a rookie.
05:00Those two, like, the most important pieces of, is this defense going to be any better, are two guys who
05:04have never done it at this level.
05:05That is a, that's a risk.
05:07And then they're calculating that it's going to play out in a positive.
05:10I think it will, too.
05:11I think eventually Caleb Downs is going to be an all-pro.
05:13I think eventually Christian Parker's probably going to be a head coach.
05:16But there's a question there.
05:18There's a factor there.
05:18Not for Peter Schrager, who says that not only is he the most interesting man, this Dallas Cowboys team could
05:26be something very special.
05:27Adding Christian Parker, who, again, is just 34 years old, to this team over what they had last year.
05:34And this is nothing against Eberflus.
05:35It sounds like an anti-Matt Eberflus.
05:37It's not.
05:37But with the talent, and with the young energy, and new breath, and new fresh voice, that delta is massive.
05:46And if the defense is somewhat, somewhat serviceable, I'm talking top half of the league, you better believe the Cowboys
05:54are a playoff team.
05:55And you better believe the Cowboys are a Super Bowl contender.
05:59Woo!
06:00Wow.
06:01This is now, like, three or four people we've had in the last couple weeks who have said something to
06:05this effect.
06:05This has become a trendy pick.
06:09Look, are we, I'll speak for myself, guilty of over-hyping Christian Parker and Caleb Downs 1,000 billion percent?
06:22Of course.
06:23Yes.
06:23Yes, Jerry.
06:25Yes.
06:26And I've thought about this a lot.
06:28I'm like, how many people are like, enough, enough?
06:32But I was like, this is part of the fun of it.
06:35It's fun.
06:36Yeah.
06:36It's exciting.
06:37For the first time in a long time, I'm excited to go to Oxnard, California for training camp and wake
06:43up at 2.45.
06:44Where's it 3.45 with our new schedule?
06:46It's 3.20.
06:48Okay.
06:483.20.
06:49I'm excited until Wednesday to wake up at 3.20 every morning and see all the new pieces and the
06:56possibilities.
06:56This is the sports version of kid imagination for me.
07:01But yes, we're absolutely guilty of making Caleb Downs, Ed Reed, and Christian Parker, Monty Kiffin.
07:10We have totally left out, not totally left out, but yes, we have left out the amount of personnel turnover,
07:18the inexperience of him, as the Phanteks pointed out.
07:22And oh, by the way, still personnel issues with lack of pass rush and no linebackers.
07:29But part of the reason for me is because the expectation is so low and they were so freaking terrible.
07:40For me in my mind to just believe that Christian Parker will have them lined up correctly is already an
07:47exciting win because they really literally could not line up last season.
07:52It can't be worse.
07:53I don't think it can be worse.
07:55But the expectation is so low and the unknown is there with all these new pieces.
08:01But yes, I am absolutely guilty of overhyping it.
08:06But it's fun for me right now.
08:07It's fun. I don't care if we're overhyping it or not because we are.
08:10But that's the whole point.
08:13You know, it is low expectations.
08:15I'm a big fan of low expectations.
08:16You know that I thrive off them.
08:19I think that they are the greatest.
08:20It's the greatest cheat code in life is low expectations.
08:25And then surprising people with mediocre talent that you just say is going to be pretty bad, but it's halfway
08:31decent.
08:31Like, is it more likely that Caleb Downs is a bust than a Hall of Famer?
08:36Of course it is.
08:38Because Hall of Famer is such a crazy.
08:40But it doesn't matter.
08:41Yeah, but it doesn't matter.
08:42Like, we're so it's exciting because the possibility that they got somebody that could be a Hall of Famer or
08:51could be a great player is is is intriguing.
08:54It's football.
08:55It's what we love.
08:56It's what we love about it.
08:56Yeah.
08:57And I think that it's and then there's some people are nine, three, six reality.
09:01There are 32 Super Bowl contenders right now.
09:03Live in it.
09:04Enjoy it.
09:04Why not?
09:05Yeah, absolutely.
09:05I'm not saying not to enjoy.
09:06There ain't 32.
09:08I'm pumped.
09:09Yeah.
09:09Yeah.
09:09The Jets are in the league still.
09:11I'm pumped about Christian Parker.
09:13I am pumped about Caleb Downs.
09:14I was chomping on a cigar when they picked Caleb Downs literally while we were in the studio.
09:19So I'm very excited about this.
09:21I would just say.
09:24Let's have a realistic expectation or let's just open ourselves up to the possibility that it's going to take time
09:30to grow into that and then not be because the other thing you don't want is the complete pivot to
09:35the other end after three weeks.
09:36If something's not clicking the right way, there's going to be a process of learning it.
09:40It's going to look at times next year.
09:42They're absolutely going to be days.
09:43We walk in here on Monday and we're doing star up, star down, and we're going star down Christian Parker.
09:49Oh, my gosh.
09:49What the hell were you doing out there?
09:51The inexperience showed yesterday because that's the process of growing into that job.
09:56I'm also excited.
09:57I have hope.
09:59I don't know how legitimate it is, but I have hope that Christian Parker and Brian Schottenheimer are combining for
10:07new voices to kind of change things up in the building.
10:11Yeah.
10:11That Christian Parker and his defensive principles or his – like I said a couple weeks ago, I'm going to
10:22judge Christian Parker's talent evaluation based on Rashawn Gary, based on Durant, based on Jalen Thompson.
10:33I'm viewing – that's you.
10:34So let's see if this guy can evaluate talent and let's see if they're changing up their process there in
10:42Frisco to break this quote-unquote Stephen Jones drought.
10:46So I have hope with that as well.
10:49So that is our overhype.
10:51Yes.
10:52Oh, actually, there's one more.
10:53Jordan Reed, who used to be a coach back in the day with Christian Parker, came up through the coaching
11:01ranks together.
11:02Now he is an ESPN draft analyst.
11:04He went on Crown Global and talked about his friend.
11:07One thing I will say is you guys got somebody that I think is going to be an absolute star.
11:12And you saw it from the moment of his first press conference to now to this day.
11:15The good thing about C.P. is that he's a grinder.
11:17He's been under one of the best minds in NFL history in Big Fangio, so he's going to bring a
11:22little bit of a twist.
11:23That Cowboy fans are not really accustomed to seeing.
11:25He's young and energetic, which is something I think the Cowboys have needed for a very long time as well.
11:30So he's an absolute star.
11:31I'm not being biased just because he's one of my friends.
11:33I'm being honest, straight shooter.
11:35I'm always going to be very blunt.
11:36And one thing about me is that I know who C.P. is as a person, but as a coach,
11:40I think you're getting a phenomenal guy.
11:42So there you go.
11:43Glowing review.
11:44And now you got the hype in New York.
11:47Oh, yeah.
11:48The meatballs.
11:50And you should send this to the meatball text.
11:52Just be like, what do you guys think about this?
11:53Do you think this makes you guys legit studs?
11:55Because I guess I do have a hockey chat name.
11:58It's called the meatballs.
11:59The meatballs.
11:59Oh, no, no, no.
12:00Never mind.
12:00Never mind.
12:01No, no, no.
12:01The one.
12:02The one is in it.
12:02The pink salmon.
12:04Salmon?
12:04Yeah, salmon.
12:05He's a hockey guy?
12:06No, no.
12:06I messed up.
12:07All right.
12:07It wasn't.
12:08I'm sorry.
12:09Meatball Twitter was just salivating about, oh, my gosh, John Harbaugh has reinvented the
12:17wheel.
12:17And why is that?
12:18Art Stapleton reporting out at 0% chance a guy named Art is under 70.
12:26No, we've actually played his audio before.
12:28He's like 50.
12:29Art Stapleton says the biggest change between John Harbaugh's practice compared to Brian
12:33Daybol's, no music, just football sounds.
12:37And they loved it in New York.
12:41It was like a thousand retweets of old Art Stapleton.
12:45Then you had people quote another, the Brian Daybol country club practices are over.
12:50The days of Brian Daybol's cupcake practices are over.
12:53These are all different ones.
12:54The biggest difference between Harbaugh and Daybol is that Harbaugh knows what he's doing
12:58and Daybol didn't have an effing clue.
13:00People just loving it, lapping it all up.
13:02And it is hilarious to me how their hype machine has started to get out of control in New York
13:08for what's supposed to be the blue collar, like no nonsense, New York, like Northeast
13:14fan of like, we hold you accountable.
13:16You're not going to get away with any soft stuff out here.
13:18We're going to ask all the pointed questions.
13:20We're going to go at you.
13:21The number of people just drooling over like Harbaugh's been out of the game for 10 years
13:26and this is his return to the end.
13:27It's like, oh, my gosh, thank God that the savior is back and he's going to implement all
13:31these things here in New York.
13:33It's like, you do know he was in the NFL last season and was fired, basically.
13:39Literally, Bashadi was up there and went, if we made the field goal, would he still be
13:42a great coach?
13:43Till next week.
13:44Yeah, he would have been gone after that.
13:45I mean, how often have we talked about the Ravens being underperforming January team?
13:50Like, it's them and the Bills over the last decade.
13:52Didn't they get rid of all their in-locker room activities this year?
13:56That's what I'm saying.
13:57This is the ping-pong table theory or the ping-pong table effect.
14:01It's the, oh, we're shutting off the music and then it's going to be versus, boy, Shottie's
14:06pumping in the music and listen to this great playlist.
14:09This is culture right here.
14:11But the Harbaugh thing is, that is starting to get out of control.
14:13Like, people talking about him like he hasn't been a historic underperformer over the last
14:17decade.
14:20My God.
14:21If you don't sound like you're on the home of the Cowboys right now.
14:24Mike McCarthy or John Harbaugh.
14:25Why did you have minutes to go?
14:28Go ahead.
14:28Sip on your Diet Coke here.
14:30Coke Zero for a second.
14:31And I'll say it.
14:32I'll be the bad guy.
14:33Give me an endorsement, guys.
14:34I'll be the bad guy.
14:36Which hype, you have to pick which hype is more legit?
14:39The Cowboys.
14:40The New York Giants hype is more legitimate.
14:43Oh, you're crazy.
14:45Only you could sit here and crap on the Baltimore Ravens' success over the years, and I'm talking
14:52to Bobby, a 60% winning percentage over the last five years.
14:55They've covered more crimes than Super Bowls they've won over the last decade.
14:58The Ravens are, the Cowboys would kill to be the Ravens.
15:01They'd kill to be the Ravens.
15:03I don't care about Jerry's six, whatever number he comes up with over the amount of wins over
15:08the years.
15:09So you're not going to win an argument with me trying to crap on what the Ravens have
15:13been, and the Giants have been such a mess that John Harbaugh going in there, I think
15:19that they're hype.
15:20I'm not saying they're going to have a better season.
15:22I'm not saying they're having a better season.
15:24I'm talking about moving forward.
15:26I think they have an adult finally in the room.
15:29Well, they do have an adult in the room.
15:30They do have direction.
15:32And the New York Giant John Harbaugh hype is more legit right now, I think, than the Christian
15:39Parker hype.
15:40I need my sticky note, just like with Lane Kiffin.
15:42And I got it because I got two.
15:43I got to throw up there.
15:44And what are you going to write?
15:45John Harbaugh doesn't win 10 games a single year with the Giants.
15:48Oh!
15:49Oh, baby.
15:49I like the hot takes.
15:51I think that's, I do think that's more likely.
15:54Love it.
15:54Than he does win 10.
15:57I think it's more likely he never wins 10 than he does win 10 there.
15:59Just because they still have an unknown quarterback.
16:03You have an unknown head coach in terms of, if you want to talk about him running an entire
16:07program, he has never done this.
16:09This is his first time doing it, just like it's Christian Parker's first time running
16:12a defense.
16:12He's never been in charge of an entire roster.
16:14But I do love what they do.
16:15I'd rather him do it than what they've had.
16:17Sure, but I'm just saying, I'm asking less, I'm asking less of Christian Parker to use
16:23his talents and his abilities to do that job than I'm asking of John Harbaugh, who's never
16:27shown that he can do it.
16:28He's just never done it.
16:29He's got to do everything.
16:30You're asking him to be in charge of the whole core of your roster.
16:32Yeah.
16:33All right.
16:33So hot takes.
16:34Write it on the wall.
16:35More over hype.
16:36Which hype is more legit?
16:38Franco LaFranco fan text 877-881-1053.
16:41For the two to start off the season, Sunday Night Football, September 13th, Bobby there
16:47in the Meadowlands.
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