00:00The Cowboys have scaled their most impossible mountain.
00:04No, not winning a Super Bowl.
00:05They're finally better than the 49ers, according to one person.
00:09We'll talk about it here in Below the Belt, which is sponsored by Window Nation.
00:14Before we go into these rankings from the ringer, which are very high,
00:20exceedingly high on the Dallas Cowboys, more so than we talked about, I think,
00:23last week where ESPN had them like 14, and that was higher than anybody had had them.
00:27This one goes even further.
00:29But before we get into that, Jordan Lewis, who is way up high on the list of my favorite guys
00:36that have ever come through that locker room, just being a pro and being easy to deal with
00:42and never running from anything and willing to stand up there and call it like it is.
00:48There was the whole issue in, I think it was 24, where they were asking him,
00:52what's going on with the defense?
00:53Why isn't this working out?
00:54Do you guys just need more time on task?
00:55And he's like, no, he's like, we're just, we're not detailed enough.
00:59And then I remember somebody said, how long does that take to fix?
01:02He goes, I don't know.
01:03That's always been a problem.
01:04Oh, and he's, he's very direct.
01:05He does not, he does not beat around the bush.
01:08I was, I thought it was a bummer when he left.
01:10I understood it.
01:11They didn't want to pay up to what Jacksonville was willing to give him,
01:14but he ended up having a really good year for the Jaguars and kind of pushed back against
01:20this notion that smaller, older player who's had some injuries that he's not going to be
01:26able to do it anymore.
01:27Him and Demarcus Lawrence both.
01:28In fact, it was Jordan Lewis who Jerry kind of singled out as being, yeah, maybe we shouldn't
01:33have let that nickel go.
01:34He ended up having some good success.
01:35And then obviously they prioritize Caleb Downs.
01:37Well, Jordan Lewis was on a podcast called Just Earn It.
01:43And typically when somebody leaves Dallas, what do we hear?
01:46Even our, even our buddy Dalton Schultz from the Superbowl, you'll, you'll hear about, man,
01:51it's just different over here.
01:52So much better.
01:53Circus.
01:53It's, it's always some sort of slight to how things are done here in Dallas.
01:58Then you've always got the, the one or two players who are, who are rare exceptions who
02:02will tell you how much they embraced it and loved it.
02:06And Jordan Lewis could not say enough nice things about his time with the Dallas Cowboys
02:11in this podcast.
02:12The Cowboys, it was, I loved it.
02:15You know, I loved every second of being a Cowboy, you know, the good and the bad, you
02:18know, um, that's something that I thrived in, you know, I just thrive, thrived in, you
02:22know, people saying we weren't going to be this good.
02:24We weren't going to be that.
02:25And, you know, he's not that good, but I knew the type of people that I had around me,
02:28the type of teammates that I had and I loved them, you know, like Dak, man, I, I, I love
02:33that.
02:34I love the type of leader he is.
02:35I love the type of player he is.
02:37I mean, he's gone through so much and he fights back every single time.
02:41So I'm like, man, I believe in a quarterback and you need that in the NFL.
02:45You have to believe in a quarterback.
02:47That's, that's like number one, I have to believe in a quarterback and I believed in
02:50him and I believed in, you know, the support staff.
02:52And I had a really good rapport with the support staff.
02:57Like, like Britt Brown, he's one of the guys that helped me when I had an injury, a real
03:01bad injury.
03:02My list, my first list, Frank, he's the one that pushed me through doing that.
03:06And, you know, coach Harold and coach Warsig, a legendary weights and strength and conditioning
03:12coach that taught me how to, you know, Olympic lift.
03:15I didn't know how to Olympic lift until I got into the NFL.
03:17So, wow, exactly.
03:18So that list of snatches and snatches, yes, snatches, hang cleans and stuff like that.
03:23He taught me, he taught me in the NFL.
03:25Why did you need that to do the Olympic lifts?
03:27So it, it, it, it teaches you how to be explosive and it gets your, you know, posterior chain in
03:34to where it's all in sync to where you can be explosive and it translates to the field
03:39to be a better athlete.
03:41Yeah.
03:41And driving through tackles, you know, bursting your first burst.
03:44So I saw myself getting faster in the NFL and I just believed in the program that they
03:50had.
03:51And I am stunned that they didn't Olympic lift in Michigan.
03:55Like Parcells brought that here.
03:57Dude, there's so, there's so many people who will tell you no matter how high quality the
04:03program is or whatever else, when guys get to the NFL, the, the conditioning program is
04:08just different and they, they tap into something new.
04:10They just don't have the same resources, no matter how much money's flowing through that.
04:13They just don't commit the same resources to it.
04:15I mean, those strike coaches in college make a lot of money.
04:17Yeah.
04:18And you know, you mentioned how like players say it's just different in Dallas.
04:22I bet you they say it's just different in Jacksonville too.
04:24That seems like the smallest town, smallest stadium.
04:28They're playing in Orlando this year for crying out loud.
04:30I'm not even playing in Jacksonville because they're refurbing the stadium.
04:34Oh.
04:34With the Citrus Bowl.
04:35You got to play, you know, three games in London.
04:37Damn.
04:38Damn, if they're actually going to play the Jaguars on the road this year, I would go
04:40to that game.
04:41I would get, I would get the flu quote unquote, if it was in Jacksonville again.
04:46No, but it's, we've seen the NFL PA report cards and different things like that.
04:51And they usually are.
04:52That was the thing that stood out to me most other than obviously the effusive praise for
04:55Dak Prescott.
04:56But the thing that stood out to me the most was we hear so much criticism, those report
05:01cards or whatever else about, well, I don't know how much I love the sports staff.
05:05I don't know how much I love the program and what they're doing.
05:08I think that's where things get missed because Kevin Smith, who former Texas A&M legend, Texas
05:15high school football legend played for the Cowboys for a number of years at corner.
05:19He had talked about, we were doing Cowboys crosstalk and he had said that he was talking specifically
05:24about Britt Brown, who he worked back from his Achilles injury with.
05:28And he had said that, you know, I, Britt, I would trust completely with my life.
05:33And he said, and look, he stopped and he goes, I know there's some people who, who don't work
05:39well with Britt.
05:40And he said, then that tells me if you're tough or not, because he goes, he's just, he's
05:45going to push you.
05:46He's going to be there for you as long as you're willing to put in the work.
05:49And I think when you, you see the guys who just, I think it's the, it's the
05:54difference between those who like Dallas and those who don't in terms of the, the support
05:58staff and the program that they've got in place of how conditioning weights, everything
06:02else.
06:03I think a lot of it comes down to who likes a little bit more of kind of the old
06:08school,
06:09like aggressive, like pick it up.
06:12Like, like, like, like do some of my, Britt to me is kind of like the Troy Aikman of trainers.
06:16He's not going to sugarcoat it.
06:17He's not going to sugarcoat it.
06:19But, um, Trayvon Diggs and Britt, like if you, if you're all about it and business
06:27one, two, three, I think you get along great with, uh, with Britt Brown.
06:31Dak loves him.
06:31Dak is an aggressive worker.
06:33DeMarvin Overshone loves him.
06:34DeMarvin Overshone works really, really hard in his rehab.
06:36And that's Jordan Lewis talking about some of those things.
06:38Now he went on to say, he was like, well, how did, how did he come to me?
06:41He's like, look, I, during my career, I saw a lot of guys that got cycled out of here
06:45that were older than me.
06:46And so he's like, I know it's the NFL.
06:48I knew my day was coming.
06:49And he's like, it just reached the point where, you know, he's like, I think some stuff got
06:51lost in communication, but ultimately it was like, okay, like, it's just my time to go.
06:55And it's, it's my time out the door.
06:56Enjoyed it.
06:57And I'm off now.
06:58So not bitter at all.
06:59It's still a, a big fan of it.
07:01And I think that makeup right there is what will McClay and the Cowboys personnel department
07:06always looks for in the draft is the, who loves it here.
07:09Even the bad stuff, because Jordan Lewis just said it there.
07:12He loved the bad part of it.
07:14Like he loved, he loved all the intensity that comes with it.
07:16I think Ferguson fits that category.
07:18Yeah.
07:19Ferguson, a hundred percent.
07:20Ferg has, has talked about that.
07:21How, you know, he told us, he said, uh, the name on the front of my Jersey is going to
07:25take care of the name on the back of my Jersey.
07:26Like, like, that's, that's what it means to be a cowboy.
07:29Uh, I always get frustrated when I, when I see or listen to Jordan Lewis's, I'm like, why
07:36can't you just get like four or five of them on one team?
07:40Yeah.
07:40Are they that rare?
07:41Like what happens if I get, you know, three Bobby Wagners?
07:46Like those, I wonder what teams in history, I don't care what sport it is, have, have had
07:50the most of those, uh, those dudes.
07:52I think a lot of times those are the teams that I know there's always this debate about
07:56culture versus talent and stuff like that.
07:58But I think a lot of times, like when you think back on those teams that do have several
08:02big time culture individuals, a lot of times those are the more successful teams in the
08:05NFL.
08:05And that may just be winning cures all.
08:08And so they, they, they embrace the culture that way, or it may be, that's what drives
08:12them to winning.
08:13It's, it's kind of a chicken or the egg thing.
08:15Um, over at the ringer, Deontay Lee has his NFL power rankings up.
08:21This is the time of year where everybody's going to cycle through there.
08:23So the ringers put theirs up finally, and boy, it looks good for the Dallas Cowboys.
08:28If you buy into Deontay Lee, this is the top 10, the Rams, Seahawks, Broncos, Bills, Texans,
08:34Eagles, Lions, Patriots, Ravens, and then the Packers round up the top 10 and then coming
08:41in at number 11, by far the highest mark they've had in any of these like national outlet power
08:46rankings I've seen are the Dallas Cowboys.
08:48He says the Cowboys offense has a chance to be the league's best.
08:51And that alone is enough to make Dallas a playoff threat, but teams with powerful offenses
08:55like San Francisco and Cincinnati have struggled to make the leap in recent years because of
08:58injuries or roster weaknesses on the other side of the ball.
09:01So Dallas's hope depends on how the defensive changes work out.
09:04New coordinator Christian Parker is a Vic Fangio disciple, and his scheme will be designed
09:08around limiting explosive plays.
09:10To make it work, Parker will need to get solid, if not elite, play out of new defensive back
09:14Caleb Downs, Jalen Thompson, and Kobe Durant.
09:17If the front seven takes a legitimate step forward and can support what should be a top 10 offense,
09:21I won't look so silly for believing in the Cowboys.
09:23But that means directly behind the Dallas Cowboys are the following teams in Deontay Lee's rankings
09:28right now, the Chicago Bears, the San Francisco 49ers, who were a 12-13 win team last year,
09:34the Jacksonville Jaguars, who were the hottest team in the NFL essentially down the stretch,
09:3815, the Kansas City Chiefs, who everybody has embraced as still like, they're going to keep doing it,
09:4416, the Los Angeles Chargers.
09:46So you've got several playoff teams that right now people are buying into and saying Dallas is right there
09:52with them, and I can't pinpoint why.
09:58What do you mean you can't pinpoint why?
10:00So everybody always wants...
10:01Everyone has always said, offense is fine, if you can get the defense to near average,
10:06you can be a contender.
10:07And all this off-season hype is about the defense improving.
10:11I feel like Caleb Downs changed all this.
10:14Do you think it's Downs as the biggest driver?
10:16It's Downs and Parker.
10:17Yeah.
10:17But Parker's so fascinated me that somebody who they didn't know his name a few months ago,
10:21all of a sudden everybody has bought in on the national push with him.
10:24I think it's Downs.
10:24And he's never called a play.
10:26Yeah.
10:27Well, Bobby's up there in terms of the blame for the Christian Parker hype,
10:35or it can end up being brilliant credit that he ends up getting.
10:39I mean, it's usually brilliant, is what I would say.
10:43I think the Caleb Downs thing, it changed everything for me in terms of my excitement for Oxnard.
10:50I have far less problem with the Cowboys being ahead of all those teams, Bears, Niners, whatever, Jacksonville,
10:59than I do with New England being ahead of any of them.
11:03The fact that New England is eight, it's, they are...
11:08You're saying they're being disrespected.
11:10No.
11:11They're going to, I mean, they're going to miss the playoffs.
11:14Oh!
11:15I forget, what were all the things I said?
11:17I got to get a sticky pad in here, because we keep forgetting to put takes up there.
11:21You don't have a sticky pad?
11:22No, I need to get one out of the mailroom and I'll get it.
11:24Please expound.
11:26Well, they have a brutal schedule.
11:28They're going to lose...
11:30Vegas hates them, that's what it is.
11:32No, Vegas has them as a ten and a half win team.
11:35My lock of the year is the Patriots under.
11:37Lock of the year.
11:40They're ten and a half wins on their over-under.
11:43They're going to have eight losses by the first week of December.
11:46Oh!
11:46If you go look at their schedule, I mean, they start at Seattle.
11:49We just watched that game.
11:51All right, then they get Pitt, they win.
11:52Road games at Jacksonville, at Buffalo, loss-loss.
11:55Four-game stretch at Chicago, home to Green Bay, home to Detroit.
11:59They're going to lose all three.
12:00Mid-November, they're at six losses.
12:02This is the easiest bet of the year.
12:04Well, you are banking on Drake May just not being for real.
12:07I like Drake May.
12:09Their coach is in shambles.
12:13He's in lots of stuff.
12:14He's in shambles.
12:16I'm not convinced.
12:17He's going to be the coach come week one.
12:19And the schedule is so difficult.
12:21And I still don't...
12:22I'm still not impressed with their weapons.
12:24Yeah, I mean, and you just like...
12:25Pre-A.J. Brown.
12:27Would we assume A.J. Brown is going to be there in a week?
12:29A.J.
12:29You know, teams that lose the Super Bowl historically have a pretty big letdown the next year.
12:34I love it.
12:35The hot take, NFC take from Choppy over on the Vikings under on the defending AFC champs.
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