00:00Emmett Smith gave his updated outlook on the Cowboys offseason.
00:04Yeah, Emmett is very active now in a lot of these spaces where he's got some partnership or something.
00:11We just talked to him a couple weeks ago about the Narcan stuff that he was doing with opioid overdoses.
00:17And then he's up there on NFL Network.
00:19He's doing some partnership with Peyton Manning right now and Bud Light or something like that.
00:24And so he's out there doing the rounds a little bit.
00:26And he had spoke with USA Today last week, had talked about how he feels like the Cowboys have had
00:33a nice, quiet offseason, which is what they need.
00:35They need quiet. They need a little more quiet around there.
00:37And then he was talking to NFL Network, and he was asked about that quiet offseason.
00:42Emmett, how do you think the Cowboys offseason has gone?
00:44The key is how all these pieces of the puzzle come together as a defensive unit,
00:49because I think the Cowboys needed to upgrade defensively more so than anything else on the team.
00:55Defensive linebacker core, secondary needed to be upgraded.
01:00We did that with the new defensive coordinator.
01:03I think all those things are key elements to leading the Cowboys to having a successful season.
01:12What I mean by that is a winning season that perhaps gets us into the playoff.
01:17If you think about how poorly our defense played last year, we lost games because we couldn't stop people.
01:24We lost games and gave up big drives and continuational drives by making mistakes in the secondary.
01:32Blown coverages.
01:33All that played a significant part in terms of how average our defense was.
01:40And what will happen if we improve from the bottom 30 to somewhere in the top 20, we will win
01:49more games.
01:50Our offense will get more possessions.
01:52We should score more touchdowns.
01:55We got one of the best kickers, if not the best kickers in the game, kicker in the game.
02:00And so all of those things should be part of and are a part of how well we should improve.
02:08I know it's been repeated a bunch, something similar to what he said, which is just the, if they're just
02:15a little bit better, if they're just a little bit better defensively.
02:18And I know there's been a, I think there's some Cowboys fans who are starting to say like, all right,
02:23like this isn't as simple, like they were really bad last year.
02:26Like, like it's not as simple as just like, well, we just need them to get one or two more
02:31stops a game.
02:32Yeah.
02:33I think one or two more stops a game is actually, like if you just look at the fact that
02:37they were getting run through in some of those games, like Green Bay and in the second half against Carolina,
02:45where it's like they're not getting stops at all.
02:47And if you get, like, if you just talk about two stops per game extra, they beat Philly in the
02:53opener.
02:55They beat Green Bay instead of tying with Green Bay.
02:58They beat the Panthers.
03:00They.
03:01Oh, God, I love when you do this.
03:02I'm just, no, I'm just saying.
03:03You always, you're just like, that game would have just totally flipped the result.
03:06One stop in the third quarter.
03:08No, no, no.
03:08I'm saying, if you get two stops where like, instead of them scoring, I'm not saying you get a stop
03:13and they don't just continue.
03:14I'm talking about taking scores off the board.
03:16So if you get two extra stops against Philly where that drive gets off it, because a lot of these
03:21drives where they were allowing stuff, they were allowing third down conversions on almost every scoring drive last year.
03:26Where if they can just get off the field on a few of these, that does flip probably at least
03:31three results.
03:32Maybe not more than that, but at least three.
03:34I was going to take it to their record and their record was seven and nine.
03:41And I think when we're like, oh, defense, just be a little bit better, by the way, that has to
03:45go along with the same offense that you have, which we've talked about a possible step back or Troy had
03:50been saying some of your offensive numbers should be down based upon game circumstances and outcome.
03:56So if you're a little bit better, you're seven and nine becomes ten and seven.
04:04I mean, flipping three games is a lot.
04:07If you're kind of conservative and you're like, all right, that's two wins at least.
04:13If our defense is a little bit better and gets those stops, then you're still kind of talking about nine
04:17and eight, which is not fantastic.
04:19So being a little bit better defensively maybe gets you sealing three more wins, which would be ten and seven.
04:27But I'm kind of thinking, you know, like we're forgetting they were seven and nine.
04:32Yeah, no, there's definitely some of that that's felt like they were like eight and nine or nine and eight
04:37and just missed.
04:38And now the defense will definitely vault them into the postseason.
04:41And I have them winning the East and I am very excited about the upcoming season.
04:46And I'm just trying to be realistic of you were seven and nine.
04:50How many more wins would the number 19 defense?
04:55How many more would that have gotten you?
04:57Yeah, because I think the number 19 defense, you you probably expect to win the four games you lost last
05:06year where you scored 27 points or more.
05:08Yeah, like you expect that.
05:10All right.
05:10We're at least just holding them to 21, 24 or something like that.
05:13They're like we're holding them somewhere in these games where that 30 that we put up against Detroit shouldn't have
05:20had us losing by two touchdowns or 40 at home against Green Bay should have won a game.
05:26Like those are the kind of games that I think you're trying to flip.
05:29But they had 26 against the Vikings.
05:30They lost that 30 against the Lions.
05:32They had 27 against the Panthers and they lost.
05:34Those are the ones that you're hoping to flip.
05:36I also wonder from a Schottenheimer play calling standpoint, if you're calling it and he'll probably say it's no different.
05:43I don't know.
05:44He usually gives us pretty honest answers.
05:46If you're calling a game knowing you have to score every time, how much did that benefit them versus maybe
05:52dialing it back a little bit with a respectable defense to where, you know, now maybe it leads to some
05:59more turnovers because of your aggression.
06:01Aggression, but I'm thinking that that that led to some more points of you felt like you had to match
06:07the other team dropping 40 on.
06:08Yeah, you probably probably feel like, all right, we can play a little bit more conservative here.
06:12We can afford to, you know, if we have to punt here, we have to punt here.
06:15Like you probably play it differently.
06:17Emmett was asked about kind of what you're just talking about, talking about the offense, where they're at, how they
06:22can build on.
06:23And specifically was asked, hey, since you say this team can improve, is this a Super Bowl contender, Emmett Smith?
06:29You know, it's hard to say because we're still in May and we haven't seen the team actually come together.
06:37But on paper wise, it looked like it could turn around fairly quick.
06:42And the one thing that I think people underestimate is the importance of an offensive coordinator and that style that
06:51fits that team and the players that play within that schematic system.
07:00If that comes together, you can see a team that was very poor last year defensively in the bottom 30,
07:09bottom 25, if you will, and then work their way all the way up to like the top 20 in
07:16the top 20 or even in the middle of the pack.
07:18Any of that type of improvement will have our Cowboys competing at a level that make them look like a
07:25championship caliber football team just because of just those little subtle changes.
07:32And most importantly, it's the contribution of an offensive coordinator like Brian Scheinheimer and a new D coordinator that's bringing
07:41those things together and players taking upon themselves and the responsibility of gelling together as a football team.
07:48team, which is what they should be focusing on right now anyway.
07:52And look, the jump is possible defensively.
07:55If you go through history, the Eagles with the largest single season defensive jump.
08:02Well, there's different metrics.
08:03You can go points, you can go yards, you can go PFF.
08:07But the Eagles, 78 fewer yards a game under Fangio.
08:12They went from 26 to first, 23 to 24.
08:16Who else was on that staff?
08:18Christian Meyer.
08:18Oh, Christian Parker.
08:20Denver, 30th to 4th in DVOA.
08:23Again, I'll just give you different metrics.
08:25San Francisco by PFF grades, 2018 to 2019.
08:29They made a leap.
08:31And I think they made a Super Bowl that year.
08:33And then the Jets, they slashed their points per game allowed by 11.
08:38And that was one of the biggest turnarounds in 45 years.
08:41So it can happen.
08:42Yeah, it can happen.
08:43It will happen that they will be better.
08:45Because, I mean, literally, the bar was so low last year.
08:50Like, I know there were times they got stops or there were, you know, times they had 13 points allowed
08:56against the Raiders or whatever it was.
08:58And so you can say, like, oh, well, I mean, they had moments where they were able to get stopped.
09:02So clearly they could allow a score every drive.
09:04Realistically, it cannot be worse than it was last year.
09:07There is no functional way for me to look at the defense coming up in 2026 and to say it
09:14was worse.
09:15It could be exactly the same, I guess, in some small possibility.
09:18But it can't get worse.
09:20It can only get better.
09:21They have all the margins in the world to improve.
09:23The bar has been set so low that improvement, anything looking like, well, that was a little better at least,
09:29is sky's the limit.
09:30Again, we've talked about it.
09:31The most points per drive allowed in the history of the NFL.
09:35They were allowing three points per drive.
09:37On average, over the course of 17 weeks, you were scoring every time against the Cowboys-Deevens.
09:44You were putting a field goal on the board every single drive.
09:47And there's no way that that can be worse.
09:50And so that would be the biggest step is just, all right, let's start with the small improvement and let's
09:55see if we can get to middle of the pack.
09:58Now, Emma was also asked about, hey, you had a pretty famous contract standoff.
10:03And there's another one on the books for the Cowboys right now with George Pickens, even though he signed his
10:09franchise tag.
10:10What advice would you give to George Pickens?
10:12I would say to George Pickens right now, you just ran into the business side of sports.
10:19Period.
10:20There's nothing else but pure business.
10:23Try not to take it personally.
10:25I know you will, because I would take it personally, too.
10:28But if you do, shuttle that energy over into your performance.
10:34Because I think your performance itself is going to speak a lot louder than anything else.
10:39Allow your mood and your focus to be on dominating as a wide receiver.
10:43So you can position yourself for free agency or position yourself to be traded or to give yourself an opportunity
10:52and options and better options for next next year.
10:55And that's a good thing.
10:57And also what it sends, it sends the right message.
11:00It sends the message that you are worthy of the dollars that you want.
11:06It sends a message to the marketplace that you are worthy of not only playing at the professional level, but
11:13you work at it.
11:14You own your craft and you're a great team player.
11:18Anybody or any other 29 or 30 teams will appreciate having a player on their team.
11:26If the Cowboys choose to trade you or you choose to go into free agency, whatever decisions that you make
11:34going forward, it puts you in a better light.
11:37And at the end of that clip, David Mulugeta would stand up and applaud and say, exactly, George, right there.
11:44Because there is going to be a feeling of, you've talked about this before, where, you know, when you've had
11:51contract negotiations in your career and stuff, how it's like, yeah, you don't, you want to feel valued.
11:56You don't, you don't want somebody to just offend you by, by the way that they're operating.
12:01And it's very easy to feel like, okay, they're just not respecting me.
12:03They're not valuing what I do.
12:05And I think David Mulugeta is probably sitting across from George right now and being like, it's very important.
12:11I know it's difficult, but it's very important.
12:13You don't take this personally because you're probably feeling like, well, why, why should I go out there and do
12:19that for them if they're not even going to respect me?
12:21And it's like, not for them, for you, for your next team.
12:25One Boy Scout year, one more, just one more Boy Scout year can get you your generational money.
12:31Yeah, do this for you.
12:32If you, if you were to come into the season with a bad attitude or you had to, the, the,
12:36you were hurting yourself more than you're hurting them.
12:39And, and that's what I think the messaging probably is from his side right now is whether it's here, whether
12:44it's somewhere else, it's critical that you lock in this year and not take it personally.
12:48And I think everything Emmett just said there is probably similar to what David Mulugeta is telling George Pickens.
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