- 15 hours ago
Bobby took us Below the Belt to break down five of the biggest questions we want answered during the second week of the Cowboys OTAs. They discussed player statuses, storylines emerging on the defense, what to expect from the coaching staff, and more.
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00:00This is Below the Belt, sponsored by Window Nation.
00:03We do have Cowboys OTAs availability this week.
00:06Tomorrow, Brian Schottenheimer will speak.
00:08We'll be a lot out there again.
00:10And we always, you know, we get up to OTAs.
00:13It's like, here are the things we're watching over the course of three weeks.
00:15But, and then we'll still watch a lot of those things.
00:17So who, you know, the running back two battle.
00:19What's going on with Guyton and Nate Thomas?
00:21What's happening at the backup quarterback?
00:23Is it still Joe Milton getting the reps?
00:24Like, we'll look at all that stuff that we talked about before.
00:26But once you're out there and you kind of see some things happen,
00:30it opens up some new curiosities or some new questions.
00:35And I've got those now that I want to know the answer to five different things
00:38when I go out there tomorrow.
00:39Number one, and this is the biggest thing that came out of OTAs with the availability.
00:44And it was kind of jarring when you got out there,
00:47which was Jalen Thompson was not practicing and nobody has said he was hurt.
00:50But he was out there with the rehab group the entire time.
00:53In fact, he was asked, shoddy was beforehand.
00:55I'm like, who are we not going to see out there today?
00:58And shoddy goes, well, you won't see easy.
01:02Duran's going to be on the resistance bands.
01:05You know, those are just the two that come to mind for me, I guess, right now.
01:08It's like, oh, so the top guy you got in free agency,
01:11the one you've spent the most,
01:12that's the most money they've ever spent on a player in outside free agency
01:15and annual value.
01:17Yeah, because we're not counting Gary.
01:18And he's supposed to be like starting on defense for you.
01:21Like, he's like one of your big chips.
01:23And you just, I don't think you forgot.
01:25I think you're just like, ah, this will be funny.
01:26I won't tell him.
01:27Then they'll go out there and they'll be confused as to why he's not out there.
01:29So hopefully we find out.
01:30He didn't want to reveal something.
01:32Yeah.
01:32No, but I mean, he knew that as soon as we saw him on the cords, we would ask.
01:35So it was like, oh, cool.
01:36I don't have to answer right now.
01:37I can wait till Tuesday to answer this.
01:38But it'll be interesting to see in the press conference.
01:41First off, what shot he has to say about why was he not out there.
01:45And then the second aspect of it will be, is he doing anything out there?
01:48Or is he just, is he dealing with some sort of surgery?
01:50Or did something happen?
01:51So that was a little bit concerning to go out there and see because it was like, all right,
01:54that's one of the main guys you were hoping to come out here and look at and see what
01:58he was going to contribute or how he was lining up.
02:01All right.
02:01The next one here, number two, things I'm wanting to get answers to when we go out to Cowboys
02:06OTAs tomorrow.
02:07Duran Bland.
02:09So side to the injury.
02:10Last week, shot, he said that we will see progression while we're out there, that he's
02:15not going to be just like, it's not like a concern thing.
02:18It's this is the natural part of ramp up.
02:19Not on the shelf till Oxnard.
02:21Yeah.
02:21And you'll see him do a little bit more as he goes along.
02:24And so it's like, okay, well, then I need to see a little bit more because last year
02:27it was, yeah, Revel will do a little bit more.
02:30He's going to, you're going to see him out there in Oxnard.
02:32Uh, you know, probably next week he'll be right.
02:33And it just, it kept regressing.
02:35And then it was like, okay, this is, this is clearly not a match.
02:38His father give us the real updates on G-Bag.
02:40Yeah, that's all we need.
02:41So we got to get close with Duran Bland's dad.
02:43Um, this was, we actually had played this audio last week, this one clip.
02:48I didn't end up doing the whole thing, Sean, but I did play the one clip of Braylon Tatum,
02:52the Cowboys sports science guy, where he was talking about that the way they come up with
02:56their injury timelines is specifically related to, we measure them like physically, how their
03:03muscles are firing and everything like that.
03:04They're measured at what they were at before they got hurt.
03:07And we have to see them ramp back up to where they were.
03:09If they're below their strength or their muscles are not reacting the right way, then that
03:13is what causes the timeline to change a lot of times.
03:16It's not necessarily a, does Britt Brown think he's ready?
03:19It's more along the lines of, does data say he's not physically even there yet?
03:23Packers had like this automatic team, um, guideline for Micah's injury.
03:30Oh yeah.
03:31The one where he's got to miss minimum, but like for six weeks or whatever, that's it.
03:35Like it's done.
03:36Like it's team policy.
03:37Yeah.
03:37Whereas the chiefs are just like, screw it.
03:39Like throw him back out there.
03:40Like, like we'll throw you back out there.
03:41That's crazy.
03:42If you just posted bond too, like we can do that.
03:44Uh, all right.
03:45Number three on the five things that I am looking forward to finding out tomorrow.
03:50I want to see if, if this was, cause this was the biggest thing that stood out to me
03:54from like a player perspective while we were out there.
03:56We obviously have heard Caleb Downs, man.
03:59He's such a leader and he's so smart and we know all those things.
04:02I did not expect to hear him talking.
04:05Like a lot of times guys are not loud.
04:07They'll joke or whatever, but there's not usually a lot of barking out instructions or direction.
04:13And if it is, it's almost always from a veteran.
04:16And in this instance, it was Caleb Downs was like, Hey, no, no, no.
04:20Step back.
04:21You're supposed to be like, he was very clearly on top of, I'm supposed to be doing this and
04:24everybody else is supposed to be doing this and like when a coach would step away or was
04:28doing something over here, working with another guy, then Caleb was like keeping everybody
04:31on top of things.
04:31That was, I was so bummed a couple of years ago when they didn't take Trayvon Merig out
04:36of TCU.
04:37Uh, he ended up going to the Raiders to pick before them.
04:40And that was the thing that was really cool to watch with him when he was training before
04:43the draft.
04:44They had a Jeremiah Owosu-Koromora who was also working out there.
04:48The guy who ended up with the Browns and he was considered this like hybrid linebacker safety
04:52guy who was a linebacker, but his size was a safety is what they thought he should be.
04:56So he was working out with the DBs and the DB coach was telling everybody, Hey, we're
05:00going to have to start with day one stuff today because JOK just got here and we got to teach
05:04him those steps.
05:05And Merig was like, y'all don't need to fall behind.
05:08I know the drills.
05:10I'll run him through him.
05:10And like Merig took him off to the side and got him all caught up.
05:14And that is what, like, I got that same sort of feeling watching Downs out there where he
05:18was completely comfortable.
05:20It didn't come off in any sort of like a know-it-all way or like your boss and people
05:24around.
05:24It very much came across like, oh, he knows.
05:26Caleb knows.
05:27I'll just listen to whatever Caleb says I need to do, which I thought was really cool.
05:29So I'll be interested to see if I see some more of that.
05:32And the last two things.
05:33And Caleb was on the Amon Ross St.
05:36Brown podcast and he said his mother, she needs to play 20-0, the 82-0 NFL equivalent.
05:45There's another website that has jumped on it to kind of confuse you, by the way.
05:48There's a couple 20-0s.
05:51But his mom apparently needs to play that because she was dogging him over his number.
05:55My mom literally said this to me the other day.
05:57She was like, I've never seen anybody wear 13 and it'd be a good player.
06:01I'm like, well, first off, you're hating.
06:03Second off, you're still going to wear the number because I'm wearing it.
06:06So it doesn't really matter what it is.
06:0813 is not a bad number.
06:09I just feel like it's an offensive number, you know?
06:11Then it'll be on defense.
06:13Dan Marino rolling in his grave.
06:14Yeah.
06:15In fact, I got to look here.
06:16I got to see, okay, I guess Gary Downs never played with Dan Marino.
06:20I was trying to see, like, did your husband play with Dan Marino?
06:22Because that would be hilarious if you said you didn't see him.
06:24But no, Giants.
06:26So I think Kent Graham wore 13 at one point.
06:28So that was probably, she's probably just been exposed to really some awful Giants quarterbacks
06:32is the problem.
06:33Yeah.
06:34But I do like that she's just telling him that straight, like, dude, the 13 sucks.
06:38What are you doing wearing that number?
06:39All right.
06:39Next one here.
06:40The things I'm looking forward to getting answers to at OTAs tomorrow.
06:44Where is Brian Schottenheimer?
06:47So you listened to Shottie's press conference last week, and he was talking about the amount
06:52of time he spends with the defense.
06:54And it sounded like he, one of his priorities, I guess, or one of the things that he wanted
06:59to do was he wanted to make sure he was spending more time over there.
07:01And he wasn't just, like, watching the offense and be like, I coach this side, you coach that
07:05side.
07:06So he had talked about, it sounded like he wanted to be more involved over there.
07:10And when they split up the offense and the defense, they have these, like, bags that
07:14they put on either side of the field.
07:15And the guys just doing warmups to start will, like, jog over the bags or whatever.
07:19And the coaches stand over them, like, come on, come on, get through it quick.
07:22They're just, like, talking them through it and trying to hype them up.
07:25And Schottie spent the entire time through all those drills.
07:28He spent it next to Christian Parker talking to the defense.
07:31And they just had Clayton controlling the offense.
07:33And there were a few different times where Christian Parker would be kind of standing
07:37in the middle of the field.
07:37He doesn't, like, lord over any one position group.
07:40He just kind of likes to stand in the middle and check in with coaches.
07:43Schottie was with him a lot.
07:44And it seemed like with him in a, do you have any questions?
07:47Are there anything, like, about practice schedule you're trying to figure out or anything?
07:50It just seemed like he was there as a sounding board.
07:52So I'll be interested to see if that was just something for Schottie,
07:55wanting to get more comfortable on the defensive side of the ball,
07:57or if he was there just kind of training wheels, essentially.
08:01Let's make sure Christian's comfortable and ready to go.
08:03And then I'll go back over to my side.
08:06And then the final one.
08:07This would have been number one last week.
08:08But it kind of pushes down the list a little bit.
08:11Is George Pickens going to surprise anybody?
08:14I don't believe he will.
08:15Like, he will probably show up next week or whenever it is when they've got the minicamp.
08:20But I'll be interested to see if, for some reason, he would pop up.
08:24Because that was a big thing with Michael last year.
08:26When Michael was doing that holdout, I don't know if people remember,
08:28he put a helmet on and did drills in one of those practices when he was not supposed to.
08:33Or when I think the recommendation was for him not to do that.
08:37Now, Sean, you were last week, one of your big things you wanted to see was Malachi Lawrence,
08:42who I did not really notice last week.
08:44But it's kind of hard to notice in the drills that they're doing.
08:47But we played this audio earlier.
08:48We played some of the audio earlier from Ross Winschey, the Cowboy Scout,
08:52going on Crown Global Media with Brian and Votch.
08:55And this is cut 31, Jacob.
08:58This is Ross Winschey, the Cowboys National Scout,
09:01talking about the process of becoming aware of Malachi Lawrence
09:05and just in general his excitement about him as a player.
09:07You grade all your fall guys or whatever.
09:10And then you open up your assignment list and there's 70, 80 guys you've got to watch.
09:14That's just film.
09:15And so I'm working through.
09:16I usually go by position.
09:18So I'm corners, edges, whatever.
09:20And so I'm working through my edges.
09:21I see this Central Florida guy.
09:23And within a couple plays, I'm like, holy s***.
09:25And so I hit up Eric and CV.
09:29And I'm just like, who is this guy?
09:30He's one that excites you early just because you see the movement ability
09:34and the play style.
09:35And you can tell there's some rawness to him.
09:37But like you said, there's instincts.
09:40It's like the leverage angles, the ability to lean and finish.
09:44And then it's fun to watch with bringing in BT,
09:49it's fun to watch him just talk pass rush.
09:52But Malachi has clicked with him.
09:53And there's just some small, subtle things that he just picks up on
09:57of weight distribution in your stance.
09:59Just something like that where you're just cleaning him up,
10:02making him more efficient.
10:03And it's just small, simple things where he gets and he looks confident.
10:08He's going to be really fun.
10:10That's one of the reasons the Cowboys are so high on his upside is because
10:13they're like, he looks so good without having a lot of the stuff cleaned up
10:18for him yet because he probably just hasn't gotten in with somebody who's
10:20really drilled down on technique and knows how to, like you just said there,
10:23just even stance, his stance to make him more fluid in the way that he rushes
10:27and make him more efficient.
10:30But he's a guy who I think there's just the fact that he mentioned their
10:34instincts, that's so critical.
10:36They drafted Charles Tapper years ago.
10:38Charles Tapper was an athletic freak.
10:39Charles Tapper had a lot of stuff that made you say,
10:41that guy's going to be a great pass rusher.
10:42Cowboys felt like he just had no natural instincts playing football.
10:46When they got it, they were like, damn, he just doesn't have a feel for it.
10:49That is almost a bigger killer if you just don't have natural instincts
10:53than if you're the most unathletic player on the field.
10:56So the fact that they've got a good feel for Malachi Lawrence,
10:59being able to have a sense of how he's supposed to play and what he's
11:01supposed to do and that they think it's just time on task is probably a good
11:06feeling for the kind of upside that he has.
11:08So OTAs tomorrow.
11:09Yep.
11:10Bobby Belt will be there.
11:11Other morning shows in the Metroplex and other shows do not have that same
11:16presence.
11:17He is our Cowboys insider here on Sean and RJ.
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