- 16 hours ago
Shan, RJ, and Bobby went Inside the Star to unpack the latest Cowboys storylines, starting out with rookie Caleb Downs' reported interest in special teams. They discussed whether Patrick Mahomes' massive new contract extension finally takes some heat off of Dak, and more.
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00:00We'll talk about the deal that maybe gets a little bit of heat off of Dak Prescott
00:05after we talk about Caleb Downs consulting with Kevontae Turpin about special teams work.
00:12And yeah, Caleb Downs, he is always looking to expand his football knowledge,
00:16and he's turning to Kevontae Turpin.
00:18Now, I know that may cause some people to go, oh, no, that's concerning,
00:22because they saw, obviously, that sometimes the football IQ is not always there
00:27with Kevontae Turpin, specifically with fair catches.
00:29But Caleb Downs has done punt returns in the past in college.
00:34He is actually electric back there, as much as he's not like a big-time speed athlete.
00:38If you watch him return punts in college, he's got something.
00:42But he's been doing different work, like personal protector on punt coverage.
00:46He's obviously working the defensive stuff.
00:48And he was talking about all the different veterans that he's been able to talk to
00:51while he's been doing OTAs and kind of pick their brains on.
00:54And he said one of the examples, he said,
00:56It's a tremendous blessing for me to be able to speed up my growth,
00:59playing against high-level talent, different types of receivers,
01:01playing against different types of players.
01:02He said, I say learn from guys.
01:04There's nobody to better learn from in special teams than Turpin.
01:07He said, it's great to be able to speak to him about punt return and everything.
01:10It's something that I've done.
01:11And when I've done it, I've done it at a high level.
01:13So I think it's a good thing for me to do.
01:16And he said he's just learning both as we go, talking about safety and nickel,
01:19and he's making plays at either one.
01:20So he said he's been talking a lot to Kevontae Turpin and trying to figure out,
01:24all right, how do you see this?
01:26What do you do here?
01:26How am I supposed to do this?
01:27And so this is, again, the let's learn everything I can
01:31and just cultivate all that knowledge as best I can.
01:34A couple of thoughts.
01:35Number one, we usually do this worry topic if it's a wide receiver.
01:39And you're like, I don't want to get him hurt.
01:40I don't want to damage him, you know.
01:43Fine.
01:44If Caleb Downs is this dynamic, amazing returner,
01:47you want to throw him back there, here and there, okay.
01:49But my follow-up to that is if Kevontae Turpin is not returning every single kick for me
01:55or a ton of them, then Kevontae Turpin has no use for me.
02:00Well, Turpin thinks he's a Pro Bowl receiver, so.
02:02No use.
02:03No use.
02:04And because every time he seems to me like he does the fake fair catch an awful lot anyway.
02:09But, so, question.
02:12Are punts returned at a higher rate now than they used to be?
02:18No.
02:19So, it's much less?
02:21Yes.
02:22Okay.
02:22Turpin returned, I think, like nine last year.
02:24Okay, so that's nine car crashes.
02:26That's better than 20, but still, you're asking somebody who you hope is available for 17 weeks.
02:34Yeah, I mean, this hasn't come up, like, with a big-time player, I don't think,
02:38since I've been on the show, so I don't know if I've ever said it.
02:40I mean, Dez.
02:41No, since I've been on the show.
02:42Oh, yeah, yeah.
02:42So, I don't know if it's to say that, but, like, I am all for throw whoever's electric back there.
02:47I didn't care if it was Dez.
02:48I didn't care who it was.
02:49If they can score on any play, let them do it.
02:51And that's the thing.
02:52You know, like, if Deion Sanders came into the league today,
02:59This NFL wouldn't let him be Deion Sanders, which is ridiculous.
03:04And that sucks, and you lose that.
03:06Now, it's give and take.
03:07You know, the give is obviously you're going to get him more or lose him if he gets hurt.
03:14Or he loses a toe.
03:15Right, or he, jeez.
03:17But it's, you know, I love the idea of the electric guy back there.
03:22I understand the risk, and it's probably not worth it.
03:27Probably not.
03:28But some of the greatest moments we have in the history of this sport are guys doing special things.
03:36You know, and Deion Sanders doing special things.
03:39That GIF is still used.
03:41The Deion where he's...
03:42The GIF, too.
03:43Well, we call it GIF.
03:44No, we don't.
03:44Sean and I call it GIF.
03:46But, you know, where he's kind of doing...
03:48It was in Philadelphia, right?
03:49Where he's kind of dancing back there.
03:50Yeah.
03:51I mean, it's still being used all the time.
03:53Speaking of injured receivers, after a lot of pessimism,
03:59John Harbaugh is now trying to ratchet up Malik Nabors playing the opener against us.
04:05As Harbaugh said, hopeful that Malik will be back soon.
04:09Tours ACL in week four.
04:12Required a full meniscus repair.
04:14He needed an additional cleanup procedure as well.
04:18Did not obviously take part in their mandatory minicamp.
04:21And then there was video of him running in one of those charity softball games.
04:26And it did not look pretty.
04:28It did not look pretty.
04:29But here's John Harbaugh and the rest of the New York Giants saying,
04:34Hey, feeling a little bit better about it.
04:36He's grinding.
04:37Yeah.
04:38I feel better about it so much so that we signed three veteran receivers on June 1st.
04:41The second we could.
04:42Guys who appear washed.
04:43We're doing anything we can to throw darts at the board.
04:45Yep.
04:45Barrios, Juju, Odell.
04:49I mean, they already had Darius Slayton there, who's still playing.
04:52Since 2022, I think is the number we found, Tom Brady has played more games in the NFL than Odell
04:58Beckham.
04:58So that's who you signed to be part of your team.
05:01So is Dak Prescott finally off the hook?
05:05It appears that way because...
05:08He's always been off the hook.
05:09Number 15.
05:10Off the chain?
05:11Yeah, that one too.
05:12Right.
05:14Patrick Mahomes has signed the NFL's first $500 million contract.
05:24Shefty had this.
05:25Ian Rappaport had this.
05:26First one to sign a half-billion-dollar deal.
05:29So $504.75 million, to be exact.
05:32It'll pay him an APY of $64 million.
05:36There it is.
05:37There it is.
05:38Finally.
05:38It only took, it seems like, half a decade.
05:42It seems like Dak signed his contract five years ago.
05:45I know it wasn't.
05:45But it feels like that.
05:47And finally, Dak Prescott.
05:49No longer do we have to hear about, oh, highest-paid quarterback can't win a game.
05:52Hey, the $60 million man can't win a game.
05:55You don't have to hear about that anymore.
05:56Oh, you still will.
05:58You'll still hear the $60 million man.
06:00Yeah, but the Cowboys deserve some heat on that.
06:03That took so long.
06:04And it's fair to sit there and make fun of Dak for making $60 million with his lack of
06:08playoff success.
06:09Even though that is the way that the National Football League works, the Cowboys just leapfrogged
06:14it by a little bit too much.
06:15Yeah, and now obviously this, I assume, will help his $85 million cap hit Mahomes that
06:20you said he had a couple years from now.
06:21Oh, yeah.
06:22That's why they did it in large part is because you've got to be able to play with the numbers,
06:28do accounting tricks, whatever else.
06:29But no, it's the constant.
06:32You need to sign market-setting deals.
06:34It's a problem when you sign the market correction.
06:36And they've signed the market correction twice now in 10 years.
06:38They did it with Zeke.
06:38They did it with Dak.
06:41I support them doing it, but Patrick Mahomes has rapidly lost pace in his GOAT pursuit.
06:49Oh, yeah.
06:50Rapidly.
06:51I was just going to ask you.
06:51I was like, are you at all concerned if you're like...
06:55I'm not concerned.
06:56I'm just talking about his legacy.
06:58What, you're talking about because of the injury?
07:01Well, I mean, the injury's part of it, but also like...
07:03Or their lack of success.
07:04He hasn't been elite, like electric the last two, three years.
07:10Yeah.
07:11I know they were the Super Bowl, one of them.
07:12He is in the last three years.
07:14His average season is 25 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 7 yards per attempt, which is not very impressive.
07:20He's throwing some picks.
07:21He was not getting the same kind of...
07:23I mean...
07:24He's still great.
07:25I'm not saying he's not, but...
07:26Yeah, but the picks to me, wasn't the concern with him coming out being a little bit reckless, Bobby,
07:31in terms of throwing it all over the place?
07:33That's true, right?
07:34Reckless, and they didn't know how he was as like a guy who saw the field because Texas Tech didn't
07:39ask you to make reads.
07:40Yeah.
07:40So, that's not what's been haunting that offense to me.
07:45To me, it's been the total opposite and being way too conservative.
07:49The picks have only been at about 11 a season.
07:52So, it's not a reckless Brett Favre type.
07:55It is check down, Charlie.
07:58Lack of Tyree kill explosion.
07:59A boring offense, which is only part of the reason that I'm going after Andy Reid as my new coaching
08:06mission,
08:06along with his Rasheed Rice t-shirt.
08:08His first five seasons, he averaged 8.1 yards per attempt.
08:11So, we're talking about the last three years, he has downed more than a yard per attempt, which is a
08:15ton in the NFL.
08:17He threw for 4,000 yards or more in his second year all the way up until 2023.
08:24And the last two seasons, he's not cracked 4K.
08:28He's not cracked 4,000 yards.
08:30No, and his QBR is, like, the last three years has been generally below where it's been every other year.
08:34Like, he is, there's, again, it's a little bit of this Crimson Tide effect.
08:39Like, I don't know.
08:40There's got to be some sort of name for it.
08:41But this idea of, like, what was great and then people.
08:44CTE.
08:44Crimson Tide effect.
08:45Yeah, there you go.
08:46Ah, see, perfect.
08:47It is.
08:47It's CTE.
08:48That's the perfect, like, analogy of whenever there's just this obsession and somebody's been so good for so long
08:56that it's almost like, I can't believe they're dead yet.
08:59I can't believe they're, I just can't believe they're not that good yet.
09:02But people kind of, it feels like, have finally kind of gotten there a little bit with Alabama.
09:06I kind of do that with Sam Fran, you know?
09:08I'm like, they're just going to be there.
09:10Yeah, and so that's happened a little bit with Alabama.
09:13Kansas City still needs that reckoning.
09:16People still don't want to talk about them that way.
09:17They had Mahomes last year for most of the season.
09:19He went 6-8 with Mahomes there.
09:22And they're going to, still, there's everybody this year that wants to talk about, like,
09:25yeah, they're a top five team.
09:26Really?
09:27Why?
09:28What tells you?
09:29Even the year they went 15-1.
09:30I know they were 16-1 or whatever it was.
09:32I know they went that.
09:32That was not a team that was anywhere close to what that record said they were.
09:35They won, like, half a dozen games that year that were games they had no business winning
09:41at the very end.
09:44Some of that, sorry, some of that is, you know, like, obviously there's luck that gets thrown
09:48in there, but also knowing how to win.
09:51No, this was not knowing how to win.
09:52This was Denver shanking a 25-yard field goal at the end.
09:56This was a BS pass interference call on Cincinnati that put them in field goal range.
10:00It was the Raiders fumbling like a snap.
10:04A lot of that was not knowing how to win.
10:05Those were, like, legitimately shoot-yourself-in-the-foot losses that other teams had.
10:10877-881-1053.
10:12Don't get me wrong.
10:12They still have to do it.
10:14You know, Mahomes is, like, the perfect model as the face of your franchise, which Dan Hunt
10:18will probably tell us at 820 this morning.
10:22I'm just talking about his update in the GOAT pursuit because he is trailing.
10:27He's not leading.
10:28He is trailing with the way the last few years.
10:31Where is he?
10:34Well, he's definitely behind Tom.
10:36Yep.
10:38And then I think you can get into your Montana, Manning, Pat.
10:47Who else am I missing?
10:49I think he's definitely outside the top three, and that's when his name comes in.
10:52I think he's outside Montana, Manning, Brady.
10:53And then I think that's where Pat's name can start coming up.
10:56But right now, I wouldn't say he's had a better career.
10:59Well, I don't know, because the titles matter.
11:00Like, as just a player, though, Rodgers had a better run.
11:03Like, right now, Rodgers, through this point of his career, had a better run in terms of
11:06just personal play.
11:09Man, Rodgers' one title is going to leave him because he's going to get forgotten.
11:12That's the biggest problem with him.
11:14Because he was so...
11:15You can make a case that Rodgers was more talented than Brady and Manning.
11:22Well, it's not a case.
11:23Like, he is more talented.
11:24Rodgers is the most natural, like, I think maybe the most natural thrower I've ever seen.
11:29Like, he's so...
11:30How cool is that?
11:30He's so...
11:31Like, it's just...
11:32It was like he was born to do that.
11:34Yeah, superior arm strength and mobility to Manning and Brady, for sure.
11:38It's not even close.
11:40But...
11:41Well, strength in Manning?
11:42Manning had a big arm.
11:44No, he didn't have a big arm to Aaron Rodgers.
11:47I mean, Aaron Rodgers.
11:48That damn thing with zip.
11:50Manning's problem was he...
11:51I mean, he didn't throw spirals a lot.
11:53The ball didn't fly through the air.
11:55Usually in the playoffs against the Patriots.
11:57But this argument's for you because you crowned Mahomes.
12:00So you got to step up here.
12:02I love Pat.
12:04And either defend or take some accountability.
12:07What's up?
12:08I love Pat.
12:08And where's he in the race now after you crowned him?
12:11Well, I mean, he has taken a step back.
12:13But, you know, Tom did go 10 years between Super Bowls.
12:18That's stunning.
12:20I mean, think about that.
12:22He went 0-4.
12:23And then he didn't win again until 2014.
12:26They made the argument for you.
12:27If you split up Tom Brady's career into two careers...
12:30Two Hall of Famers.
12:30It's two Hall of Famers.
12:31Yeah, it's two Hall of Fame careers.
12:32And then a middle part where it was like, still Hall of Fame, but more like a Marino type Hall
12:43of Fame where he went to a Super Bowl but didn't win.
12:45Right?
12:45That was the middle career.
12:46So Tom had the 10-year gap.
12:49So there's obviously still plenty of time for Pat.
12:51But it's definitely stalled.
12:53He's in a holding pattern right now.
12:55I can get him ahead of all those guys.
13:00I mean, I can make the argument he's ahead of Peyton and Joe, but not yet.
13:05All right, we got a concert ticket giveaway coming up.
13:07Neighborhood Watch at 740.
13:10And Dan Hunt to get you ready for the launch of the World Cup in studio at 820 to talk
13:16about pheasants.
13:17But we'll finish up, Bobby.
13:18I thought you made an interesting point about Brandon Ayuk maybe hurting your case if you're David Muligeta.
13:25Yeah, if you're George Pickens and you're David Muligeta, you just want Brandon Ayuk to shut up right now.
13:30Because Brandon Ayuk has become the poster boy for should we have paid that wide receiver?
13:37Should we have paid that guy?
13:38He has been going off.
13:40This is like three days in a row he's had some social media post where he is actively antagonizing the
13:45San Francisco 49ers.
13:46Who, they've had this awkward standoff with him where they want to void money.
13:50They don't want to have him.
13:52They don't want to release him yet.
13:53They don't want to give him the opportunity to go find another gig.
13:55But this has gone downhill so fast.
13:57And I still don't remember where this started.
13:59Like, you remember it was just weird.
14:00At first it was the shorts thing.
14:02Like, that was the first inkling of, like, something was just weird.
14:04Where Shanahan didn't want him wearing shorts.
14:06And Ayuk was mad and wouldn't show up to practice for it.
14:09Well, Ayuk posted a video on Tuesday on Instagram.
14:10He called the 49ers stupid.
14:13That was after Sunday in which he called them little-ass boys who need to stop running from the bill.
14:18And he said, do you know why they're really mad?
14:20They're mad because they're stupid.
14:21They're dumb.
14:22They're mad they paid me $50 million in eight months and then voided my guarantees for $27 million.
14:26And I'm about to be on a new team in 2027.
14:29So you're actively, like, laughing at how dumb they were to pay you.
14:32Yeah, and you lost a lot of money when you didn't even challenge them voiding it.
14:37So it's not a full laughter towards San Fran.
14:40You lost, I think he may have lost 24 mil.
14:43Yeah.
14:43Teams wondered if...
14:44Well, that's pretty stupid on your part.
14:46Teams wondered if Brandon Ayuk should be paid.
14:49Like, there were questions about Ayuk.
14:51But they weren't even at the level of Pickens, like, where Pickens has gotten to.
14:55And when you see somebody like that happen with Brandon Ayuk,
14:58one of the big things people have said about George Pickens is, like,
15:00what's he going to become when you pay him the money?
15:02When you give him the money, how does that change, like, how he operates and who he is?
15:07And so for right now, they're going to look at that and go,
15:09remember, we were worried about that with Ayuk.
15:10Do you see how Ayuk turned out?
15:11Nobody wants that in their building.
15:13So I think Pickens and them are just like, you got to be quiet.
15:15It's funny.
15:17David Muliguetta used to represent Ayuk.
15:19But Ayuk switched agents, like, after his third year or something.
15:22So he's not connected to him anymore.
15:23But that'd be...
15:24If Muliguetta was connected to him and this was going on,
15:27it'd be an even stronger connection.
15:29Like, why is this an issue?
15:31Good for David that he doesn't represent him anymore.
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