00:00saying yes to minicamp let's talk about it here in below the belt which is sponsored by window
00:06nation so george pickens is reporting to cowboys mandatory minicamp which always felt like
00:13the best the best course of action for him i thought why because it's there's so many questions
00:21that clearly still exist like i don't even know how much it is internally like i think the cowboys
00:28kind of know who he is and and they're just prepared for this to kind of be the final year
00:33that's how they've approached it it looks like but i think there's so many other questions for
00:37teams outside of here that if you're george pickens and you're just talking about getting your value
00:41right and as the brandon iuk story goes on you know in san francisco and people see like oh that
00:49was a
00:49guy we didn't totally think maybe we wanted to pay and look what happened there like it makes me think
00:54that his best course of action is just showing look i can i can play by the rules i can
01:00do
01:00everything that i'm supposed to and and i can make sure that you know i'm i'm as much of a
01:06pro as
01:07anybody else and you guys don't have to worry about these little nitpicky time things and so i think
01:12it's always been the best idea for him to show up how much he practices now how much he's actually
01:17out
01:18there i guess we'll see uh there's the emmanuel accio was of course doing one of his his rant
01:24videos more desperation yeah where he's somehow turning it into like this whole question or this
01:31whole topic can be something of like utter like social importance or something like just the way
01:36he like lectures and likes to talk down and just like the whole little like until you see george
01:41pickens out there across from geron bland you shouldn't believe you shouldn't believe what
01:46you're seeing out there that's what matters cowboys like he's doing that whole thing like he's not
01:49gonna play he doesn't think he's gonna be out there practicing for this week uh yeah he just doesn't
01:54think that he's or training camp just until further notice is what ocho's belief is okay he doesn't
02:00think that he'll be out there practicing i don't care i don't expect him to practice this week i don't
02:04know and i don't care if he practices this week i'm glad he showed up be around your teammates let's
02:09not
02:10have a negative headline and all this drawn out drama yes good for the show not great for the team
02:16i don't care if george pickens practices or breaks a sweat today or this week don't need it how are
02:21they going to be practicing different uh so there's a little bit more you're going to be out there today
02:26for recap tomorrow yes there's a little bit more that they're allowed to do in terms of like teamwork
02:32they can do like some team stuff instead of just seven on seven um and i think they can
02:39there's like an expansion of various drills that they're allowed to do there's an expansion of time
02:43they're allowed to be with each other because like everything is clocked that's how dallas got in
02:47trouble a couple years ago was during the mccarthy practices there was like some enforcement agent
02:52basically watching them from the league and was like timing them and making sure that they were doing
02:58everything they should and they spent too much time on something so those when you've you've been out of
03:02practice before when those clocks run out and they do the like air horn and they're telling you like
03:07stop like they're serious about you guys need to stop and move to the next thing immediately and so
03:11they'll get a little bit expanded time to do some different team stuff and and get more work in over
03:17these next three days than they normally would during otas and obviously training camp is the big build up
03:23and ramp up where we'll get to see them finally get into pads and really hit uh all right so
03:28in regards
03:29to george pickens i was sitting there thinking i was like what would he how would he have approached
03:33this and tried to think through this or how would his representation have thought through it because
03:38clearly they decided to wait out on otas they wait until they got to minicamp to do this and they
03:42ultimately did report and we were talking about this yesterday like what would be the benefit of not
03:46being there like how would you even what would that be and it's like well so they've got till july
03:5215th
03:52before they have to play on this deal so if they hold out any hope that they think we can
03:56get a deal
03:57done then you might look for some sort of a leverage point or or do that so i'm trying to
04:03think through the pros and cons and we can kick those around here of what george pickens would
04:08have been thinking and analyzing so you know say chop you should make a list make a list of your
04:13pros and your cons and then count them all the time and then when you get to the end of
04:16it that's
04:17what you do so the pro first off you give them no firepower you give dallas nothing to like say
04:24you're insubordinate or anything else there's there's no issues that exist there you look like
04:30you're being a good teammate you're falling into line you're not causing any distractions you you did
04:35what you're supposed to do you showed up or you shouldn't or showed up or you should the con on
04:40that
04:40is you are now setting a precedent you can't undo if you show up and you don't like and you're
04:47bitter
04:47and you're upset about things if you leave there's massive amounts of damage or if you don't show up for
04:52something else or you start one of the worst things micah could have done micah put on that
04:56helmet during otas last year he put on the helmet and he ran through drills like three times and then
05:02he wasn't doing anything and that was one of those that looked a little like well you already said you
05:07do this yeah so what's that why why are you not why are you hurt all of a sudden you
05:11looked like you
05:11were fine to do that what's going on there if you get upset by any of this it's much easier
05:17to just
05:17say it was a negotiation i was just using my leverage using my power that's all i was doing
05:23it wasn't anything personal leadership using your body yeah exactly then just show up and then
05:29to walk away from it and decide you need to do something different uh before i go to the next
05:34one chop you i saw you click your pen out you got any idea of what a pro or a
05:38con might be for
05:39so the other thing is that forget what you're doing internally for the cowboys you are signaling
05:46to teams outside of dallas that you're maturing that this is something that it's personal growth
05:51it's it's less about what dallas sees and giving not giving them ammo you're more showing teams who
05:58you are and taking the narrative out of dallas's hands the con here is that when you show up you
06:06have
06:06now shown that you basically allow dallas to dictate terms with pressure that you are somebody who
06:14whether dallas does it or other teams they look at you now as you'll crack that's one of the things
06:19that everybody thought about with micah michael crack he loves football too much you saw him he got
06:23in there he did his his whole workout he's he's perfectly good this is there's there's no issue here
06:30he's he's happy and he'll end up signing this he'll break eventually and ultimately he didn't and it
06:36caused greater tension so now you've set a precedent that makes the cowboys and other teams probably think
06:40we can with public pressure move you to do certain things a pro you are getting into camp it's a
06:48second
06:48year within the offense you're getting in the more reps you're setting yourself up to be more in sync
06:53with dak more in sync with the offense and go out there and have a really strong year that's all
06:58great
06:58the con on that side would be do you want that early in the summer like let the summer let
07:05them see
07:05how it hurts and let them feel that pressure and then have them move on it or have them move
07:12you
07:12somewhere else or even like what the cowboys did teams around the league saw how it hurt the cowboys
07:18whenever zach martin was out or when ezekiel elliott was holding out all the way up until the end of
07:21game they saw them tensing up and panicking and getting tight about those things you're displaying to
07:26the cowboys and to the rest of the league that you matter to what they do here and instead they
07:34can
07:34still kind of theorize that nah you're just you're somebody who fits into this ultimately so i think
07:38that when you look over the list of just various nuances that go into the idea of showing up or
07:46not
07:46showing up there's a lot that can be worked on ultimately you lose more money i think by not
07:52showing up you risk yourself losing more money the risks are far greater on because what you're doing
07:58by not showing up is you're trying to gain money by showing you can be detrimental and that's not it
08:02you don't want to basically hold somebody hostage and make them feel like they have to pay you
08:06dak can do that cd can do that guys who have not been problems they go all right well how's
08:11it look
08:11when i'm gone you haven't appreciated me when they feel like you're already not there consistently
08:15enough when you are getting paid and you're actively participating you can't then also use
08:21that as leverage you can't use the thing people are worried about as leverage and ultimately i think
08:25him showing up probably secures him more money or keeps his money safer it doesn't necessarily earn
08:30him anything but it keeps his money safer until he goes out there and performs uh all right so
08:34this is over at nfl.com and i think this might be the worst list i've ever seen and i
08:42know we say
08:42this a lot whenever we take lists from cbs sports for some reason i feel like those are the ones
08:46that
08:46are really bad and this was an i don't even know why i opened this in the first place i
08:50just thought
08:50it was an odd an odd topic even they were ranking the divisions based on quarterback talent
08:56so they went and said all right just i don't think it's an odd topic but it was like the
09:01hook
09:01the way the like title was on the article was some sort of thing of like does caleb williams blah
09:06blah
09:07blah i was like what the hell is that why would they even be talking about caleb williams in that
09:10context so i open it up and i'm looking and this is the order of the divisions from eight to
09:15one
09:16in terms of quarterback talent and you stop me when you hear your problem number eight the nfc south
09:22so that's michael pennix the worst slash tua yep michael pennix slash tua bryce young tyler shuck baker
09:30mayfield afc south that's cj stroud daniel jones trevor lawrence cam ward yeah move on might have
09:39that higher that's above the afc there i think uh well let's see because only because above the afc east
09:46well the jets are awful the dolphins are awful like they are they bring everything down so okay
09:53and then i have two mvps well it's josh allen and drake may six is the afc east josh allen
10:00and drake
10:00may and then malik willis who's unknown but gino smith who's been steady the last couple years he's not
10:05great not steady last i mean last year was bad yeah number five i forgot about gino in miami yeah
10:11number five the afc north joe burrow lamar jackson deshaun watson aaron rogers
10:21number four the nfc north caleb williams jared goff jordan love kyler murray slash jj mccarthy
10:29seems low number three the nfc east dak prescott jackson dart jalen hurts jaden daniels
10:38that's not better than the nfc north that is not better than the afc north it's not like i mean
10:44burrow and lamar are like lamar's won two mvps in the last six years or whatever it is burrow has
10:50had some of the best seasons we've seen in the nfl over the last three or four years when he's
10:54been
10:54healthy number two the nfc east has one real quarterback jack yeah yeah number two the afc west
11:03bo nicks patrick mahomes cousins and fernando mendoza and justin herbert are behind number one
11:10the nfc west jacoby brissett matt stafford brock purdy sam darnold i don't see how you could have
11:17the nfc west above like three of these divisions stafford's stafford's been great but they clearly
11:25have shown in the other rankings it doesn't matter if you have two mvps in there they're bringing it
11:29down there you can have drake may and josh allen you can have joe burrow and lamar jackson we're
11:33taking the rest of the division down if you have geno smith in there whoever else and the fact that
11:39you've got i mean mahomes is still somebody who he's got to come back from the injury and he hasn't
11:45played nearly as well as he has in previous years but brissette is a complete nothing that's that's
11:50equal to anybody else on the list of just like yeah you can't count on that stafford's really strong
11:58purdy has been kind of up and down in the last year but it's i still have upside on and
12:04then
12:04darnold is won the super bowl but that's a complete question as to how sustainable any of that is i
12:09don't see how you could have the nfc west anywhere above the afc west the afc north the fact that
12:14the
12:14afc north a division that has drake you have josh allen drake may you've got lamar jackson joe burrow
12:20those divisions can be in the back half of the league according to this list i think is ridiculous
12:25i think you're overreacting a little bit um of course you're gonna you know kiss the ass to
12:30justin herbert to support the afc west i crushed the nfc east that's my afc west is better than the
12:35nfc west i think in terms of quarterbacks i mean the nfc west the top three in the nfc west
12:41is is
12:42is pretty stacked of course yes necessarily um donald was not good in the second half of last year he
12:49was
12:49okay he was okay uh i think the the afc north i mean they're saying that the afc north the
12:56other
12:56two of the teams have nothing yeah they're they're all so it depends on how much you want to rank
13:00being
13:00top heavy the nfc north has the highest floor the what nfc north kyler if kyler's your worst
13:07yeah like the other three are pretty decent yeah i don't know that watson and rogers are going to be
13:12worse than darnold and brissette in 2026
13:21um and i definitely would take the wait a second wait a second wait a second let's put the four
13:26in
13:27order here i'm gonna put i'm gonna hold your feet to the fire okay watson brissette rogers
13:34and who's the fourth darnold and darnold all right we're putting darnold one yep we're putting
13:43brissette four yep and then i think you i think you have to put rogers two and watson three yep
13:50i would
13:51that's exactly how i do it and to me then the question is so that's darnold rogers watson brissette
13:57so that's nfc west afc north afc north nfc west so then i don't know how you could then say
14:05that
14:06stafford purdy is above lamar burrow i don't think it is well watson may be awful too like this is
14:12just
14:13you know throwing it out like brissette is probably gonna have better numbers than deshaun watson you
14:17could say that you could potentially yeah it just kind of depends on how much watson plays and what
14:22he's at below the belt every day at this time on your home of the cowboys 105.3 the fan
14:27you
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