- 2 minutes ago
Stephen Jones joined The K&C Masterpiece following the Cowboys win. Jones discussed defensive improvement, special teams, CeeDee Lamb's playmaking, and more.
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00:00Right now, it's time to turn our attention to Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President
00:04Stephen Jones, brought to you by North Texas Ford Dealers. Ford is the best in Texas.
00:09And Specs, how about them saving some Specs? Proud partner of the Dallas Cowboys.
00:13Stephen, how many more of those kind of games do you think you can handle, man?
00:18Oh, they're adding up, but when you win them, they're fine. It's the ones you don't get done
00:23that kill you, but certainly, you know, hats off to the guys. We talked all last week about how we
00:30got to finish, and, you know, it was in the hands of the offense, and I thought they did a
00:37good job
00:37on several occasions, whether it's converting on fourth down in the end zone or, you know, just
00:43making the key drives to win the football games. They got the job done, and then, you know, as I
00:49said, it's certainly a work in progress, but the defense, in my mind, keeps getting better every
00:55week and showing signs that, you know, we can make plays to get them off the field, which we did
01:02on several occasions, and it's great to have Joey Porter out there immediately making an impact and,
01:10you know, making some plays, and certainly, you know, his hair is up. All he's going to do is
01:16continue to play more and be a bigger part of this defense, so, you know, overall, I thought
01:21it was good. You know, that's a really good Texans team. Certainly, I think people are surprised
01:26to see them 0-4, and they certainly play, you know, aggressive defense. They got two of the
01:31best rushers in the game, and they cover well, so overall, I thought it was really good, and
01:38as you said, we're already got to move through it. We've got to get ready for a good Tampa
01:44Bay Buccaneer team. Coach Vole's teams are always coached well, and we've got to get prepared for
01:50a quick turnaround on Thursday night. Steven, do you think you can give a little more example on
01:56what you're watching or hoping for or looking to see from the defense? Because when we kind of look
02:03at it, we're still like, yeah, I mean, they still gave up 30 points, and so it feels like maybe
02:07there
02:07wasn't that improvement, but you see it. I think there's kind of like last week, we came into it going,
02:12there were some really good things, but there are still 30 points, so can you kind of give
02:16examples of what you're seeing and hoping for? I'll go back to it, just to know that we are
02:23even keel here. Bill Parcells used to say, you are what you are, and your record is what it is,
02:29and we're giving up some points right now, and certainly that's got to improve if we're going
02:34to get to where we want to get to, but at the same time, I do think we're doing some
02:38things to
02:39stop the run. It's starting to show up where we are doing a good job with that, and then I
02:48think
02:48the bigger thing is obviously we've got confidence in this defense. Bringing a guy like Joey Porter in
02:54who can make some plays on the defensive side of the ball is important to us, and I think I
03:01said last
03:02week, you wonder sometimes if it's the chicken or the egg, but if you can have that quarterback hold
03:07the ball a little longer, as we saw yesterday, we started to get some pressure, and certainly Q got
03:13a big sack, and Gary got a big sack, and you know, just feel like, you know, the guys are
03:19starting to
03:20understand it's coming around. We have had some injuries in the secondary side of things, so that
03:25should just continue to improve, but you said it best, you know, at the end of the day, it's got
03:30to,
03:30you know, you've got to go out there, and you've got to, you know, you've got to cut the points
03:35back, and as you said, they got 30 yesterday, and we've got to be better than that.
03:41Steven, one of the question marks, and it's not a huge question mark, maybe in some cases right now,
03:45when you look at, when you kind of do a deeper dive, Brandon Aubrey, he's missed three field goals,
03:49but two of those have been blocked. The other one was a 65-yarder, so I don't know that anyone's
03:53going to lose any sleep over missing a 65-yard field goal, but some people are saying, well, you know,
03:57maybe you should have punted it there. Are we relying too much on his big leg? Where are we
04:03at right now with special teams and Brandon Aubrey? Yeah, I think, you know, first of all,
04:08hats off to Will Anderson. He's certainly one of the best players in the league, probably maybe the
04:13best on the defensive side of the ball, and obviously what he does is get to the passer,
04:18and he also gets to the kicker, but we've got to be better than that. We've got to keep our
04:24integrity in our block lanes there. You know, he made a great play blocking it, but, you know,
04:30it's not unlike our offense. We're very comfortable with making that call. I mean, going forward on
04:37fourth down down there, we end up converting the touchdown. We think we've got the best kicker
04:43in the NFL in Brandon, and we'll try that every time. I understand it. I understand what the
04:48consequences were. You get one blocked, and that gets converted to a field goal, and then you miss
04:54the one, and they get a shorter one before the half's out. We do get the ball back, but we're
04:59comfortable with those calls. We're right there with it and for it, giving Brandon the opportunity to
05:05make those kicks. That's why we have him. That's why we pay him, and like you said, no one's going
05:11to
05:11lose sleep over it, but we think he's got as good a chance as anybody to convert a 65-yard
05:16field goal, and should we do some things better in terms of, you know, keeping the ball from getting
05:23blocked? Yes, we have to improve there, but I did think as a whole the special teams did a lot
05:28of
05:28good things in terms of penning them, and then we had some really good returns, so, you know, that's
05:33part of it. I know, you know, whenever something like that doesn't work out, it's going to get
05:38questioned, but we were very comfortable with the calls that were made there. I'm going to ask about
05:43the red zone running here in just a minute, but man, how exciting was CeeDee Lamb's day for you
05:48guys? Well, he was just outstanding, and you know, when you got guys like that, you got guys like
05:56CeeDee, you got a guy like George Pickens. I think not only did they have huge days, and of course,
06:02George made some big, big, big catches for big yards, but both of them, I think, were each loose
06:07another time, and you know, that's what makes our offense special, and then you throw in the
06:13flows of the world and the Fergussons, and you're going to mention it, but certainly Javante, you
06:19know, he's not afraid to grind it out, and he put the ball in the end zone three times for
06:23us, and
06:24you know, that's how you win football games, is score touchdowns in the red zone, not field goals.
06:29Shotty's probably going to talk about it a little later today. He's going to be on around three
06:34during this press conference, but we saw CeeDee and George lining up on the same side. We talked
06:39so much about putting him on each side of the field and just let him go. Was that a conversation
06:44that the coaching staff was having leading into this game of, let's see a little bit more of this,
06:49and how do you think that helped, or what do you think that did for the team?
06:54Well, I think you have to always bring variety each week. You can't just line up and do the same
07:00thing over and over again. These guys are too smart in this league. There's really smart
07:04coordinators both sides of the ball, and you know, one of the things that should help us by having,
07:10one, one of the elite quarterbacks in the league, two, one of the best set of receiving cores in the
07:17league is you can throw different looks at them, and hopefully that allows us to continue to
07:23score points and make big plays on the offensive side of the ball, but
07:29I think we'll continue to see certainly, you know, new looks each week. I think that's part of it. I
07:37think if you go look around what the top offenses in this league do, they do give you a variety
07:42of
07:42looks each and every week and come with something different because people are really smart and
07:48they catch on to you in a hurry. Stephen, much was made, and I mean, he said it himself after
07:53last
07:54Sunday's loss in Baltimore that it was on shoddy on that last series, and he shot, did not shy away
08:01at
08:01all, you know, from taking the arrows. What are those conversations like with head coaches? We know
08:08that the coaches talk with the players, and we know that you guys, you know, when you do negotiation,
08:11what have you, that you guys are, you know, in it to, you know, with the players and what have
08:16you.
08:17What are conversations like with coaches, though, when it comes to helping them get better and talking
08:22about what they could have done better? Because I think sometimes we forget with shoddy. Yes,
08:26he's got 25 years in the league. Yes, he's the, you know, the son of one of the greatest coaches
08:31of all time, but we also forget, too, that he's only 21 games into being a head coach.
08:36Yeah, I think the biggest thing is you want to give them confidence. When you got confidence to
08:41name a guy, head coach of your NFL football team, in particular, our case, the Cowboys, you want
08:48them to know we got confidence. And I think, you know, the biggest thing we talked about last week
08:52is, you know, I think it's pretty much a given. People believe that we got one of the top offenses
08:59in the NFL, so let's have confidence in it. And, hey, if we got an error on that side, then
09:05let's,
09:06you know, let's go for it on fourth down and four, you know, in the red zone. Let's know that
09:13when,
09:13you know, he's making those calls. Not that that's what he's thinking about, that he's got full
09:18support of the organization, of ownership. Same goes for making the decision with the kicker.
09:24We go out and we pay the kicker, make him the highest paid in the NFL. He needs to know
09:28we got
09:29confidence in him. And if he feels like, hey, the best thing for us to win the game is kick
09:33a 65-yard
09:34field goal. He's got our support. And that's the way we felt yesterday. And I think he feels that way.
09:40And, you know, at the same time, I feel confident that our defense is going to get better. But it's
09:46also, you know, we have to also understand that it is a work in progress. It is our fourth coordinator
09:51in four years. And we do have a lot of new faces and we're going to improve for sure. But
09:57we got
09:58work to do. When you look at the last few coaches you've had, whether it's been, you know, granted
10:04going back 20 years, but a Parcells who had pelts on the wall, a McCarthy who had pelts on the
10:08wall,
10:08do you feel like Brian Schottenheimer can be the guy to get this team to a Super Bowl?
10:14Absolutely. I mean, as you said, he's got a sneaky resume in terms of, you know, having a lot of
10:21history in this league. I mean, he grew up around the table with a Hall of Fame type coach,
10:26understanding the game of football, understanding the NFL, certainly coached under a lot of great
10:33coaches, you know, in Seattle and New York. And, you know, he's had them all. And of course,
10:40his father. So, you know, he's got a sneaky resume and that's why I feel like, you know,
10:45we certainly feel like he can get the job done. I mean, he's got a lot of confidence. He's very
10:51authentic. He's certainly respected. And people, I think the players have a lot of confidence in him.
11:00I think his staff has a lot of confidence in him. And then going to the other side of it,
11:05I can tell you, I know Jerry and myself and our family and the organization have a lot of confidence
11:11in him. I'm stealing this question from Sean Sharif from our morning show, Stephen. With Pickens and
11:19Porter's contracts looming, which one's weighing on your mind most, both one or neither future contract?
11:28Right now, neither. I'm worried about winning football games. We're fortunate to have them all
11:34on the team. Certainly that time will come. Obviously, we're not in a mode of trying to
11:40extend either one of them right now. We've been very upfront about that, both with with George
11:46and with Porter when we signed him. And right now they know our goal is to go out and give
11:52ourselves every opportunity to win a championship. But when the time comes to start to think about
11:59the contracts, we'll be all over it and look at doing that as well.
12:03How are you feeling right now about Tyler Smith playing on Thursday night?
12:08Oh, I just think it's a huge plus. I mean, you know, we were going to hit on Javante and
12:13the success running the ball in the red zone. Yeah.
12:16I mean, he's just going to give a very additive feature to what we can do in there. I mean,
12:22I love TJ Bass, but we're talking about a guy who's an all pro and we just made one of
12:27the
12:27highest paid guards in the league. I think he was made the highest paid at the time we paid him.
12:31So
12:32certainly we think that's only going to be accretive to what, you know, what we're trying
12:36to get accomplished on the offensive side of the ball. The same holds true, as I mentioned to you,
12:42you know, both Pickens and CD got loose a couple of times yesterday and didn't quite have the time
12:48to get them spotted, but had a chance for huge explosive plays. And, you know, a guy like Tyler
12:54Smith is going to give you that extra half a second to maybe look down the field and make that
13:00play.
13:00Well, then I wanted to go back to that red zone, the way that they ran plays with Javante.
13:05I felt like that all week. I was like, man, I feel like we missed a couple of things trying
13:10to
13:10maybe be too cute throwing it in the red zone, but we'll trust Shoddy on a lot of that.
13:14But they did punch it in and it seemed like he trusted the run game whenever you got close to
13:19the goal line. We do. I think we have a lot of confidence in it. I think our offensive line
13:25continues to improve. I mean, you got, as I said, a young Tyler Booker who's coming fast.
13:31I think BB's doing a great job. I think everybody, I don't know, you're not watching the game if you're
13:36not watching what Tyler Guyton's doing out there finishing and, you know, the intensity he's
13:42playing with. I think Steel's getting better. I like our crew in there and I think we can be
13:47physical in there. At the same time, I think you got to change it up. You can't just know,
13:52hey, we're just going to, you know, 1000% pound it in. We want to be that team that even
13:58when they
13:59know you're going to run it, you can, you know, you still punch it in from one or two yards
14:04out.
14:04We certainly want to be that physical football team, but at the same time, they also got to know
14:09you'll use your weapons.
14:11Steven, you saw already just the impact that Joey Porter Jr. made in, you know, what, 20,
14:1725 snaps, whatever it was. Meanwhile, the pass rush still continues to be a little bit of a
14:22bugaboo. I mean, Quentin Williams got through a little bit, obviously, and look, that's what you
14:26guys traded him for, but again, still kind of a little bit left on that bone meat as far as,
14:31you know, what's left on that pass rush. Are there still moves to be made for that pass rush
14:37group? Are you happy with the group you got? Looking to get better and if we can find an
14:44opportunity to get better, we certainly will look at that opportunity. At the same time,
14:49I think we've got a chance to get better with what we have on this football team, which is
14:54encouraging as well. But no, we'd never rule out, you know, improving our team. You know,
15:01whether it's pressure, whatever it is, we'd certainly look at that. But again, we've got
15:07a lot of confidence on the direction of where this is headed. It's got to ultimately show up
15:13in what you are in terms of how many points we're giving up and how many football games
15:19we're winning. So we'll continue to grind that out. And, you know, we've got a short week.
15:25We're going to go up against a hell of a Tampa football team. As I said, Todd Bowles usually
15:30not usually always has his teams ready to play. He coached here and nothing but respect for him.
15:36So we've got our work cut out for us.
15:38Do you think that that's the last missing piece for this thing, Stephen? Is that the pass rush
15:43getting to that level for you? Health permitting, obviously.
15:48I don't know. I mean, we'll see. We'll just continue to see how it progresses. And, you
15:56know, if we don't make a move, well, like I said, I think this pass rush can progress.
16:02If an opportunity is there, we'll certainly look at it.
16:04All right. Thank you very much, Stephen. We really appreciate your time. Got a quick
16:08turnaround for Tampa Bay on Thursday night. You get some rest and go have a good one.
16:13Hey, you guys, too. Always good being on with you.