00:00The Cowboys made a lot of news yesterday, and it was late in the afternoon.
00:04It's funny, what time do you start looking around at stuff for the next day, the email?
00:10Are you just kind of lightly looking throughout the day, even before you sit down and really lock in to
00:16look for stuff?
00:17My day is generally noon to four.
00:22Okay, so when you're looking at yesterday, they started talking to media around 2.30,
00:28and then Schottenheimer talked.
00:30When you first sat down, were you noticing a lack of Cowboys headlines before they had spoken yesterday?
00:37Because I was looking around throughout the day, and I was like,
00:39man, I don't know, we don't have any developments since Thursday.
00:42I guess we're just going to be a little slow tomorrow on Cowboys content.
00:46Yeah, because the way it was, I did some NFL overreactions, the Marvin Harrison trade,
00:55I did some kegger.
00:57You know, there wasn't really any Cowboy stuff until the Petten.
01:00Yeah, well, we got a lot of news yesterday.
01:03First, the Cowboys have to send home two defensive backs.
01:07The flu guys.
01:07Yeah, the Joey Porter flu is real, Richard Sherman,
01:10because the entire cornerback room apparently got it and is sick.
01:14I think they said Kalen Carson, Duran Bland,
01:17and I can't remember who the other one was that got basically sent home yesterday for having the flu
01:23after Joey Porter had it a couple days ago.
01:25So clearly a raging stomach bug out of the star in Frisco.
01:29Then we heard some news that there was a players-only meeting that occurred.
01:34You had Vaughn Miller yesterday saying, yeah, I would enjoy some more snaps.
01:38I'm not going to cause a fuss, but I'd enjoy some more snaps.
01:40And then all of that was topped when Brian Schottenheimer sat down at his press conference.
01:44Oh, by the way, Mike Petten, the defensive coordinator from the Jets years,
01:49when I was the OC with the Jets and the mentor of Christian Parker,
01:54he has joined the coaching staff.
01:56Had a chance to work with Pet for a number of years along with the Jets,
01:59and he's going to be here in a role to support everything that CP is leading and guiding,
02:05and really, really excited.
02:06They worked together in Green Bay, and this is actually something that CP and I talked about
02:10when we first hired him.
02:12We actually had two names.
02:13I'm not going to tell you the names that we talked to in the beginning,
02:17but those did not work out for different reasons.
02:20So we weren't going to just add someone that didn't make sense.
02:23I think Pet's experience not only in football, but his experience in this system of what we do,
02:29his understanding of the 3-4 family.
02:32He has the awareness of some of our players, Kenny Clark, Rashawn Gary.
02:36He was the coordinator when CP was there, so I think it's just a great fit
02:40and a guy that certainly brings a bunch of experience to the entire staff, myself included.
02:45And if you think about it, we have someone like that on the offensive side with Ken Dorsey,
02:49and so very excited to having Pet join us.
02:55There's a lot that can be said here.
02:57Oh, yeah.
02:58I'll let you just lead us off.
03:01Tell us what you think about the hire of Mike Pettin, who you grew up a Browns fan a little
03:07bit.
03:08An attachment to the Browns because of your dad.
03:10Yeah, until they moved in 95.
03:13Yeah, but as a kid, there's still some familiarity there,
03:18and I'm sure you were around the Jets growing up.
03:21So I'm sure you have some familiarity with Mike Pettin, who was defensive coordinator
03:25of those great Jets teams and ended up being head coach of the Browns.
03:28But your thoughts on bringing Pettin here and if this signals any sort of trouble?
03:34One of the guys I went to high school with used to work with him.
03:39Your Bucs guy?
03:40Saints guy.
03:40Oh, okay.
03:41Yeah.
03:42He loved Pettin.
03:44He loved him.
03:47But also, make no mistake about it, I think people give a lot of the credit to that defense
03:53the Jets had to Rex Ryan.
03:55Yes, Pett was a big part of that, though.
03:57He was.
03:57No doubt about it.
03:58No doubt about it.
03:59He came from Baltimore with Rex Ryan.
04:01He was a big part of design.
04:04What they were able to do is what this defense has not done,
04:08and that defense was able to really get home and for.
04:12That made it one of the defenses, because that was one of the more difficult defenses
04:16to play against, and any defense that you can get home with four really is.
04:19They had a better line, though.
04:21Yeah.
04:21Aaron Whitecott, when he was brought here from San Francisco and the Jets,
04:24he'd been with San Francisco, the Jets, had been a few different places.
04:27He came from that whole Sala-style scheme of get home with four and attack front,
04:32and everybody was super excited for it, and it didn't end up making the difference
04:38that you wanted.
04:39At some point, you've got to have players.
04:40Yeah, like the linebackers on that team.
04:42You had Calvin Pace and Bart Scott and David Harris.
04:45They were good players, and Sean Ellis was a good player.
04:48They had ability to get, you know, bring and scheme.
04:54There you go, scheme pressure, right, Steven?
04:56Yeah.
04:57And it could be any of the four.
04:59It doesn't have to be any singular guy.
05:00Sure.
05:01And sometimes it was a corner.
05:02They were doing unique things.
05:04So, if you've ever heard sim pressures, creeper pressures, those kind of things,
05:09that's still a lot of times bringing four.
05:12Rex loved to bring a corner.
05:14Yeah, you're still bringing four.
05:15You're just bringing – it's disguised who you're bringing.
05:19Like, you could be bringing a linebacker and having a defensive lineman drop or whatever.
05:22So, there are different ways to scheme it up and cover it.
05:26The big question for me yesterday, and I kind of wonder if – I don't know if Jerry's the right
05:34one to ask it to.
05:35It may be shoddy on Friday.
05:38Was this a position you had to fill or a person you couldn't pass up?
05:43If it's a position you had to fill, there's a problem.
05:46That means you said Christian Parker's overwhelmed and there's got to be – we need somebody who's done this before.
05:52I do want to ask if that's what – if he was, like, overwhelmed or not have his footing.
05:57Because, let me say, it can't be –
05:59Mike Pettin has been a great coach in the league.
06:01He has, but he was available.
06:03Yeah.
06:03And Mike Pettin had gotten sideways with Brian Flores.
06:07We remember there was some disagreement there and different philosophies.
06:11So, like, if you're available five weeks into an NFL season, you either didn't want to coach anymore
06:21and you had to, like, sit down, watch the games, and rejuvenate your interests.
06:27He was retired, to be fair.
06:29Yeah.
06:29He had officially retired, and Shottie said they talked to him in the spring.
06:32He came out for a day – I should have pulled this clip, but I was going to save it
06:35for Sean.
06:36Shottie said, you know, he came out for a day this spring.
06:38He just loves ball.
06:39He loves, you know, talking ball and blah, blah, blah.
06:42Maybe he doesn't want to deal with training camp.
06:43And, yeah, could be that.
06:44Maybe he doesn't want to deal with the first few weeks of the season when you've got a game plan
06:47for the Baltimore Ravens.
06:48And, you know, nobody in the world wants to go against Jalen Daniels.
06:52And so he waited until Jalen Daniels' game passed.
06:54Yeah.
06:55He's like, all right, I can come out now.
06:56All right, we can go.
06:56We can go back-to-back roadies in Green Bay and Philadelphia and take care of business.
07:01Yeah, Petten called – Mike Petten called Mike Elko at Texas A&M when they needed a quality control assistant
07:09in Green Bay.
07:09And he was like, hey, do you have a recommendation?
07:12And he threw out Christian Parker.
07:14And so Elko pumped Christian Parker up.
07:18Christian Parker got his start in the NFL under Mike Petten, has talked really highly of Mike Petten.
07:23Petten has talked really highly of him.
07:26That all makes sense.
07:28Man, you hit this mini bye, though, and you come out the other side of it, and you've got a
07:34senior defensive assistant who is a long-tenured defensive coordinator in the National Football League.
07:43It just – it looks like – and this is such a bad term.
07:48I hate using this.
07:48Aiden, don't clip this way I'm saying this because it'll get taken – it'll get taken out of context.
07:54Is he here – is he a babysitter?
07:57Oh, baby.
07:58There you go, Aiden.
07:59No, but you know what I'm saying?
08:00There we go.
08:01You know what I'm saying?
08:01Like, is it one of those things where, hey, he's just not ready yet?
08:05He's not ready like we thought.
08:06We need somebody here to check some of the things that he does.
08:09Or is this just advisor, or is this parachute plan if things get really bad?
08:15I don't think it's parachute plan.
08:19I think it's more likely that it's advisor or overwhelmed.
08:24And I don't think it's a – like, it happens.
08:29It happens.
08:30When somebody has a job for the first time that they've never done, they've never even simulated it, it seems,
08:36you might have some growing pains.
08:38We expected this.
08:40We all expected there to be some growing pains with him.
08:43Yeah, just not this bad.
08:45I don't think anybody expected the defense to look this bad.
08:47You did think there was going to be communication issues.
08:49You thought it was going to – I certainly did not expect the first month of the season they would
08:53look like a good defense.
08:55Because I figured, all right, they're going to need time to adjust.
08:57But I did not expect them to look like the worst defense in the NFL like they have.
09:00And I did not expect them to look, at times, just as bad or, in some cases, worse than they
09:06were last year.
09:07Yeah, they do seem, at times, worse.
09:14And, you know, look, I mean, I was talking to my buddy who's a handicapper out in Vegas.
09:19He said that everybody's cooking this D.C., but he inherited the worst defense in football, like, historically bad.
09:25Yeah.
09:25And they did replace it.
09:27They did replace some of the guys there, like, more than half, like, seven of the 11.
09:30Yeah, but, I mean, with a lot of his input – he pushed Osa Odigizu out of here.
09:34And Osa's having a good season for San Francisco so far.
09:37But one of the things he said is, like, you addressed it with a box safety in a first round
09:42for a coach.
09:43He played a lot of zone.
09:44Yeah, there's obviously been a lot of struggles.
09:47This is not the only change, apparently, that's coming.
09:50What could be on the way, Brian Schottenheimer?
09:52This specific thing is something we've been talking about for a long time.
09:55I think there's a lot of solutions that we've come up with, you know, this weekend.
09:59You know, long three days, which is what you should do when you're not playing or coaching to the standard
10:07that you expect.
10:08I'm not going to get into a bunch of them.
10:11Obviously, there's a competitive advantage, but there'll be some roster adjustments that you guys will see.
10:15Some will be more noticeable than others, and some will be subtle as you look at it.
10:20But it was a very, very beneficial weekend, I'll say.
10:24You know, a lot of long hours spent, a lot of long conversations, a lot of deep dives where, you
10:30know, we're looking at everything from all three units.
10:32And, you know, came away with it with a lot of what we would say really good solutions and ideas
10:38that now it's about implementing.
10:40And, you know, that began today.
10:42All right.
10:42You'll get a chance against Green Bay this weekend.
10:45And no Micah Parsons, it sounds like, as the report yesterday, that Micah's not even ready to practice yet.
10:50Even though the window has ended.
10:52See him in November.
10:53You will get the benefit of missing Micah Parsons.
