00:00Tommy, you heard Jerry Jones just under an hour ago, and I'm sure there's a lot to take
00:07away from that.
00:07There's a lot to take away from what came out of the star yesterday.
00:11Let's start with Jerry.
00:14Biggest blinking light headline to you is what out of that?
00:18That you guys didn't sing him happy birthday.
00:20I was not.
00:21I was not going to sing.
00:23I was not going to sing.
00:24I mean, I'm not opposed to the bit.
00:27I didn't feel like it was appropriate for them coming back and being like,
00:31is Brent Schottenheimer a disciplinarian?
00:36I think the big one for me is that Christian Parker is moving up to the coach's booth.
00:41This is something that the Cowboys did last year with Matt Eberflus.
00:44That was ahead of the final three regular season games of the year.
00:48So this comes about ten weeks earlier.
00:51I think that I wonder if it's one of those things where because he's more of a
00:57secondary guy, the move upstairs, maybe gives him a better idea of, okay,
01:01we're being too in-depth on some of these coverages or, man,
01:08we kind of look out of whack in these certain spots.
01:11And maybe that makes it easier to make some adjustments versus on the field.
01:17But just one of the many things that seemingly are in line for the changes that
01:22Brian Schottenheimer mentioned going into the weekend is Christian Parker moving up
01:26to the coach's booth.
01:27So it'll be interesting to see if we see any sort of true adjustment.
01:31Sometimes those things happen and it's, you know, okay,
01:33now we're starting to see a little bit better play.
01:35But sometimes it's just, yeah, it's more of the same.
01:39But we'll see if a different vantage point ends up helping out Christian.
01:42Do we know if that's where he was in Philadelphia and in other places?
01:46Was he in the booth?
01:48Obviously not in the D.C., but as an assistant?
01:52I'm not sure for every stop that he's been at.
01:55I think in Philly he was on the field.
01:56Yeah, he's maybe had some time in the booth at certain stops.
02:01But, I mean, obviously it's all different, especially when you're calling.
02:03But, no, he's maybe had some time in the booth in various spots like Green Bay
02:08when he's more of an assistant and a quality control guy
02:10where they maybe wanted him to do more analysis stuff.
02:12But I believe he was on the field in Philadelphia.
02:17Tommy, is this shift, because obviously it's like the eternal,
02:23we're moving him to the booth to get a better view,
02:25we're moving him down from the booth to be able to get him more, you know,
02:27in touch with the feel of the game.
02:29Is a little bit of this also the equivalent of, like,
02:33did you try turning it off and turning it back on?
02:38Um, that's a funny way to put it.
02:40I don't know if I would say that that's exactly what it is,
02:43but it might just be something where, you know, like I said,
02:45because he's a, so much of his specialty has come in the secondary
02:49that when you are calling a defense,
02:52and especially the way that they've constructed this roster, right,
02:55it seems like the secondary is what they're hoping helps the front seven
02:59and helps complement the pass rush and those sorts of things.
03:02Has it worked up to this point in the season?
03:03No, it hasn't.
03:04So maybe this is something that they say,
03:06look, if this gives you a better look of how we're playing coverage-wise,
03:10maybe where some of these explosive plays are coming from,
03:13why they're happening, then, you know,
03:16maybe this is a better vantage point for you to see
03:18what adjustments need to be made versus on the field
03:21where it may be more difficult to ascertain.
03:25Just because you're closer to the action,
03:27you can't always tell depth because you're trying to cover so much more
03:33with your vision, and I'm not trying to be a vision scientist here
03:35by any means of, by any stretch of the imagination,
03:38but at the same time, you know, it couldn't change.
03:42It could change nothing.
03:43Like, it could just be we're trying something new,
03:46and ultimately it just doesn't lead to anything better.
03:49But that's what I thought of when I heard that.
03:52And Tommy Aris with us for more playing time.
03:55It sounds like it, and I think that, you know, that could work.
04:00I think what the guy that I want to see more at outside linebacker
04:03is Malachi Lawrence.
04:04I feel like he's showing you flashes,
04:06and, you know, I understand that he's had the rookie plays too, right?
04:10Like, he's let a couple plays get behind him.
04:13But my thing is I think a lot of these guys up front
04:16have let some plays get behind him, and they've missed some plays.
04:19And I would rather have a guy that is a young player
04:23who you know just needs the snaps, needs the snaps to develop
04:27and cook a little bit.
04:29And I think that, you know, Lawrence's athleticism,
04:33kind of the freakish stuff that he's got that not a lot of guys have
04:36at his size and with his athletic ability,
04:38like I would much rather have that on the field
04:40and you learn and grow from it.
04:42If you're already going to have, you know,
04:44certain mistakes being made on the field,
04:46if you already are seeing that,
04:48then why not give a young guy more snaps?
04:50But all I have to say, I'm not opposed to, you know,
04:53seeing more of Von Miller either.
04:54I think that, you know, it might just be something
04:56where he gets going if he gets his footing a little bit more
04:59or has more opportunities to get it.
05:01You know, I know everybody goes back to what he said
05:03about rolling out of bed and getting eight sacks.
05:06And, you know, maybe this is just, I'm trying to think of a fun way
05:11to word it that would relate to rolling out.
05:14Maybe this is a couple more hours of sleep if he's getting out of the bed
05:19and if he gets more snaps.
05:20Yeah, you got us there, Tommy.
05:22Tommy Ars from DallasCowboys.com.
05:23That's right.
05:24It probably wasn't great.
05:25No, no, no.
05:25It worked.
05:27Mike Patton, the question I was asking earlier today,
05:30the very, when this topic first came up,
05:33and I think the thing that is most fascinating to me,
05:36I know how the Cowboys are going to position it
05:38and how they're going to talk about it,
05:40but my big question here and what I'm curious from you is
05:44when it comes to Mike Patton being out of the senior defensive assistant,
05:46was this a position they had to fill because of Christian Parker
05:50or was this a person they couldn't pass up?
05:57I haven't thought about it like that.
06:02I feel like it's a little bit of both,
06:06and I say that because they didn't want to pass up on him
06:09because they wanted him earlier in the year,
06:11and I also feel like it's for Parker because, you know,
06:15you're a first-time coordinator, and there is, to my knowledge,
06:20before Patton, nobody on the staff that has been a defensive coordinator
06:23in the NFL.
06:24Sorensen.
06:25And so, okay, that's fair.
06:29I'm more on the defensive staff.
06:31Sorry about that.
06:32On the defensive staff that really could be somebody that he could use
06:37as a sounding board or a mentor or some sort of advisor and, you know,
06:41hey, am I doing this right?
06:42Not that Christian Parker can't, you know, just call somebody from his past
06:46and have those kinds of conversations,
06:47but it's different when, you know,
06:49you have them in the building working alongside you.
06:51So I think that that's how I view Patton coming on the staff is, again,
06:57that's a guy that if he's available and if you want him, you can't pass up on him.
07:00But at the same time, you've got a young coordinator that has struggled to get going
07:04and struggled to start, and this is somebody that, you know,
07:07gave him his first NFL job, so he clearly saw something in him
07:10and has done this before, has done it for a long time
07:13and may be able to, you know, answer some of the questions
07:16and, you know, help walk through some of the tweaks
07:19or things of that nature that maybe make his life a little bit easier.
07:23Have you found we've overhyped what special advisors
07:26and special assistants and senior assistants really do?
07:33Depends what kind of frame of reference you put it in.
07:36I think if you go in with the expectation that, hey, Mike Patton's not calling this defense.
07:40Like, he's not, you know, going to be sitting next to Christian Parker
07:44and be like, all right, give me the microphone.
07:46Like, this is, let's, give me the headset.
07:49I think this is kind of like, you know, if you went to work
07:52and had your mentor sitting next to you at your desk, right,
07:56and you're going through projects, you're doing whatever you've got to do,
07:59and if something came up, you know, hey, what do you think about this?
08:02And, okay, here's my opinion.
08:04All right, well, this may or may not shape the way that, you know,
08:07I do things going forward.
08:08Or it may give me an extra perspective to think about
08:10as I'm making a game plan or calling, you know,
08:13plays in certain situations and so on and so forth.
08:16That's how I view this.
08:17I would not view this as, you know, it's becoming a Mike Patton defense
08:22and, you know, you're going to see, you know, him with a headset on call and plays.
08:28I think that this is something where, you know,
08:29he may leave his fingerprints on certain things.
08:31You would certainly hope he leaves his fingerprints on the pass rush
08:34and the front seven.
08:36But I still think that this is Christian Parker's defense,
08:38and it's a voice that can help him get this thing back on track.
08:42Are we going to be able to weather this flu bug
08:45that has now been passed around the cornerback room,
08:48and does this pretty much silence Richard Sherman
08:50now that everybody else is thrown up to?
08:56Yeah, well, hopefully it's – I hope this is a silenced flu bug
08:59because I certainly don't want to grab it.
09:01No.
09:01How far away are you?
09:02You're on the other side of the building.
09:03Yeah, it's been concentrated to the corner room so far.
09:06Well, we go to the locker room,
09:08and I don't know if these guys are going to be back
09:11or something like that and if there's still lingering symptoms.
09:14But, no, you certainly hope this is knocked out,
09:18and especially if it's specifically your cornerback room,
09:21hopefully Carson and Bland being sent home is something
09:25that can kind of isolate it and not pass along to anybody else
09:28because, yeah, it's been hitting a lot of people,
09:30and even I think Jonathan Mingo got it too,
09:33so the wide receiver room a little bit as well.
09:35So, yeah, hopefully that's the end of it.
09:39What did you make of the players-only meeting that the defense had?
09:48I think that it was – I feel like, you know, you always see those
09:54and it's kind of like, oh, boy, here we go.
09:57But I think that it's fair to have something like that,
10:01especially the way that they've started the year.
10:03I'm sure they've been shorthanded in some instances,
10:05but there have been some scenarios that I think even they would tell you
10:09are like, you know, we just can't give this up.
10:11So what's going on?
10:12And I think that that might be one of the benefits of, you know,
10:16having the extra days and having the time to think about it,
10:19to weigh on it, and after a loss like that,
10:22there's probably going to be a lot weighing on you.
10:24So it's better to get together as a group, kind of vent about all that,
10:28get it all off your chest and try and move forward here,
10:31especially if you're trying to turn this thing around and go on a run.
10:35So, you know, I get the connotation that comes with those players-only meanings.
10:40I don't necessarily think the sky is falling,
10:43especially when you look around the NFC East.
10:46I'm literally watching the commanders back on the TV behind RJ right now.
10:49And, you know, there's still very much an opportunity for the Cowboys here
10:55ahead of them.
10:56So I think that that's how I view it.
11:00Tommy, we appreciate you.
11:01We'll talk to you Thursday ahead of Lambeau
11:04and get your strategies on how to avoid the hefty girls attacking your car.
11:07She was pretty hefty.
11:09Yes, she was.
11:11Tommy Ars, DallasCowboys.com.
