- 6 hours ago
Nick Harris joined Shan, RJ, and Bobby following the Cowboys' win against Philly. Harris discussed Schotty's game management decisions, Joey Porter’s postgame perspective, CB rotations, and more.
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00:00Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram here on 105.3 The Fan.
00:04How much better do you feel about the Cowboys after the Eagle win?
00:08I would say that they finally have done something that we expected them to do,
00:12so I would say a little bit better.
00:14But somebody had asked me going into the game on Sunday against the Eagles,
00:18like, hey, what do you think about this one?
00:19And I was like, one of these teams is going to win,
00:22one of these teams is going to lose,
00:23and they're both going to wake up with the same problems tomorrow.
00:25And that's still kind of how I feel.
00:27But I will say them being able to just handle business,
00:30that is a step in the right direction.
00:32I asked Tommy this yesterday.
00:34What's the thing that comes out of there that you say,
00:37all right, that regardless of opponent, you can say is improved,
00:41or that's something you might be able to bank on?
00:43Is it just the fact that the offensive line played as well as it did?
00:46Yeah, I mean, the offensive line had easily their best game as a unit,
00:49not only this year.
00:50I could arguably say under Brian Schottenheimer.
00:54And that showed up in the run game.
00:56That showed up in the pass game,
00:58how they were able to keep the offense balanced all night.
01:01And then on the defensive side of the ball,
01:02I mean, the linebackers played really well.
01:04I like the change of Shamar James as the green dot
01:08and letting DeMar be an overshone play in that will spot.
01:11I think you saw the benefits of that, not only with the interception,
01:14but the pursuit was back on display from him.
01:17And if he can hone in on that spot for the rest of the year,
01:20then I think that's only going to help the defense.
01:22Nick, should we just back off of the microscopic inspection
01:29of every game management decision because of the state of the NFL?
01:33Jerry came on yesterday and was basically like,
01:35guys, everyone has these issues.
01:38It's not just us.
01:39I felt like he kind of wrote it off like that.
01:42Meanwhile, you guys did a great job of asking Schottenheimer
01:44about three different aspects of the Eagles game.
01:47Do you think this is just something to where we need to be like,
01:50it's never going to be perfect.
01:52Everyone has these issues.
01:53Let's not break it down and analyze it so much.
01:56Yeah.
01:57You know, I think whenever mistakes happen or there's, you know,
02:00questionable decisions, whether they work or not,
02:02I think it's still worth, you know, asking about just because, you know,
02:06game management is such a subjective type of approach to,
02:13approach to play calling.
02:15It's an approach to coaching.
02:16And, you know, with what Brian Schottenheimer and his staff have
02:19in the game management department,
02:21obviously there's been questions in the first six, seven weeks.
02:24But I would say it's still worth questioning about it.
02:28But I think you are right, Sean.
02:31I know where you're going with it because you look at Washington
02:33and some of the game management issues they've had this season.
02:36You look at Jacksonville and a couple of game management decisions
02:39they've had through their games in London.
02:42Yeah, Jerry is right.
02:44A lot of teams do have game management issues,
02:46but it's still worth asking about at the end of the day whether they work or not.
02:51Does it?
02:52Yeah, and for the record, I'm not saying I'm going to back off and analyze it.
02:54I'm just saying it should everyone else.
02:56Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:56I'm still going to, you know, critique and criticize.
03:00Does it?
03:00Because I play 2MinuteDrill.com.
03:02There you go.
03:04How do you feel about there not being a whole lot of, I don't want to say second-guessing
03:09or regret, but that they don't really kind of wish they did things differently?
03:15With game management specifically?
03:16Yeah, yeah.
03:17Yeah, I think I will give Schottenheimer and his staff credit.
03:21You know, they live and die by their decisions and they roll with it.
03:24And they continue to, and they answer for it.
03:26And I think that's probably one of the more admirable parts of the Brian Schottenheimer tenure so far
03:32is, you know, he could be, you know, asked about a bad decision and own up to it.
03:37You know, and that's, you know, that's big.
03:39Did you personally think any of them were, like, really egregious
03:43or that you would have to get or wanted to hear a different answer
03:46if you were Jerry and Steven the next day after reviewing it?
03:49Are we talking about the Eagles game specifically or just in general?
03:52No, the three instances that were asked about yesterday.
03:56Yeah, you know, I wouldn't say that anything was super egregious.
03:59You know, I wondered about the timeout at the end of the first half.
04:02I do believe that they probably could have, you know, played that a little bit better,
04:05but I also understand wanting to keep one in the chamber
04:08just in case things did go haywire and then you don't end up with any points.
04:12You know, it's, but, you know, Schottenheimer gave that answer yesterday.
04:16It is what it was.
04:17You know, Quinion Mitchell was off the field as well for that play.
04:21And so, you know, getting back up to the line and getting that going
04:23probably, you know, made a little bit of sense.
04:26But, you know, I kind of understand in most of those instances
04:30why those decisions were made.
04:32Nick Harris joining us from the Forward Star-Telegram here on Sean and RJ
04:36on 105.3 The Fan.
04:37One last thing on that sort of front with just game management in general.
04:42What's your understanding, because they will reference him all the time,
04:46but they don't always go into a lot of detail.
04:48What's your understanding of everything that encompasses what Ryan Feeder does
04:53for this team?
04:54Yeah, whenever there are game management questions, you know,
04:58or game management situations, you know, Feeder has, you know,
05:02Feeder has some influence there on the decisions that are made.
05:04Obviously, Brian Schottenheimer makes that final decision,
05:07but they've leaned on Ryan Feeder going back to the Mike McCarthy senior.
05:11He was a McCarthy holdover, and Schottenheimer wanted him on this staff
05:14for these decisions, and as far as I know, he has influence on all three phases.
05:19So he talks to not only Brian Schottenheimer, but Christian Parker
05:23and Nick Sorensen on certain game management situations.
05:25That's why coming out of Rio there were so many questions about game management
05:29just because they had had breakdowns in all three phases.
05:31You have a nice piece up that's kind of blowing up in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
05:36with Joey Porter sitting at his locker after this win.
05:40Take us there in terms of your discussion with Joey and what he's thinking or had to say.
05:45Yeah, I was kind of just looking around the locker room after the win on Monday,
05:50and there was a lot of relief in that locker room.
05:53Like, Quinnen Williams was back cracking jokes with people.
05:56Same thing with George Pickens.
05:58Rashawn Gary was, you know, being loud and congratulatory in the locker room,
06:02and I kind of look around, and there's Joey Porter just kind of sitting at his locker,
06:05and, you know, he's very slowly getting ready, but he's kind of just looking at the room, you know,
06:09and he's not talking to anybody.
06:11No one's talking to him.
06:12It's not like a bad thing.
06:13And he looks like he was just kind of taking a moment.
06:16So I go over there, and I'm like, hey, can I talk to you?
06:18He's like, yeah, absolutely.
06:18I was like, you know, what has this been like for you this last month?
06:21I'm sure it's been kind of a whirlwind.
06:23And as he gave that quote, he's like, it's been so surreal.
06:26It's unreal.
06:27And, you know, sometimes it moves so fast that I can't really just kind of sit in the moment.
06:32And, you know, being able to sit in this moment, it's been awesome.
06:35So it was a good story.
06:37He talked about, you know, the Richard Sherman comments from a couple of weeks ago
06:41about, you know, him being a contract ploy.
06:45And he had mentioned that, you know, my play is going to speak for itself,
06:49and, you know, I can't really listen to that outside noise.
06:50And they'll see soon enough that, you know, what my intentions are.
06:53And so, yeah, it was a really good reflection from Joey.
06:57And it has been a whirlwind for him for the last few weeks.
07:00And it was good to get him in that moment.
07:02I always couple Joey with Pickens because of representation and contract status
07:07and Pittsburgh and all that stuff.
07:09Have you been surprised over the way GP has handled himself early on?
07:14Because there's been a couple early challenges here in terms of not getting the ball enough
07:18and CDs, big start, and then blocking.
07:22Have you been surprised at the way George has handled himself so far?
07:25And what word or sentence would you use to describe it?
07:28I would say last year I had a little bit of surprise just because I did expect maybe,
07:35what's the right word, maybe a little bit more theatrics behind the scenes
07:38from George Pickens coming into the situation last year.
07:41And we, you know, there were still some issues, you know,
07:43as far as like not showing up to meetings on time, the issue in Las Vegas.
07:47You know, things happened with him last year.
07:50But this year, now that I had that context, I don't think anything has really surprised me so far.
07:55You know, I have gotten to know what George Pickens is in the locker room,
08:01who he is to CeeDee Lamb, who he is to the offense behind the scenes.
08:04And, yeah, I wouldn't say that it surprised me at all.
08:07You know, whenever he doesn't get the ball, he is truly very happy to see, you know,
08:12CeeDee Lamb or Ryan Flannoy get those targets as well.
08:15And, you know, he's backed that up with statements.
08:17You know, there was after the Houston win, when CeeDee went off,
08:22the first guy to talk in the locker room was George Pickens to talk about, you know,
08:25what that meant for CeeDee and how cool that was for him.
08:28And I think George had two receptions in that game.
08:30So I wouldn't say that it necessarily surprised me.
08:33You know, he kind of laid that foundation for us last year.
08:35And it's been cool to see that, you know, compounded into this season as well.
08:38Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, every Wednesday here on Sean and RJ,
08:42your home of the Cowboys, Mavericks, and Rangers.
08:44Going back to the corners real quick, you were tweeting out some of the different snap counts
08:48and game reps.
08:50How do you expect this cornerback rotation to end up being?
08:54I would assume that it's going to look pretty similar to what you saw on Monday night.
08:59You know, it's De'Ron Bland and Joey Porter getting the majority of the work on the outside,
09:03Caleb Downs at the nickel.
09:04And then you will still see Savone Revel rotate in.
09:07You'll still see, you know, Kobe Durant rotate.
09:09I think you will probably end up seeing about 10 more snaps from Kobe Durant once he's fully healthy.
09:14And then, you know, in cleanup work, you'll see Savone Revel in mere speed.
09:18You know, things of that nature.
09:20So, yeah, I would expect it to be pretty similar to that.
09:22I think Bland ended up with 58.
09:25Porter ended up with 56.
09:26And so I would assume it would be around that range.
09:30Nick, how much do you expect?
09:31Yesterday when we were talking to Jerry, Jerry said,
09:33Yeah, I want us to be run first.
09:36Like, I want that to be kind of the identity of the offense.
09:38How much do you expect moving forward the game plans to look more similar to what they did against Philadelphia?
09:44You know, with what they did up front against Philadelphia,
09:47they would be very smart to, in my opinion, to lean on that run game.
09:52Because when they have a run game operating like it did on Monday night,
09:57then teams are going to have to dedicate more bodies to the box,
10:00which is going to open up more islands for not only CD and George Pickens,
10:05but also Ryan Flannoy.
10:06Flannoy had an awesome game on Monday, too.
10:09But I think you're kind of just seeing what this offense looks like
10:12when you can get one-on-one matchups for those guys.
10:14And so, yeah, I understand, you know, wanting to be a run-first offense
10:17with those weapons on the outside because you want to free them up as quickly as possible.
10:20If you're a run-first offense, does that continue to make it more difficult
10:25to see investing in George Pickens when you've already got as much money in Lamb and Dak?
10:30No.
10:31And, you know, we were asked – we asked Brian Schottenheimer yesterday.
10:34It was one of the guys in the media.
10:36I wish I could shout him out.
10:37I forgot who asked it.
10:38It was saying, can you be a run-first offense when you do have weapons like this?
10:43And Brian Schottenheimer was like, yeah, absolutely.
10:45It's why we would want to be.
10:47And it's because it's going to open up those one-on-one opportunities
10:50for those guys on the outside.
10:52So I guess my question would be to you, you know, it's like if you weren't a run-first offense
10:57and you were having to lean on, you know, these weapons to get themselves open
11:01and bracketed coverage and clouded coverage,
11:03then I would argue that that's probably where you would see less of the investment
11:07wanting to be made.
11:08But if you had guys on an island, then, you know, you know that they can win one-on-one.
11:13And for me, that would probably justify the investment.
11:16I guess I just figure if you're one-on-one in the NFL, like I would expect you,
11:21a regular number two receiver, to win those matchups more often than not.
11:25Then, like, I would think I'm paying Pickens to beat double coverage
11:28or to make contested catches.
11:30Yeah, or to do all of it.
11:32And I think with George Pickens, you know, we've come to know that his 50-50 balls
11:37are more like 80-20.
11:38And so that's where I would probably point to the investment, being like,
11:42okay, these guys one-on-one, it's tough to beat them in the league.
11:45But, like, if you go and you look around the league at other wide receiver twos,
11:49I think you could probably still find 10 to 15 that cannot win one-on-one
11:53on a consistent basis.
11:54And so that's why I would still justify the investment there.
11:57Which statement do you disagree with more?
12:01An elite quarterback, does it need two $30 million receivers?
12:05Or a team with this kind of weapons doesn't need to be run first
12:12or can't be run first?
12:15You said which one I disagree with more?
12:18I would probably lean more toward, I guess, this team can't be run first.
12:25But I still agree with that at the end of the day.
12:28I agree with both statements.
12:29And, you know, we've looked at, you know, Cincinnati for so long
12:33because that's the other team in the league that you can point to
12:35with two $30 million guys.
12:37The Rams are going to be that here pretty soon and a couple of others.
12:40But they have finally put the pieces together on defense that, you know,
12:44they've been lacking.
12:45And I don't think that's been a salary cap issue for them.
12:48I think that's been a talent identification issue for them.
12:51I think they have finally identified the right talent in Cincinnati
12:53and you're starting to see that defense bounce back.
12:55So I don't think that having two $30 million receivers is, you know,
13:00cap constraint.
13:02And I think you're going to see, you know,
13:04what that looks like here in Dallas pretty soon too.
13:06Nick Karras, Fort Worth Star-Telegram here on Sean and RJ, 105.3 The Fan.
13:11What did you make of Schottenheimer's post after the game
13:15and then the follow-up yesterday?
13:17Yeah, so typically if a team wins on the road, I head into the locker room.
13:23And if they lose, then I head to Schottenheimer.
13:26It's just kind of, you know, easier to get content in both places,
13:28but depending on the result.
13:30And so the rest of the media kind of came through pretty quickly into the locker room.
13:35I was like, shot, he's already done?
13:36They were like, yeah, pretty short today.
13:38I was like, oh, interesting.
13:39So I go back and I listen to it.
13:40I'm like, this is fascinating.
13:43And, yeah, you know, I was, you know, he had said that yesterday
13:47and then when Skyler Dixon from the AP asked him about it,
13:50he had said that, you know, he was super focused and locked in on, you know,
13:54the game and, you know, he came back in and we just kind of got, you know,
13:57a little bit of that intensity, which is cool.
14:00You know, it's fine.
14:01And I think, honestly, it is a little bit admirable, you know,
14:04because he had made some quotes last week that, you know,
14:06the fans had kind of gotten in a tizzy about.
14:09So I would say, you know, him being a little bit more reserved this time around
14:13after a win that they were supposed to have,
14:15I kind of understand maybe the approach there if it was as intentional as it seemed.
14:20So take us behind the scenes.
14:21When that happens Sunday night, are you bumping that way up the list?
14:26Like, do you go crazy trying to figure out if something's wrong with him?
14:30And then yesterday, before he gets to the podium,
14:33do you guys kind of throw it up in the air while you're sitting and waiting?
14:36Who's going to ask about this?
14:37Who's going to ask about that?
14:39No, no.
14:40And, you know, when it happened on Monday night, I was like, okay,
14:43you know, it is what it is.
14:44It's a one-off.
14:45And it was the shortest he's had since he's arrived in Dallas.
14:48Don't get me wrong.
14:49So it was certainly noted.
14:50But, you know, I didn't take offense or I didn't take it personally, I guess.
14:55And then you didn't think he was pissed at the media?
14:59I considered it.
15:00And I still consider that as a possibility.
15:02And, you know, but it didn't bother me.
15:05You know, if he is, like, I understand it.
15:06You know, I get it because we have had to write, you know,
15:09we've had to question him over the course of the last couple of weeks
15:11and some of the game management decisions.
15:13Why is the offense, you know, stalling out this early into the year?
15:17So, yeah, I would understand if maybe he was.
15:19And, you know, I respect that.
15:21But, you know, I don't take it personally at all.
15:24I know what a coach mad at you looks like, Sean.
15:26And I think he was mad.
15:29And so does Nick.
15:30Nick knows more than you.
15:32He's got a soundbite for it.
15:34I was waiting for the drop.
15:35Yeah, well, we're waiting for Peyton, too.
15:39Last one.
15:41Normally, Jerry's trade answer is open for business.
15:45We'll do anything we can.
15:47You know, he wants to keep the wheels spinning.
15:49Yesterday with us, he seemed to back off that a little bit.
15:53How much stock do you put in that they may be done dealing?
15:57And is there another name out there?
15:58Sweat keeps being mentioned.
15:59You've got Arizona coming up.
16:01Obviously, the easy low-hanging fruit with Crosby.
16:03Is there another name out there where Indy's on a fire sale?
16:07Would you make it, Jerry's, comments?
16:08And was there another obvious name or move that you've been thinking about?
16:12Yeah, I kind of understand where Jerry is at,
16:14just because their draft capital is starting to dwindle.
16:18And, you know, it's a situation where if you do go out
16:23and you want to get a quote-unquote elite pass rusher,
16:25you know you're going to have to give up, you know, premium picks,
16:28if not multiple.
16:30And so, yeah, it could just be a situation where draft capital is a little low
16:33right now.
16:34They understand what they have personnel-wise on this defense.
16:37And, you know, they could probably ride that out.
16:40As far as other names, you know, I'm kind of keeping an eye around the deadline,
16:43not necessarily Cowboy-specific,
16:44but I'm keeping an eye on Tule, Tule, Pulo,
16:47too, for the Los Angeles Chargers.
16:49Had a big year last year.
16:50Obviously, the Chargers have gone the opposite direction this season.
16:54You know, if they look to sell some pieces, that could make sense.
16:56The USC product's been really productive over the course of the last couple
17:00of seasons in the pass rush category.
17:02But, yeah, you mentioned Josh Sweat.
17:04You know, obviously, you know, experienced Clayton Adams,
17:06who's on the staff.
17:07And, you know, we'll see him on Sunday.
17:09But overall, if they were to make a move at the deadline,
17:12I would agree that it would probably be more in the mid-level category,
17:17the second to third tier, rather than that top tier that you're probably
17:19looking at.
17:20When they traded for Joey Porter, that's where that capital went.
17:23Great stuff, as always.
17:25Pretty dramatic there, Nick.
17:26There you go, Nick.
17:26There you go.
17:27There he is.
17:29He's got the piece up on his sit-down with Joey Porter in the locker room.
17:32Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
17:34Thank you so much, man.
17:35Have a good one.
17:36Yeah, I appreciate it, guys.
17:37Have a good one.