Speaker 1: And we say hello to Bobby belt one five three
the fan in Dallas joining us here for a few
minutes on the show.
Speaker 2: Bobby, it's Matt and Dan. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Give me the excitement level for this I for five
showdown in the DFW metro area here this week.
Speaker 3: Oh man, I don't know how much excitement there is
maybe morbid curiosity for a lot of Cowboys fans right
now to see just how much further this could go
off the rails, just because they have been really struggling,
and I feel like a lot of people around town
right now just you know, are there's a little bit
apathy almost setting in for people, and that they feel
like this Cowboys team has been such a disappointment after
what was a very disappointing offseason, and so I think
a lot of people just right now feel like they're
they're just waiting this one out, and so a lot
of shoulder shrugging. But I mean, of course there's always
the Dallas Houston city rivalry that exists, so there's still
some of that for the fans I think here in
Dallas now that they'd like to see this one if
they're not going to get any others the rest of
the year. They'd like to pick up the victory in
this one.
Speaker 1: If the Texans blow that out tonight. Is there any
chance Mike McCarthy gets pulled tomorrow?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't think so, especially on a short week.
They've got two short weeks coming up, because they've got
the Monday game here, then they travel to Washington, and
then coming off of the Washington game, they've got the
Giants on Thanksgiving. So just from logistically that point, I
don't think so. But Jerry has been, you know, very
very adamant that he doesn't want to make an end
season coaching change again. He did it with Wade Phillips
fifteen years ago roughly, and he doesn't want to do
that anymore. We talked to him, you know, twice a
week on our station here in Dallas, and he is
he's just been pretty adamant the entire time about Nope,
Mike's here for the rest of the season. We're going
to ride with that. And I think he also just
used it as where they're at right now, how poorly
they're playing. I think he kind of looks at it
as what's the point am I salvaging a season? For
a playoff run, Probably not. So let's just ride this
thing out, not you know, rock the boat too much,
and then let's head them to January and figure out
our head coach is going to be for the next
few years.
Speaker 4: Bobby, it seems like there was kind of a little
bit of a disconnect in terms of messaging before the
season even began, where Jerry is throwing out the whole
we're all in and then they make little to no
moves this offseason to try to improve this roster. Was
that more of Jerry just continuing to be Marketer Carnival
Barker Jerry in terms of, hey, we're still competitive and
really just kind of trying to talk himself into believing
something that's just not true. I think so he.
Speaker 3: Will tell you. I don't know how realistic this is
when you listen to the context of the quote, but
he tells you and seems to genuinely believe that what
his statement was about was about I'm all in in
terms of on on this core, this core that we
have here, and we're making investments and we're working to
extend ceedelamb Or, we're working to extend Dak Prescott, and
I'm all in on, Hey, this is the year where
we need to make some determinations about Mike McCarthy's future.
And so to him, he says that all in is
not a ooh, chips to the table, let's like really
throw some capital at outside free agents and make trades
and things like that. He has said that that's what
he meant by all in. Now, the Carnival Barker aspect
of that is the fact that he just about every
single week since the summer has used the phrase all in.
It feels very intentional and very purposeful when he's doing it,
So that sort of rubbing it in a little bit,
I think at times to the media and the fan
base by continuing to repeat that over and over again.
That's probably more the the you know, media master of
the Carnival Barker, like you said. But I think his
initial comment was he has always maintained that what he
was talking about was being all in on investing in
the current core that had, you know, contracts that were
coming on.
Speaker 4: And I mean, you know, this was a team that
last year won twelve games, and I understand, like I said,
they didn't make very many roster improvements either free agency,
trade anywhere else, but Bobby, I mean, they won twelve
games last year, Like, how does this thing fall off
the tracks this quickly? Like how do you get to
this point?
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's a question that I think everybody's
kind of trying to evaluate and figure out. Okay, where
where have things fallen off? Why did this take such
a sharp nose dive? I think first off, the Packers
playoff game exposed a lot of flaws with this team,
and I think people felt like, wow, this is a
warning signal about where this football team is heading, and
they need to make some adjustments and they need to
make some acquisitions. They didn't do that, so they sort
of ignored the warning signs that seemed to be on
the table. Then the other aspect of that is I
still say that when they are completely healthy Guy one
through twenty two, there are eleven starters on both sides
of the ball, there's still a really they're a good team.
They're a really good team with those starters when everybody's healthy.
The problem is that you had your depth absolutely decimate
this offseason by free agent signings and everything else. You
didn't do anything to add to that. So Guy twenty
three through fifty three on the roster might be one
of the five to ten worst teams in football. And
because of that, as soon as injuries hit, you start
seeing that depth really get exposed. And even when they're healthy,
there's two rookie offensive linemen at arguably the two most
important positions got in the offensive line at center and
left tackle, and both of those guys are playing new
positions there this year. The left tackle was Tyler Goeiton,
who was a right tackle at Oklahoma, and their center,
Cooper bb It played guard at Kansas State and so
it was something where he's having to make a position shift.
There have been growing pains with that. So it kind
of all comes together to create the perfect storm for
this team that has has led to them looking as
poor as they have absent just the injuries.
Speaker 1: Bobby belt one five to three with us Year from
the Fan in Dallas or the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross So.
Speaker 2: Bobby area of strength right now?
Speaker 1: Or is this the number of losses and the big
time losses really just covered up every problem that this
team has had so far.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's there's not right now where where
this team is at with their injury situation and everything else.
You know, Micah Parsons is back. He's obviously a really
good player. They really loved Marvin Overshown, the linebacker from
Texas who missed his entire rookieyear last year by tearing
his knee, and he's come back this year. He's played
really well at times, and he's he's been one of
the guys most invested in the idea of this rivalry
tonight between Dallas and Houston that he's he's really leaned
into that talking to the media about how, hey, no,
we want to represent for Dallas and we want to
you know, win for our city, and we need to
you know, they may be the up and combers, that
the Cowboys are still the cowboys and we need to,
you know, remind them who's big brother here. And so,
you know, Overshown is a guy who I think a
lot of people like his play style, the aggressiveness, the
ability and and sort of the you know, the leadership
and the traits that he's shown and some of the
confidence and the personality. So I think the big highlight
for them right now is what they're getting from Parsons
and Overshown and the way they can kind of alternate
them as rushers and linebacker play. But other than that,
our kicker maybe he's pretty good. And I'd say the
kicker and the linebacker defensive end combination. That's That's about
where the extentent goes. Which I guess if you saw
kicking over the weekend of the NFL then that's not
necessarily the worst thing to have, you know, good confidence in.
But yeah, this is just a flat out right now.
This is a really bad football team. There's probably two
teams in the NFL right now that I would say confidently.
I feel like.
Speaker 2: Dallas could be.
Speaker 1: So Michael Parsons comments from last week with a genuine
or they just off the cuff.
Speaker 2: I know he had to backtrack a little bit.
Speaker 1: What were your take on his comments about the coaching
staff and the organization as a whole.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I didn't have a problem with what he said initially
when he first led up to it, and he had
talked about, you know, when he said that Mike McCarthy
can go where everyone's that was taking a little lot
of context.
Speaker 2: What he was trying to.
Speaker 3: Say there was if this ends for Mike, Mike will
have further opportunity and this won't be the end, whereas
some of these guys, some of these other guys that
he plays with, that Michael Parson's plays with, you know,
Zach Martin, DeMarcus Florrence, Brandon Cooks, this could be the
end of either their careers or their time in Dallas.
And that was something that I think he was talking about.
Speaker 2: More.
Speaker 3: The problem was when he comes on the back cand
of that and says, you know, he's talking about Mike McCarthy, says,
guys like Zach Martin who put in more time and
work than Mike McCarthy ever did. That's that's a slip
of the tongue at best, and at worst, that is
a straight calling out of your coach's work ethic. But
Michael Parsons has said that he felt like he was
taken out of context. That's not what he meant, and
I agree the first part of it was definitely not
his intent. So I'm willing to at least give him
the benefit of the doubt that it was a poorly,
poorly worded h you know, finish to that statement. But
there's definitely gonna be questions about Mike McCarthy and and
how bought in these players are knowing that he's you know,
a lane duck coach essentially, and you're starting to see
potentially some of those cracks and Houston might you know,
kick a few more in there tonight.
Speaker 4: Bobby, I'm assuming you're going to be in the building tonight.
What are you expecting that building to look like?
Speaker 3: It's funny we're talking about that this morning on the show.
I'm guessing thirty forty percent Texans fans probably. I mean,
they've had they've had some issues recently kind of holding
their territory down. There was there was a lot of
Philadelphia fans recently. There was a lot of Detroit fans
at their last game. Baltimore came in, had a bunch
of representations. So some of this apathy that's set in,
some of the willingness to you know, resell tickets on
the open market. I know last week I had, you know,
a couple of different listeners who told me, we've got
tickets from the game. We're trying to sell them. We
couldn't get anybody to buy them on the secondary market.
We just had to give them away to friends and
we were selling them for face value. And so that's
that's kind of where everybody is. Everybody's kind of frustrated
with where this was, given how things ended last year,
the lack of response in the offseason, and then you
know what's occurred to season. It just feels like there's
a big, heavy sigh and shoulder shrug go all the
way back to Oxnard and Cowboys training camp. That was
as empty of attendance as we've ever seen in Oxnard,
California for Cowboys camp, And so I wouldn't be surprised if,
on minimum, we're looking at thirty percent Texas fans tonight,
and it may be more.
Speaker 1: Last question, Bobby, who cross checks Jerry Jones? I know
Stephen his son has been at his side for many,
many decades, But who really says, Jerry, this is not
the thing we're going to do. This is not how
we spend our money, this is not how we draft.
I'm always curious about who he listens to. Is there
a confident on inside that building not named Stephen, that
he that helps him make these decisions, whether it be
for the rest of this year or for the long term.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it's a good question. I think it's something
where there's a little bit of a misnomer about how
Jerry runs the organization these days. The old wildcatter Jerry Gunflayer,
that was an accurate depiction of him, you know, even
fifteen years ago, probably, But in the last ten years
or so, Jerry has really taken on sort of an
executive role with a veto pen and that's that's what
he does. He builds consensus is essentially what he does.
So he's got a brain trust in there of you know,
it includes Mike McCarthy, their director of player personnel, will
McLay Steven, you know, some of their football administration guys
like Todd Williams, their salary cap expert, Adam Pacifica. So
he's got a group of people where they talk through
decision points and things that they want to do, and
Jerry sits over that table and kind of figures out
what the consensus is and then applies it. And oftentimes
just even if he's got a disagreement, he'll step out
of the way if he feels like there's consensus. And
so I do think he's gotten better at that. And
I don't know if it's one particular person, but I
think he just trusts the group that he's kind of
built in the front office to help cultivate decisions, and
then he just rules on him and when he needs
to step in and uses veto pen, which he does
still from time to time he will. But you know,
for instance, the Derrick Henry thing is the one that's
gotten thrown at him consistently in the media, is why
didn't you go after Derrick Henry? He'll never say it publicly.
I think he absolutely wanted to go after Derrick Henry,
and I think he was told by people we can't
afford it and it's not going to be possible, and
so we can't. And Jerry, instead of vetoing it and saying, well,
I'm going to do it anyway, he said, okay, all right,
this is why I have you guys in place, and
this is the decision we're going to make. And I
also think that's why he's gotten so frustrated at times
when it's come up, is because I think he feels
similar to the people who are ask them the questions
of why didn't you go after him? And I think
he's thinking, I agree, why didn't we go after him?
I was told we couldn't. But he's not going to
publicly take that stance. And so I do think he's
gotten better about kind of seeding a lot of the
decision making or building consensus and then just applying that
it's just that it's really bit them this offseason.
Speaker 1: Bobby, great, So thank you so much for joining us.
I enjoy the game tonight and we really appreciate it,
and we'll help to bug you down the future where again.
Thanks for joining us on the show this morning.
Speaker 2: Thank you enjoying Milwaukee. Thanks Bobby.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I don't know if anybody can. It's
forty five degrees. But that's another here nor there. Bobby
Belt one oh five to three, the fan of joining
us in Dallas.
Speaker 2: Great insight from him,