2026 Cowboys Preview: Roster, Schedule, Predictions

Welcome to the acclaimed podcast that he died featuring your esteemed hosts and be monitored and drew dynsick powered by bats. Welcome to the deep dive. If you are joining life, we're a little early and we're going to do one team preview this Wednesday as we are trying to dodge Copa Mundial where Andy's three lines go ahead to head with my Argentina Albus Celeste, Albus Celeste, the light blue and white sky blue, the sky blue, the white and sky blue. I don't know that that's true, but it should be because it's backwards because Minnesota means land of the sky blue waters in Lakota, I believe. So, do they speak Lakota and Argentina? Probably not. Anyway, we're here to talk about Cowboys. We're going to get this done in under an hour so we can make it in time for kickoff. This is a team that I'm actually a little optimistic on. Warm around the Cowboys in the market right now. I think if you forced me to take some huge prices in the NFC and made me make some calls, Cowboys would be on my shortlist just because they, to me, look like they have a top 10 offense and to me, could have potentially solved some of the major issues with the defense. We are a year removed from wondering if the Cowboys were going to make the step forward into the elite in the NFC because they had their quarterback in place. They had weapons around them. They had an elite past Russia and Micah Parsons who did not end up starting for the Cowboys at all last season as he was traded to Green Bay Packers. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about what they got back in terms of fair compensation and what they've done with that compensation to backfill, but it looks like they have a more talented team overall defensively than they had going into last year. It looks like they have figured a couple of things out as far as scheme and coaching staff to expect that both the offense and the defense are going to be solid. I can't even believe I'm feeling this way, but they may have turned a corner. Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic and there's a bunch of, it's the same as any team that overforms a bunch of things have to go right and there's a bunch of things that can go right with this team. There's some continuity and last year was such a weird year. We talk about how hard it is to quantify losing the locker room or late in the season when a team's quitting or the coach is clearly fired. You can have that apparently from week one because it had to feel like a weird locker room right after bats. When we start training players and it had to be a weird vibe and then there was the secondary injuries, you know, just start the season. So it had to be a tough task to coordinate and try to put a defense out there and I think that's, you know, what we said, we're not going to go deep into previous years, but it's worth mentioning, I think that was the hugeest problem was your defense finished dead last and points allowed and you can get into deeper metrics and EPA and all the other things you want to dig into. If you are worst in points allowed, going what, what really, seven, nine and one? It's because yeah, it's got a lot of points. I'm going to give you some, I'm going to give you some credit for almost being 500 when you were dead last in defense. So obviously, yeah, the big thing that they shipped in the green bay, Mike, they got the the Quinn and Williams thing that was later on Kenny Clark and still it was like, this is a really good offense and a really bad defense, which is a super fun team. Yeah, I think on like heading into the season, I was ice cold on the Cowboys last year because I thought they were going to try to come up, they were trying, they were like going to try to have this balanced rushing attack that I thought was going to put them in third and long, pretty regularly. And then yes, they have two awesome weapons in the passing game, but they were going to need them to, you know, they were just going to need them to overperform time to time, again, to convert these low probability third downs. Well, it turned out that the bringing in Clayton Adams from Arizona, he brought a very, very efficient rushing attack with him. And even though they didn't have stars in the backfield, it didn't matter, even though they didn't have amazing blocking players, it didn't matter. The scheme really did support a very balanced attack and very efficient rushing from them. And then if you have George Pickens and CDLAM running a mock, that's too difficult. Puses to cover on a consistent basis, stack was good. George Pickens at one point looked like he was going to steal offense and play the air from JSN. He was incredible through the first two-thirds of the season before fading. So it was overall, I think, a resounding above, you know, I think you would grade shot and hammer and Adams well above expectation for what they did with the offense last year. And I think you would grade the defense well below expectation. And as such, Edward Fluss gets fired, and that was very correct. And maybe the one indictment on shot and hammer, was why is he higher of Everfluss? Like, well, why was that the plan? It's a fair question to ask. And, you know, he guess he didn't have much to go with in terms of talent on that defense, but that's not entirely, or like a lot of things. Some of like, he didn't even make the sum of the parts in a lot of ways. And I do think that the Quinn and Williams acquisition was a positive trade for Dallas. I don't think it completely solves all of their problems with the runstop as they have some, you know, some serious linebacker issues, but, you know, it's a huge step forward. And, you know, Michael Parsons was, I thought, the best non-quarterback asset going until last year before he tore his ACL and, you know, through two-thirds of the way, three-quarters away through the season. And it's tough to kind of ever get a hundred cents on the dollar when you make those type of trades. And Kenny Clark was well past this prime. And I don't know that he really has a role on this team, in my opinion. We'll see. But, you know, considering how poorly everything could have gone, I think things went fairly well. And I think they are set for a pretty clear bounce back in a, a momentally winnable head of the East. Yeah, and we'll get to Eagles tomorrow, but it definitely has, it definitely has a whiff of, it might just be the two team race. If we don't see anything crazy happening down below and they're in that race despite how bad the defense was. I mean, it was just comically bad. You just knew the, every time they played a team that had a good offense, the total was starting with a five and boy, yeah, if they can get that, you know, just, this doesn't have to be a top 10 defense. They conceded 37 to Russell Wilson. Yeah. He was like a part-time stutter on a beat-up team. You know, that's, if the, if they can get the defense just manageable, serviceable, decent at times, bend the don't break, because it didn't, it just broke all the time. Then we don't have to, you know, it doesn't have to be top 10 because you have a top 10 offense. And it's kind of where the NFL's at right now, especially with, you know, some of these teams that have their quarterback, have a couple of skill position players that matter and you just kind of have to get the other, you can't, nobody's gonna put together the perfect roster, you know, there's constraints with the salary cap and free agency and you can do what you do. And I think they knew the, they knew the assignment. Like we're gonna have to put some money into this. We're gonna have to put some of our higher draft capital into, into defense here. Yeah. Yep. They were a difficult team to bet on last year. Every time they got hot, they took a shit. They're, I definitely backed them aggressively in that week eight contest against the Broncos where they lost 44-24. They put together three impressive high profile wins against the Raiders on Monday night. The Eagles on a Sunday leading into Thanksgiving where they beat the Chiefs 31-28. Knocked a lot of the final folks out of Survivor probably. I don't really remember exactly how many people had chiefs that day. I think that was mostly, mostly survivor Thanksgiving. It was, no, Thanksgiving. And I think most of the survivor that went out were Ravens backers who lost to the Bengals and then Eagles backers who lost to the Bears. But either way, Dallas beat the Chiefs. It was a, it was, was it a clean sweep for the dogs on Thanksgiving last year? I think maybe it was. I don't remember the first result. Did Detroit lose? I think they may have. Anyway, that's, this is not. Oh, no, that was the funny part. It was like everybody was saving the because you had to plan out your holidays. I got several text DMs. Like, hey, I saved the chief. Fuck do I do? I'm like, I don't know, man. Congratulations on making it this far. - Yeah, no, it was a clean sweep on Thanksgiving in Black Friday. Three dogs on Thanksgiving or three, the I actually had a English swimming. Green Bay was a dog at Detroit, I don't remember. But yeah, dog, dog, dog. And then the bears were awesome on Black Friday. Anyway, after you put string together those three wins, you're six, five and one. It looks like maybe you can try to race, ride the strength of your offense on the way into a wild card spot 'cause that was there for the taking, but you didn't, 'cause your defense conceded 44 to the line. So next week, 34 to the Vikings and then 34 to the Chargers. So that was that. 68 and one, pack it in and on the season. And in general, I think correctly fired ever flus which we mentioned. I'm intrigued by who they have hired here. I'm intrigued by some of their roster turnover decisions. I'm intrigued by their draft. They may have gotten the best player in the draft and Caleb Downs will see. I do think that's an outrageous statement. I think we should take a step back from that because you're not Stephen A and I'm not skip and it's hard for us to fall into the grandstanding wild hot takes. Although I do agree with you, I like him a lot. Despite how bad I am at player evaluation, I'm gonna ask you how you're training people like that. Like there's only a handful of what two dozen rookies that are like this guy is gonna place in meaningful snaps right off the bat. You know, there's another couple dozen that will you're a nickel safety. You're a second tight end. You're a fourth wide receiver who might be third at the end of the year. There are other rookies that'll contribute but right off the bat, you have guys like, hey buddy, you're starting because we drafted you. How are you treating them in your player level stuff? Because it's very hard. And obviously I think there's, it doesn't, it's like everything we do with this. You can't have a blanket system. It'd be like, you're a quarterback. So you're in this whole, that's a whole nother, you know, bonnet full of bees. But I think it has to be like situation by situation where if you're bad, it's going to be exposed so badly because of the situation you're in with the other players on your defense on your offense line, et cetera, et cetera. So I guess if you wanna talk about how you're treating some of these rookies with your training. So he's in elite talent, Caleb Downs, you lead. He plays a position that is not, that kind of kept him from being seriously considered in the top five. And for those reasons, he slid and ended up on the Cowboys. I think that the fact that the Cowboys are not gonna try to play him two ways gives him a higher likelihood of succeeding at the skill set that he's good at, which is to say, I'm not treating him the way I treated Travis Hunter last year going into the season. The fact that he's in a system that I think is very friendly to defensive backs in terms of you are, they play a lot of them. You're not like put on island and say, told to save the ship. You're given a role in responsibility that's very clear. I think, Christian Parker, I'm expecting to be running some semblance of a big fan geostyle defense and I'm expecting Caleb Downs to effectively play the Cooper D'Gene role. I think he's more talented than Cooper D'Gene was as a rookie, which means my expectation for him as far as our performance rating for this year is Cooper D'Gene's performance as a rookie. That'd be nice because again, that was such a bummer start to the season with the injuries they had in the secondary coming in and how bad it looked at times. And then we always talk about the connection from past rush to coverage. And it's like, hey, what would be the worst thing that could happen to this coverage unit? Like, well, Mike Parsons could just sit out a game because he plays in a different state now. And obviously, we keep harping on what happened last year and I'll stop, but it was just kind of a disaster of every, like I don't like Everfluest. I never want to go to his, I don't want to back him and say, I feel sorry for him, but man, I was in a tough spot for a big chunk of a year. I think I'm a loose guy. I don't know. I don't know that that makes excuses for a man. I don't know that anybody would have been able to get out of that box, so such is life. Yeah. The, I'm going into this season with the low rating for the Cowboys from a coverage standpoint because I think that they have problems. I think Dron Blanda's problem. I think Moli Cooker is a problem. I think, I don't know that Jalen Thompson is the answer from the side. I think their safeties are not a perfect fit for a Fangia style system. And I think Herkgrass to prove that he can do that. So I don't think you're just jumping right in and expecting all of the pieces to, everything to sing. That said, Caleb Downs, my expectation is he's going to be good. And I think he was a great draft choice for them. I'm with you there. Should we get into, what do we, what does the order we did stuff in? I usually, let's talk about some of the changes. Offseason changes? Yeah, we'll go offseason changes. Because you mentioned, I mean, the big one is the DC there. And as you mentioned, it's a Fangio system guy. What about 50, 50 on guys coming from, hey, you worked under a great OC/DC and it's just going to instantly work out. I wonder, I think defense takes a little longer to implement sometimes. And I want a point to Seattle as the ultimate, as that where it wasn't great, but you could tell things we're starting to come together. Year one from Mike McDonald. And then he started to say like, he just started picking against like, you're off my team, you're off my team. And I don't know that, yeah, I don't know. Obviously the DC and Dallas doesn't have player level. It doesn't have the authority to cut players from. I mean, I don't even think the coach, the head coach has the ability to do that at this point because of the ownership group down there. But if he has given some leeway on roster moves, maybe into next year, he definitely could come around because like you said, he comes from a great system and should have learned something up there. We've seen a lot of things. How many times have we talked about ways we are impressed with Fangio and his age, over the last three, four years? So I'm cautiously optimistic, but I worry that it will take some time as it often does when you were, hey, here's my system and it works. And here's the roster I was given. And it's not exactly what I need. So I got to feel out who can change to mold the system, what I can lightly change to mold the players that matter. And then we need to start making some roster changes, maybe on the off season. So Andy, for us, man, it's like we're getting specifically pumped when we do these, like somebody's trying to sabotage us by spiking Andy's internet when we're doing these shows. Maybe I'm crazy. But I get your points. I think you're right. Personnel is going to matter a lot for this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, holy shit. You back? Andy? Gave me? Yeah. You know what? And I have a second computer. And I don't think the internet went out on that. So I don't know if it's like that. Can an ethernet cable just be bad? I don't know. It's weird that you're getting spiked while we're doing the live show. I feel like it's sabotage. It did happen this morning. So I was a little worried because I was just working this morning. And my internet turned off for like five seconds. Is it just a problem? You know who actually probably can blame? Probably Microsoft. Microsoft Windows is an enormous pile of shit right now. It is so fucking bad. Anyway, Andy, the Cowboys played how many corner backs last year? 9, 12. They went through-- I found a-- They went through-- Well, these are-- This is a leading question, your honor. So whatever you ask, I was guess a little higher. Yes. I feel like six or seven is probably the median. Yes. No digs anymore. That's a dish and a bicep traction. No carer, Elon anymore. That is a dish and bicep traction. Actually, I should look down the depth. Try to missemit carer. Yeah, he's gone. Right? Yeah, he's gone. The-- some of these other guys who are making starts are out of the league for good reason. So you've really, really aggressively turned over to the secondary in the off season. Bland is the only guy back who had kind of continuity. And I got mentioned, I didn't especially love his quality of play last year. Hooker, same thing. I didn't especially love his quality of play last year. Both guys only started 12 games for you because of injury issues. And honestly, they looked like the weak links to me in the secondary. But anyway, your point was. Now you were going on about the, you know, how long it takes for you to find your legs as a coordinator when you come from a great system. And it's got the tight, it's got the fingerprints of a system that should work. It's not as complex as what Mike McDonald's asking his players to do. It's very, very, I think secondary friendly. And if you have the personnel who can defend the box, or defend the run with a light box, then it has a very good chance of succeeding. And Quinn Williams, I think, is the piece that unlocks up. What's a you? Yeah, as far as losing, you know, Mike and Parsons, irreplaceable, not somebody you can pick up, but it's like a weird trade-off. Like, hey, guess what? You don't have an elite, an elite end-dresser anymore, but guess you're kind of kind of very tough up the middle. And not just runstop. Like, you got some good pass rushers in the middle as well. So it's a weird, like, just flip-flopping of the defensive line. Obviously, it's worse than what it could have been with Mike and Parsons on this team. And just the high end, high ceiling game-rekinability of a player like that. But I guess he went and made a move to try to improve the defense. And I think he got a really good player. Yeah. Yeah. A lot upside for the style of defense. I'm coming into this season low on them just because they could, it might not sing, as we mentioned, especially early. But if they can kind of improve from mid-20s to teens, paired with an offense that does what they did last year, then Cowboys are make the place. What are the personal changes? Did you have on your notes? Oh, let's look. I guess Sam Hall on this team. I'm going to have to look at my falloff. What would we call it? The clipboard Delta? The clipboard Delta is big. It's always been big here, but it's especially big this year. The backup is technically Joe Milton III. Sam Hall's her third choice. He might not make the team. Yeah, I don't know. It was more of like what happened last year, I guess. And as you mentioned, some of the addition by subtraction, he got a young ascending offensive line, a couple guys maybe a little unproven because of the youth. Williams, like we said, Williams is the lead. What's your take on Clark then? I think he's got one more season left at best. They're going to run a three, four front, which I think Suits' skill said better. But I don't know. If you get a full season of plus performance at a Kenny Clark, that's how you get to top 10 defense probably. I don't even know if there's a top 10 front. I'm not possible. If you top 13. Let's get to like 16th. If there's offense can put together what they put together last year, I think I think we'll be fine. There's like a bunch of defenses kind of in that middle class like 10 to 16 range that I don't feel super high confident on. So I feel like the Dallas could, if they could, they get a good season at a Kenny Clark then they probably are going to occupy that that portion of the ranking stable. As far as like the offseason, you went and added some depth at receiver that I'm not like nuts about. We got the MVS on this team now. I actually don't hate Ryan Flornoi the more I dug into the guy. Maybe this is okay for your third receiver. Obviously it's still a pretty big drop off of that spot. Then the kind of Rashan Gary, if you look at, I don't know how you want to do it with I test or play ratings or stuff. I'm not just big on that. I think he's floating close to the replacement level. He's overpaid but I have a buff replacement level. Yeah. He's there but it seems like he's not, it's either plateaued or it's heading down at this point. That's kind of where I'm at with him. Kobe Durant can live at that in the secondary and the rest of the secondary healthy ish and then the rookie at Nichol, we can have some upside there. Okay. A couple of key departures that I'm a little bit kind of intrigued by OSA. Odiz, how do you pronounce this? OSA. He was traded to the diners. That was one of the most surprising trades. Kobe has got back that third round pick which they used on a linebacker who I've never heard of. I think I really had to like I really have a like prep myself for that. He was one of the kind of most positive development stories in their whole defense. I was really surprised they made that move. Didn't love it. Logan Wilson, linebacker departure was a addition by subtraction. Salon and Thomas traded to Tennessee. That was addition by I don't even know you're not going to make a make the roster. Yeah, I think overall it was a they let some guys walk who were pretty clear and obvious problems and the backfill looks fine. So yeah, Kobe Durant is a fine player. Maybe he got overpaid. Vershanger as you mentioned overpaid, the winners probably overpaid. They had to pay to backfill their talent holes and they probably are overpaying but may not matter because they've done a pretty decent job drafting in the last couple of years and there's some upside on this roster. Damarian Overshan presumably a back at 100% that matters a lot for them, especially if they're going to be able to stop the run with the light boxes. Not feeling super excited about this pass rush. But yeah, we'll get to that. And then as far as the draft goes, we mentioned Caleb Downs a couple times. So Iostate secondary piece. They drafted. They moved up one spot, I believe, to get them, which I guess it means you like them a lot or at least a little enough to worry about somebody else snagging them at that spot. And then they had the the filly trade gave them the 23rd pick. And they took Malachi Lawrence edge piece from UCF. So you're going to have another person in the mix there with that that front again, we're not super keen on the ad rushing group, although I do like some of the interior and then nothing in the second round their next pick was a linebacker at 92 from the cheating Michigan Wolverines, Jason Barnum and then some depth pieces from there and out to depth offensive tackle corner to line and the wide receiver from East Carolina. I was getting intrigued by like when they take flyers in the sixth and seventh round on skill position players. Because you know, there's like, Hey, this guy has a little flash here or there. And I don't know anything about Anthony Smith. I did not watch any East Carolina games this year. So you guys have any hot takes in him. I'd love to hear them. And well, you know, these are the kind of people you find out a lot more about once we get into camp and it's like, Hey, this guy's guy might make the roster. This is fun. You know, one of the biggest positives I thought of the Cowboys offseason. There wasn't a lot of contract round of this year. Yeah, we kind of cleared up the one and we kind of knew where it was going anyway. And it cleared up the other day with just the, Hey, you're playing on the tag, buddy. And I felt like was that pretty much consensus? That's how that was going to go. Yes, yes. Yeah. So the fact that we're not going to go through camp with, you know, some unnecessary drama and storylines, I think is positive. Let's go through ratings. Can do that. Before we do, I forgot to do like a full ad read. And I feel bad because they do sponsor the podcasts that put us up when we're out there. So I should mention again that these previews are sponsored by circus sports, the circa millions eight. I think that sounds right. It was seven last year. Circus survivor and the grandissimo, if you really have some money burn in a hole in your pocket, the other entries are just a thousand dollars. That one's 100 grand enter. But you can make some good money if you win it 30 million in guaranteed prizes. No rake. If entries, if there's more entries and they go above the guarantee, all that extra money is put right back in the prize pool. You have until September 12th at 2 p.m. local Las Vegas time to enter. You must register at the circus sportsbook in Nevada. Weekly picks can be made through a proxy. If you have any questions on that, you can hit me up in the DM. So I'll help you with that. So if you want to get involved in those contests, I encourage it. You're looking at someone who tied for 16th place last year, not a big deal. Your Atlanta Falcons cost me a hundred thousand dollars because if they wouldn't give up that late touchdown to the Saints, I would have gone five and over the final week. Not that I think about that on the regular. So come, come, come play with us and come beat us next year. And yeah, let's get to ratings. All right. A couple of interesting, difficult, tricky questions right off the bat here. Dak Prescott remains one of the most efficient quarterback in football. We have had now a number of seasons where he is consistently at the top of the pile in terms of EPA per play. Removing turnovers last year, he was a body.27 EPA per play with 700 dropbacks, which is freaking flat out. Awesome. There were only a, what was that? That was top. That was good enough for top five for sure. I don't have that in front of me. That was rare. The previous year, even despite an injury, he was a very efficient quarterback I thought in his final year with McCarthy and then the prior year. So I look at like a three year sample for mostly heavily waiting my quarterback number. And this is a pretty, pretty positive sample here for Mr. Prescott. I would rank him currently the ninth choice as far as press, press got combined with shot and heimer scheme for quarterback OC number in the NFL. And my number is 7.5. Yeah, this is a weird one. I came in lower despite liking DAC. I think I built in some of the just the fact that there is a real hard drop off, I believe. And I don't know, I said I might even need to up that a little bit, but he was healthy last year, which is something to be said because that doesn't seem to happen on that often. And the upper third of starters for me, I definitely think he is above her, which has always been a fun debate between people who support those teams, little pushback. He's getting a little older. He's going to turn 33. The resume in big games is pretty thin. I know you can't really quantify that, but I think that matters, especially when you get the games that matter slash playoffs, maybe not something we need to work about for a week one. I'm still out a little bit on, I'm still out on shot a little just I don't know that it was actually good. Or the fact that the other team was getting to play prevent defense of the lead a lot and you had just an all timeer for a bunch of you know he did miss some time to lamb, but you had an all timeer who could just doesn't matter what you put on him. He's going to find his way to the ball. And what was week one where how many targets did he get? Oh, yeah, it was just like an obscene amount like, oh no, they don't have a letter. See for two with pickings missing at times. I'm a little cooler. I did go six point six here, but that's kind of my floor. If I can see it in more neutral situations, it's definitely going to come up. So I'm behind you on on quarterback a little. I wonder why my shot and hammer number doesn't kind of jive with my expectation of them. I mean, if you look at if you look at just EPA point scored all that jazz like his kids, his his his newtural pass rate was top six in the NFL. The other guys he's kind of group with were all guys that I am excited about as far as play callers. You know, and just general systems. I don't know man, I'm a I'm kind of impressed with what he did in year one. And I feel like, you know, all of the kind of history and baggage of pointing out how stupid and terrible he was in previous stops. You know, he must have learned something. I felt like the chemistry between him and deck was really, really solid. He was calling the right place a lot. And I think a lot of the reason of the success was because Clay Adams, I think is kind of Ben Johnson light when it comes to developing an efficient run game out of in there. And if you can do that in today's NFL then and you have a quarterback who can make passes like deck. I think you're four is really high. That's a good point to especially because I am not love with running back room. No, there's anybody. I don't think anybody should be. And that brings us into skill. I believe I might be lower than you here too. Like it's a top five receiver, maybe top three receiver. You got pickings. If he behaves stays healthy, super top heavy though, because even though I said I did kind of like some of the things Florida I did. The depth after that sucks absolute ass, the running back room is something I mean, it's just the running back room isn't something I'm excited about. Five two stars don't fill five skill spots enough for me when you face a good enough defense. And I guess we'll see because again I started this in the floor. I'm at a 5.4 feels terrible. But you use a lot of data. I thought was actually driving what we can expect here with the amount of touches that they're going to be able to get. If you know if shotty I think these these numbers move up and as a as a tandem. If I'm impressed with what shot and heimer and you know the rest of the offensive play calling and game planning staff does for the first few games this season. Pickens. Sorry. Lamb is my wide receiver five. Pickens is my wide receiver eight in terms of expected production this year. Combining wide receiver one and two. Dallas has the best one to. By a pretty good pretty good margin. My second best one to looks like it's Detroit. I got to actually just to slot and then Cincinnati's number three. I'm going to go actually go through that whole exercise and see. But the wide receiver room is keeping my entire skill group rating up because Jake Ferguson is my tight end 13. And they're running back room is pretty weak. Even though I can't I can't I can't I can't shake the positive statements about how good this scheme running scheme is and what they're able to develop at a. They get more they get more than some of the parts. Dallas is which Avantay Williams is my running back 14. They're overall running back room for me as. Not that high on pickings Williams or or the tight end so that I think that's probably I'm a little. So overall they're my fourth best skill position group my rating is a 6.9. We we vary there I'll put the hell I'll put the chart up you don't need to see us. Right this gives maybe I won't it gives away some surprises will wait till we defense was your offensive line offensive line for me 6.2. Okay, this one was impossible to divorce from the quality of the scheme. I'm not high on there's a lot of these guys that I think are pretty questionable in terms of long term talent. Not sold yet on gaiton not sold yet on steel. Tyler Booker was huge draft capital but he was just okay Tyler Smith is great but bit of a like where are we going here Cooper BB incomplete assessment for him as far as long term center goes but terrible. And yeah, tackles were both question marks for me. So I am only at a 5.3 for offensive line better than giants, better than the commies, but not a unit that I'm running to a scream is among the best in the NFL. I'm higher on Tyler Smith as an anchor. I think he's good. And like you mentioned, some of it is just, I think it is scheme oriented that some of the numbers look good because if you look at the individual pieces. It is more of a some of the parts kind of thing and how they play ball and how quickly, you know, how quickly the offense could get the ball out if they need to. So probably drags it up a little and it's hard. Are you doing double counting at that point? I don't know, probably, but I have some of these guys. I think are ascending and I'm willing to give them a little higher rating for that. But yeah, Gaiton Booker, very much incomplete grades, very unproven. I don't know that they're, you know, some of the projection is like, hey, they're young. A lot of young guys get better. Yeah. Yeah. I would say they're 14th with room to go up and then also room to go down if they get injured because you bring in some of these depth pieces and these guys don't look very good to me. So yeah, 14th, I'll told with a top 10 quarterback with a top four skill group and with a top 14 offensive line Dallas is my fifth best offense at a 68th percentile. And you? I don't have my spreadsheet up to even look at that. I just wrote down on my power ratings. That's okay. Let's talk to you. I have them as a 6.2 and offense for the season. Okay. Oh, man, very much disagree with Ghostface gaming that Harbaugh will take over the NFC East. The, you're not a Harbaugh guy. I'm not. I'm not. I'll pay the, I'll pay to see this, this be the first aged coach retread that works out. Let's, let's go to defense. Again, mentioned that not especially high on these guys. My composite rating for them lands 26th in the NFL run stop. that 4.2. And again, that's some of that is a little bit of shade on the linebacking course. Some of that is a little bit of question marks about Kenny Clark. I think the world of Queen and Williams, but you know, that's a weak link system and there's some weak links. So I'm below average on runstop, I'm below average on pass rush at 4.7. And I'm well below on coverage at 2.6. This is one of my worst coverage units, even with the additions in the turnover that they had, largely because I think there are a number of places you can poke this group, even with the great draft choice of Killed Dance. I was at 5.8. And yeah, this is another spot we disagreed a little. It's so hard to marry a divorce yourself, I have the opposite of that. Divorce some of the like, hey, this is a name and this is a very good individual player versus this is how the unit performed. And this is what drug them down. And this is how many games, important players missed. And as much as I don't know how I feel, you know, this defensive coordinator could be an absolute dud. That happens too. Like, we're excited where it came from. We're excited on how the scheme probably fits, but you just never know, like some people can't handle it. So I'm at a 5.8. And a lot of it is just really anchored on having Williams. And I think having Clark on the team, but not having to lean on him at this juncture in his career, he's still going to be a contributor. Like you mentioned, some of the other, the edge, it's like the ed rushing for me just cratered. And the interior came up enough for it's still like a plus unit up front for me. Okay, well, uh, uh, well, intangibles for me are a little bit higher, probably than you would expect. I'm at a 6.6. A lot of that is sequencing was good. Adjustments were good. And neutral pass frequency was good. Fourth down attempts. The cowboys were above average. A lot of the small stuff I thought kind of passed the small test with this coaching group as far as intangibles go. Yeah, it was a good year for Shady compared to expectation, I guess. It's funny how we have like every disagreement, but then in the end, this is we're not that far off with our overall hurry. I'm at a 4.3. Just a new, new DC, unproven. I don't know how much flash tourism, Raj, as I pointed out, like, hey, the offense look good, but they were in situations where, hey, the offense is going to look good because the other team is leading and they're just letting you kind of get after it at times. I'm willing to, this is, you know, the same as those, or the same as quarterback slash skill position. These all kind of come up at once. If I see good neutral stuff, the fourth down stuff was okay. I didn't love some of the penalty numbers. I think some of that comes into coaching, but I thought you were going to be harder on Shady than me. I didn't know I didn't know coming in. I was going to be cooler on a little penalty. I'm okay, okay, fair enough. Special teams elite, they have, God is. I wonder if at the end of the year we're going to have a better rating on Aubrey or Little. What's your gut say on who the best kicker is going to be at the end of this year? Who's making the 70 yarder? And as funny as I dug into special team stuff, I think it'll be Aubrey. I mean, indoors, baby. We'll see if either one goes to Dallas this year or excuse me, goes to Denver for the way game. Maybe we have a 75 yarder. I was, I was lower and I used shout out air and chats. I used some DVOA numbers along with just pulling forward last year's EPA on special teams and a few other things. And it was like, Hey, this is all Aubrey. And I think Terpen's probably good, but they're overall punt return numbers weren't good. And the chats had them 14th rated in special teams DVOA despite how good Aubrey was. So some of the kickoff, kickoff, kickoff, coverage, other stuff, drug it down a little. Again, we weight this as 2.5% of the total grade. So we are talking too much about special teams already. And we're on to the other parts of the defense. Okay, what do we got? Full, full, full scope. I'm putting the chart up. So an aggregate similar shaped targets. Bulls eyes. What do you call these? Spider charts. Spider charts. Similarly, similarly shaped spider charts. You know, I might do it tomorrow's. I might make a different colored circle for five and have it on there. So you can see where the league average is as well. I like that. I like adding to this. So I like that runstop runstop and coverage for me at 3.4s. Okay. Basically, it would be a zero of Quinn and Williams wasn't on the team, I guess, because of the people that's behind him for runstop and then coverage is it's improving. But again, it's you're having a rookie as your third corner, most likely. And that's that can be scary sometimes to start. Just you don't have any proven stars right now. And I'm going to be a little lower on that for are you lower on? Where were you on coverage? I'm lower. Gosh, you're lower than me even. Yeah, I can again, like I think there's a lot of weak links there. God, but you know what? Like that's the upside potential for these guys, which is to say that Christian Parker, you know, he helped develop Jay Alexander when he was in Green Bay. He helped develop the past retain when he was in Denver and obviously learning under Vic Fangio can only be considered positive. So yeah, I mean, this is one where like I got to try not to overreact too much to the first couple of weeks of the season because I'm coming in low and I know I kind of want to go up. But I need to see it first. Final rating for me for the Cowboys is a plus 2.46. We'll say a plus 2.5. You are a plus 2.15. So effectively a plus 2 and change. The market on the Cowboys is currently at a one point. Where does that rate for you as far as teams? Five, seven. 11th ranked team. 11th. Damn it. 12th. So market has them at the 15th with a 1.57. So we are both almost a point better or I'm a point better. You're half a point better than the market on the Cowboys. So didn't expect to be here but we might be Cowboys this year. Their current price for the NFC is just plus 185. So it's not going to make anybody's holidays. Eagles are plus 1.40. And I was kind of hoping I was going to be able to make a strong case that markets too high on the Eagles too low on the Cowboys and the gap is closer. But somebody's already beaten us to the punch here and some of the futures pulls because if I'm going to get exposure to the Cowboys, I kind of want it when the regular season. I don't really want to back these guys doing anything in the playoffs. Yeah. A couple of schedule notes to mention as we flip over the schedule. Week one right off the bat, Primetime game, Sunday night football opener. Got to win that game guys. Week three in Rio, D-Shanero, which is a-- You lose the home game? Yeah, it's a goofy spot there because you got to, despite them being the teams below you. Boy, if you don't go into the Rio game to two and all, you're not feeling great about the season and then you have to do a weird travel spot followed by a tough game coming back at Houston and then Tampa Bay short week. Primetime game, green bay, Primetime game, Philadelphia. But you need to-- What, if you're going to win this division, you need to find four wins. Four and two. Yeah, you need to be a four to go. Yeah. Honestly, even four and three through the seven games, I'd feel okay because maybe you lose that-- it's hard to give you a good feeling about that Houston game coming off the weird travel spot and then going on the road against the crazy tough defense. Yeah. And then there's some, you know, some easy spots in there. You take Arizona at home, you take Tennessee at home, you take the Giants at home late in the season, depends how you feel about Jacksonville. I think there's a lot of varying opinions on that. But there's some winnable games definitely at the end of the season, too, if you need to make that push. Philly on Thanksgiving? Yeah. So both Philly games are Primetime. You have a lot of Primetime games. Jacksonville Sunday night. You have three Sunday night games, two Monday night games. So Thursday night game, a Thanksgiving game and the Rio game. Jesus. I can promise you that. If this team sucks, we are going to be sick of them. That's the way it always is though. That Dallas at Rams game coming off the buy is going to be fun as hell. That's going to be a standalone in the afternoon. No question. That'll be a great one. I think kind of the interesting-- what's going to be interesting, I think, I think, is that the stretch in the middle there where they're going to be favored leading into Thanksgiving against Philly. If you get a win against Philly there, you're going to be presumed-- you're going to start to be talked about in the conversation of NFC representative in the Super Bowl. And then your next two games are against Seattle and LA. That's fucking cool, right? Like we're gonna you're gonna go right from You know what you know, you know kind of Putting putting yourself up there and then get immediately tested with two Awesomely tough road games against the two best teams the NFL you get extra rest for both of them Okay, so if you kind of use your rest wisely if you get those two wins and you're now like people are you're kind of in the driver Received for the one seed potentially like I feel like that's the like clear and obvious sell high on the cowboys, right? Like this schedule to when I look at this this feels like it's set up to me where we're gonna You're gonna we're gonna have some drama early Talking about the cowboys, but then they settle into you know a stretch where they're gonna get wins and then A stretch where they're given the advantage Against the elite to kind of prove their you know how good they are and then That's that's the date you cash all year you cash out all your your positive everything on the cowboys, right? They head to the cage take your money I don't know any other thoughts on that we'll talk odds for a few minutes before we go. It's a tough schedule The buy the buy week is absolutely terrible sandwich Super Bowl champs versus the Super Bowl champs of this year I can add Seattle Monday night by at or home at no it is at LA Jesus Yeah, she's your suest Well, yeah, and it's you have the buy week you're not gonna be like hey, let's stay in Oxnard. No, no You go home to your family. So you do get a fly out twice. Yeah Oxnard Yeah, I got six winnables Four likely losses. Can you do that this year for us go check out the cowboys get get a boots on the ground of camp Absolutely you know what pop down for a minute. There's a couple in LA. There are there's a bunch out there You know what you know, it's cool about Oxnard Andy it is the it is the departure point For the channel islands national park one of the least visited and most beautiful of all of our natural resources here in America It is uh, it's tough to get there. It's about a 45-minute boat ride to get out to channel islands national park, but uh It does leave from Oxnard, Oxnard So I can double up see some cowboys and then go uh Decent Channels opinion on win total. I know you talked about NFC. There's places that you know, it's two to and a half not quite I don't think NFC or Super Bowl No, I think if I'm praying on upside here. I'm probably taking a one-seed price right like I'm probably okay Give me like NFC one seed at a big number right now for these guys in the hopes that When you get to the Seattle and Rams game that the breast difference matters and you can just you can just outscore those guys somehow somewhere You know Like the Rams they they get the past rush to come after deck But do they have the coverage they can uh can cover both lamb and pickins? I don't know Seattle Daxa a wise and old vet. I don't know that the uh kind of simulated pressures are gonna have the same impact on a guy like dac That they did on Drake Bay and the Super Bowl, you know um So yeah, I think um if dac is as a full healthy year I think the cowboys are probably slightly underpriced to be the one seed If dac is hurt forget yeah All don't understand yeah, all my energy are all cashier losing 13 games I think I think that's a good key point by birdie if you are worried about intrigue Surge for me, you know quarterback That's that's the way to bet it. It's like I don't think this guy makes it through the year because of the defensive Playing the offensive line in front of him and his history And you're just parling those three things on he misses 10 games and you know they finish five games below their win total Which is eight and a half Some places nine and a half up. Yes is minus 115 like you can't can't get involved in any of these coin flipping things I think they're all priced correctly. I think if you want cowboys exposure you swing for the fences because even like the ns Price isn't big enough for me to get involved. No If you really believe in this offense and that being the driver if you think shoddy's great And this is really going to be you know the offensive line takes a step forward Back is great. He doesn't miss any games. CD lamb is like 18 to 1 to an O P O I It seems like that's been a theme lately where it's like hey what receiver has 18 or darts because he's Even with a really good two. He's just going to get stupid volume Caleb downs his third on the board of draft kings for d roi Kind of it's tough for the secondary piece because he kind of got to get the hey he had a bunch of picks or he or it has to be just like This kid's good. He's actually their second corner at this point. There's a lot of Bailey and sunny styles are ahead of him. sunny styles is going to be tough to beat because he's going to have 90 million tackles Entire defense. Yeah, I mean, deck deck MVP is just too short. I can't take that either. Yep. I agree What about the one seed? That's not worth thinking about. I mean how what's your you got to think about the rest of the NFC And I think the issue is I guess we're lucky that the NFC West is tough and the Rams have to play six games there because Jesus I'm struggling to see you know Issues with that team right now other than well that there is a Big head your quarterbacks old and he has an injury coming in every season that we're worried about he's gonna retire But I you know the Rams are worried about the NFC central I don't see North sorry I'm so InFC North, I think there's a little bit of attrition they beat up on each other I don't think there's a I don't think there's a 14-win team in the NFC North right now And the same kind of goes with the with the South the There's not a one seed there's not a one seed in the South guys So I think it's like are you worried about the Rams? Are you worried about the Seahawks? Do you think Is there some outlier with Calamari or Jordan Love or Caleb or or God? Any of the teams in the NFC North like spike and I don't know that it's there. So it's basically Can they can they win more games than the Rams? All of the NFC North being three and three in division is in play Yeah, that's exactly those all of the top of the NFC West being Four and two is in play um, I think the Cowboys Uh realistically, I think it probably starts with the expectation of five and one where you're splitting with the Eagles If you beat the Eagles twice six and L then one seed is think as live um The one seed price for the Cowboys without looking you want to guess? Ah 15 Plus 1550 Yeah, it's about the same as win. It's about the same as winning the NFC Conference and I'd much rather have uh, I didn't have it you know in pocket, I guess rather than expecting when playoffs games which feels It's tough even at home. Yeah, I just feels like the team that can outscore other teams in the in the regular season And then when we get to the playoffs the defense gets exposed Yeah, I mean realistically like it's probably The you know the floor is this is probably a wildcard team or just out of the wildcard teams But yeah, if everything breaks right Yeah, I think you're right. They can definitely win a lot of games Schedules not crazy tough The first have to go like five games above expectation. What happens to somebody every year and you you're betting on it 15 to one so long The fact part of the distribution for their outcome is the third seed The fifth seed or the sixth seed That's probably where they're landing There's a 17 a little bit there too. I suppose a little bit of 17. Yeah Um Alright. Hey, well, how about that? What's up guys? The positive How positive? Cowboys episode didn't think that was for sure gonna come this year And we'll be kind of him and in hog tomorrow. So silly we can do that. There's three three pocket eastern We'll tell you fine final tiny question then I'm gonna hit the music I Has Jerry conceded some of the decision making in control finally? Is that why things are a little more normal? I don't know Maybe they're just letting them go out there and be a goofball, but they actually are running things intelligently behind the scenes And maybe they just gave him an iPad that says like he thinks he's running things from it and They're actually doing it. It feels like that's what needs to happen for it to be a serious uh. Yeah A serious organization again. He's more interested in uh his cameo on And man I've just watched the clip Yeah, great thoughts Hey Patrick what a reference See you tomorrow 3 p.m. Eastern for the Philadelphia fight and go birds This is Justin Edwards co-host of The Most Accurate Podcast. Join me and my team of Jennifer Acans John Paulson and more from for for for for for.com as we go over a litany of fantasy football conversations. Focus. squarely on helping you when you're league. Looking for Starts to Advice, the best weekly streaming options and must add waiver wire pickups for your fantasy team? Check out the most accurate podcast for all of that and everything in between with data-driven analysis to help you get into the fantasy football promise land. Find for for for the most accurate podcast on all streaming platforms.