Dart Warming: An NFC East Preview

45:23So what do we make of him, right? I have my thoughts. I'll go first. I think there was things about him that impressed me and then things where I was underwhelmed but I think he can improve at. The thing that impressed me the most was I thought he was quite accurate. Like I thought he threw a really catchable ball when he knew where he was going with it. it was generally pretty well placed. Mostly, especially like the intermediate stuff, I thought was like pretty good. I think he is a legitimately very good runner. And I thought that wasn't surprising because I thought that about him as a prospect.

46:01But he is a runner in the Josh Allen mold where he is running, you know, between the tackles. He's surprisingly elusive at his size. He's not super explosive as a runner, but he's a very, he like runs really nimble. for a guy who's his size. Well, he runs with very good vision through the teeth of the defense. And I remember that was my big take on him as a prospect. I was like, I love when he steps up and climbs up in the pocket and takes off. There's questions about whether he should be doing that as much as we can do, too. So that's the stuff I like. The stuff I didn't, I just thought he was late, and I think the game was a little bit too fast for him at points as the season went along, and defenses were able to, you know, force him to process after the snap.

46:53And I think you could see him struggle with that at moments. And that led to some missed throws and missed opportunities. I think all of those things, like if we had removed the names from what we were just talking about, it sounds a lot like Jalen Hurts to me. Like, I think that he has a lot of overlap with Jalen Hurts' skill set. Because again, both very accurate passers. I think a lot of Jackson darts misses are because of what you were talking about, where he's late. Or sometimes I think when he gets to like his second, third progression where he's having to move his feet a little bit, he can get a little bit off rhythm.

47:27And I do think that that is a thing that can come with time. Like he's obviously coming from an offense in college that was kind of BS. And it was a lot of like, hey, we're designing up one route for you that is obviously going to be open. And if it's not there, just take off. And I think he's having to learn the rhythms of the offense and, and, and how that's supposed to go at the NFL level. So we'll see how far that comes along. I do think if that comes along, he is accurate enough to be pretty good, at least up until like the 25 yard range. I thought his deep accuracy was pretty bad, but I also, part of that to me is like, well, if I see him with healthy Malik neighbors, maybe that just looks fine.

47:59And like, why like deep ball is such a wide receiver stat that I would like to see that for a full season before I kill him for that part, at least.

48:10the brain trust of John Harbaugh and Greg Roman it's such a funny group they got to protect him from himself as well and that's hard because you just heard me praise his ability to step up in the pocket climb through the teeth of defense something I loved about him in college and he was a good runner he was first in success rate amongst dual threat quarterbacks. Third in EPA per play. He was tied for Mahomes with runs of 10 yards. So I guess he was a little more explosive than I said. But here's the thing. He led the NFL, despite not starting for some of the season, led all quarterback, and he'd take out sneaks, led all quarterbacks in runs between the tackles, significantly more than the next, who was Josh Allen.

49:03Josh Allen has like three inches and 15 pounds on Jackson Dart. It is simply not sustainable for him to run between the tackles. And I want to be specific here because when we talk about dual threat quarterbacks, I think we all conflate into like one gigantic thing. Not all dual threat quarterbacks take the same amount of contact. Not all dual threat quarterbacks run in the same style. John Harbaugh is coming from an offense with Lamar Jackson where, you know, I've heard him talk about, oh, with Lamar, we had to manage him. Very different. Very different type of runner. He knew how to never get hit.

49:38Lamar Jackson has the most unbelievable ability to just take 40 % of whatever a blow is supposed to be by the defender. It's kind of remarkable. That's why he's been able to sustain as long as he has. I feel the same way about Jane Daniels, who we're going to talk about. With a different style of runner, but also just a different build. But Darts, they just can't. it can't and and he had the second most design runs behind tasem hill like it's not the right company for of course you just don't you don't want that so i understand it was like and a lot of them were scrambles too which is not the fault of the play caller last year it's just of ryan table but like it it it's not sustainable having it run this much and you make a good point though like the only guys who have really been relatively sustained runners between the tackles are josh Allen and Cam Newton who are built like defensive ends yeah yeah like and Jackson darts not small he's just that is a clearly different category and caliber of like build and athleticism and so I think it's not a knock that he's not on that but it does change the calculus of how you need to protect your body I will say the one other thing other than the processing I really want to see him get better at but some of his pocket movement is is so it's like just all over the place it's it's very I think exaggerated is the word like you watch some of the best pocket movers and it's very like subtle movements they're barely shifting their feet they're buying just enough grass without walking themselves into the into offensive tackles Jackson Dart will like see something and just like take a leap in the pocket and like hit his own tackle and I'm like we need to let's chill out a little bit and buy ourselves a little bit of time because again I think even laid into downs his accuracy is good when he's like online i think he just removes himself from good throwing platforms too often because he does things like that yeah i i also um it is interesting to your point like when it's on time and he's in the pocket it looks really good i think when either i don't like out of the pocket and then also when there's pressure and he's forced to move inside the pocket is when things break down a little bit.

51:51So I think there's enough there. I, you know, I, I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of what I saw, but I think for this new coaching staff, they got to figure out also, and that's going to be a lot harder if like neighbors isn't in the building. So prayers up, fingers crossed. It's one of the more pivotal injuries, I think of the entire off season. All right, let's take a break, come back and let's talk about the quarterback I just mentioned, Jane Daniels and the commander's new look offense. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back.

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53:32And did I mention that iconic purple ShopPay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world? It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. Your customers already love it. If you want to see less carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com slash network. Go to Shopify.com slash network. Shopify.com slash network. It's Charles Barkley here with Wayfair. Let me tell you, game day is serious business at my house. If I'm grilling, chilling, and watching hoops, my outdoor setup better be ready to play.

54:13That's what Wayfair wins. From patio seating and umbrellas to grills and grill accessories, Wayfair's got it all. And it shows up fast. I'm talking fast and easy delivery. So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game. And head to Wayfair.com to get your outdoor space ready for the season. Wayfair, every style, every home. All right, we are back. Time to talk commanders. I haven't talked commanders. dramatic changes in Washington. Dan Quinn pulling the ripcord, offensive and defensive coordinator, new coaches, which makes this like an extremely interesting and kind of hard team to project in some ways.

54:52Let's start with the offense. So before we get to the coaching staff, obviously Daniels is back, Marcus Mariota, Terry McLaurin. It sounds like Traylon Burks is wide receiver too. I was reading up on the reports out of Washington. It seems like they're in, which like, if he works out and like sustains play as like a passable NFL player, I do think that's like a cool story because he was obviously a massive bust after what had happened in Tennessee. And so if he has like somehow sustains a career after this, I do hope it works out for him. And he just maybe needed a change of scenery or the right coaching staff, whatever it is.

55:29He did have some actually pretty impressive moments last year. He had like the coolest catch of the year. He had some flashes. and I well okay we'll get to him in the offense in a second and what role he would play they drafted Antonio Williams at Clemson he's a slot receiver they added Chig Conquo to the tight end room John Bates is there very good blocking tight end and then did at running back Rodriguez is out Rashad White is in behind Bill Cross Cabrera Keitron Allen they drafted in the offensive line largely the same outside of the center position Beattish out a Greg Allegretti is going to play center.

56:05So this offense is, I think, maybe the most fascinating because we talked at length about Sean Mannion and the Eagles, and I think we kind of know what... I do feel strongly that it's going to look a lot like the Green Bay offense. We'll see. I don't know what the hell this offense is going to look like, man. So David Lau, he's been in Washington. He was there as the assistant quarterback coach. Cliff Kingsbury was a play caller, but he also worked with Ben. He was under Ben Johnson, played for the Lions, and everyone is saying it's going to look more like the Lions, more under center, more outside zone, more, I don't know, multiple tight ends, all that.

56:59Ben and I talked about this on a fly. That is so different from what we've seen in Washington. Arguably more of a transformation than the Philadelphia one in some ways. I think way more because the Eagles offense is specific in its own ways. And I think because they've been that way for four or five years now, we've just talked about it at length. All these different offensive coordinators. It always becomes a Jalen Hurts offense, all that stuff. I mentioned that Jalen Hurts liked a little bit of no huddle he was up at like 14 15 percent or something like that on outside of the two minute Washington's offense was like half no huddle they were like in their own league and universe in terms of the way that they were doing it and I think a lot of that is is the way that Cliff likes to run his offense but that's technically the only coach that Blau has really worked under and we don't have you know again he he was with Ben Johnson as a practice squad player a little bit in 2023, but he was not on the coaching staff.

58:03So it's hard to know like how much of that he's going to pull from. Whereas at least with Mannion, there's like a clear idea of like, okay, he was actually on the coaching staff talking to Matt LaFleur, all this stuff. And so I do think there is a huge gap to be bridged here. And I don't know how they're going to be able to do it. Cause I think so many, cause so much of the Ben Johnson offense is under center. It's heavier personnel. It's a lot of motion. This offense was never under center they were never motioning they were always going no huddle i think it's just it's like they're almost trying to play a different sport now if that's the world they're going to live in it so i thought we talked about how with the eagles how the change could help that run game the first of all the command run game was actually fine last year um and obviously it's been good with jayden daniels but it's so predicated on changing the numbers through a gun run game with the quarterbacks the option if mario is back there as well right um I think sometimes it's lost because everyone just wants to smash the under center button for every offense and run the ball that way.

59:03And if you have a quarterback who is a dynamic rushing threat like Jane Daniels is, there's a benefit to him being in the gun, which means you can run option stuff, right? So whatever you do as defense, you're wrong. They can figure out, and you get a numbers advantage that way, whether or not the quarterback should keep it or the back should take it. And also the entire offense defense has to account for the quarterback. So in some ways, it's a good thing, I think, for them to transition out of that. Part because we talked about Dart taking a lot of contact. Jay Daniels needs to carry the ball less as well.

59:44Although I would say that's less design runs with him and more scrimmage. I just think he should scramble less, frankly. Even last year, he scrambled 16 % of the time, which was the highest rate by a pretty significant margin. And higher than his rookie year. His rookie year. I think some of that had to do with the lack of pass catchers, right? Which was another thing that made it really hard to make anything of Washington's offense last year because McLaurin barely played. And obviously Daniels had his injuries. but an offense where it's like, okay, we want the running game to be less predicated on the threat of the quarterback keeping and more about the offensive line, skill players who can block using motion on paper.

1:00:28I get it. I just, I think my question is, do they have the players to execute this? Now I will say, I think they have the offensive line to pull it off because why the centers, I meant, I, you know, mentioned that when I was a little bit like, Oh, interesting at be honest was a good center i kind of like the rest of this group uh which is the same and i also think the skill players you have enough size and blocking ability to make it work derrick the offensive line you can definitely get me there like laramie tunsel is is still incredible like he's still so so good uh chris paul really came on for them last year as like a i think if he's your fourth or fifth best starter you're in a pretty good spot sam cosme at his best is really good josh connerly i still want to see another step but he was much better at the end of last year than he was during the first half of the season the first half of the season was really really off but he did come along uh towards the second half and so i think with the offensive line if we assume that some amount of scheme change is going to help them a little bit you can get me there with them i think the pass catchers i have i have a tougher time getting there like another year another year of age for mcloran especially coming off a year where he's banged up I think scares me a little bit Antonio Williams I like but to me feels a little bit like a slot only right now and so I wonder if that is a little bit limiting and then I'm probably lower on Chigakonkwo than a lot of other people just because I think he is such a specific player which I actually think Chigakonkwo almost makes more sense for the way they had previously ran the offense where it was like more spread and don't ask him to block yes the catch yeah like It just makes more sense, I think, for him to be that sort of player.

1:02:11And I almost think that adding Rashad White actually makes more sense for that style of offense where he's a guy that is actually really good as a third down back, both as a pass protector and as a guy that you can pitch the ball down to on checkouts and stuff. And again, adding Antonio Williams, who feels like a slot only, that feels like you would want to live in more of a spread world. And so I almost do wonder, even if we've heard some of the Ben Johnson stuff and the getting under center that they actually kind of had just, they've built the roster again to be more of a kind of Bengals style offense or the way that, you know, Washington had previously ran it where it is exclusively gun and we're kind of operating that way.

1:02:49Yeah, I think when I think about the Lions offense, I can see Williams mapping on to how they use their receivers at times and I can envision because Laporta wasn't a great blocker, right? But he was a good route runner. He was good on those option routes. I think there's an interchangeability to the Lions offense that you could see working with some of these players. But it is still a little bit unclear to me how it all comes together. And I think what will be interesting to go back to the initial question about David Blau is if he starts trying to do one thing and then pivots back to more of the Cliff Kingsbury style offense, because that's what fits the player, including Jaden Daniels, frankly, because that was the thing about Cliff that year one was I was so skeptical of it.

1:03:50And then watching him, watching that offense, which you talked about, spread him out, no huddle. Daniels was just such a good fit for it, right? Because he, like, you know, he is, well, there's a bunch of things that made sense for him in that regard. But his rushing threat kind of turbocharged that offense, which we had seen kind of glimpses of at other points. So I just don't know if. Okay, how do I put this? I said it earlier about the Eagles where I was like, this build makes so much sense for this type of offense. Like, I look at these players, I look at these skill players, I look at the line, I look at everything, and I get it.

1:04:27Like, they clearly re-geared this towards this vision. When I look at the commander's depth chart, I don't look at it and feel like it maps onto it as clearly. And so I'll be interested in seeing how long they stick with it. Yeah, this feels like you have to tell yourself a little bit more of a story. for it to be an offense that's going to be a little bit different. I also do wonder with Daniels how much of the no huddle and not wanting to run a lot of motion, how much of that is actually a comfort thing for him? Because I actually do, like, there are different styles of quarterbacks. I think kind of like you were talking about with the under center earlier, some people just want to mash that button.

1:05:03And I think with motion, we also have the same tendency to like, I just do more of it and it'll be good. But I do think some quarterbacks like less of it. Like I believe Peyton Manning early at some point in his career talked about like, no, I just want to set it and forget it. And I'm going to be right because I can see it. And I think Joe Burrow often operates this way where it's like, I just want to set it and forget it. I'm going to be right. And I do think that Daniels is a little bit more of that style where he's really good pre-snap. He's really accurate. The ball comes out quick. And I think that he is really good operating that way.

1:05:31I wonder if, you know, and we'll see this year, how much of potentially operating in a little bit of a different way. Is that something that he wants to do? Is that something he's good at? You know, we're going to see. So imagine if they add Brandon Ayuk, who I haven't talked about him because I honestly, who the hell knows what to say? Who the hell knows if he's going to play football or the commanders? Who the hell knows what he looks like? But if he's even anything close to who he was at his prime that got him paid, that's an offense with him, McLaurin, and Burke slash Williams that should be spread and shredded.

1:06:07So, yeah, I think it'll be interesting to see. I think that's, Blau's got to figure out,

1:06:15how it all comes together and how to optimize the quarterback, who I'm still a very big believer in. But I will say, I do think that the offensive line sets a floor for this offense, assuming that they're healthy, where if you have Daniels healthy and at least one of the receivers, the offensive line is good enough to where I think the run game, regardless of what it looks like, will always be pretty good, even if it goes back to more of the gun stuff or whatever. and that'll, I think, set a floor. That's what I'm saying. Like, this is not like, you know, we talked about the Giants without neighbors and I was like, ah, I don't feel that.

1:06:50I think even with some of the uncertainty and questions around this offense, I feel good enough about this line in particular that they can weather some uncertainty early on. I agree. I think Daniels in the line makes it hard for them to be bad. And then we'll see what the offense and the ceiling looks like with some of those other pieces. I will say one thing, and I want your take on this as well. Jaden Daniels, to me, did feel less accurate last year. Even when in situations where it felt like he was clean, felt like he had time, it just felt like some of that touch that really made his rookie season magical, it felt like it had faded.

1:07:22And not even just on the nine balls. Obviously, the nine ball stuff was probably always going to be a little bit unsustainable, right? But even on some of the - There were some misses. Yeah. And he was so accurate. Oh, his rookie year, he couldn't miss. and his second year just it felt like he was doing a little bit more aiming it felt like his mechanics had fell away a little bit so i hope again that was just like injury related yeah that that's kind of i'm all hoping that i think the case especially since he was so accurate in college um i think combination of injuries and then like lack of trust in the receiving group and i think you see this all the time with quarterbacks we always talk about how like offensive line play affects quarterbacks and they get skittish i am firmly of the belief that playing with bad receivers affects as well it makes them i really believe that and there were like drops as well it was just really ugly that's a great point because you end up with one of two things you either end up with quarterbacks who stop trusting their receivers so they do that where they're like i gotta aim it to the perfect spot or or it's not going to be complete and they do that or you get guys like dac prescott trevor lawrence where they're like i'm gonna put it where it's supposed to be and you better find it and then they end up throwing picks because they're not I don't know who you are.

1:08:31I don't care. Grab a span for get ready to learn the Seam ball. All right. The defense is also fascinating. So major changes to this group. Quinn completely, I mean, they ripped it up. It is very different.

1:08:50So defensive tackles, you got big dudes, Settle, Payne, Kinlaw were there, and Jai Newton. But the edges are totally different, and the linebackers as well. So at edges now, we are looking at Dorrance Armstrong still there, but they signed both the Dafa O.A. and Klavan Chason. And then the linebacking group is – I love this linebacking group. Oh, you and me both. So I'm into this group of linebackers. Leo Chennault, Sonny Stiles, and everybody's favorite demon, Frankie Levu. And then on the back end, Trey Amos, they added Amik Robertson. Sainer still hopefully plays better in the slot. And then they assigned Nick Cross from Indianapolis to play next to Quan Martin.

1:09:34Let's just talk about, okay, so the new defensive coordinator is Durante Jones, who comes from Minnesota. Interesting resume, by the way. He coached secondaries for the Bengals and the Vikings, then LSU, back to the Vikings, then got this job. I've been asking around about him. People are very high on him as a teacher, as a mind. And I think there's definitely going to be a Flores influence. We can talk about how that maps on to these players. But first, I want to talk about that linebacker group, because you and I, I saw your eyes widen as I mentioned those names. I think my biggest question is just like, how do you get them on the field?

1:10:12You know what I mean? Because this is going to be a 3-4. Well, lucky for them, I think literally all three of them can play on the edge. faster yeah yes like frankie lulu has always been a guy where like just get him moving forward just let him do it leo channell can like he can set he can set the edge like a different like he is he to me is like dante hightower light where like he has very similar style of play i think he's that kind of guy oh you i i love him dearly he's it's it's a criminal by the way if you look at his accolades on like pro football reference he made like two pro bowls ever which is insane he never made an all pro like I cannot understand that Greg Rosen's always gives me the shit for this but I always say you can't tell the story of football without telling without talking about Dante Hightower because he literally made a tackle play in every Patriots Super Bowl that changed the game and they do not win those Super Bowls that okay back to these linebackers um yeah I so that was my thinking as well and again this is where the Durante Moore Flores stuff comes into play too right because um you know so so you got up front with flores you just want some big defensive tackles you can eat up gaps extra gaps and then you want chaos behind it and then you want zone defense that's a very oversimplification of what happens uh i really think that these linebackers give durante more the sort of flexibility to create some of that chaos with styles being like I think he's going to wear the green dot.

1:11:49Maybe the most conventional in terms of how he is used. But yeah, like, Chennault and Louvou, there's absolutely ways for... It's such a fun problem for Durante Moore to solve, which is, how do I get these guys on the field? How do I use them to create uncertainty? Are they coming? Are they going? Are they setting an edge? We're walking them up at the last second. Like, you know, Zach Bonstadt. I just think there's so much optionality with these linebackers, and I love that they're all on the same team. And what I like about it, too, is that if you're going to be this style of front where we're slashing gaps, we're doing all these crazy stuff, we're sending five - and six-man blitzes, you want these guys to be as fresh and as fast as possible.

1:12:30And their edge room is, it's not like any crazy stars, but they are deep now. Luvu can play on the edge. Yes, Olway can rush the passer. Dorrance Armstrong is a really good player. They signed Caleb on chase on. He was good last year, dude. Chason was good anyway. I don't know if we get handed out, but he should have earned most improved player. Crazy how much better he was. Before those final six weeks in 2024 was just not good to have him out there on your defense. And then that final stretch with the Raiders and then his year with the Patriots, I was like, he actually gives you some stuff. Yeah, he kind of gives you some stuff.

1:13:06But again, with LuVu, they've got five. You know, Chennault can rush the passer a little bit. They've got like five or six guys that you can reasonably bring off the edge. I think that goes a long way for guys that you can keep fresh. And even those backers are guys who are obviously traditional stack backers. So there's a little bit of flexibility there. But like Chazon, I think you can drop a little bit, like always a little bit thinner. You can definitely drop. They would drop them in Baltimore, yeah. 100%. Like they just, the flexibility with this group is pretty enticing. I will say what interests me with how they're going to do it.

1:13:37Flores has obviously always been a zone guy. or at least well at least in minnesota like previously at his previous stops in in like you know uh miami coming from the belichick tree he was a lot more man coverage but minnesota's just never had the bodies for that i do think that this commander's defense does have the bodies for man coverage like trey emos i think can do it and i think amic robertson actually is a really good man corner i don't know how much of it they're gonna do but i think they played a lot last year and they were freaking awful at it um the commander's defense but saner's still playing outside was bad.

1:14:10Right. I don't think that's a good fit for him. Yeah. And I, I like Trey Amos. I, yeah, that's an interesting question. Uh, Robertson is an upgrade. There's upgrades across the board here. Like this should be on. I don't think this is a top 10 defense. I didn't put them there, but I really think the more I sat with the steps chart and looked at and thought about the coordinator and what he brings to the table, I really think we could see some improvements, which obviously not hard. Cause this was, you know, one of the three worst defenses in football last season in a number of ways but I just think what you and I kind of talked about the versatility up front gets me really excited and I think I wouldn't be surprised if Moore is one of those guys that we're talking about in a couple years as next head coach if what I've heard is correct.

1:14:58Commanders, a lot of change. Interesting team. I'll say this as a wrap here before we get to the Cowboys. If I'm a Commanders fan, I'm just glad Dan Quinn ripped it up and brought in outside voices. or I mean, I guess Blow was in the building, but like there, you know, I, Joe Witt Jr. was his guy from Dallas. I love the fact that there's some change here. I think that's a really good thing based on what we saw out of this team last year and just got to keep Daniels healthy and. Buster Olney here for La Quinta by Wyndham. Summer work travel can feel like extra innings, long days, late nights, and not a lot of room to stretch out, especially when your hotel room feels more like the dugout than the clubhouse.

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1:16:20Coverall delivers long-lasting shine. Visit your O 'Reilly Auto Parts store or OReillyAuto.com. I like things my way. My coffee, my schedule, and my treatment. So I talked to my doctor about self-injecting with the Vivgard Hytrulo Pre-Filled Syringe, which contains F-Gartigamide Alpha and Hyaluronidase QVFC. It's injected under your skin subcutaneously. It means I can inject in my space on my time. It's my treatment, my way. Visit VivgardMyWay.com. That's V-Y-V-G-A-R-T MyWay.com. And talk to your doctor about Vivgard Hytrulo. Brought to you by Argenics. You know, add Brandon Ayuk, let's cook. Dallas Cowboys.

1:17:03So the offense Nate Tice had as the best offense in football. We don't really have to, you know, get too in depth here because we kind of, we talked about it for some time when we did the top 10 offenses pod, Cowboys fans. If you missed that, go listen to it. I guess I'll just ask you, do you agree with, and I want to talk more about the defense, which I think is really interesting. Speaking of defensive coordinators, that could be future head coaches based on the buzz. do you agree with Nate do you are you as high on him do you see any weaknesses uh on this on this offense that concern you what's your how do you feel I think I'd be too scared to rank them first but I do think that they are one of the four five six offenses that if they finish the year in first I would not be that surprised because I do think that there's a world where the offensive line really does start to gel like Tyler Smith is already fantastic but I think cooper bb's is really good uh steel actually played i think a little bit better last year tyler booker will we'll see i think he showed some flashes i still think he's like a little bit heavy footed but the way that he can move people on some of those like double teams and combos is is pretty gnarly and so i do think that there's a world that like that is really good and i think part of my optimism with them is that they were one of 10 teams last year to be trailing for at least 600 plays obviously the defense was terrible and we'll talk about that in a minute they were the only team of those 10 with a positive epa over that span so they were trailing for like most of their games and we're still an electric offense i think if we get to a world with the defense which we'll talk about if they are 20th and just not putting them in a hole immediately every single first half i do think that there's a world that just because just by virtue of playing in more favorable situations on the scoreboard you can call some of the stuff that you want to call you can have a little bit more flexibility to not maybe have to call first and 10 passes that we wouldn't want to call otherwise and i do think that that kind of opens up a lot that like hey man they could be cooking with gas like second year in a system a lot of young players one of the best wide receiver duos in the league like there is a lot to be excited about yeah it sounds like pickens is gonna play not gonna hold out contract here we'll go keep your fingers crossed um i i know some cowboys fans were a little bit disappointed that they didn't upgrade at running back but i think javante williams is fine um and i know that sounds damning fine i actually so okay so he obviously benefits from all the split safety looks that they face because of their receivers and all the light boxes if not the most light boxed football you know top two or three um but and because of that he had a very high success rate and the run game was pretty efficient as well but uh next gen stats has him top 10 in rushing guards over expected per carry which i've generally found to be pretty predictive and a pretty solid way of calculating whether or not running backs themselves are so what that does um for those who don't know is they're looking at what the average back would gain in a situation based on the blocking and the position of defense and then whether the running back did more and that's saying that Williams, you know, he got the most out of what was available to him.

1:20:16And that kind of squared with what I saw. We'll see if Jaden Blue can be better than he was his rookie season. They also have Malik Davis too. But I don't, I think if the one question I had was Pickens, and then I mentioned Guyton, sounds like he's going to be the left tackle over Nate Thomas, who didn't look great last year. So I just don't, I think, if I think the offensive line is good enough and the interior in particular, as you alluded to, is good enough to where they could weather some, you know, an injury here or there. I think Lamb and Pickens themselves are just, it's hard to hard to find flaws with an offense with those two types of players.

1:21:00I mean, they're so goddamn good. And it wasn't even like Lamb's best, like Lamb was, was kind of a down year for him. it was a down year for him and he was still really really good and that too is actually why I'm not that worried that like I in a perfect world I think it would have been great to improve on Javante Williams maybe get someone who's a little bit more like has a little bit more gas but at the same time like a passing game built with George Pickens, CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott you will get all the explosives that you need you do not have to worry about getting them out of your running back and so again I think if they're in a better spot on the scoreboard and the run game can be a little bit more consistent they can be a little bit more healthy and they're just in second and fours all the time I don't think it would be that crazy if they look closer to like what the Rams were last year in terms of offensive efficiency the talked about being put in a bad position by the defense so let's get to that because it's the more interesting side of the ball to talk about uh 32nd DVOA last year after adding Quinny Williams they improved in run defense and got a decent amount of pressure but they were abysmal in coverage behind it, so it didn't matter.

1:22:09Made some pretty significant changes, starting with defensive coordinator alluded to this. Ibrouflus is out. They brought in Christian Parker from the Eagles. He's Fangio Tree, and sounds like this defense is going to look a lot more like Philadelphia's. Get to what that means in a second. Defensive tackles, room was obviously a strength with Williams, Kenny Clark. They moved on from Osa Digizoa, which I actually think, I liked him as a player, but I actually think kind of speaks a little bit to this game change, too. They added Rashawn Gary and Malachi Lawrence to rush the passer. You had Donovan Azaraku, who I thought was decent last season.

1:22:53Linebacker remains a big question mark here. DeVarion Novoshoin is further removed from injury. You had Dee Winters. They drafted Jayshon Barham. But the big change is on the back end. And this was a very, very, as evidenced by the fact that, you know, I talked about the past defense, bad secondary last year. And it's going to look very different. You start with the first round draft pick, Caleb Downs, who it has now become clear I thought this would be the case, is primarily going to play nickel, maybe base. He'll play safety and base. Outside, you have Derron Bland. And then they added Kobe Durant from the Rams.

1:23:28And then they've got Revel Jr. behind him and some other options. And then at safety, Jalen Thompson and Malik Hooker. So definitely a different secondary.

1:23:41So what, out of everything I've said, what excites you the most? And then we can talk about what worries you the most, even though it's obviously linebacker. So I think to me, it's the movable DBs. Caleb Downs is as perfect of safety college tape as you could possibly have. And again, he's going to play nickel here, but I think he's like in the Brian branch realm where he can kind of just do both. And it's fine. Which actually leads me to a point. And I want your opinion on this Christian Parker. I think there's a lot of excitement about him. There has been for a couple of years now. And he's, we talk about him a lot in the Fangio mold.

1:24:15Like obviously he's worked with Fangio multiple different stops. Obviously most recently in Philadelphia, but the longer I look at the roster construction for Dallas's defense, this looks to me more like a Steve Spagnuolo or Brian Flores. in terms of the way that it should be ran with how they have the corners with how the linebacker room is set up in terms of like i think the fangio defense is an underrated part of why they work is at their best the linebackers are often like incredible and really good in coverage like 20 2011 through 2014 with the niners willis and bowman in 2018 with the bears when they were like the best defense in the league you had roquan smith and danny trevathan um and then in philly obviously you had Zach Bond coming on the way that he did.

1:24:58N 'Kobe Dean was good. Jahad Campbell was good last year. They've always had backers that could kind of be the glue for the defense. I don't see that in Dallas right now, whereas I think their safeties are really movable. And I think their front can create a ton of chaos, the way that we've seen from Spags and Flores teams. Well, it's interesting. So I'm a little bit biased just because everything – Christian Parker's been like, I'm not copying everyone. but for everything I've read about this defense this summer suggests it's going to be closer to Philadelphia than anything else. I think your point about the linebackers is well taken.

1:25:34It is, it is concerning. Um, by the way, on NFL live today, Jeremy Fowler threw out again, the possibility that they would trade for Jordan Brooks, which please, my eyebrows. If they trade for Jordan Brooks, this is, I can be a top 10 defense. I actually believe that it has that capability. Um, I think we're going to see a lot of nickel and big nickel. I think safety is now the strength slash, you know, downs, whatever you want to call him. And I think there's the hope that with the offense being as electric as we expect, they might be able to play with a lead and maybe compensate to some extent for what could still be some issues with run defense.

1:26:22but yeah I I I think we're kind of all type we're both talking about the same thing which is can they compensate for the one weakness right which is the edges are fine I said one weakness it's not a great group we'll see what you get out of Malachi Lawrence Sean Gary is fine he will set an edge I think the pass rush can be okay I do wish they had a star who was on the edge but I actually think they have enough that they'll be okay. I actually like what I saw out of Azaraku too last year. I alluded to that. I think he looks like a nice piece for them. But yeah, right now the strength is the defensive tackles and nickel, safety.

1:27:11It's not even like a set of downs. It's not like anyone here is like a star, but now it's like, oh, these are all good NFL players. I think they're just still a few pieces away. I guess what I'm saying is like, it's not just linebacker. They need a few other positions to shore up to be in that top 10 group. But do I think that there's enough here for this defense to be average? Yeah, I do. I do too. I think they've, they've, it feels like they've fixed a lot of holes, right? Like they've plugged a lot of issues, but I think to your point, other than maybe Quinn and Williams, or if Caleb Downs is just right out of the box, which I think is a lot to put on a rookie safety.

1:27:49I don't know who you say we're building the defense around this. Whereas I do think a lot of elite defenses have at least like one or two guys where you're like the whole ship is built out of what they are capable of and will kind of bend the scheme to that. Whereas I'm not 100 % sure these guys have these players. Maybe if Quentin plays at that level. Well, I think we're kind of also talking about the same thing, which is, okay, when you think about Christian Parker coming from big Fangio and you think about the way it sounds like they're going to use downs, which is kind of primarily a nickel.

1:28:21You know, it's a very modern thing right now, right? If you have a nickel who's just a dog against the run, who you also trust to defend tight ends and slot receivers, if you have Cooper DeGene or Nicky Manwari, you can play the current meta, which is you can stop offenses from a split safety structure with light boxes, living in your sub packages, even if they put an extra tight end on the field, et cetera. Those offenses or defenses have very good linebackers. And I think that's when I look at this and I ask, what would it take for this defense to get closer to those? If you dropped in a Jordan Brooks or really great linebacker, and then I would look at Quinn and Williams, the defensive tackles are strong, similar to Seattle and Philadelphia, who, by the way, don't have like Miles Garrett's either.

1:29:15linebacker nickel that's the same that then you're like oh this is this looks like that i feel good about this it's just missing that one player a jordan brooks or what have you it jordan brooks is the idealized version do you know what they could have done and maybe this is hindsight because obviously the the offseason is done now i do think that's like a one year solve the issue like demario davis would have been like a pretty good solve the problem here for a second obviously he's towards the back end of his career who knows how many good years he has left in him but he is a really smart coverage player and I do think would have been able to handle the green dot well and all the how much this defense needs to communicate he would have been able to do that but it is why like again the Fangio defense has when they've been operating at their best or the Fangio-esque ones like obviously Mike McDonald traded for they traded for Roquan Smith when he was in Baltimore and then traded for Ernest Jones when he was in Seattle like it's clearly an important part of the way they do this.

1:30:08We'll see. Still some summer left. Something could happen here. I really feel like we could wrap here. I'm not saying like Jordan Brooks is good. He's not like, you know, Fred Warner or whatever, but But he's Ernest Jones. I would feel very comfortable putting them on top of the division if they had, if they added a linebacker. Is that too much to put on a single? Because this offense is going to be so good it might not matter which brings us to the end which is when we rank the teams i actually i wanted to wait until we talked about because i you know i view this as a two-tier division um and i and i like so they're the eagles and the um cowboys are opposite ends where i feel that the eagles have a top five defense and some questions on offense the Cowboys have a top five offense and questions on defense so it's like what do you feel better about in terms of the opposite side of the ball approaching average I think in the non Jordan Brooks world I probably think it's more likely we get like average Eagles offense than we do average Cowboys defense and I I like the trajectory for the Cowboys defense but I think to your point probably a year or two away.

1:31:34Whereas I do think with the right things falling in line this year, the Eagles offense could just, again, not be like 2024 levels, but they could be pretty solid. Yeah, I think so. I felt like at the end of talking about the Eagles, I felt pretty good about it. So I'm going to go Eagles, Cowboys, Commanders, Giants. That's boring. That's exactly what I've got. Yeah, we'll see. And like the commanders are a wild card, man, because it's just they're just it's just like I they're one of the teams where I'm just like, I really this could go a lot of different ways. I know the coaching changes, but I do like some of the things they did.

1:32:13And boy, those linebackers are going to be fun. Sonny Stiles. Excited for him. Derek, folks can find your work at the athletic football show. Of course, you podcasting all summer. Oh, yeah. All summer. It almost four, sometimes five episodes a week during the summer. Like we, we, we've been getting at it. Yeah. Well, today we actually recorded like a, we did like a Canton court and a week before that we did like a hall of very good. So it's, it is, we're at the point of like where it is definitely middle of the summer type of content, but, um, uh, we're, we're, we're doing good stuff. Yeah. Uh, next week I will start my annual power ranking series, the power hour where I have a guest on to help me power rank the entire NFL.

1:32:55I actually just did my power king. It's hard this year. I really struggled with the top 10. It is, yeah, I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how that shakes out. So folks can check that out. That will drop Monday morning. We are returning to the twice a week podcast cadence. Oh, wait. Yeah, yeah, right. And then the AFC East on the other side of that. So check that out wherever you get your pods. Also, if you watch Love Island, you can check my TV recap show with David Dennis Jr. Viewer discretion. We are recapping Love Island, which is its own sport. do you ever see love island content derek and just think there's a whole other world out there kind of so actually what's funny is uh my girlfriend her best friend is really into like love island and love island-esque shows but she does not really get sports and she was explained and i don't really get those shows like i don't watch them very much but she was explaining to me how it kind of is like a sport and like there are plays like plays that people do and schemes that people put together and then i was trying to explain to her that like sports are kind of like a drama in the way that some of those things are where it's like caring about the player stories is like really important so it's like we found this like weird middle ground between love island-esque shows and like what i do for for a living it was really funny i love that well there's a guy in love island who looks exactly like kyle hamilton so there's that's a handsome man kyle hamilton's a handsome man but he's he's he's a villain to the point where i posted that And then the Ravens posted it and the fans are all really mad at me.

1:34:24They're like, don't give Kyle or baby Kyle Hamilton to him. All right. Well, that was really fun. NFC East, excited for a lot of this stuff. AFC East next week. Thank you, as always, to the folks at Omaha Productions, Kirsten Sebecki, Owen Saylor, Tucker Tash, Tashin, Jack Foster. See you guys next week. Wow! Wooly! Wooly! Wooly! Wooly! Wooly! Wooly! Wooly! MLB.tv on ESPN is your home for every out-of-market game, live or on demand. Catch your favorite teams and players, plus MLB Network and ESPN app features like Multiview, syncing your stats, key plays, bets, and fantasy, all in one place. Sign up now for MLB.tv in the ESPN app.

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