Daryl Johnston previews Cowboys training camp | Free4All+

Welcome to our channel 27 Fox 4 plus audience, the third night on TV. We've been on the digital platforms for months now with this show. We're on every weeknight at 7. I'm Mike Ducey. Jeff Kolb is sitting in what I like to call the second chair tonight as we get things going. Sam's off tonight. And I typically, Jeff, I guess, do you solo it on Fridays? Does Ethan sit where you do a lot of times? All the time? Yeah, I make him sit here. Okay. And we go from there. Yeah. Kind of like Johnny Carson. Doesn't feel like anything weird's happening this evening. Johnny Carson used to do a late night show, but he'd always insist on sitting higher than the guests. And that's kind of been a tradition. I could use that. Late night. That's not why I brought it up. But anyway, I was at the ballpark last night. And I'm really glad I went, and I know you're a huge baseball guy and we both are, but just the way this summer has unfolded, and we'll talk about why it's unfolded in a different way here in a moment. Hadn't been out maybe but once since opening day, but it just, I don't know, just saw a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a long time, kind of felt like old home week, bought the media meal, spent way too much, but just gorged myself on ballpark food and it was a taco night. So I had a good time out there. I, I can't wait to get back out there. I'm remissed. I know we're going to talk a little world cup. I would have loved to have experienced some of those international fans at the ballpark. Some of the scenes just from like across the league, you know, where like, they're like picking out that one outfielder, just like chanting his name randomly in the middle of an at bat and stuff like that. It would have been fun. I did. Speaking of chanting, notice more of that actually at the game last night randomly happening, which I had to be a by-product of people who'd watched the world cup, you know, a lot of some USA chants and just different things like that. It was a Mavs night last night too. And Derek Harper threw out the first pitch and there were these cool ranger, a Cooper flag jerseys that a lot of people were wearing. So that was fun, but so baseball is, is back in our spotlight a little bit more now that the world cup is over. Now that Spain is Sam continually reminds us has prevailed Spain. She just won't go away in the final, maybe the Argentina and we made it to the final four. Yeah. We all, we all, we all did. Yes. Jeff was Jeff England. I was Mike France, you know, you, and you did, I'm not just blowing smoke here. You did a great job on your coverage because you were put in a lot of different situations. You were there, you know, at the actual games some, but you were also in a lot of fan situations. First of all, what was that like? Cause let's be honest, that can be a beating, especially when it's 4 million degrees out there and it's crowded and it's loud, but this was just so unique. I'm sure this is something that's going to stay with you for a while. No, it was hot, but I, in some ways it was my favorite part. Like I really love being out there with the people and you know, sometimes we're, we're very used to like being in the press box or being here. And you know, we, we love you guys. Thanks for watching. Thanks for keeping us in business. Thanks for keeping the lights on. But yeah, to be out there to literally, I don't know what it was, but I just decided I wanted to wear every kind of hat. You did. Yes. Get the sombrero, get the foam hat, the the Pharaoh one. It was awesome. So I really loved it and yeah, to meet some of the international people, that was cool. And I think just, you know, it's nice to see and meet people who appreciate our show on the regular. So no, and we got a lot of great feedback about our shows, which we do appreciate. And then on the, on the World Cup coverage in general, and Sam and I have talked about this and I've mentioned it on the air a time or two that I, you know, I, I wouldn't still call myself a, a soccer enthusiast, Mike, I have, I have to ask you, have you come around on off side? No, no, no. Still stupid. Right up until the championship, right up to through the championship match, where the most dynamic player in the field had a goal taken away because his left eyelash apparently had crossed that imaginary line. So what's worse, offsides or targeting? Well, I think there's nothing worse than offside. I understand why it has to exist though. I do. And it's the way it was explained to me in the way that makes the most sense to me and producer Landry, you know, soccer very well, maybe can vouch for this. It's like an American football. There's a line of scrimmage where you can't line up on the other side. It's just that in, in football, the line of scrimmage is continually moving. Do you imagine that VAR cam right down the NFL line? Yeah. Tyler Guyton. He was just, just lean it over, but more appreciation for the game. Yeah. I have more for sure than I, than I did going in and, and just, I've talked many times about just being field level and even during warmup, seeing how fast these guys are, how, how the velocity that the ball has as after it's kicked. I mean, it's just unbelievable. The speed of the game TV doesn't do it justice from the, the high wide angle shot, but man, the moments we got to experience in, in just the matches here, it's pretty cool. No, it was awesome. And just like, when you look at it, nine matches in 30 days, this fall, we get eight home games for the Cowboys in 105 days. So like, we just don't get it in that kind of condensed timeframe ever. All right, let's go to the Jason Roberts and the story real quick here. One year, 12 million. He signs his deal with the stars yesterday to avoid arbitration. Here's what GM Jim Neal and Robo were saying today. During negotiations, it was very clear through Jason's representatives that he wanted to be a Dallas star. And so we went through negotiations, looked at all different scenarios, long-term, short-term. And in the end, this was probably the best fit for this time. Timing of, I guess, his contract status in the league and timing for our team. So we're very happy to have him signed and go forward from there. I think we're both glad, right? I mean, you know, it's, people say that it's, it can be tough and whatnot, but I'm sure we're both, I mean, obviously we saddled yesterday, so we're both happy that we don't have to go that route. You know, I'm sure they're happy they don't have to go all the way up to Toronto and travel there. You know, it's not far from me, but, you know, so yeah, no, I think we're just happy that we avoided that stuff and got it done and, you know, didn't rely on other people to do it. And I mean, it's, I guess I've been saying, I think we're content with where we're at. This is his opportunity and I give him full credit. You know, he's a player, he's earned everything he's got, and this is an opportunity to earn what he thinks the market is. And on my side, I gotta run a business, I gotta put a team in the ice, and that's where you have to work together, and they did. Jim Neil putting it pretty well at the end there, right? Obviously this thing got contentious at times, who knows if it will again, because they're just sort of kicking the can down the road here. Presumably both sides wanna get a long-term deal done here, they'll be able to actually execute a long-term deal after January 1st. But right now, do the stars get more of what they want than Jason Robertson does? Is it pretty safe to say that? I mean, obviously he'd rather not have to play under just a one-year deal because of the risk involved there. I think Jim Neil wins again, like surprise, surprise. This is like the 18-time GM of the year in the NHL, it seems. But they basically got Robo to show his hand, I feel like, because he wasn't interested in taking the offer they made for a longer-term deal. I believe it was at this amount, at 12 million a year. And so as a restricted free agent, they went and shopped him for these deals, and they had deals in place. A deal in place with Seattle, supposedly, right? He didn't take it. Seattle, maybe St. Louis was in the mix. So at that point, you knew he wants to be here, and you kind of had him at that point. So it'll just be interesting to see when you get towards that trade deadline, if you're doing really well, but the sides aren't close on a long-term extension, what do you do? On one hand, he is so valuable to this team that Neil knows that he'd rather not let him get away. And they will have more to work with in terms of cap space and stuff here before long. So if I had to bet, I would say they'd figure out a way to get a long-term deal done, and that Robertson will be a Dallas star for some time to come. But it's been kind of a bumpy road here recently for these two sides. So we'll see if they can smooth it out a little bit in the months to come. We are talking Cowboys with Daryl Johnston. That's up next on Free For All Plus. And you want to go to the poll? No? No poll right now. So we'll come back with DJ right after this. Stay with us, won't you? Great to have former Cowboy Daryl Johnston with us, back in 2016 as an analyst for the NFL on Fox, 27th overall as an NFL analyst. He made this mistake of joining some other network, first of all, but then found his home here with Fox. Found Fox. Congratulations, Daryl, on that run, first of all. I know a little bit about being in the business for a while. But to do it at that level for that long, you must really still enjoy it, huh? I do. It really is fun. I've been blessed to have great partners, great teammates on our crew. Where we've had multiple changes during the course of those 26 years, I've always ended up with a great crew. And then Fox is amazing as a company to work for and be a part of. So yeah, it's been a blessing to have been able to do this job as long as I have. And I do. I enjoy it. to have your passion of the game be contagious for the people that are watching on television. We're still waiting for a Superbowl run for this team during that tenure here. Maybe this is the year. I know a lot of people obviously hope that around here, Daryl. When you look at obviously the defense, that's where a lot of the focus will go with Christian Parker now, new defensive coordinator for this team. What do you like about some of the concepts with the new scheme, the three, four defense positional versatility? What we might see with some hybrid linebackers and things of that sort. Yeah. I think one of the big things for me is watching this kind of hybrid role of the defensive player kind of emerge in the league over the last 10 years and kind of gradually building to now the position flexibility, as you pointed out, is probably the hardest thing for the offenses that are going against the defenses. And we've seen the Superbowl champion Seahawks play a kind of a similar version to this when you talk about a strategy more than a scheme. But if you look at who Christians worked with, I mean, to be around Vance Joseph, to be around Vic Fangio, those are two really, really smart defensive minds. But Vance Joseph is unique, and I really think that Christian is unique. And we had an opportunity to go out for a legends day and had an opportunity to bump into him and visit with him for a little bit. And this is a guy who's very, very knowledgeable, very, very passionate about the game of football. You hear the people from Philadelphia that were a part of the defenses that he had there, how highly they speak of him. So there's gonna be transition this year, and there'll be a little bit of a learning curve, but you're already hearing it from the offensive guys, how much different it is from last season. So I expect to see a jump like we did on the offensive side of the ball from 24 to 25. Now Dak was injured in 24 and didn't have a complete season. So those are kind of different statistics that we'll be comparing, but I really think you're gonna see a quantum leap by this defense. And they have to be good in year one for them to be a playoff caliber team, because that offense is gonna be firing on all cylinders in year two with Brian Schottenheimer. Speaking of that offense, and you've been asked about Dak a lot through the years, but obviously had a great year last year. Just big picture, what continues to impress you most about Dak? And on the other hand, what's still been missing from Dak's game that's prevented him from getting his team to the next level? I'll always remember when he got his opportunity to play when Tony got hurt and talking to Jason Witten and just how much Jason Witten raved about Dak Prescott as a leader, as a rookie around a lot of the guys that were on that team. There was some really, really good Dallas Cowboy teams back then. And that was one of the things that I'll always remember cuz I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jason Witten and to hear how he spoke about Dak Prescott. And then you look forward to the opportunity that you're gonna have to meet him. And when you do, you're not disappointed in him. I mean, there is charisma, there's confidence, there's a love for the game. He's got a great work ethic. You hear about that a lot, just how much he's grown through the course of his career. So all the stats are there. But the one big thing for me is there's been a couple of key moments during the course of his career trying to get over that hump, get over that hurdle where you have that big comeback win. You advance into an NFC Championship game, advance into another opportunity on a stage like that than Dak Prescott. It's interesting. He's about to turn 33. I think actually on maybe the first practice day of camp to look that up. But 11th season, no one's been an active quarterback tenured longer right now in the league than Dak. I think historically, Daryl, you look at 33 and people would worry, oh, probably getting to the end of that prime part of your career. But you see what Brady did, obviously, that's an anomaly. But Matthew Stafford's still at it, Aaron Rodgers still at it. Do you feel like windows are longer nowadays for starting quarterbacks like a Dak Prescott who, it doesn't seem like relies on mobility nearly as much as he did early in his career? Yeah, I think length of tenure and length of career is longer across the board. his career. I think length of tenure and length of career is longer across the board. We left quite a few seasons on the practice field at St. Edward's University during training camp. So yeah, the physicality is not there in the practice. And that's a fine line. I'll talk about it all the time. I think they do need to be a little bit more aggressive during the course of training camp to get that body ready to take the physical punishment that it's gonna take during the course of an 18-week, 17-game regular season schedule in the NFL. To do that, you have to have a longer off-season program at your facility with your strength coach and your teammates. So there's some things that I would like to see kind of go back to the way that things were done when we were playing football and how we prepared. Now we were not right 100%. Those practices were tough. You didn't need to be that physical all the time. And that's why I do feel that our careers were shortened. Those were very, very violent, very, very competitive practices for several years. And I think a lot of us left a couple of seasons on the playing field down at St. Edward's University. Yeah, outdoors in the heat in Austin twice a day. It was painful to even watch, Daryl. I can't imagine what it was like to go through. You talk about going back for a Legends Day at the Star, and it seems like Schotty's been good about that and recognizing the history and the legacy of this team. With that said, is it ever, maybe this is too strong a word, embarrassing to you that it's now been 30 years between Super Bowls for this franchise? I wouldn't say embarrassing, I'd say frustrating. I think the hardest part is when we were coming into our team, coming together and having that opportunity to get on the run that we got on. We were living in the shadow of the 70s Cowboys as we were getting into the 90s. So it had been 12, 15 years. So I thought there would be a team. There were opportunities with some great teams under Jason Garrett. Mike McCarthy had a couple of very competitive teams. And you thought that one of those might break through, a couple of crazy Eli Manning playoff runs that the Dallas Cowboys were a part of as a number one seed. And that's the point I bring up about Dak. We talk about windows, and I was never a real big believer in the windows. But when you talk about salary cap and the quarterback on a rookie contract and just all the different things, I've really become a strong believer that there's opportunities for teams to have a window open to make a championship run. And when that opportunity is there, you have to seize it because you never know when it's gonna come back again, if it even does during the course of your career. And we were really, really blessed. And I give Jimmy Johnson a lot of credit on this one. I think he could kind of see everything coming together and he was kind of getting us ready to take advantage of that window and maximize that window. And that's what we were able to do. And yeah, Dak is getting down to that point where you talk about these windows of opportunity and they're getting ready to close just from where he's at in his career and how far does he push it? When you mentioned Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford and Tom is the outlier in that group. But is this defense coming together now under Christian Parker and all the changes that were made there? And the commitment to the defensive side of the ball, but still all the talent that you have on the offensive side of the ball. What is that window right now? What does that window look like for this team to finally break through and win that Super Bowl championship for the Dallas Cowboys and get us to number two? All right, I'm gonna put you on the spot with one of these talk show questions. If you had to predict right now, will the Cowboys be a playoff team this year or not? I think they are going to be. I think it's gonna be a much tougher NFC East from top to bottom. I think all four teams got better this year. Maybe the one division where I really felt that there was improvement by all four. I mean, John Harbaugh automatically makes the Giants a much better team. There was talent there, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Jackson Dart stepping into his own, Philadelphia is always, is that team that kind of ebbs and flows and last year wasn't their year. So did they make a big step this year? Where's that offensive line at that was such a key component when they had their Super Bowl teams, Washington, just two seasons removed from being in the championship game. We know how talented that team is with Jaden Daniels and some change there and that team getting better. So I think all four of them have taken that step forward. But that's why we were so good back in the 90s because the East was good from top to bottom. There were never easy games. And even though Arizona was in our division at that time and was one of the teams that never really kind of stepped through and had that big season like the other ones did. That was always a really, really challenging game for us. So our divisional games were sharpening our team to get ready for a playoff run. And then that old saying iron sharpens iron, the NFC East in the early 90s, that's exactly what that division did. And I can see the division becoming that again here over the next couple of seasons. Darrell Johnston, great to have you on again. We'll look forward to seeing you and hearing you again on games here on on Fox. Thanks for the time. We appreciate it. Thanks, DJ. Absolutely. Always good to catch up with you guys. Jeff, we've acquired the most important part of the of the show now. That being the poll question. Is Brian Schottenheimer already on the hot seat? The poll makers on the hot seat, shoddy, though, not a chance, not a chance. Mike a trade. The defense dunk. Now he's built an excuse for another season. We shall see. Go to Fox4news.com slash free for all. Scan the QR code. We'll have the results tonight at 1030 when we do the good old fashioned on Fox for free for all. Mike, World Cup over. Do you miss those translated soundbites yet? See, I mean, no.