1st & Goal: RJ Choppy, 105.3 The Fan Host

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash positive. The NFL season is inching closer and closer. Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future.

It's time now for First and Gold on the Zach Geld Show. How about them Cowboys? We'll preview the Dallas Cowboys with one part of the great duo of Sean and RJ on the legendary 105.3 The Fan in Dallas from Oxnard.

Of course is RJ Choppy. RJ, how are you? Zach, doing well, man. How are we doing? You sound tired, my friend.

How is it waking up and doing a show at training camp at 3 30 a.m pacific time? You know, I think it's taken a toll. It's taken a toll on me more now as I get older. I'm 43 now.

When I was 33, I mean, I did this so easy. I was able to go out at night. Now it's like, let's go to dinner at five o'clock. Let's get to bed by eight. Let's go to the show.

But it wears on you. Last night, we had the big media party at Nobu. Every year, Jerry Jones has the media party at Nobu, which is such a treat.

But it's like 45 minutes from here and we don't get home, so it's very, very late. So we're on fumes today. Any drama go down with the drama Cowboys at that party? No, you know, the players aren't there. The coaching staff usually isn't there. We saw Coach Garrett here one year, but usually it's just Jerry and Steven.

They kind of hold off the record round table. You know, you can ask him anything. They tell you anything, but it's all off the record. You know, and then occasionally, Al Michaels will show up or and then in the restaurant. There's usually celebrities from Vince Vaughn. You know, yesterday Fonzie was there. Henry Winkler was there yesterday in the restaurant. So it's pretty cool.

It's good people watching. Yeah, I can't really see McCarthy. He seems like a good guy. And you guys have a good relationship with going to Nobu and just devouring sushi with the media. You don't see him getting out much.

He's an early riser, so he's not getting out much. All right, with the Cowboys, I saw the Jerry Jones DAC friendly comments. Last year, it was we go as Zeke goes. This year, simplifying the offense.

What did you make of it? Well, you know, you got to, I think at some point, you got to learn Jerry speak and he will, he is the ultimate salesman. So he is going to try to sell things. So last year he was trying to sell. It's going to be a run first team.

And, you know, McCarthy keeps saying it's going to be a run first team this year. But, you know, Jerry now is looking at it from the perspective. Okay, you know, DAC is, you know, that we got to simplify the office for DAC.

We want to streamline it for DAC. You know, I just think that Jerry is selling. He's always, always be selling. That's his mantra.

If he had a T-shirt that he wanted to wear, that would be it. You know, this is a this is a good football team and he knows it. And he knows that the thing that's holding this team back is elite quarterback. Like that's a really good quarterback, top 10 player as a position, you know, but, but, you know, the guys who make it to that next level, the guys who win multiple Super Bowls are elite players.

You got to get there. And really DAC to me is kind of like Kirk Cousins, where statistically, I know it wasn't the case for DAC last year with all the interceptions, but usually those numbers are down. You throw enough touchdown passes and at times people be like, oh, I really believe in the Vikings. I really believe in the Cowboys. And this Cowboys team is really good, but I can't see DAC Prescott winning three games in January to get this team to a Super Bowl. Well, the issue, and I think this is where, I think this is where, yeah, you're right in general, but the NFC, I think is, is such a wide open, easy conference this year.

I don't mean easy. Like there's no Patrick Mahomes. There's no Joe Burrow. There's no Josh Allen.

There's no Lamar Jackson. Like you have to really, if you're the Cowboys, you're, you're, you're, you're have a quarterback advantage against San Francisco. You probably have the second best quarterback at the conference overall, um, behind Jalen Hertz. Uh, you know, cause we don't know what Matt Stafford's arm is at this point. So let's just say DAC the second best quarterback. You basically have to pull one upset to make the Superbowl in the NFC. If you think, you know, whoever has a better quarterback is probably gonna win the game.

Like that's really not that difficult. And that's the amazing thing about this team is they've had a good quarterback for 20 years almost. And they've never been able to get to even the conference championship game with Romo or DAC. Like they've got to just pull one upset.

They need a lucky bounce here or there. Um, yeah, I, I, I get the DAC Kirk cousins, you know, Derek Carr, Jared Goff, you know, comparisons are kind of all in that same little grouping. But I think, you know, DAC with the, you know, he is, he does put up a lot of good numbers in the regular season. I mean, I think he can win two playoff games. Um, could he win two road playoff games?

That's a different story. Like I go back to last year, RJ choppy, and I never believe in the Cowboys, but last year they beat Tampa Bay and even, you know, Tampa Bay is eight and nine, but it's still Tom Brady. They're going up against the Niners. They played him the playoffs year before, right? They couldn't get the snap off. And last year they should have won that game. The defense played championship style football and Tony Pollard goes down and DAC just looked lost. So my question to you off that is, if this happens again with DAC, but do they ever think about moving on from him or is he just going to get that extension and be locked up for a few more years after this?

Well, that's another price or another kind of conundrum. Jerry definitely wants to have a championship in his lifetime. One that he can call his own, that he doesn't have to worry about answering the whose title is it? His or Jimmy's the smart luck. You're right. The smart move would be like, if you don't have like a top three, four or five quarterback, you really got to try to find one. The worst thing you do, DAC is good enough to get you in the playoffs every year. Um, just like, you know, Kirk's good enough to get you in a lot and, and, you know, when it went a lot of games, Alex Smith kind of with the chiefs.

Yeah, sure. You put it like that, you know, but, you know, and, but never bad enough to where you're going to get the number one overall pick of the draft unless there's an injury. Um, and, and you know, the Cowboys team, the roster is good enough.

Even, even let's just say that does get hurt. He's missing. He's gone for the entire year.

I mean, shoot, they weren't like four and one with super rush. Like they're, they're not going to be bad enough to get the number one pick of the draft. Jerry's too old to start over.

He's not going to start over. And that's, that's the, the, the great thing is that, you know, the Cowboys are always going to be good and, you know, maybe, maybe you run into one, you know, you get lucky, you get hot and run into a title. Um, but the bad side is, is that, you know, you have a quarterback who's going to be very highly compensated is right now, but he's going to get an extension and he's going to get 46 to $48 million on an extension per year. And, you know, he's probably somewhere between like the seventh and 10th best quarterback in the league, you know, maybe seven to 12, wherever you want to put them. Um, and, and you've really got to get lucky to win. You know, you, you, you think you're going to beat Patrick Mahomes, uh, or burrow or Allen if they're on their game, you know, probably not.

Let's get to the next down. What's the latest on Zach Martin? Is there a chance they trade him?

I know this line isn't as great as it once was, but they still need him on this football team. We heard whispers that, you know, Jerry said this week, you know, we've got to pay Parsons. We've got to pay CD. We've got to pay DAC. Um, they're not going to give a third, an early thirties guard, you know, top guard money. Uh, I don't think they're going to pay the guard, a guard, that kind of money anyway. Like that's just kind of the whispers that we're hearing.

I don't know what happens here. Um, you know, Zach is losing $50,000 a day. Uh, he's approaching half a million dollars is going to get lost already just by skipping out on these camps. And this is not, you know, a couple of years ago where you can, you know, Oh, you can wink, wink, just get rid of that money. They'll, they'll, they'll, they'll, you know, write it into your contract that doesn't work like that anymore.

You've got to pay it. Like, I think there's a real chance, like one of two things happens at either he caves and he comes back or he retires. I don't, I don't, I don't, I think last year after the game against Sam Fran, like he was kind of distraught.

Like he was saying goodbye to a lot of people. Um, I, I, I don't think Jerry pays him. Like, I think Jerry paying him is the least likely of the three.

I don't think they go down that road where they give him this extension. They got to pay Parsons. They got to pay that. Um, you know, we don't know what they're gonna do.

A Pollard, you know, lamb, all that stuff. They got to pay these guys. Um, so I, and they just pay digs. So like, you know, they, they've got to pay all these players. What are they going to do? Are they going to restructure Zach Martin? Who, you know, are you going to add three more years, three, four more years to that deal where he's already kind of into class?

I don't think they do it. So I think it's order of, you know, likelihood is he, he put, tucks his tail between his legs, comes back. Number two retires, number three, Jerry caves and pays him. If it gets to that point that he wants to retire, why wouldn't Jerry then just trade him and he'll go play for somebody else and you'll get, I don't know what you get back, but at least you get something back for him. Well, yeah, that's, that's an option. I, you know, I was thinking from the, from the him, him not moving anywhere.

That's, that's definitely an option. I think if it would get to that point that Jerry would move them. Um, cause I don't know what you get. And what do you get for a guy who was in his early thirties, even though, you know, the players and the coaches just ranked him as the best guard in the league last year on that ESPN poll, uh, or CBS below.

I can't remember. Um, so I think, yeah, the likelihood is they would, they would, they would, they would trade him, but you know, short of that, and they were not going to move off of the Jersey to play that hard line stance. Cause remember they trade them all this guaranteed money, you know, comes to today, all that dead cat money.

Um, so yeah, like that is, that's absolutely a likelihood, but what is the compensation for somebody who's that age at some point this year, will you be hosting a show talking about the return of Ezekiel Alia to the Dallas Cowboys? Why did you have to do that? Why, um, because you know, it's going to happen. I know. Uh, yeah. If you had talked to me two days ago, uh, I would have said no, but with the Ronald Jones news and you know that that's, that's very short. It's only a couple of games.

I'm going to say no is the more likely one, but it's far more likely than it was 48 hours ago. Like, uh, you know, Mike doesn't McCarthy, I don't think wants the back. He said in the press conference that that door's closed. And then Jerry said in our station the other day, um, you know, doors wide open and it's like, you know, okay, which one is it? The two, the two, the two hands are talking to each other, you know, totally Cowboys right here. He's the ultimate salesman. All right. He's got to keep, he's got to keep everything in the news.

You want to stay in the news? I would say no, I would lean towards no. RJ choppy with us, uh, Tony Pollard, how's he looking so far, uh, coming off the injury? You know, so far he's fine.

Um, it's tough to tell in camp. I mean, you know, you get like, you know, you get one cut, you get to the first line of the defense and all of a sudden they pull the whistle and then you see the guy just running out the next 20 yards by himself. It's tough to really tell, but you know, it's, I just look at it like, you know, kind of a, of a bone break in 2023 is, is, is pretty fine. Now, now granted DAC is not nearly as fast as it used to be ever since the injury. So there is, there is that, but no Pollard Pollard's fine.

It'll be the feature back. We'll see, you know, what he can do. The guy to look, you know, look at this year's deuce ball, the rookie out of Kansas state, who is, I mean, if he's five, five, I'm six, three. Uh, you know, like come on, man. That is a ball guy, but you can't see him, you know, like we're sitting here watching for the sideline.

And if you don't have a good angle, you can't see him get the ball. It's wild. It's really crazy. All right. Yep.

Let's get to the next down. RJ choppy here with us. So I know the coach of the Cowboys. We always talk about him being on the hot seat with Mike McCarthy.

He's won 12 games back to back years. They've had the struggles in the post season. Is there a lot of chatter there locally about the seat being warm from McCarthy or is a lot of that just national media stuff? You know, it's, um, it's a little bit of both. I mean, there's a lot of national media stuff about it. And then, you know, the locals are, are I think kind of pushing it.

He's got, I'm a big fan of his. Um, there are people who are not, and they're kind of pushing it that he has to get to the conference championship game. I find like, did they win 12 games again? Are you, are they really going to fire a guy who's won 36 games?

No, they will. And here's the best film with Jerry. He's actually more patient than what people think. Think about him.

Yes, absolutely. Um, now the question is, is he going to be as patient with quote unquote an outsider as he was with Jason Garrett, who he viewed as a son to him. He wanted Jason to be his Landry.

He wanted Jason to be the coach for 20 years. Uh, he was kind of, his arm was kind of twisted to move on from him, but you know, McCarthy, uh, he came in in a COVID year and lost DAC almost immediately. Um, he had a good record without DAC this past year. They had a good record with that the last couple of years. I mean, if you win 12 games again and they win 36 games over a three-year stretch and they lose to San Fran again, the same team, um, you know, they lose the San Fran and it's another poor offensive performance. I think, I think they will.

It's a good chance. They move on from him. If it's a bad offensive performance against the same team three years in a row, I think that would really stick with Jerry. Um, you know, they lose the Philadelphia Eagles on the road in the NFC championship game. I think he's safe.

If they lose, if they win a playoff game and then lose to the Eagles on the road, um, in a good close game, but the offense does well, you know, I think it'll be okay. Uh, you know, the question is, who do you bring in? It would be Dan Quinn. Yeah, it would be Dan Quinn.

Probably players love him. Um, you know, or would it be somebody from the outside that, you know, who knows, but I think he's safe. And I reached these, I think he's safe as I think they're going to win 11 or 12 games again. Like it's just gonna be very hard to get rid of somebody who's won 36 games over a three-year stretch. Let's get to the final down.

Alrighty, RJ choppy. Uh, this defense is absolutely loaded. When you look at the ceiling for this defense, what do you think it is? It's, it's a really good, I mean, the ceiling for the defense is probably the best defense in the league. That's the ceiling for it. You know, the floor is much tougher because, you know, defense year to year, like, you know, a lot of times if you face a tough string of quarterbacks, I don't care who your defense is.

You might have some bad numbers. I think it's a really solid defense. The coverage on this defense is, is much better than it has been in the secondary, uh, digs and, you know, spawn Gilmore. They're not even growing to Gilmore and camp. I don't even, they're not even looking his way.

I don't know if he's found the fountain of youth or what, but like this guy looks legit locked down so far in camp. Digs has barely been out there, but he's finally out there now. Um, this is a good coverage unit. And if you've got good coverage of the secondary, I can't tell you the amount of times Dak's going back to pass and like had nowhere to throw.

I had to tuck it and run. Um, and with this pass rush with Parsons there and tank Lawrence, you know, you get good coverage and that's how you win. Um, it's a solid defense, you know, it's not lead you to boom, but it's really good name or two, just being out there that has impressed you.

I know it's training camp, but a lot of it's monotonous and you get a lot of these ridiculous articles and there's always a darling out there, but are there a few guys that you're like, okay, this guy really poised for a big year, you know, Michael Gallup appears to be back. Uh, and that's big because I think the third wide receiver is one of the most important spots. One of the most underrated spots in the team. You get a really good third wide receiver. You put him up against a third corner.

That's a mismatch man. And Michael Gallup's a good player when he's healthy. And last year, I think a lot of that was mental. Uh, coming back from the ACL, he, he has stood out. He is having himself a pretty good camp so far. RJ choppy from the fan in Dallas. Enjoy your a bougie meal at no at no boo each and every night. Okay. One time, man, I get to go one time a year. It's all important.