Calvin Watkins | Dallas Cowboys Insider, Dallas Morning Star

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. We're pleased to welcome longtime Cowboys insider Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. Calvin, what was your perspective on that fourth quarter when it all went completely off the rails for Indianapolis? I was like, this Saturday needs to go back to television because this is a disaster. I mean, they were getting turnovers. I mean, the third shooting, running back, getting a touchdown. It was crazy. 33 points, the most ever franchise history in the fourth quarter. It was wild.

I've never seen that before. It's crazy. It definitely happened very quickly too, and they were able to score after every single one of those takeaways, which is huge. When someone asks you to describe the Dallas defense or tell them why the Dallas defense is so good, what do you say, Calvin? I would say they're a very nasty defense because they have a lot of pass rushers.

They get after the ball. They have a defensive coordinator who's not afraid to blitz everybody to get after the quarterback. They got some guys who can make plays on the ball in the secondary, and that's hard to do. They have a lot of great players there. They're going to have some issues in the secondary because Anthony Brown apparently tore his Achilles.

He's one of the starting runners, so they're going to have some issues there. Outside of that, they're a fantastic defense. I think one of my favorite things about the defense too is that it's not just one or two guys. There may be a couple of stars that people know outside of Dallas, but they've got multiple guys with five plus sacks.

They get after the quarterback from a bunch of different angles, and as you point out, the secondary, even if it does lose a piece, still has guys who can make plays, even if you don't know their names, even if they're not the stars. Oh yeah, Daron Bland, you know, was just rookie that they fell in love with. They drafted him on the third day of the on the third day of the draft, and they wasn't sure, you know, if he could have an impact, but he has had an impact from day one of training camp, and they lost Jordan Lewis early in the season with a foot injury, and they were confident to say, Daron Bland, you're a rookie.

Fresno State, we're going to put you behind in the football game, and we expect you to make some plays, and he made two great plays. I have two picks, and they've loved him ever since to start training camp. Calvin, this is a total opinion question, but we know that Dan Quinn was in hot pursuit, and there were teams that wanted him last year before Jerry Jones made it worth his while to stay in Dallas. Do you anticipate that being the case again with the next NFL head coaching cycle?

Oh yeah, I think so. I mean, Dan Quinn, he could be selective, because he coached in Atlanta. He coached the team for the Super Bowl.

Yeah, they coughed it up to the Patriots. We all understand that, and he's a real, you know, personable guy, smart guy, so once again, he's going to have this choice of teams to pick from, and I don't know how much more money you don't give this man to stay, but last year was easy to do that. This is going to be a lot harder, and there's going to be a lot of jobs opening up for Dan Quinn, and he's going to be selective, and he's going to get a job, and he's going to take it. It is interesting, though, that his best successes, I would say the best stops on his resume, have been when he's a defensive coordinator, so in Seattle as well as in Dallas now, Atlanta had a little bit of success, but really his defense was the major issue the entire time he was that coach.

Yeah, it's interesting, because, you know, sometimes, and I think he's learned this, sometimes you got to be the CEO, and you can't be the guy that's calling defensive signals and all this kind of stuff, and if he gets a second job, which I believe he will, I would think he would say, I'm going to be the CEO. I'm not going to call the defensive plays like I did in Atlanta in the early part of that tenure, and I'm just going to step back like kind of like Mike McCarthy, because, you know, Mike McCarthy was a play caller as a head coach for a long time in Green Bay, and then toward the back end of that tenure, he said, you know what, I got to get out of it. I can't do it anymore, and then he got back into it a little bit, but I think you see Mike McCarthy here in Dallas not calling the plays and just be a game manager is a lot easier to handle, so I think that will be the next step for Dan Quinn.

If he gets a job, wherever it may be, Arizona, who knows, you know, that he'll say, I'm just managing the game. Calvin Watkins is with us from Dallas or AT&T Stadium, where Sunday Night Football turned into a lopsided victory by the Cowboys with 33 points in the fourth quarter. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. I was just saying here on the show, Calvin, that I really like the Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard one-two punch, the balance, the way that they have been since Zeke got healthy. What do those two guys have to say about splitting carries and splitting touchdowns and splitting the load?

Scott said it best about both of those guys. He said they have zero egos, and when you talk to Zeke and you talk to Pollard, those guys are like, look, I want the other guy to do well, you know, because it makes us better as a team. And Tony Pollard, he's had to answer questions about his durability since he got in the NFL out of college because no one thought this man could carry the ball more than 15 times in game, and he's done it.

You know, he carried 21 times about three weeks ago, and so he answered those questions. He got a contract year. Zeke's got his money. He's got a busted knee, and Zeke's still out there running around, and those guys just enjoy being around each other. Zeke is encouraging Tony. Tony is encouraging Zeke. It's a really good thing to see because there are no egos in that running back room. Now, today there was an issue because Jerry Jones told us after the game that the reason why Tony Pollard started tonight is because Zeke Elliott had a discipline problem. Apparently, Zeke Jerry was a little fuzzy on the details, but Jerry was like, hey, I think either the phone went off in a meeting or he was tardy for a meeting.

One of the two. So, but outside of that, that little hiccup tonight or whatever that was, those guys have been great. I don't know that I've ever seen or that I do see a guy in the NFL these days take more advantage of the opportunities when they're presented to him than Tony Pollard. You mentioned the lack of ego. I mean, the guy will do whatever the team asks him to do whenever the team asks him to do it, and he capitalizes. He's a carpe diem guy.

Seize the day and just do it. He's been so great in that role for the Cowboys the last couple years. Yeah, he had a similar role when he was in college at the University of Memphis. He was like the number two guy there, and then the Cowboys drafted him and they said, well, you can be the number two guy here behind Zeke Elliott. I remember when he was drafted, Stephen Jones had said he could be our Alvin Kamara, the guy that we can throw out of the backfield, the guy that we can give Zeke a break, and he could carry the load for maybe a couple of series, especially at the start of the second half.

And that's what they've done. And now this season, he's really emerged as a guy who you could say, hey, you could be running back number one. We can give you the ball 18 times a game and you will be okay. And that's the best thing about what Tony Pollard has been able to prove to not only the Cowboys, everybody else, because he's going to be unrestricted free agents next year. And the Cowboys are gonna have to make a serious decision about whether or not they want to bring him back or not. All right, Calvin, the million dollar question. We know Odell Beckham Jr. had his tour late last week with the Bills, the Giants, the Cowboys.

What's the latest? The Cowboys are going to host Odell Beckham tomorrow. He's going to get into town at some point in the morning. He's going to have a steak dinner somewhere. He might even get a lot of steak. He got some steak in New York and both in New York with the guys in the bills and the Cowboys are planning to give a steak dinner up here to show him what the what the media is like in Texas. He might go to the Marist game tomorrow.

The Mavericks play the Phoenix Suns. And Dak Prescott said, hey, if Odell wants to go, I'll get him a suite. But he also knows Odell likes to sit court side. But that's more of a sweet guy.

So that's a weapon, work something out. But Odell is coming here. Now, the big question for the Cowboys is, do they want Odell Beckham to work out? And Jerry Jones and I think others in the organization would love for that to happen, but I don't think it will happen. So the problem is, do you want to sign this guy without him working out?

Yes, you're going to take the physical and the doctor is going to, you know, look at that joint and all those kinds of things. But do you want to sign him without seeing him move around on the football field? And Jerry Jones said, I am okay being uncomfortable in signing this. But I think that the big thing is, you have to pass a physical and the money has to make sense.

Well, that's what I was going to ask you next, Calvin. What can the Cowboys offer him in terms of money that's commensurate with, say, the Bills and the Giants? Well, the Cowboys have about six and a half million available under the cap. So this year would be, say, we'll give you three million dollars and call it a day. But Odell Beckham wants a multi-year deal.

He does. So the issue is the second year, like how much do you pay Odell Beckham in year two? And so that's when the money gets a little fuzzy. The Cowboys are going to be cap strapped next year as well, because they have this guy and Dak Prescott is going to take a lot of the cap space as well next year. And as well, the left tackle, Tyron Smith. So they're going to have some serious decisions to make on their cap. So how much do you want to pay Odell Beckham in year two? Now, remember they cut, excuse me, they traded Amari Cooper this past year because he's going to make $20 million in their cap. So if you don't want to pay Amari Cooper $20 million, do you want to pay Odell Beckham $20 million in 2023?

And the answer is no. So they're going to have to come to some sort of agreement to say, we'll give you $3 million this year. Maybe next year we give you $12 million and with incentives, maybe you can get to $20 million. You know, so we'll see what happens. But I'll be, the Cowboys are going to have egg on their face if they can't find Odell Beckham because of all the teams that have talked about him, the Cowboys have been at the front of the list, lobbying for Odell Beckham. Not to mention the courting of Jerry Jones, who's been reaching out to him on the fly, even so his quarterback didn't know. All right, Calvin, ever since I found out we were going to have you on the show, I was thinking, ooh, I can't wait to ask him his opinion to what's happening in the NFC. I call it the NFC beast now because it's the best division in football, the Eagles, the Cowboys at the top and a putrid tie between the Giants and the commanders today. However, this is one hell of a division. Where did this come from?

I know it is weird. Remember we all thought the NFC West was going to be like the best division of football or was it the NFC West or empty weather? Good members. But the NFC East is crazy because I thought Washington, I'm surprised I don't know if it was still around, but he's doing a hell of a job down in DC and the Eagles, a lot of people were most suspect on the Eagles, but they had a great draft. They made a great trade, AJ Brown from Tennessee and the quarterback is playing out of his mind and the Giants are also playing out of their mind. I think early in the season, LeBron day ball, you know, went for a fourth time in the season opener and they been on a roll and then they lost to the Cowboys early in the season, but that hasn't stopped them. So the division has been kind of crazy. Dallas went four and one without Dak Prescott. Unbelievable. It's the best division of football.

I watched the end of that giant and command just came today and I was like, oh my goodness. But that game to me said the Giants in Washington are out of it. You know, they're on the back end now of the playoff picture.

So that's how I kind of hurt both of those teams. And I don't know if the Cowboys can catch the Eagles right now, but I definitely see maybe three teams making a playoff from the division. You mentioned the Cowboys going four and one without Dak. So just to follow up there, do you think Cooper will stay, Cooper Rush will stay with Dallas? I think Cooper's normally looking for a big paycheck from somebody, right? You know, these teams are so desperate for quarterbacks and they saw that four-on-one stretch with Cooper Rush and that and someone's going to say, hey, I think he can help us and they'll sign him. Now, I don't know how much money he'll get, but the Cowboys do like Will Greer, who's their number three quarterback and he came out of Florida and at some point doing training camp, Will Greer was the head of Cooper Rush on the depth chart and then Will Greer heard his groin and that and he was out. So that gave Cooper Rush a chance to kind of surpass Will Greer on the depth chart and win the number two job. So if the Cowboys lose Cooper Rush, I think they're okay with that because they really like Will Greer, who's their number three guy right now.

Gotcha. Great information from Cowboys insider Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News and we got the OBJ. We got the Cooper Rush story. We also get the insight on that running back room with Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott after a big victory by Dallas.

You can find him on Twitter at Calvin Watkins. It's always great to catch up with you. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes. I appreciate you. You take it easy, guys.

Thanks so much. Without the ones like you who work tirelessly to keep things running, everything would suddenly stop. Hospitals, factories, schools and power plants.

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