Are the Cowboys Missing Something Obvious in the NFL Draft? | Just Wondering with Norm Hitzges

On today's just wondering, in the NFL Draft are the Cowboys potentially ignoring a real
position of need, and then this year's name game from the NFL Draft.
And finally, remembering an old friend.
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Here's segment one, Ashley.
By the way, that open works for the podcast and for TV.
As this year's NFL Draft approached, the speculation began on how the cowboys would
use their two first-round draft choices.
Number 12 and number 20.
That speculation centered almost exclusively on showering up a pitiful defense.
And why not?
This unit allowed 30 points per game last year.
Yuck, off-wall, such take defense thinking, also trickle down to the third and fourth
rounds.
The cowboys approach and draft did not have a second.
But literally no one I've read, no one, focused on an offensive position, that the cowboys
may need help at now and perhaps very, very soon left tackle.
Right now, that starting spot belongs to Tyler Geithin, the club's first round pick in
the 2024 draft.
As soon as they took him, the club handed him the starting left tackle job.
Despite him having started only 14 total games in college between TCU and Oklahoma.
And by the way, 13 of those games at right tackle.
What has Geithin's performance been like?
The folks at Pro Football Focus, who literally grade every play of every season, are not impressed.
In his rookie year, he finished 73rd out of 81 tackles who played enough to qualify
for the rankings.
Very poor.
Last year, he moved up to between below average and poor.
In addition, he started just 21 of the 34 games in the last two years.
And he's missed nine to injury.
Honestly, through two years, Tyler Geithin profiles as a backup tackle.
But now he's tasked with the job of protecting Dak Prescott's blind side.
But the combo has never mentioned any concern about the left tackle job, seeming to simply
be content to hand the job to Geithin despite his questionable level of play.
When he was hurt last year, the club tried Nate Thomas, a rookie at that spot.
He was honestly worse than Geithin.
So they shifted all universe left guard Tyler Smith out to left tackle.
That seems to be the strategy again this year, Smith being the backup that Geithin can't
play.
But one gets the distinct feeling from Smith, they'd like to be told where he's lining
up this year and not have to prepare for two possible positions.
Plus, this is Geithin's third year in the league.
As a former first-rounder, this should be the season after the season.
And Dallas decides to pick up the fifth year of his contract, guarantee that he'll
be with the club through 2028.
At this point, honestly, I can't believe they'd do that with Geithin.
So that would mean he'd have only this year and next year before hitting free agency.
So you might be thinking, maybe we can take a tackle and next year's draft, maybe.
But because of trades, Dallas does not have a second or fourth-rounder in next year's
draft.
And they don't expect to get any complimentary picks for players who left them through
free agency.
So right now, in the 2027 draft, Dallas has a first, a third, a fifth, sixth, and seventh,
so they'd be getting about two of the first 160 picks in that draft.
I'm not suggesting Dallas should focus on tackle 12.
They are desperate for defensive help.
But unless Geithin improves measurably this year, Dallas may start to feel the same kind
of desperation at the left tackle spot.
Next, this year's NFL name game.
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Every year, more than 250 platelets have their names called in the NFL draft.
This year, they'll be exactly 257 picks spread out over three days, and you'll hear the
entire draft on the ticket, and I'll be part of it again, my 41st year broadcast in the
NFL draft.
But while 257 will be taken, there are literally hundreds, thousands of players at various
levels of ability, whose college eligibility is up, and they're eligible to be taken every
year for decades now.
I've sorted through all these names, just for fun, and so without further ado, here
is the NFL draft, 2026 name game, all these players are eligible to be drafted.
This year, your team could select a dairy, a dingo, or a d- I'll pick it up this year.
This year, your team could select a dairy, a dingo, or a dunker, a cheese barot, a chestnut,
or a crumpling, select a player named West, and pair him with one named Eastern.
Want somebody to really run your defense?
How about a guy named Corleone?
And yes, he's actually Don Corleone.
One day, actually, a defensive tackle from Cincinnati.
Grab a grizzle of gums and a good wine, a defensive tackle from South Carolina.
But once you have good wine, select Colorado linebacker Montavius French and Vandy tackle
Isaiah Glass, and you'd have a glass of French good wine.
There are nine players named Brown as possible choices this year.
And the Cleveland Browns have exactly nine draft choices.
How perfect the Browns could draft all Browns.
Ruben fatherly the second.
You could draft him.
This would mean that Ruben fatherly the second fatherly was Mr. fatherly the first.
Do you like to wage run games?
Have I got the perfect player for you?
Your team could take a chance on Georgia Southern cornerbacks, chance gamble, chance gambles,
select the homes in a Watson, but this Watson isn't a doctor, choose a janeos, a jada,
and a jali, a puns, a prunty, or a prysok, who's parents, by the way, were almost certainly
avid Bible readers, because they named their son Ephesians prysok.
At some point of the draft, someone will want to talk smack, but Florida's trace smack
the best place kicker in this draft.
Tickatia, a troast, a trotter, and a tui halamaka.
Draft a silver and a gold day.
Make your edge ruchers next year and olds and young.
One tuck is camels and Missouri Zionians.
There are two whites in this draft.
But one first name caught my eye.
That's a cornerback Florida state named Squirrel White.
That's right, Mr. and Mrs. White looked down the crib and decided let's name him Squirrel.
You can draft a player named world, but there's not a player named peace, so just like in
real life, no world peace.
If you like to travel, draft players whose names are destinations, aims, Boston, Boston,
Cleveland, Canada, Canada doesn't much like us much anymore.
DeBamba, a basso and a brockler, a ball of play in the bird.
Imagine your favorite team having San Jose State defensive tackle, Gafafaga.
That's G-A-F-A, F-A-G-A, who actually pronounces it the name Nufa Funga, I don't know.
The NFL is so into measurables, so pick a height, a pound, and a large, and a husky.
Texas Tech Edge, Russia, Romello, Romello height, is tall, six, three, old misdefence of
tackle, tackled and named pounds, tips the scale at 325, but Washington State's safety
took her large, is only 183 pounds, and Maryland's safety, Jalen husky, isn't husky.
He weighs 196.
There's a law and a common, a lemon and an orange, two McCoy's, but if you look at the
player ratings, only one of them is a real McCoy.
Choose a defensive player named War, B-Y-U's Tanner War, who's a safety, meaning he's a
back wall. There are seven Johnson's, so a team with a pick in every realm could wind up with
nothing but Johnson's. There's a Muhammad, a Moses, a Priestley, and a Pope. There's a
man Jack, a Makabee, and a Makafisi, tongue-time my friend Brad Scham, the Cowboys' long-time voice,
by making him regularly pronounce these new Cowboy play. Devon Zidzienio, Tunday, Fakukazi,
Fali-C, Fah-Moe, and Olay-Va-Vig-Gah-Yohanyeh, looking for a key player.
Hey, draft Nebraska-wide receiver, Dane Key, but from Scotting report, he's not a key player,
and Michigan Edge-Russia TG guy, just another guy. In this draft, there are eight kings available,
plus one Kanga. So if you took San Jose State defensive tackle Nile's king and paired him with
Louisville defensive tackle Renee Kanga, the middle of your defense next year could be King Kanga.
And finally, I need some help with the pronunciation of a name.
I saw an Edge-Russia from Illinois. Good player, by the way, may well be a second-rounder.
First name is Gabe, and he spells his last name, J-A-C-A-S.
How would you pronounce J-A-C-A-S? I know what my first guess was,
but he actually pronounces his last name, A-C-S, with a silent J. But you know,
whenever I see this guy playing in the NFL, I'm going to remember how I would have pronounced
his last name. Next, remembering an old friend. Stolen water media is making a move.
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Pardon me for sounding just a bit old. I was made to feel that way when preparing this segment.
I covered my first Dallas Cowboys training camp in Thousand Oaks, California in 1972.
54 years ago. At that point, Tom Landry was just 47 years old. Roger Stalbach,
he had only started 14 total games over four years in his NFL career, a career where he'd
wind up in the Hall of Fame. Dallas had just won their first Super Bowl F.
I'd just been hired by CBS and Dallas as a weekend sports anchor and a weekday sports features
reporter. My salary, $150 a week and I loved it. Things were so very different than they are now.
You could stand right with the players on the sidelines during practice. It was easy to strike up
conversations, easy to make friends with them, easy to head out for a burger and a beer or sit in
their dorm rooms. Yeah, the players stayed in Cal Lutheran College dorm rooms. It could just sit
in those dorm rooms and talk, just talk. And there was greatness everywhere on this club.
Besides Stalbach, there was Bob Lilly, Mike Ditka, Bullet Bob Hayes, linebacker Chuck Howley,
who's the only player ever to be deemed MVP of a Super Bowl on a losing team.
There was Tackle Ray feel right. Both cornerbacks, Mel Renfrow and her batterly and safety Cliff Harris
all those players were eventually inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame as were Landry and General
Manager Tech Shramp and Personnel Director Gilbrain and so many others. Funny man Walt Garrison,
Garr John Nyland, why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? Chethropu, Calvin Hill, Larry Cole,
Leroy Jordan, why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? And then there was a backup center named John
Fitzgerald. He hadn't been a center to be in his career. Dallas had drafted him in the fourth round
out of Boston College as a defensive tackle and offensive guard.
Players covered some different assignments back then. And the Cowboys, well,
they promptly cut John Fitzgerald. But then brought him back on what was then called the Taxi Squad.
John Fitzgerald eventually won two Super Bowl rings with those 70s Cowboys.
He would spend 12 years in the NFL. On none of those teams did John Fitzgerald ever experience
a losing season. He'd play in five Super Bowls, nine NFC Championship games, 19 post-season games.
And you know what? Fitzgerald grinned through all 12 years in this league.
It was Fitzgerald who labeled the 1979 Cowboys offensive line. Remember, that's the year they beat
Denver in the Super Bowl. He nicknamed that offensive line for Irishman and Scott. There was
John Fitzgerald, Pat Dunnevin, Tom Rafferney, Jim Cooper, and the Scott was an African American
guard named Herb Scott. We lost Fitzgy last week at age 77. He was smart and funny and laughed a lot.
And loved to fire quick comebacks in conversation. He was a friend and a good one.
Over the years, lives can go in different directions. But we would cross paths and those intervening
years would just simply melt away and laughter. He always had a smile as large as his big thick moustache.
I hadn't seen Fitzgy for a while. I had no idea he was nearing an end.
I wish life had given us one more crossing of paths. But it didn't.
But that's life. We all rise each morning to find that a few more of us have disappeared
like rain on sand. And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you
by Fluent Financial. Retire earlier, live better. And by Bob's Steak and Chop House on
Lemon and Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's a Dallas tradition for more than 30 years.
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episode of Just One Ring. I'm Norm Hitzkes and know that every day I'll be just wondering about
something. And I'm Mary Hitzkes and I'll just be wondering too.
This is a stolen water media production.