REINVENTED: Dallas Cowboys Set to SHOCK NFL in 2026 | Can They Be Legit Contenders In The NFC?

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Hey, Drake May here. As a pro quarterback, I know I can't do it alone. I have to trust my team, and that goes for my money too, which is why I use Betterment, the trusted investing and savings platform. Their automated investing tools always have my back, just like my old line. Over a million people already trust Betterment to build their wealth, so I know I'm in good company. Building yours at Betterment.com or Download the App. Investing involves risk. Performance not guaranteed. Paid client ad. Views may not be representative. See App Store and Google Play reviews. Learn more at Betterment.com slash ambassadors. Today's episode is brought to you by the Dell XPS. I'm Wes Goldberg from Lockdown NBA Daily and Lockdown Heat. So what does it feel like to have a better laptop like the Dell XPS powered by Intel Core? With a premium design that's thin and light, it feels smooth. With a responsive touch screen, it feels fast and precise. And with long lasting battery life, it feels like non-stop energy with a laptop that can

1:01keep up. Built for those who want better, the Dell XPS. Built for you. The Dell's Cowboys could be Super Bowl contenders in 2026, and we'll tell you how next. You are locked on Cowboys. Your Daily Dallas Cowboys podcast. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome back. I am your host, Marcus Mosher. He is Landima Cool. Today's episode is brought to you by Kowshi for a limited time. Download the Kowshi app and use promo code Lockdown to get 10 when you trade 10. Welcome back on today's show. We are answering your Twitter questions, including what would Caleb Downs need to do to win the defensive rookie of the year award? We'll also talk about the most important non-starters for the Cowboys.

2:04But Landima, I want to start with this question from our guy, Joseph Hoyt, over at the Dallas Morning News. And I know he was joking, but his question to us was, are the Cowboys going to be good? I want your... I know that's a very basic question, but I want your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, look, it's the premise of why we have these shows every single day. So we might as well pull all the way back and have a discussion about whether we think they'll be good. I think that they will be good. I think that, you know, look, we had an offense that was really, really good last year, which we've talked about how sticky offenses can be from year to year. And it was basically drowned in the bathtub by how bad this defense was last year. And I think we go into the off season, last season, and we had a very kind of set list

3:04of almost a shopping list, right, of what needed to get done in order to get this defense to where it needed to be to make the Cowboys a good team as Joe point, right? And I think if you were to compare that list to what you ended up with, I think you would be pretty satisfied with the amount of checks next to items that you had on your list. So I don't know. I mean, obviously we haven't seen this whole thing kind of unravel. And I mean, I've been out to training camp. I've seen a ton of different practices. We've seen some joint practices. We've seen some preseason games. We've gotten the keyhole that we're peeking through to be a little bit wider and wider as we've gone. But we haven't seen this whole thing unfurled in front of us. But as we stand right now, I look at, you know, like I said, the evidence of what we've done, I look at the conversations that we're having right now in Cowboys media and we're

4:04kind of all haggling over, man, I hope we can improve corner back four or I'd be really nice to get a backup this or that. And to me, those are healthy conversations of a team that feels like they've got a pretty decent roster. And so I do think that the Cowboys are going to be good in 2026. I mean, we certainly get myopic when it comes to like breaking down. Okay, who's the fourth linebacker? Who's the fifth corner? And you're right, like those are signs of good teams, but the Cowboys have had good teams before and it really hasn't mattered, right? We've had really good rosters and they've won 12 games and they've been knocked out of the first round of playoffs. So what's different about this team? Are they going to be a team that can go on the road and win games? So they have an offense, they can score 35 against any defense. But they have the defense that's capable of getting big stops. And usually, Lannon, you know, we've been doing this podcast since 2017 together.

5:07I tend to be a little bit more pessimistic when it comes to our Cowboys, right? I think you're generally a little bit more optimistic. Sure. And this is the time of the year where I start to get like the stress of WIC week one. Like you spend all offseason talking up your team and then all of a sudden you get to WIC one and you start getting really nervous. And I don't feel that this way this year. Like I don't feel nervous about WIC one. I don't feel nervous about WIC two against commanders because I just think that Cowboys have a better football team. And I think they've got the type of football team that's going to be really, really hard to beat this year. And I think it comes from, first of all, the continuity on offense, right? It's just very rare that you keep all 11 starters and key reserves. You know, like TJ Bass, Breven Spade for Andrew Playcaller. But the difference between this team and every other team that you and I have covered over the last 10 years is they feel incredibly strong in the middle on the offensive line

6:09and on the defensive line. And there are so many times we were worried about, okay, how can they cover up their defensive tackles? How can they be a physical team? Can they play not, can they avoid bad weather football because they don't have the guys up front? I feel completely different about this team this year because because of Quinten Williams, because of Kenny Clark, because of Tyler Booker and Tyler Smith, that I'm really starting to buy into this team, not only just being good, but being really good. Well, I think the other thing too is, look, I mean, part of it is a roster conversation. And I think your point about being strong in the spine is really, really important because it is different than we feel like we've been, at least since the decade you and I have been doing it. Or at least like the Dan Quinn decade, right? Where everything is based on speed and you're just so afraid of certain matchups where teams could overpower you. I also think that part of the confidence that you and I are feeling is, I mean, I really believe in the process that they went through the, it is last two years, right?

7:11Like last year, ultimately, you know, the season record wasn't great. The output wasn't great, but there's a reason that we felt optimism coming out of the season because we felt like Brian Schadenheimer had a process that was that worked, at least on the off its side of the ball. And we were hoping to see him replicated on the defense side of the ball. And I think you saw that kind of, and I want to shout out Robert Mays of the athletic football podcast who really pointed this out recently. And he talks about how the Cowboys didn't just go out and hire a bunch of guys they knew. They hired the right guys for the job. And I think that that process of going out and finding the right person for the job and then finding the players that fit the scheme, the alignment that there is between the coaching staff and the scheme that's being run and the personnel that is in that scheme. I think that's what's giving me the confidence that I don't know that I've always had at different points where it feels like not just at the front office of the coaching staff

8:16are on the same page, but that the coaching staff and the playbook and the personnel are all on the same page if that makes sense. And to me, it's all that plus the little drips of increased confidence every single day as we've seen them. Tyler Geiten take a step. So if I don't reveal take a step, all this, like I said, checking off the things in the list that we needed to see to feel good about this team. And I'm at the point now where it's time to see it. There's not really anything more or less that they can do to kind of improve their standing at this point. Now I just kind of want to see it play out because I'm excited but also hopeful that this is the real deal this year. The other part that has me really excited is it just seems like a smarter, more mature football team. I don't want to call out players from last year's team because I don't think that's fair. But there are a couple players where like Tyrus Wheat and Malibu Davis are examples like

9:21like neither of those players have elite physical talents, but they're on this roster because they do their job, they know their role and they're not going to be the reason why you lose a football game. And I think too many times in the past the cabboys were playing guys that had higher upsides and maybe lower floors. And too often we saw the floor come out more than the upside, right? Then the ceiling. And I just don't know especially on defensive, you can have, if you can play that side, I think the cabboys are going to be playing better team defense. They're going to be more fundamentally sound. And maybe that doesn't lead to being a all-time great defense or a top 10 defense or anything like that. But maybe it's the difference in them getting a key stop in the fourth quarter so that the offense can get a chance to go win a game. I just feel better about the construction and the players that are on this team, not physically, but mentally than ever before. And the last thing I'll add just on top of that too is it's also the fact that you don't

10:22feel like you're having your arm tied, one arm tied behind your back with the scheme. Like you feel like you're in the meta of what the NFL scheme is and you aren't playing an outdated system that is overly reliant on top in talent to make it go. Like I think that gives you a lot more flexibility. I think if I was going to give a top line to this whole thing, I just feel like the way the cowboys are constructed schematically and personal wise, they have a lot of different ways that they can win football games. They're not reliant on having to win one or two different ways. They can beat a bunch of different teams because they can solve a bunch of different problems. All right. So thanks, Joey. Appreciate the question. That was the whole first segment based on the question. Are the cabboys good? I want to talk about some non starters that we think are going to have big roles for the cowboys this season. We'll get to that next. This episode is brought to you by prize picks.

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12:25in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup prize picks run your game. Welcome back to the lot time Cowboys podcast. We'd like to thank you for making us your first listen every single day. All right, this next question comes from at you McCack this long time listen show. He wants to know who is the most important non starter. He doesn't mean like Ryan Flanoi or Caleb Downs if you're calling him the slot corner or even someone like Hunter Lipkey, but I don't know who would ever take Hunter Lipkey. Who for you is the most important non starter? Hunter Lipkey. I look, I think we've talked about this before the show and to me there's an obvious name here and it's TJ Bass because simply because first of all, the office of why it's just such an important aspect of continuity and having continuity all longer offensive line is important. So having a backup who can come in and has worked with the group before has an NFL experience

13:29is a good player. That's a very, very, very round thing that it's also very rare. You just don't have a lot of high quality backups in the NFL just because there's just not a lot of great offensive lineplay in the NFL. And it's very realistic to suggest that TJ Bass is the guy that's probably coming off the bench if four out of your five offensive, any four out of your five offensive linemen get hurt. Anybody that's not the right tackle, right? Because you feel like obviously the swing interior, there's a chance that he's going to be, you know, if it's either guard, it's obviously him. If it's center, there's a good chance it's him. If it's left tackle, you may have him come into play left guard and you're kicking Tyler Smith out to left tackle. So I just think that because of the quality of the player and because of how much, how much, how many jobs he's covering on the back end, I think it's probably TJ Bass. We should mention TJ Bass has played at least 300 offensive snaps each of the last three years. I would love a scenario where he never has to play at all this year.

14:32You're starting five offensive linemen play all season long. It's just not very realistic. I think there was only two offensive lines last year where all five starters played all 17 games. You're going to have to use backup offensive linemen and if Bass can just not get you killed when he's in the game, which for the most part, he's been pretty good at that. Yeah. You do feel like the floor of the offense is going to be significantly better whether that's him playing one of the guard spots, one of the center spots. I think he's a really, really good name here to consider. Yeah, absolutely. And there's a reason the Cowboys prioritize making sure that they brought him back. Even though Hoffman was a high end backup center and they liked having him, if they had to choose between the two, they knew that Bass would be the guy that would have more value for them. And I also think that he's a slightly better player than Hoffman was. I agree. My player is Jonathan Bullard. And we have not seen Jonathan Bullard practice. I believe since the fourth training camp of the year, he's missed time. I think it's a groin injury is what they've been saying.

15:35I think he's important because you look at the defensive line depth right now. You've got your three starters. You've got LT Overton, who I like and we think he had a pretty good preseason. But I just worry about him if he's going to have to play a lot on early downs. And I understand that there are things that the Cowboys can do to hide their defensive tackle depth if they get to that point. But Bullard can get healthy, come in and play 17 to 20 snaps per game, be a useful player against the run. I just feel so much better about their front seven that I do at this moment right now because I don't like their backups. I really worry about what Overton would look like if he's forced into a role. They don't really have anybody they can generate, pass rush outside of Kenny Clark and Quentin Williams. Bullard is a guy to me. I want to see when he's getting healthy and I want to see what he looks like when he's on the field. I think Overton is going to be interesting to see if he could be a little bit of a pass

16:36rush generator as the he's a huge fan of the off-street. Absolutely, I totally agree there. And I think with Bullard, right, like it's the role that you definitely would need him for to be is a kind of a plus run defender. So you hope that he's back, but if he isn't and something is more serious, you could go get a guy on the street if you had to, but it certainly wouldn't be the high end that you would hope that you get from not high end, but the nice quality backup that you would hope that you would get out of Bullard. I do think the one thing that kind of helps you here is obviously, Nickel is going to be the new base, right? And so you're not going to play as many three down defensive tackles. So Otheto Obonia is a starter because when you play base defense, he's going to be out there. But the fact is that they're not going to play base nearly as much as they play Nickel. So hopefully Otheto doesn't get as many snaps. So that means that if something were to happen to Kenny Clark, you would at least have Otheto

17:38to go in there. But again, to your point, it's not like he's a truly balanced player. He's a run defender. He's a run defender. And not going to give you much as a pass rush. So I agree, Bullard, who is a run defender first, too. He also is different than Otheto or over to him where he at least, I think, can do a little bit of both and give you something and a little bit of both, even if it's not great, even if he's not like a great pass rush. My other concern is that the Cowboys play a really difficult schedule starting in week three, right? Because that's the game in Brazil against the Ravens. And then they come back and play the Texans, which I think is going to be a very physical game. And then they play on Thursday against Tampa Bay. Like that is a lot of games in a short period of time to open the season. And I just, I don't want them to put so many miles on Kenny Clark and Quentin Williams. But by the time they get to the end of the season, when they're playing Seattle and the Rams, those guys are absolutely gassed. And that's why I think Bullard is really important.

18:39They've got to have at least one other quality defensive linemen that can just be an innings eater, right? Come in, play 22 snaps, give Quentin Williams a break on early down. So that way he's fresh on passing downs. If he's not ready to go, I do think they're going to have to sign somebody. But it is interesting that they did not put him on the injured reserve list, which meant he would have to miss the first four games. So obviously they think he's coming back soon. I just worry about a older defense tackle who has missed. They're really the last month with no conditioning. My honest read on this and we'll see, right, is I'm not going to be shocked if Monday comes around or whatever they, I guess maybe they don't practice on Monday. Maybe they do. Whenever they do. Yeah, whatever they practice that first practice of the week of week one, that the official first practice of the regular season, or maybe it's the second practice. I wouldn't be shocked if that's when we start booksy and Bullard get back into practice. And this has all been kind of a veteran management situation. But that doesn't mean that it isn't a situation that, you know, one of your key backups didn't

19:45miss all of training camp and it may take him a little while to kind of get up and going. That's something to be worried about in itself. All right, let's talk about Caleb Downs. What would he need to do to win the defensive rookie of the year award? We'll get to that next. This episode is brought to you by Kalshi before the season even kicks off. Everyone's making predictions. Who's going to win the division? Who makes the playoffs? Who is lifting the trophy at the end of the year on Kalshi America's number one prediction market platform? You can trade those predictions in a live market. Maybe you want to trade on whether Caleb Downs is going to win the defensive rookie of the year award. Right now he's trading at about a 13% probability, meaning a $100 trade. I'm looking at it right now would pay off about $576, which is a pretty nice little payout. On Kalshi, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house.

20:45And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position, trade the draft pick the game and more on Kalshi, down to the Kalshi app and use promo code locked on to get 10 when you trade 10. Kalshi trade on anything. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kalshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see kalshi.com. Welcome back to the lockdown. Cowboys podcast with it. Thank you for making us your first. Listen every single day, our last question comes from King Johnson, who wants to know, what would Caleb down to stat line have to look like in order for him to win the defensive rookie of the year award? All right. First off, let's just, let's just all admit that if Caleb Downs were to win defensive rookie of the year, I think part of it would have to also be reflected in how the cowboys

21:50defense looks next year, right? Because I do think that a good portion of his impact is how the position and him playing the position is going to raise the floor on the defense. It allows you to be more versatile on early downs. We've talked about how Caleb Downs is valuable. But I think that by point being traditional stat lines aren't going to tell the whole tale of how Caleb Downs is impactful. And I think in order to tell that story, you do have to have market improvement on the Cowboys defense. And honestly, to me, look, if you're looking for a stat line or a model to kind of go for that he should be trying to hit, it's Cooper D'Agean, right? Like, if he comes in here and he has, you know, eight passes deflected, a sack or two sacks, he forced some fumbles, and he's a major player in the run game, and he looks good in coverage. And the Cowboys defense improves. I think he's going to be in the conversation simply because he's already in the conversation

22:52right now because he's Caleb Downs and his name's part of this list. I don't think it's going to be some incredible stat line that's going to win it for him. I think he needs to have a good portion of stats. But I think if he comes out here with like maybe two interceptions, three interceptions, a couple of force fumbles, like I said, two or three, a sack or two or three. And he's a, you know, a, has a couple of big plays that show up in big, you know, nationally televised games. And the Cowboys defense is, goes from dead last to, let's say, 12. I think he's going to be at the podium at least. All right, couple NFL history nuggets for you. The defense of rookie of the year award has been voted on every year since 1967. Laney, would you like to guess how many safeties have won it since 1967? As it as like to that's the answer to Mark Carrier in 1990.

23:56He had 10 interceptions as a rookie. And the other one would be Eric McMillan of the jets of 1988. Oh, man. He had eight interceptions as a rookie. Now I don't think Caleb Downs is going to need eight to 10 interceptions to win this award. I don't think that's realistic. But I think more than anything, it's going to be these prime time games in the Cowboys. Obviously, you have a bunch of them. If Caleb Downs makes a big tackle on third down or a fourth down to end a drive, if he has a big past deflection against Malik neighbors on a slot fade, it's going to be those type of moments that voters remember. And you're right. I think a lot of it is going to depend on the overall success of the Cowboys defense. If their defense is ranked 28 and Caleb Downs has 100 tackles and three interceptions, he's not winning the award. But if the Cowboys have the 11th ranked defense and they win 11 games this year and Caleb Downs is making all these timely plays, I do think voters are going to be more likely to give them the award. So I don't think there's a certain statistical number that he needs to get to.

25:01Like I don't think it's so many interceptions or so many tackles. I think it's just play well in these big games and show voters that you're really that dude. Yeah. And again, like he plays a position that doesn't collect a lot of it's not a number stat, you know, collecting accounting staff. And last, collecting the last position. He's playing that slot position and he's just getting all of those tackles. I tackles, yes. And I think he is going to be playing almost, you know, not exclusively, but mostly in that slot position. And I do think that he, like I don't think it's unrealistic to think he has 75 tackles and, you know what I'm saying? And he's like the third leading tackle, the second leading tackleer on the team. That wouldn't shock me at all. And I guess that gets to my other point here is that one of the things that like defense of rookie of the year, a lot of times it's, it's, it's a, it's flashy performance. You said it, it's a safety who gets 10 interceptions or, you know, and I just don't know like that's not how we, how I'm going to be measuring Caleb Downs impact.

26:05And I guess I just want to kind of make that point separate of the question is that like to me, if he doesn't win, do you think the rookie of the year? And we still are like the 12 best defense in the NFL, like even if he didn't have eight interceptions, I'm going to know that the versatility that this defense is allowed by having a player like Caleb Downs and what you can do because you have a guy like Caleb Downs, it has a really kind of immeasurable impact. And honestly, I'll compare it to DeMarcus Lawrence, right? DeMarcus Lawrence and the role that he serves for, I mean, I know everyone says M-M-R-E, and I understand that because he's the big flashy player. Yeah. But the way that DeMarcus Lawrence doesn't get a huge amount of stats, right? But because of who he is and because of what he can do specifically in the run game, they can scheme a whole bunch of other responsibilities away from him because he can make up for other players' lack of ability there and it just allows you to do more things.

27:06And that is really where you're going to get a ton of value, especially with someone like Christian Parker, designing ways to gain that extra advantage and put it on other players. Taccles are a big one though because that's going to be the first stat that they see. If K-L-Downs gets 80 to 90 Taccles, which I don't think is unrealistic, even where he's probably going to play a lot of the snaps, that will certainly help. And if he could create a couple timely turnovers, maybe we see it. All right, that is it for today's show. We'd like to thank you for making Lockdown Cowboys your first listen of the day. Now, on video, we send you to the first ever 24-7 YouTube channel on the NFL. And on audio, check out the Lockdown Fantasy Football Podcast with Fabs and Marcus. Yes, me for your second listen as we get you ready for your fantasy football drafts this weekend. Follow, land on Twitter, at the cool BCB. I'm at Marcus underscore Mosher. We'll see you back here next week as we get ready for week one.

28:10On Kowshi, your trading against peers in a live market, meeting there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position for a limited time, download the Kowshi app and use code Lockdown to get $10 when you trade 10 KAL SHI Kowshi. Trade on anything, 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see kowshi.com slash regulatory. The Lockdown Podcast network is brought to you by Fandall. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a home or today, Fandall is giving you a free chance to call your shot with daily dingers. It's easy to play. Just make your free pick for who you think will hit a home run in their game. If you're right, you'll receive a profit boost to use on your next bet for a chance at extra winnix. Best of all, you can make a free pick every day throughout the MLBCs. So are you ready to play your game today? Join all the action at fandall.com that's fandall.com to play daily dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a home. Play ball and swing for the fences on Fandall, an official partner of the MLB.

29:11Spend less time searching a more time, actually interviewing candidate to check all your boxes with less stress, less time and more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for indeed sponsor jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit. Tell get your job. The premium status it deserves indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to indie.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms of conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for indeed sponsor jobs. Hey, NFL fans. I'm Brian Peacock and that is Matt Williamson hosts of the NFL six pack part of the lockdown podcast network. Your team every day NFL six pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoffs pushed in the 2025 season or if your teams in draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the lockdown podcast network. The NFL six pack subscribe on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts.