There are a number of former Dallas Cowboys with platforms these days. From positions on national television to their own podcasts to the standard run through the media car wash… it isn’t hard to find someone who once wore a star-studded helmet in the mix.
These opinions are certainly valuable, to be clear. How franchise legends view the current state of the team is meaningful. They are the ones who last lifted it to the greatness that we all want to see it achieve once more. Not all of them obviously,
but you get the point.
As important as it is to consider the thoughts and opinions of all franchise alumni, there are a certain few who garner more interest when they speak up.
Emmitt Smith is certainly one of them.
Emmitt is pleased with this Cowboys offseason
A few weeks ago Darren Woodson sat down with Trey Wingo, this was shortly after the NFL draft and Caleb Downs’ arrival, and noted that things felt different with the Cowboys this offseason. To be clear, this was hardly a “things feel different” claim and more of a simple statement. Nobody was being over-the-top or silly.
In sitting down with Emmitt, who joined on behalf of his latest partnership with Bud Light, I wanted to start there. I wanted to know if he agreed with his longtime teammate and whether or not things do feel different in his mind.
“I think as we enter the summer months things do feel a little bit different. They’ve went ahead and did some things to bolster up the defense which I feel very good about. The key from this point forth I believe and I think we’re… we’ve done with the George Pickens stuff. I think we got George Pickens signed under a franchise tag and so forth which is the right thing to do in my opinion. And now you’ve taken away the sting of what will the Cowboys do. You’ve taken all the distractions off the table and giving the kids and the guys an opportunity to stay focused and locked in on the things that are very, very important, and that is not only learning the system gelling as an offense, and a defense, and a special teams unit, but coming together as a team fighting for one goal.
“And one goal in mind is to win the NFC East with an opportunity to get into the playoff and earn the right to go to the NFC Championship game and there you earn the right to go to the Super Bowl. And so if that focus right now is where we are, and it’s quiet, to me that’s a good sign. That’s a very good sign. That means that all the noise all the chatter everyone’s talking about this and that has nothing to do with what’s going on in that locker room. And right now all focus and all eyes should be what’s going on in that locker room. And so I feel like Darren Woodson, things do feel a little bit different. We did get some quality players in the draft… I think the Cowboys did a very good job of jumping up and grabbing the guy that we gathered in the first couple rounds. And so I I feel good about where things are.”
It was interesting to me how Emmitt noted how quiet things currently are with the Cowboys. He spoke about the team being able to focus on winning the division, reaching the ever-elusive NFC Championship Game, and all of the right stuff in that capacity. But I think we all agree that the quiet of the offseason is one of the bigger things going on with the Cowboys given that it has not been their style in recent years.
This subject came up again later in our conversation between us both. To close things out on a Cowboys front though, I asked Emmitt what it is that he trusts the most about the current team. I was wide with the question to be clear and noted that he could be as wide as he wanted himself, or that he could be narrow focused. What I wanted to know was what can Emmitt count on the most relative to the current day Dallas Cowboys.
His answer started and ended with Dak Prescott.
“Dak Prescott is gonna show up like Dak Prescott has done since he been became a Dallas Cowboy. I think CeeDee Lamb is gonna bounce back and and be be ready to go along with George Pickens. I think offensively not having as much turnover and and having a second year to gel under coach Coach Schottenheimer’s system is only gonna help the team become better.”
“We have a stabilized running game Now we just have to boast up the offensive line and bring in… I think we’ve done that quietly. And so I think moving in stealth mode and, as you said before, the quietness through the off-season without all the the antics and everything else that’s going on… the distracting antics has given us a chance to just pause and just stay focused on the things that we need to focus on. So I feel good about those things.”
“But Dak Prescott is the one thing I can count on as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. He will show up and he will play well this year, and and I think our offense is gonna get better and better.”
Emmitt encapsulated why every Cowboys fan is pretty excited these days, although I’m sure that his comments on the quarterback will be received differently by different people.
On the subject of quarterbacks, Emmitt recently worked with a very famous one in Peyton Manning on a commercial for Bud Light called Priorities. The two are getting America set for the summer months and the spot is hilarious.
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Our thanks to Emmitt for the time!
