VaqueroTD
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 8,804
- Reaction score
- 17,698
https://omny.fm/shows/the-ticket-top-10/the-musers-the-troy-aikman-show-17?in_playlist=podcast
- Dak had all the leverage. I've been in those situations when you sign a new contract. You are expected to go out and play well. So not surprised that he had more bounce in his step and played well.
- It felt good being highest paid player in league. When I signed in 89 I was the 3rd highest paid player. When we won our first Super Bowl, the market grew fast even back then. But the TV money, and Jerry's part in that with Fox, it has gone up dramatically. Remember the networks told the league they couldn't pay more, and it was Jerry who was against that and jumped in on negotiations for NFL on Fox. I never imagined though salaries would go up as high as they did. My group of peers was probably first group that didn't have to work in offseason, heck, not even work again.
- Impressed with Cowboys defense and Zimmer. They're going to be tested more and will have injuries. Not sure Deshaun Watson will ever get back to his Houston form. He used to be phenomenal, but is a shadow of his former self since Cleveland. He doesn't appear to have any confidence whatsoever, and now there may be more lawsuits, so doesn't bode well for Cleveland.
- Not surprised what Zimmer could do against a short-handed offense and expect defense to play well this year.
- I'm skeptical that New Orleans poses a danger. Not overly impressed going back to what I saw last year. They opened up against a weak opponent and now come on the road to Dallas. I don't expect this game to be close, quite honestly. New Orleans may have a different idea and surprise me but I don't see them dramatically improved from what they used to be.
- There were 3 wins opening weekend that I thought were big wins. Cowboys would have been one of those if they had played on the road against a Playoff NFC team. Philly's win against Green Bay was one of those. I don't know though with Jordan Love going down. For Philadelphia to win week one against that team. It's a different looking group. I've always like Sequon Barkley, his offensive line was never that good in New York, and now he has a much better line. He's not Christian McCaffrey but can do a lot of the same thing as a runner and receiver. Kellen Moore of course we're familiar with him. They did a lot of different things. Defensively they were exposed and gave up some big plays which surprised me with Fangio. But after last year's collapse, that was a big win for Philadelphia to get back on right track.
- Other 2 impressive wins were Detroit against Rams, and KC against Baltimore. In all 3 of those games, those were wins against opponents that could have Playoff implications at end of year.
- 49ers are real deal. I think San Francisco is the cream of the crop in the NFC. They had not practiced as a team together until first week of the season because of all their injuries. Kyle Shanahan comes out a little old school. They practice at a level most teams do not. Probably a reason for some of their injuries too. Remember Nolan Ryan when he took over the Rangers he talked about how in his era, you pitched until you couldn't pitch. But with load management now, they stop no matter what. In Kyle's mind it has made it worse. In my days, no one was keeping track how much someone ran. Michael Irvin never took a play off and we were usually a healthy team. Kyle runs that team hard and they do things at a different level.
- Football is the only sport you don't practice it the way you play it. That's tough on coaches to get that across.
- Big fan of Dan Campbell too. Not sure as many coaches as comfortable in their skin as him. Knowing what they did last year, Campbell knows what the Lions mean to Detroit, and would love to see him win a Super Bowl.
- It's incredible not only the ways team practice now but the team itself. As a QB, if you didn't protect your receiver across the middle, there was a good chance he didn't play again. Now QBs don't even think twice about it. The burden is now for the defender not to hit the receiver.
