For those of us here on BTB that need our daily, if not hourly intake of Cowboys news, I wanted to share some insight from Chief Operations Officer Stephen Jones. He came into Talkin’ Cowboys on dallascowboys.com; from listening to all the questions and breakdowns that he answered, you would have thought that BTB was running the Q & A. He covered topics we’ve all been poring over, so I figured I should attempt my first FanPost and share.

If you have about twenty minutes to spare, I recommend you check out what Stephen Jones has said about his Cowboys. He explains in depth the 2012 Draft, from the Front Office process all the way to Round 7. Going on to Free Agents and training camp hopefuls, then breaking down multiple positions, it may give you a better understanding of which direction Garrett and The Joneses are steering the ship.

For those that don’t want to sit through over an hour of talk radio I broke it down so you can skip around and get your specific doses, I also pulled some things that I thought were interesting.

43:17 – Stephen Jones joins the cast

44:07 – His thoughts on 2012 Draft

47:01 – Explains Jason Garrett’s outlook, influence on Front Office

51:00 – Breaks down 1st Round Pick Claiborne

53:36 – Explains decision for picking 4th Round Safety Matt Johnson

On Matt Johnson – "We think if anything, his tackling and physicality may have suffered a little, but he had played hurt all year. And most players wouldn’t have played with the injury he had. But as he told us, he didn’t want to let his team down, knew he might be hurting himself in the draft, but the team was more important to him, trying to win football games, he has a twin brother on that team, and that was a huge plus for us."

56:00 – Thoughts on 4th Round LB Kyle Wilber

65:38 - On Bruce Carter

"Bruce is doing great, he’s having a full-blown offseason here, he’s 100% healthy, and of course we drafted him to really be a difference maker." Jones gives a little history on Carter’s progression from college to now. He then goes on to say "Our guys in the back said his upside is limitless, we would like to think he could come in and we could have a core like San Francisco does with Willis and Bowman."

66:20 - Breaks down Connor, and Linebackers, makes a point to talk about 7th Rd pick Caleb McSurdy

69:10 – WR Breakdown, Kevin Ogletree, Andre Holmes, Raymond Radway

"Andre Holmes is a guy around here who everybody is looking forward to seeing. He was close to being activated on the season, then he’d tweak a hamstring or we’d have something come up at another position. But boy, the secondary that covers him raved about him all year, Tony’s very confident in him"

"We’re patient right now, we feel comfortable, we’re not against adding anybody but we kinda wanna see how these young guys do. If they don’t do the work, or it doesn’t pan out, or we’re not pleased… player acquisition is 365 days a year"

72:20 – Signing of Rookie Free Agents

75:06 – On Punting Battle

"We’ll see how Chris [Jones] punts, if it’s not his job there’s veterans out there that are punters. If for some reason he doesn’t do it to our satisfaction we’ll have to take a look. But right now we feel like he’s a very talented guy who can get the job done for us, Joe D [DeCamillis] feels good about him and hopefully that will work out for him."

77:25 – Philosophy at Nose Tackle, briefly goes over Josh Brent, Clifton Geathers, Sean Lissemore.

80:15 – The Center Position and Interior Offensive Line

"I think Phil Costa is a hard playing, tough, smart, everything you want in a guy short of the size. He doesn’t have the length, his arms are not quite where you’d like to have them, but boy does he make up for it with his tenacity and his hard work." He goes on to say, "I would never bet against Phil Costa because he’s so smart. He’s such a hard worker, he’s mean, and he provides leadership in that room. At some point there will be somebody there maybe with a little more length that might get put in there to create good competition and let the best man win."

Exit Stage Right

It’s clear that Garrett’s Reign has begun in Dallas. A team’s mentality and approach starts at the top then flows down to every member of the organization. I was surprised to hear all that Stephen Jones had to say. If I were to remove his name from the quotes you could easily say he's speaking Garrettish. It is clear to me that the ship is righting, and it seems that we are heading in a proper direction. Winds are picking up, Garrett at the helm quietly setting course for South by Southeast to the Streets of Bourbon.