Garrett Podell

Obviously, from listening to his press conference and from talking to him, Dallas loves Pittsburgh.

He had so many stories, bringing Dak in the quarterback room to his parents' house before the 2024 rain-delayed Sunday night football game that Dallas won at the last second.

A lot of fun Pittsburgh stories from Big Mike over the years.

I would say that's fair.

Dak said he felt like he really grew from setting the protection at the line of scrimmage, pass protection before the snap.

He felt he really grew as a pre-snap quarterback with Mike McCarthy.

And Mike also gave him a lot more control of audibling and

changing different things, the line of scrimmage.

And so he felt really grew in the more cerebral elements of the game under McCarthy.

And I think you've seen that.

I mean, last few years, I mean, look at this past season, right?

Dallas was the worst scoring defense in football, but Dak was still top three in the league in passing yards and passing efficiency stats.

He was in the top 10 for most of them, despite playing from behind almost

Austin, you and I had a lovely back and forth on Twitter about this early in the week.

And I think there's some fairness to it in terms of, you know, they're very consistent in the type of culture they want to have and the way they approach handling their guys.

I will say that Mike McCarthy in years past, I think, has been maybe a little bit more open to bringing in different defensive minds or coaches who could push him.

I think the Dan Quinn hire bringing in somebody who was a former Super Bowl appearing head coach to be his DC.

I think that was kind of a big step for him having another kind of big leadership type of guy in the room as an assistant.

So I do think he's evolved in some ways.

In some ways, his offensive scheme looks