FRISCO - Though every once in a while over the course of my 35 years as a Dallas Cowboys beat writer I need reminding, there is really one central reason for what I do.

You. You are the central reason.

Well, not counting the fame and the fortune and all of that.

But seriously, without you and your insatiable hunger for real Cowboys information and analysis from inside The Star? Oh, I’d probably still write, for pleasure. But to make a living? I’d be a plumber or a lawyer or an Uber driver or whatever.

So as I launch another Cowboys-related project, I am mindful of doing for (and with) you. What do you want to know? What do you need to know?

Oh, and how would you like to win Sean Lee’s No. 50 jersey?

A few years ago, I was urged to start a YouTube channel; the Fish Report now boasts 77,000 subscribers.

And now we’re doing it again - with your help.

I’ve launched CowboysRoundtable.com for two reasons. One, I employ a stable of gifted journalists (“The 75-Member Staff’’ ) who need a home. And two, it’s proving to be an excellent platform for us to fulfill my promise that “If a blade of grass moves at The Star, we cover it!’’

And there’s a great “Cowboys Community’’ there as well, with a “discussion-board’’ feel.

With my boots-on-the-ground style, combining with your brains and passion? We can’t lose!

Oh, and you can win!

When you go to the home page and hit the JOIN button, you will immediately be eligible to win the Sean Lee No. 50 jersey!

So hang with me on this new Fish project that figures to provide you with content and prizes … and that figures to provide me with, well, fame and fortune and whatnot.

Hit the JOIN button … and let’s WIN together!

1 - What’s “foundational player’’ mean to you? COO Stephen Jones is using that phrase to describe four Dallas defensive building blocks: Quinnen Williams, DeMarvion Overshown, Shavon Revel Jr. and DaRon Bland.

I say he’s got one right.

Those four guys, plus Kenny Clark, Osa Odighizuwa,Donovan Ezeiruaku and Malik Hooker, can help the 2026 Cowboys escape the stat basement of last year. But Quinnen is the only up-and-over guy.

Give me those eight guys, plus three new starters via the NFL Draft, free agency and a trade, and I’ll start to believe in the “foundation’’ - and in a turnaround.

2 - Special-teams coordinator Nick Sorensen will be retained for the 2026 season. OK, if y’all say so, but can he at least accomplish this: Get KaVontae Turpin to not fake-fair-catch, to field the punt, and to quit jogging on returns?

3 - Are you happy for DeMarcus Lawrence because he’s going to the Super Bowl with Seattle - a destination he said he’d never make in Dallas? Or he is “the enemy,’’ and that is that?

4 - How about … use free agency to sign a linebacker (Nakobe Dean of you want to spend, Alex Singleton if you don’t), use pick No. 12 to draft a starting cornerback, and use pick No. 20 to trade for Maxx Crosby?

No way that defense finishes 32nd.

5 - Christian Parker’s defensive staff is going to be so young, I doubt if all of them even have armpit hair. So … how about Dallas add a defensive consultant as an “old-head’’ in the building?

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Brian Schottenheimer, let’s give your old mentor Pete Carroll, age 74, a call, shall we?

6 - There is a thin-skin irony to the Bill Belichick controversy. I find it hilarious that some of my journalistic colleagues involved in the Hall of Fame voting are “professional critics’’ ... who are getting their feelings hurt by being criticized.

We get to rip owners, GM’s, coaches, scouts and players … but when the audience disagrees with our opinion, we wet our pants while curled up in the fetal position?

Y’all, if you didn’t vote for Belichick, that’s your right. But why not be proud of your vote? Why hide behind whining anonymity?

By the way … somebody needs to remind the folks who run the Hall that they don’t “own’’ it. It’s not “for’’ them.

It’s for you.

7 - Congrats, I guess, to Cowboys star CeeDee Lamb. He just got the call to be a fill-in, so this will be his fifth straight Pro Bowl.

No offense to him, but this is cheap stuff. The Cowboys now have more 2025 Pro Bowlers (eight) than they had 2025 wins!

8 - Mark this down: Dallas wants Jadeveon Clowney back here via free agency. But Dallas wants him to play less than 50 percent of the snaps - and wants to pay him like. a backup (whatever that means; $6 million for one year, maybe?)

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However this goes down, remember that you heard about that plan here first.

9 - The Cowboys are giving mixed signals on Jaydon Blue - and I know why. Privately, they are telling me they want him to be the No. 2 back in a “Thunder & Lightning’’ combo with Javonte Williams (assuming they sign Javonte.) But in public, they are sending the message that Malik Davis might be the No. 2 guy.

And it’s a smart strategy, really: Make Blue work for it. I get it.

10 - The Final Word “We want to be one of the top defenses in this league. If we do that with what we have on the offensive side, we can have a really great football team.” - Stephen Jones.