Latest On Cowboys G Connor McGovern; Cowboys Receiving OL, DL Trade Interest
The Cowboys selected offensive lineman Connor McGovern in the third round of this year’s draft with the expectation that he could compete for the team’s starting left guard job. However, Todd Archer of ESPN.com says that McGovern, who sustained a partially torn pectoral muscle during the offseason program and who participated in just two training camp practices, has suffered a setback.
It’s presently unclear if McGovern will need surgery or if he can simply rehab the injury. According to David Moore of the Dallas Morning News, McGovern is dealing with a smaller strain of his pectoral muscle separate from the earlier tear (Twitter link). Both Moore and Archer suggest that the Cowboys could include McGovern on the initial 53-man roster, which would then allow them to put him on IR with the possibility of bringing him back later in the season, but a source tells Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News that the team is considering keeping McGovern on the shelf for his entire rookie season (Twitter link).
After all, Dallas does have the offensive line depth to withstand a redshirt season from its Day 2 draft choice. Even with McGovern’s uncertain status, Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk writes that the Cowboys are open to trading players from either its O-line or D-line (or perhaps both).
“We do get calls on both offensive and defensive lines,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said yesterday. “We’ve made that a priority over the years, and it’s a strength of ours, and some teams are interested in it. Yeah, I think there’s a possibility for sure that we could move somebody.”
It seems that Dallas will go into the season with Connor Williams as the starting LG. If the Cowboys do swing a trade, Williams suggests that they would want a draft pick, not a player, in return.
Cowboys Injury Update: Jones, Martin, Smith
Cowboys Pro Bowl cornerback Byron Jones participated in his first practice of the offseason today after being activated from the physically unable to perform list. While the 26-year-old will be a welcome addition to the secondary, head coach Jason Garrett said the team will bring Jones along slowly.
- The Cowboys worked out a pair of tight ends today in Tyrone Swoopes and Zach Conque, according to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas News (via Twitter). Swoopes spent the first two seasons of his career in Seattle, appearing in two games. The 24-year-old was let go by the team earlier this month. Conque, 25, has had stints with the Texans, Jets, Jaguars, and Colts since 2017. While the team’s depth chart at tight end is pretty much set, both Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz have dealt with recent injuries.
Elliott Extension Now Cowboys’ Top Priority
Entering the offseason with several high-profile players eligible for extensions, the Cowboys still have their big three on offense attached to rookie deals. But Amari Cooper has voiced no issue with playing into a contract year, and Jerry Jones said he has no concern about Dak Prescott doing the same.
Jones said the Cowboys only have to have Ezekiel Elliott signed before Week 1, per Ed Werder of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Elliott has been a holdout since the Cowboys began training camp.
While Cooper has a guaranteed fifth-year option of $13.9MM, Prescott is only set to make $2MM this season. The fourth-year quarterback obviously stands to earn a lucrative contract at some point in the near future, but signing before the season would give him a chance to avoid having to play a fourth season on a Round 4 contract. Prescott, though, has been resolute during this lengthy negotiation. He voiced opposition to a potential team-friendly deal and is believed to have declined a $30MM-AAV proposal.
Elliott has two seasons left on his deal, but the high-volume back (NFL-most 1,003 touches since 2016, getting there in just 40 games) has prioritized an extension before an age-24 season that will also stand to feature an extensive workload. There has not been any recent movement between the Cowboys and the two-time rushing champion. Two weeks before Dallas’ opener, Elliott remains in Mexico training away from the team.
Latest On Ezekiel Elliott, Cowboys
We learned earlier this week that the Cowboys had extended a lucrative contract extension to Ezekiel Elliott, but it still doesn’t sound like either side is making much progress on talks. Clarence Hill Jr. of the Star-Telegram tweets that there’s been no new movement on the extension front. Hill passes along a brief quote from Director of Player Personnel Stephen Jones, who said the two sides aren’t close because there hasn’t been a lot of “activity.”
Elliott has reportedly been eyeing a contract that would be worth around $15MM per season. The Cowboys reportedly offered a contract that would have made the 24-year-old one of the two highest-paid running backs in the NFL. For reference, Todd Gurley is leading running backs with an average annual value of around $14.38MM, and Le’Veon Bell is currently at second with a $13.13MM AAV.
For what it’s worth, the running back retweeted a comment from former NFL lineman Joe Thomas, who indicated that Elliott should top Gurley’s deal:
“Throughout the course of NFL history, if you are the best player at your position (or clearly one of the best) when you re-sign a second contract with the team that drafted you, you usually beat the highest paid current contract at your position by 15 to 20%,” Thomas said.
Owner Jerry Jones recently made comments that the team is going to hold firm on their offer, which means there might be a significant monetary discrepancy if Elliott is indeed seeking $15MM per year.
While it doesn’t sound like Zeke’s holdout will be ending anytime soon, Jones apparently isn’t concerned. During an appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, the executive sounded optimistic about the prospect of signing their star running back (as well as wideout Amari Cooper).
“We feel confident things will get done,” said Jones (via Twitter). “Things happen real quick, sometime within hours.”
Poll: Cowboys’ Contract Situation
We’ve nearly reached the daily-update stage of the Cowboys’ contract matrix. Even after the team extended Jaylon Smith, who would have been a 2020 RFA, its three stars remain on rookie contracts. With no news of Amari Cooper progress coming, and the fifth-year wide receiver indicating comfort in playing out a contract year, we will limit this to Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott hypotheses.
Both marquee Cowboys have been in the news constantly this month. Multiple reports pegged Prescott as turning down a $30MM-per-year deal, with another indicating he wants to surpass Russell Wilson‘s $35MM-AAV mark to become the NFL’s highest-paid player. Elliott, meanwhile, returned to Mexico after a Jerry Jones joke that did not go over well. Elliott’s holdout is nearing a month. Will the Cowboys resolve these situations by Week 1?
Dallas has done well to take care of its homegrown players in recent years. Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin are all on long-term contracts. The Cowboys extended DeMarcus Lawrence and Dez Bryant as well and just gave Smith $19MM fully guaranteed. But the team has angled for its current batch of standouts to take less for the greater good. Judging by Prescott’s comments on that subject this summer, and Elliott remaining in Mexico despite receiving an offer reportedly north of the Le’Veon Bell–David Johnson tier, the players do not look to have this strategy in mind.
Prescott is entering his contract year, doing so in the same type of situation Wilson did four years ago. After he drove a hard bargain all summer, the Seahawks quarterback signed an August extension rather than play on a third-round salary for a fourth season. A 2016 fourth-round pick, Prescott faces the prospect of a $2MM 2019 salary.
Elliott is under contract for two more seasons, thanks to the fifth-year option, but he’s accumulated a historic workload and may not be in as strong of a negotiating position next year were he to go through 2019 on a similar pace. Elliott’s holdout makes sense from that perspective, and he does not intend to play another down on his rookie contract. Despite Jones talking up rookie Tony Pollard, Elliott is a two-time rushing champion and has been essential in the Cowboys’ recent success.
The Cowboys also have Byron Jones and La’el Collins entering contract years, though the team having drafted Connor Williams and Connor McGovern may be a sign Collins will be allowed to test free agency. The defending NFC East champions have amassed perhaps their best talent core since their 1990s group, but the steps toward retaining it long-term have been elusive (and frustrating?) for the franchise. Although Jones remains confident in deals being finalized, we are now within two weeks of opening night.
How will the Cowboys proceed with Elliott and Prescott? Vote in PFR’s latest poll (link for app users) and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section.
Contract Details: Jaylon Smith
The Jaylon Smith extension tethers the emerging linebacker to the Cowboys through the 2025 season, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes the deal will give 24-year-old standout $19MM fully guaranteed at signing. Both this figure and Smith’s AAV ($12.5MM) place him sixth among off-ball linebackers, giving this pact a win-win feel for the Cowboys and a player who recovered from a serious injury to move into lucrative extension position.
The Cowboys still have the same four key UFAs-to-be as they did to start the week — Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, Byron Jones and La’el Collins — and Ezekiel Elliott remains a holdout. But the team checked off a key piece of its complicated contract checklist in locking down Smith, who would have been a 2020 RFA.
Cowboys Make Massive Offer To Ezekiel Elliott
The Cowboys, regardless of Jerrah’s “Zeke who?” charades, value their top running back very much. According to Ed Werder of ESPN.com (Twitter link), Dallas has made an offer to Ezekiel Elliott that would make him one of the two highest-paid running backs in the league.
Todd Gurley, who is the highest paid running back in the league, has an average annual salary of approximately $14.38MM. Le’Veon Bell, who signed a deal this offseason, makes $13.13MM per season and is currently the second highest-paid back by AAV.
It’s been reported that Elliot is looking for a deal with annual values in the $15MM range. It would be surprising if he hits that mark but getting close seems like a realistic outcome given Werder’s report.
Members of the franchise have remained in contract with Elliott throughout his holdout with Jason Garrett describing the conversations as “very positive.”
Jerry Jones Sends Message To Zeke, Dak, Amari
When announcing the new extension for linebacker Jaylon Smith at a press conference today, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sent a clear message to a few other high-profile players who are eligible for extensions. Jones said, via Jon Machota of The Athletic, “[t]he team takes precedent at a point over the opinion or the demand of the individual. The team takes precedent. This was a team move we are talking about today. The team takes precedent. And I’ve got the backbone to keep it that way” (Twitter link).
Cowboys Sign Jaylon Smith To Extension
The Cowboys have reached a long-term extension with linebacker Jaylon Smith, sources tell Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (on Twitter). Smith has been vocal about his desire for a new deal, and he’s got one in place with days to go before the regular season.
Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that it’s a five-year, $64MM pact (Twitter link), but that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Smith was under contract for about $1.3MM this year and would have been eligible for a restricted free agent tender in 2020, and the extension did not subsume those amounts. So, as Todd Archer of ESPN.com tweets, Smith is now playing under a seven-year, $69.7MM deal, and Smith will be under club control through 2025. David Moore of the Dallas Morning News tweets that the extension does include $35.5MM in guaranteed money, but it looks like a fairly team-friendly pact overall.
Still, it’s a good day for Smith, who recently said that he never wants to play for another team. “I want to be a Cowboy. I want to be a Cowboy for the rest of my life,” Smith said last week. “Understanding what they’ve done for me, taking a chance, taking a risk. Now they’re getting the return on their investment. It’s a beautiful thing to be a Dallas Cowboy.”
Indeed, the Cowboys took a gamble on Smith by selecting him in the second round of the 2016 draft. When he was healthy at Notre Dame, Smith was viewed as a top 10 pick. However, severe knee injuries caused his stock to plummet. At the time, it was speculated that Smith could drop like a stone due to medical concerns, but the Cowboys rolled the dice and pounced on him with the No. 34 overall choice.
Smith missed all of 2016 and played mostly as a part-timer in 2017. Then, last year, he came back with a vengeance. Smith graded as the league’s No. 6 off-ball linebacker last season, per Pro Football Focus, making a career-high 121 tackles and registering four sacks. Between Smith and 2018 first-rounder Leighton Vander Esch (No. 4 on PFF’s 2018 linebacker performance list), the Cowboys have one of the NFL’s best three-down linebacking duos.
Of course, there’s still plenty of work for the Cowboys in the coming days with Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and Amari Cooper all eligible for extensions.
Cowboys Notes: Elliott, Garrett, Lawrence
Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett says he has stayed in contact with Ezekiel Elliott during his holdout (Twitter link via Jon Machota of The Athletic). He went on to say that the conversations have been “all very positive,” though there’s still no word on when Elliott will show up for work.
Publicly, both sides are attempting to paint a fairly rosy picture of what’s taking place. Last week, a story likely leaked from Elliott’s camp indicated that he is in shape and ready to go for the upcoming season, despite his absence from practice. Meanwhile, Garrett was quick to tell reporters that he is on good terms with his star running back.
While we wait for movement on the Elliott front, here’s more from Dallas:
- The Cowboys are set to activate defensive linemen DeMarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford from the PUP list, a source tells ESPN.com’s Todd Archer (on Twitter). Lawrence had shoulder surgery soon after signing his five-year, $101MM contract in April and has been out of action for the last few months. Crawford, meanwhile, is working through a hip issue that kept him out of the offseason program. Unfortunately, safety Byron Jones (hip) and receiver Noah Brown (knee) remain on PUP.
- This week, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones acknowledged that a new deal for Dak Prescott would put him in the top tier of compensation for NFL quarterbacks.