Tyrone Crawford Charged For March Brawl
- The Cowboys will not have Taco Charlton in action for a bit. The former first-round pick underwent ankle surgery recently, Calvin Watkins of The Athletic tweets. While Watkins describes this as a minor procedure, Charlton will likely miss Dallas’ offseason activities. He is expected to be ready for camp. This marks the second operation Charlton has undergone this offseason. Shortly after the Cowboys’ 2018 season concluded, the 24-year-old defensive end had shoulder surgery.
- Cowboys seventh-round running back Mike Weber injured his knee over the weekend, but it appears he avoided a serious setback. Weber went through an MRI but was back on the practice field Sunday, per Breer. Weber is expected to compete for time behind Ezekiel Elliott and fourth-round pick Tony Pollard, with Weber profiling as more of a traditional back compared to the versatile Pollard. The Cowboys lost previous Elliott backup Rod Smith to the Giants in free agency.
Cowboys Sign Most Of Draft Class
The Cowboys have most of their draft signings out of the way. Everyone in Dallas’ draft class has agreed to, or signed, their rookie deals, according to David Moore of the Dallas Morning News (on Twitter), save for third-round guard Connor McGovern.
The following Cowboys rookies are now in the fold:
- 2-58: Trysten Hill, DT (Central Florida)
- 4-128: Tony Pollard, RB (Memphis)
- 5-158: Michael Jackson, CB (Miami)
- 5-165: Joe Jackson, DE (Miami)
- 6-213: Donovan Wilson, S (Texas A&M)
- 7-218: Mike Weber, RB (Ohio State)
- 7-241: Jalen Jelks, DE (Oregon)
Hill, a 6’2″, 315 pound defensive tackle, left UCF on a sour note and openly complained about his lack of playing time in the team’s Fiesta Bowl loss to LSU. Throughout the year, Hill clashed with coaches and started only once in the team’s eleven regular season games. Still, the Cowboys see big potential in this supersized lineman.
Pollard, meanwhile, offers upside as a runner and as a receiver. Last year, he saw 78 carries out of the backfield and averaged 7.1 yards per try. He also caught 39 passes for 458 yards, showing that he is a multi-talented threat.
Teams Shopping Safeties To Cowboys
Teams have called the Cowboys offering safety help via trade, exec Stephen Jones says (via Clarence Hill of the Star Telegram). However, Jones says the club is comfortable with the current group and isn’t particularly interested in an upgrade.
”We’ve already started getting a few calls from people needing things and knowing that we might need, thinking we might need a safety; ‘Would we be willing to trade this player for that player’,” Jones said. “I think this is going to pay for us. We’re not in any hurry. We feel good about our safety position. I just think we’ve got a good situation. Now we’ve just got to keep working.”
In theory, the Cowboys could trade from a unit of strength – like the offensive line – to bolster a safety group that has long been pegged as a weakness. For now, the Cowboys have George Iloka, Jeff Heath, sixth-round Texas A&M product Donovan Wilson, and Kavon Frazier in the strong safety competition with Xavier Woods slotted at free safety.
The Cowboys had their opportunities to land impact safeties earlier in the draft, but opted to zero in on other areas. Starting in Round 2, the Cowboys addressed the defensive tackle, guard, running back, cornerback, and defensive end positions before selecting Wilson in the penultimate round.
For now, the Cowboys say they’re willing to stand pat, but Hill gets the sense that the Cowboys will not rule out a trade for a safety given their previous desire to improve on that front.
Cowboys Expected To Let La'el Collins Walk?
Dealing with several young talents’ contract situations, the Cowboys certainly may have to let a couple of their contract-year starters walk. One of those the team may be ready to stomach departing: La’el Collins. Dallas’ starting right tackle is already on his second NFL contract, and it expires after the season. The Cowboys are expected to let Collins depart after 2019, Calvin Watkins of The Athletic notes (subscription required). Joining Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, Jaylon Smith and Byron Jones as key Cowboys in walk years, Collins would stand to be a key presence on the 2020 free agent market. While Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones mentioned him as a player the team would like to retain, Watkins adds the team does not want to shell out a big contract to keep him — which obviously means not going near the prices Trent Brown and Ja’Wuan James received in March. This would make sense, with the Cowboys already having three well-paid offensive linemen — Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Travis Frederick — on their roster.
The Cowboys drafted Connor McGovern in the third round and have 2018 second-rounder Connor Williams set to compete with him and Xavier Su’a-Filo for the left guard position this season. Williams may be in the mix to take over at right tackle next season, should McGovern or Su’a-Filo win this year’s left guard job, per Watkins.
- In addition to hiring former Cowboys scout Jim Abrams as their new college scouting director, the Raiders added Dwayne Joseph as their pro scouting director, Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area notes. Joseph spent the past four years in the same role with the Eagles and was a Bears staffer prior to that. With Mike Mayock retooling Oakland’s scouting department, more hires are on the way.
Cowboys Eyeing Jones, Smith, Collins Deals
- Elsewhere in the NFC East, the Cowboys have a host of extension candidates. While Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper have emerged as the clubhouse leaders to be signed first, Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones included Ezekiel Elliott in that conversation. Jones called Elliott “every bit as important,” per Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News (on Twitter). It still looks like Elliott, under contract through 2020, will take a backseat to Cooper and Prescott for the time being. The Cowboys have a history of overworking running backs as their rookie deals wind down, as DeMarco Murray‘s final Dallas season showed, but Jones is saying the right things regarding the team wanting Elliott in the fold long-term.
- Jones also mentioned Jaylon Smith, La’el Collins and Byron Jones as players the team would like to address. “I feel very good that we’re going to strategically work through getting guys like Dak and Amari and Zeke done. And I think we can still do others,” Jones said (via Machota, on Twitter). Each is going into a contract year, with Collins having already signed two NFL deals despite entering the league at the same time as Cooper and Jones. But it will be difficult for the Cowboys to retain all three members of this section of their extension queue, given how much Prescott, Cooper and Elliott will cost.
Teams Gauging Cowboys’ Safety Interest
The Cowboys spent months either working on an Earl Thomas trade strategy or being connected to the All-Pro safety during the 2018 offseason. They ended up not landing Thomas via trade or as a free agent this year.
Teams appear to have taken notice of the Cowboys’ depth chart here. After the Cowboys did not add a back-line defender in this draft, they have received calls from multiple teams to gauge Dallas’ interest in safeties, executive VP Stephen Jones said (via John Machota of the Dallas Morning News, on Twitter).
“It’s got to be a safety that works for us. We’re not going to be in any hurry,” Jones said (Twitter link). “We know we can go out and play really good defense with the guys we have.”
Despite not holding a first-round pick, Dallas made eight selections in the draft. Only one — fifth-round cornerback Michael Jackson — went toward the secondary. The Cowboys mentioned their interest in adding a safety pre-draft but, again, did not take one. This happened in 2018 as well.
The Cowboys signed former Bengals starter George Iloka this offseason and still have Xavier Woods and Jeff Heath — Pro Football Focus’ No. 46 and No. 81 safeties, respectively, in 2018 — at the position. Other teams, perhaps those that did invest in younger safeties or spent to sign high-profile safeties in free agency, may be trying to capitalize on these circumstances and pry some future draft capital from the Cowboys.
Latest On Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper
The Cowboys have made more progress in their contract talks with quarterback Dak Prescott than wide receiver Amari Cooper, a source tells Clarence Hill of the Star Telegram. A new deal for Prescott would come in at around $30MM per year, Hill hears, but the Cowboys seem unfazed by that figure. 
”We are sold on Dak,” Jones said in a recent radio interview. “We do want to have him for the long term. We think he is worthy of investing in for the long term. He is going into his fourth year in the NFL. When you look at the snaps he has had, the situations he has been in and how he has got here and you see he has performed, we see real upside in Dak. You don’t have it all yet. We love the way he logically progresses through a game. You see when the going gets tough when he’s got to come from behind when he turns it loose a little bit. You see him make those plays. He emboldens me to make a deal with him that puts him here for the long term.”
They’d also like to lock up Cooper for the long haul, though his deal likely wouldn’t be less than $16MM/year. Cooper underwhelmed towards the end in Oakland, but he bounced back when came to Dallas in a midseason trade. In nine starts, Cooper hauled in 53 receptions for 725 yards and six touchdowns.
For now, the Cowboys have Cooper under contract for $13.924MM in 2019 thanks to his fifth-year option. Prescott, meanwhile, is on course for unrestricted free agency after his four-year rookie deal expires following the ’19 season.
Opinion: Cowboys Should Extend Ezekiel Elliott ASAP
- The Cowboys may be preparing for life after Ezekiel Elliott, but Albert Breer of SI.com believes it would be a mistake for Dallas to move on anytime soon. He notes that the Cowboys are built to rely on Elliott, and if they ink him to a big-money deal now, they could spare themselves lengthy and potentially contentious negotiations, and they could still cut ties later on in the contract — once the guaranteed money is gone — if Elliott’s abilities start to fade.
Sean Lee To Start In 2019
Thanks in large part to his injury troubles, Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee has been surpassed on the team’s depth chart by Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith. There was speculation earlier this year that Lee could retire, but he did not want to call it quits just yet, so he indicated back in February that he would return in 2019 (albeit with a significant pay cut).
The thought was that Lee would serve as a backup to Vander Esch and Smith this season, but as Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes, Lee’s role will be larger than initially anticipated. Although Lee will indeed spell Vander Esch at weakside linebacker and Smith at middle linebacker from time to time, Hill says that Lee will see his name in the starting lineup as Dallas’ strongside ‘backer. Lee will replace Damien Wilson, who signed with the Chiefs in March.
But while it’s a starting job, Lee is still unlikely to see a ton of playing time. Strongside linebackers typically play on running downs, and Wilson took part in only 27.93% of the Cowboys’ defensive snaps last year. If Lee also sees some action at the weakside and middle linebacker spots, he may see a higher percentage of snaps than that, but nowhere near the burn that Smith and Vander Esch get.
And that makes sense, as Lee is still effective when he’s on the field, and his instincts are still first-rate, but if Dallas wants to take advantage of those tools, it will have to keep him fresh and healthy. As he enters his age-33 season, the 2016 First Team All-Pro still figures to be an important piece of the Cowboys’ defense, just not as important as he once was.
Are Cowboys Preparing For Future Without Zeke?
- Could the Cowboys be preparing for a future without Ezekiel Elliott? Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk thinks that could be the case, as the writer believes the team could be taking “the DeMarco Murray approach” of running their star back into the ground before moving on. Florio cites a recent quote from COO Stephen Jones, who compared fourth-round running back Tony Pollard to Saints star Alvin Kamara.
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