Cowboys To Let David Irving Walk?
The Cowboys are planning to let David Irving hit free agency. The mercurial defensive tackle who played in just two games last season, after registering seven sacks in an eight-game 2017, will be allowed to walk, David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports.
Although the Cowboys currently hold nearly $50MM in cap space, they have much higher priorities than retaining an often unavailable defensive tackle. Beyond another franchise tag situation with DeMarcus Lawrence, Dallas has complex contract math upcoming. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, Byron Jones and Jaylon Smith are extension-eligible.
Additionally, the Cowboys were not pleased with how Irving handled his high ankle sprain last season, Moore adds, noting the talented interior defender only occasionally appeared at the team facility for rehab after receiving a second opinion on his injury.
Irving began a second straight season with a drug suspension, after missing time in training camp to deal with a custody battle over his daughter. Personal issues extended into the season for Irving as well.
While it won’t be hard to imagine another team taking a chance on the 25-year-old talent, the Cowboys do not appear ready to make an effort to prevent that from happening.
Cowboys Decline Terrance Williams’ Option
The Cowboys have declined the option on Terrance Williams’ contract for 2019, according to Todd Archer of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Williams will hit free agency in March and the Cowboys will save $2.25MM in cap space in the upcoming year. 
The move does not come as a surprise – Williams caught just two passes for 18 yards last season and spent the bulk of the year on injured reserve. He also served a three-game suspension in connection with a May car crash.
Had the Cowboys exercised Williams’ option, they would been on the hook for $4MM in 2019. Given his lack of production and the presence of Amari Cooper atop the WR depth chart, this was pretty much a no-brainer for Dallas.
Williams, 30 in September, will have a market for his services, but he’ll probably fetch offers below that $4MM figure. Before his ill-fated ’18 campaign, he was averaging 46 catches for 672 yards and four TDs per season with the Cowboys.
Cowboys To Wait On DeMarcus Lawrence Tag
On Tuesday, NFL teams can begin placing the franchise tag on pending free agents. The Cowboys, however, will not be taking that step right away with pass rusher Demarcus Lawrence, Clarence Hill of the Star-Telegram hears. 
[RELATED: Latest On Travis Frederick]
Lawrence has already made it clear that he will not go along with a second consecutive tag, so the Cowboys are looking to avoid a contentious negotiation with the 26-year-old (27 in April). Instead, they will take a wait-and-see approach while keeping the tag option in their back pocket up until the March 5 deadline.
If tagged, Lawrence would make $20.5MM in 2019 per the terms of his second-time tender. From there, they’ll have a few months before the franchise tag extension deadline in the summer to hammer out a long-term deal.
Last year, the Cowboys pushed Lawrence to prove himself all over again with a productive and healthy year. He delivered with 10.5 sacks, 39 quarterback pressures, and a second consecutive Pro Bowl nod.
Travis Frederick Expected To Participate In Cowboys’ Offseason Program
After losing one of his prime years to a battle with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Travis Frederick may be close to returning.
The Cowboys’ All-Pro center is expected to participate in at least some of the team’s offseason program, David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports.
“Now it’s just about working in the weight room to try to continue to increase my strength and work with the team in the offseason as far as conditioning and getting myself ready come March and April,” Frederick said, via Moore.
Although Frederick has done light running, he has not been cleared to sprint yet, Moore notes. While tabbing his upper-body strength at 90 to 95 percent of what it once was, Frederick also is not sporting the limp he did during last season.
“Once you get to a certain point then you’re regaining your strength that you lost vs. the electrical connection that you lost,’’ Frederick said. “I certainly hit that point in my upper body, which is actually a good thing when you hit that point where you slow down because that means the electrical connection is there and now it’s just building back any strength that you’ve lost. We’re at a point that’s very passable and very usable.
“As far as lower [body] goes, I’m at the point [where] I was missing a little bit of explosion but that’s the last part of it. The connection is there, now we’re just speeding up the connection. That’s the last part of the healing process.”
This auto immune disorder has sidelined the 27-year-old snapper since August. In the event Frederick’s recovery hits a snag this offseason, the Cowboys still have Joe Looney under contract at a $1MM 2019 base salary.
Cowboys’ Sean Lee To Play In 2019
Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee expects to play in 2019, according to a source who spoke with Calvin Watkins of The Athletic (on Twitter). This jibes with an earlier report that Lee was leaning towards returning for the ’19 campaign. 
Lee is scheduled to make $7MM in base salary, so it’s not a certainty that the Cowboys will have him back. But, at least from Lee’s end, he feels certain about wanting to move forward in football. After the end of the ’18 season, the veteran said he’d discuss his future with his family before making a determination.
“I want to continue to play the game, but I have to evaluate physically where I’m at. I definitely have some decisions to make,” Lee said in January. “I’m leaning toward playing for sure.”
Lee was sensational for the Cowboys earlier in his career and managed four interceptions in both the 2011 and 2013 seasons. He later missed all of 2014 with a torn ACL, but bounced back to earn a Pro Bowl nod in 2015 and had a Pro Bowl/First-Team All-Pro season in 2016.
Thanks to hamstring injuries, Lee appeared in only seven games in 2018 and was leapfrogged by rookie Leighton Vander Esch. If he comes back to Dallas, he’ll be looking at a smaller role than what he has enjoyed in years past. He may also have to take a pay cut in order to stay.
NFC East Notes: Murray, Eagles, Redskins
With Eli Manning entering a contract year and his age-38 season, the Giants will be connected to a few quarterbacks this offseason. Now that Kyler Murray has spurned baseball for the NFL draft, he may be one of them. But Big Blue is not known for non-traditional quarterback types, and one Giants source told SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano that the 5-foot-10 Murray is “probably a little too small” for the team to consider. Murray’s suitor list will become clearer as pre-draft workouts commence, but the Giants are in the thick of the market in holding the No. 6 overall pick and needing a Manning heir apparent. They appear readier to select a passer with a high draft choice this year than they were a year ago, but the Giants have been a traditional quarterback franchise. Manning is 6-foot-3. The Giants deployed 6-5 Kerry Collins and 6-3 Phil Simms. The starting passers that filled the gaps in between the franchise’s three most prominent signal-callers were also north of 6-3. So are top 2019 passing prospects Dwayne Haskins, Drew Lock and Daniel Jones. Pat Shurmur said last year he prefers taller quarterbacks.
This could be music to the ears of quarterback-seeking teams who are intrigued by Murray, who will now be dissected as a prospect after committing to football. Murray could join Michael Vick and Johnny Manziel as the only sub-6-foot-1 passers selected in Round 1 (h/t ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini, via Twitter) in the past 51 years. Here is the latest from the NFC East:
- Redskins video assistant Jack Gruden, the son of head coach Jay Gruden, was arrested Saturday and charged with being drunk in public, NBC 4 Sports reports (on Twitter). This occurred in Ashburn, Va., at the same area where Washington safety Montae Nicholson was arrested. Gruden, 22, was involved in three separate arguments, according to NBC Sports Washington. The Redskins are looking into the arrest. Gruden has been a Redskins staffer since 2018.
- The Giants made another addition to their coaching staff, hiring Mike Dawson to be their outside linebackers coach. Dawson spent most of his career, including the past three seasons, at the college level. He followed Scott Frost from Central Florida to Nebraska. His lone NFL coaching experience was a three-year stay on Chip Kelly‘s Eagles staffs earlier this decade.
- While the Eagles may use 2019 to draft a later-round quarterback and attempt to develop him behind Carson Wentz, the team still likes what it has in Nate Sudfeld, Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia writes. Sudfeld should be expected to be Wentz’s backup post-Nick Foles, Zangaro adds. The former Redskins draft choice served as Foles’ top backup after Wentz went down in 2017 and did so again this past season.
- A five-year, $100MM deal with $60MM guaranteed would be reasonable for DeMarcus Lawrence‘s long-term Cowboys terms, Todd Archer of ESPN.com writes. Lawrence can be expected to slide into the $4MM-plus-AAV gap between Khalil Mack and Von Miller, but with the cap expected to approach or exceed $190MM, the sixth-year defensive end could land a pact closer to Mack’s than Miller’s. Archer’s proposal would guarantee Lawrence 60 percent of his deal; Mack received a 58 percent guarantee. Melvin Ingram signed for 65 percent guaranteed.
Minor NFL Transactions: 2/7/19
Today’s minor moves:
Dallas Cowboys
- Signed: WR Reggie Davis
New York Jets
- Signed: G Jordan Morgan
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: K Phillip Andersen
Tennessee Titans
- Signed: OL Hroniss Grasu
NFC East Notes: Cowboys, Payton, Eagles
Take this with a grain of salt, but there’s an ongoing theory that the Cowboys are eyeing Saints coach Sean Payton as the eventual replacement for Jason Garrett, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Of course, there are a number of complications and roadblocks involved in such a plan, including Payton’s contract with New Orleans, which runs through 2020.
Garrett is a lame duck heading into 2019 and the team does not plan to give him an extension between now and the fall. Of course, Garrett’s job has been in jeopardy before and he could easily turn things around with a big season in Dallas.
If the Cowboys are indeed interested in Payton, then this wouldn’t be the first time another team has tried to pry him away. The Colts and Rams reportedly explored the idea in January 2017, but Payton wound up staying put in New Orleans.
Here’s more from the NFC East:
- The Eagles may be hoping to “tag and trade” quarterback Nick Foles, but Foles’ representatives should be prepared to fight any attempt to block his path to the open market, Mike Florio of PFT writes. The QB’s camp could communicate that they won’t cooperate with the plan or they could fight it based on the rules of the CBA. Article 4 of the CBA reads: “A Club extending a Required Tender must, for so long as that Tender is extended, have a good faith intention to employ the player receiving the Tender at the Tender compensation level during the upcoming season.” Tendering Foles strictly to trade him would potentially be in violation of that clause.
- The Giants are likely going to use Eli Manning as their starting quarterback in 2019, Ralph Vacchiano of SNY opines. The Giants, he writes, are more likely to seek his heir in the draft and potentially explore a negotiation to trim his $23.2MM cap hit.
- Former Eagles quarterback G.J. Kinne has agreed to become an offensive assistant with the Eagles, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic tweets. Last year Kinne worked an analyst/assistant QB coach at Arkansas. Kinne, a Tulsa product, worked the practice squad circuit up until he was released by the Giants in May of 2016.
- The Eagles also promoted assistant wide receivers coach Carson Walch to full WRs coach, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. He takes over after the team moved on from Gunter Brewer.
Jones Addresses Kellen Moore's Role
Kellen Moore is, in fact, expected to call the Cowboys‘ plays next season, Jason Garrett said. The 29-year-old OC has yet to begin his second season as an NFL coach, but the Cowboys wanted change (without looking outside their staff to seek it).
Jerry Jones Confirms Jason Garrett Will Not Receive Extension
Several days ago, we learned that Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett may not receive a contract extension this offseason, thereby making the 2019 campaign a lame-duck year for him. That was quite the reversal from a report that emerged on the morning of Dallas’ divisional round matchup against the Rams, which suggested that the Cowboys were planning on negotiating a long-term deal with Garrett as soon as their season was over.
Speaking at the NFL Honors ceremony last night, team owner Jerry Jones confirmed that Garrett would not, in fact, receive an extension prior to the 2019 season, per Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Jones said, “We have been there before without a contract. He trusts me. I do trust him or he wouldn’t be the head coach to begin with. Our business is made too much of when you look at extensions and non extensions.”
Garrett did not have much to add on the subject, saying, “I don’t spend a lot of time on the business of football. I spend time trying to build a team we all can be proud of.”
As Jones noted, Garrett coached into a lame-duck year in 2014, when a 12-4 Cowboys team nearly voyaged to the NFC championship game. Garrett signed his current deal, a five-year, $30MM pact, after that season, but he has not been able to get his club over the divisional round hump. He has three division titles to his credit, but just two playoff wins.
It is difficult to say what Garrett will need to do to earn a third HC contract with Dallas, but he will probably have to at least get back to the playoffs.