Cowboys Arrange Several Pre-Draft Visits
Most of the prospects the Cowboys are planning to make part of their pre-draft visit itinerary will come through Dallas this week, with Albert Breer of SI.com reporting (on Twitter) numerous names have emerged.
Wide receivers Calvin Ridley and D.J. Moore are among those who will trek to Texas for pre-draft summits. Defensive linemen Vita Vea, Harold Landry, Da’Ron Payne and Florida’s Taven Bryan will join them, per Breer. Offensive linemen Kolton Miller (UCLA) and James Daniels (Iowa) are also on this list, as is Alabama linebacker Rashaan Evans.
Teams are allotted 30 visits before drafts, and Dallas will examine plenty of incoming NFL talent in the coming days.
Texas A&M wide receiver Christian Kirk is also on the Cowboys’ meeting list, although he is not expected to count against the 30-player maximum since he’s considered a local prospect. With Dez Bryant‘s future up in the air, the team is clearly interested in surveying what the 2018 crop looks like. Ridley, Kirk and Moore are the top three wide receivers on Daniel Jeremiah’s NFL.com draft board and the only wideouts to appear on this 50-prospect list.
Cowboys To Meet With Kony Ealy
Jets free agent defensive end Kony Ealy will meet with the Cowboys On Tuesday, sources tell Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Meanwhile, he has “remained in discussions” with Gang Green over the past few weeks, Rapoport adds. 
Ealy, 26, was shipped from the Panthers to the Patriots last offseason, but was cut by New England in August. The Jets claimed him off of waivers – beating out the Cowboys with a higher waiver priority – and he put together a solid season in New York.
Ealy’s one sack and 14 total tackles don’t exactly jump off of the page, but he saw time on 451 snaps as a part of the defensive line rotation and started in four of his 15 games. For his work, Pro Football Focus rated him as the No. 61 edge defender in the NFL last year, which actually slotted him ahead of former teammate Julius Peppers, despite Peppers’ eleven sacks.
The Cowboys are set with Demarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford as their starting bookends, but Ealy could find work off of the bench in Dallas as a replacement for Benson Mayowa.
Emmanual Sanders Didn't See Physicality From Cowboys Secondary
- While speaking on the “Ben and Skin Show” on Dallas’ 105.3 FM The Fan, Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders did not speak highly on the physicality of the Cowboys’ secondary, stemming from the teams’ Week 2 matchup last season, which the Broncos won 42-17. “Honestly and truthfully, you know, what I’m going to say… I hope it’s not a shot to nobody but maybe in that game — this is what I saw, it’s the honest truth — I saw a defense that really, truly wasn’t physical. That’s what I felt when I was playing against those guys. In terms of the safeties coming down and hitting me, it’s an old term called ‘sticking your hand in the fan.’ Just unphysical. They weren’t physical at all. I’ve been in the league nine years and after that game, I felt like they were scared or something. That’s the kind of vibe that I had gotten. … I promise, this is not something I’m making up right now. I told everybody after that game that’s how I felt when I played against the Cowboys. Maybe they weren’t scared but I don’t know. … I know what a physical defense looks like and I just didn’t feel it out of that defense.”
Cowboys Don’t Have Timeline For Dez Bryant Talks
The Cowboys plan on speaking with wide receiver Dez Bryant regarding a restructuring of his deal. On Wednesday, it was reported that the Cowboys hoped to resolve the issue at some point over the next two weeks. 
The team seemed to step back from that notion Thursday.
“We haven’t put that timeline on it,” said Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones during a press conference at the team’s facility, per Nick Eatman of DallasCowboys.com. “When we get ready on a decision with Dez, we’ll make it.”
Bryant, 29, signed a five-year, $70MM extension with the Cowboys prior to the 2016 season. He’s due to have a cap hit of $16.5MM in 2018. Veteran tight end Jason Witten and center Travis Frederick have already restructured their deals this offseason to create cap space. The team added a pair of wide receivers in free agency as well in Allen Hurns and Deonte Thompson.
“We’re going to sit down and we have a lot to talk about,” Jerry Jones said at the press conference. “I don’t want to say or not say anything to imply that Dez won’t be a Dallas Cowboy.”
In related news, the Cowboys have attended the pro days for wide receivers Christian Kirk (Texas A&M), Courtland Sutton (SMU) and Calvin Ridley (Alabama), who are all projected to go in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft. The Cowboys hold the No. 19 overall pick in the upcoming draft.
Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones On Randy Gregory
Randy Gregory is laying the groundwork for his return to football, but Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is not getting his hopes up. While Jones credited the defensive end for his work to get his life back on track, he says that he is not banking on the commissioner to let him back in for 2018. 
“I am not confident [in Gregory being reinstated], but I do see where his heart is,” Jones said (via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). “He is one the smartest people to have played this game. This is a tremendous step. He has had that same IQ since he has had these issues. That’s an issue. This is definitely a medical issue. There is no doubt in my mind about the medical. That is another campaign. It’s a pretty circuitous route. It has a lot of discretionary things to determine. There is a lot of subjectiveness. But he is doing very well. He’s got a lot to play for. He has a new baby. He has a lot going for him. He is very astute about knowing that. He has to do what a lot of us have had to do and that is to do better at 24 and 25 than when you were 20.”
Jones offered support for Gregory on a personal and professional level noting that he is “really a good person,” and “one helluva football player.” Still, Jones knows that the reinstatement process is somewhat subjective. His own personal relationship with Roger Goodell might not help matters either.
The Cowboys will start Demarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford at the bookends with Taco Charlton, Charles Tapper, and Datone Jones offering support from the bench. The Cowboys have said all along that they are hoping to get Gregory back in the fold, but they are also planning for life without him in 2018. That could mean some edge rushing reinforcements next month through the draft.
Jerry Jones Hopes Randy Gregory Plays For Cowboys In 2018
- With Randy Gregory taking the necessary steps to apply for reinstatement to the league, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he hopes that Gregory will suit up for the team in 2018, per Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter). Jones went on to tell Hill that he’s not confident Gregory will be reinstated for next season, though, due to the rigorous process he’s about to undergo.
Latest On Cowboys’ Randy Gregory
Randy Gregory has been laying the groundwork for his return to football, David Moore of the Dallas Morning News writes. Representatives of the defensive end are “in the process of doing the work necessary to apply for reinstatement,” Moore adds. 
Gregory has not seen the field since the 2016 season due to multiple violations of the league’s substance abuse policy. However, the latest word on him is positive and he passed drug tests in the fall. Once the right paperwork is in place, it is expected that Gregory will meet with commissioner Roger Goodell. Based on Goodell’s previous handling of players in similar situations, it seems as though Gregory could be allowed back on the field if he can demonstrate that he is drug free.
The former second-round pick out of Nebraska has notched just 15 career tackles. He has one sack to his credit, which came in Dallas’ 2016 season finale.
Latest On Cowboys, Dez Bryant
The saga of Dez Bryant‘s contract could be coming to an end soon. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones indicated that he hopes to hammer out a revised deal with the wide receiver by the end of the next, if not this week, Clarence Hill of the Star Telegram writes. 
“I think that these two guys that we signed [Allen Hurns and Deonte Thompson] and what we might look at in the draft, at any level of the draft, plus what we might get worked out with Dez, gives us a good-looking receiver outlook,” Jerry Jones said.
Jerry Jones has been coy about discussing Bryant’s contractual situation, but vice president Stephen Jones has been public about the need for Bryant to shave his deal a bit. This year, Bryant is slated to carry a $12.5MM base salary with a $16.5MM cap figure. Given the decline in his performance, that is undoubtedly pricey. Bryant hasn’t topped 1,000 yards since the 2014 season and 2017 marked the first year that Bryant was able to stay healthy for all 16 games since that 2014 campaign. Bryant finished out with 69 catches and 838 yards last year, numbers that do not justify his placement as one of the ten highest-paid wide receivers in the game.
Cowboys Notes: Thomas, Kirk
- New Cowboys linebacker Joe Thomas‘ two-year deal is worth up to $3.6MM, tweets Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. Thomas, who had spent his entire career in Green Bay, received a $1MM signing bonus and will also have $400K of his base salary guaranteed. The Packers opted to non-tender Thomas as a restricted free agent rather than pay him an original round tender of $1.907MM, and Thomas won’t meet that mark with Dallas, either, as Demovsky reports Thomas will collect just $1.6MM total in 2018. Thomas, 26, will likely spend most of his time on the Cowboys’ special teams unit, but will provide depth in case Sean Lee or Jaylon Smith go down with injury.
- Texas A&M receiver Christian Kirk has schedule a pre-draft visit with the Cowboys, according to Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. Because he’s likely considered a local prospect, Kirk shouldn’t count against Dallas’ allotment of 30 prospect meetings. The Cowboys have already added Allen Hurns and Deonte Thompson to a pass-catching corps that also includes Terrance Williams, Cole Beasley, and — for now — Dez Bryant, but Kirk could give the club another dimension on offense. Kirk averaged a 78/952/9 line during three seasons with the Aggies.
Brice Butler To Meet With Four Teams
Brice Butler‘s market is starting to heat up. In the next two weeks, the Cowboys free agent wide receiver Brice Butler will visit with the Seahawks, Bears, Jaguars, and Cardinals (Twitter link via Jane Slater of NFL.com). 
The 28-year-old has been vocal about wanting the opportunity to do more in 2018. Last year, Butler finished out with just 15 catches for 317 yards and three touchdowns. After the season, he opined that he could have outperformed teammate Dez Bryant if he had the same number of targets.
“100 percent,” said Butler. “Because I’m ready. It’s my time, I’ve been there for three years. I feel like me and Dak [Prescott] have a really good relationship. We work on routes. There’s times that we might not have completed a square-out throw in practice, and we’re taking that time out in practice to actually work on it. So I think that’s why when you saw us in the game, he tried to come to me, and most of the times we produced.“
Bryant underwhelmed for Dallas last year, but still had 69 receptions for 838 yards and six TDs. For now, Bryant remains part of the Cowboys’ plan with Butler likely moving on following the addition of Allen Hurns.
“With Dallas, the situation has to be right for me to go back,” Butler said earlier this year. “I have to be a starter. If I’m not starting, I’m not going back,” Butler said.
Wherever Butler lands, he’ll be in for a pay raise. Butler earned just $1.1MM on a one year deal in 2017.