Cowboys Apply Tag To Demarcus Lawrence
The Cowboys and defensive end Demarcus Lawrence will not reach a long-term deal before Tuesday’s franchise deadline, a source tells Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). With no long-term deal in place, the Cowboys have followed through on their plan to apply the one-year franchise tag on Lawrence for 2018, as David Moore of the Dallas Morning News tweets.
The one-year placeholder will cost the Cowboys $17.5MM. Per league rules, the two sides still have until July 16 to hammer out a new contract. If no agreement is reached between now and then, Lawrence will remain with the Cowboys at a costly rate for the coming year.
The Cowboys would like to smooth out Lawrence’s cap hit and the defensive end would like to have the financial security of a long-term pact. However, it won’t come cheap. Agent David Canter also represents defensive end Olivier Vernon, who signed the largest contract in NFL history for his position when he landed a five-year, $85MM deal with the Giants in 2016. It is believed that Canter is seeking at least $17MM/year to match Vernon’s contract.
Lawrence racked up 14.5 sacks in 2017, nearly double Vernon’s total from his contract year. He also graded out as Pro Football Focus’ No. 3 ranked DE, putting him behind only Cameron Jordan and Von Miller amongst edge rushers.
Cowboys Won’t Tender RFA FB Keith Smith; Falcons Have Interest
The Cowboys will not tender an offer to restricted free agent fullback Keith Smith, but they are open to re-signing him on a multi-year extension, according to Todd Archer of ESPN.com. However, the Falcons also have interest in signing Smith to a free agent deal, reports D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
An original round RFA tender — which wouldn’t have netted Dallas any draft pick compensation had Smith inked an offer sheet with another club — is expected to be worth $1.908MM. Smith only played on 12% of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps in 2017, so that figure was untenable. But a multi-year deal could offer Smith financial guarantees (which the RFA tender does not) and keep his 2018 cap charge to a minimum, aiding Dallas’ books.
As Archer details, the Cowboys have used a similar strategy with restricted free agents in the recent past. In 2016, Dallas tendered safety Jeff Heath at the original round level, but subsequently replaced that one-year salary with a four-year, $7.671MM extension. The year prior, punter Chris Jones had already signed his RFA tender when Dallas worked out a three-year, $4.2MM deal.
Smith, for his part, appeared in all 16 games for the second consecutive season, but wasn’t a large part of the Cowboys offense, as he totaled only five total touches (all receptions). However, the 25-year-old Smith was a key factor on Dallas’ special teams unit: he finished sixth in Cowboys special teams snaps, and ranked second on the club with 10 ST tackles.
The Falcons, meanwhile, have ranked among the top-five NFL teams in fullback usage in each of the past two seasons. Patrick DiMarco played 31% of Atlanta’s offensive snaps in 2016 before signing with the Bills the following offseason, while Derrick Coleman saw time on roughly 22% of the team’s plays last year.
Jerry Jones To Testify Before Roger Goodell, Other Owners
Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Star-Telegram writes that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will testify before commissioner Roger Goodell and other owners at an appeal hearing tomorrow in Palm Beach, Florida. Jones is appealing the commissioner’s decision to assess him more than $2MM in legal fees stemming from the federal court case with Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and Jones’ opposition to Goodell’s contract extension.
As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk observes, the fact that Jones is testifying before Goodell means that Goodell has not exercised his right to designate the appeal to someone else, even though not doing so creates obvious conflict of interest concerns. In Florio’s estimation, Jones has strong arguments against fee-shifting for his threat to sue the league with respect to Goodell’s extension, as he never actually followed through with the threat. His arguments against fee-shifting with respect to the Elliott matter is a different story, as the Cowboys clearly provided substantial assistance to Elliott in his battle with the league.
Cowboys Owner Wants To Keep Dez Bryant
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wants Dez Bryant to be a member of the Cowboys next offseason (via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Of course, it remains to be seen if Dallas can accomplish that with the wide receiver’s $16.5MM cap hit looming large. 
“The reason we don’t discuss contract is that it is implies there is an issue with the contract,” Jones said. “That is not fair to imply that there is anything until we sit down and announce we have done something one way or another. It takes two. It takes him and us to do anything with his contract. I’m going to leave it at that. You have asked me as I sit here do you want him on the team next year, and my answer is yes.”
Jones indicated that the Cowboys will meet with Bryant and/or his reps before free agency starts on March 14. We shouldn’t expect the Cowboys to pitch Bryant on an extension, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Rapoport’s “understanding” is that the Cowboys will ask Bryant to take a pay cut or adjust the contract in some other fashion for the upcoming year. Still, moving on seems like the last resort for the Cowboys, he says.
Bryant is due a $12.5MM base salary this season. If the wide receiver is not amendable to an outright pay cut, the team look for him to slash his base pay with an equal raise in incentives. If Bryant can come close to reprising his 2014 season (88 receptions for 1,320 yards and 16 touchdowns), then he’ll be well worth the money. If he falls closer to his last three seasons (an average of 50 catches for 678 yards and six scores), then the Cowboys will want to pay him appropriately.
Cowboys Extend Exec Will McClay
The Cowboys are holding on to vice president of player personnel Will McClay. After the McClay declined an opportunity to interview with the Texans about their GM opening, the team rewarded him with a two-year extension, as ESPN.com’s Todd Archer writes. 
The new deal, presumably, comes with a pay raise for his loyalty. The Cowboys wanted to keep McClay, a widely respected and highly sought after talent evaluator, even though he his blocked from the GM job with Jerry Jones in command.
As Archer notes, the Cowboys have drafted four Pro Bowl players – Zack Martin, Demarcus Lawrence, Ezekiel Elliott, and Dak Prescott – since McClay took over the college and pro personnel departments in 2014. In that span they’ve also tapped 14 players who start or play key roles for the team.
Anthony Hitchens Seeking $10MM Annually
- Cowboys free agent linebacker Anthony Hitchens is seeking $10MM per year on the open market, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. Dallas ranks in the bottom-third of the league in available cap space, so that price point could force Hitchens out of the club’s range. Indeed, multiple beat writers don’t believe Hitchens will re-sign with the Cowboys, while the Colts — who now employ former Dallas linebackers coach Matt Eberflus — are expected to pursue the 25-year-old. A fourth-round pick out of Iowa in 2014, Hitchens appeared in 12 games a season ago and registered 55 tackles.
Latest On Cowboys WR Dez Bryant
The Cowboys have yet to make a decision on whether veteran wideout Dez Bryant will be with the club in 2018, according to Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
“I don’t have a time frame just yet,” said Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones. “Obviously, it’s going to happen sooner than later. … We have to continue to work on our end and see where we are gonna end up on it.”
Bryant is due a $12.5MM base salary in 2018, and will count for $16.5MM on Dallas’ salary cap. If he’s released, the Cowboys would save $8.5MM but still be on the hook for $8MM in dead money. Dallas could designate the 29-year-old Bryant as a post-June 1 release and in turn save $12.5MM in 2018 space, but that extra room wouldn’t be available until June. As such, it wouldn’t help the Cowboys sign free agents in March.
Bryant has managed to get into the end zone 14 times over the past two seasons, but he hasn’t topped 1,000 yards since the 2014 season. 2017 also marked the first year that Bryant was able to stay healthy for all 16 games since that 2014 season. Bryant only posted 69 receptions and 838 yards, however, which isn’t in line with a salary that makes him the NFL’s eighth-highest-paid wideout.
Speaking at the scouting combine today, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett also sidestepped the issue of Bryant’s roster status. “We have a tremendous amount of love for Dez Bryant,” said Garrett, who indicated Dallas has yet to discuss personnel decisions (Twitter link via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News). “He’s been a great player for us for a long time.”
Cowboys Rumors: Irving, Gregory, Jones
The latest out of Dallas:
- Cowboys CEO Stephen Jones confirmed that the Cowboys will tender restricted free agent defensive lineman David Irving (Twitter link via Clarence Hill of the Star Telegram). However, Jones says the team has not decided if it will be first or second round tender. Extending an RFA tender to Irving is a no-brainer, but the call on whether to make it a first- or second-round tender is a tougher decision. This year, the second-round tender will likely be in the $2.85MM-$2.95MM range. Meanwhile, the first round tender will probably be upwards of $4.1MM. The second-round tender should be enough to ward off interested teams, but the Cowboys could play it safe by assigning the first-round tender to Irving.
- Jones said the team is taking a “worst case scenario” approach to the potential reinstatement of defensive end Randy Gregory (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Todd Archer). The former second-round pick has missed all but two games over the last two seasons because of a suspension, so the Cowboys aren’t expecting to have him back, nor do they know what he can offer them at this point. On a positive note, Gregory passed drug tests in the fall.
- On Tuesday, Jones indicated that the Cowboys will be moving on from cornerback Orlando Scandrick.
Cowboys To Cut Or Trade Orlando Scandrick
One way or another, it sounds like Orlando Scandrick‘s time in Dallas is about to come to an end. Team CEO Stephen Jones says the cornerback will likely be cut or traded, as Clarence Hill of the Star-Telegram tweets. 
The Cowboys dangled Scandrick on the trade block during last year’s draft, but ultimately did not come to terms on a trade with the Saints that would have brought safety Kenny Vaccaro to Dallas. Scandrick stayed on board for his ninth season in Dallas, but he was dogged by injuries and landed on IR in December. Around that time, the 31-year-old acknowledged that he might not return to the only NFL team he’s ever known.
“I’m prepared for whatever,” Scandrick said. “I’m still going to play football. I’m still a good football player when I’m healthy. We’ll see what happens. … I’m not at the point of my career where I’m willing to just be an inactive guy or a guy that’s not a part of what’s going on and can’t help the team win. I just want to play somewhere I can finish things out the right way.”
Scandrick is scheduled to carry a $5.28MM cap hit in the coming year, but the team will probably part ways with him and eat $3.88MM in dead money in order to save $1.4MM against the cap.
In 2017, Scandrick registered just 38 total tackles and graded out as one of the ten worst qualified cornerbacks in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus. It’s possible that he could draw some trade interest, but it would be surprising if the Cowboys got a significant return for him.
Salary Cap Rollover For All 32 NFL Teams
This week, the NFLPA updated its salary cap report to include the rollover amounts for all 32 teams in the NFL. The Browns, as expected, lead the league in $58.9MM in cap space rolled over from the previous season. Here is the full rundown of each team’s rollover amounts:
After the Browns, the 49ers ($56MM), Titans ($30.3MM), Jaguars ($27.8MM), and Jets ($17.3MM) boast the highest rollover amounts in the league. The Dolphins ($69K), Saints ($287K), Giants ($365K), Eagles ($514K), and the Seahawks ($547K) have the least amount of rollover. In total, teams carried over nearly $340MM from last season, good for an average of $10.6MM per club.