Cowboys Will Keep Darren McFadden
Although trade rumors had swirled around running back Darren McFadden, the Cowboys plan to keep the veteran running back, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. McFadden will go on the NFI list, meaning he will miss the first six weeks of action.
Fourth overall pick Ezekiel Elliott is poised to take over the Cowboys’ starting running back job, and free agent signee Alfred Morris has performed well in camp. Pass-catching back Lance Dunbar, meanwhile, has come off the PUP list and will be ready for the start of the season, so Dallas could have trouble finding carries for McFadden.
Still, McFadden is a pretty valuable asset given that he rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season and will cost only $1.25MM in base salary. However, his health has always been a question mark, and he’s injured at the moment. McFadden is dealing with an elbow ailment and still hasn’t practiced this offseason.
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Cowboys Cut Three
NFL Personnel Doubt Dak Prescott's Viability
The Dak Prescott hype train will continue into the regular season after Tony Romo‘s latest injury will put the former Mississippi State talent in command of the Cowboys. But how closely the fourth-rounder’s electric preseason will correlate with what happens beginning next week have NFL personnel split.
The scout notes the Cowboys have enough talent around Prescott to keep him from being exposed but expects defenses to throw exotic blitzes at the rookie to gauge his readiness.
Cowboys To Sign Jerrod Johnson
Rejoice, Texas A&M fans. The Cowboys will sign Jerrod Johnson to serve as Jameill Showers‘ emergency backup for tonight’s preseason finale against the Texans, Clarence Hill of the Star-Telegram tweets. 
Johnson, 28, has yet to appear in a regular season game for an NFL team, but he has had stints with five different teams, including practice squad tours. Since going undrafted in 2011, Johnson has signed deals with the Eagles, Steelers, Seahawks, Bears, and Ravens. However, with the rash of injuries in Dallas, Johnson could have an opportunity to hook on with the Cowboys as their No. 3 QB behind Showers and Week 1 starter Dak Prescott.
In four years at Texas A&M, Johnson completed 650 of his 1,109 total passes, totaling a 58.6% percentage. He threw 67 touchdowns against 27 interceptions.
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Cowboys Unlikely To Sign QB Austin Davis
The Cowboys quarterback search continues. This week, the Cowboys met with Austin Davis, but it no longer sounds like they are intent on signing him, Todd Archer of ESPN.com tweets. As Archer notes, it’s not exactly clear where the Cowboys will turn in their pursuit of quarterback depth now. 
One thing we do know is that the Cowboys are only seeking a player to serve as a backup to Dak Prescott until Tony Romo is ready to return to action. The Broncos reached out to the Cowboys hoping that they might want to instead use Mark Sanchez as their starter over the next few weeks, but Dallas did not have interest in the USC product at his current salary. Meanwhile, it now sounds like Romo will be out for a minimum of two months.
Davis, 27, has 13 games (10 starts) on his resume. Most of that action came in 2014, when he started in eight contests for the Rams, completing 61% of his passes for 2,001 yards, 12 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. In Cleveland last year, Davis started two games, tossing one touchdown and two picks.
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Tony Romo’s Prognosis Worsens
Initially, when Tony Romo went down with a back injury, the word was that he would be sidelined for six to ten weeks. Turns out, six weeks was a bit too optimistic as a best case scenario. Romo will be out for eight to ten weeks, a source tells Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Star-Telegram. 
[RELATED: Cowboys Could Sign QB Austin Davis]
The new timetable means that the Cowboys will be leaning on rookie Dak Prescott for a bit longer than initially anticipated. It also effects how the Cowboys will handle Romo’s absence from a roster perspective. Now that Romo is out for a minimum of two months, the team is more likely to use the IR/DTR designation on him to allow for a mid-season return.
Romo suffered a compression fracture to his L1 vertebrae and that must fully heal before he will be allowed to play. In 2014, Romo was able to tough it out and play through two transverse process fractures in his back, but that is considered to be less serious of a problem. Transverse process fractures are considered to be more like a muscle tear where as Romo’s currently injury is more like a bone fracture.
“We’re certainly getting our hands around it,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said of the roster decision on Wednesday, before the latest update on Romo’s timetable. “We’ll be needing to make that decision obviously sometime later in the weekend. Whatever we do with him, he’ll need to be on our 53 when we cut it on Friday. So you’ve got to have him through the 53 cut before you can put him on designated to return, if we wanted to consider that. But it may be that we just keep him on the roster. We’ll just see.”
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Cowboys Could Sign Austin Davis Today
The Cowboys could sign Austin Davis today, according to Charean Williams of the Star-Telegram (on Twitter). However, they will continue to keep an eye on the waiver wire to see what quarterbacks may become available. 
Dallas flirted with the idea of trading for a quarterback after Kellen Moore broke his leg and the QB search went into high gear after Tony Romo suffered a serious back injury in the preseason. However, the Cowboys have found that the asking price for established quarterbacks is too high for their liking. Josh McCown was once a target for Dallas, for example, but they did not want to give up a fourth-round draft choice for him.
In Davis, the Cowboys see a much cheaper alternative to the McCowns and Glennons of the world. However, one has to wonder if he can be as effective on the field as those guys if called upon.
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Cowboys Restructure Scandrick’s Deal
The Cowboys restructured the contract of cornerback Orlando Scandrick, Todd Archer of ESPN.com tweets. To carve out some additional breathing room, Dallas turned $4MM of Scandrick’s $5MM base salary into a signing bonus. 
[RELATED: Cowboys Give Sean Lee Additional Bonus]
The Cowboys are hoping for big production from Scandrick after an ACL tear robbed him of his 2015 season. In the year prior, Scandrick ranked as the tenth-best cornerback in the NFL out of 108 qualified players, according to Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics. According to PFF’s data, quarterbacks completed 74.3% of their passes into Scandrick’s coverage, but those completions averaged just 9.9 yards, and the Cowboys’ corner didn’t allow a touchdown in his 14 games in ’14. For the year, he recorded 63 tackles and grabbed a pair of interceptions.
Thanks to an extension signed in 2015, Scandrick is under contract with Dallas through 2019.
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Cowboys Give Sean Lee Additional Bonus
Last year, linebacker Sean Lee was slated to earn a $2MM bonus for appearing in 80% of the team’s defensive snaps. In Week 17, Lee was on the cusp of locking that bonus in, but he was battling a hamstring injury. Rather than play at half-strength to cash in, Lee opted to sit out of the game so that a healthy player could take his place. That gesture was not lost on the Cowboys. Today, Dallas gave Lee a $125K per-game bonus this year, totaling $2MM if he plays 16 games, a source tells Don Banks on Twitter. 
[RELATED: Cowboys To Meet With QB Austin Davis]
Of course, it’s not a given that Lee will stay healthy for the entire year. Injuries cost Lee the entire 2014 season and he also missed significant time in 2012 and 2013. Last year, however, Lee bounced back to appear in 14 games and log a career-high 128 tackles on his way to a Pro Bowl nod. After suspensions ravaged the Cowboys’ front seven, Dallas is rooting for Lee to earn that extra $2MM this year.
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Cowboys To Meet With QB Austin Davis
The Cowboys are known to be in the market for a veteran backup quarterback after losing Tony Romo to start the season, and they’ll meet with with a signal-caller who just earned his walking papers yesterday. Dallas is set to host quarterback Austin Davis, who was waived by the Browns on Monday, according to Brandon George of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link).
[RELATED: Cowboys Place Kellen Moore On IR]
Aside from Romo, the Cowboys’ only other quarterbacks are Dak Prescott — who presumably won’t play much, if at all, during the club’s final preseason game — and 2015 UDFA Jameill Showers. As such, Dallas needs options to simply get through it’s fourth exhibition contest, and George cautions that Davis might only be an arm for that final tuneup.
But Davis, 27, is also a viable No. 2 quarterback, as he has 13 games (10 starts) under his belt. Most of that action came in 2014, when he started right contests for the Rams, completing 61% of his passes for 2,001 yards, 12 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. In Cleveland last year, Davis started two games, tossing one touchdown and two picks.
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