Rolando McClain Still Absent From Cowboys OTAs
- Although the Cowboys‘ selection of Jaylon Smith in the second round this year points to a potential changing of the guard at middle linebacker in Dallas, that isn’t likely going to come in 2016. After signing a one-year, $5MM deal in March to stay in Dallas, Rolando McClain remains the projected starter there, but he’s absent from OTAs. Brandon George of the Dallas Morning News points to additional issues perhaps surrounding the 26-year-old McClain’s absence. George didn’t specify, but McClain has endured a complicated career that included a brief early retirement and continued with a four-game suspension for violation of the substance-abuse policy to start 2015. Jason Garrett said McClain’s absence during the first two weeks of OTAs is related to a family matter. Combining that and the injury-related absences of Sean Lee and Barry Church should cause some concern, George writes. “It’s certainly disappointing when [players are] not here,” Stephen Jones said recently. “But at the same time we know there’s always circumstances where guys are gonna miss. And that doesn’t necessarily indicate if that guy’s gonna have a good year or a bad year. I think it certainly gives them a better chance to have a good year when they’re in our competitive offseason conditioning programs, the OTAs, all those things.”
Cowboys Sticking With Kellen Moore
When the offseason began, finding a backup quarterback seemed to be one of the Cowboys‘ top priorities. However, they wound up sticking with Kellen Moore. From the sound of it, the Cowboys are comfortable sticking with him as their No. 2 quarterback, even though Nick Foles appears to be available.
Dez Bryant Making Progress In Recovery
- An X-ray on Cowboys star Dez Bryant‘s surgically repaired right foot revealed positive news Wednesday, and he’s now “in the clear” when it comes to being able to participate in football drills, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Foot and ankle issues derailed last season for Bryant, who recorded career worsts across the board and will join quarterback Tony Romo as they look to bounce back this year.
Cowboys DT Maliek Collins Has Broken Foot
The Cowboys announced that rookie defensive tackle Maliek Collins has suffered a broken right foot. Collins has already had surgery on the injured foot and is expected to be sidelined for 10-12 weeks. 
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The Cowboys are now a little thin on the defensive line without the third-round pick, but Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter) hears that the Cowboys won’t add anyone immediately to fill the void. For now, they’ll only look in-house for solutions.
While Collins will be missed, the Cowboys do have backup Terrell McClain on hand to support interior line starters Tyrone Crawford and Cedric Thornton. Also, defensive linemen Jack Crawford and David Irving have experience at both tackle and end. Of course, defensive end is where the Cowboys are thin thanks to the four-game suspensions handed to Randy Gregory and Demarcus Lawrence.
Collins, a Nebraska product, was taken with the No 67 overall pick in this year’s draft. In his sophomore year, Collins turned heads when he recorded 45 tackles, including 14 tackles for a loss, and 4.5 sacks. Last year, however, Collins took a step back in terms of production, recording only 29 tackles, seven for loss, and 2.5 sacks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Stephen Bowen Announces Retirement
Defensive end Stephen Bowen has decided to call it a career, according to a press release from the Redskins. Bowen, who spent ten years in the NFL, played for the Jets in 2015 but he is better known for his time in D.C. and Dallas. 
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For his career, Bowen appeared in 128 career regular season games with 57 starts, accruing 175 career tackles, 12.5 sacks, nine passes defensed, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. He spent four seasons with the Redskins from 2011-14 and served as a team captain on the Redskins’ 2012 NFC East championship squad. Bowen will perhaps be best remembered for 2011, his first season with Washington. In that campaign, Bowen started all 16 games and recorded 6.0 sacks, roughly half of his career total.
Bowen first entered the NFL in 2006 as a UDFA when he signed with the Cowboys. He appeared in 63 regular season games plus three postseason contests for Dallas, but he did not truly shine until his first season in the nation’s capital. Last year, the New York native and Hofstra product returned home with the Jets and saw time in 15 games.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor NFL Transactions: 5/31/16
Today’s minor moves:
- To fill the void left by Tim Wright – who landed on IR today – the Lions will sign free agent tight end Ben McCord, tweets Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. McCord went undrafted this year out of Central Michigan.
- The Cowboys have signed their two fourth-round picks, defensive end Charles Tapper and quarterback Dak Prescott, reports Todd Archer of ESPN.com. As a result, their only unsigned selection remaining from this year’s class is third-round defensive tackle Maliek Collins. Prescott, the more notable of today’s signings in terms of name recognition, was a three-year starter at Mississippi State and served as a major dual-threat weapon for the Bulldogs, totaling 111 touchdowns as a passer (70) and rusher (41). Tapper appeared in 39 games with Oklahoma in three seasons and piled up 13.5 sacks and 24 tackles for loss.
- The Cardinals have cut offensive tackle Edawn Coughman, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). Arizona signed the 27-year-old in January, and he previously spent time with seven other NFL organizations. He hasn’t yet appeared in a game, however.
- The Titans have signed second-round outside linebacker Kevin Dodd, as Jim Wyatt of Titans Online writes. Nine of the team’s ten draft picks have now reached deals with the team and safety Kevin Byard stands as the lone straggler. Dodd, who recorded 12 sacks last season at Clemson, has been sidelined from OTAs after undergoing foot surgery last week. The Titans have high hopes for Dodd and so does veteran Brian Orakpo. “He is just a natural pass rusher,’’ Orakpo said of Dodd. “He knows how to get after the quarterback. I love what he brings to the table. I am very excited to have him on the team. He is going to make everyone better, and we’re going to get him better and he is going to help the pass rush.”
- The Texans have waived offensive lineman David Quessenberry with a Non-Football Injury designation, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). Quessenberry has battled cancer in the past. The Texans are hoping to have him back in some capacity if he clears waivers, Tania Ganguli of ESPN.com writes. Houston could place him on the NFI list if he clears waivers. Alternatively, the team could welcome him back in a non-playing role. The Texans re-did Quessenberry’s deal on April 20th to include a full salary split, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. If and when Quessenberry lands on the team’s NFI list, he’ll earn $333K in 2016.
- The Vikings have signed defensive lineman Bruce Gaston and waived/injured fellow defensive tackle B.J. Dubose, Matt Vensel of the Star-Tribune tweets. Dubose tore his ACL last week. Gaston made Green Bay’s opening day roster in 2015 and he’ll now try to do the same with an NFC North rival.
Ronald Leary Lost His Leverage By Signing RFA Tender
- Cowboys left guard Ronald Leary has made it abundantly clear that he wants to be traded, but as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes, Leary lost almost all of his leverage when he chose to sign his restricted free agent tender last month. Now that he has signed the $2.55MM tender, Leary can be fined if he misses mandatory minicamp or training camp, so Dallas will be perfectly content to either wait for a good return from another club seeking an interior lineman, or for Leary to give in and report to the team.
Cowboys Don't Plan To Trade From RB Depth
- The Cowboys have gotten inquiries from teams interested in their running backs, but they don’t plan on dealing any of them, according to executive vice president Stephen Jones.“We got calls during the draft asking to trade for some of our running backs. We just don’t have that interest,” he said Thursday (link via Katie Halropoulos of the Dallas Morning News). In addition to fourth overall pick Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys have Darren MacFadden – who ran for 1,000-plus yards last year – as well as three-time 1,000-yard rusher Alfred Morris and Lance Dunbar as credible options out of the backfield.
Latest On Cowboys, Ronald Leary
Ronald Leary has requested a trade from the Cowboys, but Dallas isn’t in a hurry to send him elsewhere. On Thursday, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones explained that he’d only trade the offensive lineman if he can get a decent return. 
“We told Ron that he could certainly look around, but we’re not in the business of letting go of good football players for little or nothing,” Jones said (link via Kate Hairopoulos of the Dallas Morning News). “We got calls during the draft asking to trade for some of our running backs. We just don’t have that interest. Ron’s a big part of this football team. We know it’s disappointing when you’ve been starting and you’re not. We’d hoped that he would look at it as ‘let’s come in here and compete.'”
Jones went on to say that the Cowboys expect Leary “to come in here at some point.” Leary, of course, is abstaining from voluntary OTAs but Jones hopes he’s “getting in shape wherever he is right now.”
Leary started at left guard for the Cowboys in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, he started the season in the same role but undrafted rookie La’el Collins – who was graded as a first-round talent before his infamous draft day slide – eventually took the job from him. The Cowboys are planning to start Collins at left guard once again in 2016, but they want all of the help they can get on the offensive line with Tony Romo returning from injury and rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott leading the team’s running back committee.
Leary was on the field for only 137 pass snaps and 84 run snaps in 2015, according to the stats compiled by Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Although he did not qualify to be ranked based on that limited sample size, Leary was given an overall grade of 72.2, which would have placed him among the top 30 guards in the NFL last season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Cowboys QB Tony Romo On His Future
Are expectations too high for Cowboys rookie Ezekiel Elliott? ESPN.com’s Todd Archer fears that the bar is being set a little high as Elliott is already being considered a frontrunner for the offensive rookie of the year award. The hype, of course, is understandable. Elliott was taken with the No. 4 overall pick in the draft thanks to his well-rounded skill set and body of work at Ohio State. Now, he’s entering a near perfect situation with a killer offensive line and a passing game led by Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, and Jason Witten that will keep defenses honest. Still, Elliott isn’t even old enough to drink (he turns 21 in July) and plenty of talented rookies have faltered out of the gate.
- This offseason, there was pressure on the Cowboys to select Romo’s successor. However, after whiffing on Paxton Lynch, they didn’t exactly find their quarterback of the future. While some fans may fret over Dallas’ situation under center, Romo says that he probably has four or five years left in the tank. “I’m not in my mid-20s anymore, but I do think based on what my situation has been like the last three or four years, I do think this [offseason] is drastically different,” Romo said (link via Archer). Romo missed 12 games last season because of a broken left collarbone. He also has had a pair of operations on his back.
- Cowboys offensive lineman Ronald Leary is abstaining from OTAs and reportedly wants to be traded. Leary started at left guard for Dallas in 2013 and 2014 and opened the 2015 season in the same capacity. However, he was eventually leapfrogged by rookie La’el Collins.