Dallas Cowboys 2019 Offseason

I am really excited because Cowboys training camp begins this Friday. Football is on the horizon and for a bunch of NFL teams the process of prep for the upcoming season actually began on Wednesday of last week when the Ravens, Broncos and Cardinals. The Falcons reported a day later. I’m reason the Broncos and Falcons reported early is because they will be playing in the Hall of Fame game which occurs a week before every other team begins their preseason games. As for the Ravens and Cardinals, only the rookies reported on the 17th with the veterans reporting today. Other teams had their rookies report a couple of days early. The Houston Texans rookies reported Monday with the first full team practice is today. The great thing about the NFL beginning training camp is that the rest of the football world will begin 2-a-days very soon. That’s college and high schools so, even though it’s the end of July, fall is right around the corner! For some reason today is fall-like with a north wind and low humidity. Maybe God is excited training camp is beginning too!

The biggest news from Cowboy-land is the release of WR Allen Hurns. Surprising I know and it has nothing to do with the fact that Hurns suffered a broken leg in the Cowboys wild card win over Seattle. Hurns went through an intensive rehab in the offseason and he actually participated in the OTA’s and minicamp. Health is not the issue, money is. In last year’s offseason the Cowboys signed Hurns to a 2-year $12 MM deal and he’s due $5.6 MM dollars this year. Hurns was signed at a time when Dallas had released Dez Bryant and a bunch of no-name receivers. Cole Beasley had left for Buffalo and bigger payday (that money thing again) so the Cowboys had decided to go with a WR by committee system. What has happened since Hurns signed his deal is the Cowboys drafted WR Michael Gallup and he emerged as a real weapon in 2018. The Cowboys realized after a 3-4 start that WR by committee thing was a bogus plan and they leaned on Will McClay to find a solution. What McClay came up with was a trade with the Oakland Raiders that brought Amari Cooper to Dallas and the Cowboys 2019 first round pick went to Oakland. Turns out it was a damn good deal. The Cowboys went 7-2 with Cooper winning the NFC East and winning in the Wild Card round over Seattle. The Cowboys fell to the Rams in the Divisional round who ended up going to the Super Bowl. In this offseason the Cowboys replaced Cole Beasley with Packers free agent Randall Cobb. Many view this move as a definite upgrade. For Hurns, in the space of a year, went from a top option in the Cowboys offense to the 4th, or maybe 5th option with the return of Jason Witten, who is being paid too much money. The Cowboys signed two undrafted free agents in Jon’Vea Johnson and Jalen Guyton whom the Cowboys are very high on. They are long and extremely fast and, most importantly, come a lot cheaper than Hurns. Hurns is healthy and ready to go he will just have to go somewhere else.

To nobody’s surprise Demarcus Lawrence and Byron Jones were put on the PUP list to begin training camp. D-Law is rehabbing his surgically repaired shoulder and Jones is rehabbing from hip surgery back in March. Both players are saying they are going to be ready for opening day.

Last but not least, every year Forbes magazine ranks the most valuable sports franchises in the world and in 2019 our Dallas Cowboys were ranked #1 as the most valuable franchise in sport. That is not just in the United States, that’s in the world. The Cowboys are worth, according to Forbes, $5 Billion dollars. Knock Jerry Jones as a GM if you like but Jones the owner/business man takes a back seat to nobody. In the 30 years since he bought the team he has not only built the Cowboys brand to unprecedented heights but he revolutionized the way the NFL does business. Jerry’s impact on the business side of the NFL was such that he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a couple of years ago. This is the fourth year in a row the Cowboys were deemed the most valuable. Previous to that Real Madrid (3X) and Manchester United (1X) held the #1 spot. The top five sports franchise for 2019 are 1) the Cowboys, 2) NY Yankees, 3) Real Madrid (Soccer), 4) Barcelona (Soccer) and 5) NY Knicks. The NFL dominates the top fifty spots on the Forbes list with 26 teams. No other sport is even in double digits. Yet another reason to yell, GO COWBOYS!!!

Goodbye, Cooper Rush.

Whhhaaatttt?

So Drac, are you saying Cooper Rush is gone because Dallas signed SDS qb Taryn Christian? Also you seem to favor Mike White?

So Drac, are you saying Cooper Rush is gone because Dallas signed SDS qb Taryn Christian? Also you seem to favor Mike White?

Cooper Rush can't run and evade and really hasn't shown anything. Mike White can't run and evade but White is one year younger. This new guy, Taryn Christian, read em' and weep.

owns seven school career passing records, six single-season passing records, has twice been named All-America and All-Conference, and led his team to victory in 75 percent of the games in which he played?

amassed over 11,000 passing yards at 8.5 yards per attempt, with 104 passing touchdowns against just 34 interceptions while starring for South Dakota State.

finishing with over 1,500 rushing yards with 26 rushing touchdowns.

40-yard dash: 4.49

The kid is an athlete and Dallas isn't going to carry 4QB's. Bye Bye Cooper.

The Cowboys training camp is in full swing now. For the first two days of camp (Saturday and Sunday) the team had 3 non-padded practices. The reason for non-padded workouts was simply a way to ease the players into the grind of what’s to come.

 

Today was the first day in pads and the first day the coaches could see a 100% competitive practice. This significant because it’s the first time coaches will able to see if guys like Travis Frederick are really back to full strength. They will see how rusty Jason Witten is. They will see if DE Robert Quinn is the badass they thought he was. They will also begin to get an idea how their rookies stack up to NFL caliber competition.

 

In my mind, football really began today. I’m pumped and I can’t wait for September. I’m also jealous of the weather in Oxnard California. It’s 70 degrees and 69% humidity there at 12:38 PM. While it’s 91 degrees here with 66% humidity. The heat index is 98. California Dreamin’ indeed.

The Cowboys are approaching a week into training camp and it’s nice having football news to talk about. The media is going bat-crap crazy talking about Zeke Elliott’s holdout. What does it mean? What’s going to happen? As usual the media is Chicken Little wondering what they are going to do because the sky is falling. I suppose that’s the nature of the media. There is no such thing as a mole hill when you can make a mountain of something. We already have an injury to LB Sean Lee to wonder about. Apparently, he tweaked his knee and it’s reported now as slight strain to his MCL. Don’t you feel sorry for Lee? The guy is such a dedicated player, he’s smart and he’s a damn good linebacker and the gods of football have decided to curse him with ill health for almost all of his career. I had a guy tell me the other day that he couldn’t believe Lee was in his tenth year. It’s true as the years roll by so fast you forget the years that have actually gone by. To paraphrase Douglas MacArthur, “Old athletes never die, they just fade away.”

 

Travis Frederick had his first padded practice on Tuesday since training camp last year. According to reports he didn’t show much rust after missing the past year. In hindsight, there were clues to Frederick’s condition, loss of strength, fatigue and numbness in his arms and legs, that pointed him to a doctor who diagnosed him with the nerve disease that cost him all of the 2018 season. There is none of those symptoms that cause players like Malik Collins and Antwaun Woods to consistently beat Frederick at the line of scrimmage. This summer is a different story as Frederick isn’t the patsy the D-line thought he was last summer. I think this O-line is back and better than ever with Frederick and the emergence of Connor Williams who has bulked up, muscled up and generally grew into the lineman the Cowboys expected when they drafted him last April. The reports are that Williams has added size and muscle but it hasn’t affected his agility or his ability to play in space. That is great news.

 

The Cowboys have signed RB Alfred Morris and if you believe the Cowboys front office it wasn’t a mitigation for the absence of Zeke. The deal has been in the works for while and the Cowboys just were able to pull the trigger. Of the backs in camp Morris is the only one with more than 6 carries in a regular season NFL game. There are backs with a lot of potential but with Morris he will stabilize the position even after Zeke reports. (Yep, Zeke will report. This will not be a La’Veon Bell sit out the season because he doesn’t like his contract situation.) All this contract stuff goes back to the contract gave Todd Gurley last year. They gave Gurley the contract knowing he had issues with his knee and he aggravated the injury and he practically disappeared in the playoffs. To say the Rams had a severe case of buyer’s remorse is an understatement. Now Zeke wants a Gurley-type deal and the Cowboys are hedging their bets because they still have to pay Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper. But, when push comes to shove I believe Zeke will be back in time for Week 1. After all Zeke isn’t losing money holding out of training camp (unless you count the $40K a day he’s being fined for being a no-show) but when he starts missing paychecks his tune could change in a New York minute. The Cowboys front office doesn’t seem too concerned about it. Zeke isn’t sweating it out, he’s in Cabo San Lucas training, staying in shape for when he does return to the team. The one thing about this time of year I hate is all the crap about contracts. I was so freaking happy when basketball ended because I get tired of the same old narrative with basketball. Golden State this, LeBron that, blah, blah, blah. Those conversations finally ended last week after the media beat the dead horse that was the acquisition of Russell Westbrook by the Rockets to a bloody pulp. (I think it’s a bad deal – two alpha guards who feel they need to shoot the ball every time they get their hands on it – not going to end well, IMO) Football isn’t as nauseatingly laborious about contract deals as the NBA (thank GOD!!!) but, unless there is some real drama going on, there isn’t much to talk about other than pull muscles and cramps. For fans, it’s enough to have some football to keep up with.

Last night Gil Brandt became the 18th person that won his bones as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. Tex Schram got a lot of credit for being the GM of the Cowboys from its inception in 1960 until Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989. It was Brandt who helped build the Cowboys into America's Team. From innovations in scouting including being the first NFL team to use computers as a means of sorting and categorizing prospects and developing a ranking system for selecting those players. From being the first to go to DII and DIII schools and schools who had predominately black enrollment to find talent for Tom Landry to mold into a team that enjoyed a record 20 straight winning seasons. Gil Brandt deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and his induction is long overdue.

 

Zach Martin has missed a couple of days of practice with a back issue. It isn't considered serious but the Cowboys are taking no chances with their All Pro right guard. It's not like Martin needs a lot of practice anyway and with him on the sideline it gives the young players who wouldn't otherwise get a chance a bunch more reps to show what they have to offer.

 

The Cowboys annual Blue-White Scrimmage is today. It will likely only be able to be seen on the Cowboys website. Maybe it will be on a local channel but if that channel is Fox all of us Directv customers will out of luck as the satellite service claims that Fox want a lot of money for DTV to continue broadcasting their network. If Directv and Fox don't work out a deal I will be dumping DTV right quick and in a hurry because, so far, I have missed the Baseball All Star game and a couple of other sporting events but, come the fall, I will be missing Cowboys games and other national NFL broadcasts. Fox Sports has had the baseball playoffs and the World Series and I'm not missing out on the Astros winning it all again this year. Not only that, but there are a lot of TV shows on Fox I regularly watch. DTV better get its act together or they will find they have lost at least one customer.

For all the Cowboys fans out there, a day after the Blue-White scrimmage the Cowboys have waived TE Rico Gathers. Gathers was a late draft pick in 2016 as an experiment. Gathers had not played organized football since junior high school but his size and athleticism made the Cowboys feel they could help Gathers make the transition for NCAA basketball player to NFL TE. Guys like Antonio Gates and Tony González and others had made a similar move but 2 weeks into his 4th training camp Gathers had just not shown enough to spend any more time waiting for him to develop. The Cowboys have 3 quality TE’s in Jason Witten, Blake Jarwín and Dalton Schultz that they are happy with. Apparently, Rico wasn’t so suave. Edited August 10, 2019 by eagle eye

The Cowboys play their first preseason game of 2019 tonight in San Francisco. As of Thursday, the last day of practice prior to the game, the Cowboys had 14 players that weren't able to practice due to injury or by holdout. Players like Amari Cooper, Sean Lee, Demarcus Lawrence, Bryon Jones, Zack Martin, Robert Quinn are all out. Quinn was broke his left hand in 1 on 1 drill against Tyron Smith when Quinn's hand hung up on Smith's elbow brace. He had to return to Dallas and he had surgery to repair the hand on Thursday. To add insult to injury, Quinn found out he was going to be suspended for violating the NFL policy on performance enhancing drugs. Quinn knew he tested positive for a PED and he had appealed the decision. What was found in his blood was miniscule and Quinn's investigator found that the druggist that filled a prescription for him had filled a prescription for the PED just prior to filling Quinn's scrip. In an analogy for the amount of PED in Quinn's sample was that if you had a bag of rice the PED found in Quinn's system was equal to one single grain of rice. Quinn's investigator was amazed at how unreasonable the NFL league office was in considering this matter. For people who have been following these things it's just business as usual dealing with the inflexibility of Roger Goodell and his storm troopers. So, Quinn will get an extra two weeks, Week 1 and Week 2 of the regular season, for his broken hand to fully heal. The only real question to be answered tonight is who has better back ups, Dallas or San Fran. Oh well, it's football.

The Cowboys lost their first preseason game last Saturday night but I don't care about that. The first team offense sans Zeke and Armari Cooper looked sharp and they marched right down the field and did everything right but score a TD. They had to settle for a field goal. Cooper Rush came in for Dak on the second drive and he led the Cowboys on three straight drives into the 49ers red zone. Trouble was the Cowboys only got 6 points out of those 3 trips. The most concerning thing from 2018 was the inconsistency of kicker Brett Maher and he missed a 35 yard attempt on the Cowboys 3rd drive of the night. As you might expect, the 49ers gained momentum and drove down and scored a TD. This 10 point swing was something the Cowboys couldn't overcome. Instead of being up 9-0 they found themselves down 7-6. The Cowboys scored on the last drive of the half to retake the lead at 9-7. That was the first half but the second half belonged to San Fran. As a matter of fact, the 4th quarter belonged to the 49ers as they scored 10 points to lead them to a 17-9 win as the Cowboys were totally shut out in the 2nd half. This was mostly because the Cowboys 3rd QB Mike White looked pretty bad. He was holding onto the ball too long instead of trusting his talent and the play in front of him and the result was a universal feeling of the Dallas media that Mike White played himself off the team with that performance. Cooper Rush was great 2 years ago as a rookie as he made the team. He wasn't very good in 2018 but 5th round draft pick White was not much better so Dallas ended up keeping 3 QB's. This year, especially after a good performance by Rush and a not-so-good performance by White, the feeling is Dallas will only keep 2 QB's with White being the odd man out.

 

Wouldn't you just know it: The two young players to really stand out in last week's game were WR Cedrick Wilson and LB Luke Gifford. Wilson has been impressive during training camp and he was having a nice night against the 49ers until Mike White hung him out to dry allowing a 49er defender clock him. He had to leave the game with a concussion and he remains in concussion protocol. The 49er who made the hit was ejected for targeting. It's a new NFL rule, or maybe an old rule never enforced, but either way it was a bit controversial for the ejection to occur. The other guy to impress was Gifford. He was making plays including a pass defensed and an interception before he had to leave the game with a high ankle sprain. A 49er player rolled up, not on purpose, on Gifford's leg causing the injury. It was obviously very painful and people were concerned he had dislocated ankle or a broken ankle. It was found on Sunday it was neither but the dreaded high ankle sprain will, at very least, cause him to miss the rest of training camp. Dallas Cowboys.com writers seem to think Gifford has shown enough to actually make the team anyway. DE Jalen Jelks had a sack in the game and continued his good play in preseason. RB Tony Pollard did a nice job in limited use and several other young players made a positive impression including 2017 1st round Taco Charlton.

 

Off the playing field we had the usual posturing for a big contract by Dak and Zeke. Zeke says he won't play in 2019 without a new deal. Trouble is, unlike Le'Veon Bell who had only one year left on his contract, Zeke has 2 years. If he intends to play this game with the Cowboys he may find himself sitting for 2 years. I don't believe this will happen. But I will be surprised if he gets Todd Gurley money as everyone in LA feels some buyer's remorse for that deal. The rumors regarding Dak's contract status began early in the week. The rumor mill said Dak turned down a $30MM offer and later in the week it was reported that he was wanting a $40MM deal. Nobody sees Dak getting 40 mil and the alternative is letting Dak play out his contract this year and if they both cannot agree on a long term deal Dak will get franchised in 2020. Amari Cooper's deal is a non-starter in that he's already being paid $14MM this year as he plays out his final year of his rookie deal. Cooper isn't sweating his contract because he knows whether he stays in Dallas or not in 2020 he will get paid. Also, he seems to be waiting to see what Julio Jones gets on his new deal. The contract that is most concerning is Zeke's because if he wants to play hardball with the Cowboys Stephen Jones is not afraid to play hardball right back. The Jones family won't be bullied or blackmailed into a deal they are not comfortable with.

 

The Cowboys are in Hawaii for a preseason duel with the LA Rams. I don't know how the Rams feel about a long trip but I know back in the Jimmy Johnson era Johnson used to get pissed when Jones agreed to play overseas in the preseason because it disrupted training camp because the travel cost the Cowboys days of practice which Johnson valued more than the high profile attention Jones like to get for his team. Hawaii is long way from the mainland and it has already cost the Cowboys a day of practice so they travel to the islands early. It may also be a distraction from the work on the field prior to the game. Jimmy would be squirming with aggravation I'm sure. Saturday's game is crucial to Mike White, another bad performance and he may not last until the end of camp. Alfred Morris may play this week as Dallas had 18 players who missed last week's game due to multiple factors. Tony Pollard did well but he only had 6 carries. I want to see a little more from Michael Gallup and Randall Cobb.

Goodbye, Cooper Rush.

I was wrong. Goodbye Cooper Rush and Mike White. Game 1 Rush had the better game, with 16/26, 142 yds, no td's. White was worse, at 9/20, 87 yds, no td's. Game 2 vs LA.

At the end of Q3, White is 7/13, 30 yds, with an INT. Rush is 7/10, for 47 yds and a td. Q4, 10:06, rush playing has upped his stats to 8 /13 for 54 yds and 1 td. apparently, at the 6:45 mark, Rush is 9/16 for 69 yds. Something is gonna give and that would be me, bored , out of my skull, watching the stats change. Good night.

The Cowboys-Rams game looked like laundry day at Camp Ooby-Dooby. I'll bet there were over 30 penalties accepted not even counting the ones that were declined. I agree somewhat with Drac, Rush was better than White. It just doesn't seem to be in White's DNA to be aggressive. Even the pass downfield was underthrown and picked off. The first team offense looked sharp. Dak took the ball on their own 2 and drove it the length of the field for a TD even overcoming a 1st and 22 when they got backed back up to the 2 yard line again. Tony Pollard looked good as he made some nice runs between the tackles and he had a couple of receptions out of the backfield. As for the young receivers No 11 Reggie Davis had a nice game except for a muffed punt after the Rams 2nd possession. The Rams got the ball on the Cowboys 40 and the first team defense could not stop the Rams 2nd team offense as they drove down and tied the game at 7. No. 15 Devin Smith showed up some too. I hate games like Saturday's flag fest. The only flow to the game was all the flags flowing in the air. I was disappointed in the first team defense's inability to stop the Rams 2nd teamers. Blake Bortles didn't look like the chump he looked like in Jacksonville. He's no Jarod Goff but he'll do as a backup. I'm not sure he's better than Cooper Rush at this point but he's the Rams' worry. The next game is against the Texans back in Dallas on Saturday night, let's just hope that Saturday isn't laundry day in Big D.

The Cowboys awarded a contract extension today only it wasn't Dak. It wasn't Amari, it wasn't even Zeke! Jaylon Smith got a 5-year $64 MM deal today including $35.5 MM guaranteed. He is now signed thru the 2024 season. Smith would have become a restricted free agent after this season.

 

 

 

Also, Demarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford were activated off the PUP list and added to the active roster.

 

 

 

Tyron Smith missed practice today as he is dealing with a bad back. It isn't considered serious but with backs you never know. Does anybody have the number for a good chironpractor? It seems Smith and Carlos Correa could use one. Amari Cooper has missed practice since Aug 3 with a foot injury. It turns out its plantar faciitis. It's a condition he's dealt with before. Cooper spoke to reporters today and he indicated that he isn't worried about it and he's feeling better every day.

Who will blink first, Zeke or Jerrah? After the Jaylon Smith extension, I think Zeke blinks. Edited August 21, 2019 by Dracula

I agree. Zeke can’t hold out because he has two years left on his rookie deal. He’s not missing any salary right now but if he starts to miss games he will miss paychecks too. The Cowboys can call Zeke’s bluff and nobody loses except Zeke. Have you seen how well Tony Pollard has bee playing?

The Cowboys kicked the stuffing out of the Texans last Saturday night. The offense was passable with the first team offense scoring 10 points in 3 possessions. It was the defense and special teams that broke the Texans backs. The Cowboys blocked a punt and recovered it for a TD and some nice punt returns set Dallas up in nice field position. The defense, especially the D-line, was a force of nature. It didn't matter if it was the 1st team, 2nd team or 3rd string defense and it didn't matter which level of Houston's O-line was on the field. All that mattered was the Cowboys defensive line was in the Texans backfield all freaking night. The Texans couldn't get a damn thing going all night and what made matters worse was the fact that Lamar Miller, in his first touch in this preseason, was injured. It was found out later that he tore his ACL and will be lost for the season.

 

A couple of observations, 1) Tony Pollard looks like he will get a lot of PT this year. He runs well between the tackles and has been impressive in both the run game and the passing game. 2) Taco Charlton seems to be trying to live up to being a 1st round draft pick as he's picked up his game this preseason. It helps when you're healthy which he really hasn't been in this two previous seasons. 3) Cary Heider was picked up in the offseason from Detroit and he's been balling out the past two weeks. The Dallas D-line is getting to be a real beast. The players up front are all playing well and they will give the coaching staff a bunch of difficult decisions next week when the roster has to be cut down to the final 53. 4) The defense is getting healthy now as the final week of preseason is upon us. Last week Demarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford were taken off PUP and added to the active roster and today the Cowboys activated CB Bryon Jones. All three players look to be on track to be ready for Week 1 on Sept 8th. That's PRO BOWLER Demarcus Lawrence, PRO BOWLER Byron Jones and a very useful Tyrone Crawford. This Cowboys defense looks like it will be dominant. I'm hoping so because I chose them for my fantasy team! 5) Everyone in the Cowboys website is of the opinion that Zeke will be back for Week 1. They feel he will not be will willing to give up 1/4 million dollars every week on the chance he might get a new deal. Also, they are pretty sure if Zeke and the Jones' boys (Jerry and Stephen) sit down together a deal will get done.

The countdown to kickoff of the 2019 NFL season is underway. The Cowboys, along with the other 31 teams, made their final cuts today to get to their final 53 man rosters. There were a couple of surprises in the cuts. For one thing, Dallas cut 8 draft picks, 3 from this year, 3 from 2018, 1 from 2017 and 1 from 2016. QB Mike Weber was cut, CB Mike Jackson were among the draft picks cut. The Cowboys cut a couple of guys that had really good camps like WR Cedrick Wilson and CB Donovan Olumba and LB Justin Phillips. I would not be a bit surprised if they were not signed to the practice squad. A big surprise was the cut of RB Jordan Chunn who had a really good camp and he is really good on special teams. The Cowboys website writers were certain that the Cowboys would keep 3 RB's, Tony Pollard, Darius Jackson and Chunn but, the Cowboys kept Pollard, veteran Alfred Morris and FB Jamize Olawale. The thinking in Cowboysland is that the Cowboys went short at RB because they expect Zeke Elliott will be back in the fold for Week 1. The Cowboys only went with 5 WR's keeping Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, Randall Cobb, Tavon Austin and speedster Devon Smith. The thinking around the team was that the Cowboys might keep six WR's which meant Cedrick Wilson would make the final 53 but it didn't happen. The Cowboys did go long at D-line with 6 DE's and 3 DT's and 1 guys who can play both. A couple of the DE's can play both along with Tyrone Crawford. Kerry Hyder, who had a great training camp showed he can do both jobs well along with former Texan Christian Covington. I'm excited for the season to begin. The Cowboys offense should be formidable but I am really excited to see how the defense does. I believe this the best talent on the defensive side of the ball since Jimmy Johnson was coach. Just from a talent standpoint this team should be a top 5 if not better. With college ball and high school ball already underway it should be a September to remember!!!

A deal got done on Monday for 5 years and $50 MM with $35 MM guaranteed. This is a contract extension which means Collins will play out his final year of his contract for $8.5 MM in 2019. Still, no movement on contracts for the big 3 in Dallas, Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper.

 

That seemed to be changing yesterday when it was reported that the Cowboys and Elliott were close on finalizing a contract. So close, in fact, Elliott flew back to Dallas from Cabo San Lucas where he’s been working out with former NFL RB Marshall Faulk. Still, when I went to bed no deal had been announced. This morning when I came to work and I was listening to Golic and Wingo on ESPN radio the deal with Elliott was all that was being talked about. The Cowboys and Elliott agreed to a 6 year extension worth $90 MM with $50 MM guaranteed. Plus he will get paid another 13 million for the last two years of his original contract which means Elliott will get paid $103 MM over 8 years. Zeke’s average yearly salary will be $15 MM which is better than Todd Gurley’s $14.3 MM and the $50 MM guaranteed is better than Gurley’s $45 MM. Zeke is happy because he is currently the highest paid RB in the NFL and the Cowboys are happy because they have their running back under contract for 8 years. Cowboys fans are happy to have Zeke signed, sealed and delivered before Week 1 of the 2019 season.

 

The Cowboys have really done a lot this offseason wrapping up their top young players with long term deals. First, Jaylon Smith agreed to a five year extension which means, with 1 year remaining on his rookie contract, the Cowboys have Smith for the next 6 years. It was a big offseason for Smith who completed his degree program at Notre Dame and he participated in graduation ceremonies at the beginning of the summer. Now, he is able meet his goal of helping his mom retire, the $20 MM in guaranteed money allowed that to happen. If Smith had waited to get free agent money, he could have made a lot more but he is grateful to Dallas for taking a chance on him after the devastating knee injury and nerve damage he suffered in his last college game that left his future in doubt. The Cowboys took a chance on him drafting him in the 2nd round of the 2016 draft and it worked out well for both parties. Smith, in effect gave the Cowboys a ‘home town’ discount.

 

The next contract done was with Collins on Monday. Collins had one year remaining on his original deal when he got the extension. The speculation was, when Dallas drafted Connor McGovern this year, Dallas would let Collins play out his contract this year and move Connor Williams to right tackle and insert McGovern in a left guard. Now, the Cowboys have great depth on the O-line for years to come. Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin and now Collins are all locked up long term with Williams still having 3 years remaining on his rookie deal it means Dallas’ O-line is set for at least 3 years barring injury.

With the Elliott deal done Dallas still has to find a way to pay Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper but, knowing the Jones’ family penchant for not losing a player they want to keep I have no doubt these deals will get done sooner or later.

Jones, Sr., may be a lousy GM but the guy knows how to make money work. Apparently, Stephen Jones, the son, knows the money game even better than dad, and runs the day to day money operations and he knows what he don't know, which is why Will McClay, the drafting guru,is so important. The Jones's know how to play the cap game. Dak will be signed but Amari I don't know.

After last night’s defensive struggle between the Packers and the Bears (read ‘snoozer’) you have to wonder what is going to happen when the real games start for everyone else on Sunday. Mainly I’m wondering how it all plays out beginning at 3:25 pm when the Cowboys and Giants go at it. On the Giants side, there is the push to get rookie QB Daniel Jones to take over for Eli Manning based on gaudy numbers he put up in preseason. We all know that the most popular player on any roster is the back up QB especially is the #1 is struggling or getting older. With fans and media trying push Eli out the door it might be motivation for him to prove everyone wrong. The defense lost a bunch of stars like Snacks Harrison, Olivier Vernon and Landon Collins but is their defense remodel as successful as the Packers?

 

From a talent perspective, it looks like the Cowboys have a boatload more talent than the Giants and the recent contract signings of Demarcus Lawrence, La’el Collins, Jaylon Smith and, of course, Zeke, the Cowboys have the core of their team signed for several years to come. But this is a division game and talent levels and perceived gaps are just illusions because these games have lives of their own. That is what scares me about this game. The Cowboys ought to kick the Giants’ behinds back to New Jersey but, if history tells us anything, the Giants could very easily win. I don’t care about what ought to happen, I just Dallas to be one point better than the Giants. I want a W at the end of the game and I don’t give a hoot about style points or blown opportunities or blah, blah, blah. I just want a win.