Cowboys News: Pollard vows to be ready, Super Bowl LX site leaked, is McCarthy weak link?
It hasn’t even been four months since Tony Pollard suffered a nasty high ankle sprain and fractured fibula in the team’s playoff loss to San Francisco, but the back gave an encouraging update recently on the status of his return. In other pre-OTA news, we’ve got kickers who are playing right now that the Cowboys should look at, we have questions about whether this is the beginning of the end for Tyron Smith, and we examine why the front office should start laying the groundwork for a record-breaking deal with one defensive star.
Meanwhile, one outlet believes Mike McCarthy may be the Cowboys’ weakest link in 2023, an advanced metric says the Dallas offense will be among the elite this year, and reports say that the 2026 Super Bowl site is all but decided. Also, why Luke Schoonmaker has his agent to thank for more than most rookies, why Jourdan Lewis remains so important to the Dallas secondary, and what moneymaking proposition is apparently a bridge too far for Roger Goodell and the NFL. All that, plus the franchise bids farewell to a past star who never got the chance to fully shine because of the politics of the era in which he played. News and Notes, up next.
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Cowboys would be wise to pay Micah Parsons as soon as they can :: ProFootballTalk
The Dallas front office waited too long with Dak Prescott, but they shouldn’t make the same mistake with arguably the best defensive player in the game. Parsons becomes eligible for a new contract immediately after the 2023 regular season ends. That’s the exact moment the Cowboys should make him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. Not after the playoffs, not after he wraps up his fourth season. The longer they wait, the more expensive Parsons becomes. Negotiations should start now.
Cowboys' Jourdan Lewis provides vital depth in an unproven CB room :: Cowboys WIre
With a cap number of $5,872,550, the seventh-year man out of Michigan is more costly than the typical CB4 (behind Trevon Diggs, Stephon Gilmore, and probably DaRon Bland). But given the slow development of players like Nahshon Wright and Kelvin Joseph, the depth Lewis provides may still be too vital for Dallas to part with.
Cowboys TE Luke Schoonmaker’s unique bond with agent unknowingly set him on NFL path :: Dallas Morning News
A high school football coach tried Schoonmaker at tight end here and there, despite the 6-foot-5 kid being a winning quarterback in Connecticut. It was enough to get him a look at Michigan. Now he’s in the NFL, and that high school coach is his agent. “This is a guy that can do all facets of the tight end game,” Joe Linta said of Schoonmaker. “He might not be the best in every category. There might be a bigger guy or a faster guy. But he is one of the most complete guys out there.”
Memphis native, Cowboys star Pollard returns to Memphis to host youth football camp :: Action News 5
Now the Cowboys’ lead backfield option, Pollard made a pit stop in his hometown to host his annual youth football camp last weekend. Pollard said he’s been working with trainers after breaking his leg in January’s playoff loss and vows he’ll be ready to go for training camp in July.
Tyron Smith’s future with Cowboys still very uncertain heading into contract year :: Blogging the Boys
Entering his 13th season in the NFL, Smith is now the longest-tenured member of the Cowboys roster. He’s famously missed 33 games over the past three years, but managed to get a reworked deal from Dallas this offseason anyway because he remains a force of nature when he’s healthy. But even if he stays upright in 2023, with Tyler Smith and Terence Steele progressing as they have, the Cowboys may have a hard decision coming at the end of this contract year.
3 USFL options for the Cowboys to consider at kicker in 2023 :: Cowboys Wire
If John Fassel is truly going to consider “anybody else on earth” to compete with unproven Tristan Vizcaino at kicker, the USFL might not be a bad place to look. Birmingham’s Brandon Aubrey led the league in kicking last season. Luis Aguilar of the Philadelphia Stars has shown annual improvement and can also be a backup punter. And Matt Coghlin of the New Orleans Breakers is the USFL’s most accurate leg so far this season.
NFL's top 10 offenses in 2023? Bills, Chiefs, Eagles produce highest win-share projections :: NFL.com
The Cowboys offense has a projected win share of 7.9, a mark that’s fifth-best in the NFL, according to Cynthia Frelund’s calculations. She says Brandin Cooks and Ronald Jones “forecast to more than make up for” the exits of Ezekiel Elliott and Noah Brown. She believes the rookie Schoonmaker could be “one of the bigger steals of the draft” and says her models have Dallas finishing in the top five in scoring in 61 percent of the simulations for 2023.
1 glaring flaw that could sink all 32 NFL teams' Super Bowl 58 hopes :: For the Win
The Cowboys roster is extremely strong on paper, but that paper is being held by a head coach who’s proven capable in the regular season… yet maddeningly unable or unwilling to find the edges that can propel him to playoff glory. He doesn’t fix exploitable problems with his teams, allowing opponents to tear at those gaps until they’re vortices of shame and frustration consuming all hope at the end of another too-early playoff disappointment. (Yikes.)
2 defensive assistants represent Cowboys at NFL's Coach Accelerator program :: Cowboys Wire
Aden Durde and Joe Whitt are solid candidates to be head coaches in the league one day; both have so excelled as assistants that they’ve followed other NFL coaches to new stops. Durde worked under Dan Quinn in Atlanta, and Whitt previously spent time on Mike McCarthy’s staff in Green Bay.
Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Rodrigo Barnes dies at 73 :: Dallas Morning News
The Rice linebacker impacted far more than football games. He was one of four players to integrate the Owls football team in 1968, helped start the school’s Black Student Union, and pushed for the hiring of more Black coaches and teachers. Drafted by the Cowboys in 1973, Barnes had lasted until the seventh round because of his reputation as a staunch civil rights activist. He continued making that good trouble as a Cowboy, even getting into contentious meetings with Tom Landry over playing time. “I was everything Landry wanted,” Barnes said, “except I was Black.” Despite being a rare athletic talent, he played just one season in Dallas and was out of the league entirely after three years. “Yes, I was an activist,” Barnes said once. “But I wasn’t trying to change the Cowboys, just how you treat people.” Barnes went on to a career in education; he has passed away at 73.
SBJ Unpacks: Levi’s Stadium expected to get 2026 Super Bowl :: Sports Business Journal
League owners are expected to award Super Bowl LX to Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco, with 49ers CEO Jed York saying, “my optimism is very high.” Bids for the 2026 game were reportedly scaled back due to so many NFL venues gearing up to host the FIFA World Cup that same summer. AT&T Stadium and Levi’s Stadium are both to be heavily involved in those high-profile soccer matches in 2026. Super Bowl LVIII will be held in Las Vegas in February 2024; New Orleans will host the following year.
Report: NFL won’t have uni ads on Roger Goodell’s watch :: Uni Watch
They’ve been part of the NBA and NHL for some time. And although one-third of MLB teams now also have corporate-sponsor patches prominently sewn onto their gameday uniforms, the NFL commissioner is reportedly dead-set against the trend. “You tell me the year Roger Goodell’s contract ends, and that’s the year ad patches will be allowed in this league,” said one longtime NFL team president. “So not never, but close to that.”
