As most Cowboy fans expected:

Joseph Randle has received a majority of first-team reps at this week's OTAs.
Randle, the incumbent, has his nose in front of this battle. Darren McFadden did get some reps with the starters on Wednesday, but Randle got more when Tony Romo was taking snaps. Although some have tried to prop up McFadden as a feature back candidate, his tape shows he's not capable of that and the Cowboys have hinted at using him as a "home-run hitting backup." We haven't heard of Ryan Williams or Lance Dunbar getting any first-team reps yet.

I wouldn't mind using McFadden in a "burn to the ground" role given contract but either way is fine with me.

He's been in the system two years may as well give him a look at RB1. He's still an idiot and there are still concerns about his blocking and fumbles but w/e. Two more sets of OTAs and a minicamp to figure it out. If they don't have enough in house they'll make a move for somebody before camp if there's someone they can get.

Lots of cool Cowboys news in here: http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/20...-thoughts-otas


Carr moving to the right

Jones looking good covering Witten

Some new guys I've never heard of looking good

La'El at guard



Mostly it's dawned on me that the best possible learning experience for the pass rushers is going up in practice against that Oline. Seems like a good way to get your teeth. And ditto with our DB's learning against Dez/Williams/Bease/Witten. Although I guess it sucks that Dez isn't out there yet. Soooooon.

Slow news day.

So they released RB Days and replaced him with RB Seastrunk, who might just be the least interesting camp signing this year. Cobbling together a scouting report:

• 5' 9"
  
• 4.51 40 time
  
• At Baylor: Couldn't catch and was awful in pass protection
  
• Skins drafted in 6th round last year, he doesn't make team, nobody picks him up off waivers, and doesn't get called back for a practice squad spot
  
• Panthers sign him to practice squad and release him after 9 days
  
• Titans brought him in over the offseason on a futures deal but released him weeks ago and obv nobody else had interest.

I know it doesn't really mean much with 90-man offseason rosters, but was this the last young RB left available on Earth? Did they scout every possible rookie and rule them all out as hopeless lost causes? I'm sure there's some interesting aspect to the guy, but in the span of one year three teams have said he's not an NFL player and not even worth developing.

McFadden has a hamstring sprain btw. Not a big deal normally but it's been a Miles Austin type thing with him. I'm thinking that they pick up a vet still at some point.

Wow no way! Man I remember watching a lot of footage on Lache (pronounced Lake) in his draft year. He can really fly, he's a physical freak. Looking at the teams who passed on him, I can totally see why the Skins and Panthers would. Way too many RB mouths to feed. Not a great sign that the Titans did, and by all accounts it's because he's a zero in the pass game, in a passing man's league. So yeah, I'm not expecting much. Too bad, he's probably our most physically gifted back right now.

This is goin farther than I like how worried are we with dez?

He's just being Dez imo


He knows he's gonna get paid eventually

Dez is chirping a bit but it's his first deal negotiation, Cowboys have been through this lots of times before. There's a price ceiling even for elite players and the market is very unclear for top end WRs right now + there's a fuzzy area with Dez. I'm not worried about it.

I'd guess Dez/Condon are talking something like $16m/year and the Cowboys are talking more like $11-12m, which would be the high end if not for the Calvin Johnson contract. If Demarius gets signed that would help a ton (of course he's waiting on Dez the same way). And I just saw a Spotrac estimate that values DT at $16m/year with $38m guaranteed which I wouldn't consider unless I could say he was the clear #1 wideout and had zero character concerns.

He's playing for $13m this year if nothing happens and that's it. Potentially $15.5m under a second tag next season too. Right now it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the Cowboys to reset the WR market or for Dez to give too much of a discount. Someone could make a $15m mistake if they try to rush this with all the uncertainly happening.

We are talking about dez he's the one guy I worry about that might actually sit if they don't give him a deal

Romo will get him to play

I'm not sure what the point of sitting out would be. By the time you get to the season it's too late to do a deal until next March. Plus now players can be fined for camp days up to like $1m, plus a few million more for the 4 preseason games missed, plus the game checks. If they can't get a deal then you take out a nice injury policy and take the high road.

We're still a month away from the tag deadline and training camp starts a couple weeks after that. There's lots of time left. We haven't even got to the part where Dez demands a trade.

Hope it doesn't come to that

Yoooooooo

4 games max possibly 2 I'm liking our defense for the first time in a few years

Really curious to see if they try to fight it. I also assume the Brady camp likes this outcome. They don't want to get into the whole cheating < beating or whatever they'll say about the NFL.

Anyway obviously I'm pumped. I really think our D is going to be the most improved potentially in the NFC, certainly in the division.

On the topic of the Cowboys and Broncos colluding, would Jerry and Elway really be so dumb as to leave bread crumbs? Seems so stupid and unlikely. As for them actually doing it, yeah there's like a 90% chance that happened, lol.

The NFLPA is probably just waving limp dick to help Dez & Demarius get deals. Very good chance it happened ofc but claiming credible evidence and having it aren't the same thing.

Last word (Rapoport) was Cowboys's offer is at least $13m/year but with only $20m in guarantees, Dez wants Megatron money with $40m guaranteed and there's no way that makes sense. I could see bumping the guaranteed portion up a little bit but that's about it.

Sucks for Dez but realistically he's almost the ideal player to leverage the tag against.

5/70 ain't that bad but 45 gtd?

Yeah that's WTF. It depends on the structure of the guarantees somewhat, if say his the first 2-3 year base salary are guaranteed with backloaded late years it would be a lot better than the whole $45 as a signing bonus. But since they're very likely to restructure him a couple times that's just going to get jacked up anyway.

I'm just happy we got our man. If Hardy can come down to 2 games, I love us to win the division.

Everybody's happy just after signing an All-Pro to a long-term deal. Will they still be happy 2 or 3 years later?

Still waiting on the fine print but there looks to be $20m signing bonus, so I'm hoping the other $25m gtd is mostly Year 1 & 2 salaries. That would be okay enough but when it's basically assured they'll restructure him next year I can't help but factor that into it.

I mean I'm no J Randle, but the guy did slap his momma reward better be a ring for this risk

So really it's $32m guaranteed. The other $13m could be lost if something happened this year and they decided to let him go (unlikely but at least possible).

Some pretty high costs after this season and especially 2 years from now. Even with cap increases likely he's going to need to be at a pretty high level. But at least it's a contract he could conceivably play out, if they leave it alone (they won't).

I look at it like this:

-they drafted well, maybe even very well
-they absolutely made the correct decision on Murray, something we weren't entirely sure they did
-they did keep the single biggest game changer on the team outside of Romo and kept him happy while Romo is still around

I agree the contract is hefty, but when measured beside the rest of the organizational moves this past Spring and Summer, I feel pretty decent about what they've done. I feel like the draft next year can take place and start to address RB/QB/TE and we'll have a pretty interesting foundation. I guess QB is easier said than done.

We already have the next romo guys were fine at qb