The Dallas Cowboys now have two of their greats from the past decade-plus who have let it be known they want to continue playing football.
Linebacker Sean Lee has joined tight end Jason Witten in declaring their intentions of wearing a uniform in 2020. The big question is, will they match the silver and blue and the Cowboys star whenever they pull it on.
Like Witten, Lee is a free agent this offseason.After struggling through the first nine seasons with various and numerous injuries, Lee was intended to move into the background in 2019 as a rotational substitute behind Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch. However, neck concerns shelved the latter much of the season and Lee turned in his first 16-appearance season in his career.
So where does that leave him with Dallas?
Ahead of the 2019 season, he redid his contract to reduce his base salary from $7 million. His new base was $3.5 million, with another $1.5 million in per-game bonuses, of which he earned all of them. In addition to this $5 million, he had another $3.5 million in available incentives.
It was an interesting turn of events, considering the Cowboys have spent well over $10 million in salary for games Lee couldn’t appear in due to injuries.
Meanwhile the Cowboys are not as sure about the position as they planned to be following 2019. Going into the year, they thought they had one of the league’s best young linebacker corps. They signed Smith to a hefty extension far earlier than they had to. He spent the year not living up to the performance standard he set in 2018, despite being named as an alternate to the Pro Bowl.
Vander Esch also didn’t live up to his All-Pro rookie campaign, even before being knocked out for the second half of the season. Lee stepped up, and had a decent year with plenty of tackles down the stretch, but at 34 years old by the time the season begins, what will he be able to contribute?
Vander Esch’s offseason neck surgery is supposed to have him able to participate in the club’s offseason program, but the Cowboys are known to be an organization that leans toward overly optimistic prognoses when injuries and surgeries concern. It was them, through unprompted denial that brought up the concern the neck injury could be career impacting. It will be a wait-and-see process until the club is able to get their conditioning program underway this spring.
There’s definitely a place within the Cowboys’ rotation for Lee, who had 86 tackles an interception and four pass defenses last season. The other veteran backup, Joe Thomas, is also a free agent. Behind them, is a collection of young and unproven talent. Luke Gifford is a promising player who was injured in the preseason but returned to play special teams down the stretch.
The club signed Malcolm Smith near the end of the season and he logged the fifth-most defensive snaps at the position. Chris Covington (2018 draft pick) is also on the roster, though Justin March is a free agent like Lee. Neither logged significant snaps.
The Cowboys are going to have to bring in, or back, plenty of help. The first question is whether or not they’d be willing to offer Lee what he’s looking for to entice him to return to a new regime but with the only organization he’s known since leaving Penn State. The second is whether that new regime is interested in having him back.
Lee is a coach on the field; it’s obvious in how he interacts with the rest of the position and was encapsulated perfectly in Amazon Prime’s documentary All or Nothing from the 2017 season. Will Mike Nolan want to lean on that, or go his own direction with all new voices?
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