The Cowboys had better hope they come out of the gates swinging and then make a deep playoff run. If they don’t, there will be those who point to this week as the reason why. After just one mandatory practice session, head coach Mike McCarthy has made the (perhaps) stunning decision to scrap the two remaining sessions of minicamp and send everyone home until training camp in Oxnard. The players enjoyed some off-campus team-building with golf clubs and had Thursday nixed from the schedule entirely. Die-hards will say a team that got embarrassed in the postseason should be logging every practice rep they can get, but actually, teams around the league are getting back to the notion of the offseason being… well… a season off.
Elsewhere, Jerry Jones finally puts his foot down, squarely on that story from the spring about how the mayor of Dallas wants another NFL team to play inside the city limits. It’s not going to happen, says the most influential man in the league. We may now have some idea of what Sean Payton’s price tag will look like, thanks to a story out of Miami. The Cowboys rank among the best in the business when it comes to pass-rush tandems, and one member of that duo is literally in a class by himself, according to the metrics. All that, plus strange-looking new safety gear makes its debut in Dallas, and a longtime Cowboys scribe prepare to sign off… for now. That’s all up in News and Notes.