Tag: Gerald McCoy

News: Cowboys may move Jaylon outside, McCoy gives a glimpse in

Also, Will McClay’s ‘pet cat’ of the 2020 Draft, Amari Cooper’s fantasy stock dips, which rookies may start Week 1, and 2020 schedule news.

Restocking the shelves was a huge hit during draft weekend, but now the Cowboys need to reshuffle their inventory a little bit. The team’s intentions at the safety position may be getting clearer, but a slight shift among the linebacking corps might also be in the works. And there’s already talk of which rookies could be in the starting lineup come opening day of the 2020 season.

Speaking of which, the full slate of games is supposed to be made public within days, although it’s not guaranteed. What’s already a done deal, though, is commissioner Roger Goodell forfeiting his monthly salary in the wake of the current global crisis. All that, plus a real-world look at how the coronavirus pandemic has affected new Cowboy Gerald McCoy and his family, a peek at where Dallas falls in a new power rankings list, and Will McClay reveals his “pet cat” of the 2020 NFL Draft class. That’s all on tap in this edition of News and Notes.

With CeeDee Lamb pick in NFL Draft, Cowboys asking offense to lead way :: ESPN

“It’s fun to have to score 35 points every game,” Mike McCarthy said at this year’s NFL scouting combine, “but it’s hard.” CeeDee Lamb hopes to make it a little bit easier for a unit that finished 2019 first in yards per game and sixth in points… yet still missed the postseason with an 8-8 record.

Daryl Worley announces he’s signing with Cowboys; CB room too crowded for Awuzie? :: Cowboys Wire

After teasing that the team’s new answer at safety may already be on the roster as a cornerback, the Cowboys have brought on yet another CB, former Raider Daryl Worley. The writing may be on the wall for fourth-year man Chidobe Awuzie to transition to safety, a position he played for a time in college.

Chidobe Awuzie to safety? Cowboys explore position switches on defense :: The Dallas Morning News

Following Cowboys Wire piece from the late night before, the rest of the Cowboys’ sports coverage went out to get their own sourced confirmations, and it was confirmed.  But Awuzie may not be the only Cowboys defender on the move in 2020. Jaylon Smith may slide to outside linebacker in order to do more blitzing, with Leighton Vander Esch potentially replacing him in the middle.

The ISO: Gerald McCoy :: The Players’ Tribune

Get to know a different side of the new Cowboy. The six-time Pro Bowler dishes on how he knew the pandemic was coming thanks to his “germaphobe” wife, and he thinks his Dad rating would be a 97 as he handles the family’s cooking, laundry, and home schooling during the lockdown.

The Cowboys invested a lot into UDFA Ron’Dell Carter, and it’s easy to see why :: Blogging the Boys

His name wasn’t called on draft weekend like his teammate Ben DiNucci, but James Madison edge rusher Ron’Dell Carter will be fighting to make the Cowboys roster just the same. The onetime Rutgers redshirt ended up posting huge numbers in a “very aggressive” defense at JMU and hopes to do the same in Dallas.

Will McClay deflects ‘MVP’ praise to scouts :: The Mothership

President of player personnel Will McClay says the club’s scouting department are the superstars responsible for the Cowboys’ impressive draft haul. As multiple players fell far past where Dallas had them graded, McClay chose to trust the exhaustive research done by team scouts throughout the year.

Cowboys landed Will McClay’s ‘pet cat’ in the 2020 NFL Draft :: Inside the Star

Bill Parcells famously called them “pet cats:” those underrated players that coaches root for, often without logic or reason. Will McClay revealed this week that, during the 2020 draft, his was the Tulsa cornerback Reggie Robinson II, who fell to Dallas in the fourth round.

NFL schedule, single-game ticket sales planned for next week. Good idea? :: The Athletic

After the 2020 NFL Draft exceeded everyone’s expectations, the league appears set to stick with their plan to release the 2020 regular season schedule on or around May 9. But some league insiders say pushing back the schedule release has been “a big topic of conversation” internally.

2021 NFL Draft: Compensatory pic projections for every team :: NFL.com

Cowboys Wire readers already knew that the team would be looking at four compensatory picks next year, but NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein projects Dallas to be the only club scoring that many ahead of the 2021 Draft.

Mailbag: How many draft picks will start? :: The Mothership

The Cowboys landed quite a draft class… but how many of the rookies will be Day One starters? Rob Phillips says CeeDee Lamb and Trevon Diggs have the best chance. Jonny Auping agrees and thinks Bradlee Anae could line up in Week One as well.

NFL power rankings poll: Buccaneers rise, Patriots and Texans fall in offseason edition :: SI.com

The Cowboys have only helped themselves since the end of the 2019 season, at least according to the roundtable of six voters constructing this list. Following the Super Bowl, Dallas sat at No. 14. They’ve since climbed to 10th place, with one voter placing them as high as eighth.

Roger Goodell volunteered to reduce salary to $0 amid COVID-19 pandemic :: Bleacher Report

The NFL commissioner was set to make $40 million per year, but reduced his salary to zero last month in response to uncertain business conditions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

Matthew Berry’s fantasy football Love/Hate, 2020 Draft edition :: ESPN

According to The Worldwide Leader’s fantasy expert, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s fantasy stock went up with last weekend’s draft. Amari Cooper’s took a slight hit, though, with Berry citing the onboarding this season of CeeDee Lamb and the emergence last season of Michael Gallup.

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Neville Gallimore believes his best football is ‘coming soon’ with Dallas Cowboys

Joining Oklahoma teammate CeeDee Lamb in Dallas, Gallimore was drafted No. 82 overall.

“My ceiling is so high. I know that. The best football hasn’t come out of me yet, but it’s coming, and it’s coming soon.” Neville Gallimore told Star Magazine contributor Jonny Auping.

Joining Oklahoma teammate CeeDee Lamb in Dallas, Gallimore was drafted No. 82 overall. Even more notably, Gallimore is joining forces with recent Cowboy free-agent signee and former Oklahoma great Gerald McCoy.

McCoy, the third overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft, is the perfect guy Gallimore can learn from. “He just let me know that he’s someone that I could look up to and pick his brain. So I’m looking forward to that.” Gallimore said.

With McCoy and another veteran in Dontari Poe in the middle of the Cowboys d-line, Gallimore has an opportunity to grow.

In his time at Oklahoma, Gallimore racked up 147 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss, eight and a half sacks in 46 career games in crimson and cream.

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WATCH: Oklahoma’s Neville Gallimore, family react to being drafted by Dallas Cowboys

Neville Gallimore got the call from Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in the third round, pick No. 82, joining CeeDee Lamb in the ‘Big D’.

Dallas has always been considered ‘Norman South’, but it is ringing even more true through the first three rounds of the NFL draft as former Oklahoma defensive tackle Neville Gallimore got the call from Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in the third round, pick No. 82, joining CeeDee Lamb in the ‘Big D’.

Gallimore’s path to the NFL took him from his hometown in Canada to a bigger high school over five hours away to Norman, Oklahoma, and now to Dallas.

In his four seasons in crimson and cream, Gallimore amassed 147 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss, eight and a half sacks, two pass breakups, and five forced fumbles in 46 games played as a Sooner.

Gallimore is the fourth Oklahoma player taken off the board through the first three rounds, joining CeeDee Lamb (No. 17), Kenneth Murray (No. 23), and Jalen Hurts (No. 53).

Gallimore will be in the trenches with former Oklahoma star and third overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft, Gerald McCoy who signed a free-agent deal with Dallas earlier this offseason.

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Gerald McCoy sends best wishes to ‘future stars of the NFL’ ahead of the draft

Former Bucs DT Gerald McCoy took to Instagram today to post a video and send best wishes to players ahead of Thursday’s NFL draft.

Gerald McCoy is now a member of the Dallas Cowboys, after spending last season in Carolina with the Panthers. Before that, however, he spent the first nine years of his career as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Bucs selected McCoy out of Oklahoma with the third pick in the 2010 NFL draft, and he was a staple for the franchise for nearly a decade. While McCoy won’t be a part of the revamped Tom Brady-led Bucs, he’ll always be thought of first and foremost as a Buccaneer.

McCoy took to Instagram today to post a video of his draft moment back in 2010, while sending blessings to all the future stars of the NFL ahead of Thursday’s virtual draft.

Fun fact: The player selected ahead of McCoy in 2010 was current Bucs DT Ndamukong Suh, who went second overall to the Detroit Lions.

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Draft history shows using 3rd pick at DT is a bad decision

Even very good defensive tackles have a difficult time impacting the overall defensive success, and even less success impacting the win column

Derrick Brown is one of the primary potential targets for the Detroit Lions with the 3rd pick in next week’s NFL Draft. Nothing against the Auburn defensive tackle, but history says taking anyone at his position at that spot is a poor decision.

The No. 3 overall pick has been used four times on a defensive tackle since 2000. Two of the players selected even earned All-Pro berths on their rookie contracts, but it ultimately did not help their respective teams enough.

Quinnen Williams, 2019

Too early to evaluate the returns on Williams, the 3rd pick in 2019. The Jets tabbed Williams third overall and he was an instant starter. Williams bagged 2.5 sacks as a rookie after notching eight in his final season with the Crimson Tide.

Williams looks like a solid player after one season. But his impact on the Jets’ success was negligible. New York was 29th in 2018 in both scoring defense and yards allowed. In 2019 with Williams, they improved to 25th and 27th, respectively. The Jets improved from 4-12 to 7-9 but it came from the offense, which rocketed from 29th in scoring to 7th from 2018 to 2019.

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Cowboys were among oldest teams in 2019, but with a special catch

The 2019 Cowboys finished the regular season as one of the oldest teams in the NFL, but one veteran is responsible for much of that curve.

There’s a youth movement in the NFL. But the Cowboys seem to be trying hard to buck that trend, especially in one specific unit.

Football Outsiders last week released its 2019 report digging into the age of each roster in the league. As they have with every season since 2006, they didn’t just calculate the average age of all the the guys who are technically on the team. They charted the players’ snap-weighted age; that is, they weighted the age of each player according the number of snaps he played in the regular season.

It makes sense: if the aging veterans and hotshot rookies on a squad mainly stand around on the sidelines, it doesn’t really say anything meaningful about a team’s “average age,” at least not in the way that people usually imply. That first-year quarterback who actually starts and plays the whole season? That definitely counts toward a team being considered “young.” But a long-in-the-tooth third-string emergency backup who only ever holds a clipboard shouldn’t skew the team toward being called “old.”

The Cowboys as a whole, in 2019, were the sixth-oldest team in the league, with an average snap-weighted age (SWA) of 26.7. The league average was 26.4, a number nearly all 32 teams were fairly tightly clustered around.

Where it starts to get interesting is when SWA is broken down by unit. The SWA of the Dallas offense in 2019 was 27.0, just two-tenths of a year above the league average. That ranked 13th. The defense skewed even more toward the middle of the pack compared to the rest of the NFL; the Cowboys’ SWA on the defensive side was 26.2, 18th place against the average of 26.3.

But special teams? That unit might as well qualify for early-bird specials and senior matinee discounts.

The Cowboys’ special teamers in 2019 were the third-oldest bunch in the NFL with a SWA of 26.9. That figure is a full year above the league average. Special teams play is generally thought of as a young man’s game (think gunners), but many teams do anchor that phase of the game with a greybeard kicker…

…or a 39-year-old long snapper.

L.P. Ladouceur will embark on his 16th season as a pro in 2020. His age (he celebrated his 39th birthday in March) certainly sets the curve for the rest of the special teams players in Dallas, but his is a position where longevity is a plus, not a hindrance, and extra experience is definitely a plus.

The Cowboys special teams unit got slightly (but suddenly) older late last season with the swapping of Brett Maher for Kai Forbath, as Forbath is two years older. He and new signee Greg Zuerlein are both 32, so the winner of their competition for the upcoming season’s kicking duties won’t change that number for Dallas. With punter Chris Jones turning 31 years old, there’s a good chance that the Cowboys will remain one of the oldest special teams units in the league under John Fassel’s leadership.

The defense may see their SWA rank slide toward the older end of the list moving forward. Yes, Michael Bennett turned 34 just a few weeks after joining the Cowboys last season, but in his nine games with the team, he played just 40% of the defensive snaps. Linebacker Sean Lee will turn 34 before the season begins. Gerald McCoy is 32. Dontari Poe will blow out 30 candles before Week 1; all three will likely see high snap counts and will definitely ratchet up the SWA in 2020.

Of course, any discussion of the Cowboys and their age in 2019 has to include Jason Witten. At 37 and playing the vast majority of the team’s offensive snaps last year, he made Dallas the oldest team at tight end last season. Take him out of the equation, though, and the Cowboys come in under the league’s average SWA at every single offensive position group.

Granted, youth doesn’t automatically translate to a better football team: New England was by far the oldest team in 2019- in all three phases- and they were still, by and large, the Patriots. And three of the four youngest teams- Jacksonville, Cleveland, and Miami- didn’t really scare anybody. So maybe SWA is just interesting trivia, fodder for bar bets.

Still, 2020’s Cowboys offense should feel a lot younger. Fans will no doubt be encouraged by that. The defense may feel slightly older. Maybe some additional veteran presence there is a good thing.

In any case, the special teams will still be wearing their pants too high and yelling at whippersnappers to get off their lawn.

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Baker Mayfield, other Oklahoma players named best player to wear their number per The Athletic

Oklahoma tops the list at four numbers and earned 38 honorable mentions on the world-class list.

With the entire world on hold, it has given us time to reflect on the past. The Athletic embraced debate and decided to compile a list of the best players to ever wear each jersey number, 1-99.

Oklahoma tops the list at four numbers and earned 38 honorable mentions on the world-class list.

Baker Mayfield earns the spot for No. 6. The 2017 Heisman Trophy winner and 2018 No. 1 pick began his career as a walk-on. Twice. He was three-for-three on Big 12 championships as a starter at Oklahoma and was a Heisman vote-getter in three consecutive seasons.

Two-time All-American and two-time national champion running back Tommy McDonald ranks as the best to ever wear No. 25. In 31 games under coach Bud Wilkinson, McDonald rushed for 1,696 yards, gained 420 yards through the air, and finished his career with 35 total touchdowns.

Newly appointed College Football Hall of Fame member Rickey Dixon is remembered as the best to wear No. 29. Dixon was a Jim Thorpe Award winner and an All-American at the safety position in 1987. A true ball hawk, Dixon snagged eight of his 16 career interceptions in his 1987 season.

The second Sooner to ever win a Heiman Trophy, Steve Owens is synonymous with No. 36. With back-to-back seasons (1968-69) of 1,500+ yard rushing seasons, Owens had one of the most elite careers not just in Oklahoma history, but college football history. Owens ended his career just under 4,000 yards rushing in 31 games (3,928) and a remarkable 59 touchdowns.

Honorable mentions:  Kyler Murray (No. 1), Derrick Strait (No. 2), Marquise Brown (No. 5), Tedy Lehman & Dede Westbrook (No. 11), Sam Bradford & Josh Heupel (No. 14), Jason White (No. 18), Billy Sims (No. 20), Joe Washington (No. 24), Adrian Peterson & George Cumby (No. 28), Gregg Pruitt (No. 30), Samaje Perine (No. 32), Billy Vessels (No. 35), Roy Williams (No. 38), Leon Heath (No. 40), Rod Shoate (No. 43), Brian Bosworth (No. 44), Kurt Burris (No. 51), Jerry Tubbs (No. 53), Tom Brahaney (No. 54), Jammal Brown (No. 55), J.D. Roberts (No. 64), Greg Roberts & Bill Krisher (No. 65), Granville Liggins (No. 66), Anthony Phillips (No. 68), Orlando Brown Jr. (No. 78), Mark Hutson (No. 79), Rick Bryan (No. 80), Ryan Broyles (No. 85), Keith Jackson (No. 88), Dewey Selmon (No. 91), Tony Casillas (No. 92),  Lee Roy Selmon & Gerald McCoy (No. 93), Tommie Harris (No. 97)

‘This is going to be really fun’: Gerald McCoy on joining Cowboys

SportsPulse: While many pundits have been critical of the Cowboys offseason moves on defense, Gerald McCoy can’t wait to get started with America’s Team.

SportsPulse: While many pundits have been critical of the Cowboys offseason moves on defense, Gerald McCoy can’t wait to get started with America’s Team.

Panthers paying out $11.5 million in deferred signing bonuses today

Panthers payingout $11.5 million in deferred signing bonuses today.

The Panthers are paying out $11.5 million in deferred signing bonuses today, according to Field Yates at ESPN.

Most of that money is going to linebacker Shaq Thompson, who signed a four-year contract extension in December. Thompson’s deal included $16 million in signing bonuses and he’ll be getting half of that total today. While we don’t know if Thompson or Tahir Whitehead will take over as the team’s new middle linebacker, it’s an investment in a player who’s going to be around for the foreseeable future.

The same can’t be said for the rest of today’s payments. Yates says former Carolina defensive tackle Gerald McCoy is getting a check for $2 million, stemming from the deal he signed last March. McCoy has already signed with the Cowboys, agreeing to a three-year, $18 million deal. Dontari Poe will be joining him there.

Former strong safety Eric Reid is also due a payment from the Panthers today, worth $1.5 million per Yates. In a surprise move, the team released Reid two weeks ago. While the move saved them $3 million in salary cap room, it added another $5 million to the dead money total.

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Do the Panthers have the worst defense in the NFL right now?

According to an analysis by Mike Clay at ESPN, Carolina does indeed have the worst defensive unit in the league at the moment.

Last week, we wrote the Panthers might have the weakest defense in the NFL right now, at least on paper. It wasn’t meant to be a definitive statement. However, it seems some people agree with the idea.

According to an analysis by Mike Clay at ESPN, Carolina does indeed have the worst defensive unit in the league at the moment. Here’s how he has all 32 teams graded based on current rosters.

This wasn’t hard to see coming.

To recap, the offseason began with the retirement of Luke Kuechly. Then, the team lost Mario Addison, Bruce Irvin, Gerald McCoy, Vernon Butler, Dontari Poe and James Bradberry in free agency. They also released Eric Reid for some reason, making the secondary even thinner. If you’re counting, that’s seven starters lost.

The defense wasn’t that great to begin with, either. Remember, this was already the worst run defense in the league by a big margin last year.

Signing linebacker Tahir Whitehead and defensive tackle Zach Kerr will help some, but clearly there’s a lot of work yet to do.

The good news is the offseason isn’t even half over yet (under normal circumstances) so there’s plenty of time to improve before next season.

A strong defense-heavy draft class is the prescription, here. Landing a blue-chip defensive prospect like Isaiah Simmons or Jeffrey Okudah would help a great deal. If nothing else, the team has to add a lot more talent and a lot more depth at cornerback. Fortunately, it’s a deep draft class at the position. Doubling up there and hitting both picks could be critical.

Free agency isn’t over yet, either. Carolina currently has around $13 million in salary cap room remaining for 2020. That’s not much, but it’s probably enough to go after one more name. Signing Jadeveon Clowney would fill a huge hole opposite Brian Burns. So would dealing for a guy like Yannick Ngakoue, who may be on the trade block.

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