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The Dallas Morning News' Bob Sturm believes free agent ILB Rolando McClain and the Cowboys have "drastically different" numbers.
The Cowboys organization has been adamant in their desire to re-sign McClain, but they are not going to overpay for a twice-retired linebacker possibly facing a four-game suspension. Based on McClain's extremely quiet free agent market, the rest of the league agrees. McClain needs to lower his asking price if he hopes to find work anytime soon.


Seems like he may not be coming back

just reported he's got a visit with NE scheduled.

Love the thought of McClain playing with Lee but.....
One step from 4 game suspension say's $800K for one season to me....1M absolute tops

Schmoopy1000 wrote:The Dallas Morning News' Bob Sturm believes free agent ILB Rolando McClain and the Cowboys have "drastically different" numbers.
The Cowboys organization has been adamant in their desire to re-sign McClain, but they are not going to overpay for a twice-retired linebacker possibly facing a four-game suspension. Based on McClain's extremely quiet free agent market, the rest of the league agrees. McClain needs to lower his asking price if he hopes to find work anytime soon.


Seems like he may not be coming back

I'll agree he's not coming back when someone else is willing to give him what he's asking. This is a perfect time to sit and wait. He's Likely asking for more than anyone will give him. If he's still out there in a few weeks with no offers he'll lower his asking price

PDay8810 wrote:just reported he's got a visit with NE scheduled.

Love the thought of McClain playing with Lee but.....
One step from 4 game suspension say's $800K for one season to me....1M absolute tops

I don't expect NE to pay too much for him either, but if we are offering veteran minimum or even near it, he's not coming here. Last year he got that after not playing for a long time and Just coming back when no one knew if he had it or not. Now after proving he can play when healty he's worth more than that, warts and all...

Jarntt wrote:

PDay8810 wrote:just reported he's got a visit with NE scheduled.

Love the thought of McClain playing with Lee but.....
One step from 4 game suspension say's $800K for one season to me....1M absolute tops

I don't expect NE to pay too much for him either, but if we are offering veteran minimum or even near it, he's not coming here. Last year he got that after not playing for a long time and Just coming back when no one knew if he had it or not. Now after proving he can play when healty he's worth more than that, warts and all...

I'm just saying in Dallas it's 800K to 1M on another make good structure. That's the rub, he's hasn't earned what he's looking for and I'm not sure any team will invest much more......could be wrong, but that's my take

Funny thing to me is how Pro Football Weekly took a "chat session" comment between Bob Strum (local radio personality and part time contributor to the DMN) and turned that into "sources".

As far as "value"... I concur with the above parameters. No more than a million. Otherwise - adios.

PDay8810 wrote:

Jarntt wrote:

PDay8810 wrote:just reported he's got a visit with NE scheduled.

Love the thought of McClain playing with Lee but.....
One step from 4 game suspension say's $800K for one season to me....1M absolute tops

I don't expect NE to pay too much for him either, but if we are offering veteran minimum or even near it, he's not coming here. Last year he got that after not playing for a long time and Just coming back when no one knew if he had it or not. Now after proving he can play when healty he's worth more than that, warts and all...

I'm just saying in Dallas it's 800K to 1M on another make good structure. That's the rub, he's hasn't earned what he's looking for and I'm not sure any team will invest much more......could be wrong, but that's my take

I don't give him a long term deal, but I think on a one year deal that can't hurt you long term he is worth 3 times that. Especially if the guaranteed money is more around what you are suggesting. I'll pay him, but I'm going to make him earn it and see where it goes from there.

Jarntt wrote:

PDay8810 wrote:

Jarntt wrote:
I don't expect NE to pay too much for him either, but if we are offering veteran minimum or even near it, he's not coming here. Last year he got that after not playing for a long time and Just coming back when no one knew if he had it or not. Now after proving he can play when healty he's worth more than that, warts and all...

I'm just saying in Dallas it's 800K to 1M on another make good structure. That's the rub, he's hasn't earned what he's looking for and I'm not sure any team will invest much more......could be wrong, but that's my take

I don't give him a long term deal, but I think on a one year deal that can't hurt you long term he is worth 3 times that. Especially if the guaranteed money is more around what you are suggesting. I'll pay him, but I'm going to make him earn it and see where it goes from there.

Agree here. Hes worth more than the minimum.

Manster7588 wrote:

Jarntt wrote:

PDay8810 wrote:I'm just saying in Dallas it's 800K to 1M on another make good structure. That's the rub, he's hasn't earned what he's looking for and I'm not sure any team will invest much more......could be wrong, but that's my take

I don't give him a long term deal, but I think on a one year deal that can't hurt you long term he is worth 3 times that. Especially if the guaranteed money is more around what you are suggesting. I'll pay him, but I'm going to make him earn it and see where it goes from there.

Agree here. Hes worth more than the minimum.

To me it's one of those where you roll the dice. He was great last year whne on the field. That is why I am willing to give him a few million on a one year deal. But, because of the obvious reasons I don't lock myself in to him long term until he shows we can trust him. He proved the talent last year, but the injuries and teh desire due to the question of whether he played through those injuries as an NFL player must, still stand. If we can drag this out until after the draft it would work out better for us. Lee and Hitchens (I think his best spot is MLB) can both play any of the 3 spots. So if we draft any LB that we think can contribute we really don't need to commit to McClain at all. As it stands now though I think the talent and lack of a 3rd NFL starting caliber player makes it wise for us to do what it takes to get him.

I'm not sold on any of these FAs and I'm not willing to settle at WOLB or MLB. In this defense those two positions are very important and I put Lee and Hitchens at them as we stand today. If we had to go into the season w/o McClain or another draft pick I let the other guys fight for the SOLB spot which means likely it's Wilber or Brinkley because I'm not sure the others are a fit at that spot.

$3M??? Wow.

Even with $1M in incentives - that's way more than I thought he could get on the open market. Guess he should send the Patriots a box of candy in appreciation.

Just saw on "the Hoop", signed!!!

Roadhog Moran wrote:$3M??? Wow.

Even with $1M in incentives - that's way more than I thought he could get on the open market. Guess he should send the Patriots a box of candy in appreciation.

I need to see the details, but it's about exactly what I expected. I think it's a great move for us assuming the guaranteed money is low. There is no doubt he will contribute if he is on hte field and if it's incentive based he isn't going to see all the money if he isn't on the field...

A solid signing. I like the fact that it's a 1 year deal. Now go into the draft and draft an eventual replacement for him in the later rounds.

Mr B wrote:A solid signing. I like the fact that it's a 1 year deal. Now go into the draft and draft an eventual replacement for him in the later rounds.

Exactly! As Jarntt said earlier... the LB Corp is set now. Look to fill needs up front and in the secondary early in the draft... with an eye toward LB depth on Day 3.

Roadhog Moran wrote:

Mr B wrote:A solid signing. I like the fact that it's a 1 year deal. Now go into the draft and draft an eventual replacement for him in the later rounds.

Exactly! As Jarntt said earlier... the LB Corp is set now. Look to fill needs up front and in the secondary early in the draft... with an eye toward LB depth on Day 3.

Well I totally disagree with all of you. Just because McClain is coming back for another year and Sean Lee is healthy enough to also come back for another 8 games does not make the LB's set for the year. I still find the LB position pathetic. Wow.

"I still find the LB position pathetic."

It's not set BUT it's far away from the word "pathetic"

PDay8810 wrote:"I still find the LB position pathetic."

It's not set BUT it's far away from the word "pathetic"

In the interest of trying to remain civilized at least for a few days I'll simply agree here and move on.

bluejerseyjinx wrote:

Roadhog Moran wrote:

Mr B wrote:A solid signing. I like the fact that it's a 1 year deal. Now go into the draft and draft an eventual replacement for him in the later rounds.

Exactly! As Jarntt said earlier... the LB Corp is set now. Look to fill needs up front and in the secondary early in the draft... with an eye toward LB depth on Day 3.

Well I totally disagree with all of you. Just because McClain is coming back for another year and Sean Lee is healthy enough to also come back for another 8 games does not make the LB's set for the year. I still find the LB position pathetic. Wow.

Pathetic?

Maybe not Top 5 but certainly not bottom feeders either.

The only thing I will say here is go back and look at the stats over the last 16 years and tell me your all satisfied. Never mind the funk we've been in since 1996 with only 2 playoff appearances. IMO we've never had any bad assed lineman or LB's since Haley and Lett left.

bluejerseyjinx wrote:

Roadhog Moran wrote:

Mr B wrote:A solid signing. I like the fact that it's a 1 year deal. Now go into the draft and draft an eventual replacement for him in the later rounds.

Exactly! As Jarntt said earlier... the LB Corp is set now. Look to fill needs up front and in the secondary early in the draft... with an eye toward LB depth on Day 3.

Well I totally disagree with all of you. Just because McClain is coming back for another year and Sean Lee is healthy enough to also come back for another 8 games does not make the LB's set for the year. I still find the LB position pathetic. Wow.

Pathetic??? You are way off on this.

Look at our starters. How many 4-3 teams have better LBs than us? Sean Lee is one of the best non-pass rushing LBs in the NFL. Hitchens was incredible last year when you take into account that he was moved around constantly and as a rookie never even had a chance to really learn any one spot on the defense. McClain would have won comeback player of the year and made the Pro Bowl if he stayed healthy. All 3 are great in coverage which is so important for this defense and takes a lot of pressure off of our safeties. Lee and Hitchens can play all 3 spots and McClain has the perfect skil set to be in the middle.

Yes, we have health issues, but that is why you have 53 guys. Our backups include 3 FAs we just picked up. One of them is a run stopping MLB who can step into the middle on early downs If needed (wouldn't want him in the nickel) and the other two look like they can play multiple positions. Plus we still have Wilbur who wasn't great but did well on the strong side when he played it and a couple other guys like Smith that apparently the team liked a lot at draft time last year. The position flexibilty that Lee and Hitchens have protects you to some degree against injury because all you need is one backup LB per injury because those two can be shuffled around wherever they are needed.

Lastly...we didn't even have the draft yet and aren't done with the offseason!