This is what the situation for the Cowboys rookies currently looks like: They are free to show up at the team facilities at Valley Ranch at any time, they can get their playbooks and meet with the staff. But they cannot enter the Alamodome premises for camp - or do any workouts - without a contract or at least an injury waiver, which they haven’t signed. And that is true for any rookie, from an undrafted free agent all the way to first round pick Tyron Smith.
Good thing then that the NFL Network is reporting that Tyron Smith and the Cowboys are working hard on getting a deal done. Calvin Watkins from ESPNDallas reports that those talks have progressed so well that Tyron Smith is already making his way to San Antonio on the assumption that a deal will be completed shortly.
According to Watkins, the Cowboys have a total rookie pool of $5.7 million available to spend on their draft choices. This is a far cry from the league-leading $44 million rookie pool the Denver Broncos will need to spend under the new rules on their nine draft picks (including the No.2 overall draft pick Von Miller and two second round picks), but in its own way, that is a very cap friendly rookie pool for the Cowboys and gives a first indication of what the impact of the new rookie salary scale in the new CBA looks like.
The reality of the new CBA is that there's not much mystery left to these rookie contract negotiations. The teams come with an offer and it’s pretty much a done deal from there on out. Once Smith is signed, expect the Cowboys to quickly wrap up the signings of the remaining rookies.