Cowboys news: Von Miller draws Cowboys interest after Randy Gregory exits

Von Miller to Cowboys? Dallas doing due diligence on star free-agent pass rusher - Kevin Patra, NFL.com

The Cowboys might turn to Von Miller with the hole at defensive end.

The Dallas Cowboys swung and missed on bringing Randy Gregory back, but they could pursue a future Hall of Famer to take his place.

NFL Network’s Jane Slater reported Tuesday that there is very strong interest on Von Miller’s part in signing in Dallas, where he has a home close to the team’s facility.

Asked if the Cowboys are pursuing Miller, one source told Slater the team is “doing due diligence.”

Miller helped the L.A. Rams win Super Bowl LVI after his trade from Denver. The soon-to-be 33-year-old proved he still has plenty of juice in his legs. He generated five sacks in eight games with L.A. and added four more during the Rams’ playoff run.

Randy Gregory flips on Cowboys decision, will join Denver Broncos in free agency - Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News

A strange morning on Tuesday has Randy Gregory departing for the Broncos.

Gregory’s new deal with Denver is reportedly worth the same value the Cowboys offered — five years, $70 million and a $28 million guarantee. The decision to flip from Dallas to Denver stemmed from a disagreement on some language in Gregory’s contract, which ended up being enough to dissuade Gregory from returning to the Cowboys and look elsewhere.

Sources told The Dallas Morning News’ David Moore that Gregory objected to a contract clause saying the team had the right to void or withhold money should a player be fined by the NFL. The clause is a standard stipulation in most Cowboys contracts.

Connor Williams Exits To Miami On New Deal - David Helman, DallasCowboys.com

As expected, the former second-round pick’s time with the Cowboys comes to an end.

Williams often drew criticism during his four years in Dallas – especially in 2021, when he was penalized 15 times on the season, with 13 of those being holding penalties. Even still, Williams played in 60 of 68 possible games during his four years with the Cowboys, with 57 of those being starts. Most impressive of those accomplishments, he recovered from a torn ACL suffered on Thanksgiving Day 2019 in time to start all 16 games of the 2020 season.

Originally an All-American left tackle at Texas, the Cowboys targeted Williams with the No. 50 overall pick in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft. The Dallas-Fort Worth area native made the transition to guard, where he started from Day 1 in between Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick.

Losing Williams to free agency only highlights the Cowboys' need on the interior offensive line. The duo of Williams and Connor McGovern handled the left guard role throughout last season, with mixed results coming from both players. With Williams gone, McGovern becomes the logical option to start in that role – though it's also logical to think that left guard becomes one of this team's biggest draft needs.

Randy Gregory debacle reveals the problems in the Cowboys front-office - Tom Ryle, Blogging The Boys

Great insight on what the Gregory/Cowboys debacle shows about the Cowboys front-office.

This is just the latest symptom pointing to a major problem for the Cowboys. While the past few days started to reveal that there is indeed a plan for the team, this bit of underhanded maneuvering to gain an advantage, along with some ridiculous nickel-and-diming in other cases, unfortunately seems to be very much a part of that plan. This is just the most recent and glaring example.

The opening chapter of this year’s story of how badly the Jones family, and especially Stephen Jones, keep messing up was the much-reported incident of him talking with the media about how the contracts of Amari Cooper and Lawrence were big problems for the salary cap. He kept with his stance that the cap is a hard line that the team has to meet. Then the team proved just how false that concept is. With a couple of restructures, the trade of Cooper, and the Lawrence deal, they went from being in the red in cap space to having one of the best cap situations in the league.

According to Over the Cap, they now have over $28 million in space, the seventh most in the NFL. With La’el Collins expected to be released at some point, that should increase, although how they handle that will determine if it is just $1.3 million or $10 million. In any case, they now have the room to do just about whatever they want. Re-signing Gregory was apparently one thing that new space was earmarked for. Now they have blown that up, and in addition to losing a key part of the defense, they have to do something to try and soothe what may be some bad feelings on the part of Lawrence, who gave them a very team-friendly deal. If part of selling Lawrence on his new deal was to bring Gregory back, he probably is feeling a bit burned.

Dez Bryant Predicts WR James Washington Will Sign w/ Cowboys - Jess Haynie, Inside The Star

Washington would make sense as a veteran WR3 or WR4.

While Dez may have some biased enthusiasm about Dallas adding Washington, it’s concerning that James has never been a full-time starter despite being a 2nd-Round pick. He’s been a regular part of Pittsburgh WR rotation but only has 25 starts in 60 career games.

Another concern is that Washington is more of an outside receiver and not the pure slot guy that would arguably complement CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup best next season. But given Gallup’s ACL injury and the fear that he may not be ready for Week One, Washington could wind up playing other roles.

After leading the Steelers with 735 receiving yards with in 2019, Washington’s production has dropped the last two seasons. Interestingly, his career year in Pittsburgh was the same season that Ben Roethlisberger missed 14 games. However, that drop also coincides with Chase Claypool as a new weapon in Pittsburgh’s offense. Claypool was a 2nd-Round pick in 2020.

Cowboys free agency signings 2022: Malik Hooker back with a 2-year deal - Dave Halprin, Blogging The Boys

One good thing to come out of Tuesday was the Cowboys bringing back Malik Hooker.

The Cowboys must believe in what they saw from Hooker last season to offer up a two-year deal, even before getting Kazee or Kearse signed.

Hooker was a first-round talent who had a hard time staying healthy and that is why he was available for the Cowboy to sign in the first place last offseason. He started three games last year and appeared in 15 of them, but never racked up much in the way of stats. He had one interception but he was playing noticeably better as the season wore on.

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