Cowboys Signing Dalvin Cook A Must to Prove 'Super Bowl Seriousness' - ESPN
FRISCO - There are as we write this 32 teams that haven’t signed free agent Dalvin Cook. And how many of those teams are getting ripped by ESPN for their inactivity?
One. Yes, it’s all about the Dallas Cowboys … even though it at best, mathematically only be 1/32nd Dallas’ fault that Cook remains unemployed.
Right, Dan Orlovsky? “Dallas don’t tell me you’re legit about wanting to do everything that you can do to go win a Super Bowl if you don’t sign Dalvin Cook,” Orlovsky said on ESPN’s First take. “You’re starting tailback Tony Pollard broke his leg like five months ago. ... You want to run the football more with the guy that just broke his leg five months ago?”
So Orlovsky’s reason for singling out Dallas is Pollard’s rehab - no matter that the Cowboys medical team projects the Pro Bowl running back as being ready to go in 2023. Oh, and so does "TP'' himself.
“I’m a little bit ahead of schedule,'' Pollard recently told us, noting that he has been running and cutting at full speed. "I’m not really limited at this point, it’s just being smart with it. ... Honestly, I feel faster!''
Dallas is wrong, though, right, Stephen A. Smith? “Absolutely, positively correct — the Dallas Cowboys should get him,” Smith said.
And then Smith uncorked a doozy of football reasoning, adding, “Why they won’t (is) because there’s a black cat running around that franchise. What can go wrong will go wrong and they won’t see it.”
Orlovsky can use football logic here, and does, asking, “Are you a better football team with or without Dalvin Cook? You’re a better football team with them. Go get Dalvin Cook.”
Orlovsky knows some other things here, though - something the “casual” Smith is likely ignorant of. Four things, to be precise …
1 - The Cowboys have a cap plan and have decided to not employ two $10 million runners. (The other 31 NFL teams agree).
ESPN is aware that Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs are sitting on $10 mil tag offers that they’ve declined to sign, right? “The Devaluation of the Running Back” is a very real and league-wide phenomenon.
2 - The Cowboys might think that Cook’s injuries make him not a worthy risk. He did undergo shoulder surgery this offseason to fix a chronic problem, with might help his argument. (Still ... The other 31 teams are aware.)
3 -The Cowboys are the originators of the deep study that establishes to their satisfaction that heavy-lifting star runners fade at age 28. That’s why DeMarco Murray wasn’t re-signed. That’s one reason the beloved Cowboy back Ezekiel Elliott isn’t signed.
After the end oh the 2015 season, DeMarco - the NFL rushing champ! - was 28. As we approach the 2023 season, Zeke turns 28 in July. Dalvin turns 28 in August. If ESPN is unaware of that 2015 study or of these players’ not-coincidental ages?
Hey, we are here to inform. You're welcome, Bristol.
4 - The Cowboys are not in charge of Dalvin Cook. Our understanding is that when we start a list of possible employers, we should start with the Dolphins (in his hometown) and Buffalo (where his brother plays.) And that stuff, along with any other teams that cough up the dough, will get a chance to be picked by him.
A back like Cook sharing time with a back like Pollard is not a “need.” It’s a luxury … and whatever error the Cowboys are making in viewing this situation that way share companies with 31 other franchises,
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