Sean Lee Exclusive: 'I Love The Cowboys And Hope It Works Out Here'
FRISCO - Sean Lee told me on Friday that he's "still deciding'' about where he wants to play in 2020. But the Dallas Cowboys free-agent linebacker isn't very interested in playing coy here.
"I love it in Dallas and I love the Cowboys,'' Lee told me. "I hope it works out, for sure.''
The Cowboys are undergoing massive changes under new coach Mike McCarthy. But the question marks they have at the position, and Lee's overall excellence, shouldn't make this decision tough for Dallas. Nevertheless, Lee is the one who gets to do some deciding here, too.
"I'm still deciding,'' Lee told us in an exclusive visit. "I'm waiting to kind of explore what some of my options are.''
Including retiring to go into coaching?
"I have not explored that yet,'' Lee said. "I'm focusing on playing as of now.''
Lee, who turns 34 in July, said he hopes to finalize his plans "and will know fairly soon.'' Mostly out of politeness, we've always thought, he has in the last two off-seasons entertained media questions about retirement. But after this particular year, his unselfish personal style (which included giving the Cowboys a massive discount so he could stay in) and his high level of healthy play adds up to both Lee and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones viewing retirement as a back-burner issue.
Indeed, a few weeks ago Jones listed a trio of important transactions he'd like to get done, and after mentioning the obvious names of Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper, also included Sean Lee as the third name on the list.
Lee played in all 16 games for the first time in his 10-year career and wound finishing the season with 86 tackles, a sack and an interception. The Cowboys have Jaylon Smith and the hopefully-healthy Leighton Vander Esch above him in the linebacker rotation but in terms of everything from performance to mentorship, Dallas bringing back Lee makes sense; we have a hard time seeing why a McCarthy coaching staff, guided by new coordinator Mike Nolan, would see it any differently.
NFL Network has confirmed our story by noting that Lee's agent says he wants to keep playing. We already knew that. Now it's about what "options'' are in play for a stellar person and player in Sean Lee.
