Cowboys 1st & 10: Candidates For Team MVP

FRISCO - Cowboys 1st & 10, Your Top 10 Stories of the Week from "America's Team'' ...

1) MVP! MVP!: The Dallas Cowboys boast a pair of legit candidates for league MVP in 2020, depending on how well the team performs ... and assuming there is a 2020 NFL season. That duo is Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott.

But NFL.com recently predicted the Most Valuable Players for every team and offers up a change-up: Leighton Vander Esch for the Cowboys' team MVP.

Frankly, the arguments here are not especially sound. But LVE as a candidate to be the team's defensive MVP? Now we're talking; I'd place him behind DeMarcus Lawrence, but he's surely in play. The best news, though, is that we can even have this discussion, given Vander Esch's "lost'' 2019 season and his needed neck surgery.

Vander Esch says he's ready to go for 2020, so let's start here: How about Leighton Vander Esch as a candidate as NFL Comeback Player of the Year?

2) JERRY'S MILLION-DOLLAR REASON: Jerry Jones has a $1 million reason to "take a side'' in what should be a social cause but that has become a political one. Read here to learn what "Glenstone Limited Partnership'' is and what it has to do with anything.

But I'll argue that Jerry has an even more lucrative reason to, as I keep saying (hoping?) "End up on the right side of history.''

Newcomer Gerald McCoy has already become a team leader here. And ...

"It would be great to hear a statement from the Cowboys, great to hear a statement from Jerry Jones in support of everything that’s going on,'' said McCoy on the eve of Friday's Juneteenth celebration, as June 19 marks the anniversary of the official ending of slavery in 1865. "Will that get me in trouble saying that? I don’t know, but the truth is it needs to be said. The problem is people are afraid to have the conversations.”

This comes shortly after another former Cowboys locker-room leader, Dez Bryant, explained to me why he mentions Jerry as someone who should join in a protest march against social injustice.

"I have love for Mr. Jones,'' Dez said. "Almost everything I know about business - and of course I'm still learning - I learned from him. But I believe this is a time, right now, where Mr. Jones could learn some things, too. To learn about the culture. ... I'm saying 'Come walk in a march so you can, well, feel it.''

And, Dez added, "If Jerry did that, those guys in that locker room at The Star - knowing what he might be changing and might be sacrificing - would run through a brick wall for him. Jerry does that, he might just win another Super Bowl because of it.''

Isn't that worth infinitely more than a million bucks?

By the way: Once President Trump expresses support for the NFL return of Colin Kaepernick - a pronouncement that turns on its head, at least for a moment, the concept of "us-vs.-them'' - what stands in the way of even a $1-million Trump supporter echoing that view?

3) MAGIC SACK NUMBER: I say it's 50. And I say the 2020 Cowboys can get there, with just "75 percent'' of what Aldon Smith once was. The math is here.

4) ZEKE'S BUSINESS: A person in Ezekiel Elliott's circle engaged me in conversation the other day, not really about the much-ballyhooed HIPAA issue as it relates to the news that the Dallas Cowboys star running back contracted COVID-19, but rather ...

"Isn't it kind of invasive to report it?'' I was asked. "Given the stigma attached ... I mean, if an NFL player had an STD, would you report it?''

I didn't, and don't, have a ready-made answer. Yes, it's "private'' ... but unlike the STD, it's truly a public-health concern. Yes, it's "news'' ... but unless it impact Zeke's ability to perform in a meeting, a practice or a game, how "newsworthy'' is it?

As with all of these issues of the day, I'm trying to encourage listening over yelling. So on this one? I'm listening.

5) THE JAMAL ADAMS PIPEDREAM: And that's what it is, right? A "pipedream''? Sure. Fine. But keep in mind as we cover this story: Jamal-to-Dallas isn't my pipedream.

It's his.

There are all sorts of obstacles here, the grandest of which might be the New York Jets' ill will toward the Cowboys. But don't be dissuaded by anyone who reports, "Aw, this is as stupid as the Earl Thomas-to-Dallas angle.'' Because that wasn't stupid. It, too, was very real.

And, long-shot though it is - because every blockbuster move is a long-shot, right up until the point it happens - it's Jamal's long-shot.

Critically-important scoop that I don't want to get lost in the wash here: Adams, the 24-year-old All-Pro safety, "wants to be traded to the Cowboys,'' said a source close to the situation.

6) HAPPY DFW FATHER'S DAY: We say Stephen Jones of the Dallas Cowboys is half of the most successful Father-Son duo in Dallas-Fort Worth sports history. Here's our Top 10 ... what say you?

7) NO KID-BASHING: A college student from James Madison University wrote a thing praising a QB from JMU named "Ben DiNucci.'' The 20-year-old Journalism major's "thing'' sort of suggested that DiNucci should be Dallas' No. 1 QB - ahead of Dak Prescott.

Should we bash Andrew Oliveros? Or should we make this a fun Journalism 101 lesson for all of us? We chose the latter.

8) DUMP IT!: Hey, we all love Cowboys football - nobody more than the boys from the Cowboys Blitzcast Podcast. But do we love it so much that we're unwilling to see all the benefits, immediate and long-term, from shortening this NFL preseason by dumping the Cowboys-vs.-Steelers Hall of Fame Game in Canton? Listen in here ...

And let me drop this prediction: The NFL is going to cut back on fake games this summer ... and the consumer won't let the owners ever go back. Four games will become two (or fewer) ... and we'll never again accept the ridiculous notion that adult football players need four practice games (and the owners' revenue that comes with them).

9) OUT LIKE A LAMB: Cowboys fans likely can think of few sites for pleasant right now than the vision of rookie receiver CeeDee Lamb, in the backyard, running tight and crisp routes ... while wearing his brand new Cowboys helmet.

10) THE FINAL WORD: “Without fans in stadiums, communicating with players six feet apart will be easier. But it’s still gonna be a cluster***k.” - A Cowboys executive this week to our Richie Whitt. (Full story here.)