Sources say Cowboys LB Rolando McClain has not been cut by team

[Irving Cowboy]

Update: Sources say Cowboys LB Rolando McClain has not been cut by team; was on flight manifest but didn't show
By SportsDayDFW.com

Training camp is nearly here, which means status updates on two Dallas Cowboys' whose futures are up in the air.

While the team will arrive at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu to meet military members and sign autographs for their families, one member of the Cowboys wasn't on the team's charter.

Below are updates on linebacker Rolando McClain and offensive lineman Ronlad Leary, according to SportsDay's David Moore.

David Moore ✔ @DavidMooreDMN
LB Rolando McClain is not on Cowboys team charter to Oxnard but has not been released. Stay tuned.
4:16 PM - 28 Jul 2016

David Moore ✔ @DavidMooreDMN
Source: LB Rolando McClain has not been cut. Has until tomorrow to report to camp. He was on today's flight manifest and didn't show.

David Moore ✔ @DavidMooreDMN
Guard Ron Leary, who has requested a trade, is on Cowboys charter and will report to camp.
4:17 PM - 28 Jul 2016

Earlier this week on an episode of SportsDay's "Ballzy" podcast, Moore touched on why he thought McClain's presence on the team plane out to Oxnard was one big storyline to watch.

David Moore: The first thing I'm going to pay attention to will be even before I leave for Oxnard and before the team leaves for Oxnard the day after. Will Rolando McClain be on the team charter flying to Southern California?

Barry Horn: And your best guess is?

David Moore: My belief is no. And I believe even if he happens to be on that charter, I'm not so sure he's on the roster once the season starts.

Barry Horn: They wouldn't make him fly out there and then tell him they don't want him?

David Moore: If you get through camp and you find out that you don't have injuries, I think that's unlikely. I think it's more likely that he wouldn't go rather than go and then they decide to cut ties with him. But it's all going to come down to the resolution of how much he's going to be charged on the cap. They did not a have a definitive answer on that at the end of last week.

McClain's status with the Cowboys could be in doubt due to his original four-game suspension possibly being increased to 10 games. Executive VP Stephen Jones recently called McClain's camp status a 'work in progress.'

The linebacker signed a $4 million contract for the coming season with $750,000 guaranteed. Another $750,000 came as a signing bonus. There is a question of how much money would be applied to the Cowboys' salary cap if they release him before training camp.

Leary, like McClain, missed all of the team's voluntary OTAs. The offensive lineman chose to skip the workouts seeking a trade so he can start for another team.

He started every game he played for the Cowboys in 2013 and 2014 at left guard but lost his spot after the first month of last season. He was replaced by rookie La'el Collins, the highly touted undrafted free agent out of LSU.

The guard, who started four games in 2015 and was inactive for 12, signed his restricted free agent tender worth $2.553 million before the draft last month in an effort to help facilitate a trade. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the Cowboys fielded phone calls about Leary during the draft but they never received an offer they felt was worthy of a player who has proven to be a reliable starter.

Leary will be an unrestricted free agent after the season but will likely remain a backup if he stays in Dallas.

 

[Irving Cowboy]

Moore: Rolando McClain hasn't been cut (yet), but keeping him no longer makes sense for Cowboys
By SportsDayDFW.com

POINT MUGU, CALIF. -- Questions regarding Rolando McClain's future with the Cowboys weren't resolved upon the team's arrival in Southern California.

They were heightened.

The enigmatic middle linebacker failed to show for the charter flight to training camp Thursday afternoon even though he was listed on the team's manifest. Head coach Jason Garrett deflected questions about McClain's status by indicating the club would address the issue in its opening news conference Friday.

A source said McClain has not been cut. But his absence ensures those internal discussions will continue.

The players are scheduled to take physicals Friday morning at 8 o'clock (PDT). The first team meeting is six hours later. Those are the deadlines for McClain and all players to report to the team's training camp site in Oxnard.

McClain is already saddled with a 10-game suspension to open the season for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. He skipped the majority of the Cowboys' offseason program, which is voluntary, to stay at his home in Alabama. When he reported to the team's mandatory minicamp in June, a club official said he was 20 to 25 pounds over his playing weight.

Garrett constantly demands that players hold themselves and their teammates accountable. He preaches passion and insists that everyone pull in the same direction, a message that takes on even more weight when a team is coming off a 4-12 season.

How can Garrett look his players in the eye with any conviction if he allows this behavior to continue? It undermines the culture he has worked so hard to put in place. Is that worth allowing McClain the opportunity to play a few games late in the season?

The Cowboys resurrected McClain's career two years ago and he responded by infusing a dreadful defense with a level of talent and physicality it desperately lacked. McClain opened last season with a four-game suspension, but it made sense to go forward with him considering his previous performance.

Now, it makes no sense.

There are as many questions about the defense heading into this training camp as there were in 2014. The difference is that McClain can't provide an immediate impact given the length of his suspension. His contributions last season did nothing to abate a defensive decline that played a part in the team's worst record in 27 years.

McClain isn't a bad guy in the locker room. But he's not a leader.

That actually gave him some cover the last two seasons. The coaching staff could tolerate and manage his disdain for practice because he didn't influence his teammates. McClain was a talented outlier, an exception to the hard-working rule the majority of the team's best players laid down.

No one deserves cover after last season. The team's best players must lead with their attitude and performance. A player who will miss the first two-and-a-half months of the season and has suggested aloud to players and club employees that he might retire is a luxury the Cowboys can no longer afford.

McClain's suspension, along with those of defensive ends Randy Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence, has put the Cowboys in an unenviable position in more ways than one. Three suspended players means the franchise must pay up to $250,000 under the NFL's remittance policy.

The money, which is put back into the league's operating costs for its rehabilitation program, doesn't impact the salary cap. It's a fine levied outside of the player payroll.

The Cowboys can carve out additional salary cap room by cutting McClain. But at this point, it shouldn't be about the money. It's about the message Garrett and the Jones family must deliver to start training camp.

That's more valuable than anything Rolando McClain can give this team this season.

 

[dbair1967]

Looking like its only a question of when, not if any more though.

Good riddance once he is gone.

 

[Rynie]

I asked my boy, and he didn't know whether they were going to cut him, or not. I wouldn't be totally shocked if they don't. This is the Cowboys we are talking about.

I will never refer to the new VR as "The Star". I will always call it " Dysfunction Junction", and I hope all of you adopt it as well.