Zeke Elliott No Longer A Dallas Cowboy

*Zeke Elliott masterfully painted by Canva.*

The end of an era. This is old news by now, but the man deserves some respect on his name!

Zek Elliott has been designated a post July 1st cut which will save the Dallas Cowboys, freeing up $11m with this move.

It’s a sad situation for all those who got to experience the golden years of Elliott’s career. Sadly, football doesn’t wait for anyone, and the Dallas Cowboys are moving on.

You can read our fairwell to Zeke here.

Welcome To Dallas, BumpNRun!!!

The Zeke cut might have been upsettingly expected, but the 5th round draft pick in return for Stephon Gilmore was certainly a welcoming surprise!

There isn’t a lot of love for Jerry and Stephen Jones, but this move got praise from all corners of Cowboys Nation.

Considering we gave away Amari Cooper for the same pick, albeit saved on the cap hit, there are a lot of people wearing the blue star on their chest and a smile on their face right now.

The Dallas Cowboys CB duo of Trevon Diggs and Stephon Gilmore will definitely enter the season as one of the top cornerback tandems in the NFL.

Let’s hope they live up to these early expectations!

LVE, Wilson, Smith, Rush Are Returning

This signings kind of got swept under the rug, but they are actually extremely meaningful.

We’ve bagged on Leighton Vander Esch in the past, but he really turned his game around last year and impressed us enough that we were happy to see him signed back. And for only $3.1m on the books, that’s a no-brainer!

*Tyron Smith is ready to clean up shop!*

Tyron Smith also restructured his contract and will be coming back to Dallas for one more kick at the can, at least! It’s great for Dallas because the Cowboys lost McGovern this week, and you can never have enough of these big body dudes up front.

*Cooper Rush is ready to get his sling on!*

Cooper Rush is a great signing and solidifies Cowboys Nation with a back up quarterback who might get his numbered called to start in another NFL organization. He’s a bottom end starter, at best, and that’s great for a back up QB! Dak Prescott has injury history, he’s boarderline injury prone, and so that makes this signing even more important. Kudos!

Finally, my favourite on this list; Donovan “Dono Dub” Wilson! I’m so happy this guy is coming back. And after adding Gilmore, being able to retain Wilson has put the Dallas Cowboys defensive backs as the arguably best in the league.

Am I too biased?

Front Office Active In Free Agency

The front office lead by Jerry Jones has been fairly busy this free agency, making a bunch of salary cap moves that has helped the cowboys to free up between $21m and $25m.

Here is what the Dallas Cowboys did last week, besides what we’ve already talked about above:

C.J. Goodwin, CB
- Signed a 1 year $1.3175 million contract with Dallas (DAL)
DeMarcus Lawrence, DE
- Converted $13.335M of 2023 salary into signing bonus, clearing $8.89M of cap with Dallas (DAL)
Michael Gallup, WR
- Converted $8.75M of 2023 salary into signing bonus, adding 1 void year, clearing $7M of cap with Dallas (DAL)

The obvious need is a weapon or two for Dak Prescott, and one of those weapons has to be a high tiered wide receiver.

Other needs are in no particular order: RB, LB, DI and I’d sprinkle in o-line as well, because you can’t have too many offensive linemen!

I just hope the front office keeps things rolling and solves one or two of those positions before the draft!

Hopkins, Cooks, OBJ, or Jeudy?

*DeAndre Hopkins pointing to where he’s going.*

It’s not as easy as you might think.

The Arizona Cardinals are asking for a 2nd and something sweet for DeAndre Hopkins.

The Houston Texans would want a 3rd round for Brandin Cooks.

OBJ is just a headcase, but one who can catch a football and score touchdowns, and recently refuted the $20m asking price allegation, stating that “$4m AINT enough”, so I guess his range is between $5m and $19m.

And Jerry Jeudy’s asking price from the Denver Broncos is a 1st round or 2nd plus something sweet, too.

So there you have it. All these players are going to come with a similar price tag, in my opinion, however, the difference of $4m this year compared to next year, or in two years, could be a dealbreaker.

If I had to pick based off of the above alone, I would say that Cooks might be the best bet, and you can still draft a wide receiver in the 1st OR 2nd round, if there’s one there.

All that being said, I wouldn’t be upset to see any of these players wearing Silver and Blue next season!

Michael Irvin Video Released

*Michael Irvin upset with his lunch order.*

The Michael Irvin alleged assault video has been released, and it doesn’t really prove anything either way, in my opinion.

From what I see, Irvin talks with a female employee. He touches her elbow. At some point she seems to take a step back. She also might have just been reacting to the conversation. But to the female who is making these allegation’s point, she didn’t lie about the physical description of the encounter.

What we really need and what I don’t think can be provided is the audio of the encounter; did Michael Irvin make a sexual advance on the women that was innapropriate?

I think from the video, it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that Irvin was flirting, and maybe even invited her up to his room. That’s pretty inappropriate in that he’s asking her while she’s working, and she probably can’t be going to guests hotel rooms, but I think that’s more of a moral thing than a man breaking the law.

Again, that’s just a theory and I have no evidence to back it up, just kind of spitballing here.

Irvin did make a fiery statement on March 8th, proclaiming his innocence and saying the allegations took him “back to a time where a white woman would accuse a Black man of something, and they would take a bunch of guys that were above the law, run in a barn, put a rope around his foot and drag him through the mud and hang him by a tree”.

I mean, wow. How to shut up the opposition for $100, please!

You can watch the video below and make a judgment call of your own, but this story is still unfolding.

Mock Draft 4.0

We did our 4th mock draft with our boys @DefyTalksCowboys and @BoysNtheZone.

It was a 4 round mock draft, we allowed trades, and did we ever make them!

Starting off with a bang in the first round, and then moving back to pick up some extra picks in the later rounds.

Here’s a quick summary of our first round…

You can watch the full mock draft 4.0 below!

Cowboys CanFan Weekly Wrap Up | March 18th, 2023