Armando Salguero
Truth No. 1: Free agency contracts agreed to before Wednesday’s official start of the signing period are not done until they’re actually signed.
Truth No. 2: The Dallas Cowboys are having a rough time during the legal negotiating period of free agency.
We’ve seen the most obvious evidence of this with the Randy Gregory situation on Tuesday.
The Cowboys believed they agreed with Gregory, a 29-year-old defensive end and a top 5 free agency target, to a five-year contract worth a reported $70 million.
Great, right?
Yeah, except contracts that have been agreed to are not really agreed to.
So Gregory and his camp backed out and agreed with the Denver Broncos to, you guessed it, a five-year contract worth a reported $70 million.
It is unclear exactly why Gregory changed direction after apparently returning to a team that drafted him in 2015 and supported him through personal troubles, including multiple NFL suspensions.
Neither side has openly discussed the issue.
But an NFL source told OutKick the reason is the Cowboys allegedly changed some contract language at the last moment, which upset the Gregory camp. And because Gregory had discussed a deal with the Broncos on the first day of the NFL negotiating period Monday, he simply went back to that deal.
The Cowboys, you should know, had tweeted the Gregory deal early Tuesday from their official blue-check account. And then deleted the tweet.
The Broncos, meanwhile, continued doing victory laps.
The Cowboys so far have lost receiver Amari Cooper, starting left guard Connor Williams, receiver Cedric Wilson Jr. and now Gregory.
The only way they come back from this is chasing (and landing) an edge rusher such as Chandler Jones, Za’Darius Smith, Calais Campbell, or Von Miller.
Follow on Twitter: @ArmandoSalguero
5 years $70million for a 29 year old who’s missed 30 games in his career for substance abuse and his career high is 6 sacks in a season. The broncos and cowboys are both stupid.
Also going to sate where weed is legal.
Jerry Jones the GM getting clowned again. How is that Zeke contract working out? They won’t win while he is in charge.
100% exactly correct
I dunno. Kind of think Denver just took a bullet for Dallas. Gregory, when on the field, is usually good for about 3-5 first downs a game for the opposition with his offsides, roughing, and just flat out stupid late hit penalties.