Jerry Jones: Cowboys “running out of time” for playoff run

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You don’t get as rich as Jerry Jones without being good at math.

So when the Cowboys owner looks at his 5-6 team, he realizes time is drawing short if they’re going to make the postseason.

But on his weekly radio show on KRLD-FM, Jones also suggested there are other goals at play as well, goals which sound vaguely Shanahan-ian in meaning.

“Getting it right? We do, yes,” Jones said when asked if the Cowboys have time to fix their season (via ESPNDallas.com). “We’re running out of time as to the playoffs. Do we have enough time? It’s numerically possible, but you got to really step out here this week and do the right things to win a ballgame on the field. You have time to do that.

“Certainly you want to be going into the final weeks of the season, . . . [and] playing at an uptick to play well in the playoffs. But there’s another reason why you want to be playing well, too. You want to be playing well so you can basically look at your core and see where you are with your core and evaluate your core as far as seasons to come.”

While not as blatant as Redskins coach Mike Shanahan’s “evaluate” comments after their loss to the Panthers, it does illustrate an eye toward the future.

In the offseason, all the talk was about “windows,” and if this team doesn’t make a push, Jones may come to the realization it’s already closed.

“I thought we’d be better than this,” said Jones, “although I do realize the kind of competition we have in the league. We got nine teams that are 5-6 or 6-5 in the NFL right now. I knew we were in a league that has a lot of competition, but I thought we would be better.”

He always does. And they haven’t been. Which makes you wonder how long a leash this core has.

AP

There haven’t been many situations in the last few years when the Jets offense was compared favorably to that of any other team, but running back Chris Johnson doesn’t seem that interested in the past.

That goes for his own results as well. Johnson’s production the last couple of seasons has raised a lot of questions about whether or not Johnson has passed the point where he can be a top-flight runner in the NFL. Johnson has been adamant that there’s plenty left in his tank and thinks “it’s not hard to be the top guy” in a league where most of the top backs are running for 1,100 or 1,200 yards. He also thinks that moving from the Titans’ offense to the Jets’ scheme represents a big step forward.

“I went through a lot of situations last year. You look at [LeSean] McCoy. He got put in a great situation: great offense and great schemes. So he’s doing what he’s supposed to do,” Johnson said, via the New York Daily News. “I went through three different offensive coordinators [with the Titans]. I feel like I now have a great offensive coordinator in Marty [Mornhinweg]. And I’m going to do great things this year.”

There have been plenty of players who have seen their play take a positive turn after a change of scenery and Johnson has run for at least 1,000 yards in each of his six NFL seasons, so it’s not like he fell completely off the radar after 2009. We’ve also seen plenty of players who are unable to recapture their old magic and the answer to which camp Johnson belongs in will go a long way toward determining both the Jets’ fortunes in 2014 and his own future in the NFL.

AP

Ray Rice has stood in front of his bosses, judges and the commissioner.

But for the first time since video showed him dragging his unconscious wife out of an elevator, he’ll stand in front of reporters asking questions today.

The Ravens running back is scheduled to talk to reporters today about his two-game suspension, and the incident that led to it.

The organization has protected him carefully, from a press conference with no questions to passionate defenses on the team’s official website, but today he’ll be on his own.

“You’ll see his heart, just like you saw it last time,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said, via Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun. “He’s not going to give you some polished press conference. That’s not Ray. Ray’s going to speak from the heart.”

Harbaugh said yesterday that he was proud of the way Rice has handled the situation (not the assault, the reaction to the assault), but Rice could make some headway this afternoon.

Of course, that would take acknowledging a mistake and doing something about it, rather than just referring to domestic violence as another one of the catch-all “distractions,” which plague NFL teams.

AP

There are plenty of people who expect Vikings wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson to have a breakout season in 2014.

That group includes the decision makers at Sports Illustrated, who have named Patterson as one of this year’s rising stars across all sports. Patterson has weighed in on the topic as well, saying that he plans to be a “top-five playmaker” among other things, but coach Mike Zimmer isn’t worried about Patterson’s confidence turning him into the kind of diva receiver he saw when he was the defensive coordinator with the Bengals.

“Honestly, it’s great,” Zimmer said, via the Pioneer Press. “He’s confident, but he’s not like a couple of guys we had in Cincinnati. He’s pretty respectful about it. He works hard, and he’s a young evolving player still. So I like it.”

Zimmer’s referring to Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson, two players who saw their difficult personalities tolerated and indulged because of how productive they were on the football field. Patterson may be lacking the character traits that Zimmer didn’t like in those wideouts, but he also hasn’t performed at the same level and will need to in order for anyone to pay this much attention to him again in the future.

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The Dolphins hope to get more out of wide receiver Mike Wallace in Wallace’s second season in Miami, but things haven’t gotten off to the best of starts.

Wallace is out of practice on Thursday because of a sore hamstring, which also kept him out of practice on Wednesday. Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reports that the injury is expected to keep Wallace off the field through the weekend.

That means Wallace will miss a scrimmage at Sun Life Stadium on Saturday and Salguero reports he’ll be evaluated again at the start of next week. If Wallace’s absence extends deeper into the week, he’ll be at risk of missing the team’s first preseason game on August 8 against the Falcons.

It doesn’t sound like it is a major injury, although anything that keeps Wallace from working with quarterback Ryan Tannehill in the team’s new offense is less than ideal for the chances of getting that improved second season from the centerpiece of their 2013 offseason moves.

AP

Robert Mathis is sorry that he’s going to miss four games for violating the league’s policy on performance enhancing drugs.

But when he balances that against the joy of his new daughter, he’s able to sleep at night.

Mathis said the suspension stemmed from his use of Clomid, which he took because of “fertility challenges.” But they overcame those, and his daughter Brielle was born July 19.

“The timing was wrong,” Mathis said, via Mike Wells of ESPN.com. “I cost my team on the professional level. Personal level, I have a lifetime worth of smiles and kisses. I try to learn from it and move forward.”

But beyond the family issues, there was skepticism about Mathis going from 8.0 sacks to 19.5 last year, and Mathis said he doesn’t shy away from those questions. But with a baby girl in his arms, they matter less.

“I apologized for the professional side of it, the personal side of it. I have no regrets at all,” he said. “I look at my baby’s face in my phone every day and I have no regrets. . . . I know how people are going to react, know what people are going to say coming off a season like last year. That’s human nature. . . .

“(Brielle) looks at me and sees no wrong. She don’t know how she got here, she doesn’t care how she got here. She knows she’s here and feed me. That’s my job and that’s going to be my job for the next 18 years or however long it takes, football will be long gone. She’ll be here.”

And after the first four games, Mathis will be back with the Colts.

AP

Bills LB Nigel Bradham’s suspension stemmed from a dropped charge of marijuana possession.

The Dolphins are apparently moving on from the Shelley Smith experiment at C.

The Patriots like being able to go to the bullpen for FB James Develin.

Jets rookie TE Jace Amaro is struggling early in camp.

The Ravens are running a little thin at LB.

The Bengals have had their share of scuffles in camp.

The Browns added some offensive line depth.

The Steelers are letting QB Ben Roethlisberger run a little more no-huddle.

New Texans coach Bill O’Brien is taking a hands-on approach.

Colts coach Chuck Pagano says his team can “decide” to go to the Super Bowl.

Jaguars TE Clay Harbor could miss a month with a calf injury.

Titans DT Jurrell Casey is ready to earn some big money.

Broncos fans finally got to see camp, and they got soaked (as opposed to every other time they enter the stadium).

Chiefs T Donald Stephenson returned to practice after an ankle injury.

The Raiders are excited about their pass-rush options.

The Chargers WRs are having a good camp so far.

The Cowboys are going to have to use a committee to replace their latest injured DE.

Giants QB Ryan Nassib is showing progress.

The Eagles’ secondary is showing some growth.

Redskins QB Robert Griffin III is ready for zone-read plays, but not too many of them.

Bears G Kyle Long has been cleared to return to practice.

The Lions still have plenty of concerns with their kicking game.

The Packers want to lock up coach Mike McCarthy to a contract extension next.

The Vikings activated CB Captain Munnerlyn from the PUP list.

Falcons RB Steven Jackson is out with a hamstring injury.

Panthers rookie G Trai Turner has impressed early in camp.

Saints OLB Victor Butler hopes to have a role this season, after coming back from injury.

The Buccaneers aren’t worried about practice scuffles.

The Cardinals have moved CB-WR Teddy Williams back to defense.

Rams DT Aaron Donald has made an early impression.

WR Brandon Lloyd has made a connection with 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.

Seahawks CB Richard Sherman has kept his Twitter beef with Patrick Peterson going.

AP

The worst fears were realized for Colts guard Donald Thomas.

A league source tells PFT that he indeed tore his quadriceps in practice yesterday, and will need surgery.

The same injury cost Thomas the last 14 games of last season. The Colts signed him to a four-year, $14 million deal last offseason.

He’s out indefinitely now, and most likely for the entire season. That will likely push rookie Jack Mewhort into a larger role.

AP

49ers linebacker Aldon Smith took a trip to Los Angeles on Wednesday for a hearing wrapping up the case stemming from his ill-advised fake bomb threat at LAX earlier this year.

Smith avoided charges in that incident, but he was sentenced to 12 days in jail on gun and DUI charges that could also lead to discipline from the league. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Smith will be in New York on Friday, August 8 to discuss that possibility with NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell.

49ers coach Jim Harbaugh will likely be asked about the report at some point, but we wouldn’t expect him to offer up a confirmation.

Schefter writes that Smith is facing a “significant suspension” as a result of multiple infractions, an opinion that’s held by many others as well. That was also the case when Ravens running back Ray Rice was facing a suspension, though, and it appears that he and his wife were able to convince Goodell to go a different direction during their meeting. Smith will likely try to do the same by focusing on the trip to rehab that kept him out of five games last season and the fact that he’s been sober since then.

If the meeting does go down on the 8th, it will come at the end of a busy stretch for Goodell. He’s scheduled to meet with Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon, former Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent and a media contingent looking for answers on the Rice suspension between now and the reported meeting with Smith.

AP

It has been a little more than six months since Broncos cornerback Chris Harris tore his ACL in the team’s playoff win over the Chargers, but it doesn’t look like a decision on Harris’ readiness for the regular season will go down to the wire.

The Broncos activated Harris from the PUP list on Wednesday, clearing Harris to return to practice and eliminating the possibility that he could go on the regular season PUP list if there should be any setback in his rehab. Harris isn’t going to be doing everything right away as they try to avoid such a setback, but he’s going as fast as he can while doing the things he is allowed to do at the moment.

“They actually had to slow me down a couple of times even in the walkthrough,” Harris said, via the team’s website. “Right now the walkthrough is like practice to me. I’m just getting back out there and getting my skills retuned and ready to go.”

Harris’ return to the lineup is one of many ways the Broncos secondary will look different than the one we last saw. Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward and Bradley Roby are new to the team and Rahim Moore is also returning from an injury that kept him off the field at the end of the season. It is a group with a lot of talent and they’ll look to develop cohesiveness over the next month so that they can provide the better final result that the Broncos are looking for this time around.

AP

I’m not much for the training-camp tours because:  (1) Florio Jr. is still in high school; and (2) with a noon ET web show and a 5:30 p.m. ET NBCSN show every weekday, the logistics can be a little challenging.

But with the Saints practicing 140 miles or so down the road from the West Virginia headquarters of PFT, it was impossible to pass on the opportunity to swing down to the Greenbrier for a couple of days.  So we loaded up the ’68 VW bus after Wednesday’s show and drove south, and we’ll be broadcasting both PFT Live and Pro Football Talk from White Sulphur Springs on Thursday and Friday.

Saints fans hopefully will have added interest in the shows.  Fans of other NFC teams also may want to see what the Saints are up to, given that the Saints finally have found a way to win on the road in the postseason.  After beating the Eagles in Philly, the Saints gave the Seahawks all they could handle in Seattle.  If New Orleans can play like that on a consistent basis away from home in 2014, the road to the Super Bowl may once again go through the Superdome, making it much harder for anyone other than the Saints to qualify.

AP

Packers receiver Jordy Nelson, after signing a team-friendly deal in 2011, wanted to make $10 million per year on his extension.  Here’s every dollar he’ll potentially make through 2018, per a source with knowledge of the terms.

Nelson’s $11.5 million signing bonus is the only guaranteed money, but it’s the best kind of guaranteed money.  It’s cash up front.  No other portion of the deal is guaranteed, fully or partially.  With a cap charge of $2.3 million spread over each of the five years Nelson is under contract, the potential acceleration probably gives him at least two years of security.

There’s no security in annual roster bonuses of $31,250 per game.  It ties $500,000 per year — $2.5 million in all — to Nelson’s ability to play, week-in and week-out.  If, for example, he misses four games like he did in 2012, $125,000 disappears.

The contract also carries healthy workout bonuses of $500,000 per year from 2015 through 2018.  It’s easy money, as long as he shows up for enough sessions of the offseason program.

The base salaries are $2 million, $1.3 million, $5.5 million, $8.25 million, and $9.25 million from 2014 through 2018.  The cap numbers in those years are $5.925 million, $4.6 million, $8.8 million, $11.55 million, and $12.55 million.

Very affordable for the first two years, Nelson will move toward a higher cap ground in 2016.  Come 2017, when only $4.6 million in unallocated bonus dollars will remain and the cap number goes past $10 million, Nelson could be looking at a potential pay cut or a cap-reducing extension, based on his performance level at the time.

So it’s almost definitely a two-year commitment from the team.  Probably at least three.  After 2016, it all depends on whether his anticipated value in 2017 and 2018 justifies the larger salaries and cap numbers.

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Extra points will be a little bit harder at the start of the preseason, as the NFL is experimenting with moving the spot of the ball back for point after attempts.

Starting with Sunday night’s Hall of Fame Game and through the second week of the preseason, teams will line up at the 15-yard line when kicking extra points. (Two-point conversion attempts will remain at the 2-yard line, and extra points will move back to the 2 for the third week of the preseason and throughout the regular season.)

The NFL decided to try that after a groundswell during last season to do something — anything — to make extra points more interesting. Right now, NFL kickers make more than 99 percent of extra point attempts, making the extra point the most boring play in football. NFL owners voted down a proposal to move extra points back to the 25-yard line, but they agreed to experiment with moving them to the 15 in the preseason and reconsider the idea next offseason.

An extra point spotted at the 15 is the equivalent of a 33-yard field goal, which is still a chip shot for NFL kickers. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if every single longer extra point attempt is good this preseason. If the NFL wants to see how the game is changed by more challenging extra points, it should have moved them back to the 25, or farther.

The NFL could also consider moving two-point conversion attempts from the 2-yard line to the 1, making them easier and therefore giving coaches a greater incentive to go for two. The two-point conversion is one of the most exciting plays in football, and replacing those boring chip-shot kicks with exciting two-point conversion attempts would make the game better for the fans.

But the NFL’s owners are a conservative bunch, and they’re hesitant to make significant changes. Moving back the extra point kick by 13 yards is a very small step in the right direction, and that’s all we’re going to get this year.

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San Diego Chargers linebacker Dwight Freeney appeared in just four games in his debut season in Southern California before a torn quad tendon tear ended his year.

Freeney is back at practice for the Chargers in training camp but fully admits he has some ground to cover before he feels he’s back to himself on a football field.

According to Michael Gehlken of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Freeney is working to shake the rust off.

“My last time actually playing football was in September, so I have a lot of rust I’m trying to get off,” Freeney said. “That’s what this process is about. That’s why you come out here.”

Freeney started all four games but had just two tackles and 0.5 sacks before his season came to an end. Freeney is entering his 13th NFL season and is coming off a pretty significant injury. The Chargers hope Freeney can shake the rust off enough to be a significant contributor this fall.

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Former Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent is reportedly attempting to resume his NFL career.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to meet with Brent by the conclusion of next week, Brent’s agent, Peter Schaffer, told ESPN’s Adam Schefter in a story published Wednesday.

The 26-year-old Brent served a 180-day prison sentence earlier this year after being convicted of intoxication manslaughter in a December 2012 accident that took the life of Cowboys teammate Jerry Brown.

According to ESPN, Brent officially petitioned for reinstatement on Tuesday, the same day he concluded a stay in rehabilitation. Schaffer told ESPN that Brent reached out to Brown’s family for their permission to seek a return to the game, and the family consented.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones indicated Wednesday that the club would weigh bringing back Brent, who retired in July 2013. However, Jones also expressed uncertainty about the reinstatement outcome.

“Well, I will look at that, but I don’t want to get ahead of our self in any way to look presumptuous relative to the commissioner or anybody else in the National Football League,” Jones said. “I don’t want to do that, because I don’t know that he can be reinstated.”

According to Jones, Brent is “contrite” about the accident and “has a lot of resolve” to resume his NFL career, the Cowboys’ owner said Wednesday. The question now is whether Brent will be granted that opportunity.

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Seattle Seahawks backup tight end Anthony McCoy is likely lost for the season after suffering an apparent torn left Achilles tendon in practice on Tuesday.

With the injury to McCoy, the Seahawks may be in search of some added tight end depth for the roster. However, they won’t be kicking the tires again on free agent Jermichael Finley.

A league source told PFT’s Mike Florio that the Seahawks would not be revisiting discussions regarding the former Green Bay Packers tight end.

Seattle had Finley is for a visit earlier in the offseason but moved on after getting starter Zach Miller to agree to a restructured contract.

One likely complication barring the Seahawks from pursuing Finley is the $10 million insurance policy Finley could cash in on if he doesn’t play football again. Seattle, currently unwilling to budge on Marshawn Lynch’s contract, likely can’t give Finley enough money to provide incentive to forgo a claim on his insurance policy.

Seattle also has a few young tight ends in Cooper Helfet, RaShaun Allen and Morrell Presley that could seize hold of the third tight end spot on their roster.