Hope everyone is staying safe! Still working from home myself. Below is a recap from today's segment, which I just listened to live. As always, the link will come later once ESPN posts it to the Jam Session page.
And away we go:
1. Aldon Smith. This was one of the more rambling segments I've heard from JJT in awhile. We all heard from Smith's agent about McCarthy traveling to LA and meeting with Aldon Smith and Tonsula signing off on the signing and all of that. There was a lot of conversation around the Star in the past week about Aldon Smith, but for whatever reason the PR team and the Front Office instructed folks to be hush hush about it. In order to help with their decision on Aldon, the FO did an assessment and basically asked is this a good dude that made some mistakes or a bad dude that made some mistakes? JJT was quick to point out that the police report and the track record and the DV charges all point to him being a bad dude. Not only that, even if he was a bad dude, that doesn't necessarily mean that Jerry wouldn't sign him anyway! Basically, Dallas thinks he's a good dude and they think he's in an environment now that could help him flourish. Compared him to Leon Lett and even Randy Gregory when they went/currently going through suspensions. That's why with Gregory, you still have high character guys like Jeff Heath and Sean Lee writing letters to the Commissioner. Because Randy is a good dude. He just has some issues. With Aldon, he recognizes that he has a disease in alcoholism and the alcohol makes him obviously act differently than if we was sober. He understands his issues now and knows that he must fight them if he wants his life to get back to where it needs to be. Sometimes folks need to hit rock bottom before they get sick and tired of being sick and tired. The Cowboys were willing to take a flier on Smith because he had generational talent in his prime. He had that quickness in the first step, the speed, and could bend like no other. Will he be the same athlete that he was at 25? Hell no. But JJT was quick to point out that when MJ came back to basketball he went from averaging like 36 points a game to averaging 26. So in summation, Smith can be a really good player on this defense, maybe a difference maker. The jury is still out.
2. Much to
@stasheroo dismay, there have still been no talks about a pay cut for Tyrone Crawford. We definitely do not know what to expect from him since he's coming off double hip surgery and in the midst of a defensive scheme change, but the Cowboys brass are confident that he will be a good and contributing player for the defense in 2020. Says he missed four games between 2014-2018, and has been a solid, durable, contributing player. Says he isn't going anywhere, so quit asking him.
3. We are about a week removed from the tweets speculating that Dak's deal is close to being done. A source close to the situation tells JJT that the deal is so close, it's "silly" it isn't done yet. The source said that if this were back in the day, Dak could waltz into Jerry's office, pour a drink, put his feet up, and the deal would be done in about an hour. In this day and age, where everything is rolling along at a snail's pace, it can sometimes hold some things up. Dak is getting his money though. Bank on it.
4. So we discovered a week or two ago that Amari turned down big money from both Washington and another "mystery team" to stay in Dallas. Why did he want to stay in Dallas so bad? Source says there are a lot of areas around the Metroplex that remind Amari a lot of where he grew up in the Miami area. Said he was driving in Dallas one afternoon and stumbled upon some kids playing basketball. Amari pulled over and hooped with them for about an hour. Says it just feels like home to him. JJT did note that there is "another key person" that deals with negotiations in Dallas and that Amari's agent got heated with him and cursed him out during negotiations and demanded that he speak to Stephen directly from here on out. Stephen, obviously, was able to get the deal done. Whether that was a good signing or not remains to be seen.
And there you have it! Hope everyone has a great weekend.
