Come on Gimme you know that is the Joneses talk out of their butts. They gave LVE/Jaylon two seasons to perform and they failed miserably. If by some miracle LVE stays healthy and is the teams best linebacker, he will not take less money then what Jaylon got. I can’t see them keeping Jaylon unless he takes a major pay cut. The Cowboys can draft a linebacker like Cox again in the middle rounds next season or bring in another 4 million dollar free agent.
Dallas' method is to pay their own and keep their own if they believe the player is worth what he's seeking. If the Cowboys do not, then their next step is generally to get a cheap starter to fill in so that it doesn't have to go into the draft with an absolute need (they didn't do that at corner this year, though).
If LVE proves worth it, the Cowboys will try to re-sign him unless they feel they have his replacement in hand in Cox, like they did when they let Byron Jones go both because his turnover production wasn't worth the asking price and according to him, they said they felt OK about the players they had to replace him. (Then, they drafted a corner in the second round.)
Jaylon Smith may fall into the category of Tyrone Crawford, overpaid but valued, depending on his level of play. We really don't want to go into the draft looking to draft another starting linebacker in the first or second round. Thinking we can get a sure starter in the middle rounds is unrealistic. Maybe we can get a starter in FA, but for what we pay, it won't be a bottom-of-the-barrel starter.
I see our starters next year being Parsons, Smith and Cox, but we'll see what happens with Cox and LVE this year. If Smith plays poorly and LVE plays well, I could also see us cutting Smith and using at least some of the money to retain LVE. However, I do think it's possible LVE will get Murray'd, where even if he has an outstanding year, we are only willing to offer so much to keep him because of the injury concerns.
