The only thing that's different is that he would have just played a year. As far as being a reliable piece of the puzzle, nobody is going to think that a single year means anything because he's played full seasons before. At least nobody should. Especially when he apparently had a short list of teams he would even consider playing for.
I'm not going to continue to go back and forth on all this, and I usually agree with a lot of what you have to say... but if you can't see the difference between quitting Oakland, then barely even practicing in Baltimore, and playing in dominant fashion for a full season in Dallas, then I don't even know what to say. NFL teams look the hardest at a players most recent work. When Dallas traded for him, his most recent work was him quitting football and having some legal issues. If he continues to play lights out (which was the scenario that both you and I were talking about), you think NFL teams would look at him the same way next offseason? That is not understandable to me.
If he did mature that's great, but having a couple of down times isn't a valid reason for taking excessive risk. Life has it's downs so who's to say he doesn't pack it up again the next time he's feeling blue.
We don't know if he will up and quit when or if he hits the next rough patch in his life. We don't know the circumstances the first time it happened, so it is very difficult for us fans to judge the likelihood of it happening again. However, the teams will know that. The Cowboys were able to talk to him and talk to Saban who had helped him get his mind right. They know what happened and can judge his actions going forward.
What we would know in the scenario that you and I are talking about is that he would have played a season in Dallas where he played great football and was one of the most dominant defenders on the team. We also know that he never played great for Oakland because his head was never right there. We know that he didn't even made it through a few practices with Baltimore because again, his head wasn't right.
It would stand to reason that if he is finally playing football like he did at Alabama, then his head is finally on straight for the first time since college. Do we know that? No. Can we be sure he won't quit again? No. Do we know that he is playing the best football of his pro career? Yes.
Here is what JJ Wilcox said about him this week:
On Rolondo McClain:
“I’ll tell you what, he brings intimidation. If you ever look at him, he’s the biggest guy on the field on offense and defense. So with that being said, just his presence alone brings intimidation and brings that mean, 90’s Cowboys type of defense. He comes into work every day. He knows the plays that are coming before they’re even ran. He’s a monster, man. I’m glad to have him in the middle.”
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sports/...olondo-mcclain-being-a-monster-linebacker.ece
The part in bold is what I'm looking at. In Oakland, he didn't come to work like that and he didn't diagnose plays like he had at Alabama. He is now for the first time in his pro career.
There is a chance that he has matured and figured things out. The longer he goes playing great football, the less and less likelihood of him quitting again. If he plays a full year with his head on right, then there is a good chance he figured everything out, IMO.
His penance for quitting pro football will be a smaller contract than his play in Dallas says he should get, and a contract that is rife with incentives and short on signing bonus. That is likely all an NFL team is going to give him, and rightly so. Like I said though... the further he gets from Oakland/Baltimore, and the more great games he strings together, the more likely he is to make it going forward.
Like I said above, if you think NFL teams will view him the same after a great season in Dallas as they did when he was still on Baltimore's roster... then you are certainly looking at it differently that I am... and differently I think, from how the NFL will look at him.
Money at acquiring talent? In what sense?
I'm talking about the decisions they have been making getting guys like Laurent Robinson off the street, Cole Beasley, Patmon, Coleman as UDFA's, Drafting Dez when there were so many questions surrounding him, taking Martin and not Manziel, using high picks on the OL that have been great players, etc. Just making good decisions and having a plan, basically.
If you don't think they've done a good job, that's fine, and it isn't something that is even important to this thread. I was just letting you know why I myself trust their decision on McClain.
As far as just trusting the team, there's nothing to trust because there's a variable in play that the team has absolutely zero control over.
They aren't evaluating his ability or fit for a particular scheme. Short of the ability to read minds, they have no way of knowing if he is sincere when he says he's gonna be around. He's said it before, and he's backed out.
Zero control, I agree. But they don't have zero information to influence the decision to sign him to a contract or not. The team has been able to sit down and ask questions about what happened in Oakland/Baltimore. They have been around him and talked to him every day. They talk to him about his frame of mind and they know if he studies his assignments or not. They know how hard he is working and they know if he
seems "all in" or not. It is really hard for people to fake being happy or not... particularly when your talking about being part of a locker room around team mates and coaches.
Now he
could lie to them, but there isn't anything anyone can do about that. You can tell a lot from just watching a guy interact with his team mates and coaches. They just have to make the best decision they can, play it safe with any new contract with incentives and low signing bonus, and live with their choice.
The situation with him is clear. The only reason he's even on the roster is because he's not viewed as a guy who's reliable and because Dallas needed somebody. His play would start on any team. His question marks have turned nearly all of them off, and until the need arose Dallas was one of them.
I don't disagree. That is exactly why he is in Dallas now. I don't think anyone in this thread has said or thought any different. However, since he got to Dallas, he has done the work, he impressed the coaches enough to earn a starting position, studied and played well enough to be the best defensive player in the first two games, and he has played with passion and smarts, even in the nickel which Dallas never wanted him to play in the first place.
He has earned enough of their trust for all that to happen. To Rolando's credit, he did that on his own and I don't imagine it was easy to get Marinelli and Garrett to trust him.
Whatever contract he gets should be largely based on roster spot, and snap count. He's too big of a flight risk to just hand out guaranteed money like he's a typical free agent.
Again, I agree. In my earlier post I said that any contract would have to be long on incentives and short on signing bonus, so I'm not sure why you're arguing with me about guaranteed money. I think McClain would understand that completely. As long as he has a chance to earn pretty good money with his play, he should be sensible enough about it.
Thanks for the debate HB.
