First-round pick Zack Martin is expected to start his NFL career as a guard for the Cowboys, but as Todd Archer of ESPN.com notes, the assumption has been that Martin will shift over to right tackle in 2015, since Doug Free is in the last year of his contract. Still, Archer wonders if it might be more beneficial for the club to keep Martin on the interior a little longer and extend Free’s deal beyond this season, since he had a solid 2013 season and only just turned 30.
Here’s more from Archer on the Cowboys, along with some update on a couple other East teams:
- Within the same piece, Archer explores the possibility of the Cowboys carrying four tailbacks on their regular-season roster now that they’ve added Ryan Williams, and wonders if players like Henry Melton and Anthony Spencer can even come close to reaching playing-time incentives, given Dallas’ depth on the defensive line.
- Although this month’s selection of wideout Odell Beckham Jr. fortified the Giants‘ receiving corps, it raised question marks about the role Jerrel Jernigan will have in New York going forward, writes Jordan Raanan of NJ.com. In Raanan’s view, Jernigan’s best chance for consistent playing time may come with another team, barring an injury to Beckham, Victor Cruz, or Rueben Randle.
- In the NFL, signing a five-year contract with a team doesn’t assure a player of a long-term stay with that club, but Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is hoping to stick with the Giants for several years, as Ebenezer Samuel of the New York Daily News writes. DRC also noted that the decision to sign with the Giants rather than the Jets in free agency was “very difficult.”
- According to Tim Graham of the Buffalo News (Twitter link), the NFL expects the sale of the Bills to take a little longer than usual. The league wants to intensify the vetting process after what happened with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, whose business was investigated by the FBI and IRS just a few months after he was approved as the team’s majority owner.