Time for the Dallas Cowboys to say “No Mo Ro”

Given every possible chance to change the perceptions of him, it’s time for the Dallas Cowboys to cut ties with their mercurial middle linebacker.

Life is all about the decisions we make.

Make the right ones and you can do very well for yourself, regardless of your background, the environment that surrounds you or whatever other obstacles may present themselves.

Make the wrong ones and your life can become exponentially more difficult, regardless of how much talent, intelligence or support you have going for you.

Whenever we as people choose the wrong paths, unfortunately, it never just ends up inflicting damage to us, the decision maker.  Often, there are others affected that happen to be in our radius of destruction.

Dallas Cowboys middle linebacker Rolando McClain has a penchant for making the wrong decisions.

These decisions continually cost him, however he is not the sole owner of his damage.  They cost the team as well.

It is for that reason precisely, that owner Jerry Jones and head coach Jason Garrett need to inform him that his time wearing the Star on the side of his helmet is no longer.

There are plenty of other reasons you can utilize to justify this decision.

• McClain has shown a lack of desire to fully integrate himself with the team, often missing significant portions of organized team activities and even training camp “tending to personal matters.”

• During games, he often has to sit out excessively due to his lack of conditioning.  This also leads to him either playing hurt or missing games rendering him ineffective.

• This isn’t the first time he’s been suspended.  You know the old adage.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

• Cutting him sends a message to the rest of the team.  No matter how talented you are or how much of a need you fill, if you choose to act selfishly and put yourself in front of the team, there will be a steep price to pay.

Speaking of a price to pay, maybe the best reason to cut McClain is all about the money.  This offseason, he signed a one year deal worth $4M however only $750,000 is guaranteed.

While he’s already killed any possibility of obtaining his $1M bonus for play time as well as another $1.25M for per game bonuses, he still could make almost $1.5M for being on the roster.

Factor in the additional $750,000 he would get for playing the final six games and the Cowboys could save $2.25M by releasing him outright.

For a team seemingly always teetering near the edge of panic when it comes to the salary cap, $2.25M seems to be worth getting rid of the headache.

There is no denying that the loss of McClain is a huge blow to this team.

Yes, guys like Anthony Hitchens and Andrew Gachkar can come in and play middle linebacker but neither of them have the size, speed and talent of McClain.

Not having McClain for the first ten games also depletes the depth of an already shallow unit.  When I did my roster projections a few weeks ago, I only had Dallas keeping six linebackers.

Removing McClain from the mix means that a guy like Mark Nzeocha might get a roster spot or it could force the Cowboys to think out of the box.

Given the lack of depth, talent and experience with this unit, could Dallas consider the possibility of playing safety Barry Church in a role much like Arizona does with safety Deone Bucannon?

They are almost exactly the same size and while Church may not have excellent coverage skills as a safety, he’d certainly be adequate in that facet as a linebacker.  Moving Hitchens to the middle and flanking him with Sean Lee on one side and Church on the other would certainly improve the speed of the defense.

Next: Cowboys defensive suspensions and their effects on the team

Regardless of how the Cowboys scheme to account for the loss of McClain, I think it is certainly time to move on from him period.

Life is all about the decisions we make.

It’s also about the consequences that stem from them.