DeMarcus Lawrence said Rangy Gregory’s Cowboys exit ‘was a shock’ to him

There have been a lot of shocking and upsetting changes to the Dallas Cowboys roster this offseason. The team traded star wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Browns. They released La’el Collins as a post-June 1 cut and the offensive tackle almost immediately signed with the Bengals. And, even the team itself thought they had secured Randy Gregory before the defensive end fled for the Denver Broncos at the last minute.

Gregory’s exit over certain clauses in his contract was a shock to many fans. But it was allegedly also a shock to one of his former teammates, too. DeMarcus Lawrence reworked his contract to re-sign with the Cowboys shortly before the Gregory debacle. This would have solidified the Cowboys’ edge-rushing needs. Lawrence certainly thought so.

In a press conference after signing on to stay with Dallas, Lawrence said he was shocked by Gregory’s exit. He went into his daily workout seeing that Gregory was staying. After the workout, he checked Instagram and saw that his teammate had changed his mind. Lawrence heard the news just like the rest of Cowboys Nation did.

However, the returning Cowboy didn’t seem to hold any hard feelings. He said that he wishes the new Bronco the best and even called him a “brother for life.” The two were teammates for the last five NFL seasons.

Cowboys DE DeMarcus Lawrence said that re-working his contract was a ‘no-brainer’ given he wanted to be a ‘Cowboy for life’

Lawrence stating that re-working his contract was a “no-brainer” seems a bit contradictory. Although, now that he’s with the team, you know he’s not going to bash the franchise in his first presser. However, just a few days after the contract was signed, Lawrence previously admitted that he asked the Cowboys to cut him after their initial offer to him was a “disrespectful” one year for $10 million.

But, in truth, it seems like Lawrence really didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to uproot his family and he wanted the chance to win it all with a team he’s given eight years to.

"“I had high hopes that we would figure something out. Being a Cowboy for life was always a dream, and I was blessed with the opportunity to do so. Being able to finish where I started and also have another opportunity to go for a Super Bowl…I don’t want to do it anywhere else. I made that decision a long time ago.”"

Those high hopes turned into a three-year contract worth $40 million and $30 million guaranteed. The contract will likely have the 29-year-old set in Dallas for the rest of his NFL career. But he also hopes that the money saved on his restructure will go to good use. Lawrence told reporters that the team is only “as strong as [their] weakest link” and in order to build and get better, there needs to be stronger players added to the roster. Is the signing of Dante Fowler Jr. in line with that? It’s hard to say at this point.

But captains’ practices did begin at The Star last week and Lawrence said the workouts have been kicking players’ butts (he used another word that starts with an A). The Cowboys veteran has been a strong piece of this team for many years now. After being selected by Dallas in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, he has played in 103 regular-season games and tallied 308 tackles and 48.5 sacks.

He sadly missed out on 10 games in the 2021 season due to injury but is ready to use this healthy offseason to get back to where he knows he can be. He feels he can be better than he was in the past. This is Lawrence’s outlook heading into the 2022 season:

"“I’m not trying to be the player that I was a couple years ago. I’m trying to top that, trying to be better than what I used to be, trying to learn from my mistakes and make the guys around me better. Understanding that year that I did have, 14.5 sacks or whatever [in 2017]; as a team, we didn’t amount to [expletive], so what does that really matter?”"

Let’s hope everyone else on this roster has the same mindset.