Getty Rolando McClain
Rolando McClain is returning to the NFL — and perhaps the Dallas Cowboys.
Pro Football Talk first reported Friday that McClain has been conditionally reinstated by the league. The 30-year-old linebacker, who flamed out of the sport in 2017 due to substance abuse issues, would be free to sign with any team but still technically belongs to the Cowboys.
Who are looking into the matter.
“I had no idea that was a work in progress, but we’ll certainly look at that as we would anything,” vice president Stephen Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “We’ll do our due diligence and make a decision.”
A 2010 first-round pick of the Oakland Raiders, McClain was acquired by Dallas in 2014 following the season-ending injury to inside linebacker Sean Lee. He appeared in 13 games that year, starting 12, and made 81 tackles, three pass deflections, two interceptions, one sack and a forced fumble.
McClain re-upped with the Cowboys on a one-year deal in 2015 and, after serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, started 11 games at ILB, notching 80 tackles, three pass breakups, two sacks, an interception and defensive touchdown.
He again was re-signed to a one-year pact in 2016 but never saw the field. McClain was banned 10 games for another policy violation — his second — and failed a drug test midway through the campaign, which indefinitely increased his ban. It was reported soon after that he’d become addicted to codeine.
McClain, who also has played for the Baltimore Ravens, revealed last month he planned to resume his once-star-studded career.
“I’m nowhere near satisfied with how my professional career has gone,” he told Matt Zenitz of AL.com. “That’s for myself. That’s me looking in the mirror and talking to my boys. Nah, that’s not the taste I want to leave in my mouth.”
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No Room on Cowboys
While they technically have first dibs on McClain, don’t expect the Cowboys to squeeze him onto the 53-man roster, which is in the process of being finalized. The club is set at ILB with Lee and Leighton Vander Esch and just re-signed outside linebacker Jaylon Smith to a massive extension. They also boast stud defensive end and resident sack-master DeMarcus Lawrence, who, too, landed a lucrative contract this offseason.
“I’d say top to bottom, it’s as much talent as I’ve been around,” Lee recently noted, per the Dallas Morning News.
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