Source: Cowboys Not Interested in Jadeveon Clowney ('Unless Price Comes Way Down')

Source: Cowboys Not Interested in Jadeveon Clowney ('Unless the Price Comes Way Down')

FRISCO - If you are in search of a "name'' defensive lineman to hook up alongside DeMarcus Lawrence and under coaches Mike McCarthy, Mike Nolan and Jim Tomsula, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better name than "Jadeveon Clowney.''

But the Dallas Cowboys, a source tells CowboysSI.com - obviously having done their due diligence into his likely price tag - are looking for more than a "name.''

They need "names'' at affordable "numbers.''

Per our source, the Cowboys are a "no'' on Clowney - the unquestionably talented D-lineman who first overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft and has qualified for three Pro Bowls - "unless the price comes down.''

That, to us, is a fairly firm "no.''

The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff (head coach McCarthy, defensive coordinator Nolan and D-line coach Tomsula) joins management in being well-aware of how bare the D-line cupboard is at present.

DeMarcus Lawrence is under contract. But starters Robert Quinn and Maliek Collins entered free agency this week and Quinn is already gone to Chicaco. Also free are helpers Christian Covington and Kerry Hyder. And, just for the record, the rental Michael Bennett is also free.

The Cowboys would like to find a way to re-do Tyrone Crawford's deal in order for him to stay on, like Antwaun Woods on the cheap as an exclusive-rights free agent, and can't give up on top 2019 pick Trysten Hill just yet.

All totaled, it's little wonder why Cowboys observers are trying to attach defensive linemen to Dallas, as former NFL star Joe Thomas does here:

Jadeveon Clowney??? 👀

(via @nflnetwork) pic.twitter.com/gz1yLvTKs9

— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) March 17, 2020

Some of the speculation comes with logical ties. Is there player with a McCarthy tie, a Nolan tie, a Tomsula tie, or someone who was once high on Will McClay's Dallas draft board who has fallen out of favor and needs a reboot?

ESPN has also suggested this idea as it writes  "you can't count out the Cowboys in the Jadeveon Clowney pursuit, even if it means paying two defensive ends like franchise players.''

That's simply wrong. The "no'' is the "no'' there. Part of this is that Dallas doesn't really see the "franchise-player'' thing here.

The start-of-2019 trade that sent Clowney from the Houston Texans to Seattle was lauded as a Seahawks steal; they gave up only a third-round pick and two bodies. But ... did it work?

Clowney logged just three sacks in 2019. He was a playmaker in other ways; he forced a career-high four fumbles and he's a willing run-defender. And he's only 27, so there is more good play in his future.

But "pay him like a franchise player''? And acquiesce to his plan (per a note from Matt Miller of Bleacher Report) that he's "looking to reset the market''?

A “market-setting contract” means in excess of Aaron Donald's $22.5 mil per year, in excess of Khalil Mack's $23.5 mil, in excess of Lawrence's $21 mil. "It only takes one team,'' as the saying goes, to vault Clowney’s contract into that stratosphere. But there isn't any evidence that Dallas judges him to be "great.'' 

There is instead, barring a shocking development that has Clowney as a bargain-basement value, a fairly resounding "no.''