From Kevin Donahue (@BiggsDonahue):
Kevin, let’s start with Tony Pollard—he signed his franchise tender for 2023, and that means he’s subject to heavy fines for missing any portion of camp. So I’d expect he’ll be present and accounted for when the Cowboys get to California next week.
With Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs, this is simple math. Those guys are each due $10.091 million this fall. That means each of those guys will lose $561,000 for every game week they stay away. So while being unsigned now allows each of those guys to sit out without penalty through July and August, there’s good reason to believe that, come Labor Day, they’ll be there.
What they can hold out for now is a sweetner or two on the one-year tender assigned to them, or a no-tag provision for 2024. And maybe they can twist their teams’ arms to do something in the way of a good-faith gesture after talks of long-term deals fell through. So it’s not completely useless for either guy to withhold services. But in the end, given where those guys are in their careers, their individual injury histories, and what the free-agent market usually holds for backs, carrying a strike into the season, and paying more than a half-million per week for it, doesn’t make a ton of sense.
I’m not saying it’s fair. It’s just reality—the rules don’t give these guys much recourse.
