The Dallas Cowboys reportedly will have to play the majority of their season without one of their top defenders.
The NFL will suspend linebacker Rolando McClain 10 games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Todd Archer. Making matters worse for Dallas, Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence’s appeal has been denied and he will be suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season, per Archer.
McClain tallied 80 tackles last season, the third-highest on the team, while recording two sacks and notching one interception, which he returned for a touchdown. But the 26-year-old also has found himself in constant trouble during his five-year career.
McClain has been arrested three times, first in 2011 while with the Oakland Raiders, and Oakland released him two seasons later in 2013. The Alabama product then signed with the Baltimore Ravens but bizarrely announced his retirement in May 2013 at just 23 years old. After un-retiring and retiring again during the 2014 offseason, he again returned to the NFL by signing with the Cowboys in July 2014.
The No. 8 pick in the 2010 NFL draft had a decent 2014 campaign for Dallas but was suspended for the first four games of the 2015 season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
Lawrence, the Cowboys’ second-round pick in the 2014 draft out of Boise State, tallied a team-high eight sacks for Dallas last season.
Thumbnail photo via Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports Images
