But after a season in which McClain significantly out-performs his bargain deal, the 25-year-old will likely want to be compensated like a top-20 linebacker that is still ascending and is well under 30. That is what makes these comments by
Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones interesting to explore:
"We want to keep good football players that do the right thing on and off the field," Jones said Monday on
KRLD-FM in Dallas, via ESPN. "Everything we see so far from Rolando is he's one of those guys. I certainly see a situation where we're going to be trying to sign him to a long-term contract and keep him here with the
Dallas Cowboys. He's certainly made a difference. He goes about his business the way we want to see them go about their business.
"I think he'd be a great complement in there with
Sean Lee in terms of the way Sean plays the game. It may be a situation where if he were the Mike and Sean moved over and played some Will for us, it may help Sean in terms of the wear and tear on his body. There's a lot of thoughts there. We're more focused on what's going on here right now, but he falls in that same category as DeMarco (Murray). I know he's somebody that we'd like to keep around here."
