Less than three years ago, Rolando McClain announced his retirement from football. But after some tumultuous years, he developed into a solid middle linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and the team has no plans on letting him hit the open market, re-signing him to another one-year contract on Wednesday, according to McClain's agents.
Rolando McClain signs another 1-year deal with the Cowboys, per report
McClain comes with some question marks, but if he’s healthy and out of trouble, he’s a solid linebacker worth keeping around for the Cowboys.
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McClain, 26, was a top-10 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders and made an early impact with the team. However, amid a series of off-the-field incidents and battles with the Raiders, he played only three seasons with the team before he was released in April 2013.
Less than a week later he was signed by the Baltimore Ravens, but announced his retirement from the NFL one month later at the age of 23. When he decided to come back, the Cowboys made a deal for McClain in a trade involving late-round picks, and the move unquestionably paid off with the linebacker immediately establishing himself as a big part of the Dallas defense.
He did enough to get another one-year deal from the Cowboys and continued to play well for the team, although he served a four-game suspension at the beginning of the year for a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy. On Wednesday, he received a third one-year deal from the Cowboys.
There’s still some risk involved in signing a player with an explosive history like McClain, especially since he didn’t manage to completely stay out of trouble in 2015. But a one-year, $5 million deal, as Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports, is a low-risk deal without too much commitment, keeping a solid linebacker in Dallas.
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