IRVING, Texas – Somewhere on the drive to the Dallas Cowboys' rookie minicamp last week, a cell phone conversation with an AFC personnel man took a detour into jealous indignation. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had just signed undrafted rookie La'el Collins, a first-round selection who fell off every NFL board after he was sought for questioning in a murder case in which he wasn't a suspect. Now the LSU All-American had been added to a team that was already filthy rich in offensive line talent.

"It figured he'd end up there," the personnel man said with a tinge of annoyance over the signing. "[Jerry Jones] is in his gear now. When your owner is the general manager, it's just a little easier. He can just make that decision and it's done. He wants him, whatever he decides the process is, boom – done.

"[Jerry will] walk closer to that line and take chances if he thinks it's coming together. But signing La'el might actually be safer than a couple of their other moves lately."

Randy Gregory had some conditioning issues at Cowboys rookie minicamp (AP) More

Full disclosure: This personnel man was speaking from a slightly biased viewpoint. His franchise made an unsuccessful overture to get into what Collins' agent called the "La'el sweepstakes," and was also interested in Nebraska defensive end Randy Gregory (who the Cowboys chose in the second round). Ultimately, this particular AFC team got neither player, getting shunned by Collins and passing on Gregory after he failed a drug test at the scouting combine.

All of that said, he made an interesting point – the part about some of these moves being the Jerry Jones gear. If anything, the Collins signing and drafting of Gregory is the exclamation mark on an irrefutable truth: These Cowboys are taking calculated gambles all over the place, shaping a roster that is as full of possibility as potential mayhem. It's something the NFL world has seen since Jones signed defensive end Greg Hardy – the richer the talent base gets, the more hip-shootin' Jones seems to get.

First came Hardy. Then came Gregory. Then Collins. And finally, after all that, Jones tosses it out there that Dallas may be willing to trade its 2016 first-round pick if it thinks a particular player can put the franchise over the top. The only way Jones could have trolled fans any harder was if he made the announcement and then plugged in an "ADRIAN PETERSON" bat signal.

Not that you needed a signal for the obvious. Dallas is getting wild again.

None of this is to say that this is a bad thing. The franchise is most definitely taking gambles. But the Cowboys seem to be taking steps to at least partially reduce the risk along the way. Take Hardy, for example. Aside from a public-relations hit, the most hurtful part of that signing is that the team restructured quarterback Tony Romo's deal to make Hardy's pre-suspension salary possible. The brain trust didn't want to do that, but Hardy was too much of a talent for Jones to pass up. The benefits and pitfalls of that decision will be played out over several seasons.

Gregory, on the other hand, will be the wager that tests the Cowboys right now – on multiple fronts. It's clear that despite his immense talent, he is coming in as a project. Physically, he looks more like a basketball player now than an every-down defensive end. He needs to add a significant amount of weight and keep it on, and that's no guarantee. One scout said Gregory's weight issues reminded him of former Atlanta Falcons defensive end Patrick Kerney, a player who was known to eat four massive meals a day, and a huge plate of pasta before he went to bed. And that was just to keep weight on.

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