The Dallas Cowboys will, in fact, be without Randy Gregory for nearly the entire season.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter was the first to report that Gregory dropped the appeal of his 10-game suspension. That was set to start after his current four-game suspension ended.
As Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk noted, the serving of the two suspensions will keep Gregory sidelined through Week 15, because of the bye week. The troubled defensive end will not be eligible to return until Week 16’s game against the Detroit Lions.
When Gregory does return, he needs to get his act together. His NFL career could not be going much worse, and the Cowboys expressed concern earlier this year that he’d never play again (more on that here).
Based on talent alone, Gregory should have been an easy first-round draft pick. Instead, off the field issues at Nebraska pushed him all the way to the end of the second round last year.
Now, with only one year of NFL action under his belt, Gregory is missing nearly an entire season because of not one, but two suspensions.
Gregory must show that he’s committed to cleaning up his act off the field soon. If he doesn’t, he risks becoming a bust. Worse than that, he risks being a long-term example that every team in the league will cite about why talented players with off field issues are so risky.
That’s not a label anyone should want.