Cowboys’ David Irving suspended 4 games by NFL

The Cowboys have now lost a big-time playmaker on the defensive side of the ball as David Irving has been suspended four games for violating the substance abuse policy.

The Dallas Cowboys and suspensions have been synonymous over the past few years. The latest Cowboy added to the laundry list of names is David Irving, who’s been suspended four games for violating the substance abuse policy.

Last year, Irving was suspended four games for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy. Despite only playing in eight games on the season, Irving had a fantastic year disrupting passers.

In 2017, Irving had seven sacks and six passes deflected. With a 83.4 Pro Football Focus rating, he was the 28th-ranked interior defensive lineman. He was extremely effective in the time on the field he got.

For the second year in a row, Irving will start the year on the suspended list which doesn’t do him any favors as he’s on a one-year, $2.9 million contract and likely would be looking at a big-time deal if he continued at his 2017 pace over a full season.

Just yesterday he was hyping up a defensive line that’d feature Tank Lawrence and himself:

Now, 24 hours later Irving’s season is already cut by a quarter of the games. Over the course of his first three years in the league, he’s played 35 of the potential 48 possible games. That’s only 73 percent of games, and that’s number set to go down again in 2018.

It’s going to be difficult for him to nab a contract that isn’t a flyer. He’s a huge risk at this point, especially because if he’s caught again with either PED’s or if he has another violation of substance abuse his suspension time increases.

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The Cowboys are now without Irving and Randy Gregory on the defensive line to start the season. The circus tent that resides in Dallas is showing no signs of closing up shop anytime soon.