INDIANAPOLIS -- If last year's theme for the Dallas Cowboys was "all-in," then the leader in 2025 is "selectively aggressive."

While the "all-in" definition used by owner and general manager Jerry Jones might have differed from conventional wisdom in terms of how the Cowboys put together their roster last season, the "selectively aggressive" moniker used Monday at the NFL scouting combine by executive vice president Stephen Jones goes back to how the Cowboys used to handle free agency before 2024.

"Obviously, our goals historically have been to try to fill as many of our musts and needs before the draft so you can pick the best player on your board," Stephen Jones said. "Didn't get that totally accomplished last year, but certainly that's always the goal. And every year is different in terms of what those musts and needs are, and then you also have to marry what's in free agency vs. where the draft is heavy and where we can help ourselves in the draft."

Signing All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons to a long-term extension is at or near the top of the list for the Cowboys. While they have yet to kick off discussions with his agent, that could happen as soon as this week with how the organization usually approaches its own players regarding long-term deals.

Parsons is set to play on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal (around $21 million) while potentially looking at an extension that could make him the highest-paid defensive player in football (currently $34 million a year).

Last offseason, the Cowboys' priorities were retaining wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott, but those deals did not get done until August and September, respectively.

Prescott was at every offseason event before signing a deal worth $60 million a year, while Lamb sat out of the organized team activities, minicamp and most of training camp before signing a deal that made him the NFL's second-highest-paid wide receiver.

"There's always extenuating circumstances to these things. Every contract negotiation is different," Jones said. "[With Lamb], there were other receivers trying to get their deals done, and some of them still haven't gotten those deals done ... The CeeDee deal was just different. We'll just see how Micah's deal goes. I don't necessarily know that there's a lot of extenuating situations out there that would [prevent] us from being able to get our hands around something with Micah, but we'll see."

Jones said the Cowboys have had discussions with defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa regarding a long-term deal.

"We've had productive talks, and we'll see where we end up this week," said Jones, who would not discuss the possibility of the Cowboys using the franchise or transition tag on Odighizuwa.

The Cowboys and agent David Canter will be busy this week as Canter represents free agents-to-be defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, running back Rico Dowdle, cornerback Jourdan Lewis and defensive back Israel Mukuamu.

With Zack Martin's impending retirement, Lawrence, a second-round pick in 2014 behind Martin, would be the longest-tenured Cowboy if he re-signed. Jones said he believes Lawrence wants to continue to play in 2025.

"That guy's laid it on the line for us for years and years and years," Jones said.

Even if Lawrence is not on the roster in 2025, he will count more than $7 million against the 2025 salary cap. Martin is likely to be designated a post-June 1 cut when his retirement becomes official and will count $9.4 million against the 2025 cap, and wide receiver Brandin Cooks, another free agent, will count $4 million against the cap.

With the news last week that the cap will increase to anywhere from $277.5 million to $281.5 million, Jones said the Cowboys will benefit from the added space. At some point, the Cowboys will restructure the contracts of Prescott and Lamb and open up $57 million in cap room.

"From our standpoint, it gives us some more flexibility in terms of what we can do," Jones said.

That means being potentially more "selectively aggressive" with their own free agents, trades or adding players on the open market.

"We're going to look at everything we can," Jones said. "You have a certain amount of resources they allow you to have. But we're going to try to improve our football team. Not try. We're going to improve our football team and we expect to have success [this] year."

INDIANAPOLIS -- Penn State defensive end/outside linebacker Abdul Carter will not work out at the NFL's scouting combine this week because of a shoulder injury he suffered in the Nittany Lions' last game of the season.

Carter's agents -- Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey -- told ESPN's Adam Schefter that Carter suffered the injury in Penn State's loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals in January.

"We fully expect Abdul to be recovered in time to work out at his pro day at Penn State, and he will perform at a very high level,'' Rosenhaus told Schefter.

Carter will undergo the medical exams at the combine and participate in interviews with teams, Rosenhaus added.

Rosenhaus said he had also forwarded a letter from Dr. Dan Cooper -- the Dallas Cowboys' team physician who has treated Carter -- to NFL teams to say Carter had just been medically cleared to resume training.

Several of the draft's top prospects will likely not work out in Indianapolis as is the case each year. Last year, for example, none of the first three players selected in last April's draft -- quarterbacks Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye -- worked out in Indianapolis.

Sources told ESPN on Sunday that Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders will not work out at the combine this week. On Monday, Henry Organ, the agent for Boise State star running back Ashton Jeanty, told ESPN's Pete Thamel that his client won't be doing on-field drills.

Defensive linemen and linebackers are among the first players to arrive at the combine this week. Those players started their team interviews Monday, with medical exams scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday and on-field workouts set for Thursday in Lucas Oil Stadium.

Carter is one of the draft's top prospects overall as the most highly rated edge rusher on the board. He's the No. 2-rated prospect on ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.'s latest big board, the No. 1 prospect in ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller's latest rankings and No. 2 in ESPN draft analyst Jordan Reid's rankings.

He led all FBS players this season with 24 tackles for loss in the Nittany Lions' 16 games to go with 12 sacks and two forced fumbles.

An NFL team has submitted a rule proposal to ban the "tush push" quarterback sneak, Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, told reporters at the scouting combine Monday.

Vincent did not identify the team that made the proposal when he made his comments -- during a break in meetings between the NFL officials and the competition committee -- to The Washington Post and NFL Network.

NFL owners could vote on the proposal next month at the spring owners' meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, unless the team decides to withdraw its proposal. If the proposal goes to a vote, 24 of the NFL's 32 owners would have to vote in favor for it to pass. Teams submit rule proposals each year, and those, along with proposals submitted by the competition committee, are then put up for vote by the owners.

"We do have a club playing-rule proposal around the tush push," Vincent said, according to the Post. "It's the way they deemed it, the tush push. ... It's on our agenda. The club proposal is, 'We need to make some adjustments to that. Is that a viable football play?"

The play has been examined by the NFL and the competition committee in previous offseasons, but no action has been taken.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills have combined to run 163 tush pushes, in which a team lines up one or more players behind the quarterback to push him forward against the defense, the past three seasons -- more than the rest of the NFL combined, according to ESPN Research.

The Eagles and Bills have scored a touchdown or achieved a first down on 87% of their attempts using the play, while the rest of the NFL has been successful on just 71%, per ESPN Research.

Despite his team's success with the play, Bills coach Sean McDermott shared his reservations about the safety of it during his combine availability Monday.

"To me, there's always been an injury risk with that play, and I've expressed that opinion for the last couple of years or so when it really started to come into play the way it's being used, especially a year ago," McDermott, who is a member of the competition committee, said. "So, I just feel like, player safety, and the health and safety of our players has to be at the top of our game, which it is. It's just that play to me has always been ... or the way that the techniques that are used with that play, to me have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players. And so again, you have to go back though in fairness to the injury data on the play, but I just think the optics of it, I'm not in love with."

Asked by ESPN how he balances running the play while also prioritizing player safety, McDermott said, "We do it a little bit different than other teams. One team in particular, who does it a certain way, that's the one that is really, there's just so much force behind that player, but yeah, you try and keep ... not try, you make No. 1 always everything we do, fundamentals, what we teach technique, in this case, what we ask our players to do, health and safety No. 1."

Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, whose QB sneak play has been dubbed the "Brotherly Shove," scored their first touchdown in Super Bowl LIX using the play.

And in the NFC Championship Game, Washington Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu twice was flagged for an offsides penalty after jumping over the Eagles' line to try to stop the play, prompting referee Shawn Hochuli to announce that he would award Philadelphia a touchdown if Luvu was flagged a third time.

In New Orleans, before the Super Bowl, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni noted that "the success that we have is not replicated always throughout the entire league" and added, "I'm lobbying to never change that rule just because we're successful at it."

"Hip drop and the tush push were in the same conversation three years ago," Vincent said, according to NFL Network. "A year ago, we felt like, let's just focus in on the hip-drop tackle, and the tush push, just say, 'hey, the Philadelphia Eagles, they just do it better than everybody else.' But there are some concerns. Our health and safety committee has laid that out today with a brief conversation on the injury report. There's some challenges, some concerns that they'll share with the broader group tomorrow. But the tush push will become a topic of discussion moving into March."

ESPN's Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves had their rotation thinned further when guard Jaylen Clark left their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of neck pain from an awkward fall on the court in the third quarter Sunday night.

Clark got a steal and attacked the basket for an off-balance layup attempt against Oklahoma City 7-footer Isaiah Hartenstein before he landed on his back and banged his head on the floor while his neck jerked backward. Clark was down for a while before being slowly helped up and guided to the locker room. The Timberwolves eventually ruled him out for the remainder of Minnesota's 130-123 loss.

The 6-foot-4 Clark, a second-round draft pick out of UCLA in 2023 who didn't play as a rookie while he recovered from a torn Achilles tendon, got his second career start Sunday night in a small-ball lineup for the Wolves. He had 14 points in 18 minutes.

Minnesota led 85-78 when Clark departed and was outscored 25-11 over the rest of the third quarter. Coach Chris Finch had no update on Clark's condition after the game. The Wolves play at Oklahoma City on Monday night.

The Wolves were again missing their starting frontcourt, Rudy Gobert (back) and Julius Randle (groin), and key reserve Donte DiVincenzo (toe).

Al Trautwig, one of the most recognizable sports broadcasters in New York and a fixture at numerous international sporting events for more than three decades, has died. He was 68.

Trautwig's son, Alex, told The Associated Press his father died Sunday at his home on Long Island from complications of cancer.

Trautwig was part of MSG pre- and postgame broadcasts of the NBA's Knicks, NHL's Rangers and Major League Baseball's Yankees. He also worked 16 Olympics, the Indianapolis 500, the Tour de France and the US Open tennis tournament and won four national Emmy Awards and more than 30 in New York.

"Al was a staple on MSG Networks' Knicks, Rangers and Yankees coverage for more than 30 years, and his passion for the teams he covered was undeniable," MSG said in a statement. "He leaves behind one of the great legacies in New York sports broadcasting history. Our thoughts and prayers are with Al's family and friends."

For many fans watching games on TV in New York, Trautwig's voice was often the first they heard. With a natural storytelling style, he used his pregame introductions to make big games at Madison Square Garden or Yankee Stadium feel even bigger, while rarely needing to raise the level of his voice.

MSG Networks studio analyst Alan Hahn, who called Trautwig a friend, mentor and a career resource of support, said the accomplished sportscaster "was a skilled host who knew how to make every game feel like something you don't want to miss."

"We lost a legendary voice in sports. But we lost a lot more than that," Hahn wrote in a series of social media posts. "Al Trautwig had an amazing voice and knew how to use it the way a tenor could bring depth and intensity to a song. ... He loved sports and had incredible versatility from baseball to basketball and hockey. And that's not even counting his incredible work at the Olympics."