Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “It’s about us being fundament

CHARLOTTE http://www.newyorkjetsteamonline.com/trevon-wesco-jersey , N.C. (AP)The Panthers have signed three potential starters in the second wave of free agency.Carolina signed safety Da’Norris Searcy and cornerback Ross Cockrell to two-year contracts on Friday and guard Jeremiah Sirles to a one-year deal. The financial terms were not released, although Cockrell’s agency Reign Sports Management announced on Twitter his deal was worth $6.8 million.Searcy and Cockrell both have North Carolina ties and were teammates before with the Buffalo Bills in 2014. It didn’t take them long to resume their trash talking with Searcy having played at North Carolina and Cockrell from rival Duke.”There has been plenty of it already,” Cockrell joked on a conference call Friday.Added Searcy: ”Oh yeah, it started when we got off the plane. We already played together and we carried that relationship over from Buffalo.”All three free agents fill vacancies left from last season and could start for the Panthers in 2018.Searcy was brought in to compete for a starting safety position that opened up when the team released veteran Kurt Coleman.Searcy is a seven-year NFL veteran who spent the past three seasons with the Titans after four seasons (2011-14) with the Bills. His most productive season came in 2014 when he had 65 tackles and three interceptions.Searcy played in all 16 games last season for the Titans with six starts, recording 27 tackles, one quarterback pressure, one interception and two passes defensed. He also had six stops on special teams.He lost his starting job last season, but said he still sees himself as a starter.”Situations change,” Searcy said. ”I took it on the chin and still helped the team and played excellent when I was there. I will carry myself as a starter and let the chips fall where they may.”Cockrell, a four-year NFL veteran, is expected to compete for the starting cornerback spot created when Panthers general manager Marty Hurney traded away Daryl Worley to the Eagles for wide receiver Torrey Smith earlier this month.”I am ready to come in and make plays on the ball,” Cockrell said. That is what I do.”Cockrell played in all 16 regular season games with nine starts for the Giants last season and led the team with 11 passes defensed. He also had 49 tackles and a career-high three interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown.He was drafted in the fourth round in 2014 and has played in 53 career games with 31 starts over his four-year career. Since entering the league he has recorded 153 total tackles Alexander Mattison Jersey , 32 passes defensed and five interceptions.It will be a homecoming for Cockrell, who grew up in the Charlotte area and played at Charlotte Latin High School.”It’s a great pleasure to come back and rekindle some family ties,” Cockrell said. ”This is great place to play football. We are not too far removed from a 15-1 season and a Super Bowl.”Sirles enters his fifth season, having spent the past three with the Vikings and will have a chance to compete for the starting guard spot vacated when All-Pro Andrew Norwell signed with the New York Giants.Sirles has played in 30 career NFL games with 15 starts.He played in 14 regular season games with four starts last season for the Vikings, with all four coming at left guard.The 6-foot-6, 315-pound Sirles helped the Vikings rank seventh in the NFL in rushing yards with 122.3 yards per game. In his starts, Minnesota averaged 132 yards rushing yards per game, nearly 10 yards more than the season average.He started a career-high 10 games while playing in 14 in 2016.— FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Ezekiel Elliott won his second NFL rushing title in three seasons for a Dallas offense that has been defined by the ground game for several years now.Seattle takes the league’s No. 1 rushing offense into a wild-card playoff against the Cowboys on Saturday night, led by Chris Carson, but with more help from others than your average pro backfield .While receiver Amari Cooper’s impact on the Dallas passing game was dramatic following a midseason trade, and Seattle’s Russell Wilson again finished among the NFL leaders in touchdowns passing, both teams figure to try to control the second postseason meeting between these franchises with their running backs.“We have a formula here http://www.minnesotavikingsteamonline.com/dru-samia-jersey ,” said Dallas right guard Zack Martin, who has made the Pro Bowl in all five of his seasons. “Usually if we win a game, we kind of stick to that formula. It’s always a tough game against those guys. It’s kind of a bone-on-bone game. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”Elliott finished with 1,434 yards while setting a club record for catches by a running back with 77, one more than Herschel Walker 32 years ago. His 2,001 yards from scrimmage were second to New York Giants rookie Saquon Barkley.The 23-year-old former Ohio State star had the first 40-touch game of his career, a 29-23 overtime win against defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia that all but wrapped up the NFC East for the Cowboys (10-6).With the fourth seed in the playoffs locked up, the Cowboys sat Elliott in the regular-season finale against the New York Giants. Dak Prescott showcased his passing game with a rally for a 36-35 win, but that’s unlikely to be the way Dallas advances in the postseason.“Knowing going into these playoffs I’m going to have probably the heaviest workload I’ve had all season,” Elliott said, “so great getting fresh and ready going into this last stretch of the season and ready for what they throw at me.”The Seahawks (10-6) will throw multiple backs at the Cowboys, starting with Carson. With 1,151 yards rushing Daniel Jones Jersey , Carson became the club’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Marshawn Lynch on Seattle’s most recent Super Bowl qualifier in 2014.Throw in Mike Davis (514 yards), Rashaad Penny (419) and Wilson (376), and the Seahawks have the first backfield with a 1,000-yard rusher and three with at least 300 yards since the 2001 Pittsburgh Steelers.Seattle is averaging 160 yards rushing per game, while Dallas finished the regular season ranked 10th at 123.“The offensive line has just really come into their own — No. 1 rush team in the NFL for us, which is something that we really wanted to do is to run the ball this year and also play-action and do our thing,” Wilson said. “Those guys have been a big, big thing for us.”Carson, a second-year back drafted in the seventh round, had his first 100-yard game with 102 yards on a career-high 32 carries in the first meeting with Dallas this season, a 24-13 Seattle victory in Week 3 after the Seahawks had started 0-2.While the Cowboys let Seattle control the game with its rushing attack, they still held Carson to 3.2 yards per carry Quincy Williams II Jersey , his lowest average of the season. Defense kept Dallas in the game despite one of the worst offensive showings of the season.“So much of this is about us and what we need to do to play good run defense,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “It’s about us being fundamentally sound and being physical and being in our gaps and setting edges and running to the ball and being a great tackling team regardless of who they hand it to or what kind of runs they use.”There isn’t much mystery in who will get the handoffs for the Cowboys. Elliott carried 304 times, 18 fewer than when he led the league in rushing as a rookie in 2016. Backup Rod Smith had just 44 rushes, 12 of those when Elliott sat against the Giants.Really, the No. 2 running option for Dallas is quarterback Dak Prescott, who has six rushing TDs in each of his three regular seasons. While the Cowboys have been at their best when Prescott shows the running threat, they will spend plenty of time trying to establish Elliott early.“The ball is in his hands most of the time,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “I don’t know him at all, but I am sure he’s a great competitor, he just plays like it. It all matters to him and there’s an intensity about his play that has made him already a significant player in the league.”