Since the day Mike McCarthy took a shower and stayed the night at Jerry Jones’ house during the 2020 offseason, the Dallas Cowboys have been nothing short of perplexing, if not remarkably consistent. Having taken a sabbatical to reconfigure his coaching style, playbook, and energy, McCarthy was the long-tenured, reliable, Super Bowl champion head coach Dallas was looking for. Although he wasn’t Sean Payton, washing the stink of Jason Garrett’s pits of mediocrity off the franchise’s scent was a refreshing start to a new decade of Dallas Cowboys football. With first round stud receiver CeeDee Lamb entering a room with vet Amari Cooper, a backfield headed by Ezekiel Elliot continuing to swallow chunks of yardage, and quarterback Dak Prescott coming off a 30 touchdown season and nearly 5,000 yards (4,907), Jerry World’s gates glistened with hope for a brighter decade of football.
No matter how excited Cowboys faithful and the front-office were, nothing could have prepared them for a season-shattering ankle injury to Dak Prescott in Week 5. Who was playing in a contract year no less. What would follow is 12 weeks of tentpole circus acts between Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci, and Garrett Gilbert, en route to a 6-10 season that would earn them generational edge rusher, Micah Parsons, in the 2021 NFL Draft. Things have a funny way of working out sometimes.
Since then, the Cowboys have been (mostly) healthy, CeeDee Lamb has emerged as one of the most versatile skill position players in the league, they’ve nailed the draft (Mazi Smith pending), Prescott has been as consistent as you could ask of him, and the team has chained together three 12 win seasons in a row. No easy feat for any franchise. Still, the postseason woes tremble with nearly 30 years of crust and cobwebs at every joint of Jerry’s tenure. With no loss more embarrassing than Jordan Love gutting the Cowboys defense for 48 points this past January on the home turf they’ve dominated for nearly two seasons. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Now, with another disappointing season behind them, training camp has opened for another cycle of offseason headlines in Oxnard, and the future of Dallas Cowboys football is less than optimistic. For starters, Prescott doesn’t appear to be any closer to signing a contract he made a case for with MVP numbers in 2023, CeeDee Lamb has yet to appear at camp because he isn’t close to a contract either, Micah Parsons will be due big money eventually, and Mike McCarthy is in the last year of his contract as well. When it comes to Dallas, it always seems like it’s about the significance of capital, and Jerry – for all the antics that come with him – seems to have a grip on his finances. Only this time, a lot more talent than usual needs to be paid, and with the yacht sized checks that will need to be made out to keep these guys, someone’s heart will inevitably be broken. In the end, those in the gallery will be left to wonder why this franchise has a difficult time managing talent and expenses more than others. Jerry gets his headlines, the lone blue star decorates the media outlets, and the talking heads can’t do anything but indulge the hysterical business of Jerry Jones and his Dallas Cowboys.
Regardless, the 2024-25 NFL Season is coming, and football must be played. With the window as narrow as it is, it appears as if McCarthy and his staff believe the money will figure itself out eventually. The hiring of defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer is tantalizing, as his intensity should wipe away the bad taste of Dan Quinn’s legion of boom-or-bust defense, and Parsons appears hungrier than ever with a new D.C. No matter what anyone says about his podcast. With the arrival of Zimmer, the Cowboys are hoping to keep the pressure up with Parsons fielding an incredible number of double teams (167 in 2023), but outside of Demarcus Lawrence, there isn’t much help up front. The departures of Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, Neville Gallimore, and Jonathan Hankins leave a lot to be desired from that side of the trenches.
Even if the pass rush can’t get there this season, the middle of the field is still a soft spot for a Cowboys defense that was flattened over the middle and in the run game for most of 2023. A 32 year-old Eric Kendricks (LB) having a chance to reteam with Zimmer could be a boost of confidence, but it is difficult to remain optimistic when the F.O. refrained from addressing those needs during free agency. There is a lot of hope for linebacker Demarvion Overshown to return from an ACL tear with a desired presence, but we know how those injuries can linger. Thankfully, the Cowboys have a recent track record of drafting and developing homegrown talent. With Marshawn Kneeland (edge rusher) and Marist Liufau (LB) selected in April’s draft, the Cowboys are hopeful their rookies can elevate into being reliable starters as the season goes along. But it’s difficult to remain hopeful that rookie talent will transpire into the caliber of player they need to be competitive with the best of the league.
This problem expands to the defensive backs and over-the-top help from the safeties. Trevon Diggs was historic in 2022, as was Daron Bland in 2023, but Diggs is coming off an ACL tear, and it’ll be difficult enough for Bland to come close to replicating his forced turnover numbers from last year. Perhaps Dallas is hoping these guys are who they believe they are, and maybe that’s enough for the fans to believe in it too. Still, there isn’t much depth behind them despite the presence of streaky safeties, Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson, around them. They do say, “a rising tide raises all ships”, and if Zimmer can install a scheme that makes the personnel better than they appear on paper, maybe Jerry and his boys will look clever for pinching pennies. But now we’re hoping for a lot to go right, rather than wonder why the F.O. didn’t make it easier in the offseason.
As much contention as there is on the defensive side of the ball – they did evaporate on the biggest stage after all – the offense should continue to meet expectations. Dak Prescott is entering his ninth season and it appears as if he has total command of the team. McCarthy clearly believes in Dak to take control of the game with his pre-snap reads opening windows of opportunity for Lamb and emerging talents in Jalen Tolbert and Kavontae Turpin. But what are the realistic expectations for Tolbert and Turpin? They’ve rarely had a positive effect in the games they’ve played, and the rest of the WR room is totally unproven. In a scenario with no Lamb, Brandin Cooks (who had one of his least productive seasons last season) will be WR1. If the Cowboys have any intention of being successful on offense in 2024, that won’t cut it.
There’s enough reason to believe CeeDee will get paid the money he’s earned. He’s a proven talent with game-changing ability that would elevate every team’s offense across the league. At this point it feels like headline bait for Jerry to drum up attention as the season’s prologue unravels, but will the drama have been worth it when the WR group lacks depth? CeeDee must be paid if Jerry is as “all-in” as he says they are. Otherwise, Dak will be throwing to a group of receivers as mediocre as 2018. A group headlined by Cole Beasley, Tavon Austin, Terrance Williams, Allen Hurns, and recent retiree, Michael Gallup as a rookie before they traded for Amari Cooper.
The Cowboys’ offensive line is no exception to the concerns around the rest of the roster. In drafting Tyler Guyton in the first round of the 2024 draft, the Cowboys will be asking a lot of the rookie right away. Having lost Tyron Smith to the Jets in free agency, Dak’s blindside must be protected by above average talent if the offense has any hope of being successful. Now, Tyler Smith could be moved from Guard to Tackle, but Smith is guilty of costly penalties and dramatic inconsistencies in play. Tyron held that station down for years, so it’ll be tough to get that same caliber of play, but Tyler is entering his third season and personnel consistency is undervalued. It’s a position group that has a lot of familiar faces in Tyler Smith, Zack Martin, and Terence Steele, and the Cowboys are banking on the vets to usher Guyton and third round pick, Cooper Beebe, into reliable assets for Prescott.
Unlike the thinning defense, there’s enough returning pieces on offense to be excited about. Including the return of Ezekiel Elliot in the backfield. Similar to other position groups, the Cowboys are hoping the remembrance of Zeke will be enough for them, but from the mic of McCarthy at camp, it sounds like 2 RB sets are on the table with Rico Dowdle alongside him. An evolution of the Cowboys offense that has been consistent since McCarthy got there could be an exciting proposition as long as they don’t forget the identity that averaged 29.9 PPG in 2023. An offense that maximized emerging TE Jake Ferguson down the seams and underneath, CeeDee Lamb in between every inch of the boundary markers, and a front line that allowed their quarterback to follow up every pre-snap, “Here We Go!”, with enough time to move the ball downfield.
The bigger picture of the Dallas Cowboys rarely looks any different from one season to the next. The pre-season hype is excessive because the brand is, the previous season’s results are disappointing so you can only hope they get to the next step, and Jerry Jones has enough documented lip service to pass as a politician. But this offseason feels different. Distant enough to be unclear and dire unlike the mirages of yesteryear. Bottom line; a team with this much talent, with 36 wins in three seasons and one playoff victory to show for it is nerve wracking.
In an eye-opening press conference on Thursday, Jerry Jones applauded the team for selling out season tickets faster than any other franchise, regurgitated his “All-In” quote from January, and then rambled about the patience that comes with signing contracts in a bizarrely worded comparison to Patrick Mahomes running RPO. Your guess as to what that means is as good as mine. So here we are, on the cusp of Jerry Jones’ 35th preseason, and the future of the Dallas Cowboys is the worst it’s felt since the early aughts. Not because they haven’t signed their three best players (that’ll draw the traffic to keep selling season tickets mind you), because I do believe they’ll get it done after Jerry’s annual media circus, but because we have to keep enduring unstable megalomania.
For the fans, it’s exhausting. For the media outlets, it’s an easy way to get attention from the people waiting to have their car serviced. At this point it never feels like it’s about winning football games, but how much money Jerry can make for putting a product on the field that plays football games. Perhaps my own delusions over investing time and energy into something that has been apparent since the mid-90s is to blame, but they have enough pieces to elevate confidence by reinstalling passion and vitality into another season. And yet… Jerry attempts to convince himself he’s ‘all-in’ by doing bad math over the amount of cap space it would require to sign Dak, CeeDee, and Micah.
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