To call this a challenging offseason for the Dallas Cowboys would be putting things lightly. Even if you agree, or are fine with or have no strong opinion on the Cowboys’ lack of activity (in general but certainly relative to the field), you can surely, at the very least, acknowledge the perception by fans and analysts alike has been that they are leaning up against the wall while everyone else is on the dance floor doing the Cupid Shuffle.
Opinions are opinions though (there are certain expressions about them that we will choose to omit) and despite the slow offseason for the Cowboys, there are still people who believe in them, including oddsmakers. Could they have done more to improve their team? Certainly. Are they still expected to be contenders in the eyes of many? Indeed.
To be clear both things can wind up being true in totality. Dallas can turn in a contending season in 2024 despite the fact that they could have contended differently (or perhaps to a stronger degree) by doing this or that in the days of March. Losing the offseason does not guarantee that you lose the season, but it does theoretically make succeeding in the season a bit more difficult on paper.
ESPN named the Dallas Cowboys one of the three biggest losers of the offseason
The Cowboys can (and likely will) compete in 2024 but taking three rights to go west instead of one left is a choice to say the least.
On Tuesday, ESPN’s Seth Walder distributed grades for how every team handled this offseason. Here is a breakdown of the approach so that you understand the frame of mind going into things.
The grades you see below are about only this offseason, and they are focused on the choices each team made based on the situation it was in at the start of the offseason. For example, the Bears won’t get much consideration for drafting quarterback Caleb Williams with the No.1 pick — he was almost certainly going to be a Bear from the day the offseason began. But trading for wide receiver Keenan Allen? That was a decision and move that took effort.
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This is a fair way to look at things and the examples given with the Chicago Bears are great representatives of things one team did that were expected and well within the range of comfort (Chicago having the number one overall pick, this particular one by way of trade) and that required a level of ingenuity (trading for a veteran to bolster their roster).
You can see that Walder notes they started with the Philadelphia Eagles and that is because they went in descending order. Philly received the highest grade of the offseason from ESPN with an A. What a surprise.
It takes a bit of scrolling to get down to the Cowboys, actually it takes just about all of the scrolling. Dallas is third from the bottom with a D+. Hey! A plus! The Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints both came in with a D if you were curious.
Dallas Cowboys: D+
Biggest move: Not signing its stars to new contracts
Move I liked: Spending two of their first three picks on the offensive line
Move I disliked: Not signing QB Dak Prescott to an extension
Owner Jerry Jones said the Cowboys were “all in” and then spent free agency doing ... almost nothing.
In fact, their most notable offseason move was not signing wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, linebacker Micah Parsons or Prescott to new deals. The last is the most problematic: Prescott cannot be franchise-tagged after this season, which means if the Cowboys do not sign him to a new deal, he could enter next offseason as a true free agent. If Dallas is having second thoughts about Prescott based on how the 2023 season ended, it shouldn’t — Prescott finished second in QBR and was an MVP candidate up until the end. The Cowboys are fortunate to have a franchise QB and shouldn’t risk losing him.
Waiting to sign Lamb has probably cost them money, too. While impossible to know the nature of negotiations, the fact that they waited until 2024 and after Justin Jefferson signed his $35 million APY new contract probably raised Lamb’s price, too.
The Cowboys let offensive tackle Tyron Smith walk to the Jets for cheap (just $6.5 million fully guaranteed) and while they have other players who can play tackle — Terence Steele, Chuma Edoga, Tyler Smith and first-round pick Tyler Guyton — Smith is coming off a strong season and could have been an asset for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
And with such a strong core, Dallas is a Super Bowl contender. Sitting pat in free agency — their biggest moves were for cornerback Jourdan Lewis, linebacker Eric Kendricks and running Ezekiel Elliott, each getting less than $3 million in fully guaranteed money — doesn’t feel ideal, but the team is going to have to eventually pay those stars, and that will take resources.
The “all in” thing has become a great annoyance to Dallas Cowboys fans everywhere. It is almost always included in telling the story of the team’s offseason, but it was and remains simply a thing that was said out loud. Jerry Jones said it and owns the responsibility for it and he obviously created a storm with it all, but the idea that the team as a whole declared some sort of challenge that they fell short of feels like an exaggeration.
Aside from that, this is a really objective look at what the team has and has not done. You may disagree with Walder’s disapproval or not getting a Dak Prescott extension done, but he does back up his belief in the quarterback with objective data points so his stance is at least founded in something fair. But we can certainly disagree there.
This all ultimately highlights how Dallas didn’t really do anything passionately this offseason. They did not add notable pieces to an already-strong roster (aka go “all in”) and they similarly did not strip things down and sell the parts away. Ultimately the Cowboys were content to tread water. They lived. They existed. They aged. Paint drying on a wall.
These are the kind of situations that will either lead to everyone saying “I told you so” if the Cowboys falter, or the team taking an all-time victory lap with their approach paying off.
