At the end of last season, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, declared that he was fully committed to bringing his storied franchise back to Super Bowl contention. He even went on record saying that he was “all in” about the Cowboys. This came after their humiliating 48-32 first-round playoff loss to the youngest team in the NFL, the Green Bay Packers. Fast-forward to March 2024, and he has changed his philosophy from “all in” to “win with less.” Jones elaborated on this during the first day of the NFL League Meetings on March 25.
“I think that we have been in a situation where we can get it done with lesser,” said Jones Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “More doesn’t necessarily beat Green Bay. There are other things. Maybe having it better strategically in different spots, but more than necessarily beat them, either. So we’re gonna be asked to do some things different[ly] because we got some different players.”
So far, the Cowboys practically have done nothing this offseason. They only added one new player to its roster: free agency linebacker, Eric Kendricks. They re-signed Jourdan Lewis and long snapper Trent Sieg to one-year deals. Meanwhile, running back Tony Pollard, left tackle Tyron Smith, defensive end Dorance Armstrong, center Tyler Biadasz, defensive end Dante Fowler and defensive tackle Neville Gallimore are all gone. And not to mention, their head coach, Mike Macarthy, will coach on a one-year deal, and the organization has a massive financial decision to make at the starting quarterback position.
During the 2024-2025 season, Dak Prescott, the starting quarterback for the Cowboys, will be playing on an expiring contract. Jerry Jones has yet to construct a new deal that will secure Dak long-term. What does that mean? What should the Cowboys do? Do they re-sign him long-term? Do they let their MVP-caliber quarterback play out his contract and walk after next season? Do they let Prescott, who led the Cowboys to its third consecutive 12-win season, play on his last year and re-sign him as a free agent? Or do they look to trade him before the season and let backup Trey Lance, whom Dallas traded a 2024 fourth-round pick for, get a chance? Who knows what Jerry Jones plans to do with the quarterback of America’s team?
What we do know is that in 2021, Prescott, who led the league with 410 completions with 36 passing touchdowns and finished second in the MVP votes behind the Baltimore Ravens’ QB, Lamar Jackson, signed a four-year $160 million deal that has a no-trade and no-tag clause. According to NFL.com, even after the Cowboys converted a $5 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, shaving $4 million off Prescott’s salary cap, if he does not sign a new deal before his current contract expires, he will still make $55.45 million for the 2024 season. Jones is aware of this, and despite not having re-signed Dak yet, he encourages fans to trust the front office, coaches, and the quarterback
“They’ve had excellent talent and I have had enough to win 12 games, and I’ve had coaching that does correlate,” said Jones. “They’re short on moving forward. Rather than start all over, my judgment is to take what we’ve got. Be as strategic about what we’re going to be doing in the next few years. Be strategic but not compromise an all in now. Why? Because you got Dak for sure,”
Jones continued, “We think he’s a great quarterback and do as good as you can do…By the way we know that was in as his last year. That is what we negotiated years ago. And then really prudently is there going to be life after 2024? You bet there is. A lot of it. We got to think about all that. But where I you take issue, not emotionally, but where I take issue is ‘all in’. Your thing that you hung my neck as ’all in’.”
As of now, it seems as that Prescott will be playing on the final year of his deal, and is hopeful that somewhere down the line, he and Jones will come to a long-term agreement. It seems like this could be a positive development for America’s team. While losing players during free agency, having your quarterback and coach locked in for a year could bring optimism. It doesn’t mean that Jones isn’t “all in,” he’s just approaching it differently. In addition to extending Prescott, he also needs to do the same for receiver CeeDee Lamb and edge rusher Micah Parsons.
“What we doing here can hit the next five years because it can impact us that far,” Jones said about the future of his team. “So you got some real, real decisions. We have huge amounts of money that hit our cap for dollars we’ve spent on players for either a period of time when they played or the player himself that won’t be here in the future. We won’t be getting an ounce out of them in 2024.”
Last year, the Cowboys seemed strong on paper with nine Pro Bowlers, but they were eliminated after the first round of the playoffs. Jones’ current strategy is to retain key players and develop the team around them. He is willing to sacrifice depth and opt for younger players if necessary.
“We had depth last year,” Jones acknowledged. “The biggest complaint we had was nobody got to play enough. We couldn’t get enough snaps. So we’re gonna make some of them happy. It was nice to be able to have that number and stay fresh. But we really didn’t make them as happy as they could have been or make us happy. Well now we can.”
As for the younger players, they must be prepared to play immediately if necessary.
“We’re gonna have to have some young ones step in,” he said. Young ones being some of your younger draft picks. You’re gonna have to have them and make no mistake about it. You’re gonna lose some people that in the perfect world you had all the money in the world (you would keep them). Let me say this, sometimes you make a decision and you got the money. But you’re anticipating looking ahead at something that’s coming. And so that’s what you’re seeing.”
Last year the Cowboys’ looked good, but finished badly. How are they going to look and finish next year? We will just have to wait and see.
