In a week, at long last, we will be able to put the tumult of this Cowboys offseason behind us and simply watch the 2024 season unfold. That will be a pleasant changeup from a spring and summer in which the team did very little to please its fan base and just as little to please folks around the NFL’s observer class.
The Cowboys let CeeDee Lamb hold out all summer before finally signing him to a contract that they should have given him in March, a deal that might have helped free up cap space to allow for the signing of other free agents if it had been done earlier. Meanwhile, the Cowboys have not signed Dak Prescott to a new contract, leaving a tight window to close up current negotiations.
Once that window closes, the Cowboys will have to deal with Prescott hitting free agency in 2025. That does not mean they will lose him, but it opens a path for that to happen. With the Cowboys’ Trey Lance backup plan having proven to be less than effective, the quarterback situation does not inspire much confidence.
The Cowboys let a trove of free agents walk and did not make a coaching change after another playoff flop. It’s all made the team a bit of an offseason pinata for critics.
And when folks at The Athletic gave the opportunity to agents around the NFL to rip into the Cowboys—specifically, owner Jerry Jones—they certainly took it.
One of the harshest: “I don’t think they want to win above all. Jerry (Jones) wants to turn profits and make headlines. I think the game has passed him by.”
Cowboys Always ‘ Day Late & Dollar Short’ in NFL Free Agency
Ouch. The opinion comes from an article titled, “NFL agents dish on best (and worst) franchise, Mahomes’ value and Dak’s next deal,” by Ben Standig. He spoke with 31 agents, anonymously, to get their thoughts on happenings around the NFL.
Some of the toughest thoughts cam on the Cowboys, and most centered around the fact that Jones has made inaction a Cowboys way of life.
Speaking about the Dak Prescott contract situation, one agent said, “The Cowboys got themselves into a mess. That’s what happens when the owner gets too involved and becomes friends with the players. I wouldn’t pay Dak $60 million per year, and they can’t make all three guys (Micah Parsons, CeeDee Lamb) the highest paid at their respective positions.”
Another noted that the team’s free-agent failures this year, and in recent years, are a by-product of the convoluted org chart. “The Cowboys don’t have any hierarchy,” the agent said. “Always a day late and a dollar short in free agency. You have to go through 30 layers of bureaucratic process to get anything done — and you know why.”
Jerry Jones: Playoff Failures ‘ Elephant in the Room’
Jones has been the object of fan vilification, too. Remember, it was just seven months ago that Jones promised to go “all in” on the 2024 season after the Cowboys’ embarrassing failure against the Packers in the first round of the playoffs. It was only after the team’s utter silence in free agency that most realized that what Jones meant by “all in” was “do nothing.”
Fans reacted this offseason by passing on attending the team’s training camp in Oxnard, California, which is so often bustling with people. This year, according to the Dallas Morning-News, the training camp stands were usually only half full.
Jones addressed the lack of support, telling the paper:
“We all know what the issue is here. Our [lack of] success in the postseason. We haven’t had it. We know that. Our fans know that. Everybody knows it. These players know it. [Coach] Mike [McCarthy] knows it. His staff knows it. That’s the elephant in the room. We got to go take the next step and we haven’t done that, and until we do it there will be frustration.”
