Ralph Vacchiano
NFL Reporter
David Helman
NFL Reporter
The seeds of the Dallas Cowboys’ disappointment in 2024 were planted in the offseason. That’s when dreams of their team being “all in” never materialized and the world realized Jerry Jones was prepared to let his team make one more run, as is.
Obviously, that didn’t work out so well. They went 7-10, missed the playoffs for the first time in four years, and head coach Mike McCarthy was eventually fired. It was arguably the worst and most disappointing Cowboys season since 2015.
So what kind of seeds are they planting this offseason — ones that can grow a championship team, or just another fruitless tree of disappointment? Time will tell. But until it does, FOX Sports NFL writers David Helman and Ralph Vacchiano give their evaluation of the Cowboys’ “selectively aggressive” offseason, and whether all their moves — or non-moves — will actually turn into something good.
Promoting Brian Schottenheimer to replace the departed Mike McCarthy was certainly a surprise. Even Jerry Jones admitted that the hiring of the first-time head coach, was “as big a risk as you can take.” How optimistic are you that this big risk pays off?
Vacchiano: Not very, to be honest. Look, he might end up being a terrific coach. But it’s telling, and maybe alarming, that nobody else in the NFL wanted to bring him in for an interview. In fact, his last interview for a head coaching job was more than a decade ago. Sometimes the NFL misses on good coaches. No doubt that happens. But you want me to believe that Jerry Jones is the genius that found the gem that everyone else overlooked?
I think the best chance of this risk paying off rests on the continuity factor. Despite what happened last year — a disaster caused in large part by injuries — this is still the core of a team that won 36 games in the previous three years. Schottenheimer is a known quantity, seemingly liked and respected by the players, and won’t cause any big organizational upheaval. With a veteran team that knows it’s good enough to make the playoffs, that might matter.
Of course, they could have kept the continuity by not firing McCarthy, too.
Helman: I can’t help but chuckle at the idea that a general manager who cannot lose his job is ever taking a risk with whomever he chooses to hire. I also think “risk” is a weird choice of word for opting to hire a guy whose office was already 100 feet away from your own, and who you know will accept a modest salary.
But I digress. I don’t think Jones’ choice of head coach was particularly inspired, but I do like the staff Schottenheimer has put together. Matt Eberflus might have failed as a head coach, but he is a good defensive coordinator. Offensive coordinator Klayton Adams signed on from Arizona, where he helped maximize the Cardinals’ offensive line and run game. There’s a lot to like about the guys who are overseeing the day-to-day of the team.
Odds are it’s going to lead to some success. Of Jones’ eight other head coaching hires, Dave Campo is the only one who failed to make the postseason. Is it going to lead to a sixth championship? Anything is possible, but I’d lean toward no. That’s got a lot more to do with management than with coaching, in my opinion.
Dak Prescott seemed OK with the choice of Schottenheimer. He also said he believes the Cowboys are “very close” to winning a Super Bowl. Where do you have the Cowboys in the NFC pecking order?
Helman: It’s Prescott’s job to say stuff like that. After all, he’s the $60 million face of the franchise, and by re-signing in Dallas despite having a rare chance to test the open market, he co-signed the Cowboys’ approach.
In reality, this team feels a step or two below the true powers in the NFC. Philadelphia and Detroit both boast better, deeper rosters. The Packers, Rams and Buccaneers are all on the upswing. Obviously, Washington passed its old rivals in the pecking order last fall.
It’s certainly not hopeless. The Cowboys should fight for a playoff spot, and they could be much better than expected if they hit a home run or two in this upcoming draft. But right now I think you have to consider them a middle of the pack type of team.
Vacchiano: I think they’re a lot farther down than they were a year ago at this time. They’ve obviously fallen behind the Eagles, the Lions and the Packers. Probably the Commanders too, which immediately puts them third in their own division. Maybe the Vikings, depending on what happens with their quarterback situation.
I think they’re still a playoff team. If they have good health — particularly at quarterback — they can be a dominant offense, and they have a lot of strong pieces on defense too. This is a good team. But a championship team? Good for Dak Prescott being optimistic. He should be. It’s not insane to think they could make a run at a Super Bowl. But it’s probably a little hopeful at this point.
I guess I’d put them on the second tier of their conference. They should win 10 games. They should make the playoffs. Maybe they can win a postseason game. Anything else would be a disappointment. But a lot of things would have to go right for them to do any better than that.
Everyone believes that eventually the Cowboys will sign Micah Parsons to a new contract making him probably the highest-paid defensive player in the game. But will they do that before he holds out from training camp? And is there any chance they trade him instead?
Vacchiano: I will never, ever understand Jerry Jones’ negotiating strategy. He could have signed Parsons to a deal making him the highest-paid defensive player in the game back in February. Instead, he waited, which has only caused Parsons’ price to go up and it left the Cowboys with less salary cap space in free agency than they would’ve had if they had given Parsons a new deal.
I assume Jones thinks he’s got some kind of leverage by waiting. But he simply doesn’t.
So, while I think they’re crazy not to get this done, no, I don’t think it’ll happen before training camp starts and I fully expect Parsons to hold out. I don’t get worked up over holdouts and I don’t think they matter much, as long as they don’t extend into the regular season — which I assume this won’t. But that’s the timeline I expect. Sometime in late August, Parsons will get a deal bigger than what he would’ve gotten one month ago.
And while there are people around the league who think the Cowboys might eventually trade Parsons, I don’t think there’s any chance of that. He is the leader of their defense and it’s best player by far. Jones knows how much the Cowboys need him. And I don’t think he minds paying him either. He just wants to do it on his own bizarre timeline.
Helman: You might’ve been able to convince me the Cowboys would get this handled quickly a month ago. Now that Myles Garrett and Ja’Marr Chase have each eclipsed the $40 million mark in average salary, I’m not so sure. It’s not in their nature to secure a quick deal when a player is pursuing the top of the market. Dez Bryant, Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb have all had to wait until the last minute — just in recent memory. If Parsons does manage to sign before August, maybe it signals that the front office is finally tired of losing money every year by being obstinate.
As for trading Parsons, I don’t buy it. Trading an elite player at a premium position is something a team does if it’s resetting or rebuilding. The Cowboys don’t reset and they don’t rebuild. Of course, you could make an argument that maybe they should try it sometime. But that’s just not going to happen. Instead, I’m guessing Parsons will set the market sometime this summer, after the standstill has given us ample opportunity to make a story out of it.
The Jones family promised a “selectively aggressive” approach to free agency this year. So, how did they do?
Helman: They’ve done better than last year, but all that means is they put forth some amount of effort. Doing the bare minimum is better than doing nothing at all, but it’s still not great.
I’ll give them some credit. I liked a handful of their signings a lot. Dante Fowler Jr. managed 10.5 sacks last year, so getting him to replace DeMarcus Lawrence at a fraction of the cost made perfect sense. Jack Sanborn is a sneaky good linebacker who should help the run defense tremendously. Re-signing Osa Odighizuwa to a team-friendly deal was great. Solomon Thomas should be a solid contributor on a defensive interior that didn’t have much depth.
These are all classic Cowboy signings in the sense that they address needs at the cheapest possible cost, which will allow them to avoid reaching with their picks next month. If they crush those decisions, they’ll have a chance to be much better in 2025. If they don’t, it’s not going to happen. We’ve seen that it can work, but it’s not a realistic strategy — not when they had many opportunities to improve in free agency.
Vacchiano: Well, they certainly have been selective in their aggression. Outside of re-signing DT Odighizuwa (four years, $80 million), does anything else they did really qualify as aggressive? I’m not sure it does.
I do like the decision to re-sign Odighizuwa to a deal that could be a great one for them given where the market is going. They got him help by adding DT Solomon Thomas (two years, $8 million). And they made a sneaky good signing in edge rusher Fowler (one year, $8 million), who had 10.5 sacks in Washington last season. That will help make up for the departure of Lawrence, the long-time Cowboy who left for Seattle.
But most of their other signings and moves are really just low-risk fliers. They traded a Day 3 pick to Buffalo for cornerback Kaiir Elam, banking on the fact that he’ll rediscover the form that once led him to being a first-round pick. They picked up two cheap running backs —Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders — to replace the departed Rico Dowdle. And they shopped the bottom of the guard market to get Robert Jones, who made 30 starts in four years in Miami, to replace the retired Zack Martin.
They’re fine moves. They’re mostly depth moves. I don’t consider them aggressive moves. And they aren’t the moves of a team that, to borrow a phrase from 2024, is “all in” by any stretch at all.
A year after ignoring one of the best free agent markets for tuning backs, the Cowboys went out and got two — Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders. Is that really an upgrade over Rico Dowdle? And should they still draft another one?
Vacchiano: No. And this is another move that I don’t get. In the final seven games of the season, Dowdle averaged 96.7 yards. That coincided with the Cowboys doubling his carries. He averaged 20.3 carries over the last seven games after averaging 10.3 in the first nine. You’d think that would tell them that if they use him, he’ll produce. Instead, they were willing to let him go produce for somebody else.
It’s hard to say whether they just didn’t like him, or maybe didn’t like his price — although the running back market cratered, so that’s hard to believe. But what they got instead was Sanders, who has 637 rushing yards over the last two years, and Williams, who averaged 3.7 yards per carry over the last two years and is coming off a 513-yard season.
So they’re banking on potential, I guess. They preferred that over the guy they knew and saw up close. I look forward to how they plan to explain that.
Maybe the explanation is that they do plan to take a running back from what is said to be a very talented and deep class. Maybe they’re just clearing the decks for the rookie and bringing in some low-level support. That would make more sense. So yes, I think they should still draft a running back, preferably early. It doesn’t have to be Ashton Jeanty in the first round, but I wouldn’t wait much longer than Round 2.
Helman: No, it’s not. But again, this is a team that prefers to draft and develop. The Cowboys’ plan to improve at running back is centered around the draft. This is a loaded class, and even if they don’t draft Jeanty at No. 12 overall, I’m positive they’ll make a concerted effort to draft one of the other dozen star backs in this year’s draft. They might even double-dip and add two rookies at once. Williams and Sanders are merely placeholders. They were only guaranteed $2.5 million for this year — combined. My guess is they’ll be in a camp battle to back up a rookie, and it shouldn’t be shocking if one of them doesn’t even make the roster. Getting young and cheap is clearly a priority for the front office here.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
David Helman covers the NFL for FOX Sports and hosts the NFL on FOX podcast. He previously spent nine seasons covering the Cowboys for the team’s official website. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in producing “Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion” about the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.
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