Dallas Cowboys: April Fools or Springtime Savvy?
By Reid Hanson
Much has been said about the Dallas Cowboys offseason (in)activity concerning free agency and general roster building. Are they being April Fools or might they be playing this all the right way?
The Dallas Cowboys certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves. Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, Byron Jones, Robert Quinn, and Maliek Collins were all unsigned entering free agency this year. It was clear early, the Cowboys were going to lose some very significant starters, the only question was who and how many of them.
I don’t have to tell you, entering the offseason with 3 of the top-5 free agents is never an optimal situation, and Dallas should thank their lucky stars only one of their elite players was lost. But losing Byron without a fight left a bad taste in the collective mouth of Cowboys Nation, and the loss just adds to the list of significant needs this 8-8 team needs to fulfill in order to improve next season.
The Dallas Cowboys were able to secure their quarterback Dak Prescott by way of franchise tag, but once again, they kicked the can and kept the problem alive by not coming to a long-term agreement.
As if that’s not bad enough, they followed it up by losing their leading sacker, starting tight end, starting safety and starting slot receiver in free agency. Those losses weren’t all worth fussing about but their exodus left more vacancies that needed to be filled. What did they do?
Not much. Dallas made no effort to sign any of the high-end outside free agents. While other teams overtly improved this spring, the Dallas Cowboys seemingly got worse – losing considerably more talent than they’ve gained. So are the Dallas Cowboys nothing more than incompetent morons or are they executing a savvy plan that will pay off in the end?