3 Cowboys Making it Easy for Dallas to Say Goodbye in 2025

2. Trey Lance, Quarterback

Again, you can't miss what you never had.

The Dallas Cowboys should have let anyone else trade for Trey Lance, because they haven't done anything to upgrade his value at all since acquiring him last offseason. At the very least, Trey Lance is a dynamic ball-carrier who could be used in packages offensively, but the Cowboys haven't even done that.

Lance threw an interception in one of his two appearances this year, and the Cowboys -- to be fair -- have actually put him on the field in 2024 as compared to 2023, but it hasn't been enough.

Especially with Dak Prescott dealing with some injuries, we should be seeing Trey Lance out there getting some reps and figuring out whether he's going to sink or swim in the NFL.

Let's throw out a case in point. The Green Bay Packers traded for Malik Willis right before the start of the 2024 regular season. The guy was needed almost immediately after an injury to Jordan Love in Week 1, and the Packers thrust him into the lineup and saw him thrive. Heck, he even played well against his former team, the Titans, who know everything about him.

The Cowboys were the wrong team to trade for Trey Lance, and maybe Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers should have seen that coming. Lance is still young enough to get a chance elsewhere in 2025 but I don't think he's going to make even an ounce of effort trying to find his way back to Dallas after these last two years.

Lance needs to get in a situation where some team is actually going to help develop his skills or at least make an effort to highlight his running abilities.

3. Ezekiel Elliott, Running Back

If there's one area that has plagued the Dallas Cowboys all season, it's the running game. The Cowboys have had to make budget cuts in each of the last two offseasons at the running back position, and they have unfortunately not supplemented with cost-effective NFL Draft picks at the position.

The Cowboys cut Ezekiel Elliott in 2023 and then let Tony Pollard walk in 2024, bringing Elliott back into the fold for a minimal contract. Heading into Thanksgiving against the Giants, Elliott has just 185 total rushing yards and two touchdowns on the season, and his second stint in Dallas has not been the storybook type of year anyone hoped for.

It might have been difficult to see Elliott go the first time around because of all he meant to the Cowboys for so many years. The former first-round pick out of Ohio State was arguably the best back in the league for a decent stretch of time, but that time has come and gone.

Even last year, Elliott was serviceable for the Patriots and that led many to believe that he could potentially become valuable to the Dallas offense again in tandem with someone else, but those assumptions were ill-advised.

Elliott is barely averaging three yards per carry this season and Dallas ranks 31st in the NFL in rushing yards and 31st in yards per attempt. There are a lot of factors that have led to the team's lack of overall success this season, but an inability to run the ball is certainly up there among the biggest reasons.

The Cowboys are going to move on from Elliott again in the 2025 offseason, in all likelihood, and they will just stick to remembering the good times they had once upon a time.

More Dallas Cowboys news and analysis: