3 Offseason Mistakes Already Costing the Cowboys in 2024

The sky is falling after the Dallas Cowboys suffered a 44-19 loss in their home opener against the New Orleans Saints.

That's not really the case since they're 1-1 and tied for first place with the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders. It just feels that way when a team is embarrassed in such a fashion.

The truth is that Dallas is still in good shape but their loss proved they still have a lot of issues on this roster. That shouldn't come as a major shock since they put together one of the worst offseasons in recent memory.

Jerry Jones and the rest of the front office were criminally inactive in free agency and despite a solid draft overall, they made some questionable decisions there as well. After two games, here's a look at three mistakes that are already costing the Cowboys.

3. No coverage safeties were added

Dallas has a decent group of safeties led by Malik Hooker, Donovan Wilson, and Markquese Bell. The problem is that all of them have been struggling in coverage this season.

The most painful example of this came early in the loss to New Orleans. Quarterback Derek Carr had no fear going after the Dallas defensive backs and fired a deep pass to Rashid Shaheed in the first quarter. Shaheed had easily gotten past Hooker and Wilson was in no position to offer help.

Dallas has never spent major resources on safeties. Wilson was a sixth-round pick, as was backup Israel Mukuamu. Bell was an undrafted free agent, as was Juanyeh Thomas. Hooker is the only player added with a premium draft pick but that was the Indianapolis Colts. Dallas added him after a serious injury as a low-risk/high-reward addition.

This isn't to say they needed to use a first-round pick on someone, but they didn't even attempt to bring in a safety capable of improving their deep coverage. On Sunday, we saw how costly that was.

2. No additions at WR

CeeDee Lamb was an absolute beast in 2023. The 17th overall pick in 2020 had 135 receptions for 1,749 yards with 12 touchdowns. That was a franchise record for both receptions and yardage as well as the most catches in the league last year.

Beyond Lamb, there were still concerns about the receiver position. Brandin Cooks had 54 receptions for 657 yards and eight touchdowns but wasn’t a consistent threat. He had far too many games where he would be a non-factor and at this stage in his career, he’s arguably best served as a WR3.

That’s why Dallas would have done well to bring in either a free agent or rookie capable of pushing Cooks for his spot. Instead, they went silent in free agency while waiting until Round 6 to add a receiver — which is where they picked up Ryan Flournoy.

This approach left Jalen Tolbert as the primary WR3 with Jalen Brooks fighting for snaps. Brooks has been quiet through two games whereas Tolbert had a strong outing in Week 2 with 82 yards on six receptions. He even hauled in one of the best catches of the season after adjusting to an underthrown pass.

Week 1 was a different story as he had just 12 yards on one catch. Cooks was the opposite, with a good debut (four catches, 40 yards, one touchdown) before going silent in Week 2 (two catches, 19 yards).

Lamb was a hold out through training camp and the preseason, and hasn’t fully taken off yet. Perhaps having another solid receiving option could have helped the offense stay on task.

1. Not addressing the RB spot

As much as Jerry Jones was to sell fans on the current running back stable, anyone who has watched the first two games of the season knows the Dallas Cowboys have one of the worst — if not the worst — rushing attacks in the NFL.

They allowed Tony Pollard to hit the open market where he signed with the Tennessee Titans. From there, the front office decided not to go after anyone capable of being their new RB1 in free agency. That includes the running back they're going to try and stop this weekend, Derrick Henry.

Dallas had the opportunity to sign Henry and he reportedly had an interest in joining forces with America's Team. Jerry and his son, Stephen Jones, felt $8 million per season was too much for Henry who has 130 yards and two touchdowns.

As for the Cowboys, they have just 170 yards on the ground — and 40 of those yards are from CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott. Both Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott have just 56 yards throught two games and are under four yards per attempt.

Their options are this point are limited but they do have another well known player in Dalvin Cook. He's currently on the practice squad and has had a lot of success in the NFL, but Jones made it sound as though there's no way he gets a crack at the job anytime soon.

Cook managed just 214 yards on 67 attempts (3.2 per carry) for the New York Jets in 2023, which isn't exactly encouraging. Still, they might need to roll the dice and hope for the best if Zeke and Dowdle continue at this pace.

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