The Cowboys’ 2025 free agent class was seen by many fans as a major shift from the team’s usual approach. Typically quiet in March, Dallas tends to bring in only one or two outside free agents. But this year, the front office broke from tradition, signing nearly ten new players in a rare splash of offseason activity.
There was only one problem with this “splash.” The vast majority of their targets were cheap, older veterans who would likely be nothing more than depth in Dallas.
https://twitter.com/SleeperCowboys/status/1901689458275258742
At key positions of need, the Cowboys figured they could patch a major wound with a Band-Aid. Turns out, that doesn’t work.
They are now facing a free agent class that is both injured and just flat out not helpful enough. I’ll show you what I mean and where the Dallas front office went wrong below.
Pair Of Big Injuries: Parris Campbell & Robert Jones Knocked Out
The first thing we heard of regarding veteran offensive guard Robert Jones was his larger-than-expected impact. He filled in on the first team at times, mentoring first-rounder Tyler Booker, etc. That storyline ended pretty quickly.
Jones, 26, literally suffered a neck break in practice, and he’s now expected to miss 2-3 months after surgery.
For an injury that sounds that serious, just a few months of recovery is actually good news, but for the Cowboys’ offensive line, it means losing their one solid depth piece added in free agency.
Sources: Cowboys guard Rob Jones, who has been working with the starting unit during the early part of training camp, broke a bone in his neck during Sunday’s practice and now is expected to miss 2-3 months, per @toddarcher and me.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 28, 2025
Dallas’s wide receiver room is going through the same problem right now, too. Parris Campbell was the only receiver in the entire Cowboys’ free agent class, and he is now done for the year with a leg injury.
He was helped off the field on July 26th, and moving him to IR became the corresponding move for signing La’el Collins yesterday.
Yes, the Cowboys have George Pickens now, but the depth in that room is still a huge question mark. Let’s just say the front office did itself no favors both up-front and out-wide on offense in free agency.
The Problem: Cowboys Filled Holes With Spackle, Not Steel
Here’s the main point, and the overall problem: signing players doesn’t mean you are inherently making good moves; Dallas had major holes and decided to “fix” them with fluff, not substance.
That isn’t a knock on Jones or Campbell as players, either. It just means it’s irresponsible to have such huge holes on the o-line and in the receiver room, only to bring those guys.
Who’s to say they don’t suffer another injury at one of those spots? At left guard, it would be journeyman Saadiq Charles as the next man up. At wide receiver, one of Jalen Brooks, Traeshon Holder, Ryan Flournoy, or Jalen Cropper would have to step up.
It’s not like the money wasn’t there. They chose this path, and it’s costing them right now.
The fanbase was already clamoring for more moves, like Stephon Gilmore or Amari Cooper rejoining the team. Now, they’ve actually got the evidence that more needs to be done. This roster is not a finished product.
Middling Expectations — Courtesy of the Cowboys Front Office
Ultimately, we’re all feeling the hype about Brian Schottenheimer and his culture-changing attitude. The George Pickens trade was another huge boost in confidence.
However, there is a reason that Dallas is third in the NFC East odds for 2025. The roster is not elite.
To compete with hyper-aggressive teams like Philadelphia and Washington, you kind of have to follow their philosophy. Bringing in 10+ free agents, unfortunately, doesn’t qualify as that if those guys are cheap, older, and injury-prone.
Until we see a Cowboys’ free agent class that looks more like an Eagles or Commanders one, they may have a hard time competing for the NFC East title.
This is absolutely the dumbest article I have read in some time. Parris was never considered time of the depth chart, the way things have been playing out, he would have had a difficult time even making the team at the end of camp. Jones, while starting with the first team to begin with plays in the deepest position by far along the offensive line. There are plenty of people to step up and take both spots from these two players. Granted, Dallas needs to add to the cornerback room in my opinion but we cannot deny they added talent to the team this off season that are showing up in very positive ways. You pointing at two down roster guys and making it out to sound like the off season has been a failure is just ridiculous.
a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s none of these issues doesn’t shock and surprise me Jerry Jones doesn’t want to talk to the players agents Jerry Jones like to play games and this why the Cowboys are a joke
You are a joke!! Just because Jerry didn’t talk to Parsons agent, it don’t mean he doesn’t talk to every players agent!! You sound stupid…. Like usual!! And the issues this article pointed out are NOT issues!! Chances are that neither one of these players mentioned were gonna make the team anyways!! It’s not like they’re some star players we signed!! They were nothing more than depth pieces at best!! Paris Campbell wasn’t ever gonna make the team, not when there are so many other better options ahead of him!! And Jones, if he did make the team, he wasn’t gonna be anything more than a backup!! So again…. Losing these players isn’t an issue!! We have plenty of other options to take their place!! I wish you would read just one of the comments people write in response to your ridiculous comments!! You would think twice before making another ignorant comment!! Or at the very least, you would actually learn something, so that way the next time you make a comment, it won’t sound so stupid!!
Paris Campbell was never gonna make this team anyways!! So I’m not sure why you mentioned him as the reason we need help at receiver!! And just to be clear, I don’t think we need help at receiver!! We have our top 2 in Lamb and Pickens, and then we have Turpin, and then Tolbert and Mingo!! Plus Flournoy and Brooks are a couple of good young receivers too!! So we’re good at receiver!! We don’t need anybody else at that position!! We’re already gonna have a hard time trying to figure out which one we’re gonna have to let go!! So we don’t need to add more to make it even harder to figure out!!
And as far as our offensive line goes, we are loaded at the guard position!! And just because Jones was playing with the starters a little bit, it doesn’t mean he was gonna be our starter!! There’s no guarantee he was even gonna be a backup!! He mite have been showing flashes, but there’s a reason we got him in free agency and a reason we got him so cheap!! He wasn’t very good with his last team, if he was, he wouldn’t have hit free agency!! And Saadiq Charles isn’t really a journeyman either!! He was with Washington through his whole rookie contract, and then signed with Tennessee, but retired before playing for them, so he’s only played for one team in his whole career!! And when he did play, he was really good!! He wasn’t a top 5 player in the NFL, but he was good enough to be a starter for at least a few years in Washington!! Out of all the free agent linemen we signed this offseason, Charles is my favorite of the bunch!! And I think he’s probably the best of the bunch too!! So just because we lost Jones for a couple months, it don’t mean we need help there!! We have plenty of options there too, and just like at receiver, we’re gonna have a hard time trying to figure out who we’re gonna keep on the roster, so there’s no reason to sign more, just to make that decision even harder!! If anything, we need to sign somebody that can play LT, but even that isn’t needed, because we have other options there too!! So your thinking of these positions are way off!! There’s no reason to worry about it…. We’re gonna be just fine at both of those positions!! And with the way the team is built now, I don’t really see a problem with any position!! We mite need a corner just in case we have another injury, but when the injured corners come back from injury, we’re gonna have at least one or two starting caliber corners sitting on the bench cause we have so many good ones now!! Even with the injured ones out right now, we still have a good starting lineup, so at most we just need a corner for depth, but I actually think we’ll be fine until the injured ones come back!! But I think we have a really good roster right now including the injured ones, so I’m not sure why there’s anybody so down on us!! I’m happy with the roster we have, and I think we’ll definitely be better than most of you doubters think!!
This article is another example of clickbait trash. Campbell was an absolute long shot to make the roster. Now that Jones’s injury hurts a little, considering that he was playing well, he was only ever going to be a backup; we still have multiple high-caliber backup guards on the roster in Hoffman and Bass.
It’s as if you don’t know the roster and are just frustrated with the team and want to write hit pieces. They did a better job this year of addressing depth than they have in years. Your argument rings hollow because if they had spent a lot of money on a singular player, it would not guarantee health. They brought in multiple players in the position to account for injury. Your argument would be stronger had they not brought in several players at those positions where they have suffered injuries.
But the WR room has plenty of youth and depth, like the O-line room, and you can only carry so many people on a roster. Your logic makes very little sense, and your editor should have pointed out that your article had a weak and almost contradictory argument.
Wow, this article takes the cake. Starts off poorly by referencing, multiple times, that a group of additions that included multiple trade additions as free agent signings. That kind of flub is excusable for fans on message boards, but not for a sportswriter.
Then it goes on and on about Campbell – who was listed as a third stringer at the time of injury. No major loss there.
The article also claims that there were “huge holes” that the team badly filled with Campbell and Jones (strangely also claiming to not knock them even as it very much knocked them), except those holes were filled by Booker and Pickens. Whoops!
Also, while Jones is a depth loss, the team has all its interior OL depth from last year still on hand, so…problem how?
Wrapping it all up, the author made the foolish mistake of characterizing “normal” Dallas free agency as only adding 1 or 2 guys. News flash: that was only last year. Most years, Dallas adds a good handful of outside signings – usually cheap ones, but the numbers are the numbers.
Gotta do better than an article just riddled with errors and weak claims!
It’s gone b alright still going to SB
Signing scrub free agents gets scrub results. The philosophy of signing old or washed FAs or both as a primary FA roster building strategy is garbage. They also did the “how many bust former 1st rounders” approach can we sign this year route.
Straight up pathetic.
Article is spot on.