The Dallas Cowboys and their fans have the same problem. And it isn't a good one to have.
Both the front office and the fanbase loves to keep players past their shelf life.
That includes overpaying said players based on past performance as opposed to future output.
Honestly, I get it. You want to believe a player can stay up on that pinnacle forever.
None of them can. None.
Some manage to go on for a long time, but those players are few and far between.
Making it even more maddening is the front office has sometimes bailed on a player way to early – usually in order to keep a player that doesn't pan out.
Michael Gallup signed to an extension while Amari Cooper is traded away for next to nothing ring a bell?
Their respective numbers in the two seasons played since Cooper was shipped off to Cleveland?
- Amari Cooper – 32 starts/32 games, 150 receptions, 2,410 yards, 14 TDs.
- Michael Gallup – 24 starts/31 games, 73 receptions, 842 yards, 6 TDs.
Cooper was a cap casualty, according to the Cowboys.
Yet the team found a way to pay Gallup a whole lot more money than they should have for a player recovering from a leg injury.
A recent report suggests Dallas has granted Gallup permission to seek a trade.
There are whispers here and there about Cooper's effort and his stance on the COVID vaccine being factors.
It seems unlikely there is any truth to them. But it remains a bad decision based on the output of the last two seasons.
Cap Issues At The Core
The Cowboys' management of the salary cap keeps putting them into these situations. Ezekiel Elliott's six-year, $90 million contract is one prime example.
Prior to the 2019 season – Elliott's fourth year in the NFL – the Cowboys signed Elliott to a monster extension.
He responded with a 1,357-yard season with 12 TDs.
In the next three seasons he rushed for 979, 1002, and 876 yards. Before the 2023 season they parted ways with Elliott.
They paid him $5.8 million not to play for the Cowboys in 2023.
He'll make a little over $6 million to not play for Dallas this year.
Cutting him and taking their medicine was the right call. Yet a majority of the fanbase cried foul and demanded Dallas bring him back.
Here we are a year later and they want to make the same mistake all over again.
Prescott's Poison Contract
First things first.
Everyone in the front office that approved Prescott's contract extension in 2021 needs to be shown the door at The Star and never allowed back in.
The “No Tag” and “No Trade” clauses that were included make no sense. It's the same level of insanity as loading a gun and handing it to a serial killer.
Guess who has all of the advantages in that scenario?
Hint: It ain't you.
Then to put a $60 million dollar year into the final year on top of that? Just load the gun and pull the trigger on yourself and get it over with.
That's basically what Dallas has done to themselves and there's no easy way out of this mess.
With all of the cards in his hands, Prescott reportedly wants an extension of nearly $60 million a year.
The fanbase wants the Cowboys to do just that.
But seriously, are we paying a quarterback who hasn't won a single Divisional round game more money than the guy who just won back-to-back Super Bowls?
“There's 31 NFL GMs who'll pay him that,” the pro-Prescott faction claims.
Horse-hockey, says I. (Actually, I said something else but we do try to keep it PG-13 around here.)
I said prior to last season that both Dak Prescott and Mike McCarthy needed to get the Cowboys to at least the conference championship game or else.
In 2023, they failed to do so. Both are in the final year of their respective contracts.
Neither man – so far – has had their contracts extended. Nor should they.
In 2024, both men need to play out their final year and this year nothing less than a Super Bowl appearance will save their jobs.
If they get the Cowboys to the Super Bowl in New Orleans in February then crack open the safe and shovel endless piles of $1,000 bills in their direction.
I'll even do the shoveling.
But, if they don't, they need to take their services elsewhere. Especially in Prescott's case.
Next Man Up
Prescott will enter his ninth NFL season – and ninth as the starter in Dallas. He has great numbers – in the regular season.
But he tends to disappear – especially in the Divisional round where he is 0-3 – the brighter the lights shine.
McCarthy will enter his fifth year as the Cowboys' Head Coach. He is 42-25 in the regular season and has three straight 12-win seasons on his record in Dallas.
But he is 1-3 in the playoffs with the one victory a 2022 Wild Card win over a Tampa Bay team that looked disinterested in playing in the playoffs.
The Dallas Cowboys are a franchise with a history of having one expectation every year: Reaching – and winning – a Super Bowl.
If these two can't get it done then its time to find a new head coach and a new quarterback and let's see if they can.
A New Way Is Needed
Keeping players who can't get it done makes no sense. Its just throwing good money after bad.
The NFL today is a cutthroat business. There are ample examples of teams cutting their losses and rebuilding.
A few of them have done so quickly enough to retool and get back to a championship level quickly.
We are entering the 28th season since the Cowboys last won a Division round game, won a Conference championship, or hoisted a Lombardi Trophy.
The Cowboys' current way hasn't worked. Its time to join the 21st Century at The Star and get back to championship-level football again.
No more overpaying players, no more keeping players past their shelf life. No more getting rid of producing players to keep players with huge question marks over their helmets.
This is The Way.
