After last Sunday’s blowout loss to the Eagles, barring a miraculous turnaround, the 2024 season is a lost cause for the Dallas Cowboys.
Monday night’s game against the Texans is shaping up to be Dallas’ fifth home loss. At 3-7, the Cowboys would seemingly be all but officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Prior to today’s games, the Cowboys have just a 4% chance to make the playoffs among the 16 NFC teams.
Only the Saints, Panthers, and Giants have worse odds.
Right now, Dallas can only play spoiler for the NFC East title and playoff seedings over their final eight games.
Once the season mercifully comes to an end after Jan. 5th it will be time for the Cowboys to look ahead to 2025.
Here’s where they should be looking:
The Front Office
Jerry Jones is not going to sell this team.
There’s no point trying to hammer that point. We all know the only way that ownership is changing hands in Dallas.
But, until that day arrives, Stephen Jones needs to hold an intervention on his father.
The Cowboys clearly need a competent General Manager who knows football – modern-day, 21st Century football. A GM that knows how to navigate the cap and build a roster capable of showing up deep into the playoffs.
Someone who knows when to trade draft picks away and when to hold on to them for dear life.
Said person would also know when it’s time to make the big swing in free agency and in trades, and when it’s time to cut the dead-weight loose.
As we’ve witnessed for over a quarter of a century, the Jones family cannot get the job done.
Dallas needs to hire a GM with full authority, free of any meddling by the Jones clan before this year’s NFC Conference title game.
Who would I get? How about Troy Aikman?
The Coaching Staff
We’ve heard Bill Belichick’s name bandied about. Some want Mike McCarthy tossed out the building today with Belichick brought in before the year ends.
How about… no.
Same for Deion Sanders.
The Cowboys do not need another aging coach stuck in the past. Nor do they need a coach from the college ranks whose shtick won’t work on professional football players.
There are no scholarships to revoke in the NFL.
There are also no Arizona Wildcats, Utah Utes, or Oklahoma State’s in the NFL to feast on either.
Who would I pursue to replace Mike McCarthy? There are two leading candidates.
Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson should be the first call, after the new GM is installed.
If he says no, return the favor and poach from the Washington Commanders’ staff like they did to Dallas this past offseason.
Have you noticed what Commanders’ Offensive Coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has done this year? And with a rookie quarterback at that?
Either Johnson or Klingsbury just might be able to turn Dak Prescott into a reliable postseason quarterback.
Mike Zimmer’s second run as the defensive coordinator is a bust.
Maybe it’s time to give Mike Vrabel a call to see if he’d like to get back to being a defensive coordinator?
I’d mention Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn. But he’d be a fool to leave Detroit for anything less than a head coaching gig.
The Quarterback
It’s no secret that I wanted Dallas to let Dak Prescott play out his final year and then send him on his way at the end of this season.
But Jones Inc. decided to pay him $20 million a year more than a three-time Super Bowl winner who is younger than Prescott.
In other words, we’re stuck with Prescott for four more years. Unless he agrees to a trade, which is unlikely.
Neither Cooper Rush nor Trey Lance are going to get it done either.
So, our new GM is going to have to emulate the Green Bay Packers and spend the next few years developing a rookie quarterback. Like the Packers did with both Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love.
They can even wait until the 2026 or 2027 draft to grab their man and have a year or two to develop him.
But please, for all our sakes, end the Shedeur Sanders to Dallas in the first round of the 2025 draft talk. We don’t need Prescott 2.0.
Running Back
The Cowboys could have signed Derrick Henry or Saquon Barkley in free agency. They chose to bring back a washed-up Ezekiel Elliott instead.
They could have drafted a running back in the second round back in April.
There were several good ones there. They chose a defensive end who will likely miss half the season.
Rico Dowdle is a good change-of-pace back, much like Tony Pollard was.
He needs a power back to soften up the defensive line.
Dallas has a solid fullback in Hunter Luepke to block for the ball carriers. They need to draft a running back in the first round in April.
Preferably Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty or North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton.
Wide Receiver
CeeDee Lamb needs some help. Like an Amari Cooper-type player?
The guy Dallas dumped in favor of Michael Gallup, who is no longer in the NFL.
Ole Miss receiver Tre Harris in the second round works for me.
Tight End
This position unit is in good shape with Jake Ferguson and Brevyn Spann-Ford.
They need to show Luke Schoonmaker the door and find a tight end in free agency. Just not in the draft, because that hasn’t worked recently.
Offensive Line
Terrence Steele needs to go. Move Asim Richards to left tackle and hope Tyler Guyton has a solid sophomore year over at right tackle.
Tyler Smith and T.J. Bass are solid enough at guard and Cooper Beebe looks to be a long-term answer at center.
This unit looks stable.
Defensive Line
Aside from Sam Williams and Marshawn Kneeland, this entire unit needs to be rebuilt.
How it happens is beyond me. I’m just glad I’m not the one who has to fix it.
But finding players who can stop the run and pressure the opposing quarterback should be the focus of rounds 3, 5, and 6 in the 2025 draft.
Because, of course, Dallas traded away another fourth round pick this year. So there will be no fourth round pick in 2025.
Linebackers
This is another mostly solid unit, even if Eric Kenricks leaves at the end of the year.
Getting Micah Parsons and DeMarvion Overshown attacking from the outside and getting Marist Liufau to plug up the middle should also help the run defense.
Defensive Backs
Just getting this unit healthy is the top priority. The Cowboys have some solid defensive backs – when they are on the field and at 100%.
Getting rid of a couple of players, Donovan Wilson at the top of the list, would improve things too.
Kickers
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Just make sure they have all the kicking balls they need and a nice practice surface to work with. Then leave them alone!
Will This Happen?
It would if, and this is a big if, someone can get it through Jerry Jones’ thick skull that he needs to turn loose of the reins. Bring in a competent GM who will get in there and fix this hot mess.
This is how I’d do it.
How would you fix the Cowboys in the offseason?
Let me know in the comment section below.
Paolinelli, you were exactly on point! I think Dak deserved his contract (market value), but management should have at least tried to negotiate removing the no-trade clause. Trade Schoonmaker; cut Steele; give the young receivers (especially Flournoy) a chance, even if you draft one. I would like to see if Dallas could keep D-Law on a pay cut and play him inside and occasionally outside (he’s our best run stopper); bench Mazi and rotate him in; draft some defensive linemen. I’d like to keep Jordain Lewis (he’s scrappy); cut Wilson and/or Hooker. Most importantly, we need a real GM (good luck on that)!
You’re preaching to the choir, my friend. I’ve been echoing those same words since their last Super Bowl win with Switzer, which is by the way, with a team that Jimmy Johnson built.
Grampa Jones should NEVER have let Johnson leave the building. There was a dynasty in place and they could’ve won at least two more Super Bowls.
Who could remember the time JJ turned up at the practice field decked out in coach’s duds? I do, and it was THE most asinine thing, next to his self-acclaimed GM greatness, that I’ve ever seen in my 6-decades of life.
My wife is a die hard Niners fan, and she constantly bemoans that they can’t win the SB.
But at least they’ve reached it. Three times in the last decade if memory serves me right. Can the Cowboys say the same?
I’ll do you one better. The only way the team can be saved is if a sports investment team buys out the team and gets rid of the top brass. That’s the only way to escape the meddling of the Joneses.
Just my two cents.