Think back to the start of the 2024 offseason. The Cowboys were fresh off their humiliating playoff loss to Green Bay and Jerry Jones was elbow deep in “all-in” declarations in a calculated attempt to quell the uprising within the fanbase.

Draft season was in full effect and free agency was fast approaching. Top 10 free agent lists populated the landscape and Cowboys fans were busy debating which internal free agents Dallas will retain and which external free agents Dallas will target. The window was open for another year the only question was how wide the front office was willing to pry it.

As everyone would soon come to realize, Jones’ “all-in” statements weren’t remotely true under even the loosest of definitions. To make matters worse, not only did the Cowboys have little intention to sign outside talent to their roster, but they also didn’t even plan to retain their own top free agents. The “we like our guys” statements made every year were now suddenly starting to lose traction since they hadn’t even done a good job of retaining their own.

When the Cowboys opened training camp with CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons’ contract situations still unresolved, expectations seemingly fell to an all-time low. In just a matter of months sentiments went from “who are they going to bring in to put them over the top,” to “who can they afford to lose this year and still be competitive,” to “are they even going to keep their own super stars?”

The bar has been dropped so low, even the most obvious re-signing, Lamb, was rejoiced as a wonderful accomplishment. It almost didn’t matter the negotiations dragged on through the entire preseason. Suddenly just retaining their own obvious players for market values felt like wins.

Just days before the start of the regular season, Prescott’s contract situation remains unresolved. There’s hope the Cowboys can retain their franchise signal caller beyond this year but there are certainly no assurances of it. Prescott holds all the leverage, and the Cowboys let the issue drag on dangerously long. In what feels like a 50-50 situation with Prescott, the Cowboys are a flip of the coin away from a multiyear rebuild.

Disaster is at the door and the bar has been lowered so much, just re-signing Prescott would now feel like franchise-saving win. If the fanbase was told in February their team would re-sign Lamb and Prescott this year, the news would likely be met with some form of “well, duh.” Today it would be cause for champaign. That’s how far expectations have dropped for this front office. This may go down as one of the most emotionally wild offseasons in years for Dallas.

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