Other teams in the NFL made moves last week to get better. The struggling Cowboys didn’t… confirming what we already knew.
If you weren’t already a believer in the idea of 2024 being a covert reset for the Dallas Cowboys, this last week may have finally sold you. While other middling teams made moves to hopefully be more competitive this season, Dallas sat on its hands during its bye week. It’s just another indication that the Cowboys’ front office doesn’t seem invested in winning this year.
Last week, the New York Jets traded draft picks to the Las Vegas Raiders for WR Davante Adams and finally reached a financial agreement with pass rusher Haason Reddick. The Buffalo Bills swung a trade to acquire WR Amari Cooper from Cleveland. And despite being undefeated at the time, the Minnesota Vikings traded for RB Cam Akers to bolster their depth chart.
Of these moves, the only two that were clearly options that would’ve helped Dallas were with the receivers. Granted, Cooper being welcome back in the building or even wanting to return is up for debate. But reuniting Adams with Mike McCarthy could’ve been fruitful. We don’t know how willing the Jets really were to move on for Reddick or that Akers would’ve been much of an upgrade in our struggling RB room, but they still represent activity that teams with aspirations this season are making.
We promise to stop referencing Jerry Jones’ “all in” comment from this past offseason one day, but it’s still a noose around his neck for the moment. The words are proven more hollow with every untaken step, including the lack of any trade or significant roster move during the bye. To think there was a time when you could trust Jerry to take action in the name of improving the team.
Let’s go back to Amari Cooper. In 2018, the Cowboys were 3-4 going into the bye week and a lack of firepower at WR was a huge reason why. They did something about it, sending a first-round pick to the Raiders for Cooper. He immediately got the offense moving again and helped the Cowboys finish 10-6 and win a playoff game.
But that was a different time with a different coach, one that the Jones family still hoped to keep working with. There’s no indication of that with Mike McCarthy in 2024; “lame duck” status is more than confirmed at this point. Not giving him an extension was one thing as it was logical to make him prove he deserved to stick around. But after taking a future-minded approach to the offseason and again remaining quiet at the bye, Dallas is sending a pretty clear message that McCarthy isn’t part of the team’s future.
The frustrating part of all this is not the Cowboys’ decision to disengage from this season and work toward a better future, but the front office’s lack of honesty about it. Do you think a different coach can do better? That’s fine. Most of us would agree. Does Dak Prescott need more talent around him to be consistently competitive? Yes. Clearly.
Cowboys fans are sophisticated. We have the most talked-about team in football and get insights and education on the game like few others. It takes a lot to fool us, and this half-hearted deception in 2024 is just insulting. We see what the front office sees and what they’re doing about it. They just need to own it and stop pretending, and especially stop threatening media members who call them on their crap.
This isn’t to say we should weep for McCarthy. If anything, he’s already been here a year too long. But he’s coaching like a guy who’s stopped caring, and that’s understandable given how little his bosses seem to care about him. We saw this disaster coming, and the Cowboys’ continuing inaction shows that it’s one they were willing to accept,
