Cowboys predict another ‘tight’ budget looms in offseason, says Stephen Jones – SportsDay Staff, Dallas Morning News
Stephen Jones has already started setting expectations for 2025, and it may be a repeat of 2024 in terms of player acquisition.
“I think we knew we were going to have a challenge this year and next year,” Jones said of the team’s ability to spend on players.
“It’s going to be really, really tight because we still have some money left over from some guys who aren’t here today. And you’re going to have some other guys that won’t be here in the future that you still have their cap count.”
Fans lamenting Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley running wild in Baltimore and Philadelphia, respectfully, rather than heading to Dallas in free agency last offseason may need to expect more of the same.
Dallas’ big spending before the start of the 2024 season instead came in the form of long-term extensions for Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb.
The Cowboys currently rank 24th in the NFL when it comes to salary cap space in 2025 with just north of $20 million, per spotrac.
Offseason moves to fix the Cowboys – Bill Barnwell, ESPN
Regardless of Stephen Jones’ fairy tales about the cap, spending on coaches is not limited by the cap, and part of Barnwell’s plan to fix the Cowboys revolves around exactly that.
Move on from Mike McCarthy. The former Packers coach won 12 games in each of the three seasons he had a healthy Prescott, but his teams struggled in 2020 and 2024 even before Prescott went down with season-ending injuries. McCarthy modernized his offense when he was hired, but some of his changes were fleeting; the Cowboys are back down to 29th in motion rate at the snap this season, as an example.
He sold himself to the Cowboys as an analytics-reformed thinker, but that didn’t happen in practice based on the comments he made to announcers about wanting to hit carry totals in the second half and his late-game management. He was better than he was at his worst in Green Bay, but the bar is a lot higher in Dallas. He isn’t a bad coach, but he’s not making the team drastically better in 2025. There is someone out there who can do that.
Offer Ben Johnson five years and $125 million to take over as coach. I wanted to argue that the Cowboys should hire Bill Belichick, who would have taken over in the hopes of immediately fixing the defense and left the offense to someone else. With Belichick taking the job at the University of North Carolina, though, Dallas might instead need to take a bigger swing to fix its offense.
Johnson’s work as the offensive coordinator in Detroit has been impeccable. While he won’t be able to bring that dominant O-line and some of the playmakers with him, consider how many of the people who touch the ball there were regarded before they got to Johnson. Amon-Ra St. Brown was a fourth-round pick. David Montgomery was a running back who had averaged under 4.0 yards per carry in his four seasons with Chicago. Wideouts Josh Reynolds and Kalif Raymond were cut by Tennessee. And Jared Goff, now an MVP candidate, had essentially been benched for John Wolford in a playoff game and was salary ballast in the Matthew Stafford trade. They’ve all gotten better under Johnson.
The Cowboys can’t subvert the salary cap, and they can’t buy first-round picks, but spending on coaches is uncapped. Paying Johnson this much would represent a significant investment and probably make every other team in the league angry, but coaches as a whole are underpaid. This franchise is valued as being worth more than $10 billion by Forbes. If this move succeeds, Johnson would be a bargain. If it fails, the Cowboys won’t miss the money.
With Bill Belichick off the board, Mike McCarthy still has work left to stay Cowboys coach – Tom Cowlishaw, Dallas Morning News
These last few games will be crucial in evaluating Mike McCarthy and his job status for the 2025 season with the Dallas Cowboys.
Belichick in the ACC will be interesting at the very least. The idea that he left the NFL because he got sick of the owners and the politics, well, good luck in the modern college game where the rules for procuring players — if there are any — are basically governed by no one.
But with the Belichick option off the table, then the list of reasons for making a coaching change in Dallas has merely been reduced by one. It’s not gone entirely. With the team already on the brink of mathematical elimination at one end and yet no real hope of securing, say, a top five draft pick at the other, the last four weeks of the season are all about Mike McCarthy and his future…
…I think a team fighting that furiously to the finish line (that would mean winning six of the last seven games) would signal that McCarthy still has everyone engaged even against considerable odds. I also think there’s about a 2% chance of that happening. More likely this team is headed for 6-11 or 7-10 at best. And if that proves to be the case, as much as Jerry really doesn’t relish making coaching changes (he isn’t exactly good at it), I don’t think there’s any chance McCarthy gets an extension.
Even if we think this year’s failures are largely the result of roster misjudgment and key injuries, you would need to point to signs that McCarthy’s play-calling has been an upgrade over Kellen Moore’s in order to justify an extension. That doesn’t exist in the numbers and it really doesn’t pass the eye test, either.
Science Lab: DeMarvion Overshown is far from done with NFL, Cowboys – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
Despite his season ending injury, we have not seen the last of DeMarvion Overshown.
With the advancements in modern medicine and the caliber of skill and experience on the Cowboys’ medical and athletic training staff — in also personally knowing the facts of Overshown’s injury, along with his mental fortitude, work ethic and in how he’ll take this challenge head-on with his usual glaring smile and internal light — any allegation of a looming medical retirement is laughable.
DeMarvion Overshown is not done.
Could there be a medical setback of some sort that delays his return? That’s always a possibility, with any player and with any injury, so that’s just stating the obvious, in that regard.
There’s also a chance he heals and recovers faster than anticipated (carving his way back onto the field at some point in 2025), as some have done in their recovery, more than one of them being named in this column, but what there is almost zero chance of is Overshown’s career being over.
Say it with me, folks:
DeMarvion Overshown is not done.
Dallas Cowboys’ Will McClay Name to Watch in Jets General Manager Search – Matthew Postins, Sports Illustrated
Will McClay may be a top name for general manager for the New York Jets in 2025.
Many believe that owner Woody Johnson will hire a general manager first. If so, ESPN Jets insider Rich Cimini said on his “Flight Deck” podcast that Dallas Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay is a name to watch…
…He’s well-respected for his personnel acumen, but his job description has widened to a role in free agency and in trade acquisitions.
Aside from being the “decider” on draft day, the only other thing McClay doesn’t do for the Cowboys is negotiate contracts, which falls under the umbrella of Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, Jerry’s son.
Other NFL teams have noticed and he’s been in demand for job interviews the past few years. Last year at least two teams wanted to talk with McClay about their job. But, he actually turned down those requests to stay with Dallas.
Jones has gone to great lengths to make sure that McClay is well-compensated in an attempt to ensure he has every reason to stay.
So why might McClay be interested? It’s unclear. But, as long as he works for the Jones family, he won’t be the “decider.” If that works for him, great. If it doesn’t, the Jets may offer him the chance to interview for a job where he can be the decision-maker and bring that personnel acumen to the Big Apple.
Cowboys’ defensive roster questions for final 4 games: Big decisions loom at CB – Saad Yousuf, The Athletic
There are still some open questions about this defensive roster that the Cowboys will need to sort out in these last few games.
What can Mazi Smith do well?
For those holding out hope that Mazi Smith would announce his arrival in Year 2 after a rough rookie season, the clock is ticking. Smith has flashed more than what he did in 2023, but that was a low bar. The consistency hasn’t been there unless he’s lined up against the New York Giants.
Evaluating Smith can be challenging. In the past five seasons for Smith, he’s had five defensive coordinators — three in his last three years at Michigan, Dan Quinn last year and Mike Zimmer this year. Depending on how decisions shake out after the season, Smith could have a new coordinator in 2025, too.
The chatter during training camp was how he was bound to take a big step forward because Zimmer’s scheme would be more friendly to Smith’s strengths than Quinn’s was. The issue two years into Smith’s NFL career hasn’t just been scheme related, it’s also consisted of fundamental physical things you’d like to see from the defensive tackle position.
Smith is playing roughly half the defensive snaps per game. What Smith puts on tape the rest of the way could shape how the 2025 defensive coordinator views him as part of the defense.
Did Mike Zimmer get a fair shot?
This question could be moot if there’s a change at head coach, but there seems to be a legitimate belief that Mike McCarthy will be back in 2025. If McCarthy returns, does he keep Zimmer? The defense struggled early in the season, namely against the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens, even when most of the players were healthy and available (aside from Bland and Sam Williams). However, the unit has looked better in recent weeks.
The big hype with Zimmer’s defense was going to be his diverse usage of Parsons, but then Parsons got hurt and missed four games. The defensive end position was hit hard by injuries, limiting how much Zimmer could use Parsons elsewhere. With Overshown out for the season, the Cowboys could be forced to play Parsons at linebacker situationally, out of necessity.
The adjustment to a new system always takes time, and that’s before you even factor in the run of injuries the Cowboys defense has endured this season.
Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb relishes playing despite ailing shoulder as he leads Dallas through injury-riddled 2024 – Garrett Podell, CBS Sports
While CeeDee Lamb has been banged up this season, his priority is still doing whatever he can to help the team win football games.
After all the bumps and bruises sustained this year, Lamb is feeling relatively healthy entering Sunday.
“Just a shoulder. Other than that, [I’m] pretty healthy,” Lamb said Thursday when asked about his injuries this season.
He claims he doesn’t really feel the pain from the AC joint sprain thanks to adrenaline.
“Not really because adrenaline gets going, and then I’m trying to make plays for my guys. I’m not really so much worried about being hurt,” Lamb said. “Obviously, I know what’s going on leading up into it, and as far as the preparation that I need going on throughout the week, but I get out there, man. I’m thinking about winning a football game.”
Each week Lamb weighs the pros and cons of being out on the field with his nagging shoulder injury, but each time through 13 games, he’s felt that his presence would help more than it would hinder Dallas’ pursuit of victory.
“It’s understanding your pain tolerance,” Lamb said. “Obviously, if it’s impeding what you do as far as contributing to the team and contributing to winning, then I suggest you sit out because I don’t want you to embarrass yourself. Granted, the competitiveness and everything as far as pride goes, that you want to be out there. But if it’s not going be positive for anybody, or you’re not going to be able to be who you are out there on the field, don’t risk it. If you have a chance of going out there and having the opportunity of withstanding those injuries or just withstanding the burden of the injury and still being able to play at a high level, then you’re fine.”
