The Cowboys season will come to a merciful end on Sunday afternoon.
For all intents and purposes, the Dallas Cowboys are in offseason mode. It feels like an afterthought of all afterthoughts that this team must go through the motions of four more quarters on Sunday afternoon from AT&T Stadium against the Washington Commanders to officially get there. By the end of it, win or lose, they will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2020 and make way for both the rival Commanders, and the Philadelphia Eagles team that took full advantage of Dallas just going through the motions in week 16, to represent a division in the playoffs that the Cowboys won just a year ago.
It isn’t just the sudden realization that four quarters is all that stands between the Cowboys and entering an untimely offseason that makes the 2024 season a failure. Despite some bleak playoff hopes that emerged after Cooper Rush managed to win four of his five starts from weeks 12 to 16, the notion that the start of the offseason would be the most welcome sight for this team has been around from nearly the start of the season. This was not a team fielded to be competitive at a level consistent with the 12 wins earned in the previous three seasons. Now, the laundry list of reasons why that was the case are about to be under the microscope for months on end, and there is nothing a preseason-esque season finale against the Commanders can do about it.
In fact, the Cowboys already provided a small glimpse into what activity will look like in the offseason earlier this week, where roster moves and coaching changes are all that’s happening. It came at a position close to the forefront of reasons this team regressed so much in 2024. The Cowboys released RB Ezekiel Elliott, ending his second stint in Dallas before it could technically complete another full season. Elliott had not carried the ball more than 10 times or rushed for over 30 yards since a week eight loss at the 49ers, which dropped the Cowboys to 3-4 and ultimately sealed their fate as a losing team. It was the second of what ended up being five straight losses, and the last full game for QB Dak Prescott, both of which Dallas never recovered from at any point. In the Cowboys’ only wins against playoff teams or those still in contention (@WAS, @PIT, and vs. TB), Elliott carried the ball a total of ten times and averaged 2.4 yards per carry.
Even by the low expectations set for Elliott based on one year in New England playing for an offense devoid of any surrounding talent, the Cowboys having to admit re-signing a former top five draft pick was a crippling move for their run game is a harsh reality. Not only does it come wildly too late to do anything about the results of this season, but it is also another version of a late admittance that Rico Dowdle should be the top option out of the backfield.
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The only good things the Cowboys could take from their last eight games started by Rush is evaluation of the entire roster for the future. Playing just one game where the idea of Dowdle coming off the field to waste plays for Elliott is out of the question shows that they haven’t been fully aligned in this evaluation process, but is at least a small step in the right direction of getting back on track. Nobody is denying the Cowboys getting better running the ball in 2025 is one of the clearest areas in need of improvement, whether that’s with a first-round talent like Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty or a more economical choice. The team’s opportunity to evaluate the future of their passing game has obviously been hindered since losing the highest paid QB in the league. The Cowboys also got a glimpse of their wide receivers playing without top dog CeeDee Lamb in Philadelphia, and the results can’t make the end of this 2024 campaign come soon enough.
This leaves the run game as the last aspect of the offense that might actually be worth watching closely against the Commanders. Not only because it will be another featured game for Rico Dowdle, but because Dowdle can expect to receive handoffs from Trey Lance instead of Cooper Rush at some point. It was reported on Friday that the Cowboys’ third string QB is expected to play more than he has all season to close out the year. The Cowboys have once again seen enough from Rush to feel comfortable with him as Prescott’s primary backup, and now seemingly want to get some final looks at Lance – in case he has any future prospects in Dallas. Lance will be a free agent after the season, meaning the Cowboys would have to use this meaningless Commanders game as well as seven other pass attempts from earlier in the year to decide if bringing him back makes any sense.
With the combination of Lance’s mobility and ability to attack defenses on the edge and Dowdle’s quick burst running between the tackles, the Cowboys may find some answers here against an aggressive Dan Quinn lead Washington defense. The Commanders are coming off an overtime win at home against the Falcons where opposing quarterback Michael Penix and running back Bijan Robinson were able to keep the defense off balanced in a similar way. Robinson finished the game with 90 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries. In the Cowboys’ previous win at the Commanders, Dowdle carried 19 times for 86 yards.
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The Cowboys aren’t likely to change their entire ‘bread and butter’ on offense moving forward to be a read-option type team in their approach to running the ball, not after seeing Prescott suffer a season ending injury in year one of his new lucrative contract. In a season where just about everything on this side of the ball has looked incredibly difficult though, even the smallest flashes of Lance and Dowdle getting something going against the Commanders would be welcome. It should be a reminder that the overall goal of finding more easy yards and touches for the best players consistently needs to be a top priority in all that’s accomplished this offseason. Whether that’s coaching changes, play-calling changes, or sweeping personnel changes, the Cowboys will watch the NFC playoffs begin from their couch with teams capable of lighting up scoreboards because of their own inability here. The Cowboys are averaging 20.7 points per game this season. The lowest-seeded NFC playoff team at the moment, the Green Bay Packers, are one of five NFC playoff teams in the top ten in the entire league in points per game with 27.4.
Even in a year where everything that could be broken was broken for the Cowboys, their only saving grace was handing the reins to Dowdle at midseason and establishing the slightest semblance of an identity because of it. The offense could stay on the field long enough to force opponents to occasionally chase points and face game pressure with their own offenses, leading to pass rush opportunities for Micah Parsons and the defense which helped Mike Zimmer’s unit flourish.
If improvements in the run game sparked by an undrafted player in his fifth year can help turn around a season where a full blown “tear it down and start over” rebuild was seemingly the only way forward, the Cowboys investing further resources to continue building here could be an even quicker way to get this team back in the playoff picture starting in 2025. Dallas has already taken their season-long lumps of breaking in two rookie starters along the offensive line in left tackle Tyler Guyton and center Cooper Beebe. Maximizing whatever second-year jump they get from these players by either committing to the pending free agent Dowdle long term, or bringing him back on a team-friendly deal and playing him in a tandem that doesn’t include Ezekiel Elliott, are options the Cowboys will have to consider after seeing Dowdle and Lance try to command the offense on Sunday.
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The Cowboys will face several of their former players for the second time this season against the Commanders, with the likes of Tyler Biadasz (although doubtful because of injury), Dante Fowler and Dorance Armstrong all following Quinn to the nation’s capital. Many of these players have had career years and helped Washington get back to the playoffs, a big proving point that the Cowboys’ own free agent approach failed in comparison to give them the same chance. Dallas’ argument against this may very well be tired and cause for eye rolls across the fanbase, but this is a team that has still found reasons to believe in their own player development and acquisition process even in a highly tumultuous season. There is no better example of this than Rico Dowdle going from special teams player to top running back on the short list of players still with something to prove in the final week of the season for the Cowboys.
