The Cowboys have a lot of work to do if they want to catch the Eagles.
It’s time for the Dallas Cowboys to get back to work. After the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night, the book is finally closed on the 2024 NFL season.
The Eagles dominated the Chiefs in every facet of the game, looking like the superior team at nearly every position all night. If the Cowboys want any shot of getting their moment of glory, they will need to chase down the ultra-talented Eagles, who aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
If the Cowboys want to do just that and dethrone the current Super Bowl champs next year, here are three moves they must make this offseason.
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1) Add a legit number two wide receiver
If the Cowboys are smart, their number one priority this offseason should be adding a capable wide receiver to pair with All-Pro CeeDee Lamb. Dallas’ offense lacked firepower last season, which was evident even when Dak Prescott and most of the team were healthy.
Outside of Lamb, it’s clear no one on the Cowboys’ current roster is capable of being a legit number two receiver at this point in time. Jalen Tolbert has shown flashes of potential but has been far too inconsistent to rely on to fulfill that role. Dallas’ other wideouts on the roster, KaVontae Turpin, Jonathan Mingo, and Jalen Brooks, are all more of a fourth or fifth receiver rather than a top target on an offense.
No matter how they have to do it, the Cowboys need to come out of this offseason with a talented wideout that can help bring some much-needed explosiveness to their offense. If the Cowboys look to the draft to accomplish this task, they could spend their first-round selection on a wide receiver like Tetairoa McMillan or Emeka Egbuka. Both would be significant upgrades to Dallas’ offense.
The draft isn’t the only place the Cowboys could find themselves a new offensive weapon. If Dallas decides to realize free agency actually does exist and finally commits to spending on some outside free agents, there will be a couple of difference-making wide receivers in this year’s free agent class. The Cowboys could target someone like Marquise Brown, who is coming off an injury-plagued season with the Chiefs, and give him a high-paying one-year deal to prove his value and hit the market again next spring.
Overall, the Cowboys need to do whatever it takes to add another talented receiver to their offense in the coming months.
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2) Re-sign impending free agents Jourdan Lewis and Osa Odighizuwa
The Cowboys have plenty of key players set to hit free agency this March, but Jourdan Lewis and Osa Odighizuwa both had career years last season and were clearly two of the five best-performing players on Dallas’ entire roster.
Dallas cannot afford to lose either player, mainly due to the state of the position group on the current roster. At cornerback, Dallas has three players, DaRon Bland, Calen Carson, and Trevon Diggs, under contract for the 2025 season. Diggs’ late-season injury will likely force him to miss at least the first half of the regular season, making it imperative that Dallas retains veteran Lewis to give them another reliable option in their secondary.
At defensive tackle, if the Cowboys were to let Odighizuwa walk, they would instantly become arguably the weakest single position group in the entire NFL. Outside of Mazi Smith, who has been a big disappointment to this point of his career, the Cowboys don’t have a single other defensive tackle on their roster who is capable of being a starter.
It may be costly, but the Cowboys need to do whatever it takes to ensure Lewis and Odighizuwa are still wearing a star on their helmet next fall.
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3) Find affordable depth options in free agency
One thing that became very clear during the 2024 season was that the Cowboys’ lack of roster depth ended up being a huge issue. While Dallas may have one of the most talented rosters in the NFL, one to ten, they lack depth down the line that is needed if a team wants to win a Super Bowl.
If you look at the Eagles’ 2024 roster, they are by far the deepest team in the league. Philadelphia had at least 2-3 quality players at nearly every position group. The Cowboys don’t have that, and they’ll need to find some affordable depth options in free agency this spring if they want to be taken as a serious contender.
Last offseason, the Cowboys signed veteran linebacker Eric Kendricks to a one-year, $3M deal. That turned out to be a great signing as the 32-year-old turned out to be a productive player on Dallas’ defense. Deals like that one are what Dallas will need to pursue this spring.
It does not have to be signing a big-name free agent to a huge contract, but the Cowboys absolutely must be more active in free agency, mainly focusing on finding affordable depth pieces to fill out the bottom half of their roster.
