Moves the Cowboys can copy from the Eagles.
When you look at organizations, the Dallas Cowboys are not the Philadelphia Eagles. They operate very differently, and with the success of the Eagles, it’s hard not to get caught up in wanting the Cowboys to be more like their divisional foe. Call it frustration or call it being green with envy. Whatever it is, fans want something different.
So, let’s talk about that. Let’s imagine Jerry Jones is in a cold dark room somewhere steaming over not having what the Eagles have. Pretend he wants to win really bad and would consider changing his approach to give his team a real shot. Whether that’s a hypothetical you can wrap your mind around, that’s what we’re doing today. Without getting too crazy and creating scenarios beyond disbelief, what can the Cowboys do this offseason that would give them a better chance of reaching the Super Bowl?
Be active in free agency
Free agency is a fickle beast. It’s not the best way to spend cap resources because more times than not, what a team pays for is not what a team gets. If a player is worth their weight in gold, they usually are retained by their original team. If their team doesn’t see it that way, that player will hit the market and go to the highest bidder. In short, free agency is a losing endeavor.
That said, it has its place. Some purchases prove valuable. The goal is to make the right purchases. Last offseason, the Eagles’ three most expensive free agent acquisitions were:
- Bryce Huff, EDGE – three years, $51 million
- Saquon Barkley, RB – three years, $38 million
- Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, S – three years, $27 million
That’s $116 million for three years of service from those players. It would equate to roughly $39 million per season, but as we know the Eagles will put a lot of that cost on their tab. When you look at what they got compared to what they paid for, this again points to the wasteful investment of free agency, even with the home run signing of Barkley included.
But that’s okay. In this hypothetical, we are accepting the losses. Remember, we just want the Cowboys to try harder. And it doesn’t have to be over $100 million thrown at free agency. What about half that? What about one or two semi-pricy outside free agents to add to the roster that would address areas of weakness? If you could cut a check for a couple of those players, who would you sign?
Maybe you want to blow it all on one impact player like signing WR Chris Godwin for around $25 million a year and package him with CeeDee Lamb. Doesn’t that sound delightful?
Or maybe you want to spread the money around and sign Eagles DT Milton Williams for $12 per year to strengthen the interior defensive line and sign Vikings RB Aaron Jones for $6 million per year to help bolster the running game.
What the Cowboys do aren’t likely to be the moves we want them to make, and most free agents signed will come with depreciation, but again, that’s fine. We know that. Right or wrong, fans just want the Cowboys to do something.
Retain their own
This one is also a little tricky. Every year, the Cowboys watch a new crop of free agents leave Dallas for a bigger payday elsewhere. And in almost every instance, the Cowboys were wise to let that happen. That’s not to say that players like Dalton Schultz, Tony Pollard, Tyler Biadasz, or Dorance Armstrong are bad players. They’re not. They’re solid. But the Cowboys were smart to let them walk. When you look at their cost compared to their replacements, it’s a huge amount of savings compared to what they are getting from players like Jake Ferguson, Rico Dowdle, Cooper Beebe, and Carl Lawson.
But instead of just letting a player leave for an overpriced contract, why not pay the overpriced contract themselves? A player like Osa Odighizuwa is a valuable asset. He will be harder to replace than the other guys mentioned above. He should command a hefty deal worth nearly $20 million per season, but so what? Just structure it to push the cap hit into future years so it’s tomorrow’s problem.
There are a handful of players the Cowboys should consider hanging on to. Chauncey Golston came on strong last year, Jourdan Lewis is coming off his best season as a pro, and let’s not forget how big of a force DeMarcus Lawrence was when he was on the field. If the Cowboys want to avoid the pitfalls of free agency, then maybe the wise thing to do is to re-up on some of their own guys instead of watching them leave and scrambling to fill the gaps.
Re-sign players early
The Cowboys front office is heavily criticized for waiting too long to sign their own players. The narrative is that they procrastinate and don’t have a good sense of what players are worth, which ultimately ends up costing them more in the long run. That’s a damaging accusation towards a team that claims to be about saving as much as they can so they can have more pie for others.
There is an alternate universe, however, where they actually do know what they’re doing and where agents won’t allow their clients to be undercut just because a team wants to move early. And while most moves happen when they’re supposed to happen, in this hypothetical we want the Cowboys to act with a greater sense of urgency.
What this means is the Cowboys should play DaRon Bland’s asking price right now. Whatever it is, just do it. It will have the appearance of saving money because it’s early. If they want to keep Jake Ferguson, better do it now before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2026. And what about Brock Hoffman? He’s an exclusive rights free agent this year, so he’ll be around next season, but why not roll the dice and pay the price of what his agent believes he will be worth?
Yes, there is risk here, and yes, any of these deals will require pushing money into void years because the salary cap is a real thing that must be finagled, but it’s doable. The Cowboys just have to do it.
Are these the type of moves you want to see the Cowboys make? What are some of your favorite examples that you believe would help this team’s chances the most?
