Between last offseason, the 2024 season that saw the Dallas Cowboys finish a distant third to the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders in the NFC East, and the beginning of this current offseason, the Cowboys fan experience hasn’t been the most joyous endeavor for a long period of time now. This is well understood in all of the criticism the franchise has rightfully drawn.

Their response to this wave of negativity so far has been shaking up the coaching staff all the way from the top down, replacing Mike McCarthy with Brian Schottenheimer as head coach and hiring new offensive and defensive coordinators Klayton Adams and Matt Eberflus. The Cowboys have also replaced last year’s disingenuous “all in” mantra with a new “selectively aggressive” mindset, something they’ve shown slightly already by getting a new contract done early with defensive cog Osa Odighizuwa, beginning negotiations with Micah Parsons, and restructuring both CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott. None of these moves so far have reinvigorated the fanbase entirely, especially not with Kellen Moore and the Eagles being Super Bowl champions and – much more recently – the Dan Quinn led Commanders trading just a fifth-round pick for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel.

The Commanders made this move out of seemingly nowhere and snuck in a subtle jab that teams truly looking to get better can do so at any time, at a moment’s notice. This is a lesson the Cowboys have refused to learn under the current front office. All of their offseason moves so far still point to keeping things relatively status quo and lining things up for the draft to be their lottery draw’s chance at changing fortunes. One look at the amount of holes on the Cowboys current roster is all that’s needed to see that putting more faith than needed in lottery tickets isn’t the best idea.

This whole picture created a reaction to the Samuel trade from Cowboys faithful that opened up old wounds and was just the latest opportunity to point out how behind this team is. Wide receiver remains a pressing need for the Cowboys, Samuel was a part of four straight wins for the 49ers against the Cowboys including two in the playoffs starting his rookie season, and now Jayden Daniels has yet another weapon to build on a tremendous rookie season.

I’ll be the first to admit that my reaction fell into this same line of thinking when the notification came across that of all teams, a Cowboys rival was the one benefitting from the end of the drama between Samuel and his original team the 49ers. Samuel is a plus scheme fit in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense and needed support for Terry McLaurin in the current Commanders offense. He is capable of lining up all over the field, feasting on the yards after the catch opportunities that made Daniels so dynamic as a rookie, and bringing veteran experience to a team looking to build off a surprise trip to the NFC Championship game.

With Washington also only giving up a fifth-round pick for Samuel, the comparison was immediately easy to make back to the Cowboys late season trade for Jonathan Mingo. Dallas traded away this year’s fourth-round pick for a receiver that caught five passes for 46 yards in eight games. He never played more than 50% of the team’s offensive snaps in any of his appearances with the Cowboys, despite being out of the playoff picture and without their starting quarterback. The Cowboys will be counting on bringing Mingo through the offseason program to help grow his role going into his first full season with the team, as well as his scheme fit in Schottenheimer’s offense being more of a positive compared to Mike McCarthy’s.

Such is the crux of where the Cowboys should actually be complimented for getting back to the football side of their operation at the start of the Schottenheimer era. In a limited sample size that will need to expand in free agency, the draft, and potentially the trade market, the Cowboys are cutting through the noise and prioritizing specific scheme fits their new coaches are looking for. The prioritization of the Odighizuwa deal can be accredited to the Cowboys being extremely thin elsewhere at defensive tackle, but also how much new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus values the 3-tech position Odighizuwa plays and had a career high 4.5 sacks at last season. Schottenheimer’s vision for more “cut splits” (i.e. tight formations and targeting receivers out of the slot) could be the most beneficial thing for Mingo to actually live up to the fourth-round pick price tag as a big, lanky receiver with an above average catch radius.

Somewhere under the avalanche of comparisons that came out after the Super Bowl between the champion Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, the club is actually resembling one important aspect from the team that reclaimed the division from them and parlayed it into a Lombardi trophy. Where the Eagles know precisely the type of players they are looking for to fit their specific schemes, and are willing to pay nearly anything to get them, the Cowboys are laying this ground work to understand the players their new staff wants and prioritizing it. Schottenheimer’s staff coming together quickly ahead of the Senior Bowl and other key draft process dates was an impressive bit of work here to give the Cowboys some advantage.

None of this comes with the guarantee that this will be the staff that gets the Cowboys back to championship glory, but if the Cowboys aren’t at least operating with this goal in mind, it would only confirm the worst possible suspicions about how winning between the lines takes a backseat in Dallas. There are no guarantees today, tomorrow, or anytime in the NFL.

The Cowboys are often criticized for not making every possible move like the Samuel trade, not signing every free agent, or being interested in all ways of upgrading the roster 24/7. While the intent behind this criticism is fair compared to how the Cowboys actually operate, teams that are truly this reactionary rarely have as much success as those with regimented plans like the Eagles. The time for the Cowboys deliverance and patience to go from something of a positive right now to a potential negative if the first wave of free agency comes and goes without any signings is rapidly approaching, but for now they are at least taking steps to show that sitting at 7-10 and third in the NFC East is unacceptable.

If the secret is fully out of the bag by now that “all in” was effectively declaring a rebuild in 2024, this process is ongoing under Schottenheimer and will require patience from Cowboys fans that can only be earned if the team continues to make smart moves and add complementary players at positions with already established talent. The team met with top wide receivers Tetairoa McMillan, Isaiah Bond, and Matthew Golden at the combine, all are potential weapons to alleviate pressure off of Lamb. Helping Dak Prescott with a strong run game again is one of the most viable reasons Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is the most popular mock draft pick to Dallas, who also met with four other running backs at the combine.

This roster needs a lot of work, but the Cowboys are showing bit by bit they are willing to do the work, and with an eternity until all of us find out if it results in wins on the field or not, this is as good a sign as any for early March.