Ok, here we go.
It appears that a team that has put together 36 regular-season wins over the last three seasons is really going to enter its next campaign with the head coach and quarterback both on the final year of their contracts. Jerry Jones and Dak Prescott are exchanging light barbs through the media. Micah Parsons is having to defend his podcast, which I’m sure won’t be a topic next offseason when he engages in his own holdout. Everything is fine.
There is a tendency among sports media and fans to exaggerate the plight of the Cowboys. Certainly, Jones contributes to this framing. But we all have to admit it: it is poetic, maddening, and hilarious that only one team has won more games than the Cowboys over the last three seasons under Mike McCarthy. He is verifiably a very good coach; Prescott is regarded as a consensus top-10 quarterback. Yet here they both are, forced into a situation to produce at a level that will dictate the next stage of their careers. Why wouldn’t the talking heads zero in on this organization? It’s like the subjects were created in a lab to frustrate some and delight others.
I don’t think I’ve ever followed a team whose regular season matters less to most people than this iteration of the Cowboys. Apathy and cynicism are at record highs. Week to week, we will learn things, analyze things, get excited and discouraged by things. But unless this team ends up in the conference championship game, the overwhelming majority of those following will say it was a failed endeavor. And I suppose they would be correct. This organization has a duality to it: the bar is ridiculously high not just because of its history, but also because of regular-season success. Yet we set that bar at an elevated level with no indication it is attainable.
This duality informs the decision-making of the front office. It’s not sold on McCarthy or Prescott, regardless of what might be said. If Jerry and his crew were, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I believe the general manager generally takes a loss in almost every personnel decision he engages in. But I don’t think this is a case of “playing hardball.” This is a team that isn’t sure about its coach or its quarterback.
There are relatively objective metrics we can look at to support the notion the Cowboys are a competent football team. The wins are what they are. Pro Football Focus gave the team the fourth-best overall grade last season. PFF grades aren’t the end-all, be-all, but unbiased observers look at this team and conclude, “Pretty good.” There isn’t a metric out there that wouldn’t indicate the Cowboys are title contenders, despite never really threatening to contend.
The truth is, I have no idea why this is the case. It is common to point to the Jones family culture. But why would that only emerge in the postseason? How is it possible that a team can absolutely dominate its competition until January, then fall asleep at the wheel when it matters most? I don’t believe in curses. But I’m starting to.
The draft process has mostly been fruitful for this team. The Cowboys are about to start two rookie offensive linemen, and I don’t even have much of a concern on that front. The proof is there. They will have to weather the storm of not having DaRon Bland for the next handful of weeks, but I trust that Caelan Carson can fill in admirably because Bland did it before him. Dallas has earned the benefit of the doubt there; the scouts and player personnel people know what they’re doing. No one has a 100 percent hit rate. But I would put the Cowboys’ draft process and results up against any team in the league.
All that I can come up with is this: the club makes the lights brighter than they need to be. And that has a real effect on athletes. If you consider the last two teams that sent the Cowboys home, the 49ers and Packers, it isn’t like they lack history and expectations. They didn’t lose to the Lions or Falcons. Other teams have the weight of history on them, and they perform up to their regular-season standards. Dallas does not.
So here we are, frustrated by the results and frustrated with the front office for not affirming our beliefs that the power structure (general manager withstanding) should not be fighting for their jobs. It seems as if the consensus regarding the 2024 Dallas Cowboys is, “I don’t know.” Which is wild! They have a top-10 quarterback, a top-five edge rusher, a top-five wide receiver. They have allocated resources and draft capital in a way that makes sense. They have developed their talent. They have retained their stars, however painstaking it has been.
It is a little hard to say it’s just “the bounce of the ball” when you get destroyed by a first-year starting quarterback in the postseason. Flat out, this team has not shown up in the playoffs for three straight years. No fight, outcoached, unprepared. And because of that, no one really cares until that wrong is righted. It doesn’t make sense. Except it does.
And here’s the crazy part: I believe this team has enough to make a serious playoff run. Why not? It is highly unlikely the Cowboys will fall flat on their face and miss the postseason. No one wants to hear this, but it is more likely that they make a deep playoff run than miss January altogether. This would come with a punchline—Prescott would become more expensive. Parsons would become more expensive. The Jones family would count this as some sort of twisted win, even though the drama could have been averted at several stages.
We’re going to do this every year, until we don’t. The hope was that the McCarthy/Prescott/Lamb/Parsons regime would be different from Garrett/Romo/Dez/Ware. Thus far, it hasn’t been. This year might be the final attempt at proving that it can be. The table is set for massive success or massive turnover. There is very little middle ground. That might sound dramatic. But however you look at it, this is a franchise-defining season for the Dallas Cowboys. However it plays out, at least we’ll finally get some answers.
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