Alternate Reality

[Praxit]

..did you see how bad Rush was?? ..lol. At least with Dak we have a shot. Not saying he's the guy, but we at least get to swing the ball.

 

[Pass2Run]

This contract was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Dak is a decent personality, no trouble, no drama, it's just that he can't deliver, and maybe some of that is because he plays for the Dallas carnival act.

I don't have a problem with Dak the person, in fact i think Dak is a better person to play QB for Dallas than Romo was, but what good is any of that without a SB victory.

This contract was the straw that broke the camel's back because the signing was vanity, futility. Add in a no trade clause and the contract became harmful.

The FO just rinses and repeats, and that won't bring home the SB trophy.

Dak is a good dude. Good QB, just like Romo. The problem has been statistical probability, a terrible call in 2016, bad play-calling/game prep vs San Fran and positional match up issues recently.

Also, we need dominant players, especially on the defensive line.

My strategy this draft would be to put as many good players around Parsons to help him succeed. Part of the reason he fades down the stretch is that he has to do it all by himself. Hasn't been much help.

Bolster the middle of the d-line and we can contend. We have good pass rushers, but you usually have to stop the run for them to do their thing.

 

[Denim Chicken]

So lastly you wanting to get rid of Prescott because you don't like his ceiling well I hope you like 5 to 10 years of being worse you must love really high draft picks and think that you could just rebuild the team overnight no sometimes that can happen where you get lucky but most of the time you're looking for a quarterback like The Jets and the Browns and other teams have for decades and they turn around and do what they trade for guys like Prescott overpay for Wilson and overpay for Deshaun Watson both in draft picks and money I mean at least we homegrown paid Prescott we didn't have to give up any draft picks you guys are just really not understanding how this works.

Yes, finding a franchise quarterback is hard—every NFL fan knows that. But what's often overlooked is the cost of holding on too long to the wrong one.

Look at the teams that had the guts to move on:

• Philadelphia moved on from Carson Wentz despite his MVP-caliber season in 2017. Two years later, they’re back in the Super Bowl with Jalen Hurts.
• Kansas City had a winning record and playoff appearances with Alex Smith—but they made the bold call to hand the reins to Patrick Mahomes. Now they’re a dynasty.
• Detroit traded Matthew Stafford after 12 seasons. He immediately won a Super Bowl with the Rams, and the Lions also got better by rebuilding around Jared Goff and new talent.

You often hear about teams like the Browns or Jets always looking for a QB. But there’s another trap: teams that refuse to admit it's time to pivot. The result? Years of mediocrity. Quarterback purgatory.

Obviously we cannot turn back the clock and we're at where we're at, but I don't buy the argument that you're definitely going to have 5-10 years of being worse. You could be better the next year.

 

[JW82]

I can’t help but keep thinking about the alternate position we’d be in if the Cowboys had simply chosen not to re-sign Dak to that long-term deal in 2024.

In that scenario, Dak is likely gone—no shortage of QB-needy teams would have picked him up, no doubt. We’re left with a $40 million dead cap hit and maybe a 3rd-round compensatory pick. It’s possible we lost a few more games, but that only improves our draft position.

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders (or virtually anyone not named Cam Ward), and there were also a handful of cheaper veteran free agents we could’ve signed to bridge the gap.

The cap situation wouldn’t be drastically better in 2025, but looking ahead? Much more flexibility. Sure, you’re gambling on the uncertainty of upgrading the QB spot—but you're also opening the door to a true fresh start.

So ask yourself: which position would you rather be in? If you believe in Dak, maybe letting a “franchise QB” walk is unthinkable. But if you’re like me—jaded by the ceiling of his play—then maybe this timeline isn’t the crazy one.

Maybe this is the alternate reality.

They have plenty of cap money so his contract is irrelevant.

 

[CyberB0b]

I can’t help but keep thinking about the alternate position we’d be in if the Cowboys had simply chosen not to re-sign Dak to that long-term deal in 2024.

In that scenario, Dak is likely gone—no shortage of QB-needy teams would have picked him up, no doubt. We’re left with a $40 million dead cap hit and maybe a 3rd-round compensatory pick. It’s possible we lost a few more games, but that only improves our draft position.

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders (or virtually anyone not named Cam Ward), and there were also a handful of cheaper veteran free agents we could’ve signed to bridge the gap.

The cap situation wouldn’t be drastically better in 2025, but looking ahead? Much more flexibility. Sure, you’re gambling on the uncertainty of upgrading the QB spot—but you're also opening the door to a true fresh start.

So ask yourself: which position would you rather be in? If you believe in Dak, maybe letting a “franchise QB” walk is unthinkable. But if you’re like me—jaded by the ceiling of his play—then maybe this timeline isn’t the crazy one.

Maybe this is the alternate reality.

The fact is you can't win in this league without a QB. That's why mediocre guys like Dak still get paid top dollar. You can still win with a mediocre QB, you just need a great GM to build a good team around them. Either way, the fans lose, because Jerry in incapable of building a winning team.

 

[Established1971]

I

I can’t help but keep thinking about the alternate position we’d be in if the Cowboys had simply chosen not to re-sign Dak to that long-term deal in 2024.

In that scenario, Dak is likely gone—no shortage of QB-needy teams would have picked him up, no doubt. We’re left with a $40 million dead cap hit and maybe a 3rd-round compensatory pick. It’s possible we lost a few more games, but that only improves our draft position.

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders (or virtually anyone not named Cam Ward), and there were also a handful of cheaper veteran free agents we could’ve signed to bridge the gap.

The cap situation wouldn’t be drastically better in 2025, but looking ahead? Much more flexibility. Sure, you’re gambling on the uncertainty of upgrading the QB spot—but you're also opening the door to a true fresh start.

So ask yourself: which position would you rather be in? If you believe in Dak, maybe letting a “franchise QB” walk is unthinkable. But if you’re like me—jaded by the ceiling of his play—then maybe this timeline isn’t the crazy one.

Maybe this is the alternate reality.

I think if they didnt resign Dak they would have done something last year at the position and your whole equation above would be altered

 

[BoyzBlaster]

I can’t help but keep thinking about the alternate position we’d be in if the Cowboys had simply chosen not to re-sign Dak to that long-term deal in 2024.

In that scenario, Dak is likely gone—no shortage of QB-needy teams would have picked him up, no doubt. We’re left with a $40 million dead cap hit and maybe a 3rd-round compensatory pick. It’s possible we lost a few more games, but that only improves our draft position.

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders (or virtually anyone not named Cam Ward), and there were also a handful of cheaper veteran free agents we could’ve signed to bridge the gap.

The cap situation wouldn’t be drastically better in 2025, but looking ahead? Much more flexibility. Sure, you’re gambling on the uncertainty of upgrading the QB spot—but you're also opening the door to a true fresh start.

So ask yourself: which position would you rather be in? If you believe in Dak, maybe letting a “franchise QB” walk is unthinkable. But if you’re like me—jaded by the ceiling of his play—then maybe this timeline isn’t the crazy one.

Maybe this is the alternate reality.

Someday maybe we will do what winners do and take a chance on a highly drafted QB.

 

[Acceptablename]

I can’t help but keep thinking about the alternate position we’d be in if the Cowboys had simply chosen not to re-sign Dak to that long-term deal in 2024.

In that scenario, Dak is likely gone—no shortage of QB-needy teams would have picked him up, no doubt. We’re left with a $40 million dead cap hit and maybe a 3rd-round compensatory pick. It’s possible we lost a few more games, but that only improves our draft position.

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders (or virtually anyone not named Cam Ward), and there were also a handful of cheaper veteran free agents we could’ve signed to bridge the gap.

The cap situation wouldn’t be drastically better in 2025, but looking ahead? Much more flexibility. Sure, you’re gambling on the uncertainty of upgrading the QB spot—but you're also opening the door to a true fresh start.

So ask yourself: which position would you rather be in? If you believe in Dak, maybe letting a “franchise QB” walk is unthinkable. But if you’re like me—jaded by the ceiling of his play—then maybe this timeline isn’t the crazy one.

Maybe this is the alternate reality.

I cannot explain my mild discount with Dak but it's there.It's not the losses or injuries. After season one the expectations were too high and each year disappointments snowed. I defended him for Embarrassingly long. he will not take us the promiseland. That is all.

 

[blueblood70]

T

Yes, finding a franchise quarterback is hard—every NFL fan knows that. But what's often overlooked is the cost of holding on too long to the wrong one.

Look at the teams that had the guts to move on:

• Philadelphia moved on from Carson Wentz despite his MVP-caliber season in 2017. Two years later, they’re back in the Super Bowl with Jalen Hurts.
• Kansas City had a winning record and playoff appearances with Alex Smith—but they made the bold call to hand the reins to Patrick Mahomes. Now they’re a dynasty.
• Detroit traded Matthew Stafford after 12 seasons. He immediately won a Super Bowl with the Rams, and the Lions also got better by rebuilding around Jared Goff and new talent.

You often hear about teams like the Browns or Jets always looking for a QB. But there’s another trap: teams that refuse to admit it's time to pivot. The result? Years of mediocrity. Quarterback purgatory.

Obviously we cannot turn back the clock and we're at where we're at, but I don't buy the argument that you're definitely going to have 5-10 years of being worse. You could be better the next year.

TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Late Let me break it to you in the OP this is not an alternate reality there is no time machine so can we stop harping on it and that is not a trap there's more teams than just the Browns and the Jets Denver did it too, denver overpaid because they couldn't find a young guy so they used expensive draft picks and then hand Russell Wilson a huge contract and then EAT $89,000,000, finally after decades of doing that trying to recreate the Manning trade, they finally may have a quarterback? maybe Nix is if. We shall see.

how long ago was that when they started that process and finally got young, drafted player to work out?

do we need to go back to that actual reality, there's a lot of other teams doing the same thing.. There is more than half the league that has been in that dreaded like circle they can't get out of it, hey look Big Ben ,we can't find a quarterback, by the time they find a quarterback, they have nothing else..

So there's two sides to this I would have been ok last year if they'd have blew it all up that means all of them, not one single fan favorite could remain, we needed to trade them all, and let them all walk ,so with no Dak that also means; no lamb; no partisans; no diggs and you just start breaking the pieces up even a blockbuster trade for Tyler Smith...​

​

If you want to do this you do it right really start at the bottom, really have some real bad years in the next three years plus, to get everything you can off of your books on the salary cap, no dead cap money, no big contracts coming up,and you start at the bottom drafting high. Locate a QB than it begins to surround him with players..​

​

You can't have it both ways you can't just get rid of Prescott and then keep lamb and keep digs and resign Parsons resign Tyler Smith blah blah blah​

​

no it's one or the other and I would have been okay if they completely blew it up in one of the start over but they didn't once they signed lamb everybody knows the rest of the dominoes were going to follow.. So strap it on because we live in the real world we have Prescott and now we need to try to do something in the next 2 to 3 years and then we can revisit the blow it all up and rebuild....​

 

[Bagman]

I can’t help but keep thinking about the alternate position we’d be in if the Cowboys had simply chosen not to re-sign Dak to that long-term deal in 2024.

In that scenario, Dak is likely gone—no shortage of QB-needy teams would have picked him up, no doubt. We’re left with a $40 million dead cap hit and maybe a 3rd-round compensatory pick. It’s possible we lost a few more games, but that only improves our draft position.

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders (or virtually anyone not named Cam Ward), and there were also a handful of cheaper veteran free agents we could’ve signed to bridge the gap.

The cap situation wouldn’t be drastically better in 2025, but looking ahead? Much more flexibility. Sure, you’re gambling on the uncertainty of upgrading the QB spot—but you're also opening the door to a true fresh start.

So ask yourself: which position would you rather be in? If you believe in Dak, maybe letting a “franchise QB” walk is unthinkable. But if you’re like me—jaded by the ceiling of his play—then maybe this timeline isn’t the crazy one.

Maybe this is the alternate reality.

Great post. I've been in the same place as you. Wondering if we weren't hogtied by that horrible contract. Truth is, we've already seen the ceiling of this team. We should have been dismantling it but our FO is too worried about ticket sales, not building a champion

 

[Denim Chicken]

You can't have it both ways you can't just get rid of Prescott and then keep lamb and keep digs and resign Parsons resign Tyler Smith blah blah blah

I mean, I don't know why you couldn't. Not a lot of teams do full blow ups now.

Anyway, like I said it is what it is and where at where we're at.

 

[Flamma]

I can’t help but keep thinking about the alternate position we’d be in if the Cowboys had simply chosen not to re-sign Dak to that long-term deal in 2024.

In that scenario, Dak is likely gone—no shortage of QB-needy teams would have picked him up, no doubt. We’re left with a $40 million dead cap hit and maybe a 3rd-round compensatory pick. It’s possible we lost a few more games, but that only improves our draft position.

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders (or virtually anyone not named Cam Ward), and there were also a handful of cheaper veteran free agents we could’ve signed to bridge the gap.

The cap situation wouldn’t be drastically better in 2025, but looking ahead? Much more flexibility. Sure, you’re gambling on the uncertainty of upgrading the QB spot—but you're also opening the door to a true fresh start.

So ask yourself: which position would you rather be in? If you believe in Dak, maybe letting a “franchise QB” walk is unthinkable. But if you’re like me—jaded by the ceiling of his play—then maybe this timeline isn’t the crazy one.

Maybe this is the alternate reality.

I was against resigning Dak, so you know what situation I'd rather be in. But I'm not crazy about this QB draft class. I'm not sure I'd want to use a high end 1st round pick on one of these guys. Maybe take a shot at one in the 2nd.

In the alternate scenario, I'd go with Milton this year, that should put us in good draft position next year.

 

[Killerinstinct]

I would take this "what if" back earlier and think about what we could have been if we simply traded him when he played hardball with his first big contract. Instead of signing him to the franchise tag and negotiating they should have traded him then before it was completely assured that he was a bottom tier starter.

 

[movaughn88]

We enter the 2025 Draft with Will Grier and Joe Milton in the QB room—hardly inspiring, but Milton is at least a prospect. We’d have had a legitimate shot at drafting Shedeur Sanders

Says it all. This doesn't work in the NFL.

The alternate reality is Jerry signed Dak a year earlier for $45M and we'd be in a better spot.

 

[GMO415]

Jerry can't walk away from a QB. From Aikman to Romo, it was up to the QB to walk. He won't cut Dak loose either. Its his M/O.

 

[HungryLion]

Its not hindsight for many of us and this was our preferred route.

I was a Dak guy for years and this was also my preferred route. They should have moved on when they had the chance.

 

[bsbellomy]

Anybody who thinks letting your "franchise" quarterback walk is unthinkable.
I will pay for your full mental exam.

The Cowboys offense was at least as good or better with crap QB Cooper Rush as they were with Dak, let that sink in and see if you still wanna argue Dak is a "franchise" QB

 

[john van brocklin]

All depends on who the jones boys decide to replace him with. Given their track record, it could easily be a Jonny football, Paxton Lynch, Trey Lance quality QB (all of which they have expressed high interest of drafting (or traded for). Given Jerry's expressed interest in those 3, hard to buy into being any closer to post season success (especially since they don't want to spend money to build a full team around the QB).

Until Jerry moves on there will be no post season success.
29 years is a fairly large sample size.

 

[john van brocklin]

This contract was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Dak is a decent personality, no trouble, no drama, it's just that he can't deliver, and maybe some of that is because he plays for the Dallas carnival act.

I don't have a problem with Dak the person, in fact i think Dak is a better person to play QB for Dallas than Romo was, but what good is any of that without a SB victory.

This contract was the straw that broke the camel's back because the signing was vanity, futility. Add in a no trade clause and the contract became harmful.

The FO just rinses and repeats, and that won't bring home the SB trophy.

An amateur GM will never have longterm success.
We have seen Jerry flailing for 29 years.
Frankly it's embarrassing.

 

[DeaconMoss]

It takes more than a good QB to be successful in the NFL. It’s easy to put all the blame on the QB. Naive of course but easy. The Cowboys lack of recent success has very little, if anything, to do with the QB.

Rocky...where you been bro? The Dak ambassador has arrived from his annual Dakcation (extended LOA needed when you bash everyone as the leader of Dak club but realize he sucks)