Draft capital is only worth what you put into it.
If you draft and develop guys instead of signing veteran free agents to play those same positions they have a much better chance of success.
Avoiding an over-reliance on FA also leads to supplemental draft picks which again provide you the most valuable capital of call, cheap talent.
Dallas isn't avoiding FA. They are being very picky in it.
DAL has signed 3 UFA:
Re-signed Cam Fleming
Signed Chris Covington
Re-signed Olawale
lost 2:
Cole Beasley
Damien Wilson
LAR:
lost 2 FA:
Roger Saffold
Lamarcus Joyner
signed 1:
Eric Weddle
NE:
lost 6 FA --SIX!!!
Flowers
T. Brown
Cord Patterson
Dwayne Allen
Eric Rowe
Mal Brown
signed 4:
Ellington
LaCrosse
Boldin
RE-signed Mccourty.
So my man, those 2 teams in fact have done less net in FA than Dallas.
I don't know if you're intentionally leaving players out or not, but some of your math is wrong.
Cowboys lost Swaim too and even though I think he's a Jag, he was a starter.
The Patriots cut Allen and they also re-signed Simon. They also signed Terrance Brooks and Maurice Harris. These aren't big names (neither is Christian Covington and Cameron Fleming) but if your argument is a simple plus/minus, you'd still be wrong.
And the Cowboys are definitely avoiding free agents by lowballing them. They aren't being clever, they are being stubborn, expecting players to play for Dallas at a discounted rate.
At the end of the day, this is what I determine is a successful off-season or not for the Cowboys. If our expectation is that the Cowboys compete with the Rams, Saints, Eagles, and some other NFC contenders, have they improved on last year's team? Did we catch those teams shorten the gap as far as talent (players and coaching) ? Every single team will attempt to get better through the draft. Are we addressing weaknesses that caused us to come up short last year? Will Christian Covington and the 58th pick be enough to catch the Rams? hold off the Eagles? beat the Saints on the road in January?
I just want us to get better. Our off-season strategy seems to be once again hoping everyone else gets worse.