I don't think many fans understand the pickle Jerry has put this team in with that last contract with Dak. Dak has a no trade, no franchise tag clause. Jerry restructured Dak and has over $30 million in pro-rated bonus in voided year, and Dallas has a $60 million CAP number in 2024. If the cut Dak his CAP number goes to $62 million. If they designate a June 1 cut then they save $32 million this year, but have to eat another $30 million in dead money next year. Even if he agreed to a trade, his prorated bonus money still hits the CAP and it would mean a $2 million CAP hit this year and $62 million in dead money.
Jerry really went all in on Dak and it has put him in a bind. Of course he can decide to bite the bullet, cut Dak now and take the CAP hit all in 2024. It would mean probably losing a lot of talent and maybe even trading one or two of his top players. I think it would set Dallas up for several years of losing records and that assumes they can find a franchise QB at some point soon. I don't think people realize how hard that is. Even QBs drafted in the first round, high in the first round, mostly fail. I am not against letting Dak go, better than than signing him to a $60 million deal. In fact, I think it will be necessary to move on from Dak if team ever wants to see a deep run into the playoffs. I though the same thing before Jerry signed Dak's last deal. That 2019 Eagle's game for the division title and playoffs has been in mind head the last 4 years.
What we saw yesterday was a demonstration of 2019 in two halves. Dak was a disaster against the Eagles and Dallas lost the division and a playoff chance that day. The following week, in a meaningless game, Dak had a huge game against Washington. Pressure on - pressure off. Yesterday, Dak played tight under pressure in the first half. Down 27-0, the pressure was off, the more the game got away from the Cowboys the looser Dak played. He ran up big numbers almost all of it coming after the game had already gotten out of hand. That's Dak. We can going into 2024 knowing no matter what we did in the regular season, the playoffs will end the same way. I don't believe the Cowboys will make the playoffs in 2024. I think yesterdays came will carryover until there is enough churn in the roster and coaching staff to forget it.
But if we want to see Dak move on we have to accept 2 or 3 years, maybe more, of losing. And remember, Jerry is not going to refill his roster with quality free agents so purging the roster means depending on the draft to find enough talent to to be competitive again.
I don't think Jerry will do anything like a rebuild. I think he will double down on what he has with a few changes here and there. Jerry knows his time is limited and he does not have time for a rebuild of overhaul of the roster. The times to move on from Dak was after his rookie deal.
Releasing Dak would be beyond stupid.
