I think you've probably gotten to the center of what has been a puzzling off season. The Cowboys seemed to have run out of gas around Thanksgiving last year, and while some of that certainly was attributable to injuries, there were games in which they didn't display as much energy as you would expect. Dead legs? Maybe. Certainly, based on Parcells' statements about "liking this team," it doesn't appear that he sensed much dog in them.
Parcells' pattern has been to use veteran talent in a "stop gap" fashion while he builds a younger roster. Maybe that's what we're seeing here. At some point, if you’re going to get younger, you have to get younger. You have to jettison some of the older guys and replace them with youth. And it’s probably not practical to do it all with the draft. Generally, the Cowboys have drafted well in the Parcells era, but there have been some misses. There will be some misses. Every team misses on some picks.
In order to truly go younger, a team needs to supplement the talent it gets from the draft with some younger free agents and “original” free agents from the college ranks. It also needs to hit from time to time on a gem that another team misjudged, or maybe a late bloomer. In order to give itself an opportunity to churn up some of that talent, a team has to take a risk, now and then, create roster space and create competitive opportunities.
But there is a risk. Maybe a couple of the young wide receivers will develop beyond our expectations. Maybe they won’t. Maybe a third round draft pick will become an all pro. Maybe not. One can argue that it will never happen unless opportunities are created.
Of course, the conundrum lies in the fact that the NFL is a “win now” league, both in desire and in opportunity. Push a few correct buttons in a watered down league, and you can get to the top very quickly. So the temptation is great to fill every position with proven talent, a path teams like the Commanders have chosen. Unproven talent might prove to be “no talent.” Fans are impatient, and understandably so.
I think (hope, maybe?) that the Cowboys are now attempting to play to Parcells’ strength. He is a shrewd judge of talent and has a proven track record of getting the most from average to above average players’ abilities. But I’d be surprised if they didn’t continue to hedge their bets by spending money necessary to fill those holes that just don’t get properly addressed with youth.
I don’t believe that Jerry Jones has gone “cheap.” I don’t expect the Cowboys to ignore their available cap space. I’m hoping instead that they are merely being patient, attempting first to uncover young talent for as many positions as possible, while being prepared to turn to other options if the first avenue fails.
We fans have to hope that young guys like Spears, Canty, Ware, James, Crayton and Julius Jones take another step forward, that relatively young veterans like Roy Williams, Terrence Newman, Jason Witten and Anthony Henry become leaders as well as improved players. And we have to hope that a couple of “busts” – guys like Gurode, Al Johnson, Kevin Burnett – turn things around.
Finally, it would help if the Cowboys added two or three more starters and two or three more contributors in this year’s draft. Maybe that’s part of the reason Dallas is being slow to move in free agency. Maybe they’d still like to add a couple or three more picks and want to have enough money to fund it, along with locking up some of their own young talent under term deals.
Or maybe they’ll go sign a bunch of old guys during the next month…
