Everyone, it is Time to come to Terms with it. This is the Plan

[BleedSilverandBlue]

I have been seeing post after post talking about how there is no way this team is going to be better than last season. I'm not here to refute this, but rather state that I completely agree with this sentiment. I think we all need to realize that this is not some weak attempt at building another contender, but pretty clearly the start of a a two year rebuilding period. There is a pile of evidence supporting this.

Let's walk through the shotgun barrel the Cowboys are currently staring directly down and the moves made so far this offseason:

- Lame duck head coach and QB. No major contract restructures to clear space. No attempt at signing an impact free agent.

- No earnest attempt at resigning decent starters like Armstrong, Biadasz, Kearse, etc.

- Massive deferred cap hits from stars whose contracts have been restructured multiple times or have recently been released. The most notable of which include:

2024

Martin - $17,991,000

Lawrence - $20,445,000

Gallup - $13,850,000

Dak - $55,132,647

Dead Money

Tyron - $6,005,000

Zeke - $6,040,000

2025

Dak - $40,137,647

Lawrence - $7,445,000

Martin - $10,655,000

Dead Money

Gallup - $8,700,000

It was never even a remote possibility that this team was going to replace the production of all the key departures this offseason (Gallup, Biadasz, Tyron, Pollard, Gilmore, LVE, Hankins, Kearse) and somehow magically improve the roster with nothing but draft picks. It just is not possible. In a great draft you generally can expect to land three good-great starters at most and maybe a handful of quality backups. Even with a great draft, there were going to be a number of obvious holes.

We all need to start to come to terms with it now - This team is going to take a step back for the next two seasons. The plan in 2024 & 2025 is pretty clearly to eat a number of pretty hideous cap hits in the form of deferred contract dollars + dead money while remaining competitive. There just is no other logical path forward than this.

The only thing Dallas is "All in" on right now is rebuilding this roster and churning what's left of some big contracts. 2026 will be the next time this team will be in financial position to even think about making a run.

 

[dupree89]

after the serious cap hits are gone, I hope a football guy is brought in to do future contracts. Let Jerry and his boy go deal with Pepsi and AT & T. Marketing is in their wheelhouse, not building a football team.

 

[JW82]

after the serious cap hits are gone, I hope a football guy is brought in to do future contracts. Let Jerry and his boy go deal with Pepsi and AT & T. Marketing is in their wheelhouse, not building a football team.

Not gonna happen but amen.

 

[KingintheNorth]

after the serious cap hits are gone, I hope a football guy is brought in to do future contracts. Let Jerry and his boy go deal with Pepsi and AT & T. Marketing is in their wheelhouse, not building a football team.

Nope, we will gte the same faulty architects.

 

[Kwyn]

I have been seeing post after post talking about how there is no way this team is going to be better than last season. I'm not here to refute this, but rather state that I completely agree with this sentiment. think we all need to realize that this is not some weak attempt at building another contender, but pretty clearly the start of a a two year rebuilding period. There is a pile of evidence supporting this.

Let's walk through the shotgun barrel the Cowboys are currently staring directly down and the moves made so far this offseason:

- Lame duck head coach and QB. No major contract restructures to clear space. No attempt at signing an impact free agent.

- No earnest attempt at resigning decent starters like Armstrong, Biadasz, Kearse, etc.

- Massive deferred cap hits from stars whose contracts have been restructured multiple times or have recently been released. The most notable of which include:

2024

Martin - $17,991,000

Lawrence - $20,445,000

Gallup - $13,850,000

Dak - $55,132,647

Dead Money

Tyron - $6,005,000

Zeke - $6,040,000

2025

Dak - $40,137,647

Lawrence - $7,445,000

Martin - $10,655,000

Dead Money

Gallup - $8,700,000

It was never even a remote possibility that this team was going to replace the production of all the key departures this offseason (Gallup, Biadasz, Tyron, Pollard, Gilmore, LVE, Hankins, Kearse) and somehow magically improve the roster with nothing but draft picks. It just is not possible. In a great draft you generally can expect to land three good-great starters at most and maybe a handful of quality backups. Even with a great draft, there were going to be a number of obvious holes.

We all need to start to come to terms with it now - This team is going to take a step back for the next two seasons. The plan in 2024 & 2025 is pretty clearly to eat a number of pretty hideous cap hits in the form of deferred contract dollars + dead money while remaining competitive. There just is no other logical path forward than this.

The only thing Dallas is "All in" on right now is rebuilding this roster and churning what's left of some big contracts. 2026 will be the next time this team will be in financial position to even think about making a run.

If this was the Eagles plan, and make no mistake, those “birds” will come home to roost at some point, zoners would be calling it “realistic planning to offset decisions made in previous years”.

The Eagles have tons of big money in the future. They are just in a window where they spent a ton of money now.

There were some folks around here, I’m one of them, who saw this coming long ago for all the reasons you mention. And … we’re fine with it because it signals a practical path forward. The team has always just tried to reload every year. It’s like the Mavs when Cuban said he was “keeping the powder dry” while trying to extend the window.

Looks like the Cowboys may have actually realized that some hard decisions had to be made.

I’m not nearly as emotional as many are because I’m not naive enough to believe that retooling a contender year after year is easy.

 

[big dog cowboy]

We all need to start to come to terms with it now - This team is going to take a step back for the next two seasons. The plan in 2024 & 2025 is pretty clearly to eat a number of pretty hideous cap hits in the form of deferred contract dollars + dead money while remaining competitive.

It won't be as bad as you make it sound. The salary cap went up a lot more than most thought it would this year. The same thing will happen next year. That provides the Cowboys some breathing room and a quicker end to this salary cap re-set.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

after the serious cap hits are gone, I hope a football guy is brought in to do future contracts. Let Jerry and his boy go deal with Pepsi and AT & T. Marketing is in their wheelhouse, not building a football team.

People make a fuss about the contracts but the contracts are standard. If you want talent you overpay. You can’t get around it.

 

[doomsday9084]

Yup. The whole "the cap isn't real" concept is BS. You can push cap hits down the road but the more you do it the bigger the burden it becomes.

Dallas is using this year and next year to clear things up. The window closed against Green Bay. Truthfully, I'm glad Dallas is going this direction. The retool should be quick. If they had kicked the can down the road in an attempt for one more run with this current group, it wouldn't have worked and you would have so much dead money it would take years to clear it.

I will say this: Other teams don't use void years quite as liberally as Dallas does. Dallas was able to push a lot of salary off using this but they have created a bigger issue.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I have been seeing post after post talking about how there is no way this team is going to be better than last season. I'm not here to refute this, but rather state that I completely agree with this sentiment. think we all need to realize that this is not some weak attempt at building another contender, but pretty clearly the start of a a two year rebuilding period. There is a pile of evidence supporting this.

Let's walk through the shotgun barrel the Cowboys are currently staring directly down and the moves made so far this offseason:

- Lame duck head coach and QB. No major contract restructures to clear space. No attempt at signing an impact free agent.

- No earnest attempt at resigning decent starters like Armstrong, Biadasz, Kearse, etc.

- Massive deferred cap hits from stars whose contracts have been restructured multiple times or have recently been released. The most notable of which include:

2024

Martin - $17,991,000

Lawrence - $20,445,000

Gallup - $13,850,000

Dak - $55,132,647

Dead Money

Tyron - $6,005,000

Zeke - $6,040,000

2025

Dak - $40,137,647

Lawrence - $7,445,000

Martin - $10,655,000

Dead Money

Gallup - $8,700,000

It was never even a remote possibility that this team was going to replace the production of all the key departures this offseason (Gallup, Biadasz, Tyron, Pollard, Gilmore, LVE, Hankins, Kearse) and somehow magically improve the roster with nothing but draft picks. It just is not possible. In a great draft you generally can expect to land three good-great starters at most and maybe a handful of quality backups. Even with a great draft, there were going to be a number of obvious holes.

We all need to start to come to terms with it now - This team is going to take a step back for the next two seasons. The plan in 2024 & 2025 is pretty clearly to eat a number of pretty hideous cap hits in the form of deferred contract dollars + dead money while remaining competitive. There just is no other logical path forward than this.

The only thing Dallas is "All in" on right now is rebuilding this roster and churning what's left of some big contracts. 2026 will be the next time this team will be in financial position to even think about making a run.

I mean it wasn’t hard to replace Armstrong, Gilmore, LVE, Tyler, Kearse, etc…..

Only free agent we were gonna have issues replacing was Tyron. Rest of those guys were replaceable.

 

[Aven8]

This is fine and good until Dak has an amazing first quarter of the season and Jerry gets goo goo eyes and resigns him to a huge contract. He’s prone to do that.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Yup. The whole "the cap isn't real" concept is BS. You can push cap hits down the road but the more you do it the bigger the burden it becomes.

Dallas is using this year and next year to clear things up. The window closed against Green Bay. Truthfully, I'm glad Dallas is going this direction. The retool should be quick. If they had kicked the can down the road in an attempt for one more run with this current group, it wouldn't have worked and you would have so much dead money it would take years to clear it.

I will say this: Other teams don't use void years quite as liberally as Dallas does. Dallas was able to push a lot of salary off using this but they have created a bigger issue.

The Cowboys issues right now aren’t because they kicked the can down the road though. It was them talking all this crap about pie and just signing anyone. They did not have to sign Zeke, Jaylon and Collins…and certainly not Steele….

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

This is fine and good until Dak has an amazing first quarter of the season and Jerry gets goo goo eyes and resigns him to a huge contract. He’s prone to do that.

Except he’s never done it lol.

 

[Aven8]

Yup. The whole "the cap isn't real" concept is BS. You can push cap hits down the road but the more you do it the bigger the burden it becomes.

Dallas is using this year and next year to clear things up. The window closed against Green Bay. Truthfully, I'm glad Dallas is going this direction. The retool should be quick. If they had kicked the can down the road in an attempt for one more run with this current group, it wouldn't have worked and you would have so much dead money it would take years to clear it.

I will say this: Other teams don't use void years quite as liberally as Dallas does. Dallas was able to push a lot of salary off using this but they have created a bigger issue.

I blame Stephen. He’s the one that is supposed to control all of that. His own AmEx black card probably looks the same….

 

[Aven8]

Except he’s never done it lol.

Hell it could still happen! He had his foot turned sideways and they paid him

 

[BleedSilverandBlue]

It won't be as bad as you make it sound. The salary cap went up a lot more than most thought it would this year. The same thing will happen next year. That provides the Cowboys some breathing room and a quicker end to this salary cap re-set.

They're going to remain competitive and likely win 10ish games in 2024 & 2025.

I actually think this is a really sound plan for the front office to pursue. I do take two issues with how it has been executed though.

#1) Jerry and Stephen clearly trolling the fan base with their "All in" comments. This is nothing but an intentionally dishonest & misleading way to increase fan interest during a period of Cowboys apathy that has been worse than anything we've seen in some time.

#2) They now forced to run this reset without ever having really pushed the chips all in. This iceberg has been visible since the 2022 season, but the front office never decided to say fine, we accept this fate but we're going to build a juggernaut for two seasons at the expense of the future. I find it rather frustrating that they didn't just decided to push even more money into the next two seasons in order to sign immediate short term impact players in 2023 and 2024.

Everything done from here on out needs to be viewed through the lens of a 2-3 year long term strategy and it makes everything they've been doing this offseason more palatable.

 

[btgboys41]

after the serious cap hits are gone, I hope a football guy is brought in to do future contracts. Let Jerry and his boy go deal with Pepsi and AT & T. Marketing is in their wheelhouse, not building a football team.

They think Pepsi and AT&T are part of the football team. That’s the problem.

 

[BleedSilverandBlue]

I mean it wasn’t hard to replace Armstrong, Gilmore, LVE, Tyler, Kearse, etc…..

Only free agent we were gonna have issues replacing was Tyron. Rest of those guys were replaceable.

Did I say they were irreplaceable? My point is that this is all part of a broader strategy to turn this thing over and be read to roll again in 2026. The intention never was to replace them, but rather to take an intentional step back these next two seasons which is fine by me.

I am actually glad all of those guys are off the books now.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Hell it could still happen! He had his foot turned sideways and they paid him

I Think if Dak budged he would honestly. If Dak accepted a 40 million dollar deal or something crazy as that he'd jump on it just so he can say he got a "deal".

 

[MikeT22]

Cowboys must have the worst cap management in the league. Teams far better than us are giving their star players extensions and still adding talent in FA and the draft.

We are being relegated to shopping in the cellar of the bargain basement store.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Did I say they were irreplaceable? My point is that this is all part of a broader strategy to turn this thing over and be read to roll again in 2026. The intention never was to replace them, but rather to take an intentional step back these next two seasons which is fine by me.

I am actually glad all of those guys are off the books now.

I think they will replace them. They just will replace them with guys already on the roster. Let's remember we lost Diggs all year....so him coming back probably puts Bland and Diggs on the outside and Lewis in the slot.

Kendricks can easily replace LVE.

Mazi will replace Hankins

Kearse.....Juanyah or Bell....or anyone...

Gallup...Tolbert

Dorance....Sam Williams


Pollard....as of now I don't see anyone as good as him but a committee can produce what he did since he seemed to be hurt last year.


I'm just saying I think we overrate what we lost.

I have my issues but it's not what we lost. It's that I don't think we really took a step forward.