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

[TheMarathonContinues]

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.

People have let Stephens and Jimmy convince them we are broke lol.

 

[Cwby41]

I personally have no problem with a rebuild. But take it a step further if that is the plan. This is not a Dak hate thread I like Dak but if this is where we are than trade him and get the picks to help us, not just lose him and get a comp pick. Also if you are going to sign him than it should of been done already same with CD and Micah.
It is ridiculous how we just keep waiting and resetting the market. And before anyone says anything about the players and agents not making deals its because they know they can get away with it here.
You may have to lose one player but sending a message of constantly caving is why they all do it. We just resigned Zeke with millions of his dead cap space still on the books I would of given him a much lower base with incentives he is nothing special at all at this point and brings more with pass protection than carrying the ball.
Just one of many bad contracts. Change needs to be made but I believe we are all aware that it is at the top that needs to be cut. Until than we just wait, part of the reason it is hard to get behind anything this team does.

 

[MikeT22]

Coaches and everyone signed, besides draft picks, are on one year deals.

Throwaway season.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

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.

there are some valid points though I don't think "planning" is part of it, just reacting to the repeated blows over the head and finally doing something after getting cornered by the cap. All of this new-found OL focus would have been done last year if competency and planning were involved.

 

[doomsday9084]

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….

I won't disagree with that. Dallas overpays its own people and has difficulty making hard decisions. The current size of Dallas' cap problems is much larger due to this.

 

[Chasing6]

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.

So far it looks like they have done a pretty good job to me. The draft rebuilt the OLine and we have a rotational DE. Then you have Diggs and Overshown back.

Not sure I will really miss any of those players to be honest. More name recognition and wasted money if anything.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

I don't get some "fans". They complain that Dallas always signs their players longer then they should but when they let them walk don't resign guys they complain about that too.

 

[HungryLion]

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.

If only they retooled a contender for even one year.

 

[HungryLion]

I don't get some "fans". They complain that Dallas always signs their players longer than they should but when they let them walk don't resign guys they complain about that too.

You should understand that the root cause of the anger is that the cowboys are one of the least successful teams in the league, from a playoff success standpoint, in the last 25 years.

If the team had recent success. A lot of fans would be a little more forgiving.

 

[CWR]

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.

I'd be fine with that if I actually believed they were going to spend in 2026.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

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.

It seems clear that Dallas is going to let this season play out and deal with everything next off-season.

HC and QB one year left on contract. If they bomb again Dallas isn't stuck with a huge contract and have cap space next season to bring in guys a new HC wants. That includes a vet QB, rookie, Lance or a combination of two

 

[MikeT22]

I don't get some "fans". They complain that Dallas always signs their players longer than they should but when they let them walk don't resign guys they complain about that too.

Yeah you obviously don’t get it. It’s not about wanting to resign all these players.

It’s about wanting to attempt to replace them with with better.

 

[lukemartin79]

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.

Excellent points. I enjoy your common sense posts, so refreshing after reading so many "the sky is falling ones" on this forum. If you can't replace players like Armstrong, the center Tyler, and Gilmore, who would just be the #3 CB anyway - then you weren't a good team to start with.
Although I am finding these posts about how horrible this years draft was, posted the day after the draft, hilariously entertaining. As far as I know there were no regular season games played since the draft, how can al these guys be busts already, lol.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

You should understand that the root cause of the anger is that the cowboys are one of the least successful teams in the league, from a playoff success standpoint, in the last 25 years.

If the team had recent success. A lot of fans would be a little more forgiving.

That's not an excuse to flip flop just for the sake of complaining. In fact, why be a fan if all they do is complain

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

It seems clear that Dallas is going to let this season play out and deal with everything next off-season.

HC and QB one year left on contract. If they bomb again Dallas isn't stuck with a huge contract and have cap space next season to bring in guys a new HC wants. That includes a vet QB, rookie, Lance or a combination of two

That's what they are doing and it makes no sense to me. Why would you pay Dak more by waiting then by doing it now?

 

[CWR]

If only they retooled a contender for even one year.

Yeah maybe if we didn't as the 2 seed, get boat raced by a bunch of 20 year olds we wouldn't be so disgruntled.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Yeah you obviously don’t get it. It’s not about wanting to resign all these players.

It’s about wanting to attempt to replace them with with better.

Folks are complaining about Biadiasz and Tyron Smith leaving. Including guys like Armstrong and Fowler. These aren't super stars.

It's complaining just to complain regardless of what the Cowboys do.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I won't disagree with that. Dallas overpays its own people and has difficulty making hard decisions. The current size of Dallas' cap problems is much larger due to this.

Yes and no. I just think if you want to retain your players you have to overpay. It's why Chiefs let Tyreek Hill go. They determined they'd rather overpay Kelce and Chris Jones. It's just what it is.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

That's what they are doing and it makes no sense to me. Why would you pay Dak more by waiting then by doing it now?

If they bomb and make a change at HC then you aren't stuck with a QB the HC doesn't want.

Seems to me they aren't sold on Dak. When has Jerry not signed a player that he really wanted?

 

[HungryLion]

That's not an excuse to flip flop just for the sake of complaining. In fact, why be a fan if all they do is complain

I don’t see it as flip flopping. Its fans just wanting to win and they are no longer willing to give the FO the benefit of the doubt after 25 years.

As to the second part of your post. Thats never been a fair argument to make. Fans are allowed to follow a team however they see fit.