i still dont get how the cowboys went from pretty good last year to this putrid. what happened cowboy fans? please beat the Commanders for us!
It was a domino effect.
it started with a slow but steady erosion of the cap management. Poor choices lead to wasting critical cap space needed for growth and retention of talent.
The next step involved the way in which the team management dealt with this cap issue. Jery decided to explore the fatal option of overpaying good frontline talent, backing them up with marginal NFL talent and keeping his fingers crossed.
The only exception to this process is the RB squad which Jerry ignored altogether.
That is practically an invitation to the injury bug and this season he was a deadly sniper. He just didn't take out certain players, he destroyed entire squads.
The Cowboys lost their four top DE's by the end of the 4th game. I don't think their two-1st team All Pro CB's have played together. Bland has been out almost all season and Diggs is still recovering from last seasons injury. Naturally, their best backup is also hurt and another backup has lost some game time.
So, the Cowboys are a team composed of a half dozen excellent players, marginal elsewhere, with zero depth. Those half dozen excellent players were injured like ducks in a row at a fair shooting booth.
Of course, no issue will threaten team focus more than contract disputes and holdouts. Jerry did his best to ensure the drama blended in effectively with the preseason and training camp.
When everything was falling apart Jerry felt like he had to do something and that's a triple red flag. He traded a 2025 draft pick for the highest drafted bust he could find for his "go to" position, the WR's. Therefore, he is already working diligently to erode the quality and value of his best opportunity to improve the team.