The consequences of the 2024 off-season

[gimmesix]

The odd 2nd round picks have been going on forever. The writers talk about it. McClay may do some of the piddle work of the GM because Jerry is too high and mighty, but make no mistake, Jerry controls everything.

Oh, no doubt that Jerry makes the final call. I just can't see him knowing Luke Schoonmaker from Luke Skywalker. He and Stephen may tell McClay that they want a certain position, there may even be players that they fall in love with, but overall, I think the draft is McClay's baby. I think it is McClay with input from the coaches and Jerry/Stephen making the final call. I doubt they deviate much from what McClay tells them.

 

[ArtClink]

I have never seen a stranger buildup to a season than our FO had in 2024. And the reverberations continue today.

Last off-season was a complete kamikaze mission where the FO sat on their hands while losing key personnel, way overpaid for their QB with a growing injury history, wasted months not signing their star WR they KNEW they were going to sign. All the while keeping a lame duck HC who captained the worst home playoff loss in team history….because the richest owner in sports is too cheap to not pay off the last year of his HCs contract.

Before the flak comes flying, let me explain why this matters now: The consequences of those horrible decisions take more than a year to recover from.

What are those “bad decisions” where the consequences still remain?

• Keeping Mike McCarthy after that embarrassing home playoff loss to GB. Jerry should have fired him immediately and recognized that 2024 would be a reset/rebuild. Should have hired a new HC and we would already have a head start on 2025 with a new staff we have a year with.
• By not firing McCarthy, the team was faced with a season with a lame duck HC with an expiring contract. That almost never works in the NFL. We saw this bad decision with keeping Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett one more year because of their contracts not being “up” yet. Just stupid.
• Using 4th round picks to acquire Trey Lance in 2023, and Jonathan Mingo in 2024 were big setbacks to the 2024 and 2025 drafts. When we needed a RB it would have helped to have those 4th round picks.
• The Mike Zimmer Experiment failed, making our young defensive players in 2025 have their third DC in 5 seasons. Now they have to learn from the 4th DC we’ve had since 2020.
• If 2024 was supposed to be a reset for the cap, why did they resign Dak for a ridiculously over priced contract? Why keep a decent but aging QB who has struggled in bigger games? The list of QBs who get better as they age is very short.
• The 2024 season could have been a well designed plan to tank in 2024, and rebuild, get a better 2025 draft position, maybe even angle for the #1 pick in 2026 for the Arch Manning sweepstakes, or some other young emerging QB.

By throwing away what 2024 could have been, it sets you back at least a couple of years because you cannot completely replenish your roster only with draft picks. This organization has made it crystal clear they will not commit much cap space on free agents. Yes they have made some trades and a few low rent FA signings.

So when I take off the blue colored fan glasses, it’s hard to look at this team, now helmed by a first year head coach who according to Ian Rappoport, is one of the 3 lowest paid HCs in the NFL (His salary as far as I can tell is not public yet) and a roster that still has huge holes at DT, RB and perhaps others.

Does it mean 2025 is already a bust? No. It can be a year of major improvement. But to make the playoffs and make some noise while in it will require a major help from Lady Luck and the good ol’ policy of “Hope as a strategy.”

The 2025 season can still be lots of fun. But the really bad decisions of 2024 may slow this team’s development.

Spot on with every point. This FO is run by a spoiled child with unlimited NDAs ensuring he will never be accountable for any of his actions. He follows trends which makes all his decisions several years behind the cutting edge football experts.

If only our beloved fuhrer cared as much about winning as he does with Johnny Walker Blue and call girls.

 

[buybuydandavis]

I have never seen a stranger buildup to a season than our FO had in 2024. And the reverberations continue today.

I seriously thought they were trying to force Dak to agree to a trade with doing nothing at RB, putting a project rookie at LT, and a mid round rookie changing positions at C.

And on defense, we left DT with nothing too.

That was a recipe for Dak having to carry the team in unfavorable circumstances. Why would you do that, unless you're purposefully trying to screw the QB?

And then they sign him to the biggest contract in the league. What?

And then after signing Dak they *still* didn't upgrade RB or DT. What?

The moves last year just made no sense at all. We sign a QB for a jillion dollars and then don't spend even minimal money at RB to balance the offense. Just crazy.

No shade on Dowdle here. Dowdle totally exceeded what we had any right to hope for. But come on. He was a backup/PS level player the year before and they rolled with him as the starter.

 

[Jstopper]

I have never seen a stranger buildup to a season than our FO had in 2024. And the reverberations continue today.

Last off-season was a complete kamikaze mission where the FO sat on their hands while losing key personnel, way overpaid for their QB with a growing injury history, wasted months not signing their star WR they KNEW they were going to sign. All the while keeping a lame duck HC who captained the worst home playoff loss in team history….because the richest owner in sports is too cheap to not pay off the last year of his HCs contract.

Before the flak comes flying, let me explain why this matters now: The consequences of those horrible decisions take more than a year to recover from.

What are those “bad decisions” where the consequences still remain?

• Keeping Mike McCarthy after that embarrassing home playoff loss to GB. Jerry should have fired him immediately and recognized that 2024 would be a reset/rebuild. Should have hired a new HC and we would already have a head start on 2025 with a new staff we have a year with.
• By not firing McCarthy, the team was faced with a season with a lame duck HC with an expiring contract. That almost never works in the NFL. We saw this bad decision with keeping Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett one more year because of their contracts not being “up” yet. Just stupid.
• Using 4th round picks to acquire Trey Lance in 2023, and Jonathan Mingo in 2024 were big setbacks to the 2024 and 2025 drafts. When we needed a RB it would have helped to have those 4th round picks.
• The Mike Zimmer Experiment failed, making our young defensive players in 2025 have their third DC in 5 seasons. Now they have to learn from the 4th DC we’ve had since 2020.
• If 2024 was supposed to be a reset for the cap, why did they resign Dak for a ridiculously over priced contract? Why keep a decent but aging QB who has struggled in bigger games? The list of QBs who get better as they age is very short.
• The 2024 season could have been a well designed plan to tank in 2024, and rebuild, get a better 2025 draft position, maybe even angle for the #1 pick in 2026 for the Arch Manning sweepstakes, or some other young emerging QB.

By throwing away what 2024 could have been, it sets you back at least a couple of years because you cannot completely replenish your roster only with draft picks. This organization has made it crystal clear they will not commit much cap space on free agents. Yes they have made some trades and a few low rent FA signings.

So when I take off the blue colored fan glasses, it’s hard to look at this team, now helmed by a first year head coach who according to Ian Rappoport, is one of the 3 lowest paid HCs in the NFL (His salary as far as I can tell is not public yet) and a roster that still has huge holes at DT, RB and perhaps others.

Does it mean 2025 is already a bust? No. It can be a year of major improvement. But to make the playoffs and make some noise while in it will require a major help from Lady Luck and the good ol’ policy of “Hope as a strategy.”

The 2025 season can still be lots of fun. But the really bad decisions of 2024 may slow this team’s development.

I agree with all you wrote about 2024 season, except I think you are EXTREMELY off base on the fact that this team is not going to compete this year. This is a 12 win team MINIMUM. You’re course correcting a little too far to the left for a modicum of reasons I am gonna have to disagree with you on the doom philosophy this season.

 

[CowboyoWales]

I seriously thought they were trying to force Dak to agree to a trade with doing nothing at RB, putting a project rookie at LT, and a mid round rookie changing positions at C.

And on defense, we left DT with nothing too.

That was a recipe for Dak having to carry the team in unfavorable circumstances. Why would you do that, unless you're purposefully trying to screw the QB?

And then they sign him to the biggest contract in the league. What?

And then after signing Dak they *still* didn't upgrade RB or DT. What?

The moves last year just made no sense at all. We sign a QB for a jillion dollars and then don't spend even minimal money at RB to balance the offense. Just crazy.

No shade on Dowdle here. Dowdle totally exceeded what we had any right to hope for. But come on. He was a backup/PS level player the year before and they rolled with him as the starter.

I took the Dak situation to be the opposite, Jerry wanted him signed early. If he wanted Dak out we would of traded: Martin, DLaw, Osa and JLew.

Always imagined Jerry saying....."ive (over) paid $90m on the passing game, we can do with Zeke as the running game".

Jerry stayed in the 'Relevancy' lane

 

[phildadon86]

I'm not reading that at all because I don't agree with what you're saying you say he's putting restraints on them and I'm saying that you're exaggerating You're overrating some of the front office people like Will Mcclay again they would have left went somewhere else if they needed more freedom and could do a better job and make more money they could have left it's up to them ..

This conversation for me is over no one has proof either way and I'm telling you Will Mcclay is part of the problem jerry's way too comfortable with him and he's way too comfortable with Jerry that's not a good mix anymore and I'm putting a lot of the blame on Will Mcclay but all of the Blame would go on Jerry because he's the one keeping him around..

That's all I got to say about this i'm done conversations over for me you can argue with somebody else i'm not doing it Jerry may not be a genius front office guy but he's also not the worst GM in the league and I'll continue to say that he might be average like mid level but he is definitely not the worst one...

Oh so you expect everyone to read your novels with horrible punctuation, but won’t take the time to read a response that was well thought out because it disagrees with you?

Lol. Amazing.

 

[phildadon86]

I agree with all you wrote about 2024 season, except I think you are EXTREMELY off base on the fact that this team is not going to compete this year. This is a 12 win team MINIMUM. You’re course correcting a little too far to the left for a modicum of reasons I am gonna have to disagree with you on the doom philosophy this season.

Have you seen the cowboys schedule this season?

Where on earth do you see 12 wins? Genuinely curious.

 

[ghst187]

Still irked at the Trey Lance trade, just idiotic….and gave hated SF another draft pick we could’ve used

 

[StarOfGlory]

However it is very confusing that he did not draft a running back in the first 3 rounds in two straight drafts, that's concerning ,it's one thing not to want to pay an older free agent, I fully get that, I don't blame him for that and Derrick Henry did not help the Ravens how the hell you think he would have helped us? !​

​

And here is the rub to it all. Henry DID help the Ravens. That rushing attack pushed them to within one play of moving on. It's not Henry fault that once again, Jackson craps the bed in another important game. He had a number of bad passes to open receivers that game. I just watched the last play of the game vs. Buffalo about 10 times. Even that last pass to Andrews has Andrews having to look back and get his hands on a pass that was at knee-height. You can blame Andrews because he did somehow get both hands on the pass, but if the pass was leading him more and a foot higher Andrews probably catches it. Jackson was rolling out on the play and had zero pressure from any rushing linemen.

 

[Creeper]

Good assessment. 2024 was a disaster in so many ways. I agree, had they had an even mildly positive 2024 offseason, they would be in a position to contend in 2025. But it still remains a mystery to me what Dallas was thinking in 2024. The only conclusion is what we thought back then, they were setting up MM for failure. But even that is a mystery. Why keep him for the last year of his contract if they didn't want him? It makes no sense.

 

[Diehardblues]

Good. We're on the same page.

I've never said Jerry is the worst GM in the league. But since you don't read the responses to you, you seem to just jump to whatever conclusions you want. I've said this FA strategy is Jerry's and all the evidence says that it is.

Right. And he isn’t the worst GM. But none of those others are keeping their jobs after decades of under performing with results we’ve had.

And that’s what makes him the worst owner. He won’t make a change at GM.

 

[Flamma]

Have you seen the cowboys schedule this season?

Where on earth do you see 12 wins? Genuinely curious.

We had 12 wins a few years in a row not too long ago, and we didn't have some great team. If we have a great run game, and if Dak is the same QB, I can see it happening. But you have to string a lot of ifs together.

What has me annoyed is, the Cowboys front office doesn't have a 2 or 3 year plan. They always have a 1 year plan. Even if Dallas has a surprisingly good season, nothing changes. We'll probably lose Pickens because we know he's not paying two WRs Lamb money or more.

 

[fivetwos]

The good news is Arch isn’t coming out next year, 2027 at the earliest. There is still a chance to get him then but it will be expensive.

If a QB needy team lands the first pick, it won’t be expensive, it’ll be impossible. They won’t trade the pick.

Even the Giants haven’t been able to move up for either Drake Maye or Cam Ward. They tried hard on both.

There are too many teams that are flat out awful or tanking on purpose and Dallas will never be that. Those are the teams they beat up on. They will always be middle of the pack, with Jerry telling us they aren’t doing such a bad job.

Most around here know they aren’t good enough, but 99% of the rest of the fanbase does not.

 

[phildadon86]

We had 12 wins a few years in a row not too long ago, and we didn't have some great team. If we have a great run game, and if Dak is the same QB, I can see it happening. But you have to string a lot of ifs together.

What has me annoyed is, the Cowboys front office doesn't have a 2 or 3 year plan. They always have a 1 year plan. Even if Dallas has a surprisingly good season, nothing changes. We'll probably lose Pickens because we know he's not paying two WRs Lamb money or more.

Great run game?

Question.

Who’s the lead back? I hope it’s not blue.

Only way this team makes the playoffs, is if a lot of other teams have bad seasons. That’s my opinion but I don’t trust this team with a new HC, no real options at RB, and still a very suspect run defense.

 

[blueblood70]

Good. We're on the same page.

I've never said Jerry is the worst GM in the league. But since you don't read the responses to you, you seem to just jump to whatever conclusions you want. I've said this FA strategy is Jerry's and all the evidence says that it is.

And I'm saying without proof you don't know how much power Steven Jones and Will Mcclay actually have because you don't sit behind the walls of the star, for all we know Jerry's the puppet, now he's becoming somewhat delusional maybe stemming from early onset memory loss like Alsheimer's or dementia..

Maybe they don't want to talk about it but maybe it is happening we don't know who's pulling all the strings I believe it's a combination of all of them like I've been saying that's why it's this ridiculous circle when nobody lives behind the walls and has any listening devices back there to know who's making all the decisions and how easily Jerry could be persuaded I use common sense in saying that there's a little truth to all of it there's a lot of stuff we don't know we will never know and this is just how it is you can believe what you want and I believe what I want I believe he's being advised, And there are many helping him make decisions as a group it's coming from everyone all the advice And how do we know that it's not Steven that's made Jerry less of a gambler?

 

[Flamma]

Great run game?

Question.

Who’s the lead back? I hope it’s not blue.

Only way this team makes the playoffs, is if a lot of other teams have bad seasons. That’s my opinion but I don’t trust this team with a new HC, no real options at RB, and still a very suspect run defense.

It has to be Blue. Who else would it be? Dak is not taking this team to 12 wins without a serious run game. Who besides Blue can give us that? If he can't do it, then no, we're not winning 12 games. But our bad run D hasn't stopped us from winning 12 games before.

I mention Blue because he has the speed. But it will mostly be about our OL. Even in a pessimistic scenario I can see 8 wins. If the team is better than we expect, who know?

 

[ArtClink]

I seriously thought they were trying to force Dak to agree to a trade with doing nothing at RB, putting a project rookie at LT, and a mid round rookie changing positions at C.

And on defense, we left DT with nothing too.

That was a recipe for Dak having to carry the team in unfavorable circumstances. Why would you do that, unless you're purposefully trying to screw the QB?

And then they sign him to the biggest contract in the league. What?

And then after signing Dak they *still* didn't upgrade RB or DT. What?

The moves last year just made no sense at all. We sign a QB for a jillion dollars and then don't spend even minimal money at RB to balance the offense. Just crazy.

No shade on Dowdle here. Dowdle totally exceeded what we had any right to hope for. But come on. He was a backup/PS level player the year before and they rolled with him as the starter.

Great points! I also felt like Jerry immediately regretted signing g Dak to a record breaking contract and then immediately took his rage out on Dak by intentional being idle in free agency.

IMO, until the Jones boys can build a championship defense (they can’t), it will take a miracle worker at QB and I don’t think Patrick Mahomes could win here with our defense.

 

[kskboys]

I have trouble blaming draft picks on the Joneses (other than a few where it's clear Jerry wanted a splash ... but there's been less of that under our current draft philosophy). They are not doing any scouting of their own. They may ultimately be the ones turning in the selections, but the coaches and McClay's team have their input. The team had reason to believe that Mazi was a first-round pick since the Chiefs were rumored to want to trade up to our spot and take him there.

I think the Joneses listen to both their coaches and their personnel people, and a lot of what is done personnelwise is left up to those professionals. The only thing I think is completely on the Joneses is their free agent strategy. The personnel people have to go find players that fit that strategy. And most of the time you get what you pay for.

Not sure why. The GM is responsible for drafting. And that's Jerry. He even declares it himself all the time.

Why would you not blame the draft picks on the guy responsible for them? Having trouble following that line of thought.

 

[kskboys]

I agree with all you wrote about 2024 season, except I think you are EXTREMELY off base on the fact that this team is not going to compete this year. This is a 12 win team MINIMUM. You’re course correcting a little too far to the left for a modicum of reasons I am gonna have to disagree with you on the doom philosophy this season.

Why 12? Have you looked at our schedule?

 

[blueblood70]

It has to be Blue. Who else would it be? Dak is not taking this team to 12 wins without a serious run game. Who besides Blue can give us that? If he can't do it, then no, we're not winning 12 games. But our bad run D hasn't stopped us from winning 12 games before.

I mention Blue because he has the speed. But it will mostly be about our OL. Even in a pessimistic scenario I can see 8 wins. If the team is better than we expect, who know?

I understand where you're coming from and to some extent I can agree,

but I'm saying you need to give this a chance,​

​

a 3 headed running back room can work, and you don't have to be the best running team to get into the Super Bowl or to go further in the playoffs. We just watched the Kansas City Chiefs who had a bottom 10 run game in this league go to a Super Bowl, yes they lost but they didn't have anything special at the run area,(Look it up I already did they were right there with the Cowboys with their run offense) they just were steady, that's what you need we need an efficient run game to start with and yes Blue can be the guy to give you that dynamic play, he along with Turpin need to have a lot more plays created, to help us have that impact play here and there in the game from the offense.​

You think of what Lamb already gives us but you add now a guy like Pickens to this offense and how this coaching staff hopefully utilizes blue and turpin more to get you those chunk plays, but in the meantime in the middle all you need is a steady run game, and you need to commit to it, it doesn't matter if you're getting only 3.5 five yards per carry as long as you're setting yourself up in third and under 5, if possible, then you have everything open to you as a play caller and yes Dak can operate out of that, we've seen it.

And that's acting like you sit here and forget that Troy and Roger had some of the best run games, offensive lines ,and coaching Staffs in the history of the NFL, and acting like they would be able to do any better than Dak in this mess, especially last year it's the same thing in 2020 ,almost no signs of an offensive line or a run game....

So yes, just keep names out of it, quarterbacks can have a much easier time and more success if they have a strong run game, ask Jalen Hurts...lol​

​

That's the irony here they had the best run game in the NFL by far last year and won a Super Bowl they didn't ask the quarterback to hardly do anything but because they had to pressure off him and the defense has had to respect the run game when they needed him Jalen Hurts looked good ,he looked efficient ,and yet they beat the team in the Super Bowl they had one of the worst run games but both of them were in the Super Bowl ,1 with the best run game ,one with the worst run game. ironic huh?​

Just want to be clear here it can work the running back by committee worked for San Francisco before Christian Mccaffrey got there and what I saw is that's not all you need ask Derek Henry how it feels to leave the Titans and join the Ravens who just went to a AFC championship game,

And ironically, they didn't even get back there with Derrick Henry, and they had the second-best run game in the NFL with one of the MVP quarterbacks and they still did it mate the AFC championship game...

irony? That's what fans need to keep reminding themselves is that the team game you need all phases including the coaching Staffs the schemes it needs to all come together you need it all you can't just have a dynamic offense ,if your defense can't hold up..

I mean ask the Ravens, the Ravens literally were loaded on offense for the most part, I mean when you have that kind of run game and you fall short of at least advancing to anther AFCCG.

Oh, I saw the 49ers with a running back by committee have about three running backs with around 500 yards each around 3 to five touchdowns each and sometimes they brought in a fourth running back with Garoppolo at quarterback and made it to a super bowl. hmm ironic..

So, I think we do have the pieces I think the guys that got in the draft in the offseason they're going to find the best ones to rotate along with the scheme in the offensive line ,and what's more important is the play calling and committing to the run game, no matter how it looks early you need to create offense, sometimes and Mike Mccarthy wasn't up to doing that either his best players did it or he just basically decided not to do it until things became critical....

We do have some dynamic players on this offense ,if you can't win more than eight games with a healthy and I have to premise that healthy with Prescott, Pickens, lamb ,and a mix of blue and turpin To find success in between using your other running backs to get your short yardage stuff to get the steady 3 yards here and there occasionally get four or five yards, then this is the wrong coaching staff once again the asset is key the offensive line but Mike McCarthy waited until mid-season to start being creative.... you have to do that every game from game one to game seventeen, you got to create things you can't just sit back and let teams dictate to you how the games are going to flow on both sides of the ball.​

You don't have to be dynamic, you have to be committed to dictating to the teams what you want to do even if it's not chunk plays all the time and you can do that with the players we have on this team right now.. Again look it up Kansas City made it to a Super Bowl with very little impactful players on offense other than the quarterback obviously but they created everything they got that got them to the Super Bowl it was done with scheme and timing and they executed when they needed to but they were not dynamic in the run game but really if you look at that whole team they didn't have a wide open offense they had a pretty damn good defense until the Super Bowl loss...