As fans we want to see our players develop in to top players, but with that comes a time when they have to be paid. The question is do you keep those players you developed or let them go? Teams over spend in FA and most of the time the player isn't worth the money. So, if a player is worthy of a bump in pay wouldn't it make sense to keep your own? I mean the time and effort put in by both the coaches and players have to have some rewards. Or is it a better option to rely on FA and draft players that seldom stay long term?
I don't think there is only one answer there, but it changes with each situation. At some point you can't just keep churning your roster and have to pay your guys when the window to compete is open. My fear for the Cowboys is that window is closing rapidly with the current core. They've pretty much maxed out the number of mega contracts a team can afford and along with that are seeing 2nd/3rd tier guys walk with (so far) little to no path to replacing them with equal or better talent. If that's true for this year and we wont see them make any other significant moves to compete I would absolutely look at alternative ways to improve the roster.
I'm a huge Lamb fan, but if you could free your books of a top WR contract over the next 3-5 years plus acquire a 1st and 2nd round draft pick I think it's tough to pass up. IMO that is how you improve your roster if you dont have the money to participate in free agency.
I'm not saying you gut the team, but I think it likely makes sense to move on from someone from the Bland, Parsons, Prescott, Lamb class that is about to all get paid. My gut tells me the Cowboys are getting ready to move on from Dak in order to keep the rest of that group, but there are plenty of threads on that subject already.
