The Dallas Cowboys, a team at the forefront of the NFL, have had an uncomfortably quiet offseason for their fans. The Cowboys have spent the majority of the last few months doing nothing. They've tinkered with their team makeup with a few lower-tier free agents, but overall it's been a pretty quiet offseason for a team that had high expectations before being brutally crushed by the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs at home. While teams have had quiet offseasons before, the Cowboys have tied themselves up in a bind by not making any changes to the core of their makeup, especially when it comes to their star quarterback.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is in the final year of his contract and is making the second-highest salary of any player in the NFL this year at $55.5 million, according to Spotrac. This poses a major obstacle to the Cowboys' offseason plans. With training camp looming, the Cowboys currently have just under $2 million in available salary space. The indecision regarding Prescott's future could hinder his chances this year and, in turn, his ability to have a strong season as he prepares for the next phase of his career.
Amazingly, the Cowboys could easily turn this situation around if they had the determination and an idea of what they want to do next. Right now, the Cowboys have three paths to take, and they're taking the path of least resistance, entering the season with Prescott's huge cap hit. The other two paths would require a level of commitment they're not yet ready for, and they missed an opportunity to reap the immediate benefits for both.
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The first option would be to sign Prescott to an extension now, locking him in as the quarterback for the foreseeable future and lowering the salary cap this season to allow the Warriors to be more aggressive in the free-agency game. Lowering Prescott's amount wouldn't guarantee the Warriors would be able to land a big-name player in free agency, but it would be a good bet. PossibleBy not doing anything, the team was left with a weaker roster than last season.
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Another path the Cowboys could have taken would have been radical, but if they are not sure if Prescott is going to be the quarterback of the future, trading him is not at all unreasonable as a thought experiment. They could have acquired multiple first-round picks for Prescott and would have had ammunition to shape the Cowboys’ future as they saw fit. Now, this would have major ramifications, including what to do with stars CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons and what their future contract situations are, but at the very least trading Prescott would have had the potential to kick off the next era of Dallas football. Unfortunately, the 2024 NFL Draft is long gone, so the picks the team would acquire won’t be valid until next season. As far as cap space goes, it shows the Cowboys are just going to move forward without any innovation or creativity.
Dallas is heading into a critical year without making any concrete moves to solidify the team's future. Besides Prescott, they need to start working on long-term deals with Lamb and Parsons, who are just as valuable as Prescott in terms of trade value. Right now, the Cowboys are in limbo, and it's really inexcusable that they haven't made the moves necessary to capitalize on such a big season.
