Jerry Jones all season for not being “All In”? That’s old news. Catch up, because piece by piece this weekend, he is overseeing his Dallas Cowboys getting “All Out.”
“All out,” as in “tank the season.” Forget the delusions of grandeur about starting quarterback Cooper Rush because he “gives us the best chance to win games.” That’s what the 3-7 Cowboys are saying as they approach today’s meeting at 7-4 Washington.
But what are they doing? In a trio of moves that are sneaking past “the casuals and the nationals” who still don’t get it, they are starting the process of “Organic Tanking” in a way that should help their 2025 draft pick in tandem with a re-tooling “Blow It Up” plan powered by perhaps as much as $100 million in salary-cap room.
The Cowboys are without star quarterback Dak Prescott, so their 2024 has long been doomed. Some therefore think the admission of failure should’ve come earlier. After all, didn’t the Saints already fire coach Dennis Allen? Didn’t the Jets already fire coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas? Haven’t the Giants already cut starting quarterback Daniel Jones?
But again, ignore what Dallas is saying – and that includes Micah Parsons, who maintains “we’re a damn football team” – and look at what they are doing.
If the Cowboys game today mattered? We bet Zack Martin – the iron man who has missed just 11 games in 11 years – would’ve fought to participate, even with his two ankle injuries and his ailing shoulder.
If this game mattered? Trevon Diggs, who is banged up, would be playing. Instead, he and Martin aren’t even making the trip to Washington!
If this game mattered? A healthy-enough Brandin Cooks would’ve been activated. Maybe DeMarcus Lawrence, too. But they’re not activated. They’ll watch the game along with everybody else.
That’s basically three of the “10 Steps to Tanking” that we’ve outlined in advance of today. (Read those steps below.)
Soon enough, the Cowboys wll play quarterback Trey Lance. We’ll see more of Hunter Luepke and Marist Liufau and Caelen Carson and T.J. Bass and their ilk, too.
Coach Mike McCarthy has seen the writing on the wall and, therefore, has a For Sale sign in the front yard of one of his two DFW houses. (See our exclusive story here.) And now all of Cowboys Nation is – if your eyes are open – can see it, too.
“All In” has become “All Out.” The Cowboys won’t be “trying to lose” today. But they in the proper spirit of “Organic Tanking,” they won’t exactly be trying to win, either.
