Why do I think the Dallas Cowboys owe their fans – that’s you – the truth about what can be accomplished in 2025 NFL free agency?
Because after a full calendar year of Jones Jibber-Jabber lowlighted by the purposely confusion “All-In” declaration …
It’s the least Jerry and Stephen could do.
So yes, I’m still confounded and even bothered by COO Stephen Jones insisting that fans of “America’s Team” should keep their free agency hopes low for 2025 because cap-wise, “We’re going to be really, really tight.”
Why be confounded and bothered? Because Stephen’s claim is mathematical and factually false.
Last winter, team owner Jerry Jones promised that the Cowboys would go “all in” for 2024. It was a verbal party trick, a statement that indicated Dallas would be a “buyer” … when in fact, there was no such intention to do so.
And why not? Because there was a real plan to “keep our powder dry” in order to have the assets to make a major move in 2025.
So Tony Pollard, Tyron Smith, Dorance Armstrong and Tyler Biadasz were among the 11 key free agents who left, and reuniting with Ezekiel Elliott and signing Eric Kendricks were the only headline-worthy moves made in response.
But along the way, the Cowboys did sign Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb to monster extensions – deals that have created the misguided impression that now Dallas is cap-strapped again, that Dallas will again find it difficult for them to make any splashy signings for the 2025 season.
And Stephen is feeding that narrative. … which flies in the face of “Blow It Up” evidence and logic.
“I think we knew we were going to have a challenge (in 2024) and (2025),” Stephen Jones said. “It’s going to be really, really tight. We still have some money left over from some guys who are not here today, and we’re going to have some other guys that won’t be here in the future that you’re still going to have their cap count.”
Indeed, there is dead money, as all teams have. (In fact, Dallas actually ranks low in that department, at No. 27 in the NFL.) But Jones is oddly skipping over the fact that he supervised the Dak and Lamb deals which intentionally feature “switches to flip” that in combination with a new Micah Parsons contract (which will increase, not decrease, space) can provide Dallas with a whopping $100 million in 2025 cap room.
This isn’t a matter of debate. Nor will it require some sort of sorcery. It’s all planned, done in coordination with some other facts, including the deals with pricy vets DeMarcus Lawrence and Zack Martin being allowed to expire.
Reasonably, the idea of signing Prescott to a $60 million per year deal but then to ignore adding talent around him to justify the move is nonsensical.
If the Cowboys aren’t intending to build around Dak, why bother signing Dak at all?
We don’t have the answers as to why Stephen has opted to answer the questions about the 2025 cap with his annual and typical “really, really tight” response. … when the informed Cowboys fan knows it’s not true. Maybe it’s just out of habit? Maybe he says “really, really tight” almost by rote?
Maybe by pooh-poohing the possibilities, he’s keeping down the (already snake’s-belly-low) expectations before Jerry and Stephen majestically ride their white horses to the rescue with major money moves?
But the present and public approach is alarming, for two reasons.
One, other championship-caliber contenders find ways to navigate the cap to build winners and to stay winners. Dallas fans deserve the same from the Cowboys. And Dallas management should demand the same of itself.
And two, Stephen’s remarks paint a picture that suggests that either he really doesn’t get it (which seems impossible) or that you really don’t get it (which seems insulting.)
If for reasons we absolutely cannot fathom the Cowboys have done all of this meticulous work to create cap room and then don’t use it? We will have been wrong in predicting otherwise.
But if the Cowboys do that? Do the work, get the room and then fail to use it? The Joneses will be more “wrong” than they ever have before. And that’s saying something.
