It’s not quite Cowboys owner Jerry Jones saying that the team is “all in” for the coming season, as he did last winter and set up what was, in the end, one of the most uninspiring offseasons imaginable for the team. Jones’s statement was misconstrued across the NFL, taken to mean the team was going to be very aggressive in signing new players.
But the likes of Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley passed them by in free agency. Potential trade talks to fill needs with stars like Brandon Aiyuk never included the Cowboys. They let veterans like Tyron Smith, Tony Pollard and Stephon Gilmore go without real replacements.
In retrospect, what Jones actually meant by “all in” was that the team as all in on its roster and coaching staff as it stood at the time, and would make changes after the season if they tanked. Of course, the Cowboys did tank at 7-10 in 2024, and they did, in fact, make changes, moving off of coach Mike McCarthy and promoting offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach.
With that as a background, team VP Stephen Jones, who is Jerry Jones’s son, of course, spoke to the Dallas Morning News and said he does expect the Cowboys to be more aggressive in free agency this winter and spring.
Fans burned by 2024 might be loathe to believe him. But that is, at least, the early outlook.
Cowboys Have a ‘Good Chance’ of Being More Aggressive
Now, to be clear, Jones did not say that the team is going to make big, splashy, headline-grabbing moves in the coming weeks and months. But he did acknowledge that the Cowboys have seen an exodus of solid players–lineman Zack Martin retiring is the latest–and those players need to be replaced.
“I think there’s probably a good chance of that,” Jones said about signing players in free agency. “Between what we lost last year and what we have free this year, I think that’s part of it. Every year is its own year.”
The Cowboys do have plenty of their own players to worry about first. Micah Parsons is the top among those, though the Dallas Morning News reports that a new deal for Parsons is probably going to come second, after the re-signing of interior lineman Osa Odighizuwa, who is a free agent.
Parsons has a fifth-year option in place, worth $24 million, for next season.
Brian Schottenheimer Sees Quick Turnaround
Certainly, the hope in Dallas remains that the team can pull off a quick turnaround after last year’s 7-10 showing. The team had gone 12-5 for three straight years before that, after all, and simply plugging some holes could be enough to get things back on track.
That was new coach Schottenheimer’s message.
“The objective and the main thing is we want to win the Super Bowl …” Schottenheimer said. “And I think one of the things about me taking over this prestigious position is we can hit the ground running pretty fast because I don’t need to learn the decision-makers. I don’t need to learn the quarterback. I don’t need to learn how things work. And so, I feel like we’re kind of ahead of the curve with some of these other teams that made changes.”
