Cowboys news: Defining ‘all-in’ for Dallas is tricky
Ed. Note: Last week we noted the sad passing of Mark Lane, a contributor here at BTB and at many Cowboys media sites over the years. We wanted to let everyone know you can donate to a scholarship fund in Mark Lane’s honor here.
Spagnola: Beware the ‘all’ part of now going ‘in’-Mickey Spagnola, Dallascowboys.com
Decoding what the Cowboys rendition of “all in” would resemble for the Cowboys.
And “all in” goes back to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talking during Senior Bowl week in Mobile, Alabama, about the team’s commitment to this coming season when asked if he anticipated being “all in” heading toward 2024, as if the Cowboys haven’t been “all in” previously. “I would anticipate, looking ahead at our key contracts that we’d like to address, we’d be all in,” Jones began. “I would anticipate we’d be all in at the end of this year. When you say is there any thought, I’d say we’ll push the hell out of it.
“It will be going all in on different people than you’ve done in the past. We’ll be going all in. We’ve seen some of things out of some the players that we want to be all in on. And yes, I would say you would see us this coming year not building for the future, is the best way I would say it, and that ought to answer a lot of questions.” Loaded, right? Jerry mentions “key contracts,” and that is a reference to some of his 16 unrestricted free agents, eight of those starters, five significant contributors and seven more starters entering the final year of their contracts. Jerry would sure like to retain some of those unrestricted free agents and get ahead of next year’s unrestricted free agents if the Cowboys can.
Jerry didn’t say, as some interpreted, trading away the draft to get one or two players. He didn’t say spending freely in free agency because as we know, there is a hard salary cap in the NFL. And prior to the March 13 start of the new league year, projections already have the Cowboys – thanks to Friday’s adjusted cap from $242.5 to $255.4, and now with their $10.8 million rollover from 2023 – with $269.434 million to work with. And when it comes to the top-51 salaries come March 13, they are a mere $3.228 over the cap, which certainly beat the projected $16 million at the start of the week. Jerry didn’t say, as some interpreted, trading away the draft to get one or two players.
“I mean, we’re always all in this day and time,” Stephen said. “We’ve been that way for three or four years. We’ve put three 12-5 seasons together. We’re close. … We certainly think we’re close, and like I said, we’ve won more football games, regular-season games, over the last three years (36) than only (Kansas City, 37).”
Managing the Cowboys’ cornerback position for 2024-Mario Herrera Jr., Inside the Star
The Cowboys have big questions to address at cornerback this season.
The Dallas Cowboys find themselves with two of their top three cornerbacks in 2023 as free agents.
Stephon Gilmore and Jourdan Lewis became CB2 and CB3 after the season-ending knee injury to Trevon Diggs in Week 3 of the regular season.
It’s too early in the offseason to hear anything about how the Cowboys plan to move forward, but I believe it’s safe to assume that this position will need to be addressed at all costs.
Free Agency
I believe that another one-year contract should be offered to Gilmore to stay on as CB2 until Diggs is fully recovered from injury.
As we’ve seen with both Michael Gallup and Terence Steele over the past couple of seasons, the player coming off of a torn ACL does not come back as effectively.
Each player is different, and their bodies react differently to treatment and rehabilitation.
Don’t kick my chair out from under me for this, but what if Diggs never returns to be the same player as before?
It’s not some conspiracy theory. The proof is in the pudding.
Gallup has not been the same player since his injury and it’s come to the point that he may be a cap casualty this offseason.
Steele was just in his first year back after tearing his ACL in October of 2022, but he was much less effective.
It’s possible, like Gallup, that Steele never returns to his previous form so is it out of the question to think the same for Diggs?
7 realistic free agents Packers could sign in 2024 – Sayre Bedinger, LombardiAve.com
Could Tony Pollard end up with the Packers?
7. Tony Pollard, RB
Again, you don’t always want to dip into the running back position in NFL free agency, but with the depth of this year’s class as a whole, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Packers (and other teams) go after some proven players here on short-term deals.
Imagine a running back duo of Aaron Jones and Tony Pollard for Jordan Love to lean on.
We saw this past season that Tony Pollard is worse off when he’s not in a tandem backfield, so sharing the backfield with someone like Aaron Jones could be beneficial to everyone. I think Pollard’s three-down ability and explosiveness when he’s fully healthy make him an intriguing target, and he could be had for a bargain price given he was coming back from injury during the 2023 season.
2024 NFL offseason: Bold moves, trades in free agency, draft for all 32 teams – ESPN
The ESPN bold move for Dallas isn’t exactly bold.
Cut WR Michael Gallup
Gallup has never quite come back from the ACL injury he suffered near the end of the 2021 season. Last season, he was the clear third among the Cowboys’ main receivers. He ranked 59th in receiving DYAR out of 81 qualifying receivers. By comparison, CeeDee Lamb was third and Brandin Cooks was 28th after coming on strong in the second half of the season.
A regular cut of Gallup would leave a ton of dead money on the Cowboys’ cap. But a post-June 1 cut would give the Cowboys $9.5 million in extra cap space with $4.4 million in dead money. That extra cap space would help the Cowboys, who are currently $20 million over the cap for 2024.
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