The 2024 off-season has already started for our Cowboys and there are a ton of questions that must be answered before we get any kind of feel for this team’s real prospects in 2024.
I’m sure I’m missing some, but here are the biggest questions facing the Cowboys this off-season :
- What to do about Dak Prescott? I have supported Dak for the 8 years he’s been our starter. I still think he’s good enough to win playoff games with. BUT…I feel it’s time to move on from him. The team won’t. They are handcuffed (at least in their own thinking) by his contract and their options to cut/trade aren’t great. I would definitely seek a trade partner, roll with Trey Lance, and draft a QB early. But the team won’t do that.
- Which of the team’s 16 FAs will keep next year? Heres the list:
- Tyron Smith, Tony Pollard, Tyler Biadaz, Jourdan Lewis, Stephon Gilmore, Dorance Armstrong, Jayron Kearse, Dante Fowler, Jonathan Hankins, Trent Sieg, Neville Gallimore, Chuma Edoga, Rico Dowdle, Sean McKeon, CJ Goodwin and Noah Igbinoghene.
- I would let everyone go except Jourdan Lewis, Trent Sieg (deep snapper) maybe Hankins (if the money works), and perhaps Dorance Armstrong (although I seriously doubt we can afford him) Biadaz will cost too much, Gilmore will be 34 and we will have Diggs back. Fowler is a spot down pass rusher which we don’t need compared to run stuffers. Pollard will cost too much, Kearse is overrated, Tyron is good but he’s a ticking time bomb each week. I say we need to say goodbye and move Tyler Smith to LT and Bass to LG, and draft a nasty C/G.
- Who will be the Defensive coordinator? As of today it looks like Dan Quinn which won’t be a tragedy. But whoever it is, we need to stop believing we can play small LBs and expect to stop the run. It won’t happen. Changes/upgrades are desperately needed on defense starting with major help stopping the run. (For the umpteenth year!) We especially need LBs and DL.
- What should be our draft priorities? Watching the two championship games this past weekend made it obvious how much we need to (once again) upgrade our physicality on both sides of the ball. We desperately need some help at LB, DL, OL and RB. If it were me as GM, I would try to move Dak and draft a QB early, roll with Lance this year and try to rebuild. This FO won’t do that, but I would.
- What will the starting backfield look like next year? I would move on from Dak, see what Lance has, draft a QB early, draft a RB on Day 2 that can start for us and sign a cheaper FA RB. This team will extend Dak I’m sure of it. And Dak isn’t as bad as too many here think. But sometime’s it’s just time to move on. I would.
- Will this team go farther in the playoffs next year? I hope so but I do not believe so. This team will not get better until this FO can admit that we aren’t that close.
I wish this owner would allow us to rebuild instead of pretending to be “close”. To repeat a phrase I wrote in question #5, This team will not get better until it can admit that we aren’t that close. You can’t get better if you don’t start with the truth.
What about you? How would you answer these questions? Do you have more questions I didn’t have?
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