The Dallas Cowboys entered the offseason with several franchise-altering moves expected to be made, but here we are at the start of May, and little has been done to bolster a roster that lost significant talent on both sides of the ball.
Owner Jerry Jones has made it clear the Cowboys are going “all-in” for 2024 and decided to retain Mike McCarthy for one more season to see if he can get Dallas past the first round in the playoffs and possibly reach the Super Bowl expectations Jones expects.
After a fantastic regular season where Dallas won the NFC East with a (12-5) record which gave them home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the Cowboys were dominated by a young, surging Green Bay Packers team.
Suddenly one of the league’s top defenses couldn’t stop the run and allowed first-year starting QB Jordan Love to look like Patrick Mahomes, while Dak Prescott and the offense sputtered which was rare for 2023.
Prescott was in the discussion for NFL MVP this season and closed out arguably the best regular season of his career. The Cowboys entered the wildcard round matchup as two-score favorites over the Green. Bay Packers, who have a first-year starting QB and the youngest roster in the NFL.
Prescott closed out the 2023 regular season ranked in the top five in several major categories for NFL QB. He came into Sunday’s playoff matchup against the Green Bay Packers with 4,516 yards (3rd), 36 touchdowns (1st), 9 interceptions and a QB rating of 72.5 (2nd).
Although some rolled there eyes when Jerry Jones and company decided to fire Kellen Moore at the end of last season — as he’s regarded as one of the up and coming young and brilliant offensive minds — head coach Mike McCarthy took over play calling and the Dallas Cowboys offense looked elite for the majority of the year.
Finally, Prescott and CeeDee Lamb found the perfect chemistry and emerged as arguably the top QB/WR tandem in the league.
Beyond Dak Prescott and the explosive offense that averaged 389 yards and 30 points per game and finished with 77 touchdowns in the regular season, the Dallas Cowboys had a defense that finished the season ranked 5th in the NFL.
Now, the Cowboys will enter 2024 with more pressure than ever, from head coach to the QB. Instead of extending Prescott to free up cap room to add talent around him, Jones is opting to let his starting QB play out the final year of his contract adding plenty of speculation to his future in Dallas. Lamb is up for a major payday and could hold out until he inks a deal that makes him one of the top wideouts in the league.
Although the Dallas brass has been beyond hesitant to make any big offseason moves, the Cowboys are bringing back a familiar face and fan favorite.
Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott Makes Major Announcement After Re-Signing With Former Team
After meeting with the two-time rushing champion last week, the Cowboys brought back Ezekiel Elliott on a one-year deal. The Ohio State product was released by Dallas last year in a cap-saving move after losing the RB1 role to Tony Pollard.
Elliott is definitely past his best-before date, but the soon-to-be 29-year-old showed in New England last year that he can still be a productive role player.
As the No. 2 RB in New England behind Rhamondre Stevenson, Elliott still posted 955 yards of offense and five touchdowns. Those numbers are especially admirable when you consider how awful the New England offense was a year ago.
Elliott is still one of the best pass-blocking running backs in the game, and he had 12 rushing touchdowns for the Dallas Cowboys just two years ago. He’s still reliable in goal-to-go situations and will boost locker room morale as the Cowboys try to bounce back from another humiliating and early postseason exit.
On Thursday, Elliott revealed he won’t be wearing the signature “21” number that he wore during his first tenure in Dallas.
fifteen pic.twitter.com/ZfajIZbVOe
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) May 1, 2024
On X/Twitter, the Cowboys announced that Ezekiel Elliott will wear the No. 15 — the same number he wore at Ohio State and for the New England Patriots last season. “Zeke” wore No. 21 in each of his first seven seasons with Dallas.
Trey Lance will now switch from 15 to 19.
The No. 21 was occupied last season by Pro Bowl cornerback Stephon Gilmore, but the Cowboys did not re-sign the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year. Currently, nobody on the Dallas Cowboys roster occupies the No. 21.
Ezekiel Elliott won the NFL rushing titles in 2016 (his rookie year) and 2018. For his career, he has 8,904 rushing yards and 71 touchdowns to go along with 356 receptions for 2,649 yards and 14 receiving TDs
