The Dallas Cowboys always have some of the most fascinating storylines in the NFL, but heading into 2024, it’s almost impossible to predict what Jerry Jones and company have planned.
If you listen to Jones, he’s sticking by his statement that Dallas is going “all in” for 2024 with the goal to finally get over the playoff hump and secure another Lombardi Trophy.
That logic made sense following the Cowboys’ early exit from the playoffs. They had a team loaded with talent on both sides of the ball and their franchise QB Dak Prescott, was leading the MVP conversation for most of the year and finished 2023 with one of his best statistical seasons as a pro. The Dallas Cowboys were undefeated at home and entered the playoffs as a No. 2 seed.
But as anyone with a pulse has come to expect, Dallas choked in the first round of the playoffs, falling to a young Green Bay Packers team who barely snuck into the postseason.
There were questions whether Jerry Jones would make significant moves after the loss, but he didn’t. He retained head coach Mike McCarthy for 2024 and made it clear Prescott was the team’s QB moving forward.
Almost every NFL Insider predicted the Dallas Cowboys would give Prescott a contract extension to free up cap space and add new talent in free agency — but instead — Jones hasn’t done a thing and is letting Dak Prescott play out the final year of his contract.
The team has lost several coaches including defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who took several assistants with him to the Cowboys’ rival, Washington, when he accepted the head coaching job there.
Beyond coaches, the Cowboys have parted ways with a bevy of key players on both sides of the ball. No more Tony Pollard or Michael Gallup to help Prescott on offense. Longtime All-Pro tackle Tyron Smith departed for the Jets. Defensively, Dorrance Armstrong followed Quinn to Washington and Leighton Vander-Esch retired.
The Cowboys have made exactly one move in free agency by adding a veteran linebacker who is a mid-level starter at best. And yet Jones is still sticking by his statement that his team is “all in” for 2024.
NFL Exec Believes Dallas Cowboys Are Tanking In 2024 To Keep Dak Prescott
In a recent article from The Athletic reporter Mike Sando, an anonymous NFL executive commented on the Cowboys’ situation.
“If the guy wants $60 million a year, you know what we are going to do instead?” the exec said. “We are going to have an average team, and you are going to play worse and we are going to get you at a better price.”
That’s a wild idea, but it may not be out of the realm of possibility. The ownership may feel that this roster with Prescott and head coach Mike McCarthy may not be serious contenders for a Super Bowl ring in 2024.
After the embarrassing playoff exit to the Green Bay Packers, they may have a reason for that. However, purposefully rolling into the last year of a franchise QB’s quarterback just to be “mediocre” and get him on a better deal still feels like putting the cart before the horse.
Any hope for a near-future extension took a major blow towards the end of March, as NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport updated fans on the negotiations. Essentially, the Dallas Cowboys ha entire offered a new deal but both sides “understand” each other.
“The Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott have a mutual understanding,” Rapoport wrote on X. “Of his contract situation, sources say, with no offers from Dallas despite him being in a contract year. Owner Jerry Jones said, ‘We are where we are, locked and loaded for this year.”
Considering that Prescott has a no-tag and no-trade clause in his contract, it puts the Dallas Cowboys in a precarious position. Not extending him before next offseason means the longtime Cowboys QB has full power to go anywhere.
As crazy as it sounds, Jones and the Dallas Cowboys could very well be setting Dak Prescott up for a major regression in 2024 with the plan to get him on a much cheaper deal than they would have to pay now.