This was not what the Dallas Cowboys had in mind when making Dak Prescott the highest-paid player in NFL history on the day of the season-opening victory over the Cleveland Browns.
Since then ‘America’s Team’ have managed only another five wins and by mid-December are left needing snookers to make it to the postseason, while their star man watches injured from the sidelines.
It has been a season of injury and inconsistency, glaring deficiencies and glaring issues at the house that Jerry built.
And while CeeDee Lamb not being able to see the ball because of the sun shining through the AT&T Stadium should be little more than a comedic side story, Jerry Jones’s snippy reaction about suggested an owner feeling the pressure of a frustrating season on the back of continued failure to mount a serious postseason challenge.
Since their 1995 season ended with the Lombardi Trophy the Cowboys have won the NFC East nine times and qualified for the playoffs in a further four seasons. There are many teams for whom that would represent success; but for America’s Team it simply fuels the question: why have they not won the Super Bowl since Troy Aikman’s prime?
In many ways those intermittent division titles have fueled the issue, allowing Jones to make the case that his team is only one or two pieces away from being a contender before a reality check 12 months later when those pieces have not been found – or ignored.
Dak Prescott – one of the best-paid players in the NFL – has spent recent months on crutches
Jerry Jones has plenty to think about, including what to do about head coach Mike McCarthy
So in that respect the struggles of 2024 might not set off too many alarm bells. And yet this year felt different. Since Mike McCarthy’s side went 6-10 in 2020, his first year as head coach, the Cowboys have reeled off three 12-win seasons in a row. In those three years however, their play-off record reads 1-3.
This season they will fall far short of that mark. Yes, it has not been kind to them in terms of scheduling – the Ravens, Bengals, Lions and Steelers all on the slate, along with their two annual games against their rival Eagles – but that is the price you pay for winning your division.
More worrying has been the manner of some of the defeats – 34-6 by the Eagles, 47-9 by the Lions, just to show how far behind the NFC’s best teams they are – while they have also lost to the Saints, Falcons and a CMC-less 49ers among others.
Injuries have played a part, especially on the defense: Parsons has missed four games, DeMarcus Lawrence’s season ended in week four, while in the secondary the cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland have missed time.
And then Prescott has been out since week nine. Had they all been fit, who knows how the season might have panned out, but it must be noted they were 3-5 when Prescott went down.
McCarthy argues with a sideline judge during the Cowboys’ recent win over the Panthers
CeeDee Lamb previously claimed he couldn’t see the ball because of the sun at AT&T Stadium
In many ways the year’s issues started with the Prescott contract wranglings, which only served as yet another example of the muddled thinking of a franchise desperately searching for its first Super Bowl appearance this century.
Not because it is a mistake to hoist the medium-term hopes of the franchise on to Prescott’s shoulders, but it should have been done in February, allowing the team to address roster needs once the free agency period opened in March.
The saga then overshadowed training camp and pre-season; even if no one really expected a deal not to get done, it was certainly a distraction.
But then was the price. Two weeks before rewarding Prescott for his patience Jerry Jones had made CeeDee Lamb the second-highest paid receiver in the league. It could be seen as a riposte to those who questioned his willingness to spend, but might the money have been better used to strengthen across the board?
It takes more than two highly paid star players to help an offense flourish, especially if that offense hasn’t been bolstered in the Draft.
In many ways it is symptomatic of some questionable decision-making that has marked Jones’s tenure. Not in his role as owner, but his insistence on keeping hold of the general manager and president roles. It means fewer minds at the top table helping to weigh up football decisions with financial ones with the clarity needed to build a successful team.
The sun shines through the glass windows at the end of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas
Derrick Henry (left) and Saquon Barkley (right) are now two stories of what might have been
For example, the Cowboys were right to move on from Ezekiel Elliott and make Tony Pollard their starting running back in the 2022 season (even with Zeke still on the books). It was a sensible football decision, and it looked like a canny bit of business when Elliott was moved on and they had a bargain ready-made replacement. And so his departure to Tennessee in March left a hole that needed filling.
But the Cowboys, distracted by other contracts, had too much faith in their succession planning and decided that Rico Dowdle could step up as Pollard once had. Admittedly he has rushed for more than 100 yards in their past three games (though two of them were against the Panthers and Giants), but in the previous ten games, with playoff hopes technically still alive, he never hit three figures and only went past 70 yards on the ground on three occasions (though his use in the passing game twice gave him 100 yards from scrimmage).
Jones might argue that 1,000+ yards from scrimmage through 14 games is a decent return statistically for his $1.255m cap hit. But if, as the franchise’s owner claims, they really are ‘all-in’ the running back position is one area where there was a chance to make an unequivocal statement in elevating the offense.
It was rumored that the Cowboys had the option of taking Derrick Henry in the offseason. Jones said he couldn’t afford it. The Ravens signed Henry on a two-year $16million deal.
Fans in Dallas are growing more frustrated by the week, and are desperate for some success
Given the money he lavished in the space of two weeks towards the end of the summer, might not Prescott and the Cowboys have been better served by realizing that some of his reported $60million annual salary might have gone to bolstering the offense elsewhere?
Saquon Barkley was also a free agent this year, and we know how that has worked out for the Cowboys’ old enemy in Philadelphia. Indeed, any notion that just one such signing can’t make the difference has been well and truly been dismissed by the Eagles’ 2024 season. The top two in the rushing standings? Yep, you’ve guessed it.
And while it was proving hard for the Cowboys to win with Prescott, it was always going to be tough for Cooper Rush to win games as his stand-in. imagine how much easier it might have been if they had an elite running back to hand the ball off to.
This week Jones appeared to shift the blame on to Prescott, saying he refused to take a team-friendly deal and that it would hamstring them for the coming offseason. ‘It’s a different [cap) management when you got the higher-priced player at quarterback,’ he told the Athletic.
Last week Micah Parsons, the defensive end playing in the last year of his rookie deal, when asked about his upcoming contract talks, said: ‘I don’t think there’s a big difference between $30millon and $40million.
Micah Parsons is in the last year of his rookie deal and is heading into new contract talks
‘You see a lot of times, you know, the highest-paid player. Then we say they don’t have weapons… I’d rather just be in the best situation.’
It was, after all, the attitude that helped Tom Brady win six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
Whether it is Jones or Prescott who have failed to adopt that attitude, the owner throwing under the bus the man you expect to lead your team for the next six years may not be a smart move. And the cynics would suggest he is pre-emptively explaining away another year of poor decisions.
Either way, the season has undoubtedly felt like a step backwards, while the Eagles and a Jayden Daniels-led Commanders look like being the NFC East’s powerhouses for the foreseeable future. If the Cowboys are to challenge soon Jones needs to learn from the lessons of 2024; there are plenty to choose from.
