DALLAS — Things are starting to get tense for the Dallas Cowboys, especially with the proposed new collective bargaining agreement being sent to the players for a vote.
The Cowboys have a high number of free agent decisions to make. Director of player personnel Stephen Jones recently mentioned that getting deals done – especially one with quarterback Dak Prescott – might be difficult without a new labor agreement.
This is the Cowboys’ most important off-season in a long time and there is much that needs to be solved.
Aside from Prescott’s deal, the team has a well-chronicled group that warrants being re-signed. WR Amari Cooper, CB Byron Jones and DE Robert Quinn are the big names, but Dallas needs to decide on what to do with CB Anthony Brown, TE Blake Jarwin, LB Sean Lee, S Jeff Heath, and DT Maliek Collins, to name a few more.
The team has over $74 million in cap space, but signing their big name players will eat into a bunch of that money. The Cowboys could carve out more space by converting signing bonuses of DE DeMarcus Lawrence or by releasing a high money contract player such as DT Tyrone Crawford.
Last year’s off-season carried the same tune and not enough was done. Some of these deals could’ve been done then and the team might have avoided this consternation. It is also likely that Dallas would’ve saved some money in the long run.
The big difference from last year and now, however, is a new head coach and a coaching staff from whom Cowboys fans don’t know what to expect. If Jason Garrett was still the coach, we might have had a better idea of what might happen, but the same can’t be said for Mike McCarthy and his staff.
Few doubt that Prescott will return and Cooper appears to be a shoo-in to return as well. However, the writing might be on the wall for Pro Bowler Jones, who likely won’t return to Dallas.
While Dallas has a long list of to-dos there are only a few things we can really determine from reading the tea leaves prior to the player acquisition portion of the offseason. Prescott and Cooper are likely to return and everyone else is up in the air. No one seems to know if Quinn will be re-signed, or if Lee will be brought back.
The Cowboy need to fix the defense this off-season. Stephen Jones reiterated at the NFL scouting combine this week that there is work to be done on the defensive side of the ball.
Re-signing Prescott and Cooper to keep the offense chugging along would be great, but that would more than likely cause Jones and Quinn to sign somewhere else. The defense will still need additional help even if one of those defensive pieces is brought back.
The defensive line in Dallas is lacking quality players. New defensive line coach Jim Tomsula’s crew needs a big body in the middle to help stop the run and they will need an edge defender to help Lawrence rush the passer, especially if Quinn signs elsewhere.
At the second level, the linebacker position is currently a mess.
Jaylon Smith took a step backwards last year, Lee is a free agent and might not return, and Leighton Vander Esch’s neck injury is cause for concern both in the short term and long term.
Dallas simply doesn’t have enough players currently at a volatile position to be effective.
Then there’s the secondary, which might turn out to be a major area of concern. Chido Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis are under contract to be back at corner and Xavier Woods remains at safety. However, there isn’t much depth or quality if Jones and Heath sign elsewhere.
Awuzie didn’t have a strong season in 2019 and Woods never took the leap many had hoped for. Even with Woods, the defense needs a better answer at safety.
Using the majority of your free agent money to tie the offense together for the next few seasons is a good idea, but not if it keeps you from overhauling the defense. Leaving one side of the ball shorthanded is not smart for business.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as the Cowboys have a strong nucleus that could be on the verge of competing for Super Bowl appearances. This off-season looms large over which direction the team turns.
Do you think the Cowboys defense will be able to revert back to their level of play from 2018 in 2020? Share your thoughts with Ben on Twitter @BenGrimaldi.
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