Blogging The Boys
Moves the Cowboys can copy from the Eagles.
When you look at organizations, the Dallas Cowboys are not the Philadelphia Eagles. They operate very differently, and with the success of the Eagles, it’s hard not to get caught up in wanting the Cowboys to be more like their divisional foe. Call it frustration or call it being green with envy. Whatever it is, fans want something different.
So, let’s talk about that. Let’s imagine Jerry Jones is in a cold dark room somewhere steaming over not having what the Eagles have. Pretend he wants to win really bad and would consider changing his approach to give his team a real shot. Whether that’s a hypothetical you can wrap your mind around, that’s what we’re doing today. Without getting too crazy and creating scenarios beyond disbelief, what can the Cowboys do this offseason that would give them a better chance of reaching the Super Bowl?
Free agency is a fickle beast. It’s not the best way to spend cap resources because more times than not, what a team pays for is not what a team gets. If a player is worth their weight in gold, they usually are retained by their original team. If their team doesn’t see it that way, that player will hit the market and go to the highest bidder. In short, free agency is a losing endeavor.
That said, it has its place. Some purchases prove valuable. The goal is to make the right purchases. Last offseason, the Eagles' three most expensive free agent acquisitions were:
That’s $116 million for three years of service from those players. It would equate to roughly $39 million per season, but as we know the Eagles will put a lot of that cost on their tab. When you look at what they got compared to what they paid for, this again points to the wasteful investment of free agency, even with the home run signing of Barkley included.
But that’s okay. In this hypothetical, we are accepting the losses. Remember, we just want the Cowboys to try harder. And it doesn’t have to be over $100 million thrown at free agency. What about half that? What about one or two semi-pricy outside free agents to add to the roster that would address areas of weakness? If you could cut a check for a couple of those players, who would you sign?
Maybe you want to blow it all on one impact player like signing WR Chris Godwin for around $25 million a year and package him with CeeDee Lamb. Doesn’t that sound delightful?
Or maybe you want to spread the money around and sign Eagles DT Milton Williams for $12 per year to strengthen the interior defensive line and sign Vikings RB Aaron Jones for $6 million per...
