The question now facing the Dallas Cowboys: To tank or not to tank?
Heading into the slate of regular season games the Dallas Cowboys believed that the installation of a new coach with a championship pedigree, the return of a top-ranked offense and quarterback, a solid draft and a number of new additions on defense, would lay the groundwork for their first trip back to the Super Bowl since 1995.
Despite the fact that the Cowboys had just four playoff wins over the last 25 years and had never advanced to the NFC title game during that span, reaching the Super Bowl at the conclusion of this season was considered a tangible goal.
But that was then.
Now, some eight weeks later, the Cowboys are 2-6 following three blowout losses by a combined score of 86-22, and they find themselves at the midpoint of what has become a train wreck of a season.
Devastating injuries have ravaged the team, and the season-ending losses have included quarterback Dak Prescott and both offensive tackles. Primary backup Andy Dalton was knocked out of a game due to an illegal hit, lost another game to the concussion protocol and now another one to the COVID-19 protocol.
On offense, the team has committed a league-leading 18 turnovers. Seven members on the defensive unit are no longer on the field, either due to injury or abject play, which has put the team on pace to set club records for points allowed. The combined effect has created an overall disillusionment in McCarthy and his staff that has sparked finger-pointing from the players.
Only one Super Bowl has been played on a Cowboys home field, and Mike McCarthy was the coach of the team that won it all that season. Now, while those were McCarthy’s 2010 Green Bay Packers, he was also the steward of the 2017 squad that went 7-9 and 2018 team, which posted a 4-7-1 record before being fired.
Overall, McCarthy has just six wins in his last 23 games.
And that brings us to where we are now.
Do the Cowboys tank or do they compete?
As it stands, the Cowboys are in line for a Top 5 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
They are currently fifth in the draft order and could move even higher with a few more losses, putting them in position to draft a quarterback if the team was inclined to move on from an injured Prescott and his salary demands or possibly trade the pick for a bushel of players and picks to fill a number of team needs.
Of course, the Cowboys are in the dreadful NFC East and thus are still in the thick of the division title race with the Philadelphia Eagles leading the way at 3-4-1.
Team owner Jerry Jones sees a pathway to both objectives, though he doesn’t use the word tank in the truest essence of the word.
“Could you make a decision to play a younger player more, or a player that you’re going to be pretty firm that you’re going to be going forward with in contract wise than a different situation? And the answer is I can see that. Yeah, I can see that you make sure that you get these guys those reps,” Jones said. ”So, I think it makes you see more young players — maybe should be doing it anyway, candidly, in regard to that definition of tanking.”
But there are no clean or bright lines with Jones and the Cowboys plans for the second half of the season. The Cowboys are already playing young players due to injuries and cuts.
He believes the team can and will improve just based on the experience of the first eight games, he expects Dalton and a few other players to get healthy, which would make competing for a division title something that still would still possible.
“I think we can do both,” Jones said. “We got help on the way. And, so, those kinds of things, hey, let’s go out and get better. We’ve got the full half season. Let’s go. And things aren’t so out of kilter other than our actual play, which, by the way, is almost trite to say almost, but we can play better.”
But no more Super Bowl talk.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
