Dallas Cowboys still have hopes of improvement, so far they have taken a step back
The Dallas Cowboys will tell you there’s still time.
In fact, quarterback Dak Prescott uttered those exact words earlier this week.
Free agency is just a week old.
The NFL Draft is more than a month away.
And the season doesn’t start until September.
But what’s also true is that it has gotten late rather early for the Cowboys as they attempt to improve their team for a season that will be a make-or-break year for coach Mike McCarthy, and one the organization hopes will end the now 26-year Super Bowl drought.
The most disappointing part is that their current state is of their own doing.
The rest of the NFL is as drunk as it’s ever been with trades and big-money signings galore, including Wednesday’s blockbuster deal that saw the Kansas City Chiefs send receiver Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins for a horde of draft picks.
Scores of other teams are copying the blueprint of the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams by pushing all their chips in to the middle of the table to win a title now.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys, who prefer not to invest big on outside free agents and prefer to build through the draft, are sitting idly by while other teams have improved.
Despite a fist full of dollars and plenty of cap space, the Cowboys have gotten worse since the end of the season.
And that’s reflected in a recent NFL Power Ranking on the league’s own website, nfl.com. The Cowboys were ranked seventh right after the Super Bowl in February.
However, in less than six weeks, they have dropped five spots to 12th, largely due to the departures of receiver Amari Cooper in a trade with the Cleveland Browns for a fifth round pick and defensive end Randy Gregory to the Denver Broncos in free agency.
Sure, the Cowboys have made moves in bringing back defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, receiver Michael Gallup and safeties Malik Hooker and Jayron Kearse among others like the re-signings of linebacker Leighton Vander Esch, defensive end Dorance Armstrong and punter Bryan Anger.
They added to the excitement with the thrilling signings of tight end Jeremy Sprinkle and defensive Carlos Watkins on Wednesday.
Woohoo.
In all seriousness, those are all important pieces. But they all were already on the team in 2021, which is akin to holding serve.
They have yet to do anything to improve the roster and bargain-basement deals for receiver James Washington and Dante Fowler don’t come close to filling the massive holes at receiver and defensive end.
Time still remains for the Cowboys to make moves, but there are just not a whole lot of big-time options — at least not ones the Cowboys are willing to pursue.
The Cowboys already passed on several big-name free agents who could have upgraded the roster in pass rushers Von Miller and Za’Darius Smith.
They are choosing not to pursue six-time Pro Bowl linebacker Bobby Wagner, a former protege of defensive coordinator Dan Quinn who seemed like a perfect fit to mentor last season’s rookie of the year Micah Parsons.
The draft will offer opportunities for upgrades, but the Cowboys have the 24th overall pick so don’t delude yourself into thinking they will get an instant impact performer like Parsons, who was picked 11th in 2021.
The Cowboys still should have enough talent to be the cream of a bad NFC East, although the fact that the division has not had a repeat winner since the Philadelphia Eagles in 2001-04 should give them some pause in their thoughts they all they need to do is just show up and they’ll win.
But the goal of this team is not to win the NFC East and go one and done in the playoffs as they last season when a 12-5 campaign was ruined with a bad wild card loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Cowboys don’t hoist division title banners in their stadium.
Actually, they have yet to hoist any banners at AT&T Stadium because the Cowboys haven’t won a Super Bowl title since the end of the 1995 season.
And it’s getting late early in their hopes of ending that drought in 2022.
So far the Cowboys have taken a step back.
The league’s own site says so.
