The Dallas Cowboys weren't big players as free agency opened, and it took until almost the end of Day 3 for the franchise to make a signing as linebacker Eric Kendricks came to The Star.
With other teams around Dallas getting stronger, the Cowboys, as we now know, thanks to COO Stephen Jones, were content with sitting back and letting cut/released players fall into the free agency pool to then see what their next move would be.
In doing so, Dallas has fallen behind the eight ball as it looks to build a roster capable of getting over its playoff hump as other contenders make moves to strengthen.
As such, the Cowboys' grading of the first week of free agency isn't good, and CBS Sports has the franchise as one of the biggest losers of the opening period.
"When owner Jerry Jones kept reciting "all in" as the offseason motto, surely he didn't anticipate the team's biggest March headlines would involve an off-field legal dispute involving star quarterback Dak Prescott," CBS Sports writes. "Savvy linebacker Eric Kendricks is a solid find for the middle of the defense, but he's also 32. Maybe there's another shoe yet to drop, and surely Dallas remains talented enough to compete in 2024, but the upgrades have been nonexistent."
Now the Cowboys have dug themselves a little hole as Tyler Biadasz, Tony Pollard, Tyron Smith, Dorance Armstrong, Neville Gallimore and Dante Fowler Jr. and others have all left, along with Michael Gallup and Leighton Vander Esch (both cut), and the franchise has to replace them either with bargain free agents or through the draft.
That's not exactly what you want for a team with a roster capable of winning a Super Bowl, but that "capability'' seems in serious doubt now.
The Cowboys weren't big players last year either, as Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore were the only notable signings. Yet a 12-5 season with the league's highest-scoring offense still followed.
So, if Cowboys fans want a slight glimmer of hope, there it is.
But that's hard to grasp when other teams are making moves to improve, and Dallas isn't. While the impending contracts of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons are the main reasons the Cowboys have adopted this approach, there is still wiggle room to make signings.
So, this approach to not actively sign players and waiting for cut or released players to fall to them is a deliberate plan of "attack."
However, this has seen the Cowboys, who were thought to be in the Super Bowl bubble, be the biggest losers of the free agency period and get left behind in the process.
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