About a month ago, Jerry was quoted saying that if he could write a check for another championship title, the size of said check would be “embarrassing.”
The proceeding thought that went across my mind was if the NFL were to do away with the salary cap today, the Cowboys would be in title contention tomorrow. Following that line of wishful thinking, I suddenly found myself jealous of the kind of luxury that Yankees fans get to enjoy. They rarely have to endure frustration at any kind of level close to what Cowboys’ fans are currently experiencing.
During the offseason, I was often the last person in the room trying to make a case in the defense of the roster changes that have taken place on the Cowboys’ offense. In many respects, everything they did was focused around improving in the areas they have found the most success- Even distribution of the ball, keeping defenses spread out and the offense in charge of the clock and ahead of the chains. To me, the release of Dez represented Dallas’ commitment to that strategy, and I was all for it. Couple that with the Connor Williams pick in the second round and a high-ceiling Michael Gallup project pick in the third, and suddenly I find myself explaining my optimism in the Dallas offense in a way that can only be properly portrayed by Charlie Kelly in his famous mail room scene of “Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
However, despite whatever optimism I may have had a month ago, as we head into week 4 with a match against Detroit at home the writing is on the wall: So far, this “retooling” of the Dallas offense has been, plainly put, an utter disaster. Our depth at on the offensive line has once again been exposed, receivers can’t make plays, and once again the Cowboys consistently struggle to gain 200 receiving yards per game. And I am no longer just referring to the overhaul that occurred this past offseason. Unfortunately, it’s about time we throw Dak Prescott into that conversation as well, because that’s where it all begins. Despite how fans may have felt about Romo in his final years, running him off into retirement will go down as one of the greatest failures of this organization. As hard as we have all tried to avoid having this conversation, it’s about time somebody came out and openly admitted it. With the Cowboys in win-now mode two seasons ago, coupled with the “hot hand” of Dak and the now constant-lingering fear of the next season-ending QB injury, Cowboys brass seemingly had little trouble handing the keys to Prescott, and letting the franchise’s all-time QB ride off into the sunset. And after winning Rookie of the Year and writing off last season’s 9-7 finish off to injury and suspension, we have had plenty of excuses to dish out in defense of Dak. Now three games into his third season, Prescott still looks inexperienced behind center, and it was glaringly obvious after last week’s game in Seattle that the entire unit is lacking solid on-field leadership. Blown assignments left and right on the front line, illegal formations and just flat out rookie mistakes have shown us that all of the leadership on the offensive side of the ball is coming from the sideline. If that is the case, then it is most certainly time to begin looking for other answers to this problem.
Nobody wants to have this conversation about their team, especially after such a deep rebuild. But Cowboys’ brass rolled the dice on cutting Dez, and took their chances on Austin and Hurns, just like they did with letting Romo go. The stakes on this season were high enough when the record was 0-0, but now with two bad losses on the record and a home game looming against a team that just knocked off the Patriots, whether its at the player or coach level, it’s hard to not shake the feeling that we may be one embarrassing home loss away from Dallas burning this whole thing down.
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