Dallas Cowboys frustrating free agency strategy must change

The Dallas Cowboys have taken their team-building strategy to the extreme and completely ignored the tool of free agency to improve their roster.

One thing the Dallas Cowboys‘ front office has never been accused off is being football smart. Even when owner and pretend general manager Jerry Jones won the NFL Executive of the Year in 2014, it was laughable.

This is the same man that had to be talked out of drafting Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel over Notre Dame offensive lineman Zack Martin before the start of that very same season. Ridiculous. When the Cowboys went 4-12 the following year, shouldn’t the league have asked for that award back?

But it’s not elder Jones who is the most to blame for the current free agency sinkhole this Cowboys organization finds itself in. Nope, this failed philosophy is his son’s, chief operating officer, executive vice president and player personnel director Stephen Jones. And throw in vice president of pro personnel Will McClay to boot.

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These two gentleman, more than any others, are responsible for the Cowboys complete dismissal of using the current free agency period to build their roster. Instead, they prefer to build their team through the draft.

For these two execs, free agency appears to be more about low-balling talented veterans hoping to sucker one of them into a sweetheart deal, like used car salesman. When that doesn’t work, they have a history of overpaying for mediocre free agent talent anyway.

They claim they are being more fiscal responsible this way, as they don’t want to overpay for free agents. Yet, these are the same men who gave defensive tackle Cedric Thornton a four-year, $18 million contract and defensive end Benson Mayowa a three-year, $8.25 million deal in 2016. They also inked cornerback Nolan Carroll to a three-year, $10-million contract just last year. Were those moves fiscally responsible, gentlemen?

Dallas doesn’t just have a spending problem, they have a talent evaluation problem. And they have two gun-shy executives who are afraid to take risks, still somehow overpay for talent and seem oblivious to trades. They’d rather make draft busts than carry bad contracts.

As a result, the Cowboys front office has become absolute bottom-feeders when it comes to free agency, scraping the bottom of the clearance bins for passed over veterans. It’s embarrassing.

While other teams are signing impressive free agents and making trades to improve their rosters, the Cowboys sit quietly content to re-sign their own players to maintain the “status quo”. A group of players, I might add, who posted a 9-7 record last season and failed to make the playoffs.

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The Dallas Cowboys have already been leapfrogged by the Philadelphia Eagles, who are now, unbelievably, Super Bowl champions. The Washington Redskins and the New York Giants are making moves as well. But not Dallas. The Cowboys will opt to let those phones ring and let those texts go unanswered.

Why sign a veteran who can actually help the team? Why make that trade for a Pro Bowler? We’ve already discovered a winning Super Bowl formula right here boys … The Draft! Why mess with perfection? Just look at all those Lombardi Trophies we’ve won in the last 20 years. Tell daddy to wake me up in late April.

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