Dallas Cowboys free agency lacks sense of urgency

One other major need for the Cowboys happens to be along the defensive line. Instead of getting a deal done with their own free agent, Dallas chose to use their franchise tag (again) on sack master DeMarcus Lawrence.

Doing so has tied up $20 million+ in cap space, frustrated one of the leaders on the team and sent a sign to others, both in and out of the organization. If the Cowboys are unwilling to break the bank for a homegrown, 27-year old defensive end with 25.0 sacks in his last two seasons, why would they do so for anyone else?

Beyond that major fail, they have allowed other teams to set the market for how much Lawrence should command. Detroit just gave former Patriot Trey Flowers $17 million per season for five years. Flowers has 21.0 sacks in three years, four less than Lawrence in one more year.

Will he postpone needed minor surgeries and miss camp and possible games? Will Lawrence pull a Le’Veon Bell and sit out the entire season to prove a point? These are all very real scenarios that could have easily been avoided.

Jerry Jones recently told the Star-Telegram’s Clarence Hill, Jr. in an interview that he realizes he’s running out of time. He mentioned the team’s youth and that there is a sense of urgency to grab this while it’s here. Apparently, that urgency means to slow play your own talent and sit out the first wave of free agency to avoid adding big time outside help.

As Inigo Montoya told the Sicilian in The Princess Bride: You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means. The Dallas Cowboys’ actions continue to prove urgency is not a word in which they properly know the meaning.