3 rule changes that could help the Dallas Cowboys

I propose three rule changes that I believe would benefit the Dallas Cowboys and make the trade deadline and offseason more interesting.

With the revival of the new professional football league called the Xtreme Football League or XFL for short brings forth a new set of rules for everyone to learn. From those rules, football fans have to decide for themselves if they like the new changes or not. Can the Dallas Cowboys benefit from some simple rule changes?

Some of the rules from the first edition of the XFL might have sounded good on paper but came off as too gimmicky. Not everything was bad from the original as some of the viewing platforms did make it into the NFL. With that said, this is my attempt to help out the NFL on paper without sounding like a gimmick itself.

The first rule I propose would give the team whose free agent to be additional cap space without it affecting the salary cap after the top league average. If a player was drafted by a team and his contract expires, the team can go over the top five annual average but only account for the average of the top five.

For example, the Cowboys could give quarterback Dak Prescott a $40 million dollar annual salary but it would only account for $33.6 million in salary-cap space which is the average annual amount for quarterbacks this past year. This gives fans peace of mind when forking over good money to buy a jersey only to see the player leave.

This rule change would also allow teams to increase players’ income so that they could be a little more competitive when compared to professional basketball and baseball players. Football is so much more hazardous on the body and brain yet they get paid considerably less.

This would also bring out the competitive nature or lack thereof in the owners. If an NFL owner does not want to pay a player with a fair wage and limited salary cap hit, then that owner has to deal with the repercussions. I don’t think Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would have an issue paying his players.

My second rule change would eliminate the franchise tag. If a team cannot work out an extension with my first rule in place then there is nothing the team can do to keep him. This would allow for free agency to keep its competitive juice.

Imagine working for a company that you didn’t like but there was nothing you could do about it. This is a reality for most players. This scenario would also create a very interesting trade deadline. If a team knows a player does not intend to re-sign, deadline day would be chaotic in a good way.

Most NFL enthusiasts I talk to love playing couch general manager. This would give even the most casual football fans’ opinions some merit. If you can dream it up, there might be an outside chance of it happening.

My final rule proposal would give NFL teams the ability to trade salary-cap space. In a world of extra cap space to keep free agents to be in your locker room, some teams could expand their roster by trading assets for even more cap space.

Yes, this could help certain teams try and build superteams like the NBA but it doesn’t always translate to the field. This would also allow teams to rebuild faster than they could have imagined. Caution, team chemistry is something that cannot be measured until the players actually play with each other.

In every scenario created, the Dallas Cowboys would benefit in every way. Dallas has become more frugal in recent years and this would allow them to make a bigger splash in free agency. It would also separate which owners would be more receptive to paying a player more than they are worth.

Keeping your own players has become something of a team mantra in past years. The NFL, like every other sports league, would benefit from having parity throughout their ranks. Unfortunately, sports is about competition and with that comes team failure.