5 things the Cowboys must do after signing Dak Prescott

1. Cut punter Chris Jones

The Dallas Cowboys could virtually guarantee that they would be under the cap, regardless of where it inevitably gets set, if they simply cut their veteran punter Chris Jones. The move would save Dallas $2.4 million and the team already has another, less expensive and younger, punter, on its roster.

The 31-year old has been a member of America’s Team since he was first drafted out of Carson-Newman University in 2011. However, the veteran punter was only able to play eight games last season for the Cowboys before suffering a core muscle injury that sidelined the veteran for the rest of the year.

Even before his injury, the veteran punter had seemingly begun to regress over the past year-and-a-half. In 2019 his punts averaged a career-worst 41.6 yards per punt and his percentage of punts inside the twenty-yard line was the second-lowest in his career as well at 36 percent.

The 2020 season saw the long-time Cowboy continue his struggles as he finished his year with a mediocre 42.6 yards per punt and was only able to pin the opposing team inside the 20-yard line roughly 21 percent of the time, a career-low.

To make matters even worse for the ten-year veteran his replacement, former XFL punter Hunter Niswander, played well in his absence. The 26-year old backup was able to finish the 2020 season averaging an impressive 47.2 yards per punt while pinning opposing teams’ inside the 20-yard line over 38 percent of the time.

The Dallas Cowboys should part ways with their veteran punter and be confident that they already have his successor on their roster. The move would give the organization a little more financial flexibility and would likely not affect the teams’ performance at the punter position.