The Dallas Cowboys' embarrassing 31-17 defeat against the polarizing Chicago Bears seems like background fodder, given the news that superstar wide receiver CeeDee Lamb will miss time with a high ankle sprain. It's not even a quarter into the season, and the seeds of organizational failure are already in full bloom.
With Green Bay coming to town, Dallas is staring a 1-3 start in the face. The club can't foresee future injuries, but Lamb's impending absence could derail the entire campaign thanks to an archaic philosophy plaguing the brain trust at the top.
CeeDee Lamb's absence will further highlight that the Cowboys are directionless
The league's current forecasted salary cap for 2026 is around $295 million. If that figure is accurate, Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb alone would account for over 35% of Dallas' cap sheet.
It's common to pay a premium for that kind of talent, but effective team building must also coincide with a strong evaluation of talent in the margins of free agency and the draft. Instead, the front office has prioritized making the aerial attack, in particular, the identity of the team.
Despite high-end pass catchers routinely flooding early rounds of the draft every April, the Cowboys sent a third-round pick for George Pickens. Beyond his obvious character concerns, Pickens is also in the final year of his rookie contract.
This consistent overallocation to a particular area of the squad would be ok if it were leading to potential success in the postseason, but obviously, that's not the case. Prescott and company can chuck the rock around for three hours to squeak by the woeful Giants, but they can't realistically rely on outscoring the cream of the crop in the NFC.
Without Lamb, fourth-year pro Jalen Tolbert and special teams ace KaVontae Turpin will have to carry the unrealistic burden, which will exemplify the team's mystifying discrepancy.
Even with the absence of Daron Bland, the Cowboys have no excuse to be 31st in EPA against the pass. The front seven, littered with recent draft picks, is bottom-ten in the league in generating pressure and in stopping the run. The whole side of the ball feels neglected, thanks to the string of ineffective young prospects tasked with saving the unit.
With Lamb in uniform, this prioritization of offensive flash over the substance of a balanced roster built from adequate player evaluation became increasingly apparent over the last month. Imagine how it'll look with the 26-year-old on the sidelines?
The Cowboys, somehow, have enough horsepower to sneak into the final playoff spot in the conference, but what happened to raising banners? With each passing year, the inability of Jerry Jones and his inner circle to understand what wins championships in the 2020s further sinks this franchise.