4 Cowboys who robbed the team blind in 2023

The Dallas Cowboys had their biggest offseason in recent memory in 2023. They traded for Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks, which look even more genius in retrospect, retained Donovan Wilson and Johnathan Hankins in free agency and reworked Zack Martin's deal to keep him under contract through 2024.

They even hashed out extensions with Trevon Diggs and Malik Hooker, and their decisions to let Dalton Schultz, Noah Brown and Connor McGovern leave in free agency have aged beautifully.

Like any front office, though, the Cowboys have had some swing and misses. While all of the aforementioned moves are a big reason for the team's success this year, not all of their money has been well spent. With that, let's point out players who've robbed the team blind with their bad contracts.

4. RB Tony Pollard

The idea that Tony Pollard has been a disaster this year is totally erroneous. However, virtually nobody would deny he's underwhelmed since taking the RB1 mantle from Ezekiel Elliott, whom Dallas released in the offseason.

Pollard has the quietest 935 rushing yards in NFL history, but there's a reason for that. He's managed just one 100-yard game all season and he'd been held under 65 rushing yards in a whopping 11 games. He didn't eclipse 60 rushing yards at all in December (four games) and hasn't topped 80 yards since Week 3.

That's not the production the Cowboys (or anyone) expected from Pollard when they committed $10.09 million to him via the franchise tag. For context, he has less than 1,000 rushing yards, is averaging 4.0 yards per carry and has scored only five touchdowns with one game left in the regular season.

It's clear he was slowed from breaking his fibula and suffering a high-ankle sprain, for which he underwent surgery, in January. The offensive line has also been bad blocking for the run, but Pollard hasn't been worth the price of admission.