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.
3. S Jayron Kearse
Kearse might stumble across this article and flame us on social media -- he loves engaging and dunking on haters on social media -- but the facts are the facts.
A free agent find in 2021 who helped transform the safety position for the Cowboys, Kearse has experienced a sharp decline this season. There's a reason Cowboys fans want second-year pro Juanyeh Thomas to get more snaps at safety. He's more reliable in coverage and the defense always seems to come up with a stop when he's on the field.
Getting back to Kearse, his 42.3 player grade and 39.9 coverage grade are his worst in three years with the team. He has more missed tackles (eight) than pressures and sacks combined (seven), and is allowing a 101.9 passer rating when targeted. His eight penalties are also the most on the defense.
The Cowboys extended Kearse some love before the season when they guaranteed his $4 million base salary. He's in the final year of a two-year, $10 million contract he signed after the 2021 campaign and will be hard-pressed to earn another contract from the team given his performance this season.
2. WR Michael Gallup
Michael Gallup's $6.77 million cap hit is the eighth-highest on the team and he's not even a full-time player anymore.
It was higher before his deal got restructured before the season. Regardless, his five-year, $57.5 million extension has aged horribly and it's made even worse by the fact the Cowboys chose to keep Gallup over Amari Cooper, whom they traded last offseason for pocket lint and a bag of footballs.
The Cowboys were adamant that Gallup would bounce-back after a down 2022, his first season following ACL surgery. Gallup's unfortunately looked the same. While he can still make acrobatic catches with the best of them, he's actually on pace for fewer catches yards and touchdowns than 2022 despite playing in two more games.
That can be attributed to his reduced role. His 30.8% snap share against the Lions last week was his lowest of the season. He has 64 yards in the last six games combined and has topped 80 yards in just one of his 16 appearances.
1. RT Terence Steele
Outside of the Jets' Mehki Becton, Steele has been the worst tackle in football this season. He's the clear weak link on the Cowboys offensive line, so much so that he's responsible for the highest percentage of his team's allowed pressures at 29.9% of any linemen in the league in 2023.
Steele's 50.6 player grade is the worst among 38 qualified tackles who've played at least 800 snaps, per PFF. He's also allowed the sixth-most sacks (eight), second-most quarterback hits (12) and third-most pressures (52), and his 95.4 pass-blocking efficiency is the seventh-worst at the position.
While some of Steele's struggles can be attributed to ACL surgery -- players rarely return to top form in their first year removed from a torn ACL -- PFF's John Owning noted that Cowboys OL coach Mike Solari tweaked Steele's technique before the season, which could explain Steele's down year.
Still, there's no explaining a regression of this magnitude. Steele will get at least one more season to prove himself as the franchise RT, but the Cowboys front office is likely having second thoughts about giving him a five-year, $86.6 million extension with $50 million guaranteed in the offseason.
He hasn't been worth even a fraction of that contract.