Cowboys news: The upcoming draft will be a huge deal for Dallas
3 ways the Cowboys can fix the roster in the 2024 NFL Draft – Mark Heaney, Inside the Star
While the Dallas Cowboys will be passive in free agency, here’s how they can remedy their roster holes.
Trade Up with 2025 Picks
The one positive that comes from Dallas losing as much as they have is the compensatory picks they will receive for the 2025 NFL Draft. They are set to gain two 5th-round picks for Tyler Biadasz and Dorance Armstrong’s departure and two 6th-round picks for the loss of Smith and Tony Pollard. That gives Dallas a total of 11 draft picks in the 2025 draft class. Simply put, it would be silly to wait until next year to use those picks.
The amount of draft capital they now have in next year’s draft gives Dallas a perfect opening to make moves in the 2024 draft. With how deep this draft class is, the Cowboys could realistically trade up in the first, second, third, and even fourth rounds to bring in a starting caliber player at a position of need. This is a must if they expect to compete next season.
If Dallas expects to just use the picks they currently have, the roster will be in bad shape. Because of the Trey Lance trade, the Cowboys currently have just three selections in the first 172 picks. That is not good at all. If we were looking at a complete roster in Dallas, that would not be such a big issue, but with glaring holes on the offensive line, at wide receiver, and on all three levels of the defense, this could be more of a rebuilding season if the Cowboys don’t trade for more picks. It would be a mistake to stockpile picks for 2025. They have to use those picks as leverage to trade up in this draft.
Draft Skill Positions Early
The expectation for the Cowboys draft class has been offensive line and linebackeras the first priorities, but that would be a mistake if they are looking to win in 2024. Right now, Dallas has guys that can start on the offensive line next season. By shifting Tyler Smith to LT and starting T.J. Bass and Brock Hoffman on the interior, the Cowboys can go into 2024 with a young, high-potential starting offensive line without using their limit draft capital on a rookie lineman.
The same goes for the linebacker position after the addition of Eric Kendricks. With Kendricks in, DeMarvion Overshown set to make his debut after a rookie-season ACL tear, and Damone Clark heading into his third season, they have a suitable linebacker room. The same can not be said for the wide receiver group, especially after the release of Michael Gallup, and the running back position.
Right now, Dallas has just two starting-caliber receivers and no running backs on the roster. For the Cowboys to be successful, they have to have a high-powered offense. They can have that in 2024 if they go after a true WR3 and a starting running back in the early rounds of the draft. With no star running back in this draft class, they can go after first-round receivers like Adonai Mitchell, Brian Thomas Jr, and Xavier Worthy, and follow up with one of the top RBs in the second round. It is not being greedy to go after the skill positions early, it is being resourceful.
Cowboys in need of positive message after disappointing first week of NFL free agency – David Moore, DMN
Can the front office salvage this free agency period via some trades?
The trades for Gilmore and receiver Brandin Cooks were far and away the best moves the Cowboys made in the past year. Those two paid dividends beyond the draft picks Dallas gave up to acquire them.
It wasn’t just the production. It was what the moves symbolized. It showed an aggressive posture by a front office determined to break that divisional round ceiling.
It didn’t turn out the way the organization hoped. But all will tell you that acquiring Gilmore and Cooks sent a message to the fan base — and more importantly, the locker room — that management was all in on the season.
All in. There’s an intriguing phrase. Maybe you’ve heard it this offseason.
The first few days of free agency have been a profound disappointment for this franchise. Not as bad as it feels to some at the moment, but bad nonetheless.
A positive message desperately needs to be sent, a message that goes beyond keeping Hankins or signing a veteran running back or swing tackle to a one-year deal. In the coming days and weeks, Jerry and Stephen Jones need to engineer a trade that approaches — or exceeds — what they did with Gilmore and Cooks last season.
Overreactions, reality checks after first week of free agency – Jeff Kerr, CBSSports.com
Kerr doesn’t believe the Cowboys were wise to sit out the early portions of free agency, and has identified the main culprit.
Dallas is rarely a player in free agency, but the Dak Prescott conundrum is preventing the franchise from improving other areas of the roster.
Dallas is still a playoff team, but have dropped a level in the NFC East race. A good draft can alleviate the issues Dallas faced in free agency, but this could have been avoided if Jerry Jones and company could handle Prescott’s contract.
Cowboys’ NFL free agency restraint doesn’t diminish ‘all in’ goal – Nate Davis. USAToday
Perhaps not a popular take right now, but worth some consideration anyway.
However much Cowboys haters – and perpetually disappointed supporters – might dislike it, Jones deserves credit and a defense here.
He’s been “all in” – courtesy of several good decisions and plenty of corresponding poor ones – while chasing his fourth Super Bowl for the past three decades. Dallas remains loaded with elite players even if there’s virtually no salary cap bandwidth to adjust the roster until quarterback and 2023 MVP runner-up Dak Prescott’s future is addressed. The $59.5 million cap hit in the final year of his contract is the second-largest in the league after Deshaun Watson’s, leaving Jones with a big decision given Prescott – perhaps the NFL’s preeminent businessman not named Kirk Cousins – cannot be franchised next offseason and also possesses a no-trade clause. Elsewhere, All-Pro wideout CeeDee Lamb is entering a walk year, while All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons is now eligible for an extension of his own.
Taking all of that into account, Dallas’ current restraint makes sense. And why would Jones want to completely run it back with players who are fairly replaceable – especially given how last season ended, with a defensive collapse and offense that often couldn’t run effectively when it needed to?
And let’s not forget the Cowboys have drafted pretty darn well in recent years, are already set up to get a nice haul of compensatory picks next year and have shown an ability to get good players at a discount. Just a year ago, they traded for Gilmore and speedy receiver Brandin Cooks, bartering nothing more than picks beyond the fourth round – which also says something about Dallas’ ability to leverage the draft. Maybe better to wait for the dust to settle around the first wave of free agency – other teams currently able to pay premium prices, perhaps for sub-premium players, following the cap’s expansion to $255.4 million – and see what’s on sale?
But maybe let’s not question the Cowboys’ commitment to winning, even if you disagree with the process, just yet – particularly since being “all in” on criticizing them will remain a year-long process until Jones finally corners that Lombardi Trophy again.
Cap ramifications as Cowboys release Michael Gallup, Leighton Vander Esch- K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire
A look at how the releases of Michael Gallup and Leighton Vander Esch will financially impact Dallas.
Vander Esch’s release means the Cowboys save at least $2.15 million against the 2024 cap and that money is available immediately.He was set to make $3 million in base salary and another $147k in roster bonuses. $1 million of his base salary was guaranteed, meaning a release or retirement puts just over $2 million back into Dallas’ cap space. With the team releasing him with an injury designation, perhaps there was an agreement to lessen the $1 million they will need to pay him.
Meanwhile the savings from Gallup’s release will be much greater, they just won’t be immediate.
Gallup was released with a June 1 designation. That allows the team to avoid accelerating the bonus-money allocation that remains from 2025 and beyond onto this season’s cap. Any player released after June 1 impacts the cap in this way and each NFL team is allowed to designate two players such as this in advance of that date.
It allows the player to enter free agency when the other 31 teams have not spent all of their cap space, increasing the odds that player can be signed elsewhere. For the team though, the cap savings do not occur until June 2.
That means the money saved from releasing Gallup, his base salary of $8.5 million plus another $1 million in game-day bonuses, will not hit the cap until later in the offseason. It will be used for signing the draft class and carrying cap space into the season for IR replacement signings and end-of-year incentives.
Michael Gallup scheduled to visit Panthers – Josh Alper, ProFootballTalk
Gallup could end up with the Panthers.
Gallup was released by the Cowboys on Friday and Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that he is scheduled to visit the Panthers next week. It’s the first word of a visit for Gallup since he was let go in Dallas.
Gallup had 34 catches for 418 yards and two touchdowns for the Cowboys last season. He has 266 catches for 3,744 yards and 21 touchdowns for his career.
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