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It’s relatively easy for Cowboys fans to live in a vacuum when it comes to observing offseason moves. The general perception during the first two weeks of free agency has been that every other team in the NFL has made huge strides to do blockbuster deals and exponentially improve their roster while the Joneses have willfully sat on their hands and watched the world burn.
But the truth is, not every team nailed free agency, and just because a front office is active in signing players that other clubs deemed expendable doesn’t mean they’re getting appreciably better.
USA Today’s Nate Davis recently released his free agency report card, and, perhaps surprisingly, it doesn’t have the Cowboys bringing up the rear. Actually, Davis gave Dallas an “I” for incomplete, using the logic that until the team extends Dak Prescott beyond 2024, they’re “effectively unable to conduct other significant business.”
It’s a generous allowance in that it implies some development on that front is still going to happen, with enough time for additional moves to be made. There’s been nothing but the Joneses’ own stubbornness stopping the Cowboys from getting Prescott’s future sorted, and their choosing to let their quarterback’s massive cap hit draw ever closer- like a North Atlantic iceberg in the night- and prohibit other necessary transactions means they probably deserve a big fat F.
Maybe- with a single phone call and the stroke of a pen- it all still works out and the Cowboys’ offseason improvements can begin in earnest.
But for now, let’s take a look at how the teams the Cowboys will face in 2024 were graded for their free agency efforts.