Cowboys’ woeful season mercifully ends

By David Mullen

The NFL’s second season begins on Saturday, Jan. 11 with 14 playoff teams, none of which are named the Dallas Cowboys. Two teams —the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions — have earned first round byes. A series of injuries, including a season ending hamstring injury in Week 9 to starting quarterback Dak Prescott, sent the Cowboys into a midseason freefall that they could never halt.

As NFC teams like the Detroit, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders were gaining momentum midseason, Dallas was “playing out the string.”  

But the time to correct the Cowboys 2024 season was before the season began, not halfway through a wretched 7-10 season where Dallas never realistically competed for a playoff spot that 14 of 32 teams achieve.

While Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones focused his offseason on contract negotiations with Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb — players that were already under contract — the playoff teams were addressing concerns that many shared with the Cowboys. The successful teams addressed depth, making sure that they had roster options when the inevitable injuries occurred. 

The popular Lions, beginning to tug at the Cowboys’ “America’s Team” moniker after another remarkable season, enter the playoffs as the NFC’s No. 1 seed despite having 16 players, including defensive star Aiden Hutchinson, on injured reserve. Detroit head coach and former Cowboy Dan Campbell never used injuries as an excuse. The roster players just moved up a notch and kept winning.

After 10 games in 2024, the Cowboys were 3-7, and a staggering 0-5 at home. According to the sports betting site gamingtoday.com, the average regular season game single ticket price is $399.50, the highest average price among all NFL teams. Cowboys season ticket holders must now lament the day they bought (literally) into GM Jones’ plan.

Dallas had an obvious needs at the running back position, having lost Tony Pollard to free agency. Jones solution was to downplay the importance of rushing in the Cowboys pass heavy offense and resorted to retread Ezekiel Elliott to find the magic of 2016 when he averaged 108.7 yards per game. In each of his subsequent seasons, Elliott had regressed in average yards per game. A competent GM would have identified those trends as a red flag. Elliott finished the 2024 season averaging 15.1 yards per game, long after yielding the starting running back spot to undrafted signee Rico Dowdle and before being released by Jones at season’s end at Elliott’s request. While the rest of the 2024 Cowboys roster may be heading to Cancun, Elliott may get a postseason opportunity. He was signed to the practice squad of the playoff bound Los Angeles Chargers on January 7. Other NFL GMs recognized the importance of a potent running game to balance out an offensive scheme. The top six rushing teams in the 2024 regular season: the Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia,  Washington, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers and Lions, all are playoff bound. The Ravens Travis Henry, Eagles Saquon Barkley and Packers Josh Jacobs were offseason free agent acquisitions. 

Jones was more worried about extending the contracts of players (Prescott, Lamb) already signed than signing a quality running back with plenty of gas left in his tank. Henry, Barkley and Jacobs had plenty of zip remaining. Ezekiel Elliott was running on E. 

Jones made it clear when he bought the team in 1989 that the team would be built under his leadership, not just his money. More than 25 years ago, when asked if he would ever stay in the owner’s box and relinquish the GM role, Jones said: “Hell no, I bought it [the Cowboys] for me. I didn’t buy an investment. I bought an occupation.” After missing the NFC Championship Game every year since 1996, no GM would still have that “occupation” if he didn’t own the team.

At press time, Jones appears to be playing more of his favorite game of negotiation hide and seek than doing an autopsy on what went wrong with his team under his direction. Head coach Mike McCarthy’s five-year contract expires on Tuesday, Jan. 14. Jones has reportedly said that he would discuss the future with McCarthy at the Cotton Bowl Classic on Friday, Jan. 10 at the stadium that Jerry built.

When the Chicago Bears asked permission to speak to McCarthy about their head coaching vacancy, Jones said no. Many feel that Jones’ decision was a signal that McCarthy will return for at least one more season. In five seasons at the helm, McCarthy has three 12-5 seasons and one playoff win sandwiched in between two third place finishes. 

Remember how long it took Jones to replace Jason Garrett with McCarthy as head coach. Jones seems to like contract negotiations more than contract signings.      

While fans can look at injuries as the main reason the Cowboys failed in 2024, remember they lost to non-playoff teams New Orleans, San Francisco, Atlanta and Cincinnati. They finished 27th in the NFL in team rushing, besting just five teams that also missed the playoffs. 

The Cowboys are now looking up to division rival Washington. In 2023, Washington was 4-13. After an excellent draft and hiring former Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn as head coach in 2024, Washington finished 12-5. Jones could have found his next coach on his own sideline. Instead, GM Jones will keep stringing McCarthy — and Cowboys fans — along as the rest of the NFL passes him by.