DALLAS — The 2024 season didn’t turn out how the Dallas Cowboys expected, and they’ll have to sit back and wait to chase that elusive sixth Super Bowl title.
As the saying goes, ‘there’s always next year’ and the new year couldn’t have come soon enough for a team that needed to wash away the stench from a disappointing season.
While the playoff teams are preparing for a hopeful championship run, the Cowboys are figuring out how they want to move forward. Where the organization goes from here is anybody’s guess, that’s the type of uncertainty that comes when the owner is also the general manager. It’s a franchise that needs changes after the disastrous season they just went through, and the eye towards 2025 begins with the coach.
Current head coach Mike McCarthy’s contract is about to expire, and no one seems to be sure if he’ll be back. It seems like a simple yes or no answer, but it’s never that easy in Dallas.
Jones was effusive in his praise of McCarthy and the 2024 squad’s ability to fight through a rough season, but if the organization didn’t want to extend the coach after three straight 12-win seasons, why keep him after a 7-10 campaign? Nevertheless, it feels like McCarthy will be back, especially after the Cowboys denied the request from the Chicago Bears to interview him for their coaching job.
However, what if McCarthy wants to see what’s out there for him? He can just wait until Jan. 14 when his contract expires to go and find other opportunities.
Waiting for this to shake out is just like waiting to sign players, the longer you wait to decide, the more you risk losing other players, and in this situation, coaches. If McCarthy is truly the guy for Jones, there’s no reason for him to drag his feet. Many of the Cowboys’ assistant coaches are free to interview and leave if they are offered a contract somewhere else. It would be a crushing blow if defensive backs coach Al Harris took another job while the Joneses took their sweet time trying to decide about the head coach. Harris is thought of as one of the best position coaches in the league and he’d be a big loss if he left Dallas for another job.
If McCarthy does stay, does anything else change? Does the organization want to reshuffle some of his offensive staff, take away play-calling, or insist on a new scheme that’s more in line with today’s NFL? These are the topics Jones should have been considering in the weeks leading up to the offseason when it was apparent that Dallas would not reach the playoffs.
And what about the defensive coordinator, does Mike Zimmer stay even if McCarthy is retained or not? It was a rough start for Zimmer’s defense in the first year since Dan Quinn left the post for a head coaching gig with Washington, but the defense had a strong end to the season as they got acclimated to Zimmer’s scheme.
By the final few weeks, edge rusher Micah Parsons looked better than he ever has under Zimmer, so would the Cowboys want to throw that away and start from scratch again? Coaching is the first thing to figure out for Dallas as they try to move forward, and the decisions need to come quickly.
Once they know who will be coaching the team, the next item on the offseason agenda will be figuring out who to retain from their roster. The Cowboys have 27 impending free agents – five of which are restricted – and the organization must prioritize who they want to keep for the future. The rhetoric around the salary cap is sure to come from Stephen Jones, but the team can re-sign any of the free agents that they truly want to keep.
After already suffering a lot of depth losses in 2024’s offseason, the 2025 list is hefty and includes 1,000 yard rusher Rico Dowdle and some of the players who were key to the defense this season. Even with the disappointing results, the Cowboys need to bring back some of the impending free agents.
Defensive linemen Carl Lawson, Chauncey Golston and Osa Odighizuwa are among that group who warrant a return. Odighizuwa will come with a higher price tag than expected, but the defense needs him back as he was often the only serviceable player in the trenches to help stop the run.
Also included on the to-do signing list this offseason is the need to extend their All-Pro defensive standout. Parsons is eligible for a new deal, and he’ll be the main topic of conversations until it gets done. If the Joneses wait and hold the franchise hostage in negotiations like they did last year, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Parsons has already said that he wants a deal done quickly, doesn’t need to be the highest paid player, and he doesn’t want to be a distraction; management should follow his lead.
Those attributes are a dream come true for the Joneses. They have a golden opportunity to avoid dragging their feet on extending one of the best defensive players in the league, while also being allowed to re-sign other free agents.
Another player eligible for an extension is DaRon Bland, who is coming off a season where he missed 10 games due to injury but had an All-Pro season in 2023. Will the Cowboys have the ability to keep cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and Bland, both who could come at a high cost while they’re tight against the salary cap? The short answer is yes, if they want to. But Dallas keeps these decisions close to the vest and often is unbending in their ability to get creative with their cap dollars.
The team could wait another year on Bland, but that risks him having another good season and watching his price skyrocket. Waiting things out would also mean the Cowboys would have two big extensions the following season, when All-Pro left guard Tyler Smith becomes eligible for a big raise.
Dallas will also have to answer questions about what to do with veterans DeMarcus Lawrence and Zack Martin. Both are getting up there in age and both suffered injuries that saw them end the year on injured reserve with Martin in particular not looking like the same player for much of the 2024 season. Lawrence looks like he has more in the tank, but the retirement talk about Martin has only grown stronger.
Figuring out how to handle the contracts of two of the team’s longstanding veteran standouts will be two additional big decisions that will need to come during the 2025 offseason. Keep in mind, Dallas made the tough choice to not bring back Tyron Smith last offseason after Smith had held down the left tackle spot for 13 seasons. Time might now be up for Lawrence and Martin this offseason.
The Cowboys have a lot to do on their offseason agenda, and they need it to go much better than how last offseason went. Another lackluster offseason would mean another long regular season to come.
The good news is the last two times that the Cowboys have had injury-riddled seasons that saw them miss the playoffs, the team was quick to bounce back. In 2016, rookie Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott helped lead the way following a 4-12 2015 season, and in 2021, it was Parsons and an offense finding their groove with a healthy Prescott and wide receivers Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb that bounced back from a 6-10 2020 campaign.
Bounce-back seasons have become the norm for the Cowboys, but if they want that trend to continue, a strong offseason is needed and the clock is already ticking.
Do you think the Cowboys will have a successful offseason? Share your thoughts with Ben on X (formerly Twitter) @BenGrimaldi.
