4 Cowboys that won't be back next season and why: Trey Lance, Rico Dowdle and more

Well, it’s official. The 2024 regular season is in the books and Dallas Cowboys finished 7-10. That’s a far cry from the past three years when they won 12 games in each of those seasons. However, now it’s time to focus on the offseason since there won’t be any playoff games for the Cowboys.

The Cowboys have quite a few free agents this offseason and some of them have little to no chance of returning. Those are the guys we’ll focus on here and why their welcome has been worn out.

Trey Lance

Trey Lance had his swan song with the Cowboys during Week 18 in a loss to the Washington Commanders. In what is most likely Lance’s last game in a Cowboys uniform, he passed for 244 yards and completed 58 percent of his throws. He also rushed for 26 yards but no touchdowns in a modest performance. Lance didn’t make a ton of mistakes but he also didn’t do anything that made you think Dallas should keep him around past this game.

Luckily for Lance, he’s only 24 years old and young enough that another team will give him an opportunity to prove himself. This experiment in Big D obviously did not work for either party, as Lance barely touched the field. When Dak Prescott went down with an injury earlier this season, everyone expected to see Lance at some point. The only thing is that it was expected to be long before Week 18. That decision told us everything we needed to know about how the team viewed Lance.

Zack Martin

It’s been a great career for Zack Martin in Dallas, but like all good things, it feels like his run is coming to an end — at least in Big D. Martin may continue to play, but it's not likely that he’ll be in a Cowboys uniform next season. Martin has slowed considerably and played in just 10 games this year, which is tied for the fewest of his career.

The writing of this letter has been on the wall for a little while although Martin has been considered Pro Bowl level for the past couple of years. It’s probably time for the Cowboys to move on and build up a new younger core along a struggling offensive line. If this is the end of the road for the seven-time All-Pro, his contributions will never be forgotten by fans or the organization. Regardless of how the offseason goes, Martin is a future Hall of Famer and Cowboys Ring of Honor worthy.

Brandin Cooks

Brandin Cooks was supposed to become the No. 2 option on this team and it never happened. He missed quite a bit of time this season with a knee injury which led to an infection but even before that it just didn’t seem like it was working. Cooks ended up playing in nine games this season, catching 23 receptions for 244 yards and three TDs. Forget No. 2, those aren’t even No. 3 wide receiver numbers.

At 31, it’s doubtful Cooks will be back in Dallas for the 2025 campaign, especially since the Cowboys can get out of his deal. Cooks best years seem to be behind him and Dallas needs to focus on getting younger and more explosive at the position. Simply put, the Cowboys brought Cooks in a couple of years too late.

Rico Dowdle

Rico Dowdle is an interesting case as he was on a one-year deal with Dallas and absolutely balled out based on what he’d done previously. With that said, Dowdle had a pretty good year, but not a break the bank and reset the running back market type of a season. Even with that, he could still get better offers elsewhere as Jerry Jones may be reluctant to pay another running back after what we saw from Ezekiel Elliott in the past few years.

Dowdle rushed for 1,079 yards but just two TDs so that will certainly be held against him. Still, with all the teams in need of consistent rushers, Dowdle should be able to find a good deal somewhere, it just most likely won’t be back in Big D. This season, Dowdle’s base salary was just over $1 million and it’s hard to see Jones going far above that to keep him in Dallas.