Is it just me, or has it been a remarkably quiet Cowboys offseason? Almost no drama. No real turmoil. No coach on the hot seat.
Yeah, sure, George Pickens wants a new deal, and he's the only guy in the NFL playing out a franchise tag this season, but he’s also perpetually disgruntled, and the Cowboys have actually handed his contract situation quite well by their standards.
There also isn’t crazy hype about them and Jerry Jones hasn’t said or done anything outlandish and no one is trying to get traded out of there (besides maybe, Pickens, who has no leverage because that tag is a real hammer for the owners). Maybe Jerry is just distracted from counting all that FIFA money that is pouring into his stadium, but I find myself compelled to actually buy into the Cowboys being truly, potentially, relevant more than I have in a long, long time.
Turns out I’m not alone.
Why one longtime NFL GM believes Dallas can win the NFC
I was shooting the bull the other day with longtime NFL general manager Marty Hurney, who remains very plugged in across the league, and we were chatting a bit about the Chargers offseason, actually, when he uttered the following words:
“I think the Chargers and the Cowboys are the two most improved teams in the league, for me, as far as moving up to a position where they could really win the whole thing," Hurney said. "They both have the QB and they have that QB-head coach combination and they have had a great offseason and the Cowboys have really built up that defense extremely well. I think Jerry has done a heck of a job this year.”
Hmmm. (And, by the way, we're already on record as being back on the Chargers bandwagon). Now, I had been thinking of the Cowboys as a team worth a look to win the division at good value, or maybe even make the NFC Championship Game. Hurney is even more bullish than I am. A dark-horse Super Bowl pick? Wow.
The Cowboys quietly fixed their biggest weakness
I asked a few other longtime personnel guys I really respect about how real the Big D might finally be. And these dudes were nodding along to them being balanced enough and solid enough to make a run.
They went 4-2 within the division one year ago, and if they do that again, and the defense is even marginally better — let alone markedly improved — then they are going to be in the playoff mix. They should benefit from a Week 14 bye to help propel them to a postseason run. Facing the NFC West isn’t going to do them any favors, but after going 7-10 one year ago, more improvements with the run game and more stops on defense might be enough to flip them to 10-7 and in the dance.
They used their top three draft picks on defenders to address the backend and the front seven, several are already drawing a buzz, and they have suffered at every level of defense. This offense is good enough to hang 30 points even on solid defenses, so a level of competence on the other side of the ball would go a long way in the standings.
“The head coach answered a lot of questions last year,” one longtime personnel exec told me. “He had to deal with all of bullshit going back to last summer [Micah Parsons dealt and more contract unrest], and he shut a lot of people up. Including me.”
Another personnel exec said: “They might have had the worst defensive line in the NFL going into last season, and they recognized that and they’ve addressed it.”
The fact this group has gone deep under the radar all spring and summer, for the most part, is probably exactly what they need. Within their division, Washington fired pretty much every coach except for head coach Dan Quinn, the Eagles have basically put Jalen Hurts on notice preparing for him to play out the guaranteed portion of his contract, and the Giants made yet another head coaching change with John Harbaugh and, true to form, kept what appeared to be a bad GM on the job, anyway.
The biggest question Dallas still has to answer
Could the Cowboys have the least dysfunction in the NFC East? And we all know the drill about how infrequently it is for a team to repeat winning this division, which also might work in their favor.
We have to see it first to believe it, but I’m leaning into the possibility of them having a smooth and steady and successful season. And I know this much: Hurney knows a helluva lot more football than I ever will, and I’ve never heard the longtime Washington executive that enthusiastic about anything Cowboys related in as long as I’ve known him.
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