Stephen Jones' explanation for Cowboys botching Derrick Henry pursuit is unacceptable

As if you needed another reason to make fun of the Dallas Cowboys, get a load of this. For a team that is in the final year of being in win-now mode, their front office certainly screwed the pooch when it came to solving its biggest need at running back. They not only let starter Tony Pollard walk to the Tennessee Titans in his free agency, but they failed to recruit the guy Pollard replaced in Nashville.

Yes, Titans legend and new Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry had interest in speaking with the Cowboys during free agency. They weren't willing to talk. Instead, Dallas went into the 2024 NFL Draft with a running back room featuring Deuce Vaughn and Rico Dowdle. Their solution was to bring back Ezekiel Elliott after letting him go a year ago. What is this franchise even doing anymore?

While speaking to Adam Schein on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones tried to explain why the Cowboys did not pursue King Henry in his NFL free agency.

“Well, first of all, nothing but respect for Derrick Henry. I mean, he’s one of the top backs in this league. He’s had one of the great careers in this league. I wish him nothing but the best with the Ravens. I’m sure a great place for him."

In layman's terms, the Cowboys did not have enough money to go pursue the future hall of famer.

"Our situation is just, you know, and no one ever wants to say it, but it’s salary cap, and we just didn’t have the money to allocate to that position in terms of where we were from a cap standpoint, knowing what we’re looking at with Dak [Prescott] and certainly Micah [Parsons] and CeeDee Lamb. We just didn’t have those type of resources to allocate to that position or we probably would’ve already had it filled with Tony Pollard."

The fact Dallas could have freed up more cap space by deferring payments down the road on extensions to quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb or linebacker Micah Parsons is certainly baffling and quite frankly, rather inexcusable. The Cowboys are the definition of decadent.

"We hated to lose Tony Pollard. We had to lose Zeke the year before from a cap standpoint. And, you know, we just didn’t have the dollars to allocate to the running back position. And, certainly, looking to do it in a more efficient way in terms of how it complements the rest of our offensive roster.”

For as much as they must have hated to lose Pollard, they are so going to hate not going to another Super Bowl under Jerry Jones' watch even more than that. This feels like organizational malpractice.

Dallas Cowboys' logic behind not recruiting Derrick Henry is inexcusable

What this all means to be is the Cowboys would once again rather be in the headlines than field a serious Super Bowl contender. I get that the Titans don't know what they are doing for the most part, but Henry still has some tread on the tires and could have been exactly what Dallas needed. Instead, he goes to arguably the most formidable challenger to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC in Baltimore.

Dallas has not taken care of business financially. Surely, Jerry Jones likes to be the center of attention with all things America's Team to his franchise's own detriment. He wanted another Summer of Dak to drag this contract extension out even further. By doing so, it may end up costing the their quarterback, their No. 1 wide receiver, their best defensive player or some other combination of that.

Overall, fiddle-farting around like this not only cost Dallas a shot at getting Henry, but it may have knocked them out of the Super Bowl pretender picture entirely. Unless this team does something it has not done since the Clinton administration, which is to simply play in the NFC Championship game, it will cost lame duck head coach Mike McCarthy his job. After that, this team will need to rebuild fast.

As Henry plays in meaningful playoff games late January, expect Dallas to be watching them at home.