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The Dallas Cowboys' biggest team-building weekend of the year is upon us. For a team that is usually very conservative in free agency - and was even more so this year - the NFL Draft is where it's at.
Leading up to the big event, the Cowboys' brass sent a clear message about what their plan is: Having young, inexperienced players step up.
Stephen Jones mentioned Connor McGovern, Jalen Tolbert, and Connor Williams as recent examples of players who were asked to take on bigger roles after quiet rookie years to fill in at positions of need and suggested the same was going to happen with the likes of DE Sam Williams and OL Matt Waletzko and T.J. Bass.
"We will have young players step up," Jerry Jones told reporters. "No names that will become names. (...) You cannot play and run a team in the NFL without counting on this dynamic going on."
Jones took the chance to tie his comments about young players back to that infamous quote he dropped in January about the team going all in that led to lots of speculation about how the Cowboys would do things this offseason.
He just happened to turn it in its head and give it a completely different meaning than what he implied at the Senior Bowl.
“We feel great about what we've been in free agency," Jones added. "All in. All in. All in. We're all in with this young guys coming on. We are all in with this draft."
Whether Jones was trolling or genuinely trying to put a spin on the statement that's led to a lot of criticism headed the front office's way, his comments do little to ease the concerns of a fanbase that is still struggling to understand how the Cowboys are the NFL team to spend the least amount of cash in 2024.
Making things even harder to understand, Stephen Jones claimed that trading for Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks was enough to get them an A in the 2023 offseason.
"The elephant in the room is our playoff success," Stephen said. "We could win an offseason like we did last year, and get an A. 'Boy, you went and got Cooks, you went and got Gilmore. You signed some veteran players. Boy, you won the offseason.' But guess what, we did not get it done in the playoffs."
Winning the offseason is a strong term to use when all the Cowboys had to give up for Cooks and Gilmore was three late-round draft picks. It's a stronger term to use while landing zero starters in the NFL Draft. It's telling that the front office perceives those two moves as being as aggressive as you can get.
Trading late-round draft picks for highly impactful veteran starters shouldn't be seen as going all-out in building a team. It should be standard practice to seek veteran players that can come in and stand out in starting roles at princes that don't break the bank. It certainly shouldn't be seen as a "we're going crazy this offseason" approach, which is what Jones is trying to make it appear.
Just look at the impact those two players had and think about how much they Cowboys would've been affected in 2023 if they didn't get them.
Man. That was the first Cowboys pre-draft presser I can recall that featured like 5% draft talk.
— Rob Phillips (@robphillips3) April 23, 2024
95% was about finances and the salary cap, as it should’ve been, because that’s what fans desperately want to understand.
All in all, Tuesday's press conference came off as a defensive as reporters sought answers about the financial approach this offseason and their lack of spending in free agency while still not extending Dak Prescott , CeeDee Lamb, nor Micah Parsons.
More must-reads:
- J.J. Watt has interesting comments on possibility of playing in 2024
- Former All-Pro CB medically cleared for football activities
- The 'AP First-Team All-Pro tight ends' quiz
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