While speaking with reporters on Tuesday in Mobile, Alabama, the site of the Senior Bowl, Cowboys executive vice president of player personnel Stephen Jones admitted that he understands why fans would be disappointed and pessimistic about the team's prospects of competing for a championship following their latest early playoff exit.
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"We have had three good years of 12-5 and we have had major disappointments in the postseason. So until we do something about it, which is go have another great year and have success in the playoffs, then that's going to be there," Jones said, via Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. "There's no way they're going to explicitly trust you until you get it done. Someone trusts Tom Brady and the Patriots if they're going to get it done? Yeah. Why? Because they did it year in and year out. Someone trust Mahomes and Kansas City, that they're going to do it? Why? Because they do it, six years in a row they're in the Championship Game. Until we compete at that level and we get the job done then there's going to be doubt. And rightfully so."
The Cowboys haven't made the NFC Championship game since 1996, the third-longest active drought in the NFL. Many media members believed this was the year the organization would end the draught after the Philadelphia Eagles collapsed down the stretch, allowing the Cowboys to swoop in and win the NFC East and capture the No. 2 seed in the playoffs.
But the Cowboys responded by putting forth a disastrous performance in the Divisional Round and got blown out at home by the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers.
After the game, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said that he was "floored" by the loss. And it appears that the magnitude of the team's playoff failure might affect his decision-making this offseason.
"I would anticipate - with looking ahead at our key contracts that we'd like to address - we will be all in. I would anticipate we will be all in at the end of this year. So when you say is there any thought ... we will push the hell out of it, Jones said, via Nick Harris on DallasCowboys.com. "It will be going all in on different people than you've done in the past. We will be going all in. We've seen some nice things out of some of the players that we want to be all in on. Yes, I would say that you will see us this coming year not build it for the future. It's the best way I've ever said. And that ought to answer a lot of questions."
What Jones means exactly when he says that he will go "all in" remains to be seen, as this isn't the first time Jones has made an eyebrow-raising comment about how far he'd go to win a Super Bowl.
“It would be embarrassing,” Jones said in 2018 on 105.3 The Fan. “It would be shocking if you knew the size of the check I would write if it guaranteed me a Super Bowl. And it would be obscene. There’s nothing that I would not do financially to get a Super Bowl. So, that’s a given. That’s a real given.”
The biggest question that needs answering before Jones can make moves to improve the roster is what will the organization do about Dak Prescott's nearly $60 million cap hit in 2024.
Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News laid out one of the options in a recent article, writing that the Cowboys could use a contract maneuver already built into Prescott's deal that would clear up almost $19 million in cap space for next season.
There is also the most likely option that sees the Cowboys and Prescott's agent Todd France coming to an agreement on a contract extension that would lessen the cap number exponentially.
According to Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jones was asked Tuesday about an extension for his quarterback and wouldn't commit to offering Prescott one because "the team is taking a holistic approach to the offseason."
"Because we are over the cap, you know we can't stay like this. So if you said, well, are you interested in signing Dak and being that much more over the cap? Are you interested in signing Lamb and being that much more over the cap? You've got to look at everything and so I won't be - and I bet you Stephen won't be - sitting down there and recognizing well, you've got this situation with Parsons'. We won't be doing that, because that's the wrong look right now. We gotta see how much we can get under the cap. So It's a holistic approach, more so than any year that we've had," Jones said, via Harris.
But then Jones followed up that comment by praising his quarterback.
"Dak has done nothing to change my mind about any promise for the future. I think I've said that we will go as far as Dak takes us in the playoffs. Remember that. We will go as far as Dak takes us. And that is how far we went. That doesn't change a thing. We'll go as far as Dak takes us."
Stay tuned.