The Dallas Cowboys‘ 2023 offseason got off to a rocky start in early February when owner and general manager Jerry Jones displayed an inability to distinguish between the 2021 Los Angeles Rams’ and 2022 Philadelphia Eagles team-building approaches. It appeared as though the game had passed Jones by between those comments, the Cowboys’ 12th consecutive playoff run without a conference championship game appearance (the longest such streak in NFL history), and continuing to pay sentimental favorite and Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, who averaged 3.9 yards per touch in 2022 (the lowest in the NFL among players with at least 200 touches).
Maybe all that was Jones bluffing because Dallas has since done a 180 and earned an ‘A’ in CBS Sports’ team grades of all 32 teams in the 2023 NFL free agency cycle, one of the highest marks in the league. Keeping running back Tony Pollard (franchise tag), safety Donovan Wilson (three-year, $21 million contract), linebacker Leighton Vander Esch (two-year, $11 million deal), left tackle Tyron Smith (contract restructure), and backup quarterback Cooper Rush (two-year, $5 million pact) around were no-brainer decisions. The Silver and Blue releasing Elliott, the fourth overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft whom they gave a six-year, $90 million contract extension, is a pleasant surprise given that Zeke totaled 16 more carries than Pollard in 2022. That’s with Elliott having the worst yards-per-touch average in the league while Pollard had the best (5.9).
However, the Cowboys’ two best moves of the offseason were via trades, acquiring cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the 32-year-old 2019 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and wide receiver Brandin Cooks, 29 years-old, from the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans respectively. These weren’t typical trades, at least for the Cowboys, as they were the ones receiving proven veteran talent in exchange for late round picks (two 2023 fifth picks and a 2024 sixth round pick combined for both Gilmore and Cooks). A stark contrast to an offseason ago when the Cowboys sent four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper, at 27 years old, to the Cleveland Browns along with a sixth round pick, in exchange for a fifth and sixth round pick in a clear salary dump. Quarterback Dak Prescott clearly missed Cooper, locking on to CeeDee Lamb too much in 2022, part of the reason why he became the first player in NFL history to…
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