Frisco, Texas – The juggling act continues here at The Star, with just one week left until the 2024 NFL Draft begins in Detroit on April 25 of this year.
There is still a roster to prepare during the offseason, but at this point it is no longer a priority in preparing for the draft, and the Cowboys are working full speed on preparing the big board with eight days left until the draft begins. . The clock for next Thursday is number 24.
With that in mind, Cowboys Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones announced that one month after the Cowboys entered free agency amid much criticism for not spending salary cap money. Let's give some perspective on how they manage the salary cap. I have it in abundance.
And the NFL does not allow the use of league credit cards.
“We spend as much money as we can, year in and year out,” Jones tried to explain on Cowboys radio flagship station 105.3 The Fan earlier in the week. “All 32 teams can only spend the same amount of money over five years. After all, we hit the salary cap every year. We'll be hitting that and what you get by having a good roster. “We do that too, but we also look at signing our own players.
“It's not going to happen overnight. But when you want to sign a player like Dak.” [Prescott] And Mika [Parsons] and ceedy [Lamb]If that's the case, you'll certainly have to hold back on your money if you want to have a realistic chance of signing with them. ”
If they're scoring at home, the Cowboys have either lost, released, or not re-signed a total of 11 key players from last year's roster, including Jordan Lewis, Chuma Edoga, , Rico Doodle and others have been re-signed. They signed C.J. Goodwin and Trent Sieg, as well as two unrestricted free agents from other teams, linebacker Eric Kendricks and veteran primarily backup running back Royce Freeman this week.
Nothing surprising compared to losing starters Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadasz, Tony Pollard, Jonathan Hankins, Dorrance Armstrong, and Leighton Vander Esch (physically speaking). Michael Gallup has designated a June 1st release for cap savings, waiting to see what happens with the rehabilitation of starting cornerback Stephon Gilmore (shoulder surgery).
He also emphasized that it's impossible not to be “all in” because “if you're not all in, you're all out.”
That is, if you have enough cap ammunition, you can shoot expensive “shots” only during the off-season.
- Voluntary average: Well, let's do it again. Every year around this time, former Cowboys linebacker Darren Hambrick has something to say when he was questioned after missing a “voluntary” quarterback school workout, a forerunner of OTAs, in the early part of this century. I have a duty to point out the words that I didn't say. Regarding his absence upon returning to minicamp. “What do you mean by volunteer?” Hambrick asked rhetorically. Well, there was little secret here when Phase I training began this week, but it was reported that Lamb and Parsons would be absent and could be noted among others. Now, as usual, Micah seems to be training on his own, like he did with Austin's personal trainer last year, and apparently Lamb is on board until the Cowboys sign him to a long-term deal in exchange for playing him. appears to have decided not to pick up his $17.9 million fifth-year option. OK, it's just physical strength and conditioning, no big deal, and of course doesn't give you any leverage in negotiations. This is a game that many franchise players and fifth-year option players in the NFL play. Because no one wants to play in the final year of a contract if they can avoid it. But here's something I don't understand. If a player trains on his own off-campus and gets injured, so to speak, the team is not financially responsible, and if he is not ready by the start of training camp, he will be placed on the non-football injury list and will not be allowed to play in the game. There is a risk that it cannot be done. Paid if the regular season cannot begin. But agents are playing this game and hoping they'll fund their insurance just in case. I don't want to spend this much money playing chicken.
- Maz: Admittedly, the Cowboys haven't been able to get away with last year's first-round draft pick Maji Smith as expected, with the defensive tackle playing just 25.2 percent of the defensive snaps and currently recovering from offseason shoulder surgery. is. I would think between question marks, but with the loss of Hankins and Neville Gallimore in free agency, the Cowboys wouldn't rule out selecting a defensive tackle in the first two days of the draft. And there are some good players that should be available starting at No. 24 in the first round. However, Jones seemed hopeful that all is not lost when asked about Maz, saying, “He didn't play as much as we would have liked,” adding that Michigan asked him to He said he had to adapt to how the Cowboys wanted him to play. 1-tech here. But Stephen went on to say that what new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer wants from him going forward is “more in line with what he's been doing and the University of Michigan. … I feel really good about Maji.” he pointed out.
- Still room: The running back room is full just because the Cowboys signed Freeman, who is currently playing for his fifth team since being drafted by Denver in the third round of the 2018 draft. Please don't think so. Ah, it's the opposite. Freeman essentially signed a one-year veteran exception, similar to the signing of veteran Ronald Jones last offseason. Jones was not selected and there is no guarantee Freeman will be on the team this season, but he has started just nine games in his six-year career, eight of which came during his rookie season with the Broncos. And his 77 carries (319 yards, 1 TD) with the Rams last year were his highest single-season total since 132 carries in 2019 with the Broncos. In fact, 262 of his 471 career carries came in his first two seasons in Denver.
- Wideout Bucks: Sheedy is likely looking for a long-term contract that exceeds Tyreek Hill's $30 million average, which is probably the highest average salary among active wide receivers, along with Minnesota's Justin Jefferson, but the Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith signed a three-year contract extension. He is in his fourth season (currently under contract through 2028), but his average annual salary over three years is $25 million, with $51 million of his $75 million package guaranteed, and he is already in his fifth year. option has been acquired. This increases the number of NFL receivers who average at least $25 million per year to five. Lamb's three-year total was one more than Smith, with 260 catches, 3,396 yards, and 20 TDs in 49 games, while Smith had 240 catches, 3,178 yards, and 19 TDs in 50 games. That was until Lamb broke franchise records with 135 receptions and 1,749 yards receiving in his fourth season.
- Tracking: When O.J. Simpson died last week at the age of 76, memories of where he was on June 17, 1994, when a low-speed police chase in his Bronco occurred on a California highway in the Los Angeles area, came flooding back. Were you like that when you heard or saw what was going on? I was attending my first ball game that night at the Texas Rangers' brand new ballpark in Arlington. When I went to check the score of Game 5 of the NBA Finals between Houston and the New York Knicks on the newsstand TV, I saw the game being interrupted by a program that was on national news. (Hey, this was before cell phone internet service.) It might add to the appeal of television. The game was over, but the game wasn't over, and the concession workers eventually turned off the TVs and closed the store, but a bunch of us were still watching. Time to go. But, you know, when I got home 30 minutes later, the tracking was still going on.
- Short shot: The Cowboys have an estimated $6 million to $7 million in cap space, but the average for the 32 NFL teams is $18 million, and the Patriots' highest cap is $53.7 million…everyone extends Ceedy and Micah. I'm very worried about getting a deal done, but that's for sure. What the Cowboys want, if the numbers are right, is to have Sheedy's rights for two more years, with a fifth-year option this year, and then next year. is under the franchise tag, and Micah's rights can be retained for an additional three years this year. He's in the final year of his rookie contract, with a fifth-year option in 2025, and a franchise tag in 2026, so he's not going anywhere right away… Speaking of home cooking, I don't remember seeing this statistic, but in 2023 In 2011, the Cowboys scored 299 of their 509 total points at AT&T Stadium, a franchise single-season record and the fifth-most home points scored in a single season in the NFL. That's far off the Saints' record of 329 points. And just remember the Cowboys. He played in eight home games this season.
And for the final word of the week, Cowboys COO Stephen was asked about his responsibility for the Cowboys failing to make the playoffs again, especially last season when they lost 48-32 to Green Bay, the NFC's No. 7 seed.・Back to Jones. In fact, he was specifically asked if he felt personally “responsible” for the playoff drought.
“Of course, I feel as much responsibility for the success of this series as anyone else,” Stephen began. “And of course, you know, we want to have the top franchise, if not the top in the country, or even in the world. And certainly in terms of the value of our brand, we want to have that. I think that there.”
“Certainly we would like to have more success on the field in that area, but like I said, we've had a lot of success in the regular season, we just haven't had any success in the postseason.
“And we just understand that until we can do that, there's going to be some frustration (from fans). And all I can say is, we're going to roll up our sleeves and get to work. .”
And without a doubt, the next eight days will be in the spotlight.
