The Dallas Cowboys are coming off a poor 2024 season, to say the least. A disastrous seven-win season saw Dak Prescott play in just eight games due to injury, causing Jerry Jones’ team to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and costing head coach Mike McCarthy his job.
With the Cowboys desperate for a bounce-back season and Brian Schottenheimer set to lead the way in his first year as head coach, fans thought that maybe this would be the year Jones dished out some money during free agency. But history tells us that may not be the case.
Jerry Jones and a Decade of Free Agency Inactivity
Before free agency began, Jones made a statement that was difficult for a lot of Cowboys fans to hear.
“I’m not looking at free agency as a place to fill voids,” Jones told ESPN.
This statement sounds all too familiar based on the recent inaction of Jones within the free agent market, as pointed out by Connor Livesay on X: “The Cowboys have not signed a free agent over $6M per year in free agency since Greg Hardy in 2015. The salary cap has increased by $135,920,00 million since then,” he said.
Livesay followed up under his own message, saying, “Btw, this was an incentive based deal with a base salary of $573,529.”
A decade later, Jones has yet to hand out a contract worth nearly as much in terms of AAV despite the NFL’s salary cap increasing by nearly $136 million since then. Even crazier? Hardy’s deal was heavily based on incentives. None of the money was guaranteed, and the contract only carried a base salary of $573,529.
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This may have had something to do with the controversy surrounding Hardy at the time, but nonetheless, the deal was a net loss in the end and could be the cause of Jones’ reluctance to spend in March.
The Cowboys recently restructured contracts with Prescott and their star receiver CeeDee Lamb to open up some money for the ongoing market. However, it seems unlikely that Jones will make a big splash this offseason.
Jones Prefers Draft Day
If the Cowboys do intend to make some noise, the NFL Draft is where it could happen. Could Jones try to move his 12th overall selection up in the order or make a splash in the trade market? It is possible, but Jones has been known to stay the course and build his teams patiently through the draft.
Should patience be the answer this time around? The Cowboys have found some gems in past years at the draft: Lamb, Prescott, and recently retired Zack Martin, to name a few. But following a year without playoff football, fans are panicked and want Jones to act now.
However, Jones hasn’t changed his approach in a decade. Following his comments downplaying his approach to free agency in 2025, it seems unlikely that Jones will pursue anything other than a bargain.