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Who could have imagined in 2016 where we'd be now? When the Dallas Cowboys were stomping through the NFC, they were set for the next decade-plus. And yet, here we are, with Dallas great Troy Aikman really calling for a "complete overhaul" of the most valuable sports franchise in the world. How quickly the NFL chews you up and spits you out.
The Cowboys – a valued $ 4.8bn – are in all sorts of turmoil. Last Monday's loss at home to the Titans served as an end to the Jerry Jones-Jason Garrett era: incompetence. incompetence in their construction roster. incompetence in their gameplans. incompetence in their belief that some hallowed Cowboy Way is the only way.
What drivel. The team has issues in the field: Monday's loss dropped to 3-5 on the season, and they're lucky to be just two games below. The juggernaut that ran through the NFL in 2016 has evaporated – the last of their five Super Bowls came in the 1995 season, and another one does not look to be any nearer.
The Clapper, head coach Garrett is affectionately known in Texas, has taken the brunt of the blame. He certainly deserves plenty, but there is no escaping that this team lacks talent. Coming off Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott's marvelous rookie campaigns, the Cowboys had the sweetest deal in pro football: a competent quarterback on a cheap rookie contract. Nothing opens up the ability to build a stacked roster like saving $ 20m a year on a quarterback.
But, somehow, the Cowboys fluffed their lines. They failed to add the kind of prized additions that could be made to them. Not landing a legit, receiver stud – even on a short, one-year deal like the Eagles did with Alshon Jeffery on their way to the last year's Super Bowl – was weird.
Everything points back to the team's owner, Jones. He is still listed as the Cowboys' general manager, but he has been since 1989. But it's more to satiate his life than anything else, Stephen, takes charge of most football decisions, while Will McClay, the vice president of player personal, is in charge of the day-to-day roster management and player evaluation.
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Jones Sr., however, has the ultimate say on everything at the team: the amount of money available to chase free agents; the final decision on draft selections, trades, and signings; and the complete command of the team's coaching staff. He picks which hotdogs are sold on gameday. While Jones is apparently doing an excellent job with food, almost everything else is a problem.
Perhaps most damning is the evaporation of what was the deadliest single unit in football, Dallas' offensive line. This year's group ranks 13th in line rows (run blocking). That figure would be fine for any normal team, but Dallas' entire offensive identity is built around its ability to run the ball down to a team's throat, even when the opposition knows it's coming. The Cowboys group HAS to be a top-five-year in the year, given how much the team is spending on the position. Staff decisions have gone wrong. Rookie Connor Williams is on the level of Ronald Leary, who left the team in 2017, yet. La'El Collins has been a major disappointment at right tackle, replacing Doug Free who retired in 2016.
The weakening of the line has been critical to the team's chances. Little is more of an ordeal for an opponent than knowing what a team is going to run. Dallas hit that sweet spot for a good three years and became a supernova football when Elliott exploded into the NFL behind that terrific line in his rookie 2016 season. Without it, the whole offense has become a laborious, plodding, mess.
Jones and his brains trust know this, of course. They swung for the fences with the midseason acquisition of the Amari Cooper receiver from the Oakland Raiders, hoping to jolt the passing game and some of the offensive line's deficiencies. The idea of team building is not merely to acquire good players, though; it's to acquire good players at value. Cooper is a good player – indeed, he has a chance to be great – but he certainly does not represent value to the Cowboys. He already has the first pick, and he's due an extension. Adding Cooper on a rookie deal makes sense, but his salary already balloons from $ 400,000 to $ 14m in 2019, the final year of his rookie deal. It's a flawed comparison, but the Patriots added Josh Gordon, a more talented receiver, for a fifth-round pick. That's finding talent at value.
Signing Cooper to a long-term deal would essentially be one of the Cowboys roster for the future. Prescott to an extension, Elliott, Collins (who should be up in the air), and possibly DeMarcus Lawrence, who can make more money than any defender to hit the open market in NFL history.
The most obvious thing that can be changed in the short-term is the coaching staff. If you think Jones is giving up on his personal, you're wrong. His head coach, Garrett, has had some support from Jones, in part because he does not seem to mind Jones' incessant interfering and public offerings.
But while Garrett may excel as a yes-man, as a coach he is underwhelming. He's vacillated between calling plays, and nothing about his last go around. His record as Cowboys head coach is a middling 69-58, and he has won one playoff game. Little suggests he's anything other than a replacement-level coach.
Given their roster constraints, the Cowboys need a coach who gives them a systematic advantage. Here's the thing, though: who would take the job? This year's pool of candidates is already shallow. Why would a talented coach want to work under Jones, a notorious meddler? Why coach "America's Team", and all the spotlight that goes with it, when there's no discernible on-field advantage? It's not like free agents have been queuing up to wear the star.
Aikman is right. Moving on from Garrett alone in favor of another one would just be shuffling chairs. Besides, the problems have been around for a while: presuming they are failing to reach the playoffs this season, it will be the seventh time in nine seasons they've been absent from the postseason.
Jones' ego is such that he thinks he's cracked this football thing. Rather than craft systems around the talent on the roster, the best organizations and coaches do, the Cowboys hunts for players to fit so-called "Cowboy Way". The problems come when that talent is ill-suited to the style, or the players are not good enough. A stubborn belief that his philosophy is the right way has led the team to stagnation. The Cowboys need a top to bottom of the football side of the business. That would mean somebody supplanting Jones. And that is not happening any time soon.
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