FRISCO, Texas – How 'bout a little better reasonable clarification of what "selectively aggressive" actually means.
You know, what Cowboys COO and co-owner Stephen Jones said on Monday from the NFL Scouting Combine, when asked what he has to say to the fans out there (you guys) who want to see the Cowboys become more aggressive with offseason moves.
Here is the entire answer to prevent any misconceptions:
"We're going to look at everything we can. We're going to be selectively aggressive. We, obviously, there's things in this league you have certain amount of resources they allow you to have, and we will look at that. But we're going to try to improve our football team. Not try, we're going to improve our football team, and we expect to have success next year."
Ah, yes, resources. Read salary cap. That doesn't go away. And even though early reports suggest the cap rising to somewhere between $277 million and $281 million, a jump of roughly $22 to $26 million from this past season, this in no way suggests the Cowboys can extravagantly begin spending under these tight regulations.
For argument purposes, say the cap comes in at $280 million. Plus, the Cowboys are able to roll over the $18 million of excess cap space from 2024. Great, right? But slow down there, pardner. Before they even designate the retiring Zack Martin a June 1 cut to spread out his remaining restructure prorations over the next two season, they must account for $20.75 million in dead money.
The majority of that accumulated from leftover bonus prorations and restructure bonus prorations for Michael Gallup ($8.7 million), DeMarcus Lawrence ($7.44 million) and Brandin Cooks ($4 million). That $20.7 million immediately cancels out that roll-over total, and plus, once they designate Martin a June 1 release, that will add another $9 million in dead money for his restructured contract bonuses, that's for just this year. There will be more for 2026.
Now, to create operating room, since right now the Cowboys would be like $4 million over the cap on the top-53 cap hits, they must either restructure a few of these contracts and/or lower Micah Parsons' $24 million fifth-year option by signing him to an extension. Because right now, Dak Prescott's 2025 salary cap hit is $89.89 million; CeeDee Lamb comes in at $35.45 million; Terence Steele is at a cool $18 million; and Trevon Diggs is at $14 million.
Add those five contracts up and that totals $189.34 million. In other words, five guys are taking up 67.6 percent of the salary cap. For sure, they will trigger restructure clauses already in the contracts of Dak and CeeDee just to drop under the salary cap maximum by March 12.
To me, "selectively aggressive" means the Cowboys will initially try to re-sign a few of their deemed necessary unrestricted free agents, and then see if there are any reasonably priced bargains available in free agency.
These stark numbers certainly don't suggest taking a shot at going on any exorbitant shopping spree.
- Moving On Up: Here is another cautionary warning. While the salary cap might increase like $25 million for the Cowboys, this rise also increases the salary cap maximum for the other 31 NFL teams. And that means they, too, will have more money to spend, which increases market value for unrestricted free agents, elevating the Cowboys' problems trying to re-sign some of their own guys, such as Osa Odighizuwa, Rico Dowdle and Jourdan Lewis, just to name a few. Said Jones, "It obviously gives every team more room, and in a lot of cases, which it should, it can drive the market up on individual players in terms of what they might have gotten, versus when it goes up a little more than teams had expected." Check this out. Saw this recent 2025 cap study with New England projected to have $111.9 million in cap space, Las Vegas, $85.7 million and Washington $68.4 million. My gosh, those teams can overly inflate the market to outbid for any player they might want. In fact, there are nine teams in this projection with at least $50 million of available salary cap space. The Cowboys must value quantity over quality.
- DeMo Update: Cowboys rehabbing linebacker DeMarvion Overshown provided a great update on his surgically repaired torn knee ligaments while a guest during radio station 1310 The Ticket's annual Ticketstock weekend. Said he's finally off his crutches following his second ACL repair in his first two seasons in the NFL. Overshown definitely will start training camp listed on Physically Unable to Perform, a customary precaution for those rehabbing from offseason surgeries to retain the possibility of being placed on inactive PUP to start the season. And there is a good chance DeMo said he'll have to start the 2025 season on PUP, meaning automatically missing, at the minimum, the first four games. So that unknown probably adds linebacker to the list of Cowboys offseason needs.
- DeLaw Limbo: Mentioned last week that Cowboys' four-time Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence intimated to me he still wants to continue playing after successfully rehabbing from his Lisfranc injury that cut short this past season by the final 13 games, though had the Cowboys' playoff chances been on the line he might have been able to play the final few. But remember, he's an unrestricted free agent and market value will likely determine if the Cowboys can afford to re-sign the 11-year veteran. Here is what Jones had to say about that: "That guy has laid it on the line for us for years and years and years, and nothing but respect for him, it's no different. Every situation's a little different, but he's been right there along with the Tyron Smiths and the Zack Martins, and we think so much of those guys and what they've done over their careers and the successful careers they've had. And we'll obviously be sitting down with DeMarcus and his representatives and see what he's thinking."
- Happy Anniversary: Tuesday, Feb. 25, marked the 36th anniversary of the Jones Family purchasing the Dallas Cowboys from previous owner Bum Bright in 1989. Pretty big bombshell in these parts since few actually knew who, as he was introduced, Jerral Wayne Jones was. An oilman from Arkansas, his arrival coincided with sending Cowboys head coach Tom Landry on his way, having been the only head coach in the franchise's first 29 years, and announcing Jones' former Arkansas Razorbacks teammates and head coach of the Miami Hurricanes the past five seasons, Jimmy Johnson, as the Cowboys new head coach. Three days later, Feb. 28, so 36 years ago Friday, Johnson held his first news conference. The Dallas Times Herald headline on my story from his news conference read: "Johnson 'Sorry' For Hurting Fans – Coach seeks to mend fences." A five-day span I'll never forget. And the nugget I found out surrounding Jimmy that I'll never forget: Jimmy Johnson sat with Cowboys' 29-year president and GM Tex Schramm and Landry in the Cowboys suite during Super Bowl XXIII in Miami that year, unintentionally foreboding.
- Not So Happy: Know what else happened on a Feb. 25 around here, in 1987, so 38 years ago Tuesday? The NCAA announced sentencing the SMU football program to a two-year "death penalty" for doing, of all things, what most schools back then were violating anyway, "paying players" they were recruiting. The Mustangs program was so crippled, it did not return to a bowl game until 2010.
- And Another: While so much is being made of the Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers, creating such a firestorm among fans and media, 10 days prior to Jerry Jones buying the Cowboys, on Feb. 15, 1989, the Mavericks traded star franchise player Mark Aguirre to the Detroit Pistons for Adrian Dantley. Beware the Ides of February in these parts, March carrying no stick to this month in Dallas history.
- And Etc.: Stepping out of my zone, but after watching the Mavericks' narrow 107-99 loss to the Lakers Tuesday night in their first game against Doncic, who shot a miserable 35 percent from the field that had nothing to do with Doncic playing for L.A., had Anthony Davis, the guy the Mavericks received in the trade along with Max Christie, played in the game (abductor injury), they would have whipped the Lakers … See where after the entire NFL Draft order has been finalized, with the Cowboys selecting 12th. They are tied for the ninth toughest strength of schedule, their 2025 opponents finishing the 2024 season with a .522 winning percentage … Had the 7-10 Cowboys won one more game, their draft position would have been tied with four other teams at 8-9, and likely ended up with the 15th or 16th spot … Of the eight players the Cowboys drafted in 2024, six of them started at least one game last season, and they totaled 43 starts, Cooper Beebe leading the way starting 16 at center, Tyler Guyton 11 at left tackle and Marist Liufau nine at linebacker.
The question being asked these days after learning of Zack Martin's desire to retire is how in the world will the Cowboys ever replace a future Pro Football Hall of Fame guard and one who accumulated nine Pro Bowls and seven first-team All-Pro honors? Reminded me of former head coach Bill Parcells' standard response about finding a replacement for a certain player or another one at a certain position, saying, "You just can't go down to the Texaco to buy one.
Well, for today's final word, we go to Stephen Jones from the NFL Scouting Combine when asked about replacing Martin, beginning by saying, "You don't find Hall of Famers on the corner" in the same vein as Parcells:
"He's special, man. Yeah, and just at the end of the day it's not a total surprise. I mean, we communicate with our guys, and so that wasn't something that we looked up and said, 'Boy, that's a shocker.' I mean we kind of saw it coming, but Zack's had an amazing career, and you just don't replace him. He's certainly a great player on the field, but his leadership and the man he was off the field was a huge part of what he was in that offensive line room and for our team in terms of being a special individual."
Just don't find future Hall of Famers hanging on the wall every year in the draft, but a good HOF case can be made for, like, five guys in that 2014 draft: Martin, Khalil Mack, Mike Evans, Aaron Donald and DeVante Adams, three of those players having been drafted ahead of Martin at 16.
