After another lackluster finish, Cowboys must reconsider who will be part of their future
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Mike McCarthy wants you to know that, “factually,” the Cowboys were better this season than they were last year. Depends on your measuring stick, I suppose. Back in August, it was conference title game or bust. The Cowboys’ head coach used a tape measure instead. They won 13 games, one more than last year, he said, and lasted another week. Fair enough. And just to show there’s no hard feelings, let’s concede that the final play against the 49ers wasn’t quite as humiliating this time.
Unless you were Zeke Elliott, masquerading as a center, ending up on his keister.
Frankly, it was no way for Zeke to go out as a Cowboy. Still, go, he must.
Zeke shouldn’t be back, and Dan Quinn, who’s interviewed for more jobs than a high school dropout, surely will accept a head coaching offer this time. As for Kellen Moore, the Cowboys’ other coordinator, if anybody’s still interested, Jerry Jones should offer to throw in the Pork Chopper as a sweetener.
And now the $40 million question:
Will Dak Prescott be back?
In all his faded glory.
If Dak could spin a football like McCarthy and Jerry spun a 19-12 loss to the 49ers, the Cowboys would be in Philadelphia this week. McCarthy shoved a Dallas-Fort Worth cameraman’s lens out of the way after the game Sunday, but he wasn’t nearly as offended by Dak’s pair of interceptions or his abject failure to rally the Cowboys on a game-winning drive when the opportunity presented itself.
Dak, in fact, looked nothing like he did in a career-best performance against Tampa Bay, not that Sunday wasn’t familiar.
Besides missing Michael Gallup on the Cowboys’ next-to-last drive, he apparently didn’t even see T.Y. Hilton running wide open down the seam earlier when he threw errantly to CeeDee Lamb instead. Cost the Cowboys a touchdown. Even a 46-yard heave to Lamb required a spectacular effort by the receiver.
Frankly, it was yet another bewildering performance. Once upon a time, Dak took the path of least resistance. The mark of his seventh season was a quarterback who locked onto receivers like a pit bull and wouldn’t let go. He conceded afterward that his 17 interceptions were far too many and promised it would never rise to such a level again.
Whether you like it or not, he’ll get a chance to live up to that promise, because it’ll cost too much to let him walk.
By the numbers: Dak’s on the books for a cap hit of $49 million next season with a dead cap bite of a whopping $89 million. He’s guaranteed $31 million this fall, meaning he’ll be the Cowboys’ quarterback in 2023. Probably ‘24, too. Beyond that, I wouldn’t bet on anything. Jerry shouldn’t, either.
Meanwhile, it would serve Jerry well to figure out a way to carve out as much cap room as possible. According to spotrac.com, the Cowboys have only $5.8 million available at present. The Joneses must rework some contracts so they can keep Tony Pollard, Leighton Vander Esch and a handful of other unrestricted free agents.
But not Dalton Schultz, the tight end, who, judging by the body language on his last two targets, may have already checked out.
Letting Schultz go might seem counter-intuitive considering the lack of firepower on offense otherwise. Once Pollard broke his leg — which, as harsh as it sounds, may help the Cowboys’ chances of keeping him — the burden fell on Dak and Lamb. Dak proved he can’t carry that kind of load anymore, if he ever could.
Jerry needs to make the offense more Dak-friendly, but his options are limited. He could draft a wide receiver in the first round, of course. But what the Cowboys really need is a makeover on offense. Dak has regressed on Moore’s watch. The best players — Lamb and Pollard — have at times seemed like afterthoughts. Too often Moore has seemed reluctant to embrace a run-first offense that allows Dak to operate out of play-action, where he’s most effective.
Look, as poorly as Dak played, it’s not all on him. McCarthy retained his streak of questionable decisions in the clutch. Didn’t go for it on a fourth down with six minutes left on the 49ers’ end of the field and punted on fourth down with two minutes left, too.
Only he didn’t exactly seem crazy about punting on the latter, wasting precious seconds in sending his punt team on the field.
Just letting Moore talk him into that disastrous final play ought to be grounds for dismissal.
No matter how bad it looked in the end once again, Jerry is already on record that McCarthy will be back. He won’t let his head coach twist in the wind again, apparently satisfied that “factually” they’re better. This is what the Cowboys have come to 27 years later. They used to measure success by the number of Lombardis in the lobby. Must be hard keeping a shine on them.
Twitter: @KSherringtonDMN
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