In the moments that mattered most on Sunday night, Dak Prescott was able to bail out the Dallas Cowboys. He showed why they made him the highest-paid player in football. He pulled out a victory from a near-certain defeat.
And that’s great, but it should be clear to the Cowboys by now that they can’t spend the entire season waiting for Prescott to ride to their rescue. The rest of their 20-17 win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh was a reminder of what the Cowboys have seen all season: That their offense is flawed and severely undermanned.
If only there was help available. If only there were reinforcements willing to join them. If only there was some team, somewhere, ready — anxious, even — to trade an offensive weapon, maybe an elite wide receiver, who would be thrilled to be in Dallas in the next few days.
If only Jerry Jones and his front office could see the gift of Davante Adams that’s staring them in the face.
Of course they can. They just don’t want to — at least not at his price. And that is a ridiculous, unfathomable and unfortunate stance for a team that really could be a championship contender if they were willing to make one bold move.
Granted, this is not a new story. It’s a familiar one for the Cowboys who rarely seem to be big players in free agency. Take this offseason, where they ignored their obvious need at running back and balked at the $9 million guaranteed that could’ve landed them Derrick Henry. They claimed they couldn’t take on a contract like that when of course, with a little cap management, they absolutely could.
Now here they are again, with the Las Vegas Raiders seemingly desperate to dump the 31-year-old Adams on anyone who’ll take him. He clearly wants no part of the Raiders’ current game of quarterback roulette. And despite the fact that Adams has topped 100 catches and 1,100 yards in five of the last six seasons, the Raiders seem motivated to ship him out by the end of the week.
They’re reportedly looking for a second-round pick in return, though several league executives think the best they can hope for is a third-rounder, plus maybe something else. That seems a pretty reasonable price to pay for an elite receiver who could do what the Cowboys need the most — take some pressure off the over-covered CeeDee Lamb and give Prescott a second dangerous target.
There’s a little more to the price, though, and this is where the Cowboys unfortunately get jittery. If the Cowboys traded for him this week they’d be responsible for the remaining $12.558 million he’s owed in salary this season. And as Cowboys CEO Stephen Jones said last week, “When you have the challenges cap-wise that we have, that would be a long putt for us.”
Now, the Cowboys have about $21.5 million in cap space available, according to NFLPA records — which is the seventh most in the league and more than enough to fit in what’s left of Adams’ contract. Even better, there’s no guaranteed money left after this season on the five-year, $140 million contract Adams signed back in 2022, which means he’d just be a rental. They’d owe him nothing beyond the end of this year.
Could Davante Adams and Dak Prescott team-up in Dallas? (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
But Jones’ worry is apparently this: The Cowboys are only projected to have about $28 million in cap space available in 2025, according to OverTheCap.com. That’s one of the lowest figures in the league. And it could make things tight when they try to sign linebacker Micah Parsons to what surely will be one of the biggest contracts ever given to a defensive player.
It would surely help if most of the $21.5 million in cap room remains unused so they still have for this season could be rolled over into next season. Then they could sign Parsons without breaking a financial sweat. And that seems like a reasonable financial strategy.
But how many times are the Cowboys going to keep punting opportunities into future seasons? What the heck ever happened to being “all-in”?
[Related: Should the Cowboys attempt to trade for Davante Adams?]
OK, at this point, the “all-in” thing is just a punch line. Clearly, when Jerry Jones said that, he didn’t mean it in the way any reasonable thinking person took it. He was never going to do whatever was necessary to win this season. He apparently meant he was “all in” on the team he had, for better or for worse.
But it’s starting to look far worse. Because he was apparently allergic to paying running backs this offseason, the Cowboys still can’t generate a strong rushing attack. Sure, Rico Dowdle had a season-high 87 rushing yards on Sunday. But in the game’s biggest moment, when he had a chance to plunge into the end zone for a game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter, he had the football knocked out of his hands. And once again, Prescott had to bail a teammate out by pouncing on the ball before a Steelers defender could.
Prescott has been doing a lot of that, but it hasn’t been easy. He’s got an elite receiver in Lamb and a good tight end in Jake Ferguson, but there is still no reliable third receiver. And that’s an even bigger issue now that Brandin Cooks is on injured reserve after developing an infection after a procedure on his knee a week ago.
Prescott was still able to throw for 352 yards on a wet night in Pittsburgh. But he was also shaky, throwing two interceptions, overthrowing his receivers far too often (he finished 29 of 42). Cooks’ replacement, Jalen Tolbert, had a nice moment Sunday night, catching seven passes for 87 yards and the game-winning, 4-yard touchdown. But he still has just 20 catches for 247 yards though five games. And more to the point, he’s no Davante Adams. Few receivers in the NFL are.
So just imagine for a second what the Cowboys would look like if they were truly “all-in,” if they were more concerned about this season than the future, if they had a front office that could be trusted to figure their long-term financial picture out. They’d have an elite quarterback in Prescott with two of the best receivers in the NFL at his disposal. Defenses would have nightmares figuring out whom to cover. They’d have to sit more players back, which would take some of the pressure off Prescott, and maybe even open lanes up for a running game that looks dead.
Yes, the Cowboys have other issues. Their defensive tackles aren’t strong and they’re having trouble stopping the run. The injuries to Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence are causing concern for their defense. But adding Adams could give their offense such a jolt, that all of their other issues would suddenly look small.
He’d be what Amari Cooper could have been if the Cowboys hadn’t foolishly traded him to the Cleveland Browns in 2022. He could be the final piece of the championship puzzle, the player that puts them over the top.
It would be so simple and would make so much sense and would instantly improve their Super Bowl chances. If only the Cowboys had it in them to be so bold.
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Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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