We have all done this way too many times. We have allowed ourselves to be sucked in by the annual tagline for the late winter and early spring. Jerry Jones said they would be all in two years ago and it
was infamously one of the more shy offseasons throughout The Drought™. Why would this year be any different?
That’s a fair question that cannot be answered objectively. You are either choosing to believe because reasons or just that optimistic if you are of this overall mindset in the year of 2026. This isn’t said with any shade or snide. We all know the drill.
In this realm though a recent article from David Moore at D Magazine stood out. A longtime columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Moore pontificated in the aftermath of the Super Bowl and noted that the Cowboys may wind up being more active than we have known them to be because of the fact that the New England Patriots lost.
You see, in the Cowboys’ season-ending press conference Jerry Jones noted that he wants to retire as the NFL owner with the most Super Bowl wins. He has half (three) as many as Robert Kraft (six) and that the latter was just denied another meaning the gap has not grown, keeping Jerry interested.
No one is saying that the Cowboys can win four Super Bowls any time soon, but you can see how the Patriots loss could be argued to be a catalyst in the vacuum that the conversation and analysis is taking place. Like many things with the Cowboys, the proof will be in the pudding and some of that has already started to leak out for 2026 with things like news that the team will place the franchise tag on George Pickens emerging a day before New England fell to the Seattle Seahawks.
Opinions range on what the right thing for the Cowboys to do with Pickens is. Moore touched on the likely reality of the tag and interestingly was explicit in thought. He noted that the Cowboys are going to concentrate on “outbidding suitors for free agents” and did not include any sarcasm font.
The Cowboys will tag Pickens to prevent him from hitting the free agent market while it concentrates on outbidding suitors for free agents who will markedly upgrade the defense. Then Jones will come back and try to get something done with Pickens, the same way I intend to give my wife more than a cheesy card for Valentine’s Day if I know what’s good for me.
Doubts it will unfold this way are understandable. Jones has brought those on himself. But the first sign this offseason will be different came with the hiring of defensive coordinator Christian Parker from Philadelphia. The next will be what happens when free agency opens on March 11.
While there was no sarcasm, there was an acknowledgment that is hard for people to believe this will be true of the Cowboys. They have earned their current reputation and only action will change it at this point.
Moore mentioned the hiring of Christian Parker and that is an actual example of things being different. The Cowboys did not undo years worth of behavior in one fell swoop, but the Parker hiring and the process that led to it were foreign for how the team has behaved in modern times. Nobody is justifying past behavior or acting like this “new way” isn’t how plenty of other teams operate in our current time, but the facts of the matter are it was foreign for this team, and that offered the teeniest bit of hope that maybe things are going to be a little bit different this time around.
Perhaps that will be the case. Or maybe Lucy will pull the ball like she always does.
