The Dallas Cowboys finished last season with seven wins, an incredible disappointment for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.

It’s a little too easy to pin the blame on an unfortunate Dak Prescott injury. Of course losing your starting quarterback is difficult to overcome, but we cannot absolve the front office negligence of Jerry Jones.

Dallas’ owner/GM continues to wield unchecked power in the football operations department.

His unique mixture of incompetence and cheapness is a potent poison for the Cowboys’ title odds.

Jones spent all of last summer complaining about the challenges of extending Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, even though Dallas finished the season with a healthy amount of cap space and one of the NFL’s thinnest rosters.

Jones completely ignored the margins in order to focus all his time, money, and PR efforts on a couple stars.

The Cowboys needed to extend Prescott and Lamb, of course, but a more serious owner would’ve paid them early in the offseason and put in the effort to address other areas of weakness.

After years of dominating the line of scrimmage, Dallas’ O-line took a step back and the run game disappeared. As it turns out, Rico Dowdle and past-prime Ezekiel Elliott can’t match the production of, say, Tony Pollard.

The Cowboys were gifted an all-time opportunity to add RB talent.

Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Joe Mixon, Josh Jacobs, and Aaron Jones all changed teams last summer. Dallas went for Zeke, because narrative (and savings) are more important to Jones than winning.

That said… might the Cowboys actually get something done this summer? Myles Garrett has requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns.

This is a prime opportunity for Jones to salvage his reputation and elevate Dallas to contention.

Cowboys-Browns trade centered on Myles Garrett is not completely unfathomable

It has been difficult to imagine Jones coughing up the assets needed to acquire Garrett, much less the money to eventually extend him.

That said, the state of the NFC East could wake Dallas’ owner from his slumber.

The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champs with a juggernaut roster built to repeat. Jayden Daniels looks like a future MVP candidate, and the Washington Commanders were just in the NFC title game.

The New York Giants — well, hey, two really good teams are in Dallas’ division right now. If the Cowboys don’t want to get left in the dust, it will take aggressive maneuvers.

NFL.com’s Dan Parr has the Cowboys trading two first-round picks (2025 and 2026) for Garrett in his latest mock draft.

“The Cowboys’ all-in mantra is back, baby. Jerry Jones isn’t going to sit on his hands and watch the NFC East run away from him, so he trades two first-rounders (this year’s and next year’s) for Myles Garrett, while the Browns get a new centerpiece for their offense [in Ashton Jeanty with the No. 12 pick]. It would take some creative salary cap maneuvering for Dallas to make it happen, but Micah Parsons has already said he’d take less if it meant he would get to play opposite Garrett.”

That last point feels especially important. If Micah Parsons is willing to take a pay cut to accommodate Garrett, that could spur Dallas’ one-man front office into action.

Money talks, especially to Jerry, and the Cowboys’ defense would take on a whole new dynamic with Garrett and Parsons pressuring quarterbacks.

If the price is as low as two first-round picks, there’s no excuse for the Cowboys.

Long-term assets are important, but there’s no chance Dallas drafts someone as impactful as Garrett. He dramatically improves the Cowboys’ Super Bowl odds upon arrival, giving Dallas the NFL’s most frightening pass rush and enough talent to satisfy Jones’ incalculable ego.