Former Super Bowl champion floats a rebuilding scenario for Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones owes fans an explanation.

After boldly stating the Cowboys were all-in on the 2024 season, Jones then promised the team would be major players in free agency.

However, Dallas has been one of the least active teams this offseason, the 2024 roster looks a lot like the 2023 one — minus a few starters — and there’s been little-to-no traction toward new contracts for star quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver CeeDee Lamb.

So, what gives? Well, two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long has a theory — one that’s predicated on Jones blowing things up next offseason and hiring one of the greatest head coaches in NFL history.

“I look at Jerry Jones and I wonder if he’s like, ‘Hey we’re going to [expletive] hit the reset button for real this time,’ as crazy as it might sound,” Long recently said on the “Green Light with Chris Long” podcast. “Because I would pay CeeDee but maybe they’re like, ‘We’ll go grab some picks for this guy and start the clock on a new regime, have Dak play out this lame-duck season, go forward and next year hire Bill Belichick.”

Jones and Prescott have both spoken publicly several times this offseason about the 30-year-old QB’s contract situation, but both sides have said nothing is close to getting done. And Jones may not want to pay $50 million-plus to a quarterback in 2025, which makes Prescott hitting free agency all the more likely.

Lamb is expected to miss training camp as he holds out for a new deal. Again, Jones may not want to pay $30M-plus to a wide receiver, and he could opt to move Lamb to start building up a war chest of draft capital to hand Belichick (or any other prospective new coach.)

“If CeeDee Lamb’s not practicing, if CeeDee Lamb’s not playing, they’re walking Dak into a shredder,” Long added. “…They might be talking about trading Micah Parsons, although I wouldn’t. But there’s a lot of stuff that could be on the table with Dallas that we just don’t know about.”