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.