“You are what your record says you are.” That’s just one of the memorable quotes entered into the NFL vernacular by the legendary Bill Parcells.
And looking at the latest set of power rankings, put out right after Super Bowl LV’s results were locked in, it seems the former Cowboys coach is right, at least about his former squad in Dallas.
ESPN has published their “way-too-early” NFL power rankings, and they find the Cowboys in the bottom half of the league. To be fair, they’re in the top end of the bottom half- perhaps denoting a glimmer of hope of upward-moving possibility should the club make some good moves in free agency and draft well in April- but it’s still a ranking that shows just how far down the pecking order the Cowboys are after a disappointment-filled 6-10 season.
The Worldwide Leader asked a “power panel” of more than 80 writers, editors, and TV personalities to sort the teams in order of strength. The Cowboys come in 19th out of 32, just below the Vikings, Raiders, and Chargers… and just ahead of New England, Washington, and Atlanta.
Of the Cowboys, Todd Archer says this offseason is “all about Dak.”
“It’s been this way since the 2018 season ended. Twice Dak Prescott and the Cowboys’ front office have had negotiations on long-term deals and were unable to get a contract done. Now, they face a third set of talks, with the hopes of getting it worked out or facing the possibility of finding another quarterback, either for this upcoming season or 2022. If the Cowboys tag Prescott for a second season, it would cost them $37.7 million and chew up a significant part of their salary cap. A long-term deal would do the same, but they would have their quarterback for at least the next four years.”
Uncertainty regarding their quarterback’s future dominated the headlines leading into 2020, too. But one year ago, the team’s hopes were sky-high after the hiring of coach Mike McCarthy.
On February 2 last year, the morning after the Chiefs beat the 49ers to claim Super Bowl LIV, Archer wrote in the 2020 version of these same rankings, “The Cowboys believe they have a talented team entering its prime on both sides of the ball and would do far better with a different voice leading the way… McCarthy has a track record of success, with one Super Bowl and four NFC Championship Game appearances in Green Bay. His arrival brings hope.”
Dallas was ranked 12th on that list, high enough to make the postseason dance. Cowboys fans know how that story ended.
Of course, COVID-19 was just a faint blip on the mainstream radar back then, and no one could have predicted how the pandemic would wreak havoc with how the team gelled with a new coaching staff and learned its new wrinkles and schemes.
Prescott’s season-ending injury exposed much larger flaws with the team than most fans wanted to acknowledge. And while there’s every reason to believe the passer will pick up where he left off on October 11, the fact that his long-term employment isn’t a given affects every other decision the front office makes this offseason: who to trade for, who to trade away, who to sign in free agency, who to let walk, who to extend, who to draft.
It is, as Archer points out bluntly, all about Dak.
And right now, if the Joneses insist on letting the Prescott inferno burn out of control (again), it means other fires will simply go unattended. Or be mismanaged. And that 19th-ranked club that seems to lead the league in dysfunction and underachievement is exactly what their record says they are…
Until they prove otherwise.
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