Whether one agrees with the philosophy or not, and rest assured most Cowboys fans on social media fall in the latter category, one thing is for sure. Dallas executive VP and CEO Stephen Jones fully commits to his philosophy. After years of chasing the big free agent prize such as CB Brandon Carr in 2012, Greg Hardy in 2015 and a failed attempt at Sammy Watkins in 2018, Jones has kept the Cowboys near the cap limit by signing mid-level deals with mid-level free agents. But in 2022, he avoided the Keanu Neal, Dontari Poe and Gerald McCoy types and just stacked his chips for another day.
He still made the judicious low-risk signings that barely impacted the cap like he did in uncovering Jayron Kearse and rediscovering Malik Hooker last season. That was attempted with guys like WR James Washington and FB Ryan Nall. He even reached an in-between, bringing in Edge Dante Fowler, Jr. for just under $3 million. Jones wants to carry as much cap space as possible into the future for signing young talent such as CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs — both eligible for extensions this coming offseason — and eventually Micah Parsons. But he is sticking to his word that if the opportunity to improve the team comes along for the right price, he’d jump. And he did so with bringing in four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Anthony Barr for relatively little expense.