Dallas Cowboys offseason A to Z: State of the team through each letter of the whole alphabet

The last few months certainly have been interesting for the Dallas Cowboys. When you compare this offseason to last, things feel a bit night and day. A year ago we were all lamenting the departures of Amari Cooper, Randy Gregory and La’el Collins while in our current moment we are celebrating the arrivals of Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks among other things.

Needless to say a lot has happened since the Cowboys season ended at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers (again). As the summer continues to roll on we are taking a look at notable things that happened through the lens and prism of something that cannot be debated... the alphabet!

Here is the story of the offseason and a bit of a look at what we all hope is to come this year using each letter as a launching point.

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A: Another year where the drought remains alive

Obviously we have been waiting for a very long time for the Cowboys to reach another NFC Championship Game, hopefully win it, reach another Super Bowl and lift the franchise’s sixth Lombardi Trophy. It is wild to think that it has been almost 30 years and that at the time of Super Bowl XXX the team held five of them and had appeared in eight.

B: Big time expectations

Even though the drought is alive and well, the Cowboys are looking to reach the playoffs for the third year in a row this season. Consider that it has been 15 years since they even had the opportunity to do so. We don’t need to talk about how that ended.

C: Championship moves

The theme is alive and well with the Cowboys understanding that they are going to have to be a bit more bold than they have been in the past. The Gilmore and Cooks acquisitions are proof that they finally understand this.

D: Defense leads the way

When was the last time that the Cowboys defense was this far ahead of the offense in your mind in terms of trustworthiness? It has been a minute.

E: Empty words

You may have seen (yet again) that the Cowboys home building used curtains for non-football things this offseason. But during those Sunday afternoons the glare is right there for all of us (specifically the players) to see. Sigh.

F: For the first time in forever

Excuse me borrowing a line from Frozen but for the first time in literally forever quarterback Dak Prescott will not have Jason Garrett or a former coach of his in his ear with Kellen Moore having departed this offseason. We now enter uncharted territory.

G: Giddy up

You know, cause they are the Cowboys.

H: Hip Hip!

Three cheers for a Cowboys front office that acted with urgency this season, am I right?

We could have also gone with “hooray” here instead, but I assume you will say that out loud.

I: I will be honest here

And say that “I” is very difficult. Let’s move on. Nothing to see.

J: Jalen Tolbert

Something I have been thinking about (others have noted similar things) is that if Jalen Tolbert is an even halfway-decent player for the Cowboys this year that it could be one of the more game-changing things to happen to the team in an overall sense. Fingers crossed.

K: King of tenure

No matter how many times I say it to myself knowing that it is true, it is hard to believe that Dak Prescott is the longest-tenured starting quarterback in the NFL. Obviously this note means nothing, but the time to capitalize on the sustained solid play at the most important position in the game is now for the organization as a whole.

L: Las Vegas!

Home of Super Bowl LVIII.

M: Micah Parsons

Our young lion has done a great job of talking this offseason about how un-important individual accolades are, but this is the season for Defensive Player of the Year, right? Again, we all acknowledge that this is not the main goal, but it feels inevitable.

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N: New

As noted above, the Cowboys are going in a new direction for the offense and therefore for the longest-tenured starting quarterback in the NFL in Dak Prescott. There are plenty of Mike McCarthy doubters out there, but this season, this specific one, is the reason he was hired if we break it down. The Cowboys brought in someone who had a Super Bowl-winning pedigree as an offensive mind. It is time to see that in action.

O: Optimism

At one point this month I was talking with a friend and said that this was the most optimistic that I have felt about the Cowboys in the month of June in a very long time. I recognize that, like a lot of small things, this means nothing, but isn’t that interesting?

Generally speaking we have had reason to doubt the Cowboys in June. We didn’t this year.

P: Please

We are asking very nicely for the Cowboys to take care of all of the pending contract situations involving a wide-ranging number of players with different situations: Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs, Terence Steele, Tyler Biadasz.

Q: Question

Speaking of those last two and their group, the biggest question that anyone has right now is what the offensive line is going to look like come Week 1. Who is going to be left guard? We think we know, but what are they going to do?

R: Respect

We all know that the Cowboys have not won the Super Bowl in a very long time. But this is a team that has won at least 12 games in each of the last two years, has been to the playoffs twice in a row and won a playoff game last season.

They are not trash.

S: Slow and steady

Sometimes NFL teams that fall short in a season try to rectify that wrong in the following September and October. That is fine but ultimately accomplishes nothing.

The season feels far away but it will at one point finally reach us. It is a one week at a time sort of thing. The Cowboys can’t win (or lose) it all in one single week or month. Let’s all do our best to remember to be patient.

T: Time

As in it is time to put Jimmy Johnson in the Ring of Honor. Past time. Well past.

U: Under

At the time of this writing our friends at DraftKings have the over (-165) and under (+140) for the Cowboys at 9.5 and that is so low to me.

The schedule is more difficult, regression will come (both negative and positive) but this is generally not an organization that (outside of a big injury) bottoms out like that.

V: Volcanic

I’ve said throughout a majority of this exercise some very positive things about the Cowboys and overall am bullish on them.

However... if things do not go well. As in if things go poorly. There could be an eruption on the horizon.

W: Win

The ultimate point of all of this.

X: XXX

The last Super Bowl that the Cowboys won (X is really hard, everyone).

Y: Yes

You can choose to believe in the Cowboys. It is okay. It won’t hurt (hopefully not).

Z: Zenith

Hopefully that is where we are with the 2023 Dallas Cowboys.