IRVING, Texas – Wednesday’s sponsors’ golf tournament gave the Dallas Cowboys a chance to catch their breath, at least for a day.
The rain all but wiped out the afternoon flight of the day, but executives, front-office personnel and scouts were able to get away from football for at least a few hours.
The Cowboys’ offseason has been eventful in their additions and their departures. A team that finished 12-4 last season, won the NFC East and a playoff game, saw leading rusher DeMarco Murray leave for the Philadelphia Eagles. Several other key contributors, such as Justin Durant, Bruce Carter, Henry Melton, Jermey Parnell, George Selvie, Anthony Spencer and Sterling Moore, also found new homes.
The Cowboys were able to sign Greg Hardy, Jasper Brinkley and Andrew Gachkar and keep Rolando McClain. In the draft they added three first-round talents with only one late first-round pick by selecting Byron Jones and Randy Gregory and signing La'el Collins as an undrafted free agent.
Without bountiful cap space and just one first-round pick, has the Cowboys’ offseason exceeded expectations?
“I wouldn’t say we’ve ‘exceeded,’” said executive vice president Stephen Jones, the maestro of the offseason symphony. “You always have high expectations of what you might accomplish in the offseason. I think it fell right for us. You might say ‘Well, you didn’t get a running back in the draft,’ but you’ve only got so many picks and you’re not going to be able to get everything at the end of the day. I think, for the most part, the draft fell in areas where we needed it to fall. I think we were able to get good players at the places we were thinking. I think we’ve had a really solid offseason. Our goal is to get better, and I think we got better and the proof will be when we go to training camp and get to work and then when we start playing football games.”
At present the Cowboys are sticking with what they have at running back. They will look for help at other spots (safety, wide receiver) as well.
“Everybody feels good about what we’ve accomplished in the offseason, buut we won’t stop here,” Jones said. “We’ll continue to look, we’ll continue to see if there’s other opportunities to make us better. If there is, we’ll do it.”
The golfing fun was for a day. Now it’s back to work. Since the Cowboys did not draft a runner, Jones has come up with a phrase he has repeated often.
“To me, it’s a good group of backs,” Jones said. “At the same time, I know a team that won a Super Bowl last year, the New England Patriots, that picked up a running back [LeGarrette Blount] late in the year and was a big contributor in them winning a Super Bowl. I’ve always said it: Player acquisition is 365 days a year. We’ll continue to look to improve our football team as we move forward.”