Best team in the NFC East? It’s a low bar to clear, because the division was absolutely atrocious in 2021.

The utterly mediocre “Washington Football Team” went 7-9 and then started Taylor Heinicke in the playoffs, losing to Tom Brady and the Super Bowl champion Bucs in what amounted to a closer game than most people realized. But nobody would confuse Ron Rivera’s squad for the 1985 Chicago Bears.

The common thought is that if Dak Prescott hadn’t gotten injured, that the Cowboys would have won the division. Instead, we got Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci, and a defense that was somewhere between ghastly and pitiful on the spectrum of descriptors.

With Dak signing a four year, $160 million dollar contract, it puts Dallas back in the driver’s seat. The Eagles are in a transitional phase, Washington doesn’t have a quarterback, and the Giants are okay, but fake tough guy Joe Judge, who is a “leader of men,” isn’t exactly coaching a juggernaut at this point. Not yet.

As Eagles fans, we’re obviously in no position to shit on the Cowboys right now. Because the Birds are a dumpster fire sliding off a cliff. Hopefully Jalen Hurts can turn it around under first-year head coach Nick Sirianni, but we wouldn’t hold our breath. It’s gonna take some time to right the ship.

When talking about Dak’s deal, the thread for haters to pull on goes something like this:

“Well if they’re paying him that much, then there won’t be any money left over for other players.”

This is somewhat true, though it’s ironic to point out that Dak’s cap hit in 2021 will be $22 million, which is $11 million less than what the Eagles are going to pay for Carson Wentz, who isn’t even on the team. That’s the record dead cap hit that will bite them in the rear end next season. Dallas saved about $15 million by getting this deal done instead of using the franchise tag.

But assuming Howie Roseman can straighten this out, and the cap increases with new TV deals coming out of the pandemic, then the Birds might not be in bad shape. For the Cowboys, that $22 million becomes $33 million next season and $44 million in 2024, so while the Eagles dig themselves out of the hole, Dallas is going to be on a sliding scale where Dak’s contract looks like this, according to both Spotrac and Over the Cap:

  • 2021: $22.2 million, 10.7% of salary cap
  • 2022: $33.2 million, 14.6% of salary cap
  • 2023: $44.2 million, 18.3% of salary cap
  • 2024: $47.2 million, 18.7% of salary cap

There are two void years to provide some relief, and again, the cap will likely increase, but that’s still a lot of money rolled up in one guy, and it’s not like the Cowboys are chock full of depth across the roster. That offensive line isn’t as good as it was a couple of years ago. Zeke Elliott and Jaylon Smith are not who they used to be. DeMarcus Lawrence isn’t getting any younger. The defense totally stinks and the new coaching staff left a lot to be desired in 2020. They are going to have to draft well, identify talent properly, and find value in the margins. They’ll have to restructure contracts and kick money into the future, the same way Roseman did with the Eagles over the last two seasons. And with Jerry Jones in the picture, there’s always the possibility that his meddling and/or fixation on a specific player will throw a wrench into an already-complicated process.

Dallas definitely is not in “cap hell,” but there’s just not a lot of room for error. They need help in the secondary, bodies on both lines, and depth in a lot of places. With Dak eating up more of the pie in future years, that restricts resources for other positions, naturally.

So you might be sitting here on a Tuesday morning, concerned about Dallas, who reached a long term extension with the division’s best quarterback. And Dak deserves it, because if we take off our Kelly green hats and look at the situation objectively, he’s a great QB who deserved a big contract.

But don’t worry. It’s the Cowboys, they’ll find a way to screw it up and underachieve.