A blueprint for fixing Dallas Cowboys' mess in time for 2025 season

The signs of trouble were there during the Dallas Cowboys' offseason when Jerry Jones promised to go "all in" but didn't. It was obvious they had a roster filled with holes. They did not look like a real Super Bowl contender.

But none of those signs foretold a season quite like this.

"Have we had rough seasons? Yes," the Cowboys owner said last week. "And this one, we didn't anticipate the record. And the way we're playing right now, we wouldn't have anticipated that. But you all have heard me tell these old stories until you're sick: You stay in this league long enough, you'll have times like this."

It's really been a long time since they've had a season as sickly as this one has become, even after their wild, 34-26 win in Washington on Sunday. They are 4-7 with no hope left of salvaging their season. They're 0-5 at home, where their remaining few fans were drowned out by Houston Texans faithful last Monday night. Their starting quarterback, Dak Prescott, is out for the season. Their coach, Mike McCarthy, is on the hot seat, even after three straight 12-5 seasons.

Literally, everything about the Cowboys right now is bad.

Which means for Jones and everyone else in the Cowboys organization, the only question that matters the rest of the way is this one: 

What do they have to do to make things good again?

The first step would be to hire a real general manager so Jones isn't the one making the football decisions anymore, but the 82-year-old billionaire has made it clear he's never going to do that. So maybe he'll be open to some helpful advice instead:

1. Don't impulsively fire Mike McCarthy 

This won't be a popular decision among Cowboys fans, but there are good reasons to renew McCarthy's contract after the season. There are issues with McCarthy, to be sure, but going 12-5 in three straight seasons isn't nothing. And this season wasn't all his fault since he was hurt by an offseason of inactivity and then an onslaught of injuries.

He is a Super Bowl-winning coach who is liked by his players and, despite their playoff struggles, he's coached the Cowboys to their best three-year run, by far, since their last Super Bowl era 30 years ago. It would be crazy to boot someone that successful after one bad, injury plagued year.

Besides, what's the better option? Finding an untested assistant coach and hoping he turns into Sean McVay and not Ben McAdoo? A retread like Doug Pederson? Deion Sanders is a fun idea, but not every college coach makes it on the NFL level. Bill Belichick's star sure faded after Tom Brady left New England. And don't start with Jason Witten, a Jones favorite. The jump from high school to the NFL is way too big.

Signing McCarthy to a short-term deal and making it clear he has to win next season seems like a much more reasonable approach than starting over under someone else.

2. Give Micah Parsons his blockbuster contract extension before free agency starts 

Jones has a counterproductive habit of waiting until the very last minute to re-sign his best players, and then giving them the deal he could've given them months earlier. There's no logic to that because the price never goes down. It just ties up cap space that could be spent elsewhere.

Parsons is going to get a blockbuster deal, probably before the beginning of the 2025 season when he's due $21.3 million in guaranteed money. He is undoubtedly looking to become the highest-paid defensive player in the game, which means at least $35 million per season. He might get a deal worth more than $200 million with $150 million guaranteed.

The Cowboys are going to pay him, so do it in February instead of next September. When Nick Bosa signed his five-year, $170 million deal with San Francisco — currently making him the NFL's highest-paid defender — it actually reduced his first-year cap number to around $11 million. If the Cowboys do the same they can lock up Parsons long-term and cut his 2025 cap number in half.

Then they'd have cap space to spend in free agency, for a change.

3. Restructure some contracts to create cap space to be real players in free agency 

For the last few years, the Cowboys have been way too worried about salary cap space in the future. It's why they basically sat out free agency last spring. 

Based on the voidable years they put in the new deals for Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, it looks like their thinking is changing. Together, those two are scheduled to count for about $125 million against the 2025 cap, but the void years allow the Cowboys to restructure and push chunks of that into the future. They could end up with $80 million in cap space and the ability to sign anyone if they play things right.

And they really should. Their championship window is open now, despite the disaster of this season. They've got an elite quarterback, receiver and defender and a lot of strong pieces in other areas. They could use free agency to fill holes with really good players, instead of just sitting back and picking players off the scrap heap of whatever is left when the big money is gone.

Then they can worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Concentrate on building the team now.

4. Get this team a standout running back 

They'll never admit it but they just blew it last offseason when a whole bunch of quality backs, led by Derrick Henry, were available for the low price of $10-12 million guaranteed. They can't pretend anymore that they can't afford that. They have to acknowledge that running back is a glaring hole.

The free agent market at that position in March won't be as good as it was last spring, but nobody available is going to get Saquon Barkley money. There will be quality backs in the $10-12 million range again and the Cowboys have to try to get one of them. Aaron Jones is probably the best, but he's got injury concerns and he's about to turn 30. James Conner would be a nice fit, though he'll be 30 next season, too. Nick Chubb could also be a steal at age 29, though only if he's healthy.

The best bet could be Najee Harris, who is only 26 and has proven to be durable and hard to tackle. He might cost a little more, but he'd certainly be worth it.

But they have to sign a proven running back. They can bring Rico Dowdle back as a backup if they want, but he can't be the starter again. And they can't take a chance on just adding one in the draft.

5. Restock the trenches 

In some ways, this process has already begun. In the last three drafts, all three of the Cowboys' first-round picks and two of their three second-rounders have been either offensive or defensive linemen. But the work isn't done, with guard Zack Martin near the end of a great career and defensive linemen DeMarcus Lawrence and Osa Odighizuwa scheduled to be free agents.

They should keep drafting at those positions, but also dip into free agency, especially on the defensive line where they need the most help. They should try to get an interior lineman like B.J. Hill or a defensive end like Josh Sweat (assuming they won't want to break the bank for Haason Reddick after re-signing Parsons). They have a strong secondary and improving linebackers. They just can't consistently get to the passer or stop the run.

The lines are often where games are won and lost, even in today's NFL. The Cowboys seem to know it. They just have to put some money behind the philosophy, too.

Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.