Free Agency: Dallas Cowboys Are Quiet This Offseason, Will Be Quiet Next Year

In a year where the Philadelphia Eagles are touting themselves as the "Dream Team" and free agents are taking less money than ever before, the Dallas Cowboys are unable to upgrade key positions due to their cap situation.

After cutting Leonard Davis, Marc Columbo, Roy Williams and others, the Cowboys now have over $20 million of dead money towards next year’s salary cap. And according to ESPN’s John Clayton, they’re still over the current year’s cap by $3.7 million.

Not exactly an ideal situation for any team that’s heading into a tough division like the NFC East.

You don’t necessarily build a Super Bowl champion through free agency though. It’s done through the draft.  So with rising stars like Dez Bryant and Sean Lee, the Cowboys aren’t exactly dead in the water.

The Cowboys need to focus future draft picks on getting younger on the offensive line and linebacker positions in the coming year. 

Keith Brooking, Bradie James, Kyle Kosier and Andre Gurode will all be at least 31 years old at the end of this season. If you need stars to replace them, they’ll have to come from the draft.

But as you sit and listen to Adam Schefter report that everyone but America’s Team is signing free agents, don’t be surprised. They simply don’t have the money to go after the big names that are/were in the market.

The Cowboys do plan on reworking some of the larger contracts they currently have on the payroll. Miles Austin, Tony Romo and DeMarcus Ware all have contracts that can help relieve some of the cap woes that the team is in now, but that only pushes back the debt for a couple of years.

By reworking them, it only means that in 2013, they’ll be in another situation where they have problems and no cash to go and sign resolutions.

It’s understandable that Cowboy fans are growing impatient by the lack of free agency activity, but for once, it looks like Jerry Jones’s checkbook can’t get them out of this problem.