Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' (lack of a) plan for 2025 free agency
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he won’t look to “fill voids” in the roster with free agents. Here’s his plan instead after last year’s “all in” fail.
The NFL free agency period will officially open on Wednesday, March 12 at 4 p.m. ET, although the legal tampering period begins two days prior, so deals can technically start being made by Monday at noon.
The Dallas Cowboys, however, aren’t interested. While players like wide receiver Stefon Diggs or running back Najee Harris might look like tasty additions to the roster, owner Jerry Jones says the team is “not looking at free agency as a place to fill voids”.
Cowboys waiting out free agency
The Cowboys recently freed up $56.6 million in cap space by restructuring the contracts of their highest-paid players, quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. But rather than looking to free agents to “fill the voids” on the roster, Jones says they’ll use that cap space to make internal moves.
Cowboys have restructured Dak Prescott's contract to open $36.6M in cap space, per @toddarcher
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) March 5, 2025
With CeeDee doing the same yesterday, Dallas now has an extra $56.6M for free agency ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/bNz8dhoFog
They’ve already done one such move by extending defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to a four-year contract. If you’ll recall, the Cowboys were not active in the free agency last year either, but at that time, Jerry told fans he was “all in”, so the lack of activity only made them angry.
However, last year also saw several of their key players leave, so if he’s using the cap space to re-sign current key players, then I suspect he’ll be criticized a tad less. It also sounds like he might be doing a bit of preventative maintenance with that comment as well.
Cowboys and DL Osa Odighizuwa have agreed to terms on a 4-year, $80M deal with $58M guaranteed. (via @RapSheet, @MikeGarafolo) pic.twitter.com/lLPkzsAD86
— NFL (@NFL) March 4, 2025
Jones also downplayed the idea of jumping into the free-agent market right away, preferring to do things on a case-by-case basis.
“As opportunity would come up from [outside], not the draft, not from within, as the opportunity comes up, we’ll weigh it,” Jones said. “Last year, we would have waited, but we’ll look and see the opportunity to improve on the plan that basically both defense and offense is to complement what we’re wanting to do with a Dak-led team.”
The Cowboys still have voids to fill though, with needs on the offensive line, on defense, and at running back. After a disappointing 7-10 season, the Cowboys have a lot to turn around this year. As free agency begins next week, fans will be waiting to see what, if anything, the team does.
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