A New Star In Dallas?

Joe Milton has been traded to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2025 fifth-round pick. Milton played in one game for the Patriots, but looked good in doing so, going 22/29, 241 yards, and two touchdowns, one being through the air, and the other on the ground. Milton has three years left of team control and looks to be a developmental backup to Dak Prescott.

Joe Milton has all the physical talent in the world. He has a cannon of an arm, can run, and is a large human. Similar to Anthony Richardson, though Milton can struggle with accuracy and hasn’t quite proven that he can read defenses at a high level yet. Milton can learn behind Dak Prescott over the next three to four years, and Dallas can decide whether an extension should be given. 

Joe Milton’s mental game needs a lot of work. Referring back to his time at Tennessee, commentators and journalists marveled at the tools he had, but he just never put it all together. Yes, the Vols love to run the ball, so the stats were never gonna be video game-like, but watching Milton struggle to stay consistently accurate grew increasingly frustrating throughout the year.

Milton has all the tools in the world, it’s been mentioned hundreds of times. This is a great deal for Dallas, they get their potential Dak replacement four years early so they aren’t scrambling to find a guy. Preseason football will be fun again this August.

The Micah Parsons Saga

Micah Parsons is undoubtedly a top-three pass rusher in the NFL. His ability to use his speed, power, or finesse at any given time is truly special, and it wouldn’t shock anyone if he had a spot in Canton in twenty years. Micah is the greatest pass rusher Dallas has seen since maybe even before the Demarcus Ware days. However, he needs to get paid.

With some of the contracts that have been given out over the past two offseasons by the Cowboys, some fans would rather trade Micah, as they point to his lack of production in the later months of the year, and his podcast. However, this isn’t Madden, and looking deeper into the numbers reveals that Micah Parsons doesn’t drop off when November and December roll around, he just doesn’t generate sacks. His pressure rate and his pass rush win rate are basically unchanged from September and October to November and December. Yes, Dallas has spent a large amount of money, but they have more than enough to pay Micah, and he certainly isn’t going to get cheaper if they continue to sit around and wait.

Maxx Crosby is currently the highest-paid edge rusher in football as he recently signed a three-year 106.5 million dollar extension which made him the highest paid non QB at the time annually at 35.5 million dollars a year. Ja’marr Chase broke this record just a few weeks later when he signed a four-year 161 million-dollar extension. Micah Parsons is on record for saying he would take a team-friendly deal, but that “team friendly,” price is going up by the second.

Extending Micah is simply a must, as finding a generational pass rusher is insanely difficult to do, but the edge is the most important position on the defense. Micah Parsons is one of the most talented players the league has ever seen, so Dallas has once again been cornered into biting the bullet because they want to “win the deal,” like they tried with Ezekiel Elliott, Ceedee Lamb, Dak Prescott twice, and now Micah Parsons. They lose that deal every time.

Jerry, bite the bullet and pay Micah Parsons.

How to Get dak back

2024 was the worst year of Dak Prescott’s career. The interceptions were unusually high, and the offense moved much slower than it did in 2023. So how does Dak Prescott go from being second in MVP voting to this? Well, a big thing is a lack of separation and a lack of weaponry. In 2023, Prescott was throwing to Ceedee Lamb, Jake Ferguson, Brandin Cooks, and Jalen Tolbert. That group is nothing special, especially when you add that they ran for about four yards per carry. However, Dak Prescott was playing at such a high level that he could mask any problem the offense had. The use of motion in the Dallas offense made things easier for Dak, and for what felt like the first time, Dak had a consistent play-caller who knew how to adapt to the changes in the NFL.

Then 2024 happened. Pollard leaves for Tennessee, Ferguson gains weight and becomes a liability, Cooks goes down, and Ceedee Lamb is double-teamed on every play. Mike McCarthy also stopped using motion in his offense to make things even tougher. Nobody outside of two guys on the entire offense could generate explosive plays for the Dallas offense. 

So the question becomes, how do you get 2023 back? Well, first, Dak has to get a receiver in the draft. Luther Burden, Tetairoa McMillian, Matthew Golden, Emeka Egbuka, and more. There is so much talent in the first round at receiver that Dallas can pick and choose whichever type of receiver they want. Next, they need to draft a running back in the first three rounds. They don’t have a fourth-round pick this year, so waiting until the fifth to draft a running back, even in a strong class like this, feels very risky. Now, using the play-action pass will be much more effective; teams will have to stack the box, and you have two viable options at receiver.

Finally, Brian Schottenheimer HAS to use motion. I believe he will, but it has to be at a high level. The NFL is all about making it as easy as possible for the Quarterback nowadays. Using motion makes it much easier. It can give you tells on what coverage the defense is in, who’s blitzing, etc. 

Dak Prescott is an elite quarterback, and following these steps maximizes his potential. We all saw how elite Dak was in 2023, and now we could be just a few draft picks away from seeing an even better version of Dak Prescott.

Trevon diggs traded?

Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs has been mentioned as a cut or trade candidate in just a few weeks. “The #Cowboys are shopping Trevon Diggs and plan to trade or release him by March 17th.” Diggs was mentioned by “@SlickRickScoops” on X, which may not sound like an authentic source, but Rick has a history of actually getting things right. However, this summer, most of his credibility went out the window when he mentioned that Brandon Aiyuk to the Steelers was a “done deal.”

However, trading Diggs is going to be nearly impossible. Cutting him makes just as little sense as well. Getting the Trevon Diggs contract off the books saves about nine million dollars for the Cowboys; however, letting a player of Trevon Diggs caliber go would be a massive mistake. In 2022, Trevon Diggs was one of the best cornerbacks in football, and this was the year after he broke Everson Walls’s record for most interceptions in a season in Cowboys franchise history. When Trevon Diggs plays, he’s still a great corner, and even with a down year in 2024 riddled with slightly above-average play and injuries, this is not a player that Dallas can afford to cut.

Trading Trevon Diggs makes no sense either because who wants to give up assets for a player who might not even be ready when the season comes around? Trevon Diggs’s knee, in the nicest way possible, is fried. He hasn’t been the same since tearing his Achilles before week three in 2023. Who would want to make that deal, and what would Dallas get for Diggs?

a living legend gone

Cowboys right guard Zack Martin recently announced that he is retiring from pro football. Martin, who is 34 years old, just finished his tenth year in the NFL, all of which was with the Dallas Cowboys. Martin had just had his first year when there was apparent regression. He put up the worst performance of his career against the Detroit Lions, where PFF graded him 0.0 as a pass blocker. 

Despite the struggles this season, Martin is undoubtedly the greatest offensive guard of our generation, not just in Dallas history but in NFL history. From 2014 to 2022, he put up some of the best seasons an offensive lineman can have, all while staying healthy. He was indeed the Dallas Cowboys “Iron Man.” Without a doubt, Martin will not only end up in the Dallas Cowboys ring of honor along with Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick, but he should, and most likely will, be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

It’s a shame that this era of elite Dallas offensive line play ended without a single conference championship appearance. The second “Great Wall of Dallas” was just as good as the first one in the mid-90s, but it did not even have a quarter of success. However, the lack of team accomplishments is the only thing Zack Martin hasn’t accomplished. Martin, a nine-time pro bowler and nine-time all-pro, will ride off into the sunset as a top-two guard in Dallas Cowboys history.