Why the Cowboys shouldn’t try to match the Eagles roster-building approach

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

A lot has been made about the way that the Eagles go about building their roster.

The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions. Congrats to them. They did some great things, blah, blah, blah. We’re sure their moms are proud.

For the Dallas Cowboys, it creates opportunities for jealousy. Not just watching a divisional rival hoist the Lombardi trophy, but also enduring another season where they failed to move the needle. It can be rather frustrating. Sometimes the disappointment can be so unbearable that it messes with your judgment.

Recency bias is so powerful that some have suggested the Eagles are now the model franchise. Risk-taking and aggressive spending are the way to go and Jerry Jones should be more like Jeffrey Lurie, even going as far as saying the Cowboys owner should sell some shares of the Cowboys to generate some cash he could then use to acquire free agents.

It’s a crazy proclamation for a handful of reasons. For starters, the Cowboys have money. Without even having any insight into Jerry Jones’ investment portfolio, we know they have the money. There is no shortage of cash flow, and the Cowboys spend money. If you look at the last five years, the Cowboys have spent $1.25 billion in cash, $65 million more than the league average. Twice in that span, the Cowboys have finished in the top three for the year in cash spending. Make no mistake about it, Jerry Jones spends money on this team.

To think a savvy business owner would sell off parts of one of the most profitable organizations in sports to get cash he doesn’t need doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s even more improbable when one expects the Joneses to get wild and crazy with their spending to buy things now, only to push the cap costs into future years. We know that’s not how they operate, but in the spirit of the copycat narrative, is that how they should operate?

We’ve already talked a lot about how the Eagles have pushed an enormous amount of money onto the books of future years in the form of using void years. To see an example of what we’re talking about, check out each team’s most expensive void-year salary cap debts (data courtesy of spotrac.com)

Multi-year salary cap table from spotrac

This is what is meant when stating the Eagles are mortgaging their future. Most know they’re doing it, but as you can see, this is quite excessive. Teams are constantly borrowing from the future and the Cowboys are no exception as they will add more to their future debts as they restructure more deals. The real difference between the two teams is that the Eagles are already committed to paying those players and they’re using those pre-determined void years to free up more money to purchase other assets right now. That’s the Eagles way.

Should the Cowboys follow suit? Why not. The Eagles are proven winners and any team who truly values winning is operating in this manner, correct?

Not so fast.

Over the last four seasons, eight teams have a winning percentage of 60% or greater (including playoffs). Here are those teams:

TEAM	WINNING PERCENTAGE
Kansas City Chiefs	78%
Philadelphia Eagles	70%
Buffalo Bills	70%
Baltimore Ravens	62%
Dallas Cowboys	61%
San Francisco 49ers	61%
Cincinnati Bengals	61%
Minnesota Vikings	60%

The Cowboys are fifth on this list, so we should entertain the notion that they must be doing some things right even if improvements are needed. What are these other teams doing? If we looked at how much of the cap is already allocated in future years for these eight teams, it looks as follows:

This shows us one thing we already know - the Eagles are already spending tomorrow’s money. They have already committed nearly 60% (2028), 40% (2029), and 35% (2030) of future seasons cap budget. That’s a lot.

It also shows a couple of things we might not have realized. The Cowboys are using more future cap resources than the league average every season for the next five years. That doesn’t fit the narrative that the Cowboys aren’t spending money to win. They’re spending and they’re using future resources to help win now.

Finally, we also see that the Cowboys fall in line with how these other teams are distributing their money. It’s the Eagles who are the excursion. They are clearly dancing to the beat of their own drum. The Cowboys' spending looks very similar to that of the Kansas City Chiefs, who many would say is the real team others should try to copy. Not only that but borrowing from future cap resources doesn’t automatically equal success.

TEAM	TOTAL MONEY ALLOCATED	SPENDING RANK
Philadelphia Eagles	$1.1 billion	1st
Jacksonville Jaguars	$980 million	2nd
Cleveland Browns	$957 million	3rd
San Francisco 49ers	$950 million	4th
Buffalo Bills	$840 million	7th
Kansas City Chiefs	$814 million	8th
Dallas Cowboys	$810 million	9th
Minnesota Vikings	$704 million	11th
Baltimore Ravens	$676 million	13th
League Average	$666 million	N/A
Cincinnati Bengals	$562 million	20th

The Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns are second and third in total money allocated through 2030, but they have been two of the weaker teams in recent years. So, should we automatically jump on board with the Eagles’ roster-building ways because of their recent success? Maybe other contributing factors play a big part in winning. And would we be having this same reaction if the Los Angeles Rams completed the comeback in the snow in their divisional playoff game against the Eagles?

The Eagles deserve a lot of credit, but I assure if they didn't win, their roster-building approach would have been heavily criticized. And in both their Super Bowl seasons, that's been super close to happening. People judge the process solely on the outcome. pic.twitter.com/QOMqkwInix

— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) February 13, 2025

The Cowboys should make some changes in how they spend their money, particularly dabbling a smidge more in free agency, but they don’t need to make drastic changes in how they’re operating. Many other teams are operating similarly and have had great success so blowing up their approach isn’t the best way to fix their problems.