Ian Hartitz looks back at an injury-plagued 2024 season for the Dallas Cowboys, before looking ahead to the 2025 season.

The Cowboys entered 2024 with their typical sky-high expectations. Owner Jerry Jones literally made the offseason mantra "All in" after all.

Unfortunately, an uninspiring start to the year was followed by a plethora of brutal injuries to key parties on the offense and defense alike. The result was the team's worst season since 2020, and accordingly Jones decided to move on from head coach Mike McCarthy in favor of offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.

It remains to be seen if the coaching change will be the team's only big offseason move. Either way, Dak Prescott and the NFL's fourth-most expensive roster are another year older, leaving the artists formerly known as "America's Team" once again in win-now mode. What could go wrong?

Today we'll recap some of the good and bad of 2024 before getting into potential offseason injuries to monitor as well as team needs ahead of the 2025 offseason.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

DALLAS COWBOYS 2024 RECAP

  • Record: 7-10 (9.5 preseason win total)
  • Points per game: 20.6 (21st)
  • EPA per dropback: -0.067 (29th)
  • EPA per rush: -0.128 (26th)
  • Points per game allowed: 27.5 (31st)
  • Leading passer: Dak Prescott (1,978 pass yards, 11 TD, 8 INT)
  • Leading rusher: Rico Dowdle (235 carries, 1,079 yards, 2 TD)
  • Leading receiver: CeeDee Lamb (101 receptions, 1,194 yards, 6 TD)

Biggest surprise: RB Rico Dowdle

Dowdle entered the season seemingly in a committee alongside Ezekiel Elliott, but the starting job was all his by Week 9. And for good reason: The former undrafted free agent emerged as a perfectly solid RB despite working behind the league's 31st-ranked offensive line in yards before contact per carry.

Dowdle among 31 RBs with 150-plus carries in 2024:

  • Yards per carry: 4.6 (No. 10)
  • Yards after contact per carry: 3.3 (No. 10)
  • Yards over expected per carry: +0.3 (No. 16)
  • Missed tackles forced per carry: 19.1% (No. 15)
  • Explosive run rate: 8.1% (No. 15)

The consistency behind Dowdle's ability to pick up yards after contact was particularly impressive: He led the entire NFL in percentage of carries to gain at least three yards after contact (51%) in 2024.

It remains to be seen if Dowdle will be back in Dallas in 2025 and beyond. Either way, kudos to the 26-year-old talent for becoming the 10th RB in team history to post a 1,000-yard season on the ground.

Biggest disappointment: QB Dak Prescott

This is completely independent of Prescott's (brutal) season-ending hamstring injury.

But yeah: Dak posted career-worst marks in adjusted yards per attempt (6.4), passer rating (86), and QBR (45.6) during his injury-shortened 2024 campaign. Overall, Dallas ranked just 22nd in yards per play (5.2) and 18th in points per game (20.5) with Prescott in Weeks 1-9. The latter mark was particularly surprising considering the Cowboys had ranked first or second with a healthy Prescott under center for four consecutive years prior to 2024!

Turning 32 in July, Prescott has now had surgery on his hamstring, ankle, and left shoulder since 2020. His mobility and arm strength were already taking a turn for the worst before the former issue, although to be fair those attributes tend to fall off for any aging QB.

Still, it's worth wondering if the Cowboys' franchise QB can still carry an elite offense on his back like a prime Greg Jennings without the assistance of a top-tier offensive line and playmakers–which hey, obviously isn't an easy task for any QB to deal with in the first place, but unfortunately that looks like the situation Prescott will (again) be facing in 2025.

Key injuries

Prescott's aforementioned hamstring injury is pretty much the only fantasy-relevant issue to be overly concerned about this offseason, considering CeeDee Lamb's shoulder injury didn't require surgery. Even then, Prescott is tentatively expected to be ready by April or so, and learned doctors believe he'll be 100% without a mobility dip in 2025.

 

What Are The Biggest Needs of the Cowboys Ahead Of 2025?

Team Need No. 1: Offensive line

The Cowboys ranked 31st in yards before contact per carry and 25th in average time to pressure. That was good for PFF's 25th-ranked offensive line, which looked awfully mortal throughout 2024.

Zack Martin ended the season on IR with an ankle injury and is now entering free agency at age 34. It'd make sense if 2024 first- and third-round picks Tyler Guyton and Cooper Beebe improve in 2025 and beyond; just realize the days of the Cowboys' big uglies operating as one of the league's best units are firmly in the rear-view mirror.

Team Need No. 2: Running back

Only the Steelers and Chiefs have fewer 2025 dollars devoted to their RB room. Fantasy Life draft analysts Thor Nystrom and Matthew Freedman accordingly have them addressing this need in the form of Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty, who is fresh off rushing for the second-highest single-season mark (2,601) in College Football history behind only Barry Sanders (2,628).

Freedman, in particular, is high as a kite on Jeanty. He wrote the following about the Boise State product in his way-too-early fantasy football rankings for 2025:

"As excellent as WRs Travis Hunter and Tetairoa McMillan and QBs Shedeur Sanders and Cameron Ward are, I believe that Jeanty (374-2,601-29 rushing, 23-138-1 receiving) was the best player in College Football last year and the one with a skill set that most obviously translates to the NFL.

Regardless of where he lands, I can imagine Jeanty being drafted as the RB1 in 2026 fantasy drafts, and that's because I can envision him producing like the RB1 as a rookie in 2025."

Re-signing Dowdle would be a solid enough consolation prize if the Cowboys choose to not go for an RB in the draft; Deuce Vaughn is the only RB on the roster at the moment.

Team Need No. 3: Defensive line

We probably could have gone all offense here and thrown in wide receiver considering the lack of depth behind CeeDee Lamb.

Still, we are talking about the reigning 31st-ranked scoring defense here; work needs to be done on that side of the ball as wel—particularly in the middle. Overall, only the Chargers have fewer 2025 dollars devoted to their interior defensive line, as starting DT Osa Odighizuwa joins backups Linval Joseph and Carlos Watkins as unrestricted free agents.

Hell, DE DeMarcus Lawrence is set to hit the open market as well. There's only so much Micah Parsons can do, and his superpowers have more so helped the pass rush than the run defense over the years. This was especially true in 2024.

Cowboys run defense in 2024:

  • EPA allowed per rush: +0.11 (No. 31)
  • Yards per carry: 4.8 (No. 30)
  • Explosive run play rate: 10.2% (No. 30)

Maybe 2023 first-round DT Mazi Smith is just a third-year breakout kinda guy, but regardless added depth is required–particularly with breakout playmaker DeMarvion Overshown uncertain for 2025 while recovering from a torn ACL.