QB Room, Week 10: Here’s a p...

Highly paid, highly followed talking heads will talk. Most especially about the Dallas Cowboys.

It’s the low-hanging fruit of morning talk show ratings. Say something wild or controversial about the Cowboys in the early a.m., then spin that morning opinion into a debate on a noon show. Once you have that, take that second opinion and program it for the afternoon to evening cycle — and suddenly you have a useful single-serving day echo chamber that draws in the social media aggregators and highly interactive programming across all of your platforms. Cable sports network … podcasted versions of that show … ancillary podcasts … website posts … social media traction … clicks and impressions ... and some numbers to sell to your advertisers.

It’s the Dallas Cowboys media math.

And if we’re being honest? Throw in columns on the internet, too. Let’s not be disingenuous and preclude ourselves from that group of outlets that tends to orbit around the teams, franchise owners, players and topics that draw the most interest. There is an ecosystem that demands attention, and who are we to deny it?

But if we’re going to partake in it, let us at least embrace it with common sense. Let us be realistic about assessments and situations — facts and data. Don’t say something just to say something. Don’t ignore the basic fundamentals of a salary cap. Or turn your back on the decades-old realities of NFL locker rooms, roster construction, and the very basic and general boundaries of how talent travels between franchises.

If we can do that, we might be able to have an honest conversation about the Dallas Cowboys. What ails them, how to fix them and beyond. Starting with …

Stop talking about the Cowboys making a change at quarterback

Of all the mind-numbing suggestions I have heard in recent days, the idea that the Cowboys can somehow move off of quarterback Dak Prescott next offseason loudly sticks out. When you weigh the salary cap implications, it’s beyond foolish. His most basic cap hit in 2025 is nearly $90 million. His dead cap figure is nearly $152 million. To move away from him next offseason would be an asteroid strike to the franchise — an extinction level event. The talent-shedding and impact on the remaining roster and contract extensions would point to a gutting that would be perceived as a down-to-the-studs rebuild.

So if you hear someone say the Cowboys should move to another quarterback, think: Either this person is stupid, or they’re saying something for the sheer effect of the words and aggregation potential. Not naming names or anything … but, yeah.

Prescott is a Cowboy. We can argue about his performance in 2024 prior to his season-ending injury, but his contract extension is all that really matters. Cope with it and move forward. He’s the quarterback for the foreseeable future.

A coaching change appears inevitable. Choose some combination of a tactician and a motivator

I can see team owner Jerry Jones firing head coach Mike McCarthy. Not necessarily because McCarthy deserves it more than a handful of others on the staff (including Jones as general manager), but because there has been a mandate to get over the playoff hump, and McCarthy hasn’t been able to push the right buttons. I won’t waste time defending McCarthy because I was at the horrendous Jan. 14 playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers, and I thought then — and think now — that McCarthy should have been fired after that game. Not to mention the rest of his staff, including defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who despite his success with the Washington Commanders this season, didn’t have his defense prepared for that 48-32 loss (which wasn’t as close as the score appears).

Whatever the case now, I am fine with McCarthy getting the axe. By the end of this season, he will have had a solid swing of five years, including three extremely talented rosters from 2021-2023. All three of those seasons, I turned to the postseason thinking Dallas had a championship contending roster. All three of those seasons, I felt like they were outmatched from a coaching perspective in the final game of the season. At some point, you have to prove you’re better than the best. McCarthy hasn’t. And he had a very solid opportunity to do so. So it’s time to move on.

Where does Dallas go from here?

The most successful formula is to reach for the best tactician and the best motivator. For years, I’ve watched these combinations of coaches win Super Bowls. The Kansas City Chiefs? For three of the past five years, Andy Reid has been the master tactician guiding the offense through a changing roster with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, while defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has been the (very underrated) motivator of an evolving unit that has never really gotten its due in three title wins. The Los Angeles Rams following the 2021 season? Head coach Sean McVay served as offensive tactician, but defensive coordinator Raheem Morris’ motivation served as the difference in a unit that held the Cincinnati Bengals scoreless in the fourth quarter of a come-from-behind Super Bowl win. That Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that won it all with Tom Brady in the 2020 season? Bruce Arians was the emotional heartbeat all season long, but defensive coordinator Todd Bowles’ game plan destroyed the Chiefs for the title.

In recent history, I’ll take an all-star motivator and a genius tactician. Give me Ben Johnson or Bobby Slowik to run the offense tactically. And Mike Vrabel or Robert Saleh to command the defense. It’s the combination of experience and proven methods that wins out. Not flash. And not Bill Belichick, who would have to remake everything — regardless of what he wants to admit at this stage of his life.

And do not give me Deion Sanders in either position. This isn’t the NCAA, where the transfer portal offers high percentage roster changes, and a collection of young men who are far more prone to accepting wide-ranging criticism and change than grown men who value their career viability and paycheck more than Deion’s faded exploits and folksy-but-direct charisma. Don’t get me wrong. I respect what Deion has done at Colorado in a short window. But I also know that a salary cap, the necessity of building teams over time and the attitudes of grown men with families and real responsibilities tend to render gravitas to a low level in the NFL. The God Complex that works in college rarely works in the NFL. Most especially in 2024.

Get a No. 2 wideout who has some grit

Frankly, I’m fine with wideouts who challenge their quarterbacks. If CeeDee Lamb ever had a bone to pick with Prescott, by all means — pick it. Maybe not on the sidelines of a nationally televised game, but behind closed doors, absolutely. I’m not entirely certain who this player would be, but I will say that living in Houston has provided me with enough of a vantage of Stefon Diggs to know he pushes practices. He elevates expectations. Yes, he’s coming off a season-ending knee injury, but I still believe he’s got something left in the tank for 2025. And I think playing on the same team with his brother Trevon Diggs would help squeeze every last drop out of him. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t advise adding a wide receiver with a prickly exterior who commands attention from his quarterback. But with Prescott, that’s a little of what he has been lacking.

Soft list Micah Parsons on the trade market next offseason

I don’t think the Cowboys should trade Parsons. But given that he expects to be the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL next offseason, it’s worth seeing if some team is willing to mortgage to the hilt to add him. Quietly open the phone lines on him before signing his inevitable massive contract extension. There was a time when then-Carolina Panthers edge rusher Brian Burns commanded an offer of two first-round draft picks from the Los Angeles Rams. There’s at least a slight chance that Parsons could command three firsts. And I think in that situation, the Cowboys would be foolish not to take it.

Not only would such a trade open a significant amount of future salary cap space, it would yield picks that Dallas could use to line the offensive and defensive lines during a micro-rebuild the next few seasons.

Do I think it will happen? No. When I spoke to Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones last summer, he ranked edge rusher as the No. 2 most important position behind quarterback when it came to locking in talent and signing extensions. That tells me Dallas will mortgage to the salary cap to get Parsons' extension done, and deal with the consequences later. If they’re smart, they won’t do that until seeing what kind of trade market Parsons has.

Trade back in this draft, accumulate picks and add to 3 areas

As we get closer to the 2025 NFL Draft, you’re going to hear about the lack of elite prospects. That doesn’t mean there isn’t talent to be found, including in the latter rounds. In fact, some executives believe that when the draft boards all shake out, picks in the 7-8-9 range might end up on the same talent shelf as picks at the very end of the first round. Whoever the Cowboys land in the draft order, the move should be trading out unless there is an absolutely elite offensive or defensive lineman. Running back is deep enough to get a player in the second or third round capable of starting fairly quickly in the NFL. Whatever the thought process, it’s clear this draft will be conquered by having a lot of ammunition rather than high ammunition.

For now, with two months of the NFL season still left to be revealed, that’s the best shot I’ve got to fixing the Cowboys heading into the offseason. It’s basic and unfinished but miles ahead of the lunacy of pivoting off Dak Prescott for a rookie quarterback and courting Deion Sanders as a realistic fix.

In mid November, that’s a media fix for ratings. And anyone who tells you otherwise is either in on the ruse or completely out of their depth when it comes to how the NFL works in 2024.

Now on to the Week 10 of the QB Room …

◦ After talking to two league sources Tuesday night dialed into the mindset of New York Jets team owner Woody Johnson —including one in the Jets building that had a very accurate and very early explanation of how the Robert Saleh firing went down — I’d suggest this: Aaron Rodgers better be very clear and measured when wandering into diatribes on "The Pat McAfee Show" concerning his views of how ownership should operate NFL teams. While nobody is going out of their way to defend Johnson’s decisions, even inside the Jets building, they are most definitely mindful that Rodgers even seeming to offer a critique of Johnson (even if he isn’t) can help make sure everyone in the coaching staff and top tiers of the personnel ranks get fired at the end of this season, followed by Rodgers getting punted in the offseason.