Cowboys have work to do on offense: Will they look for WR, RB draft upgrades?

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Dallas Cowboys continue to say they are not done in free agency. But to this point, most of their notable offseason moves have been on defense. Those transactions have led to some jokes between new head coach and offensive play caller Brian Schottenheimer and his coordinators.

“I told (defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus) the other day, ‘Damn, you look at free agency, you’d think I’m a defensive head coach,’” Schottenheimer said Tuesday morning from the annual league meeting. “I mean, you look at what we did, I got (offensive coordinator) Klayton Adams looking at me going, ‘Hey man, I thought you were an offensive coach.’ But, at the end of the day, we’ve got to build the most competitive roster we can build.”

Schottenheimer believes the Cowboys are one of the teams that handle this time of year correctly.

“You do free agency first,” he said. “You compare, ‘OK, what’s the safety depth in free agency compared to the draft? What’s the defensive line look like in the draft?’ And then you obviously look at your holes and the areas that you want to improve. There’s a couple times that I sat with Stephen (Jones), Jerry (Jones) and Will (McClay) and we were making some decisions in free agency and I literally had to say, ‘Well, we need to go with this guy,’ and he was on the defensive side of the ball.

“But that’s what’s best for the football team. And what matters is putting together the best football team that we can put together and winning football games.”

Would Cowboys owner Jerry Jones anticipate making another free agent signing or trade before the NFL Draft?

“Yes. We could. We certainly don’t know that because to do either or, that I’m anticipating, involves other teams. But I would suspect we may do something.” pic.twitter.com/hdXdCMaqZQ

— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 1, 2025

Those defensive moves have included re-signing defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa, signing defensive end Dante Fowler, defensive tackle Solomon Thomas, linebacker Jack Sanborn, defensive end Payton Turner and trading for cornerback Kaiir Elam and linebacker Kenneth Murray.

If there are no major transactions between now and the start of the draft on April 24, it’s a good bet that the offensive holes will be filled there, and as early as the first round. Running back and No. 2 wide receiver will certainly be on their radar.

Stephen Jones said Monday that while they like their receiver room, losing veteran Brandin Cooks in free agency has opened them up to “looking at a really explosive No. 2 that could upgrade us.”

Schottenheimer spoke highly of Jalen Tolbert and mentioned Ryan Flournoy and Jonathan Mingo, but more help is needed. CeeDee Lamb is the obvious No. 1. Some combination of Tolbert, Mingo, KaVontae Turpin, Flournoy and Jalen Brooks will probably fill out three or four other roster spots. Another wide receiver can’t be out of the question early in the draft.

Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer on the team’s No. 2 WR spot pic.twitter.com/eSpd9fL8oc

— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 1, 2025

Schottenheimer said the hope is to get a “game changer” at No. 12 because they don’t want to be drafting this high again any time soon.

“You’re looking for guys that influence the game,” he added. “How do you influence the game? You rush the quarterback and you get sacks, strip sacks, fumbles, whatever it is. You score touchdowns. I look at it this way, you build it from the outside in, so you got corners, receivers, they get isolated one-on-one. Pass rushers, tackles, they get isolated one-on-one, and then obviously the quarterback position. But usually, that’s the way I’ve looked at it.

“When you’re building a roster, kind of think of it from building it from outside in, based on guys that get isolated a lot. Because when you’re isolated and you can’t help, it’s a pretty daunting task sometimes.”

Could a special running back factor into that scenario? Dallas signed two veterans in Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders, but this is a deep draft class at the position. After not picking a running back in the first five rounds over the last five years, it would seem likely that they go in that direction within the first three rounds later this month.

“I think what’s been proven over the course of the last eight to 10 years is the depth and the ability to find backs late make it to where it’s not a priority,” Schottenheimer said. “But we’re going to look at best player available. And if the best player is a running back, and we feel like that’s a great fit, we should do it. But if it’s not, that’s where I feel really good going into this draft, because we’ve made the moves to create the fact … that we trust the process, the scouts have done a hell of a job setting the board.

“We’re going to get in there in a room with Stephen, Jerry, Will and myself. We are going to hear the discussions, kind of get the board set, get it finalized. And then some of it is good fortune, and some of it’s just kind of tracking it and knowing that no matter how it plays out, there’s going to be a player there that’s going to help us win a championship.”

(Photo of Brian Schottenheimer: Jim Rassol / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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