At the NFL Scouting Combine in February, owner Jerry Jones struck a different tone, promising that the Dallas Cowboys would open the checkbook like never before in free agency. Bust the budget, he said. For a team coming off consecutive playoff absences, it felt like big changes were around the corner. But as the offseason unfolded, that bold vision never quite became reality.

Dallas did make moves, starting with a trade for Rashan Gary from the Green Bay Packers for a fourth-round pick in the 2026 draft. Then came a steady build in free agency, especially in the secondary, bringing in names like safety Jalen Thompson, cornerback Cobie Durant, and safety P.J. Locke, before turning attention to the line with veteran defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard. On paper, the defense looked better, but when The Athletic polled NFL executives for their honest evaluations, Dallas’ offseason left many of them with more doubts than certainty.

“Dallas is one of those spin-your-wheels type teams that never really gets a lot better,” an exec said.

The Cowboys ranked 19th in free agency spending, adding $42.9 million in new contracts. They cut Osa Odighizuwa, a player they’d signed a year earlier to a four-year, $80 million deal, flipping him to San Francisco for a third-round pick and eating $16 million in dead cap in the process. That was only one of their moves raising eyebrows across the league.

“I was a little disappointed with Dallas,” another NFL executive said. “They got Rashan Gary, who Green Bay was not fired up about. They were not necessarily going to bring him back.”

Gary posted 7.5 sacks for Green Bay last season. Solid, but not the kind of number that makes a contender reluctant to let a player go, and Dallas gave up draft capital to get him. The pass rush was already a concern after Micah Parsons’ trade to Green Bay. And now, Gary is a band-aid for that gap at best, not a rebuild. What’s even more concerning:

You don’t sign a defensive tackle to $39 million guaranteed (Odighizuwa) and then trade him a year later unless something went wrong. A third-round pick doesn’t fix that. But if we just talk about the Gary deal alone, a version of it does make sense. He’s cheap and fills a glaring need. But the Cowboys weren’t shopping for a stopgap.

So now, despite owning two of the top 20 picks in the draft, which should ideally help them in the coming seasons, people aren’t sure if the franchise is ready to improve its situation further. Jones said they were breaking the bank. The draft picks may still pan out, but the executives who spoke aren’t elated.

The Cowboys’ cap differential landed 10th in the NFC, which sounds fine until you ask what they actually got for it. Still, Jerry Jones believes that he is moving in the right direction, and there’s a lot more to be done.

“We’ve been aggressive, and relatively speaking, we’ve stepped up the financial requirements for what we have done,” Jones said earlier this week. “We may have exceeded, busted, whatever you want to call it, but we got some more, and so we’re not through.”

The Gary deal, the Odighizuwa flip, and the draft capital stockpile—all of it signals that Dallas is building towards a better defense. But what they’re doing to keep the offense steady is the question no one inside the building has answered yet, and wide receiver George Pickens’ situation is where that becomes more complicated.

How will George Pickens’ offseason go?

After acquiring Pickens from the Steelers last offseason, Dallas watched him produce a highlight-filled year. The receiver posted a 1,429-yard campaign (third best in the league) and brought in 9 touchdowns. The Cowboys then came into 2026 and immediately hit him with the franchise tag, locking him in at $27.298 million for the year. A July 15 deadline now looms over a long-term contract with Pickens. And Jerry Jones has already said his part about the tag.

“The franchise tag has an automatic timeframe on it and all of us will — and it’s my plan and our thought – that we’ll all be working within the timeframe of the conditions of the franchise tag,” Jones said earlier this week. “‘It should play itself out’ is the best way for me to say it. Make no mistake about it, we have long-term plans in mind for Pickens.”

Pickens is 25, he can get open, and putting him across from CeeDee Lamb has looked like a real receiving corps. So, this franchise tag makes sense as a short-term hold. But the math behind a long-term deal is what no one in Dallas has explained.

“What are they going to do with Pickens?” an NFL exec asked, via The Athletic‘s poll. “Are you going to have two receivers making [at least $34 million, CeeDee Lamb’s APY], plus the quarterback (Dak Prescott) making $60 million?”

The counterargument is that you build around your weapons and figure out the cap later. Every team stretching money does it. But the Cowboys aren’t the Eagles or the Chiefs, franchises that have consistently found cheap contributors on defense. Neither do they have the perfect offensive line to offset their WR and QB spending. And if this wasn’t enough, Dallas doesn’t even have the defensive depth to absorb a cap structure built entirely around the offense.

Pickens averaged 15.4 yards per catch last season, and even shouldered the team when Lamb went down with an injury. But the problem is that Dallas tagged him without a roadmap, called it long-term planning, and now seems to be waiting for the last moment to make a move. Pretty much what they’ve done with every big decision for a decade: Prescott and Lamb faced serious resistance when they were up for extensions.

In the end, “bust the budget” turned out to mean 19th in free-agency spending, a pass rusher Green Bay let go, and a franchise tag with no contract attached. The Cowboys, as always, are stuck between Jerry Jones’ promise and the league’s verdict on it.