3 Cowboys make it easy for Dallas to say goodbye in 2025

Things didn’t turn out the way the Dallas Cowboys had hoped in 2024, but there’s always next year…right?

The Cowboys had to make a number of big sacrifices in the 2024 offseason, such as parting ways with longtime starting left tackle Tyron Smith, former Pro Bowl running back Tony Pollard and a number of defensive players who followed Dan Quinn to Washington.

In addition to these sacrifices, the Cowboys were operating with a very tight salary cap and didn’t have much room to improve the roster outside of the NFL Draft. As a result, some of the players signed for the 2024 season have not proven to be long-term fit. And even some of the remnants simply didn’t hold their weight.

Which Cowboys players will Dallas find it easy to say goodbye to in 2025?

To this point, I don’t think the Dallas Cowboys have gotten the return on investment they were hoping for with the acquisition of Brandin Cooks. Cooks was a lock for 1,000 receiving yards in basically every one of his 19 NFL goals, but not with the Cowboys.

It took him a long time to get going in the 2023 season and he only played four games in 2024. As the saying goes, “You can’t miss what you never had.”

Other receivers have stepped up for the Cowboys this year, which is great news for this organization in the long run. Luckily, players like Jalen Tolbert and KaVontae Turpin were more committed to Dallas, and the Cowboys also traded former second-round pick Jonathan Mingo at the deadline.

The veteran Cooks will hit free agency and could appear on 90-man rosters around the league in the offseason, but his time may officially be up.