Cowboys fans’ feelings about the 2024 season are on a wide spectrum — and that’s OK (2024)

Oct. 14, 2008, has always stood out in my mind. My friend’s father picked me up from school after football practice. On the drive home, the truck was overflowing with excited voices. Sports talk radio was blaring. There were discussions among us kids. Even my friend’s dad got riled up.

This was the scene the day the Dallas Cowboys gave up premium draft picks — plural — to acquire wide receiver Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions. This was huge.

We all know what came of it. Williams signed a massive contract extension soon after the trade but didn’t even get through three full seasons in Dallas. He was washed out of the league three years later. That transaction remains one of the worst in franchise history.

As bad as the trade ended up being, I can’t help but think back to those few years of Cowboys football because of the feelings that came with it. By the time the Cowboys traded for Williams in 2008, they were already more than a decade into their championship drought, one that’s closing in on three decades. But there was an optimism about the team that felt palpable, almost as much as the frustration and skepticism today.

After half a decade roaming in the wilderness to begin the new century, Tony Romo’s official arrival on the scene in 2006 injected a long-awaited excitement. The 13-3 season in 2007 validated that sense of hope, and the heartbreaking playoff losses in those years felt more like growing pains than an annual tradition.

Unlike the present day, the Cowboys displayed a sense of aggressiveness during that era. In 2006, Jerry Jones signed Terrell Owens in free agency. The following year, they got Leonard Davis on a seven-year deal. In the spring of 2008, they traded for the embattled — but talented — Adam “Pacman” Jones. After Week 6 in 2008, the Cowboys were in a good spot at 4-2. Still, they went big for Williams.

The Cowboys haven’t been to a conference championship since soon after I celebrated my first birthday. Most don’t need any more reminders of how long this drought has persisted, but that’s some necessary context for my perspective.

Perhaps you were already jaded from the decade-long drought by the mid-aughts but, as a lifelong Dallasite, I recall the reinvigoration of the fan base around that time. It felt like there was a different energy in the city.

When that positivity turned sour is hard to say because it usually happens over a period of time rather than one glaring moment. But if I was to pinpoint where the turn started, it was that same 2008 season. In the final week of the season, the Cowboys had a chance to clinch a playoff berth and eliminate the Philadelphia Eagles from the postseason. The Cowboys got walloped 44-6 on national television. After the game, Romo made his infamous remarks, “If this is the worst thing that will ever happen to me, then I’ve lived a pretty good life.” After the Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers this past January, that Eagles game crossed my mind more than once.

The Cowboys would go on to make the playoffs just once in the next five years. They went 8-8 three times, giving each NFC East opponent the pleasure of knocking them out in the season finale.

Hours before the 2024 season begins, the discourse around the Cowboys is on a wide spectrum. There are Cowboys fans who look at this roster and can talk themselves into this being the year — maybe not all the way to raising the Lombardi Trophy but to at least some postseason success. There are others who choose to hold off any sort of optimism until the team provides a reason for it in January.

Wherever you fall on that spectrum, your feelings are valid.

Winning 12 games in three consecutive seasons is not easy. The Cowboys have done that, and the core that accomplished that regular season success is back in the saddle this year. The playoff losses to the San Francisco 49ers in 2021 and 2022 were one-possession defeats down to the wire. The loss to the Packers in January wasn’t as much a case of lacking talent as it was laying the biggest egg possible … at the worst imaginable time.

Looking at the roster, there aren’t too many holes. Dak Prescott is a top-10 talent, CeeDee Lamb is top five, the starting offensive line looks solid and the tight end position is trending up. The secondary is strong, especially after DaRon Bland returns, and linebacker is one of the team’s strengths after a complete makeover. The defense has a top-three caliber player in the league and the special teams unit is headlined by one of the game’s best kickers.

All of that is real.

The Cowboys have also made it a habit recently of beating up on bad teams and having far fewer inspiring performances against quality competition. There’s a six-game stretch this season that includes trips to Pittsburgh, Atlanta and San Francisco along with home bouts against Detroit, Houston and Philadelphia. That doesn’t include games against the Baltimore Ravens or the Cincinnati Bengals, or the road game late in the season against the Eagles.

The roster is solid in most places, but the run game — offensively and defensively — carries legitimate questions. Prescott is top-10 caliber in any given week but has also struggled to show up consistently in big games against good teams. The owner is still also the general manager, and he will run things the way his heart desires, even if it comes as a perceived detriment to the goal of winning.

All of that is real, too.

The present day is neither the dread of the post-Troy Aikman era, nor is it the innocent joy of the early Romo era. Whichever perspective, optimistic or pessimistic, you choose entering this season, you are justified in doing so. Sports fandom is a personal experience in that way.

Every level of the organization has acknowledged that any barometer of success of this season begins at the ending. Head coach Mike McCarthy repeated that sentiment Monday: “It’s all about the finish.”

For the Cowboys to capture any sustainable elation from their fan base, that finish has to happen in a place that hasn’t been seen for 28 years.

(Top photo: Matthew Pearce / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Saad Yousuf is a staff writer covering the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Stars. He also works at 96.7/1310 The Ticket in Dallas after five years at ESPN Dallas radio. Prior to The Athletic, Saad covered the Cowboys for WFAA, the Mavericks for Mavs.com and a variety of sports at The Dallas Morning News, ESPN.com and SB Nation. Follow Saad on Twitter @SaadYousuf126