Going into the offseason, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the team would be “all in.” Judging by the fact that the Cowboys were over the salary cap at the time, it seemed like a strange thing to say.

But Jones later clarified that “all in” meant the Cowboys retaining their own players.

In other words, signing guys like Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons to contract extensions.

That was made very clear in free agency, when Dallas did not make a single high-impact signing (unless you count linebacker Eric Kendricks).

The Cowboys’ relative silence in free agency drew the ire of their fans and the delight of the fan bases of others who questioned exactly what Dallas was doing.

How could the Cowboys essentially stand pat after what just happened in January?

The thing is, fans (and even some media pundits) don’t seem to comprehend the fact that teams can’t just go out and sign players willy nilly. It doesn’t work that way.

Dallas was very tight against the cap even after clearing some space before the new league year, so it could not simply ink big-name free agents to huge deals. It was not financially possible.

Instead, the Cowboys are choosing to load up on their own homegrown talent, which actually makes plenty of sense.

Imagine if Dallas signed Mike Evans but then did not have enough money to extend Lamb in the process. That would be kind of counter-intuitive, don’t you think? Or if the Cowboys went after a pass rusher like Danielle Hunter or even Bryce Huff and neglected to pay Parsons.

These are all things Jones and the front office had to consider this offseason, and when you sit back and actually view it from a big-picture perspective, the approach is entirely understandable.

Yes, Dallas may just be a couple of pieces away from truly contending for a Super Bowl, but so are a lot of teams. It’s not easy to instantly fill those holes, and again, sometimes, when you fill one gap, another need opens up, particularly when you don’t have much cap room at your disposal.

A lot of the Cowboys’ money for the future is going to be tied up in their “Big Three” of Prescott, Lamb and Parsons, and they need to make sure they have the cash available to keep those guys long term.

It’s not like that trio is getting paid pennies in 2024, either. Prescott will earn $29 million in base salary. Lamb will make just under $18 million. Parsons hasn’t hit his fifth-year option yet, but once that does kick in in 2025, he will get $21.3 million. So, where is all of the rest of this money everyone seems to think Dallas has just sitting in its bank account ready to use?

Now, the Cowboys can absolutely knock all of those numbers down by handing out long-term extensions to those three players, and that is what Dallas is likely going to try doing in the coming months. That is more important than splurging in free agency.

Do the Kansas City Chiefs spend big on the open market? No, and they have won three Super Bowls in the last five years. How about the San Francisco 49ers? Nope, and they have been to two Super Bowls during that same span.

This isn’t to say teams shouldn’t sign free agents, but when you have limited cap space and your own players coming up for new deals soon, you have to pick your battles.

So maybe we are being too hard on the Cowboys.