Earl Thomas has been the apple of Dallas Cowboys' fans eye ever since he told Jason Garrett that he wanted to play for the team last season. With a gaping hole at safety, the team was expected to take a run arguably the NFL's best safety, and when Tyrann Mathieu hit the free agent market on Wednesday, the team was suddenly given an excellent consolation prize.

But according to Jane Slater of NFL Network, the Cowboys are out on both Thomas and Mathieu. She reports that the price tag is just too high on both of them, particularly Thomas, who would require not only a large financial commitment, but compensation for the Seattle Seahawks in a trade as well. They may have released Richard Sherman and traded Michael Bennett for scraps, but Thomas still holds quite a bit of trade value and the Seahawks are right for wanting to maximize it.

This report will be incredibly disappointing for Cowboys fans, who now have to live with the reality that the team not only missed out on the best players at its two biggest positions of need in safety and wide receiver, but lost its best internal free agent in Anthony Hitchens as well. There is now practically no chance that the Cowboys are a better team on paper next season than they were in 2017.

That doesn't mean they'll have a worse season. Circumstances like injuries, player development and overall luck will have a huge role in determining how far the Cowboys go. But this was a flawed roster that needed help, veteran help, and it now appears that help isn't coming. The Cowboys will have to find it on the fringes of free agency rather than getting the sort of difference makers they seemed to need.

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