For Dallas Cowboys fans hoping their favorite team would make an NFC Championship Game as their Super Bowl drought reaches 30 years, it wasn’t necessarily easy to watch the Philadelphia Eagles cruise to its second Lombardi Trophy since 2018 last Sunday.

The Eagles and the Cowboys, though the fiercest of rivals in the regular season, aren’t on the same level as far as on-field relevance. The Eagles have been to the Super Bowl three times since 2018 and won it twice, each ring being won with very different teams, a testament to general manager Howie Roseman’s prowess in team-building.

And the worst part is that you can clearly see the Eagles and Cowboys do things extremely differently, with the former’s approach being a massive success and the latter being the contrary.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie left no doubts about what is it Philly does that the Cowboys don’t: They take risks.

Following the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX win, Lurie told Jori Epstein from Yahoo! Sports: “He’s not risk averse. He’s aggressive. That’s what I want.”

Roseman went from avoiding big investments at running back, most notably letting Miles Sanders walk in free agency, to pulling the trigger for the right man in Saquon Barkley one year later.

He’s taken swings on players whose value takes a hit for one reason or another, signing All-Pro linebacker Zach Baun for only $3.5 million, breaking what seemed like an unwritten rule and drafting Quinyon Mitchell in the first round after the Eagles didn’t pick a cornerback in the first round for over 20 years. When Cooper DeJean was almost within reach, he traded up in the second round.

Roseman bought stock on Mekhi Becton when his stock was at an all-time low last offseason and it paid off big time as he became a quality starter at right guard, a position he never had played before.

Not every gamble has paid off for him. Just look at Bryce Huff, who they paid to replace Haason Reddick and was a healthy scratch in Super Bowl LIX. Devin White was a non-factor for the Eagles. But he’s aggressive enough for his hits to overcome the strikeouts. Nakobe Dean is a great example of this, as he made up for the lackluster White signing.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys’ biggest acquisition moves in 2024 were signing Eric Kendricks and Ezekiel Elliott in free agency. They shield themselves for criticism using Dak Prescott’s and CeeDee Lamb’s as an excuse but the Eagles also pay their guys. They’re just willing to manipulate the salary cap to make it work.

To this, Stephen Jones has said the bill will come due. However, the Eagles have done a remarkable job deferring that date and even if it ends up biting them in the rear end, they’ll have a Lombardi Trophy to back up that their strategy works.

Cowboys fans should feel envy of an owner asking his genius GM to be aggressive, specially since all they have is an owner who doesn’t want to give up the GM title even though everyone questions who’s truly making the decisions at The Star and one who claims he won’t re-sign to the title because he bought the team in 1989.

But make no mistake about it: Lurie having someone like Roseman matters. The Washington Commanders owners saying they hired the right people and got out of the way matters.

You can’t win in the NFL running things like a family-owned business. Not without help from a real general manager, at least.