With the beginning of training camp now just under three weeks away, many associated with the Dallas Cowboys will arrive in Oxnard with great expectations. That includes players, coaches, and the front office itself.
Yesterday, I touched on Dak Prescott’s prospects for the upcoming season. Today, I will go to the very top and look at Jerry Jones.
We’ll split this in half because Jones is both Owner and General Manager and it’s this dual role that’s also the biggest obstacle to the team’s on-field success.
Owner Jerry Jones
As the owner, Jones’ expectations for the organization are simple:
- Make as much money as possible
The best way to do that is to keep the team relevant, not necessarily on the field for that matter. As long as the talking heads lead their broadcasts, or podcasts, by talking about the Cowboys, the cash keeps streaming in.
The same goes for selling out the stadium every week, be it with stands full of Cowboys fans or not. Watching the merchandise fly off the shelves helps too.
All these factors put money in Jones’ bank accounts. As long as the money flows in, he’s had a successful year.
Jones may say he’s “all-in” on winning a championship but in reality, the Cowboys have shown they don’t need to win a title to be No. 1 in the NFL.
Look no further than the Forbes list of the most valuable NFL franchises.
As of August 2023, the Cowboys are ranked at the top of the league’s 32 teams at $9 billion. That’s $2 billion more than the second-place New England Patriots. The Patriots have won six Super Bowls since the Cowboys last won it all on January 28, 1996.
Dallas hasn’t even made it to a conference championship game in nearly 30 years, yet somehow they hold the most value in the NFL.
Owner Jerry Jones sees those numbers and sees no reason to change the way he does business. As for winning another championship, he has no real incentive to do so.
He has three Lombardi trophies won under his ownership. Unlike an owner still looking for that first title, Jones can rest on his laurels.
So, what is Owner Jones’ goal for the 2024 season?
Don’t change a thing and keep counting all the money rolling in.
General Manager Jerry Jones
After the Cowboys won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1992 and 1993, Jones sent Jimmy Johnson packing.
At the time he reasoned that “there are 500 men who could coach this team to a Super Bowl.” The real reason, of course, was that he felt he wasn’t the credit for building a championship roster.
He was right.
He wasn’t getting any credit because he didn’t deserve any beyond being the money man. It was Johnson who had built the team that would win three titles in four years, not Jerry Jones.
That fact was confirmed once Johnson’s players had moved on and the players Jones had assembled took over. The team hasn’t made it past the divisional round since the end of the 1995 season.
And that’s all on Jerry Jones.
If he were the General Manager of any of the other 31 teams, with his track record, he’d have been fired along with then-Head Coach Dave Campo in the early 2000s.
- No Super Bowls or conference championship games in nearly 30 seasons.
- Poor decision-making on hiring and firing coaches.
- Blunders in draft choices abound under Jones (he passed on Randy Moss in 1998).
- In 2004, he skipped Stephen Jackson for Julius Jones, and in 2016 took Ezekiel Elliott and Jaylon Smith instead of Jalen Ramsey and Derrick Henry.
Those are just the more infamous blunders that top a very long list.
Bad trades have piled up at The Star too – Joey Galloway from Seattle and Roy Williams from Detroit, anyone?
Passing on free agency moves that would have brought in winning talent. Throwing big money contracts instead at players that have huge injury issues hanging over their heads.
This is not the resume of a general manager who knows how to build championship-winning teams.
Yes, the Cowboys have entered playoffs as the No. 1 seed since. Yes, Dallas has won eight divisional titles since the start of the Jones era as general manager.
None of those accomplishments mean a thing without at least a trip or two to the Super Bowl.
The only reason why Jerry Jones remains as General Manager is because Jerry Jones also remains the team owner.
That’s the biggest obstacle keeping the Cowboys from playing in a conference title game or a Super Bowl.
No Incentive To Change
The General Manager Jones knows his job is safe. There is no owner to tell him he’s wrong, or to change course. Nor does he need to worry about going to the owner and telling him a change in approach is needed.
So this year, like every year since 1996, he’ll say he wants to win a Super Bowl, but there’s no motivation for him to do so.
There’s no “win or else” ultimatum from above to spur a change in his approach.
While Jerry Jones will get it right with some draft picks, find a diamond in a late-round rough, or stumble into a solid free-agent signing, it takes more than that to build a Super Bowl contender.
Three decades removed from Jimmy Johnson’s tenure as head coach and Jerry Jones has failed at any point during that time to prove he can run a team to the Super Bowl.
As long as both titles of Cowboys’ Owner and GM remain attached to Jones’ name, it’s a handicap that players for the Dallas Cowboys will never be able to overcome.
So General Manager Jones’ goals for 2024 remain the same as every year prior. He’ll say he wants another Lombardi Trophy, but he won’t do what it takes to earn it.
He literally has no reason to.