Another NFL season is in the books, another Super Bowl has been played and for the 27th consecutive year the Dallas Cowboys were not a participant. It’s been the same number of years since the Cowboys have even shown up to play in an NFC Championship game.
For Cowboys fandom this is the equivalent of wandering the Sinai. Unless we’re prepared to outdo the ancient Israelites it’s clear changes need to be made in Frisco.
Beginning here, and over the course of 11 more posts, we’re going to address the matter at hand: How do we fix the Dallas Cowboys?
THE BUCK STOPS AT JERRY’S DESK
First, we acknowledge that all three Super Bowl victories of the 1990s are fully credited to Jimmy Johnson’s leadership, not Jerry Jones’.
In fact, had Jerry’s ego not gotten in the way, the Cowboys could have easily won four straight championships during that stretch and likely had made it back to the big game in the next three years following their 27-17 win over the Steelers in SB XXX.
Could they have run the table on the Patriots and back-to-back over John Elway’s Broncos? Possibly. But we’ll never know because Jerry couldn’t stand not being alone in the spotlight.
Instead of taking a page out of another owner named Jerry’s playbook, Dr. Jerry Buss of the NBA Los Angeles Lakers — who hired two very good GMs, checked his ego, stayed out of their way, and collected 10 NBA Championships in 16 Finals appearances — Jones canned the coach that brought home three Lombardis (Barry Switzer won the third one but he did it with Jimmy’s players), refused to hire a GM and has zilch to show for it over 27 years of “being the man.”
Jones remains convinced he knows how to put together a winning NFL team.
I’ll grant that he’s a great businessman. Despite the team’s lack of championships — Cowboys’ fandom accepts as a minimum for a successful season, no less than an NFC Championship game appearance if not a Super Bowl victory — he’s still managed to make the franchise worth billions.
He built the sports palace we have all come to know and love as “JerryWorld” and landed some major events to be held within it. But his team hasn’t won another Super Bowl.
If we are going to be honest, as long as he is running the franchise he never will.
BAD DRAFTS/TRADES
The team needs a general manager with the power to make changes in coaching and player personnel when needed. Not two or three years later. A GM who won’t overpay players. A GM who is smart when it’s time to draft — although Will McClay’s hiring in 2014 has negated some of Jones’ worst impulses in the draft over the years.
Yes, I’m looking at the 2004 Draft when Jones traded out of the first round with the 22nd pick, with RB Stephen Jackson on the board, and selected Julius Jones in the second round instead.
The other picks they got from Buffalo turned out to be TE Sean Ryan in the 5th round and Marcus Spears in the 2005 Draft.
How’d that trade work out again, Jerry?
Trading for WRs Joey Galloway and Roy Williams — desperately looking to replace Michael Irvin — were bad moves.
And when Jerry finally got a wide receiver trade right, hello Amari Cooper, he trades him away for a ham sandwich in a season where Dallas was a heavy favorite to make the Super Bowl and gambles on a wide receiver coming off a leg injury.
How’d the 2022 season go again, Jerry?
THE SOLUTION
Until Jerry passes away, or his children wrest control of the team from him, or he sells the team (yeah, right) nothing is going to change.
The way to fix the Cowboys begins in the Front Office by bringing in a general manager who knows how to build a winning franchise. Sadly, Jerry’s ego will never allow him to see that the name of that GM will never be Jerry Jones.
Until the Cowboys have a true GM, it looks like we’ve got a lot more wandering to go, folks.
Follow along with the next group in the series: fixing the Cowboys with the coaches room.
Seriously! I know that Jerry has not been perfect but now that Steven is in the picture I think things have changed. Their drafting has been excellent and their free agent signings have also been good. They don’t go for the high priced high profile players but instead focus on singing their own. Over spending on Dak and Zek were mistakes but even team has made similar mistakes. I think that you are overreacting and frankly a little too emotional.
Wow—I couldn’t agree more w/this article. The thing that wows me even more is the length Dallas fans will go to literally fund Uncle Jerry’s Qtr of a BILLION$$ SUPER Mega Yacht…talk about ignorance. We got sick of our QB and HC carousel up here in Denver, and walked out by the thousands…..new owners took it to heart, and made big changes w/Wilson and now Payton.. Will they work? We don’t know…but, we know hiring bad coaches and not having a proven QB wasn’t working… Why don’t Dallas fans do the same and show Jerry he needs to step aside, lest he NEVER again see a SB unless he watches on TV or buys a ticket….
Whoa man. I couldn’t agree more! Glad to see someone finally wrote something like this. Of course Jerry’s going to get you fired; however you definitely have my respect! Also you forget to mention how Jerry undermined Bill Parcels with the TO signing. The curse of Jimmy Johnson lives on!
Hello Richard! Man, you’re 100% correct in your analysis of Jerry Jones trying to be a Football General Manager. He’s made a lot of mistakes, but the worse mistake was firing Jimmy Johnson. No way Jason Garrett and Kellen Moore would have hung around as long as they did doing absolutely nothing. Jerry is terrible as a GM. Since the apple don’t fall far from the tree, Stephen Jones is twice as bad! He tries to be a tough negotiator, but usually screws up deals that should be fairly straight forward. If the Cowboys had a competent Football General Manager they’d make the playoffs more often and surely would’ve played in the Super Bowl many times. Would love to see Jimmy Johnson brought back as the GM. I know however as you stated Jerry has to OWN the spotlight all by himself. A very very wealthy man who already owns so much has to own the spotlight too! Unreal and Unbelievable!!!
You do know that even if Jerry didn’t fire Jimmy, Jimmy would’ve quit anyways right!? Don’t you watch TV…. Jimmy said he already planned on quitting, it just happened a few months sooner!! So Jimmy was gonna be gone either way!! And another thing is Jerry helped build those SB winning rosters in the 90s, he was the only one who thought it would be a good idea to bring in deion sanders and trade for Charles Haley!! This team didn’t start missing the championship game and the Super Bowl until Stephen got more control over the team!! So if you wanna put blame on somebody, blame Stephen, not Jerry!! What most of you people don’t realize is that Jerry was involved in winning 3 Super Bowls, it wasn’t all Jimmy!! And now that Stephen has more control over the team we won’t see another Super Bowl!!