It’s Super Bowl week in New Orleans, and the NFL end of year awards were a who’s who of NFL players, coaches, and even owners.
You can bet everything you have that Dallas Cowboys Owner/GM Jerry Jones was one of those attending the event. He uses any excuse to get in the spotlight, and the media loves it.
The 33rd Team’s Dianna Russini caught up with Jerry, and asked him what it was going to take to get his team in the building and on the field soon. Jerry claimed to be shocked his team wasn’t here already, but the rest of his response is no shock to those of us that are used to his interviews.
The Right Mix
[You can’t win with] just talent alone. It’s gotta be the right talent, with really the right economics. I’ve always made some pretty serious risk in talent, and we certainly can do that here.
Jones was correct to say that you cannot win in the NFL with talent alone, but having the most talent possible on your team doesn’t hurt. Getting the Cowboys front office to understand that has been the problem for nearly 30 years.
He is trying to find the right blend of talent while focusing on staying true to the salary cap, but that’s another huge problem. They focus so closely on blending the two perfectly that they can’t see the forest through the trees.
Jerry alluded to the fact that he’s “taken some pretty serious risk in talent” before, but we know those risk-taking days are far behind him.
The term “risk” seems to mean something different to Jones than it does to fans. We want risk to be spending big dollars in free agency, but he thinks risk means spending cheaply on players nobody expects to be successful.
Then, when the player has a mediocre season to “out-perform” their bottom of the barrel contract, Jones gets to say the team got a bargain.
There have been some moderately recent risks taken with players, most notably trading a first round pick to the Raiders for Amari Cooper, but when was the last one you remember? Acquiring WR Roy Williams from Detroit? WR Joey Galloway from Seattle?
Either one of those is too far back to consider recent history.
Win Now, But For the Future
I wouldn’t have signed Dak Prescott, the highest-paid player in the NFL, if NOW wasn’t when we wanted to win. This is a shocker to be here at the Super Bowl and not have the Cowboys here. I didn’t plan on that when I made that agreement with him.
Mr. Jones, let me say that if you wanted to win now, you wouldn’t have waited until the 11th hour to agree to the contract we all knew Prescott would sign eventually anyway.
If you wanted to win now, you also would have done something to bring more talent and explosiveness to the roster instead of making “the highest-paid player” earn his new contract.
The offense lacked juice outside of wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and KaVontae Turpin, and the latter didn’t get nearly enough opportunities to contribute to the offense.
Running backs like Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry were available in free agency, but the home-town Henry didn’t even receive a phone call to gauge interest. The Cowboys decided beforehand that he wasn’t an option.
That type of frugal behavior while acquiring talent has been one of the main reasons 30 seasons have passed without an NFC Championship Game appearance. So no, Jerry, don’t you dare start planting seeds that the money you paid to Dak Prescott is the reason you are in the predicament you’re in.
I Know What It Takes
I’m not gonna have an answering to some journalist or having it interpreted for me. I know what it takes to get there and we will do those things. Now, am I gonna be right every time? Of course not.
Some would say it’s difficult to argue with Jerry when he says he knows what it takes to get to a Super Bowl. He does have three Super Bowl rings on his fingers, but they were so long ago.
He is out of touch with what it takes to get over the hump in the modern NFL, but he’s too stubborn to admit it. It does seem like new HC Brian Schottenheimer has the freedom to assemble his own staff, and that’s a step in the right direction.
However, until the approach to free agency changes, the results won’t change either. The problem is not that the Cowboys are terrible at managing the salary cap. They are the best in the league at managing it.
The issue is that they manage it based on the bottom line, not based on the results on the field. From a financial standpoint, they are buttoned down and ready for an IRS audit. They get an F for the product on the field.