- 19 hours ago
Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones joins the K&C Masterpiece to address whether the Cowboys are wasting the prime years of Dak Prescott’s career. Jerry discusses why Mike Pettine reporting to Brian Schottenheimer isn't a big deal, the challenges of run defense, Joe Milton being picked up by the Eagles, Bill Parcells and Barry Switzer's generosity, and more.
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00:00It is our Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager, Jerry Jones. Good morning, sir.
00:06Hey, good morning to you guys. Good to be on.
00:08Absolutely. Now, I have kind of a non-football related question.
00:12Walk us through the decision to do the tour of your house with Fox News
00:17and that My Fair Lady inspired library for people who didn't see it.
00:22Well, again, that is different.
00:26But I had run into Ducey, the cousin of our Mike Ducey.
00:32I'd run into him and he said, someday I'd like to just come over and visit
00:37either on the outside or inside of your home and see if there's anything of interest.
00:43Not see if there's interest, but see what you do with the Cowboys,
00:49see what you do in more of the visual part of what I do, life,
00:56see how that ties in with how you live.
00:58So it was easy. It was good.
01:00And what was different about it is, of course, it was about an hour and a half,
01:04it seemed like, earlier than when we're talking about.
01:07And, of course, the atmosphere around the house to put that on live
01:12was kind of like it was cocktail time in the afternoon.
01:17And he asked me what I thought about that.
01:19And I said, well, it feels much later in the afternoon that it really is.
01:23It's pretty early.
01:25Not time to have a drink yet.
01:26Right.
01:27Yeah, but we could have a cocktail.
01:28Was it your idea to do the stars at your wife's birthday or was that hers?
01:34No, that completely was hers.
01:35And those are where the constellations are, and that matches up in February.
01:43But, frankly, all of the principal things we were looking at,
01:50probably with the exception of input that I have with the football,
01:54the grounds might.
01:55I might take a little credit for the grounds
01:57because the thing that attracted the most back right when we bought the Cowboys
02:04or shortly after that was all of the grounds and trees.
02:09And so that was going to be my job is to make sure that got done in a way that
02:17was satisfactory.
02:19I quickly saw that that wasn't going to be my job either.
02:22That was going to be hers when it boiled down to it.
02:25And so that's the way it works.
02:27Life's tough, man.
02:30Now, speaking of life's tough, on to football.
02:34Yeah, yeah.
02:34I know you've heard this before.
02:37I thought it was an intriguing article from John Machoda with The Athletic.
02:41He wrote an article this week asking if the Cowboys are wasting prime years
02:46of Dak Prescott's career.
02:47Do you feel at all like the franchise is?
02:51Well, his time, and I think he's at the prime of his career,
02:59is what has motivated me to move the chess pieces around the way we've been doing
03:05over the last three years.
03:07He's right.
03:09This is a great time.
03:10We've got outstanding quarterbacking combination of his abilities,
03:14his athletic ability, as well as just what's in his experience factor,
03:20as well as his natural leadership.
03:22But it was a great time.
03:23And so that has everything since we have made the decision to have him on the team
03:33on the basis we are.
03:35Then it has everything to do with moving the chess pieces around.
03:39And if you look over the years, we have really had, let's go,
03:44the most direct thing that could impact him, which is the offense.
03:48If you look over the years, the supporting cast we've had around Dak Prescott,
03:53I'll put that with anybody on the offensive side of the ball.
03:58So we put it there for him.
04:00Not for him, for us, for all of us.
04:03And we work hard.
04:05That's why you've got Lamb and Pickens.
04:08That's why you've got the caliber of offensive line we've got,
04:11if you look at the status of it relative to draft picks or, frankly,
04:16relative to investment, however you want to put it.
04:19But the point is that we've emphasized that over the years because of having Dak.
04:24Now we all realize that he's got to have that ball of a larger percent,
04:29if it's 51 percent, but he's got to have the ball enough to make all that pay off.
04:34And that's what happened to us last week.
04:36We didn't have the ball, relatively speaking.
04:39So we've got to do what?
04:40Well, that takes some defense.
04:42And involved in the defense, we've got to have players out there
04:46that are continually trying to improve on it.
04:49We know that encompasses, we're going up to Green Bay,
04:52that encompasses the Parson trade.
04:54But a part of the decision on Parson or the decision on any player
05:01is if you put a predominant amount of your resources, which are your salary cap,
05:07if you put that in a player, one player, you're taking a much higher risk
05:14because of availability.
05:18That player, if you put five players' worth of consideration in him
05:22and he ends up not playing but a certain percent of the time,
05:26you've got to mess up right there.
05:28You'd have been better off with numbers.
05:30That had everything to do with those decisions.
05:34And I definitely understand that line of thinking 100%.
05:38Does it disappoint you at all that in that time,
05:41y'all have not been able to find anything close to a similar pass rusher?
05:48Well, it's not unexpected at all.
05:52Michael Parson's a great player.
05:55And that's not unexpected at all.
05:57And one of the decision evaluation things that you do is then you look and see
06:08once you get the room, whether it's cap room or whether it's picks,
06:13once you get the currency to go put what you want to put together in lieu of one player,
06:21then you've got to pick right and you've got to do the right things
06:26and make the right decisions.
06:28So there's a two-step thing.
06:30Number one, take the consideration.
06:32Two, do something with it that makes a difference.
06:35And that verdict is still out.
06:38You kind of mentioned something, Jerry, regarding Dak that I'm a little more
06:43interested in and want to drill a little deeper with real quick.
06:46And that is like what y'all are doing is for him.
06:49And I know what Dak does is good for the Cowboys.
06:53Is it almost impossible to do your job and to be part of owning a team
06:58and being the general manager of a team without hoping a personal connection
07:02for their success, having a personal connection for what these guys are?
07:07First of all, that's a phrase doing it for him.
07:11I'm doing it for – we're doing it for the Cowboys, for the offense,
07:16which is his principal contribution is over on the offense,
07:21except in his case it's for the entire team.
07:24He's got that leadership capability.
07:26But when I say for him, I don't want that looking like I'm trying to do something.
07:33I'm trying to do something so that we can get to the Super Bowl.
07:37I'm trying to do something in that sense for him because he will have a lot more
07:45satisfaction and feeling great feelings if we can touch that.
07:52And so, in a sense, I'm doing it for me.
07:55I'm doing it for our fans.
07:56I'm doing it for Dak.
07:57I'm doing it for Coach.
07:59Anything we're doing, we're doing for the ultimate – score more touchdowns,
08:03win more games, get a chance to win the whole thing.
08:07Now, Shoddy this morning with Sean and RJ said that Mike Pettin reports directly to him
08:14as opposed to reporting to Christian Parker.
08:17Is that a big deal?
08:20I don't think so.
08:22It's not a big deal with the experience that I've had with coaching and coaches.
08:29It's not uncommon.
08:30Think about that a minute.
08:32You want your – where you can.
08:35You want the people that you've entrusted to be free to impose their will, make their decisions.
08:46And so there's a tacit assignment of the power or the recognition that goes with the position.
08:54But then we all know we have somebody to answer to that can ultimately pull that string
09:01and have a – trump your decision.
09:06There's nobody that doesn't have that.
09:08I have it with what?
09:10Our fans.
09:11With the support of the team.
09:13With the perception of the team.
09:16I have it.
09:17But in general, everybody has it at one level or the other.
09:23And since I'm at the top, I ultimately have that.
09:27But I have so much responsibility to what's going on out here to be in the best interest
09:33of the team and be in the best interest of our fans.
09:36So when we talk about who you report to, that's so overblown because you can have a comeuppance
09:47or you can have a reporting function.
09:50But if that person really understands how to do things, he really is listening to that input
10:01and listening to that, dare I say, suggestion or that opinion or that's what I want to do.
10:08And nine times out of ten, if he believes in the people that he's working with, he'll go that route
10:14if he's a leader.
10:15Nine times out of ten.
10:17You were just kind of referencing this, and I'm fascinated.
10:21I realize, like, in the hierarchy chart of the Cowboys, you don't report to anybody.
10:26But do you feel like you report to the fans?
10:31Absolutely, I do.
10:32Without a question.
10:34That's what it's all about as far as I'm concerned, aside from just the self-positiveness
10:41of being on something that works and is successful.
10:45So absolutely, I do.
10:47And that I'm reporting to the fan on the very decision that I'm the one that everybody is
10:55reporting to because I know that's the best way to do it for our particular situation.
11:01What kind of grade do you think the fans would give you right now?
11:04Oh, I would give the same, not the same grade, since the ultimate responsibility here is our grade speaks for
11:14itself.
11:15We're two and three, and we are basically needing to show that we're better than what we've shown on that
11:25two and three effort.
11:26Now, what I would tell you is, what I would tell you is, is our lack where we are today,
11:32as opposed to this time last year, or frankly, this time the year before.
11:40So, I'm fascinated, obviously I'm really fascinated by that answer, but I wanted to dig into one specific part about
11:47the defense with all the resources that have been poured into the defense year over year.
11:52One frustrating thing that has remained, and it is so fundamental is, what do you think has led to all
11:58the missed tackles so far this season?
12:01Well, that's a problem.
12:03That is a problem.
12:05So, if you're a defensive team and are concerned or woefully lacking in tackling, there is a direct conflict there,
12:18because you have to tackle in football.
12:22And so, you're absolutely right.
12:24We need to tackle better.
12:28There was some concern, Jerry, about Malachi Lawrence, that he wouldn't be able to contribute as much or as early
12:35as perhaps maybe like a Caleb Downs when he was a first-round pick.
12:38But now he's, you know, getting a little more.
12:41Shadi was talking about this week.
12:43Have you seen that development, that growth, him growing up pretty quickly and earning more opportunity in this defense?
12:49I have.
12:50When you get a chance to work inside, let's say like our consultant that he works with on his putting
12:58pressure on the quarterback or the coaches or any evaluation that we have from our scouts,
13:04when you look at it, you see a lot of what you want to see and you see improvement.
13:10That's not providing or going the next step, and that is let's see some sacks or let's see some extreme,
13:22more extreme pressure on the quarterback.
13:24That's an area that we need to improve on.
13:27That doesn't necessarily come quick.
13:30It can come quick, but it's also something that is developed if you've got some of the basic skills to
13:38do that.
13:40It came quicker with Micah.
13:43It comes quicker if you are really able to because the structure of the defense or because of your skills.
13:53It comes quicker if you have to, if you can pay less attention to your area of responsibility or you
14:02can pay less attention to stopping the run game.
14:05One of the problems with a lot of the great pass rushers is the anecdote to them is to run
14:11at them.
14:12And that's, we've had trouble over the last umpteen, not umpteen, but we've had trouble over the last several years
14:21of stopping the run game.
14:23We're still not stopping the run game satisfactorily at all.
14:27When that leads to the defense being on the field longer, do you think that's been one of the primary
14:33issues with maybe the offense not being at the top of the charts for the Cowboys?
14:38I realize they're doing very well, but they're 7th in points, 11th in yards.
14:42But I think the expectation was that they would be even better.
14:46Is that a product of the defense being on the field too long?
14:48Some slow offensive first halves, a little bit of both?
14:54Oh, I think if we're 7th on offense, I think if we had had an even up just the last
15:03game and go from a third of the time that our defense had the ball, go up from half the
15:10time, I think we'd probably be about three or four notches up in the league.
15:14We'd probably be two or three.
15:16Yes, everything to do with it.
15:19This team has some massive weapons.
15:21Y'all can score, move the ball around.
15:24Running the ball more effectively, something that you're considering to kind of help with some of those defensive shortcomings?
15:30Or at least seeing how other teams have kind of gone to y'all?
15:35Well, we all understand balance.
15:38And we all understand that the run, a real effective run, will alter the pass coverage of the defense, thereby
15:47making the pass more effective.
15:49And so, yes, Brian is a real disciple of that.
15:55He's excellent at it as an offensive coordinator.
15:59And so, a part of our premise is to really be effective enough on the run to really open up
16:11really more opportunities for these tremendous receivers that we have.
16:16And that thing is called balance, and that thing works when you've got it going good.
16:21We don't have as much balance as we want to get and need to attain.
16:27I was hoping we could get your thoughts on one of the off-season pickups y'all had in 2025,
16:33Joe Milton getting scooped up off the practice squad for the Eagles.
16:39Well, we were proud when Joe, when we didn't put him on the 53 roster, we were proud when we
16:48got him back because he didn't get on another roster.
16:51And Joe wants, as all players do when they're on practice squad rosters, they want the opportunity to get in
16:59a game and advance their career.
17:02So, you've got to understand that's the risk you're taking, but so that anyone listening understands, everybody's practice squad is
17:11wide open to other teams coming in and making a deal with them.
17:17And they can make a deal with those players and tell you about it after the deal is done.
17:23It's not something they have to ask permission to.
17:25It's not something that they have to coordinate with the team's practice squad he's on.
17:30They can just come get him.
17:32And that's what we have in the NFL.
17:35Jerry, I saw a video pop up this week, and it was Gary Myers, the author, talking about Bill Parcells.
17:41And this is actually from a couple years ago, but he said Bill Parcells has sat down and written about
17:48$4 million in checks to former players that have had some tough times.
17:52And Parcells said he has enough money to take care of himself for the next 30 years and his kids
17:59and grandkids.
18:00And he said the players gave so much to him, why shouldn't he be the one to help?
18:04In the years that you spent with Bill Parcells, you saw he was a hard ass.
18:07He drove those teams pretty hard.
18:10But did you see a coach that had that type of connection with his players, and is that ordinary amongst
18:17coaches?
18:18I say this lovingly.
18:20I say this with all respect and with recognizing the very thing you talk about, how big a heart he
18:29had.
18:30Bill Parcells was a fraud.
18:33Bill Parcells, he really had, as big as he was, he had a heart bigger.
18:38Okay.
18:40And you see that in people.
18:43And you see very, very bright lines, strong people.
18:48But at the end of the day, they usually are the ones that are the most, they have the most
18:56deference to people's hard times or people's shortcomings.
19:03Bill was one of those.
19:04Bill is one of those, not was one of those.
19:06He's one of those.
19:07I am so impressed by that story.
19:10I didn't know that, but that shows me just, that's Bill Parcells.
19:17Another one extraordinarily like that is Barry Switzer.
19:22And what he's done is countless stories.
19:26And he has spent his life doing more of not only his effort, but his financial concern.
19:33He spent his life doing more for others than for himself many times over.
19:39Those guys are like that.
19:41By the way, the players feel that and know that really deep down.
19:47Would you count yourself in that category?
19:49I know you might not necessarily want to talk about yourself, but...
19:53No, I don't want to talk about that myself, and that relatively speaking.
20:00But you can't help but be around, especially football, but sport.
20:05You can't help but be around them.
20:08And not be sympathetic in a big way when someone is told that they're no longer going to be on
20:18the team, for instance.
20:20Well, if you've ever been told no, and I was told no once.
20:26I'm teasing.
20:27If you've ever been told that or what have you, you know the pain and the loss feeling and the
20:36empty feeling that someone feels when they've been told that they're not going to be a part of the team,
20:42for instance.
20:42Or told that they're not going to be able to participate with the team the rest of the season.
20:50They put so much into it.
20:53If they're contributing players, they're almost to the man half.
20:57And when they get a setback, it's the hardest times of their career to think about the long road of
21:04rehabilitation to get back out there.
21:06And it is amazing to me the kinds of injuries that these players overcome, rehab, and come back out and
21:14have great careers.
21:15Because those are not only physically challenging times to be rehabbing.
21:20They're very dark times psychologically.
21:23And so when you see people that have done, Michael Irvin said that his rehab over his injury in the
21:31second year or third year of his career was what made his career.
21:35Because he realized, he saw that he might not have football in his life anymore, and he realized how much
21:41it meant to it.
21:42But that's a fitting description of what goes through your mind.
21:46So I really do have a big empathy, and I have a special place for people that will do what
21:55Bill has done.
21:56And it's very, it's not common.
22:00It is not common for people to have that kind of generosity and that kind of feeling.
22:07It makes me want to give them a big hug.
22:10Maybe we can facilitate that, too.
22:12We'll see what we can do there for you, Jerry.
22:13Yeah, we'll see what we can do there, Jerry.
22:14I can handle all of my hugging.
22:17Well, we appreciate the time.
22:20We appreciate the time, as always.
22:22Let's get some interceptions on Sunday night and get that victory.
22:26How about that?
22:27Let's do get those turnovers now.
22:29That's a big thing that we're needing to improve on.
22:32Thank you, guys.
22:33There you go.
22:34There you go, Jerry Jones, right here on 105.3 The Fan.
22:38He seemed genuinely touched by you bringing up that story.
22:40Yeah, I think so, too.
22:41I mean, it's, I understand.
22:44It is a very nice story.
22:45When you're around people, you kind of have this fraternity with them, and they're going
22:49through something.
22:49Tell me, Roger Staubach.
22:51Right.
22:51He played with teammates that he knew needed some help from time to time.
22:54I think, you know, it's not easy for all of us.
22:56Especially, I think so many people probably view it from today's athletic economic standpoint.
23:01Oh, for sure, yeah.
23:02Not from, like, it didn't used to be anything like that.