- 13 minutes ago
Jerry Jones joined Shan, RJ, and Bobby following the Cowboys' loss to the Cardinals. Jones discussed the defensive rebuild, o-line issues, Schottenheimer's playcalling, deadline approach, and more.
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00:00It is now time for the Jerry Jones Show, every Tuesday at 8.30, brought to you by Ford.
00:07Ford is the best in Texas.
00:10Sean Sharif, R.J. Choppy, and Cowboys insider Bobby Bell.
00:14Pepe, we good to go?
00:15Jerry Jones joining us now live on DFW Sports Station, your home of America's team.
00:19Good morning, Jerry. How are you?
00:21Hey, good morning. Good morning, everybody.
00:23Jerry, what fell apart defensively the other day against Arizona after maybe the best defensive first half of the season?
00:33When you go back, talk to the coaches, what led to the defensive breakdowns?
00:38Let's first of all set the stage.
00:43There is a pretty, let's say, strong look at what we're doing on defense relative to rebuilding.
00:58We have not been the defensive team for several seasons that we want to be.
01:05And so we, beginning at the start of last year, we've started on the process of rebuilding that defense.
01:17And, of course, we have had a turnover in our head defensive coaches.
01:25That's part of it.
01:27There's no question that you can get the benefits of consistency without shuffling, in our case, defensive coordinators.
01:37What you pay the price on, the experience has been, is when you are improving, you can be inconsistent.
01:47Now, that's an overused word this week.
01:49But it is right in keeping with when you're trying to build something.
01:54Now, we've been doing that under the premise that we had an offense, and we had a head coach that
02:02can run that offense extremely well, in my opinion,
02:06as well as the people in place, namely Dak, that could give us a heck of a run, heck of
02:12a go of it on offense.
02:14That is the area right there that when we don't play as well as we should be playing,
02:22and if you put in place the theory that your defense is a process in building or rebuilding,
02:32then if you miscue there, then that can end up like we did with the look that we had at
02:41the end of that ballgame Sunday.
02:43So you're asked a lot of times, well, what do you change?
02:48Well, we've been changing, and we've changed out on our defense.
02:53We've changed our coaching staff.
02:56We've changed our complete coaching staff.
02:58We've changed out the majority of the players, really.
03:02And in today's building of a team, you do it with a combination of draft,
03:07which draft picks have to have a little seasoning most of the time.
03:11And therein lies the inconsistency that we're seeing, even within a game where we played so well in the first
03:19half
03:19and came back and didn't play as well in the second half.
03:24That is a disappointment but not a surprise.
03:28We've got to learn from the negatives, which you do when you're rebuilding.
03:32You've got to learn from that and get better at doing it.
03:35It does not call for, if you're seeing signs of the play that you saw in the first half of
03:43the game the other day,
03:44it does not call for massive, or not massive, it does not call for very succinct, important changes,
03:54because I like the way we're trending.
03:58Jerry, what do you like about the way you guys are playing,
04:01and do you feel like the defense is better than last year's or the prior ones?
04:05As you said, we've had these problems for a while now.
04:08How do you think the defense is better?
04:10I think it's better about what you saw Sunday in the first part of the game.
04:17I think it's as good as we've looked any time in the last several years.
04:21But I also know that it's looking that way with the future in mind that we can get better.
04:30And we are getting better.
04:32You go down to the individuals.
04:34You go down to what you did that you don't want to continually do that didn't work.
04:41But when you see in football, when you see players or you see something works,
04:48then you know you can do it.
04:49You've got to practice it.
04:52You've got to have the benefit of complete, which is a big part of football, is redundancy.
05:01You've got to have all of that.
05:03And at the same time, we've got to be very, very efficient
05:07and maintain where we think we are on offense.
05:11Now, the other day, certainly at the end of the game, we weren't there on offense.
05:16We weren't there as far as blocking it up, protecting, giving us more time passing
05:23or in the running game.
05:24We had a letdown there in the game Sunday.
05:28So the plan is that there is dependent upon that offense carrying us
05:35when we have weaknesses in the defense as we're evolving forward.
05:40Jerry Jones right here on Sean and RJ 105 through the fan.
05:43Jerry, when you say rebuilding, if I'm Dak Prescott or if I'm CeeDee Lamb
05:49or Quinnen Williams, that doesn't, as you would say, line up with my schedule.
05:54We talked about the Dak window, two to three years.
05:58You want to win now.
05:59You don't have time for a bad time.
06:01All of your sayings.
06:02Do you regret the growth or second guess how long it's going to take defensively
06:08when you have so many win-now pieces?
06:11Not at all.
06:12It was easy because the way we were playing, in this case on the other side of the ball
06:18with defense, there was no place to go but up because the way we were doing it,
06:22the way we were doing it with the plan that we had, the way we were doing it with the
06:28players,
06:29the way we were doing it with the coaches, you had to have change.
06:33It wasn't working.
06:35Jerry, you talk about the inconsistencies that naturally come from having young rookie football
06:40players on defense.
06:42Could some of that have been mitigated if you would have hired a defensive coordinator
06:46who wasn't a rookie as well?
06:50Well, that's the big second guess.
06:53You look around, you see successes.
06:55I've had young coordinators.
06:58I've had people who haven't coordinated before coordinate.
07:02And so there's advantages both ways.
07:07In our particular case, we went to an arduous time and period when we interviewed,
07:15probably a thorough interviewing process, to find who we were going to have on the defense
07:20that you can go through.
07:23And so we had been through some pretty heavy veteran coaches on defense that we hadn't gotten
07:35the job done.
07:36And you can name them and you can look back on them.
07:38And we've had veteran coaches for years on defense.
07:42We decided to go with someone that is basically a fresher, that had a good background, that
07:50in this particular case had exceptional skills relating with the players.
07:55And by the way, he does have exceptional skills relating with the players.
08:01He's got their ear.
08:02And it's a question of executing.
08:06And it's a question of just believing in what you're doing and stay with it.
08:13Jerry Jones joining us here, 105 to the fan.
08:16You mentioned the changes on defense the last four years, how that can kind of hamper you
08:22a little bit.
08:22Is that going to prohibit you from making changes on the defensive staff and solidifying Parker
08:29here for this year and even into next year?
08:33You should give it every opportunity.
08:36Uh, for both the short term and the long term, uh, that's been weighed heavily.
08:43And, uh, do we, uh, uh, under the circumstances, do we, uh, uh, start adjusting?
08:49We all know that when you adjusting, you go, when you're, uh, take it off in a different
08:55direction, you're going to pay a price.
08:57There's no question about it.
08:59And you better find some gain to offset that price.
09:02Uh, we don't see it.
09:04We've got, uh, uh, a lot, uh, uh, committed.
09:08We're seeing real good evidence that, uh, of what we're trying to do can work, does work
09:15in places.
09:16It's inconsistent, but we've got to get better at that.
09:20Jerry, you mentioned Dak earlier, and he hasn't been great the last couple of games, last
09:24three, four weeks.
09:25Is, is there something going on?
09:27Is he hurt, uh, distracted?
09:29Is he, are we seeing him just get older, uh, before our eyes?
09:32Is this a rough patch?
09:33What's going on with Dak?
09:35Well, first of all, uh, he's not hurt.
09:38Uh, first of all, the last thing that you'll ever have from Dak Prescott's distracted from
09:43the, uh, job at hand, which is to lead this football team.
09:47And so, uh, but you asked me, is he getting older?
09:51Well, we're all getting older, but I understand the context that you separate that in.
09:56And no, uh, you saw him, uh, move the ball for us when the run wasn't working for us.
10:02Uh, I thought he played well, uh, considering the protection and considering, uh, us not
10:08being able to effectively get the running game going.
10:11Jerry, you know, you talk about the running game and then there were some struggles, obviously
10:15with the offensive line on Sunday coming off of what shoddy and others had said was the
10:18best game they'd played all year against Philadelphia.
10:20Why do you think you're experiencing so much inconsistency with the offensive line, particularly
10:24once you've gotten everybody back and healthy together?
10:28I think that's in the offensive line that I can ever remember.
10:33Uh, I think we've got, uh, a superb talent in the offensive line.
10:39Uh, I think we've got players that, uh, uh, know what to do.
10:44It's very perplexing when across the board, uh, we, uh, uh, have, uh, the kind of game that
10:52we had the other day.
10:53Uh, is that something that you fix or can fix?
10:57That's the big word can fix.
10:59And it's absolutely, uh, but, uh, uniformly we've, uh, can improve in our offensive line.
11:05Now there were several other areas out there that, uh, had different parts of the game
11:09we can improve on.
11:10So I don't want to just, uh, put the whole thing on that, but, uh, uh, we expect a lot
11:17better overall offensive game.
11:19That's a team within a team, that offensive line.
11:22And it's very rare when you see, uh, the entire group, uh, have a bad day.
11:28And, uh, in this particular case, that's what happened to us.
11:32Jerry, you know, uh, George Pickens has played fewer snaps the last two weeks than Ryan Flannoy,
11:37who has been consistently thought of as the third wide receiver.
11:40Uh, why have you guys chosen to sort of lessen his workload?
11:47He needs, uh, he needs a ball coming his way more.
11:50And there's your, uh, there's your good case.
11:53You say, what, what can you do differently than we did out there the other day?
11:57We get the ball in that direction more and we, uh, uh, press that, um, we had a really,
12:05uh, firm game plan to come out there and run that ball.
12:09We ran the ball, I think 39 times and, uh, we just didn't get it done.
12:14And, uh, the Arizona line is, uh, to be defensive lines, to be committed, commended.
12:21They did not, they do not have that reputation to be able to, uh, uh, have the kind of game
12:28that they had against us.
12:30So, uh, that's one of the, uh, frustrating things about that game.
12:34Jerry, last week you came on, we found it very refreshing that you said, look, with these
12:38defensive struggles, our offense has to take care of our defense.
12:41We have to score.
12:42We got to keep other teams off the field.
12:46Brian Schottenheimer is getting crushed by everyone for being too conservative, playing
12:52with leads, not going for the final nail touchdown, getting three to six points, kick playing for
12:58field goals.
12:59Do you have a problem or think that that is fair with everyone thinking Schottenheimer's
13:03playing too conservative after what you told us last week?
13:06Well, let me say this.
13:08Uh, if we'd had, uh, uh, the kind of, uh, the games that we are capable of having,
13:14uh, with our offense, then those 39, uh, uh, uh, rushing plays would have done the job.
13:23Uh, we were playing a game to avoid, uh, turnovers the best we could.
13:29Uh, the game plan you saw was doing that.
13:32You can call that conservative, uh, if you want to, but the game plan was based upon us
13:38being able to run the ball better than we ran it.
13:41And when we did, when they stacked it real good and backed out of there, it's certainly
13:46based upon us giving him some better protection.
13:49We had a lot of tip balls.
13:51And, um, uh, what you saw in the second half of that ball game is, uh, uh, the, the way
13:58to, uh, uh, upend our plans.
14:02Our plan is to continue to improve, get better.
14:05We very much realize we've got to get better and we've got to get better coordinated over
14:10on the defensive side of the ball, but we sure, uh, need to have where we've loaded it
14:16all up, uh, a lot of it up, uh, on that offensive side of the ball.
14:21We've got to have better consistency and doing things, uh, like certainly like protecting
14:26and running the ball.
14:27Jerry, you've told us, Steven admitted it, um, uh, as well first that maybe we underestimated
14:32the time it would take with Parker and, and, and defensively and all, all the pieces.
14:37Do you think the same applies for Brian Schottenheimer, maybe overestimating the time it would take
14:42for him to get his bearings as a head coach?
14:45Not at all.
14:47Not at all.
14:48It's no surprise to me that, uh, uh, when you're in your early years of coaching that
14:53you have things every game that, uh, you could do better.
14:58Uh, that doesn't surprise me at all.
15:00And, uh, uh, like I say, we have, uh, uh, certainly, uh, uh, gone the route of having
15:08an experienced head coach in here and that has it pluses and as it's minuses, but anytime
15:14whether it's coaching or whatever, anytime you come into a situation and you haven't done
15:20it before, then there are, uh, growing pains that are associated with it.
15:24Uh, we completely analyzed and thought about that when Brian became the coach and we knew
15:32that was going to be, uh, the case.
15:34You just don't do something that you haven't done before without having some growing pains.
15:39What we've seen him do, uh, internally is, uh, experience it, uh, adjust it, do it better.
15:48Uh, uh, we had a game plan the other day that, uh, we were going to avoid those turnovers.
15:54And we were going to run that ball.
15:56Uh, there, uh, is a thing that goes with experience that, uh, might have, uh, had you not be as
16:04conservative.
16:05Although I will say this again, based on what we do good and what we've got in hand and where
16:10we put in our emphasis, that game plan should have, uh, carried us through that second half.
16:17Jerry, uh, when you make a big change, how do you weigh?
16:20Hey, Steven yesterday said, we'd like to make a change to promote, uh, you know, Jason Garrett
16:24citing a, uh, a last example.
16:27How do you weigh making a change at coach with someone in mind, sending a message?
16:33We just got to shake things up.
16:34This guy's not getting the job done.
16:36How do you weigh all of that?
16:38Well, you, uh, put it in the hopper.
16:40Uh, what comes out is, uh, uh, the decision you make, uh, you start with a formulated plan
16:48of what you think it's going to be.
16:50And then in the case of making a decision on a coach, uh, if you've, uh, done it a lot
16:57of years, you put more emphasis on, uh, uh, evaluating interviewing, uh, the search for
17:03the coach.
17:04When I first got in here, uh, the NFL, uh, the commissioner asked me, uh, uh, Paul Taglebu
17:11at the time, after about, uh, uh, eight years, he said, I want you to head a committee that
17:17speaks to all the owners because you're doing such a good job with your head, hiring your
17:22head coaches.
17:22And so, uh, uh, we need to plan to, uh, uh, give a little more, uh, uh, information and
17:29give a little more sharing of information for all the owners on hiring coaches.
17:33I said, commissioner, I need to be sitting in the audience because I've run out of teammates.
17:39I've run out of, uh, ex-coaches.
17:42Uh, I'm not sure that I know how to hire a coach.
17:45I need to be out in the audience, listen to somebody that does.
17:49Jerry, one of the best things about interviewing you and Tad, uh,
17:52hopefully helps out over there.
17:53You know, the narratives, you know, the criticisms.
17:55I don't think we've ever asked you this one before, but you talked about hiring coaches.
17:59What do you say to the notion, the theory, the thought that Jerry Jones, uh, is not going
18:05to pay the most top, top, top dollar for a coach and that Jerry has to have a guy that's
18:11kind of his discovery so that Jerry Jones gets the credit.
18:15Let me address the first one in the NFL.
18:19Well, this is after years of looking at all the teams and all the coaches, there is no,
18:27there is zero correlation between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have
18:34as to winning.
18:36There is no correlation.
18:39And that's a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved.
18:45So put that in your hopper and smoke it.
18:47But the point is that, uh, uh, you can, you can, uh, uh, be, uh, uh, pretty creative in
18:57hiring your coaches.
18:58You can be creative sometime when you don't even know you're hiring the coaches.
19:02And, um, so, uh, I've had some good experience of hiring people who have never been in the
19:08NFL.
19:09I've had some experience of hiring young coaches, older coaches.
19:13And so, um, uh, uh, and of course, uh, you constantly remind me as you should, uh, of,
19:20uh, what my record is.
19:22And I understand that, but I also know that, uh, uh, the next time you throw the pick, if
19:28you were the old California gold miner, you may, uh, hit the Comstock load and then, then
19:36it is glory hope.
19:39And the second part of it in terms of the credit and what's said about that?
19:46Well, um, there is no, uh, never been for me, uh, any, uh, thought that what happens, uh,
19:56after I bought the Dallas Cowboys, what happens to the Dallas Cowboys doesn't ultimately rest
20:01on my shoulders.
20:02I didn't come into the NFL for an investment.
20:06It was a bad investment and everybody, uh, told me.
20:10So it was a risky investment.
20:12I came in for an occupation.
20:15I came in to do what I was going to do when I was 46 for the rest of my
20:20life.
20:21So I didn't come in as an owner, like you'd go out and buy some land or buy a business.
20:27I came in to do just exactly what I've been doing for now going on over 30 years.
20:34Jerry, you know, you were one in seven with Wade Phillips in 2010 and then had a winning
20:38record the rest of the way with Jason Garrett and Jason then went on to coach your team for
20:42the next decade.
20:43So why do you look back on that in-season coaching change as such a regretful experience?
20:48Uh, basically as it pertains to Wade, it wasn't fair to Wade.
20:53Uh, uh, uh, he had more skins on the wall.
20:57He had more successes.
20:58Uh, he went over to Denver and as the first time in my memory as the defensive coordinator
21:05and he went over to Denver and won a Superbowl.
21:09And I've never seen so much credit for a Superbowl given a defensive coordinator as it was Wade.
21:16And when we parted ways, uh, Wade said, well, uh, you know, uh, I need to find me a defensive
21:23coordinator and the best one I know is sitting right on the other side of the desk for me.
21:28And I thought, well, Wade, I thought we'd had him all along, but the point is that, uh,
21:34certainly he wanted a, uh, another opportunity to, uh, do it differently.
21:38Uh, I regretted it.
21:40No one, uh, that I've ever, uh, been a partner with or worked with to, I think, any more of
21:47than I do Wade.
21:48And it, uh, uh, was, uh, uh, not a good time for both of us at that time.
21:54Jerry deadline is, is a week from now.
21:57Uh, there are six or seven teams in the NFC that, that as of today are, are a tier or
22:03two ahead of where you guys are.
22:04Is winning the division worth the lottery ticket of buying at the deadline, as opposed
22:11to selling and making your team better for the future?
22:14Yes.
22:16Yes, it is.
22:18And of course, everything, everything depends upon the deal.
22:23And, uh, you see today, you see movement of, uh, for some consideration of, uh, some very
22:32key players that, uh, still, uh, have their going forward, the long term of their future
22:39up for debate.
22:41And what you have is when you make a trade and you give a draft pick, for instance, for
22:46a player like that, then if that player is on your team and then he goes into free agency
22:52the next year, it's called rent a player.
22:55And he goes into free agency the next year.
22:57The system is you get a draft pick back.
23:00So if you gave, for instance, you gave a third for a player, you might get a fourth back.
23:07If when he, his contract is up the next year in this case, uh, then you've rented a player
23:13for going from a third to a fourth.
23:16Uh, that's one of the reasons why you keep your eyes open.
23:20That might could help us.
23:21But, uh, at this particular time, I don't see anything.
23:24But, uh, Jerry, amongst the options of hold, buy, or sell, sells a distant third?
23:32Um, uh, what are we talking about?
23:34Like you guys trading off your roster, not to compete, but to build more, to sell off.
23:42No, no.
23:44We like, uh, what we put together, uh, for now and, uh, uh, a unique, uh, uh, situation for
23:51each player for the future, uh, I'm really pleased with, uh, what we've done, progress
23:56we've done.
23:57That was a, that was a hurtful loss that we had Sunday.
24:03Uh, and it's painful.
24:05It's very painful.
24:06Uh, winning gives your team a better chance to go to another level psychologically.
24:12Winning is important.
24:14Losing is bad psychologically.
24:16So that was a setback out there, make no mistake about it.
24:20And you talking about the last, uh, uh, 48 hours going through, what are we doing?
24:27How can we do it better?
24:29What is logical to address right now?
24:32What is not logical to address?
24:34Uh, what's our best chance right now of getting to these playoffs?
24:39All of that is what every fan would think I would be doing, uh, rather than, uh, sitting
24:45here talking on the phone with you, but I'm, I'm good with being here because we're talking
24:50to our fans.
24:51Jerry, thank you so much for the time.
24:53We appreciate in answering all the questions.
24:55We'll do it again.
24:56Thank you guys.
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