Cowboys’ star falling with Jones in dual role
GM Jerry failing Jerry the owner, team’s fan base
He’s not going to budge. Jerry Jones is the general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, with no signs of slowing down. At 70, he’s going 70 in a 55.
But the Cowboys owner should light a fire under the Cowboys GM.
With another underachieving season upon them, the owner needs to put Jerry the GM on notice. Tell him: craft a long-term blueprint for success or else.
That means bold moves, like making a run at free agent-to-be coach Sean Payton and drafting a quarterback of the future to succeed Tony Romo. And while he’s at it, the GM can bolster the offensive line and collect a stable of running backs so the offense can function when young star DeMarco Murray is down.
It’s all about results. The split-personality Cowboys, heading to Philadelphia this weekend at 3-5, don’t deliver the glory that matches the hype, popularity and that glitzy stadium. Again.
This is the type of stuff that puts coaches on the hot seat. Why should the general manager get a pass?
Of course, Jones has the right to be his own GM. He risked personal wealth to buy the team 23 years ago. He calls that dancing with the devil.
Other owners have taken huge risks to buy teams, but they’ve hired others to head football operations. But not Jones, the ex-college guard who sees himself as a coach. Jones’ master’s degree thesis was titled, “The Role of Oral Communication in Modern Day Football.”
Yes, during his NFL tenure, he has aced the oral communication, while also leaving a legacy for how to grow a business in pro sports.
But with two playoff wins since winning the Super Bowl in January 1996, the front office structure Jones has barely altered hasn’t worked. The owner’s son, Stephen, is the personnel director, and the scouting staff, headed by Tom Ciskowski, has been intact for years.
They’ve had significant hits. See linebackers DeMarcus Ware and Sean Lee and this year’s cornerback moves, trading up to draft Morris Claiborne and signing free agent Brandon Carr. And Romo made it as an undrafted free agent.
Other moves are questionable. Was wide receiver Miles Austin worth a $54 million contract? Was there a better option beyond troubled wideout Dez Bryant? Whose idea was it to write a $16 million check (the guaranteed money in a $45 million deal) to Marion Barber— another big-money contract that didn’t pan out?
Such hit-and-miss hindsight is life in the NFL, where personnel and coaching are joined at the hip. But perennial contenders, including the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants, have fewer misses.
Considering the best years during Jones’ ownership came when Jimmy Johnson was coach with extensive power over personnel — and the best revival since came when coach Bill Parcells had extensive power — the perennial questions about Jerry the GM aren’t unexpected.
The talk has ramped up again as issue of the week because Jones said, given the results, if he were the GM in a regular operation, Jerry Jones the owner would’ve fired Jerry Jones the GM. But he later explained that he would never fire himself, because the Cowboys are not set up to have a general manager.
But if the owner wants to win, why not relinquish some power wielded by Jerry the GM?
Jones told USA TODAY Sports recently that having another person as GM would compromise his coach, presumably because it would add a middleman between the owner and the coach with whom he’d always have a direct link. Jason Garrett is the seventh Cowboys coach since Jones bought the franchise.
If he had added a layer in the team’s structure with a GM?
“It just would mean that we would’ve had seven general managers,” Jones said. “How do you have issues with a coach and not the GM?
“There are very few situations in the NFL where the owner doesn’t make the ultimate call.”
Typically, owners hold the GM accountable, which is lacking in the Cowboys’ structure. And Jones shouldn’t assume he would have gone through seven coaches, if he had one slamming GM.
In any event, there’s no sense getting caught up in titles. The Patriots don’t have a so-called GM, but we all know who runs the show on the football side: coach Bill Belichick.
And in the Cowboys’ case, the owner won’t budge, so his GM is safe.
Yet something must give in a bottom-line business. The GM must do a better job ... or else.
The status quo doesn’t cut it when, year after year, you can’t make the postseason.