WHAT’S CAUSING ALL THIS? / By MITCH LUCAS | If I were Jerry Jones

If I were Dallas Cowboys owner / general manager Jerry Jones, I would investigate and exhaust all possibilities to make certain there wasn’t a way to time travel back to 1994, when I got into a dispute of egos with then-coach Jimmy Johnson, and apologize and do everything I could to make sure he would never leave the Metroplex.

After finding out time travel was absolutely impossible, and that I was stuck in 2024 and in a situation where my franchise has gone 5-13 in their last 18 playoff games and hasn’t SNIFFED even an NFC Championship Game since the 1996 season, I would go about the following duties:

• A complete, total evaluation of every player on the roster. First and foremost, I would have an independent source – someone like the people at profootballfocus.com, whose only job is to analyze numbers, numbers, and more numbers – to do a complete, total look at every freaking player on my roster. My justification? You may not be able to judge heart, and drive, but you can judge numbers and performance. If I could, I’d even institute a series of fines for poor play! But I’m fairly sure that’s prohibited by the NFL Players Association. I’d definitely make sure I couldn’t do it before I abandoned the notion.

And the only person, including the mighty Micah Parsons, that would definitely be safe from being potentially moved out of town would be cornerback Trevon Diggs, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament in practice on Sept. 21 after playing in just two games. Diggs, in four seasons, has 173 tackles, 18 interceptions, 52 pass break-ups and two touchdowns on defense.

• A team meeting, including coaches, players, executives, and ball-boys. I would have a team meeting and announce that not a single soul other than Diggs was safe, including MY OWN job as general manager.
• Game-by-game reviews and a new team executive to do so. Flat performances are going to happen from time to time. It’s sports. But they happen to the Cowboys a lot. I would let every single player know that there would be a game-by-game assessment of their play, not season-by-season. Then, I would hire someone who’s sole job would be to submit that report to the general manager every Tuesday morning. For games on Monday night, it would be every Wednesday morning.
• Individual meetings with “stars.” Back to Parsons. I would have a GM-to-player meeting with Parsons, quarterback Dak Prescott, running back Tony Pollard, and other players of note to inform them that they have a responsibility to this franchise to play well. You can’t make people be vocal leaders – if that were the case, former quarterback Tony Romo would’ve been dismissed after his first season. But Parsons blows all kinds of smoke about being the best defensive player in the NFL. Then, he pulls a disappearing act like he did against Green Bay. Parsons’ statistics from the Green Bay game: two total tackles, one of them solo, no sacks, no fumble recoveries, no interceptions, no passes defended. NO NOTHING. This is a player who finished the 2023 season with 14 sacks (tied for seventh in the league), 36 tackles (36?!!!), and one fumble recovery. Yet he’s been compared to former New York Giants linebacker and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Lawrence Taylor? Give me a break.
• No extension for Dak. There would be no contract extension for quarterback Dak Prescott, who has thrown five interceptions and been sacked 10 times in his last two playoff games. Dak is under contract through the 2024 season. We have seen enough of a sample size from Prescott (nine years) to know that – while he may be the nicest guy in the world – he falters in not only big moments, but moderately-big moments.

The Cowboys traded for quarterback Trey Lance last year. Lance is under a four-year deal for $34.1 million, and in 2024, he’ll earn a base salary of $1.05 million and a roster bonus of $4.2 million (basically for making the team). His salary cap hit, then is $5.3 million and he’s under contract through the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Cooper Rush, another popular member of the team because he’s a backup quarterback. Rush is under a deal that keeps him in Dallas through the 2024 season, a two-year deal worth $5 million that has a guaranteed salary of $2.75 million and an average annual salary of $2.2 million (contract info mentioned here from www.spotrac.com).

Now, last but not least, Prescott, has a four-year $160 million contract that included a $66 million signing bonus and $126 million of the contract guaranteed. It has a cap hit of $59.4 million and he becomes a free agent after this coming season.

I’m hard-pressed to not go ahead and take the hit and let him find employment elsewhere. But rather than do that…

• It’s announced that there are job competitions down the board. Every player, including Diggs, Prescott, Parsons, the entire offensive line – all of them are told that in training camp, everybody is competing for starting jobs.
• No more California training camp. Camp would be held this summer at Frisco, Texas, not Oxnard, California.
• Dismissals. Last but not least, I prove my point by releasing personnel whose attitudes are less than becoming of the Dallas Cowboys, and that includes coaches. The most popular thing this week has been to fire head coach Mike McCarthy, because “the buck stops here.” And maybe that’s the answer. McCarthy has gone 12-5 for three straight years, and 1-3 in the playoffs the last four. The only coach who’s won more regular season games in that time frame is Kansas City coach Andy Reid – who also has a couple of Super Bowl titles to his credit.

So dismiss McCarthy, make a hire with a proven record, like Jim Harbaugh, who once guided the 49ers to a Super Bowl and is rumored to be interested in leaving Michigan. Give Harbaugh – or whomever a new coach would be – his space and don’t micro-manage coach from the luxury box. Write the checks and stay the heck out of the way.

One person that would definitely be gone is defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. After the performance against Green Bay, someone’s head has to roll. Quinn has done overall a solid job, but the Cowboys are constantly having defensive showings like this. Quinn might be a head coaching candidate for other jobs, but not in Dallas, not if I were Jerry Jones.

• I would fire the general manager. That’s right – I would complete all of these actions, and then fire myself. I would go to the NFL’s most successful teams (which is how other teams do it), find the best candidate for general manager to run the Cowboys, and that person would, if they wanted it, get the job, someone who can evaluate talent, has the nerve to make cuts when necessary, pull of trades when needed and hand down bonuses – and discipline – when both are appropriate.

In short, I would allow myself to no longer be the face of the franchise. Only in Dallas is the owner of the team the face of the team. That would change, if I were Jerry Jones.

It all sounds good, right?

Unfortunately, the Cowboys have ended yet another season without even a journey into the second, or divisional, round of the playoffs.

• How ‘bout them Cowboys? I’d ban that phrase around the corporate offices until we won another Super Bowl title.

Yeah, that’s right. Not even a joking reference to Johnson’s rallying cry until we deserve it.