Maybe not because he couldn’t resurrect any other team to be contenders. In addition his mind wasn’t on the Dallas team any longer so who knows the outcome of a hypothetical additional season for Johnson in Dallas.
I wasn’t talking about any additional seasons in Dallas, so it is, in fact, besides my point.
Jerry had Jimmy when he was at his best. The question is, what other owner could have done what Jerry did if he bought the Cowboys in 1989?
Pretty much any of them if they had a prior relationship with Jimmy and got him in his coaching prime those years.
It goes back to my original post. Jerry had success because he was insightful enough to bring in Jimmy. You can’t take that away from Jerry. But you can say Jimmy was the prime mover.
But yes, it’s worth questioning, would we have three Super Bowls in 30 years if another owner had bought the team and didn’t have Jimmy Johnson on hand to hire? Maybe not. That’s why you have to have the conversation about whether Jones’ tenure has been “worth it” because even with way more recent success you may be trading 3 Super Bowls for just 2 or something.
However everyone can agree that no matter what you decide on the overall tenure, the time is way, way overdue for a change that would be for the better in terms of top of the organization personnel structure. Neither Jerry nor Stephen is a football man and whatever benefits that had are now far outweighed by not having a football man, and have been for 20 years.
And the craziest thing is, they could retain control. Just go hire the best personnel guy out there. Not Will McClay.
But they won’t do that. They want someone friendly to their interests of not walking on eggshells and a coach who lets the owner sit in on team meetings and chime in.