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Jerry Jones doesn’t fear possibility this could be Dak Prescott’s last year with Cowboys
By Jon Machota
INDIANAPOLIS — Jerry Jones appeared relaxed Friday night as he sat in a tan leather recliner aboard his luxury bus. The Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager seems to genuinely enjoy his annual NFL Scouting Combine meeting with reporters. This year was no different. He fielded questions for about 45 minutes as the bus sat parked on Missouri Street, alongside the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.
“I’m gonna be around here a long time,” the 81-year-old Jones said about 10 minutes into his question-and-answer session. “We got a lot of years ahead of us.”
While that might be true for him, many others within the organization can’t be as confident in their own futures with the club. Following an embarrassing wild-card playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers, many are facing what could be their final year in Dallas. Head coach Mike McCarthy is entering the final year of his contract. Same for franchise quarterback Dak Prescott.
It’s unlikely that McCarthy will get a new deal before Jones can see how the 2024 season completely unfolds. Prescott is a different conversation. The Cowboys would like to get a new contract finalized with the 30-year-old QB as soon as possible, but Jones insists they can move forward under his current deal.
“We don’t need to, but we can if everybody wants to solve it,” Jones said. “If you can’t, what we have in place works. And so obviously, if you do it one way, then that gives you, you’ll be working through some of the other areas on the team in a different way. But you can’t really plan on that until you see where you are there. That’s what we’re doing.”
Under his current contract, Prescott would count $59.5 million against the team’s salary cap. Leave that as is and it’s highly unlikely Dallas would make many notable roster additions outside of next month’s draft. A new contract could make the Cowboys more of a player in acquiring veteran talent, but that’s no guarantee, either.
Allowing Prescott to play out the final year of his contract increases the chances that the upcoming season could be his last in Dallas. The Cowboys can’t franchise tag him, so he would be free to sign with any team after the season. Considering that he just played at a level where he finished runner-up for league MVP, there would likely be several teams interested in bidding against the Cowboys for his services. That might be a scary situation for some, but Jones insisted that it isn’t for him.
“I don’t fear that,” he said. “No, I do not. Because I have my mind on being better than we were last year. And that’s where the focus would be. Every player you got has some time when his contract is up. You would walk around with the shakes if you feared it. You can’t, because they all come up. They all can get hurt. They all can lose some talent. So, all of that is not fear.
“It is my job to when somebody gets hurt or when their career is at the end or when you don’t get things negotiated, it’s my job to do something else. First of all, if you really want to get it done one way, then what do you do? You compromise and do more their way. But if your decision is that is too far, it’ll cost me two guys over here, then you don’t do it. That’s every day in my life.
GO DEEPER
Cowboys' 3-round mock draft: OL, LB and RB addressed with top-100 picks
“All we need to do is see if we’re gonna try to do anything. If we’re not, then we’ll go another way.”
When does Jones need to know that information?
“Don’t need to,” he responded. “We can go another way right now. But we really want to sit down and discuss it and see how we go.”
Jones made headlines at the Senior Bowl in late January when he said the Cowboys would be “all in” during the 2024 season. Although he was asked several different ways Friday to clarify his definition of “all in,” there wasn’t much more clarity provided.
Can Dallas still be “all in” without a Prescott contract extension finalized this offseason?
“Absolutely,” Jones said. “You just have to adjust where you’re going and how you’re going all in.”
If this was to be Prescott’s final year with the Cowboys, the franchise doesn’t have an obvious succession plan in place. Jones said Friday that Cooper Rush will compete for the backup QB job with Trey Lance, who Dallas traded a fourth-round draft pick for last August. Jones also said Friday that because they are “all in” this season that it’s unlikely that they would draft a quarterback with their first-round pick (24th overall) next month. They need that pick to be a player who makes an immediate impact.
While Jones can publicly say he doesn’t fear a scenario where Prescott could potentially leave next offseason, it’s difficult to believe he’d welcome a situation like the one he faced as Troy Aikman’s career was coming to an end.
Jones has had Aikman, Tony Romo and Prescott as his franchise quarterbacks for 30 of the 35 years he has owned the franchise. During those five seasons between the end of Aikman’s career and finding Romo, Dallas averaged seven wins per season. Jones doesn’t want to experience those times again, especially with how he feels about where Prescott is at in his career.
At one point Friday night, Jones was explaining his disappointment in Dallas’ unexpected poor showing against the Packers in their season-ending loss. He noted how he is “selectively picking” the positives from last year’s third consecutive 12-win season and “being energized about those.” The first positive he mentioned: Prescott.
“I’m very pleased with how Dak progressed,” Jones said. “I am not to the stage of saying, ‘Well, I’ve had it. I’m fed up in any way with Dak.’ What I’m encouraged by is that by all accounts and everybody around him, including him, believe that he’s going to be better and is getting better. That’s really a positive thing when you consider he’s an (eight-year) veteran.”
By Jon Machota
INDIANAPOLIS — Jerry Jones appeared relaxed Friday night as he sat in a tan leather recliner aboard his luxury bus. The Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager seems to genuinely enjoy his annual NFL Scouting Combine meeting with reporters. This year was no different. He fielded questions for about 45 minutes as the bus sat parked on Missouri Street, alongside the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.
“I’m gonna be around here a long time,” the 81-year-old Jones said about 10 minutes into his question-and-answer session. “We got a lot of years ahead of us.”
While that might be true for him, many others within the organization can’t be as confident in their own futures with the club. Following an embarrassing wild-card playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers, many are facing what could be their final year in Dallas. Head coach Mike McCarthy is entering the final year of his contract. Same for franchise quarterback Dak Prescott.
It’s unlikely that McCarthy will get a new deal before Jones can see how the 2024 season completely unfolds. Prescott is a different conversation. The Cowboys would like to get a new contract finalized with the 30-year-old QB as soon as possible, but Jones insists they can move forward under his current deal.
“We don’t need to, but we can if everybody wants to solve it,” Jones said. “If you can’t, what we have in place works. And so obviously, if you do it one way, then that gives you, you’ll be working through some of the other areas on the team in a different way. But you can’t really plan on that until you see where you are there. That’s what we’re doing.”
Under his current contract, Prescott would count $59.5 million against the team’s salary cap. Leave that as is and it’s highly unlikely Dallas would make many notable roster additions outside of next month’s draft. A new contract could make the Cowboys more of a player in acquiring veteran talent, but that’s no guarantee, either.
Allowing Prescott to play out the final year of his contract increases the chances that the upcoming season could be his last in Dallas. The Cowboys can’t franchise tag him, so he would be free to sign with any team after the season. Considering that he just played at a level where he finished runner-up for league MVP, there would likely be several teams interested in bidding against the Cowboys for his services. That might be a scary situation for some, but Jones insisted that it isn’t for him.
“I don’t fear that,” he said. “No, I do not. Because I have my mind on being better than we were last year. And that’s where the focus would be. Every player you got has some time when his contract is up. You would walk around with the shakes if you feared it. You can’t, because they all come up. They all can get hurt. They all can lose some talent. So, all of that is not fear.
“It is my job to when somebody gets hurt or when their career is at the end or when you don’t get things negotiated, it’s my job to do something else. First of all, if you really want to get it done one way, then what do you do? You compromise and do more their way. But if your decision is that is too far, it’ll cost me two guys over here, then you don’t do it. That’s every day in my life.
GO DEEPER
Cowboys' 3-round mock draft: OL, LB and RB addressed with top-100 picks
“All we need to do is see if we’re gonna try to do anything. If we’re not, then we’ll go another way.”
When does Jones need to know that information?
“Don’t need to,” he responded. “We can go another way right now. But we really want to sit down and discuss it and see how we go.”
Jones made headlines at the Senior Bowl in late January when he said the Cowboys would be “all in” during the 2024 season. Although he was asked several different ways Friday to clarify his definition of “all in,” there wasn’t much more clarity provided.
Can Dallas still be “all in” without a Prescott contract extension finalized this offseason?
“Absolutely,” Jones said. “You just have to adjust where you’re going and how you’re going all in.”
If this was to be Prescott’s final year with the Cowboys, the franchise doesn’t have an obvious succession plan in place. Jones said Friday that Cooper Rush will compete for the backup QB job with Trey Lance, who Dallas traded a fourth-round draft pick for last August. Jones also said Friday that because they are “all in” this season that it’s unlikely that they would draft a quarterback with their first-round pick (24th overall) next month. They need that pick to be a player who makes an immediate impact.
While Jones can publicly say he doesn’t fear a scenario where Prescott could potentially leave next offseason, it’s difficult to believe he’d welcome a situation like the one he faced as Troy Aikman’s career was coming to an end.
Jones has had Aikman, Tony Romo and Prescott as his franchise quarterbacks for 30 of the 35 years he has owned the franchise. During those five seasons between the end of Aikman’s career and finding Romo, Dallas averaged seven wins per season. Jones doesn’t want to experience those times again, especially with how he feels about where Prescott is at in his career.
At one point Friday night, Jones was explaining his disappointment in Dallas’ unexpected poor showing against the Packers in their season-ending loss. He noted how he is “selectively picking” the positives from last year’s third consecutive 12-win season and “being energized about those.” The first positive he mentioned: Prescott.
“I’m very pleased with how Dak progressed,” Jones said. “I am not to the stage of saying, ‘Well, I’ve had it. I’m fed up in any way with Dak.’ What I’m encouraged by is that by all accounts and everybody around him, including him, believe that he’s going to be better and is getting better. That’s really a positive thing when you consider he’s an (eight-year) veteran.”
