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The Dallas Cowboys are Jerry Jones’ team. There’s no escaping that fact, no matter how frustrated a very large fanbase seems to be with that fact. The long-time owner of the organization feels that he knows what is best for the club, and swears his approach to making the team into the most valuable franchise in professional sports does not interfere with his role as GM and that job’s edict to be the most dominant team in the NFL.
On Saturday, Jones watched his former defensive coordinator, in his first season, take a rival NFC East franchise to the conference championship for the first time in 33 years. Dan Quinn’s Washington Commanders now leave Jones’ Cowboys as the longest NFCCG drought.
The Cowboys, of course, have the opportunity to do similar, as they let Mike McCarthy walk after five years and are one of six teams with a head coach opening. Make that five. The Chicago Bears hired Lions OC Ben Johnson on Monday.
Jones, who had a week of exclusive negotiating rights with McCarthy at the end of the season, blocked McCarthy from interviewing with the Bears for that week, and also didn’t take advantage of the wild-card week to interview the assistants of No. 1 seeds with the byes. Detroit was eliminated Saturday and Johnson, who met with Chicago during that week, never interviewed with Dallas.
Again, Dallas didn’t take the opportunity to interview one of the best young offensive minds in the game, wanted to, but missed out on the opportunity to talk to a coach they did not retain.
That’s life for the organization under owner Jerry Jones, who it’s been reported had no semblance of a backup plan for McCarthy not wanting to return.
The Cowboys have key elements that make them an attractive destination. Recently (prior to this weekend’s games), ESPN’s savant NFL analyst Mina Kimes broke down all of the coaching vacancies in easy-to-digest nuggets for viewers. She ranked each of the (at the time) six openings based on QB situtaiton, overall roster and intangibles.
Dallas tied with the Bears as the most attractive jobs, despite being seen as having the best QB situation with Dak Prescott (tied with Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence) and the best roster (tied with the Bears). The reason they don’t sit in first place by themselves is the third category, ‘et cetera’.
This category was pretty much an X factor of each organization, and for Dallas, the presence of a meddling Jones was theirs, getting a lowly score of two.
TL;DR, Dallas would’ve run away as the best of the 2025 openings, if it weren’t for how Jones runs the team.
Ouch.