Todd ArcherESPN Staff Writer4 Minute Read
INDIANAPOLIS — Dallas Cowboys proprietor and normal supervisor Jerry Jones’ arrival on the NFL scouting mix Friday was delayed due to poor climate, however he nonetheless spoke on the workforce bus for greater than an hour, pertaining to a variety of subjects.
The Cowboys are actually 27 seasons faraway from their final Super Bowl after dropping within the playoffs for the second straight yr to the San Francisco 49ers in January, however he isn’t fixated on the championship drought; simply the search to get it completed in 2023.
“I do not get discouraged whenever you say, ‘You have not been to a Super Bowl in X years,'” Jones stated. “I don’t try this as a result of I may’ve gained the final 5 and nonetheless won’t get to a different Super Bowl and I should be working my butt off to get to the subsequent Super Bowl as if I had misplaced 5 or 4. That’s actuality.”
To get again to a Super Bowl for the primary time since 1995, the Cowboys must remedy a number of points relating to their roster.
While he didn’t go right into a contract extension for Dak Prescott, he does imagine the quarterback can transfer on from a season by which he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions (15) regardless of lacking 5 video games.
“He has the bodily expertise to do that on the stage to win us a Super Bowl,” Jones stated. “Does he do it with among the identical nuances that a number of of those different quarterbacks do it? No, he would not. He’s bought some issues that he can work on and be more practical. Let me put it like this: Dak is a born mistake eliminator. If I choose anyone that I’d say, ‘Now go on the market and proper your errors, enhance or try this?’ I might relatively begin with him as uncooked materials than anybody I’ve been round at that place.”
Prescott has a $49.1 million salary-cap determine that the Cowboys may decrease with a restructured or prolonged contract. Jones acknowledged the issue in enhancing the gamers round Prescott due to the contract.
“We need to get all the assistance round him, however as we all know when you may have a aggressive paid quarterback within the NFL, then you definitely’re not going to have the ability to get essentially the most talent round him,” Jones stated. “You’re going to have to choose your spots and you are going to be somewhat slower one yr than the subsequent yr — not sluggish when it comes to velocity, simply in what you are doing. You cannot pay that place — overlook Dak — you possibly can’t pay that place at that stage, take that a lot of the out there {dollars} after which put the precise factor round him.”
Which is why Jones believes the largest enchancment offensively will come from coach Mike McCarthy turning into the playcaller.
“The pure factor to do to have a look at tips on how to give extra to what Dak might be was to name on what Mike can convey to the desk,” Jones stated.
Jones was not able to say the Cowboys plan to make use of the $10.1 million franchise tag on working again Tony Pollard by Tuesday. The Cowboys met together with his agent on the mix however haven’t had main negotiations on a multiyear settlement but.
“I actually do not need to say it is a completed factor [using the tag] as a result of as these items go, you do not know the place you’re till your deadline comes and goes,” Jones stated. “But proper now, definitely Tony’s an enormous a part of our plans.”
And what affect does which have on Ezekiel Elliott, who has a $16.7 million cap determine? Jones wouldn’t rule out having the ability to hold each gamers in 2023. He stated Elliott was restricted by a proper knee harm final yr.
“I do know I’ve bought a repute for being reluctant to have a look at nice gamers as they go into the later years of their careers however I do not want [an] empathy or I do not want a sense of, ‘Look what he is completed for us,’ to activate the tape and take a look at what a distinction maker he was final yr proper via the top of the yr,” Jones stated. “He made performs. He made runs that had we not made them it may have been extra damaging than it turned out.”
The Cowboys must make strikes to get beneath the cap by the beginning of free company, however that may occur with the reworkings of contracts and potential releases of gamers. He stated the Cowboys might be reliant on younger gamers in 2023, but additionally added a qualifier.
“I need to let you know, do not dismiss us doing one thing particular with the proper veteran free agent,” Jones stated. “At anywhere. I might, in a New York minute, if I feel that it suits greater than a short-term state of affairs for us.”
