Tag: Jerry Jones

Bill Belichick reportedly considered joining this team to stick it to Krafts

Bill Belichick reportedly liked the idea of joining one team in particular

After parting ways with the New England Patriots, former head coach Bill Belichick reportedly liked the idea of joining one team in particular as a way to stick it to Patriots ownership.

That team was none other than the Jerry Jones-owned Dallas Cowboys.

Belichick was ultimately passed up by the Cowboys, who still have Mike McCarthy under contract. ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, Don Van Natta Jr. and Jeremy Fowler’s report read:

Dallas was another potential suitor. On paper, the Cowboys seemed to make sense: Belichick and Jerry Jones are decades-long friends, and both are in win-now mode. Nobody is better than Belichick at converting a talented roster into a championship team. And Belichick told a friend that he liked the idea of sticking it to the Krafts by working for Jones. But Jones, for all his flash, bluster and vows this offseason to go “all-in,” is change-averse when it comes to head coaches. He decided quickly after Dallas’ blowout exit in the wild-card round to let Mike McCarthy coach the final year of his contract.

Kraft and Jones are the two most influential owners in the NFL, and well over a year ago, the two men reportedly got into a heated exchange during an owners meeting.

The Cowboys might still consider Belichick as an option in 2025, if the team continues to struggle under McCarthy. In four seasons with the team, McCarthy has only won one playoff game.

Belichick, on the other hand, is a six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach that is still somehow without a job. The bombshell ESPN article talked about how close the legendary coach was to signing with the Atlanta Falcons, but then things cooled off significantly after phone conversations between Kraft and Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

Belichick is 72 years and still looking to break the record for most wins as an NFL head coach. The clock is ticking, and Dallas could end up becoming his best option.

Report: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones cited as lure for new Arkansas basketball coach

From @ToddBrock24f7: Jones is one of several power boosters who should be able to help Calipari woo basketball talent to Fayetteville through NIL dollars.

The owner of the Dallas Cowboys has so much gravitation pull within the world of sports that he’s causing a tidal shift within other sports, too.

The University of Arkansas has hired legendary men’s basketball head coach John Calipari away from Kentucky, and Jerry Jones’s status as one of the school’s A-list boosters reportedly helped seal the deal.

Jones attended Arkansas and, as an offensive lineman on the football team, was co-captain of the Razorbacks’ 1964 national championship squad. He remains heavily involved with his alma mater as a donor.

ESPN college basketball reporter Myron Medcalf points out that things had become strained recently between Calipari and Kentucky, perennially one of the nation’s top hoops programs. In Fayetteville, he’ll have access to deep pocketed “power boosters” like Jones, Tyson Foods chairman John Tyson, and the Walton family of Wal-Mart fame, all of whom have deep Arkansas ties.

Donations from Jones and other wealthy supporters will likely go a long way in helping Calipari attract top-tier talent to Arkansas in the new NIL age.

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Calipari’s Wildcats won the national title in 2012. He’s taken his teams to the Final Four six times, been named Naismith College Coach of the Year three times, and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

The obvious irony is that Cowboys fans have grown well accustomed to Jones repeatedly not being willing to get out his checkbook when it comes to spending for the Cowboys, whether it’s for big-name free agents or longtime locker-room fixtures who are due for sizable new contracts. The Cowboys also fell in several categories on this year’s NFLPA report card, which grades teams and their owners in categories like cafeteria food, training staff, and travel accommodations.

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No deal coming for Cowboys, Dak Prescott: ‘We are where we are’

From @ToddBrock24f7: Owner Jerry Jones suggested Prescott will play out the last year of his contract; a report says there’s no sign a deal is coming this offseason.

As recently as a few weeks ago, it seemed obvious that a contract extension for Dak Prescott was the top priority for the Cowboys front office, with a gargantuan salary cap hit basically forcing the club to do a new deal that would lock in their quarterback beyond next season and lessen the financial impact for the organization in 2024.

A quick restructure in mid-March added two void years, converted a $5 million roster bonus to a signing bonus, and shaved off $4 million from the cap hit to bring it to $55.445 million. It also looked to be the just first bookkeeping step in the process of a larger extension this offseason.

Now it appears that may be the only step the two sides take.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that Prescott and the Cowboys “have a mutual understanding of his contract situation,” with no further offer coming from the team.

“We are where we are,” Rapoport quoted owner Jerry Jones as saying. “We have our contract. We’re locked and loaded for this year.”

Prescott’s current deal binds last season’s MVP runner-up to the Cowboys for 2024 but not beyond.

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The Cowboys have already chosen to let several other big names depart in free agency this month, including longtime offensive tackle Tyron Smith, running back Tony Pollard and center Tyler Biadasz. Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch retired because of medical reasons. And defensive coordinator Dan Quinn took the head coaching job in Washington and took several assistants with him.

Previously, it had been revealed that Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and the rest of his coaching staff would be working 2024 in the final year of their contracts, essentially making the coming season a prove-it campaign for the staff.

That may end up being the case for their franchise quarterback as well, with 2025 potentially shaping up to be a massive rebuild in Dallas.

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Jerry Jones told Cowboys fans what they wanted to hear, and got away with it

The Cowboys effectively redefined the meaning of “all-in” to calm the anger within the fanbase but it just means business as usual, says @ReidDHanson.

Following the 48-32, first-round humiliation at the hands of the Packers in the playoffs, Cowboys Nation was in a state of near revolt this past winter. Not only didthe  heavily favored Cowboys lose to a lower seeded Green Bay team at home, but they lost in spectacular fashion, marking the second time in three postseasons Dallas was embarrassed at home.

Roughly 30 years since their last trip to the conference championship, Jerry Jones had to do something to quell the dissent within the fanbase. Things were boiling over in Cowboys Nation and the most valuable sports franchise on the planet had an infuriated customer base marching at the gates.

So Jones said “all in.”

Less than a year after son Stephen Jones spoke on the shortsightedness of an all-in strategy popularized by the Rams, Jerry Jones uttered the words his prized customer base needed to hear.

“It will be going all in on different people than you’ve done in the past,” Jones said. “We will be going all in. We’ve seen some things out of some players that we want to be all in on. Yes, I would say that you will see us this coming year not build it for the future. It’s the best way I’ve ever said. And that ought to answer a lot of questions.”

It sounded like an approach different from previous offseasons. Most importantly it was an approach that stopped the angry mob of fans in their tracks. Jones said “all in” repeatedly. He spoke of “this coming year” and said “not for the future” as a point of clarification. He even commented on the plainness in which he spoke, implying no reading between the lines, semantics, or follow-up questions are needed.

The NFL’s ultimate salesman sold his fans that things will be different in 2024. Some believed it while others did not. But the plain English used nipped the situation in the bud which was exactly as it was intended to do.

Not long after the pitchforks and torches had been returned to Amazon did the younger Jones start to walk back his father’s statements. Suddenly the definition of “all in” was up for debate and the Cowboys’ meaning of the phrase might actually mean the exact opposite of what the entire sports world knows it to mean.

In an unscheduled discussion with reporters, Jerry Jones spoke again on the issue at the annual owner’s meetings.

“We’re all-in,” Jones said as reported by Jori Epstein. “As a matter of fact, this is rolling the sleeves up and more all-in here than we were last year or the year before. It can impact us, in some cases, five years down the road.”

Indicating contract extensions for Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons will run up to five years into the future and possibly reset the market in the process, Jones effectively redefined “all-in” to just mean work hard and retain the biggest star players on the roster. It’s the same actions every other NFL team takes with their star players and in no way a departure from the Cowboys usual way of treating an offseason.

When Jerry Jones spoke to the media in January, he used “all-in” to sound like things would be different in 2024. In actuality it appears to be business as usual in Dallas only repackaged and rephrased into something misleading.

The Cowboys have lived on the extreme end of frugality most recent offseasons, often justifying it by the high cost of re-signing of their own star players. They traditionally retain their box office hits without flexing for anything extra. It’s been a trademark of theirs. All-in means something entirely different than that. Until now that is.

Redefining a word or phrase everyone already knows to be different harkens memories of Bill Clinton saying “it depends on what the meaning of the word is is” in grand jury testimony, or George Bush prematurely declaring “mission accomplished” on the deck of a carrier.

This is not an aw shucks, Jerry, ya got me again moment. It’s insulting. Not because everyone believed but because the Cowboys expected everyone to believe it and then forget it. It’s almost impossible to look at this as a simple miscommunication. Think back to the fervor in Cowboys Nation at the time of the first “all-in” decree by Jones. Nothing less would have sufficed.  He said what he needed to say. The fanbase demanded it. Maybe words don’t have meaning after all.

The 2024 Cowboys are officially all-in.

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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones endorses Cal McNair taking over Texans

Houston Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair already has one vote to become the new principal owner of the team: Jerry Jones. The owner of the Dallas Cowboys owner told KPRC 2’s Aaron Wilson on Monday he would “vote for him every time” when asked …

Houston Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair already has one vote to become the new principal owner of the team: Jerry Jones.

The owner of the Dallas Cowboys owner told KPRC 2’s Aaron Wilson on Monday he would “vote for him every time” when asked about the decision he and the rest of the NFL owners will soon make about whether or not to name McNair the principal owner of the Texans.

“He was mentored by one of the finest men and one of the best owners ever to be in the NFL in Bob McNair,” Jones said. “He’s been mentored. I’d vote for him every time.”

McNair has been the CEO of the team since his father, Bob, died in 2018. That’s also when McNair’s mother, Janice, became the principal owner. The legal guardianship suit brought by Robert Cary McNair Jr., one of Janice’s other sons, was recently dropped as well.

An official vote has not been cast yet.

Jerry Jones: Jets’ incentives for Tyron Smith would have ‘really wrecked’ Cowboys financially

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys owner claims that the $20M Smith could earn in New York was just too much and compared his departure to another Cowboys legend.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones once famously said that there was no check too big for him to write in pursuit of another world championship.

But as it turns out, there is: the one he might have had to write to Tyron Smith.

Jones made a surprising claim to reporters over the weekend at the league meetings in Orlando, addressing for the first time the departure of the eight-time Pro Bowler. The 33 year-old, who was the club’s first-round draft pick in 2011, left in free agency to sign last week with the New York Jets.

His loss- both at left tackle and in the locker room- will be a major obstacle for the 2024 Cowboys to try to overcome. Jones likened the situation to 2014, when the team released longtime defensive standout DeMarcus Ware after nine seasons.

“We both hated it,” Jones said, per David Moore of the Dallas Morning News.

Ware went on to win a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos and ultimately make the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was also named to the Cowboys Ring of Honor last season.

Smith seems to be on a similar track, although the Super Bowl ring is very much up in the air.

But so is Smith’s compensation for 2024, thanks to an incentive-laden contract that ultimately made the prospect of keeping the offensive tackle too expensive for the world’s most valuable sports franchise.

Smith is slated to earn $6.5 million guaranteed this season, an absolute bargain for a lineman of his rare abilities. But the rest of Smith’s paycheck will come from bonuses based on how many snaps he plays, whether he makes the Pro Bowl, and how many playoff wins the Jets can rack up.

If Smith meets every single one of the contractual mile markers? Very unlikely, but it would bring the grand total to $20 million for one season.

“You know how highly he is thought of by us,” Jones said. “[But] We can’t afford that. We can’t afford that. If he makes all of these incentives and things like that, we would be really wrecked.”

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That’s a hard pill to swallow, coming from an owner who has always- publicly, anyway- prided himself on being able to find a way to retain any player he’s truly wanted to keep.

But like Ware before him (and even Emmitt Smith a decade before that), Tyron Smith will now wear another team’s uniform because Jones has decided to gamble that the Cowboys got the best years out of him and is unwilling to pony up for what could- but probably won’t- turn into an obscenely overpriced farewell tour.

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Jerry Jones: Cowboys’ Tyler Smith is ‘working option’ at LT for 2024

From @ToddBrock24f7: With Tyron Smith gone, the youngster who was originally drafted to take his place may now do just that, despite a Pro Bowl season at guard.

Tyler Smith could be on the move again.

The Tulsa product, who will turn 23 in early April, has been shuffled between left guard and left tackle ever since being selected in the first round of 2022’s draft. And amid another offseason of change for the Dallas front five, which position Smith will occupy in the coming year is of high concern, as it has the potential to drive other key choices, especially when it comes to a talented draft class of offensive tackles.

Despite turning in a Pro Bowl campaign in 2023 at guard, Smith may now be headed back to the position he was originally drafted for.

Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Sunday that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is treating Smith as “the working option at left tackle” heading into draft weekend.

“I’d say that’s a good, viable thing,” Jones explained, per Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. “Keep the idea there. Don’t dismiss the idea. … Certainly, he’s potentially– I want to say a great player at left tackle.”

Tyler Smith came to Dallas just as questions about Tyron Smith’s durability were getting loud. Tyron had been bothered by ankle injuries throughout the 2021 season, causing him to miss six games in the back half of the regular schedule. And the year prior, he had played in just two games total.

Tyler looked to be the eventual heir apparent at left tackle but spent his rookie camp learning left guard, ostensibly to give him valuable playing time until he (and Tyron) were ready for an official passing of the baton.

But when Tyron suffered a torn hamstring just before the start of the 2022 season, Tyler was quickly moved over. He played all 17 games at left tackle to lead the entire Cowboys roster in snaps on the year, and he played so well he was kept at tackle even after Tyron was healthy enough to return in late December.

With a fully healthy Tyron, 2023 saw Tyler go back to left guard, where he was named to his first Pro Bowl and earned second-team All-Pro honors over 14 game appearances.

But when Tyron left the Cowboys in free agency to sign with the Jets, it created a dilemma for the Dallas coaching staff. Where to play Tyler this season? Executive vice president Stephen Jones hinted last month that he may stay at guard, saying the situation was “starting to feel like Larry Allen all over again.”

But now Jerry is implying something different.

The 2024 draft class is stocked with several top-tier offensive linemen that look to be worthy of a first-round pick, but most of them are tackles by trade. It’s easy to envision a scenario where one of them falls to the Cowboys at 24 and he becomes a Week 1 starter at tackle alongside the now-veteran Tyler Smith at guard.

Or at least it was.

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Jerry’s suggestion that Tyler may switch positions once again could mean that the front office has their eye on a guard- either in the draft or in free agency- or that they plan to bring in a prospect with the versatility to learn a new position over the summer and then hope he can play it at a high caliber in the fall.

Just like Tyler did not that long ago.

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Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium to host Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul in ‘fight of a lifetime’

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys’ home venue will be the site of a July 20 fight pitting one of the greatest boxers ever against one of today’s hottest names.

AT&T Stadium has been the site of many massively-hyped showdowns over the years. But this summer, the Cowboys’ home venue will host a different kind of battle, one that’s being billed as “the fight of a lifetime.”

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson will square off against internet-celebrity-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on July 20. The match will be streamed on Netflix and should serve as a monster draw for the platform’s growing schedule of live sporting events.

Tyson, who will turn 58 in June, was the youngest heavyweight champ in history at age 20 and last fought in a 2020 exhibition bout that ended in a draw. His 50-6 record (44 knockouts) has already landed him in the Boxing Hall of Fame, and some of the fights from his heyday remain some of the most-watched and best-remembered events in the sport’s history.

Paul, 27, rose to popularity on sites like Vine and YouTube before making a transition to boxing. He has a 9-1 record with six knockouts. He’s three inches taller than Tyson, has five extra inches of reach, and also happens to be three decades younger.

“He’s grown significantly as a boxer over the years,” Tyson said of his opponent, “so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT. It’s a full circle moment that will be beyond thrilling to watch; as I started him on his boxing journey on the undercard of my fight with Roy Jones and now I plan to finish him.”

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The fight, which will take place at the Cowboys’ home venue just days before the team assembles in California for 2024 training camp, comes courtesy of Most Valuable Promotions and may well become the “most-watched boxing event in modern boxing history,” according to the company’s founder.

ESPN reports that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has yet to determine whether the match will be officially classified as a pro fight or an exhibition.

“My sights are set on becoming a world champion,” said Paul, “and now I have a chance to prove myself against the greatest heavyweight champion ever, the baddest man on the planet, and the most dangerous boxer of all time. This will be the fight of a lifetime.”

And a blockbuster, clash-of-titans spectacle practically custom-made for JerryWorld.

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‘Arrow’s really up’ on Cowboys QB Trey Lance, per Jerry Jones, but interest from other teams rumored

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys are ready for a camp battle at QB2 behind Dak Prescott, if they don’t get a more attractive trade offer from another team first.

The intrigue in the Cowboys’ QB room goes well beyond starter Dak Prescott and a possible extension that may or may not make him the league’s first-ever $60 million-per-year player.

There’s also the question of what the team will do behind Prescott, with longtime backup Cooper Rush and 2023 acquisition Trey Lance expected to battle for the No. 2 spot this summer.

Unless, of course, something were to change dramatically before then.

And, oh, the potential for that is most definitely there.

Lance’s name has been trending in recent days thanks to a post-combine report from Rich Eisen, who said earlier this week that the third overall draft pick in 2021 is “a possible solve at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings,” based on chatter he heard in Indianapolis.

The 23-year-old Lance is a Minnesota native with just eight games’ worth of NFL experience, but he could be an intriguing project for Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, himself a former quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator who has helped develop Kirk Cousins in both Washington and Minnesota and Jared Goff with the Rams. He also helped guide Los Angeles to a Super Bowl win with Matthew Stafford under center.

With Cousins now expected to be the top passer available in free agency and already thought by some to be primed to sign with Atlanta, O’Connell and the Vikings could be faced with: bringing aboard a new veteran quarterback in free agency, adding a highly-rated college prospect via the draft, or trading for someone currently on another team’s roster.

The Cowboys have already picked up Lance’s $4.25 million bonus, due five days after training camp starts in July. But they’ve also made it known they won’t pick up his far pricier fifth-year bonus for 2025.

That’s like putting out a sign for the rest of the league that the Cowboys are willing to at listen to trade offers, though owner Jerry Jones has raved about Lance and his “unique skills” since giving up a fourth-round draft pick to obtain him in late August.

“The arrow’s really up,” Jones told reporters in Indianapolis over the weekend. “He’s exceeded expectations as a person, as a worker.”

The former North Dakota State product has thrown just 102 NFL passes. He spent the 2023 season in Dallas learning Mike McCarthy’s offense and serving as the team’s emergency third quarterback.

“He’s very much what we had planned on, hoped,” Jones confirmed. “When we gave the pick, we knew we would be paying the bonus right now. That was a part of the same decision. That’s been reinforced by what he’s been with the team and the person he is, potentially the player.”

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And while Jones answered a question about whether he expects Lance to compete with seven-year veteran Rush to be Prescott’s primary understudy with an unqualified “yes,” he would almost certainly at least consider flipping the two-time FCS champion and high-potential project player for an early enough selection in this year’s draft.

Of course, Jones could, at least theoretically, choose to stand pat on all three of his passers. Without an extension for the MVP runner-up, every Cowboys quarterback- Prescott, Rush, and Lance- could be in a contract year in 2024.

Drama in Big D, indeed.

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Cowboys’ Jerry Jones noncommittal on WR Michael Gallup’s future: ‘We need to sit down’

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys owner hinted that the club and WR needed to sit down and talk soon, but he lauded what Gallup has meant to the Cowboys.

Cowboys fans have learned to rightfully take anything owner Jerry Jones says with a grain tablespoon fully-loaded 18-wheeler truckload of salt.

The club’s seeming willingness to let eight-time Pro Bowl tackle Tyron Smith simply walk out the door (or at least the casual manner in which they’re letting that storyline float around in the ether) after making some nebulous, impossible-to-actually-quantify-but-it’ll-look-great-on-T-shirts-in-the-pro-shop “all in” proclamation is ample, maddening proof.

But Jones is even waffling- at least publicly- on what looks to be, on the surface, the easiest slam-dunk decision of the Cowboys’ offseason.

When asked during his annual bus powwow at the scouting combine about wide receiver Michael Gallup’s future with the club, the 81-year-old was predictably noncommittal.

“[We] Don’t have a decision that we would like to talk about right now,” Jones told reporters. “It’s one that we’ll be going over with him. Nothing that we would say without him being involved. We need to sit down and go over his stuff with him before we talk about what we’re going to do or not do.”

While that’s the fair and prudent thing to say out loud, all logical indications are that the Cowboys should likely cut the six-year veteran following a decline in production that’s now lasted four years, since his only 1,000-yard campaign in 2019.

Gallup is currently slated to count $13.85 million against the 2024 salary cap, but the team could save $9.5 million if they designate him a post-June 1 cut.

The fact that he’s caught just 73 balls for 842 yards in the two years since his ACL injury makes it tough for some to justify even the $4 million he’s due if he’s on the Dallas roster on March 18.

But alternatively, there’s also sentiment that a rapidly-shrinking wide receiver market could make Gallup a trade target for some needy team. He could actually earn the Cowboys something in return if they just hold on long enough… and do a little salesmanship in the meantime.

Jones insisted that the former third-round draft pick has meant far more to the Cowboys than his recent stats suggest. He pointed to the five-year, $57 million contract the front office gave him just three months after his injury as evidence.

“What he means is reflected in his salary and the deal that we gave him,” Jones explained. “And that’s exactly the way we felt about him, feel about him.”

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But Jones knows there is a long list of Cowboys players who are similarly up for review in the coming days, weeks, and months.

And he can’t allow how he felt about Michael Gallup as the 2019 player or how he feels about Michael Gallup as the 2024 person to be the deciding factor in what happens moving forward.

“What we need to do today, relative to what’s available, we’ll have to really consider it. We’ve got to really give that consideration,” the owner said. “We’ve got some other considerations we have to consider right now, too. We’ll go over that with him.”

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