The NFL offseason is in full swing, which means actual football things are at their minimum. To help bridge the gap, rankings are all the rage, as they allow for fun, safe debate about things that will eventually play out in the fall. Among those that will stir some debate is the latest slotting of NFL front offices, including where the Dallas Cowboys’ dynamic duo has been placed.
NBC Sports’ Patrick Daugherty ranked the Cowboys’ tandem of Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones ninth out of 32 league GMs. Far be it for any Cowboys fan to knock a list that has their favorite team near the top, but one would be hard pressed to find a large contingent of Cowboys fans agreeing with this sentiment.
Being listed as the ninth-best GM duo in the league during an offseason where the Joneses have barely made a move in free agency and failed to negotiate any extensions with their top three priorities wouldn’t qualify as a Top 10 GM in many minds, but Daugherty lays out the case for the father-son team:
9. Jerry Jones/Stephen Jones, Cowboys
“The Cowboys have three straight 12-win seasons but only one playoff victory to show for it. They have superstar players on both sides of the ball but depth issues that tend to rear their head at the most inopportune times. They have a war horse head coach who somehow crumbles at all the biggest moments. This is a good roster, one stocked with homegrown talent. It is just impossible to shake the feeling it should be something more. Jerry Jones and his gang of cronies never quite get the credit they deserve because the finishing touches are always missing. The once-vaunted offensive line and skill player depth have become just as top heavy as every other unit. The bottom could fall out at any given moment. Jones and company do at least provide a ceiling. That is more than half the battle, and a lot more than can be said for most front offices.”
The pluses for the Joneses are easy to see, their Cowboys remain a good team who have been in the playoffs in three straight years and have three consecutive 12-win seasons, something no other franchise can boast. There is also considerable All-Pro talent on both sides of the ball, something Daugherty acknowledges.
However, as he also points out, with all the success that’s occurred in those three campaigns, not coming close to a Super Bowl provides a reason to doubt the duo. As Daugherty says, “Jerry Jones and his gang of cronies never quite get the credit they deserve because the finishing touches are always missing.”
Truer words are hard to come by when speaking about Jones and his Cowboys, who haven’t reached the final four in 28 years. However, that has as much to do with Jerry and Stephen as it does anyone else. Most Cowboys fans will argue the finishing touches are always missing because they haven’t been aggressive during the offseasons. Their abysmal attitude towards free agency spending is one of their biggest downfalls among the “depth issues” explained above.
NFL teams that have spent the least this offseason.
This includes free agents, extensions, waivers, and trades: pic.twitter.com/2bsu5YSLnp
— Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) March 25, 2024
There are five GMs/tandems listed above the Joneses from the NFC, including the San Francisco 49ers duo of John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, which came in at No. 2, Philadelphia Eagles GM Howie Roseman, who landed at No. 3, and Brad Holmes of the Detroit Lions at six. The other two ahead of the Cowboys were the Los Angeles Rams duo of Sean McVay and Les Snead at four, as well as Brian Gutekunst of the Green Bay Packers, who landed just in front at No. 8. It’s somewhat surprising how the league’s perceived greatest GM, Roseman, didn’t land at the top of the list, but he was bested by the Kansas City Chiefs GM duo of Andy Reid and Brett Veach.
The lack of playoff success over the years, and with their refusal to change how they operate, it’s hard to support the Joneses as a Top 10 GM option in the NFL.
Yet their Cowboys have had a substantial number of wins in the regular season and done a great job of drafting, so it’s difficult to find their rightful place in the GM hierarchy. Every other GM in front of the Joneses but one have at least gone to a championship game in the last three years, Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Beane. This is something that continues to allude Dallas’ franchise and keeps the Cowboys’ duo outside the Top 5.
The Joneses rank high on the list of GMs according to one league writer, but it’s likely something Cowboys fans would vehemently disagree with, especially during an offseason that borders on incompetent.
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