Jerry Jones compliments Dak Prescott’s game against the Eagles, highlighting his impressive ball placement despite the team’s loss.
DALLAS — It’s that time of the year again. Yes, time for football, which consequently means time for Jerry Jones to make his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan.
The Cowboys owner and general manager spoke with the guys at the radio station for the first time this season. Here are some of the notable questions and answers that stood out (questions/answers are shortened for brevity):
Q: How do you take in all the games? Do you watch RedZone or watch one game at a time?
Jerry: No particular place that I watch it. Same place that I work, at a kitchen table. I do use RedZone, and then like yesterday, we were particularly zeroed in on the Green Bay game, of course that game with the Giants and Washington. And those I’ll switch off the red zone and zero in on those games.
Q: How did you feel about your team’s performance overall against the Eagles last Thursday?
Jerry: I was pleased with how we played. I thought in particular Dak had one of the best games I’ve seen him play. We all know, there’s no consolation in a loss, but I felt very strongly that we had a chance to win that game at Philadelphia’s home, which would have been a triumph coming in off of their celebration of their Super Bowl. So I felt great about that. I felt really, really, really good about the way our offensive line played. I think that bodes well for as we start down this season, and I really like what we did moving those guys around. I’m talking about how our offensive line was physical and we had some holes there for the running backs. Shame we got that fumble, but that’s part of it, I guess. And then, I thought Dak had really good ball placement and gave us a chance to beat a really good team at home, at their home.
Q: What stood out to you from Brian Schottenheimer’s debut?
Jerry: I thought he had the team prepared. We didn’t see anything there that got us disjointed as a team. I thought the preparation gave us a chance to win that game. That’s what we asked for, to be in it at the end and get a chance to win it at the end. I thought he did a great job and of course he’s calling the offensive plays too. I thought he handled that really well. No surprise that he handled it, but, I thought the combination of the game plan, executing the game plan as well from the head coaching position, as well as calling the game offensively was an A.
Q: It was really was a tale of two halves. The first half defense, you didn’t really get any stops. The second half offense, didn’t really do anything in terms of production of points on the scoreboard. Is there one that you walked away with a little bit more concerned with than the other?
Jerry: No, I liked both of them, have some [areas of] improvement, but both of them had some things that the positive overweighs the negatives. I thought we did a good job against a good team offensively and had ourselves in a position to, like I said, win the game. We didn’t make some plays at the end that we can expect to make and, that’s where I get my solace right there. On defense, they’re a solid team that uses that quarterback to run that ball and, I thought under the circumstances, we made our adjustments and played a good second half.
Q: What did you make of CeeDee Lamb’s struggles in the second half and, and then his response to it during the practice week so far?
Jerry: I just look at each play on its own rather than look at a group of plays because nothing in his background or any place suggests that he can’t catch the football. And so I just look at each one of them and without getting any way here, they just haven’t made a receiver that doesn’t have a drop. But he just got 2 or 3 there at the wrong time in succession there. So that doesn’t concern me generally about whether CeeDee Lamb can catch the ball. It was unfortunate because at that particular juncture we could have had some better offense in the second half, had we made those plays late.
Q: Do you remember anybody getting spit on when you were playing? Was it like a common thing back then?
Jerry: No, but spitting was very common. As a matter of fact, one of the things I remember about football was you didn’t get water, and so you had to remember lemons that you stuck in the webbing of your helmet. They didn’t give you water at practice, that was the thing that people thought was the way to get in shape. I can remember all sorts of things going on with sucking lemons and all the kinds of things that go on. But let’s get right to what we’re talking about. We’re talking about a gesture of disdain or a gesture that is meant to incite. That’s what we’re talking about here, not the actual spitting. In my mind, there’s no place for that, and they paid a heck of a price. That’s their best defensive player that’s got to sit that game out. That’s as strong as it gets on deterring that kind of behavior.
Q: Did you have an opinion on whether there should be further punishment on whether Carter deserved more, more, more suspension time?
Jerry: I don’t. There’s a big emphasis this year that we specifically focus and address anything that looks like behavior that we don’t associate it with the field. That’s one of them, so it wouldn’t surprise me either way because they paid a pretty high price for not having him in the ballgame.
Q: How did you feel about the performance of the pass rushers that you guys are expecting to step up in the wake of Micah Parsons’ departure?
Jerry: We got a pressure out there of about 42.5%. That was one of our strongest games in a long time on the pressure that we had. That’s good. That’s real good. If we can continue that and continue in our playstyle, our scheme of those linebackers, and do a good job of filling those gaps. I really like the way we played on the interior. We’ve got a really exciting look inside and our big ends, Kneeland and Sam Williams, I thought they really did a good job in the pressure area. Kenny Clark played lights out. He and Dak made the highest grades on the team as far as how they graded out. And he deserved that kind of grade. Then we’ve got Jay Toia, who I’m real excited about from UCLA and of course Osa Odighizuwa and Solomon Thomas. All those guys played well in there, and you can look forward to them playing well in the scheme that I think. We’re gonna have real improvement in our pressure. I think we’re gonna have improvement across the line here.
Q: What did you think of Micah’s Green Bay debut, and were you surprised, uh, how he was able to move around out there with the back issue?
Jerry: We’re all interested in that game. How Micah played, not one thing unexpected for me as to how he played. And he’s gotten on a good team up there in Green Bay. We’re going to get to have him right here and we’ll get a firsthand look at the entire team, not just Micah. From what I saw of him, I thought he was able to get in there and play without having any influence from his back, and I say that with a straight face. I do.
Having said that, uh, wish him well, except against the Cowboys.
Q: When you trade a player, how long do you follow their production and what they do with their next team? Like how closely do you monitor what he’s doing?
Jerry: If a player has had quite a bit of time with the Cowboys, and he’s in the game, I follow him really good. It gives me a focal point if I’m watching that particular play against two teams that the Cowboys aren’t involved in.
I do that quite often with most of our players that, and since I’ve been with the Cowboys, I think the numbers are approaching 4,000 players that we’ve had since I’ve been involved with the Cowboys. With free agency and movement, you’ve had over the years a lot of those players playing on different teams.
It’s not a bad thing, but when I see a player, I remember him usually very well and look for him if I happen to have the information in front of me, I can anticipate by knowing that he’s in the game. We had several players make plays all over the league this past weekend that had been with the Cowboys.
Q: There was a reported offer over the weekend that Philadelphia had made in a trade for Micah. Was, was that a flat no or was there a counteroffer that would have been made?
Jerry: No, no counteroffer. The interest, the thought all along was to see where the interest level was. That was very important and from the get-go, that was an effort on our part to chum up interest. That’s part of what was going on during those months that we were talking about Micah. As it would happen, as it always happens, once that interest started really peaking, then you started having that phone ring, and that’s exactly what the plan was to see if that phone would ring and if the proposition there would be enough for us to make the move.
We understand what kind of player Micah is. He’s an outstanding player, great player. But, with our system the way we have it today, if we can get four, five, six players for one player, that’s better for an opportunity to win the thing, and that’s what it was about. We had others call, and that’s what we wanted.
Q: A lot of fans were asking about Mazi Smith and Jaydon Blue being inactive on Thursday. What are your thoughts on not having them active for the game?
Jerry: Blue has been off and on with us because of injury and his status may have him ready to go, but he still needs to crack that lineup. We’ll determine that as time goes along. And for Mazi: We got out of there pretty clean. My guess would be that it would look pretty similar to last weekend.
Q: Is your in-house focus now in terms of extensions, is that focus now on Tyler Smith?
Jerry: Well, I think it’s fair to say we’d like to get Tyler signed, but we’re constantly looking at areas that we might do some work on the roster extending those contracts. The real world is that there’s always work to be done relative to contracts. You’re talking about an ongoing process that is continually talking to players and agents considering whether we should extend or not. All of that, I can’t emphasize enough, is a constant ongoing process.
Q: Is it tougher to get a top of market deal done versus some of the depth guys? Is it a lot more difficult when you’re talking about a Dak, a Lamb, a Micah, and a Tyler with how well he started?
Jerry: They’re rare. Those deals are rare, with that kind of consideration coming and going. We’re dealing with rare air, when talking about Micah, so those are not hard to do, they’re just rare to do, recognizing them because they have a chance to be so meaningful. Notice I say a chance. There’s a lot of data on every end of this thing that show those work out and they don’t work out. I’ll assure you right now, we don’t make that trade unless we think it’s in our overall best interest to win and win now. I’m not trying to be defensive. I’m just trying to be factual.
Q: Asking this for clarification cause I don’t think we’ve gotten a clear answer and nothing from the league, but a lot of people and former players have said that’s a CBA violation the way Jerry is doing it. You have to have the agent involved. Can you clarify for us what the rule is and why there is no violation?
Jerry: There is no violation, period. I have all the authority in the world and the player has all the authority in the world to negotiate directly with me. There is no equivocation there. Can I work through an agent or an attorney? It usually ends up a little of both on a pretty high profile player, but there is no violation. I have every right. Can you imagine if you didn’t have the right when you’re the one that decides whether to trade them or not. How could you not have the right? And so the point is that there’s no equivocation here and then no rule violation. And, if I were ever assessed on anything I did with Micah, relative to the communication or non-communication with an agent, I’ll 100 times give it to the Salvation Army.
Q: We were all really impressed with Trevon Diggs coming back from the injury. He was coming back in a reserve role though. Is he ready to return to full-time play this week against the Giants?
Jerry: Yes, he’s ready to play.