FRISCO, Texas — At this point, listening to owner Jerry Jones sometimes sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher from the Peanuts cartoon.
“Wah, wah, wah, wah.”
It’s understandable why Cowboys fans are exasperated and frustrated heading into a season following a division title and trip to the playoffs.
But they can’t tune him out.
He is everywhere, doing two radio shows a week or cutting up with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take.
Jones never met a microphone he didn’t like. Or a tape recorder or a notepad.
He’s the ultimate seller of all things Cowboys.
It’s why the media loves him.
But it’s also why Cowboys fans come to not trust the words coming out of his mouth.
His constant abiding optimism sometimes comes across as a con job.
Is he selling and marketing to keep the team relevant and in the black or is trying to win?
Jones is the best at the former with the Cowboys, the richest franchise in all of sports, becoming the first NFL franchise to receive a valuation of $8 billion, according to Forbes.,
But does Jones truly believe what he says?
And more importantly, does even hear the words that come out of his mouth?
As it relates to the 2022 season, Jones readily admits that the Cowboys didn’t invest as many resources into the team as they did last year when they won the NFC East with a 12-5 record before losing in the wildcard playoffs.
“We put a lot on the table last year, and there was no question relative to the investment in the roster that you were going to have to make some adjustments after last year and this year,” Jones recently said on his radio show in 105.3 The Fan.
Led by the departures of No. 1 receiver Amari Cooper, right tackle La’el Collins and defensive end Randy Gregory,the Cowboys have a decidedly less talented roster in 2022 than they did in 2021, l
It’s also reflective in the team’s decision not to heavily invest in a veteran receiver to make up for the loss of Cooper or sign a veteran offensive lineman for insurance at tackle.
For a team that has continually come up short. It’s now a 27-year gap since their last Super Bowl title in 1995 and just four playoff wins in the interim and no back-to-back trips to the playoffs since 2006-2007. Rather than build on the playoff foundation of last year, the Cowboys stripped it down — with hopes of improvement through osmosis in the form of franchise quarterback Dak Prescott uplifting a diminished offense and all-pro linebacker Micah Parsons and the team’s opportunistic defense becoming dominant in Year 2 under coordinator Dan Quinn.
To hear Jones tell it, the Cowboys are positioned to be better and to go farther in 2022 because they are angry with how last season ended.
“Yeah, I think that we came up short (last season),” Jones said. “And I thought that we were in as good of shape to have an extended run in the playoffs at the end of last year. I don’t want to dwell on it, but I do want to burn it into our minds. I do. I want to make sure that we remember how bad it did feel, I’m talking about the team and the people involved. How bad it felt to be out of games and not get closer or get in the Super Bowl.”
Let’s recap: “I don’t want to dwell on it, but I want to burn it into our brains.”
Make it make sense.
Or how about this brain tease on the mindset of the franchise and the decision making in building the 2022 roster?
“We not only need to get into the playoffs but we need to get way deep into the playoffs so we got a chance,” Jones said. “I think this team is reflective of that. I think it is a narrative of the team. I think it reflected in our decision-making in the spring, who we kept, who we let go and who we brought on. That is the narrative. You have to get in a better spot to stay longer in the playoffs.”
Here is an alternative translation: “We need to get better to stay longer in the playoffs which is why we invested less and are putting a less talented team on the field than we did a year ago.”
Good grief, Jerry Jones.
