Are Jerry Jones' Excuses costing the Dallas Cowboys?

Fans have been calling for Jerry Jones to be less involved with football operations for years. His love affair with big names is often met by past their prime or fading veterans. His draft choices are suspect at best. While he does hit on drafting talent, the players who go on to have bigger and better careers are usually there when the Dallas Cowboys pick. Remember when the Cowboys passed on Randy Moss?

Now Jerry Jones seemed to have made his first intelligent move when he finally moved on from the 8-8 seasons under Jason Garrett. The man he would go on to hire was former Super Bowl winning coach Mike McCarthy to the delight of fans. After all, McCarthy has had many winning seasons with the Green Bay Packers, has coached a future Hall of Fame QB in Aaron Rodgers, and was exactly the big name they needed to draw back fan interest and media attention.

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But now the love affair should be over midway through the 2020 campaign. The Cowboys are 3-9 and don’t have signs of being a team that could turn it around in an offseason. Yes, they’re without their franchise quarterback Dak Prescott which takes away from the explosiveness of their offense. However, Ezekiel Elliot seems to have regressed in their offense, they can’t seem to hold on to a lead, and not one single player on “America’s Team” is standing out compared to the rest of the NFL.

So why should Jerry Jones be under fire for that?

While speaking on a local radio station Jones would refer back to former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson and his struggles in his first season. “sure can. Jimmy had a lot of handicaps when we first came in here. By the way, we won the one football game, too. And he was accused by one other coach for sure of making it look like a high school program.” (via CBS). In this brief moment, Jones excused the struggles of the first year Cowboys head coach, much in the same way he made excuse after excuse for keeping Garrett around.

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The real issue with that is, Jimmy Johnson wasn’t an NFL coach before Jerry Jones hired him to coach the Cowboys. He had zero NFL experience. Mike McCarthy has been an NFL head coach for over 13 years. He’s been an NFL Coach since 1993 (27 years!). Comparing the two is absolutely ridiculous. Up until he was hired in 1989, Johnson was a college football coach. McCarthy on the other hand, has had Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre and transitioned to future Hall of Famer Arron Rodgers.

When you coach two of the best QBs in Packers history, you should’ve learned a thing or two about putting in winning records. At some point you would have had to pick their brains on how to get the most out of players, what offenses are effective, what schemes to run when things just aren’t working. Missing your franchise quarterback shouldn’t be the setback the Cowboys are struggling with this year.

Throw on the pile that towards the end of McCarthy’s tenure in Green Bay, the Packers just weren’t getting it done, and Jones has to look foolish. He can make all the excuses he wants for McCarthy like covid, and Dak’s injury. In the end, its just that, an excuse. There’s a difference between supporting your guy and admitting you were wrong. So far, the last thing Jerry Jones has done right for the Dallas Cowboys was hiring Jimmy Johnson and building their brand. Ever since then, his football choices have been suspect at best. Its time to take a step back and turn over control of the team to the front office that can turn this franchise around.