DALLAS — Jerry Jones once again joined the Shan & RJ show on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday, where the Cowboys owner discussed the latest with his team. Wins, losses, contracts, and general life philosophies are all on the docket when Jones speaks.
In this installment, the owner talked about the Week 4 win over the New York Giants, the mounting injuries, and what it means for the team to even their record after a couple of home losses.
Outlook on pass rush
“We’ll bring the guys up,” Jones said. "The young guys we’re fortunate to have, will step up and basically play them. It’s hard to think that there’s someone that you can coach up and literally step out this week. We’ll move on and replace and hope for the best.”
Jones went on to say that the team got good news on their second opinion for defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, who won’t need surgery on his injured foot, and reiterated that Micah Parsons will be week-to-week. Hoping for the best is about what you can expect when you lose two starting Pro Bowl-caliber players.
On trades and injuries
“You plan for this in the offseason, you look at the depth at your position, and it’s going to happen, not a question of if,” Jones continued on injuries being a fact of life in the NFL. “You’re going to have that type of injury attrition. What you want to do is be the healthiest that you’ve been, so to speak. That’s how it happened last year.”
It’s an odd statement from Jones to mention that he had evaluated the roster for these kinds of contingencies when most observers from outside the organization felt that the Cowboys had little depth at any position.
The team lost valuable rotational pieces on the defensive line during the offseason and did little to replace them, so it’s fair to wonder how Jones planned for injuries other than having blind faith in the young players.
Jones added about making a trade, “there’s a reason why the player will be available to trade. It’s either prohibitively high relative to what you’re going to have to trade to get them, or the fact that we’re as good as that by bringing our depth up to take the position.”
On Mazi Smith’s progression
“He’s an exceptional athlete, rare athlete, for his size I don’t know that I’ve seen anybody with his skill,” Jones said regarding the recent first-rounder. “He’s also got inordinate strength. If he can progress in his football internal aspect of it, the grit and sustaining the level of production that goes with, if you will, being a pro. If he can do that, then we’ve got what we’ve wanted, a star player. You can dream a little bit here, which is what we wanted with our first-round pick.”
Smith is coming off his best game since being drafted by the Cowboys in the first round ahead of the 2023 season and the hope is that he can build on his Week 3 performance in New York. If he can, it will go a long way to helping the defense improve against the run and be a better unit for the rest of the season.
Mike McCarthy’s future
“It’s a record thing, either you did, or you didn’t as Bill Parcells said,“ Jones remarked while discussing his head coach who is on the last year of his contract. “One of the nuances will be how you dealt through the years, how you dealt with this time, when you have to step up and replace what’s on the field, it’s a part of the game.”
With Jones electing not to give McCarthy a contract extension over the offseason, it sounds like he is also taking away any excuse for McCarthy if the Cowboys don’t play well.
That also falls in line with how good McCarthy has been with dealing with injuries throughout his tenure in Dallas – minus the Dak Prescott injury in his first season back in 2020 – because he’s been very good at navigating through injuries and still led the team to regular season wins.
On winning ugly
“I’ll take them (wins),” Jones remarked on Dallas’ relatively modest 20-15 Week 4 win. “The availability of talent is so equal, how you obtain that talent is so equal, you need to win some games when a few of your guys get outplayed. That’s going to happen.”
At this point in the season, it’s hard to argue about how the team wins games. The important thing to Jones is that the Cowboys won, moved to 2-2, claimed their first win against a division opponent on the road, and avoided a three-game losing skid.
Is it time for running back Dalvin Cook?
After needing the question asked twice, Jones answered “no, probably not this week.” The dissatisfaction with the running back group lingers but at least for now, the Cowboys don’t appear willing to make a change.
We’ll see if that holds true as the week goes on, and the word ‘probably’ leaves some wiggle room. The question was posed after Cook posted a cryptic message on X that led to speculation that the team may call up the former Pro Bowl back from the practice squad where he’s been since Dallas made him a late signing back in August.
On offense being down in the NFL
“Well if it is an issue, it will be addressed,” Jones replied to the notion that points have been hard to come by around the league. “It’s part of what you see evolving. That’s what happens, and there are adjustments, and those adjustments are meaningful. Frankly, today, it’s the most exciting game we’ve had since I’ve been involved in the NFL.”
Jones added that the pendulum swing between high scoring affairs and defensive battles is why it’s called a league of adjustments. Because those adjustments may have swung back in favor of defenses, it’s something that is acceptable with teams as offenses search for new ways to swing back.
Nevertheless, the low-scoring games have been a major topic of conversation through four weeks of the season. After years of passing offense accelerating scoring, defenses seem to have gotten the upper hand early this year, but as Jones points out, it will be addressed. The league loves offense and action, so it likely won’t be long before the NFL trends back towards shootouts.
Do you think the Cowboys will be able to weather their injuries in the coming weeks? Share your thoughts with Ben on X (formerly Twitter) @BenGrimaldi.
