Why Jerry Jones changed his message from ‘all in’ on Cowboys to needing to ‘win with less’

It was a calm and humorous, but focused Jerry Jones sitting on a chair Sunday evening before a handful of reporters inside the swanky Ritz Carlton Grand Lakes Hotel in Orlando on the first day of the NFL League Meetings.

But Jones had a few points to make regarding the realities of his team’s salary cap situation and a narrative he wanted clear up.

Call it an official change from Jones saying the Dallas Cowboys were “all in” on winning in 2024 to acknowledging they are going to have do more with less to win in 2024 because because they have always been “all in.”

Being all in the last three years didn’t help the Cowboys advance in the playoffs despite three straight 12-5 seasons and winning more games than every team in the NFL except the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.

It certainly didn’t help in the inexplicable 48-32 season-ending playoffs loss to the Green Bay Packers, which extended their gap since the last Super Bowl win in 1996 to 28 years.

It put them in situation where they are tight against the cap because they are still eating an “all in” contract for departed running back Ezekiel Elliott and faced with a $59.4 million cap hit in last year of the contract for quarterback Dak Prescott, who they paid at the top of the market to get them over them over the top.

It has resulted in the Cowboys losing six starters in free agency and several other depth pieces heading into a 2024 season that is considered a make-or-break season for coach Mike McCarthy in the final season of his contract.

Jones said the the Cowboys are challenged to do things differently to win.

But don’t dare say he’s not “all in.”

“I have been more all in before,” Jones said. “By any definition and I have more all in to make a run back to the line of scrimmage then I’ve been to run for 50 yards. It took more all in to just get back to the line of scrimmage than it did to run for 50 yards. Sometimes that is a bigger challenge. That is really the gist of what we’re about this year. We’ve got to get it done.

“I think that we have been in a situation where we can get it done with lesser. More doesn’t necessarily beat Green Bay. There are other things. Maybe having it better strategically in different spots, but more than necessarily beat them, either. So we’re gonna be asked to do some things different because we got some different players.”

Jones was at his analogous best comparing the Cowboys financial situations to every day people who have to decide how big a house or car to buy.

He said there is a difference between having money in the bank and paying all your bills, but having no money in the bank.

He even told the story of buying the Cowboys in 1989 and flying back to Arkansas in a Lear jet only to be picked up at the airport in five-year old Ford Bronco.

“You can’t have all that if you don’t sacrifice some place else,” Jones said. “Nobody can do that. And so you drive the five-year old Bronco, muddy Broncos to get to buy the Cowboys.”

He said the Cowboys are faced with some hard financial decisions over the next two offseasons that could impact the team for the next five years thanks to coming extensions for Prescott, receiver CeeDee Lamb and edge rusher Micah Parsons, prior contracts and an evolving economic future for the league.”

“What we doing here can hit the next five years because it can impact us that far,” Jones said. “So you got some real, real decisions. We have huge amounts of money that hit our cap for dollars we’ve spent on players for either a period of time when they played or the player himself that won’t be here in the future. We won’t be getting an ounce out of them in 2024.”

And while Jones acknowledges the Cowboys couldn’t afford to keep left tackle Tyron Smith in free agency, he points out that they went all in on right guard Zack Martin when he held out last August by giving him a raise and costing them a player or two because they wanted to win last year.

Now they will have to do it with younger players on the offensive line and the defensive line, which could be bonus in 2024.

“We had depth last year. Defensive front depth,” Jones said. “The biggest complaint we had was nobody got to play enough. We couldn’t get enough snaps. So we’re gonna make some of them happy. It was nice to be able to have that number and stay fresh. But we really didn’t make them as happy as they could have been or make us happy. Well now we can.”

Depth is no longer a luxury for the Cowboys, Jones said.

But none of this is a surprise to him and the front office.

They knew this day was coming.

Jones said he doesn’t regret the decisions the team made to put them in this situation.

What he regrets is not winning the Super Bowl despite all the wins they have over the last few years..

“We’ve been hanging around the rim pretty good,” Jones said. “I know our fans don’t want to hear it. But we’ve been hanging around the rim pretty good. We’ve been winning a lot of games, a lot of games. That’s what has transpired with us spending that money the way that we spent it. Is it satisfactory to sit here and not an advanced the last two or three years? Absolutely not.

“To have a plan not work to go to Super Bowl is very disappointing or for that matter not advance in the playoffs.”

So the Cowboys have to try to get to the next step by changing the plan.

He acknowledges the team heading into 2024 will not be better on paper than the one the Cowboys ended the 2023 season against Green Bay.

“You say we won’t have as good a team as we had last year, nine Pro Bowlers,” Jones said. “Of course, not on paper because you’re going to have Tyron Smith. Tyron looks beautiful on paper. He looks wonderful on paper. There’s nothing you can do. We can’t replace him with the first round pick and look like Tyron Smith looks out there.”

Jones compared the upcoming season to the college game when you have to prepared to move on from seniors and replace them with freshman

“Get used to it,” Jones said. “We’re gonna have to have some young ones step in. Young ones being some of your younger draft picks. You’re gonna have to have them and make no mistake about it. You’re gonna lose some people that in the perfect world you had all the money in the world (you would keep them). Let me say this, sometimes you make a decision and you got the money. But you’re anticipating looking ahead at something that’s coming. And so that’s what you’re seeing.”

Jones knows he is going to get second-guessed and judged by his decisions.

But he said that happened over the last three years as well.

They got sent home in the playoffs with nine Pro Bowlers and Prescott playing at an All-Pro level.

Jones urged fans to believe in the front office, believe in Prescott and the coaching to staff to get it right and change things strategically to get better results.

He said starting over was not option as the Cowboys are too close.

“I would look at the last three seasons. And I would say from that they know what to doing,” Jones said. “They’ve had excellent talent and I have had enough to win 12 games. And I’ve had coaching that does correlate. They’re short on moving forward. Rather than start all over, my judgment is to take what we’ve got. Be as be as strategic about what we’re going to be doing in the next few years. Be strategic but not compromise an all in now.

Why?

“Because you got Dak for sure,” Jones said. “We think he’s great quarterback and do as good as you can do...By the way we know that was in as his last year. That is what we negotiated years ago. And then really prudently is there going to be life after 2024? You bet there is. A lot of it. We got to think about all that. But where I you take issue, not emotionally, but where I take issue is ‘all in’. Your thing that you hung my neck as ’all in’.”

Jones said he is always been all in.