Hello,
I'll go back and forth on saying the decisions are Jones or the Cowboys, because the two to me are synonymous. More importantly I want to say Jerry Jones you are the problem. When are you going to realize that? I'm sure he has, it's just his ego won't let him get out of the way.
I've loved following the Dodgers this season as they are on their way to the playoffs. I remember back in the day when I use to feel the same way about the Cowboys. At this time I'm barely still a Cowboys fan. It's one thing to be bad, but to be bad because of the heavy handed egotistic ownership of someone who has no idea what he's doing really tries a person's fandom. The Cowboys continue their steady descent to mediocrity and deterioration. What Jones has done to his own team continues to take more shine off the star of the team who used to represent so much. Thanks to Jones for his clueless, pathetic and destructive ownership of the Cowboys.
It's a new season, but more of the same for the Cowboys. The Cowboys are 1-1 this season, which falls right in line with them finishing 8-8 the last two seasons. Although the Cowboys offensive line has long been a weakness, Jones has failed to properly address this once again this past off season. Someone that played the offensive line in college would seem to realize how important the offensive line is. At least that's what I would think. (I know using logic with Jones is a fools game.) Even when he does address the offensive line, he does it poorly. He drafted Travis Frederick in the first round, many draft analysts thought the Cowboys could have got Frederick in the third round. All those years of Jones ignoring the offensive line in chasing after the bright flashy player have caught up to Dallas. Many of those shiny toy players have turned into busts.
What are some of the things that Jones has mismanaged, the first thing is handling of Tony Romo. I'm not a big fan of Romo, he's choked too many times when the Cowboys need him the most. In Romo's defense, with Jones' poor handling of the Cowboys we won't ever be able to judge Romo's career in a fair way. For instance, how much better would Romo have been if Jones had actually given him a great offensive line in to protect him? I don't know that Romo's record would be better than 1-6 in win or go home games, but there's a good chance that his record would be better.
Also Romo had one more year on his contract and instead of letting the contract play out, Jones threw a lot of money at Romo to make a panic signing. Romo will end up getting the better of that deal as the 33 year old quarterback's skills eventually begin to deteriorate. In line with that the Cowboys have yet to draft the quarterback of the future, Jones idiotically keeps on saying that Romo is the quarterback of the future. Not drafting that future quarterback is going to haunt the Cowboys someday soon, just like they are being haunted by not building a better offensive line. With Dallas' porous offensive line, Romo will probably get injured again and have to miss games. Romo is already dealing with sore ribs from being hit in game 1. The hit came because of that poor offensive line.
Not only did Jones give Romo a ton of money, he also let Romo have much more say in making up game plans and calling plays. Bill Callahan calls the plays, but then Romo ends up doing what the hell he wants to do based on what he sees from the defense. Dallas has been no better or worse than when Garrett was calling plays.
But the Cowboys have an experienced quarterback backing him up right? Yes they do, too bad that's Kyle Orton. Not that Romo is an amazing quarterback, but Orton is a deep drop off in talent.
What about the draft? The ESPN Dallas writers, who seem to want the Cowboys to win as much as I do, often write articles about how the Cowboys drafts pan out? Most of them end up being cut quicker than would be expected. Also not many players go to other teams and find success, which is another sign of how bad of players are that Jones drafts. I realize that Jones has people help him with the draft, but ultimately it's Jones' final decision.
Hand in hand with the draft is the Cowboys trades and signing of free agents. The two worst Cowboy trades that jump to mind, and probably to most Cowboys fans minds, is the trades for Joey Galloway and Roy Williams. Dallas gave up way too much and received so little in both of these deals. The trade especially for the wide receiver Williams was brutal. It was pretty clear that was a bad trade from almost the beginning. When he was finally cut, he left behind about $7 million dollars in dead money. For those who don't know dead money is guaranteed money for a player that goes against the salary cap the season after a player is cut. Due to Jones poor decision making, the Cowboys usually have a lot of dead money on each season's salary cap.
As for free agency signings, all I want to do is mention the names of Mackenzy Bernadeau and Nate Livings. Both of which signed in 2012 and already Livings is no longer with the team. The signing of Doug Free for 4 years and $32 million a few years ago. Yes, it was probably his missed block that lead to Romo's injury.
The Cowboys looked okay in their first game against the Giants, although the Giants don't look like they are a very good team. In their second game Dallas choked against the Chiefs, which shouldn't surprise any long time Cowboys fan. But the bottom will fall out when this team starts losing players to injury. And that will happen because Jones loves to sign injured players. He hopes they'll turn into great players and he gets them at a cut rate price. The bad thing about that is when those players become vital to the team but miss games due to injury. That scenario played out a few times last season.
Anthony Spencer and Jay Ratliff have already missed games. Will Ratliff even play this season? Look for some combination of Sean Lee, DeMarco Murray, Miles Austin, Morris Claiborne or other important players to miss time due to injuries.
Actually Jay Ratliff is a great example of how bad of a GM Jones is. Ratliff misses much of last season due to "injury" and also goes after Jones in the locker room. However Jones keeps him on the roster. Ratliff's sack numbers have dropped the last 5 seasons and he had 0 sacks last season but Jones still keeps him. Ratliff gets in an drunken driving accident in the offseason, Jones still keeps him around. (Josh Brent would still be on the team, even after killing someone, if he hadn't retired.) Ratliff doesn't work out with the Cowboys trainers in the off season and is put on the IR for the first 6 weeks of the season. Guess what happens? Yes, Ratliff is still on the team and has a very expensive contract. That's a contract he should have never been signed to. Yes, Jerry Jones you are the problem. When are you going to realize that? I'm sure he has, it's just his ego won't let him get out of the way.
What do these names have in common? Wade Phillips, Barry Switzer, Jason Garrett, Dave Campo and Chan Gailey. Yes, that's right all 5 people have been head coaches/ puppets of Jerry and the Cowboys. I know that technically Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl. Being honest though, he won the Super Bowl by staying out of the way and taking advantage of the players Jimmy Johnson drafted. When those players left or got too old, Switzer's teams weren't very good. Don't even remind me of the 5-11 seasons of Campo, the horrendous coaching of Phillips, the poorly managed games of Garrett and I can't remember anything about Chan Gailey's coaching tenure (or is it manure?) Jerruh you've done a damn fine job of hiring coaches. Yes, Jerry Jones you are the problem. When are you going to realize that? I'm sure he has, it's just his ego won't let him get out of the way.
Even when Garrett gets fired during or after the season that won't fix anything. The clueless Jones will only hire another puppet. It also doesn't help that Jones undermines his coaches like taking away the play calling from Garrett. By the way Garrett handled that you can tell he didn't want to give up the play calling.
But no one is better at selling a mediocre product than Jerry Jones, you've got to give him credit for that. Before the season started, he said he was so excited that he couldn't even sleep. That's part of his snake oil salesman personality. I use to buy into that snake oil too, but after the Cowboys have failed for so many years I gave up on Jones' hype machine a couple of years ago. Yes, Jerry Jones you are the problem. When are you going to realize that? I'm sure he has, it's just his ego won't let him get out of the way.
Also Jones is desperate to win a Super Bowl, but he's determined to do it his way. But apparently two playoff wins in 17 years isn't enough of a hint that he has no clue what he's doing. He's protected himself by surrounding himself with yes men and puppets, who's job security ties into agreeing with Jones.
Jones says all the right things about winning, although he hasn't changed much the last several years. He keeps on doing the same things, but expects the team to change. That's why I don't believe Jones when he says he really wants the Cowboys to win. Because if he really wanted the Cowboys to win, he would make significant changes. Reportedly the Cowboys had $125 million profit last year, that's what he really cares about.
Sadly the Cowboys will remain a mediocre franchise, again two playoff wins in the last 17 years, while someone with the last name of Jones owns/destroys the Cowboys. Yes, Jerry Jones you are the problem. When are you going to realize that? I'm sure he has, it's just his ego won't let him get out of the way.
themusicaddict
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