Jerry Jones said the amount of check he would write to guarantee another Super Bowl victory would be “embarrassing.”
Yes, it would be ridiculously small.
Jones, when it comes to the resources he’s willing to invest into the team, is cheap. He won’t fire coaches who have buyouts. And he won’t pay top dollar for new coaches.
Cowboys owner and general manager defended his approach during his last visit to 105.3 The Fan in Dallas making the absurd claim that there is no connection between coaching pay and winning.
“In the NFL, after years of looking at every team and every coach, there is no zero correlation between how much you pay a coach, or how many coaches you have, as to winning,” Jones said. “There’s no correlation. And it’s a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved. So put that in your hopper and smoke it.”
He’s just wrong. Hiring a proven coach and paying them accordingly can change everything. We’ve seen it time and time again.
Andy Reid instantly transformed the Chiefs into consistent contenders and three-time Super Bowl winners. Sean Payton made the Broncos an annual contender, positioning him to become the first coach to win a Super Bowl for two different teams. Most recently, John Harbaugh immediately changed everything for the Giants.
Harbaugh’s success will cause his old rival, Mike Tomlin, to fend off teams willing to pay him more than $30 million a year to trade his earpiece and microphone on the NBC sideline for the Sony headset along the white stripe.
Jones prefers to speculate when it comes to coaches. Instead of paying for a trainer who has proven he can win, Jones wants to roll the dice on an unproven product in hopes of maximizing the return on his investment.
“You can be pretty creative in hiring your coaches,” Jones said. “You can be creative sometimes when you don’t even know you’re hiring coaches. So I’ve had some good experience hiring people who have never been in the NFL. I’ve had some experience hiring younger coaches, older coaches, and so, of course, you’re constantly reminding me, as you should, what my record is. And I understand that. But I also know that the next time you throw the pick, if you were the old gold digger of California, you could reach the Comstock vein And then it’s the Gloryhole.
“Creative” is another way of saying “cheap.” Shop low and reap the benefits when the cheaper option delivers results. And stay with him until his contract expires, to avoid having to pay two coaches at the same time.
It would be different if there really was no correlation between coach quality (and cost) and winning. But there is ABSOLUTELY a connection.
However, Jerry prefers to rummage through the trash looking for an abandoned Botticelli. His own version of “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” is “if you have to ask, I don’t want it.”
It’s no surprise. In the early days of the salary cap, members of the media often pointed out that there was no cap on coaching compensation. Over time, the NFL realized, “Oh shit, there’s no cap on coaching compensation. »
This has led to what some see as an effort to collectively prevent coaching compensation from increasing at the rate it should. And some circles around the league are convinced that Jerry Jones is the ringleader of what is, in effect, an attempted collusion.
Even if he’s not willing to pay top dollar for a coach, the higher the market goes, the more expensive it becomes across the board. In other words, the rising tide lifts all canoes. And Jerry would much rather spend his money on his aircraft carrier turned luxury hotel.
That’s his prerogative. But Cowboys fans – who spend their money and devote their time and attention to watching games on TV and consuming Cowboys content – should understand what’s going on. Jerry Jones cuts corners when it comes to paying coaches. As a result, he often gets what he doesn’t pay for.
His mindset is very relevant to the looming wreck of the 2026 season. While coach Brian Schottenheimer has guaranteed there is money left on his contract for 2027, he will not be let go. And if Jones can avoid owing Schottenheimer a buyout, Jones will resist pursuing Tomlin, who admitted in the latest edition of Football night in America that he grew up being a Cowboys fan.
In fact, it might make Jerry think that deep-seated interest will give him a chance to hire Tomlin on the cheap. Because cheap is also cheap. And when it comes to his team (and especially his coaches), Jerry Jones is cheap.
Gn sports
