FRISCO, Texas – Two days removed from the Cowboys’ 40-40 tie against the Green Bay Packers, owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he saw “things we can build off of” going forward the rest of the season.
That will have to start with the defensive side of the ball, which has give up 30 or more points each of the last three weeks.On the bright side, Dak Prescott is playing some of the best football of his career, and George Pickens stepped up big time in CeeDee Lamb’s absence with 134 yards and two touchdowns in Week 4.
Jones discussed that and more on his weekly morning radio show with 105.3 The Fan, let’s dive into some more of what he had to say heading into a two-game road stretch:
George Pickens’ future with the Cowboys
The Cowboys traded a third-round pick to the Steelers for Pickens, who they knew was heading into the final year of his contract. Pickens said that he would focus on his future after the season, setting up a “prove it” year. He proved himself last Sunday, and Jones took notice, pointing out that the Cowboys do have the cap space to be able to look at a future with Pickens if things continue to trend positively.
“He’s an exemplary teammate. He is exemplary in his work preparation, and you can see the results of that out there on Sundays, obviously. Reminds me a little of his weight has different contortions as he’s catching a ball. He can just catch the ball in any set of circumstance…” Jones said.
“I’m proud to tell you that we’ve got some outstanding structure in our cap space that will allow us to do a lot of things that I didn’t think when we finished this time last year that we might have the room to do some of these things we’re talking about doing. We got it.”
Help is on the way on the defensive side of the ball
The Cowboys currently rank 32nd in the NFL in yards allowed per game, and know that there’s things that need to be fixed on the defensive side of the ball. Still, Jones saw growth over the course of the game from Dallas on Sunday night despite the final score.
“If you felt it, even though they scored 40 points, our defense improved as that game went along right before your eyes,” Jones said. “And we did make some stops that were out there that were key stops against a fine offensive football team in Green Bay. So, I think your eyes didn’t betray you, and that we got better as that game went along. That’s what you’re looking for.”
Some of that help could be coming from the IR, NFI and PUP lists as early as this week. Now that Week 4 has passed by, players that were place on those lists at the start of the season are eligible to have their 21-day practice windows opened. Jones said the team will look at those possibilities this week.
Response to Micah Parsons’ comments
All the talk going into Week 4 was the return of Micah Parsons after the Cowboys traded him to Green Bay. The build up to the trade itself was a massive storyline, with plenty of back and forth between Parsons and Jones during the negotiation process. Parsons said postgame that Jones “couldn’t tell me as a man” about the trade, and he found out from his agent.
“I really don’t want to respond to that at all,” Jones said when asked about Parsons’ comments. “But that phone call thing got stopped when he told me to take his number off my dial. It was don’t call him anymore. So I quit those calls.”
With the game now in the rearview mirror, both sides can now move forward and focus on the rest of the season, although the comparing and contrasting of both sides are sure to continue.
Dak Prescott’s strong start to the season
Jerry Jones described Dak Prescott as “indispensable,” and so far this season the Cowboys see him playing like it too. Jones credited head coach Brian Schottenheimer for helping get the best from Prescott thus far, and a lot of his success has also stemmed from what Schottenheimer and the offense can do when they’re not throwing the ball.
“I gave Brian credit last year for how I thought Dak had really elevated his game… Dak’s throwing the ball quicker. It wasn’t just that game, it’s the games in general. He’s getting the ball out…” Jones said.
“Oh, I forgot one little small thing: That running game. That running game. And that running game, when you execute it to, give all involved some credit here, not just the running back but the running backs or back, but also the way we’re blocking it up.”
The discussion around overtime rules in the NFL
Given the recent outcome of the Cowboys’ latest game, which resulted in a tie, there was a lot of conversation about whether or not the NFL should change their overtime rules to determine a winner and a loser in the regular season, not just the post season.
Jones said following the game that he’s fine with how overtime is currently structured, and on Tuesday pointed to television windows and the overall time length of games being a big reason why.
“It’s very important to try to look for and try to attain a three hour window,” Jones said. “And so it has to do with timing, it has to do with other games, has to do with really the structure of just how much is enough relative to timing more than anything, the length of the game.”
