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Jerry Jones won't make major overhaul: Cowboys 'closer than this record indicates'
By Jon Machota , Staff Writer
After a Cowboys season that began with Super Bowl hopes ends with double-digit losses, many would expect Jerry Jones to be make significant offseason changes.
But the Cowboys owner and general manager said the opposite Tuesday morning.
Why?
Jones believes this team is much closer to the Super Bowl than its 4-11 record indicates. He noted that there will be the regular changes that occur every NFL offseason, free agents leave, free agents are added and a new batch of draft picks are selected.
But don't expect a major roster overhaul.
"There's at least 20 percent of this roster that changes every year, maybe higher," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan's Shan and RJ show [KRLD-FM]. "So there's going to be those kinds of changes. There's changes on coaching staffs that happen. Change just for change sake? You're not going to have that because I too believe that we're closer than this record indicates.
"On the other hand, I don't blame it all on the quarterback. I think we should have won. We should have coached them up enough. We haven't done enough things in some of these games that we lost on our way to this record that we could have won. You see other teams doing it, and you see another team doing it with our quarterback [Brandon Weeden] that left here that couldn't do it."
So why exactly does Jones think this group is close?
Here's his 375-word explanation.
"I say that because when it gets off balance, when it gets out of kilter, it really goes off the road," Jones said. "If you look, you can see that in a lot of places. And it impacts defense, it impacts making big plays, special teams, all of that.
"On the other hand, you realize what a fine line it is when you really got it humming. Now, a lot of people will take issue with this, but we were real close last year. And I hate to even have that come out of my mouth. We were very close last year. We went through training camp and I [thought] we were better than we were last year.
"But going into last year, as you recall, I was skeptical. I said we had an uphill battle. We had work to do. I didn't dream we were going to have these offensive linemen come through the way they did. I didn't dream Tony [Romo] was going to have an injury-free season and really have the excellent year that he had. Of course, all that balanced things out.
"We really got our running [game going]. We had a guy go out there and get most of the carries and make 1,800 yards. But I think we showed without question, and [DeMarco] Murray's a good football player, but we showed without question that this [Darren] McFadden is too. If you put McFadden in the same situation he certainly would've added 30 to 40 percent to his yards this year.
"All of those things make me think we're a lot closer than this record looks like. Does that mean that under any circumstances we're not going to do everything we can? If you look at last year, pass rush was a priority, we got after it in pass rushing. This year, we were hot off the press, hot off the stove with the quarterback situation, we're going to address it and we should address it.
"I think the thing that motivates me to address it, both short and long term, Romo relatively short, 3 to 5, and then long term with a prospect that might be a future is the fact that we're close. You can operate pretty good in this territory."
By Jon Machota , Staff Writer
After a Cowboys season that began with Super Bowl hopes ends with double-digit losses, many would expect Jerry Jones to be make significant offseason changes.
But the Cowboys owner and general manager said the opposite Tuesday morning.
Why?
Jones believes this team is much closer to the Super Bowl than its 4-11 record indicates. He noted that there will be the regular changes that occur every NFL offseason, free agents leave, free agents are added and a new batch of draft picks are selected.
But don't expect a major roster overhaul.
"There's at least 20 percent of this roster that changes every year, maybe higher," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan's Shan and RJ show [KRLD-FM]. "So there's going to be those kinds of changes. There's changes on coaching staffs that happen. Change just for change sake? You're not going to have that because I too believe that we're closer than this record indicates.
"On the other hand, I don't blame it all on the quarterback. I think we should have won. We should have coached them up enough. We haven't done enough things in some of these games that we lost on our way to this record that we could have won. You see other teams doing it, and you see another team doing it with our quarterback [Brandon Weeden] that left here that couldn't do it."
So why exactly does Jones think this group is close?
Here's his 375-word explanation.
"I say that because when it gets off balance, when it gets out of kilter, it really goes off the road," Jones said. "If you look, you can see that in a lot of places. And it impacts defense, it impacts making big plays, special teams, all of that.
"On the other hand, you realize what a fine line it is when you really got it humming. Now, a lot of people will take issue with this, but we were real close last year. And I hate to even have that come out of my mouth. We were very close last year. We went through training camp and I [thought] we were better than we were last year.
"But going into last year, as you recall, I was skeptical. I said we had an uphill battle. We had work to do. I didn't dream we were going to have these offensive linemen come through the way they did. I didn't dream Tony [Romo] was going to have an injury-free season and really have the excellent year that he had. Of course, all that balanced things out.
"We really got our running [game going]. We had a guy go out there and get most of the carries and make 1,800 yards. But I think we showed without question, and [DeMarco] Murray's a good football player, but we showed without question that this [Darren] McFadden is too. If you put McFadden in the same situation he certainly would've added 30 to 40 percent to his yards this year.
"All of those things make me think we're a lot closer than this record looks like. Does that mean that under any circumstances we're not going to do everything we can? If you look at last year, pass rush was a priority, we got after it in pass rushing. This year, we were hot off the press, hot off the stove with the quarterback situation, we're going to address it and we should address it.
"I think the thing that motivates me to address it, both short and long term, Romo relatively short, 3 to 5, and then long term with a prospect that might be a future is the fact that we're close. You can operate pretty good in this territory."
at the idiots that think Garrett will be fired
