N: Two changes on the staff, do you anticipate any more shuffling
S: You just don’t know. Just this time of the year things like this occur. Hudson was ending his career. That was his decision. And some difficult changes you need to make you hope to improve yourself.
N: Season ended with 4 losses in five games. How did that feel.
S: Very disappointing considering where we were going into the cardinal game and where we ended up. We felt we had opportunities. Felt the team was getting better under Jason’s leadership. Bare minimum we were in the play-offs.
N: Jason would be benefitted by an OC.
S: Unfair to point to one thing. We spend long hours in meetings with Jason. Long hours in meetings with the other coaches. We cover everything. We’re not through yet. Everything is a work in progress. If you see opportunities to improve your team you do it. Continue to evaluate internally. Disappointing we are doing these meetings now instead of 2, 3 or 4 weeks from now.
N: Cap – 123 mill this year. Where will it be next year?
S: Can't expect it to go up much. We manage it 24-7 year after year. We make decisions and feel we will be able to do the same thing this year that we did last year. Where it will be is unfair to say at this point.
N: During and before this season you made decisions to release Davis, Gurode, ect. Their money this next year is dead money. There was 28 million applied to next year from those releases. That means you can spend roughly 95 million this year. Is that true? There is a change in salary cap and how you apply that dead money.
S: If you did that in the past it was more contractual. Now you send the league a letter. We will be able to do what we want to do in regard to the salary cap. We will not be tied down by the cap.
N: So the cap will not prevent you from going to shop this year for a special player?
S: Yes, it will not stop us. We tried to get Namdi last year. We’ll be able to do what we need to do this year.
N: Have you been able to reduce the dead money?
S: All that matters is we can make moves aggressively. We don’t have to cut players. We’ve got all the running room we need to improve our football team. We can move up in the draft or whatever.
N: Last it seems you concentrated on offense. Can it then be said you will look to the defense this year?
S: Well obviously it doesn’t take an expert, even the fans see it, we struggled on the back end of our defense. We need to do better back there. We got Jerome Henderson who will be a nice coach for us. Two years back to back you can’t say we had an off year. Our front seven did a pretty nice job. We had a good number of sacks and played the run well. We need to work on the back side of the defense.
N: Jerry is a lightning rod. His job has a lot of exposure. That can get heavy considering the losses. Have you considered role changes? Bring in an advisor.
S: We look every year where we can do better. That goes across the board to everybody. If we’re not getting the job done how can we do better? There are a lot of things getting done right. We are the harshest critics. Until we start winning crucial games and championships we are not going to rest. We always evaluate how to improve ourselves no matter what level. If it is something we think will improve our team we will do whatever it takes.
N: In the days after the loss in NY can you read how Jerry feels after the loss.
S: Not just him, everyone has the passion for the Cowboys to be successful. It was completely disappointing. When you have a QB playing at Tony’s level, well most were in the play offs That was completely disappointing We do have a great QB in place a great young coach. We have some of the answers in place. We have things to do and must do them quickly to make the rest of the team competitive.
S: You just don’t know. Just this time of the year things like this occur. Hudson was ending his career. That was his decision. And some difficult changes you need to make you hope to improve yourself.
N: Season ended with 4 losses in five games. How did that feel.
S: Very disappointing considering where we were going into the cardinal game and where we ended up. We felt we had opportunities. Felt the team was getting better under Jason’s leadership. Bare minimum we were in the play-offs.
N: Jason would be benefitted by an OC.
S: Unfair to point to one thing. We spend long hours in meetings with Jason. Long hours in meetings with the other coaches. We cover everything. We’re not through yet. Everything is a work in progress. If you see opportunities to improve your team you do it. Continue to evaluate internally. Disappointing we are doing these meetings now instead of 2, 3 or 4 weeks from now.
N: Cap – 123 mill this year. Where will it be next year?
S: Can't expect it to go up much. We manage it 24-7 year after year. We make decisions and feel we will be able to do the same thing this year that we did last year. Where it will be is unfair to say at this point.
N: During and before this season you made decisions to release Davis, Gurode, ect. Their money this next year is dead money. There was 28 million applied to next year from those releases. That means you can spend roughly 95 million this year. Is that true? There is a change in salary cap and how you apply that dead money.
S: If you did that in the past it was more contractual. Now you send the league a letter. We will be able to do what we want to do in regard to the salary cap. We will not be tied down by the cap.
N: So the cap will not prevent you from going to shop this year for a special player?
S: Yes, it will not stop us. We tried to get Namdi last year. We’ll be able to do what we need to do this year.
N: Have you been able to reduce the dead money?
S: All that matters is we can make moves aggressively. We don’t have to cut players. We’ve got all the running room we need to improve our football team. We can move up in the draft or whatever.
N: Last it seems you concentrated on offense. Can it then be said you will look to the defense this year?
S: Well obviously it doesn’t take an expert, even the fans see it, we struggled on the back end of our defense. We need to do better back there. We got Jerome Henderson who will be a nice coach for us. Two years back to back you can’t say we had an off year. Our front seven did a pretty nice job. We had a good number of sacks and played the run well. We need to work on the back side of the defense.
N: Jerry is a lightning rod. His job has a lot of exposure. That can get heavy considering the losses. Have you considered role changes? Bring in an advisor.
S: We look every year where we can do better. That goes across the board to everybody. If we’re not getting the job done how can we do better? There are a lot of things getting done right. We are the harshest critics. Until we start winning crucial games and championships we are not going to rest. We always evaluate how to improve ourselves no matter what level. If it is something we think will improve our team we will do whatever it takes.
N: In the days after the loss in NY can you read how Jerry feels after the loss.
S: Not just him, everyone has the passion for the Cowboys to be successful. It was completely disappointing. When you have a QB playing at Tony’s level, well most were in the play offs That was completely disappointing We do have a great QB in place a great young coach. We have some of the answers in place. We have things to do and must do them quickly to make the rest of the team competitive.
