Cowboys: Jerry Jones Emotions Still In The Way

Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones showing continued signs of emotional issues in self-appointed role with America’s Team.

Not two years ago, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was reported to have been seconds away from drafting Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Maniel during the 2014 NFL Draft. It was an idea that was apparently blocked by son Stephen Jones, the vice president of football operations.

History already tells us that this move would have been a disaster, at best, and worthless at the very least. Only an emotional response to Maziel would have ever made this idea materialize. It had nothing to do with football scouting or analysis.

It boggles the mind how Jones approaches the quarterback position. It was this very position that launched Jones’ ascension from owner of a doormat to king of a dynasty during that first half-decade of ownership in the National Football League.

Honestly, I’m not sure that Jones remembers the name Troy Aikman.

Even if he doesn’t remember drafting Aikman, there’s no reason to expect that he doesn’t remember losing Aikman in the fall of 2000. If nothing else, the years spent trying to replace Aikman should serve as a vivid reminder of just how much of a mess can develop without a franchise quarterback.

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Dallas Morning News sports guru Rick Gosselin offers a fine examination of Jones’ tremendous difficulties when it comes to quarterbacks – there’s really no one else in the NFL like Jones in this regard.

In what was quite possibly in an aggravated response this week to opinions like this coming from all directions, Jones showed his emotional instability concerning the future perception of starting quarterback Tony Romo. It’s almost as if Jones feels that the media, along with much of Cowboys Nation, are acting irrationally because Romo lost a Super Bowl, or something.

Understand that nobody is running Romo out of DFW simply because of poor performances.

On the contrary, injuries and wear and tear associated with playing quarterback in the NFL for 10 years are creating that problem.

Regardless, Jones isn’t really listening.

DMN writer Jon Machota quotes Jones with the following humorous words as Jones went off on the media his week after being grilled about the future of both Romo and the quarterback position in Dallas.

“Four to five years.”

This was Jones’ response to exactly how long he expected Romo to remain the starting quarterback of the Cowboys.

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Now, I don’t expect Jones to show his cards regarding the coming offseason. That would be silly, right?

Then again, it’s almost just as ridiculous to make the following statement to a universe of football observers that didn’t start following this game yesterday. Jones offered the following to 105.3 The Fan regarding his reasoning for the expectation that Romo will start in Dallas until he’s just shy 40 years old.

"I think if you look at his playing time, if you look at the years he has actually played, he started late. He really has excellent skill relative to where his skill set began, what his skill set is. He’s got the relative skills. More important to anything, from a mental standpoint, and from the things that also mean so much at quarterback, he’s at the top of the list. So I think four to five years."

Yes, everyone understands that Romo took the starting job back in 2006, a time in which the former Eastern Illinois star was already 26 years old.

Then again, a late start doesn’t exactly mean that Romo’s actual age is any different than what it would have been had he started as early as 2003.

Once the radio discussion shifted, inevitably, to Romo’s more and more frequent injuries, the Cowboys owner seemed to lose composure amid the idea that his starting quarterback likely won’t play out the remaining five years of his monster extension signed back in 2013.

"This is not a damn debate, guys.This is not a debate we’re having here. Do you know that I don’t know if he’s got four or five years, you asked me my opinion. And I can give you all the reasons why, the back, or I can give you clavicle, or I can give you any other type of injuries that are there. But you’re asking me what I think and I think we’ve got outstanding quarterback ahead of us for the next four or five years. That’s not a downer. Will we be looking to develop and get talent behind Romo? Absolutely."

Well, Jones is right in this respect: It is not a debate at all.

Romo’s playing days are very near their end, and it has everything to do with age, not something personal.

Jones is basically telling the world that he thinks that a Cowboys quarterback who hasn’t played a 16-game schedule since 2012 will still be playing football at 39 years old – he’ll reach that mark on April 21, 2019.

I’m all for Romo playing as long as possible with the Cowboys, but I think that his best days are clearly behind him. In fact, I think they were behind him in 2014, despite the fact that the Cowboys went 12-4 as Romo threw 34 touchdowns to just 9 interceptions.

If not for former running back DeMarco Murray‘s out-of-nowhere performance out of the backfield, I think Romo’s actual talent level could have been exposed last season. In other words, I don’t know that the Cowboys would have won as many as 10 games without the performance of Murray and that young offensive line peppered with Pro Bowl talent.

Next: Cowboys: Jerry Jones, We Told you So

Whether or not Romo is still starting caliber in the NFL is anybody’s guess. Time will certainly tell, but the fact is that the Cowboys still need a premium quarterback prospect for the future – Jones needs this far more than he needs the right magical backup quarterback that can win some games the next time Romo goes down.

Yes, Romo will probably go down to injury again before he retires.

Then what?

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