Dallas Cowboys: Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones are being cheap

The Dallas Cowboys are non-participants in free agency and it’s one thing to not over pay for elite talent, but bargain shopping is not the best route either.

Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones used to wait for the start of the free agency period like customers waited for the midnight sale at Walmart on Black Friday.

Ole Jerry would open up his check book and spend whatever amount of money to secure the services of the best talent available. Jerry didn’t care if he over spent for an old talented player, an overrated player, or a player coming off an All Pro season.

Jerry didn’t care because Jerry wanted to win. Heck, you couldn’t blame him because he had so much success doing it in previous years.

One of Jerry’s best free agent signings ever was the day he signed Hall of Famer Deion Sanders to a then record $13 million signing bonus.

Deion signed the long-term contract, received his $13 million signing bonus in a lump sum, and the contract would pay Prime Time at least $25 million over the next five years. Plus, Deion could receive the maximum amount of $35 million if he remained with the Cowboys for the next seven years. Wow!

Well…we all know how the story goes. Deion led the Cowboys to its third Super Bowl title in four short years and gave Cowboys Nation the utmost excitement each and every Sunday afternoon.

Those were the Super Bowl winning years…

Fast forward almost 25 years later and Jerry and Stephen Jones would not sign a high priced free agent even if they were $100 million dollars under the salary cap. Simply put, Jerry and Stephen are cheap when it comes to signing free agents.

The Joneses are cheaper than a loaf of bread at the discount bread store when it comes to spending money on a free agent.

As my late Grandmother used to say, “when it comes to money, you’re GrandPa is tighter than a Dixie hat band!”

That’s exactly how Jerry and Stephen operate these days during the free agent signing period. These two have avoided signing big name free agents that could improve their secondary like Landon Collins (age 25,6 years, $84 million Washington Redskins), Tyrann Mathieu (age 26, 3 years, $42 million, Kansas City Chiefs), Lamarcus Joyner (age 28, signed 4 years, $42 million Oakland Raiders), and the main attraction, Earl Thomas (age 29, signed 4 years, $55 million with the Baltimore Ravens).

Anyone of those aforementioned safeties would have improved the Cowboys tremendously. But the one player who wanted to play for the Cowboys was Thomas, and there was mutual interest, of course at the right price.

And I’m sure Stephen wanted Thomas’ play making abilities at around $10-11 million dollar range. As expected, Thomas is expected to receive around $15 million a year from the Ravens, and Stephen wasn’t going to pay Thomas that much.

Side note: To be clear about who controls the Cowboys purse strings, it’s Stephen, and that’s why I mention his name more than Jerry because Stephen is the main person saying yes or no to free agent signings.

I know I’m in the minority, but I feel as if Stephen should have paid for Thomas’ ball hawking skills. Yes, I’m aware of Thomas injury history but I’ll rather watch Thomas intercept balls than Jeff Heath take the wrong angle and miss a tackle or get blasted in coverage.

Instead of paying Thomas $15 million a year, Stephen could have sweeten the pot with $12-13 million with some incentives, or find a creative way to make it work. Stephen wants to sign elite talent on the cheap. Period.

Now I’ll admit the only safety worth his millions is Thomas because he’s simply the best in the league and he fits defensive passing coordinator Kris Richard’s scheme.

But whether you think Stephen is doing the right thing by missing on elite talent then how do you expect the Cowboys to improve in key areas like the safety position? The brutal reality is that NFL teams will always overpay for free agents and their own players.

The NFL is a business and you get what you pay for. I’m not saying Stephen should go out here and pay a king’s ransom for any player, but at some point you have to pay the big bucks to the best players. It’s that simple.