- Cowboys owner Jerry Jones hinted at potential offseason changes before the team’s final game.
- Jones stated it would be inaccurate to solely blame defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus for the team’s struggles.
- The Cowboys finished with a 7-9-1 record, marking their second consecutive losing season.
Jerry Jones couldn’t even wait for the Dallas Cowboys’ final game to end before he started alluding to potential changes for the upcoming offseason.
Before the Cowboys lost to the New York Giants, 34-17, on Sunday, Jan. 4, the Cowboys’ owner and general manager held court as is customary in the larger Jones universe.
“I can make the case that we haven’t had a satisfactory defense for five or six years,” Jones said, via the Star-Telegram. “(It’s) everything. I think you can look back relative to decisions we made three years ago, five years ago and look at why we made some of the decisions we made on coaches. What did we expect from them relative to what we’re doing with our personnel?
“That’s why it’s inaccurate to put this on the evaluation of Eberflus. It really is. I don’t want it to sound like it’s as simple as evaluating Eberflus. It’s much broader than that.’
Dan Quinn, now the Washington Commanders’ head coach, coordinated the unit from 2021-23 and found success. But Jones qualified that the unit struggled to stop the run, in his view.
Jones is no stranger to shaking things up. In the span of eight months, he traded for George Pickens, traded Micah Parsons away and traded for Quinnen Williams.
“I think we can do some things to maybe make as dramatic a difference as we could have in a long time,” Jones told reporters. “You can take that either way you want to do it. You can take it because you’re as dissatisfied as you’ve been in a long time. You can say do you really want to evaluate. The good news about this is in many ways, it’s the same motions that you’re evaluating on our staff and how we play defense.”