Stephen Jones tries to explain away several front office offseason miscues

If you know anything about the Dallas Cowboys, you know that the father/son, GM/EVP duo of Jerry and Stephen Jones are professional spin doctors. The two of them will try and spin anything and everything they do into a positive thing. They’ve gotten fans to stick along with believing this is a championship-caliber team for the last 26 years without winning a Super Bowl, so they are actually pretty good at it.

On Tuesday, Stephen Jones made a guest appearance on local Dallas sports radio station 105.3 The Fan (full interview here) to talk about recent events. From the moment it began, Stephen was ready with his pre-prepared PR verbiage to explain away anything the broadcasters asked him. About the Kelvin Joseph situation? He couldn’t comment on it. On fans believing the front office isn’t making good decisions for the team? He feels the team is in an “excellent place” and doesn’t win Super Bowls in the offseason. The EVP also once again reiterated that the team is “not done yet in free agency” despite the only move being made since the last time that happened being signing lackluster special teams addition Ryan Nall.

Alarmingly, he also seemed to be on a different page about some things his dad Jerry said recently. For starters, Jones shared that he does not think trading up is necessary, despite his dad saying the team definitely has an interest in doing so last week. Stephen also said that the defensive line and wide receiver are the biggest needs for the draft even though Jerry said the offensive line was a priority at league meetings in Florida. Is anybody in this office on the same page?

There’s spinning things to make everything seem fine, and then there’s lying. Stephen implying that the team let Amari Cooper “move on” in order to give CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup bigger roles in the offense is absurd. Both the EVP and GM had openly complained about Cooper’s production during the season and mentioned that the former WR1 should be doing more given his paycheck. The decision to trade Cooper was not about Lamb and Gallup. It was about money and proving a point that the Cowboys won’t pay people who don’t perform. Stephen’s full quote on the Cooper situation is below.

Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones tried to spin reasoning for the Amari Cooper trade and claimed Dorance Armstrong has equivalent production to Randy Gregory

It just seems like everything out of this man’s mouth was to avoid the reality that the front office just hadn’t made great decisions in the past few weeks. Another spin he tried to pull off happened when telling The Fan that re-signed defensive end free agent Dorance Armstrong was “right there from a production standpoint” with now-former Cowboy Randy Gregory.

Armstrong had fewer sacks, QB hits, and tackles for loss than Gregory. That also doesn’t factor in the fact that Gregory was often double-teamed in coverage due to his superior skill. What else proves Gregory’s superiority? The fact that Stephen and Jerry Jones were fully prepared to give the now-Bronco a deal worth over $14 million a year. How much did they pay Armstrong? Just over $6 million a year on a two-year deal.

If they’re so comparable, why not give Armstrong a lucrative, long-term contract to keep him around? Why weren’t other teams fighting to get Armstrong on their roster? Stephen could have just let Gregory walk to the Broncos instead of embarrassingly losing him to Denver in the 11th hour if they had an equally high-producing player already on the roster.

It is truly remarkable to watch this front office continue to defend the decisions they have made this offseason. We can all hope that these moves somehow end up paying off. But, without knowing who will be joining the roster in the draft and without exceedingly meaningful external additions, it’s getting harder and harder to buy what Stephen Jones is selling.