Jerry Jones has received a lot of deserved vitriol for how he has navigated the offseason. While the Dallas Cowboys have been more aggressive relative to their reputation, including their sneaky-smart trade for Patriots quarterback Joe Milton to back up Dak Prescott, they have not made any marquee pickups.
Needless to say the Cowboys still have a lot of work to do if they are to challenge the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East.
The Eagles have suffered a lot of losses in free agency, but they still boast one of the more talented rosters in the league and arguable the best GM in Howie Roseman. It is wishful thinking at this rate that Jones will learn through osmosis from Philly's trailblazing front office.
You would think that Jones would be incentivized to close the gap on the Eagles, but Cowboys fans learned long ago that winning is not the owner's top priority despite what he says to the media. In fact, Jones spoke out in support of Philly's polarizing tush push play.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones maddeningly supports Eagles' controversial tush push play
The Packers proposed to ban the tush push, but it was tabled during the NFL owners meetings this week due to a split vote.
While the tush push is an eyesore and looks more like a rugby scrum than a goal-line design, the Eagles and Bills ran it more since the 2022 season than the other 30 teams combined, per Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports. Epstein did some research and found via ESPN that the tush push accounted for less than 0.30% of plays last season.
As unorthodox as the tush push is, it would be unfair to ban it simply because one team runs it to perfection. Being that the Eagles are the Cowboys' foremost rival and biggest threat in the NFC East, though, you would think Jerry Jones would be in support of eliminating it.
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As tone deaf as ever, Jones thinks the tush push should remain in tact.
“The reason we got the 2-point play is [we] said the extra point alone kicking it is not exciting enough,” Jones told Epstein.
“It was more from the entertainment standpoint — which from my perspective, is a good discussion. The fact that fans could be interested in what we do with it. We do things, and if somebody does it really well or gets an edge, we might make defensive, offensive adjustments."
There's something to be said that Jones doesn't want the tush push outlawed because Dallas hasn't been able to stop it.
That would be seen as petty, and there surely are teams that want it banned for that reason. Cowboys fans at large view Jones as public enemy No. 1, but we doubt they would give the 82-year-old grief if he stood on petty ground. As long as it benefits the team, right?
Unfortunately, the Cowboys were not atop Jones' mind in this space.
While maddening, it is hardly a surprise that Jones brought up the tush push's entertainment element. After all, entertainment has long been one of Jones' prime motivators as the team's chief decision-maker.
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