On Monday night, I sat down to watch the Chicago Bears pick apart a Super Bowl-caliber Seattle Seahawks defense, the same unit that shut down the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football just a week earlier.

And I thought about Bears head coach Ben Johnson, who has Chicago at 6-2 after hanging 34 points on Seattle.

It was hard not to think about Johnson from a Dallas Cowboys perspective. Fans were frustrated in 2025 when the team’s coaching search didn’t include him at all. Then on Tuesday morning, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones went on the radio and took those frustrations to the next level.

Jones was asked on 105.3 The Fan about the long-running narrative that he won’t pay top dollar for head coaches. His response was a telling one.

“There is zero correlation between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have as to winning,” Jones said. “There is no correlation. And that is a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved. So put that in your hopper and smoke it.”

Why the Jones narrative exists in the first place

Jones’ unwillingness to spend top dollar on coaches isn’t a new storyline, and it’s a justified one.

The Cowboys let Jason Garrett coach through two contracts without firing him midway through, even when there were reasons to consider it. They did the same with Mike McCarthy, who coached through his entire deal despite arguments to move on after the 2023-24 playoff debacle against the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers.

Coaching contracts are guaranteed in the NFL. For years, the belief has been that Dallas avoids firing coaches midway through their deals because it doesn’t want to pay someone who no longer works for the team.

When the Cowboys wanted McCarthy back in 2025, the two sides disagreed on contract length, and McCarthy was the one who walked away. Dallas then hired Brian Schottenheimer.

That’s why the narrative feels so relevant now. Schottenheimer has a losing record through 25 games. His only win streak was three games in November 2025, against the Raiders, a struggling Chiefs team that missed the playoffs, and an Eagles team that disappointed in the postseason.

Schottenheimer is believed to be on the lower end of head coaching salaries in the NFL. He’s also considered one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, the Cowboys are underachieving in what was supposed to be a win-now year with Dak Prescott, George Pickens, and CeeDee Lamb.

The one place Dallas has no excuse

For years, the Cowboys have talked about the salary cap and how there’s only so much pie to go around. Fans point to Prescott’s cap hit year after year, even though he’s one of the bright spots on the roster.

But there’s no salary cap on coaches. This is the one area where the most valuable franchise in sports can flex its financial muscle. And yet, its owner says what you pay doesn’t matter.

Never mind what Sportico’s list of the highest-paid head coaches actually shows. Andy Reid is in the top 10, and his resume with the Chiefs speaks for itself. Sean Payton is there, fresh off an AFC Championship Game appearance last season, with an injury to Bo Nix derailing a potential Super Bowl run.

Sean McVay sits at No. 4 with a Super Bowl win in the 2021 season. Kyle Shanahan has taken the 49ers to two Super Bowls, once with Jimmy Garoppolo and once with Brock Purdy. Matt LaFleur, at No. 7, has reached two NFC Championship Games.

Like him or not, Nick Sirianni has been to two Super Bowls with the Eagles (and yes, I’d argue he had a super team). Mike Vrabel took the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl in his first season. Following them on the list are Kevin O’Connell and, you guessed it, Ben Johnson. No correlation?

To be fair, Jerry might be on to something in the sense that some of these coaches saw their salaries skyrocket following successful years. But to use it within the context of the Cowboys, who have been reluctant to pay out coaches when firing them is arguably the best option, and who turned to Schottenheimer in 2025 (despite him drawing no head coaching interest around the NFL) is unnaceptable.

Not to mention, Jones openly dropping that quote does nothing to disipate the idea that the Cowboys don’t want to spend top dollar at head coach.

Looking at their coaching search in 2025 further proves it.

The 2025 coaching search still doesn’t add up

The numbers from the Cowboys’ 2025 search, which I wrote about at the time, still blow my mind.

Of the seven teams looking for a head coach that offseason, Dallas was the only one that didn’t request an interview with either Johnson or Aaron Glenn. Four of those seven teams requested interviews with both. Additionally, six of the seven teams requested interviews with five or more candidates. The lone exception? The Cowboys.

Either Dallas didn’t reach out because it knew Johnson and Glenn were out of its budget, or the candidates themselves knew what the financials would look like. The other alternative is even worse: maybe the Cowboys simply aren’t an attractive job anymore.

Listen, if the Cowboys move on from Schottenheimer after this season, which feels increasingly likely given the results, I’m not sure comments like these will attract top talent in 2027. A questionable hire came out of an even more questionable search.

So let Jerry Jones tell you money doesn’t matter when hiring for the most important position on a football team outside of quarterback. Let him tell you that.

And let the facts say otherwise.