If Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was trying to make fans feel better when he went on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday, he struck out.

He went 0-for-3. His three biggest talking points on the trade deadline, coaching salaries, and the offensive game plan should make the Cowboys fan base feel even worse. And quite honestly, they should.

Strike one: The Cowboys aren’t selling, might be buying

At 3-5, the Cowboys should at least consider selling before the Nov. 10 trade deadline. And by the end of the week, they might have no other choice. 

You see, a loss to Indianapolis is far from impossible. The Colts are sellers and might move more talent by Sunday, but Dallas has issues of its own. Safeties PJ Locke and Caleb Downs are in the concussion protocol. The Cowboys might also be without Malachi Lawrence, which appears to be the expectation, and Joey Porter Jr. could get rest after battling an ankle injury on and off.

If the Cowboys drop to 3-6, with losses to the Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Colts, they have to sell.

According to Jones, however, as of this moment, that’s not happening. He said on the radio that the Cowboys are not selling and that he doesn’t see a scenario in which they would. To be fair, that comes with an asterisk. Teams say they aren’t trading anyone all the time and then do the exact opposite. If a big-time offer comes along for someone like George Pickens, everything could be on the table, especially if they do lose versus Indy.

But being this closed-minded about selling reveals so much. It shows a team without a long-term plan, one that is rarely proactive. The Cowboys are clearly far away from being a contender. 

Selling is the best thing Dallas could do, especially if the plan is to not extend Pickens. Early evidence suggests that’s the plan. The Cowboys franchise tagged him instead of extending him, never negotiated a long-term deal, and publicly said paying two top wide receivers is a tough task in today’s NFL. In other words, it’s not something they believe in roster construction-wise.

The Cowboys need to accept who they are.

Now, even if they don’t sell, I can live with that. What’s harder to accept is Jones continuing to say they will be buyers if the right deal comes along. That’s after back-to-back seasons of buying when they shouldn’t have, landing Jonathan Mingo in 2024 and Quinnen Williams in 2025.

Strike two: Jones doesn’t believe in paying coaches top dollar

Jones also faced a strong question about the perception that he won’t spend on coaches.

He didn’t push back. He didn’t say he hired the candidates he liked most and that money had nothing to do with it. Jerry instead said that in the NFL there is “zero correlation” between what you pay your coaches and winning.

That is an insane thing to say. Look at the highest-paid coaches in the NFL and you’ll find plenty of successful ones, both before and after they signed their deals. And the Cowboys sit at the other extreme.

Coaching salaries aren’t official or disclosed, so it’s tough to know for sure. But rumors and reports indicate Brian Schottenheimer is among the lowest-paid head coaches, including Sportrico’s estimated coaching earnings, in the NFL. The math checks out when you factor in a couple of things.

For starters, no other team in the NFL was asking to interview Schottenheimer during the 2025 coaching cycle. That year, seven teams searched for a head coach. The Cowboys were the only one that didn’t reach out to Ben Johnson or Aaron Glenn. 

Six of those seven teams interviewed at least five candidates, while Dallas interviewed four: Schottenheimer, who was already in the building; Kellen Moore, whom they already knew; Leslie Frazier, who was on nobody’s head coaching radar; and Robert Saleh. I’ll give them a pass on Saleh, who is respected around the league. But the Cowboys did not cast a wide net. 

So hearing Jones confirm it so explicitly has to feel like a slap in the face to fans. Why? Because they argue constantly about Dak Prescott’s salary of $60 million per year. Prescott plays at a high level and is far from the team’s main problem, yet the money comes up because Jerry and Stephen Jones love to talk about the salary cap and how there’s only so much pie to go around.

Coaching has no salary cap. Still, the Cowboys fail to capitalize on their status as the most valuable franchise in sports. 

Jane Slater, insider for NFL Network and ESPN, recently quoted an agent of a veteran coach indicating Jerry Jones didn’t reach out during the 2025 cycle while saying “Jerry won’t pay 13M and up and that’s the starting point.”

If there’s one area where the Cowboys could flex their financial muscle, this is it.

I’m not asking them to throw every dollar at the most sought-after coach. But they’ve gone to an entirely different extreme. Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy combined to play out three full contracts, and it’s hard not to wonder if fully guaranteed coaching deals had something to do with it.

Strike three: The game plan against Arizona

Jones also told the station the offensive game plan against the Cardinals was all about not turning the ball over. Mission accomplished, technically. Dallas didn’t turn it over once.

Fans are frustrated about Jones’ comments, and for two good reasons.

Firstly, the owner and general manager shouldn’t be talking about the game plan. He’s not supposed to be the coach, even if his involvement in coaching meetings has been discussed publicly for years.

Secondly, that plan was bad. Arizona has one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL, and the Cowboys played it safe against a losing team like they were the underdogs. A clean, ugly, drawn-out game is an underdog’s mentality. It shouldn’t be the mindset of a team with Prescott, Pickens, and CeeDee Lamb.

Three swings, three misses for Jerry Jones as the heat intensifies around the 2026 Cowboys ahead of Week 9.