Jerry Jones' stance on potential head coaching contract is exactly why the Dallas Cowboys aren't considered serious landing spot for top candidates
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones claims he didn't know quarterback Cooper Rush could've hit an incentive worth $250,000 had he played the entire game in Week 18. However, incentive plans are in his mind when it comes to the next contract for the Cowboys head coach, be it Mike McCarthy or someone else. And his comments […]
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones claims he didn't know quarterback Cooper Rush could've hit an incentive worth $250,000 had he played the entire game in Week 18.
However, incentive plans are in his mind when it comes to the next contract for the Cowboys head coach, be it Mike McCarthy or someone else. And his comments on the matter sure sound like the exact reason why Dallas isn't considered a serious landing spot for the top head coaching candidates around the league.
"Most of the fans want everybody to be on the incentive plan," Jones told reporters postgame. "Everybody wants it to be on the incentive plan, and so the more you can have the incentive plan, to me, the better. You’ve got the way sports is aligned with a goal of having accomplishment, and you align that with the financial end of it. For instance, I might say, look, I’m going to pay you this much, but then I’ll pay you not any more. And I know you want twice that, but if you get to the playoffs or you win a Super Bowl, I’ll give you five times that."
A couple of problems right off the bat with Jones' line of thinking here, one of which was pointed out to him immediately after he made the comment. First of all, the fact that Jones is pointing out that's how fans feel, not general managers around the league who actually do this for a living, is quite telling. It is even more telling because as NFL Network's Jane Slater told him right after, that's not how the head coaching market operates.
Keep in mind, we're talking about an industry that generated $20.5 billion in revenue in 2023. And we're talking about giving a head coach, of which there are only 32 spots in the league, an incentive based deal that pays him half of what he wants?
Imagine if the Cowboys were interested in landing Ben Johnson, the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator who is considered the clear-cut No. 1 target for head coaching jobs around the league. Johnson is such a strong candidate that he turned down multiple offers in 2024 and is expected to be selective again in this year's process. If Dallas was interested in getting into a bidding war for him, they wouldn't even get to meet Johnson in person if what they're offering is an incentive-based deal offering him half of what he wants. It's just not how you do it.
Not to mention, there's no salary cap for coaches in the league. Jones has said he'd write a check with a lot of zeroes to win a championship again. But when it comes to the top leader of men on the team, the head coach for crying out load, he's trying to save up and do incentives instead?
This might not seem like a big deal to many but it's another example of one problem the Cowboys simply can't escape from: For some reason, they insist they've got a different way of doing things from the rest of the league. They do it with player extensions, free agency spending, salary cap management, draft and develop, and more. That's fine… if it works. But it hasn't worked in a long time.
You can be proud of cooking a burger different than everybody else but if the burger tastes horribly at the end of your process then what good is that?
"My most successful agreements have been when there was less guaranteed and they made more on the incentive plan," Jones insisted after adding some people thrive on uncertainty.
Whoever ends up as the head coach of the Cowboys in 2025 remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: If the franchise wants to aim for some of the top candidates out there, they better save their incentive plan speech if they want to get a second meeting.
