Cornerback DaRon Bland and tight end Jake Ferguson received plenty of criticism from Dallas Cowboys fans and from local media members speaking on local sports talk programs following the club’s stunning 24-16 upset loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers that dropped the Cowboys to 2-3 on the season.
On Friday morning, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked about both of those players.
Jerry Jones: DaRon Bland hasn’t had a “physical diminishment” of his skills
“He had a chance there to do a Bland, which is intercept the ball in a key time,” Jones said about a moment of Thursday’s game, per Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News. “That was meaningful as it turned out.”
Jones was referencing how Bland dropped an interception that he could have taken to the house for a potential game-tying touchdown with slightly under four minutes remaining in the game’s fourth quarter. While the Buccaneers punted the ball away on the next play, one can only guess what would have happened had Bland completed a journey to the end zone late in the contest.
In the summer of 2025, Bland signed a four-year, $92M contract extension that reportedly included $50M in guaranteed money. More recently, he was part of a secondary that left much to be desired with its play over the first three weeks of this season before Jones acquired cornerback Joey Porter Jr. from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Porter didn’t play Thursday night due to an illness.
“He’s got to continue to work to play at the level we expect of him,” Jones added about Bland. “He’s paid because of how he played in the past. One of the things you can always bet on — one of the surest things — is when you’ve seen him do it in the past, they can do it again, if they haven’t had physical diminishment of their physical skills. And he hasn’t.”
Jerry Jones also backed Jake Ferguson
As for Ferguson, a catchable pass deflected off his hands inside the Buccaneers’ 15-yard line with roughly 1:20 left in regulation. Tampa Bay’s Alex Anzalone then reeled the ball in for an interception that put the game to bed.
“That is not typical of him to have those kinds of opportunities and not come up with it,” Jones said about Ferguson, per Hoyt. “He’s the opposite. He’s got as good of a heart, as good of an inside, as you can expect in a player. Those are plays that are not typical for him.”
It sounds like Jones will want head coach Brian Schottenheimer to count on both Bland and Ferguson when the Cowboys play their “Sunday Night Football” game at the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 18.