Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones gets plenty of flak. That’s what happens when you’re the head of one of the biggest and most storied NFL franchises ever. You get criticism. And pushback. But, he takes it in stride.
Once in a while, Jones does get kudos, though, for what he’s doing with the Cowboys’ roster and how he’s doing it. This is one of those times.
Nick Brinkerhoff of USA Today has released a feature about each NFL team’s best moves during the offseason. These are decisions he thinks each team will like even more as the season gets underway, which is only a few months away, by the way. These are also moves that help start to put together the pieces of a real run to the championship.
Jerry Jones, Cowboys getting kudos for smart offseason decision
For Jones and the Cowboys, he loves the move up to get Caleb Downs. It’s simple. This move wasn’t just good. It showed that there’s actually strategy behind Jones’ decisions right now, and that’s a good thing for the Cowboys.
“Trading up for Downs is part of a larger philosophy that the Cowboys have used in the post-Micah Parsons era — fix the defense without breaking the bank,” he states in the piece. “Downs didn’t check off the positional value box early in the first round, but he should be the next star to emerge in Dallas.”
So, the move to take Downs wasn’t just smart. It was a concerted, thought-out decision that shows the Cowboys are in it for the long term.