Dallas Cowboys might be trend-setters, but market setters? Jerry Jones wants no part
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones backed recent comments by vice president Stephen Jones, who said the team has no interest in setting the market in explaining their patience in doing deals for quarterback Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper and Ezekiel Elliott.
Jones said it didn’t matter if players and agents buy into the Cowboys not being market setters.
“Where it has to be sold and done is at the check writing spot, it doesn’t make a difference with all the others,” Jerry Jones said. “That is where it stops or starts. That is where the responsibility lies. That starts with one of the main jobs we’ve got, managing our resources.
“We want to keep this opportunity in place as I personally see this opportunity. We will keep it in place for several years. So you can’t run around the block. You can’t do it the easy way.”
Jones reiterated that he is not disappointed in Elliott holding out based on his defense of him leading up to his six game suspension in 2017. The owner tried to get NFL commissioner Roger Goodell fired, threatened to sue NFL owners and was fined $2 million.
Jones said he has no regrets in backing Elliott because “I felt strongly that Zeke had the high ground.”
Beyond that, Jones said this is not his first rodeo with a player over a contract and he doesn’t take it personally. This is business, an area he knows best.
“I have anticipated a time when no matter how together you are, your thoughts as teammates or organization matters. There comes a time your interests diverge and you’ve got to sit down there and reconcile it,” Jones said. “That just happens. That is what we are into.
“I have done it a lot more than these players. I have a little more patience with how things are going to get done and the necessity to have angst when you have it to make sure that you really have this thing as complete, complete being as much talent we have on this team under the same roof as we can. That is impossible to do. But you have to try hard to get it done. That is what we are doing here.”
