Jerry Jones sees free agency to be ‘in line’ with other years, eyes Micah Parsons extension
It’s a brief visit to New Orleans for Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, as he flew in on Thursday evening for a quick trip to the NFL Honors,
Speaking on the red carpet, he looked back on the times he’s had in New Orleans as both an executive and a player at the University of Arkansas where he played in two Sugar Bowl games. Later in life, he found himself in a turf war in the state of Louisiana for broadcasting rights.
“New Orleans has always been a special place,” Jones said. “For years, the Cowboys and Saints fought it out over in Shreveport as to what games were being shown. We got a lot of good feelings here. I know for a fact that the Cowboys are very popular in Louisiana.”
Jones will have some fun in Louisiana before returning to Dallas to continue helping Brian Schottenheimer fill out his first-year coaching staff. With all coordinators in place and the majority of the assistants hired, Jones is happy with what is ahead.
“I can’t tell you what a good job Brian is doing,” he said. “He’s got a doctorate degree in coaching staffs, spent a lot of time thinking about it. His first time literally ever to be able to orchestrate the process as well as be involved as the number-one decision-maker on the staff. He’s doing a great job, without exaggerating.”
Of the things Jones likes about the staff so far, it’s the influx of youth on both sides of the ball.
“A nice exercise for you, do the average age of our coaching staff compared to the average age last year,” he said. “That’d be an interesting number.”
Free agency has been a talking point early in the Cowboys offseason once again after last year saw Jones and Dallas remain quiet with the open market. When discussing how the team could approach it in 2025, he sees paying one of his own — presumably Micah Parsons — as the top priority instead.
“Well, we spent the most money of anybody in the NFL on a player last year,” Jones said. “If we can do that again, that’d be pretty good.”
“I think you ought to look at free agency, not so much the criticism we got last year, but look at in years past and how we’ve done it will probably be more in line.”
While the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer could be assumed as a beginning of a rebuild with a first-time head coach learning the ropes, Jones emphasized while standing on the red carpet that he believes in Schottenheimer taking advantage of the now.
“If anything you should see, [it’s] that we’re not building for the future here,” Jones said. “Brian’s hiring was not a future get a coach and get him ready to play. That’s not what that was. This is a hit the ground running [hire]. This gave us the best way to get our players that we’ve got right now and look at the future to get the benefit of a new coach and the enthusiasm that goes with it.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 5:50 AM.
