All-access from a half-hour bar sit-down with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
Well, it’s another year with the Dallas Cowboys not in the Super Bowl. Make it 30 straight now.
For owner Jerry Jones, it’s been the elephant in the room for all three decades, but it doesn’t stop him from coming to the event every year with his family.
Shortly after landing in San Francisco on Thursday evening, Jones made his way to the Four Seasons Hotel in the downtown area to get settled before the weekend of festivities. He has a long agenda of things to do, culminating with attending the game on Sunday, but first up was a round of drinks with the Star-Telegram and two other local reporters.
Awkward: This reporter doesn’t drink (ask me another day). I’ll figure that issue out, but let’s get to what we all care about first.
Cowboys in Brazil and the hiring of Christian Parker
Just as we sat down in the hotel bar at the Four Seasons, the NFL announced that the Dallas Cowboys will be playing in Rio de Janeiro in 2026. While Jones has stated in the past that Mexico was his international preference, he’s excited about going to South America.
“I have a lot of business in Brazil that I’ve had for 35 years,” Jones said. “It’ll be great to have those Cowboys involved. We’re excited. We have a lot of fans on that continent, and it makes it good. I’m excited about going.”
While he said he does have future plans on going to Mexico City, that won’t happen this season.
The international news is a big offseason headline for the Cowboys, but it comes second to the team hiring Christian Parker as their new defensive coordinator last month. It was an uncharacteristic hire for the franchise, as he is the youngest defensive coordinator in team history and the first first-time coach to hold the position since 2007.
“When you talk to him, he’ll make you sit up,” Jones said. “I like his focus on being a teacher and communicating, his emphasis on that mental aspect of football. In general, I’m excited about the makeup of our entire defensive [staff]. They’re younger. I don’t think we have a head coach in the group. I’m very much aware that whatever we did before in our decision-making, we’re going a different way.”
If there were a theme to this entire half-hour discussion with Jones, that last sentence would put it in a nutshell. More on that as we go along.
It was right about then when the waiter came around for orders. “Oh man, everyone is ordering alcohol,” I said to myself while he went around the table. “I’ll have an old-fashioned,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear. I pulled the waiter close to me. “Hey man, I don’t drink. Give me something that looks like I belong,” I whispered. He nodded confidently. I thought I was in the clear.
One of the things that have been done differently in the last year in the franchise’s doors in Frisco is how the team handled the hire of Parker. They interviewed nine candidates — by far and away the most in franchise history for a coordinator opening. They were put through a carwash-like process that sent them to individual big wigs in the Cowboys’ front office: head coach Brian Schottenheimer, vice president of player personnel Will McClay, other coaches, Jones himself.
Jerry Jones made it clear that he spoke to every single candidate, but he also emphasized just how much he entrusted Schottenheimer during the interview process.
“I saw it last year when he was more involved with the offensive coaches last year that we hired,” Jones said. “And I saw the energy and cohesiveness.”
In evaluating that on the opposite side of the coin of what happened with the process of hiring defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and his staff, there was a clear difference last year. Eberflus was chosen by the front office without much of a search, and his staff was brought in almost immediately — mostly from his last spot in Chicago.
“We were pretty convicted that [Eberflus] was a good fit for us, and that impacted last year,” he said. “I thought we had a good fit the year before with [2024 defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer], and that influenced us. This was thorough. I think this was done with last year’s success on offense in mind, and I think it was done in mind of how we’ve been doing it and haven’t hit the mark.”
“I was excited about [Eberflus]. I was excited about the idea that he could bring some of his folks here with him, and I still think the world of him. But that was influential to [the results] last year. Again, it was so much of an approach that I took this year that basically said, ‘If that’s the way I’ve done it before, I’m going to do it differently.’”
There’s that allusion to his self-evaluation again. And when it came to looking ahead, the evaluation of Parker led right to his signing on the dotted line.
“He makes you feel as a communicator,” Jones said about Parker. “It has an emotional aspect to it. That wasn’t lost in the communication of watching him buy into [us] and having Schotty buy into him. That was a really important thing to me ... They went out of their way to bond on scheme. I think that is very important. Don’t sell that short at all, because one of the things I’m looking forward to is multiple schemes in this defense that we run now. There needs to be flexibility. I want this to be an open-minded group, and it is.”
What’s ahead for George Pickens in Dallas
It was at this point the waiter came around with the drinks. Beer for one reporter, an old-fashioned for the other. And, oh no. A pink drink for me? The waiter let me down bad here. I definitely saw Jerry see me with that pink drink being placed in front of me. I imagined him saying in his head, “These damn journalists and their goofy drinks.”
Now that hiring a defensive coordinator is in the rearview mirror, looking ahead to what the Cowboys will do with star receiver George Pickens is now the biggest topic of the offseason. In a one-year trial run following his trade from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pickens led the team with 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns.
But now, he’s set to hit free agency in March — unless the Cowboys elect to place the franchise tag on him or work out a long-term extension beforehand. In talking to sources on both sides of the coin, there is a strong mutual desire to bring Pickens back to Dallas.
However, the same could have been said for Micah Parsons at this point last year. Both sides were in agreement about a future in Dallas for the All-Pro pass rusher, and it would just take some sitting down and hammering out. That obviously ended badly. Could that influence what is ahead for Pickens?
“There’s nothing fragile about [Pickens] or his makeup,” Jones said.
“That goes back to his love for football,” a team official sitting at the table said.
“I agree,” Jones said. “It goes back to his commitment to how he loves football, his enjoyment being around his teammates and how he enjoys being coached.”
Sources behind the scenes have said that while Pickens has been a great teammate and player, he still has had some issues with tardiness to meetings. I had to ask if that would influence anything that’s ahead in a negotiation.
“I’ve missed a few myself,” Jones said with a laugh. “Something came up.”
Will the Cowboys be active in free agency?
After the season-end press conference in early January, Jones said that he would be willing to “bust the budget” in the offseason to improve the team. What exactly does that look like?
“We did some things last year that helped us, really helped us,” Jones said on Thursday. “Busting the budget would have to be going beyond that. Going beyond what ground we made up. That would be that, busting the budget. You would expect me to take the improvement that we have on assets, to have personnel to play. You would expect me to use everything that I gave up to get it.”
Well, let’s take a count. Last year, the Cowboys traded for Pickens, backup quarterback Joe Milton, linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr., defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson. They also signed Dante Fowler to an uncharacteristic $6 million contract. “Going beyond that” in 2026, Jones says.
He pointed to his assets, and one of the biggest in his toolbox right now is two first-round picks (Nos. 12 and 20) in the upcoming draft. While he said he doesn’t quite envision using one of those picks to trade for a player, he does see it as freedom to take more risks in free agency.
I couldn’t just leave the drink there. I did “order it” after all. Everyone else was taking sips, so I took one myself. “Oh, this is good.” It was some sort of watermelon mocktail with an orange peel in it. “Probably the most expensive nonalcoholic drink in America,” I thought to myself. Jerry definitely saw me downing the mystery concoction. I gave up on caring about it, though. It was a damn good drink.
It’s a family business, literally
The free agency conversation led us down the path of talking about their internal free agents. The team has already said their priorities are running back Javonte Williams and defensive end Jadeveon Clowney — along with Pickens, of course.
What about three-time All-Pro kicker Brandon Aubrey?
“We obviously want to keep him,” Jones said. “We know what he’s meant to us and have no complaints to what he can mean to us. We’ll work through this.”
Despite arriving after the start of the season, Clowney led the team in sacks and provided veteran leadership to a defense that needed it, even if it never materialized in the wins-and-losses category. Jones was about to go down that rabbit hole before a group of familiar faces walked to the table.
“Clowney was very impressive when he got here, how he handled his early time ...”
“Don’t miss a word he’s saying,” a female voice says from behind us. As we turn, it’s his daughter and team chief brand officer, Charlotte Jones. Her mom and Jerry’s wife, Gene, are also arriving to the table.
Oh great, the whole family will see my pink drink now. Bet it’ll be a joke on Thanksgiving.
“How do you say Rio de Janeiro,” Charlotte asked the table, poking fun at her father. “[Jerry says] Rio de Gigi, Rio de Jerry Jones, Rio de Jerrio. We’ll just stick with Rio.”
Next, it was an attempt at trying to say the stadium name, Maracanã Stadium. There were some similar struggles.
“Hey, none of us speak Portuguese,” Charlotte said. Coming from a sports writer who doesn’t know a lick of Portuguese, we’re all going to need some Rosetta Stone. But to be fair, Jerry hasn’t ever been known for his sound pronunciations.
The newfound family setting of the interview was fitting. In a season one episode of “Landman” in 2024, Jones made a cameo appearance where he talked about how working with his family has been the greatest reward of owning the Cowboys.
“I made my mind up a long time ago that I was going to work with my kids,” Jones said in the scene. “I thought I was doing it for them, but the one that got the most out of it was me.”
Jones, 83, is a bit more sentimental and introspective these days, and it showed up a bit in our sit-down. And when it comes to relationships with people, looking at how things ended with Parsons is high on things he wants to address.
“It was just more worth it to us to have the picks than the player, I’m serious,” he said. “I understood Micah’s sensitivity, and I understood that with him. I understood the agent wanting to be involved. I understood all of that. The reason that Micah is not here has everything to do with what we have and what we got for him. We’ll be sitting here three or four years from now talking about what we did get.”
“I can’t tell you how much I understand Micah ... That’s what happens when you get players involved, so it becomes competitive. It might mean, ‘I might not mean as much as I do to the other team.’ I understand that. I do better face-to-face with the player in portraying that than I do separated from that.”
‘If I don’t change, I’m not successful’
Another part of it is that self-evaluation piece (I told you it’d be a theme here). Things have been moving differently, but it’s a refreshing stance from a figure who has taken a lot of criticism for sticking to his own ways over the past three decades.
Looking in the mirror was an intentional effort for Jones, and it began with an inspiration to take a look at everything midway through the 2025 season.
“I spent a lot of time, myself, on how we handled our defense over the last four or five coaches,” Jones said. “I spent a lot of time looking at that and how we put those staffs together. Obviously, there’s a lot of plusses with those built up, but there were a lot of things that actually culminated with last year over a period of four or five years. That’s certainly my thinking.”
“I started doing a self-study on this stuff and taking a hard look at things halfway through the season. I could have envisioned a real turnaround and being right here [at the Super Bowl]. But I started looking back then at some of the issues, and I looked way beyond [Eberflus]. I started looking way back.”
I could sense the interview was ending, so I quickly finished my drink. I tried to distract eyesight from it by whipping out a notepad and pen. Hilarious attempt, looking back.
In the research he did, he said he found answers. I asked, what was the biggest takeaway?
“I probably put too much emphasis on [coaches’] individual place in line, their place in the profession, and should have been more attentive to what’s coming out of the box today,” Jones said. “All that counts is tomorrow, and all you can look at is yesterday and back. Knowing that, I spent a lot of time looking at the past with coaches’ positions. I did less of what I’ve been doing and more of what I haven’t been doing in this process.”
“That ol’ mirror [pronounced more like mirrah in Jones’ Arkansas twang], that self-evaluation really is appropriate and has to be done. My way of things doesn’t work. If I don’t change, I’m not successful. There’s no other way if you want to be hot and go to the dance.”
Jerry has always been the hot presence. As we wrapped up, security surrounded our table to escort Jones to the NFL Honors banquet. In a bar full of NFL figures, Jones was easily the “hottest” presence of any.
Now, it’s all about getting to the dance. But for now, all he can do is watch other teams two-step on Sunday night.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 9:40 PM.
