For those who care about these things in terms of wins and losses, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys are no longer at the bottom of the league in terms of cash spending.
Credit the recent recording-breaking contract for quarterback Dak Prescott, whose four-year, $240 million deal included an $80 million signing bonus. As a result, the Cowboys have gone from 30th in the NFL in cash spending for 2024 to 13th.
But don’t be confused into thinking it was the plethora of comments or articles on the Cowboys’ historical lack of cash spending, which is seemingly shocking for a team valued as the richest in all of pro sports, that moved the needle for the Cowboys owner.
Yes, the Cowboys ranked 30th in the cash spending from 2021 to 2023. They even ranked dead last in cash spending as of mid-August. And after giving receiver CeeDee Lamb a $38 million signing bonus as part of a four-year, $136 million contract extension, they were 30th.
This was after the team, per NFLPA records, ranked 25th over the four-year period from 2013-2016 in terms of cash spending.
Jones, who already told DLLS that nobody can fucking do the general manager job better than him, says criticisms of his cash spending are folly.
“That’s laughable,” Jones said last month.
Why?
“Because look at everything we have, our facilities,” an incredulous Jones continued. “Everything we have to put the show on, the facilities the players have, the way we here we are at this fabulous training camp out here. We have the best of everything. And we certainly, I would hope that you would underline this — underline it — everybody has to spend the same on the players. They don’t have to spend the same on non-player costs.
“The Cowboys are the number one spender for non-player cost. That’s why we have all the facilities that we have. I’ve always been a very aggressive spender for anything to help us win a football game. So it’s ridiculous and I know that everybody knows deep down. You can’t look at it and say that I wouldn’t spend the money if I thought it would help us win. What you’re seeing is that I’m trying to decide the best way to spend the money.”
The Cowboys play their home games at AT&T Stadium, which opened in 2009 at a cost $1.3 billion and still remains one of the league’s finest venues. And their world headquarters is the Star in Frisco. It is 91-acre mixed use facility that includes shopping, dining, athletic and hotel options and cost the Cowboys $1.5 billion.
Jones said there should never be a question about him spending the money, as he pointed to prospective deals for Lamb and Prescott, which have sense come to reality.
It was always about how.
“The money is going to be spent,” Jones said. “The very money that you’re looking at with Lamb and that you could look at with all these contracts, that money is going to be spent, And it has been spent or is going to be spent. And so what you’re seeing is my managing to get the most out of the dollar. If I thought that staying up and working a little harder would get me another dollar to spend on the areas we’re talking about that are capped, I would do that.
“Can you win with that? Is that a question in your mind?”
Time will tell.
