What did Jerry Jones say about holdouts, paternity suit, offseason... at Cowboys opening press conference?

The NFL season is finally back! As the Dallas Cowboys begin their training camp this morning, owner Jerry Jones was able to get to Oxnard, California for the press conference. The conference had to be rescheduled a few times due to Jones’ trial in Texarkana against a woman claiming to be his daughter, which of course, got brought up at the conference as well.

Amongst the more grilling questions about the Cowboys’ recent decisions, there was quite a funny moment which lightened the mood. Jones called reporter Clarence Hill Terrence by accident. He corrected himself, then turned to the man next to him and asked him, “Are we at Oxnard?” He then had to be reminded what the question was.

Some Cowboys fans have recently been comparing Jones to President Joe Biden, who is the same age as him (81) and recently stepped down from the presidential race after his cognitive abilities were called into question and many called on him to drop out. Biden accidentally referred to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy by Russia’s president’s name. Some fans have called on Jerry to follow suit and step down as the Cowboys owner.

Here’s what Jerry Jones, COO Stephen Jones, and coach Mike McCarthy had to say about the offseason moves, the lack of contracts for their top players, and more at the Cowboys press conference today.

Dallas Cowboys opening press conference - 2024 training camp

Holdouts/Contract talks

Of course, one of the hottest topics surrounding Cowboys training camp is the fact that their star receiver is skipping out on practice as he waits for a contract extension. CeeDee Lamb has already missed all offseason workouts and did not show up to training camp with the team. Two other Cowboys players have done the same thing in the past - Zack Martin and Ezekiel Elliott - and both received hefty contract extensions in doing so.

Jerry Jones compared Lamb’s situation with Martin’s, mentioning that though his contract was “buttoned up”, he still held out from camp and that holdouts “happen all over the league”.

“I don’t get bent out of shape at the fact that somebody is here or not here,” said Jones.

Stephen Jones added that if the deals were already done with Lamb, Dak Prescott, and Micah Parsons, then some other player would have been demanding a raise and skipping out on camp. He then echoed what he’s already said before - that these things take time. He reminded everyone that the Vikings, who gave receiver Justin Jefferson a $35 million annual salary, have only him to pay that amount, while the Cowboys have three players to consider. He also mentioned again that he’s confident the deals will get done.

Jerry, meanwhile, played the world’s smallest violin and said he was “blessed to wake up and have these problems”. He also compared the situation to negotiations he made in labor agreements, saying when that happened, they were “down to the gnat’s a**”, but it all worked out. He said sometimes things look like a serious issue, but they eventually pass and you move on.

Future of Dak Prescott

When Jones mentioned that Dak Prescott “had his year” as far as a contract, some fans panicked, thinking it meant he’d just be playing out his year in Dallas and then move on. However, when asked directly if he thought this year would be Prescott’s last with the Cowboys, Jerry Jones said no.

Paternity case

When asked about the paternity lawsuit Jones was involved in, he mentioned being satisfied that it was resolved and that it was a very difficult topic for his family.

“We got it resolved like I wanted, and so it was unfortunate, but it is resolved, and it was of course very sensitive with my family and it was very sensitive with the unique publicity that’s involved with the Cowboys, but it was resolved satisfactorily for all parties”

He also said it was the last he would talk about the subject.

Last season and the offseason

There were several questions about the Cowboys’ disastrous end to the season last year, when they went 12-5 only to blow it against the Packers in the first round of the playoffs. There was resounding agreement amongst the Joneses and McCarthy that they’d prefer to focus on the future.

When Jerry Jones was asked about Cowboys fans who have a sense of apathy and frustration and whether he thought it is stronger this year than in the past, Jones chose the word “ambiguity” to obsess over.

“After 35 years the one thing that’s for sure is ambiguity. Just the nature of what being a part of sports and part of football is,” said Jones. “It’s very ambiguous. The reality of it is is that you are continually, continually dealing with much unfinished business. There’s almost no way to segment parts of the running and the evolving of the team from one year to the next.”

Jones then said that thankfully, God gave him a tolerance for ambiguity. He mentioned that the Cowboys still have 14 Pro Bowlers and 12 All-Pros.

“We have an outstanding team, so that part works. We have a lot of ambiguity in the team. I have ambiguity everywhere in the things that I look at and do,” said Jones. “So maybe the best thing that I ever....that God gave me was a tolerance for ambiguity. And that frustrates fans to not have closure...I don’t ever anticipate it getting any better.”

When McCarthy was asked if he had that same tolerance, he said it was “part of the business of the NFL” and is currently staying focused on what’s happening right now.

“Clearly my energy and my focus and really the players and the coaching staff is not even close to what we’ve been talking about here the last 30 minutes,” said McCarthy. “We’re excited and we’re energized by this opportunity here in front of us. And it starts in training camp.”

Jones as GM and Stephen Jones’ role

Jerry Jones was asked to justify his role as general manager while other NFL teams’ owners do not do so, and about Stephen Jones’ role in the organization. Basically, reporter Tim Cowlishaw asked why his and Stephen’s jobs should remain safe while McCarthy and other Cowboys staffers/players are in the hot seat. Here was Jerry’s response...

“I think the Cowboys have had two GMs... Tex Schramm and me. Two. In the history. You look around the NFL and I’ll bet, I really haven’t studied this, but I bet you they’ve had 30. They’ve had as many sometimes as they’ve had coaches. Since the reality of it is which was from the day that we walked through the door that I knew that I was going to have to be responsible for any and everything that went on so that if that is going to be the case then I, I’m trying not to use somebody else’s comment or this way, I’m only comfortable doing it that way. I can’t delegate that.”

“Now what that implies is that this thing is a product of me sitting up there throwing darts. That’s not the case. I like to think that the reason that I’ve enjoyed some success in my life is that I’ve had people like Mike and Stephen in my ear hard... now Stephen is my son. And then my children, we all work together. I heard a father’s prayer one time that says ‘please don’t let me be a bully because I can be, they will let me because they love me.’ And so that I lay up waking nights making sure that my ears are open and that I’m not too willfully strong. So believe you me, I listen and I get a lot of input... I’m a lot of things but I’m not slow. So I do listen to the people around me. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here. I’ve had lots of input. Jimmy Johnson gave me a lot of input... now if my butt has got my mind out some place else and not on this then you have to trust me that I know how to since I’m not on top of the issue, trust it when Mike says we’re going to do it this way. Stephen says we’re going to do it this way. Trust me. That’s the way it is and it has been since we got the Dallas Cowboys.”

Jerry also mentioned that if he could write a check that would get the Cowboys to a Super Bowl and guarantee them success, he would.

The Cowboys 2024 season

When asked what gives fans hope to take the next step rather than just repeating the same thing the Cowboys did last year, Jones said he “takes solace” in their three back-to-back 12-win seasons.

“I take a lot of solace in the fact that we’ve had the 12-game seasons, the wins that we’ve had over the last several years,” said Jones. “The fact that we’ve got the personnel here that we’ve got at camp. The fact that we’ve got the coaches here at camp.”

Jones also reminded fans that though he’s made mistakes in the past, but that the “inconsistencies is how we got here.”

“I know that I have had a lot of mistakes in these years. But the same guys making this decision that has the Cowboys and really got there by the skin of my teeth. And it was a miracle that I was able to pull it off. A miracle,” said Jones. “But the same imagination, the same risk-taking, the same taking risks but being pragmatic, being inconsistent, sometime looking like you’re a Mississippi riverboat gambler and sometime looking like you’re trying to guard the national mall. Those inconstancies are how we got here. Now that is what your’e seeing going on right now. And I don’t know for sure if it’s going to work. But I am giving it everything I’ve got.”

And of course, the press conference wouldn’t be complete if Jerry Jones didn’t remind us that he’s “all in”.

“I’m all in. Sometimes being all in means you narrow. You remove the months out here that are in the future. And you narrow it down to where all we’re talking about is right now and the next playoff season. And that’s it for everybody. We’re all in. We’re all in.”