Are the Cowboys in a ‘soft rebuild?’ Owner Jerry Jones offers explanation

PITTSBURGH — Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said in the offseason he was “all in” in getting his team back to a Super Bowl appearance.

However, during a Friday radio interview with 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM), Jones was asked by host Cory Mageors if the Cowboys were in a “soft rebuild” and the team owner agreed.

As part of a long answer, Jones talked about the difficulty of sustaining competitiveness in the current salary cap system and putting a team together with a quarterback that commands a high salary.

“That’s the way that we are,” Jones said. “You got to really work that problem hard with draft and with young players and when you see games come up that you’re counting on young players, you know that’s going to be an opportunity to test the system, sort of speak. Test us out and we got to have some success with young players, just like this weekend.”

Jones was not available to the media before Sunday night’s Steelers-Cowboys game.

In the Steelers game, young players were needed.

The Cowboys didn’t have veteran defensive ends Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence. So rookie end Marshawn Kneeland started for Lawrence. An injury to veteran receiver Brandin Cooks allowed rookie receiver Ryan Flournoy to make his season debut.

The Cowboys have a little more than $20 million in salary cap space and just before the start of the season, receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott signed massive contracts.

Prescott has the highest average annual salary in the NFL at $60 million and Lamb’s $34 million average is the second-highest at his position.

This season, Jones has been criticized for saying the Cowboys have been unable to sign free agents because of salary cap space. Jones said cap space was needed to take care of their own free agents.

But during his radio interview, he had a different tune given the criticism he’s taken.

“I’m going to quit singing the blues about everybody when I’m saying we’re short of space,” he said. “There’s no need talking about it.”

X: @calvinwatkins

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