Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones recently joined 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) to discuss whether the team will make any significant changes during the bye week, injuries in Dallas and more.
Here are some highlights, edited for length and clarity:
Jerry Jones recently said if he thought it was necessary to raise hell, he would be right there. Is this a good time to raise hell about what’s going on with everybody?
Stephen Jones: “You know, we got real pros all in this building. You start with Mike McCarthy, he’s got the skins on the wall, he’s been through this. Mike Zimmer has been a head coach of quality, quality football teams up in Minnesota. So we got people. We got one of the best special teams coaches in the league. We’ve got the right kind of guys on the coaching staff. I think we’ve got the right kind of players. We’ve got some of the top players in the league here that are leaders. I feel like we’ve got the right group here. I don’t necessarily know that raising hell is the answer here. I think everybody understands where we are right now and it’s certainly not where we thought we would be. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a difficult schedule ahead of us for the next four to six games where we’re going to be going up against quality opponents. We’ve just got to go to work and get the job done.”
Do you see any significant changes in coaching or personnel over this bye week?
Stephen Jones: “No, I don’t. I mean, I think the guys that are here, we gotta do more. We’re obviously not doing enough to get the job done right now. I think the coaching staff understands that, I think the players understand that. We in ownership and management understand that and know that we’ve just got to go to work. As I said, we’ve got the bulk of our schedule left to play. We’re 3-3 and we’re not where we want to be but we’re certainly not out of it. We’ve gotta get to work.”
What’s the latest on DaRon Bland? It seemed like he was on track to possibly and then wasn’t able to be active yesterday?
Stephen Jones: “He had a little setback late in the week in terms of some soreness and we just didn’t want to push that issue just yet. It felt like giving him another full two weeks to really get his confidence and get out there and not have any setback was worth not having him out there. Certainly when you’re missing the, I think he set the all-time pick-six record, that’s another thing, we’re not protecting the ball. We’re not protecting the ball and we’re not getting the ball. To get a guy back like a Bland, we know is so important to us because right now you just can’t play good football teams in this league and lose the turnover battles like we’re doing. We got away with one in Pittsburgh where we lost the turnover battle and still won the game on the road. We certainly paid a huge price yesterday of one, not protecting the ball and two, not getting the ball.”
Do you think getting all the injured players back is going to be the solution for this? Or is there something else?
Stephen Jones: “I think it’s just part of it. We’ve gotta get players back, I mean it obviously is gonna help to get some of your better football players back out on the field. But there’s more to it than that. We’ve gotta go out and we’ve gotta execute. As I said, we’ve gotta protect the ball and we’ve gotta create situations where we can get the ball. I think that’s one of the things that has led to our success the previous three seasons when we won 12 games is, we were also getting the ball and we were also protecting the ball. Right now, we’re doing neither of the above. There’s a lot of different things from execution to consistency. A lot of things we have to do as a team as we move forward if we want to ultimately have the success this team can have.”
Zack Martin has endured some struggles. Do you have any concerns there?
Stephen Jones: “No. I think he’s just, he had a tough week. He didn’t get to practice this week, he had a few setbacks. Like I said, no one’s gonna point or say anything. We did have a, it was a tough week heading into the Detroit game in terms of our injury situation. But all 32 teams are faced with injury situations at different times during the course of a season. So there’s no excuses, we just have to go to work. Gotta utilize this bye week, we gotta utilize all aspects of it to get healthier, to get better. Those are the things we have to focus on. As I said, we have a lot of football left to play. Albeit, it’s not where we want to be at 3-3. We’re certainly by no means out of anything. We just feel like this team can come together and get on a roll and execute and play the type of football we think this team is capable of playing. Totally understand that there’s going to be doubt. There’s not going to be any help outside the doors of this building and we understand why people have question marks and there’s frustration. We’ve gotta go do our part and do the things that we can do something about.”
Listen to the rest of Stephen Jones’ radio appearance here.
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