Jerry Jones was on point Tuesday morning.
The Cowboys owner and general manager, while joking with the 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) morning crew about their rumpus from the previous week and host RJ Choppy missing this week’s show for an excused absence — “did he want to avoid the confrontation?” — put the Derrick Henry issue to rest.
Jones said something else that made you agree with him: His football team isn’t in a good place.
In reality, that’s what we need to be talking about.
Jones said the offensive concepts and designs might need fine-tuning, and he didn’t dismiss Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman’s poor assessment of the wide receivers.
Jones also didn’t use the health issues of the 49ers as an opening for his Cowboys’ team to win Sunday night at San Francisco.
Tuesday was Jones speaking truths about his football team.
“Our situation is more about, frankly, it’s more about holding your blocks, it’s more about not making mistakes,” he said. “It’s more about, in my mind, the receivers running through a tough man-to-man coverage and running on through it, and, if you will, get away from that. The types of things that we all think we should be looking at is [are] we designing bad plays or we’re designing bad concepts? The facts are that there’s some of that, but there’s also some of execution. There are some of the talent. I like our talent. I really do like our talent. I like our young talent, but young talent has a few more mistakes associated with it than if you are dealing with a veteran player, although you’ve got to have young talent.”
You can disagree with Jones saying Henry wouldn’t fit within the confines of the Cowboys’ salary cap, but please don’t dismiss what he’s saying about the running back’s expected results on the football field.
Henry wasn’t going to fit with the West Coast offense. At least the way Mike McCarthy calls it.
This isn’t anything against the Cowboys head coach, but history shows he’s never had a running back like Henry.
Who has, right?
“In my mind, we’re not playing very good football right now at all and it’s beyond whether or not we have Derrick Henry or not,” Jones said. “Derrick Henry is having a career year. I don’t know if he’d be having that career year in our situation.”
So, yes, Henry might lead the NFL in rushing, but it doesn’t seem realistic that he would have the same numbers as a member of the Cowboys. It’s nice to dream about it. However, it’s just time for everyone to move on here, and this is where the Cowboys’ owner is right.
During the bye week, McCarthy said there was a review of how the Cowboys operate. It’s something he always does. He’s good at making sure the Cowboys correct their mistakes. He protects his players in the media when necessary. He’s everything a player wants in a head coach.
McCarthy disagreed with Aikman’s description of his receivers as terrible route runners and being lazy off the line of scrimmage.
In theory, everyone can play better.
That was Jones’ point. Over the next 11 weeks of this season, the Cowboys have to handle their business or more truth-telling will be revealed.
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