Jerry Jones has spent more than three decades claiming the Dallas Cowboys are one great decision away from returning to a Super Bowl. On Tuesday, the Cowboys' owner and general manager offered a new explanation for why that hasn't happened: he doesn't believe paying for great decision-makers is particularly important.
Jones, asked on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas about the perception that he doesn't spend top dollar on head coaches, said there is zero correlation between how much a team pays its coach and winning. "There is no correlation," he said. "So put that in your hopper and smoke it." That is a difficult argument to make for a franchise that hasn't appeared in an NFC Championship Game since the 1995 season, particularly one that Forbes values at $17 billion, the most of any NFL team.
The immediate issue is coach Brian Schottenheimer, whose Cowboys are 3-5 after blowing a 14-point lead and losing to the Arizona Cardinals in overtime. Schottenheimer went 7-9-1 in his first season and is now 10-14-1 as an NFL head coach. He reportedly earns between $5 million and $8 million annually, making him one of the league's lowest-paid head coaches. In 2025, Dallas delivered $677 million in operating income on $1.28 billion in revenue, so the cost is hardly a financial burden.
A coaching agent told NFL Network's Jane Slater that Jones had been unwilling to meet the market rate when searching for a veteran coach after the 2024 season: "Jerry won't pay $13M and up, and that's the starting point." Instead, Dallas promoted its own offensive coordinator. Recent Super Bowl-winning coaches, including Andy Reid, Sean McVay and Bill Belichick, have been highly compensated by league standards, which undercuts Jones' claim and deserves skepticism.
Source: ESPN NFL · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing