Stephen Jones negotiates all contracts...FACT.
Jerry wanted to draft Manziel...They drafted Martin...FACT.
Jerry wanted to trade up and draft Paxton Lynch in 2016...They didn't trade up...FACT.
He negotiates but not with any real autonomy, Booger uses him like he does a lawyer. He has the final say and has said so.
Booger has said that it wasn't just Stuphen opposed to him taking Manziel, it was the entire war room. His son had known he had coveted the marketability of Manziel since he played in the Big Top as a freshman. I do believe it was Stuphen that pushed them in the off the field direction for the entire 15 minutes of the interview trying to reach his father with the warning signs about this guy.
They didn't offer what DEN did for trading up to get Lynch and Booger second guessed himself for not willing to give up more to get him. Stuphen didn't stop that from happening.
Stuphen is influential with his father and will one day take over and he does have more responsibility within the organization but he does not make any final calls, that's all Diddy. The one thing I have never shared with those hopefuls is that he will be any improvement over his old man. He did say, quite a long time ago, that he would hire a GM but since then he's gotten the celebrity bug like his old man. Crazy Al's son thought he could do it but learned otherwise. Paul Brown's son has yet to learn he's not the old man.
What most of us do not realize is that we think that's a football team, it's not. It's the family business that just happens to also play football.