So many terrible moves over the years. Stephen is the guy that has brought sanity to the organization. impressed by Jerry's turning over a new leaf but don't think it will last.
Hey man, at least you're admitting that Jerry is doing a better job. Frankly, I can't fault you for worrying that the old Jerry might come back either.
I don't think it will though. Of all of Jerry's faults, one that I can't say is that he doesn't learn. The guy makes his mistakes but once he's realized he was doing it wrong, he will change more quickly than most.
From Jimmy's exit until Parcells arrived, Jerry thought he knew what he was doing, IMO. He thought he had put together a 3-time super bowl champion and knew how to do it.
By the time he hired Parcells, I think Jerry realized he was on the wrong path and knew he needed some help. Bill showed Jerry a lot about drafting and how to oversee pro personnel department. There was a definite change in Jerry's methods after Parcells. He still wasn't doing great but he had made changes that have been permanent. He never went back to where he was prior to Bill.
He made a bad hire in Phillips as coach and the 2009 draft was and still is an abomination... but when Garrett came in, Jerry had two guys who he truly listened to in Jason and Stephen.
Jerry has always been the final decision maker and he still is. The difference, IMO, is that prior to 2010 he would listen to the coaches and scouts and then try to pick the best player for the Cowboys. It was much closer to drafting for need than BPA, I think. It was a collaborative effort, just like Jerry always said... but the problems were that:
1. He was forcing too much for need, letting better players like Shady McCoy get past him.
2. He would project players too much, IMO. Looking at what they could be and not what they were. Guys like Jason Williams and Akwasi-Owusu-Ansah are examples of this.
3. He considered himself a wheeler-Dealer, and liked to try to get cute instead of just picking the best player.
4. This is the big one, IMO... he didn't really have a vision and a direction for the franchise, so his personnel decision were willy-nilly and was Jerry taking who he thought fit a need. In other words, he didn't take a global view of the team and its needs. It was just, "Our weakest link on defense is a CB, so lets get the best corner we can in the draft." He would then listen to everyone to come to a group decision on the best CB and draft him. No real vision of the direction of the team. No plan laid out on who they wanted the team to be, how they wanted to play, or what kind of player they wanted to bring in. He would spend freely on big name free agents because they were good players, but how they fit and what they were going to do to the cap long term wasn't a consideration necessarily.
You can't really blame Jerry entirely for Dallas being a rudderless ship in the night because the biggest piece he needed to make that stop was a head coach that he completely trusted. Switzer, Gailey, and Campo were just glorified coordinators who truly just coached up whoever Jerry brought in. They didn't have much of a vision for the team and if they did, I don't think Jerry would have trusted them enough to follow it.
Then came Parcells. He was a hell of a coach and knew how to structure a scouting department. He knew the type of players he wanted and he indeed did give some direction to the franchise. Jerry trusted him too. The problem was that he was always going to be a short-timer in Dallas. Even if you don't consider that Parcells always grew tired of a situation, his age meant he wasn't going to be there long.
Then, the Wade Phillips era began and while Jerry had indeed learned a lot from Parcells, the ship was again rudderless. Jerry didn't trust him with anything more than the defense and with no direction and nobody that he really trusted other than Stephen, the personnel decision were still being made in a scattered, helter-skelter sort of way.
Then, along comes Garrett. Jerry likes him. Likes him a lot. Not only that though, Jerry knows that Jason is smarter than him. The best thing of all though is that Garrett has a true, long-term vision for the team and the kind of players he wants to bring in. He tells Jerry that he wants a young team. He wants to build in the trenches and have a team that looks more like the early 90's Cowboys. A physical team full of guys that love to play the game and to whom winning is very important. The kind of guys Jason wants is more important than the position they play at. Spending free agent money only on young guys who still have their prime ahead of them so they can play out their entire contract. Big name guys who had a couple of good years left weren't the way he wanted to go. Those kind of contracts will kill your cap in the long run and you always have an old roster. Let go of your old stars when they are no longer worth the money they make.
He wanted older guys like Flozell Adams, Andre Gurode, Leonard Davis, Marc Colombo, Roy Williams, and eventually guys like Demarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher, gone. Draft BPA so when you don't pay age, you have a replacement. Get guys who want to win as much as Jason, Stephen and Jerry. Physical, young guys who wear out the other team by the 4th, instead of petering out themselves.
Finally, they had a plan. A vision for not only the kind of team they wanted to be... but the kind of franchise they wanted to be.
Stephen Jones bought it, IMO and with the two of them pointing the way... Jerry was simply convinced that it was the best thing for the franchise.
So finally, after all these years, Jerry fully bought in to someone else's vision for the team. It took a coach who he completely trusted and his son, who he had grown to trust over the years to get him to follow them, but he finally did it.
Now, I think Jerry sees the fruits of that vision. He sees how being frugal with dollars, and getting lower priced free agents is helping the franchise. He sees the toughness of the team and the talent put together from 5 years of drafting BPA, and he loves it.
Frankly, I don't think you could get Jerry to abandon that vision no matter how hard you tried now. He bought into it and he has seen the results. I think Jerry has, after all of these years, and with a lot of help from Jason and Stephen, finally learned how to be a GM.
