EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsJerry Jones has spent more than three decades claiming the Dallas Cowboys are one great decision away from getting back 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 was asked on 105.3 the Fan in Dallas about the perception he doesn't spend top dollar when hiring head coaches. Jones responded by saying he was too smart for that."In the NFL, this is after years of looking at all the teams and all the coaches, there is zero correlation between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have as to winning," he told the radio station. "There is no correlation. And that's a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved. So put that in your hopper and smoke it."That's quite a bit to put in the hopper, particularly from the owner of a franchise that hasn't appeared in even an NFC Championship Game since the 1995 season.It's particularly stunning considering the Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in not just the NFL or the United States, but the entire world. How is Dallas, of all places, playing some version of small-market, resource-limited Moneyball?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 on Sunday.Schottenheimer went 7-9-1 in his first season and is now 10-14-1 as an NFL head coach. He is reportedly making somewhere between $5 million and $8 million annually, making him one of the league's lowest-paid head coaches.That would be an interesting arrangement for almost any franchise. For Dallas, it is patently ridiculous.Forbes estimates the Cowboys are worth $17 billion, a whopping 25% more than the NFL's second-most-valuable franchise, the Los Angeles Rams, which the publication valued at $13.5 billion. In 2025, Dallas delivered $677 million in operating income on $1.28 billion in revenue.This isn't an owner trying to scrape together enough money to keep the lights on. Jerry Jones can afford any coach he wants, but apparently he has decided that the market's going rate is an unnecessary expense.Or, as a coaching agent told NFL Network's Jane Slater when asked how aggressive Jones had been in looking for a veteran coach after the 2024 season: "Jerry won't pay $13M and up, and that's the starting point."Instead, Dallas promoted Schottenheimer, its own offensive coordinator and a longtime assistant. The Cowboys were the only team to interview him that year. Schottenheimer might prove to be a good coach despite his 10-14-1 start, but should the most valuable team on the planet be led by a guy who has to grow into the job?The NFL does all it can to level the competitive playing field and limit any advantage a legacy, big-market franchise or extremely wealthy owner might have. There is a hard salary cap, a college draft that favors losing teams and a weighted regular-season schedule. Any Given Sunday is the motto.What it doesn't restrict is spending on everything else -- from head coaches and full staffs that might better train and prepare teams to personnel departments that might better identify and acquire talent.Yet, given the chance to use the franchise's considerable resources on such things, Jones has chosen to not just punt, but dismiss the concept. He, himself, famously doubles as the team's general manager, despite the Cowboys' repeated stumbles and the fact the job has become increasingly complex.Jones' insistence that there is no correlation between coaching salaries and winning deserves skepticism. Recent Super Bowl-winning coaches, including Andy Reid, Sean McVay and Bill Belichick, have been highly compensated by league standards.Jones could also look up in the NFC East standings where the first-place New York Giants are experiencing an immediate return on investment from hiring John Harbaugh, at the sum of $20 million per year, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.Writing a blank check does not automatically produce a Vince Lombardi Trophy. The players matter the most. Coaching is complicated.But the absence of a guarantee is not evidence that an investment has no value. In the meantime, the Cowboys' actual value keeps going up even as the title drought continues.At some point, the question isn't whether Jerry Jones can find the right formula to deliver a winner.It's why the richest team in football thinks it's actually smart to not bother investing in one of the few places where the franchise's wealth might actually be an asset.
