I probably gave Jerry Jones too much credit.
That statement means the team will look at contract management for key players this season in a number of ways. As we have observed PFT Live After the Cowboys failed to make preseason progress with quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver CD Lamb and linebacker Micah Parsons, Jones and company are: (1) cheap when it comes to paying big young players; (2) short-sightedness; and (3) they are not as smart as they think.
Now, with camp open and none of these players getting new deals, there’s another reason I see Jones playing chess while he’s at it. Playing checkers with Thurman Merman.
An excerpt from Jones’ press conference was posted on Twitter on Saturday One of the workers It gave the impression that the league now plans to try to pull revenue from the salary cap to help pay the final $14.1 billion Sunday ticket judgment if Neal fails to overturn the result on appeal. Then I looked at it Account of Jones’ comments From Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
It feels very different.
Jones’ explanation suggests that broader, more comprehensive coverage is simply helping reasons for Dak, Sidi, and Micah dragging their feet on pay. And it’s to explain that Jones needs to be careful about paying on Sunday’s ticket ruling because he needs to be prepared to keep the cap from growing.
“You have to feel where the revenue is coming down the road,” Jones said. “I feel like I know better than anyone who’s ever lived, or felt that his income will be four, five, six years from now, more than anyone who’s ever lived. I spent all this time doing that. And if you don’t understand what the income does, you can’t see and see what the cap will be. And so how to look forward is, almost, art. . . . We assumed that the revenue was going up, and one of the things that was given in these contracts was that the revenue was going to go up. Well, it came down to covid. Am I optimistic? The most I’ve ever seen. But we’ve got something that’s going to drastically reduce revenue right in front of us.
He made it clear that he was talking about the Sunday ticket judgment without mentioning it specifically.
“Well, I mean, we had a little deal here in Los Angeles,” Jones said. “I was the league’s only witness.” (He wasn’t. Not even close.)
The league told PFT after the decision that the salary cap will not be affected. The NFL’s potential changes to its out-of-market TV package; If the Sunday ticket is considered an antitrust violation, $2 billion a year will evaporate. (Surely they will eventually be replaced by something more profitable. If not more profitable.)
For now, no one knows what will happen. But Jones is willing to lower his star players now for the negative impact it could cost him arms and legs on future earnings.
“That’s what I try to tell everybody, to be honest, I’ve got a better feel than other people because I have an understanding of what the revenue could be for the entire league,” Jones said. “And if you see me as an optimist, you should know it’s great. If you see me being a little cautious, you should know that I am cautious. I’m the best at looking around the corner. I am better than anyone else with body language and instincts,” he said.
Frankly, Jerry, if you were that good at peeking around the corner, you would have seen the Sunday Ticket Judgment coming. And they would have found a way to win the league’s case on the witness stand — or they would have told the commissioner long ago that the case should be settled.