IRVING, Texas – Coming off his franchise's worst record in a quarter century, Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones let it be known he's not afraid to take some risks in the interest of righting the ship.
Jones held his final weekly radio interview of the 2015 season on Tuesday morning, and he addressed a variety of concerns about the future. Noteworthy among those topics was the element of taking risks in the interest of getting the Cowboys back into the playoff picture.
"Let me tell you something, man: that 'going for it' fire is still there," Jones said.
Having come within one touchdown of the NFC Championship Game last January, the Cowboys weren't afraid to take some risks while trying to build on a 12-4 season. They signed a lightning rod player in the form of pass rusher Greg Hardy, and they drafted Randy Gregory No. 60 overall after off-field concerns pushed him down the draft board.
They allowed DeMarco Murray to leave in free agency, and they signed Dez Bryant to a $70 million contract in July. Some of their decisions worked out and some didn't, but all of them came with an element of risk heading into the 2015 season.
"If it all added up, and to make a decision and it came in a nice, neat package, then life would be easy," Jones said. "But there is always that element of unknown. And it's there alive and well. And, yes, I will exercise it during this offseason."
It will be interesting to see how that pertains to big-name players throughout the league landscape. NFL tampering rules prevent Jones – or any team employee – from discussing players currently under contract with another club. Having said that, Jones was asked a delicately-phrased question about whether he would consider adding marquee players if given the opportunity – particularly at the backup quarterback position.
"What would enhance me taking risk is a bigger upside. And if that upside is there -- that whole risk-reward situation -- then, yeah," he said. "This is as far as we're going to go here now with this because I don't want to get involved with a type of tampering situation. We can take some risks."
