Jerry Jones said Dallas Cowboys fans should be enthused by the team’s aggressive offseason

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has known to be long winded, verbose and sometimes hard to decipher.

But when asked if the Cowboys were better now they were at the end of the 12-5 season, which concluded with a second consecutive loss to San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs, Jones was unequivocal and succinct as ever.

“Yes,” said Jones while offering no follow up in what was arguably the shortest answer he’s had to a question since buying the Cowboys in 1989.

This time Jones let the team’s actions do his talking.

Jones says Cowboys are better now due to their aggressive offseason moves, namely the trades for cornerback Stephon Gilmore and receiver Brandin Cooks, and Mike McCarthy’s coaching and philosophy changes, led by the decision take over play-calling duties and move on from offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

Add in the moves to re-sign linebacker Leighton Vander Esch and safety Donovan Wilson in free agency, the decision to place the franchise tag on running back Tony Pollard to keep him off the market and get 8-time Pro Bowl left tackle Tyron Smith to take a pay cut and move permanently to right tackle.

Jones said he’s excited for Cowboys fans and more than the fans in terms of what it hopefully means to finally ending the 27-year drought since their last Super Bowl title in 1995..

“I think you have to really get enthused when you bring in a couple of players, you have to feel good about the supporting cast, and our fans should,” Jones said. “I can’t tell you how excited I am about this real emphasis that Mike is putting on the intense participation on what we’re doing offensively, which is calling the plays. That’s very significant. I think you get the best out of Mike McCarthy this way.

“When you add that up and really coach this team and add the acquisition of those veteran players, the re-signing veteran players , bringing back our safety Wilson, I”m excited for our fans, but more excited than our fans.”

Jones acknowledged that the Cowboys were more aggressive in acquiring players through free agency or trade than have over the last 12 years.

But he said it wasn’t necessarily because they didn’t try in the past. The difference is things didn’t always fit financially.

They were able to make to work within the salary cap with the moves of Gilmore and Cook.

“We’ve tried to do this type of thing before and it just didn’t work out on the other end,” Jones said. “We’ve gone after free agents, or in some cases where we knew what our appetite was, we didn’t even try. But I always knew either front door or back door whether or not I should be trying. But I would say I don’t remember a time in specific in free agency that we weren’t carefully evaluating whether or not we could justify financially in the whole financial picture, a possibility to bringing over free agent. And in most cases, we always felt pretty confident that if we got the pot, right, they’d love to be a Cowboy.

“You can really evaluate the player and if he would really help our team, then we’ve got a decision to make then. Do we want to allocate that kind of money to it. Now these are long winded ways of saying, can we get it done for what we think is the right thing for the team is?

Jones said Cooks was a prime example as the Cowboys tried to trade for him during the 2022 season but couldn’t get on the same page with the Houston Texans, who wanted a third-round pick and wouldn’t make any concessions about his $18 million guaranteed salary for 2023.

“We couldn’t get it done with him during the season,” Jones said. “We knew about him. And we knew that he had a big time potential answer for what we needed. But we couldn’t get it done then. When the season was over and we got this free agency then he was a perfectly logical way for us to look. But then both his team as well as him were in better shape to look at us.”

The Cowboys acquired Cooks for a fifth-round pick in 2023 and a sixth-round pick in 2024. The Texans also agreed to pay $6 million of his guaranteed salary. And then Cooks allowed the Cowboys to turn $8 million of his $12 million base salary into a signing bonus, saving $6 million on the cap for 2023.

Jones says Cooks as an ideal replacement for receiver Amari Cooper, who the team traded to the Cleveland Browns last March for a fifth-round pick and never recovered offensively.

“I think what you want Cooks to do is what Amari did for the overall passing game. Not only in the production, which you counted on with Amari but also the room he opened up for the other receivers,” Jones said. “Because of the Cooks’ speed and because of just his route running ability, he does that for you.”

The Cowboys acquired Gilmore from the Indianapolis Colts for a 2023 fifth-round pick. Gilmore has a $7.9 million base salary in the final years of his contract.

Jones said they liked Gilmore because his athletic ability, instincts and experience.

He believes Gilmore, age 32, “has a lot of gas left in his tank.”

Jones said there are couple things the Cowboys still want to address in free agency with the focus primarily on signing a nose tackle. They remain in discussions with Johnathan Hankins and hope to re-sign him soon.

But he is very pleased with what the Cowboys accomplished so far and believes they are best position they been in sometime in regards to heading into the 2023 NFL Draft with being ability to target the best available players, regardless of position and not have to address a need.

Their primary focus of the offseason was doing whatever it takes to put a winner on the field and he said that starts with helping quarterback Dak Prescott but successful and available.

After not missing a game through the first four years of his career, Prescott has missed 17 games the past three years combined.

Being better on defense, getting help at receiver and changing the scheme does all of that, per Jones.

“What we’re trying to do is make Dak more available, which if you look at the last three years he needs to be more available,” Jones said. “And everything we’re doing and feel good about in this offensive line should make him more available. And we’re doing some things in the line, some technique and some philosophy that will really help Dak out.

“So I’d say to our fans, these adjustments that we’re making in our offense, both at receiver and at what Dak’s responsibilities are before that snap, and both at his protections and ways he can give himself more protection by some options of getting rid of the ball, all of those things, I think you add all of that up and you are going to see Dak at his very best.”

According to Jones, Prescott at his very best allows the Cowboys to be at their very best.

They are already better than they were at the end of the season.

He said he knows that for sure.