FRISCO, Texas – Before we get into what Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said heading into this 2026 offseason, let's pause a moment to celebrate what Jerry Jones did on this day 37 years ago.
Jerry officially announced buying the Dallas Cowboys from previous owner Bum Bright on that Saturday evening, Feb. 25, 1989, at The Ranch in Irving, Texas, doing so in a jam-packed team meeting room overflowing with media members.
Changed the lives of so many forevermore, not to mention his, that of his wife Gene, their kids Stephen, Charlotte and Jerry Jr., as well as a host of associates he brought with him from his oil and gas business to jump into the NFL.
That too marked the end of Tom Landry's 29-year head coaching career, opened the exit door for the Cowboys' only previous president and general manager Tex Schramm, began the NFL limelight for newly hired head coach Jimmy Johnson and embarked this franchise on a new era.
Changed my life, too, a few weeks later. Me in what I perceived as my dream job with the Dallas Times Herald, the "other" newspaper in town, as the sports department's general assignment writer. Went from covering such events as the 1988 Winter and Summer Olympics, college football, basketball, baseball, writing columns, helping out with coverage of the Dallas Sidekicks, Cowboys, Mavericks and Rangers, you just name it, to becoming the Dallas Cowboys day-in and day-out beat writer.
And here we are today, now on Dallas Cowboys.com all these years later, me telling you the same Jerry Jones who said around this time last season he was going to be "all in" in his effort to rebound the Cowboys from a 7-10 season of 2024 that cost head coach Mike McCarthy his job to this year going to "bust the budget," knowing full well he'll need to rebuild his defense to give this team a fighting chance in 2026.
But just wanted to pause about this budget. There is a hard budget the NFL mandates teams do not exceed, and appears the maximum salary cap figure, from what I'm being told, projects somewhere between $301-$303 million per team. That will be finalized soon, or at least before the start of the March 11 league year.
So there is no busting that salary cap budget, otherwise incurring heavy fines not sure any team has faced since the advent of the NFL salary cap in 1994. Now, teams can restructure players' base salaries by turning a portion into instant bonuses, money paid up front but prorated over the remaining years of the contract to lessen the current year's cap hit. See the contracts of Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb coming up.
But there is a catch, and we'll use Zack Martin as a prime example since the Cowboys have utilized this cap space-creating method numerous times. When Zack decided to retire last offseason for health and wear-and-tear reasons, all those remaining prorations accelerated into the current cap, Martin costing the Cowboys roughly $8 million in dead money last year and another $16.46 million this year.
Do that with a couple of players pushing money down the road, and that greatly impacts the budget, the comp being what we all do with our credit cards. While the NFL doesn't charge interest, eventually you have to account for those financial moves.
• Overreaction: With the Cowboys already signing unrestricted free agent running back Javonte Williams to a three-year, $24 million contract, there are those saying, see, Jerry has changed his ways, not dragging out negotiations. Well, if you remember back to last offseason, those stalemates the previous years with Prescott, Lamb and then eventually Micah Parsons, Jerry's now co-owner son Stephen Jones, the keeper of the cap, said, "We sign players who want to sign." Two-way street, right? Javonte wanted to remain here instead of testing the open market come March 11. And guess what, he already will pocket that reported $6 million signing bonus. Talk about compounding interest.
• Now Then Pickens: George Pickens and his agent know his 2025 season has upped the ante and free-agent interest around the league with his Pro Bowl, second-team All-Pro selection and team leading receiving performance. Not only becomes the star player of the flag football Pro Bowl game, but in this month's issue of Sports Illustrated, in the ranking of the top 50 NFL free agents, guess who's No. 1? Yep, GP, with a projected four-year, $120 million contract, so $30 million a year. Oh, almost forgot. Williams was ranked 25th, with a projected … wait on it … three-year, $24 million deal. Imagine that. Pickens likely will be franchised by the March 3 deadline if a long-term deal is not reached. You decide what is preferable, playing the 2026 season on the franchise tag projected to be at $28.8 million this year? Or signing a long-term deal with somewhere around depositing a $30 million signing bonus today that comes with guarantees on base salaries for likely two to three years? What's your choice? Stay tuned here.
• And Then: Now kicker Brandon Aubrey, Stephen Jones saying negotiations have been going on since last year on a long-term extension. Difference here is Aubrey is only a restricted free agent. If unsigned by March 11, he surely receives a first-round compensation tender of $8.1 million or a second round one at $5.8 million. Meaning, if the Cowboys choose not to match another team's offer sheet, then they receive that round's compensation. If no offer sheet is signed, then the player plays for that level of tender. Again, and especially for a kicker, would you rather play for the one-year $8.1 million base salary, getting paid weekly over 18 weeks and bet on yourself continuing to perform at a high level? Or depositing the maybe $8 million signing bonus into the account of your choice today if signing a long-term package that affords some security? Again, you choose based on common sense.
• Ware-Ism: Yep, DeMarcus Ware was at The Star on Tuesday participating in a Black History Month luncheon discussion. We ended up talking about the NFL Scouting Combine and the draft, and his point on the workouts and Senior Bowl week was making sure you put forward supreme effort. He said that is what was on his mind in the 2005 Senior Bowl week. And I said, "Like that play you made on defense, going from the left defensive end position to making the tackle along his right sideline?" He remembered everything about that play 21 years later. His point being, "Whatever takes place, I want to be in the picture." Example being, if is someone is evaluating a quarterback video, then he wants to make sure he's in that same evaluation picture. That someone sees him, too. No wonder he's had a Hall of Fame career.
• More On Christian: During an interview at this week's combine, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was asked about his former pass game coordinator Christian Parker taking over the rival Cowboys defense: "Christian is a phenomenal football coach, and he contributed a lot to our player development the last two years. … I think the world of him and wish him the best, with the exception of the two games we play." Fair enough.
• Push Tush: So Rules Committee head Rich McKay said from the combine that so far there has been no team proposing a rule to ban the tush push, as was done last year, falling short by just a couple of votes of passing. Well, to me, if it's OK to push a player in the field of play forward carrying the ball, why doesn't the defense then get credit for pushing that tush backward. What's the difference? What's fair for the goose is fair for the gander, as they say. But no, plays are blown dead when stopping "forward progress" with the ball carrier going backward. Well, isn't forward progress stopped going forward if a player is picked up off the ground and carried forward? Think about it. Some backward thinking going on here.
• Draft Nibbles: See where in his pre-combine mock draft for ESPN, Mel Kiper Jr. has the Cowboys at No. 12 selecting LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane and then coming back at No. 20 with Miami defensive end Akheem Mesidor; me, wouldn't argue with that … Also, among his first 11 selections, the Cowboys certainly would be happy if the draft played out his way, with a player at quarterback, running back, two at offensive tackle, two at wide receiver and maybe even a safety taken high, meaning seven players at positions the Cowboys won't prioritize that high in the draft, within reason … But then among the other four were linebackers and defensive end/edge rushers the Cowboys would value … Yes, Robert Muschamp, hired as the Cowboys assistant secondary coach, is related to college coach Will Muschamp, his uncle and dad Pat's brother.
We might as well go full circle here for this week's last word, going back to the top when we mentioned Cowboys owner Jerry jones using the term "busting the budget" that so many have been taking literally. So, of course, Cowboys co-owner Stephen Jones was asked at this week's NFL Scouting Combine his interpretation of what Jerry meant by "busting the budget," since he well knows the "budget" is the NFL's "budget" in the form of a salary cap.
And please know, Stephen began laughing and shaking his head when the question was being asked.
"I think he is very driven. I think we're all very driven to do what we really need to do on the defensive side of the ball to get better," Stephen said of Jerry. "And I think if we can do that, I think we can have a great football team.
"I think you don't have to look any further than the Super Bowl this year. Both of those teams are great success stories that probably a lot of people didn't feel like they would be in the big game, and they were. Hats off to them. I mean New England and Seattle did an amazing job."
Now if what Stephen just said needs interpretation, his reference is how much New England improved over the 2024 season, the Patriots going from 4-13 and ranked 10th in the AFC to 14-3 in 2025 and ranked second before advancing into the Super Bowl. And how Seattle went from firing its head coach after a 9-8 record in 2023, to 10-7 in 2024 to 14-3 in 2025 and the No. 1 seed in the NFC on the Seahawks way to winning the Super Bowl.
And when pointed out those teams were big spenders in free agency, Stephen said, "Everything is different. There is no set situation on how you go about doing something."
The only thing that is set is that big budget – the salary cap.
