Is There a Magic Solution to Fix the Dallas Cowboys’ Longstanding Issues?

It's Tuesday, which means Jerry Jones has spoken in the Metroplex on 105.3 The Fan. And this week the Cowboys owner delivered a line the show immediately turned into a new sound drop: "Put that in your hopper and smoke it."

First, Rich had some business with TJ. After the Cowboys' loss, TJ, who by Rich's account never texts the group and never picks up his phone, fired off a message to everyone: "fire everybody." Rich said it came so fast it must have landed in the nanosecond between Chad Ryland's kick splitting the uprights and George Pickens running into the locker room. Then came the follow-up, "Troy, Mike T, do it."

TJ said he was upset, and that he doesn't text precisely because people use his texts against him. He also argued a group text is for the group. Rich's response: "We are a public figure, sir."

Rich pointed out that the Mike T in that dream scenario, Mike Tomlin, is loving what he's doing right now and is very good at it. And Tomlin had just described the Cowboys as a room full of blinkers who need to cut their eyelids off and face the crucible of winning games. "That's the way he seemingly assessed the Dallas Cowboys that you would like him to take over," Rich told TJ.

Then Rich got to the bigger issue. Look at the coaches Jerry Jones has hired. Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells stand out, Rich said, as coaches with busts in Canton, championship rings and resumes that "would force some coin to come out of the Jones coffers." Mike McCarthy had a ring too, but Rich said it wasn't like many people were knocking his door down. Someone on set protested that the conversation was skipping Barry Switzer, who won a Super Bowl. "Ask anybody that was on those teams how many more they would have won if Jimmy was their coach," Rich said. "But that's for another day."

So Jones has a reputation for not paying coaches, and on the radio he was asked about it directly, with Tomlin as the example. His answer: "There is zero correlation between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have as to winning. There is no correlation." He said that came from a random sample of years across all 32 teams. "So put that in your hopper and smoke it."

The drop was cut and ready before Rich could ask for it. Rich's verdict: "I don't know about that, Jerry."

He ran through the counterexamples. Andy Reid, whose salary isn't public but is surely top of the line. Sean Payton. Bill Belichick. Tomlin, who Rich was sure made a lot. Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay. Someone on set chimed in that Mike Macdonald "ain't cheap," and Rich added that at some point Ben Johnson is going to cash in too. "To go full Don Draper, that's what the money is for," Rich said.

As for Brian Schottenheimer's seat, Rich said it doesn't sound hot to him, not after Jones told Rich's colleague Jane Slater that a whole bunch of people let Schottenheimer down.

Jones was also asked whether winning the division is worth buying at the deadline instead of selling for the future. "Yes. Yes, it is," he said, adding that everything depends on the deal. "At this particular time, I don't see anything."

Rich wasn't surprised. "I don't know how many 84-year-olds are going to say, 'Yeah, let's build for the future,'" he said. He credited Jones with making win-now moves and said the players he's acquired are the ones Jones means when he talks about letting the coach down. Pickens has been paid, but only for this year, and Rich said everyone is waiting for him to ball out like last year, when CeeDee Lamb missed a couple of games.

Then TJ got the floor. What position should Dallas add before the deadline? "Somewhere in the front defensive four," TJ said. He said it should have been done in June, when the Cowboys should have gone and gotten Crosby. Others on set noted Crosby was coming back from a knee issue and didn't want to go.

TJ pointed to what Jeffery Simmons just did for the Bears. "When you put that player in that position, it helps everyone behind him," he said. Another voice countered that Dallas already has Quinnen Williams, who has been balling, alongside Kenny Clark.

Rich zeroed in on coaching. Dallas is paying Williams significant money. "The question is, do they have the right coordinator to put these guys in the right spots?" When a team goes with a young head coach and doesn't win, people ask whether it's getting what it pays for. That's why those questions go to Jones, Rich said, and why they bother him. The staff has "layers on top of layers on top of layers," including Mike Pettine.

Chris asked TJ whether he would be shocked if the next game came down to the last four minutes again. TJ said nothing shocks him anymore. When the schedule came out, he figured the Cowboys would somehow beat Seattle and lose to the Colts. And San Francisco? "We can't beat the Niners," TJ said. "That is one thing that has held true since you've been talking to me about the Cowboys."

Rich's last point was about direction. Is Dallas going to start pulling this team apart at 3-5 and build for the future? "You're not going to do that," he said. "You are going to try and add."

The crew debated whether anyone would take Pickens. TJ wasn't having it. "If you give up Pickens, the fan base is going to lose it."

Rich admitted nobody outside really knows what's going on in that building. But that's the latest from the Metroplex.