Jerry Jones Sets The Mark For Dallas Cowboys As 2023 NFL Season Begins: Do Not Underachieve
This is NFL Season No. 35 for Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager, excited about the year's start, is already thinking about the ending.
And the thinking is the Cowboys better not underachieve.
"We've had years that we should have gone farther in the playoffs with the kind of team, the quality of team we had," Jones said Tuesday on the Shan and RJ Show on Audacy's 105.3 The Fan. "But that's not much solace when we say it. We've had those years. I want a team that can play at the level that gives us a chance like maybe five or six teams that I've been a part of that have not been successful in the playoffs. But I want a team that can reach that level."
Jerry Jones is giving the 2023 NFL season a big thumbs up but success and failure will be measured in the playoffs. (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images)
Postseason Is The Thing For Jerry Jones
Translation: Jones doesn't want the Cowboys to underperform, at least in his mind, in the postseason.
And he enters this looming season expecting that won't be a problem.
"I think we've got that," Jones said hopefully. "It means so much to have the whole thing come together in the playoffs when you got a team like that and raise it's level of competitiveness, raise its level of execution, raise its level of intensity and play playoff football.
"That's what I want. For whatever reason, we haven't been able to attain it over the last many years. That's, of course, frustrating ..."
Jones understands Cowboys fans are hungry for a team that can advance and, as he puts it, "get in the next key game, a championship game, conference championship game, or the Super Bowl."
The Cowboys haven't done that in a long time. The last time the franchise made it as far as the NFC championship game was 1995 when Dallas also won the last of its Super Bowl titles.
But the latter day Cowboys have lost in the divisional round of the playoffs seven times and lost in the Wild Card round five times since.
ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 21: Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks to head coach Mike McCarthy prior to the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans on August 21, 2021 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. (Photo by George Walker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Five Or Six Cowboys Teams Have Underachieved
Jones believes "five or six" times his teams have underachieved in the postseason. And although he didn't say it, that strongly suggests the Cowboys teams the past two years are in the group.
Those teams, coached by Mike McCarthy, finished with 12-5 records in the regular season. But their postseason losses to the San Francisco 49ers both years were a bitter disappointment
McCarthy is 30-20 in his three seasons leading the Cowboys, which is a very good .600 winning percentage.
But he's 1-2 in the playoffs.
That means the Cowboys coach has so far failed at the precise time when Jones wants the most success. And it means Jones just set the bar for McCarthy in 2023.
Jones is looking at playoff success as the standard for the season, not the regular season.
Jones wants to at least reach the NFC championship game.
Even winning a Wild Card game doesn't quite make Jones happy because Dallas did that last year after which Jones was disappointed. The thing for McCarthy is get to a game that awards a title of some sort.
So this is what Jones left unsaid: McCarthy has to clear that next hurdle that has tripped him up the past couple of years.
That begs questions:
The questions the Dallas Cowboys will answer sometime in January.