Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys VP thankful to not open camp with big distractions

Published Jul. 21, 2015 5:41 p.m. ET

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IRVING, Texas -- Dallas Cowboys Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones is grateful to open training camp in Oxnard, California later this month with no major distractions.

"I think distractions, you try to work through them," Jones said Tuesday at the opening of the Dallas Cowboys Club at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. "Obviously, your head coach, Jason Garrett, the last four to five years has done a good job minimizing the effect that it has on the team. But distractions are distractions. They're talked about. They're put in front of players. They're put in front of coaches. They're put in front of us."

In 2011, the NFL lockout created a whirlwind at training camp at the Alamodome in San Antonio with free agency occurring during training camp. 2012 saw the return to Oxnard along with Dez Bryant's arrest for getting into a domestic dispute with his mother. Then the past two training camps had worrisome dark clouds as franchise quarterback -- and $100 million player -- Tony Romo was recovering from a back surgery. This year's training camp could have opened with scores of questions about Dez Bryant had the club only tagged him on July 15 as opposed to reaching a five-year, $70 million deal with the 26-year-old.

Instead, there will be blue skies at River Ridge Playing Fields.

"Now, the focus can be where it needs to be which is on the field getting better obviously working towards the goal of winning a championship," said Jones.

Though the club internally will be working towards a championship in 2015, Jones says the team cannot be distracted by the positive expectations from the outside. Again, for Jones, the temperance of such expectations is what underscores Garrett's value as a quality head coach.

"So, I fully expect the players to take that message and it won't effect them whether they think people think they'll be good or they think we're going to be .500 or at the bottom," said Jones. "I think our guys are up for the challenge. We've got great leadership on this team. I've always thought chemistry is a hard thing to find, the winning chemistry. Obviously, there's 31 other teams who pay their guys pretty similar amounts in terms of the salary cap, and it's just getting your chemistry right.

"I think last year we found something special. We've got to keep that. We've got the right leadership group to bring that to the table. We've just got to work hard from day one. We got to take care of each other, work hard, stay healthy, and I think good things are going to happen for this group of men."

Jones, like his head coach and his players have stated throughout the off-season, believes the team must rebuild from the ground up. The Cowboys can't rely on adding on to any of the successes from 2014 that "didn't get the job done."

"You can't just pick up where you left off. You have to start from scratch. Everybody will have to be accountable. It will have a different set of faces out there. There will be new faces. Everybody will have to work harder."