Two longtime NFL general managers who have built Super Bowl teams are newly available for hire. But if former Colts GM Bill Polian or former Bears GM Jerry Angelo are expecting a phone call from Jerry Jones, they're going to waste a long time staring at their Caller ID.
To no one's surprise but to many fans' dismay, Jones said on his weekly radio show on KRLD-FM that he would not be incorporating a general manager into his power structure. Jones will continue to serve as both owner and GM, just as he has for the last 16 non-Super Bowl seasons.
Polian and Angelo were fired this week and could bring a wealth of NFL management experience to the next team that hires them.
However, Jones said Tuesday that bringing in a general manager would simply gum up the works.
"The thing you've got to realize is that when you have an owner that is full-time as the owner, then you create a situation where you've got as much turnover at GM as you do at coaching level," Jones said. "I think that just deters from the mix."
Jones also said, as only he can, that there's no need to bring in a Bill Polian because he has the same resources as the veteran GM who guided Indianapolis.
"I call on the same kinds of influence and the people and information that someone like Bill Polian [does]," Jones said. "I've known him for years, served on the competition committee with him for 10 years. The answer is I have a lot of respect for him."
The Cowboys finished 8-8 this season and missed the playoffs. Their current Super Bowl drought is longer than at any other time in franchise history, and the calls for Jones to resign as GM are getting louder.
But Jones assured listeners that he has everything he needs to continue in the dual role as owner and general manager.
"The way we're structured, the way it is, our fans need to understand that I have the ability to go get anybody and any bit of information that there is, sports or football," Jones said. "And I do. And I go get it. And we get it from a lot of sources on evaluating football players, we get it from evaluating coaches.
"There won't be an offensive scheme, there won't be a defensive scheme in the National Football League that we don't totally evaluate during the offseason and make decisions relative to what other people are doing, relative to what we're doing."
Jones said he isn't bothered when critics say he isn't a football man. Although he played football at the University of Arkansas, Jones made his first fortune in oil and gas exploration.
"The facts are that I've spent 22 years [with the Cowboys] doing this exactly the same way," Jones said. "I've made a lot of changes from year to year, as time goes along. But frankly, I know that when we do not have the kind of success, when we don't have expectations lived up to, then the one that should get the most heat is the one ultimately makes the decisions, period, with the Dallas Cowboys and that's me."
Jones also tried to assure fans that the Cowboys, just as they spent top dollar to build Cowboys Stadium, haven't cut any corners in trying to assemble a winner.
"Our fans need to know that one of the things that can be utilized to do better is money," Jones said on The Fan. "We spend more money than anybody in football to have a good football team. I think that's important for everybody to know and we've just got to do a better job of how we do it."
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire
