Jerry Jones Optimistic, But Not Offering Any Predictions

For the second time in as many years, Jerry Jones is staying away from Super Bowl talk.

The owner and general manager just watched his Cowboys surprise just about everyone on their way to a 12-4 season, an NFC East title and a playoff win in 2014. They were arguably a play away from getting into the NFC Championship Game, where they would have faced the Seahawks--who they had beaten in Seattle earlier that year--for a place in the Super Bowl.

Jones doesn’t want to talk about what-ifs at this point, and he’s not going to offer a Super Bowl prediction for this year, but make no mistake, he’s feeling very optimistic about his team. He made as much clear in a Tuesday appearance on 105.3-FM The Fan’s New School Show.

“Well, maybe it’s, I hate to use the word, maybe it’s being exceptionally realistic,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “I know we’ve had some years where [Tony] Romo has really played well and we didn’t get there. Last year was one of them. Boy, when you have that kind of year out of you and still leave some out there, then you realize how tough this is to get done, not that it’s impossible to get done. But you realize the odds of saying it.

“Now, that still shouldn’t keep me from saying, ‘Look, Tony’s playing at a high level. We’ve got the best looking defense we’ve had around here in several years. We’ve got an offensive team that’s going to get better.’ So we ought to feel better about things than we did this time last year, or in my mind, any time over the last five or six years. Well, I think in the last five or six years, I’ve said Super Bowl a few times, so let’s do this by deduction.”