After years of Jerry Jones making clear that he wasn’t scared to pay big for veterans in free agency, it appears that the Cowboys have changed their philosophy.
Jerry’s son and Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones says Dallas has become far more hesitant when it comes to bringing in high-priced free agents approaching the age of 30. As we saw in their willingness to part ways with Miles Austin (29) and DeMarcus Ware (31), the new philosophy extends to keeping in-house veterans around, as well.
“If we don’t learn from what has bitten us then shame on us,” Jones said, per the Dallas Morning News. “Unfortunately, we have been paying guys who are over 30 years old a lot of money up front and it hasn’t worked for us. I’m not saying that [Jason] Hatcher won’t work out. I’m not saying that Ware won’t work out. But it hasn’t worked out for us, so we have to do something different.”
Replacing the aforementioned Hatcher will be Henry Melton, the prize of the Cowboys’ offseason thus far. Melton is coming off a torn ACL, where Hatcher is coming off an 11-sack season and a Pro Bowl nod. But Melton is a lot cheaper than Hatcher, and about four years younger.
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