Jerry Jones didn't want to do it after his team's 26-21 loss to Green Bay on Sunday, which happened thanks in large part to a controversial no-catch call on a phenomenal play from Dez Bryant, but he didn't have a choice.
The Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager was forced into off-season mode on Sunday with several big decisions coming up, both in regards to the roster and the coaching staff.
Now-free agents include: Jason Garrett, defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, offensive line coach Bill Callahan, play-caller Scott Linehan, linebacker Rolando McClain, wide receiver Dez Bryant and running back DeMarco Murray. Those are about as big as big get in terms of names and starpower in the Cowboys organization.
Jones said he expects some turnover this offseason, which is normal in the NFL, he just has to decide how much he'll allow after the Cowboys shocked the NFL world by finishing 13-5 when most national experts picked them to finish no better than 7-9 and far away from a postseason spot.
“There certainly will be changes,” the Cowboys owner and general manager said. “These rosters have turnover, automatically. We’ve got coaches that are certainly highly thought of, so they’ll be looking at their individual situation. That’s pretty much what we do.
“We have about a 30 percent turnover every year. What is the core? Who is the core? That’s a part of what we’ll be doing. We’ve had more numbers of players play a key role in our success this year than I had thought we would when we started this season.”
Jones said his No. 1 priority is bringing back Garrett has his head coach and explained the reasoning for not having any of the players or coaches locked up before now.
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“One of the reasons we didn’t do a lot of these things with these contracts is because we didn’t want to spend any of our time or waste any of the good feeling we were having getting our team ready," Jones said.
