Jerry Jones made all kinds of noise locally and nationally on Wednesday when he signed free agent defensive end Greg Hardy to a one-year deal coming off a year which saw him play just one game after being charged with domestic abuse of an ex-girlfriend in a high-profile incident allegedly involving machine guns on couches and lots of bad things of the sort.
But Jones saw an opportunity to improve his team on the cheap, and improve it in a big way, and since the signing, Jerry has explained himself from a football perspective by saying Hardy's signing is on par with bringing in a franchise quarterback, who can have all kinds of effect on a franchise for years.
“These players that can put pressure on the quarterback are rare,” Jones told the team's website on Wednesday afternoon. “They’re as rare as franchise quarterbacks. From what we’ve seen of his play, he’s in that category.”
Hardy, who has notched 27 sacks in his last 32 games — a remarkable number — should provide a huge boost to a Cowboys defense that had just 28 sacks a year ago and has lost both George Selvie and Henry Melton off the defensive line to free agency.
