Instead, the main focus will be on shaping an overhauled defensive roster under a new coaching staff into a unit capable of helping head coach Brian Schottenheimer\u2019s dynamic offense.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The urgency to address that side of the ball, Jones said, is where the narrative of a calm offseason ends.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve had a lot going on, and we\u2019ve had to really scramble a lot,” he said. “The kind of stuff you don\u2019t see, but that should be that way. It\u2019s supposed to be hard.”<\/p>\n
The Cowboys hired Christian Parker from the division rival Philadelphia Eagles in January as their defensive coordinator, tasking the 34-year-old secondary specialist with fixing a defense<\/a> that gave up the most points in franchise history (511) and ranked last in the NFL in scoring (30.1 points per game) and passing yards allowed (251.5).<\/p>\n Dallas also used its first three draft picks on defense<\/a>, including taking Ohio State safety Caleb Downs with the 11th selection<\/a>, and worked to address other personnel deficiencies in free agency.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve made that bed when we brought in new scheme, new coaches, new players,” Jones said. “We\u2019re going with new right there, so I\u2019ve bought into that.”<\/p>\n Getting that group up to speed to assist an offense led by the star trio of quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens will be critical for the Cowboys\u2019 hopes of returning to the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. Dallas went 7-9-1 in Schottenheimer\u2019s first year, including a 6-1-1 record when scoring 30 or more points.<\/p>\n “All those moves that we made, it was not a quiet offseason for us, and it was a great offseason for us,” Schottenheimer said.<\/p>\n Prescott seems to be embracing the idea that the Cowboys can put themselves in position to compete at the highest level. He arrived at training camp wearing a Super Bowl championship shirt<\/a> from the last time Dallas won it all following the 1995 regular season, which was also the last time they reached the NFC title game.<\/p>\n “I like the idea, thinking that positive about what we\u2019re going to work for,” Jones said. “We\u2019ve got a long way to go, really having started in the spring. But that\u2019s good to me to be positive, especially coming from him.”<\/p>\n Jones didn\u2019t rule out making further moves to improve the roster on defense, saying he recently was in contact with another NFL owner over a potential trade.<\/p>\n He declined to discuss the Cowboys\u2019 possible interest in Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, citing league rules about tampering. A deal to send Crosby<\/a> to the Baltimore Ravens in March was scuttled because of a failed physical<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was a rare moment of caution from Jones, who has never shied away from expressing himself in front of the media.<\/p>\n When asked if the Cowboys\u2019 low-key offseason was intentional, Jones acknowledged his penchant for drawing out the spotlight.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve never thought there was anything quiet or subdued about the Dallas Cowboys. I never thought of it that way, but I have been guilty of stirring it up. And you guys help me, and we have been a great team \u2014 I promise you that \u2014 for the last 30-something years,” a smiling Jones said.<\/p>\n Reporting by The Associated Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys typically arrive at training camp with some sort of off-field drama swirling around the team,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":966412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,40676,13554,13555,1596,8998,35777,301077,9338,4261,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-966411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-caleb-downs","tag-ceedee-lamb","tag-dak-prescott","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-george-pickens","tag-malachi-lawrence","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl-draft","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117002368961583248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}