For years, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has watched the Philadelphia Eagles win multiple Super Bowls with a “win-now” mentality while shrugging off future cap concerns.
Philadelphia, in the Eagles management’s minds, has been proven right with their strategy. They have won two Super Bowls in 10 years and reached a third during their recent run.
Through it all, though, Jones has steadfastly believed that the chickens would come home to roost for the Eagles eventually, and has said that’s why the Cowboys would not go down that route.
“I’m real hesitant to bet it all for a year,” Jones said back in 2023. “There’s a lot of things that can happen for that year. … A couple of teams [Eagles and Rams] that have had some real success putting it all out there and paying for it later. Don’t think that doesn’t pop in my head and get my eye, as far as doing it, and I know how to do that.”
Jones does indeed “know how to do that” when it comes to cap trickery; he literally helped invent some of the tricks back in the early 1990’s, and used those moves to capture three Super Bowl wins in four years.
But today?
After news is coming out about topics at the recent league meetings in Minneapolis, Jones’ comments from a couple of years ago seem prescient.
Multiple reporters have confirmed that the league has discussed altering how teams can utilize the salary cap through salary bonuses, dead cap management, and percentages of cap hits compared to the rest of the roster.
Should the league look to change the way owners are allowed to manage their teams from a salary cap perspective, it could hurt franchises like the Eagles because of their aggressive and creative nature.
For teams like the Cowboys? Again …
Ironically, three decades ago, Jones and his front office were all about innovation in ways that pushed and even bent the rules. The idea of “putting present costs on a future credit card” and of simply spending what it took to win now (best exemplified by Dallas’ 1995 blockbuster signing of Deion Sanders).
But today? The Cowboys, style-wise, would be largely unaffected.
This would be a massive change. Dallas and Philadelphia build their teams differently from each other. If one is hurt by owners essentially cutting chances to manipulate the cap, it could catapult Dallas back into contention with their biggest rivals. …
Really, if the Cowboys master a new set of rules as they once did, and as the Eagles of today have … it could shift the balance of power in the NFC once again.
