National Football League

Cowboys' Jerry Jones is taking a bow, and this time he has earned it

Updated Sep. 30, 2022 3:53 p.m. ET

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

Jerry Jones once made a very Jerry Jones-centric comment.

It was about a decade ago and it amounted to something like this: a frank admission that there have been times when Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, probably should have fired Jerry Jones, general manager of the Dallas Cowboys – over his performance.

If he wasn’t, you know, himself.

The concept was a little confusing back then and it hasn’t gotten much simpler, or any less humorous, since. It wasn’t even apparent which organizational hat Jones was wearing when he made the remark, and all it really did was confirm that when it comes to the Cowboys, it is indeed the world of Jerry, all the time.

Fast-forward to now, and, as it always is when there are times of either excitement or uncertainty in Dallas – or both – Jones is at the front and center of the conversation.

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And in the frenetic hurry to lavish praise upon a man named Rush – Cooper Rush, undrafted quarterback extraordinaire and surprise antidote to what threatened to be a lost season for Dallas – Jones is unapologetically stirring the pot. Both the Joneses are. Not Jerry and his son Stephen, the team’s executive vice president. Owner Jerry and GM Jerry.

Owner Jerry has gotten busy talking up the possibility of a previously unthinkable QB competition between Rush and injured $40 million man Dak Prescott. GM Jerry has used the Rush example as a subtle reminder that those old sneers about his football decisions haven’t been so applicable of late, and that he’s on a neat little streak of pretty nice calls.

Because he could have handled the Rush/Prescott situation far differently. When Prescott fractured his thumb in Week 1, he could have looked past Rush, the unassuming product of Central Michigan who had attempted less than 50 passes in his entire career.

Jones could have tried to snag a more seasoned stop gap. A trade for Pittsburgh Steelers backup Mason Rudolph was mooted more than once, but Jones and head coach Mike McCarthy had faith in Rush, who has been a Cowboy his whole pro career, save a short excursion to the New York Giants practice squad.

The response has been unexpected. Rush kept the ball safe and engineered a late field-goal drive to get by the Cincinnati Bengals, then wore down the Giants a week later to become only the second QB in the Super Bowl era to complete game-winning drives in each of their first three starts.

"Wouldn’t it be something if you had a dilemma as to which way to go?" Jones told reporters. "You do that if (Rush) gets to 10 wins. Same thing that happened with Prescott (and Tony Romo). I think like that."

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In the immediate sense, there is no true competition. Rush will take charge again when the team meets the Washington Commanders at home Sunday (1 p.m. ET; FOX and the FOX Sports App) but Prescott’s full heath appears to be not far away and a return to the lineup looms.

What would it take for Rush to pose the question? Another heroic drive, a swath of touchdowns, and even more poise than he has shown so far? Even then, probably not.

Yet why the Rush popularity train has gained so much momentum is because of how despairing things initially appeared when Prescott went down. Now, against expectations, the Cowboys suddenly find themselves not just trying to tread water but in a potential arm-wrestle with the unbeaten Philadelphia Eagles at the top of the NFC East.

If what Jones is trying to accomplish is to nudge the conversation toward how he’s played a role in this feel-good factor Cowboys fans are currently basking in, it’d be hard to blame him for that. A little element of "look what I did" never hurt, and recent recruiting decisions such as defensive beast Micah Parsons and lead receiver CeeDee Lamb have looked particularly astute the past couple of weeks.

One point that should be noted, even with Prescott due to pick up where he left off, is that almost certainly Jones does not think the gap between his No. 1 and No. 2 QBs is as great as that assumed by the wider football public, including the oddsmakers.

FOXBet has Dallas as just a three-point favorite for Sunday, in line with most bookies, despite the Commanders and their quarterback Carson Wentz having endured a miserable start in which they looked desperately low on confidence in Philadelphia last week.

"I suspect there is only one reason for it, and it is flawed," wrote Tim Cowlishaw in the Dallas Morning News. "It is called Dak Prescott, and with the expectations that he will miss another game, the Cowboys are perceived as a badly diminished team. Yet we know after these two games — three if you include a win at Minnesota last season — the team plays on and actually wins with Cooper Rush."

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Some of Jones’ comments are dismissed as just Jerry being Jerry. For many, the QB battle remark fell into that category. "It’s just marketing," said running back Ezekiel Elliott with a laugh. The one about the owner firing the GM all those years ago probably meets that description, too.

But the thing to remember is that Jerry is always Jerry, unchanging, always aware that when you have a team with a cult following, the show is as important as the reality. Never afraid to spend big to chase a long-awaited return to glory, but also prepared to trust his gut.

As things stand, with the doom of two weeks ago resoundingly lifted and optimism refreshed, it is probably a pretty good time to be Jerry. Even the general manager version, who won’t ever get fired, and right now has no cause to be.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.