04/26/24
April 26, 2013
Jerry Jones Continues Odd Draft Strategy: Either Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones knows something the rest of the league doesn't, or he just screwed up again by trading down from 18 to 31, getting a third-round pick instead of a second rounder (trade chart be damned) and drafting at 31 a center projected as low as the third round by some experts. "It's a mistake to think that transactions go by any trade chart ... We invented trade charts," Jones said. A Dallas scout was reportedly "baffled beyond belief" by the moves.
And then they go TE in the 2nd round. Jerry may just wind up wackier than Al Davis at his peak. Either way, it's funny as hell to watch.
posted by Ufez Jones at 07:54 PM on April 26, 2013
This is a team that just gave Tony Romo a blank check. They don't really think they need anything as badly as everyone else does. They're the Cowboys, after all. They're always one or two unlucky breaks away from the Super Bowl.
posted by Etrigan at 09:09 PM on April 26, 2013
I don't get how someone could be as business smart and football stupid as Jerry Jones. He doesn't have the personnel evaluation skills to build an team. It's a shame he doesn't find some other part of his empire to ruin for a while.
posted by rcade at 09:47 PM on April 26, 2013
He doesn't have the personnel evaluation skills to build an team. It's a shame he doesn't find some other part of his empire to ruin for a while.
This is actually exactly how incompetence works. The same skills you need to be good at something are the same skills you need in order to judge if somebody else is good at that thing. Jones is a good businessman and the boss of the Cowboys so he figures he must be good at football as he is at business and nobody can tell him otherwise. So, he sucks at football, he can't tell he sucks at football, and yet he believes he's good at football and is surrounded by sycophants that tell him he's good at football. Its a cycle only death can break.
posted by Joey Michaels at 09:58 PM on April 26, 2013
The same skills you need to be good at something are the same skills you need in order to judge if somebody else is good at that thing.
If that were the case, the Charlotte Bobcats would be on their fourth straight NBA title run.
However, I think you're close -- the same skills you need to be good at something are the same skills you need in order to judge whether you're good at that thing. Jerry Jones isn't good enough at running a football team to even have an idea of how bad he is at it.
I don't get how someone could be as business smart and football stupid as Jerry Jones. He doesn't have the personnel evaluation skills to build an team.
The "cone" in football is incredibly narrower than it is in virtually anything else (even other sports). In no other field of human endeavor is a 23-year-old made into one of the 45 people responsible for the success or failure of a multi-million-dollar enterprise immediately after being one of the 85 people responsible for a significantly less heavyweight enterprise (the #1 pick was from Central Michigan, for gods' sake). Teams expect to be able to cull the approximately 2,000 FBS football players who graduate each year (and that's not even counting the top 100 or so FCS players) into the top 200-plus to draft. There is no team -- hell, there is no coach that doesn't have a Total Draft Bust in the rear view mirror somewhere, and there are very few teams that don't have a Total Draft Bargain who came out of nowhere.
I'm not saying that Jerry Jones isn't bad at personnel evaluation, but very few people are good at it, and there's significantly more luck than skill in even the best drafter's history.
posted by Etrigan at 11:01 PM on April 26, 2013
This is all Mike Lynn's fault. If he hadn't handed half the planet to Dallas in exchange for Herschel, all the world would have found out a lot sooner how inept Jones is.
And it would have been better for the Cowboys in the long run if Jones had failed instead of struck paydirt in the early years. He was dangerously overextended and had a poorly run operation in place after purchasing the team and might have been forced to sell if the team hadn't turned around as it did.
And just when there was a chance of Jones possibly falling back to earth from his delusional cloud in the wake of Jimmy Johnson's departure, the Cowboys went out and won a title with Switzer at the helm. That sealed the deal. At that point there was no longer any doubt; Jones was a certified Midas, at least in his own mind.
posted by beaverboard at 09:08 AM on April 27, 2013
the #1 pick was from Central Michigan, for gods' sake
Hey now. Let's not speak ill of my alma matter.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:16 AM on April 27, 2013
A Dallas scout was reportedly "baffled beyond belief" by the moves.
And Jer will be "baffled beyond belief" when the 'Boys don't make it pass the first round of the playoffs, if they make it that far.
posted by steelergirl at 01:30 PM on April 27, 2013
the #1 pick was from Central Michigan, for gods' sake
Hey now. Let's not speak ill of my alma matter.
I wouldn't dare to speak ill of John Locke's school either, but the Chips don't often put guys in the first round.
posted by Etrigan at 03:20 PM on April 27, 2013
To use a soccer analogy, what do you get when an owner meddles too much? Blackburn Rovers.
OK, so Jerry's had slightly better success.
posted by jjzucal at 09:01 PM on April 28, 2013
Jerry's run up to the opening bell on draft day: attending the opening ceremonies for the new Bush presidential library.
Let others toil, prepare and hunker down with all eyes on the board and the scouting data.
Wonder at what point Charlotte Anderson will order him sedated and confined to the homestead.