Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones listens as head coach Brian Schottenheimer answers a question during an opening press conference at training camp on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, in Oxnard, Calif.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
OXNARD, Calif. — The 38th edition of “Jerry Jones Opens Camp” (with sidekicks Stephen Jones and Brian Schottenheimer playing supporting roles) came off a bit more subdued than usual — 42 minutes of polite give-and-take, the Cowboys’ 83–year-old owner sounding more deferential at times, even giving the Los Angeles Rams their due as a model for the Cowboys to copy.
Within half an hour, though, I realized he had done it again with the entire football world buzzing about Trader Jerry being on the move, maybe even working on a big deal as recently as Monday.
Is it real? Are the Cowboys truly set to change their ways and become more aggressive, shift gears into a “win now” mode after 30 years of failing to reach the NFC Championship Game while stuck on cruise control? Or was this just Jones doing what he does best, steering the media away from the recent failure angle to paint the Cowboys as a team poised to pounce on its next Super Bowl opportunity?
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What Jones said was this:
“Would I invest something substantive to get the right kind of deal to improve us for opening day? I would. I feel that good about this team this year. And, of course, you know that I haven’t seen this team play yet. But in general, looking ahead, I think we’ve got a chance to be worthy of spending some future [assets] if we saw an opportunity.’’
The Cowboys owner-president-general manager said he had talks with another team as recently as Monday. Now this comes out at a time when Tampa Bay’s superb nose tackle, Vita Vea, has requested a trade, so Cowboys’ fans are free to extrapolate on that for a moment. But I would advise exercising caution there or anyplace else.
Keep in mind it would be challenging for Dallas to trade a first-round pick for 2027. The Cowboys owe the Jets the highest of two first-round picks — Dallas’ own or Green Bay’s from the Quinnen Williams trade — and Dallas would have to designate the traded pick as the lower of the two. So I don’t know what kind of ‘all in’ Jerry has in mind at this moment.
I give him full credit for giving the Rams full credit, though. These two teams will scrimmage in Los Angeles in two weeks, and the Cowboys would love to have their fans think it’s an NFC title game preview, but, in all likelihood, it’s not. The Rams are indeed the favorite to get to a Super Bowl. Dallas, after consecutive seven-win seasons, checks in as the eighth or ninth pick in the NFC on most betting sites.
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When the Rams won the Super Bowl after the 2021 season, Jones applauded them ‘betting it all for a year’’ — essentially passive-aggressive praise acknowledging the belief that their trade of Jared Goff (who had already taken the Rams to one Super Bowl) for veteran Matthew Stafford would have only short-term value.
Stafford nearly got the Rams to another Super Bowl in a tight NFC Championship Game loss to Seattle in January, and LA has gone all in again by trading four picks including a one for Kansas City cornerback Trent McDuffie, and then three picks including a one along with young pass rusher Jared Verse to get Myles Garrett from Cleveland.
When I asked Jones if those moves and the Rams’ recent success was something that could change the Cowboys’ minds about their aggression, I fully expected him to offer the rebuttal that Dallas is already aggressive, making trades for George Pickens and Rashan Gary (at considerably less expense).
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“Yes. Yes. I’ve had that discussion coming to camp with all of us. I admire the job the Rams have done and how they’ve done it. That swapping quarterbacks was gutsy. Yes, I admire the way they have put teams together and the way they have competed and sustained the competition.’’
Jones later added, ‘They will put tomorrow out there for today. And that’s worked for them. Sometimes I may be trying to get a little of both in — a little for today and save some for tomorrow and you end up a little milquetoast.’’
Specifically, you end up 7-10 followed by 7-9-1 to produce consecutive losing records for the first time since the Dave Campo years.
That’s sobering enough to inspire a philosophical change in anyone. The Cowboys’ brain trust says they are all about it, pushing the envelope hard for this season in a belief that the foundation for playoff success is in place.
I don’t believe this team has the draft capital to go after Vea or to revisit Maxx Crosby discussions if the Raiders decide to move back in that direction. Dallas’ biggest moves, in the wake of the Micah Parsons trade, have already been made.
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The 2026 season is unlikely to be decided by anything that hasn’t already happened for Dallas. Jones’ eyes may have been opened by the Rams’ ability to stay the course after seemingly going all in four years ago. And maybe after that scrimmage in two weeks the Cowboys will gain more wisdom in knowing where they stand against a genuine NFC powerhouse that knows how to roll the dice and not lose its turn.