Cowboys season-end presser: New d-coordinator, Pickens deal; Could Jerry retire?

When the NFL playoffs kick off on Saturday afternoon, the Dallas Cowboys will be at home watching from the couch for the second season in a row, and it’s a reality that has frustrated owner Jerry Jones.

Speaking at the end-of-season press conference on Wednesday at The Star in Frisco, Jones addressed a myriad of topics alongside son and executive vice president Stephen Jones and head coach Brian Schottenheimer about how he sees an opportunity for improvement in 2026 that can not only get them back into the second weekend of January, but potentially further.

The presser came on the heels of the firing of first-year defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus after a porous season defensively that put the Cowboys dead-last in points allowed and 30th in total yards allowed across the NFL.

As the search begins for the team’s fourth defensive coordinator in as many years, let’s start with the task at hand for Jones and the front office.

What Dallas is looking for in a new defensive coordinator

Getting this hire right will be arguably the most important thing that Brian Schottenheimer, Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones do all offseason. As they begin to have conversations on what that hire could look like, certain aspects will be sought out from the next defensive leader on staff.

“We’ve had this conversation a lot,” Schottenheimer said. “The best coaches, in my opinion, are flexible. So, we’re not going to pigeon-hole ourselves and say we have to be 3-4, 4-down, whatever it is … Good coaches take the players they have, they have an identity, and they fit their players into the model that fits what they do well. You’re looking for a teacher. You’re looking for a guy that has the ability to instruct and to buy in.”

When evaluating the defensive shortcomings from this past season, Schottenheimer has pointed at the lack of takeaways multiple times. The Cowboys’ defense finished 30th in the NFL in takeaways.

“We weren’t able to take the ball away,” he said. “We didn’t play good enough in terms of the ball. Minus-nine in the giveaway-takeaway ratio? That’s terrible. So, we have to protect the football on offense. We didn’t do that at a high enough level. And we have to get more turnovers.”

Schottenheimer can voice all of his desires, but will he have a say at the end of the day? Jones was adamant that he be as big a part of the process as anyone in the room.

“Brian will be very involved with that process, as he was last year when we made those changes,” Jerry Jones said. “We will do an intense, complete-focus job of replacing Eberflus and any holes that are here because of his job.”

Each of the last six defensive coordinators for the Cowboys dating back to 2014 have had head coaching experience. For a box that has seemingly been a requirement to check in the past, Jerry Jones said on Wednsday it’s not a requirement this time around. He even went as far as saying he would hire a first-time coordinator.

“The way we’ve done it in the past, that alone will cause me not to do it that way now,” Jones said. “That alone.”

The George Pickens extension

Arguably, the second-biggest agenda point this offseason will be handling an extension with wide receiver George Pickens.

After he set career-highs across the board in hauling in 93 receptions for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns, he is set to receive a massive contract extension after just one year with the team. How he ends up landing that extension could be the messy part, though.

It was less than six months ago that Jerry Jones was in the middle of a disgruntled negotiation with Micah Parsons and agent David Mulugheta before it ultimately ended in Jones trading Parsons away to the Green Bay Packers. Now, dealing with the same agent, there is rightful questioning about if the Pickens negotiation could follow the same trajectory.

“How bad do you want me? Does that mean you should have been at the doorstep the other night? I don’t want to get into those kinds of assessments of how much we’re trying,” Jones said. “He’s an outstanding player. We don’t have the same issues that we might have had [when the team traded for him], and we are very proud of when we signed Dak — certainly after this year, in my mind — we took on a real direction of doing things that are really friendly to his future with the Cowboys.”

However, he doesn’t want the comparisons of Parsons’ negotiation to muddy what is ahead with Pickens.

“So much of that has to do with the reading the move as you take the next step,” he said. “So, I wouldn’t dare to say that I’d do anything to a contract negotiation or comparison to any other contract. There won’t be any comparison.”

With that being said, he did mention that because the team did trade Parsons, they now have the flexibility within the league’s salary cap allocated to player compensation to sign a talent like Pickens whereas they may not have been able to before.

“It put us in a position to have the flexibility,” Jones said. “No way in the world could we have had ever entertained having the player like Pickens for the future if we hadn’t made the trade. We would not have had flexibility. There was zero chance of having that money available for that.”

But as for the negotiation itself, consider all possibilities on the table.

“I can be whatever you want me to be,” he said. “I can be sweet, or I can be the other way, too — however we need to do it.”

Tyler Smith’s future on the offensive line

One thing that doesn’t have to be addressed this offseason is the contract for three-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Tyler Smith. In signing a four-year, $96 million extension days before the start of the season, he is locked in with the team through 2029.

However, the discussion around Smith does still exist this offseason, but more so around which position he is best fit at going into what should be the best years of his career.

An All-Pro left guard in 2023 and a three-time Pro Bowl player at the position, Smith was moved to left tackle for the final three games of the season due to injury to Tyler Guyton and struggles from backup Nate Thomas. Now, the conversation is built around if Smith could remain there permanently.

Smith has made his desire to remain at left guard known to the media, and he was able to relay that to Schottenheimer in his exit interview this week.

“It was great, Tyler and I just had [the conversation],” Schottenheimer said. “I explained to him, I said, ‘Hey, I think we feel that you’re an incredible, all-decade type guard. But at the end of the day, you’re such a good player that we have to play the five best guys.’ He wanted some direction, and I said, ‘Right now, you’re a guard. But at the end of the day, we’re going to do what’s best for the Dallas Cowboys and winning a Super Bowl.’”

Schottenheimer added that Smith was in full understanding after the conversation. As it appears, the team will head into the offseason with him at left guard, but the possibility of him moving back out remains on the table.

Did Jerry Jones talk … retirement?

Could Jerry Jones actually retire from his position as owner and general manager?

Even though he hinted at it today, don’t hold your breath if you’re in the camp of fans that want him to step down.

“My goal in life is to retire as the owner that won the most Super Bowls,” Jones said. “That’s my goal. We’ve got three. How many more do I have to go as a single owner? [Patriots owner Robert Kraft] has how many, six? So, I’ve got work to do, but at least I’m up to the second rung in the ladder.”

Jones, 83, will need to get to work quick to accomplish that goal. But even in saying that with a smile on his face, he knows how this journey ends for him. And while he caught himself from actually saying it, his son to his right finished it off for him.

“I will go down … no, I’m not going to say that,” Jerry Jones said.

“He’s a ten-toe-high guy,” Stephen Jones said with a laugh.

Retirement? Unlikely, but it sure is crazy to think of a world where he is sitting on his couch as the Cowboys continue operating.