Jerry Jones Says Coaching Pay Has Zero Correlation to Winning. The Cowboys Have Not Reached an NFC Title Game Since 1995.
Jerry Jones went on his weekly radio spot Tuesday morning and explained exactly why the Cowboys keep hiring the coaches they hire. He thinks paying for coaching is a waste of money, and he says he has the research to prove it. His research.
“There is zero correlation between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have as to winning,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, per The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “There is no correlation. And that’s a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved. So, put that in your hopper and smoke it.”
He cited no study. He named no source. He has owned the Cowboys since February 1989, he is still the general manager at 84 years old, and he was arguing that the job he refuses to pay for does not matter.
The Record Does the Arguing
Dallas has not played in an NFC Championship Game since the 1995 season, the year it won Super Bowl XXX. That is the longest active drought of its kind in NFL history. Since 1996 the Cowboys have won five playoff games, all in the wild-card round, and none in the divisional round. CBS Sports noted Tuesday that since 1995 Dallas owns the 11th-best regular-season record in football and the fourth-worst postseason record.
So the man insisting coaching money does not buy wins has spent 30 years conducting the experiment.
The Counter-Evidence Is Not Subtle
The Athletic pointed out that the coaches of six of the last 10 Super Bowl champions were among the league’s highest paid, including Bill Belichick, Andy Reid and Sean McVay. Four of the five highest-paid coaches working right now have rings, per Sportico. Reid, John Harbaugh and Sean Payton all sit around $20 million a year, and Field Level Media reports 10 coaches make at least $14 million.
Brian Schottenheimer, in his second season in Dallas, is estimated somewhere between $4.5 million and $8 million depending on which outlet you trust. Nobody has a firm number, because NFL coaching salaries are not public and are not capped. That second part is the important one: Dallas has no salary-cap excuse here. Jones simply does not want to write the check.
NFL Network’s Jane Slater reported that she called a veteran head coach’s agent during the 2025 Dallas search and was told, “Jerry won’t pay 13M and up and that’s the starting point.” Dallas was also the only team with a 2025 opening that never requested an interview with Ben Johnson or Aaron Glenn.
Where This Leaves 2026
The Cowboys are 3-5 after a 33-30 overtime loss to Arizona on Sunday in which they gave away a fourth-quarter lead. They sit second in the NFC East behind the 4-2-1 Giants, whose head coach is Harbaugh, one of the men making roughly $20 million.
Jones said Tuesday that Dallas is a buyer before the Nov. 10 trade deadline, then added, “at this particular time, I don’t see anything.” Asked whether the Cowboys would sell, he said, “No, no. We like what we put together for now.” The team holds four 2027 draft picks, which would be the fewest in franchise history for a single draft.
Ed Werder predicted the comments would infuriate the fan base, and they did. Tim Cowlishaw answered the claim with a list: Belichick won three titles in the last decade, Reid won three, McVay won one. The more lasting damage is to the next hiring cycle. Jones has now said on the record that he does not believe coaching is worth paying for, and every agent in the league heard him say it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
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