The Dallas Cowboys haven't exactly had the best offseason thus far. They lost three key players to their squad over the past few months, which will likely have a significant impact on the team this coming season. Amari Cooper, Randy Gregory, and La'el Collins have all now headed to greener pastures, and Dallas will need to find ways to try and replace them on their roster.
Team owner Jerry Jones addressed these departures in a recent press conference as his Cowboys head into training camp. The 79-year-old billionaire decided to get brutally honest about Cooper, Gregory, and Collins' exits, providing some context as to why the team decided to let them walk away (via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News):
“We lost three really highly profile players,” Jones said. “Those players were in the top 10 of our players that make the most money. When you get into that spot, I can tell you, your standards go up. Your bar is higher, your conduct is higher, your attention to the team is higher, not just your own performance but everything.
“When you have that kind of responsibility, which you do when you have that much of the financial pie. What I’m trying to say is those decisions were made more about the availability than ability and they were made as to how you arrive at not being unavailable at times.”
Jerry Jones did not hold back here. The Cowboys owner wasn't shy about letting the whole world know that he wasn't happy with how these three players spent a lot of time on the sidelines as opposed to on the field fighting for their team. Ultimately, their health and their unavailability to play were what led to their divorce from the squad.
“Let me be real clear, we’re in a sport where in football, certainly your skill level and your ability to be a player is why you’re even being considered as a player,” Jones said. “More important than anything, these decisions that we made, I made relative to top players not being here, had everything to do with their availability and my concern about their availability.”
Combined, Cooper, Gregory, and Collins missed 12 games for the Cowboys last season. Obviously, Jones isn't at all pleased with this fact, and he was very vocal about it.
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