Jerry’s Cowboys ‘All In’? The Blind Men, The Elephant & Mike McCarthy’s ‘Feel’
FRISCO - What does “all in” mean? My best explanation comes from the ancient parable “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” in which each man touches a different part of the beast and concludes that an elephant is “like a snake” (from feeling the trunk) or “like a tree” (from feeling a leg).
Which part of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ “all-in elephant” is head coach Mike McCarthy “feeling”?
Jones recently pledged that his Cowboys would be ‘all-in’ on the 2024 season.
“We will push the hell out of it,” said Jones, adding with just a hint of specificity, “Yes, I would say that you will see us this coming year not build it for the future.”
Meaning … what? We would conventionally take that to mean that Dallas will use “the salary-cap credit card” to build a stellsr roster for the present … and worry about paying the piper in the future.
But … Jerry’s verbal presentation style is not “conventional.” And more than a decade ago, Dallas dumped the “credit-card method.”
So … how does the coach interpret this “elephant”?
“I think,” McCarthy said, tucked into the middle of a lengthy reply, “it’s just identifying the fact that it’s important to go back and start the basics and that starts with player acquisition.”
“That starts with player acquisition”? Is this McCarthy declaring that Dallas is about to supplement the re-signing of its own stars (Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons) and the NFL Draft with big-money “outside free agents”?
While we suspect (until proven otherwise) that Jones’ vow may be more about PR-building than roster-building, McCarthy’s remarks may provide some hope to those in Cowboys Nation wishing to see “all parts of the elephant” come together in a way that feels like a true Super Bowl contender.
