Jerry Jones Praises Cowboys Draft Class for Being 'Woke'

The Cowboys owner and GM sounded pleased he drafted woke players.
Jones added three players to the Cowboys' roster over the first two days of the draft
Jones added three players to the Cowboys' roster over the first two days of the draft / Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys didn't do anything crazy over the first two rounds of the 2025 NFL draft.

They reinforced the trenches with their first two picks, selecting Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker and Boston College defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku before adding East Carolina's Shavon Revel Jr. at cornerback. For as much as Jones loves the Cowboys to be a lightning rod of attention it was, to put it simply, a boring first few picks for Dallas (Jones's dance moves notwitstanding).

Jones spoke with the media late on Friday night to discuss the selections and, predictably, had many compliments for the team's newest additions. One such compliment raised some eyebrows: Jones praised them for being "woke." But the Cowboys owner and GM did not use it the same way the word is often thrown around in the current political sphere.

"These guys are influencers with their work ethic and their understanding of, what's the word for it today? Woke," Jones said, via Garrett Podell of CBS Sports. "Seriously. What is that? That's having some good instinct. That's looking ahead. That's understanding, that's caring when maybe others don't. Some woke. These guys, all of them really, they've demonstrated that they've got the ability to not only feel it but use it to help their teams."

Never a dull press conference with Jones, that's for sure. The Cowboys have seven picks in the fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds of the draft on Saturday and will undoubtedly try to acquire more woke players.


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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.