Cowboys' Jerry Jones calls idea he won't pay for a top coach 'ridiculous'

Jerry Jones has spent the week answering for his own words. On Friday the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager used the team's flagship radio station to push back on criticism he drew on Tuesday. In that earlier appearance on 105.3 The Fan, he said spending money on a head coach has no connection to winning in the NFL. Friday's answer ran more than five minutes, and his message was that a coach's salary has never stopped him from hiring the coach he wanted.

"Not one time in my life that I have ever, if I wanted to do it, let money stand in the way of doing it," Jones said, according to ESPN. He also said he has tried to pull successful coaches away from other teams and expected to pay them for what they had won. He gave no names and said nobody else knows about those efforts. ESPN's Todd Archer noted that Dallas was linked to Sean Payton during Payton's years in New Orleans.

The record makes people doubt him. Before Dallas hired Brian Schottenheimer in 2025, it did not interview some of the most sought-after candidates, including Ben Johnson, who went to Chicago. The Cowboys did talk with Leslie Frazier, Robert Saleh and Kellen Moore. Saleh and Moore have since become head coaches in Tennessee and New Orleans. Coaching salaries aren't public, but ESPN reports Schottenheimer is believed to be paid in the bottom half of the league. His predecessor, Mike McCarthy, made $8 million a season. Jones has gone through seven coaches since the 1995 title and has not won a Super Bowl since.

Nothing about the roster or the sideline changes this week. What has changed is the noise around the team, and it lands on a club that is 3-5 at midseason. That's a hard spot for a front office trying to argue that its approach works.

What it means for Indianapolis

The Cowboys need wins to quiet the coaching-pay debate, and their record makes that harder. Dallas lost 33-30 to Arizona last week, a week after a 38-21 win in Philadelphia. The team is 1-3 at AT&T Stadium and 2-2 on the road. The margins have been thin. Through eight games Dallas has scored 219 points and allowed 213, so it has a positive point differential with a losing record. Two of its five losses came by three points. The scoring is real: the Cowboys have topped 30 points in four games. The defense has given up 30 or more three times.

The Cowboys play at the Colts on Sunday, November 8 on Fox, and the market has Dallas as the road favorite. Across 12 venues on this site's board, Novig has the Cowboys favored at -223 on the moneyline, with the Colts at +213. The spread differs by half a point between venues. Novig lists Dallas -5.5 at +102, and the best price on the Cowboys elsewhere is Fanatics at -5, -110. On the Colts side, Novig offers +5.5 at -106 and FanDuel has +5.5 at -105. Novig sets the total at 51.5, and Pinnacle has the best under price at 52, -111. Sportsbook hold on the spread runs from 2.9% to 5.4%.

The week after brings a tougher test. San Francisco visits on November 15, and Novig has the 49ers favored at -208. The best price on Dallas anywhere is Kalshi at +181. Before then, Jones has made his case on the radio. Now the team has to win in Indianapolis.