Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones disputed the notion that he won't pay top money for coaches, calling it "ridiculous."
Jones said Friday during an interview on 105.3 The Fan that he's never let money influence his decisions about the team's coaching job, per ESPN's Todd Archer.
"I have never, on the basis of some coach saying, 'I'll come, and I know you want me, but I won't because you won't pay me enough,'" Jones added. "That's never happened in my life."
The Cowboys hired Brian Schottenheimer as head coach in 2025, but Jones received criticism for not interviewing any high-profile coaches that offseason. Schottenheimer's salary is also rumored to rank in the bottom half of NFL coaches, according to Archer.
However, Jones defended his track record, noting that he's attempted to poach coaches from other clubs.
"The facts are I have been out there, and I have been trying to lure very successful coaches away from the teams they were on and knew full well that I was going to pay them for their success," he said. "No one knows that, but I do. And so it is absolutely ridiculous. And I actually grin when somebody says, 'Jerry's not willing to pay the money for what it would take to get the right kind of coach out there.'"
Schottenheimer went 7-9-1 in his first campaign as the Cowboys' head coach. This year, he appears headed for a similar trajectory as Dallas enters Week 9 at 3-5. Dallas hasn't appeared in a Super Bowl since Barry Switzer led the team in the 1995 season.
