Jimmy Johnson has some thoughts on Jerry Jones’ wild Eagles comments
Jimmy Johnson said Jerry Jones comments were so off-the-mark that he received a call from Eagles owner Jeff Lurie about them.
PHOENIX — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made some comments about the Eagles that left Jimmy Johnson scratching his head.
Speaking to reporters at the Senior Bowl last week, Jones suggested the Cowboys — who failed to reach the NFC championship game for the 27th straight season — somehow have better long-term prospects than the Eagles.
Despite being a risk-taker, Jones said he’s “real hesitant to bet it all” for a single season, suggesting the Eagles had to “empty the bucket” to make it to the Super Bowl.
“Anybody who thinks I won’t take a chance has misread the tea leaves. But I do think longer term,” Jones said, according to The Athletic. “And I’m real hesitant to bet it all for a year. There’s a lot of things that can happen for that year. In essence, we’re seeing a couple of teams that have had some real success putting it all out there and paying for it later in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.”
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Enter Johnson, a longtime NFL analyst for Fox Sports, whose Hall of Fame tenure as Cowboys’ head coach was cut short after the 1993 season over tension with Jones.
Johnson said the comments were so laughably off-the-mark that he received a call from Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, asking what Jones was talking about.
“I said, ‘I have no idea,’” Johnson told The Inquirer at a Fox media event in Phoenix Tuesday afternoon. “Philadelphia has a couple of first-round picks in the [upcoming] NFL draft. They’ve got extra picks down the road. They’ve got some very talented players. They’ve got some talented young players.”
Johnson pointed to Jalen Hurts, the Eagles’ 24-year-old quarterback who led the team to a 16-1 record as a starter this season, including two blowout playoff wins. Johnson also has admiration for Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, whom he compared favorably to Hall of Famer Michael Irvin.
“I think the Philadelphia Eagles are gonna be good for a long time,” Johnson said.
Of course, Johnson wasn’t always so high on the Eagles or Hurts. As recently as November, Johnson said he wasn’t “100% sold on Philadelphia,” and that this season’s Cowboys squad was among the best he’d seen. He also doubted Hurts’ ability to develop as a passer and stay healthy because of his strengths as a running quarterback.
“Unfortunately, I was one of the doubters on Jalen Hurts,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know him personally, I didn’t realize how hard he worked, and I didn’t realize how much he was going to improve. He has come a million miles from day one, and is an outstanding franchise quarterback now.”
Johnson is finishing up his 25th season as an NFL analyst for Fox — more than twice as long as the nine years he spent as an NFL head coach with the Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. While Johnson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021, he is still waiting on Jones to add his name to the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor.