Jerry Jones vows to “bust the budget” to improve defense with free agents

Two years ago, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones declared that he’d be “all-in” during the 2024 offseason, before gradually warping the common meaning of the term.

This year, he’s more specific about his plan for improving a team that missed the playoffs for the second straight season — and that hasn’t been to the NFC Championship in 30 years and counting.

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“I would bet that we will spend more money in free agency than we have,” Jones said in a session on his bus with beat writers, via Clarence E. Hill Jr. of All City DLLS. “I want you to know that the only way to push forward is for me to go borrow some of my future. Expect me to go borrow some of my future, okay? So that’s one representation that you’re thinking of now, as opposed to in the future. But I look at things, frankly, beyond that. I look at where we are with Dak [Prescott], and I look at where he is in his career. And I look at some of the pluses that we have on our front, what we think we could do there, and what we could do with [George] Pickens and [CeeDee] Lamb, and what we could do with our running back that we just signed. And so all of those things, I want to do everything we possibly can to stop somebody, and to basically win some third downs more than we did last year. So I think that would be the area that you would see me bust the budget.”

Bust the budget. He’s written a pretty clear check when it comes to his intention to write some checks to available veterans.

Now, we’ll see whether he does indeed “bust the budget.” Or whether he tries in the coming weeks and months to alter the definition of the phrase.