The Rams won the Super Bowl a year ago with their famous “F them picks” strategy of trading draft picks for veteran players, but this season the Rams fell back to earth, and many have questioned whether the Rams’ approach was a viable long-term strategy for a team.
But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made a surprising comment on Wednesday, lumping this year’s NFC champion Eagles in with last year’s Rams. Jones said both the Rams and the Eagles went all-in to win this year, while Jones wants the Cowboys to build for the long term.
“Anybody who thinks I won’t take a chance, has misread the tea leaves. But I do think longer term,” Jones said. “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.”
But while Jones makes a valid point that the Rams paid for it a year later, the Eagles had a fundamentally different approach. It’s true that the Eagles traded a first-round draft pick for wide receiver A.J. Brown, but they did so only after a series of trades that left them in good position, with multiple first-round picks. And the Eagles have two first-round picks in the 2023 NFL draft as well. The Eagles also currently have more cap space for 2023 than the Cowboys do, so it’s hard to see how Jones can justify any claim that the Eagles went all-in while the Cowboys are thinking longer term.
Still, Jones thinks the Rams and Eagles are similar.
“That’s pretty impressive to have two teams in the last two years empty the bucket and get to the Super Bowl,” Jones said. “But if you miss, it is a long go.”
Jones said he doesn’t think the Cowboys should be either the most aggressive team in making trades and free agent signings, or too hesitant to take chances.
“I like where we are right now, more in the middle,” Jones said.
The Eagles like where they are right now, in the Super Bowl.