Mike Greenberg fact checks Jerry Jones on Derrick Henry comments, calls out Cowboys owner
Nineteen unanswered points in the fourth quarter brought the Dallas Cowboys within reach of their matchup against the Baltimore Ravens at home on Sunday. But the Ravens where able to hold on with a 28-25 win that was highlighted by star running back Derrick Henry.
Henry hit free agency this offseason and was tabbed as a potential target for the Cowboys, expressing interest in the franchise after living and training in the Dallas area during the offseason. But according to Henry, the Cowboys did not reach out to him this offseason.
Following Sunday’s loss, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about Henry potentially being signed to his team versus having a stellar performance against Dallas in a loss. Saying that the Cowboys couldn’t afford Derrick Henry in a statement that Get Up host Mike Greenberg couldn’t help but fact-check.
“I like and admire Jerry Jones very much, but that cannot be said unchecked. We must fact check things like that. You know how you easily could have afforded Derrick Henry?” Greenberg asked Monday morning on ESPN. “If you had paid CeeDee Lamb when you should have, if you had paid Dak Prescott when you should have. Most teams don’t wait until an hour before the season starts to sign their quarterback to the biggest contract in the history of the National Football League.”
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Following a holdout this summer, the Cowboys signed Lamb to a four-year, $136 million deal 13 days before their first game of the season against the Cleveland Browns. A contract that made him the second-highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL and included a $38 million signing bonus (largest ever given to a wide receiver) along with $100 million guaranteed.
Then on the day of Dallas’ Week 1 matchup against the Cleveland Browns, the Cowboys surprisingly signed Prescott to a four-year, $240 million contract extension that made him the highest-paid player in NFL history. Deciding to pay their two star offensive players during an interesting time of the ‘offseason’.
“If they had decided to treat the offseason like it began before September 1, they could easily have afforded Derrick Henry and a lot of other pieces,” Greeny added. “So what you saw on display yesterday was a team that during this offseason got worse and more expensive. Which is bad management, it is bad ownership, it is bad leadership from a football standpoint, and that’s what was on display from the Cowboys yesterday.”
Henry ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday in AT&T Stadium, outrushing the Cowboys by himself after Dallas rushed for just 51 yards. Ranked 29th in the NFL in rushing so far this season after letting two-time 1,000 yard rusher Tony Pollard hit free agency. Re-signing his backup Rico Dowdle and bringing back Ezekiel Elliot to supplement the run game in a strategy that has not worked so far this season.
“So they could easily have handled the Derrick Henry contract if they had paid CeeDee Lamb before everyone else got their contract, if they had paid Dak Prescott before all the other quarterbacks got their contracts, and if they had handled any of their offseason business in the actual offseason,” Greeny said. “That has to be said, that has to be fact checked in the moment, and that is one of the reasons why the Cowboys this year are definitely a lesser team than they were last year.”
Dallas now drops to a 1-2 early in the season ahead of a short week, hitting the road to take on the New York Giants on Thursday as they’ll look to get back to .500 and hopefully see more life from their running game.