The Cowboys never truly leave the headlines or airwaves, but they've been particularly ripe for discussion over the last few months, with the 2025 NFL season fast approaching. The franchise isn't being treated as a true Super Bowl contender, but Jerry Jones's contentious ongoing negotiations with his best defensive player, Micah Parsons, has coincided with the release of Netflix's documentary series America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys about Dallas's dominant run in the 1990s.

One former NFL player-turned-analyst is tired of the hype around America's Team. Fox's Mark Schlereth went off on Jones and the Cowboys, going so far as to call them the "Jaguars with better marketing" during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show.

“You knew [Parsons] was a bona fide superstar from his rookie year," Schlereth said. "And the fact that you wait, and you wait, and you wait, it keeps you out of free agency, it keeps you out of doing the things that you need to do as a football franchise to have a legitimate chance, in my opinion, to win a championship.

“And so It’s just the Dallas Cowboy way. I said it on my podcast—they are the Jacksonville Jaguars with better marketing. That’s what the Dallas Cowboys are.”

Schlereth likened the handling of Parsons to Dallas's previous negotiations with quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, which also dragged up to the start of the season. Ultimately, those players signed huge deals with remain with the Cowboys, but Schlereth believes the way that Dallas handles its star players bleeds into the locker room, creating a group of true "independent contractors" rather than a cohesive team.

And it doesn't have to be this way, Schlereth says, because the front office has strengths. He complimented Dallas's success in the draft, and when asked whether he believes the Cowboys would have a recent Super Bowl if Jones didn't serve as general manager, he agreed.

“When your owner is the guy that’s circumventing the authority of the coach or the people that are in place, eventually that comes back to bite you. And ultimately, for them, it’s bitten them in the playoffs. Those things, you know, it’s hard to quantify, and it’s hard to put numbers on it. But I’m just telling you, when you have a back staircase to the owner’s office, and if you don’t like something going on within the organization as a player, you can go up there and talk to them about it, that is not the way the structure is supposed to happen in an NFL franchise. And eventually it bites you.”

Dallas will open the NFL season on the road at the rival Eagles on Thursday, Sept. 4.

More NFL on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Fox NFL Analyst Roasts Cowboys With Brutal Jaguars Burn.