Every owner would like to think that their team is entering the season with a sense of urgency and a desire to win a title. For teams with quarterbacks in their late 30s like the Broncos and Patriots, winning a title sooner rather than later is a necessity. For a team like the Packers, it is more of a luxury. Jerry Jones considers his Cowboys to be one of the teams that needs to have that now or never mentality.
“Well, my window is getting shorter,” Jones said on the NFL Network Tuesday according to ESPNDallas.com. “Time goes by. I do feel real pressure because we do have players not only in Tony Romo, but Jason Witten (and) DeMarcus Ware, to leave out several that are (also) in the prime of their career. And we need to strike and strike soon with those guys.
“Jason Garrett feels exactly the same way about it and understands how urgent it is. Candidly, you’re looking through rose-colored glasses if we all don’t realize that now is the time to compete on the field.”
Garrett and Romo say they both want to win now so they understand the urgency, but Romo disagrees that the championship window is closing.
“It’s not closing,” Romo said Wednesday. “I think there’s a sense of urgency every year that you play, whether it’s your first year in the league or your 22nd. You never know when all that stuff is going to happen, so you just play every year as if it’s an urgent day. Forget about thinking about the end of the year or two months away. You’ve got to get better today. Whether you’re a rookie or an 11-year veteran around here, you’ve got to do that same approach.
“It’s the same. If it increases, then you didn’t do what you needed to do when you were younger.”
Romo is 32, so the Cowboys should get at least a few more years from him. Age questions aside, I tend to agree with Jones. It’s not so much that the Cowboys are getting too old, it’s that the longer you go without getting over the hump the harder it gets. The expectations in Dallas have been high heading into the last several seasons, and the teams always fail to meet them. That takes its toll on the veterans at some point. For that reason, the Cowboys should have more of a sense of urgency than some other teams across the league.
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