General manager power rankings will always cause controversy when it comes to Jerry Jones

We’ve all seen variations on the “Power Rankings” theme. Rankings of teams, or quarterbacks, or coaches, or plenty of other categories that have popped up over time. How about general managers? Yep, we got that too.

These rankings attempt an ordering of current NFL general managers, minus those that were hired post 2018 NFL draft. Any time you try to rank Jerry Jones as a GM, you are bound to get some feedback. There are cases to be made that the is one of the worst GMs and he needs to fire himself, or that he is actually underrated. Okay, not many go with the underrated theme but he does have some skins on the wall.

So instead of going high or low with Jones, these rankings put him squarely in the middle. Out of 25 GMs that appear on the list, Jones comes in at #13.

13 Jerry Jones, DAL

The book was written on Jones and his family as executives years ago: Brilliant in business, excellent at drafting, erratic in free agency, counterproductive with coaching staff decisions and often loyal to a fault with players. The more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same. With help from his son Stephen (COO/director of player personnel) and VP of player personnel Will McClay, Jones has built a Cowboys roster as loaded with stars in their prime as any since Troy Aikman played. That only serves to make the three total playoff wins since 1997 more frustrating.

In general, that’s a pretty accurate summation of Jones as a GM. There is one thing left off that description, as a GM, Jones does have three Super Bow trophies. Now, obviously there is the argument about how much of that early success was Jones, and how much was Jimmy Johnson. But Jones has to get some credit, he hired Johnson in the first place and he was the final okay on the Herschel Walker trade.

Of course, since Johnson’s exit, fortunes have changed. Yes, Jerry and Barry Switzer managed to win another Super Bowl after Johnson, but once that dynasty was over, he could never build another one. As noted above, since 1997, only three playoff wins. Like everything else involving the Cowboys, some credit and some blame must always end up on Jerry Jones’ desk.

The Cowboys have been bad, good, and mediocre in that time, but they’ve never been great, at least where the playoffs are concerned.

For the record, Philadelphia GM Howie Roseman ranked fourth and Dave Gettleman of the Giants ranked 24th.

BTB, where do you rank Jerry Jones?