Stephen Jones Talks Opposition Fans at AT&T Stadium, Jake Ferguson’s Return and More

Cowboys Executive Vice President Stephen Jones recently joined 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) to share his thoughts on opposing fans taking seats at AT&T Stadium, the importance of Jake Ferguson’s return and more.

Here are some highlights from the radio show, edited for length and clarity:

Cowboys fans love to travel. Saints fans were clearly present at AT&T Stadium and we might see something similar in Baltimore. Does it make you nervous when you see opposing fans in the stadium?

Jones: “Well, it happens. You don’t love it, but I get it. I mean, people don’t come here very often, and we haven’t played the Saints in this building very often. Obviously, it’s an easy drive for a lot of Saints fans who live right across the road in Louisiana. So we know that sometimes it’s going to happen. Obviously, we’d rather have everybody sitting in that seat as a Cowboys fan, but we certainly benefit from that on the road a lot of the time, in terms of having a large percentage of Cowboys fans in opposing teams’ stadiums. So I get that.

“Every once in a while there’s going to be teams that haven’t been to AT&T a lot that want to experience North Texas and what AT&T Stadium has to offer. But if we had a preference, honestly, no, I’d like 100 percent of them to be Cowboys fans. But I also know that might not be realistic.”

How important is it, get Jake Ferguson back? Do you consider him the second most effective pass catcher?

Jones: “Well, he’s just so instinctive, and he brings that edge to the offense. With his attitude and his style of play. It’s just outstanding. I thought (Luke) Schoonmaker did a hell of a job last week filling in for him, but it’ll be great to get another weapon back for Dak (Prescott). The biggest thing on the offensive side of the ball, we didn’t kick the ball until the fourth quarter, I don’t think. At the end of the day, we’re moving the ball. We’ve got to turn those long runs into touchdowns, everybody in the organization knows that. The players know that, the coaching staff knows that. We’re moving the ball well, we’ve just got to stop kicking field goals. As much as we love our field goal kicker and as good as he is, we’ve got to score touchdowns and let him make those field goals count.”

What was behind the decision to return DL Carlos Watkins?

Jones: “We had Carlos here. We think about him a lot. He’s a really solid guy in the room. We think he brings a lot to the running game. (We just) felt (Jordan) Phillips coming back from a wrist injury and we just felt like he wasn’t using it 100%. When you’re a defensive lineman and you can’t use your hands and arms, it puts you on the short end of the stick. Carlos was at the top of our (list) and he was on the Commanders practice squad. He was a guy that we made sense to get.”

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