The 30-year drought for the Dallas Cowboys still feels like a stab every time someone mentions it. Since that 1996 Super Bowl, America’s Team hasn’t even been to an NFC Championship game. To break that streak, owner/general manager Jerry Jones did the one thing he could last season. He started collecting draft picks, making trades, and borrowing from the future. But as much as Jerry’s world now revolves around placing a sixth Lombardi inside The Star, legendary broadcaster Norm Hitzges believes it’s just an attempt to get a ring that’s solely his own.

On his show Just Wondering, Hitzges outlined three reasons why he believes Jerry is ready to mortgage his future to “fortify this year’s club.” He highlighted that the Cowboys only have 5 draft picks in the bank for next season – one late first-rounder, one second- and third-rounder each, and just two sixth-round picks with nothing before or after it. So why has Jerry gone all-in this season?

Hitzges notes the first reason is the offense. Dallas had the second-best passing offense (as well as overall) under first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer. The only thing holding them back was the defense. The arrival of new defensive coordinator Christian Parker, an influx of defensive talent that started last season (Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark) and carried on through the 2026 offseason, has been enough to spark optimism and become reason number two. But the third, and the biggest reason, is Jerry’s closing window and the legendary head coach Jimmy Johnson.

“The final reason Jerry Jones might be willing to give up the future for the present: his age,” Hitzges said. “Jerry will be 84 years old in 7 weeks. He, like others of us, you might call elderly, realized there’s a clock ticking. He won a Super Bowl last after the 95 season; he was 54 years old. He won it with Barry Switzer, but it was with the remnants of the team, the Juggernaut, assembled and coached by Jimmy Johnson.

“I think that really peeves Jerry that people blame him for all the failures since then. But they think of all the successes back then as Jimmy’s and not Jerry’s. What’s happened since that 95 Super Bowl? They haven’t even made it to an NFC Championship game in 30 years. In those three decades, a total of five playoff wins. Five! The fans blame Jerry for that. I believe Jerry is hearing his personal clock ticking and he desperately wants to win a Super Bowl ring. A ring that people will think of as Jerry’s and Jerry’s alone.”

Now, while the Cowboys do have five Super Bowl wins, two of those came more than a decade before Jerry walked up to Valley Ranch with a fat check and a big dream. Since then, two of the other three came after Johnson helped shape the team into a dynasty. At the height of the franchise’s glory – as everyone already knows the story – Jerry fired Johnson over internal disputes and handed the reins of the franchise to Switzer, who’d never coached an NFL team and had been away from football for five years.

But everyone knew this was Jimmy’s team. Switzer had a laid-back approach, acting more like a manager of the team and making players comfortable – a complete 180 from the relentless grind Jimmy put his players through. While the Cowboys’ dream of a three-peat ended in Switzer’s first year, he finally won Dallas’ last Super Bowl in January 1995.

The questions about who was the architect of those dynasty years remained under debate all of these years. Jimmy said he made all the calls regarding player trades and acquisitions, and Jerry believed it was him all along. Then, less than two weeks ago, Jimmy pulled out his Cowboys contract, posted a picture on social media, and ended the debate once and for all.

Now, Jerry has a championship-caliber offense, a new and hungry defense that’s shown all the makings of greatness throughout the offseason. This is, without a doubt, Jerry’s team now.

But there’s nothing left to borrow from the future anymore, not unless Jerry pulls off another Micah Parsons type of a trade that refuels his draft tank. What remains is the wish to retire as the owner who won the most Super Bowls in football history. He needs four more rings to make that happen, and the 2026 season will show us if he has built a team good enough to get the first of those four.