Jerry Jones has come under scrutiny once again for his comments. As his team, the Dallas Cowboys, continues to struggle through the first half of the season, the longtime owner and general manager hasn’t given much credence to a coaching staff change.

Moreover, his comments about NFL coaching salaries drew criticism. As a result, a former scout is unsure he would even pursue Mike Tomlin if he were willing to return to coaching.

Former Scout Doesn’t Trust Jerry Jones to Hire the Right Coach

Last season, the Cowboys moved on from Mike McCarthy and hired former offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to be their new head coach. In his first year, the team won just seven games, but a lot of their failures were attributed to a porous defense.

This year, after multiple additions to the defensive side of the football, they’ve started 3-5 with some truly ignoble losses on their resume. As a result, the idea of a change at the head coach position has been floated.

But Jones was quick to shut down those rumors. Jones later clarified that while he sees no correlation between coaching salary and winning, he has never let money prevent him from pursuing a coach he wanted. Former Philadelphia Eagles scout John Middlekauff, though, disagrees with his assessment.

“I think Jerry’s really struggled to adapt with the modern times. He said that there is no correlation between high paid coaches and winning, which is obviously a laughable statement.”

While he agreed that price point isn’t the only barometer for judging a coach, Middlekauff believes the process is what makes the hiring valuable. But for him, what made the situation even worse was that Jones wasn’t willing to consider the biggest names for the role.

“You don’t even go after the best and the brightest. If you fired Brian Shottenheimer at the end of the year, I don’t think anyone would assume they’re going to go all in for Mike Tomlin; they’re going to take a big swing. You know why? Cuz Jerry would never be able to swallow his pride and give Tomlin the Harbaugh deal.”

It remains to be seen if such a situation will even come to pass. For the time being, Jones looks to be dead set on making it work with the current group. But behind a defense that is dead last on PFN’s NFL Defense Impact metrics, it seems nearly impossible.

However, the silver lining for the Cowboys could be that if they don’t turn things around, they might be forced to make a change sooner rather than later.